No Evidence of Robust Noun-Referent Associations in German-Learning 6- to 14-Month-Olds

Work with the looking-while-listening (LWL-) paradigm suggested that 6-month-old English-learning infants associated several labels for common nouns with pictures of their referents: While one distractor picture was present, infants systematically fixated the named target picture. However, recent work revealed constraints of infants' noun comprehension. The age at which these abilities can be obtained appears to relate to the infants' familiarity with the talker, the target language, and word frequency differences in target-distractor pairs. Here, we present further data to this newly established field of research. We tested 42 monolingual German-learning infants aged 6–14 months by means of the LWL-paradigm. Infants saw two pictures side-by-side on a screen, whilst an unfamiliar male talker named one of both. Overall, infants did not fixate the target picture more than the distractor picture. In line with previous results, infants' performance on the task was higher when target and distractor differed within their word frequency—as operationalized by the parental rating of word exposure. Together, our results add further evidence for constraints on early word learning. They point to cross-linguistic differences in early word learning and strengthen the view that infants might use extra-linguistic cues within the stimulus pairing, such as frequency imbalance, to disambiguate between two potential referents.

Multiple Scale One-to-One Relighting Network

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Failure to show robust noun-referent associations in German-learning infants

Work with the looking-while-listening paradigm suggested that six-month-old English-learning infants associated several common nouns with pictures of their referents. This was evidenced by systematic fixations towards the named target picture (while one distractor picture was present). However, Norwegian-learning infants did not systematically fixate the target pictures until they were 8- to 9-months old, suggesting a cross-linguistic difference in the onset of noun comprehension. Moreover, their success in this task appeared to be modulated by aspects of stimulus pairing, specifically frequency differences between target and distractor: High (resp. low) frequent targets attracted more fixations if they were paired with low (resp. high) frequent distractors. In the present eye-tracking study, we tested 42 monolingual German-learning infants aged six to 14 months by means of a looking-while-listening paradigm. Infants saw two pictures side-by-side on a screen, whilst an unfamiliar male talker named one of both. Overall, infants did not fixate the target picture more than the distractor picture. In line with previous results, infants’ performance on the task was higher when the target and distractor word differed within their word frequency operationalized by the parental rating of word exposure. Therefore, our results further emphasize cross-linguistic differences in early word learning and strengthen the view that infants might use extra-linguistic cues within the stimulus pairing, such as frequency imbalance, to disambiguate between two potential referents.

Cross-linguistic interactions across modalities: Effects of the oral language on sign production

To investigate cross-linguistic interactions in bimodal bilingual production, behavioural and electrophysiological measures (ERPs) were recorded from 24 deaf bimodal bilinguals while naming pictures in Catalan Sign Language (LSC). Two tasks were employed, a picture-word interference and a picture-picture interference task. Cross-linguistic effects were explored via distractors that were either semantically related to the target picture, to the phonology/orthography of the Spanish name of the target picture, or were unrelated. No semantic effects were observed in sign latencies, but ERPs differed between semantically related and unrelated distractors. For the form-related manipulation, a facilitation effect was observed both behaviourally and at the ERP level. Importantly, these effects were not influenced by the type of distractor (word/picture) presented providing the first piece of evidence that deaf bimodal bilinguals are sensitive to oral language in sign production. Implications for models of cross-linguistic interactions in bimodal bilinguals are discussed.

Cross-linguistic Interactions Across Modalities: Effects of the Oral Language on Sign Production

The aim of the present study was to explore cross-linguistic interactions in language production when the language to be produced and the non-intended language are from different modalities. Concretely, we tested whether Deaf bimodal bilinguals are sensitive to oral language influences when they sign. To that end, 25 Deaf Catalan Sign Language (LSC)-Spanish bilinguals named pictures in LSC while ignoring either written distractor words in Spanish (picture-word interference) or distractor pictures (picture-picture interference). Cross-linguistic interactions were explored by means of behavioural and electrophysiological measures from three categories of distractors: semantically related, phonologically related in the oral language or unrelated to the target picture. No semantic effects were observed in sign latencies, but ERPs differed between semantically related and unrelated distractors. Considering the phonological manipulation, phono-translation facilitation was observed both behaviourally and at the ERPs level. Importantly, these effects were not determined by the modality in which distractors were presented. The present results reveal that oral language interacts with sign language production, even when there is no explicit presence of the oral language in the task. Implications for models of cross-linguistic interactions in bilingual language production are discussed.

Age-related effects on lexical, but not syntactic, processes during sentence production

We investigated the effect of healthy ageing on the lexical and syntactic processes involved in sentence production. Young and older adults completed a semantic interference sentence production task: we manipulated whether the target picture and distractor word were semantically related or unrelated and whether they fell within the same phrase (“the watch and the clock/hippo move apart”) or different phrases (“the watch moves above the clock/hippo”). Both age groups were slower to initiate sentences containing a larger, compared to a smaller, initial phrase, indicating a similar phrasal scope of advanced planning. However, older adults displayed significantly larger semantic interference effects (slower to initiate sentences when the target picture and distractor word were related) than young adults, indicating an age-related increase in lexical competition. Thus, while syntactic planning is preserved with age, older speakers encounter problems managing the temporal co-activation of competing lexical items during sentence production.

A novel multi-word paradigm for investigating semantic context effects in language production

Semantic context modulates precision and speed of language production. Using different experimental designs including the Picture-Word-Interference (PWI) paradigm, it has consistently been shown that categorically related distractor words (e.g., cat) inhibit retrieval of the target picture name (dog). Here we introduce a novel variant of the PWI paradigm in which we present 8 words prior to a to be named target picture. Within this set, the number of words categorically related was varied between 3 and 5, and the picture to be named was either related or unrelated to the respective category. To disentangle interacting effects of semantic context we combined different naming paradigms manipulating the number of competitors, and assessing the effect of repeated naming instances. Evaluating processing of the cohort by eye-tracking provided us with a metric of the (implicit) recognition of the semantic cohort. Results replicate the interference effect in that overall naming of pictures categorically related to the distractor set was slower compared to unrelated pictures. However, interference did not increase with increasing number of distractors. Tracking this effect across naming repetitions, we found that interference is prominent at the first naming instance of every picture only, whereby it is stable across distractor conditions, but dissipates across the experiment. Regarding eye-tracking our data show that participants fixated longer on semantically related items, indicating the identification of the lexico-semantic cohort. Our findings confirm the validity of the novel paradigm and indicate that besides interference during first exposure, repeated exposure to the semantic context may facilitate picture naming and counteract lexical interference.

Discourse attention during utterance planning affects referential form choice

An unstudied source of linguistic variation is the use of discourse-appropriate language. Sometimes individuals use linguistic devices (anaphors, connectors) to connect utterances to the discourse context, and sometimes not. We asked how this variation is related to utterance planning, using eyetracking with a narrative production task. Participants saw picture pairs depicting two events. They heard a description of the first event (Context picture), then added to the story by describing the second event (Target picture). We found that one group of participants produced utterances that connected with the discourse context (Context-Users), using pronouns/zeros and connectors (and/then) as appropriate, while another group consistently used definite NP descriptions and virtually no connectors (Context-Ignorers). Eyetracking measures reflected utterance planning within a discourse context: all participants shifted their attention from the Context picture to the Target picture throughout a trial. We also observed group differences: Context-Users directed their attention in a more systematic way than Context-Ignorers. At trial onset, Context-Users looked more at the Context picture than Context-Ignorers. Right before speaking, they looked more at the Target picture than Context-Ignorers. The Context-Users also had shorter latency to begin speaking. This study provides a first step toward characterizing individual differences in terms of utterance planning.

Testing tolerance for lexically-specific factors in Gradient Symbolic Computation

In their keynote article, Goldrick, Putnam and Schwarz (2016) present a computational account of code-mixing. Although they review literature on the co-activation of lexical representations and cognate facilitation effects in bilingual language processing, their model remains silent on how it interfaces with lexical factors, and how lexical factors impact code-switching. One such lexical factor is cognate status, which has been found to affect code-switching, as demonstrated in corpus analyses (e.g., Broersma & De Bot, 2006) and psycholinguistic experiments (Kootstra, Van Hell & Dijkstra, 2012). For example, using the structural priming technique to examine the role of lexical factors in code-switching, Kootstra et al. asked Dutch–English bilinguals to repeat a code-switched prime sentence (starting in Dutch and ending in English) and then describe a target picture by means of a code-switched sentence (also from Dutch into English). They observed that bilinguals' tendency to switch at the same position as in the prime sentence was increased when the prime sentence and target picture contained cognates.