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Indeterminate and Enriched Propositions in Context Linger: Evidence From an Eye-Tracking False Memory Paradigm
Caitlyn Antal1, Roberto G de Almeida1
1Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Frontiers in Psychology
|November 8, 2021
Summary
Memory retains both enriched and unenriched meanings of indeterminate sentences, impacting language comprehension over time. This study explores how context influences sentence meaning retention.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psycholinguistics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Indeterminate sentences pose challenges for language comprehension and memory.
- Understanding how sentence meaning is composed and retained is crucial for cognitive science.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how context influences the interpretation and memory of indeterminate sentences.
- To examine the temporal dynamics of meaning composition and retention in language comprehension.
Main Methods:
- An eye-tracking experiment was conducted with participants reading short stories containing indeterminate sentences.
- Recognition probes (identical, enriched, unrelated) were presented at immediate and delayed time points.
- Measures included accuracy, probe recognition time, and reading times.
Main Results:
- Participants accurately recognized identical probes immediately but not at delayed time points.
- False acceptance of enriched probes occurred 50% of the time at both time points.
- No significant reading time differences between identical and enriched probes suggest enrichment is not an early, mandatory process.
Conclusions:
- Context leads to an enriched interpretation of indeterminate sentences.
- Both enriched and unenriched propositions derived from indeterminate sentences persist in memory.
- Language comprehension involves dynamic meaning composition and flexible memory representation.
Keywords:
compositionalitydiscourse contexteye-trackingfalse memoryindeterminate sentence comprehensionpragmaticspropositionssemantic coercionMore Related Videos
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