Memory for actions that are done, imagined, or promised in text

Thinking about an action is sometimes misremembered as doing the action (Garry, Maning, Loftus, & Sherman, 1996). Does this sort of effect hold when people read texts depicting characters thinking about or promising to do actions compared to doing the action? The first experiment asked participants to read vignettes (short stories) that described a character either thinking about doing an action, promising to do an action, or doing that action. Once the vignettes were read, participants were asked about every vignette read, e.g., “Did Monica replace the locks?” Participants then completed an Operation Span and a Reading Span task to measure working memory. The results showed a strong main effect of verb type (Do, Promise, Think) in both accuracy and reading times, with the mean accuracy for the Do condition at 76% correct vs Promise at 40%, and Think at 46% correct. Neither OSPAN nor RSPAN emerged as significant predictors in the models. In the second experiment, participants read similar vignettes that described characters (normed with respect to trustworthiness) either thinking about, promising, or doing an action. The results from experiment two replicated the first experiment with a strong main effect of verb type. However, no main effect of trustworthiness was found. A three-way interaction between the verb type Think, Trustworthiness, and OSPAN was obtained in accuracy. The study results are discussed within models of discourse processing, and memory.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2019

Author dc:creator

• Deshaies, Sarah-Elizabeth Marion-Antonia

Contributors dc:contributor

• Christianson, Kiel

• Memory
• Reading
• Reading Span
• Operation Span
• Discourse Processing
• Linguistic Processing
• Trustworthiness

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2019 Sarah-Elizabeth Deshaies

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/104726

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/104726