图词间隔时间影响口语词汇产生中语义效应的机制：图词干扰范式研究

口语词汇产生过程中存在语义抑制和语义促进效应, 可能发生在概念准备和词汇选择或者后词汇水平阶段。本研究采用图画-词汇干扰实验任务, 变化图画与词汇出现点之间的时间间隔(stimulus onset asynchrony, SOA), 运用脑电技术考察口语词汇产生中语义效应发生的时间进程。结果显示, 当SOA为0 ms时表现出语义抑制效应, 语义效应发生在词汇选择阶段(344~418 ms); 当SOA为-400 ms时, 语义效应发生在概念准备阶段(0~76 ms)和词汇选择阶段(274~390 ms); 460~594 ms时间窗口内的语义效应可能表明讲话者对语义信息的自我监测。词汇产生中存在语义促进效应和抑制效应的权衡, 影响了行为结果中语义效应的方向, 上述发现支持了口语词汇产生的词汇竞争假说。     

汉语同音字具体频率和同音字数在听觉词汇通达中的相互作用

用跨通道的音-字同音判断任务配以视觉词汇判断作协变分析,实验研究了汉语同音字音节的听觉词汇通达中同音字具体频率和同音字数的相互作用,等同了音节的累积频率和笔画数,结果发现了稳健的同音字族内的词频效应,同音字数与同音字频率相互牵制,表现在同音字数效应缺失,两因素刺激材料难以完全控制新的影响因素产生,出现逆抑制效应。结果说明在同音字频率和同音字数的相互作用中频率起稳健和主导的作用。     

Language deficits in pre-symptomatic Huntington's disease: evidence from Hungarian

A limited number of studies have investigated language in Huntington’s disease (HD). These have generally reported abnormalities in rule-governed (grammatical) aspects of language, in both syntax and morphology. Several studies of verbal inflectional morphology in English and French have reported evidence of over-active rule processing, such as over-suffixation errors (e.g., walkeded) and over-regularizations (e.g., digged). Here we extend the investigation to noun inflection in Hungarian, a Finno-Ugric agglutinative language with complex morphology, and to genetically proven pre-symptomatic Huntington’s disease (pre-HD). Although individuals with pre-HD have no clinical, motor or cognitive symptoms, the underlying pathology may already have begun, and thus sensitive behavioral measures might reveal already-present impairments. Indeed, in a Hungarian morphology production task, pre-HD patients made both over-suffixation and over-regularization errors. The findings suggest the generality of over-active rule processing in both HD and pre-HD, across languages from different families with different morphological systems, and for both verbal and noun inflection. Because the neuropathology in pre-HD appears to be largely restricted to the caudate nucleus and related structures, the findings further implicate these structures in language, and in rule-processing in particular. Finally, the need for effective treatments in HD, which will likely depend in part on the ability to sensitively measure early changes in the disease, suggests the possibility that inflectional morphology, and perhaps other language measures, may provide useful diagnostic, tracking, and therapeutic tools for assessing and treating early degeneration in pre-HD and HD.     

Ubiquitous Personality-Trait Concepts in 13 Diverse and Isolated Languages: A Cluster–Classification Approach

There is longstanding interest in the generalizability of personality across diverse cultures. To investigate the generalizability of personality concepts, we examined the English translations of individual-difference entries from the dictionaries of 12 small-scale societies previously studied for ubiquity of individual differences plus the dictionary of an additional society not previously studied in this manner. These 13 societies are highly diverse in geographical location, culture, and language family; their languages developed in isolation from modern-world languages. The goal of our exploratory research was to discover ubiquitous personality concepts in these 13 independent societies and their languages, providing a window into personality concepts across a broad range of cultures and languages. This study used clusters of empirically related terms (e.g. brave, courageous, and daring), based on a taxonomy of English-language personality concepts that consisted of 100 personality-trait clusters. English-language definitions of dictionary entries from the 13 languages were matched to the meanings of the synonym clusters. The cluster–classification method uncovered nine ubiquitous personality concepts, plus six that were present in at least 12 of the 13 languages. The nine ubiquitous personality concepts include some not previously identified and suggest a core of possibly universal concepts. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Extending a focused attention paradigm to critically test for unconscious congruency effects

ABSTRACT

In a novel integration of research designs, we tested for unconscious perception effects at an unattended stimulus location using a focused attention paradigm (Lachter, J., Forster, K. I., & Ruthruff, E. 2004. Forty-five years after Broadbent (1958): Still no identification without attention. Psychological Review, 111(4), 880–913. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.111.4.880). Target-masked word or nonword prime stimuli were briefly displayed for 14, 28, or 56?ms at an experimentally-defined attended or unattended location, followed by a lexical decision task. At the briefest prime durations (14 and 28?ms), we failed to find any evidence for unattended priming effects, consistent with Lachter et al., but there were some small priming (i.e., congruency) effects at the attended location. The 14?ms primes could not be discriminated above chance, but could be detected. Our results support the claim that perceptual processing is strongest with focal attention. For the 14?ms primes at the attended location, results could support an unconscious perception claim, but the effect was weak and awareness of the primes was unlikely to have been completely eliminated.     

2~4岁普通话儿童前注意阶段的声调感知机制

以MMN、p-MMR作为汉语词汇声调感知的神经关联物,探究2~4岁汉语普通话儿童前注意阶段对声调刺激的失匹配响应,关注范畴信息和偏差大小两个因素对儿童感知水平的影响。结果显示:在范畴间大偏差条件下(T1/T3),诱发明显的MMN;在范畴内或小偏差条件下(T3a/T3、T3b/T3、T2/T3),都未诱发显著的MMR。表明:2~4岁普通话儿童正处于声调感知能力的发展过程中,音位信息和声学信息共同影响其声调感知。     

Dynamics of priming-effect for subliminally presented ambiguous pictures

ABSTRACT

The results of this study confirmed that people react differently to preferred meanings of ambiguous images (to those that will get into consciousness later) and to rejected meanings of ambiguous images (those that will not). We observed a facilitative after-effect of the preferred meaning which was expressed in the positive priming-effect, and the following dynamics of the rejected meaning after-effect: positive priming at small values of SOA (30?ms), negative at bigger SOA values (530?ms) and positive priming at all the following SOA values (1,030, 3,030 and 5,030?ms). These results imply that subliminal perception, as well as supraliminal, is selective. We believe that negative priming for one of the meanings of an ambiguous image presented subliminally might be associated with an unconscious decision as to whether or not a particular stimulus will enter into consciousness, in accordance with the negative choice theory.     

学龄期普通话特异性语言损伤儿童体习得——来自词汇体和语法体组合加工的证据

采用自定步速阅读范式，探讨了7~10岁普通话特异性语言损伤儿童对词汇体和语法体组合语义一致和不一致情况的加工表现。被试分为特异性语言损伤儿童，实龄匹配儿童和语言能力匹配儿童三组，结果表明7~10岁的特异性语言损伤儿童与年幼的语言能力匹配组儿童一样，词汇体和语法体一致条件下的加工快于不一致条件，两组儿童的表现均符合词汇体假设；与此不同，实龄匹配儿童的加工速度整体均快于以上两组儿童，且词汇体和语法体一致与不一致条件下的加工速度无显著差异。上述结果表明，普通话7~10岁特异性语言损伤儿童对词汇体和语法体组合合法性的习得仍不成熟，语法体的加工仍受词汇体影响，处于语法体能力发展的早期阶段。     

Lexical and sublexical cortical tuning for print revealed by Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEPs) in early readers

There are multiple levels of processing relevant to reading that vary in their visual, sublexical, and lexical orthographic processing demands. Segregating distinct cortical sources for each of these levels has been challenging in EEG studies of early readers. To address this challenge, we applied recent advances in analyzing high-density EEG using Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEPs) via data-driven Reliable Components Analysis (RCA) in a group of early readers spanning from kindergarten to second grade. Three controlled stimulus contrasts—familiar words versus unfamiliar pseudofonts, familiar words versus pseudowords, and pseudowords versus nonwords—were used to isolate coarse print tuning, lexical processing, and sublexical orthography-related processing, respectively. First, three overlapping yet distinct neural sources—left vOT, dorsal parietal, and primary visual cortex were revealed underlying coarse print tuning. Second, we segregated distinct cortical sources for the other two levels of processing: lexical fine tuning over occipito-temporal/parietal regions; sublexical orthographic fine tuning over left occipital regions. Finally, exploratory group analyses based on children's reading fluency suggested that coarse print tuning emerges early even in children with limited reading knowledge, while sublexical and higher-level lexical processing emerge only in children with sufficient reading knowledge.

Research Highlights

• Cognitive processes underlying coarse print tuning, sublexical, and lexical fine tuning were examined in beginning readers.
• Three overlapping yet distinct neural sources—left ventral occipito-temporal (vOT), left temporo-parietal, and primary visual cortex—were revealed underlying coarse print tuning.
• Responses to sublexical orthographic fine tuning were found over left occipital regions, while responses to higher-level linguistic fine tuning were found over occipito-temporal/parietal regions.
• Exploratory group analyses suggested that coarse print tuning emerges in children with limited reading knowledge, while sublexical and higher-level linguistic fine tuning effects emerge in children with sufficient reading knowledge.

     

Influence of internal and external factors on early language skills: A cross-linguistic study

Cross-linguistic studies can provide information about general and language specific features of language development, but relatively few such studies are available in literature. The main aim of the present study was to investigate, from a cross-linguistic perspective, the roles of the internal factor of gender and external factors of birth order and parental education level on the development of language in 2-year-old children. We examined 351 children growing up in three European language contexts: Croatian (N = 104), Estonian (N = 141) and Finnish (N = 106). Information on lexical skills and word combination ability was collected using the short form of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories and the influence of background factors on these aspects of language development was investigated. No significant differences were found in lexical skills or word combination ability among the three language groups. These aspects of language development varied significantly with gender, but not with external factors. Our findings suggest that internal factors may influence early language development more than external factors.