The ecology of self-monitoring effects on memory of verbal productions: Does speaking to someone make a difference?

Abstract

Experiments involving verbal self-monitoring show that memory for spoken words varies with types of sensory feedback: memory is better when words are spoken aloud than when they are lip-synched or covertly produced. Such effects can be explained by the Central Monitoring Theory (CMT) via a process that matches a forward model reflecting expected sensory effects of practiced forms and sensory information during speech. But CMT oversees factors of shared attention as achieved by speaker-listener gaze, and implies that sensory feedback may not affect the learning of unpracticed forms (non-words). These aspects of CMT were examined in two experiments of self-monitoring focusing on oro-sensory feedback. In Experiment 1 we show that varying feedback creates differential effects on memory for spoken words and that speaker-listener gaze alters these effects. Using non-words, Experiment 2 shows the absence of differential feedback effects. The results confirm CMT but suggest the need to refine the theory in terms of processes that mediate attention.