Natural language presents a wide range of comprehension problems that any language understanding system must confront. The successful comprehension of language requires that a number of different types of linguistic and non-linguistic information be processed and interpreted. Current psycholinguistic models focus almost exclusively upon a single source of linguistic information, either syntactic or semantic. The proposed research will examine two additional sources of information that might potentially be exploited: the prosodic features of spoken language and the statistical regularities with which words co-occur in a single sentence.
The first aim of the research is theoretical: empirical investigations of the effects of prosodic and statistical variables on human sentence comprehension will provide constraints on models of language understanding.
The second aim i s practical: for people with auditory deficits or speech problems, the results of the planned research will provide information critical both to the design of remedial training methods, and to improved speech-to-text translation systems and text-to-speech production systems.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01DC001240-01
Application #
3217933
Study Section
Sensory Disorders and Language Study Section (CMS)
Project Start
1991-09-01
Project End
1995-08-30
Budget Start
1991-09-01
Budget End
1992-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1991
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Northwestern University at Chicago
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
City
Evanston
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
60201
Love, Jessica; McKoon, Gail (2011) Rules of engagement: incomplete and complete pronoun resolution. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 37:874-87
McKoon, Gail; Love, Jessica (2011) Verbs in the lexicon: Why is hitting easier than breaking? Lang Cogn 3:313-330
Love, Jessica; McKoon, Gail; Gerrig, Richard J (2010) Searching for Judy: how small mysteries affect narrative processes and memory. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 36:790-6
Gerrig, Richard J; Love, Jessica; McKoon, Gail (2009) Waiting for Brandon: How Readers Respond to Small Mysteries. J Mem Lang 60:144-153
Ratcliff, Roger (2008) The EZ diffusion method: too EZ? Psychon Bull Rev 15:1218-28
McKoon, Gail; Ratcliff, Roger (2008) Meanings, propositions, and verbs. Psychon Bull Rev 15:592-7
Ratcliff, Roger; Thapar, Anjali; McKoon, Gail (2006) Aging and individual differences in rapid two-choice decisions. Psychon Bull Rev 13:626-35
Ratcliff, Roger; Thapar, Anjali; McKoon, Gail (2006) Aging, practice, and perceptual tasks: a diffusion model analysis. Psychol Aging 21:353-71
Ratcliff, Roger; Spieler, Daniel; McKoon, Gail (2004) Analysis of group differences in processing speed: where are the models of processing? Psychon Bull Rev 11:755-69
Ratcliff, Roger; Gomez, Pablo; McKoon, Gail (2004) A diffusion model account of the lexical decision task. Psychol Rev 111:159-82

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