{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/34484"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/34484","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"What happened (and what didn't): prominence promotes representation of salient alternatives in discourse","abstract":"In five experiments, I investigated how readers and listeners generate relevant contrasts in comprehending and remembering discourse. Past work has suggested that prominent words promote encoding of salient alternatives and that this benefits later memory, but it is unclear exactly which alternatives are considered or how consistent these benefits are across modalities and across individuals. Participants read or listened to discourses containing salient alternatives (e.g., Malaysia when the discourse also mentioned Indonesia). In Experiments 1 and 2, font emphasis in the initial presentation facilitated participants’ ability to later reject the salient alternatives but not unmentioned items (e.g., Portuguese scientists), generalizing past effects of contrastive pitch accents. In Experiment 3, font emphasis facilitated rejections of salient alternatives but not less plausible alternatives that were nevertheless mentioned in the discourse. Online reading time measures in Experiment 2 indicated that emphasized words did not improve performance on all trials and only benefited memory to the extent that participants devoted extra time to them, although no such relation was observed in Experiment 3. The relationship of online reading time to later memory is consistent with views of language processing in which some aspects of linguistic representations may be left underspecified because they are time- or resource-consuming to generate. Further, the effortful processing of an alternative impaired memory for the rest of the discourse in populations with more restricted online processing abilities: older adults (Experiment 4) and younger adults who have lower scores on complex span scores (Experiment 5).","abstract_html":"In five experiments, I investigated how readers and listeners generate relevant contrasts in comprehending and remembering discourse. Past work has suggested that prominent words promote encoding of salient alternatives and that this benefits later memory, but it is unclear exactly which alternatives are considered or how consistent these benefits are across modalities and across individuals. Participants read or listened to discourses containing salient alternatives (e.g., Malaysia when the discourse also mentioned Indonesia). In Experiments 1 and 2, font emphasis in the initial presentation facilitated participants’ ability to later reject the salient alternatives but not unmentioned items (e.g., Portuguese scientists), generalizing past effects of contrastive pitch accents. In Experiment 3, font emphasis facilitated rejections of salient alternatives but not less plausible alternatives that were nevertheless mentioned in the discourse. Online reading time measures in Experiment 2 indicated that emphasized words did not improve performance on all trials and only benefited memory to the extent that participants devoted extra time to them, although no such relation was observed in Experiment 3. The relationship of online reading time to later memory is consistent with views of language processing in which some aspects of linguistic representations may be left underspecified because they are time- or resource-consuming to generate. Further, the effortful processing of an alternative impaired memory for the rest of the discourse in populations with more restricted online processing abilities: older adults (Experiment 4) and younger adults who have lower scores on complex span scores (Experiment 5).","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Fraundorf, Scott"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Watson, Duane G.","Benjamin, Aaron S.","Federmeier, Kara D.","Dell, Gary S.","Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A.L."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012-09-18T21:19:21Z","date_published":"2012-09-18T21:19:21Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:31Z","subjects":["pitch accenting","language comprehension","discourse","cognitive aging","recognition memory","reading","contrast"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright © 2012 Scott Fraundorf. Chapters 4 and 5 were adapted from previously published material. Copyright © 2012 by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission. The official citation that should be used in referencing this material is Fraundorf, S. H., Watson D. G., & Benjamin A. S. (2012). The effects of age on the strategic use of pitch accents in memory for discourse: A processing- resource account. Psychology and Aging, 27, 88-98. doi: 10.1037/a0024138. The use of this information does not imply endorsement by the publisher."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/34484","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Watson, Duane G.","Benjamin, Aaron S.","Federmeier, Kara D.","Dell, Gary S.","Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A.L."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Fraundorf, Scott"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2012-09-18T21:19:21Z","2014-09-18T10:00:47Z","2012-08"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["pitch accenting","language comprehension","discourse","cognitive aging","recognition memory","reading","contrast"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright © 2012 Scott Fraundorf. Chapters 4 and 5 were adapted from previously published material. Copyright © 2012 by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission. The official citation that should be used in referencing this material is Fraundorf, S. H., Watson D. G., & Benjamin A. S. (2012). The effects of age on the strategic use of pitch accents in memory for discourse: A processing- resource account. Psychology and Aging, 27, 88-98. doi: 10.1037/a0024138. The use of this information does not imply endorsement by the publisher."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/34484"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["In five experiments, I investigated how readers and listeners generate relevant contrasts in comprehending and remembering discourse. Past work has suggested that prominent words promote encoding of salient alternatives and that this benefits later memory, but it is unclear exactly which alternatives are considered or how consistent these benefits are across modalities and across individuals. Participants read or listened to discourses containing salient alternatives (e.g., Malaysia when the discourse also mentioned Indonesia). In Experiments 1 and 2, font emphasis in the initial presentation facilitated participants’ ability to later reject the salient alternatives but not unmentioned items (e.g., Portuguese scientists), generalizing past effects of contrastive pitch accents. In Experiment 3, font emphasis facilitated rejections of salient alternatives but not less plausible alternatives that were nevertheless mentioned in the discourse. Online reading time measures in Experiment 2 indicated that emphasized words did not improve performance on all trials and only benefited memory to the extent that participants devoted extra time to them, although no such relation was observed in Experiment 3. The relationship of online reading time to later memory is consistent with views of language processing in which some aspects of linguistic representations may be left underspecified because they are time- or resource-consuming to generate. Further, the effortful processing of an alternative impaired memory for the rest of the discourse in populations with more restricted online processing abilities: older adults (Experiment 4) and younger adults who have lower scores on complex span scores (Experiment 5).","Item withdrawn by Alexis Thompson (athmpsn1@illinois.edu) on 2012-07-11T13:48:03Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 2 Fraundorf Dissertation v9.doc: 3097088 bytes, checksum: 8d28e04cbca3095b4c0ad19469d138ee (MD5) Fraundorf_Scott.pdf: 906503 bytes, checksum: 91cd247df9f24be25c1987623d723620 (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2012-09-18T21:19:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Fraundorf_Scott.pdf: 906503 bytes, checksum: 91cd247df9f24be25c1987623d723620 (MD5) license.txt: 4065 bytes, checksum: 1f23e5ac419392b30431f9c22e3eeadd (MD5) Fraundorf Dissertation v9.doc: 3097088 bytes, checksum: 8d28e04cbca3095b4c0ad19469d138ee (MD5)","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Seth Robbins (srobbins@illinois.edu) on 2012-09-18T21:21:14Z Item is restricted until 2014-09-18T21:21:01Z","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:35:08-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: 2014-09-18 16:21:01 UTC Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","U of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 34758 on 2014-09-18T10:00:47Z."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["What happened (and what didn't): prominence promotes representation of salient alternatives in discourse"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Watson, Duane G.","Benjamin, Aaron S.","Federmeier, Kara D.","Dell, Gary S.","Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A.L."],"dc:creator":["Fraundorf, Scott"],"dc:date":["2012-09-18T21:19:21Z","2014-09-18T10:00:47Z","2012-08"],"dc:description":["In five experiments, I investigated how readers and listeners generate relevant contrasts in comprehending and remembering discourse. Past work has suggested that prominent words promote encoding of salient alternatives and that this benefits later memory, but it is unclear exactly which alternatives are considered or how consistent these benefits are across modalities and across individuals. Participants read or listened to discourses containing salient alternatives (e.g., Malaysia when the discourse also mentioned Indonesia). In Experiments 1 and 2, font emphasis in the initial presentation facilitated participants’ ability to later reject the salient alternatives but not unmentioned items (e.g., Portuguese scientists), generalizing past effects of contrastive pitch accents. In Experiment 3, font emphasis facilitated rejections of salient alternatives but not less plausible alternatives that were nevertheless mentioned in the discourse. Online reading time measures in Experiment 2 indicated that emphasized words did not improve performance on all trials and only benefited memory to the extent that participants devoted extra time to them, although no such relation was observed in Experiment 3. The relationship of online reading time to later memory is consistent with views of language processing in which some aspects of linguistic representations may be left underspecified because they are time- or resource-consuming to generate. Further, the effortful processing of an alternative impaired memory for the rest of the discourse in populations with more restricted online processing abilities: older adults (Experiment 4) and younger adults who have lower scores on complex span scores (Experiment 5).","Item withdrawn by Alexis Thompson (athmpsn1@illinois.edu) on 2012-07-11T13:48:03Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 2 Fraundorf Dissertation v9.doc: 3097088 bytes, checksum: 8d28e04cbca3095b4c0ad19469d138ee (MD5) Fraundorf_Scott.pdf: 906503 bytes, checksum: 91cd247df9f24be25c1987623d723620 (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2012-09-18T21:19:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Fraundorf_Scott.pdf: 906503 bytes, checksum: 91cd247df9f24be25c1987623d723620 (MD5) license.txt: 4065 bytes, checksum: 1f23e5ac419392b30431f9c22e3eeadd (MD5) Fraundorf Dissertation v9.doc: 3097088 bytes, checksum: 8d28e04cbca3095b4c0ad19469d138ee (MD5)","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Seth Robbins (srobbins@illinois.edu) on 2012-09-18T21:21:14Z Item is restricted until 2014-09-18T21:21:01Z","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:35:08-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: 2014-09-18 16:21:01 UTC Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","U of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 34758 on 2014-09-18T10:00:47Z."],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/34484"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright © 2012 Scott Fraundorf. Chapters 4 and 5 were adapted from previously published material. Copyright © 2012 by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission. The official citation that should be used in referencing this material is Fraundorf, S. H., Watson D. G., & Benjamin A. S. (2012). The effects of age on the strategic use of pitch accents in memory for discourse: A processing- resource account. Psychology and Aging, 27, 88-98. doi: 10.1037/a0024138. The use of this information does not imply endorsement by the publisher."],"dc:subject":["pitch accenting","language comprehension","discourse","cognitive aging","recognition memory","reading","contrast"],"dc:title":["What happened (and what didn't): prominence promotes representation of salient alternatives in discourse"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:31Z"}