Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T18:52:55.977Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Towards a complete multiple-mechanism account of predictive language processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2013

Nivedita Mani
Affiliation:
Language Acquisition Junior Research Group, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany. [email protected]
Falk Huettig
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands. [email protected] Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Although we agree with Pickering & Garrod (P&G) that prediction-by-simulation and prediction-by-association are important mechanisms of anticipatory language processing, this commentary suggests that they: (1) overlook other potential mechanisms that might underlie prediction in language processing, (2) overestimate the importance of prediction-by-association in early childhood, and (3) underestimate the complexity and significance of several factors that might mediate prediction during language processing.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chang, F., Dell, G. S. & Bock, K. (2006) Becoming syntactic. Psychological Review 113(2):234272.Google Scholar
DeLong, K. A., Urbach, T. P. & Kutas, M. (2005) Probabilistic word pre-activation during language comprehension inferred from electrical brain activity. Nature Neuroscience 8(8):1117–21.Google Scholar
Evans, N. & Levinson, S. C. (2009) The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32(5):429–92.Google Scholar
Federmeier, K., McLennan, D. B. & De Ochoa, E. & Kutas, M. (2002) The impact of semantic memory organization and sentence context information on spoken language processing by younger and older adults: An ERP study. Psychophysiology, 39:133–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huettig, F. & Janse, E. (2012) Anticipatory eye movements are modulated by working memory capacity: Evidence from older adults. Paper presented at the 18th Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing Conference, Riva del Garda, Italy.Google Scholar
Huettig, F. & McQueen, J. M. (2007) The tug of war between phonological, semantic and shape information in language-mediated visual search. Journal of Memory and Language 57:460–82.Google Scholar
Mani, N., Durrant, S. & Floccia, C. (2012) Activation of phonological and semantic codes in toddlers. Journal of Memory and Language 66:612–22.Google Scholar
Mani, N. & Huettig, F. (2012) Prediction during language processing is a piece of cake – but only for skilled producers. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 38: 843–47.Google Scholar
Mani, N. & Plunkett, K. (2010) In the infant's mind's ear: Evidence for implicit naming in infancy. Psychological Science 21:908–13.Google Scholar
McDonald, S. A. & Shillcock, R. C. (2003) Eye movements reveal the on-line computation of lexical probabilities. Psychological Science 14:648–52.Google Scholar
Melzer, A., Prinz, W. & Daum, M. M. (2012) Production and perception of contralateral reaching: A close link by 12 months of age. Infant Behavior and Development 35:570–79.Google Scholar
Mishra, R. K., Singh, N., Pandey, A. & Huettig, F. (2012) Spoken language-mediated anticipatory eye movements are modulated by reading ability: Evidence from Indian low and high literates. Journal of Eye Movement Research 5(1):110.Google Scholar
Rommers, J., Meyer, A. S., Praamstra, P., & Huettig, F. (2013). The contents of predictions in sentence comprehension: Activation of the shape of objects before they are referred to. Neuropsychologia 51(3):437–47.Google Scholar
Schwanenflugel, P. J. & Shoben, E. J. (1985) The influence of sentence constraint on the scope of facilitation for upcoming words. Journal of Memory and Language 24:232–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1973) Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology 5(2):677–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Berkum, J. J. A., Brown, M. C., Zwitserlood, P., Kooijman, V. & Hagoort, P. (2005) Anticipating upcoming words in discourse: Evidence from ERPs and reading times. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 31:443–67.Google Scholar