TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fernandez, Leigh
A1  - Höhle, Barbara
A1  - Brock, Jon
A1  - Nickels, Lyndsey
T1  - Investigating auditory processing of syntactic gaps with L2 speakers using pupillometry
JF  - Second language research
N2  - According to the Shallow Structure Hypothesis (SSH), second language (L2) speakers, unlike native speakers, build shallow syntactic representations during sentence processing. In order to test the SSH, this study investigated the processing of a syntactic movement in both native speakers of English and proficient late L2 speakers of English using pupillometry to measure processing cost. Of particular interest were constructions where movement resulted in an intermediate gap between clauses. Pupil diameter was recorded during auditory presentation of complex syntactic constructions. Two factors were manipulated: syntactic movement (such that some conditions contained movement while others did not), as well as syntactic movement type (either causing an intermediate gap or not). Grammaticality judgments revealed no differences between the two groups, suggesting both were capable of comprehending these constructions. Pupil change slope measurements revealed a potential sensitivity to intermediate gaps for only native speakers, however, both native and late L2 speakers showed similar facilitation during processing of the second gap site. Acoustic analysis revealed potential acoustic cues that may have facilitated the processing of these constructions. This suggests that, contrary to the predictions of the SSH, late L2 speakers are capable of constructing rich syntactic representations during the processing of intermediate gap constructions in spoken language.
KW  - filler gap dependency
KW  - intermediate gap
KW  - L2 sentence processing
KW  - pupillometry
KW  - shallow structure hypothesis
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658317722386
SN  - 0267-6583
SN  - 1477-0326
VL  - 34
IS  - 2
SP  - 201
EP  - 227
PB  - Sage Publ.
CY  - London
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  -