Fig. 1.

Illustration of the immediate memory paradigm. Subjects were shown a list of six words sequentially, followed by either the first or second triplet being processed according to the four experimental conditions. The trial ended with a recognition test in which each list item was tested in their order of presentation using a 4-alternative forced-choice procedure. The grey panel shows the repeating condition with an example of the first triplet being processed. The red panel shows the refreshing condition, here for the second triplet to be processed. The blue and purple panels show the elaboration and refreshing with elaboration condition, respectively, which were preceded by the instruction to form a mental image, but which were equivalent in the visual input to the respective conditions without the elaboration instruction.