NEGATION & SENTENCE COMPREHENSION

approximately the same score on an objective test for their level, were presented with 8 variations of eight sentences (64 in all). Each sentence consists of two parts: the first part changes only in the adjective; and the second was negated by using (un-), (not), and (not un-) attached to the adjective. The purpose was to test the effect of negation on comprehension time. The results supported the hypotheses that negation delays comprehension in the second language; and (not) causes more difficulty in comprehension than the negative prefix (un-), even when (un-) is used to imply sentence negation and not only the adjective. The hypothesis that double negation causes more difficulty than single one, is alo confirmed. Before the work on transformational grammar began in psychology, processes of sentence comprehension were studied by British psychologist Peter Wason in his investigations of psychological aspects of negation (1959, 1961). It was found that negation increases comprehension time. Other studies confirmed th