THE EFFECT OF FOCUS ON MEMORY FOR WORDS IN SENTENCES

Three experiments investigated the effects of focus on memory for word s in written sentences. The effect of focusing phrases, such as It was the ... and There was this ... on memory for the focused word and for particular types of information about it (phonological and semantic) was investigated. The results indicated that words were consistently b etter remembered when they had been focused. Phonological information was found to be better remembered for focused words in a delayed recog nition task (Experiment 2) and in a naming task (Experiment 3), but no t in an immediate recognition task (Experiment 1). Memory for general semantic information about words was not enhanced by focus in either r ecognition or naming. The results suggest that focusing a word enhance s memory for its specific identity and for its phonological properties and possibly increases the specificity of memory for its semantic pro perties. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.