Regional origin affects the interpretation of linking elements in spoken Dutch compounds

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Hanssen ◽  
Arina Banga ◽  
Anneke Neijt ◽  
Robert Schreuder
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Middle Region ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
Linking Elements ◽  
Regional Origin ◽  
Linking Element

In Dutch, the linking element en in compounds is often homophonous with the regular plural suffix -en. Both are pronounced as [ә], [әn] or [ṇ] in different regions of the Netherlands. As a consequence, speakers of standard Dutch may interpret linking en in spoken compounds as a plural marker. The present study investigates whether the regional origin of the participants affects their interpretation of regional speech variants of linking en. In an auditory decision task, speakers from four regions decided if a compound was singular or plural. While all critical compounds required the singular response, reaction times were delayed when the compound contained a linking en: All speech variants of en produced interference for speakers from four regions of the Netherlands. Region North showed the greatest interference compared to the Middle region. Also, region Northeast revealed larger interference effects for linking [ә] and region South for linking [ṇ]. We conclude that a speaker’s regional origin affects interpretation.

Behavioral and Electrophysiological Study of Phonological Priming between Bisyllabic Spoken Words

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Dumay ◽  
Abdelrhani Benraïss ◽  
Brian Barriol ◽  
Cécile Colin ◽  
Monique Radeau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electrophysiological Study ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Auditory Presentation ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Phonological Priming ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
N400 Component ◽  
Lexical Processes

Phonological priming between bisyllabic (CV.CVC) spoken items was examined using both behavioral (reaction times, RTs) and electrophysiological (event-related potentials, ERPs) measures. Word and pseudoword targets were preceded by pseudoword primes. Different types of final phonological overlap between prime and target were compared. Critical pairs shared the last syllable, the rime or the coda, while unrelated pairs were used as controls. Participants performed a target shadowing task in Experiment 1 and a delayed lexical decision task in Experiment 2. RTs were measured in the first experiment and ERPs were recorded in the second experiment. The RT experiment was carried out under two presentation conditions. In Condition 1 both primes and targets were presented auditorily, while in Condition 2 the primes were presented visually and the targets auditorily. Priming effects were found in the unimodal condition only. RTs were fastest for syllable overlap, intermediate for rime overlap, and slowest for coda overlap and controls that did not differ from one another. ERPs were recorded under unimodal auditory presentation. ERP results showed that the amplitude of the auditory N400 component was smallest for syllable overlap, intermediate for rime overlap, and largest for coda overlap and controls that did not differ from one another. In both experiments, the priming effects were larger for word than for pseudoword targets. These results are best explained by the combined influences of nonlexical and lexical processes, and a comparison of the reported effects with those found in monosyllables suggests the involvement of rime and syllable representations.

scholarly journals Lack of Noradrenergic Modulation of Indirect Semantic Priming

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 137-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacquelyne S. Cios ◽  
Regan F. Miller ◽  
Ashleigh Hillier ◽  
Madalina E. Tivarus ◽  
David Q. Beversdorf
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Semantic Network ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Dopaminergic Drugs ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Noradrenergic Modulation

Norepinephrine and dopamine are both believed to affect signal-to-noise in the cerebral cortex. Dopaminergic agents appear to modulate semantic networks during indirect semantic priming, but do not appear to affect problem solving dependent on access to semantic networks. Noradrenergic agents, though, do affect semantic network dependent problem solving. We wished to examine whether noradrenergic agents affect indirect semantic priming. Subjects attended three sessions: one each after propranolol (40 mg) (noradrenergic antagonist), ephedrine (25 mg) (noradrenergic agonist), and placebo. During each session, closely related, distantly related, and unrelated pairs were presented. Reaction times for a lexical decision task on the target words (second word in the pair) were recorded. No decrease in indirect semantic priming occurred with ephedrine. Furthermore, across all three drugs, a main effect of semantic relatedness was found, but no main effect of drug, and no drug/semantic relatedness interaction effect. These findings suggest that noradrenergic agents, with these drugs and at these doses, do not affect indirect semantic priming with the potency of dopaminergic drugs at the doses previously studied. In the context of this previous work, this suggests that more automatic processes such as priming and more controlled searches of the lexical and semantic networks such as problem solving may be mediated, at least in part, by distinct mechanisms with differing effects of pharmacological modulation.

Complexe Woorden In Het Mentale Lexicon Van Kinderen

2006 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 53-65
Author(s):  
Maria Mos
Keyword(s):  
Family Size ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Large Family ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Large Family Size ◽  
Small Family Size ◽  
Good Reading ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Complex Words

Do children's representations of complex words in their mental lexicon have an internal structure, with the stem as a separate unit? De Jong et al (2000) found that adults recognize words with a large Family Size, i.e. words occurring in many derivations and compounds, faster than equally frequent words with a small Family Size. This result is an indication that the occurrence of a stem in complex words facilitates the recognition of this stem. This article investigates whether the Family-Size-effect extends to children's reaction times as well. Using a lexical decision task, the effect was observed in 9-10 year old children (N=69) in Dutch. A large vocabulary and good reading ability shortened general reaction times, but had no influence on the difference between items with a small or large Family Size. Monolingual and bilingual children performed similarly on this task.

scholarly journals Neurophysiological Manifestations of Phonological Processing: Latency Variation of a Negative ERP Component Timelocked to Phonological Mismatch

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 204-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Praamstra ◽  
Antje S. Meyer ◽  
Willem J. M. Levelt
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Times ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Behavioral Data ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Delayed Response ◽  
Target Onset ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Response Task

Two experiments examined phonological priming effects on reaction times, error rates, and event-related brain potential (ERP) measures in an auditory lexical decision task. In Experiment 1 related prime-target pairs rhymed, and in Experiment 2 they alliterated (i.e., shared the consonantal onset and vowel). Event-related potentials were recorded in a delayed response task. Reaction times and error rates were obtained both for the delayed and an immediate response task. The behavioral data of Experiment 1 provided evidence for phonological facilitation of word, but not of nonword decisions. The brain potentials were more negative to unrelated than to rhyming word-word pairs between 450 and 700 rnsec after target onset. This negative enhancement was not present for word-nonword pairs. Thus, the ERP results match the behavioral data. The behavioral data of Experiment 2 provided no evidence for phonological Facilitation. However, between 250 and 450 msec after target onset, i.e., considerably earlier than in Experiment 1, brain potentials were more negative for unrelated than for alliterating Word-word and word-nonword pairs. It is argued that the ERP effects in the two experiments could be modulations of the same underlying component, possibly the N400. The difference in the timing of the effects is likely to be due to the fact that the shared segments in related stimulus pairs appeared in different word positions in the two experiments.

Well‐being and the accessibility of pleasant and unpleasant concepts

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Borkenau ◽  
Nadine Mauer
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Related Concept ◽  
Trait Affect ◽  
Negative Trait ◽  
Decision Times

The trait–congruency hypothesis predicts that persons high in positive or negative trait affect more readily process pleasant or unpleasant stimuli, respectively. In two studies, participants were administered measures of personality and affect. Moreover, a yes/no lexical decision task with pleasant, unpleasant and neutral words was administered in Study 1, whereas a go/no‐go task was used in Study 2. Several methods to increase reliabilities of differences in reaction times are explored. Correlations of measures of personality and trait affect with decision times were mostly consistent with the trait–congruency hypothesis, particularly for decision times in the go/no‐go task that measured individual differences in valence‐specific decision times more reliably. The findings suggest that trait‐related concept accessibility is one source of trait congruity. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Processing of center-embedded and right-branching relative clause sentences by normal elderly individuals

1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shari R. Baum
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Older Subjects ◽  
Young Subjects ◽  
Repetition Task

ABSTRACTTwo experiments were conducted to explore processing of relative clause structures by normal elderly adults. Four groups of subjects (aged 20–29 years, 60–69 years, 70–79 years, and 80–89 years) participated in a lexical decision task and a sentence repetition task. Results of the lexical decision task revealed longer reaction times and somewhat different patterns of performance for the older subjects as compared to the young subjects; on the repetition task, the oldest subjects performed more poorly overall. Findings are suggestive of a reduction in computational capacity in the elderly subjects, which may account for observed decrements in syntactic processing as compared to young adults.

Processing of inflected nouns in late bilinguals

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARJA PORTIN ◽  
MINNA LEHTONEN ◽  
MATTI LAINE
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Full Form ◽  
Late Exposure ◽  
Complex Words

This study investigated the recognition of Swedish inflected nouns in two participant groups. Both groups were Finnish-speaking late learners of Swedish, but the groups differed in regard to their Swedish language proficiency. In a visual lexical decision task, inflected Swedish nouns from three frequency ranges were contrasted with corresponding monomorphemic nouns. The reaction times and error rates suggested morphological decomposition for low-frequency inflected words. Yet, both medium- and high-frequency inflected words appeared to possess full-form representations. Despite an overall advantage for the more proficient participants, this pattern was present in both groups. The results indicate that even late exposure to a language can yield such input representations for morphologically complex words that are typical of native speakers.

Processing light verb constructions

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Wittenberg ◽  
Maria Mercedes Piñango
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Processing Cost ◽  
Verb Constructions

Henry gave Elsa a kiss give kiss give a kiss We test two approaches to light verb constructions: (1) joint predication in light verb constructions is stored as pre-specified, and their high frequency predicts less processing cost. (2) Joint predication in light verb constructions is built in real-time. The entailed extra-syntactic composition predicts greater cost. Results from a cross-modal lexical decision task show delayed, higher reaction times for light verb constructions, supporting (2), which is consistent with a linguistic architecture that has partly autonomous lexico-semantic storage and processing.

scholarly journals Can a connectionist model explain the processing of regularly and irregularly inflected words in German as L1 and L2?

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 446-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tilo Strobach ◽  
Ute Schönpflug
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Connectionist Model ◽  
Respective Group ◽  
Specific Advantage ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Regular Verb

The connectionist model is a prevailing model of the structure and functioning of the cognitive system of the processing of morphology. According to this model, the morphology of regularly and irregularly inflected words (e.g., verb participles and noun plurals) is processed in the same cognitive network. A validation of the connectionist model of the processing of morphology in German as L2 has yet to be achieved. To investigate L2-specific aspects, we compared a group of L1 speakers of German with speakers of German as L2. L2 and L1 speakers of German were assigned to their respective group by their reaction times in picture naming prior to the central task. The reaction times in the lexical decision task of verb participles and noun plurals were largely consistent with the assumption of the connectionist model. Interestingly, speakers of German as L2 showed a specific advantage for irregular compared with regular verb participles.

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