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Language Comprehension (language + comprehension)
Selected AbstractsHemispheric Differences and Language ComprehensionPSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue S1 2003Article first published online: 14 AUG 200 Chairs: Kara D. Federmeier & Seana Coulson Participants: Mark Jung Beeman, Kara D. Federmeier, Seana Coulson, Tamara Swaab [source] Spatial and temporal analysis of fMRI data on word and sentence readingEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 7 2007Sven Haller Abstract Written language comprehension at the word and the sentence level was analysed by the combination of spatial and temporal analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Spatial analysis was performed via general linear modelling (GLM). Concerning the temporal analysis, local differences in neurovascular coupling may confound a direct comparison of blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) response estimates between regions. To avoid this problem, we parametrically varied linguistic task demands and compared only task-induced within-region BOLD response differences across areas. We reasoned that, in a hierarchical processing system, increasing task demands at lower processing levels induce delayed onset of higher-level processes in corresponding areas. The flow of activation is thus reflected in the size of task-induced delay increases. We estimated BOLD response delay and duration for each voxel and each participant by fitting a model function to the event-related average BOLD response. The GLM showed increasing activations with increasing linguistic demands dominantly in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the left superior temporal gyrus (STG). The combination of spatial and temporal analysis allowed a functional differentiation of IFG subregions involved in written language comprehension. Ventral IFG region (BA 47) and STG subserve earlier processing stages than two dorsal IFG regions (BA 44 and 45). This is in accordance with the assumed early lexical semantic and late syntactic processing of these regions and illustrates the complementary information provided by spatial and temporal fMRI data analysis of the same data set. [source] Prediction and embodiment in dialogueEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2009Martin J. Pickering We argue that embodiment (via use of action-based representations) plays a crucial role in dialogue. To illustrate the argument we use studies of language comprehension. We first compare two distinct literatures, one concerned with the activation of non-linguistic action-based representations of meaning, and the other with representations of linguistic form associated with language production. We then argue that both types of embodiment support emulation and prediction. Hence, such embodiment enables addressees to anticipate both what their partner is likely to say next and what she is likely to do. We conclude by suggesting that such anticipation is essential for fluent and timely social interactions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Language development of pre-school children born to teenage mothersINFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2001Louise J. Keown Abstract An Erratum has been published for this article in Infant and Child Development 10(4) 2001, 241. This paper compares the language development of pre-school children born to teenage (n=22) and comparison mothers (n=20) and examines the extent to which differences in language development can be explained by social background, child and parenting factors. Mothers and children were assessed at home using a range of measures, including a structured interview, the language scales of the Child Development Inventory, the HOME Inventory, and videotaped mother-child interaction. Results showed that children of teenage mothers perform significantly poorer than children of comparison mothers on measures of expressive language and language comprehension. Subsequent analyses showed that these differences are largely explained by differences in the parenting behaviour of teenage and comparison mothers. Specifically, maternal verbal stimulation and intrusiveness accounted for the relationship between teenage motherhood and children's poorer language comprehension, while maternal intrusiveness and involvement with the child account for the relationship between teenage motherhood and children's poorer expressive language development. These findings highlight the importance of early mother,child interaction for children's language development. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Role of Prominence Information in the Real-Time Comprehension of Transitive Constructions: A Cross-Linguistic ApproachLINGUISTICS & LANGUAGE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2009Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky Approaches to language processing have traditionally been formulated with reference to general cognitive concepts (e.g. working memory limitations) or have based their representational assumptions on concepts from generative linguistic theory (e.g. structure determines interpretation). Thus, many well-established generalisations about language that have emerged from cross-linguistic/typological research have not as yet had a major influence in shaping ideas about online processing. Here, we examine the viability of using typologically motivated concepts to account for phenomena in online language comprehension. In particular, we focus on the comprehension of simple transitive sentences (i.e. sentences involving two arguments/event participants) and cross-linguistic similarities and differences in how they are processed. We argue that incremental argument interpretation in these structures is best explained with reference to a range of cross-linguistically motivated, hierarchically ordered information types termed ,prominence scales' (e.g. animacy, definiteness/specificity, case marking and linear order). We show that the assumption of prominence-based argument processing can capture a wide range of recent neurocognitive findings, as well as deriving well-known behavioural results. [source] Electrophysiological insights into language processing in schizophreniaPSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 6 2002Tatiana Sitnikova Deficits in language comprehension in schizophrenia were examined using event-related potentials (ERPs). Schizophrenic and healthy participants read sentences in which the first clause ended with a homograph, and the second clause started with a target word that was semantically related to the homograph's dominant meaning (e.g., 1. Diving was forbidden from the bridge because the river had rocks in it. or 2. The guests played bridge because the river had rocks in it.). Processing of the targets (e.g., "river") was expected to be primarily influenced by the preceding overall sentence context (congruent in 1; incongruent in 2) in healthy participants, but to be inappropriately affected by the dominant meaning of homographs (e.g., the "structure" meaning of "bridge") in sentences like 2 in schizophrenic patients. The N400 ERP component that is known to be sensitive to contextual effects during language processing confirmed these predictions. This showed that language abnormalities in schizophrenia may be related to deficient processing of context-irrelevant semantic representations of words from the discourse. [source] Phonological memory as a predictor of language comprehension in Down syndrome: a five-year follow-up studyTHE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 2 2004Glynis Laws Background:, This study reports the language and memory progress over five years of 30 adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome, and investigates the relationship of earlier phonological memory abilities to later language development. Methods:, Tests of nonverbal ability, receptive vocabulary, grammar comprehension, digit span and nonword repetition were administered at two points in time. Results:, For the sample as a whole, there were significant gains in nonverbal ability, receptive vocabulary and grammar comprehension, but no increases in phonological memory measured by nonword repetition or digit span. However, there were considerable individual differences in progress which, in part, were related to chronological age. Phonological memory improved in many younger participants but there were signs of decline in some older ones. Partial correlations between earlier nonword repetition scores and later language scores, controlling for nonverbal ability and earlier language scores, indicated a significant role for phonological memory in the acquisition of vocabulary knowledge. There was similar evidence of a role for phonological memory in grammar comprehension, but only for younger participants. Earlier receptive vocabulary also predicted later nonword repetition scores, particularly for participants with higher levels of vocabulary knowledge. Conclusion:, Relationships among the processes involved in language and memory development in Down syndrome may be similar to those established for typical development. [source] The Value of Vocalizing: Five-Month-Old Infants Associate Their Own Noncry Vocalizations With Responses From CaregiversCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2009Michael H. Goldstein The early noncry vocalizations of infants are salient social signals. Caregivers spontaneously respond to 30%,50% of these sounds, and their responsiveness to infants' prelinguistic noncry vocalizations facilitates the development of phonology and speech. Have infants learned that their vocalizations influence the behavior of social partners? If they have, infants should show an extinction burst in vocalizing when adults temporarily stop responding to infant vocalizations. Thirty-eight 5-month-olds were tested in the still-face paradigm with an unfamiliar adult. When the adult assumed a still face, infants showed an extinction burst. Thus, 5-month-olds have learned the social efficacy of their vocalizations on caregivers' behavior. Furthermore, the magnitude of 5-month infants' extinction bursts predicted their language comprehension at 13 months. [source] Relative Roles of General and Complementation Language in Theory-of-Mind Development: Evidence From Cantonese and EnglishCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2004Him Cheung Complex complements are clausal objects containing tensed verbs (e.g., that she cried) or infinitives (e.g., to cry), following main verbs of communication or mental activities (e.g., say, want). This research examined whether English- and Cantonese-speaking 4-year-olds' complement understanding uniquely predicts their representation of other minds (i.e., theory of mind). Results showed that neither meaning of main verbs (communication vs. desire) nor complement structure (tensed vs. infinitival) affected the correlation between complement understanding and theory of mind. More important, the correlation became insignificant after controlling for general language comprehension. These findings led to the conclusion that the syntax of complement per se does not contribute uniquely to theory-of-mind development; general language comprehension is a more important factor to consider. [source] Household food security is associated with early childhood language development: results from a longitudinal study in rural BangladeshCHILD: CARE, HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2010K. K. Saha Abstract Background Although household food security (HHFS) has been linked to academic performance in school children, its association with early childhood development has received less attention, particularly in low-income countries. We investigated the association of HHFS with subsequent language development of children at 18 months of age in rural Bangladesh. Methods We followed 1439 infants born in 2002,2003 to the mothers in Maternal and Infant Nutrition Intervention in Matlab study, a large intervention trial conducted in rural Bangladesh. A HHFS scale was created from data collected from mothers during pregnancy. At 18 months, children's language (expression and comprehension) development was assessed using a Bengali adaptation of MacArthur's Communicative Development Inventory which was based on mothers' report of their children's ability to comprehend and express words in different categories. General linear regression models were used to examine the association between HHFS and language development at 18 months of age adjusting for potential confounders. Results Household food security was associated with language comprehension (B = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.09, 0.30, P < 0.001) and expression (B = 1.01, 95% CI = 1.00, 1.02, P < 0.01) at 18 months of age. Mean language comprehension and expression at 18 months of the children in higher quartiles of HHFS were higher (P < 0.05) than those of the children in lower quartiles. Conclusions Household food security is positively associated with subsequent language development of rural Bangladeshi children. Early language development has been reported to predict later child development. Therefore, strategies to ensure HHFS status in Bangladesh and similar settings should be considered for optimum child development. [source] Consequences of the Serial Nature of Linguistic Input for Sentenial ComplexityCOGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 2 2005Daniel Grodner Abstract All other things being equal the parser favors attaching an ambiguous modifier to the most recent possible site. A plausible explanation is that locality preferences such as this arise in the service of minimizing memory costs,more distant sentential material is more difficult to reactivate than more recent material. Note that processing any sentence requires linking each new lexical item with material in the current parse. This often involves the construction of long-distance dependencies. Under a resource-limited view of language processing, lengthy integrations should induce difficulty even in unambiguous sentences. To date there has been little direct quantitative evidence in support of this perspective. This article presents 2 self-paced reading studies, which explore the hypothesis that dependency distance is a fundamental determinant of reading complexity in unambiguous constructions in English. The evidence suggests that the difficulty associated with integrating a new input item is heavily determined by the amount of lexical material intervening between the input item and the site of its target dependents. The patterns observed here are not straightforwardly accounted for within purely experience-based models of complexity. Instead, this work supports the role of a memory bottleneck in language comprehension. This constraint arises because hierarchical linguistic relations must be recovered from a linear input stream. [source] Statistical models of syntax learning and useCOGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 3 2002Mark Johnson Abstract This paper shows how to define probability distributions over linguistically realistic syntactic structures in a way that permits us to define language learning and language comprehension as statistical problems. We demonstrate our approach using lexical-functional grammar (LFG), but our approach generalizes to virtually any linguistic theory. Our probabilistic models are maximum entropy models. In this paper we concentrate on statistical inference procedures for learning the parameters that define these probability distributions. We point out some of the practical problems that make straightforward ways of estimating these distributions infeasible, and develop a "pseudo-likelihood" estimation procedure that overcomes some of these problems. This method raises interesting questions concerning the nature of the data available to a language learner and the modularity of language learning and processing. [source] | |||||||||||||