Investigating orthographic versus auditory cross-situational word learning with online and lab-based research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Escudero ◽  
Eline Adrianne Smit ◽  
Anthony Angwin
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Auditory Information ◽  
Online Testing ◽  
Auditory Condition ◽  
Testing Protocol ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Novel Words

In recent years, cross-situational word learning (CSWL) paradigms have shown that novel words can be learned through implicit statistical learning. So far, CSWL studies using adult populations have focused on the presentation of spoken words (auditory information), however, words can also be learned through their written form (orthographic information). This study compares auditory and orthographic presentation of novel words with different degrees of phonological overlap using the CSWL paradigm. Additionally, we also present a lab-based and online-based approach to testing behavioural experiments. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lab testing was prematurely terminated, and testing was continued online using a newly created online testing protocol. Analyses first compared accuracy and response times across modalities, with our findings showing better and faster recognition performance for CSWL when novel words are presented through their written (orthographic condition) than through their spoken forms (auditory condition). As well, Bayesian modelling found that accuracy for the auditory condition was higher online compared to the lab-based experiment, whereas performance in the orthography condition was high in both experiments and generally outperformed the auditory condition. We discuss the implications of our findings for modality of presentation, as well as the benefits of our online testing protocol and its implementation for future research.

Learning and Retention of Novel Words in Musicians and Nonmusicians

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Elizabeth C. Stewart ◽  
Andrea L. Pittman
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Word Recall ◽  
Auditory Information ◽  
Musical Representations ◽  
Word Detection ◽  
Novel Words

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether long-term musical training enhances the ability to perceive and learn new auditory information. Listeners with extensive musical experience were expected to detect, learn, and retain novel words more effectively than participants without musical training. Advantages of musical training were expected to be greater for words learned in multitalker babble compared to quiet. Method Participants consisted of 20 young adult musicians and 20 age-matched nonmusicians, all with normal hearing. In addition to completing word recognition and nonword detection tasks, each participant learned 10 novel words in a rapid word-learning paradigm. All tasks were completed in quiet and in multitalker babble. Next-day retention of the learned words was examined in isolation (recall) and in the context of continuous discourse (detection). Performance was compared across groups and listening conditions. Results Performance was significantly poorer in babble than in quiet on word recognition and nonword detection, but not on word learning, learned-word recall, or learned-word detection. No differences were observed between groups (musicians vs. nonmusicians) on any of the tasks. Conclusions For young normal-hearing adults, auditory experience resulting from long-term music training did not enhance their learning of new auditory information in either favorable (quiet) or unfavorable (babble) listening conditions. This suggests that the formation of semantic and musical representations in memory may be supported by the same underlying auditory processes, such that musical training is simply an extension of an auditory expertise that both musicians and nonmusicians possess.

Two-year-olds differentially disambiguate novel words and facts

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 875-889 ◽  
Author(s):  
JASON SCOFIELD ◽  
DOUGLAS A. BEHREND
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Word Condition ◽  
Pragmatic Account ◽  
Learning Principles ◽  
Unfamiliar Object ◽  
Novel Words

ABSTRACTWhen presented with a pair of objects, one familiar and one unfamiliar, and asked to select the referent of a novel word, children reliably demonstrate the disambiguation effect and select the unfamiliar object. The current study investigated two competing word learning accounts of this effect: a pragmatic account and a word learning principles account. Two-, three- and four-year-olds were presented with four disambiguation conditions, a word/word, a word/fact, a fact/word and a fact/fact condition. A pragmatic account predicted disambiguation in all four conditions while a word learning principles account predicted disambiguation in the word/word and fact/word conditions. Results indicated that children disambiguated in word/word and fact/word conditions and two-year-olds disambiguated at above chance levels in the word/word condition but at below chance levels in the fact/fact condition. Because disambiguation varied both as a function of age and condition these findings are presented as challenges to a pragmatic account of the disambiguation effect.

Effect of speaker certainty on novel word learning in monolingual and bilingual children

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (04) ◽  
pp. 883-895 ◽  
Author(s):  
MILIJANA BUAC ◽  
AURÉLIE TAUZIN-LARCHÉ ◽  
EMILY WEISBERG ◽  
MARGARITA KAUSHANSKAYA
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Novel Word Learning ◽  
Linguistic Backgrounds ◽  
Novel Words

In the present study, we examined the effect of speaker certainty on word-learning performance in English-speaking monolingual (MAge = 6.40) and Spanish–English bilingual (MAge = 6.58) children. No group differences were observed when children learned novel words from a certain speaker. However, bilingual children were more willing to learn novel words from an uncertain speaker than their monolingual peers. These findings indicate that language experience influences how children weigh cues to speaker credibility during learning and suggest that children with more diverse linguistic backgrounds (i.e., bilinguals) are less prone to prioritizing information based on speaker certainty.

scholarly journals On the Robustness of Face Recognition Algorithms Against Attacks and Bias

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (09) ◽  
pp. 13583-13589
Author(s):  
Richa Singh ◽  
Akshay Agarwal ◽  
Maneet Singh ◽  
Shruti Nagpal ◽  
Mayank Vatsa
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Recognition Algorithm ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Recognition Algorithms ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Variations ◽  
Very High

Face recognition algorithms have demonstrated very high recognition performance, suggesting suitability for real world applications. Despite the enhanced accuracies, robustness of these algorithms against attacks and bias has been challenged. This paper summarizes different ways in which the robustness of a face recognition algorithm is challenged, which can severely affect its intended working. Different types of attacks such as physical presentation attacks, disguise/makeup, digital adversarial attacks, and morphing/tampering using GANs have been discussed. We also present a discussion on the effect of bias on face recognition models and showcase that factors such as age and gender variations affect the performance of modern algorithms. The paper also presents the potential reasons for these challenges and some of the future research directions for increasing the robustness of face recognition models.

Object-Selective Cortex Exhibits Performance-Independent Repetition Suppression

2006 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 995-1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rory Sayres ◽  
Kalanit Grill-Spector
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Region Of Interest ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Repetition Suppression ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Bold Responses ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Time Required

Object-selective cortical regions exhibit a decreased response when an object stimulus is repeated [repetition suppression (RS)]. RS is often associated with priming: reduced response times and increased accuracy for repeated stimuli. It is unknown whether RS reflects stimulus-specific repetition, the associated changes in response time, or the combination of the two. To address this question, we performed a rapid event-related functional MRI (fMRI) study in which we measured BOLD signal in object-selective cortex, as well as object recognition performance, while we manipulated stimulus repetition. Our design allowed us to examine separately the roles of response time and repetition in explaining RS. We found that repetition played a robust role in explaining RS: repeated trials produced weaker BOLD responses than nonrepeated trials, even when comparing trials with matched response times. In contrast, response time played a weak role in explaining RS when repetition was controlled for: it explained BOLD responses only for one region of interest (ROI) and one experimental condition. Thus repetition suppression seems to be mostly driven by repetition rather than performance changes. We further examined whether RS reflects processes occurring at the same time as recognition or after recognition by manipulating stimulus presentation duration. In one experiment, durations were longer than required for recognition (2 s), whereas in a second experiment, durations were close to the minimum time required for recognition (85–101 ms). We found significant RS for brief presentations (albeit with a reduced magnitude), which again persisted when controlling for performance. This suggests a substantial amount of RS occurs during recognition.

Cognitive mechanisms of word learning in bilingual and monolingual adults: The role of phonological memory

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 470-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARGARITA KAUSHANSKAYA
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Phonological Memory ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
Novel Word Learning ◽  
Novel Words

Previous studies have indicated that bilingualism may facilitate lexical learning in adults. The goals of this research were (i) to examine whether bilingual influences on word learning diverge for phonologically-familiar and phonologically-unfamiliar novel words, and (ii) to examine whether increased phonological memory capacity can account for bilingual effects on word learning. In Experiment 1, participants learned phonologically-familiar novel words that were constructed using the phonemes of English – the native language for all participants. In Experiment 2, participants learned phonologically-unfamiliar novel words that included non-English phonemes. In each experiment, bilingual adults were contrasted with two groups of monolingual adults: a high memory-span monolingual group (that matched bilinguals on phonological memory performance) and a low-span monolingual group. Results showed that bilingual participants in both experiments outperformed monolingual participants, both high-span and low-span. High-span monolinguals outperformed low-span monolinguals when learning phonologically-unfamiliar novel words, but not when learning phonologically-familiar novel words. The findings suggest that the bilingual advantage for novel word learning is not contingent on the phonological properties of novel words, and that phonological memory capacity as measured here cannot account for the bilingual effects on learning.

Attention and word learning in toddlers who are late talkers

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 1020-1037 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHELLE MACROY-HIGGINS ◽  
ELIZABETH A. MONTEMARANO
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Attention Allocation ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Auditory Comprehension ◽  
Late Talkers ◽  
Novel Words

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine attention allocation in toddlers who were late talkers and toddlers with typical language development while they were engaged in a word-learning task in order to determine if differences exist. Two-year-olds who were late talkers (11) and typically developing toddlers (11) were taught twelve novel pseudo-words for unfamiliar objects over ten training sessions. The toddlers' attention allocation during the word-learning sessions was measured as well as their comprehension of the newly learned words. Late talkers showed reduced attention allocation to objects during word-training sessions, and also comprehended fewer of the novel words than toddlers with typical language development. Attention allocation was found to be a stronger predictor of word learning as compared to cognition and auditory comprehension. Reduced attention allocation may contribute to the early lexical delay characteristic in late talkers.

scholarly journals Non-native phonemes in adult word learning: evidence from the N400m

2009 ◽  
Vol 364 (1536) ◽  
pp. 3697-3709 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Dobel ◽  
Lothar Lagemann ◽  
Pienie Zwitserlood
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Native Language ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Learning Paradigm ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
Lexical Activation ◽  
Semantic Access ◽  
Novel Words

Newborns are equipped with a large phonemic inventory that becomes tuned to one's native language early in life. We review and add new data about how learning of a non-native phoneme can be accomplished in adults and how the efficiency of word learning can be assessed by neurophysiological measures. For this purpose, we studied the acquisition of the voiceless, bilabial fricative /Φ/ via a statistical-learning paradigm. Phonemes were embedded in minimal pairs of pseudowords, differing only with respect to the fricative (/aΦo/ versus /afo/). During learning, pseudowords were combined with pictures of objects with some combinations of pseudowords and pictures occurring more frequently than others. Behavioural data and the N400m component, as an index of lexical activation/semantic access, showed that participants had learned to associate the pseudowords with the pictures. However, they could not discriminate within the minimal pairs. Importantly, before learning, the novel words with the sound /Φ/ showed smaller N400 amplitudes than those with native phonemes, evidencing their non-word status. Learning abolished this difference indicating that /Φ/ had become integrated into the native category /f/, instead of establishing a novel category. Our data and review demonstrate that native phonemic categories are powerful attractors hampering the mastery of non-native contrasts.

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