Recognition memory for utterances in conversation

Abstract

This study reports an experiment on incidental recognition memory for conversation. A number of people listened to a dyadic conversation and were tested immediately afterwards or four days later. The two people in the tape‐recorded conversation did not know each other, nor did the audience know the two speaker‐listeners on the tape. This design was used to further clarify the role of familiarity and personal participation for memory of conversational discourse. Gist memory was high in both conditions, with lower performance after four days. Surface memory could be verified, and the level of the variables used to index surface memory was about the same in both the immediate and delayed condition. With this study we have taken a step towards better understanding of the role of familiarity and participation in communicative events for memory of these events. Even in this “minimum” participation and familiarity study, we found some indications of verbatim memory.