Word Stimuli Research Articles

Features of Worldview Perception Among Speakers of Yakut and Russian: Associative Field Analysis of Stimulus Words DYOL — SCHASTYE

This article analyzes the associative fields of the stimulus words DYOL and SCHASTYE, which are central to the linguistic consciousness of Yakut and Russian speakers. Investigating the underlying processes within language enables us to uncover the ethnocultural specificity of a community’s linguistic consciousness — a snapshot of the real-world image at a particular period in the life of an ethnic group. The focus is on identifying both commonalities and distinctions in the perception of happiness among speakers of the two languages, as well as the ethnocultural nuances in their worldviews. A comparative analysis of the associative fields of the stimulus words DYOL — SCHASTYE is conducted using Y.N. Karaulov’s “semantic gestalt” methodology, which includes delineating semantic zones, determining types of connections between stimuli and responses, and employing a quantitative assessment method to measure the overlap of associative fields. The analysis reveals significant shifts in the value priorities of Yakut speakers in recent years. While happiness was previously associated with family, children, and material wealth, con-temporary perspectives increasingly emphasize aspects such as fulfilling work, travel, career advancement, and self-care. This reflects modern social trends where happiness is linked not only to material factors but also to personal growth and self-actualization.

THE RESEARCH POTENTIAL OF ASSOCIATIVE LEXICOGRAPHY: PROSPECTS OF DIACHRONIC RESEARCH IN KAZAKHSTAN

The article describes the history of the formation of world associative lexicography, examines the typology and electronic databases of various associative dictionaries, their meaning and purpose in the context of psycholinguistic studies of the content and ethnocultural specificity of the linguistic consciousness of ethnic groups; gives an interpretation of the terminological apparatus used in the study of cognitive and mental processes of speech activity using associative techniques. Using the example of comparing the contents of two Kazakh associative dictionaries – the Soviet (KRAD-78) and the post-reform period (KAD-2014) – the dynamics of changes in the content of the nuclear zones of linguistic consciousness of two generations of students, participants in mass associative experiments, is demonstrated, which is convincing evidence of the serious research potential of associative lexicography and predicts the prospects of this kind of diachronic associative research. Based on the predicted scientific and socio-cultural significance of diachronic comparative associative studies, the article proposes to create another associative dictionary, expanding the list of stimulus words from 120 to 1000 in order to obtain an associative thesaurus of the Kazakh language, which will reflect a certain transformation of the linguistic consciousness of the ethnic group, and elements of stability of its central nuclear zones.

A robust temporal map of speech monitoring from planning to articulation

Speakers continuously monitor their own speech to optimize fluent production, but the precise timing and underlying variables influencing speech monitoring remain insufficiently understood. Through two EEG experiments, this study aimed to provide a comprehensive temporal map of monitoring processes ranging from speech planning to articulation.In both experiments, participants were primed to switch the consonant onsets of target word pairs read aloud, eliciting speech errors of either lexical or articulatory-phonetic (AP) origin. Experiment I used pairs of the same stimuli words, creating lexical or non-lexical errors when switching initial consonants, with the degree of shared AP features not fully balanced but considered in the analysis. Experiment II followed a similar methodology but used different words in pairs for the lexical and non-lexical conditions, fully orthogonalizing the number of shared AP features.As error probability is higher in trials primed to result in lexical versus non-lexical errors and AP-close compared to AP-distant errors, more monitoring is required for these conditions. Similarly, error trials require more monitoring compared to correct trials. We used high versus low error probability on correct trials and errors versus correct trials as indices of monitoring.Across both experiments, we observed that on correct trials, lexical error probability effects were present during initial stages of speech planning, while AP error probability effects emerged during speech motor preparation. In contrast, error trials showed differences from correct utterances in both early and late speech motor preparation and during articulation. These findings suggest that (a) response conflict on ultimately correct trials does not persist during articulation; (b) the timecourse of response conflict is restricted to the time window during which a given linguistic level is task-relevant (early on for response appropriateness-related variables and later for articulation-relevant variables); and (c) monitoring during the response is primarily triggered by pre-response monitoring failure. These results support that monitoring in language production is temporally distributed and rely on multiple mechanisms.

Beyond self-report: Measuring visual, auditory, and tactile mental imagery using a mental comparison task

Finding a reliable and objective measure of individual differences in mental imagery across sensory modalities is difficult, with measures relying on self-report scales or focusing on one modality alone. Based on the idea that mental imagery involves multimodal sensorimotor simulations, a mental comparison task (MCT) was developed across three studies and tested on adults (n = 96, 345, and 448). Analyses examined: (a) the internal consistency of the MCT, (b) whether lexical features of the MCT stimuli (word length and frequency) predicted performance, (c) whether the MCT related to two widely used self-report scales, (d) response latencies and accuracies across the visual, auditory, and tactile modalities, and (e) whether MCT performance was independent of processing speed. The MCT showed evidence of reliability and validity. Responses were fastest and most accurate for the visual modality, followed by the auditory and tactile. However, consistent with the idea that self-report questionnaires index a different aspect of mental imagery, the MCT showed minimal correlations with self-report imagery. Finally, relations between MCT scales remained strong after controlling for processing speed. Findings are discussed in relation to current understanding and measurement of mental imagery.

Асоціативні образи медіа і журналіста в мовній картині світу майбутніх педагогів

Media is an important component of the information society. The need to protect the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine after the full-scale invasion of the aggressor state, countering the hybrid war increased the importance of mass media. The object of our research is the associative image of the key concepts of the media industry - media and journalist, in particular, semantic shifts in these words, new connotative layering in the collective consciousness of Ukrainians. The purpose of the article is to analyze the associative images of the media and the journalist in the language picture of the world of higher education graduates of pedagogical specialties; on the material of a free associative experiment, associative fields of stimulus words were constructed, the most frequent, repeated and single associates were singled out and characterized. A free associative experiment was chosen as the main research method to collect reactions to stimulus words; descriptive and structural methods were used to analyze the associative field of the words media and journalist; statistical – for processing the obtained results, establishing the quantitative characteristics of the elements of associative fields. Results. The most frequent associations recorded because of the experiment are only partially correlated with the lexicographic characteristics of the stimulus words. Repeated reactions of future teachers represent semantic shifts in relevant concepts and connotational layering, which are relevant in the language consciousness of students of higher education. The associative fields of lexemes consist mainly of single reactions, a small number of which reflect the realities of martial law and well-known media figures. Such results of the associative experiment indicate the need to adjust and deepen the work with future teachers regarding the understanding of the information space, structure and content of the media. Originality. The relevance of our research is determined by the fact that the concepts of media and journalist are socially significant; they belong to the active composition of the lexical system, actualized in language practice by complex transformational processes in society. Among 262 reactions to the media stimulus word, 122 different associates were established. Modern lexicographic sources and industry reference publications equate the concepts of media, mass media. The associative image of the media in the language consciousness of future teachers primarily relates to information and channels and methods of its transmission, a significant part of the participants of the experiment expanded the concept. The associative field consists mainly of single reactions (79.5%). As a result of the free associative experiment, 286 word-reactions to the stimulus word journalist were obtained, of which 167 different associates, the most frequent reaction is news, single reactions make up 85.6% of the associative field. Repeated associates represent the image of a journalist in the language consciousness of future teachers, highlighting the conditions of professional activity and its results. The researched associative fields represent social stereotypes in the assessment of the media and the journalist.

Orthographic influences on phonological processing in children with and without reading difficulties: an eye-tracking study

AbstractPhonological processing is an important contributor to decoding and spelling difficulties, but it does not fully explain word reading outcomes for all children. As orthographic knowledge is acquired, it influences phonological processing in typical readers. In the present study, we examined whether orthography affects phonological processing differently for children with current reading difficulties (RD), children with a history of reading difficulties who are currently presenting with typical word reading skills (Hx), and children with typical development and no history of reading difficulties (TD). School-aged children completed a phonological awareness task containing spoken words and pictures while eye movements were recorded. In this task, children had to pair a spoken stimulus word with one of four pictures that ended with the same sound. Within the task, stimulus-target picture pairs varied in the congruency and consistency of the orthographic and phonological mappings of their final consonant sounds. Eye movements revealed that children with typical word reading (the Hx and TD groups) showed better discrimination of the target from the foils compared to peers with underdeveloped word reading skills. All children were more accurate when stimulus-target pairs were congruent and consistent than when they were incongruent or inconsistent. Orthography plays an important role in the completion of phonological awareness tasks, even in the absence of written words and for children with a wide range of reading abilities. Results highlight the importance of considering orthography during interventions for phonological awareness and word reading.

Presentation of multiple task instructional sets impacts auditory Stroop performance during dual task locomotion.

The auditory Stroop is a modification of the classic Stroop paradigm commonly used in dual-task research when the motor task requires the visual system. Despite its use, there are gaps in our understanding of this tool. For example, in visual/auditory Stroop paradigms, neutral cues irrelevant to the required response, which theoretically cause less interference/facilitation, are used to elucidate effects of visual/auditory demands on neural processes. Specifically, in auditory Stroop paradigms the use and choice of neutral cue words is inconsistent. To address these gaps, we instrumented participants with kinematic markers and a digital microphone and asked them to respond to auditory Stroop cues and neutral cue words consisting of either one or two syllables, while simultaneously performing an unobstructed locomotor task. Two blocks of trials were collected. In one block, participants had prior knowledge that either an auditory Stroop or a neutral word stimulus would be presented (Known); a second block presented both types of cognitive cues in a random order to participants (Mixed). We observed main effects of cognitive task (neutral, incongruent, congruent) and instructional set (Known, Mixed) on response times, but not on center of mass velocity. Also, more time was required to verbally respond to an incongruent compared to congruent or neutral task across all conditions, and neutral task words with one syllable resulted in longer response times compared to two syllable neutral words. We recommend that researchers include neutral cues when using the auditory Stroop test and to carefully consider their neutral word choice.

Effects of a video-viewing intervention with positive word stimulation on the depressive symptoms of older patients with cardiac disease and subthreshold depression: a pilot randomized controlled trial protocol

BackgroundIntervention for older patients with cardiac disease and subthreshold depression (StD) may be an effective strategy to prevent the development of major depressive disorder. The subliminal priming with supraliminal reward stimulation (SPSRS) website developed by us is an advanced intervention that can improve depressive symptoms in individuals with StD by presenting positive word stimuli in videos. However, its efficacy for treating depressive symptoms in older patients with cardiac disease and StD has not been investigated. Here, we present a pilot randomized controlled trial protocol to investigate the preliminary efficacy of an intervention for older patients with cardiac disease with StD.MethodsThe study was designed as a single-center, open-label, pilot, randomized, parallel-group trial. The participants will include 30 older patients with cardiac disease and StD who are hospitalized in acute wards. The Experimental group received the SPSRS intervention (video viewing with positive word stimuli; n = 15) and the Control group will receive the YouTube intervention (video viewing without positive word stimuli; n = 15). In both groups, the intervention will be administered for 10 min per day, five times per week for 1 week. The primary outcome will be the change in the scores on the Japanese version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II at 1 week after the baseline assessment. The secondary outcomes will be the changes in the Specific Activity Scale, New York Heart Association functional classification, as well as grip strength at 1 week after the baseline assessment.DiscussionThis pilot randomized controlled trial will be the first to evaluate the SPSRS intervention for depressive symptoms in older patients with cardiac disease and StD who are admitted to acute wards. The results will provide tentative indications regarding the impact of the intervention on depressive symptoms among older patients with cardiac disease and StD who are admitted to acute wards, and will contribute to the planning of a full-scale study.Trial registrationUMIN, UMIN000052155. Registered September 8, 2023, https://center6.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000059526. This study was registered with the University Hospital Medical Information Network (UMIN) (UMIN000052155) in Japan.

The Instagram Stimulus & e-WOM of Visiting Interest to Ecological based Café

This study examines the impact of Instagram Stimulus and Electronic Word of Mouth (e-WOM) on visiting interest in Café Jolotundo Glamping & Edu Park using quantitative research methods. Data were collected through a survey with a Likert scale from 96 respondents who have visited or plan to visit the café. Results indicate no significant effect of Instagram Stimulus on visiting interest (Sig = 0.670, t = 0.427 < t-table 1.989). However, e-WOM significantly influences visiting interest (Sig = 0.000, t = 6.933 > t-table 1.989). The F test results (F = 58.530 > F-table 3.09, Sig = 0.000) show that Instagram Stimulus and e-WOM together affect visiting interest. The R Square value of 0.557 indicates that 55.7% of visiting interest is explained by these variables, while the remaining 45.2% is influenced by other factors not covered in this study.

Examining the cognitive structure of elementary school students regarding science, energy sources, and health using the word association method

We explored the cognitive structure of students in grade 1-grade 4 using word association in three topics (science, energy sources, and health) with six-six keywords (stimulus words) per topic. Based on the common associations given to the stimulus words, we calculated the relatedness coefficient for the stimulus word pairs. This was used to draw a cognitive structure, the conceptual network, characteristic of each group of learners. We found that the verbal version of the word association test is suitable for studying the cognitive structure of young schoolchildren. The typical conceptual network of the student groups shows a strong correlation with the knowledge structure of experts in grade 4 (in all three topics), as well as in grade 1 and grade 3 (in the topic of health). Using word association tests, we have been able to demonstrate that the number and strength of connections in the conceptual networks for groups of learners increases with the learners’ grade and their everyday experience of the topic.

Conceptualization of Shame in the Kazakh Linguistic Culture: Psycholinguistic Study

The article deals with the concept of shame as an integral part of the Kazakh culture and mentality. It embeds in the upbringing of a child and covers the whole life of the representatives of the Kazakh language and culture. The study is aimed at exploring the concept verbally represented by the lexeme “ұят” (shame) in the linguistic culture of the Kazakh nation. Mixed methods research combining lexicographic analysis, semantic and cognitive analysis, and a psycholinguistic experiment was conducted to determine the meaning, content of the concept of shame in the Kazakh language and its impact on daily life and culture of the nation. The participants of a free associative experiment, administered via Google Forms, included 63 representatives of the Kazakh language and culture (19 male, 44 female) aged 17-45 years. The participants of the experiment were asked to provide associations (words that came to their mind as reactions) to the stimulus word “ұят” (shame). The number of associations was not limited. The experimental data were quantitively analyzed and further categorized for modelling the associative field of the concept under study. The results of the study demonstrate how extensive and diverse the concept of shame in the Kazakh linguistic picture of the world is.

한국어 교사, 한국어 학습자, 한국인 모어 화자의 단어 연상 의미 관계 비교 연구

Objectives This study investigates the semantic relations of associated words between Korean language teachers, Korean language learners and Korean native speakers through word association test. Methods This word association task was conducted with 3 subject groups. They were given 10 stimulus words which were derived from the novice level in Korean language text books, then they were asked to associate and write 3 associative words to 10 stimulus words. Results This study reveals three important results. First, Korean native speakers’ group showed the most associated words among the 3 groups. Second, Korean language teachers’ group showed the least number of associative words. Third, Korean language learnes’ group and Korean teachers’ group had the the most common associated words. Conclusions The result that Korean teachers’ group showed that least number of assciated words suggests that the diversity of associative words may have emerged due to occupational influences but it also means that the trained teachers focused on the language learners’ proficiency and associated the words which they use in teaching or from textbooks. Second, whereas the associative words of native Koreans are very authentic and various, other two groups’ associative words seemed more focused on the vocabulary in the textbook so they had more associated words in common. Therefore, in order to teach and use the authentic Korean words to foreign Korean language learners, we may utilize the word association test to find and develop more ways to use the authentic words which are frequently used in each field.

Consolidation of emotional memory during waking rest depends on trait anxiety

A short period of eyes-closed waking rest improves long-term memory for recently learned information, including declarative, spatial, and procedural memory. However, the effect of rest on emotional memory consolidation remains unknown. This preregistered study aimed to establish whether post-encoding rest affects emotional memory and how anxiety levels might modulate this effect. Participants completed a modified version of the dot-probe attention task that involved reacting to and encoding word stimuli appearing underneath emotionally negative or neutral photos. We tested the effect of waking rest on memory for these words and pictures by manipulating the state that participants entered just after this task (rest vs. active wake). Trait anxiety levels were measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and examined as a covariate. Waking rest improved emotional memory consolidation for individuals high in trait anxiety. These results suggest that the beneficial effect of waking rest on memory extends into the emotional memory domain but depends on individual characteristics such as anxiety.

Attentional bias to uncertainty-based information: a conceptual replication of Fergus et al. (2013)

Attentional biases to negative information are often observed in emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression. Recently, Fergus et al. (Cognitive Therapy and Research 37:735-741, 2013) demonstrated that participants scoring high in Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU), a transdiagnostic risk factor for emotional disorders, were faster at identifying targets with uncertainty-based information (e.g., word stimuli such as ‘maybe’), relative to neutral information (e.g. word stimuli related to household items). Moreover, this effect was specific to IU over other anxious traits such as worry. This report aimed to conceptually replicate the results of Fergus et al. (Cognitive Therapy and Research 37:735-741, 2013). The current experiment was conducted with a student sample (n = 126). As in the original study, a visual search task with uncertainty-based and neutral information (e.g., word stimuli) was used. Reaction times were collected. IU and trait anxiety was measured via self-report. We partially replicated the results of Fergus et al. (Cognitive Therapy and Research 37:735-741, 2013). We found that higher IU was significantly associated with faster identification of uncertainty-based information, relative to neutral information. However, we also observed a similar pattern of results for trait anxiety. Additionally, we observed no specificity of IU or trait anxiety in predicting faster identification of uncertainty-based information, relative to neutral information. Despite the lack of specificity of IU or trait anxiety in predicting attentional bias to uncertainty-based information, these findings highlight that negative emotionality may be generally associated with attentional biases to uncertainty-based information in the absence of direct threat.

Information perseveration in recognition memory: Examining the scope of sequential dependencies.

Models of recognition memory often assume that decisions are made independently from each other. Yet there is growing evidence that consecutive recognition responses show sequential dependencies, whereby making one response increases the probability of repeating that response from one trial to the next trial. Across six experiments, we replicated this response-related carryover effect using word and nonword stimuli and further demonstrated that the content of the previous trial-both perceptual and conceptual-can also bias the response to the current test probe, with both perceptual (orthographic) and conceptual (semantic) similarity boosting the probability of consecutive "old" responses. Finally, a manipulation of attentional engagement in Experiments 3a and 3b provided little evidence these carryover effects on recognition decisions are merely a product of lapses in attention. Taken together, the current study reinforces prior findings that recognition decisions are not made independently, and that multiple forms of information perseverate across consecutive trials.

Opposite perceptual biases in analogous auditory and visual tasks are unique to consonant–vowel strings and are unlikely a consequence of repetition

ABSTRACT Despite wide reporting of a right ear (RE) advantage on dichotic listening tasks and a right visual field (RVF) advantage on visual half-field tasks, we know very little about the relationship between these perceptual biases. Previous studies that have investigated perceptual asymmetries for analogous auditory and visual consonant–vowel tasks have indicated a serendipitous finding: a RE advantage and a left visual field (LVF) advantage with poor cross-modal correlations. In this study, we examined the possibility that this LVF advantage for visual processing of consonant–vowel strings may be a consequence of repetition by examining perceptual biases in analogous auditory and visual tasks for both consonant–vowel strings and words. We replicated opposite perceptual biases for consonant–vowel strings (RE and LVF advantages). This did not extend to word stimuli where we found RE and RVF advantages. Furthermore, these perceptual biases did not differ across the three experimental blocks. Thus, we can firmly conclude that this LVF advantage is unique to consonant–vowel strings and is not a consequence of the repetition of a relatively limited number of stimuli. Finally, a test of covariances indicated no cross-modal relationships between laterality indices suggesting that perceptual biases are dissociable within individuals and cluster on mode of presentation.

An inclusive multivariate approach to neural localization of language components

To determine how language is implemented in the brain, it is important to know which brain areas are primarily engaged in language processing and which are not. Existing protocols for localizing language are typically univariate, treating each small unit of brain volume as independent. One prominent example that focuses on the overall language network in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) uses a contrast between neural responses to sentences and sets of pseudowords (pronounceable nonwords). This contrast reliably activates peri-sylvian language areas but is less sensitive to extra-sylvian areas that are also known to support aspects of language such as word meanings (semantics). In this study, we assess areas where a multivariate, pattern-based approach shows high reproducibility across multiple measurements and participants, identifying these areas as multivariate regions of interest (mROI). We then perform a representational similarity analysis (RSA) of an fMRI dataset where participants made familiarity judgments on written words. We also compare those results to univariate regions of interest (uROI) taken from previous sentences > pseudowords contrasts. RSA with word stimuli defined in terms of their semantic distance showed greater correspondence with neural patterns in mROI than uROI. This was confirmed in two independent datasets, one involving single-word recognition, and the other focused on the meaning of noun-noun phrases by contrasting meaningful phrases > pseudowords. In all cases, areas of spatial overlap between mROI and uROI showed the greatest neural association. This suggests that ROIs defined in terms of multivariate reproducibility can help localize components of language such as semantics. The multivariate approach can also be extended to focus on other aspects of language such as phonology, and can be used along with the univariate approach for inclusively mapping language cortex.

Auditory Event-related Potentials for Word Stimuli in Kannada Language Among Native Kannada Speakers with Dementia

Background: The P300 is a positive auditory event-related potential appearing around 300 msec post-oddball stimulus onset. Tone and monosyllabic stimuli have been widely used in P300 research, providing valuable insights into auditory perception, phoneme discrimination, language processing, and other cognitive processes. Bi-syllabic minimal pairs may be more challenging for some individuals because they require processing and discrimination of more complex phonemic structures. The aim of the study was to elicit and analyze the auditory event-related potentials for bi-syllabic word stimuli in the Kannada language among individuals with dementia. Method: The prospective study was conducted at the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology. Ten native Kannada language speakers (five male; and five female) diagnosed with dementia, aged 55–70 years, were the participants. The naturally produced and recorded CVCV (Consonant vowel consonant vowel) tokens (/ko:ti/ and /ko:thi/ pair; /a: me/ and /a:ne pair) in Kannada were used in the auditory oddball paradigm. Results: The waveforms with positive peak for word (PPW) with clear morphology were used to obtain the latency and amplitude. Mean and Standard deviation (SD) value for the latency of the PPW was 545 ± 38 msec and the amplitude value of PPW was 2.5 ± 1.5 µV. Conclusion: The present study showed that when lengthier speech stimulus duration was used, the latency value of auditory event-related potential was higher. The study also showed that PPW is a reliable peak that could be used in the clinical population.

Age dynamics of differentiation and the hierarchy of the concept Director

The article is devoted to the study of the characteristics of the age dynamics of the measure of differentiation and the measure of hierarchy of the concept Director at different stages of age development. The study involved 572 respondents aged from 6 to 56 years. To identify age dynamics, the results of a directed associative experiment (stimulus word Director) and a pictographic technique were analyzed. The data obtained indicate that with age development and mastery of professional activities, there is a significant increase in the measure of differentiation and the measure of hierarchy from the children's group to the group of early adulthood. After this, in the mature group of respondents the measure of differentiation stabilizes, and the measure of hierarchy sharply decreases. It is assumed that a director's creative activity decreases with age. It is hypothesized that the sharp drop in the measure of hierarchy is due to the specifics of the sample.

Transformation of the Basic Value Mitleid (Compassion) in German Linguoculture

Today, scientists from various sciences are studying the content of basic values. At the same time, scientists believe that values, being a factor consolidating society, should remain stable. The linguistic analysis used in the work indicates a rapid change in values in modern linguistic culture, which begins with a change in the emotional-evaluative component. Diagnostics of such processes is extremely relevant. The purpose of the study is to determine the psychologically relevant content of the basic value Mitleid (compassion) in German linguistic culture, as well as its dynamics. The main research method, along with the method of semantic analysis, is a free associative experiment, which is considered an effective method for determining the content of a word that represents the basic value with the same name. A free associative experiment was conducted with speakers of German linguoculture in 2023. Respondents aged 17 to 23 years old had to give the first reaction that came to mind to stimulus words nominating basic values of the same name, among which was the word Mitleid (compassion). Due to modern extralinguistic conditions, the free associative experiment was conducted in the format of Google questionnaires. During the experiment, 614 reactions were obtained. As a result of the study, it was found that a large number of conceptual reactions indicate the respondents’ understanding of this concept and indicate the assimilation of this concept and the ability to explain it. At the same time, the data obtained indicate the absence of this concept in the speech activity of individuals, as well as the dynamics of basic value, which manifests itself in negative reactions.