2026-09-19T01:15:38Zhttps://dspace.mit.edu/server/oai/requestoai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/901772022-01-13T07:53:39Zcom_1721.1_7582com_1721.1_7581col_1721.1_131023
David Caplan.
Whitlock, Jordan Ashley
Harvard--MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology.
Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
2014-09-19T21:44:22Z
2014-09-19T21:44:22Z
2014
2014
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/90177
890206930
Thesis: S.M., Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, 2014.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 30).
This work investigates the nature of the memory mechanisms utilized in language comprehension. Through the use of the Speed Accuracy Tradeoff (SAT) paradigm (Wickelgren, 1977), healthy young adults were studied for the use of parallel or serial search mechanisms to understand syntactically complex sentences with multiple embeddings. Systematically designed sentence stimuli tested whether the relevant memory mechanism differs when reanalysis is required. Results indicated that sentence length and syntactic ambiguity affected overall accuracy of sentence comprehension. The rate in which information was retrieved did not vary for most sentence types, but may have been affected by length in one type of sentence (ambiguous "early closure" sentences). The data support a parallel, content-addressable retrieval mechanism for information in most sentences but may provide evidence for serial search in ambiguous sentences that require complex syntactic reanalysis.
by Jordan Ashley Whitlock.
S.M.
44 pages
eng
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
Harvard--MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology.
Retrieval mechanisms in sentence comprehension
Thesis
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Publication
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<Abstract>This work investigates the nature of the memory mechanisms utilized in language comprehension. Through the use of the Speed Accuracy Tradeoff (SAT) paradigm (Wickelgren, 1977), healthy young adults were studied for the use of parallel or serial search mechanisms to understand syntactically complex sentences with multiple embeddings. Systematically designed sentence stimuli tested whether the relevant memory mechanism differs when reanalysis is required. Results indicated that sentence length and syntactic ambiguity affected overall accuracy of sentence comprehension. The rate in which information was retrieved did not vary for most sentence types, but may have been affected by length in one type of sentence (ambiguous "early closure" sentences). The data support a parallel, content-addressable retrieval mechanism for information in most sentences but may provide evidence for serial search in ambiguous sentences that require complex syntactic reanalysis.</Abstract>
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