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. 2022 Nov;50(8):1804-1815.
doi: 10.3758/s13421-021-01269-9. Epub 2022 Jan 26.

The influence of memory on the speech-to-song illusion

Lauren E Soehlke  1 , Ashwini Kamat  1 , Nichol Castro  2 , Michael S Vitevitch  3
Affiliations

The influence of memory on the speech-to-song illusion

Lauren E Soehlke et al. Mem Cognit. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

In the speech-to-song illusion a spoken phrase is presented repeatedly and begins to sound as if it is being sung. Anecdotal reports suggest that subsequent presentations of a previously heard phrase enhance the illusion, even if several hours or days have elapsed between presentations. In Experiment 1, we examined in a controlled laboratory setting whether memory traces for a previously heard phrase would influence song-like ratings to a subsequent presentation of that phrase. The results showed that word lists that were played several times throughout the experimental session were rated as being more song-like at the end of the experiment than word lists that were played only once in the experimental session. In Experiment 2, we examined if the memory traces that influenced the speech-to-song illusion were abstract in nature or exemplar-based by playing some word lists several times during the experiment in the same voice and playing other word lists several times during the experiment but in different voices. The results showed that word lists played in the same voice were rated as more song-like at the end of the experiment than word lists played in different voices. Many previous studies have examined how various aspects of the stimulus itself influences the perception of the speech-to-song illusion. The results of the present experiments demonstrate that memory traces of the stimulus also influence the speech-to-song illusion.

Keywords: Memory; Music cognition; Perception; Psycholinguistics.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Nodes representing various types of linguistic information for the word Frisbee. Additional higher-level and lower-level nodes described in node structure theory have been omitted to simplify the image. For ease of presentation, we use orthographic symbols rather than symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent the phonological sounds found in the syllables and words represented in the figure. Adapted from Fig. 1 in MacKay (1987)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Song-like ratings (and standard error of the mean) for the novel and familiar word lists across the four presentation blocks in Experiment 1
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Mean song-like ratings (and standard error of the mean) in Experiment 2 for word lists that were repeated in the same voice across the four presentation blocks and word lists that were repeated, but the voice switched halfway through the experiment
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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