| Summary: | AbstractThe main issue addressed in the present study was the psycholinguistic reality of representational complexities of tenses in Persian compared to English language. The cross-modal lexical decision method was used to examine relative tense processing during sentence processing. The theoretical frameworks applied here were those of Comrie (1985) and Shapiro (1990) dealt with linguistically and psycholinguistically, respectively. The dependent and independent variables were the participants’ reaction times and the type of tense, respectively. 25 university students aged 18-30 years were selected based on some specific factors like gender and university grade. The results of the 1st experiment showed that simple sentences, including factual scientific present and future tense verbs, as well as performatives, were processed faster than those containing other tenses. This was the result of either common experiences of human beings or instantaneous verbs uttered by them. The results of the 2nd experiment revealed that simple sentences containing non-finite relative tense verbs were processed slower than those having other tenses like present perfect, past perfect, and subjunctives. This might be related to the un-markedness of non-finites. What was common in these two experiments was that converting simple sentences into complex ones would erase the significant differences in the participants’ times of reaction to the simple sentences. The findings of this research demonstrated that cognitive load could be used in the curriculum design for non-native learners of Persian language so that learning the tenses that needed a much more cognitive load could be postponed in the learning process. Key words: reaction time, listening comprehension, representational complexity, cognitive load, absolute and relative tenses IntroductionDifferent linguists have proposed varied definitions for tense. This study investigated processing of sentences containing different tenses of Persian language via the cross-modal lexical decision method. This psycholinguistic approach was classically taken by Shapiro and Levine (1990) to estimate cognitive load across the mind. The main issue of this research was the psycholinguistic reality of the hierarchical complexities of tenses arranged from absolute to relative ones. The theoretical framework was mainly based on episodic processing, in which the mental representations of linguistic items were not as abstract as they seemed, but they were subject to the sensory inputs, with which the representations were formed. Also, Comrie’s classification (1985) for tenses was applied linguistically. He divided tenses into the two broad categories of past and non-past tenses. The absolute and relative types of Persian tenses were elaborated and analyzed in detail in this article. Materials and MethodsThe method employed in this research was the cross-modal lexical decision approach, which will be detailed due to its importance. The theoretical frameworks applied here were those of Comrie (1985) and Shapiro & Levine (1990) based on linguistics and psycholinguistics, respectively. The dependent and independent variables were the subjects’ reaction times and type of tense used in the verb form, respectively. 25 university students aged 18-30 years participated in this study. The results of the two mentioned experiments revealed that the psychological reality of the complexities of representations of grammatical tenses according to Persian data was confirmed and there was a significant difference between the processing times of the sentences containing different types of grammatical tenses.The main question of the 1st experiment was related to psycholinguistic reality of absolute tenses in Persian language. The results of this experiment demonstrated that the sentences containing factual scientific present and future tense verbs, as well as performatives, and those consisting of non-finite relative tense verbs were processed sooner and later than the other tenses (present perfect, past perfect, and subjunctives), respectively. This might be related to the un-markedness of non-finites.The main issue of the 2nd experiment concerned the psycholinguistic reality of relative tenses in Persian language. The results of this experiment revealed that converting simple sentences to complex ones would erase the significant differences in the participants’ reaction times. The findings could be used in the curriculum design for non-native Persian learners.The two main research questions were as follows: a) Which types of tenses were processed faster than the others and why? B) What were the mental representations of grammatical tenses based on the data from Persian language? In the mentioned two experiments, the participants’ genders were not effective. The findings could be utilized in the curriculum design for non-natives Persian learners since showing the cognitive load of relative tenses across memory. Discussion of Results and ConclusionsThe subject of the present article was the study of how auditory perceptions of sentence structures with verbs containing different types of grammatical tenses in Persian were affected by representational complexities of their inner tenses. Persian language has a variety of absolute and relative tenses, each of which is used as needed. This language was found to have the two absolute past and present tenses and four relative perfect, pluperfect, subjunctive, and relative past tenses. The results of the 1st experiment showed that the sentences containing factual scientific present and future tense verbs, as well as performatives, were processed sooner than the other tenses. The justification and explanation of this result could be attributed to the fact that scientific facts are recorded in the life experience of human beings with a high frequency. The results of the 2nd experiment revealed that converting simple sentences to complex ones would erase the significant differences in the participants’ reaction times. The findings could be used in the curriculum design for non-natives Persian learners. The detailed nature and function of each tense was written by Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari (2002). This work can provide the basis for relevant data collection due to presenting a comprehensive description of tenses in Persian language. The concept of cognitive load explained here can be used in teaching Persian language and the research results can be considered in compiling educational materials in a way that those categories, which are in need of a much more cognitive load, can be postponed until teaching the advanced levels of Persian language.
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