Janet L Nicol

Interests

Research

Active Research: Second Language Acquisition and Use, Language Comprehension and Production, Learning and Technology, Brain and LanguageOther Interests: Human Learning and Assessment, K-12 Education, Esthetics, Science of Happiness

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Books

• Nicol, J. L. (2001). One mind, two languages : bilingual language processing. Blackwell.
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  Notes on Contributors. Preface. 1. The Bilinguala s Language Modes: Fran?ois Grosjean (NeuchOtel University). 2. The Voicing Contrast in English and Spanish: The Relationship between Perception and Production: Mary L. Zampini and Kerry P. Green (both at University of Arizona). 3. The Development of Conceptual Representation for Words in a Second Language: Judith F. Kroll and Natasha Tokowicz (both at Pennsylvania State University). 4. The Nature of the Bilingual Lexicon: Experiments with the Masked Priming Paradigm: Kenneth I. Forster (University of Arizona) and Nan Jiang (Auburn University). 5. Explaining Aspects of Codeswitching and Their Implications: Carol Myers--Scotton (University of South Carolina) and Janice L. Jake (Midlands Technical College). 6. Production of Verb Agreement in Monolingual, Bilingual and Second--Language Speakers: Janet L. Nicol, Matthew Teller and Delia Greth all University of Arizona). 7. A Theory of Syntactic Interference in the Bilingual: Montserat Sanz (Kobe City University of Foreign Studies) and Thomas G. Bever (University of Arizona). 8. Sentence Parsing in Fluent Spanish--English Bilinguals: Paola E. Dussias (University of Illinois). 9. Print as a Primary Source of English for Deaf Learners: Samuel J. Supalla (University of Arizona), Tina R. Wix and Cecile Mckee (University of Arizona). References. Index.
• Nicol, J. L. (1988). Coreference processing during sentence comprehension. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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  Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 1988.

Chapters

• Nicol, J. L., & Barss, A. (2017). The Comprehension of Anaphora and Verb Agreement. In Handbook of Psycholinguistics. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Nicol, J. L., & Anton-mendez, I. (2009). 6. The effect of case marking on subject-verb agreement errors in English. In In W.D. Lewis, S. Karimi, H. Harley & S.O. Farrar (Eds.), Time and again. Theoretical perspectives on formal linguistics. In honor of D. Terence Langendoen(pp 135-150). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
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  It is commonly assumed that the occurrence and distribution of processing errors offer a “window” into the architecture of cognitive processors. In recent years, psycholinguists have drawn inferences about syntactic encoding processes in language production by examining the distribution and rate of subject–verb agreement (SVA) errors in different contexts. To date, dozens of studies have used a sentence repetition-completion paradigm to elicit SVA errors. In this task, participants hear a sentence fragment (or “preamble”), repeat it, and provide a well-formed completion. These experiments have shown that when a singular head is modified by a phrase containing a plural NP (e.g. The bill for the accountants... ), a significant number of SVA errors may occur. Several experiments have shown that, in English, the phonological form of words within a subject NP plays virtually no role in the rate of error occurrence. Yet recent data from our lab suggests that overt morphophonological case information does matter: speakers are more likely to produce the error The bill for the accountants were outrageous than The bill for them were outrageous . In this paper, we will present the results of this case-marking study and discuss the implications for models of language production.
• Swinney, D., & Nicol, J. L. (2008). The Psycholinguistics of Anaphora. In In A. Barss (Ed.), Anaphora.(pp 72-104). Blackwell Publishing Ltd. doi:10.1002/9780470755594.CH3
• Barss, A., & Nicol, J. L. (2006). Anaphora, Processing of. In Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science.(pp 125-131). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. doi:10.1002/0470018860.S00245
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  First page of article Keywords: anaphora; processing; pronoun; reflexive; antecedent
• Love, T., & Nicol, J. L. (2000). Overarching Agrammatism: When Comprehension Involves Production. In In Y. Grodzinsky, L.P. Shapiro & D.A. Swinney (Eds.), Language and the Brain: Representation and Processing.(pp 105-120). Academic Press. doi:10.1016/B978-012304260-6/50007-4
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  Publisher Summary This chapter explains that overarching agrammatism during comprehension involves production. Sentences contain primarily content words (such as nouns and verbs); frequently omitted are function words such as “the, of, is, that, who, and by” and other closed class elements such as inflectional endings like past tense. Apparently, comprehension of sentences by non-fluent aphasics is quite good. Sentence representations are impaired. According to one variant, the representations contain no functional elements possibly because such elements are unstressed. Sentence processing is impaired. There are many models which implicate sentence processing routines rather than sentence representations per se as the locus of the deficit. Both result in sentence interpretation failure. This research suggests that Broca's area is necessary for the rehearsal of verbal material. If so, then impairment to Broca's area may disrupt rehearsal. If rehearsal is disrupted, then the tasks which implicitly require it will induce poor performance. It is not a giant leap to speculate that rehearsal of verbal material requires the same mechanisms as those which generate language. It makes sense that an impairment of language production coincides with an impairment of language rehearsal.
• Swinney, D., Love, T., Nicol, J. L., Bouck, B., & Hald, L. (2000). Neuroanatomical Organization of Sentential Processing Operations: Evidence from aphasia on the (modular) processing of discontinuous dependencies.. In In R. Bastiaane & Y. Grodzinsky (Eds.), Grammatical disorders in aphasia: A neurolinguistic perspective.(pp 51-66). London: Whurr Publishers.
• Nicol, J. L. (1998). THE PRODUCTION OF AGREEMENT IN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE: ANIMACY EFFECTS (OR LACK THEREOF). In In D. Hillert (Ed.), Sentence processing: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective.(pp 113-129). Academic Press. doi:10.1108/S0092-4563(1998)0000031009

Journals/Publications

• Nicol, J., & Zhang, D. (2021).

  Lexical alignment in second language communication: evidence from a picture-naming task

  . Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 37(6), 732-749. doi:10.1080/23273798.2021.2019285
• Nicol, J. L., & Zavaleta, K. (2018). Effects of second language proficiency and working memory span on novel language learning.. Journal of Second Language Studies..
• Nicol, J. L., Enkin, E., Brooks, Z., & Zavaleta, K. (2017). Reading in Spanish as a second language: An eye-tracking study. The Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal, 17(1), 1-15.
• Nicol, J. L., Barss, A., & Barker, J. E. (2016). Minimal interference from possessor phrases in the production of subject-verb agreement. Frontiers in Psychology.
• Tanner, D., Nicol, J., & Brehm, L. (2014). The time-course of feature interference in agreement comprehension: Multiple mechanisms and asymmetrical attraction. Journal of memory and language, 76, 195-215.
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  Attraction interference in language comprehension and production may be as a result of common or different processes. In the present paper, we investigate attraction interference during language comprehension, focusing on the contexts in which interference arises and the time-course of these effects. Using evidence from event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and sentence judgment times, we show that agreement attraction in comprehension is best explained as morphosyntactic interference during memory retrieval. This stands in contrast to attraction as a message-level process involving the representation of the subject NP's number features, which is a strong contributor to attraction in production. We thus argue that the cognitive antecedents of agreement attraction in comprehension are non-identical with those of attraction in production, and moreover, that attraction in comprehension is primarily a consequence of similarity-based interference in cue-based memory retrieval processes. We suggest that mechanisms responsible for attraction during language comprehension are a subset of those involved in language production.
• Dallas, A., DeDe, G., & Nicol, J. (2013). An Event-Related Potential (ERP) Investigation of Filler-Gap Processing in Native and Second Language Speakers. Language Learning, 63(4), 766--799.
• Nicol, J. L., Witzel, J., & Witzel, N. (2012). Deeper than shallow: Evidence for structurally-based parsing biases in L2 sentence processing. Applied Psycholinguistics, 33, 419-456.
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  ABSTRACT: This study examines the reading patterns of native speakers (NSs) and high-level (Chinese) nonnativespeakers (NNSs) on three English sentence types involving temporarily ambiguous structural configurations.The reading patterns on each sentence type indicate that both NSs and NNSs were biased towardspecific structural interpretations. These results are interpreted as evidence that both first-language andsecond-language (L2) sentence comprehension is guided (at least in part) by structure-based parsingstrategies and, thus as counterevidence to the claim that NNSs are largely limited to rudimentary (or“shallow”) syntactic computation during online L2 sentence processing.
• Tanner, D., Nicol, J., Herschensohn, J., & Osterhout, L. (2012). Electrophysiological markers of interference and structural facilitation in native and nonnative agreement processing. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, 594--606.
• Nicol, J., Hayes-harb, R., & Barker, J. (2010). Learning the phonological forms of new words: effects of orthographic and auditory input.. Language and speech, 53(Pt 3), 367-81. doi:10.1177/0023830910371460
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  We investigated the relationship between the phonological and orthographic representations of new words for adult learners. Three groups of native English speakers learned a set of auditorily-presented pseudowords along with pictures indicating their "meanings". They were later tested on their memory of the words via an auditory word-picture matching test. While all three groups of participants heard the same auditory stimuli and saw the same pictures, the groups differed with respect to the written stimuli that accompanied each item during training. Some participants were presented with written forms for the auditory labels that were consistent with English spelling conventions (e.g., spelled form , auditory form [kamed]), while others saw written forms that were not consistent with English spelling conventions (e.g., spelled form , auditory form [kamed]), and a third group of participants was presented with no written forms. Participants who saw written forms that were not consistent with English spelling conventions showed interference from the words' spelled forms at test. This finding provides evidence for a relationship between orthographic and phonological representations for newly-learned words.
• Nicol, J. (2009). A Special Tribute to David A. Swinney, Ph.D. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 38(3), 327-327. doi:10.1007/s10936-009-9112-8
• Haist, F., Swinney, D., Nicol, J., Love, T., & Haist, F. (2006). A functional neuroimaging investigation of the roles of structural complexity and task-demand during auditory sentence processing.. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 42(4), 577-90. doi:10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70396-4
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  Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this study directly examined an issue that bridges the potential language processing and multi-modal views of the role of Broca's area: the effects of task-demands in language comprehension studies. We presented syntactically simple and complex sentences for auditory comprehension under three different (differentially complex) task-demand conditions: passive listening, probe verification, and theme judgment. Contrary to many language imaging findings, we found that both simple and complex syntactic structures activated left inferior frontal cortex (L-IFC). Critically, we found activation in these frontal regions increased together with increased task-demands. Specifically, tasks that required greater manipulation and comparison of linguistic material recruited L-IFC more strongly; independent of syntactic structure complexity. We argue that much of the presumed syntactic effects previously found in sentence imaging studies of L-IFC may, among other things, reflect the tasks employed in these studies and that L-IFC is a region underlying mnemonic and other integrative functions, on which much language processing may rely.
• Swinney, D., Nicol, J., Love, T., & Hald, L. (2006). The on-line study of sentence comprehension: an examination of dual task paradigms.. Journal of psycholinguistic research, 35(3), 215-31. doi:10.1007/s10936-006-9012-0
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  This paper presents three studies which examine the susceptibility of sentence comprehension to intrusion by extra-sentential probe words in two on-line dual-task techniques commonly used to study sentence processing: the cross-modal lexical priming paradigm and the unimodal all-visual lexical priming paradigm. It provides both a general review and a direct empirical examination of the effects of task-demand in the on-line study of sentence comprehension. In all three studies, sentential materials were presented to participants together with a target probe word which constituted either a better or a worse continuation of the sentence at a point at which it was presented. Materials were identical for all three studies. The manner of presentation of the sentence materials was, however, manipulated; presentation was either visual, auditory (normal rate) or auditory (slow rate). The results demonstrate that a technique in which a visual target probe interrupts ongoing sentence processing (such as occurs in unimodal visual presentation and in very slow auditory sentence presentation) encourages the integration of the probe word into the on-going sentence. Thus, when using such 'sentence interrupting' techniques, additional care to equate probes is necessary. Importantly, however, the results provide strong evidence that the standard use of fluent cross-modality sentence investigation methods are immune from such external probe word intrusions into ongoing sentence processing and are thus accurately reflect underlying comprehension processes.
• Nicol, J., Forster, K. I., Nicol, J., Nakamura, K., Forster, K. I., & Finkbeiner, M. (2004). The role of polysemy in masked semantic and translation priming. Journal of Memory and Language, 51(1), 1-22. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2004.01.004
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  Abstract A well-known asymmetry exists in the bilingual masked priming literature in which lexical decision is used: namely, masked primes in the dominant language (L1) facilitate decision times on targets in the less dominant language (L2), but not vice versa. In semantic categorization, on the other hand, priming is symmetrical. In Experiments 1–3 we confirm this task difference, finding robust masked L2–L1 translation priming in semantic categorization but not lexical decision. In formulating an account for these findings, we begin with the assumption of a representational asymmetry between L1 and L2 lexical semantic representations, such that L1 representations are richly populated and L2 representations are not. According to this representational account, L2–L1 priming does not occur in lexical decision because an insufficient proportion of the L1 lexical semantic representation is activated by the L2 prime. In semantic categorization, we argue that the semantic information recruited to generate a decision is restricted by the task category, and that this restriction enhances the effectiveness of the L2 prime. In Experiments 4–6, these assumptions were tested in a within-language setting by pairing many-sense words (e.g., “head”) with few-sense words (e.g., “skull”). In lexical decision, robust priming was obtained in the many-to-few direction (analogous to L1–L2), but, no priming was obtained in the few-to-many direction (analogous to L2–L1) using the same word pairs. Priming in semantic categorization, on the other hand, was obtained in both directions. We propose the Sense Model as a possible account of these findings.
• Haist, F., Buxton, R. B., Swinney, D., Nicol, J., Love, T., Haist, F., & Buxton, R. B. (2003). Task-demand modulation of activation in Broca's area. Brain and Language, 87(1), 77-78. doi:10.1016/s0093-934x(03)00206-2
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  A number of brain imaging studies of sentence comprehension have reported evidence of activation in Broca’s area correlated with the processing of syntactically complex sentential material in both FMRI and PET studies (e.g., Caplan, 1995). This finding fits well with several decades of evidence concerning the effects of lesions on Broca’s area. Independent FMRI and PET investigations of working verbal memory (WVM) (e.g., Smith & Jonides, 1999) have also found evidence of activation of Broca’s area correlated with increased memory load. One hypothesis to consider based on these two pieces of evidence is that Broca’s area is involved in verbal working memory operations, and that complex structural processing employs this same resource. However, the experimental evidence does not easily reconcile with such a hypothesis. There is, for example, evidence suggesting that individuals with working memory deficits caused by brain lesions have no significant language processing difficulties, and, simultaneously, that individuals with language comprehension difficulties caused by lesion have no deficits in standard tests of WVM (e.g., Martin, 1990). In addition, studies of memory load in language have traditionally failed to find convincing demonstrations that the memory that is standardly examined in ‘working memory’ tests is the same memory employed in language processing (see, e.g., Caplan & Waters, 1999). One potential basis for the apparent inconsistency and conflict in this literature may lie in a little-considered aspect of these studies: the tasks (and their relevant ‘demands’) that have been employed in the study of both language and memory. Task demands have long been cited as prime candidates for non-reliability and non-replicability across both laboratories and techniques in neuro-imaging work (e.g., Ojemann et al, 1998). In the current fMRI study, we were interested in teasing apart the additional processing demands that standard sentence comprehension-tasks bring to the study of language processing from issues of sentence complexity per se. We undertook this study to attempt to resolve the potential conflict in the literature on the role of Broca’s area in cognitive and language processing.
• Nicol, J., & Finkbeiner, M. (2003). Semantic category effects in second language word learning. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24(3), 369-383. doi:10.1017/s0142716403000195
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  The present study addresses a long-standing assumption in the field of applied linguistics: that presenting new second language (L2) vocabulary in semantically grouped sets is an effective method of teaching. Participants learned 32 new L2 labels for concepts from four different semantic categories in either a related or unrelated condition. At test, participants translated words in both translation directions. We found a semantic interference effect both during the encoding of information into memory and during the retrieval of information in translation. We discuss these findings in terms of theoretical models of L2 lexical representation and development, as well as in more practical terms of L2 curriculum design and vocabulary instruction.
• Nicol, J., & Greth, D. (2003). Production of subject-verb agreement in Spanish as a second language.. Experimental psychology, 50(3), 196-203. doi:10.1026//1617-3169.50.3.196
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  In this paper, we report the results of a study of English speakers who have learned Spanish as a second language. All were late learners who have achieved near-advanced proficiency in Spanish. The focus of the research is on the production of subject-verb agreement errors and the factors that influence the incidence of such errors. There is some evidence that English and Spanish subject-verb agreement differ in susceptibility to interference from different types of variables; specifically, it has been reported that Spanish speakers show a greater influence of semantic factors in their implementation of subject-verb agreement (Vigliocco, Butterworth, & Garrett, 1996). In our study, all participants were tested in English (L1) and Spanish (L2). Results indicate nearly identical error patterns: these speakers show no greater influence of semantic variables in the computation of agreement when they are speaking Spanish than when they are speaking English.
• Nicol, J. L., Garrett, M. F., & Anton-mendez, I. (2002). The Relation between Gender and Number Agreement Processing. Syntax, 5(1), 1-25. doi:10.1111/1467-9612.00045
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  We report an experiment in which we test the relationship between gender and number in subject-predicate agreement. We also test the link between two different number-agreement relations—subject-verb and subject-predicative adjective. Participants saw first an unmarked adjective and then a sentence fragment consisting of a complex subject with a head noun and a modifier containing a second noun and were asked to make a whole sentence using the adjective with the proper gender and number markings. The gender of the subject head and the gender and number of the attractor noun were manipulated. Number errors in the verb and number and gender errors in the predicative adjective were measured. The results suggest gender agreement is computed independently of number agreement. In contrast, subject-verb number agreement and subject-predicative adjective number agreement are a unitary process. The implications for psycholinguistic and linguistic theories of gender and number are discussed.
• Nicol, J., Nakamura, K., Greth, D., & Finkbeiner, M. (2002). The role of language in memory for actions.. Journal of psycholinguistic research, 31(5), 447-57. doi:10.1023/a:1021204802485
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  Languages differ with respect to how aspects of motion events tend to be lexicalized. English typically conflates MOTION with MANNER, but Japanese and Spanish typically do not. We report a set of experiments that assessed the effect of this cross-linguistic difference on participants' decisions in a similarity-judgment task about scenes containing novel animations as stimuli. In Experiment 1, which required participants to encode the stimuli briefly into memory, we observed a language effect; in Experiment 2, which required participants to analyze the same stimuli, but not remember them, the language effect disappeared. Hence, these experiments reveal a task-dependent effect, which, we argue, points to working memory as the source of the language effect observed in Experiment 1 and, potentially, other experiments that have shown a linguistic relativity effect.
• Vigliocco, G., Nicol, J., & Franck, J. (2002). Subject-Verb Agreement Errors in French and English: The Role of Syntactic Hierarchy.. Language and Cognitive Processes, 17(4), 371-404. doi:10.1080/01690960143000254
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  We report two parallel experiments conducted in French and in English in which we induced subject-verb agreement errors to explore the role of syntactic structure during sentence production. Previous studies have shown that attraction errors (i.e., a tendency of the verb to agree with an immediately preceding noun instead of with the subject of the sentence) occur when a preverbal local noun disagrees in number with the subject head noun. The attraction effect was accounted for either by the proximity of the local noun to the verb in the linearised sentence (linear distance hypothesis) or by the processing simultaneity of the head and local nouns situated in the same clause (clause packaging hypothesis). In the current experiments, speakers were asked to complete complex sentential preambles. Contrary to the predictions of these two hypotheses, we found that agreement errors were more frequent following an intermediate modifier (e.g., *The threat-S to the presidents-P of the company-S ARE serious) than an...
• Nicol, J., Garrett, M. F., & Barker, J. (2001). Semantic factors in the production of number agreement.. Journal of psycholinguistic research, 30(1), 91-114. doi:10.1023/a:1005208308278
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  This paper examines the role of semantic factors in the production of subject-verb number agreement. As an ostensibly grammatical process, number agreement provides an interesting case for examining the flow and interaction of semantic and syntactic information through the language-production system. Using a sentence-completion task, agreement errors can be elicited from subjects by presenting them with sentence fragments containing a complex noun-phrase, in which the nonhead noun is plural (e.g., The key to the cabinets ... WERE missing.). Previous research has demonstrated that the probability of making an error can be affected by varying the properties of the nouns in the complex noun phrase. By investigating which variables do and do not affect error rates, constraints on the flow of information through the production system can be inferred. In three experiments, we investigated the possible effects of three different semantic manipulations of the nouns in the complex NP: animacy, semantic overlap, and plausibility of modification by the sentence predicate. We found that both animacy and semantic relatedness had reliable effects on error rates, indicating that the mechanism involved in implementing agreement cannot be blind to semantic information. However, the plausibility with which each noun could serve as the subject of the sentence predicate had no effect on error rates. Taken together, these results suggest that while semantic information is visible to the agreement mechanism, there are still constraints on when this information can affect the process. Specifically, it may be the case that only information contained within the complex NP is considered for the purposes of implementing agreement.
• Nicol, J., & Barker, J. (2000). Word frequency effects on the processing of subject-verb number agreement.. Journal of psycholinguistic research, 29(1), 99-106. doi:10.1023/a:1005180608787
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  This paper examines the role of word frequency in the computation of subject-verb number agreement. Previous research in both production and comprehension has demonstrated that processing difficulties can arise in sentence structures containing a singular subject noun followed by a plural "distractor" noun, as in The key to the cabinets.... A whole sentence reading task was employed to determine whether the relative frequency with which the distractor noun appears in its singular or plural form would affect the degree of processing difficulty experienced by readers. Results suggest that the agreement process is, indeed, sensitive to this factor and this finding is compatible with activation-based accounts of the implementation of number agreement.
• Nicol, J., Cutting, J. C., & Bock, K. (1999). The Ties That Bind: Creating Number Agreement in Speech. Journal of Memory and Language, 40(3), 330-346. doi:10.1006/jmla.1998.2616
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  Abstract Coherence in language relies in part on basic devices like number agreement. To assess meaning-based (notional) versus form-based (morphological) control of number agreement, we examined how speakers created number agreement for collective nouns, which can carry conflicting notional and morphological number. The agreement targets were verbs and two types of pronouns, produced in the course of a sentence-completion task. Comparisons of the verbs and pronouns indicated that verbs tended to reflect the morphological number of the collective controller, whereas pronouns were more likely to reflect the notional number. This argues that the number features of pronouns may be retrieved under control from the speaker's meaning, while the number features of verbs are more likely to be retrieved under control from the utterance's form. The implication is that the retrieval of words during language production is influenced by two distinct types of information, consistent with an inflectional account of agreement.
• Osterhout, L., & Nicol, J. (1999). On the Distinctiveness, Independence, and Time Course of the Brain Responses to Syntactic and Semantic Anomalies.. Language and Cognitive Processes, 14(3), 283-317. doi:10.1080/016909699386310
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  We evaluated the distinctiveness, independence, and relative time courses of the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited by syntactically and semantically anomalous words. ERPs were recorded from 13 scalp electrodes while subjects read sentences, some of which contained a selectional restriction violation (semantically anomalous), a verb tense violation (syntactically anomalous), or a doubly anomalous word that violated both selectional restriction and verb tense constraints. Semantic anomalies elicited a monophasic increase in N400 amplitude, whereas syntactic anomalies elicited a late positive shift with an onset around 500 msec and a duration of several hundred msec. Doubly anomalous words elicited both an increase in N400 amplitude and a late positive wave, and these effects summated in an approximately (but not perfectly) linear manner. These results are discussed with respect to the hypotheses that syntactic and semantic processes are separable and independent.
• Swinney, D., Rieber, R., & Nicol, J. (1998). Celebrating a Quarter Century of (The Journal of) Psycholinguistic Research: An Introduction to the Special Issue. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 27(2), 109-110. doi:10.1023/a:1023293529813
• Vigliocco, G., & Nicol, J. (1998). Separating hierarchical relations and word order in language production: is proximity concord syntactic or linear?. Cognition, 68(1), B13-29. doi:10.1016/s0010-0277(98)00041-9
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  In this paper we address the question whether hierarchical relations and word order can be separated in sentence production. In two experiments, we assess whether subject-verb agreement errors (such as 'The time for fun and games are over') require linear proximity of a so-called 'local' noun ('games' in the example) to the verb. In the first experiment, we found a proximity effect when participants were asked to complete sentential beginnings of the kind: 'The helicopter for the flights'. In the second experiment, we asked participants to produce a question such as 'Is the helicopter for the flights safe?'. The syntactic relation between the subject noun and the local noun is the same in the two experiments, but the linear position of the local noun is different. The distribution of agreement errors was similar in the two experiments. We argue that these data provide evidence for a stage in language production in which a syntactic structure is built prior to a stage in which words are assigned to their linear position. Agreement is computed during the first stage.
• Nicol, J. L., Forster, K. I., Veres, C., Nicol, J. L., & Forster, K. I. (1997). Subject-verb agreement processes in comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language, 36(4), 569-587. doi:10.1006/jmla.1996.2497
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  Abstract Studies of elicited sentence production show that the occasional subject–verb agreement errors that speakers make are more likely to occur when a singular head noun is followed by a plural, as inThe producer of the adventure movies have arrived,than when a plural head is followed by a singular (e.g., Bock & Miller, 1991). The significance of this asymmetric pattern of errors depends on whether interference from plurals arises only during the production of sentences, or whether it also occurs in sentence comprehension tasks. Five reading experiments revealed the following: (1) patterns of reading times mirror the production error asymmetry; (2) a phrase which isconceptually pluralbut grammatically singular (e.g.,The label on the bottles) produces no more reading difficulty than one which is conceptually and grammatically singular, a result which mimics Bock and Miller's 1991 production results; (3) interference from an intervening plural depends on a close syntactic link to the head noun phrase (e.g., The owner of the house who charmed the realtors ). These results suggest that although the computation of agreement may be accomplished differently in the two systems, interference may arise whenever a structure containing a singular head and intervening plural is computed, whether during production or comprehension.
• Nicol, J. L. (1996). What can prosody tell a parser?. Journal of psycholinguistic research, 25(2), 179-92. doi:10.1007/bf01708571
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  In this paper, I consider how a sentence processor might use specific prosodic cues at various points in the processing of particular sentences containing (at least temporary) syntactic ambiguity. In principle, the usefulness of prosodic information depends on what a given cluster of prosodic cues typically signifies, and on which syntactic options exist for a given string: in only some instances can prosodic information provide useful disambiguating information.
• Nicol, J. L., Jakubowicz, C., & Goldblum, M. C. (1996). Sensitivity to grammatical marking in English-speaking and French-speaking non-fluent aphasics. Aphasiology, 10(6), 593-622. doi:10.1080/02687039608248439
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  Abstract We examine the sensitivity of English-speaking and French-speaking non-fluent aphasic subjects to grammatical marking such as number and gender. Using a sentence-picture matching paradigm we tested sentences in which grammatical marking appeared in one position only: e.g. That sheep crossed the stream vs The goat crossed the stream vs The sheep is crossing the stream vs The sheep crosses the stream. Performance across sentence types varied according to two factors: (1) marking within the noun phrase was easier for subjects to discern than marking which appeared outside the noun phrase; (2) marking which was an inherent feature of a free (unbound) morpheme was associated with better performance than marking which was affixal in nature. These factors were relevant for subjects from both language groups, despite differences between languages in terms of probability of grammatical marking.
• Nicol, J. L. (1995). Effects of clausal structure on subject-verb agreement errors.. Journal of psycholinguistic research, 24(6), 507-16. doi:10.1007/bf02143164
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  This paper explores the effect of manipulating the internal structure of a complex subject on the incidence of subject--verb agreement errors. Using the sentence completion task (Bock & Miller, 1991), this study followed up on Vigliocco and Nicol's (1995) finding that the syntactic distance between a head noun and a number-mismatching noun contained within a modifier has an impact on error incidence: the greater the distance, the lower the error rate. The study presented in this paper investigated whether this distance effect is purely syntactic; if so, then it would be expected that there would be fewer errors following The owner of the house which charmed the realtors... than following The owner of the house who charmed the realtors..., since in the latter, the mismatch is syntactically nearer the head noun. Results show no hint of a difference between the two, suggesting that the distance effect is more likely due to temporal distance rather than syntactic distance per se.
• Barss, A., Nicol, J., Conway, L., Bloom, P., & Barss, A. (1994). CHILDREN'S KNOWLEDGE OF BINDING AND COREFERENCE: EVIDENCE FROM SPONTANEOUS SPEECH. Language, 70(1), 53-71. doi:10.2307/416740
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  In experiments requiring sentence comprehension, young children sometimes appear to accept coreference in sentences such as Thelma touched her. This has motivated the claim that 4- and 5-year-olds lack knowledge of the principles of binding and coreference. Another option, however, is that the requisite principles are present from the very start and children's poor performance is due to performance factors. We test this claim through a longitudinal analysis of the spontaneous speech of three children, analyzing their usage of the pronoun me and the reflexive myself. Even 2- and 3-year-olds virtually always use these forms in accord with the adult grammar-they will say John hit me and not John hit myself (obeying Principle A) and I hit myself and not I hit me (obeying Principle B). We argue that the best explanation for these results is that children understand the principles of binding and coreference at the earliest stages of language development.*
• Swinney, D., Nicol, J. L., & Fodor, J. D. (1994). Using cross-modal lexical decision tasks to investigate sentence processing.. Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, 20(5), 1229-38. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.20.5.1229
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  Recent investigations of sentence processing have used the cross-modal lexical decision task to show that the antecedent of a phonologically empty noun phrase (specifically, WH-trace) is reactivated at the trace position. G. McKoon, R. Ratcliff, and G. Ward (1994) claimed that (a) a design feature concerning the choice of related and unrelated targets is a possible confound in this work and (b) the conclusions drawn from this previous research are therefore called into question. These claims are considered in light of both McKoon et al.'s experimental findings and results of our own experiments in which we test their linguistic materials. We argue that their results may be due to the nature of their materials. Additionally, we argue that a follow-up experiment reported by G. McKoon and R. Ratcliff (1994) used a technique that is not comparable to the cross-modal lexical decision task. It is concluded that current evidence supports the claim that structural information is using during on-line sentence processing and that the cross-modal technique is sensitive to this.
• Nicol, J., Mckee, C., & Mcdaniel, D. (1993). Children's Application of Binding during Sentence Processing. Language and Cognitive Processes, 8(3), 265-290. doi:10.1080/01690969308406956
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  On-line experiments, which provide a source of data common in adult psycholinguistics, are rare in developmental psycholinguistics. Our study uses an on-line task modified for examining children's real-time sentence processing. We compare children's and adults' interpretation of certain co-reference relations in a cross-modal picture decision task. Both children's and adults' reaction times distinguish between reflexives and pronouns. Further analysis of the child subjects, based on their performance in an offline experiment, shows two subgroups whose on-line performance was consistent with their off-line performance. We discuss two ways in which such data might prove useful, namely, to address questions concerning the development of the language processor and to illuminate “classic” problems in the acquisition of grammar.
• Pickering, M. J., & Nicol, J. L. (1993). Processing syntactically ambiguous sentences: evidence from semantic priming.. Journal of psycholinguistic research, 22(2), 207-37. doi:10.1007/bf01067831
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  In this paper, we report the results of a study which investigates the processing of syntactically ambiguous sentences. We examined the processing of sentences in which an embedded clause is interpretable as either a complement clause or as a relative clause, as in, for example, "The receptionist informed the doctor that the journalist had phoned about the events." The embedded clause in such sentences is typically analyzed as a complement to the verb informed, rather than as a relative clause modifying the doctor. A number of models parsing predict this is the only analysis ever considered, while others predict that both interpretations are computed in parallel. Using a cross-model semantic priming technique, we probed for activation of doctor just after the embedded verb. Since only the relative clause analysis contains a connection between the doctor and the embedded verb, we expected reactivation of doctor at that point only if the relative clause analysis were a viable option. Our results suggest that this is the case: Compared to priming in an ambiguous control sentence, a significant reactivation effect was obtained. These results are argued to support a model of parsing in which attachment of a clause may be delayed.
• Nicol, J. L., Barss, A., Forster, K. I., Nicol, J. L., Neville, H. J., Garrett, M. F., Forster, K. I., & Barss, A. (1991). Syntactically based sentence processing classes: evidence from event-related brain potentials.. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 3(2), 151-65. doi:10.1162/jocn.1991.3.2.151
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  Theoretical considerations and diverse empirical data from clinical, psycholinguistic, and developmental studies suggest that language comprehension processes are decomposable into separate subsystems, including distinct systems for semantic and grammatical processing. Here we report that event-related potentials (ERPs) to syntactically well-formed but semantically anomalous sentences produced a pattern of brain activity that is distinct in timing and distribution from the patterns elicited by syntactically deviant sentences, and further, that different types of syntactic deviance produced distinct ERP patterns. Forty right-handed young adults read sentences presented at 2 words/sec while ERPs were recorded from over several positions between and within the hemispheres. Half of the sentences were semantically and grammatically acceptable and were controls for the remainder, which contained sentence medial words that violated (1) semantic expectations, (2) phrase structure rules, or (3) WH-movement constraints on Specificity and (4) Subjacency. As in prior research, the semantic anomalies produced a negative potential, N400, that was bilaterally distributed and was largest over posterior regions. The phrase structure violations enhanced the N125 response over anterior regions of the left hemisphere, and elicited a negative response (300-500 msec) over temporal and parietal regions of the left hemisphere. Violations of Specificity constraints produced a slow negative potential, evident by 125 msec, that was also largest over anterior regions of the left hemisphere. Violations of Subjacency constraints elicited a broadly and symmetrically distributed positivity that onset around 200 msec. The distinct timing and distribution of these effects provide biological support for theories that distinguish between these types of grammatical rules and constraints and more generally for the proposal that semantic and grammatical processes are distinct subsystems within the language faculty.
• Swinney, D., & Nicol, J. (1989). The role of structure in coreference assignment during sentence comprehension.. Journal of psycholinguistic research, 18(1), 5-19. doi:10.1007/bf01069043
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  This paper examines the role of syntactic constraints on the reactivation and assignment of antecedents to explicit and implicit anaphoric elements during sentence comprehension. Evidence from on-line studies examining the time course of coreference processing supports the view that reactivation of potential antecedents is restricted by grammatical constraints when they are available. When structural information cannot serve to constrain antecedent selection, then pragmatic information may play a role, but only at a later point in processing.
• Zurif, E., Swinney, D., & Nicol, J. (1989). The Effects of Focal Brain Damage on Sentence Processing: an examination of the neurological organization of a mental module.. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 1(1), 25-37. doi:10.1162/jocn.1989.1.1.25
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  The effects of prior semantic context upon lexical access during sentence processing were examined for three groups of subjects; nonfluent agrammatic (Broca's) aphasic patients; fluent (Wernicke's) aphasic patients; and neurologically intact control patients. Subjects were asked to comprehend auditorily presented, structurally simple sentences containing lexical ambiguities, which were in a context strongly biased toward just one interpretation of that ambiguity. While listening to each sentence, subjects also had to perform a lexical decision task upon a visually presented letter string. For the fluent Wernicke's patients, as for the controls, lexical decisions for visual words related to each of the meanings of the ambiguity were facilitated. By contrast, agrammatic Broca's patients showed significant facilitation only for visual words related to the a priori most frequent interpretation of the ambiguity. On the basis of these data, we suggest that normal form-based word retrieval processes are crucially reliant upon the cortical tissue implicated in agrammatism, but that even the focal brain damage yielding agrammatism does not destroy the normally encapsulated form of word access. That is, we propose that in agrammatism, the modularity of word access during sentence comprehension is rendered less efficient but not lost. Additionally, we consider a number of broader issues involved in the use of pathological material to infer characteristics of the neurological organization of cognitive architecture.
• Soares, C., Nicol, J., Michelow, D., Goloskie, S., & Cooper, W. E. (1984). Clausal intonation after unilateral brain damage.. Language and speech, 27 ( Pt 1)(1), 17-24. doi:10.1177/002383098402700102
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  Thirteen right-handed adult speakers, including five patients with unilateral left-hemisphere damage, four patients with unilateral right-hemisphere damage, and four patients with non-neurological damage, read aloud sentences designed to test influences of clause and utterance length on two acoustical measures of intonation, fundamental voice frequency (Fo) and timing. Patients with unilateral damage to the left-hemisphere exhibited more abnormality in Fo and speech timing than did patients with right-hemisphere damage.
• Soares, C. F., Nicol, J., Michelow, D., Kutik, E. J., & Cooper, W. E. (1983). Causal intonation in right‐hemisphere brain damaged speakers. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 73(S1), S15-S15. doi:10.1121/1.2020258
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  Four right‐handed adult patients with unilateral right‐hemisphere lesions and four non‐neurological patients read aloud sentences designed to test influences of clause and utterance length on fundamental frequency (F0) and timing. For single‐clause sentences of varying lengths, two patients whose lesions involved the anterior region of the right hemisphere showed more normal differences in F0 as a function of utterance length than did two patients whose lesions involved the posterior region of this hemisphere. For two‐clause sentences of varying lengths, the posterior‐lesioned patients showed greater abnormality than the anterior‐lesioned patients in both the pattern of F0 declination within each clause and the frequency and magnitude of declination resetting at the clause boundary. For both sets of sentences, peak values of F0 averaged about 25 Hz higher for the right‐hemisphere patients than for the non‐neurological group. Analyses of word and utterance durations revealed no systematic temporal differen...
• Picard, M., & Nicol, J. (1982). Vers un Modele Concret de la Phonologie des Emprunts. Canadian Journal of Linguistics-revue Canadienne De Linguistique, 27(2), 156-169. doi:10.1017/s0008413100023896
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  Depuis une douzaine d’annees, un certain nombre de principes ont ete enonces en phonologie generative pour tenter de rendre compte de l’adaptation et de la modification des mots d’emprunt. A l’aide des donnees qui ont ete recueillies dans une etude detaillee de la phonologie des emprunts du quebecois de la region de Montreal (cf. Nicol 1979), ou l’anglais (A) constitue la langue d’origine (LO) et le quebecois (Q) la langue emprunteuse (LE), nous essaierons de demontrer que tous les principes de ce genre, et en particulier ceux qu’ont emis Hyman (1970) et Kaye et Nykiel (1979), semblent faire de mauvaises predictions dans nombre de cas. Ceci nous amenera a examiner des alternatives plus concretes a ces contraintes phonotactiques abstraites que l’on a proposees dans le cadre de la phonologie generative transformationnelle.

Proceedings Publications

• Nicol, J. L., Tanner, D., Herschensohn, J., & Osterhout, L. (2012, Jancember). Electrophysiological markers of interference and structural facilitation in native and nonnative agreement processing.. In Boston University Conference on Language Development, 36, 594-606.
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  Brainwave study of sentence processing in native and non-native English speakers.
• Nicol, J. L., & Liu, R. (2010). On-line processing of anaphora by advanced English learners..
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  ;Full Citation: Liu, R. & Nicol, J. (2010). Online processing of anaphora by advanced English learners. Proceedings of the Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) 2008, Cascadilla Press. pp. 150-165.;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;
• Nicol, J. L., & Park, B. (2008). Syntactic Persistence in Korean and Implications for Implicit Learning of Korean Structure..
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  ;Full Citation: Park, B. & Nicol, J. (2008). Syntactic Persistence in Korean and Implications for Implicit Learning of Korean Structure. Proceedings of the American Association of Teachers of Korean: The 12th Annual Conference and Professional Development Workshop.;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Other collaborative: Yes;Specify other collaborative: Boonjoo graduated in Dec. 2007.;
• Nicol, J. L., & Park, B. (2007). Syntactic Persistence in Korean and Implications for Implicit Learning of Korean Structure..
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  ;Your Role: Guided research;Full Citation: Park, B. & Nicol, J. (2007) Syntactic Persistence in Korean and Implications for Implicit Learning of Korean Structure. Proceedings of the American Association of Teachers of Korean: The 12th Annual Conference and Professional Development Workshop.;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;

Presentations

• Nicol, J. L. (2024, May). Tribute to Janet Fodor. Janet D. Fodor Memorial Workshop. University of Michigan: 37th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing.
• Nicol, J. L., & Abdennebi, M. (2024, October). Effects of gestures on the acquisition of prepositions. The 5th Biennial University of Michigan International Conference on Arabic Applied Linguistics. University of Michigan: University of Michigan.
• Nicol, J. L., & Kang, H. (2024, March). Effects of post-reading word-focused activities on L2 learners’ reading behavior and vocabulary learning: An eye-tracking study. American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Conference. Houston, TX: AAAL.
• Nicol, J. L. (2021). Use of the Output Activity as an Online Vocabulary-Building Exercise. CALICO 2021: Global Realities. Virtual: CALICO (Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium).
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  CALICO, the Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium is an international organization dedicated to research and development in the use of computer technology in language learning: computer-assisted language learning (CALL).
• Nicol, J. L., & Monzingo, J. (2020, February). Learning Words in Real-World Contexts. SLAT Roundtable. University of Arizona: SLAT.
• Nicol, J. L., & Monzingo, J. (2020, October). The Effect of Real-World Contexts on L2 Vocabulary Learning.. Second Language Research Forum. virtual: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
• Nicol, J. L. (2019, September). Learning Words in a New Language. Linguistics Workshop, Kyungpook National University. Daegu, S. Korea: Kyungpook National University.
• Nicol, J. L. (2019, September). Learning a New Language: What Helps, What Hurts. (Plenary talk ). 40th Linguistic Science Society International Conference. Daegu, S. Korea: Linguistic Science Society.
• Nicol, J. L. (2017, December). Effects of learner characteristics on novel language learning. UA-ASU Cognitive Science Conclave.
• Nicol, J. L., & Zavaleta, K. (2016, April). Language learning skill: Does previous bilingual experience correlate with better learning?. Platform Presentation at American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL). Orlando, FL.
• Nicol, J. L., & Zavaleta, K. (2016, May). In Search of the Language Learner: What Predicts Success?. Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA),. Chicago, IL.
• Nicol, J. L., Zavaleta, K., & Enkin, E. (2013, October). Word Frequency Effects in L2 Spanish Reading: An Eye-tracking Study. Second Language Research Forum.
• Nicol, J. L., &amp, A. D., & , G. D. (2012, 2012-03-01). An ERP investigation of filler-gap processing in native and second language speakers. 25th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. New York, NY.
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  ;Your Role: This research has been collaborative in every aspect: from experiment design and stimulus preparation, to testing participants, to processing and analyzing data, to creating a presentation. Gayle DeDe and I both went to the conference; we agreed that she (as assistant professor) should give the talk.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Collaborative with faculty member at UA: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., , A. D., & , G. D. (2012, 2012-10-01). Processing of Wh-Dependencies in Native and Second Language Speakers: An Event-Related Potential Study. Second Language Research Forum (SLRF). Pittsburgh, PA.
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  ;Your Role: This research has been collaborative in every aspect: from experiment design and stimulus preparation, to testing participants, to processing and analyzing data, to creating a presentation. I attended the conference and presented our talk.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Collaborative with faculty member at UA: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., DeDe, G. L., & Dallas, A. (2012, March). An ERP investigation of filler-gap processing in native and second language speakers. 25th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. New York, NY.
• Nicol, J. L. (2011, 2011-02-01). Second Language Reading. SLAT Roundtable, UA. Tucson, AZ.
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  ;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference/Workshop;
• Nicol, J. L., &amp, D. T., & , L. O. (2011, 2011-04-01). The time course of feature interference and decay in agreement processing: Evidence from event-related potentials. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Meeting. San Francisco, CA.
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  ;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Other collaborative: Yes;Specify other collaborative: Osterhout is a professor of Psychology at U. Washington; Tanner was a graduate student there.;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., DeDe, G., Dallas, A., Veglia, ., & S., . (2011, 2011-12-01). Real-time sentence processing in second language learners: A study using ERP. UA-ASU Conclave. Tucson, AZ.
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  ;Your Role: I have been part of all aspects and stages of this research, from grant-writing (to obtain funding for subject payment and electrode nets), to stimulus creation, experiment design, subject testing, data analysis, and interpretation of data with respect to existing theories about the processing of a second language.;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Collaborative with undergraduate student: Yes;Collaborative with faculty member at UA: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference/Workshop;
• Nicol, J. L., Tanner, D., & Osterhout, L. (2011, 2011-11-01). Electrophysiological markers of interference and structural facilitation in native and nonnative agreement processing. oston University Conference on Language. Boston, MA.
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  ;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Other collaborative: Yes;Specify other collaborative: see above;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., Veglia, S., DeDe, G., & Dallas, A. (2011, 2011-04-01). Real-time sentence processing in second language learners: A study using ERP. Arizona Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Phoenix, AZ.
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  ;Your Role: I have been part of all aspects and stages of this research, from grant-writing (to obtain funding for subject payment and electrode nets), to stimulus creation, experiment design, subject testing, data analysis, and interpretation of data with respect to existing theories about the processing of a second language.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Collaborative with undergraduate student: Yes;Collaborative with faculty member at UA: Yes;Type of Presentation: Professional Organization;
• Nicol, J. L., Tanner, D., & Osterhout, L. (2010, 2010-04-01). Electrophysiological measures of complexity in long-distance agreement.. Cognitive Neuroscience. Montreal, PQ, Canada.
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  ;Your Role: I provided guidance and feedback on the experimental design, conference abstract, and poster.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Other collaborative: Yes;Specify other collaborative: This collaboration arose when I was asked by Darren Tanner, a graduate student at the University of Washington, to be a consultant on his NSF Dissertation Grant. ;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L. (2009, 2009-04-01). Processes in Second Language Sentence Reading. Invited colloquium. ASU, Tempe, AZ.
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  Nicol, J. Processes in Second Language Sentence Reading, Arizona State University, April, 23, 2009.;Invited: Yes;Type of Presentation: University;
• Nicol, J. L., & Park, B. (2009, 2009-10-01). Syntactic Priming in Language Production: Cross-linguistic Evidence from Korean. The 13th International Conference on the Processing of East Asian Languages (ICPEAL). Beijing, China.
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  Park, B. & Nicol, J. Syntactic Priming in Language Production: Cross-linguistic Evidence from Korean. The 13th International Conference on the Processing of East Asian Languages (ICPEAL). Beijing, China, Oct 9-11, 2009;Your Role: I supervised, and guided, all aspects of this research.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Other collaborative: Yes;Specify other collaborative: Boon-joo Park is a former graduate student.;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., Witzel, J., & Witzel, N. (2009, 2009-03-01). Deeper than Shallow: Evidence for Structurally-Based Parsing Biases in L2 Sentence Processing.. 22st Annual CUNY Conference on Sentence Processing. Davis, CA.
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  Witzel, J., Witzel, N. & Nicol, J. Deeper than Shallow: Evidence for Structurally-Based Parsing Biases in L2 Sentence Processing. 22st Annual CUNY Conference on Sentence Processing, Davis, CA. March 2009.;Your Role: Contributed to all aspects of this research.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., Witzel, J., & Witzel, N. (2009, 2009-05-01). The Reading of Structurally Ambiguous Sentences by English Language Learners. Second Language Sentence Processing Conference. Lubbock, TX.
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  Witzel, J., Witzel, N. & Nicol, J. The Reading of Structurally Ambiguous Sentences by English Language Learners. Second Language Sentence Processing Conference. Lubbock, TX, May, 2009.;Your Role: Contributed to all aspects of this research.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., & , R. L. (2008, 2008-10-01). Online processing of anaphora by advanced English learners.. Second Language Research Forum. Honolulu, Hawaii.
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  Liu, R. & Nicol, J. Online processing of anaphora by advanced English learners. Second Language Research Forum, Honolulu, Hawaii, Oct., 2008.;Your Role: I advised this student re. design and implementation, participated in materials creation and interpretation of the results. Co-wrote the presentation.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., Callahan, S. M., Love, T., Witzel, J. D., & Swinney, D. (2008, 2008-04-01). The Effects of Anaphor Form and Antecedent Type on Anaphoric Processing. The 15th Annual Cognitive Neuroscience Meeting. San Francisco, CA.
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  Callahan, S.M., Nicol, J., Love, T., Witzel, J.D., Swinney, D. The Effects of Anaphor Form and Antecedent Type on Anaphoric Processing. The 15th Annual Cognitive Neuroscience Meeting, San Francisco, CA. April 1, 2008.;Your Role: I was heavily involved in the conceptual origins of the research and design of materials. The experiment was conducted in my laboratory, under my supervision. ;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Other collaborative: Yes;Specify other collaborative: Colleagues at UCSD & SDSU;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L. (2007, 2007-03-01). Can Bilinguals Suppress One Language While Speaking The Other?. SLAT Roundtable. University of Arizona.
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  Nicol, J. & Hald, L. Can Bilinguals Suppress One Language While Speaking The Other? SLAT Interdisciplinary Roundtable, Tucson, AZ March 2007.;Your Role: I conceived of the research and gave the presentation. Hald collaborated on the experimental materials and subject-testing;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Other collaborative: Yes;Specify other collaborative: ;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference/Workshop;
• Nicol, J. L., & Park, B. (2007, 2007-03-01). Syntactic Persistence across Utterances in English as a Second Language. SLAT Interdisciplinary Roundtable. University of Arizona.
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  Park, B. & Nicol, J. Syntactic Persistence across Utterances in English as a Second Language. SLAT Interdisciplinary Roundtable, Tucson, AZ March 2007.;Your Role: Supervised research, co-wrote and co-presented the presentation.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., Callahan, S., Love, T., & Swinney, D. (2007, 2008-02-01). An event-related potential study of the processing of different types of anaphora.. Cognitive Neuroscience Society. New York, NY.
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  Callahan, S., Nicol, J., Love, T., & Swinney, D. An event-related potential study of the processing of different types of anaphora. Cognitive Neuroscience Society. New York, NY, May 2007.;Your Role: Collaborated in the design of the study and creation of materials.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Other collaborative: Yes;Specify other collaborative: Collaborators all affiliated with the Psychology Dept. at UCSD.;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., Callahan, S., Love, T., Swinney, ., & D., . (2007, 2007-03-01). All Pronouns are not Created Equal: The Processing and Interpretation of Null and Overt Pronouns in Spanish.. 20th Annual CUNY Conference on Sentence Processing. San Diego, CA.
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  Callahan, S., Nicol, J., Love, T. & Swinney, D. All Pronouns are not Created Equal: The Processing and Interpretation of Null and Overt Pronouns in Spanish. 20th Annual CUNY Conference on Sentence Processing, San Diego, CA. March 2007.Downey, R., Nicol, J., Love, T., & Swinney, D. Making “It” Concrete: An Examination of Antecedent Concreteness Effects in Pronominal Co-Reference Using Event-related Potentials. Cognitive Neuroscience Society. New York, NY. May 2007.Callahan, S., Nicol, J., Love, T., & Swinney, D. An event-related potential study of the processing of different types of anaphora. Cognitive Neuroscience Society. New York, NY, May 2007.Witzel, J., Witzel, N., Barto-Sisamout, K. & Nicol, J. L1 to L2 Transfer in bilingual sentence processing. Second Language Research Forum (SLRF). Champaign, IL, Oct. 2007;Your Role: Conceived of the research questions, participated in design of study and creation of materials, etc...;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Other collaborative: Yes;Specify other collaborative: Collaborators affiliated with the Psychology Dept. at UCSD;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., Downey, R., Love, T., & Swinney, D. (2007, 2007-05-01). Making “It” Concrete: An Examination of Antecedent Concreteness Effects in Pronominal Co-Reference Using Event-related Potentials.. Cognitive Neuroscience Society. New York, NY.
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  ;Your Role: Conceived of the research idea, participated in designing the study and creating stimulus materials.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., Witzel, J., Witzel, N., & Barto-Sisamout, K. (2007, 2007-10-01). L1 to L2 Transfer in bilingual sentence processing.. Second Language Research Forum (SLRF).. Champaign, IL.
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  Witzel, J., Witzel, N., Barto-Sisamout, K. & Nicol, J. L1 to L2 Transfer in bilingual sentence processing. Second Language Research Forum (SLRF). Champaign, IL, Oct. 2007;Your Role: I conceived of the research questions, participated in the creation of stimulus materials, supervised the research.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L. (2006, 2006-08-01). The effect of case marking on subject-verb agreement errors in English. The 12th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP).. Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
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  ;Your Role: Conceived of this research. Participated in stimulus creation and supervision of subject testing. Conducted statistical analyses. Created presentation.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Other collaborative: Yes;Specify other collaborative: former grad. student now at U. Utrecht, the Netherlands.;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Nicol, J. L., & Witzel, J. (2006, 2006-07-01). Processing English number agreement. The Fifth International Workshop on Evolutionary Cognitive Sciences: Human Sentence Processing and Production.. Tokyo, Japan.
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  ;Your Role: This work follows directly from previous work of mine; I supervised the study; I provided feedback on the presentation.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;

Poster Presentations

• Nicol, J. L., & Zavaleta, K. (2013, March). Unintentional language switches in multilingual speakers and late foreign language learners. American Association for Applied Linguistics.
• Nicol, J. L., & Zavaleta, K. (2013, October). The Role of Executive Control Ability in Language Learning.. Second Language Research Forum.