Current Search: Shapiro, Lewis P. (x)
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- Title
- Argument structure preference and phrase structure effects during sentence processing.
- Creator
- Nagel, Harold Nicholas, Florida Atlantic University, Shapiro, Lewis P.
- Abstract/Description
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This project investigates how subjects' preferences for a specific argument structure of a verb affect the on-line processing of sentences. Three experiments are conducted. The first experiment uses a forced choice task to gather preference ratings for several verbs. The second and third experiments use these preference ratings to examine on-line performance for a subset of the subjects participating in Experiment I. We find that a subject's preference for a specific argument structure...
Show moreThis project investigates how subjects' preferences for a specific argument structure of a verb affect the on-line processing of sentences. Three experiments are conducted. The first experiment uses a forced choice task to gather preference ratings for several verbs. The second and third experiments use these preference ratings to examine on-line performance for a subset of the subjects participating in Experiment I. We find that a subject's preference for a specific argument structure influences the first pass analysis of sentence but that this effect may be overridden by a structural effect in sentences containing syntactic ambiguities. These results are discussed in terms of lexical guidance vs. phrase structure-driven models of sentence processing. It is concluded that both lexical and phrase structure information are utilized during first pass analysis of a sentence, but that the structure of a sentence determines which of these effects is measurably observable.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1992
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14789
- Subject Headings
- Phrase structure grammar, Linguistics, Grammar, Comparative and general
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Verb-argument structure processing in aphasia: A time-course analysis.
- Creator
- Gordon, Betsy, Florida Atlantic University, Shapiro, Lewis P.
- Abstract/Description
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Three experiments are described that explore the real-time access of verb-argument structures in a group of normal control subjects, a group of Broca's aphasic patients, and a group of Wernicke's aphasic patients. Specifically the study examines whether these subjects exhaustively access the thematic representations of verbs in active, passive cleft-subject, and cleft-object sentences. We find that our normal control subjects and Broca's aphasic patients are sensitive to the thematic...
Show moreThree experiments are described that explore the real-time access of verb-argument structures in a group of normal control subjects, a group of Broca's aphasic patients, and a group of Wernicke's aphasic patients. Specifically the study examines whether these subjects exhaustively access the thematic representations of verbs in active, passive cleft-subject, and cleft-object sentences. We find that our normal control subjects and Broca's aphasic patients are sensitive to the thematic properties of verbs, regardless of sentence type. Our Wernicke's aphasic patients do not show on-line sensitivity to this lexical property. We discuss these results in terms of multiple resources dedicated to specific sentence processing devices, a possible semantic deficit in Wernicke's aphasia, and a double-dissociation between the operation of accessing a verb's thematic properties and the operation of computing the trace-antecedent relation.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1993
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14916
- Subject Headings
- Aphasia, Language disorders, Neurolinguistics
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- The interaction of sentence context and local acoustic information during sentence comprehension.
- Creator
- Borsky, Susan, Florida Atlantic University, Shapiro, Lewis P., Tuller, Betty
- Abstract/Description
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This study investigated the interaction of acoustic and semantic information for phoneme categorization during sentence comprehension. Voice onset time (VOT) was manipulated to form a goat-to-coat voicing continuum; target stimuli from this continuum were embedded in sentences biased toward `goat' or `coat'. Sentences were presented in conjunction with three distinct experimental tasks and several temporal positions. Experiment 1A used a cross-modal identification task (Borsky, Tuller, and...
Show moreThis study investigated the interaction of acoustic and semantic information for phoneme categorization during sentence comprehension. Voice onset time (VOT) was manipulated to form a goat-to-coat voicing continuum; target stimuli from this continuum were embedded in sentences biased toward `goat' or `coat'. Sentences were presented in conjunction with three distinct experimental tasks and several temporal positions. Experiment 1A used a cross-modal identification task (Borsky, Tuller, and Shapiro, 1998) to cue stimulus identification at the target; the results showed sentence context biases on identifications and sentence context congruency effects on response times for mid-range stimuli. Experiment 1B used a cross-modal identification task 450 ms after the target; results showed sentence biases on identifications that extended to the endpoints and no sentence context congruency effects on response times. Experiment 2 used a cross-modal interference task (CMI) with the same auditory stimuli. The primary task was listening to the sentences for comprehension; the interference task was a word/non-word decision to an unrelated visual probe that appeared at one of three temporal positions. This was the only task for which no explicit judgments about the identity of the target were required. Response times at the embedded target showed a significant effect of VOT only. The 450 ms later probe position showed a significant VOT x Context interaction; response times were significantly longer for endpoint stimuli when sentence meaning was biased toward the opposite endpoint. These results were interpreted as initially context-independent phonological processing followed by context integration. Experiment 3 used a word-monitoring task; subjects saw the word `goat' or `coat' briefly on a computer screen, then listened to the same sentence stimuli used for the other experiments. The task was to press a button as soon as the monitoring target was heard in the sentence. Results showed that sentence context did not bias identifications. However, response times were significantly longer when sentence context was incongruent with the monitoring target. Taken together, the results of the three distinct tasks support an account of phonological processing in which phoneme categorization is initially independent unless an explicit judgment about the identity of the target is required.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1998
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12578
- Subject Headings
- Speech perception, Psycholinguistics
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Lexical access in sentences: The processing of phrasal verbs.
- Creator
- Ortega, Kerry Alan., Florida Atlantic University, Shapiro, Lewis P.
- Abstract/Description
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This study is concerned with lexical access during sentence comprehension, particularly, the on-line access of phrasal verbs. Three experiments are described with the goal of determining which meanings (literal, figurative) are accessed during sentence comprehension and the role of sentence context during phrasal verb access. In these experiments, phrasal verbs are presented to subjects auditorily in either a figurative or literal context. A cross-modal semantic priming technique is used to...
Show moreThis study is concerned with lexical access during sentence comprehension, particularly, the on-line access of phrasal verbs. Three experiments are described with the goal of determining which meanings (literal, figurative) are accessed during sentence comprehension and the role of sentence context during phrasal verb access. In these experiments, phrasal verbs are presented to subjects auditorily in either a figurative or literal context. A cross-modal semantic priming technique is used to determine which meanings of the phrasal verbs are accessed. Literal interpretations of phrasal verbs (verb-particle combinations) are accessed in the immediate temporal vicinity of the base verb, this activation continues through to the access of the particle, and disappears downstream when the direct object is encountered, independently of sentence context. Figurative interpretations of phrasal verbs are not so clear-cut. When sentence context is biased toward literal context, figurative meanings are not accessed at the end of the phrasal verb unit. However, when sentence context is figurative-biased, figurative access is observed both at the end of the phrasal verb unit and downstream at the direct object.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1993
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14968
- Subject Headings
- Lexical grammar, Grammar, Comparative and general, Phrase structure grammar
- Format
- Document (PDF)