OS_24. Language production
Saturday, October 01st, 2011 [16:20 - 17:20]
TALKS
OS_24.1 - The effect of lexical preview on the scope of grammatical encoding during spoken sentence production
Wheeldon, L. , Ohlson, N. , Ashby, A. & Gater, S.
Psychology. University of Bimingham. Birmingham, U.K.
Previous research has investigated the minimal processing scope employed during the grammatical encoding of spoken sentences. This research suggests that speakers prefer to grammatically encode a sentence initial phrase prior to speech onset and that this scope also applies to lexical access. The aim of this research was to investigate the extent to which speakers can extend their processing scope when they have advanced knowledge of lexical content. Three reaction time experiments will be reported which use a picture preview technique to investigate the effect of advanced lexical knowledge on processing scope. Speakers generated sentences in response to moving arrays of four pictured objects. The number of pictures in the sentence initial phrase was varied. In addition, speakers saw a 1s preview of one of the upcoming pictures. Speakers’ awareness of the linear position of the previewed picture was also varied. Significant effects of all variables were observed. The results demonstrate that speakers can extend their processing scope into the second phrase of a sentence in order to incorporate a known lexical item. However, they also show limitations to the extent of this ability and a disassociation between the scope of lexical access and the scope of syntactic planning.
OS_24.2 - Phonology contributes to writing: Evidence from written word production in a non-alphabetic script
Qu, Q. 1 , Damian, M. 1 , Zhang, Q. 2 & Zhu, X. 2
1 School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
2 Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Is written word production affected by phonological properties? Most researchers agree that orthographic codes can be accessed directly from meaning, but the relative contribution of phonological codes remains controversial, mainly because in studies with alphabetic scripts it is difficult to dissociate sound from spelling. We report a picture-word interference study in which Chinese participants performed written picture naming while attempting to ignore written distractor words which were either phonologically and orthographically related, phonologically related only, or unrelated. Priming relative to the unrelated condition was found for both types of distractors, which constitutes clear evidence that phonological properties constrain orthographic output. Additionally, the results speak to the nature of Chinese orthography, suggesting sub-semantic correspondences between sound and spelling.
OS_24.3 - Cognate status effects monitoring processes in speech production: Evidence from the 'error-related negativity'
Ganushchak, L. 1 , Acheson, D. 1, 2 , Christoffels, I. 3 & Hagoort, P. 1, 2
1 Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Nijmegen, The Netherlands
2 Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior. Radboud University. Nijmegen, The Netherlands
3 Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition. Universiteit Leiden. Leiden, The Netherlands
One of the physiological markers of monitoring in both speech and non-speech tasks is the so-called error related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential that is typically observed after error trials. However, the ERN is also observed after correct trials in both manual and verbal tasks, suggesting that it might be a more general marker for the monitoring of response conflict. The present work tests this hypothesis in speech production by exploring a situation where increased response conflict naturally occurs, namely, when multiple speech outputs are simultaneously activated. Event-related potentials were recorded while participants named pictures in their first and second languages. Activation of multiple outputs was manipulated through the form similarity between translation equivalents (i.e., cognate status). Replicating previous results, cognates were faster to name than non-cognates. Interestingly, response-locked analyses not only showed a reliable ERN on correct trials, but that the amplitude of the ERN was larger for cognates compared to non-cognates. Thus, despite being faster to name, cognates seem to induce more conflict during response monitoring. This in turn indicates that the ERN is not simply sensitive to conflicting motor responses, but also to more abstract conflict resulting from co-activation of multiple phonological representations.