Adaptation in syntactic comprehension: a replication

Language comprehension requires successfully navigating through a great degree of variability that is encountered on all linguistic levels. One hypothesis of how this variability is successfully dealt with is that listeners can rapidly update their statistical knowledge of how likely a linguistic event is to occur in a specific context. This process, called adaptation, allows listeners to better predict upcoming linguistic input. In previous work, Fine et al. (2013) designed an experiment to test for adaptation to uncommon syntactic structures. Subjects repeatedly encountered temporarily ambiguous RC/MV sentences. They found that subjects who had more exposure to the unexpected RC interpretation of the sentences had an easier time reading RC sentences but a harder time reading MV sentences. They concluded that syntactic adaptation occurs rapidly in unexpected structures and also results in trouble processing previously-expected, alternative structures. However, a power analysis revealed that Fine et al. (2013) ran an underpowered study. This thesis was designed to serve as a replication of Fine et al. (2013) with appropriate power. There was a failure to replicate Fine et al. (2013). The findings suggest instead that syntactic adaptation does not happen as rapidly as previously thought.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Harrington Stack, Caoimhe M

Contributors dc:contributor

• Watson, Duane G.

• syntax
• adaptation
• comprehension
• psycholinguistics

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Caoimhe Harrington Stack

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/92980

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F92980