Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Fast and Slow Linguistic Predictions

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

Language unfolds rapidly in time, and is often contaminated by various kinds of noise. Despite these challenges, native speakers? comprehension is generally robust and efficient. A key cognitive mechanism that underlies the robustness and efficiency of language understanding is the ability to predict the future based on knowledge acquired from past experience, i.e., memory. Much recent research has shown that comprehenders are very good at predicting upcoming words. However, little is known about exactly how comprehenders generate predictions in real time, as they hear or read sentences. In order to understand predictive mechanisms, we need to understand the nature of the memory systems that are engaged, the mechanisms that guide memory access, and how those mechanisms relate to the linguistic information that provides the memory cues. Understanding these mechanisms is important for figuring out how human languages are processed in the brain, and it may serve as a foundation for understanding how human language processing mechanisms can be impaired or repaired (in clinical settings), trained (in educational settings), and simulated (in technological settings). This research aims to examine the mechanisms underlying word prediction by studying native English speakers (in the US) and native Japanese speakers (in Japan) using electroencephalography (EEG). The project will support the doctoral dissertation research of Shota Momma. The studies build on previous research that shows that some linguistic predictions are computed rapidly while others are computed more slowly. The guiding hypothesis for the current project is that the speed of linguistic predictions depends on the compatibility between linguistic cues and the format of memory encoding. Linguistic cues that mismatch the format of memory are slower to compute. The project tests this hypothesis via experiments that vary the nature of the linguistic cues. The Japanese studies will be carried out with partners at Waseda University in Tokyo, where they will contribute to a growing scientific partnership between the American and Japanese laboratories.