Language and Memory: Comprehending and Remembering Discourse

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Language comprehension is essential to endless human activities, from conversing to texting to studying to enjoying a novel. This research program examines the way adults encode and store the ideas conveyed by ordinary messages. To develop theories of comprehension, the program uses methods of experimentation in psychology, supplemented with computer simulation. Much language comprehension depends on inferences. Upon being told that the delicate vase fell, people generally infer that it BROKE. The research particularly inspects the inferences that connect message ideas. If a story states that there were dangerous bears in the woods, we will likely make an appropriate interpretation upon later learning that Ted was running in panic through the forest. The concepts and methods of cognitive psychology clarify the thinking processes of such inferences. Similar processes also connect the DIRECTLY STATED ideas of a message: Having read that Pat passed a bus with a flat tire, we notice the discrepancy if a cop believes that the vehicle with the flat was a truck. These abilities are in part supported by memory processes. Therefore, the program also examines people's intentional efforts to remember language messages, such as in question answering. One important method involves asking different people whether certain ideas were (a) expressed or (b) implied by a message or (c) simply true about it. The pattern of results, clarified by computer simulation, provides a revealing picture of the multidimensional encoding of ordinary messages. These results are complemented with memory experiments about word lists, which, though impoverished in meaning, sometimes provide a more interpretable account of this complex domain. The research bears on practical issues important to Canada and beyond. Examples include the differences between strong and weak readers, people's comprehension of advertising messages, and the ability of older adults to understand their prescription instructions.