Unrelated Sentences Research Articles

Attitudes toward Interlanguage: What is the Object of Study?

tudes toward interlanguage may not appear to be of practical value, but the various conceptions of attitude and of interlanguage constitute a confused approach to this important problem. Most studies produced on attitudes toward interlanguage skirt theory in order to explore issues of immediate interest to language teachers, but variations in theory and method make reproduction or refutation of previous study results difficult, a state of affairs which is not conducive to a dynamic field of inquiry that uses research to revise and update applications of theory. There are at least two important sources of variation in interlanguage attitude studies. Speech samples from nonnatives, which are used to elicit native speaker (NS) attitudes, are obtained in many ways. The particular type of sample obtained operationally defines interlanguage. Speech samples used in interlanguage attitude studies range from artificial, isolated pairs of unrelated sentences containing errors typical of student speech to audio-video tapes of connected discourse. A second source of

Short-term storage in reading

Five studies were carried out to analyze the role of short-term storage in the reading of organized text. In the studies the subject's reading was interrupted with a distractor task to remove the information the subject was carrying in short-term storage. The effect of the interruption was to slow down subsequent reading. The first study demonstrated that the interruption effect did not depend on a shift from one cognitive operation to another. The study also showed that the effect appeared only with organized text, not with sequences of unrelated sentences. The second study indicated that the interruption effect could not be countered by giving the subject general, thematic information. It was likely therefore that general, thematic information was not the critical factor carried forward in short-term storage. The third study showed that the interruption effect could be countered by giving the subject the last one or two sentences that preceded the interruption. Evidence is presented that these sentences, probably their surface form, are needed to handle the anaphora demands of the following sentences. Further evidence in support of the last point was furnished by the fourth and fifth experiments.

Organization of stimulus events and remembered apparent duration

Abstract Two experiments, using Bransford and Johnson's (1972) paradigm, investigated the relationship between the degree of organization of the stimulus events occurring during the interval and the remembered apparent duration of the interval. Experiment 1 used the method of estimation and Experiment 2 the method of comparative judgement to assess the remembered duration of the interval. In both experiments the events were sentences which, depending on the provision of thematic information, could be organized either into a meaningful whole or as a sequence of semantically unrelated sentences. While the experimental manipulation affected memory and comprehension measures there was no effect on judgements of duration. The results are discussed in the context of Ornstein's (1969) memory store size model and Block's (1979) contextual change model of remembered duration.

The effects of recall and recognition test expectancies on the retention of prose.

The hypothesis that people expecting recall and recognition employ different encoding processes was tested in two experiments using prose materials. In Experiment 1, unrelated sentences were used, and in Experiment 2, a short essay was used. The results indicated that a recall test expectancy led to greater sentence recall than a recognition test expectancy. No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that people expecting recall and recognition retained different types of information contained in sentences. In Experiment 2, the effects of test expectancy were analyzed as a function of the structural importance and rated comprehensibility of sentences. A main effect of test expectancy was found in sentence recall, replicating the results of Experiment 1. Also, people expecting recall tended to remember greater detail than did people expecting recognition. The results suggested that encoding processes vary as a function of test expectancy and that the appropriateness of encoding depends on the type of test received.

Incidental processing of speaker characteristics: voice as connotative information

Two experiments were conducted to investigate how subjects remember paralinguistic speaker's voice information without apparent intent. In each experiment, 20 unrelated sentences were presented on a tape recording with a random half of the sentences spoken by either of two speakers. With the suibjects' stated task being only to remember the sentences, incidental memory for which speaker spoke which sentences was facilitated in Experiment 1 when fabricated personal histories of the speakers were presented in advance of the sentences. Voice identification was enhanced in Experiment 2 when each of the two voices was assigned a different physical source location in the room. The latter result was obtained even though the subjects showed little memory for the source-location attribute of the sentences. Both of these results provide support for the voice-connotation theory of incidental voice retention proposed by Geiselman and Bellezza, 1976 , Geiselman and Bellezza, 1977 , which holds that voice is remembered without intent because the connotation of the voice influences the meaning of what is said.

“F0 declination” is situation dependent

Fundamental voice frequency (F0) of sentences in three distinctively different modes of speaking–short unrelated sentences, an essay, and free conversation–was studied, in order to find if the down-drift of F0 occurs as universally as some investigators have claimed. The contextual effect in extensive readings was found to be very strong. Only 21% (at the most among our four talkers) of boundary units have some kind of observed declination in discourse reading. Visually obvious declination was found in only half of the short isolated sentences when they covered a wide range of topics and sentence structures. We conclude that such declination in short test sentences comes from two sources: (1) a signal for a new idea marked by high F0 at the beginning of the sentence and the anticipation of a fall at the end; and (2) lack of any focus of attention in a sentence, and hence a dry and mechanical reading.

The effects of thematic context and presentation mode on memory for sentence voice

A sentence in discourse may appear in the passive voice to emphasize the logical object rather than the logical subject when it is thematically more important. Two experiments are reported that explore the impact of this textual function of voice on sentence memory. The first experiment required subjects to listen to prose passages and then recall them. Sentences were recalled predominantly in the active voice regardless of voice or thematic focus in the prose passage, showing that the English-language bias for the active voice was a more important determinant of sentence reconstruction than was the experiment manipulation of thematic context. The second experiment required subjects to listen to or read either prose passages or lists of unrelated sentences and then to try to recognize "key" sentences that were either unchanged or changed lexically, semantically, or in voice. Recognition, both overall and specifically for voice, was better for sentences that were read than for those that were heard, and recognition for semantic change was consistently higher than for any other. Only when passages were read was there evidence in support of a thematic textual influence on memory for sentence voice.

Normalization in paraphrase and recall: Effects of processing, grammatical article type, and retention interval

Investigations of semantic normalization of discourse have not generally controlled for perceived connectiveness of materials, depth of processing, and retention interval. The current experiment investigated semantic normalization in paraphrase and recall as a function of whether sentences were paraphrased or merely copied, of whether sentences were perceived by subjects to be connected or unrelated, and of retention interval. Results indicated that significantly more normalization occurred in paraphrase than in recall, that more normalization and better recall occurred when sentences were perceived as related, and that there was more normalization and better recall when sentences were paraphrased than when they were copied. No significant differences in normalization were found as a function of retention interval. Results are discussed in terms of depth of processing and a need for learners to integrate congruent and discrepant material into cohesive entities by use of grammatical articles, article changes, and intrusions that psychologically connect unrelated sentences.

Development of Ability to Process Syntactic Structures in Expanded Discourse

This study compared the abilities of 30 sixth-grade, competent readers and 30 adult, competent readers to process syntactic structures under conditions of related and unrelated discourse. Eye movements were recorded while subjects silently read right- and left-embedded syntactic structures in conditions presenting unrelated sentences and in conditions with related paragraphs. Results suggest the ability to process syntactic and semantic elements is not fully developed in children in the 11- to 12-yr. range.

Automatic and strategic priming in recognition

Automatic and strategic components of priming in recognition were investigated in four experiments. In each experiment, subjects studied unrelated sentences and then were presented a test list of words for recognition. In the first experiment, the probability that a priming pair (two words from the same sentence tested sequentially) occurred in the test list had no effect on the size of the facilitation of response to the second word of the pair. This shows that the priming effect satisfies one of the criteria required of an automatic process. The other three experiments investigated the time course of processing by manipulating the time between the onsets of the prime word and the target word. In Experiment 2, it was found that facilitation (prime and target from the same sentence) occurred by 150 milliseconds, but inhibition (prime and target from different sentences) did not occur until later in processing. These results show that priming satisfies the other two criteria for an automatic process, rapid onset of facilitation and no inhibition until later in processing. In the third and fourth experiments, strategic facilitation took longer than 700 milliseconds to be produced but inhibition was produced faster than 700 milliseconds. These results support the two-factor theory of Posner and Snyder. Implications for models of discourse processing are also discussed.

F Declination is situation dependent

One explanation for the current controversy over pitch declination is that different observers have studied different kinds of material. In order to explore the conjecture that voice fundamental frequency (F0) falls consistently in certain types of sentences and not others, we measured F0 contours in three distinctively different modes of speaking—a list of 43 short unrelated sentences, an essay, and a free conversation between two people. We found evidence of declination in only half of the short isolated sentences; and in very few sentences from essay readings and conversation. We conclude that declination observed in isolated sentences comes from two sources: (1) a signal for a new idea marked by high F0 at the beginning of the sentence; and (2) lack of any particular emphasis in a random sentence, and hence a dry and mechanical reading.

Effect on discourse on processing of left- and right-embedded syntactic structures.

This study attempted to obtain information on the processing of syntactic structures under conditions of related and unrelated discourse. Eye movements were recorded while 30 competent adult readers silently read right-embedded or left-embedded sentences in conditions of unrelated sentences and in conditions of cohesive paragraphs. Analysis of eye movements for number and duration of forward fixations and regressions showed that left-embedded sentences were significantly more difficult to process than right-embedded sentences. However, context also significantly affected the visual processing of syntactic structures.

Pragmatics and elicited imitation: Children's performance on discursively related and discursively unrelated sentences

Two experiments were conducted to determine the elicited imitation performance of preschool children when the stimulus sentences were meaningfully related to each other in a story as compared to when the sentences were arranged in a random order. Experiment 1 used a repeated-measures design and found a practice effect demonstrating less errors during the second trial regardless of experimental condition. Experiment 2 implemented a group design with one group imitating the related (story) sentences and the other imitating the randomly arranged sentences. The results showed no significant difference in the mean number of errors occurring in the “story” versus the “random” condition. The implications of the practice effect found in Experiment 1 are discussed and the error pattern during the second trial is evaluated. The efficacy of using discursively related as opposed to unrelated sentences in elicited imitation tasks is discussed from a pragmatic point of view.

Tests of a holistic chunking model of sentence memory through analyses of noun intrusions

A holistic chunking model of sentence acquisition and retrieval is described and tested by a prompted sentence recall procedure. In this procedure, subjects first study a list of unrelated sentences and later receive single-word prompts to cue sentence recall. The model assumes that (1) words in sentences are grouped into propositions during acquisition, (2) the propositions are encoded holistically and later retrieved as units, and (3) the retrieval of one proposition does not automatically lead to recovery of other propositions in a sentence. The model was tested by patterns of intrusion errors. Noun intrusions for elements within a recovered proposition were always related conceptually to the presented nouns, even when a noun violated the co-occurrence restrictions of the verb (e.g., the tray loved the house). In contrast, noun intrusions for elements outside of the scope of a recovered proposition were often unrelated to presented nouns. It was argued that patterns of intrusion errors provide more appropriate tests for sentence structure than do quantitative patterns of correct recall, at least from the framework of the holistic chunking model.

Verbs contribute to the coherence of brief narratives: Reading related and unrelated sentence triples

Comprehensibility ratings and sentence by sentence reading times of three-sentence narratives (triples) were studied as a function of the coherence of a triple. Pairs of related and unrelated triples were created with identical agents and objects in both members of a pair. Coherence was manipulated by changing some verbs, thus forming unrelated triples, for example, Brian punched George. George called (unrelated: liked) the doctor. The doctor arrived. Experiment I established that related triples were more comprehensible than unrelated triples. In both experiments reading times did not differ for first sentences. However, they were longer for third sentences of unrelated than related triples, although these sentences were identical. These results illustrate the contribution of the verb to narrative coherence.

The role of context and inference in the comprehension of social action

In an application of a paradigm from research on constructive memory, subjects read six sentences describing social actions within one of two alternative contexts. They then received a second set of descriptions that represented either partial reproductions of the original sentences, unrelated sentences, justified inferences, or unjustified inferences, the “justifiability” of these latter sentences being determined by the context in which the action was initially described. Subjects in one condition indicated whether the test sentences were identical to the originals, while in a second condition, they rated the consistency of these items with the earlier descriptions. Judgments of consistency were significantly higher than those for exact wording, although in both conditions subjects rated partial reproductions as being closer to the originals than justified inferences, which were in turn given higher ratings than unjustified and unrelated sentences. Results indicate that subjects represented the inferred, context-specific meanings as well as some of their exact details. As a further control, two additional groups of subjects independently rated the justifiability of justified and unjustified inferences and their similarity in wording to the original sentence stems. The relative influence of these two factors on subjects' rating was found to depend on the type of judgment required of subjects.

Developmental changes in predicting recognition memory for semantically related and unrelated sentences.

Developmental changes in predicting recognition memory for semantically related and unrelated sentences.

Developmental changes in predicting recognition memory for semantically related and unrelated sentences.

Developmental changes in predicting recognition memory for semantically related and unrelated sentences.

Retention of related and unrelated sentences.

Retention of related and unrelated sentences.

Retention of related and unrelated sentences.

Retention of related and unrelated sentences.