EFFECTS OF GRAMMATICAL PRIMING IN WORD NAMING ARE SUBSTANTIAL AND ROBUST, AT

LEAST IN SERBIAN 

Dejan LalovićDepartment of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy

University of Belgrade Republic of Serbia

EFFECTS OF GRAMMATICAL PRIMING IN WORD NAMING ARE SUBSTANTIAL AND ROBUST, AT

LEAST IN SERBIAN 

DEFINING TERMS

SEMANTIC PRIMING

PRESENTATION TALK

ASSOCIATIVE PRIMING

BOREDOM TALK

GRAMMATICAL PRIMING

THIS TALK

prime target

!

PRIMED ONLINE WORD NAMING (READING ALOUD) TASK

THROUGH TUNNEL

voice key recorded online RT + errors coded

“Read the first word in each pair silently”

“Read the following word in each pair aloud”

(PRIME)

(TARGET)

EFFECTS OF GRAMMATICAL PRIMING IN WORD NAMING ARE SUBSTANTIAL AND ROBUST?, AT

LEAST IN SERBIAN 

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND, AIMS OF THE STUDY

LITERATURE ON GRAMMATICAL PRIMING EFFECTS ON

VISUAL WORD PROCESSING IS EQUIVOCAL:

GRAMMATICAL PRIMING CONSISTENTLY YIELDS

EFFECTS IN LEXICAL DECISION TASK BOTH IN ENGLISH (E.

G. GOODMAN ET AL. (1981), SEIDENBERG ET AL. (1984), WRIGHT &

GARRET (1984), WEST & STANOVICH (1986)), AND SERBIAN (E. G.

LUKATELA ET AL. (1982), KATZ ET AL. (1994)).

BUT

THESE EFFECTS ARE DIMINISHED WHEN NAMING TASK

IS EMPLOYED

(E. G. SEIDENBERG ET AL., (1984) IN ENGLISH, CARELLO ET AL., (1988) IN

SERBIAN)!PREVAILING VIEW: GRAMMATICAL PRIMING INFLUENCES

STRATEGIC PROCESSES, THAT OCCUR UPON THE WORD

HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED, WITHOUT INFLUENCING WORD

RECOGNITION PER SE.

HOWEVER, ROBUST EFFECTS OF GRAMMATICAL PRIMING

IN WORD NAMING HAVE BEEN OBSERVED IN AT LEAST

TWO STUDIES:

* SUCH SYNTACTICAL PRIMING EFFECT WAS EQUAL TO,

OR OF COMAPRABLE MAGNITUDE IN BOTH WORD

PROCESSING TASKS!

WEST & STANOVICH (1986) EMPLOYED SENTENCE

FRAGMENTS AS SYNTACTICAL PRIMES TO CONSTRAIN THE

GRAMMATICAL CLASS OF THE TARGET WORDS IN BOTH

LEXICAL DECISION AND NAMING TASK.

* GRAMMATICAL PRIMING EQUALLY FACILITATED

ENGLISH INFLECTED AND UNIFLECTED NOUNS AND

VERBS, REGARDLESS OF SOME EXPERIMENTAL

MANIPULATIONS (TO BE EXPLAINED LATER ON).

BOWEY (1996) EMPLOYED SINGLE-WORD PRIMES

(DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS AND AUXILIARY VERBS) TO

CONSTRAIN THE TARGET WORD CLASS (SUBJECTS

FOURTH-GRADE CHILDREN).

CLAIMS THAT GRAMMATICAL PRIMING IS LIMITED TO

LEXICAL DECISION TASK IN ENGLISH APPARENTLY SEEM

PREMATURE!

THE ARGUMENT: IF GRAMMATICAL CONTEXT PLAYS SOME

ROLE IN ENGLISH WORD RECOGNITION THEN, BY

INTUITION, ITS ROLE IN SERBIAN WORD RECOGNITION

SHOULD BE MUCH MORE PROMINENT.

THE INTUITION RESTS UPON CERTAIN MAJOR PROPERTIES OF SERBIAN GRAMMAR

SERBIAN MORPHOLOGY IS, UNLIKE ENGLISH, HEAVILY

INFLECTED. GRAMMATICAL ATTRIBUTES OF OPEN

CLASS SERBIAN WORDS ARE SPECIFIED BY

INFLECTIONAL SUFFIXES.E. G. masculine noun forms and cases

form case(s)

prst nom. s.prsta gen. s, acc. s, g. pl.prstu dat. s, loc. s.prstom inst. s.prsti nom. pl.prste acc. pl.prstima dat. pl, loc. pl, inst. pl.

prst = finger

+ 6 feminine noun forms, + 7 neuter noun forms…

SERBIAN SYNTAX IS A RATHER FREE-ORDER ONE:

Basically:“Is this a way to earn own house,enjoying perch each evening!?”

Zar se tako teče kućasvako veče pored smuđa!?

Zar se tako kuća teče, pored smuđa svako veče!?

Zar se kuća teče takopored smuđa veče svako!?

(Laza Kostić, famous Serbian romantic poet)

Зар се кућа тече тако, поред смуђа вече свако!?

Поред смуђа вече свако, кућа зар се тече тако!?

Zar se kuća teče tako, pored smuđa veče svako!?

Pored smuđa veče svako, kuća zar se teče tako!?

subject, nominativ case

Зар ћеш кућу стећи тако, поред смуђа вече свако!?

Поред смуђа вече свако, кућу зар ћеш стећи тако!?

Zar ćeš kuću steći tako, pored smuđa veče svako!?

Pored smuđa veče svako, kuću zar ćeš steći tako!?

object, accusative case

*******************************

*******************************Kućom zar se diči neko ko je za kafanskim stolom stek’o!?

Zar se kućom diči neko ko je za kafanskim stolom stek’o!?

object, instrumental case

LAZA KOSTIĆ’S VERSES EVOLUTION INTO THE BEĆARAC

A LEXICAL (OPEN-WORD CLASS) MORPHOLOGICAL

AND THUS SYNTACTICAL AMBIGUITY IN SERBIAN IS

EASILY RESOLVED BY MODIFIERS – CLOSE-CLASS

FUNCTION WORDS (E.G. PREPOSITIONS, PRONOUNS)

AND MORPHOLOGICALLY CONGRUENT ADJECTIVES

PRECEEDING THE WORD BEING MODIFIED.

GRAMMATICAL AGREEMENT IN SERBIAN THEREFORE

SHOULD BE A POWERFUL TOOL FOR SPECIFYING

WORD’S THEMATIC ROLE IN SENTENCE.

CRITICAL

FEATURES

OF THE

STUDY

PRESENTED

TARGET WORDS OF TWO CLASSES

WERE PRIMED INSTEAD OF PRIMING

GRAMMATICAL FORMS WITHIN A

SINGLE WORD CLASS. SINGLE-WORD PRIMES THAT

UNEQUIVOCALLY CONSTRAINED

TARGET WORD CLASS WERE EMPLOYED

IN THE “CONSTRAINED” EXPERIMENTAL

CONDITION. NEUTRAL LINGUISTIC PRIMES WERE

EMPLOYED IN THE “UNCONSTRAINED”

EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION.

1. TO RE-INVESTIGATE EFFECTS OF GRAMMATICAL

PRIMING (I. E.

GRAMMATICAL CONGRUENCY) ON SERBIAN WORD

NAMING

AIMS OF THE PRESENT STUDY:

TYPICAL PRIME -TARGET PAIRS AS A FUNCTION OF WORD TYPE AND CONSTRAINT

CONSTRAINED UNCONSTRAINED

PRIMES TARGETS PRIMES TARGETS

ZBOG/BEZ

(BECAUSE/WITHOUT)

BLUZE/TARABE

(BLOUSE/FENCE)

I/ILI

(AND/OR)

GREDE/PALICE

(JOIST/BAT)

NOUNS

KROZ/UZ

(THROUGH/UP)

SCENU/TERASU

(SCENE/TERACE)

I/ILI

(AND/OR)

GLINU/KOLIBU

(CLAY/COTTAGE)

ON/ONA

(HE/SHE)

SPASE/RUKUJE

(SAVES/HANDLES)

I/ILI

(AND/OR)

GREBE/ZABODE

(SCRAPES/STICKS)

VERBS

ONI/ONE

(THEY, MASC./FEM.)

SNUJU/DIRAJU

(DREAM/TOUCH)

I/ILI

(AND/OR)

BRINU/DOVEDU

(CARE/BRING)

EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS, SIMPLIFIED

TARGETS TARGETStears

night

hill

fog

steals

cries

love

trust

VERBSNOUNS

In grammatically neutral (“unconstrained”) condition, both noun and verb targets were primed by conjectures AND/OR, which did not preclude neither w. class nor form.

PRIMES PRIMES

PERSONAL

PRONOUNS

she

he

they m.

they f.

without

because

up

through

PREPOSITIONS

and/or

and/or

and/or

and/or

and/or

and/or

and/or

and/or

AIMS OF THE PRESENT STUDY:

2. TO INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE INFLUENCE OF SOME MAJOR

EXPERIMENTAL MANIPULATIONS ON GRAMMATICAL PRIMING

EFFECTS.

“MAJOR EXPERIMENTAL MANIPULATION” = STIMULUS ONSET ASYNCHRONY

!THROUGH TUNNEL

PRIME EXPOSITION

ISI ONLINE REACTION TIME

SOA AND,

!

DELAYED NAMING TASK – ONE WAY TO CONTROL FOR THE NON-COGNITIVE FACTORS IN (ONLINE) WORD NAMING:

TUNNEL

voice key recorded delayed RT

“Read the words silently as they appear on the screen,but pronounce them aloud only after the brackets appear!”

( )

EFFECTS OF GRAMMATICAL PRIMING IN WORD NAMING ARE SUBSTANTIAL AND ROBUST, AT

LEAST IN SERBIAN 

RESULTS

RT [m

s]

600 ms 250 ms

Unconstr.

Constr.Constr.

Unconstr.

ONLINE NAMING

Verbs-Nouns p<.001

SOA p<0.05

SOA x V-N n. s.

SOA x Constraint n. s.

Constraint p<.001

24ms

19 msSOA

ERR%

600 ms 250 ms

Constr.Unconstr.

Unconstr.

Constr.

SOA p<0.05

Constraint n. s. (p=0.09)

Verbs-Nouns p<.01

SOA x Constraint n. s.SOA x V-N n. s.

SOA

DELAYED NAMING

Targets in Con.

Targets in Uncon.

NO MAIN EFFECTS,NO INTERACTIONS

Targets in Con.

Targets in Uncon.

RT [m

s]

Constr.Constr.

600 ms 250 ms

Unconstr.

Unconstr.

SOA

ONLINE - DELAYED NAMING

RT

[ms]

600 ms 250 ms

SOA p<0.05

Constraint p<.001

Verbs-Nouns p<.001

SOA x Constraint n. s. (27 vs. 19 ms)

SOA x V-N n. s.

SOA

125 ms

183 ms

BUT!

SOA

EFFECTS OF GRAMMATICAL PRIMING IN WORD NAMING ARE SUBSTANTIAL AND ROBUST, AT

LEAST IN SERBIAN 

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND SOME OPEN QUESTIONS

CLAIMS THAT GRAMMATICAL PRIMING IS RESTRICTED

TO LEXICAL DECISION TASK CAN BE REFUTED ON

EMPIRICAL GROUNDS. FURTHER,

GRAMMATICAL PRIMING EFFECTS ARE NOT LIKELY TO

BE INFLUENCED BY SOME MAJOR STRATEGIC

PROCESSES DIRECTLY ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE SOA

INTERVAL MANIPULATIONS.

SUBSTANTIAL FACILITATIVE EFFECTS OF GRAMMATICAL

PRIMING ON SERBIAN WORD NAMING (ABOUT TWICE AS

LARGE IN MAGNITUDE AS THOSE OBTAINED IN ENGLISH)

WERE OBSERVED IN ADULT FLUENT READERS:

GRAMMATICAL PRIMING EFFECTS OF AN ROUGHLY

EQUAL MAGNITUDES WERE OBSERVED IN THE LONG SOA

INTERVAL CONDITION (600 MS) AND IN THE SHORT SOA

INTERVAL CONDITION (250 MS):

HOWEVER,

TIME WINDOWS FOR WORD PROCESSING AT 600 MS SOA AND 250 MS SOA (ONLINE – DELAYED RTs) APPEAR TO BE SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT: 125 MS VS 183 MS, RESPECTIVELY

SUCH AN OUTCOME REQUIRES CAUTION IN GRAMMATICAL PRIMING EFFECTS LOCI EXPLAINING AND SPECIFYING.