Is the P600/SPS affected by the richness of semantic content? A linguistic ERP study in Swedish

The study investigated whether the P600/SPS component is sensitive to the richness of semantic content in sentences. ERPs were recorded while 30 native Swedish speakers read sentences, of which half were syntactically correct and half contained a syntactic violation. Both kinds of sentences came in one of three types of descending semantic completeness: semantically coherent sentences, sentences which were incoherent due to violations of selectional restrictions, or sentences of pseudo words, hence void of lexical content. In the semantically coherent sentences a P600/SPS was found for the syntactic violation. A less salient positivity was found for the violation in the semantically incoherent sentences. No P600/SPS was found for the syntactic violation in the pseudo word sentences and no LAN component in any sentence type. The results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that the P600/SPS component reflects a semantically based reanalysis process.     

Short-term memory,verbal competence,and age as predictors of imagery instructional effectiveness

Children 6 to 11 years of age heard concrete sentences that they were asked to learn. Half the subjects were instructed to construct images representing the sentence meanings. The remaining participants were provided no strategy instructions (control condition). Consistent with previous outcomes, the older children in the imagery condition learned signficantly more than did the older control subjects. There was a slight trend favoring imagery for younger children in the sample. Individual differences in short-term memory and verbal competence were more highly associated with performance in the imagery than in the control condition, such that greater short-term memory and verbal competence predicted better sentence learning in the imagery condition. In particular, short-term memory and verbal competence made unique contributions (relative to age and to each other) to prediction of sentence learning in the imagery condition, but not in the control condition. In short, imagery instruction is more effective with children who are more intellectually competent.     

Short-term memory differences between children predict imagery effects when sentences are read

Children in Grades 4 through 6 read concrete sentences that they were asked to learn. Half the subjects were instructed to construct images representing the sentence meanings. The remaining participants were provided no strategy instructions (control condition). Individual differences in short-term memory were more highly associated with performance in the imagery than in the control condition. There was a clear positive effect of imagery instructions on learning efficiency among students with relatively greater short-term memory; there was no difference in learning efficiency between the imagery and control conditions among students below the median for short-term memory performance. All relevant analyses supported the conclusion that imaginal coding of sentences that are read is demanding of short-term memory capacity.     

汉语主动句、被动句的命题表征项目顺序特点

以中国大学生为被试,采用句子—图画验证任务(sentence-picture verification task )探讨了中国学生理解汉语主动句、被动句所形成的命题表征中项目顺序特点。结果表明,无论是语义水平较高的不可逆句,还是语义水平较低的可逆句,中国学生理解汉语主动句、被动句所建构的命题表征中项目顺序均为“施事→受事”。本研究结果初步表明,中国学生理解汉语主动句和被动句时,能根据它们不同的表层结构（汉语主动句的语言表达顺序为“施事→受事”、汉语被动句的语言表达顺序为“受事→施事”）建构相同的深层结构（语义内容的命题表征项目顺序“施事→受事”）,可能是一个按照“施事→受事”固定方向进行的系列认知心理加工的过程     

Memory-based versus on-line processing: Implications for attitude strength

Three experiments tested whether the manner in which attitudes are created—through on-line or memory-based processing—can impact the resultant strength of those attitudes. In each study, participants were presented with 20 behavioral statements about a person named Marie. Whereas some participants were asked to continually evaluate Marie based upon each sentence and then report their overall evaluation (on-line processing), others were asked to focus on the sentence structure and to evaluate Marie only after they had read all the sentences (memory-based processing). Even when controlling for attitude accessibility, attitudes created through on-line processing were stronger than attitudes created through memory-based processing: Experiment 1 showed that participants in the on-line condition felt more certain of their attitudes, Experiment 2 showed that on-line attitudes were better predictors of participants’ evaluative preferences, while Experiment 3 showed that on-line attitudes manifested stronger attitude-behavioral intention correspondence.     

Sentence coding: Tests of the address-contents model and the fragmentation-conceptual focus hypothesis

Predictions of the address-contents model of sentence coding (Broadbent, 1971, 1973) were contrasted in two experiments with predictions based on the fragmentation hypothesis (Jones, 1974, 1976, 1978) and the conceptual focus hypothesis (Tannenbaum and Williams, 1968a,b). Participants attempted to recall lists of active-voice subject-verb-object sentences in response to a noun cue from each sentence. For persons instructed to image the sentences in Experiment I, there was a subject cuing superiority for verb partial recalls, but there were no reliable cuing asymmeties for complete sentence or noun partial recalls. For persons instructed to repeat the sentences aloud, the subject superiority for verb partial recalls did not appear. In Experiment II, there was overall a subject superiority for verb partial recall and symmetry for complete and noun partial recalls. This pattern was not affected by whether a question following each sentence required the subject or the object as response. These results support the fragmentation-conceptual focus hypothesis.     

The role of phonology in reading comprehension: Implications of the effects of homophones on processing sentences with referentially dependent categories

Two experiments investigated whether phonological representations are activated in the processing of anaphors in reading, and if they are, whether they play a role in the initial (first-pass) processing of the sentence or in review (second-pass) processes. Subjects made sentence acceptability judgements for sentences that contained either verb-gaps or indefinite and personal pronouns (overt anaphors). All sentences contained homophones. Half of the semantically unacceptable sentences were phonologically plausible if the homophones were inserted in the gap (e.g. The children sleighed in the winter, and the murderer in cold blood) or used as the referent of the pronoun (e.g. There is a sale on at the store and I have one at the boat). The other half of the semantically unacceptable sentences were phonologically implausible. In both experiments, half of the subjects saw the sentences under normal viewing conditions (whole sentence condition); for the other half of the subjects the words of each sentence were presented sequentially in the centre of the video screen at the rate of 250 msec/word (RSVP condition). A large proportion of the phonologically implausible sentences in the first experiment contained phrases in the second clause which resulted in semantic “oddities” (e.g. The children sleighed in the winter, and the murderer in the jar); the sentences in Experiment 2 did not contain such oddities. In Experiment 1 subjects made more errors on the phonologically plausible than implausible unacceptable sentences with both verb-gaps and pronouns in the whole sentence but not in the RSVP condition. There was no effect of phonological plausibility in Experiment 2. As the effect of phonological plausibility was only seen in the whole sentence condition, and only when the sentences contained semantic oddities, these data suggest that phonological information was not used in the first-pass analysis of the sentence, but rather when the subject re-read the sentence to find the referent.     

汉语句子理解中物体隐含颜色心理模拟的ERPs研究

当前研究采用事件相关电位(ERPs)技术,同时沿用经典的句图匹配范式,考察句子理解中物体典型颜色与非典型颜色的心理加工过程在脑电活动上的反映。实验中被试先阅读句子再判断句子后呈现的图片物体是否在句子中出现过,句子中隐含的物体颜色或是关键物体的典型颜色或是非典型颜色。实验结果发现,典型颜色句子版本下句图不匹配条件比句图匹配条件引发了更大的N400效应;而非典型颜色句子版本下两者N400差异不显著。研究结果表明,人们在汉语句子理解过程中会实时对隐含的物体颜色信息进行心理模拟。并且,句子隐含物体颜色的典型性是造成匹配易化或不匹配易化的关键因素之一。     

词边界信息对读者阅读歧义短语时眼跳策略的影响

采用Eye Link 2000眼动仪,选取60个歧义短语,要求大学生被试阅读包含有歧义短语的句子。句子的呈现设置了四种条件:正常无阴影、词间阴影、歧义阴影和字间阴影,以探讨词边界信息是否影响读者阅读歧义短语时的注视位置效应。结果发现:读者对歧义短语的首次注视位置在四种条件下基本一致;词边界信息影响读者对歧义短语的再注视概率。结果表明,词边界信息对歧义短语的影响主要体现在眼跳行动(即"where")的晚期阶段。     

话题结构对语篇情绪更新的影响

读者在阅读理解的过程中, 能够推断出故事主角的情绪状态, 并能随着语篇中的情绪变化做出情绪更新。在加工情绪信息的同时, 读者也加工语篇结构方面的信息, 二者皆有可能随着语篇的展开而发生变化。本研究采用自定步速阅读的方法, 分别在外显和内隐两种情绪加工任务下, 考察话题结构对语篇情绪更新的影响。结果发现, 在实验1的外显情绪判断任务下, 话题结构未显示出对语篇情绪更新的作用; 在实验2和实验3的内隐情绪理解任务下, 话题延续时, 情绪转换句的阅读时间长于情绪延续句, 此时情绪更新需要额外的加工时间; 而话题转换时, 二者没有显著差异, 说明此时读者在新结构下建立当前句的情绪表征, 并不受到先前情绪的影响。     

The search for agents in a causal gap

This study used a reversal experiment within a participant's frame of reference as a tool for studying human agency. Twenty-seven participants were given a sentence reading task, asked to formulate a rule for choosing which sentence to read, and instructed to fbollow and break the rule in an FBFB or BFBF sequence. Despite the difficulty they had in formulating an unambiguous rule, 23 participants both broke and followed the rule, and 20 broke it with a mutually exclusive opposite. There was evidence that a participant's genetic heritage, learning history, and rule, the experimental task, and the instructions were in no case sufficient to control the sentences he or she read. There was evidence of two causal gaps, one before and one after a participant's choice, and positive evidence of participants' systematic control over the sentences read in reversal experiments.     

Understanding metaphoric sentences in the two cerebral hemispheres

Previous studies indicate that the right hemisphere (RH) has a unique role in maintaining activation of metaphoric single word meanings. The present study investigated hemispheric asymmetries in comprehending metaphoric word meanings within a sentence context. Participants were presented with incomplete priming sentences followed by (literally) true, false, or metaphoric lateralized target words and were asked to decide whether each sentence is literally true or false. Results showed that responses to metaphoric sentences were slower and less accurate than to false sentences when target words were presented to the right visual field (RVF)-LH as well as to the left visual field (LVF)-RH. This suggests that the understanding of lexical metaphors within a sentence context involves LH as well as RH processing mechanisms and that the role of each hemisphere in processing nonliteral language is flexible and may depend on the linguistic task at hand.     

话题结构对语篇情绪累加的影响

在阅读理解的过程中,读者能够自动对语篇中的情绪进行推断。本研究采用自定步速阅读的方法,分别在外显和内隐两种情绪加工的任务下,考察话题结构对语篇情绪累加的影响。结果发现,在实验一的外显情绪判断任务下,话题结构未显示出对语篇情绪累加的明显作用;在实验二的内隐情绪理解任务下,当话题延续时,读者对有两个情绪线索的语篇的阅读时间短于仅有一个情绪线索的语篇,此时情绪的累加促进了当前句的加工,而话题转换时,二者没有显著差异,说明此时读者在新结构下建立当前句的情绪表征,并不在先前情绪的基础上进行累加。     

句子加工水平上对外在干扰的抑制机制

通过 2个实验 ,以自控速移动窗口阅读与选择性再认相结合的实验范式 ,考察了语言理解能力高、低不同的 2组大学生被试在理解加工汉语两从句复合句的过程中抑制外在干扰信息的能力。结果表明 :抑制机制的效率受干扰材料的意义性及与目标材料的话题关系性的影响 ;在较高干扰强度的条件下 ,不同语言理解能力的个体在抑制机制上存在差异 ,低理解能力者抑制干扰信息的效率较低。     

语义整合的早期加工:来自ERPs的证据

本研究借助ERPs技术,通过操纵关键词与当前语境的语义合理性关系,考察在严格限定关键词词频变异性的情况下,语义整合过程能否反映在P2效应上。ERPs结果发现关键词呈现后,语义合理相比违背条件在右侧脑区诱发了更大的P2成分。该结果支持如果关键词低水平的变量信息(词频等)得到适当控制,ERPs技术可以检测到发生在250ms以前的语义整合过程。     

Evidence for a modality effect in sentence retention

It is well known that an acoustic-sensory code supports retention of linguistic materials whose storage is particularly based on phonological information (e.g., unrelated word lists). The present study investigates whether such a code also contributes to the retention of sentences. It has been shown that short-term sentence recall particularly depends on propositional and lexicosemantic information, which are assumed to be supplied independently of modality influences. We employed the intrusion paradigm of Potter and Lombardi (1990) and manipulated the availability of acoustic-sensory information. Participants were instructed to read sentences either silently or aloud. Since these two reading conditions also differ with respect to articulatory information, a further condition that provided articulatory but not acoustic-sensory information was introduced (i.e., silent mouthing). Our data suggest that acoustic-sensory information is used, if available, even in sentence recall.     

焦点阅读中信息加工的意识性研究

采用独立记得-知道范式(IRK)和加工分离范式(PDP)探讨焦点阅读中文本表征的意识性。根据阅读材料中人物特征与其目标行为的关系,创设一致和恢复一致两种实验条件,实验1、2分别使用独立记得-知道范式,加工分离范式研究文本表征的意识性问题。研究结果发现被试在两种实验条件下的有意识加工和无意识加工指标上有显著差异,说明在焦点阅读中命题表征和情境模型的建构都是有意识的。     

Impaired priming of new associations in amnesia

We assessed priming of new associations in amnesic patients and healthy control subjects in a paradigm developed by Graf and Schacter (1985). Subjects were presented unrelated word pairs embedded in sentences (e.g., A BELL was hanging over the baby's CRADLE) and were asked to rate how well the sentences related the two words. Subjects were then given a word completion test. They were shown three-letter word stems and were asked to complete the stem with the first word that came to mind. In the same context condition, each word stem was presented together with the word that had appeared in the same sentence during study (e.g., BELL-CRA--). In the different context condition, each stem was presented together with a new word that had never been presented (e.g., APPLE-CRA--). Control subjects completed more words in the same context condition than in the different context condition. In contrast, amnesic patients did not complete any more words in the same context condition than in the different context condition. Indeed, across two experiments none of the amnesic patients exhibited consistent priming of new associations. Thus, although amnesic patients do exhibit entirely normal priming of preexisting memory representations, they do not appear to exhibit priming of new associations in this paradigm.     

Scrutinizing the Emotional Nature of Intuitive Coherence Judgments

Dual‐system models propose that cognitive processing can occur either intuitively or deliberately. Unlike deliberate decision strategies, intuitive ones are assumed to have an emotional component attached to the decision process. We tested if intuitive decisions are indeed accompanied by an emotional response while deliberate decisions are not. Specifically, we conducted a psychophysiological study in which participants were instructed to decide either intuitively or deliberately if three simultaneously presented words were semantically coherent or incoherent (triad task). The degree of emotionality of these two decision strategies (intuitive vs. deliberate) was compared using changes in electrodermal activity (EDA) and the reaction time (RT) effect of an affective priming paradigm as primary measurements. Based on a valence‐arousal model, our results revealed that intuitive and deliberate judgments do not differ as to their emotional valence but that they do differ in emotional arousal. Most notably, sympathetic activation during intuitive judgments was significantly lower compared to sympathetic activation during deliberate judgments. Our results reflect that a relaxed state of mind—manifested in low sympathetic activity—could underlie the holistic processing that is assumed to facilitate the proliferation of semantic associations during coherence judgments. This suggests that coherence judgments made under an (instructed) intuitive decision mode have a specific psychophysiological signature and that arousal is the differentiating component between intuitive and deliberate decision strategies. © 2016 The Authors Journal of Behavioral Decision Making Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.