Abstract
This study examines sentence memory as a function of linguistic processing complexity in amnesic patients. Sentence length as well as lexical and syntactic complexity were manipulated in two sentence repetition experiments. It was found that the amnesic patients performed considerably worse than the control subjects and that performance decreased: (1) when sentence length was increased by the addition of adjuncts compared to arguments of the verb; (2) when the verb selected more thematic frames; and (3) when sentences involved "empty" argument positions that must be linked to antecedents, particularly across clausal boundaries. These data showed how linguistic complexity affects sentence memory and implied that the amnesic deficit did not involve a generalized difficulty for materials of similar length, rather, the deficit was specific to certain representational types and processing routines.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 431-453 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | Brain and Language |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 1992 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The research reported here was supported by NIH Grants DCO0494, DCOOO81, and NS26985. We thank Chris Barry and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Lewis P. Shapiro at the Department of Psychology, and Center for Complex Systems, Florida Atlanta University, Boca Raton, FL 33431. e-mail:ShapiroL@fauvax.