Language comprehension

Researchers: Silvia Gennari and Sven Mattys

Department of Psychology

Perceiving speech while performing another task is a common challenge in everyday life. How the brain controls resource allocation in such conditions is poorly understood. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we aimed to identify the brain structures involved in dual-tasking management.

We measured brain responses of participants performing a simple speech task (did you hear "gi" or "ki"?) while holding visual images in short-term memory. We found that the memory task decreased activity in the auditory cortex and increased activity in regions known to contribute to attention regulation (anterior paracingulate and cingulate cortex). We conclude that the acoustic analysis of speech is not isolated from the rest of cognition. Instead, it interacts with other sensory modalities and is under the control of a central regulator of attention.

Read 'Anterior paracingulate and cingulate cortex mediates the effects of cognitive load on speech sound discrimination'

Researchers: Leah Roberts, Emma Marsden, and Danijela Trenkic

Department of Education

Projects within this topic centre on real-time comprehension and production in second language (L2) learners at different proficiency levels, and focus on different linguistic levels, including syntax, semantics, discourse and pragmatics.

Researchers combine traditional second language acquisition research (SLA) methodologies with psycholinguistic techniques, including eye-tracking, self-paced reading and listening and ERP recordings. Researchers also look at the cross-linguistic influences of languages during processing, which include Czech, Dutch, English, Finish, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Slovak and Turkish.

• A long-term investigation into the effects of bi-modal input on L2 learners’ listening comprehension (Danijela Trenkic, with Tendai Charles)
• Classificatory analysis of topic prominence interlanguage in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning by research of Chinese EFL learners at post-intermediate level and its application on pedagogy (PhD student: Mengmeng Tang) 
• Effective Vocabulary Learning in Multimedia Environments: Psychological Evidence (PhD student: Saad Alzahrani)
• Effects of individual differences in declarative and procedural memory on the acquisition of English articles (PhD student: Jelena Horvatic)
• Investigating oral fluency and its development among Chinese overseas students (MS Word , 4,172kb) (Zoe Handley with Dr Sible Andringa, Universiteit van Amsterdam
• Learner susceptibility to restructuring L1 information organisation principles in L2 (Norbert Vanek with Henriëtte Hendriks, University of Cambridge) 
• Native and non-native processing of English articles (Danijela Trenkic, with Jelena Mirkovic and Gerry Altmann, Psychology, University of York)
• Pronoun resolution in L2 learners and native speakers (MS Word , 4,177kb) (Leah Roberts with Marianne Gullberg, Lund University; Peter Indefrey, University of Dusseldorf; Juhani Järvikivi, Trondheim University, Finland; Petra Schumacher, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz; Miriam Ellert, University of Gottingen)
• The Intelligibility of Thai English Pronunciation to Native and Non-Native Speakers of English (PhD student: Jirada Suntornsawet)

Researchers: Nino Grillo and João Costa

Department of Language and Linguistic Science 

Previous work on Relative Clause attachment has overlooked a crucial grammatical distinction across both the languages and structures tested: the selective availability of Pseudo Relatives.

We reconsider the literature in light of this observation and argue that, all else being equal, local attachment is found with genuine Relative Clauses and that non-local attachment emerges when their surface identical imposters, Pseudo Relatives, are available. Hence, apparent cross-linguistic variation in parsing preferences is reducible to grammatical factors. The results from two novel experiments in Italian are presented in support of these conclusions.

Read 'Novel argument for the Universality of Parsing principles'

Researchers: Eleanor Chodroff and Colin Wilson

Department of Language and Linguistic Science

When perceiving speech, listeners easily adapt to differences in people's voices. Various mechanisms may guide this adaptation, including linguistic and general auditory processes.

In this paper, we explore three theoretically motivated accounts of rapid adaptation to a person's voice: a phonetic cue calibration account, a phonetic cue covariation account, and a general auditory contrast account. The pattern of findings most strongly supports a general auditory explanation in short-term, rapid adaptation.

Read 'Acoustic-phonetic and auditory mechanisms of adaptation in the perception of sibilant fricatives'

Researchers: Elizabeth Jefferies, Katya Krieger-Redwood, Tirso Gonzalez-Alam, Susanne Eisenhauer, Meichao Zhang, PhD student: Nick Souter, PhD student: Ximing Shao 

Department of Psychology

For any concept, we have knowledge about diverse features – for example, a dog is furry, can chase rabbits, and is “man’s best friend”. How, at a specific moment, do we flexibly retrieve relevant conceptual knowledge that suits our current goals and context?

We can promote coherence between weakly-related aspects of knowledge as required, and also achieve the timely release from patterns of retrieval when the situation changes. These effects are likely to play a central role in our mental lives – yet they are poorly understood because past research has largely focused on how the conceptual store captures what is generally true across experiences (ie semantic representation).

This project alternatively examines the cognitive and brain mechanisms that promote currently-relevant semantic information. We consider whether flexible semantic retrieval involves the recruitment of additional brain regions, organised within large-scale distributed networks, that place constraints on patterns of retrieval in the semantic store. In this way, semantic flexibility might relate to the evolving interaction between distinct brain networks.

We examine whether specific brain regions support distinct cognitive processes (eg 'automatic retrieval'; 'selection') or, alternatively, whether the functional organisation of these networks is non-arbitrary, with brain regions further away from the semantic store supporting retrieval when there is a greater mismatch between ongoing retrieval and the pattern required by the context.

We test this 'graded constraints' hypothesis by combining parametric manipulations of the need for constraint with convergent neuroscientific methods that characterise functional recruitment in space (magnetic resonance imaging) and time (magnetoencephalography). We investigate causality (neuropsychology; brain stimulation) and the broader implications of our account (using an individual differences approach). 

Read 'Graded constraints in semantic cognition: How do we retrieve knowledge in a flexible way?'

• Integrated top-down and bottom-up processing in the perception of Mandarin dialect tone systems: Liang Zhao (PhD Student, Language and Linguistic Science), Eleanor Chodroff (Language and Linguistic Science), Paul Foulkes (Language and Linguistic Science)
• General auditory and linguistic mechanisms of rapid, generalised perceptual adaptation: Eleanor Chodroff (Language and Linguistic Science)
• Variation in Cues to Disambiguation of Disjunctive Questions across Arabic Dialects: Mohammad Bani Younes (Al Albayt University, Jordan), Sam Hellmuth (Language and Linguistic Science)
• Speech rate and syntactic processing: Nino Grillo, Shayne Sloggett (Language and Linguistic Science), Leah Roberts (Education), with Andrea Santi (UCL), Giuseppina Turco (CNRS Université Paris Diderot)
• Syntactic Structure and Working Memory: Nino Grillo, Shayne Sloggett, Fani Karageorgou [PhD student] (Language and Linguistic Science), with Andrea Santi (UCL)
• More than "good enough" processing of passives: Nino Grillo (Language and Linguistic Science), with Andrea Santi (UCL), Caterina Paolazzi, (UCL), Artemis Alexiadou (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
• Neural bases of language comprehension in adults and adolescents (Silvia Gennari, Psychology)
• Temporal relations and aspect in sentence and discourse comprehension (Silvia Gennari, Psychology)