Word Association Norms in Mexican Spanish

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia B. Barrón-Martínez ◽  
Natalia Arias-Trejo
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Associative Strength ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Cue Validity ◽  
Spanish Word ◽  
Concrete Nouns ◽  
Mexican Adults

AbstractThe aim of this research is to present a Spanish Word Association Norms (WAN) database of concrete nouns. The database includes 234 stimulus words (SWs) and 67,622 response words (RWs) provided by 478 young Mexican adults. Eight different measures were calculated to quantitatively analyze word-word relationships: 1) Associative strength of the first associate, 2) Associative strength of the second associate, 3) Sum of associative strength of first two associates, 4) Difference in associative strength between first two associates, 5) Number of different associates, 6) Blank responses, 7) Idiosyncratic responses, and 8) Cue validity of the first associate. The resulting database is an important contribution given that there are no published word association norms for Mexican Spanish. The results of this study are an important resource for future research regarding lexical networks, priming effects, semantic memory, among others.

scholarly journals Egocentric Navigation Abilities Predict Episodic Memory Performance

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgia Committeri ◽  
Agustina Fragueiro ◽  
Maria Maddalena Campanile ◽  
Marco Lagatta ◽  
Ford Burles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Path Integration ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Egocentric Navigation

The medial temporal lobe supports both navigation and declarative memory. On this basis, a theory of phylogenetic continuity has been proposed according to which episodic and semantic memories have evolved from egocentric (e.g., path integration) and allocentric (e.g., map-based) navigation in the physical world, respectively. Here, we explored the behavioral significance of this neurophysiological model by investigating the relationship between the performance of healthy individuals on a path integration and an episodic memory task. We investigated the path integration performance through a proprioceptive Triangle Completion Task and assessed episodic memory through a picture recognition task. We evaluated the specificity of the association between performance in these two tasks by including in the study design a verbal semantic memory task. We also controlled for the effect of attention and working memory and tested the robustness of the results by including alternative versions of the path integration and semantic memory tasks. We found a significant positive correlation between the performance on the path integration the episodic, but not semantic, memory tasks. This pattern of correlation was not explained by general cognitive abilities and persisted also when considering a visual path integration task and a non-verbal semantic memory task. Importantly, a cross-validation analysis showed that participants' egocentric navigation abilities reliably predicted episodic memory performance. Altogether, our findings support the hypothesis of a phylogenetic continuity between egocentric navigation and episodic memory and pave the way for future research on the potential causal role of egocentric navigation on multiple forms of episodic memory.

scholarly journals A Study on the Relationship between English Reading Comprehension and English Vocabulary Knowledge

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-han Ma ◽  
Wen-ying Lin
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Morphological Knowledge ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
English Reading

The present study aimed to investigate the overall and relative contribution of four subcomponents of vocabulary knowledge to reading comprehension. The four vocabulary subcomponents were vocabulary size, word association knowledge, collocation knowledge, and morphological knowledge. The participants were 124 college students from a university in Taipei, Taiwan. Six instruments were employed: (1) a reading comprehension test, (2) a vocabulary size test, (3) a test on word association knowledge and collocation knowledge, (4) a test of morphological knowledge, (5) motivation attitude scale, and (6) a self-efficacy scale. The results can be summarized as follows. First, after the effects of motivation and self-efficacy have been controlled, the four vocabulary subcomponents altogether contributed significantly (20%) to reading comprehension performance. Moreover, depth of vocabulary knowledge (including word association knowledge, collocation knowledge, and morphological knowledge) provided an additional explained variance (6%) in reading comprehension performance over and above vocabulary size. Finally, among the three subcomponents of depth of vocabulary knowledge, collocation knowledge explained the most proportion of variance (5.6%) in contributing to performance on reading comprehension. Based on these findings, some implications and suggestions for future research were provided.

Semantic Memory Deterioration in Alzheimer’s Subjects

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 574-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonali C. Abeysinghe ◽  
Kathryn A. Bayles ◽  
Michael W. Trosset
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Memory Impairment ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Linear Analysis ◽  
Alzheimer Type ◽  
Association Task ◽  
Significant Impairment ◽  
Log Linear ◽  
Memory Deterioration

The nature of semantic memory impairment in 23 persons with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) was studied using three semantic tasks: word association, definition, and associate rank ordering. Using hierarchical log-linear analysis of the responses to the word association task, DAT subjects were more likely than normal control subjects to give multiword, repetitious, or unrelated responses. Additionally, the ratio of paradigmatic to syntagmatic responses was significantly decreased in DAT subjects. Surprisingly, DAT subjects were able to provide definitions for many stimulus words for which they were unable to provide meaningful associates. This finding suggests the need for caution in interpreting a decrease in the number of paradigmatic responses as indicative of a loss of conceptual knowledge. Results of other analyses demonstrated that DAT subjects had significant impairment in identifying highly related and unrelated semantic associates of words. Taken together, results of this study indicate that one feature of DAT is deterioration in the associative relations between concepts.

scholarly journals The structure of developing semantic networks: Evidence from single and multiple nominal word associations in young monolingual and bilingual readers

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1141-1169
Author(s):  
Tessa Spätgens ◽  
Rob Schoonen
Keyword(s):  
Word Association ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Coding System ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Word Associations ◽  
Association Task ◽  
Multiple Association

ABSTRACTThe present study focuses on the effect of an important methodological choice in word association studies in children: the elicitation of single versus multiple responses. This choice has been shown to affect the numbers and types of associations adults produce, however, little is known about how it affects children’s word associations. A total of 11,725 associations to 80 nouns from 207 monolingual and bilingual minority children were classified according to a detailed coding system, and differences between the semantic characteristics of first, second, and third responses were examined. We show that in children as well, the multiple association task elicits more and qualitatively different responses, resulting in more diversified semantic networks surrounding the stimulus nouns. On the speaker level, reading comprehension scores were related differently to initial and later responses, suggesting a more complex measure of semantic knowledge emerges from the multiple word association task. No differences were found between monolingual and bilingual children’s associative preferences. We argue that the multiple association task produces more detailed data on language users’ semantic networks than the single association task, and suggest a number of ways in which this task could be employed in future research.

scholarly journals Keeping a Critical Eye on Majority Language Influence: The Case of Uptalk in Heritage Spanish

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Ji Young Kim ◽  
Gemma Repiso-Puigdelliura
Keyword(s):  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Dyadic Interaction ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Speech Data ◽  
Interaction Task ◽  
Dynamic Contours ◽  
Language Influence

The goal of this study is to highlight the importance of taking into account variations in monolingual grammars before discussing majority language influence as a possible source of heritage speakers’ divergent grammars. In this study, we examine the production of uptalk in Spanish by heritage speakers of Mexican Spanish in Southern California. Uptalk (i.e., rising intonation contour at the end of a non-question utterance) is frequently associated with California English. Thus, heritage speakers’ use of uptalk is often considered to be influenced from English intonation (i.e., the majority language). Although uptalk in Spanish is not well understood, it has been observed in Mexican Spanish, which calls attention to the importance of investigating uptalk in monolingual Spanish. Using a dyadic interaction task, we obtained spontaneous speech data of 16 heritage speakers and 16 monolingual speakers of Mexican Spanish and compared the phonological and phonetic properties of uptalks produced by the two groups. Our results demonstrated that the heritage speakers and the monolingual speakers produced uptalks with similar frequencies and mainly used L+H* HH% and L* HH% contours. However, the two groups had more differences than similarities. Specifically, heritage speakers’ uptalks presented less dynamic contours and were produced with flatter rises than monolinguals’ uptalks. Heritage speakers’ divergent patterns showed close resemblance with patterns in English, suggesting majority language influence as a valid source of divergence. We discuss possible avenues for future research for a better understanding of the role of majority language influence on heritage Spanish uptalk.

The acquisition of the voicing contrast in Spanish: a phonetic and phonological study of word-initial stop consonants

1980 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlys A. Macken ◽  
David Barton
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Instrumental Analysis ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Phonological Knowledge ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
Spanish Word ◽  
Voiceless Stop

ABSTRACTThis paper reports on the acquisition of the voicing contrast in Mexican–Spanish word-initial stops. In Study 1, three monolingual children were recorded every two weeks for seven months, beginning when the children were about 1; 7. In Study 2, four monolingual children about 3; 10 were recorded once or twice. Two analyses were done. Instrumental analysis of the stop productions revealed that not even by age 3; 10 were the children consistently distinguishing between voiced–voiceless stop cognate pairs on the basis of adult-like voice-onset time characteristics. The spirantization analysis, however, more clearly revealed the children's phonological knowledge. Discussion focuses on the implications of the data for phonological development in general and for the phonological description of voicing in Spanish.

scholarly journals From words-as-mappings to words-as-cues: The role of language in semantic knowledge

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Lupyan ◽  
Molly Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Distributional Semantics ◽  
The World ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Perception Action

Semantic knowledge (or semantic memory) refers to knowledge we have about the world. For example, we know that knives are typically sharp, made of metal, and that they are tools used for cutting. To what kinds of experiences do we owe such knowledge? Most work has stressed the role of direct experiences involving perceiving and acting on the world. Another kind, considerably less well understood, is language. We review two ways of thinking about the relationship between language and semantic knowledge: (i) language as mapping onto independently-acquired concepts, and (ii) language as cues to meaning, constructing semantic knowledge from both perception/action. We highlight some problems with the words-as- mappings view, and argue in favor of the words-as-cues alternative. We then review evidence for the role of language on the activation of semantic knowledge, emphasizing the potential of distributional semantics models to help us understand this relationship. We conclude by describing several promising directions for future research.

scholarly journals Pathway-Phenotypes of Non-responders and Partial Responders to Treatment With Antipsychotics in Schizophrenia: A Machine Learning Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hussein Kadhem Al-Hakeim ◽  
Rana Fadhil Mousa ◽  
Arafat Hussein Al-Dujaili ◽  
Michael Maes
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Response To Treatment ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Treatment Resistant ◽  
Antipsychotic Therapy ◽  
Specific Symptom

Objective: About a third of schizophrenia patients are treatment-resistant to antipsychotic therapy. No studies established the fingerprints or pathway-phenotypes of treatment-resistant schizophrenia. The present study aimed to delineate the pathway-phenotypes of non-responders (NRTT) and partial responders (PRTT) to treatment using machine learning. Methods: We recruited 115 schizophrenia patients and 43 healthy controls and measured schizophrenia symptom dimensions, neurocognitive tests, plasma CCL11, interleukin-(IL)-6, IL-10, Dickkopf protein 1 (DKK1), high mobility group box-1 protein (HMGB1), κ- and µ-opioid receptors (KOR and MOR, respectively), endomorphin-2 (EM-2), and β-endorphin. Results: Machine learning showed that the NRTT group is a qualitatively distinct class and is significantly discriminated from PRTT with an accuracy of 100% using a neuro-immune-opioid-cognitive (NIOC) pathway-phenotype with as main determinants list learning, controlled word association, and Tower of London test scores, CCL11, IL-6, and EM2. The top-5 symptom domains separating NRTT from PRTT were in descending order: psychomotor retardation, negative symptoms, psychosis, depression, and mannerism. Moreover, a NIOC pathway also discriminated PRTT from healthy controls with an accuracy of 100% while all PRTT and controls were authenticated as belonging to their respective classes. Conclusion: A non-response to treatment with antipsychotics is determined by increased severity of specific symptom profiles coupled with deficits in executive functions, and episodic and semantic memory, and aberrations in neuro-immune and opioid pathways. No patients showed complete remission after treatment indicating that non-remitting in PRTT is attributable to increased HMGB1 and residual deficits in attention, executive functions, and semantic memory.

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