Harvey A. Taub’s research while affiliated with Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Hospital and other places

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of manipulating S's preparation for what he will see on a given trial on his ability to mentally keep track of the number of occurrences of each of several different stimuli in a sequence. It was found that, when the same stimuli were used from trial to trial, performance was significantly better than when different stimuli were used. Foreknowledge of the specific stimuli to be used on a given trial did little to improve performance per se, but it did reduce labeling errors. The results were discussed in terms of the "spatial window" model of keeping-track performance.

Conducted an experiment with 132 college students to compare the disruptive effects of irrelevant information (names of colors) superimposed on relevant information (bands of colors) with the effects of irrelevant information occupying the interval between stimuli. Irrelevant information disrupted performance only when it occupied the interval between stimuli, suggesting that interference was primarily with the rehearsal process and not with the perceptual process. It made no difference whether the names of colors were the same as or different from the bands of colors. Analysis of control conditions suggests that Ss can better "keep track" of colors than color names. Results are discussed in terms of visual imagery and the spatial window model of "keeping-track" performance. (French summary) (16 ref.)

60 Ss were given 8 lists consisting of 9 consonants each to recall. The letters were presented serially either at the same location on a memory drum, at different locations haphazardly arranged across the viewing slot, or left to right at different locations. Both where and when an S wrote an item during recall were recorded. Although total items recalled remained the same, temporal position recall declined with practice while spatial location recall was sensitive only to whether or not the items had been shown in left to right order. The results indicate that spatial coding of serial verbal input can occur, at least when stimuli are presented in a spatially coherent fashion, and that spatial coding is not necessarily derived from temporal ordering of the stimuli in memory.

Evaluated the digit spans of 46 young (M age 25.2 yr.) and 76 old (M age 71.1 yr.) Ss in 4 experiments. The groups were equated using the Forward Digit Span subtest from the WAIS and then tested on additional span tasks which differed with respect to mode of presentation (auditory and visual), rate of presentation (1 and 2 sec/digit), and mode of response (written and verbal). Although initially equated on the standard Forward Digit Span, young Ss generally had longer spans than old Ss on the subsequent tasks, indicating that different stimulus and response conditions may differentially affect the forward digit spans of young and old groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Investigated the effects of exposure duration (.5, .75, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 sec/slide) and ratio of value (16:1 and 2:1) on the recall of high- and low-value letters in a visual search task. Results with 80 male undergraduates indicate that although ss' strategies tended to favor reports of the high- over the low-value stimuli, differences in performance varied directly with both ratio and length of exposure. Results are discussed and related to the inconsistencies in previous findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

Using sequences of 8 letters color-coded into 2 4-letter sets, performance of 80 undergraduates was measured as a function of (a) order of presentation (presented 1st vs. presented 2nd), (b) order of report (ordered vs. reversed), and (c) level of meaningfulness (low vs. high pronounceability) of each of the half sets. For the stimulus set presented 1st in a sequence, ordered reports were equal or superior to reversed reports, while for stimuli presented 2nd, reversed reports led to higher accuracy. Differences between ordered and reversed reports were largest for the stimuli presented 2nd, but, with both sets, were related to the opportunity to chunk or code the letters into pronounceable units. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

THE SS WERE REQUIRED TO KEEP TRACK MENTALLY OF THE NUMBER OF OCCURRENCES OF EACH OF 4 DIFFERENT SYMBOLS PRESENTED SEQUENTIALLY. IT WAS FOUND THAT A LIGHT INTRODUCED INTO THE SEQUENCE JUST PRIOR TO THE PRESENTATION OF EACH SUCCESSIVE SYMBOL TENDED TO ENHANCE PERFORMANCE. IT WAS SUGGESTED THAT THE LIGHT SERVED TO CUE SS TO COMPLETE REHEARSAL OF THE CURRENT STATE OF THE INFORMATION IN PREPARATION FOR THE NEXT STIMULUS IN THE SEQUENCE.

The effects of irrelevant information on Ss' ability to keep track of a changing situation mentally were examined. It appears that, when relevant stimuli are presented at an irregular rate of presentation, irrelevant stimuli interspersed with the relevant stimuli may enable Ss to pace rehearsal of the current state of the changing situation in a fashion that reduces the interference effects of the irregular rate of presentation.

Ss were required to keep track of the number of occurrences of each of four different letters (categories) presented sequentially as a function of the total number of letters presented (trial length), the rate of presentation, and the two components which, when combined, constitute the rate, namely, stimulus on-time and the interstimulus interval or off-time. In general, performance varied inversely with trial length and rate of presentation. Of greater importance, however, was the complex interaction between the rate of presentation and the components of that rate. At the fastest rate, performance was relatively invariant as a function of these components; at intermediate rates the shortest on-time led to the best performance, while at the slowest rate the shortest on-time led to the poorest performance. The observed results are explained primarily in terms of the time available for rehearsal.