The nature of serial order coding in verbal working memory

This PhD thesis investigates how serial order is coded in verbal working memory (WM) from linguistic, spatial, and temporal perspectives. Three experimental studies employed the immediate serial recall task to test the contribution of syntactic legality (Study 1), spatial manipulation (Study 2), and temporal regularity (Study 3) to serial order performance. Results indicate a robust effect of syntactic knowledge, a context-dependent effect of spatial factors, and no reliable effect of temporal regularity under the conditions tested. Overall, the findings support accounts of WM as a dynamic, attention-shaped system grounded in long-term memory, and point to serial order as a flexible, multi-source representation rather than a fixed code or a dedicated buffer.