Attention allocation in a language with post-focal prominences.

Accentuation influences selective attention and the depth of semantic processing during online speech comprehension. We investigated the processing of semantically congruent and incongruent words in a language that presents cues to prosodic prominences in the region of the utterance occurring after the focussed information (the post-focal region). This language is Italian, in particular the variety spoken in Bari. In this variety, questions have a compressed, post-focal accent, whereas in statements there is a low-level pitch in this position. Using event-related potentials, we investigated the processing of congruent and incongruent target words with two prosodic realizations (focussed with accentuation, post-focal realization) and in two-sentence modalities (statement, question). Results indicate an N400 congruence effect that was modulated by position (focal, post-focal) and modality (statement, question): processing was deeper for questions in narrow focus than in post-focal position, while statements showed similar pronounced N400 effects across positions. The attenuated N400 difference for post-focal targets in questions was accompanied by a more enhanced late positivity when they were incongruent, indicating that attentional resources are allocated during updating of speech act information.

Citation

Caterina Ventura, Martine Grice, Michelina Savino, Diana Kolev, Ingmar Brilmayer, Petra B Schumacher. Attention allocation in a language with post-focal prominences. Neuroreport. 2020 May 22;31(8):624-628

Mesh Tags

PMID: 32345849

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