Positional information in short-term memory: relative or absolute?

Abstract

Evidence suggests that short-term memory for serial order includes information about the positions of items in a sequence. This information is necessary to explain why substitution errors between sequences tend to maintain their position within a sequence. Previous demonstrations of such errors, however, have always used sequences of equal length. With sequences of different length, both transpositions between groups (Experiment 1) and intrusions between trials (Experiment 2) are shown to respect position relative to the end as well as to the start of a sequence. These results support models in which position is coded by start and end markers, but not models in which position is coded in temporal or absolute terms. Possible interpretations of an end marker are discussed.