Modality effect (memory psychology)

The advantage of auditory over visual presentation in immediate serial recall, especially for the final items in a list.

Echoic memory: A brief sensory memory trace that preserves auditory information after a sound ends. Its persistence can keep recent spoken items available during recall.
Immediate serial recall: A memory task requiring items to be reproduced in their presented order immediately after a sequence ends. This is the task in which the auditory advantage is defined.
Conrad and Hull 1968 serial recall study: A study comparing auditory and visual presentation in immediate serial recall and examining their effects on recall order. It helped establish the auditory advantage as a robust finding in serial recall.
Phonological similarity effect: The tendency for similar-sounding items to be confused more often in immediate serial recall. It shows how sound-based coding can impair order memory even when auditory input helps recency.
Suffix effect: The disruption of auditory recency caused by an irrelevant sound presented at the end of a spoken list. Its sensitivity to a final sound tests whether auditory persistence produces the modality advantage.
Iconic memory: A brief sensory memory trace that preserves visual information after a stimulus disappears. Unlike auditory traces, visual traces fade too quickly to support the same recency advantage.
Recency effect: Improved recall for the last items in a list compared with items presented earlier. The modality effect most reliably strengthens recall at the list's end.
Murdock 1962 serial position study: A free-recall study documenting how recall probability varies across positions in word lists. Its serial-position findings provide a framework for locating auditory benefits at list endings.
Word length effect: The tendency for immediate serial recall to be poorer for words that take longer to articulate. It implicates rehearsal timing, a mechanism sometimes used to explain modality differences.
Changing-state effect: The disruption of serial recall by sequences of changing, task-irrelevant sounds. It raises questions about how acoustic structure affects auditory memory beyond spoken-list presentation.

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Picture superiority effectCompared with: It concerns auditory-versus-visual presentation, a different comparison from pictures versus words.