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The lexical boost in structural priming: The syntactic head matters but adjacency does not
Roger P G van Gompel1, Robert J Hartsuiker2, Leila Kantola1
1Division of Psychology, Faculty of Health, University of Dundee.
Summary
Structural priming research supports head-centered models. Repeating the head verb boosts priming, while repeating nonhead subjects does not, regardless of word position in sentences.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Science
- Computational Linguistics
Background:
- Structural priming research suggests priming effects are stronger when the head of a structure is repeated.
- Previous studies indicated that lexical boost effects, where head word repetition enhances priming, are significant.
- However, the influence of word position on head versus nonhead word effects remained unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of word position in head-centered structural priming.
- To determine if the lexical boost effect is specific to head words, irrespective of their sentence position.
- To provide further evidence for or against head-centered models of structural priming.
Main Methods:
- Experimental design manipulating word order in prime and target sentences.
- Comparison of priming effects with repeated head verbs versus repeated nonhead subjects.
- Analysis of structural priming strength based on lexical repetition.
Main Results:
- Repetition of the head verb consistently resulted in a lexical boost effect.
- Repetition of the nonhead subject did not significantly affect structural priming.
- These findings held true even when the typical sentence order of head and nonhead words was reversed.
Conclusions:
- The results strongly support head-centered models of structural priming.
- Lexical boost effects are primarily associated with head words, independent of their position.
- The study clarifies the differential impact of head and nonhead word repetition on structural priming.
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