Concurrent visual search and time reproduction with cross-talk

Previous experiments indicate that humans can reproduce a time interval while concurrently searching a visual display presented near the beginning of the reproduced interval (Fortin, C., Rousseau, R., Bourque, P. & Kirouac, E. (1993). Time estimation and concurrent nontemporal processing: Specific interference from short-term-memory demands. Perception & Psychophysics, 53, 536-548.). In the earlier experiments, reproduced intervals were either insensitive to or shortened with increasing duration of visual search, suggesting that reproduction and search proceeded concurrently but sometimes with cross-talk. Here we test concurrency of time reproduction and visual search using a different methodology than before. Assuming the underlying mental processes are in a critical path network, factors selectively influencing concurrent processes are predicted to produce certain patterns in response time means and, through recent developments, certain patterns in cumulative distribution functions. Processes in an experiment were influenced by manipulating four factors, the time interval to be produced, stimulus onset asynchrony, display size, and target presence/absence. Patterns in response times provide evidence for concurrent time reproduction and visual search. However, a prediction based on selective influence failed in a manner suggesting the presence of cross-talk produced by a filled interval illusion.     

Rhythmic alternation and the optional complementiser in English: new evidence of phonological influence on grammatical encoding

In a recall-based spoken production experiment, native English-speaking participants' variable use of the complementiser that to introduce the sentential complement in sentences like Henry knew (that) Lucy/Louise washed the dishes was found to be related to whether that inclusion/omission resulted in an alternating sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables between the verb of the main clause and the subject of the complement clause. This finding is discussed in relation to the question of whether and how phonological encoding can influence grammatical encoding in spoken language production.     

Preferences for token exchange‐production schedules: Effects of task difficulty and token‐production schedules

Previous research suggests that accumulated exchange‐production schedules promote increased work completion and are more preferred than distributed exchange‐production schedules. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the response effort or token‐production schedules associated with token delivery influenced preferences for exchange‐production schedules. Tokens exchanged under accumulated schedules were more preferred, relative to distributed schedules, when tokens were earned for completing easy tasks. When participants earned tokens for completing difficult tasks, two of three participants preferred accumulated exchange‐production schedules (Experiment 1). Under dense token‐production schedules, accumulated exchange‐production schedules were preferred, but participant's preferences switched to distributed schedules under increasing token‐production (i.e., leaner) schedules (Experiment 2).     

Visual experiences during letter production contribute to the development of the neural systems supporting letter perception

Letter production through handwriting creates visual experiences that may be important for the development of visual letter perception. We sought to better understand the neural responses to different visual percepts created during handwriting at different levels of experience. Three groups of participants, younger children, older children, and adults, ranging in age from 4.5 to 22 years old, were presented with dynamic and static presentations of their own handwritten letters, static presentations of an age‐matched control's handwritten letters, and typeface letters during fMRI. First, data from each group were analyzed through a series of contrasts designed to highlight neural systems that were most sensitive to each visual experience in each age group. We found that younger children recruited ventral‐temporal cortex during perception and this response was associated with the variability present in handwritten forms. Older children and adults also recruited ventral‐temporal cortex; this response, however, was significant for typed letter forms but not variability. The adult response to typed letters was more distributed than in the children, including ventral‐temporal, parietal, and frontal motor cortices. The adult response was also significant for one's own handwritten letters in left parietal cortex. Second, we compared responses among age groups. Compared to older children, younger children demonstrated a greater fusiform response associated with handwritten form variability. When compared to adults, younger children demonstrated a greater response to this variability in left parietal cortex. Our results suggest that the visual perception of the variability present in handwritten forms that occurs during handwriting may contribute to developmental changes in the neural systems that support letter perception.     

言语产生中音韵编码的计划广度:来自图-词干扰范式的证据

采用图-词干扰范式,要求被试口语产生包含三个名词的句子,同时听觉呈现干扰刺激并操纵其与各个名词的语音相关性,通过与无关刺激相比,与各个名词语音相关的干扰刺激产生的语音效应,探讨句子产生中音韵编码的计划广度,同时检验音韵编码的层级激活假设。结果发现,只有第一个名词上出现了语音促进效应,第二和第三个名词上既无语音促进,也无语音干扰。该结果与层级激活假设相悖,表明句子产生中音韵编码的计划广度为第一个韵律词。     

Learning to divide the labor: an account of deficits in light and heavy verb production

Theories of sentence production that involve a convergence of activation from conceptual‐semantic and syntactic‐sequential units inspired a connectionist model that was trained to produce simple sentences. The model used a learning algorithm that resulted in a sharing of responsibility (or “division of labor”) between syntactic and semantic inputs for lexical activation according to their predictive power. Semantically rich, or “heavy”, verbs in the model came to rely on semantic cues more than on syntactic cues, whereas semantically impoverished, or “light”, verbs relied more on syntactic cues. When the syntactic and semantic inputs were lesioned, the model exhibited patterns of production characteristic of agrammatic and anomic aphasic patients, respectively. Anomic models tended to lose the ability to retrieve heavy verbs, whereas agrammatic models were more impaired in retrieving light verbs. These results obtained in both sentence production and single‐word naming simulations. Moreover, simulated agrammatic lexical retrieval was more impaired overall in sentences than in single‐word tasks, in agreement with the literature. The results provide a demonstration of the division‐of‐labor principle, as well as general support for the claim that connectionist learning principles can contribute to the understanding of non‐transparent neuropsychological dissociations.     

Children's (and Adults') Production Adjustments to Generic and Particular Listener Needs

Adults design utterances to match listeners' informational needs by making both “generic” adjustments (e.g., mentioning atypical more often than typical information) and “particular” adjustments tailored to their specific interlocutor (e.g., including things that their addressee cannot see). For children, however, relevant evidence is mixed. Three experiments investigated how generic and particular factors affect children's production. In Experiment 1, 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children and adults described typical and atypical instrument events to a silent listener who could either see or not see the events. In later extensions, participants described the same events to either a silent (Experiment 2) or an interactive (Experiment 3) addressee with a specific goal. Both adults and 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds performed generic adjustments but, unlike adults, children made listener‐particular adjustments inconsistently. These and prior findings can be explained by assuming that particular adjustments can be costlier for children to implement compared to generic adjustments.     

The role of auditory context in action-effect-related motor adaptation

Previous research indicates that adding auditory effects to a (silent) action can lead to substantial efficiency gains in the performance of the action, while compromising the connection between the motor and the auditory event (e.g., by removing, or by delaying the auditory effects), leads the agent to compensate for the loss of auditory feedback by executing actions in a way which increases the probability of success or enhances feedback in other modalities, thus departing from the optimal action performance. The current study explored how this motor adaptation was affected when the quality of auditory feedback was reduced by contextual factors, while keeping the physical link between the action and auditory effect intact. In two experiments, participants elicited pure tones by pinching a force sensitive resistor (FSR). In some of the conditions action-effect contingency was reduced by intermixing externally initiated tones with the self-induced ones. Pinch-force measurements indicated that action optimization was affected by contextual factors. The influence of auditory context was the most pronounced when the discrimination of self-induced and external tones was made difficult by the similarity and temporal proximity of the self-induced and external tones. In these conditions, tone eliciting actions were more forceful in comparison to conditions in which no external tones were presented, and in comparison to conditions in which the external tones were easily distinguishable from self-induced ones. This suggests that contextual factors can induce similar motor adjustments as manipulating the physical connection between the action and its sensory consequences.     

言语产生研究的理论框架

本文回顾了言语产生的研究历史,总结了言语产生的理论框架和研究方法,对言语产生研究中的一些关键问题进行了系统的分析,这些问题包括：(1)语义如何存储在心理词典中;(2)词条选择和音位编码的独立性;(3)语音和音位编码方式;(4)音位信息与音节框架之间的关系。     

不同阅读水平儿童的汉字字形输出与再认

实验采用与和选择任务,对比研究了不同阅读水平儿童在汉字字形输出和再认过程中的共同点和差异。结果发现：汉字声旁的规则必影响所有阅读水平儿童听写和听选择的正确和率错误率;阅读水平低的儿童阅读水平高的儿童产生更多的同音替代;与阅读水平高的儿童相比,阅读水平低的儿童更加需要线性的帮助。文章从心理词典结构和字词加工的角度探讨了这种差异的理论含义。