Presentation

Hanna Lindfors¹, John Drury², Eric Pakulak³, Kristina Hansson⁴, Annika Andersson¹; ¹Linnaeus University, Sweden, ²Jiangsu Normal University, China, ³Stockholm University, Sweden, ⁴Lund University, Sweden

Inspired by early “click” studies investigating the online processing of constituency boundaries in language (e.g., Fodor & Bever, 1965), Cohn et al. (2014) used ERPs to probe the structure and processing of visual narratives. Sequentially presented images (panels of comics without text) were interrupted (or not) by blank panels occurring either within or between putative narrative constituents. ERP responses obtained with this paradigm included anterior negativities and posterior positivities which could be argued to resemble previously observed effects related to the processing of linguistic constituency. In our ongoing developmental ERP studies of the processing of abstract hierarchical structure across cognitive domains, we developed and tested an auditory paradigm with analogous between/within constituent interruptions of naturalistic speech which accompanied short animated movies. Auditory analogues of the blank panel interruptions from the Cohn et al. comics study here took the form of prolonged pauses (1600 ms) inserted into spoken sentences (versus pauses with natural duration, 400 ms). Pauses were inserted within a first clause (WC1), within a second clause (WC2), or between clauses (BC). ERP data from eight children (10-12 yrs) are presented here. The previously reported visual narrative ERP responses in Cohn et al.’s study with adult participants appear to replicate in our auditory sentence paradigm. The comparison of prolonged pauses at WC1 with prolonged pauses at BC indicated a late negativity over centro-parietal sites. This was consistent with the late negativity for the comparison of visual interruptions at corresponding positions (though less frontal on the scalp). Similarly, we found a late biphasic response (anterior negativity and parietal positivity) to prolonged pauses at WC2 compared to prolonged pauses at BC, and a parietal positivity to prolonged pauses at WC2 compared to prolonged pauses at WC1. Statistical analyses showed a main effect of omission position (F(2,14) = 3.81, p < .05, ηp2 = .35) between 700-900 ms after pause onset which represents the time window 400-600 ms relative to the natural pause offset (i.e., the disambiguating point). Follow-up analyses corroborated this pattern , particularly over medial sites (WC1-BC: position x laterality, F(1,7) = 18.25, p = .004, ηp2 = .72; WC2-WC1: position x laterality, F(1,7) = 10.89, p = .013, ηp2 = .61). However, the biphasic response for WC2-BC was not significant (p’s > .325). Thus, our preliminary child ERP data appear to show responses contrasting within- versus between-constituent interruptions of speech that are strikingly similar to previously reported effects in adults for analogous interruptions targeting visual narrative constituency. Though this similarity of patterns across modalities and age groups needs to be handled with caution, it does at least suggest that the present auditory paradigm may succeed in targeting dimensions of processing relevant for informing our study of abstract hierarchical structure across domains in child development.

Topic Areas: Syntax, Development