Lexical Recognition Research Articles

Implementation and preliminary evaluation of ‘C-tone’: A novel algorithm to improve lexical tone recognition in Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant users

Objectives: Because of limited spectral resolution, Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant (CI) users have difficulty perceiving fundamental frequency (F0) cues that are important to lexical tone recognition. To improve Mandarin tone recognition in CI users, we implemented and evaluated a novel real-time algorithm (C-tone) to enhance the amplitude contour, which is strongly correlated with the F0 contour.Methods: The C-tone algorithm was implemented in clinical processors and evaluated in eight users of the Nurotron NSP-60 CI system. Subjects were given 2 weeks of experience with C-tone. Recognition of Chinese tones, monosyllables, and disyllables in quiet was measured with and without the C-tone algorithm. Subjective quality ratings were also obtained for C-tone.Results: After 2 weeks of experience with C-tone, there were small but significant improvements in recognition of lexical tones, monosyllables, and disyllables (P < 0.05 in all cases). Among lexical tones, the largest improvements were observed for Tone 3 (falling–rising) and the smallest for Tone 4 (falling). Improvements with C-tone were greater for disyllables than for monosyllables. Subjective quality ratings showed no strong preference for or against C-tone, except for perception of own voice, where C-tone was preferred.Discussion: The real-time C-tone algorithm provided small but significant improvements for speech performance in quiet with no change in sound quality. Pre-processing algorithms to reduce noise and better real-time F0 extraction would improve the benefits of C-tone in complex listening environments.Conclusions: Chinese CI users’ speech recognition in quiet can be significantly improved by modifying the amplitude contour to better resemble the F0 contour.

Do Listening and Oral Reading of Visually Presented English Words Affect Implicit Lexical Recognition Memory? : An Empirical Study With Japanese Learners of English

Do Listening and Oral Reading of Visually Presented English Words Affect Implicit Lexical Recognition Memory? : An Empirical Study With Japanese Learners of English

Lexical representation and processing of word-initial morphological alternations: Scottish Gaelic mutation

When hearing speech, listeners begin recognizing words before reaching the end of the word. Therefore, early sounds impact spoken word recognition before sounds later in the word. In languages like English, most morphophonological alternations affect the ends of words, but in some languages, morphophonology can alter the early sounds of a word. Scottish Gaelic, an endangered language, has a pattern of ‘initial consonant mutation’ that changes initial consonants: Pog ‘kiss’ begins with [ph], but phog ‘kissed’ begins with [f]. This raises questions both of how listeners process words that might begin with a mutated consonant during spoken word recognition, and how listeners relate the mutated and unmutated forms to each other in the lexicon. We present three experiments to investigate these questions. A priming experiment shows that native speakers link the mutated and unmutated forms in the lexicon. A gating experiment shows that Gaelic listeners usually do not consider mutated forms as candidates during lexical recognition until there is enough evidence to force that interpretation. However, a phonetic identification experiment confirms that listeners can identify the mutated sounds correctly. Together, these experiments contribute to our understanding of how speakers represent and process a language with morphophonological alternations at word onset.

The Role of Diacritics in Designing Lexical Recognition Tests for Arabic

Lexical recognition tests are widely used to assess vocabulary knowledge. We investigate the role that diacritics play in designing an Arabic lexical recognition test. We compare a non-diacritized and a diacritized test in a user study and find that they are largely comparable in their ability to assess vocabulary proficiency. However, we argue that diacritized tests are better suited to control the test difficulty by allowing better nonwords and a more targeted selection of word forms.

Contextual factors in lexical processing: the case of French Liaison

ABSTRACTLower-level and higher-level processes during lexical recognition were investigated using ambiguous pseudo-noun cases related to liaisons in French. In phrases such as un onche and un nonche, the misalignment in the former liaison case produces an identical surface form as in the latter consonant-initial case, both [œ̃.nɔ̃ʃ], and two possible interpretations (onche, nonche) enter into competition. Quebec-French-speaking adults performed an implicit segmentation task testing the use of different factors. Results showed a dominant effect of syntactic category, with a general bias for vowel-initial interpretation when targets followed a determiner. The use of specific liaison acoustic cues for disambiguation was found for /z/ and /n/ only in adjective context. Liaison frequency and onset probability had no clear influence. Thus, the contextual knowledge of liaison-causing words is crucial for lexical recognition. These findings are consistent with the predictions of the hierarchy proposed by Mattys, White, and Melhorn (2005).

The role of Wernicke's area in language comprehension.

The aphasia literature frequently states that Wernicke’s area is responsible for language understanding. The aim of this study was to pinpoint the core function of Wernicke’s area. Neuroimaging and clinical data indicate that Wernicke’s area participates in phonological and lexical recognition. A mu

Variation in the strength of lexical encoding across dialects

Lexical processing is slower and less accurate for unfamiliar dialects than familiar dialects. The goal of the current study was to test the hypothesis that dialect differences in lexical processing reflect differences in lexical encoding strength across dialects. Lexical encoding (i.e., updating the cognitive lexical representation to reflect the current token) was distinguished from lexical recognition (i.e., mapping the incoming acoustic signal to the target lexical category) in a series of lexical processing tasks with Midland and Northern American English. The experiments were conducted in the Midland region with Midland and Northern listeners. The results confirmed differential processing of the two dialects: the Midland dialect was processed more quickly than the Northern dialect. The results further revealed significantly larger repetition benefits (i.e., priming) and cross-dialect lexical interference effects for lexical forms in the Midland dialect than in the Northern dialect for both listener groups, particularly when the stimulus materials were presented in noise. These results suggest that lexical information is more strongly encoded for the contextually-local Midland dialect than for the non-local Northern dialect. We interpret these effects as reflecting cognitive processing costs associated with normalization for dialect variation, which lead to weaker lexical encoding under more difficult processing conditions.

Semantic Structure in Vocabulary Knowledge Interacts With Lexical and Sentence Processing in Infancy.

Although the size of a child's vocabulary associates with language-processing skills, little is understood regarding how this relation emerges. This investigation asks whether and how the structure of vocabulary knowledge affects language processing in English-learning 24-month-old children (N=32; 18 F, 14 M). Parental vocabulary report was used to calculate semantic density in several early-acquired semantic categories. Performance on two language-processing tasks (lexical recognition and sentence processing) was compared as a function of semantic density. In both tasks, real-time comprehension was facilitated for higher density items, whereas lower density items experienced more interference. The findings indicate that language-processing skills develop heterogeneously and are influenced by the semantic network surrounding a known word.

Do Signers Understand Regional Varieties of a Sign Language? A Lexical Recognition Experiment.

The degree of mutual intelligibility of British Sign Language (BSL) regional varieties has been a subject of some debate. Recent research in which dyads of signers from contrasting regional backgrounds engaged in a conversational task showed no problems understanding one another. The present study investigated signers' knowledge of different BSL regional varieties. Twenty-five participants from Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester, and Newcastle took part in a computer-based lexical recognition task in which they had to identify the meaning of 47 color signs from various regions in the United Kingdom. The results indicate that overall signers have a poor knowledge of regional signs for colors when signs are presented in isolation and without mouthing. Furthermore, signers with deaf parents performed better in the recognition task than signers with hearing parents and varieties from London and Birmingham were easiest to recognize. This article discusses how signers cope with regional differences and considers the features that facilitate in the recognition of regional varieties in BSL.

Learning to perceive and recognize a second language: the L2LP model revised.

We present a test of a revised version of the Second Language Linguistic Perception (L2LP) model, a computational model of the acquisition of second language (L2) speech perception and recognition. The model draws on phonetic, phonological, and psycholinguistic constructs to explain a number of L2 learning scenarios. However, a recent computational implementation failed to validate a theoretical proposal for a learning scenario where the L2 has less phonemic categories than the native language (L1) along a given acoustic continuum. According to the L2LP, learners faced with this learning scenario must not only shift their old L1 phoneme boundaries but also reduce the number of categories employed in perception. Our proposed revision to L2LP successfully accounts for this updating in the number of perceptual categories as a process driven by the meaning of lexical items, rather than by the learners' awareness of the number and type of phonemes that are relevant in their new language, as the previous version of L2LP assumed. Results of our simulations show that meaning-driven learning correctly predicts the developmental path of L2 phoneme perception seen in empirical studies. Additionally, and to contribute to a long-standing debate in psycholinguistics, we test two versions of the model, with the stages of phonemic perception and lexical recognition being either sequential or interactive. Both versions succeed in learning to recognize minimal pairs in the new L2, but make diverging predictions on learners' resulting phonological representations. In sum, the proposed revision to the L2LP model contributes to our understanding of L2 acquisition, with implications for speech processing in general.

Anticipation processes in L2 speech comprehension: Evidence from ERPs and lexical recognition task

The present study investigated anticipation processes in L2 speech comprehension. French–Spanish late bilinguals were presented with high-constrained Spanish sentences. ERPs were time-locked on the article preceding the critical noun, which was muted to avoid overlapping effects. Articles that mis-matched the gender of the expected nouns triggered a negativity. A subsequent lexical recognition task revealed that words expected from the context were (falsely) recognised significantly more often than unexpected words, even though all were muted. Overall, the results suggest that anticipation processes are at play during L2 speech processing, and allow creating a memory trace of a word prior to presentation.

How do you know I was about to say “book”? Anticipation processes affect speech processing and lexical recognition

Most event-related brain potential (ERP) studies that showed the role of anticipation processes during sentence processing focused on reading. However, in everyday conversation speech unfolds at higher speed; the present study examines whether comprehenders anticipate words when processing auditory sentences. In high-constrained Spanish sentences, we time-locked ERPs on the article preceding the critical noun, which was muted to avoid overlapping effects. Articles that mismatched the gender of the expected nouns triggered an early (200–280 ms) and a late negativity (450–900 ms), suggesting that anticipation processes are at play also during speech processing. A subsequent lexical recognition task revealed that (muted) “expected” words were (falsely) recognised significantly more often than (muted) “unexpected” words, and as often as “old” words that were actually presented. These results suggest that anticipation processes allow creating a memory trace of a word prior to presentation. The findings support a top-down view of spoken sentence comprehension.

Language as Intangible Cultural Heritage: Lexical Recognition in the Satirical Journal "Duje Balavac"

Language as Intangible Cultural Heritage: Lexical Recognition in the Satirical Journal "Duje Balavac"

Chinese Sign Language Lexical Recognition: Two Network Systems and Interaction Effect Among Sign Language Words

Chinese Sign Language Lexical Recognition: Two Network Systems and Interaction Effect Among Sign Language Words

Call me Alix, not Elix: vowels are more important than consonants in own-name recognition at 5 months.

Consonants and vowels differ acoustically and articulatorily, but also functionally: Consonants are more relevant for lexical processing, and vowels for prosodic/syntactic processing. These functional biases could be powerful bootstrapping mechanisms for learning language, but their developmental origin remains unclear. The relative importance of consonants and vowels at the onset of lexical acquisition was assessed in French-learning 5-month-olds by testing sensitivity to minimal phonetic changes in their own name. Infants' reactions to mispronunciations revealed sensitivity to vowel but not consonant changes. Vowels were also more salient (on duration and intensity) but less distinct (on spectrally based measures) than consonants. Lastly, vowel (but not consonant) mispronunciation detection was modulated by acoustic factors, in particular spectrally based distance. These results establish that consonant changes do not affect lexical recognition at 5 months, while vowel changes do; the consonant bias observed later in development does not emerge until after 5 months through additional language exposure.

An Improved Tendentious Algorithm of Lexical Semantic

Lexical semantic tendentious recognition calculation is the base of the sentence, and the sentence tendentious recognition is the text and the chapter structure tendentious recognition foundation. Based on HowNet lexical semantic similarity calculation, according to the current vocabulary appraisable tendentious theory, the paper put forward an improved orientation algorithm. With experiment validation, in the same pair of benchmark words, accuracy rate has lager improve to above 90%. There are some values in practical application.

Phonological Specificity of Lexical Tones in 12-month-old Chinese-speaking Infants

By about 12 months of age, infants show sensitivity to mispronunciations of familiar words when asked to identify a referent. These findings indicate that infants are able to access the phonological detail of words when engaged in lexical recognition. However, most of this work has focused on mispronunciations of consonants andvowels. Very little is known about the role that lexical tones play in constraining lexical access during the early stages of lexical development. In tonal languages(e.g., Chinese), over and above vowel and consonant variations, words are distinguished by lexical tone. Over half the world's population speak a tonal language. The current study aims to answer the question: Do Chinese infants treat tones as phonological information in their lexical representations as early as 12 months old?Using the intermodal preferential looking paradigm with the mispronunciation task, the current study examined whether Chinese infants at 12 months were sensitive to mispronunciations of lexical tones in monosyllabic, familiar words. 12 infants were in group1, 8 infants were in group2. For group 1, the familiar words were pronounced correctly in block1, while mispronounced with the falling tone in Mandarin(Tone 4) in block 2. The block order was reversed for the infants in group 2. The proportion of target look(PTL) and the difference between infants' longest look at target and distracter images(LLD) before and after naming were calculated.Systematic increment in PTL or LLD across pre- and post-naming phases indicates infants' association of the target label and object. The results showed that both groups of infants could associate the target labels and objects when the labels were correctly pronounced(PTL: group 1, t(11) = 1.78, p = 0.103; group 2, t(7) = 2.95, p= 0.021), while the associations were not found when the labels were mispronounced(PTL: group 1, t(11) = 0.79, p = 0.45; group 2, t(7) = 0.41, p = 0.70). In other words, the mispronunciation effects were found for both groups. But infants' sensitivity to tonal mispronunciations was not influenced by their receptive vocabulary size.In conclusion, the results indicate that sufficient phonological information of tones is encoded by12-month-old Chinese infants.

Ambiguity related to French liaisons: The role of bottom-up and top-down processes

French liaison is a phonological process involving the surfacing of an underlying floating consonant as the onset of a vowel-initial word when the word is preceded by a liaison-causing word. We used vowel- and consonant-initial ambiguous targets following four liaison-related contexts /z/, /n/, /t/, /r/ (e.g., ces onches - ces zonches). Targets included nouns and pseudo-nouns. Quebec-French-speaking adults performed two tasks (production, discrimination). One bottom-up (acoustic cues) and three top-down (noun token frequency, word onset probability, contextual liaison knowledge) factors were investigated in the production task. Participants had to produce the last word upon hearing each phrase. Their productions thus reflected their interpretation of the onset of the liaison-ambiguous words. Perception of acoustic cues was also tested in the discrimination task: participants judged if two phrases were different or same. No perception of any acoustical distinction was revealed in the tasks: participants often produced the intended target incorrectly, and differently intended phrasal pairs were judged same (e.g., ces onches - ces zonches). Effects of top-down information were found in the production task. Among the top-down factors, liaison knowledge related to liaison-causing words had a dominant impact on participants’ interpretation of the ambiguous phrases, showing the importance of contextual knowledge in lexical recognition.

The Effect of Semantic Classifier on Lexical Recognition and Semantic Extraction of Chinese Sign Language

The Effect of Semantic Classifier on Lexical Recognition and Semantic Extraction of Chinese Sign Language

Action Video Games Make Dyslexic Children Read Better

Learning to read is extremely difficult for about 10% of children; they are affected by a neurodevelopmental disorder called dyslexia [1, 2]. The neurocognitive causes of dyslexia are still hotly debated [3-12]. Dyslexia remediation is far from being fully achieved [13], and the current treatments demand high levels of resources [1]. Here, we demonstrate that only 12 hr of playing action video games-not involving any direct phonological or orthographic training-drastically improve the reading abilities of children with dyslexia. We tested reading, phonological, and attentional skills in two matched groups of children with dyslexia before and after they played action or nonaction video games for nine sessions of 80 min per day. We found that only playing action video games improved children's reading speed, without any cost in accuracy, more so than 1 year of spontaneous reading development and more than or equal to highly demanding traditional reading treatments. Attentional skills also improved during action video game training. It has been demonstrated that action video games efficiently improve attention abilities [14, 15]; our results showed that this attention improvement can directly translate into better reading abilities, providing a new, fast, fun remediation of dyslexia that has theoretical relevance in unveiling the causal role of attention in reading acquisition.