Mazes and music: using perceptual processing to release verbal overshadowing

Verbal overshadowing occurs when participants describe a previously viewed non-verbal stimulus such as a face prior to a recognition memory test. The results of numerous studies indicate that recognition accuracy is lower when participants describe the face or other non-verbal stimulus as compared to a no-description control condition. In the present two-experiment study, verbal overshadowing was alleviated when participants engaged in a non-verbal task that emphasized perceptual processing subsequent to describing the face but prior to the recognition memory test. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants viewed a face and then either described the face or completed a distractor task. Next, participants in Experiment 1 engaged in a perceptual task in the form of a series of mazes or a verbal task. Participants who described the face and completed the mazes experienced a release from verbal overshadowing as compared to participants who described the face and completed the verbal task. In Experiment 2, verbal overshadowing was alleviated when participants listened to instrumental music after describing the face, thus demonstrating that an auditory perceptual task can also release verbal overshadowing. The results of these two experiments provide support for a processing shift interpretation of verbal overshadowing. Furthermore, the results indicate this shift can be alleviated, and perceptual processing reinstated, by engaging in an unrelated perceptually oriented task such as completing a maze or listening to music. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.