Competition in sentence comprehension.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

January, David.

Contributor:

Trueswell, John C., advisor.

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cognitive psychology.

Neurosciences.

Linguistics.

0290.

0317.

0633.

Penn dissertations--Psychology.

Psychology--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Psychology.

Psychology--Penn dissertations.

0290.

0317.

0633.

Physical Description:

134 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 70-01B.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

This dissertation examines whether the notion of competition among alternative representations can adequately explain behavioral and neural data during sentence comprehension. Specifically, I present evidence from behavioral measures and computational modeling of the relative clause attachment ambiguity that argues, counter recent claims, that competitive processing is central to the comprehension of these structures. I also use functional magnetic resonance imaging during the comprehension of a prepositional phrase attachment ambiguity and during the Stroop color naming task to argue for a competition-based account of the function of the posterior left inferior frontal gyrus (PLIFG), the seat of Broca's area, and, consequently, a role for competition in these structures as well. I conclude by offering a tentative synthesis of existing computational models of sentence comprehension and the Stroop task that assigns a consistent role to PLIFG of competition resolution.

Notes:

Thesis (Ph.D. in Psychology) -- University of Pennsylvania, 2008.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-01, Section: B, page: 0709.

Adviser: John C. Trueswell.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

ISBN:

9781109008074

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.