Abstract
Behavioral studies of spoken word memory have shown that context congruency facilitates both word and source recognition, though the level at which context exerts its influence remains equivocal. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants performed both types of recognition task with words spoken in four voices. Two voice parameters (i.e., gender and accent) varied between speakers, with the possibility that none, one or two of these parameters was congruent between study and test. Results indicated that reinstating the study voice at test facilitated both word and source recognition, compared to similar or no context congruency at test. Behavioral effects were paralleled by two ERP modulations. First, in the word recognition test, the left parietal old/new effect showed a positive deflection reflective of context congruency between study and test words. Namely, the same speaker condition provided the most positive deflection of all correctly identified old words. In the source recognition test, a right frontal positivity was found for the same speaker condition compared to the different speaker conditions, regardless of response success. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that the benefit of context congruency is reflected behaviorally and in ERP modulations traditionally associated with recognition memory.
Highlights
There is considerable evidence that reinstating the initial auditory context at the time of test aids memory for spoken words [1,2,3,4]
We investigate the effects of context congruency on word and source recognition, wherein context might be reinstated at test, might vary in either gender or accent while remaining congruent on the other voice parameter or might largely vary on both voice parameters
The ANOVA yielded a main effect of voice congruency (F(3,45) = 11.41, p,0.001, g2 = 0.43), with pairwise comparisons indicating that performance in the same speaker condition was superior to all three different speaker conditions (p,0.05)
Summary
There is considerable evidence that reinstating the initial auditory context at the time of test aids memory for spoken words [1,2,3,4]. In a continuous recognition task, participants recognized spoken words more quickly and accurately when they were re-presented in the same voice at test [1] This same-voice advantage might be limited to the identical speaker, since Palmeri et al [2] found that similar voices (i.e., same gender) do not yield a significant facilitation. Pisoni [5] posited a parallel episodic memory system, perceptual and implicit, which encodes information about speaker voice (e.g., gender and dialect) with memory for the item itself This suggestion implies a benefit for context congruency in memory for spoken words, and more generally is in line with the principle of transfer-appropriate processing [6]. Some or all of these factors may have confounded a straight comparison of voice effects as we intend to study them
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