Yao, Bo and Scheepers, Christoph
(2018).
Direct speech quotations promote low relative-clause attachment in silent reading of English.
[Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex:
UK Data Archive.
10.5255/UKDA-SN-853105
Written communication (e.g., emails, news reports, social media) is a major form of social information exchange in today's world. However, it is sometimes difficult to interpret the intended meaning of a written message without hearing prosody (rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech) that is instrumental in understanding the writer's feelings, attitudes, and intentions. For example, a prosody-less "thank you" email can be confusing as to whether the sender is being sincere or sarcastic (Kruger et al., 2005). Emails like these are often misinterpreted as being more negative or neutral than intended; such miscommunications can damage social cohesiveness and group identity within organisations and communities, thereby undermining economic performance and societal stability (Byron, 2008).
Interestingly, written words may not be entirely "silent" after all. My recent research showed that we mentally (or covertly) simulate speech prosody (or "inner voices") during silent reading of written direct quotations (Mary gasped: "This dress is beautiful!") as if we were hearing someone speaking (Yao et al., 2011, 2012). For example, Yao and colleagues (2011) observed that silent reading of direct quotations elicited higher neural activity in voice-selective areas of the auditory cortex as compared to silent reading of meaning-equivalent indirect speech (Mary gasped that the dress was beautiful.).
Can such covert prosody compensate for the lack of overt speech prosody in written language and thus enhance written communication? To address this question, the proposed project will systematically examine the nature (is covert prosody sound- or action-based in nature?), mechanisms (what information processing systems are engaged?) and emotional consequences (does covert prosody induce emotions and thereby influence behaviour?) of covert prosodic processing in silent reading of written direct quotations.
Theoretically motivated by the working neural models for "over" emotional prosodic processing in speech (e.g., Schirmer and Kotz, 2006), the current proposal will probe "where" and "when" in the brain covert prosodic cues of various natures are mentally simulated and integrated into coherent covert prosodic representations and how these representations consequently induce emotional responses and aid in inferring the quoted speaker's mental state. Using complementary neuroimaging techniques, it will localise the neural substrates of systems engaged in covert emotional prosodic processing (fMRI), specify the time courses of the information processes within these systems (EEG, MEG), and integrate this information to form a unified spatio-temporal neural model for covert emotional prosodic processing.
The findings of this project have clear implications for the theoretical development of emotional prosody-based social communication, embodied cognition, and speech pragmatics, and will be of interest to all written language users (e.g., communication-based enterprises, social services, and the wider public). This research also has potential impact on early language education and diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD). For example, understanding direct quotations requires the reader to take the quoted speaker's perspective and attribute emotions and mental states to them. A quotation-rich teaching method thus may effectively enhance children's Theory of Mind ability (ability to attribute mental states) that is crucial in their cognitive development and social cognition. Moreover, PD patients may struggle in simulating covert emotional prosody due to their motor (articulation) dysfunction. Consequently, they may display difficulty in understanding figurative speech quotations (e.g., they may not detect the sarcasm in - She rolled her eyes, grumbling: "What a sunny day!"). This research could thus motivate the development of a low-cost quotation-based diagnostic tool for monitoring PD progression.
Data description (abstract)
The implicit prosody hypothesis (Fodor, 1998, 2002) proposes that silent reading coincides with a default, implicit form of prosody to facilitate sentence processing. Recent research demonstrated that a more vivid form of implicit prosody is mentally simulated during silent reading of direct speech quotations (e.g., Mary said, “This dress is beautiful”), with neural and behavioural consequences (e.g., Yao, Belin, & Scheepers, 2011; Yao & Scheepers, 2011).
In this study, we explored the relation between ‘default’ and ‘simulated’ implicit prosody in the context of relative-clause (RC) attachment in English. English RC-attachment structures were embedded in direct speech, indirect speech or narrative sentences. Participants either completed sentence fragments ending in incomplete RCs (Experiment 1) or rated the felicity of unambiguous low vs. high RC-attachments in silent reading (Experiment 2) and in oral reading (Experiment 3), respectively.
In this data collection, you will find task instructions, data and R scripts for each of the three experiment.
Data creators: |
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Sponsors: |
Economic and Social Research Council
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Grant reference: |
ES/N002784/1
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Topic classification: |
Psychology
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Keywords: |
implicit prosody, relative-clause attachment, inner voice, direct quotations, indirect speech, mental simulation
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Project title: |
When words speak off the page: Covert emotional prosodic processing in silent reading of direct quotations
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Grant holders: |
Bo Yao
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Project dates: |
From | To |
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7 March 2016 | 6 March 2019 |
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Date published: |
15 Mar 2018 13:57
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Last modified: |
20 Mar 2018 12:08
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Collection period: |
Date from: | Date to: |
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7 March 2016 | 6 March 2019 |
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Geographical area: |
Manchester |
Country: |
United Kingdom |
Spatial unit: |
No Spatial Unit |
Data collection method: |
Experiment 1 required participants to complete relative-clause sentence fragments via pen and paper.
Experiments 2 & 3 required participants to read sentences with relative-clause structures and then rate the readability of these sentences. The experiments were conducted using standard PCs and the ratings were collected using a keyboard.
In Experiment 3, participants read sentences out loud and their reading was digitally recorded.
The participants in this research were healthy adults who were native speakers of English. They had no language or learning disorders. They were recruited via convenience sampling. |
Observation unit: |
Individual |
Kind of data: |
Numeric, Text |
Type of data: |
Experimental data
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Resource language: |
English |
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Data sourcing, processing and preparation: |
All data in this collection are original data. No identifying information was collected.
In Experiment 1, participants' responses (sentence completions) were reviewed and classified by two independent researchers until a final classification was reached. Both the raw responses and final classification are included in this collection.
In Experiment 3, the recorded audios were reviewed by a research to code audible pauses (silence periods that are > 100 ms) at various locations in a sentence. The coded pauses are included in this collection.
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Rights owners: |
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Contact: |
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Notes on access: |
The Data Collection is available to any user without the requirement for registration for download/access.
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Publisher: |
UK Data Archive
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Last modified: |
20 Mar 2018 12:08
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Available Files
Data and documentation bundle
Publications
Fodor, J. D. (1998). Learning to parse? Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 27(2), 285–319. |
Fodor, J. D. (2002). Prosodic disambiguation in silent reading. In PROCEEDINGS-NELS (Vol. 1, pp. 113–132). |
Yao, B., Belin, P., & Scheepers, C. (2011). Silent reading of direct versus indirect speech activates voice-selective areas in the auditory cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(10), 3146–3152. |
Yao, B., & Scheepers, C. (2011). Contextual modulation of reading rate for direct versus indirect speech quotations. Cognition, 121(3), 447–453. |
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