Shared core meanings and shared associations in bilingual semantic memory: Evidence from research on implicit memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 464-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy S Francis
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Memory ◽  
System Integration ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Semantic System ◽  
Semantic Relationships ◽  
Concrete Nouns ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
Bilingual Literature ◽  
Core Meaning

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The degree of overlap across languages in bilingual semantic memory has been debated in the cognitive bilingual literature for decades. This paper focuses on theory and recent evidence addressing the questions of whether translation-equivalent words in a bilingual person’s two languages access common core-meaning representations and whether long-standing semantic/conceptual associations among words are language-general or language-specific. Design/methodology/approach: We explain a theoretical approach to this problem and review recent evidence that addresses it. The empirical work cited used primarily memory tasks in which the languages of the word stimuli or responses changed from encoding to test. Data and analysis: Several studies are reviewed. In most cases, data were analyzed using an analysis of variance. Findings/conclusions: Robust between-language priming was observed for concrete nouns, abstract nouns, verbs, and adjectives using a variety of specific tasks, indicating that the semantic representations of translation equivalents overlap. The reduction in priming relative to within-language conditions could be explained in some cases by repetition of language-specific processes in the within-language conditions. Results of repetition-priming and false-memory experiments that involved semantic associations showed that category–exemplar, noun–verb, antonym, and other semantic relationships are shared across languages in a common semantic system. Originality: Many of the results are interpreted with respect to questions that have not been addressed in previous work. Significance/implications: The nature of semantic system integration is important for understanding bilingual cognition. Episodic memory tasks can be a useful way to study the organization of core-meaning representations in bilinguals, and indicate that these representations are shared across languages. However, these procedures do not capture other aspects of semantic representation that may differ across languages.

The development of relational arcs in the lexical semantic memory structures of young children

1981 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter F. Norlin
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Semantic Relationships ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Relational Analysis ◽  
Relational Categories ◽  
Very Young Children ◽  
Concrete Nouns ◽  
Productive Method ◽  
Memory Structures

ABSTRACTForty-eight normally developing children, twelve each at ages three, four five, and six years, were asked to define and describe ten concrete nouns expressively with no attendant visual stimuli. Responses were coded according to the semantic relations expressed. Nineteen different semantic relationships were isolated in these definitions, and significant differences were found between the age levels in the various configurations of semantic relational categories represented in the first five relations elicited from each child by each noun. Compatible with recent hypotheses concerning the development of internal semantic memory structures, these differences also proved to be highly predictive of a subject's chronological age. The results suggest that semantic relational analysis may be a productive method of documenting the characteristics of lexical semantic systems of very young children.

Functional Neuroanatomy of Semantic Memory: Recognition of Semantic Associations

NeuroImage ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul T. Ricci ◽  
Benjamin J. Zelkowicz ◽  
Robert D. Nebes ◽  
Carolyn Cidis Meltzer ◽  
Mark A. Mintun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Functional Neuroanatomy ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
Memory Recognition

scholarly journals Cross-modal Semantic Relationships Guide Spontaneous Orienting in Real-life Scenes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daria Kvasova ◽  
Travis Stewart ◽  
Salvador Soto-Faraco
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Semantic Relationships ◽  
Visual Objects ◽  
Crossmodal Interactions ◽  
Free Viewing ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Semantic Congruence

In real-world scenes, the different objects and events available to our senses are interconnected within a rich web of semantic associations. These semantic links help parse information and make sense of the environment. For example, during goal-directed attention, characteristic everyday life object sounds help speed up visual search for these objects in natural and dynamic environments. However, it is not known whether semantic correspondences also play a role under spontaneous observation. Here, we investigated this question addressing whether crossmodal semantic congruence can drive spontaneous, overt visual attention in free-viewing conditions. We used eye-tracking whilst participants (N=45) viewed video clips of realistic complex scenes presented alongside sounds of varying semantic congruency with objects within the videos. We found that characteristic sounds increased the probability of looking, the number of fixations, and the total dwell time on the semantically corresponding visual objects, in comparison to when the same scenes were presented with semantically neutral sounds or just with background noise only. Our results suggest that crossmodal semantic congruence has an impact on spontaneous gaze and eye movements, and therefore on how attention samples information in a free viewing paradigm. Our findings extend beyond known effects of object-based crossmodal interactions with simple stimuli and shed new light upon how audio-visual semantically congruent relationships play out in everyday life scenarios.

scholarly journals Facilitative Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Semantic Memory Examined by Text-Mining Analysis in Patients With Schizophrenia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chika Sumiyoshi ◽  
Zui Narita ◽  
Takuma Inagawa ◽  
Yuji Yamada ◽  
Kazuki Sueyoshi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Text Mining ◽  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Direct Current ◽  
Memory Organization ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
Category Fluency ◽  
Animal Names ◽  
Fluency Task

Background: Beneficial effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are relevant to cognition and functional capacity, in addition to psychiatric symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. However, whether tDCS would improve higher-order cognition, e.g., semantic memory organization, has remained unclear. Recently, text-mining analyses have been shown to reveal semantic memory. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether tDCS would improve semantic memory, as evaluated by text-mining analyses of category fluency data, in patients with schizophrenia.Methods: Twenty-eight patients entered the study. Cognitive assessment including the category fluency task was conducted at baseline (before tDCS treatment) and 1 month after t administration of tDCS (2 mA × 20 min, twice per day) for 5 days, according to our previous study. The category fluency data were also obtained from 335 healthy control subjects. The verbal outputs (i.e., animal names) from the category fluency task were submitted to singular valued decomposition (SVD) analysis. Semantic memory structures were estimated by calculating inter-item cosines (i.e., similarities) among animal names frequently produced in the category fluency task. Data were analyzed longitudinally and cross-sectionally to compare the semantic structure within the patient group (i.e., baseline vs. follow-up) and between groups (patients vs. healthy controls). In the former, semantic associations for frequent items were compared in the form of cosine profiles, while in the latter, the difference in the magnitude of the correlations for inter-item cosines between healthy controls and patients (baseline, follow-up) was examined.Results: Cosine profiles in the patient group became more cluster-based (i.e., pet, carnivores, and herbivores) at follow-up compared to those at baseline, yielding higher cosines within subcategories. The correlational coefficient of inter-item cosines between healthy controls and patients was significantly greater at follow-up compared to baseline; semantic associations in patients approached the normality status after multi-session tDCS.Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the facilitative effect of tDCS on semantic memory organization in patients with schizophrenia. Text-mining analysis was indicated to effectively evaluate semantic memory structures in patients with psychiatric disorders.

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 Remotely Close Associations: Openness to Experience and Semantic Memory Structure

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander P. Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Graphical Models ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Semantic Network ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
Openness To Experience ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Semantic Network Analysis ◽  
Creative Cognition ◽  
Semantic Associations

Openness to experience—the enjoyment of novel experiences, ideas, and unconventional perspectives—has shown several connections to cognition that suggest open people might have different cognitive processes than those low in openness. People high in openness are more creative, have broader general knowledge, and show greater cognitive flexibility. The associative structure of semantic memory might be one such cognitive process that people in openness differ in. In this study, 497 people completed a measure of openness to experience and verbal fluency. Three groups of high (n = 115), moderate (n = 121), and low (n = 118) openness were created to construct semantic networks—graphical models of semantic associations that provide quantifiable representations of how these associations are organized—from their verbal fluency responses. The groups were compared on graph theory measures of their respective semantic networks. The semantic network analysis revealed that as openness increased, the rigidity of the semantic structure decreased and the interconnectivity increased, suggesting greater flexibility of associations. Semantic structure also became more condensed and had better integration, which facilitates open people’s ability to reach more unique associations. These results were supported by open people coming up with more individual and unique responses, starting with less conventional responses, and having a flatter frequency proportion slope than less open people. In summary, the semantic network structure of people high in openness to experience supports the retrieval of remote concepts via short associative pathways, which promotes unique combinations of disparate concepts that are key for creative cognition.

scholarly journals The interrelation of semantic structure and syntactic variation in Old English verb classes: catalogue of syntactico-semantic constructions

2005 ◽  
pp. 111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta González Orta
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Syntactic Variation ◽  
Verb Classes ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Role And Reference Grammar ◽  
Reference Grammar ◽  
Lexical Rules ◽  
Core Meaning

The aim of this paper is to motivate the syntactic and morphological behaviour of the Old English verbs which share the core meaning of 'to remember', 'to emit a smell', 'to produce a sound' and 'to speak' from their semantic structure. Firstly, as a result of the analysis of these verb subclasses, I will propose a subclass-based lexical template for each lexical subclass. Within the Lexical Grammar Model, lexical templates are conceived as lexical representations where meaning description is encapsulated and interacts with the syntactic behaviour of lexical units. In order to construct a lexical template, Role and Reference Grammar logical structures will be complemented by a semantic decomposition which will define different lexical (sub-)classes. Secondly, the Lexical Template Modelling Process will stipulate the linking between the syntactic and semantic representation of these verbs. This process will establish the lexical rules that account for the mapping between the different semantic constructions and the syntactic structures and alternations in which these verbs participate and the lexical templates codified by these verb subclasses. As a result, a catalogue of the syntactico-semantic constructions exhibited by these Old English verbal predicates will be provided.

Cross-linguistic transfer and borrowing in bilinguals

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
VIORICA MARIAN ◽  
MARGARITA KAUSHANSKAYA
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Access ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Grammatical Category ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Abstract Nouns ◽  
Concrete Nouns ◽  
Linguistic Transfer ◽  
Language Environment

Cross-linguistic borrowing (overt use of words from the other language) and transfer (use of semantic or syntactic structures from the other language without active switching to that language) were examined during language production in Russian–English bilinguals. Grammatical category (noun/verb) and level of concreteness were found to influence language interaction. More cross-linguistic borrowings were found for nouns than for verbs and more cross-linguistic transfers were found for verbs than for nouns, suggesting that grammatical categories are differentially vulnerable to covert and overt language interaction. Moreover, concrete nouns and verbs were transferred more than abstract nouns and verbs, suggesting that level of concreteness influences lexical access in bilinguals. Overall, bilinguals transferred more when speaking their second and less proficient language and borrowed more when speaking their first and less recent language (especially if the described event took place in the other language). We suggest that language architecture (e.g., semantic representation, lexical access) and language environment influence the nature of cross-linguistic interaction.

scholarly journals Semantic Representation and Location Provenance of Cultural Heritage Information: the National Gallery Collection in London

Heritage ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 648-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Padfield ◽  
Kalliopi Kontiza ◽  
Antonis Bikakis ◽  
Andreas Vlachidis
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
National Gallery ◽  
Semantic Relationships ◽  
Compliant Structure ◽  
Building Components ◽  
Cidoc Crm

This paper describes a working example of semantically modelling cultural heritage information and data from the National Gallery collection in London. The paper discusses the process of semantically representing and enriching the available cultural heritage data, and reveals the challenges of semantically expressing interrelations and groupings among the physical items, the venue and the available digital resources. The paper also highlights the challenges in the creation of the conceptual model of the National Gallery as a Venue, which aims to i) describe and understand the correlation between the parts of a building and the whole; ii) to record and express the semantic relationships among the building components with the building as a whole; and iii) to be able to record the accurate location of objects within space and capture their provenance in terms of changes of location. The outcome of this research is the CrossCult venue ontology, a fully International Committee for Documentation Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC-CRM) compliant structure developed in the context of the CrossCult project. The proposed ontology attempts to model the spatial arrangements of the different types of cultural heritage venues considered in the project: from small museums to open air archaeological sites and whole cities.

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