The Bizarreness Effect with Complex Sentences: Temporal Effects

Abstract The present experiment examined the relation between the time allotted to process complex bizarre and common sentences (15, 30 or 60 s) and the demonstration of the "bizarreness effect." Sentence recall was superior for bizarre relative to common sentences when presentation times were 30 s or more. No bizarreness effect was evident when presentation times were restricted to 15 s. It was suggested that subjects require an extended amount of time to reorganize complex bizarre sentences into meaningful ones and that it is this process that enhances bizarre sentence recall.Resume L'experience dont il est question consiste a comparer le temps mis a traiter des phrases complexes bizarres et des phrases ordinaires (15, 30 ou 60 s), et a demontrer I'effet de la bizarrerie. Le rappel etait meilleur pour les phrases bizarres que pour les phrases ordinaires lorsque le temps de presentation durait 30 s ou plus. On n'a constate aucun effet de la bizarrerie lorsque le temps de presentation etait limite a 15 s. On avance l'hypothese que les sujets puissent avoir besoin de plus de temps pour reorganiser les phrases complexes bizarres en phrases signifiantes, et que c'est ce processus qui ameliore le rappel des phrases bizarres.For more than two decades psychologists have examined the bizarreness effect under controlled laboratory conditions. Operationally the bizarreness effect is defined as the facilitation of recall for bizarre items relative to normal/common ones. In general, the experimental evidence is conflicting and, according to recent reviews (Einstein & McDaniel, 1987; Wollen & Margres, 1987) the bizarreness effect occurs only in limited circumstances.In brief, (a) the bizarreness advantage is, with few exceptions, demonstrable only in mixed lists, i.e., within subjects designs (McDaniel & Einstein, 1986); (b) the advantage for bizarre items is primarily a free recall effect (Bergfeld, Choate, & Kroll, 1982; Hirshman, Whelley, & Palij, 1989; Kroll & Tu, 1988; McDaniel & Einstein, 1986; Pra Baldi, DeBeni, Cornoldi, & Cavedon, 1985; Webber & Marshall, 1978; Wollen & Cox, 1981a, 1981b); (c) total nouns recalled is a composite measure of the sentence access, i.e., retrieving distinct sentences, and the items - per - sentence, i.e., retrieving items within each sentence. The bizarreness effect is a function of sentence access and not items - per - sentence (Einstein & McDaniel, 1987; McDaniel & Einstein, 1986; Wollen & Margres, 1987). Thus, the bizarreness effect occurs when the sentences accessed are sufficiently strong to outweigh the negative contribution of items - per - sentence; and, (d) the bizarreness effect is only found with simple sentences. However, a recent study by Imai and Richman (1991) suggested that the bizarreness effect may occur with complex sentences if complexity is defined in terms of the illogical nature of the sentences.Sentence complexity has traditionally been defined as extending the length of simple sentences by adding two modifiers to each noun (McDaniel & Einstein, 1989). Thus, a simple bizarre sentence such as "The Maid licked the Ammonia off the Table" is converted to a complex bizarre sentence by the addition of six adjectives to the sentence, e.g.,"The tall, blond Maid licked the heavy, clear Ammonia off the round, mahogany Table." Employing similar complex sentences, McDaniel and Einstein (1989, Exp. 2) found little evidence for the bizarreness effect for 7 and 14 s sentence presentation times.McDaniel and Einstein's (1989, Exp. 2) procedures were different from those used by Imai and Richman (1991). McDaniel and Einstein (1989) defined complexity by adding two modifiers to each noun in their simple sentences whereas Imai and Richman (1991) defined complexity as unintelligible, meaningless simple sentences, e.g., "The TABLE dropped the MAID out of the AMMONIA." Furthermore, McDaniel and Einstein (1989) extended their presentation times from 7 to 14 s, whereas Imai and Richman (1991) used 7 s and 35 s presentation times. …