Methods in Sentence Processing Research

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Methods in Sentence Processing Research

• Eva M. Fernández
• eva_fernandez_at_qc.edu
• November 27, 2002

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KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE

• what do people know about language?
• can you get direct access to competence?
• the grammaticality judgment task
• if a sentence is ? according to your grammar,
  youll accept it (say its grammatical)
• if its ?, youll reject it

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BUT ONE PROBLEM

• you might reject a grammatical sentence because
  its prescriptively bad
• Wheres the library at?
• Whod you meet at the party?
• Between you and I, the fact of the matter is

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AND ANOTHER PROBLEM

• you might reject a grammatical sentence because
  its hard to process

The machine covered with paper plates handles
with chrome. The cat the dog the boy walked bit
meowed. Mary put the candy on the table in her
mouth. The son of Paraohs daughter looked at
himself in the mirror.
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PROCESSING DIFFICULTYWHY?

• inadequate knowledge of language?
• processing routines that have gone wrong, that
  have applied incorrectly?

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PROCESSING ROUTINESWHAT ARE THEY?

• mechanisms that operate during production and
  perception
• in constant contact with the grammar
• based on working-memory limitations
• Minimal Attachment build the simplest structure
• Late Closure attach locally

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HOW CAN YOU TELL THAT THEYRE THERE?

• observe processing routines in action
• Physics which will fall faster, 1kg of feathers
  or 1kg of lead?
• Psycholinguistics which linguistic stimulus will
  be understood more easily and faster, one with a
  Minimal Attachment violation or one without?

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THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

• hypothesis testing
• you have an idea about how structures are built
  by the sentence processor
• you test it by designing an experiment
• you make predictions about how the experiment
  will come out
• you think about what it will mean if the
  experiment comes out the wrong way
• this will be easier if you stick to BINARY
  COMPARISONS

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SUBJECTS F1

• never too many?
• clones of each other
• selection criteria
• language history, education history, sex,
  handedness, age, reading ability, etc.
• controlling
• use background questionnaire
• use behavioral criteria

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MATERIALS F2

• normed in whatever relevant way
• interspersed among filler items
• never too many?
• usual filler-target ratio, 2-1 or 3-1
• pseudo-randomized lists
• featuring binary comparisons (unless absolutely
  necessary)

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METHOD

• try several types! (ingenuity is essential)
• dont be fooled by technology
• just because it costs more doesnt mean its
  more effective
• just because everyone says its onlinedoesnt
  mean it taps the phase of processing you want

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AN EXPERIMENT

• The legionnaires marched into the desertand
  searched for the nearest oasis.
• The legionnaires marched into the
  desertsurprised the Persian forces.

MY HYPOTHESIS
2nd sentence is harder violates Minimal
Attachment lets see how!
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The legionnaires marched into the desert and
searched for the nearest oasis.
S
VP
conj
VP
VP
and
marched into the desert
searched for the nearest oasis
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The legionnaires marched into the desert
surprised the Persian forces.
S
NP
marched into the desert
surprised the Persian forces
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QUESTIONNAIRES

• a grammaticality / acceptability judgment task
• On a scale of 1-7, indicate how acceptable you
  think each of these sentences are.
• 1 perfectly acceptable (SPLENDID)
• 7 perfectly awful (WOEFUL)

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• The legionnaires marched into the desert and
  searched for the nearest oasis.
• 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
• The legionnaires marched into the desert
  surprised the Persian forces.
• 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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ASSETS LIABILITIESof questionnaire procedures?

• flexible
• low-tech lab
• test 100 people at a time
• off-line metaling. awareness, presriptive rules
• subjects might engage in weird behavior
  strategies, looking back, reading Q before
  sentence, etc.

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RSVP

• rapid serial visual presentation
• words presented center-screen
• 500 msec for each word
• presentation rate could be varied
• task is to remember entire sentence and repeat or
  write down
• measurement accuracy of recall

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?
The
legionnaires
marched
into
the
desert
and
searched
for
the
nearest
oasis
.
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?
The
legionnaires
marched
into
the
desert
surprised
the
Persian
forces
.
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SELF-PACED READING

• subject controls pace of presentation
• constraints on speed determined by experimenter
• time-outs, instructions
• materials presented in a series of chunks
• word-by-word, phrase-by-phrase, clause-by-clause
• different types of displays
• centered, incremental, moving window

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CTRD, WD-BY-WD
?
The
legionnaires
marched
into
the
desert
and
searched
for
the
nearest
oasis
.
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CTRD, WD-BY-WD
?
The
legionnaires
marched
into
the
desert
surprised
the
Persian
forces
.
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SPR, wd-by-wd measure
The lgnnaires marched into the desert
and searched for the nearest oasis

The lgnnaires marched into the desert
surprised the Persian forces
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CTRD, PHR-BY-PHR
?
The legionnaires marched
into the desert
and searched
for the nearest oasis.
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CTRD, PHR-BY-PHR
?
The legionnaires marched
into the desert
surprised
the Persian forces.
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SPR, wd-by-wd measure
The legionnaires marched The legionnaires marched The legionnaires marched into the desert into the desert into the desert
and searched and searched for the nearest oasis for the nearest oasis for the nearest oasis for the nearest oasis

The legionnaires marched The legionnaires marched The legionnaires marched into the desert into the desert into the desert
surprised surprised the Persian forces the Persian forces the Persian forces the Persian forces
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INCREMENTAL
?
The
student
told
the
professor
that
everyone
hated
a
lie.
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MOVING WINDOW
The
student
told
the
professor
that
everyone
hated
a
lie.
?
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MOVING WINDOW VARIATION
The
student
told
the
professor
that
everyone
hated
a
lie.
---
-------
----
---
---------
----
--------
-----
-
---.
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KEEPING THE SUBJECTS HONEST

• asking questions
• after every trial
• after every N trials
• never?
• excluding error-prone subjects
• providing instant feedback
• the speed-accuracy trade-off
• the faster you respond, the more likely youll
  make errors

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Who told a lie? the student
the professor
Did the student lie?
Did the professor lie?
The
student
told
the
professor
that
everyone
hated
a
lie.
---
-------
----
---
---------
----
--------
-----
-
---.
correct 2359
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SAME-DIFFERENT SENTENCE-MATCHING
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?
The legionnaires marched into the desert and
searched for the nearest oasis.
The legionnaires marched into the desert and
searched for the nearest oasis.
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?
The alligator with the sharp teeth inspected the
rifle.
The alligator with the sharp teeth inspected his
rifle.
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?
The legionnaires marched into the desert
surprised the Persian forces.
The legionnaires marched into the desert
surprised the Persian forces.
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?
Everyone at the party knew Anns date had made a
fool of himself.
Everyone at the party knew Anns mate had made a
fool of himself.
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EYE-TRACKING fine-grained
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• visual span
• 9 letters, periphery
• focus move
• eyetracker records focus
• measurements
• first fixations
• regressions
• total reading

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http//gandalf.psych.umn.edu/gellab/mrchips/chips
2d.html animation by Steve Mansfield Tim Klitz
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challenges

• a more on-line method than SPR?
• the problem of time during saccades
• the problem of as much time as necessary for a
  given item
• the problem of peripheral vision
• more limitations
• length of items limited by size of display
• costly equipment
• bite-bar
• laborious analyses

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EYETRACKING coarse-grainedReal World paradigm

• movie