International Research Fellowship Program: Event-Related Potentials (ERP) Investigation of Russian Scrambling

[107374sekerina]国际研究员奖励计划使美国科学家和工程师能够到国外进行3至24个月的研究。该计划的奖励为联合研究提供了机会，并利用独特或互补的设施、专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将为德国波茨坦大学语言学研究所的Irina A. Sekerina博士提供三个月的支持，与Matthias Schlesewsky博士一起研究俄罗斯干扰的事件相关电位（ERP）技术。最近，随着对比较心理语言学研究的兴趣日益增长，重点关注英语以外语言的语言学现象，解决固定语序（英语）和灵活语序（德语）语言处理差异的问题已经成为可能。这个研究项目将调查自由词序语言（如俄语）的使用者如何理解带有移动成分的复杂句子。目标是在波茨坦语言学研究所使用事件相关电位技术对母语为俄语的人进行试点实验。事件相关电位是大脑自发电活动中的小脑电位。它们的多维性使它们适合于区分不同性质的过程，以系统地研究语言处理，特别是在语义和语法领域。实验句将采用俄文结构，与Friederici、Schlesewsky和Fiebach使用的德语句子相媲美，带有“争先恐后”和“Wh-Movement”；这个实验的结果将作为这个比较心理语言学项目的基础。这项研究的结果将增加我们对人类思维与语言、大脑心理学和心理学之间的关系的认识。

0107374SekerinaThe International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will provide three months of support to Dr. Irina A. Sekerina to work with Dr. Matthias Schlesewsky at the University of Potsdam's Institute of Linguistics in Potsdam, Germany on Event-Related Potentials (ERP) technique investigation of Russian scrambling.Recently, with interest growing in comparative psycholinguistic research focusing on linguistics phenomena in languages other than English, it has become possible to address the issue of differences between processing of languages with fixed (English) and flexible word order (German). This research project will investigate the question of how speakers of a free word order language such as Russian comprehend complex sentences with moved constituents. The goal is to conduct a pilot experiment with native Russian speakers using the Event-Related Potentials technique at the Institute of Linguistics in Potsdam. Event-related potentials are small brain potentials within the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. Their multidimensional nature makes them suitable for differentiating between qualitatively different processes to systematically investigate language processing, particularly in the domains of semantics and syntax. The experimental sentences will be Russian constructions with Scrambling and Wh-Movement comparable to the German sentences used by Friederici, Schlesewsky, and Fiebach; results from this experiment will serve as a baseline for this comparative psycholinguistic project. The results of this study will increase our knowledge on how the human mind works in relationship to language, brain psychology, and psychology.