Item-dependent cues in serial order are tracked by the magnitude (not the presence) of the fill-in tendency
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21641395 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dakota R B Lindsey (0000-0002-4852-4570, University of South Alabama, corresponding author), Tyler L Harrison (University of North Georgia) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 2146-2157 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1069-9384 • E-ISSN: 1531-5320 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3758/s13423-025-02684-8 |
| PMID | 40199839 |
| OpenAlex | W4409252430 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 43 |
In tasks that measure serial-order memory, it is common to observe a “fill-in tendency”—when a person skips an item, the next item they report is more likely to be the skipped item (a fill-in response) than the next list item (an infill response). They tend to “fill in” the blank they skipped. The fill-in tendency has informed the modeling of serial-order memory—it presents strong evidence against associative chaining accounts because they predict more infill responses than fill-in responses. Despite the failures of associative chaining theories, evidence grows for the use of chaining-like item-dependent cues in serial-order memory. In this paper, we analyzed fill-in and infill responses from nine serial learning experiments (one new experiment and eight previously published experiments) that used variants of the spin list procedure and found strong evidence of item-dependent retrieval cues in serial-order memory. The current analyses revealed a fill-in tendency in all lists—even in those in which item-dependent cues were suspected to have been used. However, in those lists the likelihood of infill responses was higher, and consequently, the fill-in tendency was weaker. Our results expose a flaw in the conventional understanding of fill-in and infill responses. That is, the presence (or absence) of the fill-in tendency is not a strong test of item-dependent cues. Instead, changes in the magnitude of the fill-in tendency—more specifically, an increase in the likelihood of infill responses—across task conditions seem to better indicate the use of item-dependent cues
Associative property · Chaining · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Infill · Silhouette · Cognitive Functions and Memory · Computer Science · Mathematics · Memory and Neural Mechanisms · Memory Processes and Influences · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence
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Bayesian t tests for accepting and rejecting the null hypothesis
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Immediate recall of serial numbers with or without multiple item repetitions
The contribution of serial order short-term memory and long-term learning to reading acquisition
Acoustic Confusions in Immediate Memory
Memory for serial order across domains
Benchmarks for models of short-term and working memory
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |