Batel Essa
English Department, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia.
J Psycholinguist Res. 2020 Apr;49(2):223-245. doi: 10.1007/s10936-019-09683-6.
This study tested the effect of constraining sentence context on word recognition time (RT) in the first and second language. Native (L1) and nonnative (L2) speakers of English performed self-paced reading and listening tasks to see whether a semantically-rich preceding context would lead to the activation of a probable upcoming word prior to encountering it. The pre-access prediction model (e.g., Altmann and Kamide in Cognition 73(3):247-264, 1999; McClelland and Rumelhart in Psychol Rev 88:375-407, 1981) posits that when the preceding context is semantically high-constraining, the perceptual system anticipates a probable upcoming word prior to encountering it. In contrast, the post-access model (e.g., Fodor in The modularity of mind, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1983; Forster in Q J Exp Psychol Sect A 33(4):465-495, 1981; Traxler et al. in J Psycholinguist Res 29(6):581-595, 2000; Van Petten and Luka in Int J Psychophysiol 83(2): 176-190, 2012) suggests that it is only after a word is encountered that a subsequent process integrates it into the preceding context. The integration process is easier and faster when the word is more congruent with the preceding context. In line with these two models of visual word recognition, auditory word recognition is modeled by the TRACE model (McClelland and Elman in Cogn Psychol 18(1):1-86, 1986), which suggests that a spoken word is influenced by the preceding sentence context, whereas models such as the cohort model (Marslen-Wilson in Cognition 25(1-2):71-102, 1987) support a post-access integration process. Some studies observe a facilitative effect of sentence context on L2 word recognition (e.g., Kamide et al. in J Mem Lang 49(1):133-156, 2003), while others find no effect of sentence context in L2 (e.g., Ito et al. in Lang Cogn Neurosci 32(8):954-965, 2017; Martin et al. in J Mem Lang 69(4):574-588, 2013). In the present experiments, the RTs of native English speakers (L1) and non-native English speakers (L2) were collected in both visual and auditory word recognition in semantically high-constraint sentences and semantically low-constraint sentences. A linear, mixed-effects model shows that both groups of participants are faster to recognize a word when it is preceded by a semantically high-constraining context. This result is observed in both the visual and the auditory modalities, lending some support for a mechanism facilitating the access of target words based on sentence context in both L1 and L2.
本研究测试了限制句子语境对第一语言和第二语言中单词识别时间（RT）的影响。以英语为母语（L1）和非英语为母语（L2）的人进行了自定进度的阅读和听力任务，以观察语义丰富的前文语境是否会在遇到某个可能出现的单词之前就导致其激活。预激活预测模型（例如，阿尔特曼和上出在《认知》73(3):247 - 264, 1999；麦克莱兰和鲁梅尔哈特在《心理学评论》88:375 - 407, 1981）假定，当前文语境在语义上具有高度限制性时，感知系统会在遇到某个可能出现的单词之前就对其进行预期。相比之下，后激活模型（例如，福多尔在《心理模块性》，麻省理工学院出版社，剑桥，1983；福斯特在《实验心理学季刊A辑》33(4):465 - 495, 1981；特拉克斯勒等人在《心理语言学研究杂志》29(6):581 - 595, 2000；范佩滕和卢卡在《国际心理生理学杂志》83(2):176 - 190, 2012）表明，只有在遇到一个单词之后，后续过程才会将其整合到前文语境中。当单词与前文语境更相符时，整合过程会更容易、更快。与这两种视觉单词识别模型一致，听觉单词识别由TRACE模型（麦克莱兰和埃尔曼在《认知心理学》18(1):1 - 86, 1986）建模，该模型表明一个口语单词会受到前文句子语境的影响，而诸如群组模型（马斯伦 - 威尔逊在《认知》25(1 - 2):71 - 102, 1987）等模型支持后激活整合过程。一些研究观察到句子语境对第二语言单词识别有促进作用（例如，上出等人在《记忆与语言杂志》49(1):133 - 156, 2003），而另一些研究则发现句子语境对第二语言没有影响（例如，伊藤等人在《语言与认知神经科学》32(8):954 - 965, 2017；马丁等人在《记忆与语言杂志》69(4):574 - 588, 2013）。在本实验中，收集了以英语为母语者（L1）和非英语为母语者（L2）在语义高度受限句子和语义低度受限句子中的视觉和听觉单词识别的反应时间。一个线性混合效应模型表明，当一个单词之前有语义高度限制性的语境时，两组参与者识别单词的速度都更快。在视觉和听觉两种模式下都观察到了这一结果，这为一种基于句子语境促进第一语言和第二语言中目标单词获取的机制提供了一些支持。
