Articulatory and phonological codes interact in memory

We investigated the effects of repeating aloud and of an unfamiliar accent on memory for words. At study, native English speakers heard English words spoken by a native speaker of American English or by a foreign national. They listened only for half of the items and they listened and then repeated aloud (produce) for the other half. At test, producing interacted with accent in recognition memory for those words. For words that they listened to, performance was better for foreign-accented than for American accented words. When participants repeated words aloud performance improved but accent did not matter. Experiment 2 included repetition and imitation as well as listen only at study. Mouse tracking measures revealed effects of study condition on memory including benefits of imitation over repetition.