ERIC Number: EJ1237349
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Jan
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
Similarity-Based Interference in Agreement Comprehension and Production: Evidence from Object Agreement
Villata, Sandra; Franck, Julie
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v46 n1 p170-188 Jan 2020
Studies on agreement production consistently report an increase in production errors in the presence of an attractor mismatching the agreement feature of the target. In contrast, results from comprehension studies are mixed, ranging from lack of effect to facilitation. We report 2 forced-choice experiments and 2 self-paced reading experiments on number and gender object-verb agreement in French to systematically explore the effect of a mismatching subject in the production and comprehension of object relatives. Results show that the presence of a mismatching subject penalizes sentence production, in line with reports of attraction, but consistently improves sentence comprehension in off-line comprehension measures, in line with similarity-based interference effects. We discuss the limits of classical models of sentence production and comprehension (Marking and Morphing and ACT-R), and favor a self-organizing sentence processing approach (SOSP), which accounts for both production and comprehension results through a single similarity-based mechanism of structure building.
Descriptors: Form Classes (Languages), Interference (Language), Language Processing, Grammar, French, Error Patterns, Reading Comprehension, Verbs, Sentences, Undergraduate Students, Foreign Countries, Accuracy, Reaction Time, Task Analysis
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Switzerland (Geneva)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A