Syllable Frequency Effects Research Articles

Phonological syllables allow children with developmental dyslexia to access words.

Learning to read is a middle-distance race for children worldwide. Most of them succeed in this acquisition with "normal" difficulties that ensue from the progressive (re)structuring of the phonological and orthographic systems. Evidence accumulated on reading difficulties in children with developmental dyslexia (DYS children, henceforth) shows a pervasive phonological deficit. However, the phonological deficit may not be due to degraded phonological representations but rather due to impaired access to them. This study focused on how and to what extent phonological syllables, which are essential reading units in French, were accessible to DYS children to segment and access words. We tested the assumption that DYS children did not strictly have pervasive degraded phonological representations but also have impaired access to phonological and orthographic representations. We administered a visually adapted word-spotting paradigm, engaging both sublexical processing and lexical access, with French native-speaking DYS children (N = 25; Mage in months = 121.6, SD = 3.0) compared with chronological age-matched peers (N = 25; Mage in months = 121.8, SD = 2.7; CA peers henceforth) and reading level-matched peers (N = 25; Mage in months = 94.0, SD = 4.6; RL peers henceforth). Although DYS children were slower and less accurate than CA and RL peers, we found that they used phonological syllables to access and segment words. However, they exhibit neither the classical inhibitory syllable frequency effect nor the lexical frequency effect, which is generally observed in typically developing children. Surprisingly, DYS children did not show strictly degraded phonological representations because they demonstrated phonological syllable-based segmentation abilities, particularly with high-frequency syllables. Their difficulties are rather interpreted in terms of impaired access to orthographic and phonological representations, which could be a direct effect of difficulties in generalizing and consolidating low-frequency syllables. We discuss these results regarding reading acquisition and the specificities of the French linguistic system.

Facilitation effect of token syllable frequency in Chinese spoken word production.

Syllable frequency effects in spoken word production have been interpreted as evidence that speakers store syllable-sized motor programmes for phonetic encoding in alphabetic languages such as English or Dutch. However, the cognitive mechanism underlying the syllable frequency effect in Chinese spoken word production remains unknown. To investigate the locus of the syllable frequency effect in spoken Chinese, this study used a picture-word interference (PWI) task in which participants were asked to name the picture while ignoring the distractor word. The design included two variables: the syllable frequency of the target words (high vs. low) and the phonological relationships between distractor and target words (shared atonic syllable or not; related vs. unrelated). We manipulated mixed token and type syllable frequency in Experiment 1, and token syllable frequency but controlled type syllable frequency in Experiment 2. The results showed a facilitation effect of mixed syllable frequency and a similar facilitation effect of token syllable frequency. Importantly, the syllable frequency effect was found to be independent of the phonological facilitation effect. These results suggest that token syllable frequency played a dominant role in the observed facilitation effect, providing evidence that the syllable frequency effect arises in the phonetic encoding of Chinese spoken word production.

The syllable as a fundamental sub-lexical unit in phonological paraphasias: evidence from Spanish-speaking aphasic patients

ABSTRACT Background Considering that the syllable is a well-defined unit in the Spanish language, we assume that it could be analyzed at the core of phonological paraphasias. Aims Identify if the characteristics of the Spanish syllable system are reflected in the production of phonological errors among Spanish-speaking aphasic patients. Methods & Procedures Twenty-four Spanish-speaking aphasic patients with different aetiology, severity, and type of aphasia participated in the study. We designed Word and Pseudoword Repetition Tasks controlling for stimuli length, syllable structure frequency, and syllable position. Outcomes & Results The production of paraphasias evidences an effect of syllable complexity and syllable frequency, since the CV syllable structure which is the simplest but also the most common one in Spanish, was more resistant to errors. Stimulus length and stimuli lexicality effects were evident since monosyllabic stimuli and words (opposed to pseudowords) triggered fewer errors, respectively. Also, we observed an interaction of length/lexicality, where polysyllabic pseudowords were related to a higher number of errors. Finally, results revealed a strong correlation between the relative frequency of syllable structures in Spanish and the percentage of syllable structures in phonemic paraphasias. Conclusions The repetition of words and pseudowords by these Spanish-speaking aphasic patients confirm that their phonological errors are related to the syllabic system of the Spanish language. This finding has implications when assessing Spanish-speaking aphasic patients.

The cognitive mechanism of syllable frequency effects in speech production: A cross-language perspective

The cognitive mechanism of syllable frequency effects in speech production: A cross-language perspective

Spelling acquisition in a consistent orthography: The facilitatory effect of syllable frequency in novice spellers.

This study investigates the effects of two sublexical variables, syllable frequency, and word length, in the spelling acquisition of novice spellers dealing with a transparent orthography, such as Italian. Two groups of 1 st-grade Italian children were tested respectively after 4 and 8 months of schooling, with a spelling-to-dictation task of single words created ad hoc by manipulating syllable frequency orthogonally (high vs low frequency of the first syllable) and length (short vs long words). The results show that after only four months of schooling, children could offset their difficulty in writing long words by taking advantage of the high frequency of the initial syllable. However, the regularity of Italian spelling makes it easy to capture fine-sized phoneme-to-grapheme units, rendering the syllable effect no longer detectable in more schooled children.

Dissociation of Writing Processes: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study on the Neural Substrates for the Handwritten Production of Chinese Characters.

Writing is an important way to communicate in everyday life because it can convey information over time and space, but its neural substrates remain poorly known. Although the neural basis of written language production has been investigated in alphabetic scripts, it has rarely been examined in nonalphabetic languages such as Chinese. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study explored the neural substrates of handwritten word production in Chinese and identified the brain regions sensitive to the psycholinguistic factors of word frequency and syllable frequency. To capture this, we contrasted neural activation in "writing" with "speaking plus drawing" and "watching plus drawing." Word frequency (high, low) and syllable frequency (high, low) of the picture names were manipulated. Contrasts between the tasks showed that writing Chinese characters was mainly associated with brain activation in the left frontal and parietal cortex, whereas orthographic processing and the motor procedures necessary for handwritten production were also related to activation in the right frontal and parietal cortex as well as right putamen/thalamus. These results demonstrate that writing Chinese characters requires activation in bilateral cortical regions and the right putamen/thalamus. Our results also revealed no brain activation associated with the main effects of word frequency and syllable frequency as well as their interaction, which implies that word frequency and syllable frequency may not affect the writing of Chinese characters on a neural level.

Application of a Bayesian approach for exploring the impact of syllable frequency in handwritten picture naming

ABSTRACT Adult studies in the fields of neurolinguistic and mental chronometry suggest that the syllable plays a functional role in handwritten word production. These studies support the hypothesis of a syllabified orthographic representation stored in the graphemic buffer. However, there remains the question of the cognitive mechanisms involved in this encoding of orthographic representations and, in particular, that of the processes related to the syllable. In the study reported here, we tested the hypothesis of an orthographic mental syllabary in long-term orthographic memory by exploring the impact of syllable frequency on handwritten latencies. Thirty participants handwrote the labels of one hundred and fifty images. Bayesian analyses indicated that the data support an absence of effect of syllable frequency. We propose an alternative hypothesis to the syllabary to account for the results in the literature. This respects the constraint of an absence of effect of syllable frequency in handwritten word production.

음절 빈도 효과의 첫 단계, 한글 음절 처리기가 존재하는가?

The syllable parser is basically assumed in order to explain the syllable frequency effect. One of several roles of the syllable parser is to divide syllables from a multi-syllabic word and transform orthographic representation into phonological representation. Thus, this is necessary in languages with a linear alphabetical writing system because syllable boundaries are unclear. However, the letters of Hangul are packed into syllable blocks, and this provides a visual boundary cue between syllables. Therefore, although it is not necessary to assume the syllable parser in Korean, the syllable frequency effect has been observed repeatedly in Korean. In order to find the syllable parser in Korean, the present study tested whether or not the syllable frequency effect is modulated by increasing intervals between the first and second syllable presentation via three lexical decision tasks.

Speech rate increase in primary progressive apraxia of speech and its cost on articulatory accuracy

ABSTRACT Impaired articulation (e.g., articulatory accuracy) and prosody (e.g., slow speech rate) are considered primary diagnostic criterions for apraxia of speech both in neurodegenerative and post-stroke contexts. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the ability of participants with primary progressive apraxia of speech (PPAOS), a neurodegenerative disease characterised by initially isolated progressive apraxia of speech, to increase speech rate and the interaction between articulatory accuracy and speech rate. The secondary aim was to investigate the effect of syllable frequency and structure on this interaction. Four speakers with PPAOS, and four sex- and age-matched healthy speakers (HS) read eight two-syllable words embedded two times in a ten-syllable carrier phrase. Syllable frequency and structure were manipulated for the first syllable of the target words and controlled for the second syllable. All sentences were produced at three different target speech rates (conditions): habitual, regular (five syllables/second), and fast (seven syllables/second). Prosodic measures for target words and sentences were computed based on acoustic analysis of speech rate. Articulatory measures for words and sentences were rated based on a perceptual assessment of articulatory accuracy. Results show slower speech rate and reduced articulatory accuracy in speakers with PPAOS compared to HS. Results suggest that speakers with PPAOS also have limited ability to increase their speech rate. Finally, results suggest that articulatory complexity influences speech rate but that the cost of speech rate increase on articulatory accuracy varies greatly across speakers with PPAOS and is not necessarily related to the extent of the increase when measured in a highly structured sentence production task. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Inhibitory effect of positional syllable frequency in Spanish 2nd and 4th grade readers

AbstractThe inhibitory effect of positional syllable frequency is a well-known phenomenon in visual word recognition: words with high-frequency syllables require extra time for deactivating the lexical syllabic neighbors. The inhibitory effect implies that a connection exists between graphemes, phonemes, the first syllable, and the phonological lexicon. However, experimental results of the first developmental stages of occurrence are scarce and inconclusive. A second- and fourth-grade sample of typical school readers participated in a lexical decision task containing high/low frequency words and high/low syllable frequency words. Our primary hypothesis was that the inhibitory effect would be found on both school grade groups. We did not predict significant differences in magnitude of effect between second- and fourth-grade participants. A general inhibitory effect was found, and separate analyses by school grade groups also indicated significant inhibitory effects. Furthermore, second- and fourth-grade children showed small sizes of the inhibitory effect, resembling the sizes found in adult normal readers. Our results suggest that Spanish readers reach a functional connection between syllables and words at an early stage. The straightforward theoretical implication is that the inhibitory effect relies heavily on the structural properties of the lexical access system that are acquired at an early age.

The Review of Syllable Frequency Effect in Korean Visual Word Recognition

The Review of Syllable Frequency Effect in Korean Visual Word Recognition

Syllable frequency effects in immediate but not delayed syllable naming in English

ABSTRACTSyllable frequency effects in production tasks are interpreted as evidence that speakers retrieve precompiled articulatory programs for high frequency syllables from a mental syllabary. They have not been found reliably in English, nor isolated to the phonetic encoding processes during which the syllabary is thought to be accessed. In this experiment, 48 participants produced matched high- and novel/low-frequency syllables in a near-replication of Laganaro and Alario’s [(2006) On the locus of the syllable frequency effect in speech production. Journal of Memory and Language, 55(2), 198–196, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2006.05.001] production conditions: immediate naming, naming following an unfilled delay, and naming after delay filled by concurrent articulation. Immediate naming was faster for high frequency syllables, demonstrating a robust syllable frequency effect in English. There was no high frequency advantage in either delayed naming condition, leaving open the question of whether syllable frequency effects arise during phonological or phonetic encoding.

The Reason for the Absence of the Syllable Frequency Effect in Korean: Behavioral and ERP Evidences from Morphological Syllable

The Reason for the Absence of the Syllable Frequency Effect in Korean: Behavioral and ERP Evidences from Morphological Syllable

The temporal courses of word frequency effect and syllable frequency effect of Chinese handwritten production in the old: An ERP study

The temporal courses of word frequency effect and syllable frequency effect of Chinese handwritten production in the old: An ERP study

Syllable Frequency and Spoken Word Recognition: An Inhibitory Effect.

Research has shown that syllables play a relevant role in lexical access in Spanish, a shallow language with a transparent syllabic structure. Syllable frequency has been shown to have an inhibitory effect on visual word recognition in Spanish. However, no study has examined the syllable frequency effect on spoken word recognition. The present study tested the effect of the frequency of the first syllable on recognition of spoken Spanish words. A sample of 45 young adults (33 women, 12 men; M = 20.4, SD = 2.8; college students) performed an auditory lexical decision on 128 Spanish disyllabic words and 128 disyllabic nonwords. Words were selected so that lexical and first syllable frequency were manipulated in a within-subject 2 × 2 design, and six additional independent variables were controlled: token positional frequency of the second syllable, number of phonemes, position of lexical stress, number of phonological neighbors, number of phonological neighbors that have higher frequencies than the word, and acoustical durations measured in milliseconds. Decision latencies and error rates were submitted to linear mixed models analysis. Results showed a typical facilitatory effect of the lexical frequency and, importantly, an inhibitory effect of the first syllable frequency on reaction times and error rates.

Neural sensitivity to syllable frequency and mutual information in speech perception and production

Many factors affect our ability to decode the speech signal, including its quality, the complexity of the elements that compose it, as well as their frequency of occurrence and co-occurrence in a language. Syllable frequency effects have been described in the behavioral literature, including facilitatory effects during speech production and inhibitory effects during word recognition, but the neural mechanisms underlying these effects remain largely unknown. The objective of this study was to examine, using functional neuroimaging, the neurobiological correlates of three different distributional statistics in simple 2-syllable nonwords: the frequency of the first and second syllables, and the mutual information between the syllables. We examined these statistics during nonword perception and production using a powerful single-trial analytical approach. We found that repetition accuracy was higher for nonwords in which the frequency of the first syllable was high. In addition, brain responses to distributional statistics were widespread and almost exclusively cortical. Importantly, brain activity was modulated in a distinct manner for each statistic, with the strongest facilitatory effects associated with the frequency of the first syllable and mutual information. These findings show that distributional statistics modulate nonword perception and production. We discuss the common and unique impact of each distributional statistic on brain activity, as well as task differences.

Phoneme and syllable frequency effects in the errors of aphasic patients: Syllables are structures not 'chunks'

Phoneme and syllable frequency effects in the errors of aphasic patients: Syllables are structures not 'chunks'

Short-term and long-term effects on visual word recognition.

Effects of lexical and sublexical variables on visual word recognition are often treated as homogeneous across participants and stable over time. In this study, we examine the modulation of frequency, length, syllable and bigram frequency, orthographic neighborhood, and graphophonemic consistency effects by (a) individual differences, and (b) item repetition. A group of 129 participants performed lexical decision and naming, in counterbalanced order, using a set of 150 Greek words in which these variables were decorrelated. Frequency, length, and syllable frequency effects were reduced by a preceding task. Length effects were inversely related to years of education. Neighborhood effects depended on the metric used. There were no significant effects or interactions of bigram frequency or consistency. The results suggest that exposure to a word causes transient effects that may cumulatively develop into permanent individual differences. Models of word recognition must incorporate item-specific learning to account for these findings.

시각 단어 재인시 나타나는 음절 빈도효과의 원인 규명 : 사건관련 뇌전위 연구

시각 단어 재인시 나타나는 음절 빈도효과의 원인 규명 : 사건관련 뇌전위 연구

The Role of Syllable Representation in Korean Script

Abstractto understand the syllable representation in Korean script ‘Hangul’, modeling study was conducted. Two types of models were constructed by the existence of syllable representation. These models were trained and tested through the same stimulus list. As the result, whereas the model, which did not have the syllable layer, can only simulate the word frequency effect, the model, which had the syllable layer, can simulate the both of word frequency and syllable frequency effects. This result proposed the syllable representation contributed the stabilization of representation.