Elaboration structure and list length effects on verbal elaboration phenomena

The effects of elaboration structure (Sentence, Semantic paragraph, Syntactic paragraph) and list length (8, 12, 16 pairs) on paired-associate learning were investigated in a 3 × 3 factorial design. Seventy-five educable retardates were tested on acquisition (S-R) and reversal (R-S) tasks. Significant acquisition differences were found in the 8-pair list, where Semantic paragraph Ss performed better than Sentence Ss. In the longer lists, all structures were equally effective in facilitating acquisition (mean first trial correct = 60%), as well as reversal (mean correct = 95%). Sentence form (declarative, imperative, interrogative) was controlled in each elaboration structure. Analyses indicated that significantly fewer acquisition errors were made on pairs presented in declarative and imperative, as opposed to interrogative, elaborations. Tests of recall for the elaborations revealed that Ss in all conditions generally recalled them as declarative sentences. Further observations at 24 pairs confirmed the 12- and 16-pair findings.     

Partial picture effects on children's memory for sentences containing implicit information

Two experiments were conducted examining the effects of partial picture adjuncts on young children's coding of information that was implied in sentences. In the two most critical conditions of these studies, subjects were presented sentences specifying a subject, an action, and a direct object with the instrument used to carry out the action not specified in the sentence (e.g., The workman dug a hole in the ground). Implicit-sentence-only subjects received only the sentences, whereas the implicit sentence + partial picture subjects also viewed a partial picture depicting the action in the sentence minus the implied instrument. The main hypothesis was that subsequent recall of the sentences given the implied instrument as a cue would be facilitated by the partial pictures provided at study, since they would lead the children to infer the instrument. That occurred with 6- to 7-year-old children, but not with preschool children. Consistent with the conclusion that the partial pictures prompted 6- to 7-year-olds to infer the instruments, implicit sentence + partial picture subjects recalled as much as subjects in two other conditions, one in which subjects were explicitly told the instruments at study and one in which subjects saw the instruments depicted in pictures at study. In contrast, preschool subjects who heard explicit sentences containing the instruments outperformed subjects who heard implicit sentences even when the implicit sentences were accompanied by pictures depicting the instruments. This failure of complete pictures to facilitate preschoolers' recall of information implied in sentences contrasts with the many demonstrations of prose learning facilitation when picture and sentence contents explicitly and completely overlap. In summary, there were developmental differences in whether (a) partial pictures significantly facilitated inferencing (and subsequent cued recall) and (b) complete pictures containing information not explicitly stated in sentences promoted cued recall of the sentences.     

The assertion-candidate and the meaning of mood

The meaning of a declarative sentence and that of an interrogative sentence differ in their aspect of mood. A semantics of mood has to account for the differences in meaning between these sentences, and it also has to explain that sentences in different moods may have a common core. The meaning of the declarative mood is to be explained not in terms of actual force (contra Dummett), but in terms of potential force. The meaning of the declarative sentence (including its mood) is called the assertion-candidate, which is explained by what one must know in order to be entitled to utter the declarative with assertive force. Both a cognitive notion (knowledge) and a pragmatic notion (assertive force) are thus part of the explanation of the assertion-candidate. Davidson’s criticism that such a theory is in need of an account of the distinction between standard and non-standard uses of the declarative is answered: without counter-indications an utterance of a declarative sentence is understood as having assertive force. The meaning of an interrogative sentence, the question-candidate, and that of the other sentence types can ultimately be explained in terms of their specific relations to the assertion-candidate. Martin-Löf’s constructive type theory is used to show the philosophical relevance of a semantics of mood. The constructivist notion of proposition needs to be embedded in a theory of the assertion-candidate, which fulfils the offices of being the meaning of the declarative sentence, the content of judgement and assertion and the bearer of epistemic truth.     

Recall of logical and pragmatic implications in sentences with dichotomous and continuous antonyms

Thirty-six subjects recalled sentences containing dichotomous or continuous antonyms in affirmative or negative form. The subjects made a considerable number of meaning-preserving recall errors for both dichotomous antonyms (not alive recalled asdead) and continuous antonyms (not hot recalled ascold). The negation of a dichotomous antonym logically implies its antonym, whereas the negation of a continuous antonym only pragmatically implies its antonym. Thus, the results suggest that subjects hearing sentences containing a logical or pragmatic implication tend to make the logical or pragmatic inference involved. Then, in recall, they do not remember that this was an inference and make the error of recalling the logical or pragmatic implication in place of the presented sentence.     

Levels of processing of normal and ambiguous sentences in different contexts

Summary An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of depth of semantic analysis on the recall of sentences presented for comprehension. The depth of semantic analysis was varied by presenting 48 subjects with 24 unambiguous or lexically ambiguous sentences that were either preceded by a picture or not. Each picture showed either one or both interpretations of the respective ambiguous sentence. The sentence remained on display until the subject had pressed a key to indicate that he had understood its meaning. After the presentation of all the sentences the subjects were tested for recall. Ambiguous sentences were equally well understood as unambiguous sentences, but were better recalled when their ambiguity had been noticed. The subject's awareness of sentence ambiguity, and hence the depth of semantic analysis, was found to depend on the pictorial context in which the sentences were presentend. The pictorial context was also found to affect the depth of processing of unambiguous sentences, which, when presented without a picture, were more time-consuming in comprehension and less well recalled than when preceded by a picture. These findings provide the background for a discussion of the interrelations between the comprehension of sentences, the depth of their semantic processing, and the recall of these sentences.The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Lorenz Sichelschmidt in collecting and analyzing data and B. Jankowski in the translation of this paper from an original German version     

Is there a memory for sentences?

A critical discussion of the model of sentence memory which enjoyed greatest popularity in the psycholinguistic research of the sixties, namely the model based on the deep-structure-plus-tag hypothesis of sentence memory, is presented together with the results of an experiment on prompted recall for sentences with various intervals after presentation and with two types of instructions. This experiment contributed to show that immediate memory for sentences can be affected by appropriate instructions, and that after a short time after presentation only the main semantic information of the sentences is recalled. An alternative model is presented, based on the notion of storage of the meaningful elements of the sentences in a rather abstract form, and of recall as a reconstructive process to produce new sentences. The results of two new experiments on sentence memory, the first a free and prompted recall experiment with children, the second a recognition memory study with adolescents, are then presented and discussed in relation to the model.     

The bizarre mnemonic

Summary Five experiments measured effects of bizarre contexts on the free recall of noun triplets after brief retention intervals. More triplets were remembered from bizarre than from common contexts in short mixed lists (12 sentences) when the sentences were presented at a controlled (10 seconds/sentence) rate, regardless of incidental task (rating images for bizarreness, vividness, or memorability). The average number of words/sentence recalled, however, tended to be higher for common than for bizarre contexts. No memory benefit from bizarreness was found for pure lists nor for lists containing more than six triplets in bizarre contexts. The bizarreness effect was less when the subject controlled the rate of presentation. A sixth experiment, which tested recall after immediate and two-day retention intervals, found that the Bizarre/Common Context by Pure/Mixed List interaction increased over longer retention intervals.     

Questions and the allocation,construction, and timing of turns in child discourse

The role of questions (i.e., interrogative forms with illocutionary force of questioning) in turn-taking was investigated. Turn-taking has three components: speaker selection, turn construction, and timing of turn transfer. Questions explicitly, via the verbal code, provide a clearance signal and a requested topic for the response, whereas assertions do not. Consequently, questions, in general, but not all linguistically defined sub-types of questions, contrast with assertions on the first two turn-taking components. It was shown that the probability of a turn transfer, of a relevant response, and of a turn transfer and relevant response is higher following questions, in general, than assertions. Questions also transmit an earlier speaker-selection signal (initial or terminal clausal position) whereas in the case of assertions speaker selection must be managed following clause completion. Questions do not seem to contrast with assertions on the third component as a result of this earlier clearance signal. Keeping the relevance of an utterance to prior text and the content of the response constant, switching pauses were about the same following both questions and assertions.This research was supported from funds of the Biomedical Research Support Grant, 5SO7RR07041-12 to The Johns Hopkins University and a grant from the Spencer Foundation to the second author.     

Accessing integrated and nonintegrated propositional structures in memory

This paper investigates the access properties associated with different propositional structures. Two memory experiments are reported, in which the underlying structures of sentences were integrated or not. Some sentences tested had the same concept repeated across the propositions (integrated), whereas other sentences had no explicit repeated arguments (non-integrated). Accessibility to the memory traces of the sentences was manipulated through the acquisition and the testing conditions. In Experiment 1, subjects received either immediate or delayed recall tests, under free or cued conditions. Integrated sentences were recalled better than nonintegrated ones under conditions of high accessibility (immediate recall or delayed cued recall). In contrast, under the low-access condition (delayed free recall), nonintegrated sentences were recalled slightly better than the integrated ones. Experiment 2 confirmed and extended the results for delayed free recall. Here again, under conditions of low sentence access, nonintegrated sentences were recalled better. These results were interpreted according to theory dealing with the lag effect in list learning.     

Sentence encoding and implicitly activated memories

Some words have fewer direct associates than others, and, when words varying in set size are studied in a list-learning task, those with smaller sets are more likely to be recalled. This set-size effect is found in cued recall when the words are studied in the absence of related words, but not when studied in the presence of related words. Related words provide context and theoretically inhibit irrelevant associates. The present research determined that set-size effects are found when words are encoded in sentence contexts. In contrast to list-learning experiments, the results of three experiments found such effects even when lexically related words were present in the sentences. Other findings indicated that target-set-size effects were determined by the proximity of related words in the sentence and the nature of the test cue. The results are discussed in relation to a model for explaining set-size effects and to selective findings from the sentence-comprehension literature.     

Evidence for language recoding in autistic, retarded and normal children: a re-examination

In a replication and extension of earlier studies by Hermelin & O'Connor, language recoding abilities in autistic, retarded and normal children matched for mental age and digit span, were compared in a verbal recall task. Random word lists, sentences, and anomalous sentences, eight or 12 items in length (for high and low memory span subgroups) were presented and the number of words recalled from each type of input was scored. All low span children recalled sentences better than random lists with normal children superior to retarded and autistic children and the latter group poorer than the retarded group. Autistic children showed a recency effect with both types of input. There were no group differences amongst high span children and sentences were again better recalled than random lists. In Expt II sentences were better recalled than anomalous sentences, with autistic and retarded children equivalent in performance and poorer than normal children. Although low span autistic children were clearly deficient in recall of sentence material when compared with the two control groups, the effect of conditions showed that they were able to use structure to improve recall. Since high span autistic children did not perform differently from controls it is suggested that results from this kind of study may not be generalizable, and that claims for a specific coding deficit in autistic children need further substantiation.     

Compliance with requests by children with autism: the impact of sentence type

This study assesses the extent to which children with autism understand requests performed with grammatically non-imperative sentence types. Ten children with autism were videotaped in naturalistic conditions. Four grammatical sentence types were distinguished: imperative, declarative, interrogative and sub-sentential. For each category, the proportion of requests complied with significantly exceeded the proportion of requests not complied with, and no difference across categories was found. These results show that children with autism do not rely exclusively on the linguistic form to interpret an utterance as a request.     

The representation of time and location in memory for sentences

Two theoretical approaches to the representation of Time and Location Markers in Memory were contrasted. According to predictions derived from one approach, the amount of forgetting will be the same for two-proposition sentences and sentences with a single proposition and a Time or a Location marker. According to the other approach, the amount of forgetting will be the same for one-proposition sentences and sentences with a Time or a Location Marker. Propositional structure and the level of within-sentence associations were orthogonally varied to create eight within-subject experimental conditions. Ninety subjects studied 40 sentences and were required to recall then. Four dependent variables were used: number of sentences completely recalled, number of sentences partially recalled, number of sentences where information was lost from within the proposition, and number of sentences where a complete proposition was lost. The results suggest that Time and Location markers are represented in memory as arguments in a proposition rather than as separate propositions. Level of associations within the sentence seems to have a different effect when the sentence is composed of one or two propositions. The results also suggest that there may be differences between the representations of Time and Location markers.     

Does Providing Prompts During Retrieval Practice Improve Learning?

The purpose of this investigation was to identify ways to prompt retrieval practice to make recall even more effective at producing meaningful learning. In two experiments, subjects read educational texts and practiced retrieval across two periods. During prompted retrieval, subjects were cued to explain and describe concepts from the text, whereas during free recall, subjects recalled as much of the material from the text as they could. A reading control condition was also included. Learning was assessed using both verbatim and higher‐order questions 1 week later. Practicing retrieval improved learning relative to the control on both types of questions; however, whether subjects practiced free or prompted retrieval did not matter for learning. Subjects rated prompted retrieval as less enjoyable and interesting than the other retrieval conditions. Results demonstrate practicing retrieval promoted meaningful learning, and that subjects' initial retrieval success was highest when they used their own retrieval strategies during recall. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Clause structure of sentences and speech processing

Listeners heard narrative stories in segments 20-60 sec long, and wrote their immediate recall for the most recent speech in each segment. Segments ended in four ways: there was a main clause alone, a subordinate clause alone, a main clause preceding a subordinate clause, or a subordinate clause preceding a main clause. Only these final sentences were well recalled. Of these, single-clause sentences were recalled best and two-clause sentences with main-subordinate clause order were recalled worst. An interaction obtained between clause position and function suggests that processing may be delayed when sentences fall to begin with main clauses.     

Facial expressions and speech acts: experimental evidences on the role of the upper face as an illocutionary force indicating device in language comprehension

Language scientists have broadly addressed the problem of explaining how language users recognize the kind of speech act performed by a speaker uttering a sentence in a particular context. They have done so by investigating the role played by the illocutionary force indicating devices (IFIDs), i.e., all linguistic elements that indicate the illocutionary force of an utterance. The present work takes a first step in the direction of an experimental investigation of non-verbal IFIDs because it investigates the role played by facial expressions and, in particular, of upper-face action units (AUs) in the comprehension of three basic types of illocutionary force: assertions, questions, and orders. The results from a pilot experiment on production and two comprehension experiments showed that (1) certain upper-face AUs seem to constitute non-verbal signals that contribute to the understanding of the illocutionary force of questions and orders; (2) assertions are not expected to be marked by any upper-face AU; (3) some upper-face AUs can be associated, with different degrees of compatibility, with both questions and orders.     

The illocutionary force of laws

This article provides a speech act analysis of ‘crime-enacting’ provisions in criminal statutes, focusing on the illocutionary force of these provisions. These provisions commonly set out not only particular crimes and their characteristics but also their associated penalties. Enactment of a statute brings into force new social facts, typically norms, through the official utterance of linguistic material. These norms are supposed to guide behaviour: they tell us what we must, may, or must not do. Our main claim is that the illocutionary force of such provisions is primarily ‘world-creating’, i.e. effective, or declarational, rather than directive (behaviour-guiding). We assume that directive illocutionary force is either direct or indirect, showing that provisions need not contain the linguistic items that make for direct directives and that according to standard tests no indirect directive is present. A potential counter-argument is that any utterance serving to direct behaviour is necessarily a directive. We show that this behaviour-directing property is shared by some clear non-directives.     

Pictorial context and the recall of pronoun sentences

Summary Acting on the assumption that pictures affect the processing of sentences only when providing additional information, the authors used pictures, which in an earlier experiment had failed to influence the retention of noun sentences, as illustrations to semantically undefined pronoun sentences, thus establishing a distinct information gradient between sentence and picture. These pronoun sentences were presented to 48 subjects for recall, in four pictorial conditions: without picture, with unambiguous picture, with subject-ambiguous, and with object-ambiguous picture. As hypothesized, picture-less pronoun sentences were more poorly recalled than picture-enriched pronoun sentences. Moreover, sentences accompanied by subject-ambiguous pictures, in which the grammatical subject could not be clearly identified, scored lower than the same sentences with unambiguous or object-ambiguous pictures. The findings invite a communication-theory analysis of the experimental situation, for which Searle's theory of speech acts is invoked.The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Mr. B. Jankowski in the translation of this paper from an original German version.     

Long-term memory in amnesia: cued recall, recognition memory, and confidence ratings

We explored what kind of information is acquired when amnesic patients are able to exhibit significant retention on tests of cued recall and recognition memory. Amnesic patients and control subjects attempted to learn sets of sentences. Memory for the last word in each sentence was tested after 1 hr in the case of the amnesic patients, or after 1 to 2 weeks in the case of (delayed) control subjects. Amnesic patients and (delayed) control subjects performed at similar levels on tests of cued recall and recognition memory. Amnesic patients were just as confident of their correct answers as were control subjects. However, amnesic patients were no more disadvantaged than control subjects when they were cued indirectly by presenting paraphrases of the original sentences. These findings demonstrate that the residual knowledge retained by amnesic patients can be as flexible, as accessible to indirect cues, and as available to awareness as the knowledge retained by (delayed) control subjects.