scholarly journals Modeling Sentence Comprehension Deficits in Aphasia: A Computational Evaluation of the Direct-Access Model of Retrieval

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Lissón ◽  
Dorothea Pregla ◽  
Dario Paape ◽  
Frank Burchert ◽  
Nicole Stadie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Similar Performance ◽  
Computational Evaluation ◽  
Retrieval Mechanism ◽  
Access Model

Several researchers have argued that sentence comprehension is mediated via a content addressable retrieval mechanism that allows fast and direct access to memory items. Initially failed retrievals can result in backtracking, which leads to correct retrieval. We present an augmented version of the direct access model that allows backtracking to fail. Based on self-paced listening data from individuals with aphasia, we compare the augmented model to the base model without backtracking failures. The augmented model shows quantitatively similar performance to the base model, but only the augmented model can account for slow incorrect responses. We argue that the modified direct-access model is theoretically better suited to fit data from impaired populations.

scholarly journals Similarity-based interference in sentence comprehension in aphasia: A computational evaluation of two models of cue-based retrieval

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Lissón ◽  
Dario Paape ◽  
Dorothea Pregla ◽  
Nicole Stadie ◽  
Frank Burchert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Pronoun Resolution ◽  
Computational Evaluation ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Access Model

Sentence comprehension requires the listener to link incoming words with short-term memory representations in order to build linguistic dependencies. The cue-based retrieval theory of sentence processing predicts that the retrieval of these memory representations is affected by similarity-based interference. We present the first large-scale computational evaluation of interference effects in two models of sentence processing – the activation-based model, and a modification of the direct-access model – in individuals with aphasia (IWA) and control participants in German. The parameters of the models are linked to prominent theories of processing deficits in aphasia, and the models are tested against two linguistic constructions in German: Pronoun resolution and relative clauses. The data come from a visual-world eye-tracking experiment combined with a sentence-picture matching task. The results show that both control participants and IWA are susceptible to retrieval interference, and that a combination of theoretical explanations (intermittent deficiencies, slow syntax, and resource reduction) can explain IWA’s deficits in sentence processing. Model comparisons reveal that both models have a similar predictive performance in pronoun resolution, but the activation-based model outperforms the direct-access model in relative clauses.

scholarly journals Modeling Sentence Comprehension Deficits in Aphasia: A Computational Evaluation of the Direct-access Model of Retrieval

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Lissón ◽  
Dorothea Pregla ◽  
Dario Paape ◽  
Frank Burchert ◽  
Nicole Stadie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Computational Evaluation ◽  
Access Model

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 A Shift from Phonological Recoding to Direct Access in Reading as a Result of Previous Exposure

1984 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven G. Zecker ◽  
Mark DuMont
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Lexical Access ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Phonological Recoding ◽  
Previous Exposure ◽  
Initial Exposure ◽  
Visual Access ◽  
Access Model

The present study examined the effect of repeated exposures of a visually presented phrase on the mode of lexical access (phonological recoding vs. visual mediation) used. Subjects made meaningfulness decisions about two- and three-word phrases. Following five exposures to each phrase, some of which sounded meaningful but were not (“drops of do”), and others which were neither (“nut and bout”), the significant reaction time advantage on the first exposure for rejecting the latter phrase type was eliminated. Results supported the dual access hypothesis that subjects use phonological recoding upon initial exposure to a phrase, but following repeated exposures are able to use direct visual access. A dual access model compatible with these results is discussed.

scholarly journals Comprehending anaphoric presuppositions involves memory retrieval too

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherry Yong Chen ◽  
E. Matthew Husband
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Diffusion Model ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Memory Representation ◽  
Drift Diffusion Model ◽  
Drift Diffusion ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Retrieval Mechanism ◽  
Presupposition Triggers

We investigate the memory retrieval mechanism that underlies the real-time comprehension of anaphoric presupposition triggers. Using the Drift Diffusion Model, we offer a new experimental argument for the anaphoric view of presuppositions with evidence from the memory retrieval processes associated with the trigger too. We show that the memory representation of the antecedent content that satisfies the presupposition is retrieved via a direct access mechanism, suggesting that anaphoric triggers such as too share the same processing signature of many anaphoric expressions, such as pronouns and VP ellipses.

scholarly journals The iconic representation of metaphor. An event-related potentials (ERPs) analysis of figurative language

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michela Balconi ◽  
Serafino Tutino
Keyword(s):  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Cognitive Complexity ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Iconic Representation ◽  
Content Variable ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
The Difference

The aim of the study is to explore the iconic representation of frozen metaphor. Starting from the dichotomy between the pragmatic models, for which metaphor is a semantic anomaly, and the direct access models, where metaphor is seen as similar to literal language, the cognitive and linguistic processes involved in metaphor comprehension are analyzed using behavioural data (RTs) and neuropsychological indexes (ERPs). 36 subjects listened to 160 sentences equally shared in the variables content (metaphorical vs literal) and congruousness (anomalous vs not semantically anomalous). The ERPs analysis showed two negative deflections (N3-N4 complex), that indicated different cognitive processes involved in sentence comprehension. Repeated measures ANOVA, applied to peak amplitude and latency variables, suggested in fact N4 as index of semantic anomaly (incongruous stimuli), more localized in posterior (Pz) area, while N3 was sensitive to the content variable: metaphor sentences had an ampler deflection than literal ones and posteriorly distributed (Oz). Adding this results with behavioral data (no differences for metaphor vs literal), it seems that the difference between metaphorical and literal decoding isn’t for the cognitive complexity of decoding (direct or indirect access), but for its representation format, which is more iconic for metaphor (as N3 suggests).

scholarly journals Bayesian Hierarchical Finite Mixture Models of Reading Times: A Case Study

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shravan Vasishth ◽  
Bruno Nicenboim ◽  
Nicolas Chopin ◽  
Robin Ryder
Keyword(s):  
Mixture Models ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Finite Mixture Models ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Alternative Theory ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Bayesian Hierarchical

We present a case study demonstrating the importance of Bayesian hierarchical mixture models as a modelling tool for evaluating the predictions of competing theories of cognitive processes. As a case study, we revisit two published data sets from psycholinguistics. In sentence comprehension, it is widely assumed that the distance between linguistic co-dependents affects the latency of dependency resolution: the longer the distance, the longer the time taken to complete the dependency (e.g., Gibson 2000). An alternative theory, direct access (McElree, 1993), assumes that retrieval times are a mixture of two distributions (Nicenboim & Vasishth, 2017): one distribution represents successful retrievals and the other represents an initial failure to retrieve the correct dependent, followed by a reanalysis that leads to successful retrieval. Here, dependency distance has the effect that in long-distance conditions the proportion of reanalyses is higher. We implement both theories as Bayesian hierarchical models and show that the direct-access model fits the Chinese relative clause reading time data better than the dependency-distance account. This work makes several novel contributions. First, we demonstrate how the researcher can reason about the underlying generative process of their data, thereby expressing the underlying cognitive process as a statistical model. Second, we show how models that have been developed in an exploratory manner to represent different underlying generative processes can be compared in terms of their predictive performance, using both K-fold cross validation on existing data, and using completely new data. Finally, we show how the models can be evaluated using simulated data.

scholarly journals Statistical properties of the speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) paradigm in sentence processing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Pankratz ◽  
Himanshu Yadav ◽  
Garrett Smith ◽  
Shravan Vasishth
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Limited Data ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Test Parameter ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Parameter Recovery ◽  
Correct Representation ◽  
Speed Accuracy ◽  
Access Model

Studies of the speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) have been influential in arguing for the direct-access model of retrieval in sentence processing. The direct-access model assumes that long-distance dependencies rely on a content-addressable search for the correct representation in memory. Here, we address two important weaknesses in the statistical methods standardly used for analysing SAT data. First, these methods are based on non-hierarchical modelling. We show how a hierarchical model can be fit to SAT data, and we test parameter recovery in this more conservative model. The parameters most relevant to the direct-access account cannot be accurately estimated, and we attribute this to the standard SAT model being overparameterised for the limited data available to fit it. Second, the power properties of SAT studies are unknown. We conduct a power analysis and show that inferences from null results to the null hypothesis, though commonplace in the SAT literature, may be unwarranted.

scholarly journals The Roles of Familiarity and Context in Processing Chinese Xiehouyu: An ERP Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaolu Wang ◽  
Yizhen Wang ◽  
Wanning Tian ◽  
Wei Zheng ◽  
Xiaoli Chen
Keyword(s):  
Contextual Information ◽  
Interactive Effect ◽  
Literal Meaning ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Metaphorical Meaning ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Idiomatic Expressions ◽  
Language Construct ◽  
Processing Mechanism ◽  
Access Model

AbstractThis study conducts an ERP experiment to explore the online processing mechanism of Chinese xiehouyu, a subcategory of Chinese idiomatic expressions with a metaphorical two-part allegorical saying, regarded as a non-literal language construct. Using a 2 × 2 design, (high familiarity (HF)/low familiarity (LF)) × (literally-biasing context (LC)/metaphorically-biasing context (MC)), the researchers have obtained the following findings: (1) familiarity plays an important role in Chinese xiehouyu processing, i.e. the metaphorical meaning of a HF Chinese xiehouyu can be directly activated while that of a LF one has to be derived from its literal meaning first; (2) contextual information also weighs in the process, i.e. the metaphorical meaning of a Chinese xiehouyu can be promoted in MC condition but suppressed in LC condition; (3) the interactive effect of familiarity and contextual information can be explained by the career of metaphor hypothesis; and (4) the Standard Pragmatic Model (SPM) of non-literal languages can explain the processing of LF xiehouyu, and the Direct Access Model (DAM) may to some extent account for the mechanism of HF one but fails to explain the case of LF one, while the Graded Salience Hypothesis (GSH) can provide an acceptable explanation for the processing mechanism of Chinese xiehouyus of varied familiarity.

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