How quantifiers influence the conceptual representation of plurals.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Psycholinguistics
• Human Visual Perception

Background:

• Sentence comprehension often activates both singular and plural representations for plural nouns.
• This singular activation is hypothesized to stem from pragmatic processing of plurals.
• The role of quantifiers and working memory limits in this phenomenon requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of quantifiers on plural conceptual representations during sentence comprehension.
• To determine if pragmatic processing or visual working memory constraints explain singular activation for plurals.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments utilized a picture-matching paradigm to assess conceptual representations.
• Experiment 1 examined plural nouns quantified with "many".
• Experiment 2 used numerical quantifiers within and above the subitization range.

Main Results:

• Quantifying plurals with "many" or precise numbers within the subitization range (e.g., 1-4) blocked singular object activation.
• When numbers exceeded the subitization range, exact quantity representation failed, and singular activation re-emerged.
• Results indicate a dual influence of grammatical processing and visual working memory limitations.

Conclusions:

• Plural conceptual representation is shaped by both grammatical processing and visual working memory constraints.
• The activation of singular representations is modulated by quantifier type and cognitive load.
• Findings contribute to understanding how the human mind processes quantity and plurality.