Experiment 6: Articulatory Suppression

Fourteen observers participated in Experiment 6 (average age 32.6, 6 female). Experiment 6 replicated Experiment 3 (colored square memory) with the following exceptions. Observers in this experiment were asked to memorize 2 or 16 objects in different blocks of the experiment. As in Experiment 5, WM load and no-load trials were blocked. The order of WM load and no load blocks was counter-balanced across observers. At the beginning of each block of visual search trials, observers were instructed to recite ‘abcd’, ‘wxyz’, ‘1234’, or ‘6789’ throughout that block of trials. The experimenter sat in the room with the observers to ensure that this phrase was audibly repeated throughout the experiment. The phrase for a given block was randomly permutated for each observer.