Journal of Memory and Language

Volume 121, 12, 2021

    Journal of Memory and Language2021年第121卷共发文13篇。研究论文涉及语言能力的作用、负提醒效应、工作记忆优先级等方面的内容。

目录

ARTICLES

■The influence of prior knowledge on the formation of detailed and durable memories, by B. Bellana, R. Mansour, N. Ladyka-Wojcik, C.L. Grady, M. Moscovitch 

■True clauses and false connections,by Karolina Krzyżanowska, Peter J. Collins, Ulrike Hahn

■Statistical and explicit learning of graphotactic patterns with no phonological counterpart: Evidence from an artificial lexicon study with 6–7-year-olds and adults, by Daniela Singh, Elizabeth Wonnacott, Anna Samara

■Attending to encode: The role of consistency and intensity of attention in learning ability, by Ashley L. Miller, Nash Unsworth

■Interlocutor modelling in lexical alignment: The role of linguistic competence, byZhenguang G. Cai, Zhuying Sun, Nan Zhao

■ The pictures who shall not be named: Empirical support for benefits of preview in the Visual World Paradigm, by Keith S. Apfelbaum, Jamie Klein-Packard, Bob McMurray

■ How permeable are native and non-native syntactic processing to crosslinguistic influence?, by Theres Grüter, Holger Hopp

■Subjective confidence influences word learning in a cross-situational statistical learning task, by Isabelle Dautriche, Hugh Rabagliati, Kenny Smith

■ Revisiting anti-locality effects: Evidence against prediction-based accounts, by Apurva, Samar Husain

■The signed mental lexicon: Effects of phonological neighborhood density, iconicity, and childhood language experience, by Naomi K. Caselli, Karen Emmorey, Ariel M. Cohen-Goldberg

■The negative reminding effect: Reminding impairs memory for contextual information， by Jonathan G. Tullis, Aaron S. Benjamin

■Language modality and temporal structure impact processing: Sign and speech have different windows of integration, by Chiara Luna Rivolta, Brendan Costello, Manuel Carreiras

■Working memory prioritization: Goal-driven attention, physical salience, and implicit learning， by Susan M. Ravizza, Timothy J. Pleskac, Taosheng Liu

摘要

The influence of prior knowledge on the formation of detailed and durable memories

B. Bellana, R. Mansour, N. Ladyka-Wojcik, C.L. Grady, M. Moscovitch

Abstract Prior knowledge often improves recognition, but its relationship to the retrieval of memory detail is unclear. Resource-based accounts of recognition suggest that familiar stimuli are more efficiently encoded into memory, thus freeing attentional resources to encode additional details from a study episode. However, schema-based theories would predict that activating prior knowledge can lead to the formation of more generalized representations in memory. Across a series of four experiments, we examined the relationship between prior knowledge and memory for extrinsic context (i.e., extra-item details from the surrounding study episode) and intrinsic context (i.e., memory for the precise intra-item features of the studied target itself). Familiar stimuli (famous faces and popular foods/beverages) were associated with better memory for extrinsic context, operationalized as Remember responses and objective source memory accuracy. Self-reported degree of prior knowledge associated with a given image was also predictive of this effect. Prior knowledge improved recognition memory during a surprise delayed recognition test, even under conditions in which study was unintentional, supporting the idea of efficient encoding. Critically, in a paradigm in which recognition required the correct rejection of highly perceptually similar lures, prior knowledge was associated with more false alarms. Our results suggest that stimuli associated with prior knowledge are indeed efficiently encoded into memory, freeing more attentional resources to encode extrinsic context. This benefit, however, may come at the cost of memory precision for the item itself. By examining extrinsic and intrinsic context separately, we demonstrate that resource and schema-based theories provide complementary accounts of how prior knowledge influences memory detaiL.

True clauses and false connections

Karolina Krzyżanowska, Peter J. Collins, Ulrike Hahn

Abstract Indicative conditionals—that is, sentences typically, though not exclusively, of the form “If p, (then) q,”—belong to the most puzzling phenomena of language. One of the puzzles that has recently attracted attention of psychologists of reasoning stems from the fact that on the majority of accounts of indicative conditionals, “If p, (then) q” can be true, or at least highly acceptable, even when there is no meaningful connection between p and q. Conditionals without such a connection, dubbed missing-link conditionals, however, often seem very odd. A standard pragmatic account of their oddity rests on an observation that, whenever missing-link conditionals come out as true, these are situations in which speakers are justified in asserting stronger, more informative statements. Asserting a less informative statement is odd because it is a violation of the Maxim of Quantity. This paper reports four experiments that present a challenge to the Gricean explanation of why missing-link conditionals are odd. At the same time, we will argue that these findings can be reconciled with general principles of Gricean pragmatics, if the connection is treated as a part of a conventional, “core” meaning of a conditional.

Statistical and explicit learning of graphotactic patterns with no phonological counterpart: Evidence from an artificial lexicon study with 6–7-year-olds and adults

Daniela Singh, Elizabeth Wonnacott, Anna Samara

Abstract Children are powerful statistical spellers, showing sensitivity to untaught orthographic patterns. They can also learn novel written patterns with phonological counterparts via statistical learning processes, akin to those established for spoken language acquisition. It is unclear whether children can learn written (graphotactic) patterns which are unconfounded from correlated phonotactics. We address this question by inducing novel graphotactic learning under incidental versus explicit conditions. Across three artificial lexicon experiments, we exposed children and adults to letter strings ending either in singlets or doublets (that share the same pronunciation, e.g., s vs. ss) depending on the preceding vowel. In post-tests, children and adults incidentally generalized over such context-based constraints that varied in complexity. Explicit instruction further benefitted pattern generalization, supporting the practice of teaching spelling patterns, and there was a relationship between explicit learning and literacy scores. We are first to demonstrate that statistical learning processes underlie graphotactic generalizations among developing spellers.

Attending to encode: The role of consistency and intensity of attention in learning ability

Ashley L. Miller, Nash Unsworth

Abstract The present study examined how variation in the amount of attention devoted to items (intensity) and the consistency with which attention is maintained on task (consistency) are related to each other and to overall learning abilities. In two experiments, participants completed measures of working memory (WM), long-term memory (LTM), motivation, and a paired associates (PA) cued recall task with thought probes embedded throughout the encoding phase of each word-pair list. In Experiment 2, pupil diameter was also simultaneously recorded during encoding of the PA task to provide an index of the intensity of attention. Results collectively suggested that the most successful learners were those who were both less susceptible to lapses of attention (high consistency) and had larger pupil dilation at encoding (high intensity). Critically, while attentional lapses and pupil dilation were negatively related to one another—both between and within subjects—each aspect of attention accounted for unique variance in associative learning even after accounting for WM, LTM, and motivation. Follow-up analyses further revealed that, while intensity and consistency were both related to motivation and (to a lesser extent) general LTM abilities, motivation was a greater determinant of the consistency of attention. Therefore, it appears that the intensity and consistency of attention are likely distinct, multifaceted constructs that are differentially influenced by a variety of factors and play an important role in learning.

Interlocutor modelling in lexical alignment: The role of linguistic competence

Zhenguang G. Cai, Zhuying Sun, Nan Zhao

Abstract In what is known as lexical alignment in dialogue, speakers tend to re-use their interlocutor’s prior lexical expressions, probably in an attempt to facilitate ease and success of comprehension for the interlocutor. But do speakers take into account their interlocutor’s linguistic competence when producing language to their interlocutor (e.g., using more lexical alignment towards an interlocutor with more limited linguistic competence to boost communicative success)? In three online experiments, we compared speakers’ tendency to lexically align with interlocutors of different linguistic competence: an adult native interlocutor, a child native interlocutor, and an adult non-native interlocutor. Native Mandarin-speaking participants were told that they would take turns with another participant (in fact just recordings) to name and match pictures on the internet. We compared lexical alignment with the three interlocutors in a between-participant design in Experiment 1 and later, in a within-participant design, lexical alignment with child vs. adult native interlocutors in Experiment 2 and lexical alignment with adult non-native vs. native interlocutors in Experiment 3. Speakers more often re-used picture names previously produced by a child than adult native interlocutor, and by an adult non-native than native interlocutor. These interlocutor-dependent effects in lexical alignment were not due to memory strength or speech rate associated with an interlocutor’s utterances; instead, these findings suggest that speakers model their interlocutor’s linguistic competence and lexically align more with linguistically less competent interlocutors in order to maximize communicative success.

The pictures who shall not be named: Empirical support for benefits of preview in the Visual World Paradigm

Keith S. Apfelbaum, Jamie Klein-Packard, Bob McMurray

Abstract A common critique of the Visual World Paradigm (VWP) in psycholinguistic studies is that what is designed as a measure of language processes is meaningfully altered by the visual context of the task. This is crucial, particularly in studies of spoken word recognition, where the displayed images are usually seen as just a part of the measure and are not of fundamental interest. Many variants of the VWP allow participants to sample the visual scene before a trial begins. However, this could bias their interpretations of the later speech or even lead to abnormal processing strategies (e.g., comparing the input to only preactivated working memory representations). Prior work has focused only on whether preview duration changes fixation patterns. However, preview could affect a number of processes, such as visual search, that would not challenge the interpretation of the VWP. The present study uses a series of targeted manipulations of the preview period to ask if preview alters looking behavior during a trial, and why. Results show that evidence of incremental processing and phonological competition seen in the VWP are not dependent on preview, and are not enhanced by manipulations that directly encourage phonological prenaming. Moreover, some forms of preview can eliminate nuisance variance deriving from object recognition and visual search demands in order to produce a more sensitive measure of linguistic processing. These results deepen our understanding of how the visual scene interacts with language processing to drive fixations patterns in the VWP, and reinforce the value of the VWP as a tool for measuring real-time language processing. Stimuli, data and analysis scripts are available at https://osf.io/b7q65/.

How permeable are native and non-native syntactic processing to crosslinguistic influence?

Theres Grüter, Holger Hopp

Abstract This study explores the boundary conditions of crosslanguage permeability in syntactic processing among late bilinguals, testing crosslinguistic influence (CLI) both from the first language (L1) to the second language (L2) and from the L2 to the L1. Findings from a visual world experiment with four groups of German-English and English-German bilinguals showed robust evidence for order of acquisition, but not for usage and immersion in L2, constraining CLI in the processing of structurally ambiguous wh-questions in German. Whereas CLI from the L1 persistently affected L2 sentence processing even among near-native and immersed L2 users, L1 processing appeared resilient against influence from the L2, even after long-term L2 immersion. These findings suggest that the timing of linguistic input in development plays a more critical role than current language use with regard to CLI in sentence processing among late bilinguals. The study highlights how systematic and bidirectional investigations of CLI contribute towards more nuanced models of the bilingual mind.

Subjective confidence influences word learning in a cross-situational statistical learning task

Isabelle Dautriche, Hugh Rabagliati, Kenny Smith

Abstract Learning is often accompanied by a subjective sense of confidence in one’s knowledge, a feeling of knowing what you know and how well you know it. Subjective confidence has been shown to guide learning in other domains, but has received little attention so far in the word learning literature. Across three word learning experiments, we investigated whether and how a sense of confidence in having acquired a word meaning influences the word learning process itself. First, we show evidence for a confirmation bias during word learning in a cross-situational statistical learning task: Learners who are highly confident they know the meaning of a word are more likely to persist in their belief than learners who are not, even after observing objective evidence disconfirming their belief. Second, we show that subjective confidence in a word meaning modulates inferential processes based on that word, affecting learning over the whole lexicon: Learners who hold high confidence in a word meaning are more likely to use that word to make mutual exclusivity inferences about the meaning of other words. We conclude that confidence influences word learning by modulating both information selection processes and inferential processes and discuss the implications of these results for word learning models.

Revisiting anti-locality effects: Evidence against prediction-based accounts

Apurva, Samar Husain

Abstract Anti-locality effects in Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) languages are characterised by a facilitation at the clause-final verb when the distance between the verb and its prior dependents is increased. These effects are understood to be driven by a robust prediction mechanism. In this work, we revisit this rationale by replicating key anti-locality experiments for Hindi. Through a series of sentence completion studies we demonstrate that neither are clause final verbal predictions always robust, nor do these predictions necessarily improve with increased distance. Despite the evidence from sentence completion studies, the self-paced reading studies reported in this work show a facilitation at the critical verb with increase in the noun–verb distance compared to when this distance was short. We suggest that the observed effects arise due to the formation of a shallow sentential representation where the required syntactic dependencies are not formed. In other words, the facilitatory effect is not driven by a robust prediction mechanism. This proposal is additionally supported by a lack of high comprehension accuracy in multiple experiments. Additionally, our work shows that robust verbal predictions are successfully made and these predictions are successfully maintained in structures involving fewer clausal embeddings, and simple verb argument structure. This suggests that when preverbal complexity increases prediction suffers. Together the results demonstrate the overarching influence of working-memory constraints on verbal prediction in an SOV language like Hindi.

The signed mental lexicon: Effects of phonological neighborhood density, iconicity, and childhood language experience

Naomi K. Caselli, Karen Emmorey, Ariel M. Cohen-Goldberg

Abstract Most of what is known about the mental lexicon comes from studies of spoken language and their written forms. Signs differ from spoken/written words in two important ways that may affect lexical recognition: their phonological composition is unique (e.g., more simultaneous than serial structure; few minimal pairs) and many signs are iconic. Using an unprimed lexical decision task in American Sign Language (ASL) and the first available estimates of phonological neighborhood density for any sign language, we found that phonological neighborhood density had an inhibitory effect on latency among low frequency signs. This is the first clear evidence that phonological neighbors spontaneously compete during sign recognition. Iconicity negatively affected accuracy but not reaction times, suggesting that iconicity plays a role in task-related decision processes but not lexical retrieval. Many deaf signers have delayed first language acquisition, and we found that language deprivation had lasting, negative effects on phonological processing and sign recognition speed and accuracy. This work indicates that the lexicons of both spoken and signed languages are organized by form, that lexical recognition occurs through form-based competition (most evident for low frequency items), and that form-meaning mappings do not drive lexical access even when iconicity is pervasive in the lexicon.

The negative reminding effect: Reminding impairs memory for contextual information

Jonathan G. Tullis, Aaron S. Benjamin

Abstract Encountering events that are meaningfully related to prior episodes can prompt retrieval of those prior events. Reminders are events that prompt retrieval of prior learned information, while reminded materials are the events that are retrieved in response. Reminders are an important component of efficient and effective cognition because they partially automate the process of bringing relevant prior knowledge to bear on novel situations. Across four experiments, we investigated whether reminders boosts memory for the entire prior reminded episode or for only specific aspects of prior experiences that are relevant to the reminder. To do so, we combined a reminding procedure with a paradigm for measuring memory for the incidental context of encoding. Participants studied lists of words in which semantically related pairs (e.g., “volcano” and “erupt”) were presented across brief lags and in different color contexts. Memory for the content and color of the first-presented word in pairs (the reminded information) was measured. Recall of related word pairs was consistently greater than recall of unrelated pairs, in agreement with prior work on the reminding effect. However, when the color of related words differed across the pair, memory for the color of the reminded words was impaired compared to unrelated words. The results support a view of reminding as a leveling and sharpening process in which memory for the focal content of reminded episodes is enhanced, but differences in peripheral details are smoothed over. Such a process can lead to the acquisition and application of prototypical knowledge over experience.

Language modality and temporal structure impact processing: Sign and speech have different windows of integration

Chiara Luna Rivolta, Brendan Costello, Manuel Carreiras

Abstract Language comprehension depends on the ability to temporally process the periodic structure of the language signal. In this study we investigate temporal processing of Spanish Sign Language (LSE), isolating the specific contribution of signal modality through a comparison with spoken Spanish and the contribution of linguistic status by comparing language with a non-linguistic temporally structured visual signal. Twenty-three highly proficient hearing users of LSE performed an intelligibility task with these three types of materials, manipulated with different levels of temporal distortion. The results show that the distortion differently affects the intelligibility of these signals. Spanish is characterized by a threshold of temporal distortion, beyond which intelligibility rapidly decreases and is almost completely lost. Conversely, in LSE and the visual non-linguistic task greater temporal distortion led to a gradual and constant reduction in intelligibility with no clear threshold. LSE is more resilient to temporal manipulation compared to the visual non-linguistic signal: participants’ performance never drops below 50% even with the most severe distortion. Overall, these findings suggest that the temporal processing of language arises from the complex interaction between the properties of the sensory system and the special characteristics of the language signal.

Working memory prioritization: Goal-driven attention, physical salience, and implicit learning

Susan M. Ravizza, Timothy J. Pleskac, Taosheng Liu

Abstract Items in working memory (WM) are prioritized if they are relevant to task goals, are physically salient, or have acquired importance from implicit learning. We propose that all forms of prioritization increase the likelihood of recall, but only goal-driven attention will affect the quality of those representations. In a delayed-estimation task with four colors, prioritization was manipulated via a predictive spatial cue (goal-driven attention), a non-predictive peripheral cue (physical salience), or implicit learning of a previously relevant target location. Probabilities of recalling the target (Ptarget) and memory precision were estimated using a Bayesian implementation of the mixture model. Strong evidence was observed that all forms of prioritization increased Ptarget, whereas physical salience and implicit learning had only weak or negligible effects on precision compared to goal-driven attention. We propose that generating and maintaining high-resolution memories is an effortful process that will primarily be invoked when participants voluntarily prioritize memory items.

期刊简介

Articles in the Journal of Memory and Language contribute to the formulation of scientific issues and theories in the areas of memory, language comprehension and production, and cognitive processes. Special emphasis is given to research articles that provide new theoretical insights based on a carefully laid empirical foundation. The journal generally favors articles that provide multiple experiments. In addition, significant theoretical papers without new experimental findings may be published.

The Journal of Memory and Language is a valuable tool for cognitive scientists, including psychologists, linguists, and others interested in memory and learning, language, reading, and speech.

Research Areas include:

• Topics that illuminate aspects of memory or language processing

• Linguistics

• Neuropsychology

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