Modality effects in short-term memory: Storage or retrieval?

2 experiments were conducted to determine whether the superiority of auditory to visual presentation was due to differences in storage or in retrieval from short-term memory (STM). The 1st experiment compared recognition and recall with serial lists, under the presumption that retrieval difficulties would be minimized or eliminated with a recognition procedure. The 2nd experiment utilized a confidence-rating procedure (test for knowledge of list membership) which eliminated the need for sequential dependencies. The superiority of auditory presentation was manifest in both experiments, and the conclusion was suggested that modality effects represent differences in storage. In two prior studies (Murdock, 1966b; 1967) it was shown that, with a probe technique in short-term memory (STM), retention of both serial and paired-associate material was better with auditory than with visual presentation. Even though informationally speaking the material was exactly the same (common English words) and the conditions were equated as carefully as possible, still the differences were large and striking. This paper reports two further experiments which attempt to determine whether the locus of the effect is in storage or retrieval. It is generally accepted that retrieval