Interplay of meaning, syntax and working memory during pronoun resolution investigated by ERPs

Anke Hammer; Bernadette M. Jansma; Monique Lamers; Thomas F. Münte

doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2008.07.004

Interplay of meaning, syntax and working memory during pronoun resolution investigated by ERPs

Anke Hammer^*, Bernadette M. Jansma, Monique Lamers, Thomas F. Münte

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Neurology

37 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Event-related potentials were used to investigate the interaction of verbal working memory and gender information during pronoun resolution. Gender information is supposed to be disentangled using sentences about persons (semantic/syntactic) or things (syntactic) followed by gender congruent or incongruent pronouns. Memory was manipulated using differential distances (short distance (SD) and long distances with or without intermediate subject gaps (LD gap and LD no gap)) between the pronoun and the antecedent. Comparing incongruent to congruent conditions, person sentences with SD and LD no gap resulted in an N400-like effect indicating the involvement of semantic integration, whereas a P600 effect in LD gap (re-activated antecedents) sentences suggested the involvement of syntactic reanalysis. SD-thing sentences showed a P600 effect, whereas LD thing sentences revealed no effect at pronoun position. A delayed N400 effect for thing sentences was observed instead. Based on preceding and the current data, we present a working model on how the parser switches between the use of semantic and syntactic information to establish coreference and how this switch depends on the type of antecedent, distance, or syntactic structure.

Original language	English
Journal	Brain Research
Volume	1230
Pages (from-to)	177-191
Number of pages	15
ISSN	0006-8993
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2008.07.004
Publication status	Published - 16.09.2008

Funding

We thank Irene Nagel and Marian Scholz for their help in collecting the data. The research reported in this paper was supported by a grant of the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO) to BMJ (she also published under her maiden name Schmitt), and by a grant MU1311/9-1 of the German Science Foundation (DFG) to TFM, as a bilateral co-operation project DFG/NWO. Reprint Requests should be sent to Bernadette Jansma, Maastricht University, Faculty of Psychology, Department of Neurocognition, P. O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected].

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

Research Areas and Centers

Academic Focus: Center for Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM)

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10.1016/j.brainres.2008.07.004

Cite this

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title = "Interplay of meaning, syntax and working memory during pronoun resolution investigated by ERPs",

abstract = "Event-related potentials were used to investigate the interaction of verbal working memory and gender information during pronoun resolution. Gender information is supposed to be disentangled using sentences about persons (semantic/syntactic) or things (syntactic) followed by gender congruent or incongruent pronouns. Memory was manipulated using differential distances (short distance (SD) and long distances with or without intermediate subject gaps (LD gap and LD no gap)) between the pronoun and the antecedent. Comparing incongruent to congruent conditions, person sentences with SD and LD no gap resulted in an N400-like effect indicating the involvement of semantic integration, whereas a P600 effect in LD gap (re-activated antecedents) sentences suggested the involvement of syntactic reanalysis. SD-thing sentences showed a P600 effect, whereas LD thing sentences revealed no effect at pronoun position. A delayed N400 effect for thing sentences was observed instead. Based on preceding and the current data, we present a working model on how the parser switches between the use of semantic and syntactic information to establish coreference and how this switch depends on the type of antecedent, distance, or syntactic structure.",

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AU - Hammer, Anke

AU - Jansma, Bernadette M.

AU - Lamers, Monique

AU - Münte, Thomas F.

PY - 2008/9/16

Y1 - 2008/9/16

N2 - Event-related potentials were used to investigate the interaction of verbal working memory and gender information during pronoun resolution. Gender information is supposed to be disentangled using sentences about persons (semantic/syntactic) or things (syntactic) followed by gender congruent or incongruent pronouns. Memory was manipulated using differential distances (short distance (SD) and long distances with or without intermediate subject gaps (LD gap and LD no gap)) between the pronoun and the antecedent. Comparing incongruent to congruent conditions, person sentences with SD and LD no gap resulted in an N400-like effect indicating the involvement of semantic integration, whereas a P600 effect in LD gap (re-activated antecedents) sentences suggested the involvement of syntactic reanalysis. SD-thing sentences showed a P600 effect, whereas LD thing sentences revealed no effect at pronoun position. A delayed N400 effect for thing sentences was observed instead. Based on preceding and the current data, we present a working model on how the parser switches between the use of semantic and syntactic information to establish coreference and how this switch depends on the type of antecedent, distance, or syntactic structure.

AB - Event-related potentials were used to investigate the interaction of verbal working memory and gender information during pronoun resolution. Gender information is supposed to be disentangled using sentences about persons (semantic/syntactic) or things (syntactic) followed by gender congruent or incongruent pronouns. Memory was manipulated using differential distances (short distance (SD) and long distances with or without intermediate subject gaps (LD gap and LD no gap)) between the pronoun and the antecedent. Comparing incongruent to congruent conditions, person sentences with SD and LD no gap resulted in an N400-like effect indicating the involvement of semantic integration, whereas a P600 effect in LD gap (re-activated antecedents) sentences suggested the involvement of syntactic reanalysis. SD-thing sentences showed a P600 effect, whereas LD thing sentences revealed no effect at pronoun position. A delayed N400 effect for thing sentences was observed instead. Based on preceding and the current data, we present a working model on how the parser switches between the use of semantic and syntactic information to establish coreference and how this switch depends on the type of antecedent, distance, or syntactic structure.

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DO - 10.1016/j.brainres.2008.07.004

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:54049145848

SN - 0006-8993

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SP - 177

EP - 191

JO - Brain Research

JF - Brain Research

ER -

Interplay of meaning, syntax and working memory during pronoun resolution investigated by ERPs

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Research Areas and Centers

Access to Document

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