Vocabulary Memory Research Articles

The Effects of Presentation Style and Background Sound Types on Vocabulary Memory

The Effects of Presentation Style and Background Sound Types on Vocabulary Memory

China Word: Vocabulary Quiz Game for Promoting Chinese Vocabulary Memory among 10th Grade Students

The main purpose of this research is to develop a mobile application game, China Word, to promote the memorization of Chinese vocabulary for 10th grade students. The comparison between students’ scores before and after learning with the game is used to determine success or failure in this study. The sample group was randomly collected from 10th grade students at a volunteer school in Suphanburi Province, Thailand. Sixty students participated in this study. Sixty students were separated in two groups, first thirty students group was the control group and second thirty students group was the experimental group. The control learned Chinese with lecture while the experimental group learned Chinese with the China Word game. In addition, an achievement test and a satisfaction questionnaire were deployed in this experiment as tools to measure students’ accomplishments. Then, simple statistics, such as averages, percentages, standard deviations, and t-test independence, were calculated. The result indicates that the experimental group attains higher learning achievement than the control group at a 95% confidence level.

Comparative study of game-based learning on preschoolers’ English vocabulary acquisition in Taiwan

ABSTRACT This is a comparative study that explores preschoolers’ English vocabulary acquisition in Taiwan and tries to look for a better pedagogy. After Taiwan’s government announced the policy of developing a “Bilingual Nation,” English is the second language in Taiwan. The reforming of English instruction is in urgent need. Under this background, this research aims to investigate whether English vocabulary acquisition will occur in a variety of GBL. In this study, we grouped participants into four instructional groups. Two groups are designed as instructional groups of “flashcard game” in learning 2 words or 3 words per day. Another two groups are designed as groups of “driving games” in learning 2 words or 3 words per day. Without explicit instruction, the study’s result showed that preschoolers’ English vocabulary acquisition can occur autonomously by GBL, and “2 words per day” is the best and suitable vocabulary size for preschoolers to acquire English in their memory. We found that games can produce children's autonomous learning, and the numbers of children’s vocabulary memory can be taken into consideration. Besides, the appropriate amount of information can train children to enter long-term memory. The above findings will benefit language learning, game-based learning (GBL), and interactive learning.

Double Literacy Effects on Language and Reading Skills in Italian–English Primary School Children

Major concerns still surround literacy education in a foreign language during primary school. In this study, we aim to establish (1) whether bilinguals perform worse in Italian literacy tests than monolinguals; (2) whether literacy skills transfer from Italian to English. We tested 97 Italian–English bilingual first, third and fifth graders (attending two bilingual primary schools in Italy, with a simultaneous 50:50 immersion programme) and a control group of 40 monolingual Italian pupils in grades 1 and 3. All participants were tested in Italian, measuring the following skills: vocabulary, phonological awareness, reading proficiency and verbal short-term memory. Bilingual participants – who had been exposed to Italian since birth and to English within the first three years of their lives – were also tested on the same measures in English. The results showed that bilingual first graders outperformed their monolingual peers in verbal short-term memory, thus revealing a possible cognitive advantage in the early stage of literacy acquisition. Monolingual and bilingual firstand third graders did not differ in reading speed. The two groups made an almost similar number of errors, but the small difference turned out to be statistically significant. Bilingual subjects’ reading attainment was found to be within monolingual normal limits in both languages on all measures except for English reading comprehension, which, together with English vocabulary, was found to be below the English norm. Aside from reading comprehension, on all other measures bilingual children’s performance in Italian correlated with their performance in English, suggesting the presence of cross-linguistic transfer of language and reading skills.

Age differences in item selection behaviors and subsequent memory for new foreign language vocabulary: Evidence for a region of proximal learning heuristic.

We examined younger and older adults' item selection behaviors to assess heuristics for self-regulating learning of English meanings of Chinese characters varying widely in figural complexity. Two study-test trials were used to assess whether (a) item selection behaviors on the first study opportunity would show evidence for a difficulty-based heuristic as posited by Metcalfe's (2002) region of proximal learning (RPL) theory, or alternatively, influences of habitual English-language reading order (i.e. left-to-right, top-to-bottom); (b) whether second-trial selection behaviors were better predicted by RPL or by the discrepancy reduction model (DRM; Dunlosky & Hertzog, 1998); and (c) whether Trial 1 test performance would alter Trial 2 study in a manner predicted by RPL. DRM stipulates people select any item for study at Trial 2 that was not previously recalled. RPL states that people study only items they believe they can learn, avoiding complex items above their subjective RPL. Stimuli were 36 Chinese-English vocabulary pairs randomly presented in six 2 × 3-element grids. Both habitual reading order and stimulus complexity at Trial 1 affected order of study, with participants of both age groups manifesting a preference to study less complex characters. However, older adults showed larger effects of stimulus complexity whereas younger adults had larger effects of habitual reading order. At Trial 2, older adults showed a greater tendency to avoid studying the most complex Chinese characters, consistent with RPL, which contributed to their lower rates of vocabulary acquisition. Older adults' more conservative RPLs appeared to constrain their degree of self-regulated learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The incidence of visual-motor processes in the acquisition of orthographic representations in Spanish-speaking schoolchildren (La incidencia de los procesos perceptivo-motrices en la adquisición de las representaciones ortográficas en escolares hispanoparlante)

ABSTRACT This study analyses the relative incidence of visual-motor processes compared to other cognitive processes involved in spelling, to understand its relevance in orthography acquisition in school-aged children when contextual variables are controlled for and there has been explicit instruction. A sample of 96 students between third and sixth grade of primary education was divided into two groups according to their spelling performance (low and high performance). They were all assessed in rapid naming, vocabulary, visual and auditory working memory, visual-motor integration and intelligence. Results show that visual-motor integration and auditory working memory differentiate the low and high performance groups, being the variables that best predict spelling. The relationship between auditory working memory and visual-motor integration appears to establish when the word is being incorporated into the child’s lexicon. These results have important educational implications referred to teaching spelling through handwriting when its use is being debated against the use of digital technologies for writing acquisition.

Fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations and gray matter volume alterations in patients with bipolar depression

PurposeWe used fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) and gray matter volume (GMV) jointly to explore the mechanism of brain function and structure in unmedicated patients with bipolar disorder (BD). MethodsThirty first episode drug-naive patients with and thirty healthy controls (HCs) were recruited in this study; All the subjects underwent Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanning and performed the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), all the patients with MDD finished the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD17). Data Processing and Analysis for Brain Imaging (DPABI) and SPM8 were used to find potential differences in fALFF and GMV between the two groups. A Pearson correlation model was used to analyze associations of functional and morphometric changes with clinical symptoms and cognitive tests. ResultsCompared to healthy controls, the BD group had significantly reduced fALFF values in the lingual gyrus and increased fALFF values in the bilateral superior frontal gyrus and superior frontal gyrus. With regards to VBM, patients with BD showed significant GMV decreases in the bilateral superior temporal gyrus, bilateral superior frontal gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, right parahippocampal gyrus and precuneus. Additionally, we found an overlap of brain regions focused on the left SFG. Significant negative correlations were observed between abnormal GMV values in the left SFG and vocabulary memory. ConclusionThe superior frontal gyrus was the site of the most robust and reliable abnormality, with an overlap of abnormal structural and functional MRI features that play an important role in pathology in BD.

Learning Foreign Language Vocabulary with Gestures and Pictures Enhances Vocabulary Memory for Several Months Post-Learning in Eight-Year-Old School Children

The integration of gestures and pictures into pedagogy has demonstrated potential for improving adults’ learning of foreign language (L2) vocabulary. However, the relative benefits of gestures and pictures on children’s L2 vocabulary learning have not been formally evaluated. In three experiments, we investigated the effects of gesture-based and picture-based learning on 8-year-old primary school children’s acquisition of novel L2 vocabulary. In each experiment, German children were trained over 5 consecutive days on auditorily presented, concrete and abstract, English vocabulary. In Experiments 1 and 2, gesture enrichment (auditorily presented L2 words accompanied with self-performed gestures) was compared with a non-enriched baseline condition. In Experiment 3, gesture enrichment was compared with picture enrichment (auditorily presented words accompanied with pictures). Children performed vocabulary recall and translation tests at 3 days, 2 months, and 6 months post-learning. Both gesture and picture enrichment enhanced children’s test performance compared with non-enriched learning. Benefits of gesture and picture enrichment persisted up to 6 months after training and occurred for both concrete and abstract words. Gesture-enriched learning was hypothesized to boost learning outcomes more than picture-enriched learning on the basis of previous findings in adults. Unexpectedly, however, we observed similar benefits of gesture and picture enrichment on children’s L2 learning. These findings suggest that both gestures and pictures enhance children’s L2 learning and that performance benefits are robust over long timescales.

Post-encoding positive emotion impairs associative memory for English vocabulary.

There is evidence that emotion induced during encoding impairs associative memory (e.g., Bisby, Horner, Bush, & Burgess, 2018), yet the effect of post-encoding emotion (particularly positive emotion) on associative memory remains largely unclear. Two experiments were conducted to examine the effect of post-encoding positive emotion on associative memory for English vocabulary. In Experiment 1, high school students memorized Chinese definitions of a list of English words, immediately recalled the Chinese definitions, watched a neutral or comic video, and took a delayed memory test 25 minutes after encoding. The result showed a significant impairing effect of post-encoding positive emotion on memory for Chinese definitions. In Experiment 2, primary school students encoded English words with their associative pictures, took an immediate test where, on each trial, they were asked to choose the correct English word that matches a picture. Following the test, they watched a neutral or comic video, and took a memory test 10 minutes after encoding. Consistent with Experiment 1, Experiment 2 showed an impairing effect of positive emotion. Taken together, these findings support the hypothesis that post-encoding positive emotion can impair associative memory, providing important implications for acquisition of vocabulary of English as a foreign language.

颜色对词汇记忆的影响：基于系列位置效应

颜色对词汇记忆的影响：基于系列位置效应

Do preschoolers born premature perform properly on lexical and verbal short-term memory abilities?

To investigate lexical performance and verbal short-term memory ability in premature infants at preschool age and compare the results with their full-term peers. Forty preschool children aged between 4 and 5 years and 11 months participated on the study and were equally divided into two groups considering their gestational age: preterm and full-term. Groups did not differ on age, family income and maternal education. Participants were paired according to their chronological age and their socioeconomic status. Their performance was assessed using expressive vocabulary and verbal short-term memory tests. Inferential statistical analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney and the Fisher exact test. Group performance did not differ on vocabulary, but premature children showed an inferior performance on nonword repetition tasks. These data indicates that preschoolers born premature performed statistically lower than their peers born full-term on nonword repetition task. Thus, premature birth was associated to vocabulary development on typically developing range, but also to verbal short-term memory impairments.

Effect of dexmedetomidine on tracheal intubation under general anesthesia for abdominal surgery

Objective To study the effect of dexmetomidine on tracheal intubation under abdominal anesthesia. Methods From January 2015 to January 2018, 100 patients were selected to perform tracheal intubation under abdominal anesthesia in Shanxi Provincial Hospital of Taiyuan.A total of 100 patients under abdominal surgery were randomly divided into two groups, with 50 patients in each group.The observation group was given dexmetomidine intravenous injection during the operation, while the control group was not given dexmetomidine during the operation.The blood pressure and heart rate of the two groups were compared before and after anesthesia.The recovery time of spontaneous respiration, eye opening time, extubation time, incidence of adverse events, cough score and restlessness score were compared between the two groups, and the cognitive function of the two groups was compared. Results After anesthesia, the systolic blood pressure[(103.75±2.26) mmHg], diastolic blood pressure[(71.92±1.95)mmHg], heart rate[(70.91±1.89)rpm]in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group[(100.37±2.91)mmHg, (70.27±1.84)mmHg, (69.08 ±1.63)](t=6.487, 4.532, 5.185, all P<0.05). The recovery time of spontaneous respiration[(7.14±1.37)min], eye opening time[(9.85±2.31)min]and extubation time[(20.57±2.94)min]in the observation group were significantly shorter than those in the control group[(8.75±1.89)min, (12.41±2.97)min, (24.06±3.42)min](t=4.877, 4.811, 5.472, all P<0.05). The incidence rate of adverse events in the observation group (8%) was lower than 24% in the control group (χ2=4.762, P<0.05). The score of cough and the score of restlessness in the observation group were (4.09±1.63) and (4.27±1.96), respectively, which were significantly lower than those in the control group[(6.24±2.18) and (6.51 ±2.32)](t=5.186, 5.215, all P<0.05). At 6 h after operation, the scores of MMSE, vocabulary memory, simple calculation and picture memory in the observation group were (23.95±2.13), (7.35±1.08), (7.14±1.12) and (7.26±1.17), respectively, which were higher than those in the control group[(20.47±1.91), (6.17±0.94), (5.89±1.04), (6.02±0.89)](t=8.601, 5.828, 5.783, 5.965, all P<0.05). Conclusion The application of dexmetomidine in patients under general anesthesia under tracheal intubation can effectively reduce the fluctuation of hemodynamic indicators after anesthesia, help to maintain the hemodynamic stability of patients, and promote the recovery of consciousness after operation.It can prevent adverse events during recovery of anesthesia and reduce the effect of anesthesia on cognitive function of patients. Key words: Anesthesia, general; Surgical procedures, operative; Abdomen; Hemodynamics; Cognitive function; Dexmetidine

Best Teaching Strategies of English Vocabulary Based on Cognitive Neuroscience

With the development of the times, the continuous deepening of new curriculum reform, and gradual popularity of English teaching, disparities in the regional economy and education spread in China, and thus there appear various problems in the teaching process, especially English vocabulary teaching. Word, as the basic unit of language, is one of the three major elements of language, which plays a major role in the realization of the communicative function of language. Most students use the way of memorizing English words by their root but have no effective way to remember English words. This paper discusses the relationship between cognitive neuroscience and English vocabulary memory, and studies the information source entropy characteristics of EEG signals under different states of vocabulary memorization. This method provides a new idea and tool for the determination of the relationship between cognitive neuroscience and the effectiveness of English vocabulary teaching, and seeks more ways, more organizational forms and methodological strategies so as to help students better memorize vocabulary so that it has broad prospects for development in English teaching.

Empirical Study on the Classified Association Strategy in English Vocabulary Learning

Based on the processing hypothesis, this paper tested 80 students (40 persons per group) separately by utilizing self-designed classified association memory material. By analyzing the data with Spss 18.0, the results show that: (1)After the training of classified association memory strategy in class, there is an obviously improvement in students’ vocabulary memory.(2)The difference between concentrated training and scattered training is not significant.(3)Although good students and weak students have different marks of vocabulary learning, the results of t-test showed that the difference between them was not significant.

Emotion-involved semantic processing and L2 vocabulary memory: A micro-level emotion manifesto

Emotion is a pervasive phenomenon whose pivotal impacts on cognition have been proposed and increasingly acknowledged (e.g., operator effect and “(de-)energizing” effect; cf. Ciompi &amp; Panksepp, 2005; Damasio, 2003; LeDoux, 2012). In accordance with this, second language acquisition (SLA) studies have recently seen an “affective turn” (Pavlenko, 2013) and several theories have been proposed and studies conducted concerning the effect of affect in SLA from such perspectives as motivation (Dörnyei &amp; Ushioda, 2011), foreign language anxiety/enjoyment (Dewaele &amp; MacIntyre, 2016), Directed Motivational Currents (Dörnyei, Henry, &amp; Muir, 2016), and emotional intelligence (Gregersen &amp; MacIntyre, 2017; Kanazawa, 2016b). The purpose of the experiments was to examine whether emotion-involved semantic processing (EmInvSemProc) results in better incidental L2 memory performance compared to other types of semantic processing (viz., a lexical decision task [LDT] for Experiment A and an imageability judgment task [IJT] for Experiment B).

自尊水平对大学生自我相关词汇记忆成绩的影响

为了研究大学生的自尊水平对其记忆自我相关词汇的影响，以修改的《多元自尊问卷》为工具，以大连市某高校的大学生为被试，从中筛选出自我自尊、他人自尊和关系自尊得分最高的30%和得分最低的30%被试进行实验。实验内容为给被试随机呈现形容人格特质的积极词汇、消极词汇和与形容人格无关的词汇各20个，全部呈现完毕之后测试被试的回忆情况。得出了以下结论：(1) 自尊水平高低，对大学生记忆自我相关词汇产生影响。自我自尊和他人自尊水平低的大学生，记忆消极词汇的成绩高于记忆积极词汇和无关词汇。而关系自尊水平低的大学生则不存在这一特点。(2) 自我自尊高分组的被试记忆积极词汇的得分高于消极词汇的得分，也高于记忆无关词汇的得分，差异显著；自我自尊低分组的被试记忆消极词汇的得分高于记忆积极词汇的得分，高于记忆无关词汇的得分，差异显著。(3) 他人自尊高分组和低分组的被试，在记忆三种词汇的得分上，差异不显著。(4) 关系自尊高分组的被试，在记忆三种词汇的得分上，差异不显著；关系自尊低分组的被试，在记忆三种词汇的得分上，差异显著，记忆消极词汇的得分高于记忆积极词汇的得分，高于记忆无关词汇的得分。 In order to study the effect of self-esteem on memory of self-related words, we had used the mul-tiple self-esteem questionnaire as the tool, and we selected the students of Liaoning Normal Uni-versity as the subjects, to test the level of self-esteem of College students. Screening of self-esteem, self-respect and self-esteem of others the highest 30% and lowest score of 30% subjects partici-pated in the experiment from. The contents of experiments to subjects were randomly presented to describe positive words, negative words and personality traits and describe the personality in-dependent vocabulary each 20, all show finished recalls the situation after test subjects. We draw the following conclusions: (1) The self-esteem level has an influence on the memory of college students’ self-related words. For the college students who have low level of self-esteem and other- esteem, the score of the negative vocabulary memory is higher than the other kinds of words. (2) For high self-esteem group subjects, the score of the active vocabulary memory is significantly higher than the other two kinds of words; nevertheless, for low self-esteem groups, the score of negative vocabulary memory is significantly higher than the other two kinds. (3) On the other- esteem level, there was no significant difference of the memory among the three kinds of words. (4) On the relationship esteem, for high relationship esteem group subjects, the difference of the scores of memorizing three kinds of vocabularies was not significant. While for the low group, the difference was significant. Moreover, the score of the negative vocabulary memory is higher than the active and passive ones.

Mental Lexicon, Working Memory and L2 (English) Vocabulary in Polish Students with and without Dyslexia

The aim of our study was to examine the relationship between access to the mental lexicon, working memory and knowledge of English (L2) vocabulary. Analyses were undertaken amongst monolingual speakers of Polish (26 with dyslexia, 24 without) who studied English as a second language as part of their compulsory educational programme at school.We assumed that students with dyslexia would manifest deficits in access to the mental lexicon and verbal working memory, and would have a limited L2 vocabulary. We also assumed that better access to the mental lexicon facilitates knowledge of English (L2) vocabulary, and that this relationship is present in both the criterion and the control group. All of the students participated in both parts of the assessment, the group part (i.e., questionnaire, IQ test, two vocabulary tasks) and the individual part (i.e., psychological measures: verbal working memory, RAN, verbal fluency, and single word reading in L1 task). We found that students with dyslexia exhibited deficits in the speed of access to data from the mental lexicon. The predictive function of memory for vocabulary was more conspicuous in the control group; in the criterion group, the result might constitute a risk factor for L2 vocabulary acquisition in dyslexia, which may manifest with increased proficiency in word knowledge. Poor vocabulary knowledge renders the L2 learning experience difficult, as it impairs students’ reading comprehension, writing and conversational skills.

Story-retelling abilities of bilingual children with non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate

The story-retelling abilities of 25 English-dominant bilingual children with non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) were compared with those of typically developing (TD) children matched for age (4;7–8;5 years;months), language background, and socioeconomic status. Performance on narrative comprehension, English receptive vocabulary, verbal short-term memory, verbal working memory, and non-verbal intelligence was also measured in order to identify any underlying group differences in processing. Results revealed significantly poorer performance of the CLP group on narrative comprehension of inferential-type questions, receptive vocabulary, and verbal short-term memory. Importantly, the correlational analyses of story-retelling with other cognitive-linguistic measures supported the view that there are notable differences in the underlying processing of children with CLP and TD children. The implications for intervention programes and future research are discussed.

Psychometric properties of the Test of Everyday Attention for Children in Greek-speaking school children

The present study aimed at exploring the psychometric properties of the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch) in normally developing Greek-speaking school population (6–12 years old). TEA-Ch is an assessment that captures the multidimensional nature of the developing attentional system with child-friendly test tasks. The sample consisted of 174 Greek-speaking primary school children of both genders (N = 88 girls). Children were assessed individually using the TEA-Ch and two tasks (Vocabulary and Working Memory) from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-3rd edition (WISC-III)-Greek Version. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine the factorial validity of the TEA-Ch in the Greek-speaking population. The results verified both a two-factor (attentional control/switching and sustained attention) and a theory-driven three-factor structure of the TEA-Ch, namely selective attention, attentional control/switching and sustained attention. Moreover, the weak correlations of TEA-Ch tasks with vocabulary and working memory tasks provide evidence for its divergent validity and its usefulness as an additional measure of abilities that are not captured by well-known conventional intelligence tasks. Furthermore, TEA-Ch appears to be an age-sensitive assessment tool.

Exploring Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by UPM TESL Undergraduates

Vocabulary learning is one of the most challenging factors that learners will face during the process of second language learning. The main pursuit of the present study was to investigate the vocabulary language strategies among Malaysian ESL students majoring in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) at University Putra Malaysia. There are five different categories of vocabulary leaning strategies determination, social, memory, cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Quantitative research design has been used in this study by providing a set of questionnaire of 58 items that was given out to 50 participants at the Faculty of Educational Studies in UPM. The findings of this research hope to help all educators to acknowledge the type of vocabulary strategies used by students in acquiring second language (L2).