Lexical Effects Research Articles

Remembering “txt” but not “text”: The effect of context and lexicality on memory for text message abbreviations

ABSTRACTText messages often contain abbreviations allowing for an efficient manner to quickly convey content. Although text abbreviations typically contain fewer letters than words, research has demonstrated that they are processed more slowly. Text abbreviations are lexically unique compared to their fully spelled counterparts. This study examined the nature of episodic memory representations for text abbreviations and how top-down contextual information influences the encoding of text abbreviations. In this experiment, participants studied sentences that contained different types of abbreviations: deletions (e.g., tmrw), substitutions (e.g., 2mrw) or “pseudo” abbreviations (e.g., toorow). The sentences were presented within a conversational context or without context. In a recognition memory test, participants saw sentences from the study task that contained either the same abbreviation or a different type of abbreviation. Results revealed that conversational context increased both hits and false recognition rates in the memory test. False recognition rates were generally higher for abbreviation types that shared more surface feature overlap and lower for those that shared less surface feature overlap. The findings suggest text abbreviations have distinct episodic memory representations that incorporate their unique surface feature information and are closely associated to fully spelled lexical memory representations.

Lexical activation effects on children's sentence planning and production

ABSTRACTWe investigated the relationship between lexical activation and syntactic planning in children's sentences. Four- and 7-year-old children described transitive scenes following patient-related prime pictures and control pictures. We examined syntactic choices, and compared onset latency, sentence length, and dysfluency rates for active transitive sentences in the two conditions. Early activation of the patient in the primed condition did not lead to the production of patient-subject sentences, but it did have consequences for active transitive sentence production. Namely, onset latencies were longer and sentences were shorter in the primed condition. Dysfluency rates did not differ between the two conditions. Correlation analyses revealed a stronger pattern of association between working memory scores and language variables in the patient-primed condition. The results indicate that conflicts between lexical activation order and syntactic plans are a source of processing difficulty during children's sentence production.

Lexical effects on children's speech processing: individual differences reflected in the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ).

This study was undertaken to examine whether children exhibit the same relationship that adults show between lexical influence on phoneme identification and individual variation on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Data from 62 4- to 7-year-olds with no diagnosis of autism were analyzed. The main task involved identification of the initial sound in pairs of voice-onset time continua with a real word on one end and a nonword on the other (e.g., gift-kift, giss-kiss). Participants were also given the children's version of the AQ and a 2nd instrument related to autistic-like traits, the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). The lexical shift was related to the AQ (particularly to its Attention Switching subscale) but not to the SRS. The size of lexical effects on children's speech perception can be predicted by AQ scores but not necessarily by other measures of autism-like traits. The results indicate that speech perception in children manifests individual differences along some general dimension of cognitive style reflected in the AQ, possibly in relation to local/global information processing.

Proficiency and Linguistic Complexity Influence Speech Motor Control and Performance in Spanish Language Learners.

Second-language (L2) production requires greater cognitive resources to inhibit the native language and to retrieve less robust lexical representations. The current investigation identifies how proficiency and linguistic complexity, specifically syntactic and lexical factors, influence speech motor control and performance. Speech movements of 29 native English speakers with low or high proficiency in Spanish were recorded while producing simple and syntactically complex sentences in English and Spanish. Sentences were loaded with cognate (e.g., baby-bebé) or noncognate (e.g., dog-perro) words. Effects of proficiency, lexicality (cognate vs. noncognate), and syntactic complexity on maximum speed, range of movement, duration, and speech movement variability were examined. In general, speakers with lower L2 proficiency differed in their speech motor control and performance from speakers with higher L2 proficiency. Speakers with higher L2 proficiency generally had less speech movement variability, shorter phrase durations, greater maximum speeds, and greater ranges of movement. In addition, lexicality and syntactic complexity affected speech motor control and performance. L2 proficiency, lexicality, and syntactic complexity influence speech motor control and performance in adult L2 learners. Information about relationships between speech motor control, language proficiency, and cognitive-linguistic demands may be used to assess and treat bilingual clients and language learners.

Hunts, Heinz, and Fries Priming ‘Ketchup’: The Effects of Lexicality on Brand Name–Product Associations and Brand Memory

SummaryBrand names should be memorable and easy to associate with the product. The present study investigated how brand name lexicality affects accessibility in memory. In Experiment 1, participants completed a primed lexical decision task (LDT) in which primes were real‐word brands (RWB; e.g., SATURN), nonword brands (NWB; e.g., KIA), or semantic associates (e.g., TIRE) and targets were product categories (e.g., car). NWB primes resulted in equivalent priming as semantic primes and were recalled more than RWBs in a free‐recall task. In Experiment 2, participants completed an unprimed LDT or brand decision task (BDT). In LDT, high NWB error rates reflected greater familiarity. In BDT, many RWBs were not recognized as brands. In Experiment 3, a primed BDT with brand names as targets indicated that NWBs and RWBs are equally primed by a related category label. Overall, NWBs appear to be more familiar and memorable, possibly because of distinctiveness. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Accommodation of End-State Comfort Reveals Subphonemic Planning in Speech

Applying the ‘end-state comfort' hypothesis of Rosenbaum et al. [J Exp Psych Learn Mem Cogn 1992;18:1058; Acta Psychol (Amst) 1996;94:59] to tongue motion provides evidence of long-distance subphonemic planning in speech. Speakers' tongue postures may anticipate upcoming speech up to three segments, two syllables, and a morpheme or word boundary later. We used M-mode ultrasound imaging to measure the direction of tongue tip/blade movements for known variants of flap/tap allophones of North American English /t/ and /d/. Results show that speakers produce different flap variants early in words or word sequences so as to facilitate the kinematic needs of flap/tap or other /r/ variants that appear later in the word or word sequence. Similar results were also observed across word boundaries, indicating that this is not a lexical effect.

Behavioural and eye-movement outcomes in response to text-based reading treatment for acquired alexia

Text-based reading treatments, such as Multiple Oral Rereading (MOR) and Oral Reading for Language in Aphasia (ORLA) have been used successfully to remediate reading impairments in individuals with acquired alexia, but the mechanisms underlying such improvements are not well understood. In this study, an individual with acquired alexia who demonstrated reliance on a sub-lexical reading strategy (i.e., presence of spelling regularity effect and phonologically plausible errors) underwent 12 weeks of text-based reading treatment combining MOR and ORLA procedures. Behavioural assessments of single-word and text reading, along with eye-tracking assessments were conducted pre-treatment, post-treatment and at 5 month follow-up. Improved reading fluency (rate, accuracy) was observed for both trained and untrained passages. Evidence from behavioural and eye-tracking assessment suggested text-based reading treatment facilitated use of a lexical-semantic reading strategy. Increased frequency and lexicality effects, as well as a shift in initial landing position towards the centre of the word (the “optimal viewing position”) were observed at post-treatment and follow-up assessments. These results demonstrate the potential utility of using eye movements as a parameter of interest in addition to traditional behavioural outcomes when investigating response to reading treatment.

A change of task prolongs early processes: evidence from ERPs in lexical tasks.

Switching tasks costs time. Allowing time to prepare reduces the cost, but usually leaves an irreducible "residual cost." Most accounts of this residual cost locate it within the response-selection stage of processing. To determine which processing stage is affected, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) as participants performed a reading task or a perceptual judgment task, and examined the effect of a task switch on early markers of lexical processing. A task cue preceding a string of blue and red letters instructed the participant either to read the letter string (for a semantic classification in Experiment 1, and a lexical decision in Experiment 2) or to judge the symmetry of its color pattern. In Experiment 1, having to switch to the reading task delayed the evolution of the effect of word frequency on the reading task ERP by a substantial fraction of the effect on reaction time (RT). In Experiment 2, a task switch delayed the onset of the effect of lexical status on the ERP by about the same extent that it prolonged the RT. These effects indicate an early locus of (most of) the residual switch cost: We propose that this reflects a form of task-related attentional inertia. Other findings have implications for the automaticity of lexical access: Effects of frequency, lexicality, and orthographic familiarity on ERPs in the symmetry task indicated involuntary, but attenuated, orthographic and lexical processing even when attention was focused on a nonlexical property.

Effect of Fine-Grained Lexical Rating on L2 Learners’ Lexical Learning Gain

In assessing L2 lexical learning, especially initial learning, researchers always face the problem of whether partial word learning should be counted. Existing studies have either counted partial word learning (i.e. counted both partial and complete word learning) or have only counted complete word learning. However, it is not clear whether counting partial word learning makes a difference in capturing task-based and intra-learner lexical learning gain. Few studies have investigated this potential difference and even fewer if both productive and receptive lexical learning are considered. The present study employed differently fine-grained word rating methods to assess three Chinese EFL learner groups’ performances on four vocabulary posttests after receiving three treatment tasks: a written output task, an oral output task, and a reading task. Data analyses revealed that the use of differently fine-grained scoring methods did not necessarily affect learners’ cross-task lexical learning effects significantly, but it did make a significant difference in measuring individual learners’ lexical learning gain. The findings are discussed with reference to whether and how a less or more fine-grained scoring method should be adopted in rating lexical learning.

Exploring the Neural Substrates of Phonological Recovery for Symposium: Neural Correlates of Recovery and Rehabilitation

Event Abstract Back to Event Exploring the Neural Substrates of Phonological Recovery for Symposium: Neural Correlates of Recovery and Rehabilitation Pelagie M. Beeson1*, Kindle Rising1, Andrew T. DeMarco1 and Steven Z. Rapcsak1, 2 1 University of Arizona, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, United States 2 Southern Arizona Veteran's Administration Health Care System, Neurology, United States Background Phonological alexia and agraphia are written language disorders characterized by disproportionate difficulty processing nonwords compared to real words, giving rise to an exaggerated lexicality effect in reading and spelling1-5. Lesion-deficit studies demonstrate that phonological alexia/agraphia are associated with left perisylvian damage resulting in a central phonological deficit that disrupts sublexical processing of sounds and associated graphemes. The writing impairment is typically more severe and persistent than the reading deficit due to increased task demands6. Some individuals with phonological impairment have concomitant lexical-semantic deficits resulting in global agraphia manifested by poor spelling of both real or nonwords. Behavioral treatment can strengthen phonological skills and improve written language7, but response to treatment varies. Here we examined treatment outcomes in a large cohort of patients to explore the relationship between phonological recovery and lesion location. Method Forty-one individuals with left hemisphere damage were evaluated and provided treatment to improve written spelling: 23 presented with global agraphia; another 18 had phonological agraphia. High-resolution brain scans were acquired and precise 3D lesion maps were generated following procedures outlined in Andersen, Rapcsak, & Beeson (2010) 8. Three treatment protocols were implemented as indicated by initial performance, and whenever possible, participants advanced to the next treatment in the sequence. Lexical spelling treatment strengthens item-specific orthographic representations for words. Individuals with global agraphia begin with this treatment, and trained items are used as “key words” to assist in retrieval of sound-letter correspondences during phonological treatment. Phonological treatment strengthens sound-letter correspondences and phonological manipulation skills for individuals with phonological agraphia and those with global agraphia who advance from lexical treatment. Interactive treatment follows phonological treatment. A problem-solving approach is trained to promote use of residual or retrained lexical and phonological knowledge to improve spelling. Results All individuals with global agraphia successfully completed lexical treatment and proceeded to phonological treatment. They mastered retraining of sound-letter and letter-sound conversions for consonants, but 10 of 25 were not able to meet criterion on all stages of phonological treatment and did not advance to interactive treatment. Thirteen individuals with global agraphia and 18 with phonological agraphia progressed through all components of phonological and interactive treatment. Figure 1 illustrates lesion overlays by outcome groups (low global, high global, phonological), with relevant pre-post treatment performances. Groups completing phonological and interactive treatment made significant improvements on phonological transcoding and manipulation tasks, and generalized improvement reading and spelling words and nonwords. Such improvements were not significant for the low global group. Analysis of brain damage relative to treatment gains on nonword spelling revealed that whereas frontal damage was common, the low global group had greater concomitant damage to superior temporal gyrus and sulcus (see Figure). Conclusions All participants improved written language abilities in response to treatment, but one subgroup was limited in their ability to regain phonological skills. Both anterior and posterior components of the perisylvian phonological network were damaged in that group. These findings are consistent with fMRI activation when healthy adults write nonwords, and provide insight regarding neural support necessary for phonological rehabilitation. Figure 1 Acknowledgements This work was supported by grant R01-DC007646 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

The Lexical Effects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English by Sara M. Pons-Sanz (review)

The Lexical Effects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English by Sara M. Pons-Sanz (review)

Lexicality, frequency and stress assignment effects in bilingual children reading Italian as a second language

In Italian, developing readers exhibit lexicality and frequency effects, and are sensitive to the distributional properties of the language. But how do bilingual children with different ages of first L2 (Italian) exposure and L2 vocabulary sizes read L2 words and pseudowords? Two reading aloud experiments investigated lexicality, frequency and stress assignment effects in fourth- and fifth-grade bilinguals and monolinguals. Naming latencies and pronunciation accuracy were analyzed. In Experiment 1, effects of lexicality and frequency and between-group differences emerged. In Experiment 2, the word frequency effect was confirmed. Late bilinguals, characterized by a smaller L2 vocabulary size, were less accurate than early bilinguals and monolinguals in assigning non-dominant stress. As with monolinguals, lexical information seems to be employed when reading Italian as a second language. Furthermore, bilingual readers are sensitive to the distributional properties of the language. Stress assignment is affected by the L2 lexicon size of second-language learners.

Early processing of auditory lexical predictions revealed by ERPs

Auditory lexical processing starts within 200ms after onset of the critical stimulus. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate whether (1) the so-called N200 effect can be triggered by single-item lexical context, and (2) such effects are robust against temporal violations of the signal. We presented items in which lexical status (i.e., is the stimulus a word or a pseudoword?) was determined at third syllable onset. The critical syllable could be naturally timed or delayed (by ∼440 or ∼800ms). Across all conditions, we observed an effect of lexicality that started ∼200ms after third syllable onset (i.e., an N200 effect in naturally timed items and a similar effect superimposed on the P2 for the delayed items). The results indicate that early lexical processes are robust against violations of temporal coherence.

Attentional Processing of Letter Strings by Children

Reading a letter string requires attentional orienting toward the beginning of the string (left-dominant orientation), followed by orienting along the string. These attentional-orienting processes differ according to the lexicality of the letter string: Sequential processes apply when reading nonwords or pseudowords, while words can be processed more globally. The aim of this study was to evaluate the development of these attentional processes involved in reading. We conducted two experiments in 6- (first grade), 7- (second grade), and 9-year-old (fourth grade) children, using a procedure that required the detection of a letter (Experiment 1) or a nonletter (Experiment 2) target in a string of five characters. The target character could occur in the second (left) or fourth (right) position in the string. Results showed an advantage for left nonletter targets as early as age 6 and of left letter targets as early as age 7. In 6-year-olds, only good readers detected a left letter target faster than a right letter target; others detected a right letter target faster. Thus, dominant orienting toward the beginning of the letter string is not fully developed in children before the second year of reading. A possibility is that beginning readers have difficulties inhibiting an attention-orienting bias toward the right visual field in linguistic tasks. The results also showed that the lexicality effect on these attentional processes develops gradually until the fourth year of reading. We believe that the procedure used in this study will be very valuable for evaluating attentional difficulties during reading acquisition.

Sara M. Pons-Sanz.The Lexical Effects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English. Studies in the Early Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013, xv + 589 pp., € 125.00.

Article Sara M. Pons-Sanz.The Lexical Effects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English. Studies in the Early Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013, xv + 589 pp., € 125.00. was published on November 1, 2014 in the journal Anglia (volume 132, issue 3).

Repeated Exposure to "meaningless" Pseudowords Modulates LPC, but Not N(FN)400.

Training readers to recognize pseudowords could decrease the processing differences between them and real words while clarifying the lexical acquisition processes. We analyze the effect of pseudoword repetition through the recording of EEG during a lexical decision task. Results showed a functional dissociation between two well-known ERP components: FN400 (Frontal N400, traditionally related to semantic processes) and LPC (Late Positive Complex, related to memory processes). On the one hand, FN400 was unaffected by pseudoword repetition and showed the typical lexicality effect. On the other hand, topographic and neural source analyses showed that LPC amplitude increased across repetitions, causing the lexicality effect to disappear, with the left inferior frontal, left superior temporal and right superior frontal gyri identified as the most likely neural sources. The lack of repetition effect on FN400 suggests that this component is unrelated to familiarity processes and is only influenced by semantic differences between stimuli. The LPC observations, however, reflect the construction and strengthening of visual memory traces for repeated pseudowords, facilitating their processing over the course of the task.

Language and short-term memory: The role of perceptual-motor affordance.

The advantage for real words over nonwords in serial recall—the lexicality effect—is typically attributed to support for item-level phonology, either via redintegration, whereby partially degraded short-term traces are “cleaned up” via support from long-term representations of the phonological material or via the more robust temporary activation of long-term lexical phonological knowledge that derives from its combination with established lexical and semantic levels of representation. The much smaller effect of lexicality in serial recognition, where the items are re-presented in the recognition cue, is attributed either to the minimal role for redintegration from long-term memory or to the minimal role for item memory itself in such retrieval conditions. We show that the reduced lexicality effect in serial recognition is not a function of the retrieval conditions, but rather because previous demonstrations have used auditory presentation, and we demonstrate a robust lexicality effect for visual serial recognition in a setting where auditory presentation produces no such effect. Furthermore, this effect is abolished under conditions of articulatory suppression. We argue that linguistic knowledge affects the readiness with which verbal material is segmentally recoded via speech motor processes that support rehearsal and therefore affects tasks that involve recoding. On the other hand, auditory perceptual organization affords sequence matching in the absence of such a requirement for segmental recoding and therefore does not show such effects of linguistic knowledge.

Word and pseudoword reading in children with specific speech and language impairment

Children with specific language impairment frequently encounter difficulties in learning to read and in particular, in word recognition. The present study set out to determine the precise impact of language impairment on word reading skills. We investigated single-word reading in 27 French children with specific speech and language impairment (2 SLI). Precise quantification of reading levels in the 2 SLI group showed an average delay of 3.5 years. Approximately 90% of these children were affected by a reading disorder, whereas for the remaining 10%, reading performance was within normal limits. Word reading procedures are analyzed using the so-called 'dual route model', which proposes that reading is achieved through two processes, the phonological and the orthographic procedures. Group comparison analyses of 27 reading level-matched control children, revealed an increased lexicality effect in the 2 SLI group, indicating a specific deficit in the phonological procedure. Moreover, multiple case analyses revealed interindividual differences among the children with 2 SLI, with four reading subtypes. Approximately 60% of these children reached the standard levels expected of younger children with identical reading levels (delayed reading profile) in both procedures. Twenty percent displayed qualitatively different reading mechanisms, with a greater deficit in the phonological procedure (phonological profile). These children showed a severe impairment in language production at the phonological level. Ten percent exhibited a greater orthographic deficit (surface profile) and 10% had normal reading skills (normal profile). Further research is required to improve our understanding of the relationships between 2 SLI or specific language impairment and reading acquisition. The present results suggest that in clinical practice, both reading procedures should be exercised, with emphasis on the phonological procedure for children with more severe deficits in phonological production.

Neural correlates reveal sub-lexical orthography and phonology during reading aloud: a review.

The sub-lexical conversion of graphemes-to-phonemes (GPC) during reading has been investigated extensively with behavioral measures, as well as event-related potentials (ERPs). Most research utilizes silent reading (e.g., lexical decision task) for which phonological activation is not a necessity. However, recent research employed reading aloud to capture sub-lexical GPC. The masked priming paradigm avoids strategic processing and is therefore well suitable for capturing sub-lexical processing instead of lexical effects. By employing ERPs, the on-line time course of sub-lexical GPC can be observed before the overt response. ERPs have revealed that besides phonological activation, as revealed by behavioral studies, there is also early orthographic activation. This review describes studies in one’s native language, in one’s second language, and in a cross-language situation. We discuss the implications the ERP results have on different (computational) models. First, the ERP results show that computational models should assume an early locus of the GPC. Second, cross-language studies reveal that the phonological representations from both languages of a bilingual become activated automatically and the phonology belonging to the context is selected rapidly. Therefore, it is important to extend the scope of computational models of reading (aloud) to multiple lexicons.

Neurocognitive mechanisms of learning to read: print tuning in beginning readers related to word‐reading fluency and semantics but not phonology

During reading acquisition children learn to recognize orthographic stimuli and link them to phonology and semantics. The present study investigated neurocognitive processes of learning to read after one year of schooling. We aimed to elucidate the cognitive processes underlying neural tuning for print that has been shown to play an important role for reading and dyslexia. A 128-channel EEG was recorded while 68 (Swiss-)German monolingual first grade children (mean age: 7.6) performed a one-back task with different types of letter and false-font strings. Print tuning was indexed by the N1 difference in the ERPs between German words and false-font strings, while the N1 lexicality effect was indexed by the difference between German words and pseudowords. In addition, we measured reading fluency, rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, auditory memory span, and vocabulary. After one year of formal reading instruction N1 print tuning was clearly present at the group level, and could be detected at the individual level in almost 90% of the children. The N1 lexicality effect, however, could not be reliably found. On the cognitive level, next to word-reading fluency, vocabulary was also associated with N1 print tuning, but not measures reflecting phonological processing. These results demonstrate the presence of print tuning in the first year of reading acquisition and its development at the individual level. Moreover, individual differences in print tuning are not only related to word-reading fluency, but also to semantic knowledge, indicating that at early stages of learning to read the top-down modulation of print tuning is semantic rather than phonological in nature.