Predictive coding accelerates word recognition and learning in the early stages of language development.

PubMed

Ylinen, Sari; Bosseler, Alexis; Junttila, Katja; Huotilainen, Minna

2017-11-01

The ability to predict future events in the environment and learn from them is a fundamental component of adaptive behavior across species. Here we propose that inferring predictions facilitates speech processing and word learning in the early stages of language development. Twelve- and 24-month olds' electrophysiological brain responses to heard syllables are faster and more robust when the preceding word context predicts the ending of a familiar word. For unfamiliar, novel word forms, however, word-expectancy violation generates a prediction error response, the strength of which significantly correlates with children's vocabulary scores at 12 months. These results suggest that predictive coding may accelerate word recognition and support early learning of novel words, including not only the learning of heard word forms but also their mapping to meanings. Prediction error may mediate learning via attention, since infants' attention allocation to the entire learning situation in natural environments could account for the link between prediction error and the understanding of word meanings. On the whole, the present results on predictive coding support the view that principles of brain function reported across domains in humans and non-human animals apply to language and its development in the infant brain. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: http://hy.fi/unitube/video/e1cbb495-41d8-462e-8660-0864a1abd02c. [Correction added on 27 January 2017, after first online publication: The video abstract link was added.]. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Statistical learning of an auditory sequence and reorganization of acquired knowledge: A time course of word segmentation and ordering.

PubMed

Daikoku, Tatsuya; Yatomi, Yutaka; Yumoto, Masato

2017-01-27

Previous neural studies have supported the hypothesis that statistical learning mechanisms are used broadly across different domains such as language and music. However, these studies have only investigated a single aspect of statistical learning at a time, such as recognizing word boundaries or learning word order patterns. In this study, we neutrally investigated how the two levels of statistical learning for recognizing word boundaries and word ordering could be reflected in neuromagnetic responses and how acquired statistical knowledge is reorganised when the syntactic rules are revised. Neuromagnetic responses to the Japanese-vowel sequence (a, e, i, o, and u), presented every .45s, were recorded from 14 right-handed Japanese participants. The vowel order was constrained by a Markov stochastic model such that five nonsense words (aue, eao, iea, oiu, and uoi) were chained with an either-or rule: the probability of the forthcoming word was statistically defined (80% for one word; 20% for the other word) by the most recent two words. All of the word transition probabilities (80% and 20%) were switched in the middle of the sequence. In the first and second quarters of the sequence, the neuromagnetic responses to the words that appeared with higher transitional probability were significantly reduced compared with those that appeared with a lower transitional probability. After switching the word transition probabilities, the response reduction was replicated in the last quarter of the sequence. The responses to the final vowels in the words were significantly reduced compared with those to the initial vowels in the last quarter of the sequence. The results suggest that both within-word and between-word statistical learning are reflected in neural responses. The present study supports the hypothesis that listeners learn larger structures such as phrases first, and they subsequently extract smaller structures, such as words, from the learned phrases. The present study provides the first neurophysiological evidence that the correction of statistical knowledge requires more time than the acquisition of new statistical knowledge. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

More Limitations to Monolingualism: Bilinguals Outperform Monolinguals in Implicit Word Learning.

PubMed

Escudero, Paola; Mulak, Karen E; Fu, Charlene S L; Singh, Leher

2016-01-01

To succeed at cross-situational word learning, learners must infer word-object mappings by attending to the statistical co-occurrences of novel objects and labels across multiple encounters. While past studies have investigated this as a learning mechanism for infants and monolingual adults, bilinguals' cross-situational word learning abilities have yet to be tested. Here, we compared monolinguals' and bilinguals' performance on a cross-situational word learning paradigm that featured phonologically distinct word pairs (e.g., BON-DEET) and phonologically similar word pairs that varied by a single consonant or vowel segment (e.g., BON-TON, DEET-DIT, respectively). Both groups learned the novel word-referent mappings, providing evidence that cross-situational word learning is a learning strategy also available to bilingual adults. Furthermore, bilinguals were overall more accurate than monolinguals. This supports that bilingualism fosters a wide range of cognitive advantages that may benefit implicit word learning. Additionally, response patterns to the different trial types revealed a relative difficulty for vowel minimal pairs than consonant minimal pairs, replicating the pattern found in monolinguals by Escudero et al. (2016) in a different English accent. Specifically, all participants failed to learn vowel contrasts differentiated by vowel height. We discuss evidence for this bilingual advantage as a language-specific or general advantage.

More Limitations to Monolingualism: Bilinguals Outperform Monolinguals in Implicit Word Learning

PubMed Central

Escudero, Paola; Mulak, Karen E.; Fu, Charlene S. L.; Singh, Leher

2016-01-01

To succeed at cross-situational word learning, learners must infer word-object mappings by attending to the statistical co-occurrences of novel objects and labels across multiple encounters. While past studies have investigated this as a learning mechanism for infants and monolingual adults, bilinguals’ cross-situational word learning abilities have yet to be tested. Here, we compared monolinguals’ and bilinguals’ performance on a cross-situational word learning paradigm that featured phonologically distinct word pairs (e.g., BON-DEET) and phonologically similar word pairs that varied by a single consonant or vowel segment (e.g., BON-TON, DEET-DIT, respectively). Both groups learned the novel word-referent mappings, providing evidence that cross-situational word learning is a learning strategy also available to bilingual adults. Furthermore, bilinguals were overall more accurate than monolinguals. This supports that bilingualism fosters a wide range of cognitive advantages that may benefit implicit word learning. Additionally, response patterns to the different trial types revealed a relative difficulty for vowel minimal pairs than consonant minimal pairs, replicating the pattern found in monolinguals by Escudero et al. (2016) in a different English accent. Specifically, all participants failed to learn vowel contrasts differentiated by vowel height. We discuss evidence for this bilingual advantage as a language-specific or general advantage. PMID:27574513

Not Only Size Matters: Early-Talker and Late-Talker Vocabularies Support Different Word-Learning Biases in Babies and Networks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colunga, Eliana; Sims, Clare E.

2017-01-01

In typical development, word learning goes from slow and laborious to fast and seemingly effortless. Typically developing 2-year-olds seem to intuit the whole range of things in a category from hearing a single instance named--they have word-learning biases. This is not the case for children with relatively small vocabularies ("late…

Numerical morphology supports early number word learning: Evidence from a comparison of young Mandarin and English learners.

PubMed

Le Corre, Mathieu; Li, Peggy; Huang, Becky H; Jia, Gisela; Carey, Susan

2016-08-01

Previous studies showed that children learning a language with an obligatory singular/plural distinction (Russian and English) learn the meaning of the number word for one earlier than children learning Japanese, a language without obligatory number morphology (Barner, Libenson, Cheung, & Takasaki, 2009; Sarnecka, Kamenskaya, Yamana, Ogura, & Yudovina, 2007). This can be explained by differences in number morphology, but it can also be explained by many other differences between the languages and the environments of the children who were compared. The present study tests the hypothesis that the morphological singular/plural distinction supports the early acquisition of the meaning of the number word for one by comparing young English learners to age and SES matched young Mandarin Chinese learners. Mandarin does not have obligatory number morphology but is more similar to English than Japanese in many crucial respects. Corpus analyses show that, compared to English learners, Mandarin learners hear number words more frequently, are more likely to hear number words followed by a noun, and are more likely to hear number words in contexts where they denote a cardinal value. Two tasks show that, despite these advantages, Mandarin learners learn the meaning of the number word for one three to six months later than do English learners. These results provide the strongest evidence to date that prior knowledge of the numerical meaning of the distinction between singular and plural supports the acquisition of the meaning of the number word for one. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Is This a Dax Which I See before Me? Use of the Logical Argument Disjunctive Syllogism Supports Word-Learning in Children and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halberda, Justin

2006-01-01

Many authors have argued that word-learning constraints help guide a word-learner's hypotheses as to the meaning of a newly heard word. One such class of constraints derives from the observation that word-learners of all ages prefer to map novel labels to novel objects in situations of referential ambiguity. In this paper I use eye-tracking to…

Word Learning during Reading: Effects of Language Ability in School-Age Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Margaret S.; Wagovich, Stacy A.; Manfra, Louis

2017-01-01

Most vocabulary growth during the school-age years occurs incidentally. However, little is understood about the influence of language skills on word knowledge growth during reading. Using a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design, we examined incidental word learning through reading, considering the presence/absence of supportive context and…

Benefits of augmentative signs in word learning: Evidence from children who are deaf/hard of hearing and children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

van Berkel-van Hoof, Lian; Hermans, Daan; Knoors, Harry; Verhoeven, Ludo

2016-12-01

Augmentative signs may facilitate word learning in children with vocabulary difficulties, for example, children who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DHH) and children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Despite the fact that augmentative signs may aid second language learning in populations with a typical language development, empirical evidence in favor of this claim is lacking. We aim to investigate whether augmentative signs facilitate word learning for DHH children, children with SLI, and typically developing (TD) children. Whereas previous studies taught children new labels for familiar objects, the present study taught new labels for new objects. In our word learning experiment children were presented with pictures of imaginary creatures and pseudo words. Half of the words were accompanied by an augmentative pseudo sign. The children were tested for their receptive word knowledge. The DHH children benefitted significantly from augmentative signs, but the children with SLI and TD age-matched peers did not score significantly different on words from either the sign or no-sign condition. These results suggest that using Sign-Supported speech in classrooms of bimodal bilingual DHH children may support their spoken language development. The difference between earlier research findings and the present results may be caused by a difference in methodology. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Expert Knowledge, Distinctiveness, and Levels of Processing in Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bird, Steve

2012-01-01

The foreign language vocabulary learning research literature often attributes strong mnemonic potency to the cognitive processing of meaning when learning words. Routinely cited as support for this idea are experiments by Craik and Tulving (C&T) demonstrating superior recognition and recall of studied words following semantic tasks ("deep"…

"I Can Comprehend...I Just Can't Read Big Words."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Janet

2003-01-01

Explains how to help students understand the relationship between figuring out words and the ability to comprehend a text. Describes how to solidify the word-learning/comprehension connection via explaining, modeling, and supporting transfer to independence. Concludes that explaining, modeling, and supporting transfer to independence form the…

Methods & Strategies: Put Your Walls to Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Julie; Durham, Annie

2016-01-01

This column provides ideas and techniques to enhance your science teaching. This month's issue discusses planning and using interactive word walls to support science and reading instruction. Many classrooms have word walls displaying vocabulary that students have learned in class. Word walls serve as visual scaffolds to support instruction. To…

Phonological and Semantic Cues to Learning from Word-Types

PubMed Central

Richtsmeier, Peter

2017-01-01

Word-types represent the primary form of data for many models of phonological learning, and they often predict performance in psycholinguistic tasks. Word-types are often tacitly defined as phonologically unique words. Yet, an explicit test of this definition is lacking, and natural language patterning suggests that word meaning could also act as a cue to word-type status. This possibility was tested in a statistical phonotactic learning experiment in which phonological and semantic properties of word-types varied. During familiarization, the learning targets—word-medial consonant sequences—were instantiated either by four related word-types or by just one word-type (the experimental frequency factor). The expectation was that more word-types would lead participants to generalize the target sequences. Regarding semantic cues, related word-types were either associated with different referents or all with a single referent. Regarding phonological cues, related word-types differed from each other by one, two, or more phonemes. At test, participants rated novel wordforms for their similarity to the familiarization words. When participants heard four related word-types, they gave higher ratings to test words with the same consonant sequences, irrespective of the phonological and semantic manipulations. The results support the existing phonological definition of word-types. PMID:29187914

Fast Mapping Across Time: Memory Processes Support Children's Retention of Learned Words.

PubMed

Vlach, Haley A; Sandhofer, Catherine M

2012-01-01

Children's remarkable ability to map linguistic labels to referents in the world is commonly called fast mapping. The current study examined children's (N = 216) and adults' (N = 54) retention of fast-mapped words over time (immediately, after a 1-week delay, and after a 1-month delay). The fast mapping literature often characterizes children's retention of words as consistently high across timescales. However, the current study demonstrates that learners forget word mappings at a rapid rate. Moreover, these patterns of forgetting parallel forgetting functions of domain-general memory processes. Memory processes are critical to children's word learning and the role of one such process, forgetting, is discussed in detail - forgetting supports extended mapping by promoting the memory and generalization of words and categories.

Debunking the Buzz Words Or Can Hermeneutic Analysis Be Used To Evaluate Pedagogically Based Learning Objects Designed from Constructivist Epistemological Ontologies Defined in XML Metadata?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stuckey, Bronwyn; Hensman, Jim; Hofmann, Tobias; Dewey, Barbara; Brown, Helen; Cameron, Sonja

Arguably the biggest "buzz word" of the current year has been "learning or knowledge object". To understand the learning object and why it should be such a highly desirable commodity, it is necessary to unpack not only this concept but more importantly revisit some contributing concepts and constructs (more buzz words) that support the building of…

Repeated E-Book Reading and Its Contribution to Learning New Words among Kindergartners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korat, Ofra; Kozlov-Peretz, Olla; Segal-Drori, Ora

2017-01-01

The contribution of repeated e-book reading with and without word explanation support and its effect on receptive and expressive word learning among preschoolers was examined. Seventy-eight kindergartners were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group received two individual reading sessions of an e-book…

Process-based Assignment-Setting Change for Support of Overcoming Bottlenecks in Learning by Problem-Posing in Arithmetic Word Problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Supianto, A. A.; Hayashi, Y.; Hirashima, T.

2017-02-01

Problem-posing is well known as an effective activity to learn problem-solving methods. Monsakun is an interactive problem-posing learning environment to facilitate arithmetic word problems learning for one operation of addition and subtraction. The characteristic of Monsakun is problem-posing as sentence-integration that lets learners make a problem of three sentences. Monsakun provides learners with five or six sentences including dummies, which are designed through careful considerations by an expert teacher as a meaningful distraction to the learners in order to learn the structure of arithmetic word problems. The results of the practical use of Monsakun in elementary schools show that many learners have difficulties in arranging the proper answer at the high level of assignments. The analysis of the problem-posing process of such learners found that their misconception of arithmetic word problems causes impasses in their thinking and mislead them to use dummies. This study proposes a method of changing assignments as a support for overcoming bottlenecks of thinking. In Monsakun, the bottlenecks are often detected as a frequently repeated use of a specific dummy. If such dummy can be detected, it is the key factor to support learners to overcome their difficulty. This paper discusses how to detect the bottlenecks and to realize such support in learning by problem-posing.

Using Electronic Storybooks to Support Word Learning in Children with Severe Language Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smeets, Daisy J. H.; van Dijken, Marianne J.; Bus, Adriana G.

2014-01-01

Novel word learning is reported to be problematic for children with severe language impairments (SLI). In this study, we tested electronic storybooks as a tool to support vocabulary acquisition in SLI children. In Experiment 1, 29 kindergarten SLI children heard four e-books each four times: (a) two stories were presented as video books with…

Hand gestures support word learning in patients with hippocampal amnesia.

PubMed

Hilverman, Caitlin; Cook, Susan Wagner; Duff, Melissa C

2018-06-01

Co-speech hand gesture facilitates learning and memory, yet the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting this remain unclear. One possibility is that motor information in gesture may engage procedural memory representations. Alternatively, iconic information from gesture may contribute to declarative memory representations mediated by the hippocampus. To investigate these alternatives, we examined gesture's effects on word learning in patients with hippocampal damage and declarative memory impairment, with intact procedural memory, and in healthy and in brain-damaged comparison groups. Participants learned novel label-object pairings while producing gesture, observing gesture, or observing without gesture. After a delay, recall and object identification were assessed. Unsurprisingly, amnesic patients were unable to recall the labels at test. However, they correctly identified objects at above chance levels, but only if they produced a gesture at encoding. Comparison groups performed well above chance at both recall and object identification regardless of gesture. These findings suggest that gesture production may support word learning by engaging nondeclarative (procedural) memory. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Competitive Processes in Cross-Situational Word Learning

PubMed Central

Yurovsky, Daniel; Yu, Chen; Smith, Linda B.

2013-01-01

Cross-situational word learning, like any statistical learning problem, involves tracking the regularities in the environment. But the information that learners pick up from these regularities is dependent on their learning mechanism. This paper investigates the role of one type of mechanism in statistical word learning: competition. Competitive mechanisms would allow learners to find the signal in noisy input, and would help to explain the speed with which learners succeed in statistical learning tasks. Because cross-situational word learning provides information at multiple scales – both within and across trials/situations –learners could implement competition at either or both of these scales. A series of four experiments demonstrate that cross-situational learning involves competition at both levels of scale, and that these mechanisms interact to support rapid learning. The impact of both of these mechanisms is then considered from the perspective of a process-level understanding of cross-situational learning. PMID:23607610

Competitive processes in cross-situational word learning.

PubMed

Yurovsky, Daniel; Yu, Chen; Smith, Linda B

2013-07-01

Cross-situational word learning, like any statistical learning problem, involves tracking the regularities in the environment. However, the information that learners pick up from these regularities is dependent on their learning mechanism. This article investigates the role of one type of mechanism in statistical word learning: competition. Competitive mechanisms would allow learners to find the signal in noisy input and would help to explain the speed with which learners succeed in statistical learning tasks. Because cross-situational word learning provides information at multiple scales-both within and across trials/situations-learners could implement competition at either or both of these scales. A series of four experiments demonstrate that cross-situational learning involves competition at both levels of scale, and that these mechanisms interact to support rapid learning. The impact of both of these mechanisms is considered from the perspective of a process-level understanding of cross-situational learning. Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Difficulty in learning similar-sounding words: a developmental stage or a general property of learning?

PubMed Central

Pajak, Bozena; Creel, Sarah C.; Levy, Roger

2016-01-01

How are languages learned, and to what extent are learning mechanisms similar in infant native-language (L1) and adult second-language (L2) acquisition? In terms of vocabulary acquisition, we know from the infant literature that the ability to discriminate similar-sounding words at a particular age does not guarantee successful word-meaning mapping at that age (Stager & Werker, 1997). However, it is unclear whether this difficulty arises from developmental limitations of young infants (e.g., poorer working memory) or whether it is an intrinsic part of the initial word learning, L1 and L2 alike. Here we show that adults of particular L1 backgrounds—just like young infants—have difficulty learning similar-sounding L2 words that they can nevertheless discriminate perceptually. This suggests that the early stages of word learning, whether L1 or L2, intrinsically involve difficulty in mapping similar-sounding words onto referents. We argue that this is due to an interaction between two main factors: (1) memory limitations that pose particular challenges for highly similar-sounding words, and (2) uncertainty regarding the language's phonetic categories, as these are being learned concurrently with words. Overall, our results show that vocabulary acquisition in infancy and in adulthood share more similarities than previously thought, thus supporting the existence of common learning mechanisms that operate throughout the lifespan. PMID:26962959

Evidence on Tips for Supporting Reading Skills at Home

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2018

2018-01-01

This document begins by providing four tips parents and care takers can use to supporting childrens' reading skills at home: (1) Have conversations before, during, and after reading together; (2) Help children learn how to break sentences into words and words into syllables; (3) Help children sound out words smoothly; and (4) Model reading…

Video Feedback in Key Word Signing Training for Preservice Direct Support Staff

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rombouts, Ellen; Meuris, Kristien; Maes, Bea; De Meyer, Anne-Marie; Zink, Inge

2016-01-01

Purpose: Research has demonstrated that formal training is essential for professionals to learn key word signing. Yet, the particular didactic strategies have not been studied. Therefore, this study compared the effectiveness of verbal and video feedback in a key word signing training for future direct support staff. Method: Forty-nine future…

Not Only Size Matters: Early-Talker and Late-Talker Vocabularies Support Different Word-Learning Biases in Babies and Networks.

PubMed

Colunga, Eliana; Sims, Clare E

2017-02-01

In typical development, word learning goes from slow and laborious to fast and seemingly effortless. Typically developing 2-year-olds seem to intuit the whole range of things in a category from hearing a single instance named-they have word-learning biases. This is not the case for children with relatively small vocabularies (late talkers). We present a computational model that accounts for the emergence of word-learning biases in children at both ends of the vocabulary spectrum based solely on vocabulary structure. The results of Experiment 1 show that late-talkers' and early-talkers' noun vocabularies have different structures and that neural networks trained on the vocabularies of individual late talkers acquire different word-learning biases than those trained on early-talker vocabularies. These models make novel predictions about the word-learning biases in these two populations. Experiment 2 tests these predictions on late- and early-talking toddlers in a novel noun generalization task. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Semantic facilitation in bilingual first language acquisition.

PubMed

Bilson, Samuel; Yoshida, Hanako; Tran, Crystal D; Woods, Elizabeth A; Hills, Thomas T

2015-07-01

Bilingual first language learners face unique challenges that may influence the rate and order of early word learning relative to monolinguals. A comparison of the productive vocabularies of 435 children between the ages of 6 months and 7 years-181 of which were bilingual English learners-found that monolinguals learned both English words and all-language concepts faster than bilinguals. However, bilinguals showed an enhancement of an effect previously found in monolinguals-the preference for learning words with more associative cues. Though both monolinguals and bilinguals were best fit by a similar model of word learning, semantic network structure and growth indicated that the two groups were learning English words in a different order. Further, in comparison with a model of two-monolinguals-in-one-mind, bilinguals overproduced translational equivalents. Our results support an emergent account of bilingual first language acquisition, where learning a word in one language facilitates its acquisition in a second language. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Professional Learning Communities Facilitator's Guide for the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide: Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade. REL 2016-277

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kosanovich, Marcia; Foorman, Barbara

2016-01-01

The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southeast developed a Professional Learning Community (PLC) Facilitators Guide to support educators in the implementation of recommendations from the What Works Clearinghouse's. The practice guide focuses on the foundational reading skills that enable students to read words, relate those words to their…

Cross-situational word learning in aphasia.

PubMed

Peñaloza, Claudia; Mirman, Daniel; Cardona, Pedro; Juncadella, Montserrat; Martin, Nadine; Laine, Matti; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni

2017-08-01

Human learners can resolve referential ambiguity and discover the relationships between words and meanings through a cross-situational learning (CSL) strategy. Some people with aphasia (PWA) can learn word-referent pairings under referential uncertainty supported by online feedback. However, it remains unknown whether PWA can learn new words cross-situationally and if such learning ability is supported by statistical learning (SL) mechanisms. The present study examined whether PWA can learn novel word-referent mappings in a CSL task without feedback. We also studied whether CSL is related to SL in PWA and neurologically healthy individuals. We further examined whether aphasia severity, phonological processing and verbal short-term memory (STM) predict CSL in aphasia, and also whether individual differences in verbal STM modulate CSL in healthy older adults. Sixteen people with chronic aphasia underwent a CSL task that involved exposure to a series of individually ambiguous learning trials and a SL task that taps speech segmentation. Their learning ability was compared to 18 older controls and 39 young adults recruited for task validation. CSL in the aphasia group was below the older controls and young adults and took place at a slower rate. Importantly, we found a strong association between SL and CSL performance in all three groups. CSL was modulated by aphasia severity in the aphasia group, and by verbal STM capacity in the older controls. Our findings indicate that some PWA can preserve the ability to learn new word-referent associations cross-situationally. We suggest that both PWA and neurologically intact individuals may rely on SL mechanisms to achieve CSL and that verbal STM also influences CSL. These findings contribute to the ongoing debate on the cognitive mechanisms underlying this learning ability. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2.5-Year-Olds Use Cross-Situational Consistency to Learn Verbs under Referential Uncertainty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Rose M.; Fisher, Cynthia

2012-01-01

Recent evidence shows that children can use cross-situational statistics to learn new object labels under referential ambiguity (e.g., Smith & Yu, 2008). Such evidence has been interpreted as support for proposals that statistical information about word-referent co-occurrence plays a powerful role in word learning. But object labels represent only…

Using reinforcement learning to examine dynamic attention allocation during reading.

PubMed

Liu, Yanping; Reichle, Erik D; Gao, Ding-Guo

2013-01-01

A fundamental question in reading research concerns whether attention is allocated strictly serially, supporting lexical processing of one word at a time, or in parallel, supporting concurrent lexical processing of two or more words (Reichle, Liversedge, Pollatsek, & Rayner, 2009). The origins of this debate are reviewed. We then report three simulations to address this question using artificial reading agents (Liu & Reichle, 2010; Reichle & Laurent, 2006) that learn to dynamically allocate attention to 1-4 words to "read" as efficiently as possible. These simulation results indicate that the agents strongly preferred serial word processing, although they occasionally attended to more than one word concurrently. The reason for this preference is discussed, along with implications for the debate about how humans allocate attention during reading. Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Professional Learning Communities Participant's Activities for the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide: Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade. REL 2016-277a

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kosanovich, Marcia; Foorman, Barbara

2016-01-01

The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southeast developed a Professional Learning Community (PLC) Facilitators Guide to support educators in the implementation of recommendations from the What Works Clearinghouse's. The practice guide focuses on the foundational reading skills that enable students to read words, relate those words to their…

Event-related potentials and recognition memory for pictures and words: the effects of intentional and incidental learning.

PubMed

Noldy, N E; Stelmack, R M; Campbell, K B

1990-07-01

Event-related potentials were recorded under conditions of intentional or incidental learning of pictures and words, and during the subsequent recognition memory test for these stimuli. Intentionally learned pictures were remembered better than incidentally learned pictures and intentionally learned words, which, in turn, were remembered better than incidentally learned words. In comparison to pictures that were ignored, the pictures that were attended were characterized by greater positive amplitude frontally at 250 ms and centro-parietally at 350 ms and by greater negativity at 450 ms at parietal and occipital sites. There were no effects of attention on the waveforms elicited by words. These results support the view that processing becomes automatic for words, whereas the processing of pictures involves additional effort or allocation of attentional resources. The N450 amplitude was greater for words than for pictures during both acquisition (intentional items) and recognition phases (hit and correct rejection categories for intentional items, hit category for incidental items). Because pictures are better remembered than words, the greater late positive wave (600 ms) elicited by the pictures than the words during the acquisition phase is also consistent with the association between P300 and better memory that has been reported.

Word identification in reading and the promise of subsymbolic psycholinguistics.

PubMed

Van Orden, G C; Pennington, B F; Stone, G O

1990-10-01

The vast literature concerning printed word identification either contradicts or provides ambiguous support for each of the central hypotheses of dual-process theory, the most widely accepted theory of printed word identification. In contrast, clear, positive support exists for an alternative subsymbolic approach that includes a central role for the process of phonologic coding. This subsymbolic account is developed around a covariant learning hypothesis, derived from a design principle common to current learning algorithms within the subsymbolic paradigm. Where this hypothesis applies, and it may apply broadly, it predicts a common empirical profile of development.

Extracting Phonological Patterns for L2 Word Learning: The Effect of Poor Phonological Awareness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Chieh-Fang

2014-01-01

An implicit word learning paradigm was designed to test the hypothesis that children who came to the task of L2 vocabulary acquisition with poorer L1 phonological awareness (PA) are less capable of extracting phonological patterns from L2 and thus have difficulties capitalizing on this knowledge to support L2 vocabulary learning. A group of…

Domain-specific and domain-general constraints on word and sequence learning.

PubMed

Archibald, Lisa M D; Joanisse, Marc F

2013-02-01

The relative influences of language-related and memory-related constraints on the learning of novel words and sequences were examined by comparing individual differences in performance of children with and without specific deficits in either language or working memory. Children recalled lists of words in a Hebbian learning protocol in which occasional lists repeated, yielding improved recall over the course of the task on the repeated lists. The task involved presentation of pictures of common nouns followed immediately by equivalent presentations of the spoken names. The same participants also completed a paired-associate learning task involving word-picture and nonword-picture pairs. Hebbian learning was observed for all groups. Domain-general working memory constrained immediate recall, whereas language abilities impacted recall in the auditory modality only. In addition, working memory constrained paired-associate learning generally, whereas language abilities disproportionately impacted novel word learning. Overall, all of the learning tasks were highly correlated with domain-general working memory. The learning of nonwords was additionally related to general intelligence, phonological short-term memory, language abilities, and implicit learning. The results suggest that distinct associations between language- and memory-related mechanisms support learning of familiar and unfamiliar phonological forms and sequences.

Writing Strengthens Orthography and Alphabetic-Coding Strengthens Phonology in Learning to Read Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guan, Connie Qun; Liu, Ying; Chan, Derek Ho Leung; Ye, Feifei; Perfetti, Charles A.

2011-01-01

Learning to write words may strengthen orthographic representations and thus support word-specific recognition processes. This hypothesis applies especially to Chinese because its writing system encourages character-specific recognition that depends on accurate representation of orthographic form. We report 2 studies that test this hypothesis in…

Predicting Contextual Informativeness for Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kapelner, Adam; Soterwood, Jeanine; Nessaiver, Shalev; Adlof, Suzanne

2018-01-01

Vocabulary knowledge is essential to educational progress. High quality vocabulary instruction requires supportive contextual examples to teach word meaning and proper usage. Identifying such contexts by hand for a large number of words can be difficult. In this work, we take a statistical learning approach to engineer a system that predicts…

The Influence of Concreteness of Concepts on the Integration of Novel Words into the Semantic Network

PubMed Central

Ding, Jinfeng; Liu, Wenjuan; Yang, Yufang

2017-01-01

On the basis of previous studies revealing a processing advantage of concrete words over abstract words, the current study aimed to further explore the influence of concreteness on the integration of novel words into semantic memory with the event related potential (ERP) technique. In the experiment during the learning phase participants read two-sentence contexts and inferred the meaning of novel words. The novel words were two-character non-words in Chinese language. Their meaning was either a concrete or abstract known concept which could be inferred from the contexts. During the testing phase participants performed a lexical decision task in which the learned novel words served as primes for either their corresponding concepts, semantically related or unrelated targets. For the concrete novel words, the semantically related words belonged to the same semantic categories with their corresponding concepts. For the abstract novel words, the semantically related words were synonyms of their corresponding concepts. The unrelated targets were real words which were concrete or abstract for the concrete or abstract novel words respectively. The ERP results showed that the corresponding concepts and the semantically related words elicited smaller N400s than the unrelated words. The N400 effect was not modulated by the concreteness of the concepts. In addition, the concrete corresponding concepts elicited a smaller late positive component (LPC) than the concrete unrelated words. This LPC effect was absent for the abstract words. The results indicate that although both concrete and abstract novel words can be acquired and linked to their related words in the semantic network after a short learning phase, the concrete novel words are learned better. Our findings support the (extended) dual coding theory and broaden our understanding of adult word learning and changes in concept organization. PMID:29255440

The Influence of Concreteness of Concepts on the Integration of Novel Words into the Semantic Network.

PubMed

Ding, Jinfeng; Liu, Wenjuan; Yang, Yufang

2017-01-01

On the basis of previous studies revealing a processing advantage of concrete words over abstract words, the current study aimed to further explore the influence of concreteness on the integration of novel words into semantic memory with the event related potential (ERP) technique. In the experiment during the learning phase participants read two-sentence contexts and inferred the meaning of novel words. The novel words were two-character non-words in Chinese language. Their meaning was either a concrete or abstract known concept which could be inferred from the contexts. During the testing phase participants performed a lexical decision task in which the learned novel words served as primes for either their corresponding concepts, semantically related or unrelated targets. For the concrete novel words, the semantically related words belonged to the same semantic categories with their corresponding concepts. For the abstract novel words, the semantically related words were synonyms of their corresponding concepts. The unrelated targets were real words which were concrete or abstract for the concrete or abstract novel words respectively. The ERP results showed that the corresponding concepts and the semantically related words elicited smaller N400s than the unrelated words. The N400 effect was not modulated by the concreteness of the concepts. In addition, the concrete corresponding concepts elicited a smaller late positive component (LPC) than the concrete unrelated words. This LPC effect was absent for the abstract words. The results indicate that although both concrete and abstract novel words can be acquired and linked to their related words in the semantic network after a short learning phase, the concrete novel words are learned better. Our findings support the (extended) dual coding theory and broaden our understanding of adult word learning and changes in concept organization.

Using electronic storybooks to support word learning in children with severe language impairments.

PubMed

Smeets, Daisy J H; van Dijken, Marianne J; Bus, Adriana G

2014-01-01

Novel word learning is reported to be problematic for children with severe language impairments (SLI). In this study, we tested electronic storybooks as a tool to support vocabulary acquisition in SLI children. In Experiment 1, 29 kindergarten SLI children heard four e-books each four times: (a) two stories were presented as video books with motion pictures, music, and sounds, and (b) two stories included only static illustrations without music or sounds. Two other stories served as the control condition. Both static and video books were effective in increasing knowledge of unknown words, but static books were most effective. Experiment 2 was designed to examine which elements in video books interfere with word learning: video images or music or sounds. A total of 23 kindergarten SLI children heard 8 storybooks each four times: (a) two static stories without music or sounds, (b) two static stories with music or sounds, (c) two video stories without music or sounds, and (d) two video books with music or sounds. Video images and static illustrations were equally effective, but the presence of music or sounds moderated word learning. In children with severe SLI, background music interfered with learning. Problems with speech perception in noisy conditions may be an underlying factor of SLI and should be considered in selecting teaching aids and learning environments. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2012.

Beyond naïve cue combination: salience and social cues in early word learning.

PubMed

Yurovsky, Daniel; Frank, Michael C

2017-03-01

Children learn their earliest words through social interaction, but it is unknown how much they rely on social information. Some theories argue that word learning is fundamentally social from its outset, with even the youngest infants understanding intentions and using them to infer a social partner's target of reference. In contrast, other theories argue that early word learning is largely a perceptual process in which young children map words onto salient objects. One way of unifying these accounts is to model word learning as weighted cue combination, in which children attend to many potential cues to reference, but only gradually learn the correct weight to assign each cue. We tested four predictions of this kind of naïve cue combination account, using an eye-tracking paradigm that combines social word teaching and two-alternative forced-choice testing. None of the predictions were supported. We thus propose an alternative unifying account: children are sensitive to social information early, but their ability to gather and deploy this information is constrained by domain-general cognitive processes. Developmental changes in children's use of social cues emerge not from learning the predictive power of social cues, but from the gradual development of attention, memory, and speed of information processing. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Beyond Naïve Cue Combination: Salience and Social Cues in Early Word Learning

PubMed Central

Yurovsky, Daniel

2015-01-01

Children learn their earliest words through social interaction, but it is unknown how much they rely on social information. Some theories argue that word learning is fundamentally social from its outset, with even the youngest infants understanding intentions and using them to infer a social partner’s target of reference. In contrast, other theories argue that early word learning is largely a perceptual process in which young children map words onto salient objects. One way of unifying these accounts is to model word learning as weighted cue-combination, in which children attend to many potential cues to reference, but only gradually learn the correct weight to assign each cue. We tested four predictions of this kind of naïve cue-combination account, using an eye-tracking paradigm that combines social word-teaching and two-alternative forced-choice testing. None of the predictions were supported. We thus propose an alternative unifying account: children are sensitive to social information early, but their ability to gather and deploy this information is constrained by domain-general cognitive processes. Developmental changes in children’s use of social cues emerge not from learning the predictive power of social cues, but from the gradual development of attention, memory, and speed of information processing. PMID:26575408

Bilinguals’ Existing Languages Benefit Vocabulary Learning in a Third Language

PubMed Central

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2017-01-01

Learning a new language involves substantial vocabulary acquisition. Learners can accelerate this process by relying on words with native-language overlap, such as cognates. For bilingual third language learners, it is necessary to determine how their two existing languages interact during novel language learning. A scaffolding account predicts transfer from either language for individual words, whereas an accumulation account predicts cumulative transfer from both languages. To compare these accounts, twenty English-German bilingual adults were taught an artificial language containing 48 novel written words that varied orthogonally in English and German wordlikeness (neighborhood size and orthotactic probability). Wordlikeness in each language improved word production accuracy, and similarity to one language provided the same benefit as dual-language overlap. In addition, participants’ memory for novel words was affected by the statistical distributions of letters in the novel language. Results indicate that bilinguals utilize both languages during third language acquisition, supporting a scaffolding learning model. PMID:28781384

Bilinguals' Existing Languages Benefit Vocabulary Learning in a Third Language.

PubMed

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2017-03-01

Learning a new language involves substantial vocabulary acquisition. Learners can accelerate this process by relying on words with native-language overlap, such as cognates. For bilingual third language learners, it is necessary to determine how their two existing languages interact during novel language learning. A scaffolding account predicts transfer from either language for individual words, whereas an accumulation account predicts cumulative transfer from both languages. To compare these accounts, twenty English-German bilingual adults were taught an artificial language containing 48 novel written words that varied orthogonally in English and German wordlikeness (neighborhood size and orthotactic probability). Wordlikeness in each language improved word production accuracy, and similarity to one language provided the same benefit as dual-language overlap. In addition, participants' memory for novel words was affected by the statistical distributions of letters in the novel language. Results indicate that bilinguals utilize both languages during third language acquisition, supporting a scaffolding learning model.

Learning across Languages: Bilingual Experience Supports Dual Language Statistical Word Segmentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Antovich, Dylan M.; Graf Estes, Katharine

2018-01-01

Bilingual acquisition presents learning challenges beyond those found in monolingual environments, including the need to segment speech in two languages. Infants may use statistical cues, such as syllable-level transitional probabilities, to segment words from fluent speech. In the present study we assessed monolingual and bilingual 14-month-olds'…

Using Cognitive Tutor Software in Learning Linear Algebra Word Concept

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Kai-Ju

2015-01-01

This paper reports on a study of twelve 10th grade students using Cognitive Tutor, a math software program, to learn linear algebra word concept. The study's purpose was to examine whether students' mathematics performance as it is related to using Cognitive Tutor provided evidence to support Koedlinger's (2002) four instructional principles used…

The Pursuit of Word Meanings

PubMed Central

Stevens, Jon Scott; Gleitman, Lila R.; Trueswell, John C.; Yang, Charles

2016-01-01

We evaluate here the performance of four models of cross-situational word learning; two global models, which extract and retain multiple referential alternatives from each word occurrence; and two local models, which extract just a single referent from each occurrence. One of these local models, dubbed Pursuit, uses an associative learning mechanism to estimate word-referent probability but pursues and tests the best referent-meaning at any given time. Pursuit is found to perform as well as global models under many conditions extracted from naturalistic corpora of parent child-interactions, even though the model maintains far less information than global models. Moreover, Pursuit is found to best capture human experimental findings from several relevant cross-situational word-learning experiments, including those of Yu and Smith (2007), the paradigm example of a finding believed to support fully global cross-situational models. Implications and limitations of these results are discussed, most notably that the model characterizes only the earliest stages of word learning, when reliance on the co-occurring referent world is at its greatest. PMID:27666335

Morphological learning in a novel language: A cross-language comparison.

PubMed

Havas, Viktória; Waris, Otto; Vaquero, Lucía; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Laine, Matti

2015-01-01

Being able to extract and interpret the internal structure of complex word forms such as the English word dance+r+s is crucial for successful language learning. We examined whether the ability to extract morphological information during word learning is affected by the morphological features of one's native tongue. Spanish and Finnish adult participants performed a word-picture associative learning task in an artificial language where the target words included a suffix marking the gender of the corresponding animate object. The short exposure phase was followed by a word recognition task and a generalization task for the suffix. The participants' native tongues vary greatly in terms of morphological structure, leading to two opposing hypotheses. On the one hand, Spanish speakers may be more effective in identifying gender in a novel language because this feature is present in Spanish but not in Finnish. On the other hand, Finnish speakers may have an advantage as the abundance of bound morphemes in their language calls for continuous morphological decomposition. The results support the latter alternative, suggesting that lifelong experience on morphological decomposition provides an advantage in novel morphological learning.

Statistical learning in reading: variability in irrelevant letters helps children learn phonics skills.

PubMed

Apfelbaum, Keith S; Hazeltine, Eliot; McMurray, Bob

2013-07-01

Early reading abilities are widely considered to derive in part from statistical learning of regularities between letters and sounds. Although there is substantial evidence from laboratory work to support this, how it occurs in the classroom setting has not been extensively explored; there are few investigations of how statistics among letters and sounds influence how children actually learn to read or what principles of statistical learning may improve learning. We examined 2 conflicting principles that may apply to learning grapheme-phoneme-correspondence (GPC) regularities for vowels: (a) variability in irrelevant units may help children derive invariant relationships and (b) similarity between words may force children to use a deeper analysis of lexical structure. We trained 224 first-grade students on a small set of GPC regularities for vowels, embedded in words with either high or low consonant similarity, and tested their generalization to novel tasks and words. Variability offered a consistent benefit over similarity for trained and new words in both trained and new tasks.

In Their Own Words: Student Stories of Seeking Learning Support

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Mark; Hughes, Helen; Keppell, Mike; Hard, Natasha; Smith, Liz

2013-01-01

Many Open and Distance Learning (ODL) providers report that their students are prone to lower rates of retention and completion than campus-based students. Against this background, there is growing interest around distance-specific learning support. The current research investigated the experiences of students during their first semester as…

Online Instructor Strategies: A Study of Instructor Immediacy and Student Perceived Learning at a Community College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corona, Shannon F.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which instructor immediacy correlated with online community college students' perceived learning. The research questions that were investigated in the study focused on online instructor immediacy as it relates to praise (words of approval), encouragement (words of support) and examples…

Building Reflection with Word Clouds for Online RN to BSN Students.

PubMed

Volkert, Delene R

Reflection allows students to integrate learning with their personal context, developing deeper knowledge and promoting critical thinking. Word clouds help students develop themes/concepts beyond traditional methods, introducing visual aspects to an online learning environment. Students created word clouds and captions, then responded to those created by peers for a weekly discussion assignment. Students indicated overwhelming support for the use of word clouds to develop deeper understanding of the subject matter. This reflection assignment could be utilized in asynchronous, online undergraduate nursing courses for creative methods of building reflection and developing knowledge for the undergraduate RN to BSN student.

2.5-year-olds use cross-situational consistency to learn verbs under referential uncertainty.

PubMed

Scott, Rose M; Fisher, Cynthia

2012-02-01

Recent evidence shows that children can use cross-situational statistics to learn new object labels under referential ambiguity (e.g., Smith & Yu, 2008). Such evidence has been interpreted as support for proposals that statistical information about word-referent co-occurrence plays a powerful role in word learning. But object labels represent only a fraction of the vocabulary children acquire, and arguably represent the simplest case of word learning based on observations of world scenes. Here we extended the study of cross-situational word learning to a new segment of the vocabulary, action verbs, to permit a stronger test of the role of statistical information in word learning. In two experiments, on each trial 2.5-year-olds encountered two novel intransitive (e.g., "She's pimming!"; Experiment 1) or transitive verbs (e.g., "She's pimming her toy!"; Experiment 2) while viewing two action events. The consistency with which each verb accompanied each action provided the only source of information about the intended referent of each verb. The 2.5-year-olds used cross-situational consistency in verb learning, but also showed significant limits on their ability to do so as the sentences and scenes became slightly more complex. These findings help to define the role of cross-situational observation in word learning. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

2.5-year-olds use cross-situational consistency to learn verbs under referential uncertainty

PubMed Central

Scott, Rose M.; Fisher, Cynthia

2011-01-01

Recent evidence shows that children can use cross-situational statistics to learn new object labels under referential ambiguity (e.g., Smith & Yu, 2008). Such evidence has been interpreted as support for proposals that statistical information about word-referent co-occurrence plays a powerful role in word learning. But object labels represent only a fraction of the vocabulary children acquire, and arguably represent the simplest case of word learning based on observations of world scenes. Here we extended the study of cross-situational word learning to a new segment of the vocabulary, action verbs, to permit a stronger test of the role of statistical information in word learning. In two experiments, on each trial 2.5-year-olds encountered two novel intransitive (e.g., “She’s pimming!”; Experiment 1) or transitive verbs (e.g., “She’s pimming her toy!”; Experiment 2) while viewing two action events. The consistency with which each verb accompanied each action provided the only source of information about the intended referent of each verb. The 2.5-year-olds used cross-situational consistency in verb learning, but also showed significant limits on their ability to do so as the sentences and scenes became slightly more complex. These findings help to define the role of cross-situational observation in word learning. PMID:22104489

Eating Right. The Food Guide Pyramid.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frost, Helen

This booklet for young children is part of a series that supports national science standards related to physical health and nutrition, describing and illustrating the food groups of the food guide pyramid. Colorful photographs support early readers in understanding the text. The repetition of words and phrases helps early readers learn new words.…

Scaffold Seeking: A Reverse Design of Scaffolding in Computer-Supported Word Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Hercy N. H.; Yang, Euphony F. Y.; Liao, Calvin C. Y.; Chang, Ben; Huang, Yana C. Y.; Chan, Tak-Wai

2015-01-01

Although well-designed scaffolding may assist students to accomplish learning tasks, its insufficient capability to dynamically assess students' abilities and to adaptively support them may result in the problem of overscaffolding. Our previous project has also shown that students using scaffolds to solve mathematical word problems for a long time…

Using Reinforcement Learning to Examine Dynamic Attention Allocation during Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Yanping; Reichle, Erik D.; Gao, Ding-Guo

2013-01-01

A fundamental question in reading research concerns whether attention is allocated strictly serially, supporting lexical processing of one word at a time, or in parallel, supporting concurrent lexical processing of two or more words (Reichle, Liversedge, Pollatsek, & Rayner, 2009). The origins of this debate are reviewed. We then report three…

Chinese Fantasy Novel: Empirical Study on New Word Teaching for Non-Native Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meng, Bok Check; Soon, Goh Ying

2014-01-01

Giving additional learning materials such as Chinese fantasy novel to non-native learners can be strenuous. This study seeks to render empirical support on the usefulness of the use of new words in Chinese fantasy novel to enhance vocabulary learning among the non-native learners of Chinese. In general, the students agreed that they like to learn…

Phonological memory and vocabulary learning in children with focal lesions

PubMed Central

Gupta, Prahlad; MacWhinney, Brian; Feldman, Heidi M.; Sacco, Kelley

2014-01-01

Eleven children with early focal lesions were compared with 70 age-matched controls to assess their performance in repeating non-words, in learning new words, and in immediate serial recall, a triad of abilities that are believed to share a dependence on serial ordering mechanisms (e.g., Baddeley, Gathercole, & Papagno, 1998; Gupta, in press-a). Results for the experimental group were also compared with other assessments previously reported for the same children by MacWhinney, Feldman, Sacco, and Valdés-Pérez (2000). The children with brain injury showed substantial impairment relative to controls in the experimental tasks, in contrast with relatively unimpaired performance on measures of vocabulary and non-verbal intelligence. The relationships between word learning, non-word repetition, and immediate serial recall were similar to those observed in several other populations. These results support previous reports that there are persistent processing impairments following early brain injury, despite developmental plasticity. They also suggest that word learning, non-word repetition, and immediate serial recall may be relatively demanding tasks, and that their relationship is a fundamental aspect of the cognitive system. PMID:14585293

Hemispheric specialization for visual words is shaped by attention to sublexical units during initial learning.

PubMed

Yoncheva, Yuliya N; Wise, Jessica; McCandliss, Bruce

2015-01-01

Selective attention to grapheme-phoneme mappings during learning can impact the circuitry subsequently recruited during reading. Here we trained literate adults to read two novel scripts of glyph words containing embedded letters under different instructions. For one script, learners linked each embedded letter to its corresponding sound within the word (grapheme-phoneme focus); for the other, decoding was prevented so entire words had to be memorized. Post-training, ERPs were recorded during a reading task on the trained words within each condition and on untrained but decodable (transfer) words. Within this condition, reaction-time patterns suggested both trained and transfer words were accessed via sublexical units, yet a left-lateralized, late ERP response showed an enhanced left lateralization for transfer words relative to trained words, potentially reflecting effortful decoding. Collectively, these findings show that selective attention to grapheme-phoneme mappings during learning drives the lateralization of circuitry that supports later word recognition. This study thus provides a model example of how different instructional approaches to the same material may impact changes in brain circuitry. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neurophysiological evidence for the interplay of speech segmentation and word-referent mapping during novel word learning.

PubMed

François, Clément; Cunillera, Toni; Garcia, Enara; Laine, Matti; Rodriguez-Fornells, Antoni

2017-04-01

Learning a new language requires the identification of word units from continuous speech (the speech segmentation problem) and mapping them onto conceptual representation (the word to world mapping problem). Recent behavioral studies have revealed that the statistical properties found within and across modalities can serve as cues for both processes. However, segmentation and mapping have been largely studied separately, and thus it remains unclear whether both processes can be accomplished at the same time and if they share common neurophysiological features. To address this question, we recorded EEG of 20 adult participants during both an audio alone speech segmentation task and an audiovisual word-to-picture association task. The participants were tested for both the implicit detection of online mismatches (structural auditory and visual semantic violations) as well as for the explicit recognition of words and word-to-picture associations. The ERP results from the learning phase revealed a delayed learning-related fronto-central negativity (FN400) in the audiovisual condition compared to the audio alone condition. Interestingly, while online structural auditory violations elicited clear MMN/N200 components in the audio alone condition, visual-semantic violations induced meaning-related N400 modulations in the audiovisual condition. The present results support the idea that speech segmentation and meaning mapping can take place in parallel and act in synergy to enhance novel word learning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Word learning emerges from the interaction of online referent selection and slow associative learning

PubMed Central

McMurray, Bob; Horst, Jessica S.; Samuelson, Larissa K.

2013-01-01

Classic approaches to word learning emphasize the problem of referential ambiguity: in any naming situation the referent of a novel word must be selected from many possible objects, properties, actions, etc. To solve this problem, researchers have posited numerous constraints, and inference strategies, but assume that determining the referent of a novel word is isomorphic to learning. We present an alternative model in which referent selection is an online process that is independent of long-term learning. This two timescale approach creates significant power in the developing system. We illustrate this with a dynamic associative model in which referent selection is simulated as dynamic competition between competing referents, and learning is simulated using associative (Hebbian) learning. This model can account for a range of findings including the delay in expressive vocabulary relative to receptive vocabulary, learning under high degrees of referential ambiguity using cross-situational statistics, accelerating (vocabulary explosion) and decelerating (power-law) learning rates, fast-mapping by mutual exclusivity (and differences in bilinguals), improvements in familiar word recognition with development, and correlations between individual differences in speed of processing and learning. Five theoretical points are illustrated. 1) Word learning does not require specialized processes – general association learning buttressed by dynamic competition can account for much of the literature. 2) The processes of recognizing familiar words are not different than those that support novel words (e.g., fast-mapping). 3) Online competition may allow the network (or child) to leverage information available in the task to augment performance or behavior despite what might be relatively slow learning or poor representations. 4) Even associative learning is more complex than previously thought – a major contributor to performance is the pruning of incorrect associations between words and referents. 5) Finally, the model illustrates that learning and referent selection/word recognition, though logically distinct, can be deeply and subtly related as phenomena like speed of processing and mutual exclusivity may derive in part from the way learning shapes the system. As a whole, this suggests more sophisticated ways of describing the interaction between situation- and developmental-time processes and points to the need for considering such interactions as a primary determinant of development and processing in children. PMID:23088341

Lexical orthography acquisition: Is handwriting better than spelling aloud?

PubMed Central

Bosse, Marie-Line; Chaves, Nathalie; Valdois, Sylviane

2014-01-01

Lexical orthography acquisition is currently described as the building of links between the visual forms and the auditory forms of whole words. However, a growing body of data suggests that a motor component could further be involved in orthographic acquisition. A few studies support the idea that reading plus handwriting is a better lexical orthographic learning situation than reading alone. However, these studies did not explore which of the cognitive processes involved in handwriting enhanced lexical orthographic acquisition. Some findings suggest that the specific movements memorized when learning to write may participate in the establishment of orthographic representations in memory. The aim of the present study was to assess this hypothesis using handwriting and spelling aloud as two learning conditions. In two experiments, fifth graders were asked to read complex pseudo-words embedded in short sentences. Immediately after reading, participants had to recall the pseudo-words' spellings either by spelling them aloud or by handwriting them down. One week later, orthographic acquisition was tested using two post-tests: a pseudo-word production task (spelling by hand in Experiment 1 or spelling aloud in Experiment 2) and a pseudo-word recognition task. Results showed no significant difference in pseudo-word recognition between the two learning conditions. In the pseudo-word production task, orthography learning improved when the learning and post-test conditions were similar, thus showing a massive encoding-retrieval match effect in the two experiments. However, a mixed model analysis of the pseudo-word production results revealed a significant learning condition effect which remained after control of the encoding-retrieval match effect. This later finding suggests that orthography learning is more efficient when mediated by handwriting than by spelling aloud, whatever the post-test production task. PMID:24575058

Lexical orthography acquisition: Is handwriting better than spelling aloud?

PubMed

Bosse, Marie-Line; Chaves, Nathalie; Valdois, Sylviane

2014-01-01

Lexical orthography acquisition is currently described as the building of links between the visual forms and the auditory forms of whole words. However, a growing body of data suggests that a motor component could further be involved in orthographic acquisition. A few studies support the idea that reading plus handwriting is a better lexical orthographic learning situation than reading alone. However, these studies did not explore which of the cognitive processes involved in handwriting enhanced lexical orthographic acquisition. Some findings suggest that the specific movements memorized when learning to write may participate in the establishment of orthographic representations in memory. The aim of the present study was to assess this hypothesis using handwriting and spelling aloud as two learning conditions. In two experiments, fifth graders were asked to read complex pseudo-words embedded in short sentences. Immediately after reading, participants had to recall the pseudo-words' spellings either by spelling them aloud or by handwriting them down. One week later, orthographic acquisition was tested using two post-tests: a pseudo-word production task (spelling by hand in Experiment 1 or spelling aloud in Experiment 2) and a pseudo-word recognition task. Results showed no significant difference in pseudo-word recognition between the two learning conditions. In the pseudo-word production task, orthography learning improved when the learning and post-test conditions were similar, thus showing a massive encoding-retrieval match effect in the two experiments. However, a mixed model analysis of the pseudo-word production results revealed a significant learning condition effect which remained after control of the encoding-retrieval match effect. This later finding suggests that orthography learning is more efficient when mediated by handwriting than by spelling aloud, whatever the post-test production task.

The Effect of Number and Presentation Order of High-Constraint Sentences on Second Language Word Learning.

PubMed

Ma, Tengfei; Chen, Ran; Dunlap, Susan; Chen, Baoguo

2016-01-01

This paper presents the results of an experiment that investigated the effects of number and presentation order of high-constraint sentences on semantic processing of unknown second language (L2) words (pseudowords) through reading. All participants were Chinese native speakers who learned English as a foreign language. In the experiment, sentence constraint and order of different constraint sentences were manipulated in English sentences, as well as L2 proficiency level of participants. We found that the number of high-constraint sentences was supportive for L2 word learning except in the condition in which high-constraint exposure was presented first. Moreover, when the number of high-constraint sentences was the same, learning was significantly better when the first exposure was a high-constraint exposure. And no proficiency level effects were found. Our results provided direct evidence that L2 word learning benefited from high quality language input and first presentations of high quality language input.

Learning Technology Adoption: Navy Barriers And Resistance

DTIC Science & Technology

2018-03-01

ABSTRACT (maximum 200 words) Technological developments offer opportunities to enhance training effectiveness, in support of achieving high-velocity...developments offer opportunities to enhance training effectiveness, in support of achieving high-velocity learning. However, resistance to change...considering what opportunities for enhanced training might be offered by learning-centered technologies. This is evident in the CNO’s statement, “We must

Strategic value-directed learning and memory in Alzheimer's disease and behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia.

PubMed

Wong, Stephanie; Irish, Muireann; Savage, Greg; Hodges, John R; Piguet, Olivier; Hornberger, Michael

2018-02-12

In healthy adults, the ability to prioritize learning of highly valued information is supported by executive functions and enhances subsequent memory retrieval for this information. In Alzheimer's disease (AD) and behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), marked deficits are evident in learning and memory, presenting in the context of executive dysfunction. It is unclear whether these patients show a typical memory bias for higher valued stimuli. We administered a value-directed word-list learning task to AD (n = 10) and bvFTD (n = 21) patients and age-matched healthy controls (n = 22). Each word was assigned a low, medium or high point value, and participants were instructed to maximize the number of points earned across three learning trials. Participants' memory for the words was assessed on a delayed recall trial, followed by a recognition test for the words and corresponding point values. Relative to controls, both patient groups showed poorer overall learning, delayed recall and recognition. Despite these impairments, patients with AD preferentially recalled high-value words on learning trials and showed significant value-directed enhancement of recognition memory for the words and points. Conversely, bvFTD patients did not prioritize recall of high-value words during learning trials, and this reduced selectivity was related to inhibitory dysfunction. Nonetheless, bvFTD patients showed value-directed enhancement of recognition memory for the point values, suggesting a mismatch between memory of high-value information and the ability to apply this in a motivationally salient context. Our findings demonstrate that value-directed enhancement of memory may persist to some degree in patients with dementia, despite pronounced deficits in learning and memory. © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

The enhancement model of ICT competence for the teachers of SMP Terbuka in Central Java to support long distance learning program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Widowati, Trisnani; Purwanti, Dwi

2017-03-01

ICT-based learning for SMP Terbuka is a manifestation of the first pillar of DEPDIKNAS Strategic Plan 2005-2009, about the use of ICT as the facility of long distance learning. By implementing ICT-based learning, the communication between the teacher and the students is possible to happen although both parties are in differnet places. The problem in implementing ICT-based learning for SMP Terbuka is the low competence of the teachers in ICT mastery, because this research is aimed to formulate the enhancement model of ICT competence for the teachers of SMP Terbuka in Central Java to support long distance learning program. This research shows that Supervised-Teachers and Tutor Teachers Competence in ICT is still low with the average of Supervised-Teachers competence in operating Ms.Word application of 59.6%, Ms.Excel 55.40%, Power Point 43.40% and internet mastery of 41.8%; while the competence of Tutor Teachers is lower with the average of 40.40% in operating Ms. Word, 35.20% in Ms.Excel, 28.00% in Power Point, and 29% in internet mastery. It means that Supervised-Teachers understand ICT, but they do not master it; while Tutor Teachers have just understood ICT and have a low mastery in Ms.Word. The output of this research is: The new findings of the enhancement model of ICT competence for the teachers of SMP Terbuka in Central Java to support long distance learning program.

The role of reward in word learning and its implications for language acquisition.

PubMed

Ripollés, Pablo; Marco-Pallarés, Josep; Hielscher, Ulrike; Mestres-Missé, Anna; Tempelmann, Claus; Heinze, Hans-Jochen; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Noesselt, Toemme

2014-11-03

The exact neural processes behind humans' drive to acquire a new language--first as infants and later as second-language learners--are yet to be established. Recent theoretical models have proposed that during human evolution, emerging language-learning mechanisms might have been glued to phylogenetically older subcortical reward systems, reinforcing human motivation to learn a new language. Supporting this hypothesis, our results showed that adult participants exhibited robust fMRI activation in the ventral striatum (VS)--a core region of reward processing--when successfully learning the meaning of new words. This activation was similar to the VS recruitment elicited using an independent reward task. Moreover, the VS showed enhanced functional and structural connectivity with neocortical language areas during successful word learning. Together, our results provide evidence for the neural substrate of reward and motivation during word learning. We suggest that this strong functional and anatomical coupling between neocortical language regions and the subcortical reward system provided a crucial advantage in humans that eventually enabled our lineage to successfully acquire linguistic skills. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Comparison of Two Sight Word Interventions: Traditional Drill and Wordsheets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mule, Christina Marie

2013-01-01

Traditional drill and practice (TDP) is a sight word intervention that is well supported in the literature as being both effective and efficient. However, with growing demands in school systems, there is increased pressure to employ interventions that enhance learning outcomes with less instructional time. WordSheets (WS) was created as a method…

ERPs recorded during early second language exposure predict syntactic learning.

PubMed

Batterink, Laura; Neville, Helen J

2014-09-01

Millions of adults worldwide are faced with the task of learning a second language (L2). Understanding the neural mechanisms that support this learning process is an important area of scientific inquiry. However, most previous studies on the neural mechanisms underlying L2 acquisition have focused on characterizing the results of learning, relying upon end-state outcome measures in which learning is assessed after it has occurred, rather than on the learning process itself. In this study, we adopted a novel and more direct approach to investigate neural mechanisms engaged during L2 learning, in which we recorded ERPs from beginning adult learners as they were exposed to an unfamiliar L2 for the first time. Learners' proficiency in the L2 was then assessed behaviorally using a grammaticality judgment task, and ERP data acquired during initial L2 exposure were sorted as a function of performance on this task. High-proficiency learners showed a larger N100 effect to open-class content words compared with closed-class function words, whereas low-proficiency learners did not show a significant N100 difference between open- and closed-class words. In contrast, amplitude of the N400 word category effect correlated with learners' L2 comprehension, rather than predicting syntactic learning. Taken together, these results indicate that learners who spontaneously direct greater attention to open- rather than closed-class words when processing L2 input show better syntactic learning, suggesting a link between selective attention to open-class content words and acquisition of basic morphosyntactic rules. These findings highlight the importance of selective attention mechanisms for L2 acquisition.

Evidence for the negative impact of reward on self-regulated learning.

PubMed

Wehe, Hillary S; Rhodes, Matthew G; Seger, Carol A

2015-01-01

The undermining effect refers to the detrimental impact rewards can have on intrinsic motivation to engage in a behaviour. The current study tested the hypothesis that participants' self-regulated learning behaviours are susceptible to the undermining effect. Participants were assigned to learn a set of Swahili-English word pairs. Half of the participants were offered a reward for performance, and half were not offered a reward. After the initial study phase, participants were permitted to continue studying the words during a free period. The results were consistent with an undermining effect: Participants who were not offered a reward spent more time studying the words during the free period. The results suggest that rewards may negatively impact self-regulated learning behaviours and provide support for the encouragement of intrinsic motivation.

A Cross-Linguistic Study of Sound-Symbolism in Children’s Verb Learning

PubMed Central

Yoshida, Hanako

2012-01-01

A long history of research has considered the role of iconicity in language and the existence and role of non-arbitrary properties in language and the use of language. Previous studies with Japanese-speaking children whose language defines a large grammatical class of words with clear sound symbolism suggest that iconicity properties in Japanese may aid early verb learning, and a recent extended work suggest that such early sensitivity is not limited to children whose language supports such word classes. The present study further considers the use of sounds symbolic words in verb learning context by conducting systematic cross-linguistic comparisons on early exposure to and effect of sound symbolism in verb mapping. Experiment 1 is an observational study of how English- and Japanese-speaking parents talk about verbs. More conventionalized symbolic words were found in Japanese-speaking parental input and more idiosyncratic use of sound symbolism in English-speaking parental input. Despite this different exposure of iconic forms to describe actions, the artificial verb learning task in Experiment 2 revealed that children in both language groups benefit from sound-meaning correspondences for their verb learning. These results together confirm more extensive use of conventionalized sound-symbolism among Japanese-speakers, and also support a cross-linguistic consistency of the effect, which has documented in the recent work. The work also points to the potential value of understanding the contexts in which sound-meaning correspondences matter in language learning. PMID:23807870

Skype me! Socially Contingent Interactions Help Toddlers Learn Language

PubMed Central

Roseberry, Sarah; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick

2013-01-01

Language learning takes place in the context of social interactions, yet the mechanisms that render social interactions useful for learning language remain unclear. This paper focuses on whether social contingency might support word learning. Toddlers aged 24- to 30-months (N=36) were exposed to novel verbs in one of three conditions: live interaction training, socially contingent video training over video chat, and non-contingent video training (yoked video). Results suggest that children only learned novel verbs in socially contingent interactions (live interactions and video chat). The current study highlights the importance of social contingency in interactions for language learning and informs the literature on learning through screen media as the first study to examine word learning through video chat technology. PMID:24112079

Phonological learning in semantic dementia.

PubMed

Jefferies, Elizabeth; Bott, Samantha; Ehsan, Sheeba; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A

2011-04-01

Patients with semantic dementia (SD) have anterior temporal lobe (ATL) atrophy that gives rise to a highly selective deterioration of semantic knowledge. Despite pronounced anomia and poor comprehension of words and pictures, SD patients have well-formed, fluent speech and normal digit span. Given the intimate connection between phonological STM and word learning revealed by both neuropsychological and developmental studies, SD patients might be expected to show good acquisition of new phonological forms, even though their ability to map these onto meanings is impaired. In contradiction of these predictions, a limited amount of previous research has found poor learning of new phonological forms in SD. In a series of experiments, we examined whether SD patient, GE, could learn novel phonological sequences and, if so, under which circumstances. GE showed normal benefits of phonological knowledge in STM (i.e., normal phonotactic frequency and phonological similarity effects) but reduced support from semantic memory (i.e., poor immediate serial recall for semantically degraded words, characterised by frequent item errors). Next, we demonstrated normal learning of serial order information for repeated lists of single-digit number words using the Hebb paradigm: these items were well-understood allowing them to be repeated without frequent item errors. In contrast, patient GE showed little learning of nonsense syllable sequences using the same Hebb paradigm. Detailed analysis revealed that both GE and the controls showed a tendency to learn their own errors as opposed to the target items. Finally, we showed normal learning of phonological sequences for GE when he was prevented from repeating his errors. These findings confirm that the ATL atrophy in SD disrupts phonological processing for semantically degraded words but leaves the phonological architecture intact. Consequently, when item errors are minimised, phonological STM can support the acquisition of new phoneme sequences in patients with SD. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Does input influence uptake? Links between maternal talk, processing speed and vocabulary size in Spanish-learning children

PubMed Central

Hurtado, Nereyda; Marchman, Virginia A.; Fernald, Anne

2010-01-01

It is well established that variation in caregivers' speech is associated with language outcomes, yet little is known about the learning principles that mediate these effects. This longitudinal study (n = 27) explores whether Spanish-learning children's early experiences with language predict efficiency in real-time comprehension and vocabulary learning. Measures of mothers' speech at 18 months were examined in relation to children's speech processing efficiency and reported vocabulary at 18 and 24 months. Children of mothers who provided more input at 18 months knew more words and were faster in word recognition at 24 months. Moreover, multiple regression analyses indicated that the influences of caregiver speech on speed of word recognition and vocabulary were largely overlapping. This study provides the first evidence that input shapes children's lexical processing efficiency and that vocabulary growth and increasing facility in spoken word comprehension work together to support the uptake of the information that rich input affords the young language learner. PMID:19046145

Pigeons acquire multiple categories in parallel via associative learning: A parallel to human word learning?

PubMed Central

Wasserman, Edward A.; Brooks, Daniel I.; McMurray, Bob

2014-01-01

Might there be parallels between category learning in animals and word learning in children? To examine this possibility, we devised a new associative learning technique for teaching pigeons to sort 128 photographs of objects into 16 human language categories. We found that pigeons learned all 16 categories in parallel, they perceived the perceptual coherence of the different object categories, and they generalized their categorization behavior to novel photographs from the training categories. More detailed analyses of the factors that predict trial-by-trial learning implicated a number of factors that may shape learning. First, we found considerable trial-by-trial dependency of pigeons’ categorization responses, consistent with several recent studies that invoke this dependency to claim that humans acquire words via symbolic or inferential mechanisms; this finding suggests that such dependencies may also arise in associative systems. Second, our trial-by-trial analyses divulged seemingly irrelevant aspects of the categorization task, like the spatial location of the report responses, which influenced learning. Third, those trial-by-trial analyses also supported the possibility that learning may be determined both by strengthening correct stimulus-response associations and by weakening incorrect stimulus-response associations. The parallel between all these findings and important aspects of human word learning suggests that associative learning mechanisms may play a much stronger part in complex human behavior than is commonly believed. PMID:25497520

An Attentional Goldilocks Effect: An Optimal Amount of Social Interactivity Promotes Word Learning from Video

PubMed Central

Nussenbaum, Kate; Amso, Dima

2015-01-01

Television can be a powerful education tool; however, content-makers must understand the factors that engage attention and promote learning from screen media. Prior research suggests that social engagement is critical for learning and that interactivity may enhance the educational quality of children’s media. The present study examined the effects of increasing the social interactivity of television on children’s visual attention and word learning. Three- to 5-year-old (MAge = 4;5 years, SD = 9 months) children completed a task in which they viewed videos of an actress teaching them the Swahili label for an on-screen image. Each child viewed these video clips in four conditions that parametrically manipulated social engagement and interactivity. We then tested whether each child had successfully learned the Swahili labels. Though 5-year-old children were able to learn words in all conditions, we found that there was an optimal level of social engagement that best supported learning for all participants, defined by engaging the child but not distracting from word labeling. Our eye-tracking data indicated that children in this condition spent more time looking at the target image and less time looking at the actress’s face as compared to the most interactive condition. These findings suggest that social interactivity is critical to engaging attention and promoting learning from screen media up until a certain point, after which social stimuli may draw attention away from target images and impair children’s word learning. PMID:27030791

An Attentional Goldilocks Effect: An Optimal Amount of Social Interactivity Promotes Word Learning from Video.

PubMed

Nussenbaum, Kate; Amso, Dima

2016-01-01

Television can be a powerful education tool; however, content-makers must understand the factors that engage attention and promote learning from screen media. Prior research suggests that social engagement is critical for learning and that interactivity may enhance the educational quality of children's media. The present study examined the effects of increasing the social interactivity of television on children's visual attention and word learning. Three- to 5-year-old ( M Age = 4;5 years, SD = 9 months) children completed a task in which they viewed videos of an actress teaching them the Swahili label for an on-screen image. Each child viewed these video clips in four conditions that parametrically manipulated social engagement and interactivity. We then tested whether each child had successfully learned the Swahili labels. Though 5-year-old children were able to learn words in all conditions, we found that there was an optimal level of social engagement that best supported learning for all participants, defined by engaging the child but not distracting from word labeling. Our eye-tracking data indicated that children in this condition spent more time looking at the target image and less time looking at the actress's face as compared to the most interactive condition. These findings suggest that social interactivity is critical to engaging attention and promoting learning from screen media up until a certain point, after which social stimuli may draw attention away from target images and impair children's word learning.

Personalized Mobile English Vocabulary Learning System Based on Item Response Theory and Learning Memory Cycle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, C. M.; Chung, C. J.

2008-01-01

Since learning English is very popular in non-English speaking countries, developing modern assisted-learning tools that support effective English learning is a critical issue in the English-language education field. Learning English involves memorization and practice of a large number of vocabulary words and numerous grammatical structures.…

Word position affects stimulus recognition: evidence for early ERP short-term plastic modulation.

PubMed

Spironelli, Chiara; Galfano, Giovanni; Umiltà, Carlo; Angrilli, Alessandro

2011-12-01

The present study was aimed at investigating the short-term plastic changes that follow word learning at a neurophysiological level. The main hypothesis was that word position (left or right visual field, LVF/RH or RVF/LH) in the initial learning phase would leave a trace that affected, in the subsequent recognition phase, the Recognition Potential (i.e., the first negative component distinguishing words from other stimuli) elicited 220-240 ms after centrally presented stimuli. Forty-eight students were administered, in the learning phase, 125 words for 4s, randomly presented half in the left and half in the right visual field. In the recognition phase, participants were split into two equal groups, one was assigned to the Word task, the other to the Picture task (in which half of the 125 pictures were new, and half matched prior studied words). During the Word task, old RVF/LH words elicited significantly greater negativity in left posterior sites with respect to old LVF/RH words, which in turn showed the same pattern of activation evoked by new words. Therefore, correspondence between stimulus spatial position and hemisphere specialized in automatic word recognition created a robust prime for subsequent recognition. During the Picture task, pictures matching old RVF/LH words showed no differences compared with new pictures, but evoked significantly greater negativity than pictures matching old LVF/RH words. Thus, the priming effect vanished when the task required a switch from visual analysis to stored linguistic information, whereas the lack of correspondence between stimulus position and network specialized in automatic word recognition (i.e., when words were presented to the LVF/RH) revealed the implicit costs for recognition. Results support the view that short-term plastic changes occurring in a linguistic learning task interact with both stimulus position and modality (written word vs. picture representation). Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Educational Technology Research Journals: "International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning," 2006-2014

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howland, Shiloh M. J.; Martin, M. Troy; Bodily, Robert; Faulconer, Christian; West, Richard E.

2015-01-01

The authors analyzed all research articles from the first issue of the "International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning" in 2006 until the second issue of 2014. They determined the research methodologies, most frequently used author-supplied keywords as well as two- and three-word phrases, and most frequently published…

Skype me! Socially contingent interactions help toddlers learn language.

PubMed

Roseberry, Sarah; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta M

2014-01-01

Language learning takes place in the context of social interactions, yet the mechanisms that render social interactions useful for learning language remain unclear. This study focuses on whether social contingency might support word learning. Toddlers aged 24-30 months (N = 36) were exposed to novel verbs in one of three conditions: live interaction training, socially contingent video training over video chat, and noncontingent video training (yoked video). Results suggest that children only learned novel verbs in socially contingent interactions (live interactions and video chat). This study highlights the importance of social contingency in interactions for language learning and informs the literature on learning through screen media as the first study to examine word learning through video chat technology. © 2013 The Authors. Child Development © 2013 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Input Frequency and Lexical Variability in Phonological Development: A Survival Analysis of Word-Initial Cluster Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ota, Mitsuhiko; Green, Sam J.

2013-01-01

Although it has been often hypothesized that children learn to produce new sound patterns first in frequently heard words, the available evidence in support of this claim is inconclusive. To re-examine this question, we conducted a survival analysis of word-initial consonant clusters produced by three children in the Providence Corpus (0 ; 11-4 ;…

How Language Supports Adaptive Teaching through a Responsive Learning Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnston, Peter; Dozier, Cheryl; Smit, Julie

2016-01-01

For students to learn optimally, teachers must design classrooms that are responsive to the full range of student development. The teacher must be adaptive, but so must each student and the learning culture itself. In other words, adaptive teaching means constructing a responsive learning culture that accommodates and even capitalizes on diversity…

Skype Me! Socially Contingent Interactions Help Toddlers Learn Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roseberry, Sarah; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta M.

2014-01-01

Language learning takes place in the context of social interactions, yet the mechanisms that render social interactions useful for learning language remain unclear. This study focuses on whether social contingency might support word learning. Toddlers aged 24-30 months (N = 36) were exposed to novel verbs in one of three conditions: live…

Age effects on acquisition of word stress in Spanish-English bilinguals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guion, Susan G.; Clark, J. J.; Harada, Tetsuo

2003-10-01

Based on studies of syntactic and semantic learning, it has been proposed that certain aspects of second language learning may be more adversely affected by delays in language learning than others. Here, this proposal is extended to the phonological domain in which the acquisition of English word stress patterns by early (AOA <6 years) and late (AOA >14 years) Spanish-English bilinguals is investigated. The knowledge of English word stress was investigated by three behavioral tasks. In a production task, participants produced two syllable nonwords in both noun and verb sentence frames. In a perception task, participants indicated a preference for first or last syllable stress on the nonwords. Real words that were phonologically similar to the test items were also collected from each participant. Regression analyses and ANOVAs were conducted to determine the effect of syllable structure, lexical class, and stress pattern of phonologically similar words on the data from the production and perception tasks. Early bilinguals patterned similarly to the native English participants. Late bilinguals showed little evidence of learning prosodically based stress patterns but did show evidence of application of distributional patterns based on lexical class and analogy in stress assignment. [Research supported by NIH.

Enrichment Effects of Gestures and Pictures on Abstract Words in a Second Language.

PubMed

Repetto, Claudia; Pedroli, Elisa; Macedonia, Manuela

2017-01-01

Laboratory research has demonstrated that multisensory enrichment promotes verbal learning in a foreign language (L2). Enrichment can be done in various ways, e.g., by adding a picture that illustrates the L2 word's meaning or by the learner performing a gesture to the word (enactment). Most studies have tested enrichment on concrete but not on abstract words. Unlike concrete words, the representation of abstract words is deprived of sensory-motor features. This has been addressed as one of the reasons why abstract words are difficult to remember. Here, we ask whether a brief enrichment training by means of pictures and by self-performed gestures also enhances the memorability of abstract words in L2. Further, we explore which of these two enrichment strategies is more effective. Twenty young adults learned 30 novel abstract words in L2 according to three encoding conditions: (1) reading, (2) reading and pairing the novel word to a picture, and (3) reading and enacting the word by means of a gesture. We measured memory performance in free and cued recall tests, as well as in a visual recognition task. Words encoded with gestures were better remembered in the free recall in the native language (L1). When recognizing the novel words, participants made less errors for words encoded with gestures compared to words encoded with pictures. The reaction times in the recognition task did not differ across conditions. The present findings support, even if only partially, the idea that enactment promotes learning of abstract words and that it is superior to enrichment by means of pictures even after short training.

Foreign Subtitles Help but Native-Language Subtitles Harm Foreign Speech Perception

PubMed Central

Mitterer, Holger; McQueen, James M.

2009-01-01

Understanding foreign speech is difficult, in part because of unusual mappings between sounds and words. It is known that listeners in their native language can use lexical knowledge (about how words ought to sound) to learn how to interpret unusual speech-sounds. We therefore investigated whether subtitles, which provide lexical information, support perceptual learning about foreign speech. Dutch participants, unfamiliar with Scottish and Australian regional accents of English, watched Scottish or Australian English videos with Dutch, English or no subtitles, and then repeated audio fragments of both accents. Repetition of novel fragments was worse after Dutch-subtitle exposure but better after English-subtitle exposure. Native-language subtitles appear to create lexical interference, but foreign-language subtitles assist speech learning by indicating which words (and hence sounds) are being spoken. PMID:19918371

A neurocomputational account of taxonomic responding and fast mapping in early word learning.

PubMed

Mayor, Julien; Plunkett, Kim

2010-01-01

We present a neurocomputational model with self-organizing maps that accounts for the emergence of taxonomic responding and fast mapping in early word learning, as well as a rapid increase in the rate of acquisition of words observed in late infancy. The quality and efficiency of generalization of word-object associations is directly related to the quality of prelexical, categorical representations in the model. We show how synaptogenesis supports coherent generalization of word-object associations and show that later synaptic pruning minimizes metabolic costs without being detrimental to word learning. The role played by joint-attentional activities is identified in the model, both at the level of selecting efficient cross-modal synapses and at the behavioral level, by accelerating and refining overall vocabulary acquisition. The model can account for the qualitative shift in the way infants use words, from an associative to a referential-like use, for the pattern of overextension errors in production and comprehension observed during early childhood and typicality effects observed in lexical development. Interesting by-products of the model include a potential explanation of the shift from prototype to exemplar-based effects reported for adult category formation, an account of mispronunciation effects in early lexical development, and extendability to include accounts of individual differences in lexical development and specific disorders such as Williams syndrome. The model demonstrates how an established constraint on lexical learning, which has often been regarded as domain-specific, can emerge from domain-general learning principles that are simultaneously biologically, psychologically, and socially plausible.

Co-viewing supports toddlers' word learning from contingent and noncontingent video.

PubMed

Strouse, Gabrielle A; Troseth, Georgene L; O'Doherty, Katherine D; Saylor, Megan M

2018-02-01

Social cues are one way young children determine that a situation is pedagogical in nature-containing information to be learned and generalized. However, some social cues (e.g., contingent gaze and responsiveness) are missing from prerecorded video, a potential reason why toddlers' language learning from video can be inefficient compared with their learning directly from a person. This study explored two methods for supporting children's word learning from video by adding social-communicative cues. A sample of 88 30-month-olds began their participation with a video training phase. In one manipulation, an on-screen actress responded contingently to children through a live video feed (similar to Skype or FaceTime "video chat") or appeared in a prerecorded demonstration. In the other manipulation, parents either modeled responsiveness to the actress's on-screen bids for participation or sat out of their children's view. Children then viewed a labeling demonstration on video, and their knowledge of the label was tested with three-dimensional objects. Results indicated that both on-screen contingency and parent modeling increased children's engagement with the actress during training. However, only parent modeling increased children's subsequent word learning, perhaps by revealing the symbolic (representational) intentions underlying this video. This study highlights the importance of adult co-viewing in helping toddlers to interpret communicative cues from video. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Enrichment Effects of Gestures and Pictures on Abstract Words in a Second Language

PubMed Central

Repetto, Claudia; Pedroli, Elisa; Macedonia, Manuela

2017-01-01

Laboratory research has demonstrated that multisensory enrichment promotes verbal learning in a foreign language (L2). Enrichment can be done in various ways, e.g., by adding a picture that illustrates the L2 word’s meaning or by the learner performing a gesture to the word (enactment). Most studies have tested enrichment on concrete but not on abstract words. Unlike concrete words, the representation of abstract words is deprived of sensory-motor features. This has been addressed as one of the reasons why abstract words are difficult to remember. Here, we ask whether a brief enrichment training by means of pictures and by self-performed gestures also enhances the memorability of abstract words in L2. Further, we explore which of these two enrichment strategies is more effective. Twenty young adults learned 30 novel abstract words in L2 according to three encoding conditions: (1) reading, (2) reading and pairing the novel word to a picture, and (3) reading and enacting the word by means of a gesture. We measured memory performance in free and cued recall tests, as well as in a visual recognition task. Words encoded with gestures were better remembered in the free recall in the native language (L1). When recognizing the novel words, participants made less errors for words encoded with gestures compared to words encoded with pictures. The reaction times in the recognition task did not differ across conditions. The present findings support, even if only partially, the idea that enactment promotes learning of abstract words and that it is superior to enrichment by means of pictures even after short training. PMID:29326617

Rapid eye movement and non-rapid eye movement sleep contributions in memory consolidation and resistance to retroactive interference for verbal material.

PubMed

Deliens, Gaétane; Leproult, Rachel; Neu, Daniel; Peigneux, Philippe

2013-12-01

To test the hypothesis that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep contributes to the consolidation of new memories, whereas non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep contributes to the prevention of retroactive interference. Randomized, crossover study. Two sessions of either a morning nap or wakefulness. Twenty-five healthy young adults. Declarative learning of word pairs followed by a nap or a wake interval, then learning of interfering word pairs and delayed recall of list A. After a restricted night (24:00-06:00), participants learned a list of word pairs (list A). They were then required to either take a nap or stay awake during 45 min, after which they learned a second list of word pairs (list B) and then had to recall list A. Fifty percent of word pairs in list B shared the first word with list A, resulting in interference. Ten subjects exhibited REM sleep whereas 13 subjects exhibited NREM stage 3 (N3) sleep. An interference effect was observed in the nap but not in the wake condition. In post-learning naps, N3 sleep was associated with a reduced interference effect, which was not the case for REM sleep. Moreover, participants exhibiting N3 sleep in the post-learning nap condition also showed a reduced interference effect in the wake condition, suggesting a higher protection ability against interference. Our results partly support the hypothesis that non-rapid eye movement sleep contributes in protecting novel memories against interference. However, rapid eye movement sleep-related consolidation is not evidenced.

Phonological similarity influences word learning in adults learning Spanish as a foreign language

PubMed Central

Stamer, Melissa K.; Vitevitch, Michael S.

2013-01-01

Neighborhood density—the number of words that sound similar to a given word (Luce & Pisoni, 1998)—influences word-learning in native English speaking children and adults (Storkel, 2004; Storkel, Armbruster, & Hogan, 2006): novel words with many similar sounding English words (i.e., dense neighborhood) are learned more quickly than novel words with few similar sounding English words (i.e., sparse neighborhood). The present study examined how neighborhood density influences word-learning in native English speaking adults learning Spanish as a foreign language. Students in their third-semester of Spanish language classes learned advanced Spanish words that sounded similar to many known Spanish words (i.e., dense neighborhood) or sounded similar to few known Spanish words (i.e., sparse neighborhood). In three word-learning tasks, performance was better for Spanish words with dense rather than sparse neighborhoods. These results suggest that a similar mechanism may be used to learn new words in a native and a foreign language. PMID:23950692

Exploration of the Factors That Support Learning: Web-Based Activity and Testing Systems in Community College Algebra

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauk, Shandy; Matlen, Bryan

2016-01-01

A variety of computerized interactive learning platforms exist. Most include instructional supports in the form of problem sets. Feedback to users ranges from a single word like "Correct!" to offers of hints and partially to fully worked examples. Behind-the-scenes design of such systems varies as well --from static dictionaries of…

Exploration of the Factors That Support Learning: Web-Based Activity and Testing Systems in Community College Algebra [Contributed Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauk, Shandy; Matlen, Bryan; Thomas, Larry

2017-01-01

A variety of computerized interactive learning platforms exist. Most include instructional supports in the form of problem sets. Feedback to users ranges from a single word like "Correct!" to offers of hints and partially- to fully-worked examples. Behind-the-scenes design of systems varies as well--from static dictionaries of problems…

Lisa and Her Mom: Finding Success in Reading the Word (in "strikeout" text) World.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McClain, Veda Pendleton

2000-01-01

Presents a case study of the "Coleman family" to examine support for literacy within an economically disadvantaged family, in which the child learned to value literacy and learned how to read very well despite the limited literacy abilities of the mother. Discusses ways teachers might help parents to support literacy growth at home and at school.…

Metacognitive Strategies: A Foundation for Early Word Spelling and Reading in Kindergartners with SLI

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schiff, Rachel; Nuri Ben-Shushan, Yohi; Ben-Artzi, Elisheva

2017-01-01

This study assessed the effect of metacognitive instruction on the spelling and word reading of Hebrew-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). Participants were 67 kindergarteners with SLI in a supported learning context. Children were classified into three spelling instruction groups: (a) metalinguistic instruction (ML), (b) ML…

How Can Syntax Support Number Word Acquisition?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Syrett, Kristen; Musolino, Julien; Gelman, Rochel

2012-01-01

We expand upon a previous proposal by Bloom and Wynn (1997) that young children learn about the meaning of number words by tracking their occurrence in particular syntactic environments, in combination with the discourse context in which they are used. An analysis of the Childes database (MacWhinney, 2000) reveals that the environments studied by…

Clues cue the smooze: rhyme, pausing, and prediction help children learn new words from storybooks

PubMed Central

Read, Kirsten

2014-01-01

Rhyme, which is ubiquitous in the language experiences of young children, may be especially facilitative to vocabulary learning because of how it can support active predictions about upcoming words. In two experiments, we tested whether rhyme, when used to help children anticipate new words would make those words easier to learn. Two- to 4-year-old children heard rhyming stanzas naming novel monsters under three conditions: A non-rhyme condition in which novel monster names appeared as unrhymed elements within a rhymed stanza, a non-predictive rhyme condition in which the novel names were the rhymed element in the first line of a stanza, and a predictive rhyme condition in which the monster name came as the rhymed element in the last line of the stanza after a description of the features that distinguished him. In tests of retention and identification children showed greatest novel name learning in the predictive rhyme condition in both between-subjects (Experiment 1) and within-subjects (Experiment 2) comparisons. Additionally, when parents acted as the storybook readers in Experiment 2, many of them distinctly paused before target words in the predictive rhyme condition and for their children a stronger predictive rhyme advantage surfaced. Thus rhyme is not only facilitative for learning, but when the novel vocabulary is specifically in a position where it is predictable from the rhymes, it is most accessible. PMID:24600431

M-Learning: An Experiment in Using SMS to Support Learning New English Language Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cavus, Nadire; Ibrahim, Dogan

2009-01-01

There is an increase use of wireless technologies in education all over the world. In fact, wireless technologies such as laptop computers, palmtop computers and mobile phones are revolutionizing education and transforming the traditional classroom-based learning and teaching into "anytime" and "anywhere" education. This paper investigates the use…

Mindful Learning in Geography: Cultivating Balanced Attitudes toward Regions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Dong-min; Ryu, Jaemyong

2015-01-01

This study examines the potential of mindful learning in geography education. A hypothesis was developed to form the research topic, and three experiments were performed to analyze it. The experiments supported the hypothesis. In other words, mindful learning was found to be helpful for cultivating balanced attitudes toward regions. In conclusion,…

The Learning of Grammar: An Experimental Study. Experimental Studies on the Learning of Language, Progress Report II, Revised.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torrey, Jane W.

An experiment in language behavior comparing two methods of learning grammatical word order in a new language presents scientific evidence supporting the use of pattern drills in foreign language teaching. The experiment reviews the performance of three groups attempting to learn small segments of Russian "microlanguage": (1) a drill group learned…

How Many U.S. High School Students Have a Foreign Language Reading "Disability"? Reading without Meaning and the Simple View

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard L.; Luebbers, Julie

2018-01-01

Conventional wisdom suggests that students classified as learning disabled will exhibit difficulties with foreign language (FL) learning, but evidence has not supported a relationship between FL learning problems and learning disabilities. The simple view of reading model posits that reading comprehension is the product of word decoding and…

Computer-based learning of spelling skills in children with and without dyslexia.

PubMed

Kast, Monika; Baschera, Gian-Marco; Gross, Markus; Jäncke, Lutz; Meyer, Martin

2011-12-01

Our spelling training software recodes words into multisensory representations comprising visual and auditory codes. These codes represent information about letters and syllables of a word. An enhanced version, developed for this study, contains an additional phonological code and an improved word selection controller relying on a phoneme-based student model. We investigated the spelling behavior of children by means of learning curves based on log-file data of the previous and the enhanced software version. First, we compared the learning progress of children with dyslexia working either with the previous software (n = 28) or the adapted version (n = 37). Second, we investigated the spelling behavior of children with dyslexia (n = 37) and matched children without dyslexia (n = 25). To gain deeper insight into which factors are relevant for acquiring spelling skills, we analyzed the influence of cognitive abilities, such as attention functions and verbal memory skills, on the learning behavior. All investigations of the learning process are based on learning curve analyses of the collected log-file data. The results evidenced that those children with dyslexia benefit significantly from the additional phonological cue and the corresponding phoneme-based student model. Actually, children with dyslexia improve their spelling skills to the same extent as children without dyslexia and were able to memorize phoneme to grapheme correspondence when given the correct support and adequate training. In addition, children with low attention functions benefit from the structured learning environment. Generally, our data showed that memory sources are supportive cognitive functions for acquiring spelling skills and for using the information cues of a multi-modal learning environment.

Word Recognition and Word Identification: A Review of Research on Effective Instructional Practices with Learning Disabled Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCormick, Sandra; Becker, Evelyn Z.

1996-01-01

Reviews investigations related to word learning of learning disabled students. Finds that direct word study leads to reading improvement for learning disabled pupils, but that indirect instruction also provides assistance. Finds also that word knowledge instruction not only promotes word learning, but can heighten learning disabled students'…

Effects of a Word-Learning Training on Children With Cochlear Implants

PubMed Central

Lund, Emily

2014-01-01

Preschool children with hearing loss who use cochlear implants demonstrate vocabulary delays when compared to their peers without hearing loss. These delays may be a result of deficient word-learning abilities; children with cochlear implants perform more poorly on rapid word-learning tasks than children with normal hearing. This study explored the malleability of rapid word learning of preschoolers with cochlear implants by evaluating the effects of a word-learning training on rapid word learning. A single-subject, multiple probe design across participants measured the impact of the training on children’s rapid word-learning performance. Participants included 5 preschool children with cochlear implants who had an expressive lexicon of less than 150 words. An investigator guided children to identify, repeat, and learn about unknown sets of words in 2-weekly sessions across 10 weeks. The probe measure, a rapid word-learning task with a different set of words than those taught during training, was collected in the baseline, training, and maintenance conditions. All participants improved their receptive rapid word-learning performance in the training condition. The functional relation indicates that the receptive rapid word-learning performance of children with cochlear implants is malleable. PMID:23981321

Audiovisual alignment of co-speech gestures to speech supports word learning in 2-year-olds.

PubMed

Jesse, Alexandra; Johnson, Elizabeth K

2016-05-01

Analyses of caregiver-child communication suggest that an adult tends to highlight objects in a child's visual scene by moving them in a manner that is temporally aligned with the adult's speech productions. Here, we used the looking-while-listening paradigm to examine whether 25-month-olds use audiovisual temporal alignment to disambiguate and learn novel word-referent mappings in a difficult word-learning task. Videos of two equally interesting and animated novel objects were simultaneously presented to children, but the movement of only one of the objects was aligned with an accompanying object-labeling audio track. No social cues (e.g., pointing, eye gaze, touch) were available to the children because the speaker was edited out of the videos. Immediately afterward, toddlers were presented with still images of the two objects and asked to look at one or the other. Toddlers looked reliably longer to the labeled object, demonstrating their acquisition of the novel word-referent mapping. A control condition showed that children's performance was not solely due to the single unambiguous labeling that had occurred at experiment onset. We conclude that the temporal link between a speaker's utterances and the motion they imposed on the referent object helps toddlers to deduce a speaker's intended reference in a difficult word-learning scenario. In combination with our previous work, these findings suggest that intersensory redundancy is a source of information used by language users of all ages. That is, intersensory redundancy is not just a word-learning tool used by young infants. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Head of the Class: How Teachers Learn Technology Best.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKenzie, Jamie

2001-01-01

Educational technology is not about spread sheeting, word processing, or slick, "PowerPointless" student performances. Professional development should focus on curriculum-based teaching and learning strategies that enhance daily practice. Like gardening, fertilizer is needed via informal support systems, study groups, mentors, help…

Striatal degeneration impairs language learning: evidence from Huntington's disease.

PubMed

De Diego-Balaguer, R; Couette, M; Dolbeau, G; Dürr, A; Youssov, K; Bachoud-Lévi, A-C

2008-11-01

Although the role of the striatum in language processing is still largely unclear, a number of recent proposals have outlined its specific contribution. Different studies report evidence converging to a picture where the striatum may be involved in those aspects of rule-application requiring non-automatized behaviour. This is the main characteristic of the earliest phases of language acquisition that require the online detection of distant dependencies and the creation of syntactic categories by means of rule learning. Learning of sequences and categorization processes in non-language domains has been known to require striatal recruitment. Thus, we hypothesized that the striatum should play a prominent role in the extraction of rules in learning a language. We studied 13 pre-symptomatic gene-carriers and 22 early stage patients of Huntington's disease (pre-HD), both characterized by a progressive degeneration of the striatum and 21 late stage patients Huntington's disease (18 stage II, two stage III and one stage IV) where cortical degeneration accompanies striatal degeneration. When presented with a simplified artificial language where words and rules could be extracted, early stage Huntington's disease patients (stage I) were impaired in the learning test, demonstrating a greater impairment in rule than word learning compared to the 20 age- and education-matched controls. Huntington's disease patients at later stages were impaired both on word and rule learning. While spared in their overall performance, gene-carriers having learned a set of abstract artificial language rules were then impaired in the transfer of those rules to similar artificial language structures. The correlation analyses among several neuropsychological tests assessing executive function showed that rule learning correlated with tests requiring working memory and attentional control, while word learning correlated with a test involving episodic memory. These learning impairments significantly correlated with the bicaudate ratio. The overall results support striatal involvement in rule extraction from speech and suggest that language acquisition requires several aspects of memory and executive functions for word and rule learning.

High stimulus variability in nonnative speech learning supports formation of abstract categories: evidence from Japanese geminates.

PubMed

Sadakata, Makiko; McQueen, James M

2013-08-01

This study reports effects of a high-variability training procedure on nonnative learning of a Japanese geminate-singleton fricative contrast. Thirty native speakers of Dutch took part in a 5-day training procedure in which they identified geminate and singleton variants of the Japanese fricative /s/. Participants were trained with either many repetitions of a limited set of words recorded by a single speaker (low-variability training) or with fewer repetitions of a more variable set of words recorded by multiple speakers (high-variability training). Both types of training enhanced identification of speech but not of nonspeech materials, indicating that learning was domain specific. High-variability training led to superior performance in identification but not in discrimination tests, and supported better generalization of learning as shown by transfer from the trained fricatives to the identification of untrained stops and affricates. Variability thus helps nonnative listeners to form abstract categories rather than to enhance early acoustic analysis.

Semantic Representation of Newly Learned L2 Words and Their Integration in the L2 Lexicon

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bordag, Denisa; Kirschenbaum, Amit; Rogahn, Maria; Opitz, Andreas

2017-01-01

The present semantic priming study explores the integration of newly learnt L2 German words into the L2 semantic network of German advanced learners. It provides additional evidence in support of earlier findings reporting semantic inhibition effects for emergent representations. An inhibitory mechanism is proposed that temporarily decreases the…

Addressing Student Debt: A New Post Secondary Learning Support System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association of Canadian Community Colleges, 2001

2001-01-01

Access and affordability are bountiful concepts and key words used by policy makers in defining the role of post-secondary education and training in Canada. However, these words have not translated into action for many learners due to student debt. Incurred from high tuition fees, costly and complex payback schemes and under-funding, chronic…

Statistical Learning in a Natural Language by 8-Month-Old Infants

PubMed Central

Pelucchi, Bruna; Hay, Jessica F.; Saffran, Jenny R.

2013-01-01

Numerous studies over the past decade support the claim that infants are equipped with powerful statistical language learning mechanisms. The primary evidence for statistical language learning in word segmentation comes from studies using artificial languages, continuous streams of synthesized syllables that are highly simplified relative to real speech. To what extent can these conclusions be scaled up to natural language learning? In the current experiments, English-learning 8-month-old infants’ ability to track transitional probabilities in fluent infant-directed Italian speech was tested (N = 72). The results suggest that infants are sensitive to transitional probability cues in unfamiliar natural language stimuli, and support the claim that statistical learning is sufficiently robust to support aspects of real-world language acquisition. PMID:19489896

Statistical learning in a natural language by 8-month-old infants.

PubMed

Pelucchi, Bruna; Hay, Jessica F; Saffran, Jenny R

2009-01-01

Numerous studies over the past decade support the claim that infants are equipped with powerful statistical language learning mechanisms. The primary evidence for statistical language learning in word segmentation comes from studies using artificial languages, continuous streams of synthesized syllables that are highly simplified relative to real speech. To what extent can these conclusions be scaled up to natural language learning? In the current experiments, English-learning 8-month-old infants' ability to track transitional probabilities in fluent infant-directed Italian speech was tested (N = 72). The results suggest that infants are sensitive to transitional probability cues in unfamiliar natural language stimuli, and support the claim that statistical learning is sufficiently robust to support aspects of real-world language acquisition.

Measuring Explicit Word Learning of Preschool Children: A Development Study.

PubMed

Kelley, Elizabeth Spencer

2017-08-15

The purpose of this article is to present preliminary results related to the development of a new measure of explicit word learning. The measure incorporated elements of explicit vocabulary instruction and dynamic assessment and was designed to be sensitive to differences in word learning skill and to be feasible for use in clinical settings. The explicit word learning measure included brief teaching trials and repeated fine-grained measurement of semantic knowledge and production of 3 novel words (2 verbs and 1 adjective). Preschool children (N = 23) completed the measure of explicit word learning; standardized, norm-referenced measures of expressive and receptive vocabulary; and an incidental word learning task. The measure of explicit word learning provided meaningful information about word learning. Performance on the explicit measure was related to existing vocabulary knowledge and incidental word learning. Findings from this development study indicate that further examination of the measure of explicit word learning is warranted. The measure may have the potential to identify children who are poor word learners. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5170738.

Novel-word learning deficits in Mandarin-speaking preschool children with specific language impairments.

PubMed

Chen, Yuchun; Liu, Huei-Mei

2014-01-01

Children with SLI exhibit overall deficits in novel word learning compared to their age-matched peers. However, the manifestation of the word learning difficulty in SLI was not consistent across tasks and the factors affecting the learning performance were not yet determined. Our aim is to examine the extent of word learning difficulties in Mandarin-speaking preschool children with SLI, and to explore the potent influence of existing lexical knowledge on to the word learning process. Preschool children with SLI (n=37) and typical language development (n=33) were exposed to novel words for unfamiliar objects embedded in stories. Word learning tasks including the initial mapping and short-term repetitive learning were designed. Results revealed that Mandarin-speaking preschool children with SLI performed as well as their age-peers in the initial form-meaning mapping task. Their word learning difficulty was only evidently shown in the short-term repetitive learning task under a production demand, and their learning speed was slower than the control group. Children with SLI learned the novel words with a semantic head better in both the initial mapping and repetitive learning tasks. Moderate correlations between stand word learning performances and scores on standardized vocabulary were found after controlling for children's age and nonverbal IQ. The results suggested that the word learning difficulty in children with SLI occurred in the process of establishing a robust phonological representation at the beginning stage of word learning. Also, implicit compound knowledge is applied to aid word learning process for children with and without SLI. We also provide the empirical data to validate the relationship between preschool children's word learning performance and their existing receptive vocabulary ability. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Benefit of Orthographic Support for Oral Vocabulary Learning in Children with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mengoni, Sylvana E.; Nash, Hannah; Hulme, Charles

2013-01-01

Children with Down syndrome typically have weaknesses in oral language, but it has been suggested that this domain may benefit from learning to read. Amongst oral language skills, vocabulary is a relative strength, although there is some evidence of difficulties in learning the phonological form of spoken words. This study investigated the effect…

Competition between multiple words for a referent in cross-situational word learning

PubMed Central

Benitez, Viridiana L.; Yurovsky, Daniel; Smith, Linda B.

2016-01-01

Three experiments investigated competition between word-object pairings in a cross-situational word-learning paradigm. Adults were presented with One-Word pairings, where a single word labeled a single object, and Two-Word pairings, where two words labeled a single object. In addition to measuring learning of these two pairing types, we measured competition between words that refer to the same object. When the word-object co-occurrences were presented intermixed in training (Experiment 1), we found evidence for direct competition between words that label the same referent. Separating the two words for an object in time eliminated any evidence for this competition (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 demonstrated that adding a linguistic cue to the second label for a referent led to different competition effects between adults who self-reported different language learning histories, suggesting both distinctiveness and language learning history affect competition. Finally, in all experiments, competition effects were unrelated to participants’ explicit judgments of learning, suggesting that competition reflects the operating characteristics of implicit learning processes. Together, these results demonstrate that the role of competition between overlapping associations in statistical word-referent learning depends on time, the distinctiveness of word-object pairings, and language learning history. PMID:27087742

Language, procedures, and the non-perceptual origin of number word meanings.

PubMed

Barner, David

2017-05-01

Perceptual representations of objects and approximate magnitudes are often invoked as building blocks that children combine to acquire the positive integers. Systems of numerical perception are either assumed to contain the logical foundations of arithmetic innately, or to supply the basis for their induction. I propose an alternative to this framework, and argue that the integers are not learned from perceptual systems, but arise to explain perception. Using cross-linguistic and developmental data, I show that small (~1-4) and large (~5+) numbers arise both historically and in individual children via distinct mechanisms, constituting independent learning problems, neither of which begins with perceptual building blocks. Children first learn small numbers using the same logic that supports other linguistic number marking (e.g. singular/plural). Years later, they infer the logic of counting from the relations between large number words and their roles in blind counting procedures, only incidentally associating number words with approximate magnitudes.

Learning new meanings for known words: Biphasic effects of prior knowledge.

PubMed

Fang, Xiaoping; Perfetti, Charles; Stafura, Joseph

2017-01-01

In acquiring word meanings, learners are often confronted by a single word form that is mapped to two or more meanings. For example, long after how to roller-"skate", one may learn that "skate" is also a kind of fish. Such learning of new meanings for familiar words involves two potentially contrasting processes, relative to new form-new meaning learning: 1) Form-based familiarity may facilitate learning a new meaning, and 2) meaning-based interference may inhibit learning a new meaning. We examined these two processes by having native English speakers learn new, unrelated meanings for familiar (high frequency) and less familiar (low frequency) English words, as well as for unfamiliar (novel or pseudo-) words. Tracking learning with cued-recall tasks at several points during learning revealed a biphasic pattern: higher learning rates and greater learning efficiency for familiar words relative to novel words early in learning and a reversal of this pattern later in learning. Following learning, interference from original meanings for familiar words was detected in a semantic relatedness judgment task. Additionally, lexical access to familiar words with new meanings became faster compared to their exposure controls, but no such effect occurred for less familiar words. Overall, the results suggest a biphasic pattern of facilitating and interfering processes: Familiar word forms facilitate learning earlier, while interference from original meanings becomes more influential later. This biphasic pattern reflects the co-activation of new and old meanings during learning, a process that may play a role in lexicalization of new meanings.

Developing Multimedia Supplementary Materials to Support Learning Beginning Level Chinese Characters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Lisha

2017-01-01

Studies investigating beginner Chinese learners' character learning strategies found that learners considered orthographic knowledge the most useful factor (Ke, 1998; Shen, 2005). Orthographic recognition correlates with character identification and production and can be used by advanced learners to solve word identification problems (Everson,…

Learning new vocabulary in German: the effects of inferring word meanings, type of feedback, and time of test.

PubMed

Carpenter, Shana K; Sachs, Riebana E; Martin, Beth; Schmidt, Kristian; Looft, Ruxandra

2012-02-01

In the present study, introductory-level German students read a simplified story and learned the meanings of new German words by reading English translations in marginal glosses versus trying to infer (i.e., guess) their translations. Students who inferred translations were given feedback in English or in German, or no feedback at all. Although immediate retention of new vocabulary was better for students who used marginal glosses, students who inferred word meanings and then received English feedback forgot fewer translations over time. Plausible but inaccurate inferences (i.e., those that made sense in the context) were more likely to be corrected by students who received English feedback as compared with German feedback, providing support for the beneficial effects of mediating information. Implausible inaccurate inferences, however, were more likely to be corrected on the delayed vocabulary test by students who received German feedback as compared with English feedback, possibly because of the additional contextual support provided by German feedback.

Infants Encode Phonetic Detail during Cross-Situational Word Learning

PubMed Central

Escudero, Paola; Mulak, Karen E.; Vlach, Haley A.

2016-01-01

Infants often hear new words in the context of more than one candidate referent. In cross-situational word learning (XSWL), word-object mappings are determined by tracking co-occurrences of words and candidate referents across multiple learning events. Research demonstrates that infants can learn words in XSWL paradigms, suggesting that it is a viable model of real-world word learning. However, these studies have all presented infants with words that have no or minimal phonological overlap (e.g., BLICKET and GAX). Words often contain some degree of phonological overlap, and it is unknown whether infants can simultaneously encode fine phonological detail while learning words via XSWL. We tested 12-, 15-, 17-, and 20-month-olds’ XSWL of eight words that, when paired, formed non-minimal pairs (MPs; e.g., BON–DEET) or MPs (e.g., BON–TON, DEET–DIT). The results demonstrated that infants are able to learn word-object mappings and encode them with sufficient phonetic detail as to identify words in both non-minimal and MP contexts. Thus, this work suggests that infants are able to simultaneously discriminate phonetic differences between words and map words to referents in an implicit learning paradigm such as XSWL. PMID:27708605

Recurrent neural networks with specialized word embeddings for health-domain named-entity recognition.

PubMed

Jauregi Unanue, Iñigo; Zare Borzeshi, Ehsan; Piccardi, Massimo

2017-12-01

Previous state-of-the-art systems on Drug Name Recognition (DNR) and Clinical Concept Extraction (CCE) have focused on a combination of text "feature engineering" and conventional machine learning algorithms such as conditional random fields and support vector machines. However, developing good features is inherently heavily time-consuming. Conversely, more modern machine learning approaches such as recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have proved capable of automatically learning effective features from either random assignments or automated word "embeddings". (i) To create a highly accurate DNR and CCE system that avoids conventional, time-consuming feature engineering. (ii) To create richer, more specialized word embeddings by using health domain datasets such as MIMIC-III. (iii) To evaluate our systems over three contemporary datasets. Two deep learning methods, namely the Bidirectional LSTM and the Bidirectional LSTM-CRF, are evaluated. A CRF model is set as the baseline to compare the deep learning systems to a traditional machine learning approach. The same features are used for all the models. We have obtained the best results with the Bidirectional LSTM-CRF model, which has outperformed all previously proposed systems. The specialized embeddings have helped to cover unusual words in DrugBank and MedLine, but not in the i2b2/VA dataset. We present a state-of-the-art system for DNR and CCE. Automated word embeddings has allowed us to avoid costly feature engineering and achieve higher accuracy. Nevertheless, the embeddings need to be retrained over datasets that are adequate for the domain, in order to adequately cover the domain-specific vocabulary. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Evocative Power of Words: Activation of Concepts by Verbal and Nonverbal Means

PubMed Central

Lupyan, Gary; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L.

2014-01-01

A major part of learning a language is learning to map spoken words onto objects in the environment. An open question is what are the consequences of this learning for cognition and perception? Here, we present a series of experiments that examine effects of verbal labels on the activation of conceptual information as measured through picture verification tasks. We find that verbal cues, such as the word “cat,” lead to faster and more accurate verification of congruent objects and rejection of incongruent objects than do either nonverbal cues, such as the sound of a cat meowing, or words that do not directly refer to the object, such as the word “meowing.” This label advantage does not arise from verbal labels being more familiar or easier to process than other cues, and it does extends to newly learned labels and sounds. Despite having equivalent facility in learning associations between novel objects and labels or sounds, conceptual information is activated more effectively through verbal means than through non-verbal means. Thus, rather than simply accessing nonverbal concepts, language activates aspects of a conceptual representation in a particularly effective way. We offer preliminary support that representations activated via verbal means are more categorical and show greater consistency between subjects. These results inform the understanding of how human cognition is shaped by language and hint at effects that different patterns of naming can have on conceptual structure. PMID:21928923

Young children's fast mapping and generalization of words, facts, and pictograms.

PubMed

Deák, Gedeon O; Toney, Alexis J

2013-06-01

To test general and specific processes of symbol learning, 4- and 5-year-old children learned three kinds of abstract associates for novel objects: words, facts, and pictograms. To test fast mapping (i.e., one-trial learning) and subsequent learning, comprehension was tested after each of four exposures. Production was also tested, as was children's tendency to generalize learned items to new objects in the same taxon. To test for a bias toward mutually exclusive associations, children learned either one-to-one or many-to-many mappings. In Experiment 1, children learned words, facts (with or without incidental novel words), or pictograms. In Experiment 2, children learned words or pictograms. In both of these experiments, children learned words slower than facts and pictograms. Pictograms and facts were generalized more systematically than words, but only in Experiment 1. Children learned one-to-one mappings faster only in Experiment 2, when cognitive load was increased. In Experiment 3, 3- and 4-year-olds were taught facts (with novel words), words, and pictograms. Children learned facts faster than words; however, they remembered all items equally well a week later. The results suggest that word learning follows non-specialized memory and associative learning processes. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tracking lexical consolidation with ERPs: Lexical and semantic-priming effects on N400 and LPC responses to newly-learned words.

PubMed

Bakker, Iske; Takashima, Atsuko; van Hell, Janet G; Janzen, Gabriele; McQueen, James M

2015-12-01

Novel words can be recalled immediately and after little exposure, but require a post-learning consolidation period to show word-like behaviour such as lexical competition. This pattern is thought to reflect a qualitative shift from episodic to lexical representations. However, several studies have reported immediate effects of meaningful novel words on semantic processing, suggesting that integration of novel word meanings may not require consolidation. The current study synthesises and extends these findings by showing a dissociation between lexical and semantic effects on the electrophysiological (N400, LPC) response to novel words. The difference in N400 amplitude between novel and existing words (a lexical effect) decreased significantly after a 24-h consolidation period, providing novel support for the hypothesis that offline consolidation aids lexicalisation. In contrast, novel words preceded by semantically related primes elicited a more positive LPC response (a semantic-priming effect) both before and after consolidation, indicating that certain semantic effects can be observed even when words have not been fully lexicalised. We propose that novel meanings immediately start to contribute to semantic processing, but that the underlying neural processes may shift from strategic to more automatic with consolidation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learning new meanings for known words: Biphasic effects of prior knowledge

PubMed Central

Fang, Xiaoping; Perfetti, Charles; Stafura, Joseph

2017-01-01

In acquiring word meanings, learners are often confronted by a single word form that is mapped to two or more meanings. For example, long after how to roller-“skate”, one may learn that “skate” is also a kind of fish. Such learning of new meanings for familiar words involves two potentially contrasting processes, relative to new form-new meaning learning: 1) Form-based familiarity may facilitate learning a new meaning, and 2) meaning-based interference may inhibit learning a new meaning. We examined these two processes by having native English speakers learn new, unrelated meanings for familiar (high frequency) and less familiar (low frequency) English words, as well as for unfamiliar (novel or pseudo-) words. Tracking learning with cued-recall tasks at several points during learning revealed a biphasic pattern: higher learning rates and greater learning efficiency for familiar words relative to novel words early in learning and a reversal of this pattern later in learning. Following learning, interference from original meanings for familiar words was detected in a semantic relatedness judgment task. Additionally, lexical access to familiar words with new meanings became faster compared to their exposure controls, but no such effect occurred for less familiar words. Overall, the results suggest a biphasic pattern of facilitating and interfering processes: Familiar word forms facilitate learning earlier, while interference from original meanings becomes more influential later. This biphasic pattern reflects the co-activation of new and old meanings during learning, a process that may play a role in lexicalization of new meanings. PMID:29399593

Intrinsic monitoring of learning success facilitates memory encoding via the activation of the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop.

PubMed

Ripollés, Pablo; Marco-Pallarés, Josep; Alicart, Helena; Tempelmann, Claus; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Noesselt, Toemme

2016-09-20

Humans constantly learn in the absence of explicit rewards. However, the neurobiological mechanisms supporting this type of internally-guided learning (without explicit feedback) are still unclear. Here, participants who completed a task in which no external reward/feedback was provided, exhibited enhanced fMRI-signals within the dopaminergic midbrain, hippocampus, and ventral striatum (the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop) when successfully grasping the meaning of new-words. Importantly, new-words that were better remembered showed increased activation and enhanced functional connectivity between the midbrain, hippocampus, and ventral striatum. Moreover, enhanced emotion-related physiological measures and subjective pleasantness ratings during encoding were associated with remembered new-words after 24 hr. Furthermore, increased subjective pleasantness ratings were also related to new-words remembered after seven days. These results suggest that intrinsic-potentially reward-related-signals, triggered by self-monitoring of correct performance, can promote the storage of new information into long-term memory through the activation of the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop, possibly via dopaminergic modulation of the midbrain.

Intrinsic monitoring of learning success facilitates memory encoding via the activation of the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop

PubMed Central

Ripollés, Pablo; Marco-Pallarés, Josep; Alicart, Helena; Tempelmann, Claus; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Noesselt, Toemme

2016-01-01

Humans constantly learn in the absence of explicit rewards. However, the neurobiological mechanisms supporting this type of internally-guided learning (without explicit feedback) are still unclear. Here, participants who completed a task in which no external reward/feedback was provided, exhibited enhanced fMRI-signals within the dopaminergic midbrain, hippocampus, and ventral striatum (the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop) when successfully grasping the meaning of new-words. Importantly, new-words that were better remembered showed increased activation and enhanced functional connectivity between the midbrain, hippocampus, and ventral striatum. Moreover, enhanced emotion-related physiological measures and subjective pleasantness ratings during encoding were associated with remembered new-words after 24 hr. Furthermore, increased subjective pleasantness ratings were also related to new-words remembered after seven days. These results suggest that intrinsic—potentially reward-related—signals, triggered by self-monitoring of correct performance, can promote the storage of new information into long-term memory through the activation of the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop, possibly via dopaminergic modulation of the midbrain. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17441.001 PMID:27644419

Decoding and disrupting left midfusiform gyrus activity during word reading

PubMed Central

Hirshorn, Elizabeth A.; Ward, Michael J.; Fiez, Julie A.; Ghuman, Avniel Singh

2016-01-01

The nature of the visual representation for words has been fiercely debated for over 150 y. We used direct brain stimulation, pre- and postsurgical behavioral measures, and intracranial electroencephalography to provide support for, and elaborate upon, the visual word form hypothesis. This hypothesis states that activity in the left midfusiform gyrus (lmFG) reflects visually organized information about words and word parts. In patients with electrodes placed directly in their lmFG, we found that disrupting lmFG activity through stimulation, and later surgical resection in one of the patients, led to impaired perception of whole words and letters. Furthermore, using machine-learning methods to analyze the electrophysiological data from these electrodes, we found that information contained in early lmFG activity was consistent with an orthographic similarity space. Finally, the lmFG contributed to at least two distinguishable stages of word processing, an early stage that reflects gist-level visual representation sensitive to orthographic statistics, and a later stage that reflects more precise representation sufficient for the individuation of orthographic word forms. These results provide strong support for the visual word form hypothesis and demonstrate that across time the lmFG is involved in multiple stages of orthographic representation. PMID:27325763

Decoding and disrupting left midfusiform gyrus activity during word reading.

PubMed

Hirshorn, Elizabeth A; Li, Yuanning; Ward, Michael J; Richardson, R Mark; Fiez, Julie A; Ghuman, Avniel Singh

2016-07-19

The nature of the visual representation for words has been fiercely debated for over 150 y. We used direct brain stimulation, pre- and postsurgical behavioral measures, and intracranial electroencephalography to provide support for, and elaborate upon, the visual word form hypothesis. This hypothesis states that activity in the left midfusiform gyrus (lmFG) reflects visually organized information about words and word parts. In patients with electrodes placed directly in their lmFG, we found that disrupting lmFG activity through stimulation, and later surgical resection in one of the patients, led to impaired perception of whole words and letters. Furthermore, using machine-learning methods to analyze the electrophysiological data from these electrodes, we found that information contained in early lmFG activity was consistent with an orthographic similarity space. Finally, the lmFG contributed to at least two distinguishable stages of word processing, an early stage that reflects gist-level visual representation sensitive to orthographic statistics, and a later stage that reflects more precise representation sufficient for the individuation of orthographic word forms. These results provide strong support for the visual word form hypothesis and demonstrate that across time the lmFG is involved in multiple stages of orthographic representation.

Empowering Students with Word-Learning Strategies: Teach a Child to Fish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graves, Michael F.; Schneider, Steven; Ringstaff, Cathy

2018-01-01

This article on word-learning strategies describes a theory- and research-based set of procedures for teaching students to use word-learning strategies--word parts, context clues, the dictionary, and a combined strategy--to infer the meanings of unknown words. The article begins with a rationale for teaching word-learning strategies, particularly…

Second Language Vocabulary Learning through Extensive Reading with Audio Support: How Do Frequency and Distribution of Occurrence Affect Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webb, Stuart; Chang, Anna C-S.

2015-01-01

This study investigated (1) the extent of vocabulary learning through reading and listening to 10 graded readers, and (2) the relationship between vocabulary gain and the frequency and distribution of occurrence of 100 target words in the graded readers. The experimental design expanded on earlier studies that have typically examined incidental…

Word Learning Deficits in Children with Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alt, Mary; Hogan, Tiffany; Green, Samuel; Gray, Shelley; Cabbage, Kathryn; Cowan, Nelson

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate word learning in children with dyslexia to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses during the configuration stage of word learning. Method: Children with typical development (N = 116) and dyslexia (N = 68) participated in computer-based word learning games that assessed word learning in 4 sets…

Novel word acquisition in aphasia: Facing the word-referent ambiguity of natural language learning contexts.

PubMed

Peñaloza, Claudia; Mirman, Daniel; Tuomiranta, Leena; Benetello, Annalisa; Heikius, Ida-Maria; Järvinen, Sonja; Majos, Maria C; Cardona, Pedro; Juncadella, Montserrat; Laine, Matti; Martin, Nadine; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni

2016-06-01

Recent research suggests that some people with aphasia preserve some ability to learn novel words and to retain them in the long-term. However, this novel word learning ability has been studied only in the context of single word-picture pairings. We examined the ability of people with chronic aphasia to learn novel words using a paradigm that presents new word forms together with a limited set of different possible visual referents and requires the identification of the correct word-object associations on the basis of online feedback. We also studied the relationship between word learning ability and aphasia severity, word processing abilities, and verbal short-term memory (STM). We further examined the influence of gross lesion location on new word learning. The word learning task was first validated with a group of forty-five young adults. Fourteen participants with chronic aphasia were administered the task and underwent tests of immediate and long-term recognition memory at 1 week. Their performance was compared to that of a group of fourteen matched controls using growth curve analysis. The learning curve and recognition performance of the aphasia group was significantly below the matched control group, although above-chance recognition performance and case-by-case analyses indicated that some participants with aphasia had learned the correct word-referent mappings. Verbal STM but not word processing abilities predicted word learning ability after controlling for aphasia severity. Importantly, participants with lesions in the left frontal cortex performed significantly worse than participants with lesions that spared the left frontal region both during word learning and on the recognition tests. Our findings indicate that some people with aphasia can preserve the ability to learn a small novel lexicon in an ambiguous word-referent context. This learning and recognition memory ability was associated with verbal STM capacity, aphasia severity and the integrity of the left inferior frontal region. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Novel word acquisition in aphasia: Facing the word-referent ambiguity of natural language learning contexts

PubMed Central

Peñaloza, Claudia; Mirman, Daniel; Tuomiranta, Leena; Benetello, Annalisa; Heikius, Ida-Maria; Järvinen, Sonja; Majos, Maria C.; Cardona, Pedro; Juncadella, Montserrat; Laine, Matti; Martin, Nadine; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni

2017-01-01

Recent research suggests that some people with aphasia preserve some ability to learn novel words and to retain them in the long-term. However, this novel word learning ability has been studied only in the context of single word-picture pairings. We examined the ability of people with chronic aphasia to learn novel words using a paradigm that presents new word forms together with a limited set of different possible visual referents and requires the identification of the correct word-object associations on the basis of online feedback. We also studied the relationship between word learning ability and aphasia severity, word processing abilities, and verbal short-term memory (STM). We further examined the influence of gross lesion location on new word learning. The word learning task was first validated with a group of forty-five young adults. Fourteen participants with chronic aphasia were administered the task and underwent tests of immediate and long-term recognition memory at 1 week. Their performance was compared to that of a group of fourteen matched controls using growth curve analysis. The learning curve and recognition performance of the aphasia group was significantly below the matched control group, although above-chance recognition performance and case-by-case analyses indicated that some participants with aphasia had learned the correct word-referent mappings. Verbal STM but not word processing abilities predicted word learning ability after controlling for aphasia severity. Importantly, participants with lesions in the left frontal cortex performed significantly worse than participants with lesions that spared the left frontal region both during word learning and on the recognition tests. Our findings indicate that some people with aphasia can preserve the ability to learn a small novel lexicon in an ambiguous word-referent context. This learning and recognition memory ability was associated with verbal STM capacity, aphasia severity and the integrity of the left inferior frontal region. PMID:27085892

Weak evidence for increased motivated forgetting of trauma-related words in dissociated or traumatised individuals in a directed forgetting experiment.

PubMed

Patihis, Lawrence; Place, Patricia J

2018-05-01

Motivated forgetting is the idea that people can block out, or forget, upsetting or traumatic memories, because there is a motivation to do so. Some researchers have cited directed forgetting studies using trauma-related words as evidence for the theory of motivated forgetting of trauma. In the current article subjects used the list method directed forgetting paradigm with both trauma-related words and positive words. After one list of words was presented subjects were directed to forget the words previously learned, and they then received another list of words. Each list was a mix of positive and trauma-related words, and the lists were counterbalanced. Later, subjects recalled as many of the words as they could, including the ones they were told to forget. Based on the theory that motivated forgetting would lead to recall deficits of trauma-related material, we created eight hypotheses. High dissociators, trauma-exposed, sexual trauma-exposed, and high dissociators with trauma-exposure participants were hypothesised to show enhanced forgetting of trauma words. Results indicated only one of eight hypotheses was supported: those higher on dissociation and trauma recalled fewer trauma words in the to-be-forgotten condition, compared to those low on dissociation and trauma. These results provide weak support for differential motivated forgetting.

Online learning from input versus offline memory evolution in adult word learning: effects of neighborhood density and phonologically related practice.

PubMed

Storkel, Holly L; Bontempo, Daniel E; Pak, Natalie S

2014-10-01

In this study, the authors investigated adult word learning to determine how neighborhood density and practice across phonologically related training sets influence online learning from input during training versus offline memory evolution during no-training gaps. Sixty-one adults were randomly assigned to learn low- or high-density nonwords. Within each density condition, participants were trained on one set of words and then were trained on a second set of words, consisting of phonological neighbors of the first set. Learning was measured in a picture-naming test. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling and spline regression. Steep learning during input was observed, with new words from dense neighborhoods and new words that were neighbors of recently learned words (i.e., second-set words) being learned better than other words. In terms of memory evolution, large and significant forgetting was observed during 1-week gaps in training. Effects of density and practice during memory evolution were opposite of those during input. Specifically, forgetting was greater for high-density and second-set words than for low-density and first-set words. High phonological similarity, regardless of source (i.e., known words or recent training), appears to facilitate online learning from input but seems to impede offline memory evolution.

Word Learning and Individual Differences in Word Learning Reflected in Event-Related Potentials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perfetti, Charles A.; Wlotko, Edward W.; Hart, Lesley A.

2005-01-01

Adults learned the meanings of rare words (e.g., gloaming) and then made meaning judgments on pairs of words. The 1st word was a trained rare word, an untrained rare word, or an untrained familiar word. Event-related potentials distinguished trained rare words from both untrained rare and familiar words, first at 140 ms and again at 400-600 ms…

The influence of two cognitive-linguistic variables on incidental word learning in 5-year-olds.

PubMed

Abel, Alyson D; Schuele, C Melanie

2014-08-01

The relation between incidental word learning and two cognitive-linguistic variables--phonological memory and phonological awareness--is not fully understood. Thirty-five typically developing, 5-year-old, preschool children participated in a study examining the association between phonological memory, phonological awareness, and incidental word learning. Children were exposed to target words in a read-aloud story that accompanied a wordless picture book. Target word comprehension was assessed before and after two readings of the story. Phonological awareness predicted incidental word learning but phonological memory did not. The influence of phonological awareness and phonological memory on word learning may be dependent on the demands of the word learning task.

Video Feedback in Key Word Signing Training for Preservice Direct Support Staff.

PubMed

Rombouts, Ellen; Meuris, Kristien; Maes, Bea; De Meyer, Anne-Marie; Zink, Inge

2016-04-01

Research has demonstrated that formal training is essential for professionals to learn key word signing. Yet, the particular didactic strategies have not been studied. Therefore, this study compared the effectiveness of verbal and video feedback in a key word signing training for future direct support staff. Forty-nine future direct support staff were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 key word signing training programs: modeling and verbal feedback (classical method [CM]), additional video feedback (+ViF), and additional video feedback and photo reminder (+ViF/R). Signing accuracy and training acceptability were measured 1 week after and 7 months after training. Participants from the +ViF/R program achieved significantly higher signing accuracy compared with the CM group. Acceptability ratings did not differ between any of the groups. Results suggest that at an equal time investment, the programs containing more training components were more effective. Research on the effect of rehearsal on signing maintenance is warranted.

Can Writing a New Word Detract from Learning It? More Negative Effects of Forced Output during Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barcroft, Joe

2006-01-01

This study examined effects of word writing on second language vocabulary learning. In two experiments, English-speaking learners of Spanish attempted to learn 24 Spanish nouns while viewing word-picture pairs. The participants copied 12 target words and wrote nothing for the other 12 target words being studied. Productive vocabulary learning on…

From grammatical number to exact numbers: early meanings of 'one', 'two', and 'three' in English, Russian, and Japanese.

PubMed

Sarnecka, Barbara W; Kamenskaya, Valentina G; Yamana, Yuko; Ogura, Tamiko; Yudovina, Yulia B

2007-09-01

This study examined whether singular/plural marking in a language helps children learn the meanings of the words 'one,' 'two,' and 'three.' First, CHILDES data in English, Russian (which marks singular/plural), and Japanese (which does not) were compared for frequency, variability, and contexts of number-word use. Then young children in the USA, Russia, and Japan were tested on Counting and Give-N tasks. More English and Russian learners knew the meaning of each number word than Japanese learners, regardless of whether singular/plural cues appeared in the task itself (e.g., "Give two apples" vs. "Give two"). These results suggest that the learning of "one," "two" and "three" is supported by the conceptual framework of grammatical number, rather than that of integers.

Does Whole-Word Multimedia Software Support Literacy Acquisition?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karemaker, Arjette M.; Pitchford, Nicola J.; O'Malley, Claire

2010-01-01

This study examined the extent to which multimedia features of typical literacy learning software provide added benefits for developing literacy skills compared with typical whole-class teaching methods. The effectiveness of the multimedia software Oxford Reading Tree (ORT) for Clicker in supporting early literacy acquisition was investigated…

Orthographic learning, fast and slow: Lexical competition effects reveal the time course of word learning in developing readers.

PubMed

Tamura, Niina; Castles, Anne; Nation, Kate

2017-06-01

Children learn new words via their everyday reading experience but little is known about how this learning happens. We addressed this by focusing on the conditions needed for new words to become familiar to children, drawing a distinction between lexical configuration (the acquisition of word knowledge) and lexical engagement (the emergence of interactive processes between newly learned words and existing words). In Experiment 1, 9-11-year-olds saw unfamiliar words in one of two storybook conditions, differing in degree of focus on the new words but matched for frequency of exposure. Children showed good learning of the novel words in terms of both configuration (form and meaning) and engagement (lexical competition). A frequency manipulation under incidental learning conditions in Experiment 2 revealed different time-courses of learning: a fast lexical configuration process, indexed by explicit knowledge, and a slower lexicalization process, indexed by lexical competition. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Preserving Tradition through Technology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wakshul, Barbra

2001-01-01

Language is easiest to learn before age 5. The Cherokee Nation supported production of a toy that teaches young children basic Cherokee words. When figures that come with the toy are placed into it, a computer chip activates a voice speaking the name of the figure in Cherokee. Learning takes place on visual, auditory, and tactile levels. (TD)

A Mobile Tool for Learning English Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cavus, Nadire; Ibrahim, Dogan

2008-01-01

Technology is changing very rapidly and nearly all branches of education are affected by these changes. As a result of these rapid changes there has been significant interest and growth in the number of educational institutions using mobile devices to support learning and teaching. There is also an increase use of wireless technologies in…

The Relation between Children's Conceptual Functioning with Color and Color Term Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kowalski, Kurt; Zimiles, Herbert

2006-01-01

Young children experience considerable difficulty in learning their first few color terms. One explanation for this difficulty is that initially they lack a conceptual representation of color sufficiently abstract to support word meaning. This hypothesis, that prior to learning color terms children do not represent color as an abstraction, was…

Engaging in vocabulary learning in science: the promise of multimodal instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Townsend, Dianna; Brock, Cynthia; Morrison, Jennifer D.

2018-02-01

To a science 'outsider', science language often appears unnecessarily technical and dense. However, scientific language is typically used with the goal of being concise and precise, which allows those who regularly participate in scientific discourse communities to learn from each other and build upon existing scientific knowledge. One essential component of science language is the academic vocabulary that characterises it. This mixed-methods study investigates middle school students' (N = 59) growth in academic vocabulary as it relates to their teacher's instructional practices that supported academic language development. Students made significant gains in their production of general academic words, t(57) = 2.32, p = .024 and of discipline-specific science words, t(57) = 3.01, p = .004 in science writing. Results from the qualitative strand of this inquiry contextualised the students' learning of academic vocabulary as it relates to their teacher's instructional practices and intentions as well as the students' perceptions of their learning environment. These qualitative findings reveal that both the students and their teacher articulated that the teacher's intentional use of resources supported students' academic vocabulary growth. Implications for research and instruction with science language are shared.

Using speakers' referential intentions to model early cross-situational word learning.

PubMed

Frank, Michael C; Goodman, Noah D; Tenenbaum, Joshua B

2009-05-01

Word learning is a "chicken and egg" problem. If a child could understand speakers' utterances, it would be easy to learn the meanings of individual words, and once a child knows what many words mean, it is easy to infer speakers' intended meanings. To the beginning learner, however, both individual word meanings and speakers' intentions are unknown. We describe a computational model of word learning that solves these two inference problems in parallel, rather than relying exclusively on either the inferred meanings of utterances or cross-situational word-meaning associations. We tested our model using annotated corpus data and found that it inferred pairings between words and object concepts with higher precision than comparison models. Moreover, as the result of making probabilistic inferences about speakers' intentions, our model explains a variety of behavioral phenomena described in the word-learning literature. These phenomena include mutual exclusivity, one-trial learning, cross-situational learning, the role of words in object individuation, and the use of inferred intentions to disambiguate reference.

The Inhibitory Mechanism in Learning Ambiguous Words in a Second Language

PubMed Central

Lu, Yao; Wu, Junjie; Dunlap, Susan; Chen, Baoguo

2017-01-01

Ambiguous words are hard to learn, yet little is known about what causes this difficulty. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between the representations of new and prior meanings of ambiguous words in second language (L2) learning, and to explore the function of inhibitory control on L2 ambiguous word learning at the initial stage of learning. During a 4-day learning phase, Chinese–English bilinguals learned 30 novel English words for 30 min per day using bilingual flashcards. Half of the words to be learned were unambiguous (had one meaning) and half were ambiguous (had two semantically unrelated meanings learned in sequence). Inhibitory control was introduced as a subject variable measured by a Stroop task. The semantic representations established for the studied items were probed using a cross-language semantic relatedness judgment task, in which the learned English words served as the prime, and the targets were either semantically related or unrelated to the prime. Results showed that response latencies for the second meaning of ambiguous words were slower than for the first meaning and for unambiguous words, and that performance on only the second meaning of ambiguous words was predicted by inhibitory control ability. These results suggest that, at the initial stage of L2 ambiguous word learning, the representation of the second meaning is weak, probably interfered with by the representation of the prior learned meaning. Moreover, inhibitory control may modulate learning of the new meanings, such that individuals with better inhibitory control may more effectively suppress interference from the first meaning, and thus learn the new meaning more quickly. PMID:28496423

The Inhibitory Mechanism in Learning Ambiguous Words in a Second Language.

PubMed

Lu, Yao; Wu, Junjie; Dunlap, Susan; Chen, Baoguo

2017-01-01

Ambiguous words are hard to learn, yet little is known about what causes this difficulty. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between the representations of new and prior meanings of ambiguous words in second language (L2) learning, and to explore the function of inhibitory control on L2 ambiguous word learning at the initial stage of learning. During a 4-day learning phase, Chinese-English bilinguals learned 30 novel English words for 30 min per day using bilingual flashcards. Half of the words to be learned were unambiguous (had one meaning) and half were ambiguous (had two semantically unrelated meanings learned in sequence). Inhibitory control was introduced as a subject variable measured by a Stroop task. The semantic representations established for the studied items were probed using a cross-language semantic relatedness judgment task, in which the learned English words served as the prime, and the targets were either semantically related or unrelated to the prime. Results showed that response latencies for the second meaning of ambiguous words were slower than for the first meaning and for unambiguous words, and that performance on only the second meaning of ambiguous words was predicted by inhibitory control ability. These results suggest that, at the initial stage of L2 ambiguous word learning, the representation of the second meaning is weak, probably interfered with by the representation of the prior learned meaning. Moreover, inhibitory control may modulate learning of the new meanings, such that individuals with better inhibitory control may more effectively suppress interference from the first meaning, and thus learn the new meaning more quickly.

N400 Response Indexes Word Learning from Linguistic Context in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abel, Alyson D.; Schneider, Julie; Maguire, Mandy J

2018-01-01

Word learning from linguistic context is essential for vocabulary growth from grade school onward; however, little is known about the mechanisms underlying successful word learning in children. Current methods for studying word learning development require children to identify the meaning of the word after each exposure, a method that interacts…

Learning to Pronounce First Words in Three Languages: An Investigation of Caregiver and Infant Behavior Using a Computational Model of an Infant

PubMed Central

Howard, Ian S.; Messum, Piers

2014-01-01

Words are made up of speech sounds. Almost all accounts of child speech development assume that children learn the pronunciation of first language (L1) speech sounds by imitation, most claiming that the child performs some kind of auditory matching to the elements of ambient speech. However, there is evidence to support an alternative account and we investigate the non-imitative child behavior and well-attested caregiver behavior that this account posits using Elija, a computational model of an infant. Through unsupervised active learning, Elija began by discovering motor patterns, which produced sounds. In separate interaction experiments, native speakers of English, French and German then played the role of his caregiver. In their first interactions with Elija, they were allowed to respond to his sounds if they felt this was natural. We analyzed the interactions through phonemic transcriptions of the caregivers' utterances and found that they interpreted his output within the framework of their native languages. Their form of response was almost always a reformulation of Elija's utterance into well-formed sounds of L1. Elija retained those motor patterns to which a caregiver responded and formed associations between his motor pattern and the response it provoked. Thus in a second phase of interaction, he was able to parse input utterances in terms of the caregiver responses he had heard previously, and respond using his associated motor patterns. This capacity enabled the caregivers to teach Elija to pronounce some simple words in their native languages, by his serial imitation of the words' component speech sounds. Overall, our results demonstrate that the natural responses and behaviors of human subjects to infant-like vocalizations can take a computational model from a biologically plausible initial state through to word pronunciation. This provides support for an alternative to current auditory matching hypotheses for how children learn to pronounce. PMID:25333740

Fast Brain Plasticity during Word Learning in Musically-Trained Children.

PubMed

Dittinger, Eva; Chobert, Julie; Ziegler, Johannes C; Besson, Mireille

2017-01-01

Children learn new words every day and this ability requires auditory perception, phoneme discrimination, attention, associative learning and semantic memory. Based on previous results showing that some of these functions are enhanced by music training, we investigated learning of novel words through picture-word associations in musically-trained and control children (8-12 year-old) to determine whether music training would positively influence word learning. Results showed that musically-trained children outperformed controls in a learning paradigm that included picture-sound matching and semantic associations. Moreover, the differences between unexpected and expected learned words, as reflected by the N200 and N400 effects, were larger in children with music training compared to controls after only 3 min of learning the meaning of novel words. In line with previous results in adults, these findings clearly demonstrate a correlation between music training and better word learning. It is argued that these benefits reflect both bottom-up and top-down influences. The present learning paradigm might provide a useful dynamic diagnostic tool to determine which perceptive and cognitive functions are impaired in children with learning difficulties.

Fast Brain Plasticity during Word Learning in Musically-Trained Children

PubMed Central

Dittinger, Eva; Chobert, Julie; Ziegler, Johannes C.; Besson, Mireille

2017-01-01

Children learn new words every day and this ability requires auditory perception, phoneme discrimination, attention, associative learning and semantic memory. Based on previous results showing that some of these functions are enhanced by music training, we investigated learning of novel words through picture-word associations in musically-trained and control children (8–12 year-old) to determine whether music training would positively influence word learning. Results showed that musically-trained children outperformed controls in a learning paradigm that included picture-sound matching and semantic associations. Moreover, the differences between unexpected and expected learned words, as reflected by the N200 and N400 effects, were larger in children with music training compared to controls after only 3 min of learning the meaning of novel words. In line with previous results in adults, these findings clearly demonstrate a correlation between music training and better word learning. It is argued that these benefits reflect both bottom-up and top-down influences. The present learning paradigm might provide a useful dynamic diagnostic tool to determine which perceptive and cognitive functions are impaired in children with learning difficulties. PMID:28553213

Rapid Eye Movement and Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Contributions in Memory Consolidation and Resistance to Retroactive Interference for Verbal Material

PubMed Central

Deliens, Gaétane; Leproult, Rachel; Neu, Daniel; Peigneux, Philippe

2013-01-01

Study Objectives: To test the hypothesis that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep contributes to the consolidation of new memories, whereas non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep contributes to the prevention of retroactive interference. Design: Randomized, crossover study. Setting: Two sessions of either a morning nap or wakefulness. Participants: Twenty-five healthy young adults. Interventions: Declarative learning of word pairs followed by a nap or a wake interval, then learning of interfering word pairs and delayed recall of list A. Measurements and Results: After a restricted night (24:00-06:00), participants learned a list of word pairs (list A). They were then required to either take a nap or stay awake during 45 min, after which they learned a second list of word pairs (list B) and then had to recall list A. Fifty percent of word pairs in list B shared the first word with list A, resulting in interference. Ten subjects exhibited REM sleep whereas 13 subjects exhibited NREM stage 3 (N3) sleep. An interference effect was observed in the nap but not in the wake condition. In post-learning naps, N3 sleep was associated with a reduced interference effect, which was not the case for REM sleep. Moreover, participants exhibiting N3 sleep in the post-learning nap condition also showed a reduced interference effect in the wake condition, suggesting a higher protection ability against interference. Conclusion: Our results partly support the hypothesis that non-rapid eye movement sleep contributes in protecting novel memories against interference. However, rapid eye movement sleep-related consolidation is not evidenced. Citation: Deliens G; Leproult R; Neu D; Peigneux P. Rapid eye movement and non-rapid eye movement sleep contributions in memory consolidation and resistance to retroactive interference for verbal material. SLEEP 2013;36(12):1875-1883. PMID:24293762

Category learning in the color-word contingency learning paradigm.

PubMed

Schmidt, James R; Augustinova, Maria; De Houwer, Jan

2018-04-01

In the typical color-word contingency learning paradigm, participants respond to the print color of words where each word is presented most often in one color. Learning is indicated by faster and more accurate responses when a word is presented in its usual color, relative to another color. To eliminate the possibility that this effect is driven exclusively by the familiarity of item-specific word-color pairings, we examine whether contingency learning effects can be observed also when colors are related to categories of words rather than to individual words. To this end, the reported experiments used three categories of words (animals, verbs, and professions) that were each predictive of one color. Importantly, each individual word was presented only once, thus eliminating individual color-word contingencies. Nevertheless, for the first time, a category-based contingency effect was observed, with faster and more accurate responses when a category item was presented in the color in which most of the other items of that category were presented. This finding helps to constrain episodic learning models and sets the stage for new research on category-based contingency learning.

Can contingency learning alone account for item-specific control? Evidence from within- and between-language ISPC effects.

PubMed

Atalay, Nart Bedin; Misirlisoy, Mine

2012-11-01

The item-specific proportion congruence (ISPC) manipulation (Jacoby, Lindsay, & Hessels, 2003) produces larger Stroop interference for mostly congruent items than mostly incongruent items. This effect has been attributed to dynamic control over word-reading processes. However, proportion congruence of an item in the ISPC manipulation is completely confounded with response contingency, suggesting the alternative hypothesis, that the ISPC effect is a result of learning response contingencies (Schmidt & Besner, 2008). The current study asks whether the ISPC effect can be explained by a pure stimulus-response contingency-learning account, or whether other control processes play a role as well, by comparing within- and between-language conditions in a bilingual task. Experiment 1 showed that contingency learning for noncolor words was larger for the within-language than the between-language condition. Experiment 2 revealed significant ISPC effects for both within- and between-language conditions; importantly, the effect was larger in the former. The results of the contingency analyses for Experiment 2 were parallel to that of Experiment 1 and did not show an interaction between contingency and congruency. Put together, these sets of results support the view that contingency-learning processes dominate color-word ISPC effects.

Dynamic Influence of Emotional States on Novel Word Learning

PubMed Central

Guo, Jingjing; Zou, Tiantian; Peng, Danling

2018-01-01

Many researchers realize that it's unrealistic to isolate language learning and processing from emotions. However, few studies on language learning have taken emotions into consideration so far, so that the probable influences of emotions on language learning are unclear. The current study thereby aimed to examine the effects of emotional states on novel word learning and their dynamic changes with learning continuing and task varying. Positive, negative or neutral pictures were employed to induce a given emotional state, and then participants learned the novel words through association with line-drawing pictures in four successive learning phases. At the end of each learning phase, participants were instructed to fulfill a semantic category judgment task (in Experiment 1) or a word-picture semantic consistency judgment task (in Experiment 2) to explore the effects of emotional states on different depths of word learning. Converging results demonstrated that negative emotional state led to worse performance compared with neutral condition; however, how positive emotional state affected learning varied with learning task. Specifically, a facilitative role of positive emotional state in semantic category learning was observed but disappeared in word specific meaning learning. Moreover, the emotional modulation on novel word learning was quite dynamic and changeable with learning continuing, and the final attainment of the learned words tended to be similar under different emotional states. The findings suggest that the impact of emotion can be offset when novel words became more and more familiar and a part of existent lexicon. PMID:29695994

Dynamic Influence of Emotional States on Novel Word Learning.

PubMed

Guo, Jingjing; Zou, Tiantian; Peng, Danling

2018-01-01

Many researchers realize that it's unrealistic to isolate language learning and processing from emotions. However, few studies on language learning have taken emotions into consideration so far, so that the probable influences of emotions on language learning are unclear. The current study thereby aimed to examine the effects of emotional states on novel word learning and their dynamic changes with learning continuing and task varying. Positive, negative or neutral pictures were employed to induce a given emotional state, and then participants learned the novel words through association with line-drawing pictures in four successive learning phases. At the end of each learning phase, participants were instructed to fulfill a semantic category judgment task (in Experiment 1) or a word-picture semantic consistency judgment task (in Experiment 2) to explore the effects of emotional states on different depths of word learning. Converging results demonstrated that negative emotional state led to worse performance compared with neutral condition; however, how positive emotional state affected learning varied with learning task. Specifically, a facilitative role of positive emotional state in semantic category learning was observed but disappeared in word specific meaning learning. Moreover, the emotional modulation on novel word learning was quite dynamic and changeable with learning continuing, and the final attainment of the learned words tended to be similar under different emotional states. The findings suggest that the impact of emotion can be offset when novel words became more and more familiar and a part of existent lexicon.

Help me if I can't: Social interaction effects in adult contextual word learning.

PubMed

Verga, Laura; Kotz, Sonja A

2017-11-01

A major challenge in second language acquisition is to build up new vocabulary. How is it possible to identify the meaning of a new word among several possible referents? Adult learners typically use contextual information, which reduces the number of possible referents a new word can have. Alternatively, a social partner may facilitate word learning by directing the learner's attention toward the correct new word meaning. While much is known about the role of this form of 'joint attention' in first language acquisition, little is known about its efficacy in second language acquisition. Consequently, we introduce and validate a novel visual word learning game to evaluate how joint attention affects the contextual learning of new words in a second language. Adult learners either acquired new words in a constant or variable sentence context by playing the game with a knowledgeable partner, or by playing the game alone on a computer. Results clearly show that participants who learned new words in social interaction (i) are faster in identifying a correct new word referent in variable sentence contexts, and (ii) temporally coordinate their behavior with a social partner. Testing the learned words in a post-learning recall or recognition task showed that participants, who learned interactively, better recognized words originally learned in a variable context. While this result may suggest that interactive learning facilitates the allocation of attention to a target referent, the differences in the performance during recognition and recall call for further studies investigating the effect of social interaction on learning performance. In summary, we provide first evidence on the role joint attention in second language learning. Furthermore, the new interactive learning game offers itself to further testing in complex neuroimaging research, where the lack of appropriate experimental set-ups has so far limited the investigation of the neural basis of adult word learning in social interaction. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quantitative learning strategies based on word networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Yue-Tian-Yi; Jia, Zi-Yang; Tang, Yong; Xiong, Jason Jie; Zhang, Yi-Cheng

2018-02-01

Learning English requires a considerable effort, but the way that vocabulary is introduced in textbooks is not optimized for learning efficiency. With the increasing population of English learners, learning process optimization will have significant impact and improvement towards English learning and teaching. The recent developments of big data analysis and complex network science provide additional opportunities to design and further investigate the strategies in English learning. In this paper, quantitative English learning strategies based on word network and word usage information are proposed. The strategies integrate the words frequency with topological structural information. By analyzing the influence of connected learned words, the learning weights for the unlearned words and dynamically updating of the network are studied and analyzed. The results suggest that quantitative strategies significantly improve learning efficiency while maintaining effectiveness. Especially, the optimized-weight-first strategy and segmented strategies outperform other strategies. The results provide opportunities for researchers and practitioners to reconsider the way of English teaching and designing vocabularies quantitatively by balancing the efficiency and learning costs based on the word network.

Phonological and Semantic Knowledge Are Causal Influences on Learning to Read Words in Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Lulin; Duff, Fiona J.; Hulme, Charles

2015-01-01

We report a training study that assesses whether teaching the pronunciation and meaning of spoken words improves Chinese children's subsequent attempts to learn to read the words. Teaching the pronunciations of words helps children to learn to read those same words, and teaching the pronunciations and meanings improves learning still further.…

Newly learned word forms are abstract and integrated immediately after acquisition

PubMed Central

Kapnoula, Efthymia C.; McMurray, Bob

2015-01-01

A hotly debated question in word learning concerns the conditions under which newly learned words compete or interfere with familiar words during spoken word recognition. This has recently been described as a key marker of the integration of a new word into the lexicon and was thought to require consolidation Dumay & Gaskell, (Psychological Science, 18, 35–39, 2007; Gaskell & Dumay, Cognition, 89, 105–132, 2003). Recently, however, Kapnoula, Packard, Gupta, and McMurray, (Cognition, 134, 85–99, 2015) showed that interference can be observed immediately after a word is first learned, implying very rapid integration of new words into the lexicon. It is an open question whether these kinds of effects derive from episodic traces of novel words or from more abstract and lexicalized representations. Here we addressed this question by testing inhibition for newly learned words using training and test stimuli presented in different talker voices. During training, participants were exposed to a set of nonwords spoken by a female speaker. Immediately after training, we assessed the ability of the novel word forms to inhibit familiar words, using a variant of the visual world paradigm. Crucially, the test items were produced by a male speaker. An analysis of fixations showed that even with a change in voice, newly learned words interfered with the recognition of similar known words. These findings show that lexical competition effects from newly learned words spread across different talker voices, which suggests that newly learned words can be sufficiently lexicalized, and abstract with respect to talker voice, without consolidation. PMID:26202702

A model linking immediate serial recall, the Hebb repetition effect and the learning of phonological word forms

PubMed Central

Page, M. P. A.; Norris, D.

2009-01-01

We briefly review the considerable evidence for a common ordering mechanism underlying both immediate serial recall (ISR) tasks (e.g. digit span, non-word repetition) and the learning of phonological word forms. In addition, we discuss how recent work on the Hebb repetition effect is consistent with the idea that learning in this task is itself a laboratory analogue of the sequence-learning component of phonological word-form learning. In this light, we present a unifying modelling framework that seeks to account for ISR and Hebb repetition effects, while being extensible to word-form learning. Because word-form learning is performed in the service of later word recognition, our modelling framework also subsumes a mechanism for word recognition from continuous speech. Simulations of a computational implementation of the modelling framework are presented and are shown to be in accordance with data from the Hebb repetition paradigm. PMID:19933143

Immediate lexical integration of novel word forms

PubMed Central

Kapnoula, Efthymia C.; McMurray, Bob

2014-01-01

It is well known that familiar words inhibit each other during spoken word recognition. However, we do not know how and under what circumstances newly learned words become integrated with the lexicon in order to engage in this competition. Previous work on word learning has highlighted the importance of offline consolidation (Gaskell & Dumay, 2003) and meaning (Leach & Samuel, 2007) to establish this integration. In two experiments we test the necessity of these factors by examining the inhibition between newly learned items and familiar words immediately after learning. Participants learned a set of nonwords without meanings in active (Exp 1) or passive (Exp 2) exposure paradigms. After training, participants performed a visual world paradigm task to assess inhibition from these newly learned items. An analysis of participants’ fixations suggested that the newly learned words were able to engage in competition with known words without any consolidation. PMID:25460382

Immediate lexical integration of novel word forms.

PubMed

Kapnoula, Efthymia C; Packard, Stephanie; Gupta, Prahlad; McMurray, Bob

2015-01-01

It is well known that familiar words inhibit each other during spoken word recognition. However, we do not know how and under what circumstances newly learned words become integrated with the lexicon in order to engage in this competition. Previous work on word learning has highlighted the importance of offline consolidation (Gaskell & Dumay, 2003) and meaning (Leach & Samuel, 2007) to establish this integration. In two experiments we test the necessity of these factors by examining the inhibition between newly learned items and familiar words immediately after learning. Participants learned a set of nonwords without meanings in active (Experiment 1) or passive (Experiment 2) exposure paradigms. After training, participants performed a visual world paradigm task to assess inhibition from these newly learned items. An analysis of participants' fixations suggested that the newly learned words were able to engage in competition with known words without any consolidation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The company objects keep: Linking referents together during cross-situational word learning.

PubMed

Zettersten, Martin; Wojcik, Erica; Benitez, Viridiana L; Saffran, Jenny

2018-04-01

Learning the meanings of words involves not only linking individual words to referents but also building a network of connections among entities in the world, concepts, and words. Previous studies reveal that infants and adults track the statistical co-occurrence of labels and objects across multiple ambiguous training instances to learn words. However, it is less clear whether, given distributional or attentional cues, learners also encode associations amongst the novel objects. We investigated the consequences of two types of cues that highlighted object-object links in a cross-situational word learning task: distributional structure - how frequently the referents of novel words occurred together - and visual context - whether the referents were seen on matching backgrounds. Across three experiments, we found that in addition to learning novel words, adults formed connections between frequently co-occurring objects. These findings indicate that learners exploit statistical regularities to form multiple types of associations during word learning.

A Five-Year Follow-Up on the Role of Educational Support in Preventing Dropout From Upper Secondary Education in Finland.

PubMed

Hakkarainen, Airi M; Holopainen, Leena K; Savolainen, Hannu K

2015-01-01

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the role of word reading and mathematical difficulties measured in 9th grade as factors for receiving educational support for learning in upper secondary education in Grades 10 to 12 (from ages 16 to 19) and furthermore as predictors of dropout from upper secondary education within 5 years after compulsory education. In addition, we studied the role of school achievement in Grades 9 and 11 in this prediction. The participants of this study were members of one age group of 16-year-old ninth graders (N = 595, females 302, males 293) in a midsized Finnish city, who were followed for 5 years after completing compulsory education. The path model results, where the effects of gender, educational track, and SES were controlled, showed, first, that students with academic learning difficulties received educational support for learning particularly in the 11th grade. Second, academic learning difficulties directly affected school achievement in the 9th grade, but no longer in the 11th grade. Third, mathematical difficulties directly predicted dropout from upper secondary education, and difficulties in both word reading and mathematics had an indirect effect through school achievement in Grades 9 and 11 on dropout. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2013.

Symbol Grounding Without Direct Experience: Do Words Inherit Sensorimotor Activation From Purely Linguistic Context?

PubMed

Günther, Fritz; Dudschig, Carolin; Kaup, Barbara

2018-05-01

Theories of embodied cognition assume that concepts are grounded in non-linguistic, sensorimotor experience. In support of this assumption, previous studies have shown that upwards response movements are faster than downwards movements after participants have been presented with words whose referents are typically located in the upper vertical space (and vice versa for downwards responses). This is taken as evidence that processing these words reactivates sensorimotor experiential traces. This congruency effect was also found for novel words, after participants learned these words as labels for novel objects that they encountered either in their upper or lower visual field. While this indicates that direct experience with a word's referent is sufficient to evoke said congruency effects, the present study investigates whether this direct experience is also a necessary condition. To this end, we conducted five experiments in which participants learned novel words from purely linguistic input: Novel words were presented in pairs with real up- or down-words (Experiment 1); they were presented in natural sentences where they replaced these real words (Experiment 2); they were presented as new labels for these real words (Experiment 3); and they were presented as labels for novel combined concepts based on these real words (Experiment 4 and 5). In all five experiments, we did not find any congruency effects elicited by the novel words; however, participants were always able to make correct explicit judgements about the vertical dimension associated to the novel words. These results suggest that direct experience is necessary for reactivating experiential traces, but this reactivation is not a necessary condition for understanding (in the sense of storing and accessing) the corresponding aspects of word meaning. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Interactive Book Reading to Accelerate Word Learning by Kindergarten Children With Specific Language Impairment: Identifying Adequate Progress and Successful Learning Patterns.

PubMed

Storkel, Holly L; Komesidou, Rouzana; Fleming, Kandace K; Romine, Rebecca Swinburne

2017-04-20

The goal of this study was to provide guidance to clinicians on early benchmarks of successful word learning in an interactive book reading treatment and to examine how encoding and memory evolution during treatment contribute to word learning outcomes by kindergarten children with specific language impairment (SLI). Twenty-seven kindergarten children with SLI participated in a preliminary clinical trial using interactive book reading to teach 30 new words. Word learning was assessed at 4 points during treatment through a picture naming test. The results indicate that the following performance during treatment was cause for concern, indicating a need to modify the treatment: naming 0-1 treated words correctly at Naming Test 1; naming 0-2 treated words correctly at Naming Test 2; naming 0-3 treated words correctly at Naming Test 3. In addition, the results showed that encoding was the primary limiting factor in word learning, but rmemory evolution also contributed (albeit to a lesser degree) to word learning success. Case illustrations demonstrate how a clinician's understanding of a child's word learning strengths and weaknesses develop over the course of treatment, substantiating the importance of regular data collection and clinical decision-making to ensure the best possible outcomes for each individual child.

Goodnight book: sleep consolidation improves word learning via storybooks

PubMed Central

Williams, Sophie E.; Horst, Jessica S.

2014-01-01

Reading the same storybooks repeatedly helps preschool children learn words. In addition, sleeping shortly after learning also facilitates memory consolidation and aids learning in older children and adults. The current study explored how sleep promotes word learning in preschool children using a shared storybook reading task. Children were either read the same story repeatedly or different stories and either napped after the stories or remained awake. Children's word retention were tested 2.5 h later, 24 h later, and 7 days later. Results demonstrate strong, persistent effects for both repeated readings and sleep consolidation on young children's word learning. A key finding is that children who read different stories before napping learned words as well as children who had the advantage of hearing the same story. In contrast, children who read different stories and remained awake never caught up to their peers on later word learning tests. Implications for educational practices are discussed. PMID:24624111

The neural correlates of semantic richness: evidence from an fMRI study of word learning.

PubMed

Ferreira, Roberto A; Göbel, Silke M; Hymers, Mark; Ellis, Andrew W

2015-04-01

We investigated the neural correlates of concrete nouns with either many or few semantic features. A group of 21 participants underwent two days of training and were then asked to categorize 40 newly learned words and a set of matched familiar words as living or nonliving in an MRI scanner. Our results showed that the most reliable effects of semantic richness were located in the left angular gyrus (AG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG), where activation was higher for semantically rich than poor words. Other areas showing the same pattern included bilateral precuneus and posterior cingulate gyrus. Our findings support the view that AG and anterior MTG, as part of the multimodal network, play a significant role in representing and integrating semantic features from different input modalities. We propose that activation in bilateral precuneus and posterior cingulate gyrus reflects interplay between AG and episodic memory systems during semantic retrieval. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Does Hearing Several Speakers Reduce Foreign Word Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ludington, Jason Darryl

2016-01-01

Learning spoken word forms is a vital part of second language learning, and CALL lends itself well to this training. Not enough is known, however, about how auditory variation across speech tokens may affect receptive word learning. To find out, 144 Thai university students with no knowledge of the Patani Malay language learned 24 foreign words in…

Rehearsal Effects in Adult Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon

2011-01-01

The goal of this research was to examine the effects of phonological familiarity and rehearsal method (vocal vs. subvocal) on novel word learning. In Experiment 1, English-speaking adults learned phonologically familiar novel words that followed English phonological structure. Participants learned half the words via vocal rehearsal (saying the…

Observational Word Learning: Beyond Propose-But-Verify and Associative Bean Counting.

PubMed

Roembke, Tanja; McMurray, Bob

2016-04-01

Learning new words is difficult. In any naming situation, there are multiple possible interpretations of a novel word. Recent approaches suggest that learners may solve this problem by tracking co-occurrence statistics between words and referents across multiple naming situations (e.g. Yu & Smith, 2007), overcoming the ambiguity in any one situation. Yet, there remains debate around the underlying mechanisms. We conducted two experiments in which learners acquired eight word-object mappings using cross-situational statistics while eye-movements were tracked. These addressed four unresolved questions regarding the learning mechanism. First, eye-movements during learning showed evidence that listeners maintain multiple hypotheses for a given word and bring them all to bear in the moment of naming. Second, trial-by-trial analyses of accuracy suggested that listeners accumulate continuous statistics about word/object mappings, over and above prior hypotheses they have about a word. Third, consistent, probabilistic context can impede learning, as false associations between words and highly co-occurring referents are formed. Finally, a number of factors not previously considered in prior analysis impact observational word learning: knowledge of the foils, spatial consistency of the target object, and the number of trials between presentations of the same word. This evidence suggests that observational word learning may derive from a combination of gradual statistical or associative learning mechanisms and more rapid real-time processes such as competition, mutual exclusivity and even inference or hypothesis testing.

Self-Paced Interactive Multimedia Courseware: A Learning Support Resource for Enhancing Electronic Theses and Dissertations Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Essel, Harry Barton; Osei-Poku, Patrick; Tachie-Menson, Akosua; Opoku-Asare, Nana Afia

2016-01-01

Submission of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by postgraduate students has become a common phenomenon in learning environments globally. The purpose of ETDs is to train postgraduate students as knowledge workers in online publishing and also extend their skills beyond word processing. The challenge however, is that many postgraduate…

A Multiple Strategy Framework Supporting Vocabulary Development for Students with Reading Comprehension Deficits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woolley, Gary

2010-01-01

Poor comprehenders are generally students who have significant language-learning deficits. A particular problem for students with poor comprehension is that they have difficulty learning new vocabulary because they are inclined to read less, and are unable to apply new meanings to unfamiliar words. This leads to the situation where the gap widens…

Neural networks involved in learning lexical-semantic and syntactic information in a second language.

PubMed

Mueller, Jutta L; Rueschemeyer, Shirley-Ann; Ono, Kentaro; Sugiura, Motoaki; Sadato, Norihiro; Nakamura, Akinori

2014-01-01

The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural correlates of language acquisition in a realistic learning environment. Japanese native speakers were trained in a miniature version of German prior to fMRI scanning. During scanning they listened to (1) familiar sentences, (2) sentences including a novel sentence structure, and (3) sentences containing a novel word while visual context provided referential information. Learning-related decreases of brain activation over time were found in a mainly left-hemispheric network comprising classical frontal and temporal language areas as well as parietal and subcortical regions and were largely overlapping for novel words and the novel sentence structure in initial stages of learning. Differences occurred at later stages of learning during which content-specific activation patterns in prefrontal, parietal and temporal cortices emerged. The results are taken as evidence for a domain-general network supporting the initial stages of language learning which dynamically adapts as learners become proficient.

Learning during processing Word learning doesn’t wait for word recognition to finish

PubMed Central

Apfelbaum, Keith S.; McMurray, Bob

2017-01-01

Previous research on associative learning has uncovered detailed aspects of the process, including what types of things are learned, how they are learned, and where in the brain such learning occurs. However, perceptual processes, such as stimulus recognition and identification, take time to unfold. Previous studies of learning have not addressed when, during the course of these dynamic recognition processes, learned representations are formed and updated. If learned representations are formed and updated while recognition is ongoing, the result of learning may incorporate spurious, partial information. For example, during word recognition, words take time to be identified, and competing words are often active in parallel. If learning proceeds before this competition resolves, representations may be influenced by the preliminary activations present at the time of learning. In three experiments using word learning as a model domain, we provide evidence that learning reflects the ongoing dynamics of auditory and visual processing during a learning event. These results show that learning can occur before stimulus recognition processes are complete; learning does not wait for ongoing perceptual processing to complete. PMID:27471082

Word learning in adults with second-language experience: effects of phonological and referent familiarity.

PubMed

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon; Van Hecke, Stephanie

2013-04-01

The goal of this research was to examine whether phonological familiarity exerts different effects on novel word learning for familiar versus unfamiliar referents and whether successful word learning is associated with increased second-language experience. Eighty-one adult native English speakers with various levels of Spanish knowledge learned phonologically familiar novel words (constructed using English sounds) or phonologically unfamiliar novel words (constructed using non-English and non-Spanish sounds) in association with either familiar or unfamiliar referents. Retention was tested via a forced-choice recognition task. A median-split procedure identified high-ability and low-ability word learners in each condition, and the two groups were compared on measures of second-language experience. Findings suggest that the ability to accurately match newly learned novel names to their appropriate referents is facilitated by phonological familiarity only for familiar referents but not for unfamiliar referents. Moreover, more extensive second-language learning experience characterized superior learners primarily in one word-learning condition: in which phonologically unfamiliar novel words were paired with familiar referents. Together, these findings indicate that phonological familiarity facilitates novel word learning only for familiar referents and that experience with learning a second language may have a specific impact on novel vocabulary learning in adults.

Word learning in adults with second language experience: Effects of phonological and referent familiarity

PubMed Central

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon; Van Hecke, Stephanie

2014-01-01

Purpose The goal of this research was to examine whether phonological familiarity exerts different effects on novel word learning for familiar vs. unfamiliar referents, and whether successful word-learning is associated with increased second-language experience. Method Eighty-one adult native English speakers with various levels of Spanish knowledge learned phonologically-familiar novel words (constructed using English sounds) or phonologically-unfamiliar novel words (constructed using non-English and non-Spanish sounds) in association with either familiar or unfamiliar referents. Retention was tested via a forced-choice recognition-task. A median-split procedure identified high-ability and low-ability word-learners in each condition, and the two groups were compared on measures of second-language experience. Results Findings suggest that the ability to accurately match newly-learned novel names to their appropriate referents is facilitated by phonological familiarity only for familiar referents but not for unfamiliar referents. Moreover, more extensive second-language learning experience characterized superior learners primarily in one word-learning condition: Where phonologically-unfamiliar novel words were paired with familiar referents. Conclusions Together, these findings indicate that phonological familiarity facilitates novel word learning only for familiar referents, and that experience with learning a second language may have a specific impact on novel vocabulary learning in adults. PMID:22992709

Word Writing vs. Meaning Inferencing in Contextualized L2 Vocabulary Learning: Assessing the Effect of Different Vocabulary Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Candry, Sarah; Elgort, Irina; Deconinck, Julie; Eyckmans, June

2017-01-01

The majority of L2 vocabulary studies concentrate on learning word meaning and provide learners with opportunities for semantic elaboration (i.e., focus on word meaning). However, in initial vocabulary learning, engaging in structural elaboration (i.e., focus on word form) with a view to acquiring L2 word form is equally important. The present…

Learning and Consolidation of Novel Spoken Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Matthew H.; Di Betta, Anna Maria; Macdonald, Mark J. E.; Gaskell, Gareth

2009-01-01

Two experiments explored the neural mechanisms underlying the learning and consolidation of novel spoken words. In Experiment 1, participants learned two sets of novel words on successive days. A subsequent recognition test revealed high levels of familiarity for both sets. However, a lexical decision task showed that only novel words learned on…

Unraveling Vocabulary Learning: Reader and Item-Level Predictors of Vocabulary Learning within Comprehension Instruction for Fifth and Sixth Graders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodwin, Amanda P.; Cho, Sun-Joo

2016-01-01

This study explores reader, word, and learning activity characteristics related to vocabulary learning for 202 fifth and sixth graders (N = 118 and 84, respectively) learning 16 words. Three measures of word knowledge were used: multiple-choice definition knowledge, self-report of meaning knowledge, and production of morphologically related words.…

Pragmatically Framed Cross-Situational Noun Learning Using Computational Reinforcement Models

PubMed Central

Najnin, Shamima; Banerjee, Bonny

2018-01-01

Cross-situational learning and social pragmatic theories are prominent mechanisms for learning word meanings (i.e., word-object pairs). In this paper, the role of reinforcement is investigated for early word-learning by an artificial agent. When exposed to a group of speakers, the agent comes to understand an initial set of vocabulary items belonging to the language used by the group. Both cross-situational learning and social pragmatic theory are taken into account. As social cues, joint attention and prosodic cues in caregiver's speech are considered. During agent-caregiver interaction, the agent selects a word from the caregiver's utterance and learns the relations between that word and the objects in its visual environment. The “novel words to novel objects” language-specific constraint is assumed for computing rewards. The models are learned by maximizing the expected reward using reinforcement learning algorithms [i.e., table-based algorithms: Q-learning, SARSA, SARSA-λ, and neural network-based algorithms: Q-learning for neural network (Q-NN), neural-fitted Q-network (NFQ), and deep Q-network (DQN)]. Neural network-based reinforcement learning models are chosen over table-based models for better generalization and quicker convergence. Simulations are carried out using mother-infant interaction CHILDES dataset for learning word-object pairings. Reinforcement is modeled in two cross-situational learning cases: (1) with joint attention (Attentional models), and (2) with joint attention and prosodic cues (Attentional-prosodic models). Attentional-prosodic models manifest superior performance to Attentional ones for the task of word-learning. The Attentional-prosodic DQN outperforms existing word-learning models for the same task. PMID:29441027

Small wins big: analytic pinyin skills promote Chinese word reading.

PubMed

Lin, Dan; McBride-Chang, Catherine; Shu, Hua; Zhang, Yuping; Li, Hong; Zhang, Juan; Aram, Dorit; Levin, Iris

2010-08-01

The present study examined invented spelling of pinyin (a phonological coding system for teaching and learning Chinese words) in relation to subsequent Chinese reading development. Among 296 Chinese kindergartners in Beijing, independent invented pinyin spelling was found to be uniquely predictive of Chinese word reading 12 months later, even with Time 1 syllable deletion, phoneme deletion, and letter knowledge, in addition to the autoregressive effects of Time 1 Chinese word reading, statistically controlled. These results underscore the importance of children's early pinyin representations for Chinese reading acquisition, both theoretically and practically. The findings further support the idea of a universal phonological principle and indicate that pinyin is potentially an ideal measure of phonological awareness in Chinese.

"Explicame tu Respuesta": Supporting the Development of Mathematical Discourse in Emergent Bilingual Kindergarten Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Celedon-Pattichis, Sylvia; Turner, Erin E.

2012-01-01

This study investigated Spanish-speaking kindergarten students' participation in mathematical discourse as they solved and discussed a range of word problems. Specifically, we draw upon sociocultural perspectives on mathematics learning to frame mathematical discourse and to examine specific teacher and student actions that seemed to support the…

Tips for Supporting Reading Skills at Home

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2018

2018-01-01

This document provides the following four tips for supporting reading skills for children ages K-3 at home: (1) Have conversations before, during, and after reading together; (2) Help children learn how to break sentences; (3) Help children sound out words smoothly; and (4) Model reading fluently by practicing reading out loud with your child.…

Preparing Teachers to Support Struggling First-Grade Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Bettina

2007-01-01

The purpose of this report is to provide education professors teaching early literacy methods courses with information for beginning teachers to support struggling first-grade readers. This analysis identifies the specific word structures children are expected to know by the end of first grade, and shows the actual learning rates of these…

Interactive Book Reading to Accelerate Word Learning by Kindergarten Children With Specific Language Impairment: Identifying Adequate Progress and Successful Learning Patterns

PubMed Central

Komesidou, Rouzana; Fleming, Kandace K.; Romine, Rebecca Swinburne

2017-01-01

Purpose The goal of this study was to provide guidance to clinicians on early benchmarks of successful word learning in an interactive book reading treatment and to examine how encoding and memory evolution during treatment contribute to word learning outcomes by kindergarten children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method Twenty-seven kindergarten children with SLI participated in a preliminary clinical trial using interactive book reading to teach 30 new words. Word learning was assessed at 4 points during treatment through a picture naming test. Results The results indicate that the following performance during treatment was cause for concern, indicating a need to modify the treatment: naming 0–1 treated words correctly at Naming Test 1; naming 0–2 treated words correctly at Naming Test 2; naming 0–3 treated words correctly at Naming Test 3. In addition, the results showed that encoding was the primary limiting factor in word learning, but rmemory evolution also contributed (albeit to a lesser degree) to word learning success. Conclusion Case illustrations demonstrate how a clinician's understanding of a child's word learning strengths and weaknesses develop over the course of treatment, substantiating the importance of regular data collection and clinical decision-making to ensure the best possible outcomes for each individual child. PMID:28419188

Acquiring concepts and features of novel words by two types of learning: direct mapping and inference.

PubMed

Chen, Shuang; Wang, Lin; Yang, Yufang

2014-04-01

This study examined the semantic representation of novel words learnt in two conditions: directly mapping a novel word to a concept (Direct mapping: DM) and inferring the concept from provided features (Inferred learning: IF). A condition where no definite concept could be inferred (No basic-level meaning: NM) served as a baseline. The semantic representation of the novel word was assessed via a semantic-relatedness judgment task. In this task, the learned novel word served as a prime, while the corresponding concept, an unlearned feature of the concept, and an unrelated word served as targets. ERP responses to the targets, primed by the novel words in the three learning conditions, were compared. For the corresponding concept, smaller N400s were elicited in the DM and IF conditions than in the NM condition, indicating that the concept could be obtained in both learning conditions. However, for the unlearned feature, the targets in the IF condition produced an N400 effect while in the DM condition elicited an LPC effect relative to the NM learning condition. No ERP difference was observed among the three learning conditions for the unrelated words. The results indicate that conditions of learning affect the semantic representation of novel word, and that the unlearned feature was only activated by the novel word in the IF learning condition. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

White matter anisotropy in the ventral language pathway predicts sound-to-word learning success

PubMed Central

Wong, Francis C. K.; Chandrasekaran, Bharath; Garibaldi, Kyla; Wong, Patrick C. M.

2011-01-01

According to the dual stream model of auditory language processing, the dorsal stream is responsible for mapping sound to articulation while the ventral stream plays the role of mapping sound to meaning. Most researchers agree that the arcuate fasciculus (AF) is the neuroanatomical correlate of the dorsal steam, however, less is known about what constitutes the ventral one. Nevertheless two hypotheses exist, one suggests that the segment of the AF that terminates in middle temporal gyrus corresponds to the ventral stream and the other suggests that it is the extreme capsule that underlies this sound to meaning pathway. The goal of this study is to evaluate these two competing hypotheses. We trained participants with a sound-to-word learning paradigm in which they learned to use a foreign phonetic contrast for signaling word meaning. Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a brain imaging tool to investigate white matter connectivity in humans, we found that fractional anisotropy in the left parietal-temporal region positively correlated with the performance in sound-to-word learning. In addition, fiber tracking revealed a ventral pathway, composed of the extreme capsule and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, that mediated auditory comprehension. Our findings provide converging evidence supporting the importance of the ventral steam, an extreme capsule system, in the frontal-temporal language network. Implications for current models of speech processing will also be discussed. PMID:21677162

Operational Symbols: Can a Picture Be Worth a Thousand Words?

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-04-01

internal visualization, because forms are to visual communication what words are to verbal communication. From a psychological point of view, the process... Visual Communication . Washington, DC: National Education Association, 1960. Bohannan, Anthony G. "C31 In Support of the Land Commander," in Principles...captions guide what is learned from a picture or graphic. 40. John C. Ball and Francis C. Byrnes, ed., Research, Principles, and Practices in Visual

Effects of Word and Fragment Writing during L2 Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barcroft, Joe

2007-01-01

This study examined how writing (copying) target words and word fragments affects intentional second language (L2) vocabulary learning. English-speaking first-semester learners of Spanish attempted to learn 24 Spanish nouns via word-picture repetition in three conditions: (1) word writing, (2) fragment writing, and (3) no writing. After the…

Statistical word learning in children with autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment.

PubMed

Haebig, Eileen; Saffran, Jenny R; Ellis Weismer, Susan

2017-11-01

Word learning is an important component of language development that influences child outcomes across multiple domains. Despite the importance of word knowledge, word-learning mechanisms are poorly understood in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined underlying mechanisms of word learning, specifically, statistical learning and fast-mapping, in school-aged children with typical and atypical development. Statistical learning was assessed through a word segmentation task and fast-mapping was examined in an object-label association task. We also examined children's ability to map meaning onto newly segmented words in a third task that combined exposure to an artificial language and a fast-mapping task. Children with SLI had poorer performance on the word segmentation and fast-mapping tasks relative to the typically developing and ASD groups, who did not differ from one another. However, when children with SLI were exposed to an artificial language with phonemes used in the subsequent fast-mapping task, they successfully learned more words than in the isolated fast-mapping task. There was some evidence that word segmentation abilities are associated with word learning in school-aged children with typical development and ASD, but not SLI. Follow-up analyses also examined performance in children with ASD who did and did not have a language impairment. Children with ASD with language impairment evidenced intact statistical learning abilities, but subtle weaknesses in fast-mapping abilities. As the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis (PDH) predicts, children with SLI have impairments in statistical learning. However, children with SLI also have impairments in fast-mapping. Nonetheless, they are able to take advantage of additional phonological exposure to boost subsequent word-learning performance. In contrast to the PDH, children with ASD appear to have intact statistical learning, regardless of language status; however, fast-mapping abilities differ according to broader language skills. © 2017 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Associative vocabulary learning: development and testing of two paradigms for the (re-) acquisition of action- and object-related words.

PubMed

Freundlieb, Nils; Ridder, Volker; Dobel, Christian; Enriquez-Geppert, Stefanie; Baumgaertner, Annette; Zwitserlood, Pienie; Gerloff, Christian; Hummel, Friedhelm C; Liuzzi, Gianpiero

2012-01-01

Despite a growing number of studies, the neurophysiology of adult vocabulary acquisition is still poorly understood. One reason is that paradigms that can easily be combined with neuroscientfic methods are rare. Here, we tested the efficiency of two paradigms for vocabulary (re-) acquisition, and compared the learning of novel words for actions and objects. Cortical networks involved in adult native-language word processing are widespread, with differences postulated between words for objects and actions. Words and what they stand for are supposed to be grounded in perceptual and sensorimotor brain circuits depending on their meaning. If there are specific brain representations for different word categories, we hypothesized behavioural differences in the learning of action-related and object-related words. Paradigm A, with the learning of novel words for body-related actions spread out over a number of days, revealed fast learning of these new action words, and stable retention up to 4 weeks after training. The single-session Paradigm B employed objects and actions. Performance during acquisition did not differ between action-related and object-related words (time*word category: p = 0.01), but the translation rate was clearly better for object-related (79%) than for action-related words (53%, p = 0.002). Both paradigms yielded robust associative learning of novel action-related words, as previously demonstrated for object-related words. Translation success differed for action- and object-related words, which may indicate different neural mechanisms. The paradigms tested here are well suited to investigate such differences with neuroscientific means. Given the stable retention and minimal requirements for conscious effort, these learning paradigms are promising for vocabulary re-learning in brain-lesioned people. In combination with neuroimaging, neuro-stimulation or pharmacological intervention, they may well advance the understanding of language learning to optimize therapeutic strategies.

The Road to Language Learning Is Not Entirely Iconic: Iconicity, Neighborhood Density, and Frequency Facilitate Acquisition of Sign Language.

PubMed

Caselli, Naomi K; Pyers, Jennie E

2017-07-01

Iconic mappings between words and their meanings are far more prevalent than once estimated and seem to support children's acquisition of new words, spoken or signed. We asked whether iconicity's prevalence in sign language overshadows two other factors known to support the acquisition of spoken vocabulary: neighborhood density (the number of lexical items phonologically similar to the target) and lexical frequency. Using mixed-effects logistic regressions, we reanalyzed 58 parental reports of native-signing deaf children's productive acquisition of 332 signs in American Sign Language (ASL; Anderson & Reilly, 2002) and found that iconicity, neighborhood density, and lexical frequency independently facilitated vocabulary acquisition. Despite differences in iconicity and phonological structure between signed and spoken language, signing children, like children learning a spoken language, track statistical information about lexical items and their phonological properties and leverage this information to expand their vocabulary.

How Many U.S. High School Students Have a Foreign Language Reading "Disability"? Reading Without Meaning and the Simple View.

PubMed

Sparks, Richard L; Luebbers, Julie

Conventional wisdom suggests that students classified as learning disabled will exhibit difficulties with foreign language (FL) learning, but evidence has not supported a relationship between FL learning problems and learning disabilities. The simple view of reading model posits that reading comprehension is the product of word decoding and language comprehension and that there are good readers and 3 types of poor readers-dyslexic, hyperlexic, and garden variety-who exhibit different profiles of strengths and/or deficits in word decoding and language comprehension. In this study, a random sample of U.S. high school students completing first-, second-, and third-year Spanish courses were administered standardized measures of Spanish word decoding and reading comprehension, compared with monolingual Spanish readers from first to eleventh grades, and classified into reader types according to the simple view of reading. The majority of students fit the hyperlexic profile, and no participants fit the good reader profile until they were compared with first- and second-grade monolingual Spanish readers. Findings call into question the practice of diagnosing an FL "disability" before a student engages in FL study.

Word Learning Emerges from the Interaction of Online Referent Selection and Slow Associative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMurray, Bob; Horst, Jessica S.; Samuelson, Larissa K.

2012-01-01

Classic approaches to word learning emphasize referential ambiguity: In naming situations, a novel word could refer to many possible objects, properties, actions, and so forth. To solve this, researchers have posited constraints, and inference strategies, but assume that determining the referent of a novel word is isomorphic to learning. We…

Observing Iconic Gestures Enhances Word Learning in Typically Developing Children and Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vogt, Susanne; Kauschke, Christina

2017-01-01

Research has shown that observing iconic gestures helps typically developing children (TD) and children with specific language impairment (SLI) learn new words. So far, studies mostly compared word learning with and without gestures. The present study investigated word learning under two gesture conditions in children with and without language…

Brief report: Do children with autism gather information from social contexts to aid their word learning?

PubMed

Jing, Wei; Fang, Junming

2014-06-01

Typically developing (TD) infants could capitalize on social eye gaze and social contexts to aid word learning. Although children with autism disorder (AD) are known to exhibit atypicality in word learning via social eye gaze, their ability to utilize social contexts for word learning is not well understood. We investigated whether verbal AD children exhibit word learning ability via social contextual cues by late childhood. We found that AD children, unlike TD controls, failed to infer the speaker’s referential intention through information gathered from the social context. This suggests that TD children can learn words in diverse social pragmatic contexts in as early as toddlerhood whereas AD children are still unable to do so by late childhood.

What's in a Word? Some Ideas to Help with Spelling Awareness. P.E.N. (Primary English Notes) 50.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Barbara

1985-01-01

The teaching activities presented in this pamphlet present some ways of helping children acquire a few "mechanisms" to support exploration, growth, and search in language learning and, more specifically, in spelling awareness. The pamphlet begins with a discussion of the context for learning strategies to use in exploring language. Then…

Learning Vocabulary through E-Book Reading of Young Children with Various Reading Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Sung Hee

2017-01-01

Previous studies revealed that young children learn novel word meanings by simply reading and listening to a printed book. In today's classroom, many children's e-books provide audio narration support so young readers can simply listen to the e-books. The focus of the present study is to examine the effect of e-book reading with audio narration…

RoLo: A Dictionary Interface that Minimizes Extraneous Cognitive Load of Lookup and Supports Incidental and Incremental Learning of Vocabulary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dang, Thanh-Dung; Chen, Gwo-Dong; Dang, Giao; Li, Liang-Yi; Nurkhamid

2013-01-01

Dictionary use can improve reading comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning. Nevertheless, great extraneous cognitive load imposed by the search process may reduce or even prevent the improvement. With the help of technology, dictionary users can now instantly access the meaning list of a searched word using a mouse click. However, they…

Hidden word learning capacity through orthography in aphasia.

PubMed

Tuomiranta, Leena M; Càmara, Estela; Froudist Walsh, Seán; Ripollés, Pablo; Saunavaara, Jani P; Parkkola, Riitta; Martin, Nadine; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Laine, Matti

2014-01-01

The ability to learn to use new words is thought to depend on the integrity of the left dorsal temporo-frontal speech processing pathway. We tested this assumption in a chronic aphasic individual (AA) with an extensive left temporal lesion using a new-word learning paradigm. She exhibited severe phonological problems and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) suggested a complete disconnection of this left-sided white-matter pathway comprising the arcuate fasciculus (AF). Diffusion imaging tractography confirmed the disconnection of the direct segment and the posterior indirect segment of her left AF, essential components of the left dorsal speech processing pathway. Despite her left-hemispheric damage and moderate aphasia, AA learned to name and maintain the novel words in her active vocabulary on par with healthy controls up to 6 months after learning. This exceeds previous demonstrations of word learning ability in aphasia. Interestingly, AA's preserved word learning ability was modality-specific as it was observed exclusively for written words. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed that in contrast to normals, AA showed a significantly right-lateralized activation pattern in the temporal and parietal regions when engaged in reading. Moreover, learning of visually presented novel word-picture pairs also activated the right temporal lobe in AA. Both AA and the controls showed increased activation during learning of novel versus familiar word-picture pairs in the hippocampus, an area critical for associative learning. AA's structural and functional imaging results suggest that in a literate person, a right-hemispheric network can provide an effective alternative route for learning of novel active vocabulary. Importantly, AA's previously undetected word learning ability translated directly into therapy, as she could use written input also to successfully re-learn and maintain familiar words that she had lost due to her left hemisphere lesion. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dependency-based Siamese long short-term memory network for learning sentence representations

PubMed Central

Zhu, Wenhao; Ni, Jianyue; Wei, Baogang; Lu, Zhiguo

2018-01-01

Textual representations play an important role in the field of natural language processing (NLP). The efficiency of NLP tasks, such as text comprehension and information extraction, can be significantly improved with proper textual representations. As neural networks are gradually applied to learn the representation of words and phrases, fairly efficient models of learning short text representations have been developed, such as the continuous bag of words (CBOW) and skip-gram models, and they have been extensively employed in a variety of NLP tasks. Because of the complex structure generated by the longer text lengths, such as sentences, algorithms appropriate for learning short textual representations are not applicable for learning long textual representations. One method of learning long textual representations is the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network, which is suitable for processing sequences. However, the standard LSTM does not adequately address the primary sentence structure (subject, predicate and object), which is an important factor for producing appropriate sentence representations. To resolve this issue, this paper proposes the dependency-based LSTM model (D-LSTM). The D-LSTM divides a sentence representation into two parts: a basic component and a supporting component. The D-LSTM uses a pre-trained dependency parser to obtain the primary sentence information and generate supporting components, and it also uses a standard LSTM model to generate the basic sentence components. A weight factor that can adjust the ratio of the basic and supporting components in a sentence is introduced to generate the sentence representation. Compared with the representation learned by the standard LSTM, the sentence representation learned by the D-LSTM contains a greater amount of useful information. The experimental results show that the D-LSTM is superior to the standard LSTM for sentences involving compositional knowledge (SICK) data. PMID:29513748

Children value informativity over logic in word learning.

PubMed

Ramscar, Michael; Dye, Melody; Klein, Joseph

2013-06-01

The question of how children learn the meanings of words has long puzzled philosophers and psychologists. As Quine famously pointed out, simply hearing a word in context reveals next to nothing about its meaning. How then do children learn to understand and use words correctly? Here, we show how learning theory can offer an elegant solution to this seemingly intractable puzzle in language acquisition. From it, we derived formal predictions about word learning in situations of Quinean ambiguity, and subsequently tested our predictions on toddlers, undergraduates, and developmental psychologists. The toddlers' performance was consistent both with our predictions and with the workings of implicit mechanisms that can facilitate the learning of meaningful lexical systems. Adults adopted a markedly different and likely suboptimal strategy. These results suggest one explanation for why early word learning can appear baffling: Adult intuitions may be a poor source of insight into how children learn.

From Grammatical Number to Exact Numbers: Early Meanings of ‘One,’ ‘Two,’ and ‘Three’ in English, Russian, and Japanese

PubMed Central

Sarnecka, Barbara W.; Kamenskaya, Valentina G.; Yamana, Yuko; Ogura, Tamiko; Yudovina, Yulia. B.

2007-01-01

This study examined whether singular/plural marking in a language helps children learn the meanings of the words ‘one,’ ‘two,’ and ‘three.’ First, CHILDES data in English, Russian (which marks singular/plural), and Japanese (which does not) were compared for frequency, variability, and contexts of number-word use. Then young children in the USA, Russia, and Japan were tested on Counting and Give-N tasks. More English and Russian learners knew the meaning of each number word than Japanese learners, regardless of whether singular/plural cues appeared in the task itself (e.g., “Give two apples” vs. “Give two”). These results suggest that the learning of “one,” “two” and “three” is supported by the conceptual framework of grammatical number, rather than that of integers. PMID:17070794

An associative account of the development of word learning.

PubMed

Sloutsky, Vladimir M; Yim, Hyungwook; Yao, Xin; Dennis, Simon

2017-09-01

Word learning is a notoriously difficult induction problem because meaning is underdetermined by positive examples. How do children solve this problem? Some have argued that word learning is achieved by means of inference: young word learners rely on a number of assumptions that reduce the overall hypothesis space by favoring some meanings over others. However, these approaches have difficulty explaining how words are learned from conversations or text, without pointing or explicit instruction. In this research, we propose an associative mechanism that can account for such learning. In a series of experiments, 4-year-olds and adults were presented with sets of words that included a single nonsense word (e.g. dax). Some lists were taxonomic (i.,e., all items were members of a given category), some were associative (i.e., all items were associates of a given category, but not members), and some were mixed. Participants were asked to indicate whether the nonsense word was an animal or an artifact. Adults exhibited evidence of learning when lists consisted of either associatively or taxonomically related items. In contrast, children exhibited evidence of word learning only when lists consisted of associatively related items. These results present challenges to several extant models of word learning, and a new model based on the distinction between syntagmatic and paradigmatic associations is proposed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Word reading skill predicts anticipation of upcoming spoken language input: a study of children developing proficiency in reading.

PubMed

Mani, Nivedita; Huettig, Falk

2014-10-01

Despite the efficiency with which language users typically process spoken language, a growing body of research finds substantial individual differences in both the speed and accuracy of spoken language processing potentially attributable to participants' literacy skills. Against this background, the current study took a look at the role of word reading skill in listeners' anticipation of upcoming spoken language input in children at the cusp of learning to read; if reading skills affect predictive language processing, then children at this stage of literacy acquisition should be most susceptible to the effects of reading skills on spoken language processing. We tested 8-year-olds on their prediction of upcoming spoken language input in an eye-tracking task. Although children, like in previous studies to date, were successfully able to anticipate upcoming spoken language input, there was a strong positive correlation between children's word reading skills (but not their pseudo-word reading and meta-phonological awareness or their spoken word recognition skills) and their prediction skills. We suggest that these findings are most compatible with the notion that the process of learning orthographic representations during reading acquisition sharpens pre-existing lexical representations, which in turn also supports anticipation of upcoming spoken words. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Word Learning Deficits in Children With Dyslexia

PubMed Central

Hogan, Tiffany; Green, Samuel; Gray, Shelley; Cabbage, Kathryn; Cowan, Nelson

2017-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate word learning in children with dyslexia to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses during the configuration stage of word learning. Method Children with typical development (N = 116) and dyslexia (N = 68) participated in computer-based word learning games that assessed word learning in 4 sets of games that manipulated phonological or visuospatial demands. All children were monolingual English-speaking 2nd graders without oral language impairment. The word learning games measured children's ability to link novel names with novel objects, to make decisions about the accuracy of those names and objects, to recognize the semantic features of the objects, and to produce the names of the novel words. Accuracy data were analyzed using analyses of covariance with nonverbal intelligence scores as a covariate. Results Word learning deficits were evident for children with dyslexia across every type of manipulation and on 3 of 5 tasks, but not for every combination of task/manipulation. Deficits were more common when task demands taxed phonology. Visuospatial manipulations led to both disadvantages and advantages for children with dyslexia. Conclusion Children with dyslexia evidence spoken word learning deficits, but their performance is highly dependent on manipulations and task demand, suggesting a processing trade-off between visuospatial and phonological demands. PMID:28388708

Variation across individuals and items determine learning outcomes from fast mapping.

PubMed

Coutanche, Marc N; Koch, Griffin E

2017-11-01

An approach to learning words known as "fast mapping" has been linked to unique neurobiological and behavioral markers in adult humans, including rapid lexical integration. However, the mechanisms supporting fast mapping are still not known. In this study, we sought to help change this by examining factors that modulate learning outcomes. In 90 subjects, we systematically manipulated the typicality of the items used to support fast mapping (foils), and quantified learners' inclination to employ semantic, episodic, and spatial memory through the Survey of Autobiographical Memory (SAM). We asked how these factors affect lexical competition and recognition performance, and then asked how foil typicality and lexical competition are related in an independent dataset. We find that both the typicality of fast mapping foils, and individual differences in how different memory systems are employed, influence lexical competition effects after fast mapping, but not after other learning approaches. Specifically, learning a word through fast mapping with an atypical foil led to lexical competition, while a typical foil led to lexical facilitation. This effect was particularly evident in individuals with a strong tendency to employ semantic memory. We further replicated the relationship between continuous foil atypicality and lexical competition in an independent dataset. These findings suggest that semantic properties of the foils that support fast mapping can influence the degree and nature of subsequent lexical integration. Further, the effects of foils differ based on an individual's tendency to draw-on the semantic memory system. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The relationship between novel word learning and anomia treatment success in adults with chronic aphasia.

PubMed

Dignam, Jade; Copland, David; Rawlings, Alicia; O'Brien, Kate; Burfein, Penni; Rodriguez, Amy D

2016-01-29

Learning capacity may influence an individual's response to aphasia rehabilitation. However, investigations into the relationship between novel word learning ability and response to anomia therapy are lacking. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the novel word learning ability in post-stroke aphasia and to establish the relationship between learning ability and anomia treatment outcomes. We also explored the influence of locus of language breakdown on novel word learning ability and anomia treatment response. 30 adults (6F; 24M) with chronic, post-stroke aphasia were recruited to the study. Prior to treatment, participants underwent an assessment of language, which included the Comprehensive Aphasia Test and three baseline confrontation naming probes in order to develop sets of treated and untreated items. We also administered the novel word learning paradigm, in which participants learnt novel names associated with unfamiliar objects and were immediately tested on recall (expressive) and recognition (receptive) tasks. Participants completed 48 h of Aphasia Language Impairment and Functioning Therapy (Aphasia LIFT) over a 3 week (intensive) or 8 week (distributed) schedule. Therapy primarily targeted the remediation of word retrieval deficits, so naming of treated and untreated items immediately post-therapy and at 1 month follow-up was used to determine therapeutic response. Performance on recall and recognition tasks demonstrated that participants were able to learn novel words; however, performance was variable and was influenced by participants' aphasia severity, lexical-semantic processing and locus of language breakdown. Novel word learning performance was significantly correlated with participants' response to therapy for treated items at post-therapy. In contrast, participants' novel word learning performance was not correlated with therapy gains for treated items at 1 month follow-up or for untreated items at either time point. Therapy intensity did not influence treatment outcomes. This is the first group study to directly examine the relationship between novel word learning and therapy outcomes for anomia rehabilitation in adults with aphasia. Importantly, we found that novel word learning performance was correlated with therapy outcomes. We propose that novel word learning ability may contribute to the initial acquisition of treatment gains in anomia rehabilitation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adults' Self-Directed Learning of an Artificial Lexicon: The Dynamics of Neighborhood Reorganization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bardhan, Neil Prodeep

2010-01-01

Artificial lexicons have previously been used to examine the time course of the learning and recognition of spoken words, the role of segment type in word learning, and the integration of context during spoken word recognition. However, in all of these studies the experimenter determined the frequency and order of the words to be learned. In three…

Nonword Repetition and Vocabulary Knowledge as Predictors of Children's Phonological and Semantic Word Learning.

PubMed

Adlof, Suzanne M; Patten, Hannah

2017-03-01

This study examined the unique and shared variance that nonword repetition and vocabulary knowledge contribute to children's ability to learn new words. Multiple measures of word learning were used to assess recall and recognition of phonological and semantic information. Fifty children, with a mean age of 8 years (range 5-12 years), completed experimental assessments of word learning and norm-referenced assessments of receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge and nonword repetition skills. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses examined the variance in word learning that was explained by vocabulary knowledge and nonword repetition after controlling for chronological age. Together with chronological age, nonword repetition and vocabulary knowledge explained up to 44% of the variance in children's word learning. Nonword repetition was the stronger predictor of phonological recall, phonological recognition, and semantic recognition, whereas vocabulary knowledge was the stronger predictor of verbal semantic recall. These findings extend the results of past studies indicating that both nonword repetition skill and existing vocabulary knowledge are important for new word learning, but the relative influence of each predictor depends on the way word learning is measured. Suggestions for further research involving typically developing children and children with language or reading impairments are discussed.

The combining of multiple hemispheric resources in learning-disabled and skilled readers' recall of words: a test of three information-processing models.

PubMed

Swanson, H L

1987-01-01

Three theoretical models (additive, independence, maximum rule) that characterize and predict the influence of independent hemispheric resources on learning-disabled and skilled readers' simultaneous processing were tested. Predictions related to word recall performance during simultaneous encoding conditions (dichotic listening task) were made from unilateral (dichotic listening task) presentations. The maximum rule model best characterized both ability groups in that simultaneous encoding produced no better recall than unilateral presentations. While the results support the hypothesis that both ability groups use similar processes in the combining of hemispheric resources (i.e., weak/dominant processing), ability group differences do occur in the coordination of such resources.

What Is the PE Password? Incorporating Vocabulary in Your Elementary PE Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robelee, Margaret E.

2016-01-01

This article describes a novel program for third through fifth grade called "What is the PE Password?" that teaches vocabulary words and concepts without sacrificing activity time in order to support Common Core learning.

Adaptive memory: the comparative value of survival processing.

PubMed

Nairne, James S; Pandeirada, Josefa N S; Thompson, Sarah R

2008-02-01

We recently proposed that human memory systems are "tuned" to remember information that is processed for survival, perhaps as a result of fitness advantages accrued in the ancestral past. This proposal was supported by experiments in which participants showed superior memory when words were rated for survival relevance, at least relative to when words received other forms of deep processing. The current experiments tested the mettle of survival memory by pitting survival processing against conditions that are universally accepted as producing excellent retention, including conditions in which participants rated words for imagery, pleasantness, and self-reference; participants also generated words, studied words with the intention of learning them, or rated words for relevance to a contextually rich (but non-survival-related) scenario. Survival processing yielded the best retention, which suggests that it may be one of the best encoding procedures yet discovered in the memory field.

Learning linear transformations between counting-based and prediction-based word embeddings

PubMed Central

Hayashi, Kohei; Kawarabayashi, Ken-ichi

2017-01-01

Despite the growing interest in prediction-based word embedding learning methods, it remains unclear as to how the vector spaces learnt by the prediction-based methods differ from that of the counting-based methods, or whether one can be transformed into the other. To study the relationship between counting-based and prediction-based embeddings, we propose a method for learning a linear transformation between two given sets of word embeddings. Our proposal contributes to the word embedding learning research in three ways: (a) we propose an efficient method to learn a linear transformation between two sets of word embeddings, (b) using the transformation learnt in (a), we empirically show that it is possible to predict distributed word embeddings for novel unseen words, and (c) empirically it is possible to linearly transform counting-based embeddings to prediction-based embeddings, for frequent words, different POS categories, and varying degrees of ambiguities. PMID:28926629

Semantic Coherence Facilitates Distributional Learning.

PubMed

Ouyang, Long; Boroditsky, Lera; Frank, Michael C

2017-04-01

Computational models have shown that purely statistical knowledge about words' linguistic contexts is sufficient to learn many properties of words, including syntactic and semantic category. For example, models can infer that "postman" and "mailman" are semantically similar because they have quantitatively similar patterns of association with other words (e.g., they both tend to occur with words like "deliver," "truck," "package"). In contrast to these computational results, artificial language learning experiments suggest that distributional statistics alone do not facilitate learning of linguistic categories. However, experiments in this paradigm expose participants to entirely novel words, whereas real language learners encounter input that contains some known words that are semantically organized. In three experiments, we show that (a) the presence of familiar semantic reference points facilitates distributional learning and (b) this effect crucially depends both on the presence of known words and the adherence of these known words to some semantic organization. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Utterance-final position and pitch marking aid word learning in school-age children.

PubMed

Filippi, Piera; Laaha, Sabine; Fitch, W Tecumseh

2017-08-01

We investigated the effects of word order and prosody on word learning in school-age children. Third graders viewed photographs belonging to one of three semantic categories while hearing four-word nonsense utterances containing a target word. In the control condition, all words had the same pitch and, across trials, the position of the target word was varied systematically within each utterance. The only cue to word-meaning mapping was the co-occurrence of target words and referents. This cue was present in all conditions. In the Utterance-final condition, the target word always occurred in utterance-final position, and at the same fundamental frequency as all the other words of the utterance. In the Pitch peak condition, the position of the target word was varied systematically within each utterance across trials, and produced with pitch contrasts typical of infant-directed speech (IDS). In the Pitch peak + Utterance-final condition, the target word always occurred in utterance-final position, and was marked with a pitch contrast typical of IDS. Word learning occurred in all conditions except the control condition. Moreover, learning performance was significantly higher than that observed with simple co-occurrence ( control condition) only for the Pitch peak + Utterance-final condition. We conclude that, for school-age children, the combination of words' utterance-final alignment and pitch enhancement boosts word learning.

A Dual-Route Model that Learns to Pronounce English Words

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Remington, Roger W.; Miller, Craig S.; Null, Cynthia H. (Technical Monitor)

1995-01-01

This paper describes a model that learns to pronounce English words. Learning occurs in two modules: 1) a rule-based module that constructs pronunciations by phonetic analysis of the letter string, and 2) a whole-word module that learns to associate subsets of letters to the pronunciation, without phonetic analysis. In a simulation on a corpus of over 300 words the model produced pronunciation latencies consistent with the effects of word frequency and orthographic regularity observed in human data. Implications of the model for theories of visual word processing and reading instruction are discussed.

The development of cortical sensitivity to visual word forms.

PubMed

Ben-Shachar, Michal; Dougherty, Robert F; Deutsch, Gayle K; Wandell, Brian A

2011-09-01

The ability to extract visual word forms quickly and efficiently is essential for using reading as a tool for learning. We describe the first longitudinal fMRI study to chart individual changes in cortical sensitivity to written words as reading develops. We conducted four annual measurements of brain function and reading skills in a heterogeneous group of children, initially 7-12 years old. The results show age-related increase in children's cortical sensitivity to word visibility in posterior left occipito-temporal sulcus (LOTS), nearby the anatomical location of the visual word form area. Moreover, the rate of increase in LOTS word sensitivity specifically correlates with the rate of improvement in sight word efficiency, a measure of speeded overt word reading. Other cortical regions, including V1, posterior parietal cortex, and the right homologue of LOTS, did not demonstrate such developmental changes. These results provide developmental support for the hypothesis that LOTS is part of the cortical circuitry that extracts visual word forms quickly and efficiently and highlight the importance of developing cortical sensitivity to word visibility in reading acquisition.

The Development of Cortical Sensitivity to Visual Word Forms

PubMed Central

Ben-Shachar, Michal; Dougherty, Robert F.; Deutsch, Gayle K.; Wandell, Brian A.

2011-01-01

The ability to extract visual word forms quickly and efficiently is essential for using reading as a tool for learning. We describe the first longitudinal fMRI study to chart individual changes in cortical sensitivity to written words as reading develops. We conducted four annual measurements of brain function and reading skills in a heterogeneous group of children, initially 7–12 years old. The results show age-related increase in children's cortical sensitivity to word visibility in posterior left occipito-temporal sulcus (LOTS), nearby the anatomical location of the visual word form area. Moreover, the rate of increase in LOTS word sensitivity specifically correlates with the rate of improvement in sight word efficiency, a measure of speeded overt word reading. Other cortical regions, including V1, posterior parietal cortex, and the right homologue of LOTS, did not demonstrate such developmental changes. These results provide developmental support for the hypothesis that LOTS is part of the cortical circuitry that extracts visual word forms quickly and efficiently and highlight the importance of developing cortical sensitivity to word visibility in reading acquisition. PMID:21261451

Semantic and phonological schema influence spoken word learning and overnight consolidation.

PubMed

Havas, Viktória; Taylor, Jsh; Vaquero, Lucía; de Diego-Balaguer, Ruth; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Davis, Matthew H

2018-06-01

We studied the initial acquisition and overnight consolidation of new spoken words that resemble words in the native language (L1) or in an unfamiliar, non-native language (L2). Spanish-speaking participants learned the spoken forms of novel words in their native language (Spanish) or in a different language (Hungarian), which were paired with pictures of familiar or unfamiliar objects, or no picture. We thereby assessed, in a factorial way, the impact of existing knowledge (schema) on word learning by manipulating both semantic (familiar vs unfamiliar objects) and phonological (L1- vs L2-like novel words) familiarity. Participants were trained and tested with a 12-hr intervening period that included overnight sleep or daytime awake. Our results showed (1) benefits of sleep to recognition memory that were greater for words with L2-like phonology and (2) that learned associations with familiar but not unfamiliar pictures enhanced recognition memory for novel words. Implications for complementary systems accounts of word learning are discussed.

Selective attention and recognition: effects of congruency on episodic learning.

PubMed

Rosner, Tamara M; D'Angelo, Maria C; MacLellan, Ellen; Milliken, Bruce

2015-05-01

Recent research on cognitive control has focused on the learning consequences of high selective attention demands in selective attention tasks (e.g., Botvinick, Cognit Affect Behav Neurosci 7(4):356-366, 2007; Verguts and Notebaert, Psychol Rev 115(2):518-525, 2008). The current study extends these ideas by examining the influence of selective attention demands on remembering. In Experiment 1, participants read aloud the red word in a pair of red and green spatially interleaved words. Half of the items were congruent (the interleaved words had the same identity), and the other half were incongruent (the interleaved words had different identities). Following the naming phase, participants completed a surprise recognition memory test. In this test phase, recognition memory was better for incongruent than for congruent items. In Experiment 2, context was only partially reinstated at test, and again recognition memory was better for incongruent than for congruent items. In Experiment 3, all of the items contained two different words, but in one condition the words were presented close together and interleaved, while in the other condition the two words were spatially separated. Recognition memory was better for the interleaved than for the separated items. This result rules out an interpretation of the congruency effects on recognition in Experiments 1 and 2 that hinges on stronger relational encoding for items that have two different words. Together, the results support the view that selective attention demands for incongruent items lead to encoding that improves recognition.

Context effects on second-language learning of tonal contrasts.

PubMed

Chang, Charles B; Bowles, Anita R

2015-12-01

Studies of lexical tone  learning generally focus on monosyllabic contexts, while reports of phonetic learning benefits associated with input variability are based largely on experienced learners. This study trained inexperienced learners on Mandarin tonal contrasts to test two hypotheses regarding the influence of context and variability on tone  learning. The first hypothesis was that increased phonetic variability of tones in disyllabic contexts makes initial tone  learning more challenging in disyllabic than monosyllabic words. The second hypothesis was that the learnability of a given tone varies across contexts due to differences in tonal variability. Results of a word learning experiment supported both hypotheses: tones were acquired less successfully in disyllables than in monosyllables, and the relative difficulty of disyllables was closely related to contextual tonal variability. These results indicate limited relevance of monosyllable-based data on Mandarin learning for the disyllabic majority of the Mandarin lexicon. Furthermore, in the short term, variability can diminish learning; its effects are not necessarily beneficial but dependent on acquisition stage and other learner characteristics. These findings thus highlight the importance of considering contextual variability and the interaction between variability and type of learner in the design, interpretation, and application of research on phonetic learning.

Blinded by taboo words in L1 but not L2.

PubMed

Colbeck, Katie L; Bowers, Jeffrey S

2012-04-01

The present study compares the emotionality of English taboo words in native English speakers and native Chinese speakers who learned English as a second language. Neutral and taboo/sexual words were included in a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task as to-be-ignored distracters in a short- and long-lag condition. Compared with neutral distracters, taboo/sexual distracters impaired the performance in the short-lag condition only. Of critical note, however, is that the performance of Chinese speakers was less impaired by taboo/sexual distracters. This supports the view that a first language is more emotional than a second language, even when words are processed quickly and automatically. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Visual noise disrupts conceptual integration in reading.

PubMed

Gao, Xuefei; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A L; Noh, Soo Rim; Eskew, Rhea T

2011-02-01

The Effortfulness Hypothesis suggests that sensory impairment (either simulated or age-related) may decrease capacity for semantic integration in language comprehension. We directly tested this hypothesis by measuring resource allocation to different levels of processing during reading (i.e., word vs. semantic analysis). College students read three sets of passages word-by-word, one at each of three levels of dynamic visual noise. There was a reliable interaction between processing level and noise, such that visual noise increased resources allocated to word-level processing, at the cost of attention paid to semantic analysis. Recall of the most important ideas also decreased with increasing visual noise. Results suggest that sensory challenge can impair higher-level cognitive functions in learning from text, supporting the Effortfulness Hypothesis.

Statistical Word Learning in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haebig, Eileen; Saffran, Jenny R.; Ellis Weismer, Susan

2017-01-01

Background: Word learning is an important component of language development that influences child outcomes across multiple domains. Despite the importance of word knowledge, word-learning mechanisms are poorly understood in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined…

Body in Mind: How Gestures Empower Foreign Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Macedonia, Manuela; Knosche, Thomas R.

2011-01-01

It has previously been demonstrated that enactment (i.e., performing representative gestures during encoding) enhances memory for concrete words, in particular action words. Here, we investigate the impact of enactment on abstract word learning in a foreign language. We further ask if learning novel words with gestures facilitates sentence…

Two- and Three-Year-Olds Track a Single Meaning during Word Learning: Evidence for Propose-but-Verify

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodard, Kristina; Gleitman, Lila R.; Trueswell, John C.

2016-01-01

A child word-learning experiment is reported that examines 2- and 3-year-olds' ability to learn the meanings of novel words across multiple, referentially ambiguous, word occurrences. Children were told they were going on an animal safari in which they would learn the names of unfamiliar animals. Critical trial sequences began with hearing a novel…

Does Grammatical Structure Accelerate Number Word Learning? Evidence from Learners of Dual and Non-Dual Dialects of Slovenian

PubMed Central

Plesničar, Vesna; Razboršek, Tina; Sullivan, Jessica; Barner, David

2016-01-01

How does linguistic structure affect children’s acquisition of early number word meanings? Previous studies have tested this question by comparing how children learning languages with different grammatical representations of number learn the meanings of labels for small numbers, like 1, 2, and 3. For example, children who acquire a language with singular-plural marking, like English, are faster to learn the word for 1 than children learning a language that lacks the singular-plural distinction, perhaps because the word for 1 is always used in singular contexts, highlighting its meaning. These studies are problematic, however, because reported differences in number word learning may be due to unmeasured cross-cultural differences rather than specific linguistic differences. To address this problem, we investigated number word learning in four groups of children from a single culture who spoke different dialects of the same language that differed chiefly with respect to how they grammatically mark number. We found that learning a dialect which features “dual” morphology (marking of pairs) accelerated children’s acquisition of the number word two relative to learning a “non-dual” dialect of the same language. PMID:27486802

Does Grammatical Structure Accelerate Number Word Learning? Evidence from Learners of Dual and Non-Dual Dialects of Slovenian.

PubMed

Marušič, Franc; Žaucer, Rok; Plesničar, Vesna; Razboršek, Tina; Sullivan, Jessica; Barner, David

2016-01-01

How does linguistic structure affect children's acquisition of early number word meanings? Previous studies have tested this question by comparing how children learning languages with different grammatical representations of number learn the meanings of labels for small numbers, like 1, 2, and 3. For example, children who acquire a language with singular-plural marking, like English, are faster to learn the word for 1 than children learning a language that lacks the singular-plural distinction, perhaps because the word for 1 is always used in singular contexts, highlighting its meaning. These studies are problematic, however, because reported differences in number word learning may be due to unmeasured cross-cultural differences rather than specific linguistic differences. To address this problem, we investigated number word learning in four groups of children from a single culture who spoke different dialects of the same language that differed chiefly with respect to how they grammatically mark number. We found that learning a dialect which features "dual" morphology (marking of pairs) accelerated children's acquisition of the number word two relative to learning a "non-dual" dialect of the same language.

Utterance-final position and pitch marking aid word learning in school-age children

PubMed Central

Laaha, Sabine; Fitch, W. Tecumseh

2017-01-01

We investigated the effects of word order and prosody on word learning in school-age children. Third graders viewed photographs belonging to one of three semantic categories while hearing four-word nonsense utterances containing a target word. In the control condition, all words had the same pitch and, across trials, the position of the target word was varied systematically within each utterance. The only cue to word–meaning mapping was the co-occurrence of target words and referents. This cue was present in all conditions. In the Utterance-final condition, the target word always occurred in utterance-final position, and at the same fundamental frequency as all the other words of the utterance. In the Pitch peak condition, the position of the target word was varied systematically within each utterance across trials, and produced with pitch contrasts typical of infant-directed speech (IDS). In the Pitch peak + Utterance-final condition, the target word always occurred in utterance-final position, and was marked with a pitch contrast typical of IDS. Word learning occurred in all conditions except the control condition. Moreover, learning performance was significantly higher than that observed with simple co-occurrence (control condition) only for the Pitch peak + Utterance-final condition. We conclude that, for school-age children, the combination of words' utterance-final alignment and pitch enhancement boosts word learning. PMID:28878961

Pedagogical principles underpinning undergraduate Nurse Education in the UK: A review.

PubMed

Mackintosh-Franklin, Carolyn

2016-05-01

This review provides a contextual report of the current use of pedagogy in undergraduate nursing programmes run by Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in the United Kingdom (UK). Pedagogy provides the framework for educators to add shape and structure to the educational process, and to support student learning and programme development. Traditionally nurse education has used a behaviourist approach focusing on learning outcomes and competency based education, although there is also increasing support for the cognitive/student learning focused pedagogic approach. The keywords andragogy, pedagogy and student centred learning were used in a systematic stepwise descriptive content analysis of the programme specifications and programme handbooks of 40 current undergraduate programme documents, leading to an undergraduate award and professional registration as a nurse. 42% (17) of documents contained reference to the words, pedagogy and student centred learning, whilst no documents used the word andragogy. Where identified, pedagogy was used in a superficial manner, with only three documents identifying a specific pedagogical philosophy: one HEI citing a value based curriculum and two HEIs referencing social constructionism. Nine HEIs made reference to student centred learning but with no additional pedagogic information. A review of teaching, learning and assessment strategies indicated no difference between the documented strategies used by HEIs when comparing those with an espoused pedagogy and those without. Although educational literature supports the use of pedagogic principles in curriculum design, this is not explicit in undergraduate nursing programme documentation, and suggests that nurse educators do not view pedagogy as important to their programmes. Instead programmes appear to be developed based on operational and functional requirements with a focus on acquisition of knowledge and skills, and the fitness to practice of graduates entering the nursing workforce. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Grounding statistical learning in context: The effects of learning and retrieval contexts on cross-situational word learning.

PubMed

Chen, Chi-Hsin; Yu, Chen

2017-06-01

Natural language environments usually provide structured contexts for learning. This study examined the effects of semantically themed contexts-in both learning and retrieval phases-on statistical word learning. Results from 2 experiments consistently showed that participants had higher performance in semantically themed learning contexts. In contrast, themed retrieval contexts did not affect performance. Our work suggests that word learners are sensitive to statistical regularities not just at the level of individual word-object co-occurrences but also at another level containing a whole network of associations among objects and their properties.

"WordSift": Supporting Instruction and Learning through Technology in San Francisco. The Senior Urban Education Research Fellowship Series. Volume IV

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hakuta, Kenji

2011-01-01

In developing a tool to help address academic language development, the author and his team began by identifying the challenges of presenting science text to English Language Learners and students who struggle with reading. The goal was to balance the practical and logistical challenges of identifying, teaching, and learning academic and content…

Exploration of the Factors That Support Learning: Web-Based Activity and Testing Systems in Community College Algebra [Conference Long Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauk, Shandy; Matlen, Bryan J.

2017-01-01

This is an extended conference proceedings report [Long Paper] based on a shorter contributed report at the same conference. A variety of computerized learning platforms exist. In mathematics, most include sets of problems to complete. Feedback to users ranges from a single word like "Correct!" to offers of hints and partially- to…

Lessons from Television: Children's Word Learning When Viewing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice, Mabel L.; Woodsmall, Linda

1988-01-01

Preschoolers were assigned to experimental and control groups to investigate whether they could learn novel words when viewing television and whether the learning was influenced by age or type of word. (PCB)

Using variability to guide dimensional weighting: Associative mechanisms in early word learning

PubMed Central

Apfelbaum, Keith S.; McMurray, Bob

2013-01-01

At 14 months, children appear to struggle to apply their fairly well developed speech perception abilities to learning similar sounding words (e.g. bih/dih; Stager & Werker, 1997). However, variability in non-phonetic aspects of the training stimuli seems to aid word learning at this age. Extant theories of early word learning cannot account for this benefit of variability. We offer a simple explanation for this range of effects based on associative learning. Simulations suggest that if infants encode both non-contrastive information (e.g. cues to speaker voice) and meaningful linguistic cues (e.g. place of articulation or voicing), then associative learning mechanisms predict these variability effects in early word learning. Crucially, this means that despite the importance of task variables in predicting performance, this body of work shows that phonological categories are still developing in this age, and that the structure of non-informative cues has critical influences on word learning abilities. PMID:21609356

Preschoolers’ Novel Noun Extensions: Shape in Spite of Knowing Better

PubMed Central

Saalbach, Henrik; Schalk, Lennart

2011-01-01

We examined the puzzling research findings that when extending novel nouns, preschoolers rely on shape similarity (rather than categorical relations) while in other task contexts (e.g., property induction) they rely on categorical relations. Taking into account research on children’s word learning, categorization, and inductive inference we assume that preschoolers have both a shape-based and a category-based word extension strategy available and can switch between these two depending on which information is easily available. To this end, we tested preschoolers on two versions of a novel-noun label extension task. First, we paralleled the standard extension task commonly used by previous research. In this case, as expected, preschoolers predominantly selected same-shape items. Second, we supported preschoolers’ retrieval of item-related information from memory by asking them simple questions about each item prior to the label extension task. Here, they switched to a category-based strategy, thus, predominantly selecting same-category items. Finally, we revealed that this shape-to-category shift is specific to the word learning context as we did not find it in a non-lexical classification task. These findings support our assumption that preschoolers’ decision about word extension change in accordance with the availability of information (from task context or by memory retrieval). We conclude by suggesting that preschoolers’ noun extensions can be conceptualized within the framework of heuristic decision-making. This provides an ecologically plausible processing account with respect to which information is selected and how this information is integrated to act as a guideline for decision-making when novel words have to be generalized. PMID:22073036

Contextual diversity facilitates learning new words in the classroom.

PubMed

Rosa, Eva; Tapia, José Luis; Perea, Manuel

2017-01-01

In the field of word recognition and reading, it is commonly assumed that frequently repeated words create more accessible memory traces than infrequently repeated words, thus capturing the word-frequency effect. Nevertheless, recent research has shown that a seemingly related factor, contextual diversity (defined as the number of different contexts [e.g., films] in which a word appears), is a better predictor than word-frequency in word recognition and sentence reading experiments. Recent research has shown that contextual diversity plays an important role when learning new words in a laboratory setting with adult readers. In the current experiment, we directly manipulated contextual diversity in a very ecological scenario: at school, when Grade 3 children were learning words in the classroom. The new words appeared in different contexts/topics (high-contextual diversity) or only in one of them (low-contextual diversity). Results showed that words encountered in different contexts were learned and remembered more effectively than those presented in redundant contexts. We discuss the practical (educational [e.g., curriculum design]) and theoretical (models of word recognition) implications of these findings.

Contextual diversity facilitates learning new words in the classroom

PubMed Central

Tapia, José Luis; Perea, Manuel

2017-01-01

In the field of word recognition and reading, it is commonly assumed that frequently repeated words create more accessible memory traces than infrequently repeated words, thus capturing the word-frequency effect. Nevertheless, recent research has shown that a seemingly related factor, contextual diversity (defined as the number of different contexts [e.g., films] in which a word appears), is a better predictor than word-frequency in word recognition and sentence reading experiments. Recent research has shown that contextual diversity plays an important role when learning new words in a laboratory setting with adult readers. In the current experiment, we directly manipulated contextual diversity in a very ecological scenario: at school, when Grade 3 children were learning words in the classroom. The new words appeared in different contexts/topics (high-contextual diversity) or only in one of them (low-contextual diversity). Results showed that words encountered in different contexts were learned and remembered more effectively than those presented in redundant contexts. We discuss the practical (educational [e.g., curriculum design]) and theoretical (models of word recognition) implications of these findings. PMID:28586354

Cross-Situational Learning with Bayesian Generative Models for Multimodal Category and Word Learning in Robots

PubMed Central

Taniguchi, Akira; Taniguchi, Tadahiro; Cangelosi, Angelo

2017-01-01

In this paper, we propose a Bayesian generative model that can form multiple categories based on each sensory-channel and can associate words with any of the four sensory-channels (action, position, object, and color). This paper focuses on cross-situational learning using the co-occurrence between words and information of sensory-channels in complex situations rather than conventional situations of cross-situational learning. We conducted a learning scenario using a simulator and a real humanoid iCub robot. In the scenario, a human tutor provided a sentence that describes an object of visual attention and an accompanying action to the robot. The scenario was set as follows: the number of words per sensory-channel was three or four, and the number of trials for learning was 20 and 40 for the simulator and 25 and 40 for the real robot. The experimental results showed that the proposed method was able to estimate the multiple categorizations and to learn the relationships between multiple sensory-channels and words accurately. In addition, we conducted an action generation task and an action description task based on word meanings learned in the cross-situational learning scenario. The experimental results showed that the robot could successfully use the word meanings learned by using the proposed method. PMID:29311888

Nonword Repetition and Vocabulary Knowledge as Predictors of Children's Phonological and Semantic Word Learning

PubMed Central

Patten, Hannah

2017-01-01

Purpose This study examined the unique and shared variance that nonword repetition and vocabulary knowledge contribute to children's ability to learn new words. Multiple measures of word learning were used to assess recall and recognition of phonological and semantic information. Method Fifty children, with a mean age of 8 years (range 5–12 years), completed experimental assessments of word learning and norm-referenced assessments of receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge and nonword repetition skills. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses examined the variance in word learning that was explained by vocabulary knowledge and nonword repetition after controlling for chronological age. Results Together with chronological age, nonword repetition and vocabulary knowledge explained up to 44% of the variance in children's word learning. Nonword repetition was the stronger predictor of phonological recall, phonological recognition, and semantic recognition, whereas vocabulary knowledge was the stronger predictor of verbal semantic recall. Conclusions These findings extend the results of past studies indicating that both nonword repetition skill and existing vocabulary knowledge are important for new word learning, but the relative influence of each predictor depends on the way word learning is measured. Suggestions for further research involving typically developing children and children with language or reading impairments are discussed. PMID:28241284

The relationship between phonological short-term memory, receptive vocabulary, and fast mapping in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Jackson, Emily; Leitao, Suze; Claessen, Mary

2016-01-01

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) often experience word-learning difficulties, which are suggested to originate in the early stage of word learning: fast mapping. Some previous research indicates significantly poorer fast mapping capabilities in children with SLI compared with typically developing (TD) counterparts, with a range of methodological factors impacting on the consistency of this finding. Research has explored key issues that might underlie fast mapping difficulties in children with SLI, with strong theoretical support but little empirical evidence for the role of phonological short-term memory (STM). Additionally, further research is required to explore the influence of receptive vocabulary on fast mapping capabilities. Understanding the factors associated with fast mapping difficulties that are experienced by children with SLI may lead to greater theoretically driven word-learning intervention. To investigate whether children with SLI demonstrate significant difficulties with fast mapping, and to explore the related factors. It was hypothesized that children with SLI would score significantly lower on a fast mapping production task compared with TD children, and that phonological STM and receptive vocabulary would significantly predict fast mapping production scores in both groups of children. Twenty-three children with SLI (mean = 64.39 months, SD = 4.10 months) and 26 TD children (mean = 65.92 months, SD = 2.98) were recruited from specialist language and mainstream schools. All participants took part in a unique, interactive fast-mapping task whereby nine novel objects with non-word labels were presented and production accuracy was assessed. A non-word repetition test and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Fourth Edition (PPVT-IV) were also administered as measures of phonological STM capacity and receptive vocabulary, respectively. Results of the fast-mapping task indicated that children with SLI had significantly poorer fast mapping production scores than TD children. Scores from the non-word repetition task were also significantly lower for the SLI group, revealing reduced phonological STM capacity. Phonological STM capacity and receptive vocabulary emerged as significant predictors of fast mapping performance when the group data were combined in a multiple regression analysis. These results suggest that the word-learning difficulties experienced by children with SLI may originate at the fast mapping stage, and that phonological STM and receptive vocabulary significantly predict fast mapping ability. These findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of word-learning difficulties in children with SLI and may inform lexical learning intervention. © 2015 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Similarity and Difference in Learning L2 Word-Form

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamada, Megumi; Koda, Keiko

2011-01-01

This study explored similarity and difference in L2 written word-form learning from a cross-linguistic perspective. This study investigated whether learners' L1 orthographic background, which influences L2 visual word recognition (e.g., Wang et al., 2003), also influences L2 word-form learning, in particular, the sensitivity to phonological and…

A Bootstrapping Model of Frequency and Context Effects in Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kachergis, George; Yu, Chen; Shiffrin, Richard M.

2017-01-01

Prior research has shown that people can learn many nouns (i.e., word--object mappings) from a short series of ambiguous situations containing multiple words and objects. For successful cross-situational learning, people must approximately track which words and referents co-occur most frequently. This study investigates the effects of allowing…

Learning Words from Labeling and Directive Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Callanan, Maureen A.; Akhtar, Nameera; Sussman, Lisa

2014-01-01

Despite the common intuition that labeling may be the best way to teach a new word to a child, systematic testing is needed of the prediction that children learn words better from labeling utterances than from directive utterances. Two experiments compared toddlers' label learning in the context of hearing words used in directive versus labeling…

Noise Hampers Children’s Expressive Word Learning

PubMed Central

Riley, Kristine Grohne; McGregor, Karla K.

2013-01-01

Purpose To determine the effects of noise and speech style on word learning in typically developing school-age children. Method Thirty-one participants ages 9;0 (years; months) to 10;11 attempted to learn 2 sets of 8 novel words and their referents. They heard all of the words 13 times each within meaningful narrative discourse. Signal-to-noise ratio (noise vs. quiet) and speech style (plain vs. clear) were manipulated such that half of the children heard the new words in broadband white noise and half heard them in quiet; within those conditions, each child heard one set of words produced in a plain speech style and another set in a clear speech style. Results Children who were trained in quiet learned to produce the word forms more accurately than those who were trained in noise. Clear speech resulted in more accurate word form productions than plain speech, whether the children had learned in noise or quiet. Learning from clear speech in noise and plain speech in quiet produced comparable results. Conclusion Noise limits expressive vocabulary growth in children, reducing the quality of word form representation in the lexicon. Clear speech input can aid expressive vocabulary growth in children, even in noisy environments. PMID:22411494

The impact of iconic gestures on foreign language word learning and its neural substrate.

PubMed

Macedonia, Manuela; Müller, Karsten; Friederici, Angela D

2011-06-01

Vocabulary acquisition represents a major challenge in foreign language learning. Research has demonstrated that gestures accompanying speech have an impact on memory for verbal information in the speakers' mother tongue and, as recently shown, also in foreign language learning. However, the neural basis of this effect remains unclear. In a within-subjects design, we compared learning of novel words coupled with iconic and meaningless gestures. Iconic gestures helped learners to significantly better retain the verbal material over time. After the training, participants' brain activity was registered by means of fMRI while performing a word recognition task. Brain activations to words learned with iconic and with meaningless gestures were contrasted. We found activity in the premotor cortices for words encoded with iconic gestures. In contrast, words encoded with meaningless gestures elicited a network associated with cognitive control. These findings suggest that memory performance for newly learned words is not driven by the motor component as such, but by the motor image that matches an underlying representation of the word's semantics. Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Learning novel words: detail and vulnerability of initial representations for children with specific language impairment and typically developing peers.

PubMed

Alt, Mary; Suddarth, Rachael

2012-01-01

This study examines the phonological representations that children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing peers (TD) have during the initial process of word learning. The goals of this study were to determine if children with SLI attended to different components of words than peers, and whether they were more vulnerable to interference than peers. Forty 7- and 8-year-old children, half with SLI, took part in a fast mapping, word learning task. In addition to producing the word, there was a mispronunciation detection task that included mispronunciations of the target word in the initial position, final position or that modified the word's syllable structure. Children with SLI showed a different learning profile than peers, demonstrating stronger representations of the word-initial phonemes, but less information about word-final phonemes. They were more prone to interference overall, but especially from word-final foils. Children with SLI did not demonstrate less-defined phonological representations, but did attend to different features than TD children, perhaps in an attempt to compensate for problems learning longer words. The greatest weakness of children with SLI appears to be their susceptibility to interference, particularly for word-final information. Readers will be able to: (1) explain what children attend to when learning new words; (2) state the pattern of recognition and production performance for both children with SLI and their typical language peers; and (3) identify specific parts of novel words that are most susceptible to interference in children with SLI. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cross-Situational Word Learning in the Right Situations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dautriche, Isabelle; Chemla, Emmanuel

2014-01-01

Upon hearing a novel word, language learners must identify its correct meaning from a diverse set of situationally relevant options. Such referential ambiguity could be reduced through "repetitive" exposure to the novel word across diverging learning situations, a learning mechanism referred to as "cross-situational learning."…

Word-level information influences phonetic learning in adults and infants

PubMed Central

Feldman, Naomi H.; Myers, Emily B.; White, Katherine S.; Griffiths, Thomas L.; Morgan, James L.

2013-01-01

Infants begin to segment words from fluent speech during the same time period that they learn phonetic categories. Segmented words can provide a potentially useful cue for phonetic learning, yet accounts of phonetic category acquisition typically ignore the contexts in which sounds appear. We present two experiments to show that, contrary to the assumption that phonetic learning occurs in isolation, learners are sensitive to the words in which sounds appear and can use this information to constrain their interpretation of phonetic variability. Experiment 1 shows that adults use word-level information in a phonetic category learning task, assigning acoustically similar vowels to different categories more often when those sounds consistently appear in different words. Experiment 2 demonstrates that eight-month-old infants similarly pay attention to word-level information and that this information affects how they treat phonetic contrasts. These findings suggest that phonetic category learning is a rich, interactive process that takes advantage of many different types of cues that are present in the input. PMID:23562941

Why is number word learning hard? Evidence from bilingual learners.

PubMed

Wagner, Katie; Kimura, Katherine; Cheung, Pierina; Barner, David

2015-12-01

Young children typically take between 18 months and 2 years to learn the meanings of number words. In the present study, we investigated this developmental trajectory in bilingual preschoolers to examine the relative contributions of two factors in number word learning: (1) the construction of numerical concepts, and (2) the mapping of language specific words onto these concepts. We found that children learn the meanings of small number words (i.e., one, two, and three) independently in each language, indicating that observed delays in learning these words are attributable to difficulties in mapping words to concepts. In contrast, children generally learned to accurately count larger sets (i.e., five or greater) simultaneously in their two languages, suggesting that the difficulty in learning to count is not tied to a specific language. We also replicated previous studies that found that children learn the counting procedure before they learn its logic - i.e., that for any natural number, n, the successor of n in the count list denotes the cardinality n+1. Consistent with past studies, we found that children's knowledge of successors is first acquired incrementally. In bilinguals, we found that this knowledge exhibits item-specific transfer between languages, suggesting that the logic of the positive integers may not be stored in a language-specific format. We conclude that delays in learning the meanings of small number words are mainly due to language-specific processes of mapping words to concepts, whereas the logic and procedures of counting appear to be learned in a format that is independent of a particular language and thus transfers rapidly from one language to the other in development. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Object Familiarity Facilitates Foreign Word Learning in Preschoolers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sera, Maria D.; Cole, Caitlin A.; Oromendia, Mercedes; Koenig, Melissa A.

2014-01-01

Studying how children learn words in a foreign language can shed light on how language learning changes with development. In one experiment, we examined whether three-, four-, and five-year-olds could learn and remember words for familiar and unfamiliar objects in their native English and a foreign language. All age groups could learn and remember…

Stochastic Dynamics of Lexicon Learning in an Uncertain and Nonuniform World

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reisenauer, Rainer; Smith, Kenny; Blythe, Richard A.

2013-06-01

We study the time taken by a language learner to correctly identify the meaning of all words in a lexicon under conditions where many plausible meanings can be inferred whenever a word is uttered. We show that the most basic form of cross-situational learning—whereby information from multiple episodes is combined to eliminate incorrect meanings—can perform badly when words are learned independently and meanings are drawn from a nonuniform distribution. If learners further assume that no two words share a common meaning, we find a phase transition between a maximally efficient learning regime, where the learning time is reduced to the shortest it can possibly be, and a partially efficient regime where incorrect candidate meanings for words persist at late times. We obtain exact results for the word-learning process through an equivalence to a statistical mechanical problem of enumerating loops in the space of word-meaning mappings.

The acquisition of simple associations as observed in color-word contingency learning.

PubMed

Lin, Olivia Y-H; MacLeod, Colin M

2018-01-01

Three experiments investigated the learning of simple associations in a color-word contingency task. Participants responded manually to the print colors of 3 words, with each word associated strongly to 1 of the 3 colors and weakly to the other 2 colors. Despite the words being irrelevant, response times to high-contingency stimuli and to low-contingency stimuli quickly diverged. This high-low difference remained quite constant over successive blocks of trials, evidence of stable contingency learning. Inclusion of a baseline condition-an item having no color-word contingency-permitted separation of the contingency learning effect into 2 components: a cost due to low contingency and a benefit due to high contingency. Both cost and benefit were quick to acquire, quick to extinguish, and quick to reacquire. The color-word contingency task provides a simple way to directly study the learning of associations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Using flashcards to support your learning.

PubMed

Bryson, David

2012-03-01

The idea that if you listen to a lecture and make notes you will, by some mysterious process, have learnt all that the lecturer has covered, is a myth. Unfortunately, the lecture is just the start. The best way to learn is by doing. This can be achieved by completing set practical tasks by reading and creating your own notes, listening again to parts or the whole of a lecture via a screencast or using diagrams and illustrations that you annotate. Similarly creating your own learning materials can be useful as actually putting questions and answers together helps you to learn. One of the many ways to support your learning, especially in difficult topics like anatomy and physiology, learning about bones, medical terminology or indeed any subject where there are a lot of new words and terms to learn, is making use of an old technique brought up to date with new technologies called "flashcards".

The unrealized promise of infant statistical word-referent learning

PubMed Central

Smith, Linda B.; Suanda, Sumarga H.; Yu, Chen

2014-01-01

Recent theory and experiments offer a new solution as to how infant learners may break into word learning, by using cross-situational statistics to find the underlying word-referent mappings. Computational models demonstrate the in-principle plausibility of this statistical learning solution and experimental evidence shows that infants can aggregate and make statistically appropriate decisions from word-referent co-occurrence data. We review these contributions and then identify the gaps in current knowledge that prevent a confident conclusion about whether cross-situational learning is the mechanism through which infants break into word learning. We propose an agenda to address that gap that focuses on detailing the statistics in the learning environment and the cognitive processes that make use of those statistics. PMID:24637154

Examining the Acquisition of Phonological Word Forms with Computational Experiments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vitevitch, Michael S.; Storkel, Holly L.

2013-01-01

It has been hypothesized that known words in the lexicon strengthen newly formed representations of novel words, resulting in words with dense neighborhoods being learned more quickly than words with sparse neighborhoods. Tests of this hypothesis in a connectionist network showed that words with dense neighborhoods were learned better than words…

Interfering Neighbours: The Impact of Novel Word Learning on the Identification of Visually Similar Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowers, Jeffrey S.; Davis, Colin J.; Hanley, Derek A.

2005-01-01

We assessed the impact of visual similarity on written word identification by having participants learn new words (e.g. BANARA) that were neighbours of familiar words that previously had no neighbours (e.g. BANANA). Repeated exposure to these new words made it more difficult to semantically categorize the familiar words. There was some evidence of…

Clusters of Word Properties as Predictors of Elementary School Children's Performance on Two Word Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tellings, Agnes; Coppens, Karien; Gelissen, John; Schreuder, Rob

2013-01-01

Often, the classification of words does not go beyond "difficult" (i.e., infrequent, late-learned, nonimageable, etc.) or "easy" (i.e., frequent, early-learned, imageable, etc.) words. In the present study, we used a latent cluster analysis to divide 703 Dutch words with scores for eight word properties into seven clusters of words. Each cluster…

Lexical competition in young children’s word learning

PubMed Central

Swingley, Daniel; Aslin, Richard N.

2008-01-01

In two experiments, 1.5 year olds were taught novel words whose sound patterns were phonologically similar to familiar words (novel neighbors) or were not (novel nonneighbors). Learning was tested using a picture fixation task. In both experiments, children learned the novel nonneighbors but not the novel neighbors. In addition, exposure to the novel neighbors impaired recognition performance on familiar neighbors. Finally, children did not spontaneously use phonological differences to infer that a novel word referred to a novel object. Thus, lexical competition—inhibitory interaction among words in speech comprehension—can prevent children from using their full phonological sensitivity in judging words as novel. These results suggest that word learning in young children, as in adults, relies not only on the discrimination and identification of phonetic categories, but also on evaluating the likelihood that an utterance conveys a new word. PMID:17054932

"We Need a Way to Get to the Other Side!" Exploring the Possibilities for Learning in Natural Spaces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Galizio, Carolyn; Stoll, Julia; Hutchins, Pamela

2009-01-01

This article describes the story of the bridge. The story illustrates the essence of outdoor experiences for children from the perspective of the classroom teacher. The children's ideas, images, and words are extremely meaningful, demonstrating that children are very capable at even young ages when supported by adults. Teachers support the theory…

Learning words and learning sounds: Advances in language development.

PubMed

Vihman, Marilyn M

2017-02-01

Phonological development is sometimes seen as a process of learning sounds, or forming phonological categories, and then combining sounds to build words, with the evidence taken largely from studies demonstrating 'perceptual narrowing' in infant speech perception over the first year of life. In contrast, studies of early word production have long provided evidence that holistic word learning may precede the formation of phonological categories. In that account, children begin by matching their existing vocal patterns to adult words, with knowledge of the phonological system emerging from the network of related word forms. Here I review evidence from production and then consider how the implicit and explicit learning mechanisms assumed by the complementary memory systems model might be understood as reconciling the two approaches. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

Why segmentation matters: experience-driven segmentation errors impair “morpheme” learning

PubMed Central

Finn, Amy S.; Hudson Kam, Carla L.

2015-01-01

We ask whether an adult learner’s knowledge of their native language impedes statistical learning in a new language beyond just word segmentation (as previously shown). In particular, we examine the impact of native-language word-form phonotactics on learners’ ability to segment words into their component morphemes and learn phonologically triggered variation of morphemes. We find that learning is impaired when words and component morphemes are structured to conflict with a learner’s native-language phonotactic system, but not when native-language phonotactics do not conflict with morpheme boundaries in the artificial language. A learner’s native-language knowledge can therefore have a cascading impact affecting word segmentation and the morphological variation that relies upon proper segmentation. These results show that getting word segmentation right early in learning is deeply important for learning other aspects of language, even those (morphology) that are known to pose a great difficulty for adult language learners. PMID:25730305

Remembering episodic memories is not necessary for forgetting of negative words: Semantic retrieval can cause forgetting of negative words.

PubMed

Kobayashi, Masanori; Tanno, Yoshihiko

2015-06-01

Retrieval of a memory can induce forgetting of other related memories, which is known as retrieval-induced forgetting. Although most studies have investigated retrieval-induced forgetting by remembering episodic memories, this also can occur by remembering semantic memories. The present study shows that retrieval of semantic memories can lead to forgetting of negative words. In two experiments, participants learned words and then engaged in retrieval practice where they were asked to recall words related to the learned words from semantic memory. Finally, participants completed a stem-cued recall test for the learned words. The results showed forgetting of neutral and negative words, which was characteristic of semantic retrieval-induced forgetting. A certain degree of overlapping features, except same learning episode, is sufficient to cause retrieval-induced forgetting of negative words. Given the present results, we conclude that retrieval-induced forgetting of negative words does not require recollection of episodic memories.

Baby's first 10 words.

PubMed

Tardif, Twila; Fletcher, Paul; Liang, Weilan; Zhang, Zhixiang; Kaciroti, Niko; Marchman, Virginia A

2008-07-01

Although there has been much debate over the content of children's first words, few large sample studies address this question for children at the very earliest stages of word learning. The authors report data from comparable samples of 265 English-, 336 Putonghua- (Mandarin), and 369 Cantonese-speaking 8- to 16-month-old infants whose caregivers completed MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories and reported them to produce between 1 and 10 words. Analyses of individual words indicated striking commonalities in the first words that children learn. However, substantive cross-linguistic differences appeared in the relative prevalence of common nouns, people terms, and verbs as well as in the probability that children produced even one of these word types when they had a total of 1-3, 4-6, or 7-10 words in their vocabularies. These data document cross-linguistic differences in the types of words produced even at the earliest stages of vocabulary learning and underscore the importance of parental input and cross-linguistic/cross-cultural variations in children's early word-learning.

Social interaction facilitates word learning in preverbal infants: Word-object mapping and word segmentation.

PubMed

Hakuno, Yoko; Omori, Takahide; Yamamoto, Jun-Ichi; Minagawa, Yasuyo

2017-08-01

In natural settings, infants learn spoken language with the aid of a caregiver who explicitly provides social signals. Although previous studies have demonstrated that young infants are sensitive to these signals that facilitate language development, the impact of real-life interactions on early word segmentation and word-object mapping remains elusive. We tested whether infants aged 5-6 months and 9-10 months could segment a word from continuous speech and acquire a word-object relation in an ecologically valid setting. In Experiment 1, infants were exposed to a live tutor, while in Experiment 2, another group of infants were exposed to a televised tutor. Results indicate that both younger and older infants were capable of segmenting a word and learning a word-object association only when the stimuli were derived from a live tutor in a natural manner, suggesting that real-life interaction enhances the learning of spoken words in preverbal infants. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Schools Inc.: An Administrator's Guide to the Business of Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarthy, Bob; And Others

1989-01-01

This theme issue describes ways in which educational administrators are successfully automating many of their administrative tasks. Articles focus on student management; office automation, including word processing, databases, and spreadsheets; human resources; support services, including supplies, textbooks, and learning resources; financial…

Influence of Syllable Structure on L2 Auditory Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamada, Megumi; Goya, Hideki

2015-01-01

This study investigated the role of syllable structure in L2 auditory word learning. Based on research on cross-linguistic variation of speech perception and lexical memory, it was hypothesized that Japanese L1 learners of English would learn English words with an open-syllable structure without consonant clusters better than words with a…

Word Learning: Homophony and the Distribution of Learning Exemplars

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dautriche, Isabelle; Chemla, Emmanuel; Christophe, Anne

2016-01-01

How do children infer the meaning of a word? Current accounts of word learning assume that children expect a word to map onto exactly one concept whose members form a coherent category. If this assumption was strictly true, children should infer that a homophone, such as "bat," refers to a single superordinate category that encompasses…

Noise Hampers Children's Expressive Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riley, Kristine Grohne; McGregor, Karla K.

2012-01-01

Purpose: To determine the effects of noise and speech style on word learning in typically developing school-age children. Method: Thirty-one participants ages 9;0 (years;months) to 10;11 attempted to learn 2 sets of 8 novel words and their referents. They heard all of the words 13 times each within meaningful narrative discourse. Signal-to-noise…

Feature Biases in Early Word Learning: Network Distinctiveness Predicts Age of Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Engelthaler, Tomas; Hills, Thomas T.

2017-01-01

Do properties of a word's features influence the order of its acquisition in early word learning? Combining the principles of mutual exclusivity and shape bias, the present work takes a network analysis approach to understanding how feature distinctiveness predicts the order of early word learning. Distance networks were built from nouns with edge…

Rapid word-learning in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired children: effects of age, receptive vocabulary, and high-frequency amplification.

PubMed

Pittman, A L; Lewis, D E; Hoover, B M; Stelmachowicz, P G

2005-12-01

This study examined rapid word-learning in 5- to 14-year-old children with normal and impaired hearing. The effects of age and receptive vocabulary were examined as well as those of high-frequency amplification. Novel words were low-pass filtered at 4 kHz (typical of current amplification devices) and at 9 kHz. It was hypothesized that (1) the children with normal hearing would learn more words than the children with hearing loss, (2) word-learning would increase with age and receptive vocabulary for both groups, and (3) both groups would benefit from a broader frequency bandwidth. Sixty children with normal hearing and 37 children with moderate sensorineural hearing losses participated in this study. Each child viewed a 4-minute animated slideshow containing 8 nonsense words created using the 24 English consonant phonemes (3 consonants per word). Each word was repeated 3 times. Half of the 8 words were low-pass filtered at 4 kHz and half were filtered at 9 kHz. After viewing the story twice, each child was asked to identify the words from among pictures in the slide show. Before testing, a measure of current receptive vocabulary was obtained using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-III). The PPVT-III scores of the hearing-impaired children were consistently poorer than those of the normal-hearing children across the age range tested. A similar pattern of results was observed for word-learning in that the performance of the hearing-impaired children was significantly poorer than that of the normal-hearing children. Further analysis of the PPVT and word-learning scores suggested that although word-learning was reduced in the hearing-impaired children, their performance was consistent with their receptive vocabularies. Additionally, no correlation was found between overall performance and the age of identification, age of amplification, or years of amplification in the children with hearing loss. Results also revealed a small increase in performance for both groups in the extended bandwidth condition but the difference was not significant at the traditional p = 0.05 level. The ability to learn words rapidly appears to be poorer in children with hearing loss over a wide range of ages. These results coincide with the consistently poorer receptive vocabularies for these children. Neither the word-learning or receptive-vocabulary measures were related to the amplification histories of these children. Finally, providing an extended high-frequency bandwidth did not significantly improve rapid word-learning for either group with these stimuli.

Are pictures good for learning new vocabulary in a foreign language? Only if you think they are not.

PubMed

Carpenter, Shana K; Olson, Kellie M

2012-01-01

The current study explored whether new words in a foreign language are learned better from pictures than from native language translations. In both between-subjects and within-subject designs, Swahili words were not learned better from pictures than from English translations (Experiments 1-3). Judgments of learning revealed that participants exhibited greater overconfidence in their ability to recall a Swahili word from a picture than from a translation (Experiments 2-3), and Swahili words were also considered easier to process when paired with pictures rather than translations (Experiment 4). When this overconfidence bias was eliminated through retrieval practice (Experiment 2) and instructions warning participants to not be overconfident (Experiment 3), Swahili words were learned better from pictures than from translations. It appears, therefore, that pictures can facilitate learning of foreign language vocabulary--as long as participants are not too overconfident in the power of a picture to help them learn a new word.

An Adaptive Resonance Theory account of the implicit learning of orthographic word forms.

PubMed

Glotin, H; Warnier, P; Dandurand, F; Dufau, S; Lété, B; Touzet, C; Ziegler, J C; Grainger, J

2010-01-01

An Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) network was trained to identify unique orthographic word forms. Each word input to the model was represented as an unordered set of ordered letter pairs (open bigrams) that implement a flexible prelexical orthographic code. The network learned to map this prelexical orthographic code onto unique word representations (orthographic word forms). The network was trained on a realistic corpus of reading textbooks used in French primary schools. The amount of training was strictly identical to children's exposure to reading material from grade 1 to grade 5. Network performance was examined at each grade level. Adjustment of the learning and vigilance parameters of the network allowed us to reproduce the developmental growth of word identification performance seen in children. The network exhibited a word frequency effect and was found to be sensitive to the order of presentation of word inputs, particularly with low frequency words. These words were better learned with a randomized presentation order compared with the order of presentation in the school books. These results open up interesting perspectives for the application of ART networks in the study of the dynamics of learning to read. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Bootstrapping Model of Frequency and Context Effects in Word Learning.

PubMed

Kachergis, George; Yu, Chen; Shiffrin, Richard M

2017-04-01

Prior research has shown that people can learn many nouns (i.e., word-object mappings) from a short series of ambiguous situations containing multiple words and objects. For successful cross-situational learning, people must approximately track which words and referents co-occur most frequently. This study investigates the effects of allowing some word-referent pairs to appear more frequently than others, as is true in real-world learning environments. Surprisingly, high-frequency pairs are not always learned better, but can also boost learning of other pairs. Using a recent associative model (Kachergis, Yu, & Shiffrin, 2012), we explain how mixing pairs of different frequencies can bootstrap late learning of the low-frequency pairs based on early learning of higher frequency pairs. We also manipulate contextual diversity, the number of pairs a given pair appears with across training, since it is naturalistically confounded with frequency. The associative model has competing familiarity and uncertainty biases, and their interaction is able to capture the individual and combined effects of frequency and contextual diversity on human learning. Two other recent word-learning models do not account for the behavioral findings. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Effects of an acute bout of exercise on memory in 6th grade children.

PubMed

Etnier, Jennifer; Labban, Jeffrey D; Piepmeier, Aaron; Davis, Matthew E; Henning, David A

2014-08-01

Research supports the positive effects of exercise on cognitive performance by children. However, a limited number of studies have explored the effects specifically on memory. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of an acute bout of exercise on learning, short-term memory, and long-term memory in a sample of children. Children were randomly assigned to an exercise condition or to a no-treatment control condition and then performed repeated trials on an auditory verbal learning task. In the exercise condition, participants performed the PACER task, an aerobic fitness assessment, in their physical education class before performing the memory task. In the control condition, participants performed the memory task at the beginning of their physical education class. Results showed that participants in the exercise condition demonstrated significantly better learning of the word lists and significantly better recall of the words after a brief delay. There were not significant differences in recognition of the words after an approximately 24-hr delay. These results provide evidence in a school setting that an acute bout of exercise provides benefits for verbal learning and long-term memory. Future research should be designed to identify the extent to which these findings translate to academic measures.

Positive and negative sources of emotional arousal enhance long-term word-list retention when induced as long as 30 min after learning.

PubMed

Nielson, Kristy A; Powless, Mark

2007-07-01

The consolidation of newly formed memories occurs slowly, allowing memories to be altered by experience for some time after their formation. Various treatments, including arousal, can modulate memory consolidation when given soon after learning, but the degree of time-dependency of these treatments in humans has not been studied. Thus, 212 participants learned a word list, which was followed by either a positively or negatively valenced arousing video clip (i.e., comedy or surgery, respectively) after delays of 0, 10, 30 or 45 min. Arousal of either valence induced up to 30 min after learning, but not after 45 min, significantly enhanced one-week retrieval. The findings support (1) the time-dependency of memory modulation in humans and (2) other studies that suggest that it is the degree of arousal, rather than valence that modulates memory. Important implications for developing memory intervention strategies and for preserving and validating witness testimony are discussed.

Stroop-like effects in a new-code learning task: A cognitive load theory perspective.

PubMed

Hazan-Liran, Batel; Miller, Paul

2017-09-01

To determine whether and how learning is biased by competing task-irrelevant information that creates extraneous cognitive load, we assessed the efficiency of university students with a learning paradigm in two experiments. The paradigm asked participants to learn associations between eight words and eight digits. We manipulated congruity of the digits' ink colour with the words' semantics. In Experiment 1 word stimuli were colour words (e.g., blue, yellow) and in Experiment 2 colour-related word concepts (e.g., sky, banana). Marked benefits and costs on learning due to variation in extraneous cognitive load originating from processing task-irrelevant information were evident. Implications for cognitive load theory and schooling are discussed.

Learning grammatical categories from distributional cues: flexible frames for language acquisition.

PubMed

St Clair, Michelle C; Monaghan, Padraic; Christiansen, Morten H

2010-09-01

Numerous distributional cues in the child's environment may potentially assist in language learning, but what cues are useful to the child and when are these cues utilised? We propose that the most useful source of distributional cue is a flexible frame surrounding the word, where the language learner integrates information from the preceding and the succeeding word for grammatical categorisation. In corpus analyses of child-directed speech together with computational models of category acquisition, we show that these flexible frames are computationally advantageous for language learning, as they benefit from the coverage of bigram information across a large proportion of the language environment as well as exploiting the enhanced accuracy of trigram information. Flexible frames are also consistent with the developmental trajectory of children's sensitivity to different sources of distributional information, and they are therefore a useful and usable information source for supporting the acquisition of grammatical categories. 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Never forget a name: white matter connectivity predicts person memory

PubMed Central

Metoki, Athanasia; Alm, Kylie H.; Wang, Yin; Ngo, Chi T.; Olson, Ingrid R.

2018-01-01

Through learning and practice, we can acquire numerous skills, ranging from the simple (whistling) to the complex (memorizing operettas in a foreign language). It has been proposed that complex learning requires a network of brain regions that interact with one another via white matter pathways. One candidate white matter pathway, the uncinate fasciculus (UF), has exhibited mixed results for this hypothesis: some studies have shown UF involvement across a range of memory tasks, while other studies report null results. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the UF supports associative memory processes and that this tract can be parcellated into subtracts that support specific types of memory. Healthy young adults performed behavioral tasks (two face-name learning tasks, one word pair memory task) and underwent a diffusion-weighted imaging scan. Our results revealed that variation in UF microstructure was significantly associated with individual differences in performance on both face-name tasks, as well as the word association memory task. A UF sub-tract, functionally defined by its connectivity between face-selective regions in the anterior temporal lobe and orbitofrontal cortex, selectively predicted face-name learning. In contrast, connectivity between the fusiform face patch and both anterior face patches had no predictive validity. These findings suggest that there is a robust and replicable relationship between the UF and associative learning and memory. Moreover, this large white matter pathway can be subdivided to reveal discrete functional profiles. PMID:28646241

The Effects of Phonotactic Probability and Neighborhood Density on Adults' Word Learning in Noisy Conditions

PubMed Central

Storkel, Holly L.; Lee, Jaehoon; Cox, Casey

2016-01-01

Purpose Noisy conditions make auditory processing difficult. This study explores whether noisy conditions influence the effects of phonotactic probability (the likelihood of occurrence of a sound sequence) and neighborhood density (phonological similarity among words) on adults' word learning. Method Fifty-eight adults learned nonwords varying in phonotactic probability and neighborhood density in either an unfavorable (0-dB signal-to-noise ratio [SNR]) or a favorable (+8-dB SNR) listening condition. Word learning was assessed using a picture naming task by scoring the proportion of phonemes named correctly. Results The unfavorable 0-dB SNR condition showed a significant interaction between phonotactic probability and neighborhood density in the absence of main effects. In particular, adults learned more words when phonotactic probability and neighborhood density were both low or both high. The +8-dB SNR condition did not show this interaction. These results are inconsistent with those from a prior adult word learning study conducted under quiet listening conditions that showed main effects of word characteristics. Conclusions As the listening condition worsens, adult word learning benefits from a convergence of phonotactic probability and neighborhood density. Clinical implications are discussed for potential populations who experience difficulty with auditory perception or processing, making them more vulnerable to noise. PMID:27788276

The Effects of Phonotactic Probability and Neighborhood Density on Adults' Word Learning in Noisy Conditions.

PubMed

Han, Min Kyung; Storkel, Holly L; Lee, Jaehoon; Cox, Casey

2016-11-01

Noisy conditions make auditory processing difficult. This study explores whether noisy conditions influence the effects of phonotactic probability (the likelihood of occurrence of a sound sequence) and neighborhood density (phonological similarity among words) on adults' word learning. Fifty-eight adults learned nonwords varying in phonotactic probability and neighborhood density in either an unfavorable (0-dB signal-to-noise ratio [SNR]) or a favorable (+8-dB SNR) listening condition. Word learning was assessed using a picture naming task by scoring the proportion of phonemes named correctly. The unfavorable 0-dB SNR condition showed a significant interaction between phonotactic probability and neighborhood density in the absence of main effects. In particular, adults learned more words when phonotactic probability and neighborhood density were both low or both high. The +8-dB SNR condition did not show this interaction. These results are inconsistent with those from a prior adult word learning study conducted under quiet listening conditions that showed main effects of word characteristics. As the listening condition worsens, adult word learning benefits from a convergence of phonotactic probability and neighborhood density. Clinical implications are discussed for potential populations who experience difficulty with auditory perception or processing, making them more vulnerable to noise.

Novel Spoken Word Learning in Adults with Developmental Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conner, Peggy S.

2013-01-01

A high percentage of individuals with dyslexia struggle to learn unfamiliar spoken words, creating a significant obstacle to foreign language learning after early childhood. The origin of spoken-word learning difficulties in this population, generally thought to be related to the underlying literacy deficit, is not well defined (e.g., Di Betta…

Children's Learning of Number Words in an Indigenous Farming-Foraging Group

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piantadosi, Steven T.; Jara-Ettinger, Julian; Gibson, Edward

2014-01-01

We show that children in the Tsimane', a farming-foraging group in the Bolivian rain-forest, learn number words along a similar developmental trajectory to children from industrialized countries. Tsimane' children successively acquire the first three or four number words before fully learning how counting works. However, their learning is…

Contingency learning is not affected by conflict experience: Evidence from a task conflict-free, item-specific Stroop paradigm.

PubMed

Levin, Yulia; Tzelgov, Joseph

2016-02-01

A contingency learning account of the item-specific proportion congruent effect has been described as an associative stimulus-response learning process that has nothing to do with controlling the Stroop conflict. As supportive evidence, contingency learning has been demonstrated with response conflict-free stimuli, such as neutral words. However, what gives rise to response conflict and to Stroop interference in general is task conflict. The present study investigated whether task conflict can constitute a trigger or, alternatively, a booster to the contingency learning process. This was done by employing a "task conflict-free" condition (i.e., geometric shapes) and comparing it with a "task conflict" condition (i.e., neutral words). The results showed a significant contingency learning effect in both conditions, refuting the possibility that contingency learning is triggered by the presence of a task conflict. Contingency learning was also not enhanced by the task conflict experience, indicating its complete insensitivity to Stroop conflict(s). Thus, the results showed no evidence that performance optimization as a result of contingency learning is greater under conflict, implying that contingency learning is not recruited to assist the control system to overcome conflict. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Propose but verify: Fast mapping meets cross-situational word learning

PubMed Central

Trueswell, John C.; Medina, Tamara Nicol; Hafri, Alon; Gleitman, Lila R.

2012-01-01

We report three eyetracking experiments that examine the learning procedure used by adults as they pair novel words and visually presented referents over a sequence of referentially ambiguous trials. Successful learning under such conditions has been argued to be the product of a learning procedure in which participants provisionally pair each novel word with several possible referents and use a statistical-associative learning mechanism to gradually converge on a single mapping across learning instances. We argue here that successful learning in this setting is instead the product of a one-trial procedure in which a single hypothesized word-referent pairing is retained across learning instances, abandoned only if the subsequent instance fails to confirm the pairing – more a ‘fast mapping’ procedure than a gradual statistical one. We provide experimental evidence for this Propose-but-Verify learning procedure via three experiments in which adult participants attempted to learn the meanings of nonce words cross-situationally under varying degrees of referential uncertainty. The findings, using both explicit (referent selection) and implicit (eye movement) measures, show that even in these artificial learning contexts, which are far simpler than those encountered by a language learner in a natural environment, participants do not retain multiple meaning hypotheses across learning instances. As we discuss, these findings challenge ‘gradualist’ accounts of word learning and are consistent with the known rapid course of vocabulary learning in a first language. PMID:23142693

Tracking the Eye Movement of Four Years Old Children Learning Chinese Words.

PubMed

Lin, Dan; Chen, Guangyao; Liu, Yingyi; Liu, Jiaxin; Pan, Jue; Mo, Lei

2018-02-01

Storybook reading is the major source of literacy exposure for beginning readers. The present study tracked 4-year-old Chinese children's eye movements while they were reading simulated storybook pages. Their eye-movement patterns were examined in relation to their word learning gains. The same reading list, consisting of 20 two-character Chinese words, was used in the pretest, 5-min eye-tracking learning session, and posttest. Additionally, visual spatial skill and phonological awareness were assessed in the pretest as cognitive controls. The results showed that the children's attention was attracted quickly by pictures, on which their attention was focused most, with only 13% of the time looking at words. Moreover, significant learning gains in word reading were observed, from the pretest to posttest, from 5-min exposure to simulated storybook pages with words, picture and pronunciation of two-character words present. Furthermore, the children's attention to words significantly predicted posttest reading beyond socioeconomic status, age, visual spatial skill, phonological awareness and pretest reading performance. This eye-movement evidence of storybook reading by children as young as four years, reading a non-alphabetic script (i.e., Chinese), has demonstrated exciting findings that children can learn words effectively with minimal exposure and little instruction; these findings suggest that learning to read requires attention to the basic words itself. The study contributes to our understanding of early reading acquisition with eye-movement evidence from beginning readers.

Learning to Read and Write Polysyllabic Words: The Effects of Morphology and Context on the Acquisition of Whole-Word Representations in Fourth and Fifth Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al Ghanem, Reem

2017-01-01

Accurate and rapid word recognition requires highly-specified phonological, orthographic, and semantic word-specific representations. It has been established that children acquire these representations through phonological decoding in a process known as orthographic learning. Studies examining orthographic learning and its predictors have thus far…

Word Recognition and Vocabulary Understanding Strategies for Literacy Success. Bill Harp Professional Teachers Library.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sinatra, Richard

This book lets readers see how children and youth learn words in the oral and written languages--and how teachers can best assist learners in the understanding, reading, and writing of words for successful literacy development. In the book teachers learn the differing rationales for using sound/symbol or phonics approaches in word learning, for…

Cross-Situational Learning of Minimal Word Pairs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Escudero, Paola; Mulak, Karen E.; Vlach, Haley A.

2016-01-01

"Cross-situational statistical learning" of words involves tracking co-occurrences of auditory words and objects across time to infer word-referent mappings. Previous research has demonstrated that learners can infer referents across sets of very phonologically distinct words (e.g., WUG, DAX), but it remains unknown whether learners can…

Vocabulary knowledge mediates the link between socioeconomic status and word learning in grade school.

PubMed

Maguire, Mandy J; Schneider, Julie M; Middleton, Anna E; Ralph, Yvonne; Lopez, Michael; Ackerman, Robert A; Abel, Alyson D

2018-02-01

The relationship between children's slow vocabulary growth and the family's low socioeconomic status (SES) has been well documented. However, previous studies have often focused on infants or preschoolers and primarily used static measures of vocabulary at multiple time points. To date, there is no research investigating whether SES predicts a child's word learning abilities in grade school and, if so, what mediates this relationship. In this study, 68 children aged 8-15 years performed a written word learning from context task that required using the surrounding text to identify the meaning of an unknown word. Results revealed that vocabulary knowledge significantly mediated the relationship between SES (as measured by maternal education) and word learning. This was true despite the fact that the words in the linguistic context surrounding the target word are typically acquired well before 8 years of age. When controlling for vocabulary, word learning from written context was not predicted by differences in reading comprehension, decoding, or working memory. These findings reveal that differences in vocabulary growth between grade school children from low and higher SES homes are likely related to differences in the process of word learning more than knowledge of surrounding words or reading skills. Specifically, children from lower SES homes are not as effective at using known vocabulary to build a robust semantic representation of incoming text to identify the meaning of an unknown word. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Episodic and semantic memory in posthypnotic amnesia: A reevaluation.

PubMed

Spanos, N P; Radtke, H L; Dubreuil, D L

1982-09-01

Recently, Kihlstrom found that a suggestion for posthypnotic amnesia produced impairments on episodic but not semantic memory tasks. During amnesia testing, highly and very highly susceptible subjects showed reduced recall for a previously learned word list but no deficits on a word association task designed to elicit the forgotten words as associates. He hypnotized that posthypnotic amnesia involved a dissociation between episodic and semantic components of memory. We tested the alternative hypothesis that Kihlstrom's findings resulted from experimental demands conveyed by the wording of the amnesia suggestion he employed. We found that subjects could be induced to show only episodic impairments (thereby replicating Kihlstrom) or both episodic and semantic impairments (contrary to Kihlstrom) by subtly varying the wording of amnesia suggestions. These findings are inconsistent with a dissociation hypothesis. Instead, they support the notion that hypnotic amnesia is a strategic enactment strongly influenced by expectations generated in the amnesia testing situation.

Learning second language vocabulary: neural dissociation of situation-based learning and text-based learning.

PubMed

Jeong, Hyeonjeong; Sugiura, Motoaki; Sassa, Yuko; Wakusawa, Keisuke; Horie, Kaoru; Sato, Shigeru; Kawashima, Ryuta

2010-04-01

Second language (L2) acquisition necessitates learning and retrieving new words in different modes. In this study, we attempted to investigate the cortical representation of an L2 vocabulary acquired in different learning modes and in cross-modal transfer between learning and retrieval. Healthy participants learned new L2 words either by written translations (text-based learning) or in real-life situations (situation-based learning). Brain activity was then measured during subsequent retrieval of these words. The right supramarginal gyrus and left middle frontal gyrus were involved in situation-based learning and text-based learning, respectively, whereas the left inferior frontal gyrus was activated when learners used L2 knowledge in a mode different from the learning mode. Our findings indicate that the brain regions that mediate L2 memory differ according to how L2 words are learned and used. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cross-linguistic experiments in word-form recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vihman, Marilyn

2004-05-01

When do children first represent word forms without experimental training or contextual support? Both English- and Welsh-learning children were tested, replicating Halle and Boysson-Bardies (1994: French, 11 months.). Twelve children acquiring English showed word-form recognition by 11 months (Vihman et al., in press); 12 Welsh children showed the effect at 12 months but a separate sample of 12 tested at 11 months did not (Vihman and DePaolis, 1999). A subsequent study of 16 children using event-related potentials (ERPs) showed word-form recognition within 250 ms for English at 11 months (Thierry et al., 2003). Attempts to locate the age of onset longitudinally proved problematic: Repeated tests of single samples of English and Welsh monolingual children (12 each) at 9, 10, 11, and 12 months showed that infant episodic memory interferes sufficiently with longitudinal observation based on a single set of stimuli to preclude drawing any conclusions. Cross-sectional samples of monolingual English and Welsh children (24 each) are currently being tested at 9 to12 months, using both head turn and ERPs, as are English/Welsh bilingual children at 11 months. These studies should yield solid information as to the age of onset of spontaneous word form representation. [ESRC support is gratefully acknowledged.

Recall for Words as a Function of Semantic, Graphic, and Syntactic Orienting Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hyde, Thomas A.; Jenkins, James J.

1973-01-01

Research supported by grants to the University of Minnesota, Center for Research in Human Learning, from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, and the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota. (DD)

Levodopa enhances explicit new-word learning in healthy adults: a preliminary study.

PubMed

Shellshear, Leanne; MacDonald, Anna D; Mahoney, Jeffrey; Finch, Emma; McMahon, Katie; Silburn, Peter; Nathan, Pradeep J; Copland, David A

2015-09-01

While the role of dopamine in modulating executive function, working memory and associative learning has been established; its role in word learning and language processing more generally is not clear. This preliminary study investigated the impact of increased synaptic dopamine levels on new-word learning ability in healthy young adults using an explicit learning paradigm. A double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-groups design was used. Participants completed five learning sessions over 1 week with levodopa or placebo administered at each session (five doses, 100 mg). Each session involved a study phase followed by a test phase. Test phases involved recall and recognition tests of the new (non-word) names previously paired with unfamiliar objects (half with semantic descriptions) during the study phase. The levodopa group showed superior recall accuracy for new words over five learning sessions compared with the placebo group and better recognition accuracy at a 1-month follow-up for words learnt with a semantic description. These findings suggest that dopamine boosts initial lexical acquisition and enhances longer-term consolidation of words learnt with semantic information, consistent with dopaminergic enhancement of semantic salience. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Multisensory training can promote or impede visual perceptual learning of speech stimuli: visual-tactile vs. visual-auditory training.

PubMed

Eberhardt, Silvio P; Auer, Edward T; Bernstein, Lynne E

2014-01-01

In a series of studies we have been investigating how multisensory training affects unisensory perceptual learning with speech stimuli. Previously, we reported that audiovisual (AV) training with speech stimuli can promote auditory-only (AO) perceptual learning in normal-hearing adults but can impede learning in congenitally deaf adults with late-acquired cochlear implants. Here, impeder and promoter effects were sought in normal-hearing adults who participated in lipreading training. In Experiment 1, visual-only (VO) training on paired associations between CVCVC nonsense word videos and nonsense pictures demonstrated that VO words could be learned to a high level of accuracy even by poor lipreaders. In Experiment 2, visual-auditory (VA) training in the same paradigm but with the addition of synchronous vocoded acoustic speech impeded VO learning of the stimuli in the paired-associates paradigm. In Experiment 3, the vocoded AO stimuli were shown to be less informative than the VO speech. Experiment 4 combined vibrotactile speech stimuli with the visual stimuli during training. Vibrotactile stimuli were shown to promote visual perceptual learning. In Experiment 5, no-training controls were used to show that training with visual speech carried over to consonant identification of untrained CVCVC stimuli but not to lipreading words in sentences. Across this and previous studies, multisensory training effects depended on the functional relationship between pathways engaged during training. Two principles are proposed to account for stimulus effects: (1) Stimuli presented to the trainee's primary perceptual pathway will impede learning by a lower-rank pathway. (2) Stimuli presented to the trainee's lower rank perceptual pathway will promote learning by a higher-rank pathway. The mechanisms supporting these principles are discussed in light of multisensory reverse hierarchy theory (RHT).

Multisensory training can promote or impede visual perceptual learning of speech stimuli: visual-tactile vs. visual-auditory training

PubMed Central

Eberhardt, Silvio P.; Auer Jr., Edward T.; Bernstein, Lynne E.

2014-01-01

In a series of studies we have been investigating how multisensory training affects unisensory perceptual learning with speech stimuli. Previously, we reported that audiovisual (AV) training with speech stimuli can promote auditory-only (AO) perceptual learning in normal-hearing adults but can impede learning in congenitally deaf adults with late-acquired cochlear implants. Here, impeder and promoter effects were sought in normal-hearing adults who participated in lipreading training. In Experiment 1, visual-only (VO) training on paired associations between CVCVC nonsense word videos and nonsense pictures demonstrated that VO words could be learned to a high level of accuracy even by poor lipreaders. In Experiment 2, visual-auditory (VA) training in the same paradigm but with the addition of synchronous vocoded acoustic speech impeded VO learning of the stimuli in the paired-associates paradigm. In Experiment 3, the vocoded AO stimuli were shown to be less informative than the VO speech. Experiment 4 combined vibrotactile speech stimuli with the visual stimuli during training. Vibrotactile stimuli were shown to promote visual perceptual learning. In Experiment 5, no-training controls were used to show that training with visual speech carried over to consonant identification of untrained CVCVC stimuli but not to lipreading words in sentences. Across this and previous studies, multisensory training effects depended on the functional relationship between pathways engaged during training. Two principles are proposed to account for stimulus effects: (1) Stimuli presented to the trainee’s primary perceptual pathway will impede learning by a lower-rank pathway. (2) Stimuli presented to the trainee’s lower rank perceptual pathway will promote learning by a higher-rank pathway. The mechanisms supporting these principles are discussed in light of multisensory reverse hierarchy theory (RHT). PMID:25400566

Simultaneous acquisition of multiple auditory-motor transformations in speech

PubMed Central

Rochet-Capellan, Amelie; Ostry, David J.

2011-01-01

The brain easily generates the movement that is needed in a given situation. Yet surprisingly, the results of experimental studies suggest that it is difficult to acquire more than one skill at a time. To do so, it has generally been necessary to link the required movement to arbitrary cues. In the present study, we show that speech motor learning provides an informative model for the acquisition of multiple sensorimotor skills. During training, subjects are required to repeat aloud individual words in random order while auditory feedback is altered in real-time in different ways for the different words. We find that subjects can quite readily and simultaneously modify their speech movements to correct for these different auditory transformations. This multiple learning occurs effortlessly without explicit cues and without any apparent awareness of the perturbation. The ability to simultaneously learn several different auditory-motor transformations is consistent with the idea that in speech motor learning, the brain acquires instance specific memories. The results support the hypothesis that speech motor learning is fundamentally local. PMID:21325534

Introducing social cues in multimedia learning: The role of pedagogic agents' image and language in a scientific lesson

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moreno, Roxana Arleen

The present dissertation tested the hypothesis that software pedagogical agents can promote constructivist learning in a discovery-based multimedia environment. In a preliminary study, students who received a computer-based lesson on environmental science performed better on subsequent tests of problem solving and motivation when they learned with the mediation of a fictional agent compared to when they learned the same material from text. In order to investigate further the basis for this personal agent effect, I varied whether the agent's words were presented as speech or on-screen text and whether or not the agent's image appeared on the screen. Both with a fictional agent (Experiment 1) and a video of a human face (Experiment 2), students performed better on tests of retention, problem-solving transfer, and program ratings when words were presented as speech rather than on-screen text (producing a modality effect) but visual presence of the agent did not affect test performance (producing no image effect). Next, I varied whether or not the agent's words were presented in conversational style (i.e., as dialogue) or formal style (i.e., as monologue) both using speech (Experiment 3) and on-screen text (Experiment 4). In both experiments, there was a dialogue effect in which conversational-style produced better retention and transfer performance. Students who learned with conversational-style text rated the program more favorably than those who learned with monologue-style text. The results support cognitive principles of multimedia learning which underlie the understanding of a computer lesson about a complex scientific system.

Does hearing two dialects at different times help infants learn dialect-specific rules?

PubMed Central

Gonzales, Kalim; Gerken, LouAnn; Gómez, Rebecca L.

2015-01-01

Infants might be better at teasing apart dialects with different language rules when hearing the dialects at different times, since language learners do not always combine input heard at different times. However, no previous research has independently varied the temporal distribution of conflicting language input. Twelve-month-olds heard two artificial language streams representing different dialects—a “pure stream” whose sentences adhered to abstract grammar rules like aX bY, and a “mixed stream” wherein any a- or b-word could precede any X- or Y-word. Infants were then tested for generalization of the pure stream’s rules to novel sentences. Supporting our hypothesis, infants showed generalization when the two streams’ sentences alternated in minutes-long intervals without any perceptually salient change across streams (Experiment 2), but not when all sentences from these same streams were randomly interleaved (Experiment 3). Results are interpreted in light of temporal context effects in word learning. PMID:25880342

Assessing the use of multiple sources in student essays.

PubMed

Hastings, Peter; Hughes, Simon; Magliano, Joseph P; Goldman, Susan R; Lawless, Kimberly

2012-09-01

The present study explored different approaches for automatically scoring student essays that were written on the basis of multiple texts. Specifically, these approaches were developed to classify whether or not important elements of the texts were present in the essays. The first was a simple pattern-matching approach called "multi-word" that allowed for flexible matching of words and phrases in the sentences. The second technique was latent semantic analysis (LSA), which was used to compare student sentences to original source sentences using its high-dimensional vector-based representation. Finally, the third was a machine-learning technique, support vector machines, which learned a classification scheme from the corpus. The results of the study suggested that the LSA-based system was superior for detecting the presence of explicit content from the texts, but the multi-word pattern-matching approach was better for detecting inferences outside or across texts. These results suggest that the best approach for analyzing essays of this nature should draw upon multiple natural language processing approaches.

Promoting lexical learning in the speech and language therapy of children with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Ronkainen, Riitta; Laakso, Minna; Lonka, Eila; Tykkyläinen, Tuula

2017-01-01

This study examines lexical intervention sessions in speech and language therapy for children with cochlear implants (CIs). Particular focus is on the therapist's professional practices in doing the therapy. The participants in this study are three congenitally deaf children with CIs together with their speech and language therapist. The video recorded therapy sessions of these children are studied using conversation analysis. The analysis reveals the ways in which the speech and language therapist formulates her speaking turns to support the children's lexical learning in task interaction. The therapist's multimodal practices, for example linguistic and acoustic highlighting, focus both on the lexical meaning and the phonological form of the words. Using these means, the therapist expands the child's lexical networks, specifies and corrects the meaning of the target words, and models the correct phonological form of the words. The findings of this study are useful in providing information for clinicians and speech and language therapy students working with children who have CIs as well as for the children's parents.

Optimal Contrast: Competition between Two Referents Improves Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zosh, Jennifer M.; Brinster, Meredith; Halberda, Justin

2013-01-01

Does making an inference lead to better learning than being instructed directly? Two experiments evaluated preschoolers' ability to learn new words, comparing their memory for words learned via inference or instruction. On Inference trials, one familiar and one novel object was presented and children were asked to "Point at the [object name (i.e.,…

The role of partial knowledge in statistical word learning

PubMed Central

Fricker, Damian C.; Yu, Chen; Smith, Linda B.

2013-01-01

A critical question about the nature of human learning is whether it is an all-or-none or a gradual, accumulative process. Associative and statistical theories of word learning rely critically on the later assumption: that the process of learning a word's meaning unfolds over time. That is, learning the correct referent for a word involves the accumulation of partial knowledge across multiple instances. Some theories also make an even stronger claim: Partial knowledge of one word–object mapping can speed up the acquisition of other word–object mappings. We present three experiments that test and verify these claims by exposing learners to two consecutive blocks of cross-situational learning, in which half of the words and objects in the second block were those that participants failed to learn in Block 1. In line with an accumulative account, Re-exposure to these mis-mapped items accelerated the acquisition of both previously experienced mappings and wholly new word–object mappings. But how does partial knowledge of some words speed the acquisition of others? We consider two hypotheses. First, partial knowledge of a word could reduce the amount of information required for it to reach threshold, and the supra-threshold mapping could subsequently aid in the acquisition of new mappings. Alternatively, partial knowledge of a word's meaning could be useful for disambiguating the meanings of other words even before the threshold of learning is reached. We construct and compare computational models embodying each of these hypotheses and show that the latter provides a better explanation of the empirical data. PMID:23702980

Professional Music Training and Novel Word Learning: From Faster Semantic Encoding to Longer-lasting Word Representations.

PubMed

Dittinger, Eva; Barbaroux, Mylène; D'Imperio, Mariapaola; Jäncke, Lutz; Elmer, Stefan; Besson, Mireille

2016-10-01

On the basis of previous results showing that music training positively influences different aspects of speech perception and cognition, the aim of this series of experiments was to test the hypothesis that adult professional musicians would learn the meaning of novel words through picture-word associations more efficiently than controls without music training (i.e., fewer errors and faster RTs). We also expected musicians to show faster changes in brain electrical activity than controls, in particular regarding the N400 component that develops with word learning. In line with these hypotheses, musicians outperformed controls in the most difficult semantic task. Moreover, although a frontally distributed N400 component developed in both groups of participants after only a few minutes of novel word learning, in musicians this frontal distribution rapidly shifted to parietal scalp sites, as typically found for the N400 elicited by known words. Finally, musicians showed evidence for better long-term memory for novel words 5 months after the main experimental session. Results are discussed in terms of cascading effects from enhanced perception to memory as well as in terms of multifaceted improvements of cognitive processing due to music training. To our knowledge, this is the first report showing that music training influences semantic aspects of language processing in adults. These results open new perspectives for education in showing that early music training can facilitate later foreign language learning. Moreover, the design used in the present experiment can help to specify the stages of word learning that are impaired in children and adults with word learning difficulties.

Language effects in second-language learners: A longitudinal electrophysiological study of spanish classroom learning.

PubMed

Soskey, Laura; Holcomb, Phillip J; Midgley, Katherine J

2016-09-01

How do the neural mechanisms involved in word recognition evolve over the course of word learning in adult learners of a new second language? The current study sought to closely track language effects, which are differences in electrophysiological indices of word processing between one's native and second languages, in beginning university learners over the course of a single semester of learning. Monolingual L1 English-speakers enrolled in introductory Spanish were first trained on a list of 228 Spanish words chosen from the vocabulary to be learned in class. Behavioral data from the training session and the following experimental sessions spaced over the course of the semester showed expected learning effects. In the three laboratory sessions participants read words in three lists (English, Spanish and mixed) while performing a go/no-go lexical decision task in which event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. As observed in previous studies there were ERP language effects with larger N400s to native than second language words. Importantly, this difference declined over the course of L2 learning with N400 amplitude increasing for new second language words. These results suggest that even over a single semester of learning that new second language words are rapidly incorporated into the word recognition system and begin to take on lexical and semantic properties similar to native language words. Moreover, the results suggest that electrophysiological measures can be used as sensitive measures for tracking the acquisition of new linguistic knowledge. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Learning language from within: Children use semantic generalizations to infer word meanings.

PubMed

Srinivasan, Mahesh; Al-Mughairy, Sara; Foushee, Ruthe; Barner, David

2017-02-01

One reason that word learning presents a challenge for children is because pairings between word forms and meanings are arbitrary conventions that children must learn via observation - e.g., the fact that "shovel" labels shovels. The present studies explore cases in which children might bypass observational learning and spontaneously infer new word meanings: By exploiting the fact that many words are flexible and systematically encode multiple, related meanings. For example, words like shovel and hammer are nouns for instruments, and verbs for activities involving those instruments. The present studies explored whether 3- to 5-year-old children possess semantic generalizations about lexical flexibility, and can use these generalizations to infer new word meanings: Upon learning that dax labels an activity involving an instrument, do children spontaneously infer that dax can also label the instrument itself? Across four studies, we show that at least by age four, children spontaneously generalize instrument-activity flexibility to new words. Together, our findings point to a powerful way in which children may build their vocabulary, by leveraging the fact that words are linked to multiple meanings in systematic ways. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A role for the developing lexicon in phonetic category acquisition

PubMed Central

Feldman, Naomi H.; Griffiths, Thomas L.; Goldwater, Sharon; Morgan, James L.

2013-01-01

Infants segment words from fluent speech during the same period when they are learning phonetic categories, yet accounts of phonetic category acquisition typically ignore information about the words in which sounds appear. We use a Bayesian model to illustrate how feedback from segmented words might constrain phonetic category learning by providing information about which sounds occur together in words. Simulations demonstrate that word-level information can successfully disambiguate overlapping English vowel categories. Learning patterns in the model are shown to parallel human behavior from artificial language learning tasks. These findings point to a central role for the developing lexicon in phonetic category acquisition and provide a framework for incorporating top-down constraints into models of category learning. PMID:24219848

Dynamic assessment of word learning skills of pre-school children with primary language impairment.

PubMed

Camilleri, Bernard; Law, James

2014-10-01

Dynamic assessment has been shown to have considerable theoretical and clinical significance in the assessment of socially disadvantaged and culturally and linguistically diverse children. In this study it is used to enhance assessment of pre-school children with primary language impairment. The purpose of the study was to determine whether a dynamic assessment (DA) has the potential to enhance the predictive capacity of a static measure of receptive vocabulary in pre-school children. Forty pre-school children were assessed using the static British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS), a DA of word learning potential and an assessment of non-verbal cognitive ability. Thirty-seven children were followed up 6 months later and re-assessed using the BPVS. Although the predictive capacity of the static measure was found to be substantial, the DA increased this significantly especially for children with static scores below the 25th centile. The DA of children's word learning has the potential to add value to the static assessment of the child with low language skills, to predict subsequent receptive vocabulary skills and to increase the chance of correctly identifying children in need of ongoing support.

An Evaluation of an Intervention Using Sign Language and Multi-Sensory Coding to Support Word Learning and Reading Comprehension of Deaf Signing Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Staden, Annalene

2013-01-01

The reading skills of many deaf children lag several years behind those of hearing children, and there is a need for identifying reading difficulties and implementing effective reading support strategies in this population. This study embraces a balanced reading approach, and investigates the efficacy of applying multi-sensory coding strategies…

Infants Track Word Forms in Early Word-Object Associations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zamuner, Tania S.; Fais, Laurel; Werker, Janet F.

2014-01-01

A central component of language development is word learning. One characterization of this process is that language learners discover objects and then look for word forms to associate with these objects (Mcnamara, 1984; Smith, 2000). Another possibility is that word forms themselves are also important, such that once learned, hearing a familiar…

Input frequency and lexical variability in phonological development: a survival analysis of word-initial cluster production.

PubMed

Ota, Mitsuhiko; Green, Sam J

2013-06-01

Although it has been often hypothesized that children learn to produce new sound patterns first in frequently heard words, the available evidence in support of this claim is inconclusive. To re-examine this question, we conducted a survival analysis of word-initial consonant clusters produced by three children in the Providence Corpus (0 ; 11-4 ; 0). The analysis took account of several lexical factors in addition to lexical input frequency, including the age of first production, production frequency, neighborhood density and number of phonemes. The results showed that lexical input frequency was a significant predictor of the age at which the accuracy level of cluster production in each word first reached 80%. The magnitude of the frequency effect differed across cluster types. Our findings indicate that some of the between-word variance found in the development of sound production can indeed be attributed to the frequency of words in the child's ambient language.

Self-Selection of Vocabulary in Reading Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, Candida C.

1974-01-01

The child's process of learning to read was simulated by teaching adults to associate Chinese characters with spoken words. When the students chose words to be learned, learning was more rapid than when words were selected by the examiner from a basal reader. (Author/JA)

An Alternative to Mapping a Word onto a Concept in Language Acquisition: Pragmatic Frames

PubMed Central

Rohlfing, Katharina J.; Wrede, Britta; Vollmer, Anna-Lisa; Oudeyer, Pierre-Yves

2016-01-01

The classic mapping metaphor posits that children learn a word by mapping it onto a concept of an object or event. However, we believe that a mapping metaphor cannot account for word learning, because even though children focus attention on objects, they do not necessarily remember the connection between the word and the referent unless it is framed pragmatically, that is, within a task. Our theoretical paper proposes an alternative mechanism for word learning. Our main premise is that word learning occurs as children accomplish a goal in cooperation with a partner. We follow Bruner’s (1983) idea and further specify pragmatic frames as the learning units that drive language acquisition and cognitive development. These units consist of a sequence of actions and verbal behaviors that are co-constructed with a partner to achieve a joint goal. We elaborate on this alternative, offer some initial parametrizations of the concept, and embed it in current language learning approaches. PMID:27148105

Robust support vector regression networks for function approximation with outliers.

PubMed

Chuang, Chen-Chia; Su, Shun-Feng; Jeng, Jin-Tsong; Hsiao, Chih-Ching

2002-01-01

Support vector regression (SVR) employs the support vector machine (SVM) to tackle problems of function approximation and regression estimation. SVR has been shown to have good robust properties against noise. When the parameters used in SVR are improperly selected, overfitting phenomena may still occur. However, the selection of various parameters is not straightforward. Besides, in SVR, outliers may also possibly be taken as support vectors. Such an inclusion of outliers in support vectors may lead to seriously overfitting phenomena. In this paper, a novel regression approach, termed as the robust support vector regression (RSVR) network, is proposed to enhance the robust capability of SVR. In the approach, traditional robust learning approaches are employed to improve the learning performance for any selected parameters. From the simulation results, our RSVR can always improve the performance of the learned systems for all cases. Besides, it can be found that even the training lasted for a long period, the testing errors would not go up. In other words, the overfitting phenomenon is indeed suppressed.

Relative speed of processing determines color-word contingency learning.

PubMed

Forrin, Noah D; MacLeod, Colin M

2017-10-01

In three experiments, we tested a relative-speed-of-processing account of color-word contingency learning, a phenomenon in which color identification responses to high-contingency stimuli (words that appear most often in particular colors) are faster than those to low-contingency stimuli. Experiment 1 showed equally large contingency-learning effects whether responding was to the colors or to the words, likely due to slow responding to both dimensions because of the unfamiliar mapping required by the key press responses. For Experiment 2, participants switched to vocal responding, in which reading words is considerably faster than naming colors, and we obtained a contingency-learning effect only for color naming, the slower dimension. In Experiment 3, previewing the color information resulted in a reduced contingency-learning effect for color naming, but it enhanced the contingency-learning effect for word reading. These results are all consistent with contingency learning influencing performance only when the nominally irrelevant feature is faster to process than the relevant feature, and therefore are entirely in accord with a relative-speed-of-processing explanation.

Multiple brain networks underpinning word learning from fluent speech revealed by independent component analysis.

PubMed

López-Barroso, Diana; Ripollés, Pablo; Marco-Pallarés, Josep; Mohammadi, Bahram; Münte, Thomas F; Bachoud-Lévi, Anne-Catherine; Rodriguez-Fornells, Antoni; de Diego-Balaguer, Ruth

2015-04-15

Although neuroimaging studies using standard subtraction-based analysis from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have suggested that frontal and temporal regions are involved in word learning from fluent speech, the possible contribution of different brain networks during this type of learning is still largely unknown. Indeed, univariate fMRI analyses cannot identify the full extent of distributed networks that are engaged by a complex task such as word learning. Here we used Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to characterize the different brain networks subserving word learning from an artificial language speech stream. Results were replicated in a second cohort of participants with a different linguistic background. Four spatially independent networks were associated with the task in both cohorts: (i) a dorsal Auditory-Premotor network; (ii) a dorsal Sensory-Motor network; (iii) a dorsal Fronto-Parietal network; and (iv) a ventral Fronto-Temporal network. The level of engagement of these networks varied through the learning period with only the dorsal Auditory-Premotor network being engaged across all blocks. In addition, the connectivity strength of this network in the second block of the learning phase correlated with the individual variability in word learning performance. These findings suggest that: (i) word learning relies on segregated connectivity patterns involving dorsal and ventral networks; and (ii) specifically, the dorsal auditory-premotor network connectivity strength is directly correlated with word learning performance. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Distinct Effects of Memory Retrieval and Articulatory Preparation when Learning and Accessing New Word Forms

PubMed Central

Nora, Anni; Renvall, Hanna; Kim, Jeong-Young; Service, Elisabet; Salmelin, Riitta

2015-01-01

Temporal and frontal activations have been implicated in learning of novel word forms, but their specific roles remain poorly understood. The present magnetoencephalography (MEG) study examines the roles of these areas in processing newly-established word form representations. The cortical effects related to acquiring new phonological word forms during incidental learning were localized. Participants listened to and repeated back new word form stimuli that adhered to native phonology (Finnish pseudowords) or were foreign (Korean words), with a subset of the stimuli recurring four times. Subsequently, a modified 1-back task and a recognition task addressed whether the activations modulated by learning were related to planning for overt articulation, while parametrically added noise probed reliance on developing memory representations during effortful perception. Learning resulted in decreased left superior temporal and increased bilateral frontal premotor activation for familiar compared to new items. The left temporal learning effect persisted in all tasks and was strongest when stimuli were embedded in intermediate noise. In the noisy conditions, native phonotactics evoked overall enhanced left temporal activation. In contrast, the frontal learning effects were present only in conditions requiring overt repetition and were more pronounced for the foreign language. The results indicate a functional dissociation between temporal and frontal activations in learning new phonological word forms: the left superior temporal responses reflect activation of newly-established word-form representations, also during degraded sensory input, whereas the frontal premotor effects are related to planning for articulation and are not preserved in noise. PMID:25961571

Distinct effects of memory retrieval and articulatory preparation when learning and accessing new word forms.

PubMed

Nora, Anni; Renvall, Hanna; Kim, Jeong-Young; Service, Elisabet; Salmelin, Riitta

2015-01-01

Temporal and frontal activations have been implicated in learning of novel word forms, but their specific roles remain poorly understood. The present magnetoencephalography (MEG) study examines the roles of these areas in processing newly-established word form representations. The cortical effects related to acquiring new phonological word forms during incidental learning were localized. Participants listened to and repeated back new word form stimuli that adhered to native phonology (Finnish pseudowords) or were foreign (Korean words), with a subset of the stimuli recurring four times. Subsequently, a modified 1-back task and a recognition task addressed whether the activations modulated by learning were related to planning for overt articulation, while parametrically added noise probed reliance on developing memory representations during effortful perception. Learning resulted in decreased left superior temporal and increased bilateral frontal premotor activation for familiar compared to new items. The left temporal learning effect persisted in all tasks and was strongest when stimuli were embedded in intermediate noise. In the noisy conditions, native phonotactics evoked overall enhanced left temporal activation. In contrast, the frontal learning effects were present only in conditions requiring overt repetition and were more pronounced for the foreign language. The results indicate a functional dissociation between temporal and frontal activations in learning new phonological word forms: the left superior temporal responses reflect activation of newly-established word-form representations, also during degraded sensory input, whereas the frontal premotor effects are related to planning for articulation and are not preserved in noise.

Facilitatory Effects of Multi-Word Units in Lexical Processing and Word Learning: A Computational Investigation.

PubMed

Grimm, Robert; Cassani, Giovanni; Gillis, Steven; Daelemans, Walter

2017-01-01

Previous studies have suggested that children and adults form cognitive representations of co-occurring word sequences. We propose (1) that the formation of such multi-word unit (MWU) representations precedes and facilitates the formation of single-word representations in children and thus benefits word learning, and (2) that MWU representations facilitate adult word recognition and thus benefit lexical processing. Using a modified version of an existing computational model (McCauley and Christiansen, 2014), we extract MWUs from a corpus of child-directed speech (CDS) and a corpus of conversations among adults. We then correlate the number of MWUs within which each word appears with (1) age of first production and (2) adult reaction times on a word recognition task. In doing so, we take care to control for the effect of word frequency, as frequent words will naturally tend to occur in many MWUs. We also compare results to a baseline model which randomly groups words into sequences-and find that MWUs have a unique facilitatory effect on both response variables, suggesting that they benefit word learning in children and word recognition in adults. The effect is strongest on age of first production, implying that MWUs are comparatively more important for word learning than for adult lexical processing. We discuss possible underlying mechanisms and formulate testable predictions.

Facilitatory Effects of Multi-Word Units in Lexical Processing and Word Learning: A Computational Investigation

PubMed Central

Grimm, Robert; Cassani, Giovanni; Gillis, Steven; Daelemans, Walter

2017-01-01

Previous studies have suggested that children and adults form cognitive representations of co-occurring word sequences. We propose (1) that the formation of such multi-word unit (MWU) representations precedes and facilitates the formation of single-word representations in children and thus benefits word learning, and (2) that MWU representations facilitate adult word recognition and thus benefit lexical processing. Using a modified version of an existing computational model (McCauley and Christiansen, 2014), we extract MWUs from a corpus of child-directed speech (CDS) and a corpus of conversations among adults. We then correlate the number of MWUs within which each word appears with (1) age of first production and (2) adult reaction times on a word recognition task. In doing so, we take care to control for the effect of word frequency, as frequent words will naturally tend to occur in many MWUs. We also compare results to a baseline model which randomly groups words into sequences—and find that MWUs have a unique facilitatory effect on both response variables, suggesting that they benefit word learning in children and word recognition in adults. The effect is strongest on age of first production, implying that MWUs are comparatively more important for word learning than for adult lexical processing. We discuss possible underlying mechanisms and formulate testable predictions. PMID:28450842

The role of character positional frequency on Chinese word learning during natural reading.

PubMed

Liang, Feifei; Blythe, Hazel I; Bai, Xuejun; Yan, Guoli; Li, Xin; Zang, Chuanli; Liversedge, Simon P

2017-01-01

Readers' eye movements were recorded to examine the role of character positional frequency on Chinese lexical acquisition during reading and its possible modulation by word spacing. In Experiment 1, three types of pseudowords were constructed based on each character's positional frequency, providing congruent, incongruent, and no positional word segmentation information. Each pseudoword was embedded into two sets of sentences, for the learning and the test phases. In the learning phase, half the participants read sentences in word-spaced format, and half in unspaced format. In the test phase, all participants read sentences in unspaced format. The results showed an inhibitory effect of character positional frequency upon the efficiency of word learning when processing incongruent pseudowords both in the learning and test phase, and also showed facilitatory effect of word spacing in the learning phase, but not at test. Most importantly, these two characteristics exerted independent influences on word segmentation. In Experiment 2, three analogous types of pseudowords were created whilst controlling for orthographic neighborhood size. The results of the two experiments were consistent, except that the effect of character positional frequency was absent in the test phase in Experiment 2. We argue that the positional frequency of a word's constituent characters may influence the character-to-word assignment in a process that likely incorporates both lexical segmentation and identification.

Learning New Words Affects Nonword Pronunciation in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khanna, Maya M.; Cortese, Michael J.; Birchwood, Katharine S.

2010-01-01

In two experiments we examined how children's nonword pronunciations are influenced by learning words. In Experiment 1, children pronounced nonwords before and after learning words sharing orthographic rimes with the nonwords. These rimes varied in spelling-to-sound consistency and regularity. Children's nonword pronunciations were more sensitive…

The neural bases of the learning and generalization of morphological inflection.

PubMed

Nevat, Michael; Ullman, Michael T; Eviatar, Zohar; Bitan, Tali

2017-04-01

Affixal inflectional morphology has been intensively examined as a model of productive aspects of language. Nevertheless, little is known about the neurocognition of the learning and generalization of affixal inflection, or the influence of certain factors that may affect these processes. In an event-related fMRI study, we examined the neurocognition of the learning and generalization of plural inflections in an artificial language, as well as the influence of both affix type frequency (the proportion of words receiving a given affix) and affix predictability (based on phonological cues in the stem). Adult participants were trained in three sessions, and were scanned after the first and last sessions while inflecting trained and untrained words. Untrained words yielded more activation than trained words in medial frontal (including pre-SMA) and left inferior frontal cortices, which have previously shown activation in compositional grammatical processing. A reliance on phonological cues for untrained word inflection correlated positively with pre-SMA activation, but negatively with activation in the pars triangularis. Thus, pre-SMA may be involved in phonological cue-based composition, while the pars triangularis underlies alternative processes. Inflecting trained items yielded activation in the caudate head bilaterally, only in the first session, consistent with a role for procedural memory in learning grammatical regularities. The medial frontal and left inferior regions activated by untrained items were also activated by trained items, but more weakly than untrained items, with weakest activation for trained-items taking the high-frequency affix. This suggests less involvement of compositional processes for inflecting trained than untrained items, and least of all for trained inflected forms with high-frequency affixes, consistent with the storage of such forms (e.g., in declarative memory). Overall, the findings further elucidate the neural bases of the learning and generalization of affixal morphology, and the roles of affix type frequency and affix phonological predictability in these processes. Moreover, the results support and further specify the declarative/procedural model, in particular in adult language learning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

L2 Vocabulary Acquisition in Children: Effects of Learning Method and Cognate Status

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tonzar, Claudio; Lotto, Lorella; Job, Remo

2009-01-01

In this study we investigated the effects of two learning methods (picture- or word-mediated learning) and of word status (cognates vs. noncognates) on the vocabulary acquisition of two foreign languages: English and German. We examined children from fourth and eighth grades in a school setting. After a learning phase during which L2 words were…

Word Learning in Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants: Effects of Early Auditory Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Houston, Derek M.; Stewart, Jessica; Moberly, Aaron; Hollich, George; Miyamoto, Richard T.

2012-01-01

Word-learning skills were tested in normal-hearing 12- to 40-month-olds and in deaf 22- to 40-month-olds 12 to 18 months after cochlear implantation. Using the Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm (IPLP), children were tested for their ability to learn two novel-word/novel-object pairings. Normal-hearing children demonstrated learning on this…

Strategies in Reading Comprehension: Individual Differences in Learning from Pictures and Words (A Footnote). Technical Report No. 300.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levin, Joel R.; Guttmann, Joseph

In a recent experiment it was discovered that although many children learn uniformly well (or poorly) from pictures and words, others learn appreciably better from pictures. The present study rules out an alternative explanation of those data--which had been produced on a single learning task containing both pictures and words--by obtaining…

Learning Collocations: Do the Number of Collocates, Position of the Node Word, and Synonymy Affect Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webb, Stuart; Kagimoto, Eve

2011-01-01

This study investigated the effects of three factors (the number of collocates per node word, the position of the node word, synonymy) on learning collocations. Japanese students studying English as a foreign language learned five sets of 12 target collocations. Each collocation was presented in a single glossed sentence. The number of collocates…

A Growth Curve Analysis of Novel Word Learning by Sequential Bilingual Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kan, Pui Fong; Kohnert, Kathryn

2012-01-01

Longitudinal word learning studies which control for experience can advance understanding of language learning and potential intra- and inter-language relationships in developing bilinguals. We examined novel word learning in both the first (L1) and the second (L2) languages of bilingual children. The rate and shape of change as well as the role…

Difficulty in Learning Similar-Sounding Words: A Developmental Stage or a General Property of Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pajak, Bozena; Creel, Sarah C.; Levy, Roger

2016-01-01

How are languages learned, and to what extent are learning mechanisms similar in infant native-language (L1) and adult second-language (L2) acquisition? In terms of vocabulary acquisition, we know from the infant literature that the ability to discriminate similar-sounding words at a particular age does not guarantee successful word-meaning…

Word learning emerges from the interaction of online referent selection and slow associative learning.

PubMed

McMurray, Bob; Horst, Jessica S; Samuelson, Larissa K

2012-10-01

Classic approaches to word learning emphasize referential ambiguity: In naming situations, a novel word could refer to many possible objects, properties, actions, and so forth. To solve this, researchers have posited constraints, and inference strategies, but assume that determining the referent of a novel word is isomorphic to learning. We present an alternative in which referent selection is an online process and independent of long-term learning. We illustrate this theoretical approach with a dynamic associative model in which referent selection emerges from real-time competition between referents and learning is associative (Hebbian). This model accounts for a range of findings including the differences in expressive and receptive vocabulary, cross-situational learning under high degrees of ambiguity, accelerating (vocabulary explosion) and decelerating (power law) learning, fast mapping by mutual exclusivity (and differences in bilinguals), improvements in familiar word recognition with development, and correlations between speed of processing and learning. Together it suggests that (a) association learning buttressed by dynamic competition can account for much of the literature; (b) familiar word recognition is subserved by the same processes that identify the referents of novel words (fast mapping); (c) online competition may allow the children to leverage information available in the task to augment performance despite slow learning; (d) in complex systems, associative learning is highly multifaceted; and (e) learning and referent selection, though logically distinct, can be subtly related. It suggests more sophisticated ways of describing the interaction between situation- and developmental-time processes and points to the need for considering such interactions as a primary determinant of development. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Medical subdomain classification of clinical notes using a machine learning-based natural language processing approach.

PubMed

Weng, Wei-Hung; Wagholikar, Kavishwar B; McCray, Alexa T; Szolovits, Peter; Chueh, Henry C

2017-12-01

The medical subdomain of a clinical note, such as cardiology or neurology, is useful content-derived metadata for developing machine learning downstream applications. To classify the medical subdomain of a note accurately, we have constructed a machine learning-based natural language processing (NLP) pipeline and developed medical subdomain classifiers based on the content of the note. We constructed the pipeline using the clinical NLP system, clinical Text Analysis and Knowledge Extraction System (cTAKES), the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus, Semantic Network, and learning algorithms to extract features from two datasets - clinical notes from Integrating Data for Analysis, Anonymization, and Sharing (iDASH) data repository (n = 431) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) (n = 91,237), and built medical subdomain classifiers with different combinations of data representation methods and supervised learning algorithms. We evaluated the performance of classifiers and their portability across the two datasets. The convolutional recurrent neural network with neural word embeddings trained-medical subdomain classifier yielded the best performance measurement on iDASH and MGH datasets with area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.975 and 0.991, and F1 scores of 0.845 and 0.870, respectively. Considering better clinical interpretability, linear support vector machine-trained medical subdomain classifier using hybrid bag-of-words and clinically relevant UMLS concepts as the feature representation, with term frequency-inverse document frequency (tf-idf)-weighting, outperformed other shallow learning classifiers on iDASH and MGH datasets with AUC of 0.957 and 0.964, and F1 scores of 0.932 and 0.934 respectively. We trained classifiers on one dataset, applied to the other dataset and yielded the threshold of F1 score of 0.7 in classifiers for half of the medical subdomains we studied. Our study shows that a supervised learning-based NLP approach is useful to develop medical subdomain classifiers. The deep learning algorithm with distributed word representation yields better performance yet shallow learning algorithms with the word and concept representation achieves comparable performance with better clinical interpretability. Portable classifiers may also be used across datasets from different institutions.

Interactions between statistical and semantic information in infant language development

PubMed Central

Lany, Jill; Saffran, Jenny R.

2013-01-01

Infants can use statistical regularities to form rudimentary word categories (e.g. noun, verb), and to learn the meanings common to words from those categories. Using an artificial language methodology, we probed the mechanisms by which two types of statistical cues (distributional and phonological regularities) affect word learning. Because linking distributional cues vs. phonological information to semantics make different computational demands on learners, we also tested whether their use is related to language proficiency. We found that 22-month-old infants with smaller vocabularies generalized using phonological cues; however, infants with larger vocabularies showed the opposite pattern of results, generalizing based on distributional cues. These findings suggest that both phonological and distributional cues marking word categories promote early word learning. Moreover, while correlations between these cues are important to forming word categories, we found infants’ weighting of these cues in subsequent word-learning tasks changes over the course of early language development. PMID:21884336

Word List for a Spelling Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Carl B.

What logic should educators use in choosing words for students to learn to spell? Common sense provides the answer: students should learn to spell the words they use in writing. What these words are has been a subject of concern since the beginning of this century. Dozens of word frequency lists have been developed over the years, based primarily…

The Acquisition of Simple Associations as Observed in Color-Word Contingency Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Olivia Y.-H.; MacLeod, Colin M.

2018-01-01

Three experiments investigated the learning of simple associations in a color-word contingency task. Participants responded manually to the print colors of 3 words, with each word associated strongly to 1 of the 3 colors and weakly to the other 2 colors. Despite the words being irrelevant, response times to high-contingency stimuli and to…

When It Hurts (and Helps) to Try: The Role of Effort in Language Learning

PubMed Central

Finn, Amy S.; Lee, Taraz; Kraus, Allison; Hudson Kam, Carla L.

2014-01-01

Compared to children, adults are bad at learning language. This is counterintuitive; adults outperform children on most measures of cognition, especially those that involve effort (which continue to mature into early adulthood). The present study asks whether these mature effortful abilities interfere with language learning in adults and further, whether interference occurs equally for aspects of language that adults are good (word-segmentation) versus bad (grammar) at learning. Learners were exposed to an artificial language comprised of statistically defined words that belong to phonologically defined categories (grammar). Exposure occurred under passive or effortful conditions. Passive learners were told to listen while effortful learners were instructed to try to 1) learn the words, 2) learn the categories, or 3) learn the category-order. Effortful learners showed an advantage for learning words while passive learners showed an advantage for learning the categories. Effort can therefore hurt the learning of categories. PMID:25047901

When it hurts (and helps) to try: the role of effort in language learning.

PubMed

Finn, Amy S; Lee, Taraz; Kraus, Allison; Hudson Kam, Carla L

2014-01-01

Compared to children, adults are bad at learning language. This is counterintuitive; adults outperform children on most measures of cognition, especially those that involve effort (which continue to mature into early adulthood). The present study asks whether these mature effortful abilities interfere with language learning in adults and further, whether interference occurs equally for aspects of language that adults are good (word-segmentation) versus bad (grammar) at learning. Learners were exposed to an artificial language comprised of statistically defined words that belong to phonologically defined categories (grammar). Exposure occurred under passive or effortful conditions. Passive learners were told to listen while effortful learners were instructed to try to 1) learn the words, 2) learn the categories, or 3) learn the category-order. Effortful learners showed an advantage for learning words while passive learners showed an advantage for learning the categories. Effort can therefore hurt the learning of categories.

Caffeine effects on mood and memory.

PubMed

Herz, R S

1999-09-01

The purpose of the present research was to assess whether a psychoactive dose of caffeine would have differential affects on the mood dimensions of arousal versus feelings of pleasantness and whether these mood alterations would influence memory either by (1) the experience of arousal at learning and/or (2) altered and congruent mood states at learning and recall. To address these questions, the administration of 5 mg/kg caffeine or placebo at learning and retrieval sessions was manipulated and subjects' mood was evaluated by several different self-report measures. Sixteen words were incidentally studied during the learning session and memory was evaluated by the number of words correctly recalled at the retrieval session two days later. Results revealed that caffeine reliably increased arousal, but did not affect any emotion dimensions related to feelings of pleasure. Subjects who received caffeine at learning and retrieval were also in equivalent mood states at both sessions. Moreover, caffeine did not produce any effects on memory; thus, neither hypothesis concerning the influence of arousal on memory was supported. These data show that caffeine is a useful method for manipulating arousal in the laboratory without influencing feelings of pleasantness or learning and memory performance.

Interaction between episodic and semantic memory networks in the acquisition and consolidation of novel spoken words.

PubMed

Takashima, Atsuko; Bakker, Iske; van Hell, Janet G; Janzen, Gabriele; McQueen, James M

2017-04-01

When a novel word is learned, its memory representation is thought to undergo a process of consolidation and integration. In this study, we tested whether the neural representations of novel words change as a function of consolidation by observing brain activation patterns just after learning and again after a delay of one week. Words learned with meanings were remembered better than those learned without meanings. Both episodic (hippocampus-dependent) and semantic (dependent on distributed neocortical areas) memory systems were utilised during recognition of the novel words. The extent to which the two systems were involved changed as a function of time and the amount of associated information, with more involvement of both systems for the meaningful words than for the form-only words after the one-week delay. These results suggest that the reason the meaningful words were remembered better is that their retrieval can benefit more from these two complementary memory systems. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An eye movement corpus study of the age-of-acquisition effect.

PubMed

Dirix, Nicolas; Duyck, Wouter

2017-12-01

In the present study, we investigated the effects of word-level age of acquisition (AoA) on natural reading. Previous studies, using multiple language modalities, showed that earlier-learned words are recognized, read, spoken, and responded to faster than words learned later in life. Until now, in visual word recognition the experimental materials were limited to single-word or sentence studies. We analyzed the data of the Ghent Eye-tracking Corpus (GECO; Cop, Dirix, Drieghe, & Duyck, in press), an eyetracking corpus of participants reading an entire novel, resulting in the first eye movement megastudy of AoA effects in natural reading. We found that the ages at which specific words were learned indeed influenced reading times, above other important (correlated) lexical variables, such as word frequency and length. Shorter fixations for earlier-learned words were consistently found throughout the reading process, in both early (single-fixation durations, first-fixation durations, gaze durations) and late (total reading times) measures. Implications for theoretical accounts of AoA effects and eye movements are discussed.

Do domestic dogs learn words based on humans' referential behaviour?

PubMed

Tempelmann, Sebastian; Kaminski, Juliane; Tomasello, Michael

2014-01-01

Some domestic dogs learn to comprehend human words, although the nature and basis of this learning is unknown. In the studies presented here we investigated whether dogs learn words through an understanding of referential actions by humans rather than simple association. In three studies, each modelled on a study conducted with human infants, we confronted four word-experienced dogs with situations involving no spatial-temporal contiguity between the word and the referent; the only available cues were referential actions displaced in time from exposure to their referents. We found that no dogs were able to reliably link an object with a label based on social-pragmatic cues alone in all the tests. However, one dog did show skills in some tests, possibly indicating an ability to learn based on social-pragmatic cues.

Fast mapping semantic features: performance of adults with normal language, history of disorders of spoken and written language, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder on a word-learning task.

PubMed

Alt, Mary; Gutmann, Michelle L

2009-01-01

This study was designed to test the word learning abilities of adults with typical language abilities, those with a history of disorders of spoken or written language (hDSWL), and hDSWL plus attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (+ADHD). Sixty-eight adults were required to associate a novel object with a novel label, and then recognize semantic features of the object and phonological features of the label. Participants were tested for overt ability (accuracy) and covert processing (reaction time). The +ADHD group was less accurate at mapping semantic features and slower to respond to lexical labels than both other groups. Different factors correlated with word learning performance for each group. Adults with language and attention deficits are more impaired at word learning than adults with language deficits only. Despite behavioral profiles like typical peers, adults with hDSWL may use different processing strategies than their peers. Readers will be able to: (1) recognize the influence of a dual disability (hDSWL and ADHD) on word learning outcomes; (2) identify factors that may contribute to word learning in adults in terms of (a) the nature of the words to be learned and (b) the language processing of the learner.

Dynamic Assessment of Algebraic Learning in Predicting Third Graders’ Development of Mathematical Problem Solving

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Compton, Donald L.; Fuchs, Douglas; Hollenbeck, Kurstin N.; Craddock, Caitlin F.; Hamlett, Carol L.

2008-01-01

Dynamic assessment (DA) involves helping students learn a task and indexing responsiveness to that instruction as a measure of learning potential. The purpose of this study was to explore the utility of a DA of algebraic learning in predicting 3rd graders’ development of mathematics problem solving. In the fall, 122 3rd-grade students were assessed on language, nonverbal reasoning, attentive behavior, calculations, word-problem skill, and DA. On the basis of random assignment, students received 16 weeks of validated instruction on word problems or received 16 weeks of conventional instruction on word problems. Then, students were assessed on word-problem measures proximal and distal to instruction. Structural equation measurement models showed that DA measured a distinct dimension of pretreatment ability and that proximal and distal word-problem measures were needed to account for outcome. Structural equation modeling showed that instruction (conventional vs. validated) was sufficient to account for math word-problem outcome proximal to instruction; by contrast, language, pretreatment math skill, and DA were needed to forecast learning on word-problem outcomes more distal to instruction. Findings are discussed in terms of responsiveness-to-intervention models for preventing and identifying learning disabilities. PMID:19884957

The effect of word concreteness on recognition memory.

PubMed

Fliessbach, K; Weis, S; Klaver, P; Elger, C E; Weber, B

2006-09-01

Concrete words that are readily imagined are better remembered than abstract words. Theoretical explanations for this effect either claim a dual coding of concrete words in the form of both a verbal and a sensory code (dual-coding theory), or a more accessible semantic network for concrete words than for abstract words (context-availability theory). However, the neural mechanisms of improved memory for concrete versus abstract words are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the processing of concrete and abstract words during encoding and retrieval in a recognition memory task using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). As predicted, memory performance was significantly better for concrete words than for abstract words. Abstract words elicited stronger activations of the left inferior frontal cortex both during encoding and recognition than did concrete words. Stronger activation of this area was also associated with successful encoding for both abstract and concrete words. Concrete words elicited stronger activations bilaterally in the posterior inferior parietal lobe during recognition. The left parietal activation was associated with correct identification of old stimuli. The anterior precuneus, left cerebellar hemisphere and the posterior and anterior cingulate cortex showed activations both for successful recognition of concrete words and for online processing of concrete words during encoding. Additionally, we observed a correlation across subjects between brain activity in the left anterior fusiform gyrus and hippocampus during recognition of learned words and the strength of the concreteness effect. These findings support the idea of specific brain processes for concrete words, which are reactivated during successful recognition.

Effects of learning context on the acquisition and processing of emotional words in bilinguals.

PubMed

Brase, Julia; Mani, Nivedita

2017-06-01

Although bilinguals respond differently to emotionally valenced words in their first language (L1) relative to emotionally neutral words, similar effects of emotional valence are hard to come by in second language (L2) processing. We examine the extent to which these differences in first and second language processing are due to the context in which the 2 languages are acquired: L1 is typically acquired in more naturalistic settings (e.g., family) than L2 (e.g., at school). Fifty German-English bilinguals learned unfamiliar German and English negative and neutral words in 2 different learning conditions: One group (emotion video context) watched videos of a person providing definitions of the words with facial and gestural cues, whereas another group (neutral video context) received the same definitions without gestural and emotional cues. Subsequently, participants carried out an emotional Stroop task, a sentence completion task, and a recall task on the words they had just learned. We found that the effect of learning context on the influence of emotional valence on responding was modulated by a) language status, L1 versus L2, and b) task requirement. We suggest that a more nuanced approach is required to capture the differences in emotion effects in the speed versus accuracy of access to words across different learning contexts and different languages, in particular with regard to our finding that bilinguals respond to L2 words in a similar manner as L1 words provided that the learning context is naturalistic and incorporates emotional and prosodic cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The effect of normal aging and age-related macular degeneration on perceptual learning.

PubMed

Astle, Andrew T; Blighe, Alan J; Webb, Ben S; McGraw, Paul V

2015-01-01

We investigated whether perceptual learning could be used to improve peripheral word identification speed. The relationship between the magnitude of learning and age was established in normal participants to determine whether perceptual learning effects are age invariant. We then investigated whether training could lead to improvements in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Twenty-eight participants with normal vision and five participants with AMD trained on a word identification task. They were required to identify three-letter words, presented 10° from fixation. To standardize crowding across each of the letters that made up the word, words were flanked laterally by randomly chosen letters. Word identification performance was measured psychophysically using a staircase procedure. Significant improvements in peripheral word identification speed were demonstrated following training (71% ± 18%). Initial task performance was correlated with age, with older participants having poorer performance. However, older adults learned more rapidly such that, following training, they reached the same level of performance as their younger counterparts. As a function of number of trials completed, patients with AMD learned at an equivalent rate as age-matched participants with normal vision. Improvements in word identification speed were maintained at least 6 months after training. We have demonstrated that temporal aspects of word recognition can be improved in peripheral vision with training across a range of ages and these learned improvements are relatively enduring. However, training targeted at other bottlenecks to peripheral reading ability, such as visual crowding, may need to be incorporated to optimize this approach.

The effect of normal aging and age-related macular degeneration on perceptual learning

PubMed Central

Astle, Andrew T.; Blighe, Alan J.; Webb, Ben S.; McGraw, Paul V.

2015-01-01

We investigated whether perceptual learning could be used to improve peripheral word identification speed. The relationship between the magnitude of learning and age was established in normal participants to determine whether perceptual learning effects are age invariant. We then investigated whether training could lead to improvements in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Twenty-eight participants with normal vision and five participants with AMD trained on a word identification task. They were required to identify three-letter words, presented 10° from fixation. To standardize crowding across each of the letters that made up the word, words were flanked laterally by randomly chosen letters. Word identification performance was measured psychophysically using a staircase procedure. Significant improvements in peripheral word identification speed were demonstrated following training (71% ± 18%). Initial task performance was correlated with age, with older participants having poorer performance. However, older adults learned more rapidly such that, following training, they reached the same level of performance as their younger counterparts. As a function of number of trials completed, patients with AMD learned at an equivalent rate as age-matched participants with normal vision. Improvements in word identification speed were maintained at least 6 months after training. We have demonstrated that temporal aspects of word recognition can be improved in peripheral vision with training across a range of ages and these learned improvements are relatively enduring. However, training targeted at other bottlenecks to peripheral reading ability, such as visual crowding, may need to be incorporated to optimize this approach. PMID:26605694

Does Teaching Mnemonics for Vocabulary Learning Make a Difference? Putting the Keyword Method and the Word Part Technique to the Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wei, Zheng

2015-01-01

The present research tested the effectiveness of the word part technique in comparison with the keyword method and self-strategy learning. One hundred and twenty-one Chinese year-one university students were randomly assigned to one of the three learning conditions: word part, keyword or self-strategy learning condition. Half of the target words…

Interactive Book Reading to Accelerate Word Learning by Kindergarten Children with Specific Language Impairment: Identifying Adequate Progress and Successful Learning Patterns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Storkel, Holly L.; Komesidou, Rouzana; Fleming, Kandace K.; Romine, Rebecca Swinburne

2017-01-01

Purpose: The goal of this study was to provide guidance to clinicians on early benchmarks of successful word learning in an interactive book reading treatment and to examine how encoding and memory evolution during treatment contribute to word learning outcomes by kindergarten children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Twenty-seven…

Reading, Equivalence, and Recombination of Units: A Replication with Students with Different Learning Histories.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melchiori, Ligia Ebner; de Souza, Deisy G.; de Rose, Julio C.

2000-01-01

First graders (n=5), preschoolers (n=5), special education first-graders (n=5), and adults (n=8) in Brazil received a reading program in which they learned to match printed to dictated words and to construct (copy) printed words. The students not only learned to match the training words but also learned to read them. (Contains references.)…

Does temporal contiguity moderate contingency learning in a speeded performance task?

PubMed

Schmidt, James R; De Houwer, Jan

2012-01-01

In four experiments, we varied the time between the onset of distracting nonwords and target colour words in a word-word version of the colour-word contingency learning paradigm. Contingencies were created by pairing a distractor nonword more often with one target colour word than with other colour words. A contingency effect corresponds to faster responses to the target colour word on high-contingency trials (i.e., distractor nonword followed by the target colour word with which it appears most often) than on low-contingency trials (i.e., distractor nonword followed by a target colour word with which it appears only occasionally). Roughly equivalent-sized contingency effects were found at stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 50, 250, and 450 ms in Experiment 1, and 50, 500, and 1,000 ms in Experiment 2. In Experiment 3, a contingency effect was observed at SOAs of -50, -200, and -350 ms. In Experiment 4, interstimulus interval (ISI) was varied along with SOA, and learning was equivalent for 200-, 700-, and 1,200-ms SOAs. Together, these experiments suggest that the distracting stimulus does not need to be presented in close temporal contiguity with the response to induce learning. Relations to past research on causal judgement and implications for further contingency learning research are discussed.

Learning and Processing Abstract Words and Concepts: Insights From Typical and Atypical Development.

PubMed

Vigliocco, Gabriella; Ponari, Marta; Norbury, Courtenay

2018-05-21

The paper describes two plausible hypotheses concerning the learning of abstract words and concepts. According to a first hypothesis, children would learn abstract words by extracting co-occurrences among words in linguistic input, using, for example, mechanisms as described by models of Distributional Semantics. According to a second hypothesis, children would exploit the fact that abstract words tend to have more emotional associations than concrete words to infer that they refer to internal/mental states. Each hypothesis makes specific predictions with regards to when and which abstract words are more likely to be learned; also they make different predictions concerning the impact of developmental disorders. We start by providing a review of work characterizing how abstract words and concepts are learned in development, especially between the ages of 6 and 12. Second, we review some work from our group that tests the two hypotheses above. This work investigates typically developing (TD) children and children with atypical development (developmental language disorders [DLD] and autism spectrum disorder [ASD] with and without language deficits). We conclude that the use of strategies based on emotional information, or on co-occurrences in language, may play a role at different developmental stages. © 2018 Cognitive Science Society Inc.

Scaffolding or Distracting: CD-ROM Storybooks and Young Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pearman, Cathy J.; Chang, Ching-Wen

2010-01-01

CD-ROM storybooks, often referred to as electronic texts, e-books, and interactive stories, are learning tools with supplemental features such as automatic reading of text, sound effects, word pronunciations, and graphic animations which support the development of reading skills and comprehension in beginning readers. Some CD-ROM storybooks also…

Teaching Academic Vocabulary to Adolescents with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beach, Kristen D.; Sanchez, Victoria; Flynn, Lindsay J.; O'Connor, Rollanda E.

2015-01-01

This article describes the efforts of a U.S. History teacher to directly teach word meanings using the "robust vocabulary instruction" (RVI) approach, because research supports this method as a way to improve vocabulary knowledge for a range of students, including adolescents reading below grade level (i.e., struggling readers) and…

Customising Microsoft Office to Develop a Tutorial Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deacon, Andrew; Jaftha, Jacob; Horwitz, David

2004-01-01

Powerful applications such as Microsoft Office's Excel and Word are widely used to perform common tasks in the workplace and in education. Scripting within these applications allows unanticipated user requirements to be addressed. We show that such extensibility, intended to support office automation-type applications, is well suited to the…

Listening to the Voice of the Local Learner.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dinsdale, Julia

2001-01-01

An action research study involving British adults interested in further education opportunities found that the vast majority learned about adult education courses by word of mouth rather than print; supports such as child care, subsidies, and accommodations for people with disabilities are crucial; and follow-up courses are desired. (SK)

Towards Community Oriented Curriculum in Finnish Literacy Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Makinen, Marita

2013-01-01

Finland's successful PISA "literacy results reflect" the foundation of the Finnish education system, which could be characterised by the words equality, equity and individual support. However, international interest in this PISA success has not focused on curricular aspects, and yet the core curriculum specifies teaching and learning practices in…

Lexical and semantic representations in the acquisition of L2 cognate and non-cognate words: evidence from two learning methods in children.

PubMed

Comesaña, Montserrat; Soares, Ana Paula; Sánchez-Casas, Rosa; Lima, Cátia

2012-08-01

How bilinguals represent words in two languages and which mechanisms are responsible for second language acquisition are important questions in the bilingual and vocabulary acquisition literature. This study aims to analyse the effect of two learning methods (picture- vs. word-based method) and two types of words (cognates and non-cognates) in early stages of children's L2 acquisition. Forty-eight native speakers of European Portuguese, all sixth graders (mean age = 10.87 years; SD= 0.85), participated in the study. None of them had prior knowledge of Basque (the L2 in this study). After a learning phase in which L2 words were learned either by a picture- or a word-based method, children were tested in a backward-word translation recognition task at two times (immediately vs. one week later). Results showed that the participants made more errors when rejecting semantically related than semantically unrelated words as correct translations (semantic interference effect). The magnitude of this effect was higher in the delayed test condition regardless of the learning method. Moreover, the overall performance of participants from the word-based method was better than the performance of participants from the picture-word method. Results were discussed concerning the most significant bilingual lexical processing models. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

Multimodal Word Meaning Induction From Minimal Exposure to Natural Text.

PubMed

Lazaridou, Angeliki; Marelli, Marco; Baroni, Marco

2017-04-01

By the time they reach early adulthood, English speakers are familiar with the meaning of thousands of words. In the last decades, computational simulations known as distributional semantic models (DSMs) have demonstrated that it is possible to induce word meaning representations solely from word co-occurrence statistics extracted from a large amount of text. However, while these models learn in batch mode from large corpora, human word learning proceeds incrementally after minimal exposure to new words. In this study, we run a set of experiments investigating whether minimal distributional evidence from very short passages suffices to trigger successful word learning in subjects, testing their linguistic and visual intuitions about the concepts associated with new words. After confirming that subjects are indeed very efficient distributional learners even from small amounts of evidence, we test a DSM on the same multimodal task, finding that it behaves in a remarkable human-like way. We conclude that DSMs provide a convincing computational account of word learning even at the early stages in which a word is first encountered, and the way they build meaning representations can offer new insights into human language acquisition. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

The time course of spoken word learning and recognition: studies with artificial lexicons.

PubMed

Magnuson, James S; Tanenhaus, Michael K; Aslin, Richard N; Dahan, Delphine

2003-06-01

The time course of spoken word recognition depends largely on the frequencies of a word and its competitors, or neighbors (similar-sounding words). However, variability in natural lexicons makes systematic analysis of frequency and neighbor similarity difficult. Artificial lexicons were used to achieve precise control over word frequency and phonological similarity. Eye tracking provided time course measures of lexical activation and competition (during spoken instructions to perform visually guided tasks) both during and after word learning, as a function of word frequency, neighbor type, and neighbor frequency. Apparent shifts from holistic to incremental competitor effects were observed in adults and neural network simulations, suggesting such shifts reflect general properties of learning rather than changes in the nature of lexical representations.

All words are not created equal: Expectations about word length guide infant statistical learning

PubMed Central

Lew-Williams, Casey; Saffran, Jenny R.

2011-01-01

Infants have been described as ‘statistical learners’ capable of extracting structure (such as words) from patterned input (such as language). Here, we investigated whether prior knowledge influences how infants track transitional probabilities in word segmentation tasks. Are infants biased by prior experience when engaging in sequential statistical learning? In a laboratory simulation of learning across time, we exposed 9- and 10-month-old infants to a list of either bisyllabic or trisyllabic nonsense words, followed by a pause-free speech stream composed of a different set of bisyllabic or trisyllabic nonsense words. Listening times revealed successful segmentation of words from fluent speech only when words were uniformly bisyllabic or trisyllabic throughout both phases of the experiment. Hearing trisyllabic words during the pre-exposure phase derailed infants’ abilities to segment speech into bisyllabic words, and vice versa. We conclude that prior knowledge about word length equips infants with perceptual expectations that facilitate efficient processing of subsequent language input. PMID:22088408

Developmental Constraints on Learning Artificial Grammars with Fixed, Flexible and Free Word Order

PubMed Central

Nowak, Iga; Baggio, Giosuè

2017-01-01

Human learning, although highly flexible and efficient, is constrained in ways that facilitate or impede the acquisition of certain systems of information. Some such constraints, active during infancy and childhood, have been proposed to account for the apparent ease with which typically developing children acquire language. In a series of experiments, we investigated the role of developmental constraints on learning artificial grammars with a distinction between shorter and relatively frequent words (‘function words,’ F-words) and longer and less frequent words (‘content words,’ C-words). We constructed 4 finite-state grammars, in which the order of F-words, relative to C-words, was either fixed (F-words always occupied the same positions in a string), flexible (every F-word always followed a C-word), or free. We exposed adults (N = 84) and kindergarten children (N = 100) to strings from each of these artificial grammars, and we assessed their ability to recognize strings with the same structure, but a different vocabulary. Adults were better at recognizing strings when regularities were available (i.e., fixed and flexible order grammars), while children were better at recognizing strings from the grammars consistent with the attested distribution of function and content words in natural languages (i.e., flexible and free order grammars). These results provide evidence for a link between developmental constraints on learning and linguistic typology. PMID:29089910

Word Learning as Bayesian Inference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Fei; Tenenbaum, Joshua B.

2007-01-01

The authors present a Bayesian framework for understanding how adults and children learn the meanings of words. The theory explains how learners can generalize meaningfully from just one or a few positive examples of a novel word's referents, by making rational inductive inferences that integrate prior knowledge about plausible word meanings with…

The Perception of Assimilation in Newly Learned Novel Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snoeren, Natalie D.; Gaskell, M. Gareth; Di Betta, Anna Maria

2009-01-01

The present study investigated the mechanisms underlying perceptual compensation for assimilation in novel words. During training, participants learned canonical versions of novel spoken words (e.g., "decibot") presented in isolation. Following exposure to a second set of novel words the next day, participants carried out a phoneme…

Environmental Print and Word Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cronin, Virginia; Farrell, Denise; Delaney, Mary

1999-01-01

Compares two views about the importance of environmental print in children's learning experiences. Assesses environmental print knowledge in non-reading preschool children and relates it to word recognition training. Finds words from the known logos were more readily learned than the matching control words, but only in Study 1 were the known logo…

Cognitive Mechanisms of Word Learning in Bilingual and Monolingual Adults: The Role of Phonological Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaushanskaya, Margarita

2012-01-01

Previous studies have indicated that bilingualism may facilitate lexical learning in adults. The goals of this research were (i) to examine whether bilingual influences on word learning diverge for phonologically-familiar and phonologically-unfamiliar novel words, and (ii) to examine whether increased phonological memory capacity can account for…

The Effects of Synonymy on Second-Language Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webb, Stuart

2007-01-01

This article examines the effects of synonymy (i.e., learning words with and without high-frequency synonyms that were known to the learners) on word knowledge in a study of 84 Japanese students learning English. It employed 10 tests measuring 5 aspects of word knowledge (orthography, paradigmatic association, syntagmatic association, meaning and…

Receptive and Productive Vocabulary Learning: The Effects of Reading and Writing on Word Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webb, Stuart

2005-01-01

This study investigates the effects of receptive and productive vocabulary learning on word knowledge. Japanese students studying English as a foreign language learned target words in three glossed sentences and in a sentence production task in two experiments. Five aspects of vocabulary knowledge--orthography, syntax, association, grammatical…

Accuracy Feedback Improves Word Learning from Context: Evidence from a Meaning-Generation Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frishkoff, Gwen A.; Collins-Thompson, Kevyn; Hodges, Leslie; Crossley, Scott

2016-01-01

The present study asked whether accuracy feedback on a meaning generation task would lead to improved contextual word learning (CWL). Active generation can facilitate learning by increasing task engagement and memory retrieval, which strengthens new word representations. However, forced generation results in increased errors, which can be…

Word Learning by Preschoolers with SLI: Effect of Phonotactic Probability and Object Familiarity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gray, Shelley; Brinkley, Shara; Svetina, Dubravka

2012-01-01

Purpose: In this study, the authors investigated whether previous findings of a low phonotactic probability/unfamiliar object word-learning advantage in preschoolers could be replicated, whether this advantage would be apparent at different "stages" of word learning, and whether findings would differ for preschoolers with specific language…

Word Learning in Adults with Second-Language Experience: Effects of Phonological and Referent Familiarity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon; Van Hecke, Stephanie

2013-01-01

Purpose: The goal of this research was to examine whether phonological familiarity exerts different effects on novel word learning for familiar versus unfamiliar referents and whether successful word learning is associated with increased second-language experience. Method: Eighty-one adult native English speakers with various levels of Spanish…

Why Segmentation Matters: Experience-Driven Segmentation Errors Impair "Morpheme" Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finn, Amy S.; Hudson Kam, Carla L.

2015-01-01

We ask whether an adult learner's knowledge of their native language impedes statistical learning in a new language beyond just word segmentation (as previously shown). In particular, we examine the impact of native-language word-form phonotactics on learners' ability to segment words into their component morphemes and learn phonologically…

Effects of ecstasy/polydrug use on memory for associative information.

PubMed

Gallagher, Denis T; Fisk, John E; Montgomery, Catharine; Judge, Jeannie; Robinson, Sarita J; Taylor, Paul J

2012-08-01

Associative learning underpins behaviours that are fundamental to the everyday functioning of the individual. Evidence pointing to learning deficits in recreational drug users merits further examination. A word pair learning task was administered to examine associative learning processes in ecstasy/polydrug users. After assignment to either single or divided attention conditions, 44 ecstasy/polydrug users and 48 non-users were presented with 80 word pairs at encoding. Following this, four types of stimuli were presented at the recognition phase: the words as originally paired (old pairs), previously presented words in different pairings (conjunction pairs), old words paired with new words, and pairs of new words (not presented previously). The task was to identify which of the stimuli were intact old pairs. Ecstasy/ploydrug users produced significantly more false-positive responses overall compared to non-users. Increased long-term frequency of ecstasy use was positively associated with the propensity to produce false-positive responses. It was also associated with a more liberal signal detection theory decision criterion value. Measures of long term and recent cannabis use were also associated with these same word pair learning outcome measures. Conjunction word pairs, irrespective of drug use, generated the highest level of false-positive responses and significantly more false-positive responses were made in the divided attention condition compared to the single attention condition. Overall, the results suggest that long-term ecstasy exposure may induce a deficit in associative learning and this may be in part a consequence of users adopting a more liberal decision criterion value.

Representation Learning of Logic Words by an RNN: From Word Sequences to Robot Actions

PubMed Central

Yamada, Tatsuro; Murata, Shingo; Arie, Hiroaki; Ogata, Tetsuya

2017-01-01

An important characteristic of human language is compositionality. We can efficiently express a wide variety of real-world situations, events, and behaviors by compositionally constructing the meaning of a complex expression from a finite number of elements. Previous studies have analyzed how machine-learning models, particularly neural networks, can learn from experience to represent compositional relationships between language and robot actions with the aim of understanding the symbol grounding structure and achieving intelligent communicative agents. Such studies have mainly dealt with the words (nouns, adjectives, and verbs) that directly refer to real-world matters. In addition to these words, the current study deals with logic words, such as “not,” “and,” and “or” simultaneously. These words are not directly referring to the real world, but are logical operators that contribute to the construction of meaning in sentences. In human–robot communication, these words may be used often. The current study builds a recurrent neural network model with long short-term memory units and trains it to learn to translate sentences including logic words into robot actions. We investigate what kind of compositional representations, which mediate sentences and robot actions, emerge as the network's internal states via the learning process. Analysis after learning shows that referential words are merged with visual information and the robot's own current state, and the logical words are represented by the model in accordance with their functions as logical operators. Words such as “true,” “false,” and “not” work as non-linear transformations to encode orthogonal phrases into the same area in a memory cell state space. The word “and,” which required a robot to lift up both its hands, worked as if it was a universal quantifier. The word “or,” which required action generation that looked apparently random, was represented as an unstable space of the network's dynamical system. PMID:29311891

Representation Learning of Logic Words by an RNN: From Word Sequences to Robot Actions.

PubMed

Yamada, Tatsuro; Murata, Shingo; Arie, Hiroaki; Ogata, Tetsuya

2017-01-01

An important characteristic of human language is compositionality. We can efficiently express a wide variety of real-world situations, events, and behaviors by compositionally constructing the meaning of a complex expression from a finite number of elements. Previous studies have analyzed how machine-learning models, particularly neural networks, can learn from experience to represent compositional relationships between language and robot actions with the aim of understanding the symbol grounding structure and achieving intelligent communicative agents. Such studies have mainly dealt with the words (nouns, adjectives, and verbs) that directly refer to real-world matters. In addition to these words, the current study deals with logic words, such as "not," "and," and "or" simultaneously. These words are not directly referring to the real world, but are logical operators that contribute to the construction of meaning in sentences. In human-robot communication, these words may be used often. The current study builds a recurrent neural network model with long short-term memory units and trains it to learn to translate sentences including logic words into robot actions. We investigate what kind of compositional representations, which mediate sentences and robot actions, emerge as the network's internal states via the learning process. Analysis after learning shows that referential words are merged with visual information and the robot's own current state, and the logical words are represented by the model in accordance with their functions as logical operators. Words such as "true," "false," and "not" work as non-linear transformations to encode orthogonal phrases into the same area in a memory cell state space. The word "and," which required a robot to lift up both its hands, worked as if it was a universal quantifier. The word "or," which required action generation that looked apparently random, was represented as an unstable space of the network's dynamical system.

Do Domestic Dogs Learn Words Based on Humans’ Referential Behaviour?

PubMed Central

Tempelmann, Sebastian; Kaminski, Juliane; Tomasello, Michael

2014-01-01

Some domestic dogs learn to comprehend human words, although the nature and basis of this learning is unknown. In the studies presented here we investigated whether dogs learn words through an understanding of referential actions by humans rather than simple association. In three studies, each modelled on a study conducted with human infants, we confronted four word-experienced dogs with situations involving no spatial-temporal contiguity between the word and the referent; the only available cues were referential actions displaced in time from exposure to their referents. We found that no dogs were able to reliably link an object with a label based on social-pragmatic cues alone in all the tests. However, one dog did show skills in some tests, possibly indicating an ability to learn based on social-pragmatic cues. PMID:24646732

Assessing segmentation processes by click detection: online measure of statistical learning, or simple interference?

PubMed

Franco, Ana; Gaillard, Vinciane; Cleeremans, Axel; Destrebecqz, Arnaud

2015-12-01

Statistical learning can be used to extract the words from continuous speech. Gómez, Bion, and Mehler (Language and Cognitive Processes, 26, 212-223, 2011) proposed an online measure of statistical learning: They superimposed auditory clicks on a continuous artificial speech stream made up of a random succession of trisyllabic nonwords. Participants were instructed to detect these clicks, which could be located either within or between words. The results showed that, over the length of exposure, reaction times (RTs) increased more for within-word than for between-word clicks. This result has been accounted for by means of statistical learning of the between-word boundaries. However, even though statistical learning occurs without an intention to learn, it nevertheless requires attentional resources. Therefore, this process could be affected by a concurrent task such as click detection. In the present study, we evaluated the extent to which the click detection task indeed reflects successful statistical learning. Our results suggest that the emergence of RT differences between within- and between-word click detection is neither systematic nor related to the successful segmentation of the artificial language. Therefore, instead of being an online measure of learning, the click detection task seems to interfere with the extraction of statistical regularities.

Holistic word processing in dyslexia

PubMed Central

Conway, Aisling; Misra, Karuna

2017-01-01

People with dyslexia have difficulty learning to read and many lack fluent word recognition as adults. In a novel task that borrows elements of the ‘word superiority’ and ‘word inversion’ paradigms, we investigate whether holistic word recognition is impaired in dyslexia. In Experiment 1 students with dyslexia and controls judged the similarity of pairs of 6- and 7-letter words or pairs of words whose letters had been partially jumbled. The stimuli were presented in both upright and inverted form with orthographic regularity and orientation randomized from trial to trial. While both groups showed sensitivity to orthographic regularity, both word inversion and letter jumbling were more detrimental to skilled than dyslexic readers supporting the idea that the latter may read in a more analytic fashion. Experiment 2 employed the same task but using shorter, 4- and 5-letter words and a design where orthographic regularity and stimuli orientation was held constant within experimental blocks to encourage the use of either holistic or analytic processing. While there was no difference in reaction time between the dyslexic and control groups for inverted stimuli, the students with dyslexia were significantly slower than controls for upright stimuli. These findings suggest that holistic word recognition, which is largely based on the detection of orthographic regularity, is impaired in dyslexia. PMID:29121046

Effects of audio-visual presentation of target words in word translation training

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akahane-Yamada, Reiko; Komaki, Ryo; Kubo, Rieko

2004-05-01

Komaki and Akahane-Yamada (Proc. ICA2004) used 2AFC translation task in vocabulary training, in which the target word is presented visually in orthographic form of one language, and the appropriate meaning in another language has to be chosen between two choices. Present paper examined the effect of audio-visual presentation of target word when native speakers of Japanese learn to translate English words into Japanese. Pairs of English words contrasted in several phonemic distinctions (e.g., /r/-/l/, /b/-/v/, etc.) were used as word materials, and presented in three conditions; visual-only (V), audio-only (A), and audio-visual (AV) presentations. Identification accuracy of those words produced by two talkers was also assessed. During pretest, the accuracy for A stimuli was lowest, implying that insufficient translation ability and listening ability interact with each other when aurally presented word has to be translated. However, there was no difference in accuracy between V and AV stimuli, suggesting that participants translate the words depending on visual information only. The effect of translation training using AV stimuli did not transfer to identification ability, showing that additional audio information during translation does not help improve speech perception. Further examination is necessary to determine the effective L2 training method. [Work supported by TAO, Japan.

Active learning for ontological event extraction incorporating named entity recognition and unknown word handling.

PubMed

Han, Xu; Kim, Jung-jae; Kwoh, Chee Keong

2016-01-01

Biomedical text mining may target various kinds of valuable information embedded in the literature, but a critical obstacle to the extension of the mining targets is the cost of manual construction of labeled data, which are required for state-of-the-art supervised learning systems. Active learning is to choose the most informative documents for the supervised learning in order to reduce the amount of required manual annotations. Previous works of active learning, however, focused on the tasks of entity recognition and protein-protein interactions, but not on event extraction tasks for multiple event types. They also did not consider the evidence of event participants, which might be a clue for the presence of events in unlabeled documents. Moreover, the confidence scores of events produced by event extraction systems are not reliable for ranking documents in terms of informativity for supervised learning. We here propose a novel committee-based active learning method that supports multi-event extraction tasks and employs a new statistical method for informativity estimation instead of using the confidence scores from event extraction systems. Our method is based on a committee of two systems as follows: We first employ an event extraction system to filter potential false negatives among unlabeled documents, from which the system does not extract any event. We then develop a statistical method to rank the potential false negatives of unlabeled documents 1) by using a language model that measures the probabilities of the expression of multiple events in documents and 2) by using a named entity recognition system that locates the named entities that can be event arguments (e.g. proteins). The proposed method further deals with unknown words in test data by using word similarity measures. We also apply our active learning method for the task of named entity recognition. We evaluate the proposed method against the BioNLP Shared Tasks datasets, and show that our method can achieve better performance than such previous methods as entropy and Gibbs error based methods and a conventional committee-based method. We also show that the incorporation of named entity recognition into the active learning for event extraction and the unknown word handling further improve the active learning method. In addition, the adaptation of the active learning method into named entity recognition tasks also improves the document selection for manual annotation of named entities.

Sleep spindles during a nap correlate with post sleep memory performance for highly rewarded word-pairs.

PubMed

Studte, Sara; Bridger, Emma; Mecklinger, Axel

2017-04-01

The consolidation of new associations is thought to depend in part on physiological processes engaged during non-REM (NREM) sleep, such as slow oscillations and sleep spindles. Moreover, NREM sleep is thought to selectively benefit associations that are adaptive for the future. In line with this, the current study investigated whether different reward cues at encoding are associated with changes in sleep physiology and memory retention. Participants' associative memory was tested after learning a list of arbitrarily paired words both before and after taking a 90-min nap. During learning, word-pairs were preceded by a cue indicating either a high or a low reward for correct memory performance at test. The motivation manipulation successfully impacted retention such that memory declined to a greater extent from pre- to post sleep for low rewarded than for high rewarded word-pairs. In line with previous studies, positive correlations between spindle density during NREM sleep and general memory performance pre- and post-sleep were found. In addition to this, however, a selective positive relationship between memory performance for highly rewarded word-pairs at posttest and spindle density during NREM sleep was also observed. These results support the view that motivationally salient memories are preferentially consolidated and that sleep spindles may be an important underlying mechanism for selective consolidation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Pitch enhancement facilitates word learning across visual contexts

PubMed Central

Filippi, Piera; Gingras, Bruno; Fitch, W. Tecumseh

2014-01-01

This study investigates word-learning using a new experimental paradigm that integrates three processes: (a) extracting a word out of a continuous sound sequence, (b) inferring its referential meanings in context, (c) mapping the segmented word onto its broader intended referent, such as other objects of the same semantic category, and to novel utterances. Previous work has examined the role of statistical learning and/or of prosody in each of these processes separately. Here, we combine these strands of investigation into a single experimental approach, in which participants viewed a photograph belonging to one of three semantic categories while hearing a complex, five-word utterance containing a target word. Six between-subjects conditions were tested with 20 adult participants each. In condition 1, the only cue to word-meaning mapping was the co-occurrence of word and referents. This statistical cue was present in all conditions. In condition 2, the target word was sounded at a higher pitch. In condition 3, random words were sounded at a higher pitch, creating an inconsistent cue. In condition 4, the duration of the target word was lengthened. In conditions 5 and 6, an extraneous acoustic cue and a visual cue were associated with the target word, respectively. Performance in this word-learning task was significantly higher than that observed with simple co-occurrence only when pitch prominence consistently marked the target word. We discuss implications for the pragmatic value of pitch marking as well as the relevance of our findings to language acquisition and language evolution. PMID:25566144

Phonetic radicals, not phonological coding systems, support orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese.

PubMed

Li, Luan; Wang, Hua-Chen; Castles, Anne; Hsieh, Miao-Ling; Marinus, Eva

2018-07-01

According to the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, 1995), phonological decoding is fundamental to acquiring orthographic representations of novel written words. However, phonological decoding is not straightforward in non-alphabetic scripts such as Chinese, where words are presented as characters. Here, we present the first study investigating the role of phonological decoding in orthographic learning in Chinese. We examined two possible types of phonological decoding: the use of phonetic radicals, an internal phonological aid, andthe use of Zhuyin, an external phonological coding system. Seventy-three Grade 2 children were taught the pronunciations and meanings of twelve novel compound characters over four days. They were then exposed to the written characters in short stories, and were assessed on their reading accuracy and on their subsequent orthographic learning via orthographic choice and spelling tasks. The novel characters were assigned three different types of pronunciation in relation to its phonetic radical - (1) a pronunciation that is identical to the phonetic radical in isolation; (2) a common alternative pronunciation associated with the phonetic radical when it appears in other characters; and (3) a pronunciation that is unrelated to the phonetic radical. The presence of Zhuyin was also manipulated. The children read the novel characters more accurately when phonological cues from the phonetic radicals were available and in the presence of Zhuyin. However, only the phonetic radicals facilitated orthographic learning. The findings provide the first empirical evidence of orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese, and reveal how phonological decoding functions to support learning in non-alphabetic writing systems. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sound Symbolism Facilitates Word Learning in 14-Month-Olds

PubMed Central

Imai, Mutsumi; Miyazaki, Michiko; Yeung, H. Henny; Hidaka, Shohei; Kantartzis, Katerina; Okada, Hiroyuki; Kita, Sotaro

2015-01-01

Sound symbolism, or the nonarbitrary link between linguistic sound and meaning, has often been discussed in connection with language evolution, where the oral imitation of external events links phonetic forms with their referents (e.g., Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). In this research, we explore whether sound symbolism may also facilitate synchronic language learning in human infants. Sound symbolism may be a useful cue particularly at the earliest developmental stages of word learning, because it potentially provides a way of bootstrapping word meaning from perceptual information. Using an associative word learning paradigm, we demonstrated that 14-month-old infants could detect Köhler-type (1947) shape-sound symbolism, and could use this sensitivity in their effort to establish a word-referent association. PMID:25695741

Training Mispronunciation Correction and Word Meanings Improves Children's Ability to Learn to Read Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dyson, Hannah; Best, Wendy; Solity, Jonathan; Hulme, Charles

2017-01-01

Previous research has suggested that learning to read irregular words depends upon knowledge of a word's meaning and the ability to correct imperfect decoding attempts by reference to the known pronunciations of a word. In an experimental training study, 84 children ages 5-7 years were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group.…

Dynamic versus Static Dictionary with and without Printed Focal Words in e-Book Reading as Facilitator for Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korat, Ofra; Levin, Iris; Ben-Shabt, Anat; Shneor, Dafna; Bokovza, Limor

2014-01-01

We investigated the extent to which a dictionary embedded in an e-book with static or dynamic visuals with and without printed focal words affects word learning. A pretest-posttest design was used to measure gains of expressive words' meaning and their spelling. The participants included 250 Hebrew-speaking second graders from…

Deficits in free recall persist in Asperger's syndrome despite training in the use of list-appropriate learning strategies.

PubMed

Smith, Brenda J; Gardiner, John M; Bowler, Dermot M

2007-03-01

Free recall in adults with Asperger's Syndrome (AS) was compared with that in matched controls in an experiment including semantically similar, phonologically similar and unrelated word lists. Without supportive instructions, adults with AS were significantly impaired in their recall of phonologically and semantically related lists, but not unrelated lists. Even when trained to make use at study of the relations among the words, the adults with AS recalled fewer words than the control group. Participants rehearsed the study lists out loud and the rehearsal data was analysed. Despite a very slight trend for adults with AS to engage in less elaborative rehearsal and more rote rehearsal, their rehearsal did not differ significantly from that of controls.

Bilingual recognition memory: stronger performance but weaker levels-of-processing effects in the less fluent language.

PubMed

Francis, Wendy S; Gutiérrez, Marisela

2012-04-01

The effects of bilingual proficiency on recognition memory were examined in an experiment with Spanish-English bilinguals. Participants learned lists of words in English and Spanish under shallow- and deep-encoding conditions. Overall, hit rates were higher, discrimination greater, and response times shorter in the nondominant language, consistent with effects previously observed for lower frequency words. Levels-of-processing effects in hit rates, discrimination, and response time were stronger in the dominant language. Specifically, with shallow encoding, the advantage for the nondominant language was larger than with deep encoding. The results support the idea that memory performance in the nondominant language is impacted by both the greater demand for cognitive resources and the lower familiarity of the words.

Beyond Naïve Cue Combination: Salience and Social Cues in Early Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yurovsky, Daniel; Frank, Michael C.

2017-01-01

Children learn their earliest words through social "interaction," but it is unknown how much they rely on social "information." Some theories argue that word learning is fundamentally social from its outset, with even the youngest infants understanding intentions and using them to infer a social partner's target of reference.…

Effects of Explicit Vocabulary Videos Delivered through iPods on Students with Language Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowman, J. Joneen; Dressler, Emily V.

2016-01-01

Poor word learning is a hallmark characteristic of students with specific language impairment (SLI). Explicit vocabulary instruction has shown to positively improve word learning in this population. Mobile technology has many advantages making it conducive for addressing the word learning needs of students with SLI. The current study utilized a…

Learning about Spelling Sequences: The Role of Onsets and Rimes in Analogies in Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goswami, Usha

1991-01-01

In one experiment, children learned more about consonant blends at the onset than at the end of words. In a second experiment, children learned more about rhyming vowel-consonant blend sequences at the end of words than those at the beginning of words, where the vowel extended the onset. (BC)

Word Learning in 6-Month-Olds: Fast Encoding-Weak Retention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friedrich, Manuela; Friederici, Angela D.

2011-01-01

There has been general consensus that initial word learning during early infancy is a slow and time-consuming process that requires very frequent exposure, whereas later in development, infants are able to quickly learn a novel word for a novel meaning. From the perspective of memory maturation, this shift in behavioral development might represent…

Does Lexical Stress Influence 17-Month-Olds' Mapping of Verbs and Nouns?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Jennifer; Mihalicz, Patrick; Thiessen, Erik; Curtin, Suzanne

2018-01-01

English-learning infants attend to lexical stress when learning new words. Attention to lexical stress might be beneficial for word learning by providing an indication of the grammatical class of that word. English disyllabic nouns commonly have trochaic (strong-weak) stress, whereas English disyllabic verbs commonly have iambic (weak-strong)…

Learning Computers, Speaking English: Cooperative Activities for Learning English and Basic Word Processing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quann, Steve; Satin, Diana

This textbook leads high-beginning and intermediate English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students through cooperative computer-based activities that combine language learning with training in basic computer skills and word processing. Each unit concentrates on a basic concept of word processing while also focusing on a grammar topic. Skills are…

The role of the phonological loop in English word learning: a comparison of Chinese ESL learners and native speakers.

PubMed

Hamada, Megumi; Koda, Keiko

2011-04-01

Although the role of the phonological loop in word-retention is well documented, research in Chinese character retention suggests the involvement of non-phonological encoding. This study investigated whether the extent to which the phonological loop contributes to learning and remembering visually introduced words varies between college-level Chinese ESL learners (N = 20) and native speakers of English (N = 20). The groups performed a paired associative learning task under two conditions (control versus articulatory suppression) with two word types (regularly spelled versus irregularly spelled words) differing in degree of phonological accessibility. The results demonstrated that both groups' recall declined when the phonological loop was made less available (with irregularly spelled words and in the articulatory suppression condition), but the decline was greater for the native group. These results suggest that word learning entails phonological encoding uniformly across learners, but the contribution of phonology varies among learners with diverse linguistic backgrounds.

The effect of incremental changes in phonotactic probability and neighborhood density on word learning by preschool children

PubMed Central

Storkel, Holly L.; Bontempo, Daniel E.; Aschenbrenner, Andrew J.; Maekawa, Junko; Lee, Su-Yeon

2013-01-01

Purpose Phonotactic probability or neighborhood density have predominately been defined using gross distinctions (i.e., low vs. high). The current studies examined the influence of finer changes in probability (Experiment 1) and density (Experiment 2) on word learning. Method The full range of probability or density was examined by sampling five nonwords from each of four quartiles. Three- and 5-year-old children received training on nonword-nonobject pairs. Learning was measured in a picture-naming task immediately following training and 1-week after training. Results were analyzed using multi-level modeling. Results A linear spline model best captured nonlinearities in phonotactic probability. Specifically word learning improved as probability increased in the lowest quartile, worsened as probability increased in the midlow quartile, and then remained stable and poor in the two highest quartiles. An ordinary linear model sufficiently described neighborhood density. Here, word learning improved as density increased across all quartiles. Conclusion Given these different patterns, phonotactic probability and neighborhood density appear to influence different word learning processes. Specifically, phonotactic probability may affect recognition that a sound sequence is an acceptable word in the language and is a novel word for the child, whereas neighborhood density may influence creation of a new representation in long-term memory. PMID:23882005

The Acquisition of Abstract Words by Young Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bergelson, Elika; Swingley, Daniel

2013-01-01

Young infants' learning of words for abstract concepts like "all gone" and "eat," in contrast to their learning of more concrete words like "apple" and "shoe," may follow a relatively protracted developmental course. We examined whether infants know such abstract words. Parents named one of two events shown in side-by-side videos while their…

Novel Word Lexicalization and the Prime Lexicality Effect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Qiao, Xiaomei; Forster, Kenneth I.

2013-01-01

This study investigates how newly learned words are integrated into the first-language lexicon using masked priming. Two lexical decision experiments are reported, with the aim of establishing whether newly learned words behave like real words in a masked form priming experiment. If they do, they should show a prime lexicality effect (PLE), in…

Contextual Richness and Word Learning: Context Enhances Comprehension but Retrieval Enhances Retention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van den Broek, Gesa S. E.; Takashima, Atsuko; Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

2018-01-01

Learning new vocabulary from context typically requires multiple encounters during which word meaning can be retrieved from memory or inferred from context. We compared the effect of memory retrieval and context inferences on short- and long-term retention in three experiments. Participants studied novel words and then practiced the words either…

Automatic Identification of Nutritious Contexts for Learning Vocabulary Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mostow, Jack; Gates, Donna; Ellison, Ross; Goutam, Rahul

2015-01-01

Vocabulary knowledge is crucial to literacy development and academic success. Previous research has shown learning the meaning of a word requires encountering it in diverse informative contexts. In this work, we try to identify "nutritious" contexts for a word--contexts that help students build a rich mental representation of the word's…

The role of verbal and pictorial information in multimodal incidental acquisition of foreign language vocabulary.

PubMed

Bisson, Marie-Josée; van Heuven, Walter J B; Conklin, Kathy; Tunney, Richard J

2015-01-01

This study used eye tracking to investigate the allocation of attention to multimodal stimuli during an incidental learning situation, as well as its impact on subsequent explicit learning. Participants were exposed to foreign language (FL) auditory words on their own, in conjunction with written native language (NL) translations, or with both written NL translations and pictures. Incidental acquisition of FL words was assessed the following day through an explicit learning task where participants learned to recognize translation equivalents, as well as one week later through recall and translation recognition tests. Results showed higher accuracy scores in the explicit learning task for FL words presented with meaning during incidental learning, whether written meaning or both written meaning and picture, than for FL words presented auditorily only. However, participants recalled significantly more FL words after a week delay if they had been presented with a picture during incidental learning. In addition, the time spent looking at the pictures during incidental learning significantly predicted recognition and recall scores one week later. Overall, results demonstrated the impact of exposure to multimodal stimuli on subsequent explicit learning, as well as the important role that pictorial information can play in incidental vocabulary acquisition.

The role of verbal and pictorial information in multimodal incidental acquisition of foreign language vocabulary

PubMed Central

Bisson, Marie-Josée; van Heuven, Walter J. B.; Conklin, Kathy; Tunney, Richard J.

2015-01-01

This study used eye tracking to investigate the allocation of attention to multimodal stimuli during an incidental learning situation, as well as its impact on subsequent explicit learning. Participants were exposed to foreign language (FL) auditory words on their own, in conjunction with written native language (NL) translations, or with both written NL translations and pictures. Incidental acquisition of FL words was assessed the following day through an explicit learning task where participants learned to recognize translation equivalents, as well as one week later through recall and translation recognition tests. Results showed higher accuracy scores in the explicit learning task for FL words presented with meaning during incidental learning, whether written meaning or both written meaning and picture, than for FL words presented auditorily only. However, participants recalled significantly more FL words after a week delay if they had been presented with a picture during incidental learning. In addition, the time spent looking at the pictures during incidental learning significantly predicted recognition and recall scores one week later. Overall, results demonstrated the impact of exposure to multimodal stimuli on subsequent explicit learning, as well as the important role that pictorial information can play in incidental vocabulary acquisition. PMID:25383918

Sentence-Based Attentional Mechanisms in Word Learning: Evidence from a Computational Model

PubMed Central

Alishahi, Afra; Fazly, Afsaneh; Koehne, Judith; Crocker, Matthew W.

2012-01-01

When looking for the referents of novel nouns, adults and young children are sensitive to cross-situational statistics (Yu and Smith, 2007; Smith and Yu, 2008). In addition, the linguistic context that a word appears in has been shown to act as a powerful attention mechanism for guiding sentence processing and word learning (Landau and Gleitman, 1985; Altmann and Kamide, 1999; Kako and Trueswell, 2000). Koehne and Crocker (2010, 2011) investigate the interaction between cross-situational evidence and guidance from the sentential context in an adult language learning scenario. Their studies reveal that these learning mechanisms interact in a complex manner: they can be used in a complementary way when context helps reduce referential uncertainty; they influence word learning about equally strongly when cross-situational and contextual evidence are in conflict; and contextual cues block aspects of cross-situational learning when both mechanisms are independently applicable. To address this complex pattern of findings, we present a probabilistic computational model of word learning which extends a previous cross-situational model (Fazly et al., 2010) with an attention mechanism based on sentential cues. Our model uses a framework that seamlessly combines the two sources of evidence in order to study their emerging pattern of interaction during the process of word learning. Simulations of the experiments of (Koehne and Crocker, 2010, 2011) reveal an overall pattern of results that are in line with their findings. Importantly, we demonstrate that our model does not need to explicitly assign priority to either source of evidence in order to produce these results: learning patterns emerge as a result of a probabilistic interaction between the two clue types. Moreover, using a computational model allows us to examine the developmental trajectory of the differential roles of cross-situational and sentential cues in word learning. PMID:22783211

Play along: effects of music and social interaction on word learning.

PubMed

Verga, Laura; Bigand, Emmanuel; Kotz, Sonja A

2015-01-01

Learning new words is an increasingly common necessity in everyday life. External factors, among which music and social interaction are particularly debated, are claimed to facilitate this task. Due to their influence on the learner's temporal behavior, these stimuli are able to drive the learner's attention to the correct referent of new words at the correct point in time. However, do music and social interaction impact learning behavior in the same way? The current study aims to answer this question. Native German speakers (N = 80) were requested to learn new words (pseudo-words) during a contextual learning game. This learning task was performed alone with a computer or with a partner, with or without music. Results showed that music and social interaction had a different impact on the learner's behavior: Participants tended to temporally coordinate their behavior more with a partner than with music, and in both cases more than with a computer. However, when both music and social interaction were present, this temporal coordination was hindered. These results suggest that while music and social interaction do influence participants' learning behavior, they have a different impact. Moreover, impaired behavior when both music and a partner are present suggests that different mechanisms are employed to coordinate with the two types of stimuli. Whether one or the other approach is more efficient for word learning, however, is a question still requiring further investigation, as no differences were observed between conditions in a retrieval phase, which took place immediately after the learning session. This study contributes to the literature on word learning in adults by investigating two possible facilitating factors, and has important implications for situations such as music therapy, in which music and social interaction are present at the same time.

Play along: effects of music and social interaction on word learning

PubMed Central

Verga, Laura; Bigand, Emmanuel; Kotz, Sonja A.

2015-01-01

Learning new words is an increasingly common necessity in everyday life. External factors, among which music and social interaction are particularly debated, are claimed to facilitate this task. Due to their influence on the learner’s temporal behavior, these stimuli are able to drive the learner’s attention to the correct referent of new words at the correct point in time. However, do music and social interaction impact learning behavior in the same way? The current study aims to answer this question. Native German speakers (N = 80) were requested to learn new words (pseudo-words) during a contextual learning game. This learning task was performed alone with a computer or with a partner, with or without music. Results showed that music and social interaction had a different impact on the learner’s behavior: Participants tended to temporally coordinate their behavior more with a partner than with music, and in both cases more than with a computer. However, when both music and social interaction were present, this temporal coordination was hindered. These results suggest that while music and social interaction do influence participants’ learning behavior, they have a different impact. Moreover, impaired behavior when both music and a partner are present suggests that different mechanisms are employed to coordinate with the two types of stimuli. Whether one or the other approach is more efficient for word learning, however, is a question still requiring further investigation, as no differences were observed between conditions in a retrieval phase, which took place immediately after the learning session. This study contributes to the literature on word learning in adults by investigating two possible facilitating factors, and has important implications for situations such as music therapy, in which music and social interaction are present at the same time. PMID:26388818

Exploring the Neural Representation of Novel Words Learned through Enactment in a Word Recognition Task

PubMed Central

Macedonia, Manuela; Mueller, Karsten

2016-01-01

Vocabulary learning in a second language is enhanced if learners enrich the learning experience with self-performed iconic gestures. This learning strategy is called enactment. Here we explore how enacted words are functionally represented in the brain and which brain regions contribute to enhance retention. After an enactment training lasting 4 days, participants performed a word recognition task in the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanner. Data analysis suggests the participation of different and partially intertwined networks that are engaged in higher cognitive processes, i.e., enhanced attention and word recognition. Also, an experience-related network seems to map word representation. Besides core language regions, this latter network includes sensory and motor cortices, the basal ganglia, and the cerebellum. On the basis of its complexity and the involvement of the motor system, this sensorimotor network might explain superior retention for enactment. PMID:27445918

Constraints on the Transfer of Perceptual Learning in Accented Speech

PubMed Central

Eisner, Frank; Melinger, Alissa; Weber, Andrea

2013-01-01

The perception of speech sounds can be re-tuned through a mechanism of lexically driven perceptual learning after exposure to instances of atypical speech production. This study asked whether this re-tuning is sensitive to the position of the atypical sound within the word. We investigated perceptual learning using English voiced stop consonants, which are commonly devoiced in word-final position by Dutch learners of English. After exposure to a Dutch learner’s productions of devoiced stops in word-final position (but not in any other positions), British English (BE) listeners showed evidence of perceptual learning in a subsequent cross-modal priming task, where auditory primes with devoiced final stops (e.g., “seed”, pronounced [si:th]), facilitated recognition of visual targets with voiced final stops (e.g., SEED). In Experiment 1, this learning effect generalized to test pairs where the critical contrast was in word-initial position, e.g., auditory primes such as “town” facilitated recognition of visual targets like DOWN. Control listeners, who had not heard any stops by the speaker during exposure, showed no learning effects. The generalization to word-initial position did not occur when participants had also heard correctly voiced, word-initial stops during exposure (Experiment 2), and when the speaker was a native BE speaker who mimicked the word-final devoicing (Experiment 3). The readiness of the perceptual system to generalize a previously learned adjustment to other positions within the word thus appears to be modulated by distributional properties of the speech input, as well as by the perceived sociophonetic characteristics of the speaker. The results suggest that the transfer of pre-lexical perceptual adjustments that occur through lexically driven learning can be affected by a combination of acoustic, phonological, and sociophonetic factors. PMID:23554598

Task demand influences relationships among sex, clustering strategy, and recall: 16-word versus 9-word list learning tests.

PubMed

Sunderaraman, Preeti; Blumen, Helena M; DeMatteo, David; Apa, Zoltan L; Cosentino, Stephanie

2013-06-01

We compared the relationships among sex, clustering strategy, and recall across different task demands using the 16-word California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition (CVLT-II) and the 9-word Philadelphia (repeatable) Verbal Learning Test (PrVLT). Women generally score higher than men on verbal memory tasks, possibly because women tend to use semantic clustering. This sex difference has been established via word-list learning tests such as the CVLT-II. In a retrospective between-group study, we compared how 2 separate groups of cognitively healthy older adults performed on a longer and a shorter verbal learning test. The group completing the CVLT-II had 36 women and 26 men; the group completing the PrVLT had 27 women and 21 men. Overall, multiple regression analyses revealed that semantic clustering was significantly associated with total recall on both tests' lists (P<0.001). Sex differences in recall and semantic clustering diminished with the shorter PrVLT word list. Semantic clustering uniquely influenced recall on both the longer and shorter word lists. However, serial clustering and sex influenced recall depending on the length of the word list (ie, the task demand). These findings suggest a complex nonlinear relationship among verbal memory, clustering strategies, and task demand.

Task Demand Influences Relationships Among Sex, Clustering Strategy, and Recall: 16-Word Versus 9-Word List Learning Tests

PubMed Central

Sunderaraman, Preeti; Blumen, Helena M.; DeMatteo, David; Apa, Zoltan; Cosentino, Stephanie

2013-01-01

Objective We compared the relationships among sex, clustering strategy, and recall across different task demands using the 16-word California Verbal Learning Test–Second Edition (CVLT-II) and the 9-word Philadelphia (repeatable) Verbal Learning Test (PrVLT). Background Women generally score higher than men on verbal memory tasks, possibly because women tend to use semantic clustering. This sex difference has been established via word-list learning tests such as the CVLT-II. Methods In a retrospective between-group study, we compared how 2 separate groups of cognitively healthy older adults performed on a longer and a shorter verbal learning test. The group completing the CVLT-II had 36 women and 26 men; the group completing the PrVLT had 27 women and 21 men. Results Overall, multiple regression analyses revealed that semantic clustering was significantly associated with total recall on both tests’ lists (P < 0.001). Sex differences in recall and semantic clustering diminished with the shorter PrVLT word list. Conclusions Semantic clustering uniquely influenced recall on both the longer and shorter word lists. However, serial clustering and sex influenced recall depending on the length of the word list (ie, the task demand). These findings suggest a complex nonlinear relationship among verbal memory, clustering strategies, and task demand. PMID:23812171

Inert gas narcosis disrupts encoding but not retrieval of long term memory.

PubMed

Hobbs, Malcolm; Kneller, Wendy

2015-05-15

Exposure to increased ambient pressure causes inert gas narcosis of which one symptom is long-term memory (LTM) impairment. Narcosis is posited to impair LTM by disrupting information encoding, retrieval (self-guided search), or both. The effect of narcosis on the encoding and retrieval of LTM was investigated by testing the effect of learning-recall pressure and levels of processing (LoP) on the free-recall of word lists in divers underwater. All participants (n=60) took part in four conditions in which words were learnt and then recalled at either low pressure (1.4-1.9atm/4-9msw) or high pressure (4.4-5.0atm/34-40msw), as manipulated by changes in depth underwater: low-low (LL), low-high(LH), high-high (HH), and high-low (HL). In addition, participants were assigned to either a deep or shallow processing condition, using LoP methodology. Free-recall memory ability was significantly impaired only when words were initially learned at high pressure (HH & HL conditions). When words were learned at low pressure and then recalled at low pressure (LL condition) or high pressure (LH condition) free-recall was not impaired. Although numerically superior in several conditions, deeper processing failed to significantly improve free-recall ability in any of the learning-recall conditions. This pattern of results support the hypothesis that narcosis disrupts encoding of information into LTM, while retrieval appears to be unaffected. These findings are discussed in relation to similar effects reported by some memory impairing drugs and the practical implications for workers in pressurised environments. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Influence of Child-Directed Speech on Word Learning and Comprehension.

PubMed

Foursha-Stevenson, Cassandra; Schembri, Taylor; Nicoladis, Elena; Eriksen, Cody

2017-04-01

This paper describes an investigation into the function of child-directed speech (CDS) across development. In the first experiment, 10-21-month-olds were presented with familiar words in CDS and trained on novel words in CDS or adult-directed speech (ADS). All children preferred the matching display for familiar words. However, only older toddlers in the CDS condition preferred the matching display for novel words. In Experiment 2, children 3-6 years of age were presented with a sentence comprehension task in CDS or ADS. Older children performed better overall than younger children with 5- and 6-year-olds performing above chance regardless of speech condition, while 3- and 4-year-olds only performed above chance when the sentences were presented in CDS. These findings provide support for the theory that CDS is most effective at the beginning of acquisition for particular constructions (e.g. vocabulary acquisition, syntactic comprehension) rather than at a particular age or for a particular task.

Dual routes for verbal repetition: articulation-based and acoustic-phonetic codes for pseudoword and word repetition, respectively.

PubMed

Yoo, Sejin; Chung, Jun-Young; Jeon, Hyeon-Ae; Lee, Kyoung-Min; Kim, Young-Bo; Cho, Zang-Hee

2012-07-01

Speech production is inextricably linked to speech perception, yet they are usually investigated in isolation. In this study, we employed a verbal-repetition task to identify the neural substrates of speech processing with two ends active simultaneously using functional MRI. Subjects verbally repeated auditory stimuli containing an ambiguous vowel sound that could be perceived as either a word or a pseudoword depending on the interpretation of the vowel. We found verbal repetition commonly activated the audition-articulation interface bilaterally at Sylvian fissures and superior temporal sulci. Contrasting word-versus-pseudoword trials revealed neural activities unique to word repetition in the left posterior middle temporal areas and activities unique to pseudoword repetition in the left inferior frontal gyrus. These findings imply that the tasks are carried out using different speech codes: an articulation-based code of pseudowords and an acoustic-phonetic code of words. It also supports the dual-stream model and imitative learning of vocabulary. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Embodied attention and word learning by toddlers

PubMed Central

Yu, Chen; Smith, Linda B.

2013-01-01

Many theories of early word learning begin with the uncertainty inherent to learning a word from its co-occurrence with a visual scene. However, the relevant visual scene for infant word learning is neither from the adult theorist’s view nor the mature partner’s view, but is rather from the learner’s personal view. Here we show that when 18-month old infants interacted with objects in play with their parents, they created moments in which a single object was visually dominant. If parents named the object during these moments of bottom-up selectivity, later forced-choice tests showed that infants learned the name, but did not when naming occurred during a less visually selective moment. The momentary visual input for parents and toddlers was captured via head cameras placed low on each participant’s forehead as parents played with and named objects for their infant. Frame-by-frame analyses of the head camera images at and around naming moments were conducted to determine the visual properties at input that were associated with learning. The analyses indicated that learning occurred when bottom-up visual information was clean and uncluttered. The sensory-motor behaviors of infants and parents were also analyzed to determine how their actions on the objects may have created these optimal visual moments for learning. The results are discussed with respect to early word learning, embodied attention, and the social role of parents in early word learning. PMID:22878116

Influence of syllable structure on L2 auditory word learning.

PubMed

Hamada, Megumi; Goya, Hideki

2015-04-01

This study investigated the role of syllable structure in L2 auditory word learning. Based on research on cross-linguistic variation of speech perception and lexical memory, it was hypothesized that Japanese L1 learners of English would learn English words with an open-syllable structure without consonant clusters better than words with a closed-syllable structure and consonant clusters. Two groups of college students (Japanese group, N = 22; and native speakers of English, N = 21) learned paired English pseudowords and pictures. The pseudoword types differed in terms of the syllable structure and consonant clusters (congruent vs. incongruent) and the position of consonant clusters (coda vs. onset). Recall accuracy was higher for the pseudowords in the congruent type and the pseudowords with the coda-consonant clusters. The syllable structure effect was obtained from both participant groups, disconfirming the hypothesized cross-linguistic influence on L2 auditory word learning.

Novel word learning in older adults: A role for sleep?

PubMed Central

Kurdziel, Laura B. F.; Mantua, Janna; Spencer, Rebecca M. C.

2016-01-01

Sleep is an offline period during which newly acquired semantic information is transformed into longer-lasting memories. Language acquisition, which requires new word learning and semantic integration, is preferentially benefitted by a period of sleep in children and young adults. Specific features of sleep (e.g., sleep stage characteristics) have been associated with enhanced language acquisition and generalization. However, with increasing age, even in healthy individuals, sleep quality and quantity decrease. Simultaneously, deficits in word retrieval and new word learning emerge. It is unknown whether age-related alterations in language ability are linked with alterations in sleep. The goal of this review is to examine changes in language learning and sleep across the lifespan. We consider how sleep detriments that occur with aging could affect abilities to learn novel words and semantic generalization and propose hypotheses to motivate future research in this area. PMID:27291336

Speaker variability augments phonological processing in early word learning

PubMed Central

Rost, Gwyneth C.; McMurray, Bob

2010-01-01

Infants in the early stages of word learning have difficulty learning lexical neighbors (i.e., word pairs that differ by a single phoneme), despite the ability to discriminate the same contrast in a purely auditory task. While prior work has focused on top-down explanations for this failure (e.g. task demands, lexical competition), none has examined if bottom-up acoustic-phonetic factors play a role. We hypothesized that lexical neighbor learning could be improved by incorporating greater acoustic variability in the words being learned, as this may buttress still developing phonetic categories, and help infants identify the relevant contrastive dimension. Infants were exposed to pictures accompanied by labels spoken by either a single or multiple speakers. At test, infants in the single-speaker condition failed to recognize the difference between the two words, while infants who heard multiple speakers discriminated between them. PMID:19143806

Proficiency and sentence constraint effects on second language word learning.

PubMed

Ma, Tengfei; Chen, Baoguo; Lu, Chunming; Dunlap, Susan

2015-07-01

This paper presents an experiment that investigated the effects of L2 proficiency and sentence constraint on semantic processing of unknown L2 words (pseudowords). All participants were Chinese native speakers who learned English as a second language. In the experiment, we used a whole sentence presentation paradigm with a delayed semantic relatedness judgment task. Both higher and lower-proficiency L2 learners could make use of the high-constraint sentence context to judge the meaning of novel pseudowords, and higher-proficiency L2 learners outperformed lower-proficiency L2 learners in all conditions. These results demonstrate that both L2 proficiency and sentence constraint affect subsequent word learning among second language learners. We extended L2 word learning into a sentence context, replicated the sentence constraint effects previously found among native speakers, and found proficiency effects in L2 word learning. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Eye-tracking the time-course of novel word learning and lexical competition in adults and children.

PubMed

Weighall, A R; Henderson, L M; Barr, D J; Cairney, S A; Gaskell, M G

2017-04-01

Lexical competition is a hallmark of proficient, automatic word recognition. Previous research suggests that there is a delay before a new spoken word becomes engaged in this process, with sleep playing an important role. However, data from one method - the visual world paradigm - consistently show competition without a delay. We trained 42 adults and 40 children (aged 7-8) on novel word-object pairings, and employed this paradigm to measure the time-course of lexical competition. Fixations to novel objects upon hearing existing words (e.g., looks to the novel object biscal upon hearing "click on the biscuit") were compared to fixations on untrained objects. Novel word-object pairings learned immediately before testing and those learned the previous day exhibited significant competition effects, with stronger competition for the previous day pairings for children but not adults. Crucially, this competition effect was significantly smaller for novel than existing competitors (e.g., looks to candy upon hearing "click on the candle"), suggesting that novel items may not compete for recognition like fully-fledged lexical items, even after 24h. Explicit memory (cued recall) was superior for words learned the day before testing, particularly for children; this effect (but not the lexical competition effects) correlated with sleep-spindle density. Together, the results suggest that different aspects of new word learning follow different time courses: visual world competition effects can emerge swiftly, but are qualitatively different from those observed with established words, and are less reliant upon sleep. Furthermore, the findings fit with the view that word learning earlier in development is boosted by sleep to a greater degree. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

A lab-controlled simulation of a letter-speech sound binding deficit in dyslexia.

PubMed

Aravena, Sebastián; Snellings, Patrick; Tijms, Jurgen; van der Molen, Maurits W

2013-08-01

Dyslexic and non-dyslexic readers engaged in a short training aimed at learning eight basic letter-speech sound correspondences within an artificial orthography. We examined whether a letter-speech sound binding deficit is behaviorally detectable within the initial steps of learning a novel script. Both letter knowledge and word reading ability within the artificial script were assessed. An additional goal was to investigate the influence of instructional approach on the initial learning of letter-speech sound correspondences. We assigned children from both groups to one of three different training conditions: (a) explicit instruction, (b) implicit associative learning within a computer game environment, or (c) a combination of (a) and (b) in which explicit instruction is followed by implicit learning. Our results indicated that dyslexics were outperformed by the controls on a time-pressured binding task and a word reading task within the artificial orthography, providing empirical support for the view that a letter-speech sound binding deficit is a key factor in dyslexia. A combination of explicit instruction and implicit techniques proved to be a more powerful tool in the initial teaching of letter-sound correspondences than implicit training alone. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Recruitment and Consolidation of Cell Assemblies for Words by Way of Hebbian Learning and Competition in a Multi-Layer Neural Network

PubMed Central

Garagnani, Max; Wennekers, Thomas; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2009-01-01

Current cognitive theories postulate either localist representations of knowledge or fully overlapping, distributed ones. We use a connectionist model that closely replicates known anatomical properties of the cerebral cortex and neurophysiological principles to show that Hebbian learning in a multi-layer neural network leads to memory traces (cell assemblies) that are both distributed and anatomically distinct. Taking the example of word learning based on action-perception correlation, we document mechanisms underlying the emergence of these assemblies, especially (i) the recruitment of neurons and consolidation of connections defining the kernel of the assembly along with (ii) the pruning of the cell assembly’s halo (consisting of very weakly connected cells). We found that, whereas a learning rule mapping covariance led to significant overlap and merging of assemblies, a neurobiologically grounded synaptic plasticity rule with fixed LTP/LTD thresholds produced minimal overlap and prevented merging, exhibiting competitive learning behaviour. Our results are discussed in light of current theories of language and memory. As simulations with neurobiologically realistic neural networks demonstrate here spontaneous emergence of lexical representations that are both cortically dispersed and anatomically distinct, both localist and distributed cognitive accounts receive partial support. PMID:20396612

Recruitment and Consolidation of Cell Assemblies for Words by Way of Hebbian Learning and Competition in a Multi-Layer Neural Network.

PubMed

Garagnani, Max; Wennekers, Thomas; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2009-06-01

Current cognitive theories postulate either localist representations of knowledge or fully overlapping, distributed ones. We use a connectionist model that closely replicates known anatomical properties of the cerebral cortex and neurophysiological principles to show that Hebbian learning in a multi-layer neural network leads to memory traces (cell assemblies) that are both distributed and anatomically distinct. Taking the example of word learning based on action-perception correlation, we document mechanisms underlying the emergence of these assemblies, especially (i) the recruitment of neurons and consolidation of connections defining the kernel of the assembly along with (ii) the pruning of the cell assembly's halo (consisting of very weakly connected cells). We found that, whereas a learning rule mapping covariance led to significant overlap and merging of assemblies, a neurobiologically grounded synaptic plasticity rule with fixed LTP/LTD thresholds produced minimal overlap and prevented merging, exhibiting competitive learning behaviour. Our results are discussed in light of current theories of language and memory. As simulations with neurobiologically realistic neural networks demonstrate here spontaneous emergence of lexical representations that are both cortically dispersed and anatomically distinct, both localist and distributed cognitive accounts receive partial support.

Neural Correlates of Learning from Induced Insight: A Case for Reward-Based Episodic Encoding

PubMed Central

Kizilirmak, Jasmin M.; Thuerich, Hannes; Folta-Schoofs, Kristian; Schott, Björn H.; Richardson-Klavehn, Alan

2016-01-01

Experiencing insight when solving problems can improve memory formation for both the problem and its solution. The underlying neural processes involved in this kind of learning are, however, thus far insufficiently understood. Here, we conceptualized insight as the sudden understanding of a novel relationship between known stimuli that fits into existing knowledge and is accompanied by a positive emotional response. Hence, insight is thought to comprise associative novelty, schema congruency, and intrinsic reward, all of which are separately known to enhance memory performance. We examined the neural correlates of learning from induced insight with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using our own version of the compound-remote-associates-task (CRAT) in which each item consists of three clue words and a solution word. (Pseudo-)Solution words were presented after a brief period of problem-solving attempts to induce either sudden comprehension (CRA items) or continued incomprehension (control items) at a specific time point. By comparing processing of the solution words of CRA with control items, we found induced insight to elicit activation of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex (rACC/mPFC) and left hippocampus. This pattern of results lends support to the role of schema congruency (rACC/mPFC) and associative novelty (hippocampus) in the processing of induced insight. We propose that (1) the mPFC not only responds to schema-congruent information, but also to the detection of novel schemata, and (2) that the hippocampus responds to a form of associative novelty that is not just a novel constellation of familiar items, but rather comprises a novel meaningful relationship between the items—which was the only difference between our insight and no insight conditions. To investigate episodic long-term memory encoding, we compared CRA items whose solution word was recognized 24 h after encoding to those with forgotten solutions. We found activation in the left striatum and parts of the left amygdala, pointing to a potential role of brain reward circuitry in the encoding of the solution words. We propose that learning from induced insight mainly relies on the amygdala evaluating the internal value (as an affective evaluation) of the suddenly comprehended information, and striatum-dependent reward-based learning. PMID:27847490

Neural Correlates of Learning from Induced Insight: A Case for Reward-Based Episodic Encoding.

PubMed

Kizilirmak, Jasmin M; Thuerich, Hannes; Folta-Schoofs, Kristian; Schott, Björn H; Richardson-Klavehn, Alan

2016-01-01

Experiencing insight when solving problems can improve memory formation for both the problem and its solution. The underlying neural processes involved in this kind of learning are, however, thus far insufficiently understood. Here, we conceptualized insight as the sudden understanding of a novel relationship between known stimuli that fits into existing knowledge and is accompanied by a positive emotional response. Hence, insight is thought to comprise associative novelty, schema congruency, and intrinsic reward, all of which are separately known to enhance memory performance. We examined the neural correlates of learning from induced insight with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using our own version of the compound-remote-associates-task (CRAT) in which each item consists of three clue words and a solution word. (Pseudo-)Solution words were presented after a brief period of problem-solving attempts to induce either sudden comprehension (CRA items) or continued incomprehension (control items) at a specific time point. By comparing processing of the solution words of CRA with control items, we found induced insight to elicit activation of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex (rACC/mPFC) and left hippocampus. This pattern of results lends support to the role of schema congruency (rACC/mPFC) and associative novelty (hippocampus) in the processing of induced insight. We propose that (1) the mPFC not only responds to schema-congruent information, but also to the detection of novel schemata, and (2) that the hippocampus responds to a form of associative novelty that is not just a novel constellation of familiar items, but rather comprises a novel meaningful relationship between the items-which was the only difference between our insight and no insight conditions. To investigate episodic long-term memory encoding, we compared CRA items whose solution word was recognized 24 h after encoding to those with forgotten solutions. We found activation in the left striatum and parts of the left amygdala, pointing to a potential role of brain reward circuitry in the encoding of the solution words. We propose that learning from induced insight mainly relies on the amygdala evaluating the internal value (as an affective evaluation) of the suddenly comprehended information, and striatum-dependent reward-based learning.

Event-related brain potentials in memory: correlates of episodic, semantic and implicit memory.

PubMed

Wieser, Stephan; Wieser, Heinz Gregor

2003-06-01

To study cognitive evoked potentials, recorded from scalp EEG and foramen ovale electrodes, during activation of explicit and implicit memory. The subgroups of explicit memory, episodic and semantic memory, are looked at separately. A word-learning task was used, which has been shown to activate hippocampus in H(2)(15)O positron emission tomography studies. Subjects had to study and remember word pairs using different learning strategies: (i) associative word learning (AWL), which activates the episodic memory, (ii) deep single word encoding (DSWE), which activates the semantic memory, and (iii) shallow single word encoding (SSWE), which activates the implicit memory and serves as a baseline. The test included the 'remember/know' paradigm as a behavioural learning control. During the task condition, a 10-20 scalp EEG with additional electrodes in both temporal lobes regions was recorded from 11 healthy volunteers. In one patient with mesiotemporal lobe epilepsy, the EEG was recorded from bilateral foramen ovale electrodes directly from mesial temporal lobe structures. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were calculated off-line and visual and statistical analyses were made. Associative learning strategy produced the best memory performance and the best noetic awareness experience, whereas shallow single word encoding produced the worst performance and the smallest noetic awareness. Deep single word encoding performance was in between. ERPs differed according to the test condition, during both encoding and retrieval, from both the scalp EEG and the foramen ovale electrode recordings. Encoding showed significant differences between the shallow single word encoding (SSWE), which is mainly a function of graphical characteristics, and the other two strategies, deep single word (DSWE) and associative learning (AWL), in which there is a semantic processing of the meaning. ERPs generated by these two categories, which are both functions of explicit memory, differed as well, indicating the presence or the absence of associative binding. Retrieval showed a significant test effect between the word pairs learned by association (AWL) and the ones learned by encoding the words in isolation of each other (DSWE and SSWE). The comparison of the ERPs generated by autonoetic awareness ('remember') and noetic awareness ('know') exhibited a significant test effect as well. The results of behavioural data, in particular that of the 'remember/know' procedure, are evidence that the task paradigm was efficient in activating different kinds of memory. Associative word learning generated a high degree of autonoetic awareness, which is a result of the episodic memory, whereas both kinds of single word learning generated less. AWL, DSWE and SSWE resulted in different electrophysiological correlates, both for encoding as well as retrieval, indicating that different brain structures were activated in different temporal sequence.

An image is worth a thousand words: why nouns tend to dominate verbs in early word learning.

PubMed

McDonough, Colleen; Song, Lulu; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Lannon, Robert

2011-03-01

Nouns are generally easier to learn than verbs (e.g., Bornstein, 2005; Bornstein et al., 2004; Gentner, 1982; Maguire, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2006). Yet, verbs appear in children's earliest vocabularies, creating a seeming paradox. This paper examines one hypothesis about the difference between noun and verb acquisition. Perhaps the advantage nouns have is not a function of grammatical form class but rather related to a word's imageability. Here, word imageability ratings and form class (nouns and verbs) were correlated with age of acquisition according to the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) (Fenson et al., 1994). CDI age of acquisition was negatively correlated with words' imageability ratings. Further, a word's imageability contributes to the variance of the word's age of acquisition above and beyond form class, suggesting that at the beginning of word learning, imageability might be a driving factor.

Reduplicated Words Are Easier to Learn

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ota, Mitsuhiko; Skarabela, Barbora

2016-01-01

Infants' disposition to learn repetitions in the input structure has been demonstrated in pattern generalization (e.g., learning the pattern ABB from the token "ledidi"). This study tested whether a repetition advantage can also be found in lexical learning (i.e., learning the word "lele" vs. "ledi"). Twenty-four…

Learning during Processing: Word Learning Doesn't Wait for Word Recognition to Finish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Apfelbaum, Keith S.; McMurray, Bob

2017-01-01

Previous research on associative learning has uncovered detailed aspects of the process, including what types of things are learned, how they are learned, and where in the brain such learning occurs. However, perceptual processes, such as stimulus recognition and identification, take time to unfold. Previous studies of learning have not addressed…

Sleep-dependent facilitation of episodic memory details.

PubMed

van der Helm, Els; Gujar, Ninad; Nishida, Masaki; Walker, Matthew P

2011-01-01

While a role for sleep in declarative memory processing is established, the qualitative nature of this consolidation benefit, and the physiological mechanisms mediating it, remain debated. Here, we investigate the impact of sleep physiology on characteristics of episodic memory using an item- (memory elements) and context- (contextual details associated with those elements) learning paradigm; the latter being especially dependent on the hippocampus. Following back-to-back encoding of two word lists, each associated with a different context, participants were assigned to either a Nap-group, who obtained a 120-min nap, or a No Nap-group. Six hours post-encoding, participants performed a recognition test involving item-memory and context-memory judgments. In contrast to item-memory, which demonstrated no between-group differences, a significant benefit in context-memory developed in the Nap-group, the extent of which correlated both with the amount of stage-2 NREM sleep and frontal fast sleep-spindles. Furthermore, a difference was observed on the basis of word-list order, with the sleep benefit and associated physiological correlations being selective for the second word-list, learned last (most proximal to sleep). These findings suggest that sleep may preferentially benefit contextual (hippocampal-dependent) aspects of memory, supported by sleep-spindle oscillations, and that the temporal order of initial learning differentially determines subsequent offline consolidation.

The influence of linguistic and musical experience on Cantonese word learning.

PubMed

Cooper, Angela; Wang, Yue

2012-06-01

Adult non-native speech perception is subject to influence from multiple factors, including linguistic and extralinguistic experience such as musical training. The present research examines how linguistic and musical factors influence non-native word identification and lexical tone perception. Groups of native tone language (Thai) and non-tone language listeners (English), each subdivided into musician and non-musician groups, engaged in Cantonese tone word training. Participants learned to identify words minimally distinguished by five Cantonese tones during training, also completing musical aptitude and phonemic tone identification tasks. First, the findings suggest that either musical experience or a tone language background leads to significantly better non-native word learning proficiency, as compared to those with neither musical training nor tone language experience. Moreover, the combination of tone language and musical experience did not provide an additional advantage for Thai musicians above and beyond either experience alone. Musicianship was found to be more advantageous than a tone language background for tone identification. Finally, tone identification and musical aptitude scores were significantly correlated with word learning success for English but not Thai listeners. These findings point to a dynamic influence of musical and linguistic experience, both at the tone dentification level and at the word learning stage.

The impact of music on learning and consolidation of novel words.

PubMed

Tamminen, Jakke; Rastle, Kathleen; Darby, Jess; Lucas, Rebecca; Williamson, Victoria J

2017-01-01

Music can be a powerful mnemonic device, as shown by a body of literature demonstrating that listening to text sung to a familiar melody results in better memory for the words compared to conditions where they are spoken. Furthermore, patients with a range of memory impairments appear to be able to form new declarative memories when they are encoded in the form of lyrics in a song, while unable to remember similar materials after hearing them in the spoken modality. Whether music facilitates the acquisition of completely new information, such as new vocabulary, remains unknown. Here we report three experiments in which adult participants learned novel words in the spoken or sung modality. While we found no benefit of musical presentation on free recall or recognition memory of novel words, novel words learned in the sung modality were more strongly integrated in the mental lexicon compared to words learned in the spoken modality. This advantage for the sung words was only present when the training melody was familiar. The impact of musical presentation on learning therefore appears to extend beyond episodic memory and can be reflected in the emergence and properties of new lexical representations.

An associative model of adaptive inference for learning word-referent mappings.

PubMed

Kachergis, George; Yu, Chen; Shiffrin, Richard M

2012-04-01

People can learn word-referent pairs over a short series of individually ambiguous situations containing multiple words and referents (Yu & Smith, 2007, Cognition 106: 1558-1568). Cross-situational statistical learning relies on the repeated co-occurrence of words with their intended referents, but simple co-occurrence counts cannot explain the findings. Mutual exclusivity (ME: an assumption of one-to-one mappings) can reduce ambiguity by leveraging prior experience to restrict the number of word-referent pairings considered but can also block learning of non-one-to-one mappings. The present study first trained learners on one-to-one mappings with varying numbers of repetitions. In late training, a new set of word-referent pairs were introduced alongside pretrained pairs; each pretrained pair consistently appeared with a new pair. Results indicate that (1) learners quickly infer new pairs in late training on the basis of their knowledge of pretrained pairs, exhibiting ME; and (2) learners also adaptively relax the ME bias and learn two-to-two mappings involving both pretrained and new words and objects. We present an associative model that accounts for both results using competing familiarity and uncertainty biases.

Cued recall from image and sentence memory: a shift from episodic to identical elements representation.

PubMed

Rickard, Timothy C; Bajic, Daniel

2006-07-01

The applicability of the identical elements (IE) model of arithmetic fact retrieval (T. C. Rickard, A. F. Healy, & L. E. Bourne, 1994) to cued recall from episodic (image and sentence) memory was explored in 3 transfer experiments. In agreement with results from arithmetic, speedup following even minimal practice recalling a missing word from an episodically bound word triplet did not transfer positively to other cued recall items involving the same triplet. The shape of the learning curve further supported a shift from episode-based to IE-based recall, extending some models of skill learning to cued recall practice. In contrast with previous findings, these results indicate that a form of representation that is independent of the original episodic memory underlies cued-recall performance following minimal practice. Copyright 2006 APA, all rights reserved.

Different Brain Activities Predict Retrieval Success during Emotional and Semantic Encoding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Padovani, Tullia; Koenig, Thomas; Brandeis, Daniel; Perrig, Walter J.

2011-01-01

There is an increasing line of evidence supporting the idea that the formation of lasting memories involves neural activity preceding stimulus presentation. Following this line, we presented words in an incidental learning setting and manipulated the prestimulus state by asking the participants to perform either an emotional (neutral or emotional)…

Early Intervention for Reading Difficulties: The Interactive Strategies Approach. Second Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scanlon, Donna M.; Anderson, Kimberly L.; Sweeney, Joan M.

2016-01-01

Grounded in a strong evidence base, this indispensable text and practitioner guide has given thousands of teachers tools to support the literacy growth of beginning and struggling readers in grades K-2. The interactive strategies approach (ISA) is organized around core instructional goals related to enhancing word learning and comprehension of…

Nonword Repetition, Phonological Storage, and Multiple Determinations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gupta, Prahlad

2006-01-01

The proposals that (a) nonword repetition and word learning both rely on phonological storage and (b) both are multiply determined are two of the major foci of Gathercole's (2006) Keynote Article, which marshals considerable evidence in support of each. In my view, the importance of these proposals cannot be overstated: these two notions go to the…

Word of the Day Improves and Redirects Student Attention while Supporting Vocabulary Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vesely, Pamela J.; Gryder, Nancy L.

2009-01-01

To learn and master new concepts, including the acquisition of new vocabulary, students must be able to sustain attention during direct instruction, stay focused throughout the guided practice activity, and successfully complete the independent practice assignments. Yet, difficulty with maintaining attention is a common characteristic for students…

Infant Directed Speech Enhances Statistical Learning in Newborn Infants: An ERP Study

PubMed Central

Teinonen, Tuomas; Tervaniemi, Mari; Huotilainen, Minna

2016-01-01

Statistical learning and the social contexts of language addressed to infants are hypothesized to play important roles in early language development. Previous behavioral work has found that the exaggerated prosodic contours of infant-directed speech (IDS) facilitate statistical learning in 8-month-old infants. Here we examined the neural processes involved in on-line statistical learning and investigated whether the use of IDS facilitates statistical learning in sleeping newborns. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while newborns were exposed to12 pseudo-words, six spoken with exaggerated pitch contours of IDS and six spoken without exaggerated pitch contours (ADS) in ten alternating blocks. We examined whether ERP amplitudes for syllable position within a pseudo-word (word-initial vs. word-medial vs. word-final, indicating statistical word learning) and speech register (ADS vs. IDS) would interact. The ADS and IDS registers elicited similar ERP patterns for syllable position in an early 0–100 ms component but elicited different ERP effects in both the polarity and topographical distribution at 200–400 ms and 450–650 ms. These results provide the first evidence that the exaggerated pitch contours of IDS result in differences in brain activity linked to on-line statistical learning in sleeping newborns. PMID:27617967

"I know your name, but not your number"--Patients with verbal short-term memory deficits are impaired in learning sequences of digits.

PubMed

Bormann, Tobias; Seyboth, Margret; Umarova, Roza; Weiller, Cornelius

2015-06-01

Studies on verbal learning in patients with impaired verbal short-term memory (vSTM) have revealed dissociations among types of verbal information. Patients with impaired vSTM are able to learn lists of known words but fail to acquire new word forms. This suggests that vSTM is involved in new word learning. The present study assessed both new word learning and the learning of digit sequences in two patients with impaired vSTM. In two experiments, participants were required to learn people's names, ages and professions, or their four digit 'phone numbers'. The STM patients were impaired on learning unknown family names and phone numbers, but managed to acquire other verbal information. In contrast, a patient with a severe verbal episodic memory impairment was impaired across information types. These results indicate verbal STM involvement in the learning of digit sequences. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attempting to "Increase Intake from the Input": Attention and Word Learning in Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tenenbaum, Elena J.; Amso, Dima; Righi, Giulia; Sheinkopf, Stephen J.

2017-01-01

Previous work has demonstrated that social attention is related to early language abilities. We explored whether we can facilitate word learning among children with autism by directing attention to areas of the scene that have been demonstrated as relevant for successful word learning. We tracked eye movements to faces and objects while children…

Investigating Word Learning in Fragile X Syndrome: A Fast-Mapping Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDuffie, Andrea; Kover, Sara T.; Hagerman, Randi; Abbeduto, Leonard

2013-01-01

Fast-mapping paradigms have not been used previously to examine the process of word learning in boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS), who are likely to have intellectual impairment, language delays, and symptoms of autism. In this study, a fast-mapping task was used to investigate associative word learning in 4- to 10-year-old boys with FXS relative…

Word Learning and Attention Allocation Based on Word Class and Category Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hupp, Julie M.

2015-01-01

Attention allocation in word learning may vary developmentally based on the novelty of the object. It has been suggested that children differentially learn verbs based on the novelty of the agent, but adults do not because they automatically infer the object's category and thus treat it like a familiar object. The current research examined…

Can 18-Month-Old Infants Learn Words by Listening in on Conversations?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Floor, Penelope; Akhtar, Nameera

2006-01-01

Previous research has shown that children as young as 2 can learn words from 3rd-party conversations (Akhtar, Jipson, & Callanan, 2001). The focus of this study was to determine whether younger infants could learn a new word through overhearing. Novel object labels were introduced to 18-month-old infants in 1 of 2 conditions: directly by an…

Learning-Dependent Changes of Associations between Unfamiliar Words and Perceptual Features: A 15-Day Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kambara, Toshimune; Tsukiura, Takashi; Shigemune, Yayoi; Kanno, Akitake; Nouchi, Rui; Yomogida, Yukihito; Kawashima, Ryuta

2013-01-01

This study examined behavioral changes in 15-day learning of word-picture (WP) and word-sound (WS) associations, using meaningless stimuli. Subjects performed a learning task and two recognition tasks under the WP and WS conditions every day for 15 days. Two main findings emerged from this study. First, behavioral data of recognition accuracy and…

Nonword Repetition and Vocabulary Knowledge as Predictors of Children's Phonological and Semantic Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adlof, Suzanne M.; Patten, Hannah

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study examined the unique and shared variance that nonword repetition and vocabulary knowledge contribute to children's ability to learn new words. Multiple measures of word learning were used to assess recall and recognition of phonological and semantic information. Method: Fifty children, with a mean age of 8 years (range 5-12…

Exemplar Variability Facilitates Retention of Word Learning by Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aguilar, Jessica M.; Plante, Elena; Sandoval, Michelle

2018-01-01

Purpose: Variability in the input plays an important role in language learning. The current study examined the role of object variability for new word learning by preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Eighteen 4- and 5-year-old children with SLI were taught 8 new words in 3 short activities over the course of 3 sessions.…

Adults' and 8-Year-Olds' Learning in a Foreign Word Repetition Task: Similar and Different

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Service, Elisabet; Yli-Kaitala, Hely; Maury, Sini; Kim, Jeong-Young

2014-01-01

Although the significance of age in second language acquisition is one of the most hotly debated issues in the field, very few studies have directly addressed age differences in the language learning process. The present study investigated learning in a foreign-word repetition task. Young Finnish adults and 8-year-olds repeated back Korean words.…

Third-Party Social Interaction and Word Learning from Video

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Doherty, Katherine; Troseth, Georgene L.; Shimpi, Priya M.; Goldenberg, Elizabeth; Akhtar, Nameera; Saylor, Megan M.

2011-01-01

In previous studies, very young children have learned words while "overhearing" a conversation, yet they have had trouble learning words from a person on video. In Study 1, 64 toddlers (mean age = 29.8 months) viewed an object-labeling demonstration in 1 of 4 conditions. In 2, the speaker (present or on video) directly addressed the child, and in…

Comparing the Effects of Unknown-Known Ratios on Word Reading Learning versus Learning Rates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joseph, Laurice M.; Nist, Lindsay M.

2006-01-01

An extension of G. L. Cates et al. (2003) investigation was conducted to determine if students' cumulative learning rates would be superior for words read under a traditional drill and practice condition (as they were for spelling in the previous study) than under interspersal conditions of varying ratios of unknown to known words. Participants…

Reinforcement and inference in cross-situational word learning.

PubMed

Tilles, Paulo F C; Fontanari, José F

2013-01-01

Cross-situational word learning is based on the notion that a learner can determine the referent of a word by finding something in common across many observed uses of that word. Here we propose an adaptive learning algorithm that contains a parameter that controls the strength of the reinforcement applied to associations between concurrent words and referents, and a parameter that regulates inference, which includes built-in biases, such as mutual exclusivity, and information of past learning events. By adjusting these parameters so that the model predictions agree with data from representative experiments on cross-situational word learning, we were able to explain the learning strategies adopted by the participants of those experiments in terms of a trade-off between reinforcement and inference. These strategies can vary wildly depending on the conditions of the experiments. For instance, for fast mapping experiments (i.e., the correct referent could, in principle, be inferred in a single observation) inference is prevalent, whereas for segregated contextual diversity experiments (i.e., the referents are separated in groups and are exhibited with members of their groups only) reinforcement is predominant. Other experiments are explained with more balanced doses of reinforcement and inference.

Bootstrapping language acquisition.

PubMed

Abend, Omri; Kwiatkowski, Tom; Smith, Nathaniel J; Goldwater, Sharon; Steedman, Mark

2017-07-01

The semantic bootstrapping hypothesis proposes that children acquire their native language through exposure to sentences of the language paired with structured representations of their meaning, whose component substructures can be associated with words and syntactic structures used to express these concepts. The child's task is then to learn a language-specific grammar and lexicon based on (probably contextually ambiguous, possibly somewhat noisy) pairs of sentences and their meaning representations (logical forms). Starting from these assumptions, we develop a Bayesian probabilistic account of semantically bootstrapped first-language acquisition in the child, based on techniques from computational parsing and interpretation of unrestricted text. Our learner jointly models (a) word learning: the mapping between components of the given sentential meaning and lexical words (or phrases) of the language, and (b) syntax learning: the projection of lexical elements onto sentences by universal construction-free syntactic rules. Using an incremental learning algorithm, we apply the model to a dataset of real syntactically complex child-directed utterances and (pseudo) logical forms, the latter including contextually plausible but irrelevant distractors. Taking the Eve section of the CHILDES corpus as input, the model simulates several well-documented phenomena from the developmental literature. In particular, the model exhibits syntactic bootstrapping effects (in which previously learned constructions facilitate the learning of novel words), sudden jumps in learning without explicit parameter setting, acceleration of word-learning (the "vocabulary spurt"), an initial bias favoring the learning of nouns over verbs, and one-shot learning of words and their meanings. The learner thus demonstrates how statistical learning over structured representations can provide a unified account for these seemingly disparate phenomena. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of Opportunities for Word Retrieval during Second Language Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barcroft, Joe

2007-01-01

Research suggests that memory for an item improves when one is allowed to retrieve the item (Slamecka & Graf, 1978). This study explored benefits of providing opportunities for target-word retrieval during second language vocabulary learning. English speakers studied new Spanish words while viewing 24 word-picture pairs. They first viewed all 24…

Learning Rates and Known-to-Unknown Flash-Card Ratios: Comparing Effectiveness While Holding Instructional Time Constant

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forbes, Bethany E.; Skinner, Christopher H.; Black, Michelle P.; Yaw, Jared; Booher, Joshua; Delisle, Jean

2013-01-01

Using alternating treatments designs, we compared learning rates across 2 computer-based flash-card interventions (3?min each): a traditional drill intervention with 15 unknown words and an interspersal intervention with 12 known words and 3 unknown words. Each student acquired more words under the traditional drill intervention. Discussion…

Novel Word Retention in Sequential Bilingual Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kan, Pui Fong

2014-01-01

Children's ability to learn and retain new words is fundamental to their vocabulary development. This study examined word retention in children learning a home language (L1) from birth and a second language (L2) in preschool settings. Participants were presented with sixteen novel words in L1 and in L2 and were tested for retention after…

Object Permanence and Relational Words: A Lexical Training Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomasello, Michael; Farrar, Michael Jeffrey

1986-01-01

Describes a lexical training program developed to teach object, visible movement, and invisible movement words to children at stage 5 (N=7) and stage 6 (N=16) object permanence development. Stage 6 children learned all three types of words equally well, while stage 5 children learned object and visible movement but not invisible movement words.…

Development of First-Graders' Word Reading Skills: For Whom Can Dynamic Assessment Tell Us More?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cho, Eunsoo; Compton, Donald L.; Gilbert, Jennifer K.; Steacy, Laura M.; Collins, Alyson A.; Lindström, Esther R.

2017-01-01

Dynamic assessment (DA) of word reading measures learning potential for early reading development by documenting the amount of assistance needed to learn how to read words with unfamiliar orthography. We examined the additive value of DA for predicting first-grade decoding and word recognition development while controlling for autoregressive…

When is four far more than three? Children's generalization of newly acquired number words.

PubMed

Huang, Yi Ting; Spelke, Elizabeth; Snedeker, Jesse

2010-04-01

What is the relationship between children's first number words and number concepts? We used training tasks to explore children's interpretation of number words as they acquired the words' meanings. Children who had mastered the meanings of only the first two or three number words were systematically provided with varied input on the next word-to-quantity mapping, and their extension of the newly trained word was assessed across a variety of test items. Children who had already mastered number words to three generalized training on four to new objects and nouns, such that their representation of the newly learned number was approximate. In contrast, children who had mastered only one and two learned to apply three reliably within a single count-noun context (e.g., three dogs), but did not generalize training to new objects labeled with different nouns (e.g., three cows). Both findings suggest that children fail to map newly learned words in their counting routine to the fully abstract concepts of natural numbers.

Realization of Chinese word segmentation based on deep learning method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Xuefei; Wang, Mingjiang; Zhang, Qiquan

2017-08-01

In recent years, with the rapid development of deep learning, it has been widely used in the field of natural language processing. In this paper, I use the method of deep learning to achieve Chinese word segmentation, with large-scale corpus, eliminating the need to construct additional manual characteristics. In the process of Chinese word segmentation, the first step is to deal with the corpus, use word2vec to get word embedding of the corpus, each character is 50. After the word is embedded, the word embedding feature is fed to the bidirectional LSTM, add a linear layer to the hidden layer of the output, and then add a CRF to get the model implemented in this paper. Experimental results show that the method used in the 2014 People's Daily corpus to achieve a satisfactory accuracy.

Acquisition of English word stress patterns in early and late bilinguals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guion, Susan G.

2004-05-01

Given early acquisition of prosodic knowledge as demonstrated by infants' sensitivity to native language accentual patterns, the question of whether learners can acquire new prosodic patterns across the life span arises. Acquisition of English stress by early and late Spanish-English and Korean-English bilinguals was investigated. In a production task, two-syllable nonwords were produced in noun and verb sentence frames. In a perception task, preference for first or last syllable stress on the nonwords was indicated. Also, real words that were phonologically similar to the nonwords were collected. Logistic regression analyses and ANOVAs were conducted to determine the effect of three factors (syllable structure, lexical class, and stress patterns of phonologically similar words) on the production and perception responses. In all three groups, stress patterns of phonologically similar real words predicted stress on nonwords. For the two other factors, early bilinguals patterned similarly to the native-English participants. Late Spanish-English bilinguals demonstrated less learning of stress patterns based on syllabic structure, and late Korean-English bilinguals demonstrated less learning of stress patterns based on lexical class than native-English speakers. Thus, compared to native speakers, late bilinguals' ability to abstract stress patterns is reduced and affected by the first language. [Work supported by NIH.

Bedding down new words: Sleep promotes the emergence of lexical competition in visual word recognition.

PubMed

Wang, Hua-Chen; Savage, Greg; Gaskell, M Gareth; Paulin, Tamara; Robidoux, Serje; Castles, Anne

2017-08-01

Lexical competition processes are widely viewed as the hallmark of visual word recognition, but little is known about the factors that promote their emergence. This study examined for the first time whether sleep may play a role in inducing these effects. A group of 27 participants learned novel written words, such as banara, at 8 am and were tested on their learning at 8 pm the same day (AM group), while 29 participants learned the words at 8 pm and were tested at 8 am the following day (PM group). Both groups were retested after 24 hours. Using a semantic categorization task, we showed that lexical competition effects, as indexed by slowed responses to existing neighbor words such as banana, emerged 12 h later in the PM group who had slept after learning but not in the AM group. After 24 h the competition effects were evident in both groups. These findings have important implications for theories of orthographic learning and broader neurobiological models of memory consolidation.

Children and adolescents' performance on a medium-length/nonsemantic word-list test.

PubMed

Flores-Lázaro, Julio César; Salgado Soruco, María Alejandra; Stepanov, Igor I

2017-01-01

Word-list learning tasks are among the most important and frequently used tests for declarative memory evaluation. For example, the California Verbal Learning Test-Children's Version (CVLT-C) and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test provide important information about different cognitive-neuropsychological processes. However, the impact of test length (i.e., number of words) and semantic organization (i.e., type of words) on children's and adolescents' memory performance remains to be clarified, especially during this developmental stage. To explore whether a medium-length non-semantically organized test can produce the typical curvilinear performance that semantically organized tests produce, reflecting executive control, we studied and compared the cognitive performance of normal children and adolescents by utilizing mathematical modeling. The model is based on the first-order system transfer function and has been successfully applied to learning curves for the CVLT-C (15 words, semantically organized paradigm). Results indicate that learning nine semantically unrelated words produces typical curvilinear (executive function) performance in children and younger adolescents and that performance could be effectively analyzed with the mathematical model. This indicates that the exponential increase (curvilinear performance) of correctly learned words does not solely depend on semantic and/or length features. This type of test controls semantic and length effects and may represent complementary tools for executive function evaluation in clinical populations in which semantic and/or length processing are affected.

Cognitive flexibility predicts early reading skills

PubMed Central

Colé, Pascale; Duncan, Lynne G.; Blaye, Agnès

2014-01-01

An important aspect of learning to read is efficiency in accessing different kinds of linguistic information (orthographic, phonological, and semantic) about written words. The present study investigates whether, in addition to the integrity of such linguistic skills, early progress in reading may require a degree of cognitive flexibility in order to manage the coordination of this information effectively. Our study will look for evidence of a link between flexibility and both word reading and passage reading comprehension, and examine whether any such link involves domain-general or reading-specific flexibility. As the only previous support for a predictive relationship between flexibility and early reading comes from studies of reading comprehension in the opaque English orthography, another possibility is that this relationship may be largely orthography-dependent, only coming into play when mappings between representations are complex and polyvalent. To investigate these questions, 60 second-graders learning to read the more transparent French orthography were presented with two multiple classification tasks involving reading-specific cognitive flexibility (based on words) and non-specific flexibility (based on pictures). Reading skills were assessed by word reading, pseudo-word decoding, and passage reading comprehension measures. Flexibility was found to contribute significant unique variance to passage reading comprehension even in the less opaque French orthography. More interestingly, the data also show that flexibility is critical in accounting for one of the core components of reading comprehension, namely, the reading of words in isolation. Finally, the results constrain the debate over whether flexibility has to be reading-specific to be critically involved in reading. PMID:24966842

The Relationships among Verbal Short-Term Memory, Phonological Awareness, and New Word Learning: Evidence from Typical Development and Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jarrold, Christopher; Thorn, Annabel S. C.; Stephens, Emma

2009-01-01

This study examined the correlates of new word learning in a sample of 64 typically developing children between 5 and 8 years of age and a group of 22 teenagers and young adults with Down syndrome. Verbal short-term memory and phonological awareness skills were assessed to determine whether learning new words involved accurately representing…

Young Children's Use of Contrast in Word Learning: The Case of Proper Names

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, D. Geoffrey; Rhemtulla, Mijke

2014-01-01

Recent research has established that contrast can exert a powerful effect on early word learning. This study examined the role of contrast in young children's ability to learn proper names. Preschoolers heard a novel word for an unfamiliar stuffed animal in the presence of a second stuffed animal of either the same or a different kind.…

A Neurocomputational Account of Taxonomic Responding and Fast Mapping in Early Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mayor, Julien; Plunkett, Kim

2010-01-01

We present a neurocomputational model with self-organizing maps that accounts for the emergence of taxonomic responding and fast mapping in early word learning, as well as a rapid increase in the rate of acquisition of words observed in late infancy. The quality and efficiency of generalization of word-object associations is directly related to…

Does Knowing What a Word Means Influence How Easily Its Decoding Is Learned?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michaud, Mélissa; Dion, Eric; Barrette, Anne; Dupéré, Véronique; Toste, Jessica

2017-01-01

Theoretical models of word recognition suggest that knowing what a word means makes it easier to learn how to decode it. We tested this hypothesis with at-risk young students, a group that often responds poorly to conventional decoding instruction in which word meaning is not addressed systematically. A total of 53 first graders received explicit…

A Dynamic Systems Account of Learning a Word: From Ecology to Form Relations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Churchill, Eton

2008-01-01

This paper responds to calls for studies that investigate multiple types of word knowledge and the processes of word learning. Focusing on a single word, this three-month diary study describes the micro-development of an adult male's Japanese L2 lexical knowledge. In contrast to most L2 vocabulary acquisition studies, this study posits a dynamic…

Examining the Conditions of Using an On-Line Dictionary to Learn Words and Comprehend Texts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dilenschneider, Robert Francis

2018-01-01

This study investigated three look-up conditions for language learners to learn unknown target words and comprehend a reading passage when their attention is transferred away to an on-line dictionary. The research questions focused on how each look-up condition impacted the recall and recognition of word forms, word meanings, and passage…

Rapid Learning of Syllable Classes from a Perceptually Continuous Speech Stream

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Endress, Ansgar D.; Bonatti, Luca L.

2007-01-01

To learn a language, speakers must learn its words and rules from fluent speech; in particular, they must learn dependencies among linguistic classes. We show that when familiarized with a short artificial, subliminally bracketed stream, participants can learn relations about the structure of its words, which specify the classes of syllables…

Emotional Mood as a Context for Learning and Recall.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bower, Gordon H.; And Others

1978-01-01

In experiments where hypnotized subjects learned one word list while happy or sad, retention proved to be surprisingly independent of the congruence of learning and testing moods. Learning mood provided a helpful retrieval cue and differentiating context only where subjects learned two word lists, one while happy, one while sad. (EJS)

Small-Group Technology-Assisted Instruction: Virtual Teacher and Robot Peer for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Saadatzi, Mohammad Nasser; Pennington, Robert C; Welch, Karla C; Graham, James H

2018-06-20

The authors combined virtual reality technology and social robotics to develop a tutoring system that resembled a small-group arrangement. This tutoring system featured a virtual teacher instructing sight words, and included a humanoid robot emulating a peer. The authors used a multiple-probe design across word sets to evaluate the effects of the instructional package on the explicit acquisition and vicarious learning of sight words instructed to three children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the robot peer. Results indicated that participants acquired, maintained, and generalized 100% of the words explicitly instructed to them, made fewer errors while learning the words common between them and the robot peer, and vicariously learned 94% of the words solely instructed to the robot.