The encoding-specificity effect in auditory and visual memory

Previous studies have shown that information in short-term memory are encoded acoustically, while those in long-term memory are encoded semantically. However, there are some arguments for the existence of other encoding forms in short-term and long-term memory, i.e. semantical and visual encoding in short-term memory and acoustical and visual in the long term memory. This implies that the way information is encoded in long-term memory is quite flexible. In addition, different studies have shown that the way in which information is encoded in memory strongly affects recall or recognition success. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the encoding-specificity effect on encoding non-words presented visually and auditory. Fourteen participants took part in this study in which there were four experimental situations, defined by the visually and auditory non-words presentation in encoding and recognition phase. In congruent situations non-words were presented in the same sensory modality in encoding and recognition phase. The number of correctly recognized non-words was measured. Results showed that there is no difference in the number of correct responses between congruent and incongruent situations, whereby the hypothesis of the existence of the encoding-specificity effect is not confirmed. Furthermore, participants were more successful in the situation of auditory encoding and recognition, compared to the situation of visual encoding and recognition, which could be explained by the functioning of the working memory. However, opposite to our hypothesis, participants did not show greater success in recognizing non-words in the situation of visual encoding and auditory recognition, compared to the situation of auditory encoding and visual recognition. Possible explanations are discussed.