Which of the following was not one of the earliest findings from memory research related to the structure of language?

• A. The rapid forgetting of information soon after initial learning
• B. The tendency for people to remember semantically meaningful material better than nonsense syllables
• C. The identification of Broca's and Wernicke's areas as critical for language production and comprehension
• D. The existence of a primacy and recency effect in word list recall

Answer: (C)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Step 1: Understand the context of the question, which focuses on early findings from memory research related to the structure of language. This means we are looking for discoveries that emerged from studying memory and how language is processed or remembered.
2. Step 2: Review each option in terms of its connection to memory research. For example, rapid forgetting after learning relates to memory decay, and the primacy and recency effects relate to how items are recalled from memory, both classic memory phenomena.
3. Step 3: Recognize that remembering semantically meaningful material better than nonsense syllables is a key finding from memory research, specifically from studies by Ebbinghaus and later researchers on meaningful versus meaningless information.
4. Step 4: Identify that the identification of Broca's and Wernicke's areas pertains to neuroanatomy and brain function related to language production and comprehension, which is more about brain localization than memory research per se.
5. Step 5: Conclude that the option about Broca's and Wernicke's areas is not an early finding from memory research related to language structure, but rather from neurological studies of language processing.