Concrete Words Research Articles

Neural Representations of Concreteness and Concrete Concepts Are Specific to the Individual.

Different people listening to the same story may converge upon a largely shared interpretation while still developing idiosyncratic experiences atop that shared foundation. What linguistic properties support this individualized experience of natural language? Here, we investigate how the "concrete-abstract" axis-the extent to which a word is grounded in sensory experience-relates to within- and across-subject variability in the neural representations of language. Leveraging a dataset of human participants of both sexes who each listened to four auditory stories while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrate that neural representations of "concreteness" are both reliable across stories and relatively unique to individuals, while neural representations of "abstractness" are variable both within individuals and across the population. Using natural language processing tools, we show that concrete words exhibit similar neural representations despite spanning larger distances within a high-dimensional semantic space, which potentially reflects an underlying representational signature of sensory experience-namely, imageability-shared by concrete words but absent from abstract words. Our findings situate the concrete-abstract axis as a core dimension that supports both shared and individualized representations of natural language.

B - 145 CVLT-3 Forced Choice Recognition Failure Rate in a Mixed Clinical Population

Abstract Objective The CVLT-3 is a measure of verbal learning and memory used extensively in clinical and research settings that contains an embedded performance validity indicator, a forced choice recognition trial (CVLT-3-FCR). The CVLT-2-FCR was modified for the CVLT-3-FCR, replacing abstract with concrete distractor words. To date, no one has reported independent data on failure rates in clinical populations on the CVLT-3-FCR. Method Participants were 373 patients referred for clinical neuropsychological evaluation who completed the CVLT-3 (Standard form) as part of their evaluation. Mean age was 61.20 (SD = 14.30, range = 20–86), mean education was 15.00 years (SD = 2.87, range = 6–21), 53.1% were male, and 97.6% White. Failure was defined as CVLT-3-FCR score ≤ 14. Results 85.5% of our mixed clinical sample had CVLT-3-FCR score of 16/16, and 7.5% had 15/16. Only 7% (N = 26) scored ≤14, most common primary diagnoses being mild neurocognitive disorder (N = 9) and psychiatric (N = 7), while only four had dementia of any etiology. Those who failed tended to be a little older [pass = 60.82 years (SD = 14.44), fail = 66.38 years (SD = 11.28); p = 0.055) and scored lower for CVLT-3 Total Trials 1–5, short- and long-delay free recall, recognition hits, false positives, and discriminability (all p < 0.001). Conclusions Findings indicate CVLT-3-FCR ≤ 14 is extremely rare in a large mixed clinical sample of adults and older adults, even in subsamples for whom lower scores on PVTs have been suggested (e.g., dementia). While passing the CVLT-3-FCR does not in itself confirm adequate test engagement, failure should raise concern and the need for additional PVTs in one’s assessment.

The principal components of meaning, revisited.

Osgood, Suci, and Tannebaum were the first to attempt to identify the principal components of semantics using dimensional reduction of a high-dimensional model of semantics constructed from human judgments of word relatedness. Modern word-embedding models analyze patterns of words to construct higher dimensional models of semantics that can be similarly subjected to dimensional reduction. Hollis and Westbury characterized the first eight principal components (PCs) of a word-embedding model by correlating them with several well-known lexical measures, such as logged word frequency, age of acquisition, valence, arousal, dominance, and concreteness. The results show some clear differentiation of interpretation between the PCs. Here, we extend this work by analyzing a larger word-embedding matrix using semantic measures initially derived from subjective inspection of the PCs. We then use quantitative analysis to confirm the utility of these subjective measures for predicting PC values and cross-validate them on two word-embedding matrices developed on distinct corpora. Several semantic and word class measures are strongly predictive of early PC values, including first-person and second-person verbs, personal relevance of abstract and concrete words, affect terms, and names of places and people. The predictors of the lowest magnitude PCs generalized well to word-embedding matrices constructed from separate corpora, including matrices constructed using different word-embedding methods. The predictive categories we describe are consistent with Wittgenstein's argument that an autonomous level of social interaction grounds linguistic meaning.

The Effects of the Virtual Background on French as a Second Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning

The purpose of this research was to investigate how the use of green screen technology affects vocabulary acquisition in LOTE (languages other than English) learners, particularly Chinese students learning French as a second foreign language. Two groups (a control group and an experimental group) with a total of 58 students participated in the study. Data were collected through in-class and delayed vocabulary tests, learning questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. The study results demonstrate significant benefits in terms of providing an authentic learning experience, improving understanding, increasing motivation, and facilitating interaction. The results also confirm the technology’s effectiveness in enhancing both immediate and long-term vocabulary retention. The effectiveness is particularly evident for location-related words, as the technology provides visual context that facilitates recall of these words, which may not have easily retrievable mental images compared to more concrete words with tangible references. Further research can also be undertaken to compare the impact of virtual background on vocabulary retention with other immersive technologies. Nevertheless, virtual backgrounds are likely to be a cost-effective and accessible tool that can already offer promising improvements in learning outcomes and can be easily implemented with existing software like Zoom (5.2.0 or higher) and Tencent Meeting (1.3.0 or higher).

Struktur, Kategori, dan Fungsi Sosial Petatah Petitih Minangkabau di Nagari Sianok IV Suku Kabupaten Agam

This research is conducted to document the structure, categories, and social functions of Minangkabau proverbs at Nagari Sianok VI Suku Agam Regency. The aim of this research is to describe structure, categories, and social functions of Minangkabau proverbs at Nagari Sianok VI Suku Agam Regency. This research is a qualitative using a descriptive methods. The data were conducted by doing interview using recording sheers, voice recording device, and interview guideline. The results of this research is revealing 42 Minangkabau proverbs at Nagari Sianok VI Suku Agam Regency which have: physical structures (diction, imagery, figure of speech, typography, and concrete words); internal structures (themes, feelings, tones, and messages); categories (animals, plants, part of body, human, and nature); and social functions (educational tools, enforces and supervisors of norms, instruments for traditions and cultural institutions, and projection systems). This research concludes that Minangkabau proverbs have an influence on customs and normative values at Nagari Sianok VI Suku Agam Regency.

The differential illusion memory for high-associated abstract concepts (DIM-HA) effect

A vast body of evidence has shown that concrete concepts are processed faster and more accurately than abstract concepts in a variety of cognitive tasks. This phenomenon is widely known as the concreteness effect, and explanations for its occurrence seem to reflect differences in processing and organization for both types of representations. While there is considerable evidence to support this concreteness effect, the nature of these differences is still controversial. In developing an explanation, we have proposed a relatively different approach from a false memory perspective using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm. To explore the implications of the association in creating false memories, we explore behavioral and electrophysiologically the false memory effect, where targets were manipulated according to their association strength and their concreteness. Results showed that false recognition rates differed significantly between concrete and abstract critical words when they were associated strongly with their respective lists, which led to a higher proportion of abstract false alarms both in behavioral and electrophysiological experiments. The principal outcome, which was called the DIM-HA effect, was discussed in terms of theories of associative activation and qualitatively different representation.

Emotion processing in concrete and abstract words: evidence from eye fixations during reading

ABSTRACT We replicated and extended the findings of Yao et al. [(2018). Differential emotional processing in concrete and abstract words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 44(7), 1064–1074] regarding the interaction of emotionality, concreteness, and imageability in word processing by measuring eye fixation times on target words during normal reading. A 3 (Emotion: negative, neutral, positive) × 2 (Concreteness: abstract, concrete) design was used with 22 items per condition, with each set of six target words matched across conditions in terms of word length and frequency. (e.g. shocking, reserved, fabulous) and concrete (e.g. massacre, calendar, treasure) target words appeared (separately) within contextually neutral, plausible sentences. Sixty-three participants each read all 132 experimental sentences while their eye movements were recorded. Analyses using Gamma generalised linear mixed models revealed significant effects of both Emotion and Concreteness on all fixation measures, indicating faster processing for emotional and concrete words. Additionally, there was a significant Emotion × Concreteness interaction which, critically, was modulated by Imageability in early fixation time measures. Emotion effects were significantly larger in higher-imageability abstract words than in lower-imageability ones, but remained unaffected by imageability in concrete words. These findings support the multimodal induction hypothesis and highlight the intricate interplay of these factors in the immediate stages of word processing during fluent reading.

Are brain activity changes underlying rare word production after learning specific or do they extend to semantically related rare words?

Learning words in the mother tongue is a fundamental lifelong skill that involves complex cognitive and neural changes. In adults, newly learned words affect the organization of the lexical–semantic network and, compared to words that have been in the lexicon for longer, they activate the same cortical areas, but more extensively and/or intensively. It is however still unclear (1) which brain and cognitive processes underlying word production change when infrequent/unknown words are compared before and after learning and (2) whether integrating newly learned words impacts word specific processes or has a broader impact on unlearned words. The present study aims to investigate the electrophysiological changes underlying the production of rare words induced by learning and the effect of learning on an unlearned list of rare words belonging to the same semantic categories.To this end, 24 neurotypical adults learned one of two matched lists of 40 concrete rare words from 4 semantic categories. EEG (electroencephalographic) recordings were acquired during a referential word production task (picture naming) of the learned and unlearned words before and after the learning phase.The results show that the production of rare word is associated with event-related (ERP) differences between before and after learning in the period from 300 to 800 msec following the presentation of the imaged concept (picture). These differences consisted in a larger involvement of left temporal and parietal regions after learning between 300 and 400 msec i.e., the time window likely corresponding to lexical and phonological encoding processes. Crucially, the ERP changes are not restricted to the production of the learned rare words, but are also observed when participants try to retrieve words of a list of semantically and lexically matched rare words that they have not learned.The ERP changes on unlearned rare words are weaker and suggest that learning new words induces boarder effects also on unlearned words.

Hubungan bentuk imajinasi dengan kata konkret dalam pantun karya siswa kelas VII SMP

Junior high school students are taught to write rhymes, which leads to a number of interesting phenomena. This study focused on imagination and concrete words in rhymes written by students. This study aims to describe the relationship between the use of imagination and concrete words chosen by grade VII junior high school students. The method used is qualitative research with a correlational approach, where there are two variables, namely imagination and concrete words that will be analyzed the relationship between the two. At the level of text analysis, the results of the analysis show that there are three imaginations used, namely visual, auditive and tactile imagination while the concrete words used are classified into four, namely concrete words that describe an object, a place, food and drink, and fruits. The results showed a relationship between students' imagination and the use of concrete words in written rhymes. This is influenced by the student's ability to concretize the chosen word. Students who are more imaginative will use concrete words more creatively and create a stronger imagination in student rhymes.

Mobilize Is a Verb: The Use of Verbs and Concrete Language Is Associated With Authors' and Readers' Perceptions of a Text's Action Orientation and Persuasiveness.

In three studies, we investigated the role of linguistic features characterizing texts aiming to mobilize others. In Study 1 (N = 728), participants produced a leaflet either mobilizing others to engage in an action or expressing their thoughts about that action, and evaluated how action-oriented their text was. Mobilizing texts included more verbs and concrete words, and the presence of these linguistic characteristics was positively linked to participants' evaluations of their messages as action-oriented. In Studies 2 and 3 (N = 557 and N = 556), independent groups of participants evaluated texts produced in Study 1. Readers' perceptions of texts as action-oriented were associated with the same linguistic features as in Study 1 and further positively linked to perceived message effectiveness (Study 2) and behavioral intention (Study 3). The studies reveal how encoding and decoding of verbs and concrete words serve as distinct persuasive tools in calls to action.

A mathematical model of semantic access in lexical and semantic decisions

Abstract In this work, we use a mathematical model of the property listing task dynamics and test its ability to predict processing time in semantic and lexical decision tasks. The study aims at exploring the temporal dynamics of semantic access in these tasks and showing that the mathematical model captures essential aspects of semantic access, beyond the original task for which it was developed. In two studies using the semantic and lexical decision tasks, we used the mathematical model’s coefficients to predict reaction times. Results showed that the model was able to predict processing time in both tasks, accounting for an independent portion of the total variance, relative to variance predicted by traditional psycholinguistic variables (i.e., frequency, familiarity, concreteness imageability). Overall, this study provides evidence of the mathematical model’s validity and generality, and offers insights regarding the characterization of concrete and abstract words.

It's All in the Interaction: Early Acquired Words Are Both Frequent and Highly Imageable.

Prior studies have found that children are more likely to learn words that are frequent in the input and highly imageable. Many theories of word learning, however, predict that these variables should interact, particularly early in development: frequency of a form is of little use if you cannot infer its meaning, and a concrete word cannot be acquired if you never hear it. The present study explores this interaction, how it changes over time and its relationship to syntactic category effects in children acquiring American English. We analyzed 1461 monolingual English-speaking children aged 1;4-2;6 from the MB-CDI norming study (Fenson et al., 1994). Word frequency was estimated from the CHILDES database, and imageability was measured using adult ratings. There was a strong over-additive interaction between frequency and imageability, such that children were more likely to learn a word if it was both highly imageable and very frequent. This interaction was larger in younger children than in older children. There were reliable differences between syntactic categories independent of frequency and imageability, which did not interact with age. These findings are consistent with theories in which children's early words are acquired by mapping frequent word forms onto concrete, perceptually available referents, such that highly frequent items are only acquired if they are also imageable, and vice versa.

Empirical research in early infancy language acquisition: A nonsystematic review of literature

This paper unsystematically reviewed the journal publications written in English in the period from 2010 to 2020 on the topic of early infancy language acquisition. The review was through two aspects: language comprehension, and language production. Additionally, this paper also reviewed several frequently used and new research methods and tools. For early infancy language comprehension, empirical studies found evidences on infants’ comprehension of words’ meaning through sounds, especially the comprehension of nouns, the latter was proven to have relevance with nouns’ familiarity and cross-word relations in the nouns. Besides, empirical studies found evidences on infants’ distinguishment between concrete words and abstract concepts. An important factor to influence infancy language comprehension is the social environment that the baby was exposed to, mainly the mother’s speech and her daily life routine (for example, her work). For early infancy language production, empirical studies found evidences on infants’ ability to associate similar sounds with different objects, and measurement for infants’ language outputs were brought forward in another empirical study. Empirical studies also found infants’ language outputs match to words and objects from the environment. Lastly, this paper reviewed the most frequently used technical methods: fMRI and fNIRS technology for investigating neural mechanisms of infancy language processing. There are other new research methods, include large-sample database analysis and quantitative modeling, corpus analysis, language inputs sampling, language model for infancy language acquisition.

Mathematical problem solving is modulated by word priming.

This study aimed to explore the influence of word priming on mathematical problem solving. In two experiments, participants were required to finish multiplication estimation tasks with a specified estimation strategy under different word priming conditions (Experiment 1: concrete words vs. Experiment 2: abstract words). The results showed that: (1) under the concrete word priming condition, in comparison to neutral, positive word priming improved accuracies (ACCs) when using a down-up strategy (e.g., doing 40 × 80 = 3200 for 43 × 78), while both positive and negative word priming reduced reaction time (RT); (2) under the abstract word priming condition, both positive and negative (vs. neutral) abstract word priming reduced RTs, while individuals' ACCs of completing the estimation task were not influenced by valence. The present study showed that whether concrete words or abstract words were adopted as experimental stimuli, participants' performance of completing mathematical problems was modulated by the valence of the priming word, which led us to develop a better understanding of how arithmetic performance is influenced by word processing.

Regionally specific cortical lateralization of abstract and concrete verb processing: Magnetic mismatch negativity study

The neural underpinnings of processing concrete and abstract semantics remain poorly understood. Previous fMRI studies have shown that multimodal and amodal neural networks respond differentially to different semantic types; importantly, abstract semantics activates more left-lateralized networks, as opposed to more bilateral activity for concrete words. Due to the lack of temporal resolution, these fMRI results do not allow to easily separate language- and task-specific brain responses and to disentangle early processing stages from later post-comprehension phenomena. To tackle this, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG), a time-resolved neuroimaging technique, in combination with a task-free oddball mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm, an established approach to tracking early automatic activation of word-specific memory traces in the brain. We recorded the magnetic MMN responses in 30 healthy adults to auditorily presented abstract and concrete action verbs to assess lateralization of word-specific lexico-semantic processing in a set of neocortical areas. We found that MMN responses to these stimuli showed different lateralization patterns of activity in the upper limb motor area (BA4) and parts of Broca's area (BA45/BA47) within ∼100–350 ms after the word disambiguation point. Importantly, the greater leftward response lateralization for abstract semantics was due to the lesser involvement of the right-hemispheric homologues, not increased left-hemispheric activity. These findings suggest differential region-specific involvement of bilateral sensorimotor systems already in the early automatic stages of processing abstract and concrete action semantics.

Neurocognitive correlates of semantic memory navigation in Parkinson’s disease

Cognitive studies on Parkinson’s disease (PD) reveal abnormal semantic processing. Most research, however, fails to indicate which conceptual properties are most affected and capture patients’ neurocognitive profiles. Here, we asked persons with PD, healthy controls, and individuals with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD, as a disease control group) to read concepts (e.g., ‘sun’) and list their features (e.g., hot). Responses were analyzed in terms of ten word properties (including concreteness, imageability, and semantic variability), used for group-level comparisons, subject-level classification, and brain-behavior correlations. PD (but not bvFTD) patients produced more concrete and imageable words than controls, both patterns being associated with overall cognitive status. PD and bvFTD patients showed reduced semantic variability, an anomaly which predicted semantic inhibition outcomes. Word-property patterns robustly classified PD (but not bvFTD) patients and correlated with disease-specific hypoconnectivity along the sensorimotor and salience networks. Fine-grained semantic assessments, then, can reveal distinct neurocognitive signatures of PD.

How direct is the link between words and images?

Abstract Günther et al. (2022) investigated the relationship between words and images in which they concluded the possibility of a direct link between words and embodied experience. In their study, participants were presented with a target noun and a pair of images, one chosen by their model and another chosen randomly. Participants were asked to select the image that best matched the target noun. Building upon their work, we addressed the following questions. 1. Apart from utilizing visually embodied simulation, what other strategies subjects might have used? How much does this setup rely on visual information? Can it be solved using textual representations? 2. Do current visually-grounded embeddings explain subjects’ selection behavior better than textual embeddings? 3. Does visual grounding improve the representations of both concrete and abstract words? For this aim, we designed novel experiments based on pre-trained word embeddings. Our experiments reveal that subjects’ selection behavior is explained to a large extend on text-based embeddings and word-based similarities. Visually grounded embeddings offered modest advantages over textual embeddings in certain cases. These findings indicate that the experiment by Günther et al. (2022) may not be well suited for tapping into the perceptual experience of participants, and the extent to which it measures visually grounded knowledge is unclear.

THE PINK SLIPPERS: AN ANALYSIS OF WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS POEM THE THINKER THROUGH THE LENS OF IMAGISM

Imagism is a movement of poetry in which the practitioners confer a larger meaning with concrete imagistic words in their poems. One such poem in The Thinker by William Carlos Williams. The current research paper studies the poem with reference to the features of imagism put forward by Ezra Pound and F. S. Flint. It brings out how the image of the pink slippers suggest mundanity, search for meaning in life, happiness, and solace among several other things.

Valence and concreteness in item recognition: Evidence against the affective embodiment account.

The Affective Embodiment Account posits that sensorimotor interactions play an important role in learning and processing concrete words whereas experiences from emotional states play an important role in learning and processing abstract words. Because of this, there should be greater enhancement of valence for abstract than for concrete words and therefore there should be an interaction between valence and concreteness. Although this prediction has been observed in a number of tasks, very few studies have looked specifically at memory. Three experiments are reported that assess whether valence interacts with concreteness in recognition. In Experiment 1, recognition of concrete words was better than abstract, but there was no difference as a function of whether the words were positive or negative and there was no interaction. Experiment 2 compared positive and neutral words and Experiment 3 compared negative and neutral words; in both, there was a concreteness effect but no effect of valence and no interaction. These results replicate previous findings that when positive and negative words are equated more fully, valence has no effect on recognition, and also suggest a limit on the scope of the Affective Embodiment Account.

The Role of Task Types and Reading Proficiency on Young English as a Foreign Language Learners' Writing Performances

AbstractThis study examined the role of writing task types and L2 reading proficiency on young English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' writing performances. The participants were 185 students (Grades 7 and 8) from Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands. The students responded to a descriptive and an email writing tasks that assessed their writing ability. The written responses were scored holistically and analyzed for aspects of lexical sophistication, syntactic complexity, writing fluency, and idea development. The students were grouped into strong or emergent readers based on their performances on an English reading comprehension test. Results showed that the students' writing performances differed across task types and were associated with their reading proficiency. The students produced more unique and concrete words and more complex syntactic structures and wrote longer essays in the descriptive writing task. Strong readers outperformed the emergent readers in both tasks and in writing fluency and idea development. Findings corroborate previous research on the connection between reading and writing skills and highlight the importance of strengthening young EFL learners' reading skills to support their writing development.