Foveal Word Reading Requires Interhemispheric Communication

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 1373-1387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoë R. Hunter ◽  
Marc Brysbaert ◽  
Stefan Knecht
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Transcranial Doppler Sonography ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Word Naming ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Interhemispheric Communication ◽  
Language Representation

The left cerebral hemisphere is dominant for language processing in most individuals. It has been suggested that this asymmetric language representation can influence behavioral performance in foveal word-naming tasks. We carried out two experiments in which we obtained laterality indices by means of functional imaging during a mental word-generation task, using functional transcranial Doppler sonography and functional magnetic resonance imaging, respectively. Subsequently, we administered a behavioral word-naming task, where participants had to name foveally presented words of different lengths shown in different fixation locations shifted horizontally across the screen. The optimal viewing position for left language dominant individuals is located between the beginning and the center of a word. It is shifted toward the end of a word for right language dominant individuals and, to a lesser extent, for individuals with bilateral language representation. These results demonstrate that interhemispheric communication is required for foveal word recognition. Consequently, asymmetric representations of language and processes of interhemispheric transfer should be taken into account in theoretical models of visual word recognition to ensure neurological plausibility.

Semantic Priming in Monolingual Russian and Bilingual Russian (L1)-English (L2) Speakers in a Single Word Naming Task

2022 ◽  
pp. 270-289
Author(s):  
Evgenia Volkovyskaya ◽  
Ilhan Raman ◽  
Bahman Baluch
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
L2 Speaking ◽  
Semantic Priming Effect ◽  
L1 English

Identifying and exploring factors that influence bilingual language processing has been the topic of much psycholinguistic research. Semantic priming is typically used to examine semantic processing and refers to the phenomenon in which semantically related items (doctor-nurse) are processed faster and more accurately than semantically unrelated items (doctor-butter). The aim of the chapter is to address two key questions: 1) how the two languages of a bilingual are organised or stored and 2) how the two languages are processed. A review of the literature shows that there are currently no theoretical frameworks that explain Russian monolingual or Russian (L1)-English (L2) bilingual storage or processing. Monolingual Russian speakers and bilingual Russian (L1)-English (L2) speaking university students were asked to name target words under related or unrelated conditions. The results show that the magnitude of the semantic priming effect was determined by L2 proficiency. The implications for these findings is discussed within the current bilingual theoretical models.

Patterns of Language Impairment in Early ALS

2020 ◽  
pp. 10.1212/CPJ.0000000000001006
Author(s):  
Marta Pinto-Grau ◽  
Bronagh Donohoe ◽  
Sarah O’Connor ◽  
Lisa Murphy ◽  
Emmet Costello ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Executive Dysfunction ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Word Naming ◽  
Word Spelling

ABSTRACTObjective.To investigate the incidence and nature of language change and its relationship to executive dysfunction in a population-based incident ALS sample, with the hypothesis that patterns of frontotemporal involvement in early ALS extend beyond areas of executive control to regions associated with language processing.Methods.One hundred and seventeen population-based incident ALS cases without dementia and 100 controls matched by age, sex and education were included in the study. A detailed assessment of language processing including lexical processing, word spelling, word reading, word naming, semantic processing and syntactic/grammatical processing was undertaken. Executive domains of phonemic verbal fluency, working memory, problem-solving, cognitive flexibility and social cognition were also evaluated.Results.Language processing was impaired in this incident cohort of individuals with ALS, with deficits in the domains of word naming, orthographic processing and syntactic/grammatical processing. Conversely, phonological lexical processing and semantic processing were spared. While executive dysfunction accounted in part for impairments in grammatical and orthographic lexical processing, word spelling, reading and naming, primary language deficits were also present.Conclusions.Language impairment is characteristic of ALS at early stages of the disease, and can develop independently of executive dysfunction, reflecting selective patterns of frontotemporal involvement at disease onset. Language change is therefore an important component of the frontotemporal syndrome associated with ALS.

scholarly journals The Effect of Length on Word Recognition (in Reading): The Case of Arabic // تأثير طول الكلمة على دقة القراءة: العربية كدراسة حالة

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deia Ganayim ◽  
Shireen Ganayim
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Global Features ◽  
Analytical Process ◽  
Lexical Route ◽  
Word Length Effect ◽  
Holistic Process

In this study, two experiments were conducted to assess the role of word length in visual word recognition. In Experiment 1 two lists of Arabic three and five letter words were used in a print word-reading task which measured accuracy and reading time. In Experiment 2, three, four and five letter words were displayed in the center of fixation on a screen in a naming task measuring accuracy and naming time. In reading, two contrasting processes have been suggested: the holistic process and the analytical process. According to the holistic process, the recognition of a word is determined by its global features and configuration. Consequently, reading consists of the simultaneous processing of all the letters of a word in parallel. In contrast, according to the analytical process, reading is a sequential screening of all the letters within a particular word. Length effect—that is, short words are recognized more rapidly and accurately than long words—is the signature of analytical processing of the non-lexical route due to its seriality which is caused by assembled phonology. The results of both experiments revealed that the average reading time of Arabic words from paper and screen was affected by word length, reflecting certain analytical processes and the activation of a non-lexical route, in which letters are processed sequentially.

scholarly journals Semantic Priming in Monolingual Russian and Bilingual Russian (L1)-English (L2) Speakers in a Single Word Naming Task

2018 ◽  
pp. 87-111
Author(s):  
Evgenia Volkovyskaya ◽  
Ilhan Raman ◽  
Bahman Baluch
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
L2 Speaking ◽  
Semantic Priming Effect ◽  
L1 English

Identifying and exploring factors that influence bilingual language processing has been the topic of much psycholinguistic research. Semantic priming is typically used to examine semantic processing and refers to the phenomenon in which semantically related items (doctor-nurse) are processed faster and more accurately than semantically unrelated items (doctor-butter). The aim of the chapter is to address two key questions: 1) how the two languages of a bilingual are organised or stored and 2) how the two languages are processed. A review of the literature shows that there are currently no theoretical frameworks that explain Russian monolingual or Russian (L1)-English (L2) bilingual storage or processing. Monolingual Russian speakers and bilingual Russian (L1)-English (L2) speaking university students were asked to name target words under related or unrelated conditions. The results show that the magnitude of the semantic priming effect was determined by L2 proficiency. The implications for these findings is discussed within the current bilingual theoretical models.

Phonic Blending and Transfer of Letter Training to Word Reading in Children

1972 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Muller
Keyword(s):  
Word Reading ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Word Naming ◽  
Positive Transfer ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Letter Naming

This study uses pre-readers to examine transfer of letter-naming skills to a word-naming task in a variety of paradigms. It was found that transfer phenomena observed in adults do not universally generalize to the pre-reader and that training in phonic blending is necessary in order for phonic-letter training to yield positive transfer to a word-reading task.

Predictive Inference Activation

2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doriane Gras ◽  
Hubert Tardieu ◽  
Serge Nicolas
Keyword(s):  
Naming Task ◽  
Word Naming ◽  
Predictive Inference ◽  
Text Reading ◽  
Predictive Inferences

Predictive inferences are anticipations of what could happen next in the text we are reading. These inferences seem to be activated during reading, but a delay is necessary for their construction. To determine the length of this delay, we first used a classical word-naming task. In the second experiment, we used a Stroop-like task to verify that inference activation was not due to strategies applied during the naming task. The results show that predictive inferences are naturally activated during text reading, after approximately 1 s.

Developmental Changes in Word Recognition: An Information-Processing Account

1986 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Pring ◽  
Maggie Snowling
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Context Effect ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Single Word Reading ◽  
First Time

Two experiments examining developmental changes in the use of context in single word reading are reported. The first experiment investigated how effectively children can access conceptual knowledge and use this to help their word recognition. The results indicated that young readers can on demand direct their attention to semantic information, and this allows them to reap a relatively greater benefit from context than older more skilful readers. The second experiment attempted to clarify the way such use of contextual information might help in the specific case when a child attempts to decode a new word for the first time. Skilled and unskilled readers pronounced pseudohomophonic nonwords faster when they were primed by a semantic context, and the context effect was greater for unskilled readers. The nonword's graphemic similarity to a lexical item was also important. In general, the results were consistent with Stanovich's (1980) interactive-compensatory model of reading, and they suggest that in learning to read, several already existing stores of information (e.g. auditory, visual and conceptual) are integrated in order to achieve a solution to the word recognition problem.

scholarly journals A Sequential and Intensive Weighted Language Modeling Scheme for Multi-Task Learning-Based Natural Language Understanding

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 3095
Author(s):  
Suhyune Son ◽  
Seonjeong Hwang ◽  
Sohyeun Bae ◽  
Soo Jun Park ◽  
Jang-Hwan Choi
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Natural Language Understanding ◽  
Language Modeling ◽  
Language Understanding ◽  
Task Learning ◽  
Language Representation ◽  
Internal Transfer ◽  
Two Stages

Multi-task learning (MTL) approaches are actively used for various natural language processing (NLP) tasks. The Multi-Task Deep Neural Network (MT-DNN) has contributed significantly to improving the performance of natural language understanding (NLU) tasks. However, one drawback is that confusion about the language representation of various tasks arises during the training of the MT-DNN model. Inspired by the internal-transfer weighting of MTL in medical imaging, we introduce a Sequential and Intensive Weighted Language Modeling (SIWLM) scheme. The SIWLM consists of two stages: (1) Sequential weighted learning (SWL), which trains a model to learn entire tasks sequentially and concentrically, and (2) Intensive weighted learning (IWL), which enables the model to focus on the central task. We apply this scheme to the MT-DNN model and call this model the MTDNN-SIWLM. Our model achieves higher performance than the existing reference algorithms on six out of the eight GLUE benchmark tasks. Moreover, our model outperforms MT-DNN by 0.77 on average on the overall task. Finally, we conducted a thorough empirical investigation to determine the optimal weight for each GLUE task.

Children With Cochlear Implants Use Semantic Prediction to Facilitate Spoken Word Recognition

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Christina Blomquist ◽  
Rochelle S. Newman ◽  
Yi Ting Huang ◽  
Jan Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Target Word ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Spoken Word Recognition ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Matched Group ◽  
Spoken Language Processing

Purpose Children with cochlear implants (CIs) are more likely to struggle with spoken language than their age-matched peers with normal hearing (NH), and new language processing literature suggests that these challenges may be linked to delays in spoken word recognition. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether children with CIs use language knowledge via semantic prediction to facilitate recognition of upcoming words and help compensate for uncertainties in the acoustic signal. Method Five- to 10-year-old children with CIs heard sentences with an informative verb ( draws ) or a neutral verb ( gets ) preceding a target word ( picture ). The target referent was presented on a screen, along with a phonologically similar competitor ( pickle ). Children's eye gaze was recorded to quantify efficiency of access of the target word and suppression of phonological competition. Performance was compared to both an age-matched group and vocabulary-matched group of children with NH. Results Children with CIs, like their peers with NH, demonstrated use of informative verbs to look more quickly to the target word and look less to the phonological competitor. However, children with CIs demonstrated less efficient use of semantic cues relative to their peers with NH, even when matched for vocabulary ability. Conclusions Children with CIs use semantic prediction to facilitate spoken word recognition but do so to a lesser extent than children with NH. Children with CIs experience challenges in predictive spoken language processing above and beyond limitations from delayed vocabulary development. Children with CIs with better vocabulary ability demonstrate more efficient use of lexical-semantic cues. Clinical interventions focusing on building knowledge of words and their associations may support efficiency of spoken language processing for children with CIs. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14417627

scholarly journals Measurement of language laterality using functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound: a comparison of different tasks

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe V.J. Woodhead ◽  
Holly A. Rutherford ◽  
Dorothy V.M. Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Transcranial Doppler ◽  
Cerebral Arteries ◽  
Transcranial Doppler Sonography ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Good Reliability ◽  
Sentence Generation ◽  
Directional Bias ◽  
Word Generation ◽  
Language Laterality

Background: Relative blood flow in the two middle cerebral arteries can be measured using functional transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD) to give an index of lateralisation as participants perform a specific task. Language laterality has mostly been studied with fTCD using a word generation task, but it is not clear whether this is optimal. Methods: Using fTCD, we evaluated a sentence generation task that has shown good reliability and strong left lateralisation in fMRI. We interleaved trials of word generation, sentence generation and list generation and assessed agreement of these tasks in 31 participants (29 right-handers). Results: Although word generation and sentence generation both gave robust left-lateralisation, Bland-Altman analysis showed that these two methods were not equivalent. The comparison list generation task was not systematically lateralised, but nevertheless laterality indices (LIs) from this task were significantly correlated with the other two tasks. Subtracting list generation LI from sentence generation LI did not affect the strength of the laterality index. Conclusions: This was a pre-registered methodological study designed to explore novel approaches to optimising measurement of language lateralisation using fTCD. It confirmed that sentence generation gives robust left lateralisation in most people, but is not equivalent to the classic word generation task. Although list generation does not show left-lateralisation at the group level, the LI on this task was correlated with left-lateralised tasks. This suggests that word and sentence generation involve adding a constant directional bias to an underlying continuum of laterality that is reliable in individuals but not biased in either direction. In future research we suggest that consistency of laterality across tasks might have more functional significance than strength or direction of laterality on any one task.

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