Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2022 Aug;29(4):1440-1450. doi: 10.3758/s13423-022-02088-y. Epub 2022 Mar 30.
Spoken language is interpreted incrementally, with listeners considering multiple candidate meanings as words unfold over time. Due to incremental interpretation, when a speaker refers to something in the world, there is often temporary ambiguity regarding which of several candidate items in the referential context the speaker is referring to. Subsequent tests of recognition memory show that listeners have good memory for referenced items, but that listeners also sometimes recognize non-referenced items from the referential context that share features with items that were mentioned. Predicted or inferred (but not experienced) interpretations of what was said are also sometimes retained in memory. While these findings indicate that multiple items from the referential context may be encoded in memory, the mechanisms supporting memory for the context of language use remain poorly understood. This paper tests the hypothesis that a consequence of temporary ambiguity in spoken language is enhanced memory for the items in the referential context. Two experiments demonstrate that periods of temporary referential ambiguity boost memory for non-referenced items in the referential context. Items that temporarily matched the unfolding referring expression were better remembered than those that did not. The longer the period of ambiguity, the stronger the memory boost, particularly for items activated early in the expression. In sum, the fact that spoken language unfolds over time creates momentary ambiguity about the speaker's intention; this ambiguity, in turn, allows the listener to later remember not only what the speaker did say, but also what they could have, but did not.
口语是增量式理解的，随着时间的推移，听众会考虑多个候选含义。由于增量式理解，当说话者在世界上提到某事物时，通常会暂时模糊说话者正在指的是参考语境中的几个候选项目中的哪一个。随后对识别记忆的测试表明，听众对所指项目的记忆很好，但听众有时也会从参考语境中识别出与被提及项目具有共同特征的非参考项目。预测或推断（但未经历）的解释也会被保留在记忆中。虽然这些发现表明参考语境中的多个项目可能被编码在记忆中，但支持语言使用语境记忆的机制仍未被很好地理解。本文测试了一个假设，即口语中暂时的模糊性会增强对参考语境中项目的记忆。两个实验表明，暂时的参考模糊性会增强对参考语境中非参考项目的记忆。与展开的指称表达式暂时匹配的项目比不匹配的项目记忆得更好。模糊期越长，记忆增强效果越强，特别是对于在表达式早期激活的项目。总之，口语随着时间的推移展开，这会导致说话者意图的瞬间模糊；这种模糊性反过来又使听众不仅能够记住说话者所说的话，还能记住他们本来可以说但没有说的话。
