Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
5-2013
Abstract
The literature on directed forgetting has employed exclusively visual words. Thus, the potentially interesting aspects of a spoken utterance, which include not only vocal cues (e.g., prosody) but also the speaker and the listener, have been neglected. This study demonstrates that prosody alone does not influence directed-forgetting effects, while the sex of the speaker and the listener significantly modulate directed-forgetting effects for spoken utterances. Specifically, forgetting costs were attenuated for female-spoken items compared to male-spoken items, and forgetting benefits were eliminated among female listeners but not among male listeners. These results suggest that information conveyed in a female voice draws attention to its distinct perceptual attributes, thus interfering with retention of the semantic meaning, while female listeners' superior capacity for processing the surface features of spoken utterances may predispose them to spontaneously employ adaptive strategies to retain content information despite distraction by perceptual features. Our findings underscore the importance of sex differences when processing spoken messages in directed forgetting.
Keywords
Directed forgetting, prosody, gender, sex differences, female voice
Discipline
Applied Behavior Analysis | Social Psychology
Research Areas
Psychology
Publication
PLoS One
Volume
8
Issue
5
First Page
1
Last Page
9
ISSN
1932-6203
Identifier
10.1371/journal.pone.0064030
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Citation
YANG, Hwajin, YANG, Sujin, & PARK, Giho.(2013). Her voice lingers on and her memory is strategic: Effects of gender on directed forgetting. PLoS One, 8(5), 1-9.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1157
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064030