The structure-sensitivity of memory access: evidence from Mandarin Chinese

Abstract

The present study examined the processing of the Mandarin Chinese long-distance reflexive ziji to evaluate the role that syntactic structure plays in the memory retrieval operations that support sentence comprehension. Using the multiple-response speed-accuracy tradeoff (MR-SAT) paradigm, we measured the speed with which comprehenders retrieve an antecedent for ziji. Our experimental materials contrasted sentences where ziji's antecedent was in the local clause with sentences where ziji's antecedent was in a distant clause. Time course results from MR-SAT suggest that ziji dependencies with syntactically distant antecedents are slower to process than syntactically local dependencies. To aid in interpreting the SAT data, we present a formal model of the antecedent retrieval process, and derive quantitative predictions about the time course of antecedent retrieval. The modeling results support the Local Search hypothesis: during syntactic retrieval, comprehenders initially limit memory search to the local syntactic domain. We argue that Local Search hypothesis has important implications for theories of locality effects in sentence comprehension. In particular, our results suggest that not all locality effects may be reduced to the effects of temporal decay and retrieval interference.

Frontal–posterior theta oscillations reflect memory retrieval during sentence comprehension

“…Our behavioral results corroborate recent evidence that the number of clausal boundaries to cross for pronoun-antecedent retrieval affects retrieval demands (Dillon, et al, 2014): Pronoun-antecedent retrieval across a double clausal boundary (i.e., from a conjunct clause into a subordinate clause embedded into a main clause) was found to increase retrieval demands over pronoun-antecedent retrieval across a single clausal boundary (i.e., from a conjunt clause into a main clause)-that is, the hierarchical nature of working-memory representations in sentence comprehension affects antecedent retrieval during pronoun processing. To a large extent, our experimental design and behavioral results can exclude competing interpretations for the observed effects: First, while the lexical frequency of antecedent nouns has been proposed to affect retrieval demands (Shillcock, 1982;van Gompel & Majid, 2004), it cannot explain the current result-we matched our antecedent nouns for lexical frequency within and across experimental items, additionally counterbalancing antecedent nouns within experimental items, distributing evenly across conditions any residual lexical-frequency differences.…”

“…Working memory is fundamental for sentence comprehension (Gibson, 2000;Lewis, Vasishth, & Van Dyke, 2006), and the position of a to-be-retrieved item in the hierarchical syntactic structure has recently been argued to affect retrieval demands during sentence comprehension (Dillon, 2011;Kush, 2013;Kush, Lidz, & Phillips, 2015): Reflexive-pronoun binding is facilitated when the antecedent noun and its pronoun occur in the same clause, as compared to when the antecedent M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 5 noun occurs in a second clause, and can thus only be accessed across a sentential boundary (Dillon et al, 2014); likewise, the position of a to-be-retrieved antecedent in the hierarchical syntactic structure has been reported to affect personal-pronoun binding and relative-pronoun binding (Brysbaert, 1996;Dillon, 2011;Nicol & Swinney, 1998). Theta power was shown to increase for sentences compared to unstructured word lists (Bastiaansen et al, 2010) and for online sentence comprehension compared to off-line task performance (Röhm, Klimesch, Haider, & Doppelmayr, 2001); frontal-posterior theta coherence has been shown to increase for sentences with high working-memory demands (Weiss et al, 2005).…”

“…It has been recently proposed that retrieval of the appropriate antecedent noun on pronoun encounter obeys a local-search principle (Dillon, et al, 2014), such that the hierarchical nature of working-memory representations in sentence comprehension affects retrieval demands: antecedent-noun retrieval is easy within sentences, but hard across sentences. Our proposal that retrieval demand, instantiated by a hierarchy of clauses, associates with frontal theta is plausible given an involvement of frontal cortex in the generation of theta oscillations (Asada, Fukuda, Tsunoda, Yamaguchi, & Tonoike, 1999;Ishii et al, 1999;Mitchell et al, 2008;Sasaki et al, 1996;Sasaki, Tsujimoto, Nambu, Matsuzaki, & Kyuhou, 1994), whereby the restriction of the currently observed frontal generators to the left hemisphere is compatible with fMRI data on retention and retrieval of letter stimuli (Henson, Burgess, & Frith, 1999;Marshuetz, Smith, Jonides, Degutis, & Chenevert, 2000;Öztekin, McElree, Staresina, & Davachi, 2009).…”

“…As a test case in principle, the current experimental paradigm assessed the processing of pronouns, which trigger retrieval of an antecedent noun from either a main clause or a subordinate clause, both of which were part of an embedded sentence identical across conditions. Assuming a cue-based retrieval process, the pronoun's gender matched the overt gender suffix of a single to-beretrieved antecedent noun, thus triggering retrieval while limiting retrieval interference (Dillon et al, 2014;Kush et al, 2015;Lewis et al, 2006;Van Dyke, 2007;Van Dyke & McElree, 2006;Van Dyke & Lewis, 2003). By shifting the position of a prepositional phrase inside the sentence between conditions, we manipulated antecedent-retrieval demands while keeping the antecedent-retention interval constant across conditions; thereby, we accounted for the proposed behavioral and neural influence of antecedent decay on retrieval demands (Behaghel, 1923;Frazier, 1987;Gibson, 2000;Meyer, Obleser, & Friederici, 2013;Vasishth, 2003;Yngwe, 1960).…”

Constructing covert dependencies—The case of Mandarin wh-in-situ dependency

“…For instance, with a serial search mechanism, while looking for the scope position for an in-situ wh-phrase, the parser could be implemented to access the most recent clause boundary position first, and if it is not the right target, the parser would move on to the next clause boundary position (see Dillon et al, 2014 for a serial search mechanism in the case of Chinese long distance reflexive binding). This would also predict that wh-constructions with intervening clausal structures are more costly than those without, but without evoking retrieval interference.…”