Parsing Reality: The Interactive Effects of Complex Syntax and Time Pressure on Cognitive Processing of Television Scenarios

In a variety of domains, complexity has been shown to be an important factor affecting cognitive processing. Complex syntax is 1 of the ways in which complexity has been shown to burden cognitive processing. Research has also shown that the determination of a message's truth, or reality, is affected by message complexity. Cognitive burden has been shown to cause unrealistic events to be judged as more real. Two experiments investigate the effects of syntactic complexity on the typicality assessment of previously rated typical and atypical television scenarios. Complex syntax exhibited a curvilinear effect on reality assessment, such that highly typical events became more unreal and highly atypical events became more real, whereas moderately typical scenarios were unaffected. The cognitive load added by complex syntax appeared to limit the processing of both reality and unreality cues. Adding time pressure was expected to increase cognitive load; however, it appeared to reverse the effects of complex syntax. Participants' syntax recognition results suggested that the complex syntax did burden processing as predicted. Tests with response latencies indicated that atypical scenarios and scenarios described with complex syntax were more slowly recognized.