An Investigation of Memory Retrieval of Linguistic Structures among Yemeni Adults through Spreading Activation: A Psycholinguistic Study

Objectives: This study aimed to address a gap in psycholinguistics by investigating linguistic structures (LSs) retrieved from memory among Yemeni adults, using Anderson's (1976) Spread Activation Theory. The primary objectives were to determine the frequency of LSs in memory retrieval and to measure the time required for this process. Methods: A quantitative descriptive approach was used, involving thirty-three English-speaking adults from Mahrah University. Participants completed three written tests based on Spread Activation Theory: Fact Retrieval (FR) test, Configured Cue (CC) test, and Schemata Sentences (SS) test. Results: Findings showed that the most frequently retrieved structure was the word level, with a retrieval rate of (81.01%), followed by sentence structure (71.01%), phrase structure (68.18%), independent clause (62.84%), and dependent clause (58.62%). The average time taken to retrieve twenty-five simple sentences was three minutes and nine seconds, with an accuracy rate of 73% and an error rate of 24%. Conclusions: This study highlighted the varying retrieval frequencies of linguistic structures and provided insights into memory retrieval times, emphasizing the effectiveness of Spread Activation Theory in analyzing linguistic memory.