Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Fall 12-5-2024

Faculty Advisor(s)

Zed Sehyr

Abstract

Readers can use linguistic and contextual clues to predict upcoming words in a sentence. This predictive processing allows for more efficient recognition of upcoming words, particularly when the context of a sentence is predictable (Federmeier & Kutas, 1999; Metusalem et al., 2012). Evidence suggests that for hearing readers, preactivation of word semantics and phonology facilitates the recognition of upcoming words in a sentence (Ito et al., 2016). Readers who became deaf/hard-of-hearing before learning a language rely primarily on visual rather than auditory input, and it is unclear if they engage in similar predictive processes. The study aims to investigate the extent to which deaf readers pre-activate semantic and phonological information during sentence comprehension.

We recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) data from deaf and hearing participants as each participant read 224 high-cloze probability sentences (e.g., “Pete broke his arm and had to wear a…”). Each sentence was presented one word at a time on the center of a computer screen. Participants were then asked to answer a comprehension question following each sentence. The critical words were always sentence-final words and were manipulated into four conditions: 1) congruent (e.g., cast), 2) semantically incongruent (e.g., wall), 3) pseudo-homophone (e.g., kast), and 4) orthographic control pseudoword (e.g., last). Low-cloze (

Thus far, we have collected data from 11 deaf signers and 19 hearing non-signers. Preliminary data based on five deaf and eight hearing participants demonstrated a typical N400 response for semantically incongruent words compared to congruent words in both groups. This indicates semantic pre-activation in hearing and deaf readers, which is consistent with our hypothesis. Interestingly, differences emerged in the Late Positive Complex (LPC) responses: hearing readers exhibited a positive-going LPC for incongruent endings. In contrast, deaf readers showed a negative-going LPC for predicted sentence endings, suggesting a continued semantic processing post-lexical access in deaf readers. Our findings contribute to an understanding of the process deaf readers use during reading comprehension and could inform reading instruction methods for deaf/hard-of-hearing learners.

References

Federmeier, K. D., & Kutas, M. (1999). A rose by any other name: Long-term memory structure and sentence processing. Journal of memory and Language, 41(4), 469-495.

Ito, A., Corley, M., Pickering, M. J., Martin, A. E., & Nieuwland, M. S. (2016). Predicting form and meaning: Evidence from brain potentials. Journal of Memory and Language, 86, 157-171.

Metusalem, R., Kutas, M., Urbach, T. P., Hare, M., McRae, K., & Elman, J. L. (2012). Generalized event knowledge activation during online sentence comprehension. Journal of memory and language, 66(4), 545-567.

Comments

Presented at the Fall 2024 Student Scholar Symposium at Chapman University.

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