The Bransford and Franks Study

The Bransford and Franks study explored how people recognize sentences that are made up of familiar words. They found that if a sentence is semantically coherent—meaning it makes sense—people tend to mentally "add" missing words to form a complete idea, making it seem familiar even if the exact sentence wasn't initially presented. Conversely, if the sentence is nonsensical, people are less likely to fill in missing words. This research highlights how our understanding and memory are influenced by the meaning and context of language, showing that our brains process and organize information based on semantic coherence.