Dual-tasking with simple linguistic tasks: Evidence for serial processing

Amie Fairs,Sara Bögels,Antje S Meyer

doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.09.006

Amie Fairs, Sara Bögels + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.09.006

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Abstract

In contrast to the large amount of dual-task research investigating the coordination of a linguistic and a non-linguistic task, little research has investigated how two linguistic tasks are coordinated. However, such research would greatly contribute to our understanding of how interlocutors combine speech planning and listening in conversation. In three dual-task experiments we studied how participants coordinated the processing of an auditory stimulus (S1), which was either a syllable or a tone, with selecting a name for a picture (S2). Two SOAs, of 0 ms and 1000 ms, were used. To vary the time required for lexical selection and to determine when lexical selection took place, the pictures were presented with categorically related or unrelated distractor words. In Experiment 1 participants responded overtly to both stimuli. In Experiments 2 and 3, S1 was not responded to overtly, but determined how to respond to S2, by naming the picture or reading the distractor aloud. Experiment 1 yielded additive effects of SOA and distractor type on the picture naming latencies. The presence of semantic interference at both SOAs indicated that lexical selection occurred after response selection for S1. With respect to the coordination of S1 and S2 processing, Experiments 2 and 3 yielded inconclusive results. In all experiments, syllables interfered more with picture naming than tones. This is likely because the syllables activated phonological representations also implicated in picture naming. The theoretical and methodological implications of the findings are discussed.

Highlights

A key issue in cognitive psychology is how different cognitive processes are coordinated with one another
In this experiment we replicated the key findings of the psychological refractory period (PRP) experiment reported by Piai et al (2014; see Schnur & Martin, 2012): We found additive effects of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) and relatedness on picture naming latencies
The type of S1 did not affect how the participants coordinated the response selection processes for the two stimuli with each other. This is important as it indicates that a key finding of dual-task experiments using tones as S1 was replicated with syllables as S1

Summary

Introduction

A key issue in cognitive psychology is how different cognitive processes are coordinated with one another. This is because language is most often used in conversation, where upcoming speakers can begin to plan their utterances while they are still listening to their interlocutor (Barthel, Sauppe, Levinson, & Meyer, 2016; Bögels, Magyari, & Levinson, 2015; Levinson & Torreira, 2015; Sjerps & Meyer, 2015). While such linguistic dualtasking is often seen as essential for holding a conversation, the underlying skills are still poorly understood. This research had two goals: (1) to explore the usefulness of dual-task paradigms for research on the coordination of speaking and listening; to determine whether previous key findings of studies using non-linguistic stimuli could be replicated with linguistic stimuli, and (2) to contribute to psycholinguistic theories of conversation; to examine how a key component of speech planning, lexical selection, could be combined with the processing of a spoken syllable

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