Role In Language Comprehension Research Articles

An fMRI study of the neural mechanisms of third and fourth tone recognition in deaf children

Vocal tone is an important component of language and it plays a key role in language comprehension and communication. However, children with hearing loss face challenges in vocal tone recognition due to hearing impairment. In this study, five deaf children and two children with normal hearing were recruited to compare the differences in third and fourth tone recognition tasks between deaf and normal children. The results revealed that (1) some of the deaf children's brain regions that process vocal tones did not work properly due to hearing loss; (2) deaf children may rely on different neural networks when processing vocal tone information. (3) Deaf children process vocal tone information with hemispheric characteristics.

An fMRI study of the neural mechanisms of second and fourth tone recognition in deaf children

Tone is an important component of language and it plays a key role in language comprehension and communication. However, children with hearing loss face challenges in vocal tone recognition due to hearing impairment. In this study, five deaf children and two children with normal hearing were recruited to compare the differences in second and fourth tone recognition tasks between deaf and normal children. The results found that (1) some of the deaf children's brain regions for processing vocal tones did not work properly due to hearing loss; (2) deaf children may rely on different neural networks when processing vocal tone information. (3) Deaf children process vocal tone information with hemispheric characteristics.

Knowledge mapping of the research on lexical inferencing: A bibliometric analysis.

Lexical inferencing functions as one of the most important and effective skills used in language comprehension pertaining to psychological, cognitive and neurological aspects. Given its complex nature and crucial role in language comprehension, lexical inferencing has received considerable attention. The present study visualized the knowledge domain of the research on lexical inferencing based on a total of 472 articles collected from Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection of Thomson Reuters from 2001 to 2021. The bibliographic data were analyzed through co-cited articles, co-citation clusters of references, and co-occurring keywords to identify holistic intellectual landscape of lexical inferencing with special focus on its intellectual structure and base, and hot research topics. The main intellectual base includes probability of activating lexical inferencing in working memory and encoding in long-term memory, the role of lexical inferencing in reading comprehension, in connected speech, in children's derivation under pragmatic context, and in psychological and neurocognitive processes underlying language processing mechanism. Hot topics are comprised the impacts of lexical inferencing on language acquisition and comprehension (written and spoken language comprehension), the factors (context variables, vocabulary knowledge, and morphological awareness) affecting the presence and efficacy of lexical inferencing, and the time course of lexical inferencing during reading. Critically, the results of this study demonstrated that the contribution of lexical inferencing to language comprehension was strongly correlated with learner-related and discourse-related variables. The study shed valuable light on the understanding of the intellectual background and the dynamic patterns of lexical inferencing over the past two decades, thereby future work in lexical inferencing is suggested as well.

STRUCTURAL CASE ASSIGNMENT, THEMATIC ROLES AND INFORMATION STRUCTURE*

AbstractA formal model is presented which deduces the structural case assignment profile of Finnish by relying on graph‐theoretical paths and intervention. More complex and controversial features such as nonlocal dependencies, adverbial case marking, case competition, DP‐internal case patterns and interaction of case with agreement, aspect and polarity are also calculated from the model. Abstract Case and case concord were eliminated. The model links case assignment with word order, thematic roles and information structure. The results suggest that case might play a role in language comprehension.

Word-meaning priming extends beyond homonyms

When a homonym (e.g., bark) is encountered in a sentential context that biases its interpretation towards a less frequent meaning, subsequent interpretations of the word are more likely to favour that subordinate meaning. Such word-meaning priming effects have been shown to be maintained via sleep-related consolidation, leading some to suggest that declarative memory systems play a crucial role in language comprehension, providing a relatively enduring contextually bound memory trace for the ambiguous word. By this account, word-meaning priming effects should be observable for all words, not just homonyms. In three experiments, participants were exposed to non-homonym targets (e.g., “balloon”) in sentences that biased interpretation towards a specific aspect of the word's meaning (e.g., balloon‑helium vs. balloon-float). After a ~ 10–30 min delay, the targets were presented in relatedness judgement and associate production tasks to assess whether the sentential contexts enhanced access to the primed aspect of the word's meaning. The results reveal that word-meaning priming effects do extend to non-homonyms. Indeed, there was also some evidence of a more generalised priming that did not rely on prior presentation of the non-homonym itself. We argue that context-specific interpretations of words are maintained during recognition in order to facilitate comprehension over longer periods.

Assessing Distinct Cognitive Workload Levels Associated with Unambiguous and Ambiguous Pronoun Resolutions in Human-Machine Interactions.

Pronoun resolution plays an important role in language comprehension. However, little is known about its recruited cognitive mechanisms. Our investigation aims to explore the cognitive mechanisms underlying various types of pronoun resolution in Chinese using an electroencephalograph (EEG). We used three convolutional neural networks (CNNs)—LeNeT-5, GoogleNet, and EffifcientNet—to discover high-level feature abstractions of the EEG spatial topologies. The output of the three models was then fused using different scales by principal component analysis (PCA) to achieve cognitive workload classification. Overall, the workload classification rate by fusing three deep networks can be achieved at 55–63% in a participant-specific manner. We provide evidence that both the behavioral indicator of reaction time and the neural indicator of cognitive workload collected during pronoun resolution vary depending on the type of the pronoun. We observed an increase in reaction time accompanied by a decrease of the theta power while participants were processing ambiguous pronoun resolution compared to unambiguous controls. We propose that ambiguous pronoun resolution involves a more time-consuming yet more flexible cognitive mechanism, consistent with the predictions of the decision-making framework from an influential pragmatic tradition. Our results extend previous research that the cognitive states of resolving ambiguous and unambiguous pronouns are differentiated, indicating that cognitive workload evaluated using the method of machine learning for analysis of EEG signals acts as a complementary indicator for studying pronoun resolution and serves as an important inspiration for human–machine interaction.

The Neural Basis of Semantic Prediction in Sentence Comprehension.

Although prediction plays an important role in language comprehension, its precise neural basis remains unclear. This fMRI study investigated whether and how semantic-category-specific and common cerebral areas are recruited in predictive semantic processing during sentence comprehension. We manipulated the semantic constraint of sentence contexts, upon which a tool-related, a building-related, or no specific category of noun is highly predictable. This noun-predictability effect was measured not only over the target nouns but also over their preceding transitive verbs. Both before and after the appearance of target nouns, left anterior supramarginal gyrus was specifically activated for tool-related nouns and left parahippocampal place area was activated specifically for building-related nouns. The semantic-category common areas included a subset of left inferior frontal gyrus during the anticipation of incoming target nouns (activity enhancement for high predictability) and included a wide spread of areas (bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, left superior/middle temporal gyrus, left medial pFC, and left TPJ) during the integration of actually perceived nouns (activity reduction for high predictability). These results indicated that the human brain recruits fine divisions of cortical areas to distinguish different semantic categories of predicted words, and anticipatory semantic processing relies, at least partially, on top-down prediction conducted in higher-level cortical areas.

Similarity of Computations Across Domains Does Not Imply Shared Implementation: The Case of Language Comprehension

Understanding language requires applying cognitive operations (e.g., memory retrieval, prediction, structure building) that are relevant across many cognitive domains to specialized knowledge structures (e.g., a particular language’s lexicon and syntax). Are these computations carried out by domain-general circuits or by circuits that store domain-specific representations? Recent work has characterized the roles in language comprehension of the language network, which is selective for high-level language processing, and the multiple-demand (MD) network, which has been implicated in executive functions and linked to fluid intelligence and thus is a prime candidate for implementing computations that support information processing across domains. The language network responds robustly to diverse aspects of comprehension, but the MD network shows no sensitivity to linguistic variables. We therefore argue that the MD network does not play a core role in language comprehension and that past findings suggesting the contrary are likely due to methodological artifacts. Although future studies may reveal some aspects of language comprehension that require the MD network, evidence to date suggests that those will not be related to core linguistic processes such as lexical access or composition. The finding that the circuits that store linguistic knowledge carry out computations on those representations aligns with general arguments against the separation of memory and computation in the mind and brain.

Speech perception and production as constructs of action: Implications for models of L2 development

Speech production involves an intricate set of actions. Its underlying cognitive mechanisms are thus historically seen as distant from those of speech perception, usually assumed to be a passive process. However, dynamic perspectives on language congregate grammar and language use, approximate phonetics and phonology, and value the role of speech perception in language development. Recent studies argue that speech production and perception are overlaying or at least highly interacting. Some scholars claim that the link between these two processes surpasses the acoustics, as studies have revealed that action also has a role in language comprehension. Phonic gestures are not just mechanisms by means of which one experiences speech production, but are supporting to perception. In this perspective, models interested in L2 development face a twofold challenge: to amalgamate speech perception and production, and to consider that speech transcends the acoustics, since - in a dynamic frame of reference - phonetic-phonological representations are auditory, gestural and general. This paper aims at presenting evidence for a gesture-driven perspective to L2 speech development in which the gesture is a phonological primitive that pervades and connects speech perception and production. By emphasizing a gesture-driven point of view, this work presents congruent and incongruent tenets among some hegemonic models for L2 speech development and an ecological/dynamic account.

Ideography Leads Us to the Field of Cognition: A Radical-Guided Associative Model for Chinese Text Classification

Cognitive psychology research shows that humans have the instinct for abstract thinking, where association plays an essential role in language comprehension. Especially for Chinese, its ideographic writing system allows radicals to trigger semantic association without the need of phonetics. In fact, subconsciously using the associative information guided by radicals is a key for readers to ensure the robustness of semantic understanding. Fortunately, many basic and extended concepts related to radicals are systematically included in Chinese language dictionaries, which leaves a handy but unexplored way for improving Chinese text representation and classification. To this end, we draw inspirations from cognitive principles between ideography and human associative behavior to propose a novel Radical-guided Associative Model (RAM) for Chinese text classification. RAM comprises two coupled spaces, namely Literal Space and Associative Space, which imitates the real process in people's mind when understanding a Chinese text. To be specific, we first devise a serialized modeling structure in Literal Space to thoroughly capture the sequential information of Chinese text. Then, based on the authoritative information provided by Chinese language dictionaries, we design an association module and put forward a strategy called Radical-Word Association to use ideographic radicals as the medium to associate prior concept words in Associative Space. Afterwards, we design an attention module to imitate people's matching and decision between Literal Space and Associative Space, which can balance the importance of each associative words under specific contexts. Finally, extensive experiments on two real-world datasets prove the effectiveness and rationality of RAM, with good cognitive insights for future language modeling.

The processing of pronominal relative clauses: Evidence from eye movements

Relative clauses have played a key role in distinguishing between different theories of language comprehension. A reversal in processing costs between full NP and pronominal relative clauses reported by Reali and Christiansen (2007) has been used to argue for expectation-based theories of comprehension (e.g., Hale, 2001, Levy, 2008), and against memory-based theories of comprehension (e.g., Gibson, 1998, Gibson, 2000, Gordon et al., 2001, Lewis et al., 2006). We present results relying on eye-movements during reading, in conjunction with modeling of differences between self-paced reading and eye movement data, to argue that the results observed by Reali and Christiansen and others are due to the self-paced reading paradigm, and do not reflect an actual reversal in processing costs. Overall, our results suggest that a combination of memory-based factors and spillover explains the pattern of reading times observed in various relative clause experiments such as those in Reali and Christiansen (2007), and that while comprehenders’ expectations undeniably play a role in language comprehension, the role may be less dramatic than is suggested by previous studies.

Dissociable electrophysiological measures of natural language processing reveal differences in speech comprehension strategy in healthy ageing

Healthy ageing leads to changes in the brain that impact upon sensory and cognitive processing. It is not fully clear how these changes affect the processing of everyday spoken language. Prediction is thought to play an important role in language comprehension, where information about upcoming words is pre-activated across multiple representational levels. However, evidence from electrophysiology suggests differences in how older and younger adults use context-based predictions, particularly at the level of semantic representation. We investigate these differences during natural speech comprehension by presenting older and younger subjects with continuous, narrative speech while recording their electroencephalogram. We use time-lagged linear regression to test how distinct computational measures of (1) semantic dissimilarity and (2) lexical surprisal are processed in the brains of both groups. Our results reveal dissociable neural correlates of these two measures that suggest differences in how younger and older adults successfully comprehend speech. Specifically, our results suggest that, while younger and older subjects both employ context-based lexical predictions, older subjects are significantly less likely to pre-activate the semantic features relating to upcoming words. Furthermore, across our group of older adults, we show that the weaker the neural signature of this semantic pre-activation mechanism, the lower a subject’s semantic verbal fluency score. We interpret these findings as prediction playing a generally reduced role at a semantic level in the brains of older listeners during speech comprehension and that these changes may be part of an overall strategy to successfully comprehend speech with reduced cognitive resources.

What Are Constructions, and What Else Is Out There? An Associationist Perspective

Constructionist approaches to language propose that the language system is a network of constructions, defined as bidirectional mappings between a complex form and a meaning. This paper critically evaluates the evidence for and against two possible construals of this proposal as a psycholinguistic theory: that direct, bidirectional form-meaning associations play a central role in language comprehension and production, and the stronger claim that they are the only type of association at play. Bidirectional form-meaning associations are argued to be plausible, despite some apparent evidence against bidirectionality. However, form-meaning associations are insufficient to account for some morphological patterns. In particular, there is convincing evidence for productive paradigmatic mappings that are phonologically arbitrary, which cannot be captured by form-meaning mappings alone, without associations between paradigmatically related forms or constructions. Paradigmatic associations are argued to be unidirectional. In addition, subtraction and backformation at first glance require augmenting the associative networks with conditioned operations (rules). However, it is argued that allowing for negative form-meaning associations accommodates subtraction and backformation within the constructionist approach without introducing any additional mechanisms. The interplay of positive and negative form-meaning associations and paradigmatic mappings is exemplified using a previously undescribed morphological construction in Russian, thebez-Adjective construction.

Closing the Word-Problem Achievement Gap in First Grade: Schema-Based Word-Problem Intervention with Embedded Language Comprehension Instruction.

The main purpose of this study was to test the effects of word-problem intervention, with versus without embedded language comprehension instruction, on at-risk 1st graders' word-problem performance. We also isolated the need for a structured approach to word-problem intervention and tested the efficacy of schema-based instruction at 1st grade. Children (n=391; mean age = 6.53, SD = 0.32) were randomly assigned to 4 conditions: schema-based word-problem intervention with embedded language instruction, the same word-problem intervention but without language comprehension instruction, structured number knowledge intervention without a structured word-problem component, and a control group. Each intervention included 45 30-min sessions. Multilevel models, accounting for classroom and school effects, revealed the efficacy of schema-based word-problem intervention at 1st grade, with both word-problem conditions outperforming the number knowledge condition and the control group. Yet, word-problem performance was significantly stronger for the schema-based condition with embedded language comprehension instruction compared to the schema-based condition without language comprehension instruction. Number knowledge intervention conveyed no word-problem advantage over the control group, even though all 3 intervention conditions outperformed the control group on arithmetic. Results demonstrate the importance of a structured approach to word-problem intervention; the efficacy of schema-based instruction at 1st grade; and the added value of language comprehension instruction within word-problem intervention. Results also provide causal evidence on the role of language comprehension in word-problem solving.

Emotion matters

Abstract Recent theories and neural models of co-speech gesture have extensively considered its cognitive role in language comprehension but have ignored the emotional function. We investigated the integration of speech and co-speech gestures in memory for verbal information with different emotional connotations (either positive, negative, or neutral). In a surprise cued-recall task, gesture boosted memory for speech with all three emotional valences. Interestingly, gesture was more likely to become integrated into memory of neutrally and positively valenced speech than negatively valenced speech. The results suggest that gesture-speech integration is modulated by emotional valence of speech, which has implications for the emotional function of gesture in language comprehension.

Proficiency and Giftedness: The Role of Language Comprehension in Gifted Identification and Achievement

English learners (ELs) are the fastest growing population of students in the United States and currently represent nearly 10% of public school enrollment; however, they also constitute less than 3% of gifted program enrollment in these schools. Although an increasing number of studies explore this underrepresentation, research that specifically examines the role of language proficiency in gifted identification is limited. This study explored the role of several factors on ELs’ time to reclassification (the point at which students are considered to have reached language proficiency and are no longer classified as ELs) and, in turn, being identified for gifted services. The findings suggested notable demographic and socioeconomic influences on the time to reclassification of ELs. Students who were reclassified earlier tended to be enrolled in schools with more gifted students and had a greater probability of being identified as gifted.

The Role of Perceptual Simulation in L2 Vocabulary Acquisition

Research in embodied cognition suggests that perceptual simulation may play a role in language comprehension. In this study we use a combination of experimental and qualitative research to explore the potential of simulation exercises to improve acquisition of esoteric literary English vocabulary by English majors at a Chinese University. Through quantitative analysis of the data from one pre-test and two post-tests of the experimental and control groups, and qualitative examination of the student feedback collected from an open-ended survey and face-to-face interviews, we find that most of the students in both conditions have simulations of the learned words whether based on self-determined Chinese trigger words or given English language prompts to them, and skilled language learners intuitively adopt perceptual simulations. The research findings give teachers some enlightenment on the pedagogical strategies that might encourage less proficient learners to incorporate perceptual simulations in their study habits.

Verbal Working Memory as Emergent from Language Comprehension and Production.

This article reviews current models of verbal working memory and considers the role of language comprehension and long-term memory in the ability to maintain and order verbal information for short periods of time. While all models of verbal working memory posit some interaction with long-term memory, few have considered the character of these long-term representations or how they might affect performance on verbal working memory tasks. Similarly, few models have considered how comprehension processes and production processes might affect performance in verbal working memory tasks. Modern theories of comprehension emphasize that people learn a vast web of correlated information about the language and the world and must activate that information from long-term memory to cope with the demands of language input. To date, there has been little consideration in theories of verbal working memory for how this rich input from comprehension would affect the nature of temporary memory. There has also been relatively little attention to the degree to which language production processes naturally manage serial order of verbal information. The authors argue for an emergent model of verbal working memory supported by a rich, distributed long-term memory for language. On this view, comprehension processes provide encoding in verbal working memory tasks, and production processes maintenance, serial ordering, and recall. Moreover, the computational capacity to maintain and order information varies with language experience. Implications for theories of working memory, comprehension, and production are considered.

Improving Language Comprehension to Enhance Word-Problem Solving

The focus of this article is the role of language comprehension within word-problem solving (WPS). The role of the language comprehension in WPS is explained, and an overview of research illustrating language comprehension’s contribution to WPS is described. Next, an innovative intervention that embeds word problem (WP)-specific language comprehension instruction within a validated form of schema-based WP intervention is described, and the methods and results of a randomized controlled trial assessing the added value of embedding WP-specific language comprehension instruction are outlined. Implications for practice and future research are drawn.

Effects of Implicit Prosody and Semantic Bias on the Resolution of Ambiguous Chinese Phrases.

By manipulating the location of prosodic boundary and the semantic bias of the ambiguous “V+N1+de+N2” phrase, which is composed of one verb (V), one noun (N1), one functional word (de), and another noun (N2), this study investigated how prosodic boundary and the semantic bias affect the processing of temporary ambiguous sentences formed by the ambiguous phrase “V+N1+de+N2” through an eye movement experiment. We found the effect of prosodic boundary in the late processing stage and observed an interaction between prosodic boundary and the semantic bias of ambiguous phrases as well. The participants required more time for fixation and more regressions occurred when the meaning of the ambiguous phrase guided by prosodic boundary was inconsistent with context, especially when the ambiguous phrase was biased to the narrative-object phrase. This result suggests that prosodic boundary affects the processing of temporal ambiguous sentences and is influenced by the semantic bias of the ambiguous phrase. These findings provide further evidence from Chinese that indicate that implicit prosody plays a general role in language comprehension.