Implicit memory for hybrid silent-center syllables

Abstract

A growing body of evidence suggests that information about specific voices and specific exemplars of words is encoded in memory, as observed in results of implicit memory tasks in which subjects perform perceptual classification of stimuli. Hura [dissertation, University of Texas (1994)] found identification performance on silent-center (SC) syllables improved with previous exposure to corresponding full syllables, implying that representations of individual full syllables were encoded in memory and accessed in identification of SC stimuli. The current study investigates whether prior exposure to SC syllables improves performance on full syllables. Ten /bVt/ syllables spoken by multiple talkers were used to generate SC and hybrid SC stimuli (which combine the initial CV transition from one talker and the final VC transition from another). A subset of SC syllables, varying for identity of talker or vowels presented, were presented to subjects for identification. After a variable delay subjects were tested on a subset of full syllable stimuli. The magnitude of implicit memory effects in each case is assessed to address the claim that dynamic vowel information is speaker independent as suggested by the theory of dynamic specification.