Differential Effects of Cue Dependency on Item and Source Memory

The authors investigated the cue dependency of source and item memory. Individuals listened to words spoken by a man or a woman and later determined whether a test word was previously presented by a man or by a woman, or whether it was a new word. Cue dependent effects were assessed by presenting test words with (a) the same voice (match condition) that originally presented the word, (b) a different but familiar voice (mismatch condition), (c) a novel test voice (novel condition), and (d) no test voice (control condition). Compared with the control condition, source recollection was facilitated in matching-context conditions, disrupted in mismatching-context conditions, and not affected in novel test conditions. By contrast, item recognition was not affected by the match-mismatch manipulation but was significantly worse in novel test voice conditions. The authors propose an associative source interference view to account for the voice match-mismatch effects observed in source recollection.