Table 7.
Observed and expected STM span variances in Experiment 2, by word length, presentation modality, and participants' M-capacity.
| Modality | Word length | M-capacity | Obs. variance | Exp. variance | χ2 | d.f. | p |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visual | 2 syllables | e + 5 | 0.92 | 0.84 | 62.13 | 55 | n.s. |
| Visual | 2 syllables | e + 6 | 0.77 | 1.10 | 73.74 | 103 | <0.05 |
| Visual | 2 syllables | e + 7 | 1.31 | 1.38 | 137.16 | 142 | n.s. |
| Visual | 4 syllables | e + 5 | 0.95 | 0.30 | 179.53 | 55 | <0.001 |
| Visual | 4 syllables | e + 6 | 0.67 | 0.54 | 130.85 | 103 | n.s. |
| Visual | 4 syllables | e + 7 | 0.91 | 0.72 | 180.76 | 142 | <0.05 |
| Auditory | 2 syllables | e + 5 | 0.60 | 0.98 | 34.79 | 55 | <0.05 |
| Auditory | 2 syllables | e + 6 | 0.67 | 1.22 | 57.44 | 103 | <0.001 |
| Auditory | 2 syllables | e + 7 | 1.14 | 1.49 | 109.48 | 142 | <0.05 |
| Auditory | 4 syllables | e + 5 | 0.74 | 0.55 | 76.58 | 55 | n.s. |
| Auditory | 4 syllables | e + 6 | 0.67 | 0.79 | 89.92 | 103 | n.s. |
| Auditory | 4 syllables | e + 7 | 0.99 | 1.00 | 142.94 | 142 | n.s. |
The p-values for chi-square tests are two-tailed, because the model could either underestimate or overestimate the variance of span scores.