Event-related brain potentials index cue-based retrieval interference during sentence comprehension

Abstract

Successful language use requires access to products of past processing within an evolving discourse. A central issue for any neurocognitive theory of language then concerns the role of memory variables during language processing. Under a cue-based retrieval account of language comprehension, linguistic dependency resolution (e.g., retrieving antecedents) is subject to interference from other information in the sentence, especially information that occurs between the words that form the dependency (e.g., between the antecedent and the retrieval site). Retrieval interference may then shape processing complexity as a function of the match of the information at retrieval with the antecedent versus other recent or similar items in memory. To address these issues, we studied the online processing of ellipsis in Castilian Spanish, a language with morphological gender agreement. We recorded event-related brain potentials while participants read sentences containing nounphrase ellipsis indicated by the determiner otro/a ('another'). These determiners had a grammatically correct or incorrect gender with respect to their antecedent nouns that occurred earlier in the sentence. Moreover, between each antecedent and determiner, another noun phrase occurred that was structurally unavailable as an antecedent and that matched or mismatched the gender of the antecedent (i.e., a local agreement attractor). In contrast to extant P600 results on agreement violation processing, and inconsistent with predictions from neurocognitive models of sentence processing, grammatically incorrect determiners evoked a sustained, broadly distributed negativity compared to correct ones between 400 and 1000 ms after word onset, possibly related to sustained negativities as observed for referential processing difficulties. Crucially, this effect was modulated by the attractor: an increased negativity was observed for grammatically correct determiners that did not match the gender of the attractor, suggesting that structurally unavailable noun phrases were at least temporarily considered for grammatically correct ellipsis. These results constitute the first ERP evidence for cue-based retrieval interference during comprehension of grammatical sentences.

Event-related brain potential evidence for animacy processing asymmetries during sentence comprehension

“…In fact, this finding is unexpected given that these sentences are ungrammatical, and that ungrammatical sentences reliably elicit P600 effects (e.g., Osterhout, Kim, & Kuperberg, 2012;Osterhout, McLaughlin, & Bersick, 1997, for review; although see Martin et al, 2012, for an exception). We discuss the N400 and P600 effects in turn.…”

“…For details about the electroencephalogram recording, see Martin, Nieuwland, and Carreiras (2012). After average-mastoid re-referencing and ICA ocular artifact correction, waveforms were automatically screened for artifacts (À150 ms to 850 ms after critical word onset).…”

Agreement attraction during comprehension of grammatical sentences: ERP evidence from ellipsis

“…We recently reported event-related potential (ERP) evidence that syntactically unavailable, intervening attractor-nouns interfered during comprehension of Spanish noun-phrase ellipsis (the determiner otra/otro): grammatically correct determiners that mismatched the gender of attractor-nouns elicited a sustained negativity as also observed for incorrect determiners (Martin, Nieuwland, & Carreiras, 2012). The current study sought to extend this novel finding in sentences containing object-extracted relative clauses, where the antecedent may be less prominent.…”

“…Thus, forming the linguistic dependency between another and its antecedent t-shirt requires, at minimum, retrieving t-shirt from memory. However, at the onset of another, there are presumably other representations in memory that may interfere with the retrieval and interpretation of t-shirt, a phenomenon known as retrieval interference (Anderson & Neely, 1996;Martin, Nieuwland, & Carreiras, 2012;McElree, 2006;McElree, Foraker, & Dyer, 2003). The often-minimal information that must be used to access the relevant information in memory, or retrieval cues, becomes vital to interpretation.…”

A Cognitive Approach to Ellipsis

“…Some scholars began to study event-related brain potentials of ellipsis (Martin, 2012 In addition to the above achievements, Langacker (2012) studied ellipsis in coordination sentences from the cognitive perspective, Culicover & Jackendoff (2005) tried to analyze ellipsis from the interface between syntax, semantics and cognition. With the development of cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology, neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics and other cognitive sciences, the cognitive study of ellipsis will gain new development and breakthrough.…”