Use Of Morphological Information Research Articles

What's morphology got to do with it: Oral reading fluency in adolescents with dyslexia.

Individuals with dyslexia often present phonological difficulties, ultimately impacting their reading and writing. Nevertheless, an individual with dyslexia may circumvent these difficulties through a reliance on linguistic units with more consistent spellings, such as morphemes. The increased use of morphological information by individuals with dyslexia has been argued to be a form of compensation. However, the contribution of morphological skills to reading fluency is still unclear. In this study, French adolescents with and without dyslexia were assessed on their morphological awareness and processing skills, along with reading fluency. Morphological awareness was assessed with a suffixation decision task, while a primed lexical decision task was used to assess morphological processing. Primes shared four possible relationships with the targets: morphological, semantic, orthographic, or unrelated. Group differences were not found for morphological awareness. In contrast, the group of adolescents with dyslexia showed a greater benefit of morphological priming. A continuous approach where reading fluency is seen as a broad spectrum was then used for future analyses. Benefits from morphological and orthographic priming were found to be inversely related to reading fluency. Morphological processing was found to be relatively high for individuals with low reading fluency proficiency, which suggests its use as a compensatory strategy in this population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Study on exercise muscle fatigue based on sEMG and ECG data fusion and temporal convolutional network.

Muscle fatigue is a crucial indicator to determine whether training is in place and to protect trainers. To make full use of morphological information of surface EMG and ECG signals in the time domain, a new idea and method for the fatigue assessment of exercise muscles based on data fusion is proposed in this paper. sEMG and ECG time series with the same length were obtained by signal preprocessing and sequence normalization, feature extraction of sequence tenses was realized by a deep learning network based on sequential convolution and signal fusion model of muscle fatigue evaluation was established by D-S evidence theory. Thirty volunteers were recruited and divided into three groups. ECG signals and sEMG signals at the biceps brachii of the right upper limb were monitored in a 20-minute exercise cycle. The prediction result of TCN based on time domain signal is better than the commonly used KNN and SVM recognition algorithm, and the recognition accuracy of relaxed, excessive and fatigue by D-S fusion was 89%, 86%, 88.5%. The accuracy was 0.9055, 0.9494 and 0.9269, respectively. The recall rates of the three conditions were 0.9303, 0.9570 and 0.9435. The F-score of the three conditions was 0.8911, 0.8764 and 0.8837, respectively. Based on time series and time series convolutional network, sEMG and ECG fusion of motor muscle recognition method can better distinguish different state information and has certain practical value in the fields of muscle evaluation, clinical diagnosis, wearable devices and so on.

Use of morphological and contextual cues in children\u2019s lexical inferencing in L1 and L2

In an experimental design, we investigated how fifth-grade readers use morphological and contextual information to infer the meaning of unknown words, and to what extent this is related to their cognitive and linguistic skills. A group of 166 fifth-grade Dutch children (59 L1, 107 L2) performed a lexical inferencing task in which the availability of morphological and contextual information was manipulated. Readers used both morphological and contextual information in lexical inferencing. Good decoding skill was related to more use of morphological information. Reading comprehension skill was associated with the use of morphological and contextual cues. L1 and L2 readers did not differ with respect to the use of morphological information. L2 readers used contextual information less in their inferences than L1 readers did. This difference was driven by L2 readers with weak vocabulary. The use of contextual information was especially high in L1 readers with good reading comprehension skills, and especially low in L2 readers with low vocabulary. Results indicate that to access morphological information, decoding is crucial, whereas for contextual inferencing, a minimum of linguistic competence is needed, which makes it more challenging for L2 readers.

Morphology-assisted galaxy mass-to-light predictions using deep learning

Context. One of the most important properties of a galaxy is the total stellar mass, or equivalently the stellar mass-to-light ratio (M/L). It is not directly observable, but can be estimated from stellar population synthesis. Currently, a galaxy’s M/L is typically estimated from global fluxes. For example, a single global g − i colour correlates well with the stellar M/L. Spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting can make use of all available fluxes and their errors to make a Bayesian estimate of the M/L. Aims. We want to investigate the possibility of using morphology information to assist predictions of M/L. Our first goal is to develop and train a method that only requires a g-band image and redshift as input. This will allows us to study the correlation between M/L and morphology. Next, we can also include the i-band flux, and determine if morphology provides additional constraints compared to a method that only uses g- and i-band fluxes. Methods. We used a machine learning pipeline that can be split in two steps. First, we detected morphology features with a convolutional neural network. These are then combined with redshift, pixel size and g-band luminosity features in a gradient boosting machine. Our training target was the M/L acquired from the GALEX-SDSS-WISE Legacy Catalog, which uses global SED fitting and contains galaxies with z ∼ 0.1. Results. Morphology is a useful attribute when no colour information is available, but can not outperform colour methods on its own. When we combine the morphology features with global g- and i-band luminosities, we find an improved estimate compared to a model which does not make use of morphology. Conclusions. While our method was trained to reproduce global SED fitted M/L, galaxy morphology gives us an important additional constraint when using one or two bands. Our framework can be extended to other problems to make use of morphological information.

Embedded stems as a bootstrapping mechanism for morphological parsing during reading development

The aim of the current research was to test the hypothesis that the activation of embedded words (e.g., the farm in farmhouse) is the starting point for the development of an abstract morphological parsing system in children’s reading. To test this hypothesis, we examined the developmental trajectory of compound priming effects in third- and fifth-grade primary school children, high school students, and adults. Both children and adults participated in a masked priming lexical decision study comparing transparent compound (farmhouse–farm), opaque compound (butterfly–butter), and noncompound (sandwich–sand) word priming effects measured relative to an unrelated control. The results showed significant and equal priming effects in the two compound conditions but not in the noncompound priming condition. This robust pattern was clearly and unequivocally observed across all groups of participants. Our data suggest that even the youngest readers have already acquired the ability to rapidly and automatically identify embedded stems and are sensitive to the overall structure of compound words (full decomposition). We conclude that the activation of embedded stems provides a critical starting point in children’s use of morphological information when learning to read.

Compound processing in second language acquisition of English

An unresolved question in second language (L2) acquisition research is whether L2 learners differ from native speakers in their use of morphological information in accessing multimorphemic words. L2 compound studies are of particular importance for this line of research because compounds, as words which are predominantly composed of two free morphemes, enable researchers to investigate how semantic transparency, morphological headedness and frequency influence complex word processing. Studies with native speakers have revealed semantic transparency and headedness as two factors influencing constituent-based decompositional processing; whereas studies with L2 learners have so far revealed inconsistent reliance on these factors. The present study investigates this issue via a masked priming experiment testing English noun-noun compound processing by L1-Turkish-speaking learners of English (advanced and intermediate-level learners) and by native speakers of English. Findings suggest that native-like morphological decomposition is possible with increasing L2 proficiency.

SILC: a newPlanckinternal linear combination CMB temperature map using directional wavelets

We present new clean maps of the CMB temperature anisotropies (as measured by Planck) constructed with a novel internal linear combination (ILC) algorithm using directional, scale-discretised wavelets --- Scale-discretised, directional wavelet ILC or SILC. Directional wavelets, when convolved with signals on the sphere, can separate the anisotropic filamentary structures which are characteristic of both the CMB and foregrounds. Extending previous component separation methods, which use the frequency, spatial and harmonic signatures of foregrounds to separate them from the cosmological background signal, SILC can additionally use morphological information in the foregrounds and CMB to better localise the cleaning algorithm. We test the method on Planck data and simulations, demonstrating consistency with existing component separation algorithms, and discuss how to optimise the use of morphological information by varying the number of directional wavelets as a function of spatial scale. We find that combining the use of directional and axisymmetric wavelets depending on scale could yield higher quality CMB temperature maps. Our results set the stage for the application of SILC to polarisation anisotropies through an extension to spin wavelets.

A new segmentation method for very high resolution imagery using spectral and morphological information

Image segmentation is a key and prerequisite step for object-based analysis of very high resolution (VHR) imagery. Most existing image segmentation methods use either spectral or spatial information of an image alone. A novel image segmentation method for VHR multispectral images using combined spectral and morphological information is proposed in this paper. The method can be summarized as follows. First, a morphological derivative profile is calculated from an original multispectral image and combined with the spectral bands to quantify spectral-morphological characteristics of a pixel, which are considered as a criterion of homogeneity of neighboring pixels. Image segmentation is then conducted using a seeded region-growing procedure, which is based on the seed points automatically generated from the gradient image and dynamically added and the similarity between a seed pixel and its neighboring pixels in terms of spectral-morphological characteristics. The obtained segmentation result is further refined by a region merging procedure to generate a final segmentation result. The proposed method is evaluated using three VHR images of urban and suburban areas and compared with two existing segmentation methods, in terms of visual inspection, quantitative evaluation and indirect evaluation. Experimental results demonstrate that the joint use of spectral and morphological information outperformed the use of morphological information alone. Furthermore, the proposed image segmentation method performed better than existing methods. The proposed image segmentation method is well applicable to the segmentation of VHR imagery over urban and suburban areas.

Inside Incidental Word Learning: Children's Strategic Use of Morphological Information to Infer Word Meanings

AbstractThis study examined whether morphological analysis may be a mechanism underlying the relationship of morphological awareness to vocabulary and comprehension. Eighty‐eight fifth‐ and 74 eighth‐grade students completed a task designed to assess whether students use morphological analysis to infer meanings of low‐frequency, presumably unfamiliar, words. Students chose a definition from among three alternatives for low‐frequency, morphologically accessible words or approximate synonyms that were less morphologically accessible, both within the same sentence context. In addition, they chose definitions for 18 nonsense words that were also designed to afford differential access via morphological analysis. Students were more accurate with morphologically accessible items (words and nonwords) than less accessible items, suggesting that students can use morphological analysis to infer word meanings. Regression analyses indicated that skill in morphological analysis accounted for unique variance in vocabulary and comprehension for both age groups. These results have implications for theoretical accounts of how morphological awareness may support students’ vocabulary growth and comprehension.

A statistical learning perspective on children's learning about graphotactic and morphological regularities in spelling.

We put forward our view on how children learn to spell through a review of recent research on English and French children's spelling development. We examine children's learning of graphotactic conventions (legal combinations of letters), followed by a more in-depth treatment of how children learn the place of morphemes (smallest units of meaning in language) in spelling. We contrast findings from recent research with those of traditional models that suggest that children use both graphotactic and morphological information relatively late in their spelling careers and that the end-point of development, particularly for morphological conventions, lies in rule-based performance. Instead, it seems that quite young children's spellings are influenced by both graphotactic and morphological patterns and that writers do not rely (at least exclusively) on rules. We consider the possibility that children might use statistical learning to gain knowledge of both graphotactic and morphological features of the orthography. Keywords: morphology, spelling acquisition, orthographic learning, spelling development The English and French orthographies adhere to several types of regularities: specifically, phonological, graphotactic, and morphological. In this article, we put forward our view on how children's spellings are influenced by these consistencies, with a special focus on learning of graphotactic and morphological regularities. Our approach draws on the statistical learning perspective, in which it is important to consider the regularities in the (written) input on which children could rely. Accordingly, we begin by considering the kind of information represented in the English and French orthographies. French and English, like most alphabetic orthographies, rely in part on the regular connections between letters and sounds to generate word spellings. This is the case for the words cat and non (no). And yet this phonological basis does not explain the variability with which sounds are represented across different words. For example, the /eI/ sound can be spelled with -ay, -ey, -eigh, -a, and -ea at the ends of words in English and with -ez, -ai, -e, -ef, -ee, and -aie at the end of words in French. A second source of information useful to spelling comes from graphotactic regularities about the legal combinations of letters.' In French, words cannot end in a consonant doublet on its own (e.g., pomme, but not *pomm_ for the word apple in French), but they can in English. In English it is extremely unusual for words to start with consonant doublets (e.g., full, but not *fful), and such patterns never occur in French. These graphotactic patterns determine, in part, the specific letters that make up the spellings of words in both English and French. A third level of consistency in spelling comes from the smallest units of meaning in language, or morphemes. The use of morphological information determines the choice between several plausible representations of a given sound. The decision between the many different spellings of/e/ (as in bed, head, and said) is simple for some words when morphology is considered (e.g., ea in health driven by the root heal). Similarly, the sound /et/ has many different spellings in French (e.g., -aite, -ete or -ete), but a word ending in a diminutive suffix is always spelled -ette (as in fillette, little girl). Morphology even sometimes overrides the phonological basis of spelling. English regular past tense verbs end in the letters -ed, despite the pronunciation of these letters as either /t/, /d/ or /Id/ (as in walked, warned, and spotted). Similarly, in French the letters -ai are used for the sound 3 in faiseur (/fazr/, producer) to preserve the spelling of the root (faire /fer/, to do), despite the fact that e is the typical spelling of this sound. In the above examples, morphology could be useful, but success in spelling could also be achieved through word-specific memorization. …

Becoming literate in Hebrew: the grain size hypothesis and Semitic orthographic systems

Ziegler and Goswami (2006, see also Ziegler & Goswami, 2005) offer a cross-language reading theory that focuses on the grain size of lexical units which are converted into phonological structures during visual word recognition in different orthographic systems. Two axioms provide the basis for the grain size theory: first, that reading for meaning in any orthography primarily entails the recovery of the phonological information that is conveyed by the printed symbols; second, that any cross-language theory of reading should, therefore, focus on the ease or the difficulty of grapheme-to-phoneme computation given the consistency by which graphemic units represent phonological units in a given language. Ziegler and Goswami propose that reading in consistent orthographies involves small linguistic units, whereas reading in inconsistent orthographies requires the use of larger units as well. Hence, the grain size theory seems to present an improved and modern alternative to the Orthographic Depth Hypothesis (e.g. Frost, Katz & Bentin, 1987), which historically emerged from the classical dual-route models. The clear advantage of grain size over dualroute theory is that it examines the size of the computed phonological units and thereby allows the use of a continuous measure rather than a dichotomous concept such as ‘lexical’ or ‘prelexical’ phonology (see also Frost, 1998, for a discussion of skilled reading and grain size, according to the Strong Phonological Theory). Hebrew represents a very intriguing case for examining the theory promoted by Ziegler and Goswami. In Hebrew, the letters mostly represent consonants while most of the vowels can optionally be superimposed on the consonants as diacritical marks (‘points’). However, these diacritical marks are omitted from most adult reading material. Therefore, since different vowels may be inserted into the same string of consonants to form different words or nonwords, Hebrew unpointed print cannot specify a unique phonological unit, and a printed consonant string is phonologically ambiguous, often representing more than one word. English and Hebrew are both considered deep orthographies, but the ‘depth’ of the Hebrew orthography is different in character from that of English orthography. Whereas in English the opaque relations of spelling-to-sound are related to the inconsistency of letter clusters, in Hebrew opaque spelling-tosound connections arise simply from missing phonemic information, mainly vowel information. Note that when the diacritical marks are presented in the text, Hebrew orthography is entirely shallow, as the phonemic structure of the printed word can be easily assembled using simple grapheme-to-phoneme conversion rules. Extensive research has consistently revealed that reading in Hebrew involves an interplay of two computational processes which are defined by the size of the computed units. The first process is characterized by the conversion of units of single letters into consonantal information. The second process involves the use of morphological information, mainly word-pattern morphemes, which provide the missing vowels. Frost (1994) examined the effect of delaying the presentation of vowel marks under unpointed words in a naming task. The results showed that the Hebrew readers were willing to delay naming and wait for the vowel (pointed) information to appear,

The influence of morphological information on cataphoric pronoun assignment.

In 3 eye-tracking experiments, the authors investigated the use of morphological information during pronoun resolution. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that disruption occurred when a preferred assignment was inconsistent with gender information. Experiment 2 ensured that this difficulty was not due to the introduction of a new discourse entity. Experiment 3 showed that disruption also occurred when number information was inconsistent with the preferred assignment. The results indicate that the use of morphological information is delayed until after the computation of coreference relations.

The influence of morphological information on cataphoric pronoun assignment.

In 3 eye-tracking experiments, the authors investigated the use of morphological information during pronoun resolution. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that disruption occurred when a preferred assignment was inconsistent with gender information. Experiment 2 ensured that this difficulty was not due to the introduction of a new discourse entity. Experiment 3 showed that disruption also occurred when number information was inconsistent with the preferred assignment. The results indicate that the use of morphological information is delayed until after the computation of coreference relations.

Research on the development of academic skills: introduction to the special issue on early literacy and early numeracy.

Welcome to the special issue on early literacy and early numeracy. We have a diverse collection of articles, elicited by asking researchers to submit short succinct manuscripts describing their recent research in one of these areas. The breadth of submissions received was surprising. The term early elicited manuscripts involving children as young as three and as old as ten, and the topics ranged from the relation between home literacy activities and reading acquisition to children's ability to estimate the sums of three-digit numbers. Despite the breadth of topics, however, there are several themes that tie these papers together. The first theme is that novice readers or calculators often use surprisingly sophisticated conceptual knowledge in their cognitive activities. In the present issue, Klein and Bisanz outline the role of early conceptual abilities in the addition performance of 4-year-olds. Senechal shows that 7-year-olds make use of morphological information to spell words. Bialystok and Codd explore the abilities of 3- to 7-year-olds in representing quantities. Lemaire, Lecacheur, and Farioli examine how 10-year-olds use sophisticated strategies to solve estimation problems. Across the seven papers in this issue, children showed an impressive variety of conceptual abilities, as well as some interesting limitations. A second theme that arises from several papers in this issue is the important role for experiential factors in cognitive development. Evans, Shaw, and Bell describe the relations between parent teaching activities and reading acquisition. Miller, Major, Shu, and Zhang show how language influences children's emerging numerical competencies. Such research suggests that closer attention to the wider community of learning that children experience will provide important insights into patterns of cognitive development. A third theme that arose serendipitously from our selection of researchers was that four of the seven papers in this special issue include or are based solely on the performance of children who speak a language other than English (i.e., Lemaire et al.; Miller et al.; Senechal; SprengerCharolles, Cole, Lacert, & Serniclaes). Research on cognitive development should be greatly enhanced by looking beyond an Anglo-centric perspective. A fourth theme of these papers, diversity in methodology, may represent somewhat of a departure from a typical collection of papers in the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology. The papers in this special issue represent a wide diversity of methods, running the gamut from correlational designs (Evans et al.) and reading-level and age-level matching designs (Sprenger-Charolles et al.) to methods that more closely resemble traditional experimental paradigms (e.g., Klein & Bisanz; Lemaire et al.; Senechal). We feel that all of these methods have a place in a broad understanding of cognitive development. Three- and four-year-olds are seldom amenable to the multi-trial, data-intensive approach that characterizes research on adult cognitive processes. Often, research on cognitive processes in children begins with observational studies, and progresses (slowly!) to focused experimental work. Children lead busy lives, and as researchers, we are limited in the amount of behaviour that we are able to extract from them. It should be clear from this set of papers that a diversity of methods does not mean a lowering of the standards for scientific research. Furthermore, each paper in this special issue presents a unique perspective, topic, or methodology, adding to the array of tools that can be accessed to advance research in this area. In the next two sections, I will briefly discuss how each of the papers contributes to the accumulation of knowledge in the areas of either early literacy or early numeracy. DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY LITERACY Three of the papers in this issue address questions in the area of early literacy (Evans et al. …

The reconstruction of bed material yield and supply histories in gravel-bed streams

This paper details a basic method for estimation of both bed material yield and supply rates for a glaciated catchment. Recent research has illustrated the potential of morphological methods for the estimation of bed material transport rates, but also raised important methodological issues, notably regarding the requisite spatio-temporal resolution of morphological data and the need for either information on upstream sediment supply or assumptions about typical distances of particle movement during transport. Both of the latter have proved problematic. This paper provides an additional means of estimating bed material transport rates and yields through the combination of a simple process-based relationship with morphological information. For a short reach of gravel-bed stream, in a glaciated catchment with a characteristic diurnal discharge hydrograph, a strong positive relationship was found between the volume of water passing through the reach and the volume of erosion in the reach, for points early on the rising limb of the hydrograph. This relationship broke down later in the hydrograph, notably after the discharge peak, associated with the advent of sediment supply from upstream. Thus, early in the hydrograph, this relationship provides an indication of the capacity of this reach to move sediment, either locally eroded material or sediment supplied from upstream, and this paper applies this relationship to a six week discharge hydrograph to predict the potential transport volumes. From these predictions, it calculates the minimum volume of bed material that must have been supplied to the reach from upstream, per hour, to maintain its observed elevation. The results are used to illustrate and discuss some of the problems associated with the use of morphological information for the estimation of bed material transfer rates.

Structure‐orientated fluorescence photobleaching analysis: a method for double fluorescent labelling studies

Differences in the degree of photodegradation can be used for fluorophore identification in double fluorescently labelled specimens. Based on the use of morphological information, a noise‐insensitive method is presented for discriminating between the fluorophores, assuming spatially uniform photodegradation. Separate images of the labelled structures can be obtained. Alternatively, with spatially nonuniform photodegradation, the photodynamics of one fluorophore — i.e. photodegradation, concentration associated quenching, etc. — in relation to its microenvironment can be investigated.

Structural features of manganese precipitating bacteria

Studies of biological communities of the past (and their associated activities) are usually dependent upon preservation of fossil material. With bacteria this rarely occurs because of the absence of sufficient fossilizable cellular material. However, some bacteria deposit metabolic products that can, conditions allowing, be preserved indefinitely. In particular, manganese and iron depositing bacteria have the capacity to form preservable microfossils. In order to better understand these micro-fossils of the past, we have examined present day morphologies of manganese oxidizing bacteria. These bacteria are highly pleomorphic, depending on the growth medium, the age of the culture, and the extent of manganese oxidation. Transmission electron microscopy indicates that manganese may be deposited either intra- or extra-cellularly. The prognosis of the use of morphological information for the interpretation of ancient and modern manganese deposits is discussed.