The effects of pragmatics and discourse style on recognition memory for sentences
Long, Debra L.; Long, Debra L.; Department of Psychology, University of California
Журнал:
Discourse Processes
Дата:
1994
Аннотация:
Numerous laboratory studies have found that the precise wording of a sentence is not retained in memory once a conceptual representation has been derived. However, studies in the context of natural, communicative discourse have found substantial memory for both sentence meaning and form. Two components of natural discourse—pragmatics and discourse style—were investigated in the context of conversations embedded in narratives. The results from three experiments suggests that both components play a role in memory for the surface form of sentences. Recognition memory increased as a function of information about the speaker's positive and negative attitudes. In addition, recognition memory was enhanced to the extent that such evaluative information was conveyed by means of formulaic expressions (i.e., idioms, common expressions) which are characteristic of oral style discourse. These results were confirmed using a recall task. Subjects exhibited substantial verbatim memory for evaluative and formulaic expressions. To the extent that particular words and phrases from a sentence are explicitly encoded, they are available for use by normal sentence production mechanisms, increasing the probability that the wording generated at recall will match the wording of the original sentence.
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