Context effects in language comprehension: The role of emotional state and attention on semantic and syntactic processing

Semantics and syntax are core components of language. The prevailing view was that processing of word meaning and syntactic processing happens in isolation from other systems. In light of proofed interactions between language and other systems, especially with perception, action and emotion, this view became untenable. This article reviews Event-related potential studies conducted at the Donders Centre for Cognition exploring the interplay between language comprehension and a person's emotional state. The research program was aimed at an investigation of the online effects of emotional state on semantic processing and syntactic processing. To this aim we manipulated mood via film fragments (happy vs. sad) before participants read neutral sentences while their EEG was recorded. In Part 1, it is shown that mood impacts online semantic processing (as indicated by N400) and the processing of syntactic violations (as indicated by P600). Part 2 was directed at a further determination of the mechanisms underlying these interactions. The role of heuristics was examined by investigating the effects of mood on the P600 to semantic reversals. The results revealed that mood affects heuristic processing. The next step consisted of an assessment of the role of attention, in the mood-by-semantics and mood-by-syntax interaction. This was accomplished by recording EEG while manipulating attention via task next to emotional state. Participants performed a semantic or syntactic judgment task vs. a letter-size judgment task. The main ERP results were as follows: (i) attention interacts with the mood effect on semantic processing and syntactic processing, respectively, (ii) the effects of mood on semantic processing and syntactic processing are reliable, and (iii) the mood effects on semantic processing are not fixed but context-dependent. In Part 3 the effects of mood on the processing of script knowledge and general world knowledge are presented. Part 4 closes with a discussion of the mechanisms involved in the mood-by-language interactions and recommendations for future research. Regarding the underlying mechanism we propose that heuristics based on semantic expectancies or syntactic expectancies play a key role in the mood-by-language interactions. The results support the view that language takes place in continuous interaction with other (non-language) systems

Are we ON the same page? Monolingual and bilingual acquisition of familiar and novel relational language

Contains fulltext : 161782.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Verbs and prepositions pose significant challenges in second language learning, as languages differ in how they map these relational terms onto events. Second language learners must put aside their language-specific lens to uncover how a new language operates, perhaps having to rediscover semantic distinctions typically ignored in the first language. The current study examines how the acquisition of these novel mappings are affected by characteristics of the learner and of the language to be learned. English monolinguals and Dutch- English bilinguals learned novel terms that corresponded to containment and support relations of either English, Dutch, or Japanese. Results show that English distinctions are learned best across groups, potentially reflecting predispositions in human cognition. No differences were found between monolinguals and bilinguals in any language condition. The characteristics of the language to be learned appear to play a prominent role in the acquisition of novel semantic categories.38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2016), 10 - 13 augustus 2016, 10 augustus 201

Electrophysiological Evidence for Endogenous Control of Attention in Switching between Languages in Overt Picture Naming

Contains fulltext : 90288.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Language switching in bilingual speakers requires attentional control to select the appropriate language, for example, in picture naming. Previous language-switch studies used the color of pictures to indicate the required language thereby confounding endogenous and exogenous control. To investigate endogenous language control, our language cues preceded picture stimuli by 750 msec. Cue-locked event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured while Dutch-English bilingual speakers overtly named pictures. The response language on consecutive trials could be the same (repeat trials) or different (switch trials). Naming latencies were longer on switch than on repeat trials, independent of the response language. Cue-locked ERPs showed an early posterior negativity for switch compared to repeat trials for L2 but not for L1, and a late anterior negativity for switch compared to repeat trials for both languages. The early switch-repeat effect might reflect disengaging from the nontarget native language, whereas the late switch-repeat effect reflects engaging in the target language. Implications for models of bilingual word production are discussed

The N400 as a function of the level of processing

Contains fulltext : 6768.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

When heuristics clash with parsing routines: ERP evidence for conflict monitoring in sentence perception

Contains fulltext : 54892.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Monitoring refers to a process of quality control, designed to optimize behavioral outcome. Monitoring for action errors manifests itself in a Error-related Negativity in ERP studies and in an increase in activity of the anterior cingulate in fMRI studies. Here we report evidence for a monitoring process in perception, in particular language perception, manifesting itself in a late positivity in the ERP. This late positivity, the P600, appears to be triggered by a conflict between two interpretations, one delivered by the standard syntactic algorithm and one by a plausibility heuristic which combines individual word meanings in the most plausible way To resolve this conflict, we propose that the brain reanalyzes the memory trace of the perceptual input, to check for the possibility of a processing error. So when, as in Experiment 1, the reader is presented with semantically anomalous sentences like the fox that shot the poacher…, full syntactic analysis indicates a semantic anomaly, while the word-base heuristic leads to a plausible interpretation, that of a poacher shooting a fox. That readers actually pursue such a word-based analysis is indicated by the fact that the usual ERP index of semantic anomaly, the so-called N400 effect, was absent in this case. A P600 effect appeared instead. In Experiment 2, we found that even when the word-based heuristic indicated that only part of the sentence was plausible (e.g., ..that the elephants pruned the trees), a P600 effect was observed while the N400 effect of semantic anomaly was absent. It thus seems that the plausibility of part of the sentence (e.g., that of pruning trees), was sufficient to create a conflict with the implausible meaning of the sentence as a whole, giving rise to a monitoring response;17 p

The role of emotion and attention in semantic processing: Evidence from N400

Does emotional state affect language processing? Little yet is known about the interface between language and emotion. With regard to semantic processing we have shown that emotional state modulates the standard N400 effect. In particular, the N400 cloze probability effect was strongly reduced in a sad mood compared to a happy mood (Chwilla, Virgillito, & Vissers, 2011). In the present study we explored the relation between emotion and attention in language comprehension. To this aim we combined an emotion manipulation (inducing a sad mood versus a happy mood) with an attention manipulation (comparing a deep semantic processing task with a shallow processing task) and studied the effects on the N400 cloze effect. The key question was whether the effects of emotional state and attention are additive or interactive. The main findings were as follows: The mood induction was successful. For N400 a three-way interaction between emotional state, attention and cloze probability was observed. For the happy mood condition a task by cloze interaction reflected an N400 effect in the semantic task versus absence of an N400 effect in the shallow processing task. Unexpectedly, for the sad mood condition a clear N400 effect occurred across tasks. Follow up analyses con fi rmed that an N400 effect for the shallow task was present for the sad mood but not for the happy mood condition. The present study reveals different N400 patterns as a function of emotional state and attention, indicating that the effects of emotional state are not fixed but context-dependent

The Role of Prosodic Breaks and Pitch Accents in Grouping Words during On-line Sentence Processing

Contains fulltext : 99780-OA.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)The present study addresses the question whether accentuation and prosodic phrasing can have a similar function, namely, to group words in a sentence together. Participants listened to locally ambiguous sentences containing object-and subject-control verbs while ERPs were measured. In Experiment 1, these sentences contained a prosodic break, which can create a certain syntactic grouping of words, or no prosodic break. At the disambiguation, an N400 effect occurred when the disambiguation was in conflict with the syntactic grouping created by the break. We found a similar N400 effect without the break, indicating that the break did not strengthen an already existing preference. This pattern held for both object-and subject-control items. In Experiment 2, the same sentences contained a break and a pitch accent on the noun following the break. We argue that the pitch accent indicates a broad focus covering two words [see Gussenhoven, C. On the limits of focus projection in English. In P. Bosch & R. van der Sandt (Eds.), Focus: Linguistic, cognitive, and computational perspectives. Cambridge: University Press, 1999], thus grouping these words together. For object-control items, this was semantically possible, which led to a "good-enough" interpretation of the sentence. Therefore, both sentences were interpreted equally well and the N400 effect found in Experiment 1 was absent. In contrast, for subject-control items, a corresponding grouping of the words was impossible, both semantically and syntactically, leading to processing difficulty in the form of an N400 effect and a late positivity. In conclusion, accentuation can group words together on the level of information structure, leading to either a semantically "good-enough" interpretation or a processing problem when such a semantic interpretation is not possible.21 p