This proposal describes research on inflectional and derivational morphology and their role in reading and related tasks. Morphology is the aspect of language concerning the forms of words. The issues to be addressed concern how this information is represented in lexical memory; how it relates to other types of information including orthography, phonology, and semantics; and how it is used in processing. The research utilizes both behavioral studies of skilled language users and computer simulation modeling. The issues are framed in terms of connectionist principles concerning knowledge representation, acquisition, and processing that were developed in previous research on reading simple, monomorphemic words. The proposed research attempts to extend this theoretical framework to the processing of more complex words. The main emphasis of the research is on the quasiregular character of inflectional and derivational morphology: the fact that both systems are productive and can be described as """"""""rule-governed"""""""" but also admit many exceptions that deviate from what is predicted from the rules. These phenomena have standardly been treated within dual-route models of lexical access in which there are separate mechanisms for the rule-governed cases and exceptions. Connectionist models provide an alternative approach in which all forms are governed by a single network. The experiments focus on phenomena that differentiate the dual- and single mechanism approaches in both inflectional and derivational domains. The theoretical account is also tested by implementing computational models with the goal of simulating behavioral data in close detail.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH058723-03
Application #
6186086
Study Section
Perception and Cognition Review Committee (PEC)
Program Officer
Kurtzman, Howard S
Project Start
1998-09-10
Project End
2001-05-31
Budget Start
2000-06-01
Budget End
2001-05-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2000
Total Cost
$132,919
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Southern California
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
041544081
City
Los Angeles
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90089
Mirkovic, Jelena; Seidenberg, Mark S; Joanisse, Marc F (2011) Rules versus statistics: insights from a highly inflected language. Cogn Sci 35:638-81
Gonnerman, Laura M; Seidenberg, Mark S; Andersen, Elaine S (2007) Graded semantic and phonological similarity effects in priming: evidence for a distributed connectionist approach to morphology. J Exp Psychol Gen 136:323-45
Joanisse, Marc F; Seidenberg, Mark S (2005) Imaging the past: neural activation in frontal and temporal regions during regular and irregular past-tense processing. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 5:282-96
Haskell, Todd R; MacDonald, Maryellen C; Seidenberg, Mark S (2003) Language learning and innateness: some implications of Compounds Research. Cogn Psychol 47:119-63
Seidenberg, Mark S; Arnoldussen, Aimee (2003) The brain makes a distinction between hard and easy stimuli: comments on Beretta et al. Brain Lang 85:527-30; discussion 531-4
Joanisse, Marc F; Seidenberg, Mark S (2003) Phonology and syntax in specific language impairment: evidence from a connectionist model. Brain Lang 86:40-56
Joanisse, M F; Seidenberg, M S (1999) Impairments in verb morphology after brain injury: a connectionist model. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 96:7592-7