How do i remember that i know you know that i know?

Rachael D. Rubin, Sarah Brown-Schmidt, Melissa C. Duff, Daniel Tranel, Neal J. Cohen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Abstract

Communication is aided greatly when speakers and listeners take advantage of mutually shared knowledge (i.e., common ground). How such information is represented in memory is not well known. Using a neuropsychological-psycholinguistic approach to real-time language understanding, we investigated the ability to form and use common ground during conversation in memory-impaired participants with hippocampal amnesia. Analyses of amnesics' eye fixations as they interpreted their partner's utterances about a set of objects demonstrated successful use of common ground when the amnesics had immediate access to common-ground information, but dramatic failures when they did not. These findings indicate a clear role for declarative memory in maintenance of common-ground representations. Even when amnesics were successful, however, the eye movement record revealed subtle deficits in resolving potential ambiguity among competing intended referents; this finding suggests that declarative memory may be critical to more basic aspects of the on-line resolution of linguistic ambiguity.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1574-1582
Number of pages9
JournalPsychological Science
Volume22
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2011

Fingerprint

Psycholinguistics
Aptitude
Amnesia
Linguistics
Eye Movements
Language
Communication
Maintenance

Keywords

  • cognitive neuroscience
  • language
  • memory

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychology(all)

Cite this

Rubin, R. D., Brown-Schmidt, S., Duff, M. C., Tranel, D., & Cohen, N. J. (2011). How do i remember that i know you know that i know? Psychological Science, 22(12), 1574-1582. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611418245

How do i remember that i know you know that i know? / Rubin, Rachael D.; Brown-Schmidt, Sarah; Duff, Melissa C.; Tranel, Daniel; Cohen, Neal J.

In: Psychological Science, Vol. 22, No. 12, 12.2011, p. 1574-1582.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Rubin, RD, Brown-Schmidt, S, Duff, MC, Tranel, D & Cohen, NJ 2011, 'How do i remember that i know you know that i know?', Psychological Science, vol. 22, no. 12, pp. 1574-1582. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611418245
Rubin RD, Brown-Schmidt S, Duff MC, Tranel D, Cohen NJ. How do i remember that i know you know that i know? Psychological Science. 2011 Dec;22(12):1574-1582. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611418245
Rubin, Rachael D. ; Brown-Schmidt, Sarah ; Duff, Melissa C. ; Tranel, Daniel ; Cohen, Neal J. / How do i remember that i know you know that i know?. In: Psychological Science. 2011 ; Vol. 22, No. 12. pp. 1574-1582.
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