The Role of Speech Style, Frequency, and Density in Recognition Memory for Spoken Words

Overview

Journal Front Psychol

Date 2024 Feb 8

PMID 38328381

Authors

Anne Pycha

Tessa Culleton

Jae Yung Song

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

What determines whether listeners remember a spoken word? The Effortfulness Hypothesis claims that memory is modulated by a word's intelligibility during real-time processing, while the Distinctiveness Hypothesis claims that it is modulated by a word's distinguishing characteristics. We tested these differing predictions using American English words that varied along three dimensions known to affect both intelligibility and distinctiveness: speech style (clear versus casual), frequency (high versus low), and neighborhood density (high versus low). In a recognition memory experiment, participants ( = 66) listened to a set of study words, and then gave yes/no judgments to indicate whether or not they had heard the word earlier. Results showed that those words which exhibited distinctive characteristics - whether due to clear speech style, low frequency, or low density - were remembered better. The finding supports the Distinctiveness Hypothesis, suggesting that our capacity for remembering words relies on their distinctiveness, rather than on our capacity for recognizing them in real time.

References

Scarborough R, Zellou G . Clarity in communication: "clear" speech authenticity and lexical neighborhood density effects in speech production and perception. J Acoust Soc Am. 2013; 134(5):3793-807. DOI: 10.1121/1.4824120. View

Joordens S, Hockley W . Recollection and familiarity through the looking glass: when old does not mirror new. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2001; 26(6):1534-55. DOI: 10.1037//0278-7393.26.6.1534. View

Rabbitt P . Channel-capacity, intelligibility and immediate memory. Q J Exp Psychol. 1968; 20(3):241-8. DOI: 10.1080/14640746808400158. View

Schacter D, Verfaellie M, Anes M . Illusory memories in amnesic patients: conceptual and perceptual false recognition. Neuropsychology. 1997; 11(3):331-42. DOI: 10.1037//0894-4105.11.3.331. View

Dodson C, Schacter D . "If I had said it I would have remembered it": reducing false memories with a distinctiveness heuristic. Psychon Bull Rev. 2001; 8(1):155-61. DOI: 10.3758/bf03196152. View

Picheny M, Durlach N, Braida L . Speaking clearly for the hard of hearing. II: Acoustic characteristics of clear and conversational speech. J Speech Hear Res. 1986; 29(4):434-46. DOI: 10.1044/jshr.2904.434. View

Francis W, Gutierrez M . Bilingual recognition memory: stronger performance but weaker levels-of-processing effects in the less fluent language. Mem Cognit. 2011; 40(3):496-503. DOI: 10.3758/s13421-011-0163-3. View

Keerstock S, Smiljanic R . Effects of intelligibility on within- and cross-modal sentence recognition memory for native and non-native listeners. J Acoust Soc Am. 2018; 144(5):2871. DOI: 10.1121/1.5078589. View

Van Engen K . Clear speech and lexical competition in younger and older adult listeners. J Acoust Soc Am. 2017; 142(2):1067. DOI: 10.1121/1.4998708. View

10.

Keerstock S, Smiljanic R . Clear speech improves listeners' recall. J Acoust Soc Am. 2020; 146(6):4604. DOI: 10.1121/1.5141372. View

11.

Balota D, Yap M, Cortese M, Hutchison K, Kessler B, Loftis B . The English Lexicon Project. Behav Res Methods. 2007; 39(3):445-59. DOI: 10.3758/bf03193014. View

12.

Van Engen K, Chandrasekaran B, Smiljanic R . Effects of speech clarity on recognition memory for spoken sentences. PLoS One. 2012; 7(9):e43753. PMC: 3436755. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043753. View

13.

Macmillan N, KAPLAN H . Detection theory analysis of group data: estimating sensitivity from average hit and false-alarm rates. Psychol Bull. 1985; 98(1):185-99. View

14.

Rabbitt P . Mild hearing loss can cause apparent memory failures which increase with age and reduce with IQ. Acta Otolaryngol Suppl. 1990; 476:167-75; discussion 176. DOI: 10.3109/00016489109127274. View

15.

Fraundorf S, Hourihan K, Peters R, Benjamin A . Aging and recognition memory: A meta-analysis. Psychol Bull. 2019; 145(4):339-371. PMC: 6481640. DOI: 10.1037/bul0000185. View

16.

Smiljanic R, Bradlow A . Production and perception of clear speech in Croatian and English. J Acoust Soc Am. 2005; 118(3 Pt 1):1677-88. PMC: 1850617. DOI: 10.1121/1.2000788. View

17.

Goldinger S, Kleider H, Shelley E . The marriage of perception and memory: creating two-way illusions with words and voices. Mem Cognit. 1999; 27(2):328-38. DOI: 10.3758/bf03211416. View

18.

Smiljanic R, Gilbert R . Acoustics of Clear and Noise-Adapted Speech in Children, Young, and Older Adults. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2017; 60(11):3081-3096. DOI: 10.1044/2017_JSLHR-S-16-0130. View

19.

Heathcote A, Ditton E, Mitchell K . Word frequency and word likeness mirror effects in episodic recognition memory. Mem Cognit. 2006; 34(4):826-38. DOI: 10.3758/bf03193430. View

20.

Broadbent D . Word-frequency effect and response bias. Psychol Rev. 1967; 74(1):1-15. DOI: 10.1037/h0024206. View