Irrelevant speech, phonological similarity, and presentation modality

The phonological similarity effect refers to the finding that a list of sim ilar-sounding items is recalled less well than a list of dissimilar-soundin g items. A strong prediction of the phonological store hypothesis, based on Baddeley's (1986, 1992) working memory framework, is that irrelevant speec h should inter;act with the phonological similarity effect. We report three experiments that demonstrate that irrelevant speech eliminates the phonolo gical similarity effect for visual but not for auditory items. In this resp ect, irrelevant speech functions much like articulatory suppression. Implic ations for the phonological store and changing state hypotheses are discuss ed.