The impact of accent and status on information recall and perception formation

Abstract

Evidence that accents influence listeners' perceptions of speakers is well documented. The present study continued the examination of the effects of accents on subjects' perceptions of sources. Additionally, the investigation attempted to assess whether the effects of the perceptions of accent and personal perceptions have an impact on information recall. The results, by American listeners, confirmed that more favorable assessments were assigned to American than nonAmerican accented speakers. These person perceptions attributed to the sources, however, did not affect the information recalled. By contrast, the status of the speaker did affect information recall. Specifically, subjects recalled more information from messages delivered by professors than by students, regardless of accent. There was an interesting message by accent interaction on information recall. That is, American subjects reported greater recall of the wine message from nonAmerican accented speakers than American accented source.

Notes

Mary M. Gill (Ph.D., 1991, University of Nebraska, Lincoln) is assistant professor at Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, IA 50588 and Diane M. Badzinski (Ph.D, 1988, University of Wisconsin, Madison) is assistant professor at the University of Nebraska‐Lincoln. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Speech Communication Association Convention, Chicago, IL, November, 1990. The authors would like to thank Loren Murfield and William Wardrope for their help in coding data.