Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Time-Driven Effects on Processing Relative Clauses

Schremm, Andrea LU ; Horne, Merle LU orcid and Roll, Mikael LU (2016) In Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 45(5). p.1033-1044
Abstract
The present response time study investigated how a hypothesized time-based working memory constraint of 2–3 s affects the resolution of grammatical and semantic dependencies. Congruent and incongruent object relative (OR) and subject relative sentences were read at different presentation rates so that the distance between dependent words was either shorter or longer than 2–3 s. Incongruent OR sentences showed an effect of presentation rate. Experiment 1 focused on grammatical dependencies. Processing of adjectives with agreement features mismatching those of the preceding dependent word showed rapid agreement resolution at a time-interval below 2 s. Dependency intervals over 3 s reflected a different, more time-consuming process possibly... (More)
The present response time study investigated how a hypothesized time-based working memory constraint of 2–3 s affects the resolution of grammatical and semantic dependencies. Congruent and incongruent object relative (OR) and subject relative sentences were read at different presentation rates so that the distance between dependent words was either shorter or longer than 2–3 s. Incongruent OR sentences showed an effect of presentation rate. Experiment 1 focused on grammatical dependencies. Processing of adjectives with agreement features mismatching those of the preceding dependent word showed rapid agreement resolution at a time-interval below 2 s. Dependency intervals over 3 s reflected a different, more time-consuming process possibly due to extended search in sentence semantic representations as the grammatical form of the first word in the dependency fades away. In experiment 2, focusing on semantic dependencies, incongruent OR sentences displayed a different pattern: a gradual increase in processing time as a function of distance between dependent words. Thus, the 2–3 s long time-window seems to constrain the maintenance of grammatical forms in working memory. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
semantic congruency, agreement, response times, sentence processing
in
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
volume
45
issue
5
pages
1033 - 1044
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • pmid:26337288
  • scopus:84940675904
  • pmid:26337288
  • wos:000382335000003
ISSN
0090-6905
DOI
10.1007/s10936-015-9391-1
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Published online ahead of print 04 September 2015 The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Linguistics and Phonetics (015010003)
id
2528e9db-0176-4e51-83fd-d8204209ad8e (old id 7863881)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:44:20
date last changed
2023-11-10 04:24:20
@article{2528e9db-0176-4e51-83fd-d8204209ad8e,
  abstract     = {{The present response time study investigated how a hypothesized time-based working memory constraint of 2–3 s affects the resolution of grammatical and semantic dependencies. Congruent and incongruent object relative (OR) and subject relative sentences were read at different presentation rates so that the distance between dependent words was either shorter or longer than 2–3 s. Incongruent OR sentences showed an effect of presentation rate. Experiment 1 focused on grammatical dependencies. Processing of adjectives with agreement features mismatching those of the preceding dependent word showed rapid agreement resolution at a time-interval below 2 s. Dependency intervals over 3 s reflected a different, more time-consuming process possibly due to extended search in sentence semantic representations as the grammatical form of the first word in the dependency fades away. In experiment 2, focusing on semantic dependencies, incongruent OR sentences displayed a different pattern: a gradual increase in processing time as a function of distance between dependent words. Thus, the 2–3 s long time-window seems to constrain the maintenance of grammatical forms in working memory.}},
  author       = {{Schremm, Andrea and Horne, Merle and Roll, Mikael}},
  issn         = {{0090-6905}},
  keywords     = {{semantic congruency; agreement; response times; sentence processing}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{1033--1044}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Journal of Psycholinguistic Research}},
  title        = {{Time-Driven Effects on Processing Relative Clauses}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/2094569/7863988.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10936-015-9391-1}},
  volume       = {{45}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}