Psychology, 5/e   Wortman, Loftus & Weaver
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Exploring Processes of Language

The use of language requires a complex series of mental operations. Speaking, for example, requires the translation of a mental construction or idea into a set of symbols that are combined according to specific grammatical rules. This conversion of underlying meaning into the words in their organized form is reversed in the processes of listening and reading. The following simple experiment will demonstrate how this organization process works.

Experimental Procedure

To do this experiment, you will need to recruit four or five of your friends. You must be able to get them all together at the same time in a place where they can concentrate. The experiment will take about 20 to 30 minutes to complete. You will need only a couple of sheets of blank paper and a pencil or pen.

STEP 1 Have your subjects decide which of them will go first, second, third, and fourth in this experiment.

STEP 2 Read the following instructions out loud to all of the subjects: "This is an experiment about memory. In this experiment, I will read a story to the person who volunteered to go first. This person will try to remember the story and will tell it to the second person. The second person will tell it to the third person, and so on until the last person is told the story. As soon as the last person has heard the story, he or she will write down on this blank paper as much of the story as he or she can remember. Concentrate as hard as you can on trying to remember the story. You will hear it only once, and you may not ask any questions about it. Do you have any questions about how to perform the experiment?" After all your subjects understand the procedure, you are ready to begin.

STEP 3 Take the first subject with you to a place where the other subjects cannot hear what you are saying. Instruct the subject to pay careful attention to the story you are about to read. Read the story in the box below once out loud. Do not repeat any portion of the story. Do not answer any questions the subject has about the details of the story. Do not let the subject read the story; you must read it aloud to the subject.

A Great Adventure

Jodhopper and his best friend Clem were out walking one fine, sunny day in July. Being black ants, they were always on the lookout for two things: food to carry back to the ant colony, and danger. Just as they were approaching a big log Clem spotted some cake crumbs left by some careless picnickers. Clem, being less careful than Jodhopper, immediately started running toward the crumbs before the neighboring red ants found them.

Jodhopper, however, had a more cautious nature. He looked around before he went running for the crumbs. In the distance he spotted a war party of red ants, but judged that they were too far away to harm Clem and him. What he didn't see was a large bear running up behind him. The bear wanted the crumbs, too, and didn't mind if he stepped on a few ants to get them. Just as Clem was about to reach the crumbs, Jodhopper heard the bear and turned to see what was making the noise behind him.

"Yikes!" cried Jodhopper. "Look out, Clem!" Jodhopper ducked behind a stone just as the bear ran past him. Greedy Clem paid no attention to Jodhopper's cries, for he was intent on grabbing the delicious cake crumbs. Unfortunately for Clem so was the bear. Just as Clem had grabbed the first big crumb, out came the bear's big tongue and licked up the crumb, along with Clem, into its mouth. Jodhopper heard Clem scream, "Help me!" but there was nothing he could do.

Clem saw one chance of getting away: to jump out of the bear's mouth down to the ground below. "Bombs away!" yelled Clem, and he jumped out of the bear's mouth. Fortunately, he landed in a pile of soft grass, and, although he was a bit shaken up, he wasn't really hurt except for some cuts on his back.

Jodhopper watched until the bear was gone, and then ran over to Clem to see if he was dead. When he saw that Clem was all right, he yelled, "You must be more careful!" Then he and Clem went back to the ant colony to tell the rest of the ants about their great adventure.

STEP 4 Take the second subject to where the first subject is. Instruct the first subject to tell the second subject as much of the story as he or she can remember. Remind the subjects that no questions about the story can be asked or answered.

STEP 5 Repeat this procedure with all the remaining subjects, having the second subject tell the story to the third, the third tell it to the fourth, and so on.

STEP 6 Give the last subject a pencil and paper and instruct that subject to write down the story as clearly as possible. Encourage the subject to try to write down all the details that were in the story. Make sure this subject receives no help from the other subjects.

Analyzing the Results

Compare the original story to the one written by the last subject. Which is longer? You'll probably find that the original story is longer because some of the details have been left out at each telling of the story. And, of course, once one subject has forgotten part of the story, there is no way the rest of the subjects can know it should have been included.

If, however, the final story is longer than the original, that is because the subjects have filled in missing details with information which, though consistent with the story, does not actually appear in the original story. This process—called confabulation—occurs frequently in our everyday memories. Even if your written story is shorter than the original, can you find instances of confabulation? That is, are there details in the written story that were not part of the original?

What does this experiment tell us about language? First, it supports the idea that we do not encode language verbatim. Instead of remembering exactly what we read, word for word, we extract the basic propositions, or ideas, from the material. It is these propositions, not the specific words, that we process in memory. Second, we organize the information we read into a unified whole. When we have to recall this information, we must then translate this whole unit back into the propositions, and then convert them to words and phrases. As you can see in the written version of the story, this conversion sometimes leaves out ideas and sometimes includes logically consistent information that was not originally present.

This experiment should demonstrate to you that language is so integrally tied to memory that the two cannot be separated. Also, you should be able to see that language is an active process that involves the continual extraction and combination of ideas. Human language is not a mechanical process like that used by a computer but rather is a dynamic, decision-making task.

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