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Jäger LA, Mertzen D, Van Dyke JA, Vasishth S. Interference patterns in subject-verb agreement and reflexives revisited: A large-sample study. JOURNAL OF MEMORY AND LANGUAGE 2020; 111:104063. [PMID: 33100507 PMCID: PMC7583648 DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2019.104063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Cue-based retrieval theories in sentence processing predict two classes of interference effect: (i) Inhibitory interference is predicted when multiple items match a retrieval cue: cue-overloading leads to an overall slowdown in reading time; and (ii) Facilitatory interference arises when a retrieval target as well as a distractor only partially match the retrieval cues; this partial matching leads to an overall speedup in retrieval time. Inhibitory interference effects are widely observed, but facilitatory interference apparently has an exception: reflexives have been claimed to show no facilitatory interference effects. Because the claim is based on underpowered studies, we conducted a large-sample experiment that investigated both facilitatory and inhibitory interference. In contrast to previous studies, we find facilitatory interference effects in reflexives. We also present a quantitative evaluation of the cue-based retrieval model of Engelmann et al. (2019), with respect to the reflexives data. Data and code are available from: https://osf.io/reavs/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lena A Jäger
- Department of Linguistics and Institute for Computer Science, University of Potsdam, Germany
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2
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Vasishth S, Nicenboim B, Engelmann F, Burchert F. Computational Models of Retrieval Processes in Sentence Processing. Trends Cogn Sci 2019; 23:968-982. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2019] [Revised: 08/31/2019] [Accepted: 09/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Kush D, Johns CL, Van Dyke JA. Prominence-sensitive pronoun resolution: New evidence from the speed-accuracy tradeoff procedure. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 2019; 45:1234-1251. [PMID: 30047771 PMCID: PMC7133391 DOI: 10.1037/xlm0000646] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2023]
Abstract
Past studies have shown that antecedent prominence affects the processing of a pronoun, but these studies have used experimental methodologies that do not make it possible to determine at what stage(s) of pronominal resolution these effects occur. We used the speed-accuracy tradeoff procedure to investigate whether antecedent prominence affects the accuracy of antecedent retrieval, the speed of resolution, or both. Consistent with previous results, we find that accuracy is higher when antecedents are prominent than when they are not (cf. Foraker & McElree, 2007). However, in contrast to previous results, we also find that prominence impacts the speed with which the pronominal dependency is resolved. We consider the implications of our findings for various models of pronoun resolution and offer suggestions for how to implement prominence-sensitive speed differences within a cue-based retrieval architecture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
- Dave Kush
- Department of Language and Literature
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Parker D. Cue Combinatorics in Memory Retrieval for Anaphora. Cogn Sci 2019; 43:e12715. [DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12715] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2018] [Revised: 01/23/2019] [Accepted: 01/30/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Dan Parker
- Department of English Linguistics Program College of William & Mary
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Parker D, An A. Not All Phrases Are Equally Attractive: Experimental Evidence for Selective Agreement Attraction Effects. Front Psychol 2018; 9:1566. [PMID: 30210399 PMCID: PMC6121010 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2018] [Accepted: 08/06/2018] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Research on memory retrieval during sentence comprehension suggests that similarity-based interference is mediated by the grammatical function of the distractor. For instance, Van Dyke and McElree (2011) observed interference during retrieval for subject-verb thematic binding when the distractor occurred as an oblique argument inside a prepositional phrase (PP), but not when it occurred as a core argument in direct object position. This contrast motivated the proposal that constituent encodings vary in the distinctiveness of their memory representations based on an argument hierarchy, which makes them differentially susceptible to interference. However, this hypothesis has not been explicitly tested. The present study uses an interference paradigm involving agreement attraction (e.g., Wagers et al., 2009) to test whether the argument status of the distractor determines susceptibility to interference. Results from two self-paced reading experiments show a clear contrast: agreement attraction is observed for oblique arguments (e.g., PP distractors), but attraction is nullified for core arguments (i.e., direct object and subject distractors). A follow-up experiment showed that this contrast cannot be reduced to the syntactic position of the distractor, favoring an account based on the semantic properties of the distractor. These findings support the proposal that interference is mediated by the argument status of the distractor and extend previous results by showing that the effect generalizes to a broader set of syntactic contexts and a wider range of syntactic dependencies. More generally, these results motivate a more nuanced account of real-time agreement processing that depends on both retrieval and encoding mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dan Parker
- Linguistics Program, Department of English, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, United States
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Kush D, Lidz J, Phillips C. Looking forwards and backwards: The real-time processing of Strong and Weak Crossover. GLOSSA (LONDON) 2017; 2:70. [PMID: 28936483 PMCID: PMC5603713 DOI: 10.5334/gjgl.280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
We investigated the processing of pronouns in Strong and Weak Crossover constructions as a means of probing the extent to which the incremental parser can use syntactic information to guide antecedent retrieval. In Experiment 1 we show that the parser accesses a displaced wh-phrase as an antecedent for a pronoun when no grammatical constraints prohibit binding, but the parser ignores the same wh-phrase when it stands in a Strong Crossover relation to the pronoun. These results are consistent with two possibilities. First, the parser could apply Principle C at antecedent retrieval to exclude the wh-phrase on the basis of the c-command relation between its gap and the pronoun. Alternatively, retrieval might ignore any phrases that do not occupy an Argument position. Experiment 2 distinguished between these two possibilities by testing antecedent retrieval under Weak Crossover. In Weak Crossover binding of the pronoun is ruled out by the argument condition, but not Principle C. The results of Experiment 2 indicate that antecedent retrieval accesses matching wh-phrases in Weak Crossover configurations. On the basis of these findings we conclude that the parser can make rapid use of Principle C and c-command information to constrain retrieval. We discuss how our results support a view of antecedent retrieval that integrates inferences made over unseen syntactic structure into constraints on backward-looking processes like memory retrieval.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dave Kush
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), NTNU, Institutt for språk og litteratur, N-7491 Trondheim, NO
- Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., New Haven, CT 06511, US
| | - Jeffrey Lidz
- Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland, 1401 Marie Mount Hall, College Park, MD 20742, US
| | - Colin Phillips
- Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland, 1401 Marie Mount Hall, College Park, MD 20742, US
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Laurinavichyute A, Jäger LA, Akinina Y, Roß J, Dragoy O. Retrieval and Encoding Interference: Cross-Linguistic Evidence from Anaphor Processing. Front Psychol 2017. [PMID: 28649216 PMCID: PMC5465429 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00965] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The main goal of this paper was to disentangle encoding and retrieval interference effects in anaphor processing and thus to evaluate the hypothesis predicting that structurally inaccessible nouns (distractors) are not considered to be potential anaphor antecedents during language processing (Nicol and Swinney, 1989). Three self-paced reading experiments were conducted: one in German, comparing gender-unmarked reflexives and gender-marked pronouns, and two in Russian, comparing gender-marked and -unmarked reflexives. In the German experiment, no interference effects were found. In the first experiment in Russian, an unexpected reading times pattern emerged: in the condition where the distractor matched the gender of the reflexive's antecedent, reading of the gender-unmarked, but not the gender-marked reflexives was slowed down. The same reading times pattern was replicated in a second experiment in Russian where the order of the reflexive and the main verb was inverted. We conclude that the results of the two experiments in Russian are inconsistent with the retrieval interference account, but can be explained by encoding interference and additional semantic processing efforts associated with the processing of gender-marked reflexives. In sum, we found no evidence that would allow us to reject the syntax as an early filer account (Nicol and Swinney, 1989).
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Laurinavichyute
- Neurolinguistics Laboratory, National Research University Higher School of EconomicsMoscow, Russia.,Department of Linguistics, University of PotsdamPotsdam, Germany
| | - Lena A Jäger
- Department of Linguistics, University of PotsdamPotsdam, Germany
| | - Yulia Akinina
- Neurolinguistics Laboratory, National Research University Higher School of EconomicsMoscow, Russia.,Graduate School for the Humanities, University of GroningenGroningen, Netherlands
| | - Jennifer Roß
- Speech Therapy Center 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'Berlin, Germany
| | - Olga Dragoy
- Neurolinguistics Laboratory, National Research University Higher School of EconomicsMoscow, Russia.,Department of Speech Pathology and Neurorehabilitation, Moscow Research Institute of PsychiatryMoscow, Russia
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Dillon B, Chow WY, Xiang M. The Relationship Between Anaphor Features and Antecedent Retrieval: Comparing Mandarin Ziji and Ta-Ziji. Front Psychol 2016; 6:1966. [PMID: 26779079 PMCID: PMC4700282 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2015] [Accepted: 12/08/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In the present study we report two self-paced reading experiments that investigate antecedent retrieval processes in sentence comprehension by contrasting the real-time processing behavior of two different reflexive anaphors in Mandarin Chinese. Previous work has suggested that comprehenders initially evaluate the fit between the morphologically simple long-distance reflexive "ziji" and the closest available subject position, only subsequently considering more structurally distant antecedents (Gao et al., 2005; Liu, 2009; Li and Zhou, 2010; Dillon et al., 2014; cf. Chen et al., 2012). In this paper, we investigate whether this locality bias effect obtains for other reflexive anaphors in Mandarin Chinese, or if it is associated specifically with the morphologically simple reflexive ziji. We do this by comparing the processing of ziji to the processing of the morphologically complex reflexive ta-ziji (lit. s/he-self). In Experiment 1, we investigate the processing of ziji, and replicate the finding of a strong locality bias effect for ziji in self-paced reading measures. In Experiment 2, we investigate the processing of the morphologically complex reflexive ta-ziji in the same structural configurations as Experiment 1. A comparison of our experiments reveals that ta-ziji shows a significantly weaker locality bias effect than ziji does. We propose that this results from the difference in the number of morphological and semantic features on the anaphor ta-ziji relative to ziji. Specifically, we propose that the additional retrieval cues associated with ta-ziji reduce interference from irrelevant representations in memory, allowing it to more reliably access an antecedent regardless its linear or structural distance. This reduced interference in turn leads to a diminished locality bias effect for the morphologically complex anaphor ta-ziji.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian Dillon
- Department of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Wing-Yee Chow
- Department of Linguistics, University College London London, UK
| | - Ming Xiang
- Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago Chicago, IL, USA
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Harris JA. Structure Modulates Similarity-Based Interference in Sluicing: An Eye Tracking study. Front Psychol 2016; 6:1839. [PMID: 26733893 PMCID: PMC4683205 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01839] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2015] [Accepted: 11/13/2015] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
In cue-based content-addressable approaches to memory, a target and its competitors are retrieved in parallel from memory via a fast, associative cue-matching procedure under a severely limited focus of attention. Such a parallel matching procedure could in principle ignore the serial order or hierarchical structure characteristic of linguistic relations. I present an eye tracking while reading experiment that investigates whether the sentential position of a potential antecedent modulates the strength of similarity-based interference, a well-studied effect in which increased similarity in features between a target and its competitors results in slower and less accurate retrieval overall. The manipulation trades on an independently established Locality bias in sluiced structures to associate a wh-remnant (which ones) in clausal ellipsis with the most local correlate (some wines), as in The tourists enjoyed some wines, but I don't know which ones. The findings generally support cue-based parsing models of sentence processing that are subject to similarity-based interference in retrieval, and provide additional support to the growing body of evidence that retrieval is sensitive to both the structural position of a target antecedent and its competitors, and the specificity or diagnosticity of retrieval cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jesse A Harris
- Department of Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Jäger LA, Benz L, Roeser J, Dillon BW, Vasishth S. Teasing apart retrieval and encoding interference in the processing of anaphors. Front Psychol 2015; 6:506. [PMID: 26106337 PMCID: PMC4460324 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00506] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2015] [Accepted: 04/09/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Two classes of account have been proposed to explain the memory processes subserving the processing of reflexive-antecedent dependencies. Structure-based accounts assume that the retrieval of the antecedent is guided by syntactic tree-configurational information without considering other kinds of information such as gender marking in the case of English reflexives. By contrast, unconstrained cue-based retrieval assumes that all available information is used for retrieving the antecedent. Similarity-based interference effects from structurally illicit distractors which match a non-structural retrieval cue have been interpreted as evidence favoring the unconstrained cue-based retrieval account since cue-based retrieval interference from structurally illicit distractors is incompatible with the structure-based account. However, it has been argued that the observed effects do not necessarily reflect interference occurring at the moment of retrieval but might equally well be accounted for by interference occurring already at the stage of encoding or maintaining the antecedent in memory, in which case they cannot be taken as evidence against the structure-based account. We present three experiments (self-paced reading and eye-tracking) on German reflexives and Swedish reflexive and pronominal possessives in which we pit the predictions of encoding interference and cue-based retrieval interference against each other. We could not find any indication that encoding interference affects the processing ease of the reflexive-antecedent dependency formation. Thus, there is no evidence that encoding interference might be the explanation for the interference effects observed in previous work. We therefore conclude that invoking encoding interference may not be a plausible way to reconcile interference effects with a structure-based account of reflexive processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lena A Jäger
- Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam Potsdam, Germany
| | - Lena Benz
- Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam Potsdam, Germany
| | - Jens Roeser
- Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University Nottingham, UK
| | - Brian W Dillon
- Department of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Shravan Vasishth
- Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam Potsdam, Germany
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Jäger LA, Engelmann F, Vasishth S. Retrieval interference in reflexive processing: experimental evidence from Mandarin, and computational modeling. Front Psychol 2015; 6:617. [PMID: 26074829 PMCID: PMC4444751 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2014] [Accepted: 04/26/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
We conducted two eye-tracking experiments investigating the processing of the Mandarin reflexive ziji in order to tease apart structurally constrained accounts from standard cue-based accounts of memory retrieval. In both experiments, we tested whether structurally inaccessible distractors that fulfill the animacy requirement of ziji influence processing times at the reflexive. In Experiment 1, we manipulated animacy of the antecedent and a structurally inaccessible distractor intervening between the antecedent and the reflexive. In conditions where the accessible antecedent mismatched the animacy cue, we found inhibitory interference whereas in antecedent-match conditions, no effect of the distractor was observed. In Experiment 2, we tested only antecedent-match configurations and manipulated locality of the reflexive-antecedent binding (Mandarin allows non-local binding). Participants were asked to hold three distractors (animate vs. inanimate nouns) in memory while reading the target sentence. We found slower reading times when animate distractors were held in memory (inhibitory interference). Moreover, we replicated the locality effect reported in previous studies. These results are incompatible with structure-based accounts. However, the cue-based ACT-R model of Lewis and Vasishth (2005) cannot explain the observed pattern either. We therefore extend the original ACT-R model and show how this model not only explains the data presented in this article, but is also able to account for previously unexplained patterns in the literature on reflexive processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lena A Jäger
- Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam Potsdam, Germany
| | - Felix Engelmann
- Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam Potsdam, Germany
| | - Shravan Vasishth
- Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam Potsdam, Germany
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