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ERIC Number: EJ789464
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Jan
Pages: 33
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0163-853X
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
I Agreed with What? Memory for Simple Argument Claims
Britt, M. Anne; Kurby, C. A.; Dandotkar, S.; Wolfe, C. R.
Discourse Processes: A Multidisciplinary Journal, v45 n1 p52-84 Jan 2008
Three experiments were conducted to examine how precisely readers recall the claims of arguments that they have just read. Participants read simple, 2-clause arguments such as, "The U.S. is right to intervene in other countries' affairs because local events can catastrophically impact the entire world." Participants then evaluated each argument with respect to agreement or fit and recalled either the claim or the complete argument. The first 2 experiments found that readers have difficulty precisely recalling the main predicate of the claim (e.g., "should intervene" or "is right to intervene") as accurately as they do the theme of the argument. Furthermore, a comparison with predicates of short narrative statements indicates that this recall difficulty is specific to argument predicates. Experiment 3 found that skilled readers' recall was more accurate than less-skilled readers. It also showed that the predicate recall problem occurred with both skilled and less-skilled readers and that it is related to one's ability to detect poorly formed arguments. (Contains 5 tables and 2 footnotes.)
Lawrence Erlbaum. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/default.html
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305H050133
Author Affiliations: N/A