It has been suggested that phonological representations play a central role in verbal short-term memory, but when semantic knowledge has been investigated, it has also been shown to influence verbal short-term memory. Explaining this interaction between verbal short-term memory and the linguistic system has produced different theoretical positions: whether semantic knowledge is used to redintegrate phonological traces or if there is direct activation of both phonological and semantic knowledge upon encountering a word. The present study employed a new paradigm to systematically examine phonological and semantic representations in verbal short-term memory as well as long-term impacts. Across two experiments, a list of words was presented sequentially, followed by a probe word. Participants were to judge whether the probe word rhymed or was synonymous with any items on the list. Delayed memory was also tested. In Experiment 1, we found that immediate performance was better for synonym than rhyme judgements, and this continued to be the case after a brief delay. In Experiment 2, under a fast-encoding, running-span paradigm, we found similar activation of phonological and semantic knowledge. Nevertheless, accuracy was again higher for items probed with the semantic than rhyme cue in the long term. Results showed that indeed there are short-term semantic effects, in addition to phonological effects. Further, semantic processing can occur in a highly automatic and rapid manner, with strong influence on long-term memory. These findings provide a new perspective on viewing verbal short-term memory as operating more dynamically within the context of a complex linguistic system.

有人提出语音表征在口头短期记忆中起着核心作用，但当研究语义知识时，它也被证明会影响口头短期记忆。解释口头短期记忆和语言系统之间的这种相互作用产生了不同的理论立场：是否使用语义知识重新整合语音痕迹，或者是否在遇到单词时直接激活语音和语义知识。本研究采用一种新的范式系统地检查口头短期记忆中的语音和语义表征以及长期影响。在两个实验中，依次呈现了一个单词列表，然后是一个探测词。参与者将判断探测词是否押韵或与列表中的任何项目同义。还测试了延迟记忆。在实验 1 中，我们发现同义词的即时性能优于押韵判断，并且在短暂的延迟后情况仍然如此。在实验 2 中，在快速编码、运行跨度范式下，我们发现了语音和语义知识的类似激活。尽管如此，从长远来看，语义提示而不是韵提示的项目的准确性再次更高。结果表明，除了语音效应之外，确实存在短期语义效应。此外，语义处理可以以高度自动化和快速的方式发生，对长期记忆有很大影响。