PSY 369: Psycholinguistics

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PSY 369 Psycholinguistics

• Language Comprehension
• The role of memory

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• Center embedded structures
• The house burned down.
• The house the handyman painted burned down.

He sent a letter about it to Galileo, the great
Italian scientist.
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Memory and comprehension

• Brief summary so far
• What is the role of syntax in comprehension?
• Syntax is important for getting the right
  interpretation during on-line comprehension
• There is a lot of research examining what factors
  influence the on-line construction of syntax
• e.g., parsing principles, lexical semantics,
  plausibility, discourse context
• Today What is the role of Memory in language
  comprehension?

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Memory for sentences

• Fillenbaum (1966)
• Given
• The window is not closed
• Tested
• The window is not closed
• The window is closed
• The window is not open
• The window is open

Conclusions Meaning gets preserved, surface
structure (and syntax) forgotten
lt-- surface similar, meaning different lt--
surface similar, meaning different lt-- surface
different, meaning similar
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Memory for sentences

• Think back to the beginning of class. Which of
  the following sentences did you read?
• Galileo, the great Italian scientist, sent him a
  letter about it.
• He sent Galileo, the great Italian scientist, a
  letter about it.
• He sent a letter about it to Galileo, the great
  Italian scientist.
• A letter about it was sent to Galileo, the great
  Italian scientist.

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Memory for sentences

• Sachs (1967, 1974)
• Heard (read)
• He sent a letter about it to Galileo, the great
  Italian scientist.
• Tested
• Same He sent a letter about it to Galileo, the
  great Italian scientist.
• Act/Pass A letter about it was sent to Galileo,
  the great Italian scientist.
• Formal He sent Galileo, the great Italian
  scientist, a letter about it.
• Meaning Galileo, the great Italian scientist,
  sent him a letter about it.
• Measured accuracy of detecting changes

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Memory for sentences
Sachs (1967, 1974)
Conclusions Meaning gets preserved, surface
structure (and syntax) forgotten
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Just good enough representations

• Ferreira and colleagues (Christianson et al 2001)
• Garden-path sentence
• While Anna dressed the baby played in the crib
• While Anna dressed, the baby played in the crib

• Did the baby play in the crib?
• Did Anna dress the baby?

100 correct
40 correct
Comprehenders dont always get all of the meaning
right, but get enough to get by
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Memory and comprehension

• Brief summary so far
• What do we remember about sentences?
• Syntax may not be too important later, we
  remember the meaning of sentences but not so much
  the form (syntax) of the sentence

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The house the handyman the teacher hired painted
burned down.

• Center embedded structures
• The house burned down.
• The house the handyman painted burned down.

• This sentence is syntactically legal.
• So why is it so hard to comprehend?
• One possibility is that there are limitations as
  a result of our cognitive systems

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Memory and comprehension

• Center embedded structures
• The house burned down.

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Memory and comprehension

• Center embedded structures
• The house burned down.

• The house the handyman painted burned down.

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Memory and comprehension
This one may be legal, but that doesnt mean that
it is (easily) comprehensible

• Center embedded structures
• The house burned down.

• The house the handyman painted burned down.

• The house the handyman the teacher hired painted
  burned down.

• (the handyman that the teacher hired painted the
  house that burned down)

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Memory and comprehension
The man that the woman that the child hugged
kissed laughed.

• Typically we build right branching structures
• But here there is a big series of branches down
  the center

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Memory and comprehension

• The man that the woman that the child hugged
  kissed laughed.
• Most readers having trouble figuring out who did
  what to whom (called thematic role assignment).
• Easier to assign thematic roles in the two
  sentences that form it

• The man that the woman kissed laughed.
• The woman that the child hugged kissed the man.

• Possible explanation for the trouble
• Insufficient working memory resources to retain
  the intermediate products of computation made
  building the complex syntactic structure

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Memory a brief review
Information
Information flows from one memory buffer to the
next
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Memory a brief review
Declarative
episodic
semantic
Procedural

• Properties
• Organization
• Multiple subsystems for type of memory
• Syntax within the procedural domain (e.g.,
  Ullman, 2004)
• Semantics as Associative networks

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Memory a brief review

• Properties
• rapid access (about 35 milliseconds per item)
• limited capacity (7/- 2 chunks George Miller,
  1956)
• fast decay, about 12 seconds (longer if rehearsed
  or elaborated)

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Working Memory

• Working memory instead of STM

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Working Memory

• Working memory instead of STM

• Phonological rehearsal mechanism
• Phonological store
• Very limited capacity
• Rehearsal maintains information
• in the store

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Working Memory

• Working memory instead of STM

• Store and manipulate visual and spatial
• information
• Directly from perception
• Indirectly from imagery

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Working Memory

• Working memory instead of STM

• Allocate attentional resources to the
• subcomponents
• Directs elaboration/manipulation of
• information

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Measuring memory span

• Increasing your STM span
• Chunking
• Grouping information together into larger units
• Ill read a few more lists of words for you to
  recall
• barn snow tree car rock book key plant dress cup
  slide lamp
• dog cat mouse shoe sock toe couch pillow blanket
  table desk chair
• down flowers the by with chased yellow several
  girls a river boy
• a boy chased several girls with yellow flowers
  down by the river
• Notice that the previous two are the same words,
  but the syntax allows for grouping into
  meaningful chunks

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Measuring memory span

• Daneman and Carpenter (1980) Technique
• This technique involves presenting sequences of 2
  to 6 sentences, each of 12 to 17 words.
• The participant has to read the sentences out
  loud, and attempt to remember the last word of
  each.
• Then asked to recall as many last words as
  possible (in any order).

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Measuring memory span

• When at last his eyes opened, there was no gleam
  of triumph, no shade of anger.

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Measuring memory span

• The taxi turned up Michigan Avenue where they had
  a clear view of the lake.

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Measuring memory span

• Recall the last words

When at last his eyes opened, there was no gleam
of triumph, no shade of anger. The taxi turned
up Michigan Avenue where they had a clear view of
the lake.
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Measuring memory span

• I turned my memories over at random like pictures
  in a photograph album.

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Measuring memory span

• I will not shock my readers by describing the
  cold-blooded butchery that followed.

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Measuring memory span

• He had an odd elongated skull which sat on his
  shoulder like a pear on a dish.

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Measuring memory span

• You can check out the books that you need for
  this course at the local library.

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Measuring memory span

• The radio station was promoting the concert with
  free tickets and back stage passes.

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Measuring memory span

• The professor could be seen on weekends in the
  backyard garden pulling out weeds.

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Measuring memory span

• Recall the last words

I turned my memories over at random like pictures
in a photograph album. I will not shock my
readers by describing the cold-blooded butchery
that followed. He had an odd elongated skull
which sat on his shoulder like a pear on a
dish. You can check out the books that you need
for this course at the local library. The radio
station was promoting the concert with free
tickets and back stage passes. The professor
could be seen on weekends in the backyard garden
pulling out weeds.

• Ok for two sentences Hard at 3 sentences Very
  hard for 4 or more.
• Used to classify readers as high and low span
• (there is a speaking span version too)

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Memory and online comprehension

• The Capacity Theory of Comprehension
• (Just Carpenter, 1992)
• Proposed that individual differences in working
  memory capacity should influence how readers
  comprehend sentences

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Memory and online comprehension

• The Capacity Theory of Comprehension
• (Just Carpenter, 1992)
• Proposed that individual differences in working
  memory capacity should influence how readers
  comprehend sentences

• The animacy of the first noun may constrain the
  possible interpretation of the sentence

Semantically Unconstrained The defendant
examined by the lawyer shocked the jury. The
defendant that was examined by the lawyer shocked
the jury. Semantically Constrained (so should be
faster if animacy can be used) The evidence
examined by the lawyer shocked the jury. The
evidence that was examined by the lawyer shocked
the jury.
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Memory and online comprehension
Just the ambiguous sentences
The defendant examined by the lawyer shocked the
jury.
The evidence examined by the lawyer shocked the
jury.
High span readers could use the semantic
information to resolve the ambiguity
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Memory and online comprehension

• King and Just (1991)
• Verbs which could provide strong pragmatic cues
  as to which of the two potential actors in the
  sentence was the agent

• The robber that the fireman rescued stole the
  jewelry.

• Two possible agents
• the robber
• the fireman

• Two verbs, which is the main verb of the
  sentence?
• rescued
• stole

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Memory and online comprehension

• King and Just (1991)
• Verbs which could provide strong pragmatic cues
  as to which of the two potential actors in the
  sentence was the agent

• .
• The robber that the fireman rescued watched the
  program.
• The robber that the fireman detested stole the
  jewelry.
• The robber that the fireman detested watched the
  program.

Strong bias

• The robber that the fireman rescued stole the
  jewelry.

No bias

• Can bias which Noun goes with which Verb
  pragmatically (or not)
• Questions
• Can speakers use this information?
• Does memory have an impact?

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Memory and online comprehension

• King and Just (1991)
• Verbs which could provide strong pragmatic cues
  as to which of the two potential actors in the
  sentence was the agent

Main verb
Embedded relative verb

• The robber that the fireman rescued stole the
  jewelry.
• The robber that the fireman rescued watched the
  program.
• The robber that the fireman detested stole the
  jewelry.
• The robber that the fireman detested watched the
  program.

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Memory and online comprehension

• King and Just (1991)
• Verbs which could provide strong pragmatic cues
  as to which of the two potential actors in the
  sentence was the agent

• Method
• Word-by-word moving window procedure
• Data
• correct on a T/F comprehension question when
  relative clause is tested
• Reading times by region

• Results
• Low-capacity subjects had lower comprehension
  overall slower reading in syntactically
  difficult regions
• High-capacity subjects did NOT improve with
  pragmatic info
• Low-capacity subjects did improve with pragmatic
  info

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Memory and online comprehension

• Garnsey, Pearlmutter, Pirog (2003)
• The professor (who was) confronted by the student
  was
• not ready for an argument.
• The professor (had) confronted the student but
  was
• not ready for an argument.
• Question
• Do readers differ specifically in how quickly
  they can use disambiguating words to rule out
  incorrect alternatives?

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Memory and online comprehension

• Garnsey, Pearlmutter, Pirog (2003)

Eye fixations were analyzed separately
- By whether preview of by while still fixating
on verb likely
The professor confronted by the student was not
ready to
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Memory and online comprehension

• Readers who score high on the Reading Span test
• - Make better use of a peripherally visible
  disambiguating word to quickly rule out a
  preferred but incorrect interpretation

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Memory and online comprehension

• Just Carpenter (1992) - high span readers used
  semantic information early, but low span readers
  didnt
• King Just (1991) - high span readers did not
  use pragmatic information to resolve ambiguity,
  but low span readers did
• Garnsey, Pearlmutter, Pirog (2003) - span
  differences may also depend on where the eye
  lands (which determines what kind of preview
  readers get)

• What information is used to resolve syntactic
  ambiguities depends on individuals working memory
  capacity (but see Walters and Caplan (1996) for
  alternative view)

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Memory and comprehension

• Brief summary so far
• What do we remember about sentences?
• Syntax may not be too important later, we
  remember the meaning of sentences but not so much
  the form (syntax) of the sentence
• What is the role of syntax in comprehension?
• Syntax is important for getting the right
  interpretation during on-line comprehension
• Memory capacity may play an important role in
  determining what kinds of information we can use
  to comprehend sentences

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Memory and comprehension

• There is room for about 15 more mins. Of material
  (for next semester)