Ray Becker Bielefeld University Monica Gonzalez-Marquez Cornell
University & Bielefeld University Todd Ferretti Wilfrid Laurier
University Empirical Evidence for Evidentiality January 10,
2014
Slide 2
Local organizer: Jan Edson Leite Linguistics Professor at UFPB
Joo Pessoa, Paraba, Brazil
Slide 3
Perceptual symbol systems (Barsalou, 1999) Simulation
(Barsalou, 1999; Glenberg, 1997) She heard/saw the man speak at the
school. Are there modality-specific differences?
Slide 4
Pecher, Zeelenberg, and Barsalou, 2003 Property verification
task leaves rustling then bird chirping leaves rustling then
raspberry tart
Slide 5
Pecher, Zeelenberg, and Barsalou, 2003 No main effect
(visual-property verification was not slower than auditory-property
verification) What about at the discourse level? Would the brains
response differ?
Slide 6
Federmeier, K.D. and Kutas, M. (1999) A rose by any other name:
long-term memory structure and sentence processing. J. Mem.
Lang.41, 469495
Slide 7
Hagoort, P. & Brown, C. M. (1999). Gender electrified: ERP
evidence on the syntactic nature of gender processing. Journal of
Psycholinguistic Research, 28, (6) 715-728.
Slide 8
Slide 9
Burkhardt, P. (2006) Context A: BRIDGED DP Tobias visited a
concert in Berlin. Context B: GIVEN DP Tobias visited a conductor
in Berlin. Context C: NEW DP Tobias talked to Nina. Target sentence
(following Context AC) He said that the conductor was very
impressive.
Slide 10
The Late Positivity component (P600/LPC) 1.Reflects integration
difficulty 2.Decay of the referent in memory leads to the concept
needing to be re-instantiated into the current situation
model.
Slide 11
More positively-leading (P600/LPC) for referents that followed
Bridged and New contexts than Given contexts
Slide 12
Could modality-specific differences also effect brainwave
patterns (N400 or P600) She saw the man speak at the school.
(Complex) She heard the man speak at the school. (Less rich) If the
simulation is complex then it should be more salient in the current
situation model and be more available for later reference.
Slide 13
Cecile was a high school student in Waterloo, Ontario.
Yesterday a motivational speaker was coming to the auditorium. She
went to class and then it was time for the speaker. She heard/saw
the man speak at the school. The auditorium was packed. She thought
about the man and how inspired she felt. After school she went to
the soccer field for practice. The inspiration drove her to take
some extra penalty shots. It felt good to get in some extra
practice. The man was speaking at the school. (yes)
Slide 14
52 WLU undergraduate participants read short stories. There
were 20 experimental stories mixed in to another unrelated
experiment. (124 stories total). EEG was recorded from 64
electrodes. Analysis was time locked to the onset of the target
(e.g., man).
Slide 15
Greater positive deflection (P600) for heard versus seen Seen
Target Heard Target Mean Amplitude ( V) 8 V 1 s -4 V
Slide 16
1. Descriptions of seen versus heard events has a quantitative
effect on later reference. 2. Simulating the visual descriptions of
an event may lead to greater saliency for that event in the current
situation model than auditory descriptions.
Slide 17
How could interdisciplinary collaboration further our
understanding of evidentiality? Are there qualitative differences
in eyewitness testimony depending on the sensory description?
Slide 18
Compare sentences such as: I heard/saw the man speak at the
school. I knew/guessed that the man
Slide 19
Is this testimony more veridical than if the witness had heard
the event?
Slide 20
Compare the number of Google hits for I saw versus I felt.
Slide 21
Now compare those numbers for I saw and I felt to I heard.
Slide 22
I saw I saw the tail of a large airliner.... It plowed right
into the Pentagon. Flight 77 (9/11) I saw many people being shot
down as they were trying to run away. Nairobi mall and up the hill
I saw a man running toward the monument and I started running over
there. JFK assassination
Slide 23
I heard Shortly after watching the second tragedy, I heard jet
engines pass our building. Flight 77 (9/11) I heard a rain of
hundreds of bullets in a span of less than a minute. Nairobi mall
Just after the President's car passed, I heard three shots come
from up toward Houston and Elm. JFK assassination
Slide 24
I felt I was cutting the grass and it came in screaming over my
head. I felt the impact. Flight 77 (9/11) I felt I'm almost going
to lose consciousness. Syria alleged chemical attack My check was
torn, I discovered as I felt it gingerly. Hiroshima (1945)