Abstract
Rabbitt (1968) explored the relationship between listening effort and recall ability, utilizing number strings presented clearly and through noise. The results, although limited in analysis, were significant nonetheless, leading to the development of the effortful hypothesis. This hypothesis states that increased cognitive load directed in processing one item leaves few to no resources available to process another item, causing errors to be made and stimuli to be missed. The present study expanded upon the ideas of the hypothesis through a study that asked participants to process two sentences of varying syntactical complexity for later recall of one, without knowing which sentence was to be prompted. Pupil size was recorded throughout the study as an objective measure of cognitive effort. Results suggested that syntactical complexity did not have a significant main effect on recall accuracy; however, there was an observed main effect of syntactical complexity on pupil size.