Theses and Dissertations
“A hiker who is strong” is stronger than “a strong hiker”: modifier position affects noun perception
Advisor
Karimi, Hossein
Committee Member
Eakin, Deborah
Committee Member
Soares, Julia
Committee Member
Jaeger, Allison
Date of Degree
5-10-2024
Original embargo terms
Immediate Worldwide Access
Document Type
Graduate Thesis - Open Access
Major
Psychology
Degree Name
Master of Science (M.S.)
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Department of Psychology
Abstract
Simple shifts within the syntactic structure of a sentence can have significant effects on the cognitive processes involved in language comprehension (Deckert, 2015; Ellis, 2002; Ferreira, 2003). Modifier position is one such syntactic element that has shown the importance of structure as demonstrated by Karimi et al. (2019). Post-modified words (e.g., a “peasant who was highly educated”) are encoded more robustly and are retrieved more easily than pre-modified words (e.g., a “highly educated peasant”). We explored the potential influence of modifier position on statement believability, namely, how much people believe a statement they have not heard before in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2 we examined how linear modification affects the perceptual qualities being transferred to the target noun phrase. Our results from both experiments illustrate a strong effect of Likelihood (familiarity) and provide interesting insight into the modification effect, and how modifiers may enhance target noun phrases.
Recommended Citation
Weber, Peter John II, "“A hiker who is strong” is stronger than “a strong hiker”: modifier position affects noun perception" (2024). Theses and Dissertations. 6197.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/6197