語文記憶中項目與項目位置訊息的單一運作系統

An Unitary Operating System for Item Information and Position Information in Verbal Memory

本文主旨為利用記憶的序列位置效果探討語文刺激的項目訊息與位置訊息是否可以分離？實驗一中，以語文刺激為記憶材料，要求受試者進行同時回憶項目內容以及空間位置訊息的自由回憶作業，結果發現除了項目訊息回憶有顯著的序列位置效果，其位置訊息同樣也有序列位置效果。當刺激為非語文材料的黃色圓點時，在相同的作業下，圓點位置記憶則無序列位置效果。實驗二中，利用與實驗一同樣的語文材料項目／空間記憶作業，加入咬音抑制作業與圖形判斷作業兩種不同的干擾作業，企圖分別對不同的記憶訊息進行干擾，結果發現干擾作業和語文刺激項目／位置的交互作用，然兩種不同性質的干擾作業並沒有與序列位置產生交互作用，這表示干擾僅在量上不同，並沒有產生質的變化。綜合這兩個實驗的結果，我們認為語文刺激的項目訊息及位置訊息是同一系統的不同編碼的運作機制，在同時記憶同時回憶的情況下，兩種訊息會進行整合，難以分離。

This study investigated whether the processing of item information and position information in verbal memory is dissociable. Hsu, Tzeng, and Hung (1995) reported that the processing of item information and position information in verbal memory is dissociable. However, this conclusion is questionable because Hsu et al. employed different tasks, i.e., free recall task and four-choice recognition task for testing item memory and position memory. To clarify this issue, two experiments were conducted in the current experiment. In the first experiments, subjects were instructed to simultaneously encode and to simultaneously retrieve the item information and the position information. The results showed similar accuracies in the tests for item memory and position memory. The serial position curve was observed in memories for both item memory and position memory. Most importantly, there was no interaction between item information and position information in terms of serial positions. This finding suggests a unified processing system for item information and position information in verbal memory. In the second experiment, two concurrent tasks were employed to show whether the processing of item information and position information is dissociable. The reduction of accuracy in item memory was larger than that in position memory when articulatory suppression served as the concurrent task. The opposite pattern was observed when the concurrent task was visual pattern recognition. However, there was no interaction between the types of interference task and serial positions. This result provides further support for the claim that there is an unified processing system for item information and position information in verbal memory. Based on these findings, we conclude that the dissociation between item memory and location memory exists only when different types of material or different types of tasks are used. As long as the stimuli are verbal materials, the item information and the position information of verbal materials are bound together and are processed in the same operating system.