When does an ostrich become a bird? The role of typicality in early word comprehension

ObjectiveTo explore atrophy–deficit correlations of word comprehension and repetition in temporoparietal cortices encompassing the Wernicke area, based on patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA).MethodsCortical thickness in regions within and outside the classical Wernicke area, measured by FreeSurfer, was correlated with repetition and single word comprehension scores in 73 right-handed patients at mild to moderate stages of PPA.ResultsAtrophy in the Wernicke area was correlated with repetition (r = 0.42, p = 0.001) but not single word comprehension (r = −0.072, p = 0.553). Correlations with word comprehension were confined to more anterior parts of the temporal lobe, especially its anterior third (r = 0.60, p < 0.001). A single case with postmortem autopsy illustrated preservation of word comprehension but not repetition 6 months prior to death despite nearly 50% loss of cortical volume and severe neurofibrillary degeneration in core components of the Wernicke area.ConclusionsTemporoparietal cortices containing the Wernicke area are critical for language repetition. Contrary to the formulations of classic aphasiology, their role in word and sentence comprehension is ancillary rather than critical. Thus, the Wernicke area is not sufficient to sustain word comprehension if the anterior temporal lobe is damaged. Traditional models of the role of the Wernicke area in comprehension are based almost entirely on patients with cerebrovascular lesions. Such lesions also cause deep white matter destruction and acute network diaschisis, whereas progressive neurodegenerative diseases associated with PPA do not. Conceptualizations of the Wernicke area that appear to conflict, therefore, can be reconciled by considering the hodologic and physiologic differences of the underlying lesions.

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Understanding words in context: The role of Broca's area in word comprehension

Brain Research ◽

10.1016/j.brainres.2006.10.012 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 1146 ◽

pp. 101-114 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Marina Bedny ◽

Justin C. Hulbert ◽

Sharon L. Thompson-Schill

Keyword(s):

Broca’S Area ◽

Broca's Area ◽

Word Comprehension

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Preverbal skills in 8-month-old children with sex chromosome trisomies

First Language ◽

10.1177/0142723720962944 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 014272372096294

Author(s):

Laura Zampini ◽

Tiziana Burla ◽

Gaia Silibello ◽

Elena Capelli ◽

Francesca Dall’Ara ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sex Chromosome ◽

Word Comprehension ◽

Lexical Development ◽

Observation Session ◽

Number Of Children ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Predictive Role ◽

Few Data ◽

Vocal Productions

Individuals with sex chromosome trisomies (SCTs) have an increased risk of language delays and impairments. However, there are only a few data relative to their language development in early childhood. The present study aimed to investigate the preverbal skills shown by a group of 8-month-old children with SCTs to assess the presence of a possible early communicative delay. Moreover, the predictive role of early preverbal productions on later lexical development at 24 months was analysed. Twenty-six children with SCTs and 24 typically developing (TD) children participated in the study. Their use of vocal productions and gazes addressed to the communicative partner was assessed during a parent–child observation session held when the children were 8 months old. In addition, the children’s word comprehension at 8 months and their word production at 24 months were indirectly assessed by a parental report. Children’s word comprehension was similar in the two groups of children, whereas a significantly lower frequency per minute of gazes was found in children with SCTs than in TD children. A significantly lower proportion of children with SCTs showed the ability to produce babbling during the observation session, and significant differences were also found in the frequency of babbling utterances. No significant differences emerged among the subgroups of children with different types of SCTs. The predictive role of babbling on later lexical size was found in TD children but not in children with SCTs. This result could be probably explained by the small number of children in this group who could produce babbling utterances. The study leads to identify early signals of delay in the preverbal skills of children with SCTs. Early monitoring of their communicative development could help the clinicians in intervening with well-timed and targeted programmes.

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The role of segmental and durational cues in the processing of reduced words

Language and Speech ◽

10.1177/0023830917727774 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 61 (3) ◽

pp. 358-383 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Marco van de Ven ◽

Mirjam Ernestus

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Spontaneous Speech ◽

Conversational Speech ◽

Word Comprehension ◽

Degree Of Reduction ◽

Initial Syllable ◽

Word Duration ◽

Gating Paradigm ◽

Target Words

In natural conversations, words are generally shorter and they often lack segments. It is unclear to what extent such durational and segmental reductions affect word recognition. The present study investigates to what extent reduction in the initial syllable hinders word comprehension, which types of segments listeners mostly rely on, and whether listeners use word duration as a cue in word recognition. We conducted three experiments in Dutch, in which we adapted the gating paradigm to study the comprehension of spontaneously uttered conversational speech by aligning the gates with the edges of consonant clusters or vowels. Participants heard the context and some segmental and/or durational information from reduced target words with unstressed initial syllables. The initial syllable varied in its degree of reduction, and in half of the stimuli the vowel was not clearly present. Participants gave too short answers if they were only provided with durational information from the target words, which shows that listeners are unaware of the reductions that can occur in spontaneous speech. More importantly, listeners required fewer segments to recognize target words if the vowel in the initial syllable was absent. This result strongly suggests that this vowel hardly plays a role in word comprehension, and that its presence may even delay this process. More important are the consonants and the stressed vowel.

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Familiarity Plays a Small Role in Noun Comprehension at 12-18 months

10.31234/osf.io/b3pj6 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Hallie Garrison ◽

Gladys Baudet ◽

Elise Breitfeld ◽

Alexis Aberman ◽

Elika Bergelson

Keyword(s):

Word Comprehension ◽

Lexical Development ◽

Perceptual Features ◽

Young Infants ◽

Second Year ◽

Age Range ◽

Intrinsic Component

Infants amass thousands of hours of experience with particular items, each of which is representative of a broader category that often shares perceptual features. Robust word comprehension requires generalizing known labels to new category members. While young infants have been found to look at common nouns when they are named aloud, the role of item familiarity has not been well-examined. This study compares 12-18-month-olds’ word comprehension in the context of pairs of their own items (e.g. photos of their own shoe and ball) versus new tokens from the same category (e.g. a new shoe and ball). Our results replicate previous work showing that noun comprehension improves rapidly over the second year, while also suggesting that item familiarity appears to play a far smaller role in comprehension in this age-range. This in turn suggests that even before age two, ready generalization beyond particular experiences is an intrinsic component of lexical development.

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Familiarity Plays a Small Role in Noun Comprehension at 12-18 months

10.31234/osf.io/sz38y ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Hallie Garrison ◽

Gladys Baudet ◽

Elise Breitfeld ◽

Alexis Aberman ◽

Elika Bergelson

Keyword(s):

Word Comprehension ◽

Lexical Development ◽

Perceptual Features ◽

Young Infants ◽

Second Year ◽

Age Range ◽

Intrinsic Component

Infants amass thousands of hours of experience with particular items, each of which is representative of a broader category that often shares perceptual features. Robust word comprehension requires generalizing known labels to new category members. While young infants have been found to look at common nouns when they are named aloud, the role of item familiarity has not been well-examined. This study compares 12-18-month-olds’ word comprehension in the context of pairs of their own items (e.g. photos of their own shoe and ball) versus new tokens from the same category (e.g. a new shoe and ball). Our results replicate previous work showing that noun comprehension improves rapidly over the second year, while also suggesting that item familiarity appears to play a far smaller role in comprehension in this age-range. This in turn suggests that even before age two, ready generalization beyond particular experiences is an intrinsic component of lexical development.

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Basic level categorization in seven- and nine-month-old infants

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s030500090000800x ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 191-208 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Kenneth Roberts ◽

Frances Degen Horowitz

Keyword(s):

Structural Similarity ◽

Word Comprehension ◽

Independent Evidence ◽

Object Category ◽

Line Drawings ◽

Linguistic Data ◽

Semantic Categories ◽

Facilitative Role ◽

Basic Level

ABSTRACTThe current reliance on linguistic data for inferences about the concept–word relationship has led to serious questions being raised regarding the existence and facilitative role of prelinguistic categories in early word learning. In three experiments a multiple habituation paradigm was used to examine the ability of 7- and 9-month-old prelinguistic infants to form a natural, basic-level object category. In Experiment 1, 9-month-old infants appeared to form a category of bird, but only when habituated to prototypical exemplars as opposed to poor exemplars. Discriminability between prototypical habituation exemplars and test stimuli was demonstrated in Experiment 2. In Experiment 3, 7-month-olds did not form a category of bird when habituated to prototypes. These findings constitute independent evidence for the existence of a linguistically relevant nonlinguistic category prior to the onset of word comprehension. Moreover, formation of prelinguistic categories appears to be facilitated by exposure to prototypes. Such goodness-of-exemplar effects suggest a structural similarity between infants' prelinguistic categories and early semantic categories. Finally, nonlinguistic categorization of natural basic-level objects, as represented in line drawings, appears to emerge between 0;7 and 0;9.

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How robust are exemplar effects in word comprehension?

The Mental Lexicon ◽

10.1075/ml.8.3.01han ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 269-294 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Iris Hanique ◽

Ellen Aalders ◽

Mirjam Ernestus

Keyword(s):

Lexical Decision ◽

Word Type ◽

Speech Comprehension ◽

Reduction Degree ◽

Word Comprehension ◽

Variation Reduction ◽

Degree Of Reduction ◽

Repeated Words

This paper studies the robustness of exemplar effects in word comprehension by means of four long-term priming experiments with lexical decision tasks in Dutch. A prime and target represented the same word type and were presented with the same or different degree of reduction. In Experiment 1, participants heard only a small number of trials, a large proportion of repeated words, and stimuli produced by only one speaker. They recognized targets more quickly if these represented the same degree of reduction as their primes, which forms additional evidence for the exemplar effects reported in the literature. Similar effects were found for two speakers who differ in their pronunciations. In Experiment 2, with a smaller proportion of repeated words and more trials between prime and target, participants recognized targets preceded by primes with the same or a different degree of reduction equally quickly. Also, in Experiments 3 and 4, in which listeners were not exposed to one but two types of pronunciation variation (reduction degree and speaker voice), no exemplar effects arose. We conclude that the role of exemplars in speech comprehension during natural conversations, which typically involve several speakers and few repeated content words, may be smaller than previously assumed.

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