A Study of the Linguistic Dimension of Information Processing as a Function of Cognitive Complexity

Abstract

The study is concerned with maximizing communicative effectiveness by tailoring messages in light of the receiver's information processing ability, that ability being a function of the number of cognitive categories com prising the "mind " and referred to as cognitive complexity. It was hypoth esized that cognitive complexity would cause people to process sentences differently depending upon whether they were high or low in cognitive complexity. Sentences varied in terms of the number of clauses and the location of those clauses relative to the main subject-verb combination. Cognitive complexity did, in fact, appear to predict ability to recall these sentences, particularly those with clauses occurring after the main subject- verb unit. People high in cognitive complexity had significantly better recall scores than people low in cognitive complexity.

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