The comprehension and verification of ambiguous sentences

When Ss are presented with an ambiguous sentence they tend to interpret it in only one way. If later events warrant, Ss can recover the other meaning, a process which takes time. These conclusions follow from the results of a study in which 40 undergraduate Ss verified whether or not pictures shown at the end of a sentence represented the meaning of the sentence. When ambiguous sentences were presented, the verification time (VT) was no slower than for unambiguous sentences if the picture represented the “expected” meaning (as determined on a pre-test) of the ambiguity. The VT to the picture representing the “unexpected” meaning of the ambiguity was longer than VT to corresponding control sentences.     

Picture versus question elaboration on young children's learning of sentences containing high- and low-probability content

The main purpose of the two experiments reported here was to compare the potency of two types of elaboration on children's learning of sentence content: The effects of partial picture adjuncts were compared to the effects produced by answering "why"-questions about the relationships specified in the sentences. Five- to seven-year-old children heard sentences of the form, subject/verb/direct object/preposition/instrument. Sentences contained either a high-probability or a low-probability instrument given the semantic context. In Experiment 1, sentences either were accompanied by a partial picture depicting the sentence action but omitting the instrument or were presented without a partial picture accompaniment. Recall was improved by provision of partial pictures at study. In Experiment 2, the sentences were accompanied by complete pictures depicting the sentence content. In both experiments, questioning significantly reduced recall of high-probability sentences, with recall of instruments affected especially negatively. Evidence is presented that insufficient attention to instruments may have been one mechanism mediating depressed recall of high- compared to low-probability instruments in the questioned conditions. In summary, partial pictures improved cued recall of sentences in this study; in contrast, all significant effects produced by answering why-questions were negative ones (i.e., later recall was reduced following interrogation at study).     

Recognizing words and pictures in sentence contexts: a test of lexical modularity

Words or pictures completed sentence fragments to form coherent or incoherent sentences. Subjects made lexical decisions about words and object decisions about pictures. Modality was blocked in Experiment 1 and mixed in Experiment 2. In both experiments there were similar effects of context for words and pictures, contrary to the hypothesis that lexical priming produces the sentence context effect. Mixed conditions produced longer response latencies than blocked conditions but did not interact with the context effect. The finding of no interaction between the effect of context and the mixed-blocked manipulation, supports a version of lexical modularity in which context effects arise as a function of post-access integration processing.     

Lexical availability and grammatical encoding scope during spoken sentence production

Three sentence production experiments investigate the relationship between lexical and structural processing scope. Speakers generated sentences with varying phrase structures in response to visual displays (e.g., The dog and the hat move above the fork and the tree/The dog moves above the hat and the fork and the tree). On half of the trials, one of the pictures in the arrays was previewed. Filler sentences varied preview position and sentence structure from trial to trial. When speakers could not anticipate the position of the previewed picture in the upcoming sentence (Experiment 1), preview benefit for pictures corresponding to the second noun to be produced was limited to pictures that fell within the sentence-initial phrase. When the linear position of the previewed picture was predictable, preview benefits were observed for the second noun to be produced, irrespective of phrase position (Experiment 2). However, no preview benefits were observed for the third noun to be produced (Experiment 3). In contrast, significant effects of initial phrase structure were observed in all experiments, with latencies increasing with initial phrase length. The results are consistent with speakers operating a phrasal scope for structural planning within which the scope of lexical access can vary.     

Processing strategies in picture-sentence verification tasks

The encoding and comparison strategies used by observers in matching pictures and sentences were investigated. The location of the mismatch or difference between a sentence and a picture was varied, and the latencies of "same"-"different" responses were compared as a function of whether the mismatch occurred in the sentence subject, verb, or object. Sentences were presented auditorily and varied in both voice and reversibility. Pictures either preceded or were presented simultaneously with the sentences. In all cases, Ss adopted a serial self-terminating comparison strategy and a surface structure encoding strategy: The comparison was terminated as soon as a mismatch was encountered, and actives were processed in the order subject-verb-object, whereas passives were processed in the order object-verb-subject.     

汉语确定性无界否定句模拟加工的时间进程

以往关于否定句理解的心理模拟过程是一步完成的还是两步完成的, 结果并不一致, 这与各个研究使用的实验材料类型有关。本研究以汉语确定性无界否定句为研究对象, 采用句-图匹配范式和2(句子类型：汉语确定性无界肯定句和汉语确定性无界否定句) × 2 (图片描绘事物状态与句子描述的事物状态的匹配类型：匹配与不匹配)被试内实验设计, 以对图片判断的反应时和正确率为指标, 探讨其理解的早期(250 ms)、中期(750 ms)和晚期(1500 ms)的心理模拟过程。研究结果表明：确定性无界否定句理解的心理模拟是分两步进行的, 首先模拟的是否定句的被否定状态, 随着加工时间的推进, 完成了对确定性无界否定句的第二步模拟即对实际状态的模拟。但是, 比其他类型否定句的模拟过程所用的时间要短, 即在阅读理解的中期就完成了心理模拟。     

Syntactic presupposition in sentence comprehension

Two experiments investigated the role of syntactic presupposition in sentence comprehension. In Experiment I subjects verified cleft, pseudocleft and factive complement sentences with respect to preceding context paragraphs, which contradicted either the assertion or the presupposition of the target sentence. Subjects took significantly longer to verify sentences with false presuppositions than sentences with false assertions. In Experiment II subjects verified cleft and pseudocleft sentences with respect to subsequently presented pictures. Once again, verification times for sentences with false presuppositions were significantly longer than verification times for sentences with false assertions. It was argued that these findings are more adequately explained by a “structural” hypothesis, than in terms of strategies designed to locate given and new information.     

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     

Positive forgetting of sentence material

This experiment investigated the positive-forgetting phenomenon with sentence material. Sets of sentences were presented to Ss with each sentence being cued “remember” or “forget” immediately following its presentation. To-be-remembered (TBR) sentences were found to be more accessible thanto-be-forgotten (TBF) sentences and uncued control sentences. Sentence connectedness was found to be an important determiner of the magnitude of the observed recall phenomenon; but differential sentence interest was not a significant factor. Using a multiple-choice recognition test, key words or phrases from the to-be-forgotten sentences were found to be equally available as key words or phrases from the to-be-remembered sentences. These results warrant an extention of Bjork’s (1970, 1972) selective-rehearsal and differential-grouping interpretation of the positive-forgetting phenomenon to encompass sentence material. Some implications of the findings for single-presentation information acquisition were noted.     

Producing simple utterances: Details of the planning process

Subjects produced subject-verb sentences of prespecified structure, such asThe man is kicking, in response to pictures. The amount of information required to identify the pictured actor or action and to retrieve a name for the actor was varied. The following results, based on subject response latencies, were obtained. Experiment I demonstrated that only some initial amount of verb information processing occurs before and delays the initiation of such subject-verb sentences. Experiment II demonstrated that verb information processing is initiated only after the subject of the sentence has been identified. Finally, Experiment III demonstrated that verb information processing is initiated in parallel with the retrieval of the name for the subject of the sentence.This article is based on a Ph.D. dissertation submitted to New York University.     

Embodied Simulations Are Modulated by Sentential Perspective

There is considerable evidence that language comprehenders derive lexical‐semantic meaning by mentally simulating perceptual and motor attributes of described events. However, the nature of these simulations—including the level of detail that is incorporated and contexts under which simulations occur—is not well understood. Here, we examine the effects of first‐ versus third‐person perspective on mental simulations during sentence comprehension. First‐person sentences describing physical transfer towards or away from the body (e.g., “You threw the microphone,” “You caught the microphone”) modulated response latencies when responses were made along a front‐back axis, consistent with the action‐sentence compatibility effect (ACE). This effect was not observed for third‐person sentences (“He threw the microphone,” “He caught the microphone”). The ACE was observed when making responses along a left‐right axis for third‐person, but not first‐person sentences. Abstract sentences (e.g., “He heard the message”) did not show an ACE along either axis. These results show that perspective is a detail that is simulated during action sentence comprehension, and that motoric activations are flexible and affected by the pronominal perspective used in the sentence.     

Pictures in sentences: understanding without words

To understand a sentence, the meanings of the words in the sentence must be retrieved and combined. Are these meanings represented within the language system (the lexical hypothesis) or are they represented in a general conceptual system that is not restricted to language (the conceptual hypothesis)? To evaluate these hypotheses, sentences were presented in which a pictured object replaced a word (rebus sentences). Previous research has shown that isolated pictures and words are processed equally rapidly in conceptual tasks, but that pictures are markedly slower than words in tasks requiring lexical access. The lexical hypothesis would therefore lead one to expect that rebus sentences will be relatively difficult, whereas the conceptual hypothesis would predict that rebus sentences would be rather easy. Sentences were shown using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) at a rate of 10 or 12 words per second. With one set of materials (Experiments 1 and 2), readers took longer to judge the plausibility of rebus sentences than all-word sentences, although the accuracy of judgment and of recall were similar for the two formats. With two new sets of materials (Experiments 3 and 5), rebus and all-word sentences were virtually equivalent except in one circumstance: when a picture replaced the noun in a familiar phrase such as seedless grapes. In contrast, when the task required overt naming of the rebus picture in a sentence context, latency to name the picture was markedly longer than to name the corresponding word, and the appropriateness of the sentence context affected picture naming but not word naming (Experiment 4). The results fail to support theories that place word meanings in a specialized lexical entry. Instead, the results suggest that the lexical representation of a noun or familiar noun phrase provides a pointer to a nonlinguistic conceptual system, and it is in that system that the meaning of a sentence is constructed.     

Recopition memory for syntactic and semantic aspects of connected discourse

This study investigates the pattern of retention of syntactic and semantic information shortly after comprehension of connected discourse. Ninety-six Ss listened to 24 taped passages and, after each passage, heard one recognition test sentence which was either identical to a sentence that had occurred in the passage, or was changed in some slight way. The Ss responded “identical” or “changed,” rated their confidence, and classified changes as “meaning” or “form.” Two independent variables were manipulated: (1) The relationship between the original sentence in the passage and the test sentence. The test sentence was (a) semantically changed, (b) changed from active to passive voice or vice versa, (c) formally changed in other ways that did not affect the meaning, or (d) unchanged. Each sentence appeared in all change types. (2) The amount of interpolated material between the original and test sentences was zero, 80, or 160 syllables of connected discourse which was a continuation of the passage. Each S heard passages representing all levels of each variable. All combinations of particular passages, relationship of original and test sentence, and amount of interpolated material were tested. When the test sentence was heard immediately after the original, retention was high for all test types. But after 80½160 syllables, recognition for syntactic changes had dropped to near chance levels while remaining high for semantic changes. Even when the meaning of a sentence was remembered, formal properties that were not necessary for that meaning were forgotten very quickly. The results suggest that the original form of the sentence is stored only for the short time necessary for comprehension to occur. When a semantic interpretation has been made, the meaning is stored. Thus the memory of the meaning is not dependent on memory of the original form of the sentence.     

Verifying environmental relationships

In two experiments, subjects first learned the locations of objects in a 21 x 21 ft room and then were timed as they verified, from memory, statements about the spatial relationships of the objects to certain features (e.g., the outside walls, the center of the room, subdividing partitions). The statements were of the form “X is (not) close to (far from) F” in Experiment 1 and “X is farther from (closer to) F than Y is” in Experiment 2, where X and Y are specific objects and F is a feature. While some of the latencies varied directly with the magnitudes of the distances between objects and features named in the sentences, there were several instances in which sentences associated with equivalent distances led to different latencies or sentences associated with different distances led to equivalent latencies. The possible cognitive operations underlying the latency pattern are discussed.     

Inspecting pictures for information to verify a sentence: Eye movements in general encoding and in focused search

When we see combinations of text and graphics, such as photographs and their captions in printed media, how do we compare the information in the two components? Two experiments used a sentence-picture verification task in which statements about photographs of natural scenes were read in order to make a true/false decision about the validity of the sentence, and in which eye movements were recorded. In Experiment 1 the sentence and the picture were presented concurrently, and objects and words could be inspected in any order. In Experiment 2 the two components were presented one after the other, either picture first or sentence first. Fixation durations on pictures were characteristically longer than those on sentences in both experiments, and fixations on sentences varied according to whether they were being encoded as abstract propositions or as coreferents of objects depicted in a previously inspected picture. The decision time data present a difficulty for existing models of sentence verification tasks, with an inconsistent pattern of differences between true and false trials.     

PRODUCING GENERATIVE SENTENCE USAGE BY IMITATION AND REINFORCEMENT PROCEDURES1

Three retarded subjects and two developmentally normal toddlers were trained using imitation and reinforcement procedures to use correct sentences. The experimental task was to use sentences with correct subject-verb agreement to describe pictures that were presented to the subjects. Two classes of sentences were taught: those involving a plural subject that required the use of the verb “are” (for example, “the boys are running”) and those involving a singular subject that required the use of the verb “is” (for example, “the boy is running”). The basic design of the study involved multiple baselines for each class of sentences. Four of the subjects began to produce novel, untrained sentences of a particular type to generalization probe pictures when that particular class of sentence was currently being trained. Thus, the imitation and reinforcement procedures appeared to be functional in producing generative sentence usage for both types of sentences. One subject produced correct sentences to both singular and plural probe pictures when only “is” sentences had been taught. A reversal procedure and retraining phase indicated that for this subject, imitation and reinforcement procedures for training one class of sentence behavior seemed functional in producing generative responses of the other class of sentences.     

Picture-word differences in a sentence verification task

Effects of picture-word format were investigated with four problem-solving items. In Experiment 1, picture-word input was presented for 8 sec followed by a test sentence that included verbatim and inference statements. Subjects made a true/false reaction time to the test sentence. In Experiment 2, the input remained on the screen while the test sentence was presented with varied stimulus onset asynchronies from 0 to 1,000 msec. Results showed that responses to pictures were faster than responses to words, and the format effect was larger with inference than with verbatim sentences. The picture advantage seemed to be due to the nature of the input and how information is extracted from it. The findings are discussed within the context of text-processing theories (Glenberg & Langston, 1992; Larkin & Simon, 1987).