Auditory priming in an implicit memory task that emphasizes surface processing

Auditory priming was examined in an implicit memory task, phoneme monitoring, that emphasized surface processing. The contribution of voice to priming was investigated in single- and multiple-speaker environments by repeating studied words at test in either the same voice or different voices. Multiple-speaker environments, which preserved both acoustic and word repetition, eliminated priming when more than two voice changes between words were introduced. When voice familiarity attenuated acoustic variability, priming was reestablished in the condition in which three voices were heard. Voice changes between study and test, which eliminated acoustic repetition, also abolished priming. Word frequency affected reaction times but not priming. This demonstrated that priming entailed subword processing rather than word processing. This study demonstrates that the significance of voice in implicit memory is dependent on the level of processing required by the task and the acoustic environment.