Barbara A. Church

Perceptual specificity of auditory priming: Implicit memory for voice intonation and fundamental frequency

Five experiments explored the effect of acoustic changes between study and test on implicit and explicit memory for spoken words. Study-test changes in the speakers voice, intonation, and fundamental frequency produced significant impairments of auditory priming on implicit tests of auditory identification and stem completion but had little or no effect on explicit recall and recognition tests (Experiments 1-4). However, study-test changes in overall decibel level had no effect on priming on an auditory stem-completion test or on cued-recall performance (Experiment 5). The results are consistent with the idea that fundamental frequency information is represented in a perceptual representation system that plays an important role in auditory priming.

Auditory priming: implicit and explicit memory for words and voices

Five experiments explore priming effects on auditory identification and completion tasks as a function of semantic and nonsemantic encoding tasks and whether speakers voice is same or different at study and test. Auditory priming was either unaffected by the study task manipulation (Experiments 2, 4, and 5) or was less affected than was explicit memory (Experiments 1 and 3). Study-to-test changes of speakers voice had nonsignificant effects on priming when white noise masked target items on the identification test (Experiments 1 and 2) or the stem-completion test (Experiment 5). However, significant voice change effects were observed on priming of completion performance when stems were spoken clearly (Experiments 3 and 4). Results are consistent with the idea that a presemantic auditory perceptual representation system plays an important role in the observed priming. Alternative explanations of the presence or absence of voice change effects under different task conditions are considered.

Implicit Memory in Amnesic Patients: Impairment of Voice-Specific Priming

Amnesic patients generally exhibit spared priming effects on implicit memory tasks despite poor explicit memory In a previous study, we demonstrated normal auditory priming in amnesic patients on an identification-in-noise test in which the magnitude of priming is independent of whether the speakers voice is the same or different at study and test In the present experiment, we examined auditory priming on a filter identification test in which the magnitude of priming in control subjects is higher when the speakers voice is the same at study and test than when it is different Amnesic patients, by contrast, failed to exhibit more priming in a same-voice condition than in a different-voice condition Voice-specific priming may depend on a memory system that is impaired in amnesia

Implicit Memory in Amnesic Patients: Evidence for Spared Auditory Priming

Previous observations of spared priming in amnesic patients have been based almost entirely on data from visual implicit memory tests Our research examined perceptual priming in amnesic patients and control subjects on an auditory identification task in which previously spoken words and new words were presented in white noise We manipulated type of encoding task (semantic vs nonsemantic) and speakers voice at study and test (same vs different) Priming was little affected by either manipulation, and amnesic patients exhibited normal priming in all experimental conditions On an explicit test of recognition memory, by contrast, amnesic patients exhibited severely impaired performance following the semantic study task, all subjects showed poor explicit memory following the nonsemantic study task Results are consistent with the idea that auditory priming depends largely on a presemantic auditory perceptual representation system

Learning Rule-Described and Non-Rule-Described Categories : A Comparison of Children and Adults

Three experiments investigated the ability of 3-, 5-, and 8-year-old children as well as adults to learn sets of perceptual categories. Adults and children performed comparably on categories that could be learned by either a single-dimensional rule or by associative learning mechanisms. However, children showed poorer performance relative to adults in learning categories defined by a disjunctive rule and categories that were nonlinearly separable. Increasing the task demands for adults resulted in child-like performance on the disjunctive categories. Decreasing the task demands for children resulted in more adult-like performance on the disjunctive categories. The authors interpret these results within a multiple-systems approach to category learning and suggest that children have not fully developed the same explicit category learning system as adults.

Atypical Categorization in Children with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children with autism spectrum disorder process many perceptual and social events differently from typically developing children, suggesting that they may also form and recognize categories differently. We used a dot pattern categorization task and prototype comparison modeling to compare categorical processing in children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder and matched typical controls. We were interested in whether there were differences in how children with autism use average similarity information about a category to make decisions. During testing, the group with autism spectrum disorder endorsed prototypes less and was seemingly less sensitive to differences between to-be-categorized items and the prototype. The findings suggest that individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder are less likely to use overall average similarity when forming categories or making categorical decisions. Such differences in category formation and use may negatively impact processing of socially relevant information, such as facial expressions. A supplemental appendix for this article may be downloaded from http://pbr.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.

Implicit memory in amnesic patients: When is auditory priming spared?

Amnesic patients often exhibit spared priming effects on implicit memory tests despite poor explicit memory. In previous research, we found normal auditory priming in amnesic patients on a task in which the magnitude of priming in control subjects was independent of whether speakers voice was same or different at study and test, and found impaired voice-specific priming on a task in which priming in control subjects is higher when speakers voice is the same at study and test than when it is different. The present experiments provide further evidence of spared auditory priming in amnesia, demonstrate that normal priming effects are not an artifact of low levels of baseline performance, and provide suggestive evidence that amnesic patients can exhibit voice-specific priming when experimental conditions do not require them to interactively bind together word and voice information.

Deferred Feedback Sharply Dissociates Implicit and Explicit Category Learning

The controversy over multiple category-learning systems is reminiscent of the controversy over multiple memory systems. Researchers continue to seek paradigms to sharply dissociate explicit category-learning processes (featuring category rules that can be verbalized) from implicit category-learning processes (featuring learned stimulus-response associations that lie outside declarative cognition). We contribute a new dissociative paradigm, adapting the technique of deferred-rearranged reinforcement from comparative psychology. Participants learned matched category tasks that had either a one-dimensional, rule-based solution or a multidimensional, information-integration solution. They received feedback either immediately or after each block of trials, with the feedback organized such that positive outcomes were grouped and negative outcomes were grouped (deferred-rearranged reinforcement). Deferred reinforcement qualitatively eliminated implicit, information-integration category learning. It left intact explicit, rule-based category learning. Moreover, implicit-category learners facing deferred-rearranged reinforcement turned by default and information-processing necessity to rule-based strategies that poorly suited their nominal category task. The results represent one of the strongest explicit-implicit dissociations yet seen in the categorization literature.

Auditory priming in elderly adults: impairment of voice-specific implicit memory.

Previous research has shown that elderly adults often exhibit intact priming effects on visual implicit memory tests, but little is known about auditory priming and ageing. We examined priming effects on auditory stem-completion and filter identification tasks in older and younger adults. Young subjects showed more priming when speakers voice was the same as study and test than when it differed, but elderly subjects failed to exhibit this voice-specific priming effect in each of five experiments. The elderly did, however, show robust nonspecific priming. We attempt to rule out hearing deficit accounts of the priming impairment and consider alternative theoretical interpretations of the effect.

Spared priming despite impaired comprehension: Implicit memory in a case of word meaning deafness

Previous research has established that direct priming effects on implicit memory tests can be dissociated from explicit remembering. Evidence from studies of college students suggests that priming on various implicit tests can be characterized as a presemantic phenomenon: Priming can occur at full strength following nonsemantic encoding tasks that typically produce low levels of explicit memory. To provide a strong test of this idea, we examined auditory priming in a case of word-meaning deafness. Despite the patients impaired auditory comprehension abilities, he showed normal priming on auditory identification tests after study-list exposure to spoken words. Results support the idea that priming depends on perceptual systems that operate at a presemantic level.