Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-767nl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T07:33:54.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Structural priming, action planning, and grammar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2017

Maryellen C. MacDonald
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53705. mcmacdonald@wisc.eduhttp://lcnl.wisc.edu/index.php/people/maryellen-c-macdonald/
Daniel J. Weiss
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. djw21@psu.eduhttp://psych.la.psu.edu/directory/djw21

Abstract

Structural priming is poorly understood and cannot inform accounts of grammar for two reasons. First, those who view performance as grammar + processing will always be able to attribute psycholinguistic data to processing rather than grammar. Second, structural priming may be simply an example of hysteresis effects in general action planning. If so, then priming offers no special insight into grammar.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, K., Ibara, S., Seymour, A., Cordova, N. & Botvinick, M. (2010) Abstract structural representations of goal-directed behavior. Psychological Science 21(10):1518–24. doi:10.1177/0956797610383434.Google Scholar
Bock, J. K. (1986) Syntactic persistence in language production. Cognitive Psychology 18(3):355–87. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(86)90004-6 Google Scholar
Bybee, J. L. (2006) From usage to grammar: The mind's response to repetition. Language 82:711–33.Google Scholar
Cesario, J. (2014) Priming, replication, and the hardest science. Perspectives on Psychological Science 9(1):40–8.Google Scholar
Franck, J., Soare, G., Frauenfelder, U. H. & Rizzi, L. (2010) Object interference in subject–verb agreement: The role of intermediate traces of movement. Journal of Memory and Language 62(2):166–82. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2009.11.001.Google Scholar
Kaiser, E. (2012) Taking action: A cross-modal investigation of discourse-level representations. Frontiers in Psychology 3:156. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaschak, M. P., Kutta, T. J. & Jones, J. L. (2011a) Structural priming as implicit learning: Cumulative priming effects and individual differences. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 18(6):1133–39. Available at: http://doi.org/10.14440/jbm.2015.54.A.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kidd, E. (2012) Individual differences in syntactic priming in language acquisition. Applied Psycholinguistics 33(02):393418. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716411000415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koranda, M. J., Bulgarelli, F., Weiss, D. J. & MacDonald, M. C. (2016) Parallels between action priming and syntactic priming. Poster presented at the International Workshop on Language Production. La Jolla, CA.Google Scholar
MacDonald, M. C. (2013) How language production shapes language form and comprehension. Frontiers in Psychology 4:226. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenbaum, D. A., Cohen, R. G., Meulenbroek, R. G. & Vaughan, J. (2006) Plans for grasping objects. In: Motor control and learning over the lifespan, ed. Latash, M. & Lestienne, F., pp. 925. Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rostoft, M. S., Sigmundsson, H., Whiting, H. T. A. & Ingvaldsen, R. P. (2002) Dynamics of hand preference in 4 year-old children. Behavioural Brain Research 132:5968.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spiegel, M. A., Koester, D. & Schack, T. (2013) The functional role of working memory in the (re-)planning and execution of grasping movements. Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Perception and Performance 39(5):1326–39. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031398.Google Scholar
Van der Cavey, J. & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2016) Is there a domain-general cognitive structuring system? Evidence from structural priming across music, math, action descriptions, and language. Cognition 146:172–84. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.09.013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, D. J. & Wark, J. (2009) Hysteresis effect in a motor task in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinusoedipus). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 35(3):135–41.Google Scholar