The role of executive control in resolving grammatical number conflict in sentence comprehension

In sentences with a complex subject noun phrase, like “The key to the cabinets is lost”, the grammatical number of the head noun (key) may be the same or different from the modifier noun phrase (cabinets). When the number is the same, comprehension is usually easier than when it is different. Grammatical number computation may occur while processing the modifier noun (integration phase) or while processing the verb (checking phase). We investigated at which phase number conflict and plausibility of the modifier noun as subject for the verb affect processing, and we imposed a gaze-contingent tone discrimination task in either phase to test whether number computation involves executive control. At both phases, gaze durations were longer when a concurrent tone task was present. Additionally, at the integration phase, gaze durations were longer under number conflict, and this effect was enhanced by the presence of a tone task, whereas no effects of plausibility of the modifier were observed. The finding that the effect of number match was larger under load shows that computation of the grammatical number of the complex noun phrase requires executive control in the integration phase, but not in the checking phase

Interlocutors-Related and Hearer-Specific Causes of Misunderstanding: Processing Strategy, Confirmation Bias and Weak Vigilance

Noises, similarities between words, slips of the tongue, ambiguities, wrong or false beliefs, lexical deficits, inappropriate inferences, cognitive overload, non-shared knowledge, topic organisation or focusing problems, among others, may cause misunderstanding. While some of these are structural factors, others pertain to the speaker or to both the speaker and the hearer. In addition to stable factors connected with the interlocutors′ communicative abilities, cultural knowledge or patterns of thinking, other less stable factors, such as their personal relationships, psychological states or actions motivated by physiological functions, may also result in communicative problems. This paper considers a series of further factors that may eventually lead to misunderstanding, and which solely pertain to the hearer: processing strategy, confirmation bias and weak vigilance

The processing of ambiguous sentences by first and second language learners of English

This study compares the way English-speaking children and adult second language learners of English resolve relative clause attachment ambiguities in sentences such as The dean liked the secretary of the professor who was reading a letter. Two groups of advanced L2 learners of English with Greek or German as their L1 participated in a set of off-line and on-line tasks. While the participants ' disambiguation preferences were influenced by lexical-semantic properties of the preposition linking the two potential antecedent NPs (of vs. with), there was no evidence that they were applying any structure-based ambiguity resolution strategies of the type that have been claimed to influence sentence processing in monolingual adults. These findings differ markedly from those obtained from 6 to 7 yearold monolingual English children in a parallel auditory study (Felser, Marinis, & Clahsen, submitted) in that the children's attachment preferences were not affected by the type of preposition at all. We argue that whereas children primarily rely on structure-based parsing principles during processing, adult L2 learners are guided mainly by non-structural informatio

The P600 as a continuous index of integration effort

The integration of word meaning into an unfolding utterance representation is a core operation of incremental language comprehension. There is considerable debate, however, as to which component of the ERP signal—the N400 or the P600—directly reflects integrative processes, with far reaching consequences for the temporal organization and architecture of the comprehension system. Multistream models maintaining the N400 as integration crucially rely on the presence of a semantically attractive plausible alternative interpretation to account for the absence of an N400 effect in response to certain semantic anomalies, as reported in previous studies. The single-stream Retrieval–Integration account posits the P600 as an index of integration, further predicting that its amplitude varies continuously with integrative effort. Here, we directly test these competing hypotheses using a context manipulation design in which a semantically attractive alternative is either available or not, and target word plausibility is varied across three levels. An initial self-paced reading study revealed graded reading timesfor plausibility,suggesting differential integration effort. A subsequent ERP study showed no N400 differences across conditions, and that P600 amplitude is graded for plausibility. These findings are inconsistent with the interpretation of the N400 as an index of integration, as no N400 effect emerged even in the absence of a semantically attractive alternative. By contrast, the link between plausibility, reading times, and P600 amplitude supports the view that the P600 is a continuous index of integration effort. More generally, our results support a single-stream architecture and eschew the need for multi-stream accounts

When components collide : Spatiotemporal overlap of the N400 and P600 in language comprehension

The problem of spatiotemporal overlap between event-related potential (ERP) components is generally acknowledged in language research. However, its implications for the interpretation of experimental results are often overlooked. In a previous experiment on the functional interpretation of the N400 and P600, it was argued that a P600 effect to implausible words was largely obscured – in one of two implausible conditions – by an overlapping N400 effect of semantic association. In the present ERP study, we show that the P600 effect of implausibility is uncovered when the critical condition is tested against a proper baseline condition which elicits a similar N400 amplitude, while it is obscured when tested against a baseline condition producing an N400 effect. Our findings reveal that component overlap can result in the apparent absence or presence of an effect in the surface signal and should therefore be carefully considered when interpreting ERP patterns. Importantly, we show that, by factoring in the effects of spatiotemporal overlap between the N400 and P600 on the surface signal, which we reveal using rERP analysis, apparent inconsistencies in previous findings are easily reconciled, enabling us to draw unambiguous conclusions about the functional interpretation of the N400 and P600 components. Overall, our results provide compelling evidence that the N400 reflects lexical retrieval processes, while the P600 indexes compositional integration of word meaning into the unfolding utterance interpretation

Chapter 16 The Role of Validation in Integrating Multiple Perspectives

The internet is the primary source of information about a broad range of topics, which may range from consumer and medical decisions to political and socio-scientific issues. The relevant information is often available in the form of written texts that convey divergent perspectives, such as different opinions, competing theoretical assumptions, arguments and counterarguments, and evidence and counterevidence. What are the challenges and potential problems associated with comprehending texts that convey multiple perspectives? How can students be supported to make the most of this obviously complicated reading situation? This chapter attempts to answer these questions from a particular theoretical perspective that revolves around the notion that readers routinely validate text information against pertinent and accessible knowledge and beliefs. We will discuss how validation acts in concert with the two other major component processes of text comprehension, activation and integration. This discussion will be followed by an outline of the Two-step Model of Validation, a model that makes predictions about circumstances that enable or hinder readers to form a coherent and consistent mental representation out of multiple perspectives

I See What You Meant to Say: Anticipating Speech Errors During Online Sentence Processing

Everyday speech is rife with errors and disfluencies, yet processing what we hear usually feels effortless. How does the language comprehension system accomplish such an impressive feat? The current experiment tests the hypothesis that listeners draw on relevant contextual and linguistic cues to anticipate speech errors and mentally correct them even before receiving an explicit correction from the speaker. In the current visual-world eye-tracking experiment, we monitored participants’ eye movements to objects in a display while they listened to utterances containing reparandum-repair speech errors (e.g., …his cat, uh I mean his dog…). The contextual plausibility of the misspoken word, as well as the certainty with which the speaker uttered this word, were systematically manipulated. Results showed that listeners immediately exploited these cues to generate top-down expectations regarding the speaker’s communicative intention. Crucially, listeners used these expectations to constrain the bottom-up speech input and mentally correct perceived speech errors even before the speaker initiated the correction. The results provide powerful evidence regarding the joint process of correcting speech errors that involves both the speaker and the listener

Linguistic Intuitions: Error Signals and the Voice of Competence

Linguistic intuitions are a central source of evidence across a variety of linguistic domains. They have also long been a source of controversy. This chapter aims to illuminate the etiology and evidential status of at least some linguistic intuitions by relating them to error signals of the sort posited by accounts of on-line monitoring of speech production and comprehension. The suggestion is framed as a novel reply to Michael Devitt’s claim that linguistic intuitions are theory-laden “central systems” responses, rather than endorsed outputs of a modularized language faculty (the “Voice of Competence”). Along the way, it is argued that linguistic intuitions may not constitute a natural kind with a common etiology; and that, for a range of cases, the process by which intuitions used in linguistics are generated amounts to little more than comprehension

Supplementary guidance for schools on inspecting skills, September 2010

This guidance is intended to support the key tasks of inspectors in making judgements regarding: whether all pupils have the communication, numeracy and ICT skills needed to access the whole curriculum; and how well the wider curriculum itself develops pupils’ skills