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The effects of syntactic complexity on processing sentences in noise
Rebecca Carroll1, Esther Ruigendijk
1Institute of Dutch Studies, Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstraße 114-118, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany. rebecca.carroll@uni-oldenburg.de
Stationary noise significantly hinders sentence comprehension, especially for complex sentences. This impact is linked to reduced sound clarity and increased cognitive load, though prosody may offer some protection for embedded structures.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Psychology
- Auditory Neuroscience
Background:
- Understanding sentence processing is crucial for communication.
- Syntactic complexity influences cognitive load during language comprehension.
- Environmental noise is a common factor affecting auditory processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of stationary noise on German sentence processing.
- To analyze how syntactic complexity (canonicity, embedding, ambiguity) interacts with noise.
- To explore the role of cognitive resources and acoustic information in noise effects.
Main Methods:
- Two reaction time (RT) studies were conducted.
- 44 participants processed German sentences in both silent and noisy conditions.
- Sentence complexity was systematically varied.
Main Results:
- Stationary noise disproportionately affected structurally complex sentence segments.
- Cognitive resource strain (working memory, attention) and reduced acoustic information contributed to noise effects.
- Embedded sentences showed a reduced noise effect, potentially due to prosodic cues.
Conclusions:
- Stationary noise poses a significant challenge to syntactic processing, particularly for complex structures.
- Cognitive load and acoustic degradation are key mechanisms underlying noise interference.
- Prosodic information may serve as a compensatory mechanism for processing embedded sentences in noise.
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