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Jeppsen C, Baxelbaum K, Tomblin B, Klein K, McMurray B. The development of lexical processing: Real-time phonological competition and semantic activation in school age children. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2024:17470218241244799. [PMID: 38508999 DOI: 10.1177/17470218241244799] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/22/2024]
Abstract
Prior research suggests that the development of speech perception and word recognition stabilises in early childhood. However, recent work suggests that development of these processes continues throughout adolescence. This study aimed to investigate whether these developmental changes are based solely within the lexical system or are due to domain general changes, and to extend this investigation to lexical-semantic processing. We used two Visual World Paradigm tasks: one to examine phonological and semantic processing, one to capture non-linguistic domain-general skills. We tested 43 seven- to nine-year-olds, 42 ten- to thirteen-year-olds, and 30 sixteen- to seventeen-year-olds. Older children were quicker to fixate the target word and exhibited earlier onset and offset of fixations to both semantic and phonological competitors. Visual/cognitive skills explained significant, but not all, variance in the development of these effects. Developmental changes in semantic activation were largely attributable to changes in upstream phonological processing. These results suggest that the concurrent development of linguistic processes and broader visual/cognitive skills lead to developmental changes in real-time phonological competition, while semantic activation is more stable across these ages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Jeppsen
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Keith Baxelbaum
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Bruce Tomblin
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Kelsey Klein
- Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Bob McMurray
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
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Brown KS, Yee E, Joergensen G, Troyer M, Saltzman E, Rueckl J, Magnuson JS, McRae K. Investigating the Extent to which Distributional Semantic Models Capture a Broad Range of Semantic Relations. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13291. [PMID: 37183557 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2021] [Revised: 03/20/2023] [Accepted: 04/07/2023] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Distributional semantic models (DSMs) are a primary method for distilling semantic information from corpora. However, a key question remains: What types of semantic relations among words do DSMs detect? Prior work typically has addressed this question using limited human data that are restricted to semantic similarity and/or general semantic relatedness. We tested eight DSMs that are popular in current cognitive and psycholinguistic research (positive pointwise mutual information; global vectors; and three variations each of Skip-gram and continuous bag of words (CBOW) using word, context, and mean embeddings) on a theoretically motivated, rich set of semantic relations involving words from multiple syntactic classes and spanning the abstract-concrete continuum (19 sets of ratings). We found that, overall, the DSMs are best at capturing overall semantic similarity and also can capture verb-noun thematic role relations and noun-noun event-based relations that play important roles in sentence comprehension. Interestingly, Skip-gram and CBOW performed the best in terms of capturing similarity, whereas GloVe dominated the thematic role and event-based relations. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our results, make recommendations for users of these models, and demonstrate significant differences in model performance on event-based relations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin S Brown
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Oregon State University
- School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering, Oregon State University
| | - Eiling Yee
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut
| | | | | | | | - Jay Rueckl
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut
| | - James S Magnuson
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut
- BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, & Language
- Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science
| | - Ken McRae
- Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario
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McMurray B. I'm not sure that curve means what you think it means: Toward a [more] realistic understanding of the role of eye-movement generation in the Visual World Paradigm. Psychon Bull Rev 2023; 30:102-146. [PMID: 35962241 PMCID: PMC10964151 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-022-02143-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The Visual World Paradigm (VWP) is a powerful experimental paradigm for language research. Listeners respond to speech in a "visual world" containing potential referents of the speech. Fixations to these referents provides insight into the preliminary states of language processing as decisions unfold. The VWP has become the dominant paradigm in psycholinguistics and extended to every level of language, development, and disorders. Part of its impact is the impressive data visualizations which reveal the millisecond-by-millisecond time course of processing, and advances have been made in developing new analyses that precisely characterize this time course. All theoretical and statistical approaches make the tacit assumption that the time course of fixations is closely related to the underlying activation in the system. However, given the serial nature of fixations and their long refractory period, it is unclear how closely the observed dynamics of the fixation curves are actually coupled to the underlying dynamics of activation. I investigated this assumption with a series of simulations. Each simulation starts with a set of true underlying activation functions and generates simulated fixations using a simple stochastic sampling procedure that respects the sequential nature of fixations. I then analyzed the results to determine the conditions under which the observed fixations curves match the underlying functions, the reliability of the observed data, and the implications for Type I error and power. These simulations demonstrate that even under the simplest fixation-based models, observed fixation curves are systematically biased relative to the underlying activation functions, and they are substantially noisier, with important implications for reliability and power. I then present a potential generative model that may ultimately overcome many of these issues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bob McMurray
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, 278 PBSB, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA.
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
- Department of Linguistics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
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McMurray B, Sarrett ME, Chiu S, Black AK, Wang A, Canale R, Aslin RN. Decoding the temporal dynamics of spoken word and nonword processing from EEG. Neuroimage 2022; 260:119457. [PMID: 35842096 PMCID: PMC10875705 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119457] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2022] [Revised: 07/02/2022] [Accepted: 07/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The efficiency of spoken word recognition is essential for real-time communication. There is consensus that this efficiency relies on an implicit process of activating multiple word candidates that compete for recognition as the acoustic signal unfolds in real-time. However, few methods capture the neural basis of this dynamic competition on a msec-by-msec basis. This is crucial for understanding the neuroscience of language, and for understanding hearing, language and cognitive disorders in people for whom current behavioral methods are not suitable. We applied machine-learning techniques to standard EEG signals to decode which word was heard on each trial and analyzed the patterns of confusion over time. Results mirrored psycholinguistic findings: Early on, the decoder was equally likely to report the target (e.g., baggage) or a similar sounding competitor (badger), but by around 500 msec, competitors were suppressed. Follow up analyses show that this is robust across EEG systems (gel and saline), with fewer channels, and with fewer trials. Results are robust within individuals and show high reliability. This suggests a powerful and simple paradigm that can assess the neural dynamics of speech decoding, with potential applications for understanding lexical development in a variety of clinical disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bob McMurray
- Dept. of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Dept. of Linguistics and Dept. of Otolaryngology, University of Iowa.
| | - McCall E Sarrett
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Unviersity of Iowa
| | - Samantha Chiu
- Dept. of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa
| | - Alexis K Black
- School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, University of British Columbia, Haskins Laboratories
| | - Alice Wang
- Dept. of Psychology, University of Oregon, Haskins Laboratories
| | - Rebecca Canale
- Dept. of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Haskins Laboratories
| | - Richard N Aslin
- Haskins Laboratories, Department of Psychology and Child Study Center, Yale University, Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut
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Krishnan S, Cler GJ, Smith HJ, Willis HE, Asaridou SS, Healy MP, Papp D, Watkins KE. Quantitative MRI reveals differences in striatal myelin in children with DLD. eLife 2022; 11:e74242. [PMID: 36164824 PMCID: PMC9514847 DOI: 10.7554/elife.74242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 07/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by receptive or expressive language difficulties or both. While theoretical frameworks and empirical studies support the idea that there may be neural correlates of DLD in frontostriatal loops, findings are inconsistent across studies. Here, we use a novel semiquantitative imaging protocol - multi-parameter mapping (MPM) - to investigate microstructural neural differences in children with DLD. The MPM protocol allows us to reproducibly map specific indices of tissue microstructure. In 56 typically developing children and 33 children with DLD, we derived maps of (1) longitudinal relaxation rate R1 (1/T1), (2) transverse relaxation rate R2* (1/T2*), and (3) Magnetization Transfer saturation (MTsat). R1 and MTsat predominantly index myelin, while R2* is sensitive to iron content. Children with DLD showed reductions in MTsat values in the caudate nucleus bilaterally, as well as in the left ventral sensorimotor cortex and Heschl's gyrus. They also had globally lower R1 values. No group differences were noted in R2* maps. Differences in MTsat and R1 were coincident in the caudate nucleus bilaterally. These findings support our hypothesis of corticostriatal abnormalities in DLD and indicate abnormal levels of myelin in the dorsal striatum in children with DLD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saloni Krishnan
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Dept of Experimental Psychology, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham HillLondonUnited Kingdom
| | - Gabriel J Cler
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Dept of Experimental Psychology, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of WashingtonSeattleUnited States
| | - Harriet J Smith
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Dept of Experimental Psychology, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
| | - Hanna E Willis
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Dept of Experimental Psychology, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe HospitalOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Salomi S Asaridou
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Dept of Experimental Psychology, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Máiréad P Healy
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Dept of Experimental Psychology, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
| | - Daniel Papp
- NeuroPoly Lab, Biomedical Engineering Department, Polytechnique MontrealMontrealCanada
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, FMRIB Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Kate E Watkins
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Dept of Experimental Psychology, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
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