title: The structure-sensitivity of memory access: evidence from Mandarin Chinese.
abstract: The present study examined the processing of the Mandarin Chinese long-distance reflexive ziji to evaluate the role that syntactic structure plays in the memory retrieval operations that support sentence comprehension. Using the multiple-response speed-accuracy tradeoff (MR-SAT) paradigm, we measured the speed with which comprehenders retrieve an antecedent for ziji. Our experimental materials contrasted sentences where ziji's antecedent was in the local clause with sentences where ziji's antecedent was in a distant clause. Time course results from MR-SAT suggest that ziji dependencies with syntactically distant antecedents are slower to process than syntactically local dependencies. To aid in interpreting the SAT data, we present a formal model of the antecedent retrieval process, and derive quantitative predictions about the time course of antecedent retrieval. The modeling results support the Local Search hypothesis: during syntactic retrieval, comprehenders initially limit memory search to the local syntactic domain. We argue that Local Search hypothesis has important implications for theories of locality effects in sentence comprehension. In particular, our results suggest that not all locality effects may be reduced to the effects of temporal decay and retrieval interference.
authors.affiliation: Department of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dillon
authors.affiliation: Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language Donostia - San Sebastián, Spain.
authors.forename: Wing-Yee
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.affiliation: Department of Linguistics, University of California Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wagers
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Taomei
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Fengqin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Linguistics, Maryland Language Science Center, University of Maryland College Park, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Phillips
keywords: Mandarin Chinese; reflexive processing; sentence processing; speed-accuracy trade-off; working memory