1
|
Wulfert S, Auer P, Hanulíková A. Speech Errors in the Production of Initial Consonant Clusters: The Roles of Frequency and Sonority. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:3709-3729. [PMID: 36198060 DOI: 10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE One of the central questions in speech production research is to what degree certain structures have an inherent difficulty and to what degree repeated encounter and practice make them easier to process. The goal of this article was to determine the extent to which frequency and sonority distance of consonant clusters predict production difficulties. METHOD We used a tongue twister paradigm to elicit speech errors on syllable-initial German consonant clusters and investigated the relative influences of cluster frequency and sonority distance between the consonants of a cluster on production accuracy. Native speakers of German produced pairs of monosyllabic pseudowords beginning with consonant clusters at a high speech rate. RESULTS Error rates decreased with increasing frequency of the consonant clusters. A high sonority distance, on the other hand, did not facilitate a cluster's production, but speech errors led to optimized sonority structure for a subgroup of clusters. In addition, the combination of consonant clusters in a stimulus pair has a great impact on production accuracy. CONCLUSION These results suggest that both frequency of use and sonority distance codetermine production ease, as well as syntagmatic competition between adjacent sound sequences.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sophia Wulfert
- Department of German Studies, University of Freiburg, Germany
| | - Peter Auer
- Department of German Studies, University of Freiburg, Germany
| | - Adriana Hanulíková
- Department of German Studies, University of Freiburg, Germany
- Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Freiburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Repeated series learning revisited with a novel prediction on the reduced effect of item frequency in dyslexia. Sci Rep 2022; 12:13521. [PMID: 35941176 PMCID: PMC9359986 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-16805-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 07/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia, a difficulty with acquiring fluent reading, has also been characterized by reduced short-term memory (STM) capacity, which is often operationalized with span tasks. The low performance of individuals with dyslexia (IDDs) in such tasks is commonly attributed to poor phonological memory. However, we suggest an alternative explanation based on the observation that many times the items that are used in spans tasks are high-frequency items (e.g., digit words). We suggest that IDDs do not enjoy the benefit of item frequency to the same extent as controls, and thus their performance in span tasks is especially hampered. On the contrary, learning of repeated sequences was shown to be largely independent of item frequency, and therefore this type of learning may be unimpaired in dyslexia. To test both predictions, we used the Hebb-learning paradigm. We found that IDDs’ performance is especially poor compared to controls’ when high-frequency items are used, and that their repeated series learning does not differ from that of controls. Taken together with existing literature, our findings suggest that impaired learning of repeated series is not a core characteristic of dyslexia, and that the reports on reduced STM in dyslexia may to a large extent be explained by reduced benefit of item frequency.
Collapse
|
3
|
Kimel E, Weiss AH, Jakoby H, Daikhin L, Ahissar M. Short-term memory capacity and sensitivity to language statistics in dyslexia and among musicians. Neuropsychologia 2020; 149:107624. [PMID: 32920031 PMCID: PMC7768182 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107624] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2020] [Revised: 09/06/2020] [Accepted: 09/07/2020] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Poor short-term memory (STM) capacity in individuals with dyslexia (IDDs) and enhanced STM capacity in musicians are well documented, yet their causes are disputed. Previous studies also found poor use of stimuli statistics by IDDs and enhanced use by musicians. We hypothesized that these observations are functionally related, as follows: Enhanced sensitivity to statistics facilitates musicians' benefit from each exposure, and reduced sensitivity to statistics hinders IDDs' benefit. Thus, larger group differences are expected for larger exposure: STM capacity, which is sensitive to item familiarity, will thus be larger among musicians, and smaller among IDDS, particularly for high-frequency items. Testing this hypothesis using syllable span, we found that musicians' advantage and IDDs' difficulty were indeed larger for high-frequency syllables than for low-frequency ones. By contrast, benefits from sequence repetition did not differ between musicians, controls and IDDs, suggesting that online sequence learning is based on a different mechanism. To test this dissociation we recruited, in addition to native Hebrew speakers, native English speakers, matched to the Hebrew-speaking controls. Their spans for high-frequency syllables in Hebrew, which do not have high frequency in English, were small - as expected from reduced exposure to these syllables. Yet, their benefit from sequence repetition was similar to that of the three Hebrew-speaking groups. Taken together, these experiments suggest that different sensitivities to item frequency explain some of the population-related variability in STM tasks. By contrast, benefits from sequence repetition do not depend on item familiarity, and do not differ between groups.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eva Kimel
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University, Edmond J. Safra Campus - Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel.
| | - Atalia Hai Weiss
- Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 9190501, Israel; Department of Communication Disorders, Hadassah Academic College, 37 Hanevi'im St.Jerusalem 9101001, Israel
| | - Hilla Jakoby
- Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 9190501, Israel; Department of Communication Disorders, Hadassah Academic College, 37 Hanevi'im St.Jerusalem 9101001, Israel
| | - Luba Daikhin
- Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 9190501, Israel
| | - Merav Ahissar
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University, Edmond J. Safra Campus - Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel; Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 9190501, Israel
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Quillfeldt JA. Temporal Flexibility of Systems Consolidation and the Synaptic Occupancy/Reset Theory (SORT): Cues About the Nature of the Engram. Front Synaptic Neurosci 2019; 11:1. [PMID: 30814946 PMCID: PMC6381034 DOI: 10.3389/fnsyn.2019.00001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2018] [Accepted: 01/14/2019] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to adapt to new situations involves behavioral changes expressed either from an innate repertoire, or by acquiring experience through memory consolidation mechanisms, by far a much richer and flexible source of adaptation. Memory formation consists of two interrelated processes that take place at different spatial and temporal scales, Synaptic Consolidation, local plastic changes in the recruited neurons, and Systems Consolidation, a process of gradual reorganization of the explicit/declarative memory trace between hippocampus and the neocortex. In this review, we summarize some converging experimental results from our lab that support a normal temporal framework of memory systems consolidation as measured both from the anatomical and the psychological points of view, and propose a hypothetical model that explains these findings while predicting other phenomena. Then, the same experimental design was repeated interposing additional tasks between the training and the remote test to verify for any interference: we found that (a) when the animals were subject to a succession of new learnings, systems consolidation was accelerated, with the disengagement of the hippocampus taking place before the natural time point of this functional switch, but (b) when a few reactivation sessions reexposed the animal to the training context without the shock, systems consolidation was delayed, with the hippocampus prolonging its involvement in retrieval. We hypothesize that new learning recruits from a fixed number of plastic synapses in the CA1 area to store the engram index, while reconsolidation lead to a different outcome, in which additional synapses are made available. The first situation implies the need of a reset mechanism in order to free synapses needed for further learning, and explains the acceleration observed under intense learning activity, while the delay might be explained by a different process, able to generate extra free synapses: depending on the cognitive demands, it deals either with a fixed or a variable pool of available synapses. The Synaptic Occupancy/Reset Theory (SORT) emerged as an explanation for the temporal flexibility of systems consolidation, to encompass the two different dynamics of explicit memories, as well as to bridge both synaptic and systems consolidation in one single mechanism.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jorge Alberto Quillfeldt
- Psychobiology and Neurocomputation Lab, Department of Biophysics, Institute of Biosciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.,Neurosciences Graduate Program, Institute of Basic Health Sciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.,Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Andric M, Davis B, Hasson U. Visual cortex signals a mismatch between regularity of auditory and visual streams. Neuroimage 2017; 157:648-659. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.05.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2017] [Revised: 04/14/2017] [Accepted: 05/15/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022] Open
|
6
|
Lopopolo A, Frank SL, van den Bosch A, Willems RM. Using stochastic language models (SLM) to map lexical, syntactic, and phonological information processing in the brain. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0177794. [PMID: 28542396 PMCID: PMC5436813 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2017] [Accepted: 05/03/2017] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Language comprehension involves the simultaneous processing of information at the phonological, syntactic, and lexical level. We track these three distinct streams of information in the brain by using stochastic measures derived from computational language models to detect neural correlates of phoneme, part-of-speech, and word processing in an fMRI experiment. Probabilistic language models have proven to be useful tools for studying how language is processed as a sequence of symbols unfolding in time. Conditional probabilities between sequences of words are at the basis of probabilistic measures such as surprisal and perplexity which have been successfully used as predictors of several behavioural and neural correlates of sentence processing. Here we computed perplexity from sequences of words and their parts of speech, and their phonemic transcriptions. Brain activity time-locked to each word is regressed on the three model-derived measures. We observe that the brain keeps track of the statistical structure of lexical, syntactic and phonological information in distinct areas.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro Lopopolo
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Stefan L. Frank
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Antal van den Bosch
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- Meertens Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Science and Arts, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Roel M. Willems
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- Donders Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
SyllabO+: A new tool to study sublexical phenomena in spoken Quebec French. Behav Res Methods 2016; 49:1852-1863. [DOI: 10.3758/s13428-016-0829-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
|