On 28 May, Hanna Lindfors, PhD candidate from Linnaeus University will talk about Similar ERP effects for verbal and pictorial sequences with hierarchical structure.

Time: 13.15-15.00

On-site: SOL:A158

Zoom Link: https://lu-se.zoom.us/j/62491331134

Abstract

I will present a study in preparation for submission (see preliminary abstract below) and would greatly appreciate NLS members insights.

ERP studies have suggested that adults’ processing of hierarchical structure in picture sequences is similar to processing of syntactic structure in sentences. To extend these findings to children and to a within-subjects design, we developed a verbal paradigm that corresponded to the pictorial paradigm. In a first step, we showed that adults’ ERPs for the novel verbal paradigm mainly replicated previous findings for the pictorial paradigm. That is, anterior negativities were elicited to disruptions within sentence-initial and sentence-final constituents, and posterior positivities were elicited to disruptions between constituents and within sentence-final constituents. Unlike adults, children did not show anterior negativities that patterned with the hierarchical structure in either the verbal or the pictorial domain. However, children did show the adult pattern of posterior positivities in both domains. These results reveal developmental differences in processing hierarchical structures and as predicted, similarities in processing verbal and pictorial sequences, supporting domain-general views of language.

Co-authors: Kristina Hansson, John E. Drury, Neil Cohn, Eric Pakulak, and Annika Andersson