Event-based plausibility immediately influences on-line language comprehension.

Abstract

In some theories of sentence comprehension, linguistically relevant lexical knowledge, such as selectional restrictions, is privileged in terms of the time-course of its access and influence. We examined whether event knowledge computed by combining multiple concepts can rapidly influence language understanding even in the absence of selectional restriction violations. Specifically, we investigated whether instruments can combine with actions to influence comprehension of ensuing patients of (as in Rayner, Warren, Juhuasz, & Liversedge, 2004;Warren & McConnell, 2007). Instrument-verb-patient triplets were created in a norming study designed to tap directly into event knowledge. In self-paced reading (Experiment 1), participants were faster to read patient nouns, such as hair, when they were typical of the instrument-action pair (Donna used the shampoo to wash vs. the hose to wash). Experiment 2 showed that these results were not due to direct instrument-patient relations. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 1 using eyetracking, with effects of event typicality observed in first fixation and gaze durations on the patient noun. This research demonstrates that conceptual event-based expectations are computed and used rapidly and dynamically during on-line language comprehension. We discuss relationships among plausibility and predictability, as well as their implications. We conclude that selectional restrictions may be best considered as event-based conceptual knowledge rather than lexical-grammatical knowledge.

Logical Metonymy Resolution in a Words‐as‐Cues Framework: Evidence From Self‐Paced Reading and Probe Recognition

“…Therefore, we can conclude that the typicality effect we found in the experiments should not be considered an effect of semantic anomaly of the low-typicality condition. This corresponds to the point made by Matsuki et al (2011) The typicality effect should also not be considered an effect of priming of the verb by the agent on the patient alone, together with a delayed spillover effect at the target verb: Our materials are well controlled to rule out this possibility, so that both agents selected for each patient can go together with the patient to the same extent (see also the lack of any difference at the patient noun), and every agent appears once as a high-typicality agent and once as a low-typicality agent for a covert event.…”

“…We created the materials for the self-paced reading experiment using norming studies inspired by the procedures in Matsuki et al (2011).…”

“…Generalized event knowledge is built from first and secondhand experience; for instance, we know that washing hair typically includes shampoo and a bathroom; washing a car would involve a different scenario (an outdoor environment, a hose). Scenarios may potentially differ across individuals having different realworld experiences; for example, Matsuki et al (2011) point out that sentences about cleaning miniatures on the shelf or trapping the large goose are not highly likely to refer to events that the average undergraduate student is typically familiar with. Nevertheless, people from the same linguistic and cultural background do share a great extent of generalized event knowledge, which is available in our memory and can be cued by linguistic input: words rapidly combine in sentences to cue-specific scenarios and to drive expectations about upcoming input which is relevant to those scenarios (McRae & Matsuki, 2009).…”

Looking for a Location: Dissociated Effects of Event-Related Plausibility and Verb–Argument Information on Predictive Processing in Aphasia

“…In parallel to lexically stored argument structure information, event-related world knowledge also has an important role in rapid language processing (Ferretti, McRae, & Hatherell, 2001;Matsuki et al, 2011;McRae & Matsuki, 2009). That knowledge regarding events or situations resides in semantic memory and is derived from people's experiences with common events, event participants, locations, and other event-related information.…”

On the predictability of event boundaries in discourse: An ERP investigation

“…A great deal of research indicates that knowledge about real-world events or everyday activities, also called event schemata or script knowledge (Schank & Abelson, 1977), is rapidly activated and influences online processing at the level of individual words (e.g., Chwilla & Kolk, 2005;Hare, Jones, Thomson, Kelly, & McRae, 2009;McRae, Hare, Elman, & Ferretti, 2005), sentences (e.g., Altmann & Kamide, 1999;Bicknell, Elman, Hare, McRae, & Kutas, 2010;Matsuki et al, 2011), and wider discourse (e.g., Camblin, Gordon, & Swaab, 2007;Metusalem, Kutas, Hare, McRae, & Elman, 2012;Otten & van Berkum, 2007). In particular, research on discourse comprehension has shown that event knowledge plays a crucial role in building incremental representations of the situation described in a text, so-called mental or situation models (Johnson-Laird, 1983;Van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983;Zwaan & Radvansky, 1998).…”