Syntactic and semantic interference in sentence comprehension: Support from English and German eye-tracking data

A long-standing debate in the sentence processing literature concerns the time course of syntactic and semantic information in online sentence comprehension. The default assumption in cue-based models of parsing is that syntactic and semantic retrieval cues simultaneously guide dependency resolution. When retrieval cues match multiple items in memory, this leads to similarity-based interference. Both semantic and syntactic interferencehave been shown to occur in English. However, the relative timing of syntactic vs. semantic interference remains unclear. In this first-ever cross-linguistic investigation of the time course of syntactic vs. semantic interference, the data from two eye-tracking reading experiments (English and German) suggest that the two types of interference can in principle arise simultaneously during retrieval. However, the data also indicate that semantic cues may be evaluated with a small timing lag in German compared to English. This suggests that there may be cross-linguistic variation in how syntactic and semantic cues are used to resolve linguistic dependencies in real-time.

Bulaestian /по|ч’естне/ and some Ukrainian and Romanian analogies

The tradition (and, the lexeme also) of /по|ч’естнe/ ‘the preliminary gifting to bride and groom in the early stage of wedding’ exists among the Bulaestian Ukrainians. During the /по|ч’естнe/ guests entering the wedding hall come to the small table with wine and jam and/or sweets. They congratulate the bride / groom, throwing small money on the tray (which is denoted as /к’е|датеи на по|ч’естнe/, ‚to throw on pochestne‘), and then they are poured a glass of wine, offered jam or sweets for a snack. The task of the research is to analyze the term /по|ч’естнe/ and its analogues in the Ukrainian and Romanian areas. The analysis has demonstrated that a kind of semantic interference between the words [почесне] and частувати exists in the Carpathian-Ukrainian region. The closest analogies to the Bulaestian /по|ч’естнe/ addresses us to the South-Podolian Ukrainian dialects. The existence of ritual parallels that are structurally close to the Bulaestian почестнэ, and at the same time are denoted semantically (and, in some cases etymologically, like the Romanian cinste,) similar, albeit different, lexemes namely in the Romanian area, suggests that the appearance of the ceremony of почестнэ, as well as the semantic shift in the meaning of this word in the Carpathian-Ukrainian dialects occurred precisely under the Romanian influence.

Internet-based language production research with overt articulation: Proof of concept, challenges, and practical advice

Language production experiments with overt articulation have thus far only scarcely been conducted online, mostly due to technical difficulties related to measuring voice onset latencies. Especially the poor audiovisual synchrony in web experiments (Bridges et al. 2020) is a challenge to time-locking stimuli and participants’ spoken responses. We tested the viability of conducting language production experiments with overt articulation in online settings using the picture–word interference paradigm – a classic task in language production research. In three pre-registered experiments (N = 48 each), participants named object pictures while ignoring visually superimposed distractor words. We implemented a custom voice recording option in two different web experiment builders and recorded naming responses in audio files. From these stimulus-locked audio files, we extracted voice onset latencies offline. In a control task, participants classified the last letter of a picture name as a vowel or consonant via button-press, a task that shows comparable semantic interference effects. We expected slower responses when picture and distractor word were semantically related compared to unrelated, independently of task. This semantic interference effect is robust, but relatively small. It should therefore crucially depend on precise timing. We replicated this effect in an online setting, both for button-press and overt naming responses, providing a proof of concept that naming latency – a key dependent variable in language production research – can be reliably measured in online experiments. We discuss challenges for online language production research and suggestions of how to overcome them. The scripts for the online implementation are made available.

Distributional properties of semantic interference in picture naming: Bayesian meta-analyses

Studies of word production often make use of picture-naming tasks, including the picture-word-interference task. In this task, participants name pictures with superimposed distractor words. They typically need more time to name pictures when the distractor word is semantically related to the picture than when it is unrelated (the semantic interference effect). The present study examines the distributional properties of this effect in a series of Bayesian meta-analyses. Meta-analytic estimates of the semantic interference effect first show that the effect is present throughout the reaction time distribution and that it increases throughout the distribution. Second, we find a correlation between a participant’s mean semantic interference effect and the change in the effect in the tail of the reaction time distribution, which has been argued to reflect the involvement of selective inhibition in the naming task. Finally, we show with simulated data that this correlation emerges even when no inhibition is used to generate the data, which suggests that inhibition is not needed to explain this relationship.

Inhibition Effect of Audio-visual Semantic Interference in Chinese Interface: An ERP Study of Concrete Icons and Chinese Characters

In this study, event-related potential (ERP) was used to examine whether the brain has an inhibition effect on the interference of audio-visual information in the Chinese interface. Concrete icons (flame and snowflake) or Chinese characters ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]) with opposite semantics were used as target carriers, and colors (red and blue) and speeches ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]) were used as audio-visual intervention stimuli. In the experiment, target carrier and audio-visual intervention were presented in a random combination, and the subjects needed to determine whether the semantics of the two matched quickly. By comparing the overall cognitive performance of two carriers, it was found that the brain had a more significant inhibition effect on audio-visual intervention stimuli with different semantics (SBH/LBH and SRC/LRC) relative to the same semantics (SRH/LRH). The semantic mismatch caused significant N400, indicating that semantic interference in the interface information would trigger the brain’s inhibition effect. Therefore, the more complex the semantic matching of interface information was, the higher the amplitude of N400 became. The results confirmed that the semantic relationship between target carrier and audio-visual intervention was the key factor affecting the cognitive inhibition effect. Moreover, under different intervention stimuli, the ERP’s negative activity caused by Chinese characters in frontal and parietal-occipital regions was more evident than that by concrete icons, indicating that concrete icons had a lower inhibition effect than Chinese characters. Therefore, we considered that this inhibition effect was based on the semantic constraints of the target carrier itself, which might come from the knowledge learning and intuitive experience stored in the human brain.

EXPRESS: Prepotent task-irrelevant semantic information is dampened by domain-specific control mechanisms during visual word recognition

We investigated whether semantic interference occurring during visual word recognition is resolved using domain-general control mechanism or using more specific mechanisms related to semantic processing. We asked participants to perform a lexical decision task with taboo stimuli, which induce semantic interference, as well as well as a semantic Stroop task and a Simon task, intended as benchmarks of linguistic-semantic and non-linguistic interference, respectively. Using a correlational approach, we investigated potential similarities between effects produced in the three tasks, both at the level of overall means and as a function of response speed (delta-plot analysis). Correlations selectively surfaced between the lexical decision and the semantic Stroop task. These findings suggest that, during visual word recognition, semantic interference is controlled by semantic-specific mechanisms, which intervene to face prepotent but task-irrelevant semantic information interfering with the accomplishment of the task's goal.

Intrusion Errors and Progression of Cognitive Deficits in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment and PreMCI States

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Among persons with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), intrusion errors on subscales that measure proactive semantic interference (PSI) may be among the earliest behavioral markers of elevated Alzheimer’s disease brain pathology. While there has been considerable cross-sectional work in the area, it is presently unknown whether semantic intrusion errors are predictive of progression of cognitive impairment in aMCI or PreMCI (not cognitively normal but not meeting full criteria for MCI). <b><i>Methods:</i></b> This study examined the extent to which the percentage of semantic intrusion errors (PIE) based on total responses on a novel cognitive stress test, the Loewenstein-Acevedo Scales for Semantic Interference and Learning (LASSI-L), could predict clinical/cognitive outcomes over an average 26-month period in older adults initially diagnosed with aMCI, PreMCI, and normal cognition. <b><i>Results:</i></b> On the LASSI-L subscale sensitive to PSI, a PIE cut point of 44% intrusion errors distinguished between those at-risk individuals with PreMCI who progressed to MCI over time compared to individuals with PreMCI who reverted to normal on longitudinal follow-up. Importantly, PIE was able to accurately predict 83.3% of aMCI individuals who later progressed to dementia. <b><i>Discussion:</i></b> These preliminary findings indicate that PIE on LASSI-L subscales that measure PSI may be a useful predictor of clinical progression overtime in at-risk older adults.