Phonological Regularities and Grammatical Gender Retrieval in Spoken Word Recognition and Word Production

Two experiments investigate whether native speakers of French can use a noun’s phonological ending to retrieve its gender and that of a gender-marked element. In Experiment 1, participants performed a gender decision task on the noun’s gender-marked determiner for auditorily presented nouns. Noun endings with high predictive values were selected. The noun stimuli could either belong to the gender class predicted by their ending (congruent) or they could belong to the gender class that was different from the predicted gender (incongruent). Gender decisions were made significantly faster for congruent nouns than for incongruent nouns, relative to a (lexical decision) baseline task. In Experiment 2, participants named pictures of the same materials as used in Experiment 1 with noun phrases consisting of a gender-marked determiner, a gender-marked adjective and a noun. In this Experiment, no effect of congruency, relative to a (bare noun naming) baseline task, was observed. Thus, the results show an effect of phonological information on the retrieval of gender-marked elements in spoken word recognition, but not in word production.     

Lexical Retrieval Deficit in Picture Naming: Implications for Word Production Models

In models of word retrieval, it is common to differentiate lexical-semantic (word meaning) and lexical-phonological (word form) levels. There has been considerable interest in the relationship between these two levels. The so-called discrete two-stage model claims that phonological activation follows selection at the lexical-semantic level and is limited only to the selected item. In contrast, nondiscrete (interactive and cascade) models assume that all activated lexical-semantic candidates are also phonologically activated to some extent. We addressed this issue by studying an anomic patient who suffered from a partial functional disconnection between lexical-semantic and lexical-phonological levels. A multitarget repeated naming task with phonological training was employed. Systematic manipulation of semantic and phonological relatedness between the to-be-named items indicated that our patient's word error patterns were sensitive to both types of lexical relatedness. A delayed repetition task employing the same items failed to show similar effects, suggesting that they were specific to naming. The discrete two-stage model is unable to explain the observed effects of semantic and phonological relatedness. However, they are consistent with assumptions of nondiscrete models of lexical retrieval. In addition to the theoretical implications of this study, the observed effects of lexical context on word retrieval have implications for treatment of anomia.     

Spoken Idiom Recognition: Meaning Retrieval and Word Expectancy

This study investigates recognition of spoken idioms occurring in neutral contexts. Experiment 1 showed that both predictable and non-predictable idiom meanings are available at string offset. Yet, only predictable idiom meanings are active halfway through a string and remain active after the string’s literal conclusion. Experiment 2 showed that the initial fragment of a predictable idiom inhibits recognition of a word providing a congruous, but literal, conclusion to the expression. No comparable effects were obtained with non-predictable idioms. These findings are consistent with the view that spoken idiom identification differs from word recognition and occurs word-by-word, just as with other familiar, multi-lexical phrases.The present study was supported by PRIN 2003–2004. We would like to thank Corrado Cavallero, Simona Collina, Melinda Tucker and Francesco Zardon for their valuable help.     

The Effects of Data-Driven and Conceptually Driven Generation of Study Items on Direct and Indirect Measures of Memory

Two experiments are reported which investigated the effects of data-driven generation of study items on direct and indirect measures of memory. Previous research in the field of implicit memory has traditionally employed generation procedures at encoding which focused on conceptually driven processing. The present study undertook to devise data-driven generation procedures that were predicted to lead to a generation effect on word-stem completion.

In Experiment 1 subjects had to generate target items from anagrams and newly developed “assemblograms”, requiring mainly data-driven processing, as well as from semantic cues and definitions, involving mainly conceptually driven processing. Effects of these generate conditions were compared to the usual name condition on a direct word-stem cued recall test, and on an indirect word-stem completion test. Differences between data-driven generation on the stem completion task and the name condition failed to reach significant differences in retention.

In Experiment 2 subjects generated targets from assemblograms and from semantic cues. The data revealed the predicted occurrence of a generation effect on an indirect memory test following data-driven generation. The finding of a generation effect in an indirect as opposed to a direct memory test was seen as support for the view that generating a study item may enhance data-driven as well as conceptually driven processing, depending on the processing demands made by generation procedures. The results were interpreted within the transfer-appropriate processing framework, with additional reference to Glisky and Rabinowitz's two-component account of generation effects (Glisky & Rabinowitz, 1985).     

Retrieval Dynamics and Retention in Cross‐Situational Statistical Word Learning

Previous research on cross‐situational word learning has demonstrated that learners are able to reduce ambiguity in mapping words to referents by tracking co‐occurrence probabilities across learning events. In the current experiments, we examined whether learners are able to retain mappings over time. The results revealed that learners are able to retain mappings for up to 1 week later. However, there were interactions between the amount of retention and the different learning conditions. Interestingly, the strongest retention was associated with a learning condition that engendered retrieval dynamics that initially challenged the learner but eventually led to more successful retrieval toward the end of learning. The ease/difficulty of retrieval is a critical process underlying cross‐situational word learning and is a powerful example of how learning dynamics affect long‐term learning outcomes.     

认知神经心理学理论研究与失语症治疗的关系

该文介绍了词语产出的加工阶段以及在获得性语言障碍病人（失语症病人）身上这些阶段可能的损伤情况。文中特别介绍了两例词汇提取障碍病人的治疗,这不仅有助于了解该障碍,更有助于了解其潜在的理论问题。第一个案例关注使用不同的任务治疗词汇提取障碍,评估治疗效果,探究任务产生作用的原理。第二个案例使用词汇提取障碍的治疗方法探讨一个充满争议的问题：同音词（如,pour/paw）在词汇产出过程中是共用一个语音表征还是各自单独表征     

The Effects of Word Identity,Case, and SOA on Word Priming in a Subliminal Context

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - It is widely assumed that subliminal word priming is case insensitive and that a short SOA (<?100 ms) is required to observe any...     

A Last Word

Oh, that I would have read Buford Stefflre's (1969) parting words as editor of this journal before I began my co-editorship of Testing the Test! Clearly knowing of what he wrote, Stefflre distilled the experience when commenting that editorship “taught me much about writers, reading, and myself-some of which I never wanted to learn” (p. 1032). Such was my journey through editorhood, and because of it I am compelled to recall certain aspects of the task both for aspiring section or journal editors and those who wish to write for such.     

Semantic Memory Search and Retrieval in a Novel Cooperative Word Game: A Comparison of Associative and Distributional Semantic Models

Considerable work during the past two decades has focused on modeling the structure of semantic memory, although the performance of these models in complex and unconstrained semantic tasks remains relatively understudied. We introduce a two-player cooperative word game, Connector (based on the boardgame Codenames), and investigate whether similarity metrics derived from two large databases of human free association norms, the University of South Florida norms and the Small World of Words norms, and two distributional semantic models based on large language corpora (word2vec and GloVe) predict performance in this game. Participant dyads were presented with 20-item word boards with word pairs of varying relatedness. The speaker received a word pair from the board (e.g., exam-algebra) and generated a one-word semantic clue (e.g., math), which was used by the guesser to identify the word pair on the board across three attempts. Response times to generate the clue, as well as accuracy and latencies for the guessed word pair, were strongly predicted by the cosine similarity between word pairs and clues in random walk-based associative models, and to a lesser degree by the distributional models, suggesting that conceptual representations activated during free association were better able to capture search and retrieval processes in the game. Further, the speaker adjusted subsequent clues based on the first attempt by the guesser, who in turn benefited from the adjustment in clues, suggesting a cooperative influence in the game that was effectively captured by both associative and distributional models. These results indicate that both associative and distributional models can capture relatively unconstrained search processes in a cooperative game setting, and Connector is particularly suited to examine communication and semantic search processes.     

解析一个文字游戏

我的父亲在当地也算得上是一位知书识字的先生。但这“先生”并非教书,而是传播为人指点迷津的“测字”,而小有名气。 那年,我在人生的十字路口上面临选择:一是继续在中学读书,攻考大学中专;二是走进社会,开始自食其力,到村小学代课。那是刚刚实行改革开放的年代,家中贫穷,我在学校里的最大感受就是肚子整天“闹革命”,随时感到嘴馋。害怕挨饿,成了我在学校读书的最大心理障碍。有一天父亲拿来一个已脏烂的笔记本,随意翻了一页,让我在上     

成人言语输入对儿童早期单词获得影响的个案追踪

追踪观察一名婴儿(6~20个月), 分析其中看护者的言语输入特征及婴儿早期词汇获得的发展变化。主要对成人言语输入中动、名词比例、单词在句中的位置、具体环境等因素及婴儿早期动、名词理解和产生等方面进行探讨。结果显示, 成人言语输入中动词比例显著高于名词, 更多动词位于句首或句尾使得主语和宾语省略; 同时, 这种动词优势的输入特征促进儿童早期动词获得, 使得婴儿早期语言样本中动、名词理解相对比例与成人言语输入一致。这一结果表明, 婴儿词汇发展初期就已经利用言语或社会线索, 同时这种早期词汇组成中较高的动词比例进一步支持“名词优势”理论存在跨语言差异