Morphological units in the Arabic mental lexicon: evidence from an individual with deep dyslexia

An ongoing debate in Arabic morphology concerns the nature of the smallest unit governing lexical organization and representation in this language. A standard model maintains that Arabic words are typically analyzable into a three-consonantal root morpheme carrying the core meaning of words and a prosodic template responsible mostly for grammatical information. This view has been largely supported by research in both theoretical linguistics and psycholinguistics. An alternative theory holds that the meaning of words in Arabic is, rather, encoded in the 'etymon' comprising two unordered consonants of the root only. Results from a recent priming experiment have shown that the etymon induces strong morphological priming effects, supporting its morphological/lexical status. In this paper we present data from a patient with deep dyslexia questioning the role of the etymon as a psychologically real representational unit in Arabic and arguing, instead, for the central role of the root in both morphological and lexical representation in this language.     

Number bias for the discrimination of large visual sets in infancy

This brief report attempts to resolve the claim that infants preferentially attend to continuous variables over number [e.g. Psychol. Sci. 10 (1999) 408; Cognit. Psychol.44 (2002) 33] with the finding that when continuous variables are controlled, infants as young as 6-months of age discriminate large numerical values [e.g. Psychol. Sci. 14 (2003) 396; Cognition 89 (2003) B15; Cognition 74 (2000) B1]. In two parallel experiments, we compare 6-month-old infants' ability to discriminate number and ignore continuous variables with their ability to form a representation of a cumulative surface area and ignore number. We find that infants discriminate a 2-fold change in number but fail to discriminate a 2-fold change in cumulative surface area. The results point to a more complicated relationship between discrete and continuous dimensions than implied by previous literature.     

Aspectual Constraints in the Mental Lexicon

This study addresses the question of whether constraints on aspectual semantics play a role in lexical processing. Two universal cognitive constraints are identified: states cannot be delimited and telic predicates cannot be further telicized. The study investigates how these are obeyed in the productive process of perfective preverb and stem combination in Bulgarian. An off-line task ascertains that Bulgarian native speakers have a default semantic interpretation for the preverbs under investigation. A visual lexical decision task shows clear legality effects in nonwords composed of existing preverbs and stems, thereby supporting decompositional approaches. It is argued that, after the process of morpheme search, there must be a process of checking for combinatory felicity of the morphemes activated in the lexical access.     

Salamanders (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Plethodon cinereus</Emphasis>) go for more: rudiments of number in an amphibian

Techniques traditionally used in developmental research with infants have been widely used with nonhuman primates in the investigation of comparative cognitive abilities. Recently, researchers have shown that human infants and monkeys select the larger of two numerosities in a spontaneous forced-choice discrimination task. Here we adopt the same method to assess in a series of experiments spontaneous choice of the larger of two numerosities in a species of amphibian, red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus). The findings indicate that salamanders "go for more," just like human babies and monkeys. This rudimentary capacity is a type of numerical discrimination that is spontaneously present in this amphibian. Electronic Publication     

Children's Understanding of the Natural Numbers’ Structure

When young children attempt to locate numbers along a number line, they show logarithmic (or other compressive) placement. For example, the distance between “5” and “10” is larger than the distance between “75” and “80.” This has often been explained by assuming that children have a logarithmically scaled mental representation of number (e.g., Berteletti, Lucangeli, Piazza, Dehaene, & Zorzi, 2010 ; Siegler & Opfer, 2003 ). However, several investigators have questioned this argument (e.g., Barth & Paladino, 2011 ; Cantlon, Cordes, Libertus, & Brannon, 2009 ; Cohen & Blanc‐Goldhammer, 2011 ). We show here that children prefer linear number lines over logarithmic lines when they do not have to deal with the meanings of individual numerals (i.e., number symbols, such as “5” or “80”). In Experiments 1 and 2, when 5‐ and 6‐year‐olds choose between number lines in a forced‐choice task, they prefer linear to logarithmic and exponential displays. However, this preference does not persist when Experiment 3 presents the same lines without reference to numbers, and children simply choose which line they like best. In Experiments 4 and 5, children position beads on a number line to indicate how the integers 1–100 are arranged. The bead placement of 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds is better fit by a linear than by a logarithmic model. We argue that previous results from the number‐line task may depend on strategies specific to the task.     

Do children learn the integers by induction?

According to one theory about how children learn the meaning of the words for the positive integers, they first learn that "one," "two," and "three" stand for appropriately sized sets. They then conclude by inductive inference that the next numeral in the count sequence denotes the size of sets containing one more object than the size denoted by the preceding numeral. We have previously argued, however, that the conclusion of this Induction does not distinguish the standard meaning of the integers from nonstandard meanings in which, for example, "ten" could mean set sizes of 10, 20, 30,... elements. Margolis and Laurence [Margolis, E., & Laurence, S. (2008). How to learn the natural numbers: Inductive inference and the acquisition of number concepts. Cognition, 106, 924-939] believe that our argument depends on attributing to children "radically indeterminate" concepts. We show, first, that our conclusion is compatible with perfectly determinate meanings for "one" through "three." Second, although the inductive inference is indeed indeterminate - which is why it is consistent with nonstandard meanings - making it determinate presupposes the constraints that the inference is supposed to produce.     

Flexible spatial mapping of different notations of numbers in Chinese readers

The spatial component of numerical and ordinal information has been explored in previous research. However, how such mapping emerges and how it is affected by the learning experience are issues still under debate. In the current study, we examined the orientation of the mental number line for different numerical notations (e.g., “1”, “—-”, “”) in Chinese readers. Our data demonstrated that Arabic numbers are mentally aligned horizontally with a left-to-right directionality, while Chinese number words are aligned vertically with a top-to-bottom directionality. These findings indicate that different notations of the same concept have flexible mappings within space, which is plausibly shaped by the dominant context in which the numerical notations appear.     

非熟练蒙英双语者概念表征的非对称性特点

采用跨语言长时重复启动范式探讨非熟练蒙英双语者的词汇与概念表征特点。选取165名非熟练蒙英双语者为被试。实验自变量为语言条件和学习条件,因变量为任务判断的反应时和正确率。结果发现,词汇判断任务中未产生跨语言长时重复启动效应,表明非熟练蒙英双语者的词汇表征是分离的;语义判断任务中产生了跨语言重复启动效应,表明非熟练蒙英双语者的概念表征是共享的。在概念判断任务中语言内启动是对称性的,说明语言内启动可能发生在词汇水平;而语言间启动效应是非对称性的,即英-蒙条件产生跨语言长时重复启动效应,而蒙-英条件未产生跨语言长时重复启动效应,结果支持修正层级模型。