Integrating information

Question 1

Building a mental model

Answer 1

> During comprehension, we build a model from linguistic input
It includes world knowledge and inferences in addition to the bottom-up linguistic information
Affects personal interpretation of speech

Question 2

Mental/ Situation model:

Answer 2

Mental representation of the world (or situation)

Question 3

Experiments designed based on mental model principles:
Task: Sentence recognition

Answer 3

Results: Participants were poor at distinguishing C or A during the study phase. (The sentences had the same meaning, but slightly different wording)
> Slide 7

Question 4

Are negations included in a mental model?

Answer 4

A negates element in speech is responded to more slowly on a later memory probe than a non-negated element.

Negated elements may be in the linguistic input, but not in the mental model/

Question 5

How do fictional situations affect the mental model?

Answer 5

People show a greater reaction to an unexpected word.

In a fictional scenario, where a peanut is humanized, people changed their mental model to match the current discourse, where they were more surprised to hear “the peanut was salted” than “the peanut was in love”. (Slide 9)

Expectations influence a brain’s reaction to stimuli.

Question 6

Section wrap-up/ summary slides:

Answer 6

Slide 10, slide 19, slide 27, slide 34, slide 39, slide 45, slide 46

Question 7

How quickly does our world knowledge make contact with language comprehension?

Answer 7

Real-world knowledge is integrated at the same time as lexical semantic knowledge.

Question 8

Bridging inferences

Answer 8

Inferences in sentences made by comprehenders, such as when an antecedent in not mentioned in the first sentence but makes enough logical sense to appear in the other.

Question 9

Instances and Categories

Answer 9

More specific nouns&raquo_space; faster reading time

Including the specific noun first&raquo_space; faster processing time

Verb associated with the specific noun&raquo_space; difference is mitigated

Question 10

Referring expressions

Answer 10

The same entity can be described in different ways.
There are many ways we can refer to one entity, many ‘names’.

Question 11

Co-reference

Answer 11

If a new referring expression can be linked to a previously introduced referent, then co-reference can be established.

Question 12

Binding theory

Answer 12

3 principles, A, B, + C

Principle A: reflexives must be bound within their local domain

Principle B: Pronouns must be free within their local domain

Question 13

Slides 25, 26

Answer 13

Principle A:
One hypothesis: The binding theory serves as an initial filter on co-reference.

Alternative hypothesis: Memory retrieval processes are limited to syntactically accessible antecedents

Principle B:
Earlier results suggested a penalty for multiple matches
in gender (Badecker & Straub, 2002).

Subsequent studies have found that syntactically inaccessible antecedents do not cause processing interference (Chow, Lewis, & Phillips, 2014).

Question 14

Functional and linear position

Answer 14

The processing of pronouns is facilitated when the antecedent is in subject position

Pronouns with ambiguous reference tend to be understood to refer to subjects

Pronouns like to refer back to subject.

Question 15

Focus

Answer 15

Refers to the part of an utterance that contains new or contrastive information
» Can provide an answer to the current question under discussion
In English, focus is marked via a pitch accent
Many alternative ways to communicate focus (like cleft constructions)

Question 16

Question under discussion

Answer 16

Question that the discourse is currently trying to answer.

Question 17

Topic

Answer 17

What the sentence is about.

Typically presupposed information. Topics are often grammatical subjects in English.

Question 18

Repeated name penalty.

Answer 18

Repeating a name that already appeared in subject/ topic position is costly compared to using a pronoun.

Pronouns are a natural way to refer to topics, repeated names are not.

Question 19

Focus and Topic

Answer 19

Slide 33

Question 20

New information:

Answer 20

Information that is being introduced into a discourse for the first time.

Question 21

Given information:

Answer 21

Information that is already established and is a part of the background of the discourse.

Question 22

Prosodic Prominence

Answer 22

Given information is likely to be de-accented.

It can be accented if it is important to the discourse.

Emphasis in a sentence (see slide 37/ 38 for examples)

Question 23

Discourse and Pronoun relation

Answer 23

Pronoun reference is influenced by discourse relationships

Parallel and result relationships- difference influences how we interpret pronouns.