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Sentence Processing in an Artificial Language: Learning and Using Combinatorial Constraints
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Amato, Michael S.; MacDonald, Maryellen C. – Cognition, 2010
A study combining artificial grammar and sentence comprehension methods investigated the learning and online use of probabilistic, nonadjacent combinatorial constraints. Participants learned a small artificial language describing cartoon monsters acting on objects. Self-paced reading of sentences in the artificial language revealed comprehenders'…
Descriptors: Sentences, Artificial Languages, Cartoons, Language Processing
Experience and Grammatical Agreement: Statistical Learning Shapes Number Agreement Production
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Haskell, Todd R.; Thornton, Robert; MacDonald, Maryellen C. – Cognition, 2010
A robust result in research on the production of grammatical agreement is that speakers are more likely to produce an erroneous verb with phrases such as "the key to the cabinets", with a singular noun followed by a plural one, than with phrases such as "the keys to the cabinet", where a plural noun is followed by a singular. These asymmetries are…
Descriptors: Nouns, Grammar, Error Patterns, Verbs
A Usage-Based Approach to Recursion in Sentence Processing
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Christiansen, Morten H.; MacDonald, Maryellen C. – Language Learning, 2009
Most current approaches to linguistic structure suggest that language is recursive, that recursion is a fundamental property of grammar, and that independent performance constraints limit recursive abilities that would otherwise be infinite. This article presents a usage-based perspective on recursive sentence processing, in which recursion is…
Descriptors: Sentences, Language Processing, Language Usage, Grammar
Experience and Sentence Processing: Statistical Learning and Relative Clause Comprehension
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Wells, Justine B.; Christiansen, Morten H.; Race, David S.; Acheson, Daniel J.; MacDonald, Maryellen C. – Cognitive Psychology, 2009
Many explanations of the difficulties associated with interpreting object relative clauses appeal to the demands that object relatives make on working memory. MacDonald and Christiansen [MacDonald, M. C., & Christiansen, M. H. (2002). "Reassessing working memory: Comment on Just and Carpenter (1992) and Waters and Caplan (1996)." "Psychological…
Descriptors: Sentences, Short Term Memory, Language Processing, Word Order
Comprehension of Long Distance Number Agreement in Probable Alzheimer's Disease.
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Almor, Amit; MacDonald, Maryellen C.; Kempler, Daniel; Andersen, Elaine S.; Tyler, Lorraine K. – Language and Cognitive Processes, 2001
Two studies are discussed. The first tested the effect of intervening material on the processing of subject-verb number agreement in Alzheimer's Disease patients and in normal elderly adults. The second examined the effect of intervening material on the processing of pronoun-antecedent number agreement in the same patients. (Author/VWL)
Descriptors: Alzheimers Disease, Cognitive Processes, Grammar, Language Processing
Constituent Structure and Linear Order in Language Production: Evidence from Subject-Verb Agreement
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Haskell, Todd R.; MacDonald, Maryellen C. – Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2005
A number of studies have shown that structural factors play a much larger role than the linear order of words during the production of grammatical agreement. These findings have been used as evidence for a stage in the production process at which hierarchical relations between constituents have been established (a necessary precursor to…
Descriptors: Syntax, Verbs, Grammar, Language Processing