The imagery bizarreness effect as a function of sentence complexity and presentation time

Abstract

Two experiments were carried out to examine the relationship between the bizarreness effect (more words recalled from bizarre images than from common images), sentence complexity, and presentation time. Experiment 1 showed that the bizarreness effect was not influenced by processing time when simple sentences were used. However, for complex sentences, an interaction occurred such that nouns from common sentences were recalled better with an 11-sec presentation rate, and nouns from bizarre sentences were recalled better with a 15-sec presentation rate. This interaction was replicated in Experiment 2. These results show that the bizarreness effect does occur for complex sentences, provided that enough processing time is given. The results also suggest that reviews of the bizarreness literature need to consider processing time as a potentially important variable. © 1991, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.