Syntactic priming in spoken production: Linguistic and temporal interference (original) (raw)
Related papers
Syntactic priming persists while the lexical boost decays: Evidence from written and spoken dialogue
Journal of Memory and Language, 2008
Four experiments in written and spoken dialogue tested the predictions of two distinct accounts of syntactic encoding in sentence production: a lexicalist, residual activation account and an implicit-learning account. Experiments 1 and 2 showed syntactic priming (i.e., the tendency to reuse the syntactic structure of a prime sentence in the production of a target sentence) and a lexical boost of syntactic priming (i.e., an enhanced priming effect when the verb in prime and target was the same). Experiments 3 and 4 varied the number of filler sentences between prime and target (lag) and showed that lexical enhancement of priming is short-lived, whereas the priming effect is much more long-lived. These results did not depend on whether the modality of prime and target was written or spoken. The persistence of priming supports the view that syntactic priming is a form of implicit learning. However, only a multi-factorial account, in which lexically-based, short-term mechanisms operate in tandem with abstract, longer-term learning mechanisms can explain the full pattern of results.
Syntactic priming in written production: Evidence for rapid decay
1999
There is strong evidence for syntactic priming in language production , but little evidence about the time course of such effects. We report an experiment that examined the circumstances under which syntactic priming decays in written language production. Participants completed sentence fragments that allowed completions with one of two syntactic forms . They tended to produce the same syntactic form for immediately consecutive fragments, even though the two fragments described different events. However, when the experimental fragments were separated by other fragments with unrelated syntactic forms, this tendency rapidly diminished. The results suggest that priming effects in written production decay rapidly when other structures are subsequently produced. We discuss the implications for the application of syntactic information during production.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2002
To date, syntactic priming in sentence production has been investigated categorically, in terms of the probabilities of re-using particular syntactic structures. In this paper, we report a web-based replication of , Experiment 1, using a typed sentence completion paradigm which made it possible to record not only the responses made, but also the response onset latency for each sentence completion. In conditions where priming occurred (as determined categorically), responses took less time where target completions were of the same type as preceding prime completions than where they differed. As well as validating internet-based research by direct comparison with laboratory-based work, our findings strengthen the support for an architectural account of syntactic priming as envisaged by Pickering and Branigan (1998).
Syntactic priming in spoken sentence production – an online study
Cognition, 2001
Six experiments investigate syntactic priming online via a picture description task in which participants produce target sentences whose initial phrase is syntactically similar or dissimilar to that of the prime sentence produced on the previous trial. In the ®rst experiment it is shown that a syntactically related prime sentence speeds onset latencies to a subsequent target sentence by approximately 50 ms relative to a syntactically unrelated prime sentence. In the second experiment, the cost of the process of lemma access is factored out via a picture previewing technique but a priming effect is still obtained demonstrating that the effect is not a product of the priming of lemma access processes. In Experiment 3, the related and unrelated prime trials feature the same picture display but the 50 ms facilitation effect is still observed indicating that the effect does not result from the priming of visual perception of the picture movements. This is further strengthened in Experiment 4 which uses written prime sentences rather than a picture description task on the prime trial and still obtains a facilitation effect. In Experiment 5, the effect disappears when the participants are instructed to name the movements but not the objects depicted in the array and this is interpreted as evidence against the view that the effect results from the conceptualization of the events depicted by the array. In the ®nal experiment, the scope of the syntactic persistence effect is investigated by priming sentences with initial phrases of varying syntactic complexity. Signi®cant priming is only observed for an initial phrase featuring two nouns ± a ®nding consistent with the view that the syntactic persistence effect applies only to the generation of the ®rst phrase of an utterance prior to speech onset. The implications of these results are analyzed in the ®nal discussion section.
Sentence production requires mapping preverbal messages onto linguistic structures. Because sentences are normally built incrementally, the information encoded in a sentence-initial increment is critical for explaining how the mapping process starts and for predicting its timecourse. Two experiments tested whether and when speakers prioritize encoding of different types of information at the outset of formulation by comparing production of descriptions of transitive events (e.g., A dog is chasing the mailman) that differed on two dimensions: the ease of naming individual characters and the ease of apprehending the event gist (i.e., encoding the relational structure of the event). To additionally manipulate ease of encoding, speakers described the target events after receiving lexical primes (facilitating naming; Experiment 1) or structural primes (facilitating generation of a linguistic structure; Experiment 2). Both properties of the pictured events and both types of primes influenced the form of target descriptions and the timecourse of formulation: character-specific variables increased the probability of speakers encoding one character with priority at the outset of formulation, while the ease of encoding event gist and of generating a syntactic structure increased the likelihood of early encoding of information about both characters. The results show that formulation is flexible and highlight some of the conditions under which speakers might employ different planning strategies.
Syntactic priming in language production
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1999
People have a tendency to repeat the types of sentences they use during language production. Recent experimental work has shown that this phenomenon is at least partly due to 'syntactic priming', whereby the act of processing an utterance with a particular form facilitates processing a subsequent utterance with the same or a related form. In this review, we first provide an overview of the evidence for syntactic priming.
Phrase structure priming: A short lived effect
Language and Cognitive Processes, 2003
Two experiments investigate the effect of phrase structure priming on sentence production latencies. Repetition priming of sentence initial noun phrase structure has been demonstrated in an on-line picture description task. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate this priming effect to be short lived. No priming survives the addition of one intervening unrelated trial. This finding contrasts with the more persistent effects recently demonstrated in off-line picture description tasks. This contrast is attributed to different loci for the two effects.
Give and take: Syntactic priming during spoken language comprehension
2008
Syntactic priming during language production is pervasive and well-studied. Hearing, reading, speaking or writing a sentence with a given structure increases the probability of subsequently producing the same structure, regardless of whether the prime and target share lexical content. In contrast, syntactic priming during comprehension has proven more elusive, fueling claims that comprehension is less dependent on general syntactic representations and more dependent on lexical knowledge. In three experiments we explored syntactic priming during spoken language comprehension. Participants acted out double-object (DO) or prepositional-object (PO) dative sentences while their eye movements were recorded. Prime sentences used different verbs and nouns than the target sentences. In target sentences, the onset of the direct-object noun was consistent with both an animate recipient and an inanimate theme, creating a temporary ambiguity in the argument structure of the verb (DO e.g., Show the horse the book; PO e.g., Show the horn to the dog). We measured the difference in looks to the potential recipient and the potential theme during the ambiguous interval. In all experiments, participants who heard DO primes showed a greater preference for the recipient over the theme than those who heard PO primes, demonstrating across-verb priming during online language comprehension. These results accord with priming found in production studies, indicating a role for abstract structural information during comprehension as well as production.
Syntactic priming during sentence comprehension: Evidence for the lexical boost
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2014
Syntactic priming occurs when structural information from one sentence influences processing of a subsequently encountered sentence (Bock, 1986; Ledoux et al., 2007). This article reports two eye-tracking experiments investigating the effects of a prime sentence on the processing of a target sentence that shared aspects of syntactic form. The experiments were designed to determine the degree to which lexical overlap between prime and target sentences produced larger effects, comparable to the widely observed 'lexical boost' in production experiments (Pickering & Branigan, 1998; Pickering & Ferreira, 2008). The current experiments showed that priming effects during on-line comprehension were in fact larger when a verb was repeated across the prime and target sentences (see also Tooley et al., 2009). The finding of larger priming effects with lexical repetition supports accounts under which syntactic form representations are connected to individual lexical items (e.g.
Self-priming in production: evidence for a hybrid model of syntactic priming
2018
Syntactic priming in language production is the increased likelihood of using a recently encountered syntactic structure. In this paper, we examine two theories of why speakers can be primed: error-driven learning accounts (Bock, Dell, Chang, & Onishi, 2007; Chang, Dell, & Bock, 2006) and activation-based accounts (Reitter et al., 2011; Pickering & Branigan, 1998). Both theories predict that speakers should be primed by the syntactic choices of others, but only activation-based accounts predict that speakers should be able to prime themselves. Here we test whether speakers can be primed by their own productions in three behavioral experiments and find evidence of structural persistence following both comprehension and speakers’ own productions. We also find that comprehension-based priming effects are larger for rarer syntactic structures than for more common ones, which is most consistent with error-driven accounts. Because neither error-driven accounts nor activation-based account...