Evidence from 3 experiments reveals interference effects from structural relationships that are inconsistent with any grammatical parse of the perceived input. Processing disruption was observed when items occurring between a head and a dependent overlapped with either (or both) syntactic or semantic features of the dependent. Effects of syntactic…

Each of 464 noun pairs was rated for synonymy on a seven-point scale by college students to provide an extensive set of synonym pairs for use as stimuli in experiments, and to evaluate the effects of word encoding order on perceived synonymy. (SW)

The present study investigated why it is that the more concrete the subject noun phrase of a sentence, the more likely the predicate is to be recalled when the subject noun phrase is the cue. The findings were that concretization dramatically influences both the probability of recognition of the subject noun phrase and the probability of recall of…

Partial report of data presented at the 1971 convention of the Eastern Psychological Association. (VM)

Experiments in the Psychology Department of George Washington University suggest the possibility of constructing sub-languages of English which can accelerate communication. "Quickspeak," a restricted redundancy language, eliminates from natural language those linguistic cues which are reconstructable from those that remain. Principles…

Examines the verification of false sentences of the form "All S are P." It was found that the number of properties shared by the subject and predicate concept of the sentence was directly proportional to reaction time. These findings question the assumption that only property relations are prestored in memory. (Author/EJS)

Describes an experiment to test two assumptions concerning what is stored in the memory with regard to sentence structure: (1) that the linear effect observed is based on a tally model rather than on an integrationist mechanism; (2) that this linear effect is not uniquely the result of a mechanism operating at comprehension. (CLK)

Research performed, in part, while the author was a research assistant at the Wisconsin Research and Development Center for Cognitive Learning; remainder conducted at the University of Texas under a National Science Foundation - USDP grant. (VM)

Based on the author's doctoral dissertation. Experiments supported by a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship and a National Institute of Mental Health grant; paper preparation supported by the Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, through the U.S. Office of Education. (VM)

The effects of sentence imitation and picture verification on the recall of subsequent digits were studied. Stimuli consisted of 20 sentences, each sentence followed by a string of five digit names, and five structural types of sentences were presented. Subjects were instructed to listen to the sentence and digit string and then either immediately…

Two experiments that study subjects' memory for active and passive sentences are reported. A reaction time methodology is used to measure subjects' memory for verbatim information about the sentence. Retention of verbatim information displays traditional short-term versus long-term discontinuity. (CHK)

Research supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health to Mr. Bower. (VM)

Two experiments examined the role of presupposed (or old) and focal (or new) information in integrating sentences, by measuring comprehension time for various combinations of presupposed and focal information. (Author/AM)

An experiment was carried out to determine how the memory search of a two-clause complex sentence in immediate memory is carried out. An item-recognition task was performed with 32 native English-speaking, right-handed adults who listened to eight two-clause complex sentences presented to the left ear, each immediately followed by a probe word…