Testing natural language use: insights from naturalistic experimental paradigms
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2015/06/0006/000243Keywords:
naturalistic paradigms, online language processing, fMRIAbstract
Experimental approaches to language processing should pay special attention to natural language use. Traditional experimental paradigms use controlled, carefully created stimuli, simplified by decontextualisation. Real language use, however, is full of elliptical, ambiguous sentences where meaning inference rests on contextual cues, and requires not only structural and semantic interpretation for memory storage, but is used to inform actions and interactions. Cognitive neuroscience research is slowly starting to include natural language use in experimental paradigms, by using so called naturalistic paradigms. The current paper presents a naturalistic approach to test language processing and compares results from the current approach to traditional approaches. In conclusion, insights from naturalistic paradigms can inform linguistic theory on the basis of human brain processes.
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