Effects of past language experience and present language context on the shape bias in Spanish–English bilingual children

English‐monolingual children develop a shape bias early in language acquisition, such that they more often generalize a novel label based on shape than other features. Spanish‐monolingual children, however, do not show this bias to the same extent (Hahn & Cantrell, 2012). Studying children who are simultaneously learning both Spanish and English presents a unique opportunity to further investigate how this word‐learning bias develops. Thus, we asked how Spanish–English bilingual children (M_age = 21.31 months) perform in a novel‐noun generalization (NNG) task, specifically examining how past language experience (i.e. language exposure and vocabulary size) and present language context (i.e. whether the NNG task was conducted in Spanish or English) influence the strength of the shape bias. Participants completed the NNG task either entirely in English (N = 16) or entirely in Spanish (N = 16), as well as language understanding tasks in both English and Spanish to ensure that they understood what the experimenter was asking them to do. Parents completed a language exposure survey and vocabulary checklists in Spanish and English. There was a significant interaction between condition and choice type: Bilingual children in the English condition showed a shape bias in the NNG task, but bilingual children in the Spanish condition showed no reliable biases. No measures of past language experience were related to NNG task performance. These results suggest that when learning new words, bilingual children are attuned to the regularities of the present language context, and prior language experiences may play a more secondary role.     

Individual differences in the acquisition of non‐linguistic audio‐visual associations in 5 year olds

Audio‐visual associative learning – at least when linguistic stimuli are employed – is known to rely on core linguistic skills such as phonological awareness. Here we ask whether this would also be the case in a task that does not manipulate linguistic information. Another question of interest is whether executive skills, often found to support learning, may play a larger role in a non‐linguistic audio‐visual associative task compared to a linguistic one. We present a new task that measures learning when having to associate non‐linguistic auditory signals with novel visual shapes. Importantly, our novel task shares with linguistic processes such as reading acquisition the need to associate sounds with arbitrary shapes. Yet, rather than phonemes or syllables, it uses novel environmental sounds – therefore limiting direct reliance on linguistic abilities. Five‐year‐old French‐speaking children (N = 76, 39 girls) were assessed individually in our novel audio‐visual associative task, as well as in a number of other cognitive tasks evaluating linguistic abilities and executive functions. We found phonological awareness and language comprehension to be related to scores in the audio‐visual associative task, while no correlation with executive functions was observed. These results underscore a key relation between foundational language competencies and audio‐visual associative learning, even in the absence of linguistic input in the associative task.     

Language comprehension vs. language production: age effects on fMRI activation

Normal language acquisition is a process that unfolds with amazing speed primarily in the first years of life. However, the refinement of linguistic proficiency is an ongoing process, extending well into childhood and adolescence. An increase in lateralization and a more focussed productive language network have been suggested to be the neural correlates of this process. However, the processes underlying the refinement of language comprehension are less clear. Using a language comprehension (Beep Stories) and a language production (Vowel Identification) task in fMRI, we studied language representation and lateralization in 36 children, adolescents, and young adults (age 6-24 years). For the language comprehension network, we found a more focal activation with age in the bilateral superior temporal gyri. No significant increase of lateralization with age could be observed, so the neural basis of language comprehension as assessed with the Beep Stories task seems to be established in a bilateral network by late childhood. For the productive network, however, we could confirm an increase with age both in focus and lateralization. Only in the language comprehension task did verbal IQ correlate with lateralization, with higher verbal IQ being associated with more right-hemispheric involvement. In some subjects (24%), language comprehension and language production were lateralized to opposite hemispheres.     

Cognitive control of language production in bilinguals involves a partly independent process within the domain-general cognitive control network: evidence from task-switching and electrical brain activity

In highly proficient, early bilinguals, behavioural studies of the cost of switching language or task suggest qualitative differences between language control and domain-general cognitive control. By contrast, several neuroimaging studies have shown an overlap of the brain areas involved in language control and domain-general cognitive control. The current study measured both behavioural responses and event-related potentials (ERPs) from bilinguals who performed picture naming in single- or mixed-language contexts, as well as an alphanumeric categorisation task in single- or mixed-task context. Analysis of switch costs during the mixed-context conditions showed qualitative differences between language control and domain-general cognitive control. A 2 × 2 ANOVA of the ERPs, with domain (linguistic, alphanumeric) and context (single, mixed) as within-participant factors, revealed a significant interaction, which also suggests a partly independent language-control mechanism. Source estimations revealed the neural basis of this mechanism to be in bilateral frontal-temporal areas.     

Is language necessary for human spatial reorientation? Reconsidering evidence from dual task paradigms

Being able to reorient to the spatial environment after disorientation is a basic adaptive challenge. There is clear evidence that reorientation uses geometric information about the shape of the surrounding space. However, there has been controversy concerning whether use of geometry is a modular function, and whether use of features is dependent on human language. A key argument for the role of language comes from shadowing findings where adults engaged in a linguistic task during reorientation ignored a colored wall feature and only used geometric information to reorient [Hermer-Vazquez, L., Spelke, E., & Katsnelson, A. (1999). Sources of flexibility in human cognition: Dual task studies of space and language. Cognitive Psychology, 39, 3-36]. We report three studies showing: (a) that the results of Hermer-Vazques et al. [Hermer-Vazquez, L., Spelke, E., & Katsnelson, A. (1999). Sources of flexibility in human cognition: Dual task studies of space and language. Cognitive Psychology, 39, 3-36] are obtained in incidental learning but not with explicit instructions, (b) that a spatial task impedes use of features at least as much as a verbal shadowing task, and (c) that neither secondary task impedes use of features in a room larger than that used by Hermer-Vazquez et al. These results suggest that language is not necessary for successful use of features in reorientation. In fact, whether or not there is an encapsulated geometric module is currently unsettled. The current findings support an alternative to modularity; the adaptive combination view hypothesizes that geometric and featural information are utilized in varying degrees, dependent upon the certainty and variance with which the two kinds of information are encoded, along with their salience and perceived usefulness.     

Determinants of word fragment completion

A current debate in the memory literature concerns the validity of word fragment completion (WFC) as a test of implicit memory. It has been claimed that language variables exert a strong influence on the task, and that the task reflects memory only to a small extent (Hintzman & Hartry, 1990). For these reasons, the use of contingency analyses of recognition and WFC performance as a means of studying underlying memory processes has been criticized. The present study addressed this issue by examining the influence of language variables on completion of a set of computer generated single-solution fragments of Swedish words (Olofsson & Nyberg, 1992). It was found that language variables indeed had a large effect on completion performance, and that priming only accounted for a small portion of variance in the task. It is therefore suggested that the method of triangulation should be employed for contingency analyses involving WFC.     

Incidental Learning of Gender Agreement in L2

Incidental learning of grammar has been an area of interest for many decades; nevertheless, existing research has primarily focused on artificial or semi-artificial languages. The present study examines the incidental acquisition of the grammar of a natural language by exposing adult speakers of an ungendered L1 (English) to the gender agreement patterns in Russian (a language that was novel to the learners). Both receptive and productive knowledge and the mediating role of working memory (WM) in learning were measured. Speakers of the ungendered language were able to successfully acquire receptive but not productive grammatical knowledge in a new language under incidental exposure. WM was engaged in production but not in a grammaticality judgment task in the incidental learning condition, indicating cognitive effort during knowledge retrieval.     

Code-switching effects in bilingual word recognition: a masked priming study with event-related potentials

Two experiments tested language switching effects with bilingual participants in a priming paradigm with masked primes (duration of 50 ms in Experiment 1 and 100 ms in Experiment 2). Participants had to monitor target words for animal names, and ERPs were recorded to critical (non-animal) words in L1 and L2 primed by unrelated words from the same or the other language. Both experiments revealed language priming (switching) effects that depended on target language. For target words in L1, most of the language switch effect appeared in the N400 ERP component, with L2 primes generating a more negative going wave than L1 primes. For L2 target words, on the other hand, the effects of a language switch appeared mainly in an earlier ERP component (N250) peaking at approximately 250 ms post-target onset, and showing greater negativity following an L1 prime than an L2 prime. This is the first evidence for fast-acting language-switching effects occurring in the absence of overt task switching.     

The effects of short-term L2 training on components of executive control in Indian bilinguals

This study investigated whether a short training (8 weeks) in the second-language (English) has any facilitative effect on components of executive functions in young adults. A pre-post design was used with two groups of participants: one group (experimental group) of students received English language training for eight weeks, and another group (control group) matched on age and background did not. Executive function tasks (Flanker, Stroop, and color-shape switching task) along with the object naming and working memory tasks were administered before and after the training. We observed that the experimental group demonstrated significant improvement in task switching, working memory capacity, and language skills. Findings from the study provide evidence that short training in second-language can enhance some components of executive functions besides improving language skills in young adult students. This finding contributes to a better understanding of language training and executive function among young adult bilinguals.

     

Impact des contraintes linguistiques et cognitives sur l’acquisition de l’accord en genre de l’adjectif en français écrit

The aim of this research is to show the impact of linguistic (the feminine inflexion was audible or not) and cognitive (the complexity of the task in which the agreement is realized) factors about the acquisition and the use of adjectival gender inflexions in written French. In this perspective, we compared the production of the mark of the agreement in three tasks not mobilizing the same levels of linguistic treatment: transcribe sentences under dictation, recall sentences presented orally, and produce two sentences ending with an adjective from a syntactical priming. The results show that the systematic application of the adjectival agreement in gender is not totally mastered at the end of primary. Besides, the use of the adjectival gender inflexions is more difficult when the written inflexion is mute. Finally, the children forgot more the gender inflexion in written production task than in a dictate or recall task. These results are interpreted within the framework of a functional approach of language production.     

Prediction of toddlers’ expressive language from maternal sensitivity and toddlers’ anger expressions: A developmental perspective

Despite evidence for the importance of individual differences in expressive language during toddlerhood in predicting later literacy skills, few researchers have examined individual and contextual factors related to language abilities across the toddler years. Furthermore, a gap remains in the literature about the extent to which the relations of negative emotions and parenting to language skills may differ for girls and boys. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the associations among maternal sensitivity, children's observed anger reactivity, and expressive language when children were 18 (T1; n = 247) and 30 (T2; n = 216) months. At each age, mothers reported on their toddlers’ expressive language, and mothers’ sensitive parenting behavior was observed during an unstructured free-play task. Toddlers’ anger expressions were observed during an emotion-eliciting task. Using path modeling, results showed few relations at T1. At T2, maternal sensitivity was negatively related to anger, and in turn, anger was associated with lower language skills. However, moderation analyses showed that these findings were significant for boys but not for girls. In addition, T1 maternal sensitivity and anger positively predicted expressive language longitudinally for both sexes. Findings suggest that the relations between maternal sensitivity, anger reactivity and expressive language may vary depending on the child's developmental stage and sex.     

A crosslinguistic study of grammaticality judgments in Broca's aphasia

Crosslinguistic studies of sentence comprehension and production in Broca's aphasia have yielded two complementary findings: (1) grammatical morphology appears to be more impaired than word order principles in every language studied, but (2) the degree to which grammatical morphology is retained by aphasic patients depends upon the "strength" or importance of those morphemes in the patient's premorbid language. In an earlier study comparing violations of word order and agreement, we found that English-speaking Broca's aphasics showed greater sensitivity to errors of ordering than to errors of agreement, providing further evidence for the selective vulnerability of morphology. However, because English is a rigid word order language with a relatively weak inflectional system, it could be argued that word order is resilient to brain damage because it is the strongest source of information in this language. The present study compared the performance of English-speaking Broca's aphasics and normal controls with their Italian counterparts in the same grammaticality judgment experiment. Four predictions relating to our previous work were confirmed. (1) Italian aphasics, like their English-speaking counterparts, showed general preservation of grammatical knowledge and (2) they were able to use this knowledge in an "on-line" fashion. (3) Within each language, Broca's aphasics showed greater impairment in their ability to recognize errors of morphological selection (i.e., agreement) compared with errors made by moving the same words to an incorrect position downstream. Nevertheless (4), crosslinguistic differences observed in previous studies of comprehension and production were also observed in this grammaticality judgment task: a processing advantage for agreement errors in Italian normals and aphasics, and a processing advantage for ordering errors in English normals and aphasics.     

认知灵活性对非熟练双语者语言转换的影响--一项ERPs研究*

采用 WCST 筛选出高低认知灵活性的非熟练汉英双语者,分别使用图片命名和语义范畴判断任务考察认知灵活性对双语者语言转换的影响。结果发现：(1)高认知灵活性被试的双语转换代价是对称的,其N2成分的平均波幅和峰值显著大于低认知灵活性被试,低认知灵活性被试的转换代价是非对称的;(2)高认知灵活性被试在语言产生任务中, L2重复条件下N2的峰值显著大于L1重复条件,出现L2重复优势效应;(3)在语言理解任务中,高低认知灵活性被试在L1重复条件下的N2峰值显著大于L2重复条件,两组均出现了L1重复优势效应。研究表明,抑制控制能力在语言产生与理解的双语转换中起着重要的作用,语言转换代价源于心理词典的字词识别系统之外。     

Linguistic and nonlinguistic priming in aphasia

Studies of real-time processing in aphasia suggest that linguistic symptoms may be due to deficits in activation dynamics rather than loss of linguistic knowledge. To investigate the domain specificity of such processing deficits, we compared performance by Italian-speaking fluent aphasics, nonfluent aphasics, and normal controls in a linguistic priming task (grammatical gender) with their performance in a color-priming task that requires no verbal mediation. Normal or larger than normal color-priming effects were demonstrated in both aphasic groups. Gender priming did not reach significance in either group, even though the patients displayed above-chance sensitivity to gender class and gender agreement in their accuracy scores. The demonstration of spared gender knowledge despite impaired gender priming underscores the utility of on-line techniques in the study of aphasia. The demonstration of spared color priming suggests that priming deficits in aphasia are either (1) specific to speech and language or (2) specific only to those sensorimotor and attentional processes that language shares with other nonlinguistic systems.     

Sequence‐specific procedural learning deficits in children with specific language impairment

This study tested the procedural deficit hypothesis of specific language impairment (SLI) by comparing children's performance in two motor procedural learning tasks and an implicit verbal sequence learning task. Participants were 7‐ to 11‐year‐old children with SLI (n = 48), typically developing age‐matched children (n = 20) and younger typically developing children matched for receptive grammar (n = 28). In a serial reaction time task, the children with SLI performed at the same level as the grammar‐matched children, but poorer than age‐matched controls in learning motor sequences. When tested with a motor procedural learning task that did not involve learning sequential relationships between discrete elements (i.e. pursuit rotor), the children with SLI performed comparably with age‐matched children and better than younger grammar‐matched controls. In addition, poor implicit learning of word sequences in a verbal memory task (the Hebb effect) was found in the children with SLI. Together, these findings suggest that SLI might be characterized by deficits in learning sequence‐specific information, rather than generally weak procedural learning.     

Language knowledge and event knowledge in language use

This paper examines how semantic knowledge is used in language comprehension and in making judgments about events in the world. We contrast knowledge gleaned from prior language experience (“language knowledge”) and knowledge coming from prior experience with the world (“world knowledge”). In two corpus analyses, we show that previous research linking verb aspect and event representations have confounded language and world knowledge. Then, using carefully chosen stimuli that remove this confound, we performed four experiments that manipulated the degree to which language knowledge or world knowledge should be salient and relevant to performing a task, finding in each case that participants use the type of knowledge most appropriate to the task. These results provide evidence for a highly context-sensitive and interactionist perspective on how semantic knowledge is represented and used during language processing.     

First Language Attrition Induces Changes in Online Morphosyntactic Processing and Re‐Analysis: An ERP Study of Number Agreement in Complex Italian Sentences

First language (L1) attrition in adulthood offers new insight on neuroplasticity and the role of language experience in shaping neurocognitive responses to language. Attriters are multilinguals for whom advancing L2 proficiency comes at the cost of the L1, as they experience a shift in exposure and dominance (e.g., due to immigration). To date, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying L1 attrition are largely unexplored. Using event‐related potentials (ERPs), we examined L1‐Italian grammatical processing in 24 attriters and 30 Italian native‐controls. We assessed whether (a) attriters differed from non‐attriting native speakers in their online detection and re‐analysis/repair of number agreement violations, and whether (b) differences in processing were modulated by L1‐proficiency. To test both local and non‐local agreement violations, we manipulated agreement between three inflected constituents and examined ERP responses on two of these (subject, verb , modifier ). Our findings revealed group differences in amplitude, scalp distribution, and duration of LAN/N400 + P600 effects. We discuss these differences as reflecting influence of attriters’ L2‐English, as well as shallower online sentence repair processes than in non‐attriting native speakers. ERP responses were also predicted by L1‐Italian proficiency scores, with smaller N400/P600 amplitudes in lower proficiency individuals. Proficiency only modulated P600 amplitude between 650 and 900 ms, whereas the late P600 (beyond 900 ms) depended on group membership and amount of L1 exposure within attriters. Our study is the first to show qualitative and quantitative differences in ERP responses in attriters compared to non‐attriting native speakers. Our results also emphasize that proficiency predicts language processing profiles, even in native‐speakers, and that the P600 should not be considered a monolithic component.     

语言转换的认知及其神经机制

语言转换是双语研究领域的焦点问题之一,抑制控制模型、语言特异性选择模型、任务设置惯性模型和序列难度效应模型从不同的角度解释了语言转换的认知机制。认知神经科学的一些研究发现,语言转换与任务转换具有类似的神经机制,说明语言转换代价与任务转换代价的本质可能是相同的。抑制控制和语言熟练程度如何影响语言的转换,语言转换代价与任务转换代价的本质是否相同,一般领域的抑制机制是否可以迁移到语言转换领域等问题是未来需要进一步研究的问题。     

Transient beneficial effects of excitatory theta burst stimulation in a patient with phonological agraphia after left supramarginal gyrus infarction

We report a patient showing isolated phonological agraphia after an ischemic stroke involving the left supramarginal gyrus (SMG). In this patient, we investigated the effects of focal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) given as theta burst stimulation (TBS) over the left SMG, corresponding to the Brodmann area (BA) 40. The patient and ten control subjects performed a dictational words and nonwords writing task before, and 5 and 30 min after they received excitatory intermittent TBS (iTBS) over the left BA 40, the right hemisphere homologous to BA 40, the Wernicke’s area, or the primary visual cortex.ITBS over the left SMG lead to a brief facilitation of phonological non-words writing to dictation. This case study report illustrates that rTMS is able to influence, among other language functions, the phonological loading processes during the written language production in stroke patients.     

Musical Training,Bilingualism, and Executive Function: A Closer Look at Task Switching and Dual‐Task Performance

This study investigated whether musical training and bilingualism are associated with enhancements in specific components of executive function, namely, task switching and dual‐task performance. Participants (n = 153) belonging to one of four groups (monolingual musician, bilingual musician, bilingual non‐musician, or monolingual non‐musician) were matched on age and socioeconomic status and administered task switching and dual‐task paradigms. Results demonstrated reduced global and local switch costs in musicians compared with non‐musicians, suggesting that musical training can contribute to increased efficiency in the ability to shift flexibly between mental sets. On dual‐task performance, musicians also outperformed non‐musicians. There was neither a cognitive advantage for bilinguals relative to monolinguals, nor an interaction between music and language to suggest additive effects of both types of experience. These findings demonstrate that long‐term musical training is associated with improvements in task switching and dual‐task performance.