Acoustic confusion in long term memory: An extension of previous findings

Abstract

This paper considers further evidence for the existence of acoustic confusion in long term memory. The experimental procedure involved presenting 20 nonsence CVC trigrams (presentation list) at a rate of one every 4 sec. After two successive presentations of this list there was a 10–12 hr gap overnight. Subjects were then given a test list, which consisted of items acoustically related, acoustically unrelated, and identical to items on the presentation list. Subjects were asked to indicate which items appeared on the original presentation list. It was found that false positive inclusion errors occured to a significantly greater degree amongst items acoustically related to items on the presentation list, indicating acoustic confusion in long term memory.