scholarly journals Sixteen-month-olds comprehend unanchored absent reference

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Luchkina ◽  
Fei Xu ◽  
David Sobel ◽  
James Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Images ◽  
Contextual Support ◽  
Absent Reference ◽  
Target Words

A nascent understanding of absent reference emerges around 12 months: provided with rich contextual support, infants look and point to the location of a displaced object. When can infants understand absent reference without contextual support? Using a procedure modified from Hendrickson and Sundara (2017), 13- and 16-month-olds first listened to utterances containing familiar target words, while viewing a checkerboard. Then, two objects – a referent and a distractor (e.g., a cup and a shoe) – appeared on the screen. Only 16-month-olds demonstrated a reliable looking preference for the referents, suggesting that listening to the utterances activated their mental images of the referents. These results establish that at 16 months, infants comprehend reference to absent entities without any contextual support.

Fourteen-month-olds’ decontextualized understanding of words for absent objects

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
KRISTI HENDRICKSON ◽  
MEGHA SUNDARA
Keyword(s):  
New Method ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Object Knowledge ◽  
Visual Priming ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Spoken Words ◽  
Contextual Support ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Unseen Objects ◽  
Target Words

AbstractThe majority of research examining infants’ decontextualized word knowledge comes from studies in which words and pictures are presented simultaneously. However, comprehending utterances about unseen objects is a hallmark of language. Do infants demonstrate decontextualized absent object knowledge early in the second year of life? Further, to what extent do words evoke strictly prototypical representations of absent objects? To investigate these questions we analyzed 14-month-olds’ comprehension of labels for absent entities without contextual support. In a novel, auditory–visual priming paradigm, infants heard passages containing two target words and then saw four animations – two that matched the meaning of the target words and two they had not heard in the passages. We found that by age 1;2, spoken words evoke prototypical representations of absent entities. Additionally, our findings demonstrate a promising new method for exploring absent object comprehension in infants.

Structural Aspects of Phonological Development

1988 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen E. Pollock ◽  
Richard G. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Management ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Strong Preference ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Structural Position ◽  
Phonological Disorders ◽  
Syllabic Structure ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Structural Aspects ◽  
Target Words

The relationship between syllabic structure and segmental development was examined longitudinally in a child with a severe phonological disorder. Six speech samples were collected over a 4-year period (3:5 to 7:3). Analyses revealed gradual increases in the complexity and diversity of the syllable structures produced, and positional preferences for sounds within these forms. With a strong preference for [d] and [n] at the beginning of syllables, other consonants appeared first at the end of syllables. Implications for clinical management of phonological disorders include the need to consider both structural position and structural complexity in assessing segmental skills and in choosing target words for intervention.

Turning Perceptions and Mental Images Into Ideas

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
RICHARD J. CASELLI
Keyword(s):  
Mental Images

Interindividual Differences in Cognitive Functioning Are Associated with Autobiographical Memory Retrieval Specificity in Older Adults

GeroPsych ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Peters ◽  
Signy Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Interindividual Differences ◽  
Retrieval Cues ◽  
Contextual Support

Abstract. We examined whether interindividual differences in cognitive functioning among older adults are related to episodic memory engagement during autobiographical memory retrieval. Older adults ( n = 49, 24 males; mean age = 69.93; mean education = 15.45) with different levels of cognitive functioning, estimated using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), retrieved multiple memories (generation task) and the details of a single memory (elaboration task) to cues representing thematic or event-specific autobiographical knowledge. We found that the MoCA score positively predicted the proportion of specific memories for generation and episodic details for elaboration, but only to cues that represented event-specific information. The results demonstrate that individuals with healthy, but not unhealthy, cognitive status can leverage contextual support from retrieval cues to improve autobiographical specificity.

The Direction of Affective Priming as a Function of Trait Anxiety When Naming Target Words With Regular and Irregular Pronunciation

2004 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 180-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. Berner ◽  
Markus A. Maier
Keyword(s):  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Reading Aloud ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Affective Priming ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Expected Effect ◽  
Negative Affective Priming ◽  
Whole Word ◽  
German Data ◽  
Target Words

Abstract. Results from an affective priming experiment confirm the previously reported influence of trait anxiety on the direction of affective priming in the naming task ( Maier, Berner, & Pekrun, 2003 ): On trials in which extremely valenced primes appeared, positive affective priming reversed into negative affective priming with increasing levels of trait anxiety. Using valenced target words with irregular pronunciation did not have the expected effect of increasing the extent to which semantic processes play a role in naming, as affective priming effects were not stronger for irregular targets than for regular targets. This suggests the predominant operation of a whole-word nonsemantic pathway in reading aloud in German. Data from neutral priming trials hint at the possibility that negative affective priming in participants high in trait anxiety is due to inhibition of congruent targets.

Reactivity of Judgments of Learning in a Levels-of-Processing Paradigm

2020 ◽  
Vol 228 (4) ◽  
pp. 278-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eylul Tekin ◽  
Henry L. Roediger
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Paired Associate ◽  
Judgments Of Learning ◽  
Paired Associate Learning ◽  
Levels Of Processing ◽  
Pleasantness Rating ◽  
Associate Learning ◽  
Counting Task ◽  
Reactive Effect ◽  
Target Words

Abstract. Recent studies have shown that judgments of learning (JOLs) are reactive measures in paired-associate learning paradigms. However, evidence is scarce concerning whether JOLs are reactive in other paradigms. In old/new recognition experiments, we investigated the reactivity effects of JOLs in a levels-of-processing (LOP) paradigm. In Experiments 1 and 2, for each word, subjects saw a yes/no orienting question followed by the target word and a response. Then, they either did or did not make a JOL. The yes/no questions were about target words’ appearances, rhyming properties, or category memberships. In Experiment 3, for each word, subjects gave a pleasantness rating or counted the letter “e ”. Our results revealed that JOLs enhanced recognition across all orienting tasks in Experiments 1 and 2, and for the e-counting task in Experiment 3. This reactive effect was salient for shallow tasks, attenuating – but not eliminating – the LOP effect after making JOLs. We conclude that JOLs are reactive in LOP paradigms and subjects encode words more effectively when providing JOLs.

Generation and Associative Encoding in Young and Old Adults

2008 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Taconnat ◽  
Charlotte Froger ◽  
Mathilde Sacher ◽  
Michel Isingrini
Keyword(s):  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Generation Effect ◽  
Elderly Adults ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Strength Of Association ◽  
Target Words

Abstract. The generation effect (i.e., better recall of the generated items than the read items) was investigated with a between-list design in young and elderly participants. The generation task difficulty was manipulated by varying the strength of association between cues and targets. Overall, strong associates were better recalled than weak associates. However, the results showed different generation effect patterns according to strength of association and age, with a greater generation effect for weak associates in younger adults only. These findings suggest that generating weak associates leads to more elaborated encoding, but that elderly adults cannot use this elaborated encoding as well as younger adults to recall the target words at test.

The Sound of Enemies and Friends in the Neighborhood

2011 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 454-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Pecher ◽  
Inge Boot ◽  
Saskia van Dantzig ◽  
Carol J. Madden ◽  
David E. Huber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Neighborhood Effects ◽  
Classification Performance ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Orthographic Neighborhood ◽  
Semantic Classification ◽  
Semantic Class ◽  
Orthographic Neighbors ◽  
Target Words

Previous studies (e.g., Pecher, Zeelenberg, & Wagenmakers, 2005) found that semantic classification performance is better for target words with orthographic neighbors that are mostly from the same semantic class (e.g., living) compared to target words with orthographic neighbors that are mostly from the opposite semantic class (e.g., nonliving). In the present study we investigated the contribution of phonology to orthographic neighborhood effects by comparing effects of phonologically congruent orthographic neighbors (book-hook) to phonologically incongruent orthographic neighbors (sand-wand). The prior presentation of a semantically congruent word produced larger effects on subsequent animacy decisions when the previously presented word was a phonologically congruent neighbor than when it was a phonologically incongruent neighbor. In a second experiment, performance differences between target words with versus without semantically congruent orthographic neighbors were larger if the orthographic neighbors were also phonologically congruent. These results support models of visual word recognition that assume an important role for phonology in cascaded access to meaning.

Are Mental Images the Result of Propositions or Depictions?

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (14) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent Dean Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Mental Images
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