Psycholinguistics

Luque, D., Luque, J. L., & López-Zamora, M. (2011). Individual differences in pseudohomophony effect relates to auditory categorical perception skills. Learning and Individual Differences, 21, 210-214.

by David Luque Ruiz

ABSTRACT. The study examined whether individual differences in the quality of phonological representations, measured... more ABSTRACT. The study examined whether individual differences in the quality of phonological representations, measured by a categorical perception task (CP), are related with the use of phonological information in a lexical decision pseudohomophone task. In addition, the lexical frequency of the stimuli was manipulated. The sample consisted of Spanish-speaking normal reading adults. When high frequency stimuli were used, CP explained a significant proportion of the variance observed in the pseudohomophone effect. This result supports the idea that, even in normal reading adults, the use of phonological information during lexical access depends on the quality of their phonological representation.

Electrophysiological Correlates of Complement Coercion

by Martin Paczynski

Kuperberg, GR., Choi, A., Cohn, N., Paczynski M., Jackendoff, R. (2010) Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 22(12), 2685-2701.

This study examined the electrophysiological correlates of complement coercion. ERPs were measured as participants... more This study examined the electrophysiological correlates of complement coercion. ERPs were measured as participants read and made acceptability judgments about plausible coerced sentences, plausible noncoerced sentences, and highly implausible animacy-violated sentences (“The journalist began/wrote/ astonished the article before his coffee break”). Relative to non- coerced complement nouns, the coerced nouns evoked an N400 effect. This effect was not modulated by the number of possible activities implied by the coerced nouns (e.g., began reading the article; began writing the article) and did not differ either in magnitude or scalp distribution from the N400 effect evoked by the animacy-violated complement nouns. We suggest that the N400modulation to both coerced and animacy-violated complement nouns reflected different types of mismatches between the semantic restrictions of the verb and the semantic properties of the incoming complement noun. This is consistent with models holding that a verbʼs semantic argument structure is represented and stored at a distinct level from its syntactic argument structure. Unlike the coerced complement noun, the animacy-violated nouns also evoked a robust P600 effect, which may have been triggered by the judgments of the highly implausible (syntactically determined) meanings of the animacy-violated propositions. No additional ERP effects were seen in the coerced sentences until the sentence-final word that, relative to sentence-final words in the noncoerced sentences, evoked a sustained anteriorly distributed positivity. We suggest that this effect reflected delayed attempts to retrieve the specific event(s) implied by coerced complement nouns.

Establishing Causal Coherence across Sentences: An ERP Study

by Martin Paczynski

Kuperberg, G.R., Paczynski, M., and Ditman, T. (2011) Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 23(5), 1230–1246

This study examined neural activity associated with establishing causal relationships across sentences during on-line... more This study examined neural activity associated with establishing causal relationships across sentences during on-line comprehension. ERPs were measured while participants read and judged the relatedness of three-sentence scenarios in which the final sentence was highly causally related, intermediately related, and causally unrelated to its context. Lexico-semantic co-occurrence was matched across the three conditions using a Latent Semantic Analysis. Critical words in causally unrelated scenarios evoked a larger N400 than words in both highly causally related and intermediately related scenarios, regardless of whether they appeared before or at the sentence-final position. At midline sites, the N400 to intermediately related sentence-final words was attenuated to the same degree as to highly causally related words, but otherwise the N400 to intermediately related words fell in between that evoked by highly causally related and intermediately related words. No modulation of the late positivity/P600 component was observed across conditions. These results indicate that both simple and complex causal inferences can influence the earliest stages of semantically processing an incoming word. Further, they suggest that causal coherence, at the situation level, can influence incremental word-by-word discourse comprehension, even when semantic relationships between individual words are matched.

Electrophysiological Evidence for Use of the Animacy Hierarchy, but not Thematic Role Assignment, During Verb Argument Processing

by Martin Paczynski

Paczynski, M., Kuperberg, G. (2011), Language and Cognitive Processes, 26 (9), 1402-1456

Animacy is known to play an important role in language processing and production, but debate remains as to how it... more Animacy is known to play an important role in language processing and production, but debate remains as to how it exerts its effects: (1) through links to syntactic ordering, (2) through inherent differences between animate and inanimate entities in their salience/lexico-semantic accessibility, and (3) through links to specific thematic roles. We contrasted these three accounts in two event-related potential (ERP) experiments examining the processing of direct object arguments in simple English sentences. In Experiment 1, we found a larger N400 to animate than inanimate direct object arguments assigned the Patient role, ruling out the second account. In Experiment 2, we found no difference in the N400 evoked by animate direct object arguments assigned the Patient role (prototypically inanimate) and those assigned the Experiencer role (prototypically animate), ruling out the third account. We therefore suggest that animacy may impact processing through a direct link to syntactic linear ordering, at least on postverbal arguments in English. We also exam- ined processing on direct object arguments that violated the animacy-based selection-restriction constraints of their preceding verbs. These violations evoked a robust P600, which was not modulated by thematic role assignment or reversibility, suggesting that the so-called semantic P600 is driven by overall propositional impossibility, rather than thematic role reanalysis

Kurumada, C. and Jaeger, T.F. 2012. Communicatively efficient language production and case-marker omission in Japanese. The 34th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci12). Sapporo, Japan. July, 2012.

by T. Florian Jaeger

Feel free to cite. For page numbers, pls see the CogSci Proceedings webpage.

Recent proposals hold that language production reflects speakers bias to achieve efficient information transmission.... more Recent proposals hold that language production reflects speakers bias to achieve efficient information transmission. Speakers tend to provide more linguistic signal for information that is difficult to recover while omitting or reducing contextually inferable elements. However, previous findings in support of this hypothesis have been claimed to be compatible with alternative explanations in terms of production difficulty, therefore not requiring reference to communicative efficiency. We present two recall-production experiments on Japanese speakers’ preference in optional object case-marking that test the predictions of communicative efficiency accounts, while ruling out alternative explanations in terms of production difficulty. We find that speakers of Japanese are more likely to mark objects with case, if the referential properties of the object (Experiment 1) or the combination of subject, object, and verb (Experiment 2) bias against the intended assignment of grammatical functions. Together the experiments provide evidence that speakers prefer to provide case-marking if the intended interpretation of the sentence is unexpected or implausible.

Kleinschmidt, D.F., Fine, A.B., and Jaeger, T.F. 2012. A belief-updating model of adaptation and cue combination in syntactic comprehension. The 34th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci12). Sapporo, Japan. July, 2012.

by T. Florian Jaeger

Feel free to cite. For page numbers, pls see the CogSci Proceedings webpage.

We develop and evaluate a preliminary belief-updating model which links intermediate-term (i.e., over several days)... more We develop and evaluate a preliminary belief-updating model which links intermediate-term (i.e., over several days) syntactic adaptation to the joint statistics of syntactic structures and lexical cues to those structures. This model shows how subjects differentially depend on different cues to syntactic structure following changes in the reliability of those cues, as shown by Fine and Jaeger (2011). By relating syntactic adaptation and cue combination to rational inference under uncertainty, this work links learning and adaptation in sentence processing with adaptation in speech perception and non-linguistic domains.

Keywords: sentence processing, adaptation, Bayesian modeling

Italian Catholic and Muslim women crossing private-public practices of communication

by Rosa Traversa

Traversa, R. (2012). Italian Catholic and Muslim women crossing public-private practices of communication. In G. Mininni & A. Manuti (Eds.) Applied Psycholinguistics. Positive effects and ethical perspectives. Vol. II, 34-42, FrancoAngeli: Milano.

The present research work attempts to explore all the contaminated processes of sense-making in female Islamic and... more The present research work attempts to explore all the contaminated processes of sense-making in female Islamic and Catholic narratives.
Since it is argued that religion is communicated in “post-transcendental” ways into the global scenario, I have furthered the intertwining constructions of what is to be meant with “religious woman” and the many implications of certain discourses about gender and religion as fixed entities.
In line with these narratives, I analyzed the embodied communication on the border of the so-called public-private dichotomy, by emphasizing the bodily meaning involved in defining themselves as women, as human beings and as religious.
Thus, I highlighted the empowerment women receive from religion as well as their conflicts related to personal vs. official religious discourses, by proposing various lens to approach agency and resistance.

Forenzićna lingvistika v kriminalističnem preiskovanju (Forensic linguistics in criminal investigation)

by Petra Čarman

Co-authored with: Peter Umek, PhD.
published in: Revija za kriminalistiko in kriminologijo ISSN: 0034-690X.- Letn. 62, št. 3 (jul.-sep. 2011), str. 263-273

V prispevku so predstavljeni pri nas malo znana forenzična lingvistika in njena pomembnejša področja, kot so... more V prispevku so predstavljeni pri nas malo znana forenzična lingvistika in njena pomembnejša področja, kot so forenzična fonetika, semantika, pragmatika, predvsem pa forenzična stilistika, sociolingvistika in psiholingvistika. Forenzična stilistika nam omogoča ugotavljati avtorstvo pisca besedila, spoznanja sociolingvistike in psiholingvistike so uporabna pri sestavi osebnostnega profila neznanega storilca kaznivega dejanja, če storilec komunicira s policijo, mediji, žrtvami (grozilna pisma, razna sporočila). Predstavljena je tudi novejša analiza SMS- poročil.

Članek poroča o rezultatih pilotske študije, s katero smo preverjali, koliko so laiki sposobni ugotoviti nekatere demografske in druge osebnostne značilnosti iz besedila anonimnega pisca. Študenti Fakultete za varnostne vede so bolje od slučaja ugotavljali spol, starost in izobrazbo neznanega pisca, manj uspešni pa so bili pri ugotavljanju drugih osebnostnih lastnosti piscev.

Rezultati študije nakazujejo, da bi kriminalisti, ob primernem izobraževanju in usposabljanju, lahko sami opravili vsaj osnovno sociolingvistično in psiholingvistično analizo.

Abstract, Dedication, and Acknowledgments for the Hobbs (2011) dissertation published by SAS.

by Robert Dean Hobbs

The Hobbs (2011) doctoral study is published in the ProQuest Dissertations and These database, UMI No. 3484309

The purpose of the qualitative research was to assess models of education developed for the study to investigate how... more The purpose of the qualitative research was to assess models of education developed for the study to investigate how and when to incorporate second and third languages into the curriculum to improve language acquisition. Research indicates that L3 enhances and reinforces L2 and L1. The stratified systematic grounded theory study explored the perspectives of neurolinguists, psycholinguists, sociolinguists, and interdisciplinary education researchers to derive variables for constructing a new model of education. The outcome of the Internet survey revealed that 100% of the participants agreed that education must change and that teacher training must improve. Variables from the cross-disciplinary data contributed to the construction of an integrated model of multilingual education consisting of four primary models and other models to serve as tools for designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment as well as determining demographics and student meta-analysis of language abilities and storage in the brain. The first model emerged from the data to offer multilingual principles of education. The other primary models are macro, meso, and micro models. The macro model represents schools, instruction, assessment, and the curriculum cycle. The meso model depicts the developmental domains of the individual learner and includes a cyclical equation. The micro model delineates multilingual processing in the brain based on neurolinguistic research, variables from the current study, and Kees de Bot's bilingual adaptation of Levelt's language processing model. Recommendations include the incorporation of notional-functional pragmatic-aesthetic concepts as depicted in the models developed for the study and enhanced by input from published researchers with unique language and research repertoires who were located on four continents.

Stimulus onset asynchrony and the timeline of word recognition: Event-related potentials during sentence reading

by Olaf Dimigen

Dambacher, M., Dimigen, O., Braun, M., Wille, K., Jacobs, A., & Kliegl, R. (in press).  Neuropsychologia

Mastropavlou, M. (2008). Grammatical gender in aphasia: Evidence from Greek. Oral presentation at the 2nd Conference on Language Disorders in Greek. Patras, 31 May - 1 June 2008.

by Maria Mastropavlou

(forthcoming) A case study of primary process language and body boundary imagery in discourses of religious-mystical and psychotic altered states of consciousness

by Laura Cariola

Empirical Text and Cultural Research

Religious-mystical and psychotic altered states of consciousness (ASC) are assumed to share common phenomenological... more Religious-mystical and psychotic altered states of consciousness (ASC) are assumed to share common phenomenological and psychobiological features, including changes in body boundary awareness. This study aimed to assess the frequency and strength of associations between body boundary imagery and primary process language in the discourses of mystical and psychotic-mystical ASC. The mystical discourse examined here is Saint Teresa of Avila’s (1567) mystical writing "The Way of Perfection”, and the psychotic discourse is Daniel Paul Schreber’s (1903) autobiographical writing “Memoirs of My Nervous Illness”. The mystical text differs from the psychotic text in the frequency of primary process language and penetration imagery. Positive associations were also found between primary process language and penetration imagery, and barrier and penetration imagery, whereas the psychotic text yielded a positive association between barrier and penetration imagery only.

Incidental Picture Exposure Affects Later Reading: Evidence from the N400

by Rolf Zwaan

in press, Brain and Language

Language comprehenders form a mental representation of the implied shape of objects mentioned in the text. In the... more Language comprehenders form a mental representation of the implied shape of objects mentioned in the text. In the present study, the influence of prior visual experience on subsequent reading was assessed. In two separate phases, participants saw a picture of an object and read a text about the object, suggesting the same or a different shape. When the shapes in the two phases mismatched, ERPs during reading showed a larger N400 amplitude than when the shapes matched, suggesting that a picture presented incidentally 15 minutes earlier affected reading. These results further strengthen the case for the interaction of language and visual experience during language comprehension.


Keywords: embodied cognition; reading comprehension; visual experience; ERP; N400

Lexical and syntactic representations in closely related languages: Evidence from Mandarin and Cantonese

by Zhenguang Cai

Zhenguang G. Cai, Martin J. Pickering, Hao Yan, Holly P. Branigan

The effect of non-adopted analyses on sentence processing

by Zhenguang Cai

Zhenguang G. Cai, Patrick Sturt, Martin J. Pickering

Perceived imitation of regional dialects (2012)

by Sara Phillips-Bourass

Co-authored with Cynthia G. Clopper, published in the Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, volume 12.

Paper is available from the ASA/POMA website.

Beyond Sarcasm: Intonation and Context as Relational Cues in Children's Recognition of Irony

by Constantine Nakassis

Co-authored with Jesse Snedeker. In Proceedings-of-the-Annual-Boston-University-Conference-on-Language-Development. 26(2): 429-440.

The effects of age on the strategic use of pitch accents in memory for discourse: A processing-resource account.

by Scott Fraundorf

Fraundorf, S. H., Watson, D. G., & Benjamin. A. S. (2012). The effects of age on the strategic use of pitch accents in memory for discourse: A processing-resource account. Psychology and Aging, 27, 88-98.

In two experiments, we investigated age-related changes in how prosodic pitch accents affect memory. Participants... more In two experiments, we investigated age-related changes in how prosodic pitch accents affect memory. Participants listened to recorded discourses that contained two contrasts between pairs of items (e.g., one story contrasted British scientists with French scientists and Malaysia with Indonesia). The end of each discourse referred to one item from each pair; these references received a pitch accent that either denoted contrast (L+H* in the ToBI system) or did not (H*). A contrastive accent on a particular pair improved later recognition memory equally for young and older adults. However, older adults showed decreased memory if the other pair received a contrastive accent (Experiment 1). Young adults with low working memory performance also showed this penalty (Experiment 2). These results suggest that pitch accents guide processing resources to important information for both older and younger adults but diminish memory for less important information in groups with reduced resources, including older adults.

Dissociating visual form from lexical frequency using Japanese

by Keith Kawabata Duncan

Tae Twomey, Keith J. Kawabata Duncan, John S. Hogan, Kenji Morita, Kazumasa Umeda, Katsuyuki Sakai, Joseph T. Devlin
In press at Brain and Language

In Japanese, the same word can be written in either morphographic Kanji or syllabographic Hiragana and this provides a... more In Japanese, the same word can be written in either morphographic Kanji or syllabographic Hiragana and this provides a unique opportunity to disentangle a word’s lexical frequency from the frequency of its visual form – an important distinction for understanding the neural information processing in regions engaged by reading. Behaviorally, participants responded more quickly to high than low frequency words and to visually familiar relative to less familiar words, independent of script. Critically, the imaging results showed that visual familiarity, as opposed to lexical frequency, had a strong effect on activation in ventral occipito-temporal cortex. Activation here was also greater for Kanji than Hiragana words and this was not due to their inherent differences in visual complexity. These findings can be understood within a predictive coding framework in which vOT receives bottom-up information encoding complex visual forms and top-down predictions from regions encoding non-visual attributes of the stimulus.

Lexical surprisal as a general predictor of reading time

by Stefan Frank

Fernandez Monsalve, I., Frank, S.L., & Vigliocco, G. (2012). Lexical surprisal as a general predictor of reading time. Proceedings of the 13th conference of the European chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics.

Probabilistic accounts of language processing can be psychologically tested by comparingword-reading times (RT) to the... more Probabilistic accounts of language processing can be psychologically tested by comparingword-reading times (RT) to the conditional word probabilities estimated bylanguage models. Using surprisal as a linking function, a significant correlation between unlexicalized surprisal and RT has been reported (e.g., Demberg and Keller, 2008), but success using lexicalized modelshas been limited. In this study, phrase structure grammars and recurrent neural networks estimated both lexicalized and unlexicalized surprisal for words of independent
sentences from narrative sources. These same sentences were used as stimuli ina self-paced reading experiment to obtain RTs. The results show that lexicalized surprisalaccording to both models is a significant predictor of RT, outperforming its unlexicalizedcounterparts.