A Recently Paper accepted in BRAIN AND LANGUAGE
Authors: Leone-Fernandez B., Molinaro, N., Carreiras, M., Barber, H.A.
Title: Objects, events and "to be" verbs in Spanish- an ERP study of the syntax-semantics interface
Abstract: In Spanish, objects and events at subject position constrain the selection of different forms of the auxiliary verb "to be": locative predicates about objects require "estar en", while those relating to events require "ser en", both translatable as "to be in". Subjective ratings showed that while the "object+ser+en" is considered as incorrect, the "event+estar+en" combination is also perceived as unacceptable but to a lesser degree. In an ERP study, we evaluated the impact of a purely semantic distinction (object versus events) on the subsequent processing of these auxiliary verbs followed by locatives in Spanish. For the "ser en" predicate, the P600 component was larger when the subject was an objec than when it was an event. This P600 effect is consistent with an online repair of the defining predicate when it does not fit with the adequate semantic properties of the subject. On the other hand, for the "estar en predicate, event subjects when compared to object subjects showed more positive ongoing amplitudes between 280 and 380 ms after the presentation of the "en" preposition, followed by a longer positive wave starting around 400 ms and lasting until 700 ms after the presentation of the following determiner, with central and frontal scalp distribution respectively. Thus, the different subject-predicate combinations, depending on the semantic feature of the subjects, triggered syntactic reparatory processes at a structural level. These findings are consistent with an incremental interpretation of the sentence meaning based on the interaction between syntactic and semantic information.
Grupo de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Psicolinguistica
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Posters and Papers presented
- Leone-Fernandez, B., McLaughlin, J., Carreiras, M., Barber, H.A., Osterhout, L. "Being an experiencer or being an actor? An ERP investigation on the processing of the participial adjectives". CSDL-ESLP Conference. University of California, San Diego, 16-19 (2010).
- Leone-Fernandez, B., Barber, H. A., Candidi, M., Aglioti, M., Carreiras, M. Sepex Granada Conference, 15-18 April, 2010.
- Candidi, M., Leone-Fernandez, B., Barber, H., Carreiras, M., Aglioti, M. Afferrare il futuro con la mano: modulazioni dell’eccitabilità cortico-spinale legate ad aspetti temporali di verbi di movimento corporeo. AIP, Chieti, (Italy), 24-26 September 2009.
- Leone-Fernandez, B., Molinaro, N., Barber, H., Carreiras, M. An ERP study on number interference during agreement processing. Simposio di Psicolinguistica, Santiago de Compostela (Spain), 23 – 25 April, 2009.
- Molinaro, N., Barber, H., Leone-Fernandez, B., & Carreiras, M. (2009). An ERP study on number interference during agreement processing. '22nd Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference'. Davis (CA, USA), March 26-28, 2009.
- Leone-Fernandez, B., Molinaro, N., Carreiras, M., Barber, H. Correlati ERP dell’elaborazione di caratteristiche transitorie e permanenti di oggetti ed eventi. Padova (Italy), 18 – 20 September, 2008.
- Leone-Fernandez, B., Molinaro, N., Carreiras, M., Barber, H. ¿Están los objetos y son los eventos? : Potenciales Relacionados con Eventos asociados al procesamiento de los verbos “ser” y “estar”. SEPEX, San Sebastian-Donostia (Spain) 3 – 5 April 2008
Awards
I was selected for Award as a young scientist by the Spanish Society of Experimental Psychology, 2009.
This award is given to me for the research: "Hands on the future: facilitation of cortico-spinal hand representation when reading the future tense of hand-related action verbs".
The award has been presented in the SEPEX Conference 2010, Grananda (Spain).
This award is given to me for the research: "Hands on the future: facilitation of cortico-spinal hand representation when reading the future tense of hand-related action verbs".
The award has been presented in the SEPEX Conference 2010, Grananda (Spain).
Visiting research scientist
1) Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, supervisor Manuel Carreiras, San Sebastian-Donostia (Spain) from September to December 2010
2) Psychology Department, University of Washington (UW), supervisor Lee Osterhout, Seattle (USA) from September to December 2009
3) Psychology Department, University College of London (UCL), supervisor Vincent Walsh, London, (UK) from March to April 2009
4) Psychology Department, University of La Sapienza, supervisor Salvatore, M. Aglioti, Rome (IT), from October to December 2008
5) Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation Department, S. Lucia , Rome (IT) a year 2004
6) Neuropsychology section of Government Run company, Terni, (IT) a year 2003
2) Psychology Department, University of Washington (UW), supervisor Lee Osterhout, Seattle (USA) from September to December 2009
3) Psychology Department, University College of London (UCL), supervisor Vincent Walsh, London, (UK) from March to April 2009
4) Psychology Department, University of La Sapienza, supervisor Salvatore, M. Aglioti, Rome (IT), from October to December 2008
5) Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation Department, S. Lucia , Rome (IT) a year 2004
6) Neuropsychology section of Government Run company, Terni, (IT) a year 2003