Semantic interference in language production is due to graded similarity,not response relevance

There is an ongoing debate on the question whether semantic interference effects in language production reflect competitive processes at the level of lexical selection or whether they reflect a post-lexical bottleneck, occupied in particular by response-relevant distractor words. To disentangle item-inherent categorical relatedness and task-related response relevance effects, we combined the picture–word interference task with the conditional naming paradigm in an orthogonal design, varying categorical relatedness and task-related response relevance independent of each other. Participants were instructed to name only objects that are typically seen in or on the water (e.g. canoe) and refrain from naming objects that are typically located outside the water (e.g. bike), and vice versa. Semantic relatedness and the response relevance of superimposed distractor words were manipulated orthogonally. The pattern of results revealed no evidence for response relevance as a major source of semantic interference effects in the PWI paradigm. In contrast, our data demonstrate that semantic similarity beyond categorical relations is critical for interference effects to be observed. Together, these findings provide support for the assumption that lexical selection is competitive and that semantic interference effects in the PWI paradigm reflect this competition.     

Searching by rules: pigeons' (Columba livia) landmark-based search according to constant bearing or constant distance

Pigeons (Columba livia) searched for a goal location defined by a constant relative spatial relationship to 2 landmark. For one group, landmark-to-goal bearings remained constant while distance varied. For another group landmark-to-goal distances remained constant while direction varied. Birds were trained with 4 interlandmark distances and then tested with 5 novel interlandmark distances. Overall error magnitude was similar across groups and was large than previously reported for Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana). During training, error magnitude increased with interlandmark distance for constant-bearing but not constant-distance birds. Both groups searched less accurately along the parallel to landmarks than along the perpendicular axis. Error magnitude increased with novel extrapolated interlandmark distances but not with novel interpolated distances. Results suggest modest geometric rule learning by pigeons.     

Tests for cognitive mapping in Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana)

In these experiments, the authors examined the nature of the spatial information that Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) use during navigation and whether this information is represented in the form of a cognitive map. In Experiment 1, nutcrackers were able to use distal cues to locate a small hidden goal. In Experiments 2 and 3, nutcrackers were given the opportunity to develop a map of a room by viewing local subsets of the landmarks in the room at a goal during training. During transfer tests, nutcrackers were presented with a landmark panorama that was not previously seen at the goal. Of 3 nutcrackers that had learned the relationship between distal cues and the goal, 3 were able to locate the goal during transfer, indicating they may have developed a cognitive map. Experiments 4 and 5 suggest that the simpler mechanism of vector integration may have been used by some nutcrackers during the transfer tests.     

The bilingual brain turns a blind eye to negative statements in the second language

Neurobilingualism research has failed to reveal significant language differences in the processing of affective content. However, the evidence to date derives mostly from studies in which affective stimuli are presented out of context, which is unnatural and fails to capture the complexity of everyday sentence-based communication. Here we investigated semantic integration of affectively salient stimuli in sentential context in the first- and second-language (L2) of late fluent Polish–English bilinguals living in the UK. The 19 participants indicated whether Polish and English sentences ending with a semantically and affectively congruent or incongruent adjective of controlled affective valence made sense while undergoing behavioral and electrophysiological recordings. We focused on the N400, a wave of event-related potentials known to index semantic integration. We expected N400 amplitude to index increased processing demands in L2 English comprehension and potential language–valence interactions to reveal differences in affective processing between languages. Contrary to our initial expectation, we found increased N400 for sentences in L1 Polish, possibly driven by greater affective salience of sentences in the native language. Critically, language interacted with affective valence, such that N400 amplitudes were reduced for English sentences ending in a negative fashion as compared to all other conditions. We interpreted this as a sign that bilinguals suppress L2 content embedded in naturalistic L2 sentences when it has negative valence, thus extending the findings of previous research on single words in clinical and linguistic research.     

Language Impairment and Sexual Assault of Girls and Women: Findings from a Community Sample

Both children and adults with disabilities face increased prevalence of abuse and assault, including sexual assault. Women and girls are disproportionately the victims of sexual assault in both disabled and nondisabled populations. Communication difficulties have been identified as a factor that may increase the vulnerability of individuals with disabilities to sexual assault. However, few studies have examined whether language impairment increases risk for sexual assault. This study reports on a community sample of children with speech or language impairment, followed to age 25. Sexual assault history was assessed based on two questions from the Composite International Diagnostic Interview Posttraumatic Stress Disorder module. Women with language impairment (n = 33) were more likely than women with unimpaired language (n = 59) to report sexual abuse/assault, controlled for socioeconomic status. Sexual assault was associated with higher rates of psychiatric disorders and poorer functioning. Women with neither language impairment nor a history of sexual assault had fewer psychiatric disorders and higher functioning than women with language impairment and/or a history of sexual assault.     

Now you see it … and now again: Semantic interference reflects lexical competition in speech production with and without articulation

Semantic interference effects in the picture—word interference (PWI) paradigm have long been assumed to reflect competitive mechanisms during lexical selection, a core component of the speech production system. However, recent observations of facilitative effects have cast doubt on the usefulness of the paradigm for investigating lexicalization, and on the existence of lexical competition in general. An alternative proposal suggests that lexical selection is not by competition, and that interference effects reflect articulatory processes outside the lexical system. Here, we contrast these theoretical alternatives with semantic distractor effects in the PWI paradigm. In two tasks, pictures were either overtly named or the names were manually classified. Interference effects of comparable magnitude were observed in both response modalities, regardless of whether the names were articulated or not. This finding supports lexical competition models and suggests that the articulators are not the source of interference in the PWI paradigm. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded from http://pbr.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

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.     

Arousal and Subjective Significance Shapes Stimuli Interpretation across Warmth Vs. Competence Dimensions

The current study sought to examine the impact of incidental activation defined as arousal and subjective significance, both represented in connotations of verbal materials, on social perception of unknown and thus ambiguous objects, in terms of two basic dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence. Arousal was expected to promote interpretation of ambiguous stimuli in terms of warmth, while subjective significance in terms of competence. This means that both activation and social perception may be treated as examples dual-mind systems functioning. Sixty participants (30 women) were exposed to two subsequent tasks. The first involved memorizing 135 words (manipulation prepared in a factorial design contrasting 3 levels of arousal and 3 levels of subjective significance), and the second involved guessing the meaning of hexagram stimuli derived from Far East culture. An increasing level of arousal caused participants to interpret stimuli as increasingly related to warmth, while an increasing level of subjective significance led to interpretations more related to competence. This study shows that two distinct types of activation may trigger different interpretations of social stimuli, which means that there is a link between both types of processes. This finding is of great importance for the dual-mind approach, showing that a multitude of dualities indentified thus far may be related one another. Therefore, it is justified to treat them as emanations of more general mental systems.