Abstract:
Incremental language processing means that listeners confront temporary ambiguity about how to structure the input, which can generate misinterpretations. In four \"visual-world\" experiments, we tested whether engaging cognitive control - which detects and resolves conflict - assists revision during comprehension. We recorded listeners\' eye-movements and actions while following instructions that were ripe for misanalysis. In Experiments 1 and 3, sentences followed trials from a nonverbal conflict task that manipulated cognitive-control engagement, to test its impact on the ability to revise. To isolate conflict-driven effects of cognitive-control on comprehension, we manipulated attention in a non-conflict task in Experiments 2 and 4. We observed fewer comprehension errors, and earlier revision, when cognitive control (more than attention) was elicited on an immediately preceding trial. These results extend previous correlations between cognitive control and language processing by revealing the influence of domain-general cognitive-control engagement on the temporal unfolding of error-revision processes during language comprehension.
摘要:
增量语言处理意味着听众在如何构造输入时面临暂时的歧义,这可能会产生误解。在四个“视觉世界”实验中,我们测试了参与认知控制-检测和解决冲突-是否有助于理解过程中的修正。我们记录了听众的眼球运动和动作,同时遵循了错误分析的时机。在实验1和3中,句子遵循非语言冲突任务的试验,该任务操纵了认知控制参与,测试其对修正能力的影响。为了隔离认知控制对理解的冲突驱动效应,在实验2和4中,我们在非冲突任务中操纵了注意力。我们观察到更少的理解错误,和早期的修订,在之前的试验中引起认知控制(超过注意力)时。这些结果通过揭示领域-一般认知控制参与对语言理解过程中错误修订过程的时间展开的影响,扩展了认知控制与语言处理之间的先前相关性。