Acta Psychologica Sinica


Vol. 37 No. 1 , Pages 34 - 40 , 2005

The Influence of Correspondence Between Accentuation and Information Structure on Discourse Comprehension (Article written in Chinese)

LI Xiaoqing & YANG Yufang

Abstract

Using auditory moving window technique and double-task paradigm, this study explored the effect of correspondence between accentuation and information structure on discourse comprehension and the mechanism of this effect. The results showed that: compared to control condition, inappropriate accentuation impeded discourse comprehension, but the facilitating effect of appropriate accentuation was not apparent during discourse processing; accentuation facilitated the processing of focal words, whereas deaccentuation facilitated the processing of nonfocal words, which suggested that the effect of accentuation in discourse processing came not only from its influence on attention allocation but also from its signaling different ways of information processing.

Keywords: discourse; accent; information structure; focus

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