Sentence comprehension and memory for embedded structure
- 1 January 1977
- journal article
- Published by Springer Nature in Memory & Cognition
- Vol. 5 (1) , 17-22
- https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03209186
Abstract
An experimental simulation technique is introduced to study memory constraints affecting comprehension of embedded sentences. Memory for embedded structure is measured in a pairing task that simulates requirements imposed by sentence comprehension. With increasing memory load (number of embeddings), the rate of performance decline is consistent across all (recall and comprehension) conditions, and reflects a loss of order (as opposed to item) information. Short-term memory overload, rather than linguistic complexity, appears sufficient to account for comprehension difficulty. Performance was imperfect even with singly embedded constructions. Recall showed no abrupt failure with multiple embeddings, indicating that memory constraints are not as discontinuous as English syntax might suggest.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- Short-term memory limitations on decoding self-embedded sentences.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1974
- Published by Elsevier ,1973
- Relation between the immediate memory span and the memory search rate.Psychological Review, 1972
- Observations with self-embedded sentences using written aidsPerception & Psychophysics, 1970
- Sentence structure and the reading processPublished by Walter de Gruyter GmbH ,1968
- Scaling of grammaticalness of self-embedded English sentencesJournal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1968
- A study of the ability to decode grammatically novel sentencesJournal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1967
- Some syntactic determinants of sentential complexityPerception & Psychophysics, 1967
- Observations with self-embedded sentencesPsychonomic Science, 1966
- Free recall of self-embedded english sentencesInformation and Control, 1964