Automatic measurement of syntactic development in child language

We describe a heuristics-based system for automatic measurement of syntactic complexity using the revised Developmental Level (D-Level) scale (Rosenberg & Abbeduto 1987; Covington et al. 2006). The system takes a raw sentence as input and assigns it to an appropriate developmental level on the scale. The system is designed with child language acquisition and psycholinguistic research in mind, and is therefore developed and evaluated using both written data from the Penn Treebank (Marcus et al. 1993) and spoken child language acquisition data from the CHILDES database (MacWhinney 2000). Experiment results show that the model achieves an accuracy of 94.0% and 93.2% on unseen test data from the Penn Treebank and the CHILDES database respectively. We illustrate how the system is used in an example application to investigate the correlation of average D-Level score and speaker age.

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Nativist versus constructivist goals in studying child language

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000904006063 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 459-462 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

NAMEERA AKHTAR

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Skills ◽

Child Language ◽

Universal Grammar ◽

Research Programme ◽

Linguistic Knowledge ◽

Development Change ◽

Linguistic Ability ◽

Syntactic Development ◽

Continuity Assumption ◽

Innateness Hypothesis

Crain & Thornton (1998: 5) are admirably clear in stating the aims of their research programme: they ‘hope to convince a greater number of students and researchers in child language of the correctness of the Innateness Hypothesis and the theory of Universal Grammar’. As Drozd notes, however, their assumptions under Modularity Matching ‘set the stage for a research programme unlike those typically adopted by developmental psycholinguists’. Whereas C&T are avowedly committed to the continuity assumption (clearly preferring ‘special nativism’ over ‘general nativism’; O'Grady, 1997), constructivists are more interested in the question of how children ‘get from here to there’ (Tomasello, 2003) – that is, from immature levels of language comprehension and use to adultlike levels (and, it is important to note that adultlike levels are not always characterized in generativist terms). Most constructivists are also committed to studying the relations between language development and other simultaneously developing social and cognitive skills (Clark, 2003), whereas nativists tend to be interested in ‘pure’ linguistic ability uncontaminated by nonlinguistic influences. The main goal of nativists then is to verify a specific theory of linguistic competence that suggests that linguistic knowledge is innate and modular and to account for children's linguistic development in terms of UG, whereas the main goal for constructivists is to account for development (change) in the child's language system (beginning from perhaps no predetermined linguistic knowledge) and how it relates to other aspects of development. It is this fundamental difference in goals that makes one quite pessimistic that constructivist and nativist researchers in syntactic development can learn anything from one another; they are simply engaged in separate tasks.

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Automatic measurement of SAED patterns from asbestos minerals

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100106296 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 46 ◽

pp. 846-847

Author(s):

J. C. Russ ◽

T. Taguchi ◽

P. M. Peters ◽

E. Chatfield ◽

J. C. Russ ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Diffraction Pattern ◽

High Precision ◽

Diffraction Data ◽

Automatic Measurement ◽

Automatic Method ◽

Important Method ◽

X Ray ◽

Integrated Intensity ◽

Asbestiform Minerals ◽

True Center

Conventional SAD patterns as obtained in the TEM present difficulties for identification of materials such as asbestiform minerals, although diffraction data is considered to be an important method for making this purpose. The preferred orientation of the fibers and the spotty patterns that are obtained do not readily lend themselves to measurement of the integrated intensity values for each d-spacing, and even the d-spacings may be hard to determine precisely because the true center location for the broken rings requires estimation. We have implemented an automatic method for diffraction pattern measurement to overcome these problems. It automatically locates the center of patterns with high precision, measures the radius of each ring of spots in the pattern, and integrates the density of spots in that ring. The resulting spectrum of intensity vs. radius is then used just as a conventional X-ray diffractometer scan would be, to locate peaks and produce a list of d,I values suitable for search/match comparison to known or expected phases.

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Two Approaches to Research in Child Language

Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools ◽

10.1044/0161-1461.2501.48 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 48-51 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Judith Felson Duchan

Keyword(s):

Child Language

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Machine-Scored Syntax: Comparison of the CLAN Automatic Scoring Program to Manual Scoring

Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools ◽

10.1044/2019_lshss-19-00056 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 51 (2) ◽

pp. 479-493

Author(s):

Jenny A. Roberts ◽

Evelyn P. Altenberg ◽

Madison Hunter

Keyword(s):

Data Exchange ◽

Child Language ◽

Exchange System ◽

Absolute Point ◽

Language Analysis ◽

Search Patterns ◽

Language Data ◽

Report Accuracy ◽

Point To Point ◽

Automatic Scoring

Purpose The results of automatic machine scoring of the Index of Productive Syntax from the Computerized Language ANalysis (CLAN) tools of the Child Language Data Exchange System of TalkBank (MacWhinney, 2000) were compared to manual scoring to determine the accuracy of the machine-scored method. Method Twenty transcripts of 10 children from archival data of the Weismer Corpus from the Child Language Data Exchange System at 30 and 42 months were examined. Measures of absolute point difference and point-to-point accuracy were compared, as well as points erroneously given and missed. Two new measures for evaluating automatic scoring of the Index of Productive Syntax were introduced: Machine Item Accuracy (MIA) and Cascade Failure Rate— these measures further analyze points erroneously given and missed. Differences in total scores, subscale scores, and individual structures were also reported. Results Mean absolute point difference between machine and hand scoring was 3.65, point-to-point agreement was 72.6%, and MIA was 74.9%. There were large differences in subscales, with Noun Phrase and Verb Phrase subscales generally providing greater accuracy and agreement than Question/Negation and Sentence Structures subscales. There were significantly more erroneous than missed items in machine scoring, attributed to problems of mistagging of elements, imprecise search patterns, and other errors. Cascade failure resulted in an average of 4.65 points lost per transcript. Conclusions The CLAN program showed relatively inaccurate outcomes in comparison to manual scoring on both traditional and new measures of accuracy. Recommendations for improvement of the program include accounting for second exemplar violations and applying cascaded credit, among other suggestions. It was proposed that research on machine-scored syntax routinely report accuracy measures detailing erroneous and missed scores, including MIA, so that researchers and clinicians are aware of the limitations of a machine-scoring program. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.11984364

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Conceptualizing Bilingualism: Defining the Standard for Child Language Assessment

Perspectives on Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations ◽

10.1044/cds11.2.19 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 19-24

Author(s):

Brenda K. Gorman ◽

Rachel G. Aghara

Keyword(s):

Child Language ◽

Language Assessment

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Child Language Acquisition

10.1017/cbo9780511975073 ◽

2009 ◽

Cited By ~ 135

Author(s):

Ben Ambridge ◽

Elena V. M. Lieven

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Child Language ◽

Child Language Acquisition

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Automated software supported versus manual aorto-iliac diameter measurements in CT angiography of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms: Assessment of inter- and intraobserver variation

VASA ◽

10.1024/0301-1526.34.4.255 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 34 (4) ◽

pp. 255-261 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Diehm ◽

Baumgartner ◽

Silvestro ◽

Herrmann ◽

Triller ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ct Angiography ◽

Iliac Artery ◽

Automatic Measurement ◽

Random Order ◽

Aortic Aneurysms ◽

Intraobserver Variability ◽

Automatic Method ◽

Left Common Iliac Artery ◽

Abdominal Aortic ◽

Intraobserver Variation

Background: Open surgical or endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) relies on precise preprocedual imaging. Purpose of this study was to assess inter- and intraobserver variation of software-supported automated and manual multi row detector CT angiography (MDCTA) in aortoiliac diameter measurements before AAA repair. Patients and methods: Thirty original MDCTA data sets (4 times 2mm collimation) of patients scheduled for endovascular AAA repair were studied on a dedicated software capable of creating two-dimensional reformatted planes orthogonal to the aortoiliac center-line. Measurements were performed twice with a four-week interval between readings. Data were analysed by two blinded readers at random order. Two different measurement methods were performed: reader-assisted freehand wall-to-wall measurement and semi-automatic measurement. Results: Aortoiliac diameters were significantly underestimated by the semi-automatic method as compared to reader-assisted measurements (p < 0.0031). Intraobserver variability of AAA diameter calculation was not significant (p > 0.15) for reader-assisted measurements except for the diameter of the left common iliac artery in reader 2 (p = 0.0045) and it was not significant (p > 0.14) using the semi-automatic method. Interobserver variability was not significant for AAA diameter measurements using the reader-assisted method and for proximal neck analysis with the semi-automatic method (p > 0.27). Relevant interobserver variation was observed for semi-automatic measurement of maximum AAA (p = 0.0007) and iliac artery diameters (p = 0.024). Conclusions: Dedicated MDCTA software provides a useful tool to minimize aortoiliac diameter measurement variation and to improve imaging precision before AAA repair. For reliable AAA diameter analysis the reader-assisted freehand measurement method is recommended to be applied to a set of reformatted CT data as provided by the software used in this study.

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