Order effects and vowel decay in short-term memory: the neutralization hypothesis
Year: 2007
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Information stored in short-term memory decays extremely fast compared to the content of long-term memory. The nature of this memory loss being little known (random or systematic), this paper examines the presentation order effect in the light of the neutralization hypothesis, according to which the first vowel in a pair decays, while retained in short-term memory, toward [er]. Twelve French listeners participated in three AX roving discrimination sessions. For each of the 10 vowel categories of French, a prototype and four satellite tokens were synthesized. Tokens were paired with themselves as well as with the prototype (in both orders of presentation). Results revealed minor or major order effects within every phonetic category. However, the neutralization hypothesis could not account for at least half of these asymmetries. An alternative model, which adopts the periphery of the vowel space as a reference area, appears to fit best with our data.
Author: Charalampos Karypidis
Institution: Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2607955833