Who shot whom? Psycholinguistic processing of syntactic ambiguity in L2 and the role of cognitive control: a self-paced reading experiment

Authors

  • FELIPE VON HAUSEN Universidad de las Américas
  • MAURICIO ASPÉ Universidad de Valparaíso

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5935/2218-0761.20240022

Keywords:

Syntactic ambiguity, L2 processing, self-paced reading, cognitive control, good enough approach

Abstract

We investigated how Spanish speakers with English as a second language (L2) process syntactic ambiguities. According to the Good Enough speaker approach, ambiguities may remain unresolved while performing a reading task, maintaining multiple possible interpretations (Ferreira 2002). Our self-paced reading experiment employed a 2x3 mixed design with two experimental conditions: 1) syntactic ambiguity ‒within-subjects condition (ambiguous, disambiguated N1, disambiguated N2), and 2) comprehension questions, ‒ between-subjects condition (relative clause and superficial). Additionally, we included a Flanker task to measure cognitive control. The analysis incorporated linear mixed-effects modelling. The study results show that participants require more reaction time to process the ambiguous condition in N1 compared to N2. Furthermore, it was observed that accuracy in the Flanker task is associated with longer reaction times in reading. These results suggest that greater cognitive control is associated with longer reading times, indicating a trade-off between speed and accuracy in L2 processing.

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Author Biographies

FELIPE VON HAUSEN, Universidad de las Américas

Traductor de español, alemán e inglés por la Universidad de Concepción, Chile. Profesor de Lengua Alemana por la Universidad de Talca, Chile. Posee un Magíster en Educación Superior y un Magíster en Lingüística Aplicada, ambos por la Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Chile. Es académico en la Facultad de Comunicaciones y Artes de la Universidad de las Américas, Concepción, Chile. Su área de investigación es la psicolingüística experimental, con énfasis en el procesamiento de la sintaxis y el léxico en L2.

MAURICIO ASPÉ, Universidad de Valparaíso

Es investigador del Centro Interdisciplinario de Neurociencia de Valparaíso, Chile. Formado como Psicólogo en la Universidad de Valparaíso, posee un doctorado en Ciencias con mención en Neurolingüística, por la misma casa de estudios y un doctorado en Ciencias de la Complejidad Social, por la Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile. Las áreas en las que se desempeña son la neurobiología de conductas sociales, el análisis de datos conductuales y electrofisiológicos, y el desarrollo de programas para registros experimentales y aplicaciones web. 

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Published

2024-11-17

How to Cite

VON HAUSEN, F., & ASPÉ, M. (2024). Who shot whom? Psycholinguistic processing of syntactic ambiguity in L2 and the role of cognitive control: a self-paced reading experiment. Cuadernos De La ALFAL, 16(2), 150–167. https://doi.org/10.5935/2218-0761.20240022