Electrophysiological patterns of sentence superiority effect in sentence repetition
Open Access
- Author:
- Chun, So Yeon
- Graduate Program:
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 13, 2023
- Committee Members:
- Diane Williams, Program Head/Chair
Anne Olmstead, Major Field Member
Diane Williams, Major Field Member
Manuel Pulido, Outside Unit & Field Member
Carol Miller, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Navin Viswanathan, Major Field Member - Keywords:
- sentence repetition
sentence processing
developmental language disorders (DLD)
working memory
electroencephalography (EEG)
neural oscillations
sentence superiority effect
chunking
background noise - Abstract:
- Purpose: The current study aimed to investigate the behavioral and electrophysiological patterns of the sentence superiority effect (SSE) in sentence repetition in monolingual adults with typical language development. The ultimate goal of this study is to establish the foundation for future studies of SSE in sentence repetition in individuals with DLD. Method: Twenty-three English-speaking monolingual adults completed a word list recall task (WLR). SSE with and without background noise was measured using WLR. Neural oscillations in the beta (13 – 30 Hz) and delta (1 – 4 Hz) frequency bands were analyzed. Sentence repetition, digit span forward and backward, LexTALE, and picture naming were conducted to examine the association between the neural oscillations in WLR and the cognitive-linguistic measures. Results: SSE was observed in both behavioral accuracy and the beta and delta-band neural oscillations. Behavioral accuracy was higher in sentences compared to word lists. The beta and delta-band oscillatory powers were greater in sentences than in word lists, particularly in the last two words of the eight-word presentation. Both sentences and word lists in the beta and delta bands showed decreased power changes compared to the baseline. The effect of noise was found in behavioral accuracy, with higher accuracy in the condition without noise than with noise. No interaction between SSE and noise was found in either the behavioral or electrophysiological results. The delta-band oscillations showed a significant association with sentence repetition. Conclusions: SSE in monolingual adults with typical language development is relevant to the beta and delta-band neural oscillations, particularly when the number of words exceeds the short-term memory limit of 4 ± 1 chunks. Behavioral and neurophysiological evidence demonstrates that SSE substantially enhances short-term memory capacity through the use of sentence structures. Further studies involving individuals with DLD are needed to verify the role of SSE in assessing individuals with DLD.