The marriage of perception and memory: Creating two-way illusions with words and voices

By most theories of lexical access, idiosyncratic aspects of speech (such a s voice details) are considered noise and are filtered in perception. Howev er, episodic theories suggest that perceptual details are stored in memory and mediate later perception. By this view, perception and memory are intim ately Linked. The present investigation tested this hypothesis by creating symmetric illusions, using words and voices. In two experiments, Listeners gave reduced noise estimates to previously heard words, but only when the o riginal voices were preserved. Conversely, in two recognition memory experi ments, listeners gave increased old responses to words(or voices) presented in relatively soft background noise. The data suggest that memory can be m istaken for perceptual fluency, and perceptual fluency can be mistaken for memory. The data also underscore the role of detailed episodes in lexical a ccess.