Phonological similarity describes the phenomenon by which immediate serial recall of a sequence of visual– verbal items is detrimentally affected when the items are acoustically similar as opposed to when they are dissimilar (e.g., B, V, G vs. F, K, R; Conrad, 1964; Conrad & Hull, 1964). Phonological similarity has also been shown to detrimentally affect performance when presentation of to-be-remembered materials is auditory (Baddeley, Lewis, & Vallar, 1984; Surprenant, Neath, & LeCompte, 1999). Phonological similarity is a robust and highly replicable effect that is regarded as a characteristic of immediate serial recall from auditory–verbal short-term memory. This makes it a suitable manipulation to compare memory for verbal and musical sequences. If the same short-term memory system is processing speech and pitch sounds, the following testable prediction can be made…
Adapted from: Williamson, V. J., Baddeley, A. D. & Hitch, G. J., (2010). Musicians’ and nonmusicians’ short-term memory for verbal and musical sequences: Comparing phonological similarity and pitch proximity. Memory & Cognition. 38(2). 163–175.