TY  - JOUR
A1  - Spalek, Katharina
A1  - Gotzner, Nicole
A1  - Wartenburger, Isabell
T1  - Not only the apples
BT  - Focus sensitive particles improve memory for information-structural alternatives
JF  - Journal of memory and language : JML
N2  - Focus sensitive particles highlight the relevance of contextual alternatives for the interpretation of a sentence. Two experiments tested whether this leads to better encoding and therefore, ultimately, better recall of focus alternatives. Participants were presented with auditory stimuli that introduced a set of elements ("context sentence") and continued in three different versions: the critical sentences either contained the exclusive particle nur ("only"), the inclusive particle sogar ("even"), or no particle (control condition). After being exposed to blocks of ten trials, participants were asked to recall the elements in the context sentence. The results show that both particles enhanced memory performance for the alternatives to the focused element, relative to the control condition. The results support the assumption that information-structural alternatives are better encoded in memory in the presence of a focus sensitive particle.
KW  - Information structure
KW  - Focus particles
KW  - Alternative set
KW  - Delayed recall
KW  - Memory
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2013.09.001
SN  - 0749-596X
SN  - 1096-0821
VL  - 70
SP  - 68
EP  - 84
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - San Diego
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Gotzner, Nicole
A1  - Wartenburger, Isabell
A1  - Spalek, Katharina
T1  - The impact of focus particles on the recognition and rejection of contrastive alternatives
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - The semantics of focus particles like only requires a set of alternatives (Rooth, 1992). In two experiments, we investigated the impact of such particles on the retrieval of alternatives that are mentioned in the prior context or unmentioned. The first experiment used a probe recognition task and showed that focus particles interfere with the recognition of mentioned alternatives and the rejection of unmentioned alternatives relative to a condition without a particle. A second lexical decision experiment demonstrated priming effects for mentioned and unmentioned alternatives (compared with an unrelated condition) while focus particles caused additional interference effects. Overall, our results indicate that focus particles trigger an active search for alternatives and lead to a competition between mentioned alternatives, unmentioned alternatives, and the focused element.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 517 
KW  - focus particles
KW  - alternative-set semantics
KW  - probe recognition task
KW  - lexical decision task
KW  - competitive inhibition
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-413420
SN  - 1866-8364
IS  - 517
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gotzner, Nicole
A1  - Wartenburger, Isabell
A1  - Spalek, Katharina
T1  - The impact of focus particles on the recognition and rejection of
contrastive alternatives
JF  - Language and cognition : an interdisciplinary journal of language and cognitive science
N2  - The semantics of focus particles like only requires a set of alternatives (Rooth, 1992). In two experiments, we investigated the impact of such particles on the retrieval of alternatives that are mentioned in the prior context or unmentioned. The first experiment used a probe recognition task and showed that focus particles interfere with the recognition of mentioned alternatives and the rejection of unmentioned alternatives relative to a condition without a particle. A second lexical decision experiment demonstrated priming effects for mentioned and unmentioned alternatives (compared with an unrelated condition) while focus particles caused additional interference effects. Overall, our results indicate that focus particles trigger an active search for alternatives and lead to a competition between mentioned alternatives, unmentioned alternatives, and the focused element.
KW  - focus particles
KW  - alternative-set semantics
KW  - probe recognition task
KW  - lexical decision task
KW  - competitive inhibition
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1017/langcog.2015.25
SN  - 1866-9808
SN  - 1866-9859
VL  - 8
SP  - 59
EP  - 95
PB  - Cambridge Univ. Press
CY  - Cambridge
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gotzner, Nicole
A1  - Spalek, Katharina
T1  - Expectations about upcoming discourse referents
BT  - Effects of pitch accents and focus particles in German language production
JF  - International review of pragmatics : IRP
N2  - In the current study, we explore how different information-structural devices affect which referents conversational partners expect in the upcoming discourse. Our main research question is how pitch accents (H*, L+H*) and focus particles (German nur `only' and auch 'also') affect speakers' choices to mention focused referents, previously mentioned alternatives or new, inferable alternatives. Participants in our experiment were presented with short discourses involving two referents and were asked to orally produce two sentences that continue the story. An analysis of speakers' continuations showed that participants were most likely to mention a contextual alternative in the condition with only and the L+H* conditions, followed by H* conditions. In the condition with also, in turn, participants mentioned both the focused/accented referent and the contextual alternative. Our findings highlight the importance of information structure for discourse management and suggest that speakers take activated alternatives to be relevant for an unfolding discourse.
KW  - information structure
KW  - linguistics focus
KW  - pitch accents
KW  - focus
KW  - alternatives
KW  - discourse expectations
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1163/18773109-01401003
SN  - 1877-3095
SN  - 1877-3109
VL  - 14
IS  - 1
SP  - 77
EP  - 94
PB  - Brill
CY  - Leiden
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Czypionka, Anna
A1  - Spalek, Katharina
A1  - Wartenburger, Isabell
A1  - Krifka, Manfred
T1  - On the interplay of object animacy and verb type during sentence comprehension in German: ERP evidence from the processing of transitive dative and accusative constructions
JF  - Linguistics : an interdisciplinary journal of the language sciences
N2  - Comprehension of transitive sentences relies on different kinds of information, like word order, case marking, and animacy contrasts between arguments. When no formal cues like case marking or number congruency are available, a contrast in animacy helps the parser to decide which argument is the grammatical subject and which the object. Processing costs are enhanced when neither formal cues nor animacy contrasts are available in a transitive sentence. We present an ERP study on the comprehension of grammatical transitive German sentences, manipulating animacy contrasts between subjects and objects as well as the verbal case marking pattern. Our study shows strong object animacy effects even in the absence of violations, and in addition suggests that this effect of object animacy is modulated by the verbal case marking pattern.
KW  - sentence comprehension
KW  - animacy
KW  - case marking
KW  - ERP
KW  - German
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2017-0031
SN  - 0024-3949
SN  - 1613-396X
VL  - 55
SP  - 1383
EP  - 1433
PB  - De Gruyter Mouton
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Burmester, Juliane
A1  - Spalek, Katharina
A1  - Wartenburger, Isabell
T1  - Context updating during sentence comprehension: The effect of aboutness topic
JF  - Brain & language : a journal of the neurobiology of language
KW  - Information structure
KW  - Discourse context
KW  - Aboutness topic
KW  - Sentence processing
KW  - Word order variation
KW  - ERP
KW  - Late positivity
KW  - Syntax-Discourse Model
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2014.08.001
SN  - 0093-934X
SN  - 1090-2155
VL  - 137
SP  - 62
EP  - 76
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - San Diego
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Burmester, Juliane
A1  - Sauermann, Antje
A1  - Spalek, Katharina
A1  - Wartenburger, Isabell
T1  - Sensitivity to salience
BT  - linguistic vs. visual cues affect sentence processing and pronoun resolution
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - Sentence comprehension is optimised by indicating entities as salient through linguistic (i.e., information-structural) or visual means. We compare how salience of a depicted referent due to a linguistic (i.e., topic status) or visual cue (i.e., a virtual person’s gaze shift) modulates sentence comprehension in German. We investigated processing of sentences with varying word order and pronoun resolution by means of self-paced reading and an antecedent choice task, respectively. Our results show that linguistic as well as visual salience cues immediately speeded up reading times of sentences mentioning the salient referent first. In contrast, for pronoun resolution, linguistic and visual cues modulated antecedent choice preferences less congruently. In sum, our findings speak in favour of a significant impact of linguistic and visual salience cues on sentence comprehension, substantiating that salient information delivered via language as well as the visual environment is integrated in the current mental representation of the discourse.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 454 
KW  - topic status
KW  - eye gaze
KW  - visual context
KW  - reading times
KW  - antecedent choice
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412838
IS  - 454
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Burmester, Juliane
A1  - Sauermann, Antje
A1  - Spalek, Katharina
A1  - Wartenburger, Isabell
T1  - Sensitivity to salience
BT  - linguistic vs. visual cues affect sentence processing and pronoun resolution
JF  - Language, cognition and neuroscience
N2  - Sentence comprehension is optimised by indicating entities as salient through linguistic (i.e., information-structural) or visual means. We compare how salience of a depicted referent due to a linguistic (i.e., topic status) or visual cue (i.e., a virtual person's gaze shift) modulates sentence comprehension in German. We investigated processing of sentences with varying word order and pronoun resolution by means of self-paced reading and an antecedent choice task, respectively. Our results show that linguistic as well as visual salience cues immediately speeded up reading times of sentences mentioning the salient referent first. In contrast, for pronoun resolution, linguistic and visual cues modulated antecedent choice preferences less congruently. In sum, our findings speak in favour of a significant impact of linguistic and visual salience cues on sentence comprehension, substantiating that salient information delivered via language as well as the visual environment is integrated in the current mental representation of the discourse.
KW  - Topic status
KW  - eye gaze
KW  - visual context
KW  - reading times
KW  - antecedent choice
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2018.1428758
SN  - 2327-3798
SN  - 2327-3801
VL  - 33
IS  - 6
SP  - 784
EP  - 801
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  -