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. 2009 Nov 1;22(6):563-583.
doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2009.06.004.

Automatic processing of wh- and NP-movement in agrammatic aphasia: Evidence from eyetracking

Michael Walsh Dickey  1 , Cynthia K Thompson
Affiliations

Automatic processing of wh- and NP-movement in agrammatic aphasia: Evidence from eyetracking

Michael Walsh Dickey et al. J Neurolinguistics. .

Abstract

Individuals with agrammatic Broca's aphasia show deficits in comprehension of non-canonical wh-movement and NP-movement sentences. Previous work using eyetracking has found that agrammatic and unimpaired listeners show very similar patterns of automatic processing for wh-movement sentences. The current study attempts to replicate this finding for sentences with wh-movement (in object relatives in the current study) and to extend it to sentences with NP movement (passives). For wh-movement sentences, aphasic and control participants' eye-movements differed most dramatically in late regions of the sentence and post-offset, with aphasic participants exhibiting lingering attention to a salient but grammatically impermissible competitor. The eye-movement differences between correct and incorrect trials for wh-movement sentences were similar, with incorrect trials also exhibiting competition from an impermissible interpretation late in the sentence. Furthermore, the two groups exhibited similar eye-movement patterns in response to passive NP-movement sentences, but showed little evidence of gap-filling for passives. The results suggest that aphasic and unimpaired individuals may generate similar representations during comprehension, but that aphasics are highly vulnerable to interference from alternative interpretations (Ferreira, 2003).

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sample visual display.
Figure 2
Figure 2
a–b: Gazes at agent and theme pictures over time at 16.6 millisecond intervals, object relative comprehension probes, for aphasic participants (a) and control participants (b).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Theme-advantage scores for aphasic and control participants, object relatives, by sentence region
Figure 4
Figure 4
Theme-advantage scores for correct and incorrect object-relative trials, aphasic participants, by sentence region
Figure 5
Figure 5
a–b Gazes at agent and theme pictures over time at 16.6 millisecond intervals, passive comprehension probes, for aphasic participants (a) and control participants (b)
Figure 6
Figure 6
Theme-advantage scores for aphasic and control participants, passives, by sentence region
Figure 7
Figure 7
Theme-advantage scores for correct and incorrect passive trials, aphasic participants, by sentence region
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