Russian-language neurosemantics: Clustering of word meaning and sense from oral narratives

This article is a part of a large-scale brain mapping project aimed at finding the relations among semantic categories in oral Russian-language texts and brain activity as measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The goal of present study in particular is to examine the nature of lexical semantic relations and find an appropriate lexical space, homeomorphic to the activation patterns in the brain. Participants were presented with oral narratives, which described significant social issues from the first-person perspective. Stimuli were annotated using a dictionary and a vector approach. Results show that fMRI signal and clusters of related words have similar patterns of brain activation across participants. Results also show that annotation by a list of features more strongly contributes to prediction of the observed activation patterns. Findings confirm the hypothesis of situational semantic representation in the brain.     

动词信息在汉语句子加工早期的作用

研究控制了汉语句子的及物动词与其直接宾语之间的搭配合适程度,分别利用听觉词汇监控和眼动技术,研究了动词的“宾语选择性限制信息”在句子加工早期的作用。实验发现动词与宾语搭配上的各种违反对目标名词（宾语）的加工产生了即时效应。结果表明,包括语义信息在内的各种词汇信息被通达后立即参与了汉语句子加工。     

汉语儿童口语流畅性与阅读理解的关系:一项三年追踪研究

对196名小学二年级儿童进行为期三年的追踪测查,使用交叉滞后模型检验了儿童字词阅读流畅性和篇章朗读流畅性等不同层面口语流畅性与阅读理解的关系。在控制了一般认知能力、汉字识别、口语词汇知识、快速命名和自回归效应之后发现：（1）模型比较的结果支持字词阅读流畅性对阅读理解作用的单向预测模型,儿童二年级时字词阅读流畅性对三年级的阅读理解,以及三年级时字词阅读流畅性对四年级的阅读理解均有显著预测作用;（2）模型比较的结果支持篇章朗读流畅性与阅读理解的双向预测模型,前一个测量时间点的篇章朗读流畅性可以稳定地预测后一个测量时间点的阅读理解,同时,前一个测量时间点的阅读理解也可以稳定地预测后一个测量时间点的篇章朗读流畅性。结果表明在排除了自回归效应和其他变量的作用后,只存在字词阅读流畅性对阅读理解的单向预测关系,而篇章朗读流畅性与阅读理解之间存在双向预测关系,这一发现支持了认知资源和自动化理论,并对阅读的交互-补偿模型进行了一定的补充。     

不同语言理解能力中学生的抑制加工

该研究使用移动视窗技术考察了初二和高一年级中的高低语言理解能力学生在完成句子一探测词语义适合度判断时抑制句子尾词与探测词之间语义联系干扰的抑制加工能力。结果表明：(t)在BOA为100ms条件下所有个体都不能有效压抑无关信息干扰;而在SOA为850ms条件下．不同语言理解能力个体表现出抑制加工能力的差异。(2)高一年级学生的抑制加工能力优于初二年级。     

Uneven Profiles: Language Minority Learners' Word Reading, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension Skills

English reading comprehension skill development was examined in a group of 87 native Spanish-speakers developing English literacy skills, followed from fourth through fifth grade. Specifically, the effects of Spanish (L1) and English (L2) oral language and word reading skills on reading comprehension were investigated. The participants showed average word reading skills and below average comprehension skills, influenced by low oral language skills. Structural equation modeling confirmed that L2 oral language skills had a large, significant effect on L2 reading comprehension, whereas students' word-level reading skills, whether in L1 or L2, were not significantly related to English reading comprehension in three of four models fitted. The results converge with findings from studies with monolinguals demonstrating the influence of oral language on reading comprehension outcomes, and extend these findings by showing that, for language minority learners, L2 oral language exerts a stronger influence than word reading in models of L2 reading.     

Preschoolers’ appreciation of speaker vocal affect as a cue to referential intent

An eye tracking methodology was used to evaluate 3- and 4-year-old children’s sensitivity to speaker affect when resolving referential ambiguity. Children were presented with pictures of three objects on a screen (including two referents of the same kind, e.g., an intact doll and a broken doll, and one distracter item), paired with a prerecorded referentially ambiguous instruction (e.g., “Look at the doll”). The intonation of the instruction varied in terms of the speaker’s vocal affect: positive-sounding, negative-sounding, or neutral. Analyses of eye gaze patterns indicated that 4-year-olds, but not 3-year-olds, were more likely to look to the referent whose state matched the speaker’s vocal affect as the noun was heard (e.g., looked more often to the broken doll referent in the negative affect condition). These findings indicate that 4-year-olds can use speaker affect to help identify referential mappings during on-line comprehension.     

语音记忆和中央执行功能在不同年级儿童解码和语言理解中的作用

选取256名三～六年级儿童,采用相关分析、结构方程模型等方法考察了语音记忆和中央执行功能在不同年级儿童的解码和语言理解中的作用。结果显示,在低年级阶段,语音记忆和刷新对解码存在显著预测作用,转换和刷新对语言理解存在显著预测作用;在高年级阶段,只有刷新对解码保持着稳定的预测作用。这表明,语音记忆和中央执行功能对儿童的解码和语言理解存在不同的影响,并且这种影响会随着年级的增长发生变化。     

不同文化语境与难度下第二语言阅读的眼动追踪研究

用眼动追踪仪对第二语言为英语的20名视力正常大学生阅读不同文化语境与难度英语材料的眼动过程进行了记录。结果发现:1.不同文化语境与难度下大学生英语阅读的理解成绩、阅读速度与阅读效率是有差异的;2.阅读材料的文化语境对大学生英语阅读的眼动模式构成影响,分别影响学生的注视次数、眼跳距离和回视次数;3.英语阅读材料的难度也影响到学生阅读的眼动模式。     

Dissociations and associations of performance in syntactic comprehension in aphasia and their implications for the nature of aphasic deficits

Sixty-one pwa were tested on syntactic comprehension in three tasks: sentence-picture matching, sentence-picture matching with auditory moving window presentation, and object manipulation. There were significant correlations of performances on sentences across tasks. First factors on which all sentence types loaded in unrotated factor analyses accounted for most of the variance in each task. Dissociations in performance between sentence types that differed minimally in their syntactic structures were not consistent across tasks. These results replicate previous results with smaller samples and provide important validation of basic aspects of aphasic performance in this area of language processing. They point to the role of a reduction in processing resources and of the interaction of task demands and parsing and interpretive abilities in the genesis of patient performance.     

The semantic specificity of gestures when verbal communication is not possible: The case of emergency evacuation

The aim of the present study was to examine the comprehension of gesture in a situation in which the communicator cannot (or can only with difficulty) use verbal communication. Based on theoretical considerations, we expected to obtain higher semantic comprehension for emblems (gestures with a direct verbal definition or translation that is well known by all members of a group, or culture) compared to illustrators (gestures regarded as spontaneous and idiosyncratic and that do not have a conventional definition). Based on the extant literature, we predicted higher semantic specificity associated with arbitrarily coded and iconically coded emblems compared to intrinsically coded illustrators. Using a scenario of emergency evacuation, we tested the difference in semantic specificity between different categories of gestures. 138 participants saw 10 videos each illustrating a gesture performed by a firefighter. They were requested to imagine themselves in a dangerous situation and to report the meaning associated with each gesture. The results showed that intrinsically coded illustrators were more successfully understood than arbitrarily coded emblems, probably because the meaning of intrinsically coded illustrators is immediately comprehensible without recourse to symbolic interpretation. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the comprehension of iconically coded emblems and that of both arbitrarily coded emblems and intrinsically coded illustrators. It seems that the difference between the latter two types of gestures was supported by their difference in semantic specificity, although in a direction opposite to that predicted. These results are in line with those of Hadar and Pinchas‐Zamir (2004), which showed that iconic gestures have higher semantic specificity than conventional gestures.