Influence of visual and linguistic context on object pronoun processing in a blank screen paradigm

van der Rest, Wessel (2018) Influence of visual and linguistic context on object pronoun processing in a blank screen paradigm. Bachelor's Thesis, Artificial Intelligence.

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Abstract

This study aims to investigate whether and how visual and linguistic context affect the processing of object pronouns (‘him’, ‘her’). Recent studies have shown, by measuring pupil dilation, that context information affects object-pronoun processing in an early stage and interacts with grammatical processing (e.g., van Rij et al, 2016; van Rij, 2012). In the current study, we investigated the exact timing of those contexts on object-pronoun processing by co-registering EEG and pupil dilation. With a 2x2x2 within-subject design, we investigated the effects of visual context (other-oriented vs self-oriented action; e.g., a picture with a hedgehog photographing a mouse, or a hedgehog photographing himself), discourse prominence (the introduction sentence introduces the actor first or second; ‘You just saw a hedgehog and a mouse.’ vs ‘You just saw a mouse and a hedgehog.’), and referring expression (the test sentence contains an object pronoun or a reflexive (fillers); ‘The hedgehog was photographing him / himself with a camera.’). Surprisingly, we found that visual and linguistic context do not have an influence on object-pronoun processing. However, we did find an influence of visual context on the processing of reflexives in EEG and an interaction between visual and linguistic context in pupil dilation.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor's Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Borst, J.P. and Rij-Tange, J.C. van
Degree programme:	Artificial Intelligence
Thesis type:	Bachelor's Thesis
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	21 Jul 2018
Last Modified:	23 Jul 2018 13:06
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/18003

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