Language production in shared task settings

通常情况下，人们在社交互动的背景下说话。然而，令人惊讶的是，人们对语言产生的神经认知过程是如何被社会互动所塑造的知之甚少。在语言产生的既定效应的基础上，我们研究了与任务伙伴一起命名一系列图片时所经历的语义干扰程度。在单一主题设置中，命名延迟随着给定语义类别的每张新图片而增加，即所谓的累积语义干扰（例如，Howard等人，2006年）。最近，研究表明，命名延迟不仅在说话者自己预先命名语义相关图片时增加，而且在他们的任务伙伴命名图片时也会增加（Hoedemaker, Ernst, Meyer, & Belke, 2017; Kuhlen & Abdel Rahman, 2017）。这表明，任务伙伴代表彼此的行为，并代表他们的伙伴参与词汇化。基于这些发现，我们想要明确(1)伙伴引发的语义干扰背后的机制，(2)代表伙伴的词汇访问在多大程度上反映了伙伴任务的特定性质（而不仅仅是自己的任务），以及(3)伙伴引发的词汇访问是否取决于任务伙伴的特征或任务设置。最后，我们想要理解(4)我们在联合图片命名框架内的发现如何扩展到对话。我们期望通过一系列基于联合图片命名和电生理、事件相关记录的延迟行为观察的实验来深入了解这些问题。本项目的研究结果将有助于更好地理解社会互动过程中的语言产生，并加深我们对语义系统如何灵活地适应社会语境的理解。

Typically, people speak in the context of social interaction. Yet, surprisingly little is known about how the neuro-cognitive processes of language production are shaped by social interaction. Drawing upon a well-established effect in language production we investigate the degree of semantic interference experienced when naming a sequence of pictures together with a task partner. In single subject settings, naming latencies increase with each new picture of a given semantic category, so-called cumulative semantic interference (e.g., Howard et al., 2006). Recently, it has been demonstrated that naming latencies not only increase in response to speakers’ own prior naming of semantically related pictures, but also in response to their task partner naming pictures (Hoedemaker, Ernst, Meyer, & Belke, 2017; Kuhlen & Abdel Rahman, 2017). This suggests that task partners represent each other’s actions and engage in lexicalization on behalf of their partner. Based on these findings we want to specify (1) the mechanism behind partner-elicited semantic interference, (2) the extent to which lexical access on behalf of the partner reflects the specific nature of the partner’s task (and not just the own task), and (3) whether partner-elicited lexical access depends on characteristics of the task partner or the task setting. Finally, we want to understand (4) how our findings within the framework of joint picture naming scale up to conversation. We expect insights into these questions through a series of experiments based on behavioral observations of latencies during joint picture naming and electrophysiological, event-related recordings. The results from the here proposed project will contribute to a better understanding of language production during social interaction as well as deepen our understanding of how flexibly the semantic system adapts to social context.