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Introduction: To study sentence comprehension in Persian-speaking Patients with Aphasia considering the factors of complexity. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the performance of 6 non-fluent aphasic patients were tested and their performance was compared to 15 matched control group. Comprehension of semantically reversible sentences was assessed using a binary sentence-picture matching task. The stimuli were as follows: clefts; subject clefts and object clefts, also relative clauses; subject relatives and object relatives. All of them were types of movement-derived structures and also simple declarative sentences as the control task. Results: The best performance of aphasic patients were seen in the comprehension of subject clefts, although prior to this result we assumed that simple declarative sentences (in which there is no structural factor of complexity) can be understood easily. They showed the highest difficulty in the comprehension of object relatives. Furthermore, the performance of patients in the comprehension of relative clauses was significantly weaker than understanding the clefts. Conclusion: The outcomes of this study suggest that the sentence comprehension deficits of aphasic patients, in contrast to the specific deficit models, may not be related to linguistic disabilities. Moreover, the problems in the comprehension of non-canonical sentences may be related to failure in the allocation of attention. Finally, our results support the claims that neural characterization of the cognitive resources (e.g. working memory) is disrupted in sentence comprehension deficits.

The purpose of this study was to delineate the properties of a novel syntactic assessment battery and to present descriptive data on normal elderly individuals. We administered the Syntactic Assessment Battery (hereinafter SAB) using a sentence-picture paradigm to 195 normal elderly adults in three age groups (60–69, 70–79, and 80–90) and five educational levels (No formal education, Elementary School Graduation, Middle School Graduation, High School Graduation, College Graduation and Above). A multiple linear regression model was applied to verify the age and education effects. A summary of results indicated that the SAB effectively detected age and education effects. People generally demonstrated worse performance as they aged but better performance as their educational levels increased. People with high school education and above generally demonstrated stronger performance on the test, although educational effects were not significantly different between elementary and middle school graduation groups. The current novel syntactic assessment battery can serve as a screening measure that sensitively detects age and education effects.

The purpose of this study was to delineate the properties of a novel syntactic assessment battery and to present descriptive data on normal elderly individuals. We administered the Syntactic Assessment Battery (hereinafter SAB) using a sentence-picture paradigm to 195 normal elderly adults in three age groups (60–69, 70–79, and 80–90) and five educational levels (No formal education, Elementary School Graduation, Middle School Graduation, High School Graduation, College Graduation and Above). A multiple linear regression model was applied to verify the age and education effects. A summary of results indicated that the SAB effectively detected age and education effects. People generally demonstrated worse performance as they aged but better performance as their educational levels increased. People with high school education and above generally demonstrated stronger performance on the test, although educational effects were not significantly different between elementary and middle school graduation groups. The current novel syntactic assessment battery can serve as a screening measure that sensitively detects age and education effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how and where in the brain sentence-level meaning is constructed from words presents a major scientific challenge. Recent advances have begun to explain brain activation elicited by sentences using vector models of word meaning derived from patterns of word co-occurrence in text corpora. These studies have helped map out semantic representation across a distributed brain network spanning temporal, parietal, and frontal cortex. However, it remains unclear whether activation patterns within regions reflect unified representations of sentence-level meaning, as opposed to superpositions of context-independent component words. This is because models have typically represented sentences as "bags-of-words" that neglect sentence-level structure. To address this issue, we interrogated fMRI activation elicited as 240 sentences were read by 14 participants (9 female, 5 male), using sentences encoded by a recurrent deep artificial neural-network trained on a sentence inference task (InferSent). Recurrent connections and nonlinear filters enable InferSent to transform sequences of word vectors into unified "propositional" sentence representations suitable for evaluating intersentence entailment relations. Using voxelwise encoding modeling, we demonstrate that InferSent predicts elements of fMRI activation that cannot be predicted by bag-of-words models and sentence models using grammatical rules to assemble word vectors. This effect occurs throughout a distributed network, which suggests that propositional sentence-level meaning is represented within and across multiple cortical regions rather than at any single site. In follow-up analyses, we place results in the context of other deep network approaches (ELMo and BERT) and estimate the degree of unpredicted neural signal using an "experiential" semantic model and cross-participant encoding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in sentence processing has increasingly examined the role of individual differences in language comprehension. In work on native and nonnative sentence processing, examining individual differences can contribute crucial insight into theoretical debates about the extent to which nativelike processing is possible in a nonnative language. Despite this increased interest in individual differences, whether commonly used psycholinguistic tasks can reliably measure individual differences between participants has not been systematically examined. As a preliminary examination of this issue in nonnative processing, we report a self-paced reading experiment on garden-path sentences in native and nonnative comprehension. At the group level we replicated previously observed findings in native and nonnative speakers. However, while we found that our self-paced reading experiment was a reliable way of assessing individual differences in overall reading speed and comprehension accuracy, it did not consistently measure individual differences in the size of garden-path effects in our sample (N = 64 native and 64 nonnative participants, and 24 experimental items). These results suggest that before individual differences in sentence processing can be meaningfully assessed, the question of whether commonly used tasks can consistently measure individual differences requires systematic examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older adults often experience difficulties comprehending speech in noisy backgrounds, which hearing loss does not fully explain. It remains unknown how cognitive abilities, brain networks, and age-related hearing loss may uniquely contribute to speech in noise comprehension at the sentence level. In 31 older adults, using cognitive measures and resting-state fMRI, we investigated the cognitive and neural predictors of speech comprehension with energetic (broadband noise) and informational masking (multi-speakers) effects. Better hearing thresholds and greater working memory abilities were associated with better speech comprehension with energetic masking. Conversely, faster processing speed and stronger functional connectivity between frontoparietal and language networks were associated with better speech comprehension with informational masking. Our findings highlight the importance of the frontoparietal network in older adults' ability to comprehend speech in multi-speaker backgrounds, and that hearing loss and working memory in older adults contributes to speech comprehension abilities related to energetic, but not informational masking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time speech comprehension is challenging because communicatively relevant information is distributed throughout the entire utterance. In five mouse tracking experiments on German and American English, we probe if listeners, in principle, use non-local, early intonational information to anticipate upcoming referents. Listeners had to select a speaker-intended referent with their mouse guided by intonational cues, allowing them to anticipate their decision by moving their hand toward the referent prior to lexical disambiguation. While German listeners (Exps. 1–3) seemed to ignore early pitch cues, American English listeners (Exps. 4–5) were in principle able to use these early pitch cues to anticipate upcoming referents. However, many listeners showed no indication of doing so. These results suggest that there are important positional asymmetries in the way intonational information is integrated, with early information being paid less attention to than later cues in the utterance. Open data, scripts, and materials can be retrieved here: . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is considerable evidence that listeners’ understanding of a spoken sentence need not always follow from a full analysis of the words and syntax of the utterance. Rather, listeners may instead conduct a superficial analysis, sampling some words and using presumed plausibility to arrive at an understanding of the sentence meaning. Because this latter strategy occurs more often for sentences with complex syntax that place a heavier processing burden on the listener than sentences with simpler syntax, shallow processing may represent a resource conserving strategy reflected in reduced processing effort. This factor may be even more important for older adults who as a group are known to have more limited working memory resources. In the present experiment, 40 older adults (Mage = 75.5 years) and 20 younger adults (Mage = 20.7) were tested for comprehension of plausible and implausible sentences with a simpler subject-relative embedded clause structure or a more complex object-relative embedded clause structure. Dilation of the pupil of the eye was recorded as an index of processing effort. Results confirmed greater comprehension accuracy for plausible than implausible sentences, and for sentences with simpler than more complex syntax, with both effects amplified for the older adults. Analysis of peak pupil dilations for implausible sentences revealed a complex three-way interaction between age, syntactic complexity, and plausibility. Results are discussed in terms of models of sentence comprehension, and pupillometry as an index of intentional task engagement.

We examined whether the N400 Event-Related Potential (ERP) component would be modulated by dispositional affect during sentence processing. In this study, 33 participants read sentences manipulated by direct object type (congruent vs. incongruent) and object determiner type (definite vs. demonstrative). We were particularly interested in sentences of the form: (i) The connoisseur tasted thewineon the tour vs. (ii) The connoisseur tasted the #roof… We expected that processing incongruent direct objects (#roof) vs. congruent objects (wine) would elicit N400 effects. Previous ERP language experiments have shown that participants in (induced) positive and negative moods were differentially sensitive to semantic anomaly, resulting in different N400 effects. Presently, we ask whether individual dispositional affect scores (as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; PANAS) would modulate N400 effects as shown previously. Namely, previous results showed larger N400 effects associated with happy moods and attenuated amplitudes associated with sad moods. Results revealed significant N400 effects, driven by the #roof vs. the wine, where larger amplitude differences were found for individuals showing smaller negative affect (NA) scores, thus partially replicating previous findings. We discuss our results in terms of theories of local (lexical) inhibition, such that low NA promotes stronger lexico-semantic links in sentences. Finally, our results support accounts of language processing that include social and biological characteristics of individuals during real-time sentence comprehension.

Question-sensitive discourse particles (QDiPs) like German denn introduce non-at-issue meaning that intuitively reshapes the Force of the interrogative clause. QDiPs have interesting licensing conditions: While Q-operators do not license QDiPs across clause boundaries, embedded QDiPs can be licensed if the wh-element was moved from the clause containing the QDiP. We present the results of two rating and two self-paced reading studies, with the following main results. First, outright licensing violations cause strong effects. Second, for embedded DiPs, a mild increase is found in processing cost for successful long-distance licensing. Third, effects for violations of syntactic locality are surprisingly weak in offline and online measures. We discuss two potential ways to account for the last findings. On the one hand, we consider an explanation in terms of processing errors. On the other hand, we offer a characterization of pragmatic aspects of QDiP licensing via focus association that may contribute to non-syntactic/non-semantic QDiP licensing.

The present study aims to delineate the working mechanism of prediction in sentence comprehension, by disentangling the influence of the facilitated general memory retrieval from the coexistent influence of the predicted language-specific semantic and/or syntactic information for the first time. The results support that prediction might influence the downstream cognitive processing in two aspects: (1) the pre-activated information facilitates the retrieval of a matched input in memory and, (2) the pre-activated information interacts with higher-level semantic/syntactic processing. More importantly, the present findings suggest that these two types of influences seem to occur at different stages of sentence comprehension: the facilitated memory retrieval of the input modulates N400 amplitude and the latency of post-N400 late central-parietal positivity/P600, while the predicted semantic/syntactic information and/or their interactions modulate the amplitude of the late positivity. The present findings would be helpful for interpreting the underlying mechanism of observed effects in prediction studies.

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a degenerative disease affecting language while leaving other cognitive facilities relatively unscathed. The agrammatic subtype of PPA (PPA-G) is characterized by agrammatic language production with impaired comprehension of noncanonical filler-gap syntactic structures, such as object-relatives [e.g., The sandwich that the girl ate (gap) was tasty], in which the filler (the sandwich) is displaced from the object position within the relative clause to a position preceding both the verb and the agent (the girl) and is replaced by a gap linked with the filler. One hypothesis suggests that the observed deficits of these structures reflect impaired thematic integration, including impaired prediction of the thematic role of the filler and impaired thematic integration at the gap, but spared structure building (i.e., creation of the gap). In the current study, we examined the on-line comprehension of object-relative and subject-relative clauses in healthy controls and individuals with agrammatic and logopenic PPA using eye-tracking. Eye-movement patterns in canonical subject-relative clause structures were essentially spared in both PPA groups. In contrast, eye-movement patterns in noncanonical object-relative clauses revealed delayed thematic prediction in both agrammatic and logopenic PPA, on-time structure building (i.e., gap-filling) in both groups, and abnormal thematic integration in agrammatic, but not logopenic, PPA. We argue that these results are consistent with the hypothesis that agrammatic comprehension deficits reflect impaired thematic integration.

We examined whether the N400 Event-Related Potential (ERP) component would be modulated by dispositional affect during sentence processing. In this study, 33 participants read sentences manipulated by direct object type (congruent vs. incongruent) and object determiner type (definite vs. demonstrative). We were particularly interested in sentences of the form: (i) The connoisseur tasted the wine on the tour vs. (ii) The connoisseur tasted the # roof ... We expected that processing incongruent direct objects (# roof) vs. congruent objects (wine) would elicit N400 effects. Previous ERP language experiments have shown that participants in (induced) positive and negative moods were differentially sensitive to semantic anomaly, resulting in different N400 effects. Presently, we ask whether individual dispositional affect scores (as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; PANAS) would modulate N400 effects as shown previously. Namely, previous results showed larger N400 effects associated with happy moods and attenuated amplitudes associated with sad moods. Results revealed significant N400 effects, driven by the #roof vs. the wine , where larger amplitude differences were found for individuals showing smaller negative affect (NA) scores, thus partially replicating previous findings. We discuss our results in terms of theories of local (lexical) inhibition, such that low NA promotes stronger lexico-semantic links in sentences. Finally, our results support accounts of language processing that include social and biological characteristics of individuals during real-time sentence comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is considerable evidence that listeners' understanding of a spoken sentence need not always follow from a full analysis of the words and syntax of the utterance. Rather, listeners may instead conduct a superficial analysis, sampling some words and using presumed plausibility to arrive at an understanding of the sentence meaning. Because this latter strategy occurs more often for sentences with complex syntax that place a heavier processing burden on the listener than sentences with simpler syntax, shallow processing may represent a resource conserving strategy reflected in reduced processing effort. This factor may be even more important for older adults who as a group are known to have more limited working memory resources. In the present experiment, 40 older adults (M age = 75.5 years) and 20 younger adults (M age = 20.7) were tested for comprehension of plausible and implausible sentences with a simpler subject-relative embedded clause structure or a more complex object-relative embedded clause structure. Dilation of the pupil of the eye was recorded as an index of processing effort. Results confirmed greater comprehension accuracy for plausible than implausible sentences, and for sentences with simpler than more complex syntax, with both effects amplified for the older adults. Analysis of peak pupil dilations for implausible sentences revealed a complex three-way interaction between age, syntactic complexity, and plausibility. Results are discussed in terms of models of sentence comprehension, and pupillometry as an index of intentional task engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the roles of semantic and pragmatic processes in the interpretation of sentences in context? And how do we attain such interpretations when sentences are deemed indeterminate? Consider a sentence such as " Lisa began the book " which does not overtly express the activity that Lisa began doing with the book. Although it is believed that individuals compute a specified event to enrich the sentential representation – yielding, e.g., " began [reading] the book " – there is no evidence that a default event meaning is attained. Moreover, if indeterminate sentences are enriched, it is not clear where the information required to generate enriched interpretations come from. Experiment 1 showed that, in isolation, there is no default interpretation for indeterminate sentences. The experiment also showed that biasing contexts constrain event interpretations and improve plausibility judgments, suggesting that event representations for indeterminate sentences are generated by context. In Experiment 2, participants heard biasing discourse contexts and later falsely recognized foil sentences containing the biased events (" Lisa began reading the book ") at the same proportion and with the same confidence as the original indeterminate sentence (" Lisa began the book "). We suggest that indeterminate sentences trigger event-enriching inferences but only in sufficiently constraining contexts. We also suggest that indeterminate sentences create two memory traces, one for the proposition consistent with the denotational, compositional meaning, and another for the proposition that is enriched pragmatically over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Signos is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Signos is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present study aims to delineate the working mechanism of prediction in sentence comprehension, by disentangling the influence of the facilitated general memory retrieval from the coexistent influence of the predicted language-specific semantic and/or syntactic information for the first time. The results support that prediction might influence the downstream cognitive processing in two aspects: (1) the pre-activated information facilitates the retrieval of a matched input in memory and, (2) the pre-activated information interacts with higher-level semantic/syntactic processing. More importantly, the present findings suggest that these two types of influences seem to occur at different stages of sentence comprehension: the facilitated memory retrieval of the input modulates N400 amplitude and the latency of post-N400 late central-parietal positivity/P600, while the predicted semantic/syntactic information and/or their interactions modulate the amplitude of the late positivity. The present findings would be helpful for interpreting the underlying mechanism of observed effects in prediction studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is commonly agreed upon that language comprehenders preactivate information at multiple levels, there is less consensus regarding what and when information is predicted, under which circumstances, and via which mechanism(s). Regarding when, Ito, Corley, Pickering, Martin, & Nieuwland (2016) concluded that during sentence processing, word form—unlike semantic—preactivation crucially relies on the time available to generate late‐stage predictions via language production mechanisms, setting this limit between 500 and 700 ms/word. The current event‐related brain potential (ERP) study tests this proposal at a substantially faster serial visual presentation (SVP) rate of four words/s, on par with normal reading. We utilize the experimental design and replicate the general ERP findings of the two words/s SVP study of DeLong, Chan, & Kutas (2019), with results showing similar N400 reductions to unpredictable sentence continuations whether semantically or orthographically related to contextually predictable words, as well as an increased late posterior positivity to orthographic neighbors. These findings indicate that processing of written word information can be rapidly facilitated through context‐based expectancies, establishing that if there is a time constraint for word form preactivation, it must be far less than limits specified by the prediction‐by‐production comprehension model championed by Ito et al. With generally little testing to date of predictive language comprehension at reading rates beyond two words/s, word form preactivation is demonstrated here in sentences presented twice as fast. Lexical forms are shown to be rapidly facilitated through context‐based expectancies, refuting some prediction‐by‐production claims that their preactivation requires slowed input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sentences in texts are far more complex and diverse than those that children commonly encounter in oral language. This raises interesting questions as to whether the understanding of some sentence types might be more important than others in children's reading comprehension. Accordingly, we examined the relation between children's reading comprehension and their understanding of two types of sentences: one we label as basic sentences, which are common in both oral and written language, and the other we label as difficult sentences, which are more restricted to written language. One hundred and four English-speaking students (mean age = 10.8 years) completed an experimental measure of oral sentence comprehension capturing these two sentence types, a standardized measure of reading comprehension, as well as control measures for word reading, phonological awareness, vocabulary and working memory. After accounting for the variance explained by the control measures, hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that comprehension of basic sentences, but not of difficult sentences, was significantly related to children's reading comprehension. These results demonstrate that, at least in the 5th grade, English-speaking children use their understanding of those sentences for which they have gained a strong foundation through oral language (i.e. basic sentences) to springboard into reading for understanding. Educational Impact and Implications Statement: Interventions for reading comprehension tend to focus on building vocabulary skills in particular or oral language as a whole. Our findings also highlight a crucial role for oral sentence comprehension as an underlying skill supporting reading for understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a degenerative disease affecting language while leaving other cognitive facilities relatively unscathed. The agrammatic subtype of PPA (PPA-G) is characterized by agrammatic language production with impaired comprehension of noncanonical filler-gap syntactic structures, such as object-relatives [e.g., The sandwich that the girl ate (gap) was tasty ], in which the filler (the sandwich) is displaced from the object position within the relative clause to a position preceding both the verb and the agent (the girl) and is replaced by a gap linked with the filler. One hypothesis suggests that the observed deficits of these structures reflect impaired thematic integration, including impaired prediction of the thematic role of the filler and impaired thematic integration at the gap, but spared structure building (i.e., creation of the gap). In the current study, we examined the on-line comprehension of object-relative and subject-relative clauses in healthy controls and individuals with agrammatic and logopenic PPA using eye-tracking. Eye-movement patterns in canonical subject-relative clause structures were essentially spared in both PPA groups. In contrast, eye-movement patterns in noncanonical object-relative clauses revealed delayed thematic prediction in both agrammatic and logopenic PPA, on-time structure building (i.e., gap-filling) in both groups, and abnormal thematic integration in agrammatic, but not logopenic, PPA. We argue that these results are consistent with the hypothesis that agrammatic comprehension deficits reflect impaired thematic integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the question of whether the human parsing mechanism (HPM) derives sentence meaning always from representations that are computed algorithmically or whether the HPM sometimes resorts to non-algorithmic strategies that may result in misinterpretations. Misinterpretation effects for noncanonical sentences, such as passives, constitute important evidence in favour of models allowing for nonveridical representations. However, it is unclear whether these effects reflect errors in the mapping of form to meaning, or difficulties specific to the procedure used to test comprehension. We report two experiments combining two different comprehension tasks to address these alternative possibilities. In Experiment 1, participants first judged the plausibility of canonical and noncanonical sentences and then named the agent or patient of the sentence. In Experiment 2, the order of the two tasks was reversed. Both tasks require the correct identification of agent or patient/theme, but differ regarding the complexity of operations required to complete the task successfully. In both experiments, participants made a substantial number of errors with agent/patient naming, even when they had correctly assessed sentence plausibility. We conclude that misinterpretation effects do not indicate parsing errors and therefore cannot serve as evidence for non-algorithmic processing. Our results support models of the HPM that assume algorithmic processing only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have reported subtle differences in cognition between individuals with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) compared to those with normal cognition. This study aimed to (i) identify these differences using discrepancy scores (e.g., categorial-phonemic verbal fluency performance) derived from neuropsychological tests in three cognitive domains (memory: Wechsler's Word List and Digits; executive functions: Stroop and verbal fluency; and language: BNT and ECCO_Senior) and (ii) determine which discrepancy scores are significant for classification. Seventy-five older adults were included: 32 who were labeled SCD+ (age 71.50 ± 5.29), meeting Jessen et al.'s criteria, and 43 in the normal cognition group (SCD-; age 69.81 ± 4.62). Both groups completed a protocol including screening and the specified neuropsychological tests. No differences were found between the groups in their age, education, episodic memory, global cognitive state, or mood. Significant differences between the groups were observed regarding the discrepancy scores derived from BNT (naming) and ECCO_Senior (sentence comprehension). These scores accurately classified participants (71.6%), with ECCO_Senior having a primary role. ROC curves indicated a poor-to-fair model quality or diagnostic accuracy (AUC_ BNT = 0.690; AUC_ ECCO = 0.722). In conclusion, discrepancy scores in the language domain are important for distinguishing between individuals with SCD and normal cognition, complementing previous findings in this domain. However, given their relatively poor diagnostic accuracy, they should be used with caution as part of a more detailed neuro-psychological assessment.

Introduction: This study examined whether visuospatial perspective uses the character perspective during narrative comprehension., Method: Participants read narrative stimuli depicting the spatial positional relationships between characters and objects and judged whether the objects were on the left or right from the character's perspective. We manipulated whether the spatial positional relationships between characters depicted in the narrative stimuli resulted in a visuospatial perspective. We hypothesized that the high-load perspective-taking condition would indicate longer reaction times compared to the low-load perspective-taking condition, as shifting perspectives between characters in the high-load condition require more time for visuospatial perspective-taking., Results: As predicted, the reaction time was longer for high-load perspective-taking than for low-load perspective-taking., Discussion: During narrative comprehension, the reaction time for visuospatial perspective-taking must move virtually within the representation from the main character's perspective to that of another character. Visuospatial perspective-taking is involved in narrative comprehension., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Hosokawa and Kitagami.)

This study examines the effect of foreign-accented speech on the predictive ability of our brain. Listeners actively anticipate upcoming linguistic information in the speech signal so as to facilitate and reduce processing load. However, it is unclear whether or not listeners also do this when they are exposed to speech from non-native speakers. In the present study, we exposed native Dutch listeners to sentences produced by native and non-native speakers while measuring their brain activity using electroencephalography. We found that listeners’ brain activity differed depending on whether they listened to native or non-native speech. However, participants’ overall performance as measured by word recall rate was unaffected. We discussed the results in relation to previous findings as well as the automaticity of anticipation.

To explore the issue of how the human brain processes sentences with different levels of complexity, we sought to compare the neural substrates underlying the processing of Chinese subject-extracted relative clause (SRC) and object-extracted relative clause (ORC) sentences in a trial-by-trial fashion. Previous neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that the involvement of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and the left superior temporal gyrus (LSTG) is critical for the processing of relative clause (RC) sentences. In this study, we employed independent component analysis (ICA) to decompose brain activity into a set of independent components. Then, the independent component maps were spatially normalized using a surface-based approach in order to further spatially correlate and match the equivalent components from individual participants. The selected equivalent components indicated that the LIFG and the LSTG were consistently engaged in sentence processing among the participants. Subsequently, we observed alterations in the functional coupling between the LIFG and the LSTG in response to SRCs and ORCs using a Granger causality analysis. Specifically, comprehending Chinese ORCs with a canonical word order only involved a unidirectional connection from the LIFG to the LSTG for the integration of lexical-syntactic information. On the other hand, comprehending Chinese SRCs required bi-directional connectivity between the LIFG and the LSTG to fulfill increased integration demands in reconstructing the argument hierarchy due to a non-canonical word order. Furthermore, through a single-trial analysis, the strength of the connectivity from the LIFG to the LSTG was found to be significantly correlated with the complexity of the SRC sentences as quantified by eye-tracking measures. These findings indicated that the effective connectivity from the LIFG to the LSTG played an important role in the comprehension of complex sentences and that enhanced strength of this connectivity might reflect increased integration demands and restructuring attempts during sentence processing. Taken together, the results of the present study reveal that interregional interaction in the brain network for sentence processing can be dynamically engaged in response to different levels of complexity and also shed some light on the interpretation of neuroimaging and behavioral evidence when accounting for the nature of sentence complexity during reading.

Syntactic priming is known to facilitate comprehension of the target sentence if the syntactic structure of the target sentence aligns with the structure of the prime (Branigan et al., 2005; Tooley and Traxler, 2010). Such a processing facilitation is understood to be constrained due to factors such as lexical overlap between the prime and the target, frequency of the prime structure, etc. Syntactic priming in SOV languages is also understood to be influenced by similar constraints (Arai, 2012). Sentence comprehension in SOV languages is known to be incremental and predictive. Such a top-down parsing process involves establishing various syntactic relations based on the linguistic cues of a sentence and the role of preverbal case-markers in achieving this is known to be critical. Given the evidence of syntactic priming during comprehension in these languages, this aspect of the comprehension process and its effect on syntactic priming becomes important. In this work, we show that syntactic priming during comprehension is affected by the probability of using the prime structure while parsing the target sentence. If the prime structure has a low probability given the sentential cues (e.g., nominal case-markers) in the target sentence, then the chances of persisting with the prime structure in the target reduces. Our work demonstrates the role of structural complexity of the target with regard to syntactic priming during comprehension and highlights that syntactic priming is modulated by an overarching preference of the parser to avoid rare structures.

The controversy over procedural modularity has subsided significantly with the crisis of generative grammar and the emergence and rapid rise of holistic cognitive linguistics. However, the current findings in the field of sentence perception (the so-called German paradigm), which are mainly provided for the German language, throw a new light on this question. The paper deals with the temporal dimension of sentence comprehension with special attention paid to the underdetermination of the concept of procedural module as well as to the premature interpretation of some experimental findings as evidence against/for the thesis of procedural modularity.

Abstract Farsi Background and Objective: The purpose of the present study is to investigate the phonological processing and sentence comprehension in children with CIs and compare them with normal hearing (NH) children. It is also an attempt to study the relation between phonological processing and sentence comprehension in children with CIs. Method: Twenty children with CIs and twenty NH children between the ages 4 to 6 years were evaluated with the Non-Word Repetition (NWR) task ; Persian Syntax Comprehension Test (PSCT); Persian version of Test of Language Development, Primary, 3rd (TOLD-P: 3); nonverbal part of the Wechsler Pre-school and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) test; and Vineland adaptive-behavior scale. Results: These results implied that children with CIs may experience difficulties in phonological processing and sentence comprehension. In children with CIs, with increasing their experience in processing of sound, sentence comprehension skills improved. Conclusion: The findings of the present study demonstrated that there is a relationship between the NWR and sentence comprehension. Therefore, paying more attention to the intervention of phonological processing may help children with CIs in sentence comprehension.

Any proposal for predictive language comprehension must address receipt of less expected information. While a relationship between the N400 and sentence predictability is well established, a clear picture is still emerging of the link between post-N400 positivities (PNPs) and processing of semantically unexpected words, as well as any relation to other not-specifically-linguistic and/or syntactic late positivities. The current study employs event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to congruent and anomalous words to assess the impacts of semantic relatedness and contextual plausibility on processing unpredictable sentences. We observe PNPs with different scalp topographies to plausible unexpected words unrelated to predictable continuations (anterior PNP) and to anomalous words, regardless of, but delayed by, relatedness (posterior PNP). We offer functional explanations that reconcile inconsistencies with reported PNP findings and place added constraints on the anterior PNP's proposed link to inhibitory processing. We also suggest a testable general cognitive account for the posterior PNP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Slavistična Revija is the property of Slavisticno Drustvo Slovenije and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

One of the most compelling pieces of evidence for the presence of predictions in language comprehension comes from event-related potential (ERP) studies which show that encountering an adjective whose gender marking is inconsistent with that of a highly expectable noun leads to an effect at the adjective. Until now the mechanism underlying this effect has been unknown. The present study tests a novel hypothesis whereby the effect at adjectives reflects prediction updating, which in turn impacts the N400 generated by the upcoming noun. In 2 experiments, native speakers of Polish read short stories that made several nouns likely at the position of a direct object in the story's final sentence. The noun was preceded by a gender-marked adjective which was shown in either of the 2 grammatical forms: (a) informative about the following noun (adjectival gender marking constrained which nouns can follow), or (b) less informative (the grammatical marking did not disambiguate the gender of the following noun). Importantly, the same stories and critical words were used in both conditions, which was possible thanks to exploiting syncretisms in Polish adjectival inflection. The results provide support for 1 or more mechanisms of prediction updating at the adjective that impact the amplitude of the N400 elicited by the following noun. Together, these results show that when only morphosyntactic cues are available, they are instantly used to update predictions about upcoming words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effect of foreign-accented speech on the predictive ability of our brain. Listeners actively anticipate upcoming linguistic information in the speech signal so as to facilitate and reduce processing load. However, it is unclear whether or not listeners also do this when they are exposed to speech from non-native speakers. In the present study, we exposed native Dutch listeners to sentences produced by native and non-native speakers while measuring their brain activity using electroencephalography. We found that listeners' brain activity differed depending on whether they listened to native or non-native speech. However, participants' overall performance as measured by word recall rate was unaffected. We discussed the results in relation to previous findings as well as the automaticity of anticipation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with aphasia (PWA) have been shown to encounter difficulties in processing sentences with non-canonical (i.e., derived) word order. Although previous research points to similar impairment patterns in non-canonical structures in aphasia across many languages, there is only little agreement among authors why PWA experience these impairments. This study aims to unveil whether and how far fluent and non-fluent PWA speaking Turkish, a flexible word order language, are impaired in comprehending different conditions of word order alignments in declarative sentences. Using a picture-matching paradigm, we examined two groups of Turkish speakers with aphasia: fluent PWA (n = 7) and non-fluent PWA (n = 10), and a matched reference group of non-brain-damaged controls (NBDs, n = 16). Participants listened to simple declarative sentences in four conditions: Subject – Object – Verb (SOV), SVO, OVS, and OSV. They were asked to point to the corresponding visual display that best depicts the sentence. Data were analysed with generalized linear mixed-effects regression models in R. Our findings have shown that the PWA performed less well than the NBDs overall, and that while the fluent PWA showed no condition differences at all, the non-fluent PWA performed worse in object-first (OVS/OSV) sentences than subject-first sentences (SOV/SVO), and no further condition differences were found. We discuss that the data presented in this study support the theories that (i) predict derived structures to be affected in aphasia and that (ii) hold lexically restricted sentence material between moved objects and their base-generated positions to pose challenges in aphasic sentence comprehension. We also suggest that high structural frequency of subject-first sentences might have worked in favour of the PWA, rendering the comprehension of these structures easier to process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In individuals with Down syndrome (DS) deficits in verbal short-term memory (VSTM) and deficits in sentence comprehension co-occur, suggesting that deficits in VSTM might be causal for the deficits in sentence comprehension. The present study aims to explore the presumed relationship between VSTM and sentence comprehension in individuals with DS by specifically targeting the influence of task demands. The authors assessed VSTM skills in 18 German-speaking children/adolescents with DS by a nonword repetition (NWR) test and elicited data from three different tasks on the comprehension of complex sentence structures: two sentence-picture-matching tasks (TROG-D and a passive test) and one picture-pointing task on object wh -questions. Whereas performance in NWR yielded a significant degree of prediction for scores obtained in the TROG-D and in passive comprehension, no significant degree of prediction was found for NWR and object wh -question comprehension. Moreover, implicational scaling analyses indicated that mental-age adequate performance in sentence comprehension did not imply adequate performance in NWR. Research is needed that specifies the relation between memory systems and sentence comprehension while considering the influence of task demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the last four decades, individuals with aphasia have been observed to face difficulties in understanding complex sentences despite having good understanding of single words. The difficulties observed have been proposed to follow a pattern predicted by the theory of grammar, making the deficit a special case of an underspecified language competence. The purpose of this study is to examine sentence types – reversible actives and passives and argument complexity among Malay speakers with aphasia, looking at sources of difficulties with non-canonical sentences in a language with free word order. A group of five non-brain-damaged (NBD) adults and five adults with aphasia matched with age, education, and language were recruited. Subjects were tested in their sentence comprehension abilities via two picture matching tasks: a reversibility active/passive and an argument complexity task based on the number of arguments. Generally, the control adults had better sentence comprehension than the group of adults with aphasia, with significant differences in the mean scores of both active and passive reversible sentences. The analysis of the argument complexity task showed that the comprehension level in adults with aphasia was preserved although lower compared to their normal counterparts. Finally, an error analysis of the responses showed that individuals with aphasia had different sources of difficulties: with thematic roles in passive sentences based on syntactic similarities and with active sentences based on semantic similarities. Individuals with aphasia, speakers of a free word order language demonstrated lower understanding of both reversible active and passive sentences with no apparent signs of canonicity patterns. A more detailed error analysis disentangled the source of difficulties with reversible errors for passives based on grammatical order and semantic-based errors for agent-driven sentences based on semantic preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an embodied account of language comprehension, this study investigated the dynamic characteristics of children and adults' perceptual simulations during sentence comprehension, using a novel paradigm to assess the perceptual simulation of objects moving up and down a vertical axis. The participants comprised adults (N = 40) and 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children (N = 116). After listening in experimental trials to sentences implying that objects moved upward or downward, the participants were shown pictures and had to decide as quickly as possible whether the objects depicted had been mentioned in the sentences. The target pictures moved either up or down and then stopped in the middle of the screen. All age groups' reaction times were found to be shorter when the objects moved in the directions that the sentences implied. Age exerted no developmental effect on reaction times. The findings suggest that dynamic perceptual simulations are fundamental to language comprehension in text recipients aged 6 and older. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated whether Tagalog-speaking children incrementally interpret the first noun as the agent, even if verbal and nominal markers for assigning thematic roles are given early in Tagalog sentences. We asked five- and seven-year-old children and adult controls to select which of two pictures of reversible actions matched the sentence they heard, while their looks to the pictures were tracked. Accuracy and eye-tracking data showed that agent-initial sentences were easier to comprehend than patient-initial sentences, but the effect of word order was modulated by voice. Moreover, our eye-tracking data provided evidence that, by the first noun phrase, seven-year-old children looked more to the target in the agent-initial compared to the patient-initial conditions, but this word order advantage was no longer observed by the second noun phrase. The findings support language processing and acquisition models which emphasize the role of frequency in developing heuristic strategies (e.g., Chang, Dell, & Bock, 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Syntactic priming is known to facilitate comprehension of the target sentence if the syntactic structure of the target sentence aligns with the structure of the prime (Branigan et al., 2005; Tooley and Traxler, 2010). Such a processing facilitation is understood to be constrained due to factors such as lexical overlap between the prime and the target, frequency of the prime structure, etc. Syntactic priming in SOV languages is also understood to be influenced by similar constraints (Arai, 2012). Sentence comprehension in SOV languages is known to be incremental and predictive. Such a top-down parsing process involves establishing various syntactic relations based on the linguistic cues of a sentence and the role of preverbal case-markers in achieving this is known to be critical. Given the evidence of syntactic priming during comprehension in these languages, this aspect of the comprehension process and its effect on syntactic priming becomes important. In this work, we show that syntactic priming during comprehension is affected by the probability of using the prime structure while parsing the target sentence. If the prime structure has a low probability given the sentential cues (e.g., nominal case-markers) in the target sentence, then the chances of persisting with the prime structure in the target reduces. Our work demonstrates the role of structural complexity of the target with regard to syntactic priming during comprehension and highlights that syntactic priming is modulated by an overarching preference of the parser to avoid rare structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined the influence of contexts' emotional arousal on prediction and integration of words during sentence comprehension. In sentence context, we manipulated the emotional arousal of verbs and the predictability of their following neutral nouns. At the anticipatory stage of the upcoming nouns, a larger sustained negativity was elicited in the highly constraining than the weakly constraining sentences for the neutral verbs but not for the emotional verbs. The results reflect reduced processing loads in response to the pre-activation of the highly predictable nouns when the emotional verbs automatically captured sufficient attentional resources. At the integration stage of the nouns, we found reduced N400 and LPC amplitudes for the highly versus weakly predictable nouns in both the emotionally arousing and non-arousing conditions. The findings suggest that the emotional arousal of context interacts with the prediction of upcoming words, but not the integration of the bottom-up inputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Perceptual span refers to the field of effective vision during reading comprehension. It is determined by many factors, including reading proficiency. No studies have investigated the perceptual span in people with reading comprehension impairments due to aphasia. Aims: The present study examined whether perceptual span is smaller in individuals with aphasia than controls. Methods and Procedures: The task was a gaze-contingent moving windows paradigm during silent reading using an eye tracker. Data from 11 individuals with aphasia and 15 neurotypical controls were analyzed. Outcomes and Results: Perceptual span in individuals with aphasia was the fixated word plus one word to the right of fixation, whereas perceptual span in controls was the fixated word plus two words to the right of fixation. Conclusion: Individuals with aphasia have a smaller perceptual span than controls, which likely reflects increased effort during reading comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study tested the likely effect of sensory involvement on the FN400 and late positive complex (LPC) responses to semantic and pragmatic comprehension of English sentences. Fifteen English language learners took part in the event-related potential (ERP) experiment and determined the acceptability of 432 sentences under congruent, semantically incongruent, and pragmatically incongruent conditions. Prior to the ERP recording, the subjects received different sensory instructions for six vocabulary items about which they had no previous knowledge. No sensory instruction was given for three extra words, and these served as the control group. The behavioral data corroborated that integration of more senses in instruction improved learners’ pragmatic comprehension. The ERP data revealed that full sensory involvement (involvement) reduced the FN400 amplitude, facilitating real world knowledge retrieval and pragmatic comprehension. The LPC responses to semantic comprehension showed that learners reanalyzed the sentences instructed through limited sensory involvement (exvolvement) more deeply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on sentence comprehension have centered on understanding the intersection between language and cognition. The aim of the current study was to examine the association between complex sentence comprehension and working memory (WM) in Malay adults. We predicted that WM storage (as indexed by performance on a WM listening span task) would be invoked during the processing of complex Malay sentences (object relatives), but not simple sentences (subject-verb-object). Sixty adults participated in the study; 30 Malay- and 30 English native speakers. The experimental tasks were developed in both Malay and English versions for both groups respectively. Participants completed (i) two sets of sentence comprehension tasks (whereby comprehension was determined via selection of the agent of the sentence), and (ii) a conventional WM listening span task. Tasks were designed to be structurally similar in terms of length (within the language) and meaning (across both languages). Both groups performed significantly better on the comprehension of simple sentences as compared to complex sentences and obtained similar mean scores on the WM listening span task. For Malay comprehenders, WM storage did not significantly correlate with comprehension of simple sentences as well as complex sentences. The same correlation pattern was also revealed for the English comprehenders. Our predictions were partially borne out. Findings suggest that participants' comprehension of complex sentences did not invite WM storage, as it would seem that both Malay and English participants were still able to comprehend these complex sentences without having to tax their WM capacity. Although we anticipated a relation, the absence of such an association is not entirely unexpected. Potential explanations are discussed in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Colloquia Germanica Stetinensia is the property of University of Szczecin Press / Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecinskiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)