English
 
Help Privacy Policy Disclaimer
  Advanced SearchBrowse

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT
  What can syntactic priming tell us about monolingual and bilingual language comprehension? Behavioural and fMRI studies

Weber, K., Indefrey, P., Hagoort, P., & Petersson, K. M. (2009). What can syntactic priming tell us about monolingual and bilingual language comprehension? Behavioural and fMRI studies. Talk presented at Psycholinguistics in Flanders 2009. Antwerp, Belgium. 2009-05-18.

Item is

Files

show Files

Locators

show

Creators

show
hide
 Creators:
Weber, Kirsten1, Author           
Indefrey, Peter1, 2, 3, Author           
Hagoort, Peter1, 4, Author           
Petersson, Karl Magnus1, 4, Author           
Affiliations:
1Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, External Organizations, ou_55236              
2Language Acquisition Group, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society, ou_55202              
3Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, ou_persistent22              
4Neurobiology of Language Group, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society, ou_102880              

Content

show
hide
Free keywords: -
 Abstract: Syntactic priming has been frequently used to study syntactic processes in language production in monolinguals [1][2] and bilinguals [3]. In a previous study in language comprehension [4] we showed that passive sentences in English (the participant’s L2) can be primed by passive sentences in German (L1) and English (L2). This was manifested in faster reading times for target sentences and repetition suppression effects in left inferior frontal, left precentral and left middle temporal regions of interest in an fMRI study. However, syntactic priming in comprehension is complicated by the influence of verb repetition between prime and target [5][6]. Therefore, we conducted a reading time and fMRI study looking at the influence of verb repetition on syntactic priming. In this study of monolingual comprehension in Dutch we primed passive sentences as well as sentences with crossed-dependency structures. The reading time results revealed a syntactic priming effect for passive sentences, while the effect for crossed-dependency structure sentences interacted with the factor verb repetition. The preliminary fMRI results suggest that the repetition of passive structures leads to reductions in neural activity. The repetition of crossed dependency structures causes repetition enhancement, an increase in the BOLD response, an effect that interacts with the factor verb repetition. In conclusion, the influence of verb repetition on syntactic priming in comprehension is complex and seems to depend on the type of syntactic structure investigated. References [1] Bock K. (1986). Syntactic persistence in language production. Cognitive Psychology, 18(3), 355-387. [2] Pickering M, & Branigan H. (1999). Syntactic priming in language production. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3(4), 136-141. [3] Schoonbaert S, Hartsuiker RJ, & Pickering MJ. (2007). The representation of lexical and syntactic information in bilinguals: Evidence from syntactic priming. Journal of Memory and Language, 56(2), 153-171. [4] Weber K, & Indefrey P. (in press). Syntactic priming in German-English bilinguals during sentence comprehension. NeuroImage. [5] Arai M, van Gompel R, & Scheepers C. (2007). Priming ditransitive structures in comprehension. Cognitive Psychology, 54, 218-250. [6] Thothathiri M, & Snedeker J. (2008). Give and take: Syntactic priming during spoken language comprehension. Cognition, 108(1), 51-68.

Details

show
hide
Language(s): eng - English
 Dates: 2009
 Publication Status: Not specified
 Pages: -
 Publishing info: -
 Table of Contents: -
 Rev. Type: -
 Identifiers: -
 Degree: -

Event

show
hide
Title: Psycholinguistics in Flanders 2009
Place of Event: Antwerp, Belgium
Start-/End Date: 2009-05-18

Legal Case

show

Project information

show

Source

show