Past Tense Task Research Articles

Age and Proficiency in the Bilingual Brain Revisited: Activation Patterns Across Different L2-Learner Types

Second language (L2) proficiency and age of acquisition (AoA) are important when examining L2 neural representation. However, they are potential confounds of each other and their relative importance remains unclear. How L2 was learnt (informally vs. formally at school) is another complication that potentially contributes further to this lack of clarity. Careful control of these variables is crucial for teasing apart their effects, yet almost all previous neuroimaging studies have studied one or the other in isolation. 35 participants of varying proficiency and AoA were scanned using fMRI while performing an English (L2) past tense task; all were formal L2 learners. Early high proficiency bilinguals (EAHP) were contrasted with late high proficiency (LAHP) in three conditions: (i) regular inflection; (ii) irregular inflection and (iii) regularity x AoA. In line with previous findings, LAHP (vs. EAHP) bilinguals showed more extensive activation across multiple regions for both regular and irregular inflection. The left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG; BA47) was one region that showed significant activation in condition (iii). EAHPs engaged this region selectively for regular but not irregular inflection while LAHPs activated it during both types of inflection. Late high and late low proficiency (LALP) bilinguals were also contrasted in three conditions: (i) regular inflection; (ii) irregular inflection and (iii) regularity x proficiency. In all regions showing significant differences, LAHPs showed greater activation relative to LALPs (regular and irregular conditions). In the regularity x proficiency condition the left IFG was also a significantly activated region. Previous studies suggest this region is positively associated with high proficiency but this has not always been replicated. LAHPs showed increased activation in BA45 but not BA44, suggesting L2 is a controlled rather than automatic process in this group despite being highly proficient. Our study suggests AoA and proficiency both influence bilingual brain activation independently, an important replication given only two other neuroimaging studies have experimentally manipulated both variables within the same study. We also provide evidence for how different AoA influences left IFG engagement during L2 processing, and for the hypothesis that BA45 is associated with high proficiency when degree of automaticity is lower.

Performance of preschool children with normal language development in past tense task

The acquisition of tense inflection is a gradual process, and the children appear unaware of the significance of inflectional endings, without recognizing that there is a general rule for deriving one form from another. To investigate the ability of past tense in children with normal language development (NLD). The subjects were 30 children with NLD, aged between 4 and 6 years. To evaluate the use of past tense, we developed a test composed of 30 regular and irregular verbs. The analysis of the answers considered the correct ones, the replacement, overregularization and errors. The 4 years old children with NLD had worse performance than the children of 5 and 6 years in correct answers and total score. There was no difference between the numbers of replacement based on age. By the age of 4, we observed more tense inflection errors. The overregularization errors did not differ between age groups. By the age of 4, children had more regular than irregular verbs correct answers. The 4 years old children with NLD had worse performance than 5 and 6 years old children, because they are still improving the use of verbs in their productions. At this age, we observed tense inflection errors. The 5 and 6 years old children already master the skill of past tense and do not differenciate.

The PTT-20: UK normative data for 5- to 11-year-olds on a 20-item past-tense task

Grammatical morphology, particularly the use of the past tense in English, has been identified as a behavioural marker for specific language impairment. However, there is a dearth of instruments that assess key verb features, are short and easy to administer for clinical use, and have normative data for the UK population. The present study aimed to develop a short version of a past-tense task (named the PTT-20) and to provide UK normative data for a large control sample of primary school-age children. The task consisted of 20 items taken from a well-known 52-item task developed by Marchman, Wulfeck, and Ellis Weismer in 1999, retaining the key features and variety of verbs of the original design. It was administered to 424 typically developing children aged 5;0 to 11;6 years. The short version reduced administration time by two-thirds to around 5-8 minutes. Normative data revealed developmental progression in performance throughout the primary school years, with the task exhibiting ceiling effects in 29% of children by age 11 years. Expected and impaired performance indicators are presented by age band, that is, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 years. Comparisons between identified children with specific language impairment and typically developing children revealed significant differences in performance. The PTT-20 correlated highly with the full 52-item task and had good internal consistency. The PTT-20 can be a useful tool in the identification and assessment of young school-age children with suspected language difficulties. It can also be used in research and practice as a benchmark against which to compare the ability of children with identified language impairments.

Autism, primary pragmatic difficulties, and specific language impairment: can we distinguish them using psycholinguistic markers?

Three groups of children with communication disorders were examined using a series of psycholinguistic markers to explore whether the tasks could identify children with impairments other than specific language impairment (SLI), and to examine whether the different groups within this clinical population could be distinguished reliably from one another. The groups comprised children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD; n = 13, all males; mean age 10 years 10 months, range 10 years 2 months to 12 years 6 months); children with primary pragmatic language impairment (PLI) but who did not have definite ASD diagnoses (n = 25, 22 males, three females; mean age 11 years 3 months, range 10 years 2 months to 12 years 5 months); and children with specific language impairment (SLI) without marked pragmatic language difficulties (n = 29, 25 males, 4 females; mean age 10 years 10 months, range 10 years 2 months to 11 years 9 months). Clinical markers examined were: the Children's Non-Word Repetition (CNRep), the Past Tense Task (PTT), and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Recalling Sentences. First, it was found that the a priori groupings were not sufficiently defined and that four groups were actually present. The PLI group was in fact two separate samples: those with PLI pure and those with some autistic-like behaviours (referred to here as PLI plus, following Bishop 1998). Second, group comparisons indicated that CNRep was significantly lower for children with SLI than all other groups (although this measure was not such a good discriminator using a specificity analysis). Third, the markers were able to discriminate between all types of communication impairment in normal control participants (n = 100; 51 females, 49 males; mean age 11 years, range 10 years 5 months to 11 years 6 months) with sensitivity levels of at least 75% and specificity of 80%. Recalling Sentences was the most efficient marker for all groups. Finally, analysis showed that children with PLI plus could be accurately distinguished from all others, scoring most favourably overall on communication markers and on performance IQ scores.

Autism, primary pragmatic difficulties, and specific language impairment: can we distinguish them using psycholinguistic markers?

Three groups of children with communication disorders were examined using a series of psycholinguistic markers to explore whether the tasks could identify children with impairments other than specific language impairment (SLI), and to examine whether the different groups within this clinical population could be distinguished reliably from one another. The groups comprised children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD; n=13, all males; mean age 10 years 10 months, range 10 years 2 months to 12 years 6 months); children with primary pragmatic language impairment (PLI) but who did not have definite ASD diagnoses (n=25, 22 males, three females; mean age 11 years 3 months, range 10 years 2 months to 12 years 5 months); and children with specific language impairment (SLI) without marked pragmatic language difficulties (n=29, 25 males, 4 females; mean age 10 years 10 months, range 10 years 2 months to 11 years 9 months). Clinical markers examined were: the Children's Non‐Word Repetition (CNRep), the Past Tense Task (PTT), and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Recalling Sentences. First, it was found that the a priori groupings were not sufficiently defined and that four groups were actually present. The PLI group was in fact two separate samples: those with PLI pure and those with some autistic‐like behaviours (referred to here as PLI plus, following Bishop 1998). Second, group comparisons indicated that CNRep was significantly lower for children with SLI than all other groups (although this measure was not such a good discriminator using a specificity analysis). Third, the markers were able to discriminate between all types of communication impairment in normal control participants (n=100; 51 females, 49 males; mean age 11 years, range 10 years 5 months to 11 years 6 months) with sensitivity levels of at least 75% and specificity of 80%. Recalling Sentences was the most efficient marker for all groups. Finally, analysis showed that children with PLI plus could be accurately distinguished from all others, scoring most favourably overall on communication markers and on performance IQ scores.

Issues in modeling language processing analogically

Exemplar-based models of language assert that linguistic processing involves analogy to past linguistic experiences stored in the mental lexicon. This study explores how three factors influence the predictions made by exemplar-based simulations of linguistic phenomena. Three questions are posed as they relate to such simulations: (1) Is type frequency or token frequency a better predictor of outcomes? (2) What is the optimal way of aligning the variables in the database so that the most relevant analogs are found? (3) Are there significant differences between representing variables as phonemes versus representing them in terms of distinctive features? Spanish stress assignment and English past tense formation served as the linguistic phenomena on which these issues were tested. The results suggest that type frequency is a better predictor of outcomes, although simulations using token frequency were most successful when only middle frequency words were included. Several methods for aligning variables in the analogical database are discussed. The dual-alignment method has advantages for the English past tense task, but not in predicting Spanish stress. In the Spanish task, strict phonemic representation of words demonstrated no advantage over feature representation. However, phonemic representation produced better results than distinctive features in predicting the English past tense.

Gamma-band desynchronization in language areas reflects syntactic process of words

The aim of this study was to verify the relation between gamma-band activity and process of function words. We recorded the neuromagnetic signals in six healthy volunteers during silent reading of verbs (verb task) and forming of the past tenses (past-tense task) and investigated the spatio-temporal distribution of event-related desynchronization (ERD) and synchronization using synthetic aperture magnetometry. In both tasks, ERDs were observed simultaneously at multiple language-related areas. The left junctional area of inferior frontal sulcus and precentral sulcus and the left supramarginal gyrus showed stronger and/or longer-lasting ERDs in past-tense task than in verb task. This result suggests that the gamma-activities reflect the syntactic process of words.