Not only the apples: Focus sensitive particles improve memory for information-structural alternatives

Spalek, Katharina; Gotzner, Nicole; Wartenburger, Isabell

doi:10.1016/j.jml.2013.09.001

Cited by 75 publications

(89 citation statements)

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“…[ 4 ] We do not predict a diff erential eff ect for inclusive and exclusive particles because we did not observe diff erential recall eff ects in Spalek et al ( 2014 ). We will come back to the diff erences between particles in the 'Discussion'.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To bolster this claim, the activation of the alternatives would have to be directly compared to that of the focused element, which was not done here. However, some evidence comes from the main eff ect of focus in the delayed recall study reported in Spalek et al ( 2014 ). The stimuli used in this experiment were the same as in the experiment(s) presented here; therefore, a direct comparison to the delayed recall task is feasible.…”

Section: Mentioned Alternativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The impact of focus particles on the recognition and rejection of contrastive alternatives

2016

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a b st r a c tThe semantics of focus particles like only requires a set of alternatives (Rooth, 1992 ). In two experiments, we investigated the impact of such particles on the retrieval of alternatives that are mentioned in the prior context or unmentioned. The fi rst experiment used a probe recognition task and showed that focus particles interfere with the recognition of mentioned alternatives and the rejection of unmentioned alternatives relative to a condition without a particle. A second lexical decision experiment demonstrated priming eff ects for mentioned and unmentioned alternatives (compared with an unrelated condition) while focus particles caused additional interference eff ects. Overall, our results indicate that focus particles trigger an active search for alternatives and lead to a competition between mentioned alternatives, unmentioned alternatives, and the focused element.k e y w o r d s : focus particles , alternative-set semantics , probe recognition task , lexical decision task , competitive inhibition .[ * ] We are grateful to

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mentioned Alternativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of focus particles on the recognition and rejection of contrastive alternatives

2016

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“…Spalek et al () carried out a delayed recall task in order to investigate the representation of focus alternatives in the mental model after the lapse of time. Participants were presented with the same items as in the Gotzner et al () study (see also Example 7).…”

Section: Memory Representations Of Alternativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In critical trials, the questions prompted participants to recall the original set of three elements while filler trials assessed comprehension of the discourse. Spalek et al () found that recall performance was improved when a focus particle had occurred in the critical sentence. Crucially, it was performance on the alternatives (excluding the focused element itself) that was improved.…”

Section: Memory Representations Of Alternativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The proportion of fixations on a certain object on the screen is assumed to reflect whether this object is in the listener' s focus of attention and whether listeners have predicted upcoming referents based on contextual information. Finally, recognition memory (Fraundorf, Watson, & Benjamin, 2010;Fraundorf, Benjamin, & Watson 2013) and recall paradigms (Spalek, Gotzner, & Wartenburger, 2014) have been used to measure the salience of a focus alternative in the eventual mental representation/memory representation (see Tulving & Watkins, 1973 for an early discussion about the similarities and differences between recognition and recall from a psychological point of view).…”

Section: Experimental Paradigms Used For the Investigation Of The Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The life and times of focus alternatives: Tracing the activation of alternatives to a focused constituent in language comprehension

Gotzner

Spalek

2019

Language and Linguist. Compass

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The function of focus is to activate a set of alternatives, providing the locus for focus‐sensitive particles like only. In the past decade, psycholinguistic research has shown that listeners entertain a set of alternatives in online language comprehension, similar to the algorithm stipulated by Alternative Semantics. The purpose of the present review is to gain a comprehensive picture of the role of focus alternatives in utterance comprehension and interpretation. Specifically, we focus on how the processing of focus particles interacts with alternatives activated by focus. We show that focus marking activates a network of related concepts, but over time, only those that can be considered as focus alternatives in the relevant context of the utterance are retained in the mental representation of the discourse. Focus particles, in turn, increase the competition between the focused element and its alternatives during the initial stages of comprehension, helping contextual restriction of the set of alternatives. Overall, the studies presented in this review show that focus does not only guide a listener in determining which alternatives are relevant for the purpose of conversation, it also plays a fundamental role in the memory representation of a discourse.

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Prosodic Focus

Wagner¹

2020

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Semantics

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This chapter provides an introduction to the phenomenon of prosodic focus, as well as to the theory of Alternative Semantics. Alternative Semantics provides an insightful account of what prosodic focus means, and gives us a notation that can help with better characterizing focus‐related phenomena and the terminology used to describe them. We can also “translate” theoretical ideas about focus and givenness into this notation to facilitate a comparison between frameworks. The discussion will partly be structured by an evaluation of the theories of givenness, the theory of relative givenness, and Unalternative Semantics, but we will cover a range of other ideas and proposals in the process. The chapter concludes with a discussion of phonological issues, and of association with focus.

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Not only the apples: Focus sensitive particles improve memory for information-structural alternatives

Cited by 75 publications

References 12 publications

The impact of focus particles on the recognition and rejection of contrastive alternatives

The impact of focus particles on the recognition and rejection of contrastive alternatives

The life and times of focus alternatives: Tracing the activation of alternatives to a focused constituent in language comprehension

Prosodic Focus

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