Inner Speech in Working Memory During Silent Reading: Effects of Articulatory Suppression on Anticipated Lexical Stress

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dc.contributor.advisorGrodner, Daniel
dc.contributor.authorTang, Irene
dc.date.accessioned2019-08-02T14:16:59Z
dc.date.available2019-08-02T14:16:59Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.abstractAs we silently read words on a page, we use an "inner speech" that includes rhythm and inflections as if we are reading aloud. We also use an inner speech when perfonning non-reading tasks such as remembering verbal materials, problem solving, mental calculation, and decision making. Present research has not yet determined whether these two uses of inner speech occupy the same cognitive resources. This paper presents findings from an eye-tracking study designed to explore whether the inner speech of silent reading occupies the same resources in working memory as other mental tasks. In the first part of the experiment, participants read stressalternating homographs (e.g., PREsent, preSENT) embedded in limericks, which compelled them to initially expect the incorrect prosody of the homograph and thus encounter a reading cost. As they read, participants also perfonned articulatory suppression by repeating the word this aloud. The goal of this was to use the outer voice to occupy the relevant resources in working memory, thus rendering them unavailable to be used during silent reading-this allows us to see if those resources pertain to the inner voice of silent reading. Participants also completed the 18-item Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ; McCarthy-Jones & Fernyhough, 2011), a self-assessment survey that assesses one's relationship with inner speech. The goal of this was to see if participants who reported experiencing higher levels of inner speech in their everyday lives would be more susceptible to the reading costs prompted by articulatory suppression during rhythm-mismatching limericks. If the differences in reading costs between reading rhythm-matching and -mismatching limericks vanish while repeating this, and if participants who experience higher levels of inner speech are more affected by articulatory suppression, then this would show that these two inner voices occupy the same working memory resources. The study found some preliminary evidence that articulatory suppression can diminish the effect of stress clash on silent reading, as well as some preliminary indication that inner speech occupies working memory and that this machinery overlaps with the inner voice of the rehearsal component of the phonological loop.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipSwarthmore College. Dept. of Linguisticsen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10066/21571
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsFull copyright to this work is retained by the student author. It may only be used for non-commercial, research, and educational purposes. All other uses are restricted.
dc.rights.accessNo restrictionsen_US
dc.titleInner Speech in Working Memory During Silent Reading: Effects of Articulatory Suppression on Anticipated Lexical Stressen_US
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