0 a syllable (= a single unit of speech that is either a whole word or part of a word) that is invented and has no meaning in a language:
Target words were either preceded by an article that was grammatical in the context, an auxiliary that was not grammatical in that context or a nonsense syllable.
Experiment 1, target words were either preceded by an article that was grammatical in that context, an auxiliary that was not grammatical in that context, or a nonsense syllable.
In addition, each nonsense syllable appeared an equal amount of times; the trials were split evenly in terms of counting by either three or four.
He reported that the time required to memorize an average nonsense syllable increases sharply as the number of syllables increases.
After a set interval, a light signal was flashed to prompt the subject to cease verbally counting and to recall the random, three-letter nonsense syllable.