Filling gaps: Decision principles and structure in sentence comprehension

The correct grammatical characterization of sentences containing filler-gap dependencies is a topic of considerable theoretical interest in linguistics. In some grammatical frameworks, these dependencies are representef in terms of conditions on the permissible indexing of structures (or alternative structure evaluation conditions) which a representation must adhere to in order to be well-formed. In other frameworks, constraints on permissible filler-gap dependencies are simply inherent in the set of phrase structure rules contained in the grammar of a language.The processing of sentences with multiple (potential) filler-gap dependencies was investigated in two experiments. The first experiment provided evidence for three claims. First, the human sentence processor abides by a strategy of assigning the most recent potential filler to a gap. Hence, ‘recent filler’ sentences where this assignment proves to be correct takes less time to comprehend than ‘distant filler’ sentences where this decision turns out to be incorrect. Second, the recent filler strategy is itself just a special case of a more general strategy of assigning the most salient potential filler to a gap. Third, unambiguous sentences in which a filler-gap assignment is disambiguated by ‘control’ information specified by individual verbs gives rise to the same recent filler errors as ambiguous sentences. This suggests that tentative filler-gap assignments are made by the processor before all of the relevant constraints on permissible filler-gap dependencies are consulted by the processor.The second experiment tested an alternative hypothesis that the more complex ‘distant filler’ sentences took longer to comprehend in the first experiment only because these sentences often contained verbs which license two adjacent gaps. The experiment showed that there was a significant recent filler effect in sentences that did not contain adjacent gaps and that this effect did not interact with verb class.The finding that the processor delays use of verb-control information is extremely surprising. It may be explained by the fact that this information is only relevant to one type of gap (‘equi-gaps’) and what type of gap the processor is dealing with often can not be determined unambiguously at the time when it initially encounters a gap in its left-to-right processing of a sentence.If our interpretation of these findings is correct, they argue for a considerable amount of structure in the sentence comprehension system. Further, they favor a view of sentence processing in which processing operations involving constraints on the permissible indexing (or evaluation) of structures lag behind the processor's structure building operations. Hence, the results favor those grammatical theories which preserve this distinction over grammatical theories which provide a uniform characterization of all syntactic well-formedness conditions.     

Surprise but not coherence: Sensitivity to verbal humor in right-hemisphere patients

Verbal humor deficits were investigated in right-hemisphere-damaged patients. It was hypothesized that the appreciation of jokes presupposes two elements: sensitivity to the surprise element entailed in the punch line of a joke and apprehension of the coherence which results when the punch line has been integrated with the body of the joke. The possible dissociation between these elements was tested by asking subjects to select from four alternatives the appropriate ending to a joke. Right-hemisphere patients exhibited a selective attraction to endings which contained an element of surprise but which were not otherwise coherent with the body of the joke. This finding suggests that right-hemisphere patients have difficulty in integrating content across parts of a narrative and confirms the psychological reality of the proposed distinction between the surprise and coherence elements of humor processing.     

Some foundations and directions for applied developmental psychology

Applied developmental psychology (ADP) is an “umbrella” discipline which includes a range of psychological sciences and professions committed to use of the data base and methods of developmental psychology to address problems in education, health, human services and public policy. ADP emerges now as a manifestation of increasing recognition of the limits of developmental psychology's traditional models and paradigms, increasing recognition of our appropriate role in social problem-solving and public policy formation and an employment market which reflects these awarenesses. Consideration of clinical psychology as an ADP provides examples of synergies and distinctions helpful in defining ADP. The “linkage” concept inherent in a “scientist-practitioner” model is emphasized as a key in this definition and as a basis for designing appropriate doctoral training programs in ADP.     

On the adequacy of prototype theory as a theory of concepts

Prototype theory construes membership in a concept's extension as graded, determined by similarity to the concept's “best” exemplar (or by some other measure of central tendency). The present paper is concerned with the compatibility of this view of concept membership with two criteria of adequacy for theories of concepts. The first criterion concerns the relationship between complex concepts and their conceptual constituents. The second concerns the truth conditions for thoughts corresponding to simple inclusions.     

Modeling,praising, and collaborating: Effects of adult behavior on children of the same sex and opposite sex

The study assessed children's responsiveness to adults of both sexes as a function of the adults behavior. Paris of male and female adults administered games to 96 children. Each child was assigned to either the modeling, praise, or collaboration condition. Depending on the condition, each adult, in turn, (a) modeled selection of a specific set of play materials, (b) praised the child for playing with the materials, or (c) collaborated with the child while they played together with the materials. Results showed a greater responsiveness to the same-sex adult in the collaboration condition and to the cross-sex adult in the praise condition, as measured by the time spent playing with the materials previously associated with each adult and by comments to each adult. In the modeling condition, there was a nonsignificant same-sex effect for children's actual responsiveness, but a significant same-sex effect for self-reported responsiveness. Sex-typing scores, which were independently assessed, were related to same-sex responsiveness in the collaboration condition only. Different, and perhaps complementary, influences of same-sex and cross-sex adults on children's sex-typed preferences are considered.     

Development of children's ability to judge relative numerosity

Three- to seven-year-old chilren were trained through reinforcement to select either the more or less numerous of two rows of squares. One group was shown rows in which number covaried with row length, one group saw rows in which number covaried with row density, and a third group saw rows in which number did not covary with other dimensions. The children's operational stage was assessed by a number conservation test. All children successfully judged relative numerosity when number covaried with length or with density, but only concrete operational children were successful when number did not covary with other dimensions. Preoperational children are thus not able to base judgments of relative numerosity solely on number.     

Keeping track of locations during movement in 8- to 10-month-old infants

Infants of $\text{8}\text{1}\text{2}$ and $\text{9}\text{1}\text{2}$ mo of age were tested for the ability to “keep track,” i.e., to determine the location of an object hidden in one of two covered containers before their left-right positions were reversed. Infants in both age groups for whom the covers were the same color and younger infants for whom the covers were different colors were generally unable to keep track. Only the older infants provided with different colored covers were able to do so. An analysis which separated keeping track from the sensorimotor stage 4 error indicated that (a) there was no contingency between the two and (b) there were developmental differences in the nature of the error.     

Hemispheric specialization for syntactic form

Pure nouns, verb-derived nouns, category-ambiguous words, and adjectives, all ending in -er, and matched for low and moderate-high frequency, were presented in each visual field to 24 normal, right-handed females. The four word classes were recognized at the same rate in the LVF, and at a significantly higher rate in the RVF. Contrary to earlier reports, there were no differences among pure nouns, verb-derived nouns, and category-ambiguous words, and effects appeared to be independent of word frequency. Neither hemisphere was demonstrated to give preferential access to the syntactic forms tested.