Publications

Displaying 301 - 400 of 405
  • Rommers, J., Meyer, A. S., & Huettig, F. (2013). Object shape and orientation do not routinely influence performance during language processing. Psychological Science, 24, 2218-2225. doi:10.1177/0956797613490746.

    Abstract

    The role of visual representations during language processing remains unclear: They could be activated as a necessary part of the comprehension process, or they could be less crucial and influence performance in a task-dependent manner. In the present experiments, participants read sentences about an object. The sentences implied that the object had a specific shape or orientation. They then either named a picture of that object (Experiments 1 and 3) or decided whether the object had been mentioned in the sentence (Experiment 2). Orientation information did not reliably influence performance in any of the experiments. Shape representations influenced performance most strongly when participants were asked to compare a sentence with a picture or when they were explicitly asked to use mental imagery while reading the sentences. Thus, in contrast to previous claims, implied visual information often does not contribute substantially to the comprehension process during normal reading.

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    DS_10.1177_0956797613490746.pdf
  • Rommers, J., Meyer, A. S., Praamstra, P., & Huettig, F. (2013). The contents of predictions in sentence comprehension: Activation of the shape of objects before they are referred to. Neuropsychologia, 51(3), 437-447. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.12.002.

    Abstract

    When comprehending concrete words, listeners and readers can activate specific visual information such as the shape of the words’ referents. In two experiments we examined whether such information can be activated in an anticipatory fashion. In Experiment 1, listeners’ eye movements were tracked while they were listening to sentences that were predictive of a specific critical word (e.g., “moon” in “In 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon”). 500 ms before the acoustic onset of the critical word, participants were shown four-object displays featuring three unrelated distractor objects and a critical object, which was either the target object (e.g., moon), an object with a similar shape (e.g., tomato), or an unrelated control object (e.g., rice). In a time window before shape information from the spoken target word could be retrieved, participants already tended to fixate both the target and the shape competitors more often than they fixated the control objects, indicating that they had anticipatorily activated the shape of the upcoming word's referent. This was confirmed in Experiment 2, which was an ERP experiment without picture displays. Participants listened to the same lead-in sentences as in Experiment 1. The sentence-final words corresponded to the predictable target, the shape competitor, or the unrelated control object (yielding, for instance, “In 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon/tomato/rice”). N400 amplitude in response to the final words was significantly attenuated in the shape-related compared to the unrelated condition. Taken together, these results suggest that listeners can activate perceptual attributes of objects before they are referred to in an utterance.
  • Rommers, J., Dijkstra, T., & Bastiaansen, M. C. M. (2013). Context-dependent semantic processing in the human brain: Evidence from idiom comprehension. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 25(5), 762-776. doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00337.

    Abstract

    Language comprehension involves activating word meanings and integrating them with the sentence context. This study examined whether these routines are carried out even when they are theoretically unnecessary, namely in the case of opaque idiomatic expressions, for which the literal word meanings are unrelated to the overall meaning of the expression. Predictable words in sentences were replaced by a semantically related or unrelated word. In literal sentences, this yielded previously established behavioral and electrophysiological signatures of semantic processing: semantic facilitation in lexical decision, a reduced N400 for semantically related relative to unrelated words, and a power increase in the gamma frequency band that was disrupted by semantic violations. However, the same manipulations in idioms yielded none of these effects. Instead, semantic violations elicited a late positivity in idioms. Moreover, gamma band power was lower in correct idioms than in correct literal sentences. It is argued that the brain's semantic expectancy and literal word meaning integration operations can, to some extent, be “switched off” when the context renders them unnecessary. Furthermore, the results lend support to models of idiom comprehension that involve unitary idiom representations.
  • Rossano, F., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2013). One-year-old infants follow others’ voice direction. Psychological Science, 23, 1298-1302. doi:10.1177/0956797612450032.

    Abstract

    We investigated 1-year-old infants’ ability to infer an adult’s focus of attention solely on the basis of her voice direction. In Studies 1 and 2, 12- and 16-month-olds watched an adult go behind a barrier and then heard her verbally express excitement about a toy hidden in one of two boxes at either end of the barrier. Even though they could not see the adult, infants of both ages followed her voice direction to the box containing the toy. Study 2 showed that infants could do this even when the adult was positioned closer to the incorrect box while she vocalized toward the correct one (and thus ruled out the possibility that infants were merely approaching the source of the sound). In Study 3, using the same methods as in Study 2, we found that chimpanzees performed the task at chance level. Our results show that infants can determine the focus of another person’s attention through auditory information alone—a useful skill for establishing joint attention.

    Additional information

    Rossano_Suppl_Mat.pdf
  • Rubio-Fernández, P. (2013). Associative and inferential processes in pragmatic enrichment: The case of emergent properties. Language and Cognitive Processes, 28(6), 723-745. doi:10.1080/01690965.2012.659264.

    Abstract

    Experimental research on word processing has generally focused on properties that are associated to a concept in long-term memory (e.g., basketball—round). The present study addresses a related issue: the accessibility of “emergent properties” or conceptual properties that have to be inferred in a given context (e.g., basketball—floats). This investigation sheds light on a current debate in cognitive pragmatics about the number of pragmatic systems that are there (Carston, 2002a, 2007; Recanati, 2004, 2007). Two experiments using a self-paced reading task suggest that inferential processes are fully integrated in the processing system. Emergent properties are accessed early on in processing, without delaying later discourse integration processes. I conclude that the theoretical distinction between explicit and implicit meaning is not paralleled by that between associative and inferential processes.
  • Rubio-Fernández, P. (2013). Perspective tracking in progress: Do not disturb. Cognition, 129(2), 264-272. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2013.07.005.

    Abstract

    Two experiments tested the hypothesis that indirect false-belief tests allow participants to track a protagonist’s perspective uninterruptedly, whereas direct false-belief tests disrupt the process of perspective tracking in various ways. For this purpose, adults’ performance was compared on indirect and direct false-belief tests by means of continuous eye-tracking. Experiment 1 confirmed that the false-belief question used in direct tests disrupts perspective tracking relative to what is observed in an indirect test. Experiment 2 confirmed that perspective tracking is a continuous process that can be easily disrupted in adults by a subtle visual manipulation in both indirect and direct tests. These results call for a closer analysis of the demands of the false-belief tasks that have been used in developmental research.
  • Rubio-Fernández, P., & Geurts, B. (2013). How to pass the false-belief task before your fourth birthday. Psychological Science, 24(1), 27-33. doi:10.1177/0956797612447819.

    Abstract

    The experimental record of the last three decades shows that children under 4 years old fail all sorts of variations on the standard false-belief task, whereas more recent studies have revealed that infants are able to pass nonverbal versions of the task. We argue that these paradoxical results are an artifact of the type of false-belief tasks that have been used to test infants and children: Nonverbal designs allow infants to keep track of a protagonist’s perspective over a course of events, whereas verbal designs tend to disrupt the perspective-tracking process in various ways, which makes it too hard for younger children to demonstrate their capacity for perspective tracking. We report three experiments that confirm this hypothesis by showing that 3-year-olds can pass a suitably streamlined version of the verbal false-belief task. We conclude that young children can pass the verbal false-belief task provided that they are allowed to keep track of the protagonist’s perspective without too much disruption.
  • Sadakata, M., & McQueen, J. M. (2013). High stimulus variability in nonnative speech learning supports formation of abstract categories: Evidence from Japanese geminates. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 134(2), 1324-1335. doi:10.1121/1.4812767.

    Abstract

    This study reports effects of a high-variability training procedure on nonnative learning of a Japanese geminate-singleton fricative contrast. Thirty native speakers of Dutch took part in a 5-day training procedure in which they identified geminate and singleton variants of the Japanese fricative /s/. Participants were trained with either many repetitions of a limited set of words recorded by a single speaker (low-variability training) or with fewer repetitions of a more variable set of words recorded by multiple speakers (high-variability training). Both types of training enhanced identification of speech but not of nonspeech materials, indicating that learning was domain specific. High-variability training led to superior performance in identification but not in discrimination tests, and supported better generalization of learning as shown by transfer from the trained fricatives to the identification of untrained stops and affricates. Variability thus helps nonnative listeners to form abstract categories rather than to enhance early acoustic analysis.
  • Sakkalou, E., Ellis-Davies, K., Fowler, N., Hilbrink, E., & Gattis, M. (2013). Infants show stability of goal-directed imitation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 114, 1-9. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2012.09.005.

    Abstract

    Previous studies have reported that infants selectively reproduce observed actions and have argued that this selectivity reflects understanding of intentions and goals, or goal-directed imitation. We reasoned that if selective imitation of goal-directed actions reflects understanding of intentions, infants should demonstrate stability across perceptually and causally dissimilar imitation tasks. To this end, we employed a longitudinal within-participants design to compare the performance of 37 infants on two imitation tasks, with one administered at 13 months and one administered at 14 months. Infants who selectively imitated goal-directed actions in an object-cued task at 13 months also selectively imitated goal-directed actions in a vocal-cued task at 14 months. We conclude that goal-directed imitation reflects a general ability to interpret behavior in terms of mental states.
  • Salomo, D., & Liszkowski, U. (2013). Sociocultural settings influence the emergence of prelinguistic deictic gestures. Child development, 84(4), 1296-1307. doi:10.1111/cdev.12026.

    Abstract

    Daily activities of forty-eight 8- to 15-month-olds and their interlocutors were observed to test for the presence and frequency of triadic joint actions and deictic gestures across three different cultures: Yucatec-Mayans (Mexico), Dutch (Netherlands), and Shanghai-Chinese (China). The amount of joint action and deictic gestures to which infants were exposed differed systematically across settings, allowing testing for the role of social–interactional input in the ontogeny of prelinguistic gestures. Infants gestured more and at an earlier age depending on the amount of joint action and gestures infants were exposed to, revealing early prelinguistic sociocultural differences. The study shows that the emergence of basic prelinguistic gestures is socially mediated, suggesting that others' actions structure the ontogeny of human communication from early on.
  • Sampaio, C., & Konopka, A. E. (2013). Memory for non-native language: The role of lexical processing in the retention of surface form. Memory, 21, 537-544. doi:10.1080/09658211.2012.746371.

    Abstract

    Research on memory for native language (L1) has consistently shown that retention of surface form is inferior to that of gist (e.g., Sachs, 1967). This paper investigates whether the same pattern is found in memory for non-native language (L2). We apply a model of bilingual word processing to more complex linguistic structures and predict that memory for L2 sentences ought to contain more surface information than L1 sentences. Native and non-native speakers of English were tested on a set of sentence pairs with different surface forms but the same meaning (e.g., “The bullet hit/struck the bull's eye”). Memory for these sentences was assessed with a cued recall procedure. Responses showed that native and non-native speakers did not differ in the accuracy of gist-based recall but that non-native speakers outperformed native speakers in the retention of surface form. The results suggest that L2 processing involves more intensive encoding of lexical level information than L1 processing.

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  • Sauter, D. A., & Eisner, F. (2013). Commonalities outweigh differences in the communication of emotions across human cultures [Letter]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110, E180. doi:10.1073/pnas.1209522110.
  • Schapper, A., & Hammarström, H. (2013). Innovative numerals in Malayo-Polynesian languages outside of Oceania. Oceanic Linguistics, 52, 423-455.
  • Scharenborg, O., & Janse, E. (2013). Comparing lexically guided perceptual learning in younger and older listeners. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 75, 525-536. doi:10.3758/s13414-013-0422-4.

    Abstract

    Numerous studies have shown that younger adults engage in lexically guided perceptual learning in speech perception. Here, we investigated whether older listeners are also able to retune their phonetic category boundaries. More specifically, in this research we tried to answer two questions. First, do older adults show perceptual-learning effects of similar size to those of younger adults? Second, do differences in lexical behavior predict the strength of the perceptual-learning effect? An age group comparison revealed that older listeners do engage in lexically guided perceptual learning, but there were two age-related differences: Younger listeners had a stronger learning effect right after exposure than did older listeners, but the effect was more stable for older than for younger listeners. Moreover, a clear link was shown to exist between individuals’ lexical-decision performance during exposure and the magnitude of their perceptual-learning effects. A subsequent analysis on the results of the older participants revealed that, even within the older participant group, with increasing age the perceptual retuning effect became smaller but also more stable, mirroring the age group comparison results. These results could not be explained by differences in hearing loss. The age effect may be accounted for by decreased flexibility in the adjustment of phoneme categories or by age-related changes in the dynamics of spoken-word recognition, with older adults being more affected by competition from similar-sounding lexical competitors, resulting in less lexical guidance for perceptual retuning. In conclusion, our results clearly show that the speech perception system remains flexible over the life span.
  • Schepens, J., Dijkstra, T., Grootjen, F., & Van Heuven, W. J. (2013). Cross-language distributions of high frequency and phonetically similar cognates. PLoS One, 8(5): e63006. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063006.

    Abstract

    The coinciding form and meaning similarity of cognates, e.g. ‘flamme’ (French), ‘Flamme’ (German), ‘vlam’ (Dutch), meaning ‘flame’ in English, facilitates learning of additional languages. The cross-language frequency and similarity distributions of cognates vary according to evolutionary change and language contact. We compare frequency and orthographic (O), phonetic (P), and semantic similarity of cognates, automatically identified in semi-complete lexicons of six widely spoken languages. Comparisons of P and O similarity reveal inconsistent mappings in language pairs with deep orthographies. The frequency distributions show that cognate frequency is reduced in less closely related language pairs as compared to more closely related languages (e.g., French-English vs. German-English). These frequency and similarity patterns may support a better understanding of cognate processing in natural and experimental settings. The automatically identified cognates are available in the supplementary materials, including the frequency and similarity measurements.
  • Schiller, N. O. (1998). The effect of visually masked syllable primes on the naming latencies of words and pictures. Journal of Memory and Language, 39, 484-507. doi:10.1006/jmla.1998.2577.

    Abstract

    To investigate the role of the syllable in Dutch speech production, five experiments were carried out to examine the effect of visually masked syllable primes on the naming latencies for written words and pictures. Targets had clear syllable boundaries and began with a CV syllable (e.g., ka.no) or a CVC syllable (e.g., kak.tus), or had ambiguous syllable boundaries and began with a CV[C] syllable (e.g., ka[pp]er). In the syllable match condition, bisyllabic Dutch nouns or verbs were preceded by primes that were identical to the target’s first syllable. In the syllable mismatch condition, the prime was either shorter or longer than the target’s first syllable. A neutral condition was also included. None of the experiments showed a syllable priming effect. Instead, all related primes facilitated the naming of the targets. It is concluded that the syllable does not play a role in the process of phonological encoding in Dutch. Because the amount of facilitation increased with increasing overlap between prime and target, the priming effect is accounted for by a segmental overlap hypothesis.
  • De Schryver, J., Neijt, A., Ghesquière, P., & Ernestus, M. (2013). Zij surfde, maar hij durfte niet: De spellingproblematiek van de zwakke verleden tijd in Nederland en Vlaanderen. Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2(2), 133-151. doi:10.1075/dujal.2.2.01de.

    Abstract

    Hoewel de spelling van Nederlandse verledentijdsvormen van zwakke werkwoorden algemeen als eenvoudig wordt beschouwd (ze zijn immers klankzuiver) maken zelfs universiteitsstudenten opvallend veel fouten bij de keuze tussen de uitgangen -te en -de. Voor een deel zijn die fouten ‘natuurlijk’ in die zin dat ze het gevolg zijn van de werking van frequentie en analogie. Anderzijds stellen we vast dat Nederlanders veel meer fouten maken dan Vlamingen, althans als de stam op een coronale fricatief eindigt (s, z, f, v). Aangezien de Nederlandse proefpersonen de ‘regel’ (het ezelsbruggetje ’t kofschip) beter lijken te beheersen dan de Vlamingen, moet de verklaring voor het verschil gezocht worden in een klankverandering die zich wel in Nederland maar niet of nauwelijks in Vlaanderen voordoet, de verstemlozing van de fricatieven. Het spellingprobleem vraagt om didactische maatregelen en/of politieke: het kan wellicht grotendeels worden opgelost door de spellingregels een weinig aan te passen.
  • Scott, D. R., & Cutler, A. (1984). Segmental phonology and the perception of syntactic structure. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 23, 450-466. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science//journal/00225371.

    Abstract

    Recent research in speech production has shown that syntactic structure is reflected in segmental phonology--the application of certain phonological rules of English (e.g., palatalization and alveolar flapping) is inhibited across phrase boundaries. We examined whether such segmental effects can be used in speech perception as cues to syntactic structure, and the relation between the use of these segmental features as syntactic markers in production and perception. Speakers of American English (a dialect in which the above segmental effects occur) could indeed use the segmental cues in syntax perception; speakers of British English (in which the effects do not occur) were unable to make use of them, while speakers of British English who were long-term residents of the United States showed intermediate performance.
  • Segaert, K., Kempen, G., Petersson, K. M., & Hagoort, P. (2013). Syntactic priming and the lexical boost effect during sentence production and sentence comprehension: An fMRI study. Brain and Language, 124, 174-183. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2012.12.003.

    Abstract

    Behavioral syntactic priming effects during sentence comprehension are typically observed only if both the syntactic structure and lexical head are repeated. In contrast, during production syntactic priming occurs with structure repetition alone, but the effect is boosted by repetition of the lexical head. We used fMRI to investigate the neuronal correlates of syntactic priming and lexical boost effects during sentence production and comprehension. The critical measure was the magnitude of fMRI adaptation to repetition of sentences in active or passive voice, with or without verb repetition. In conditions with repeated verbs, we observed adaptation to structure repetition in the left IFG and MTG, for active and passive voice. However, in the absence of repeated verbs, adaptation occurred only for passive sentences. None of the fMRI adaptation effects yielded differential effects for production versus comprehension, suggesting that sentence comprehension and production are subserved by the same neuronal infrastructure for syntactic processing.

    Additional information

    Segaert_Supplementary_data_2013.docx
  • Segaert, K., Weber, K., De Lange, F., Petersson, K. M., & Hagoort, P. (2013). The suppression of repetition enhancement: A review of fMRI studies. Neuropsychologia, 51, 59-66. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.11.006.

    Abstract

    Repetition suppression in fMRI studies is generally thought to underlie behavioural facilitation effects (i.e., priming) and it is often used to identify the neuronal representations associated with a stimulus. However, this pays little heed to the large number of repetition enhancement effects observed under similar conditions. In this review, we identify several cognitive variables biasing repetition effects in the BOLD response towards enhancement instead of suppression. These variables are stimulus recognition, learning, attention, expectation and explicit memory. We also evaluate which models can account for these repetition effects and come to the conclusion that there is no one single model that is able to embrace all repetition enhancement effects. Accumulation, novel network formation as well as predictive coding models can all explain subsets of repetition enhancement effects.
  • Sekine, K., Rose, M. L., Foster, A. M., Attard, M. C., & Lanyon, L. E. (2013). Gesture production patterns in aphasic discourse: In-depth description and preliminary predictions. Aphasiology, 27(9), 1031-1049. doi:10.1080/02687038.2013.803017.

    Abstract

    Background: Gesture frequently accompanies speech in healthy speakers. For many individuals with aphasia, gestures are a target of speech-language pathology intervention, either as an alternative form of communication or as a facilitative device for language restoration. The patterns of gesture production for people with aphasia and the participant variables that predict these patterns remain unclear. Aims: We aimed to examine gesture production during conversational discourse in a large sample of individuals with aphasia. We used a detailed gesture coding system to determine patterns of gesture production associated with specific aphasia types and severities. Methods & Procedures: We analysed conversation samples from AphasiaBank, gathered from 46 people with post-stroke aphasia and 10 healthy matched controls all of whom had gestured at least once during a story re-tell task. Twelve gesture types were coded. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the patterns of gesture production. Possible significant differences in production patterns according to aphasia type and severity were examined with a series of analyses of variance (ANOVA) statistics, and multiple regression analysis was used to examine these potential predictors of gesture production patterns. Outcomes & Results: Individuals with aphasia gestured significantly more frequently than healthy controls. Aphasia type and severity impacted significantly on gesture type in specific identified patterns detailed here, especially on the production of meaning-laden gestures. Conclusions: These patterns suggest the opportunity for gestures as targets of aphasia therapy. Aphasia fluency accounted for a greater degree of data variability than aphasia severity or naming skills. More work is required to delineate predictive factors.
  • Sekine, K., & Rose, M. L. (2013). The relationship of aphasia type and gesture production in people with aphasia. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 22, 662-672. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2013/12-0030).

    Abstract

    Purpose For many individuals with aphasia, gestures form a vital component of message transfer and are the target of speech-language pathology intervention. What remains unclear are the participant variables that predict successful outcomes from gesture treatments. The authors examined the gesture production of a large number of individuals with aphasia—in a consistent discourse sampling condition and with a detailed gesture coding system—to determine patterns of gesture production associated with specific types of aphasia. Method The authors analyzed story retell samples from AphasiaBank (TalkBank, n.d.), gathered from 98 individuals with aphasia resulting from stroke and 64 typical controls. Twelve gesture types were coded. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the patterns of gesture production. Possible significant differences in production patterns according to aphasia type were examined using a series of chi-square, Fisher exact, and logistic regression statistics. Results A significantly higher proportion of individuals with aphasia gestured as compared to typical controls, and for many individuals with aphasia, this gesture was iconic and was capable of communicative load. Aphasia type impacted significantly on gesture type in specific identified patterns, detailed here. Conclusion These type-specific patterns suggest the opportunity for gestures as targets of aphasia therapy.
  • Senft, G. (1998). Body and mind in the Trobriand Islands. Ethos, 26, 73-104. doi:10.1525/eth.1998.26.1.73.

    Abstract

    This article discusses how the Trobriand Islanders speak about body and mind. It addresses the following questions: do the linguistic datafit into theories about lexical universals of body-part terminology? Can we make inferences about the Trobrianders' conceptualization of psychological and physical states on the basis of these data? If a Trobriand Islander sees these idioms as external manifestations of inner states, then can we interpret them as a kind of ethnopsychological theory about the body and its role for emotions, knowledge, thought, memory, and so on? Can these idioms be understood as representation of Trobriand ethnopsychological theory?
  • Senft, G. (1995). Crime and custom auf den Trobriand-Inseln: Der Fall Tokurasi. Anthropos, 90, 17-25.
  • Senft, G. (1994). Ein Vorschlag, wie man standardisiert Daten zum Thema 'Sprache, Kognition und Konzepte des Raumes' in verschiedenen Kulturen erheben kann. Linguistische Berichte, 154, 413-429.
  • Senft, G. (1998). [Review of the book Anthropological linguistics: An introduction by William A. Foley]. Linguistics, 36, 995-1001.
  • Senft, G. (1994). [Review of the book Language, culture and society: An introduction by Zdenek Salzmann]. Man, 29, 756-757.
  • Senft, G. (1994). Grammaticalisation of body-part terms in Kilivila. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, 25, 98-99.
  • Senft, G. (1995). Notes from the field: Ain't misbehavin'? Trobriand pragmatics and the field researcher's opportunity to put his (or her) foot in it. Oceanic Linguistics, 34, 211-226.
  • Senft, G. (1994). Spatial reference in Kilivila: The Tinkertoy Matching Games - A case study. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, 25, 55-93.
  • Senft, G. (1995). Sprache, Kognition und Konzepte des Raums in verschiedenen Kulturen. Kognitionswissenschaft, 4, 166-170.
  • Senft, G. (1994). These 'Procrustean' feelings: Some of my problems in describing Kilivila. Semaian, 11, 86-105.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1982). De spellingsproblematiek in Suriname: Een inleiding. OSO, 1(1), 71-79.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1994). [Review of the Dictionary of St. Lucian Creole, part 1: Kweyol- English', part 2: English-Kweyol compiled by Jones E. Mondesir and ed. by Lawrence D. Carrington]. Linguistics, 32(1), 157-158. doi:10.1515/ling.1991.29.4.719.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1998). [Review of the book Adverbial subordination; A typology and history of adverbial subordinators based on European languages by Bernd Kortmann]. Cognitive Linguistics, 9(3), 317-319. doi:10.1515/cogl.1998.9.3.315.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1998). [Review of the book The Dutch pendulum: Linguistics in the Netherlands 1740-1900 by Jan Noordegraaf]. Bulletin of the Henry Sweet Society, 31, 46-50.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1982). Internal variability in competence. Linguistische Berichte, 77, 1-31.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1995). Notes on the history and the syntax of Mauritian Creole. Linguistics, 33, 531-577. doi:10.1515/ling.1995.33.3.531.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1998). Obituary. Herman Christiaan Wekker 1943–1997. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 13(1), 159-162.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1984). Operator lowering. Linguistics, 22(5), 573-627. doi:10.1515/ling.1984.22.5.573.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1984). The bioprogram hypothesis: Facts and fancy. A commentary on Bickerton "The language bioprogram hypothesis". Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7(2), 208-209. doi:10.1017/S0140525X00044356.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1984). The comparative revisited. Journal of Semantics, 3(1), 109-141. doi:10.1093/jos/3.1-2.109.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1994). Soaps and serials. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 9(1), 131-149. doi:10.1075/jpcl.9.1.18seu.
  • Shao, Z., Meyer, A. S., & Roelofs, A. (2013). Selective and nonselective inhibition of competitors in picture naming. Memory & Cognition, 41(8), 1200-1211. doi:10.3758/s13421-013-0332-7.

    Abstract

    The present study examined the relation between nonselective inhibition and selective inhibition in picture naming performance. Nonselective inhibition refers to the ability to suppress any unwanted response, whereas selective inhibition refers to the ability to suppress specific competing responses. The degree of competition in picture naming was manipulated by presenting targets along with distractor words that could be semantically related (e.g., a picture of a dog combined with the word cat) or unrelated (tree) to the picture name. The mean naming response time (RT) was longer in the related than in the unrelated condition, reflecting semantic interference. Delta plot analyses showed that participants with small mean semantic interference effects employed selective inhibition more effectively than did participants with larger semantic interference effects. The participants were also tested on the stop-signal task, which taps nonselective inhibition. Their performance on this task was correlated with their mean naming RT but, importantly, not with the selective inhibition indexed by the delta plot analyses and the magnitude of the semantic interference effect. These results indicate that nonselective inhibition ability and selective inhibition of competitors in picture naming are separable to some extent.
  • Shipley, J. M., Birdsall, S., Clark, J., Crew, J., Gill, S., Linehan, M., Gnarra, J., Fisher, S. E., Craig, I. W., & Cooper, C. S. (1995). Mapping the X chromosome breakpoint in two papillary renal cell carcinoma cell lines with a t(X;1)(p11.2;q21.2) and the first report of a female case. Cytogenetic and genome research, 71(3), 280-284. doi:DOI: 10.1159/000134127.

    Abstract

    A t(X;1)(p11.2;q21.2) has been reported in cases of papillary renal cell tumors arising in males. In this study two cell lines derived from this tumor type have been used to indicate the breakpoint region on the X chromosome. Both cell lines have the translocation in addition to other rearrangements and one is derived from the first female case to be reported with the t(X;1)(p11.2;q21.2). Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has been used to position YACs belonging to contigs in the Xp11.2 region relative to the breakpoint. When considered together with detailed mapping information from the Xp11.2 region the position of the breakpoint in both cell lines was suggested as follows: Xpter-->Xp11.23-OATL1-GATA1-WAS-TFE3-SY P-t(X;1)-DXS255-CLCN5-DXS146-OATL2- Xp11.22-->Xcen. The breakpoint was determined to lie in an uncloned region between SYP and a YAC called FTDM/1 which extends 1 Mb distal to DXS255. These results are contrary to the conclusion from previous FISH studies that the breakpoint was near the OATL2 locus, but are consistent with, and considerably refine, the position that had been established by molecular analysis.
  • Sjerps, M. J., & Smiljanic, R. (2013). Compensation for vocal tract characteristics across native and non-native languages. Journal of Phonetics, 41, 145-155. doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2013.01.005.

    Abstract

    Perceptual compensation for speaker vocal tract properties was investigated in four groups of listeners: native speakers of English and native speakers of Dutch, native speakers of Spanish with low proficiency in English, and Spanish-English bilinguals. Listeners categorized targets on a [sofo] to [sufu] continuum. Targets were preceded by sentences that were manipulated to have either a high or a low F1 contour. All listeners performed the categorization task for targets that were preceded by Spanish, English and Dutch precursors. Results show that listeners from each of the four language backgrounds compensate for speaker vocal tract properties regardless of language-specific vowel inventory properties. Listeners also compensate when they listen to stimuli in another language. The results suggest that patterns of compensation are mainly determined by auditory properties of precursor sentences.
  • Sjerps, M. J. (2013). [Contribution to NextGen VOICES survey: Science communication's future]. Science, 340 (no. 6128, online supplement). Retrieved from http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6128/28/suppl/DC1.

    Abstract

    One of the important challenges for the development of science communication concerns the current problems with the under-exposure of null results. I suggest that each article published in a top scientific journal can get tagged (online) with attempts to replicate. As such, a future reader of an article will also be able to see whether replications have been attempted and how these turned out. Editors and/or reviewers decide whether a replication is of sound quality. The authors of the main article have the option to review the replication and can provide a supplementary comment with each attempt that is added. After 5 or 10 years, and provided enough attempts to replicate, the authors of the main article get the opportunity to discuss/review their original study in light of the outcomes of the replications. This approach has two important strengths: 1) The approach would provide researchers with the opportunity to show that they deliver scientifically thorough work, but sometimes just fail to replicate the result that others have reported. This can be especially valuable for the career opportunities of promising young researchers; 2) perhaps even more important, the visibility of replications provides an important incentive for researchers to publish findings only if they are sure that their effects are reliable (and thereby reduce the influence of "experimenter degrees of freedom" or even outright fraud). The proposed approach will stimulate researchers to look beyond the point of publication of their studies.
  • Sjerps, M. J., McQueen, J. M., & Mitterer, H. (2013). Evidence for precategorical extrinsic vowel normalization. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 75, 576-587. doi:10.3758/s13414-012-0408-7.

    Abstract

    Three experiments investigated whether extrinsic vowel normalization takes place largely at a categorical or a precategorical level of processing. Traditional vowel normalization effects in categorization were replicated in Experiment 1: Vowels taken from an [ɪ]-[ε] continuum were more often interpreted as /ɪ/ (which has a low first formant, F (1)) when the vowels were heard in contexts that had a raised F (1) than when the contexts had a lowered F (1). This was established with contexts that consisted of only two syllables. These short contexts were necessary for Experiment 2, a discrimination task that encouraged listeners to focus on the perceptual properties of vowels at a precategorical level. Vowel normalization was again found: Ambiguous vowels were more easily discriminated from an endpoint [ε] than from an endpoint [ɪ] in a high-F (1) context, whereas the opposite was true in a low-F (1) context. Experiment 3 measured discriminability between pairs of steps along the [ɪ]-[ε] continuum. Contextual influences were again found, but without discrimination peaks, contrary to what was predicted from the same participants' categorization behavior. Extrinsic vowel normalization therefore appears to be a process that takes place at least in part at a precategorical processing level.
  • Smith, A. C., Monaghan, P., & Huettig, F. (2013). An amodal shared resource model of language-mediated visual attention. Frontiers in Psychology, 4: 528. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00528.

    Abstract

    Language-mediated visual attention describes the interaction of two fundamental components of the human cognitive system, language and vision. Within this paper we present an amodal shared resource model of language-mediated visual attention that offers a description of the information and processes involved in this complex multimodal behavior and a potential explanation for how this ability is acquired. We demonstrate that the model is not only sufficient to account for the experimental effects of Visual World Paradigm studies but also that these effects are emergent properties of the architecture of the model itself, rather than requiring separate information processing channels or modular processing systems. The model provides an explicit description of the connection between the modality-specific input from language and vision and the distribution of eye gaze in language-mediated visual attention. The paper concludes by discussing future applications for the model, specifically its potential for investigating the factors driving observed individual differences in language-mediated eye gaze.
  • Smits, R. (1998). A model for dependencies in phonetic categorization. Proceedings of the 16th International Congress on Acoustics and the 135th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, 2005-2006.

    Abstract

    A quantitative model of human categorization behavior is proposed, which can be applied to 4-alternative forced-choice categorization data involving two binary classifications. A number of processing dependencies between the two classifications are explicitly formulated, such as the dependence of the location, orientation, and steepness of the class boundary for one classification on the outcome of the other classification. The significance of various types of dependencies can be tested statistically. Analyses of a data set from the literature shows that interesting dependencies in human speech recognition can be uncovered using the model.
  • Snijders, T. M., Milivojevic, B., & Kemner, C. (2013). Atypical excitation-inhibition balance in autism captured by the gamma response to contextual modulation. NeuroImage: Clinical, 3, 65-72. doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2013.06.015.

    Abstract

    Atypical visual perception in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is hypothesized to stem from an imbalance in excitatory and inhibitory processes in the brain. We used neuronal oscillations in the gamma frequency range (30 – 90 Hz), which emerge from a balanced interaction of excitation and inhibition in the brain, to assess contextual modulation processes in early visual perception. Electroencephalography was recorded in 12 high-functioning adults with ASD and 12 age- and IQ-matched control participants. Oscilla- tions in the gamma frequency range were analyzed in response to stimuli consisting of small line-like elements. Orientation-speci fi c contextual modulation was manipulated by parametrically increasing the amount of homogeneously oriented elements in the stimuli. The stimuli elicited a strong steady-state gamma response around the refresh-rate of 60 Hz, which was larger for controls than for participants with ASD. The amount of orientation homogeneity (contextual modulation) in fl uenced the gamma response in control subjects, while for subjects with ASD this was not the case. The atypical steady-state gamma response to contextual modulation in subjects with ASD may capture the link between an imbalance in excitatory and inhibitory neuronal processing and atypical visual processing in ASD
  • Starreveld, P. A., La Heij, W., & Verdonschot, R. G. (2013). Time course analysis of the effects of distractor frequency and categorical relatedness in picture naming: An evaluation of the response exclusion account. Language and Cognitive Processes, 28(5), 633-654. doi:10.1080/01690965.2011.608026.

    Abstract

    The response exclusion account (REA), advanced by Mahon and colleagues, localises the distractor frequency effect and the semantic interference effect in picture naming at the level of the response output buffer. We derive four predictions from the REA: (1) the size of the distractor frequency effect should be identical to the frequency effect obtained when distractor words are read aloud, (2) the distractor frequency effect should not change in size when stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) is manipulated, (3) the interference effect induced by a distractor word (as measured from a nonword control distractor) should increase in size with increasing SOA, and (4) the word frequency effect and the semantic interference effect should be additive. The results of the picture-naming task in Experiment 1 and the word-reading task in Experiment 2 refute all four predictions. We discuss a tentative account of the findings obtained within a traditional selection-by-competition model in which both context effects are localised at the level of lexical selection.
  • Stephens, S., Hartz, S., Hoft, N., Saccone, N., Corley, R., Hewitt, J., Hopfer, C., Breslau, N., Coon, H., Chen, X., Ducci, F., Dueker, N., Franceschini, N., Frank, J., Han, Y., Hansel, N., Jiang, C., Korhonen, T., Lind, P., Liu, J. and 105 moreStephens, S., Hartz, S., Hoft, N., Saccone, N., Corley, R., Hewitt, J., Hopfer, C., Breslau, N., Coon, H., Chen, X., Ducci, F., Dueker, N., Franceschini, N., Frank, J., Han, Y., Hansel, N., Jiang, C., Korhonen, T., Lind, P., Liu, J., Michel, M., Lyytikäinen, L.-P., Shaffer, J., Short, S., Sun, J., Teumer, A., Thompson, J., Vogelzangs, N., Vink, J., Wenzlaff, A., Wheeler, W., Yang, B.-Z., Aggen, S., Balmforth, A., Baumesiter, S., Beaty, T., Benjamin, D., Bergen, A., Broms, U., Cesarini, D., Chatterjee, N., Chen, J., Cheng, Y.-C., Cichon, S., Couper, D., Cucca, F., Dick, D., Foround, T., Furberg, H., Giegling, I., Gillespie, N., Gu, F.,.Hall, A., Hällfors, J., Han, S., Hartmann, A., Heikkilä, K., Hickie, I., Hottenga, J., Jousilahti, P., Kaakinen, M., Kähönen, M., Koellinger, P., Kittner, S., Konte, B., Landi, M.-T., Laatikainen, T., Leppert, M., Levy, S., Mathias, R., McNeil, D., Medlund, S., Montgomery, G., Murray, T., Nauck, M., North, K., Paré, P., Pergadia, M., Ruczinski, I., Salomaa, V., Viikari, J., Willemsen, G., Barnes, K., Boerwinkle, E., Boomsma, D., Caporaso, N., Edenberg, H., Francks, C., Gelernter, J., Grabe, H., Hops, H., Jarvelin, M.-R., Johannesson, M., Kendler, K., Lehtimäki, T., Magnusson, P., Marazita, M., Marchini, J., Mitchell, B., Nöthen, M., Penninx, B., Raitakari, O., Rietschel, M., Rujescu, D., Samani, N., Schwartz, A., Shete, S., Spitz, M., Swan, G., Völzke, H., Veijola, J., Wei, Q., Amos, C., Canon, D., Grucza, R., Hatsukami, D., Heath, A., Johnson, E., Kaprio, J., Madden, P., Martin, N., Stevens, V., Weiss, R., Kraft, P., Bierut, L., & Ehringer, M. (2013). Distinct Loci in the CHRNA5/CHRNA3/CHRNB4 Gene Cluster are Associated with Onset of Regular Smoking. Genetic Epidemiology, 37, 846-859. doi:10.1002/gepi.21760.

    Abstract

    Neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) genes (CHRNA5/CHRNA3/CHRNB4) have been reproducibly associated with nicotine dependence, smoking behaviors, and lung cancer risk. Of the few reports that have focused on early smoking behaviors, association results have been mixed. This meta-analysis examines early smoking phenotypes and SNPs in the gene cluster to determine: (1) whether the most robust association signal in this region (rs16969968) for other smoking behaviors is also associated with early behaviors, and/or (2) if additional statistically independent signals are important in early smoking. We focused on two phenotypes: age of tobacco initiation (AOI) and age of first regular tobacco use (AOS). This study included 56,034 subjects (41 groups) spanning nine countries and evaluated five SNPs including rs1948, rs16969968, rs578776, rs588765, and rs684513. Each dataset was analyzed using a centrally generated script. Meta-analyses were conducted from summary statistics. AOS yielded significant associations with SNPs rs578776 (beta = 0.02, P = 0.004), rs1948 (beta = 0.023, P = 0.018), and rs684513 (beta = 0.032, P = 0.017), indicating protective effects. There were no significant associations for the AOI phenotype. Importantly, rs16969968, the most replicated signal in this region for nicotine dependence, cigarettes per day, and cotinine levels, was not associated with AOI (P = 0.59) or AOS (P = 0.92). These results provide important insight into the complexity of smoking behavior phenotypes, and suggest that association signals in the CHRNA5/A3/B4 gene cluster affecting early smoking behaviors may be different from those affecting the mature nicotine dependence phenotype

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  • Stewart, L., Verdonschot, R. G., Nasralla, P., & Lanipekun, J. (2013). Action–perception coupling in pianists: Learned mappings or spatial musical association of response codes (SMARC) effect? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66(1), 37-50. doi:10.1080/17470218.2012.687385.

    Abstract

    The principle of common coding suggests that a joint representation is formed when actions are repeatedly paired with a specific perceptual event. Musicians are occupationally specialized with regard to the coupling between actions and their auditory effects. In the present study, we employed a novel paradigm to demonstrate automatic action–effect associations in pianists. Pianists and nonmusicians pressed keys according to aurally presented number sequences. Numbers were presented at pitches that were neutral, congruent, or incongruent with respect to pitches that would normally be produced by such actions. Response time differences were seen between congruent and incongruent sequences in pianists alone. A second experiment was conducted to determine whether these effects could be attributed to the existence of previously documented spatial/pitch compatibility effects. In a “stretched” version of the task, the pitch distance over which the numbers were presented was enlarged to a range that could not be produced by the hand span used in Experiment 1. The finding of a larger response time difference between congruent and incongruent trials in the original, standard, version compared with the stretched version, in pianists, but not in nonmusicians, indicates that the effects obtained are, at least partially, attributable to learned action effects.
  • Stivers, T. (1998). Prediagnostic commentary in veterinarian-client interaction. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 31(2), 241-277. doi:10.1207/s15327973rlsi3102_4.
  • Stolk, A., Verhagen, L., Schoffelen, J.-M., Oostenveld, R., Blokpoel, M., Hagoort, P., van Rooij, I., & Tonia, I. (2013). Neural mechanisms of communicative innovation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(36), 14574-14579. doi:10.1073/pnas.1303170110.

    Abstract

    Human referential communication is often thought as coding-decoding a set of symbols, neglecting that establishing shared meanings requires a computational mechanism powerful enough to mutually negotiate them. Sharing the meaning of a novel symbol might rely on similar conceptual inferences across communicators or on statistical similarities in their sensorimotor behaviors. Using magnetoencephalography, we assess spectral, temporal, and spatial characteristics of neural activity evoked when people generate and understand novel shared symbols during live communicative interactions. Solving those communicative problems induced comparable changes in the spectral profile of neural activity of both communicators and addressees. This shared neuronal up-regulation was spatially localized to the right temporal lobe and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and emerged already before the occurrence of a specific communicative problem. Communicative innovation relies on neuronal computations that are shared across generating and understanding novel shared symbols, operating over temporal scales independent from transient sensorimotor behavior.
  • Stolk, A., Todorovic, A., Schoffelen, J.-M., & Oostenveld, R. (2013). Online and offline tools for head movement compensation in MEG. NeuroImage, 68, 39-48. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.11.047.

    Abstract

    Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is measured above the head, which makes it sensitive to variations of the head position with respect to the sensors. Head movements blur the topography of the neuronal sources of the MEG signal, increase localization errors, and reduce statistical sensitivity. Here we describe two novel and readily applicable methods that compensate for the detrimental effects of head motion on the statistical sensitivity of MEG experiments. First, we introduce an online procedure that continuously monitors head position. Second, we describe an offline analysis method that takes into account the head position time-series. We quantify the performance of these methods in the context of three different experimental settings, involving somatosensory, visual and auditory stimuli, assessing both individual and group-level statistics. The online head localization procedure allowed for optimal repositioning of the subjects over multiple sessions, resulting in a 28% reduction of the variance in dipole position and an improvement of up to 15% in statistical sensitivity. Offline incorporation of the head position time-series into the general linear model resulted in improvements of group-level statistical sensitivity between 15% and 29%. These tools can substantially reduce the influence of head movement within and between sessions, increasing the sensitivity of many cognitive neuroscience experiments.
  • Swaab, T., Brown, C. M., & Hagoort, P. (1995). Delayed integration of lexical ambiguities in Broca's aphasics: Evidence from event-related potentials. Brain and Language, 51, 159-161. doi:10.1006/brln.1995.1058.
  • Swaab, T. Y., Brown, C. M., & Hagoort, P. (1998). Understanding ambiguous words in sentence contexts: Electrophysiological evidence for delayed contextual selection in Broca's aphasia. Neuropsychologia, 36(8), 737-761. doi:10.1016/S0028-3932(97)00174-7.

    Abstract

    This study investigates whether spoken sentence comprehension deficits in Broca's aphasics results from their inability to access the subordinate meaning of ambiguous words (e.g. bank), or alternatively, from a delay in their selection of the contextually appropriate meaning. Twelve Broca's aphasics and twelve elderly controls were presented with lexical ambiguities in three context conditions, each followed by the same target words. In the concordant condition, the sentence context biased the meaning of the sentence final ambiguous word that was related to the target. In the discordant condition, the sentence context biased the meaning of the sentence final ambiguous word that was incompatible with the target.In the unrelated condition, the sentence-final word was unambiguous and unrelated to the target. The task of the subjects was to listen attentively to the stimuli The activational status of the ambiguous sentence-final words was inferred from the amplitude of the N399 to the targets at two inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs) (100 ms and 1250 ms). At the short ISI, the Broca's aphasics showed clear evidence of activation of the subordinate meaning. In contrast to elderly controls, however, the Broca's aphasics were not successful at selecting the appropriate meaning of the ambiguity in the short ISI version of the experiment. But at the long ISI, in accordance with the performance of the elderly controls, the patients were able to successfully complete the contextual selection process. These results indicate that Broca's aphasics are delayed in the process of contextual selection. It is argued that this finding of delayed selection is compatible with the idea that comprehension deficits in Broca's aphasia result from a delay in the process of integrating lexical information.
  • Swift, M. (1998). [Book review of LOUIS-JACQUES DORAIS, La parole inuit: Langue, culture et société dans l'Arctique nord-américain]. Language in Society, 27, 273-276. doi:10.1017/S0047404598282042.

    Abstract

    This volume on Inuit speech follows the evolution of a native language of the North American Arctic, from its historical roots to its present-day linguistic structure and patterns of use from Alaska to Greenland. Drawing on a wide range of research from the fields of linguistics, anthropology, and sociology, Dorais integrates these diverse perspectives in a comprehensive view of native language development, maintenance, and use under conditions of marginalization due to social transition.
  • Tan, Y., Martin, R. C., & Van Dyke, J. (2013). Verbal WM capacities in sentence comprehension: Evidence from aphasia. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 94, 108-109. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.09.052.
  • Ten Oever, S., Sack, A. T., Wheat, K. L., Bien, N., & Van Atteveldt, N. (2013). Audio-visual onset differences are used to determine syllable identity for ambiguous audio-visual stimulus pairs. Frontiers in Psychology, 4: 331. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00331.

    Abstract

    Content and temporal cues have been shown to interact during audio-visual (AV) speech identification. Typically, the most reliable unimodal cue is used more strongly to identify specific speech features; however, visual cues are only used if the AV stimuli are presented within a certain temporal window of integration (TWI). This suggests that temporal cues denote whether unimodal stimuli belong together, that is, whether they should be integrated. It is not known whether temporal cues also provide information about the identity of a syllable. Since spoken syllables have naturally varying AV onset asynchronies, we hypothesize that for suboptimal AV cues presented within the TWI, information about the natural AV onset differences can aid in speech identification. To test this, we presented low-intensity auditory syllables concurrently with visual speech signals, and varied the stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) of the AV pair, while participants were instructed to identify the auditory syllables. We revealed that specific speech features (e.g., voicing) were identified by relying primarily on one modality (e.g., auditory). Additionally, we showed a wide window in which visual information influenced auditory perception, that seemed even wider for congruent stimulus pairs. Finally, we found a specific response pattern across the SOA range for syllables that were not reliably identified by the unimodal cues, which we explained as the result of the use of natural onset differences between AV speech signals. This indicates that temporal cues not only provide information about the temporal integration of AV stimuli, but additionally convey information about the identity of AV pairs. These results provide a detailed behavioral basis for further neuro-imaging and stimulation studies to unravel the neurofunctional mechanisms of the audio-visual-temporal interplay within speech perception.
  • Tornero, D., Wattananit, S., Madsen, M. G., Koch, P., Wood, J., Tatarishvili, J., Mine, Y., Ge, R., Monni, E., Devaraju, K., Hevner, R. F., Bruestle, O., Lindval, O., & Kokaia, Z. (2013). Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cortical neurons integrate in stroke-injured cortex and improve functional recovery. Brain, 136(12), 3561-3577. doi:10.1093/brain/awt278.

    Abstract

    Stem cell-based approaches to restore function after stroke through replacement of dead neurons require the generation of specific neuronal subtypes. Loss of neurons in the cerebral cortex is a major cause of stroke-induced neurological deficits in adult humans. Reprogramming of adult human somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells is a novel approach to produce patient-specific cells for autologous transplantation. Whether such cells can be converted to functional cortical neurons that survive and give rise to behavioural recovery after transplantation in the stroke-injured cerebral cortex is not known. We have generated progenitors in vitro, expressing specific cortical markers and giving rise to functional neurons, from long-term self-renewing neuroepithelial-like stem cells, produced from adult human fibroblast-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. At 2 months after transplantation into the stroke-damaged rat cortex, the cortically fated cells showed less proliferation and more efficient conversion to mature neurons with morphological and immunohistochemical characteristics of a cortical phenotype and higher axonal projection density as compared with non-fated cells. Pyramidal morphology and localization of the cells expressing the cortex-specific marker TBR1 in a certain layered pattern provided further evidence supporting the cortical phenotype of the fated, grafted cells, and electrophysiological recordings demonstrated their functionality. Both fated and non-fated cell-transplanted groups showed bilateral recovery of the impaired function in the stepping test compared with vehicle-injected animals. The behavioural improvement at this early time point was most likely not due to neuronal replacement and reconstruction of circuitry. At 5 months after stroke in immunocompromised rats, there was no tumour formation and the grafted cells exhibited electrophysiological properties of mature neurons with evidence of integration in host circuitry. Our findings show, for the first time, that human skin-derived induced pluripotent stem cells can be differentiated to cortical neuronal progenitors, which survive, differentiate to functional neurons and improve neurological outcome after intracortical implantation in a rat stroke model.
  • Tsuji, S., & Cristia, A. (2013). Fifty years of infant vowel discrimination research: What have we learned? Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan, 17(3), 1-11.
  • Turco, G., Dimroth, C., & Braun, B. (2013). Intonational means to mark verum focus in German and French. Language and Speech., 56(4), 461-491. doi:10.1177/0023830912460506.

    Abstract

    German and French differ in a number of aspects. Regarding the prosody-pragmatics interface, German is said to have a direct focus-to-accent mapping, which is largely absent in French – owing to strong structural constraints. We used a semi-spontaneous dialogue setting to investigate the intonational marking of Verum Focus, a focus on the polarity of an utterance in the two languages (e.g. the child IS tearing the banknote as an opposite claim to the child is not tearing the banknote). When Verum Focus applies to auxiliaries, pragmatic aspects (i.e. highlighting the contrast) directly compete with structural constraints (e.g. avoiding an accent on phonologically weak elements such as monosyllabic function words). Intonational analyses showed that auxiliaries were predominantly accented in German, as expected. Interestingly, we found a high number of (as yet undocumented) focal accents on phrase-initial auxiliaries in French Verum Focus contexts. When French accent patterns were equally distributed across information structural contexts, relative prominence (in terms of peak height) between initial and final accents was shifted towards initial accents in Verum Focus compared to non-Verum Focus contexts. Our data hence suggest that French also may mark Verum Focus by focal accents but that this tendency is partly overridden by strong structural constraints.
  • Van Turennout, M., Hagoort, P., & Brown, C. M. (1998). Brain activitity during speaking: From syntax to phonology in 40 milliseconds. Science, 280, 572-574.

    Abstract

    In normal conversation, speakers translate thoughts into words at high speed. To enable this speed, the retrieval of distinct types of linguistic knowledge has to be orchestrated with millisecond precision. The nature of this orchestration is still largely unknown. This report presents dynamic measures of the real-time activation of two basic types of linguistic knowledge, syntax and phonology. Electrophysiological data demonstrate that during noun-phrase production speakers retrieve the syntactic gender of a noun before its abstract phonological properties. This two-step process operates at high speed: the data show that phonological information is already available 40 milliseconds after syntactic properties have been retrieved.
  • Van Turennout, M., Hagoort, P., & Brown, C. M. (1998). Brain activity during speaking: From syntax to phonology in 40 milliseconds. Science, 280(5363), 572-574. doi:10.1126/science.280.5363.572.
  • Van Leeuwen, E. J. C., & Haun, D. B. M. (2013). Conformity in nonhuman primates: Fad or fact? Evolution and Human Behavior, 34, 1-7. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.07.005.

    Abstract

    Majority influences have long been a subject of great interest for social psychologists and, more recently, for researchers investigating social influences in nonhuman primates. Although this empirical endeavor has culminated in the conclusion that some ape and monkey species show “conformist” tendencies, the current approach seems to suffer from two fundamental limitations: (a) majority influences have not been operationalized in accord with any of the existing definitions, thereby compromising the validity of cross-species comparisons, and (b) the results have not been systematically scrutinized in light of alternative explanations. In this review, we aim to address these limitations theoretically. First, we will demonstrate how the experimental designs used in nonhuman primate studies cannot test for conformity unambiguously and address alternative explanations and potential confounds for the presented results in the form of primacy effects, frequency exposure, and perception ambiguity. Second, we will show how majority influences have been defined differently across disciplines and, therefore, propose a set of definitions in order to streamline majority influence research, where conformist transmission and conformity will be put forth as operationalizations of the overarching denominator majority influences. Finally, we conclude with suggestions to foster the study of majority influences by clarifying the empirical scope of each proposed definition, exploring compatible research designs and highlighting how majority influences are inherently contingent on situational trade-offs.
  • Van Wijk, C., & Kempen, G. (1982). De ontwikkeling van syntactische formuleervaardigheid bij kinderen van 9 tot 16 jaar. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor de Psychologie en haar Grensgebieden, 37(8), 491-509.

    Abstract

    An essential phenomenon in the development towards syntactic maturity after early childhood is the increasing use of so-called sentence-combining transformations. Especially by using subordination, complex sentences are produced. The research reported here is an attempt to arrive at a more adequate characterization and explanation. Our starting point was an analysis of 280 texts written by Dutch-speaking pupils of the two highest grades of the primary school and the four lowest grades of three different types of secondary education. It was examined whether systematic shifts in the use of certain groups of so-called function words could be traced. We concluded that the development of the syntactic formulating ability can be characterized as an increase in connectivity: the use of all kinds of function words which explicitly mark logico-semantic relations between propositions. This development starts by inserting special adverbs and coordinating conjunctions resulting in various types of coordination. In a later stage, the syntactic patterning of the sentence is affected as well (various types of subordination). The increase in sentence complexity is only one aspect of the entire development. An explanation for the increase in connectivity is offered based upon a distinction between narrative and expository language use. The latter, but not the former, is characterized by frequent occurrence of connectives. The development in syntactic formulating ability includes a high level of skill in expository language use. Speed of development is determined by intensity of training, e.g. in scholastic and occupational settings.
  • Van Leeuwen, E. J. C., Cronin, K. A., Schütte, S., Call, J., & Haun, D. B. M. (2013). Chimpanzees flexibly adjust their behaviour in order to maximize payoffs, not to conform to majorities. PLoS One, 8(11): e80945. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080945.

    Abstract

    Chimpanzees have been shown to be adept learners, both individually and socially. Yet, sometimes their conservative nature seems to hamper the flexible adoption of superior alternatives, even to the extent that they persist in using entirely ineffective strategies. In this study, we investigated chimpanzees’ behavioural flexibility in two different conditions under which social animals have been predicted to abandon personal preferences and adopt alternative strategies: i) under influence of majority demonstrations (i.e. conformity), and ii) in the presence of superior reward contingencies (i.e. maximizing payoffs). Unlike previous nonhuman primate studies, this study disentangled the concept of conformity from the tendency to maintain one’s first-learned strategy. Studying captive (n=16) and semi-wild (n=12) chimpanzees in two complementary exchange paradigms, we found that chimpanzees did not abandon their behaviour in order to match the majority, but instead remained faithful to their first-learned strategy (Study 1a and 1b). However, the chimpanzees’ fidelity to their first-learned strategy was overridden by an experimental upgrade of the profitability of the alternative strategy (Study 2). We interpret our observations in terms of chimpanzees’ relative weighing of behavioural options as a function of situation-specific trade-offs. More specifically, contrary to previous findings, chimpanzees in our study abandoned their familiar behaviour to maximize payoffs, but not to conform to a majority.
  • Van Beek, G., Flecken, M., & Starren, M. (2013). Aspectual perspective taking in event construal in L1 and L2 Dutch. International review of applied linguistics, 51(2), 199-227. doi:10.1515/iral-2013-0009.

    Abstract

    The present study focuses on the role of grammatical aspect in event construal and its function in encoding the specificity of an event. We investigate whether advanced L2 learners (L1 German) acquire target-like patterns of use of progressive aspect in Dutch, a language in which use of aspect depends on specific situation types. We analyze use of progressive markers and patterns in information selection, relating to specific features of agents or actions in dynamic event scenes. L2 event descriptions are compared with L1 Dutch and L1 German data. The L2 users display the complex situation-dependent patterns of use of aspect in Dutch, but they do not select the aspectual viewpoint (aan he construction) to the same extent as native speakers. Moreover, the encoding of specificity of the events (mentioning of specific agent and action features) reflects L1 transfer, as well as target-like performance in specific domains.
  • Van Putten, S. (2013). [Review of the book The expression of information structure. A documentation of its diversity across Africa, ed. by Ines Fiedler and Anne Schwarz]. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 34, 183 -186. doi:10.1515/jall-2013-0005.

    Abstract

    This volume contains 13 papers dealing with various aspects of information structure in a wide variety of African languages. They form the proceedings of a workshop organized by the Collaborative Research Center on Information Structure (University of Potsdam and Humboldt University, Berlin). In the introduction, the editors define the main contribution of this volume in terms of “the spectrum of information-structural notions and phenomena discussed, the investigation of information structure in several relatively unfamiliar languages and the genealogical width of the African languages studied.” (vii–viii emphasis added). In this sense it complements the previous volume on information structure in African languages published by the Collaborative Research Center and the University of Amsterdam (Aboh, Hartmann & Zimmermann, 2007), which was more theoryoriented.
  • Van der Valk, R. J. P., Duijts, L., Timpson, N. J., Salam, M. T., Standl, M., Curtin, J. A., Genuneit, J., Kerhof, M., Kreiner-Møller, E., Cáceres, A., Gref, A., Liang, L. L., Taal, H. R., Bouzigon, E., Demenais, F., Nadif, R., Ober, C., Thompson, E. E., Estrada, K., Hofman, A. and 39 moreVan der Valk, R. J. P., Duijts, L., Timpson, N. J., Salam, M. T., Standl, M., Curtin, J. A., Genuneit, J., Kerhof, M., Kreiner-Møller, E., Cáceres, A., Gref, A., Liang, L. L., Taal, H. R., Bouzigon, E., Demenais, F., Nadif, R., Ober, C., Thompson, E. E., Estrada, K., Hofman, A., Uitterlinden, A. G., van Duijn, C., Rivadeneira, F., Li, X., Eckel, S. P., Berhane, K., Gauderman, W. J., Granell, R., Evans, D. M., St Pourcain, B., McArdle, W., Kemp, J. P., Smith, G. D., Tiesler, C. M. T., Flexeder, C., Simpson, A., Murray, C. S., Fuchs, O., Postma, D. S., Bønnelykke, K., Torrent, M., Andersson, M., Sleiman, P., Hakonarson, H., Cookson, W. O., Moffatt, M. F., Paternoster, L., Melén, E., Sunyer, J., Bisgaard, H., Koppelman, G. H., Ege, M., Custovic, A., Heinrich, J., Gilliland, F. D., Henderson, A. J., Jaddoe, V. W. V., de Jongste, J. C., & EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) Consortium (2013). Fraction of exhaled nitric oxide values in childhood are associated with 17q11.2-q12 and 17q12-q21 variants. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 134(1), 46-55. doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2013.08.053.

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: The fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (Feno) value is a biomarker of eosinophilic airway inflammation and is associated with childhood asthma. Identification of common genetic variants associated with childhood Feno values might help to define biological mechanisms related to specific asthma phenotypes.
    OBJECTIVE: We sought to identify the genetic variants associated with childhood Feno values and their relation with asthma.
    METHODS: Feno values were measured in children age 5 to 15 years. In 14 genome-wide association studies (N = 8,858), we examined the associations of approximately 2.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with Feno values. Subsequently, we assessed whether significant SNPs were expression quantitative trait loci in genome-wide expression data sets of lymphoblastoid cell lines (n = 1,830) and were related to asthma in a previously published genome-wide association data set (cases, n = 10,365; control subjects: n = 16,110).
    RESULTS: We identified 3 SNPs associated with Feno values: rs3751972 in LYR motif containing 9 (LYRM9; P = 1.97 × 10(-10)) and rs944722 in inducible nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2; P = 1.28 × 10(-9)), both of which are located at 17q11.2-q12, and rs8069176 near gasdermin B (GSDMB; P = 1.88 × 10(-8)) at 17q12-q21. We found a cis expression quantitative trait locus for the transcript soluble galactoside-binding lectin 9 (LGALS9) that is in linkage disequilibrium with rs944722. rs8069176 was associated with GSDMB and ORM1-like 3 (ORMDL3) expression. rs8069176 at 17q12-q21, but not rs3751972 and rs944722 at 17q11.2-q12, were associated with physician-diagnosed asthma.
    CONCLUSION: This study identified 3 variants associated with Feno values, explaining 0.95% of the variance. Identification of functional SNPs and haplotypes in these regions might provide novel insight into the regulation of Feno values. This study highlights that both shared and distinct genetic factors affect Feno values and childhood asthma.
  • Van Stekelenburg, J., Anikina, N. C., Pouw, W., Petrovic, I., & Nederlof, N. (2013). From correlation to causation: The cruciality of a collectivity in the context of collective action. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 1(1), 161-187. doi:10.5964/jspp.v1i1.38.

    Abstract

    This paper discusses a longitudinal field study on collective action which aims to move beyond student samples and enhance mundane realism. First we provide a historical overview of the literature on the what (i.e., antecedents of collective action) and the how (i.e., the methods employed) of the social psychology of protest. This historical overview is substantiated with meta-analytical evidence on how these antecedents and methods changed over time. After the historical overview, we provide an empirical illustration of a longitudinal field study in a natural setting―a newly-built Dutch neighbourhood. We assessed changes in informal embeddedness, efficacy, identification, emotions, and grievances over time. Between t0 and t1 the residents protested against the plan to allow a mosque to carrying out their services in a community building in the neighbourhood. We examined the antecedents of protest before [t0] and after [t1] the protests, and whether residents participated or not. We show how a larger social network functions as a catalyst in steering protest participation. Our longitudinal field study replicates basic findings from experimental and survey research. However, it also shows that one antecedent in particular, which is hard to manipulate in the lab (i.e., the size of someone’s social network), proved to be of great importance. We suggest that in overcoming our most pertinent challenge―causality―we should not only remain in our laboratories but also go out and examine real-life situations with people situated in real-life social networks.
  • Van Berkum, J. J. A., De Goede, D., Van Alphen, P. M., Mulder, E. R., & Kerstholt, J. H. (2013). How robust is the language architecture? The case of mood. Frontiers in Psychology, 4: 505. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00505.

    Abstract

    In neurocognitive research on language, the processing principles of the system at hand are usually assumed to be relatively invariant. However, research on attention, memory, decision-making, and social judgment has shown that mood can substantially modulate how the brain processes information. For example, in a bad mood, people typically have a narrower focus of attention and rely less on heuristics. In the face of such pervasive mood effects elsewhere in the brain, it seems unlikely that language processing would remain untouched. In an EEG experiment, we manipulated the mood of participants just before they read texts that confirmed or disconfirmed verb-based expectations about who would be talked about next (e.g., that “David praised Linda because … ” would continue about Linda, not David), or that respected or violated a syntactic agreement rule (e.g., “The boys turns”). ERPs showed that mood had little effect on syntactic parsing, but did substantially affect referential anticipation: whereas readers anticipated information about a specific person when they were in a good mood, a bad mood completely abolished such anticipation. A behavioral follow-up experiment suggested that a bad mood did not interfere with verb-based expectations per se, but prevented readers from using that information rapidly enough to predict upcoming reference on the fly, as the sentence unfolds. In all, our results reveal that background mood, a rather unobtrusive affective state, selectively changes a crucial aspect of real-time language processing. This observation fits well with other observed interactions between language processing and affect (emotions, preferences, attitudes, mood), and more generally testifies to the importance of studying “cold” cognitive functions in relation to “hot” aspects of the brain.
  • Van der Zande, P., Jesse, A., & Cutler, A. (2013). Lexically guided retuning of visual phonetic categories. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 134, 562-571. doi:10.1121/1.4807814.

    Abstract

    Listeners retune the boundaries between phonetic categories to adjust to individual speakers' productions. Lexical information, for example, indicates what an unusual sound is supposed to be, and boundary retuning then enables the speaker's sound to be included in the appropriate auditory phonetic category. In this study, it was investigated whether lexical knowledge that is known to guide the retuning of auditory phonetic categories, can also retune visual phonetic categories. In Experiment 1, exposure to a visual idiosyncrasy in ambiguous audiovisually presented target words in a lexical decision task indeed resulted in retuning of the visual category boundary based on the disambiguating lexical context. In Experiment 2 it was tested whether lexical information retunes visual categories directly, or indirectly through the generalization from retuned auditory phonetic categories. Here, participants were exposed to auditory-only versions of the same ambiguous target words as in Experiment 1. Auditory phonetic categories were retuned by lexical knowledge, but no shifts were observed for the visual phonetic categories. Lexical knowledge can therefore guide retuning of visual phonetic categories, but lexically guided retuning of auditory phonetic categories is not generalized to visual categories. Rather, listeners adjust auditory and visual phonetic categories to talker idiosyncrasies separately.
  • Van Leeuwen, T. M., Hagoort, P., & Händel, B. F. (2013). Real color captures attention and overrides spatial cues in grapheme-color synesthetes but not in controls. Neuropsychologia, 51(10), 1802-1813. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.06.024.

    Abstract

    Grapheme-color synesthetes perceive color when reading letters or digits. We investigated oscillatory brain signals of synesthetes vs. controls using magnetoencephalography. Brain oscillations specifically in the alpha band (∼10 Hz) have two interesting features: alpha has been linked to inhibitory processes and can act as a marker for attention. The possible role of reduced inhibition as an underlying cause of synesthesia, as well as the precise role of attention in synesthesia is widely discussed. To assess alpha power effects due to synesthesia, synesthetes as well as matched controls viewed synesthesia-inducing graphemes, colored control graphemes, and non-colored control graphemes while brain activity was recorded. Subjects had to report a color change at the end of each trial which allowed us to assess the strength of synesthesia in each synesthete. Since color (synesthetic or real) might allocate attention we also included an attentional cue in our paradigm which could direct covert attention. In controls the attentional cue always caused a lateralization of alpha power with a contralateral decrease and ipsilateral alpha increase over occipital sensors. In synesthetes, however, the influence of the cue was overruled by color: independent of the attentional cue, alpha power decreased contralateral to the color (synesthetic or real). This indicates that in synesthetes color guides attention. This was confirmed by reaction time effects due to color, i.e. faster RTs for the color side independent of the cue. Finally, the stronger the observed color dependent alpha lateralization, the stronger was the manifestation of synesthesia as measured by congruency effects of synesthetic colors on RTs. Behavioral and imaging results indicate that color induces a location-specific, automatic shift of attention towards color in synesthetes but not in controls. We hypothesize that this mechanism can facilitate coupling of grapheme and color during the development of synesthesia.
  • Van Wijk, C., & Kempen, G. (1982). Syntactische formuleervaardigheid en het schrijven van opstellen. Pedagogische Studiën, 59, 126-136.

    Abstract

    Meermalen is getracht om syntactische formuleenuuirdigheid direct en objectief te meten aan de hand van gesproken of geschreven teksten. Uitgangspunt hierbij vormde in de regel de syntactische complexiteit van de geproduceerde taaluitingen. Dit heeft echter niet geleid tot een plausibele, duidelijk omschreven en praktisch bruikbare index. N.a.v. een kritische bespreking van de notie complexiteit wordt in dit artikel als nieuw criterium voorgesteld de connectiviteit van de taaluitingen; de expliciete aanduiding van logiscli-scmantische relaties tussen proposities. Connectiviteit is gemakkelijk scoorbaar aan de hand van functiewoorden die verschillende vormen van nevenschikkend en onderschikkend zinsverband markeren. Deze nieuwe index ondetrangt de kritiek die op complexiteit gegeven kon worden, blijkt duidelijk te discrimineren tussen groepen leerlingen die van elkaar verschillen naar leeftijd en opleidingsniveau, en sluit aan bij recente taalpsychologische en sociolinguïstische theorie. Tot besluit worden enige onderwijskundige implicaties aangegeven.
  • Vaughn, C., & Brouwer, S. (2013). Perceptual integration of indexical information in bilingual speech. Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, 19: 060208. doi:10.1121/1.4800264.

    Abstract

    The present research examines how different types of indexical information, namely talker information and the language being spoken, are perceptually integrated in bilingual speech. Using a speeded classification paradigm (Garner, 1974), variability in characteristics of the talker (gender in Experiment 1 and specific talker in Experiment 2) and in the language being spoken (Mandarin vs. English) was manipulated. Listeners from two different language backgrounds, English monolinguals and Mandarin-English bilinguals, were asked to classify short, meaningful sentences obtained from different Mandarin-English bilingual talkers on these indexical dimensions. Results for the gender-language classification (Exp. 1) showed a significant, symmetrical interference effect for both listener groups, indicating that gender information and language are processed in an integral manner. For talker-language classification (Exp. 2), language interfered more with talker than vice versa for the English monolinguals, but symmetrical interference was found for the Mandarin-English bilinguals. These results suggest both that talker-specificity is not fully segregated from language-specificity, and that bilinguals exhibit more balanced classification along various indexical dimensions of speech. Currently, follow-up studies investigate this talker-language dependency for bilingual listeners who do not speak Mandarin in order to disentangle the role of bilingualism versus language familiarity.
  • Verdonschot, R. G., La Heij, W., Tamaoka, K., Kiyama, S., You, W.-P., & Schiller, N. O. (2013). The multiple pronunciations of Japanese kanji: A masked priming investigation. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66(10), 2023-2038. doi:10.1080/17470218.2013.773050.

    Abstract

    English words with an inconsistent grapheme-to-phoneme conversion or with more than one pronunciation (homographic heterophones; e.g., lead-/l epsilon d/, /lid/) are read aloud more slowly than matched controls, presumably due to competition processes. In Japanese kanji, the majority of the characters have multiple readings for the same orthographic unit: the native Japanese reading (KUN) and the derived Chinese reading (ON). This leads to the question of whether reading these characters also shows processing costs. Studies examining this issue have provided mixed evidence. The current study addressed the question of whether processing of these kanji characters leads to the simultaneous activation of their KUN and ON reading, This was measured in a direct way in a masked priming paradigm. In addition, we assessed whether the relative frequencies of the KUN and ON pronunciations (dominance ratio, measured in compound words) affect the amount of priming. The results of two experiments showed that: (a) a single kanji, presented as a masked prime, facilitates the reading of the (katakana transcriptions of) their KUN and ON pronunciations; however, (b) this was most consistently found when the dominance ratio was around 50% (no strong dominance towards either pronunciation) and when the dominance was towards the ON reading (high-ON group). When the dominance was towards the KUN reading (high-KUN group), no significant priming for the ON reading was observed. Implications for models of kanji processing are discussed.
  • Verdonschot, R. G., Nakayama, M., Zhang, Q., Tamaoka, K., & Schiller, N. O. (2013). The proximate phonological unit of Chinese-English bilinguals: Proficiency matters. PLoS One, 8(4): e61454. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0061454.

    Abstract

    An essential step to create phonology according to the language production model by Levelt, Roelofs and Meyer is to assemble phonemes into a metrical frame. However, recently, it has been proposed that different languages may rely on different grain sizes of phonological units to construct phonology. For instance, it has been proposed that, instead of phonemes, Mandarin Chinese uses syllables and Japanese uses moras to fill the metrical frame. In this study, we used a masked priming-naming task to investigate how bilinguals assemble their phonology for each language when the two languages differ in grain size. Highly proficient Mandarin Chinese-English bilinguals showed a significant masked onset priming effect in English (L2), and a significant masked syllabic priming effect in Mandarin Chinese (L1). These results suggest that their proximate unit is phonemic in L2 (English), and that bilinguals may use different phonological units depending on the language that is being processed. Additionally, under some conditions, a significant sub-syllabic priming effect was observed even in Mandarin Chinese, which indicates that L2 phonology exerts influences on L1 target processing as a consequence of having a good command of English.

    Additional information

    English stimuli Chinese stimuli
  • Verga, L., & Kotz, S. A. (2013). How relevant is social interaction in second language learning? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7: 550. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00550.

    Abstract

    Verbal language is the most widespread mode of human communication, and an intrinsically social activity. This claim is strengthened by evidence emerging from different fields, which clearly indicates that social interaction influences human communication, and more specifically, language learning. Indeed, research conducted with infants and children shows that interaction with a caregiver is necessary to acquire language. Further evidence on the influence of sociality on language comes from social and linguistic pathologies, in which deficits in social and linguistic abilities are tightly intertwined, as is the case for Autism, for example. However, studies on adult second language (L2) learning have been mostly focused on individualistic approaches, partly because of methodological constraints, especially of imaging methods. The question as to whether social interaction should be considered as a critical factor impacting upon adult language learning still remains underspecified. Here, we review evidence in support of the view that sociality plays a significant role in communication and language learning, in an attempt to emphasize factors that could facilitate this process in adult language learning. We suggest that sociality should be considered as a potentially influential factor in adult language learning and that future studies in this domain should explicitly target this factor.
  • Verhoeven, V. J. M., Hysi, P. G., Wojciechowski, R., Fan, Q., Guggenheim, J. A., Höhn, R., MacGregor, S., Hewitt, A. W., Nag, A., Cheng, C.-Y., Yonova-Doing, E., Zhou, X., Ikram, M. K., Buitendijk, G. H. S., McMahon, G., Kemp, J. P., St Pourcain, B., Simpson, C. L., Mäkelä, K.-M., Lehtimäki, T. and 90 moreVerhoeven, V. J. M., Hysi, P. G., Wojciechowski, R., Fan, Q., Guggenheim, J. A., Höhn, R., MacGregor, S., Hewitt, A. W., Nag, A., Cheng, C.-Y., Yonova-Doing, E., Zhou, X., Ikram, M. K., Buitendijk, G. H. S., McMahon, G., Kemp, J. P., St Pourcain, B., Simpson, C. L., Mäkelä, K.-M., Lehtimäki, T., Kähönen, M., Paterson, A. D., Hosseini, S. M., Wong, H. S., Xu, L., Jonas, J. B., Pärssinen, O., Wedenoja, J., Yip, S. P., Ho, D. W. H., Pang, C. P., Chen, L. J., Burdon, K. P., Craig, J. E., Klein, B. E. K., Klein, R., Haller, T., Metspalu, A., Khor, C.-C., Tai, E.-S., Aung, T., Vithana, E., Tay, W.-T., Barathi, V. A., Chen, P., Li, R., Liao, J., Zheng, Y., Ong, R. T., Döring, A., Evans, D. M., Timpson, N. J., Verkerk, A. J. M. H., Meitinger, T., Raitakari, O., Hawthorne, F., Spector, T. D., Karssen, L. C., Pirastu, M., Murgia, F., Ang, W., Mishra, A., Montgomery, G. W., Pennell, C. E., Cumberland, P. M., Cotlarciuc, I., Mitchell, P., Wang, J. J., Schache, M., Janmahasatian, S., Janmahasathian, S., Igo, R. P., Lass, J. H., Chew, E., Iyengar, S. K., Gorgels, T. G. M. F., Rudan, I., Hayward, C., Wright, A. F., Polasek, O., Vatavuk, Z., Wilson, J. F., Fleck, B., Zeller, T., Mirshahi, A., Müller, C., Uitterlinden, A. G., Rivadeneira, F., Vingerling, J. R., Hofman, A., Oostra, B. A., Amin, N., Bergen, A. A. B., Teo, Y.-Y., Rahi, J. S., Vitart, V., Williams, C., Baird, P. N., Wong, T.-Y., Oexle, K., Pfeiffer, N., Mackey, D. A., Young, T. L., van Duijn, C. M., Saw, S.-M., Bailey-Wilson, J. E., Stambolian, D., Klaver, C. C., Hammond, C. J., Consortium for Refractive Error and Myopia (CREAM), The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (DCCT/EDIC) Research Group, Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 (WTCCC2), & The Fuchs' Genetics Multi-Center Study Group (2013). Genome-wide meta-analyses of multiancestry cohorts identify multiple new susceptibility loci for refractive error and myopia. Nature Genetics, 45(3), 314-318. doi:10.1038/ng.2554.

    Abstract

    Refractive error is the most common eye disorder worldwide and is a prominent cause of blindness. Myopia affects over 30% of Western populations and up to 80% of Asians. The CREAM consortium conducted genome-wide meta-analyses, including 37,382 individuals from 27 studies of European ancestry and 8,376 from 5 Asian cohorts. We identified 16 new loci for refractive error in individuals of European ancestry, of which 8 were shared with Asians. Combined analysis identified 8 additional associated loci. The new loci include candidate genes with functions in neurotransmission (GRIA4), ion transport (KCNQ5), retinoic acid metabolism (RDH5), extracellular matrix remodeling (LAMA2 and BMP2) and eye development (SIX6 and PRSS56). We also confirmed previously reported associations with GJD2 and RASGRF1. Risk score analysis using associated SNPs showed a tenfold increased risk of myopia for individuals carrying the highest genetic load. Our results, based on a large meta-analysis across independent multiancestry studies, considerably advance understanding of the mechanisms involved in refractive error and myopia.
  • Verkerk, A., & Frostad, B. H. (2013). The encoding of manner predications and resultatives in Oceanic: A typological and historical overview. Oceanic Linguistics, 52, 1-35. doi:10.1353/ol.2013.0010.

    Abstract

    This paper is concerned with the encoding of resultatives and manner predications in Oceanic languages. Our point of departure is a typological overview of the encoding strategies and their geographical distribution, and we investigate their historical traits by the use of phylogenetic comparative methods. A full theory of the historical pathways is not always accessible for all the attested encoding strategies, given the data available for this study. However, tentative theories about the development and origin of the attested strategies are given. One of the most frequent strategy types used to encode both manner predications and resultatives has been given special emphasis. This is a construction in which a reex form of the Proto-Oceanic causative *pa-/*paka- modies the second verb in serial verb constructions

    Additional information

    52.1.verkerk_supp01.pdf
  • Verkerk, A. (2013). Scramble, scurry and dash: The correlation between motion event encoding and manner verb lexicon size in Indo-European. Language Dynamics and Change, 3, 169-217. doi:10.1163/22105832-13030202.

    Abstract

    In recent decades, much has been discovered about the different ways in which people can talk about motion (Talmy, 1985, 1991; Slobin, 1996, 1997, 2004). Slobin (1997) has suggested that satellite-framed languages typically have a larger and more diverse lexicon of manner of motion verbs (such as run, fly, and scramble) when compared to verb-framed languages. Slobin (2004) has claimed that larger manner of motion verb lexicons originate over time because codability factors increase the accessibility of manner in satellite-framed languages. In this paper I investigate the dependency between the use of the satellite-framed encoding construction and the size of the manner verb lexicon. The data used come from 20 Indo-European languages. The methodology applied is a range of phylogenetic comparative methods adopted from biology, which allow for an investigation of this dependency while taking into account the shared history between these 20 languages. The results provide evidence that Slobin’s hypothesis was correct, and indeed there seems to be a relationship between the use of the satellite-framed construction and the size of the manner verb lexicon
  • von Stutterheim, C., Flecken, M., & Carroll, M. (2013). Introduction: Conceptualizing in a second language. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 51(2), 77-85. doi:10.1515/iral-2013-0004.
  • von Stutterheim, C., & Flecken, M. (Eds.). (2013). Principles of information organization in L2 discourse [Special Issue]. International Review of Applied linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL), 51(2).
  • De Vos, C. (2013). Sign-Spatiality in Kata Kolok: How a village sign language of Bali inscribes its signing space [Dissertation abstract]. Sign Language & Linguistics, 16(2), 277-284. doi:10.1075/sll.16.2.08vos.
  • De Vriend, F., Broeder, D., Depoorter, G., van Eerten, L., & Van Uytvanck, D. (2013). Creating & Testing CLARIN Metadata Components. Language Resources and Evaluation, 47(4), 1315-1326. doi:10.1007/s10579-013-9231-6.

    Abstract

    The CLARIN Metadata Infrastructure (CMDI) that is being developed in Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure (CLARIN) is a computer-supported framework that combines a flexible component approach with the explicit declaration of semantics. The goal of the Dutch CLARIN project “Creating & Testing CLARIN Metadata Components” was to create metadata components and profiles for a wide variety of existing resources housed at two data centres according to the CMDI specifications. In doing so the principles of the framework were tested. The results of the project are of benefit to other CLARIN-projects that are expected to adhere to the CMDI framework and its accompanying tools.
  • Wagensveld, B., Segers, E., Van Alphen, P. M., & Verhoeven, L. (2013). The role of lexical representations and phonological overlap in rhyme judgments of beginning, intermediate and advanced readers. Learning and Individual Differences, 23, 64-71. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2012.09.007.

    Abstract

    Studies have shown that prereaders find globally similar non-rhyming pairs (i.e., bell–ball) difficult to judge. Although this effect has been explained as a result of ill-defined lexical representations, others have suggested that it is part of an innate tendency to respond to phonological overlap. In the present study we examined this effect over time. Beginning, intermediate and advanced readers were presented with a rhyme judgment task containing rhyming, phonologically similar, and unrelated non-rhyming pairs. To examine the role of lexical representations, participants were presented with both words and pseudowords. Outcomes showed that pseudoword processing was difficult for children but not for adults. The global similarity effect was present in both children and adults. The findings imply that holistic representations cannot explain the incapacity to ignore similarity relations during rhyming. Instead, the data provide more evidence for the idea that global similarity processing is part of a more fundamental innate phonological processing capacity.
  • Wagensveld, B., Van Alphen, P. M., Segers, E., Hagoort, P., & Verhoeven, L. (2013). The neural correlates of rhyme awareness in preliterate and literate children. Clinical Neurophysiology, 124, 1336-1345. doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2013.01.022.

    Abstract

    Objective Most rhyme awareness assessments do not encompass measures of the global similarity effect (i.e., children who are able to perform simple rhyme judgments get confused when presented with globally similar non-rhyming pairs). The present study examines the neural nature of this effect by studying the N450 rhyme effect. Methods Behavioral and electrophysiological responses of Dutch pre-literate kindergartners and literate second graders were recorded while they made rhyme judgments of word pairs in three conditions; phonologically rhyming (e.g., wijn-pijn), overlapping non-rhyming (e.g., pen-pijn) and unrelated non-rhyming pairs (e.g., boom-pijn). Results Behaviorally, both groups had difficulty judging overlapping but not rhyming and unrelated pairs. The neural data of second graders showed overlapping pairs were processed in a similar fashion as unrelated pairs; both showed a more negative deflection of the N450 component than rhyming items. Kindergartners did not show a typical N450 rhyme effect. However, some other interesting ERP differences were observed, indicating preliterates are sensitive to rhyme at a certain level. Significance Rhyme judgments of globally similar items rely on the same process as rhyme judgments of rhyming and unrelated items. Therefore, incorporating a globally similar condition in rhyme assessments may lead to a more in-depth measure of early phonological awareness skills. Highlights Behavioral and electrophysiological responses were recorded while (pre)literate children made rhyme judgments of rhyming, overlapping and unrelated words. Behaviorally both groups had difficulty judging overlapping pairs as non-rhyming while overlapping and unrelated neural patterns were similar in literates. Preliterates show a different pattern indicating a developing phonological system.
  • Wagner, A. (2013). Cross-language similarities and differences in the uptake of place information. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 133, 4256-4267. doi:10.1121/1.4802904.

    Abstract

    Cross-language differences in the use of coarticulatory cues for the identification of fricatives have been demonstrated in a phoneme detection task: Listeners with perceptually similar fricative pairs in their native phoneme inventories (English, Polish, Spanish) relied more on cues from vowels than listeners with perceptually more distinct fricative contrasts (Dutch and German). The present gating study further investigated these cross-language differences and addressed three questions. (1) Are there cross-language differences in informativeness of parts of the speech signal regarding place of articulation for fricative identification? (2) Are such cross-language differences fricative-specific, or do they extend to the perception of place of articulation for plosives? (3) Is such language-specific uptake of information based on cues preceding or following the consonantal constriction? Dutch, Italian, Polish, and Spanish listeners identified fricatives and plosives in gated CV and VC syllables. The results showed cross-language differences in the informativeness of coarticulatory cues for fricative identification: Spanish and Polish listeners extracted place of articulation information from shorter portions of VC syllables. No language-specific differences were found for plosives, suggesting that greater reliance on coarticulatory cues did not generalize to other phoneme types. The language-specific differences for fricatives were based on coarticulatory cues into the consonant.
  • Walters, J., Rujescu, D., Franke, B., Giegling, I., Vasquez, A., Hargreaves, A., Russo, G., Morris, D., Hoogman, M., Da Costa, A., Moskvina, V., Fernandez, G., Gill, M., Corvin, A., O'Donovan, M., Donohoe, G., & Owen, M. (2013). The role of the major histocompatibility complex region in cognition and brain structure: A schizophrenia GWAS follow-up. American Journal of Psychiatry, 170, 877-885. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.12020226.

    Abstract

    Objective The authors investigated the effects of recently identified genome-wide significant schizophrenia genetic risk variants on cognition and brain structure. Method A panel of six single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was selected to represent genome-wide significant loci from three recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for schizophrenia and was tested for association with cognitive measures in 346 patients with schizophrenia and 2,342 healthy comparison subjects. Nominally significant results were evaluated for replication in an independent case-control sample. For SNPs showing evidence of association with cognition, associations with brain structural volumes were investigated in a large independent healthy comparison sample. Results Five of the six SNPs showed no significant association with any cognitive measure. One marker in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region, rs6904071, showed independent, replicated evidence of association with delayed episodic memory and was significant when both samples were combined. In the combined sample of up to 3,100 individuals, this SNP was associated with widespread effects across cognitive domains, although these additional associations were no longer significant after adjusting for delayed episodic memory. In the large independent structural imaging sample, the same SNP was also associated with decreased hippocampal volume. Conclusions The authors identified a SNP in the MHC region that was associated with cognitive performance in patients with schizophrenia and healthy comparison subjects. This SNP, rs6904071, showed a replicated association with episodic memory and hippocampal volume. These findings implicate the MHC region in hippocampal structure and functioning, consistent with the role of MHC proteins in synaptic development and function. Follow-up of these results has the potential to provide insights into the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and cognition.

    Additional information

    Hoogman_2013_JourAmePsy.supp.pdf
  • Wang, L., Bastiaansen, M. C. M., Yang, Y., & Hagoort, P. (2013). ERP evidence on the interaction between information structure and emotional salience of words. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 13, 297-310. doi:10.3758/s13415-012-0146-2.

    Abstract

    Both emotional words and words focused by information structure can capture attention. This study examined the interplay between emotional salience and information structure in modulating attentional resources in the service of integrating emotional words into sentence context. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to affectively negative, neutral, and positive words, which were either focused or nonfocused in question–answer pairs, were evaluated during sentence comprehension. The results revealed an early negative effect (90–200 ms), a P2 effect, as well as an effect in the N400 time window, for both emotional salience and information structure. Moreover, an interaction between emotional salience and information structure occurred within the N400 time window over right posterior electrodes, showing that information structure influences the semantic integration only for neutral words, but not for emotional words. This might reflect the fact that the linguistic salience of emotional words can override the effect of information structure on the integration of words into context. The interaction provides evidence for attention–emotion interactions at a later stage of processing. In addition, the absence of interaction in the early time window suggests that the processing of emotional information is highly automatic and independent of context. The results suggest independent attention capture systems of emotional salience and information structure at the early stage but an interaction between them at a later stage, during the semantic integration of words.
  • Wang, L., Zhu, Z., Bastiaansen, M. C. M., Hagoort, P., & Yang, Y. (2013). Recognizing the emotional valence of names: An ERP study. Brain and Language, 125, 118-127. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2013.01.006.

    Abstract

    Unlike common nouns, person names refer to unique entities and generally have a referring function. We used event-related potentials to investigate the time course of identifying the emotional meaning of nouns and names. The emotional valence of names and nouns were manipulated separately. The results show early N1 effects in response to emotional valence only for nouns. This might reflect automatic attention directed towards emotional stimuli. The absence of such an effect for names supports the notion that the emotional meaning carried by names is accessed after word recognition and person identification. In addition, both names with negative valence and emotional nouns elicited late positive effects, which have been associated with evaluation of emotional significance. This positive effect started earlier for nouns than for names, but with similar durations. Our results suggest that distinct neural systems are involved in the retrieval of names’ and nouns’ emotional meaning.
  • Wang, L., & Chu, M. (2013). The role of beat gesture and pitch accent in semantic processing: An ERP study. Neuropsychologia, 51(13), 2847-2855. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.09.027.

    Abstract

    The present study investigated whether and how beat gesture (small baton-like hand movements used to emphasize information in speech) influences semantic processing as well as its interaction with pitch accent during speech comprehension. Event-related potentials were recorded as participants watched videos of a person gesturing and speaking simultaneously. The critical words in the spoken sentences were accompanied by a beat gesture, a control hand movement, or no hand movement, and were expressed either with or without pitch accent. We found that both beat gesture and control hand movement induced smaller negativities in the N400 time window than when no hand movement was presented. The reduced N400s indicate that both beat gesture and control movement facilitated the semantic integration of the critical word into the sentence context. In addition, the words accompanied by beat gesture elicited smaller negativities in the N400 time window than those accompanied by control hand movement over right posterior electrodes, suggesting that beat gesture has a unique role for enhancing semantic processing during speech comprehension. Finally, no interaction was observed between beat gesture and pitch accent, indicating that they affect semantic processing independently.
  • Warmelink, L., Vrij, A., Mann, S., Leal, S., & Poletiek, F. H. (2013). The effects of unexpected questions on detecting familiar and unfamiliar lies. Psychiatry, Psychology and law, 20(1), 29-35. doi:10.1080/13218719.2011.619058.

    Abstract

    Previous research suggests that lie detection can be improved by asking the interviewee unexpected questions. The present experiment investigates the effect of two types of unexpected questions: background questions and detail questions, on detecting lies about topics with which the interviewee is (a) familiar or (b) unfamiliar. In this experiment, 66 participants read interviews in which interviewees answered background or detail questions, either truthfully or deceptively. Those who answered deceptively could be lying about a topic they were familiar with or about a topic they were unfamiliar with. The participants were asked to judge whether the interviewees were lying. The results revealed that background questions distinguished truths from both types of lies, while the detail questions distinguished truths from unfamiliar lies, but not from familiar lies. The implications of these findings are discussed.
  • Wheeldon, L. R., & Levelt, W. J. M. (1995). Monitoring the time course of phonological encoding. Journal of Memory and Language, 34(3), 311-334. doi:10.1006/jmla.1995.1014.

    Abstract

    Three experiments examined the time course of phonological encoding in speech production. A new methodology is introduced in which subjects are required to monitor their internal speech production for prespecified target segments and syllables. Experiment 1 demonstrated that word initial target segments are monitored significantly faster than second syllable initial target segments. The addition of a concurrent articulation task (Experiment 1b) had a limited effect on performance, excluding the possibility that subjects are monitoring a subvocal articulation of the carrier word. Moreover, no relationship was observed between the pattern of monitoring latencies and the timing of the targets in subjects′ overt speech. Subjects are not, therefore, monitoring an internal phonetic representation of the carrier word. Experiment 2 used the production monitoring task to replicate the syllable monitoring effect observed in speech perception experiments: responses to targets were faster when they corresponded to the initial syllable of the carrier word than when they did not. We conclude that subjects are monitoring their internal generation of a syllabified phonological representation. Experiment 3 provides more detailed evidence concerning the time course of the generation of this representation by comparing monitoring latencies to targets within, as well as between, syllables. Some amendments to current models of phonological encoding are suggested in light of these results.
  • Whitmarsh, S., Udden, J., Barendregt, H., & Petersson, K. M. (2013). Mindfulness reduces habitual responding based on implicit knowledge: Evidence from artificial grammar learning. Consciousness and Cognition, (3), 833-845. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2013.05.007.

    Abstract

    Participants were unknowingly exposed to complex regularities in a working memory task. The existence of implicit knowledge was subsequently inferred from a preference for stimuli with similar grammatical regularities. Several affective traits have been shown to influence
    AGL performance positively, many of which are related to a tendency for automatic responding. We therefore tested whether the mindfulness trait predicted a reduction of grammatically congruent preferences, and used emotional primes to explore the influence of affect. Mindfulness was shown to correlate negatively with grammatically congruent responses. Negative primes were shown to result in faster and more negative evaluations.
    We conclude that grammatically congruent preference ratings rely on habitual responses, and that our findings provide empirical evidence for the non-reactive disposition of the mindfulness trait.
  • Wilkins, D. P., & Hill, D. (1995). When "go" means "come": Questioning the basicness of basic motion verbs. Cognitive Linguistics, 6, 209-260. doi:10.1515/cogl.1995.6.2-3.209.

    Abstract

    The purpose of this paper is to question some of the basic assumpiions concerning motion verbs. In particular, it examines the assumption that "come" and "go" are lexical universals which manifest a universal deictic Opposition. Against the background offive working hypotheses about the nature of'come" and ''go", this study presents a comparative investigation of t wo unrelated languages—Mparntwe Arrernte (Pama-Nyungan, Australian) and Longgu (Oceanic, Austronesian). Although the pragmatic and deictic "suppositional" complexity of"come" and "go" expressions has long been recognized, we argue that in any given language the analysis of these expressions is much more semantically and systemically complex than has been assumed in the literature. Languages vary at the lexical semantic level äs t o what is entailed by these expressions, äs well äs differing äs t o what constitutes the prototype and categorial structure for such expressions. The data also strongly suggest that, ifthere is a lexical universal "go", then this cannof be an inherently deictic expression. However, due to systemic Opposition with "come", non-deictic "go" expressions often take on a deictic Interpretation through pragmatic attribution. Thus, this crosslinguistic investigation of "come" and "go" highlights the need to consider semantics and pragmatics äs modularly separate.

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