Showing papers in "Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology in 2008"
TL;DR: A growing body of research suggests that comprehending verbal descriptions of actions relies on an internal simulation of the described action, and the role of motor resonance during language comprehension is considered.
Abstract: A growing body of research suggests that comprehending verbal descriptions of actions relies on an internal simulation of the described action. To assess this motor resonance account of language comprehension, we first review recent developments in the literature on perception and action, with a view towards language processing. We then examine studies of language processing from an action simulation perspective. We conclude by discussing several criteria that might be helpful with regard to assessing the role of motor resonance during language comprehension.
763 citations
TL;DR: It is proposed that individuals with dyslexia have a deficit in access to phonological representations and it is speculated that a similar notion might also adequately describe the nature of other associated cognitive deficits when present.
Abstract: We review a series of experiments aimed at understanding the nature of the phonological deficit in developmental dyslexia. These experiments investigate input and output phonological representations, phonological grammar, foreign speech perception and production, and unconscious speech processing and lexical access. Our results converge on the observation that the phonological representations of people with dyslexia may be intact, and that the phonological deficit surfaces only as a function of certain task requirements, notably short-term memory, conscious awareness, and time constraints. In an attempt to reformulate those task requirements more economically, we propose that individuals with dyslexia have a deficit in access to phonological representations. We discuss the explanatory power of this concept and we speculate that a similar notion might also adequately describe the nature of other associated cognitive deficits when present.
583 citations
TL;DR: There is greater modulation of activity in the hand muscles when reading sentences describing transfer of both concrete objects and abstract information, and this finding is discussed in relation to the human mirror neuron system.
Abstract: Embodiment theory proposes that neural systems for perception and action are also engaged during language comprehension. Previous neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies have only been able to demonstrate modulation of action systems during comprehension of concrete language. We provide neurophysiological evidence for modulation of motor system activity during the comprehension of both concrete and abstract language. In Experiment 1, when the described direction of object transfer or information transfer (e.g., away from the reader to another) matched the literal direction of a hand movement used to make a response, speed of responding was faster than when the two directions mismatched (an action-sentence compatibility effect). In Experiment 2, we used single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation to study changes in the corticospinal motor pathways to hand muscles while reading the same sentences. Relative to sentences that do not describe transfer, there is greater modulation of activity in the hand muscles when reading sentences describing transfer of both concrete objects and abstract information. These findings are discussed in relation to the human mirror neuron system.
358 citations
TL;DR: This paper reexamines Frith's original concept of weak coherence, its historical origins, recent reformulations, and alternative accounts, and considers the on-line and developmental relations between these two aspects of “weak coherence”.
Abstract: This paper reexamines Frith's original concept of weak coherence, its historical origins, recent reformulations, and alternative accounts. We suggest that the key notion of reduced global integration of information, which Frith proposed to underlie the assets in local processing, has been neglected in recent accounts of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In fact, most paradigms used to test weak coherence conflate global and local processing, often placing them in direct trade-off, so that it is not possible to tell whether patterns of performance in ASD reflect reduced global processing, increased local processing, or both. We review the literature from typical development and ASD that may be pertinent to this distinction and examine some data from our own studies. Only once tasks are devised that measure separately the effects of reduced global processing and increased local processing will it be possible to test the on-line and developmental relations between these two aspects of "weak coherence". Some preliminary ideas about these relationships are discussed, and suggestions are made for why disentangling two possibly independent dimensions of weak coherence may be timely and productive.
268 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that while both conditions can be considered disorders of social cognition, fine cuts can be made dissociating the impairments associated with each.
Abstract: In the current paper, the "fine cuts" approach advocated by Uta Frith is applied to our understanding of empathy and amygdala dysfunction in two disorders, psychopathy and autism. A fine cut is made between cognitive (i.e., Theory of Mind) and emotional empathy. The literature with respect to psychopathy and autism and these two functions is then considered. A fine cut is also made between the amygdala's role in stimulus-reinforcement association and specific aspects of social cognition. Again the literature with respect to psychopathy and autism and these two functions of the amygdala is considered. It is concluded that while both conditions can be considered disorders of social cognition, fine cuts can be made dissociating the impairments associated with each.
248 citations
TL;DR: A case series extended findings to show that phonological deficits alone are insufficient to explain literacy difficulties, and it is children with multiple deficits (including language problems) that are more likely to succumb to reading failure.
Abstract: Two studies investigating the cognitive phenotype of dyslexia are described. Study 1 compared three groups of English and Italian children on speed of processing tasks: (a) children with dyslexia, (b) generally delayed poor readers and (c) CA-controls. In tests of simple and choice reaction time and two visual scanning tasks, children with dyslexia performed like controls and significantly faster than generally delayed poor readers. A second prospective longitudinal investigation of children at family risk of dyslexia showed that problems of literacy development were less circumscribed, with affected children showing phonological deficits in the context of more general oral language difficulties. An important finding was that the risk of dyslexia was continuous in this sample; among at-risk children with normal literacy development, mild impairments of phonological skills were apparent early in development, and subtle difficulties with reading fluency and spelling emerged in early adolescence. A case series extended these findings to show that phonological deficits alone are insufficient to explain literacy difficulties, and it is children with multiple deficits (including language problems) that are more likely to succumb to reading failure.
193 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reviewed neurophysiological and behavioural evidence that manual gestures and vocal language share the same control system and found that the hand motor control system is involved in higher-order cognition.
Abstract: Arm movements can influence language comprehension much as semantics can influence arm movement planning. Arm movement itself can be used as a linguistic signal. We reviewed neurophysiological and behavioural evidence that manual gestures and vocal language share the same control system. Studies of primate premotor cortex and, in particular, of the so-called "mirror system", including humans, suggest the existence of a dual hand/mouth motor command system involved in ingestion activities. This may be the platform on which a combined manual and vocal communication system was constructed. In humans, speech is typically accompanied by manual gesture, speech production itself is influenced by executing or observing transitive hand actions, and manual actions play an important role in the development of speech, from the babbling stage onwards. Behavioural data also show reciprocal influence between word and symbolic gestures. Neuroimaging and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) data suggest that the system governing both speech and gesture is located in Broca's area. In general, the presented data support the hypothesis that the hand motor-control system is involved in higher order cognition.
187 citations
TL;DR: The present results provide support for the notion that the eyes are selected by others in order to extract social information, and suggest a simple and surreptitious methodology for studying social attention to real-world stimuli in a range of populations, such as those with autism spectrum disorders.
Abstract: The present study examined how social attention is influenced by social content and the presence of items that are available for attention. We monitored observers' eye movements while they freely viewed real-world social scenes containing either 1 or 3 people situated among a variety of objects. Building from the work of Yarbus (1965/1967) we hypothesized that observers would demonstrate a preferential bias to fixate the eyes of the people in the scene, although other items would also receive attention. In addition, we hypothesized that fixations to the eyes would increase as the social content (i.e., number of people) increased. Both hypotheses were supported by the data, and we also found that the level of activity in the scene influenced attention to eyes when social content was high. The present results provide support for the notion that the eyes are selected by others in order to extract social information. Our study also suggests a simple and surreptitious methodology for studying social attention to real-world stimuli in a range of populations, such as those with autism spectrum disorders.
182 citations
TL;DR: The current findings lend support to spreading activation and feature overlap theories of priming, but do not support priming based upon contextual similarity as captured by LSA.
Abstract: The current study explores a set of variables that have the potential to predict semantic priming effects for 300 prime–target associates at the item level. Young and older adults performed either lexical decision (LDT) or naming tasks. A multiple regression procedure was used to predict priming based upon prime characteristics, target characteristics, and prime–target semantic similarity. Results indicate that semantic priming (a) can be reliably predicted at an item level; (b) is equivalent in magnitude across standardized measures of priming in LDTs and naming tasks; (c) is greater following quickly recognized primes; (d) is greater in LDTs for targets that produce slow lexical decision latencies; (e) is greater for pairs high in forward associative strength across tasks and across stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs); (f) is greater for pairs high in backward associative strength in both tasks, but only at a long SOA; and (g) does not vary as a function of estimates from latent semantic analysis (LSA). ...
155 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that top-down modulation of the direct M route may be dysfunctional in individuals with autism, leading to abnormal behaviours on mimicry tasks as well as other social disabilities.
Abstract: The "broken-mirror" theory of autism argues that dysfunction of the "mirror neuron system" is a root cause of social disability in autism. The present paper aims to scrutinize this theory and, when it breaks down, to provide an alternative. Current evidence suggests that children with autism are able to understand and emulate goal-directed actions, but may have specific impairments in automatic mimicry of actions without goals. These data are not compatible with the broken-mirror theory, but can be accounted for by a new model called EP-M. The EP-M model segments the mirror neuron system into an indirect, parietal route for goal emulation and planning (EP) and a direct occipital-frontal route for mimicry (M). This fractionation is consistent with neuroimaging and behavioural studies of the mirror neuron system in typical children and adults. I suggest that top-down modulation of the direct M route may be dysfunctional in individuals with autism, leading to abnormal behaviours on mimicry tasks as well as other social disabilities.
155 citations
TL;DR: Evidence for a circumscribed network of brain regions involved in understanding other people and evidence that some of these brain regions undergo structural development during adolescence are described.
Abstract: Adolescence is usually defined as the period of psychological and social transition between childhood and adulthood. The beginning of adolescence, around the onset of puberty, is characterized by large hormonal and physical changes. The transition from childhood to adulthood is also characterized by psychological changes in terms of identity, self-consciousness, and cognitive flexibility. In the past decade, it has been demonstrated that various regions of the human brain undergo development during adolescence and beyond. Some of the brain regions that undergo particularly protracted development are involved in social cognitive function in adults. In the first section of this paper, I briefly describe evidence for a circumscribed network of brain regions involved in understanding other people. Next, I describe evidence that some of these brain regions undergo structural development during adolescence. Finally, I discuss recent studies that have investigated social cognitive development during adolescence.
TL;DR: The present study replicates previous findings showing that verbal descriptions of actions activate compatible motor responses within a sentence, and motor resonance is found to yield to linguistic focus.
Abstract: Previous studies have demonstrated that verbal descriptions of actions activate compatible motor responses (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002; Zwaan & Taylor, 2006). The present study replicates previous findings showing that, within a sentence, such activation is localized on the verb that denotes the action. Moreover, motor resonance is found to yield to linguistic focus. If a postverbal adverb maintains focus on a matching action (“slowly” or “quickly”), motor resonance occurs, but if the adverb shifts the focus to the agent (e.g., “obediently” or “eagerly”), a cessation of motor resonance ensues. These findings are discussed within the context of theories of motor resonance, action understanding, mental simulation, and linguistic focus.
TL;DR: The sex effects reflect a difference in strategy, with women mentally rotating the polygons in an analytic, piecemeal fashion and men using a holistic mode of mental rotation.
Abstract: Sex differences in mental rotation were investigated as a function of stimulus complexity with a sample size of N = 72. Replicating earlier findings with polygons, mental rotation was faster for males than for females, and reaction time increased with more complex polygons. Additionally, sex differences increased for complex polygons. Most importantly, however, mental rotation speed decreased with increasing complexity for women but did not change for men. Thus, the sex effects reflect a difference in strategy, with women mentally rotating the polygons in an analytic, piecemeal fashion and men using a holistic mode of mental rotation.
TL;DR: A limited parafoveal-on-foveal effect was observed: There were inflated fixation times on wordn when the preview of wordn + 1 was orthographically illegal, and this effect was associated with relatively long prior saccades.
Abstract: Contrasting predictions of serial and parallel views on the processing of foveal and parafoveal information during reading were tested. A high-frequency adjective (young) was followed by either a high-frequency wordn (child) or a low-frequency wordn (tenor), which in turn was followed by either a correct (performing) or an orthographic illegal wordn + 1 (pxvforming) as a parafoveal preview. A limited parafoveal-on-foveal effect was observed: There were inflated fixation times on wordn when the preview of wordn + 1 was orthographically illegal. However, this parafoveal-on-foveal effect was (a) independent of the frequency of wordn, (b) restricted to those instances when the eyes were very close to wordn + 1, and (c) associated with relatively long prior saccades. These observations are all compatible with a mislocated fixation account in which parafoveal-on-foveal effects result from saccadic undershoots of wordn + 1 and with a serial model of eye movement control during reading.
TL;DR: Evidence is reviewed suggesting that, in the general population, empathizing and systemizing show strong sex differences and the hypersystemizing theory of autism spectrum conditions proposes that people with ASC have an unusually strong drive to systemize.
Abstract: Evidence is reviewed suggesting that, in the general population, empathizing and systemizing show strong sex differences. The function of systemizing is to predict lawful events, including lawful change, or patterns in data. Also reviewed is the evidence that individuals on the autistic spectrum have degrees of empathizing difficulties alongside hypersystemizing. The hypersystemizing theory of autism spectrum conditions (ASC) proposes that people with ASC have an unusually strong drive to systemize. This can explain their preference for systems that change in highly lawful or predictable ways; why they become disabled when faced with systems characterized by less lawful change; and their “need for sameness” or “resistance to change”. If “truth” is defined as lawful patterns in data then, according to the hypersystemizing theory, people with ASC are strongly driven to discover the “truth”.
TL;DR: Strong evidence emerges for the view that damage to hippocampal—mammillary body—anterior thalamic interactions is sufficient to induce amnesia, and the possibility that the retrosplenial cortex provides an integrating link in this functional system.
Abstract: Three emerging strands of evidence are helping to resolve the causes of the anterograde amnesia associated with damage to the diencephalon. First, new anatomical studies have refined our understanding of the links between diencephalic and temporal brain regions associated with amnesia. These studies direct attention to the limited numbers of routes linking the two regions. Second, neuropsychological studies of patients with colloid cysts confirm the importance of at least one of these routes, the fornix, for episodic memory. By combining these anatomical and neuropsychological data strong evidence emerges for the view that damage to hippocampal—mammillary body—anterior thalamic interactions is sufficient to induce amnesia. A third development is the possibility that the retrosplenial cortex provides an integrating link in this functional system. Furthermore, recent evidence indicates that the retrosplenial cortex may suffer “covert” pathology (i.e., it is functionally lesioned) following damage to the ant...
TL;DR: The results suggest that action planning was faster with compatible than with incompatible mappings (and faster than with no tones) and the size of this compatibility effect grew with increasing musical experience, which suggests that improvements in auditory imagery ability that typically accompany musical training may augment the role of anticipatory auditory-effect representations during planning.
Abstract: The hypothesis that planning music-like sequential actions involves anticipating their auditory effects was investigated in a series of experiments. Participants with varying levels of musical experience responded to each of four colour-patch stimuli by producing a unique sequence of three taps on three vertically aligned keys. Each tap triggered a tone in most experimental conditions. Response–effect (key-to-tone) mapping was either compatible—taps on the top, middle, and bottom keys triggered high, medium, and low pitched tones, respectively—or incompatible—key-to-tone mapping was scrambled, reversed, or neutral (taps on different keys triggered the same tone). The results suggest that action planning was faster with compatible than with incompatible mappings (and faster than with no tones). Furthermore, the size of this compatibility effect grew with increasing musical experience, which suggests that improvements in auditory imagery ability that typically accompany musical training may augment the role...
TL;DR: It is proposed that a decline in memory occurred because participants were focusing their attention on the auditory stream (to enable them to better segregate the words from the noise background) rather than on remembering the words they had heard.
Abstract: A number of factors could explain the adverse effect that babble noise has on memory for spoken words (Murphy, Craik, Li, & Schneider, 2000). Babble could degrade the perceptual representation of w...
TL;DR: Responses to emotional words were faster when the response's effect was congruent with stimulus valence, suggesting that approach/avoidance actions are indeed defined in terms of their outcomes.
Abstract: Numerous studies use arm movements (arm flexion and extension) to investigate the interaction between emotional stimuli and approach/avoidance behaviour. In many experiments, however, these arm movements are ambiguous. Arm flexion can be interpreted either as pulling (approach) or as withdrawing (avoidance). On the contrary, arm extension can be interpreted as reaching (approach) or as pushing (avoidance). This ambiguity can be resolved by regarding approach and avoidance as flexible action plans that are represented in terms of their effects. Approach actions reduce the distance between a stimulus and the self, whereas avoidance actions increase that distance. In this view, action effects are an integral part of the representation of an action. As a result, a neutral action can become an approach or avoidance reaction if it repeatedly results in decreasing or increasing the distance to a valenced stimulus. This hypothesis was tested in the current study. Participants responded to positive and negative words using key-presses. These "neutral" responses (not involving arm flexion or extension) were consistently followed by a stimulus movement toward or away from the participant. Responses to emotional words were faster when the response's effect was congruent with stimulus valence, suggesting that approach/avoidance actions are indeed defined in terms of their outcomes.
TL;DR: This paper argues that thefalse-belief task and the false-photograph task are not structurally equivalent and are not empirically associated, and suggests that children with autism also have difficulty understanding misleading nonmental objects.
Abstract: We resume an exchange of ideas with Uta Frith that started before the turn of the century. The curious incident responsible for this exchange was the finding that children with autism fail tests of false belief, while they pass Zaitchik's (1990) photograph task (Leekam & Perner, 1991). This finding led to the conclusion that children with autism have a domain-specific impairment in Theory of Mind (mental representations), because the photograph task and the false-belief task are structurally equivalent except for the nonmental character of photographs. In this paper we argue that the false-belief task and the false-photograph task are not structurally equivalent and are not empirically associated. Instead a truly structurally equivalent task is the false-sign task. Performance on this task is strongly associated with the false-belief task. A version of this task, the misleading-signal task, also poses severe problems for children with autism (Bowler, Briskman, Gurvidi, & Fornells-Ambrojo, 2005). These new findings therefore challenge the earlier interpretation of a domain-specific difficulty in inferring mental states and suggest that children with autism also have difficulty understanding misleading nonmental objects. Brain imaging data using false-belief, “false”-photo, and false-sign scenarios provide further supporting evidence for our conclusions.
TL;DR: The results support a cognitive model of anxiety in which performance of an avoidance response reduces expectancy of an aversive outcome and thereby reduces anxiety.
Abstract: A laboratory model was developed to study human avoidance learning Participants could avoid an electric shock signalled by a 5-s conditioned stimulus (CS) by pressing one of a set of response buttons Self-reported shock expectancy and skin conductance were recorded during a subsequent 10-s interval before shock Shock expectancy declined when the correct avoidance response was learned and returned when the response was unavailable Learning transferred to another shock CS Parallel effects were observed on skin conductance once performance anxiety was controlled by requiring responding on all trials Learning was faster when the Pavlovian contingencies were trained before introduction of the instrumental response The results support a cognitive model of anxiety in which performance of an avoidance response reduces expectancy of an aversive outcome and thereby reduces anxiety
TL;DR: The results show no dissociation between tasks that do and do not require spoken output, arguing against the redintegration hypothesis according to which lexical-semantic effects in short-term memory arise only at the point of production.
Abstract: This study investigates concreteness effects in tasks requiring short-term retention. Concreteness effects were assessed in serial recall, matching span, order reconstruction, and free recall. Each task was carried out both in a control condition and under articulatory suppression. Our results show no dissociation between tasks that do and do not require spoken output. This argues against the redintegration hypothesis according to which lexical-semantic effects in short-term memory arise only at the point of production. In contrast, concreteness effects were modulated by task demands that stressed retention of item versus order information. Concreteness effects were stronger in free recall than in serial recall. Suppression, which weakens phonological representations, enhanced the concreteness effect with item scoring. In a matching task, positive effects of concreteness occurred with open sets but not with closed sets of words. Finally, concreteness effects reversed when the task asked only for recall of word positions (as in the matching task), when phonological representations were weak (because of suppression), and when lexical semantic representations overactivated (because of closed sets). We interpret these results as consistent with a model where phonological representations are crucial for the retention of order, while lexical-semantic representations support maintenance of item identity in both input and output buffers.
TL;DR: Sensitivity to time was lower than that to the other quantities, whether continuous or not, and the Weber ratio values as well as the bisection points for all quantities presented sequentially appeared to be close to that found for duration in the nonsequential condition.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to focus on similarities in the discrimination of three different quantities—time, number, and line length—using a bisection task involving children aged 5 and 8 years and adults, when number and length were presented nonsequentially (Experiment 1) and sequentially (Experiment 2). In the nonsequential condition, for all age groups, although to a greater extent in the younger children, the psychophysical functions were flatter, and the Weber ratio higher for time than for number and length. Number and length yielded similar psychophysical functions. Thus, sensitivity to time was lower than that to the other quantities, whether continuous or not. However, when number and length were presented sequentially (Experiment 2), the differences in discrimination performance between time, number, and length disappeared. Furthermore, the Weber ratio values as well as the bisection points for all quantities presented sequentially appeared to be close to that found for duration in the nonseque...
TL;DR: The results suggest that the consolidation of novel words results in a long-term and stable change in the lexical competition process.
Abstract: Newly learned spoken words (e.g., “cathedruke”) become fully engaged in the mental lexicon, as measured via lexical competition with their pre-existing phonological neighbours (e.g., “cathedral”), over the course of several hours or days, and this lexical restructuring is associated with sleep (Dumay & Gaskell, 2007). Here, we investigated the longer-term effects of word learning for three sets of novel words learned at different times using phoneme monitoring and repetition tasks. The effects of these exposure sessions on lexical memory were assessed in a battery of tests. Lexical decision latencies to pre-existing neighbouring words showed that lexical competition effects for the novel words remained observable 8 months after initial exposure. Furthermore, the order-of-acquisition of the novel words affected their production speed (but not recognition speed), with an advantage for earlier acquired words. The results suggest that the consolidation of novel words results in a long-term and stable change i...
TL;DR: A profile of visual attention supports the Pearce and Hall (1980) theory of the role of attention in associative learning.
Abstract: Three localized, visual pattern stimuli were trained as predictive signals of auditory outcomes. One signal partially predicted an aversive noise in Experiment 1 and a neutral tone in Experiment 2, whereas the other signals consistently predicted either the occurrence or absence of the noise. The expectation of the noise was measured during each signal presentation, and only participants for whom this expectation demonstrated contingency knowledge showed differential attention to the signals. Importantly, when attention was measured by visual fixations, the contingency-aware group attended more to the partially predictive signal than to the consistent predictors in both experiments. This profile of visual attention supports the Pearce and Hall (1980) theory of the role of attention in associative learning.
TL;DR: Comparable Hebb effects were observed in both domains, but only nonword learning was significantly related to the magnitude of Hebb learning, suggesting that vocabulary acquisition depends on both a domain-specific short-term memory system and adomain-general process of learning through repetition.
Abstract: Recent work using the Hebb effect as a marker for implicit long-term acquisition of serial order has demonstrated a functional equivalence across verbal and visuospatial short-term memory. The current study extends this observation to a sample of five- to six-year-olds using verbal and spatial immediate serial recall and also correlates the magnitude of Hebb learning with explicit measures of word and nonword paired-associate learning. Comparable Hebb effects were observed in both domains, but only nonword learning was significantly related to the magnitude of Hebb learning. Nonword learning was also independently related to individuals' general level of verbal serial recall. This suggests that vocabulary acquisition depends on both a domain-specific short-term memory system and a domain-general process of learning through repetition.
TL;DR: It is shown that the reaching movement can be disturbed by action words even when the words are presented delayed with respect to movement onset, and the results are compared to studies that show language–motor interaction in conditions where the word is presented prior to movements onset.
Abstract: In a recent study Boulenger et al. (2006) found that processing action verbs assisted reaching movement when the word was processed prior to movement onset and interfered with the movement when the word was processed at movement onset. The present study aimed to further corroborate the existence of such cross-talk between language processes and overt motor behaviour by demonstrating that the reaching movement can be disturbed by action words even when the words are presented delayed with respect to movement onset (50 ms and 200 ms). The results are compared to studies that show language-motor interaction in conditions where the word is presented prior to movement onset and are discussed within the context of embodied theories of language comprehension.
TL;DR: This work investigates how extra effort applied to disjunctive statements leads to a pragmatic interpretation of “or”, or but not both, and hypothesized that conditions encouraging more processing effort would give rise to more pragmatic inferences and hence to more exclusive interpretations of the disjunction.
Abstract: This work examines how people interpret the sentential connective "or", which can be viewed either inclusively (A or B or both) or exclusively (A or B but not both). Following up on prior work concerning quantifiers (Bott & Noveck, 2004; Noveck, 2001; Noveck & Posada, 2003), which shows that the common pragmatic interpretation of "some", some but not all, is conveyed as part of an effortful step, we investigate how extra effort applied to disjunctive statements leads to a pragmatic interpretation of "or", or but not both. Experiment 1 compelled participants to wait for three seconds before answering, hence giving them the opportunity to process the utterance more deeply. Experiments 2 and 3 emphasized "or", either by visual means ("OR") or by prosodic means (contrastive stress) as another way to encourage participants to apply more effort. Following a relevance-theoretic line of argument, we hypothesized that conditions encouraging more processing effort would give rise to more pragmatic inferences and hence to more exclusive interpretations of the disjunction. This prediction was confirmed in the three experiments.
TL;DR: Surprisingly, the reminiscence bump consisted of relatively fewer novel, emotional, important positive or negative events, increasing the likelihood of an alternative explanation—namely, that memory is generally enhanced in adolescence and early adulthood.
Abstract: People tend to recall a disproportionately large number of personal events from their adolescence and early adulthood. This “reminiscence bump” has been examined extensively, but its causes remain unclear. In this Internet-based experiment, nearly 3,500 participants were given 10 cue words and were asked to describe the personal events that came to mind. Furthermore, they were asked to date each event and to indicate whether it was a first-time experience. Finally, the participants were asked to rate the strength of the emotional reaction to the event or the valence or the importance of the event. Surprisingly, the reminiscence bump consisted of relatively fewer novel, emotional, important positive or negative events. This result increases the likelihood of an alternative explanation—namely, that memory is generally enhanced in adolescence and early adulthood. However, this account has not been tested directly.
TL;DR: While children and adults are alike in their basic thematic assignment processes during reading, children may be delayed in the efficiency with which they are able to integrate pragmatic and real-world knowledge into their discourse representation.
Abstract: The eye movements of 24 children and 24 adults were monitored to compare how they read sentences containing plausible, implausible, and anomalous thematic relations. In the implausible condition the incongruity occurred due to the incompatibility of two objects involved in the event denoted by the main verb. In the anomalous condition the direct object of the verb was not a possible verb argument. Adults exhibited immediate disruption with the anomalous sentences as compared to the implausible sentences as indexed by longer gaze durations on the target word. Children exhibited the same pattern of effects as adults as far as the anomalous sentences were concerned, but exhibited delayed effects of implausibility. These data indicate that while children and adults are alike in their basic thematic assignment processes during reading, children may be delayed in the efficiency with which they are able to integrate pragmatic and real-world knowledge into their discourse representation.