The Effects of Vocalisation on Situational Frequency Estimation

Two experiments are reported that studied the effects of vocalisation on situational frequency judgment. Subjects saw lists of words and were later asked to judge frequency of occurrence on the list. In Experiment 1, the word list was learned incidentally, and frequency estimates were higher for words that subjects had read aloud during study than for those that had been read silently. In Experiment 2, an intentional-learning procedure was used; higher estimates for words read aloud than for those read silently were found when pronunciation was manipulated within subjects but not when it was manipulated between subjects. In all cases, pronunciation had no effect on estimates for words that had only been presented once on the study list. These results suggest that multiple processes may underlie frequency estimation.