Syntactic context effects in visual word recognition

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tal Linzen ◽  
Alec Marantz ◽  
Liina Pylkkänen
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Syntactic Category ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Probability Mass ◽  
Low Entropy ◽  
Increased Activity ◽  
Syntactic Context

Words are typically encountered in the context of a sentence. Recent studies suggest that the contexts in which a word typically appears can affect the way it is recognized in isolation. We distinguish two types of context: collocational, involving specific lexical items, and syntactic, involving abstract syntactic structures. We investigate the effects of syntactic context using the distribution that verbs induce over the syntactic category of their complements (subcategorization frames). Magnetoencephalography (MEG) data was recorded while participants performed a lexical decision task. Verbs with low-entropy subcategorization distributions, in which most of the probability mass is concentrated on a handful of syntactic categories, elicited increased activity in the left anterior temporal lobe, a brain region associated with combinatory processing. Collocational context did not modulate neural activity, but had an effect on reaction times. These results indicate that both collocational and syntactic contextual factors affect word recognition, even in isolation.

scholarly journals Neurolinguistic evidence for bilingual language representation: a comparison of reaction times and event-related brain potentials

2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja A. Kotz
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Language Representation ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Language Condition ◽  
L1 And L2

The current study set out to examine word recognition in early fluent Spanish–English bilinguals using a single word presentation lexical decision task (LDT). Reaction times (RTs) and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were measured while subjects (16 per language condition) made a lexical decision on words and pseudowords in either Spanish or English. Results show associative priming as measured by RTs, but both associative and categorical priming in the ERPs in both language conditions. The dissociation of RT and ERP effects suggests that the two measures might tap into different underlying processes during semantic priming or reflect different sensitivities towards semantic priming. Furthermore, both RT and ERP measures revealed symmetrical priming in L1 and L2. These data indicate that word recognition in early fluent bilinguals is equivalent for L1 and L2.

scholarly journals How does(n't) syntactic context guide auditory word recognition?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phoebe Gaston ◽  
Ellen Lau ◽  
Colin Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Syntactic Category ◽  
Visual World Paradigm ◽  
Lexical Activation ◽  
Inhibitory Mechanisms ◽  
Auditory Word ◽  
Auditory Word Recognition ◽  
Cohort Competition ◽  
Syntactic Context

Better understanding of word recognition requires a detailed account of how top-down and bottom-up information are integrated. In this paper, we use a combination of modeling and experimental work to investigate the mechanism by which expectations from syntactic context influence the processing of perceptual input during word recognition. The distinction between facilitatory and inhibitory mechanisms for the syntactic category constraint is an important aspect of this problem that has previously been underspecified, and syntactic category is a relatively simple test case for the issue of context in other domains. We first report simulations in jTRACE that point to an explanation for conflicts that have occurred between different methods regarding the existence and timing of syntactic constraints on lexical cohort competition. We show that the composition of the set of response candidates allowed by the task is predicted to influence whether and when changes in lexical activation can be observed in dependent measures, which is relevant for the design and interpretation of experiments involving cohort competition more broadly. These insights informed a new design for the visual world paradigm that distinguishes facilitatory and inhibitory mechanisms and ensures that activation of words from the wrong syntactic category should be detectable if it is occurring. We demonstrate how failure to ensure this could have obscured such activation in previous work, leading to the appearance of an inhibitory constraint. We find that wrong-category competition does occur, a result that is incompatible with an inhibitory syntactic category constraint.

Hearing taboo words can result in early talker effects in word recognition for female listeners

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 435-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha E. Tuft ◽  
Conor T. MᶜLennan ◽  
Maura L. Krestar
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Spoken Word Recognition ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Fast Processing ◽  
Taboo Words

Previous spoken word recognition research using the long-term repetition-priming paradigm found performance costs for stimuli mismatching in talker identity. That is, when words were repeated across the two blocks, and the identity of the talker changed reaction times (RTs) were slower than when the repeated words were spoken by the same talker. Such performance costs, or talker effects, followed a time course, occurring only when processing was relatively slow. More recent research suggests that increased explicit and implicit attention towards the talkers can result in talker effects even during relatively fast processing. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether word meaning would influence the pattern of talker effects in an easy lexical decision task and, if so, whether results would differ depending on whether the presentation of neutral and taboo words was mixed or blocked. Regardless of presentation, participants responded to taboo words faster than neutral words. Furthermore, talker effects for the female talker emerged when participants heard both taboo and neutral words (consistent with an attention-based hypothesis), but not for participants that heard only taboo or only neutral words (consistent with the time-course hypothesis). These findings have important implications for theoretical models of spoken word recognition.

Lexical access of mass and count nouns

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 354-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Mondini ◽  
Eva Kehayia ◽  
Brendan Gillon ◽  
Giorgio Arcara ◽  
Gonia Jarema
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Access ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Plural Form ◽  
Mass Nouns ◽  
Access System ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Priming Task ◽  
Grammatical Sentence ◽  
Syntactic Context

Two psycholinguistic experiments were carried out in Italian to test the role played by the feature that distinguishes mass nouns from count nouns, as well as by the feature that distinguishes singular nouns from plural nouns. The first experiment, a simple lexical decision task, revealed a sensitivity of the lexical access system to the processing of the features Mass and Plural as shown by longer reaction times. In particular, nouns in the plural yielded longer reaction times than in the singular except when the plural form was irregular. Furthermore, the feature Mass also affected processing, yielding longer reaction times. In the second experiment, a sentence priming task, both the Plural and the Mass effects did not surface when a grammatical sentence fragment was the prime. These data show a direct correlation between the linguistic ‘complexity’ of plural/mass nouns and processing time. They also suggest that this complexity does not affect normal fluent spoken language where words are embedded in a semantic and syntactic context.

scholarly journals Relative Embodiment of Japanese Verbs

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Masaya Mochizuki ◽  
Naoto Ota
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Transitive Verbs

Studies examining visual word recognition have revealed that sensorimotor information is associated with the meaning of and influences the processing of words. In this study, we collected ratings of relative embodiment, which reflects how much physical movement is involved in a word meaning, for 219 Japanese transitive verbs. We then investigated how the ratings affect visual word recognition, using three different tasks: a word-naming task, a lexical decision task, and a syntactic classification task. We found that reaction times were faster and correct rates were higher (in the lexical decision task) for words with higher relative embodiment ratings than for those with lower ratings. These findings indicate that relative embodiment affects processing of Japanese verbs as well as of English verbs.

scholarly journals Exploring Learning Context Effects and Grapho(-Phonic)-Phonological Priming in Trilinguals

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Cintia Avila Blank ◽  
Raquel Llama
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Dynamic Systems ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Dynamic Systems Theory ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Selective Access

A growing body of research on bilingual word recognition suggests that lexical access is language non-selective in nature. This claim aligns with the Dynamic Systems Theory (DST) approach to (multilingual) language acquisition, according to which complex systems involve a large number of elements that interact. In language learners, these interactions lead to the creation and dissolution of patterns as the tasks and environments around them change. In this study, we extend the scope from previous research on word recognition to include the role immersion plays on the transfer of grapho(-phonic)-phonological patterns among (Brazilian Portuguese–French–English) trilinguals. Two groups of participants—one group living in their L1 environment and the other in an L2 setting—were presented with a primed lexical decision task. Besides revealing a high impact of L2 immersion on the processing of grapho(-phonic)-phonological related primes, our results provide further support for the notion of language non-selective access to the lexicon, which seems to generalize to trilingual word recognition. Implications for the DST view of multiple language acquisition are briefly discussed.

scholarly journals Task Context Effects in Bilingual Nonword Processing

2009 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Lemhöfer ◽  
Ralph Radach
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Task Context ◽  
Nonword Processing

To investigate the language-specific or language-integrated nature of bilingual lexical processing in different task contexts, we studied how bilinguals process nonwords that differ in their relative resemblance to the bilinguals’ two languages in different versions of the lexical decision task. Unbalanced German-English bilinguals performed a pure-German, a pure-English, and a mixed lexical decision task on the same set of nonwords that were either very English-like or very German-like. Rejection latencies for these two nonword categories were reversed in the pure-English and pure-German conditions: Nonwords that were more similar to the current target language were rejected more slowly. In the mixed task, reaction times were generally slower, and nonwords resembling the participants’ subdominant language (English) were harder to reject. The results suggest that task context substantially alters the criteria for the word/nonword decision in bilinguals.

scholarly journals Context effects in visual word recognition: Lexical relatedness and syntactic context

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1292-1303 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Schriefers ◽  
A. D. Friederici ◽  
U. Rose
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Syntactic Context

scholarly journals Unraveling the Mystery About the Negative Valence Bias: Does Arousal Account for Processing Differences in Unpleasant Words?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucía Vieitez ◽  
Juan Haro ◽  
Pilar Ferré ◽  
Isabel Padrón ◽  
Isabel Fraga
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Negative Valence ◽  
Processing Differences ◽  
Very High

Many studies have found that the emotional content of words affects visual word recognition. However, most of them have only considered affective valence, finding inconsistencies regarding the direction of the effects, especially in unpleasant words. Recent studies suggest that arousal might explain why not all unpleasant words elicit the same behavior. The aim of the present research was to study the role of arousal in unpleasant word recognition. To do that, we carried out an ERP experiment in which participants performed a lexical decision task that included unpleasant words which could vary across three levels of arousal (intermediate, high, and very high) and words which were neutral in valence and had an intermediate level of arousal. Results showed that, within unpleasant words, those intermediate in arousal evoked smaller LPC amplitudes than words that were high or very high in arousal, indicating that arousal affects unpleasant word recognition. Critically, arousal determined whether the effect of negative valence was found or not. When arousal was not matched between unpleasant and neutral valenced words, the effect of emotionality was weak in the behavioral data and absent in the ERP data. However, when arousal was intermediate in both unpleasant and neutral valenced words, larger EPN amplitudes were reported for the former, pointing to an early allocation of attention. Interestingly, these unpleasant words which had an intermediate level of arousal showed a subsequent inhibitory effect in that they evoked smaller LPC amplitudes and led to slower reaction times and more errors than neutral words. Our results highlight the relevance that the arousal level has for the study of negative valence effects in word recognition.

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