Events

Rachael Rubin

Title: Language-and-Memory-In-Use: Common ground representations in hippocampal amnesia

Abstract:
During conversation, interlocutors build and maintain representations of information that is jointly known, i.e., common ground. We examined whether patients with memory impairments could build sufficient representations to establish both visual and linguistic common ground with a partner. To do this, we monitored participants’ eye movements as they interpreted potentially ambiguous instructions to gaze at objects in a 3-D display. Results from the amnesic patients replicated standard findings in healthy participants in establishing visual common ground (Hanna et al., 2003). Amnesic patients maintained representations of linguistic common ground at short delays, however, this effect was attenuated at longer delays. These results build on previous common ground findings in amnesia (Duff et al., 2006) and suggest that hippocampal damage impairs common ground representations that place a sufficient demand on declarative
memory.

---

Return to Event List