Investigating the basis of memory-based effects on common ground
Xiaobei Zheng, Richard Breheny · Language Cognition and Neuroscience · 2021
Much previous research has investigated the effect of domain-general memory processes on production and comprehension in conversation. In this paper, we present a paradigm in which common ground targets are kept consistent between a participant and two different speakers, and demonstrate a speaker effect that draws participants’ attention away from the common ground target in Experiment 1. Further, we hypothesise that one important factor that promotes speaker identity as a cue for memory processes is that speakers are in conversational partners’ shared attention at the memory coding phase. In Experiments 2 and 3, we demonstrate a non-speaker cue can give rise to a memory-based interference effect when the relevant contextual information is in shared attention but not when it is not. Our results provide an important insight into the interplay of domain-general memory mechanisms and domain specific biases for shared attention.