Sentence Comprehension 1, 2, 3 Flashcards by Ariel Godel

The naive idea of language learning is the idea that learning ____ = learning a language

translations for words

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The reporter [who attacked the senator] admitted the error is an example of a _____ extracted relative clause

subject

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The reporter [who the senator attacked] admitted the error is an example of an _____ extracted relative clause

object

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Aspects of sentence processing includes accessing ______, assembling _______ and linking NPs with ______

lexical properties of each word
constituent structures
participant roles

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Constituent structures are assembled based on their _____ category, words must be grouped in a hierarchy of phrases and clauses.

grammatical

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Constituent structures are assembled based on their _____ category, words must be grouped in a hierarchy of phrases and clauses.

grammatical

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NPs are linked with participant roles based on ______ cues and the inherent ______of the verbs. (determine actor/ undergoer)

syntactic
argument structure (ex. transitive)

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T or F: Cognitive resources play a role in sentence processing

True

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The two cognitive resources are ________ and _______

short term/ working memory and cognitive control

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Describe the role of short term/ working memory

keeps linguistic material in an activated state until the whole utterance has been understood.

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Describe the role of cognitive control

Conscious reflection on the structure of the utterance to make sure it is understood correctly.

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Cognitive resources are needed more for _____ extracted relative clauses than for _____extracted relative clauses

Object (OR)

Subject (SR)

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Cognitive resources are needed more for _____ extracted relative clauses than for _____extracted relative clauses

Object (OR)

Subject (SR)

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T or F: Dronkers et al’s lesion study evaluated 72 stroke patients with different lesions in order to find the anatomical substrate of sentence processing

True

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Describe voxel-based lesion symptom mapping in Dronkers et al’s study:

At every voxel that had at least 8 patients with lesions and 8 without t-tests were compared. If significant voxels determined the brain region.

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List the five regions identified as critical for sentence processsing:

1) Posterior MTG
2) anterior STG/ ant BA22
3) Posterior STS and BA39
4) BA46
5) BA47

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List the five regions identified as critical for sentence processsing:

1) Posterior MTG
2) anterior STG/ ant BA22
3) Posterior STS and BA39
4) BA46
5) BA47

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The pMTG-damaged group had significantly worse scores than others on the single word comprehension task. How can we interpret this finding?

The pMG is likely necessary for accessing the stored semantic and syntactic properties of words

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What are the two measures of connectivity in Turken and Dronkers connectivity study.

Diffuser tensor imaging (DTI)

resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI)

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________ is a structural imaging technique that reveals the structure of white matter tracts.

Diffuser tensor imaging

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_______ is a functional imaging technique that reveals correlation of activity b/w brain areas when the subject is not performing any task.

resting-state functional MRI

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T or F: The connectivity seen from the structural and functional imaging was the same.

False -almost the same but Broca’s area in functional study only

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T or F: The connectivity seen from the structural and functional imaging was the same.

False -almost the same but Broca’s area in functional study only

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The meta-analysis of 36 PET and fMRI studies involved many sentence tasks and showed results similar to Dronkers with the difference of_____.

Broca’s and posterior middle frontal-precentral gyrus

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Describe the study of constituent structures:

What brain areas are Broca's area?

BAs44 and 45

What brain areas are Broca's area?

BAs44 and 45

Describe the constituent structure experiment findings:

As the # of constituent structures increased the activation of the BOLD response increased.

___ are five neural network regions comprising of the left hemisphere that are important for sentence comprehension.

``` pMTG aSTG pSTS/BA39 BA47 and part of BA46 ```

___ are the five neural regions in the left hemisphere that are important for sentence comprehension.

``` pMTG aSTG pSTS/BA39 BA47 and part of BA46 ```

These five sentence comprehension regions are interconnected by ______

multiple long distance white matter pathways

These five sentence comprehension regions are interconnected by ______

multiple long distance white matter pathways

What are the contributions of pMTG?

- lexical interface that activates syntactic and semantic features of words from the phonology

According to Hickock and Poeppel's dual stream model, the pMTG is the first stop of what pathway?

Ventral pathway

The ______ houses the interface b/w heard phonology and syntactic and semantic meaning

pMTG

The ______ houses the interface b/w heard phonology and syntactic and semantic meaning

pMTG

In the snijder et al study, ambiguous and non-ambiguous words were presented, the pMTG represents the ______ triggered by ambiguous vs non- ambiguous words

multiple syntactic frames

In the snijder et al study, ambiguous and non-ambiguous words were presented, the pMTG represents the ______ triggered by ambiguous vs non- ambiguous words

multiple syntactic frames

In the sentence condition vs processing random strings of words the pMTG interacted with BA44, how can this be interpreted?

The pMTG represents competing syntactic frames and the BA44 selects the appropriate one.

In Tyler and Papoutsi the phrase "bullying teenagers" (are . . ./is. . .) were presented. What is the dominant interpretation?

"Bullying teenagers (as adjective, noun) are a problem" is the preferred interpretation.

In the Bullying teenagers phrase, the _____ of the verb either confirms or forces reanalysis of the preferred phrase.

grammatical number (either is or are)

In the Bullying teenagers phrase, the _____ of the verb either confirms or forces reanalysis of the preferred phrase.

grammatical number (either is or are)

In the bullying teenagers exp. Increased activation in pMTG and BAs 45 and 47 (anterior Broca's and adjacent areas) was seen for__________

the non-dominant interpretation of the phrase ("Bullying teenagers is bad for their self-esteem")

The findings of the pMT

Why might the non-dominant interpretation have increased activation compared to the dominant interpretation?

The pMTG retrieves two syntactic representations and assigns greater weight to the dominant one. If the rest of the sentence is inconsistent, the inferior frontal cortex intervenes to repress initial analysis and select another one.

Why might the non-dominant interpretation have increased activation compared to the dominant interpretation?

In a causality study 14 stroke patients with left perisylvian lesions. A decline in the judgment scores of whether verbs were continuation of phrases was associated with __________

- an increase in the extent of damage to pMTG, BA 45/47 | - damage to white matter in the arcuate fasciculus and extreme capsule which connect the pMTG with frontal sites

In a causality study 14 stroke patients with left perisylvian lesions. A decline in the judgment scores of whether verbs were continuation of phrases was associated with __________

- an increase in the extent of damage to pMTG, BA 45/47 | - damage to white matter in the arcuate fasciculus and extreme capsule which connect the pMTG with frontal sites.

T or F: The lexical interface that activates the syntactic and semantic frames of words is part of the aSTG.

False it is part of the pMTG

The _____ is essential for basic syntactic processing, it groups words into hierarcally organized phrases and clauses.

aSTG

What is the combinatory network of the dual stream model of sentence processing?

the aMTG and the aSTS

The combinatory network of the dual stream model of speech perception constructs the integrated meaning of multiword utterances drawing on both _______ and _____

syntactic and semantic info

The combinatory network of the dual stream model of speech perception constructs the integrated meaning of multiword utterances drawing on both _______ and _____

syntactic and semantic info

Obleser et al. compared three levels of sentence complexity. As syntactic complexity increased so did activation in three places:

- the aSTG near the boundary b/w BA22 and BA38 - in BA44 - in pSTS

Obleser et al. compared three levels of sentence complexity. As syntactic complexity increased so did activation in three places:

- the aSTG near the boundary b/w BA22 and BA38 - in BA44 - in pSTS

In an fMRI study brain activity was registered for content words while subjects listened to a narrative. A significant correlation was found between BOLD signal and syntactic complexity in one region___

the aSTG athe boundary b/w BA22 and BA38

Several fMRI studies have reported aSTG sensitivity to violations of ______

syntactic structure

Several fMRI studies have reported aSTG sensitivity to violations of ______

syntactic structure

Humphries et al.'s study showed that some ____ handle primarily syntactic info, some handle primarily semantic info, and some handle _____ info.

neurons | both

What are the relevant sectors of the aTL

aSTG, aSTS, aMTG and parts of BA38

The results of Humphrie's et al's network, the combinatorial network is implemented _____

in the aTL

The results of Humphrie's et al's network, the combinatorial network is implemented _____

in the aTL

Data from ____ does not support the necessary role of the aTL in syntax or sentence semantics.

semantic dementia patients

Semantic dementia patients are ___ able to destinguish cow and pig as single words but are able to identify them in syntax based on _____ rather than lexical semantics.

not | syntactic cues

In a study of sentence comprehension only 40% were correct for patients with _____ while patients with _______ got 95% correct.

wernicke's aphasia | semantic dementia

The results of Humphrie's et al's network, the combinatorial network is implemented _____

in the aTL (anterior temporal lobe)

In a study of sentence comprehension only 40% were correct for patients with _____ while patients with _______ got 95% correct.

wernicke's aphasia | semantic dementia

In kho et al. study of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy before and after surgery. The results showed _____ why?

- no syntactic processing impairments - these patients are not comparable to healthy patients they likely involve atypical accomodations during the progression of epilepsy.

In kho et al. study of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy before and after surgery. The results showed _____ why?

- no syntactic processing impairments - these patients are not comparable to healthy patients they likely involve atypical accomodations during the progression of epilepsy.

What areas have to do with auditory verbal STM (short term memory)?

pSTS and BA39 and adjacent regions

What is the contribution of pSTS and BA39 + adjacent regions?

- auditory STM

T or F: The angular gyrus is BA39

True

T or F The angular gyrus responded to both syntactic and semantic coherence.

True

The ____ houses storage components of auditory verbal STM.

pSTS

Describe the baddeley and hitch model of WM:

the central executive interacts with the visuo-spatial sketch pad , the phonological store and the articulatory rehearsal loop, to enter things into LTM (long term memory)

The pSTS and BA39 are also suggested to be involved in linking NPs with participant roles in _____ and _____non-canonical sentences.

semantically reversable and syntacticallly

The pSTS and BA39 are also suggested to be involved in linking NPs with participant roles in _____ and _____non-canonical sentences.

semantically reversable and syntacticallly

Auditory STM and syntactic-semantic linking both occur in the ____ and ____.

pSTS and BA39

A persons digit span correlates with the amount of _____ in the pSTS

grey matter

Patients with significantly reduced digit span have the greatest ______ of the pSTS/ pSTG.

lesion overlap

Left et al performed a study on 210 stroke patients who performed a variety of tasks. They found:

that as the grey matter density in the pSTS/ pSTG cluster declined so did patients scores on the digit span task and the auditory sentence comprehension task.

T or F: Left et al found a decrease in density of grey matter corrleated with written sentence comprehension

False -no correlation for written sentence comprehenson only auditory

Auditory-verbal STM is likely to have a necessary role in propositional speech comprehension. Speech requires ________

multiple auditory lexical represenations to be concurrently active

T or F :In a study contrasting semantically reversable and nonreversable sentences differences centered at the boundary of pSTG and parietal cortex.

True (this is the same region engaged during a task requiring auditory verbal STM).

T or F :In a study contrasting semantically reversable and nonreversable sentences differences centered at the boundary of pSTG and parietal cortex.

True (this is the same region engaged during a task requiring auditory verbal STM).

Why might the same areas be engaged during participant mapping in reversable/ non reversalbe sentences and in the auditory STM

The activated temporoparietal area facilitates the mapping of NPs to participant roles in semantically reversible sentences by replaying phonological record (STM) so other regions (like BA39) can perform mappings.

Why might the same areas be engaged during participant mapping in reversable/ non reversalbe sentences and in the auditory STM

T or F: All ptients with auditory STM deficits have impaired sentence comprehension

False - some patients although they can't hear the words in their head understand long sentences. Challenges the necessity of STM for sentence comprehension.

Worse performance on non-canonical vs canonical sentences was associated with ____ damage even when STM scores weren't considered.

BA39

What is the conclusion regarding the role of pSTS and BA39?

different sectors of the pSTS and BA39 contribute to auditory verbal short term memory and determine participant roles

Writting assignment question: Auditory verbal short term memory span is shorter when tested in a second language learner. How might this be seen in brain responses? Use knowledge on AVSTM.