Abstract
Neuropsychological dissociations between regular and irregular English past-tense morphology have been reported using a lexical decision task in which past-tense primes immediately precede present-tense targets. We present N400 event-related potential data from healthy participants using the same design. Both regular and irregular past-tense forms primed corresponding present-tense forms, but with a longer duration for irregular verbs. Phonological control conditions suggested that differences in formal overlap between prime and target contribute to, but do not account for, this difference, suggesting a link between irregular morphology and semantics. Further analysis dividing the irregular verbs into two categories (weak irregular and strong) revealed that priming for strong verbs was reliably stronger than that for weak irregular and regular verbs, which were statistically indistinguishable from one another. We argue that, although we observe a regular-irregular dissociation, the nature of this dissociation is more consistent with single- than with dual-system models of inflectional morphology.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 178-194 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2008 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Behavioral Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Cite this
Interpreting dissociations between regular and irregular past-tense morphology : Evidence from event-related potentials. / Justus, Timothy; Larsen, Jary; Davies, Paul De Mornay; Swick, Diane.
In: Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 8, No. 2, 06.2008, p. 178-194.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Interpreting dissociations between regular and irregular past-tense morphology
T2 - Evidence from event-related potentials
AU - Justus, Timothy
AU - Larsen, Jary
AU - Davies, Paul De Mornay
AU - Swick, Diane
PY - 2008/6
Y1 - 2008/6
N2 - Neuropsychological dissociations between regular and irregular English past-tense morphology have been reported using a lexical decision task in which past-tense primes immediately precede present-tense targets. We present N400 event-related potential data from healthy participants using the same design. Both regular and irregular past-tense forms primed corresponding present-tense forms, but with a longer duration for irregular verbs. Phonological control conditions suggested that differences in formal overlap between prime and target contribute to, but do not account for, this difference, suggesting a link between irregular morphology and semantics. Further analysis dividing the irregular verbs into two categories (weak irregular and strong) revealed that priming for strong verbs was reliably stronger than that for weak irregular and regular verbs, which were statistically indistinguishable from one another. We argue that, although we observe a regular-irregular dissociation, the nature of this dissociation is more consistent with single- than with dual-system models of inflectional morphology.
AB - Neuropsychological dissociations between regular and irregular English past-tense morphology have been reported using a lexical decision task in which past-tense primes immediately precede present-tense targets. We present N400 event-related potential data from healthy participants using the same design. Both regular and irregular past-tense forms primed corresponding present-tense forms, but with a longer duration for irregular verbs. Phonological control conditions suggested that differences in formal overlap between prime and target contribute to, but do not account for, this difference, suggesting a link between irregular morphology and semantics. Further analysis dividing the irregular verbs into two categories (weak irregular and strong) revealed that priming for strong verbs was reliably stronger than that for weak irregular and regular verbs, which were statistically indistinguishable from one another. We argue that, although we observe a regular-irregular dissociation, the nature of this dissociation is more consistent with single- than with dual-system models of inflectional morphology.
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U2 - 10.3758/CABN.8.2.178
DO - 10.3758/CABN.8.2.178
M3 - Article
VL - 8
SP - 178
EP - 194
JO - Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience
JF - Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience
SN - 1530-7026
IS - 2
ER -