Christine Malone, Kristen Bouwman, Susan Johnson, Julie Przekwas

Minnesota State University, Moorhead

Effects of Shared Sound and Spelling

on False Word Recognition

Background Information False memories can be induced in a list learning

paradigm. The most commonly used paradigm is the DRM

Paradigm Studied words with common semantic (bed, rest, wake) or

sound (paradise) information can induce false recognitions of their corresponding base words on the test list (sleep and paradox, respectively) (e.g., Roediger & McDermott, 1995; Wallace, Malone, & Spoo, 2000).

Both sound and spelling influence spoken word recognition in a priming paradigm (e.g., Slowiaczek, Soltano, Wieting, & Bishop, 2003).

example

Rationale for Study Previous work has shown both sound and spelling

to influence spoken word recognition in a priming paradigm.

Previous false memory research has manipulated only spelling or sound and left the other factor free to vary.

We aimed to systematically study sound and spelling information to understand their individual and combined contributions in creating false recognitions of unpresented words.

Sample Stimuli

Initial Sound: centigrade – sentiment Ending Sound: peppermint –

sentiment Initial Spelling: gentle – genius Ending Spelling: radius – genius Initial Both: tickle – ticket Ending Both: pocket – ticket Unrelated: welfare – ticket

Hypothesis If sound and spelling are automatically

activated as the study word unfolds, study words with both shared sound and spelling (parasite) should activate their corresponding target (paragraph) to a greater extent during study and seem more familiar at test. This should lead to a greater proportion of false recognition errors to their target (e.g., report having heard paragraph on the study list, when, in fact, it was parasite).

Method Participants

86 MSUM psychology undergraduates

Design 2 (position: initial & end) x 3 (shared

information: sound, spelling, & both) within-subjects design

Procedure Recognition Memory Paradigm

Participants were asked to listen carefully to a study list consisting of 186 words.

The study list contained 90 words which were each randomly presented twice. Also, the list included 3 buffer words at the beginning and end of presentation.

Participants were then presented a second, shorter list and were asked to respond “old” or “new” after each word.

“Old” indicated that the word appeared on the first list

“New” indicated that the word did not appear on the first list

Results

There was a significant difference between the three shared information variables, F (2, 85)= 23.15, p < .0001.

An interaction was found between position and shared information, F (2, 85)= 3.40, p < .036.

Error rates across conditions

0.165

0.191

0.165

0.1970.241

0.285

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

Initial Ending

Position of Shared Information

Err

or

Ra

te Sound

Spelling

Both

Conclusions Sound and spelling

connections do influence recognition memory

Both together produce the highest error rates

Semantic connections are most often studied in long-term memory, but sound and spelling need to be investigated as well

Questions?