Picture Matching Task Research Articles

The Overt Pronoun Constraint through the Spanish (Heritage) Lens

The Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) has been studied on numerous occasions, addressing, in particular, the capabilities and limitations of the second language learner (Gürel, 2003; Kanno, 1997; Pérez-Leroux & Glass, 1997; Rothman & Iverson, 2007). However, studies are increasingly showing that the OPC may not be an unyielding restriction on grammar, as previously proposed by Montalbetti (1984) (Alonso-Ovalle, Fernández Solera, Frazier & Clifton, 2002; Gelormini Lezama, Huepe, Herrera, Melloni, Manes, García & Ibáñez, 2016; Keating, Jegerski, & VanPatten, 2016; Lipski, 1996). This study looks at the interpretation restrictions of the OPC by 20 Spanish heritage and 20 monolingual speakers in two experimental tasks: a sentence selection task and a picture-matching task. Results reveal that while participants show a preference towards the interpretation restrictions of the OPC, they do not respond at ceiling, which allows for variability. Additionally, the heritage speaker group varies from the monolinguals, indicating further divergence. This work provides a descriptive analysis of the findings and contributes to the dialogue on the flexibility of the OPC on language.

When prosody meets syntax: The processing of the syntax-prosody interface in children with developmental dyslexia and developmental language disorder

Prosody and syntax are assumed to interact strictly, both in terms of processing and of brain activation. According to some authors, the interaction between prosody and other components of language such as syntax and pragmatics would be problematic for children with DLD and/or dyslexia, whereas prosody itself would not. Sixteen children with typical development (TD), 16 children with developmental dyslexia (DD) and 16 with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) aged 10–13 took part in the experiment. Children had to perform a picture matching task, after listening to sentences with an ambiguous syntactic structure disambiguated through prosody. A GLM analysis was performed taking into account the number of pictures representing target responses, distractors or alternative interpretations. Correlations with tests of language and reading were also computed. Participants with DLD chose distractors more often than participants with DD and TD in correspondence to sentences with complex psycholinguistic structure. Children with DLD gave less target responses than children with DD but their response pattern was similar to that of TD children, whereas the DD group showed a qualitatively different profile. Strong correlations emerged between the capacity to process the syntax-prosody interface and metaphonological as well as morphosyntactic abilities.

Semantic processing in children with cochlear implants: Evidence from event-related potentials

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Existing research has shown that children with significant hearing loss who use cochlear implants (CIs) perform worse than their hearing peers on behavioral measures of spoken language. The present study sought to examine how children with CIs process lexical–semantic incongruence, as indexed by electrophysiological evidence of the N400 effect.Method: Twelve children with CIs, aged between 6 and 9 years, participated in a spoken word–picture matching task while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. To determine whether the N400 effect elicited in this group deviated from normal, independent samples t tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) analyses were used to compare the results of children with CIs against those of a similarly aged typically hearing (TH) group (n = 30). Correlational analyses were also conducted within each group to gauge the degree to which the N400 effect related to behavioral measures of spoken language.Results: An N400 effect was elicited in both groups of CI and TH children. The amplitude and latency of the N400 effect did not differ significantly between groups. Despite the similarity in ERP responses, children with CIs scored significantly lower on behavioral measures of spoken word- and sentence-level comprehension. No significant correlations between ERP and behavioral measures were found, although there was a trending relationship between sentence-level spoken language comprehension and the TH group’s N400 effect mean amplitude (p = .060).Conclusions: The results suggest that, at a neural level, children with CIs can process lexical–semantic incongruence, and that other underlying processes not measured by the N400 effect contribute to this population’s spoken language difficulties.

NATIVE AND NONNATIVE PROCESSING OF ACTIVE AND PASSIVE SENTENCES

AbstractThe present study compares native and nonnative processing of Spanish active and passive sentences. The nonnative speakers were tested before and after receiving processing instruction on the Spanish passive. The native speakers were tested once and provide a baseline for comparisons. We measured accuracy and response time to select the correct response in a paired picture matching task. We used eye-tracking measures to capture processing behaviors on both active and passive verb forms. We measured processing using time to first fixation on the verb area of interest, mean first fixation duration, mean first pass time, and mean second pass time. The results revealed that processing passive sentences comes at a cost to both native and nonnative speakers. After instruction the nonnative speakers showed no significant differences with native speakers in accuracy and response time. Also, the nonnative speakers’ processing behaviors became more nativelike but did not reach the native speaker level.

Dynamic Causal Modeling of Preclinical Autosomal-Dominant Alzheimer's Disease.

Dynamic causal modeling (DCM) is a framework for making inferences about changes in brain connectivity using neuroimaging data. We fitted DCMs to high-density EEG data from subjects performing a semantic picture matching task. The subjects are carriers of the PSEN1 mutation, which leads to early onset Alzheimer’s disease, but at the time of EEG acquisition in 1999, these subjects were cognitively unimpaired. We asked 1) what is the optimal model architecture for explaining the event-related potentials in this population, 2) which connections are different between this Presymptomatic Carrier (PreC) group and a Non-Carrier (NonC) group performing the same task, and 3) which network connections are predictive of subsequent Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) trajectories. We found 1) a model with hierarchical rather than lateral connections between hemispheres to be optimal, 2) that a pathway from right inferotemporal cortex (IT) to left medial temporal lobe (MTL) was preferentially activated by incongruent items for subjects in the PreC group but not the NonC group, and 3) that increased effective connectivity among left MTL, right IT, and right MTL was predictive of subsequent MMSE scores.

Definite generic vs. definite unique in L2 acquisition

This study examines the role of universal meanings in second language (L2) acquisition by specifically looking at whether Japanese L2 learners of English can distinguish between definite generic the and definite unique the. Japanese is a language that has no definite (or indefinite) article, but the meanings expressed with definite generic and definite unique in the L2 should be accessible to L2 learners if they have full access to universal meanings. The difficulty for L2 learners is mapping features from the L1 to new L2 morphology (Lardiere, 2016). We employed a picture matching task (PMT) and a forced-choice elicitation task (FCET). For the PMT, participants had to match a sentence with one or more than one picture in each set of four pictures. Definite generic can refer to more than one individual when it is accompanied by a predicate like be extinct: one picture of a single dodo bird AND a picture of a set of dodo birds can refer to the entire species of dodo bird. Definite unique is when the definite article refers to one individual. The FCET required participants to select an article to fill-in-a-blank with an article they felt most appropriate. We recruited 47 Japanese L2 learners of English in total and 26 native speakers of English. The results show that L2 learners perform as well as the native speaker controls on the PMT for definite generic and definite unique, but the FCET results reveal differences between the two groups for definite generic and definite unique.

Logical Connectives Modulate Attention to Simulations Evoked by the Constituents They Link Together.

In previous studies investigating logical-connectives simulations, participants focused their attention on verifying truth-condition satisfaction for connective expressions describing visual stimuli (e.g., Dumitru, 2014; Dumitru and Joergensen, 2016). Here, we sought to replicate and extend the findings that conjunction and disjunction simulations are structured as one and two Gestalts, respectively, by using language – picture matching tasks where participants focused their attention exclusively on stimuli visuospatial properties. Three studies evaluated perceptual compatibility effects between visual displays varying stimuli direction, size, and orientation, and basic sentences featuring the logical connectives AND, OR, BUT, IF, ALTHOUGH, BECAUSE, and THEREFORE (e.g., “There is blue AND there is red”). Response times highlight correlations between the Gestalt arity of connective simulations and visual attention patterns, such that words referring to constituents in the same Gestalt were matched faster to visual stimuli displayed sequentially rather than alternatively, having the same size rather than different sizes, and being oriented along axes other than horizontal. The results also highlight attentional patterns orthogonal to Gestalt arity: visual stimuli corresponding to simulation constituents were processed faster when they appeared onscreen from left to right than from right to left, when they were emphasized or de-emphasized together (i.e., faster processing of all-small or all-large stimuli pairs), and when they formed a downward-oriented diagonal, which signals a simulation boundary. More generally, our findings suggest that logical connectives rapidly evoke simulations that trigger top-down attention patterns over the grouping and properties of visual stimuli corresponding to the constituents they link together.

Reanalyzing language expectations: Native language knowledge modulates the sensitivity to intervening cues during anticipatory processing.

We investigated how native language experience shapes anticipatory language processing. Two groups of bilinguals (either Spanish or Basque natives) performed a word matching task (WordMT) and a picture matching task (PictureMT). They indicated whether the stimuli they visually perceived matched with the noun they heard. Spanish noun endings were either diagnostic of the gender (transparent) or ambiguous (opaque). ERPs were time-locked to an intervening gender-marked determiner preceding the predicted noun. The determiner always gender agreed with the following noun but could also introduce a mismatching noun, so that it was not fully task diagnostic. Evoked brain activity time-locked to the determiner was considered as reflecting updating/reanalysis of the task-relevant preactivated representation. We focused on the timing of this effect by estimating the comparison between a gender-congruent and a gender-incongruent determiner. In the WordMT, both groups showed a late N400 effect. Crucially, only Basque natives displayed an earlier P200 effect for determiners preceding transparent nouns. In the PictureMT, both groups showed an early P200 effect for determiners preceding opaque nouns. The determiners of transparent nouns triggered a negative effect at ∼430 ms in Spanish natives, but at ∼550 ms in Basque natives. This pattern of results supports a "retracing hypothesis" according to which the neurocognitive system navigates through the intermediate (sublexical and lexical) linguistic representations available from previous processing to evaluate the need of an update in the linguistic expectation concerning a target lexical item.

The eyes reveal uncertainty about object distinctions in semantic variant primary progressive aphasia

At least three distinct variants of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) have been described, but they are difficult to distinguish early in the course, when individuals experience primarily anomia. People with svPPA are often the hardest to care for, because they have impaired comprehension of words and objects and often have negative changes in comportment. We sought to identify an early marker of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) and to enhance the understanding of the semantic deficit in svPPA. We hypothesized that the pattern of eye tracking in a word picture matching task can differentiate svPPA from other variants and can predict which participants with unclassifiable PPA will progress to svPPA. We tested 19 individuals with PPA on a word picture matching task with eye tracking. We found that individuals with svPPA were less accurate than other variants when the foils were semantic coordinates (horse-cow) or schematically related (horse-saddle), but not when they were thematically related (saw-horse) or unrelated. Moreover, even in the condition in which they were highly accurate (unrelated foils) they looked much more often to the foils and for longer, than other variants or controls. Unclassifiable PPA participants who eventually developed svPPA showed the same pattern. This abnormal pattern was associated with atrophy in bilateral temporal poles.

Task- and domain-specific modulation of functional connectivity in the ventral and dorsal object-processing pathways.

A whole-brain network of regions collectively supports the ability to recognize and use objects-the Tool Processing Network. Little is known about how functional interactions within the Tool Processing Network are modulated in a task-dependent manner. We designed an fMRI experiment in which participants were required to either generate object pantomimes or to carry out a picture matching task over the same images of tools, while holding all aspects of stimulus presentation constant across the tasks. The Tool Processing Network was defined with an independent functional localizer, and functional connectivity within the network was measured during the pantomime and picture matching tasks. Relative to tool picture matching, tool pantomiming led to an increase in functional connectivity between ventral stream regions and left parietal and frontal-motor areas; in contrast, the matching task was associated with an increase in functional connectivity among regions in ventral temporo-occipital cortex, and between ventral temporal regions and the left inferior parietal lobule. Graph-theory analyses over the functional connectivity data indicated that the left premotor cortex and left lateral occipital complex were hub-like (exhibited high betweenness centrality) during tool pantomiming, while ventral stream regions (left medial fusiform gyrus and left posterior middle temporal gyrus) were hub-like during the picturematching task. These results demonstrate task-specific modulation of functional interactions among a common set of regions, and indicate dynamic coupling of anatomically remote regions in task-dependent manner.

The acquisition of the get-passive

ABSTRACTThis article examines children’s comprehension of the get-passive relative to the be-passive in an attempt to systematically compare the acquisition of both types of passives. It discusses the findings of two experiments (a picture-matching task and an act-out task) with children ages 36. Results from the picture-matching task indicate that 3-year-olds are above chance only with get-passives with animate subjects, which suggests that early get-“passives” may actually be (active) control structures requiring a thematic agent. Children 4–6 years old perform equally well with get and be. Results from the act-out task further reveal that children ages 4;02 and older interpret the by-phrase in nontruncated actional passives (with get and with be) and analyze it as agentive. This is consistent with a raising analysis for both passive types after the age of 4. There is no advantage to either type of passive at this point, contra previous claims in the literature.

A Cognitive Linguistics Application for Second Language Pedagogy: The English Preposition Tutor

AbstractThis study investigated the effects of teaching English prepositions using schematic diagrams inspired by cognitive linguistics in a computer‐based tutorial system called the English Preposition Tutor. Training was designed based on the theoretical framework of the Competition Model and a cognitive linguistic analysis of prepositions. Sixty‐four Cantonese‐speaking intermediate learners of English were trained using a sentence–picture matching task. They received one of the three types of feedback: schematic diagram feedback, metalinguistic rule feedback, or correctness feedback. Only the schematic diagram feedback group was exposed to chaining between spatial senses and nonspatial senses. Results showed that instruction was effective in all three feedback groups, as measured by a cloze test and a translation test. In the translation test, the group receiving schematic diagram feedback outperformed the correctness feedback group. The effects of the three feedback conditions were not significantly different in the cloze test.

Heuristics in Language Comprehension

We used a sentence-picture matching task to demonstrate that heuristics can influence language comprehension. Interpretation of quantifier scope ambiguous sentences such as Every kid climbed a tree was investigated. Such sentences are ambiguous with respect to the number of trees inferred; either several trees were climbed or just one. The availability of the NOUN VERB NOUN (N-V-N) heuristic, e.g., KID CLIMB TREE, should contribute to the interpretation of how many trees were climbed. Specifically, we hypothesized that number choices for these stimuli would be predicted by choices previously made to corresponding (full) sentences. 45 participants were instructed to treat N-V-N triplets such as KID CLIMB TREE as telegrams and select a picture, regarding the quantity (“several” vs. “one”) associated with tree. Results confirmed that plural responses to quantifier scope ambiguous sentences significantly predict increased plural judgments in the picture-matching task. This result provides empirical evidence that the N-V-N heuristic, via conceptual event knowledge, can influence sentence interpretation. Furthermore, event knowledge must include the quantity of participants in the event (especially in terms of “several” vs. “one”). These findings are consistent with our model of language comprehension functioning as “Heuristic first, algorithmic second.” Furthermore, results are consistent with judgment and decision making in other cognitive domains.

Behavioral and Neural Evidence on Pragmatic Processing: A Foreword to XPRAG.it

Behavioral and Neural Evidence on Pragmatic Processing: A Foreword to XPRAG.it

Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over left inferior frontal gyrus enhances sentence comprehension

We tested the possibility of enhancing natural language comprehension through the application of anodal tDCS (a-tDCS) over the left inferior frontal gyrus, a key region for verbal short-term memory and language comprehension. We designed a between subjects sham- and task-controlled study. During tDCS stimulation, participants performed a sentence to picture matching task in which targets were sentences with different load on short-term memory. Regardless of load on short-term memory, the Anodal group performed significantly better than the Sham group, thus providing evidence that a-tDCS over LIFG enhances natural language comprehension.To our knowledge, we apply for the first time tDCS to boost sentence comprehension.This result is of special interest also from a clinical perspective: applying a-tDCS in patients manifesting problems at the sentence level due to brain damage could enhance the effects of behavioral rehabilitation procedures aimed to improve language comprehension.

The Neurobiology of Agrammatic Sentence Comprehension: A Lesion Study.

Broca's area has long been implicated in sentence comprehension. Damage to this region is thought to be the central source of "agrammatic comprehension" in which performance is substantially worse (and near chance) on sentences with noncanonical word orders compared with canonical word order sentences (in English). This claim is supported by functional neuroimaging studies demonstrating greater activation in Broca's area for noncanonical versus canonical sentences. However, functional neuroimaging studies also have frequently implicated the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in sentence processing more broadly, and recent lesion-symptom mapping studies have implicated the ATL and mid temporal regions in agrammatic comprehension. This study investigates these seemingly conflicting findings in 66 left-hemisphere patients with chronic focal cerebral damage. Patients completed two sentence comprehension measures, sentence-picture matching and plausibility judgments. Patients with damage including Broca's area (but excluding the temporal lobe; n = 11) on average did not exhibit the expected agrammatic comprehension pattern-for example, their performance was >80% on noncanonical sentences in the sentence-picture matching task. Patients with ATL damage ( n = 18) also did not exhibit an agrammatic comprehension pattern. Across our entire patient sample, the lesions of patients with agrammatic comprehension patterns in either task had maximal overlap in posterior superior temporal and inferior parietal regions. Using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping, we find that lower performances on canonical and noncanonical sentences in each task are both associated with damage to a large left superior temporal-inferior parietal network including portions of the ATL, but not Broca's area. Notably, however, response bias in plausibility judgments was significantly associated with damage to inferior frontal cortex, including gray and white matter in Broca's area, suggesting that the contribution of Broca's area to sentence comprehension may be related to task-related cognitive demands.

Eye-tracking the effect of word order in sentence comprehension in aphasia: evidence from Basque, a free word order ergative language

ABSTRACTAgrammatic speakers of languages with overt grammatical case show impaired use of the morphological cues to establish theta-role relations in sentences presented in non-canonical word orders. We analysed the effect of word order on the sentence comprehension of aphasic speakers of Basque, an ergative, free word order and head-final (SOV) language. Ergative languages such as Basque establish a one-to-one mapping of the thematic role and the case marker. We collected behavioural and gaze-fixation data while agrammatic speakers performed a picture-matching task with auditorily presented sentences with different word orders. We found that people with aphasia (PWA) had difficulties in assigning theta-roles in Theme-Agent order. This result is in line with processing accounts. Contrary to previous findings, our data do not suggest a systematic delay in the integration of morphological information in the PWA group, but strong reliance on the ergative case morphology and difficulties assigning thematic roles into the determiner phrases.

Quantifying kids prefer intersecting sets – a pilot study

Abstract Children between approximately four and five years of age are known to fail in picture matching tasks with verbal stimuli presenting an existentially quantified object NP in the scope of a universally quantified subject NP. In this paper, we suggest an experimentally tested provisional answer to a question that has not been asked in any previous work on the very phenomenon: Would they also fail for the truth-conditionally equivalent stimuli in which the universal quantifier is replaced by a negated existential quantifier (plus a negated predicate, as in Every boy walks with a balloon vs. No boy walks without a balloon). The experimental results indicate that the latter task is indeed much easier. This lends support to the hypothesis that the primary source of the difficulties lies in the acquisition of a special aspect of compositional semantics, that is, in computing the semantic effects of a universal vs. an existential quantifier as subject in combination with an existential quantifier in the predicate. For a universally quantified subject, the relation between the restrictor set of the quantified subject and the set denoted by the predicate is one of set inclusion. For an existentially quantified subject, it is set intersection. At least for the picture matching tasks, the intersection relation seems to be easier to handle than the inclusion relation, even for semantically equivalent stimuli.

Syntactic comprehension in aphasia. An evaluation test with relative clauses in Spanish

Event Abstract Back to Event Syntactic comprehension in aphasia. An evaluation test with relative clauses in Spanish María E. Sánchez1*, Analí Taboh1, Martin Fuchs2, Juan P. Barreyro3, 4 and Virginia Jaichenco1 1 University of Buenos Aires, Linguistics Institute, Argentina 2 Yale University, Department of Linguistics, United States 3 University of Buenos Aires, Faculty of Psychology, Argentina 4 CONICET, Argentina This work aimed to try out an instrument that can detect the sentences comprehension deficits by manipulating two types of structures with relative clauses (subject and object) in Spanish. We compare the performance between aphasic patients and their controls using a binary sentence–picture matching task. The type of structure was manipulated: El oso que patea al perro es azul [The bear that kicks the dog is blue] (subject relative clause) vs. El oso al que patea el perro es azul [The bear that the dog kicks is blue] (object relative clause). The test was administered to 151 native Spanish speakers, of 3 age groups and 3 different schooling levels, and a group of 5 aphasic patients. The results showed that in the control group there is a strong interaction between the type of sentence and the level of schooling, with more errors in the sentences with a relative object as the level of schooling decreases. Aphasic patients, as a group, did not differ from the lowest schooling groups in subject relative clauses, but did diverge from all groups in object relative clauses. Within the group of patients, we found that three patients (AG, RD and RR) did not differ from their control group in subject relative clauses, but in object relative clauses. Contrary, a patient (OV) differs significantly from their control group in the two structures, that is, it is worse in both object and subject relative clauses (although in the case of object clause, their performance is much worse). Finally, RC patient does not differ significantly in any of the two structures with their control group. The data allow establishing differences between patients with and without syntactic alterations. First, the data allow us to discuss how schooling affects the processing of these two structures in Spanish in subjects without language impairment. In addition, the evidence shows that agrammatic aphasic patients clearly have difficulties to assign the thematic roles to non-canonical structures, and this test is sensitive to detect them. References del Río, D., López-Higes, R., & Martín-Aragoneses, M. T. (2012). Canonical word order and interference-based integration costs during sentence comprehension: The case of Spanish subject and object relative clauses. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65, 2108–2128 Friedmann, N. (2008). Traceless relatives: Agrammatic comprehension of relative clauses with resumptive pronouns. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21(2), 138-149. Garraffa, M. & Grillo, N. (2008). Canonicity effects as grammatical phenomena. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21, 177-197. Grodzinsky, Y. (1989). Agrammatic comprehension of relative clauses. Brain and Language, 37, 480–499. Keywords: sentence comprehension, relative clauses, Evaluation, agrammatism, neurolinguistics Conference: Academy of Aphasia 55th Annual Meeting , Baltimore, United States, 5 Nov - 7 Nov, 2017. Presentation Type: poster presentation Topic: General Submission Citation: Sánchez ME, Taboh A, Fuchs M, Barreyro JP and Jaichenco V (2019). Syntactic comprehension in aphasia. An evaluation test with relative clauses in Spanish. Conference Abstract: Academy of Aphasia 55th Annual Meeting . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2017.223.00071 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: 27 Apr 2017; Published Online: 25 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: PhD. María E Sánchez, University of Buenos Aires, Linguistics Institute, Buenos Aires, Argentina, mariaelinasanchez@yahoo.com.ar 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 María E Sánchez Analí Taboh Martin Fuchs Juan P Barreyro Virginia Jaichenco Google María E Sánchez Analí Taboh Martin Fuchs Juan P Barreyro Virginia Jaichenco Google Scholar María E Sánchez Analí Taboh Martin Fuchs Juan P Barreyro Virginia Jaichenco PubMed María E Sánchez Analí Taboh Martin Fuchs Juan P Barreyro Virginia Jaichenco 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.

Competing features influence children’s attention to number

Spontaneous focus on numerosity (SFON), an attentional process that some consider distinct from number knowledge, predicts later mathematical skills. Here we assessed the “spontaneity” and malleability of SFON using a picture-matching task. We asked children to view a target picture and to choose which of four other pictures matched the target. We tested whether attention to number (defined as number-based matches) was affected by (a) age, (b) the presence of very noticeable (or salient) features among alternative match choices, and (c) the examiner’s use of motor actions to emphasize numerosity. Although adults attended to number more frequently than did preschoolers, the salience of competing features affected responses to number in both age groups. Specifically, number-based matches were more likely when alternative choices matched the target on features of low versus high salience (e.g., the relative location within a picture frame vs. color). In addition, adults’ attention to number was more frequent if their first exposure to number-based matches occurred with alternative choices that matched the target on low salience features. This order by salience interaction was not observed among children. Simply observing motor actions that emphasized number (i.e., tapping stimuli) did not enhance children’s attention to number. The results extend previous findings on SFON and provide evidence for the contextual influences on, and malleability of, attention to number.