The Effect of Dialect on Lexical Recall

Author

Chandler DouglasFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-1-2021

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Modern Languages

First Advisor

Vance Schaefer

Second Advisor

Felice Coles

Third Advisor

Ala Simonchyk

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Investigating the performance of listeners as they attempt to recall words in both a familiar and unfamiliar dialect could likely lend some insight to the cognitive processes concerning speech perception. Specifically, the current study investigates whether speech spoken in an unfamiliar accent in a listener’s language influences comprehension and, therefore, memory recall of content. To test this, a group of speakers of General American English speakers and a group of speakers of Southern American English listened to two sets of words: one in General American and one in Southern American English. Participants were then asked to write down or type the maximum number of words that they could recall. The results determined that a greater percentage of participants better recalled words heard in General American. Yet the uniformly low recall percentages indicate that the role of dialect might not be as pronounced as initially hypothesized.

Recommended Citation

Douglas, Chandler, "The Effect of Dialect on Lexical Recall" (2021). Honors Theses. 1816.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1816

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