Multisensory Input Modulates P200 and L2 Sentence Comprehension: A One-Week Consolidation Phase

Abstract

Multisensory input is an aid to language comprehension; however, it remains to be seen to what extent various combinations of senses may affect the P200 component and attention-related cognitive processing associated with L2 sentence comprehension along with the N400 as a later component. To this aim, we provided some multisensory input (enriched with data from three (i.e., exvolvement) and five senses (i.e., involvement)) for a list of unfamiliar words to 18 subjects. Subsequently, the words were embedded in an acceptability judgment task with 360 pragmatically correct and incorrect sentences. The task, along with the ERP recording, was conducted after a 1-week consolidation period to track any possible behavioral and electrophysiological distinctions in the retrieval of information with various sense combinations. According to the behavioral results, we found that the combination of five senses leads to more accurate and quicker responses. Based on the electrophysiological results, the combination of five senses induced a larger P200 amplitude compared to the three-sense combination. The implication is that as the sensory weight of the input increases, vocabulary retrieval is facilitated and more attention is directed to the overall comprehension of L2 sentences which leads to more accurate and quicker responses. This finding was not, however, reflected in the neural activity of the N400 component.

Vocabulary Repetition Following Multisensory Instruction Is Ineffective on L2 Sentence Comprehension: Evidence From the N400

“…Different studies reinforce that sentence comprehension is influenced by various factors, including MSI (Pishghadam et al, 2020(Pishghadam et al, , 2021Shayesteh et al, 2020;Boustani et al, 2021). Given that this type of instruction is believed to activate several regions of the brain, it is considered one of the most effective ways of teaching.…”

“…What we hypothesize in this study is that, given the effectiveness of MSI in engendering in-depth learning (Baines, 2008), vocabulary repetition is likely to be redundant for sentence comprehension. To verify that, we used a validated sensorybased model of instruction, coined as emotioncy (a blend of emotion + frequency), and combined the five senses of auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory (see Pishghadam et al, 2017Pishghadam et al, , 2020Pishghadam et al, , 2021Karami et al, 2019;Makiabadi et al, 2019;Shayesteh et al, 2020;Boustani et al, 2021). The model (Figure 1) presents us with two major combinations of the senses, namely exvolvement (i.e., a combination of auditory, visual, and tactile/kinesthetic) and involvement (i.e., a combination of auditory, visual, and tactile/kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory).…”

The Effect of Music on Communication Ability: A Case of Vocabularies

“…In a sensory-based model of teaching (coined as emotioncy), Pishghadam (2015) highlights that emotions that are elicited by sensory experiences can relativize and form learners' cognition. Based on the emotioncy model, by creating an effective learning environment, learners' indirect knowledge will advance to the direct level enhancing memory and retention processes (Boustani et al, 2021). Therefore, the integration of senses, emotions, and cognition can formulate a unified picture of an excellent education, named emo-sensory model (Pishghadam & Shayesteh, 2017) (Figure 1).…”