Introduction

This chapter explores the possibility of sign-based memory and what it can tell us about the architecture and nature of human memory systems. Models of working memory typically contain two major components, one used for verbal material, the other used for visuospatial material. A process of articulatory rehearsal serves to refresh information within the store and thus maintain items within memory. The rehearsal process also serves to recode nonphonological inputs, such as written words or pictures, into a phonological form so that they can be held in the phonological store. The division between verbal and visuospatial encoding has been recognized at least since the classic memory studies of Brooks and Paivio, and appears to reflect a fundamental division in human cognition. The phonological similarity effect and the word length effect both indicate that the surface form of language, with its phonological and articulatory properties, is important to the verbal component of working memory.