Presentations

Abstract

An important issue in current psycholinguistics is the relationship between the production and comprehension systems. It has been argued that these systems are tightly linked, and that, in particular, listeners use the speech production system to predict upcoming content. We tested this view using a novel version of the visual world paradigm. Participants heard mathematical equations and looked at a clock face showing the numbers 1 to 12. On alternating trials they either heard a complete equation (3+8=11) or they heard the first part (3+8) and had to produce the solution (11, target hereafter) themselves. Participants were encouraged to look at the relevant numbers throughout the trial. On listening trials, the participants typically looked at the target before the onset of target name, and on speaking trials they typically looked at the target before naming it. However, the timing of the looks to the targets was slightly different, with participants looking earlier at the target when they had to speak themselves than when they listened. This suggests that predicting during listening and planning to speak are indeed very similar but not identical. The further methodological and theoretical consequences of the study will be discussed.

Abstract

The generation of an utterance begins with event apprehension and continues with sequential linguistic
encoding of all message elements [2]. The timecourse of formulation, however, is relatively flexible and varies
with the ease of structural encoding [3]. While previous work has shown that syntactic structure may be primed
independently of thematic roles across sentences [1], here we tested whether exposure to conceptually similar
events interacts with structural processes to facilitate the mapping of a message onto a sentence.

Abstract

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Abstract

Recently many authors have stressed that domain-general cognitive processes may affect performance in linguistic tasks. This challenges the traditional view that speaking and listening are fairly modular processes. Going beyond this broad claim, we aim to determine exactly how domain-general processes influence linguistic processes. In the present study we examined the influence of selective inhibition (invoked to suppress responses to potent competitors to target stimuli and taking some time to build up) on performance in two classic word production tasks, the semantic blocking task (naming sets of objects that do vs. do not belong to the same semantic category) and the pictureword interference task (naming pictures accompanied by categorically related vs. unrelated words). Both tasks were completed by the same participants. Analyses of the size of the interference effects for fast and slower responses (using delta plots) and of the correlations of the effect sizes in the two tasks demonstrated that selective inhibition was recruited in both tasks. We propose that the process supported by selective inhibition is lemma selection. We discuss the implications for theories concerning the origin of the interference effects in the two paradigms and the nature of lexical selection processes.

Abstract

Multiple syntactic alternatives are often available to express one message. One of the factors driving the
choice for a syntactic frame is verb bias. This study focuses on the role of verb bias in the process of selecting
a syntactic frame for dative sentences. While some verbs are typically used with one structure (e.g.,
voorleggen [submit] and the prepositional object dative in Dutch), other verbs have a weaker bias towards one
syntactic frame (e.g., voorstellen [propose]): the latter can be used interchangeably in the prepositional object
dative (PD) and double-object dative (DO) construction, and thus allows for some degree of syntactic flexibility
during production. On one view, syntactic flexibility may facilitate production because it enables speakers to fill
the post-verbal sentence slots with either a direct object or an indirect object (the incremental view), while on a
different view, flexibility can lead to competition between structural alternatives, delaying the production of the
sentence until this competition is resolved (the competition view)1. The two views make opposite predictions
regarding the production of sentences featuring verbs with different biases. The incremental view predicts
shorter verb onsets for sentences featuring weak-bias verbs than strong-bias verbs, while the competition view
predicts shorter onsets for sentences with strong-bias verbs. In addition, if the competition view holds,
sentence production may benefit from a mechanism that helps resolve competition between two syntactic
frames by suppressing one frame to enable fast selection of the other frame. We hypothesized that executive
control (EC) can mediate this selection process, facilitating structure selection in the weak verb bias condition.

Abstract

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Abstract

The name-picture verification task is often used to assess the difficulty of prelexical processes (object recognition and semantic access) during picture naming. However, whether to use responses from word-picture match or from mismatch trials to index the difficulty of pre-lexical processes is debated. Levelt (2002) argued for the use of mismatch trials because on match trials the printed object name might facilitate picture recognition. However, in a study with speakers of Spanish Stadthagen-Gonzalez et al. (2009) showed that visual and conceptual properties of objects only correlated with the latencies of match responses but not with those of mismatch responses and therefore advocated the use of match responses. The present study aimed to replicate Stadthagen- Gonzalez et al. (2009) findings using native British English speakers and English norms for non-lexical and lexical variables. We replicated the finding that non-lexical variables affected the speed of match, but not mismatch responses. However, in addition, we found that lexical variables also affected the speed of match responses, which means that these latencies need to be interpreted with caution. In other words, neither match nor mismatch responses seem ideally suited to assess the difficulty of pre-lexical processes in picture naming. Levelt, W. J. M. (2002). Picture naming and word frequency. Language and Cognitive Processes, 17, 663–671. Stadthagen-Gonzalez, H., Damian, M. F., Pérez, M. A., Bowers, J. S., & Marín, J. (2009). Name-picture verification as a control measure for object naming: A task analysis and norms for a

Abstract

As the popularity of sending messages electronically increased, so did the necessity of conveying messages more efficiently. A popular way of increasing efficiency is to use shortcuts such as gr8 “great” or cu “see you”. The aim of the study was to investigate whether such abbreviations have their own lexical representations or whether they are recorded into the words they stand for. We used associative masked and overt priming in lexical decision tasks. Primes were text shortcuts and their corresponding words. Targets were words that were associatively related to the prime (e.g., cu/see you – GOODBYE), associatively related to a part of the prime (e.g., cu/see you – LOOK) or unrelated to the prime and any part of the prime (e.g., 4u/for you – GOODBYE; 4u/for you – LOOK). In both tasks, responses were faster to targets preceded by related compared to unrelated primes (shortcuts and words). In the overt priming task, we in addition found faster responses when the target was related to a part of the prime. However, this effect was present only for word but not for shortcut primes. These results indicate that shortcuts have their own lexical representations that are independent of the representations of the individual words they replace.

Abstract

Ik laat zien dat het gebruik van sms- en msn-afkortingen geen schadelijke gevolgen heeft op het begrip van geschreven taal zoals blijkt uit een reeks van experimenten. Sterker nog, afkortingen hebben een eigen representatie in ons mentale woordenboek (bijvoorbeeld ‘iig’) en worden niet vertaald naar woorden waaruit ze bestaan (bijvoorbeeld ‘in ieder geval’). Het gebruik van korte tekstberichten via mobiele telefoons en e-mail neemt steeds meer toe en daardoor worden steeds meer afkortingen en acroniemen in de taal gebruikt. Momenteel worden er wereldwijd naar schatting 2000 miljard sms-jes per jaar verstuurd. In Nederland en België sms’t ongeveer 80% van de jongeren regelmatig, en ongeveer 70% van hen gebruikt sms-taal (Daniels, 2009). Het gebruik van afkortingen heeft de schuld gekregen van de verloedering van de Nederlandse taal, iets dat men terug zou zien in de kwaliteit van het Nederlands in e-mails en brieven. Verder gebruik van afkortingen zou de communicatie verslechteren tussen de gebruikers van afkortingen en niet gebruikers, bijvoorbeeld tussen studenten en docenten. De vraag is of dat echt zo is. Uit mijn onderzoek blijkt dat het begrijpen van een tekst niet leidt onder het gebruik van afkortingen in de zinnen

Abstract

Earlier research has shown that speakers naming object pairs can retrieve their names in parallel, but often fail to do so. The conditions for the occurrence of parallel object processing are largely unknown. We examined how associations between objects affected the speakers’ processing strategies. In Experiment 1, participants named object triplets in a left-right-bottom order. During the saccade towards the right object (interloper), it was replaced by a new object (target). We varied the relationship between interloper and target (conceptually related or unrelated) and between interloper and left object (categorically related, associated, unrelated). Target gaze durations were shorter after related than unrelated interlopers. However, this preview effect was independent of the interloper-left object relationship, suggesting that the left and right object were processed sequentially. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants named pairs of associated or unrelated objects. The left objects were repeated several times in each test block to facilitate their processing. Gaze durations for the left objects were longer in associated than unrelated pairs, consistent with parallel processing of the associated objects and interference among them. We will discuss how the difficulty of processing the objects and the relationship between them jointly determine speakers’ processing strategy.

Abstract

Individuals differ greatly on how efficiently they can retrieve words from the mental lexicon in spoken word production. Little is known about how this individual difference might be related to individual difference in other cognitive abilities. The present study investigated the relationship between individuals’ working memory capacity and their efficiency of lexical access. Speeded naming of drawings of actions and objects was used to measure the efficiency of lexical access. To assess working memory capacity, we used the Operation Span (OSPAN) task (Turner & Engle, 1989), in which participants memorize unrelated words while making judgments on simple mathematic operations. We found that action naming response time (RT) was significantly longer than object naming RT. More importantly, there was a significant negative correlation between the action naming RT and the OSPAN score. There was no correlation between object naming RT and the OSPAN score. Ex-Gaussian analyses of the RT distributions revealed that the negative relationship between OSPAN and RT was evident throughout the distributions (i.e., reflected in the Gaussian part of the distribution). These results suggest that when words are difficult to select (our verbcondition) people with larger working memory capacity outperform people with lower working memory capacity. Turner, M. L., & Engle. R. W. (1989). Is working memory capacity task dependent? Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 127-154.