Is the go/no-go lexical decision task preferable to the yes/no task with developing readers?

The lexical decision task is probably the most common laboratory visual word identification task together with the naming task. In the usual setup, participants need to press the “yes” button when the stimulus is a word and the “no” button when the stimulus is not a word. A number of studies have employed this task with developing readers; however, error rates and/or response times tend to be quite high. One way to make the task easier for young readers is by employing a go/no-go procedure: “If word, press ‘yes’; if not, refrain from responding.” Here we conducted a lexical decision experiment that systematically compared the yes/no and go/no-go variants of the lexical decision task with developing readers (second- and fourth-grade children). Results showed that (a) error rates for words and nonwords were much lower in the go/no-go task than in the yes/no task, (b) lexical decision times were substantially faster in the go/no-go task, and (c) there was less variability in the latency data of the go/no-go task for high-frequency words. Thus, the go/no-go lexical decision task is preferable to the “standard” yes/no task when conducting experiments with developing readers.     

Age differences in forgivingness: The role of transgression frequency and intensity

The present study examined age differences in the disposition to forgive others and the role of interpersonal transgression frequency and intensity. Data from a representative cross-sectional sample of Swiss adults (N = 451, age: 20–83 years) were used. Participants completed a self-report measure of forgivingness and indicated whether and how intense they have experienced different types of interpersonal transgressions during the past 12 months. Results indicate that older adults were, on average, more willing to forgive others than younger adults. Frequency and intensity of transgressions were negatively related with age. Moreover, the results show that transgression frequency and intensity explained, in part, age differences in forgivingness. Future directions concerning the meaning of age differences in forgivingness are discussed.     

LIFG-based attentional control and the resolution of lexical ambiguities in sentence context

The role of attentional control in lexical ambiguity resolution was examined in two patients with damage to the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and one control patient with non-LIFG damage. Experiment 1 confirmed that the LIFG patients had attentional control deficits compared to normal controls while the non-LIFG patient was relatively unimpaired. Experiment 2 showed that all three patients did as well as normal controls in using biasing sentence context to resolve lexical ambiguities involving balanced ambiguous words, but only the LIFG patients took an abnormally long time on lexical ambiguities that resolved toward a subordinate meaning of biased ambiguous words. Taken together, the results suggest that attentional control plays an important role in the resolution of certain lexical ambiguities - those that induce strong interference from context-inappropriate meanings (i.e., dominant meanings of biased ambiguous words).     

“Does degree of asymmetry relate to performance?” A critical review

In a recent paper, Chiarello, Welcome, Halderman, and Leonard (2009) reported positive correlations between word-related visual field asymmetries and reading performance. They argued that strong word processing lateralization represents a more optimal brain organization for reading acquisition. Their empirical results contrasted sharply with those of another such large-scale study, by Boles, Barth, and Merrill (2008). We reported negative correlations between asymmetry and performance when both were measured using the same visual lexical tasks. Most recently, within-task negative correlations were also reported by Hirnstein, Leask, Rose, and Hausmann (2010). Here two major differences between studies are explored. Task purity refers to the influence of the same mental processes on both the asymmetry and performance measures, and is arguably maximal in studies measuring both within the same task. The other difference concerns the measurement of asymmetry. Linear corrections for ceiling and floor effects were used by Chiarello et al. and Hirnstein et al., while we used a more appropriate nonlinear one. Their results are difficult to interpret for those reasons. The operation of a third variable to which both asymmetry and performance are positively correlated could also be a factor in the Chiarello et al. findings. The Boles et al. findings reflect a negative correlation between an asymmetric visual lexical process and performance measured within the same task.     

中文文本熟悉性在词切分和词汇识别中的作用

基于E-Z读者模型和中文阅读的整合模型, 词切分和词汇识别是否属于交互作用的统一过程存在争议。通过转换阅读方向来操纵文本熟悉性, 研究其在词切分和词汇识别中的作用。实验1考察中文文本熟悉性和词间空格促进作用之间的权衡。使用Eyelink 1000记录40名大学生在中文阅读中的眼动特征。结果发现：词间空格对中文阅读的促进作用在阅读训练后消失, 表明中文阅读中文本熟悉性和词间空格的促进作用之间存在权衡。实验2操纵文本熟悉性和词频来探究文本熟悉性在词汇识别中的作用, 结果发现：文本熟悉性和词频在早期指标上的交互作用; 阅读训练和词频不存在交互作用, 表明文本熟悉性影响词汇识别的早期加工阶段。研究结果表明中文阅读的词切分和词汇识别可能是顺序加工, 支持E-Z读者模型。     

阅读方式和学习次数对中文词汇的产生效应影响的发展研究

产生效应指朗读单词的记忆成绩要好于默读单词的记忆成绩。采用“学习-再认”的实验范式,以小学三年级、小学五年级、初一、初二和大学生为被试,采用2（阅读方式：朗读,默读）×2（学习次数：1次,3次）×5（年级：三年级,五年级,初一,初二,大学）的混合设计,探讨中文词汇产生效应的发展特点。结果发现：（1）年级的主效应显著,大学生的记忆成绩显著高于三年级、五年级和初一学生的;五年级、初一和初二学生的记忆成绩显著高于三年级学生的;（2）阅读方式的主效应显著,朗读的记忆成绩显著高于默读的;（3）学习次数的主效应显著,3次的记忆成绩显著高于1次的;（4）阅读方式和年级的交互作用显著,在朗读的记忆成绩上,小学三年级的与大学生的差异显著,但小学五年级、初一、初二学生的和大学生的差异均不显著,说明朗读的记忆成绩在小学五年级趋于成熟;在默读的记忆成绩上,小学三年级、五年级、初一学生的均与大学生的差异显著,初二学生的与大学生的无显著差异,表明默读的记忆成绩在初二年级趋于成熟。初一学生的产生效应大小与大学生的无差异。研究结果支持产生效应的特异观。     

汉字刺激质量和频率在N400上的交互

采用事件相关电位,运用无启动的同一字判断（靶字延迟反应）范式,以大学生为被试探讨汉字刺激质量和频率是否具有交互作用。行为结果显示,刺激质量和频率在反应时上存在交互作用。脑电结果显示,重度模糊诱发了更大的N250和N400,且刺激质量和频率在N400上存在交互作用。结论是,汉字刺激质量和频率在反应时和N400上存在交互作用,表明在汉字识别中存在串级加工,支持IA模型。     

High voice pitch mitigates the aversiveness of antisocial cues in men's speech

Speech contains both explicit social information in semantic content and implicit cues to social behaviour and mate quality in voice pitch. Voice pitch has been demonstrated to have pervasive effects on social perceptions, but few studies have examined these perceptions in the context of meaningful speech. Here, we examined whether male voice pitch interacted with socially relevant cues in speech to influence listeners’ perceptions of trustworthiness and attractiveness. We artificially manipulated men's voices to be higher and lower in pitch when speaking words that were either prosocial or antisocial in nature. In Study 1 , we found that listeners perceived lower-pitched voices as more trustworthy and attractive in the context of prosocial words than in the context of antisocial words. In Study 2 , we found evidence that suggests this effect was driven by stronger preferences for higher-pitched voices in the context of antisocial cues, as voice pitch preferences were not significantly different in the context of prosocial cues. These findings suggest that higher male voice pitch may ameliorate the negative effects of antisocial speech content and that listeners may be particularly avoidant of those who express multiple cues to antisociality across modalities.     

Time–Frequency Cross Mutual Information Analysis of the Brain Functional Networks Underlying Multiclass Motor Imagery

To study the physiologic mechanism of the brain during different motor imagery (MI) tasks, the authors employed a method of brain-network modeling based on time–frequency cross mutual information obtained from 4-class (left hand, right hand, feet, and tongue) MI tasks recorded as brain–computer interface (BCI) electroencephalography data. The authors explored the brain network revealed by these MI tasks using statistical analysis and the analysis of topologic characteristics, and observed significant differences in the reaction level, reaction time, and activated target during 4-class MI tasks. There was a great difference in the reaction level between the execution and resting states during different tasks: the reaction level of the left-hand MI task was the greatest, followed by that of the right-hand, feet, and tongue MI tasks. The reaction time required to perform the tasks also differed: during the left-hand and right-hand MI tasks, the brain networks of subjects reacted promptly and strongly, but there was a delay during the feet and tongue MI task. Statistical analysis and the analysis of network topology revealed the target regions of the brain network during different MI processes. In conclusion, our findings suggest a new way to explain the neural mechanism behind MI.     

Content words in Hebrew child-directed speech

The goal of the study was to examine whether the ‘noun-bias’ phenomenon, which exists in the lexicon of Hebrew-speaking children, also exists in Hebrew child-directed speech (CDS) as well as in Hebrew adult-directed speech (ADS). In addition, we aimed to describe the use of the different classes of content words in the speech of Hebrew-speaking parents to their children at different ages compared to the speech of parents to adults (ADS). Thirty infants (age range 8:5–33 months) were divided into three stages according to age: pre-lexical, single-word, and early grammar. The ADS corpus included 18 Hebrew-speaking parents of children at the same three stages of language development as in the CDS corpus. The CDS corpus was collected from parent–child dyads during naturalistic activities at home: mealtime, bathing, and play. The ADS corpus was collected from parent–experimenter interactions including the parent watching a video and then being interviewed by the experimenter. 200 utterances of each sample were transcribed, coded for types and tokens and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results show that in CDS, when speaking to infants of all ages, parents’ use of types and tokens of verbs and nouns was similar and significantly higher than their use of adjectives or adverbs. In ADS, however, verbs were the main lexical category used by Hebrew-speaking parents in both types and tokens. It seems that both the properties of the input language (e.g. the pro-drop parameter) and the interactional styles of the caregivers are important factors that may influence the high presence of verbs in Hebrew-speaking parents’ ADS and CDS. The negative correlation between the widespread use of verbs in the speech of parents to their infants and the ‘noun-bias’ phenomenon in the Hebrew-child lexicon will be discussed in detail.