Linguistic Memory Representations: ERPs and Eye Tracking

描述(申请人提供)：对指称和共指表达的理解是体现一句或一系列句子意义的语篇模型心理构建的重要部分。对(Co)指称的正确理解对于整合和区分话语模式中的意义是至关重要的；它是将涉及同一实体的不同表达所关联的特征和行为整合在一起，并同时区别于文本中提到的不同实体所关联的特征和行为的基础。为了完成他们的工作，共指加工的机制必须与参与单词加工的基本记忆过程相互作用。长期以来，对词汇记忆过程的研究一直采用重复启动和语义启动来理解词加工的基本情景和语义特征，这项工作为许多公认的认知加工机制提供了基础。然而，对指称和共指的正确解释对信息处理提出了与处理孤立单词或词表时非常不同的要求。目前的项目考察了语言理解如何使用词汇处理的基本机制，在某些情况下甚至超越了这些基本机制。该项目旨在研究五个具体目标：(1)研究共指代表达的记忆整合；(2)比较结构化语言和词汇表中的记忆整合；(3)研究由类别词组成的共指代表达的记忆整合；(4)研究语言焦点的性质及其与其他类型注意的关系；(5)研究右脑在共指代加工中的作用。在整个拟议的研究中，在阅读过程中结合使用眼球跟踪和事件相关电位将为语言理解中涉及的认知和神经过程提供补充测量。由于语言是一种基本的认知过程，在理解、诊断和治疗发展性和获得性语言障碍的努力中，阐明基本的语言机制仍然是一个高度优先的问题。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The understanding of referential and coreferential expressions is an essential part of the mental construction of a discourse model that embodies the meaning of a sentence or a series of sentences. Correct understanding of (co) reference is essential both to integrating and differentiating meaning in a discourse model; it is the basis by which the characteristics and actions associated with different expressions that refer to the same entity are integrated together and by which they are simultaneously differentiated from the characteristics and actions associated with different entities mentioned in the text. In order to do their work, the mechanisms of coreferential processing must interact with basic memory processes that are involved in the processing of words. Research on lexical memory processes has for a long time used repetition priming and semantic priming in order to understand basic episodic and semantic characteristics of word processing; this work has provided the basis for many commonly accepted mechanisms of cognitive processing. However, the correct interpretation of reference and coreference places very different demands on information processing from those that arise in the processing isolated words or lists of words. The current project examines how language comprehension uses, and in some cases overrides, basic mechanisms of lexical processing. The project addresses five specific aims: (1) to investigate memory integration of coreferential expressions, (2) to compare memory integration in structured language and word lists, (3) to investigate memory integration of coreferential expressions consisting of category terms, (4) to investigate the nature of linguistic focus and its relation to other kinds of attention, and (5) to investigate the role of the right hemisphere in coreferential processing. Throughout the proposed research, the combined use of eye tracking and ERPs during reading will provide complementary measures of the cognitive and neural processes involved in language comprehension. Because language is an essential cognitive process, elucidating basic language mechanisms remains a high priority in the effort to understand, diagnose and treat developmental and acquired language impairments.