Fig. 1.

Each trial started with a 250-ms fixation cross, followed by three nameable objects that were presented for 750 ms each, interleaved with 250-ms fixation crosses. After the last object, the instruction “forward” or “backward” was presented for 500 ms. Participants were instructed to mentally rehearse or reorder the names of the three objects during the 6,000-ms delay, and then to indicate with a button press whether the probe object was the first, second, or third object in the forward or backward sequence. Correct answers are shaded in blue for illustrative purposes.