scholarly journals Sentence Comprehension as a Cognitive Process

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shravan Vasishth ◽  
Felix Engelmann
Keyword(s):  
Computational Linguistics ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
New Research

Sentence comprehension - the way we process and understand spoken and written language - is a central and important area of research within psycholinguistics. This book explores the contribution of computational linguistics to the field, showing how computational models of sentence processing can help scientists in their investigation of human cognitive processes. It presents the leading computational model of retrieval processes in sentence processing, the Lewis and Vasishth cue-based retrieval mode, and develops a principled methodology for parameter estimation and model comparison/evaluation using benchmark data, to enable researchers to test their own models of retrieval against the present model. It also provides readers with an overview of the last 20 years of research on the topic of retrieval processes in sentence comprehension, along with source code that allows researchers to extend the model and carry out new research. Comprehensive in its scope, this book is essential reading for researchers in cognitive science.

scholarly journals Computational models of retrieval processes in sentence processing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shravan Vasishth ◽  
Bruno Nicenboim ◽  
Felix Engelmann ◽  
Frank Burchert
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Benchmark Data ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Empirical Coverage ◽  
Competing Models ◽  
Retrieval From Memory

Sentence comprehension requires that the comprehender work out who did what to whom. This process has been characterized as retrieval from memory. This review summarizes the quantitative predictions and empirical coverage of the two existing computational models of retrieval, and shows how the predictive performance of these two competing models can be tested against a benchmark data-set. We also show how computational modeling can help us better understand sources of variability in both unimpaired and impaired sentence comprehension.

scholarly journals A computational evaluation of two models of retrieval processes in sentence processing in aphasia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Lissón ◽  
Dorothea Pregla ◽  
Bruno Nicenboim ◽  
Dario Paape ◽  
Mick L. van het Nederend ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Computational Evaluation ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Access Model

Can sentence comprehension impairments in aphasia be explained by difficulties arising from dependency completion processes in parsing? Two distinct models of dependencycompletion difficulty are investigated, the Lewis and Vasishth (2005) activation-based model, and the direct-access model (McElree, 2000). These models’ predictive performance is compared using data from individuals with aphasia (IWAs) and control participants. The data are from a self-paced listening task involving subject and object relative clauses. The relative predictive performance of the models is evaluated using k-fold cross validation. For both IWAs and controls, the activation model furnishes a somewhat better quantitativefit to the data than the direct-access model. Model comparison using Bayes factors shows that, assuming an activation-based model, intermittent deficiencies may be the best explanation for the cause of impairments in IWAs. This is the first computational evaluation of different models of dependency completion using data from impaired andunimpaired individuals. This evaluation develops a systematic approach that can be used to quantitatively compare the predictions of competing models of language processing.

scholarly journals Computational Models of Retrieval Processes in Sentence Processing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shravan Vasishth ◽  
Bruno Nicenboim ◽  
Felix Engelmann ◽  
Frank Burchert
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Retrieval Processes

scholarly journals The effect of prominence and cue association on retrieval processes: A computational account

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Engelmann ◽  
Lena A. Jäger ◽  
Shravan Vasishth
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Empirical Evaluation ◽  
Experimental Designs ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Context Dependent ◽  
Retrieval Interference ◽  
Partial Success

We present a comprehensive empirical evaluation of the ACT-R-based model of sentence processing developed by Lewis & Vasishth (2005) (LV05). The predictions of the model are compared with the results of a recent meta-analysis of published reading studies on retrieval interference in reflexive-/reciprocal-antecedent and subject-verb dependencies (Jäger, Engelmann, & Vasishth, 2017). The comparison shows that the model has only partial success in explaining the data; and we propose that its prediction space is restricted by oversimplifying assumptions. We then implement a revised model that takes into account differences between individual experimental designs in terms of the prominence of the target and the distractor in memory and context-dependent cue-feature associations. The predictions of the original and the revised model are quantitatively compared with the results of the meta-analysis. Our simulations show that, compared to the original LV05 model, the revised model accounts for the data better. The results suggest that effects of prominence and variable cue-feature associations need to be considered in the interpretation of existing empirical results and in the design and planning of future experiments. With regard to retrieval interference in sentence processing and to the broader field of psycholinguistic studies, we conclude that well-specified models in tandem with high-powered experiments are needed in order to uncover the underlying cognitive processes.

scholarly journals Towards computational models of multilingual sentence processing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan L. Frank
Keyword(s):  
Computational Linguistics ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Cognitive Models ◽  
The State ◽  
Cognitive Modelling ◽  
Current Review ◽  
Multiple Languages ◽  
Human Sentence Processing

Although computational models can simulate aspects of human sentence processing, research on this topic has remained almost exclusively limited to the single language case. The current review presents an overview of the state of the art in computational cognitive models of sentence processing, and discusses how recent sentence-processing models can be used to study bi- and multilingualism. Recent results from cognitive modelling and computational linguistics suggest that phenomena specific to bilingualism can emerge from systems that have no dedicated components for handling multiple languages. Hence, accounting for human bi-/multilingualism may not require models that are much more sophisticated than those for the monolingual case.

scholarly journals Computational Models of Retrieval Processes in Sentence Processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (11) ◽  
pp. 968-982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shravan Vasishth ◽  
Bruno Nicenboim ◽  
Felix Engelmann ◽  
Frank Burchert
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Retrieval Processes

scholarly journals Individual differences in cue-weighting in sentence comprehension: An evaluation using Approximate Bayesian Computation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Himanshu Yadav ◽  
Dario Paape ◽  
Garrett Smith ◽  
Brian Dillon ◽  
Shravan Vasishth
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Approximate Bayesian Computation ◽  
Reading Proficiency ◽  
Bayesian Computation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Cue Weighting ◽  
Approximate Bayesian

Cue-based retrieval theories of sentence processing assume that syntactic dependencies are resolved through a content-addressable search process. An important recent claim is that in certain dependency types, the retrieval cues are weighted such that one cue dominates. This cue-weighting proposal aims to explain the observed average behavior, but here we show that there is systematic individual-level variation in cue weighting. Using the Lewis and Vasishth cue-based retrieval model, we estimated individual-level parameters for processing speed and cue weighting using 13 published datasets; hierarchical Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) was used to estimate the parameters. The modeling reveals a nuanced picture of cue weighting: we find support for the idea that some participants weight cues differentially, but not all participants do. Only fast readers tend to have the higher weighting for structural cues, suggesting that reading proficiency might be associated with cue weighting. A broader achievement of the work is to demonstrate how individual differences can be investigated in computational models of sentence processing without compromising the complexity of the model.

The Effects of Focal Brain Damage on Sentence Processing: an examination of the neurological organization of a mental module

1989 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Swinney ◽  
Edgar Zurif ◽  
Janet Nicol
Keyword(s):  
Brain Damage ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Cognitive Architecture ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Visual Words ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Pathological Material ◽  
Simple Sentences

The effects of prior semantic context upon lexical access during sentence processing were examined for three groups of subjects; nonfluent agrammatic (Broca's) aphasic patients; fluent (Wernicke's) aphasic patients; and neurologically intact control patients. Subjects were asked to comprehend auditorily presented, structurally simple sentences containing lexical ambiguities, which were in a context strongly biased toward just one interpretation of that ambiguity. While listening to each sentence, subjects also had to perform a lexical decision task upon a visually presented letter string. For the fluent Wernicke's patients, as for the controls, lexical decisions for visual words related to each of the meanings of the ambiguity were facilitated. By contrast, agrammatic Broca's patients showed significant facilitation only for visual words related to the a priori most frequent interpretation of the ambiguity. On the basis of these data, we suggest that normal form-based word retrieval processes are crucially reliant upon the cortical tissue implicated in agrammatism, but that even the focal brain damage yielding agrammatism does not destroy the normally encapsulated form of word access. That is, we propose that in agrammatism, the modularity of word access during sentence comprehension is rendered less efficient but not lost. Additionally, we consider a number of broader issues involved in the use of pathological material to infer characteristics of the neurological organization of cognitive architecture.

When Hearing Does Not Mean Understanding: On the Neural Processing of Syntactically Complex Sentences by Listeners With Hearing Loss

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Margreet Vogelzang ◽  
Christiane M. Thiel ◽  
Stephanie Rosemann ◽  
Jochem W. Rieger ◽  
Esther Ruigendijk
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
Sentence Complexity ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
And Task

Purpose Adults with mild-to-moderate age-related hearing loss typically exhibit issues with speech understanding, but their processing of syntactically complex sentences is not well understood. We test the hypothesis that listeners with hearing loss' difficulties with comprehension and processing of syntactically complex sentences are due to the processing of degraded input interfering with the successful processing of complex sentences. Method We performed a neuroimaging study with a sentence comprehension task, varying sentence complexity (through subject–object order and verb–arguments order) and cognitive demands (presence or absence of a secondary task) within subjects. Groups of older subjects with hearing loss ( n = 20) and age-matched normal-hearing controls ( n = 20) were tested. Results The comprehension data show effects of syntactic complexity and hearing ability, with normal-hearing controls outperforming listeners with hearing loss, seemingly more so on syntactically complex sentences. The secondary task did not influence off-line comprehension. The imaging data show effects of group, sentence complexity, and task, with listeners with hearing loss showing decreased activation in typical speech processing areas, such as the inferior frontal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus. No interactions between group, sentence complexity, and task were found in the neuroimaging data. Conclusions The results suggest that listeners with hearing loss process speech differently from their normal-hearing peers, possibly due to the increased demands of processing degraded auditory input. Increased cognitive demands by means of a secondary visual shape processing task influence neural sentence processing, but no evidence was found that it does so in a different way for listeners with hearing loss and normal-hearing listeners.

scholarly journals Reanalysis processes in non-native sentence comprehension

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Hiroki Fujita ◽  
Ian Cunnings
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Memory Trace ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Subordinate Clause

Abstract We report two offline and two eye-movement experiments examining non-native (L2) sentence processing during and after reanalysis of temporarily ambiguous sentences like “While Mary dressed the baby laughed happily”. Such sentences cause reanalysis at the main clause verb (“laughed”), as the temporarily ambiguous noun phrase (“the baby”) may initially be misanalysed as the direct object of the subordinate clause verb (“dressed”). The offline experiments revealed that L2ers have difficulty reanalysing temporarily ambiguous sentences with a greater persistence of the initially assigned misinterpretation than native (L1) speakers. In the eye-movement experiments, we found that L2ers complete reanalysis similarly to L1ers but fail to fully erase the memory trace of the initially assigned interpretation. Our results suggested that the source of L2 reanalysis difficulty is a failure to erase the initially assigned misinterpretation from memory rather than a failure to conduct syntactic reanalysis.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document