Wang Menghan, Zhao Helen
School of Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2024 Oct 15;18:1425576. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1425576. eCollection 2024.
Perceptual representations in language comprehension were examined using sentence-picture verification tasks. However, concerns have been raised regarding the suitability of concrete pictures for representing abstract concepts compared to image-schematic diagrams. To assess the perceptual representations of spatial and abstract domains in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) processing, the study tests bilingual speakers' mental imagery on the basis of the simulation-based L1 comprehension model and proposes a simulation-based L2 comprehension model, supported by empirical evidence from an innovative sentence-diagram verification paradigm.
41 adult L1 Mandarin Chinese speakers participated in the study. 21 participants completed the Chinese sentence-diagram verification task (Experiment 1), while 20 participants completed the translation-equivalent version in L2 English (Experiment 2). Participants read a sentence [e.g., at their self-paced speed, followed by a congruent (e.g., ) or incongruent diagram (e.g., ), and made binary judgments to verify spatial configurations between the sentence and diagram. Semantic rating tasks in both Chinese and English were also conducted to validate congruency between diagrams and sentences in both languages.
Results from Experiment 1 indicate overall compatibility effects on L1 Chinese processing, unaffected by directional verbs or abstractness of sense. Results from Experiment 2 reveal interference effects on L2 English processing, with interference observed only after reading sentences encoding spatial senses, not abstract senses. Aligning with previous findings using sentence-picture verification tasks, the current findings confirm the weaker mental simulation effects in L2 processing compared to L1 processing. These findings extend the existing simulation-based L1 comprehension model, provide empirical support for the proposed simulation-based L2 comprehension model, and validate the innovative sentence-diagram verification paradigm for examining image-schematic representations in spatial and abstract language processing among Chinese-English bilinguals. The paradigm holds significant potential for research on perceptual representations in processing a broader range of grammatical and semantic properties during both online and offline L1 and L2 comprehension.
使用句子 - 图片验证任务来研究语言理解中的感知表征。然而，与意象图式图相比，具体图片在表示抽象概念方面的适用性引发了一些担忧。为了评估第一语言（L1）和第二语言（L2）处理中空间和抽象领域的感知表征，本研究基于基于模拟的L1理解模型测试双语者的心理意象，并提出基于模拟的L2理解模型，该模型得到了创新的句子 - 图验证范式的实证证据支持。
41名成年L1为汉语普通话的人参与了该研究。21名参与者完成了中文句子 - 图验证任务（实验1），而20名参与者完成了L2英语的翻译等效版本（实验2）。参与者以自己的节奏阅读一个句子[例如，]，然后是一个一致的（例如，）或不一致的图（例如，），并做出二元判断以验证句子和图之间的空间配置。还进行了中文和英文的语义评级任务，以验证两种语言中图和句子之间的一致性。
实验1的结果表明，对L1中文处理存在总体兼容性效应，不受方向动词或语义抽象性的影响。实验2的结果揭示了对L2英语处理的干扰效应，仅在阅读编码空间语义的句子后观察到干扰，而不是抽象语义。与之前使用句子 - 图片验证任务的研究结果一致，当前研究结果证实，与L1处理相比，L2处理中的心理模拟效应较弱。这些发现扩展了现有的基于模拟的L1理解模型，为所提出的基于模拟的L2理解模型提供了实证支持，并验证了用于检查汉英双语者在空间和抽象语言处理中的意象图式表征的创新句子 - 图验证范式。该范式在研究在线和离线L1和L2理解过程中处理更广泛的语法和语义属性时的感知表征方面具有巨大潜力。
