Sentence Comprehension Test Research Articles

The left posterior sMMN: a marker of syntactic processing compensation in agrammatic aphasia

ABSTRACT Background Agrammatic aphasia poses challenges in assessing grammatical abilities due to language comprehension difficulties. The suitability of sMMN as an indicator of syntactic processing abilities in these individuals remains uncertain. Aims Two ERP experiments were conducted to investigate whether early syntactic mismatch negativity (sMMN) could assess the syntactic processing ability of Chinese-speaking individuals with agrammatic aphasia. Methods & Procedures Prior to the ERP experiments, the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) and the Northwestern Assessment of Verbs and Sentences-Chinese (NAVS-C) were used to screen people with agrammatism. ERP data were collected for both the agrammatic group (AG) (n = 12) and the control group (CG) (n = 12). The first experiment (Experiment 1) involved a passive tone oddball task to control for the influence of primary sound perception. The second experiment (Experiment 2: experiment 2a and experiment 2b) investigated syntactic processing through a passive speech oddball task. Experiment 2a examined the processing of correct sentences and syntactic violation sentences in context. In contrast, Experiment 2b assessed well-formed sequences and ill-formed sequences out of context. Outcomes & Results The results revealed that frontocentral distributed acoustic MMNs were recorded for the CG between 176 - 196ms in Experiment 1, but not for the AG. In Experiment 2, during the 143 - 173ms window, the left anterior sMMN was exclusively observed for the CG, while the left posterior sMMN was specific to the AG. Furthermore, the amplitudes of the left posterior sMMN (143-173ms) were found to have a negative correlation with scores on sentence comprehension tests: the more negative the sMMN, the lower the scores of people with agrammatic aphasia. Notably, this left posterior MMN was absent in Experiment 1. Conclusions The early posterior sMMN, discovered for the first time in our study, appears to be more sensitive in detecting syntactic processing impairments in agrammatics compared to the early anterior sMMN. This finding has the potential to enhance the precision of aphasia assessment.

Robot-assisted language assessment: development and evaluation of feasibility and usability

Many studies have shown that robots can provide medical help to patients, such as supporting physical movements, managing mood, or simulating cognitive function. However, robotic cognitive/language assessment, which is vital for mental health care, has not been fully explored and is limited to only a few types of assessment. The aim of this study is to present and evaluate a social robot equipped with a web-based language assessment for sentence comprehension test (SCT) with a dialogue system involving yes/no questions. A total of 50 participants took the test with 36 items conducted by a robot (robot-SCT), while a total of 55 participants took the same test but conducted by a human examiner (human-SCT). Comparative analyses were performed to evaluate the validity of the robot-SCT in terms of test scores and time-related measures. Usability was evaluated through the system usability score and interview feedback. With regard to the validity of the robot-SCT, the test scores indicated no significant differences between the robot-SCT and human-SCT. In addition, conditional differences in reaction time for the test items were observed, similar to the previous paper-and-pencil researches. The high system usability scores (i.e., mean = 78.5, SD = 11) demonstrated the high usability of the robot-SCT. This study demonstrates the validity and usability of robotic language assessment among normal adults. However, further evaluation is required for people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment.

The Influence of Language and Cognitive Skills on Narrative Retelling for Preschoolers with and without Specific Language Impairment

Objectives: This study aimed to confirm relationships between language skills (vocabulary, sentence comprehension), cognitive skills (episodic buffer) and narrative retelling in typically developing (TD) children and children with specific language impairment (SLI).Methods: A total of 24 children aged 5 to 6 years participated in this study, including SLI (n= 8) and TD (n= 16). Participants completed a vocabulary test, sentence comprehension test, episodic buffer task, and narrative retelling task. Narratives were analyzed for macrostructure (story grammar). An independent sample <i>t</i>-test was used to examine the difference between groups. And correlation and simple regression analysis was conducted to confirm relationships between narrative retelling and other variables in each group.Results: The SLI group showed significantly lower expressive vocabulary, sentence comprehension, episodic buffer, and narrative retelling skills. In the TD group, there was no significant correlation between narrative retelling skills and other variables. However, a significant correlation was revealed between narrative retelling skills and episodic buffer in the SLI group. Also, the episodic buffer significantly predicted the SLI group’s narrative retelling skills.Conclusion: These results confirmed that narrative retelling requires not just language skills but cognitive skills. Therefore, it is important to consider the role of cognitive skills when planning and implementing intervention for children with SLI. Further studies are required to investigate the likelihood that other language or cognitive skills have an impact on narrative skills.

Syntactic complexity differentially affects auditory sentence comprehension performance for individuals with age-related hearing loss.

This study examined whether older adults with hearing loss (HL) experience greater difficulties in auditory sentence comprehension compared to those with typical-hearing (TH) when the linguistic burdens of syntactic complexity were systematically manipulated by varying either the sentence type (active vs. passive) or sentence length (3- vs. 4-phrases). A total of 22 individuals with HL and 24 controls participated in the study, completing sentence comprehension test (SCT), standardized memory assessments, and pure-tone audiometry tests. Generalized linear mixed effects models were employed to compare the effects of sentence type and length on SCT accuracy, while Pearson correlation coefficients were conducted to explore the relationships between SCT accuracy and other factors. Additionally, stepwise regression analyses were employed to identify memory-related predictors of sentence comprehension ability. Older adults with HL exhibited poorer performance on passive sentences than on active sentences compared to controls, while the sentence length was controlled. Greater difficulties on passive sentences were linked to working memory capacity, emerging as the most significant predictor for the comprehension of passive sentences among participants with HL. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the linguistic-cognitive deficits linked to age-related hearing loss by demonstrating its detrimental impact on the processing of passive sentences. Cognitively healthy adults with hearing difficulties may face challenges in comprehending syntactically more complex sentences that require higher computational demands, particularly in working memory allocation.

가상현실(Virtual Reality) 기반 노인난청의 청능훈련프로그램 사례연구

Objectives In this study, a virtual reality (VR) auditory training program, which was created to provide experiences similar to reality through computer software and hardware with the development of technology according to the 4th industry, was conducted with auditory training for 6 weeks (1 session per week) for two elderly people with hearing loss, and the change in word recognition and sentence comprehension ability was investigated.
 Methods For this purpose, 6 sessions of auditory training programs using virtual reality contents (eating out, go on a trip, making phone calls, watching radio, talking in public transportation (subway), using public institutions (hospital)) were provided for 6 weeks (1 session per week). The effects of the auditory training program, word recognition and sentence comprehension tests were conducted before-and-after implementing the program.
 Results The results of the virtual reality-based auditory training program for two elderly people with hearing loss are as follows: First, presbycusis A and B showed improved scores in word recognition as auditory training sessions were repeated, and training was effective even under difficult hearing conditions with noise. Second, when the pre-test and post-test values were compared, there was no significant difference in the change in word and sentence recognition of the two presbycusis.
 Conclusions This study focused on improving listening ability by conducting a daily life-oriented virtual reality auditory training program for the elderly with hearing loss. In addition, it is meaningful in that it provides motivation for hearing ability through auditory training to the elderly who have worn hearing aids for a long time and the necessity of systematic auditory training.

Development of a test of sentence comprehension for adult speakers of Danish as a second language

Development of a test of sentence comprehension for adult speakers of Danish as a second language

Revolutionising dual language learning for young learners with the RILCA app: a mobile-assisted approach

The rising popularity of mobile technologies has led to an increase in mobile-assisted language learning, in which students can independently learn any language at any time they choose. However, research into the efficacy of such studies for dual-language learning has been restricted, notably in regard to a researcher-created mobile learning application (app). This paper reports on a study that examined the dual-language development of 146 young Thai pupils from three different primary schools who participated in a fifteen-week language instruction experiment through the use of the RILCA app. They were assigned to either an experimental group (mobile-supported class) with RILCA-based activity or a control group (conventional class) that performed traditional activity. At the conclusion of the experiment, a dual-language vocabulary, sentence, and grammatical achievement test was conducted to see whether this mobile app increased the course's learning outcomes. The findings of the vocabulary, sentence, and grammatical comprehension tests reveal that the experimental group outperformed the control group. Implications for deploying the RILCA app to boost dual language learning in elementary schools are also discussed.

Language impairment in Parkinson's disease: fMRI study of sentence reading comprehension.

Parkinson's disease (PD) affects the language processes, with a significant impact on the patients' daily communication. We aimed to describe specific alterations in the comprehension of syntactically complex sentences in patients with PD (PwPD) as compared to healthy controls (HC) and to identify the neural underpinnings of these deficits using a functional connectivity analysis of the striatum. A total of 20 patients PwPD and 15 HC participated in the fMRI study. We analyzed their performance of a Test of sentence comprehension (ToSC) adjusted for fMRI. A task-dependent functional connectivity analysis of the striatum was conducted using the psychophysiological interaction method (PPI). On the behavioral level, the PwPD scored significantly lower (mean ± sd: 77.3 ± 12.6) in the total ToSC score than the HC did (mean ± sd: 86.6 ± 8.0), p = 0.02, and the difference was also significant specifically for sentences with a non-canonical word order (PD-mean ± sd: 69.9 ± 14.1, HC-mean ± sd: 80.2 ± 11.5, p = 0.04). Using PPI, we found a statistically significant difference between the PwPD and the HC in connectivity from the right striatum to the supplementary motor area [SMA, (4 8 53)] for non-canonical sentences. This PPI connectivity was negatively correlated with the ToSC accuracy of non-canonical sentences in the PwPD. Our results showed disturbed sentence reading comprehension in the PwPD with altered task-dependent functional connectivity from the right striatum to the SMA, which supports the synchronization of the temporal and sequential aspects of language processing. The study revealed that subcortical-cortical networks (striatal-frontal loop) in PwPD are compromised, leading to impaired comprehension of syntactically complex sentences.

Sentence comprehension test for Russian: A tool to assess syntactic competence.

Although all healthy adults have advanced syntactic processing abilities in their native language, psycholinguistic studies report extensive variation among them. However, very few tests were developed to assess this variation, presumably, because when adult native speakers focus on syntactic processing, not being distracted by other tasks, they usually reach ceiling performance. We developed a Sentence Comprehension Test for the Russian language aimed to fill this gap. The test captures variation among participants and does not show ceiling effects. The Sentence Comprehension Test includes 60 unambiguous grammatically complex sentences and 40 control sentences that are of the same length, but are syntactically simpler. Every sentence is accompanied by a comprehension question targeting potential syntactic processing problems and interpretation errors associated with them. Grammatically complex sentences were selected on the basis of the previous literature and then tested in a pilot study. As a result, six constructions that trigger the largest number of errors were identified. For these constructions, we also analyzed which ones are associated with the longest word-by-word reading times, question answering times and the highest error rates. These differences point to different sources of syntactic processing difficulties and can be relied upon in subsequent studies. We conducted two experiments to validate the final version of the test. Getting similar results in two independent experiments, as well as in two presentation modes (reading and listening modes are compared in Experiment 2) confirms its reliability. In Experiment 1, we also showed that the results of the test correlate with the scores in the verbal working memory span test.

Validation study and introduction of the new TEPO sentence comprehension test for children aged 3–8 years

Validation study and introduction of the new TEPO sentence comprehension test for children aged 3–8 years

False Belief Understanding in Deaf Children With Cochlear Implants.

Theory of mind (ToM) is crucial for social interactions. Previous research has indicated that deaf and hard-of-hearing children born into hearing families (DoH) are at risk of delayed ToM development. However, it is unclear whether this is the case for DoH children who receive cochlear implants (CIs) before and around the second year of life. The present study aimed to investigate false belief understanding (FBU) in DoH children with CIs. The relationships between false belief task (FBT) performance, sentence comprehension, age at implantation, duration of CI use, and Speech Recognition Threshold were explored. A total of 94 children with typical levels of hearing (TH) and 45 DoH children (age range: 3–8), who received their first CI between 6 and 27 months of age, were tested on the FBT and a sentence comprehension test. Results showed that 4- and 5-year-old children with CIs performed significantly worse than their peers with TH on the FBT; 6- to 8-year-old children with CIs performed similarly to age-matched children with TH. Age at implantation and duration of CI use were correlated with sentence comprehension but not with the FBT. The results indicated that FBU was delayed until the age of 6 years in most of children with CIs.

Minimization of a Short Computer-Based Test in Reading

Formative tests and assessments have high potential in supporting learning, especially for students with special educational needs. One approach to gain assessment information on student learning is to monitor learning progress. For that, multiple repeated tests are often performed by practitioners. In order to be useful in practice, tests must meet various interdependent quality criteria. A property of tests that touches various criteria as the utility and economy is the length. A test has to be long enough to give a meaningful, reliable and comparable measure but short enough to be usable in classroom situations. An approach to evaluate and minimize the length of a computer-based test on sentence comprehension is introduced. It is shown that the test can be shortened from eight to 5 min while the estimation of the student´s abilities remains relatively stable for a random item order and a fixed item order variant. The consequences of test development of progress monitoring and the procedure for test time reduction for the different quality criteria are outlined. An approach to evaluate and minimize the length of a computer-based test by using a one parameter logistic model on a test of sentence comprehension (N = 761) is introduced. The data and the syntax is published in the OSF project https://osf.io/hnbs8/.

Exploring the Similarity Between Implicit and Explicit Prosody: Prosodic Phrasing and Individual Differences.

In recent years, work carried out in the context of the implicit prosody hypothesis (IPH) has called into question the assumption that implicit (i.e., silently generated) prosody and explicit (overtly produced) prosody are similar in form. Focusing on prosodic phrasing, the present study explored this issue using an individual differences approach, and using methods that do not rely on the sentence comprehension tests characteristic of work within the IPH program. A large group of native English speakers participated in a production experiment intended to identify individual differences in average prosodic phrase length, phonologically defined. We then explored whether these (explicit) prosodic differences were related to two other kinds of variation, each with a connection to implicit prosody. First, we tested whether individual differences in explicit prosodic phrase length were predicted by individual differences in working memory capacity, a relationship that has been established for implicit prosody. Second, we explored whether participants' explicit prosodic phrase lengths were predictive of their behavior in a silent-reading task in which they had to identify their own implicit prosodic groupings. In both cases, the findings are argued to be consistent with a similarity between explicit and implicit prosody. First, participants with higher working memory capacity (as estimated by reading spans) were associated with longer prosodic phrases. Second, participants who produced longer explicit prosodic phrases in speech tended to report generating longer prosodic phrases in silent reading. Implications for the nature of implicit prosody, and how it can be studied, are discussed.

Dificultades morfosintácticas en niños y niñas de 5 a 8 años con trastorno del desarrollo del lenguaje a través de subpruebas del CELF-4

Background and objectiveThe aim of the present study is to analyse the morphosyntactic difficulties (expressive and receptive skills) of children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Three subtests of the CELF-4 were assessed. Firstly expressive language was assessed using the subtest estructura de palabras (word production) and formulación de oraciones (sentence production), secondly receptive language was assessed with the subtest estructura de oraciones (sentence comprehension). Method25 children with DLD and 25 children with typical development took part of the study, they were 5-8 years old, bilingual Catalan-Spanish, sex and age-matched. The word production subtest assessed the word production, specifically the ability to establish nominal and verbal inflexions, word derivations, comparisons and pronouns. Receptive language was assessed through the sentence comprehension test, considering the syntactic structure comprehension by the selection of the image that showed the oral sentence heard. The sentence production was assessed by giving to the participants a word that they had to use to create a sentence.The results obtained were also analysed to item level considering the type of word and sentence complexity, in order to describe more specifically the morphosyntactic difficulties shown. Resultsthe results showed that children with DLD had more grammatical difficulties than the typical development group, especially with verbs and in complex sentences. In addition, comprehension was found less impaired than production. ConclusionsAssessing the morphological cues and different types of sentences is important for boys and girls with DLD in order to establish better interventions to cover their needs.

Influence of music therapy in the understanding of spoken language in users of cochlear implant

Background: The cochlear implant (CI) is one of the most important recent technological advances in healthcare. Even with this new technology, participants continue to have complaints regarding the performance of the CI. Auditory training is a procedure that provides the individual with performance improvements in auditory skills. One possible auditory training is music therapy. Objective: To verify the influence of music therapy on spoken language comprehension in participants who are post-lingual users of cochlear implants. Design and setting: The current research is a cross-sectional study. It was carried out in a university public institution, with a tertiary healthcare ranking. Method: Nine post-lingual implanted individuals participated in this study (average age: 52 years). These individuals had ten music therapy sessions, conducted once a week. The sentence comprehension test was used for hearing evaluation. All participants underwent a homework moment before the music therapy, and they were evaluated at three different times. Results: We observed significant improvement in understanding spoken sentences after music therapy. Conclusion: Music therapy was a useful tool for improving auditory and speech comprehension skills in post-lingual users of cochlear implants.

Sentence and Connected Speech Perception Abilities of Students with Cochlear Implant in Inclusive Classroom

Purpose: As the number of cochlear implant (CI) students has steadily increased in Korea, the number of CI students enrolled in inclusive classrooms has also risen. The present study aimed to investigate speech perception abilities at the sentence and connected speech levels of the CI students in inclusive classroom settings and to analyze the effects of chronological age, age at CI implantation, and wearing period of CI on speech perception.Methods: A total of 63 students were recruited from elementary (30 students) and secondary (33 students) schools. The speech perception were assessed by three sub-tests from the Korea National Institute for Special Education-Developmental Assessment of Speech Perception: Sentence Recognition Test (SRT), Sentence Comprehension Test (SCT), and Connected Speech Test (CST).Results: The results showed that there was no significant difference between SRT and SCT, but performances in CST were significantly poorer than those in sentence-level tests for both CI student groups. Also, both elementary and secondary school CI students showed, individually, a wide range of differences in performance across all tests. In SRT, SCT, and CST, 30-53% of the elementary and 23-39% of the secondary CI students did not reach the norm (-2 standard deviation) ranges, when compared to their normal peers. Multiple regression analysis indicated that the effects of three variables on speech perception were not significant.Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that the CI students in the inclusive classroom need individualized rehabilitative and educational supports.

An Online Tool to Assess Sentence Comprehension in Teenagers at Risk for School Exclusion: Evidence From L2 Italian Students.

This study presents a web-based sentence comprehension test aimed at identifying high school students who are at risk for a language delay. By assessing linguistic skills on a sample of high school students with Italian as an L2 and their monolingual peers, attending a vocational school, we were able to identify a subgroup of L2 students with consistent difficulties in sentence comprehension, though their reading skills were within the average range. The same subgroup revealed to experience a lack of support within the school context, suggesting that poor L2 skills might be a critical variable to consider in order to identify students at risk for school exclusion. Regarding the test, accuracy to the on-line sentence comprehension task was significantly predicted by reading abilities and vocabulary skills, thus indicating that this test might represent a rapid but efficient way to assess linguistic abilities at school. We recommend that establishing a valid and practical procedure for the evaluation of linguistic skills in bilingual students who struggle with their L2 is the first step toward promoting social inclusion in the multilingual classroom, in order to increase their ability to actively participate in school and social activities.

Communication impairment in patients with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease without dementia

Parkinson's disease (PD) is viewed as a motor disorder, but there are also a variety of communication impairments associated with this disorder. Problems appear even early on in the early stages of illness. Beside of problems in speech intelligibility, both language production and comprehension impairments can negatively influence communication in patients with PD. To compare speech comprehensibility, lexical retrieval and sentence comprehension in PD patients and healthy controls (HC). We enrolled 84 patients with idiopathic PD without dementia (47 men, H&Y stage 2.0 ± 0.5 and total MDS-UPDRS part III 31 ± 11,18) and sex, age and education-matched 82 HC (50 men). Every patient with PD in our study was in the early or starting moderate stage of the disease. Speech Intelligibility Test (T-ZROD), Naming Test, and Sentence Comprehension Test were used to assess individuals in both groups. We found significant differences in speech comprehensibility (intelligibility in context) measured by oral reading semantically non-predictable randomly selected sentences were found. Object, action and total naming performance did not differ across groups, however, there was a significantly larger delay in naming of objects and actions in the PD group. Patients with PD made significantly more errors than healthy controls in comprehension of reversible sentences. There are multiple communication impairment associated with PD even in mild and moderate stage. Problems can be present at sentence comprehension, as well in lexical retrieval of words in speech production, and difficulties can appear also at speech comprehensibility in everyday communication.

Performance de crianças com desenvolvimento típico de linguagem em tarefas de produção e compreensão de orações relativas em relação ao desempenho escolar

Objetivo: Analisar a performance de crianças com desenvolvimento típico de linguagem, em tarefas de produção e de compreensão de orações relativas comparando com o desempenho escolar. Métodos: Fizeram parte deste estudo 30 crianças, com idades entre 4:0 e 8:11 (anos:meses). Foi realizada avaliação fonológica da criança (AFC), exame articulatório, teste de compreensão de orações relativas, teste de produção de orações relativas, avaliação da linguagem oral e triagem auditiva. Para análise do desempenho escolar, foi dada uma escala de 1 a 5 para a professora responsável pela criança. Após, foram selecionadas as crianças dentro dos critérios de inclusão e divididas por desempenho escolar. Os resultados foram analisados estatisticamente, realizando a comparação entre o desempenho escolar e a compreensão de orações relativas, e entre o desempenho escolar e a produção das orações relativas. Resultados: Na comparação entre o desempenho escolar e o teste de compreensão, houve diferença estatística, indicando que quanto melhor o desempenho escolar, melhor o desempenho no teste de compreensão de orações relativas. Na comparação do desempenho escolar com o teste de produção, não houve diferença estatística significativa. Conclusão: O desempenho escolar interfere na compreensão das orações relativas, pois, quanto melhor o desempenho escolar melhor será a performance das crianças no teste de compreensão de orações relativas. Quanto à produção, o desempenho escolar não interfere.

Effects of Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Intervention on Comprehension-Related Outcomes for Ninth Graders With Low Reading Comprehension

This experimental study examined the efficacy of a multicomponent reading intervention compared to a business-as-usual comparison condition on the reading comprehension and content area vocabulary outcomes of adolescent students with low reading comprehension. We randomly assigned 9th-grade students with low reading comprehension to a researcher-provided intervention (n = 51) or a business-as-usual comparison (n = 49) group. Reading interventionists provided weekly instruction for 2 semesters (M = 114 hr) to small groups of students (M = 5). We estimated intervention effects for each outcome measure using repeated measures analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) for measures of reading and vocabulary. Results indicated statistically significant differences between students in the intervention and comparison conditions on measures of vocabulary and on the Test of Sentence Reading Efficiency and Comprehension (TOSREC) and no differences on the Woodcock–Johnson III Passage Comprehension subtest. Repeated measures ANCOVAs indicated large effect sizes on vocabulary measures between intervention and comparison students on multiple-choice and free response items (ηp2 = .16 and .19, respectively) and small effect sizes on the TOSREC (ηp2 = .02).