MPI Colloquium Dr. Wing-Yee Chow

Incremental prediction in real-time language comprehension: from meaning to pitch contour

The ability to generate and update predictions on the fly is key to our success in comprehending language in real time. In this talk I will describe a programme of work that examines how comprehenders may incorporate semantic, syntactic, and phonological cues to update their predictions incrementally. In the first part of the talk I will present a study that looks at prediction revision by capitalising on some of the similarities and differences between the grammatical properties of Mandarin Chinese and English. I will present convergent eye-tracking and event-related potential (ERP) evidence which suggests that comprehenders can quickly revise their predictions upon encountering disconfirming evidence. In the second part of the talk I will discuss on-going work in Mandarin Chinese, a tonal language, which explores the relatively understudied intersection between language prediction and phonological knowledge. In Mandarin Chinese, a syllable's pitch contour (or lexical tone) can change depending on what follows (a phenomenon known as tone sandhi). It presents a unique opportunity to expand on existing work to examine whether and how listeners can incorporate units of information as small as a syllable's pitch contour to anticipate upcoming words in real-time language comprehension.

Please click link to join the webinar https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85194959155