How ‘rational’ is semantic prediction? A critique and re-analysis of

Nieuwland, Mante S.

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104848

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 29 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Pre-registered analyses can be misconceived, and such problems and analysis errors can be overlooked by researchers, peer reviewers and journal editors alike. This merely strengthens the case for scientific transparency and open data, to allow for post-publication re-analyses such as reported here and in Nieuwland (2021).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…Therefore, prediction disconfirmation was not a crucial trigger for adaptation. With related conclusions (Delaney-Busch et al, 2019) similarly debunked by Nieuwland (2021), the rational adaptation hypothesis of prediction is now left on shaky ground. Linguistic prediction may be more robust to changes in statistical regularities in the local environment than is sometimes thought.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regardless, responses to low cloze targets sped up in all lists, which may have impacted slowest responses most thereby yielding an interaction pattern (see also Prasad and Linzen, 2019). While such changes are not "rational" within the rational adaptation framework, they can be viewed as rational in a colloquial sense because they nevertheless reflect adaptation to the task environment (see also Nieuwland, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Commentary: Rational Adaptation in Lexical Prediction: The Influence of Prediction Strength

Nieuwland

2021

Front. Psychol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Commentary: Rational Adaptation in Lexical Prediction: The Influence of Prediction Strength

Nieuwland

2021

Front. Psychol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…However, as noted in the introduction, so far these proposals were either based on verbally descriptive theories (Kuperberg, 2016; Bornkessel-Schlesewsky and Schlesewsky, 2019) or on neural network models operating at Marr’s algorithmic (partly considered implementational) level of analysis (Rabovsky and McRae, 2014; Rabovsky et al, 2018; Lopopolo and Rabovsky, 2021). Here, we complement the neural network based approach with an explicitly probabilistic Bayesian modeling approach operating at Marr’s computational level (see also Delaney-Busch et al 2019, but Nieuwland 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Semantic Surprise Predicts the N400 Brain Potential

Lindborg

Musiolek

Ostwald

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Language is central to human life; however, how our brains derive meaning from language is still not well understood. A commonly studied electrophysiological measure of on-line meaning related processing is the N400 component, the computational basis of which is still actively debated. Here, we test one of the recently proposed, computationally explicit hypotheses on the N400 - namely, that it reflects surprise with respect to a probabilistic representation of the semantic features of the current stimulus in a given context. We devise a Bayesian sequential learner model to derive trial-by-trial semantic surprise in a semantic oddball like roving paradigm experiment, where single nouns from different semantic categories are presented in sequences. Using experimental data from 40 subjects, we show that model-derived semantic surprise significantly predicts the N400 amplitude, substantially outperforming a non-probabilistic baseline model. Investigating the temporal signature of the effect, we find that the effect of semantic surprise on the EEG is restricted to the time window of the N400. Moreover, comparing the topography of the semantic surprise effect to a conventional ERP analysis of predicted vs. unpredicted words, we find that the semantic surprise closely replicates the N400 topography. Our results make a strong case for the role of probabilistic semantic representations in eliciting the N400, and in language comprehension in general.

show abstract

“…The proportion paradigm has been shown to be a particularly useful tool for directly investigating strategic control processes during language comprehension (e.g., [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]). For example, in a self-paced reading experiment, Brothers et al [ 18 ] manipulated not only the predictability of the critical word (CW) (predictable vs. unpredictable), such as “spider” in (1a) and (1b), but also the global validity of lexical prediction, that is, the proportion of sentences in which the CWs were predictable (87.5%, 50%, or 12.5%).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Processing of Gender Stereotypes in Sentence Comprehension: An ERP Study

Zhang

2023

Brain Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gender stereotypes are often involved in language comprehension. This study investigated whether and to what extent their processing is under strategic control, by examining both proportion and order effects related to gender stereotypes for role nouns. We manipulated stereotypical gender consistencies, as in “Li’s daughter/son was a nurse…”, the relative proportions of gender-consistent and gender-inconsistent sentences (80%:20% and 50%:50% for high-proportion and equal-proportion sessions, respectively), and a between-participant factor of session order (high-proportion sessions preceding equal-proportion sessions and a reversed order for the high–equal and equal–high groups, respectively). Linear mixed-effect models revealed a larger N400 and a larger late negativity for stereotypically inconsistent compared to consistent sentences for the high–equal group only. These results indicate that even if sentence contexts have already determined the gender of target role characters, gender stereotypes for role nouns are still activated when the first half of the experiment facilitates their activation. The analyses of trial-by-trial dynamics showed that the N400 effects gradually decreased throughout equal-proportion sessions for the equal–high group. Our findings suggest that the processing of gender stereotypes can be under strategic control. In addition, readers may develop other strategies based on sentence contexts, when the processing strategy based on cue validity is not available.

show abstract

How ‘rational’ is semantic prediction? A critique and re-analysis of

Cited by 11 publications

References 29 publications

Commentary: Rational Adaptation in Lexical Prediction: The Influence of Prediction Strength

Commentary: Rational Adaptation in Lexical Prediction: The Influence of Prediction Strength

Semantic Surprise Predicts the N400 Brain Potential

Strategic Processing of Gender Stereotypes in Sentence Comprehension: An ERP Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About