SHAPING MEMORIES: THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF SPONTANEOUS SPEECH

Abstract

The relationship between language and thought has been one of the most intriguing questions in the fields of philosophy, neuroscience, and cognitive science and has long been of particular interest in exploring the nature and organizational principles of human cognition. Indeed, on a daily basis humans use language to label entities in the world and to communicate their thoughts and feelings to each other. Yet, the precise impact of linguistic reference on shaping mental representations of concepts, objects, and events remains underspecified. Using computational, experimental, and observational methods, this dissertation aims to further characterize the relationship between language and memory in the human mind in three complementary lines of research. Study 1 examines the role of linguistic labels in accessing and evaluating semantic properties of lexically invoked concepts. Study 2 examines the effect of linguistic reference on shaping mental representations of objects and subsequent memories for them as well as the underlying cognitive mechanisms. Finally, Study 3 utilizes an ecologically valid approach to examine the linguistic features of spontaneous speech that shape representations and later, memories of real-world experiences. Taken together, our findings point to an existence of a nuanced relationship between language and memory with many facets of language shaping representations and consequent memories of concepts, objects, and real-world experiences.