How Sensorimotor Interactions Enable Sentence Imitation

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 321-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tzu-Wei Hung
Keyword(s):  
Sensorimotor Interactions ◽  
Sentence Imitation

Preschoolers’ imitation of sentential complement sentences: Does the nature of the matrix clause matter?

2021 ◽  
pp. 014272372110242
Author(s):  
Ian Morton ◽  
C. Melanie Schuele
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Matrix Clause ◽  
Developmental Progression ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Group 3 ◽  
Sentence Imitation ◽  
Experimental Findings

Preschoolers’ earliest productions of sentential complement sentences have matrix clauses that are limited in form. Diessel proposed that matrix clauses in these early productions are propositionally empty fixed phrases that lack semantic and syntactic integration with the clausal complement. By 4 years of age, however, preschoolers produce sentential complement sentences with matrix clauses that are more varied. Diessel proposed that the matrix clauses in these later productions semantically and syntactically embed the complement clause. We refer to these matrix clauses as formulaic and true, respectively. Diessel’s hypothesis about the development of sentential complement sentences was based on an analysis of spontaneous language. The purpose of this study was to evaluate Diessel’s hypothesis with an experimental sentence imitation task wherein stimuli varied in the nature of the matrix clause. Thirty children with typical language development participated; 10 children in each age group (3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) imitated 50 sentential complement sentences that included either a true or a formulaic matrix clause; the structure of the dependent clauses did not vary. Dependent variables were percent sentence imitation and percent matrix clause imitation. There was a significant main effect for matrix clause type on imitation of sentences and matrix clauses. There was also a significant main effect for age on imitation of sentences and matrix clauses. Significant matrix clause type-by-age interactions were such that percent sentence imitation and percent matrix clause imitation varied by age. Three- and 4-year-olds were less proficient than 5-year-olds on imitation of sentences with true matrix clauses and on imitations of true matrix clauses. Only 3- and 4-year-olds were less proficient imitating true matrix clauses than formulaic matrix clauses. Experimental findings support Diessel’s hypothesis that there is a developmental progression in the nature of preschoolers’ production of sentential complement sentences.

scholarly journals Learning Speech Production and Perception through Sensorimotor Interactions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shihab Shamma ◽  
Prachi Patel ◽  
Shoutik Mukherjee ◽  
Guilhem Marion ◽  
Bahar Khalighinejad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Tract ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Mathematical Simulations ◽  
Predictive Role ◽  
Sensorimotor Interactions ◽  
Forward Projection ◽  
Cortical Regions

Abstract Action and Perception are closely linked in many behaviors necessitating a close coordination between sensory and motor neural processes so as to achieve a well-integrated smoothly evolving task performance. To investigate the detailed nature of these sensorimotor interactions, and their role in learning and executing the skilled motor task of speaking, we analyzed ECoG recordings of responses in the high-γ band (70 Hz-150 Hz) in human subjects while they listened to, spoke, or silently articulated speech. We found elaborate spectrotemporally-modulated neural activity projecting in both forward (motor-to-sensory) and inverse directions between the higher-auditory and motor cortical regions engaged during speaking. Furthermore, mathematical simulations demonstrate a key role for the forward projection in learning to control the vocal tract, beyond its commonly-postulated predictive role during execution. These results therefore offer a broader view of the functional role of the ubiquitous forward projection as an important ingredient in learning, rather than just control, of skilled sensorimotor tasks.

Open class and closed class: Sentence-imitation experiments on intrasentential code-switching

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoji Azuma ◽  
Richard P. Meier
Keyword(s):  
Response Times ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
The Other ◽  
Speech Errors ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Sentence Imitation ◽  
Open Class ◽  
Japanese English

ABSTRACTOne of the most striking facts about exchange errors in speech is that open class items are exchanged, but closed class items are not. This article argues that a pattern analogous to that in speech errors also appears in intrasentential code-switching. Intrasentential code-switching is the alternating use of two languages in a sentence by bilinguals. Studies of the spontaneous conversation of bilinguals have supported the claim that open class items may be codeswitched, but closed class items may not. This claim was tested by two sentence repetition experiments, one with Japanese/English bilinguals and the other with Spanish/English bilinguals. The results show that the switching of closed class items caused significantly longer response times and more errors than the switching of open class items.

scholarly journals Nonword Repetition and Sentence Imitation as Clinical Markers for Primary Language Impairment in bilingual French-English- and English-French-speaking children in Northern Ontario

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 61-69
Author(s):  
Sara Dubreuil-Piché ◽  
Jenna Lachance ◽  
Chantal Mayer-Crittenden
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Primary Language ◽  
Clinical Markers ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Sentence Imitation ◽  
Primary Language Impairment

Studies indicate that nonword repetition and sentence imitation are useful tools when assessing bilingual children. Bilingual children with primary language impairment (PLI) typically score lower on these two tasks than their typically developing counterparts. Studies show that bilingual children are not disadvantaged during nonword repetition if they have limited language exposure. However, since sentence imitation tasks are constructed with words from the target language, it is expected that it would be more influenced by previous language exposure. The goal of this article will be to review the influence of bilingual exposure on both tasks. This review provides the theoretical background for future studies that will compare the accuracy of both tasks when identifying PLI in bilingual children.

Empiricism within the limits of postmodernism alone: On the emergence of the logically real within the multi-perspectival field

Semiotica ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (207) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Filimowicz
Keyword(s):  
Digital Humanities ◽  
Object Permanence ◽  
The Real ◽  
Sensorimotor Interactions ◽  
Discursive Strategy

AbstractThis essay offers a semiotic account of the Logically Real as an emergent category of multi-perspectival experience. Such an approach is supported by phenomenological, developmental, and cognitive discourses, which conceptualize the emergence of object permanence through sensorimotor interactions. Within this frame, I argue that humanities needs a form of native empiricism – by which I mean a discourse of the real, articulated through monosemic practices that symbolize the literal – as a component of the revitalization being wrought by the digital humanities. I adopt Sartre’s concept of the analagon complemented with a notion of codon to explicate what I call the sign dominance of the image, which is explored in relation to the experience of the sign as an act of imagination. Forms of practiced monosemy concatenated around the experienced permanence of objects is offered as a viable humanist discursive strategy toward revivifying empirical methodologies.

Children’s and adults’ initial phonological acquisition of a foreign language

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 374-401
Author(s):  
Romana Kopečková ◽  
Christine Dimroth ◽  
Ulrike Gut
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Phonological Acquisition ◽  
Phoneme Discrimination ◽  
Sentence Imitation ◽  
German Children ◽  
L2 Perception

Abstract This study compared children’s and adults’ L2 perception and production in the first hours of exposure to a foreign language. A total of 10 German children and 19 German adults performed a phoneme discrimination task and a sentence imitation task in Polish at two testing times. Exposed to a comparable input, the adult learners were found to perceive Polish sibilant contrasts more accurately than their child counterparts and to maintain this advantage over a two-week-long instruction. However, the two groups did not differ in their developing ability to produce the tested sibilants. A great deal of inter- and intra-individual differences in both learner groups was also attested. Our findings suggest that young L2 instructed learners are not necessarily better and/or faster perceivers and producers of novel language sounds than adult L2 instructed learners, who are able to discriminate a range of novel sibilant pairs even after very limited L2 exposure.

Spinal and pudendal nerve modulation of human corticoanal motor pathways

1998 ◽  
Vol 274 (2) ◽  
pp. G419-G423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaheen Hamdy ◽  
Paul Enck ◽  
Qasim Aziz ◽  
John C. Rothwell ◽  
Samet Uengoergil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anal Sphincter ◽  
Nerve Stimulation ◽  
External Anal Sphincter ◽  
Neural Control ◽  
Pudendal Nerve ◽  
Cortical Stimulation ◽  
Evoked Responses ◽  
Pudendal Nerve Stimulation ◽  
Sphincter Function ◽  
Sensorimotor Interactions

We investigated the effects of lumbosacral and pudendal nerve stimulation on the corticofugal pathways to the human external anal sphincter. In 11 healthy subjects, anal sphincter electromyographic responses, evoked to transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex, were recorded 5–500 ms after lumbosacral root or pudendal nerve stimulation. Lumbosacral and pudendal nerve stimulation alone evoked responses with amplitudes of 293 ± 73 and 401 ± 153 μV and latencies of 3.2 ± 0.2 and 2.2 ± 0.2 ms, respectively. Cortical stimulation also evoked responses with amplitudes of 351 ± 104 μV and latencies of 20.9 ± 1.1 ms. When lumbosacral or pudendal nerve stimulation preceded cortical stimulation, the cortically evoked responses were facilitated ( P < 0.01), with the effect appearing greatest at 5–20 ms after both lumbosacral and pudendal excitation and at 50–100 ms after lumbosacral excitation alone. Our results demonstrate that cortical pathways to the external anal sphincter are facilitated by prior lumbosacral and pudendal nerve stimulation, indicating that sensorimotor interactions are important in the central neural control of sphincter function.

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