Sentence Coding: Tests of the Address-Contents Model and the Fragmentation-Conceptual Focus Hypothesis

Abstract

Predictions of the address-contents model of sentence coding (Broadbent, 1971, 1973) were contrasted in two experiments with predictions based on the fragmentation hypothesis (Jones, 1974, 1976, 1978) and the conceptual focus hypothesis (Tannenbaum and Williams, 1968a, b). Participants attempted to recall lists of active-voice subject-verb-object sentences in response to a noun cue from each sentence. For persons instructed to image the sentences in Experiment I, there was a subject cuing superiority for verb partial recalls, but there were no reliable cuing asymmeties for complete sentence or noun partial recalls. For persons instructed to repeat the sentences aloud, the subject superiority for verb partial recalls did not appear. In Experiment II, there was overall a subject superiority for verb partial recall and symmetry for complete and noun partial recalls. This pattern was not affected by whether a question following each sentence required the subject or the object as response. These results support the fragmentation-conceptual focus hypothesis.