TY - THES A1 - Mertzen, Daniela T1 - A cross-linguistic investigation of similarity-based interference in sentence comprehension T1 - Eine cross-linguistische Untersuchung ähnlichkeitsbasierter Interferenz in der Satzverarbeitung N2 - The aim of this dissertation was to conduct a larger-scale cross-linguistic empirical investigation of similarity-based interference effects in sentence comprehension. Interference studies can offer valuable insights into the mechanisms that are involved in long-distance dependency completion. Many studies have investigated similarity-based interference effects, showing that syntactic and semantic information are employed during long-distance dependency formation (e.g., Arnett & Wagers, 2017; Cunnings & Sturt, 2018; Van Dyke, 2007, Van Dyke & Lewis, 2003; Van Dyke & McElree, 2011). Nevertheless, there are some important open questions in the interference literature that are critical to our understanding of the constraints involved in dependency resolution. The first research question concerns the relative timing of syntactic and semantic interference in online sentence comprehension. Only few interference studies have investigated this question, and, to date, there is not enough data to draw conclusions with regard to their time course (Van Dyke, 2007; Van Dyke & McElree, 2011). Our first cross-linguistic study explores the relative timing of syntactic and semantic interference in two eye-tracking reading experiments that implement the study design used in Van Dyke (2007). The first experiment tests English sentences. The second, larger-sample experiment investigates the two interference types in German. Overall, the data suggest that syntactic and semantic interference can arise simultaneously during retrieval. The second research question concerns a special case of semantic interference: We investigate whether cue-based retrieval interference can be caused by semantically similar items which are not embedded in a syntactic structure. This second interference study builds on a landmark study by Van Dyke & McElree (2006). The study design used in their study is unique in that it is able to pin down the source of interference as a consequence of cue overload during retrieval, when semantic retrieval cues do not uniquely match the retrieval target. Unlike most other interference studies, this design is able to rule out encoding interference as an alternative explanation. Encoding accounts postulate that it is not cue overload at the retrieval site but the erroneous encoding of similar linguistic items in memory that leads to interference (Lewandowsky et al., 2008; Oberauer & Kliegl, 2006). While Van Dyke & McElree (2006) reported cue-based retrieval interference from sentence-external distractors, the evidence for this effect was weak. A subsequent study did not show interference of this type (Van Dyke et al., 2014). Given these inconclusive findings, further research is necessary to investigate semantic cue-based retrieval interference. The second study in this dissertation provides a larger-scale cross-linguistic investigation of cue-based retrieval interference from sentence-external items. Three larger-sample eye-tracking studies in English, German, and Russian tested cue-based interference in the online processing of filler-gap dependencies. This study further extends the previous research by investigating interference in each language under varying task demands (Logačev & Vasishth, 2016; Swets et al., 2008). Overall, we see some very modest support for proactive cue-based retrieval interference in English. Unexpectedly, this was observed only under a low task demand. In German and Russian, there is some evidence against the interference effect. It is possible that interference is attenuated in languages with richer case marking. In sum, the cross-linguistic experiments on the time course of syntactic and semantic interference from sentence-internal distractors support existing evidence of syntactic and semantic interference during sentence comprehension. Our data further show that both types of interference effects can arise simultaneously. Our cross-linguistic experiments investigating semantic cue-based retrieval interference from sentence-external distractors suggest that this type of interference may arise only in specific linguistic contexts. N2 - Ziel dieser Dissertation war es, eine größer-angelegte, sprachübergreifende, empirische Untersuchung von Interferenzeffekten beim Satzverstehen durchzuführen. Interferenzstudien bieten wertvolle Einblicke in die Mechanismen, die während der Satzverarbeitung, insbesondere bei der Bildung von nicht-lokalen Dependenzen eine Rolle spielen. Studien zu ähnlichkeitsbasierten Interferenzeffekten haben gezeigt, dass syntaktische und semantische Informationen bei der Bildung von nicht-lokalen Dependenzen verwendet werden (z. B. Arnett & Wagers, 2017; Cunnings & Sturt, 2018; Van Dyke, 2007, Van Dyke & Lewis, 2003; Van Dyke & McElree, 2011). Dennoch bleiben in der Interferenzliteratur einige wichtige Fragen unbeantwortet, die für unser Verständnis der Satzverarbeitungsmechanismen von Bedeutung sind. Die erste Forschungsfrage betrifft den zeitlichen Ablauf syntaktischer und semantischer Interferenz während des Satzverstehens. Nur wenige Interferenzstudien haben diese Frage untersucht, jedoch sind aktuell nicht genügend Daten vorhanden, um Schlussfolgerungen bezüglich des zeitlichen Verlaufs zu ziehen (Van Dyke, 2007; Van Dyke & McElree, 2011). Die erste sprachübergreifende Studie in dieser Dissertation untersucht den zeitlichen Ablauf von syntaktischer und semantischer Interferenz mithilfe zweier Eyetracking-Leseexperimente. Diese nutzen das von Van Dyke (2007) implementierte Studiendesign. Das erste Experiment testet englische Sätze. Das zweite Experiment, welches eine größere Stichprobe untersucht, testet Interferenzeffekte im Deutschen. Insgesamt deuten die Daten darauf hin, dass syntaktische und semantische Interferenzeffekte zeitgleich auftreten können. Die zweite Forschungsfrage untersucht einen Spezialfall der semantischen Interferenz: Es wird untersucht, ob cue-abhängige Abrufinterferenz durch Items verursacht werden kann, die nicht in die syntaktische Struktur eingebettet sind. Diese zweite Interferenzstudie nutzt das Studiendesign von Van Dyke & McElree (2006), welches in der Lage ist, die Quelle der Interferenzeffekte als Folge von “cue overload” zu bestimmen, d.h., wenn semantische cues während des Abrufs aus dem Gedächtnis nicht eindeutig mit dem Zielwort übereinstimmen. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Interferenzstudien kann dieses Design Enkodierungsinterferenz als alternative Erklärung ausschließen. Enkodierungsansätze nehmen an, dass nicht ein “cue overload”, sondern eine fehlerhafte Kodierung ähnlicher Items im Gedächtnis Interferenz zur Folge hat (Lewandowsky et al., 2008; Oberauer & Kliegl, 2006). Obwohl die Van Dyke & McElree (2006) Studie angibt, cue-basierte Interferenz zu beobachten, ist die Evidenz für diesen Effekt schwach. Eine Folgestudie findet keine Evidenz für Interferenzeffekte dieser Art (Van Dyke et al., 2014). Die nicht eindeutigen Ergebnisse erfordern weitere Untersuchungen semantischer cue-basierter Interferenz. Die zweite Studie in dieser Dissertation untersucht cue-basierte Interferenzeffekte durch Items, die nicht in die syntaktische Struktur eingebettet sind. Drei Eyetracking-Studien, im Englischen, Deutschen und Russischen, untersuchen cue-basierte Interferenz während der Verarbeitung von “filler-gap” Dependenzen. Diese Studie ergänzt bisherige Studien, indem sie Interferenz in mehreren Sprachen sowie unter unterschiedlich komplexen Aufgabenanforderungen untersucht (Logačev & Vasishth, 2016; Swets et al., 2008). Insgesamt zeigen die Daten nur sehr schwache Evidenz für cue-basierte Interferenz im Englischen, und ausschließlich unter wenig komplexen Aufgabenanforderungen. Im Deutschen und Russischen sprechen die Daten gegen einen Interferenzeffekt, was darauf hinweisen könnte, dass Interferenzeffekte in Sprachen mit reicher Kasusmarkierung nur abgeschwächt vorzufinden sind. Insgesamt zeigen die sprachübergreifenden Experimente zum zeitlichen Verlauf syntaktischer und semantischer Interferenz durch satz-interne Items, dass beide Arten von Interferenzeffekten gleichzeitig auftreten können. Unsere sprachübergreifenden Experimente zur Untersuchung semantischer Interferenzen durch satz-externe Items deuten darauf hin, dass diese Art von Interferenz nur kontextspezifisch auftritt. KW - psycholinguistics KW - sentence processing KW - cue-based retrieval KW - similarity-based interference KW - eye-tracking KW - Psycholinguistik KW - Satzverarbeitung KW - Cue-abhängiger Abruf KW - ähnlichkeitsbasierte Gedächtnisinterferenz KW - Eye-tracking Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-556685 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tamasi, Katalin A1 - Mckean, Cristina A1 - Gafos, Adamantios I. A1 - Höhle, Barbara T1 - Children's gradient sensitivity to phonological mismatch BT - Considering the dynamics of looking behavior and pupil dilation JF - Journal of child language N2 - In a preferential looking paradigm, we studied how children's looking behavior and pupillary response were modulated by the degree of phonological mismatch between the correct label of a target referent and its manipulated form. We manipulated degree of mismatch by introducing one or more featural changes to the target label. Both looking behavior and pupillary response were sensitive to degree of mismatch, corroborating previous studies that found differential responses in one or the other measure. Using time-course analyses, we present for the first time results demonstrating full separability among conditions (detecting difference not only between one vs. more, but also between two and three featural changes). Furthermore, the correct labels and small featural changes were associated with stable target preference, while large featural changes were associated with oscillating looking behavior, suggesting significant shifts in looking preference over time. These findings further support and extend the notion that early words are represented in great detail, containing subphonemic information. KW - lexical development KW - featural distance KW - mispronunciation detection KW - eye-tracking KW - pupillometry Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000918000259 SN - 0305-0009 SN - 1469-7602 VL - 46 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 23 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Richter, Maria A1 - Paul, Mariella A1 - Höhle, Barbara A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell T1 - Common Ground Information Affects Reference Resolution BT - Evidence From Behavioral Data, ERPs, and Eye-Tracking JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - One of the most important social cognitive skills in humans is the ability to “put oneself in someone else’s shoes,” that is, to take another person’s perspective. In socially situated communication, perspective taking enables the listener to arrive at a meaningful interpretation of what is said (sentence meaning) and what is meant (speaker’s meaning) by the speaker. To successfully decode the speaker’s meaning, the listener has to take into account which information he/she and the speaker share in their common ground (CG). We here further investigated competing accounts about when and how CG information affects language comprehension by means of reaction time (RT) measures, accuracy data, event-related potentials (ERPs), and eye-tracking. Early integration accounts would predict that CG information is considered immediately and would hence not expect to find costs of CG integration. Late integration accounts would predict a rather late and effortful integration of CG information during the parsing process that might be reflected in integration or updating costs. Other accounts predict the simultaneous integration of privileged ground (PG) and CG perspectives. We used a computerized version of the referential communication game with object triplets of different sizes presented visually in CG or PG. In critical trials (i.e., conflict trials), CG information had to be integrated while privileged information had to be suppressed. Listeners mastered the integration of CG (response accuracy 99.8%). Yet, slower RTs, and enhanced late positivities in the ERPs showed that CG integration had its costs. Moreover, eye-tracking data indicated an early anticipation of referents in CG but an inability to suppress looks to the privileged competitor, resulting in later and longer looks to targets in those trials, in which CG information had to be considered. Our data therefore support accounts that foresee an early anticipation of referents to be in CG but a rather late and effortful integration if conflicting information has to be processed. We show that both perspectives, PG and CG, contribute to socially situated language processing and discuss the data with reference to theoretical accounts and recent findings on the use of CG information for reference resolution. KW - perspective-taking KW - ERPs KW - eye-tracking KW - common ground KW - privileged ground Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.565651 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 11 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - GEN A1 - Richter, Maria A1 - Paul, Mariella A1 - Höhle, Barbara A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell T1 - Common Ground Information Affects Reference Resolution BT - Evidence From Behavioral Data, ERPs, and Eye-Tracking T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - One of the most important social cognitive skills in humans is the ability to “put oneself in someone else’s shoes,” that is, to take another person’s perspective. In socially situated communication, perspective taking enables the listener to arrive at a meaningful interpretation of what is said (sentence meaning) and what is meant (speaker’s meaning) by the speaker. To successfully decode the speaker’s meaning, the listener has to take into account which information he/she and the speaker share in their common ground (CG). We here further investigated competing accounts about when and how CG information affects language comprehension by means of reaction time (RT) measures, accuracy data, event-related potentials (ERPs), and eye-tracking. Early integration accounts would predict that CG information is considered immediately and would hence not expect to find costs of CG integration. Late integration accounts would predict a rather late and effortful integration of CG information during the parsing process that might be reflected in integration or updating costs. Other accounts predict the simultaneous integration of privileged ground (PG) and CG perspectives. We used a computerized version of the referential communication game with object triplets of different sizes presented visually in CG or PG. In critical trials (i.e., conflict trials), CG information had to be integrated while privileged information had to be suppressed. Listeners mastered the integration of CG (response accuracy 99.8%). Yet, slower RTs, and enhanced late positivities in the ERPs showed that CG integration had its costs. Moreover, eye-tracking data indicated an early anticipation of referents in CG but an inability to suppress looks to the privileged competitor, resulting in later and longer looks to targets in those trials, in which CG information had to be considered. Our data therefore support accounts that foresee an early anticipation of referents to be in CG but a rather late and effortful integration if conflicting information has to be processed. We show that both perspectives, PG and CG, contribute to socially situated language processing and discuss the data with reference to theoretical accounts and recent findings on the use of CG information for reference resolution. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 698 KW - perspective-taking KW - ERPs KW - eye-tracking KW - common ground KW - privileged ground Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-490607 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 698 ER - TY - THES A1 - Brandt-Kobele, Oda-Christina T1 - Comprehension of verb inflection in German-speaking children T1 - Das Verständnis von Verbflexionsendungen bei deutschsprachigen Kindern N2 - Previous studies on the acquisition of verb inflection in normally developing children have revealed an astonishing pattern: children use correctly inflected verbs in their own speech but fail to make use of verb inflections when comprehending sentences uttered by others. Thus, a three-year old might well be able to say something like ‘The cat sleeps on the bed’, but fails to understand that the same sentence, when uttered by another person, refers to only one sleeping cat but not more than one. The previous studies that have examined children's comprehension of verb inflections have employed a variant of a picture selection task in which the child was asked to explicitly indicate (via pointing) what semantic meaning she had inferred from the test sentence. Recent research on other linguistic structures, such as pronouns or focus particles, has indicated that earlier comprehension abilities can be found when methods are used that do not require an explicit reaction, like preferential looking tasks. This dissertation aimed to examine whether children are truly not able to understand the connection the the verb form and the meaning of the sentence subject until the age of five years or whether earlier comprehension can be found when a different measure, preferential looking, is used. Additionally, children's processing of subject-verb agreement violations was examined. The three experiments of this thesis that examined children's comprehension of verb inflections revealed the following: German-speaking three- to four-year old children looked more to a picture showing one actor when hearing a sentence with a singular inflected verb but only when their eye gaze was tracked and they did not have to perform a picture selection task. When they were asked to point to the matching picture, they performed at chance-level. This pattern indicates asymmetries in children's language performance even within the receptive modality. The fourth experiment examined sensitivity to subject-verb agreement violations and did not reveal evidence for sensitivity toward agreement violations in three- and four-year old children, but only found that children's looking patterns were influenced by the grammatical violations at the age of five. The results from these experiments are discussed in relation to the existence of a production-comprehension asymmetry in the use of verb inflections and children's underlying grammatical knowledge. N2 - Experimentelle Studien zum Erwerb der Verbflexion bei sprachunauffälligen Kindern haben ein überraschendes Muster aufgezeigt. Kinder im Alter von drei und vier Jahren verwenden Verbflexionsendungen anscheinend korrekt in ihrer eigenen Sprachproduktion, aber sie scheinen unfähig zu sein, Verbflexionen in den Äußerungen anderer zu verstehen. Ein Kind ist also problemlos in der Lage “Sie schläft auf dem Bett.” zu sagen, wenn es die Position von z. B. einer Katze beschreiben möchte. Gleichzeitig scheint es nicht zu verstehen, dass sich ein Satz wie “Sie schläft auf dem Bett” auf nur eine schlafende Katze und nicht mehrere bezieht. Das Verständnis von Sätzen, in denen der einzige Hinweis auf die Anzahl der Handelnden (den Numerus des Subjekts) die Verbflexion ist, wurde bislang nur mit ‘Zeige-Experimenten’ untersucht. In solchen Sprachtests soll das Kind durch eine Zeigegeste auf eines von zwei vorgegebenen Bildern explizit anzeigen wie es den vorgegebenen Satz verstanden hat. Aktuelle Studien, die das Verständnis von sprachlichen Elementen wie Pronomen und Fokuspartikeln bei Kindern untersucht haben, lassen erkennen, dass die Testmethodik einen erheblichen Einfluss auf die kindlichen Sprachverständnisfähigkeiten zu haben scheint. Wenn man Methoden verwendet, die keine explizite Reaktion von Seiten der Kinder verlangen, findet man korrektes Verständnis schon bei jüngeren Kindern. Das Ziel dieser Dissertation war es zu untersuchen, ob drei- und vierjährige Kinder tatsächlich nicht in der Lage sind die Beziehung zwischen Verbform (Art der Verbflexion) und Subjektbedeutung (Numerus des Subjekts) zu verstehen oder ob man korrektes Sprachverständnis in jüngeren Populationen finden kann, wenn eine alternative Testmethode, die Messung der Augenbewegungen, verwendet wird. Zusätzlich wurde untersucht ob Kinder im gleichen Alter Verletzungen der Subjekt-Verb-Kongruenz in auditiv präsentierten Sätzen entdecken. Drei Experimente dieser Dissertation, die das kindliche Sprachverständnis in Bezug auf Verbflexion untersucht haben bringen folgendes Muster zum Vorschein: Deutsch-sprachige Kinder im Alter von drei bis vier Jahren schauten mehr zu einem Bild, auf dem nur ein Akteur zu sehen war, wenn sie einen Satz mit einem singular flektierten Verb hörten (Sie streichelt eine Katze). Andererseits schauten sie mehr zu einem Bild, auf dem zwei Akteure zu sehen waren, wenn sie einen Satz mit einem plural flektierten Verb hörten (Sie streicheln eine Katze). Wenn sie hingegen gebeten wurden, auf das korrekte Bild zu zeigen, reagierten sie nicht besser als es der Zufall erwartet hätte, d.h.~sie waren nicht in der Lage einen Satz einem entsprechenden Bild zuzuordnen. Dieses Ergebnismuster deutet auf die Existenz von (methoden-abhängigen) Asymmetrien innerhalb einer sprachlichen Modalität, dem Sprach\-verständnis, hin. Das vierte Experiment untersuchte die kindliche Sensitivität gegenüber der Verletzung von Subjekt-Verb-Kongruenz. Hier zeigte sich, dass das Blickverhalten von fünfjährigen Kindern von der Grammatikalität der Testsätze beeinflusst war, während keine Evidenz für das Erkennen von Grammatikalitätsverletzungen bei jüngeren Kindern gefunden werden konnte. Das asymmetrische Performanzmuster innerhalb der rezeptiven Modalität, das in dieser Arbeit gefunden wurde, erlaubt Rückschlüsse auf die Annahme einer Produktions-Verständnis-Aymmetrie und somit auch auf Theorien zur grammatischen Entwicklung bei Kindern. T3 - Spektrum Patholinguistik - Schriften - 6 KW - Spracherwerb KW - Verbflexion KW - Blickbewegungsmessung KW - Methoden KW - Sprachverständnis KW - Language acquisition KW - verb inflection KW - eye-tracking KW - methods KW - language comprehension Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-62046 SN - 978-3-86956-216-2 SN - 1869-3822 SN - 1869-3830 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Söchting, Maximilian A1 - Trapp, Matthias T1 - Controlling image-stylization techniques using eye tracking T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Reihe der Digital Engineering Fakultät N2 - With the spread of smart phones capable of taking high-resolution photos and the development of high-speed mobile data infrastructure, digital visual media is becoming one of the most important forms of modern communication. With this development, however, also comes a devaluation of images as a media form with the focus becoming the frequency at which visual content is generated instead of the quality of the content. In this work, an interactive system using image-abstraction techniques and an eye tracking sensor is presented, which allows users to experience diverting and dynamic artworks that react to their eye movement. The underlying modular architecture enables a variety of different interaction techniques that share common design principles, making the interface as intuitive as possible. The resulting experience allows users to experience a game-like interaction in which they aim for a reward, the artwork, while being held under constraints, e.g., not blinking. The co nscious eye movements that are required by some interaction techniques hint an interesting, possible future extension for this work into the field of relaxation exercises and concentration training. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Reihe der Digital Engineering Fakultät - 7 KW - eye-tracking KW - image abstraction KW - image processing KW - artistic image stylization KW - interactive media Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-524717 IS - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lago, Sol A1 - Sloggett, Shayne A1 - Schlüter, Zoe A1 - Chow, Wing Yee A1 - Williams, Alexander A1 - Lau, Ellen A1 - Phillips, Colin T1 - Coreference and Antecedent Representation Across Languages JF - Journal of experimental psychology : Learning, memory, and cognition KW - coreference KW - German KW - English KW - sentence comprehension KW - eye-tracking Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000343 SN - 0278-7393 SN - 1939-1285 VL - 43 SP - 795 EP - 817 PB - American Psychological Association CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Safavi, Molood S. A1 - Husain, Samar A1 - Vasishth, Shravan T1 - Dependency Resolution Difficulty Increases with Distance in Persian Separable Complex Predicates BT - Evidence for Expectation and Memory-Based Accounts JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Delaying the appearance of a verb in a noun-verb dependency tends to increase processing difficulty at the verb; one explanation for this locality effect is decay and/or interference of the noun in working memory. Surprisal, an expectation-based account, predicts that delaying the appearance of a verb either renders it no more predictable or more predictable, leading respectively to a prediction of no effect of distance or a facilitation. Recently, Husain et al. (2014) suggested that when the exact identity of the upcoming verb is predictable (strong predictability), increasing argument-verb distance leads to facilitation effects, which is consistent with surprisal; but when the exact identity of the upcoming verb is not predictable (weak predictability), locality effects are seen. We investigated Husain et al.'s proposal using Persian complex predicates (CPs), which consist of a non-verbal element—a noun in the current study—and a verb. In CPs, once the noun has been read, the exact identity of the verb is highly predictable (strong predictability); this was confirmed using a sentence completion study. In two self-paced reading (SPR) and two eye-tracking (ET) experiments, we delayed the appearance of the verb by interposing a relative clause (Experiments 1 and 3) or a long PP (Experiments 2 and 4). We also included a simple Noun-Verb predicate configuration with the same distance manipulation; here, the exact identity of the verb was not predictable (weak predictability). Thus, the design crossed Predictability Strength and Distance. We found that, consistent with surprisal, the verb in the strong predictability conditions was read faster than in the weak predictability conditions. Furthermore, greater verb-argument distance led to slower reading times; strong predictability did not neutralize or attenuate the locality effects. As regards the effect of distance on dependency resolution difficulty, these four experiments present evidence in favor of working memory accounts of argument-verb dependency resolution, and against the surprisal-based expectation account of Levy (2008). However, another expectation-based measure, entropy, which was computed using the offline sentence completion data, predicts reading times in Experiment 1 but not in the other experiments. Because participants tend to produce more ungrammatical continuations in the long-distance condition in Experiment 1, we suggest that forgetting due to memory overload leads to greater entropy at the verb. KW - locality KW - expectation KW - surprisal KW - entropy KW - Persian KW - complex predicates KW - self-paced reading KW - eye-tracking Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00403 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 7 SP - 1 EP - 15 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - GEN A1 - Safavi, Molood S. A1 - Husain, Samar A1 - Vasishth, Shravan T1 - Dependency Resolution Difficulty Increases with Distance in Persian Separable Complex Predicates BT - Evidence for Expectation and Memory-Based Accounts N2 - Delaying the appearance of a verb in a noun-verb dependency tends to increase processing difficulty at the verb; one explanation for this locality effect is decay and/or interference of the noun in working memory. Surprisal, an expectation-based account, predicts that delaying the appearance of a verb either renders it no more predictable or more predictable, leading respectively to a prediction of no effect of distance or a facilitation. Recently, Husain et al. (2014) suggested that when the exact identity of the upcoming verb is predictable (strong predictability), increasing argument-verb distance leads to facilitation effects, which is consistent with surprisal; but when the exact identity of the upcoming verb is not predictable (weak predictability), locality effects are seen. We investigated Husain et al.'s proposal using Persian complex predicates (CPs), which consist of a non-verbal element—a noun in the current study—and a verb. In CPs, once the noun has been read, the exact identity of the verb is highly predictable (strong predictability); this was confirmed using a sentence completion study. In two self-paced reading (SPR) and two eye-tracking (ET) experiments, we delayed the appearance of the verb by interposing a relative clause (Experiments 1 and 3) or a long PP (Experiments 2 and 4). We also included a simple Noun-Verb predicate configuration with the same distance manipulation; here, the exact identity of the verb was not predictable (weak predictability). Thus, the design crossed Predictability Strength and Distance. We found that, consistent with surprisal, the verb in the strong predictability conditions was read faster than in the weak predictability conditions. Furthermore, greater verb-argument distance led to slower reading times; strong predictability did not neutralize or attenuate the locality effects. As regards the effect of distance on dependency resolution difficulty, these four experiments present evidence in favor of working memory accounts of argument-verb dependency resolution, and against the surprisal-based expectation account of Levy (2008). However, another expectation-based measure, entropy, which was computed using the offline sentence completion data, predicts reading times in Experiment 1 but not in the other experiments. Because participants tend to produce more ungrammatical continuations in the long-distance condition in Experiment 1, we suggest that forgetting due to memory overload leads to greater entropy at the verb. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 290 KW - Persian KW - complex predicates KW - expectation KW - eye-tracking KW - locality KW - self-paced reading KW - surprisal KW - entropy Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-90728 SP - 1 EP - 15 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yang, Jiongjiong A1 - Wang, Aobing A1 - Yan, Ming A1 - Zhu, Zijian A1 - Chen, Cheng A1 - Wang, Yizhou T1 - Distinct processing for pictures of animals and objects Evidence from eye movements JF - Emotion : a new journal from the American Psychological Association N2 - Many studies have suggested that emotional stimuli orient and engage attention. There is also evidence that animate stimuli, such as those from humans and animals, cause attentional bias. However, categorical and emotional factors are usually mixed, and it is unclear to what extent human context influences attentional allocation. To address this issue, we tracked participants' eye movements while they viewed pictures with animals and inanimate images (i.e., category) as focal objects. These pictures had either negative or neutral emotional valence, and either human body parts or nonhuman parts were near the focal objects (i.e., context). The picture's valence, arousal, position, size, and most of the low-level visual features were matched across categories. The results showed that nonhuman animals were more likely to be attended to and to be attended to for longer times than inanimate objects. The same pattern held for the human contexts (vs. nonhuman contexts). The effects of emotional valence, category, and context interacted. Specifically, in images with a negative valence, focal animals and objects with human context had comparable numbers of gaze fixations and gaze duration. These results highlighted the attentional bias to animate parts of a picture and clarified that the effects of category, valence, and picture context interacted to influence attentional allocation. KW - emotion KW - category KW - attention KW - eye-tracking Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026848 SN - 1528-3542 VL - 12 IS - 3 SP - 540 EP - 551 PB - American Psychological Association CY - Washington ER -