The memory processes underpinning complex communication: the association of non-adjacent words

支持复杂交流的记忆过程：非相邻单词的关联

• 批准号: 2605158
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of York
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2605158
• 关键词: memory; processes; underpinning; complex; communication

Comprehension requires us to associate words: consider utterance (1), in which the comprehender must link 'film' with 'watched'. Such grammatical association-between words separated from each other by other words-is central to the combinatory and expressive power of language, and underpins humans' capacity for complex communication.1. What film do you reckon Jo watched last night?How do we associate the noun 'film' and the verb 'watched'? One theory holds that we maintain information about 'film' actively in working memory to guide the search for a suitable partnering verb. Another suggests we retrieve 'film' from declarative memory as a suitable object after processing 'watched'. Evidence is found for both word 'maintenance' and 'retrieval', with neither ultimately conclusive. Wagers and Phillips (2014) advanced the maintenance/retrieval debate by suggesting that some word 'features'-information constituting words, such as word class (e.g. noun, verb), gender (masculine/feminine), animacy ((in)animate), or number (singular/plural)-are maintained while others are retrieved. Under this 'hybrid' model, word class information about 'film' is maintained in working memory and used by the parser to locate its canonical comprehension position after 'watched' (c.f. Jo watched a film). Semantic information, however, decays after initial processing and must be retrieved from declarative memory when the parser encounters 'watched'. The features retrieved are reintegrated with the features maintained, allowing comprehension. This account combines the low comprehension error rate of maintenance models with the reduced processing demands on working memory of retrieval models.A series of self-paced reading studies by Ness and Meltzer-Asscher (2017;2019) found that a noun's grammatical animacy (masculine vs feminine) is a feature held in working memory during the parsing of incoming linguistic material. In my MA thesis (York, 2020), I adapted and extended Ness and Meltzer-Asscher's experimental paradigm, finding no evidence that a noun's number (singular vs plural) is a feature maintained in working memory, and, by extension, is a feature that undergoes retrieval.This PhD will continue efforts to establish which features of words are maintained in working memory to guide the establishment of relationships between words. When word information is 'dropped' by the parser, this work will chart the time-course of this feature decay. I will achieve this by replicating the kinds of reading studies conducted by Ness and Meltzer-Asscher and in my MA thesis with manipulations of word information (gender, case, word class etc.) and variations in sentence structure and length. This work will build a comprehensive and invaluable understanding of the mental parser's hierarchy of application regarding the use of word features to guide relationship establishment between words. With differences in grammar, it is likely that speakers of different languages rely on maintenance of different word features to guide associations. I will conduct research on Russian speakers, in addition to English, to build a cross-linguistic picture of word association. The benefits of such work are substantial. It will add clarity to the longstanding debate around information maintenance and retrieval in sentence processing. Equally importantly, a better understanding of the applications of word features will bring new dimensions to an array of related sentence processing fields. It will also benefit linguistic inquiry writ large: by investigating the parser's ability to associate distant words, this research will elucidate the memory processes ultimately underpinning all complex linguistic communication.This research requires collection of psycholinguistic experimental data. I will use two experimental techniques: self-paced reading (conducted over the Internet) and eye-tracking while reading using the eye-tracker in York's Linguistics lab.

理解需要我们将词语联系起来：考虑话语（1），在话语中，理解者必须将“电影”与“观看”联系起来。这样的语法联系--被其他单词分隔开的单词之间的联系--是语言的组合和表达能力的核心，也是人类复杂交流能力的基础。你猜乔昨晚看了什么电影？我们如何把名词“film”和动词“watched”联系起来？一种理论认为，我们在工作记忆中积极地保存有关“电影”的信息，以指导我们寻找合适的搭档动词。另一种观点认为，我们在处理“观看”之后，从陈述性记忆中提取“电影”作为合适的对象。证据发现，这两个词'维护'和'检索'，没有最终决定性的。Wagers和菲利普斯（2014）提出了一些单词的“特征”--构成单词的信息，如词类（例如名词、动词）、性别（阳性/阴性）、生命力（（有生命）或数量（单数/复数）--在其他信息被检索时被保留，从而推进了维护/检索的争论。在这种“混合”模式下，关于“电影”的词类信息被保存在工作记忆中，并被解析器用来定位它在“观看”之后的规范理解位置（参见图1）。乔看了一部电影）。然而，语义信息在初始处理后衰减，并且当解析器遇到“被观察”时必须从声明性记忆中检索。检索到的特征与保留的特征重新整合，允许理解。这种解释结合了维持模型的低理解错误率和提取模型对工作记忆的低加工要求。Ness和Meltzer-Asscher（2017;2019）的一系列自定进度阅读研究发现，名词的语法生命性（阳性与阴性）是在分析输入语言材料时工作记忆中保持的一个特征。在我的硕士论文（约克，2020）中，我改编并扩展了Ness和Meltzer-Asscher的实验范式，没有发现任何证据表明名词的数量（单数与复数）是工作记忆中保持的特征，并且，通过扩展，是经历检索的特征。这个博士将继续努力确定单词的哪些特征在工作记忆中保持，以指导单词之间关系的建立。当单词信息被语法分析器“丢弃”时，这项工作将绘制这种特征衰减的时间过程。我将通过复制Ness和Meltzer-Asscher进行的阅读研究以及在我的硕士论文中对单词信息（性别，格，词类等）的操作来实现这一点。以及句子结构和长度的变化。这项工作将建立一个全面的和宝贵的理解心理解析器的层次结构的应用程序，关于使用词的功能，以指导词之间的关系建立。由于语法上的差异，不同语言的使用者很可能依赖于维护不同的单词特征来引导联想。我将对俄语使用者进行研究，除了英语，以建立单词联想的跨语言图片。这种工作的好处是巨大的。它将为围绕句子处理中的信息维护和检索的长期争论增加清晰度。同样重要的是，更好地理解词特征的应用将为相关的句子处理领域带来新的维度。它也将大大有利于语言研究：通过调查分析者的能力，联想遥远的单词，这项研究将阐明最终支撑所有复杂的语言交际的记忆过程。我将使用两种实验技术：自定进度的阅读（通过互联网进行）和使用约克语言学实验室的眼动仪在阅读时进行眼动追踪。