Testing a predicational model of cognition: Cueing predicate meanings in sentences and word triplets

Abstract

Predication is a logical process in which meaning is extended from a broader context to a narrower, targeted referent independently of syntax and the passage of time. Since predicates lend meaning to their targets in cognitive processing, it follows that when unrecalled sentences are cued with their predicate-word meanings there should be greater retrieval than when these unrecalled sentences are cued with subject words. Three experiments (combinedN=164) tested this hypothesis and found data in its support (p — levels ranging from .05 to .001). A fourth experiment (N=48) removed syntax from consideration by employing triplets in which one word out of three sharing a common topic was the broadest in meaning, and hence was the expected predicate for cueing triplets when they were not initially recalled. As predicted, it was found that when the expected predicate of unrecalled triplets was used as a cue there were twice as many retrievals occurring as when the less broadly meaningful words were used as cues (p<.001). The findings are discussed in terms of logical learning theory's claim that ongoing cognition involves the continual “taking of a position” within a sea of opposite possibilities.