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A Computational Cognitive Model of Syntactic Priming
Author(s) -
Reitter David,
Keller Frank,
Moore Johanna D.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2010.01165.x
Subject(s) - priming (agriculture) , language production , computer science , term (time) , facilitation , adaptation (eye) , lexical decision task , natural language processing , lexical access , cognitive psychology , cognition , artificial intelligence , linguistics , psychology , neuroscience , philosophy , botany , germination , physics , quantum mechanics , biology
Abstract The psycholinguistic literature has identified two syntactic adaptation effects in language production: rapidly decaying short‐term priming and long‐lasting adaptation. To explain both effects, we present an ACT‐R model of syntactic priming based on a wide‐coverage, lexicalized syntactic theory that explains priming as facilitation of lexical access. In this model, two well‐established ACT‐R mechanisms, base‐level learning and spreading activation, account for long‐term adaptation and short‐term priming, respectively. Our model simulates incremental language production and in a series of modeling studies, we show that it accounts for (a) the inverse frequency interaction; (b) the absence of a decay in long‐term priming; and (c) the cumulativity of long‐term adaptation. The model also explains the lexical boost effect and the fact that it only applies to short‐term priming. We also present corpus data that verify a prediction of the model, that is, that the lexical boost affects all lexical material, rather than just heads.