Voice change in the stimulus suffix effect: Are the effects structural or strategic?

Abstract

The literature on the stimulus suffix effect shows that if the suffix is presented in a voice different from that in which the list items are presented, there is less of a decrement in list recall than if the suffix is presented in the same voice. This experiment attempted to answer the question of whether this variable diminishes the suffix effect because of attentional factors or because of structural properties of echoic memory. Subjects received lists of digits in a male voice and either a tone, same-voice suffix, or different-voice suffix. Subjects received either the same suffix for all lists or two different suffixes. Those subjects given two suffixes and those given two tones were either forced to discriminate between them or had no discrimination requirement. The results demonstrated that voice change has both attentions] and structural consequences on the suffix effect, with the attentional factors being confined to the preterminal positions and the structural factors being confined to the last position or two. © 1983 Psychonomic Society, Inc.