Does Word Length or Orthographical Neighbourhood Size?

Does Word Length or Orthographical Neighbourhood Size Effect Working Memory? Abstract Baddeley, Thomson and Buchanan (1975) were the first to systematically examine the effect of word length on memory finding that short words were recalled more easily than long words. This became known as the word length effect (WLE; Baddeley et al. 1975). Since this study WLE was further examined and presented mixed results (e. g. Baddeley, 2000; Cowan et al, 1992; Lewandowsky & Oberauer, 2009; Lovatt, Avons & Masterson, 2000).

In 2011 Jalbert, Neath, Bireta, and Surprenant suggested that previous research conducted may have been subject to a confounding variable, orthographical neighbourhood size (ONS). In a study by Jalbert, Neath and Surprenant (2011) it was concluded that neighbourhood size, not length of the word, is important; therefore forgetting in short-term memory may be due to other variables than decay. The present study was further investigating the effect of word length and ONS by using 2x2 within groups ANOVA. The independent variables were word length and ONS.

They both had two levels: 1 syllable (short) and 3 syllables (long) for word length and 3-5 neighbours (small) and 7-9 neighbours (large) for neighbourhood size. Words for the ONS were selected using MCWord, an online orthographic database (Medler & Binder, 2005). The dependent variable was the number of words successfully recalled in the correct order. It was hypothesized that short words would be recalled better than long words, and that words with a large ONS would be recalled better than words with a small ONS.

There will be no interaction between the two groups. There were eight participants (Leeds Met undergraduates) selected through convenience sampling. The experiment was run with the use of E-prime (Schneider, Eschman, & Zuccolotto, 2002). Participants were presented with six words then words were displayed on the left side of the screen, participants were asked to indicate the order in which they had been presented in. The number of correctly recorded words was used as the measure of the accuracy of their memories.

Results showed that there was no significant effect on the ease of recall relating to either word length or ONS, therefore not supporting the hypotheses or previous research. This could be due to a small sample size. The different stimuli used may also have been problematic as previous research indicates (Bireta, Neath & Surprenant, 2006). This may imply that there is another reason for why forgetting occurs and it is not specifically related to decay or ONS. Further investigation into this is recommended. References Baddeley, A.

D. , Thomson, N. , & Buchanan, M. (1975). Word length and the structure of short-term memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 14, 575–589. Baddeley, A. D. (2000). The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 417–423. Bireta, T. J. , Neath, I. , & Surprenant, A. M. (2006). The syllable-based word length effect and stimulus set specificity. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13, 434–438. Cowan, N. , Day, L. , Saults, J. S. , Kellar, T. A. , Johnson, T. , & Flores, L. 1992). The role of verbal output time in the effects of word length on immediate memory. Journal of Memory & Language, 31, 1-17. Jalbert, A. , Neath, I. , Bireta, T. J. , & Surprenant, A. M. (2011). When does length cause the word length effect? Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37, 338–353. Jalbert, A. , Neath, I. & Surprenant, A. M. (2011). Does length or neighbourhood size cause the word length effect? Memory and Cognition, 39, 1198-1210. Lewandowsky, S. , & Oberauer, K. (2009).

No evidence for temporal decay in working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Association Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 1545-1551. Lovatt, P. , Avons, S. E. , & Masterson, J. (2002). Output decay in immediate serial recall: Speech time revisited. Journal of Memory & Language, 46, 227-243. Medler, D. A. , & Binder, J. R. (2005): MCWord: An on-line orthographic database of the English language. Schneider, W. , Eschman, A. , & Zuccolotto, A. (2002). E-Prime User's Guide. Pittsburgh: Psychology Software Tools, Inc.