The effects of sentence topic and single word priming on lexical processing in connected speech.
Item
-
Title
-
The effects of sentence topic and single word priming on lexical processing in connected speech.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9108094
-
identifier
-
9108094
-
Creator
-
Dunn, Michelle Arlene.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Walter Ritter
-
Date
-
1990
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Psychology, Experimental | Psychology, Psychobiology
-
Abstract
-
This research project explores the relationship, strength and time course of the effects of topic context and single word priming on the subsequent processing of lexical items in spoken language, through the use of behavioral and electrophysiologic measures.;A sample of normal, adults ranging in age from 25 to 49 years was studied. They had no history of learning or language difficulties.;The stimuli were single auditorally presented sentences. Each sentence was followed by a single probe word or nonword. Each real word was related to the preceding context in one of the following ways: (1) related to the sentence topic and not to the final word of the sentence; (2) related to the final word of the sentence but not to the topic; (3) completely unrelated to the sentence or to any of the words in it. Reaction time (RT) for making a lexical decision was used to index the degree to which the processing of a probe word had been effected by the preceding sentence or single word contexts. Contrast conditions were (A) a lexical decision task utilizing all probes in isolation; (B) a word pairs task in which all of the final words of the sentences were presented with their associated probes.;Electrophysiologic recording was done while 10 of the subjects performed the experimental tasks. Amplitude and latency measures of the N1, P2 and P3 components of the Cortical Event Related Potential (ERP) as well as mean amplitude measures of N4, were compared for all context conditions and probe types.;Reaction time data indicated priming of all probes which were related to the preceeding lexical or semantic context. Priming was strongest for probes related to sentence topic. In the ERP data, the negative complex peaking between 250 and 400 msec was largest for probes which were unrelated to their context and significantly attenuated for probes related to sentence topic. P3 latency results were consistent with RT findings. Interestingly, lexical priming effects were attenuated when a related prime-target word pair occurred in a sentence context as opposed to when it occurred in isolation. An unexpected finding was the enhancement of P2 for probes that were lexically related to their primes. This enhancement was seen whether the single word primes occurred in isolation or embedded in a sentence context.;The results of the present investigation lend support to the notion that both semantic and single word priming effect lexical processing in connected speech.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
