Constrained sentence production in probable Alzheimer disease

2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
LORI J. P. ALTMANN
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer Disease ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Production Accuracy

This study examines the speech of older adults with and without probable Alzheimer disease (PAD) when they produce sentences that include a verb and two nouns provided by the experimenter. Compared to healthy controls, individuals with mild PAD produced fewer correct responses as well as anomalous proportions of active and passive sentences. Responses were particularly impaired when canonical sentence structures had to be suppressed and unusual sentence structures generated. The sentence production accuracy of individuals with PAD correlated strongly with performance on a picture-naming task. The findings support a theory in which the ability to fully activate semantic representations is impaired in PAD, resulting in proportional impairments on single-word and sentence production tasks.

scholarly journals Why is lexical retrieval slower for bilinguals? Evidence from picture naming

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARGOT D. SULLIVAN ◽  
GREGORY J. POARCH ◽  
ELLEN BIALYSTOK
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Language Groups

Proficient bilinguals demonstrate slower lexical retrieval than comparable monolinguals. The present study tested predictions from two main accounts of this effect, the frequency-lag and competition hypotheses. Both make the same prediction for bilinguals but differ for trilinguals and for age differences. 200 younger or older adults who were monolingual, bilingual, or trilingual performed a picture naming task in English that included high and low frequency words. Naming times were faster for high than for low frequency words and, in line with frequency-lag, group differences were larger for low than high frequency items. However, on all other measures, bilinguals and trilinguals performed equivalently, and lexical retrieval differences between language groups did not attenuate with age, consistent with the competition view.

scholarly journals Neural representation of words within phrases: Temporal evolution of color-adjectives and object-nouns during simple composition

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0242754
Author(s):  
Maryam Honari-Jahromi ◽  
Brea Chouinard ◽  
Esti Blanco-Elorrieta ◽  
Liina Pylkkänen ◽  
Alona Fyshe
Keyword(s):  
Picture Naming ◽  
Temporal Evolution ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Crack Open ◽  
Speech Planning ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Time Point

In language, stored semantic representations of lexical items combine into an infinitude of complex expressions. While the neuroscience of composition has begun to mature, we do not yet understand how the stored representations evolve and morph during composition. New decoding techniques allow us to crack open this very hard question: we can train a model to recognize a representation in one context or time-point and assess its accuracy in another. We combined the decoding approach with magnetoencephalography recorded during a picture naming task to investigate the temporal evolution of noun and adjective representations during speech planning. We tracked semantic representations as they combined into simple two-word phrases, using single words and two-word lists as non-combinatory controls. We found that nouns were generally more decodable than adjectives, suggesting that noun representations were stronger and/or more consistent across trials than those of adjectives. When training and testing across contexts and times, the representations of isolated nouns were recoverable when those nouns were embedded in phrases, but not so if they were embedded in lists. Adjective representations did not show a similar consistency across isolated and phrasal contexts. Noun representations in phrases also sustained over time in a way that was not observed for any other pairing of word class and context. These findings offer a new window into the temporal evolution and context sensitivity of word representations during composition, revealing a clear asymmetry between adjectives and nouns. The impact of phrasal contexts on the decodability of nouns may be due to the nouns’ status as head of phrase—an intriguing hypothesis for future research.

Cognitive Load Affects Speech Motor Performance Differently in Older and Younger Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1258-1277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan K. MacPherson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Incongruent Condition ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Movement Duration ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Speech Motor

PurposeThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of cognitive load imposed by a speech production task on the speech motor performance of healthy older and younger adults. Response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory were the primary cognitive processes of interest.MethodTwelve healthy older and 12 healthy younger adults produced multiple repetitions of 4 sentences containing an embedded Stroop task in 2 cognitive load conditions: congruent and incongruent. The incongruent condition, which required participants to suppress orthographic information to say the font colors in which color words were written, represented an increase in cognitive load relative to the congruent condition in which word text and font color matched. Kinematic measures of articulatory coordination variability and movement duration as well as a behavioral measure of sentence production accuracy were compared between groups and conditions and across 3 sentence segments (pre-, during-, and post-Stroop).ResultsIncreased cognitive load in the incongruent condition was associated with increased articulatory coordination variability and movement duration, compared to the congruent Stroop condition, for both age groups. Overall, the effect of increased cognitive load was greater for older adults than younger adults and was greatest in the portion of the sentence in which cognitive load was manipulated (during-Stroop), followed by the pre-Stroop segment. Sentence production accuracy was reduced for older adults in the incongruent condition.ConclusionsIncreased cognitive load involving response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory processes within a speech production task disrupted both the stability and timing with which speech was produced by both age groups. Older adults' speech motor performance may have been more affected due to age-related changes in cognitive and motoric functions that result in altered motor cognition.

Coining Compounds and Derivations - A Crosslinguistic Elicitation Study of Word-Formation Abilities of Preschool Children and Adults in Polish and English

2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 176-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa Haman ◽  
Andrea Zevenbergen ◽  
Melissa Andrus ◽  
Marta Chmielewska
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Native Language ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Elicitation Study ◽  
American Children ◽  
To Come

Coining Compounds and Derivations - A Crosslinguistic Elicitation Study of Word-Formation Abilities of Preschool Children and Adults in Polish and English This paper examines word-formation abilities in coining compounds and derivatives in preschool children and adult speakers of two languages (English and Polish) differing in overall word-formation productivity and in favoring of particular word-formation patterns (compounding vs. derivation). An elicitation picture naming task was designed to assess these abilities across a range of word-formation categories. Adult speakers demonstrated well-developed word-formation skills in patterns both typical and non-typical for their native language. In contrast with adult results, preschool children predominantly coined innovations conforming to the general pattern of their language: Polish children favoring derivation and American children favoring compounding. The results show that although children are improving their wordformation skills during the preschool years, they need much more experience to come to the mature proficiency in using the variety of word-formation patterns available in their language.

Gender Comparisons of Cognitive Performances Among Vascular Dementia, Alzheimer Disease, and Older Adults Without Dementia

1996 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 436-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. G. Buckwalter ◽  
A. A. Rizzo ◽  
R. McCleary ◽  
R. Shankle ◽  
M. Dick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer Disease ◽  
Vascular Dementia ◽  
Gender Comparisons

Gestural symbolic strategies in children with Down syndrome

Gesture ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 299-334
Author(s):  
Arianna Bello ◽  
Silvia Stefanini ◽  
Pasquale Rinaldi ◽  
Daniela Onofrio ◽  
Virginia Volterra
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Item Analysis ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Children With Down Syndrome ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Developmental Age ◽  
Representational Gestures

Abstract In early communicative development, children with Down syndrome (DS) make extensive use of gestures to compensate for articulatory difficulties. Here, we analyzed the symbolic strategies that underlie this gesture production, compared to that used by typically developing children. Using the same picture-naming task, 79 representational gestures produced by 10 children with DS and 42 representational gestures produced by 10 typically developing children of comparable developmental age (3;1 vs. 2;9, respectively) were collected. The gestures were analyzed and classified according to four symbolic strategies. The two groups performed all of the strategies, with no significant differences for either choice or frequency of the strategies used. The item analysis highlighted that some photographs tended to elicit the use of the same strategy in both groups. These results indicate that similar symbolic strategies are active in children with DS as in typically developing children, which suggests interesting similarities in their symbolic development.

The Development of Fundamental Frequency in 6- to 10-Year Old Children: A Brief Study

1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 55-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. P. Whiteside ◽  
C. Hodgson
Keyword(s):  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Final Position ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Age And Sex

This brief study investigates the development of fundamental frequency (FO) in pre-adolescent children as a function of age and sex. The children who took part in the study were divided into three age groups: 6, 8 and 10 years. Each group consisted of three males and three females. Each subject produced nine target phrases with [] in phrase-final position, which were elicited via a picture-naming task. FO was estimated for the nine target utterances and the following FO parameters were derived: mean FO for the whole phrase; FO range for the whole phrase; standard deviation values of FO for the whole phrase and mean FO for the phrase-final vowel [α:]. Results indicated that FO parameters generally decreased with age, and by age 10 years the males had lower values than the females for all four parameters. Results also indicated that the mean standard deviation of FO across the phrase was significantly higher for the females compared to that for the males.

Plurals as modifiers in Dutch and English noun-noun compounds express plurality in production

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arina Banga ◽  
Esther Hanssen ◽  
Anneke Neijt ◽  
Robert Schreuder
Keyword(s):  
Picture Naming ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Semantic Constraints ◽  
Noun Compounds ◽  
English Noun

The present study investigates the relation between conceptual plurality and the occurrence of a plural morpheme in novel Dutch and English noun-noun compounds. Using a picture-naming task, we compared the naming responses of native Dutch speakers and native English speakers to pictures depicting either one or multiple instances of the same object serving as a possible modifier in a novel noun-noun compound. While the speakers of both languages most frequently produced novel compounds containing a singular modifier, they also used compounds containing a plural modifier and did this more often to describe a picture with several instances of an object than to describe a picture with one instance of the object. Speakers of English incorporated some regular plurals into the noun-noun compounds they produced. These results contradict the words-and-rules theory of Pinker (1999) and also the semantic constraints for compounding put forth by Alegre and Gordon (1996). Interestingly, it appears, however, that the acceptability constraints put forth by Haskell, MacDonald, and Seidenberg (2003) apply to the production of compounds.

scholarly journals Attention and inhibition in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 43-50
Author(s):  
Clara Zancada-Menéndez ◽  
Patricia Sampedro-Piquero ◽  
Azucena Begega ◽  
Laudino López ◽  
Jorge Luis Arias
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Alzheimer Disease ◽  
Neuropsychological Test ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Stop Signal Task ◽  
Healthy Controls

Mild cognitive impairment is understood as a cognitive deficit of insufficient severity to fulfil the criteria for Alzheimer’s disease. Many studies have attempted to identify which cognitive functions are most affected by this type of impairment and which is the most sensitive neuropsychological test for early detection. This study investigated sustained and selective attention, processing speed, and the inhibition process using a sample of people divided into three groups mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer disease and cognitively healthy controls selected and grouped based on their scores in the Mini Mental State Examination and Cambridge Cognitive Examination-revised. Three tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (Motor Screening Task, Stop Signal Task and Reaction time) were used as well as the d2 attention test. The results show that that participants with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease showed lower levels of concentration compared with the cognitively healthy controls group in the d2 test and longer reaction times in the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery, although the differences were not marked in the latter test. The impairments in basic cognitive processes, such as reaction time and sustained attention, indicate the need to take these functions into account in the test protocols when discriminating between normal aging and early and preclinical dementia processes.

scholarly journals Comparing the cognate effect in spoken and written second language word production

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merel Muylle ◽  
Eva Van Assche ◽  
Robert Hartsuiker
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Word Production ◽  
Error Pattern ◽  
Underlying Processes

Cognates – words that share form and meaning between languages – are processed faster than control words. However, it is unclear whether this effect is merely lexical (i.e., central) in nature, or whether it cascades to phonological/orthographic (i.e., peripheral) processes. This study compared the cognate effect in spoken and typewritten production, which share central, but not peripheral processes. We inquired whether this effect is present in typewriting, and if so, whether its magnitude is similar to spoken production. Dutch-English bilinguals performed either a spoken or written picture naming task in English; picture names were either Dutch-English cognates or control words. Cognates were named faster than controls and there was no cognate-by-modality interaction. Additionally, there was a similar error pattern in both modalities. These results suggest that common underlying processes are responsible for the cognate effect in spoken and written language production, and thus a central locus of the cognate effect.

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