Generation of a pictorial code

In Experiments I and II direct measures were obtained of the time required to convert a picture or a sentence to a report of visualization or to a simple drawing, latencies were faster for pictures than for sentences and were affected by the surface form of the sentence. In Experiment Ill, Ss matched pictures or sentences against a test picture under conditions of simultaneous or successive presentation. “Yes” and “No” response times were affected by sentence form under both conditions, although the difference between sentence-picture and picture-picture comparisons was virtually eliminated under the successive condition. In Experiment IV, Ss held a sentence or picture in memory over a 1,500-msec interval at the end of which a test picture or an instruction to draw the design was presented. Construction latencies were shorter in response to pictures than sentences, and there were effects of sentence form on verification time. Some implications of these results are discussed.     

Transformations. II. Latency of generation

This study tested the hypothesized relationship between the rules of sentence transformation and preresponse processing time in a short-term memory and transformation task. The transform instruction was placed either before or after the stimulus sentence, and verbal responses were made with immediate or delayed auditory feedback. The data showed conclusively that the amount of processing required by different grammatical transformations does not relate, to the theoretical linguistic derivation, even when transformations are grouped into an ordinal ranking of difficulty rated by the number of nominal transform rules required. An instruction prefix facilitates information processing and interacts with the grammatical task. Sentence generation was retarded significantly by the imminent onset of delayed auditory feedback. This effect of imminentDAF appears to be a new finding.     

句子先提述的参与者在可提取性上的优势现象

下述五个实验就汉语句子成分（包括句子的参与者及其动作）的提述次序对其可提取性的影响进行了研究,结果表明：（１）句子先提述的参与者比后提述的参与者容易被提取,提述的次序对参与者的可提取性有明显影响。（２）先提述参与者的这种优势与句子呈现的方式有一定的关系。（３）在系列呈现的条件下,先提述参与者的易提取性与探测词呈现的延迟间隔有关。（４）在系列呈现的条件下,参与者以名词形式出现时,被试的反应速度较快,而参与者以名字的形式出现时,反应则较慢;在同时呈现的条件下这种差异基本消失。（５）句子参与者的行动（即句子的动词）的提述次序对其可提取性也有明显的影响,说明提述次序对句子成分的可提取性的影响,不只限于句子参与者本身。     

中文阅读中因果与转折关系理解差异的实验研究

采用移动窗口阅读技术和探测技术探讨大学生中文阅读过程中对因果与转折关系的理解差异。实验一在句子层面考察因果和转折关系的理解差异,结果发现被试阅读转折句的时间显著长于因果句,但对两种句子中探测词的反应时没有差异。实验二运用探测技术从篇章层面进一步探讨两种关系的理解差异。结果发现,转折关系条件下被试对探测词的反应时显著慢于因果关系条件下。实验结果表明,无论在句子层面还是在篇章层面,被试对转折关系的表征都难于因果关系的表征。     

An extension of the conflict between visualization and reading

An experiment is reported which suggests that reading about a series of spatial relations and visualizing them are activities which interfere with one another. Subjects were given sentences which described a set of spatial relations. After the spatial layout described by a given sentence had been deduced, the subjects either read or listened to a final presentation of this same sentence. It was found that the modality of this final presentation influenced the speed with which the subjects performed a subsequent mental transformation of the spatial relations; the transformation was completed more slowly immediately after reading the sentence than after listening to it. This result confirms the subjects' reports that their visualization of the spatial relations was interrupted by reading the sentence, but not by listening to it. The relation between the visual and the analogical aspects of visualization is briefly discussed.     

汉语句子-图片信息整合的眼动测量

采用眼球追踪-分析法考察了“句子-图片”验证范式下句图信息整合过程中句式和语义关系类型的作用。实验结果表明：（1）汉语句子-图片信息整合过程中,句图继时呈现没有消除语义失配效应,注视次数、总注视时间显著增加,瞳孔直径扩大。语义失配会显著干扰句法难度低的句式的句图信息整合。（2）句式影响句子-图片信息的整合过程,注视次数、总注视时间、瞳孔直径随句法难度增加而增加。（3）汉语句图信息整合过程中,语义失配效应受句式影响,表现出任务的特异性,这说明成分比较模型不具有一般性     

社会规约性及呈现方式对理解会话中的间接回应的影响

间接回应是语言交流中很常见的形式。该研究采用自定步速阅读范式考察社会规约性及呈现方式对理解间接回应的影响。将社会规约性分为高、中、低三个水平,分别对应直接回应、间接拒绝、间接评价三种回应方式,呈现方式采用整句呈现和逐词呈现两种方式。结果发现,在整句呈现时,三种回应方式的阅读时间随规约性高低呈梯度变化,即直接回应的阅读时间最短,间接拒绝次之,间接评价最长; 而逐词呈现时,对间接拒绝和直接回应的阅读时间没有差异,都长于对间接评价的阅读时间。结果表明了社会规约性及呈现方式对间接回应的理解存在交互影响。     

Pictures, words, and sounds: from which format are we best able to reason?

The effect of presentation format on reasoning was studied with a sentence verification task. Background information was presented in single-format and combined conditions that included pictured, printed, or spoken versions of the stimulus items. In Experiment 1, a test sentence appeared together with the background at varied stimulus onset asynchronies, to study how format influences the acquisition of the stimulus information. In Experiments 2 and 3, however, the test sentence followed the presentation of the background, to test the effect of format on memory. Reaction time responses to the test sentences showed a consistent picture advantage. However, when participants responded to materials stored in memory, both pictured and spoken formats provided quicker responses in comparison to printed words, and the format difference was smaller than when materials were readily available on the screen. Multimedia presentations, when compared with single-format conditions, did not provide additional benefits.     

Pictures,Words, and Sounds: From Which Format Are We Best Able to Reason?

The effect of presentation format on reasoning was studied with a sentence verification task. Background information was presented in single-format and combined conditions that included pictured, printed, or spoken versions of the stimulus items. In Experiment 1, a test sentence appeared together with the background at varied stimulus onset asynchronies, to study how format influences the acquisition of the stimulus information. In Experiments 2 and 3, however, the test sentence followed the presentation of the background, to test the effect of format on memory. Reaction time responses to the test sentences showed a consistent picture advantage. However, when participants responded to materials stored in memory, both pictured and spoken formats provided quicker responses in comparison to printed words, and the format difference was smaller than when materials were readily available on the screen. Multimedia presentations, when compared with single-format conditions, did not provide additional benefits.     

Sentence retention and transformation theory

The number of words recalled in addition to a sentence can be used to measure the amount of space a sentence occupies in immediate memory. Generally an active sentence (K) requires less space in memory than a passive negative sentence (PN). But in the present experiments it was found that when subjects were presented with a block of sentences of only one syntactic form, there was no longer a difference in the amount of space needed to store K and PN sentences. However, the difference between K and PN reappeared when the tense of the verb in successive sentences was varied, even though the material was still presented in a block of either all K or all PN sentences.

These results were interpreted as suggesting that subjects were remembering words and phrases from each sentence rather than deriving kernal strings and remembering transformation tags.     

Perceptually specific and perceptually non-specific influences on rereading benefits for spatially transformed text: Evidence from eye movements

The present study used eye tracking methodology to examine rereading benefits for spatially transformed text. Eye movements were monitored while participants read the same target word twice, in two different low-constraint sentence frames. The congruency of perceptual processing was manipulated by either applying the same type of transformation to the word during the first and second presentations (i.e., the congruent condition), or employing two different types of transformations across the two presentations of the word (i.e., the incongruent condition). Perceptual specificity effects were demonstrated such that fixation times for the second presentation of the target word were shorter for the congruent condition compared to the incongruent condition. Moreover, we demonstrated an additional perceptually non-specific effect such that second reading fixation times were shorter for the incongruent condition relative to a baseline condition that employed a normal typography (i.e., non-transformed) during the first presentation and a transformation during the second presentation. Both of these effects (i.e., perceptually specific and perceptually non-specific) were similar in magnitude for high and low frequency words, and both effects persisted across a 1 week lag between the first and second readings. We discuss the present findings in the context of the distinction between conscious and unconscious memory, and the distinction between perceptually versus conceptually driven processing.     

Dynamics of activation in semantic and episodic memory

Spreading-activation models for the structure of semantic and episodic memory postulate a network of interconnected nodes in which activation spreads from a source node to recipient nodes. These models account for a broad range of memory-related processes, including word recognition, sentence verification, prose comprehension, and sentence production. A fundamental question regarding this account concerns the nature of activation growth at each node in the network. Two mutually exclusive possibilities are (a) that activation grows in a discrete fashion, making abrupt transitions between two or more distinct states and (b) that activation grows continuously from a resting level to an asymptotic level. In the present article, we characterize this dichotomy with examples from the literature, and we apply an adaptive priming procedure for testing discrete versus continuous activation models. Our procedure involves the presentation of prime stimuli at various moments before a test stimulus; subjects are required to make a lexical (word/nonword) decision about the test stimulus. The duration of the interval between the prime and test stimuli is varied adaptively on the basis of subjects' performance. Reaction times are recorded as a function of this duration. According to discrete activation models, there is a unique reaction-time distribution associated with each possible state of node activation. The distribution of reaction times observed when the test stimulus appears near the moment of transition between discrete states should therefore constitute a finite mixture of the underlying basis distributions associated with the individual discrete activation states. The mixture proportion will depend on the relation between the priming interval and the distribution of state-transition times. Continuous activation models assert instead that activation grows continuously over time and that there is a unique reaction-time distribution associated with any given degree of intermediate priming. Such models predict that no finite mixture distribution will emerge when the priming interval has a fixed intermediate duration. Two experiments with the adaptive priming procedure are reported to test these alternative predictions. In Experiment 1, the prime and test stimuli were semantically associated words (e.g., bread-butter). In Experiment 2, episodic associations between the prime and test stimuli were established through paired associate learning. For both cases, the mixture prediction failed, and two-state discrete activation models were rejected.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

中英双语者情绪注意偏向中的双语优势效应

采用改进的点–探测范式,考察熟练双语者在情绪注意偏向中对情绪信息加工的优势效应及该效应产生的原因。采用2（熟练双语者和非熟练双语者）×3（靶刺激与消极词汇出现的位置一致、不一致和中性条件）×2（线索呈现时间为100 ms和400 ms）的混合实验设计,记录被试对靶子的按键反应时和错误率。结果发现：线索呈现100 ms和400 ms时,两组被试在注意定向分数上无显著差异;线索呈现100 ms时,两组被试的注意解除分数无显著差异;线索呈现400 ms时,熟练双语者的注意解除分数显著小于非熟练双语者。结果表明,在情绪注意偏向任务中,熟练双语者比非熟练双语者表现出了对情绪词汇信息更好的注意抑制控制能力,体现出对情绪信息加工的双语优势效应,产生这一优势效应的原因是熟练双语者在注意的晚期阶段比非熟练双语者具有更好的情绪信息注意解除能力。     

Short term retention of sentences

A series of experiments was performed on the interaction between the short-term retention of sentences and of digits. In Experiment I a digit span method was used whereby subjects were presented with a sentence followed by a sequence of digits and were required either (a) to recall the sentence first and then the digits or (b) to recall the digits followed by the sentence. Under condition (a) prior recall of the sentence reduced the percentage of digit sequences correctly recalled, while under condition (b) retention of the sentence appeared to have no effect on digit recall. This last finding was confirmed in Experiment II, where the sentences varied both in grammatical complexity and length.

In Experiment III the effect of prior recall of a sentence on the recall of digits was found to depend on the type of sentence used. A correlation was observed between the size of this effect and the time taken to recall a sentence. The rate of forgetting suggested by this observation was comparable to that obtained in Experiment IV, where subjects performed an intervening task that did not involve immediate memory for sentences in the interval between the presentation and recall of a six-digit sequence.

It was concluded from these results that the short-term retention of sentences and of lists of items cannot be explained in terms of some general store of limited capacity.     

Induction of augmented transition networks

LAS is a program that acquires augmented transition network (ATN) grammars. It requires as data sentences of the language and semantic network representatives of their meaning. In acquiring the ATN grammars, it induces the word classes of the language, the rules of formation for sentences, and the rules mapping sentences onto meaning. The induced ATN grammar can be used both for sentence generation and sentence comprehension. Critical to the performance of the program are assumptions that it makes about the relation between sentence structure and surface structure (the graph deformation condition), about when word classes may be formed and when ATN networks may be merged, and about the structure of noun phrases. These assumptions seem to be good heuristics which are largely true for natural languages although they would not be true for many nonnatural languages. Provided these assumptions are satisfied LAS seems capable of learning any context-free language.     

The On-line Study of Sentence Comprehension: An Examination of Dual Task Paradigms

This paper presents three studies which examine the susceptibility of sentence comprehension to intrusion by extra-sentential probe words in two on-line dual-task techniques commonly used to study sentence processing: the cross-modal lexical priming paradigm and the unimodal all-visual lexical priming paradigm. It provides both a general review and a direct empirical examination of the effects of task-demand in the on-line study of sentence comprehension. In all three studies, sentential materials were presented to participants together with a target probe word which constituted either a better or a worse continuation of the sentence at a point at which it was presented. Materials were identical for all three studies. The manner of presentation of the sentence materials was, however, manipulated; presentation was either visual, auditory (normal rate) or auditory (slow rate). The results demonstrate that a technique in which a visual target probe interrupts ongoing sentence processing (such as occurs in unimodal visual presentation and in very slow auditory sentence presentation) encourages the integration of the probe word into the on-going sentence. Thus, when using such ‘sentence interrupting’ techniques, additional care to equate probes is necessary. Importantly, however, the results provide strong evidence that the standard use of fluent cross-modality sentence investigation methods are immune from such external probe word intrusions into ongoing sentence processing and are thus accurately reflect underlying comprehension processes.     

Coordination in visual working memory

Coordination of mental procedures is considered in terms of control processes (Baddeley, 1989) in visual working memory and appears to be a separable aspect of the demand imposed by cascaded serial processes (Carlson & Lundy, 1992). The main task required subjects to indicate whether symbolically suggested rotations and reflections correctly describe the difference between matrix patterns of filled-in squares within a 3 x 3 grid or between line drawings. Experiments were carried out to show that coordination is a separable component in this transformation task. A marker for coordination is the difference between the time taken to execute two transformations as a whole and the sum of the component transformations in isolation. The separate coordination demand was found in an experiment with matrix patterns mentioned, in an experiment with letter-like line drawings, and also in an experiment that forced subjects to maintain whole-pattern representations. A last experiment checked whether coordination is carried out by an autonomous control unit. There was a self-paced control of serial presentation of transformation symbols instead of a simultaneous presentation of those symbols. This additional external triggering resulted in a substantial decrease in the demand for coordination. Coordination of mental procedures and temporary representations is a fundamental constraint on the use of working-memory processes.     

加工速度对晚期第二语言学习者句法加工的影响

两个实验通过操纵句子呈现的速度,考察加工速度因素对于晚期第二语言学习者句法加工的影响。实验1采用视觉方式呈现句子,实验2采用听觉方式呈现句子。被试的母语为汉语,第二语言为英语,属于晚期第二语言学习者,实验任务为句法判断。两个实验的结果表明,加工速度缓慢是导致晚期第二语言学习者句法加工困难的重要因素之一。加工速度缓慢对第二语言句法加工的影响,不是局限于少数一两种句法形式,而是作用于多数句法形式。研究还发现,视觉和听觉两种呈现方式下,不同句法形式的加工难度既存在共性的一面,也存在差异性的一面。     

The comprehension of familiar and less familiar idioms

The relationship between idiom familiarity and idiom comprehension was investigated. Familiar and less familiar idioms were presented in three types of sentences. The sentences were biased toward the idiom's literal meaning, biased toward the idiom's idiomatic meaning, or unbiased toward either meaning. Reading times for sentences containing less familiar idioms were longer than for sentences containing familiar idioms, but there was no significant main effect for sentence type. The familiarity by sentence type interaction was significant. In literal sentences, less familiar idioms required more reading time than familiar idioms. In idiomatic sentences, less familiar idioms required more reading time than familiar idioms. The results are interpreted as being consistent with the idiomatic processing model, which proposes that processing of an idiom's idiomatic meaning precedes processing of its literal meaning.     

Processes of inference during sentence encoding

Four experiments were designed to determine whether implicit instruments are “computed” and stored during sentence encoding. Subjects read pairs of related sentences and indicated when they understood the second member of each pair. In Experiment 1, response times were longer for test sentences that, relative to the antecedent, mentioned implicit rather than explicit instruments. Experiment 2 revealed this difference to be stable over a range of reading times and two phases of practice. The results were interpreted as suggesting that the inferences in question are not computed, or at most, are partially drawn during encoding In Experiment 3, the procedure was employed to distinghish four degrees of relation between propositions and the inferences they permit. Experiment 4 examined the agent, patient, and instrument cases. It was shown that subjects need more time to verify both true and false inference tests than to verify their direct counterparts.