Shared structuring resources across domains: double task effects from linguistic processing on the structural integration of pitch sequences

ABSTRACT

Many studies have reported evidence suggesting that resources involved in linguistic structural processing might be domain-general by demonstrating interference from simultaneously presented non-linguistic stimuli on the processing of sentences (Slevc, Rosenberg, & Patel, 2009). However, the complexity of the analysed linguistic processes often precludes the interpretation of such interference as being based on structural—rather than more general—processing resources (Perruchet & Poulin-Charronnat, 2013). We therefore used linguistic structure as a source of interference for another structural processing task, by asking participants to read sentences while processing experimentally manipulated pitch sequences. Half of the sentences contained a segment with either an “out-of-context” sentential violation or a “garden path” unexpectancy. Furthermore, the pitch sequences contained a cluster shift, which did or did not align with the sentential unexpectancies. A two-tone recognition task followed each pitch sequence, providing an index of the strength with which this structural boundary was processed. When a “garden path” unexpectancy (requiring structural reintegration) accompanied the cluster shift, the structural boundary induced by this shift was processed more shallowly. No such effect occurred with non-reintegratable “out-of-context” sentential violations. Furthermore, the discussed interference effect can be isolated from general pitch recognition performance, supporting the interpretation of such interference as being based on overlapping structural processing resources (Kljajevic, 2010; Patel, 2003).

KEYWORDS:

• Domain-generality
• language
• shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis
• syntax

Notes

1. Note that in Dutch, an auxiliary verb can follow the past participle (e.g. “dat de bal gestolen was” would be an appropriate Dutch translation of “that the ball was stolen”). Following control sentences, the participant would expect the use of a passive voice (e.g. “that the girl investigated … was”). A garden path manipulation could then be to contrast these expectations for a passive voice (e.g. “ that the burglar caught … was”) by having an active voice in the complement clause (e.g., “that the burglar caught … the message”).

2. Please note the clustering presented in Figure 3. We grouped tones into pitch clusters on the circle of fifths, separating each cluster by maximally one tone. When regarding the circle of fifths as an overview of harmonic closeness, we can thus see that within-cluster transitions (e.g., G to F) can be similar in harmonic closeness as compared to between-cluster transitions (e.g., F to Eb). The clustering further did not follow harmonic composition.

Additional information

Funding

The research by Joris Van de Cavey is funded by the Flemish regional government through a fellowship with FWO Vlaanderen [grant number B/13011/02].