Recognition Memory For Sentences Research Articles

Reading aloud in clear speech reduces sentence recognition memory and recall for native and non-native talkers.

Speaking style variation plays a role in how listeners remember speech. Compared to conversational sentences, clearly spoken sentences were better recalled and identified as previously heard by native and non-native listeners. The present study investigated whether speaking style variation also plays a role in how talkers remember speech that they produce. Although distinctive forms of production (e.g., singing, speaking loudly) can enhance memory, the cognitive and articulatory efforts required to plan and produce listener-oriented hyper-articulated clear speech could detrimentally affect encoding and subsequent retrieval. Native and non-native English talkers' memories for sentences that they read aloud in clear and conversational speaking styles were assessed through a sentence recognition memory task (experiment 1; N = 90) and a recall task (experiment 2; N = 75). The results showed enhanced recognition memory and recall for sentences read aloud conversationally rather than clearly for both talker groups. In line with the "effortfulness" hypothesis, producing clear speech may increase the processing load diverting resources from memory encoding. Implications for the relationship between speech perception and production are discussed.

Text Captioning Buffers Against the Effects of Background Noise and Hearing Loss on Memory for Speech.

Everyday speech understanding frequently occurs in perceptually demanding environments, for example, due to background noise and normal age-related hearing loss. The resulting degraded speech signals increase listening effort, which gives rise to negative downstream effects on subsequent memory and comprehension, even when speech is intelligible. In two experiments, we explored whether the presentation of realistic assistive text captioned speech offsets the negative effects of background noise and hearing impairment on multiple measures of speech memory. In Experiment 1, young normal-hearing adults (N = 48) listened to sentences for immediate recall and delayed recognition memory. Speech was presented in quiet or in two levels of background noise. Sentences were either presented as speech only or as text captioned speech. Thus, the experiment followed a 2 (caption vs no caption) × 3 (no noise, +7 dB signal-to-noise ratio, +3 dB signal-to-noise ratio) within-subjects design. In Experiment 2, a group of older adults (age range: 61 to 80, N = 31), with varying levels of hearing acuity completed the same experimental task as in Experiment 1. For both experiments, immediate recall, recognition memory accuracy, and recognition memory confidence were analyzed via general(ized) linear mixed-effects models. In addition, we examined individual differences as a function of hearing acuity in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1, we found that the presentation of realistic text-captioned speech in young normal-hearing listeners showed improved immediate recall and delayed recognition memory accuracy and confidence compared with speech alone. Moreover, text captions attenuated the negative effects of background noise on all speech memory outcomes. In Experiment 2, we replicated the same pattern of results in a sample of older adults with varying levels of hearing acuity. Moreover, we showed that the negative effects of hearing loss on speech memory in older adulthood were attenuated by the presentation of text captions. Collectively, these findings strongly suggest that the simultaneous presentation of text can offset the negative effects of effortful listening on speech memory. Critically, captioning benefits extended from immediate word recall to long-term sentence recognition memory, a benefit that was observed not only for older adults with hearing loss but also young normal-hearing listeners. These findings suggest that the text captioning benefit to memory is robust and has potentially wide applications for supporting speech listening in acoustically challenging environments.

Enhanced memory for sentences read aloud conversationally versus clearly: Evidence from sentence recognition memory and recall

Native and non-native listeners were more accurate in identifying sentences as previously heard and in recalling words and entire sentences when they heard clear speech compared to conversational speech (Keerstock and Smiljanic, 2018, 2019). This clear speech benefit on listeners' memory might in part be due to decreased listening effort in perceiving intelligibility-enhancing clear speech (“effortfulness hypothesis,” Rabbitt, 1968). The effect of reading sentences aloud in clear speech on talkers' memory, however, is unknown. We hypothesized that the effort required to produce clear speech could detrimentally affect memory encoding. In the present study, native and non-native English speakers read sentences aloud in clear and conversational speaking styles. Their memory of the read sentences was assessed either via a sentence recognition memory task (Experiment 1; n = 90) or a recall task (Experiment 2; n = 75). Results from both experiments showed superior retention of spoken information for sentences read aloud conversationally rather than clearly. The results indicate that producing clear speech, unlike perceiving it, interferes with sentence recognition memory and recall. Production of listener-oriented hyper-articulated speech may increase cognitive load leaving fewer cognitive resources available for storing spoken information in memory.

Reading aloud in a clear speaking style may interfere with sentence recognition memory

Previous research has shown that native and non-native listeners’ recognition memory is higher for sentences previously heard in clear speech (CS) than in conversational speech (Keerstock and Smiljanic, 2018). The present study investigated whether speaking clearly also enhances talkers’ sentence recognition memory. The production effect (MacLeod et al., 2010) revealed superior retention of material read aloud relative to material read silently during an encoding phase. Vocal production that included an additional distinct element, such as speaking loudly, produced even greater memory benefits than reading aloud (Quinlan and Taylor, 2013). Production of the exaggerated articulatory and acoustic cues in CS could thus lead to enhanced sentence recognition memory relative to conversational style. Native and non-native English speakers produced alternating blocks of 10 conversational and CS sentences for a total of 60 unique sentences. In the test phase, they identified 120 sentences as old (from exposure) or new (distractors). Unexpectedly, preliminary results show lower sentence recognition memory for sentences produced in CS than in conversational speech for both groups of talkers. The results suggest that producing CS, unlike perceiving it, interferes with recognition memory. Allocating cognitive resources to producing hyper-articulated speech may limit their availability for storing information in memory.

The Impact of Age, Background Noise, Semantic Ambiguity, and Hearing Loss on Recognition Memory for Spoken Sentences.

The goal of this study was to determine how background noise, linguistic properties of spoken sentences, and listener abilities (hearing sensitivity and verbal working memory) affect cognitive demand during auditory sentence comprehension. We tested 30 young adults and 30 older adults. Participants heard lists of sentences in quiet and in 8-talker babble at signal-to-noise ratios of +15 dB and +5 dB, which increased acoustic challenge but left the speech largely intelligible. Half of the sentences contained semantically ambiguous words to additionally manipulate cognitive challenge. Following each list, participants performed a visual recognition memory task in which they viewed written sentences and indicated whether they remembered hearing the sentence previously. Recognition memory (indexed by d') was poorer for acoustically challenging sentences, poorer for sentences containing ambiguous words, and differentially poorer for noisy high-ambiguity sentences. Similar patterns were observed for Z-transformed response time data. There were no main effects of age, but age interacted with both acoustic clarity and semantic ambiguity such that older adults' recognition memory was poorer for acoustically degraded high-ambiguity sentences than the young adults'. Within the older adult group, exploratory correlation analyses suggested that poorer hearing ability was associated with poorer recognition memory for sentences in noise, and better verbal working memory was associated with better recognition memory for sentences in noise. Our results demonstrate listeners' reliance on domain-general cognitive processes when listening to acoustically challenging speech, even when speech is highly intelligible. Acoustic challenge and semantic ambiguity both reduce the accuracy of listeners' recognition memory for spoken sentences. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5848059.

Effects of intelligibility on within- and cross-modal sentence recognition memory

Listener-oriented speaking style adaptations improve sentence recognition memory in quiet and in noise (Van Engen et al. 2012, Gilbert et al. 2014). It is not clear if this advantage arises from the available cognitive resources, or enhanced memory traces. The present study investigated what may underlie the improved recognition memory for clear speech. In the within-modal condition, monolingual English listeners heard a total of 40 unique meaningful sentences in conversational and clear speaking styles, followed by a test phase in which they identified 80 audio sentences as old or new. In the cross-modal condition, the acoustic input in the test phase was replaced by written text. Results showed that while accuracy was high in both conditions, conversational-to-clear speech modifications significantly improved sentence recognition memory only in the within-modal condition. In the cross-modal condition, speaking style had no effect on sentence recognition memory. The results suggest that the benefit of clear speech over conversational speech on recognition memory lies in exaggerated acoustic-phonetic cues whose presence is necessary to activate memory traces. Speaking style adaptations may promote the encoding and storing of lower-level acoustic information rather than higher-level semantic information.

Speech intelligibility and sentence recognition memory in noise

Much of daily communication occurs in adverse conditions impacting various levels of speech processing negatively. These adverse conditions may originate in talker- (fast, reduced speech), signal- (noise or degraded target signal), and listener- (impeded access or decoding of the target speech signal) oriented limitations, and may have consequences for perceptual processes, representations, attention, and memory functions (see Mattys et al., 2012 for a review). In this talk, I first discuss a set of experiments that explore the extent to which listener-oriented clear speech and speech produced in response to noise (noise-adapted speech) by children, young adults and older adults contribute to enhanced word recognition in challenging listening conditions. Next, I discuss whether intelligibility-enhancing speaking style modifications impact speech processing beyond word recognition, namely recognition memory for sentences. The results show that effortful speech processing in challenging listening environments can be improved by speaking style adaptations on the part of the talker. In addition to enhanced intelligibility, a substantial improvement in sentence recognition memory can be achieved through speaker adaptations to the environment and to the listener when in adverse conditions. These results have implications for the quality of speech communication in a variety of environments, such as classrooms and hospitals.

Recognition memory in noise for speech of varying intelligibility

This study investigated the extent to which noise impacts normal-hearing young adults' speech processing of sentences that vary in intelligibility. Intelligibility and recognition memory in noise were examined for conversational and clear speech sentences recorded in quiet (quiet speech, QS) and in response to the environmental noise (noise-adapted speech, NAS). Results showed that (1) increased intelligibility through conversational-to-clear speech modifications led to improved recognition memory and (2) NAS presented a more naturalistic speech adaptation to noise compared to QS, leading to more accurate word recognition and enhanced sentence recognition memory. These results demonstrate that acoustic-phonetic modifications implemented in listener-oriented speech enhance speech-in-noise processing beyond word recognition. Effortful speech processing in challenging listening environments can thus be improved by speaking style adaptations on the part of the talker. In addition to enhanced intelligibility, a substantial improvement in recognition memory can be achieved through speaker adaptations to the environment and to the listener when in adverse conditions.

Processing speech of varying intelligibility

In this talk, we examine how variation in intelligibility impacts speech processing with insights from behavioral and neuroimaging studies. We discuss a set of experiments that explore the extent to which listener-oriented speaking style changes, sentence context, and visual information contribute to enhanced word recognition in challenging listening conditions. We further examine whether these same enhancements impact speech processing beyond word recognition, namely recognition memory for sentences. The results show that both signal-related and contextual enhancements lead to improved speech recognition in noise and, crucially, to a substantially better sentence recall. We then discuss studies examining neural mechanisms involved in processing speech of varying intelligibility using fMRI. Previous fMRI studies have examined speech intelligibility by using artificially degraded speech stimuli. Few studies have examined natural variation in intelligibility. Here we present neuroimaging data from two studies that examine natural variations in speech intelligibility (native vs. non-native speech; audio versus audiovisual speech). Overall, combined insights from behavioral and neuroimaging studies provide important additions to our understanding of how different sources of variability in the speech signal affect speech processing and memory representations.

Effects of speech clarity on recognition memory for spoken sentences.

Extensive research shows that inter-talker variability (i.e., changing the talker) affects recognition memory for speech signals. However, relatively little is known about the consequences of intra-talker variability (i.e. changes in speaking style within a talker) on the encoding of speech signals in memory. It is well established that speakers can modulate the characteristics of their own speech and produce a listener-oriented, intelligibility-enhancing speaking style in response to communication demands (e.g., when speaking to listeners with hearing impairment or non-native speakers of the language). Here we conducted two experiments to examine the role of speaking style variation in spoken language processing. First, we examined the extent to which clear speech provided benefits in challenging listening environments (i.e. speech-in-noise). Second, we compared recognition memory for sentences produced in conversational and clear speaking styles. In both experiments, semantically normal and anomalous sentences were included to investigate the role of higher-level linguistic information in the processing of speaking style variability. The results show that acoustic-phonetic modifications implemented in listener-oriented speech lead to improved speech recognition in challenging listening conditions and, crucially, to a substantial enhancement in recognition memory for sentences.

Recognition memory in noise for speech of varying intelligibility

Speech intelligibility is greatly affected by the presence of noise. However, there has been little research investigating the effects of noise on recognition memory. Per the effortfulness hypothesis (McCoy et al., 2005), we expect that processing speech in challenging listening environments requires additional processing resources that might otherwise be available for encoding speech in memory. This resource reallocation may be offset by speaker adaptations to the environment and to the listener. Here we compare recognition memory for conversational and clear speech sentences recorded in quiet (QS) and for sentences produced in response to the actual environment noise, i.e. noise adapted speech (NAS). Listeners heard 40 unique conversational and clear QS or NAS sentences mixed with 6-talker babble at SNRs of 0 or +3 dB. Following the exposure, listeners identified 80 sentences in quiet as old or new. Results showed that 1) increased intelligibility through conversational-to-clear speech modifications leads to improved recognition memory and 2) NAS presents a more naturalistic speech adaptation than QS, leading to better sentence recall for listeners. This experiment suggests that acoustic-phonetic modifications implemented in listener-oriented speech lead to improved speech recognition in challenging listening conditions and, crucially, to a substantial enhancement in recognition memory for sentences.

Dissociating speech perception and comprehension at reduced levels of awareness.

We used functional MRI and the anesthetic agent propofol to assess the relationship among neural responses to speech, successful comprehension, and conscious awareness. Volunteers were scanned while listening to sentences containing ambiguous words, matched sentences without ambiguous words, and signal-correlated noise (SCN). During three scanning sessions, participants were nonsedated (awake), lightly sedated (a slowed response to conversation), and deeply sedated (no conversational response, rousable by loud command). Bilateral temporal-lobe responses for sentences compared with signal-correlated noise were observed at all three levels of sedation, although prefrontal and premotor responses to speech were absent at the deepest level of sedation. Additional inferior frontal and posterior temporal responses to ambiguous sentences provide a neural correlate of semantic processes critical for comprehending sentences containing ambiguous words. However, this additional response was absent during light sedation, suggesting a marked impairment of sentence comprehension. A significant decline in postscan recognition memory for sentences also suggests that sedation impaired encoding of sentences into memory, with left inferior frontal and temporal lobe responses during light sedation predicting subsequent recognition memory. These findings suggest a graded degradation of cognitive function in response to sedation such that "higher-level" semantic and mnemonic processes can be impaired at relatively low levels of sedation, whereas perceptual processing of speech remains resilient even during deep sedation. These results have important implications for understanding the relationship between speech comprehension and awareness in the healthy brain in patients receiving sedation and in patients with disorders of consciousness.

L2 speakers’ recognition memory for English sentences with prosodic cues

This study investigated L2 learners’ recognition memory for English sentences with prosodic cues and examined the effect of English proficiency on recognition memory for English prosody. Twenty Korean L1 speakers and ten English L1 speakers participated in two tasks. The Korean L1 speakers were grouped according to their proficiency level: 10 each for high and low proficiency level. In a discrimination task, participants’ attention was explicitly focused on the contrasts in prosody and the associated differences in meaning, followed by a recognition task that tested whether prosodic cues were used to recognize the sentences. The results demonstrated that high-proficiency L2 speakers of English were better at using prosodic cues to interpret spoken sentences and remembering their meaning accordingly than low-proficiency L2 speakers. High-proficiency L2 speakers showed better recognition memory of the prosodic content of English sentences than for their lexis, while low-proficiency L2 speakers were better with the lexical content than prosodic cues. Native speakers and high-proficiency L2 speakers of English did not differ in recognizing meaning differences cued by prosody. However, high-proficiency L2 speakers of English were significantly worse at rejecting sentences containing lexis that they had not heard than L1 speakers.

Missing the forest for the trees? Deficient memory for linguistic gist in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) exhibit recall deficits on word learning tasks, mediated by their failure to detect semantic connections among the words. In the present experiment, using methods devised by Bransford & Franks (1971), we tested whether this encoding problem impairs their extraction of gist from complex linguistic material. Consistent with our hypothesis, OCD patients extracted less gist from related sentences than did healthy participants. The groups did not differ in recognition memory for individual sentences or in criterion for affirming previously encountered sentences as 'old', as evinced by signal detection indices of memory sensitivity (d') and response bias (beta), or in recognition memory confidence. These data provide further evidence that OCD patients exhibit less reliance on organizational strategies than do healthy control participants. These data are consistent with neuropsychological research suggestive of prefrontal executive problems in OCD.

Recognition memory for sentences from spatial descriptions: a test of the episodic construction trace hypothesis.

Many researchers believe that when people read spatial descriptions, they construct mental models of the configurations described. Payne (1993) proposed that reading a spatial description produces a memory of the operations used to construct a mental model, an episodic construction trace. The episodic construction trace hypothesis predicts that memory for a spatial description will be influenced by the degree of overlap between the construction processes required by the original description and the construction processes prompted by an item in a recognition test. The two experiments reported here show that readers of spatial descriptions are more likely to accept sentences in a recognition test that are consistent with the operations used to construct a mental model than to accept sentences that are inconsistent. Consistency with the episodic construction trace leads to both correct recognition of verbatim sentences from the original description and false recognition of sentences that were not present in the original descriptions.

The effects of pragmatics and discourse style on recognition memory for sentences

Numerous laboratory studies have found that the precise wording of a sentence is not retained in memory once a conceptual representation has been derived. However, studies in the context of natural, communicative discourse have found substantial memory for both sentence meaning and form. Two components of natural discourse—pragmatics and discourse style—were investigated in the context of conversations embedded in narratives. The results from three experiments suggests that both components play a role in memory for the surface form of sentences. Recognition memory increased as a function of information about the speaker's positive and negative attitudes. In addition, recognition memory was enhanced to the extent that such evaluative information was conveyed by means of formulaic expressions (i.e., idioms, common expressions) which are characteristic of oral style discourse. These results were confirmed using a recall task. Subjects exhibited substantial verbatim memory for evaluative and formulaic expressions. To the extent that particular words and phrases from a sentence are explicitly encoded, they are available for use by normal sentence production mechanisms, increasing the probability that the wording generated at recall will match the wording of the original sentence.

The Role of Visual Imagery in the Retention of Information From Sentences

We conducted two experiments to evaluate a multiple-code model for sentence memory that posits both propositional and visual representational systems. Both sentences involved recognition memory. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that subjects' recognition memory for concrete sentences was superior to their recognition memory for abstract sentences. Instructions to use visual imagery to enhance recognition performance yielded no effects. Experiment 2 tested the prediction that interference by a visual task would differentially affect recognition memory for concrete sentences. Results showed the interference task to have had a detrimental effect on recognition memory for both concrete and abstract sentences. Overall, the evidence provided partial support for both a multiple-code model and a semantic integration model of sentence memory.

The effects of descriptive forms of speech act in stories on recognition memory

A speech act may be described as a sentence corresponding to locutionary act (L-sentence), illocutionary act (I-sentence), or perlocutionary act (P-sentence). The purpose of our research is to examine the effects of descriptive forms of speech acts in stories on recognition memory. Subjects read stories and received unexpected sentence recognition memory test either immediately, an hour later, or four hours later. They rated the degree of confidence of recognition judgement on 7-point scale. The results were as follows: (a) The sentence which had been actually presented in text was recognized correctly with higher confidence, independent of the descriptive forms, (b) The descriptive form in text did not influence the recognition rating by itself, (c) P-sentence tended to be judged as 'not actually presented in text' compared with L-sentence or I-sentence, (d) The recognition time was shortest under the 4-hours-delay condition. These results were discussed in terms of memory representation of sentences and recognition processes.

Test anxiety, sentence comprehension, and recognition memory

Abstract The present study explored the relationships between trait and state test anxiety of students, and comprehension and recognition memory for sentences. The results demonstrated that test anxiety effects could be found in comprehension-based recognition memory for sentences under conditions that minimized complex retrieval operations. Comprehension was related to the test anxiety deficit, supporting the hypothesis that anxiety-recognition relations were mediated by anxiety-comprehension and comprehension-recognition relations. However, a partial correlation analysis suggested that this comprehension-deficit hypothesis is not adequate to explain the total deficit. Elaborative processes were suggested as a potential contributor to the findings.

Dominant Administrative Styles of ESL Administrators

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