Slide 1Slide 2Slide 3Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9Slide 10Slide 11Slide 12Slide 13Slide 14Slide 15Slide 16Slide 17Slide 18Slide 19Slide 20Slide 21Slide 22Slide 23Slide 24Slide 25Slide 26Slide 27Are the anterior negativities to grammatical violations indexing working memory?Manuel Martin-Loeches, Francisco munoz, Pilar Casado, A. Melcon, C. Fernandez-frias,Psychophysiology 42, 2005, 508-519.Presented by Dora Lu, 09/13/2006ERP Component: N400Kutas & Hillyard. (1980).ERP Component: P600Osterhout & Nicol (1999)Anterior NegativitiesNeville et al (1991):Semantic anomaly: The scientist criticized Max’s event of the theorem.Phrase structure violation: The scientist criticized Max’s of proof the theorem.Specificity constraint violation: What did the scientist criticize Max’s proof of?Subjacency Constraint violation:What was a proof of criticized by the scientist?Neville et al (1991)N400N125N125P500Neville et al (1991): difference wave(early) (left) Anterior NegativitiesA negative component that peaks between 150-600ms after stimulus onset, usually with anterior distribution, sometimes lateralized (e.g. Neville et al 1991)When will (early) (left) Anterior Negativities appear?Grammatical violationsWord category violations (disrupt the building of the phrase structure) – early left anterior negativity (e.g. Friederici et al 1996)Syntactic-category violation:The metal was refined by the goldsmith who was honored.The metal was for refined by the goldsmith who was honored.Syntactic-category ambiguity:The metal was for refining melted by the goldsmith who was honored.The metal was/became refining melted by the goldsmith who was honored.Morphosyntactic violations (gender/number agreement, verb inflection violations) – anterior negativity (e.g. Vos et al. 2001)The tourist have a busy schedule and visit the theater that very famous is.The tourist have a busy schedule and visits the theater that very famous is.The tourist that a busy schedule have, visit the theater that very famous is.The tourist that a busy schedule have, visits the theater that very famous is.Working memory demand (Kluender & Kutas 1993)What these anterior negativities represent for?Reflect automatic first-pass parsing process, such as detecting morphosyntactic mismatch, inability to build the phrase structure (e.g. Hagoort 2003)Reflecting working memory operation or working memory load. AN have been found in grammatically well-formed sentences that demand large amount of working memory resources. (e.g. Kluender & Kutas 1993)The amplitude of LAN to morphosyntactic violations was affected by the working memory span of the subjects. (e.g. Vos et al 2001)Unsettled issues about AN:When will you see AN?Grammatical violations: morphosyntactic and word category violations•Do these two grammatical violations reflect the same process? (Friederici 2002: word category >> morphosyntactic process, but Hagoort 2003: artifacts of the moment when the violation appears)Different distribution of AN: because of different grammatical violations are usedWhether it is related to working memory operations?Controversial – some studies failed to elicit it, effects are small, distribution is not consistentCurrent StudyDirectly compare responses caused by working memory with those caused by grammatical manipulations.Two grammatical violations: word category & morphosyntactic violationsWorking memory load: relative clauses vs short, SR vs OR (structural difficulties)Experimental stimuliShort sentence: (The composer edited the opera.)Correct: El compositor edito la opera.Category violation: El compositor edicion la opera.Morphosyntactic violation: El compositor edite la opera.Center embedded subject relative clause: (The composer [that hated the singer] edited the opera.)El compositor [que odio al cantante] edito la opera.El compositor [que odio al cantante] edicion la opera.El compositor [que odio al cantante] edite la opera.Center embedded object relative clause: (The composer [that the singer hated] edited the opera.)El compositor [que el cantante odio] edito la opera.El compositor [que el cantante odio] edicion la opera.El compositor [que el cantante odio] edite la opera.MethodsParticipants: 32 Spanish speakersStimuli: 180 sets (60 simple sentences, 60 SR, 60 OR) + 120 fillers (40 ungrammatical sentences with different violations)Word-by word center presentation, 300ms duration, 500ms SOA, 1500ms between each sentenceParticipants perform grammaticality judgmentRecordings: 29 electrodesBehavioral resultsGrammaticality judgment:People did pretty good for the grammaticality judgments. 93.2% for grammatical and 97.3% for ungrammatical sentences.People did worse for correct sentences with an object-relative clause (86.4%).Reaction time:People spent 100ms more to respond to correct OR clauses. (683ms for short, 792ms for OR, 618 for SR)ERP results: Relative Clause regionS: The composer edited the opera.SR: The composer [that hated the singer] edited the opera.OR: The composer [that the singer hated] edited the opera.Onset of 1st word1000ms, 3rd wordAN: both SR & ORERP results: Relative Clause regionS: The composer edited the opera.SR: The composer [that hated the singer] edited the opera.OR: The composer [that the singer hated] edited the opera.Frontal distribution, slightly lateralizedERP results: Relative Clause regionSR: The composer [that hated the singer] edited the opera.OR: The composer [that the singer hated] edited the opera.4th word, 1500ms after sentence onset, OR has increasing AN, and more centrally distributedERP results: Main verb region (short)S: El compositor edito la opera.WV: El compositor edicion la opera.MV: El compositor edite la opera.ANP600More bilateralERP results: Main verb region (SR)C: El compositor [que odio al cantante] edito la opera.WV: El compositor [que odio al cantante] edicion la opera.MV: El compositor [que odio al cantante] edite la opera.Only WC has posterior negativity!P600 larger for MVERP results: Main verb region (OR)C: El compositor [que el cantante odio] edito la opera.WV: El compositor [que el cantante odio] edicion la opera.MV: El compositor [que el cantante odio] edite la opera.No ANP600ERP results: Main verb of relative clause S: The composer edited the opera.SR: The composer [that hated the singer] edited the opera.OR: The composer [that the singer hated] edited the