Publications

Abstract

Vocabulary learning occurs throughout the lifespan, often implicitly. For foreign language learners,
this is particularly challenging as they must acquire a large number of new words with little exposure.
In the present study, we explore the effects of contextual diversity—namely, the number of texts a
word appears in—on native and foreign language word learning. Participants read several texts that
had novel pseudowords replacing high-frequency words. The total number of encounters with the
novel words was held constant, but they appeared in 1, 2, 4, or 8 texts. In addition, some participants
read the texts in Spanish (their native language) and others in English (their foreign language). We
found that increasing contextual diversity improved recall and recognition of the word, as well as the
ability to match the word with its meaning while keeping comprehension unimpaired. Using a foreign
language only affected performance in the matching task, where participants had to quickly identify
the meaning of the word. Results are discussed in the greater context of the word learning and foreign
language literature as well as their importance as a teaching tool.

Abstract

The current study focuses on how different scales with varying demands can
affect our subjective assessments. We carried out 2 experiments in which we
asked participants to rate how happy or sad morphed images of faces looked.
The two extremes were the original happy and original sad faces with 4
morphs in between. We manipulated language of the task—namely, half of
the participants carried it out in their native language, Spanish, and the other
half in their foreign language, English—and type of scale. Within type of
scale, we compared verbal and brightness scales. We found that, while
language did not have an effect on the assessment, type of scale did. The
brightness scale led to overall higher ratings, i.e., assessing all faces as
somewhat happier. This provides a limitation on the foreign language effect,
as well as evidence for the influence of the cognitive demands of a scale on
emotionality assessments.

Abstract

Learning new content and vocabulary in a foreign language can be particularly difficult. Yet,
there are educational programs that require people to study in a language they are not
native speakers of. For this reason, it is important to understand how these learning processes work and possibly differ from native language learning, as well as to develop strategies to ease this process. The current study takes advantage of emotionality—operationally
defined as positive valence and high arousal—to improve memory. In two experiments, the
present paper addresses whether participants have more difficulty learning the names of
objects they have never seen before in their foreign language and whether embedding them
in a positive semantic context can help make learning easier. With this in mind, we had participants (with a minimum of a B2 level of English) in two experiments (43 participants in
Experiment 1 and 54 in Experiment 2) read descriptions of made-up objects—either positive
or neutral and either in their native or a foreign language. The effects of language varied
with the difficulty of the task and measure used. In both cases, learning the words in a positive context improved learning. Importantly, the effect of emotionality was not modulated by
language, suggesting that the effects of emotionality are independent of language and could
potentially be a useful tool for improving foreign language vocabulary learning.

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that long-lasting morphologic and
functional consequences can be present in the human visual system
after repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (r-mTBI). The exact lo-
cation and extent of the damage in this condition are not well un-
derstood. Using a recently developed mouse model of r-mTBI, we
assessed the effects on the retina and optic nerve using histology and
immunohistochemistry, electroretinography (ERG), and spectral-
domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) at 10 and 13 weeks
after injury. Control mice received repetitive anesthesia alone (r-sham).
We observed decreased optic nerve diameters and increased cellularity
and areas of demyelination in optic nerves in r-mTBI versus r-sham
mice. There were concomitant areas of decreased cellularity in the
retinal ganglion cell layer and approximately 67% decrease in brain-
specific homeobox/POU domain protein 3AYpositive retinal ganglion
cells in retinal flat mounts. Furthermore, SD-OCT demonstrated a de-
tectable thinning of the inner retina; ERG demonstrated a decrease in
the amplitude of the photopic negative response without any change in
a- or b-wave amplitude or timing. Thus, the ERG and SD-OCT data
correlated well with changes detected by morphometric, histologic,
and immunohistochemical methods, thereby supporting the use of
these noninvasive methods in the assessment of visual function and
morphology in clinical cases of mTBI.