Chia, K., Edwards, A. A., Schatschneider, C., & Kaschak, M. P. (2023). Structural repetition in responses to indirect requests. Discourse Processes.

https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853X.2023.2255508

We report three experiments that assess whether structural priming in a question–answer dialogue context is affected by the use of direct requests, conventional indirect requests, and nonconventional indirect requests. In Experiments 1 and 2, experimenters made phone calls to businesses and asked either Can you tell me (at) what time you close? (conventional indirect request) or May I ask you (at) what time you close? (nonconventional indirect request). Structural priming was demonstrated by participants’ greater tendency to produce a preposition in their response (At 9 vs. 9 o’clock) when the question had a preposition than when it did not. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 suggest that priming is not statistically different across request types. In Experiment 3, we compared priming for the conventional indirect requests to priming for direct requests ([At] what time do you close?). Again, priming did not differ across question types. We conducted a final analysis that included data from all three experiments plus a large dataset collected using the same procedure. The larger analysis (n > 43,000) confirmed that priming did not differ across sentence types.

Chia, K., & Kaschak, M. P. (2023). Elliptical responses to direct and indirect requests for information. Language and Speech. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309231176526

We present two studies examining the factors that lead speakers to produce elliptical responses to requests for information. Following Clark (1979) and Levelt and Kelter (1982), experimenters called businesses and asked about their closing time (e.g., Can you tell me what time you close?). Participants provided the requested information in full sentence responses (We close at 9) or elliptical responses (At 9). A reanalysis of data from previous experiments using this paradigm shows that participants are more likely to produce an elliptical response when the question is a direct request for information (What time do you close?) than when the question is an indirect request for information (Can you tell me what time you close?). Participants were less likely to produce an elliptical response when they began their answer by providing a yes/no response (e.g., Sure…we close at 9). A new experiment replicated these findings, and further showed that elliptical responses were less likely when a) irrelevant linguistic content was inserted between the question and the participant’s response, and b) participants verbalized signs of difficulty retrieving the requested information. This latter effect is most prominent in response to questions that are seen as very polite (May I ask you what time you close?). We discuss the role that the recoverability of the intended meaning of the ellipsis, the accessibility of potential antecedents for the ellipsis, pragmatic factors, and memory retrieval play in shaping the production of ellipsis.

Linguistic convergence – the alignment of your linguistic choices with those of your conversation partner – is a well-known phenomenon. An unresolved question about linguistic convergence concerns whether there are individual differences in convergence. Do some people converge with their partner more reliably than others, and do some people elicit convergence more reliably than others? We explored whether some speakers elicit a type of linguistic convergence known as structural priming more reliably than others. Our experimenters called businesses and asked questions such as, At/What time do you close? We demonstrated a structural priming effect (e.g., participants were more likely to use a preposition in their response when the question contained a preposition). We also found that some speakers elicited stronger priming effects than others, and that this tendency was reliable. Our findings suggest that there are reliable individual differences in the extent to which speakers elicit structural matching from their partners.

Chia, K., & Kaschak, M. P. (2022). It’s not you, it’s me: Some speakers elicit structural priming more reliably than others.Collabra, 8, 36312. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.36312

Recent Publications

Older Publications

Morey, R. D., Kaschak, M. P.,...Zwaan, R. A. (2022). A pre-registered multi-lab non-replication of the Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE). Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 29, 613-626. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-021-01927-8

Chia, K., & Kaschak, M. P. (2022). Structural priming in question-answer dialogues. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 29, 262-267. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-021-01976-z

Eligio, R. B., & Kaschak, M. P. (2020). Gaming experience affects the interpretation of ambiguous words. PLoS One, 15, e0243512. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243512

Chia, K., Hetzel-Ebben, H., ..., & Kaschak, M. P. (2020). Examining the factors that affect structural repetition in question answering. Memory and Cognition, 48, 1046-1060. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-020-01036-2

Yazbec, A., Borovsky, A., & Kaschak, M. P. (2019). Examining the impact of text style and epistemic beliefs on conceptual change. PLoS One, 14, e0220766. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220766

Yazbec, A., Kaschak, M. P., & Borovsky, A. (2019). Developmental Timescale of Rapid Adaptation to Conflicting Cues in Real-Time Sentence Processing. Cognitive Science, 43, 1-41. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12704

Haeffel, G. J., & Kaschak, M. P. (2019). Rethinking How We Think About Cognitive Interventions for Depression: An Example from Research on Second Language Acquisition. Clinical Psychological Science, 7, 68-76. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702618794157

Chia, K., Axelrod, C., Johnson, C., ... & Kaschak, M. P. (2019). Structural repetition in question answering: A replication and extension of Levelt and Kelter (1982). Discourse Processes, 56, 2 – 23. https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853X.2018.1515556

Connor, C. M., Phillips, B., Kim, Y. – S. Lonigan, C., Kaschak, M. P., Crowe, E., Dombek, J., Al Otaiba, S. (2018). Examining the efficacy of targeted component interventions on language and literacy for third and fourth graders who are at risk of comprehension difficulties. Scientific Studies of Reading, 22, 462-484. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2018.1481409

Kutta, T. J., Kaschak, M. P., Porcellini, A., & Jones, J. L. (2017). Implicit and explicit memory factors in cumulative structural priming. Collabra, 3, 13. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.59

Kaschak, M. P., Connor, C. M., & Dombek, J. L. (2017). Enacted Reading Comprehension: Using bodily movement to aid the comprehension of abstract text content. PLoS One, 12, e0169711. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169711

Erickson, L. C., Kaschak, M. P., Thiessen, E. D., & Berry, C. A. S. (2016). Individual differences in statistical learning: Conceptual and measurement issues. Collabra, 2(1), p.14. DOI: https://doi.org.10.1525.collabra.41

Connor, C. M., Day, S. L., Phillips, B. P., Sparapani, N., McLean, N., Barrus, A., & Kaschak, M. P. (2016). Reciprocal effects of self-regulation, semantic knowledge, and reading comprehension in early elementary school. Child Development, 87, 1813-1824. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12570

Spencer, M., Kaschak, M. P., Jones, J. L., & Lonigan, C. J. (2015). Statistical learning is related to early literacy-related skills. Reading and Writing, 28, 467-490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-014-9533-0

Connor, C. M., Phillips, B. M., Kaschak, M. P., Apel, K., Kim, Y-S., Al Otaiba, S., Crowe, E. C., Thomas-Tate, S., Johnson, L. C., & Lonigan, C. J. (2014). Comprehension tools for teachers: Reading for understanding from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade. Educational Psychology Review, 26, 379-401. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-014-9267-1

Kaschak, M. P., Kutta, T. J., & Coyle, J. M. (2014). Long and short term cumulative structural priming effects. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 29, 728-743. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2011.641387

Coyle, J. M., & Kaschak, M. P. (2012). Female fertility affects men's linguistic choices. PLoS One, 7, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0027971

Jones, J. L., & Kaschak, M. P. (2012). Global statistical learning in a visual search task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 38, 152-160. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026233

Kutta, T. J., & Kaschak, M. P. (2012). Changes in task extrinsic context do not affect the persistence of long-term cumulative structural priming. Acta Psychologica, 141, 408-414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2012.09.007

Sell, A. J., & Kaschak, M. P. (2012). The comprehension of sentences involving quantity information affects responses on the up-down axis. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 19, 708-714. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-012-0263-5

Kaschak, M. P., Kutta, T. J., & Jones, J. L. (2011). Structural priming as implicit learning: Cumulative priming effects and individual differences. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 18, 1133-1139. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0157-y

Kaschak, M. P., Kutta, T. J., & Schatschneider, C. (2011). Long-term cumulative structural priming persists for (at least) one week. Memory and Cognition, 39, 381-388. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-010-0042-3

Sell, A. J., & Kaschak, M. P. (2011). Processing time shifts affects the execution of motor responses. Brain and Language, 117, 39-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2010.07.003

Coyle, J. M., & Kaschak, M. P. (2008). Patterns of experience with verbs affects long-term cumulative structural priming. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 15, 967-970. https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.15.5.967

Kaschak, M. P., & Borreggine, K. L. (2008). Is long-term structural priming affected by patterns of experience with individual verbs? Journal of Memory and Language, 58, 862- 878. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2006.12.002

Kaschak, M. P., & Borreggine, K. L. (2008). Temporal dynamics of the action-sentence compatibility effect. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 883-895. https://doi.org/10/1080/17470210701623852

Dijkstra, K., Kaschak, M. P., & Zwaan, R. A. (2007). Body position facilitates retrieval of autobiographical memories. Cognition, 102, 139-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2005.12.009

Kaschak, M. P. (2007). Long-term structural priming affects subsequent patterns of language production. Memory and Cognition, 35, 925-937. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193466

Borreggine, K. L., & Kaschak, M. P. (2006). The action-sentence compatibility effect: It's all in the timing. Cognitive Science, 30, 1097-1112. https://doi.org/10.12007/s15516709cog0000_91

Kaschak, M. P. (2006). What this construction needs is generalized. Memory and Cognition, 34, 368-379.

https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193414

Kaschak, M. P., Loney, R. A., & Borreggine, K. L. (2006). Recent experience affects the strength of structural priming. Cognition, 99, B73-B82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2005.07.002

Kaschak, M. P., & Saffran, J. R. (2006). Idiomatic syntactic constructions and language learning. Cognitive Science, 30, 43-63. https://doi.org/10/1207/s15516709cog0000_44

Kaschak, M. P., Zwaan, R. A., Aveyard, M., & Yaxley, R. H. (2006). Perception of auditory motion affects sentence processing. Cognitive Science, 30, 733-744. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0000_54

Kaschak, M. P., Madden, C. J., Therriault, D. J., Yaxley, R. H., Aveyard, M. E., Blanchard, A. A., & Zwaan, R. A. (2005). Perception of motion affects language processing. Cognition, 94, B79-B89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2004.06.005

Borghi, A. M., Glenberg, A. M., & Kaschak, M. P. (2004). Putting words in perspective. Memory and Cognition, 32, 863-873. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196865

de Vega, M., Robertson, D. A., Glenberg, A. M., Kaschak, M. P., & Rinck, M. (2004). On doing two things at once: Temporal constraints on actions in language comprehension. Memory and Cognition, 32, 1033-1043.

https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196879

Glenberg, A. M., Gutierrez, T., Levin, J., Japuntich, S., & Kaschak, M. P. (2004). Activity and imagined activity can enhance young children's reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 424-436. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.96.3.424

Kaschak, M. P., & Glenberg, A. M. (2004). This construction needs learned. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 450-467. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.133.3.450

Gernsbacher, M. A. & Kaschak, M. P. (2003). Neuroimaging studies of language production and comprehension. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 91-114. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145128

Glenberg, A. M., & Kaschak, M. P. (2002). Grounding language in action. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 9, 558-565. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196313

Kaschak, M. P., & Glenberg, A. M. (2000). Constructing meaning: The role of affordances and grammatical constructions in sentence comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language, 43, 508-529. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.2000.2705