The purity of auditory memory

Abstract

Recent evidence from experiments on immediate memory indicates unambiguously that silent speech perception can produce typically ‘auditory’ effects while there is either active or passive mouthing of the relevant articulatory gestures. This result falsifies previous theories of auditory sensory memory (pre-categorical acoustic store) that insisted on external auditory stimulation as indispensible for access to the system. A resolution is proposed that leaves the properties of pre-categorical acoustic store much as they were assumed to be before but adds the possibility that visual information can affect the selection of auditory features in a pre-categorical stage of speech perception. In common terms, a speaker’s facial gestures (or one’s own) can influence auditory experience independently of determining what it was that was said. Some results in word perception that encourage this view are discussed.