Memory for the surface structure of sentences: Remembering with and without awareness

Abstract

It is argued that information about the surface structure of sentences is durably represented in episodic memory. An experiment is reported in which it is shown that although the ability to consciously recognize a sentence's surface structure significantly deteriorates with the passage of time, tests that do not require conscious recognition decisions about surface structure reveal evidence for surface memory that is resistant to decay even over a 1-week retention interval. This form of surface memory is expressed through its influence on conscious recognition decisions regarding sentence meaning and on the fluent rereading of sentences, and is independent of the amount of semantic processing carried out during the initial encoding of a sentence. Taken in conjunction with other recent results, this experiment supports the assertion that subjects retain a long-lasting perceptual memory for the visual patterns of a sentence's words.