Why opening a door is as easy as eating an apple: A reply to Thompson-Schill and Botvinick (2006)

Martin and Cheng (2006) present evidence suggesting that difficulty in verb generation is related to the strength of associative links between nouns and verbs and not to competition from alternative verb responses. Specifically, they show that latencies for verb generation are related to the associative strength of the most frequently produced verb and not to the ratio of the strength of the first to the second most frequently produced verb. Thompson-Schill and Botvinick (2006) have provided modeling results indicating how the findings of Martin and Cheng might be accommodated in a competitive model. Here we discuss how two noncompetitive models account for the findings and why such models should be preferred.     

Limitations on the use of verb information during sentence comprehension

An eye tracking experiment was conducted in order to investigate the role of verb information in resolving structural ambiguity during sentence comprehension. Reading time was measured on sentences containing temporarily ambiguous noun phrases (e.g., “The athlete revealed the problem⊙) that were continued as tensed sentence (S) complements or noun phrase (NP) complements. Ambiguous noun phrases were preceded either by verbs occurring most frequently with NP complements (NPbiased) or verbs occurring most frequently with S complements (S-biased). Reading time was also measured on sentences containing unambiguous S complements preceded by either NP-biased or S-biased verbs. The results showed that contrary to predictions made by verb guidance theories (e.g., constraint satisfaction; MacDonald, Pearlmutter, & Seidenberg, 1994a, 1994b; Trueswell & Tanenhaus, 1994), for both NP- and S-biased verb conditions, sentences containing temporarily ambiguous noun phrase complements were read most quickly, and sentences containing temporarily ambiguous S complements were read more slowly than those containing unambiguous S complements.     

Lexical decision in sentences: Effects of syntactic structure

A lexical decision paradigm was used to examine syntactic influence on word recognition in sentences. Initial fragments of sentences were presented visually (CRT display) one word at a time (at reading speeds), from left to right. The string terminated with the appearance of a lexical decision target. The grammatical structure of the incomplete sentence affected lexical decision reaction time (RT). In Experiment 1, modal verb contexts followed by main verb targets and preposition contexts followed by noun targets produced lower RTs than did the opposite pairings (i.e., modal/noun and preposition/verb). In Experiment 2, transitive verb contexts followed by noun targets and subject noun phrase contexts followed by verb targets yielded lower RTs than did the opposite pairings. Similar contrasts for adjective targets did not yield comparable effects in Experiment 2, but did when the adjective was the head of a predictable phrase (Experiment 4). In Experiment 3, noun targets yielded lower RTs than did verb targets after contexts of a transitive verb followed by a prepositional phrase. An account of these effects is offered in terms of parsing constraints on phrasal categories.     

Thin slices of creativity: Using single-word utterances to assess creative cognition

We investigated the hypothesis that individual differences in creative cognition can be manifest even in brief responses, such as single-word utterances. Participants (n = 193) were instructed to say a verb upon seeing a noun displayed on a computer screen and were cued to respond creatively to half of the nouns. For every noun–verb pair (72 pairs per subject), we assessed the semantic distance between the noun and the verb, using latent semantic analysis (LSA). Semantic distance was higher in the cued ("creative") condition than the uncued condition, within subjects. Critically, between subjects, semantic distance in the cued condition had a strong relationship to a creativity factor derived from a battery of verbal, nonverbal, and achievement-based creativity measures (β= .50), and this relation remained when controlling for intelligence and personality. The data show that creative cognition can be assessed reliably and validly from such thin slices of behavior.     

When nominal features are marked on verbs: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study

It has been claimed that verb processing (as opposed to noun processing) is subserved by specific neural circuits in the left prefrontal cortex. In this study, we took advantage of the unusual grammatical characteristics of clitic pronouns in Italian (e.g., lo and la in portalo and portala 'bring it [masculine]/[feminine]', respectively)-the fact that clitics have both nominal and verbal characteristics, to explore the neural correlates of verb and clitic processing. We used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to suppress the excitability of the left prefrontal cortex and to assess its role in producing verb+det+noun and verb+clitic phrases. Results showed an interference effect for both kinds of phrases when stimulation was applied to the left but not to the right prefrontal cortex. However, the interference effect was significantly greater for the verb+clitic than for the verb+det+noun phrases. These findings support the view that clitics increase the morphosyntactic complexity of verbs.     

Resolving conflict: A response to Martin and Cheng (2006)

Martin and Cheng (2006) report the results of an experiment aimed at disentangling the effects of association strength from those of competition on performance on a verb generation task. Their experiment is situated at the center of a putative debate regarding the function of the left inferior frontal gyrus in language processing (see, e.g., Wagner, Paré-Blagoev, Clark, & Poldrack, 2001). Following in this tradition, Martin and Cheng purport to contrast two processes—selection between competing representations and controlled retrieval of weak associates—that we argue can be reduced to the same mechanism. We contend that the distinction between competition and association strength is a false dichotomy, and we attempt to recast this discussion within a Bayesian framework in an attempt to guide research in this area in a more fruitful direction.     

Visual variability affects early verb learning

Research demonstrates that within‐category visual variability facilitates noun learning; however, the effect of visual variability on verb learning is unknown. We habituated 24‐month‐old children to a novel verb paired with an animated star‐shaped actor. Across multiple trials, children saw either a single action from an action category (identical actions condition, for example, travelling while repeatedly changing into a circle shape) or multiple actions from that action category (variable actions condition, for example, travelling while changing into a circle shape, then a square shape, then a triangle shape). Four test trials followed habituation. One paired the habituated verb with a new action from the habituated category (e.g., ‘dacking’ + pentagon shape) and one with a completely novel action (e.g., ‘dacking’ + leg movement). The others paired a new verb with a new same‐category action (e.g., ‘keefing’ + pentagon shape), or a completely novel category action (e.g., ‘keefing’ + leg movement). Although all children discriminated novel verb/action pairs, children in the identical actions condition discriminated trials that included the completely novel verb, while children in the variable actions condition discriminated the out‐of‐category action. These data suggest that – as in noun learning – visual variability affects verb learning and children's ability to form action categories.     

Neuroanatomically separable effects of imageability and grammatical class during single-word comprehension

The present study characterizes the neural correlates of noun and verb imageability and addresses the question of whether components of the neural network supporting word recognition can be separately modified by variations in grammatical class and imageability. We examined the effect of imageability on BOLD signal during single-word comprehension of nouns and verbs. Subjects made semantic similarity judgments while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Nouns and verbs were matched on imageability, and imageability varied continuously within a grammatical category. We observed three anatomically separable effects: a main effect of grammatical class, a main effect of imageability, and an imageability by grammatical class cross-over interaction. The left superior parietal lobule and a region in the left fusiform responded similarly to increases in noun and verb imageability; the left superior temporal gyrus showed greater activity for verbs than nouns after imageability was matched across grammatical class; and, in both the left middle temporal gyrus and the left inferior frontal lobe, a decrease in noun but not verb imageability resulted in higher BOLD signal. The presence of reliable and anatomically separable main effects of both imageability and grammatical class renders unlikely the hypothesis that previously reported dissociations between nouns and verbs can be dismissed as imageability effects. However, some regions previously thought to respond to grammatical class or imageability instead respond to the interaction of these variables.     

The relationship between recognition and cued recall in memory of enacted and nonenacted information

Summary An experiment was conducted to determine whether the processes underlying memory for enacted and nonenacted events are the same or different. The experimental paradigm used was that of recognition failure of recallable information. At study subjects were given verbal commands (e.g., break the match, roll the ball), that they were to remember or enact and remember. At test subjects were first asked to recognize the noun in each command in the absence of the verb and then to recall the noun with the verb present as cue. Half the subjects were given the two tests in the reverse order. The results demonstrate that enactment and nonenactment differ with respect to the degree of dependence/independence between recognition and recall. In the enactment condition recognition and cued recall are completely independent and in the nonenactment condition they are almost completely dependent.     

Age-Related Influences on Repetition Priming in the Verb Generation Task: Examining the Role of Response Competition

ABSTRACT

The identification-production framework suggests that aging is associated with a decline in production forms of repetition priming, particularly under test conditions that maximize response competition. The present study examined this prediction by testing young and healthy older adults in a single-encoding version of the verb generation task in which some items had one dominant verb response (low competition) or had no such dominant response (high competition). Further analyses examined whether priming and error rates were related to performance on neuropsychological tests purported to measure frontal lobe functioning. Priming was invariant across age groups and was not related to frontal lobe status in older adults, but frontal lobe status did predict task performance: low-frontal older adults made more errors than high-frontal older adults, particularly for high-competition items and items with high association strength. These results are not consistent with the identification-production framework, but are consistent with the conclusions that (a) aging is associated with invariance in the processes that support repetition priming in the verb generation task and (b) frontal lobe status in aging is related to verb generation performance.     

Verb generation priming involves conceptual implicit memory

Brain activation patterns differ and generation latencies are reduced when generating verbs to repeated nouns (Raichle et al., 1994). Amnesic participants show normal magnitude of priming (Seger et al., 1997). Despite its importance in neuropsychology, verb generation priming is not well characterized psychologically. Six behavioral studies found that verb generation priming was specific to the verb rather than to the noun or the noun-verb pair, was equivalent after overt or covert generation and after reading verbs or generating verbs, was affected by levels of processing, and transferred completely across languages in bilinguals. These results indicate that verb generation priming involves priming of particular responses and happens at a conceptual level. These findings provide new insights about the significance of brain imaging and neuropsychological studies involving verb generation priming.     

Age of acquisition and imageability ratings for a large set of words, including verbs and function words

Age of acquisition and imageability ratings were collected for 2,645 words, including 892 verbs and 213 function words. Words that were ambiguous as to grammatical category were disambiguated: Verbs were shown in their infinitival form, and nouns (where appropriate) were preceded by the indefinite article (such asto crack anda crack). Subjects were speakers of British English selected from a wide age range, so that differences in the responses across age groups could be compared. Within the subset of early acquired noun/verb homonyms, the verb forms were rated as later acquired than the nouns, and the verb homonyms of high-image ability nouns were rated as significantly less imageable than their noun counterparts. A small number of words received significantly earlier or later age of acquisition ratings when the 20–40 years and 50–80 years age groups were compared. These tend to comprise words that have come to be used more frequently in recent years (either through technological advances or social change), or those that have fallen out of common usage. Regression analyses showed that although word length, familiarity, and concreteness make independent contributions to the age of acquisition measure, frequency and imageability are the most important predictors of rated age of acquisition.     

Neural correlates of temporal auditory processing in developmental dyslexia during German vowel length discrimination: an fMRI study

This fMRI study investigated phonological vs. auditory temporal processing in developmental dyslexia by means of a German vowel length discrimination paradigm (Groth, Lachmann, Riecker, Muthmann, & Steinbrink, 2011). Behavioral and fMRI data were collected from dyslexics and controls while performing same-different judgments of vowel duration in two experimental conditions. In the temporal, but not in the phonological condition, hemodynamic brain activation was observed bilaterally within the anterior insular cortices in both groups and within the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in controls, indicating that the left IFG and the anterior insular cortices are part of a neural network involved in temporal auditory processing. Group subtraction analyses did not demonstrate significant effects. However, in a subgroup analysis, participants performing low in the temporal condition (all dyslexic) showed decreased activation of the insular cortices and the left IFG, suggesting that this processing network might form the neural basis of temporal auditory processing deficits in dyslexia.     

Preliminary evidence for impaired rapid verb generation in schizophrenia

It has been hypothesized that nouns and verbs are processed within relatively separable semantic memory networks. Although abnormal semantic processing is a common feature of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, no prior studies have specifically examined the comparability of noun and verb generation deficits in schizophrenia. In the current study, verb (action), noun (animal), and letter (f) fluency performance was evaluated in 22 inpatients with schizophrenia and 27 healthy comparison subjects. On average, individuals with schizophrenia performed approximately one standard deviation below the healthy comparison subjects on action, animal, and letter fluency. Action fluency-but not letter or animal fluency-was moderately correlated with tests of working memory, response inhibition, semantic memory, and cognitive flexibility. Findings suggest that verb- and noun-based fluency deficits are of comparable severity in schizophrenia, but that the impairment in verb generation may be driven by different underlying cognitive mechanisms. Further, hypothesis-driven research on the nature and extent of verb network disruption in schizophrenia appears warranted.     

The return of “visiting relatives”: Pragmatic effects in sentence processing

Two experiments were performed to investigate the role of syntactic and pragmatic cues on the disambiguation of noun phrases of the form VERB+ing NOUN+s, like visiting relatives, that can be interpreted as either singular or plural noun phrases. Both experiments used a self-paced reading task in which reading times were measured for two words, a verb and an adverb, immediately following the potentially ambiguous noun phrase. The interpretation of the noun phrase as singular or plural was biased by pragmatic cues in the first experiment and by syntactic cues in the second experiment. In both experiments, subjects were faster to read the adverb following the verb when the interpretation biased by the cues agreed in number with the verb that immediately followed the target noun phrase than when it did not agree with the verb. These results suggest that pragmatic cues, like syntactic cues, can be utilized rapidly in sentence processing.     

The Resolution of the Dative NP Ambiguity in Korean

An eye-movement study examined the ambiguity of the dative noun phrase (NP) in Korean, which may be attached either to the main verb or to a relative verb. Experimental sentences of the form NP-Nom NP-Dat NP-Nom V (dative) NP-Acc V (dative or simple transitive; Nom = nominative; Dat = dative; V = verb; Acc = accusative) were tested. Garden-path theory predicts that comprehension difficulty occurs when the main verb is transitive, forcing the dative NP to be attached to the relative verb, because the dative NP will have already been attached in the clause posited when the first nominative NP is read. In contrast, lexically based theory predicts that comprehension difficulty occurs when the main verb is a dative verb, because the dative NP will be attached to the first verb encountered (the relative verb). The present study did not fully support either theory, because the differences seen in the experimental conditions appeared, at least in part, in the control conditions. However, the results were much different from the prediction of lexically based theory. Reading was faster, and regressive eye movements fewer, in the dative-ambiguous condition than in the transitive-ambiguous condition. Some reasons for the unexpected difficulty of the transitive-unambiguous condition are advanced.     

In Search of Gender Recency: Evidence from the Production of Pronouns

This study investigated whether retrieval of a noun's grammatical gender benefits from having retrieved that information recently. In response to picture stimuli, participants produced gender-marked pronouns under various priming conditions. The primes differed in that they either necessitated retrieval of grammatical gender (indefinite noun phrase/pronoun) or did not (noun); when they required gender retrieval, they varied in whether they involved access to the same morpheme (pronoun) or a different morpheme (indefinite noun phrase). Relative to an unprimed condition, faster responses were obtained in each condition. Pronoun primes facilitated pronoun naming more than the other prime types, but no difference was observed between noun primes and indefinite noun phrase primes. Thus, although the experiment was sensitive to priming processes, there was no evidence for morpheme-independent gender priming.     

Repetition priming within and between languages in verb generation: evidence for shared verb concepts

Although translation equivalents for concrete nouns are known to have shared core conceptual representations in bilingual memory (Francis, 1999), the status of translation-equivalent verbs has not been systematically tested. Three repetition-priming experiments using a verb generation task were used to determine whether verbs have shared representations across languages and to identify the processes facilitated in repeated verb generation. In Experiment 1 fluent Spanish-English bilingual speakers exhibited repetition priming both within and between languages, but between-language priming was weaker. In Experiment 2 performance of non-bilingual English and Spanish speakers was equivalent to that of bilingual speakers responding in their dominant language. Experiment 3 used manipulations meant to isolate noun comprehension, verb concept selection, and verb production. The between-language priming in Experiments 1 and 3 indicates that verb concepts are shared across languages and that verb concept selection exhibits facilitation. Experiment 3 showed that the greater within-language priming was due primarily to facilitation of verb production processes.     

Repetition priming within and between languages in verb generation: Evidence for shared verb concepts

Although translation equivalents for concrete nouns are known to have shared core conceptual representations in bilingual memory (Francis, 1999), the status of translation-equivalent verbs has not been systematically tested. Three repetition-priming experiments using a verb generation task were used to determine whether verbs have shared representations across languages and to identify the processes facilitated in repeated verb generation. In Experiment 1 fluent Spanish–English bilingual speakers exhibited repetition priming both within and between languages, but between-language priming was weaker. In Experiment 2 performance of non-bilingual English and Spanish speakers was equivalent to that of bilingual speakers responding in their dominant language. Experiment 3 used manipulations meant to isolate noun comprehension, verb concept selection, and verb production. The between-language priming in Experiments 1 and 3 indicates that verb concepts are shared across languages and that verb concept selection exhibits facilitation. Experiment 3 showed that the greater within-language priming was due primarily to facilitation of verb production processes.     

支持性条件对记忆年龄差异的影响

通过三个实验探讨支持性条件对记忆年龄差异的影响。结果表明,在操作条件下记忆高语义关联度项目时,有缩小记忆年龄差异的作用,(实验一);线索回忆时,对于低语义关联度项目,青年人可从名词线索中获得更多支持(实验二);当使用具范畴组织关系的词表作为记忆材料时,操作条件和范畴线索的结合对老年人记忆有干扰作用(实验三)。记忆中年龄差异的变化反映了编码条件、记忆材料和提取条件三方面的综合作用。