Monthly Archives: August 2009
Neural Mechanisms of Verb Argument Structure Processing in Agrammatic Aphasic and Healthy Age-matched Listeners
Processing of lexical verbs involves automatic access to argument structure entries entailed within the verb’s representation. Recent neuroimaging studies with young normal listeners suggest that this involves bilateral posterior peri-sylvian tissue, with graded activation in these regions based on argument structure complexity. The aim of the present study was to examine the neural mechanisms of verb processing using fMRI in older normal volunteers and patients with stroke-induced agrammatic aphasia, a syndrome in which verb, as compared with noun, production often is selectively impaired, but verb comprehension in both on-line and off-line tasks is spared. Fourteen healthy listeners and five age-matched aphasic patients performed a lexical decision task, which examined verb processing by argument structure complexity, that is, one-argument (i.e., intransitive; v1); two-argument (i.e., transitive; v2), and three-argument (v3) verbs. Results for the age-matched listeners largely replicated those for younger participants studied by Thompson et al. [Thompson, C. K., Bonakdarpour, B., Fix, S. C., Blumenfeld, H. K., Parrish, T. B., Gitelman, D. R., et al. Neural correlates of verb argument structure processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 1753–1767, 2007]: v3–v1 comparisons showed activation of the angular gyrus in both hemispheres, and this same heteromodal region was activated in the left hemisphere in the (v2 + v3) − v1 contrast. Similar results were derived for the agrammatic aphasic patients; however, activation was unilateral (in the right hemisphere for three participants) rather than bilateral likely because these patients’ lesions extended to the left temporo-parietal region. All performed the task with high accuracy, and despite differences in lesion site and extent, they recruited spared tissue in the same regions as healthy normals. Consistent with psycholinguistic models of sentence processing, these findings indicate that the posterior language network is engaged for processing verb argument structure and is crucial for semantic integration of argument structure information.
from the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Is There Pain in Champagne? Semantic Involvement of Words within Words during Sense-making
In an ERP experiment, we examined whether listeners, when making sense of spoken utterances, take into account the meaning of spurious words that are embedded in longer words, either at their onsets (e.g., pie in pirate) or at their offsets (e.g., pain in champagne). In the experiment, Dutch listeners heard Dutch words with initial or final embeddings presented in a sentence context that did or did not support the meaning of the embedded word, while equally supporting the longer carrier word. The N400 at the carrier words was modulated by the semantic fit of the embedded words, indicating that listeners briefly relate the meaning of initial- and final-embedded words to the sentential context, even though these words were not intended by the speaker. These findings help us understand the dynamics of initial sense-making and its link to lexical activation. In addition, they shed new light on the role of lexical competition and the debate concerning the lexical activation of final-embedded words.
from the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Feature-based generalisation as a source of gradient acceptability
Phonological judgements are often gradient: blick>?bwick>*bnick>**bzick. The mechanisms behind gradient generalisation remain controversial, however. This paper tests the role of phonological features in helping speakers evaluate which novel combinations receive greater lexical support. A model is proposed in which the acceptability of a string is based on the most probable combination of natural classes that it instantiates. The model is tested on its ability to predict acceptability ratings of nonce words, and its predictions are compared against those of models that lack features or economise on feature specifications. The proposed model achieves the best balance of performance on attested and unattested sequences, and is a significant predictor of acceptability even after the other models are factored out. The feature-based model’s predictions do not completely subsume those of simpler models, however. This may indicate multiple levels of evaluation, involving segment-based phonotactic probability and feature-based gradient phonological grammaticality.
from Phonology
Greek wh-questions and the phonology of intonation
The intonation of Greek wh-questions consists of a rise-fall followed by a low plateau and a final rise. Using acoustic data, we show (i) that the exact contour shape depends on the length of the question, and (ii) that the position of the first peak and the low plateau depends on the position of the stressed syllables, and shows predictable adjustments in alignment, depending on the proximity of adjacent tonal targets. Models that specify the F0 of all syllables, or models that specify F0 by superposing contour shapes for shorter and longer domains, cannot account for such fine-grained lawful variation except by using ad hoc tonal specifications, which, in turn, do not allow for phonological generalisations about contours applying to utterances of greatly different lengths. In contrast, our findings follow easily from an autosegmental-metrical approach to intonational phonology, according to which melodies may contain long F0 stretches derived by interpolation between specified targets associated with metrically strong syllables and prosodic boundaries.
from Phonology
Linking speech errors and phonological grammars: insights from Harmonic Grammar networks
Phonological grammars characterise distinctions between relatively well-formed (unmarked) and relatively ill-formed (marked) phonological structures. We review evidence that markedness influences speech-error probabilities. Specifically, although errors result in unmarked as well as marked structures, there is a markedness asymmetry: errors are more likely to produce unmarked outcomes. We show that stochastic disruption to the computational mechanisms realising a Harmonic Grammar (HG) can account for the broad empirical patterns of speech errors. We demonstrate that our proposal can account for the general markedness asymmetry. We also develop methods for linking particular HG proposals to speech-error distributions, and illustrate these methods using a simple HG and a set of initial consonant errors in English.
from Phonology
Learning lexical indexation
Morphological concatenation often triggers phonological processes. For instance, addition of the plural suffix /-n/ to Dutch nouns causes vowel lengthening in some nouns due to the stress-to-weight principle ([xt] vs. [xa.tn] ‘hole’). These kinds of processes often apply only to a subset of words – not all Dutch nouns undergo this process ([kt] vs. [k.tn] ‘cat’). Nouns need to be lexically indexed as either undergoing this process or not. I investigate how phonological grammar and lexical indexation are learned when learners are confronted with data like these. Based on learnability considerations, I hypothesise that learners acquire a grammar with default non-alternation, so that novel items are treated as non-alternating. I report the results of artificial language learning experiments compatible with this hypothesis, and model these results in a version of the Biased Constraint Demotion algorithm (Prince & Tesar 2004).
from Phonology
Listeners’ knowledge of phonological universals: evidence from nasal clusters
Optimality Theory explains typological markedness implications by proposing that all speakers possess universal constraints penalising marked structures, irrespective of the evidence provided by their language (Prince & Smolensky 2004). The account of phonological perception sketched here entails that markedness constraints reveal their presence by inducing perceptual ‘repairs’ to structures ungrammatical in the hearer’s language. As onset clusters of falling sonority are typologically marked relative to those of rising sonority (Greenberg 1978), we examine English speakers’ perception of nasal-initial clusters, which are lacking in English. We find greater accuracy for rising-sonority clusters, evidencing knowledge of markedness constraints favouring such onset clusters. The misperception of sonority falls cannot be accounted for by stimulus artefacts (the materials are perceived accurately by speakers of Russian, a language allowing nasal-initial clusters) nor by phonetic failure (English speakers misperceive falls even with printed materials) nor by putative relations of such onsets to the statistics of the English lexicon.
from Phonology
17th Annual Conference on Management of the Tinnitus Patient
For further information contact:
Kelly Flinn
Conference Coordinator
Center for Conferences
250 Continuing Education Facility
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-0907
319.335.4105 FAX 319.335.4039
E-mail: kelly-flinn@uiowa.edu
Where:Iowa City, USA
When:24 Sep 2009 10:00 – 26 Sep 2009 16:00
http://www.library.nhs.uk/ent/ViewResource.aspx?resID=323450
System Helps Parkinson’s Patients Adjust Talking Volume
A large percentage of patients with Parkinson’s speak quieter and less clearly as the disease cycle progresses. Typically, speech therapy has been used to overcome this change by teaching people to remember to speak louder. Now researchers at Purdue University have created a device that uses our natural reflex to bring up the speaking volume in noisy environments in an attempt to help Parkinson’s sufferers to adjust to everyday settings.
from EurekAlert.org
Researchers report gene associated with language, speech and reading disorders
A new candidate gene for Specific Language Impairment has been identified by a research team directed by Mabel Rice at the University of Kansas, in collaboration with Shelley Smith, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Javier Gayán of Neocodex, Seville, Spain. The finding, reported in the current issue of the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, was discovered by examining genes previously identified as candidate genes for reading impairments or speech sound disorders. The results point toward the likelihood of multiple genes contributing to language impairment, some of which also contribute to reading or speech impairment.
from News-Medical.net
Hearing loss is linked to income loss
Sonic Innovations (http://sonici.com), a U.S.-based digital hearing aid manufacturer, warns Americans who ignore a hearing loss are also losing income. A study from the Better Hearing Institute (BHI) (http://betterhearing.org), a non-profit corporation that educates the public about the neglected problem of hearing loss and what can be done about it, gives the numbers.
Training Speech-Language Teachers To Aid Immigrant Children
Identifying and treating communication disorders in immigrant children is the focus of MOSAIC (Multiplying Opportunities for Services and Access for Immigrant Children), which will train future speech-language pathologists and other professionals to work with immigrant children who are learning to speak English as a second language (ESL).
Development, Psychometric Properties, and Validity of the Hopkins Adult Reading Test (HART)
We describe the development of a 35-item, oral word-reading test with two equivalent forms (HART-A and HART-B) designed to estimate premorbid abilities. Both forms show excellent internal consistency (coefficients alpha >.91) and test-retest reliability (Pearson rs >.90). HART performance was combined with demographic variables to generate regression equations that predict IQ scores obtained concurrently and 4-8 years earlier. The resulting models explained 61% of full scale IQ (FSIQ) variability in 327 healthy adults. The FSIQs that can be estimated range from below 73 to above 131. Combined with demographic variables, these two brief word reading tests accurately predict a broader range of IQs than Blair and Spreen’s (1989) longer version. Equivalent forms make it especially useful for longitudinal studies.
Program trains speech-language teachers to aid immigrant children in rural areas
University Park, Pa. — Identifying and treating communication disorders in immigrant children is the focus of MOSAIC (Multiplying Opportunities for Services and Access for Immigrant Children), which will train future speech-language pathologists and other professionals to work with immigrant children who are learning to speak English as a second language (ESL).
The program, funded by a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, will provide specialized training to 22 graduate students in Penn State’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders over the next four years.
MOSAIC addresses the inadequate training of speech-language pathologists to diagnose communication disorders in English-language learners. Research performed in the department confirmed that more than 30 percent of practicing professionals have had no course work or field experiences with multilingual children.
“According to the 2000 U.S. Census report, one in every five children in the United States is an immigrant child and that number is increasing quickly, especially in rural areas,” says Gordon Blood, head of the department of communication sciences and disorders, who oversees MOSAIC with Ingrid Blood, professor of communication sciences and disorders. “Several studies have confirmed that learning or enhancing English-language skills is the most critical educational hurdle most immigrant children confront. Immigrant children need to learn English to succeed in the United States and we want them to do this while still maintaining ties to their cultural heritage.”
He says that a lack of experience with English-language learners could lead to inaccurate diagnoses of communication disorders. For example, anyone learning a second language may pause or stumble on their words while attempting to think of what to say in the new language, but this does not mean they have a stuttering disorder.
Through MOSAIC, the department is targeting graduate students who plan to work in rural states with high numbers of children learning English as a second language, such as Mississippi, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania. The first students will begin their training in fall 2009. The department designed seven new graduate-level courses to address issues including intake procedures, ESL students with intellectual disabilities, and school leadership and advocacy for ESL students. The department will also offer online seminars, child and family practica, capstone research experiences and assistance with field placements in rural or impoverished areas.
from EurekAlert.org
Women Are Sort Of More Tentative Than Men, Aren’t They?
ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2009) — Women hedge, issue disclaimers and ask questions when they communicate, language features that can suggest uncertainty, lack of confidence and low status. But men do the same, according to new research from the University of California, Davis.
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Social Psychology
Relationships
Language Acquisition
Educational Psychology
Reference
Misogyny
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Lateral thinking
Intuition (knowledge)
“It’s a stereotype that men are direct while women are tentative. I debunk that stereotype,” said Nicholas Palomares, assistant professor of communication at UC Davis.
Palomares reports his findings in “Women Are Sort of More Tentative Than Men, Aren’t They?,” an article in the August issue of the journal Communication Research.
“I found that women are more tentative than men sometimes, and men are more tentative than women sometimes,” Palomares said. “It depends on the topic and whether you’re communicating with someone of the same gender. Gender differences in language are not innate; they’re fickle.”
In his study, Palomares asked nearly 300 UC Davis undergraduates — about half of them female and half male — to write e-mails explaining how to change a flat tire or buy make-up, among other gender-stereotyped and gender-neutral topics. Students were given the name and gender of the person they were e-mailing.
Men were tentative when writing about make-up or other stereotypically feminine topics, especially when they thought they were writing to a woman, he found. For example, one man, believing he was corresponding with a woman, wrote: “… maybe girls prefer the quality of products at Sephora over other major department stores? I don’t know.”
from ScienceDaily.com
