The cognitive basis of the comprehension and production of relational terminology

The comprehension of big, little, and same number and the productio of relational terminology was assessed in 168 preschool children. Stimuli were used which varied the relationships of length, number, and density. Language comprehension and production were related to the complexity of cognitive operations required by the task. Specifically, comprehension was easier in the situations in which length and number were positively correlated than when length provided no cue to number. Comprehension was most difficult when length and number were negatively correlated. There was asymmetry in language comprehension such that the positive term big, was comprehended earlier than little in some tasks; there was also asymmetry in production in that the child was more likely to use language related to the positive pole than to the negative pole. These data were interpreted as providing support for theories of the cognitive basis of language acquisition.     

The comprehension of relative,absolute, and contrastive adjectives by young children

Three types of adjectives-relative, contrastive, and absolute-were presented in standard and comparative contrasts to preschool children in a picture-choice paradigm. Proportion of errors in picture choices showed the predicted effect of greater difficulty for comparative than for standard terms. Latency data showed that the responses to comparative forms of absolute and contrastive adjectives were significantly slower than responses to their standard forms, and were also slower than responses to the comparative forms of the relative terms which did not differ from their standard forms. These data support the interpretation that the classes of relative, contrastive, and absolute adjectives are processed differently by young children. Factors of cognitive complexity that influence the order of difficulty are considered.     

Speech production, syntax comprehension, and cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease.

Speech samples were obtained that were analyzed for voice onset time (VOT) for 40 nondemented English speaking subjects, 20 with mild and 20 with moderate Parkinson's disease. Syntax comprehension and cognitive tests were administered to these subjects in the same test sessions. VOT disruptions for stop consonants in syllable initial position, similar to those noted for Broca's aphasia, occurred for nine subjects. Longer response times and errors in the comprehension of syntax as measured by the Rhode Island Test of Sentence Comprehension (RITLS) also occurred for these subjects. Anovas indicate that the VOT overlap subjects had significantly higher syntax error rates and longer response times on the RITLS than the VOT nonoverlap subjects--F(1, 70) = 12.38, p less than 0.0008; F(1, 70) = 7.70, p less than 0.007, respectively. The correlation between the number of VOT timing errors and the number of syntax errors was significant. (r = 0.6473, p less than 0.01). VOT overlap subjects also had significantly higher error rates in cognitive tasks involving abstraction and the ability to maintain a mental set. Prefrontal cortex, acting through subcortical basal ganglia pathways, is a component of the neural substrate that regulates human speech production, syntactic ability, and certain aspects of cognition. The deterioration of these subcortical pathways may explain similar phenomena in Broca's aphasia. Results are discussed in relation to "modular" theories.     

The effects of speech production and speech comprehension on simulated driving performance

We performed two experiments comparing the effects of speech production and speech comprehension on simulated driving performance. In both experiments, participants completed a speech task and a simulated driving task under single‐ and dual‐task conditions, with language materials matched for linguistic complexity. In Experiment 1, concurrent production and comprehension resulted in more variable velocity compared to driving alone. Experiment 2 replicated these effects in a more difficult simulated driving environment, with participants showing larger and more variable headway times when speaking or listening while driving than when just driving. In both experiments, concurrent production yielded better control of lane position relative to single‐task performance; concurrent comprehension had little impact on control of lane position. On all other measures, production and comprehension had very similar effects on driving. The results show, in line with previous work, that there are detrimental consequences for driving of concurrent language use. Our findings imply that these detrimental consequences may be roughly the same whether drivers are producing speech or comprehending it. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attending to feelings and cognitive performance

The effect on cognitive performance of attending to internally generated stimuli was examined. Specifically, the effect of examining feelings and sensations upon performance in the Stroop test and upon the performance of mental addition was measured. In two initial experiments subjects more quickly named, in the Stroop test, the color of the ink (“red”) in which a color word (“green”) was printed following instructions to attend to their feelings. It was found that this facilitation was due in part to the slowing of the automatic, interfering habit of reading for word meanings. In a third experiment, the effect of attending to physical sensations on the back of the hand was found to have a similar facilitating effect and was seen as resulting from the allocation of attention to internally generated stimuli. In a final experiment, attending to feelings and to the physical sensations on the back of the hand was found to increase speed of mental addition. This effect was attributed to increased attention to internally generated stimuli (here knowledge about the arithmetic performance at the moment).     

Persistent structural priming from language comprehension to language production

To examine the relationship between syntactic processes in language comprehension and language production, we compared structural persistence from sentence primes that speakers heard to persistence from primes that speakers produced. [Bock, J. K., & Griffin, Z. M. (2000). The persistence of structural priming: transient activation or implicit learning? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129, 177-192.] showed that the production of target priming structures increased the probability of spontaneously using the same structures to describe events in subsequent pictures that were semantically unrelated to the primes. These priming effects persisted across as many as ten intervening filler trials. The present studies replicated these results using auditorily presented primes to which participants only listened. The results indicated persistence of priming across all lags, with relative magnitudes of priming as large as those observed by Bock and Griffin. The implication is that structural priming is persistent regardless of the modality in which language structures are experienced, underscoring the power of priming as an implicit learning mechanism.     

Adapting production to comprehension: The explicit mention of instruments

This study investigated whether production is adapted to comprehension. Experiment 1 examined whether or not instruments are explicitly mentioned in accordance with their likelihood of being inferred. Subjects read and retold 20 short stories. An analysis of the transcribed stories revealed that atypical instruments (e.g., an ice pick in a stabbing) were specified significantly more often than typical instruments (e.g., a knife in a stabbing), and instruments that were important in the story were specified slightly more often than unimportant instruments. Experiment 2 examined the mechanism accounting for this phenomenon and revealed that the speaker's beliefs about the listener's knowledge of the instrument had little impact on whether and how the instrument was mentioned. A quantitative model for mentioning instruments was proposed. Instrument concepts can be selected at three points in the production process: (1) during creation of a macroproposition encoding the main idea of a discourse episode, (2) during the elaboration of the macroproposition, and (3) during the monitoring and repair process.     

语篇情绪理解及其认知神经机制

在心理语言学领域,情绪信息加工是语篇理解的重要方面,得到了广泛关注。目前的研究表明,读者在语篇阅读中可以在线地、自动地推测出语篇情绪信息,追踪情绪信息的变化,并对其进行更新。语篇理解相关的模型及一些事件相关电位(ERP)的实证研究表明语篇情绪理解至少包括两个重要的加工过程:一是对语篇情绪信息的实时监控,二是对当前情绪信息的评估与更新。相关的功能磁共振(f MRI)的研究表明语篇情绪理解除了需要经典的情绪加工网络,还需要多个脑区网络的参与,如,语篇理解网络、心理理论(To M)网络。未来研究还需更加深入地、更加细致地探讨语篇情绪理解的认知神经机制及其可能的影响因素,研究成果也可以为情感计算领域提供一定的借鉴。     

The functional anatomy of word comprehension and production

This review describes the functional anatomy of word comprehension and production. Data from functional neuroimaging studies of normal subjects are used to determine the distributed set of brain regions that are engaged during particular language tasks and data from studies of patients with neurological damage are used to determine which of these regions are necessary for task performance. This combination of techniques indicates that the left inferior temporal and left posterior inferior parietal cortices are required for accessing semantic knowledge; the left posterior basal temporal lobe and the left frontal operculum are required for translating semantics into phonological output and the left anterior inferior parietal cortex is required for translating orthography to phonology. Further studies are required to establish the specific functions of the different regions and how these functions interact to provide our sophisticated language system.     

Preschool children's comprehension and production of directive forms

Thirty preschool children, 10 each at the 3-,4-, and 5-year-old levels, participated in two structured tasks designed to assess both comprehension and production of a full range of directive forms. In contrast to previous reports, the results indicated no significant differences in directive comprehension or production as a function of age; children in all age groups demonstrated the ability to understand and verbally encode the intent of most types of directive forms. However, the two most implicit forms, Question Directives and Hints, were complied with significantly less frequently than the more explicit forms, and were uused less often in the production task. The present findings indicate the importance of analyzing directive forms along a continuum of explicitness rather than dichotomizing them as direct versus indirect. Finally, the results are interpreted as providing indirect support for the general notion that mastery of some implicit forms may be achieved later than the acquisition of more explicit forms.     

Relation of neuroleptic and anticholinergic medication to cognitive functions in schizophrenia

In this article, we review research designed to examine the influence of neuroleptic and anticholinergic drugs on cognitive processes in schizophrenia. The review is motivated by the recognition that pharmacotherapy is an important factor in psychological research on schizophrenia, given that the great majority of patients studied in investigations of cognition receive both of these drugs. We find that neuroleptic treatment is associated with limited normalization on many psychological measures, whereas anticholinergics appear to disrupt some aspects of memory. Subject selection criteria, research designs, and drug measurement methods important in the evaluation of possible drug effects in psychological studies are discussed.     

Translating cognitive neuroscience to the driver's operational environment: a neuroergonomic approach

Neuroergonomics provides a multidisciplinary translational approach that merges elements of neuroscience, human factors, cognitive psychology, and ergonomics to study brain structure and function in everyday environments. Driving safety, particularly that of older drivers with cognitive impairments, is a fruitful application domain for neuroergonomics. Driving makes demands on multiple cognitive processes that are often studied in isolation and so presents a useful challenge in generalizing findings from controlled laboratory tasks to predict safety outcomes. Neurology and the cognitive sciences help explain the mechanisms of cognitive breakdowns that undermine driving safety. Ergonomics complements this explanation with the tools for systematically exploring the various layers of complexity that define the activity of driving. A variety of tools, such as part task simulators, driving simulators, and instrumented vehicles, provide a window into cognition in the natural settings needed to assess the generalizability of laboratory findings and can provide an array of potential interventions to increase driving safety.     

Attentional focusing with quantifiers in production and comprehension

There is a very large number of quantifiers in English, so many that it seems impossible that the only information that they convey is about amounts. Building on the earlier work of Moxey and Sanford (1987), we report three experiments showing that positive and negative quantifiers focus on different subsets of the logical possibilities that quantifiers allow semantically. Experiments 1 and 2 feature a continuation task with quantifiers that span a full range of denotations (from near 0% to near 100%) and show that the effect is not restricted to quantifiers denoting small amounts. This enables a distinction to be made between generalization and complement set focus proper. The focus effects extend to comprehension, as shown by a self-paced reading study (Experiment 3). It is noted that the focus effects obtained are compatible with findings from earlier work by Just and Carpenter (1971), which used a verification paradigm, and in fact these effects constitute a direct test of inferences Just and Carpenter made about mechanisms of encoding negative quantifiers. A related but different explanation is put forward to explain the present data. The experiments show a quantifier function beyond the simple denotation of amount.     

Evaluating the predictive validity of the computerized comprehension task: comprehension predicts production

Until recently, the challenges inherent in measuring comprehension have impeded our ability to predict the course of language acquisition. The present research reports on a longitudinal assessment of the convergent and predictive validity of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories: Words and Gestures (CDI: WG; Fenson et al., 1994, 1993, 2007) and the Computerized Comprehension Task (CCT; Friend & Keplinger, 2003, 2008). The CDI: WG and the CCT evinced good convergent validity; however, the CCT better predicted subsequent parent reports of language production. Language sample data in the 3rd year confirm this finding: The CCT accounted for 24% of the variance in unique word use. These studies provide evidence for the utility of a behavior-based approach to predicting the course of language acquisition into production.     

Word comprehension and production asymmetries in children and adults

Two studies investigated differences in the comprehension and production of words in 2-year-old children and adults. Study 1 compared children’s speaking and understanding of the names of 12 novel objects presented over three weekly sessions. Study 2 tested adults’ performance under similar training and testing conditions over two sessions. The findings indicated a comprehension advantage for both age groups. A fine-grained temporal analysis of individual words revealed that acquisition does not resemble a linear stage-wise progression from comprehension to production. Rather, dimensions of lexical knowledge develop at different rates, with words acquired, lost, and maintained over the course of learning. The findings support a dynamic and graded view of lexical processing and have implications for understanding what it means to know a word.     

Effects of verbal imitation and comprehension training on verbal production

This study sought to determine whether some combination of imitation training and comprehension training was necessary to achieve verbal production or whether comprehension training alone was sufficient to result in verbal production. Fifty-one first- and second-grade subjects were trained to imitate eight words (Spanish nouns) for which there were no referents. An additional set of eight words was trained in a comprehension task where overt verbal rehearsal was prohibited. Once criterion of two successive sessions of 100% performance was reached in training for both imitation and comprehension, training modes were reversed so that items initially trained in imitation were then trained in comprehension andvice versa. Results showed that initial comprehension training did result in some verbal production, whereas initial imitation training, as expected, did not. A marked improvement in verbal production performance was observed when initial comprehension training was followed by imitation training. When initial imitation training was followed by comprehension training, verbal production also resulted but not to the degree or with the consistency of performance which marked the comprehension-then-imitation sequence. Furthermore, comprehension training required more trials to reach a similar level of proficiency when it followed imitation training than when it preceded imitation. These data indicate that initial imitation training interferes with acquisition of subsequent comprehension and production responses and that the preferred training sequence is one which initially focuses on comprehension and follows this with verbal imitation.This study was supported by Grant HD 00870 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Grant NS 10468 from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke awarded to the Bureau of Child Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.