Understanding Of Language Processing Research Articles

The bridge of iconicity: from a world of experience to the experience of language.

Iconicity, a resemblance between properties of linguistic form (both in spoken and signed languages) and meaning, has traditionally been considered to be a marginal, irrelevant phenomenon for our understanding of language processing, development and evolution. Rather, the arbitrary and symbolic nature of language has long been taken as a design feature of the human linguistic system. In this paper, we propose an alternative framework in which iconicity in face-to-face communication (spoken and signed) is a powerful vehicle for bridging between language and human sensori-motor experience, and, as such, iconicity provides a key to understanding language evolution, development and processing. In language evolution, iconicity might have played a key role in establishing displacement (the ability of language to refer beyond what is immediately present), which is core to what language does; in ontogenesis, iconicity might play a critical role in supporting referentiality (learning to map linguistic labels to objects, events, etc., in the world), which is core to vocabulary development. Finally, in language processing, iconicity could provide a mechanism to account for how language comes to be embodied (grounded in our sensory and motor systems), which is core to meaningful communication.

Multilingual Stroop performance: Effects of trilingualism and proficiency on inhibitory control

Previous research suggests that multilinguals' languages are constantly co-activated and that experience managing this co-activation changes inhibitory control function. The present study examined language interaction and inhibitory control using a colour-word Stroop task. Multilingual participants were tested in their three most proficient languages. The classic Stroop effect was detected in all three languages, with participants performing more accurately on congruent than on incongruent trials. Multilinguals were faster and more accurate in the within-language-competition condition than in the between-language-competition condition, indicating that additional processing costs are required when stimulus and response languages differ. Language proficiency influenced speed, accuracy and error patterns in multilingual Stroop task performance. These findings augment our understanding of language processing and inhibitory control in multilingual populations and suggest that experience using multiple languages changes demands on cognitive function.

Electrophysiological evidence for a neural substrate of morphological rule application in correct wordforms

A critical issue for understanding language processing in the brain is whether linguistic rule application is subserved by a distinct neural substrate. One of the evidence supporting this hypothesis stems from studies employing electroencephalographic measurements during the processing of rule misapplication. This evidence is inconclusive because it might reflect processes caused by the violation such as error handling rather than application of rules per se. Here we provide first evidence that correct regular formations, i.e., German past participles, are associated with left anterior negative-going activity (LAN) providing encephalographic evidence for rule application in the brain during the processing of correct words. Moreover, a LAN response is present regardless of the participles’ frequency, suggesting that independently from the mode of lexical access (i.e., decomposition or full-form activation), the cerebral structures associated with rule-based mechanisms are activated.

Examining the Acquisition of Phonological Word Forms with Computational Experiments

It has been hypothesized that known words in the lexicon strengthen newly formed representations of novel words, resulting in words with dense neighborhoods being learned more quickly than words with sparse neighborhoods. Tests of this hypothesis in a connectionist network showed that words with dense neighborhoods were learned better than words with sparse neighborhoods when the network was exposed to the words all at once (Experiment I), or gradually over time, like human word-learners (Experiment 2). This pattern was also observed despite variation in the availability of processing resources in the networks (Experiment 3). A learning advantage for words with sparse neighborhoods was observed only when the network was initially exposed to words with sparse neighborhoods and exposed to dense neighborhoods later in training (Experiment 4). The benefits of computational experiments for increasing our understanding of language processes and for the treatment of language processing disorders are discussed.

Does a focus on universals represent a new trend in word recognition?

Comparisons across languages have long been a means to investigate universal properties of the cognitive system. Although differences between languages may be salient, it is the underlying similarities that have advanced our understanding of language processing. Frost is not unique in emphasizing that the interaction among linguistic codes reinforces the inadequacy of constructing a model of word recognition where orthographic processes operate in isolation.

Early acquisition of sign language

Early acquisition of a natural language, signed or spoken, has been shown to fundamentally impact both one's ability to use the first language, and the ability to learn subsequent languages later in life (Mayberry 2007, 2009). This review summarizes a number of recent neuroimaging studies in order to detail the neural bases of sign language acquisition. The logic of this review is to present research reports that contribute to the bigger picture showing that people who acquire a natural language, spoken or signed, in the normal way possess specialized linguistic abilities and brain functions that are missing or deficient in people whose exposure to natural language is delayed or absent. Comparing the function of each brain region with regards to the processing of spoken and sign languages, we attempt to clarify the role each region plays in language processing in general, and to outline the challenges and remaining questions in understanding language processing in the brain.

Metaphor processing in high and low schizotypal individuals

Two hypotheses were considered regarding the relationship between positive schizotypy and metaphor processing. On the basis of continuity between schizophrenia and schizotypy, high schizotypal individuals would be expected to be impaired at metaphor processing. However, given the right hemisphere processing bias that has been associated with positive schizotypy, they would be expected to be superior at metaphor processing. A story completion task in which participants judged the appropriateness of literal and metaphoric statements was administered to 30 high and 29 low schizotypal individuals. Contrary to both hypotheses, groups did not differ in their ability to discriminate between appropriate and inappropriate statements, whether literal or metaphoric. However, the high schizotypal group demonstrated a less conservative response bias; they were more likely than the low schizotypal group to identify a statement as appropriate, whether it was or was not. Implications of these results for our understanding of language processing in schizophrenia and schizotypy are discussed.

Verb impairment in aphasia: A priming study of body-part overlap

Background: Verb production impairments are well documented in aphasia, especially in non-fluent aphasias with lesions of the left frontal lobe. Evidence is inconclusive about whether the impaired verb production is accompanied by inefficient processing and comprehension of verbs. It is unknown if specific semantic features of verbs, such as knowledge of the effector (body-part used to implement the action), are automatically activated by aphasic individuals during verb processing. This question is especially relevant given the growing evidence that unimpaired speakers mentally simulate the action portrayed by a verb, and action simulation is an inherent part of language comprehension (embodied action semantics). There is additional evidence that reading or listening to verbs depicting hand, mouth, or leg actions activates frontal motor areas associated with implementing hand, mouth, and leg actions respectively in unimpaired individuals (semantic somatotopy). Aims: This study examined on-line verb processing in nonfluent aphasic participants who are impaired in production of verbs. We investigated (1) whether somatotopic (body-part) information is automatically accessed when processing verbs, (2) how the time course of this activation influences processing of other somatotopically related verbs, and (3) whether somatotopic information that is devoid of action context (as in line drawings of body-parts) can affect downstream verb processing. Methods & Procedures: A visual-visual lexical priming paradigm was used. In Experiments 1 and 2, the prime–target verb pairs were somatotopically congruent, incongruent, or neutral nonword (licking–kissing; licking–clapping, xxxx–clapping respectively), and the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was short or long. Instead of verbs, the primes in Experiment 3 were line drawings of congruent or incongruent body-parts. Six nonfluent agrammatic aphasic individuals with verb retrieval difficulties participated in the study. Outcomes & Results: Aphasic participants were highly accurate in their responses. Lexical decision speed was influenced by the preceding primes in a specific pattern: somatotopically congruent primes caused a delay (interference) in response times, and this diminished with longer SOA. Incongruent primes had no effect on response times. Picture primes caused a general delay in lexical decision speed, but this was not a somatotopically specific effect. This pattern of results is identical to that observed with unimpaired participants. Conclusions: This group of verb-impaired aphasic individuals was able to automatically (and rapidly) activate somatotopic features of verbs, showing little evidence of impaired lexical-semantic representations. Hence verb processing and verb naming were found to dissociate. In addition, this study extends our understanding of language processing by showing that actions are simulated by the human brain, even when verbs are encountered as de-contextualised single words. Further, somatotopic information is necessary, but not sufficient, for action simulation.

Dissociating neural subsystems for grammar by contrasting word order and inflection

An important question in understanding language processing is whether there are distinct neural mechanisms for processing specific types of grammatical structure, such as syntax versus morphology, and, if so, what the basis of the specialization might be. However, this question is difficult to study: A given language typically conveys its grammatical information in one way (e.g., English marks "who did what to whom" using word order, and German uses inflectional morphology). American Sign Language permits either device, enabling a direct within-language comparison. During functional (f)MRI, native signers viewed sentences that used only word order and sentences that included inflectional morphology. The two sentence types activated an overlapping network of brain regions, but with differential patterns. Word order sentences activated left-lateralized areas involved in working memory and lexical access, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the inferior frontal gyrus, the inferior parietal lobe, and the middle temporal gyrus. In contrast, inflectional morphology sentences activated areas involved in building and analyzing combinatorial structure, including bilateral inferior frontal and anterior temporal regions as well as the basal ganglia and medial temporal/limbic areas. These findings suggest that for a given linguistic function, neural recruitment may depend upon on the cognitive resources required to process specific types of linguistic cues.

Short communications

Short communications Broca's aphasia is still a relatively poorly understood phenomenon. The Trace Deletion Hypothesis is one of the attempts made to explain linguistically comprehension deficits observable in this disorder. The article presents the main assumptions, claims and consequences of this hypothesis, as well as criticisms it has raised in the literature. This hypothesis offers an opportunity for shedding more light on the issue of agrammatism in Broca's aphasia, and also for improving our understanding of the phenomenon of aphasia as such and, consequently, our understanding of language processing in the human mind.

Noun or verb? Adult readers’ sensitivity to spelling cues to grammatical category in word endings

The spelling of many disyllabic English word endings holds cues to their grammatical category, beyond obvious inflectional endings such as -ing for verbs. For example, some letter sequences are clearly associated with nouns (e.g., -oon) and others with verbs (e.g., -erge). This study extended recent research by Arciuli and Cupples (2006), and confirmed that skilled adult readers are sensitive to these orthographic cues. It was found that adults were more likely to treat pseudowords as nouns when they had noun-like endings than verb-like or control endings, and more likely to treat pseudowords as verbs when they had verb-like than noun-like endings. This sensitivity held across three tasks (sentence construction, sentence judgement, and pseudoword judgement), which required increasingly explicit awareness of the way that cues could allow grammatical categorisation. In some tasks sensitivity to verb-like endings was related to reading ability, although not to spelling ability or grammatical awareness. Implications for our understanding of language processing are discussed.

Left Anterior Negativity reflects distinct neural substrate for linguistic rule application

AbstractA critical issue for understanding language processing in the brain is whether linguistic rule application is subserved by a distinct neural substrate. Previous evidence based on electroencephalographic measurements is indirect because studies focus on neural changes after rule violation, which may reflect processes caused by the violation such as error handling. Here we show that correct rule-governed formations are associated with left frontal negative-going activity, providing direct evidence for rule application in the brain.

Basic Principles of Language Intervention for Children Who Use AAC

Abstract The study of language acquisition and processing and the practice of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention have a mutual beneficial impact. Each of the three major approaches in explaining language acquisition (rationalistic, empiricist, and functionalist) provides interesting perspectives in understanding the uniqueness of language acquisition through AAC. When looking at language processing, studies of AAC use can provide information on the multimodality and internal multimodal representational networks. The study of the main language components (phonology, morphology and syntax, lexicon) in AAC users raises interesting questions concerning (a) the effect of the use of a speech-generating device on an internal phonology, (b) the relation between morphological and syntactic rules and communicative effectiveness, and (c) the effect of the use of communication boards and devices on lexical development and lexical growth. AAC practice is a potential source of data that can lead to more effective intervention as well as to a better understanding of language processes in general.

Effective and Structural Connectivity in the Human Auditory Cortex

Language processing involves multiple neuronal structures in the human auditory cortex. Although a variety of neuroimaging and mapping techniques have been implemented to better understand language processing at the level of the auditory cortex, much is unknown regarding how and by what pathways these structures interact during essential tasks such as sentence comprehension. In this study, the effective and structural connectivity at the level of the auditory cortex were investigated. First, blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses were measured with time-resolved functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during audition of short sentences. Once BOLD activation maps were obtained, the effective connectivity between primary auditory cortex and the surrounding auditory regions on the supratemporal plane and superior temporal gyrus (STG) were investigated using Granger causality mapping (GCM). Effective connectivity was observed between the primary auditory cortex and (1) the lateral planum polare and anterior STG, and (2) the lateral planum temporale and posterior STG. By using diffusion tensor probabilistic mapping (DTPM), rostral and caudal fiber pathways were detected between regions depicting effective connectivity. The effective and structural connectivity results of the present study provide further insight as to how auditory stimuli (i.e., human language) is processed at the level of the auditory cortex. Furthermore, combining BOLD fMRI-based GCM and DTPM analysis could provide a novel means to study effective and structural connectivity not only in the auditory cortex, but also in other cortical regions.

Neural localization of semantic context effects in electromagnetic and hemodynamic studies

Measures of electrical brain activity (event-related potentials, ERPs) have been useful in understanding language processing for several decades. Extant data suggest that the amplitude of the N400 component of the ERP is a general index of the ease or difficulty of retrieving stored conceptual knowledge associated with a word, which is dependent on both the stored representation itself, and the retrieval cues provided by the preceding context. Recordings from patients with brain damage, intracranial recordings, and magnetoencephalographic data implicate a (probably large portion of) the left temporal lobe as the largest source of the N400 semantic context effect, with a substantial but lesser contribution from the right temporal lobe. Event-related functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) studies using semantic context manipulations are dominated by observations of greater hemodynamic activity for incongruent sentence completions or semantically unrelated words than congruent or related words, consistent with the direction of the ERP effect. The locations of the hemodynamic effects show some variability across studies, but one commonly identified region is the left superior temporal gyrus, which is compatible with the electrophysiological results. A second commonly identified region in the fMRI studies is the left inferior frontal gyrus, which does not appear to make a substantial contribution to the N400 effect.

Tests of the E-Z Reader model: Exploring the interface between cognition and eye-movement control

This paper is simultaneously a test and refinement of the E-Z Reader model and an exploration of the interrelationship between visual and language processing and eye-movements in reading. Our modeling indicates that the assumption that words in text are processed serially by skilled readers is a viable and attractive hypothesis, as it accounts not only for “normal” reading data, but also for the pattern of decrements that occur when text is withheld from view during certain periods of time, such as in the boundary paradigm and the disappearing text paradigm. Our analyses also indicate (a) that lexical processing during reading is essentially continuous and (b) that the trigger for eye movements has to be a different (and prior) event to the trigger for shifts of covert spatial attention. In addition, the parameter values in our model are in accordance with what is known about such processes and should be taken as serious hypotheses for how long these processes last. Although a parallel model may be able to duplicate the predictions of the E-Z Reader model, we think that it is likely to be far less parsimonious and not nearly as good a heuristic device for using eye movements to understand language processing in reading.

Imaging bilinguals: When the neurosciences meet the language sciences

The Rodriguez-Fornells, Rotte, Heinze, Nösselt and Münte (2002) paper published in Nature, “Brain potential and functional MRI evidence for how to handle two languages with one brain”, is discussed by two of its authors, both neuroscientists, and by two language scientists. First, a short summary of the paper is given. This is followed by a critical commentary offered by the language scientists. The neuroscientists respond, and a final comment is offered by the language scientists. The four authors conclude that a two-way collaboration between neurosciences and language sciences should be encouraged in order to make headway in our understanding of language processing and representation in bilinguals.

Inhibitory Function and Aging: Three New Views

ASHER and Zacks in 1988 presented a controversial new view of age-related declines in cognitive function that immediately became a classic work in cognitive gerontology. They cogently argued that inefficient inhibitory mechanisms played an important role in accounting for age differences in cognitive function. Up to this point, such age differences had typically been attributed to limitations in working memory or declines in speed of processing. This controversial view generated both considerable research and debate. It is now nearly 10 years since the original article was published, and it is time for both an evaluation and an update of inhibition as an explanatory construct for a wide range of cognitive aging phenomena. The present series of articles consists of two critical analyses of the Hasher-Zacks position followed by a response to the critiques by Zacks and Hasher. In the first article, Deborah Burke evaluates the adequacy of inhibitory theory for understanding language processing and production. Next, Joan McDowd addresses the effectiveness of inhibitory mechanisms in explaining a series of findings in the domain of selective attention. McDowd also provides an evaluation of the inhibition construct as a global, organizing theoretical principle for the field of cognitive gerontology. Both authors raise concerns about the adequacy of inhibitory mechanisms as an explanatory construct. The final article is a reply authored by Rose Zacks and Lynn Hasher to the issues raised by Burke and McDowd. Zacks and Hasher describe how their view of aging and inhibitory function has evolved in the past decade, and then reply to the specific issues raised by Burke and McDowd. The three articles together represent conflicting views and interpretations of extant data. The exchange among these authors, nevertheless, presents a clear delineation of the issues for future research and also provides a sharpening and update of how an important explanatory cognitive mechanism has fared and evolved over a decade. Inhibition is an important construct in the cognitive gerontology literature, and debate about its centrality and adequacy will continue for some time. This special section should foster the development of the discipline in two ways. First, the issues raised should focus researchers on important and novel questions leading to the development of new views and paradigms about the role that deficient inhibitory function plays in explaining many age-related deficits in cognition. Second, these articles may.also stimulate the development of new and competing theories in the field. This special section is based on a spirited exchange among the authors that occurred at the Cognitive Aging Conference in Atlanta, Georgia in April of 1996. It was both a pleasure and challenge to serve as editor of these papers. I thank the three authors for the high standards of scholarship, timeliness, and collegiality that were maintained throughout this process. Special thanks are also due to Gus Craik, Art Wingfield, and two anonymous reviewers who provided wise and frequent advice as reviewers of the manuscripts. REFERENCE

A statistically emergent approach for language processing

This paper proposes that the process of language understanding can be modeled as a collective phenomenon that emerges from a myriad of microscopic and diverse activities. The process is analogous t...

The 1994 Banff Annual Seminar in Cognitive Science: Activating and maintaining representations in discourse processing.

The Banff Annual Seminar in Cognitive Science (BASICS) has met each spring since 1982 in Banff, Alberta. The conference is designed to provide an informal but stimulating atmosphere in which to discuss a wide range of topics within the general area of cognitive science. The format of the conference allows six invited speakers 90 minutes for an in-depth presentation of their research with ample opportunity for interaction with the audience. This format creates an atmosphere more akin to a workshop rather than a formal conference and has been received enthusiastically by both audience and speakers. Over the last 13 years, topics of discussion have run the gamut of areas in cognitive science, including animal cognition, neuroscience, perception, information processing, attention, memory, and psycholinguistics. Most years, the topics assembled for the conference have been eclectic, with simply the excellence of the speakers being the overriding criterion. However, this year's conference was conceived somewhat differently, with an conscious attempt to organize the talks around the theme of language and discourse processing. We were extremely fortunate to be able secure six internationally renowned researchers to present talks in this general area: Morton Gernsbacher, Marcel Just, Paul van den Broek, Charles Fletcher, Carl Frederiksen, and Keith Rayner.The conference as a whole provided interesting insight into how the field of discourse processing has isolated a small collection of critical theoretical ideas that are central to understanding the nature of language processing. In particular, virtually all of the speakers commented on the nature of the processes used to activate and maintain representations during discourse comprehension, the role of capacity limitations on those representations, and the effect of individual differences in those processes. Although different speakers focussed on different aspects of these processes and often had different views of their nature, all speakers discussed methodology in some detail; it was clear that major advances in understanding language processing require innovations in paradigms and techniques.The notion of activating and maintaining representations is perhaps most explicit in the structure-building framework of Morton Gernsbacher. In her theoretical approach, a crucial component of comprehension entails activating appropriate representations on the basis of the text and then mapping those representations onto the evolving representation of the discourse. Her research has been instrumental in distinguishing two processes responsible for activating relevant representations during comprehension: enhancement of appropriate representations and suppression of inappropriate information. In Gernsbacher's talk, she presented evidence indicating that enhancement and suppression are distinct, active processes that are differentially related to comprehension skill. In particular, low-skill comprehenders have little difficulty enhancing appropriate representations, but are more likely to have a deficit in suppressing inappropriate representations.Individual differences in maintaining discourse representations was the central theme of the talk presented by Marcel Just. However, rather than looking at variations in a particular process (e.g., suppression), Just presented evidence that variations in more general working memory capacity are implicated in many individual differences in language processing. In Just's Capacity-Constrained Reader model, working memory capacity constrains both the processes that compute new representations as well as those that maintain active representations. The central role of working memory capacity in comprehension was highlighted by a new paradigm: When subjects are shown syntactically difficult sentences rapidly, comprehension degrades in a fashion that is reminiscent of aphasia. The results from this research suggest that different types of aphasia may result from differential experience and comprehension strategies rather than differential lesions. …