汉字习得的年龄对词类信息加工的影响

采用词类判断任务,考察汉语单字词的习得年龄对词类信息加工的影响。实验材料采用了习得年龄不同的名词和动词,结果显示,汉字习得年龄对词类判断的反应时有显著的预测作用。研究结果表明,汉字习得年龄影响汉字词类信息的提取,即早期习得的汉字被试更容易提取其词类信息;研究结果从新的角度支持了任意映射假设对词汇习得年龄效应的解释。     

两岁儿童利用身体部位信息快速识别动词

汉语儿童早期习得动词和身体部位具有较一致的联结关系,但儿童在动词理解中是否能利用这种信息尚不清楚。本研究选取32名两岁儿童和32名成人,要求他们在听到目标动词时,在一张目标图和一张分心图中识别目标词对应的黑白简笔画图片。结果发现,相比一致条件,当分心图与目标图动作发出的身体部位不一致时,儿童和成人都能利用这一信息快速识别动词,该语义效应发生于目标词开始播放后200～650 ms（成人）和300～1800 ms（儿童）时间窗口。研究结果揭示了年幼儿童如何利用语义信息来理解口语动词。     

语法和语义线索对儿童动词习得的影响

口语词汇习得过程中存在语法促进和语义促进效应,而语法又包含了句法和词法。本研究采用优先指向范式考察了语法和语义线索对汉语儿童动词习得的影响。实验1发现, 5岁儿童可以利用单个句法线索词习得动词。实验2发现,4岁儿童可以在增加句法线索词或语义线索词条件下习得动词;实验2a发现,4岁儿童更倾向于将单音节词判定为动词,实验2b发现,在增加语义线索词条件下, 3岁儿童更倾向于将双音节词判定为名词。结果表明,5岁儿童可以利用单个句法线索词习得动词,4岁儿童可以通过多重线索习得动词。本研究拓展了以往关于汉语儿童动词习得的结果,提示语言习得研究应考虑语法线索的独特性和可靠性。     

影响动作图片命名的因素

图片是研究词汇习得与加工的重要材料, 而名词和动词是最主要的两类实词。然而, 目前较少有研究考察汉语中的动词加工过程, 也没有标准化的动词图片库。本研究通过成人图片命名和评定任务, 获得了265张动词图片的中文名称、命名反应时, 以及H值、命名一致性、熟悉性、视觉复杂性、表象一致性和口语习得年龄等指标, 同时也探索了影响动作图片命名反应时的因素。逐步回归分析结果发现, H值、熟悉性和视觉复杂性这三个变量可解释动词图片命名反应时72.4%的变异。此外, 本研究根据图片命名反应时将动词图片加工难度分成了五个等级。研究发现, 与名词图片相比, 动词图片的视觉复杂性更高、命名一致性更低、命名反应时更长。本研究获得的各项心理语言学指标有望为后续关于动词加工的实验研究提供重要的参考资料。     

儿童早期词汇获得的词类差

儿童早期词汇获得存在词类差异,很多语言中名词比例都要高于其他词类,因此一些研究者提出“名词优势”理论。但是,一些对汉语和韩语的研究发现,儿童早期获得的动词比例与名词没有显著差异,甚至高于名词,同时汉语和韩语动词比例也远大于英语动词比例。针对不同语言儿童早期获得的动、名词比例差异现象,研究者认为语言结构特征和成人对孩子的言语输入可以解释不同语言儿童早期词汇中动、名词比例的差异,其中成人言语中词类的频率、单词位置、词形变化复杂性和语用等因素都会影响儿童早期词汇获得。此外,不同的词汇测量方法、观察情境、词类定义、词汇量水平、单词理解与说出也会造成不同研究结果之间的差异     

习得年龄对客体和动作图画口语命名的不同影响：ERP研究

词汇习得年龄指人们最早理解单词意义时的年龄, 已有研究发现早习得词汇的阅读反应时间短于晚习得词汇, 研究者对于词汇习得年龄效应的认知机制存在争论。本研究运用事件相关电位技术, 考察了词汇习得年龄(早与晚)对客体图画和动作图画命名的影响。研究中采用图画命名任务, 要求被试在看到图画后迅速且准确地说出图画名称。结果发现早习得名词的命名快于晚习得名词, 而早习得动词的命名却慢于晚习得动词; 习得年龄对于名词产生的影响发生在图画呈现后的250~300 ms之间, 表现为早习得名词波幅小于晚习得名词, 而习得年龄对于动词产生的影响发生在图画呈现后的200~600 ms之间, 表现为早习得动词波幅大于晚习得动词。这表明名词产生中的习得年龄效应发生在词汇选择阶段, 支持了语义假设的观点; 动词产生过程中的习得年龄效应出现在多个加工阶段, 包括了词汇选择、音韵编码和语音编码阶段, 这与动词语义的多重性及其与动作相关的脑区激活有关, 支持了网络可塑性假说的观点。     

国外婴儿动词习得的两种研究范式

通过介绍国外婴儿动词习得的研究范式, 一是习惯化研究(Habituation paradigm), 二是多通道优先注视范式(IPLP), 来揭示婴儿语言前概念形成的认知心理。国外的研究表明, 婴儿的动词习得晚于名词学习; 动词的成分习得(路径成分或是方式成分)在婴儿周岁前也有时间先后; 动词完整意义的获得还与母语的输入有密切关系。综述说明, 采用这两种研究范式研究语前婴儿的语言认知是较为经济和有效的。     

影响汉语动词、名词识别因素的回归分析

采用回归分析的方法,考察了6个因素对汉语动词、名词识别的影响。结果表明,各变量间有一定的相关,也有相对的独立性。词频、获得年龄和义符熟悉性对词汇识别有显著影响。情境获得性与具体性相关显著,当回归模型中包含情境获得性时,具体性的作用减弱。获得年龄与义符熟悉性在名词回归方程中的解释量大于在动词中的。汉语动词和名词的回归模式既与拼音文字有明显差异,也有一定的共性。这是由汉字的特殊性和语言的共性共同决定的。     

词汇习得年龄和频率对词汇识别的影响

三个实验考察词汇习得年龄和频率在词汇识别中的作用。实验结果表明：词汇习得年龄是影响汉语双字词词汇识别的重要因素,表现为早期习得的词汇比晚期习得的词汇更具有加工的优势。词汇习得年龄和频率独立地影响汉语双字词的识别过程．它们之间的效应是一种相加的关系。本研究还对词汇习得年龄效应的机制进行了讨论。     

句子结构与控制动词类型对题元角色指派的影响

扩展论元依存模型认为：语序固定语言的题元角色指派依赖论元的语序线索; 论元线索与动词论元表征不一致时, 题元角色再分析会产生额外的加工负荷。为检验该模型, 本研究采用眼动记录方法, 实验为2 (句子结构：居中、前置) × 2 (控制动词类型：主语控制、宾语控制)被试内设计。通过操纵句子结构, 考察汉语读者对语序线索的依赖性; 通过操纵控制动词类型, 考察汉语论元线索与动词论元表征的一致性对题元角色指派的影响。结果发现：(1)前置结构的句子在名词1、名词2和动词区域的阅读时间和回视次数多于居中结构的句子; (2)宾语控制动词条件在动词和动词后区域的第二遍阅读时间和总回视次数多于主语控制动词条件; (3)在居中结构中, 宾语控制动词条件在名词2和动词区域的阅读时间和回视次数多于主语控制动词条件; 在前置结构中, 宾语控制动词条件在动词后区域的阅读时间多于主语控制动词条件。结果支持扩展论元依存模型。     

An image is worth a thousand words: why nouns tend to dominate verbs in early word learning

Nouns are generally easier to learn than verbs (e.g., Bornstein, 2005; Bornstein et al., 2004; Gentner, 1982; Maguire, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2006). Yet, verbs appear in children's earliest vocabularies, creating a seeming paradox. This paper examines one hypothesis about the difference between noun and verb acquisition. Perhaps the advantage nouns have is not a function of grammatical form class but rather related to a word's imageability. Here, word imageability ratings and form class (nouns and verbs) were correlated with age of acquisition according to the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) (Fenson et al., 1994). CDI age of acquisition was negatively correlated with words' imageability ratings. Further, a word's imageability contributes to the variance of the word's age of acquisition above and beyond form class, suggesting that at the beginning of word learning, imageability might be a driving factor.     

Age of acquisition predicts naming and lexical-decision performance above and beyond 22 other predictor variables: An analysis of 2,342 words

Age of acquisition (AoA) ratings were obtained and were used in hierarchical regression analyses to predict naming and lexical-decision performance for 2,342 words (from Balota, Cortese, Sergent-Marshall, Spieler, & Yap, 2004). In the analyses, AoA was included in addition to the set of predictors used by Balota et al. (2004). AoA significantly predicted latency performance on both tasks above and beyond the standard predictor set. However, AoA was more strongly related to lexical-decision performance than to naming performance. Finally, the previously reported effect of imageability on naming latencies by Balota et al. was not significant with AoA included as a factor. These results are consistent with the idea either that AoA has a semantic/lexical locus or that AoA effects emerge primarily in situations in which the input–output mapping is arbitrary.     

Age of acquisition predicts naming and lexical-decision performance above and beyond 22 other predictor variables: an analysis of 2,342 words

Age of acquisition (AoA) ratings were obtained and were used in hierarchical regression analyses to predict naming and lexical-decision performance for 2,342 words (from Balota, Cortese, Sergent-Marshall, Spieler, & Yap, 2004). In the analyses, AoA was included in addition to the set of predictors used by Balota et al. (2004). AoA significantly predicted latency performance on both tasks above and beyond the standard predictor set. However, AoA was more strongly related to lexical-decision performance than to naming performance. Finally, the previously reported effect of imageability on naming latencies by Balota et al. was not significant with AoA included as a factor. These results are consistent with the idea either that AoA has a semantic/lexical locus or that AoA effects emerge primarily in situations in which the input-output mapping is arbitrary.     

Theories of word naming interact with spelling-sound consistency

In a previous study (E. Strain, K. Patterson, & M. S. Seidenberg, 1995), the authors concluded that word naming is characterized by an interaction between spelling-sound typicality and word imageability, thus implicating a role for word meaning in the naming process. J. Monaghan and A. W. Ellis (2002) reject E. Strain et al.'s conclusion, arguing that it is age of acquisition (AoA) and not imageability that interacts with spelling-sound typicality. In this article, the authors question their alternative interpretation (a) by raising a number of conceptual and methodological issues germane to this debate and (b) by presenting new data that confirm a significant interaction between spelling-sound typicality and imageability in word-naming latencies, an interaction that is reliable when word AoA is controlled in a regression analysis.     

Age-of-acquisition norms for a set of 1,749 Portuguese words

Age of acquisition (AoA) is an important psycholinguistic variable that affects the speed and accuracy of lexical processing in tasks such as word naming, picture naming, and lexical decision. In the present work, we collected AoA ratings for 1,749 Portuguese words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs), using a 9-point scale that was first proposed by Carroll and White (1973). We analyzed the relation between AoA ratings and other psycholinguistic variables (length measures, neighborhood density, written-word frequency, familiarity, imageability, and concreteness), and we assessed reliability by correlating our ratings with those from other databases presented for Portuguese, English, Spanish, and Italian. The full database can be downloaded from http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Comparing Nouns and Verbs in a Lexical Task

We analyzed the differential processing of nouns and verbs in a lexical decision task. Moderate and high-frequency nouns and verbs were compared. The characteristics of our material were specified at the formal level (number of letters and syllables, number of homographs, orthographic neighbors, frequency and age of acquisition), and at the semantic level (imagery, number and strength of associations, number of meanings, context dependency). A regression analysis indicated a classical frequency effect and a word-type effect, with latencies for verbs being slower than for nouns. The regression analysis did not permit the conclusion that semantic effects were involved (particularly imageability). Nevertheless, the semantic opposition between nouns as prototypical representations of objects, and verbs as prototypical representation of actions was not tested in this experiment and remains a good candidate explanation of the response time discrepancies between verbs and nouns.     

The distinct contributions of age of acquisition and word frequency in auditory word perception

We report two studies of the distinct effects that a word's age of acquisition (AoA) and frequency have on the mental lexicon. In the first study, a purely statistical analysis, we show that AoA and frequency are related in different ways to the phonological form and imageability of different words. In the second study, three groups of participants (34 seven-year-olds, 30 ten-year-olds, and 17 adults) took part in an auditory lexical decision task, with stimuli varying in AoA, frequency, length, neighbourhood density, and imageability. The principal result is that the influence of these different variables changes as a function of AoA: Neighbourhood density effects are apparent for early and late AoA words, but not for intermediate AoA, whereas imageability effects are apparent for intermediate AoA words but not for early or late AoA. These results are discussed from the perspective that AoA affects a word's representation, but frequency affects processing biases.     

Effects of relative embodiment in lexical and semantic processing of verbs

Research examining semantic richness effects in visual word recognition has shown that multiple dimensions of meaning are activated in the process of word recognition (e.g., Yap et al., 2012). This research has, however, been limited to nouns. In the present research we extended the semantic richness approach to verb stimuli in order to investigate how verb meanings are represented. We characterized a dimension of relative embodiment for verbs, based on the bodily sense described by Borghi and Cimatti (2010), and collected ratings on that dimension for 687 English verbs. The relative embodiment ratings revealed that bodily experience was judged to be more important to the meanings of some verbs (e.g., dance, breathe) than to others (e.g., evaporate, expect). We then tested the effects of relative embodiment and imageability on verb processing in lexical decision (Experiment 1), action picture naming (Experiment 2), and syntactic classification (Experiment 3). In all three experiments results showed facilitatory effects of relative embodiment, but not imageability: latencies were faster for relatively more embodied verbs, even after several other lexical variables were controlled. The results suggest that relative embodiment is an important aspect of verb meaning, and that the semantic richness approach holds promise as a strategy for investigating other aspects of verb meaning.     

Perceptual Experience Norms for 506 Russian Nouns: Modality Rating,Spatial Localization,Manipulability, Imageability and Other Variables

A number of new psycholinguistic variables has been proposed during the last years within embodied cognition framework: modality experience rating (i.e., relationship between words and images of a particular perceptive modality—visual, auditory, haptic etc.), manipulability (the necessity for an object to interact with human hands in order to perform its function), vertical spatial localization. However, it is not clear how these new variables are related to each other and to such traditional variables as imageability, AoA and word frequency. In this article, normative data on the modality (visual, auditory, haptic, olfactory, and gustatory) ratings, vertical spatial localization of the object, manipulability, imageability, age of acquisition, and subjective frequency for 506 Russian nouns are presented. Strongest correlations were observed between olfactory and gustatory modalities (.81), visual modality and imageability (.78), haptic modality and manipulability (.7). Other modalities also significantly correlate with imageability: olfactory (.35), gustatory (.24), and haptic (.67). Factor analysis divided variables into four groups where visual and haptic modality ratings were combined with imageability, manipulability and AoA (the first factor); word length, frequency and AoA formed the second factor; olfactory modality was united with gustatory (the third factor); spatial localization only is included in the fourth factor. Present norms of imageability and AoA are consistent with previous as correlation analysis has revealed. The complete database can be downloaded from supplementary material.     

A fresh look at the predictors of naming accuracy and errors in Alzheimer's disease

In recent years, a considerable number of studies have tried to establish which characteristics of objects and their names predict the responses of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the picture-naming task. The frequency of use of words and their age of acquisition (AoA) have been implicated as two of the most influential variables, with naming being best preserved for objects with high-frequency, early-acquired names. The present study takes a fresh look at the predictors of naming success in Spanish and English AD patients using a range of measures of word frequency and AoA along with visual complexity, imageability, and word length as predictors. Analyses using generalized linear mixed modelling found that naming accuracy was better predicted by AoA ratings taken from older adults than conventional ratings from young adults. Older frequency measures based on written language samples predicted accuracy better than more modern measures based on the frequencies of words in film subtitles. Replacing adult frequency with an estimate of cumulative (lifespan) frequency did not reduce the impact of AoA. Semantic error rates were predicted by both written word frequency and senior AoA while null response errors were only predicted by frequency. Visual complexity, imageability, and word length did not predict naming accuracy or errors.