Selectional restrictions,types and categories

The expressions of a language distinguish between many different types of objects. These types can affect how the meanings of these expressions combine. This paper provides a formal picture of the process of meaning combination in a richly typed framework.     

Speaking two languages at once: Unconscious native word form access in second language production

Bilingualism research has established language non-selective lexical access in comprehension. However, the evidence for such an effect in production remains sparse and its neural time-course has not yet been investigated. We demonstrate that German-English bilinguals performing a simple picture-naming task exclusively in English spontaneously access the phonological form of –unproduced– German words. Participants were asked to produce English adjective-noun sequences describing the colour and identity of familiar objects presented as line drawings. We associated adjective and picture names such that their onsets phonologically overlapped in English (e.g., green goat), in German through translation (e.g., blue flower – ‘blaue Blume’), or in neither language. As expected, phonological priming in English modulated event-related brain potentials over the frontocentral scalp region from around 440 ms after picture onset. Phonological priming in German was detectable even earlier, from 300 ms, even though German was never produced and in the absence of an interaction between language and phonological repetition priming at any point in time. Overall, these results establish the existence of non-selective access to phonological representations of the two languages in the domain of speech production.     

On predicting others’ words: Electrophysiological evidence of prediction in speech production

The present study investigated whether lexical processes that occur when we name objects can also be observed when an interaction partner is naming objects. We compared the behavioral and electrophysiological responses of participants performing a conditional go/no-go picture naming task in two different conditions: individually and jointly with a confederate participant. To obtain an index of lexical processing, we manipulated lexical frequency, so that half of the pictures had corresponding names of high-frequency and the remaining half had names of low-frequency. Color cues determined whether participants should respond, whether their task-partner should respond, or whether nobody should respond. Behavioral and ERP results showed that participants engaged in lexical processing when it was their turn to respond. Crucially, ERP results on no-go trials revealed that participants also engaged in lexical processing when it was their partner’s turn to act. In addition, ERP results showed increased response inhibition selectively when it was the partner’s turn to act. These findings provide evidence for the claim that listeners generate predictions about speakers’ utterances by relying on their own action production system.     

Verbal working memory predicts co-speech gesture: Evidence from individual differences

Gesture facilitates language production, but there is debate surrounding its exact role. It has been argued that gestures lighten the load on verbal working memory (VWM; Goldin-Meadow, Nusbaum, Kelly, & Wagner, 2001), but gestures have also been argued to aid in lexical retrieval (Krauss, 1998). In the current study, 50 speakers completed an individual differences battery that included measures of VWM and lexical retrieval. To elicit gesture, each speaker described short cartoon clips immediately after viewing. Measures of lexical retrieval did not predict spontaneous gesture rates, but lower VWM was associated with higher gesture rates, suggesting that gestures can facilitate language production by supporting VWM when resources are taxed. These data also suggest that individual variability in the propensity to gesture is partly linked to cognitive capacities.     

Object labeling influences infant phonetic learning and generalization

Different kinds of speech sounds are used to signify possible word forms in every language. For example, lexical stress is used in Spanish (/‘be.be/, ‘he/she drinks’ versus /be.’be/, ‘baby’), but not in French (/‘be.be/ and /be.’be/ both mean ‘baby’). Infants learn many such native language phonetic contrasts in their first year of life, likely using a number of cues from parental speech input. One such cue could be parents’ object labeling, which can explicitly highlight relevant contrasts. Here we ask whether phonetic learning from object labeling is abstract—that is, if learning can generalize to new phonetic contexts. We investigate this issue in the prosodic domain, as the abstraction of prosodic cues (like lexical stress) has been shown to be particularly difficult. One group of 10-month-old French-learners was given consistent word labels that contrasted on lexical stress (e.g., Object A was labeled /‘ma.bu/, and Object B was labeled /ma.’bu/). Another group of 10-month-olds was given inconsistent word labels (i.e., mixed pairings), and stress discrimination in both groups was measured in a test phase with words made up of new syllables. Infants trained with consistently contrastive labels showed an earlier effect of discrimination compared to infants trained with inconsistent labels. Results indicate that phonetic learning from object labeling can indeed generalize, and suggest one way infants may learn the sound properties of their native language(s).     

Measuring Processing Fluency: One versus Five Items

While there is an ample amount of consumer behavior research that recruits processing fluency as an explanatory construct, the question how to best measure the fluency experience has received little attention. Therefore, there is a lack of consistency in measuring the construct, particularly with regard to the use of single‐item versus multi‐item measures. The current research, thus, aims to investigate how processing fluency can be consistently measured across different experimental fluency manipulations and which type of measure has the highest validity. Based on classic scale development procedures, we propose a reliable and valid multi‐item measure and compare this measure against a single‐item measure in terms of predictive validity. We show that both measures mediate the effect of five established fluency manipulations and that the single‐item measure is sufficient. In addition to providing a measure for future research that can be adapted to different empirical settings, we provide empirical evidence on the replicability of fluency effects and on the theoretical conjecture that people have a uniform fluency experience across different manipulations of fluency.     

小学低年级儿童的计算流畅性与数学焦虑:基于变量为中心与个体为中心的分析

为考察计算流畅性对小学低年级儿童数学焦虑的影响及作用机制,对592名小学二年级儿童的计算流畅性、数学学习兴趣、教师支持和数学焦虑进行测查。结果发现:(1)计算流畅性不仅通过数学学习兴趣间接影响数学焦虑,也可通过数学学习兴趣进而通过教师支持间接影响数学焦虑;(2)对计算流畅性和数学学习兴趣得分进行潜剖面分析,可将儿童区分为三种类型:低能力-低兴趣型、高能力-高兴趣型和低能力-高兴趣型;(3)低能力-低兴趣型儿童的数学焦虑得分显著高于其他两类,而低能力-高兴趣型和高能力-高兴趣型儿童的数学焦虑得分则无显著差异。上述结果表明计算流畅性、数学学习兴趣和教师支持在预防和干预小学低年级儿童的数学焦虑中具有重要作用。     

不同社交媒体平台上口碑信息是如何影响购买意愿的？——解释水平和加工流畅性的中介作用

研究基于解释水平理论,探讨了不同社交媒体平台上口碑信息对购买意愿的影响及机制。结果发现：（1）不同社交媒体平台可以激发不同社会距离感;（2）接收高解释水平口碑时,社会距离远平台的用户购买意愿更高,接收低解释水平口碑时,社会距离近平台的用户购买意愿更高,平台类型与口碑类型在解释水平上匹配时影响力最大;（3）其机制是：口碑类型通过调节用户心理表征的解释水平对加工流畅性的影响,进而调节了“平台类型→解释水平→加工流畅性→购买意愿”这一链式中介路径。     

Holistic versus analytic processing: Evidence for a different approach to processing of Chinese at the word and character levels in Chinese children

Among 30 Hong Kong Chinese fourth graders, sensitivities to character and word constructions were examined in judgment tasks at each level. There were three conditions across both tasks: the real condition, consisting of either actual two-character compound Chinese words or real Chinese compound characters; the reversed condition, with either the order of the two morphemes in the word or the order of the semantic and phonetic radicals in the character reversed; and the random condition, with either two morphemes randomly combined to create arbitrary nonwords or a semantic radical and a phonetic radical randomly combined using correct orthographic rules to create noncharacters. On the word level, children performed worst in the reversed condition and best with real words, whereas on the character level, children performed worst in the random condition and best in the reversed condition. Findings imply a holistic tendency toward word-level processing and an analytic approach to character-level processing in these Chinese children.     

Using diffusion models to understand clinical disorders

Sequential sampling models provide an alternative to traditional analyses of reaction times and accuracy in two-choice tasks. These models are reviewed with particular focus on the diffusion model (Ratcliff, 1978) and how its application can aid research on clinical disorders. The advantages of a diffusion model analysis over traditional comparisons are shown through simulations and a simple lexical decision experiment. Application of the diffusion model to a clinically relevant topic is demonstrated through an analysis of data from nonclinical participants with high- and low-trait anxiety in a recognition memory task. The model showed that after committing an error, participants with high-trait anxiety responded more cautiously by increasing their boundary separation, whereas participants with low-trait anxiety did not. The article concludes with suggestions for ways to improve and broaden the application of these models to studies of clinical disorders.