Interference of the inclusive language in the creation of the memory trace during the reading comprehension of texts

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to analyze the effect of inclusive language on the cognitive processing of reading comprehension (in terms of consolidation and retrieval of cognitive material during text reading). The memory trace has been operationalized as the consolidation of information in the long-term memory (after being processed in the working memory) to be able to be retrieved later. An experimental design was used to analyze the response times and the number of errors in the retrieval of this memory trace on different experimental conditions for its consolidation (inclusive language conditions included). The results show that the inclusive language conditions increase the number of errors compared to the language condition written in the so-called “neutral format” (grammatically correct). The data is in line with previous literature that shows that—in order to answer questions after reading a text—an efficient memory trace elaborated in long-term memory is required. In this sense, the effect produced by the inclusive language implies an inefficient consolidation and, therefore, an ineffective retrieval of the information consolidated during reading comprehension (in terms of number of errors)