Abstract: Using visually serial presentation and the method of serial and free recall,the relative efficiency of the phonetic,formal and semantic three coded dimensions in short-term and long-term memory processing in normal hearing and deaf people were compared.The results showed that the normal hearing people produced obvious phonetic similarity effect in short-term serial recall but the deaf people showed prominently the interference of the formal coded similarity.In short-term and long-term memory,both groups showed that the effects of the formal and semantic code were most intense and the effect of the phonetic code was relatively weaker.The two groups also showed obvious serial- position effect and that the long-term retentions were on the whole the same.The relations of the primacy and recency effect to shortterm and long-term stored systems were discussed.

Key words: Phonetic code, formal code, sementic code, short-term retention, long-term retention, serial-position effect, primacy effect and recency effect