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The notion that prediction plays a role in language processing is getting less controversial, however research and discussion is ongoing as to the nature and extent of its involvement. Previous studies have mainly focused on prediction during comprehension in restricted paradigms. The current fMRI study makes use of the information theoretic measure of surprisal to investigate the neural basis of predictability during conversation. A computational model determined surprisal for each word of 288 minutes (4.8 hours) of existing conversational data summed up over twenty-four healthy participants and a confederate. Areas sensitive to surprisal for comprehension were the bilateral superior temporal and middle temporal gyri. In production, areas sensitive to surprisal were the bilateral supplementary motor area and sensorimotor areas, importantly extending to the inferior frontal cortex in the left hemisphere. We conclude that predictability during language processing plays a role at the level of word form also during conversation. A novel finding is an asymmetry for the surprisal effects on production and comprehension, respectively. This thesis also shows the viability of combining computational and neuroscientific methods to study linguistic data from naturalistic language use. / Uppfattningen om att förutsägelser är i bruk vid språkprocessning blir allt minde kontroversiell, men forskning och diskussion pågår fortfarande om dess natur och omfattning. Tidigare studier har främst fokuserat på förutsägelse vid förståelse i begränsade paradigm. Den aktuella fMRI-studien använder det informationsteroretiska måttet surprisal för att undersöka de neurala korrelaten för förutsägbarhet under konversation. En beräkningsmodell tog fram surprisalvärden för varje enskilt ord från 288 minuter (4,8 timmar) av befintliga konversationsdata summerat över tjugofyra friska deltagare och en forskningsledare. Områden som var känsliga för surprisal vid förståelse var bilaterala superiora temporala och middle temporala gyrus. Vid produktion var områden känsliga för surprisal de bilaterala supplementära motorområdena och sensorimotor områdena, av vikt också med utbredning till inferiora frontala cortex i vänstra hemisfären. Vi drar slutsatsen att förutsägbarhet under språkprocessning är i bruk på ord-nivå, också under konversation. En ny upptäckt är en asymmetri för surprisaleffekter på produktion respektive förståelse. Denna uppsats visar också på användbarheten av att kombinera beräknings- och neurovetenskapliga metoder för att studera lingvistisk data från naturligt språkbruk.

Describing a comprehensive neurofunctional model of sentence comprehension has always been a complex challenge. On one hand, disentangling the subprocesses that are necessary for computing the meaning of a sentence and their neural underpinnings is insidious. Each subprocess is closely interconnected with the others, and isolating only one as if it were separable can undermine the investigation of the overall process above. On the other hand, available data on the neural basis of sentence processing are not straightforward. This thesis explores relevant contributions and attempts to highlight open questions regarding the neural basis of two key processes in sentence comprehension, namely morphosyntactic processing and thematic role assignment. It presents and discusses original data resulting from an experiment that, to our knowledge, represents the first investigation of the neural basis of these two processes in the same sentential context. Results demonstrate that morphosyntactic and thematic processing rely on functionally distinct neural correlates in the left hemisphere. Morphosyntactic aspects are mostly processed in a left prefrontal network including the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the middle frontal gyrus (MFG), whereas thematic role assignment correlates with a left parietal node including the left intraparietal sulcus (IPS). Moreover, it is argued that results support the view that these regions play a language-related rather than domain-general role in human cognition. Finally, two statistical approaches to the analysis of the same TMS language data (ANOVA and Linear Mixed Models – LMMs) are compared. Their outcomes are discussed and an attempt is made at accounting for similarities and differences. Results suggest that the two models should not be considered on a sort of quality hierarchy according to which one has greater or lesser explanatory power than the other. Rather, they both represent legitimate and reliable approaches to account for data variability.

[pt] Esta tese investiga a compreensão de orações relativas resumptivas no Português do Brasil. O trabalho busca articular teoria linguística de orientação gerativista e processamento linguístico. Estudos de orientação gerativista, baseados, principalmente, em julgamentos de aceitabilidade, sustentam que os pronomes resumptivos envolvem custo nas interfaces (pronomes como estratégias de último recurso - ROSS, 1967; SELLS, 1984; SHLONSKY, 1992; HORNSTEIN, 2001; GROLLA, 2005). Do ponto de vista do processamento, sua ocorrência está relacionada a situações não planejadas (FERREIRA e SWETS, 2005; CORRÊA et al., 2018) e a contextos de alto custo, que tornam o antecedente menos acessível (ARIEL, 1999): distância entre elemento anafórico e antecedente, posição sintática do elemento anafórico, natureza e características do antecedente, etc. No Português do Brasil, os pronomes resumptivos permanecem como estrutura marginal, embora sejam licenciados em diferentes posições sintáticas (TARALLO, 1988; LESSADE- OLIVEIRA, 2008,2009; RIBEIRO, 2009; MIRANDA, 2005). Pretendemos investigar, por meio de uma metodologia experimental, possíveis fatores de custos associados à compreensão dessas estruturas. Reportam-se quatro experimentos: dois de julgamento de aceitabilidade e dois de escuta automonitorada. No primeiro, contrastou-se a aceitabilidade de relativas padrão vs resumptivas na posição de sujeito e em outras posições mais complexas (objeto direto, objeto preposicionado e genitivo), em que há sempre um elemento interveniente (FRIEDMANN, BELLETTI e RIZZI, 2009). No segundo experimento, foi avaliada a aceitabilidade de relativas padrão, cortadoras e resumptivas nas posições de oblíquo e genitivo. Os resultados mostraram uma preferência pela estratégia padrão. Resumptivos foram altamente rejeitados na posição de sujeito e apresentaram notas bem distribuídas pela escala nas demais posições investigadas. O terceiro e quarto experimentos avaliaram o processo de compreensão de relativas padrão e resumptivas (experimento 3) e de cortadoras e resumptivas (experimento 4) em função da posição sintática ocupada pelo elemento anafórcio (pronome/lacuna) e da distância linear (curta, média e longa) entre os elementos correferentes na compreensão de relativas. Nesses dois experimentos, observou-se que os pronomes resumptivos tornam o processamento mais rápido quando fatores adicionais de custo são evidentes (intervenção de DP e/ou distância linear). Na posição de sujeito, em que não há efeito de interveniência, os resumptivos tornaram o processamento mais fácil em distância longa, convergindo com os estudos de corpora (MOLLICA, 2003) e com o princípio da acessibilidade (ARIEL, 1999). Na posição de objeto direto, foram encontrados resultados significativos para distância curta (quando há somente o DP interveniente) e distância longa. Nas posições de oblíquo e genitivo, relativas resumptivas apresentam tempo de escuta menor e, à medida que a distância linear aumenta, o processamento de resumptivas se torna mais rápido que das cortadoras. Em conjunto, os experimentos mostram que, a despeito de os resumptivos terem sido menos aceitos que a estratégia padrão, eles não parecem comprometer o processo de compreensão, podendo servir como elementos facilitadores em situações de alta demanda, em termos de distância linear e de pouca acessibilidade do antecedente. / [en] This thesis investigates the comprehension of resumptive relative clauses in Brazilian Portuguese. The study seeks to reconcile a linguistic theory grounded in generativism and language processing. Generativism-guided studies based mainly on acceptability judgment tasks support that resumptive pronouns have cost at the interfaces (pronouns as last resource strategy - ROSS, 1967; SELLS, 1984; SHLONSKY, 1992; HORNSTEIN, 2001; GROLLA, 2005). From the point of view of processing, its occurrence is related to non-planned situations (FERREIRA e SWETS, 2005; CORRÊA et al., 2018) and to high-cost contexts, being licensed in whenever the antecedent less accessible (ARIEL, 1999), when distance between the anaphoric element and its antecedent is too long, syntactic position of the anaphoric element, the nature and features of the antecedent etc. In Brazilian Portuguese, resumptive pronouns remain a marginal structure, although they are licensed in different syntactic positions (TARALLO, 1988; LESSA DE OLIVEIRA, 2008,2009; RIBEIRO, 2009; MIRANDA, 2005). We intend to investigate, through an experimental methodology, the possible costs of resumptives related to comprehension. We conducted four experiments: two acceptability judgment tasks, and two self-paced listening tasks. In the first one, it was contrasted the acceptability of standard vs resumptive strategies in subject position and in other more complex positions (direct object, prepositional object, and genitive) in which there is always an intervening element (FRIEDMANN, BELLETTI e RIZZI, 2009). In the second experiment, the acceptability of standard, chopped and resumptive relatives in oblique and genitive positions was evaluated. The results showed a preference for the standard strategy. Resumptives were highly rejected in subject position and had quite spread values through the scale in the other examined positions. The third and fourth experiments evaluated the comprehension process of standard and resumptive relatives (experiment 3) and of chopped and resumptive relatives (experiment 4), according to the syntactic position of the pronoun/gap and to the linear distance (short, middle, long) between the coreferent elements. In these two experiments, it was observed that resumptive pronouns seem to make processing faster when additional cost factors are added (intervention effects and linear distance). In the subject position, in which there is no intervention effect, resumptives made processing easier in long distance contexts. This result is in accordance with corpora studies (MOLLICA, 2003) and with the accessibility principle (ARIEL, 1999). In the direct object position, it was found significative results on short and long distance. In oblique and genitive positions, resumptive relatives have shorter listening times than chopped relatives, and as linear distance increases, the processing of resumptive relatives become faster than that of chopped ones. Taken together the experiments show that, despite resumptives being less acceptable than standard strategy, they do not compromise the process of comprehension, being able to act as a facilitator element in high-demand situations, in terms of linear distance and little accessibility of the antecedent.

The present work represents an endeavour towards the investigation of the linguistic-cognitive system under the lenses of classical questions in cognitive and language sciences, by using a multi-method and question oriented approach. The ambition is to move a step towards the investigation of the mutual contribution of perceptual and linguistic-mediated representations to the understanding of human behaviour. Chapter 1 will expose the theoretical framework and the goals this project was set to achieve: contributing to the theoretical reconcile of visual attention and language functions, from a developmental perspective. Chapter 2 will expose the possibility to rethink the linguistic function as penetrating human cognition in a top-down fashion, and specifically, its influence on template-guided search and disengagement of attention mechanisms. Concurrently, chapter 3 will expose the possibility to rethink the role of visual attention as a useful tool, necessary to the computation of meaning: attention will be introduced as a window to investigate the influence of language-mediated representation (spoken and written) on visuospatial mechanisms by means of ERPs and eye-tracking methodology. Finally, chapter 4 will report the rationale and the interpretation of seven original experimental investigations of the word (and sentence) effect on perceptual representation during visuospatial tasks, across infants and adults. The final discussion will try to reconcile the results of the presented studies with the theoretical and methodological issues raised in the first, second and third chapters in an integrated perspective of a linguistic-cognitive system.

<p>Поред великог значаја контекстуалних информација при разумевању<br />говора, њихова обрада и употреба у савременим системима за<br />аутоматско препознавање говора је веома ограничена, што знатно<br />нарушава перформансе препознавања у реалним условима употребе.<br />Стога, уколико желимо да се карактеристике ових система приближе<br />људским, неопходно је укључити контекст у адекватном обиму.<br />У овој тези је представљен нови методолошки приступ контекстно<br />зависном препознавању говора у интеракцији између човека и машине.<br />На методолошком нивоу, овај приступ је хибридан, јер интегрише<br />статистичке и симболичке методе, и когнитивно инспирисан, јер узима у<br />обзир увиде у резулатате ис траживања из области неурокогнитивних<br />наука. Основни принцип је да се оцењивање хипотеза система за<br />препознавање врши на основу њихове контекстуалне усклађености,<br />информационог садржаја и семантичке исправности.<br />Приступ је илустрован прототипским имплементацијама за конкретне<br />домене интеракције.</p> / <p>Pored velikog značaja kontekstualnih informacija pri razumevanju<br />govora, njihova obrada i upotreba u savremenim sistemima za<br />automatsko prepoznavanje govora je veoma ograničena, što znatno<br />narušava performanse prepoznavanja u realnim uslovima upotrebe.<br />Stoga, ukoliko želimo da se karakteristike ovih sistema približe<br />ljudskim, neophodno je uključiti kontekst u adekvatnom obimu.<br />U ovoj tezi je predstavljen novi metodološki pristup kontekstno<br />zavisnom prepoznavanju govora u interakciji između čoveka i mašine.<br />Na metodološkom nivou, ovaj pristup je hibridan, jer integriše<br />statističke i simboličke metode, i kognitivno inspirisan, jer uzima u<br />obzir uvide u rezulatate is traživanja iz oblasti neurokognitivnih<br />nauka. Osnovni princip je da se ocenjivanje hipoteza sistema za<br />prepoznavanje vrši na osnovu njihove kontekstualne usklađenosti,<br />informacionog sadržaja i semantičke ispravnosti.<br />Pristup je ilustrovan prototipskim implementacijama za konkretne<br />domene interakcije.</p> / <p>Although the importance of contextual information in speech recognition has<br />been acknowledged for a long time now, it remained clearly underutilized<br />even in state-of-the-art speech recognition systems. This thesis introduces a<br />novel, methodologically hybrid approach to the research question of contextdependent<br />speech recognition in human-machine interaction. To the extent<br />that it is hybrid, the approach integrates aspects of both statistical and<br />representational paradigms. The aim of this thesis is to extend the standard<br />statistical pattern matching approach with a cognitively-inspired and<br />analytically tractable model with explanatory power. This methodological<br />extension allows for accounting for contextual information which is otherwise<br />unavailable in speech recognition systems, and using it to improve postprocessing<br />of recognition hypotheses. The thesis introduces an algorithm for<br />evaluation of recognition hypotheses, illustrates it for concrete interaction<br />domains, and discusses its implementation within two prototype<br />conversational agents.</p>

<div>Background: Structural priming – a tendency to reuse previously encountered sentence structures – has been shown to facilitate production of sentences in persons with aphasia (PWA). However, the task-specific and person-specific factors that modulate the strength of priming effects in PWA remain largely unknown. This study examined (a) if PWA and healthy older adults (HOA) demonstrate improved production of passive sentences following comprehension of passive (as opposed to active) prime sentences, (b) whether repeated use of a verb between a prime and target sentence boosts priming effects, and (c) whether individual participants’ deficits in syntactic processing modulate degrees of priming effects.</div><div><br></div><div>Method: The participants (16 HOA and 13 PWA) completed a comprehension-to-production structural priming task. For prime sentences, they completed a sentence-to-picture matching comprehension task. Then, they described a target action picture, which could be described in an active or passive sentence structure. For half of the prime-target pairs, the verb was repeated to compare the priming effects in the same vs. different verb prime conditions (i.e., lexical boost). To analyze individual variability, we examined if PWA’s scores on clinical measures of syntactic comprehension and production were associated with a positive priming effect.</div><div><br></div><div>Results: Both HOA and PWA showed increased production of passive sentences following comprehension of passive primes, although the priming effect was reduced for PWA. A significant lexical boost was found in HOA, but not for PWA. Within PWA, individuals with higher scores on clinical measures of syntactic production, but not syntactic comprehension, showed a significant priming effect.</div><div><br></div><div>Conclusion: The findings suggest that implicit comprehension-to-production structural priming is preserved in aphasia and that lexically-mediated structural priming may not be critical to effectiveness of structural priming in aphasia. Preliminary results indicate that individuals’ syntactic skills in the domain of production may need to be considered when comprehension-to-production priming is used to improve sentence production.</div>

Aim and research questions: The study examined how text comprehension of middle school students in Sweden changed depending on the modalities of reading and speech synthesis. Impact on the outcome based on factors such as decoding ability, working memory, gender and multilingualism were examined. A new text comprehension test was evaluated. Method: Questionnaires and measuring instruments including the text comprehension test were used in an in-group design. Results: In the given sample (N=94), reading generated best results on the text comprehension test in comparison to speech synthesis. The effects were strongest in the group with weaker decoding ability. No significant correlations were found when working memory or gender was taken into account. The results of the study showed that monolingual participants got better results on the text comprehension test after speech synthesis than multilingual participants. Conclusion: The study found significant differences between modalities, where reading generated better results on the text comprehension test than speech synthesis. Multilingual children scored significantly lower with speech synthesis than monolinguals. Further studies are required. / Syfte och frågeställningar: Studien undersökte hur textförståelsen hos mellanstadieelever i Sverige förändrades beroende på modaliteterna läsning respektive talsyntes. Påverkan på utfallet utifrån faktorer som avkodningsförmåga, arbetsminne, könstillhörighet och flerspråkighet undersöktes. Ett nytt textförståelsetest utvärderades. Metod: Frågeformulär och mätinstrument inklusive textförståelsetestet användes i en inomgruppsdesign. Resultat: I givet urval (N=94) gav läsning bäst resultat på textförståelsetest i jämförelse med talsyntes. Effekterna var starkast i gruppen med svag avkodningsförmåga. Inga signifikanta korrelationer hittades när hänsyn togs till arbetsminne eller könstillhörighet. Studiens resultat visade att enspråkiga deltagare fick bättre resultat på textförståelsetestet efter talsyntes än flerspråkiga deltagare. Slutsats: Studien fann signifikanta skillnader mellan modaliteterna, där läsning gav bättre resultat på textförståelsetest än talsyntes. Flerspråkiga barn fick signifikant sämre resultat med talsyntes än enspråkiga. Vidare studier krävs.

This study investigates the impact of second language age of onset on the development of syntactic competence in bilinguals. Forty-five bilingual children were tested using a picture- matching task with relative clauses. In this paradigm, children are aurally presented with relative clauses of various kinds and are asked to match what they hear with the appropriate picture (out of four choices) on the screen. More specifically, our experiment compared the comprehension of subject- vs. object-extracted center-embedded relative clauses and contained sentences with noun phrases (NPs) that did or did not match in number (both NPs singular or plural = match, one NP singular, one NP plural = mismatch). We compared the performance of a group of Simultaneous bilinguals (two languages since birth), Early sequential bilinguals (first exposure to L2 - English between the ages of 1 to 4) and Late sequential bilinguals (first exposure to L2 -English after the age of 4 but latest at the age of 6 - primary school). The mean age of the participants at the time of testing was approx. 10 years of age. The results show that there is a varied pattern in the comprehension strategies used among the three bilingual groups. The group of Simultaneous bilinguals showed more reliance on the syntactic information contained in...