Zahra Mozaffari
University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran
This research compared the complexity hypothesis with the connectivity hypothesis. The basic assumption underlying these two hypotheses is that whether or not the complexity of a concept i.e., the number of its features, has influence on memory load and its processing time. The current study aimed at comparing the processing time of the adjectives of the opposition in comparative and negative sentences in Persian in order to test the predictions of both hypotheses. The procedure was a cross modal lexical decision (CMLD) task. 30 subjects were presented with eight pairs of unmarked and marked antonymous adjectives in 64 sentences. The visual probe consisted of 64 native words and 64 non words. The reaction time to the lexical decision task was reported by the DMDX software. The result was in the favor of the complexity hypothesis. it was concluded that the additional semantic features in words lead to a greater memory load, longer reaction and comprehension times.
The above abstract is a part of the article which was accepted at The Second International Conference on Current Issues of Languages, Dialects and Linguistics (WWW.TLLL.IR), 1-2 February 2018, Ahwaz.
