Work

Memory availability and referential access

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: Most theories of coreference specify linguistic factors that modulate antecedent accessibility in memory; however, whether nonlinguistic factors also affect coreferential access is unknown. Here we examined the impact of a nonlinguistic generation task (letter-transposition) on the repeated-name penalty, a processing difficulty observed when coreferential repeated names refer to syntactically prominent (and thus more accessible) antecedents. In Experiment 1, generation improved online (event-related potentials) and offline (recognition memory) accessibility of names in word lists. In Experiment 2, we manipulated generation and syntactic prominence of antecedent names in sentences; both improved online and offline accessibility, but only syntactic prominence elicited a repeated-name penalty. Our results have three important implications: (1) the form of a referential expression interacts with an antecedent's status in the discourse model during coreference; (2) availability in memory and referential accessibility are separable; and (3) theories of coreference must better integrate known properties of the human memory system.

Source: Language Cognition and Neuroscience

DOI: 10.1080/01690965.2012.733014

Authors: Clinton L. Johns, Peter C. Gordon, Debra L. Long, Tamara Y. Swaab

Institutions: University of California, Davis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Lancashire

Language: English

Topic: Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, University of California, Davis, National Institute of Mental Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development