Psychology

Abstract: This paper compares two explanations of the process by which human communication systems evolve: iterated learning and social collaboration. It then reports an experiment testing the social collaboration account. Participants engaged in a graphical communication task either as a member of a community, where they interacted with seven different partners drawn from the same pool, or as a member of an isolated pair, where they interacted with the same partner across the same number of games. Participants’ horizontal, pair-wise interactions led ‘bottom up’ to the creation of an effective and efficient shared sign system in the community condition. Furthermore, the community-evolved sign systems were as effective and efficient as the local sign systems developed by isolated pairs. Finally, and as predicted by a social collaboration account, and not by an iterated learning account, interaction was critical to the creation of shared sign systems, with different isolated pairs establishing different local signs systems and different communities establishing different global sign systems.

Abstract: We argue that embodiment (via use of action-based representations) plays a crucial role in dialogue. To illustrate the argument we use studies of language comprehension. We first compare two distinct literatures, one concerned with the activation of non-linguistic action-based representations of meaning (e.g., Barsalou, 2008), and the other with representations of linguistic form associated with language production (e.g., Pickering & Garrod, 2007). We then argue that both types of embodiment support emulation and prediction. Hence, such embodiment enables addressees to anticipate both what their partner is likely to say next and what she is likely to do. We conclude by suggesting that such anticipation is essential for fluent and timely social interactions.

Abstract: Readers immediately slow down when an anaphor (e.g. herself) refers to an antecedent that mismatches in stereotypical gender (e.g. minister). The mismatch-cost has been attributed to a clash between the gender of the pronoun and the gender associated with the stereotypical role noun. However, the nature of such stereotypic gender is still controversial; according to the mental models approach it is inferred from world knowledge, while according to a lexical view it is stored as part of the lexical representation. We report two eye-tracking experiments designed to investigate the processing of stereotypical gender. In these experiments stereotypical nouns (e.g. minister) are contrasted with definitional nouns (e.g. king) in which gender information is part of the definition of the word. Experiment 1 shows that in anaphora sentences, where the role noun is presented earlier than the reflexive that conveys gender information, stereotypical and definitional gender nouns lead to a similar mismatch-cost. Experiment 2 shows that in cataphora sentences, where the reflexive precedes the stereotypical noun, a mismatch-cost is exhibited only for definitional gender nouns. These results indicate that stereotypical gender can be overridden when gender is specified by prior discourse, unlike lexically defined gender. We discuss the differences between these noun types and their implications for the representation and processing of stereotypical gender.

Abstract: This paper assesses whether human communication systems undergo the same progressive adaptation seen in animal communication systems and concrete artifacts. Four experiments compared the fitness of ad hoc sign systems created under different conditions when participants play a graphical communication task. Experiment 1 demonstrated that when participants are organized into interacting communities a series of signs evolve that enhance individual learning and promote efficient decoding. No such benefits are found for signs that result from the local interactions of isolated pairs of interlocutors. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the decoding benefits associated with community evolved signs cannot be attributed to superior sign encoding or detection. Experiment 4 revealed that naïve overseers were better able to identify the meaning of community evolved signs when compared with isolated pair developed signs. Hence, the decoding benefits for community evolved signs arise from their greater residual iconicity. We argue that community evolved sign systems undergo a process of communicative selection and adaptation that promotes optimized sign systems. This results from the interplay between sign diversity and a global alignment constraint; pair-wise interaction introduces a range of competing signs and the need to globally align on a single sign-meaning mapping for each referent applies selection pressure.

Abstract: It has been suggested that iconic graphical signs evolve into symbolic graphical signs through repeated usage. We report a series of interactive graphical communication experiments using a ‘pictionary’ task to establish the conditions under which the evolution occurs. Experiment 1 rules out a simple repetition based account in favour of an account that requires feedback and interaction between communicators. Experiment 2 shows how the degree of interaction affects the evolution of signs according a process of grounding. Experiment 3 confirms the prediction that those not involved directly in the interaction have trouble interpreting the graphical signs produced in Experiment 1. On the basis of these results we argue that icons evolve into symbols as a consequence of the systematic shift in the locus of information from the sign to the users’ memory of the sign’s usage supported by an interactive grounding process.

Abstract: We present the case that language comprehension involves making simultaneous predictions at different linguistic levels, and that these predictions are generated by the language production system. Recent research suggests that ease of comprehending predictable elements is due to prediction rather than facilitated integration, and that comprehension is accompanied by covert imitation. We argue that comprehenders use these processes to construct a forward model (or emulator) using the production system, and combine predictions with the input dynamically. Such a process helps explain the extreme rapidity of comprehension and the robust interpretation of ambiguous or noisy input. The language emulator framework is in line with a general trend in Cognitive Science to incorporate action systems into perceptual systems and has broad implications for understanding the links between language production and comprehension.

Abstract: Traditional mechanistic accounts of language processing derive almost entirely from the study of monologue. Yet, the most natural and basic form of language use is dialogue. As a result, these accounts may only offer limited theories of the mechanisms that underlie language processing in general. We propose a mechanistic account of dialogue, the interactive alignment account, and use it to derive a number of predictions about basic language processes. The account assumes that, in dialogue, the linguistic representations employed by the interlocutors become aligned at many levels, as a result of a largely automatic process. This process greatly simplifies production and comprehension in dialogue. After considering the evidence for the interactive alignment model, we concentrate on three aspects of processing that follow from it. It makes use of a simple interactive inference mechanism, enables the development of local dialogue routines that greatly simplify language processing, and explains the origins of self-monitoring in production. We consider the need for a grammatical framework that is designed to deal with language in dialogue rather than monologue, and discuss a range of implications of the account.

Abstract: Whereas most of us find it difficult to present a speech or even listen to one, all of us are very good at talking to each other. This may seem a rather obvious and banal observation, but from a psycholinguistic point of view the ease with which we can converse is paradoxical. Everything in psycholinguistic accounts of language processing would suggest that monologue – preparing and listening to speeches- should be more straightforward than dialogue – holding a conversation.

Abstract: Resolving links between subsequent referents (e.g., the car) and open discourse roles (as in Keith drove to London yesterday. The car kept overheating) is crucial for discourse understanding. This article investigates the contribution of lexical semantic factors (e.g., that drive implies using a vehicle) as compared to more general contextual factors in the on-line resolution of such links. We report an eye-tracking experiment that measures immediate and delayed effects of both kinds of information as readers resolve the reference. The results indicate that lexical information dominates the initial linking process with more general contextual influences emerging later. They are discussed in terms of the distinction between early bonding and subsequent resolution processes that has been proposed for other kinds of anaphoric interpretation (Sanford, Garrod, Lucas, & Henderson, 1983).

Abstract: Current models draw a broad distinction between communication as dialogue and communication as monologue. The two kinds of models have different implications for who influences whom in a group discussion. If the discussion is like interactive dialogue, group members should be influenced most by those with whom they interact in the discussion; if it is like serial monologue, they should be influenced most by the dominant speaker. The experiments reported here show that in small, 5-person groups, the communication is like dialogue and members are influenced most by those with whom they interact in the discussion. However, in large, 10-person groups, the communication is like monologue and members are influenced most by the dominant speaker. The difference in mode of communication is explained in terms of how speakers in the two sizes of groups design their utterances for different audiences.

Abstract: Spatial prepositions such as in and on seem to denote semantically indeterminate spatial relations. This reflects, in part, the physical relationships between the objects in the scenes that they are used to portray. We argue that such physical relationships are best represented in terms of an inherently dynamic functional geometry which incorporates notions of location control. Two experiments are reported. They investigate the degree to which independent judgements of location control predict choice of description across a range of scenes. The results show that judgements of location control predict viewer's choice of description under certain circumstances. In the absence of prototypical geometric relations, control information has a strong influence on choice of description. However, when the scenes portray prototypical geometric relations, control information has less of an effect. The results support a hybrid account of the semantic representation underlying the prepositions with both a geometric and a functional component to it.

Abstract: We argue that different theories of text comprehension give the use of world knowledge different degrees of importance. Although all acknowledge it as a major feature of comprehension, just when and how it is utilized appears to split theories into those that are based on propositions as building blocks and those that are not. We argue for an account that does not rely on the proposition as an early building block, the scenario-mapping and focus account, based on Sanford and Garrod's (1981) earlier work. We argue that interpretation at a pre- and subpropositional level is both an empirical fact and a theoretical necessity and that the primary task of the language processor is to map language input at a (largely) subpropositional level onto background knowledge. We illustrate the utility of the approach with a discussion of the representation of plurals and quantified statements. Although some of our claims are consistent with both the construction-integration account and minimalism, we argue that the core process of scenario mapping; is essentially absent from these other formulations.