Sentence Reading Research Articles

Effects of prediction error on episodic memory retrieval: evidence from sentence reading and word recognition

ABSTRACT Prediction facilitates word processing in the moment, but the longer-term consequences of prediction remain unclear. We investigated whether prediction error during language encoding enhances memory for words later on. German-speaking participants read sentences in which the gender marking of the pre-nominal article was consistent or inconsistent with the predictable noun. During subsequent word recognition, we probed participants’ recognition memory for predictable and unpredictable nouns. Our results indicate that individuals who demonstrated early prediction error during sentence reading, showed enhanced recognition memory for nouns overall. Results from an exploratory step-wise regression showed that prenominal prediction error and general reading speed were the best proxies for recognition memory. Hence, prediction error may facilitate recognition by furnishing memory traces built during initial reading of the sentences. Results are discussed in the light of hypotheses positing that predictable words show a memory disadvantage because they are processed less thoroughly.

Erratum

In the article “Trypanocidal drug utilization practices in tsetse suppression and non-suppression areas of South Omo Zone, Southwestern Ethiopia”, by Tesfaye et al., 2020 (Ethiop. Vet. J., 2020, 24 (2), 90-111), the following sentences in the abstract (Page 90) was mistakenly written. The original sentence reads “Sixty (60) of the cattle owners were from suppression area and 124 from tsetse non-suppression area.” The amended sentence should read “One hundred twenty-four (124) of the cattle owners were from suppression area and sixty (60) from tsetse non-suppression area.” The Ethiopian Veterinary Journal editorial office and the authors are kindly apologies for the error.

Representational Pattern Similarity of Electrical Brain Activity Reveals Rapid and Specific Prediction during Language Comprehension.

Predicting upcoming events is a critical function of the brain, and language provides a fertile testing ground for studying prediction, as comprehenders use context to predict features of upcoming words. Many aspects of the mechanisms of prediction remain elusive, partly due to a lack of methodological tools to probe prediction formation in the moment. To elucidate what features are neurally preactivated and when, we used representational similarity analysis on previously collected sentence reading data. We compared EEG activity patterns elicited by expected and unexpected sentence final words to patterns from the preceding words of the sentence, in both strongly and weakly constraining sentences. Pattern similarity with the final word was increased in an early time window following the presentation of the pre-final word, and this increase was modulated by both expectancy and constraint. This was not seen at earlier words, suggesting that predictions were precisely timed. Additionally, pre-final word activity-the predicted representation-had negative similarity with later final word activity, but only for strongly expected words. These findings shed light on the mechanisms of prediction in the brain: rapid preactivation occurs following certain cues, but the predicted features may receive reduced processing upon confirmation.

On preverbalzaiin Mandarin Chinese: its progressive and prepositional functions

AbstractThis study revisits the linguistic properties of preverbalzaiin Mandarin Chinese. Specifically, it examines the syntax of a prepositional phrase headed byzaifunctioning as an adjunct, as the main predicate of a sentence with a continuous reading, as well as a sentence containingzaiwith a progressive reading. It is argued that there is only onezaiand that it always functions as a preposition selecting either a Locative Phrase (LP) or a Zeit Phrase (ZP) as its complement. The study also claims that the different aspectual readings of sentences containingzaiare a result of the different types of complementszaiselects. It is argued that a sentence has a continuous reading whenzaiselects an LP and a progressive one when it selects a ZP as its complement. The proposed analyses not only provide a unified account of the linguistic functions ofzaibut also give a syntactic account of the close relation between the imperfective aspect (in particular, the progressive aspect) and locative elements that has been observed by many previous studies.

Bilinguals on the garden-path: Individual differences in syntactic ambiguity resolution.

Syntactic parsing plays a central role in the interpretation of sentences, but it is unclear to what extent non-native speakers can deploy native-like grammatical knowledge during online comprehension. The current eye-tracking study investigated how Chinese-English bilinguals and native English speakers respond to syntactic category and subcategorization information while reading sentences with OBJECT-SUBJECT ambiguities. We also obtained measures of English language experience, working memory capacity, and executive function to determine how these cognitive variables influence online parsing. During reading, monolinguals and bilinguals showed similar GARDEN-PATH EFFECTS related to syntactic reanalysis, but native English speakers responded more robustly to VERB SUBCATEGORIZATION cues. Readers with greater language experience and executive function showed increased sensitivity to verb subcategorization cues, but parsing was not influenced by working memory capacity. These results are consistent with exposure-based accounts of bilingual sentence processing, and they support a link between syntactic processing and domain-general cognitive control.

PENERJEMAHAN KALIMAT IMPERATIF DAN KESALAHANNYA DALAM KITAB AR RAḤĪQ AL MAKHTŪM KARYA SYAIKH SHAFIYYURRAHMAN AL MUBARAKFURI

This research analyzes the translation of imperative sentences in Ar Raḥīq Al Makhtūm book (2007) by Shaikh Shafiyyurahman Al Mubarakfuri which was created to participate in a scientific competition on sirah nabawiyah in Pakistan. The book was translated into Indonesian by Kathur Suhardi as Sirah Nabawiyah (2014), a translator graduating from a boarding school who has published several translated books from any sciences. This research aims to describe the translation and its errors that applied by translator on translating imperative sentences in Ar Raḥīq Al Makhtūm book. The translation of imperative sentences is divided into two parts, the translation of positive imperative sentences (84%) and the translation of negative imperative sentences (16%), while that translation errors of imperative sentence are divided into four parts among them, linguistic category errors (28%), surface strategy errors (16%), comparative analysis errors (8%) and communicative effect errors (48%). The research methodology was qualitative descriptive research, an analysis that carried out from collecting data by the observation method of reading, understanding and signing of imperative sentences so be able to distinguish between imperative sentences with others. After collecting the data, then classifies the data according to categories and presents all data regarding the translation and its errors of imperative sentences and finally making the conclusions based on data that has been found. It was found there were 103 imperative sentence translation data with 87 positive imperative sentence translation data and 16 negative imperative sentence translation data, while for translation errors of imperative sentence researcher founds 50 data with 14 data in linguistic category errors, 8 data in the surface strategy errors, 4 data in comparative analysis errors and 24 data in communivative effect errors.

Social Cognitive Approach through Interactive Multimedia for Early Reading Learning

This study developed a learning model to improve students’ early reading skills in Indonesia. The model is based on social cognitive learning theory and is implemented using interactive multimedia. The research method uses Design-Based Research (DBR) and the subjects are 195 first and second graders of an elementary school in Bandung, West Java. The findings of the study show that social cognitive learning can be integrated and implemented through interactive multimedia and that interactive-multimedia-assisted social cognitive model (IMAS Model) can improve early reading skills. Students’ average early reading skill scores were measured using Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) instrument before and after intervention to see the effectiveness of the model. Pre-test – post-test results comparison showed that students’ average early reading scores increased after learning using IMAS Model. Students’ average scores of reading letters, reading syllables, reading words, reading sentences, and reading comprehension skills at pre-test were 78.06, 67.06, 60.92, 55.21, and 44.95, respectively. These scores respectively increased to 92.71, 92.45, 88.58, 74.60, and 87.08 at post-test, indicating that IMAS Model is effective to increase early reading skills.

The Impact of Clear Speech on the Perceptual and Acoustic Properties of Fricative-Vowel Sequences in Speakers With Dysarthria.

Purpose Studies have reported that clear speech has the potential to influence suprasegmental and segmental aspects of speech, in both healthy and dysarthric speakers. While the impact of clear speech has been studied on the articulation of individual segments, few studies have investigated its effects on coarticulation with multisegment sequences such as fricative-vowel. Objectives The goals of this study are to investigate, in healthy and dysarthric speech, the impact of clear speech on (a) the perception of anticipatory vowel coarticulation in fricatives and (b) the acoustic characteristics of this effect. Method Ten speakers with dysarthria secondary to idiopathic Parkinson's disease were recruited as well as 10 age- and sex-matched healthy speakers. A sentence reading task was performed in natural and clear speaking conditions. The sentences contained words with the initial fricatives /s/ and /ʃ/ preceded by /ə/ and followed by the vowels /i/, /y/, /u/, or /a/. For the perceptual measurements, five listeners were recruited and were asked to predict the upcoming word by listening only to the isolated fricative. Acoustic analyses consisted of spectral moment analysis (M1-M4) on averaged time series. Results Perceptual findings report that identification rates were improved with clear speech for the speakers with dysarthria, but only for the fricative-/i/ sequences. Error pattern analysis indicates that this improvement is associated with an increase in the roundness parameter (lip spreading) identification. Acoustic results are unclear for M1 and M3 but suggest that M2 and M4 differentiation between the rounded versus unrounded vowel contexts is increased with clear speech for the speakers with dysarthria. Discussion Taken together, these findings suggest that clear speech may improve lip coordination in dysarthric speakers with Parkinson's disease. However, the impact of clear speech on the acoustic measures of fricative spectral moments is somewhat limited. This suggests that these metrics, when taken individually, do not capture the entire complexity of fricative-vowel coarticulation.

Prospective Exploration of Cognitive-Communication Changes With Woodcock-Johnson IV Before and After Sport-Related Concussion.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in cognitive-communication performance using Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests (WJIV) from pre-injury baseline to post sport-related concussion. It was hypothesized that individual subtest performances would decrease postinjury in symptomatic individuals. Method This prospective longitudinal observational nested cohort study of collegiate athletes assessed cognitive-communicative performance at preseason baseline and postinjury. Three hundred and forty-two male and female undergraduates at high risk for sport-related concussion participated in preseason assessments, and 18 individuals met criteria post injury. WJIV subtest domains included Word Finding, Speeded Reading Comprehension, Auditory Comprehension, Verbal Working Memory, Story Retell, and Visual Processing (letter and number). The power calculation was not met, and therefore data were conservatively analyzed with descriptive statistics and a planned subgroup analysis based on symptomatology. Results Individual changes from baseline to postinjury were evaluated using differences in standard score performance. For symptomatic individuals, mean negative decreases in performance were found for Retrieval Fluency, Sentence Reading Fluency, Pattern Matchings, and all cluster scores postinjury. Individual performance declines also included decreases in story retell, verbal working memory, and visual processing. Conclusions This study identified within-subject WJIV performance decline in communication domains post sport-related concussion and reinforces that cognitive-communication dysfunction should be considered in mild traumatic brain injury. Key cognitive-communication areas included speeded naming, reading, and verbal memory, though oral comprehension was not sensitive to change. Future clinical research across diverse populations is needed to expand these preliminary findings.

Processing of coreferential relations and their relationship with the working memory: the influence of syntactic distance on anaphora processing in Brazilian Portuguese

The aim of the present work was to investigate the processing of coreferential relations, focusing on their relationship with the working memory. In a reading process, it is essential that readers continuously perform mental operations that involve the working memory, such as storing, retrieving, and manipulating information. For this reason, it is understood that the processing of coreference resolution is closely related to the working memory. In this relationship between memory and anaphora resolution, the distance factor between the referent and anaphor can play a significant role as distance increases the processing costs when reading sentences. It is known that the working memory is limited; yet there is still no consensus among researchers regarding the nature of storable items. Moreover, the syntactic node, here taken as a representative of the structure of a phrase, was observed as possible storage and recoverable unit in the working memory. Thus, the objective of the study was to verify whether the syntactic distance factor, embeddings with 1 and 2 intervening syntactic nodes, is a storable unit in the working memory, investigating its influence in the processing of different anaphora resolution. The self-paced reading experimental technique was used in an experiment. Seventy participants, all university students, were tested individually and underwent a training session before the task. The results suggest that the syntactic distance is a relevant factor in the working memory with significant differences between conditions with syntactic distance concerning those with linear distance, indicating the formation of chunks. There was an increase in reading times depending on the number of intervening embeddings, and different processing costs for each type of anaphora resolution investigated . The aim of the present work was to investigate the processing of coreferential relations, focusing on their relationship with the working memory. In a reading process, it is essential that readers continuously perform mental operations that involve the working memory, such as storing, retrieving, and manipulating information. For this reason, it is understood that the processing of coreference resolution is closely related to the working memory. In this relationship between memory and anaphora resolution, the distance factor between the referent and anaphor can play a significant role as distance increases the processing costs when reading sentences. It is known that the working memory is limited; yet there is still no consensus among researchers regarding the nature of storable items. Moreover, the syntactic node, here taken as a representative of the structure of a phrase, was observed as possible storage and recoverable unit in the working memory. Thus, the objective of the study was to verify whether the syntactic distance factor, embeddings with 1 and 2 intervening syntactic nodes, is a storable unit in the working memory, investigating its influence in the processing of different anaphora resolution. The self-paced reading experimental technique was used in an experiment. Seventy participants, all university students, were tested individually and underwent a training session before the task. The results suggest that the syntactic distance is a relevant factor in the working memory with significant differences between conditions with syntactic distance concerning those with linear distance, indicating the formation of chunks. There was an increase in reading times depending on the number of intervening embeddings, and different processing costs for each type of anaphora resolution investigated .

Tracking Biliteracy Skills in Students Attending Gaelic Medium Education: Effects of Learning Experience on Overall Reading Skills

This study describes the validation of a reading assessment developed for speakers of Scottish Gaelic, an endangered language spoken in Scotland. The test is designed to investigate the areas of reading for understanding, reading errors and reading speed. This study will present the data on a group of Gaelic/English speakers on both the Gaelic and the English version of the test and of a group of English speakers on the English version of the reading test, aiming at comparing reading abilities in children attending a Gaelic medium education (GME) and children in English medium education (EME) living in the same urban area. The paper reports two studies. The first study presents data on 77 children bilingual in Gaelic/English recruited across four levels of primary school on reading in Gaelic. The second study looks at the performance on a version of the test adapted for English, comparing the performance of two groups of children (bilinguals Gaelic/English and monolinguals English) on several linguistic skills, including sentence comprehension and reading. About 40 monolingual English subjects in EME, living in the same urban area, were administered the English version. The reading abilities of the children attending EME and GME schools were comparable, supporting the idea of no disadvantage on reading from attending a school with the medium of a minority language. If differences were found, these were in favour of the bilingual Gaelic/English children, who attained better results in all linguistic tasks in English in the older groups.

Cognitive Reserve and language processing demand in healthy older adults

ABSTRACT Cognitive Reserve (CR) refers to cognitive resources acquired through experiences along the lifespan that allow for flexibility in coping with neurocognitive changes. Investigating the role of CR measures across well-established psycholinguistic features can provide new insight into how CR interplays with cognition. Sixty-five Italian older adults performed a Lexical Decision, a Semantic Matching and a Sentence Reading task. We observed the effects of CR on reaction times and accuracy while varying lexical frequency (high vs low) and lexical semantics (concrete vs abstract) and on reading times of sentences with either syntactic or semantic violations. In the Lexical Decision and Semantic Matching tasks, CR played a role in processing low frequency and abstract words. In the Sentence Reading Task, CR influenced reading times, particularly in the presence of syntactic violations. CR predicts cognitive performance in tasks that require language demands at different levels.

Did the three little pigs frighten the wolf? How deaf readers use lexical and syntactic cues to comprehend sentences

BackgroundThe ways in which students with deafness process syntactic and semantic cues while reading sentences are unclear. While some studies have supported the preference for semantic cues, others have not. AimTo examine differences in the processing of syntactic versus semantic cues during sentence reading among students who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). MethodTwenty DHH students (mean age = 12.48 years) and 20 chronologically age-matched students with typical hearing (TH) were asked to read sentences written in Spanish with different grammatical structures and to choose the picture that best matched the sentences’ meaning while their eye movements were being registered. The picture options were manipulated so that, in addition to the correct ones, there were lexical distractors and syntactic distractors. ResultsThe TH participants outperformed the DHH participants in reading complex sentences but not simple sentences in the active voice. In the correctly answered trials, both groups fixated longer and made more fixations on the target than on the syntactic distractor than on the lexical distractor. DHH participants made significantly longer fixations on the lexical distractions. ConclusionsOur results did not support a strict preference for either lexical or semantic cues in the DHH participants.

Context but not reading speed modulates transposed-word effects in Chinese reading

Recent research using a speeded grammaticality decision revealed novel transposed-word effects when reading alphabetic languages such as French (Mirault, Snell, & Grainger, 2018), and nonalphabetic languages such as Chinese (Liu, Li, Paterson, & Wang, 2020). Transposed-word effects are considered to reflect flexibility in word order processing, but the factors that might modulate such effects remain unknown. The present study investigated this issue by using a within-subjects design in Chinese reading. In experiment 1, the participants were asked to read sentences at their normal and speeded reading speed and to make grammaticality decisions as accurately as possible. No significant interaction between transposed-word effects and reading speed was found, suggesting that transposed-word effects are not modulated by reading speed and that they are similar regardless of whether the participants read slowly or quickly. In experiment 2, we manipulated the context before the transposed words and used a speeded grammaticality decision task. We observed significant interactive effects between transposed-word effects and context, and analyses revealed that transposed-word effects decreased when the first and second words were transposed in a sentence. We conclude that context rather than reading speed modulates transposed-word effects in Chinese reading and discuss these findings with regard to the noisy bottom-up allocation of word identities and top-down sentence-level constraints.

Face recognition in beginning readers: Investigating the potential relationship between reading and face recognition during the first year of school

ABSTRACT Reading acquisition has been suggested to drive the lateralization of the face processing system to the right cerebral hemisphere. To investigate whether this developmental co-dependency has a behavioural cost, at least in the short run, we tested whether learning to read reduced face recognition ability. In a longitudinal design, 82 children (5–7 years) were tested twice, at the beginning and end of their first year in school. In both sessions, visual letter recognition, word recognition, sentence reading, and immediate face recognition were tested. Reliable increases were found across all four measures, suggesting no absolute cost of literacy acquisition on face processing efficiency. In addition, we found no evidence suggesting a negative relationship between literacy acquisition and face recognition performance. Indeed, our results were most supportive of the null hypothesis suggesting independence in the development of literacy and face processing skills on the behavioural level.

Face-to-face working memory training does not enhance children’s reading comprehension - a pilot study with Danish children1

The argument that Working Memory (WM) is especially important for reading comprehension has been supported in previous research. The aim of this study was to test a non-computerized WM training method to improve children’s reading comprehension in a longitudinal design. 38 Danish children in 3rd and 4th grade (M = 112.9 months, SD = 7.90 months) were divided into a training group (N = 18) and a control group (N = 20). Assessments of sentence reading comprehension and WM were administered at pre- and post-test, half-year and one-year follow-up. Verbal WM and reading comprehension were not improved following training. Visuo-spatial WM improved at post-training, but the effect did not last into the one-year follow up. The role of WM in reading comprehension and the pedagogical implications for teaching are discussed.

Eye movements and the perceptual span among skilled Uighur readers

In the present study, we explored the perceptual span of skilled Uighur readers during their natural reading of sentences. The Uighur script is based on Arabic letters and it runs horizontally from right to left, offering a test to understand the effect of text direction. We utilized the gaze contingent moving window paradigm, in which legible text was provided only within a window that moved in synchrony with readers’ eyes while all other letters were masked. The size of the window was manipulated systematically to determine the smallest size that allowed readers to show normal reading behaviors. Comparisons of window conditions with the baseline condition showed that the Uighur readers reached asymptotic performance in reading speed and gaze duration when windows revealed at least five letters to the right and twelve letters to the left of the currently fixated one. The present study is the first to document the size of the perceptual span in a horizontally leftwards running script. Cross-script comparisons with prior findings suggest that the size of the perceptual span for a certain writing system is likely influenced by its reading direction and visual complexity.

Experimental evidence for the interpretation of definite plural articles as markers of genericity – How Italian can help

In the Romance languages, definite plural articles (e.g., le rane ‘the frogs’) are generally ambiguous between a generic and a specific interpretation, and speakers must reconstruct the intended interpretation through the linguistic or extra-linguistic context. Following the “polar bear” paradigm implemented in Czypionka & Kupisch (2019)’s investigation on German, the goal of the present study is to check the suitability of their test on article semantics, by establishing to what extent native speakers of Italian interpret ambiguous definite plural DPs as generic or specific in the presence of a nonlinguistic picture context. We present judgment and reaction time data monitoring the preferred reading of sentences introduced by different kinds of noun phrases (e.g., Le rane/Queste rane/Le rane di solito sono verdi/gialle ‘The/These/Usually frogs are green/yellow’), while looking at pictures showing prototypical or non-prototypical properties (e.g., green vs. yellow frogs). Our results show that both possible interpretations of definite plural articles are routinely considered in Italian, despite the presence of a picture with specific referents, validating the “polar bear” paradigm as a suitable test of article semantics.

The transposed-word effect revisited: the role of syntax in word position coding

ABSTRACT Skilled readers may misinterpret “you that read wrong” for “you read that wrong”: a transposed-word effect. This relatively novel finding, which supports parallel word processing during sentence reading, is attributed to a combination of noisy bottom-up word position coding and top-down syntactic constraints. The present study focussed on the contribution of syntactic constraints in driving transposed-word effects. In a speeded grammatical decision experiment, two types of ungrammatical transposed-word sequences were compared, namely a transposition either across a syntactic phrase (“the have girls gone home”) or within a syntactic phrase (“the girls gone have home”). We found longer response times and lower accuracy rates for within-phrase transpositions than across-phrase transpositions, demonstrating a direct influence of syntactic structures on the transposed-word effect. We conclude that the assignment of words to positions in a sentence is guided by top-down syntactic constraints.

The neurocognitive basis of skilled reading in prelingually and profoundly deaf adults.

Deaf individuals have unique sensory and linguistic experiences that influence how they read and become skilled readers. This review presents our current understanding of the neurocognitive underpinnings of reading skill in deaf adults. Key behavioural and neuroimaging studies are integrated to build a profile of skilled adult deaf readers and to examine how changes in visual attention and reduced access to auditory input and phonology shape how they read both words and sentences. Crucially, the behaviours, processes, and neural circuity of deaf readers are compared to those of hearing readers with similar reading ability to help identify alternative pathways to reading success. Overall, sensitivity to orthographic and semantic information is comparable for skilled deaf and hearing readers, but deaf readers rely less on phonology and show greater engagement of the right hemisphere in visual word processing. During sentence reading, deaf readers process visual word forms more efficiently and may have a greater reliance on and altered connectivity to semantic information compared to their hearing peers. These findings highlight the plasticity of the reading system and point to alternative pathways to reading success.