ERIC Number: EJ1254941
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Jun
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Lexical Entrainment Reflects a Stable Individual Trait: Implications for Individual Differences in Language Processing
Tobar-HenrĂquez, Anita; Rabagliati, Hugh; Branigan, Holly P.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v46 n6 p1091-1105 Jun 2020
Language use is intrinsically variable, such that the words we use vary widely across speakers and communicative situations. For instance, we can call the same entity "refrigerator" or "fridge." However, attempts to understand individual differences in how we process language have made surprisingly little progress, perhaps because most psycholinguistic instruments are better-suited to experimental comparisons than differential analyses. In particular, investigations of individual differences require instruments that have high test-retest reliability, such that they consistently distinguish between individuals across measurement sessions. Here, we established the reliability of an instrument measuring lexical entrainment, or the tendency to use a name that a partner has used before (e.g., using "refrigerator" after a partner used "refrigerator"), which is a key phenomenon for the psycholinguistics of dialogue. Online participants completed two sessions of a picture matching-and-naming task, using different pictures and different (scripted) partners in each session. Entrainment was measured as the proportion of trials on which participants followed their partner in using a low-frequency name, and we assessed reliability by comparing entrainment scores across sessions. The estimated reliability was substantial, both when sessions were separated by minutes and when sessions were a week apart. These results suggest that our instrument is well-suited for differential analyses, opening new avenues for understanding language variability.
Descriptors: Individual Differences, Language Processing, Pictorial Stimuli, Language Usage, Psycholinguistics, Comparative Analysis, Reliability, Task Analysis, Naming, Measurement Techniques, Language Variation, English, Foreign Countries, Preferences, Scores
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
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