scholarly journals The P-chain: relating sentence production and its disorders to comprehension and acquisition

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1634) ◽  
pp. 20120394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary S. Dell ◽  
Franklin Chang
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Prediction Error ◽  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
Connectionist Model ◽  
Adaptive Adjustment

This article introduces the P-chain, an emerging framework for theory in psycholinguistics that unifies research on comprehension, production and acquisition. The framework proposes that language processing involves incremental prediction, which is carried out by the production system. Prediction necessarily leads to prediction error, which drives learning, including both adaptive adjustment to the mature language processing system as well as language acquisition. To illustrate the P-chain, we review the Dual-path model of sentence production, a connectionist model that explains structural priming in production and a number of facts about language acquisition. The potential of this and related models for explaining acquired and developmental disorders of sentence production is discussed.

scholarly journals PREDICTION AND ERROR-BASED LEARNING IN L2 PROCESSING AND ACQUISITION

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Giulia Bovolenta ◽  
Emma Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Computational Modeling ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Prediction Error ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
L1 And L2

Abstract There is currently much interest in the role of prediction in language processing, both in L1 and L2. For language acquisition researchers, this has prompted debate on the role that predictive processing may play in both L1 and L2 language learning, if any. In this conceptual review, we explore the role of prediction and prediction error as a potential learning aid. We examine different proposed prediction mechanisms and the empirical evidence for them, alongside the factors constraining prediction for both L1 and L2 speakers. We then review the evidence on the role of prediction in learning languages. We report computational modeling that underpins a number of proposals on the role of prediction in L1 and L2 learning, then lay out the empirical evidence supporting the predictions made by modeling, from research into priming and adaptation. Finally, we point out the limitations of these mechanisms in both L1 and L2 speakers.

scholarly journals The Multidimensional Battery of Prosody Perception (MBOPP)

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Kyle Jasmin ◽  
Frederic Dick ◽  
Adam Taylor Tierney
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Temporal Cues ◽  
Accurate Perception ◽  
Linguistic Focus ◽  
Grammatical Structures ◽  
Compound Sentence

Prosody can be defined as the rhythm and intonation patterns spanning words, phrases and sentences. Accurate perception of prosody is an important component of many aspects of language processing, such as parsing grammatical structures, recognizing words, and determining where emphasis may be placed. Prosody perception is important for language acquisition and can be impaired in language-related developmental disorders. However, existing assessments of prosodic perception suffer from some shortcomings.  These include being unsuitable for use with typically developing adults due to ceiling effects and failing to allow the investigator to distinguish the unique contributions of individual acoustic features such as pitch and temporal cues. Here we present the Multi-Dimensional Battery of Prosody Perception (MBOPP), a novel tool for the assessment of prosody perception. It consists of two subtests: Linguistic Focus, which measures the ability to hear emphasis or sentential stress, and Phrase Boundaries, which measures the ability to hear where in a compound sentence one phrase ends, and another begins. Perception of individual acoustic dimensions (Pitch and Duration) can be examined separately, and test difficulty can be precisely calibrated by the experimenter because stimuli were created using a continuous voice morph space. We present validation analyses from a sample of 59 individuals and discuss how the battery might be deployed to examine perception of prosody in various populations.

scholarly journals Modeling cross-language structural priming in sentence production

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung Han Khoe ◽  
Chara Tsoukala ◽  
Gerrit Jan Kootstra ◽  
Stefan L. Frank
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Learning ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
The Cross ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Cross Language

A central question in the psycholinguistic study of multilingualism is how syntax is shared across languages. We implement a model to investigate whether error-based implicit learning can provide an account of cross-language structural priming. The model is based on the Dual-path model of sentence-production (Chang, 2002). We implement our model using the Bilingual version of Dual-path (Tsoukala, Frank, & Broersma, 2017). We answer two main questions: (1) Can structural priming of active and passive constructions occur between English and Spanish in a bilingual version of the Dual-path model? (2) Does cross-language priming differ quantitatively from within-language priming in this model? Our results show that cross-language priming does occur in the model. This finding adds to the viability of implicit learning as an account of structural priming in general and cross-language structural priming specifically. Furthermore, we find that the within-language priming effect is somewhat stronger than the cross-language effect. In the context of mixed results from behavioral studies, we interpret the latter finding as an indication that the difference between cross-language and within-language priming is small and difficult to detect statistically.

scholarly journals The consequences of very late exposure to BSL as an L1

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 936-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
BENCIE WOLL
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Brain Maturation ◽  
The Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Late Exposure ◽  
The Brain

Mayberry and Kluender (2017) make an important contribution to our understanding of the CPL, reporting the striking differences in regions of brain activation in Martin, a deaf man with very late exposure to an L1, compared to other deaf individuals, when processing single signs of ASL. They conclude: “The unique effects of AoA . . . suggest that the hierarchical structure of language and the architecture of the brain language processing system arise from their interaction over the course of early childhood when brain maturation and language acquisition are temporally synchronized.”

scholarly journals The Multidimensional Battery of Prosody Perception (MBOPP)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Jasmin ◽  
Frederic Dick ◽  
Adam Taylor Tierney
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Temporal Cues ◽  
Accurate Perception ◽  
Linguistic Focus ◽  
Grammatical Structures ◽  
Compound Sentence

AbstractProsody can be defined as the rhythm and intonation patterns spanning words, phrases and sentences. Accurate perception of prosody is an important component of many aspects of language processing, such as parsing grammatical structures, recognizing words, and determining where emphasis may be placed. Prosody perception is important for language acquisition and can be impaired in language-related developmental disorders. However, existing assessments of prosodic perception suffer from some shortcomings. These include being unsuitable for use with typically developing adults due to ceiling effects, or failing to allow the investigator to distinguish the unique contributions of individual acoustic features such as pitch and temporal cues. Here we present the Multi-Dimensional Battery of Prosody Perception (MBOPP), a novel tool for the assessment of prosody perception. It consists of two subtests – Linguistic Focus, which measures the ability to hear emphasis or sentential stress, and Phrase Boundaries, which measures the ability to hear where in a compound sentence one phrase ends, and another begins. Perception of individual acoustic dimensions (Pitch and Time) can be examined separately, and test difficulty can be precisely calibrated by the the experimenter because stimuli were created using a continuous voice morph space. We present validation analyses from a sample of 57 individuals and discuss how the battery might be deployed to examine perception of prosody in various populations.

The role of language processing in language acquisition

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Phillips ◽  
Lara Ehrenhofer
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Processing System ◽  
System Level ◽  
Original Form ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Less Is More

Language processing research is changing in two ways that should make it more relevant to the study of grammatical learning. First, grammatical phenomena are re-entering the psycholinguistic fray, and we have learned a lot in recent years about the real-time deployment of grammatical knowledge. Second, psycholinguistics is reaching more diverse populations, leading to much research on language processing in child and adult learners. We discuss three ways that language processing can be used to understand language acquisition. Level 1 approaches (“Processing in learners”) explore well-known phenomena from the adult psycholinguistic literature and document how they play out in learner populations (child learners, adult learners, bilinguals). Level 2 approaches (“Learning effects as processing effects”) use insights from adult psycholinguistics to understand the language proficiency of learners. We argue that a rich body of findings that have been attributed to the grammatical development of anaphora should instead be attributed to limitations in the learner’s language processing system. Level 3 approaches (“Explaining learning via processing”) use language processing to understand what it takes to successfully master the grammar of a language, and why different learner groups are more or less successful. We examine whether language processing may explain why some grammatical phenomena are mastered late in children but not in adult learners. We discuss the idea that children’s language learning prowess is directly caused by their processing limitations (‘less is more’: Newport, 1990). We conclude that the idea is unlikely to be correct in its original form, but that a variant of the idea has some promise (‘less is eventually more’). We lay out key research questions that need to be addressed in order to resolve the issues addressed in the paper.

scholarly journals The Multidimensional Battery of Prosody Perception (MBOPP)

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Jasmin ◽  
Frederic Dick ◽  
Adam Taylor Tierney
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Temporal Cues ◽  
Accurate Perception ◽  
Linguistic Focus ◽  
Grammatical Structures ◽  
Compound Sentence

Prosody can be defined as the rhythm and intonation patterns spanning words, phrases and sentences. Accurate perception of prosody is an important component of many aspects of language processing, such as parsing grammatical structures, recognizing words, and determining where emphasis may be placed. Prosody perception is important for language acquisition and can be impaired in language-related developmental disorders. However, existing assessments of prosodic perception suffer from some shortcomings.  These include being unsuitable for use with typically developing adults due to ceiling effects, or failing to allow the investigator to distinguish the unique contributions of individual acoustic features such as pitch and temporal cues. Here we present the Multi-Dimensional Battery of Prosody Perception (MBOPP), a novel tool for the assessment of prosody perception. It consists of two subtests: Linguistic Focus, which measures the ability to hear emphasis or sentential stress, and Phrase Boundaries, which measures the ability to hear where in a compound sentence one phrase ends, and another begins. Perception of individual acoustic dimensions (Pitch and Time) can be examined separately, and test difficulty can be precisely calibrated by the experimenter because stimuli were created using a continuous voice morph space. We present validation analyses from a sample of 57 individuals and discuss how the battery might be deployed to examine perception of prosody in various populations.

In Search of a Human Language Processing System

1985 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 529-531
Author(s):  
Patrick Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Human Language

EXPRESS: Selective adaptation in sentence comprehension: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182098462
Author(s):  
Masataka Yano ◽  
Shugo Suwazono ◽  
Hiroshi Arao ◽  
Daichi Yasunaga ◽  
Hiroaki Oishi
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Selective Adaptation ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Equal Probability ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Processing Cost ◽  
Low Probability

The present study conducted two event-related potential experiments to investigate whether readers adapt their expectations to morphosyntactically (Experiment 1) or semantically (Experiment 2) anomalous sentences when they are repeatedly exposed to them. To address this issue, we manipulated the probability of morphosyntactically/semantically grammatical and anomalous sentence occurrence through experiments. For the low probability block, anomalous sentences were presented less frequently than grammatical sentences (with a ratio of 1 to 4), while they were presented as frequently as grammatical sentences in the equal probability block. Experiment 1 revealed a smaller P600 effect for morphosyntactic violations in the equal probability block than in the low probability block. Linear mixed-effect models were used to examine how the size of the P600 effect changed as the experiment went along. The results showed that the smaller P600 effect of the equal probability block resulted from an amplitude’s decline in morphosyntactically violated sentences over the course of the experiment, suggesting an adaptation to morphosyntactic violations. In Experiment 2, semantically anomalous sentences elicited a larger N400 effect than their semantically natural counterparts regardless of probability manipulation. No evidence was found in favor of adaptation to semantic violations in that the processing cost of semantic violations did not decrease over the course of the experiment. Therefore, the present study demonstrated a dynamic aspect of language-processing system. We will discuss why the language-processing system shows a selective adaptation to morphosyntactic violations.

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