The effects of age, education, and ethnicity on verbal fluency

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 531-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL KEMPLER ◽  
EVELYN L. TENG ◽  
MALCOLM DICK ◽  
I. MARIBEL TAUSSIG ◽  
DEBORAH S. DAVIS
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
American English ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Verbal Fluency Task ◽  
Animal Names ◽  
American English Speakers ◽  
Healthy Participants ◽  
Fluency Task

A group of 317 healthy participants between 54 and 99 years of age performed a verbal fluency task. The participants included Chinese, Hispanic, and Vietnamese immigrants, as well as White and African American English speakers. They were given 1 min to name as many animals as possible in their native language. The results showed that more animal names were produced by younger people and those with more education. Language background was also an important factor: The Vietnamese produced the most animal names and the Spanish speakers produced the fewest. The exaggerated difference between these two groups is attributed to the fact that Vietnamese animal names are short (predominantly 1 syllable) while the Spanish animal names are longer than any other language in this study (2 and 3 syllables per word). Finally, although the ethnic groups named different animals, and appeared to vary in the variety of animal names they used, these factors did not affect overall verbal fluency performance. (JINS, 1998, 4, 531–538.)

scholarly journals Beyond saying thanks

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Montserrat Mir ◽  
Josep M. Cots
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
American English ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Verbal Reports ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Scale Down ◽  
Peninsular Spanish ◽  
American English Speakers

Abstract This study explores how American English and Peninsular Spanish speakers respond to a compliment. Participants completed an online discourse completion test with nine different complimenting scenarios. A total of 14 different strategies for responding to a compliment were found in the data. Based on verbal reports on language use, it was found that Peninsular Spanish speakers do not compliment as often as American English speakers do. The data analysis also revealed that both language groups clearly prefer to accept a compliment, but whereas American English speakers regard a simple ‘thank you’ as an appropriate compliment response, Peninsular Spanish speakers prefer to agree with the complimented assertion by making a semantically fitted comment. Other differences include the importance of returning a compliment in American English and the need to scale down the illocutionary force of the compliment among Peninsular Spanish speakers.

Cross-modal priming differences between native and nonnative Spanish speakers

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Herd ◽  
Joan Sereno ◽  
Allard Jongman
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Native Spanish Speakers ◽  
Visual Targets ◽  
American English Speakers

AbstractTraining has been shown to improve American English speakers’ perception and production of the Spanish /ɾ, r, d/ contrast; however, it is unclear whether successfully trained contrasts are encoded in the lexicon. This study investigates whether learners of Spanish process the /ɾ, r, d/ contrast differently than native speakers and whether training affects processing. Using a cross-modal priming design, thirty-three Spanish learners were compared to ten native Spanish speakers. For native speakers, auditory primes with intervocalic taps (like [koɾo]) resulted in faster reaction times in response to matching visual targets (like

scholarly journals EXPRESS: Attention in Post-Lexical Processes of Utterance Production: Dual-Task Cost in Younger and Older Adults

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110341
Author(s):  
Maryll Fournet ◽  
Michaela Pernon ◽  
Sabina Catalano Chiuvé ◽  
Ursula Lopez ◽  
Marina Laganaro
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Verbal Task ◽  
Lexical Selection ◽  
Speech Task ◽  
Verbal Fluency Task ◽  
Dual Task Cost ◽  
Lexical Processes ◽  
Fluency Task

There is a general agreement that speaking requires attention at least for conceptual and lexical processes of utterance production. However, conflicting results have been obtained with dual-task paradigms using either repetition tasks or more generally tasks involving limited loading of lexical selection. This study aimed to investigate whether post-lexical processes recruit attentional resources. We used a new dual-task paradigm in a set of experiments where a continuous verbal production task involved either high or low demand on lexical selection processes. Experiment 1 evaluates lexical and post-lexical processes with a semantic verbal fluency task, whereas experiments 2 and 3 focus on post-lexical processes with a non-propositional speech task. In each experiment, two types of non-verbal secondary tasks were used: processing speed (simple manual reaction times) or inhibition (Go/No-go). In Experiment 1, a dual-task cost was observed on the semantic verbal fluency task and each non-verbal task. In Experiment 2, a dual-task cost appeared on the non-verbal tasks but not on the speech task. The same paradigm was used with older adults (Experiment 3), as increased effort in post-lexical processes has been associated with ageing. For older adults, a dual-task cost was also observed on the non-propositional verbal task when speech was produced with the inhibition non-verbal task. The results suggest an attentional cost on post-lexical processes and strategic effects in the resolution of the dual-task.

scholarly journals Similar frequency of the McGurk effect in large samples of native Mandarin Chinese and American English speakers

2015 ◽  
Vol 233 (9) ◽  
pp. 2581-2586 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Magnotti ◽  
Debshila Basu Mallick ◽  
Guo Feng ◽  
Bin Zhou ◽  
Wen Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
American English ◽  
Mcgurk Effect ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Similar Frequency ◽  
Large Samples ◽  
American English Speakers

scholarly journals Evidence for a bimodal bilingual disadvantage in letter fluency

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCEL R. GIEZEN ◽  
KAREN EMMOREY
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Fluency Task

Many bimodal bilinguals are immersed in a spoken language-dominant environment from an early age and, unlike unimodal bilinguals, do not necessarily divide their language use between languages. Nonetheless, early ASL–English bilinguals retrieved fewer words in a letter fluency task in their dominant language compared to monolingual English speakers with equal vocabulary level. This finding demonstrates that reduced vocabulary size and/or frequency of use cannot completely account for bilingual disadvantages in verbal fluency. Instead, retrieval difficulties likely reflect between-language interference. Furthermore, it suggests that the two languages of bilinguals compete for selection even when they are expressed with distinct articulators.

scholarly journals Forum: Serving African American English Speakers in Schools Through Interprofessional Education & Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Monique T. Mills
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Interprofessional Education ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
American English ◽  
Community Based Participatory Research ◽  
African American English ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
Literacy Outcomes ◽  
American English Speakers

Purpose African American English (AAE) speakers often face mismatches between home language and school language, coupled with negative attitudes toward AAE in the classroom. This forum, Serving African American English Speakers in Schools Through Interprofessional Education & Practice, will help researchers, parents, and school-based practitioners communicate in ways that are synergistic, collaborative, and transparent to improve educational outcomes of AAE speakers. Method The forum includes a tutorial offering readers instructions on how to engage in community-based participatory research (Holt, 2021). Through two clinical focus articles, readers will recognize how AAE develops during the preschool years and is expressed across various linguistic contexts and elicitation tasks (Newkirk-Turner & Green, 2021) and identify markers of developmental language disorder within AAE from language samples analyzed in Computerized Language Analysis (Overton et al., 2021). Seven empirical articles employ such designs as quantitative (Byrd & Brown, 2021; Diehm & Hendricks, 2021; Hendricks & Jimenez, 2021; Maher et al., 2021; Mahurin-Smith et al., 2021), qualitative (Hamilton & DeThorne, 2021), and mixed methods (Mills et al., 2021). These articles will help readers identify ways in which AAE affects how teachers view its speakers' language skills and communicative practices and relates to its speakers' literacy outcomes. Conclusion The goal of the forum is to make a lasting contribution to the discipline with a concentrated focus on how to assess and address communicative variation in the U.S. classroom.

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