Phonological Similarity and Recall Dynamics
Haydn G. Herrema · 2024
Similarities among items govern how individuals organize their memories, as seen in the order and timing of successively recalled words in free recall memory tasks. Prior work has documented the influence of similarity in temporal, semantic, emotional, and physical space on recall dynamics. We asked whether phonological similarity also impacts the dynamics of free recall. Analyzing data from a large delayed free recall experiment, we find that participants cluster their recalls based on alliterative and rhyming patterns in the encoded words, and such organization predicts recall performance. We also discover that phonological features induce false memories, and that phonological similarity interacts with temporal and semantic features to accelerate recall transitions. Our results further catalog how similarity, in its many forms, dictates the dynamics of free recall.