Language distance in orthographic transparency affects cross‐language pattern similarity between native and non‐native languages

This study examined Australian English (AE) and Thai–English bilingual (TE) speakers' ability to perceive word-final stops in their native and non-native languages. In the perception experiment, the TE listeners were able to discriminate stop contrasts differing only in place of articulation (/p/–/t/, /p/–/k/, /t/–/k/) in both English and Thai accurately, but the AE listeners' discrimination was accurate only for English. The listeners' discrimination accuracy was differentially influenced by the type of stop contrast they heard. The Thai /p/–/t/ contrast was most discriminable for both groups of listeners, in particular, the AE listeners. Acoustic analyses of the Thai stimuli presented in the perception experiment were conducted in order to search for cues that led to different response patterns for the AE and TE listeners. There was a clear effect of the final stop on the formant trajectories of /a/ and /u/, suggesting that these acoustic differences may be audible to the listeners. The results provide further evidence that first language (L1) transfer alone is insufficient to account for listeners' response patterns in cross-language speech perception and that it is necessary to take into account phonetic realization of sounds and/or the amount of acoustic information contained in the speech signal to predict accuracy with which sound contrasts are discriminated.

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Universal Patterns in Color-Emotion Associations Are Further Shaped by Linguistic and Geographic Proximity

Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0956797620948810 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 31 (10) ◽

pp. 1245-1260

Author(s):

Domicele Jonauskaite ◽

Ahmad Abu-Akel ◽

Nele Dael ◽

Daniel Oberfeld ◽

Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Learning Algorithm ◽

Cognitive Architecture ◽

Well Being ◽

Similarity Coefficient ◽

Geographic Proximity ◽

Native Languages ◽

Pattern Similarity ◽

Average Similarity ◽

Color Emotion ◽

Emotion Concepts

Many of us “see red,” “feel blue,” or “turn green with envy.” Are such color-emotion associations fundamental to our shared cognitive architecture, or are they cultural creations learned through our languages and traditions? To answer these questions, we tested emotional associations of colors in 4,598 participants from 30 nations speaking 22 native languages. Participants associated 20 emotion concepts with 12 color terms. Pattern-similarity analyses revealed universal color-emotion associations (average similarity coefficient r = .88). However, local differences were also apparent. A machine-learning algorithm revealed that nation predicted color-emotion associations above and beyond those observed universally. Similarity was greater when nations were linguistically or geographically close. This study highlights robust universal color-emotion associations, further modulated by linguistic and geographic factors. These results pose further theoretical and empirical questions about the affective properties of color and may inform practice in applied domains, such as well-being and design.

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The effects of word concreteness on cross-language neural pattern similarity during semantic categorization

Journal of Neurolinguistics ◽

10.1016/j.jneuroling.2020.100978 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 58 ◽

pp. 100978

Author(s):

Huiling Li ◽

Yumin Liang ◽

Jing Qu ◽

Yue Sun ◽

Nan Jiang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Semantic Categorization ◽

Pattern Similarity ◽

Word Concreteness ◽

Cross Language

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Cross Language Information Retrieval (CLIR): A Survey of Approaches for Exploring Web Across Languages

International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering - Special Issue ◽

10.35940/ijitee.k7833.1110120 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 326-332

Keyword(s):

Information Retrieval ◽

The Internet ◽

Native Languages ◽

Retrieval Systems ◽

Private Organizations ◽

Almost Everywhere ◽

Cross Language Information Retrieval ◽

Information Retrieval Systems ◽

Cross Language ◽

Monolingual Information Retrieval

In the era of globalization, internet being accessible and affordable has gained huge popularity and is widely being used almost everywhere by Government, private organizations, companies, banks, etc. as well as by individuals. It has empowered its users to contribute to the creation of information on web enabling them to use their native languages which consequently has drastically increased the volume of web-accessible documents available in languages other than English. This exponential growth of information on the internet has also induced several challenges before the information retrieval systems. Most of the present monolingual information retrieval systems can retrieve documents in the language of query only, missing the information in other languages that may be more relevant to the user. The need of information retrieval systems to become multilingual has given rise to the research in Cross Language Information Retrieval (CLIR) which can cross the language barriers and retrieve more relevant results from documents in different languages. This article is a review of motivation, issues, work and challenges related to various CLIR approaches. Starting with the most fundamental approaches of translation, it is attempted to study and present a review of more advanced approaches for enhancing the retrieval results in CLIR proposed by various researchers working in this domain.

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Psychometric Parameters of the Spanish Version of the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale (S-KUAS)1

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759.20.4.349 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 349-357 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek ◽

Joaquin Tomás-Sabádo ◽

Juana Gómez-Benito

Keyword(s):

Reliability And Validity ◽

Anxiety Scale ◽

Spanish Version ◽

Good Reliability ◽

Kuwait University ◽

Males And Females ◽

Anxiety Levels ◽

Arabic And English ◽

Cross Language ◽

Language Equivalence

Summary: To construct a Spanish version of the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale (S-KUAS), the Arabic and English versions of the KUAS have been separately translated into Spanish. To check the comparability in terms of meaning, the two Spanish preliminary translations were thoroughly scrutinized vis-à-vis both the Arabic and English forms by several experts. Bilingual subjects served to explore the cross-language equivalence of the English and Spanish versions of the KUAS. The correlation between the total scores on both versions was .93, and the t value was .30 (n.s.), denoting good similarity. The Alphas and 4-week test-retest reliabilities were greater than .84, while the criterion-related validity was .70 against scores on the trait subscale of the STAI. These findings denote good reliability and validity of the S-KUAS. Factor analysis yielded three high-loaded factors of Behavioral/Subjective, Cognitive/Affective, and Somatic Anxiety, equivalent to the original Arabic version. Female (n = 210) undergraduates attained significantly higher mean scores than their male (n = 102) counterparts. For the combined group of males and females, the correlation between the total score on the S-KUAS and age was -.17 (p < .01). By and large, the findings of the present study provide evidence of the utility of the S-KUAS in assessing trait anxiety levels in the Spanish undergraduate context.

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