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The interaction between language and visual spatial attention systems in grammatical gender processing. An N2pc study
No full textThis ERP study employed an N2pc paradigm to investigate possible functional interactions between mechanisms of visual spatial attention and grammatical gender processing. Previous studies showed that the N2pc, an attention-related ERP component, can be modulated by lexical-semantic variables. However, it remains to be seen whether the N2pc can be affected by grammatical features as well. To test this, we conducted an N2pc study with Italian word pairs whose grammatical gender either agreed or disagreed. Participants read a centrally presented noun followed by an adjective in a lateralized position during a gender agreement task. Between 170 and 310ms, the N2pc was elicited contralaterally to the adjective position with a left-lateralized effect of the agreement manipulation. These results suggest that this component could be influenced by grammatical features, supporting a functional interaction between processes mediating visual spatial attention and agreement computation
The Role of Gender-To-Ending Consistency in Italian Agreement Processing
No full textSPR 53rd annual meetin
Exploring the effects of accent on cognitive processes: behavioral and electrophysiological insights
Full text link167 p.Previous research has found that speaker accent can have an impact on a range of offline and online cognitive processes (Baus, Bas, Calabria, & Costa, 2017; McAleer, Todorov, & Belin, 2014; Stevenage, Clarke, & McNeill, 2012; Sporer, 2001). Indeed, previous studies show that there are differences in native and non-native speech processing (Lev-Ari, 2018). Processing foreign-accented speech requires the listener to adapt to an extra range of variability, suggesting that there may be an increase in the amount of attentional and cognitive resources that are needed to successfully interpret the speech signal of a foreign-accented speaker. However, less is known about the differences between processing native and dialectal accents. Is dialectal processing more similar to foreign or native speech? To address this, two theories have been proposed (Clarke & Garrett, 2004; Floccia et al, 2009). Previous studies have contributed to the plausibility of both hypotheses and importantly for the purposes of this project, previous electroencephalography experiments exploring the question have mainly used sentences as material. More studies are needed to elucidate whether foreign accent is processed uniquely from all types of native speech (both native and dialectal accents) or whether dialectal accent is treated differently from native accent, despite both being native speech variations. Accordingly, the central aim of this dissertation is to further investigate processing mechanisms of speech accent across different levels of linguistic analysis using evidence from both behavioral and electrophysiological experiments. An additional aim of this project was to look at the effects of accent on information retention. In addition to fluctuations in attentional demands, it seems that non-native accent can lead to differences in the depth of listeners¿ memory encoding (Atkinson et al., 2005). This project further aimed to study how changing the accent of the information delivered may affect how well people remember the information received. Three experiments were carried out to investigate accent processing, results and future directions are discussed
Exploring the effects of accent on cognitive processes: behavioral and electrophysiological insights
Full text link167 p.Previous research has found that speaker accent can have an impact on a range of offline and online cognitive processes (Baus, Bas, Calabria, & Costa, 2017; McAleer, Todorov, & Belin, 2014; Stevenage, Clarke, & McNeill, 2012; Sporer, 2001). Indeed, previous studies show that there are differences in native and non-native speech processing (Lev-Ari, 2018). Processing foreign-accented speech requires the listener to adapt to an extra range of variability, suggesting that there may be an increase in the amount of attentional and cognitive resources that are needed to successfully interpret the speech signal of a foreign-accented speaker. However, less is known about the differences between processing native and dialectal accents. Is dialectal processing more similar to foreign or native speech? To address this, two theories have been proposed (Clarke & Garrett, 2004; Floccia et al, 2009). Previous studies have contributed to the plausibility of both hypotheses and importantly for the purposes of this project, previous electroencephalography experiments exploring the question have mainly used sentences as material. More studies are needed to elucidate whether foreign accent is processed uniquely from all types of native speech (both native and dialectal accents) or whether dialectal accent is treated differently from native accent, despite both being native speech variations. Accordingly, the central aim of this dissertation is to further investigate processing mechanisms of speech accent across different levels of linguistic analysis using evidence from both behavioral and electrophysiological experiments. An additional aim of this project was to look at the effects of accent on information retention. In addition to fluctuations in attentional demands, it seems that non-native accent can lead to differences in the depth of listeners¿ memory encoding (Atkinson et al., 2005). This project further aimed to study how changing the accent of the information delivered may affect how well people remember the information received. Three experiments were carried out to investigate accent processing, results and future directions are discussed
The influence of the noun suffix in the processing of grammatical gender in Italian
No full textThe aim of the current study is to further investigate the role of the noun suffix in the processing of grammatical gender. We used nouns in which the final vowel is consistent with the typical gender-to-ending distribution in Italian (transparent nouns ending in -aFEM and in –oMASC; e.g. bibitaFEM, “drink” ); nouns in which the final vowel is not informative of the gender (opaque nouns, ending in –e; e.g. verniceFEM, “paint”); and nouns whose grammatical gender does not conform to the gender that would be expected from the suffix (irregular nouns; e.g. manoFEM, “hand”). Previous research suggests that when the orthographical-phonological information conveyed by the noun suffix is inconsistent with gender, lexical processing is slower and less accurate (Bates, Devescovi, Pizzamiglio, D’Amico & Hernandez, 1995). However, the morphological status of the noun suffix and the time course with which the suffix is used in processing semantic gender and arbitrary grammatical gender are still unclear. To test the influence of the noun suffix on the gender processing, we used a paradigm highly similar to that employed by Dell’Acqua, Pesciarelli, Jolicouer, Eimer & Peressotti (2007). In our behavioural study we contrasted the role of the noun suffix in Italian nouns characterized either by a semantic gender (e.g., mammaFEM, “mother”) or by an arbitrary gender (e.g., lampadaFEM, “lamp”), with transparent, opaque or irregular endings. The noun was followed by two lateralized stimuli (an adjective and a distractor) presented one to the left and one to the right of a central fixation cross. Each noun was paired with a gender agreeing or disagreeing adjective (e.g bibitaFEM gasataFEM /gasatoMASC, “drink fizzy”) and participants were asked to judge whether they agree or not. Our results showed that: 1. the gender-to-ending consistency of the suffix affected the computation of grammatical agreement; 2. the effect was stronger for biological than for arbitrary gender nouns. Our data confirm the direction of the effect of orthographical-phonological transparency, further showing the influence of biological gender
What a transparent Romance language with a Germanic gender-determiner mapping tells us about gender retrieval: Insights from European Portuguese [Review]
No full textUniversity of Modena and Reggio Emili
How early is grammatical gender information available to the reader?
No full textSyntax-first models (Friederici, 2002) posit that syntactic analysis starts at a very early stage (100-300 ms). Consistently, a number of MEG and ERP studies have shown syntactic effects as early as 150 ms after stimulus onset (Dykker et al., 2009; Pulvermuller et al., 2007). The aim of the present study was to establish how early grammatical gender became available to the reader. Given its important role in syntactic structure building (especially in Romance languages), we hypothesized that grammatical gender information should become available between 100 and 300 ms, as predicted by syntax-first models. To this aim, we conducted an ERP study adopting a paradigm designed to monitor an early ERP component, the N2pc. This attentional component was chosen because of its early sensitivity to linguistic variables (Dell’Acqua et al., 2007). 600 Italian noun-adjective pairs whose gender agreed or disagreed were selected. The noun was presented centrally and was followed by two lateralized stimuli (the adjective and a distractor) presented for 200 ms. Participants judged noun-adjective gender agreement. ERP results showed that agreement violations influenced the amplitude of the N2pc between 170 and 310 ms. Specifically, a greater negativity was observed at P7 for the agreement condition relative to the disagreement condition. These results suggest that grammatical gender information is available at an early stage of language comprehension (100-300 ms)
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