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Conversation, speech acts, and memory.

Thomas Holtgraves1

  • 1Department of Psychological Science, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana 47306, USA. 00t0holtgrav@bsu.edu

Memory & Cognition
|April 23, 2008
PubMed
Summary
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Recognizing the specific intentions behind speech acts, like bragging or begging, enhances long-term memory for conversations. This research shows how understanding communicative actions aids conversational recall.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Memory Studies

Background:

  • Speakers have intentions (Grice, 1957) that can be conceptualized as speech acts (Searle, 1969).
  • The role of these speech acts in long-term memory for conversational utterances is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether speech acts influence long-term memory for conversation.
  • To determine if recognizing the action performed by an utterance aids memory recall.

Main Methods:

  • Five experiments were conducted using scenarios with target utterances performing specific speech acts (e.g., brag, beg) or matched controls.
  • Participants' false recall and recognition of speech act verbs were measured.
  • The effectiveness of speech act verbs as recall cues was assessed.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Participants showed increased false recall and recognition of speech act verbs when exposed to speech act utterances compared to controls.
  • Speech act verbs were more effective recall cues for speech act utterances than for control utterances.
  • Individual differences in the encoding of speech act verbs were observed.

Conclusions:

  • People recognize and retain the communicative actions performed through utterances.
  • Speech acts serve as a key organizing principle in the long-term memory of conversations.