The project addresses three main questions – retrieval (RQ1), representation (RQ2) and recall (RQ3) of focus alternatives. A fourth, overarching, question concerns individual differences (RQ4).
RQ1: Not all intended experiments were carried out, because we had discovered a major flaw in our experimental design. Therefore, we developped a novel paradigm. With this, we have shown that accessing focus alternatives in speech production is a competitive process. This result will be published as a conference proceeding (Bergmann & Spalek, in press). A second paper will be submitted to a special issue on focus alternatives in language production that I am editing at the journal Languages (Bergmann, Lu, & Spalek, in prep.).
RQ2: We have carried out a neuroimaging study and found that focus alternatives are processed in a fronto-parietal brain network (Spalek & Oganian, 2019). A masters thesis investigated the impact of the experimental sentences used. These results were later published as Jördens, Gotzner, & Spalek (2020). A second paper on individual differences in the neuroimaging data will be submitted in October 2021 when my co-author returns from maternity leave (Spalek & Oganian, in prep.). We had started an EEG-study (see amendment of the DoA). Due to Covid19 restrictions, data collection had to be stopped. We will continue data acquisition in the fall 2021, since the preliminary results suggest interesting effects of focus on brain potentials (Spalek, Bergmann, Höltje, & Mecklinger, in prep.).
RQ3: We carried out numerous pilot studies and one individual differences study. The pilot study (Koch & Spalek, 2021) revealed a focus effect on memory, but also gender differences. A replication study in Vietnamese (see amendment to the DoA) shows both the focus effect and the gender differences in a tone language (Tjuka, Nguyen, & Spalek, 2020). For the individual differences study, we collected data of 150 participants. Data analysis is ongoing, and these data will result in two papers. Sun, Felsenheimer, Koch & Spalek (in prep.) will present a conventional correlational analysis of recall performance and different predictor tasks, whereas Felsenheimer, Koch, Sun, & Spalek (in prep.) uses supervised learning and hierarchical cluster analyses to show that there are two distinct groups of participants who process focus in different ways. Finally, we are still running a replication of one of the studies in the literature which had been a cornerstone of our hypotheses (Spalek, Koch, & Annacker, in prep.).
RQ4: There are significant differences between the sexes both for the neural representation of focus alternatives and for the recall of focus alternatives (Koch & Spalek, 2021; Spalek & Oganian, in prep.; Tjuka et al., 2020). The divide into male and female can only be regarded as a first step: We carried out cluster analyses and correlations with predictor tasks to distinguish groups of individuals who process focus differently (Felsenheimer et al., in prep., Sun et al., in prep.).
In addition to the publications, results were presented in three conference talks (all in Germany) and three invited talks (Germany) and ten poster presentations at conferences in Germany, Russia, Finland and the UK.
