Language concatenates perceptual features into representations during comprehension

Journal of Memory and Language, vol. 127, pp. 104355

Abstract

Although many studies have investigated the activation of perceptual representations during language comprehension, to our knowledge only one previous study has directly tested how perceptual features are combined into representations during comprehension. In their classic study, Potter and Faulconer [(1979). Understanding noun phrases. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 18, 509–521.] investigated the perceptual representation of adjective-noun combinations. However, their non-orthogonal design did not allow the differentiation between conjunctive vs. disjunctive representations. Using randomized orthogonal designs, we observe evidence for disjunctive perceptual representations when participants represent feature combinations simultaneously (in several experiments; N = 469), and we observe evidence for conjunctive perceptual representations when participants represent feature combinations sequentially (In several experiments; N = 628). Our findings show that the generation of conjunctive representations during comprehension depends on the concatenation of linguistic cues, and thus suggest the construction of elaborate perceptual representations may critically depend on language.

Authors 3

1. Bruno R. Bocanegra corresponding Aachen Institute of Psychology, Leiden University

   Leiden University · Erasmus University Rotterdam

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

   Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands

2. Fenna H. Poletiek Aachen Institute of Psychology, Leiden University

   Leiden University · Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands

   Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands

3. Rolf Antonius Zwaan

   Erasmus University Rotterdam

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands