The Influence of Semantic Priming on Recall for Slang Language Used on Social Media
Location
CSU Ballroom
Start Date
2-4-2019 2:00 PM
End Date
2-4-2019 3:30 PM
Student's Major
Psychology
Student's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Mentor's Name
Moses Langley
Mentor's Department
Psychology
Mentor's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Description
Smith and Mackie's (2015) RICOR model describes mechanisms by which closely connected people may unconsciously adopt one another's behaviors into their own responses and behaviors. Although the RICOR model was intended to describe how this might occur through in-person, interpersonal interactions, it also makes predictions about how the phenomenon could develop through the interpersonal connections maintained through social media. Recently, Cole, Ghafurian, and Reitter (2017) used the ACT-R model to describe the proliferation of new word adoption within subreddit communities. Their study highlighted how interpersonal online interactions do, in fact, influence language behavior and supported the RICOR model's predictions regarding the potential for online environments to enable individuals to unconsciously incorporate the behaviors of others. The present study was an attempt to build upon this research and explore how exposure to the slang language prevalent on social media might affect participants' language behavior and memory for word lists. Using a sematic priming paradigm, participants encoded lists of semantically related (e.g., apple-pear) or unrelated (e.g, barn-glass) word pairs. Half of the target words within the pair were conventional (non-slang) American English words (e.g., beach-sunset) and half were unconventional (slang) American English words (e.g., unsettled-shook). During a subsequent memory test, participants were asked to recall the target words. Consistent with the predictions of the RICOR and ACT-R models, the present study found stronger semantic priming effects for slang words than non-slang words. The implications of these results for future research and language behavior between closely connected people on social media are discussed.
The Influence of Semantic Priming on Recall for Slang Language Used on Social Media
CSU Ballroom
Smith and Mackie's (2015) RICOR model describes mechanisms by which closely connected people may unconsciously adopt one another's behaviors into their own responses and behaviors. Although the RICOR model was intended to describe how this might occur through in-person, interpersonal interactions, it also makes predictions about how the phenomenon could develop through the interpersonal connections maintained through social media. Recently, Cole, Ghafurian, and Reitter (2017) used the ACT-R model to describe the proliferation of new word adoption within subreddit communities. Their study highlighted how interpersonal online interactions do, in fact, influence language behavior and supported the RICOR model's predictions regarding the potential for online environments to enable individuals to unconsciously incorporate the behaviors of others. The present study was an attempt to build upon this research and explore how exposure to the slang language prevalent on social media might affect participants' language behavior and memory for word lists. Using a sematic priming paradigm, participants encoded lists of semantically related (e.g., apple-pear) or unrelated (e.g, barn-glass) word pairs. Half of the target words within the pair were conventional (non-slang) American English words (e.g., beach-sunset) and half were unconventional (slang) American English words (e.g., unsettled-shook). During a subsequent memory test, participants were asked to recall the target words. Consistent with the predictions of the RICOR and ACT-R models, the present study found stronger semantic priming effects for slang words than non-slang words. The implications of these results for future research and language behavior between closely connected people on social media are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Lofton, Alexis; Nick Lucke; Dylan Askvig; and Ashley Baumann. "The Influence of Semantic Priming on Recall for Slang Language Used on Social Media." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 2, 2019.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2019/poster-session-B/22
