Opportunity for verbalization does not improve visual change detection performance: A state-trace analysis

Sense, Florian; Morey, Candice C.; Prince, Melissa; Heathcote, Andrew; Morey, Richard D. · 2016 · Behavior Research Methods

DOI: 10.3758/s13428-016-0741-1

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Summary

This study investigates whether verbal recoding influences performance in visual change detection tasks, specifically addressing the necessity of using articulatory suppression to prevent such recoding. Multi-component models of working memory suggest that visual information can be encoded verbally, potentially boosting memory performance through dual coding. Consequently, researchers frequently employ articulatory suppression (repeating irrelevant syllables) to ensure that performance reflects purely visual memory capacity. However, prior evidence suggests this precaution may be unnecessary. The authors aimed to provide a rigorous test of whether verbal strategies actually improve performance in tasks designed to encourage verbalization, thereby determining if articulatory suppression is a required experimental control. The researchers conducted an experiment with 15 participants using a visual change detection task involving arrays of distinctly colored squares. The design crossed two presentation modes (simultaneous vs. sequential) with two articulation conditions (silent vs. articulatory suppression). Sequential presentation was hypothesized to afford greater opportunity for verbal labeling. Performance was measured using $d'$ (hit rate minus false alarm rate) across set sizes of 2, 4, and 8. The analysis employed both descriptive statistics and Bayesian state-trace analysis to determine if data patterns supported a single latent variable (visual memory) or multiple variables (visual plus verbal memory). The results showed no evidence that verbal recoding improved performance. Descriptive statistics revealed that the performance advantage for the silent condition over the articulatory suppression condition did not increase in the sequential presentation condition, contrary to predictions if verbal labeling were beneficial. In fact, the effects often trended in the opposite direction. Bayesian state-trace analysis further demonstrated that performance data were consistent with a single latent dimension—visual short-term memory capacity—rather than a more complex model involving separate verbal and visual stores. The data patterns did not support the existence of a distinct verbal contribution to recognition accuracy in this paradigm. The study concludes that precautionary articulatory suppression is unnecessary in visual change detection experiments using briefly presented abstract stimuli. The findings suggest that participants either do not deploy verbal strategies in this task or that such strategies are ineffective at improving performance. This implies that visual change detection tasks, as typically administered, provide a pure measure of visual working memory capacity without the confounding influence of verbal recoding. Researchers can therefore omit articulatory suppression from similar designs, reducing experimental burden without compromising the validity of their visual memory measurements.

Key finding

Opportunity for verbalization does not improve visual change detection performance, indicating that precautionary articulatory suppression is unnecessary in such tasks.

Methodology

lab_experiment

Sample size: 15

Provenance

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Topics

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• inattentional change blindness