Embedded Files
Dolcini, N., Jap, B. A., Wa, K. C., & Politzer-Ahles, S. (accepted). The Pursuitworthiness of Experiments in Neurolinguistics. European Journal for Philosophy of Science.
Summary: This paper investigates the concept of 'pursuitworthiness' in neurolinguistics, or in other words, the paper proposes a framework to evaluate which experiments should be pursued. We argue that pursuitworthiness is best evaluated along two distinct but interacting dimensions:
Methodological criteria concern scientific rigor, such as statistical power and experimental control, which determine an experiment's ability to produce reliable knowledge.
Pragmatic criteria relate to real-world constraints like cost, feasibility, participant accessibility, and potential applications.
Our stance in the paper posits an asymmetrical relationship between these dimensions, where methodological standards act as a non-negotiable filter for epistemic viability, while pragmatic factors guide prioritization among methodologically sound projects. Additionally, the framework is tested against Shaw’s (2022) distinction between 'luxury' and 'urgent' science, and we cautiously concluded that its applicability is limited in neurolinguistics due to the inherent unpredictability of which basic research will lead to significant practical or clinical outcomes.
Impact: We provide the first systematic framework for evaluating experimental pursuitworthiness specifically within neurolinguistics, which moved the philosophical debate from theories to the practical realities of research. We offer a principled approach for allocating limited resources (funding, equipment, time) by distinguishing between methodological and pragmatic criteria. Our work challenges prioritization schemes by demonstrating that the distinction between basic and applied science is often unpredictable. This has direct implications for funding bodies and researchers, advocating for a balanced approach that values methodological integrity and pragmatic viability without prematurely dismissing foundational research.
[JCR 2024, History & Philosophy of Science: JIF 1.8 (Q1 - 17/112)]
Jap, B. A., & Bastiaanse, R. (2025). Sentence Production in Standard Indonesian Agrammatism. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 54, Article 54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-025-10165-1
Summary: This study tests whether the high frequency of passive sentences in Standard Indonesian mitigates production deficits in agrammatic aphasia. Using a picture elicitation task, twelve agrammatic speakers produced active and passive sentences. Results showed no main effect of sentence type, with passive sentences produced at a comparable accuracy to active sentences. The majority of errors involved role-reversals and verb inflection, which we argue is an indication of difficulty with thematic role assignment rather than forming the syntactic structure itself.
Impact: This study challenges universal, structure-based theories of agrammatic sentence production by showing that syntactic frequency can override deficits typically associated with non-canonical word order. The preservation of the frequent passive structure in Indonesian demonstrates that production difficulty in agrammatic aphasia is not inherent to syntax alone, but is heavily modulated by language-specific usage patterns.
[JCR 2023, Linguistics: JIF 1.6 (Q1 - 73/296)]
Jap, B. A., Hsu, Y. Y., & Politzer-Ahles, S. (2025). Registered Report: Neural correlates of thematic role assignment for passives in Standard Indonesian. PloS one, 20(5), e0322341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0322341
Summary: This registered report (stage 2) examines thematic role assignment in Standard Indonesian, where passive structures occur at a relatively high frequency (compared to other languages). EEG data from 51 participants show a P600 effect on verbs and sustained positivity on the second noun phrase in passive versus active sentences. These effects emerge despite the high frequency of passive structures in Indonesian - which provides evidence that processing costs is still structure-driven despite 'facilitations' from high relative structural frequency, early acquisition, and lower formal complexity (e.g. less verbal morphology) compared to other languages. One potential caveat of this result is the fact that the P600 amplitude at the passivized verb is very small in comparison to other studies (e.g. on English by Jackson et al., 2020) - which may mean frequency still has a modulating effect towards processing effort.
Impact: This study resolves a fundamental question in sentence processing by isolating structure from frequency. Previous studies confounded these variables by testing languages where non-canonical structures were also infrequent. The results provide direct evidence for an agent-first processing bias as a universal mechanism independent of language statistics. This challenges purely usage-based accounts of sentence processing and suggests certain processing mechanisms for thematic role assignment remain fixed despite extensive exposure.
Note 1: At PLoS ONE, the registered report protocol (stage 1) was also published in 2022- you can read ours here.
Note 2: You can see from my dissertation (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) and earlier work (and another, more recent work) that this was not the result I expected - nevertheless, this was what we found
[JCR 2023, Multidisciplinary Sciences: JIF 2.9 (Q1 - 32/134)]
Jap, B. A., & Politzer-Ahles, S. (2025). Visual mismatch negativity indexes automatic lexicality detection. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2025.2495040
Summary: This study tests whether the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) occurs for lexical and abstract linguistic contrasts without physical cues. ERP data from 40 Indonesian speakers show lexicality can elicit vMMN. Word deviants produced a broadly distributed negativity (275-400ms) compared to word standards. The noun/verb contrast failed to elicit vMMN effects.
Impact: This study reveals a fundamental aspect of human language processing: the brain distinguishes between words and non-words without conscious attention. This automatic lexicality detection occurs at early processing stages (275-400ms) through purely visual input. This extends predictive coding models to include pre-attentive lexical-level representations in visual word recognition. The contrast with our previous paper's (Politzer-Ahles and Jap's, 2024) auditory findings may suggest modality-specific constraints (among a plethora of other possibilities) on automatic linguistic processing.
[JCR 2023, Linguistics: JIF 1.6 (Q1 - 73/296)]
Jap, B. A.., & Hsu, Y-Y. (2025). An ERP study on verb bias and thematic role assignment in standard Indonesian. Scientific Reports, 15, 11847. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-96240-y
Summary: This study isolates verb bias effects on sentence processing in Standard Indonesian, where passive constructions are frequent. We identified verbs with stronger biases toward active or passive structures, then measured neural responses to passive sentences with these verbs. Results show passive sentences with active-bias verbs elicit an N280 component at the post-verbal region. Verb-structural mismatches create processing costs despite using structurally identical sentences.
Impact: This study challenges fundamental assumptions about sentence processing difficulty. Previous work often attributed processing costs of passive sentences to inherent structural complexity (e.g. syntactic operations like movement). Our findings demonstrate these costs may stem from verb-structure preference mismatches rather than from structure itself. This explains why passives are difficult in English (where most verbs are active-biased) but perhaps not as much in Indonesian (where many verbs are passive-biased). The results might push us to re-examine theories of sentence processing to incorporate lexical-structural relationship as a factor governing processing difficulty, rather than assuming certain structures are inherently harder to process due to syntax.
[JCR 2023, Multidisciplinary Sciences: JIF 3.8 (Q1 - 25/134)]
Jap, B. A., Alimu, S., & Dolcini, N. (2025). Affect and human electrophysiological research. Neuroethics, 18(2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-024-09572-3
Summary: We examined whether EEG research affects participants' psychological well-being. Using the PANAS scale, we measured affect before and after three different EEG experiments. Our results show significant reductions in positive affect following participation. Experiment duration strongly predicts the magnitude of this reduction, and physical discomfort during preparation worsens this effect. These findings challenge the longstanding assumption that EEG poses no risk beyond minimal discomfort.
Impact: This is the first paper to call into question EEG methodologies from an ethics perspective. We demonstrate that a technique universally considered harmless actually produces measurable declines in psychological well-being. This finding fundamentally challenges decades of ethical frameworks that classify EEG as risk-free. Our identification of specific risk factors—particularly experiment duration and preparation discomfort—provides guidance for improving research protocols.
[JCR 2023, Ethics: JIF 2.6 (Q1 - 15/77)]
Jap, B. A., Hsu, Y. Y., & Politzer-Ahles, S. (2024). Are cleft sentence structures more difficult to process? Neuroscience Letters, Article 138029. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2024.138029
Summary: Cleft structures elicited a significantly larger P600 response than monoclausal sentences at the verb position, which provides direct neurophysiological evidence that complex structures require greater cognitive processing resources even in neurotypical speakers.
Impact: The findings validate diagnostic approaches that use sentence complexity as a marker in language impairments and have practical implications for speech therapists working with patients who struggle with complex sentences.
[JCR 2023, Neurosciences: JIF 2.5 (Q3 - 187/310)]
Politzer-Ahles, S., & Jap, B. A. (2024). Can the mismatch negativity really be elicited by abstract linguistic contrasts? Neurobiology of Language, 5(4), 818-843. https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00147
Summary: This registered report tested if mismatch negativity (MMN), a pre-attentive brain response, occurs with abstract linguistic contrasts without acoustic cues. The study compared ERPs from past vs. present irregular verb forms (gave vs. pave), phonological voicing contrasts, and acoustic contrasts in 60 English speakers. All three contrasts produced significant negativities. The abstract tense contrast elicited a later, more posterior negativity than typical MMNs but still occurred without conscious attention from participants.
Impact: The results challenge traditional views of the MMN as solely a physical change detector. Sensitivity to abstract linguistic categories without acoustic cues indicates that pre-attentive brain mechanisms integrate higher-level linguistic knowledge very early during perception. The results advances our understanding of the MMN's functional scope and the automaticity of linguistic processing in the brain.
[JCR 2023, Linguistics: JIF 3.6 (Q1 - 12/296)]
Jap, B. A., Hsu, Y.-Y., & Politzer-Ahles, S. (2022). Neural correlates of thematic role assignment for passives in Standard Indonesian. PLOS ONE, 17(8), Article e0272207. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272207
Summary: This registered report protocol (Stage 1) proposes an ERP experiment designed to investigate how the brain processes thematic roles in Standard Indonesian sentences. Unlike previous neurolinguistic studies that tested languages where passive structures are infrequent, this study examines Indonesian, where passives occur in 30-40% of written verbs and are acquired early by children. The study aims to determine whether processing differences previously attributed to syntactic complexity might actually reflect frequency effects by recording brain responses of 50 Indonesian speakers as they read active and passive sentences with comparable frequency.
The registered report (Stage 2) has been accepted and is currently in-press (2025).
[JCR 2023, Multidisciplinary Sciences: JIF 2.9 (Q1 - 32/134)]
Jap, B. A.*, Borleffs, E.*, Nasution, I. K., Zwarts, F., & Maassen, B. A. (2018). Do single or multiple deficit models predict the risk of dyslexia in Standard Indonesian? Applied Psycholinguistics, 39(3), 675-702. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716417000625
*Equal first authors
Summary: This study tested competing theoretical models of dyslexia using a sample of 285 Indonesian students across grades 1-3. Results showed naming speed was the strongest predictor of reading fluency, followed by phonological awareness and verbal working memory. The hybrid model incorporating both single and multiple deficit pathways proved the best fit, accounting for 33% of at-risk cases. The data demonstrated that no single deficit model was sufficient to predict dyslexia risk, and a deficit in phonological awareness was not necessary, revealing multiple pathways to reading difficulties in Standard Indonesian.
Impact: This research challenges simplified views of dyslexia etiology in transparent orthographies by demonstrating that multiple cognitive pathways can lead to reading difficulties. The findings have practical implications for early identification and intervention strategies within Indonesia's education system. They suggest the need for comprehensive assessment of multiple cognitive skills rather than focusing solely on phonological processing when identifying students at risk of dyslexia.
[JCR 2023, Linguistics: JIF 2.4 (Q1 - 31/296)]
Jap, B. A., Borleffs, E., & Maassen, B. A. (2017). Towards identifying dyslexia in Standard Indonesian: the development of a reading assessment battery. Reading and Writing, 30(8), 1729-1751. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9748-y
Summary: This study developed the first comprehensive reading assessment battery for identifying dyslexia in Standard Indonesian. The test battery identified four variables significantly related to reading skills: phonological awareness, rapid naming, spelling, and digit span, and it confirms findings from other languages with transparent orthographies.
Impact: This assessment tool addresses a significant gap in educational resources within the Indonesian education system, the fourth largest in the world with over 50 million school-aged children. It enables earlier identification of reading difficulties in a language that serves over 160 million speakers and provides preliminary normative data that can guide diagnosis and intervention efforts.
[JCR 2023, Education & Educational Research : JIF 1.5 (Q2 - 193/760)]
Jap, B. A., Martinez-Ferreiro, S., & Bastiaanse, R. (2016). The effect of syntactic frequency on sentence comprehension in standard Indonesian Broca’s aphasia. Aphasiology, 30(11), 1325-1340. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2016.1148902
Summary: Indonesian speakers with Broca's aphasia comprehend the frequent passive construction equally well compared to active sentences, while showing significant difficulties with the infrequent object cleft construction. This suggests syntactic frequency influences sentence comprehension performance in aphasia.
Impact: The findings challenge theories (processing accounts that are based on theoretical syntax) of sentence comprehension in agrammatic aphasia by introducing syntactic frequency as a factor that must be considered alongside structural complexity. It also shows the importance of cross-linguistic research in aphasiology, which provides information on language-specific patterns of use and pragmatic constraints. Noting the fact that most aphasia test batteries (including the Indonesian TADIR by Dharmaperwira-Prins, 2013) include non-canonical sentence comprehension, the results here would be of direct clinical relevance.
[JCR 2023, Linguistics : JIF 1.5 (Q2 - 81/296)]
Book chapters & proceedings
Book chapters & proceedings
Jap, B. A.., Hsu, Y.-Y., Salicchi, L., & Li, Y. X. (2024). What’s in a name? Electrophysiological differences in processing proper nouns in Mandarin Chinese. In M. Zock, E. Chersoni, Y.-Y. Hsu, & S. de Deyne (Eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Cognitive Aspects of the Lexicon @ LREC-COLING 2024 (pp. 79–85). ELRA and ICCL. https://aclanthology.org/2024.cogalex-1.9/
Jap, B. A. & Tiatri, S. (2024). Dyslexia in Indonesia: An Overview. In Elbeheri, G., Reid, G., & Fawcett, A. (Ed.). Dyslexia in many languages: Insights, Interactions and Interventions. Routledge.
Jap, B. A. (2020). Syntactic Frequency and Sentence Processing in Standard Indonesian: Data from agrammatic aphasia and ERP. [Thesis fully internal (DIV), University of Groningen]. University of Groningen. https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.143947876 (My doctoral dissertation)
Jap, B. A., Martinez-Ferreiro, S., & Bastiaanse, R. (2014). Sentence Comprehension in Aphasic Speakers of Standard Indonesian. Stem-, Spraak-en Taalpathologie, 19(Suppl. 1), 49-51. [Scimago 2024, Linguistics and Language: SJR 0.125 (Q3)]
Jap, B. A., Soebadi-Haryadi, R. D., & Bastiaanse, R. (2013). Verb comprehension in aphasic speakers of Standard Indonesian. Stem-, Spraak-en Taalpathologie, 18(SUPPL. 1), 83-85. [Scimago 2024, Linguistics and Language: SJR 0.125 (Q3)]
Jap, B. A. (2012). Pengaruh Krisis Ekonomi Global 2009 terhadap angka ketergantungan di Pasifik Selatan. In E. Fitriani (Ed.), Australia dan Negara-Negara di Kepulauan Pasifik Selatan: Observasi dan Pandangan dari Indonesia (pp. 257-277). Jakarta: Penerbit Universitas Indonesia (UI-Press).
Jap, B. A. (2011). Bahasa Betawi. In C. E. Permana & U. Yuwono (Eds.), Langgam Budaya Betawi. Jakarta: Penerbit Universitas Indonesia (FIB-UI).
Selected conference presentations
Selected conference presentations
2025 Salicchi, L., Hsu, Y.-Y, & Jap, B. A. “Sequential Prediction and Semantic Evaluation, but Alongside Entropy: a Computational Investigation of N400 and P600 Cognitive Dynamics” The 5th International Conference on Theoretical East Asian Psycholinguistics, Tokyo, Japan.
2025 Jap, B. A., & Hsu, Y.-Y. "The impact of verb subcategorization frequency on Standard Indonesian passives" 38th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing (HSP), College Park, United States.
2024 Jap, B. A., & Hsu, Y.-Y. "Does verb bias modulate thematic role assignment?" 37th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing (HSP), Ann Arbor, United States.
2024 Jap, B. A., Hsu, Y.-Y., & Politzer-Ahles, S. "Processing of wh-questions in Standard Indonesian: evidence from ERPs." 37th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing (HSP), Ann Arbor, United States.
2022 Jap, B. A. & Politzer-Ahles, S. "Thematic role assignment processing in Standard Indonesian." Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning (X-PPL) 2022, Zurich, Switzerland.
2022 Jap, B. A. & Politzer-Ahles, S. "Syntactic priming in Standard Indonesian." Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning (X-PPL) 2022, Zurich, Switzerland.
2022 Jap, B. A. & Politzer-Ahles, S. "Neural Correlates of Thematic Role Assignment in Standard Indonesian (pilot data)." 35th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Santa Cruz, United States.
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