The Role of Thematic Roles in Sentence Processing: Evidence from Structural Priming in Young Children

The syntactic realization of a verb’s arguments is constrained by the role that the argument plays in the meaning of the verb. In most linguistic frameworks, these constraints are captured by mappings between syntactic functions and thematic roles. Such mappings clearly shape our interpretation of novel verbs. But there is controversy about when these mappings develop and whether they are employed in the processing of utterances containing known verbs. We explored these issues using the visual-world paradigm and structural priming during comprehension in 4-year-old children. In Experiment I, we found robust priming of dative constructions. This priming persisted when animacy cues were put in competition with argument structure, indicating that the locus of priming was either in syntax or in the mapping between thematic roles and syntactic functions. Experiment II demonstrated priming from locatives to datives indicating that this priming was not purely syntactic. Together these experiments provide evidence for the use of thematic mappings during sentence processing, independent of confounding syntactic or conceptual factors. We discuss the developmental implications, apparent discrepancies with the adult priming literature, and the compatibility of our findings with different theories of argument structure alternations.Psycholog

Controlled processing during sequencing

Longstanding evidence has identified a role for the frontal cortex in sequencing within both linguistic and non-linguistic domains. More recently, neuropsychological studies have suggested a specific role for the left premotor-prefrontal junction (BA 44/6) in selection between competing alternatives during sequencing. In this study, we used neuroimaging with healthy adults to confirm and extend knowledge about the neural correlates of sequencing. Participants reproduced visually presented sequences of syllables and words using manual button presses. Items in the sequence were presented either consecutively or concurrently. Concurrent presentation is known to trigger the planning of multiple responses, which might compete with one another. Therefore, we hypothesized that regions involved in controlled processing would show greater recruitment during the concurrent than the consecutive condition. Whole-brain analysis showed concurrent > consecutive activation in sensory, motor and somatosensory cortices and notably also in rostral-dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Region of interest analyses showed increased activation within left BA 44/6 and correlation between this region’s activation and behavioral response times. Functional connectivity analysis revealed increased connectivity between left BA 44/6 and the posterior lobe of the cerebellum during the concurrent than the consecutive condition. These results corroborate recent evidence and demonstrate the involvement of BA 44/6 and other control regions when ordering co-activated representations

Updating constructions: Additive effects of prior and current experience during sentence production

While much earlier work has indicated that prior verb bias from lifelong language experience influences language processing, recent findings highlight the fact that verb biases induced during lab-based exposure sessions also influence processing. We investigated the nature of updating, i.e., how prior and current experience might interact in guiding subsequent sentence production. Participants underwent a short training session where we manipulated the bias of known English dative verbs. The prior bias of each verb for the double-object (DO) versus the prepositional-object (PO) dative was estimated using a corpus. Current verb bias was counterbalanced and controlled experimentally. Bayesian mixed-effects logistic models of participants’ responses (DO or PO) during subsequent free-choice production showed that both the prior and current verb biases affected speakers’ construction choice. These effects were additive and not interactive, contrary to the prediction from error-based learning models. Semantic similarity to other verbs and their experimentally manipulated biases influenced sentence production, consistent with item-based analogy and exemplar theory. These results shed light on the potential mechanisms underlying language updating and the adaptation of sentence production to ongoing experience

Fractionating difficulty during sentence comprehension using functional neuroimaging

Sentence comprehension is highly practiced and largely automatic, but this belies the complexity of the underlying processes. We used functional neuroimaging to investigate garden-path sentences that cause difficulty during comprehension, in order to unpack the different processes used to support sentence interpretation. By investigating garden-path and other types of sentences within the same individuals, we functionally profiled different regions within the temporal and frontal cortices in the left hemisphere. The results revealed that different aspects of comprehension difficulty are handled by left posterior temporal, left anterior temporal, ventral left frontal, and dorsal left frontal cortices. The functional profiles of these regions likely lie along a spectrum of specificity to generality, including language-specific processing of linguistic representations, more general conflict resolution processes operating over linguistic representations, and processes for handling difficulty in general. These findings suggest that difficulty is not unitary and that there is a role for a variety of linguistic and non-linguistic processes in supporting comprehension

Effect of fatigue on word production in aphasia

Speech production in aphasia is often described as “effortful”, though the consequences of consistent, high degrees of cognitive effort have not been explored. Using recent work on mental effort as a theoretical framework, the present study examined how effort-related fatigue produces decrements in performance in picture naming among participants with post-stroke aphasia. We analyzed three data sets from prior studies where participants completed a large picture naming test. Decreasing naming accuracy across trials was statistically significant in two of the three samples. There were also significant effects of practice (better performance on a second test administration), word frequency (better performance for more frequent words), and word length (better performance for shorter words). These results are the first concrete demonstration of fatigue affecting performance on a language task in post-stroke aphasia. They open a new avenue for research on mental effort/fatigue with potential implications for aphasia assessment, treatment, and management

Проблеми правового забезпечення процедури державного нагородження в Україні

Досліджується деякі проблемні аспекти процедури державного нагородження, зокрема, порядок представлення до нагородження, порядок подання документів особи, що представляється до нагороди, звертається увага на розмежування повноважень Президента України і Комісії державних нагород та геральдики при Президентові України при ухваленні остаточного рішення щодо нагородження.Исследуются некоторые проблемные аспекты процедуры государственного награждения, в частности, порядок представления к награждению, обращается вни­мание на порядок представления документов лица, которое представляется к награде, а также разграничения полномочий Президента Украины и Комиссии государственных наград и геральдики при Президенте Украины при принятии окончательного реше­ния относительно награждения.Some problem aspects of the state rewarding procedure, in particular, the order of presentation to the rewarding, the main attention is paid to the order of presentation of the person»s documents, who is represented to the award, and also the differentiating of powers of the President of Ukraine and the Commission of the State Awards and Heraldry by the President of Ukraine by making final decision concerning rewarding, are probed in the article

Linking Verbs to Syntax: Investigating Error-Based Learning using Pupillometry

Verbs show different statistical preferences for syntactic structures. An influential theory for how verb-syntax links are learned suggests that learning is based on, and proportional to, prediction error. However, the evidence is mixed and there is need for evidence from a diverse set of paradigms. We exposed 90 college-aged adults to an artificial language containing novel verbs and sentence structures and tested their production of utterances in the new language. We reversed verb-syntax links from one training block to another and found that participants were able to learn the reversal, as seen in a production test. Pupillometry detected surprise when participants heard sentences in the second training block that had the opposite verb-syntax links than in the first training block. Despite detecting both surprise and successful learning, we did not find an association between the two. Thus, we did not find evidence that learning was based on surprise. We discuss alternative learning mechanisms that can help language users adapt their language based on the input

Variation in How Cognitive Control Modulates Sentence Processing

Prior research suggests that cognitive control can assist the comprehension of sentences that create conflict between interpretations, at least under some circumstances. However, the mixed pattern of results suggests that cognitive control may not always be necessary for accurate comprehension. We tested whether cognitive control recruitment for language processing is systematically variable, depending on the type of sentential ambiguity or conflict, individual differences in cognitive control, and task demands. Participants completed two sessions in a web-based experiment. The first session tested conflict modulation using interleaved Stroop and sentence comprehension trials. Critical sentences contained syntax-semantics or phrase-attachment conflict. In the second session, participants completed three cognitive control and three working memory tasks. Exploratory factor analysis was used to index individual differences in a cognitive control factor and a working memory factor. At the group level, there were no significant conflict modulation effects for either syntax-semantics or phrase-attachment conflict. At the individual differences level, the cognitive control factor correlated with offline comprehension accuracy but not online processing measures for both types of conflict. Together, the results suggest that the role of cognitive control in sentence processing may vary according to task demands. When overt decisions are required, individual differences in cognitive control may matter such that better cognitive control results in better language comprehension performance. The results add to the mixed evidence on conflict modulation and raise questions about the situations under which cognitive control influences online processing

Relative contributions of lesion location and lesion size to predictions of varied language deficits in post-stroke aphasia

Despite the widespread use of lesion-symptom mapping (LSM) techniques to study associations between location of brain damage and language deficits, the prediction of language deficits from lesion location remains a substantial challenge. The present study examined several factors which may impact lesion-symptom prediction by (1) testing the relative predictive advantage of general language deficit scores compared to composite scores that capture specific deficit types, (2) isolating the relative contribution of lesion location compared to lesion size, and (3) comparing standard voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) with a multivariate method (sparse canonical correlation analysis, SCCAN). Analyses were conducted on data from 128 participants who completed a detailed battery of psycholinguistic tests and underwent structural neuroimaging (MRI or CT) to determine lesion location. For both VLSM and SCCAN, overall aphasia severity (Western Aphasia Battery Aphasia Quotient) and object naming deficits were primarily predicted by lesion size, whereas deficits in Speech Production and Speech Recognition were better predicted by a combination of lesion size and location. The implementation of both VLSM and SCCAN raises important considerations regarding controlling for lesion size in lesion-symptom mapping analyses. These findings suggest that lesion-symptom prediction is more accurate for deficits within neurally-localized cognitive systems when both lesion size and location are considered compared to broad functional deficits, which can be predicted by overall lesion size alone. Keywords: Aphasia, Lesion-symptom prediction, Sparse canonical correlation analysis, Lesion siz

Syntactic priming in comprehension:Parallelism effects with and without coordination

Although previous research has shown a processing facilitation for conjoined phrases that share the same structure, it is currently not clear whether this paral-lelism advantage is specific to particular syntactic environments such as coordina-tion, or whether it is an example of more general effect in sentence comprehension. Here, we report three eye-tracking experiments that test for parallelism effects both in coordinated noun phrases and in subordinate clauses. The first experiment repli-cated previous findings, showing that the second conjunct of a coordinated noun phrase was read more quickly when it had the same structure as the first conjunct, compared with when it did not. Experiment 2 examined parallelism effects in noun phrases that were not linked by coordination. Again, a reading time advantage was found when the second noun phrase had the same structure as the first. Experi-ment 3 compared parallelism effects in coordinated and non-coordinated syntactic environments. The parallelism effect was replicated for both environments, and was statistically equivalent whether or not coordination was involved. This demon-strated that parallelism effects can be found outside the environment of coordina-tion, suggesting a general syntactic priming mechanism as the underlying explana-tion