Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation and Incremental Sentence Comprehension: Computational Dependencies during Language Learning as Revealed by Neuronal Oscillations

AbstractWe hypothesise a beneficial influence of sleep on the consolidation of the combinatorial mechanisms underlying incremental sentence comprehension. These predictions are grounded in recent work examining the effect of sleep on the consolidation of linguistic information, which demonstrate that sleep-dependent neurophysiological activity consolidates the meaning of novel words and simple grammatical rules. However, the sleep-dependent consolidation of sentence-level combinatorics has not been studied to date. Here, we propose that dissociable aspects of sleep neurophysiology consolidate two different types of combinatory mechanisms in human language: sequence-based (order-sensitive) and dependency-based (order-insensitive) combinatorics. The distinction between the two types of combinatorics is motivated both by cross-linguistic considerations and the neurobiological underpinnings of human language. Unifying this perspective with principles of sleep-dependent memory consolidation, we posit that a function of sleep is to optimise the consolidation of sequence-based knowledge (the when) and the establishment of semantic schemas of unordered items (the what) that underpin cross-linguistic variations in sentence comprehension. This hypothesis builds on the proposal that sleep is involved in the construction of predictive codes, a unified principle of brain function that supports incremental sentence comprehension. Finally, we discuss neurophysiological measures (EEG/MEG) that could be used to test these claims, such as the quantification of neuronal oscillations, which reflect basic mechanisms of information processing in the brain.

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Deep Learning and Competition in Psycholinguistic Research

East European Journal of Psycholinguistics ◽

10.29038/eejpl.2017.4.2.rta ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 67-74

Author(s):

Роман Тарабань ◽

Маршал Філіп Х.

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Second Language ◽

Deep Learning ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Learning ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Competition Model ◽

Cambridge University ◽

Cue Validity

MacWhinney, Bates, and colleagues developed the Competition Model in the 1980s as an alternate to Chomskyan models that encapsulate syntax as a special-purpose module. The Competition Model adopted the functional perspective that language serves communicative goals and functions. In contrast to the premise that knowledge of language is innate, the Competition model asserts that language is learned and processed through general cognitive mechanisms that identify and weight phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic cues in the language experiences of the learner. These weighted cues guide the language user in the comprehension and production of language forms. The present article provides background on the Competition Model, describes machine simulations of linguistic competition, and extends the principles of the Competition Model to new machine models and applications through deep learning networks. References Bates, E. & MacWhinney, B. (1982). A functionalist approach to grammar. In E. Wanner & L. Gleitman (Eds.), Language acquisition: the state of the art. New York: Cambridge University Press. Bates, E., & MacWhinney, B. (1989). Functionalism and the competition model. In: The Crosslinguistic Study of Sentence Processing, (pp 3-76). B. MacWhinney and E. Bates (Eds.), New York: Cambridge University Press. Devescovi, A., D’Amico, S., Smith, S., Mimica, I., & Bates, E. (1998). The development of sentence comprehension in Italian and Serbo-Croatian: Local versus distributed cues. In: Syntax and Semantics: Vol. 31. Sentence Pocessing: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective, (pp. 345-377). D. Hillert (Ed.), San Diego: Academic Press. Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W. T. (2002). The faculty of language: What it is, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science, 298, 1569-1579. Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). A theory of reading: From eye fixations to comprehension. Psychological Review, 87, 329-354. Langacker, R. (1989). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Vol. 2: Applications. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Li, P., & MacWhinney, B. (2013). Competition model. In: The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), Malden, MA: Wiley. MacWhinney, B. (1987). The competition model. In: Mechanisms of Language Acquisition, (pp.249-308). B. MacWhinney (Ed.).Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. MacWhinney, B. (2001). The competition model: The input, the context, and the brain. In: Cognition and Second Language Instruction, (pp. 69–90). P. Robinson (Ed.), New York: Cambridge University Press. MacWhinney, B. (2008). A Unified Model. In: Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition, (pp. 341-371). P. Robinson & N. Ellis (Eds.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. MacWhinney B. (2012). The logic of the Unified Model. In: The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, (pp. 211–227). S. Gass and A. Mackey (Eds.). New York: Routledge. MacWhinney, B. (2015). Multidimensional SLA. In: Usage-Based Perspectives on Second Language Learning, (pp. 22-45). S. Eskilde and T. Cadierno (Eds.). New York: Oxford University Press. MacWhinney, B., Bates, E. & Kliegl, R. (1984). Cue validity and sentence interpretation in English, German, and Italian. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 23, 127-150. MacWhinney, B., Leinbach, J., Taraban, R., & McDonald, J. (1989). Language learning: Cues or rules? Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 255-277. McClelland, J. L., & Rumelhart, D. E. (1986). Parallel Distributed Processing. Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition. Volume 2: Psychological and Biological Models. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Presson, N. & MacWhinney, B. (2011). The Competition Model and language disorders. In: Handbook of Psycholinguistic and Cognitive Processes, (pp. 31-48). J. Guendozi, F. Loncke, and M. Williams (Eds.). New York: Psychology Press. Sokolov, J. L. (1988). Cue validity in Hebrew sentence comprehension. Journal of Child Language, 15, 129-156. Taraban, R. (2004). Drawing learners’ attention to syntactic context aids gender-like category induction. Journal of Memory and Language, 51(2), 202-216. Taraban, R. (2017). Hate, white supremacy, PTSD, and metacognition. In: Improve With Metacognition [online]. L. Scharff, A. Richmond, & J. Draeger (Eds.). Retrieved from: www.improvewithmetacognition.com. Taraban, R., & Kempe, V. (1999). Gender processing in native and non-native Russian speakers. Applied Psycholinguistics, 20, 119-148. Taraban, R., McDonald, J., & MacWhinney, B. (1989). Category learning in a connectionist model: Learning to decline the German definite article. In R. Corrigan, F. Eckman, & M. Noonan (Eds.), Linguistic categorization (pp. 163-193). Philadelphia: Benjamins. Taraban, R., & Roark, B. (1996). Competition in learning language-based categories. Applied Psycholinguistics, 17, 125-148.

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Long-term memory predictors of adult language learning at the interface between syntactic form and meaning

10.31234/osf.io/hxu5j ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Diana Pili-Moss

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Procedural Memory ◽

Procedural Learning ◽

Learning Ability ◽

Thematic Role ◽

Positive Interaction ◽

Learning Abilities ◽

Early Stages

Recent neurocognitive models of second language learning have posited specific roles for declarative and procedural memory in the processing of novel linguistic stimuli. Pursuing this line of investigation, the present study examined the role of declarative and procedural memory abilities in the early stages of adult comprehension of sentences in a miniature language with natural language characteristics (BrocantoJ). Thirty-six native Italian young adults were aurally exposed to BrocantoJ in the context of a computer game over three sessions on consecutive days. Following vocabulary training and passive exposure, participants were asked to perform game moves described by aural sentences in the language. Game trials differed with respect to the information the visual context offered. In part of the trials processing of relationships between grammatical properties of the language (word order and morphological case marking) and noun semantics (thematic role) was necessary in order reach an accurate outcome, whereas in others nongrammatical contextual cues were sufficient. Declarative and procedural learning abilities were respectively indexed by visual and verbal declarative memory measures and by a measure of visual implicit sequence learning. Overall, the results indicated a substantial role of declarative learning ability in the early stages of sentence comprehension, thus confirming theoretical predictions and the findings of previous similar studies in miniature artificial language paradigms. However, for trials that specifically probed the learning of relationships between morphosyntax and semantics, a positive interaction between declarative and procedural learning ability also emerged, indicating the cooperative engagement of both types of learning abilities in the processing of relationships between ruled-based grammar and interpretation in the early stages of exposure to a new language in adults.

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Sensory Emotion in Words: Evidence From an ERP Study in Light of the Emotioncy Model

Basic and Clinical Neuroscience Journal ◽

10.32598/bcn.2021.1870.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sahar Tabatabaee Farani ◽

◽

Reza Pishghadam ◽

Azin Khodaverdi ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Language Education ◽

Foreign Language Education ◽

Language Instruction ◽

Materials Development ◽

Learning And Teaching ◽

Teaching Learning ◽

Critical Words

Introduction: Delving into the prominent role of emotions and senses in the realm of language is not something new in the field. Thereupon, the newly developed notion of emotioncy has been introduced to the foreign language education to underscore the role of sense-induced emotions in the process of language learning and teaching. Methods: The present study implemented ERPs to provide evidence to the significance of employing emosensory instructional strategies in teaching vocabulary items. Hence, eighteen female participants were randomly instructed six English nouns toward which they had no prior knowledge and received no instruction for the other three words. Then, while the participants’ EEG was being recorded, they took a sentence comprehension task. Results: Behavioral results demonstrated significant differences among the avolved, the exvolved, and the involved nouns. However, ERP analyses of target words indicated the modulations of N100 and N480 components while no significant effect was observed at P200. Further, the analysis of sensory N100 for the critical words revealed no significant effect. Conclusion: In conclusion, the emotioncy-based language instruction could affect neural correlates of emotional word comprehension from the early stages of EEG recording. The findings of this study can shed light on the importance of including senses and emotions in language teaching, learning, and testing, along with materials development.

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Neuronal Oscillations and Reactivation Subserving Memory Consolidation

Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory Consolidation - Studies in Neuroscience, Psychology and Behavioral Economics ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-45066-7_12 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 185-207 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Til Ole Bergmann ◽

Bernhard P. Staresina

Keyword(s):

Memory Consolidation ◽

Neuronal Oscillations

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The Bilingual Home Language Boost Through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.667836 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Li Sheng ◽

Danyang Wang ◽

Caila Walsh ◽

Leah Heisler ◽

Xin Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Language Use ◽

Production Performance ◽

Home Language ◽

Questionnaire Data ◽

English Bilingual ◽

Mandarin Language ◽

Language Environment

Usage-based accounts of language acquisition suggest that bilingual language proficiency is dynamic and susceptible to changes in language use. The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented modifications in the language learning environment of developing bilinguals. Drawing on this unique opportunity, we analyzed existing data of two matched groups of Mandarin-English bilingual children (ages 4 to 8 years, n = 38), one tested before (pre-COVID group) and the other during (COVID group) the pandemic. The dataset comprises responses to a language environment questionnaire, and scores on a sentence comprehension task and a sentence recall task in the bilinguals’ two languages. Questionnaire data revealed a richer Mandarin language environment for children in the COVID group compared to peers in the pre-COVID group. On both comprehension and production tasks, the two groups performed comparably in English but the COVID group showed better performance in Mandarin than the pre-COVID group. Within the pre-COVID group, English was stronger than Mandarin in both comprehension and production. Within the COVID group, the two languages were balanced in comprehension and Mandarin was stronger than English in production. Moreover, language use variables were correlated with production performance in both languages. These patterns illustrate the intimate relationships between language use and bilingual language proficiency through the lens of COVID-19 induced language environment modification.

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The bilingual home language boost through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic

10.31219/osf.io/zcv3m ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Li Sheng ◽

Danyang Wang ◽

Caila Walsh ◽

Leah Heisler ◽

Xin Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Language Use ◽

Production Performance ◽

Home Language ◽

Questionnaire Data ◽

Comprehension Task ◽

English Bilingual ◽

Language Environment

Usage-based accounts of language acquisition suggest that bilingual language proficiency is dynamic and susceptible to changes in language use. The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented modifications in the language learning environment of developing bilinguals. Drawing on this unique opportunity, we analyzed existing data of two matched groups of Mandarin-English bilingual children (ages 4 to 8 years, n=40), one tested before (pre-COVID group) and the other after (COVID group) the pandemic. The dataset comprises responses to a language environment questionnaire, and scores on a sentence comprehension task and a sentence recall task in the bilinguals’ two languages. Questionnaire data revealed that children in the COVID group read more in English but spoke less English with their mothers and friends compared to peers in the pre-COVID group. On the comprehension task, the two groups performed comparably in English but the COVID group showed better performance in Mandarin than the pre-COVID group. On the production task, the pre-COVID group showed better English performance than the COVID group, whereas the COVID group showed better Mandarin performance than the pre-COVID group. Within the pre-COVID group, English was stronger than Mandarin in both comprehension and production. Within the COVID group, the two languages were balanced in comprehension and Mandarin was stronger than English in production. Moreover, language use variables were correlated with production performance in both languages. These patterns illustrate the intimate relationships between language use and bilingual language proficiency through the lens of COVID-19 induced language environment modification.

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Phonetically natural rules benefit from a learning bias: a re-examination of vowel harmony and disharmony

Phonology ◽

10.1017/s0952675720000044 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 65-90 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alexander Martin ◽

Sharon Peperkamp

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Speech Production ◽

Memory Consolidation ◽

Rule Learning ◽

Vowel Harmony ◽

Artificial Language ◽

Learning Biases ◽

Artificial Language Learning ◽

Better Than

Substance-based phonological theories predict that a preference for phonetically natural rules (those which reflect constraints on speech production and perception) is encoded in synchronic grammars, and translates into learning biases. Some previous work has shown evidence for such biases, but methodological concerns with these studies mean that the question warrants further investigation. We revisit this issue by focusing on the learning of palatal vowel harmony (phonetically natural) compared to disharmony (phonetically unnatural). In addition, we investigate the role of memory consolidation during sleep on rule learning. We use an artificial language learning paradigm with two test phases separated by twelve hours. We observe a robust effect of phonetic naturalness: vowel harmony is learned better than vowel disharmony. For both rules, performance remains stable after twelve hours, regardless of the presence or absence of sleep.

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The Temporal Modulation Structure of Infant-Directed Speech

Open Mind ◽

10.1162/opmi_a_00008 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 78-90 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Victoria Leong ◽

Marina Kalashnikova ◽

Denis Burnham ◽

Usha Goswami

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Speech Rate ◽

Oscillatory Activity ◽

Temporal Modulation ◽

Theta Band ◽

Early Language ◽

Neuronal Oscillations ◽

Modulation Spectrum ◽

Delta Band ◽

Phase Alignment

The temporal modulation structure of adult-directed speech (ADS) is thought to be encoded by neuronal oscillations in the auditory cortex that fluctuate at different temporal rates. Oscillatory activity is thought to phase-align to amplitude modulations in speech at corresponding rates, thereby supporting parsing of the signal into linguistically relevant units. The temporal modulation structure of infant-directed speech (IDS) is unexplored. Here we compare the amplitude modulation (AM) structure of IDS recorded from mothers speaking, over three occasions, to their 7-, 9-, and 11-month-old infants, and the same mothers speaking ADS. Analysis of the modulation spectrum in each case revealed that modulation energy in the theta band was significantly greater in ADS than in IDS, whereas in the delta band, modulation energy was significantly greater for IDS than ADS. Furthermore, phase alignment between delta- and theta-band AMs was stronger in IDS compared to ADS. This remained the case when IDS and ADS were rate-normalized to control for differences in speech rate. These data indicate stronger rhythmic synchronization and acoustic temporal regularity in IDS compared to ADS, structural acoustic differences that may be important for early language learning.

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Mini Pinyin: a modified miniature language for studying language learning and incremental sentence processing

10.31234/osf.io/b9erz ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Zachariah Reuben Cross ◽

Lena Zou-Williams ◽

Erica Wilkinson ◽

Matthias Schlesewsky ◽

Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Word Order ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Ecological Validity ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

English Word ◽

Learning Ability ◽

Future Research ◽

Moderate Degree

Artificial grammar learning (AGL) paradigms are used extensively to characterise (neuro-)cognitive bases of language learning. However, despite their effectiveness in characterising the capacity to learn complex structured sequences, AGL paradigms lack ecological validity and typically do not account for cross-linguistic differences in sentence comprehension. Here, we describe a new modified miniature language paradigm – Mini Pinyin – that mimics natural language as it is based on an existing language (Mandarin Chinese) and includes both structure and meaning. Mini Pinyin contains a number of cross-linguistic elements, including varying word orders and classifier-noun rules. To evaluate the effectiveness of Mini Pinyin, 76 (mean age = 24.9; 26 female) monolingual native English speakers completed a learning phase followed by a sentence acceptability judgement task. Generalised mixed effects modelling revealed that participants attained a moderate degree of accuracy on the judgement task, with performance scores ranging from 25% - 100% accuracy depending on the word order of the sentence. Further, sentences compatible with the canonical English word order were learned more efficiently than non-canonical word orders. We controlled for inter-individual differences in statistical learning ability, which accounted for ~20% of the variance in performance on the sentence judgement task. We provide stimuli and statistical analysis scripts as open source resources and discuss how future research can utilise this paradigm to study the neurobiological basis of language learning. Mini Pinyin affords a convenient tool for improving the future of language learning research by building on the parameters of traditional AGL or existing miniature language paradigms.

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