articulatory store

n. The articulatory store, an articulatory rehearsal system, is a subcomponent of the articulatory loop (or phonological loop), the working memory module that manipulates acoustic information. The articulatory loop has a phonological store which is subject to a two-second decay, unless the information is refreshed by rehearsal in the articulatory store. The articulatory store accounts for the word length effect, according to which lists of longer items are harder to recall than lists of shorter items, because rehearsing longer items will take more time. The word length effect is eliminated with articulatory suppression (e.g., in experimental contexts in which participants repeat an irrelevant word, such as the, while performing a memory task), presumably because articulatory suppression prevents rehearsal from taking place in the articulatory store.     - EMF