Abstract
After reading or listening to short passages, Ss attempted to recognize semantically changed sentences and paraphrases (syntactically and lexically changed sentences). The intervals between the original presentation and test ranged from 1 to 23 sec. In general, paraphrases were poorly detected after a brief time, supporting earlier findings that the exact wording of sentences is not stored in long-term memory. An exception was the high recognition of active-passive changes with the visual presentation. Recognition at the first test interval was significantly better after listening than after reading, although the eventual level of recognition memory was not different in the two modes. This result, consistent with other studies of modality effects in short-term memory, suggests that acoustic-phonetic memory played a role in the storage of the auditorally presented material.
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Data were collected and partially analyzed at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey. Further analyses were supported in part by Grant No. OEG-0-9-160440-4144(010) for basic research in education from the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The author is indebted to M.L. Goodman and C.L. Mallows for assistance with statistical analyses and to R. Speelman, P.S. Vivekananthan, and M. Friedman for assistance in data collection. Thanks are also due M. Turvey and A. M. Liberman for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.
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Sachs, J.S. Memory in reading and listening to discourse. Memory & Cognition 2, 95–100 (1974). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197498
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197498