Language and Memory: Comprehending and Remembering Discourse

语言与记忆：理解和记忆话语

• 批准号: 9800-2012
• 负责人: Singer, Murray
• 金额: $ 1.97万
• 依托单位: University of Manitoba
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=568684
• 关键词: Language; Memory; Comprehending; Remembering; Discourse

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.

语言理解对于人类无休止的活动是必不可少的，从交谈到发短信，再到学习，再到欣赏小说。这个研究项目考察了成年人编码和存储普通信息所传达的想法的方式。为了发展理解理论，该计划使用心理学实验方法，并辅以计算机模拟。 语言理解在很大程度上依赖于推理。当被告知那只精致的花瓶掉了下来时，人们通常推断它碎了。本研究特别考察了连接信息概念的推理。如果一个故事说森林里有危险的熊，我们可能会在后来得知泰德在森林里惊慌地奔跑时做出适当的解释。认知心理学的概念和方法阐明了这种推理的思维过程。类似的过程也将消息的直接陈述的想法联系起来：在读到帕特通过了一辆轮胎漏气的公共汽车后，如果警察认为轮胎漏气的车辆是一辆卡车，我们就会注意到差异。 这些能力部分是由记忆过程支持的。因此，该计划还研究了人们在记忆语言信息时的故意努力，例如在回答问题时。一个重要的方法是询问不同的人，他们的想法是（a）表达出来的，还是（B）由信息暗示出来的，还是（c）关于信息的真实性，结果的模式通过计算机模拟得到了澄清，为普通信息的多维编码提供了一个揭示性的画面。这些结果与关于单词列表的记忆实验相辅相成，虽然单词列表在意义上很贫乏，但有时却为这个复杂的领域提供了更好的解释。 这项研究关系到对加拿大和其他国家都很重要的实际问题。例子包括强读者和弱读者之间的差异，人们对广告信息的理解，以及老年人理解处方说明的能力。