Gap-Filling and End-of-Sentence Effects in Real-Time Language Processing: Implications for Modeling Sentence Comprehension in Aphasia

• Published in: Brain and language Vol. 61; no. 2; pp. 169 - 182
• Main Authors: Balogh, Jennifer, Zurif, Edgar, Prather, Penny, Swinney, David, Finkel, Lisa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego, CA Elsevier Inc 01.02.1998; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aphasia; Biological and medical sciences; Conditioning; Disorders of higher nervous function. Focal brain diseases. Central vestibular syndrome and deafness. Brain stem syndromes; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Language; Language and communication disorders; Language Processing; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Models, Neurological; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Psychology and medicine; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Speech Perception; Syntactic Processing; Time; Time Factors; Human; Nervous system diseases; Lexicon; Activation; Cognition; Comprehension; Experimental study; Language disorder; Cerebral disorder; Language; Central nervous system disease; Aphasia; Neurological disorder; Syntax; Sentence
• ISSN: 0093-934X; 1090-2155
• DOI: 10.1006/brln.1997.1917

We present an on-line study showing different sources of lexical activation during sentence comprehension, distinguishing in this respect between reflexive syntactic and less temporarily constrained nonsyntactic sources. Specifically, we show that both the syntactic process of gap filling and a nonsyntactic end-of-sentence effect can be measurable in real time and can be temporally separated. The distinction between activation sources provides a new perspective on real-time sentence comprehension in aphasia and accounts for the disparate results reported in the literature.