Waves and Words - Publikationsserver UB Marburg

261 Pages·2005·12.49 MB·English

Waves and Words
Waves and Words:
Oscillatory activity and language processing

INAUGURAL-DISSERTATION
zur
Erlangung des akademischen Grades
eines Doktors der Philosophie (Dr. phil.)
dem
Fachbereich Germanistik und Kunstwissenschaften
der Philipps-Universität Marburg

vorgelegt von
Dietmar Roehm
aus Backnang

Marburg, Mai 2004
Vom Fachbereich Germanistik und Kunstwissenschaften der Philipps-Universität Marburg als
Dissertation angenommen am 12. Mai 2004

Tag der Disputation: 08. November 2004

Erstgutachter: HD Dr. Matthias Schlesewsky

Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Hubert Haider
ii
Acknowledgements

Although this thesis bears only my name as author, it would not have been possible without
the generous help of a number of people whose contributions I would like to acknowledge.
There are three persons above all others who deserve my deepest thanks and respect for their
continued support during the writing of this thesis: my first advisor Matthias Schlesewsky, Ina
Bornkessel, and Hubert Haider. Nearly two and a half years ago, I first met Ina and Matthias
in the course of a talk which they gave on behalf of an invitation of Hubert Haider at the
Linguistics Department of the University of Salzburg. Matthias and Ina's keen insight and
thoughtful reflection on the issues associated with psycholinguistic research are abilities to
which I aspire. In every sense, none of this work would have been possible without them. Of
course, despite all the assistance provided by them, I alone remain responsible for the content
of the following, including any errors or omissions which may unwittingly remain.

I want to thank Matthias especially for the many thought-provoking conversations we have
had concerning cognitive linguistics, the detailed comments and suggestions on this and other
work, and his support and advice in other areas of academic life. He fostered a working
relationship which was crucial to the completion of this work. I am especially indebted to Ina
for the Sisyphean task of repeatedly reading the manuscript and suffering the torments of
Tantalus to vulgarise my outlandish English. Thank you Ina for being so generous with your
time and knowledge.

To Hubert Haider, I would like to express my deepest appreciation for his patient, friendly,
and unfailing support over the past years. About six years ago, I set out from Stuttgart to
accomplish my studies under his supervision at the University of Salzburg. Since then, he has
been instrumental in ensuring my academic, professional, financial and personal wellbeing. I
have benefited tremendously from his profound knowledge and his help.

In the Psychophysiological Laboratory of the University of Salzburg I am very grateful to
Wolfgang Klimesch for his continuous help and numerous discussion whenever 'EEG
questions' arose. His views and theories with regard to EEG dynamics and analysis deeply
coined my understanding of EEG research.
iii
Many thanks also to Walter Gruber for his invaluable patience in answering all my technical
questions and particularly in helping me through the mysteries of the application and
interpretation of wavelet analysis.

Parts of the present research were generously supported by the Austrian 'Fond zur Förderung
der wissenschaftlichen Forschung', Project P16281-G03.

I would like to thank my family who have waited ever so patiently for me to graduate, and
especially my mother, Ilse Roehm, who never gave up the hope that I would finally succeed.

My final, and most heartfelt, acknowledgment must go to Peggy for ten thousand
considerations large and small. Her love and constant support sustained me through the many
hard times when my confidence and enthusiasm had waned. For all that, and for being
everything I am not, she has my whole love.
iv
Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Theoretical Prerequisites 6

1.1 Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) 6
1.2 Language-related ERP components 7
1.3 The 'semantic' N400 13
1.4 'Non-semantic' N400s 16
1.5 Criticism of the ERP analysis method 17

2 A Frequency-analytical Approach 21

2.1 Historical remarks 21
2.2 Basic concepts 24
2.3 Physiological basis and functional interpretation of oscillatory brain activity 29
2.4 Language-related oscillatory activity 40
2.5 Methodological basics 52

3 Evidence for a Differentiation of Superficially Indistinguishable N400 59
Components on the Basis of their Underlying Frequency Characteristics

3.1 Experiment 1: One component, but two linguistics processes 60
3.1.1 Method 62
3.1.2 ERP results 64
3.1.3 Interim discussion 67
3.1.4 EEG frequency analysis 68
3.1.5 Results 71
3.1.6 Discussion 73
v
4 Tackling the Semantic N400 Effect 77

4.1 Experiment 2: Antonyms in sentence context 77
4.1.1 Method 84
4.1.2 ERP results 87
4.1.3 Interim discussion 93
4.1.4 EEG frequency analysis 97
4.1.5 Results 98
4.1.6 Discussion 103

4.2 Experiment 3: Antonyms in word lists (word pairs) 108
4.2.1 Method 108
4.2.2 ERP results 110
4.2.3 Interim discussion 115
4.2.4 EEG frequency analysis 117
4.2.5 Discussion 123

4.3 Experiment 4: Antonym questionnaire study 127
4.3.1 Method 128
4.3.2 Results 129
4.3.3 Discussion 131

4.4 Experiment 5: 'Non-conscious' processing of antonym relations 134
4.4.1 Method 135
4.4.2 ERP results 137
4.4.3 Interim discussion 144
4.4.4 EEG frequency analysis
4.4.5 Summary 153

4.5 General discussion
vi
5 The N400 and Reanalysis 162

5.1 Experiment 6: Processing of subject-object ambiguities 162
5.1.1 Method 163
5.1.2 ERP results 165
5.1.3 Interim discussion 167
5.1.4 EEG frequency analysis 168
5.1.5 Conclusion 171

6 General Discussion 177

6.1 Summary of the experimental findings 177
6.2 Evaluation of the experimental findings with regard to the primary 180
aim of the thesis
6.3 Open questions and outlook 181

References 184

Appendix A: Materials I

Appendix B: Supplementary ERP figures VIII

Appendix C: Statistical Overviews of the ERP Findings XV

Appendix D: Supplementary Time-frequency Plots XXV

Appendix E: Statistical Overviews of the TF-Findings XXXV

Curriculum vitae XLII

Abstract (English) XLIII
Abstract (German) XLV
Wissen Sie mir auch wenig Dank für das,
was ich ihnen erzähle, so wissen Sie
mir ihn wenigstens für das, was ich ihnen
nicht erzähle!

Denis Diderot (Jacques der Fatalist)

Es ist fast unmöglich,
die Fackel der Wahrheit durch ein Gedränge zu tragen,
ohne jemandem den Bart zu sengnen.

Lichtenberg
1
Introduction

Successful language comprehension depends not only on the involvement of different
domain-specific linguistic processes, but also on their respective time-course. Therefore, a
large part of the recent work in psycholinguistics has focused on trying to determine which
processes play a role and how these processes interact in time.

Whereas in our own everyday experience, language comprehension is an imperceptible and
apparently effortless process, the human language processing system nevertheless is
continually confronted with unexpected, conflict engendering events that must be resolved if
comprehension is to proceed successfully. An example of an ambiguity leading to difficulties
in comprehension is given in (1) (from Osterhout & Holcomb, 1992, 1993).

(1) The broker persuaded to sell the stock was sent to jail.

When sentence (1) is processed sequentially, the verb persuaded is initially analysed as a
main verb (as in The broker persuaded the manager to sell the stock), a decision that must be
revised when to is encountered and it becomes clear that persuaded is actually the verb in a
reduced relative clause. Thus, the difficulty associated with (1) results from an ambiguity -
and subsequent misanalysis - pertaining to properties of syntactic structure. This type of
enhanced processing cost has long been used to gain insights into the architecture and
mechanisms of the language processing system (Kimball, 1973; Fodor, Bever, & Garrett,
1974; Frazier, 1987; Clifton, Frazier, & Rayner, 1994). As in the investigation of other
cognitive domains (e.g. memory, attention etc.), the simplest characterisation of ‘processing
difficulty’ in this sense may be achieved via the measurement of reaction times or accuracy of
comprehension. However, the use of these types of behavioural measures as a means of
characterising underlying mechanisms of linguistic analysis presupposes that the locus of the
processing problem can be straightforwardly established. Thus, an implausible sentence such
as (2) also gives rise to longer reaction times in the critical region and lower acceptability
ratings in comparison to a minimally differing plausible sentence (e.g. ending with butter
rather than socks).

(2) He spread the warm bread with socks.