Fig 2. Self-rating scores of cognitive strategies used during the maintenance stage.

‘Phonological’ represents the degree of subjective reliance on phonological imagery of spoken sounds, whereas ‘Visuospatial’ on visuospatial imagery of letter- or finger-shapes (0 = not at all, 4 = all the time). After all imaging sessions were completed, participants were requested to recall these covert strategies that they had used during maintenance. Irrespective of the stimulus type (i.e. letters or fingers), participants relied on the phonological memory more greatly than on the visuospatial memory. However, this subjective reliance on phonological memory did not significantly differ between letters and fingerspelling (see Results).