Errors in Short-Term Memory for Speech: A Developmental Study

In a previous study (R. Treiman & C. Danis, 1988), adults who were presented with lists of spoken consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonsense syllables for immediate recall produced many errors that combined the initial consonant onset of one to-be-remembered syllable with the vowel-consonant rime of another to-be-remembered syllable. These onset-rime recombination errors were more common than other types of recombination errors and also more common than serial position errors. These findings suggest that nonwords are remembered in terms of smaller phonological units. To replicate the previous results and to determine whether they generalize to children, the author tested kindergarteners, 3rd graders, 6th graders, and adults on lists of nonsense CVCs. Onset-rime conjunction errors were the most frequent type of recombination error, even among kindergarteners, suggesting that children code spoken syllables in terms of onset and rime units from a young age.