Does discourse priming change reference comprehension strategies?

你的经历对你理解语言的心理策略有何影响？研究表明，人们会追踪自己的语言体验，例如，他们知道，对“耳朵”的更常见的解释是身体的一部分，而不是一块玉米片。但关于语言体验如何改变我们解释更大语块的方式，我们所知的要少得多。例如，语言理解的一个重要部分就是口译参照。在《Ana Saw Liz.She Waved》中，人们需要弄清楚她指的是Ana还是Liz。人们是否注意到指代模式的使用频率，并用它来解释歧义代词？最近的发现表明，他们可能会这样做。在我们的例子中，大多数人倾向于认为“她”指的是安娜，她是前一个子句的主语。但是，如果人们最近读了很多非主语被重新提及的故事，比如当代词在语境中因话语参与者的性别(例如，Matt Saw Lyn)而变得明确时，这种对主语的偏见就会减弱。她挥手致意。)这表明人们会根据语境中最频繁的参照模式来调整他们的策略。但研究人员并不确切地知道这些偏见是如何习得的。例如，人们是否分别学习每个动词或动词类别的偏向，或者他们是否假设引用频率可以在不同的句子类型中推广？有多少曝光量是必要的，是什么类型的？这项拟议的项目在成年人中测试了这些问题。参与者阅读了大量显示一种引用类型的“启蒙”故事，例如，主题角色被重新提及，或者非主题角色被提及。关键的问题是，这是否会改变人们解释模棱两可的代词的方式，就像上面Ana/Liz例子中的“她”一样。所有的启蒙故事都使用明确的指称，例如在男女混合的故事中，这样代词所指就很清楚了。第一组实验测试了人们得出的概括的类型，例如，跨动词或动词类型，或基于句法和语义信息。第二组实验测试学习所需的条件，例如所需的输入数量或类型。该项目是研究语篇结构的频率如何影响人们使用代词理解策略的首批研究之一。这建立在最近的其他证据的基础上，即语言理解策略可以从语言输入的频率中学习。这个项目将帮助演示大脑如何使用来自环境的统计数据来塑造认知过程。研究结果对于开发高级语言理解如何受经验影响的模型，以及开发解决阅读和听力理解不良问题的干预措施具有重要意义。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

How are your mental strategies for understanding language influenced by your experience? Research suggests that people track their language experience, and they know for example that the more common interpretation of "ear" is as a body part and not a piece of corn. But a lot less is known about how language experience changes the way we interpret larger chunks of discourse. For example, an important part of language understanding is interpreting reference. In "Ana saw Liz. She waved", people need to figure out whether "She" refers to Ana or Liz. Do people pay attention to the frequency of referential patterns, and use this to interpret ambiguous pronouns? Recent findings suggest they might. In our example, most people tend to assume that "she" refers to Ana, who is the subject of the previous clause. But this bias toward the subject is weakened if people have recently read many stories where the non-subject gets re-mentioned, as when the pronoun is rendered unambiguous in context by the gender of the discourse participants (e.g., Matt saw Lyn. She waved.). This suggests that people shift their strategies on the basis of the most frequent reference patterns in context. But researchers do not know exactly how these biases are learned. For example, do people learn biases separately for each verb or verb class, or do they assume that frequencies of reference can be generalized across sentence types? How much exposure is necessary, and of what type? The proposed project tests these questions with adults. Participants read numerous "priming" stories that display one type of reference, for example where the subject character gets re-mentioned, or the non-subject character gets mentioned. The critical question is whether this changes the way people interpret ambiguous pronouns, like "she" in the Ana/Liz example above. All priming stories use unambiguous reference, for example in mixed-gender stories so the pronoun referent is clear. The first set of experiments tests the types of generalizations people draw, for example across verbs or verb types, or based on syntactic vs. semantic information. The second set of experiments tests the conditions necessary for learning, for example the amount or type of input needed. This project is one of the first studies to examine how the frequency of discourse structures influences the strategies people use for pronoun comprehension. This builds on other recent evidence that language comprehension strategies can be learned from the frequencies of language input. This project will help demonstrate how the mind uses statistics from the environment to shape cognitive processing. Results will be important for developing models of how higher-level language comprehension is influenced by experience, and for developing interventions to address problems with poor reading and listening comprehension.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.