书面韵律信息与词汇偏向在歧义句歧义消解中的作用

本研究采用眼动法,探讨了被试在理解层次分隔歧义句时,逗号作为书面韵律边界所起到的作用,以及书面韵律边界与词汇信息如何共同影响句子加工。研究选取了裸视视力或矫正视力均正常的母语为汉语的成人,完成一个在自然情境下阅读层次分隔歧义句的句子理解实验,同时记录他们句子阅读时的眼动数据。结果发现：有逗号解歧的句子的阅读时间明显少于没有逗号解歧句子的阅读时间;逗号偏向类型和词汇偏向类型之间存在交互作用,即两者在三种眼动指标上都达到了显著性水平,研究所选的三种眼动指标为首次注视时间、第一遍阅读时间和总注视时间;此外,当逗号偏向将句子结构确定为形容词修饰整个短语结构时,词汇偏向会对语义理解进行调整,表现在三种眼动指标的显著性上。实验结果支持内隐韵律假设,书面韵律信息对歧义句歧义消解的作用从句子加工早期开始,书面韵律信息与词汇偏向的交互作用也发生于句子加工早期。     

汉语歧义句的加工

通过两个实验,对汉语歧义句多种解释的意义频率和语境位置在句子歧义解析过程中的效应进行了考察。实验结果表明：（１）前语境为被试提供了某种预期信息,它对句子歧义解析的效应大于后语境;（２）在句子歧义解析过程中,不管有语境或无语境,不管是前语境或后语境,被试提取歧义句的主要意思比提取次要意思快;（３）歧义句的多种解释的激活,有一个时间进程,在短延迟间隔条件下,歧义句的主要意思可以被激活并形成表征,但次要意思的激活和表征则需要较长的时间     

偏向句子语境中不同类型歧义词的歧义消解

采用眼动记录的方法,考察在偏向句子语境中,不同类型的词汇歧义消解的不同。结果发现,歧义词不同意义的相对频率影响了不同类型歧义词的加工。当语境支持歧义词的主要意义时,被试加工同形同音歧义词要快于同形异音歧义词;当语境支持歧义词的次要意义时,被试加工同形同音歧义词要慢于同形异音歧义词。无论语境支持歧义词的主要意义还是次要意义,被试都要为同形同音歧义词从语境中寻找更多的信息来通达词义。实验证明,在偏向语境中,同形同音歧义词与同形异音歧义词的歧义消解过程不同。     

句子加工中语义关联性和句法歧义性实验研究

采用自定速移动视窗技术,探讨语义关联性和句法歧义性对汉语直接宾语、宾语小句类暂时句法歧义句理解加工的影响。结果发现：语义关联性和句法歧义性对歧义区和解歧区的阅读时间有显著影响,并在解歧区产生了显著的交互作用,表明语义信息即时参与对句子的理解加工并同句法信息一起共同影响句子的认知加工过程。     

暂时句法歧义句认知加工初探

研究通过两个实验探讨了汉语句子理解中的直接宾语（DO）／句子补语（SC）类暂时句法歧义句的认知加工特征。实验一采用自定速移动视窗技术,发现歧义句和无歧义句解歧区的阅读时间存在显著差异。实验二增加了论题适合性因素以探讨非句法信息在句子理解加工中的影响,发现论题适合性信息影响歧义区和解歧区的阅读时间。实验结果表明：在汉语句子加工中存在DO／SC暂时句法歧义效应;论题适合性信息即时参与对句子的加工,并对句法歧义效应产生影响。     

藏-汉读者汉语歧义句加工的歧义效应及语境促进效应

采用眼动技术,通过两个实验,考察藏-汉读者阅读汉语歧义句时的歧义效应以及语境在句子歧义消解中的作用。结果发现:藏-汉读者在阅读汉语歧义句时存在歧义效应; 语境对歧义消解起促进作用,表现为,当语境置于歧义句之前或语境意义偏向歧义句主要意思时,藏-汉读者对歧义句的加工更容易。并且,歧义效应和语境促进效应贯穿于早期阶段到晚期阶段的整个句子加工过程。     

语境位置对不同认知方式个体歧义句歧义消解的影响

采用意义适合性判断任务,考察了语境位置对不同认知方式个体歧义句理解过程中抑制内部干扰的影响。结果发现：语境位置影响歧义句的歧义消解,对歧义句不适当意义的抑制作用方面,前语境优于后语境;在自然阅读的条件下,在句子加工的初始阶段,场独立个体能够更好的利用前语境信息抑制内部无关信息的干扰,而场依存个体在句子加工的初始阶段对前、后语境的阅读时间上不存在差异,而在句子加工的后期需用更多时间才能完成对内部干扰的抑制。     

汉语歧义句的消解过程

实验以汉语同形且切分层次相同的歧义句为实验材料,采用句子验证任务,着重探讨前语境或后语境在歧义句歧义消解过程中的作用及其时间进程,被试为48名大学生。结果发现：(1)抑制机制受语境位置的制约,前语境的抑制作用优于后语境;(2)ISI为300毫秒时,对歧义句不适当意义的抑制已经发生,但尚未完成;ISI延长到1000毫秒时,对歧义句不适当意义的抑制进一步加强。     

汉语句子理解中语义分析与句法分析的关系

两个实验研究了中文句子理解中句法分析与语义分析的关系。实验1采用被试者自控阅读速度的方法,要求被试者对每个句子(合理句或不合理句)进行语法判断。结果表明,在歧义词(AW)和解歧词(DAW)上,合理句与不合理句的错误率存在显著差异,而反应时差异不显著。实验2研究了语境对句子理解的作用。结果表明,在有语境和无语境条件下,两类句子在歧义词和解歧词上的反应时,均有明显的差异。这些结果支持了句子理解中句法与语义加工的弱相互作用模型。     

句子语境中汉语词类歧义词的意义激活

以单字词为实验材料 ,采用跨通道启动真假字判断任务 ,在句子语境中考察汉语词类歧义词不同意义激活的特点。被试为 134名北京师范大学本科学生。实验时向被试听觉呈现含有歧义词的句子 ,且句子语境分别支持歧义词的主要或次要意义 ,以不同的ISI分别呈现与歧义词两种意义有关的视觉目标词。结果发现 ,当探测目标词在最短的ISI出现时 ,与语境支持的意义有关的目标词反应时较短 ,表明语境在歧义词加工早期促进合适意义的激活 ,同时限制不合适意义的激活。实验数据支持相互作用理论     

Lateralization of visuospatial attention across face regions varies with emotional prosody

It is well-established that linguistic processing is primarily a left-hemisphere activity, while emotional prosody processing is lateralized to the right hemisphere. Does attention, directed at different regions of the talker’s face, reflect this pattern of lateralization? We investigated visuospatial attention across a talker’s face with a dual-task paradigm, using dot detection and language comprehension measures. A static image of a talker was shown while participants listened to speeches spoken in two prosodic formats, emotional or neutral. A single dot was superimposed on the speaker’s face in one of 4 facial regions on half of the trials. Dot detection effects depended on emotion condition—in the neutral condition, discriminability was greater for the right-, than for the left-, side of the face image, and at the mouth, compared to the eye region. The opposite effects occurred in the emotional prosody condition. The results support a model wherein visuospatial attention used during language comprehension is directed by the left hemisphere given neutral emotional prosody, and by the right hemisphere given primarily negative emotional prosodic cues.     

口语句子的韵律边界：窥探言语理解的秘窗

韵律边界加工与言语理解紧密相关, 最近十几年来逐渐成为心理学和语言学的研究焦点。韵律系统包含若干由小到大的韵律单位, 不同单位的韵律成分其边界强度不同, 表现在音高、延宕和停顿三个声学线索上的参数也不同。句子的听力理解过程中, 听话人运用声学线索感知权重策略对韵律边界的声学线索进行加工。从神经层面上来看, 对于韵律边界的加工, 大脑显示出独立且特异性的神经机制。韵律边界的加工能力在婴儿出生后随年龄的增长而发展, 到了老年阶段则逐渐退化, 而且似乎能够对二语迁移。未来, 需要扩大对韵律边界声学表现的考查范围, 进一步明确韵律边界的加工过程, 进一步厘清韵律边界加工和句法加工之间的关系, 进一步关注二语者韵律边界加工能力的发展。     

Syntactic, prosodic, and semantic processes in the brain: evidence from event-related neuroimaging

The neural network supporting aspects of syntactic, prosodic, and semantic information processing is specified on the basis of two experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In these two studies, the presence/absence of lexical-semantic and syntactic information is systematically varied in spoken language stimuli. Inferior frontal and temporal brain areas in the left and the right hemisphere are identified to support different aspects of auditory language processing. Two additional experiments using event-related brain potentials investigate the possible interaction of syntactic and prosodic information, on the one hand, and syntactic and semantic information, on the other. While the first two information types were shown to interact early during processing, the latter two information types do not. Implications for models of auditory language comprehension are discussed.     

口语加工中的词语切分线索

词是语言的基本结构单位, 对词语进行切分是语言加工的重要步骤。口语语流中的切分线索来自于语音、语义和语法三个方面。语音线索包括概率信息、音位配列规则和韵律信息, 韵律信息中还包括词重音、时长和音高等内容, 这些线索的使用在接触语言的早期阶段就逐渐被个体所掌握, 而且在不同的语言背景下有一定的特异性。语法和语义线索属于较高级的线索机制, 主要作用于词语切分过程的后期。后续研究应从语言的毕生发展和语言的特异性两个方面考察口语语言加工中的词语切分线索。     

Cerebral mechanisms for understanding emotional prosody in speech

Hemispheric contributions to the processing of emotional speech prosody were investigated by comparing adults with a focal lesion involving the right (n = 9) or left (n = 11) hemisphere and adults without brain damage (n = 12). Participants listened to semantically anomalous utterances in three conditions (discrimination, identification, and rating) which assessed their recognition of five prosodic emotions under the influence of different task- and response-selection demands. Findings revealed that right- and left-hemispheric lesions were associated with impaired comprehension of prosody, although possibly for distinct reasons: right-hemisphere compromise produced a more pervasive insensitivity to emotive features of prosodic stimuli, whereas left-hemisphere damage yielded greater difficulties interpreting prosodic representations as a code embedded with language content.     

工作记忆广度对语篇理解中重读效应的影响

本文探索了工作记忆容量对语篇理解中重读效应的影响。采用阅读广度测验对工作记忆容量进行测量, 筛选出高、低广度两组被试。并采用听觉动窗实验范式, 比较两组被试在语篇理解中即时加工时间的差异。研究结果表明, 重读效应受到工作记忆广度的显著影响。对于低工作记忆广度被试, 一致性重读促进语篇理解, 不一致性重读阻碍语篇理解; 但对于高工作记忆广度被试, 一致性重读的促进效应和不一致性重读的阻碍效应都不显著。另外, 只有在不一致性重读条件下, 低广度者语篇理解的即时加工时间显著多于高广度者, 而在一致性重读和无重读条件下则没有显著差异。最后用工作记忆的控制性注意理论对研究结果进行了讨论。     

The influence of prosodic structure on the resolution of temporary syntactic closure ambiguities

This paper investigates the influence of prosodic structure on the process of sentence comprehension, with a specific focus on the relative contributions of syntactic and prosodic information to the resolution of temporary syntactic closure ambiguities. We argue that prosodic structure provides an initial memory representation for spoken sentences, and that information from this prosodic representation is available to inform syntactic parsing decisions. This view makes three predictions for the processing of temporary syntactic ambiguity: 1. When prosodic and syntactic boundaries coincide, syntactic processing should be facilitated. 2. When prosodic boundaries are placed at misleading points in syntactic structure, syntactic processing should show interference effects. 3. The processing difficulties that have been reliably demonstrated in reading experiments for syntactically complex sentences should disappear when those sentences are presented with a felicitous prosodic structure in listening experiments. These predictions were confirmed by series of experiments measuring end-of-sentence comprehension time and cross-modal naming time for sentences with temporary syntactic closure ambiguities. Sentences with coinciding or conflicting prosodic and syntactic boundaries were compared to a prosodic baseline condition.This research was supported in part by NIMH grant R29 MH51768 to the first author and NIMH grant T32 MH19729 to the Northeastern University Psychology Department.     

The neural underpinnings of prosody in autism

This study examines the processing of prosodic cues to linguistic structure and to affect, drawing on fMRI and behavioral data from 16 high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 11 typically developing controls. Stimuli were carefully matched on pitch, intensity, and duration, while varying systematically in conditions of affective prosody (angry versus neutral speech) and grammatical prosody (questions versus statement). To avoid conscious attention to prosody, which normalizes responses in young people with ASD, the implicit comprehension task directed attention to semantic aspects of the stimuli. Results showed that when perceiving prosodic cues, both affective and grammatical, activation of neural regions was more generalized in ASD than in typical development, and areas recruited reflect heightened reliance on cognitive control, reading of intentions, attentional management, and visualization. This broader recruitment of executive and “mind-reading” brain areas for a relative simple language-processing task may be interpreted to suggest that speakers with high-functioning autism (HFA) have developed less automaticity in language processing and may also suggest that “mind-reading” or theory of mind deficits are intricately bound up in language processing. Data provide support for both a right-lateralized as well as a bilateral model of prosodic processing in typical individuals, depending upon the function of the prosodic information.     

The neural underpinnings of prosody in autism

This study examines the processing of prosodic cues to linguistic structure and to affect, drawing on fMRI and behavioral data from 16 high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 11 typically developing controls. Stimuli were carefully matched on pitch, intensity, and duration, while varying systematically in conditions of affective prosody (angry versus neutral speech) and grammatical prosody (questions versus statement). To avoid conscious attention to prosody, which normalizes responses in young people with ASD, the implicit comprehension task directed attention to semantic aspects of the stimuli. Results showed that when perceiving prosodic cues, both affective and grammatical, activation of neural regions was more generalized in ASD than in typical development, and areas recruited reflect heightened reliance on cognitive control, reading of intentions, attentional management, and visualization. This broader recruitment of executive and "mind-reading" brain areas for a relative simple language-processing task may be interpreted to suggest that speakers with high-functioning autism (HFA) have developed less automaticity in language processing and may also suggest that "mind-reading" or theory of mind deficits are intricately bound up in language processing. Data provide support for both a right-lateralized as well as a bilateral model of prosodic processing in typical individuals, depending upon the function of the prosodic information.     

Lateralization of auditory language functions: a dynamic dual pathway model

Spoken language comprehension requires the coordination of different subprocesses in time. After the initial acoustic analysis the system has to extract segmental information such as phonemes, syntactic elements and lexical-semantic elements as well as suprasegmental information such as accentuation and intonational phrases, i.e., prosody. According to the dynamic dual pathway model of auditory language comprehension syntactic and semantic information are primarily processed in a left hemispheric temporo-frontal pathway including separate circuits for syntactic and semantic information whereas sentence level prosody is processed in a right hemispheric temporo-frontal pathway. The relative lateralization of these functions occurs as a result of stimulus properties and processing demands. The observed interaction between syntactic and prosodic information during auditory sentence comprehension is attributed to dynamic interactions between the two hemispheres.