Some Experiments with Queer Sentences

Abstract

Eight sorts of sentences—true, false, contradictory, analytic, anagram, and three sorts of semi-grammatical sentences were used as experimental materials in three experiments; a rating task, a short-term memory task, and a free-recall task. Predictions of the relative degrees of " cognitive impairment " of the sentence types were derived, chiefly from a generative grammar. In general, the predictions were confirmed, with the results of the three tasks being generally similar. This similarity is interpreted as indicating that the main effect of queer sentences on cognitive processes is at the level of initial comprehension, i.e. on the production of a semantic reading, rather than on various memory processes. In contrast, false sentences were found to be easier than true sentences in the free-recall task but slightly harder than true ones in the short-term memory task.