EXPRESS: Redesigning the Exploration of Semantic Dynamics – SSD Account in Light of Regression Design

The Semantic Settling Dynamics model (Armstrong & Plaut, 2016) postulated that the seemingly inconsistent effects of lexical ambiguity are, in fact, a systematic manifestation of the specific dynamics that arise as a consequence of the amount of time spent in processing. The model has thus far been tested by prolonging lexical decision and comparing homonymous, polysemous, and unambiguous words in a factorial design. Here, we kept the strategy of task manipulation but tested the model by using continuous measures as indices of the level of lexical ambiguity and their slopes as indices of the effect size. We expressed the size of the polysemy effect as the slope of the effect of entropy of sense probability distribution and the size of the homonymy effect as the redundancy of sense probability distribution. Comparing lexical decision tasks with the shorter and longer time spent in processing, we observed the predicted decrease in the effect of the polysemy level as well as the predicted increase in the effect of homonymy level.

Advanced Second Language Learners of Mandarin Show Persistent Deficits for Lexical Tone Encoding in Picture-to-Word Form Matching

People who grow up speaking a language without lexical tones typically find it difficult to master tonal languages after childhood. Accumulating research suggests that much of the challenge for these second language (L2) speakers has to do not with identification of the tones themselves, but with the bindings between tones and lexical units. The question that remains open is how much of these lexical binding problems are problems of encoding (incomplete knowledge of the tone-to-word relations) vs. retrieval (failure to access those relations in online processing). While recent work using lexical decision tasks suggests that both may play a role, one issue is that failure on a lexical decision task may reflect a lack of learner confidence about what is not a word, rather than non-native representation or processing of known words. Here we provide complementary evidence using a picture-phonology matching paradigm in Mandarin in which participants decide whether or not a spoken target matches a specific image, with concurrent event-related potential (ERP) recording to provide potential insight into differences in L1 and L2 tone processing strategies. As in the lexical decision case, we find that advanced L2 learners show a clear disadvantage in accurately identifying tone mismatched targets relative to vowel mismatched targets. We explore the contribution of incomplete/uncertain lexical knowledge to this performance disadvantage by examining individual data from an explicit tone knowledge post-test. Results suggest that explicit tone word knowledge and confidence explains some but not all of the errors in picture-phonology matching. Analysis of ERPs from correct trials shows some differences in the strength of L1 and L2 responses, but does not provide clear evidence toward differences in processing that could explain the L2 disadvantage for tones. In sum, these results converge with previous evidence from lexical decision tasks in showing that advanced L2 listeners continue to have difficulties with lexical tone recognition, and in suggesting that these difficulties reflect problems both in encoding lexical tone knowledge and in retrieving that knowledge in real time.

Is inhibition involved in the processing of opaque compound words?

We examined whether inhibition skills were recruited during the processing of compound words. Using an individual differences perspective, we analyzed whether participants’ scores on the Stroop test predicted performance on lexical decision tasks involving compound words varying in their level of semantic opacity. The results show that inhibition is involved in the comprehension of fully opaque (e.g., hogwash) and fully transparent (e.g., blueberry) compound words, but we found no evidence for such an effect in the comprehension of partially opaque compound words (e.g., strawberry, jailbird).

Preprint_Held im Spiel_Wernbacher

Computer games can be described as a multi-facetted phenomenon: the reception of interactive media however involves a diversity of potential effects. The current study tries to solve a part of the complex puzzle involving the consequences of media reception. Basically, the present analysis concentrated on the potential activation of game related words in the lexicon by an elaborated game playing experience. The degree of accessibility of specific words in the lexical storage was measured via a lexical decision task (LDT) paradigm. Each task contained a game related, an aggression related and a neutral word category. The LDT units were masked as word/nonword discrimination tests. Two lexical decision tasks were completed after two playing sessions of 15 minutes each by a sample consisting of 60 males. In addition to these tasks interactions with and between motives to play computer games were examined. The following computer games were selected for the systematic variation of context related variables: The 3D-role playing game “Oblivion” and the 3D-first person shooter “Call of Duty 2” were assigned to the experimental groups. The skill training game “Tetris” was assigned to the control group. Depending on the condition, players should react differently in the lexical decision tasks. Indeed, the results showed faster reactions to game compatible words by the “Call of Duty 2”-group in comparison to the “Oblivion”-group. Additionally both experimental groups recognized game related words faster than neutral words. The control group showed identical answers in the game related und neutral word decision tests. Concerning the activation of aggression related schemata, the results showed that playing violent video games did not enhance the accessability of words referring to aggression and/or violence. These findings suggest a cognitive transfer effect from the virtual game world to the real word. In other words, a highly immersive game playing experience can leave a certain trace in the lexical storage.

Morpheme stripping in the lexicon and in the sublexicon

The storage (and processing) of inflected verbs is a strongly debated issue in psycholinguistics. Some authors suggest that inflected verbs are stored as units (i.e. with the bound morpheme) in the lexicon (Stemberger & MacWhinney, 1986, Bertram at al, 2000), and bring as evidence the presence of strong frequency effects in lexical decision tasks with inflected verbs. Other authors suggest that inflected verbs are decomposed in stems and affixes in perception and generated by the application of a rule in production, for instance +ed, +s in English (Pinker & Ullman, 2001), and bring as evidence phenomena such as hyper-regularizations. Some authors go further in this direction as suggest that a morpheme stripping process takes place sublexically, at least in reading (Grainger & Ziegler, 2011). A set of 3 experiments was conducted in order to investigate these phenomena.

Generalization at retrieval using associative networks with transient weight changes

We present a new class of associative nets we call Dynamic-Eigen-Nets, and provide simulations that show how they generalize to structurally aligned patterns. Linear-Associative-Nets respond with the same pattern regardless of input, motivating the introduction of saturation to facilitate other response states. However, models using saturation cannot readily generalize to structurally novel patterns. Dynamic-Eigen-Nets address this problem by dynamically biasing the eigenspectrum towards external input using temporal weight changes. We demonstrate how a two-slot Dynamic-Eigen-Net trained on a text corpus provides an account of bi-gram judgement-of-grammaticality and lexical decision tasks. We end with a simulation showing how a Dynamic-Eigen-Net is sensitive to syntactic violations introduced in bi-grams, despite the bi-grams themselves never having been encoded. We propose Dynamic-Eigen-Nets as associative nets that generalize at retrieval.

Mixing the stimulus list in bilingual lexical decision turns cognate facilitation effects into mirrored inhibition effects

To test the BIA+ and Multilink models’ accounts of how bilinguals process words with different degrees of cross-linguistic orthographic and semantic overlap, we conducted two experiments manipulating stimulus list composition. Dutch–English late bilinguals performed two English lexical decision tasks including the same set of cognates, interlingual homographs, English control words, and pseudowords. In one task, half of the pseudowords were replaced with Dutch words, requiring a ‘no’ response. This change from pure to mixed language list context was found to turn cognate facilitation effects into inhibition. Relative to control words, larger effects were found for cognate pairs with an increasing cross-linguistic form overlap. Identical cognates produced considerably larger effects than non-identical cognates, supporting their special status in the bilingual lexicon. Response patterns for different item types are accounted for in terms of the items’ lexical representation and their binding to ‘yes’ and ‘no’ responses in pure vs mixed lexical decision.

What can lexical decision tasks tell us about bilingual language processing?

Cognates are words which share their form and meaning in multiple languages, like “winter” in Dutch and English. A wealth of research on bilingual language processing suggests that bilinguals process cognates more quickly than words that exist in only one language. Researchers take this finding as evidence that all the words a bilingual knows are stored in a single mental lexicon. Much of this research has made use of lexical decision tasks, but such tasks are quite artificial. In recent experiments we found that the presence or absence of this cognate facilitation effect depends on the other stimuli included in the task. In this blog I argue, on the basis of this finding, that evidence for a cognate facilitation effect in lexical decision tasks alone should not be taken as proof for this central assumption in bilingualism research.Blog post originally posted on http://understandingwords.com/2017/10/30/what-can-lexical-decision-tasks-tell-us-about-bilingual-language-processing/.