Phonological Word Forms Research Articles

Neural Mechanisms for Monitoring and Halting of Spoken Word Production.

During conversation, speakers monitor their own and others' output so they can alter their production adaptively, including halting it if needed. We investigated the neural mechanisms of monitoring and halting in spoken word production by employing a modified stop signal task during fMRI. Healthy participants named target pictures and withheld their naming response when presented with infrequent auditory words as stop signals. We also investigated whether the speech comprehension system monitors inner (i.e., prearticulatory) speech via the output of phonological word form encoding as proposed by the perceptual loop theory [Levelt, W. J. M. Speaking: From intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989] by presenting stop signals phonologically similar to the target picture name (e.g., cabbage-CAMEL). The contrast of successful halting versus naming revealed extensive BOLD signal responses in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, preSMA, and superior temporal gyrus. Successful versus unsuccessful halting of speech was associated with increased BOLD signal bilaterally in the posterior middle temporal, frontal, and parietal lobes and decreases bilaterally in the posterior and left anterior superior temporal gyrus and right inferior frontal gyrus. These results show, for the first time, the neural mechanisms engaged during both monitoring and interrupting speech production. However, we failed to observe any differential effects of phonological similarity in either the behavioral or neural data, indicating monitoring of inner versus external speech might involve different mechanisms.

Effects of Orthographic Forms on the Acquisition of Novel Spoken Words in a Second Language

The orthographic forms of words (spellings) can affect word production in speakers of second languages. This study tested whether presenting orthographic forms during L2 word learning can lead speakers to learn non-nativelike phonological forms of L2 words, as reflected in production and metalinguistic awareness. ItalianL1 learners of English as a Second Language (EnglishL2) were exposed to EnglishL2 novel spoken words (pseudowords) and real words in association with pictures either from auditory input only (Phonology group), or from both auditory and orthographic input (Phonology & Orthography group, both groups n = 24). Pseudowords and words were designed to obtain 30 semi-minimal pairs, each consisting of a word and a pseudoword that contained the same target consonant, spelled with one letter or with double letters. In Italian double consonant letters represents a long consonant, whereas the English language does not contrast short and long consonants. After the learning phase, participants performed a production task (picture naming), a metalinguistic awareness task (rhyme judgment) and a spelling task. Results showed that the Phonology & Orthography group produced the same consonant as longer in double-letter than in single-letter lexical items, while this was not the case for the Phonology group. The former group also rejected spoken rhymes that contained the same consonant spelled with a single letter in one word and double letters in the other, because they considered these as two different phonological categories. Finally, the Phonology & Orthography group learned more novel words than the Phonology group, showing that orthographic input results in more word learning, in line with previous findings from native speakers.

Too harts, won sole: Using dysgraphia treatment to address homophone representation

ABSTRACT Previous spoken homophone treatment in aphasia found generalization to untreated homophones and interpreted this as evidence for shared phonological word form representations. Previous written treatment of non-homophones has attributed generalization to orthographic neighbours of treated items to feedback from graphemes to similarly spelled orthographic word forms. This feedback mechanism offers an alternative explanation for generalization found in treatment of spoken homophones. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism underpinning generalization (if any) from treatment of written homophones. To investigate this question a participant with acquired dysgraphia and impaired access to orthographic output representations undertook written spelling treatment. Generalization to untreated items with varying degrees of orthographic overlap was investigated. Three experimental sets included homographs (e.g., bank-bank), heterographs (e.g., sail-sale), and direct orthographic neighbours (e.g., bath-path). Treatment improved written picture naming of treated items. Generalization was limited to direct neighbours. Further investigation of generalization found that items with a greater number of close neighbours in the treated set showed greater generalization. This suggests that feedback from graphemes to orthographic word forms is the driving force of generalization. The lack of homograph generalization suggests homographs do not share a representation in the orthographic lexicon.

Similarity of referents influences the learning of phonological word forms: Evidence from concurrent word learning

Although it is well accepted that various components of words (e.g., phonological word forms, and semantics) interact with each other during processing, it is less clear whether semantics and phonology interact with each other during word learning in the sense of affecting each other’s learning. This study employed three behavioral experiments as well as computational simulations to shed light on this issue by examining whether semantic similarity, operationalized as visual referent similarity, influences the learning of phonological word forms. Experiment 1 demonstrated an effect that would typically be interpreted as an effect of similarity on phonological learning, employing the commonly used naming task. We discuss how such results are confounded by at-test competition effects that can arise directly from the explicit presentation of similar referents, or indirectly from their re-activation even without explicit presentation. Experiments 2 and 3 used a stem completion test and a recognition from mispronunciation test to control for direct effects of competition, and still found effects of similarity on performance. A neural network model of word learning simulated the behavioral results, with analysis of the model confirming a genuine effect of referent similarity on phonological learning even when controlling for both direct and indirect at-test similarity effects. Together these results provide converging evidence that phonological word form learning is affected by referent similarity, suggesting that semantics and phonology interact with each other during learning.

How Individual Differences Affect Learning of Translation‐Ambiguous Vocabulary

AbstractThis study examined interactions of word and learner characteristics during foreign vocabulary learning, focusing on translation ambiguity and individual differences in cognitive resources and linguistic background (language proficiency, multilingual experience). Fifty‐three native Hebrew speakers and Russian–Hebrew multilinguals learned the phonological form of target Arabic words along with their Hebrew translations and definitions. The mapping could be translation ambiguous, with a single Hebrew word translated into two Arabic words (one‐to‐many) or translation unambiguous (one‐to‐one mapping). Results from translation production and meaning recognition tests revealed that translation‐ambiguous words were more difficult to learn than translation‐unambiguous words. This disadvantage did not dissipate with time, and learners’ phonological short‐term memory was associated with increased translation ambiguity costs. Learners’ proficiency in the language through which learning took place (Hebrew), but not degree of multilingualism, modulated learning. Findings underscore the importance of item and learner interactions, clarifying the multilingualism effect in novel language learning.

Relations Between Reading and Speech Manifest Universal Phonological Principle

All writing systems represent speech, providing a means for recording each word of a message. This is achieved by symbolizing the phonological forms of spoken words as well as information conveying grammar and meaning. Alphabetic systems represent the segmental phonology by providing symbols for individual consonants and vowels; some also convey morphological units. Other systems represent syllables (typically CVs) or morphosyllables. In all cases, learning to read requires a learner to discover the forms of language that writing encodes, drawing on metalinguistic abilities that are not needed for the acquisition of speech. Therefore, learning to read is harder and rarer than acquiring speech. Research reveals that skilled readers of every studied orthography access phonological language forms automatically and early in word reading. Although reading processes differ according to the cognitive demands of specific orthographic forms, the differences are subservient to the universal phonologic principle that all readers access phonological language forms.

Comparing Effects of Instruction on Word Meaning and Word Form on Early Literacy Abilities in Kindergarten

ABSTRACTResearch Findings: The present study compared effects of explicit instruction on and practice with the phonological form of words (form-focused instruction) versus explicit instruction on and practice with the meaning of words (meaning-focused instruction). Instruction was given via interactive storybook reading in the kindergarten classroom of children learning Dutch. We asked whether the 2 types of instruction had different effects on vocabulary development and 2 precursors of reading ability—phonological awareness and letter knowledge—and we examined effects on these measures of the ability to learn new words with minimal acoustic-phonetic differences. Learners showed similar receptive target-word vocabulary gain after both types of instruction, but learners who received form-focused vocabulary instruction showed more gain in semantic knowledge of target vocabulary, phonological awareness, and letter knowledge than learners who received meaning-focused vocabulary instruction. Level of ability to learn pairs of words with minimal acoustic-phonetic differences predicted gain in semantic knowledge of target vocabulary and in letter knowledge in the form-focused instruction group only. Practice or Policy: A focus on the form of words during instruction appears to have benefits for young children learning vocabulary.

Plural dominance and the production of determiner-noun phrases in French.

In two experiments, we examined the functional locus of plural dominance in the French spoken word production system, where singulars and plurals share the same phonological word form. The materials included singular-dominant (singular more frequent than plural) and plural-dominant nouns (plural more frequent than singular). In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to produce determiner-noun phrases in response to singular and plural depictions of objects. In contrast to the dominance-by-number interaction that is typically observed in English, Dutch and German, the French picture-naming data revealed a main effect of number, but no effect of plural dominance. When participants were instructed to produce determiner-noun phrases in a reading aloud task (Experiment 2), where number is orthographically marked, a number-by-dominance interaction emerged. Our data suggest that plural dominance is encoded at the word form level within the context of recent theories of spoken word production.

A mare in a pub? Nonnative facilitation in phonological priming

A phonological priming experiment reports inhibition for Russian prime-target pairs with onset overlap in native speakers. When preceded by the phonological prime /kabɨla/, the target /kabak/ ( кобыла – КАБАК, mare – PUB) takes longer to respond than the same target preceded by a phonologically unrelated word. English-speaking late learners of Russian also show inhibition, but only for high-frequency prime-target pairs. Conversely, they show facilitation for low-frequency pairs. In semantic priming (e.g. carnation – DAISY), facilitation is observed for the same two lexical frequency ranges both in native speakers and learners of Russian, suggesting that the primes and targets in the low-frequency range are familiar to the nonnative participants. We interpret nonnative phonological facilitation for low-frequency words as evidence for sublexical processing of less familiar words that is accompanied by reduced lexical competition in nonnative lexical access. We posit that low lexical competition is due to unfaithful, or fuzzy phonolexical representations: nonnative speakers are unsure about the exact phonological form of low-frequency words. Such unfaithful representations are not strongly engaged in lexical competition and selection. High reliance on sublexical rather than lexical processing may be a general property of nonnative word recognition in case when the words are less familiar and have a low level of entrenchment.

Large-scale replication study reveals a limit on probabilistic prediction in language comprehension.

Do people routinely pre-activate the meaning and even the phonological form of upcoming words? The most acclaimed evidence for phonological prediction comes from a 2005 Nature Neuroscience publication by DeLong, Urbach and Kutas, who observed a graded modulation of electrical brain potentials (N400) to nouns and preceding articles by the probability that people use a word to continue the sentence fragment ('cloze'). In our direct replication study spanning 9 laboratories (N=334), pre-registered replication-analyses and exploratory Bayes factor analyses successfully replicated the noun-results but, crucially, not the article-results. Pre-registered single-trial analyses also yielded a statistically significant effect for the nouns but not the articles. Exploratory Bayesian single-trial analyses showed that the article-effect may be non-zero but is likely far smaller than originally reported and too small to observe without very large sample sizes. Our results do not support the view that readers routinely pre-activate the phonological form of predictable words.

Strength of Temporal White Matter Pathways Predicts Semantic Learning.

Learning the associations between words and meanings is a fundamental human ability. Although the language network is cortically well defined, the role of the white matter pathways supporting novel word-to-meaning mappings remains unclear. Here, by using contextual and cross-situational word learning, we tested whether learning the meaning of a new word is related to the integrity of the language-related white matter pathways in 40 adults (18 women). The arcuate, uncinate, inferior-fronto-occipital and inferior-longitudinal fasciculi were virtually dissected using manual and automatic deterministic fiber tracking. Critically, the automatic method allowed assessing the white matter microstructure along the tract. Results demonstrate that the microstructural properties of the left inferior-longitudinal fasciculus predict contextual learning, whereas the left uncinate was associated with cross-situational learning. In addition, we identified regions of special importance within these pathways: the posterior middle temporal gyrus, thought to serve as a lexical interface and specifically related to contextual learning; the anterior temporal lobe, known to be an amodal hub for semantic processing and related to cross-situational learning; and the white matter near the hippocampus, a structure fundamental for the initial stages of new-word learning and, remarkably, related to both types of word learning. No significant associations were found for the inferior-fronto-occipital fasciculus or the arcuate. While previous results suggest that learning new phonological word forms is mediated by the arcuate fasciculus, these findings show that the temporal pathways are the crucial neural substrate supporting one of the most striking human abilities: our capacity to identify correct associations between words and meanings under referential indeterminacy.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The language-processing network is cortically (i.e., gray matter) well defined. However, the role of the white matter pathways that support novel word learning within this network remains unclear. In this work, we dissected language-related (arcuate, uncinate, inferior-fronto-occipital, and inferior-longitudinal) fasciculi using manual and automatic tracking. We found the left inferior-longitudinal fasciculus to be predictive of word-learning success in two word-to-meaning tasks: contextual and cross-situational learning paradigms. The left uncinate was predictive of cross-situational word learning. No significant correlations were found for the arcuate or the inferior-fronto-occipital fasciculus. While previous results showed that learning new phonological word forms is supported by the arcuate fasciculus, these findings demonstrate that learning new word-to-meaning associations is mainly dependent on temporal white matter pathways.

What do we do with what we learn? Statistical learning of orthographic regularities impacts written word processing

Individuals rapidly become sensitive to recurrent patterns present in the environment and this occurs in many situations. However, evidence of a role for statistical learning of orthographic regularities in reading is mixed, and its role has peripheral status in current theories of visual word recognition. Additionally, exactly which regularities readers learn to be sensitive to is still unclear. To address these two issues, three experiments were conducted with artificial scripts. In Experiments 1a and 1b, participants were exposed to a flow of artificial words (five characters) for a few minutes, with either two or four bigrams occurring very frequently. In Experiment 2, exposure took place over several days while participants had to learn the orthographic and phonological forms of new words entailing or not frequent bigrams. Sensitivity to these regularities was then tested in a wordlikeness task. Finally, participants performed a letter detection task, with letters being either of high frequency or not in the exposure phase. The results of the wordlikeness task showed that after only a few minutes, readers become sensitive to the positional frequency of letter clusters and to bigram frequency beyond single letter frequency. Moreover, this new knowledge influenced the performance in the letter detection task, with high-frequency letters being detected more rapidly than low-frequency ones. We discuss the implications of such results for models of orthographic encoding and reading.

How do prephonological writers link written words to their objects?

Two experiments studied prephonological writers, namely children who do not yet use letters to represent phonemes. The experiments tested the hypothesis that these children link elements of writing not to the phonological forms of spoken words but to physical characteristics of the words’ referents. In Experiment 1, prephonological spellers (n=36, mean age 4 years, 3 months) used more elements on average to write plural nouns such as cows than singular nouns such as cow. Prephonological spellers in Experiment 2 (n=42, mean age 4 years, 4 months) did not use more elements to write longer verbs such as buying than shorter ones such as buy. Thus, the results of Experiment 1 suggest that prephonological spellers are sensitive to the quantity of the referent rather than the number of phonemes, syllables, or morphemes in the word. That is, prephonological spellers have some tendency to treat writing as iconic.

The impact of word recognition from speech (WRS) proficiency level on interaction, task success and word learning: design implications for CALL to develop L2 WRS

This paper reports on task interaction, task success and word learning among second language (L2) learners of different levels of word recognition from speech (WRS) proficiency who used a CALL application previously shown to be effective in the development of L2 WRS. Participants (N = 65) were categorised into three levels of L2 WRS proficiency according to their baseline ability to accurately recognise the phonological form of words in connected speech. All participants undertook the same web-based intervention task which involved reconstructing spoken text into the written form in a number of stages. In terms of task interaction, lower WRS proficiency participants chose to listen to stimulus material more often and changed their efforts at reconstruction significantly more frequently than participants of higher WRS proficiency levels. In relation to task success, lower WRS proficiency learners were significantly less accurate overall and less immediate in their arrival at peak reconstruction accuracy than higher WRS proficiency participants. A comparison of gain scores also showed that participants of different L2 WRS proficiency experienced significantly different word learning outcomes after using the application, with moderate WRS proficiency participants significantly outperforming lower WRS proficiency level learners in relation to academic word learning. A synthesis of the results is used to recommend design features of CALL for WRS development which will more adequately cater to learners of different L2 WRS proficiency levels. The paper concludes with some avenues for future research and some implications for the integration of computer-mediated L2 WRS development as a component of L2 listening instruction.

On Comparative Study for Two Diversified Educational Methodologies Associated with “How to Teach Children Reading Arabic Language?” (Neural Networks’ Approach)

This paper considered the increasingly sophisticated role of artificial neural networks (ANNs) after its applications at the interdisciplinary discipline incorporating neuroscience, education, and cognitive sciences. Recently, those applications have resulted in some interesting findings which recognized and adopted by neurological, educational, in addition to linguistic researchers. Accordingly,ANNmodels vary in relation to the nature of assigned brain functioning to be modeled. For example, as human learning that takes place autonomously according to received stimuli that are realistically simulated through self-organization modeling. This paper adopts the conceptual approach of (ANN) models inspired by functioning of highly specialized biological neurons specified in reading brain based on the organization the brain’s structures/substructures. Additionally, in accordance with the prevailing concept of individual intrinsic characterized properties of highly specialized neurons, presented models closely correspond to performance of these neurons for developing reading brain in a significant way. More specifically, introducedANNmodels herein concerned with the importance of reading brain’s cognitive goal in fulfillment of enhanced academic achievement. That’s to translate visualized (orthographic word-from) into a spoken voiced word (phonological word-form). In this context, the presented work illustrates viaANNsimulation and practical obtained results: How ensembles of highly specialized neurons could be dynamically involved in performing the cognitive function of developing reading brain. In more details, this paper presents an interdisciplinary approach adopting a fairly realistic approach of comparative academic performance assessment of two diverse educational methodologies. More specifically, this piece of research aims to improve conventional (classical) academic performance of Teaching How to Read Arabic Language using Methodology via application of a designed Computer Based Learning module. That’s shown to be in well agreement likewise the Artificial Neural Network (ANN), associative memories theories, cognitive multimedia, and classical conditioning. More specifically, coincidence detection learning process has been adopted for evaluation of brain reading performance. Interestingly, presented comparative study originated from the children’s brain response time till reaching learning process convergence that is mapped into academic achievement (outcome mark) values. Accordingly, there response time has been adopted as an appropriate ANN’s candidate parameter for assessment of both educational methodologies. Moreover, analysis of students’ individual differences has been presented after reaching desired output (correct) answer.

Grammatical Class Effects Across Impaired Child and Adult Populations.

The aims of this study are to compare quantitative and qualitative differences for noun/verb retrieval across language-impaired groups, examine naming errors with reference to psycholinguistic models of word processing, and shed light on the nature of the naming deficit as well as determine relevant group commonalities and differences. This includes an attempt to establish whether error types differentiate language-impaired children from adults, to determine effects of psycholinguistic variables on naming accuracies, and to link the results to genetic mechanisms and/or neural circuitry in the brain. A total of 89 (language-)impaired participants took part in this report: 24 adults with acquired aphasia, 20 adults with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, 31 adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and 14 children with specific language impairment. The results of simultaneous multiple regression analyses for the errors in verb naming compared to the psycholinguistic variables for all language-impaired groups are reported and discussed in relation to models of lexical processing.This discussion will lead to considerations of genetic and/or neurobiological underpinnings: Presence of the noun–verb dissociation in focal and non-focal brain impairment make localization theories redundant, but support for wider neural network involvement.The patterns reported cannot be reduced to any one level of language processing, suggesting multiple interactions at different levels (e.g., receptive vs. expressive language abilities).Semantic-conceptual properties constrain syntactic properties with implications for phonological word form retrieval.Competition needs to be resolved at both conceptual and phonological levels of representation.Moreover, this study may provide a cross-pathological baseline that can be probed further with respect to recent suggestions concerning a reconsideration of open- vs. closed-class items, according to which verbs may actually fall into the latter rather than the standardly received former class.

Development of infants' segmentation of words from native speech: a meta-analytic approach.

Infants start learning words, the building blocks of language, at least by 6months. To do so, they must be able to extract the phonological form of words from running speech. A rich literature has investigated this process, termed word segmentation. We addressed the fundamental question of how infants of different ages segment words from their native language using a meta-analytic approach. Based on previous popular theoretical and experimental work, we expected infants to display familiarity preferences early on, with a switch to novelty preferences as infants become more proficient at processing and segmenting native speech. We also considered the possibility that this switch may occur at different points in time as a function of infants' native language and took into account the impact of various task- and stimulus-related factors that might affect difficulty. The combined results from 168 experiments reporting on data gathered from 3774 infants revealed a persistent familiarity preference across all ages. There was no significant effect of additional factors, including native language and experiment design. Further analyses revealed no sign of selective data collection or reporting. We conclude that models of infant information processing that are frequently cited in this domain may not, in fact, apply in the case of segmenting words from native speech.

Distinct effects of memory retrieval and articulatory preparation when learning and accessing new word forms.

Temporal and frontal activations have been implicated in learning of novel word forms, but their specific roles remain poorly understood. The present magnetoencephalography (MEG) study examines the roles of these areas in processing newly-established word form representations. The cortical effects related to acquiring new phonological word forms during incidental learning were localized. Participants listened to and repeated back new word form stimuli that adhered to native phonology (Finnish pseudowords) or were foreign (Korean words), with a subset of the stimuli recurring four times. Subsequently, a modified 1-back task and a recognition task addressed whether the activations modulated by learning were related to planning for overt articulation, while parametrically added noise probed reliance on developing memory representations during effortful perception. Learning resulted in decreased left superior temporal and increased bilateral frontal premotor activation for familiar compared to new items. The left temporal learning effect persisted in all tasks and was strongest when stimuli were embedded in intermediate noise. In the noisy conditions, native phonotactics evoked overall enhanced left temporal activation. In contrast, the frontal learning effects were present only in conditions requiring overt repetition and were more pronounced for the foreign language. The results indicate a functional dissociation between temporal and frontal activations in learning new phonological word forms: the left superior temporal responses reflect activation of newly-established word-form representations, also during degraded sensory input, whereas the frontal premotor effects are related to planning for articulation and are not preserved in noise.

Variation and repetition in the spelling of young children

A number of investigators have suggested that young children, even those who do not yet represent the phonological forms of words in their spellings, tend to use different strings of letters for different words. However, empirical evidence that children possess a concept of between-word variation has been weak. In a study by Pollo, Kessler, and Treiman (2009), in fact, prephonological spellers were more likely to write different words in the same way than would be expected on the basis of chance, not less likely. In the current study, preschool-age prephonological and phonological spellers showed a tendency to repeat spellings and parts of spellings that they had recently used. However, even prephonological spellers (mean age∼4years 8months) showed more repetition when spelling the same word twice in succession than when spelling different words. The results suggest that children who have not yet learned to use writing to represent the sounds of speech show some knowledge that writing represents words and, thus, should vary to show differences between them. The results further suggest that in spelling, as in other domains, children have a tendency to repeat recent behaviors.

Orthography plays a limited role when learning the phonological forms of new words: The case of Spanish and English learners of novel Dutch words

ABSTRACTSome previous studies have shown that the availability of orthographic information leads to positive effects for second language (L2) phonology, while others document negative effects. In this paper, we examine the role of orthography on novel spoken-word learning by comparing word pairs that differed in most or all of their segments (nonminimal pairs) and those that only differed in one phoneme (minimal pairs) that was considered easy or difficult to discriminate. We tested the performance of learners whose native languages have transparent orthographies as well as learners with opaque orthographies. Our findings show that regardless of linguistic background and native orthographic system, availability of orthographic information during word learning did not have an effect on nonminimal pairs or perceptually easy minimal pairs. However, it had a positive effect on two minimal pairs that had the highest accuracy among the seven perceptually difficult ones, indicating that orthography only helped contrasts that were relatively easy to discriminate. The implications of these findings for L2 teaching and for future directions within L2 phonology are discussed.