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Related Experiment Video

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The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition

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Published on: February 19, 2018

Specificity of memory representations for spoken words

P A Luce¹, E A Lyons

¹Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Buffalo 14260, USA. paul@deuro.fss.buffalo.edu

Memory & Cognition

|August 14, 1998

Summary

Spoken word recognition may use both abstract and specific memory representations. Voice changes impact explicit memory tasks but not implicit ones, suggesting dual storage systems for spoken words.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Psycholinguistics
Auditory Perception

Background:

Traditional models posit abstract representations for spoken words in memory.
Emerging research suggests memory stores veridical exemplars, including talker-specific voice characteristics.
This implies stimulus variation, like voice changes, could influence spoken word processing.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of abstract versus exemplar-based representations in spoken word recognition.
To examine the impact of talker voice variation on implicit and explicit memory tasks.

Main Methods:

Employed lexical decision (implicit task) and recognition (explicit task) paradigms.
Manipulated repetition priming, comparing words repeated in the same versus different talker voices.

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Main Results:

Lexical decision tasks showed similar repetition priming regardless of voice consistency.
Recognition tasks exhibited faster reaction times for words repeated in the same voice.
These findings indicate differential effects of voice variation across task types.

Conclusions:

Spoken word recognition likely involves both abstract and specific (exemplar-based) memory representations.
Explicit memory benefits from voice-specific information, while implicit processing is less affected by voice changes.
These results support hybrid models of spoken word recognition that integrate abstract and detailed memory traces.