Scott Fraundorf - Research

What's the best way to speak if you want to be remembered? What sentence structure and manner of speech should you use, and what information should you present when? Most theories of language comprehension have focused only on how we first make sense of what we hear and read. My interest is in extending these theories to examine the interaction of language with memory -- how do linguistic factors affect what we remember, and vice versa?

Fraundorf, S. H., Watson, D. G., & Benjamin, A. S. (in press). The effects of age on the strategic use of pitch accents in memory for discourse: A processing-resource account. Psychology and Aging. [ PDF ]
Fraundorf, S. H., Watson, D. G., & Benjamin, A. S. (2010). Recognition memory reveals just how contrastive contrastive accenting really is. Journal of Memory and Language, 63, 367-386. [ PDF ]
Fraundorf, S. H., Benjamin, A. S., & Watson, D. G. (under review). Slow down!: Increased reading time of words with font emphasis predicts beneficial contrast effects in memory.
Fraundorf, S. H., Watson, D. G., & Benjamin, A. S. (under review). (Some) prosodic prominence predicts recall: Implications for theories of prosody and repetition.

Disfluency

A second line of research concerns disfluencies, or interruptions in regular speech. When we speak, we often encounter problems like saying "uh" and "um," repeating words we have already said, or interrupting ourselves to correct something we said previously. Although these are different types of disfluencies, we currently do not know much about how these types are the same or different from one another. I am conducting work (a) exploring how various kinds of disfluencies differ and how they may reflect different problems or processes in language production, and (b) examining how listeners comprehend speech that is disfluent.

Fraundorf, S. H., & Watson, D. G. (2011). The disfluent discourse: Effects of filled pauses on recall. Journal of Memory and Language, 65, 161-175. [ PDF ]
Fraundorf, S. H., & Watson, D. G. (2008). Dimensions of variation in disfluency production in discourse. In J. Ginzburg, P. Healey, & Y. Sato (Eds.), Proceedings of LONDIAL 2008, the 12th Workshop on the Semantics and Pragmatics of Dialogue, pp. 131-138. London: King's College London.
Fraundorf, S. H., & Watson, D. G. (in preparation). Alice's adventures in um-derland: Psycholinguistic dimensions of variation in disfluency production.

Metamemory

Memory is more than just remembering. Successfully using what we know about the world also requires the right strategies about what to bring to mind and how to do it. Some of my research investigates how effective these processes of metamemory are, and what influences them. For example, how do our retrieval attempts change know when we know whether information was easy or difficult for someone else to remember? And do we know when it is prudent to make a second guess about a question?

Fraundorf, S. H., & Benjamin, A. S. (in preparation). Keeping up with the Joneses: Effects of others' knowledge states on metacognitive control of recall.
Fraundorf, S. H., & Benjamin, A. S. (in preparation). Knowing the crowd within: Multiple estimations reveal contributions of theory and experience to metacognitive judgments.

Individual Differences in Language Processing and Acquisition

Collaborators: Duane Watson, Eun-Kyung Lee, Mary Rothbart, Michael Posner, Brad Sheese, Lauren White

It is clear that different people acquire and use language differently, but where do these differences come from? The ability to comprehend and use language quickly and efficiently may depend on language-specific factors, such as reading experience, more general abilities and experiences, such as executive attention, or some combination of both. I am investigating the sources of individual differences both in language acquisition and adult language use.

Sheese, B. E., Rothbart, M. K., Posner, M. I., White, L. K., & Fraundorf, S. H. (2008). Precursors of executive attention and self-regulation in infancy. Infant Behavior and Development, 31, 501-510.
Fraundorf, S. H., & Lee, E.-K., & Watson, D. G. (in preparation). Contributions of language experience to individual differences in syntactic processing: Evidence from multi-level models.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Language, Memory, and Discourse

Disfluency

Metamemory

Individual Differences in Language Processing and Acquisition