Time, Verbs, and Imagining Events

• Published in: Canadian journal of experimental psychology 2019-03, Vol.73 (1), p.55-63
• Main Authors: Hong, Jeffrey P., Ferretti, Todd R., Craven, Rachel, Hepburn, Rachelle D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cognition & reasoning; Comprehension; Evoked Potentials; Female; Grammar; Human; Imagination; Influence; Information sources; Language; Lexical Access; Linear Perspective; Listening comprehension; Male; Memory; Neurosciences; Phrases; Psycholinguistics; Psychology; Test Construction; Verbs
• ISSN: 1196-1961; 1878-7290
• DOI: 10.1037/cep0000163

Recent psycholinguistic research shows that grammatical aspect (imperfective, perfective) has a varying impact on language comprehension difficulty, based on the lexical aspect (activities, accomplishments) of the described event (Becker, Ferretti, & Madden-Lombardi, 2013; Yap et al., 2009). The present research examined the influence of these temporal constraints on people's ability to imagine events. Participants read cueing phrases that contained either accomplishments (build) or activities (run) that were grammatically marked as ongoing or completed (I was running/I ran). Slow cortical potentials were recorded while participants imagined events based on the phrases for 8 seconds. Results show that, for activities, participants had less difficulty imagining events cued by imperfective stimuli than by perfective stimuli. The opposite pattern was observed for accomplishments. It was also found that the first-person visual perspective was adopted more often for perfective than imperfective accomplishment stimuli, whereas no differences in visual perspective adoption were found for activity cues. This research provides neurocognitive and behavioural insight into how temporal information associated with verbs influences the cognitive effort required to imagine events as well as the phenomenological properties of the events. De récentes recherches psycholinguistiques montrent que l'aspect grammatical (imperfectif, perfectif) a un impact varié sur la difficulté de compréhension de la langue, suivant l'aspect lexical (activités, accomplissements) de l'événement décrit (Becker, Ferretti, & Madden-Lombardi, 2013; Yap et al., 2009). La présente recherche examine l'influence de ces contraintes temporelles sur la capacité des gens à imaginer les événements. Les participants devaient lire des phrases provoquant le déclenchement d'accomplissements (bâtir) ou d'activités (courir) qui étaient grammaticalement marquées comme étant en cours ou complétées. Les potentiels corticaux lents ont été enregistrés pendant que les participants imaginaient des événements basés sur les phrases pendant huit secondes. Les résultats montrent que, pour les activités, les participants éprouvaient moins de difficultés à imaginer des événements déclenchés par des stimuli imperfectifs que par des stimuli perfectifs. En revanche, pour les accomplissements, la tendance contraire a été observée. Il a également été constaté que la perspective visuelle à la première personne était adoptée plus so