中性抽象词和具体词情绪信息获得的差异

采用词汇迫选学习范式考察不同类型词汇获得情绪信息的认知机制。结果发现：（1）在迫选过程中与积极图片匹配的具体词汇喜好度显著高于与消极图片匹配的喜好度,而抽象词学习并未表现出这样的效应。（2）积极图片下被选择词汇的喜好度显著高于未被选择词汇的喜好度,而消极图片下被选择词汇与未被选择词汇的喜好度差异不显著。该结果表明具体词相较于抽象词更易获得相应情绪信息,积极情绪比消极情绪信息更易被习得。     

Affective picture processing is modulated by emotion word type in masked priming paradigm: an event-related potential study

ABSTRACT

Although a large body of research demonstrates the role of language in emotion processing (e.g. emotional facial expressions), how emotion-laden words (e.g. poison, reward) and emotion-label words (e.g. fear, satisfaction) differently impact affective picture processing is not clear. Emotion-label words label affective states straightforwardly, whereas emotion-laden words engender emotion via reflection. The current study adopted the masked priming paradigm to examine how Chinese emotion-laden words and emotion-label words distinctively influence affective picture processing. Twenty Chinese speakers decided the valence of the pictures with their cortical responses recorded. Emotion-label words facilitated affective picture evaluation behaviourally. Moreover, pictures that were preceded by emotion-laden words generated larger electrophysiological activation than those preceded by emotion-label words. Combined behavioural and ERP evidence revealed that emotion word type modulated affective picture processing, suggesting different roles of emotion-laden and emotion-label words in how emotion is shaped by language.     

Word Meanings Evolve to Selectively Preserve Distinctions on Salient Dimensions

Words refer to objects in the world, but this correspondence is not one‐to‐one: Each word has a range of referents that share features on some dimensions but differ on others. This property of language is called underspecification. Parts of the lexicon have characteristic patterns of underspecification; for example, artifact nouns tend to specify shape, but not color, whereas substance nouns specify material but not shape. These regularities in the lexicon enable learners to generalize new words appropriately. How does the lexicon come to have these helpful regularities? We test the hypothesis that systematic backgrounding of some dimensions during learning and use causes language to gradually change, over repeated episodes of transmission, to produce a lexicon with strong patterns of underspecification across these less salient dimensions. This offers a cultural evolutionary mechanism linking individual word learning and generalization to the origin of regularities in the lexicon that help learners generalize words appropriately.     

Consonants and vowels: different roles in early language acquisition

Language acquisition involves both acquiring a set of words (i.e. the lexicon) and learning the rules that combine them to form sentences (i.e. syntax). Here, we show that consonants are mainly involved in word processing, whereas vowels are favored for extracting and generalizing structural relations. We demonstrate that such a division of labor between consonants and vowels plays a role in language acquisition. In two very similar experimental paradigms, we show that 12-month-old infants rely more on the consonantal tier when identifying words (Experiment 1), but are better at extracting and generalizing repetition-based srtuctures over the vocalic tier (Experiment 2). These results indicate that infants are able to exploit the functional differences between consonants and vowels at an age when they start acquiring the lexicon, and suggest that basic speech categories are assigned to different learning mechanisms that sustain early language acquisition.     

情绪名词的具体性效应：来自ERP的证据

词汇的具体性和情绪性是影响词汇加工的不同因素, 高具体性和情绪性都能够促进词汇的加工。本研究同时操纵词汇的具体性和情绪性, 使用词汇判定任务和愉悦度判断任务, 探讨了情绪名词的具体性效应及其具体性效应是否受词汇情绪信息的影响。结果发现：情绪名词的具体性效应受内隐或外显情绪条件的影响, 具体的情绪词比抽象的情绪词反应时间更短、正确率更高, 诱发了更大的N400和减小的LPC, 但LPC的具体性效应只表现在内隐情绪任务中。词汇的具体性和情绪性的相互影响发生在内隐情绪任务中的语义加工阶段, 正性、负性的具体词和抽象词的加工在N400成分上差异不显著, 而中性具体词和抽象词在N400成分上差异显著, 说明词汇的情绪信息为抽象词的加工提供了充分的语境, 因此消除了具体词的加工优势。     

Emotionally avoidant language in the parenting interviews of substance‐dependent mothers: Associations with reflective functioning,recent substance use,and parenting behavior

Parenting and emotion regulation are two known, and potentially interrelated, areas of impairment among substance‐abusing mothers. In this study, we examine substance ‐abusing mothers' (positive and negative) emotion language word use during their discussion of negative parenting experiences on the Parent Development Interview for its association with reflective functioning (RF), recent substance‐use history, and sensitivity to child cues. Within a sample of 47 methadone‐maintained mothers, we evaluate the hypothesis that linguistic evidence of emotional avoidance (more frequent positive feeling words and less frequent negative emotion words) will be associated with lower RF, more recent substance use, and more insensitive parenting. Further, we evaluate whether language use mediates the association between self‐focused RF and insensitive parenting. Results of hierarchical regressions suggest that more frequent positive feeling word use, but not negative emotion word use, is associated with lower RF, more recent substance use, and lower sensitivity to child cues. Positive feeling word use partially mediates the association between self‐focused RF and insensitive parenting. Results are discussed in the context of their contribution to the literature on emotion and parenting in substance‐abusing populations.     

The Modulation of Visual and Task Characteristics of a Writing System on Hemispheric Lateralization in Visual Word Recognition—A Computational Exploration

Through computational modeling, here we examine whether visual and task characteristics of writing systems alone can account for lateralization differences in visual word recognition between different languages without assuming influence from left hemisphere (LH) lateralized language processes. We apply a hemispheric processing model of face recognition to visual word recognition; the model implements a theory of hemispheric asymmetry in perception that posits low spatial frequency biases in the right hemisphere and high spatial frequency (HSF) biases in the LH. We show two factors that can influence lateralization: (a) Visual similarity among words: The more similar the words in the lexicon look visually, the more HSF/LH processing is required to distinguish them, and (b) Requirement to decompose words into graphemes for grapheme‐phoneme mapping: Alphabetic reading (involving grapheme‐phoneme conversion) requires more HSF/LH processing than logographic reading (no grapheme‐phoneme mapping). These factors may explain the difference in lateralization between English and Chinese orthographic processing.     

The Distinctiveness of Emotion Words: Does It Hold for Foreign Language Learners? The Case of Arab EFL Learners

Empirical evidence has recently been provided for the distinctiveness of emotion words as compared to abstract and concrete words for monolinguals, calling for a reconsideration of the relation between emotion and language. The present study investigates whether the distinctiveness of emotion words among monolinguals holds for foreign language learners. To this end, three groups (n?=?120 per group) of late Arabic-English bilinguals who learned English as a foreign language completed tasks including free recall, rating, and discrete word association. One group completed the tasks in Arabic while the other two groups, representing two levels of foreign language exposure, completed the tasks in English. Planned comparisons indicated the distinctiveness of emotion words in the participants’ first and foreign languages in the free recall and rating tasks while no significant differences were found in the word association task. The results are discussed in light of the existing literature and relevant theoretical models.     

Lexical configuration and lexical engagement: when adults learn new words

People know thousands of words in their native language, and each of these words must be learned at some time in the person's lifetime. A large number of these words will be learned when the person is an adult, reflecting the fact that the mental lexicon is continuously changing. We explore how new words get added to the mental lexicon, and provide empirical support for a theoretical distinction between what we call lexical configuration and lexical engagement. Lexical configuration is the set of factual knowledge associated with a word (e.g., the word's sound, spelling, meaning, or syntactic role). Almost all previous research on word learning has focused on this aspect. However, it is also critical to understand the process by which a word becomes capable of lexical engagement--the ways in which a lexical entry dynamically interacts with other lexical entries, and with sublexical representations. For example, lexical entries compete with each other during word recognition (inhibition within the lexical level), and they also support the activation of their constituents (top-down lexical-phonemic facilitation, and lexically-based perceptual learning). We systematically vary the learning conditions for new words, and use separate measures of lexical configuration and engagement. Several surprising dissociations in behavior demonstrate the importance of the theoretical distinction between configuration and engagement.     

Lexical configuration and lexical engagement: When adults learn new words

People know thousands of words in their native language, and each of these words must be learned at some time in the person’s lifetime. A large number of these words will be learned when the person is an adult, reflecting the fact that the mental lexicon is continuously changing. We explore how new words get added to the mental lexicon, and provide empirical support for a theoretical distinction between what we call lexical configuration and lexical engagement. Lexical configuration is the set of factual knowledge associated with a word (e.g., the word’s sound, spelling, meaning, or syntactic role). Almost all previous research on word learning has focused on this aspect. However, it is also critical to understand the process by which a word becomes capable of lexical engagement—the ways in which a lexical entry dynamically interacts with other lexical entries, and with sublexical representations. For example, lexical entries compete with each other during word recognition (inhibition within the lexical level), and they also support the activation of their constituents (top-down lexical-phonemic facilitation, and lexically-based perceptual learning). We systematically vary the learning conditions for new words, and use separate measures of lexical configuration and engagement. Several surprising dissociations in behavior demonstrate the importance of the theoretical distinction between configuration and engagement.     

Phonosymbolism and the emotional nature of sounds: evidence of the preferential use of particular phonemes in texts of differing emotional tone.

This article addresses the emotional meaning (phonosymbolism) of the most basic unit of language--the phoneme. Language excerpts from many sources were transcribed phonetically with the help of a computer program. The distributions of phonemes in different sources (song lyrics, poetry, word lists, advertisements) were correlated with the emotionality of the language along two dimensions (activation, evaluation) which had been rated by the Dictionary of Affect using another computer program. Significant results characterized all phases of the analysis. Phonemes were distributed differently in different language samples. Frequency of phonemes in a language sample as well as frequency of phonemes in individual words were correlated with emotion. For example, the phoneme /l/ (the one appearing twice in the word lullaby) was used more often in pleasant language samples, in soft or tender language samples, and in passive words. The phoneme /r/ (appearing twice in the word roar) was found more often in unpleasant words and in active words. Possible sources of the relationship between sound production and emotion are discussed.     

Longitudinal Analysis of Early Semantic Networks: Preferential Attachment or Preferential Acquisition?

ABSTRACT— Analyses of adult semantic networks suggest a learning mechanism involving preferential attachment: A word is more likely to enter the lexicon the more connected the known words to which it is related. We introduce and test two alternative growth principles: preferential acquisition—words enter the lexicon not because they are related to well-connected words, but because they connect well to other words in the learning environment—and the lure of the associates—new words are favored in proportion to their connections with known words. We tested these alternative principles using longitudinal analyses of developing networks of 130 nouns children learn prior to the age of 30 months. We tested both networks with links between words represented by features and networks with links represented by associations. The feature networks did not predict age of acquisition using any growth model. The associative networks grew by preferential acquisition, with the best model incorporating word frequency, number of phonological neighbors, and connectedness of the new word to words in the learning environment, as operationalized by connectedness to words typically acquired by the age of 30 months.     

Moved by words: Affective ratings for a set of 2,266 Spanish words in five discrete emotion categories

The two main theoretical accounts of the human affective space are the dimensional perspective and the discrete-emotion approach. In recent years, several affective norms have been developed from a dimensional perspective, including ratings for valence and arousal. In contrast, the number of published datasets relying on the discrete-emotion approach is much lower. There is a need to fill this gap, considering that discrete emotions have an effect on word processing above and beyond those of valence and arousal. In the present study, we present ratings from 1,380 participants for a set of 2,266 Spanish words in five discrete emotion categories: happiness, anger, fear, disgust, and sadness. This will be the largest dataset published to date containing ratings for discrete emotions. We also present, for the first time, a fine-grained analysis of the distribution of words into the five emotion categories. This analysis reveals that happiness words are the most consistently related to a single, discrete emotion category. In contrast, there is a tendency for many negative words to belong to more than one discrete emotion. The only exception is disgust words, which overlap least with the other negative emotions. Normative valence and arousal data already exist for all of the words included in this corpus. Thus, the present database will allow researchers to design studies to contrast the predictions of the two most influential theoretical perspectives in this field. These studies will undoubtedly contribute to a deeper understanding of the effects of emotion on word processing.     

Lexical access for low- and high-frequency words in Hebrew

The hypothesis that phonological mediation is involved to a greater extent in the recognition of low- than in the recognition of high-frequency words was examined using Hebrew. Hebrew has two forms of spelling, pointed and unpointed, which differ greatly in the extent of phonological ambiguity, with the unpointed spelling lacking almost all vowel information. A lexical decision task was employed using target words that had only one pronunciation whether pointed or unpointed. Targets were either pointed or unpointed and were preceded by a prime, which for word targets, was either semantically related or unrelated. The results indicated the following: First, the advantage of pointed over unpointed spelling was larger for low-frequency than for high-frequency words, suggesting a stronger phonological mediation for low-frequency words. Second, the size of the pointing effect was independent of word length, suggesting that phonology is obtained on the basis of the printed word as a whole, by looking it up in a phonological lexicon. Third, response latency to nonwords was not affected by the presence or absence of pointing, suggesting that failure to locate the entry corresponding to a letter string in a phonological lexicon results in a NO decision. Fourth, presence of a related prime was not found to compensate for absence of pointing, suggesting that the activation of a word’s representation in the semantic lexicon does not aid access to its corresponding entry in the phonological lexicon.     

情绪词对新异刺激喜好度变化的调节机制

通过三个实验探讨了情绪词的情绪信息对新异刺激喜好度变化的调节机制。实验采用评价条件化(Evaluative Conditioning)范式, 将新异刺激(相当于条件刺激, CS)与情绪词(相当于无条件刺激, US)配对呈现, 最后测量被试对新异刺激的喜好程度。三个实验通过设置表面故事, 控制新异刺激与情绪词间的配对关系, 并改变任务的加工深度, 揭示了情绪词调节新异刺激喜好度变化的机制。研究结果表明, 情绪词对新异刺激喜好度的调节不依赖于对刺激间偶联关系的意识以及被试的任务状态, 是一种自下而上的自动化的联想学习过程。     

语言标识对情绪体验的影响

本研究通过两个实验考察了语言标识对个体情绪体验的调节作用。实验一探讨了中性标识对不同类型的情绪体验的影响,结果发现与韩文字符标识相比,中性双字词标识时被试对负性图片的消极情绪体验强度显著降低。实验二进一步探讨了不同情绪色彩的词语的标识效应,结果发现与中性标识相比,负性或正性标识时被试对负性图片的消极情绪体验程度更低。结果表明了语言标识对负性情绪体验具有显著的调节作用,并且标识效应的产生依赖于词汇语义信息的通达。     

Novel word integration in the mental lexicon: Evidence from unmasked and masked semantic priming

We sought to establish whether novel words can become integrated into existing semantic networks by teaching participants new meaningful words and then using these new words as primes in two semantic priming experiments, in which participants carried out a lexical decision task to familiar words. Importantly, at no point in training did the novel words co-occur with the familiar words that served as targets in the primed lexical decision task, allowing us to evaluate semantic priming in the absence of direct association. We found that familiar words were primed by the newly related novel words, both when the novel word prime was unmasked (Experiment 1) and when it was masked (Experiment 2), suggesting that the new words had been integrated into semantic memory. Furthermore, this integration was strongest after a 1-week delay and was independent of explicit recall of the novel word meanings: Forgetting of meanings did not attenuate priming. We argue that even after brief training, newly learned words become an integrated part of the adult mental lexicon rather than being episodically represented separately from the lexicon.     

Influence of affective valence on working memory processes

Recent research has revealed widespread effects of emotion on cognitive function and memory. However, the influence of affective valence on working or short-term memory remains largely unexplored. In two experiments, the present study examined the predictions that negative words would capture attention, that attention would be difficult to disengage from such negative words, and that the cost of attention switching would increase the time required to update information in working memory. Participants switched between two concurrent working memory tasks: word recognition and a working memory digit updating task. Experiment 1 showed substantial switching cost for negative words, relative to neutral words. Experiment 2 replicated the first experiment, using a self-report measure of anxiety to examine if switching cost is a function of an anxiety-related attention bias. Results did not support this hypothesis. In addition, Experiment 2 revealed switch costs for positive words without the effect of the attention bias from anxiety. The present study demonstrates the effect of affective valence on a specific component of working memory. Moreover, findings suggest why affective valence effects on working memory have not been found in previous research.     

Are Words Easier to Learn From Infant‐ Than Adult‐Directed Speech? A Quantitative Corpus‐Based Investigation

We investigate whether infant‐directed speech (IDS) could facilitate word form learning when compared to adult‐directed speech (ADS). To study this, we examine the distribution of word forms at two levels, acoustic and phonological, using a large database of spontaneous speech in Japanese. At the acoustic level we show that, as has been documented before for phonemes, the realizations of words are more variable and less discriminable in IDS than in ADS. At the phonological level, we find an effect in the opposite direction: The IDS lexicon contains more distinctive words (such as onomatopoeias) than the ADS counterpart. Combining the acoustic and phonological metrics together in a global discriminability score reveals that the bigger separation of lexical categories in the phonological space does not compensate for the opposite effect observed at the acoustic level. As a result, IDS word forms are still globally less discriminable than ADS word forms, even though the effect is numerically small. We discuss the implication of these findings for the view that the functional role of IDS is to improve language learnability.     

Quantifying the Interplay of Semantics and Phonology During Failures of Word Retrieval by People With Aphasia Using a Multiplex Lexical Network

Investigating instances where lexical selection fails can lead to deeper insights into the cognitive machinery and architecture supporting successful word retrieval and speech production. In this paper, we used a multiplex lexical network approach that combines semantic and phonological similarities among words to model the structure of the mental lexicon. Network measures at different levels of analysis (degree, network distance, and closeness centrality) were used to investigate the influence of network structure on picture naming accuracy and errors by people with Anomic, Broca's, Conduction, and Wernicke's aphasia. Our results reveal that word retrieval is influenced by the multiplex lexical network structure in at least two ways—(a) the accuracy of production and error type on incorrect productions were influenced by the degree and closeness centrality of the target word, and (b) error type also varied in terms of network distance between the target word and produced error word. Taken together, the analyses demonstrate that network science techniques, particularly the use of the multiplex lexical network to simultaneously represent semantic and phonological relationships among words, reveal how the structure of the mental lexicon influences language processes beyond traditionally examined psycholinguistic variables. We propose a framework for how the multiplex lexical network approach allows for understanding the influence of mental lexicon structure on word retrieval processes, with an eye toward a better understanding of the nature of clinical impairments, like aphasia.