Lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on language processing.
Journal
PloS one
ISSN: 1932-6203
Titre abrégé: PLoS One
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101285081
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2022
2022
Historique:
received:
04
04
2022
accepted:
17
05
2022
entrez:
15
6
2022
pubmed:
16
6
2022
medline:
18
6
2022
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
A central question in understanding human language is how people store, access, and comprehend words. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic presented a natural experiment to investigate whether language comprehension can be changed in a lasting way by external experiences. We leveraged the sudden increase in the frequency of certain words (mask, isolation, lockdown) to investigate the effects of rapid contextual changes on word comprehension, measured over 10 months within the first year of the pandemic. Using the phonemic restoration paradigm, in which listeners are presented with ambiguous auditory input and report which word they hear, we conducted four online experiments with adult participants across the United States (combined N = 899). We find that the pandemic has reshaped language processing for the long term, changing how listeners process speech and what they expect from ambiguous input. These results show that abrupt changes in linguistic exposure can cause enduring changes to the language system.
Identifiants
pubmed: 35704594
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269242
pii: PONE-D-22-09945
pmc: PMC9200165
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
e0269242Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Références
J Exp Psychol. 1971 Oct;90(2):227-34
pubmed: 5134329
J Exp Psychol Gen. 1981 Dec;110(4):474-94
pubmed: 6459403
Neuropsychologia. 1995 Apr;33(4):485-508
pubmed: 7617157
Science. 1970 Jan 23;167(3917):392-3
pubmed: 5409744
Memory. 2006 Apr;14(3):329-44
pubmed: 16574589
Psychol Sci. 2020 Feb;31(2):115-128
pubmed: 31913768
Neuropsychologia. 2015 Mar;69:67-76
pubmed: 25624059
Psychon Bull Rev. 2001 Jun;8(2):203-20
pubmed: 11495110
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2011 Jan;37(1):149-61
pubmed: 20854006
Behav Res Methods. 2019 Jun;51(3):1187-1204
pubmed: 29916041