The effects of episodic and semantic memory on the identification of sentences masked by white noise

Two studies examine how episodic and semantic memory affect subjects’ abilities to repeat sentences masked by white noise. Subjects first hear a list of 70 sentences that are not masked. Subjects in the framework conditions are told prior to hearing the list that all sentences refer to a contextual framework concerning a deserted island. Subjects in the no-framework groups are not given this information. Subjects in the framework-after condition are given this information only after hearing the list of sentences. Subjects then perform a white-noise identification task. The results indicate that framework subjects are able to identify both old and new framework-related information better than other subjects. Subjects in the no-framework and framework-after conditions identify old information better than control subjects who do not participate in an acquisition phase. Emphasis is placed on the interdependence of episodic and semantic memory, including conditions leading to such interdependence.