Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity Influence Spoken Word Recognition
Christine M. Szostak · OhioLink ETD Center (Ohio Library and Information Network) · 2013
Prior work has shown that when speech is unclear, listeners show a greater dependence upon semantic than on acoustic information to aid word identification when distracting stimuli (e.g., other talkers) are present.The current project extended this work to explore whether individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) would influence the likelihood that listeners will depend on the biasing information when distracted.In five experiments, participants heard sentences that contained an early target word with or without noise at its onset and a subsequent word that was semantically biased in favor of the target word or one of its lexical competitors (e.g., The wing had an exquisite set of feathers or The wing had an exquisite set of diamonds where diamonds would be semantically associated with ring).The sentences were presented in the presence of distracters ranging in their degree of signal-similarity to that of the sentence (e.g., another speaker vs. an everyday nonspeech sound).Participants made target word identification and sentence sensibility judgments for each sentence they heard.The findings showed that those with lower WMC were more likely to depend upon biasing than on acoustic signal information, but only when the signal was masked by noise.In contrast, those with higher WMC showed less dependence upon the biasing information than those with lower WMC, even when the signal was masked by noise.Although performance across distracter similarity was not influenced by WMC, the likelihood of being able to iii anticipate what distraction would be heard was shown to influence performance as a function of WMC.A discussion of the role of WMC in spoken word recognition, especially during distraction, is provided and the potential mechanisms involved in this process are considered.His skill, expertise, support, and wealth of knowledge of spoken word recognition can be seen throughout this work!Sincere thanks are also extended to Per Sederberg for his sincere enthusiasm about this project.His energetic attitude toward this project allowed me to continue to have the confidence necessary to tackle WMC for the first time, especially when the going got tough!Sincere gratitude is given to Eric Healy for being an important part of every step of my training beginning with my Master's Thesis and continuing all the way through helping me meet requirements for completing my doctorate.I also wish to sincerely thank Simon Dennis for taking me under his wing in learning about memory and for providing me with invaluable information, ideas, and thoughts on this project.The four members of my committee have provided the expertise, specialties, and invaluable guidance that have v made this project what it is.Without their mentorship, this project would not have been nearly the scholarly work it has become.In addition, I wish to thank Sven Mattys for his generous and very helpful discussions and his continued interest in and enthusiasm for this project.It is because of his work in the past few years that this project came into existence.His time and willingness to help troubleshoot, provide materials for earlier versions of this project, and his much appreciated sage advice have genuinely helped this dissertation take on new shape.I also wish to thank Randy Engle for his contagious enthusiasm regarding this project and his willingness to provide the materials used for testing WMC.I also wish to thank Kenny Hicks for providing me with the OSpan materials and his assistance in learning to analyze and interpret OSpan scores.I also wish to thank Troy Smith who truly was my WMC guru.His knowledge and expertise with memory in general and WMC in particular provided me with invaluable directions that helped me when beginning on this journey.Without his guidance, beginning this endeavor would have felt monumentally more challenging.I do not have the words to truly express the degree of gratitude I have for the very dedicated multimedia team at ODS for their amazing support, unbelievable dedication to my training, never ending enthusiasm, kind words when I needed them most, and even the occasional support for my caffeine addiction!I am especially grateful for the generosity, time, and kindness that Sarah Terry and Nicole Chattah have shown me over the past six years!Without them and their amazing staff's help, I never could have reached the level of success I have had!vi Further, I can not thank Sheena Riepenhoff enough for always having the time to answer my many questions.Her enthusiasm, patience, and friendly attitude helped to make my time here at OSU sincerely enjoyable and pleasant!I also sincerely thank Doug Finlay and Nolan Crabb for the generous assistance with all things IT.Without their efforts, time, and kind patience, I would not have been able to reach this stage in my training!I also wish to thank the numerous students who have put their blood, sweat, and tears or at least their laughter, time, dedication, motivation, and research assistant hours into various parts of this project, most especially the many hours of performing and coding manual OSpan tasks!These truly dedicated individuals include: Hartman Brawley, Paige Lisco, Karin Luk, Chloe Meyer, Jason Miao, Kristen Peters, and Sara Stanutz.Along with these individuals, I thank the participants for their contribution to this project.Without their help and time, this project would not have been able to succeed.I also extend sincere gratitude to Lauren Seifert, Ph.D. without whom, I would have likely never caught the cognitive psychology bug.Her dedication to starting me off on the right Christian foot as a psychologist will always remain an important part of my life.I only hope that in my future endeavors, I can learn to exude the same type of kindness and dedication that she has demonstrated with respect to my own future endeavors.Finally, I wish to extend very special thanks to Armand Parker Szostak for sticking by my side throughout this process.His many enthusiastic tail wags, labbie kisses, and nuzzles provided much of the stress reduction necessary for completing a second dissertation.