Ambiguity resolution has been a topic of debate in language processing models. The present study investigated the impact of punctuation and working memory in Garden Path structures and related...Show moreAmbiguity resolution has been a topic of debate in language processing models. The present study investigated the impact of punctuation and working memory in Garden Path structures and related these concepts with assumptions made under the Good Enough parsing approach. A word-by-word self-paced reading task was used to assess the effects. A backwards digit span and a reading span task were administered to measure the participant’s working memory capacity. The study found evidence for the presence of Garden Path effects in Late Closure structures. In the form of response accuracy to the comprehension questions, the data supports the Good Enough parsing approach’s assumption that ambiguities are not fully resolved. The scores on the backwards digit span task correlated positively with response accuracy on comprehension questions while reading span scores did not. Punctuation did not impact reading time of the disambiguating region nor response accuracy.Show less
The bilingual brain has the ability to control and switch between languages at any given moment. This alternation between two languages is known as code-switching (Bullock & Toribio, 2009),...Show moreThe bilingual brain has the ability to control and switch between languages at any given moment. This alternation between two languages is known as code-switching (Bullock & Toribio, 2009), which requires cognitive control mechanisms to inhibit the first language once the second language is encountered (Green & Wei, 2014). During the process of switching from one language to the other, costs have been observed, which are assumed to mirror the effort required to access the target language schema. With this background in mind, this study examined the influence of intra-sentential code-switch types on cognitive control costs on (N= 70) L1 Greek L2 English bilinguals. We used an executive function task, where participants were presented with code-switched and non-code-switched sentences that were followed by either a comprehension question or a Flanker trial. Comprehension findings showed that higher scores in Accuracy lead to greater cognitive effort, and thus, costs on monolingual conditions, and in the presence of a code-switch, the costs and levels of Accuracy were decreased. Results from the Flanker task demonstrated a significant link between code-switching type and direction: the performance on Alternational Conditions demanded greater levels of inhibition, and entailed larger costs compared to Insertional Conditions, that caused lower costs. However, the overall performance was better when on the direction of the switch occurred from the L2 to L1, in all levels. Lastly, it was observed that after a code-switch sentence, the performance on Flanker Congruency was faster and more accurate in incongruent than congruent trials. These results provide evidence of the processing demands that intra-sentential code-switch types generate in terms of domain-general cognitive control cost mechanisms.Show less
