Words and voices: Episodic traces in spoken word identification and recognition memory.

Abstract

Most theories of spoken word identification assume that variable speech signals are matched to canonical representations in memory. To achieve this, idiosyncratic voice details are first normalized, allowing direct comparison of the input to the lexicon. This investigation assessed both explicit and implicit memory for spoken words as a function of speakers' voices, delays between study and test, and levels of processing. In 2 experiments, voice attributes of spoken words were clearly retained in memory. Moreover, listeners were sensitive to fine-grained similarity between 1st and 2nd presentations of different-voice words, but only when words were initially encoded at relatively shallow levels of processing. The results suggest that episodic memory traces of spoken words retain the surface details typically considered as noise in perceptual systems.

Representation of lexical form.

“…On the other hand, if flapped words are not mapped onto underlying phonemic representations, they should fail to prime their carefully articulated counterparts. This latter outcome would parallel the results of many previous studies (e.g., Church & Schacter, 1994;Goldinger, 1996) in which changes in surface properties of words caused a marked attenuation of long-term priming (dubbed specificity).…”

“…Thus, the present data provide evidence for the existence of both surface and underlying lexical representations in memory. As a result, these findings join a growing body of evidence in support of lexical representations that preserve surface information (e.g., Church & Schacter, 1994;Goldinger, 1996) while calling into question a purely instance-or exemplar-based model of the mental lexicon (e.g., Goldinger, 1998).…”

Toward an integrative model of talker normalization.

“…This indicates that exemplars of words stored in memory preserved a talker's voice information implicitly. Altogether, these findings suggest that a learned talker's voice characteristics can be stored in memory (e.g., Craik & Kirsner, 1974;Goldinger, 1991;1996;1998;Hintzman et al, 1972;Johnson, 1997;2007;Palmeri et al, 1993). Based on the above discussion, we speculate that a space of learned talker models, i.e., voice characteristics of previously encountered talkers and maybe exemplars of speech sounds from those talkers, is stored in the memory of listeners.…”

Examining the Time Course of Indexical Specificity Effects in Spoken Word Recognition.

“…More recently, Goldinger (1996) ob served voice effects in both implicit and explicit tasks. Unlike Schacter and Church, Goldinger presented words in noise at both study and test, which may be responsible for the differences across the two sets of studies (see Franks, Bilbrey, Lien, & McNamara, 2000).…”