This paper considers the effect of articulatory suppression on a number-size consistency task to investigate the involvement of the phonological loop in situations involving potential interferences from task-irrelevant stimulus attributes. Participants were shown pairs of digits varying in numerical and physical sizes, and they were required to decide which digit was larger numerically or physically in the numerical-size and physical-size judgment tasks, respectively. Participants in the continuous-task group only performed the numerical-size judgment task. On the other hand, participants in the change-task group practiced the physical-size judgment task and then performed the numerical-size judgment task. The results showed that articulatory suppression had a negative effect on reaction time in the numerical-size judgment task only in the change-task group. This suggests that the phonological loop provides a useful aid for the control of action when participants are faced with interference in a difficult situation of maintaining the task goal.

Key words: phonological loop, articulatory suppression, goal maintenance, interference control