scholarly journals Effects of Dispositional Affect on the N400: Language Processing and Socially Situated Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veena D. Dwivedi ◽  
Janahan Selvanayagam
Keyword(s):  
Negative Affect ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Positive And Negative Affect ◽  
Object Type ◽  
Socially Situated

We examined whether the N400 Event-Related Potential (ERP) component would be modulated by dispositional affect during sentence processing. In this study, 33 participants read sentences manipulated by direct object type (congruent vs. incongruent) and object determiner type (definite vs. demonstrative). We were particularly interested in sentences of the form: (i) The connoisseur tasted thewineon the tour vs. (ii) The connoisseur tasted the #roof… We expected that processing incongruent direct objects (#roof) vs. congruent objects (wine) would elicit N400 effects. Previous ERP language experiments have shown that participants in (induced) positive and negative moods were differentially sensitive to semantic anomaly, resulting in different N400 effects. Presently, we ask whether individual dispositional affect scores (as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; PANAS) would modulate N400 effects as shown previously. Namely, previous results showed larger N400 effects associated with happy moods and attenuated amplitudes associated with sad moods. Results revealed significant N400 effects, driven by the #roof vs. the wine, where larger amplitude differences were found for individuals showing smaller negative affect (NA) scores, thus partially replicating previous findings. We discuss our results in terms of theories of local (lexical) inhibition, such that low NA promotes stronger lexico-semantic links in sentences. Finally, our results support accounts of language processing that include social and biological characteristics of individuals during real-time sentence comprehension.

scholarly journals Memory retrieval and sentence processing: Differences between native and non-native speakers

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-658
Author(s):  
JUBIN ABUTALEBI ◽  
HARALD CLAHSEN
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Shallow Structure Hypothesis ◽  
Experimental Findings ◽  
L1 And L2

Efficient comprehension of sentences requires rapidly and continuously accessing and integrating different sources of information in real time. Psycholinguists have developed detailed models and theories to account for the processes involved in on-line sentence comprehension as well as a number of sophisticated experimental designs for studying these processes. But how about real-time sentence processing in bilinguals? The study of bilingual sentence processing has received considerable attention and has led to a remarkable growth of experimental studies over the last 10 years. The focus of these studies has been on late bilinguals, i.e., on second-language (L2) learners who learned a non-native language after early childhood, as adolescents or adults. These studies have revealed both similarities and differences between native (L1) and non-native (L2) sentence processing. Several proposals have been made to account for the experimental findings, but the significance and nature of native vs. non-native differences in sentence processing has remained controversial. Some researchers have claimed that L1 and L2 sentence processing are essentially the same and that observed performance differences between native and non-native sentence comprehension are due to peripheral factors, e.g., decoding problems, working memory limitations, slower processing speed, difficulties with lexical access and retrieval, or a reduced ability to predict during L2 processing (e.g., McDonald, 2006; Hopp, 2016; Kaan, 2014). Others have posited more substantial differences between L1 and L2 processing. One prominent proposal is Clahsen and Felser's (2006a, b) Shallow-Structure Hypothesis (SSH). Assuming multi-stream models of language processing (e.g., Ferreira & Patson, 2007) with two routes from form to meaning, a heuristic one that employs surface-form information, lexical and semantic cues, and an algorithmic route that relies on a full grammatical parse, the SSH holds that L2 processing relies less on grammatical and more on non-grammatical information sources, in comparison to L1 processing of syntactic (and morphological) phenomena.

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.

EXPRESS: Selective adaptation in sentence comprehension: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182098462
Author(s):  
Masataka Yano ◽  
Shugo Suwazono ◽  
Hiroshi Arao ◽  
Daichi Yasunaga ◽  
Hiroaki Oishi
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Selective Adaptation ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Equal Probability ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Processing Cost ◽  
Low Probability

The present study conducted two event-related potential experiments to investigate whether readers adapt their expectations to morphosyntactically (Experiment 1) or semantically (Experiment 2) anomalous sentences when they are repeatedly exposed to them. To address this issue, we manipulated the probability of morphosyntactically/semantically grammatical and anomalous sentence occurrence through experiments. For the low probability block, anomalous sentences were presented less frequently than grammatical sentences (with a ratio of 1 to 4), while they were presented as frequently as grammatical sentences in the equal probability block. Experiment 1 revealed a smaller P600 effect for morphosyntactic violations in the equal probability block than in the low probability block. Linear mixed-effect models were used to examine how the size of the P600 effect changed as the experiment went along. The results showed that the smaller P600 effect of the equal probability block resulted from an amplitude’s decline in morphosyntactically violated sentences over the course of the experiment, suggesting an adaptation to morphosyntactic violations. In Experiment 2, semantically anomalous sentences elicited a larger N400 effect than their semantically natural counterparts regardless of probability manipulation. No evidence was found in favor of adaptation to semantic violations in that the processing cost of semantic violations did not decrease over the course of the experiment. Therefore, the present study demonstrated a dynamic aspect of language-processing system. We will discuss why the language-processing system shows a selective adaptation to morphosyntactic violations.

The Modularity of Sentence Processing Reconsidered

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernanda Ferreira ◽  
James Nye
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Modular Architecture ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Modular Architectures ◽  
Processing Module ◽  
Almost All

Today, the modular view of sentence processing is unpopular, but the arguments against modularity are not as strong as this apparent consensus would suggest. Almost all experimental investigations of modularity have focused on properties pertaining to information encapsulation, and most of those studies have evaluated just one specific modular architecture. A review of these studies of sentence comprehension suggests that the evidence against information encapsulation is really evidence against that one architecture only, and a whole range of other possible modular architectures remain untested. Although psycholinguistic work has largely ignored the modularity claims relating to shallow outputs, new findings from studies to test “good enough” language processing suggest that the output of the language processing module can be characterized as shallow or minimal. Perhaps, then, the modularity hypothesis was prematurely rejected. Evidence for shallow outputs provides intriguing new support for the idea that sentence processing is indeed modular.

Relation of working memory to off-line and real-time sentence processing in children with specific language impairment

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES W. MONTGOMERY
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Load Condition ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Processing Task

In this study we examined the influence of working memory on the off-line and real-time sentence comprehension/processing of children with specific language impairment (SLI). A total of 12 children with SLI, 12 normally developing children matched for chronological age (CA), and 12 children matched for receptive syntax (RS) completed three tasks. In the working memory task, children recalled as many words as possible under three processing load conditions varying in the number of mental operations (i.e., no load, single load, dual load). In the off-line comprehension task, children listened to linguistically nonredundant and redundant sentences. In the real-time sentence processing task, children monitored sentences for the occurrence of a target word appearing at the beginning, middle, or end of a test sentence and pushed a response pad as quickly as possible upon hearing the target. In the memory task, SLI children recalled fewer words in the dual-load condition relative to CA peers, who showed no condition effect. The SLI and RS groups performed similarly overall; however, both groups recalled fewer words in the dual-load condition than in the other conditions. In the off-line task, the SLI group comprehended fewer sentences of both types relative to the CA controls and fewer redundant sentences relative to themselves and to the RS controls. A significant correlation between working memory and sentence comprehension was found for the SLI group and control groups. For the on-line task, between-group analyses revealed that the SLI group yielded an overall slower word recognition reaction time than the CA and RS groups. Working memory and sentence processing were not correlated for any group. Results were interpreted to suggest that SLI children have a more limited functional working memory capacity than their CA peers. Children with SLI also appear to have greater difficulty managing their working memory resources relative to both age peers and younger children when performing a conventional off-line sentence comprehension task but not a real-time sentence processing task.

scholarly journals What Limits Our Capacity to Process Nested Long-Range Dependencies in Sentence Comprehension?

Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 446
Author(s):  
Yair Lakretz ◽  
Stanislas Dehaene ◽  
Jean-Rémi King
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Capacity Limitation ◽  
Capacity Limit ◽  
Alternative Approach

Sentence comprehension requires inferring, from a sequence of words, the structure of syntactic relationships that bind these words into a semantic representation. Our limited ability to build some specific syntactic structures, such as nested center-embedded clauses (e.g., “The dog that the cat that the mouse bit chased ran away”), suggests a striking capacity limitation of sentence processing, and thus offers a window to understand how the human brain processes sentences. Here, we review the main hypotheses proposed in psycholinguistics to explain such capacity limitation. We then introduce an alternative approach, derived from our recent work on artificial neural networks optimized for language modeling, and predict that capacity limitation derives from the emergence of sparse and feature-specific syntactic units. Unlike psycholinguistic theories, our neural network-based framework provides precise capacity-limit predictions without making any a priori assumptions about the form of the grammar or parser. Finally, we discuss how our framework may clarify the mechanistic underpinning of language processing and its limitations in the human brain.

Real Time Affect at Work: A Neglected Phenomenon in Organisational Behaviour

2002 ◽  
Vol 27 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia D. Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Positive And Negative Affect ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Organisational Behaviour ◽  
Antecedents And Consequences ◽  
Affect At Work

This paper describes a program of research on real time affect while working. Three sets of hypotheses were tested in a data set comprising fifty reports of momentary affect from each of 120 respondents. Between and within-person analyses were used to explore the correlates of aggregated and momentary affect. Findings suggest that: (i) average real time affect at work shares some variance with job satisfaction, but is not isomorphic with it; (ii) average positive and negative affect have somewhat different antecedents and consequences; and (iii) most people experience a strong within-person relationship between momentary affect and concurrent perceptions of task performance.

scholarly journals Plausibility and recovery from garden paths in second language sentence processing

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEAH ROBERTS ◽  
CLAUDIA FELSER
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
Real Time Processing ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
On Line

ABSTRACTIn this study, the influence of plausibility information on the real-time processing of locally ambiguous (“garden path”) sentences in a nonnative language is investigated. Using self-paced reading, we examined how advanced Greek-speaking learners of English and native speaker controls read sentences containing temporary subject–object ambiguities, with the ambiguous noun phrase being either semantically plausible or implausible as the direct object of the immediately preceding verb. Besides providing evidence for incremental interpretation in second language processing, our results indicate that the learners were more strongly influenced by plausibility information than the native speaker controls in their on-line processing of the experimental items. For the second language learners an initially plausible direct object interpretation lead to increased reanalysis difficulty in “weak” garden-path sentences where the required reanalysis did not interrupt the current thematic processing domain. No such evidence of on-line recovery was observed, in contrast, for “strong” garden-path sentences that required more substantial revisions of the representation built thus far, suggesting that comprehension breakdown was more likely here.

scholarly journals Co-localization of Stroop and Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution in Broca's Area: Implications for the Neural Basis of Sentence Processing

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 2434-2444 ◽  
Author(s):  
David January ◽  
John C. Trueswell ◽  
Sharon L. Thompson-Schill
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Control Processes

For over a century, a link between left prefrontal cortex and language processing has been accepted, yet the precise characterization of this link remains elusive. Recent advances in both the study of sentence processing and the neuroscientific study of frontal lobe function suggest an intriguing possibility: The demands to resolve competition between incompatible characterizations of a linguistic stimulus may recruit top–down cognitive control processes mediated by prefrontal cortex. We use functional magnetic resonance imaging to test the hypothesis that individuals use shared prefrontal neural circuitry during two very different tasks—color identification under Stroop conflict and sentence comprehension under conditions of syntactic ambiguity—both of which putatively rely on cognitive control processes. We report the first demonstration of within-subject overlap in neural responses to syntactic and nonsyntactic conflict. These findings serve to clarify the role of Broca's area in, and the neural and psychological organization of, the language processing system.

Sentence Processing in Traumatic Brain Injury: Evidence From the P600

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 759-771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Key-DeLyria
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Closed Head Injury ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Severe Injuries ◽  
Related Potentials

PurposeSentence processing can be affected following a traumatic brain injury (TBI) due to linguistic or cognitive deficits. Language-related event-related potentials (ERPs), particularly the P600, have not been described in individuals with TBI history.MethodFour young adults with a history of closed head injury participated. Two had severe injuries, and 2 had mild–moderate injuries more than 24 months prior to testing. ERPs were recorded while participants read sentences designed to be grammatically correct or incorrect. Participants also completed cognitive and sentence comprehension measures.ResultsOne participant with TBI was significantly different than the control group on several behavioral sentence measures and 1 cognitive measure. However, none of the participants with TBI had a reliable P600 effect. Nonparametric bootstrapping indicated that the ERP was reliable in 10 control participants but no participants with TBI history.ConclusionsThere were few behavioral differences between individuals with TBI history and the control group, though all reported subjective difficulty with reading. The P600 was absent in the TBI group in this study. Given the heterogeneity of individuals with TBI and the difficulty in assessing subtle language impairments, exploring the P600 further may provide useful insight into language processing difficulties.

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