Reconstructing Approximations to Dialogue

Fifteen undergraduate subjects attempted to reconstruct, following Clarke's (1975) procedure, four approximations to dialogue generated by Pease (1972a). Subjects displayed significant (P < 0.001) ability to locate utterances by the dialoguing participant immediately following the correct utterance by the monologuing participant, but not vice versa. Subjects did no better than chance in reconstructing the sequence of utterances by either participant alone. Methodological and theoretical implications are discussed, with reference to the predominant strategy apparently followed by subjects.