Word Labels Research Articles

Grasping the meaning of words.

Action affordances can be activated by non-target objects in the visual field as well as by word labels attached to target objects. These activations have been manifested in interference effects of distractors and words on actions. We examined whether affordances could be activated implicitly by words representing graspable objects that were either large (e.g., APPLE) or small (e.g., GRAPE) relative to the target. Subjects first read a word and then grasped a wooden block. Interference effects of the words arose in the early portions of the grasping movements. Specifically, early in the movement, reading a word representing a large object led to a larger grip aperture than reading a word representing a small object. This difference diminished as the hand approached the target, suggesting on-line correction of the semantic effect. The semantic effect and its on-line correction are discussed in the context of ecological theories of visual perception, the distinction between movement planning and control, and the proximity of language and motor planning systems in the human brain.

Two reasons not to bring your children to cocktail parties

Two kinds of noise can affect speech perception at cocktail parties: others’ speech (sloping spectrum) and the environment (level spectrum). Recognition scores for phonetically balanced monosyllabic words in level noise at five SNRs for adults and children (4 to 8 years) were collected, and compared to those of Nittrouer and Boothroyd for speech-shaped noise [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 87, 2705–2715 (1990)]. All listeners showed similar effects of level noise, and children’s results matched those for speech-shaped noise. However, adults showed a 22% advantage for speech-shaped over level noise, suggesting they use high-frequency speech elements not masked by the sloping long-term spectrum of speech. Next labeling of words differing in syllable-final voicing (using vocalic duration and offset transitions, neither high-frequency cues) was examined for children and adults in quiet and in level noise. All listeners performed similarly in quiet. Adults’ results for quiet and noise matched, but children showed a decreased weighting of transitions in noise compared to quiet, suggesting enhanced masking of this information. Thus children’s speech perception in noise is impaired both because they fail to use high-frequency cues available against the background of others’ speech and they experience enhanced masking of formant transitions, their preferred source of information. [Work supported by NIDCD Grant No. DC-00633.]

Unambiguous Büchi automata

In this paper, we introduce a special class of Büchi automata called unambiguous. In these automata, any infinite word labels exactly one path going infinitely often through final states. The word is recognized by the automaton if this path starts in an initial state. The main result of the paper is that any rational set of infinite words is recognized by such an automaton. We give two proofs of this result. We also provide several related results.

Saving Us From Them

Saving Us From Them

WORD EXPOSURE CONDITIONS AND PRESCHOOLERS' NOVEL WORD LEARNING DURING SHARED STORYBOOK READING

In this experiment, 23 preschool children participated in two adult-child shared storybook reading sessions over a 1-week period. The objective was to characterize the influence of various conditions of word exposure upon children's receptive and expressive learning of novel words occurring within storybook reading interactions. Specifically, the effects of two contrasting conditions were examined: (a) adults' questioning versus labeling of novel words, and (b) adults' use of perceptual versus conceptual questions about novel words. Results suggested that adults' labeling of novel words facilitated children's receptive word learning more so than questioning; however, this effect was not observed for expressive word learning. Results also suggested no difference in receptive or expressive word learning as a result of conceptual versus perceptual questions. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Memory for perceived and imagined pictures—an event-related potential study

Event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioural measures were used to investigate recognition memory and source-monitoring judgements about previously perceived and imagined pictures. At study, word labels of common objects were presented. Half of these were followed by a corresponding picture and the other half by an empty frame, signalling to the participants to mentally visualise an image. At test, participants in a source-monitoring task made a three-way discrimination between new words and words corresponding to previously perceived and imagined pictures. Participants in an old/new-recognition task indicated whether test words were previously presented or not. In both tasks, correctly identified old items elicited more positive-going ERPs than correctly judged new items. This widely distributed old/new effect was found to have an earlier onset and to be of a greater magnitude for imagined than for perceived items. Task (source versus item-memory) affected the old/new effects over prefrontal areas and the reaction times to remembered old items. The present findings are consistent with the view that a greater amount, or a different type, of information is necessary for accurate source-memory judgements than for correct recognition, and moreover, that different types of source-specifying information revive at different rates. In addition, the results add weight to the view that the late widespread ERP-old/new effect is sensitive to the quality or the amount of information retrieved from memory.

From synonyms to homonyms: exploring the role of metarepresentation in language understanding

Doherty and Perner (Metalinguistic awareness and theory of mind: just two words for the same thing? Cognitive Development, 13 (1998), 279–305) report that children’s understanding of synonyms and false belief is dependent on an understanding of the representational mind. Experiment 1 extends this finding by examining children’s understanding of homonyms. Children aged 3 and 4 years were asked to judge whether a puppet correctly selected the second member of a homonym pair. Performance on this task was strongly associated with performance on the false belief task even after chronological and verbal mental age had been accounted for. Experiment 2 incorporated two new tasks: a synonyms task and an adjectives task. Understanding of synonyms and homonyms significantly predicted performance on the false belief task. However, once chronological age was accounted for, only performance on the homonyms task did so. The difficulty experienced on the homonyms task was not due to a reluctance to acknowledge that the puppet can point to a different picture when the the same word label is used twice. Children had no difficulty on the adjectives task when the puppet had to point to a different picture described using the same adjective. The suggestion that the understanding of synonyms, homonyms and false belief are related by a common insight into the representational mind is therefore not supported.

Long live Proust: the odour-cued autobiographical memory bump

The autobiographical memory bump is an increase in the frequency of reported autobiographical memories (AMs) from a particular age range, and has been reported by numerous investigators (for reviews, see Conway, M. A. & Rubin, D. C. (1993). The structure of autobiographical memory. In A. F. Collins, S. E. Gathercole, M. A. Conway & P. E. Morris, Theories of memory. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum; Rubin, D. C., Rahhal, T. A. & Poon, L. W. (1998). Things learned in early adulthood are remembered best. Memory and Cognition, 26, 3–19) to occur in the second and third decades of life. Invariably, word labels have been used as AM cues but, given that a popular interpretation of the anecdotal ‘Proust phenomenon’ is that odours evoke AMs which are especially aged, we wondered if a different pattern in the AM bump might emerge if AMs were cued by odours rather than labels. Here we report an attempt to substantiate this aspect of the ‘Proust phenomenon’ by comparing the distributions of memories across the lifespan when cued by odour and label. Data showed that, in line with previous studies, the bump for label cues was found to peak between ages 11 and 25 years and was confirmed to be quadratic in form. In contrast, the odour-cued memory distribution peaked at 6–10 years and decreased linearly thereafter. In the earliest age interval, 6–10 years, the proportion of AMs retrieved in response to odour cues was significantly greater than that for the label cues. These results provide empirical support for the Proust phenomenon, and have more general implications for the structure and age distribution of stored AMs.

Progress toward demonstration of a surface based DNA computation: a one word approach to solve a model satisfiability problem

A multi-base encoding strategy is used in a one word approach to surface-based DNA computation. In this designed DNA model system, a set of 16 oligonucleotides, each a 16mer, is used with the format 5′-FFFFvvvvvvvvFFFF-3′ in which 4–8 bits of data are stored in eight central variable (‘v’) base locations, and the remaining fixed (‘F’) base locations are used as a word label. The detailed implementations are reported here. In order to achieve perfect discrimination between each oligonucleotide, the efficiency and specificity of hybridization discrimination of the set of 16 oligonucleotides were examined by carrying out the hybridization of each individual fluorescently tagged complement to an array of 16 addressed immobilized oligonucleotides. A series of preliminary hybridization experiments are presented and further studies about hybridization, enzymatic destruction, read out and demonstrations of a SAT problem are forthcoming.

Demonstration of a word design strategy for DNA computing on surfaces.

A strategy for DNA computing on surfaces using linked sets of 'DNA words' that are short oligonucleotides (16mers) is proposed. The 16mer words have the format 5'-FFFFvvvvvvvvFFFF-3' in which 4-8 bits of data are stored in 8 variable ('v') base locations, and the remaining fixed ('F') base locations are used as a word label. Using a template and map strategy, a set of 108 8mers each of which possesses at least a 4 base mismatch with the complements to all the other members of the set (4bm complements) are identified for use as a variable base sequence set. In addition, sets of 4 and 12 word labels of the form ABCD....DCBA that are respectively 8bm and 6bm complements with each other are identified. The 16mers are chosen to have a G/C content of 50% in order to make the thermodynamic stability of the perfectly matched hybridized DNA duplexes similar; a simple pairwise additive method is used to estimate the perfect match and mismatch hybridization thermodynamics. A series of preliminary experiments are presented that use small arrays of 16mers attached to chemically modified gold surfaces and fluorescently labeled complements to study the hybridization adsorption and enzymatic manipulation of the oligonucleotides.

Children's Stress and Coping: A Family Perspective

Preface. Perspectives for Study: Traditional Approaches to Stress and Coping. The Family Perspective: Theoretical and Methodological Notes. Stress, Coping, and Appraisal among Children. An Exploration of Children's Stressors and Coping Responses. Learning from Children's Art. Suggestions for Future Research and Clinical Practice. References. TABLES: 1. Children's Daily Stressors. 2. Children's Coping Efforts. 3. Children's Coping Resources/Uplifts. 4. Outline of Stress?Coping Taxonomies. 5. Taxonomy Themes. 6. Stressors Related to Coping by Theme. 7. Stressors Related to Resources by Theme. 8. Resources Related to Coping by Theme. 9. Proportion of Children's Art that Reflected Reported Stress?Coping Experiences. 10. Use of Color and Word Labels in Children's Art. 11. Topics Depicted in Children's Art. FIGURES 1?9: Children's Art.

Les étiquettes dans les musées et les expositions scientifiques et techniques

What can we learn from empirical or prescriptive literature on the questions raised by the presence of labels in scientific and technical muséums and exhibitions? This paper first gives a précise définition ofthe word label, followed by aparticular review using a linguistic approach. In our discussion, we hâve made use of a few illustrations taken from the abundant corpus of labels collected during surveys carried out at French exhibitions. We analyze différent typologies of labels and the improvements recommended by specialists on the editing oftheir texts in order to make them more attractive to read.

Rehearsal training and short‐term free‐recall of sign and word labels by severely handicapped children

An experiment is reported in which eight severely handicapped children were taught to rehearse lists of five manual sign labels or five word labels during the delay periods of a short-term, free-recall task. The results showed that the rehearsal training had an overall facilitatory effect on recall and that this effect was more pronounced for signs than for words, especially in the recency portion of the serial position curve. Follow-up after 3 weeks showed that the differential facilitatory effect for signs was maintained. The findings are discussed in the context both of existing memory studies for signed stimuli and in terms of their implications for the use of signs in educational settings.

Fast Mapping of Words in Event Contexts by Children with Down Syndrome

Fast mapping of novel words for objects was compared in 48 children and adolescents with Down syndrome (ages 5:6-20:6), who were delayed in expressive language acquisition compared to mental age, and 48 normally developing children matched for mental age (chronological ages 2:0-6:0). Normal and Down syndrome groups did not differ in their ability to infer a connection between the novel word and referent (100% vs. 100%), to comprehend the novel word after a single exposure (83% vs. 73%), and to recall the location in which they hid the novel referent (83% vs. 75%). Nor did they differ in their ability to produce the novel word correctly (at least two out of three phonemes in order: 48% vs. 40%). When retested after an hour of other activity, only the production task showed a significant, and comparable, decrement. Comparing youngest and oldest quarters of each group showed improved memory for location in both, improved comprehension in the Down syndrome group, and improved production in the control group. Adults (n = 12), in contrast, performed perfectly on all tasks except the delayed word production. Neither intelligibility differences nor use of real word labels accounts for the failure to find a difference between groups. Fast mapping skills were unrelated to expressive language deficit in these children with Down syndrome.

Free recall of lists of word and sign labels by severely handicapped children

Two experiments are reported which tested short-term recall of lists of four sign or four word labels by severely handicapped children. The findings suggest that the subjects were more efficient at processing words than signs in short-term memory, and that their organization of sign and word lists were affected by the length of time the material had to be held in short-term store. Both of these effects were influenced by whether or not the subjects had to use the stimuli as labels when making a response.

Use of a Constant Time Delay Procedure in Teaching Preschoolers in a Group Format

The primary purpose of this Investigation was to evaluate the effects of constant time delay (a near-errorless teaching strategy) in teaching preschoolers sight word reading in a group. A secondary purpose was to assess the effects of two attentional responses, specific (repeating the letter names) and general (looking at the stimulus cards) on observational and related, nontarget learning. A multiple probe design across pairs of words was used to evaluate the procedure. The results of the investigation indicate that (a) constant time delay was reliably implemented in a group setting, (b) constant time delay was effective in teaching all targeted stimuli in near-errorless fashion, (c) observational and related, nontarget learning (expressive labeling of words, receptive identification of words, matching words to pictures and pictures to words, and receptive spelling of words) occurred across students, and (d) the specific attending response resulted in greater expressive labeling, receptive identification, and receptive spelling of other children's target words than did the general attending response.

Dictionaries and Labeling of Words Offensive to Groups, with Particular Attention to the Second Edition of the OED

Dictionaries and Labeling of Words Offensive to Groups, with Particular Attention to the Second Edition of the OED

Effects of Free Recall of Grouping Pictures, Picture Names, and Complete Picture Descriptions.

The double-encoding hypothesis is one explanation for the superior free recall of picture stimuli compared to recall of the same stimuli in word form. This study attempted to describe fully in words the picture stimuli that were presented, because a picture's simple word label obviously is not equivalent in complexity to the picture itself. Pictures, their simple labels, and a series of words that completely described the pictures were presented to 90 Ss. Results indicated stimuli in the picture form were remembered better than both kinds of word stimuli. These results supported the double-encoding hypothesis.

Do Words Really Interfere in Naming Pictures?

EHRI, LINNEA C. DO Words Really Interfere in Naming Pictures? CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1976, 47, 502-505. Children and adult reader.s were asked to label 2 sets of pictures, 1 drawti with either eorrect word labels or diserepaiit labels, and the other with no labels (control condition). Results supported previous conclusions that discrepant words interfere with picture-naming speed and congruent words enhance speed. Interference was evident in all subjects except a group of below-average second-grade readers, apparently because it took them as long to recognize the words as to name the pictures. In a recent issue of Child Development, Rosinski, Golinkoff, and Kukish (1975) describe a most interesting phenomenon evident in the performances of second- as well a.s sixth-grade readers and adults, a phenomenon resembling the Stroop color-word interference effect (Stroop 1935). In this study, stibjects were asked to label drawings of 20 familiar objects arranged in five rows on a sheet of paper. Printed in the middle of each object was a word. In the 100% congruence condition, idl the words correctly labeled the pictures. In the 0% congruence condition, none of the words matched. The subjects were told to ignore the words as they named the pictures. The time taken to identify all 20 pictures was recorded. Results revealed that it took subjects much longer to label pictures with discrepant labels than with correct labels. Furthermore, differencjes between the discrepant and congruent conditions were greater among younger than older subjects. In a second experiment, another condition was added, one in which nonsense trigrams rhyming with the correct labels served as the printed distractors. Findings indicated that subjects took less time to label pictures with trigrams than pictures with discrepant: words, but they took substantially longer in the trigram condition than in the congrttent word condition. Rosinski et al. conclude that picturelabeling behavior is influenced by the presence of printed words and that the presence of discrepant words has the effect of interfering with pieturelabeling performance, especially among younger subjects.

Effects of frequency "recoding" on the articulation learning of perceptively deaf children.

The effect of a speech " recoding " device on the articulation learning (by imitation) of sensori-neural, partially-hearing children was evaluated. It was found that a " frequency shift " of speech components above 4000 c.p.s. down to the residual hearing range of the children, when combined with selective amplification and amplitude compression, led to significantly better articulation learning of consonants with major spectral components in the " shifted " region, than when selective amplification and amplitude compression only were used, the improvement being manifest within only seven training sessions of five to ten minutes, under each condition of amplification. Further, " recoding " produced a small but significant improvement in articulation transfer-of-training, measured by ability to imitate the same consonants occurring in different phonemic contexts, uttered in a different voice to that used in training. However, the superior discrimination and articulation of " recoded " consonants did not suffice to establish the " recoded " words (in which the consonants were embedded) as substitute labels for corresponding pictures (or concepts) in preference to already " known " non-recoded word labels, emphasizing the need in such experiments to separately investigate the effects of a given training procedure or " recoding " technique on discrimination, articulation, and picture (or concept) labelling.