PSY 369: Psycholinguistics

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PSY 369 Psycholinguistics

• Language Comprehension
• The role of memory

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Memory and comprehension

• Many sources of information may be used in
  processing sentences
• Syntactic structure
• Word frequency
• Plausibility
• Discourse context
• Intonational information
• The use of these information sources may be
  constrained by the amount of working memory
  resources that are available

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

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

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• Center embedded structures
• The house burned down.

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• Center embedded structures
• The house burned down.

• The house the handyman painted burned down.

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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.
• 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.
• The trouble
• Insufficient working memory resources to retain
  the intermediate products of computation made
  building the complex syntactic structure

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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

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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)
• Studied garden path 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.

• The robber that the fireman rescued stole the
  jewelry.

• Can bias which Noun goes with which Verb
  pragmatically (or not)

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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 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.

• Results
• High-capacity subjects did not improve
• Low-capacity subjects did

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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

• What about memory for language over the longer
  term?
• What do we remember about sentences?

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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

lt-- surface similar, meaning different lt--
surface similar, meaning different lt-- surface
different, surface different
Most common error Meaning gets preserved, surface
structure (and syntax) forgotten
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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
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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Propositions

• Good memory for meaning but not for form
• How do we represent sentence meaning?
• Propositions
• Two or more concepts with a relationship between
  them

• A mouse bit a cat
• bit (mouse, cat)

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Propositions

• Good memory for meaning but not for form
• How do we represent sentence meaning?
• Propositions
• Two or more concepts with a relationship between
  them

• A mouse bit a cat
• bit (mouse, cat)

• Can represent this within a network framework

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Meaning as Propositions

• Propositions
• A set of conceptual nodes connected by labeled
  pathways that expresses the meaning of a sentence
• A mouse bit a cat
• or
• A cat was bitten by a mouse

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Deriving Propositions

• More complex example
• Children who are slow eat bread that is cold
• Slow children
• Children eat bread
• Bread is cold

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Evidence for Propositions

• Memory better for sentences with fewer
  propositions

• The crowded passengers squirmed uncomfortably
• passengers crowded
• passengers squirmed
• passengers uncomfortable

Three propositions

• The horse stumbled and broke a leg
• horse stumbled
• horse broke leg

Two propositions
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Evidence for Propositions

• Bransford Franks, 1971

• Constructed four-fact sentences, and broke them
  down into smaller sentences
• 4 - The ants in the kitchen ate the sweet jelly
  that was on the table.
• 3 - The ants in the kitchen ate the sweet jelly
• 2 - The ants in the kitchen ate the jelly.
• 1 - The jelly was sweet.

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Evidence for Propositions

• Bransford Franks, 1971

• Study Heard 1-, 2-, and 3-fact sentences only
• Test Heard 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-fact sentences (most of
  which were never presented)

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Evidence for Propositions

• Bransford Franks, 1971

• Results
• the more facts in the sentences, the more likely
  Ss would judge them as old and with higher
  confidence
• Even if they hadnt actually seen the sentence
• Constructive Model we integrate info from
  individual sentences in order to construct larger
  ideas
• emphasizes the active nature of our cognitive
  processes

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Priming Propositions

• Ratcliff and McKoon (1978)

The mausoleum that enshrined the tsar overlooked
the square.

• Involves two propositions
• P1 OVERLOOK, MAUSOLEUM, SQUARE
• P2 ENSHRINE, MAUSOLEUM, TSAR.

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Priming Propositions

• Ratcliff and McKoon (1978)

• Results in a cued memory task (how long does it
  take to verify square was in the sentence

Condition Examples RT to Target Priming Effects
Across sentences Between two propositions in the same sentence Within a single proposition square-clutch square-Tsar square-mausoleum 671 msec 571 msec 551 msec None baseline 100 msec facilitation 120 msed facilitation
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Alternative Representations

• Propositions are symbolic
• Problems
• The referential problem
• The implementation problem
• The lack of scientific productivity
• The lack of a biological foundation
• Alternative
• Embodied representations (e.g., Barsalou 1999
  Glenberg, 1999)

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Embodiment in language

• Embodied representations
• Perceptual and motor systems play a central role
  in language production and comprehension
• Theoretical proposals
• Linguistics Lakoff, Langacker, Talmy
• Neuroscience Damasio, Edelman
• Cognitive psychology Barsalou, Gibbs, Glenberg,
  MacWhinney
• Computer science Steels, Feldman

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Embodiment in language

• Embodied representations
• Perceptual and motor systems play a central role
  in language production and comprehension

• Words and sentences are usually grounded to
  perceptual, motoric, and emotional experiences.
• In absence of inmediate sensory-motor referents,
  words and sentences refer to mental models or
  simulations of experience.

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Embodiment in language

• Embodied representations

• Brain activity
• Comprehension and images
• Concrete words
• Action words activate motor representations

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Simulation hypothesis

• We understand utterances by mentally simulating
  their content.
• Simulation exploits some of the same neural
  structures activated during performance,
  perception, imagining, memory
• Language gives us enough information to simulate

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Inference in comprehension

• Not all propositions come from the bottom-up
• Elaboration - integration of new information with
  information from long term memory
• Memory for the new information improves as it is
  integrated
• Inferences - a proposition (or other
  representation) drawn by the comprehender
• From LTM, not directly from the input

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Inference in comprehension

• Bransford, and colleagues (1972, 73)

• We draw inferences in the course of understanding
  new events.
• The inferences get encoded into our memory of the
  events.
• e.g., drawing inferences of instruments

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Inference in comprehension

• Bransford, and colleagues (1972, 73)

• John was trying to fix the birdhouse. He was
  looking for the nail when his father came out to
  watch him and to help him do the work.

John was using the hammer to fix the birdhouse
when his father came out to watch him and to help
him do the work.
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Inference in comprehension

• Bransford, and colleagues (1972, 73)

• John was trying to fix the birdhouse. He was
  looking for the nail when his father came out to
  watch him and to help him do the work.

John was using the hammer to fix the birdhouse
when his father came out to watch him and to help
him do the work.
was not mentioned in the text, but was inferred
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What does language do?
A sentence can evoke an imagined scene and
resulting inferences

• Harry walked to the cafe.

• Harry walked into the cafe.

• Goal of action inside cafe
• Source outside cafe
• cafe containing location

• Goal of action at cafe
• Source away from cafe
• cafe point-like location

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Embodied inferences

• The scientist walked into the wall.

The hobo drifted into the house.
The smoke drifted into the house.
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Summing up

• The results of sentence comprehension are meaning
  representations
• Some debate over what these representations are
• Whatever they are, they get integrated with
  existing knowledge from LTM

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Discourse Psycholinguistics

• Traditional Psycholinguistics
• Determining what happens when we understand
  sentences
• Broader View
• How we resolve/understand sentences against the
  current discourse representation
• Sentence comprehension is a process that anchors
  the interpretation of the sentence to the
  representation of the prior text

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Processing Discourse

• What is discourse?
• Units of analysis larger than a sentence
• Applies to both spoken and written forms
• Ways we process (i.e., comprehend and remember)
  units of language larger than a sentence
• lectures
• personal narratives
• expository discourse

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• Bill and Ted traveled through time and space.
• Bill asked, Dude, did you find him?
• Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I havent
  found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play,
  he rocks!
• Excellent! Man, weve got to get these dudes
  back to
• school before we get there.

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• Bill and Ted traveled through time and space.
• Bill asked, Dude, did you find him?
• Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I havent
  found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play,
  he rocks!
• Excellent! Man, weve got to get these dudes
  back to
• school before we get there.

• To whom does him refer to?

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• Bill and Ted traveled through time and space.
• Bill asked, Dude, did you find him?
• Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I havent
  found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play,
  he rocks!
• Excellent! Man, weve got to get these dudes
  back to
• school before we get there.

• To whom does him refer?

Bach
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• Bill and Ted traveled through time and space.
• Bill asked, Dude, did you find him?
• Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I havent
  found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play,
  he rocks!
• Excellent! Man, weve got to get these dudes
  back to
• school before we get there.

• To whom does this him refer?

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• Bill and Ted traveled through time and space.
• Bill asked, Dude, did you find him?
• Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I havent
  found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play,
  he rocks!
• Excellent! Man, weve got to get these dudes
  back to
• school before we get there.

• To whom does this him refer?

Bach again
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• Bill and Ted traveled through time and space.
• Bill asked, Dude, did you find him?
• Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I havent
  found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play,
  he rocks!
• Excellent! Man, weve got to get these dudes
  back to
• school before we get there.

• To whom does this him refer?

Bach again
Why not Abe?
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• Bill and Ted traveled through time and space.
• Bill asked, Dude, did you find him?
• Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I havent
  found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play,
  he rocks!
• Excellent! Man, weve got to get these dudes
  back to
• school before we get there.

• Huh!?

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• Bill and Ted traveled through time and space.
• Bill asked, Dude, did you find him?
• Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I havent
  found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play,
  he rocks!
• Excellent! Man, weve got to get these dudes
  back to
• school before we get there.

• Huh!?

Oh yeah, theyre time travelers.
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Characteristics of Discourse

• Local Structure (microstructure)
• The relationship between individual sentences
• Global Structure (macrostructure)
• The relationship between the sentences and our
  knowledge of the world

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Characteristics of Discourse

• Local Structure
• Coherence
• Does the passage make sense
• Logical consistency and semantic continuity
• Cohesion
• Does the discourse stick together
• Interpretation of one sentence depends on other
  sentences

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Characteristics of Discourse

• Coherence does it make sense?
• Incoherence
• When the meanings of individual sentences do not
  hang together
• Given/new distinction
• Readers expect speakers to cues as to what
  information is old (already known by the
  listener) and what is new (not known)

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Developing coherence

• Haviland and Clark (1974)
• Process of understanding a sentence in discourse
  context involves 3 stages
• identifying the given and new info in the current
  sentence
• finding an antecedent in memory for the given
  information
• attaching the new information to this spot in
  memory

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Developing coherence

• Haviland and Clark (1974)

• Herb unpacked some beer.
• The beer was warm.

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Developing coherence

• Haviland and Clark (1974)
• Herb unpacked some beer.
• The beer was warm.

Definite article the signals that the beer is
given information
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Developing coherence

• Haviland and Clark (1974)
• Herb unpacked some beer.
• The beer was warm.

Definite article the signals that the beer is
given information
Connect the new information was warm to the
appropriate discourse concept
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Developing coherence

• Haviland and Clark (1974)
• Herb unpacked some beer.
• The beer was warm.

Definite article the signals that the beer is
given information
Connect the new information was warm to the
appropriate discourse concept
some beer
This process is called Direct Matching
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Developing coherence

• Herb unpacked some picnic supplies.
• The beer was warm.

Haviland and Clark (1974)
Definite article the signals that the beer is
given information
So connect the new information was warm to the
appropriate discourse concept
Need a bridging inference to connect the warm
beer to some picnic supplies
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Developing coherence

• Direct Matching

• some beer

the beer

• Bridging Inference

some picnic supplies
the beer
World knowledge
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Developing coherence
Singer, Halldorson, Lear, Andrusiak (1992)

• Murray poured water on the fire.
• The fire went out.

Requires inference
T/F water extinguishes fire
Faster
No Required inference
Murray drank a glass of water. He watched the
fire go out.
T/F water extinguishes fire
Suggests that the inference was made
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Characteristics of Discourse

• Cohesion Interpretation of one sentence depends
  on other sentences
• Referential Cohesion
• Dude, you should hear him play
• Substitution Cohesion
• Weve got to get these dudes back to
• And many more
• See pg 155 of textbook for table of other
  categories of cohesion
• The relationship between the referring expression
  and the antecedent create referential cohesion of
  discourse

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Types of Referential Cohesion

• Anaphoric Reference
• Using an expression to refer back to something
  previously mentioned in discourse
• Bach was in the music store
• Dude, you should hear him play, he rocks.
• Cataphoric Reference
• Using an expression to refer forward to something
  that is coming up in discourse
• Dude, did you find him?
• Yeah, Bach was in the music store...

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Comprehending Anaphoric References
Daneman and Carpenter (1980)

• Reading Span Test
• Smaller reading spans smaller working memory
  capacity

• Comprehension task
• Reading a passage and answer questions about the
  referents of pronouns

Sitting with Richie, Archie, Walter and the rest
of my gang in the Grill yesterday, I began to
feel uneasy. Robbie had put a dime in the juke
box. It was blaring one of the latest Rock and
Roll favorites. I was studying, in horror, the
reactions of my friends to the music. I was
especially perturbed by the expression on my best
friends face. Wayne looked intense and was
pounding the table furiously to the beat. Now, I
like most of the things other teenage boys like.
I like girls with soft blonde hair, girls with
dark curly hair, in fact all girls. I like
milkshakes, football games and beach parties. I
like denim jeans, fancy T-shirs and sneakers. It
is not that I dislike rock music but I think it
is supposed to be fun and not taken too
seriously. And here he was, all shook up and
serious over the crazy music.
Question Who was all shook up and serious over
the music?
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Comprehending Anaphoric References
Daneman and Carpenter (1980)

• Reading Span Test
• Smaller reading spans smaller working memory
  capacity

• Comprehension task
• Reading a passage and answer questions about the
  referents of pronouns

Sitting with Richie, Archie, Walter and the rest
of my gang in the Grill yesterday, I began to
feel uneasy. Robbie had put a dime in the juke
box. It was blaring one of the latest Rock and
Roll favorites. I was studying, in horror, the
reactions of my friends to the music. I was
especially perturbed by the expression on my best
friends face. Wayne looked intense and was
pounding the table furiously to the beat. Now, I
like most of the things other teenage boys like.
I like girls with soft blonde hair, girls with
dark curly hair, in fact all girls. I like
milkshakes, football games and beach parties. I
like denim jeans, fancy T-shirs and sneakers. It
is not that I dislike rock music but I think it
is supposed to be fun and not taken too
seriously. And here he was, all shook up and
serious over the crazy music.
Question Who was all shook up and serious over
the music?
81
Comprehending Anaphoric References
Daneman and Carpenter (1980)

• Reading Span Test
• Smaller reading spans smaller working memory
  capacity

• Comprehension task
• Reading a passage and answer questions about the
  referents of pronouns

Sitting with Richie, Archie, Walter and the rest
of my gang in the Grill yesterday, I began to
feel uneasy. Robbie had put a dime in the juke
box. It was blaring one of the latest Rock and
Roll favorites. I was studying, in horror, the
reactions of my friends to the music. I was
especially perturbed by the expression on my best
friends face. Wayne looked intense and was
pounding the table furiously to the beat. Now, I
like most of the things other teenage boys like.
I like girls with soft blonde hair, girls with
dark curly hair, in fact all girls. I like
milkshakes, football games and beach parties. I
like denim jeans, fancy T-shirs and sneakers. It
is not that I dislike rock music but I think it
is supposed to be fun and not taken too
seriously. And here he was, all shook up and
serious over the crazy music.
Question Who was all shook up and serious over
the music?
82
Comprehending Anaphoric References
Daneman and Carpenter (1980)

• Manipulated how many sentences intervened between
  the pronoun and the antecedent