@article{THESIS,
      recid = {2901},
      author = {Li, Jiaxuan},
      title = {A Noisy Channel Model of N400 and P600 Effects in Sentence  Comprehension},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {M.A.},
      address = {2021-06},
      number = {THESIS},
      abstract = {N400 and P600 event-related potential (ERP) components  have long been the object of study in psycholinguistics.  Traditional accounts have associated N400 effects with  semantic violations, and P600 effects with syntactic  violations. However, this picture is complicated by P600  effects—without N400 effects—in response to animacy and  thematic- role violations, as well as biphasic N400/P600  effects for conventional semantic violations. Building on  explanations involving interplay of plausibility- driven  and syntax-driven interpretations, we present a  computational model that accounts for these complicating  observations via a noisy channel modeling framework. Our  model assumes early-stage sentence interpretations  determined by noisy channel computation (influenced by  plausibility), with these heuristic interpretations driving  the N400 amplitude. The P600 then reflects a reconciliation  with the true (syntax-driven) interpretation, impacted by  the extent to which heuristic interpretations deviate from  the true input. Running this model on original experimental  stimuli, we successfully simulate N400 and P600 effects  reported by eight studies in the literature that we  examined. To our knowledge this is the first  fully-specified computational formalization of  plausibility/syntax interplay, the first implemented noisy  channel model to carry out direct prediction of both N400  and P600 components.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/2901},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.2901},
}