Memory for Spoken Words

Research on memory for spoken words altered the course of much research in phonetics and psycholinguistics since the 1990s. In 2019, though, we are facing three main issues: (1) Much work was unmoved by this seminal work, carrying assumptions that need to be clearly thought through and addressed, (2) We still have no clear grasp of all the intricacies and predictions of this earlier work, and (3) Redundancy in research exists, where parts of our field appear to be caught in a loop. This seminar will be reading and discussion based, focusing on work related to each of these three points. Students will be expected to read two papers a week (one course paper, and one paper cited within that work) to bring us to a clear picture of past work. In addition, the final project involves close collaboration between each student and me, to arrive at a novel and feasible study proposal that addresses one of these three issues, with the expectation that the study will be conducted in the Spring and/or Summer quarters.