Intact Sentence Research Articles

Serial position effects in sentences

Summary This study has demonstrated some major phenomena associated with the serial anticipation of intact sentences. The Ss learned a variety of different sentences by oral anticipation. The data on Trial 2 of such a procedure, i.e., after the first complete presentation of the sentence, suggest that serial position curves for sentences differ markedly from those for unrelated words, and they may be said to reveal the core-memory unit of the sentence. What is correctly anticipated, i.e., remembered, frequently is in the form of the major communicative message of the sentence. The contextual constraints operating in Trial 1, i.e., before the Ss have heard the complete sentence, demonstrate the cumulative effects of context. However, memory for the sentence on Trial 2 is affected only in small part by these contextual constraints.