Publications

Abstract

In his paper ‘On Horn's dilemma: presupposition and negation’ Burton-Roberts (1989a) presents an ambitious programme, formulated right at the outset. He seeks to establish three points: (i) Under the ‘standard logical definition of presupposition’ a pre-suppositional semantics is INCOMPATIBLE with a SEMANTICALLY AMBIGUOUS NEGATION operator (SAN), on pain of the theory being rendered ‘empirically empty and theoretically trivial’,. (ii) From this it follows that the one unambiguous negation is presupposition preserving. Cases that have been identified as presupposition-cancelling negation should be re-analysed as ‘instances of a pragmatic phenomenon’, not unlike what has been proposed in Horn (1985), that is as METALINGUISTIC NEGATION (MN). (iii) This pragmatic analysis of MN ‘itself implies a presuppositional semantics’, that is to say ‘a presuppositional theory of truth-value gaps’.

Abstract

Different talkers speak differently, even within the same homogeneous group. These differences lead to acoustic variability in speech, causing challenges for correct perception of the intended message. Because previous descriptions of this acoustic variability have focused mostly on segments, talker variability in prosodic structures is not yet well documented. The present study therefore examined acoustic between-talker variability in word stress in Dutch. We recorded 40 native Dutch talkers from a participant sample with minimal dialectal variation and balanced gender, producing segmentally overlapping words (e.g., VOORnaam vs. voorNAAM; ‘first name’ vs. ‘respectable’, capitalization indicates lexical stress), and measured different acoustic cues to stress. Each individual participant’s acoustic measurements were analyzed using Linear Discriminant Analyses, which provide coefficients for each cue, reflecting the strength of each cue in a talker’s productions. On average, talkers primarily used mean F0, intensity, and duration. Moreover, each participant also employed a unique combination of cues, illustrating large prosodic variability between talkers. In fact, classes of cue-weighting tendencies emerged, differing in which cue was used as the main cue. These results offer the most comprehensive acoustic description, to date, of word stress in Dutch, and illustrate that large prosodic variability is present between individual talkers.

Abstract

Background: Positive parental interactions may buffer maltreated children from poor psychosocial outcomes. The study aims to evaluate the associations between various types of maltreatment and psychosocial outcomes in early childhood, and examine the moderating effect of positive parent-child interactions on them.

Methods: Data were from a representative Chinese 6-year-old children sample (n = 17,088). Caregivers reported the history of child maltreatment perpetrated by any individuals, completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as a proxy for psychosocial well-being, and reported the frequency of their interactions with children by the Chinese Parent-Child Interaction Scale.

Results: Physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse were all associated with higher odds of psychosocial problems (aOR = 1.90 [95% CI: 1.57-2.29], aOR = 1.92 [95% CI: 1.75-2.10], aOR = 1.64 [95% CI: 1.17-2.30], aOR = 2.03 [95% CI: 1.30-3.17]). Positive parent-child interactions were associated with lower odds of psychosocial problems after accounting for different types of maltreatment. The moderating effect of frequent parent-child interactions was found only in the association between occasional only physical abuse and psychosocial outcomes (interaction term: aOR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.15-0.77).

Conclusions: Maltreatment and positive parent-child interactions have impacts on psychosocial well-being in early childhood. Positive parent-child interactions could only buffer the adverse effect of occasional physical abuse on psychosocial outcomes. More frequent parent-child interactions may be an important intervention opportunity among some children.

Impact: It provides the first data on the prevalence of different single types and combinations of maltreatment in early childhood in Shanghai, China by drawing on a city-level population-representative sample. It adds to evidence that different forms and degrees of maltreatment were all associated with a higher risk of psychosocial problems in early childhood. Among them, sexual abuse posed the highest risk, followed by emotional abuse. It innovatively found that higher frequencies of parent-child interactions may provide buffering effects only to children who are exposed to occasional physical abuse. It provides a potential intervention opportunity, especially for physically abused children.

Abstract

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder in childhood and likely represents an extreme of normal behavior. ADHD significantly impacts learning in school-age children and leads to impaired functioning throughout the life span. There is strong evidence for a genetic etiology of the disorder, although putative alleles, principally in dopamine-related pathways suggested by candidate-gene studies, have very small effect sizes. We use affected-sib-pair analysis in 203 families to localize the first major susceptibility locus for ADHD to a 12-cM region on chromosome 16p13 (maximum LOD score 4.2; P=.000005), building upon an earlier genomewide scan of this disorder. The region overlaps that highlighted in three genome scans for autism, a disorder in which inattention and hyperactivity are common, and physically maps to a 7-Mb region on 16p13. These findings suggest that variations in a gene on 16p13 may contribute to common deficits found in both ADHD and autism.

Abstract

Recent studies of aging organisms have identified a systematic phenomenon, characterized by a negative correlation between gene length and their expression in various cell types, species, and diseases. We term this phenomenon gene-length-dependent transcription decline (GLTD) and suggest that it may represent a bottleneck in the transcription machinery and thereby significantly contribute to aging as an etiological factor. We review potential links between GLTD and key aging processes such as DNA damage and explore their potential in identifying disease modification targets. Notably, in Alzheimer’s disease, GLTD spotlights extremely long synaptic genes at chromosomal fragile sites (CFSs) and their vulnerability to postmitotic DNA damage. We suggest that GLTD is an integral element of biological aging.

Abstract

Spoken word recognition involves automatic activation of lexical candidates compatible with the perceived input. In running speech, words abut one another without intervening gaps, and syllable boundaries can mismatch with word boundaries. For instance, liaison in ’petit agneau’ creates a syllable beginning with a consonant although ’agneau’ begins with a vowel. In two cross-modal priming experiments we investigate how French listeners recognise words in liaison environments. These results suggest that the resolution of liaison in part depends on acoustic cues which distinguish liaison from non-liaison consonants, and in part on the availability of lexical support for a liaison interpretation.

Abstract

Social interaction is organized around norms and preferences that guide our construction of actions and our interpretation of those of others, creating a reflexive moral order. Sociological theory suggests two possibilities for the type of moral order that underlies the policing of interactional norm and preference violations: a morality that focuses on the nature of violations themselves and a morality that focuses on the positioning of actors as they maintain their conduct comprehensible, even when they depart from norms and preferences. We find that actors are more likely to reproach interactional violations for which an account is not provided by the transgressor, and that actors weakly reproach or let pass first offenses while more strongly policing violators who persist in bad behavior. Based on these findings, we outline a theory of interactional policing that rests not on the nature of the violation but rather on actors' moral positioning.

Abstract

Three experiments tested young children's efficiency in recognizing words in speech referring to absent objects. Seventy-two 24-month-olds heard sentences containing target words denoting objects that were or were not present in a visual display. Children's eye movements were monitored as they heard the sentences. Three distinct patterns of response were shown. Children hearing a familiar word that was an appropriate label for the currently fixated picture maintained their gaze. Children hearing a familiar word that could not apply to the currently fixated picture rapidly shifted their gaze to the alternative picture, whether that alternative was the named target or not, and then continued to search for an appropriate referent. Finally, children hearing an unfamiliar word shifted their gaze slowly and irregularly. This set of outcomes is interpreted as evidence that by 24 months, rapid activation in word recognition does not depend on the presence of the words' referents. Rather, very young children are capable of quickly and efficiently interpreting words in the absence of visual supporting context.

Abstract

The degree to which infants represent phonetic detail in words has been a source of controversy in phonology and developmental psychology. One prominent hypothesis holds that infants store words in a vague or inaccurate form until the learning of similar–sounding neighbors forces attention to subtle phonetic distinctions. In the experiment reported here, we used a visual fixation task to assess word recognition. We present the first evidence indicating that, in fact, the lexical representations of 14– and 15–month–olds are encoded in fine detail, even when this detail is not functionally necessary for distinguishing similar words in the infant’s vocabulary. Exposure to words is sufficient for well–specified lexical representations, even well before the vocabulary spurt. These results suggest developmental continuity in infants’ representations of speech: As infants begin to build a vocabulary and learn word meanings, they use the perceptual abilities previously demonstrated in tasks testing the discrimination and categorization of meaningless syllables.

Abstract

When preparing to name an object, semantic knowledge about the object and its attributes is activated, including perceptual properties. It is unclear, however, whether semantic attribute activation contributes to lexical access or is a consequence of activating a concept irrespective of whether that concept is to be named or not. In this study, we measured neural responses using fMRI while participants named objects that are typically green or red, presented in black line drawings. Furthermore, participants underwent two other tasks with the same objects, color naming and semantic judgment, to see if the activation pattern we observe during picture naming is (a) similar to that of a task that requires accessing the color attribute and (b) distinct from that of a task that requires accessing the concept but not its name or color. We used representational similarity analysis to detect brain areas that show similar patterns within the same color category, but show different patterns across the two color categories. In all three tasks, activation in the bilateral fusiform gyri (“Human V4”) correlated with a representational model encoding the red–green distinction weighted by the importance of color feature for the different objects. This result suggests that when seeing objects whose color attribute is highly diagnostic, color knowledge about the objects is retrieved irrespective of whether the color or the object itself have to be named.

Abstract

This study explored sentence processing in two typologically distinct languages: Korean, a verb-final language, and Tongan, a verb-initial language. The first experiment revealed that in Korean, sentences arranged in the scrambled OSV (Object, Subject, Verb) order were processed more slowly than those in the canonical SOV order, highlighting a scrambling effect. It also found that sentences with subject topicalization in the SOV order were processed as swiftly as those in the canonical form, whereas sentences with object topicalization in the OSV order were processed with speeds and accuracy comparable to scrambled sentences. However, since topicalization and scrambling in Korean use the same OSV order, independently distinguishing the effects of topicalization is challenging. In contrast, Tongan allows for a clear separation of word orders for topicalization and scrambling, facilitating an independent evaluation of topicalization effects. The second experiment, employing a maze task, confirmed that Tongan’s canonical VSO order was processed more efficiently than the VOS scrambled order, thereby verifying a scrambling effect. The third experiment investigated the effects of both scrambling and topicalization in Tongan, finding that the canonical VSO order was processed most efficiently in terms of speed and accuracy, unlike the VOS scrambled and SVO topicalized orders. Notably, the OVS object-topicalized order was processed as efficiently as the VSO canonical order, while the SVO subject-topicalized order was slower than VSO but faster than VOS. By independently assessing the effects of topicalization apart from scrambling, this study demonstrates that both subject and object topicalization in Tongan facilitate sentence processing, contradicting the predictions based on movement-based anticipation.

Abstract

From a brain's-eye-view, when a stimulus occurs and what it is are interrelated aspects of interpreting the perceptual world. Yet in practice, the putative perceptual inferences about sensory content and timing are often dichotomized and not investigated as an integrated process. We here argue that neural temporal dynamics can influence what is perceived, and in turn, stimulus content can influence the time at which perception is achieved. This computational principle results from the highly interdependent relationship of what and when in the environment. Both brain processes and perceptual events display strong temporal variability that is not always modeled; we argue that understanding—and, minimally, modeling—this temporal variability is key for theories of how the brain generates unified and consistent neural representations and that we ignore temporal variability in our analysis practice at the peril of both data interpretation and theory-building. Here, we review what and when interactions in the brain, demonstrate via simulations how temporal variability can result in misguided interpretations and conclusions, and outline how to integrate and synthesize what and when in theories and models of brain computation.

Abstract

Neural oscillations reflect fluctuations in excitability, which biases the percept of ambiguous sensory input. Why this bias occurs is still not fully understood. We hypothesized that neural populations representing likely events are more sensitive, and thereby become active on earlier oscillatory phases, when the ensemble itself is less excitable. Perception of ambiguous input presented during less-excitable phases should therefore be biased toward frequent or predictable stimuli that have lower activation thresholds. Here, we show such a frequency bias in spoken word recognition using psychophysics, magnetoencephalography (MEG), and computational modelling. With MEG, we found a double dissociation, where the phase of oscillations in the superior temporal gyrus and medial temporal gyrus biased word-identification behavior based on phoneme and lexical frequencies, respectively. This finding was reproduced in a computational model. These results demonstrate that oscillations provide a temporal ordering of neural activity based on the sensitivity of separable neural populations.

Abstract

This paper presents electrophysiological evidence of an impairment in the on-line processing of word class information in patients with Broca’s aphasia with agrammatic comprehension. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded from the scalp while Broca patients and non-aphasic control subjects read open- and closed-class words that appeared one at a time on a PC screen. Separate waveforms were computed for open- and closed-class words. The non-aphasic control subjects showed a modulation of an early left anterior negativity in the 210–325 ms as a function of vocabulary class (VC), and a late left anterior negative shift to closed-class words in the 400–700 ms epoch. An N400 effect was present in both control subjects and Broca patients. We have taken the early electrophysiological differences to reflect the first availability of word-category information from the mental lexicon. The late differences can be related to post-lexical processing. In contrast to the control subjects, the Broca patients showed no early VC effect and no late anterior shift to closed-class words. The results support the view that an incomplete and/or delayed availability of word-class information might be an important factor in Broca’s agrammatic comprehension.

Abstract

During face-to-face conversation, transitions between speaker turns are incredibly fast. These fast turn exchanges seem to involve next speakers predicting upcoming semantic information, such that next turn planning can begin before a current turn is complete. Given that face-to-face conversation also involves the use of communicative bodily signals, an important question is how bodily signals such as co-speech hand gestures play into these processes of prediction and fast responding. In this corpus study, we found that hand gestures that depict or refer to semantic information started before the corresponding information in speech, which held both for the onset of the gesture as a whole, as well as the onset of the stroke (the most meaningful part of the gesture). This early timing potentially allows listeners to use the gestural information to predict the corresponding semantic information to be conveyed in speech. Moreover, we provided further evidence that questions with gestures got faster responses than questions without gestures. However, we found no evidence for the idea that how much a gesture precedes its lexical affiliate (i.e., its predictive potential) relates to how fast responses were given. The findings presented here highlight the importance of the temporal relation between speech and gesture and help to illuminate the potential mechanisms underpinning multimodal language processing during face-to-face conversation.

Abstract

Most language use occurs in face-to-face conversation, which involves rapid turn-taking. Seeing communicative bodily signals in addition to hearing speech may facilitate such fast responding. We tested whether this holds for co-speech hand gestures by investigating whether these gestures speed up button press responses to questions. Sixty native speakers of Dutch viewed videos in which an actress asked yes/no-questions, either with or without a corresponding iconic hand gesture. Participants answered the questions as quickly and accurately as possible via button press. Gestures did not impact response accuracy, but crucially, gestures sped up responses, suggesting that response planning may be finished earlier when gestures are seen. How much gestures sped up responses was not related to their timing in the question or their timing with respect to the corresponding information in speech. Overall, these results are in line with the idea that multimodality may facilitate fast responding during face-to-face conversation.

Abstract

The typical pattern of alternating turns in conversation seems trivial at first sight. But a closer look quickly reveals the cognitive challenges involved, with much of it resulting from the fast-paced nature of conversation. One core ingredient to turn coordination is the anticipation of upcoming turn ends so as to be able to ready oneself for providing the next contribution. Across two experiments, we investigated two variables inherent to face-to-face conversation, the presence of visual bodily signals and preceding discourse context, in terms of their contribution to turn end anticipation. In a reaction time paradigm, participants anticipated conversational turn ends better when seeing the speaker and their visual bodily signals than when they did not, especially so for longer turns. Likewise, participants were better able to anticipate turn ends when they had access to the preceding discourse context than when they did not, and especially so for longer turns. Critically, the two variables did not interact, showing that visual bodily signals retain their influence even in the context of preceding discourse. In a pre-registered follow-up experiment, we manipulated the visibility of the speaker's head, eyes and upper body (i.e. torso + arms). Participants were better able to anticipate turn ends when the speaker's upper body was visible, suggesting a role for manual gestures in turn end anticipation. Together, these findings show that seeing the speaker during conversation may critically facilitate turn coordination in interaction.

Abstract

Words are not processed in isolation; instead, they are commonly embedded in phrases and sentences. The sentential context influences the perception and processing of a word. However, how this is achieved by brain processes and whether predictive mechanisms underlie this process remain a debated topic. Here, we employed an experimental paradigm in which we orthogonalized sentence context constraints and predictive validity, which was defined as the ratio of congruent to incongruent sentence endings within the experiment. While recording electroencephalography, participants read sentences with three levels of sentential context constraints (high, medium, and low). Participants were also separated into two groups that differed in their ratio of valid congruent to incongruent target words that could be predicted from the sentential context. For both groups, we investigated modulations of alpha power before, and N400 amplitude modulations after target word onset. The results reveal that the N400 amplitude gradually decreased with higher context constraints and cloze probability. In contrast, alpha power was not significantly affected by context constraint. Neither the N400 nor alpha power were significantly affected by changes in predictive validity.

Abstract

The existence of nominal classification systems has long been thought of as one of the defining features of the Papuan languages of island New Guinea. However, while almost all of these languages do have nominal classification systems, they are, in fact, extremely divergent from each other. This paper examines these systems in the East Papuan languages in order to examine the question of the relationship between these Papuan outliers. Nominal classification systems are often archaic, preserving older features lost elsewhere in a language. Also, evidence shows that they are not easily borrowed into languages (although they can be). For these reasons, it is useful to consider nominal classification systems as a tool for exploring ancient historical relationships between languages. This paper finds little evidence of relationship between the nominal classification systems of the East Papuan languages as a whole. It argues that the mere existence of nominal classification systems cannot be used as evidence that the East Papuan languages form a genetic family. The simplest hypothesis is that either the systems were inherited so long ago as to obscure the genetic evidence, or else the appearance of nominal classification systems in these languages arose through borrowing of grammatical systems rather than of morphological forms.

Abstract

This paper explores the issue of documenting an endangered language from the perspective of a community with low levels of literacy, I first discuss the background of the language community with whom I work, the Lavukal people of Solomon Islands, and discuss whether, and to what extent, Lavukaleve is an endangered language. I then go on to discuss the documentation project. My main point is that while low literacy levels and a nonreading culture would seem to make documentation a strange choice as a tool for language maintenance, in fact both serve as powerful cultural symbols of the importance and prestige of Lavukaleve. It is well known that a common reason for language death is that speakers choose not to transmit their language to the next generation (e.g. Winter 1993). Lavukaleve is particularly vulnerable in this respect. By utilizing cultural symbols of status and prestige, the standing of Lavukaleve can be enhanced, thus helping to ensure the transmission of Lavukaleve to future generations.

Abstract

This study investigated different accounts of early argument structure acquisition and verb paradigm building through the detailed examination of the acquisition of the verb Go. Data from 11 children followed longitudinally between the ages of 2;0 and 3;0 were examined. Children's uses of the different forms of Go were compared with respect to syntactic structure and the semantics encoded. The data are compatible with the suggestion that the children were not operating with a single verb representation that differentiated between different forms of Go but rather that their knowledge of the relationship between the different forms of Go varied depending on the structure produced and the meaning encoded. However, a good predictor of the children's use of different forms of Go in particular structures and to express particular meanings was the frequency of use of those structures and meanings with particular forms of Go in the input. The implications of these findings for theories of syntactic category formation and abstract rule-based descriptions of grammar are discussed.

Abstract

Sentence comprehension is highly practiced and largely automatic, but this belies the complexity of the underlying processes. We used functional neuroimaging to investigate garden-path sentences that cause difficulty during comprehension, in order to unpack the different processes used to support sentence interpretation. By investigating garden-path and other types of sentences within the same individuals, we functionally profiled different regions within the temporal and frontal cortices in the left hemisphere. The results revealed that different aspects of comprehension difficulty are handled by left posterior temporal, left anterior temporal, ventral left frontal, and dorsal left frontal cortices. The functional profiles of these regions likely lie along a spectrum of specificity to generality, including language-specific processing of linguistic representations, more general conflict resolution processes operating over linguistic representations, and processes for handling difficulty in general. These findings suggest that difficulty is not unitary and that there is a role for a variety of linguistic and non-linguistic processes in supporting comprehension.

Abstract

Bilinguals possess the ability of expressing themselves in more than one language, and typically do so in contextually rich and dynamic settings. Theories and models have indeed long considered context factors to affect bilingual language production in many ways. However, most experimental studies in this domain have failed to fully incorporate linguistic, social, or physical context aspects, let alone combine them in the same study. Indeed, most experimental psycholinguistic research has taken place in isolated and constrained lab settings with carefully selected words or sentences, rather than under rich and naturalistic conditions. We argue that the most influential experimental paradigms in the psycholinguistic study of bilingual language production fall short of capturing the effects of context on language processing and control presupposed by prominent models. This paper therefore aims to enrich the methodological basis for investigating context aspects in current experimental paradigms and thereby move the field of bilingual language production research forward theoretically. After considering extensions of existing paradigms proposed to address context effects, we present three far-ranging innovative proposals, focusing on virtual reality, dialog situations, and multimodality in the context of bilingual language production.

Abstract

Human language is extremely versatile, combining a limited set of signals in an unlimited number of ways. However, it is unknown whether conversational visual signals feed into the composite utterances with which speakers communicate their intentions. We assessed whether different combinations of visual signals lead to different intent interpretations of the same spoken utterance. Participants viewed a virtual avatar uttering spoken questions while producing single visual signals (i.e., head turn, head tilt, eyebrow raise) or combinations of these signals. After each video, participants classified the communicative intention behind the question. We found that composite utterances combining several visual signals conveyed different meaning compared to utterances accompanied by the single visual signals. However, responses to combinations of signals were more similar to the responses to related, rather than unrelated, individual signals, indicating a consistent influence of the individual visual signals on the whole. This study therefore provides first evidence for compositional, non-additive (i.e., Gestalt-like) perception of multimodal language.

Abstract

The natural ecology of language is conversation, with individuals taking turns speaking to communicate in a back-and-forth fashion. Language in this context involves strings of words that a listener must process while simultaneously planning their own next utterance. It would thus be highly advantageous if language users distributed information within an utterance in a way that may facilitate this processing–planning dynamic. While some studies have investigated how information is distributed at the level of single words or clauses, or in written language, little is known about how information is distributed within spoken utterances produced during naturalistic conversation. It also is not known how information distribution patterns of spoken utterances may differ across languages. We used a set of matched corpora (CallHome) containing 898 telephone conversations conducted in six different languages (Arabic, English, German, Japanese, Mandarin, and Spanish), analyzing more than 58,000 utterances, to assess whether there is evidence of distinct patterns of information distributions at the utterance level, and whether these patterns are similar or differed across the languages. We found that English, Spanish, and Mandarin typically show a back-loaded distribution, with higher information (i.e., surprisal) in the last half of utterances compared with the first half, while Arabic, German, and Japanese showed front-loaded distributions, with higher information in the first half compared with the last half. Additional analyses suggest that these patterns may be related to word order and rate of noun and verb usage. We additionally found that back-loaded languages have longer turn transition times (i.e.,time between speaker turns)

Abstract

Although language depends on storage and composition, just what is stored or (de)composed remains unclear. We leveraged working memory load limitations to test for composition, hypothesizing that decomposed forms should particularly tax working memory. We focused on a well-studied paradigm, English inflectional morphology. We predicted that (compositional) regulars should be harder to maintain in working memory than (non-compositional) irregulars, using a 3-back production task. Frequency, phonology, orthography, and other potentially confounding factors were controlled for. Compared to irregulars, regulars and their accompanying −s/−ing-affixed filler items yielded more errors. Underscoring the decomposition of only regulars, regulars yielded more bare-stem (e.g., walk) and stem affixation errors (walks/walking) than irregulars, whereas irregulars yielded more past-tense-form affixation errors (broughts/tolded). In line with previous evidence that regulars can be stored under certain conditions, the regular-irregular difference held specifically for phonologically consistent (not inconsistent) regulars, in particular for both low and high frequency consistent regulars in males, but only for low frequency consistent regulars in females. Sensitivity analyses suggested the findings were robust. The study further elucidates the computation of inflected forms, and introduces a simple diagnostic for linguistic composition.

Abstract

The human brain deals with the infinite variability of speech through multiple mechanisms. Some of them rely solely on information in the speech input (i.e., signal-driven) whereas some rely on linguistic or real-world knowledge (i.e., knowledge-driven). Many signal-driven perceptual processes rely on the enhancement of acoustic differences between incoming speech sounds, producing contrastive adjustments. For instance, when an ambiguous voiceless fricative is preceded by a high fundamental frequency (f0) sentence, the fricative is perceived as having lower a spectral center of gravity (CoG). However, it is not clear whether knowledge of a talker’s typical f0 can lead to similar contrastive effects. This study investigated a possible talker f0 effect on fricative CoG perception. In the exposure phase, two groups of participants (N=16 each) heard the same talker at high or low f0 for 20 minutes. Later, in the test phase, participants rated fixed-f0 /?ɔk/ tokens as being /sɔk/ (i.e., high CoG) or /ʃɔk/ (i.e., low CoG), where /?/ represents a fricative from a 5-step /s/-/ʃ/ continuum. Surprisingly, the data revealed the opposite of our contrastive hypothesis, whereby hearing high f0 instead biased perception towards high CoG. Thus, we demonstrated that talker f0 information affects fricative CoG perception.

Abstract

An introductory study of the perception of stochastically specified events is reported. The initial problem was to determine whether the perceiver can split visual input data of this kind into random and determined components. The inability of subjects to do so with the stimulus material used (a filmlike sequence of dot patterns), led to the more general question of how subjects code this kind of visual material. To meet the difficulty of defining the subjects' responses, two experiments were designed. In both, patterns were presented as a rapid sequence of dots on a screen. The patterns were more or less disturbed by “noise,” i.e. the dots did not appear exactly at their proper places. In the first experiment the response was a rating on a semantic scale, in the second an identification from among a set of alternative patterns. The results of these experiments give some insight in the coding systems adopted by the subjects. First, noise appears to be detrimental to pattern recognition, especially to patterns with little spread. Second, this shows connections with the factors obtained from analysis of the semantic ratings, e.g. easily disturbed patterns show a large drop in the semantic regularity factor, when only a little noise is added.

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of whether noun incorporation is a syntactically base-generated or a syntactically derived construction. Focusing on so-called 'raised possessors' in West Greenlandic noun incorporating constructions and presenting some new data, I discuss some problems that arise if we use the derivational framework of Bittner and Hale (1996) to analyze them. I show that if we make the predication relations in noun incorporating constructions overt in their syntax and if we adopt a dynamic approach to semantics, a base-generated syntactic input enriched with a coindexation system is all that we need to arrive at an adequate semantic interpretation of these constructions.

Abstract

As a preliminary to further research on musical consonance an explanatory investigation was made on the different modes of judgment of musical intervals. This was done by way of a semantic differential. Subjects rated 23 intervals against 10 scales. In a factor analysis three factors appeared: pitch, evaluation and fusion. The relation between these factors and some physical characteristics has been investigated. The scale consonant-dissonant showed to be purely evaluative (in opposition to Stumpf's theory). This evaluative connotation is not in accordance with the musicological meaning of consonance. Suggestions to account for this difference have been given.

Abstract

Do aesthetic preferences for images of neatly organized compositions (e.g., images collected on blogs like Things Organized Neatly©) generalize across cultures? In an earlier study, focusing on stimulus and personal properties related to order and complexity, Western participants indicated their preference for one of two simultaneously presented images (100 pairs). In the current study, we compared the data of the native Dutch-speaking participants from this earlier sample (N = 356) to newly collected data from a native Chinese-speaking sample (N = 220). Overall, aesthetic preferences were quite similar across cultures. When relating preferences for each sample to ratings of order, complexity, soothingness, and fascination collected from a Western, mainly Dutch-speaking sample, the results hint at a cross-culturally consistent preference for images that Western participants rate as more ordered, but a cross-culturally diverse relation between preferences and complexity.

Abstract

thebeat is a Python package for working with temporal sequences and rhythms in the behavioral and cognitive sciences, as well as in bioacoustics. It provides functionality for creating experimental stimuli, and for visualizing and analyzing temporal data. Sequences, sounds, and experimental trials can be generated using single lines of code. thebeat contains functions for calculating common rhythmic measures, such as interval ratios, and for producing plots, such as circular histograms. thebeat saves researchers time when creating experiments, and provides the first steps in collecting widely accepted methods for use in timing research. thebeat is an open-source, on-going, and collaborative project, and can be extended for use in specialized subfields. thebeat integrates easily with the existing Python ecosystem, allowing one to combine our tested code with custom-made scripts. The package was specifically designed to be useful for both skilled and novice programmers. thebeat provides a foundation for working with temporal sequences onto which additional functionality can be built. This combination of specificity and plasticity should facilitate research in multiple research contexts and fields of study.

Abstract

Contrastive pitch accents can mark sentence elements occupying parallel roles. In “Mary kissed John, not Peter”, a pitch accent on Mary or John cues the implied syntactic role of Peter. Van der Burght, Friederici, Goucha, and Hartwigsen (2021) showed that listeners can build expectations concerning syntactic and semantic properties of upcoming words, derived from pitch accent information they heard previously. To further explore these expectations, we attempted a partial replication of the original German study in Dutch. In the experimental sentences “Yesterday, the police officer arrested the thief, not the inspector/murderer”, a pitch accent on subject or object cued the subject/object role of the ellipsis clause. Contrasting elements were additionally cued by the thematic role typicality of the nouns. Participants listened to sentences in which the ellipsis clause was omitted and selected the most plausible sentence-final noun (presented visually) via button press. Replicating the original study results, listeners based their sentence-final preference on the pitch accent information available in the sentence. However, as in the original study, individual differences between listeners were found, with some following prosodic information and others relying on a structural bias. The results complement the literature on ellipsis resolution and on interindividual variability in cue weighting.

Abstract

There is evidence from both behavior and brain activity that the way information is structured, through the use of focus, can up-regulate processing of focused constituents, likely to give prominence to the relevant aspects of the input. This is hypothesized to be universal, regardless of the different ways in which languages encode focus. In order to test this universalist hypothesis, we need to go beyond the more familiar linguistic strategies for marking focus, such as by means of intonation or specific syntactic structures (e.g., it-clefts). Therefore, in this study, we examine Makhuwa-Enahara, a Bantu language spoken in northern Mozambique, which uniquely marks focus through verbal conjugation. The participants were presented with sentences that consisted of either a semantically anomalous constituent or a semantically nonanomalous constituent. Moreover, focus on this particular constituent could be either present or absent. We observed a consistent pattern: Focused information generated a more negative N400 response than the same information in nonfocus position. This demonstrates that regardless of how focus is marked, its consequence seems to result in an upregulation of processing of information that is in focus.

Abstract

Background

The number of words children produce (expressive vocabulary) and understand (receptive vocabulary) changes rapidly during early development, partially due to genetic factors. Here, we performed a meta–genome-wide association study of vocabulary acquisition and investigated polygenic overlap with literacy, cognition, developmental phenotypes, and neurodevelopmental conditions, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Methods

We studied 37,913 parent-reported vocabulary size measures (English, Dutch, Danish) for 17,298 children of European descent. Meta-analyses were performed for early-phase expressive (infancy, 15–18 months), late-phase expressive (toddlerhood, 24–38 months), and late-phase receptive (toddlerhood, 24–38 months) vocabulary. Subsequently, we estimated single nucleotide polymorphism–based heritability (SNP-h2) and genetic correlations (rg) and modeled underlying factor structures with multivariate models.

Results

Early-life vocabulary size was modestly heritable (SNP-h2 = 0.08–0.24). Genetic overlap between infant expressive and toddler receptive vocabulary was negligible (rg = 0.07), although each measure was moderately related to toddler expressive vocabulary (rg = 0.69 and rg = 0.67, respectively), suggesting a multifactorial genetic architecture. Both infant and toddler expressive vocabulary were genetically linked to literacy (e.g., spelling: rg = 0.58 and rg = 0.79, respectively), underlining genetic similarity. However, a genetic association of early-life vocabulary with educational attainment and intelligence emerged only during toddlerhood (e.g., receptive vocabulary and intelligence: rg = 0.36). Increased ADHD risk was genetically associated with larger infant expressive vocabulary (rg = 0.23). Multivariate genetic models in the ALSPAC (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children) cohort confirmed this finding for ADHD symptoms (e.g., at age 13; rg = 0.54) but showed that the association effect reversed for toddler receptive vocabulary (rg = −0.74), highlighting developmental heterogeneity.

Conclusions

The genetic architecture of early-life vocabulary changes during development, shaping polygenic association patterns with later-life ADHD, literacy, and cognition-related traits.

Abstract

Three experiments investigated semantic and syntactic effects in the production of phrases in Dutch. Bilingual participants were presented with English nouns and were asked to produce an adjective + noun phrase in Dutch including the translation of the noun. In 2 experiments, the authors blocked items by either semantic category or grammatical gender. Participants performed the task slower when the target nouns were of the same semantic category than when they were from different categories and faster when the target nouns had the same gender than when they had different genders. In a final experiment, both manipulations were crossed. The authors replicated the results of the first 2 experiments, and no interaction was found. These findings suggest a feedforward flow of activation between lexico-semantic and lexico-syntactic information.

Abstract

Graded interference effects were tested in a naming task, in parallel for objects and actions. Participants named either object or action pictures presented in the context of other pictures (blocks) that were either semantically very similar, or somewhat semantically similar or semantically dissimilar. We found that naming latencies for both object and action words were modulated by the semantic similarity between the exemplars in each block, providing evidence in both domains of graded semantic effects.

Abstract

During early lactation, dairy cows have a negative energy balance since their energy demands exceed their energy intake: in this study, we aimed to investigate the association between diet and plasma metabolomics profiles and how these relate to energy unbalance of course in the early-lactation stage. Holstein-Friesian cows were randomly assigned to a glucogenic (n = 15) or lipogenic (n = 15) diet in early lactation. Blood was collected in week 2 and week 4 after calving. Plasma metabolite profiles were detected using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and a total of 39 metabolites were identified. Two plasma metabolomic profiles were available every week for each cow. Metabolite abundance and metabolite ratios were used for the analysis using the XGboost algorithm to discriminate between diet treatment and lactation week. Using metabolite ratios resulted in better discrimination performance compared with the metabolite abundances in assigning cows to a lipogenic diet or a glucogenic diet. The quality of the discrimination of performance of lipogenic diet and glucogenic diet effects improved from 0.606 to 0.753 and from 0.696 to 0.842 in week 2 and week 4 (as measured by area under the curve, AUC), when the metabolite abundance ratios were used instead of abundances. The top discriminating ratios for diet were the ratio of arginine to tyrosine and the ratio of aspartic acid to valine in week 2 and week 4, respectively. For cows fed the lipogenic diet, choline and the ratio of creatinine to tryptophan were top features to discriminate cows in week 2 vs. week 4. For cows fed the glucogenic diet, methionine and the ratio of 4-hydroxyproline to choline were top features to discriminate dietary effects in week 2 or week 4. This study shows the added value of using metabolite abundance ratios to discriminate between lipogenic and glucogenic diet and lactation weeks in early-lactation cows when using metabolomics data. The application of this research will help to accurately regulate the nutrition of lactating dairy cows and promote sustainable agricultural development.

Abstract

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is the primary method that can measure the levels of metabolites in the brain in vivo. To achieve its potential in clinical usage, the reliability of the measurement requires further articulation. Although there are many studies that investigate the reliability of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), comparatively few studies have investigated the reliability of other brain metabolites, such as glutamate (Glu), N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA), creatine (Cr), phosphocreatine (PCr), or myo-inositol (mI), which all play a significant role in brain development and functions. In addition, previous studies which predominately used only two measurements (two data points) failed to provide the details of the time effect (e.g., time-of-day) on MRS measurement within subjects. Therefore, in this study, MRS data located in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) were repeatedly recorded across 1 year leading to at least 25 sessions for each subject with the aim of exploring the variability of other metabolites by using the index coefficient of variability (CV); the smaller the CV, the more reliable the measurements. We found that the metabolites of NAA, tNAA, and tCr showed the smallest CVs (between 1.43% and 4.90%), and the metabolites of Glu, Glx, mI, and tCho showed modest CVs (between 4.26% and 7.89%). Furthermore, we found that the concentration reference of the ratio to water results in smaller CVs compared to the ratio to tCr. In addition, we did not find any time-of-day effect on the MRS measurements. Collectively, the results of this study indicate that the MRS measurement is reasonably reliable in quantifying the levels of metabolites.

Abstract

This paper investigates the production and perception of epenthetic stops at syllable boundaries in Dutch and compares the experimental data with lexical statistics for Dutch and English. This extends past work on epenthesis in coda position [1]. The current work is particularly informative regarding the question of phonotactic constraints’ influence on parsing of speech variability.

Abstract

This paper presents articulatory data on the production of /l/ in various environments in Dutch, and shows that the direction of movement of the tongue dorsum varies across environments. This makes it impossible to measure tongue position at the peak of the dorsal gesture. We argue for an alternative method in such cases: measurement of position of one articulator at a time point defined by the gesture of another. We present new data measured this way which confirms a previous finding on the articulation of Dutch /l/.

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that spoken-language processing is inhibited by violation of obligatory regressive assimilation. Weber (2001) replicated this inhibitory effect in a phoneme-monitoring study examining regressive place assimilation of nasals, but found facilitation for violation of progressive assimilation. German listeners detected the velar fricative [x] more quickly when fricative assimilation was violated (e.g., *[bIxt] or *[blInx@n]) than when no violation occurred (e.g., [baxt] or [blu:x@n]). It was argued that a combination of two factors caused facilitation:(1) progressive assimilation creates different restrictions for the monitoring target than regressive assimilation does, and (2) the sequences violating assimilation (e.g., *[Ix]) are novel for German listeners and therefore facilitate fricative detection (novel popout). The present study tested progressive assimilation violation in non-novel sequences using the palatal fricative [C]. Stimuli either violated fricative assimilation (e.g., *[ba:C@l ]) or did not (e.g., [bi: C@l ]). This manipulation does not create novel sequences: sequences like *[a:C] can occur across word boundaries, while *[Ix] cannot. No facilitation was found. However, violation also did not significantly inhibit processing. The results confirm that facilitation depends on the combination of progressive assimilation with novelty of the sequence.

Abstract

Rapid advances over the last decade in DNA sequencing and statistical genetics enable us to investigate the genomic makeup of individuals throughout history. In a recent notable study, Begg et al.1 used Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair strands for genome sequencing and explored genetic predispositions for some of his documented medical issues. Given that it was arguably Beethoven’s skills as a musician and composer that made him an iconic figure in Western culture, we here extend the approach and apply it to musicality. We use this as an example to illustrate the broader challenges of individual-level genetic predictions.

Abstract

Iconic words and signs are characterized by a perceived resemblance between aspects of their form and aspects of their meaning. For example, in English, iconic words include peep and crash, which mimic the sounds they denote, and wiggle and zigzag, which mimic motion. As a semiotic property of words and signs, iconicity has been demonstrated to play a role in word learning, language processing, and language evolution. This paper presents the results of a large-scale norming study for more than 14,000 English words conducted with over 1400 American English speakers. We demonstrate the utility of these ratings by replicating a number of existing findings showing that iconicity ratings are related to age of acquisition, sensory modality, semantic neighborhood density, structural markedness, and playfulness. We discuss possible use cases and limitations of the rating dataset, which is made publicly available.

Abstract

Lexica play an important role in every linguistic discipline. We are confronted with many types of lexica. Depending on the type of lexicon and the language we are currently faced with a large variety of structures from very simple tables to complex graphs, as was indicated by a recent overview of structures found in dictionaries from field linguistics and language engineering. It is important to assess these differences and aim at the integration of lexical resources in order to improve lexicon creation, exchange and reuse. This paper describes the first step towards the integration of existing structures and standards into a flexible abstract model.

Abstract

The increasing quantity and complexity of language resources leads to new management problems for those that collect and those that need to preserve them. At the same time the desire to make these resources available on the Internet demands an efficient way characterizing their properties to allow discovery and re-use. The use of metadata is seen as a solution for both these problems. However, the question is what specific requirements there are for the specific domain and if these are met by existing frameworks. Any possible solution should be evaluated with respect to its merit for solving the domain specific problems but also with respect to its future embedding in “global” metadata frameworks as part of the Semantic Web activities.

Abstract

For bilinguals, speaking in a second language (L2) compared to the native language (L1) is usually more difficult. In this study we asked whether the difficulty in L2 production reflects increased demands imposed on domain-general or core language mechanisms. We compared the brain response to speech production in L1 and L2 within two functionally-defined networks in the brain: the Multiple Demand (MD) network and the language network. We found that speech production in L2 was linked to a widespread increase of brain activity in the domain-general MD network. The language network did not show a similarly robust differences in processing speech in the two languages, however, we found increased response to L2 production in the language-specific portion of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). To further explore our results, we have looked at domain-general and language-specific response within the brain structures postulated to form a Bilingual Language Control (BLC) network. Within this network, we found a robust increase in response to L2 in the domain-general, but also in some language-specific voxels including in the left IFG. Our findings show that L2 production strongly engages domain-general mechanisms, but only affects language sensitive portions of the left IFG. These results put constraints on the current model of bilingual language control by precisely disentangling the domain-general and language-specific contributions to the difficulty in speech production in L2.

Abstract

When bilingual speakers switch back to speaking in their native language (L1) after having used their second language (L2), they often experience difficulty in retrieving words in their L1. This phenomenon is referred to as the L2 after-effect. We used the L2 after-effect as a lens to explore the neural bases of bilingual language control mechanisms. Our goal was twofold: first, to explore whether bilingual language control draws on domain-general or language-specific mechanisms; second, to investigate the precise mechanism(s) that drive the L2 after-effect. We used a precision fMRI approach based on functional localizers to measure the extent to which the brain activity that reflects the L2 after-effect overlaps with the language network (Fedorenko et al., 2010) and the domain-general multiple demand network (Duncan, 2010), as well as three task-specific networks that tap into interference resolution, lexical retrieval, and articulation. Forty-two Polish–English bilinguals participated in the study. Our results show that the L2 after-effect reflects increased engagement of domain-general but not language-specific resources. Furthermore, contrary to previously proposed interpretations, we did not find evidence that the effect reflects increased difficulty related to lexical access, articulation, and the resolution of lexical interference. We propose that difficulty of speech production in the picture naming paradigm—manifested as the L2 after-effect—reflects interference at a nonlinguistic level of task schemas or a general increase of cognitive control engagement during speech production in L1 after L2.

Abstract

The language network of the human brain has core components in the inferior frontal cortex and superior/middle temporal cortex, with left-hemisphere dominance in most people. Functional specialization and interconnectivity of these neocortical regions is likely to be reflected in their molecular and cellular profiles. Excitatory connections between cortical regions arise and innervate according to layer-specific patterns. Here we generated a new gene expression dataset from human postmortem cortical tissue samples from core language network regions, using spatial transcriptomics to discriminate gene expression across cortical layers. Integration of these data with existing single-cell expression data identified 56 genes that showed differences in laminar expression profiles between frontal and temporal language cortex together with upregulation in layer II/III and/or layer V/VI excitatory neurons. Based on data from large-scale genome-wide screening in the population, DNA variants within these 56 genes showed set-level associations with inter-individual variation in structural connectivity between left-hemisphere frontal and temporal language cortex, and with predisposition to dyslexia. The axon guidance genes SLIT1 and SLIT2 were consistently implicated. These findings identify region-specific patterns of laminar gene expression as a feature of the brain’s language network.

Abstract

Tokenization significantly influences language models (LMs)’ performance. This paper traces the evolution of tokenizers from word-level to subword-level, analyzing how they balance tokens and types to enhance model adaptability while controlling complexity. Despite subword tokenizers like Byte Pair Encoding (BPE) overcoming many word tokenizer limitations, they encounter difficulties in handling non-Latin languages and depend heavily on extensive training data and computational resources to grasp the nuances of multiword expressions (MWEs). This article argues that tokenizers, more than mere technical tools, should drawing inspiration from the cognitive science about human language processing. This study then introduces the “Principle of Least Effort” from cognitive science, that humans naturally seek to reduce cognitive effort, and discusses the benefits of this principle for tokenizer development. Based on this principle, the paper proposes that the Less-is-Better (LiB) model could be a new approach for LLM tokenizer. The LiB model can autonomously learn an integrated vocabulary consisting of subwords, words, and MWEs, which effectively reduces both the numbers of tokens and types. Comparative evaluations show that the LiB tokenizer outperforms existing word and BPE tokenizers, presenting an innovative method for tokenizer development, and hinting at the possibility of future cognitive science-based tokenizers being more efficient.

Abstract

Early word learning involves mapping individual words to their meanings and building organized semantic representations among words. Previous corpus-based studies (e.g., using text from websites, newspapers, child-directed speech corpora) demonstrated that linguistic information such as word co-occurrence alone is sufficient to build semantically organized word knowledge. The present study explored two new research directions to advance understanding of how infants acquire semantically organized word knowledge. First, infants in the real world hear words surrounded by contextual information. Going beyond inferring semantic knowledge merely from language input, we examined the role of extra-linguistic contextual information in learning semantic knowledge. Second, previous research relies on large amounts of linguistic data to demonstrate in-principle learning, which is unrealistic compared with the input children receive. Here, we showed that incorporating extra-linguistic information provides an efficient mechanism through which semantic knowledge can be acquired with a small amount of data infants perceive in everyday learning contexts, such as toy play.

Abstract

There is substantial evidence that infants prefer infant-directed speech (IDS) to adult-directed speech (ADS). The strongest evidence for this claim has come from two large-scale investigations: i) a community-augmented meta-analysis of published behavioral studies and ii) a large-scale multi-lab replication study. In this paper, we aim to improve our understanding of the IDS preference and its boundary conditions by combining and comparing these two data sources across key population and design characteristics of the underlying studies. Our analyses reveal that both the meta-analysis and multi-lab replication show moderate effect sizes (d ≈ 0.35 for each estimate) and that both of these effects persist when relevant study-level moderators are added to the models (i.e., experimental methods, infant ages, and native languages). However, while the overall effect size estimates were similar, the two sources diverged in the effects of key moderators: both infant age and experimental method predicted IDS preference in the multi-lab replication study, but showed no effect in the meta-analysis. These results demonstrate that the IDS preference generalizes across a variety of experimental conditions and sampling characteristics, while simultaneously identifying key differences in the empirical picture offered by each source individually and pinpointing areas where substantial uncertainty remains about the influence of theoretically central moderators on IDS preference. Overall, our results show how meta-analyses and multi-lab replications can be used in tandem to understand the robustness and generalizability of developmental phenomena.

Abstract

This present study identified an optimal model representing the relationship between orthography and phonology in Chinese handwritten production using dynamic causal modeling, and further explored how this model was modulated by word frequency and syllable frequency. Each model contained five volumes of interest in the left hemisphere (angular gyrus [AG], inferior frontal gyrus [IFG], middle frontal gyrus [MFG], superior frontal gyrus [SFG], and supramarginal gyrus [SMG]), with the IFG as the driven input area. Results showed the superiority of a model in which both the MFG and the AG connected with the IFG, supporting the orthography autonomy hypothesis. Word frequency modulated the AG → SFG connection (information flow from the orthographic lexicon to the orthographic buffer), and syllable frequency affected the IFG → MFG connection (information transmission from the semantic system to the phonological lexicon). This study thus provides new insights into the connectivity architecture of neural substrates involved in writing.

Abstract

Electrophysiological brain activity has been shown to synchronize with the quasi-regular repetition of grammatical phrases in connected speech—so-called phrase-rate neural tracking. Current debate centers around whether this phenomenon is best explained in terms of the syntactic properties of phrases or in terms of syntax-external information, such as the sequential repetition of parts of speech. As these two factors were confounded in previous studies, much of the literature is compatible with both accounts. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to determine if and when the brain is sensitive to both types of information. Twenty native speakers of Mandarin Chinese listened to isochronously presented streams of monosyllabic words, which contained either grammatical two-word phrases (e.g., catch fish, sell house) or non-grammatical word combinations (e.g., full lend, bread far). Within the grammatical conditions, we varied two structural factors: the position of the head of each phrase and the type of attachment. Within the non-grammatical conditions, we varied the consistency with which parts of speech were repeated. Tracking was quantified through evoked power and inter-trial phase coherence, both derived from the frequency-domain representation of EEG responses. As expected, neural tracking at the phrase rate was stronger in grammatical sequences than in non-grammatical sequences without syntactic structure. Moreover, it was modulated by both attachment type and head position, revealing the structure-sensitivity of phrase-rate tracking. We additionally found that the brain tracks the repetition of parts of speech in non-grammatical sequences. These data provide an integrative perspective on the current debate about neural tracking effects, revealing that the brain utilizes regularities computed over multiple levels of linguistic representation in guiding rhythmic computation.

Abstract

Statistical learning (SL) is postulated to play an important role in the process of language acquisition as well as in other cognitive functions. It was found to enable learning of various types of statistical patterns across different sensory modalities. However, few studies have distinguished distributional SL (DSL) from sequential and spatial SL, or examined DSL across modalities using comparable tasks. Considering the relevance of such findings to the nature of SL, the current study investigated the modality- and stimulus-specificity of DSL. Using a within-subject design we compared DSL performance in auditory and visual modalities. For each sensory modality, two stimulus types were used: linguistic versus non-linguistic auditory stimuli and temporal versus spatial visual stimuli. In each condition, participants were exposed to stimuli that varied in their length as they were drawn from two categories (short versus long). DSL was assessed using a categorization task and a production task. Results showed that learners’ performance was only correlated for tasks in the same sensory modality. Moreover, participants were better at categorizing the temporal signals in the auditory conditions than in the visual condition, where in turn an advantage of the spatial condition was observed. In the production task participants exaggerated signal length more for linguistic signals than non-linguistic signals. Together, these findings suggest that DSL is modality- and stimulus-sensitive.

Abstract

Prosodic prominence can enhance memory for the prominent words. This mnemonic benefit has been linked to listeners’ allocation of attention and deeper processing, which leads to more robust semantic representations. We investigated whether, in addition to the well-established effect at the semantic level, there was a memory benefit for prominent words at the phonological level. To do so, participants (48 native speakers of Dutch), first performed an accent judgement task, where they had to discriminate accented from unaccented words, and accented from unaccented pseudowords. All stimuli were presented in lists. They then performed an old/new recognition task for the stimuli. Accuracy in the accent judgement task was equally high for words and pseudowords. In the recognition task, performance was, as expected, better for words than pseudowords. More importantly, there was an interaction of accent with word type, with a significant advantage for accented compared to unaccented words, but not for pseudowords. The results confirm the memory benefit for accented compared to unaccented words seen in earlier studies, and they are consistent with the view that prominence primarily affects the semantic encoding of words. There was no evidence for an additional memory benefit arising at the phonological level.

Abstract

Research into the role of brain oscillations in basic perceptual and cognitive functions has suggested that the alpha rhythm reflects functional inhibition while the beta rhythm reflects neural ensemble (re)activation. However, little is known regarding the generalization of these proposed fundamental operations to linguistic processes, such as speech comprehension and production. Here, we recorded magnetoencephalography in participants performing a novel rule-switching paradigm. Specifically, Dutch native speakers had to produce an alternative exemplar from the same category or a feature of a given target word embedded in spoken sentences (e.g., for the word “tuna”, an exemplar from the same category—“seafood”—would be “shrimp”, and a feature would be “pink”). A cue indicated the task rule—exemplar or feature—either before (pre-cue) or after (retro-cue) listening to the sentence. Alpha power during the working memory delay was lower for retro-cue compared with that for pre-cue in the left hemispheric language-related regions. Critically, alpha power negatively correlated with reaction times, suggestive of alpha facilitating task performance by regulating inhibition in regions linked to lexical retrieval. Furthermore, we observed a different spatiotemporal pattern of beta activity for exemplars versus features in the right temporoparietal regions, in line with the proposed role of beta in recruiting neural networks for the encoding of distinct categories. Overall, our study provides evidence for the generalizability of the role of alpha and beta oscillations from perceptual to more “complex, linguistic processes” and offers a novel task to investigate links between rule-switching, working memory, and word production.

Abstract

In Swedish, words are associated with either of two pitch contours known as Accent 1 and Accent 2. Using a psychometric test, we investigated how listeners judge pitch accent violations while interpreting discourse. Forty native speakers of Central Swedish were presented with auditory dialogues, where test words were appropriately or inappropriately accented in a given context, and asked to judge the correctness of sentences containing the test words. Data indicated a statistically significant effect of wrong accent pattern on the correctness judgment. Both Accent 1 and Accent 2 violations interfered with the coherent interpretation of discourse and were judged as incorrect by the listeners. Moreover, there was a statistically significant difference in the perceived correctness between the accent patterns. Accent 2 violations led to a lower correctness score compared to Accent 1 violations, indicating that the listeners were more sensitive to pitch accent violations in Accent 2 words than in Accent 1 words. This result is in line with the notion that Accent 2 is marked and lexically represented in Central Swedish. Taken together, these findings indicate that listeners use both Accent 1 and Accent 2 to arrive at the correct interpretation of the linguistic input, while assigning varying degrees of relevance to them depending on their markedness.