Journal of memory and language最新文献

Real-world environments are complex, demanding a diverse set of cognitive functions such as attention and working memory (WM) to perform adaptive behaviors. However, exogenous attention, characterized as automatic and involuntary, has primarily been studied by focusing on spatial perception. In particular, the ability of pure exogenous retro-cues to select and prioritize not only spatial locations, but also novel stimulus–response (S-R) bindings held in WM remains largely unexplored. Here, in two experimental series, we provide evidence that pure exogenous non-predictive retro-cues can select not only space, but also associated S-R bindings held in WM. Additional evidence from a drift–diffusion model hinted at the possibility that the mechanisms through which exogenous attention selects and prioritizes WM contents depend, at least partially, on the hierarchical relevance of the different dimensions encoded within a specific representation. These results highlight the relationship between pure exogenous attention and complex WM contents and shed light on current theoretical debates about the interaction of attention, memory, and action.

The long-term negative effect of semantic retrieval on the subsequent accessibility of related material has been extensively studied in separate memory and language production literatures. Though ostensibly studying the same phenomenon, these literatures have remained separated by different framings and methodologies. We argue for integration of the two research streams in an adaptive learning perspective and present a bridging experiment as a proof of concept of this approach. The experiment implemented a multiphase retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) design (with generation and memory assessment phases) in combination with the use of naming latency measures and the temporal analysis of interference featured in language production research. The generation phase, typically unanalyzed in the memory literature, examined generation time for category-stem completions as a function of ordinal positions of related items. There was strong cumulative interference in generation latencies in the first pass through the structured list, showing that memory is already affected in this phase. After a retention interval, accessibility of new items from previously activated categories, and unactivated controls, was assessed using continuous picture naming rather than aggregate memory measures. Crucially, there was a picture naming cost to previously activated (but not generated) category members relative to the control condition, a RIF effect. This cost was supervenient on new cumulative interference and was evident only in the beginning of the assessment phase, underlining the value of the positional analyses. The findings add important detailing to the processes underlying retrieval-induced costs in memory research while also showing that retrieval-induced semantic interference transfers from stem-completion to picture naming retrieval tasks. This format-independence is consistent with a conceptual basis of semantic interference but does not preclude a locus of adaptive learning in conceptual-lexical links. Overall, we show that the memory and language production fields indeed provide different but complementary perspectives on the same semantic interference phenomenon. Combining the fields promises to be productive.

This study investigates bilectal grammatical representation and processing using three ERP reading experiments in two Norwegian dialect regions. Northern Norwegian bilectals were tested in two separate sessions in two written varieties: the local written standard (Bokmål, n = 83) and Northern Norwegian dialect writing (n = 68). The study included both non-contrastive gender (control) and dialect-specific number (target) agreement conditions. In grammatically incongruent number conditions, participants display contrasting processing profiles in both on-line and off-line measures (reversed P600 components and reversed grammaticality judgments). To further test the interaction between contrasting bilectal grammars in language processing, the Bokmål version of the experiment was also conducted in a second dialect region (Sunnmøre, n = 73) where the spoken dialect is grammatically aligned with Bokmål for both gender and number. In the Bokmål mode, compared to both the control group (Sunnmøre) and the control condition (gender agreement), Northern Norwegian participants in the target (number) condition show significantly attenuated ERPs and more gradient and less accurate grammaticality judgments, evidencing competition between distinct bilectal grammatical representations. The results further revealed significant individual differences in the degree of cross-dialectal influence between Bokmål and Northern Norwegian dialect modes, contingent on individual participants’ bilectal engagement and exposure. Together these results suggest that bilectalism is a proper sub-case of bilingualism: bilectals develop distinct grammatical representations for contrastive grammatical features in distinct L1 varieties with which they have sufficient engagement and exposure.

After observing a word uttered in the presence of multiple objects, how do learners represent these potential referents? Given a select object from a learning scenario for a novel word, all theories predict that this referent is to be remembered as the referent, but diverge on how the co-present objects are represented. Theory-building is also hampered by the fact that different studies used different stimuli, in addition to whether the learning instances contained referential information on which the referent is intended. Here, we report four experiments with approximately 100 adult participants in each, manipulating both factors. We find that, when the potential referents are known conceptually, the referential status of these objects is influenced by whether the learning instances contain referential information: With information guiding referential selection, learners perform mutual exclusivity and reject the co-occurring objects as potential referents; without this information, learners represent all co-occurring objects as a potential referent. However, when the potential referents are unfamiliar objects, even with the explicit instruction on which object is the intended referent, learners represent both objects as potential referents, as both objects can plausibly belong to the same category that the word refers to. This set of results can be explained by a pragmatic inference process where learners either believe all potential referents belong to different categories and are thus mutually exclusive, or that all potential referents plausibly belong to the same category referred to by the same word. We discuss the implication of these results, which move away from a debate about the sheer number of referents and onto the more mechanistic question of how learners represent referents in word learning.

Attentional subsetting theory (Caplan, 2023) posits that only a small subset of item features are attended in episodic recognition tasks. This explained a pivotal finding for the development of recognition models: the near-null list-strength effect, where encoding strength influences recognition similarly in mixed-strength lists and pure-strength lists. Most research uses spaced repetition to manipulate encoding strength. However, the origin of the null list-strength effect was a more unusual manipulation of stimulus duration (1 s versus 2 s) — and reported an inverted list-strength effect. We present an attentional subsetting theory of duration that produces inversions — and explains why they are uncommon: Earlier-attended features dwell within a lower-dimensional feature subspace, which participants can sometimes disregard during test trials of pure-strong lists, giving strong-pure items an extra advantage. The model previously only solved for $d^{\prime }$. We extend it to generate realistic hit and false-alarm rates by deriving the criterion from attention to each probe. Supporting the theory, two pre-registered experimental manipulations of stimulus-duration reproduced robust inverted list-strength effects, suggesting this type of finding is unlikely due to sampling error. This account of stimulus-duration, explaining inverted, as well as upright and null, list-strength effects, could be incorporated in most models with vector representations

We investigated language control in (within-language) between alphabet switching during comprehension by exploiting the overlap between the two character sets of Serbian. We compared recognition latencies to phonologically ambiguous and phonologically unambiguous versions of the same word (PAE – Phonological Ambiguity Effect) to obtain an index of interference between the two alphabets. Evidence for transient control arose from changing alphabets between trials within a block and the larger PAE when the alphabet of the target changed from the previous trial. Evidence for sustained control arose from presenting a single-alphabet block prior to a mixed alphabet block and the larger PAE when the target alphabet differed from the alphabet of the preceding single-alphabet block. We conclude that within-language alphabet switching exhibits effects of transient and global language control during comprehension. However, switching effects (and their temporal dynamics) were evident only when recognition was challenged by the presence of phonologically ambiguous word forms.

Memory specificity is shown when participants reject lures that are similar to studied objects. Lure rejections may reflect hippocampal pattern separation that encodes objects distinctively. However, lure features shared with studied objects may evoke pattern completion of varying quality. This was shown when self-reported attention during study promoted lure rejections and false alarms. We used an experimental and individual differences approach to examine the roles of attentive encoding and retrieval quality in lure classifications. An object-based mnemonic discrimination task included thought probes during study and subjective retrieval reports after recognition responses. On-task reports reflecting attentive encoding were associated with lure rejections and false alarms within-and between-subjects. Additionally, accurate lure and target classifications were more strongly associated with subjective recollection following on- than off-task reports. Collectively, these results suggest that attention during study was associated with recollection of criterial features that differentiated existing memories from perceptual inputs.

Current theories of language prediction stipulate that people can predict various types of linguistic information, including the phonological form of a highly predictable word, and some theories posit that phonological prediction plays a pivotal role in prediction-driven learning. However, a review of studies investigating phonological prediction suggests that the effect is inconsistent and small, which raises a question about its role during everyday language comprehension and language learning. Here, I conduct a meta-analysis of visual-world eye-tracking studies investigating phonological prediction with the goal of revealing the robustness and the time-course of the phonological prediction effect. The combined analysis of 20 experiments revealed a small but reliable effect of the phonological prediction effect. This effect emerged rapidly but was not closely aligned to the predictable word onset. The size of this effect depended on the target word cloze probability and depended marginally on the experiment design and the type of visual stimuli. I discuss the implications for the theories of language prediction.

Research on the language of space has uncovered a complex set of conceptual and linguistic factors affecting the nature, use and acquisition of spatial vocabularies across languages. Here we highlight the important but understudied role of pragmatic factors in how spatial relations are encoded across ages and languages. We focus on Containment (in/out) and Support (on/off) terms that can denote both static locations (‘places’: be in/out of X) and dynamic motions (‘paths’: go in/out of X). We offer a new pragmatic analysis of place-denoting out/off as ‘negative’ locatives and, as a result, predict that such expressions should have a restricted informational contribution (and use) compared to in/on. This prediction is confirmed in four experiments. In elicited production tasks with English-speaking adults and three-year-olds, out and off (unlike in and on) are used extremely sparsely to describe static locations (Experiment 1) but quite frequently to describe dynamic motions (Experiment 2). When contextual support is present, the use of place-denoting out/off increases (Experiment 3). Similar patterns in the use of locatives are found in French, Greek and Turkish speakers (Experiment 4). We conclude that pragmatic factors produce striking, early emerging and cross-linguistically stable properties of spatial vocabulary.

Variation in the pronunciation of spoken words constitutes one of the primary challenges to theories of Spoken Word Recognition (SWR). In this paper we examine the processing and representation of a type of variation that is connected to morphology: variation in ING, which is found in words that vary between an -ing and an -in’ form. This variation, which is found in monomorphemes like awning in addition to affixed words, has been extensively studied, and has well-known social effects. Crucially, there is no consensus in the field as to whether the variation is morphological – involving distinct -ing and -in’ morphemes – or phonological in nature, with -in’ produced from an underlying -ing form. We connect the morphological and phonological analyses from the sociolinguistic literature to what have been called dual representation and unique representation in the SWR literature. We report the results of a series of experiments that use an auditory priming paradigm to explore the competing predictions of the dual and unique representation approaches. Priming provides insight into what types of representations are shared between the variants, which in turn informs the theoretical opposition at the center of the discussion about the locus of ING’s variation. The first of these experiments reveals priming both within and across ING variants, with significantly more priming found when both variants are -in’. Follow-up experiments manipulating the distance between prime and target, as well as introducing monomorphemes like awning, provide evidence that we interpret as favoring the unique representation view, with the -ing/-in’ alternation being phonological in nature. Alternative explanations are explored as well, with an eye towards the directions that future work on variation might take.