Abstract
Wales and Grieve (1969) report an experiment in which they show that a factor of “confusability” affects the comprehension of affirmative and negative sentences, and then claim that this is a relevant factor in explaining the difficulty of negatives. The present paper submits arguments and experimental evidence to dispute this claim.
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WALES, R. J., & GRIEVE, R. What is so difficult about negation? Perception & Psychophysics, 1969, 6, 327–312.
WASON, P. C. The contexts of plausible denial. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 1965, 4, 7–11.
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Greene, J.M., Wason, P.C. Negation: A rejoinder to Wales and Grieve. Perception & Psychophysics 8, 238–239 (1970). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03210213
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03210213