Recognition memory for elements of sentences

Although several theoretical positions and a variety of empirical tasks indicate the importance of verbs to sentences, nouns are generally recalled and recognized better in memorial tasks. Three main models can be identified to explain this discrepancy (“Fillenbaum’s paradox”). To try to resolve this paradox, several experiments explored the efficiency of various sentence elements as cues in recognition memory. In Experiment I, concreteness of the stimuli did not interact with the type of distractor; however, verb phrase changes were harder to recognize than noun phrase changes when synonym distractors were used. This result was replicated in a forced-choice recognition paradigm (Experiment II) and with whole sentences where the derivational similarity of verbs and nouns was controlled (Experiment IV). The effect could not be attributed to characteristics of the English language (Experiment III) or to superior memory for form information in nouns (Experiment V). The total results are interpreted as suggesting that subjects process different parts of a sentence to different semantic levels, with verbs receiving more semantic representation and nouns more orthographic or phonological representation. The results are taken as support for a “semantic encoding model” of Fillenbaum’s paradox.

[1]  B. R. Gomulicki.  Recall as an abstractive process , 1956 .

[2]  Victor H. Yngve,et al.  A model and an hypothesis for language structure , 1960 .

[3]  Edwin Martin,et al.  Grammatical factors in sentence retention , 1966 .

[4]  Robert A. Boakes,et al.  Prompted recall of sentences , 1967 .

[5]  Arthur L. Blumenthal,et al.  Promoted recall of sentences. , 1967 .

[6]  J. Fodor,et al.  Some syntactic determinants of sentential complexity , 1967 .

[7]  Gilbert K. Krulee,et al.  The influence of syntactic errors on sentence recognition , 1967 .

[8]  J. Sachs.  Recognition memory for syntactic and semantic aspects of connected discourse , 1967 .

[9]  Allan Collins,et al.  Short-term memory for sentences , 1968 .

[10]  J. Fodor,et al.  Some syntactic determinants of sentential complexity, II : Verb structure , 1968 .

[11]  H. F. Gollob.  Impression formation and word combination in sentences. , 1968 .

[12]  Sentence processing assessed through intrasentence word associations. , 1969 .

[13]  Donald A. Walter,et al.  Subject uncertainty and word-class effects in short-term memory for sentences. , 1969 .

[14]  A. Paivio,et al.  Concreteness and imagery in sentence meaning. , 1969 .

[15]  D. R. Heise.  Affectual dynamics in simple sentences. , 1969, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  R. Langacker,et al.  Meaning and the Structure of Language , 1972 .

[17]  D. R. Heise.  Potency dynamics in simple sentences. , 1970 .

[18]  D. Polzella,et al.  Psychological Aspects of Transitive Verbs. , 1970 .

[19]  G. Miller,et al.  The verb as the main determinant of sentence meaning , 1970 .

[20]  Nicholas L. Rohrman.  More on the recall of nominalizations , 1970 .

[21]  Samuel Fillenbaum,et al.  On the use of memorial techniques to assess syntactic structures. , 1970 .

[22]  A. Wearing.  The storage of complex sentences , 1970 .

[23]  G. Bower.  Imagery as a relational organizer in associative learning , 1970 .

[24]  The relative contribution of nouns and verbs to sentence acceptability and comprehensibility , 1971 .

[25]  R. Jarvella.  Syntactic processing of connected speech , 1971 .

[26]  Richard C. Anderson,et al.  Imagery and sentence learning. , 1971 .

[27]  A. Wearing.  Word class and serial position in the immediate recall of sentences , 1971 .

[28]  Robert G. Crowder,et al.  Dividing attention to study sentence acquisition , 1971 .

[29]  A. Wearing.  Remembering Complex Sentences , 1972 .

[30]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  A process model for long-term memory. , 1972 .

[31]  C. T. James.  Theme and imagery in the recall of active and passive sentences , 1972 .

[32]  Structural properties of transitive and intransitive verbs , 1972 .

[33]  F. Craik,et al.  Levels of Pro-cessing: A Framework for Memory Research , 1975 .

[34]  Marcia K. Johnson,et al.  Comprehension factors in interpreting memory for abstract and concrete sentences , 1972 .

[35]  E. Tulving,et al.  Organization of memory. , 1973 .

[36]  H. H. Clark.  The language-as-fixed-effect fallacy: A critique of language statistics in psychological research. , 1973 .

[37]  G. Bower,et al.  Human Associative Memory , 1973 .

[38]  A. Wearing.  The recall of sentences of varying length , 1973 .

[39]  L. Reid.  Toward a grammar of the image. , 1974 .

[40]  Alexander J. Wearing,et al.  Task differences and word class effects in sentence processing1 , 1974 .

[41]  W. Kintsch,et al.  The representation of meaning in memory , 1974 .

[42]  S J Thios,et al.  Memory for general and specific sentences , 1975, Memory & cognition.

[43]  Arthur C. Graesser,et al.  Recognition memory for the meaning and surface structure of sentences , 1975 .