ArticleJournal of cognition2024
The Semantic Similarity Effect on Short-Term Memory: Null Effects of Affectively Defined Semantic Similarity.
Article in Journal of cognition, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Do semantic and phonological categories lead to proactive interference in immediate and delayed serial recall tasks?Memory & cognition · 2026Article
- Lion-Tiger-Stripes: Delimiting the Semantic Association Effect on Working Memory With Mediated Association.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2026Article
- From stork to baby: Semantic relatedness can improve order memory without grouping.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Article
- Examining the semantic relatedness effect on working memory with ad hoc categories.Memory & cognition · 2025Article
- Towards theoretically understanding how long-term memory semantics can support working memory performance.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
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Abstract
Studies on short-term memory have repeatedly demonstrated the beneficial effect of semantic similarity. Although the effect seems robust, the aspects of semantics targeted by these studies (e.g., categorical structure, associative relationship, or dimension of meaning) should be clarified. A recent meta-regression study inspired by Osgood's view, which highlights affective dimensions in semantics, introduced a novel index for quantifying semantic similarity using affective values. Building on the results of the meta-regression of past studies' data with that index, this study predicts that semantic similarity is deleterious to short-term memory if it is manipulated by affective dimensions, after controlling for other confounding factors. This prediction was directly tested. The experimental results of the immediate serial recall task (Study 1) and immediate serial reconstruction of order task (Study 2) indicated null effects of semantic similarity by affective dimensions and thus falsified the prediction. These results suggest that semantic similarity based on affective dimensions is negligible.
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Registered trials
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