CAREER: The Time Course of Bottom-up and Top-down Integration in Language Understanding

职业：语言理解中自下而上和自上而下整合的时间进程

• 批准号: 0748684
• 负责人: James Magnuson
• 金额: $ 40万
• 依托单位: University of Connecticut
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-03-15 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0748684&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Time; Course; Bottom; up

Context changes the way we interpret sights and sounds. A shade of color halfway between yellow and green looks more yellow when applied to a picture of a banana, but more green when applied to a lime. An acoustic pattern halfway between "p" and "b" is interpreted as "p" following "sto-" but as "b" following "sta-". But does context actually alter perception of sights and sounds, or only their interpretation? Cognitive scientists have long debated when and how "bottom-up" input signals (such as speech) are integrated with "top-down" information (context, or knowledge in memory). Do early perceptual processes protect a "correct," context-independent record of signals, or do perceptual processes immediately mix bottom-up and top-down information? One view is that accurate perception requires early separation of bottom-up and top-down information and late integration. An alternative is that early mixing of bottom-up and top-down information would make systems more efficient, by allowing context to immediately guide processing. In studies of language comprehension, this timing question is unsettled because of conflicting evidence from two measures of moment-to-moment processing. Studies tracking people's eye movements on objects upon verbal instructions support immediate integration: helpful information appears to be used as soon as it is available. Studies using ERPs (event related potentials, which measure cortical activity via scalp electrodes) suggest delayed integration: early brain responses appear to be affected only by bottom-up information. Results from the two measures have been difficult to compare because they have relied on very different experimental designs. In the proposed research the investigator will study the timing of top-down integration in human sentence processing using experimental designs that allow simultaneous comparisons of eyetracking and ERPs, with the goal of determining when and how top-down context is integrated with bottom-up signal information. The proposed work has important implications for the design of language technology. In contrast to computer systems, humans efficiently exploit top-down context, and quickly learn to adapt to new contexts. An obstacle to making computer systems as adaptable as humans is that we do not fully understand how humans balance bottom-up signals and top-down context. The proposed research also has implications for understanding and treating language impairments. For example, understanding how normal perceivers balance and integrate signal and context may help identify subtle bottom-up impairments that lead to unusual reliance on context. The investigator is committed to integrating research and training activities in this CAREER project, and will actively involve undergraduate and graduate students in the research. The investigator will also develop courses designed to prepare students for independent research by providing hands-on training in cognitive theories and time course methodologies.

上下文改变了我们解释视觉和声音的方式。将黄色和绿色之间的颜色阴影涂在香蕉的图片上时看起来更黄，但是将其应用于石灰时更绿色。 “ p”和“ b”之间的声学​​模式被解释为“ p”之后“ sto-”，但为“ b”之后“ sta-”。但是上下文实际上会改变对景象和声音的感知，还是仅改变其解释？认知科学家长期以来一直在争论何时以及如何将“自下而上”输入信号（例如语音）与“自上而下”的信息（上下文或记忆中的知识）集成在一起。早期的感知过程是否可以保护“正确”，与信号无关的记录，或者感知过程会立即混合自下而上的信息和自上而下的信息？一种观点是，准确的看法需要尽早将自下而上的信息和自上而下的信息以及晚期整合。另一种选择是，通过允许上下文立即指导处理，自下而上的信息和自上而下的信息的早期混合将使系统更有效。在对语言理解的研究中，由于两种措施的措施，这是因为证据相互矛盾，因此这个时机问题尚未解决。在口头说明上跟踪对象上的眼睛运动的研究支持立即集成：有用的信息在可用后立即使用。使用ERP的研究（与事件相关电位，通过头皮电极测量皮质活性）提出延迟整合：早期大脑反应似乎仅受自下而上的信息影响。这两种措施的结果很难比较，因为它们依赖于非常不同的实验设计。在拟议的研究中，研究者将使用实验设计研究人类句子处理中自上而下的整合的时间，以同时比较眼影和ERP，目的是确定何时以及如何与自下而上的信号信息集成到自上而下的上下文。拟议的工作对语言技术的设计具有重要意义。与计算机系统相反，人类有效利用自上而下的环境，并迅速学会适应新的环境。使计算机系统像人类一样适应的障碍是，我们不完全了解人类如何平衡自下而上的信号和自上而下的环境。拟议的研究也对理解和治疗语言障碍有影响。例如，了解正常的感知者如何平衡和整合信号和上下文可能有助于确定微妙的自下而上障碍，从而导致对上下文的不寻常依赖。研究人员致力于将研究和培训活动整合到该职业项目中，并将积极参与研究生和研究生。研究人员还将开发旨在通过提供认知理论和时间课程方法的动手培训来为学生准备独立研究的课程。