Biomedical subjects

Zenzi M Griffin

Publications and source records attributed to Zenzi M Griffin.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Speakers gaze at objects while preparing intentionally inaccurate labels for them.

When describing scenes, speakers gaze at objects while preparing their names (Z. M. Griffin & K. Bock, 2000). In this study, the authors investigated whether gazes to referents occurred in the absence of a correspondence between visual features and word meaning. Speakers gazed significantly longer at objects before intentionally labeling them inaccurately with the names of similar things (e.g., calling a horse a dog) than when labeling them accurately. This held for grammatical subjects and objects as well as agents and patients. Moreover, the time spent gazing at a referent before labeling it with a novel word or accurate name was similar and decreased as speakers gained experience using the novel word. These results suggest that visual attention in speaking may be directed toward referents in the absence of any association between their visual forms and the words used to talk about them.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Observing the what and when of language production for different age groups by monitoring speakers' eye movements.

Research on adult age differences in language production has traditionally focused on either the production of single words or the properties of language samples. Older adults are more prone to word retrieval failures than are younger adults (e.g., ). Older adults also tend to produce fewer ideas per utterance and fewer left-branching syntactic structures (e.g., ). The use of eye movement monitoring in the study of language production allows researchers to examine word production processes in the context of multiword utterances, bridging the gap between behavior in word production studies and spontaneous speech samples. This paper outlines one view of how speakers plan and produce utterances, summarizes the literature on age-related changes in production, presents an overview of the published research on speakers' gaze during picture description, and recaps a study using eye movement monitoring to explore age-related changes in language production.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

The eyes are right when the mouth is wrong.

When describing visual scenes, speakers typically gaze at objects while preparing their names. In a study of the relation between eye movements and speech, a corpus of self-corrected speech errors was analyzed. If errors result from rushed word preparation, insufficient visual information, or failure to check prepared names against objects, speakers should spend less time gazing at referents before uttering errors than before uttering correct names. Counter to predictions, gazes to referents before errors (e.g., gazes to an axe before saying "ham-" [hammer]) highly resembled gazes to referents before correct names (e.g., gazes to an axe before saying "axe"). However, speakers gazed at referents for more time after initiating erroneous compared with correct names, apparently while they prepared corrections. Assuming that gaze nonetheless reflects word preparation, errors were not associated with insufficient preparation. Nor were errors systematically associated with decreased inspection of objects. Like gesture, gaze may accurately reflect a speaker's intentions even when the accompanying speech does not.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Phonological influences on lexical (mis)selection.

Speakers produce words to convey meaning, but does meaning alone determine which words they say? We report three experiments that show independent semantic and phonological influences converging to determine word selection. Speakers named pictures (e.g., of a priest) following visually presented cloze sentences that primed either semantic competitors of the target object name ("The woman went to the convent to become a..."), homophones of the competitors ("I thought that there would still be some cookies left, but there were..."), or matched unrelated control object names. Primed semantic competitors (nun) were produced instead of picture names more often than primed unrelated control object names, showing the well-documented influence of semantic similarity on lexical selection. Surprisingly, primed homophone competitors (none) also substituted for picture names more often than control object names even though they only sounded like competitors. Thus, independent semantic and phonological influences can converge to affect word selection.

Choice Behavior↗

PubMed2003

A reversed word length effect in coordinating the preparation and articulation of words in speaking.

Speakers tend to prepare their nouns immediately before saying them, rather than preparing them further in advance. To test the limits of this last-second preparation, speakers were asked to name object pairs without pausing between names. There was not enough time to prepare the second name while articulating the first, so the speakers' delay in starting to say the first name was based on the amount of time available to prepare the second name during speech. Before speaking, they spent more time preparing a second name (e.g., carrot) when the first name was monosyllabic (e.g., wig) rather than multisyllabic (e.g., windmill). When additional words intervened between names, the length of the first name became less important and speech began earlier. Preparation differences were reflected in speech latencies, durations, and eye movements. The results suggest that speakers are sensitive to the length of prepared words and the time needed for preparing subsequent words. They can use this information to increase fluency while minimizing word buffering.

Eye Movements↗

PubMed2002

Recency effects for meaning and form in word selection.

Three experiments examined the contribution of phonological availability in selecting words as predicted by interactive activation models of word production. Homophonous words such as week and weak permitted a word's phonological form to be activated on priming trials without selection of its meaning or lemma. Recent production of a homophone failed to significantly increase production of its twin as a sentence completion. However, speakers were significantly more likely to complete a sentence with a recently read or generated unambiguous word. This increase in response probability was unaffected by word frequency. The results constrain the degree to which experience and phonological availability may affect word selection in spoken language production.

Choice Behavior↗