Structural priming from arithmetic to language in Chinese: Evidence from adults and children

Abstract

This article explores structural integration between arithmetic and language by investigating whether the structure of an arithmetic equation influences the way children and adults interpret Chinese sentences in the form of NP₁ + VP₁ + NP₂ + VP₂, where VP₂ can attach high as a predicate of NP₁ or attach low as a predicate of NP₂. Participants first solved an arithmetic problem where the last number was to be attached high (e.g., (5 + 1 + 2) × 3) or low (e.g., 5 + (1 + 2 × 3)) and then provided a completion to a preamble in the form of NP₁ + VP₁ + NP₂ + HEN “very” . . . or decided on the meaning of an ambiguous sentence. The way the ambiguous sentences were completed and interpreted was primed by the structure of the preceding arithmetic problem (i.e., a high-attachment prime led to more high-attachment completions and interpretation) in both children and adults. This study found cross-domain priming from arithmetic equations to language, which offered empirical evidence for the shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis and the syntactic working memory theory. It was also found that children were more susceptible to such priming, which provided some tentative evidence for the Incremental Procedural Account proposed by Scheepers et al.