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Some Different Kinds of Things You Know as English Speakers

Some Different Kinds of Things You Know as English Speakers. What’s wrong with each of the following? !ort sfort bort ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimbel in the wabe. The cats won’t bake the meat loaf. The cats won’t eating the meat loaf.

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Some Different Kinds of Things You Know as English Speakers

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  1. Some Different Kinds of Things You Know as English Speakers • What’s wrong with each of the following? !ort sfort bort ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimbel in the wabe. The cats won’t bake the meat loaf. The cats won’t eating the meat loaf.

  2. Some ERP Components Related to Language N400 = ERP component related to meaning - Bigger when word’s meaning doesn’t fit context - Bigger for unfamiliar words - May reflect amount of work required to integrate with context P600 = ERP component related to form - Bigger when word property other than meaning wrong or hard to process - May be a type of P300 - Sometimes called Syntactic Positive Shift (SPS) Can evoke both at once - But not always as nice as here! - Depending on size of each component & timing of P600, can partially or completely cancel each other out

  3. Priming in Word Comprehension • A word preceded by something related to it is recognized & understood faster & more easily tree tree blanket blanket job job doctorsports nurse FasternurseSlower pencil pencil window window … …

  4. Coulson, Federmeier, Van Petten, & Kutas (2005) How do priming effects of lexical & sentence-level context compare, & do they add or interact? Stimulus Materials: Congruous sentence plus highly associated word: They were truly stuck, since she didn’t have aspareTIRE. Congruous sentence but no associated word: During the test, Ellen leaned over and borrowed myspare PENCIL. Incongruous sentence plus highly associated word: During the test, Ellen leaned over and borrowed myspareTIRE. Incongruous sentence but no associated word: They were truly stuck, since she didn’t have asparePENCIL.

  5. N400 Word pairs only __ spare tire … spare pencil Word-in-sentence fx __ …stuck…spare tire …test… spare pencil … …stuck … spare pencil …test … spare tire N400 Sentence context fx __ …stuck…tire …test… pencil ---…stuck… pencil …test… tire

  6. Conclusions • When a word is at the end of a sentence it fits into well, it doesn’t matter much whether the word right before it is an associate • But out of sentence context, does matter • So, by the end of a sentence, sentence context trumps individual word associations • Word associations (& word familiarity) have more influence for words near the beginnings of sentences

  7. Relationships Among Words in Sentences “A University student charged with threatening to kill the President via email was arrested Thursday, following issuance of a complaint and warrant, officials said.” - Daily Illini, 2/27/94

  8. Being Led “Down the Garden Path” “A University student charged with threatening to kill the President via email Y X

  9. A Slightly More Subtle Example “Marge Schott, managing partner of the Cincinnati Reds, at first did not want to apologize for her remark that Hitler‘was good at the beginning but he just went too far’. Under pressure, she finally said that she regretted her remarks ‘offended many people’.” - NY Times, 7/21/96, Tannen, I’m sorry, I won’t apologize

  10. that ^ "Under pressure, she finally said that she regretted her remarks 'offended many people'." • What did she regret? • Not her remarks, only their consequences • But her choice of wording gives the appearance of expressing regret for what she said • Including an optional that would have made it clearer

  11. that ^ & the Noun after it the Verb • Ambiguity arises because that optional (in English) Temporary Structural Ambiguity The referees warned the spectators against heckling the other team. would probably get too rowdy. • Temporary ambiguity about relationship between • Is the noun • A Direct Object (DO), or • Subject of an Embedded Clause?

  12. warned= Direct-Object Biased Verb • worried = Clause-Biased Verb • In English, verb's most likely use guides choices about initial interpretation of words following it Verb Bias • Verbs differ in how often they're used in particular sentence structures • Compare The referees warned the spectators ... with The bus driver worried the passengers ...

  13. Plausibility of Nounas Direct Object • Plausibility of particular Verb + Noun combinations varies • Compare The referees warned the spectators ... • with The referees warned the game ... • In English, plausibility of a particular Verb + Noun combination sometimes guides initial interpretation

  14. would probably get too rowdy. The referees warned the game would probably go into overtime. were starting to get annoyed. The bus driver worried the tires were starting to go flat. had ever been made public. The senior senator regretted the reporter had ever seen the report. Example Sentences DO-Bias Verbs:(e.g.,warned, discovered, heard ...) The referees warned the spectators Clause-Bias Verbs:(e.g.,worried, realized, suspected ...) The bus driver worried the passengers EQ-bias Verbs:(e.g.,regretted, predicted, knew, ...) The senior senator regretted the decision

  15. DO-Bias Verbs: The referees warned the spectatorswould probably get too rowdy. The referees warned the gamewould probably go into overtime. read slowly Clause-Bias Verbs: The bus driver worried the passengerswere starting to get annoyed. The bus driver worried the tireswere starting to go flat. read slowly EQ-Bias Verbs: The senior senator regretted the decisionhad ever been made public. The senior senator regretted the reporterhad ever seen the report. Results of Reading Time Studies

  16. Verb Bias Rules (in English)! • No effect of the Plausibility of the Verb + Noun combination when the Verb had a strong bias • But Plausibilitydid have an effect when the Verb had no bias • So, the two factors interact, with Verb Biasdominating the interaction

  17. Limitation of Eyetracking Study • Verb Bias & Plausibility both have the same kind of effect on reading time • People slow down when expectations based on either kind of information are violated • Are there other measures that would better distinguish the two kinds of information? • Yes, Event-Related brain Potentials (ERPs)

  18. Stimulus Presentationin ERP Study Were the referees expecting a long game? READY 1 overtime. probably referees warned would game The into the go QUESTION

  19. Summary • In both reading time & ERP studies, Verbs rule • Difficulty at an Implausible Noun only after a Verb that strongly predicts a Direct Object • Difficulty at the disambiguating region only after a Verb that strongly predicts a Direct Object

  20. Why do verbs rule? • Principled reasons: • They provide the most useful information • Information about them may be simply retrieved, while plausibility requires combining information from multiple words • More accidental reasons: • They precede the critical nouns in these sentences [ but, see Trueswell (1996) ] • They generally appear early in English sentences, leading English speakers to rely on them

  21. Individual DifferencesOsterhout (1997) • Another harder kind of Garden Path sentence • The boat floated down the river sank. • (The evidence examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable.) • Stimulus Sentences • The boat floated down the river and sank. • The boat floated down the river and ate. • The boat floated down the river sank. that was ^

  22. N400 N400 P600 Results Across All Subjects

  23. P600 Results across just “P600 Subjects”

  24. N400 Results across just “N400 Subjects”

  25. Individual Differences • So, different people produce different ERP components in response to exactly the same stimuli ! • What does that mean both about • How people respond to Garden Path sentences? • & The nature of the different ERP components?

  26. Kim & Osterhout (2005) • Experiment 1 Stimulus Sentences The hearty meal was devoured … The hungry boys were devouring … The hearty meal was devouring … • N400 or P600 at devouring???

  27. P600 P600 Experiment 1 Results

  28. Experiment 2 • Stimulus Sentences • The hearty meal was devoured … • The dusty tabletops were devouring … • The hearty meal was devouring … • N400 or P600 at devouring after dusty tabletops???

  29. Experiment 2 Results N400? P600

  30. McGurk Effect • Acoustic stimulus = /ba/ • Visual stimulus = face /ga/ • Hear /da/ = fused audiovisual stimulus

  31. Mismatch Negativity (MMN)(Naatanen & many colleagues) • Deviant sound occurring infrequently in train of frequent sounds • Evokes a frontal negativity around 200 msec = MMN • Initially thought to be purely auditory change detection • Source localization points to auditory cortex • e.g., polarity reversal between Fz & Mastoids

  32. Colin et al. (2002, 2005)Auditory-only conditions show MMN MMN MMN

  33. Visual-only conditions show no MMN (as expected)

  34. McGurk conditions do show MMN /bi/Dev=hear /gi/,see /bi/ /gi/Dev=hear /bi/,see /gi/ MMN MMN

  35. Conclusions • MMN tracks perception rather than simple acoustics • If generated in auditory cortex, • Shows that visual info influences early sound processing, probably in auditory cortex itself

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