Modeling Bilingual Sentence Processing: Evaluating RNN and Transformer Architectures for Cross-Language Structural Priming

Demi Zhang, Bushi Xiao, Chao Gao, Sangpil Youm, Bonnie J Dorr


Abstract
This study evaluates the performance of Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) and Transformer models in replicating cross-language structural priming, a key indicator of abstract grammatical representations in human language processing. Focusing on Chinese-English priming, which involves two typologically distinct languages, we examine how these models handle the robust phenomenon of structural priming, where exposure to a particular sentence structure increases the likelihood of selecting a similar structure subsequently. Our findings indicate that transformers outperform RNNs in generating primed sentence structures, with accuracy rates that exceed 25.84% to 33. 33%. This challenges the conventional belief that human sentence processing primarily involves recurrent and immediate processing and suggests a role for cue-based retrieval mechanisms. This work contributes to our understanding of how computational models may reflect human cognitive processes across diverse language families.
Anthology ID:
2024.mrl-1.8
Volume:
Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Multilingual Representation Learning (MRL 2024)
Month:
November
Year:
2024
Address:
Miami, Florida, USA
Editors:
Jonne Sälevä, Abraham Owodunni
Venue:
MRL
SIG:
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
127–136
Language:
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2024.mrl-1.8
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Demi Zhang, Bushi Xiao, Chao Gao, Sangpil Youm, and Bonnie J Dorr. 2024. Modeling Bilingual Sentence Processing: Evaluating RNN and Transformer Architectures for Cross-Language Structural Priming. In Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Multilingual Representation Learning (MRL 2024), pages 127–136, Miami, Florida, USA. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
Modeling Bilingual Sentence Processing: Evaluating RNN and Transformer Architectures for Cross-Language Structural Priming (Zhang et al., MRL 2024)
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PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2024.mrl-1.8.pdf