Do Crosslinguistic Differences in Evidentiality Marking Affect Source Monitoring?
Date
2012-05
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
What effect does encoding a source have on memory? Languages differ in the
way they encode sources of information about events. English speakers for example
do not have to encode whether or not information about an event was seen directly or
acquired indirectly. Turkish speakers, however, use evidential markers to distinguish
between information that was directly or indirectly acquired. Looking at the crosslinguistic
differences for source, we compared the performance of two languages and
their memory for events. We manipulated events in order to elicit inference, which is
an indirect source. We tested participants’ accuracy for memory of sources for these
inferential events as well as memory for object changes. Participants had their
response time recorded. Half the participants simply viewed the scenes, and the other
half viewed the scenes and had a concurrent distractor task. Although there was a
difference in accuracy between tasks, the results show there were no differences
between languages for accuracy of memory of events, but there was a difference in
response time.
Description
Keywords
cross-linguistic differences, evidentiality marking, memory, source monitoring