Phonological Sequences Research Articles

Paced reading in semantic dementia: Word knowledge contributes to phoneme binding in rapid speech production

Patients with semantic dementia (SD) show deficits in phoneme binding in immediate serial recall: when attempting to reproduce a sequence of words that they no longer fully understand, they show frequent migrations of phonemes between items (e.g., cap, frog recalled as “frap, cog”). This suggests that verbal short-term memory emerges directly from interactions between semantic and phonological systems, allowing semantic knowledge to make a critical contribution to the stability of phonological sequences. According to this standpoint, SD patients should show phoneme binding deficits in additional language tasks beyond standard assessments of verbal short-term memory: for example, these errors should emerge in paced reading, which also requires the rapid production of semantically degraded words in order. To test this hypothesis, we examined a cyclical paced reading task in three SD patients for the first time. Every patient showed deficits in phoneme binding: they were more vulnerable than a set of age-matched controls to phoneme competition effects following the repetition of a small set of words across several cycles. They also showed substantially elevated numbers of phoneme migration, substitution and omission errors, despite being able to read the individual words almost without error. These findings confirm that the semantic contribution to phoneme binding is disrupted in SD patients across tasks. In line with the view that verbal short-term memory emerges from interactions between basic phonological and semantic components, these effects occur both within classic short-term memory paradigms, such as immediate serial recall, and tasks without explicit memory demands, such as paced reading.

Linearization and its discontents

Much recent work on coordination in the HPSG framework seeks to deal with some of the most intractable issues this phenomenon poses for a constraint-based phrase structure architecture by appealing to the linearization mechanism introduced in Reape 1993. The research in question utilizes the mismatch between linear phonological sequences on the one hand and phrasal configuration on the other to underwrite a particular interpretation of ellipsis in which multiple structural objects with identical or near-identical descriptions are mapped to a single dom-object token. This mapping apparently allows a variety of problematic cases, such as right node raising, dependent cluster coordination, and unlike category coordination to be reinterpreted as instances of ordinary coordination in which structurally present elements receive no prosodic expression, creating the impression that strings which do not correspond to constituents of the same category have nonetheless been conjoined or disjoined. I argue in this paper that such linearization-based ellipsis (LBE) analyses, though plausible when confined to a narrow class of simplest-case data, prove untenable in the face of data sets in which the LBE approach must account for the interaction of nonconstituent coordination and quantification or symmetric predication, symmetrical modification of nominal heads, and a large and varied class of unlike category coordinations that do not admit of any ellipsis-based solutions. I show in addition that various objections offered in the LBE literature to categorial grammar treatments of the problems posed by noncanonical coordinations do not take into account techical resources available to CG which permit straightforward and unproblematic solutions to these problems. One must conclude that despite the general poplularity of LBE accounts of conjunction, there is at the moment no satisfactory HPSG treatment of noncanonical coordinations.

Representations for Phonotactic Learning in Infancy

Infants rapidly learn novel phonotactic constraints from brief listening experience. Four experiments explored the nature of the representations underlying this learning. 16.5- and 10.5-month-old infants heard training syllables in which particular consonants were restricted to particular syllable positions (first-order constraints) or to syllable positions depending on the identity of the adjacent vowel (second-order constraints). Later, in a headturn listening-preference task, infants were presented with new syllables that either followed the experimental constraints or violated them. Infants at both ages learned first- and second-order constraints on consonant position (Experiments 1 and 2) but found second-order constraints more difficult to learn (Experiment 2). Infants also spontaneously generalized first-order constraints to syllables containing a new, transfer vowel; they did so whether the transfer vowel was similar to the familiarization vowels (Experiment 3), or dissimilar from them (Experiment 4). These findings suggest that infants recruit representations of individuated segments during phonological learning. Furthermore, like adults, they represent phonological sequences in a flexible manner that allows them to detect patterns at multiple levels of phonological analysis.

Explaining sonority projection effects

AbstractThe termsonority projectionrefers to behavioural distinctions speakers make between unattested phonological sequences on the basis of sonority. For example, among onset clusters, the well-formedness relation [bn]>[lb] is observed in speech perception, speech production and non-word acceptability (Davidson 2006, 2007, Berentet al.2007, Albright, ms). We begin by replicating the sonority projection effects in a non-word acceptability study. Then we evaluate the extent to which sonority projection is predicted by existing computational models of phonotactics (Coleman & Pierrehumbert 1997, Hayes & Wilson 2008,inter alia). We show that a model based only on lexical statistics can explain sonority projection in English without a pre-existing sonority sequencing principle. To do this, a model must possess (i) a featural system supporting sonority-based generalisations, and (ii) a context representation including syllabification or equivalent information.

Phonological learning in semantic dementia

Patients with semantic dementia (SD) have anterior temporal lobe (ATL) atrophy that gives rise to a highly selective deterioration of semantic knowledge. Despite pronounced anomia and poor comprehension of words and pictures, SD patients have well-formed, fluent speech and normal digit span. Given the intimate connection between phonological STM and word learning revealed by both neuropsychological and developmental studies, SD patients might be expected to show good acquisition of new phonological forms, even though their ability to map these onto meanings is impaired. In contradiction of these predictions, a limited amount of previous research has found poor learning of new phonological forms in SD. In a series of experiments, we examined whether SD patient, GE, could learn novel phonological sequences and, if so, under which circumstances. GE showed normal benefits of phonological knowledge in STM (i.e., normal phonotactic frequency and phonological similarity effects) but reduced support from semantic memory (i.e., poor immediate serial recall for semantically degraded words, characterised by frequent item errors). Next, we demonstrated normal learning of serial order information for repeated lists of single-digit number words using the Hebb paradigm: these items were well-understood allowing them to be repeated without frequent item errors. In contrast, patient GE showed little learning of nonsense syllable sequences using the same Hebb paradigm. Detailed analysis revealed that both GE and the controls showed a tendency to learn their own errors as opposed to the target items. Finally, we showed normal learning of phonological sequences for GE when he was prevented from repeating his errors. These findings confirm that the ATL atrophy in SD disrupts phonological processing for semantically degraded words but leaves the phonological architecture intact. Consequently, when item errors are minimised, phonological STM can support the acquisition of new phoneme sequences in patients with SD.

Are multiplication facts stored only in the phonological format?

Event Abstract Back to Event Are multiplication facts stored only in the phonological format? Marta Sobanska1* 1 University of Finance and Management, Poland According to the triple-code model (Dehaene&Cohen, 1995), multiplication problems and its results are stored in the long term memory as the phonological sequences of words, eg. "three times four, twelve". The aim of the present studies is to verify the phonological storage hypothesis, which postulates that the phonological representation of numbers is the only kind of arithmetical facts of representation. Study 1: A case study of a patient MF, a 76-year-old chemistry teacher after a left hemisphere infarction. MF suffered from a mixed aphasia with moderate speaking and mild comprehension impairments. Eighty one problems (from 1x1 to 9x9) were presented to MF on two sheets of paper. Her task consisted on reading them aloud and giving the result in two ways: written and orally. Although she made 35 reading errors (43%), she gave the correct answers to 77 of 81 problems (95%) in the written modality, and to 70 of 81 problems (86%) in the spoken one. Study 2: A total of 12 healthy right-handed people (6 men, average age = 52) were tested. Each subject performed 81 multiplication problems (from 1x1 to 9x9), and 36 subtraction problems (from 2-1 to 9-8) four times, in blocks which differed in format of stimuli presentation and response (Arabic digits or spoken number words). The influence of the presentation/response format on the reaction time of multiplication and "small" multiplication (problems which resulted were not larger than 25) was different: in the case of "small" multiplication, the response latencies were similar to those of subtraction. The findings are discussed in the context of the triple-code model and other theories concerning the representations underlying arithmetic problem solving. Keywords: Neural Bases, Problem Solving Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neural Bases of Arithmetics and Numerosity Citation: Sobanska M (2011). Are multiplication facts stored only in the phonological format?. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00103 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 16 Nov 2011; Published Online: 25 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Marta Sobanska, University of Finance and Management, Warsaw, Poland, marta_sobanska@yahoo.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Marta Sobanska Google Marta Sobanska Google Scholar Marta Sobanska PubMed Marta Sobanska Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Representação fonológica em crianças com Distúrbio Específico de Linguagem (DEL)

children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have difficulties with speech processing. These difficulties affect the development of phonologic representations. to evaluate the abilities of children with normal language development (NLD) and those with SLI in distinguishing words from non-words in a lexical decision task. two groups were involved in this study: the Control Group (GC), with no language disorders, composed by 36 subjects, and the Research Group (RG), with 18 subjects, all diagnosed with SLI, aging form 4 to 8:9 years. Children from both groups were arranged in three subgroups, according to the receptive vocabulary. Forty eight three syllable words were selected, being 24 real words and 24 that were manipulated in order to obtain non-words. Three variables were considered: (a) modification extension, (b) modification positioning and (c) modification type. Children had to decide whether a phonological sequence consisted of a word or a non-word. even though children were matched by lexical age, there were differences between GC and RG. The RG presented more difficulty in lexical decision, not only for words but also for non-words. Both groups, with lexical age of 4 years, struggled more in this task when compared with groups with lexical age of 5 and 6 years. children with SLI presented deficit in phonological representation when compared with children with NLD. This difference in performance can be explained by differences in the formation and retention of working memory representations, auditory discrimination and motor planning and execution.

Bilingual performance on nonword repetition in Spanish and English

Nonword repetition (NWR) involves the ability to perceive, store, recall and reproduce phonological sequences. These same abilities play a role in word and morpheme learning. Cross-linguistic studies of performance on NWR tasks, word learning, and morpheme learning yield patterns of increased performance on all three tasks as a function of age and language experience. These results are consistent with the idea that there may be universal information-processing mechanisms supporting language learning. Because bilingual children's language experience is divided across two languages, studying performance in two languages on NWR could inform one's understanding of the relationship between information processing and language learning. The primary aims of this study were to compare bilingual language learners' recall of Spanish-like and English-like items on NWR tasks and to assess the relationships between performance on NWR, semantics, and morphology tasks. Sixty-two Hispanic children exposed to English and Spanish were recruited from schools in central Texas, USA. Their parents reported on the children's input and output in both languages. The children completed NWR tasks and short tests of semantics and morphosyntax in both languages. Mixed-model analysis of variance was used to explore direct effects and interactions between the variables of nonword length, language experience, language outcome measures, and cumulative exposure on NWR performance. Children produced the Spanish-like nonwords more accurately than the English-like nonwords. NWR performance was significantly correlated to cumulative language experience in both English and Spanish. There were also significant correlations between NWR and morphosyntax but not semantics. Language knowledge appears to play a role in the task of NWR. The relationship between performance on morphosyntax and NWR tasks indicates children rely on similar language-learning mechanisms to mediate these tasks. More exposure to Spanish may increase abilities to repeat longer nonwords. This knowledge may shift across levels of bilingualism. Further research is needed to understand this relationship, as it is likely to have implications for language teaching or intervention for children with language impairments.

Brain activation and lexical learning: The impact of learning phase and word type

This study investigated the neural correlates of second-language lexical acquisition in terms of learning phase and word type. Ten French-speaking participants learned 80 Spanish words–40 cognates, 40 non-cognates–by means of a computer program. The learning process included the early learning phase, which comprised 5 days, and the consolidation phase, which lasted 2 weeks. After each phase, participants performed an overt naming task during an er-fMRI scan. Naming accuracy was better for cognates during the early learning phase only. However, cognates were named faster than non-cognates during both phases. The early learning phase was characterized by activations in the left iFG and Broca's area, which were associated with effortful lexical retrieval and phonological processing, respectively. Further, the activation in the left ACC and DLPFC suggested that monitoring may be involved during the early phases of lexical learning. During the consolidation phase, the activation in the left premotor cortex, the right supramarginal gyrus and the cerebellum indicated that articulatory planning may contribute to the consolidation of second-language phonetic representations. No dissociation between word type and learning phase could be supported. However, a Fisher r-to-z test showed that successful cognate retrieval was associated with activations in Broca's area, which could reflect the adaptation of known L1 phonological sequences. Moreover, successful retrieval of non-cognates was associated with activity in the anterior-medial left fusiform and right posterior cingulate cortices, suggesting that their successful retrieval may rely upon the access to semantic and lexical information, and even on the greater likelihood of errors.

Domain-specific learning of grammatical structure in musical and phonological sequences

Artificial grammar learning depends on acquisition of abstract structural representations rather than domain-specific representational constraints, or so many studies tell us. Using an artificial grammar task, we compared learning performance in two stimulus domains in which respondents have differing tacit prior knowledge. We found that despite grammatically identical sequence structures, learning was better for harmonically related chord sequences than for letter name sequences or harmonically unrelated chord sequences. We also found transfer effects within the musical and letter name tasks, but not across the domains. We conclude that knowledge acquired in implicit learning depends not only on abstract features of structured stimuli, but that the learning of regularities is in some respects domain-specific and strongly linked to particular features of the stimulus domain.

Neurocognitive basis of implicit learning of sequential structure and its relation to language processing.

The ability to learn and exploit environmental regularities is important for many aspects of skill learning, of which language may be a prime example. Much of such learning proceeds in an implicit fashion, that is, it occurs unintentionally and automatically and results in knowledge that is difficult to verbalize explicitly. An important research goal is to ascertain the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms of implicit learning abilities and understand its contribution to perception, language, and cognition more generally. In this article, we review recent work that investigates the extent to which implicit learning of sequential structure is mediated by stimulus-specific versus domain-general learning mechanisms. Although much of previous implicit learning research has emphasized its domain-general aspect, here we highlight behavioral work suggesting a modality-specific locus. Even so, our data also reveal that individual variability in implicit sequence learning skill correlates with performance on a task requiring sensitivity to the sequential context of spoken language, suggesting that implicit sequence learning to some extent is domain-general. Taking into consideration this behavioral work, in conjunction with recent imaging studies, we argue that implicit sequence learning and language processing are both complex, dynamic processes that partially share the same underlying neurocognitive mechanisms, specifically those that rely on the encoding and representation of phonological sequences.

Modeling the temporal dynamics of distinctive feature landmark detectors for speech recognition

This paper elaborates on a computational model for speech recognition that is inspired by several interrelated strands of research in phonology, acoustic phonetics, speech perception, and neuroscience. The goals are twofold: (i) to explore frameworks for recognition that may provide a viable alternative to the current hidden Markov model (HMM) based speech recognition systems and (ii) to provide a computational platform that will facilitate engaging, quantifying, and testing various theories in the scientific traditions in phonetics, psychology, and neuroscience. This motivation leads to an approach that constructs a hierarchically structured point process representation based on distinctive feature landmark detectors and probabilistically integrates the firing patterns of these detectors to decode a phonological sequence. The accuracy of a broad class recognizer based on this framework is competitive with equivalent HMM-based systems. Various avenues for future development of the presented methodology are outlined.

False recognition effect in a matching span task

The Stimulus Type Effect on Phonological and Semantic errors (STEPS) describes the phenomenon in which a person, following brain damage, produces words with phonological errors (fine → fige), but number words with semantic errors (five → eight). To track the origins of this phenomenon and find out whether it is limited to numbers, we assessed the speech production of six individuals with conduction aphasia following a damage in the left hemisphere, who made phonological errors in words. STEPS was found in all six participants, and was not limited to number words – several other word categories were also produced with semantic rather than phonological errors: function words, English letter names, and morphological affixes were substituted with other words within their category. This supports the building blocks hypothesis: when phonological sequences serve as building blocks in a productive process, they end up having pre-assembled phonological representations, ready for articulation. STEPS reflects a deficit that causes substitutions of one phonological unit with another. In the case of plain content words, this causes substitutions of one phoneme with another, but in the case of pre-assembled phonological units, this causes substitutions of number words with other number words, function words with function words, and morphological affixes with other affixes. An analysis of the participants' functional locus of deficit revealed that they all had a deficit in the phonological output buffer, and this was their only common deficit. We therefore concluded that the pre-assembled phonological units are stored in dedicated mini-stores in the phonological output buffer, which processes not only phonemes but also whole number words, function words, and morphemes. We also found that STEPS depends on the word's role: number words were produced with semantic errors only when they appeared in numeric context, and function words triggered semantic errors only in grammatical context. This suggests that the phonological representation of a word can be obtained either from the phonological output lexicon or from a store of pre-assembled representations in the phonological output buffer, depending on the word's role.

Selective perception, perceptual modes, and automaticity in first- and second-language speech processing

A common phenomenon reported by experienced, late learners of a second language (L2) is that comprehending L2 speech, especially under non-optimal conditions (e.g., in noisy rooms, when driving, when the speaker talks rapidly) is more effortful than processing L1 input. A variety of paradigms have documented this phenomenon experimentally. Many current theories of L1 and L2 speech perception invoke concepts of learned (language-specific) patterns of selective attention or attunement to characterize the processes by which native speakers rapidly and efficiently extract sufficient phonetic information from complex acoustic signals in order to recover phonological sequences (words or word-forms). It is suggested here that there are two modes of language-specific speech processing available to adult listeners, a phonetic mode (requiring attentional resources) and a phonological mode (automatic), that are tapped in the laboratory to different degrees as a function of complex interactions of subject’s linguistic experience, stimulus characteristics, and task demands. Exemplary experiments of L1 and L2 listener’s perception, using perceptual assimilation (cross-language identification) and speeded discrimination tasks, as well as electrophysiological indices of discrimination, illustrate some of these interactions, within the framework of the automatic selective perception model of speech perception. [Work supported by NIH-NIDCD and NSF.]

Contribution of Implicit Sequence Learning to Spoken Language Processing: Some Preliminary Findings With Hearing Adults

Spoken language consists of a complex, sequentially arrayed signal that contains patterns that can be described in terms of statistical relations among language units. Previous research has suggested that a domain-general ability to learn structured sequential patterns may underlie language acquisition. To test this prediction, we examined the extent to which implicit sequence learning of probabilistically structured patterns in hearing adults is correlated with a spoken sentence perception task under degraded listening conditions. Performance on the sentence perception task was found to be correlated with implicit sequence learning, but only when the sequences were composed of stimuli that were easy to encode verbally. Implicit learning of phonological sequences thus appears to underlie spoken language processing and may indicate a hitherto unexplored cognitive factor that may account for the enormous variability in language outcomes in deaf children with cochlear implants. The present findings highlight the importance of investigating individual differences in specific cognitive abilities as a way to understand and explain language in deaf learners and, in particular, variability in language outcomes following cochlear implantation.

Event-related potential markers of expectation violation in an artificial grammar learning task

To investigate the neural correlates of artificial grammar learning, we recorded the electroencephalogram while experimental participants listened to phonological sequences. We compared event-related potential responses to expectancy violations in two participant conditions; training and a no-training control group. During the test phase, participants in both types of training heard ill-formed sequences. This allowed us to explore the relationship among expectancy violations because of three aspects of a stimulus: physical characteristics, the mental representation of the vocabulary of an artificial grammar, and learned patterns of sequential regularities. Unexpected phonological elements in the test sequences elicited N2b/Pb components. Difference waveforms demonstrated that training had a significant effect on the event-related potential response to deviant items.

Naming Concepts: Evidence of Two Routes

This study examines a parallel distributed processing (PDP) model (partly based on the Wernicke-Lichtheim information processing model) that posits two routes for naming concepts, whole word and phonological. To test the two naming route hypothesis of this model, we performed confrontation naming tests that were either uncued, semantically cued, or phonologically cued in a patient with naming impairment due to Broca’s aphasia. In spoken language and in uncued naming to confrontation, word retrieval was severely impaired and marked by semantic but no phonemic paraphasic errors. With semantic cues, naming behavior was unchanged; however, with phonological cues, naming success was enhanced but frequent phonemic paraphasias were produced. These results suggest that the patient spontaneously engaged the whole word naming route, but when given phonological cues, he engaged an alternative phonological naming route that incorporated phonological sequence knowledge. We are most grateful to John Richardson for creation of the figures.

Treatability of different components of aphasia--Insights from a case study

In this phase I clinical rehabilitation study, we investigated the effects of phonological rehabilitation for alexia and aphasia in an individual 54 years after a left-hemisphere ischemic infarction. In the context of a single-subject design, we studied whether treatment would improve phonological processing, reading, and generalization to untreated behaviors. While results showed a lack of generalization to real-word reading aloud, improvement was present in phonological processing, language function (Western Aphasia Battery Aphasia Quotient, Boston Naming Test, Reading Comprehension Battery for Aphasia), and auditory processing (Revised Token Test). Improvement in the lexical-semantic system was attributed to informal forced-use language treatment. We concluded that phonological therapies are unlikely to be successful unless a minimum initial level of phonological sequence knowledge exists; therapies that pressure subjects to use verbal communication can achieve clinically important gains in communicative ability that generalize to untreated behaviors. This study also demonstrates the importance of a careful analysis of the patient's language ability before a therapeutic strategy is chosen.

Verbal short‐term memory in individuals with congenital articulatory disorders: new empirical data and review of the literature

To investigate the nature of the articulatory rehearsal mechanism of the Articulatory Loop in Baddeley's Working Memory model, it seems particularly important to study individuals who developed a deficit (dysarthria) or total abolition (anarthria) of the ability to articulate language following a cerebral lesion. In this study, a forced-choice recognition procedure for word sequences of increasing length was used to evaluate verbal short-term memory in nine individuals with severe congenital motor and verbal disabilities (seven anarthric and two severely dysarthric) and associated intellectual disability (ID) and 30 normal children of comparable mental age. The normal children exhibited classical phonological similarity effects (better performance on acoustically dissimilar than on similar word lists), word length (greater accuracy on two-syllable than on four-syllable word lists) and frequency of occurrence (an advantage of high-frequency over low-frequency words). Instead, all of these effects were lacking in the experimental group. These data suggest that persons with congenital anarthria/dysarthria and ID present defective maturation at many levels of the Articulatory Loop and reduced contribution of semantic-lexical processing in the temporary retention of phonological sequences. It is likely that in these individuals both communicative deficits and ID play a role in the impaired development of verbal short-term memory abilities.

Phonological sequence learning and short-term store capacity determine second language vocabulary acquisition

Two studies examined individual cognitive differences affecting the acquisition of second language word forms. Experiment 1 measured 40 undergraduates' ability to learn phonological sequences, their phonological short-term store capacity as indexed by ability to repeat nonwordlike nonwords, and their learning of novel foreign language vocabulary (German) in an experimental task. Phonological sequence learning predicted receptive vocabulary learning. Phonological sequence learning and phonological store capacity made independent additive contributions to productive vocabulary learning. Experiment 2 determined the interactions of phonological sequence learning ability, phonological store capacity, and second language acquisition during a longitudinal field study of 44 novice undergraduate learners of Spanish during a 10-week course. Students' initial skill in phonological sequence learning predicted their final levels of Spanish receptive language and their eventual ability to repeat Spanish-wordlike nonwords. The results suggest that phonological store capacity and phonological sequence learning ability are initially separable constraints on second language vocabulary acquisition and that sequence learning ability underpins the acquisition of long-term phonological knowledge. Subsequent apprehension and consolidation of a novel word form is a product not only of phonological short-term store capacity but also of this long-term knowledge of the phonological regularities of language.