| |
Abstract:
Semantic interference effects and syntactic congruency
effects in naming have been established using a picture-word
interference paradigm. Schriefers, Meyer & Levelt (1990), for
example, found that naming a picture (e.g., dog) was slowed down if
the presentation of the picture was immediately preceded by the
presentation of a semantically related word (e.g., cat). Using the
same paradigm, but requiring participants to produce a noun phrase,
a syntactic congruity effect has also been reported for languages
such as Dutch (Schriefers, 1993; LaHeij et al. 1998), such that RTs
in naming a picture were faster if a word of the same gender was
presented at the same time as the picture, compared to when a word
of a different gender was presented.
In models of lexical retrieval during production (e.g. Levelt et
al., 1999) the semantic interference effect is accounted for in
terms of competition between different words that are semantically
interrelated. For error-free production to occur, selection of a
target "lemma" (i.e., an abstract representation for a word) needs
to occur; if competitors are also active, the selection process may
be slowed down. The syntactic congruity effect would, instead,
occur after lemma selection, as the result of increasing the
activation of a "gender node" that is shared between the target and
the distractor. Recently, however, researchers (Caramazza and
colleagues) have questioned whether the syntactic congruity effect
reported in picture-word interference experiments truly reflects
changes in the level of activation of a syntactic gender node or
whether, instead, it reflects phonological level associations
between determiners and nouns.
In a series of three experiments (two completed and the third in
progress) we have used a different methodology to assess semantic,
syntactic effects as well as their relationship in phrasal
production. In the experiments, participants (Dutch-English
bilinguals) are presented with blocks of English words written in
small or large font and their task is to produce the Dutch phrase
corresponding to "Groot/e x" [big-masc/fem x] or "Klein/e x"
[small-masc/fem x]. In Dutch, adjectives are marked for gender,
therefore allowing us to assess syntactic effects. In experiment 1,
we presented participants with blocks of words from the same
semantic category (homogeneous) or from different semantic
categories (heterogeneous). Latencies to produce Adjs+Ns were
slower in the homogeneous condition than in the heterogeneous
condition (see Table 1), which can be accounted for along the same
lines as the results reported in the picture-word interference
paradigm. In the second experiment, words from different categories
but belonging to the same gender (homogeneous) or the two different
genders (heterogeneous) were presented in blocks. Here we found
that speakers were faster in the homogeneous than in the
heterogeneous condition. This result is consistent with models
which assume the existence of syntactic features abstract from
their phonological realization (as in Levelt et al, 1999). In the
final experiment, which is currently in progress, we are crossing
the semantic and the syntactic manipulation. Results from this
final study will speak to the issue of the relationships between
lexico-semantic and lexico-syntactic information.
La Heij, W., Mak, P., Sander, J. & Willeboordse, E. The
gender-congruency effect in picture-word tasks. Psychological
Research, 61, 209-219.
Levelt, W.J.M., Roelofs, A., & Meyer, A.S. (1999). A theory of
lexical access in speech production. Behavioral and Brain Sciences,
22, 1+.
Miozzo, M., & Caramazza, A. (1999) The selection of
determiners in noun phrase production. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 25, 907-922.
Schriefers, H. (1993). Syntactic processes in the production of
noun phrases. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory
and Cognition, 19, 841-850.
|
