Syntactic priming and the lexical boost effect during sentence production and sentence comprehension: An fMRI study

Behavioral syntactic priming effects during sentence comprehension are typically observed only if both the syntactic structure and lexical head are repeated. In contrast, during production syntactic priming occurs with structure repetition alone, but the effect is boosted by repetition of the lexical head. We used fMRI to investigate the neuronal correlates of syntactic priming and lexical boost effects during sentence production and comprehension. The critical measure was the magnitude of fMRI adaptation to repetition of sentences in active or passive voice, with or without verb repetition. In conditions with repeated verbs, we observed adaptation to structure repetition in the left IFG and MTG, for active and passive voice. However, in the absence of repeated verbs, adaptation occurred only for passive sentences. None of the fMRI adaptation effects yielded differential effects for production versus comprehension, suggesting that sentence comprehension and production are subserved by the same neuronal infrastructure for syntactic processing.     

The persistence of structural priming: transient activation or implicit learning?

Structural priming in language production is a tendency to recreate a recently uttered syntactic structure in different words. This tendency can be seen independent of specific lexical items, thematic roles, or word sequences. Two alternative proposals about the mechanism behind structural priming include (a) short-term activation from a memory representation of a priming structure and (b) longer term adaptation within the cognitive mechanisms for creating sentences, as a form of procedural learning. Two experiments evaluated these hypotheses, focusing on the persistence of structural priming. Both experiments yielded priming that endured beyond adjacent sentences, persisting over 2 intervening sentences in Experiment 1 and over 10 in Experiment 2. Although memory may have short-term consequences for some components of this kind of priming, the persisting effects are more compatible with a learning account than a transient memory account.     

中心词和非中心词在句法启动的词汇增强效应中存在不同的机制

句法启动中, 非中心词和中心词重复是否诱发出相似强度的词汇增强效应, 目前存在着较大的理论争议。本研究在汉语双宾结构和介宾结构上分别操纵中心词和非中心词重复, 并在确保具有合适统计检验力基础上, 完成了3个句法启动实验。实验结果清楚地显示中心词重复诱发了稳定的词汇增强效应, 非中心词中的直接宾语重复也诱发了稳定但相对较弱的词汇增强效应。在此基础上, 我们尝试提出一个解释框架以调和现有的理论争议。     

句法结构和动词重复对汉语句子口语产生中句法启动效应的影响

研究中采用启动范式和图片描述任务, 利用句法选择比率和句子产生潜伏期的两个指标, 考察了启动句句法结构、动词是否相同和延时对汉语口语句子产生中句法启动效应的影响。结果发现在选择比率上, 句法结构产生的启动效应随延时变化保持稳定, 由启动句和目标句动词相同导致的启动效应的提高量(词汇增强效应)快速衰退, 首次为句子产生过程的句法选择阶段和计划阶段提供了证据。在句子产生潜伏期上, 仅发现启动句和目标句句法结构相同时缩短了句子产生潜伏期, 这可能是由于启动句句法结构激活水平的提高, 使得说话者在目标句产生的句法计划和选择阶段都更快引起的。选择阶段的加工影响句法选择比率, 而选择阶段和计划阶段共同影响了句子产生的潜伏期, 实验结果支持了两阶段竞争理论的观点。     

双语跨语言的句法启动

本文介绍了跨语言句法启动的图片描述法、补句法和句子回忆法三种研究方法;总结了跨语言句法启动研究关注的主要问题,包括：词序的一致性对跨语言句法启动的影响、词汇因素在跨语言句法启动中的作用、语言内和语言间句法启动的比较以及跨语言句法启动产生的机制等。同时也指出,在双语词序一致性,第二语言的熟练程度,双语语言学特性的差异性是否或者如何影响跨语言的句法启动等方面仍需进一步的研究     

A probabilistic corpus-based model of syntactic parallelism

Work in experimental psycholinguistics has shown that the processing of coordinate structures is facilitated when the two conjuncts share the same syntactic structure [Frazier, L., Munn, A., & Clifton, C. (2000). Processing coordinate structures. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 29(4) 343–370]. In the present paper, we argue that this parallelism effect is a specific case of the more general phenomenon of syntactic priming—the tendency to repeat recently used syntactic structures. We show that there is a significant tendency for structural repetition in corpora, and that this tendency is not limited to syntactic environments involving coordination, though it is greater in these environments. We present two different implementations of a syntactic priming mechanism in a probabilistic parsing model and test their predictions against experimental data on NP parallelism in English. Based on these results, we argue that a general purpose priming mechanism is preferred over a special mechanism limited to coordination. Finally, we show how notions of activation and decay from ACT-R can be incorporated in the model, enabling it to account for a set of experimental data on sentential parallelism in German.     

句子产生中的句法启动

句子产生中的句法启动是指个体产生一个句子时,倾向于重复使用刚刚加工过的句法结构。研究发现：（1）句法启动不能简单用词汇、题元或韵律等因素来解释;（2）启动句和目标句动词、题元角色数目以及顺序是否一致,影响句法启动;（3）层级结构和线性结构具有心理现实性;（4）存在说和写之间以及从理解到产生的跨通道句法启动。这些发现促使研究者提出了新的句子产生理论,如句法启动模型和动词句法表征模型。论文最后指出了进一步研究的方向     

The Persistence of Priming: Exploring Long-lasting Syntactic Priming Effects in Children and Adults

The implicit learning account of syntactic priming proposes that the same mechanism underlies syntactic priming and language development, providing a link between a child and adult language processing. The present experiment tested predictions of this account by comparing the persistence of syntactic priming effects in children and adults. Four-year-olds and adults first described transitive events after hearing transitive primes, constituting an exposure phase that established priming effects for passives. The persistence of this priming effect was measured in a test phase as participants described further transitive events but no longer heard primes. Their production of passives was compared to a baseline group who described the same pictures without any exposure to primes. Neither immediate nor long-term priming effects differed between children and adults but both children and adults showed significant immediate and persistent effects of the priming when the test phase occurred immediately after the exposure phase and when a short delay separated the exposure and test phase. The implications of these results for an implicit learning account of syntactic priming are discussed.     

Give and take: syntactic priming during spoken language comprehension

Syntactic priming during language production is pervasive and well-studied. Hearing, reading, speaking or writing a sentence with a given structure increases the probability of subsequently producing the same structure, regardless of whether the prime and target share lexical content. In contrast, syntactic priming during comprehension has proven more elusive, fueling claims that comprehension is less dependent on general syntactic representations and more dependent on lexical knowledge. In three experiments we explored syntactic priming during spoken language comprehension. Participants acted out double-object (DO) or prepositional-object (PO) dative sentences while their eye movements were recorded. Prime sentences used different verbs and nouns than the target sentences. In target sentences, the onset of the direct-object noun was consistent with both an animate recipient and an inanimate theme, creating a temporary ambiguity in the argument structure of the verb (DO e.g., Show the horse the book; PO e.g., Show the horn to the dog). We measured the difference in looks to the potential recipient and the potential theme during the ambiguous interval. In all experiments, participants who heard DO primes showed a greater preference for the recipient over the theme than those who heard PO primes, demonstrating across-verb priming during online language comprehension. These results accord with priming found in production studies, indicating a role for abstract structural information during comprehension as well as production.     

The effects of late acquisition of L2 and the consequences of immigration on L1 for semantic and morpho-syntactic language aspects

It has been hypothesized that some aspects of a second language (L2) might be learned easier than others if a language is learned late. On the other hand, non-use might result in a loss of language skills in one's native, i.e. one's first language (L1) (language attrition). To study which, if any, aspects of language are affected by either late acquisition or non-use, long-term German immigrants to the US and English native speakers who are long-term immigrants to Germany as well as two additional control groups of native German speakers were tested with an auditory semantic and morpho-syntactic priming paradigm. German adjectives correctly or incorrectly inflected for gender and semantically associated or not associated with the target noun served as primes. Participants made a lexical decision on the target word. All groups of native German speakers gained from semantically and morpho-syntactically congruent primes. Evidence for language attrition was neither found for semantic nor morpho-syntactic priming effects in the German immigrants. In contrast, English native speakers did not gain from a morpho-syntactic congruent prime, whereas semantic priming effects were similar as for the remaining groups. The present data suggest that the full acquisition of at least some syntactic functions may be restricted to limited periods in life while semantic and morpho-syntactic functions seem to be relatively inured to loss due to non-use.     

Patterns of experience with verbs affect long-term cumulative structural priming

Recent studies of structural priming have demonstrated that although there is evidence of verb-based effects in short-term priming (e.g., stronger priming when verbs are repeated between prime and target sentences), such effects are absent in long-term priming. We present evidence that verb-based effects can be observed in long-term priming situations. This result has important implications for theoretical accounts of the mechanisms that give rise to structural priming and other such adaptation effects in language production.     

Acquisition of novel traces in short-term implicit memory: Priming for nonwords and new associations

McKone (1995) reported a short-lived repetition priming effect (up to 8 sec and three intervening items), superimposed on long-term priming. In lexical decision and naming, decay of this short-term implicit memory was faster for pseudowords than for words, suggesting an explanation in terms of transient activation of preexisting lexical representations. Here, we present two cases where, in contrast, preexperimental familiarity did not affect short-term priming, indicating acquisition of novel traces. Experiment 1 determined repetition priming in same-different judgments to lowercase-uppercase pairs for words, and for nonwords with three levels of wordlikeness. Across lags of 0, 1, and 6 intervening items (2-14 sec), short-term priming was the same for all stimuli, even random letter strings. Experiments 2 and 3 assessed priming in a double lexical decision task for old associations (orange-apple) and new associations (cigar-errand). Short-term priming for the association was equal in both cases.     

Short-term action intentions overrule long-term semantic knowledge

In the present study, we investigated whether the preparation of an unusual action with an object (e.g. bringing a cup towards the eye) could selectively overrule long-term semantic representations. In the first experiment it was found that unusual action intentions activated short-term semantic goal representations, rather than long-term conceptual associations. In a second experiment the reversal of long-term priming effects was replicated, while reducing the need for internal verbalization as a possible strategy to accomplish the task. Priming effects in the first two experiments were found to involve the selection of object knowledge at a semantic level, rather than reflecting a general effect of action preparation on word processing (Experiment 3). Finally, in a fourth experiment short-term priming effects were shown to extend beyond a lexical level by showing faster responses to pictures representing the short-term action goal. Together, the present findings extend the ‘selection-for-action’ principle previously used in visual attention to a semantic level, by showing that semantic information is selectively activated in line with the short-term goal of the actor.     

The comprehension of anomalous sentences: evidence from structural priming

We report three experiments investigating how people process anomalous sentences, in particular those in which the anomaly is associated with the verb. We contrast two accounts for the processing of such anomalous sentences: a syntactic account, in which the representations constructed for anomalous sentences are similar in nature to the ones constructed for well-formed sentences; and a semantic account, in which the representations constructed for anomalous sentences are erroneous, or altogether missing, and interpretation is achieved on the basis of semantic representations instead. To distinguish between these accounts, we used structural priming. First, we ruled out the possibility that anomaly per se influences the magnitude of the priming effect: Prime sentences with morphologically incorrect verbs produced similarly enhanced priming (lexical boost) to sentences with the same correct verbs (Exp. 1). Second, we found that prime sentences with a novel verb (Exp. 2) or a semantically and syntactically incongruent verb (Exp. 3) produced a priming effect, which was the same as that produced by well-formed sentences. In accord with the syntactic account, we conclude that the syntactic representations of anomalous sentences are similar to those constructed for well-formed sentences. Our results furthermore suggest that lexically-independent syntactic information is robust enough to produce well-formed syntactic representations during processing without requiring aid from lexically-based syntactic information.     

Studying the grammatical aspects of word recognition: lexical priming,parsing, and syntactic ambiguity resolution

Two experiments are reported examining the relationship between lexical and syntactic processing during language comprehension, combining techniques common to the on-line study of syntactic ambiguity resolution with priming techniques common to the study of lexical processing. By manipulating grammatical properties of lexical primes, we explore how lexically based knowledge is activated and guides combinatory sentence processing. Particularly, we find that nouns (like verbs, see Trueswell & Kim, 1998) can activate detailed lexically specific syntactic information and that these representations guide the resolution of relevant syntactic ambiguities pertaining to verb argument structure. These findings suggest that certain principles of knowledge representation common to theories of lexical knowledge—such as overlapping and distributed representations—also characterize grammatical knowledge. Additionally, observations from an auditory comprehension study suggest similar conclusions about the lexical nature of parsing in spoken language comprehension. They also suggest that thematic role and syntactic preferences are activated during word recognition and that both influence combinatory processing.     

Syntactic priming in written production: Evidence for rapid decay

There is strong evidence for syntactic priming in language production (Bock, 1986), but little evidence about the time course of such effects. We report an experiment that examined the circumstances under which syntactic priming decays in written language production. Participants completed sentence fragments that allowed completions with one of two syntactic forms (Pickering & Branigan, 1998). They tended to produce the same syntactic form for immediately consecutive fragments, even though the two fragments described different events. However, when the experimental fragments were separated by other fragments with unrelated syntactic forms, this tendency rapidly diminished. The results suggest that priming effects in written production decay rapidly when other structures are subsequently produced. We discuss the implications for the application of syntactic information during production.     

Priming ditransitive structures in comprehension

Many studies have shown evidence for syntactic priming during language production (e.g., Bock, 1986). It is often assumed that comprehension and production share similar mechanisms and that priming also occurs during comprehension (e.g., Pickering & Garrod, 2004). Research investigating priming during comprehension (e.g., Branigan, Pickering, & McLean, 2005; Scheepers & Crocker, 2004) has mainly focused on syntactic ambiguities that are very different from the meaning-equivalent structures used in production research. In two experiments, we investigated whether priming during comprehension occurs in ditransitive sentences similar to those used in production research. When the verb was repeated between prime and target, we observed a priming effect similar to that in production. However, we observed no evidence for priming when the verbs were different. Thus, priming during comprehension occurs for very similar structures as priming during production, but in contrast to production, the priming effect is completely lexically dependent.     

Syntactic priming effects in aphasia: an investigation of local syntactic dependencies

This study explored on-line processing of local syntactic dependencies in normal subjects and in Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics using a lexical decision paradigm. In addition, subjects performed a grammatically judgement task on the real word pairs used in the lexical decision tasks. Results of two experiments for normal subjects indicated different syntactic priming effects as a function of the type of local syntactic dependency. Word pairs that formed a single constituent phrase, i.e., a verb phrase, showed both facilitory and inhibitory effects, whereas word pairs that reflected local syntactic dependencies across a phrase boundary, i.e., pronoun verb, showed only inhibitory effects. Broca's aphasics failed to show facilitory effects when presented with word pairs forming a single constituent phrase but, similar to normals, did show inhibition when presented with word pairs that reflected local syntactic dependencies across a phrase boundary. In contrast, Wernicke's aphasics failed to show inhibitory effects in both experiments. The implications of these results for theories of language processing deficits in aphasia are considered.