Semantic involvement of initial and final lexical embeddings during sense-making: The advantage of starting late
During spoken language interpretation, listeners rapidly relate the meaning of each individual word to what has been said before. However, spoken words often contain spurious other words, like day in daisy, or dean in sardine. Do listeners also relate the meaning of such unintended, spurious words t...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2012-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00190/full |
| _version_ | 1818853934317436928 |
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| author | Petra M. Van Alphen Jos J.A. Van Berkum |
| author_facet | Petra M. Van Alphen Jos J.A. Van Berkum |
| author_sort | Petra M. Van Alphen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | During spoken language interpretation, listeners rapidly relate the meaning of each individual word to what has been said before. However, spoken words often contain spurious other words, like day in daisy, or dean in sardine. Do listeners also relate the meaning of such unintended, spurious words to the prior context? We used ERPs to look for transient meaning-based N400 effects in sentences that were completely plausible at the level of words intended by the speaker, but contained an embedded word whose meaning clashed with the context. Although carrier words with an initial embedding (day in daisy) did not elicit an embedding-related N400 effect relative to matched control words without embedding, carrier words with a final embedding (dean in sardine) did elicit such an effect. Together with prior work from our lab and the results of a Shortlist B simulation, our findings suggest that listeners do semantically interpret embedded words, albeit not under all conditions. We explain the latter by assuming that the sense-making system adjusts its hypothesis for how to interpret the external input at every new syllable, in line with recent ideas of active sampling in perception. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T07:44:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-21485fc4e98b4816bec3f8d605be54dd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T07:44:42Z |
| publishDate | 2012-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-21485fc4e98b4816bec3f8d605be54dd2022-12-21T20:30:23ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782012-06-01310.3389/fpsyg.2012.0019024177Semantic involvement of initial and final lexical embeddings during sense-making: The advantage of starting latePetra M. Van Alphen0Jos J.A. Van Berkum1Rathenau InstituutUtrecht UniversityDuring spoken language interpretation, listeners rapidly relate the meaning of each individual word to what has been said before. However, spoken words often contain spurious other words, like day in daisy, or dean in sardine. Do listeners also relate the meaning of such unintended, spurious words to the prior context? We used ERPs to look for transient meaning-based N400 effects in sentences that were completely plausible at the level of words intended by the speaker, but contained an embedded word whose meaning clashed with the context. Although carrier words with an initial embedding (day in daisy) did not elicit an embedding-related N400 effect relative to matched control words without embedding, carrier words with a final embedding (dean in sardine) did elicit such an effect. Together with prior work from our lab and the results of a Shortlist B simulation, our findings suggest that listeners do semantically interpret embedded words, albeit not under all conditions. We explain the latter by assuming that the sense-making system adjusts its hypothesis for how to interpret the external input at every new syllable, in line with recent ideas of active sampling in perception.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00190/fullN400spoken-language processinginterpretationembedded wordslexical competitionsyllables |
| spellingShingle | Petra M. Van Alphen Jos J.A. Van Berkum Semantic involvement of initial and final lexical embeddings during sense-making: The advantage of starting late Frontiers in Psychology N400 spoken-language processing interpretation embedded words lexical competition syllables |
| title | Semantic involvement of initial and final lexical embeddings during sense-making: The advantage of starting late |
| title_full | Semantic involvement of initial and final lexical embeddings during sense-making: The advantage of starting late |
| title_fullStr | Semantic involvement of initial and final lexical embeddings during sense-making: The advantage of starting late |
| title_full_unstemmed | Semantic involvement of initial and final lexical embeddings during sense-making: The advantage of starting late |
| title_short | Semantic involvement of initial and final lexical embeddings during sense-making: The advantage of starting late |
| title_sort | semantic involvement of initial and final lexical embeddings during sense making the advantage of starting late |
| topic | N400 spoken-language processing interpretation embedded words lexical competition syllables |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00190/full |
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