Effect Of Neighborhood Size Research Articles

Socioeconomic context and gastroschisis: Exploring associations at various geographic scales

This study examines associations between area-level socioeconomic factors and the birth defect gastroschisis in order to further our understanding of the etiology of this condition. Specifically, this study explores how measuring socioeconomic conditions at different geographic scales affect the results of statistical models. A population-based case-control study of resident live births was conducted using data from the North Carolina Birth Defect Monitoring Program and the North Carolina composite linked birth files from 1998 through 2004. Neighborhood conditions potentially related to gastroschisis (poverty, unemployment, education, and racial composition) were measured using Census 2000 data and aggregated to several geographic scales. The Brown-Forsythe test of homogeneity of variance was used to select the neighborhood size by examining the effect of neighborhood size on variation in gastroschisis rates. To examine our assumptions about neighborhood size and neighborhood effects on gastroschisis, we estimated a series of logistic regression and multilevel logistic regression models. The Brown-Forsythe test suggested an optimal neighborhood size with a circular radius of approximately 2500 m, which was supported by the statistical analysis. Results indicate a weak association between living in a neighborhood characterized by high poverty and unemployment and an elevated risk of a gastroschisis-affected pregnancy after adjusting for individual-level risk factors. Cross-level interactions indicate that women in low poverty neighborhoods who do not rely on Medicaid have a significantly lower risk of gastroschisis. The choice of neighborhood scale influences model results suggesting that socioeconomic processes may influence health outcomes variably at different scales.

Orthographic neighborhood size effect in Chinese character naming: Orthographic and phonological activations

The present study examined the effects of orthographic neighborhood (N) size on the cognitive processes underlying Chinese character reading. Previous research has shown increasing N size facilitates word naming and recognition performance in alphabetic languages. Experiment 1 revealed that a large N size was associated with a general inhibition of processes underlying character reading, in contrast to previous findings with alphabetic languages. This inhibitory effect was influenced by regularity and consistency. Experiment 2 sought to assess the effects of higher-frequency neighbors on character naming performance. The results revealed that higher-frequency neighbors with different pronunciation to the target interfered with the phonological retrieval of targets. We propose that this type of interference may have caused the N size effect observed in Experiment 1. The results of Experiment 3 revealed that a large N size facilitated target naming in the absence of higher-frequency neighbors. The current results shed light on the processes underlying character naming, and we propose possible cognitive mechanisms of the N size effect on Chinese character naming.

Neural correlates of the orthographic neighborhood size effect in Chinese

Word recognition research with alphabetical scripts has revealed a facilitatory neighborhood size effect, whereby naming of words with more orthographic neighbors is faster than that of words with fewer neighbors. Preliminary behavioral evidence in Chinese revealed both facilitatory and inhibitory neighborhood size effects, depending on whether there are higher-frequency neighbors (HFNs) than the target. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined the neural substrates of the neighborhood size effect with silent naming. Neighborhood size and the HFN factor were factorially manipulated. Behavioral results replicated previous findings showing that larger neighborhood size facilitated naming in the absence of HFNs, but inhibited naming in their presence. Imaging results identified greater activation in the left middle frontal gyrus for small than larger neighborhood size, and bilateral inferior frontal activations for the with-HFN condition as compared with the without-HFN condition. Critically, there was an interaction in the right middle occipital gyrus showing greater activation for large than for small neighborhood size in the absence of HFNs but no neighborhood size effect in their presence. The results support a proposal that, in addition to a facilitatory contribution from orthographic activation of neighborhoods, naming is also affected by whether there are higher-frequency neighbors, particularly in scripts with deep orthography, where orthographically similar words can be pronounced very differently.

Pathway control in visual word processing: Converging evidence from recognition memory

The extent to which readers can exert strategic control over oral reading processes is a matter of debate. According to the pathway control hypothesis, the relative contributions of the lexical and nonlexical pathways can be modulated by the characteristics of the context stimuli being read, but an alternative time criterion model is also a viable explanation of past results. In Experiment 1, subjects named high- and low-frequency regular words in the context of either low-frequency exception words (e.g., pint) or nonwords (e.g., flirp). Frequency effects (faster pronunciation latencies for high-frequency words) were attenuated in the nonword context, consistent with the notion that nonwords emphasize the characteristics of the frequency-insensitive nonlexical pathway. Importantly, we also assessed memory for targets, and a similar attenuation of the frequency effect in recognition memory was observed in the nonword condition. Converging evidence was obtained in a second experiment in which a variable that was more sensitive to the nonlexical pathway (orthographic neighborhood size) was manipulated. The results indicated that both speeded pronunciation performance and memory performance were relatively attenuated in the low-frequency exception word context in comparision with the nonword context. The opposing influences of list context type for word frequency and orthographic neighborhood size effects in speeded pronunciation and memory performance provide strong support for the pathway control model, as opposed to the time criterion model.

Imageability x phonology interactions during lexical access

Although many studies have demonstrated the effects of imageability and phonological neighborhood size, few have examined if these factors interact. Strain, Patterson, and Seidenberg (1995) explained an imageability effect in naming low-frequency exception words (only) as being due to a slowing of orthographic-to-phonological mapping for these words, which allowed semantics to have an effect. Tyler, Voice, and Moss (2000) showed an interaction between imageability and phonological cohort size in word repetition. Westbury and Buchanan (2006) found an interaction between imageability and phonology using an auditory false memory paradigm that measured the false recognition rate for phonological associates of semantically primed words. They explained the finding in terms of a greater reliance of abstract than concrete words on phonological representations. In this paper we test three related hypotheses: that the imageability x phonology interaction should be modulated by modality; that measures of phonological processing fluency should predict the size of the interaction; and that concrete and abstract words should show a systematic difference in number of phonological neighbours. We find support for all three hypotheses, suggesting that the interaction between imageability and phonology reflects a difference in the representation of abstract and concrete words in the lexicon.

Effects of city size, shape, and form, and neighborhood size and shape in agent-based models of residential segregation: are Schelling-style preference effects robust?

This paper investigates the effects of city size, shape, and form, and neighborhood size and shape in agent-based models of residential segregation. We find that, in many key respects, model-generated segregation outcomes are not influenced in important ways by variation in these factors. For example, the expression of segregation based on agent preferences for coethnic contact in agent-based models does not vary with city size, city shape, city form, or the shape of neighborhoods involved in agent vision, or the use of distance-decay functions for evaluating neighbors. These findings indicate that results obtained from model-based segregation studies are likely to be robust relative to choices regarding these aspects of model specification. We do find important effects of the size or scale of neighborhoods involved in agent vision: model-generated segregation outcomes vary in complex ways with agent vision. Significantly, however, the effect of neighborhood size or scale does not appear to vary in import...

An electrophysiological investigation of cross-language effects of orthographic neighborhood

In Experiment 1 ERPs were recorded while French–English bilinguals read pure language lists of French and English words that differed in terms of the number of orthographic neighbors (many or few) they had in the other language. That is the number of French neighbors for English target words was varied and the number of English neighbors for French target words was varied. These participants showed effects of cross-language neighborhood size in the N400 ERP component that arose earlier and were more widely distributed for English (L2) target words than French (L1) targets. In a control experiment that served to demonstrate that these effects were not due to any other uncontrolled for item effects, monolingual L1 English participants read only the list of English targets that varied in the number of French (an unknown L) neighbors. These participants showed a very different pattern of effects of cross-language neighbors. These results provide further crucial evidence showing cross-language permeability in bilingual word recognition, a phenomena that was predicted and correctly simulated by the bilingual interactive-activation model (BIA+).

Is there an Effect of Print Exposure on the Word Frequency Effect and the Neighborhood Size Effect?

Orthographic and phonological processing skills have been shown to vary as a function of reader skill (Stanovich & West, Reading Research Quarterly, 24, 402-433, 1989; Unsworth & Pexman, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 56A, 63-81, 2003). One variable known to contribute to differences between readers of higher and lower skill is amount of print exposure: higher skilled readers read more often than lower skilled readers, and their increased print exposure is associated with faster responding to words and nonwords in lexical decision tasks. The present experiments examined the effect of print exposure on the word frequency effect and neighborhood size effect. We conclude that the different outcomes reported in previous studies (Chateau & Jared, Memory and Cognition, 28, 143-153, 2000; Lewellen, Goldinger, Pisoni, & Greene, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122, 316-330, 1993) were due to the type of nonwords used in the lexical decision task (regular nonwords versus pseudohomophones). Our results are explained in terms of differences in the reliance on orthographic and phonological information between readers of higher and lower print exposure.

Inhibition and facilitation in visual word recognition: Prefrontal contribution to the orthographic neighborhood size effect

The recognition of words is a central component of language processing. A major role for visual word recognition has been attributed to the orthographic neighbors of a word, i.e., words that are orthographically similar to a target word. It has been demonstrated that the presence of orthographic neighbors facilitates the recognition of words, but hinders the rejection of nonwords. It is therefore assumed that representations of orthographic neighbors are at least partially activated during word recognition, and that they influence word recognition depending on the specific task context. In the present study, we used fMRI to examine the neural bases of the effect of orthographic neighborhood size on speeded lexical decisions to words and nonwords. Our results demonstrate lexicality×neighborhood size interactions in mid-dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex, suggesting the involvement of a domain-general, extra-lexical process for orthographic neighborhood effects on word and nonword processing. This result challenges computational models that offer purely lexical accounts of the orthographic neighborhood effect and suggests an important role for executive control functions during visual word recognition.

Orthographic neighborhood size effects in recognition memory

This study argues for the importance of physical word features in recognition memory by investigating the influence of orthographic distinctiveness. Experiment 1 demonstrated a mirror effect in ayes/no recognition test by manipulating orthographic neighborhood size. Words with small neighborhoods showed more hits and fewer false alarms than did words with larger neighborhoods. Experiment 2 replicated the neighborhood size mirror effect using null pairs in a forced choice recognition test. Experiment 3 required remember/know judgments in a yes/no recognition task. Experiment 4 used the same yes/no test as did Experiment 1, adding a study task that drew attention away from orthographic information in the study list. The mirror pattern disappeared with the addition of the study task.

Effect of Neighborhood Size on Negative Weights in Punctual Kriging Based Image Restoration

Effect of Neighborhood Size on Negative Weights in Punctual Kriging Based Image Restoration

The effects of DEM resolution and neighborhood size on digital soil survey

Terrain characteristics, such as slope gradient, slope aspect, profile curvature, contour curvature computed from digital elevation model (DEM), are among the key inputs to digital soil surveys based on geographic information systems (GIS). These terrain attributes are computed over a neighborhood (spatial extent). The objective of this research was to investigate the combined effect of DEM resolution and neighborhood size on digital soil surveys using the Soil– Landscape Inference Model (SoLIM) approach. The effect of neighborhood size and DEM resolution on digital soil survey was examined through computing the required terrain attributes using different neighborhood sizes (from 3 to 54 m) for 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 27 m resolution DEM. These attributes were then compiled and used to digitally map soils using the SoLIM approach. Field work completed on a hillslope in Dane County, WI in the summer of 2003 was used to validate each of the SoLIM derived soil surveys for accuracy. The results of the soil survey validations suggest that there is a range of neighborhood sizes that produces the most accurate results for a given resolution DEM. This range of neighborhood sizes, however, varies from landscape to landscape. When the soils on a gently rolling landscape were mapped, the neighborhood sizes that produced the most accurate results ranged from about 33–48 m. When soils on short, steep backslope positions were mapped, the neighborhood size values that produced the most accurate results range from about 24–36 m. This paper also shows that it is not always the highest resolution DEM that produces the highest accuracy. Knowing which DEM resolution and neighborhood size combinations produce the most accurate digital soil surveys for a particular landscape will be extremely useful to users of GIS-based soil-mapping applications.

Orthographic neighborhood effects in reading Chinese two-character words

The present study investigates the effects of neighborhood size and neighborhood frequency in reading Chinese two-character words. The neighborhood size of a word is defined as the summation of neighbors sharing the first constituent (neighborhood size 1) and the second constituent (neighborhood size 2) characters. The first experiment found two opposite neighborhood size effects in lexical decision of high-frequency and low-frequency words. The regression analysis showed that neighborhood size 1 influenced word reading more than the neighborhood size 2. The second experiment confirmed this finding and showed that reading words with higher frequency neighbors took a longer time and elicited greater N400 and LPC than those without higher frequency neighbors. These findings indicate that, when reading Chinese two-character words, all words sharing the first constituent character are activated in the early stage of word recognition and the existence of high-frequency words among neighbors leads to greater competition in the stage of semantic integration and response selection.

Model-generated lexical activity predicts graded ERP amplitudes in lexical decision

Recent neurocognitive studies of visual word recognition provide information about neuronal networks correlated with processes involved in lexical access and their time course (e.g., [Holcomb, Ph.J., Grainger J. and O'Rourke, T. (2002). An Electrophysiological Study of the Effects of Orthographic Neighborhood Size on Printed Word Perception, J. of Cogn. Neurosci. 14 938–950; Binder, J.R., McKiernan, K.A., Parsons, M.E., Westbury, C.F., Possing, E.T., Kaufman, J.N. and Buchanan, L. (2003). Neural Correlates of Lexical Access during Visual Word Recognition, J. Cogn. Neurosci. 15 372–393.]). These studies relate the orthographic neighborhood density of letter strings to the amount of global lexical activity in the brain, generated by a hypothetical mental lexicon as speculated in an early paper by [Jacobs, A.M. and Carr, T.H. (1995). Mind mappers and cognitive modelers: Toward cross-fertilization, Behav. Brain. Sci. 18 362–363]. The present study uses model-generated stimuli theoretically eliciting graded global lexical activity and relates this activity to activation of lexical processing networks using event-related potentials (ERPs). The results from a lexical decision task provide evidence for an effect of lexicality around 350 ms post-stimulus and also a graded effect of global lexical activity for nonwords around 500 ms post-stimulus. The data are interpreted as reflecting two different decision processes: an identification process based on local lexical activity underlying the ‘yes’ response to words and a temporal deadline process underlying the ‘no’ response to nonwords based on global lexical activity.

Masked inhibitory priming in English: Evidence for lexical inhibition.

Predictions derived from the interactive activation (IA) model were tested in 3 experiments using the masked priming technique in the lexical decision task. Experiment 1 showed a strong effect of prime lexicality: Classifications of target words were facilitated by orthographically related nonword primes (relative to unrelated nonword primes) but were inhibited by orthographically related word primes (relative to unrelated word primes). Experiment 2 confirmed IA's prediction that inhibitory priming effects are greater when the prime and target share a neighbor. Experiment 3 showed a minimal effect of target word neighborhood size (N) on inhibitory priming but a trend toward greater inhibition when nonword foils were high-N than when they were low-N. Simulations of 3 different versions of the IA model showed that the best fit to the data is produced when lexical inhibition is selective and when masking leads to reset of letter activities.

Neighborhood size effects on mortality, growth and crown morphology of paper birch

Neighborhood removal treatments are commonly used to increase forest tree productivity, but it is unknown if they correspond with target zone of perception or if they differentially affect mortality, growth and crown morphology. In 12–13-year-old stands, naturally regenerated paper birch ( Betula papyrifera Marsh.) was removed in neighborhoods 1 m, 2 m, 3 m, and 4 m in radius using three methods (single cutting, double cutting, or triclopyr). Zone of neighbor perception for target birch ranged between 0.9 and 4 m, depending on the response variable. The birch-free radius where neighbors started to reduce target performance was 3–4 m for diameter increment and 2–3 m for crown size. Crown diameter was reduced in 1 m smaller radii than where height-to-live crown was increased. Self-thinning occurred in 0.9–1.3 m spaced controls, but target mortality was not reduced with increased birch-free radius. Triclopyr killed most treated birch in all radii within 1 year, and also many target trees because of inter-tree chemical transfer through roots and soil. Most cut birch sprouted, but sprout mortality increased and height decreased with decreasing radius. A critical radius of 2–3 m resulted in increased target diameter growth while still restricting crown expansion and suppressing neighbor sprouting. These results highlight the need to recognize variation in zone of perception for different response variables when evaluating competitive effects or designing removal treatments.

ESTIMATING SURFACE NORMALS IN NOISY POINT CLOUD DATA

In this paper we describe and analyze a method based on local least square fitting for estimating the normals at all sample points of a point cloud data (PCD) set, in the presence of noise. We study the effects of neighborhood size, curvature, sampling density, and noise on the normal estimation when the PCD is sampled from a smooth curve in ℝ2or a smooth surface in ℝ3, and noise is added. The analysis allows us to find the optimal neighborhood size using other local information from the PCD. Experimental results are also provided.

Effects of neighbourhood size and connectivity on the spatial Continuous Prisoner's Dilemma

The Prisoner's Dilemma, a two-person game in which the players can either cooperate or defect, is a common paradigm for studying the evolution of cooperation. In real situations cooperation is almost never all or nothing. This observation is the motivation for the Continuous Prisoner's Dilemma, in which individuals exhibit variable degrees of cooperation. It is known that in the presence of spatial structure, when individuals “play against” (i.e. interact with) their neighbours, and “compare to” (“learn from”) them, cooperative investments can evolve to considerable levels. Here, we examine the effect of increasing the neighbourhood size: we find that the mean-field limit of no cooperation is reached for a critical neighbourhood size of about five neighbours on each side in a Moore neighbourhood, which does not depend on the size of the spatial lattice. We also find the related result that in a network of players, the critical average degree (number of neighbours) of nodes for which defection is the final state does not depend on network size, but only on the network topology. This critical average degree is considerably (about 10 times) higher for clustered (social) networks, than for distributed random networks. This result strengthens the argument that clustering is the mechanism which makes the development and maintenance of the cooperation possible. In the lattice topology, it is observed that when the neighbourhood sizes for “interacting” and “learning” differ by more than 0.5, cooperation is not sustainable, even for neighbourhood sizes that are below the mean-field limit of defection. We also study the evolution of neighbourhood sizes, as well as investment level. Here, we observe that the series of the interaction and learning neighbourhoods converge, and a final cooperative state with considerable levels of average investment is achieved.

Neighborhood effects on nonword visual processing in a language with shallow orthography.

Neighborhood size and neighborhood frequency were orthogonally varied in two experiments on Italian nonwords. In Experiment 1, an inhibitory effect of neighborhood frequency on visual lexical decision was found: The presence of one high-frequency neighbor increased response latencies and error rates to nonwords. By contrast, no effect of neighborhood size and no neighborhood size x neighborhood frequency interaction were found. In Experiment 2, a facilitatory effect of neighborhood size on nonword naming was shown: Naming latencies were faster when nonwords had a large neighborhood. In the naming experiment, there was no effect of neighbors' frequency and no neighborhood size x neighborhood frequency interaction. An additional role for bigram frequency was found whereas syllable frequency did not give any independent contribution. These results further corroborate the view that, in a language with transparent orthography like Italian, despite a substantial contribution of sublexical print-to-sound mapping due to the language's high regularity/consistency, reading aloud of nonlexical material may benefit from the contribution of the lexical component.

Semantic and phonological influences on the processing of words and pseudohomophones.

In two experiments, we investigated the relationship between semantics and phonology in the lexical decision task. In the first experiment, lexical decisions to words with large semantic neighborhoods were faster than those to words with sparse semantic neighborhoods. Conversely, this effect of semantic neighborhood was reversed for pseudohomophones (e.g., nale). That is, pseudohomophones based on words with large semantic neighborhoods took longer to reject than did those based on words with sparse semantic neighborhoods. In the second experiment, we found the magnitude of the semantic neighborhood effect for words to be a function of nonword foil type. Taken together, these results indicate that semantic neighborhood size affects processing of both words and pseudohomophones, and that the effect of semantic neighborhood size for words is more pronounced when pseudohomophone foils are employed. These effects are discussed in terms of a model in which the orthographic, phonological, and semantic systems are fully interactive.