scholarly journals The Neural Underpinnings of Processing Newly Taught Semantic Information: The Role of Retrieval Practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Eileen Haebig ◽  
Laurence B. Leonard ◽  
Patricia Deevy ◽  
Jennifer Schumaker ◽  
Jeffrey D. Karpicke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Semantic Information ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Semantic Feature ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Spaced Retrieval ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Children's Learning

Purpose Recent behavioral studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of implementing retrieval practice into learning tasks for children. Such approaches have revealed that repeated spaced retrieval (RSR) is particularly effective in promoting children's learning of word form and meaning information. This study further examines how retrieval practice enhances learning of word meaning information at the behavioral and neural levels. Method Twenty typically developing preschool children were taught novel words using an RSR learning schedule for some words and an immediate retrieval (IR) learning schedule for other words. In addition to the label, children were taught two arbitrary semantic features for each item. Following the teaching phase, children's learning was tested using recall tests. In addition, during the 1-week follow-up, children were presented with pictures and an auditory sentence that correctly labeled the item but stated correct or incorrect semantic information. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were time locked to the onset of the words noting the semantic feature. Children provided verbal judgments of whether the semantic feature was correctly paired with the item. Results Children recalled more labels and semantic features for items that had been taught in the RSR learning schedule relative to the IR learning schedule. ERPs also differentiated the learning schedules. Mismatching label–meaning pairings elicited an N400 and late positive component (LPC) for both learning conditions; however, mismatching RSR pairs elicited an N400 with an earlier onset and an LPC with a longer duration, relative to IR mismatching label–meaning pairings. These ERP timing differences indicated that the children were more efficient in processing words that were taught in the RSR schedule relative to the IR learning schedule. Conclusions Spaced retrieval practice promotes learning of both word form and meaning information. The findings lay the necessary groundwork for better understanding of processing newly learned semantic information in preschool children. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.15063060

Expanding retrieval practice: An effective aid to preschool children's learning

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (7) ◽  
pp. 991-1004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine O. Fritz ◽  
Peter E. Morris ◽  
Debra Nolan ◽  
Jillian Singleton
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Effect Size ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Large Effect Size ◽  
Presentation Condition ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Elaboration Condition ◽  
Considerable Benefit ◽  
Children's Learning

The benefits of expanding retrieval practice for preschool children were explored in two experiments. In Experiment 1, three groups learned names for six plush toy pigs using expanding retrieval practice, a reward incentive, or a control condition. Reward did not significantly improve learning but retrieval practice doubled recall. In Experiment 2, three groups learned names to soft toys, comparing recall following massed elaborative study with either expanding retrieval practice or expanding re-presentation. Recall was tested after 1 minute, 1 day, and 2 days. A very large effect size ( d = 1.9) indicated the very considerable benefit from expanding retrieval practice over the elaboration condition. Comparison with the re-presentation condition suggested that half of the benefit of expanding retrieval practice came from spaced scheduling and half from retrieval practice. Expanding retrieval practice provides an effective method to improve learning by young children.

Semantic Models and Translating

Target ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kussmaul
Keyword(s):  
Word Meaning ◽  
Semantic Feature ◽  
Feature Analysis ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
The Core ◽  
Semantic Models ◽  
Structural Semantics ◽  
Semantic Feature Analysis

Abstract This paper examines the relevance of three semantic models for translation. Structural semantics, more specifically semantic feature analysis, has given rise to the maxim that we should translate "bundles of semantic features". Prototype semantics suggests that word-meanings have cores and fuzzy edges which are influenced by culture. For translation this means that we do not necessarily translate bundles of features but have to decide whether to focus on the core or the fuzzy edges of the meaning of a particular word. Scenesand-frames semantics suggests that word meaning is influenced by context and the situation we are in. Word-meaning is thus not static but dynamic, and it is this dynamism which should govern our decisions as translators.

scholarly journals Retrieval Practice and Word Learning in Children With Specific Language Impairment and Their Typically Developing Peers

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 3252-3262
Author(s):  
Laurence B. Leonard ◽  
Patricia Deevy
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Spaced Retrieval ◽  
Retrieval Condition

Purpose In this article, we review the role of retrieval practice on the word learning and retention of children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method Following a brief review of earlier findings on word learning in children with SLI and the assumptions behind retrieval practice, four experiments are described that compared novel words learned in a repeated spaced retrieval condition and those learned in either a repeated study condition or a repeated immediate retrieval condition. Preschool-age children with SLI and their same-age peers with typical language development were the participants in all experiments. The effects of repeated spaced retrieval were assessed through measures of recall of word form and meaning and, receptively, through both picture-pointing and electrophysiological measures. Results Repeated spaced retrieval resulted in greater recall of word form and meaning across the experiments. This advantage was seen not only for word–picture pairs used during the learning period but also when generalization of the word to new pictures was required. Receptive testing through picture pointing showed similar results, though in some experiments, ceiling effects rendered this measure less sensitive to differences. An alternative receptive measure—the N400 elicited during picture–word mismatches—showed evidence at the neural level favoring repeated spaced retrieval. The advantages of repeated spaced retrieval were seen in both children with SLI and their typically developing age mates. Conclusion Future efforts are warranted to refine and extend the experiments reviewed here. If these efforts prove successful, procedures that incorporate repeated spaced retrieval into more naturalistic clinical and educational activities might be an appropriate next step. Presentation Video https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13063730

Morphological errors and the representation of morphology in the lexical—semantic system

1994 ◽  
Vol 346 (1315) ◽  
pp. 79-87 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Information ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Derivational Morphology ◽  
Semantic System ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Base Form ◽  
Semantic Errors

Neuropsychological studies support the hypothesis that morphology is represented autonomously, both at the level of word meaning and at the level of word form. In output processes, morphologically organized semantic information activates lexical representations of roots and affixes, which are composed before production. In input processes, the stimulus is parsed along the morphological dimension, to access root and affix lexical representations, which in turn activate morphologically organized semantic information. Inflectional and derivational morphology are represented independently in the lexicon. Inflected words are fully decomposed; derived words are decomposed into base form + inflection. In aphasia, morphological errors in transcoding tasks always co-occur with semantic and/or phonemic errors. Morphological errors in transcoding tasks require combined damage to morphological representations in the semantic—lexical system and to sublexical conversion procedures; they co-occur with semantic errors when also root representations are damaged. The co-occurrence of morphological and phonemic errors can be accounted for by several hypotheses, but its theoretical meaning is still uncertain.

Camp Challenge: Program for Parents and Their Preschool Children with Visual Handicaps

1974 ◽  
Vol 68 (8) ◽  
pp. 344-347
Author(s):  
K.C. Sykes
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Community Action ◽  
Experienced Teachers ◽  
Action Program ◽  
Learning Program ◽  
Trainee Teachers ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
The Future ◽  
Community Action Program ◽  
Children's Learning

This community action program focuses on the critical need to provide services to the parents of preschool children with visual handicaps. Scheduling at the camp allows parents to attend lectures while trainee teachers work with the preschool children in a children's learning program supervised by experienced teachers. Recruitment, programming, and evaluation are discussed as well as the informal aspects of the camp. Plans for the future include the setting up of workshops; dissemination of resource materials; and the need to encourage entire families to attend.

Is the Salad Sandwich Blue?: Teacher Questions and Children's Learning

1996 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Laurie Makin
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
Classroom Discourse ◽  
Semantic Network ◽  
Semantic Feature ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Teacher Questions ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Group Sessions ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Children's Learning

Teacher questions are a central feature of classroom discourse and a key semantic feature in children's development as learners. In this paper, the questions asked by four Year 1 teachers during two small group sessions (eight hours of discourse in all) are studied in order to reveal differences in both frequency and type of questions asked. The interpretative tool employed for this description is a semantic network based upon Hasan (1983) and developed by Makin (1994). The differences that were revealed through application of the network are reviewed in order to give insight into how habitual choices of different questioning styles may help or hinder children's learning. It is suggested that there is room for improvement if teacher questions are to help children learn to become active seekers after knowledge.

scholarly journals Chapter 3. Constructional syntactic analysis

2019 ◽  
pp. 44-90
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Domestic Animal ◽  
Action Space ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Basic Features

At this stage, a semantic-syntactic dictionary is activated, in order to supply the letter tokens with the information concerning their contextual realization and meaning proper. The list of features assigned to a word form is thus augmented by semantic and syntactic ones. Contextual realization is specified by means of subcategorization frames. Meaning is described in terms of semantic features which may or may not be hierarchically arranged. Among them, basic features are identified, e.g. ‘living being’, ‘action’, ‘space’, ‘time’, ‘quantity’, that have no direct bearing on the parts of speech. Thus, the feature ‘action’ can be assigned both to verbs and nouns. Additional semantic features make it possible to account for manifold aspects of word meaning. Thus, horse is marked both as ‘domestic animal’ and ‘vehicle’, which would be impossible in case of a strict hierarchy of features. The algorithm of syntactic analysis draws on the same basic idea as that of graphematical analysis, viz. iterative assembling of individual tokens into syntactic constructions, from local groups to larger ones until a resulting syntactic structure of a whole sentence emerges consisting of Subject-Predicate-Objects-Adverbials. Syntactic rules are ranked accordingly. The chapter illustrates the work of algorithm in a variety of cases and discusses multiple difficulties resulting from the syntactic ambiguity.

scholarly journals THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN OLDER PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 367-373
Author(s):  
S.J. Erkebaeva ◽  
◽  
G. Shirinbayeva ◽  
A. Inayatova ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Retrospective Analysis ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Social Adaptation ◽  
Interpersonal Interaction ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
The Social ◽  
Children's Learning

This article is devoted to the theoretical aspects of the development of communication skills of preschool children. In modern conditions of updating the content of education, the problem of developing communication skills reaches the level of an actual socio-pedagogical problem, since its solution largely depends on the success of children's learning; the effectiveness of interpersonal interaction with teachers and peers, and in General - the social adaptation of children. The article discusses the main concepts related to children's communicative development, components of communication skills, and a retrospective analysis of the formation and development of the concept of "communication", "communication", and "communication skills"

scholarly journals Asymmetric Underlying Mechanisms of Relation-Based and Property-Based Noun–Noun Conceptual Combination

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingyeong Choi ◽  
Sangsuk Yoon
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Information ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Semantic Feature ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Conceptual Combination ◽  
Semantic Activation ◽  
Processing Mechanisms ◽  
Combinatorial Process

Conceptual combination is a fundamental human cognitive ability by which people can experience infinite thinking by artfully combining finite knowledge. For example, one can instantly combine “cactus” and “fish” together as “prickly fish” even if one has never previously heard of a “cactus fish.” Although two major combinatorial types—property and relational combinations—have been identified, the underlying processes of each remain elusive. This study investigates the asymmetric processing mechanisms underlying property and relational combinations by examining differential semantic activation during noun–noun conceptual combination. Across two experiments utilizing each combinatorial process as semantic priming and implementing a lexical decision task immediately after combination, we measure and compare the semantic activation patterns of intrinsic and extrinsic semantic features in these two combinatorial types. We found converging evidence that property and relational combinations involve asymmetric semantic information and entail distinct processing mechanisms. In property combination, the intrinsic feature in the modifier concept showed greater activation than the semantic feature of the same dimension in the head concept. In contrast, in relational combination, the extrinsic semantic feature in the head concept and the whole modifier concept showed similar levels of activation. Moreover, our findings also showed that these patterns of semantic activation occurred only when the combinatorial process was complete, indicating that accessing the same lexical-semantic information is not sufficient to observe asymmetric patterns. These findings demonstrate that property combination involves replacing a specific semantic feature of the head noun with that of the modifier noun, whereas relational combination involves completing the semantic feature of the head noun with the whole modifier concept. We discuss the implications of these findings, research limitations, and future research directions.

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