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

Speculation detection for Chinese clinical notes: Impacts of word segmentation and embedding models.

PubMed

Zhang, Shaodian; Kang, Tian; Zhang, Xingting; Wen, Dong; Elhadad, Noémie; Lei, Jianbo

2016-04-01

Speculations represent uncertainty toward certain facts. In clinical texts, identifying speculations is a critical step of natural language processing (NLP). While it is a nontrivial task in many languages, detecting speculations in Chinese clinical notes can be particularly challenging because word segmentation may be necessary as an upstream operation. The objective of this paper is to construct a state-of-the-art speculation detection system for Chinese clinical notes and to investigate whether embedding features and word segmentations are worth exploiting toward this overall task. We propose a sequence labeling based system for speculation detection, which relies on features from bag of characters, bag of words, character embedding, and word embedding. We experiment on a novel dataset of 36,828 clinical notes with 5103 gold-standard speculation annotations on 2000 notes, and compare the systems in which word embeddings are calculated based on word segmentations given by general and by domain specific segmenters respectively. Our systems are able to reach performance as high as 92.2% measured by F score. We demonstrate that word segmentation is critical to produce high quality word embedding to facilitate downstream information extraction applications, and suggest that a domain dependent word segmenter can be vital to such a clinical NLP task in Chinese language. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Infants' Segmentation of Words from Native Speech: A Meta-Analytic Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bergmann, Christina; Cristia, Alejandrina

2016-01-01

Infants start learning words, the building blocks of language, at least by 6 months. To do so, they must be able to extract the phonological form of words from running speech. A rich literature has investigated this process, termed word segmentation. We addressed the fundamental question of how infants of different ages segment words from their…

Sixteen-Month-Old Infants' Segment Words from Infant- and Adult-Directed Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mani, Nivedita; Pätzold, Wiebke

2016-01-01

One of the first challenges facing the young language learner is the task of segmenting words from a natural language speech stream, without prior knowledge of how these words sound. Studies with younger children find that children find it easier to segment words from fluent speech when the words are presented in infant-directed speech, i.e., the…

Phonotactics, Neighborhood Activation, and Lexical Access for Spoken Words

PubMed Central

Vitevitch, Michael S.; Luce, Paul A.; Pisoni, David B.; Auer, Edward T.

2012-01-01

Probabilistic phonotactics refers to the relative frequencies of segments and sequences of segments in spoken words. Neighborhood density refers to the number of words that are phonologically similar to a given word. Despite a positive correlation between phonotactic probability and neighborhood density, nonsense words with high probability segments and sequences are responded to more quickly than nonsense words with low probability segments and sequences, whereas real words occurring in dense similarity neighborhoods are responded to more slowly than real words occurring in sparse similarity neighborhoods. This contradiction may be resolved by hypothesizing that effects of probabilistic phonotactics have a sublexical focus and that effects of similarity neighborhood density have a lexical focus. The implications of this hypothesis for models of spoken word recognition are discussed. PMID:10433774

The Edge Factor in Early Word Segmentation: Utterance-Level Prosody Enables Word Form Extraction by 6-Month-Olds

PubMed Central

Johnson, Elizabeth K.; Seidl, Amanda; Tyler, Michael D.

2014-01-01

Past research has shown that English learners begin segmenting words from speech by 7.5 months of age. However, more recent research has begun to show that, in some situations, infants may exhibit rudimentary segmentation capabilities at an earlier age. Here, we report on four perceptual experiments and a corpus analysis further investigating the initial emergence of segmentation capabilities. In Experiments 1 and 2, 6-month-olds were familiarized with passages containing target words located either utterance medially or at utterance edges. Only those infants familiarized with passages containing target words aligned with utterance edges exhibited evidence of segmentation. In Experiments 3 and 4, 6-month-olds recognized familiarized words when they were presented in a new acoustically distinct voice (male rather than female), but not when they were presented in a phonologically altered manner (missing the initial segment). Finally, we report corpus analyses examining how often different word types occur at utterance boundaries in different registers. Our findings suggest that edge-aligned words likely play a key role in infants’ early segmentation attempts, and also converge with recent reports suggesting that 6-month-olds’ have already started building a rudimentary lexicon. PMID:24421892

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…

How African American English-Speaking First Graders Segment and Rhyme Words and Nonwords With Final Consonant Clusters.

PubMed

Shollenbarger, Amy J; Robinson, Gregory C; Taran, Valentina; Choi, Seo-Eun

2017-10-05

This study explored how typically developing 1st grade African American English (AAE) speakers differ from mainstream American English (MAE) speakers in the completion of 2 common phonological awareness tasks (rhyming and phoneme segmentation) when the stimulus items were consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant (CVCC) words and nonwords. Forty-nine 1st graders met criteria for 2 dialect groups: AAE and MAE. Three conditions were tested in each rhyme and segmentation task: Real Words No Model, Real Words With a Model, and Nonwords With a Model. The AAE group had significantly more responses that rhymed CVCC words with consonant-vowel-consonant words and segmented CVCC words as consonant-vowel-consonant than the MAE group across all experimental conditions. In the rhyming task, the presence of a model in the real word condition elicited more reduced final cluster responses for both groups. In the segmentation task, the MAE group was at ceiling, so only the AAE group changed across the different stimulus presentations and reduced the final cluster less often when given a model. Rhyming and phoneme segmentation performance can be influenced by a child's dialect when CVCC words are used.

Handwritten Word Recognition Using Multi-view Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Oliveira, J. J.; de A. Freitas, C. O.; de Carvalho, J. M.; Sabourin, R.

This paper brings a contribution to the problem of efficiently recognizing handwritten words from a limited size lexicon. For that, a multiple classifier system has been developed that analyzes the words from three different approximation levels, in order to get a computational approach inspired on the human reading process. For each approximation level a three-module architecture composed of a zoning mechanism (pseudo-segmenter), a feature extractor and a classifier is defined. The proposed application is the recognition of the Portuguese handwritten names of the months, for which a best recognition rate of 97.7% was obtained, using classifier combination.

Segmenting words from natural speech: subsegmental variation in segmental cues.

PubMed

Rytting, C Anton; Brew, Chris; Fosler-Lussier, Eric

2010-06-01

Most computational models of word segmentation are trained and tested on transcripts of speech, rather than the speech itself, and assume that speech is converted into a sequence of symbols prior to word segmentation. We present a way of representing speech corpora that avoids this assumption, and preserves acoustic variation present in speech. We use this new representation to re-evaluate a key computational model of word segmentation. One finding is that high levels of phonetic variability degrade the model's performance. While robustness to phonetic variability may be intrinsically valuable, this finding needs to be complemented by parallel studies of the actual abilities of children to segment phonetically variable speech.

Event Recognition Based on Deep Learning in Chinese Texts

PubMed Central

Zhang, Yajun; Liu, Zongtian; Zhou, Wen

2016-01-01

Event recognition is the most fundamental and critical task in event-based natural language processing systems. Existing event recognition methods based on rules and shallow neural networks have certain limitations. For example, extracting features using methods based on rules is difficult; methods based on shallow neural networks converge too quickly to a local minimum, resulting in low recognition precision. To address these problems, we propose the Chinese emergency event recognition model based on deep learning (CEERM). Firstly, we use a word segmentation system to segment sentences. According to event elements labeled in the CEC 2.0 corpus, we classify words into five categories: trigger words, participants, objects, time and location. Each word is vectorized according to the following six feature layers: part of speech, dependency grammar, length, location, distance between trigger word and core word and trigger word frequency. We obtain deep semantic features of words by training a feature vector set using a deep belief network (DBN), then analyze those features in order to identify trigger words by means of a back propagation neural network. Extensive testing shows that the CEERM achieves excellent recognition performance, with a maximum F-measure value of 85.17%. Moreover, we propose the dynamic-supervised DBN, which adds supervised fine-tuning to a restricted Boltzmann machine layer by monitoring its training performance. Test analysis reveals that the new DBN improves recognition performance and effectively controls the training time. Although the F-measure increases to 88.11%, the training time increases by only 25.35%. PMID:27501231

Event Recognition Based on Deep Learning in Chinese Texts.

PubMed

Zhang, Yajun; Liu, Zongtian; Zhou, Wen

2016-01-01

Event recognition is the most fundamental and critical task in event-based natural language processing systems. Existing event recognition methods based on rules and shallow neural networks have certain limitations. For example, extracting features using methods based on rules is difficult; methods based on shallow neural networks converge too quickly to a local minimum, resulting in low recognition precision. To address these problems, we propose the Chinese emergency event recognition model based on deep learning (CEERM). Firstly, we use a word segmentation system to segment sentences. According to event elements labeled in the CEC 2.0 corpus, we classify words into five categories: trigger words, participants, objects, time and location. Each word is vectorized according to the following six feature layers: part of speech, dependency grammar, length, location, distance between trigger word and core word and trigger word frequency. We obtain deep semantic features of words by training a feature vector set using a deep belief network (DBN), then analyze those features in order to identify trigger words by means of a back propagation neural network. Extensive testing shows that the CEERM achieves excellent recognition performance, with a maximum F-measure value of 85.17%. Moreover, we propose the dynamic-supervised DBN, which adds supervised fine-tuning to a restricted Boltzmann machine layer by monitoring its training performance. Test analysis reveals that the new DBN improves recognition performance and effectively controls the training time. Although the F-measure increases to 88.11%, the training time increases by only 25.35%.

ASM Based Synthesis of Handwritten Arabic Text Pages

PubMed Central

Al-Hamadi, Ayoub; Elzobi, Moftah; El-etriby, Sherif; Ghoneim, Ahmed

2015-01-01

Document analysis tasks, as text recognition, word spotting, or segmentation, are highly dependent on comprehensive and suitable databases for training and validation. However their generation is expensive in sense of labor and time. As a matter of fact, there is a lack of such databases, which complicates research and development. This is especially true for the case of Arabic handwriting recognition, that involves different preprocessing, segmentation, and recognition methods, which have individual demands on samples and ground truth. To bypass this problem, we present an efficient system that automatically turns Arabic Unicode text into synthetic images of handwritten documents and detailed ground truth. Active Shape Models (ASMs) based on 28046 online samples were used for character synthesis and statistical properties were extracted from the IESK-arDB database to simulate baselines and word slant or skew. In the synthesis step ASM based representations are composed to words and text pages, smoothed by B-Spline interpolation and rendered considering writing speed and pen characteristics. Finally, we use the synthetic data to validate a segmentation method. An experimental comparison with the IESK-arDB database encourages to train and test document analysis related methods on synthetic samples, whenever no sufficient natural ground truthed data is available. PMID:26295059

ASM Based Synthesis of Handwritten Arabic Text Pages.

PubMed

Dinges, Laslo; Al-Hamadi, Ayoub; Elzobi, Moftah; El-Etriby, Sherif; Ghoneim, Ahmed

2015-01-01

Document analysis tasks, as text recognition, word spotting, or segmentation, are highly dependent on comprehensive and suitable databases for training and validation. However their generation is expensive in sense of labor and time. As a matter of fact, there is a lack of such databases, which complicates research and development. This is especially true for the case of Arabic handwriting recognition, that involves different preprocessing, segmentation, and recognition methods, which have individual demands on samples and ground truth. To bypass this problem, we present an efficient system that automatically turns Arabic Unicode text into synthetic images of handwritten documents and detailed ground truth. Active Shape Models (ASMs) based on 28046 online samples were used for character synthesis and statistical properties were extracted from the IESK-arDB database to simulate baselines and word slant or skew. In the synthesis step ASM based representations are composed to words and text pages, smoothed by B-Spline interpolation and rendered considering writing speed and pen characteristics. Finally, we use the synthetic data to validate a segmentation method. An experimental comparison with the IESK-arDB database encourages to train and test document analysis related methods on synthetic samples, whenever no sufficient natural ground truthed data is available.

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.

Orthographic Transparency Enhances Morphological Segmentation in Children Reading Hebrew Words.

PubMed

Haddad, Laurice; Weiss, Yael; Katzir, Tami; Bitan, Tali

2017-01-01

Morphological processing of derived words develops simultaneously with reading acquisition. However, the reader's engagement in morphological segmentation may depend on the language morphological richness and orthographic transparency, and the readers' reading skills. The current study tested the common idea that morphological segmentation is enhanced in non-transparent orthographies to compensate for the absence of phonological information. Hebrew's rich morphology and the dual version of the Hebrew script (with and without diacritic marks) provides an opportunity to study the interaction of orthographic transparency and morphological segmentation on the development of reading skills in a within-language design. Hebrew speaking 2nd ( N = 27) and 5th ( N = 29) grade children read aloud 96 noun words. Half of the words were simple mono-morphemic words and half were bi-morphemic derivations composed of a productive root and a morphemic pattern. In each list half of the words were presented in the transparent version of the script (with diacritic marks), and half in the non-transparent version (without diacritic marks). Our results show that in both groups, derived bi-morphemic words were identified more accurately than mono-morphemic words, but only for the transparent, pointed, script. For the un-pointed script the reverse was found, namely, that bi-morphemic words were read less accurately than mono-morphemic words, especially in second grade. Second grade children also read mono-morphemic words faster than bi-morphemic words. Finally, correlations with a standardized measure of morphological awareness were found only for second grade children, and only in bi-morphemic words. These results, showing greater morphological effects in second grade compared to fifth grade children suggest that for children raised in a language with a rich morphology, common and easily segmented morphemic units may be more beneficial for younger compared to older readers. Moreover, in contrast to the common hypothesis, our results show that morphemic segmentation does not compensate for the missing phonological information in a non-transparent orthography, but rather that morphological segmentation is most beneficial in the highly transparent script. These results are consistent with the idea that morphological and phonological segmentation processes occur simultaneously and do not constitute alternative pathways to visual word recognition.

Orthographic Transparency Enhances Morphological Segmentation in Children Reading Hebrew Words

PubMed Central

Haddad, Laurice; Weiss, Yael; Katzir, Tami; Bitan, Tali

2018-01-01

Morphological processing of derived words develops simultaneously with reading acquisition. However, the reader’s engagement in morphological segmentation may depend on the language morphological richness and orthographic transparency, and the readers’ reading skills. The current study tested the common idea that morphological segmentation is enhanced in non-transparent orthographies to compensate for the absence of phonological information. Hebrew’s rich morphology and the dual version of the Hebrew script (with and without diacritic marks) provides an opportunity to study the interaction of orthographic transparency and morphological segmentation on the development of reading skills in a within-language design. Hebrew speaking 2nd (N = 27) and 5th (N = 29) grade children read aloud 96 noun words. Half of the words were simple mono-morphemic words and half were bi-morphemic derivations composed of a productive root and a morphemic pattern. In each list half of the words were presented in the transparent version of the script (with diacritic marks), and half in the non-transparent version (without diacritic marks). Our results show that in both groups, derived bi-morphemic words were identified more accurately than mono-morphemic words, but only for the transparent, pointed, script. For the un-pointed script the reverse was found, namely, that bi-morphemic words were read less accurately than mono-morphemic words, especially in second grade. Second grade children also read mono-morphemic words faster than bi-morphemic words. Finally, correlations with a standardized measure of morphological awareness were found only for second grade children, and only in bi-morphemic words. These results, showing greater morphological effects in second grade compared to fifth grade children suggest that for children raised in a language with a rich morphology, common and easily segmented morphemic units may be more beneficial for younger compared to older readers. Moreover, in contrast to the common hypothesis, our results show that morphemic segmentation does not compensate for the missing phonological information in a non-transparent orthography, but rather that morphological segmentation is most beneficial in the highly transparent script. These results are consistent with the idea that morphological and phonological segmentation processes occur simultaneously and do not constitute alternative pathways to visual word recognition. PMID:29403413

Time course of syllabic and sub-syllabic processing in Mandarin word production: Evidence from the picture-word interference paradigm.

PubMed

Wang, Jie; Wong, Andus Wing-Kuen; Chen, Hsuan-Chih

2017-06-05

The time course of phonological encoding in Mandarin monosyllabic word production was investigated by using the picture-word interference paradigm. Participants were asked to name pictures in Mandarin while visual distractor words were presented before, at, or after picture onset (i.e., stimulus-onset asynchrony/SOA = -100, 0, or +100 ms, respectively). Compared with the unrelated control, the distractors sharing atonal syllables with the picture names significantly facilitated the naming responses at -100- and 0-ms SOAs. In addition, the facilitation effect of sharing word-initial segments only appeared at 0-ms SOA, and null effects were found for sharing word-final segments. These results indicate that both syllables and subsyllabic units play important roles in Mandarin spoken word production and more critically that syllabic processing precedes subsyllabic processing. The current results lend strong support to the proximate units principle (O'Seaghdha, Chen, & Chen, 2010), which holds that the phonological structure of spoken word production is language-specific and that atonal syllables are the proximate phonological units in Mandarin Chinese. On the other hand, the significance of word-initial segments over word-final segments suggests that serial processing of segmental information seems to be universal across Germanic languages and Chinese, which remains to be verified in future studies.

Words and possible words in early language acquisition.

PubMed

Marchetto, Erika; Bonatti, Luca L

2013-11-01

In order to acquire language, infants must extract its building blocks-words-and master the rules governing their legal combinations from speech. These two problems are not independent, however: words also have internal structure. Thus, infants must extract two kinds of information from the same speech input. They must find the actual words of their language. Furthermore, they must identify its possible words, that is, the sequences of sounds that, being morphologically well formed, could be words. Here, we show that infants' sensitivity to possible words appears to be more primitive and fundamental than their ability to find actual words. We expose 12- and 18-month-old infants to an artificial language containing a conflict between statistically coherent and structurally coherent items. We show that 18-month-olds can extract possible words when the familiarization stream contains marks of segmentation, but cannot do so when the stream is continuous. Yet, they can find actual words from a continuous stream by computing statistical relationships among syllables. By contrast, 12-month-olds can find possible words when familiarized with a segmented stream, but seem unable to extract statistically coherent items from a continuous stream that contains minimal conflicts between statistical and structural information. These results suggest that sensitivity to word structure is in place earlier than the ability to analyze distributional information. The ability to compute nontrivial statistical relationships becomes fully effective relatively late in development, when infants have already acquired a considerable amount of linguistic knowledge. Thus, mechanisms for structure extraction that do not rely on extensive sampling of the input are likely to have a much larger role in language acquisition than general-purpose statistical abilities. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Unconventional Word Segmentation in Emerging Bilingual Students' Writing: A Longitudinal Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparrow, Wendy

2014-01-01

This study explores cross-language and longitudinal patterns in unconventional word segmentation in 25 emerging bilingual students' (Spanish/English) writing from first through third grade. Spanish and English writing samples were collected annually and analyzed for two basic types of unconventional word segmentation: hyposegmentation, in…

Flexibility in Statistical Word Segmentation: Finding Words in Foreign Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graf Estes, Katharine; Gluck, Stephanie Chen-Wu; Bastos, Carolina

2015-01-01

The present experiments investigated the flexibility of statistical word segmentation. There is ample evidence that infants can use statistical cues (e.g., syllable transitional probabilities) to segment fluent speech. However, it is unclear how effectively infants track these patterns in unfamiliar phonological systems. We examined whether…

Word segmentation by alternating colors facilitates eye guidance in Chinese reading.

PubMed

Zhou, Wei; Wang, Aiping; Shu, Hua; Kliegl, Reinhold; Yan, Ming

2018-02-12

During sentence reading, low spatial frequency information afforded by spaces between words is the primary factor for eye guidance in spaced writing systems, whereas saccade generation for unspaced writing systems is less clear and under debate. In the present study, we investigated whether word-boundary information, provided by alternating colors (consistent or inconsistent with word-boundary information) influences saccade-target selection in Chinese. In Experiment 1, as compared to a baseline (i.e., uniform color) condition, word segmentation with alternating color shifted fixation location towards the center of words. In contrast, incorrect word segmentation shifted fixation location towards the beginning of words. In Experiment 2, we used a gaze-contingent paradigm to restrict the color manipulation only to the upcoming parafoveal words and replicated the results, including fixation location effects, as observed in Experiment 1. These results indicate that Chinese readers are capable of making use of parafoveal word-boundary knowledge for saccade generation, even if such information is unfamiliar to them. The present study provides novel support for the hypothesis that word segmentation is involved in the decision about where to fixate next during Chinese reading.

Pauses and Intonational Phrasing: ERP Studies in 5-Month-Old German Infants and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mannel, Claudia; Friederici, Angela D.

2009-01-01

In language learning, infants are faced with the challenge of decomposing continuous speech into relevant units, such as syntactic clauses and words. Within the framework of prosodic bootstrapping, behavioral studies suggest infants approach this segmentation problem by relying on prosodic information, especially on acoustically marked…

Word-Form Familiarity Bootstraps Infant Speech Segmentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altvater-Mackensen, Nicole; Mani, Nivedita

2013-01-01

At about 7 months of age, infants listen longer to sentences containing familiar words--but not deviant pronunciations of familiar words (Jusczyk & Aslin, 1995). This finding suggests that infants are able to segment familiar words from fluent speech and that they store words in sufficient phonological detail to recognize deviations from a…

Infant Word Segmentation Revisited: Edge Alignment Facilitates Target Extraction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seidl, Amanda; Johnson, Elizabeth K.

2006-01-01

In a landmark study, Jusczyk and Aslin (1995 ) demonstrated that English-learning infants are able to segment words from continuous speech at 7.5 months of age. In the current study, we explored the possibility that infants segment words from the edges of utterances more readily than the middle of utterances. The same procedure was used as in…

The Roles of Tonal and Segmental Information in Mandarin Spoken Word Recognition: An Eyetracking Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malins, Jeffrey G.; Joanisse, Marc F.

2010-01-01

We used eyetracking to examine how tonal versus segmental information influence spoken word recognition in Mandarin Chinese. Participants heard an auditory word and were required to identify its corresponding picture from an array that included the target item ("chuang2" "bed"), a phonological competitor (segmental: chuang1 "window"; cohort:…

Modelling acquired dyslexia: a software tool for developing grapheme-phoneme correspondences.

PubMed Central

D'Autrechy, C. L.; Reggia, J. A.; Berndt, R. S.

1991-01-01

In extending a computer model of acquired dyslexia, it has become necessary to develop a way to group printed characters in a word so that the character groups essentially have a one-to-one correspondence with the word's phonemes (speech sounds). This requires deriving a set of correspondences (legal character groupings, legal associations of character groups with phonemes, etc.) that yield a single grouping or "segmentation" of characters when applied to any English word. To facilitate and partially automate this task, a segmentation program has been developed that uses an interchangeable set of correspondences. The program segments words according to these correspondences and tabulates their success over large sets of words. The program has been used successfully to segment a 20,000 word corpus, demonstrating that this approach can be used effectively and efficiently. PMID:1807611

Perceiving non-native speech: Word segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mondini, Michèle; Miller, Joanne L.

2004-05-01

One important source of information listeners use to segment speech into discrete words is allophonic variation at word junctures. Previous research has shown that non-native speakers impose their native-language phonetic norms on their second language; as a consequence, non-native speech may (in some cases) exhibit altered patterns of allophonic variation at word junctures. We investigated the perceptual consequences of this for word segmentation by presenting native-English listeners with English word pairs produced either by six native-English speakers or six highly fluent, native-French speakers of English. The target word pairs had contrastive word juncture involving voiceless stop consonants (e.g., why pink/wipe ink; gray ties/great eyes; we cash/weak ash). The task was to identify randomized instances of each individual target word pair (as well as control pairs) by selecting one of four possible choices (e.g., why pink, wipe ink, why ink, wipe pink). Overall, listeners were more accurate in identifying target word pairs produced by the native-English speakers than by the non-native English speakers. These findings suggest that one contribution to the processing cost associated with listening to non-native speech may be the presence of altered allophonic information important for word segmentation. [Work supported by NIH/NIDCD.

Does segmental overlap help or hurt? Evidence from blocked cyclic naming in spoken and written production.

PubMed

Breining, Bonnie; Nozari, Nazbanou; Rapp, Brenda

2016-04-01

Past research has demonstrated interference effects when words are named in the context of multiple items that share a meaning. This interference has been explained within various incremental learning accounts of word production, which propose that each attempt at mapping semantic features to lexical items induces slight but persistent changes that result in cumulative interference. We examined whether similar interference-generating mechanisms operate during the mapping of lexical items to segments by examining the production of words in the context of others that share segments. Previous research has shown that initial-segment overlap amongst a set of target words produces facilitation, not interference. However, this initial-segment facilitation is likely due to strategic preparation, an external factor that may mask underlying interference. In the present study, we applied a novel manipulation in which the segmental overlap across target items was distributed unpredictably across word positions, in order to reduce strategic response preparation. This manipulation led to interference in both spoken (Exp. 1) and written (Exp. 2) production. We suggest that these findings are consistent with a competitive learning mechanism that applies across stages and modalities of word production.

Arabic word recognizer for mobile applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khanna, Nitin; Abdollahian, Golnaz; Brame, Ben; Boutin, Mireille; Delp, Edward J.

2011-03-01

When traveling in a region where the local language is not written using a "Roman alphabet," translating written text (e.g., documents, road signs, or placards) is a particularly difficult problem since the text cannot be easily entered into a translation device or searched using a dictionary. To address this problem, we are developing the "Rosetta Phone," a handheld device (e.g., PDA or mobile telephone) capable of acquiring an image of the text, locating the region (word) of interest within the image, and producing both an audio and a visual English interpretation of the text. This paper presents a system targeted for interpreting words written in Arabic script. The goal of this work is to develop an autonomous, segmentation-free Arabic phrase recognizer, with computational complexity low enough to deploy on a mobile device. A prototype of the proposed system has been deployed on an iPhone with a suitable user interface. The system was tested on a number of noisy images, in addition to the images acquired from the iPhone's camera. It identifies Arabic words or phrases by extracting appropriate features and assigning "codewords" to each word or phrase. On a dictionary of 5,000 words, the system uniquely mapped (word-image to codeword) 99.9% of the words. The system has a 82% recognition accuracy on images of words captured using the iPhone's built-in camera.

A perceptive method for handwritten text segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lemaitre, Aurélie; Camillerapp, Jean; Coüasnon, Bertrand

2011-01-01

This paper presents a new method to address the problem of handwritten text segmentation into text lines and words. Thus, we propose a method based on the cooperation among points of view that enables the localization of the text lines in a low resolution image, and then to associate the pixels at a higher level of resolution. Thanks to the combination of levels of vision, we can detect overlapping characters and re-segment the connected components during the analysis. Then, we propose a segmentation of lines into words based on the cooperation among digital data and symbolic knowledge. The digital data are obtained from distances inside a Delaunay graph, which gives a precise distance between connected components, at the pixel level. We introduce structural rules in order to take into account some generic knowledge about the organization of a text page. This cooperation among information gives a bigger power of expression and ensures the global coherence of the recognition. We validate this work using the metrics and the database proposed for the segmentation contest of ICDAR 2009. Thus, we show that our method obtains very interesting results, compared to the other methods of the literature. More precisely, we are able to deal with slope and curvature, overlapping text lines and varied kinds of writings, which are the main difficulties met by the other methods.

British English infants segment words only with exaggerated infant-directed speech stimuli.

PubMed

Floccia, Caroline; Keren-Portnoy, Tamar; DePaolis, Rory; Duffy, Hester; Delle Luche, Claire; Durrant, Samantha; White, Laurence; Goslin, Jeremy; Vihman, Marilyn

2016-03-01

The word segmentation paradigm originally designed by Jusczyk and Aslin (1995) has been widely used to examine how infants from the age of 7.5 months can extract novel words from continuous speech. Here we report a series of 13 studies conducted independently in two British laboratories, showing that British English-learning infants aged 8-10.5 months fail to show evidence of word segmentation when tested in this paradigm. In only one study did we find evidence of word segmentation at 10.5 months, when we used an exaggerated infant-directed speech style. We discuss the impact of variations in infant-directed style within and across languages in the course of language acquisition. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Experience with a second language affects the use of fundamental frequency in speech segmentation

PubMed Central

Broersma, Mirjam; Cho, Taehong; Kim, Sahyang; Martínez-García, Maria Teresa; Connell, Katrina

2017-01-01

This study investigates whether listeners’ experience with a second language learned later in life affects their use of fundamental frequency (F0) as a cue to word boundaries in the segmentation of an artificial language (AL), particularly when the cues to word boundaries conflict between the first language (L1) and second language (L2). F0 signals phrase-final (and thus word-final) boundaries in French but word-initial boundaries in English. Participants were functionally monolingual French listeners, functionally monolingual English listeners, bilingual L1-English L2-French listeners, and bilingual L1-French L2-English listeners. They completed the AL-segmentation task with F0 signaling word-final boundaries or without prosodic cues to word boundaries (monolingual groups only). After listening to the AL, participants completed a forced-choice word-identification task in which the foils were either non-words or part-words. The results show that the monolingual French listeners, but not the monolingual English listeners, performed better in the presence of F0 cues than in the absence of such cues. Moreover, bilingual status modulated listeners’ use of F0 cues to word-final boundaries, with bilingual French listeners performing less accurately than monolingual French listeners on both word types but with bilingual English listeners performing more accurately than monolingual English listeners on non-words. These findings not only confirm that speech segmentation is modulated by the L1, but also newly demonstrate that listeners’ experience with the L2 (French or English) affects their use of F0 cues in speech segmentation. This suggests that listeners’ use of prosodic cues to word boundaries is adaptive and non-selective, and can change as a function of language experience. PMID:28738093

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

Overcoming the Effects of Variation in Infant Speech Segmentation: Influences of Word Familiarity

PubMed Central

Singh, Leher; Nestor, Sarah S.; Bortfeld, Heather

2010-01-01

Previous studies have shown that 7.5-month-olds can track and encode words in fluent speech, but they fail to equate instances of a word that contrast in talker gender, vocal affect, and fundamental frequency. By 10.5 months, they succeed at generalizing across such variability, marking a clear transition period during which infants’ word recognition skills become qualitatively more mature. Here we explore the role of word familiarity in this critical transition and, in particular, whether words that occur frequently in a child’s listening environment (i.e., “Mommy” and “Daddy”) are more easily recognized when they differ in surface characteristics than those that infants have not previously encountered (termed nonwords). Results demonstrate that words are segmented from continuous speech in a more linguistically mature fashion than nonwords at 7.5 months, but at 10.5 months, both words and nonwords are segmented in a relatively mature fashion. These findings suggest that early word recognition is facilitated in cases where infants have had significant exposure to items, but at later stages, infants are able to segment items regardless of their presumed familiarity. PMID:21088702

Data from Russian Help to Determine in Which Languages the Possible Word Constraint Applies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alexeeva, Svetlana; Frolova, Anastasia; Slioussar, Natalia

2017-01-01

The Possible Word Constraint, or PWC, is a speech segmentation principle prohibiting to postulate word boundaries if a remaining segment contains only consonants. The PWC was initially formulated for English where all words contain a vowel and claimed to hold universally after being confirmed for various other languages. However, it is crucial to…

Can colours be used to segment words when reading?

PubMed

Perea, Manuel; Tejero, Pilar; Winskel, Heather

2015-07-01

Rayner, Fischer, and Pollatsek (1998, Vision Research) demonstrated that reading unspaced text in Indo-European languages produces a substantial reading cost in word identification (as deduced from an increased word-frequency effect on target words embedded in the unspaced vs. spaced sentences) and in eye movement guidance (as deduced from landing sites closer to the beginning of the words in unspaced sentences). However, the addition of spaces between words comes with a cost: nearby words may fall outside high-acuity central vision, thus reducing the potential benefits of parafoveal processing. In the present experiment, we introduced a salient visual cue intended to facilitate the process of word segmentation without compromising visual acuity: each alternating word was printed in a different colour (i.e., ). Results only revealed a small reading cost of unspaced alternating colour sentences relative to the spaced sentences. Thus, present data are a demonstration that colour can be useful to segment words for readers of spaced orthographies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Learning to spell in a language with transparent orthography: Distributional properties of orthography and whole-word lexical processing.

PubMed

Angelelli, Paola; Marinelli, Chiara Valeria; Putzolu, Anna; Notarnicola, Alessandra; Iaia, Marika; Burani, Cristina

2018-03-01

We examined how whole-word lexical information and knowledge of distributional properties of orthography interact in children's spelling. High- versus low-frequency words, which included inconsistently spelled segments occurring more or less frequently in the orthography, were used in two experiments: (a) word spelling; (b) lexical priming of pseudoword spelling. Participants were 1st-, 2nd-, and 4th-grade Italian children. Word spelling showed sensitivity to the distributional properties of orthography in all children: accuracy in spelling uncommon transcription segments emerged progressively as a function of word frequency and schooling. Lexical priming effects emerged as a function of age. When related primes contained an uncommon segment, 2nd- and 4th-graders preferred uncommon segments than common ones in spelling target pseudowords, thus inverting the response trend found in the control condition. A smaller but significant effect was present in 1st- graders, who, unlike 2nd- and 4th-graders, still preferred common segments, only slightly increasing the use of uncommon ones. A larger priming effect emerged for high-frequency primes than low-frequency ones. Results indicate that children learning to spell in a transparent orthography are sensitive to the distributional properties of the orthography. However, whole-word lexical representations are also used, with larger effects in more skilled pupils.

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.

Text Detection and Translation from Natural Scenes

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-06-01

is no explicit tags around Chinese words. A module for Chinese word segmentation is included in the system. This segmentor uses a word- frequency ... list to make segmentation decisions. We tested the EBMT based method using randomly selected 50 signs from our database, assuming perfect sign

The segment as the minimal planning unit in speech production: evidence based on absolute response latencies.

PubMed

Kawamoto, Alan H; Liu, Qiang; Lee, Ria J; Grebe, Patricia R

2014-01-01

A minimal amount of information about a word must be phonologically and phonetically encoded before a person can begin to utter that word. Most researchers assume that the minimum is the complete word or possibly the initial syllable. However, there is some evidence that the initial segment is sufficient based on longer durations when the initial segment is primed. In two experiments in which the initial segment of a monosyllabic word is primed or not primed, we present additional evidence based on very short absolute response times determined on the basis of acoustic and articulatory onset relative to presentation of the complete target. We argue that the previous failures to find very short absolute response times when the initial segment is primed are due in part to the exclusive use of acoustic onset as a measure of response latency, the exclusion of responses with very short acoustic latencies, the manner of articulation of the initial segment (i.e., plosive vs. nonplosive), and individual differences. Theoretical implications of the segment as the minimal planning unit are considered.

Invented Spelling, Word Stress, and Syllable Awareness in Relation to Reading Difficulties in Children.

PubMed

Mehta, Sheena; Ding, Yi; Ness, Molly; Chen, Eric C

2018-06-01

The study assessed the clinical utility of an invented spelling tool and determined whether invented spelling with linguistic manipulation at segmental and supra-segmental levels can be used to better identify reading difficulties. We conducted linguistic manipulation by using real and nonreal words, incorporating word stress, alternating the order of consonants and vowels, and alternating the number of syllables. We recruited 60 third-grade students, of which half were typical readers and half were poor readers. The invented spelling task consistently differentiated those with reading difficulties from typical readers. It explained unique variance in conventional spelling, but not in word reading. Word stress explained unique variance in both word reading and conventional spelling, highlighting the importance of addressing phonological awareness at the supra-segmental level. Poor readers had poorer performance when spelling both real and nonreal words and demonstrated substantial difficulty in detecting word stress. Poor readers struggled with spelling words with double consonants at the beginning and ending of words, and performed worse on spelling two- and three-syllable words than typical readers. Practical implications for early identification and instruction are discussed.

Development of Morphophonemic Segments in Children's Mental Representations of Words.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Noel K.

This study explores children's development of dual-level phonological processing posited by generative theory for adult language users. Evidence suggesting 6-year-olds' utilization of morphophonemic segments was obtained by asking children to imitate complex words, omit specified portions, and discuss the meaning of the resulting word-parts. The…

Processing Orthographic Structure: Associations between Print and Fingerspelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emmorey, Karen; Petrich, Jennifer A. F.

2012-01-01

Two lexical decision experiments are reported that investigate whether the same segmentation strategies are used for reading printed English words and fingerspelled words (in American Sign Language). Experiment 1 revealed that both deaf and hearing readers performed better when written words were segmented with respect to an orthographically…

Lexical Characteristics of Spanish and English Words and the Development of Phonological Awareness Skills in Spanish-Speaking Language-Minority Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodrich, J. Marc; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2016-01-01

The lexical restructuring model (LRM) is a theory that attempts to explain the developmental origins of phonological awareness (PA). According to the LRM, various characteristics of words should be related to the extent to which words are segmentally represented in the lexicon. Segmental representations of words allow children to access the parts…

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.

Consonant and Vowel Processing in Word Form Segmentation: An Infant ERP Study.

PubMed

Von Holzen, Katie; Nishibayashi, Leo-Lyuki; Nazzi, Thierry

2018-01-31

Segmentation skill and the preferential processing of consonants (C-bias) develop during the second half of the first year of life and it has been proposed that these facilitate language acquisition. We used Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to investigate the neural bases of early word form segmentation, and of the early processing of onset consonants, medial vowels, and coda consonants, exploring how differences in these early skills might be related to later language outcomes. Our results with French-learning eight-month-old infants primarily support previous studies that found that the word familiarity effect in segmentation is developing from a positive to a negative polarity at this age. Although as a group infants exhibited an anterior-localized negative effect, inspection of individual results revealed that a majority of infants showed a negative-going response (Negative Responders), while a minority showed a positive-going response (Positive Responders). Furthermore, all infants demonstrated sensitivity to onset consonant mispronunciations, while Negative Responders demonstrated a lack of sensitivity to vowel mispronunciations, a developmental pattern similar to previous literature. Responses to coda consonant mispronunciations revealed neither sensitivity nor lack of sensitivity. We found that infants showing a more mature, negative response to newly segmented words compared to control words (evaluating segmentation skill) and mispronunciations (evaluating phonological processing) at test also had greater growth in word production over the second year of life than infants showing a more positive response. These results establish a relationship between early segmentation skills and phonological processing (not modulated by the type of mispronunciation) and later lexical skills.

Spotting words in handwritten Arabic documents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Srihari, Sargur; Srinivasan, Harish; Babu, Pavithra; Bhole, Chetan

2006-01-01

The design and performance of a system for spotting handwritten Arabic words in scanned document images is presented. Three main components of the system are a word segmenter, a shape based matcher for words and a search interface. The user types in a query in English within a search window, the system finds the equivalent Arabic word, e.g., by dictionary look-up, locates word images in an indexed (segmented) set of documents. A two-step approach is employed in performing the search: (1) prototype selection: the query is used to obtain a set of handwritten samples of that word from a known set of writers (these are the prototypes), and (2) word matching: the prototypes are used to spot each occurrence of those words in the indexed document database. A ranking is performed on the entire set of test word images-- where the ranking criterion is a similarity score between each prototype word and the candidate words based on global word shape features. A database of 20,000 word images contained in 100 scanned handwritten Arabic documents written by 10 different writers was used to study retrieval performance. Using five writers for providing prototypes and the other five for testing, using manually segmented documents, 55% precision is obtained at 50% recall. Performance increases as more writers are used for training.

Word segmentation in phonemically identical and prosodically different sequences using cochlear implants: A case study.

PubMed

Basirat, Anahita

2017-01-01

Cochlear implant (CI) users frequently achieve good speech understanding based on phoneme and word recognition. However, there is a significant variability between CI users in processing prosody. The aim of this study was to examine the abilities of an excellent CI user to segment continuous speech using intonational cues. A post-lingually deafened adult CI user and 22 normal hearing (NH) subjects segmented phonemically identical and prosodically different sequences in French such as 'l'affiche' (the poster) versus 'la fiche' (the sheet), both [lafiʃ]. All participants also completed a minimal pair discrimination task. Stimuli were presented in auditory-only and audiovisual presentation modalities. The performance of the CI user in the minimal pair discrimination task was 97% in the auditory-only and 100% in the audiovisual condition. In the segmentation task, contrary to the NH participants, the performance of the CI user did not differ from the chance level. Visual speech did not improve word segmentation. This result suggests that word segmentation based on intonational cues is challenging when using CIs even when phoneme/word recognition is very well rehabilitated. This finding points to the importance of the assessment of CI users' skills in prosody processing and the need for specific interventions focusing on this aspect of speech communication.

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'…

Speech segmentation in aphasia

PubMed Central

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

2017-01-01

Background Speech segmentation is one of the initial and mandatory phases of language learning. Although some people with aphasia have shown a preserved ability to learn novel words, their speech segmentation abilities have not been explored. Aims We examined the ability of individuals with chronic aphasia to segment words from running speech via statistical learning. We also explored the relationships between speech segmentation and aphasia severity, and short-term memory capacity. We further examined the role of lesion location in speech segmentation and short-term memory performance. Methods & Procedures The experimental task was first validated with a group of young adults (n = 120). Participants with chronic aphasia (n = 14) were exposed to an artificial language and were evaluated in their ability to segment words using a speech segmentation test. Their performance was contrasted against chance level and compared to that of a group of elderly matched controls (n = 14) using group and case-by-case analyses. Outcomes & Results As a group, participants with aphasia were significantly above chance level in their ability to segment words from the novel language and did not significantly differ from the group of elderly controls. Speech segmentation ability in the aphasic participants was not associated with aphasia severity although it significantly correlated with word pointing span, a measure of verbal short-term memory. Case-by-case analyses identified four individuals with aphasia who performed above chance level on the speech segmentation task, all with predominantly posterior lesions and mild fluent aphasia. Their short-term memory capacity was also better preserved than in the rest of the group. Conclusions Our findings indicate that speech segmentation via statistical learning can remain functional in people with chronic aphasia and suggest that this initial language learning mechanism is associated with the functionality of the verbal short-term memory system and the integrity of the left inferior frontal region. PMID:28824218

Cracking the Language Code: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Speech Parsing

PubMed Central

McNealy, Kristin; Mazziotta, John C.; Dapretto, Mirella

2013-01-01

Word segmentation, detecting word boundaries in continuous speech, is a critical aspect of language learning. Previous research in infants and adults demonstrated that a stream of speech can be readily segmented based solely on the statistical and speech cues afforded by the input. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the neural substrate of word segmentation was examined on-line as participants listened to three streams of concatenated syllables, containing either statistical regularities alone, statistical regularities and speech cues, or no cues. Despite the participants’ inability to explicitly detect differences between the speech streams, neural activity differed significantly across conditions, with left-lateralized signal increases in temporal cortices observed only when participants listened to streams containing statistical regularities, particularly the stream containing speech cues. In a second fMRI study, designed to verify that word segmentation had implicitly taken place, participants listened to trisyllabic combinations that occurred with different frequencies in the streams of speech they just heard (“words,” 45 times; “partwords,” 15 times; “nonwords,” once). Reliably greater activity in left inferior and middle frontal gyri was observed when comparing words with partwords and, to a lesser extent, when comparing partwords with nonwords. Activity in these regions, taken to index the implicit detection of word boundaries, was positively correlated with participants’ rapid auditory processing skills. These findings provide a neural signature of on-line word segmentation in the mature brain and an initial model with which to study developmental changes in the neural architecture involved in processing speech cues during language learning. PMID:16855090

The Effect of Sonority on Word Segmentation: Evidence for the Use of a Phonological Universal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

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

2012-01-01

It has been well documented how language-specific cues may be used for word segmentation. Here, we investigate what role a language-independent phonological universal, the sonority sequencing principle (SSP), may also play. Participants were presented with an unsegmented speech stream with non-English word onsets that juxtaposed adherence to the…

Phonotactic Probability of Brand Names: I'd buy that!

PubMed Central

Vitevitch, Michael S.; Donoso, Alexander J.

2011-01-01

Psycholinguistic research shows that word-characteristics influence the speed and accuracy of various language-related processes. Analogous characteristics of brand names influence the retrieval of product information and the perception of risks associated with that product. In the present experiment we examined how phonotactic probability—the frequency with which phonological segments and sequences of segments appear in a word—might influence consumer behavior. Participants rated brand names that varied in phonotactic probability on the likelihood that they would buy the product. Participants indicated that they were more likely to purchase a product if the brand name was comprised of common segments and sequences of segments rather than less common segments and sequences of segments. This result suggests that word-characteristics may influence higher-level cognitive processes, in addition to language-related processes. Furthermore, the benefits of using objective measures of word characteristics in the design of brand names are discussed. PMID:21870135

On the unsupervised analysis of domain-specific Chinese texts

PubMed Central

Deng, Ke; Bol, Peter K.; Li, Kate J.; Liu, Jun S.

2016-01-01

With the growing availability of digitized text data both publicly and privately, there is a great need for effective computational tools to automatically extract information from texts. Because the Chinese language differs most significantly from alphabet-based languages in not specifying word boundaries, most existing Chinese text-mining methods require a prespecified vocabulary and/or a large relevant training corpus, which may not be available in some applications. We introduce an unsupervised method, top-down word discovery and segmentation (TopWORDS), for simultaneously discovering and segmenting words and phrases from large volumes of unstructured Chinese texts, and propose ways to order discovered words and conduct higher-level context analyses. TopWORDS is particularly useful for mining online and domain-specific texts where the underlying vocabulary is unknown or the texts of interest differ significantly from available training corpora. When outputs from TopWORDS are fed into context analysis tools such as topic modeling, word embedding, and association pattern finding, the results are as good as or better than that from using outputs of a supervised segmentation method. PMID:27185919

Lexical frequency and acoustic reduction in spoken Dutch

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pluymaekers, Mark; Ernestus, Mirjam; Baayen, R. Harald

2005-10-01

This study investigates the effects of lexical frequency on the durational reduction of morphologically complex words in spoken Dutch. The hypothesis that high-frequency words are more reduced than low-frequency words was tested by comparing the durations of affixes occurring in different carrier words. Four Dutch affixes were investigated, each occurring in a large number of words with different frequencies. The materials came from a large database of face-to-face conversations. For each word containing a target affix, one token was randomly selected for acoustic analysis. Measurements were made of the duration of the affix as a whole and the durations of the individual segments in the affix. For three of the four affixes, a higher frequency of the carrier word led to shorter realizations of the affix as a whole, individual segments in the affix, or both. Other relevant factors were the sex and age of the speaker, segmental context, and speech rate. To accommodate for these findings, models of speech production should allow word frequency to affect the acoustic realizations of lower-level units, such as individual speech sounds occurring in affixes.

Tone matters for Cantonese-English bilingual children's English word reading development: A unified model of phonological transfer.

PubMed

Tong, Xiuli; He, Xinjie; Deacon, S Hélène

2017-02-01

Languages differ considerably in how they use prosodic features, or variations in pitch, duration, and intensity, to distinguish one word from another. Prosodic features include lexical tone in Chinese and lexical stress in English. Recent cross-sectional studies show a surprising result that Mandarin Chinese tone sensitivity is related to Mandarin-English bilingual children's English word reading. This study explores the mechanism underlying this relation by testing two explanations of these effects: the prosodic hypothesis and segmental phonological awareness transfer. We administered multiple measures of Cantonese tone sensitivity, English stress sensitivity, segmental phonological awareness in Cantonese and English, nonverbal ability, and English word reading to 123 Cantonese-English bilingual children ages 7 and 8 years. Structural equation modeling revealed a longitudinal prediction of Cantonese tone sensitivity to English word reading between 8 and 9 years of age. This relation was realized through two parallel routes. In one, Cantonese tone sensitivity predicted English stress sensitivity, and English stress sensitivity, in turn, significantly predicted English word reading, as postulated by the prosodic hypothesis. In the second, Cantonese tone sensitivity predicted English word reading through the transfer of segmental phonological awareness between Cantonese and English, as predicted by segmental phonological transfer. These results support a unified model of phonological transfer, emphasizing the role of tone in English word reading for Cantonese-English bilingual children.

Russian Character Recognition using Self-Organizing Map

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gunawan, D.; Arisandi, D.; Ginting, F. M.; Rahmat, R. F.; Amalia, A.

2017-01-01

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in 2014 released that there are 28 million visitors who visit Russia. Most of the visitors might have problem in typing Russian word when using digital dictionary. This is caused by the letters, called Cyrillic that used by the Russian and the countries around it, have different shape than Latin letters. The visitors might not familiar with Cyrillic. This research proposes an alternative way to input the Cyrillic words. Instead of typing the Cyrillic words directly, camera can be used to capture image of the words as input. The captured image is cropped, then several pre-processing steps are applied such as noise filtering, binary image processing, segmentation and thinning. Next, the feature extraction process is applied to the image. Cyrillic letters recognition in the image is done by utilizing Self-Organizing Map (SOM) algorithm. SOM successfully recognizes 89.09% Cyrillic letters from the computer-generated images. On the other hand, SOM successfully recognizes 88.89% Cyrillic letters from the image captured by the smartphone’s camera. For the word recognition, SOM successfully recognized 292 words and partially recognized 58 words from the image captured by the smartphone’s camera. Therefore, the accuracy of the word recognition using SOM is 83.42%

Amatchmethod Based on Latent Semantic Analysis for Earthquakehazard Emergency Plan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, D.; Zhao, S.; Zhang, Z.; Shi, X.

2017-09-01

The structure of the emergency plan on earthquake is complex, and it's difficult for decision maker to make a decision in a short time. To solve the problem, this paper presents a match method based on Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). After the word segmentation preprocessing of emergency plan, we carry out keywords extraction according to the part-of-speech and the frequency of words. Then through LSA, we map the documents and query information to the semantic space, and calculate the correlation of documents and queries by the relation between vectors. The experiments results indicate that the LSA can improve the accuracy of emergency plan retrieval efficiently.

Speech Perception Engages a General Timer: Evidence from a Divided Attention Word Identification Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casini, Laurence; Burle, Boris; Nguyen, Noel

2009-01-01

Time is essential to speech. The duration of speech segments plays a critical role in the perceptual identification of these segments, and therefore in that of spoken words. Here, using a French word identification task, we show that vowels are perceived as shorter when attention is divided between two tasks, as compared to a single task control…

Diminutives facilitate word segmentation in natural speech: cross-linguistic evidence.

PubMed

Kempe, Vera; Brooks, Patricia J; Gillis, Steven; Samson, Graham

2007-06-01

Final-syllable invariance is characteristic of diminutives (e.g., doggie), which are a pervasive feature of the child-directed speech registers of many languages. Invariance in word endings has been shown to facilitate word segmentation (Kempe, Brooks, & Gillis, 2005) in an incidental-learning paradigm in which synthesized Dutch pseudonouns were used. To broaden the cross-linguistic evidence for this invariance effect and to increase its ecological validity, adult English speakers (n=276) were exposed to naturally spoken Dutch or Russian pseudonouns presented in sentence contexts. A forced choice test was given to assess target recognition, with foils comprising unfamiliar syllable combinations in Experiments 1 and 2 and syllable combinations straddling word boundaries in Experiment 3. A control group (n=210) received the recognition test with no prior exposure to targets. Recognition performance improved with increasing final-syllable rhyme invariance, with larger increases for the experimental group. This confirms that word ending invariance is a valid segmentation cue in artificial, as well as naturalistic, speech and that diminutives may aid segmentation in a number of languages.

Self-Paced Segmentation of Written Words on a Touchscreen Tablet Promotes the Oral Production of Nonverbal and Minimally Verbal Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vernay, Frédérique; Kahina, Harma; Thierry, Marrone; Jean-Yves, Roussey

2017-01-01

We investigated in a pilot study the effects of various types of visual mediation (photos, written words and self-paced syllabic segmentation of written words displayed on a touchscreen tablet) that are thought to facilitate the oral production of nonverbal and minimally verbal children with autism, according to the participants' level of oral…

Proximate Units in Word Production: Phonological Encoding Begins with Syllables in Mandarin Chinese but with Segments in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Seaghdha, Padraig G.; Chen, Jenn-Yeu; Chen, Train-Min

2010-01-01

In Mandarin Chinese, speakers benefit from fore-knowledge of what the first syllable but not of what the first phonemic segment of a disyllabic word will be (Chen, Chen, & Dell, 2002), contrasting with findings in English, Dutch, and other Indo-European languages, and challenging the generality of current theories of word production. In this…

Primary phonological planning units in spoken word production are language-specific: Evidence from an ERP study.

PubMed

Wang, Jie; Wong, Andus Wing-Kuen; Wang, Suiping; Chen, Hsuan-Chih

2017-07-19

It is widely acknowledged in Germanic languages that segments are the primary planning units at the phonological encoding stage of spoken word production. Mixed results, however, have been found in Chinese, and it is still unclear what roles syllables and segments play in planning Chinese spoken word production. In the current study, participants were asked to first prepare and later produce disyllabic Mandarin words upon picture prompts and a response cue while electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were recorded. Each two consecutive pictures implicitly formed a pair of prime and target, whose names shared the same word-initial atonal syllable or the same word-initial segments, or were unrelated in the control conditions. Only syllable repetition induced significant effects on event-related brain potentials (ERPs) after target onset: a widely distributed positivity in the 200- to 400-ms interval and an anterior positivity in the 400- to 600-ms interval. We interpret these to reflect syllable-size representations at the phonological encoding and phonetic encoding stages. Our results provide the first electrophysiological evidence for the distinct role of syllables in producing Mandarin spoken words, supporting a language specificity hypothesis about the primary phonological units in spoken word production.

Cascaded Segmentation-Detection Networks for Word-Level Text Spotting.

PubMed

Qin, Siyang; Manduchi, Roberto

2017-11-01

We introduce an algorithm for word-level text spotting that is able to accurately and reliably determine the bounding regions of individual words of text "in the wild". Our system is formed by the cascade of two convolutional neural networks. The first network is fully convolutional and is in charge of detecting areas containing text. This results in a very reliable but possibly inaccurate segmentation of the input image. The second network (inspired by the popular YOLO architecture) analyzes each segment produced in the first stage, and predicts oriented rectangular regions containing individual words. No post-processing (e.g. text line grouping) is necessary. With execution time of 450 ms for a 1000 × 560 image on a Titan X GPU, our system achieves good performance on the ICDAR 2013, 2015 benchmarks [2], [1].

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.

Listening through Voices: Infant Statistical Word Segmentation across Multiple Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graf Estes, Katharine; Lew-Williams, Casey

2015-01-01

To learn from their environments, infants must detect structure behind pervasive variation. This presents substantial and largely untested learning challenges in early language acquisition. The current experiments address whether infants can use statistical learning mechanisms to segment words when the speech signal contains acoustic variation…

The interaction between specificity and linguistic contrast

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nielsen, Kuniko

2005-09-01

Previous studies have shown listeners' ability to remember fine phonetic details [e.g., Mullennix et al., 1989], providing support for the episodic view of speech perception. The imitation paradigm [Goldinger, 1998, Shockley et al., 2004], in which subjects' speech is compared before and after they are exposed to target speech (= study phase) has shown that subjects shift their production in the direction of the target. Our earlier results [Nielsen, 2005] showed that the imitation effect for extended VOT was generalized to new stimuli as well as to a new segment, suggesting that the locus of the imitation effect can be smaller than individual words or segments. The current study aims to further investigate how experienced speech input interacts with linguistic representations, by testing whether the imitation effect is observed when the modeled stimuli have reduced VOT (which could introduce linguistic ambiguity). In other words, do speakers imitate and generalize shorter VOT even if the change might impair linguistic contrasts? To address this question, the study phase includes words with initial /p/ with reduced VOT, while the pre- and post-study production list includes (1) the modeled words, (2) the modeled segments /p/ in new words, and (3) the new segment /k/.

Word Family Size and French-Speaking Children's Segmentation of Existing Compounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicoladis, Elena; Krott, Andrea

2007-01-01

The family size of the constituents of compound words, or the number of compounds sharing the constituents, affects English-speaking children's compound segmentation. This finding is consistent with a usage-based theory of language acquisition, whereby children learn abstract underlying linguistic structure through their experience with particular…

Multidimensional Assessment of Phonological Similarity within and between Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ingram, David; Dubasik, Virginia L.

2011-01-01

Multidimensional analysis involves moving away from one-dimensional analyses such as most articulation tests to comprehensive analyses involving levels of phonological information from the word level down to segments. This article outlines one such approach that looks at four levels from words to segments, using nine phonological measures. It also…

Possible-Word Constraints in Cantonese Speech Segmentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yip, Michael C. W.

2004-01-01

A Cantonese syllable-spotting experiment was conducted to examine whether the Possible-Word Constraint (PWC), proposed by Norris, McQueen, Cutler, and Butterfield (1997), can apply in Cantonese speech segmentation. In the experiment, listeners were asked to spot out the target Cantonese syllable from a series of nonsense sound strings. Results…

Information extraction and knowledge graph construction from geoscience literature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Chengbin; Ma, Xiaogang; Chen, Jianguo; Chen, Jingwen

2018-03-01

Geoscience literature published online is an important part of open data, and brings both challenges and opportunities for data analysis. Compared with studies of numerical geoscience data, there are limited works on information extraction and knowledge discovery from textual geoscience data. This paper presents a workflow and a few empirical case studies for that topic, with a focus on documents written in Chinese. First, we set up a hybrid corpus combining the generic and geology terms from geology dictionaries to train Chinese word segmentation rules of the Conditional Random Fields model. Second, we used the word segmentation rules to parse documents into individual words, and removed the stop-words from the segmentation results to get a corpus constituted of content-words. Third, we used a statistical method to analyze the semantic links between content-words, and we selected the chord and bigram graphs to visualize the content-words and their links as nodes and edges in a knowledge graph, respectively. The resulting graph presents a clear overview of key information in an unstructured document. This study proves the usefulness of the designed workflow, and shows the potential of leveraging natural language processing and knowledge graph technologies for geoscience.

Fast words boundaries localization in text fields for low quality document images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ilin, Dmitry; Novikov, Dmitriy; Polevoy, Dmitry; Nikolaev, Dmitry

2018-04-01

The paper examines the problem of word boundaries precise localization in document text zones. Document processing on a mobile device consists of document localization, perspective correction, localization of individual fields, finding words in separate zones, segmentation and recognition. While capturing an image with a mobile digital camera under uncontrolled capturing conditions, digital noise, perspective distortions or glares may occur. Further document processing gets complicated because of its specifics: layout elements, complex background, static text, document security elements, variety of text fonts. However, the problem of word boundaries localization has to be solved at runtime on mobile CPU with limited computing capabilities under specified restrictions. At the moment, there are several groups of methods optimized for different conditions. Methods for the scanned printed text are quick but limited only for images of high quality. Methods for text in the wild have an excessively high computational complexity, thus, are hardly suitable for running on mobile devices as part of the mobile document recognition system. The method presented in this paper solves a more specialized problem than the task of finding text on natural images. It uses local features, a sliding window and a lightweight neural network in order to achieve an optimal algorithm speed-precision ratio. The duration of the algorithm is 12 ms per field running on an ARM processor of a mobile device. The error rate for boundaries localization on a test sample of 8000 fields is 0.3

Visual speech segmentation: using facial cues to locate word boundaries in continuous speech

PubMed Central

Mitchel, Aaron D.; Weiss, Daniel J.

2014-01-01

Speech is typically a multimodal phenomenon, yet few studies have focused on the exclusive contributions of visual cues to language acquisition. To address this gap, we investigated whether visual prosodic information can facilitate speech segmentation. Previous research has demonstrated that language learners can use lexical stress and pitch cues to segment speech and that learners can extract this information from talking faces. Thus, we created an artificial speech stream that contained minimal segmentation cues and paired it with two synchronous facial displays in which visual prosody was either informative or uninformative for identifying word boundaries. Across three familiarisation conditions (audio stream alone, facial streams alone, and paired audiovisual), learning occurred only when the facial displays were informative to word boundaries, suggesting that facial cues can help learners solve the early challenges of language acquisition. PMID:25018577

Preparing novice teachers to develop basic reading and spelling skills in children.

PubMed

Spear-Swerling, Louise; Brucker, Pamela Owen

2004-12-01

This study examined the word-structure knowledge of novice teachers and the progress of children tutored by a subgroup of the teachers. Teachers' word-structure knowledge was assessed using three tasks: graphophonemic segmentation, classification of pseudowords by syllable type, and classification of real words as phonetically regular or irregular. Tutored children were assessed on several measures of basic reading and spelling skills. Novice teachers who received word-structure instruction outperformed a comparison group of teachers in word-structure knowledge at post-test. Tutored children improved significantly from pre-test to post-test on all assessments. Teachers' post-test knowledge on the graphophonemic segmentation and irregular words tasks correlated significantly with tutored children's progress in decoding phonetically regular words; error analyses indicated links between teachers' patterns of word-structure knowledge and children's patterns of decoding progress. The study suggests that word-structure knowledge is important to effective teaching of word decoding and underscores the need to include this information in teacher preparation.

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.

The use of phrase-level prosodic information in lexical segmentation: evidence from word-spotting experiments in Korean.

PubMed

Kim, Sahyang; Cho, Taehong

2009-05-01

This study investigated the role of phrase-level prosodic boundary information in word segmentation in Korean with two word-spotting experiments. In experiment 1, it was found that intonational cues alone helped listeners with lexical segmentation. Listeners paid more attention to local intonational cues (...H#L...) across the prosodic boundary than the intonational information within a prosodic phrase. The results imply that intonation patterns with high frequency are used, though not exclusively, in lexical segmentation. In experiment 2, final lengthening was added to see how multiple prosodic cues influence lexical segmentation. The results showed that listeners did not necessarily benefit from the presence of both intonational and final lengthening cues: Their performance was improved only when intonational information contained infrequent tonal patterns for boundary marking, showing only partially cumulative effects of prosodic cues. When the intonational information was optimal (frequent) for boundary marking, however, poorer performance was observed with final lengthening. This is arguably because the phrase-initial segmental allophonic cues for the accentual phrase were not matched with the prosodic cues for the intonational phrase. It is proposed that the asymmetrical use of multiple cues was due to interaction between prosodic and segmental information that are computed in parallel in lexical segmentation.

Word Spotting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McQueen, James

1996-01-01

Summarizes the use of word-spotting in psycholinguistic research. Notes that listeners hear a list of nonsense words, some of which contain embedded real words, and they detect those embedded words, a task designed to study the segmentation of continuous speech. Describes the task and summarizes its advantages and disadvantages. (12 references)…

Implicit Language Learning: Adults' Ability to Segment Words in Norwegian

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kittleson, Megan M.; Aguilar, Jessica M.; Tokerud, Gry Line; Plante, Elena; Asbjornsen, Arve E.

2010-01-01

Previous language learning research reveals that the statistical properties of the input offer sufficient information to allow listeners to segment words from fluent speech in an artificial language. The current pair of studies uses a natural language to test the ecological validity of these findings and to determine whether a listener's language…

Speech Segmentation by Statistical Learning Depends on Attention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Toro, Juan M.; Sinnett, Scott; Soto-Faraco, Salvador

2005-01-01

We addressed the hypothesis that word segmentation based on statistical regularities occurs without the need of attention. Participants were presented with a stream of artificial speech in which the only cue to extract the words was the presence of statistical regularities between syllables. Half of the participants were asked to passively listen…

Metallic Material Image Segmentation by using 3D Grain Structure Consistency and Intra/Inter-Grain Model Information

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-05

Wang. KinWrite: Handwriting -Based Authentication Using Kinect, Annual Network & Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), San Diego, CA, 2013 21...the large varia- tion of different handwriting styles, neighboring characters within a word are usually connected, and we may need to segment a word

How Transitional Probabilities and the Edge Effect Contribute to Listeners' Phonological Bootstrapping Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sohail, Juwairia; Johnson, Elizabeth K.

2016-01-01

Much of what we know about the development of listeners' word segmentation strategies originates from the artificial language-learning literature. However, many artificial speech streams designed to study word segmentation lack a salient cue found in all natural languages: utterance boundaries. In this study, participants listened to a…

Statistical Segmentation of Tone Sequences Activates the Left Inferior Frontal Cortex: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abla, Dilshat; Okanoya, Kazuo

2008-01-01

Word segmentation, that is, discovering the boundaries between words that are embedded in a continuous speech stream, is an important faculty for language learners; humans solve this task partly by calculating transitional probabilities between sounds. Behavioral and ERP studies suggest that detection of sequential probabilities (statistical…

Modeling the Control of Phonological Encoding in Bilingual Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roelofs, Ardi; Verhoef, Kim

2006-01-01

Phonological encoding is the process by which speakers retrieve phonemic segments for morphemes from memory and use the segments to assemble phonological representations of words to be spoken. When conversing in one language, bilingual speakers have to resist the temptation of encoding word forms using the phonological rules and representations of…

Sleep-Driven Computations in Speech Processing

PubMed Central

Frost, Rebecca L. A.; Monaghan, Padraic

2017-01-01

Acquiring language requires segmenting speech into individual words, and abstracting over those words to discover grammatical structure. However, these tasks can be conflicting—on the one hand requiring memorisation of precise sequences that occur in speech, and on the other requiring a flexible reconstruction of these sequences to determine the grammar. Here, we examine whether speech segmentation and generalisation of grammar can occur simultaneously—with the conflicting requirements for these tasks being over-come by sleep-related consolidation. After exposure to an artificial language comprising words containing non-adjacent dependencies, participants underwent periods of consolidation involving either sleep or wake. Participants who slept before testing demonstrated a sustained boost to word learning and a short-term improvement to grammatical generalisation of the non-adjacencies, with improvements after sleep outweighing gains seen after an equal period of wake. Thus, we propose that sleep may facilitate processing for these conflicting tasks in language acquisition, but with enhanced benefits for speech segmentation. PMID:28056104

Sleep-Driven Computations in Speech Processing.

PubMed

Frost, Rebecca L A; Monaghan, Padraic

2017-01-01

Acquiring language requires segmenting speech into individual words, and abstracting over those words to discover grammatical structure. However, these tasks can be conflicting-on the one hand requiring memorisation of precise sequences that occur in speech, and on the other requiring a flexible reconstruction of these sequences to determine the grammar. Here, we examine whether speech segmentation and generalisation of grammar can occur simultaneously-with the conflicting requirements for these tasks being over-come by sleep-related consolidation. After exposure to an artificial language comprising words containing non-adjacent dependencies, participants underwent periods of consolidation involving either sleep or wake. Participants who slept before testing demonstrated a sustained boost to word learning and a short-term improvement to grammatical generalisation of the non-adjacencies, with improvements after sleep outweighing gains seen after an equal period of wake. Thus, we propose that sleep may facilitate processing for these conflicting tasks in language acquisition, but with enhanced benefits for speech segmentation.

The functional unit of Japanese word naming: evidence from masked priming.

PubMed

Verdonschot, Rinus G; Kiyama, Sachiko; Tamaoka, Katsuo; Kinoshita, Sachiko; Heij, Wido La; Schiller, Niels O

2011-11-01

Theories of language production generally describe the segment as the basic unit in phonological encoding (e.g., Dell, 1988; Levelt, Roelofs, & Meyer, 1999). However, there is also evidence that such a unit might be language specific. Chen, Chen, and Dell (2002), for instance, found no effect of single segments when using a preparation paradigm. To shed more light on the functional unit of phonological encoding in Japanese, a language often described as being mora based, we report the results of 4 experiments using word reading tasks and masked priming. Experiment 1 demonstrated using Japanese kana script that primes, which overlapped in the whole mora with target words, sped up word reading latencies but not when just the onset overlapped. Experiments 2 and 3 investigated a possible role of script by using combinations of romaji (Romanized Japanese) and hiragana; again, facilitation effects were found only when the whole mora and not the onset segment overlapped. Experiment 4 distinguished mora priming from syllable priming and revealed that the mora priming effects obtained in the first 3 experiments are also obtained when a mora is part of a syllable. Again, no priming effect was found for single segments. Our findings suggest that the mora and not the segment (phoneme) is the basic functional phonological unit in Japanese language production planning.

Overnight lexical consolidation revealed by speech segmentation.

PubMed

Dumay, Nicolas; Gareth Gaskell, M

2012-04-01

Two experiments explored the consolidation of spoken words, and assessed whether post-sleep novel competitor effects truly reflect engagement of these novel words in competition for lexical segmentation. Two types of competitor relationships were contrasted: the onset-aligned case (such as "frenzylk"), where the novel word is a close variant of the existing word: they start at the same time point and overlap on most of their segments; and the fully embedding case (such as "lirmucktoze"), where the existing word corresponds to a smaller embedded portion of its novel competitor and is thus less noticeable. Experiment 1 (pause detection) revealed a similar performance for both cases, with no competitor effect immediately after exposure, but significant inhibition after 24 h and seven days. Experiment 2 (word spotting) produced exactly the same pattern; however, as is the case with existing word carriers (cf. McQueen, Norris, & Cutler, 1994), the inhibition was much stronger for fully embedded than for onset-aligned targets (e.g., "lirmuckt" vs. "frenzyl"). Meanwhile, explicit measures of learning, i.e., free recall and recognition, improved over time. These results cannot be explained by either consolidation of episodic traces or acquisition of new phonological/dialectal variants. We argue instead that they reflect a general trait of vocabulary learning and consolidation. Copyright © 2011 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

Words analysis of online Chinese news headlines about trending events: a complex network perspective.

PubMed

Li, Huajiao; Fang, Wei; An, Haizhong; Huang, Xuan

2015-01-01

Because the volume of information available online is growing at breakneck speed, keeping up with meaning and information communicated by the media and netizens is a new challenge both for scholars and for companies who must address public relations crises. Most current theories and tools are directed at identifying one website or one piece of online news and do not attempt to develop a rapid understanding of all websites and all news covering one topic. This paper represents an effort to integrate statistics, word segmentation, complex networks and visualization to analyze headlines' keywords and words relationships in online Chinese news using two samples: the 2011 Bohai Bay oil spill and the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. We gathered all the news headlines concerning the two trending events in the search results from Baidu, the most popular Chinese search engine. We used Simple Chinese Word Segmentation to segment all the headlines into words and then took words as nodes and considered adjacent relations as edges to construct word networks both using the whole sample and at the monthly level. Finally, we develop an integrated mechanism to analyze the features of words' networks based on news headlines that can account for all the keywords in the news about a particular event and therefore track the evolution of news deeply and rapidly.

Measuring Severity of Involvement in Speech Delay: Segmental and Whole-Word Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flipsen, Peter, Jr.; Hammer, Jill B.; Yost, Kathryn M.

2005-01-01

Purpose: This study examined whether any of a series of segmental and whole-word measures of articulatory competence captured more of the variance in impressionistic ratings of severity of involvement in speech delay. It also examined whether knowing the age of the child affected severity ratings. Method: Ten very experienced speech-language…

How African American English-Speaking First Graders Segment and Rhyme Words and Nonwords with Final Consonant Clusters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shollenbarger, Amy J.; Robinson, Gregory C.; Taran, Valentina; Choi, Seo-eun

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study explored how typically developing 1st grade African American English (AAE) speakers differ from mainstream American English (MAE) speakers in the completion of 2 common phonological awareness tasks (rhyming and phoneme segmentation) when the stimulus items were consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant (CVCC) words and nonwords.…

Implicit Segmentation of a Stream of Syllables Based on Transitional Probabilities: An MEG Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teinonen, Tuomas; Huotilainen, Minna

2012-01-01

Statistical segmentation of continuous speech, i.e., the ability to utilise transitional probabilities between syllables in order to detect word boundaries, is reflected in the brain's auditory event-related potentials (ERPs). The N1 and N400 ERP components are typically enhanced for word onsets compared to random syllables during active…

Generating Poetry Title Based on Semantic Relevance with Convolutional Neural Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Z.; Niu, K.; He, Z. Q.

2017-09-01

Several approaches have been proposed to automatically generate Chinese classical poetry (CCP) in the past few years, but automatically generating the title of CCP is still a difficult problem. The difficulties are mainly reflected in two aspects. First, the words used in CCP are very different from modern Chinese words and there are no valid word segmentation tools. Second, the semantic relevance of characters in CCP not only exists in one sentence but also exists between the same positions of adjacent sentences, which is hard to grasp by the traditional text summarization models. In this paper, we propose an encoder-decoder model for generating the title of CCP. Our model encoder is a convolutional neural network (CNN) with two kinds of filters. To capture the commonly used words in one sentence, one kind of filters covers two characters horizontally at each step. The other covers two characters vertically at each step and can grasp the semantic relevance of characters between adjacent sentences. Experimental results show that our model is better than several other related models and can capture the semantic relevance of CCP more accurately.

The Relation between Order of Acquisition, Segmental Frequency and Function: The Case of Word-Initial Consonants in Dutch

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Severen, Lieve; Gillis, Joris J. M.; Molemans, Inge; van den Berg, Renate; De Maeyer, Sven; Gillis, Steven

2013-01-01

The impact of input frequency (IF) and functional load (FL) of segments in the ambient language on the acquisition order of word-initial consonants is investigated. Several definitions of IF/FL are compared and implemented. The impact of IF/FL and their components are computed using a longitudinal corpus of interactions between thirty…

Linguistic Constraints on Statistical Word Segmentation: The Role of Consonants in Arabic and English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kastner, Itamar; Adriaans, Frans

2018-01-01

Statistical learning is often taken to lie at the heart of many cognitive tasks, including the acquisition of language. One particular task in which probabilistic models have achieved considerable success is the segmentation of speech into words. However, these models have mostly been tested against English data, and as a result little is known…

Lexical Stress and Phonetic Processing in Word Learning in 20- to 24-Month-Old English-Learning Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Floccia, Caroline; Nazzi, Thierry; Austin, Keith; Arreckx, Frederique; Goslin, Jeremy

2011-01-01

To investigate the interaction between segmental and supra-segmental stress-related information in early word learning, two experiments were conducted with 20- to 24-month-old English-learning children. In an adaptation of the object categorization study designed by Nazzi and Gopnik (2001), children were presented with pairs of novel objects whose…

Phonotactic Probability Effects in Children Who Stutter

PubMed Central

Anderson, Julie D.; Byrd, Courtney T.

2008-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of phonotactic probability, the frequency of different sound segments and segment sequences, on the overall fluency with which words are produced by preschool children who stutter (CWS), as well as to determine whether it has an effect on the type of stuttered disfluency produced. Method A 500+ word language sample was obtained from 19 CWS. Each stuttered word was randomly paired with a fluently produced word that closely matched it in grammatical class, word length, familiarity, word and neighborhood frequency, and neighborhood density. Phonotactic probability values were obtained for the stuttered and fluent words from an online database. Results Phonotactic probability did not have a significant influence on the overall susceptibility of words to stuttering, but it did impact the type of stuttered disfluency produced. In specific, single-syllable word repetitions were significantly lower in phonotactic probability than fluently produced words, as well as part-word repetitions and sound prolongations. Conclusions In general, the differential impact of phonotactic probability on the type of stuttering-like disfluency produced by young CWS provides some support for the notion that different disfluency types may originate in the disruption of different levels of processing. PMID:18658056

Segmentation of Written Words in French

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chetail, Fabienne; Content, Alain

2013-01-01

Syllabification of spoken words has been largely used to define syllabic properties of written words, such as the number of syllables or syllabic boundaries. By contrast, some authors proposed that the functional structure of written words stems from visuo-orthographic features rather than from the transposition of phonological structure into the…

Words Analysis of Online Chinese News Headlines about Trending Events: A Complex Network Perspective

PubMed Central

Li, Huajiao; Fang, Wei; An, Haizhong; Huang, Xuan

2015-01-01

Because the volume of information available online is growing at breakneck speed, keeping up with meaning and information communicated by the media and netizens is a new challenge both for scholars and for companies who must address public relations crises. Most current theories and tools are directed at identifying one website or one piece of online news and do not attempt to develop a rapid understanding of all websites and all news covering one topic. This paper represents an effort to integrate statistics, word segmentation, complex networks and visualization to analyze headlines’ keywords and words relationships in online Chinese news using two samples: the 2011 Bohai Bay oil spill and the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. We gathered all the news headlines concerning the two trending events in the search results from Baidu, the most popular Chinese search engine. We used Simple Chinese Word Segmentation to segment all the headlines into words and then took words as nodes and considered adjacent relations as edges to construct word networks both using the whole sample and at the monthly level. Finally, we develop an integrated mechanism to analyze the features of words’ networks based on news headlines that can account for all the keywords in the news about a particular event and therefore track the evolution of news deeply and rapidly. PMID:25807376

Partial Membership Latent Dirichlet Allocation for Soft Image Segmentation.

PubMed

Chen, Chao; Zare, Alina; Trinh, Huy N; Omotara, Gbenga O; Cobb, James Tory; Lagaunne, Timotius A

2017-12-01

Topic models [e.g., probabilistic latent semantic analysis, latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), and supervised LDA] have been widely used for segmenting imagery. However, these models are confined to crisp segmentation, forcing a visual word (i.e., an image patch) to belong to one and only one topic. Yet, there are many images in which some regions cannot be assigned a crisp categorical label (e.g., transition regions between a foggy sky and the ground or between sand and water at a beach). In these cases, a visual word is best represented with partial memberships across multiple topics. To address this, we present a partial membership LDA (PM-LDA) model and an associated parameter estimation algorithm. This model can be useful for imagery, where a visual word may be a mixture of multiple topics. Experimental results on visual and sonar imagery show that PM-LDA can produce both crisp and soft semantic image segmentations; a capability previous topic modeling methods do not have.

Synthesis of Common Arabic Handwritings to Aid Optical Character Recognition Research.

PubMed

Dinges, Laslo; Al-Hamadi, Ayoub; Elzobi, Moftah; El-Etriby, Sherif

2016-03-11

Document analysis tasks such as pattern recognition, word spotting or segmentation, require comprehensive databases for training and validation. Not only variations in writing style but also the used list of words is of importance in the case that training samples should reflect the input of a specific area of application. However, generation of training samples is expensive in the sense of manpower and time, particularly if complete text pages including complex ground truth are required. This is why there is a lack of such databases, especially for Arabic, the second most popular language. However, Arabic handwriting recognition involves different preprocessing, segmentation and recognition methods. Each requires particular ground truth or samples to enable optimal training and validation, which are often not covered by the currently available databases. To overcome this issue, we propose a system that synthesizes Arabic handwritten words and text pages and generates corresponding detailed ground truth. We use these syntheses to validate a new, segmentation based system that recognizes handwritten Arabic words. We found that a modification of an Active Shape Model based character classifiers-that we proposed earlier-improves the word recognition accuracy. Further improvements are achieved, by using a vocabulary of the 50,000 most common Arabic words for error correction.

Synthesis of Common Arabic Handwritings to Aid Optical Character Recognition Research

PubMed Central

Dinges, Laslo; Al-Hamadi, Ayoub; Elzobi, Moftah; El-etriby, Sherif

2016-01-01

Document analysis tasks such as pattern recognition, word spotting or segmentation, require comprehensive databases for training and validation. Not only variations in writing style but also the used list of words is of importance in the case that training samples should reflect the input of a specific area of application. However, generation of training samples is expensive in the sense of manpower and time, particularly if complete text pages including complex ground truth are required. This is why there is a lack of such databases, especially for Arabic, the second most popular language. However, Arabic handwriting recognition involves different preprocessing, segmentation and recognition methods. Each requires particular ground truth or samples to enable optimal training and validation, which are often not covered by the currently available databases. To overcome this issue, we propose a system that synthesizes Arabic handwritten words and text pages and generates corresponding detailed ground truth. We use these syntheses to validate a new, segmentation based system that recognizes handwritten Arabic words. We found that a modification of an Active Shape Model based character classifiers—that we proposed earlier—improves the word recognition accuracy. Further improvements are achieved, by using a vocabulary of the 50,000 most common Arabic words for error correction. PMID:26978368

Segmental transition of the first syllables of words in Japanese children who stutter: Comparison between word and sentence production.

PubMed

Matsumoto, Sachiyo; Ito, Tomohiko

2016-01-01

Matsumoto-Shimamori, Ito, Fukuda, & Fukuda (2011) proposed the hypothesis that in Japanese, the transition from the core vowels (i.e. syllable nucleus) of the first syllables of words to the following segments affected the occurrence of stuttering. Moreover, in this transition position, an inter-syllabic transition precipitated more stuttering than an intra-syllabic one (Shimamori & Ito, 2007, 2008). However, these studies have only used word production tasks. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the same results could be obtained in sentence production tasks. Participants were 28 Japanese school-age children who stutter, ranging in age from 7;3 to 12;7. The frequency of stuttering on words with an inter-syllabic transition was significantly higher than on those having an intra-syllabic transition, not only in isolated words but in the first words of sentences. These results suggested that Matsumoto et al.'s hypothesis could be applicable to the results of sentence production tasks.

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

Contribution of Phonemic Segmentation Instruction with Letters and Articulation Pictures to Word Reading and Spelling in Beginners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boyer, Nancy; Ehri, Linnea C.

2011-01-01

English-speaking preschoolers who knew letters but were nonreaders (M = 4 years 9 months; n = 60) were taught to segment consonant-vowel (CV), VC, and CVC words into phonemes either with letters and pictures of articulatory gestures (the LPA condition) or with letters only (the LO condition). A control group received no treatment. Both trained…

Automatic measurement and representation of prosodic features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ying, Goangshiuan Shawn

Effective measurement and representation of prosodic features of the acoustic signal for use in automatic speech recognition and understanding systems is the goal of this work. Prosodic features-stress, duration, and intonation-are variations of the acoustic signal whose domains are beyond the boundaries of each individual phonetic segment. Listeners perceive prosodic features through a complex combination of acoustic correlates such as intensity, duration, and fundamental frequency (F0). We have developed new tools to measure F0 and intensity features. We apply a probabilistic global error correction routine to an Average Magnitude Difference Function (AMDF) pitch detector. A new short-term frequency-domain Teager energy algorithm is used to measure the energy of a speech signal. We have conducted a series of experiments performing lexical stress detection on words in continuous English speech from two speech corpora. We have experimented with two different approaches, a segment-based approach and a rhythm unit-based approach, in lexical stress detection. The first approach uses pattern recognition with energy- and duration-based measurements as features to build Bayesian classifiers to detect the stress level of a vowel segment. In the second approach we define rhythm unit and use only the F0-based measurement and a scoring system to determine the stressed segment in the rhythm unit. A duration-based segmentation routine was developed to break polysyllabic words into rhythm units. The long-term goal of this work is to develop a system that can effectively detect the stress pattern for each word in continuous speech utterances. Stress information will be integrated as a constraint for pruning the word hypotheses in a word recognition system based on hidden Markov models.

English Listeners Use Suprasegmental Cues to Lexical Stress Early During Spoken-Word Recognition

PubMed Central

Poellmann, Katja; Kong, Ying-Yee

2017-01-01

Purpose We used an eye-tracking technique to investigate whether English listeners use suprasegmental information about lexical stress to speed up the recognition of spoken words in English. Method In a visual world paradigm, 24 young English listeners followed spoken instructions to choose 1 of 4 printed referents on a computer screen (e.g., “Click on the word admiral”). Displays contained a critical pair of words (e.g., ˈadmiral–ˌadmiˈration) that were segmentally identical for their first 2 syllables but differed suprasegmentally in their 1st syllable: One word began with primary lexical stress, and the other began with secondary lexical stress. All words had phrase-level prominence. Listeners' relative proportion of eye fixations on these words indicated their ability to differentiate them over time. Results Before critical word pairs became segmentally distinguishable in their 3rd syllables, participants fixated target words more than their stress competitors, but only if targets had initial primary lexical stress. The degree to which stress competitors were fixated was independent of their stress pattern. Conclusions Suprasegmental information about lexical stress modulates the time course of spoken-word recognition. Specifically, suprasegmental information on the primary-stressed syllable of words with phrase-level prominence helps in distinguishing the word from phonological competitors with secondary lexical stress. PMID:28056135

Whole Word Measures in Bilingual Children with Speech Sound Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burrows, Lauren; Goldstein, Brian A.

2010-01-01

Phonological acquisition traditionally has been measured using constructs that focus on segments rather than the whole words. Findings from recent research have suggested whole-word productions be evaluated using measures such as phonological mean length of utterance (pMLU) and the proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP). These measures have been…

String Mining in Bioinformatics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abouelhoda, Mohamed; Ghanem, Moustafa

Sequence analysis is a major area in bioinformatics encompassing the methods and techniques for studying the biological sequences, DNA, RNA, and proteins, on the linear structure level. The focus of this area is generally on the identification of intra- and inter-molecular similarities. Identifying intra-molecular similarities boils down to detecting repeated segments within a given sequence, while identifying inter-molecular similarities amounts to spotting common segments among two or multiple sequences. From a data mining point of view, sequence analysis is nothing but string- or pattern mining specific to biological strings. For a long time, this point of view, however, has not been explicitly embraced neither in the data mining nor in the sequence analysis text books, which may be attributed to the co-evolution of the two apparently independent fields. In other words, although the word "data-mining" is almost missing in the sequence analysis literature, its basic concepts have been implicitly applied. Interestingly, recent research in biological sequence analysis introduced efficient solutions to many problems in data mining, such as querying and analyzing time series [49,53], extracting information from web pages [20], fighting spam mails [50], detecting plagiarism [22], and spotting duplications in software systems [14].

String Mining in Bioinformatics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abouelhoda, Mohamed; Ghanem, Moustafa

Sequence analysis is a major area in bioinformatics encompassing the methods and techniques for studying the biological sequences, DNA, RNA, and proteins, on the linear structure level. The focus of this area is generally on the identification of intra- and inter-molecular similarities. Identifying intra-molecular similarities boils down to detecting repeated segments within a given sequence, while identifying inter-molecular similarities amounts to spotting common segments among two or multiple sequences. From a data mining point of view, sequence analysis is nothing but string- or pattern mining specific to biological strings. For a long time, this point of view, however, has not been explicitly embraced neither in the data mining nor in the sequence analysis text books, which may be attributed to the co-evolution of the two apparently independent fields. In other words, although the word “data-mining” is almost missing in the sequence analysis literature, its basic concepts have been implicitly applied. Interestingly, recent research in biological sequence analysis introduced efficient solutions to many problems in data mining, such as querying and analyzing time series [49,53], extracting information from web pages [20], fighting spam mails [50], detecting plagiarism [22], and spotting duplications in software systems [14].

Evidence for Separate Tonal and Segmental Tiers in the Lexical Specification of Words: A Case Study of a Brain-Damaged Chinese Speaker

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liang, Jie; van Heuven, Vincent J.

2004-01-01

We present an acoustic study of segmental and prosodic properties of words produced by a female speaker of Chinese with left-hemisphere brain damage. We measured the location of the point vowels /a, e, @?, i, y, o, u/ and determined their separation in the vowel plane, and their perceptual distinctivity. Similarly, the acoustic properties of the…

An eye movement based reading intervention in lexical and segmental readers with acquired dyslexia.

PubMed

Ablinger, Irene; von Heyden, Kerstin; Vorstius, Christian; Halm, Katja; Huber, Walter; Radach, Ralph

2014-01-01

Due to their brain damage, aphasic patients with acquired dyslexia often rely to a greater extent on lexical or segmental reading procedures. Thus, therapy intervention is mostly targeted on the more impaired reading strategy. In the present work we introduce a novel therapy approach based on real-time measurement of patients' eye movements as they attempt to read words. More specifically, an eye movement contingent technique of stepwise letter de-masking was used to support sequential reading, whereas fixation-dependent initial masking of non-central letters stimulated a lexical (parallel) reading strategy. Four lexical and four segmental readers with acquired central dyslexia received our intensive reading intervention. All participants showed remarkable improvements as evident in reduced total reading time, a reduced number of fixations per word and improved reading accuracy. Both types of intervention led to item-specific training effects in all subjects. A generalisation to untrained items was only found in segmental readers after the lexical training. Eye movement analyses were also used to compare word processing before and after therapy, indicating that all patients, with one exclusion, maintained their preferred reading strategy. However, in several cases the balance between sequential and lexical processing became less extreme, indicating a more effective individual interplay of both word processing routes.

Words in Puddles of Sound: Modelling Psycholinguistic Effects in Speech Segmentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monaghan, Padraic; Christiansen, Morten H.

2010-01-01

There are numerous models of how speech segmentation may proceed in infants acquiring their first language. We present a framework for considering the relative merits and limitations of these various approaches. We then present a model of speech segmentation that aims to reveal important sources of information for speech segmentation, and to…

An Analysis of the Most Frequently Occurring Words in Spoken American English.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plant, Geoff

1999-01-01

A study analyzed frequency of occurrence of consonants, vowels, and diphthongs, syllabic structure of the words, and segmental structure of the 311 monosyllabic words of 500 words that occur most frequently in English. Three mannerisms of articulation accounted for nearly 75 percent of all consonant occurrences: stops, semi-vowels, and nasals.…

The Effects of Schema-Broadening Instruction on Second Graders’ Word-Problem Performance and Their Ability to Represent Word Problems with Algebraic Equations: A Randomized Control Study

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Zumeta, Rebecca O.; Schumacher, Robin Finelli; Powell, Sarah R.; Seethaler, Pamela M.; Hamlett, Carol L.; Fuchs, Douglas

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of schema-broadening instruction (SBI) on second graders’ word-problem-solving skills and their ability to represent the structure of word problems using algebraic equations. Teachers (n = 18) were randomly assigned to conventional word-problem instruction or SBI word-problem instruction, which taught students to represent the structural, defining features of word problems with overarching equations. Intervention lasted 16 weeks. We pretested and posttested 270 students on measures of word-problem skill; analyses that accounted for the nested structure of the data indicated superior word-problem learning for SBI students. Descriptive analyses of students’ word-problem work indicated that SBI helped students represent the structure of word problems with algebraic equations, suggesting that SBI promoted this aspect of students’ emerging algebraic reasoning. PMID:20539822

Rapid Statistical Learning Supporting Word Extraction From Continuous Speech.

PubMed

Batterink, Laura J

2017-07-01

The identification of words in continuous speech, known as speech segmentation, is a critical early step in language acquisition. This process is partially supported by statistical learning, the ability to extract patterns from the environment. Given that speech segmentation represents a potential bottleneck for language acquisition, patterns in speech may be extracted very rapidly, without extensive exposure. This hypothesis was examined by exposing participants to continuous speech streams composed of novel repeating nonsense words. Learning was measured on-line using a reaction time task. After merely one exposure to an embedded novel word, learners demonstrated significant learning effects, as revealed by faster responses to predictable than to unpredictable syllables. These results demonstrate that learners gained sensitivity to the statistical structure of unfamiliar speech on a very rapid timescale. This ability may play an essential role in early stages of language acquisition, allowing learners to rapidly identify word candidates and "break in" to an unfamiliar language.

Acquisition of Malay word recognition skills: lessons from low-progress early readers.

PubMed

Lee, Lay Wah; Wheldall, Kevin

2011-02-01

Malay is a consistent alphabetic orthography with complex syllable structures. The focus of this research was to investigate word recognition performance in order to inform reading interventions for low-progress early readers. Forty-six Grade 1 students were sampled and 11 were identified as low-progress readers. The results indicated that both syllable awareness and phoneme blending were significant predictors of word recognition, suggesting that both syllable and phonemic grain-sizes are important in Malay word recognition. Item analysis revealed a hierarchical pattern of difficulty based on the syllable and the phonic structure of the words. Error analysis identified the sources of errors to be errors due to inefficient syllable segmentation, oversimplification of syllables, insufficient grapheme-phoneme knowledge and inefficient phonemic code assembly. Evidence also suggests that direct instruction in syllable segmentation, phonemic awareness and grapheme-phoneme correspondence is necessary for low-progress readers to acquire word recognition skills. Finally, a logical sequence to teach grapheme-phoneme decoding in Malay is suggested. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Word-initial rhotic clusters in typically developing children: European Portuguese.

PubMed

Ramalho, Ana Margarida; Freitas, M João

2018-01-01

Rhotic clusters are complex structures segmentally and prosodically and are frequently one of the last structures acquired by Portuguese-speaking children. This paper describes cross-sectional data for word-initial (WI) rhotic tap clusters in typically developing 3-4- and 5-year-olds in Portugal. Additional information is provided on WI /l/ as a singleton and in clusters. A native speaker audio-recorded and transcribed single words in a story-telling task. Results for WI rhotic clusters show an age effect consistent with previous research on European Portuguese. Singleton /l/ was in advance of /l/-clusters as expected, but the tap clusters were in advance of the /l/-clusters, possibly reflecting the velarized characteristics of the lateral. The prosodic variables word stress and word length were relevant for the WI rhotic clusters: shorter words and stressed syllables showed higher accuracy. Finally, mismatches ('errors') mainly reflected negative structural constraints (deletion of C2 and epenthesis) rather than segmental constraints (substitutions).

Support for context effects on segmentation and segments depends on the context.

PubMed

Heffner, Christopher C; Newman, Rochelle S; Idsardi, William J

2017-04-01

Listeners must adapt to differences in speech rate across talkers and situations. Speech rate adaptation effects are strong for adjacent syllables (i.e., proximal syllables). For studies that have assessed adaptation effects on speech rate information more than one syllable removed from a point of ambiguity in speech (i.e., distal syllables), the difference in strength between different types of ambiguity is stark. Studies of word segmentation have shown large shifts in perception as a result of distal rate manipulations, while studies of segmental perception have shown only weak, or even nonexistent, effects. However, no study has standardized methods and materials to study context effects for both types of ambiguity simultaneously. Here, a set of sentences was created that differed as minimally as possible except for whether the sentences were ambiguous to the voicing of a consonant or ambiguous to the location of a word boundary. The sentences were then rate-modified to slow down the distal context speech rate to various extents, dependent on three different definitions of distal context that were adapted from previous experiments, along with a manipulation of proximal context to assess whether proximal effects were comparable across ambiguity types. The results indicate that the definition of distal influenced the extent of distal rate effects strongly for both segments and segmentation. They also establish the presence of distal rate effects on word-final segments for the first time. These results were replicated, with some caveats regarding the perception of individual segments, in an Internet-based sample recruited from Mechanical Turk.

Development of A Two-Stage Procedure for the Automatic Recognition of Dysfluencies in the Speech of Children Who Stutter: I. Psychometric Procedures Appropriate for Selection of Training Material for Lexical Dysfluency Classifiers

PubMed Central

Howell, Peter; Sackin, Stevie; Glenn, Kazan

2007-01-01

This program of work is intended to develop automatic recognition procedures to locate and assess stuttered dysfluencies. This and the following article together, develop and test recognizers for repetitions and prolongations. The automatic recognizers classify the speech in two stages: In the first, the speech is segmented and in the second the segments are categorized. The units that are segmented are words. Here assessments by human judges on the speech of 12 children who stutter are described using a corresponding procedure. The accuracy of word boundary placement across judges, categorization of the words as fluent, repetition or prolongation, and duration of the different fluency categories are reported. These measures allow reliable instances of repetitions and prolongations to be selected for training and assessing the recognizers in the subsequent paper. PMID:9328878

Unsupervised Word Spotting in Historical Handwritten Document Images using Document-oriented Local Features.

PubMed

Zagoris, Konstantinos; Pratikakis, Ioannis; Gatos, Basilis

2017-05-03

Word spotting strategies employed in historical handwritten documents face many challenges due to variation in the writing style and intense degradation. In this paper, a new method that permits effective word spotting in handwritten documents is presented that it relies upon document-oriented local features which take into account information around representative keypoints as well a matching process that incorporates spatial context in a local proximity search without using any training data. Experimental results on four historical handwritten datasets for two different scenarios (segmentation-based and segmentation-free) using standard evaluation measures show the improved performance achieved by the proposed methodology.

A Web-based interface to calculate phonotactic probability for words and nonwords in English

PubMed Central

VITEVITCH, MICHAEL S.; LUCE, PAUL A.

2008-01-01

Phonotactic probability refers to the frequency with which phonological segments and sequences of phonological segments occur in words in a given language. We describe one method of estimating phonotactic probabilities based on words in American English. These estimates of phonotactic probability have been used in a number of previous studies and are now being made available to other researchers via a Web-based interface. Instructions for using the interface, as well as details regarding how the measures were derived, are provided in the present article. The Phonotactic Probability Calculator can be accessed at http://www.people.ku.edu/~mvitevit/PhonoProbHome.html. PMID:15641436

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…

Multiple functional units in the preattentive segmentation of speech in Japanese: evidence from word illusions.

PubMed

Nakamura, Miyoko; Kolinsky, Régine

2014-12-01

We explored the functional units of speech segmentation in Japanese using dichotic presentation and a detection task requiring no intentional sublexical analysis. Indeed, illusory perception of a target word might result from preattentive migration of phonemes, morae, or syllables from one ear to the other. In Experiment I, Japanese listeners detected targets presented in hiragana and/or kanji. Phoneme migrations did occur, suggesting that orthography-independent sublexical constituents play some role in segmentation. However, syllable and especially mora migrations were more numerous. This pattern of results was not observed in French speakers (Experiment 2), suggesting that it reflects native segmentation in Japanese. To control for the intervention of kanji representations (many words are written in kanji, and one kanji often corresponds to one syllable), in Experiment 3, Japanese listeners were presented with target loanwords that can be written only in katakana. Again, phoneme migrations occurred, while the first mora and syllable led to similar rates of illusory percepts. No migration occurred for the second, "special" mora (/J/ or/N/), probably because this constitutes the latter part of a heavy syllable. Overall, these findings suggest that multiple units, such as morae, syllables, and even phonemes, function independently of orthographic knowledge in Japanese preattentive speech segmentation.

Cognitive and Linguistic Predictors of Mathematical Word Problems With and Without Irrelevant Information.

PubMed

Wang, Amber Y; Fuchs, Lynn S; Fuchs, Douglas

2016-12-01

The purpose of this study was to identify cognitive and linguistic predictors of word problems with versus without irrelevant information. The sample was 701 2nd-grade students who received no specialized intervention on word problems. In the fall, they were assessed on initial arithmetic and word-problem skill as well as language ability, working memory capacity, and processing speed; in the spring, they were tested on a word-problem measure that included items with versus without irrelevant information. Significant predictors common to both forms of word problems were initial arithmetic and word problem-solving skill as well as language and working memory. Nonverbal reasoning predicted word problems with irrelevant information, but not word problems without irrelevant information. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for intervention and future research.

Review of smoothing methods for enhancement of noisy data from heavy-duty LHD mining machines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wodecki, Jacek; Michalak, Anna; Stefaniak, Paweł

2018-01-01

Appropriate analysis of data measured on heavy-duty mining machines is essential for processes monitoring, management and optimization. Some particular classes of machines, for example LHD (load-haul-dump) machines, hauling trucks, drilling/bolting machines etc. are characterized with cyclicity of operations. In those cases, identification of cycles and their segments or in other words - simply data segmentation is a key to evaluate their performance, which may be very useful from the management point of view, for example leading to introducing optimization to the process. However, in many cases such raw signals are contaminated with various artifacts, and in general are expected to be very noisy, which makes the segmentation task very difficult or even impossible. To deal with that problem, there is a need for efficient smoothing methods that will allow to retain informative trends in the signals while disregarding noises and other undesired non-deterministic components. In this paper authors present a review of various approaches to diagnostic data smoothing. Described methods can be used in a fast and efficient way, effectively cleaning the signals while preserving informative deterministic behaviour, that is a crucial to precise segmentation and other approaches to industrial data analysis.

Thai Automatic Speech Recognition

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-01-01

used in an external DARPA evaluation involving medical scenarios between an American Doctor and a naïve monolingual Thai patient. 2. Thai Language... dictionary generation more challenging, and (3) the lack of word segmentation, which calls for automatic segmentation approaches to make n-gram language...requires a dictionary and provides various segmentation algorithms to automatically select suitable segmentations. Here we used a maximal matching

Developmental Differences in the Effects of Phonological, Lexical and Semantic Variables on Word Learning by Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Storkel, Holly L.

2009-01-01

The influence of phonological (i.e. individual sounds), lexical (i.e. whole-word forms) and semantic (i.e. meaning) characteristics on the words known by infants age 1;4 to 2;6 was examined, using an existing database (Dale & Fenson, 1996). For each noun, word frequency, two phonological (i.e. positional segment average, biphone average), two…

Cognitive and Linguistic Predictors of Mathematical Word Problems With and Without Irrelevant Information

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Fuchs, Douglas

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify cognitive and linguistic predictors of word problems with versus without irrelevant information. The sample was 701 2nd-grade students who received no specialized intervention on word problems. In the fall, they were assessed on initial arithmetic and word-problem skill as well as language ability, working memory capacity, and processing speed; in the spring, they were tested on a word-problem measure that included items with versus without irrelevant information. Significant predictors common to both forms of word problems were initial arithmetic and word problem-solving skill as well as language and working memory. Nonverbal reasoning predicted word problems with irrelevant information, but not word problems without irrelevant information. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for intervention and future research. PMID:28190942

Word Problem Solving in Contemporary Math Education: A Plea for Reading Comprehension Skills Training

PubMed Central

Boonen, Anton J. H.; de Koning, Björn B.; Jolles, Jelle; van der Schoot, Menno

2016-01-01

Successfully solving mathematical word problems requires both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. In Realistic Math Education (RME), however, students primarily learn to apply the first of these skills (i.e., representational skills) in the context of word problem solving. Given this, it seems legitimate to assume that students from a RME curriculum experience difficulties when asked to solve semantically complex word problems. We investigated this assumption under 80 sixth grade students who were classified as successful and less successful word problem solvers based on a standardized mathematics test. To this end, students completed word problems that ask for both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. The results showed that even successful word problem solvers had a low performance on semantically complex word problems, despite adequate performance on semantically less complex word problems. Based on this study, we concluded that reading comprehension skills should be given a (more) prominent role during word problem solving instruction in RME. PMID:26925012

Word Problem Solving in Contemporary Math Education: A Plea for Reading Comprehension Skills Training.

PubMed

Boonen, Anton J H; de Koning, Björn B; Jolles, Jelle; van der Schoot, Menno

2016-01-01

Successfully solving mathematical word problems requires both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. In Realistic Math Education (RME), however, students primarily learn to apply the first of these skills (i.e., representational skills) in the context of word problem solving. Given this, it seems legitimate to assume that students from a RME curriculum experience difficulties when asked to solve semantically complex word problems. We investigated this assumption under 80 sixth grade students who were classified as successful and less successful word problem solvers based on a standardized mathematics test. To this end, students completed word problems that ask for both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. The results showed that even successful word problem solvers had a low performance on semantically complex word problems, despite adequate performance on semantically less complex word problems. Based on this study, we concluded that reading comprehension skills should be given a (more) prominent role during word problem solving instruction in RME.

Event-Related Potentials Reflecting the Processing of Phonological Constraint Violations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Domahs, Ulrike; Kehrein, Wolfgang; Knaus, Johannes; Wiese, Richard; Schlesewsky, Matthias

2009-01-01

How are violations of phonological constraints processed in word comprehension? The present article reports the results of an event-related potentials (ERP) study on a phonological constraint of German that disallows identical segments within a syllable or word (CC[subscript i]VC[subscript i]). We examined three types of monosyllabic CCVC words:…

He Said, She Said: Effects of Bilingualism on Cross-Talker Word Recognition in Infancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Leher

2018-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to examine effects of bilingual language input on infant word segmentation and on talker generalization. In the present study, monolingually and bilingually exposed infants were compared on their abilities to recognize familiarized words in speech and to maintain generalizable representations of familiarized…

Probabilistic Phonotactics as a Cue for Recognizing Spoken Cantonese Words in Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yip, Michael C. W.

2017-01-01

Previous experimental psycholinguistic studies suggested that the probabilistic phonotactics information might likely to hint the locations of word boundaries in continuous speech and hence posed an interesting solution to the empirical question on how we recognize/segment individual spoken word in speech. We investigated this issue by using…

Got Rhythm...For Better and for Worse. Cross-Modal Effects of Auditory Rhythm on Visual Word Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brochard, Renaud; Tassin, Maxime; Zagar, Daniel

2013-01-01

The present research aimed to investigate whether, as previously observed with pictures, background auditory rhythm would also influence visual word recognition. In a lexical decision task, participants were presented with bisyllabic visual words, segmented into two successive groups of letters, while an irrelevant strongly metric auditory…

Orthographic vs. Phonologic Syllables in Handwriting Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kandel, Sonia; Herault, Lucie; Grosjacques, Geraldine; Lambert, Eric; Fayol, Michel

2009-01-01

French children program the words they write syllable by syllable. We examined whether the syllable the children use to segment words is determined phonologically (i.e., is derived from speech production processes) or orthographically. Third, 4th and 5th graders wrote on a digitiser words that were mono-syllables phonologically (e.g.…

The activation of segmental and tonal information in visual word recognition.

PubMed

Li, Chuchu; Lin, Candise Y; Wang, Min; Jiang, Nan

2013-08-01

Mandarin Chinese has a logographic script in which graphemes map onto syllables and morphemes. It is not clear whether Chinese readers activate phonological information during lexical access, although phonological information is not explicitly represented in Chinese orthography. In the present study, we examined the activation of phonological information, including segmental and tonal information in Chinese visual word recognition, using the Stroop paradigm. Native Mandarin speakers named the presentation color of Chinese characters in Mandarin. The visual stimuli were divided into five types: color characters (e.g., , hong2, "red"), homophones of the color characters (S+T+; e.g., , hong2, "flood"), different-tone homophones (S+T-; e.g., , hong1, "boom"), characters that shared the same tone but differed in segments with the color characters (S-T+; e.g., , ping2, "bottle"), and neutral characters (S-T-; e.g., , qian1, "leading through"). Classic Stroop facilitation was shown in all color-congruent trials, and interference was shown in the incongruent trials. Furthermore, the Stroop effect was stronger for S+T- than for S-T+ trials, and was similar between S+T+ and S+T- trials. These findings suggested that both tonal and segmental forms of information play roles in lexical constraints; however, segmental information has more weight than tonal information. We proposed a revised visual word recognition model in which the functions of both segmental and suprasegmental types of information and their relative weights are taken into account.

Lexical and sublexical units in speech perception.

PubMed

Giroux, Ibrahima; Rey, Arnaud

2009-03-01

Saffran, Newport, and Aslin (1996a) found that human infants are sensitive to statistical regularities corresponding to lexical units when hearing an artificial spoken language. Two sorts of segmentation strategies have been proposed to account for this early word-segmentation ability: bracketing strategies, in which infants are assumed to insert boundaries into continuous speech, and clustering strategies, in which infants are assumed to group certain speech sequences together into units (Swingley, 2005). In the present study, we test the predictions of two computational models instantiating each of these strategies i.e., Serial Recurrent Networks: Elman, 1990; and Parser: Perruchet & Vinter, 1998 in an experiment where we compare the lexical and sublexical recognition performance of adults after hearing 2 or 10 min of an artificial spoken language. The results are consistent with Parser's predictions and the clustering approach, showing that performance on words is better than performance on part-words only after 10 min. This result suggests that word segmentation abilities are not merely due to stronger associations between sublexical units but to the emergence of stronger lexical representations during the development of speech perception processes. Copyright © 2009, Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

The Secret Is in the Sound

PubMed Central

Christiansen, Morten H.; Onnis, Luca; Hockema, Stephen A.

2009-01-01

When learning language young children are faced with many seemingly formidable challenges, including discovering words embedded in a continuous stream of sounds and determining what role these words play in syntactic constructions. We suggest that knowledge of phoneme distributions may play a crucial part in helping children segment words and determine their lexical category, and propose an integrated model of how children might go from unsegmented speech to lexical categories. We corroborated this theoretical model using a two-stage computational analysis of a large corpus of English child-directed speech. First, we used transition probabilities between phonemes to find words in unsegmented speech. Second, we used distributional information about word edges—the beginning and ending phonemes of words—to predict whether the segmented words from the first stage were nouns, verbs, or something else. The results indicate that discovering lexical units and their associated syntactic category in child-directed speech is possible by attending to the statistics of single phoneme transitions and word-initial and final phonemes. Thus, we suggest that a core computational principle in language acquisition is that the same source of information is used to learn about different aspects of linguistic structure. PMID:19371361

The Utility of Cognitive Plausibility in Language Acquisition Modeling: Evidence From Word Segmentation.

PubMed

Phillips, Lawrence; Pearl, Lisa

2015-11-01

The informativity of a computational model of language acquisition is directly related to how closely it approximates the actual acquisition task, sometimes referred to as the model's cognitive plausibility. We suggest that though every computational model necessarily idealizes the modeled task, an informative language acquisition model can aim to be cognitively plausible in multiple ways. We discuss these cognitive plausibility checkpoints generally and then apply them to a case study in word segmentation, investigating a promising Bayesian segmentation strategy. We incorporate cognitive plausibility by using an age-appropriate unit of perceptual representation, evaluating the model output in terms of its utility, and incorporating cognitive constraints into the inference process. Our more cognitively plausible model shows a beneficial effect of cognitive constraints on segmentation performance. One interpretation of this effect is as a synergy between the naive theories of language structure that infants may have and the cognitive constraints that limit the fidelity of their inference processes, where less accurate inference approximations are better when the underlying assumptions about how words are generated are less accurate. More generally, these results highlight the utility of incorporating cognitive plausibility more fully into computational models of language acquisition. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Keywords image retrieval in historical handwritten Arabic documents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saabni, Raid; El-Sana, Jihad

2013-01-01

A system is presented for spotting and searching keywords in handwritten Arabic documents. A slightly modified dynamic time warping algorithm is used to measure similarities between words. Two sets of features are generated from the outer contour of the words/word-parts. The first set is based on the angles between nodes on the contour and the second set is based on the shape context features taken from the outer contour. To recognize a given word, the segmentation-free approach is partially adopted, i.e., continuous word parts are used as the basic alphabet, instead of individual characters or complete words. Additional strokes, such as dots and detached short segments, are classified and used in a postprocessing step to determine the final comparison decision. The search for a keyword is performed by the search for its word parts given in the correct order. The performance of the presented system was very encouraging in terms of efficiency and match rates. To evaluate the presented system its performance is compared to three different systems. Unfortunately, there are no publicly available standard datasets with ground truth for testing Arabic key word searching systems. Therefore, a private set of images partially taken from Juma'a Al-Majid Center in Dubai for evaluation is used, while using a slightly modified version of the IFN/ENIT database for training.

Lexical restructuring in the absence of literacy.

PubMed

Venturaa, Paulo; Kolinsky, Régine; Fernandesa, Sandra; Queridoa, Luís; Morais, José

2007-11-01

Vocabulary growth was suggested to prompt the implementation of increasingly finer-grained lexical representations of spoken words in children (e.g., [Metsala, J. L., & Walley, A. C. (1998). Spoken vocabulary growth and the segmental restructuring of lexical representations: precursors to phonemic awareness and early reading ability. In J. L. Metsala & L. C. Ehri (Eds.), Word recognition in beginning literacy (pp. 89-120). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.]). Although literacy was not explicitly mentioned in this lexical restructuring hypothesis, the process of learning to read and spell might also have a significant impact on the specification of lexical representations (e.g., [Carroll, J. M., & Snowling, M. J. (2001). The effects of global similarity between stimuli on children's judgments of rime and alliteration. Applied Psycholinguistics, 22, 327-342.]; [Goswami, U. (2000). Phonological representations, reading development and dyslexia: Towards a cross-linguistic theoretical framework. Dyslexia, 6, 133-151.]). This is what we checked in the present study. We manipulated word frequency and neighborhood density in a gating task (Experiment 1) and a word-identification-in-noise task (Experiment 2) presented to Portuguese literate and illiterate adults. Ex-illiterates were also tested in Experiment 2 in order to disentangle the effects of vocabulary size and literacy. There was an interaction between word frequency and neighborhood density, which was similar in the three groups. These did not differ even for the words that are supposed to undergo lexical restructuring the latest (low frequency words from sparse neighborhoods). Thus, segmental lexical representations seem to develop independently of literacy. While segmental restructuring is not affected by literacy, it constrains the development of phoneme awareness as shown by the fact that, in Experiment 3, neighborhood density modulated the phoneme deletion performance of both illiterates and ex-illiterates.

Effects of First and Second Language on Segmentation of Non-Native Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanulikova, Adriana; Mitterer, Holger; McQueen, James M.

2011-01-01

Do Slovak-German bilinguals apply native Slovak phonological and lexical knowledge when segmenting German speech? When Slovaks listen to their native language, segmentation is impaired when fixed-stress cues are absent (Hanulikova, McQueen & Mitterer, 2010), and, following the Possible-Word Constraint (PWC; Norris, McQueen, Cutler & Butterfield,…

Segmentation and Representation of Consonant Blends in Kindergarten Children's Spellings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Werfel, Krystal L.; Schuele, C. Melanie

2012-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the growth of children's segmentation and representation of consonant blends in the kindergarten year and to evaluate the extent to which linguistic features influence segmentation and representation of consonant blends. Specifically, the roles of word position (initial blends, final blends),…

The Longevity of Statistical Learning: When Infant Memory Decays, Isolated Words Come to the Rescue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karaman, Ferhat; Hay, Jessica F.

2018-01-01

Research over the past 2 decades has demonstrated that infants are equipped with remarkable computational abilities that allow them to find words in continuous speech. Infants can encode information about the transitional probability (TP) between syllables to segment words from artificial and natural languages. As previous research has tested…

How Are Pronunciation Variants of Spoken Words Recognized? A Test of Generalization to Newly Learned Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pitt, Mark A.

2009-01-01

One account of how pronunciation variants of spoken words (center-> "senner" or "sennah") are recognized is that sublexical processes use information about variation in the same phonological environments to recover the intended segments [Gaskell, G., & Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (1998). Mechanisms of phonological inference in speech perception.…

The Storage and Processing of Morphologically Complex Words in L2 Spanish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foote, Rebecca

2017-01-01

Research with native speakers indicates that, during word recognition, regularly inflected words undergo parsing that segments them into stems and affixes. In contrast, studies with learners suggest that this parsing may not take place in L2. This study's research questions are: Do L2 Spanish learners store and process regularly inflected,…

Stress Regularity or Consistency? Reading Aloud Italian Polysyllables with Different Stress Patterns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burani, Cristina; Arduino, Lisa S.

2004-01-01

Stress assignment to three- and four-syllable Italian words is not predictable by rule, but needs lexical look-up. The present study investigated whether stress assignment to low-frequency Italian words is determined by stress regularity, or by the number of words sharing the final phonological segment and the stress pattern (stress neighborhood…

Phonetic Aspects of Children's Elicited Word Revisions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paul-Brown, Diane; Yeni-Komshian, Grace H.

A study of the phonetic changes occurring when a speaker attempts to revise an unclear word for a listener focuses on changes made in the sound segment duration to maximize differences between phonemes. In the study, five-year-olds were asked by adults to revise words differing in voicing of initial and final stop consonants; a control group of…

The Effects of Video Self-Modeling on the Decoding Skills of Children at Risk for Reading Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ayala, Sandra M.

2010-01-01

Ten first grade students, participating in a Tier II response to intervention (RTI) reading program received an intervention of video self modeling to improve decoding skills and sight word recognition. The students were video recorded blending and segmenting decodable words, and reading sight words taken directly from their curriculum…

Does Calculation or Word-Problem Instruction Provide A Stronger Route to Pre-Algebraic Knowledge?

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Powell, Sarah R.; Cirino, Paul T.; Schumacher, Robin F.; Marrin, Sarah; Hamlett, Carol L.; Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L.; Changas, Paul C.

2014-01-01

The focus of this study was connections among 3 aspects of mathematical cognition at 2nd grade: calculations, word problems, and pre-algebraic knowledge. We extended the literature, which is dominated by correlational work, by examining whether intervention conducted on calculations or word problems contributes to improved performance in the other domain and whether intervention in either or both domains contributes to pre-algebraic knowledge. Participants were 1102 children in 127 2nd-grade classrooms in 25 schools. Teachers were randomly assigned to 3 conditions: calculation intervention, word-problem intervention, and business-as-usual control. Intervention, which lasted 17 weeks, was designed to provide research-based linkages between arithmetic calculations or arithmetic word problems (depending on condition) to pre-algebraic knowledge. Multilevel modeling suggested calculation intervention improved calculation but not word-problem outcomes; word-problem intervention enhanced word-problem but not calculation outcomes; and word-problem intervention provided a stronger route than calculation intervention to pre-algebraic knowledge. PMID:25541565

Possible-word constraints in Cantonese speech segmentation.

PubMed

Yip, Michael C

2004-03-01

A Cantonese syllable-spotting experiment was conducted to examine whether the Possible-Word Constraint (PWC), proposed by Norris, McQueen, Cutler, and Butterfield (1997), can apply in Cantonese speech segmentation. In the experiment, listeners were asked to spot out the target Cantonese syllable from a series of nonsense sound strings. Results suggested that listeners found it more difficult to spot out the target syllable [kDm1] in the nonsense sound strings that attached with a single consonant [tkDm1] than in the nonsense sound strings that attached either with a vowel [a:kDm1] or a pseudo-syllable [khow1kDm1]. Finally, the current set of results further supported that the PWC appears to be a language-universal mechanism in segmenting continuous speech.

The Use of Segmentation Cues in Second Language Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Candise Yue

2013-01-01

This dissertation project examined the influence of language typology on the use of segmentation cues by second language (L2) learners of English. Previous research has shown that native English speakers rely more on sentence context and lexical knowledge than segmental (i.e. phonotactics or acoustic-phonetics) or prosodic cues (e.g., word stress)…

How Does Context Play "a Part" in Splitting Words "Apart"? Production and Perception of Word Boundaries in Casual Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Dahee; Stephens, Joseph D. W.; Pitt, Mark A.

2012-01-01

Four experiments examined listeners' segmentation of ambiguous schwa-initial sequences (e.g., "a long" vs. "along") in casual speech, where acoustic cues can be unclear, possibly increasing reliance on contextual information to resolve the ambiguity. In Experiment 1, acoustic analyses of talkers' productions showed that the one-word and two-word…

English Pronunciation: A Systematic Approach to Word-Stress and Vowel-Sounds.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carmona, Francisco

A handbook on English word stress and stressed-vowel sounds is based on the idea that these segments are, in most cases, controlled by phonological context and their pronunciation can be understood through a system of rules. It serves as a reference for teachers and as a text for students. Chapters address these topics: word stress and active and…

Catch Up® Literacy: Evaluation Report and Executive Summary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rutt, Simon; Kettlewell, Kelly; Bernardinelli, Daniele

2015-01-01

Catch Up® Literacy is a structured one-to-one literacy intervention for pupils between the ages of 6 and 14 who are struggling to learn to read. It teaches pupils to blend phonemes (combine letter sounds into words), segment phonemes (separate words into letter sounds), and memorise particular words so they can be understood without needing to use…

Overcoming the Effects of Variation in Infant Speech Segmentation: Influences of Word Familiarity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Leher; Nestor, Sarah S.; Bortfeld, Heather

2008-01-01

Previous studies have shown that 7.5-month-olds can track and encode words in fluent speech, but they fail to equate instances of a word that contrast in talker gender, vocal affect, and fundamental frequency. By 10.5 months, they succeed at generalizing across such variability, marking a clear transition period during which infants' word…

Exploiting multiple sources of information in learning an artificial language: human data and modeling.

PubMed

Perruchet, Pierre; Tillmann, Barbara

2010-03-01

This study investigates the joint influences of three factors on the discovery of new word-like units in a continuous artificial speech stream: the statistical structure of the ongoing input, the initial word-likeness of parts of the speech flow, and the contextual information provided by the earlier emergence of other word-like units. Results of an experiment conducted with adult participants show that these sources of information have strong and interactive influences on word discovery. The authors then examine the ability of different models of word segmentation to account for these results. PARSER (Perruchet & Vinter, 1998) is compared to the view that word segmentation relies on the exploitation of transitional probabilities between successive syllables, and with the models based on the Minimum Description Length principle, such as INCDROP. The authors submit arguments suggesting that PARSER has the advantage of accounting for the whole pattern of data without ad-hoc modifications, while relying exclusively on general-purpose learning principles. This study strengthens the growing notion that nonspecific cognitive processes, mainly based on associative learning and memory principles, are able to account for a larger part of early language acquisition than previously assumed. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Linking sounds to meanings: infant statistical learning in a natural language.

PubMed

Hay, Jessica F; Pelucchi, Bruna; Graf Estes, Katharine; Saffran, Jenny R

2011-09-01

The processes of infant word segmentation and infant word learning have largely been studied separately. However, the ease with which potential word forms are segmented from fluent speech seems likely to influence subsequent mappings between words and their referents. To explore this process, we tested the link between the statistical coherence of sequences presented in fluent speech and infants' subsequent use of those sequences as labels for novel objects. Notably, the materials were drawn from a natural language unfamiliar to the infants (Italian). The results of three experiments suggest that there is a close relationship between the statistics of the speech stream and subsequent mapping of labels to referents. Mapping was facilitated when the labels contained high transitional probabilities in the forward and/or backward direction (Experiment 1). When no transitional probability information was available (Experiment 2), or when the internal transitional probabilities of the labels were low in both directions (Experiment 3), infants failed to link the labels to their referents. Word learning appears to be strongly influenced by infants' prior experience with the distribution of sounds that make up words in natural languages. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The role of tone and segmental information in visual-word recognition in Thai.

PubMed

Winskel, Heather; Ratitamkul, Theeraporn; Charoensit, Akira

2017-07-01

Tone languages represent a large proportion of the spoken languages of the world and yet lexical tone is understudied. Thai offers a unique opportunity to investigate the role of lexical tone processing during visual-word recognition, as tone is explicitly expressed in its script. We used colour words and their orthographic neighbours as stimuli to investigate facilitation (Experiment 1) and interference (Experiment 2) Stroop effects. Five experimental conditions were created: (a) the colour word (e.g., ขาว /k h ã:w/ [white]), (b) tone different word (e.g., ข่าว /k h à:w/[news]), (c) initial consonant phonologically same word (e.g., คาว /k h a:w/ [fishy]), where the initial consonant of the word was phonologically the same but orthographically different, (d) initial consonant different, tone same word (e.g., หาว /hã:w/ yawn), where the initial consonant was orthographically different but the tone of the word was the same, and (e) initial consonant different, tone different word (e.g., กาว /ka:w/ glue), where the initial consonant was orthographically different, and the tone was different. In order to examine whether tone information per se had a facilitative effect, we also included a colour congruent word condition where the segmental (S) information was different but the tone (T) matched the colour word (S-T+) in Experiment 2. Facilitation/interference effects were found for all five conditions when compared with a neutral control word. Results of the critical comparisons revealed that tone information comes into play at a later stage in lexical processing, and orthographic information contributes more than phonological information.

"Fragment errors" in deep dysgraphia: further support for a lexical hypothesis.

PubMed

Bormann, Tobias; Wallesch, Claus-W; Blanken, Gerhard

2008-07-01

In addition to various lexical errors, the writing of patients with deep dysgraphia may include a large number of segmental spelling errors, which increase towards the end of the word. Frequently, these errors involve deletion of two or more letters resulting in so-called "fragment errors". Different positions have been brought forward regarding their origin, including rapid decay of activation in the graphemic buffer and an impairment of more central (i.e., lexical or semantic) processing. We present data from a patient (M.D.) with deep dysgraphia who showed an increase of segmental spelling errors towards the end of the word. Several tasks were carried out to explore M.D.'s underlying functional impairment. Errors affected word-final positions in tasks like backward spelling and fragment completion. In a delayed copying task, length of the delay had no influence. In addition, when asked to recall three serially presented letters, a task which had not been carried out before, M.D. exhibited a preference for the first and the third letter and poor performance for the second letter. M.D.'s performance on these tasks contradicts the rapid decay account and instead supports a lexical-semantic account of segmental errors in deep dysgraphia. In addition, the results fit well with an implemented computational model of deep dysgraphia and segmental spelling errors.

Effects of disfluencies, predictability, and utterance position on word form variation in English conversation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bell, Alan; Jurafsky, Daniel; Fosler-Lussier, Eric; Girand, Cynthia; Gregory, Michelle; Gildea, Daniel

2003-02-01

Function words, especially frequently occurring ones such as (the, that, and, and of ), vary widely in pronunciation. Understanding this variation is essential both for cognitive modeling of lexical production and for computer speech recognition and synthesis. This study investigates which factors affect the forms of function words, especially whether they have a fuller pronunciation (e.g., edh,eye, edh,æ,tee, æ,en,&dee, vee) or a more reduced or lenited pronunciation (e.g., edh,schwa, edh,bari;t, n, schwa). It is based on over 8000 occurrences of the ten most frequent English function words in a 4-h sample from conversations from the Switchboard corpus. Ordinary linear and logistic regression models were used to examine variation in the length of the words, in the form of their vowel (basic, full, or reduced), and whether final obstruents were present or not. For all these measures, after controlling for segmental context, rate of speech, and other important factors, there are strong independent effects that made high-frequency monosyllabic function words more likely to be longer or have a fuller form (1) when neighboring disfluencies (such as filled pauses uh and um) indicate that the speaker was encountering problems in planning the utterance; (2) when the word is unexpected, i.e., less predictable in context; (3) when the word is either utterance initial or utterance final. Looking at the phenomenon in a different way, frequent function words are more likely to be shorter and to have less-full forms in fluent speech, in predictable positions or multiword collocations, and utterance internally. Also considered are other factors such as sex (women are more likely to use fuller forms, even after controlling for rate of speech, for example), and some of the differences among the ten function words in their response to the factors.

A model to identify high crash road segments with the dynamic segmentation method.

PubMed

Boroujerdian, Amin Mirza; Saffarzadeh, Mahmoud; Yousefi, Hassan; Ghassemian, Hassan

2014-12-01

Currently, high social and economic costs in addition to physical and mental consequences put road safety among most important issues. This paper aims at presenting a novel approach, capable of identifying the location as well as the length of high crash road segments. It focuses on the location of accidents occurred along the road and their effective regions. In other words, due to applicability and budget limitations in improving safety of road segments, it is not possible to recognize all high crash road segments. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to identify high crash road segments and their real length to be able to prioritize the safety improvement in roads. In this paper, after evaluating deficiencies of the current road segmentation models, different kinds of errors caused by these methods are addressed. One of the main deficiencies of these models is that they can not identify the length of high crash road segments. In this paper, identifying the length of high crash road segments (corresponding to the arrangement of accidents along the road) is achieved by converting accident data to the road response signal of through traffic with a dynamic model based on the wavelet theory. The significant advantage of the presented method is multi-scale segmentation. In other words, this model identifies high crash road segments with different lengths and also it can recognize small segments within long segments. Applying the presented model into a real case for identifying 10-20 percent of high crash road segment showed an improvement of 25-38 percent in relative to the existing methods. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pinyin and English Invented Spelling in Chinese-Speaking Students Who Speak English as a Second Language.

PubMed

Ding, Yi; Liu, Ru-De; McBride, Catherine A; Fan, Chung-Hau; Xu, Le; Wang, Jia

2018-05-07

This study examined pinyin (the official phonetic system that transcribes the lexical tones and pronunciation of Chinese characters) invented spelling and English invented spelling in 72 Mandarin-speaking 6th graders who learned English as their second language. The pinyin invented spelling task measured segmental-level awareness including syllable and phoneme awareness, and suprasegmental-level awareness including lexical tones and tone sandhi in Chinese Mandarin. The English invented spelling task manipulated segmental-level awareness including syllable awareness and phoneme awareness, and suprasegmental-level awareness including word stress. This pinyin task outperformed a traditional phonological awareness task that only measured segmental-level awareness and may have optimal utility to measure unique phonological and linguistic features in Chinese reading. The pinyin invented spelling uniquely explained variance in Chinese conventional spelling and word reading in both languages. The English invented spelling uniquely explained variance in conventional spelling and word reading in both languages. Our findings appear to support the role of phonological activation in Chinese reading. Our experimental linguistic manipulations altered the phonological awareness item difficulties.

The neural mechanisms of word order processing revisited: electrophysiological evidence from Japanese.

PubMed

Wolff, Susann; Schlesewsky, Matthias; Hirotani, Masako; Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina

2008-11-01

We present two ERP studies on the processing of word order variations in Japanese, a language that is suited to shedding further light on the implications of word order freedom for neurocognitive approaches to sentence comprehension. Experiment 1 used auditory presentation and revealed that initial accusative objects elicit increased processing costs in comparison to initial subjects (in the form of a transient negativity) only when followed by a prosodic boundary. A similar effect was observed using visual presentation in Experiment 2, however only for accusative but not for dative objects. These results support a relational account of word order processing, in which the costs of comprehending an object-initial word order are determined by the linearization properties of the initial object in relation to the linearization properties of possible upcoming arguments. In the absence of a prosodic boundary, the possibility for subject omission in Japanese renders it likely that the initial accusative is the only argument in the clause. Hence, no upcoming arguments are expected and no linearization problem can arise. A prosodic boundary or visual segmentation, by contrast, indicate an object-before-subject word order, thereby leading to a mismatch between argument "prominence" (e.g. in terms of thematic roles) and linear order. This mismatch is alleviated when the initial object is highly prominent itself (e.g. in the case of a dative, which can bear the higher-ranking thematic role in a two argument relation). We argue that the processing mechanism at work here can be distinguished from more general aspects of "dependency processing" in object-initial sentences.

Lasting Effects on Literacy Skills with a Computer-Assisted Learning Using Syllabic Units in Low-Progress Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ecalle, Jean; Magnan, Annie; Calmus, Caroline

2009-01-01

This study examines the effects of a computer-assisted learning (CAL) program in which syllabic units were highlighted inside words in comparison with a CAL program in which the words were not segmented, i.e. one requiring whole word recognition. In a randomised control trial design, two separate groups of French speaking poor readers (2 * 14) in…

Syllabic Strategy as Opposed to Coda Optimization in the Segmentation of Spanish Letter-Strings Using Word Spotting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Álvarez, Carlos J.; Taft, Marcus; Hernández-Cabrera, Juan A.

2017-01-01

A word-spotting task is used in Spanish to test the way in which polysyllabic letter-strings are parsed in this language. Monosyllabic words (e.g., "bar") embedded at the beginning of a pseudoword were immediately followed by either a coda-forming consonant (e.g., "barto") or a vowel (e.g., "baros"). In the former…

An English-French-German-Spanish Word Frequency Dictionary: A Correlation of the First Six Thousand Words in Four Single-Language Frequency Lists.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eaton, Helen S., Comp.

This semantic frequency list for English, French, German, and Spanish correlates 6,474 concepts represented by individual words in an order of diminishing occurrence. Designed as a research tool, the work is segmented into seven comparative "Thousand Concepts" lists with 115 sectional subdivisions, each of which begins with the key English word…

Scoring nuclear pleomorphism using a visual BoF modulated by a graph structure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moncayo-Martínez, Ricardo; Romo-Bucheli, David; Arias, Viviana; Romero, Eduardo

2017-11-01

Nuclear pleomorphism has been recognized as a key histological criterium in breast cancer grading systems (such as Bloom Richardson and Nothingham grading systems). However, the nuclear pleomorphism assessment is subjective and presents high inter-reader variability. Automatic algorithms might facilitate quantitative estimation of nuclear variations in shape and size. Nevertheless, the automatic segmentation of the nuclei is difficult and still and open research problem. This paper presents a method using a bag of multi-scale visual features, modulated by a graph structure, to grade nuclei in breast cancer microscopical fields. This strategy constructs hematoxylin-eosin image patches, each containing a nucleus that is represented by a set of visual words in the BoF. The contribution of each visual word is computed by examining the visual words in an associated graph built when projecting the multi-dimensional BoF to a bi-dimensional plane where local relationships are conserved. The methodology was evaluated using 14 breast cancer cases of the Cancer Genome Atlas database. From these cases, a set of 134 microscopical fields was extracted, and under a leave-one-out validation scheme, an average F-score of 0.68 was obtained.

Application of text mining for customer evaluations in commercial banking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Jing; Du, Xiaojiang; Hao, Pengpeng; Wang, Yanbo J.

2015-07-01

Nowadays customer attrition is increasingly serious in commercial banks. To combat this problem roundly, mining customer evaluation texts is as important as mining customer structured data. In order to extract hidden information from customer evaluations, Textual Feature Selection, Classification and Association Rule Mining are necessary techniques. This paper presents all three techniques by using Chinese Word Segmentation, C5.0 and Apriori, and a set of experiments were run based on a collection of real textual data that includes 823 customer evaluations taken from a Chinese commercial bank. Results, consequent solutions, some advice for the commercial bank are given in this paper.

Solving Word Problems using Schemas: A Review of the Literature

PubMed Central

Powell, Sarah R.

2011-01-01

Solving word problems is a difficult task for students at-risk for or with learning disabilities (LD). One instructional approach that has emerged as a valid method for helping students at-risk for or with LD to become more proficient at word-problem solving is using schemas. A schema is a framework for solving a problem. With a schema, students are taught to recognize problems as falling within word-problem types and to apply a problem solution method that matches that problem type. This review highlights two schema approaches for 2nd- and 3rd-grade students at-risk for or with LD: schema-based instruction and schema-broadening instruction. A total of 12 schema studies were reviewed and synthesized. Both types of schema approaches enhanced the word-problem skill of students at-risk for or with LD. Based on the review, suggestions are provided for incorporating word-problem instruction using schemas. PMID:21643477

Effects of a Multitier Support System on Calculation, Word Problem, and Prealgebraic Performance Among At-Risk Learners.

PubMed

Powell, Sarah R; Fuchs, Lynn S; Cirino, Paul T; Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L; Changas, Paul C

2015-07-01

The focus of the present study was enhancing word-problem and calculation achievement in ways that support pre-algebraic thinking among 2 nd -grade students at risk for mathematics difficulty. Intervention relied on a multi-tier support system (i.e., responsiveness-to-intervention or RTI) in which at-risk students participate in general classroom instruction and receive supplementary small-group tutoring. Participants were 265 students in 110 classrooms in 25 schools. Teachers were randomly assigned to 3 conditions: calculation RTI, word-problem RTI, and business-as-usual control. Intervention lasted 17 weeks. Multilevel modeling indicated that calculation RTI improved calculation but not word-problem outcomes; word-problem RTI enhanced proximal word-problem outcomes as well as performance on some calculation outcomes; and word-problem RTI provided a stronger route than calculation RTI to pre-algebraic knowledge.

Effects of a Multitier Support System on Calculation, Word Problem, and Prealgebraic Performance Among At-Risk Learners

PubMed Central

Powell, Sarah R.; Fuchs, Lynn S.; Cirino, Paul T.; Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L.; Changas, Paul C.

2014-01-01

The focus of the present study was enhancing word-problem and calculation achievement in ways that support pre-algebraic thinking among 2nd-grade students at risk for mathematics difficulty. Intervention relied on a multi-tier support system (i.e., responsiveness-to-intervention or RTI) in which at-risk students participate in general classroom instruction and receive supplementary small-group tutoring. Participants were 265 students in 110 classrooms in 25 schools. Teachers were randomly assigned to 3 conditions: calculation RTI, word-problem RTI, and business-as-usual control. Intervention lasted 17 weeks. Multilevel modeling indicated that calculation RTI improved calculation but not word-problem outcomes; word-problem RTI enhanced proximal word-problem outcomes as well as performance on some calculation outcomes; and word-problem RTI provided a stronger route than calculation RTI to pre-algebraic knowledge. PMID:26097244

Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Schema Intervention: Improving Word Problem Solving for English Language Learners with Mathematics Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Driver, Melissa K.; Powell, Sarah R.

2017-01-01

Word problems are prevalent on high-stakes assessments, and success on word problems has implications for grade promotion and graduation. Unfortunately, English Language Learners (ELLs) continue to perform significantly below their native English-speaking peers on mathematics assessments featuring word problems. Little is known about the…

Contribution of Equal-Sign Instruction beyond Word-Problem Tutoring for Third-Grade Students with Mathematics Difficulty.

PubMed

Powell, Sarah R; Fuchs, Lynn S

2010-05-01

Elementary school students often misinterpret the equal sign (=) as an operational rather than a relational symbol. Such misunderstanding is problematic because solving equations with missing numbers may be important for higher-order mathematics skills including word problems. Research indicates equal-sign instruction can alter how typically-developing students use the equal sign, but no study has examined effects for students with mathematics difficulty (MD) or how equal-sign instruction contributes to word-problem skill for students with or without MD. The present study assessed the efficacy of equal-sign instruction within word-problem tutoring. Third-grade students with MD (n = 80) were assigned to word-problem tutoring, word-problem tutoring plus equal-sign instruction (combined) tutoring, or no-tutoring control. Combined tutoring produced better improvement on equal sign tasks and open equations compared to the other 2 conditions. On certain forms of word problems, combined tutoring but not word-problem tutoring alone produced better improvement than control. When compared at posttest to 3(rd)-grade students without MD on equal sign tasks and open equations, only combined tutoring students with MD performed comparably.

Listeners' processing of a given reduced word pronunciation variant directly reflects their exposure to this variant: Evidence from native listeners and learners of French.

PubMed

Brand, Sophie; Ernestus, Mirjam

2018-05-01

In casual conversations, words often lack segments. This study investigates whether listeners rely on their experience with reduced word pronunciation variants during the processing of single segment reduction. We tested three groups of listeners in a lexical decision experiment with French words produced either with or without word-medial schwa (e.g., /ʀvy/ and /ʀvy/ for revue). Participants also rated the relative frequencies of the two pronunciation variants of the words. If the recognition accuracy and reaction times (RTs) for a given listener group correlate best with the frequencies of occurrence holding for that given listener group, recognition is influenced by listeners' exposure to these variants. Native listeners' relative frequency ratings correlated well with their accuracy scores and RTs. Dutch advanced learners' accuracy scores and RTs were best predicted by their own ratings. In contrast, the accuracy and RTs from Dutch beginner learners of French could not be predicted by any relative frequency rating; the rating task was probably too difficult for them. The participant groups showed behaviour reflecting their difference in experience with the pronunciation variants. Our results strongly suggest that listeners store the frequencies of occurrence of pronunciation variants, and consequently the variants themselves.

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.

The limits of metrical segmentation: intonation modulates infants' extraction of embedded trochees.

PubMed

Zahner, Katharina; Schönhuber, Muna; Braun, Bettina

2016-11-01

We tested German nine-month-olds' reliance on pitch and metrical stress for segmentation. In a headturn-preference paradigm, infants were familiarized with trisyllabic words (weak-strong-weak (WSW) stress pattern) in sentence-contexts. The words were presented in one of three naturally occurring intonation conditions: one in which high pitch was aligned with the stressed syllable and two misalignment conditions (with high pitch preceding vs. following the stressed syllable). Infants were tested on the SW unit of the WSW carriers. Experiment 1 showed recognition only when the stressed syllable was high-pitched. Intonation of test items (similar vs. dissimilar to familiarization) had no influence (Experiment 2). Thus, German nine-month-olds perceive stressed syllables as word onsets only when high-pitched, although they already generalize over different pitch contours. Different mechanisms underlying this pattern of results are discussed.

Embedding Number-Combinations Practice Within Word-Problem Tutoring

PubMed Central

Powell, Sarah R.; Fuchs, Lynn S.; Fuchs, Douglas

2012-01-01

Two aspects of mathematics with which students with mathematics learning difficulty (MLD) often struggle are word problems and number-combination skills. This article describes a math program in which students receive instruction on using algebraic equations to represent the underlying problem structure for three word-problem types. Students also learn counting strategies for answering number combinations that they cannot retrieve from memory. Results from randomized-control trials indicated that embedding the counting strategies for number combinations produces superior word-problem and number-combination outcomes for students with MLD beyond tutoring programs that focus exclusively on number combinations or word problems. PMID:22661880

Embedding Number-Combinations Practice Within Word-Problem Tutoring.

PubMed

Powell, Sarah R; Fuchs, Lynn S; Fuchs, Douglas

2010-09-01

Two aspects of mathematics with which students with mathematics learning difficulty (MLD) often struggle are word problems and number-combination skills. This article describes a math program in which students receive instruction on using algebraic equations to represent the underlying problem structure for three word-problem types. Students also learn counting strategies for answering number combinations that they cannot retrieve from memory. Results from randomized-control trials indicated that embedding the counting strategies for number combinations produces superior word-problem and number-combination outcomes for students with MLD beyond tutoring programs that focus exclusively on number combinations or word problems.

Does Early Algebraic Reasoning Differ as a Function of Students’ Difficulty with Calculations versus Word Problems?

PubMed Central

Powell, Sarah R.; Fuchs, Lynn S.

2014-01-01

According to national mathematics standards, algebra instruction should begin at kindergarten and continue through elementary school. Most often, teachers address algebra in the elementary grades with problems related to solving equations or understanding functions. With 789 2nd- grade students, we administered (a) measures of calculations and word problems in the fall and (b) an assessment of pre-algebraic reasoning, with items that assessed solving equations and functions, in the spring. Based on the calculation and word-problem measures, we placed 148 students into 1 of 4 difficulty status categories: typically performing, calculation difficulty, word-problem difficulty, or difficulty with calculations and word problems. Analyses of variance were conducted on the 148 students; path analytic mediation analyses were conducted on the larger sample of 789 students. Across analyses, results corroborated the finding that word-problem difficulty is more strongly associated with difficulty with pre-algebraic reasoning. As an indicator of later algebra difficulty, word-problem difficulty may be a more useful predictor than calculation difficulty, and students with word-problem difficulty may require a different level of algebraic reasoning intervention than students with calculation difficulty. PMID:25309044

Tutorial: Assessment and Analysis of Polysyllables in Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masso, Sarah; McLeod, Sharynne; Baker, Elise

2018-01-01

Purpose: Polysyllables, words of 3 or more syllables, represent almost 30% of words used in American English. The purpose of this tutorial is to support speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') assessment and analysis of polysyllables, extending the focus of published assessment tools that focus on sampling and analyzing children's segmental accuracy…

Lexical Access for Phonetic Ambiguities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spencer, N. J.; Wollman, Neil

1980-01-01

Reports on research that (1) suggests that phonetically ambiguous pairs (ice cream/I scream) have been used inaccurately to illustrate contextual effects in word segmentation, (2) supports unitary rather than exhaustive processing, and (3) supports the use of the concepts of word frequency and listener expectations instead of top-down, multiple…

The Neural Basis of Speech Parsing in Children and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNealy, Kristin; Mazziotta, John C.; Dapretto, Mirella

2010-01-01

Word segmentation, detecting word boundaries in continuous speech, is a fundamental aspect of language learning that can occur solely by the computation of statistical and speech cues. Fifty-four children underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while listening to three streams of concatenated syllables that contained either high…

How Can One Learn Mathematical Word Problems in a Second Language? A Cognitive Load Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moussa-Inaty, Jase; Causapin, Mark; Groombridge, Timothy

2015-01-01

Language may ordinarily account for difficulties in solving word problems and this is particularly true if mathematical word problems are taught in a language other than one's native language. Research into cognitive load may offer a clear theoretical framework when investigating word problems because memory, specifically working memory, plays a…

Do word-problem features differentially affect problem difficulty as a function of students' mathematics difficulty with and without reading difficulty?

PubMed

Powell, Sarah R; Fuchs, Lynn S; Fuchs, Douglas; Cirino, Paul T; Fletcher, Jack M

2009-01-01

This study examined whether and, if so, how word-problem features differentially affect problem difficulty as a function of mathematics difficulty (MD) status: no MD (n = 109), MD only (n = 109), or MD in combination with reading difficulties (MDRD; n = 109). The problem features were problem type (total, difference, or change) and position of missing information in the number sentence representing the word problem (first, second, or third position). Students were assessed on 14 word problems near the beginning of third grade. Consistent with the hypothesis that mathematical cognition differs as a function of MD subtype, problem type affected problem difficulty differentially for MDRD versus MD-only students; however, the position of missing information in word problems did not. Implications for MD subtyping and for instruction are discussed.

Connected word recognition using a cascaded neuro-computational model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoya, Tetsuya; van Leeuwen, Cees

2016-10-01

We propose a novel framework for processing a continuous speech stream that contains a varying number of words, as well as non-speech periods. Speech samples are segmented into word-tokens and non-speech periods. An augmented version of an earlier-proposed, cascaded neuro-computational model is used for recognising individual words within the stream. Simulation studies using both a multi-speaker-dependent and speaker-independent digit string database show that the proposed method yields a recognition performance comparable to that obtained by a benchmark approach using hidden Markov models with embedded training.

Learning builds on learning: Infants' use of native language sound patterns to learn words

PubMed Central

Graf Estes, Katharine

2014-01-01

The present research investigated how infants apply prior knowledge of environmental regularities to support new learning. The experiments tested whether infants could exploit experience with native language (English) phonotactic patterns to facilitate associating sounds with meanings during word learning. Fourteen-month-olds heard fluent speech that contained cues for detecting target words; they were embedded in sequences that occur across word boundaries. A separate group heard the target words embedded without word boundary cues. Infants then participated in an object label-learning task. With the opportunity to use native language patterns to segment the target words, infants subsequently learned the labels. Without this experience, infants failed. Novice word learners can take advantage of early learning about sounds scaffold lexical development. PMID:24980741

Cognitive and Linguistic Predictors of Mathematical Word Problems with and without Irrelevant Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Amber Y.; Fuchs, Lynn S.; Fuchs, Douglas

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify cognitive and linguistic predictors of word problems with versus without irrelevant information. The sample was 701 2nd-grade students who received no specialized intervention on word problems. In the fall, they were assessed on initial arithmetic and word-problem skill as well as language ability, working…

Phonemic Awareness and Beginning Reading and Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamii, Constance; Manning, Maryann

2002-01-01

Examined English-speaking preschoolers' level of writing and their performance on oral-segmentation tasks. Found a close relationship between children's levels of writing and their levels of oral segmentation on a writing task in which they were asked to write four pairs of words, for example, "ham" and "hamster." Concluded…

Contribution of Equal-Sign Instruction beyond Word-Problem Tutoring for Third-Grade Students with Mathematics Difficulty

PubMed Central

Powell, Sarah R.; Fuchs, Lynn S.

2010-01-01

Elementary school students often misinterpret the equal sign (=) as an operational rather than a relational symbol. Such misunderstanding is problematic because solving equations with missing numbers may be important for higher-order mathematics skills including word problems. Research indicates equal-sign instruction can alter how typically-developing students use the equal sign, but no study has examined effects for students with mathematics difficulty (MD) or how equal-sign instruction contributes to word-problem skill for students with or without MD. The present study assessed the efficacy of equal-sign instruction within word-problem tutoring. Third-grade students with MD (n = 80) were assigned to word-problem tutoring, word-problem tutoring plus equal-sign instruction (combined) tutoring, or no-tutoring control. Combined tutoring produced better improvement on equal sign tasks and open equations compared to the other 2 conditions. On certain forms of word problems, combined tutoring but not word-problem tutoring alone produced better improvement than control. When compared at posttest to 3rd-grade students without MD on equal sign tasks and open equations, only combined tutoring students with MD performed comparably. PMID:20640240

Using Self-Generated Drawings to Solve Arithmetic Word Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Essen, Gerard; Hamaker, Christiaan

1990-01-01

Results are presented from two intervention studies which investigate whether encouraging elementary students to generate drawings of arithmetic word problems facilitates problem-solving performance. Findings indicate that fifth graders (N=50) generated many drawings of word problems and improved problem solutions after the intervention, whereas…

Does understanding relational terminology mediate effects of intervention on compare word problems?

PubMed

Schumacher, Robin F; Fuchs, Lynn S

2012-04-01

The purpose of this study was to assess whether understanding relational terminology (i.e., more, less, and fewer) mediates the effects of intervention on compare word problems. Second-grade classrooms (N=31) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: researcher-designed word-problem intervention, researcher-designed calculation intervention, or business-as-usual (teacher-designed) control. Students in word-problem intervention classrooms received instruction on the compare problem type, which included a focus on understanding relational terminology within compare word problems. Analyses, which accounted for variance associated with classroom clustering, indicated that (a) compared with the calculation intervention and business-as-usual conditions, word-problem intervention significantly increased performance on all three subtypes of compare problems and on understanding relational terminology, and (b) the intervention effect was fully mediated by students' understanding of relational terminology for one subtype of compare problems and partially mediated by students' understanding of relational terminology for the other two subtypes. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Phonological Differentiation before Age Two in a Tagalog-Spanish-English Trilingual Child

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montanari, Simona

2011-01-01

This study focuses on a trilingual toddler's ability to differentiate her Tagalog, Spanish and English productions on phonological/phonetic grounds. Working within the articulatory phonology framework, the word-initial segments produced by the child in Tagalog, Spanish and English words at age 1;10 were narrowly transcribed by two researchers and…

Speaking Rate Affects the Perception of Duration as a Suprasegmental Lexical-Stress Cue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reinisch, Eva; Jesse, Alexandra; McQueen, James M.

2011-01-01

Three categorization experiments investigated whether the speaking rate of a preceding sentence influences durational cues to the perception of suprasegmental lexical-stress patterns. Dutch two-syllable word fragments had to be judged as coming from one of two longer words that matched the fragment segmentally but differed in lexical stress…

Large Constituent Families Help Children Parse Compounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krott, Andrea; Nicoladis, Elena

2005-01-01

The family size of the constituents of compound words, or the number of compounds sharing the constituents, has been shown to affect adults' access to compound words in the mental lexicon. The present study was designed to see if family size would affect children's segmentation of compounds. Twenty-five English-speaking children between 3;7 and…

Overcoming Barriers to Using Precision Teaching with a Web-Based Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayes, Ben; Heather, Andrew; Jones, Daniel; Clarke, Christopher

2018-01-01

Precision Teaching (PT) is an evidence-based intervention, which research indicates is frequently not implemented following training, with few teachers using it in schools after training events. The web-based programme in this research focuses on word-level reading skills and targets blending and segmenting skills rather than whole word reading.…

Implicit Processing of Phonotactic Cues: Evidence from Electrophysiological and Vascular Responses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rossi, Sonja; Jurgenson, Ina B.; Hanulikova, Adriana; Telkemeyer, Silke; Wartenburger, Isabell; Obrig, Hellmuth

2011-01-01

Spoken word recognition is achieved via competition between activated lexical candidates that match the incoming speech input. The competition is modulated by prelexical cues that are important for segmenting the auditory speech stream into linguistic units. One such prelexical cue that listeners rely on in spoken word recognition is phonotactics.…

Three-M in Word Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hajra, Sayonita Ghosh; Kofman, Victoria

2018-01-01

We describe three activities that help undergraduates (pre-service teachers) to develop scientific vocabulary on measurable attributes and units of measurement. Measurable attributes are important features in understanding a word problem and solving the problem. These activities help students comprehend word problems better by identifying…

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

Pupils' over-reliance on linearity: a scholastic effect?

PubMed

Van Dooren, Wim; De Bock, Dirk; Janssens, Dirk; Verschaffel, Lieven

2007-06-01

From upper elementary education on, children develop a tendency to over-use linearity. Particularly, it is found that many pupils assume that if a figure enlarges k times, the area enlarges k times too. However, most research was conducted with traditional, school-like word problems. This study examines whether pupils also over-use linearity if non-linear problems are embedded in meaningful, authentic performance tasks instead of traditional, school-like word problems, and whether this experience influences later behaviour. Ninety-three sixth graders from two primary schools in Flanders, Belgium. Pupils received a pre-test with traditional word problems. Those who made a linear error on the non-linear area problem were subjected to individual interviews. They received one new non-linear problem, in the S-condition (again a traditional, scholastic word problem), D-condition (the same word problem with a drawing) or P-condition (a meaningful performance-based task). Shortly afterwards, pupils received a post-test, containing again a non-linear word problem. Most pupils from the S-condition displayed linear reasoning during the interview. Offering drawings (D-condition) had a positive effect, but presenting the problem as a performance task (P-condition) was more beneficial. Linear reasoning was nearly absent in the P-condition. Remarkably, at the post-test, most pupils from all three groups again applied linear strategies. Pupils' over-reliance on linearity seems partly elicited by the school-like word problem format of test items. Pupils perform much better if non-linear problems are offered as performance tasks. However, a single experience does not change performances on a comparable word problem test afterwards.

Error Analysis for Arithmetic Word Problems--A Case Study of Primary Three Students in One Singapore School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Lu Pien

2015-01-01

In this study, ways in which 9-year old students from one Singapore school solved 1-step and 2-step word problems based on the three semantic structures were examined. The students' work and diagrams provided insights into the range of errors in word problem solving for 1- step and 2-step word problems. In particular, the errors provided some…

Language as Labor: Semantic Activities as the Basis for Language Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riegel, Klaus F.

The processes by which the young child recognizes and regenerates some invariant and organizational properties of language are discussed. In these processes the child conjoins and contrasts recurrent segments--perhaps a recurrent word--of the messages presented to him. After repeated exposure to messages containing a common segment, the child…

Influence of Musical Expertise on Segmental and Tonal Processing in Mandarin Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marie, Celine; Delogu, Franco; Lampis, Giulia; Belardinelli, Marta Olivetti; Besson, Mireille

2011-01-01

A same-different task was used to test the hypothesis that musical expertise improves the discrimination of tonal and segmental (consonant, vowel) variations in a tone language, Mandarin Chinese. Two four-word sequences (prime and target) were presented to French musicians and nonmusicians unfamiliar with Mandarin, and event-related brain…

The Exploitation of Subphonemic Acoustic Detail in L2 Speech Segmentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shoemaker, Ellenor

2014-01-01

The current study addresses an aspect of second language (L2) phonological acquisition that has received little attention to date--namely, the acquisition of allophonic variation as a word boundary cue. The role of subphonemic variation in the segmentation of speech by native speakers has been indisputably demonstrated; however, the acquisition of…

Prediction in the service of comprehension: modulated early brain responses to omitted speech segments.

PubMed

Bendixen, Alexandra; Scharinger, Mathias; Strauß, Antje; Obleser, Jonas

2014-04-01

Speech signals are often compromised by disruptions originating from external (e.g., masking noise) or internal (e.g., inaccurate articulation) sources. Speech comprehension thus entails detecting and replacing missing information based on predictive and restorative neural mechanisms. The present study targets predictive mechanisms by investigating the influence of a speech segment's predictability on early, modality-specific electrophysiological responses to this segment's omission. Predictability was manipulated in simple physical terms in a single-word framework (Experiment 1) or in more complex semantic terms in a sentence framework (Experiment 2). In both experiments, final consonants of the German words Lachs ([laks], salmon) or Latz ([lats], bib) were occasionally omitted, resulting in the syllable La ([la], no semantic meaning), while brain responses were measured with multi-channel electroencephalography (EEG). In both experiments, the occasional presentation of the fragment La elicited a larger omission response when the final speech segment had been predictable. The omission response occurred ∼125-165 msec after the expected onset of the final segment and showed characteristics of the omission mismatch negativity (MMN), with generators in auditory cortical areas. Suggestive of a general auditory predictive mechanism at work, this main observation was robust against varying source of predictive information or attentional allocation, differing between the two experiments. Source localization further suggested the omission response enhancement by predictability to emerge from left superior temporal gyrus and left angular gyrus in both experiments, with additional experiment-specific contributions. These results are consistent with the existence of predictive coding mechanisms in the central auditory system, and suggestive of the general predictive properties of the auditory system to support spoken word recognition. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Word Problems: A "Meme" for Our Times.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leamnson, Robert N.

1996-01-01

Discusses a novel approach to word problems that involves linear relationships between variables. Argues that working stepwise through intermediates is the way our minds actually work and therefore this should be used in solving word problems. (JRH)

Child-Level Predictors of Responsiveness to Evidence-Based Mathematics Intervention.

PubMed

Powell, Sarah R; Cirino, Paul T; Malone, Amelia S

2017-07-01

We identified child-level predictors of responsiveness to 2 types of mathematics (calculation and word-problem) intervention among 2nd-grade children with mathematics difficulty. Participants were 250 children in 107 classrooms in 23 schools pretested on mathematics and general cognitive measures and posttested on mathematics measures. We assigned classrooms randomly assigned to calculation intervention, word-problem intervention, or business-as-usual control. Intervention lasted 17 weeks. Path analyses indicated that scores on working memory and language comprehension assessments moderated responsiveness to calculation intervention. No moderators were identified for responsiveness to word-problem intervention. Across both intervention groups and the control group, attentive behavior predicted both outcomes. Initial calculation skill predicted the calculation outcome, and initial language comprehension predicted word-problem outcomes. These results indicate that screening for calculation intervention should include a focus on working memory, language comprehension, attentive behavior, and calculations. Screening for word-problem intervention should focus on attentive behavior and word problems.

Interactive language learning by robots: the transition from babbling to word forms.

PubMed

Lyon, Caroline; Nehaniv, Chrystopher L; Saunders, Joe

2012-01-01

The advent of humanoid robots has enabled a new approach to investigating the acquisition of language, and we report on the development of robots able to acquire rudimentary linguistic skills. Our work focuses on early stages analogous to some characteristics of a human child of about 6 to 14 months, the transition from babbling to first word forms. We investigate one mechanism among many that may contribute to this process, a key factor being the sensitivity of learners to the statistical distribution of linguistic elements. As well as being necessary for learning word meanings, the acquisition of anchor word forms facilitates the segmentation of an acoustic stream through other mechanisms. In our experiments some salient one-syllable word forms are learnt by a humanoid robot in real-time interactions with naive participants. Words emerge from random syllabic babble through a learning process based on a dialogue between the robot and the human participant, whose speech is perceived by the robot as a stream of phonemes. Numerous ways of representing the speech as syllabic segments are possible. Furthermore, the pronunciation of many words in spontaneous speech is variable. However, in line with research elsewhere, we observe that salient content words are more likely than function words to have consistent canonical representations; thus their relative frequency increases, as does their influence on the learner. Variable pronunciation may contribute to early word form acquisition. The importance of contingent interaction in real-time between teacher and learner is reflected by a reinforcement process, with variable success. The examination of individual cases may be more informative than group results. Nevertheless, word forms are usually produced by the robot after a few minutes of dialogue, employing a simple, real-time, frequency dependent mechanism. This work shows the potential of human-robot interaction systems in studies of the dynamics of early language acquisition.

The Performance of Chinese Primary School Students on Realistic Arithmetic Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xin, Ziqiang; Lin, Chongde; Zhang, Li; Yan, Rong

2007-01-01

Compared with standard arithmetic word problems demanding only the direct use of number operations and computations, realistic problems are harder to solve because children need to incorporate "real-world" knowledge into their solutions. Using the realistic word problem testing materials developed by Verschaffel, De Corte, and Lasure…

Using Technology to Meet the Developmental Needs of Deaf Students To Improve Their Mathematical Word Problem Solving Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Ronald R.

2003-01-01

Presents "Project Solve," a web-based problem-solving instruction and guided practice for mathematical word problems. Discusses implications for college students for whom reading and comprehension of mathematical word problem solving are difficult, especially learning disabled students. (Author/KHR)

Children show right-lateralized effects of spoken word-form learning

PubMed Central

Nora, Anni; Karvonen, Leena; Renvall, Hanna; Parviainen, Tiina; Kim, Jeong-Young; Service, Elisabet; Salmelin, Riitta

2017-01-01

It is commonly thought that phonological learning is different in young children compared to adults, possibly due to the speech processing system not yet having reached full native-language specialization. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms of phonological learning in children are poorly understood. We employed magnetoencephalography (MEG) to track cortical correlates of incidental learning of meaningless word forms over two days as 6–8-year-olds overtly repeated them. Native (Finnish) pseudowords were compared with words of foreign sound structure (Korean) to investigate whether the cortical learning effects would be more dependent on previous proficiency in the language rather than maturational factors. Half of the items were encountered four times on the first day and once more on the following day. Incidental learning of these recurring word forms manifested as improved repetition accuracy and a correlated reduction of activation in the right superior temporal cortex, similarly for both languages and on both experimental days, and in contrast to a salient left-hemisphere emphasis previously reported in adults. We propose that children, when learning new word forms in either native or foreign language, are not yet constrained by left-hemispheric segmental processing and established sublexical native-language representations. Instead, they may rely more on supra-segmental contours and prosody. PMID:28158201

Children show right-lateralized effects of spoken word-form learning.

PubMed

Nora, Anni; Karvonen, Leena; Renvall, Hanna; Parviainen, Tiina; Kim, Jeong-Young; Service, Elisabet; Salmelin, Riitta

2017-01-01

It is commonly thought that phonological learning is different in young children compared to adults, possibly due to the speech processing system not yet having reached full native-language specialization. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms of phonological learning in children are poorly understood. We employed magnetoencephalography (MEG) to track cortical correlates of incidental learning of meaningless word forms over two days as 6-8-year-olds overtly repeated them. Native (Finnish) pseudowords were compared with words of foreign sound structure (Korean) to investigate whether the cortical learning effects would be more dependent on previous proficiency in the language rather than maturational factors. Half of the items were encountered four times on the first day and once more on the following day. Incidental learning of these recurring word forms manifested as improved repetition accuracy and a correlated reduction of activation in the right superior temporal cortex, similarly for both languages and on both experimental days, and in contrast to a salient left-hemisphere emphasis previously reported in adults. We propose that children, when learning new word forms in either native or foreign language, are not yet constrained by left-hemispheric segmental processing and established sublexical native-language representations. Instead, they may rely more on supra-segmental contours and prosody.

Difficulties of Drivers With Dyslexia When Reading Traffic Signs: Analysis of Reading, Eye Gazes, and Driving Performance.

PubMed

Tejero, Pilar; Insa, Beatriz; Roca, Javier

2018-03-01

A group of adult individuals with dyslexia and a matched group of normally reading individuals participated in a driving simulation experiment. Participants were asked to read the word presented on every direction traffic sign encountered along a route, as far as possible from the sign, maintaining driving performance. Word frequency and word length were manipulated as within-subject factors. We analyzed (a) reading accuracy, (b) how far the sign was when the participant started to give the response, (c) where the participant looked during the time leading up to the response, and (d) the variability of the vehicle's speed during that time and during driving on similar segments of the route that did not present the traffic signs. Individuals with dyslexia showed lower levels of performance in the reading task, the roles of word frequency and word length were more influential for them, and there was larger variability of the vehicle's speed during the time they were attempting to read the traffic sign, which did not occur during their driving on similar segments that did not present the targeted traffic signs. Therefore, the specific needs of individuals with dyslexia on the road should be considered in plans aimed at increasing traffic safety and fluidity.

Cross-linguistic differences in the use of durational cues for the segmentation of a novel language.

PubMed

Ordin, Mikhail; Polyanskaya, Leona; Laka, Itziar; Nespor, Marina

2017-07-01

It is widely accepted that duration can be exploited as phonological phrase final lengthening in the segmentation of a novel language, i.e., in extracting discrete constituents from continuous speech. The use of final lengthening for segmentation and its facilitatory effect has been claimed to be universal. However, lengthening in the world languages can also mark lexically stressed syllables. Stress-induced lengthening can potentially be in conflict with right edge phonological phrase boundary lengthening. Thus the processing of durational cues in segmentation can be dependent on the listener's linguistic background, e.g., on the specific correlates and unmarked location of lexical stress in the native language of the listener. We tested this prediction and found that segmentation by both German and Basque speakers is facilitated when lengthening is aligned with the word final syllable and is not affected by lengthening on either the penultimate or the antepenultimate syllables. Lengthening of the word final syllable, however, does not help Italian and Spanish speakers to segment continuous speech, and lengthening of the antepenultimate syllable impedes their performance. We have also found a facilitatory effect of penultimate lengthening on segmentation by Italians. These results confirm our hypothesis that processing of lengthening cues is not universal, and interpretation of lengthening as a phonological phrase final boundary marker in a novel language of exposure can be overridden by the phonology of lexical stress in the native language of the listener.

Computer-Mediated Assessment of Intelligibility in Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech

PubMed Central

Haley, Katarina L.; Roth, Heidi; Grindstaff, Enetta; Jacks, Adam

2011-01-01

Background Previous work indicates that single word intelligibility tests developed for dysarthria are sensitive to segmental production errors in aphasic individuals with and without apraxia of speech. However, potential listener learning effects and difficulties adapting elicitation procedures to coexisting language impairments limit their applicability to left hemisphere stroke survivors. Aims The main purpose of this study was to examine basic psychometric properties for a new monosyllabic intelligibility test developed for individuals with aphasia and/or AOS. A related purpose was to examine clinical feasibility and potential to standardize a computer-mediated administration approach. Methods & Procedures A 600-item monosyllabic single word intelligibility test was constructed by assembling sets of phonetically similar words. Custom software was used to select 50 target words from this test in a pseudo-random fashion and to elicit and record production of these words by 23 speakers with aphasia and 20 neurologically healthy participants. To evaluate test-retest reliability, two identical sets of 50-word lists were elicited by requesting repetition after a live speaker model. To examine the effect of a different word set and auditory model, an additional set of 50 different words was elicited with a pre-recorded model. The recorded words were presented to normal-hearing listeners for identification via orthographic and multiple-choice response formats. To examine construct validity, production accuracy for each speaker was estimated via phonetic transcription and rating of overall articulation. Outcomes & Results Recording and listening tasks were completed in less than six minutes for all speakers and listeners. Aphasic speakers were significantly less intelligible than neurologically healthy speakers and displayed a wide range of intelligibility scores. Test-retest and inter-listener reliability estimates were strong. No significant difference was found in scores based on recordings from a live model versus a pre-recorded model, but some individual speakers favored the live model. Intelligibility test scores correlated highly with segmental accuracy derived from broad phonetic transcription of the same speech sample and a motor speech evaluation. Scores correlated moderately with rated articulation difficulty. Conclusions We describe a computerized, single-word intelligibility test that yields clinically feasible, reliable, and valid measures of segmental speech production in adults with aphasia. This tool can be used in clinical research to facilitate appropriate participant selection and to establish matching across comparison groups. For a majority of speakers, elicitation procedures can be standardized by using a pre-recorded auditory model for repetition. This assessment tool has potential utility for both clinical assessment and outcomes research. PMID:22215933

From Acoustic Segmentation to Language Processing: Evidence from Optical Imaging

PubMed Central

Obrig, Hellmuth; Rossi, Sonja; Telkemeyer, Silke; Wartenburger, Isabell

2010-01-01

During language acquisition in infancy and when learning a foreign language, the segmentation of the auditory stream into words and phrases is a complex process. Intuitively, learners use “anchors” to segment the acoustic speech stream into meaningful units like words and phrases. Regularities on a segmental (e.g., phonological) or suprasegmental (e.g., prosodic) level can provide such anchors. Regarding the neuronal processing of these two kinds of linguistic cues a left-hemispheric dominance for segmental and a right-hemispheric bias for suprasegmental information has been reported in adults. Though lateralization is common in a number of higher cognitive functions, its prominence in language may also be a key to understanding the rapid emergence of the language network in infants and the ease at which we master our language in adulthood. One question here is whether the hemispheric lateralization is driven by linguistic input per se or whether non-linguistic, especially acoustic factors, “guide” the lateralization process. Methodologically, functional magnetic resonance imaging provides unsurpassed anatomical detail for such an enquiry. However, instrumental noise, experimental constraints and interference with EEG assessment limit its applicability, pointedly in infants and also when investigating the link between auditory and linguistic processing. Optical methods have the potential to fill this gap. Here we review a number of recent studies using optical imaging to investigate hemispheric differences during segmentation and basic auditory feature analysis in language development. PMID:20725516

Three DIBELS Tasks vs. Three Informal Reading/Spelling Tasks: A Comparison of Predictive Validity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Darrell; Trathen, Woodrow; Perney, Jan; Gill, Tom; Schlagal, Robert; Ward, Devery; Frye, Elizabeth M.

2017-01-01

Within a developmental framework, this study compared the predictive validity of three DIBELS tasks (phoneme segmentation fluency [PSF], nonsense word fluency [NWF], and oral reading fluency [ORF]) with that of three alternative tasks drawn from the field of reading (phonemic spelling [phSPEL], word recognition-timed [WR-t], and graded passage…

CarPrice versus CarpRice: Word Boundary Ambiguity Influences Saccade Target Selection during the Reading of Chinese Sentences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yan, Ming; Kliegl, Reinhold

2016-01-01

As a contribution to a theoretical debate about the degree of high-level influences on saccade targeting during sentence reading, we investigated eye movements during the reading of structurally ambiguous Chinese character strings and examined whether parafoveal word segmentation could influence saccade-target selection. As expected, ambiguous…

Age and Experience Shape Developmental Changes in the Neural Basis of Language-Related Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNealy, Kristin; Mazziotta, John C.; Dapretto, Mirella

2011-01-01

Very little is known about the neural underpinnings of language learning across the lifespan and how these might be modified by maturational and experiential factors. Building on behavioral research highlighting the importance of early word segmentation (i.e. the detection of word boundaries in continuous speech) for subsequent language learning,…

Promoting Early Literacy via Practicing Invented Spelling: A Comparison of Different Mediation Routines

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levin, Iris; Aram, Dorit

2013-01-01

The present study compared the effects of different mediation routines provided to kindergartners from families of low socioeconomic status on the students' invented spelling attempts and on their gains obtained on spelling and other early literacy skills (letter naming, sounds of letters, word segmentation, and word decoding). The effects of the…

Do Newly Formed Word Representations Encode Non-Criterial Information?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curtin, Suzanne

2011-01-01

Lexical stress is useful for a number of language learning tasks. In particular, it helps infants segment the speech stream and identify phonetic contrasts. Recent work has demonstrated that infants aged 1 ; 0 can learn two novel words differing only in their stress pattern. In the current study, we ask whether infants aged 1 ; 0 store stress…

Invented Spelling, Word Stress, and Phonological Awareness in Relation to Reading Difficulties in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mehta, Sheena

2016-01-01

The purpose of the current research is to assess the clinical utility of an invented spelling tool and determine whether invented spelling and word stress (supra-segmental level measures) can also be used to better identify reading difficulties. The proposed invented spelling tool incorporated linguistic manipulations to alter the difficulty…

Prosodic and Phonemic Awareness in Children's Reading of Long and Short Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wade-Woolley, Lesly

2016-01-01

Phonemic and prosodic awareness are both phonological processes that operate at different levels: the former at the level of the individual sound segment and the latter at the suprasegmental level across syllables. Both have been shown to be related to word reading in young readers. In this study we examine how these processes are differentially…

Auditory word identification in dyslexic and normally achieving readers.

PubMed

Bruno, Jennifer L; Manis, Franklin R; Keating, Patricia; Sperling, Anne J; Nakamoto, Jonathan; Seidenberg, Mark S

2007-07-01

The integrity of phonological representation/processing in dyslexic children was explored with a gating task in which children listened to successively longer segments (gates) of a word. At each gate, the task was to decide what the entire word was. Responses were scored for overall accuracy as well as the children's sensitivity to coarticulation from the final consonant. As a group, dyslexic children were less able than normally achieving readers to detect coarticulation present in the vowel portion of the word, particularly on the most difficult items, namely those ending in a nasal sound. Hierarchical regression and path analyses indicated that phonological awareness mediated the relation of gating and general language ability to word and pseudoword reading ability.

The A2iA French handwriting recognition system at the Rimes-ICDAR2011 competition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menasri, Farès; Louradour, Jérôme; Bianne-Bernard, Anne-Laure; Kermorvant, Christopher

2012-01-01

This paper describes the system for the recognition of French handwriting submitted by A2iA to the competition organized at ICDAR2011 using the Rimes database. This system is composed of several recognizers based on three different recognition technologies, combined using a novel combination method. A framework multi-word recognition based on weighted finite state transducers is presented, using an explicit word segmentation, a combination of isolated word recognizers and a language model. The system was tested both for isolated word recognition and for multi-word line recognition and submitted to the RIMES-ICDAR2011 competition. This system outperformed all previously proposed systems on these tasks.

The Impossibility of "Real-Life" Word Problems (According to Bakhtin, Lacan, Zizek and Baudrillard)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerofsky, Susan

2010-01-01

In recent years a great deal of work on mathematical word problems has focused on efforts to bring more of "real life" into the problems themselves and students' uptake of these problems. Following on from earlier studies of the word problem as a pedagogical and literary genre, the author argues that we cannot unproblematically assume an ability…

Procedural versus Content-Related Hints for Word Problem Solving: An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kock, W. D.; Harskamp, E. G.

2016-01-01

For primary school students, mathematical word problems are often more difficult to solve than straightforward number problems. Word problems require reading and analysis skills, and in order to explain their situational contexts, the proper mathematical knowledge and number operations have to be selected. To improve students' ability in solving…

Phoneme Segmenting Alignment with the Common Core Foundational Skills Standard Two: Grades K-1. Technical Report #1227

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sáez, Leilani; Irvin, P. Shawn; Alonzo, Julie; Tindal, Gerald

2012-01-01

In 2006, the easyCBM reading assessment system was developed to support the progress monitoring of phoneme segmenting, letter names and sounds recognition, word reading, passage reading fluency, and comprehension skill development in elementary schools. More recently, the Common Core Standards in English Language Arts have been introduced as a…

The Functional Unit of Japanese Word Naming: Evidence from Masked Priming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Verdonschot, Rinus G.; Kiyama, Sachiko; Tamaoka, Katsuo; Kinoshita, Sachiko; La Heij, Wido; Schiller, Niels O.

2011-01-01

Theories of language production generally describe the segment as the basic unit in phonological encoding (e.g., Dell, 1988; Levelt, Roelofs, & Meyer, 1999). However, there is also evidence that such a unit might be language specific. Chen, Chen, and Dell (2002), for instance, found no effect of single segments when using a preparation…

A neural network model of semantic memory linking feature-based object representation and words.

PubMed

Cuppini, C; Magosso, E; Ursino, M

2009-06-01

Recent theories in cognitive neuroscience suggest that semantic memory is a distributed process, which involves many cortical areas and is based on a multimodal representation of objects. The aim of this work is to extend a previous model of object representation to realize a semantic memory, in which sensory-motor representations of objects are linked with words. The model assumes that each object is described as a collection of features, coded in different cortical areas via a topological organization. Features in different objects are segmented via gamma-band synchronization of neural oscillators. The feature areas are further connected with a lexical area, devoted to the representation of words. Synapses among the feature areas, and among the lexical area and the feature areas are trained via a time-dependent Hebbian rule, during a period in which individual objects are presented together with the corresponding words. Simulation results demonstrate that, during the retrieval phase, the network can deal with the simultaneous presence of objects (from sensory-motor inputs) and words (from acoustic inputs), can correctly associate objects with words and segment objects even in the presence of incomplete information. Moreover, the network can realize some semantic links among words representing objects with shared features. These results support the idea that semantic memory can be described as an integrated process, whose content is retrieved by the co-activation of different multimodal regions. In perspective, extended versions of this model may be used to test conceptual theories, and to provide a quantitative assessment of existing data (for instance concerning patients with neural deficits).

Attentional Cuing in Math Word Problems for Girls At-Risk for ADHD and Their Peers in General Education Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kercood, Suneeta; Zentall, Sydney S.; Vinh, Megan; Tom-Wright, Kinsey

2012-01-01

The purpose of this theoretically-based study was to examine the effects of yellow-highlighting "relevant" words and units within math word problems. Initial differences were documented between 10 girls at-risk for ADHD and 10 comparisons on the performance of group and individual assessments of math computations and word problems, as had…

Accommodation of end-state comfort reveals subphonemic planning in speech

PubMed Central

Gick, Bryan

2015-01-01

Applying Rosenbaum’s “end-state comfort” hypothesis (Rosenbaum et al., 1992, 1996) to tongue motion provides evidence of long-distance subphonemic planning in speech. Speakers’ tongue postures may anticipate upcoming speech up to three segments, two syllables, and a morpheme or word boundary later. We used m-mode ultrasound imaging to measure the direction of tongue tip/blade movements for known variants of flap/tap allophones of North American English /t/ and /d/. Results show that speakers produce different flap variants early in words or word sequences so as to facilitate the kinematic needs of flap/tap or other /r/ variants that appear later in the word or word sequence. Similar results were also observed across word boundaries, indicating that this is not a lexical effect. PMID:25790787

The effects of using diagramming as a representational technique on high school students' achievement in solving math word problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banerjee, Banmali

Methods and procedures for successfully solving math word problems have been, and continue to be a mystery to many U.S. high school students. Previous studies suggest that the contextual and mathematical understanding of a word problem, along with the development of schemas and their related external representations, positively contribute to students' accomplishments when solving word problems. Some studies have examined the effects of diagramming on students' abilities to solve word problems that only involved basic arithmetic operations. Other studies have investigated how instructional models that used technology influenced students' problem solving achievements. Still other studies have used schema-based instruction involving students with learning disabilities. No study has evaluated regular high school students' achievements in solving standard math word problems using a diagramming technique without technological aid. This study evaluated students' achievement in solving math word problems using a diagramming technique. Using a quasi-experimental experimental pretest-posttest research design, quantitative data were collected from 172 grade 11 Hispanic English language learners (ELLS) and African American learners whose first language is English (EFLLs) in 18 classes at an inner city high school in Northern New Jersey. There were 88 control and 84 experimental students. The pretest and posttest of each participating student and samples of the experimental students' class assignments provided the qualitative data for the study. The data from this study exhibited that the diagramming method of solving math word problems significantly improved student achievement in the experimental group (p<.01) compared to the control group. The study demonstrated that urban, high school, ELLs benefited from instruction that placed emphasis on the mathematical vocabulary and symbols used in word problems and that both ELLs and EFLLs improved their problem solving success through careful attention to the creation and labeling of diagrams to represent the mathematics involved in standard word problems. Although Learnertype (ELL, EFLL), Classtype (Bilingual and Mixed), and Gender (Female, Male) were not significant indicators of student achievement, there was significant interaction between Treatment and Classtype at the level of the Bilingual students ( p<.01) and between Treatment and Learnertype at the level of the ELLs (p<.01).

Interrupted Monosyllabic Words: The Effects of Ten Interruption Locations on Recognition Performance by Older Listeners with Sensorineural Hearing Loss.

PubMed

Wilson, Richard H; Sharrett, Kadie C

2017-01-01

Two previous experiments from our laboratory with 70 interrupted monosyllabic words demonstrated that recognition performance was influenced by the temporal location of the interruption pattern. The interruption pattern (10 interruptions/sec, 50% duty cycle) was always the same and referenced word onset; the only difference between the patterns was the temporal location of the on- and off-segments of the interruption cycle. In the first study, both young and older listeners obtained better recognition performances when the initial on-segment coincided with word onset than when the initial on-segment was delayed by 50 msec. The second experiment with 24 young listeners detailed recognition performance as the interruption pattern was incremented in 10-msec steps through the 0- to 90-msec onset range. Across the onset conditions, 95% of the functions were either flat or U-shaped. To define the effects that interruption pattern locations had on word recognition by older listeners with sensorineural hearing loss as the interruption pattern incremented, re: word onset, from 0 to 90 msec in 10-msec steps. A repeated-measures design with ten interruption patterns (onset conditions) and one uninterruption condition. Twenty-four older males (mean = 69.6 yr) with sensorineural hearing loss participated in two 1-hour sessions. The three-frequency pure-tone average was 24.0 dB HL and word recognition was ≥80% correct. Seventy consonant-vowel nucleus-consonant words formed the corpus of materials with 25 additional words used for practice. For each participant, the 700 interrupted stimuli (70 words by 10 onset conditions), the 70 words uninterrupted, and two practice lists each were randomized and recorded on compact disc in 33 tracks of 25 words each. The data were analyzed at the participant and word levels and compared to the results obtained earlier on 24 young listeners with normal hearing. The mean recognition performance on the 70 words uninterrupted was 91.0% with an overall mean performance on the ten interruption conditions of 63.2% (range: 57.9-69.3%), compared to 80.4% (range: 73.0-87.7%) obtained earlier on the young adults. The best performances were at the extremes of the onset conditions. Standard deviations ranged from 22.1% to 28.1% (24 participants) and from 9.2% to 12.8% (70 words). An arithmetic algorithm categorized the shapes of the psychometric functions across the ten onset conditions. With the older participants in the current study, 40% of the functions were flat, 41.4% were U-shaped, and 18.6% were inverted U-shaped, which compared favorably to the function shapes by the young listeners in the earlier study of 50.0%, 41.4%, and 8.6%, respectively. There were two words on which the older listeners had 40% better performances. Collectively, the data are orderly, but at the individual word or participant level, the data are somewhat volatile, which may reflect auditory processing differences between the participant groups. The diversity of recognition performances by the older listeners on the ten interruption conditions with each of the 70 words supports the notion that the term hearing loss is inclusive of processes well beyond the filtering produced by end-organ sensitivity deficits. American Academy of Audiology

Teaching Fifth Grade Mathematical Concepts: Effects of Word Problems Used with Traditional Methods.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coy, Jessica

The view of the researcher is that students in the upper elementary to middle school range need to increase their problem-solving skills by making logical deductions and organizing and structuring their thoughts through the use of word problems. Giving children a daily word problem challenged and introduced them to the lesson. This activity…

A Joint Probabilistic Classification Model of Relevant and Irrelevant Sentences in Mathematical Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cetintas, Suleyman; Si, Luo; Xin, Yan Ping; Zhang, Dake; Park, Joo Young; Tzur, Ron

2010-01-01

Estimating the difficulty level of math word problems is an important task for many educational applications. Identification of relevant and irrelevant sentences in math word problems is an important step for calculating the difficulty levels of such problems. This paper addresses a novel application of text categorization to identify two types of…

Process Inquiry: Analysis of Oral Problem-Solving Skills in Mathematics of Engineering Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trance, Naci John C.

2013-01-01

This paper presents another effort in determining the difficulty of engineering students in terms of solving word problems. Students were presented with word problems in algebra. Then, they were asked to solve the word problems orally; that is, before they presented their written solutions, they were required to explain how they understood the…

The relation between children’s constructive play activities, spatial ability, and mathematical word problem-solving performance: a mediation analysis in sixth-grade students

PubMed Central

Oostermeijer, Meike; Boonen, Anton J. H.; Jolles, Jelle

2014-01-01

The scientific literature shows that constructive play activities are positively related to children’s spatial ability. Likewise, a close positive relation is found between spatial ability and mathematical word problem-solving performances. The relation between children’s constructive play and their performance on mathematical word problems is, however, not reported yet. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether spatial ability acted as a mediator in the relation between constructive play and mathematical word problem-solving performance in 128 sixth-grade elementary school children. This mediating role of spatial ability was tested by utilizing the current mediation approaches suggested by Preacher and Hayes (2008). Results showed that 38.16% of the variance in mathematical word problem-solving performance is explained by children’s constructive play activities and spatial ability. More specifically, spatial ability acted as a partial mediator, explaining 31.58% of the relation between constructive play and mathematical word problem-solving performance. PMID:25101038

Effect of Name Change of Schizophrenia on Mass Media Between 1985 and 2013 in Japan: A Text Data Mining Analysis

PubMed Central

Koike, Shinsuke; Yamaguchi, Sosei; Ojio, Yasutaka; Ohta, Kazusa; Ando, Shuntaro

2016-01-01

Background: Mass media such as newspapers and TV news affect mental health-related stigma. In Japan, the name of schizophrenia was changed in 2002 for the purposes of stigma reduction; however, little has been known about the effect of name change of schizophrenia on mass media. Method: Articles including old and new names of schizophrenia, depressive disorder, and diabetes mellitus (DM) in headlines and/or text were extracted from 23169092 articles in 4 major Japanese newspapers and 1 TV news program (1985–2013). The trajectory of the number of articles including each term was determined across years. Then, all text in news headlines was segmented as per part-of-speech level using text data mining. Segmented words were classified into 6 categories and in each category of extracted words by target term and period were also tested. Results: Total 51789 and 1106 articles including target terms in newspaper articles and TV news segments were obtained, respectively. The number of articles including the target terms increased across years. Relative increase was observed in the articles published on schizophrenia since 2003 compared with those on DM and between 2000 and 2005 compared with those on depressive disorder. Word tendency used in headlines was equivalent before and after 2002 for the articles including each target term. Articles for schizophrenia contained more negative words than depressive disorder and DM (31.5%, 16.0%, and 8.2%, respectively). Conclusions: Name change of schizophrenia had a limited effect on the articles published and little effect on its contents. PMID:26614786

The Processing of the Right-Sided Accent Mark in Left Neglect Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cubelli, Roberto; Beschin, Nicoletta

2005-01-01

Italian polysyllabic words with stress falling on the last syllable are written with a diacritic sign on the last vowel. It allows discrimination between two words with the same orthographic segments (e.g., papa [pope], papa [dad]). The effect of the accent mark in left neglect dyslexia has never been investigated. In the current study, six…

A Bayesian Framework for Word Segmentation: Exploring the Effects of Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldwater, Sharon; Griffiths, Thomas L.; Johnson, Mark

2009-01-01

Since the experiments of Saffran et al. [Saffran, J., Aslin, R., & Newport, E. (1996). Statistical learning in 8-month-old infants. "Science," 274, 1926-1928], there has been a great deal of interest in the question of how statistical regularities in the speech stream might be used by infants to begin to identify individual words. In this work, we…

Hemispheric Asymmetry for Linguistic Prosody: A Study of Stress Perception in Croatian

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mildner, Vesna

2004-01-01

The aim of the study was to test for possible functional cerebral asymmetry in processing one segment of linguistic prosody, namely word stress, in Croatian. The test material consisted of eight tokens of the word "pas" under a falling accent, varying only in vowel duration between 119 and 185ms, attached to the end of a frame sentence. The…

Perception and production of rise-fall intonation in American English.

PubMed

Steppling, Mary L; Montgomery, Allen A

2002-04-01

At the segmental level, the rate of speaking affects the degree of physical undershoot of articulatory targets and the resulting perception. Little is known regarding evidence of these effects at the suprasegmental level, particularly in intonation. In this study, the effect of rate of speaking on fundamental frequency and on perceptual judgments of peak pitch in a rise-fall intonation pattern was investigated. First, speakers produced rise-fall intonations in sentence contexts at slow, normal, and fast speaking rates. Peak fundamental frequencies (F0) of the slow productions were significantly lower than those of the normal or fast productions. The mean normal rate production of the word Miami was used as a model for the target word in a series of subsequent perceptual experiments. Altering the duration of the target word to represent slow, normal, and fast rates of speaking did not affect listener judgment of peak pitch. Finally, the pitch of the target word was measured in a sentence context. No differences between peak pitch in isolation or in sentence context were found. It was concluded that the production and perception of this form of intonation was not subject to the effects of rate that are seen at the segmental level.

Topic segmentation via community detection in complex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Arruda, Henrique F.; Costa, Luciano da F.; Amancio, Diego R.

2016-06-01

Many real systems have been modeled in terms of network concepts, and written texts are a particular example of information networks. In recent years, the use of network methods to analyze language has allowed the discovery of several interesting effects, including the proposition of novel models to explain the emergence of fundamental universal patterns. While syntactical networks, one of the most prevalent networked models of written texts, display both scale-free and small-world properties, such a representation fails in capturing other textual features, such as the organization in topics or subjects. We propose a novel network representation whose main purpose is to capture the semantical relationships of words in a simple way. To do so, we link all words co-occurring in the same semantic context, which is defined in a threefold way. We show that the proposed representations favor the emergence of communities of semantically related words, and this feature may be used to identify relevant topics. The proposed methodology to detect topics was applied to segment selected Wikipedia articles. We found that, in general, our methods outperform traditional bag-of-words representations, which suggests that a high-level textual representation may be useful to study the semantical features of texts.

Topic segmentation via community detection in complex networks.

PubMed

de Arruda, Henrique F; Costa, Luciano da F; Amancio, Diego R

2016-06-01

Many real systems have been modeled in terms of network concepts, and written texts are a particular example of information networks. In recent years, the use of network methods to analyze language has allowed the discovery of several interesting effects, including the proposition of novel models to explain the emergence of fundamental universal patterns. While syntactical networks, one of the most prevalent networked models of written texts, display both scale-free and small-world properties, such a representation fails in capturing other textual features, such as the organization in topics or subjects. We propose a novel network representation whose main purpose is to capture the semantical relationships of words in a simple way. To do so, we link all words co-occurring in the same semantic context, which is defined in a threefold way. We show that the proposed representations favor the emergence of communities of semantically related words, and this feature may be used to identify relevant topics. The proposed methodology to detect topics was applied to segment selected Wikipedia articles. We found that, in general, our methods outperform traditional bag-of-words representations, which suggests that a high-level textual representation may be useful to study the semantical features of texts.

The neural correlates of statistical learning in a word segmentation task: An fMRI study

PubMed Central

Karuza, Elisabeth A.; Newport, Elissa L.; Aslin, Richard N.; Starling, Sarah J.; Tivarus, Madalina E.; Bavelier, Daphne

2013-01-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess neural activation as participants learned to segment continuous streams of speech containing syllable sequences varying in their transitional probabilities. Speech streams were presented in four runs, each followed by a behavioral test to measure the extent of learning over time. Behavioral performance indicated that participants could discriminate statistically coherent sequences (words) from less coherent sequences (partwords). Individual rates of learning, defined as the difference in ratings for words and partwords, were used as predictors of neural activation to ask which brain areas showed activity associated with these measures. Results showed significant activity in the pars opercularis and pars triangularis regions of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG). The relationship between these findings and prior work on the neural basis of statistical learning is discussed, and parallels to the frontal/subcortical network involved in other forms of implicit sequence learning are considered. PMID:23312790

Do statistical segmentation abilities predict lexical-phonological and lexical-semantic abilities in children with and without SLI?

PubMed Central

Mainela-Arnold, Elina; Evans, Julia L.

2014-01-01

This study tested the predictions of the procedural deficit hypothesis by investigating the relationship between sequential statistical learning and two aspects of lexical ability, lexical-phonological and lexical-semantic, in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). Participants included 40 children (ages 8;5–12;3), 20 children with SLI and 20 with typical development. Children completed Saffran’s statistical word segmentation task, a lexical-phonological access task (gating task), and a word definition task. Poor statistical learners were also poor at managing lexical-phonological competition during the gating task. However, statistical learning was not a significant predictor of semantic richness in word definitions. The ability to track statistical sequential regularities may be important for learning the inherently sequential structure of lexical-phonology, but not as important for learning lexical-semantic knowledge. Consistent with the procedural/declarative memory distinction, the brain networks associated with the two types of lexical learning are likely to have different learning properties. PMID:23425593

Segmented-memory recurrent neural networks.

PubMed

Chen, Jinmiao; Chaudhari, Narendra S

2009-08-01

Conventional recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have difficulties in learning long-term dependencies. To tackle this problem, we propose an architecture called segmented-memory recurrent neural network (SMRNN). A symbolic sequence is broken into segments and then presented as inputs to the SMRNN one symbol per cycle. The SMRNN uses separate internal states to store symbol-level context, as well as segment-level context. The symbol-level context is updated for each symbol presented for input. The segment-level context is updated after each segment. The SMRNN is trained using an extended real-time recurrent learning algorithm. We test the performance of SMRNN on the information latching problem, the "two-sequence problem" and the problem of protein secondary structure (PSS) prediction. Our implementation results indicate that SMRNN performs better on long-term dependency problems than conventional RNNs. Besides, we also theoretically analyze how the segmented memory of SMRNN helps learning long-term temporal dependencies and study the impact of the segment length.

The Association between Mathematical Word Problems and Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vilenius-Tuohimaa, Piia Maria; Aunola, Kaisa; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

2008-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the interplay between mathematical word problem skills and reading comprehension. The participants were 225 children aged 9-10 (Grade 4). The children's text comprehension and mathematical word problem-solving performance was tested. Technical reading skills were investigated in order to categorise participants as…

Using the Relational Paradigm: Effects on Pupils' Reasoning in Solving Additive Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Polotskaia, Elena; Savard, Annie

2018-01-01

Pupils' difficulties in solving word problems continue to attract attention: while researchers highlight the importance of relational reasoning and modelling, school curricula typically use short word problems to develop pupils' knowledge of arithmetic operations and calculation strategies. The Relational Paradigm attributes the leading role in…

Bilingual College Writers' Collaborative Writing of Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Esquinca, Alberto

2011-01-01

Numerous researchers have studied bilingual students' performance on word problems given that reading and writing these requires that they draw on linguistic and mathematical knowledge (Barwell, 2009a, 2009b). Some researchers have studied how bilinguals write word problems in the second language, but few have considered how bilinguals use their…

Cognitive Strategy Instruction for Teaching Word Problems to Primary-Level Struggling Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pfannenstiel, Kathleen Hughes; Bryant, Diane Pedrotty; Bryant, Brian R.; Porterfield, Jennifer A.

2015-01-01

Students with mathematics difficulties and learning disabilities (LD) typically struggle with solving word problems. These students often lack knowledge about efficient, cognitive strategies to utilize when solving word problems. Cognitive strategy instruction has been shown to be effective in teaching struggling students how to solve word…

When Mommy Comes to the Rescue of Statistics: Infants Combine Top-Down and Bottom-Up Cues to Segment Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mersad, Karima; Nazzi, Thierry

2012-01-01

Transitional Probability (TP) computations are regarded as a powerful learning mechanism that is functional early in development and has been proposed as an initial bootstrapping device for speech segmentation. However, a recent study casts doubt on the robustness of early statistical word-learning. Johnson and Tyler (2010) showed that when…

Mathematical Word Problem Solving Ability of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their Typically Developing Peers.

PubMed

Bae, Young Seh; Chiang, Hsu-Min; Hickson, Linda

2015-07-01

This study examined the difference between children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with typical development (TD) in mathematical word problem solving ability and the factors associated with these children's word problem-solving ability. A total of 20 children with ASD and 20 children with TD participated in this study. Independent sample t tests and Spearman's rho correlations were used for data analysis. This study found: (a) Children with TD had higher word problem solving ability than did children with ASD; (b) Sentence comprehension, math vocabulary, computation, and everyday mathematical knowledge were associated with word problem solving ability of children with ASD and children with TD; and (c) Children with TD had higher everyday mathematical knowledge than did children with ASD.

Age-Related Differences in Speech Rate Perception Do Not Necessarily Entail Age-Related Differences in Speech Rate Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heffner, Christopher C.; Newman, Rochelle S.; Dilley, Laura C.; Idsardi, William J.

2015-01-01

Purpose: A new literature has suggested that speech rate can influence the parsing of words quite strongly in speech. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences between younger adults and older adults in the use of context speech rate in word segmentation, given that older adults perceive timing information differently from younger…

Word Problem Strategy for Latino English Language Learners at Risk for Math Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orosco, Michael J.

2014-01-01

"English Language Learners" (ELLs) at risk for "math disabilities" (MD) are challenged in solving word problems for numerous reasons such as (a) learning English as a second language, (b) limited experience using math vocabulary, and (c) lack of strategies to improve word-problem-solving skills. As a result of these…

Working Memory and Literacy as Predictors of Performance on Algebraic Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Kerry; Ng, Swee-Fong; Ng, Ee-Lynn; Lim, Zee-Ying

2004-01-01

Previous studies on individual differences in mathematical abilities have shown that working memory contributes to early arithmetic performance. In this study, we extended the investigation to algebraic word problem solving. A total of 151 10-year-olds were administered algebraic word problems and measures of working memory, intelligence quotient…

Helping Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Solve Mathematics Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alter, Peter

2012-01-01

The author presents a strategy for helping students with emotional and behavioral disorders become more proficient at solving math word problems. Math word problems require students to go beyond simple computation in mathematics (e.g., adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing) and use higher level reasoning that includes recognizing relevant…

Does Calculation or Word-Problem Instruction Provide a Stronger Route to Prealgebraic Knowledge?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Powell, Sarah R.; Cirino, Paul T.; Schumacher, Robin F.; Marrin, Sarah; Hamlett, Carol L.; Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L.; Changas, Paul C.

2014-01-01

The focus of this study was connections among 3 aspects of mathematical cognition at 2nd grade: calculations, word problems, and prealgebraic knowledge. We extended the literature, which is dominated by correlational work, by examining whether intervention conducted on calculations or word problems contributes to improved performance in the other…

Language, Arithmetic Word Problems, and Deaf Students: Linguistic Strategies Used To Solve Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zevenbergen, Robyn; Hyde, Merv; Power, Des

2001-01-01

Examines the performance of deaf and hearing-impaired students in Queensland, Australia when solving arithmetic word problems. Subjects' solutions of word problems confirmed trends for learning students but their performance was delayed in comparison. Confirms other studies in which deaf and hearing-impaired students are delayed in their language…

Word Problem Solving of Students with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Students with Typical Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bae, Young Seh

2013-01-01

Mathematical Word Problem Solving of Students with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Students with Typical Development Young Seh Bae This study investigated mathematical word problem solving and the factors associated with the solution paths adopted by two groups of participants (N=40), students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and typically…

Examining How Students with Diverse Abilities Use Diagrams to Solve Mathematics Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Garderen, Delinda; Scheuermann, Amy; Jackson, Christa

2013-01-01

This study examined students' understanding of diagrams and their use of diagrams as tools to solve mathematical word problems. Students with learning disabilities (LD), typically achieving students, and gifted students in Grades 4 through 7 ("N" = 95) participated. Students were presented with novel mathematical word problem-solving…

Why Do Disadvantaged Filipino Children Find Word Problems in English Difficult?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bautista, Debbie; Mulligan, Joanne

2010-01-01

Young Filipino students are expected to solve mathematical word problems in English, a language that many encounter only in schools. Using individual interviews of 17 Filipino children, we investigated why word problems in English are difficult and the extent to which the language interferes with performance. Results indicate that children could…

Word Problem Solving: A Schema Approach in Year 3

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Klinken, Eduarda

2012-01-01

This article outlines how a Brisbane independent school, Clayfield College, improved the ability of its Year 3 students to solve addition and subtraction word problems by utilising a schematic approach. It was observed that while students could read the words in the text of a written problem, many had difficulty identifying the core information…

Duality of Mathematical Thinking When Making Sense of Simple Word Problems: Theoretical Essay

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Polotskaia, Elena; Savard, Annie; Freiman, Viktor

2015-01-01

This essay proposes a reflection on the learning difficulties and teaching approaches associated with arithmetic word problem solving. We question the development of word problem solving skills in the early grades of elementary school. We are trying to revive the discussion because first, the knowledge in question--reversibility of arithmetic…

Effects of computer-based graphic organizers to solve one-step word problems for middle school students with mild intellectual disability: A preliminary study.

PubMed

Sheriff, Kelli A; Boon, Richard T

2014-08-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of computer-based graphic organizers, using Kidspiration 3© software, to solve one-step word problems. Participants included three students with mild intellectual disability enrolled in a functional academic skills curriculum in a self-contained classroom. A multiple probe single-subject research design (Horner & Baer, 1978) was used to evaluate the effectiveness of computer-based graphic organizers to solving mathematical one-step word problems. During the baseline phase, the students completed a teacher-generated worksheet that consisted of nine functional word problems in a traditional format using a pencil, paper, and a calculator. In the intervention and maintenance phases, the students were instructed to complete the word problems using a computer-based graphic organizer. Results indicated that all three of the students improved in their ability to solve the one-step word problems using computer-based graphic organizers compared to traditional instructional practices. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research directions are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Word recognition using a lexicon constrained by first/last character decisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Sheila X.; Srihari, Sargur N.

1995-03-01

In lexicon based recognition of machine-printed word images, the size of the lexicon can be quite extensive. The recognition performance is closely related to the size of the lexicon. Recognition performance drops quickly when lexicon size increases. Here, we present an algorithm to improve the word recognition performance by reducing the size of the given lexicon. The algorithm utilizes the information provided by the first and last characters of a word to reduce the size of the given lexicon. Given a word image and a lexicon that contains the word in the image, the first and last characters are segmented and then recognized by a character classifier. The possible candidates based on the results given by the classifier are selected, which give us the sub-lexicon. Then a word shape analysis algorithm is applied to produce the final ranking of the given lexicon. The algorithm was tested on a set of machine- printed gray-scale word images which includes a wide range of print types and qualities.

Word learning mechanisms.

PubMed

He, Angela Xiaoxue; Arunachalam, Sudha

2017-07-01

How do children acquire the meanings of words? Many word learning mechanisms have been proposed to guide learners through this challenging task. Despite the availability of rich information in the learner's linguistic and extralinguistic input, the word-learning task is insurmountable without such mechanisms for filtering through and utilizing that information. Different kinds of words, such as nouns denoting object concepts and verbs denoting event concepts, require to some extent different kinds of information and, therefore, access to different kinds of mechanisms. We review some of these mechanisms to examine the relationship between the input that is available to learners and learners' intake of that input-that is, the organized, interpreted, and stored representations they form. We discuss how learners segment individual words from the speech stream and identify their grammatical categories, how they identify the concepts denoted by these words, and how they refine their initial representations of word meanings. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1435. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1435 This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language Acquisition Psychology > Language. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Screening Protocol for Early Identification of Brazilian Children at Risk for Dyslexia

PubMed Central

Germano, Giseli D.; César, Alexandra B. P. de C.; Capellini, Simone A.

2017-01-01

Early identification of students at risk of dyslexia has been an educational challenge in the past years. This research had two main goals. First, we aimed to develop a screening protocol for early identification of Brazilian children at risk for dyslexia; second, we aimed to identify the predictive variables of this protocol using Principal Component Analysis. The major step involved in developing this protocol was the selection of variables, which were chosen based on the literature review and linguistic criteria. The screening protocol was composed of seven cognitive-linguistic skills: Letter naming; Phonological Awareness (which comprises the following subtests: Rhyme production, Rhyme identification, Syllabic segmentation, Production of words from a given phoneme, Phonemic Synthesis, and Phonemic analysis); Phonological Working memory, Rapid naming Speed; Silent reading; Reading of words and non-words; and Auditory Comprehension of sentences from pictures. A total of 149 children, aged from 6 years to 6 and 11, of both genders who were enrolled in the 1st grade of elementary public schools were submitted to the screening protocol. Principal Component Analysis revealed four factors, accounting for 64.45% of the variance of the Protocol variables: first factor (“pre-reading”), second factor (“decoding”), third factor (“Reading”), and fourth factor “Auditory processing.” The factors found corroborate those reported in the National and International literature and have been described as early signs of dyslexia and reading problems. PMID:29163246

Effect of Name Change of Schizophrenia on Mass Media Between 1985 and 2013 in Japan: A Text Data Mining Analysis.

PubMed

Koike, Shinsuke; Yamaguchi, Sosei; Ojio, Yasutaka; Ohta, Kazusa; Ando, Shuntaro

2016-05-01

Mass media such as newspapers and TV news affect mental health-related stigma. In Japan, the name of schizophrenia was changed in 2002 for the purposes of stigma reduction; however, little has been known about the effect of name change of schizophrenia on mass media. Articles including old and new names of schizophrenia, depressive disorder, and diabetes mellitus (DM) in headlines and/or text were extracted from 23169092 articles in 4 major Japanese newspapers and 1 TV news program (1985-2013). The trajectory of the number of articles including each term was determined across years. Then, all text in news headlines was segmented as per part-of-speech level using text data mining. Segmented words were classified into 6 categories and in each category of extracted words by target term and period were also tested. Total 51789 and 1106 articles including target terms in newspaper articles and TV news segments were obtained, respectively. The number of articles including the target terms increased across years. Relative increase was observed in the articles published on schizophrenia since 2003 compared with those on DM and between 2000 and 2005 compared with those on depressive disorder. Word tendency used in headlines was equivalent before and after 2002 for the articles including each target term. Articles for schizophrenia contained more negative words than depressive disorder and DM (31.5%, 16.0%, and 8.2%, respectively). Name change of schizophrenia had a limited effect on the articles published and little effect on its contents. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

An Exploratory Study Contrasting High- and Low-Achieving Students' Percent Word Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jitendra, Asha K.; Star, Jon R.

2012-01-01

This study evaluated whether schema-based instruction (SBI), a promising method for teaching students to represent and solve mathematical word problems, impacted the learning of percent word problems. Of particular interest was the extent that SBI improved high- and low-achieving students' learning and to a lesser degree on the indirect effect of…

Tense and Aspect in Word Problems about Motion: Diagram, Gesture, and the Felt Experience of Time

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Freitas, Elizabeth; Zolkower, Betina

2015-01-01

Word problems about motion contain various conjugated verb forms. As students and teachers grapple with such word problems, they jointly operationalize diagrams, gestures, and language. Drawing on findings from a 3-year research project examining the social semiotics of classroom interaction, we show how teachers and students use gesture and…

Redefining the Whole: Common Errors in Elementary Preservice Teachers' Self-Authored Word Problems for Fraction Subtraction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dixon, Juli K.; Andreasen, Janet B.; Avila, Cheryl L.; Bawatneh, Zyad; Deichert, Deana L.; Howse, Tashana D.; Turner, Mercedes Sotillo

2014-01-01

A goal of this study was to examine elementary preservice teachers' (PSTs) ability to contextualize and decontextualize fraction subtraction by asking them to write word problems to represent fraction subtraction expressions and to choose prewritten word problems to support given fraction subtraction expressions. Three themes emerged from the…

Assessing the Effect of Language Demand in Bundles of Math Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banks, Kathleen; Jeddeeni, Ahmad; Walker, Cindy M.

2016-01-01

Differential bundle functioning (DBF) analyses were conducted to determine whether seventh and eighth grade second language learners (SLLs) had lower probabilities of answering bundles of math word problems correctly that had heavy language demands, when compared to non-SLLs of equal math proficiency. Math word problems on each of four test forms…

When Best Intentions Go Awry: The Failures of Concrete Representations to Help Solve Probability Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beitzel, Brian D.; Staley, Richard K.; DuBois, Nelson F.

2011-01-01

Previous research has cast doubt on the efficacy of utilizing external representations as an aid to solving word problems. The present study replicates previous findings that concrete representations hinder college students' ability to solve probability word problems, and extends those findings to apply to a multimedia instructional context. Our…

Word Frequency, Function Words and the Second Gavagai Problem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hochmann, Jean-Remy

2013-01-01

The classic gavagai problem exemplifies the difficulty to identify the referent of a novel word uttered in a foreign language. Here, we consider the reverse problem: identifying the referential part of a label. Assuming "gavagai" indicates a rabbit in a foreign language, it may very well mean ""a" rabbit" or ""that" rabbit". How can a learner know…

The Impact of Metacognitive Strategies and Self-Regulating Processes of Solving Math Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vula, Eda; Avdyli, Rrezarta; Berisha, Valbona; Saqipi, Blerim; Elezi, Shpetim

2017-01-01

This empirical study investigates the impact of metacognitive strategies and self-regulating processes in learners' achievement on solving math word problems. It specifically analyzes the impact of the linguistic factor and the number of steps and arithmetical operations that learners need to apply during the process of solving math word problems.…

The Motivation of Secondary School Students in Mathematical Word Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gasco, Javier; Villarroel, Jose-Domingo

2014-01-01

Introduction: Motivation is an important factor in the learning of mathematics. Within this area of education, word problem solving is central in most mathematics curricula of Secondary School. The objective of this research is to detect the differences in motivation in terms of the strategies used to solve word problems. Method: It analyzed the…

Model Drawing Strategy for Fraction Word Problem Solving of Fourth-Grade Students with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sharp, Emily; Shih Dennis, Minyi

2017-01-01

This study used a multiple probe across participants design to examine the effects of a model drawing strategy (MDS) intervention package on fraction comparing and ordering word problem-solving performance of three Grade 4 students. MDS is a form of cognitive strategy instruction for teaching word problem solving that includes explicit instruction…

Young Filipino Students Making Sense of Arithmetic Word Problems in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bautista, Debbie; Mulligan, Joanne; Mitchelmore, Michael

2009-01-01

Young Filipino children are expected to solve mathematical word problems in English, a task which they typically encounter only in schools. In this exploratory study, task-based interviews were conducted with seven Filipino children from a public school. The children were asked to read and solve addition and subtraction word problems in English or…

Additive Relations Word Problems in the South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Standard at Foundation Phase

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Nicky

2016-01-01

Drawing on a literature review of classifications developed by each of Riley, Verschaffel and Carpenter and their respective research groups, a refined typology of additive relations word problems is proposed and then used as analytical tool to classify the additive relations word problems in South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Standard…

Social discourses of healthy eating. A market segmentation approach.

PubMed

Chrysochou, Polymeros; Askegaard, Søren; Grunert, Klaus G; Kristensen, Dorthe Brogård

2010-10-01

This paper proposes a framework of discourses regarding consumers' healthy eating as a useful conceptual scheme for market segmentation purposes. The objectives are: (a) to identify the appropriate number of health-related segments based on the underlying discursive subject positions of the framework, (b) to validate and further describe the segments based on their socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes towards healthy eating, and (c) to explore differences across segments in types of associations with food and health, as well as perceptions of food healthfulness.316 Danish consumers participated in a survey that included measures of the underlying subject positions of the proposed framework, followed by a word association task that aimed to explore types of associations with food and health, and perceptions of food healthfulness. A latent class clustering approach revealed three consumer segments: the Common, the Idealists and the Pragmatists. Based on the addressed objectives, differences across the segments are described and implications of findings are discussed.

Spotting handwritten words and REGEX using a two stage BLSTM-HMM architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bideault, Gautier; Mioulet, Luc; Chatelain, Clément; Paquet, Thierry

2015-01-01

In this article, we propose a hybrid model for spotting words and regular expressions (REGEX) in handwritten documents. The model is made of the state-of-the-art BLSTM (Bidirectional Long Short Time Memory) neural network for recognizing and segmenting characters, coupled with a HMM to build line models able to spot the desired sequences. Experiments on the Rimes database show very promising results.

Effects of hand gestures on auditory learning of second-language vowel length contrasts.

PubMed

Hirata, Yukari; Kelly, Spencer D; Huang, Jessica; Manansala, Michael

2014-12-01

Research has shown that hand gestures affect comprehension and production of speech at semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic levels for both native language and second language (L2). This study investigated a relatively less explored question: Do hand gestures influence auditory learning of an L2 at the segmental phonology level? To examine auditory learning of phonemic vowel length contrasts in Japanese, 88 native English-speaking participants took an auditory test before and after one of the following 4 types of training in which they (a) observed an instructor in a video speaking Japanese words while she made syllabic-rhythm hand gesture, (b) produced this gesture with the instructor, (c) observed the instructor speaking those words and her moraic-rhythm hand gesture, or (d) produced the moraic-rhythm gesture with the instructor. All of the training types yielded similar auditory improvement in identifying vowel length contrast. However, observing the syllabic-rhythm hand gesture yielded the most balanced improvement between word-initial and word-final vowels and between slow and fast speaking rates. The overall effect of hand gesture on learning of segmental phonology is limited. Implications for theories of hand gesture are discussed in terms of the role it plays at different linguistic levels.

A Comparative Analysis of Word Problems in Selected United States and Russian First Grade Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grishchenko, Svetlana

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore word problems as a subject matter in mathematics textbook curricula. The motivation for the study derived from the following evidence: (a) American students find some word problems are more difficult than others (Garcia, Jimenez, & Hess, 2006; Riley & Green, 1988; Stern, 2001), and (b) one of the…

Mathematical Word Problem Solving Ability of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Typically Developing Peers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bae, Young Seh; Chiang, Hsu-Min; Hickson, Linda

2015-01-01

This study examined the difference between children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with typical development (TD) in mathematical word problem solving ability and the factors associated with these children's word problem-solving ability. A total of 20 children with ASD and 20 children with TD participated in this study.…

The Effects of Using Diagramming as a Representational Technique on High School Students' Achievement in Solving Math Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banerjee, Banmali

2010-01-01

Methods and procedures for successfully solving math word problems have been, and continue to be a mystery to many U.S. high school students. Previous studies suggest that the contextual and mathematical understanding of a word problem, along with the development of schemas and their related external representations, positively contribute to…

The ICSI+ Multilingual Sentence Segmentation System

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-01-01

these steps the ASR output needs to be enriched with information additional to words, such as speaker diarization , sentence segmentation, or story...and the out- of a speaker diarization is considered as well. We first detail extraction of the prosodic features, and then describe the clas- ation...also takes into account the speaker turns that estimated by the diarization system. In addition to the Max- 1) model speaker turn unigrams, trigram

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.

Differential Gaze Patterns on Eyes and Mouth During Audiovisual Speech Segmentation

PubMed Central

Lusk, Laina G.; Mitchel, Aaron D.

2016-01-01

Speech is inextricably multisensory: both auditory and visual components provide critical information for all aspects of speech processing, including speech segmentation, the visual components of which have been the target of a growing number of studies. In particular, a recent study (Mitchel and Weiss, 2014) established that adults can utilize facial cues (i.e., visual prosody) to identify word boundaries in fluent speech. The current study expanded upon these results, using an eye tracker to identify highly attended facial features of the audiovisual display used in Mitchel and Weiss (2014). Subjects spent the most time watching the eyes and mouth. A significant trend in gaze durations was found with the longest gaze duration on the mouth, followed by the eyes and then the nose. In addition, eye-gaze patterns changed across familiarization as subjects learned the word boundaries, showing decreased attention to the mouth in later blocks while attention on other facial features remained consistent. These findings highlight the importance of the visual component of speech processing and suggest that the mouth may play a critical role in visual speech segmentation. PMID:26869959

The Effects of Using Drawings in Developing Young Children's Mathematical Word Problem Solving: A Design Experiment with Third-Grade Hungarian Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Csikos, Csaba; Szitanyi, Judit; Kelemen, Rita

2012-01-01

The present study aims to investigate the effects of a design experiment developed for third-grade students in the field of mathematics word problems. The main focus of the program was developing students' knowledge about word problem solving strategies with an emphasis on the role of visual representations in mathematical modeling. The experiment…

Coping Strategies Applied to Comprehend Multistep Arithmetic Word Problems by Students with Above-Average Numeracy Skills and Below-Average Reading Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nortvedt, Guri A.

2011-01-01

This article discusses how 13-year-old students with above-average numeracy skills and below-average reading skills cope with comprehending word problems. Compared to other students who are proficient in numeracy and are skilled readers, these students are more disadvantaged when solving single-step and multistep arithmetic word problems. The…

A process for reaching standardization of word processing software for Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque) secretaries

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hudson, S.R.

1989-04-01

In the summer of 1986, a number of problems being experienced by Sandia secretaries due to multiple word processing packages being used were brought to the attention of Sandia's upper management. This report discusses how these problems evolved, how management chose to correct the problem, and how standardization of word processing for Sandia secretaries was achieved. 11 refs.

The Effects of Differing Presentations of Mathematical Word Problems Upon the Achievement of Tenth Grade Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sherrill, James M.

Described is a study concerned with the mode of presentation of printed mathematical word problems. Tenth grade students were given twenty word problems to solve, presented in one of three ways: (1) prose only, (2) prose with an accurate picture included, or (3) prose with a distorted picture. Experimental results showed that the group with an…

Phonemic carryover perseveration: word blends.

PubMed

Buckingham, Hugh W; Christman, Sarah S

2004-11-01

This article will outline and describe the aphasic disorder of recurrent perseveration and will demonstrate how it interacts with the retrieval and production of spoken words in the language of fluent aphasic patients who have sustained damage to the left (dominant) posterior temporoparietal lobe. We will concentrate on the various kinds of sublexical segmental perseverations (the so-called phonemic carryovers of Santo Pietro and Rigrodsky) that most often play a role in the generation of word blendings. We will show how perseverative blends allow the clinician to better understand the dynamics of word and syllable production in fluent aphasia by scrutinizing the "onset/rime" and "onset/superrime" constituents of monosyllabic and polysyllabic words, respectively. We will demonstrate to the speech language pathologist the importance of the trochee stress pattern and the possibility that its metrical template may constitute a structural unit that can be perseverated.

Phonological Words and Stuttering on Function Words

PubMed Central

Au-Yeung, James; Howell, Peter; Pilgrim, Lesley

2007-01-01

Stuttering on function words was examined in 51 people who stutter. The people who stutter were subdivided into young (2 to 6 years), middle (6 to 9 years), and older (9 to 12 years) child groups; teenagers (13 to 18 years); and adults (20 to 40 years). As reported by previous researchers, children up to about age 9 stuttered more on function words (pronouns, articles, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs), whereas older people tended to stutter more on content words (nouns, main verbs, adverbs, adjectives). Function words in early positions in utterances, again as reported elsewhere, were more likely to be stuttered than function words at later positions in an utterance. This was most apparent for the younger groups of speakers. For the remaining analyses, utterances were segmented into phonological words on the basis of Selkirk’s work (1984). Stuttering rate was higher when function words occurred in early phonological word positions than other phonological word positions whether the phonological word appeared in initial position in an utterance or not. Stuttering rate was highly dependent on whether the function word occurred before or after the single content word allowed in Selkirk’s (1984) phonological words. This applied, once again, whether the phonological word was utterance-initial or not. It is argued that stuttering of function words before their content word in phonological words in young speakers is used as a delaying tactic when the forthcoming content word is not prepared for articulation. PMID:9771625

A System for Mailpiece ZIP Code Assignment through Contextual Analysis. Phase 2

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-03-01

Segmentation Address Block Interpretation Automatic Feature Generation Word Recognition Feature Detection Word Verification Optical Character Recognition Directory...in the Phase III effort. 1.1 Motivation The United States Postal Service (USPS) deploys large numbers of optical character recognition (OCR) machines...4):208-218, November 1986. [2] Gronmeyer, L. K., Ruffin, B. W., Lybanon, M. A., Neely, P. L., and Pierce, S. E. An Overview of Optical Character Recognition (OCR

Analysis of space telescope data collection system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ingels, F. M.; Schoggen, W. O.

1982-01-01

An analysis of the expected performance for the Multiple Access (MA) system is provided. The analysis covers the expected bit error rate performance, the effects of synchronization loss, the problem of self-interference, and the problem of phase ambiguity. The problem of false acceptance of a command word due to data inversion is discussed. A mathematical determination of the probability of accepting an erroneous command word due to a data inversion is presented. The problem is examined for three cases: (1) a data inversion only, (2) a data inversion and a random error within the same command word, and a block (up to 256 48-bit words) containing both a data inversion and a random error.

Contributions of Domain-General Cognitive Resources and Different Forms of Arithmetic Development to Pre-Algebraic Knowledge

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Compton, Donald L.; Fuchs, Douglas; Powell, Sarah R.; Schumacher, Robin F.; Hamlett, Carol L.; Vernier, Emily; Namkung, Jessica M.; Vukovic, Rose K.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the contributions of domain-general cognitive resources and different forms of arithmetic development to individual differences in pre-algebraic knowledge. Children (n=279; mean age=7.59 yrs) were assessed on 7 domain-general cognitive resources as well as arithmetic calculations and word problems at start of 2nd grade and on calculations, word problems, and pre-algebraic knowledge at end of 3rd grade. Multilevel path analysis, controlling for instructional effects associated with the sequence of classrooms in which students were nested across grades 2–3, indicated arithmetic calculations and word problems are foundational to pre-algebraic knowledge. Also, results revealed direct contributions of nonverbal reasoning and oral language to pre-algebraic knowledge, beyond indirect effects that are mediated via arithmetic calculations and word problems. By contrast, attentive behavior, phonological processing, and processing speed contributed to pre-algebraic knowledge only indirectly via arithmetic calculations and word problems. PMID:22409764

The Role of Cognitive Processes, Foundational Math Skill, and Calculation Accuracy and Fluency in Word-Problem Solving versus Pre-Algebraic Knowledge

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Gilbert, Jennifer K.; Powell, Sarah R.; Cirino, Paul T.; Fuchs, Douglas; Hamlett, Carol L.; Seethaler, Pamela M.; Tolar, Tammy D.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine child-level pathways in development of pre-algebraic knowledge versus word-problem solving, while evaluating the contribution of calculation accuracy and fluency as mediators of foundational skills/processes. Children (n = 962; mean 7.60 years) were assessed on general cognitive processes and early calculation, word-problem, and number knowledge at start of grade 2; calculation accuracy and calculation fluency at end of grade 2; and pre-algebraic knowledge and word-problem solving at end of grade 4. Important similarities in pathways were identified, but path analysis also indicated that language comprehension is more critical for later word-problem solving than pre-algebraic knowledge. We conclude that pathways in development of these forms of 4th-grade mathematics performance are more alike than different, but demonstrate the need to fine-tune instruction for strands of the mathematics curriculum in ways that address individual students’ foundational mathematics skills or cognitive processes. PMID:27786534

Monitoring the capacity of working memory: Executive control and effects of listening effort

PubMed Central

Amichetti, Nicole M.; Stanley, Raymond S.; White, Alison G.

2013-01-01

In two experiments, we used an interruption-and-recall (IAR) task to explore listeners’ ability to monitor the capacity of working memory as new information arrived in real time. In this task, listeners heard recorded word lists with instructions to interrupt the input at the maximum point that would still allow for perfect recall. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the most commonly selected segment size closely matched participants’ memory span, as measured in a baseline span test. Experiment 2 showed that reducing the sound level of presented word lists to a suprathreshold but effortful listening level disrupted the accuracy of matching selected segment sizes with participants’ memory spans. The results are discussed in terms of whether online capacity monitoring may be subsumed under other, already enumerated working memory executive functions (inhibition, set shifting, and memory updating). PMID:23400826

Working memory components that predict word problem solving: Is it merely a function of reading, calculation, and fluid intelligence?

PubMed

Fung, Wenson; Swanson, H Lee

2017-07-01

The purpose of this study was to assess whether the differential effects of working memory (WM) components (the central executive, phonological loop, and visual-spatial sketchpad) on math word problem-solving accuracy in children (N = 413, ages 6-10) are completely mediated by reading, calculation, and fluid intelligence. The results indicated that all three WM components predicted word problem solving in the nonmediated model, but only the storage component of WM yielded a significant direct path to word problem-solving accuracy in the fully mediated model. Fluid intelligence was found to moderate the relationship between WM and word problem solving, whereas reading, calculation, and related skills (naming speed, domain-specific knowledge) completely mediated the influence of the executive system on problem-solving accuracy. Our results are consistent with findings suggesting that storage eliminates the predictive contribution of executive WM to various measures Colom, Rebollo, Abad, & Shih (Memory & Cognition, 34: 158-171, 2006). The findings suggest that the storage component of WM, rather than the executive component, has a direct path to higher-order processing in children.

ERP signatures of conscious and unconscious word and letter perception in an inattentional blindness paradigm.

PubMed

Schelonka, Kathryn; Graulty, Christian; Canseco-Gonzalez, Enriqueta; Pitts, Michael A

2017-09-01

A three-phase inattentional blindness paradigm was combined with ERPs. While participants performed a distracter task, line segments in the background formed words or consonant-strings. Nearly half of the participants failed to notice these word-forms and were deemed inattentionally blind. All participants noticed the word-forms in phase 2 of the experiment while they performed the same distracter task. In the final phase, participants performed a task on the word-forms. In all phases, including during inattentional blindness, word-forms elicited distinct ERPs during early latencies (∼200-280ms) suggesting unconscious orthographic processing. A subsequent ERP (∼320-380ms) similar to the visual awareness negativity appeared only when subjects were aware of the word-forms, regardless of the task. Finally, word-forms elicited a P3b (∼400-550ms) only when these stimuli were task-relevant. These results are consistent with previous inattentional blindness studies and help distinguish brain activity associated with pre- and post-perceptual processing from correlates of conscious perception. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Characteristics of Students at Risk for Mathematics Difficulties Predicting Arithmetic Word Problem Solving Performance: The Role of Attention, Behavior, and Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jitendra, Asha K.; Corroy, Kelly Cozine; Dupuis, Danielle N.

2013-01-01

The purposes of this study were (a) to evaluate differences in arithmetic word problem solving between high and low at-risk students for mathematics difficulties (MD) and (b) to assess the influence of attention, behavior, reading, and socio-economic status (SES) in predicting the word problem solving performance of third-grade students with MD.…

Automatic Item Generation of Probability Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holling, Heinz; Bertling, Jonas P.; Zeuch, Nina

2009-01-01

Mathematical word problems represent a common item format for assessing student competencies. Automatic item generation (AIG) is an effective way of constructing many items with predictable difficulties, based on a set of predefined task parameters. The current study presents a framework for the automatic generation of probability word problems…

The Activation of Embedded Words in Spoken Word Recognition

PubMed Central

Zhang, Xujin; Samuel, Arthur G.

2015-01-01

The current study investigated how listeners understand English words that have shorter words embedded in them. A series of auditory-auditory priming experiments assessed the activation of six types of embedded words (2 embedded positions × 3 embedded proportions) under different listening conditions. Facilitation of lexical decision responses to targets (e.g., pig) associated with words embedded in primes (e.g., hamster) indexed activation of the embedded words (e.g., ham). When the listening conditions were optimal, isolated embedded words (e.g., ham) primed their targets in all six conditions (Experiment 1a). Within carrier words (e.g., hamster), the same set of embedded words produced priming only when they were at the beginning or comprised a large proportion of the carrier word (Experiment 1b). When the listening conditions were made suboptimal by expanding or compressing the primes, significant priming was found for isolated embedded words (Experiment 2a), but no priming was produced when the carrier words were compressed/expanded (Experiment 2b). Similarly, priming was eliminated when the carrier words were presented with one segment replaced by noise (Experiment 3). When cognitive load was imposed, priming for embedded words was again found when they were presented in isolation (Experiment 4a), but not when they were embedded in the carrier words (Experiment 4b). The results suggest that both embedded position and proportion play important roles in the activation of embedded words, but that such activation only occurs under unusually good listening conditions. PMID:25593407

The Activation of Embedded Words in Spoken Word Recognition.

PubMed

Zhang, Xujin; Samuel, Arthur G

2015-01-01

The current study investigated how listeners understand English words that have shorter words embedded in them. A series of auditory-auditory priming experiments assessed the activation of six types of embedded words (2 embedded positions × 3 embedded proportions) under different listening conditions. Facilitation of lexical decision responses to targets (e.g., pig) associated with words embedded in primes (e.g., hamster ) indexed activation of the embedded words (e.g., ham ). When the listening conditions were optimal, isolated embedded words (e.g., ham ) primed their targets in all six conditions (Experiment 1a). Within carrier words (e.g., hamster ), the same set of embedded words produced priming only when they were at the beginning or comprised a large proportion of the carrier word (Experiment 1b). When the listening conditions were made suboptimal by expanding or compressing the primes, significant priming was found for isolated embedded words (Experiment 2a), but no priming was produced when the carrier words were compressed/expanded (Experiment 2b). Similarly, priming was eliminated when the carrier words were presented with one segment replaced by noise (Experiment 3). When cognitive load was imposed, priming for embedded words was again found when they were presented in isolation (Experiment 4a), but not when they were embedded in the carrier words (Experiment 4b). The results suggest that both embedded position and proportion play important roles in the activation of embedded words, but that such activation only occurs under unusually good listening conditions.

Word Problem Wizardry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cassidy, Jack

1991-01-01

Presents suggestions for teaching math word problems to elementary students. The strategies take into consideration differences between reading in math and reading in other areas. A problem-prediction game and four self-checking activities are included along with a magic password challenge. (SM)

Math and Humane Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeRosa, Bill

1986-01-01

Describes an activity designed to improve students' skills at solving mathematical word problems through an awareness of the pet overpopulation problem. Uses the concept of cumulative female offspring as a focal point in assisting students to analyze and work through word problems. (ML)

Arithmetic Word-Problem-Solving in Huntington's Disease

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allain, P.; Verny, C.; Aubin, G.; Pinon, K.; Bonneau, D.; Dubas, F.; Gall, D.L.

2005-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine executive functioning in patients with Huntington's disease using an arithmetic word-problem-solving task including eight solvable problems of increasing complexity and four aberrant problems. Ten patients with Huntington's disease and 12 normal control subjects matched by age and education were tested.…

Middle School Children's Problem-Solving Behavior: A Cognitive Analysis from a Reading Comprehension Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pape, Stephen J.

2004-01-01

Many children read mathematics word problems and directly translate them to arithmetic operations. More sophisticated problem solvers transform word problems into object-based or mental models. Subsequent solutions are often qualitatively different because these models differentially support cognitive processing. Based on a conception of problem…

Text Comprehension and Oral Language as Predictors of Word-Problem Solving: Insights into Word-Problem Solving as a Form of Text Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Gilbert, Jennifer K.; Fuchs, Douglas; Seethaler, Pamela M.; N. Martin, BrittanyLee

2018-01-01

This study was designed to deepen insights on whether word-problem (WP) solving is a form of text comprehension (TC) and on the role of language in WPs. A sample of 325 second graders, representing high, average, and low reading and math performance, was assessed on (a) start-of-year TC, WP skill, language, nonlinguistic reasoning, working memory,…

Language, arithmetic word problems, and deaf students: Linguistic strategies used to solve tasks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zevenbergen, Robyn; Hyde, Merv; Power, Des

2001-12-01

There has been limited examination of the intersection between language and arithmetic in the performance of deaf students, although some previous research has shown that deaf and hearing-impaired1 students are delayed in both their language acquisition and arithmetic performance. This paper examines the performance of deaf and hearing-impaired students in South-East Queensland, Australia, in solving arithmetic word problems. It was found that the subjects' solutions of word problems confirmed trends for hearing students, but that their performance was delayed in comparison. The results confirm other studies where deaf and hearing-impaired students are delayed in their language acquisition and this impacts on their capacity to successfully undertake the resolution of word problems.

Tense and aspect in word problems about motion: diagram, gesture, and the felt experience of time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Freitas, Elizabeth; Zolkower, Betina

2015-09-01

Word problems about motion contain various conjugated verb forms. As students and teachers grapple with such word problems, they jointly operationalize diagrams, gestures, and language. Drawing on findings from a 3-year research project examining the social semiotics of classroom interaction, we show how teachers and students use gesture and diagram to make sense of complex verb forms in such word problems. We focus on the grammatical category of "aspect" for how it broadens the concept of verb tense. Aspect conveys duration and completion or frequency of an event. The aspect of a verb defines its temporal flow (or lack thereof) and the location of a vantage point for making sense of this durational process.

Recognition of Handwritten Arabic words using a neuro-fuzzy network

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Boukharouba, Abdelhak; Bennia, Abdelhak

We present a new method for the recognition of handwritten Arabic words based on neuro-fuzzy hybrid network. As a first step, connected components (CCs) of black pixels are detected. Then the system determines which CCs are sub-words and which are stress marks. The stress marks are then isolated and identified separately and the sub-words are segmented into graphemes. Each grapheme is described by topological and statistical features. Fuzzy rules are extracted from training examples by a hybrid learning scheme comprised of two phases: rule generation phase from data using a fuzzy c-means, and rule parameter tuning phase using gradient descentmore » learning. After learning, the network encodes in its topology the essential design parameters of a fuzzy inference system.The contribution of this technique is shown through the significant tests performed on a handwritten Arabic words database.« less

Constructing a Coherent Problem Model to Facilitate Algebra Problem Solving in a Chemistry Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ngu, Bing Hiong; Yeung, Alexander Seeshing; Phan, Huy P.

2015-01-01

An experiment using a sample of 11th graders compared text editing and worked examples approaches in learning to solve dilution and molarity algebra word problems in a chemistry context. Text editing requires students to assess the structure of a word problem by specifying whether the problem text contains sufficient, missing, or irrelevant…

ERP correlates of unexpected word forms in a picture–word study of infants and adults

PubMed Central

Duta, M.D.; Styles, S.J.; Plunkett, K.

2012-01-01

We tested 14-month-olds and adults in an event-related potentials (ERPs) study in which pictures of familiar objects generated expectations about upcoming word forms. Expected word forms labelled the picture (word condition), while unexpected word forms mismatched by either a small deviation in word medial vowel height (mispronunciation condition) or a large deviation from the onset of the first speech segment (pseudoword condition). Both infants and adults showed sensitivity to both types of unexpected word form. Adults showed a chain of discrete effects: positivity over the N1 wave, negativity over the P2 wave (PMN effect) and negativity over the N2 wave (N400 effect). Infants showed a similar pattern, including a robust effect similar to the adult P2 effect. These observations were underpinned by a novel visualisation method which shows the dynamics of the ERP within bands of the scalp over time. The results demonstrate shared processing mechanisms across development, as even subtle deviations from expected word forms were indexed in both age groups by a reduction in the amplitude of characteristic waves in the early auditory evoked potential. PMID:22483072

Investigation of learning environment for arithmetic word problems by problem posing as sentence integration in Indonesian language

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hasanah, N.; Hayashi, Y.; Hirashima, T.

2017-02-01

Arithmetic word problems remain one of the most difficult area of teaching mathematics. Learning by problem posing has been suggested as an effective way to improve students’ understanding. However, the practice in usual classroom is difficult due to extra time needed for assessment and giving feedback to students’ posed problems. To address this issue, we have developed a tablet PC software named Monsakun for learning by posing arithmetic word problems based on Triplet Structure Model. It uses the mechanism of sentence-integration, an efficient implementation of problem-posing that enables agent-assessment of posed problems. The learning environment has been used in actual Japanese elementary school classrooms and the effectiveness has been confirmed in previous researches. In this study, ten Indonesian elementary school students living in Japan participated in a learning session of problem posing using Monsakun in Indonesian language. We analyzed their learning activities and show that students were able to interact with the structure of simple word problem using this learning environment. The results of data analysis and questionnaire suggested that the use of Monsakun provides a way of creating an interactive and fun environment for learning by problem posing for Indonesian elementary school students.

Geometric Hitting Set for Segments of Few Orientations

DOE PAGES

Fekete, Sandor P.; Huang, Kan; Mitchell, Joseph S. B.; ...

2016-01-13

Here we study several natural instances of the geometric hitting set problem for input consisting of sets of line segments (and rays, lines) having a small number of distinct slopes. These problems model path monitoring (e.g., on road networks) using the fewest sensors (the \\hitting points"). We give approximation algorithms for cases including (i) lines of 3 slopes in the plane, (ii) vertical lines and horizontal segments, (iii) pairs of horizontal/vertical segments. Lastly, we give hardness and hardness of approximation results for these problems. We prove that the hitting set problem for vertical lines and horizontal rays is polynomially solvable.

Effects of Numerical Surface Form in Arithmetic Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orrantia, Josetxu; Múñez, David; San Romualdo, Sara; Verschaffel, Lieven

2015-01-01

Adults' simple arithmetic performance is more efficient when operands are presented in Arabic digit (3 + 5) than in number word (three + five) formats. An explanation provided is that visual familiarity with digits is higher respect to number words. However, most studies have been limited to single-digit addition and multiplication problems. In…

The Segmentation Problem in the Study of Impromptu Speech.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loman, Bengt

A fundamental problem in the study of spontaneous speech is how to segment it for analysis. The segments should be relevant for the study of linguistic structures, speech planning, speech production, or communication strategies. Operational rules for segmentation should consider a wide variety of criteria and be hierarchically ordered. This is…

Entropy Based Classifier Combination for Sentence Segmentation

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

speaker diarization system to divide the audio data into hypothetical speakers [17...the prosodic feature also includes turn-based features which describe the position of a word in relation to diarization seg- mentation. The speaker ...ro- bust speaker segmentation: the ICSI-SRI fall 2004 diarization system,” in Proc. RT-04F Workshop, 2004. [18] “The rich transcription fall 2003,” http://nist.gov/speech/tests/rt/rt2003/fall/docs/rt03-fall-eval- plan-v9.pdf.

The Efficacy of Using Diagrams When Solving Probability Word Problems in College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beitzel, Brian D.; Staley, Richard K.

2015-01-01

Previous experiments have shown a deleterious effect of visual representations on college students' ability to solve total- and joint-probability word problems. The present experiments used conditional-probability problems, known to be more difficult than total- and joint-probability problems. The diagram group was instructed in how to use tree…

Working Memory Components as Predictors of Children's Mathematical Word Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zheng, Xinhua; Swanson, H. Lee; Marcoulides, George A.

2011-01-01

This study determined the working memory (WM) components (executive, phonological loop, and visual-spatial sketchpad) that best predicted mathematical word problem-solving accuracy of elementary school children in Grades 2, 3, and 4 (N = 310). A battery of tests was administered to assess problem-solving accuracy, problem-solving processes, WM,…

Different Procedures for Solving Mathematical Word Problems in High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gasco, Javier; Villarroel, Jose Domingo; Zuazagoitia, Dani

2014-01-01

The teaching and learning of mathematics cannot be understood without considering the resolution of word problems. These kinds of problems not only connect mathematical concepts with language (and therefore with reality) but also promote the learning related to other scientific areas. In primary school, problems are solved by using basic…

Breast tumor segmentation in DCE-MRI using fully convolutional networks with an application in radiogenomics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jun; Saha, Ashirbani; Zhu, Zhe; Mazurowski, Maciej A.

2018-02-01

Breast tumor segmentation based on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) remains an active as well as a challenging problem. Previous studies often rely on manual annotation for tumor regions, which is not only time-consuming but also error-prone. Recent studies have shown high promise of deep learning-based methods in various segmentation problems. However, these methods are usually faced with the challenge of limited number (e.g., tens or hundreds) of medical images for training, leading to sub-optimal segmentation performance. Also, previous methods cannot efficiently deal with prevalent class-imbalance problems in tumor segmentation, where the number of voxels in tumor regions is much lower than that in the background area. To address these issues, in this study, we propose a mask-guided hierarchical learning (MHL) framework for breast tumor segmentation via fully convolutional networks (FCN). Our strategy is first decomposing the original difficult problem into several sub-problems and then solving these relatively simpler sub-problems in a hierarchical manner. To precisely identify locations of tumors that underwent a biopsy, we further propose an FCN model to detect two landmarks defined on nipples. Finally, based on both segmentation probability maps and our identified landmarks, we proposed to select biopsied tumors from all detected tumors via a tumor selection strategy using the pathology location. We validate our MHL method using data for 272 patients, and achieve a mean Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) of 0.72 in breast tumor segmentation. Finally, in a radiogenomic analysis, we show that a previously developed image features show a comparable performance for identifying luminal A subtype when applied to the automatic segmentation and a semi-manual segmentation demonstrating a high promise for fully automated radiogenomic analysis in breast cancer.

The role of cognitive processes, foundational math skill, and calculation accuracy and fluency in word-problem solving versus prealgebraic knowledge.

PubMed

Fuchs, Lynn S; Gilbert, Jennifer K; Powell, Sarah R; Cirino, Paul T; Fuchs, Douglas; Hamlett, Carol L; Seethaler, Pamela M; Tolar, Tammy D

2016-12-01

The purpose of this study was to examine child-level pathways in development of prealgebraic knowledge versus word-problem solving, while evaluating the contribution of calculation accuracy and fluency as mediators of foundational skills/processes. Children (n = 962; mean 7.60 years) were assessed on general cognitive processes and early calculation, word-problem, and number knowledge at start of Grade 2; calculation accuracy and calculation fluency at end of Grade 2; and prealgebraic knowledge and word-problem solving at end of Grade 4. Important similarities in pathways were identified, but path analysis also indicated that language comprehension is more critical for later word-problem solving than prealgebraic knowledge. We conclude that pathways in development of these forms of 4th-grade mathematics performance are more alike than different, but demonstrate the need to fine-tune instruction for strands of the mathematics curriculum in ways that address individual students' foundational mathematics skills or cognitive processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Reading handprinted addresses on IRS tax forms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramanaprasad, Vemulapati; Shin, Yong-Chul; Srihari, Sargur N.

1996-03-01

The hand-printed address recognition system described in this paper is a part of the Name and Address Block Reader (NABR) system developed by the Center of Excellence for Document Analysis and Recognition (CEDAR). NABR is currently being used by the IRS to read address blocks (hand-print as well as machine-print) on fifteen different tax forms. Although machine- print address reading was relatively straightforward, hand-print address recognition has posed some special challenges due to demands on processing speed (with an expected throughput of 8450 forms/hour) and recognition accuracy. We discuss various subsystems involved in hand- printed address recognition, including word segmentation, word recognition, digit segmentation, and digit recognition. We also describe control strategies used to make effective use of these subsystems to maximize recognition accuracy. We present system performance on 931 address blocks in recognizing various fields, such as city, state, ZIP Code, street number and name, and personal names.

Songs as an aid for language acquisition.

PubMed

Schön, Daniele; Boyer, Maud; Moreno, Sylvain; Besson, Mireille; Peretz, Isabelle; Kolinsky, Régine

2008-02-01

In previous research, Saffran and colleagues [Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N., & Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science, 274, 1926-1928; Saffran, J. R., Newport, E. L., & Aslin, R. N. (1996). Word segmentation: The role of distributional cues. Journal of Memory and Language, 35, 606-621.] have shown that adults and infants can use the statistical properties of syllable sequences to extract words from continuous speech. They also showed that a similar learning mechanism operates with musical stimuli [Saffran, J. R., Johnson, R. E. K., Aslin, N., & Newport, E. L. (1999). Abstract Statistical learning of tone sequences by human infants and adults. Cognition, 70, 27-52.]. In this work we combined linguistic and musical information and we compared language learning based on speech sequences to language learning based on sung sequences. We hypothesized that, compared to speech sequences, a consistent mapping of linguistic and musical information would enhance learning. Results confirmed the hypothesis showing a strong learning facilitation of song compared to speech. Most importantly, the present results show that learning a new language, especially in the first learning phase wherein one needs to segment new words, may largely benefit of the motivational and structuring properties of music in song.

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

Is It a Noun or Is It a Verb? Resolving the Ambicategoricality Problem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conwell, Erin; Morgan, James L.

2012-01-01

In many languages, significant numbers of words are used in more than one grammatical category; English, in particular, has many words that can be used as both nouns and verbs. Such "ambicategoricality" potentially poses problems for children trying to learn the grammatical properties of words and has been used to argue against the logical…

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

Text-image alignment for historical handwritten documents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zinger, S.; Nerbonne, J.; Schomaker, L.

2009-01-01

We describe our work on text-image alignment in context of building a historical document retrieval system. We aim at aligning images of words in handwritten lines with their text transcriptions. The images of handwritten lines are automatically segmented from the scanned pages of historical documents and then manually transcribed. To train automatic routines to detect words in an image of handwritten text, we need a training set - images of words with their transcriptions. We present our results on aligning words from the images of handwritten lines and their corresponding text transcriptions. Alignment based on the longest spaces between portions of handwriting is a baseline. We then show that relative lengths, i.e. proportions of words in their lines, can be used to improve the alignment results considerably. To take into account the relative word length, we define the expressions for the cost function that has to be minimized for aligning text words with their images. We apply right to left alignment as well as alignment based on exhaustive search. The quality assessment of these alignments shows correct results for 69% of words from 100 lines, or 90% of partially correct and correct alignments combined.

Influence of musical expertise on segmental and tonal processing in Mandarin Chinese.

PubMed

Marie, Céline; Delogu, Franco; Lampis, Giulia; Belardinelli, Marta Olivetti; Besson, Mireille

2011-10-01

A same-different task was used to test the hypothesis that musical expertise improves the discrimination of tonal and segmental (consonant, vowel) variations in a tone language, Mandarin Chinese. Two four-word sequences (prime and target) were presented to French musicians and nonmusicians unfamiliar with Mandarin, and event-related brain potentials were recorded. Musicians detected both tonal and segmental variations more accurately than nonmusicians. Moreover, tonal variations were associated with higher error rate than segmental variations and elicited an increased N2/N3 component that developed 100 msec earlier in musicians than in nonmusicians. Finally, musicians also showed enhanced P3b components to both tonal and segmental variations. These results clearly show that musical expertise influenced the perceptual processing as well as the categorization of linguistic contrasts in a foreign language. They show positive music-to-language transfer effects and open new perspectives for the learning of tone languages.

Algebra Word Problem Solving Approaches in a Chemistry Context: Equation Worked Examples versus Text Editing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ngu, Bing Hiong; Yeung, Alexander Seeshing

2013-01-01

Text editing directs students' attention to the problem structure as they classify whether the texts of word problems contain sufficient, missing or irrelevant information for working out a solution. Equation worked examples emphasize the formation of a coherent problem structure to generate a solution. Its focus is on the construction of three…

Structuring Word Problems for Diagnostic Teaching: Helping Teachers Meet the Needs of Children with Mild Disabilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parmar, Rene S.; Cawley, John F.

1994-01-01

Matrix organization can be used to construct math word problems for children with mild disabilities. Matrix organization specifies the characteristics of problems, such as problem theme or setting, operations, level of computation complexity, reading vocabulary level, and need for classification. A sample scope and sequence and 16 sample word…

Investigating the Effect of Complexity Factors in Stoichiometry Problems Using Logistic Regression and Eye Tracking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tang, Hui; Kirk, John; Pienta, Norbert J.

2014-01-01

This paper includes two experiments, one investigating complexity factors in stoichiometry word problems, and the other identifying students' problem-solving protocols by using eye-tracking technology. The word problems used in this study had five different complexity factors, which were randomly assigned by a Web-based tool that we developed. The…

The Effectiveness of Using the Model Method to Solve Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bao, Lei

2016-01-01

The aim of this study is to investigate whether the model method is effective to assist primary students to solve word problems. The model method not only provides students with an opportunity to interpret the problem by drawing the rectangular bar but also helps students to visually represent problem situations and relevant relationships on the…

Effect of Causal Stories in Solving Mathematical Story Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Glenn Gordon; Gerretson, Helen; Olkun, Sinan; Joutsenlahti, Jorma

2010-01-01

This study investigated whether infusing "causal" story elements into mathematical word problems improves student performance. In one experiment in the USA and a second in USA, Finland and Turkey, undergraduate elementary education majors worked word problems in three formats: 1) standard (minimal verbiage), 2) potential causation…

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.

War and peace: morphemes and full forms in a noninteractive activation parallel dual-route model.

PubMed

Baayen, H; Schreuder, R

This article introduces a computational tool for modeling the process of morphological segmentation in visual and auditory word recognition in the framework of a parallel dual-route model. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.

Speech-Enabled Interfaces for Travel Information Systems with Large Grammars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Baoli; Allen, Tony; Bargiela, Andrzej

This paper introduces three grammar-segmentation methods capable of handling the large grammar issues associated with producing a real-time speech-enabled VXML bus travel application for London. Large grammars tend to produce relatively slow recognition interfaces and this work shows how this limitation can be successfully addressed. Comparative experimental results show that the novel last-word recognition based grammar segmentation method described here achieves an optimal balance between recognition rate, speed of processing and naturalness of interaction.

Word-based Morphology: Some Problems from a Polysynthetic Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Axelrod, Melissa

Some of the problems inherent in a word-based hypothesis asserting that the word/stem is taken as the minimal sign not only for syntax but also for morphology are examined in an analysis of a polysynthetic language, Koyukon, an Athabaskan language of Alaska. Data from the Central dialect is considered in the analysis. A brief sketch of the verbal…

Proximate factors associated with speech intelligibility in children with cochlear implants: A preliminary study.

PubMed

Chin, Steven B; Kuhns, Matthew J

2014-01-01

The purpose of this descriptive pilot study was to examine possible relationships among speech intelligibility and structural characteristics of speech in children who use cochlear implants. The Beginners Intelligibility Test (BIT) was administered to 10 children with cochlear implants, and the intelligibility of the words in the sentences was judged by panels of naïve adult listeners. Additionally, several qualitative and quantitative measures of word omission, segment correctness, duration, and intonation variability were applied to the sentences used to assess intelligibility. Correlational analyses were conducted to determine if BIT scores and the other speech parameters were related. There was a significant correlation between BIT score and percent words omitted, but no other variables correlated significantly with BIT score. The correlation between intelligibility and word omission may be task-specific as well as reflective of memory limitations.

The Influence of English-Korean Bilingualism in Solving Mathematics Word Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whang, Woo-Hyung

1996-01-01

Purposeful sampling was used to select six English-Korean bilingual students to investigate language difficulties and cognitive processes in solving mathematics word problems. These six case studies revealed distinct patterns of difficulties in solving problems written in English and Korean, especially for students in transition stage. (Author/KMC)

Music reading expertise modulates hemispheric lateralization in English word processing but not in Chinese character processing.

PubMed

Li, Sara Tze Kwan; Hsiao, Janet Hui-Wen

2018-07-01

Music notation and English word reading both involve mapping horizontally arranged visual components to components in sound, in contrast to reading in logographic languages such as Chinese. Accordingly, music-reading expertise may influence English word processing more than Chinese character processing. Here we showed that musicians named English words significantly faster than non-musicians when words were presented in the left visual field/right hemisphere (RH) or the center position, suggesting an advantage of RH processing due to music reading experience. This effect was not observed in Chinese character naming. A follow-up ERP study showed that in a sequential matching task, musicians had reduced RH N170 responses to English non-words under the processing of musical segments as compared with non-musicians, suggesting a shared visual processing mechanism in the RH between music notation and English non-word reading. This shared mechanism may be related to the letter-by-letter, serial visual processing that characterizes RH English word recognition (e.g., Lavidor & Ellis, 2001), which may consequently facilitate English word processing in the RH in musicians. Thus, music reading experience may have differential influences on the processing of different languages, depending on their similarities in the cognitive processes involved. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Words, words, words!

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2015-09-01

Words matter. They are the "atoms" of written and oral communication. Students rely on words in textbooks and other instructional resources and in classroom lectures and discussions. As instructors, there are times when we need to think carefully about the words we use. Sometimes there are problems that may not be initially apparent and we may introduce confusion when we were aiming for clarity.

The Use of a Bar Model Drawing to Teach Word Problem Solving to Students with Mathematics Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morin, Lisa L.; Watson, Silvana M. R.; Hester, Peggy; Raver, Sharon

2017-01-01

For students with mathematics difficulties (MD), math word problem solving is especially challenging. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a problem-solving strategy, bar model drawing, on the mathematical problem-solving skills of students with MD. The study extended previous research that suggested that schematic-based…

Teaching Problem Solving to Students Receiving Tiered Interventions Using the Concrete-Representational-Abstract Sequence and Schema-Based Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flores, Margaret M.; Hinton, Vanessa M.; Burton, Megan E.

2016-01-01

Mathematical word problems are the most common form of mathematics problem solving implemented in K-12 schools. Identifying key words is a frequent strategy taught in classrooms in which students struggle with problem solving and show low success rates in mathematics. Researchers show that using the concrete-representational-abstract (CRA)…

The Contributions of Working Memory and Executive Functioning to Problem Representation and Solution Generation in Algebraic Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Kerry; Ng, Ee Lynn; Ng, Swee Fong

2009-01-01

Solving algebraic word problems involves multiple cognitive phases. The authors used a multitask approach to examine the extent to which working memory and executive functioning are associated with generating problem models and producing solutions. They tested 255 11-year-olds on working memory (Counting Recall, Letter Memory, and Keep Track),…

Left-frontal brain potentials index conceptual implicit memory for words initially viewed subliminally.

PubMed

Chen, Jason C W; Li, Wen; Lui, Ming; Paller, Ken A

2009-08-18

Neural correlates of explicit and implicit memory tend to co-occur and are therefore difficult to measure independently, posing problems for understanding the unique nature of different types of memory processing. To circumvent this problem, we developed an experimental design wherein subjects acquired information from words presented in a subliminal manner, such that conscious remembering was minimized. Cross-modal word repetition was used so that perceptual implicit memory would also be limited. Healthy human subjects viewed subliminal words six times each and about 2 min later heard the same words interspersed with new words in a category-verification test. Electrophysiological correlates of word repetition included negative brain potentials over left-frontal locations beginning approximately 500 ms after word onset. Behavioral responses were slower for repeated words than for new words. Differential processing of word meaning in the absence of explicit memory was most likely responsible for differential electrical and behavioral responses to old versus new words. Moreover, these effects were distinct from neural correlates of explicit memory observed in prior experiments, and were observed here in two separate experiments, thus providing a foundation for further investigations of relationships and interactions between different types of memory engaged when words repeat.

Students’ Representation in Mathematical Word Problem-Solving: Exploring Students’ Self-efficacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sahendra, A.; Budiarto, M. T.; Fuad, Y.

2018-01-01

This descriptive qualitative research aims at investigating student represented in mathematical word problem solving based on self-efficacy. The research subjects are two eighth graders at a school in Surabaya with equal mathematical ability consisting of two female students with high and low self-efficacy. The subjects were chosen based on the results of test of mathematical ability, documentation of the result of middle test in even semester of 2016/2017 academic year, and results of questionnaire of mathematics word problem in terms of self-efficacy scale. The selected students were asked to do mathematical word problem solving and be interviewed. The result of this study shows that students with high self-efficacy tend to use multiple representations of sketches and mathematical models, whereas students with low self-efficacy tend to use single representation of sketches or mathematical models only in mathematical word problem-solving. This study emphasizes that teachers should pay attention of student’s representation as a consideration of designing innovative learning in order to increase the self-efficacy of each student to achieve maximum mathematical achievement although it still requires adjustment to the school situation and condition.

The Effects of Segmented Multimedia Worked Examples and Self-Explanations on Acquisition of Conceptual Knowledge and Problem-Solving Performance in an Undergraduate Engineering Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kapli, Natalia V.

2010-01-01

The study investigated the effects of non-segmented multimedia worked examples (NS-MWE), segmented multimedia worked examples (S-MWE), and segmented multimedia worked examples enhanced with self-explanation prompts (S-MWE-SE) on acquisition of conceptual knowledge and problem solving performance in an undergraduate engineering course. In addition,…

A Strategy for Improving US Middle School Student Mathematics Word Problem Solving Performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thomas, Valerie L.

2004-01-01

U.S. middle school students have difficulty understanding and solving mathematics word problems. Their mathematics performance on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) is far below their international peers, and minority students are less likely than high socioeconomic status (SES) White/Asian students to be exposed to higher-level mathematics concepts. Research literature also indicates that when students use both In-School and Out-of-School knowledge and experiences to create authentic mathematics word problems, student achievement improves. This researcher developed a Strategy for improving mathematics problem solving performance and a Professional Development Model (PDM) to effectively implement the Strategy.

Standing on the shoulders of giants: improving medical image segmentation via bias correction.

PubMed

Wang, Hongzhi; Das, Sandhitsu; Pluta, John; Craige, Caryne; Altinay, Murat; Avants, Brian; Weiner, Michael; Mueller, Susanne; Yushkevich, Paul

2010-01-01

We propose a simple strategy to improve automatic medical image segmentation. The key idea is that without deep understanding of a segmentation method, we can still improve its performance by directly calibrating its results with respect to manual segmentation. We formulate the calibration process as a bias correction problem, which is addressed by machine learning using training data. We apply this methodology on three segmentation problems/methods and show significant improvements for all of them.

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.

Off-lexicon online Arabic handwriting recognition using neural network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yahia, Hamdi; Chaabouni, Aymen; Boubaker, Houcine; Alimi, Adel M.

2017-03-01

This paper highlights a new method for online Arabic handwriting recognition based on graphemes segmentation. The main contribution of our work is to explore the utility of Beta-elliptic model in segmentation and features extraction for online handwriting recognition. Indeed, our method consists in decomposing the input signal into continuous part called graphemes based on Beta-Elliptical model, and classify them according to their position in the pseudo-word. The segmented graphemes are then described by the combination of geometric features and trajectory shape modeling. The efficiency of the considered features has been evaluated using feed forward neural network classifier. Experimental results using the benchmarking ADAB Database show the performance of the proposed method.

Effects of word frequency and modality on sentence comprehension impairments in people with aphasia.

PubMed

DeDe, Gayle

2012-05-01

It is well known that people with aphasia have sentence comprehension impairments. The present study investigated whether lexical factors contribute to sentence comprehension impairments in both the auditory and written modalities using online measures of sentence processing. People with aphasia and non brain-damaged controls participated in the experiment (n = 8 per group). Twenty-one sentence pairs containing high- and low-frequency words were presented in self-paced listening and reading tasks. The sentences were syntactically simple and differed only in the critical words. The dependent variables were response times for critical segments of the sentence and accuracy on the comprehension questions. The results showed that word frequency influences performance on measures of sentence comprehension in people with aphasia. The accuracy data on the comprehension questions suggested that people with aphasia have more difficulty understanding sentences containing low-frequency words in the written compared to auditory modality. Both group and single-case analyses of the response time data also indicated that people with aphasia experience more difficulty with reading than listening. Sentence comprehension in people with aphasia is influenced by word frequency and presentation modality.

Syllables and bigrams: orthographic redundancy and syllabic units affect visual word recognition at different processing levels.

PubMed

Conrad, Markus; Carreiras, Manuel; Tamm, Sascha; Jacobs, Arthur M

2009-04-01

Over the last decade, there has been increasing evidence for syllabic processing during visual word recognition. If syllabic effects prove to be independent from orthographic redundancy, this would seriously challenge the ability of current computational models to account for the processing of polysyllabic words. Three experiments are presented to disentangle effects of the frequency of syllabic units and orthographic segments in lexical decision. In Experiment 1 the authors obtained an inhibitory syllable frequency effect that was unaffected by the presence or absence of a bigram trough at the syllable boundary. In Experiments 2 and 3 an inhibitory effect of initial syllable frequency but a facilitative effect of initial bigram frequency emerged when manipulating 1 of the 2 measures and controlling for the other in Spanish words starting with consonant-vowel syllables. The authors conclude that effects of syllable frequency and letter-cluster frequency are independent and arise at different processing levels of visual word recognition. Results are discussed within the framework of an interactive activation model of visual word recognition. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Dissociation of tone and vowel processing in Mandarin idioms.

PubMed

Hu, Jiehui; Gao, Shan; Ma, Weiyi; Yao, Dezhong

2012-09-01

Using event-related potentials, this study measured the access of suprasegmental (tone) and segmental (vowel) information in spoken word recognition with Mandarin idioms. Participants performed a delayed-response acceptability task, in which they judged the correctness of the last word of each idiom, which might deviate from the correct word in either tone or vowel. Results showed that, compared with the correct idioms, a larger early negativity appeared only for vowel violation. Additionally, a larger N400 effect was observed for vowel mismatch than tone mismatch. A control experiment revealed that these differences were not due to low-level physical differences across conditions; instead, they represented the greater constraining power of vowels than tones in the lexical selection and semantic integration of the spoken words. Furthermore, tone violation elicited a more robust late positive component than vowel violation, suggesting different reanalyses of the two types of information. In summary, the current results support a functional dissociation of tone and vowel processing in spoken word recognition. Copyright © 2012 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Effects of Cognitive Strategy Interventions on Word Problem Solving and Working Memory in Children with Math Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, H. Lee; Lussier, Catherine; Orosco, Michael

2011-01-01

Although current categories of learning disabilities include as specific disabilities calculation and mathematical problem solving [see IDEA reauthorization, 2004, Sec. 300.8(c)(10)], the majority of research focuses on calculation disabilities. Previous studies have shown, however, that deficits in word problem solving difficulties are persistent…

The Role of the Updating Function in Solving Arithmetic Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mori, Kanetaka; Okamoto, Masahiko

2017-01-01

We investigated how the updating function supports the integration process in solving arithmetic word problems. In Experiment 1, we measured reading time, that is, translation and integration times, when undergraduate and graduate students (n = 78) were asked to solve 2 types of problems: those containing only necessary information and those…

Problem Solving Frameworks for Mathematics and Software Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMaster, Kirby; Sambasivam, Samuel; Blake, Ashley

2012-01-01

In this research, we examine how problem solving frameworks differ between Mathematics and Software Development. Our methodology is based on the assumption that the words used frequently in a book indicate the mental framework of the author. We compared word frequencies in a sample of 139 books that discuss problem solving. The books were grouped…

Following the Template: Transferring Modeling Skills to Nonstandard Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tyumeneva, Yu. A.; Goncharova, M. V.

2017-01-01

This study seeks to analyze how students apply a mathematical modeling skill that was previously learned by solving standard word problems to the solution of word problems with nonstandard contexts. During the course of an experiment involving 106 freshmen, we assessed how well they were able to transfer the mathematical modeling skill that is…

Executive Functions Underlying Multiplicative Reasoning: Problem Type Matters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Agostino, Alba; Johnson, Janice; Pascual-Leone, Juan

2010-01-01

We investigated the extent to which inhibition, updating, shifting, and mental-attentional capacity ("M"-capacity) contribute to children's ability to solve multiplication word problems. A total of 155 children in Grades 3-6 (8- to 13-year-olds) completed a set of multiplication word problems at two levels of difficulty: one-step and multiple-step…

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…

VStops: A Thinking Strategy and Visual Representation Approach in Mathematical Word Problem Solving toward Enhancing STEM Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdullah, Nasarudin; Halim, Lilia; Zakaria, Effandi

2014-01-01

This study aimed to determine the impact of strategic thinking and visual representation approaches (VStops) on the achievement, conceptual knowledge, metacognitive awareness, awareness of problem-solving strategies, and student attitudes toward mathematical word problem solving among primary school students. The experimental group (N = 96)…

Effect of word familiarity on visually evoked magnetic fields.

PubMed

Harada, N; Iwaki, S; Nakagawa, S; Yamaguchi, M; Tonoike, M

2004-11-30

This study investigated the effect of word familiarity of visual stimuli on the word recognizing function of the human brain. Word familiarity is an index of the relative ease of word perception, and is characterized by facilitation and accuracy on word recognition. We studied the effect of word familiarity, using "Hiragana" (phonetic characters in Japanese orthography) characters as visual stimuli, on the elicitation of visually evoked magnetic fields with a word-naming task. The words were selected from a database of lexical properties of Japanese. The four "Hiragana" characters used were grouped and presented in 4 classes of degree of familiarity. The three components were observed in averaged waveforms of the root mean square (RMS) value on latencies at about 100 ms, 150 ms and 220 ms. The RMS value of the 220 ms component showed a significant positive correlation (F=(3/36); 5.501; p=0.035) with the value of familiarity. ECDs of the 220 ms component were observed in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). Increments in the RMS value of the 220 ms component, which might reflect ideographical word recognition, retrieving "as a whole" were enhanced with increments of the value of familiarity. The interaction of characters, which increased with the value of familiarity, might function "as a large symbol"; and enhance a "pop-out" function with an escaping character inhibiting other characters and enhancing the segmentation of the character (as a figure) from the ground.

Selective, sustained, and shift in attention in patients with diagnoses of schizophrenia.

PubMed

Hagh-Shenas, H; Toobai, S; Makaremi, A

2002-12-01

Attentional deficits are a prominent aspect of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. The present study was designed to investigate attention deficit in a group of patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia. According to the segmental set theory suggested by Hogarty and Flesher, three aspects of attention problems, selective, sustained, and shift in attention, were studied. The 30 patients hospitalized on three psychiatric wards at Shiraz and Isfahan and 30 normal healthy subjects matched for age, sex, and years of education were administered a computerized Continuous Performance Test, Stroop Color-word Test, and Wisconsin Card Sorting test. Analysis showed patients performed more poorly than control subjects on measured aspects of attention. The acute/chronic classification did not predict differences in attention scores between subtypes of schizophrenia, while the positive/negative classification did. Paranoid, undifferentiated, and residual groups by subtypes of schizophrenia showed similar performance on the Continuous Performance Test, but were significantly different on errors on the Wisconsin Card Sorting test and on reaction time to Stroop stimuli in the incongruent color-word condition. Patients with paranoid diagnosis performed better than other subtypes on these tasks. Present results suggest that the Continuous Performance Test is valuable for differentiating of schizophrenia spectrum disorder, while scores on Stroop and Wisconsin card sorting may have better diagnostic value for differentiating subtypes of the disorder.

It's Not a Math Lesson--We're Learning to Draw! Teachers' Use of Visual Representations in Instructing Word Problem Solving in Sixth Grade of Elementary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boonen, Anton J. H.; Reed, Helen C.; Schoonenboom, Judith; Jolles, Jelle

2016-01-01

Non-routine word problem solving is an essential feature of the mathematical development of elementary school students worldwide. Many students experience difficulties in solving these problems due to erroneous problem comprehension. These difficulties could be alleviated by instructing students how to use visual representations that clarify the…

Tutoring Mathematical Word Problems Using Solution Trees: Text Comprehension, Situation Comprehension, and Mathematization in Solving Story Problems. Research Report No. 8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reusser, Kurt; And Others

The main concern of this paper is on the psychological processes of how students understand and solve mathematical word problems, and on how this knowledge can be applied to computer-based tutoring. It is argued that only a better understanding of the psychological requirements for understanding and solving those problems will lead to…

SCOUT: simultaneous time segmentation and community detection in dynamic networks

PubMed Central

Hulovatyy, Yuriy; Milenković, Tijana

2016-01-01

Many evolving complex real-world systems can be modeled via dynamic networks. An important problem in dynamic network research is community detection, which finds groups of topologically related nodes. Typically, this problem is approached by assuming either that each time point has a distinct community organization or that all time points share a single community organization. The reality likely lies between these two extremes. To find the compromise, we consider community detection in the context of the problem of segment detection, which identifies contiguous time periods with consistent network structure. Consequently, we formulate a combined problem of segment community detection (SCD), which simultaneously partitions the network into contiguous time segments with consistent community organization and finds this community organization for each segment. To solve SCD, we introduce SCOUT, an optimization framework that explicitly considers both segmentation quality and partition quality. SCOUT addresses limitations of existing methods that can be adapted to solve SCD, which consider only one of segmentation quality or partition quality. In a thorough evaluation, SCOUT outperforms the existing methods in terms of both accuracy and computational complexity. We apply SCOUT to biological network data to study human aging. PMID:27881879

Parameterizing by the Number of Numbers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fellows, Michael R.; Gaspers, Serge; Rosamond, Frances A.

The usefulness of parameterized algorithmics has often depended on what Niedermeier has called "the art of problem parameterization". In this paper we introduce and explore a novel but general form of parameterization: the number of numbers. Several classic numerical problems, such as Subset Sum, Partition, 3-Partition, Numerical 3-Dimensional Matching, and Numerical Matching with Target Sums, have multisets of integers as input. We initiate the study of parameterizing these problems by the number of distinct integers in the input. We rely on an FPT result for Integer Linear Programming Feasibility to show that all the above-mentioned problems are fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized in this way. In various applied settings, problem inputs often consist in part of multisets of integers or multisets of weighted objects (such as edges in a graph, or jobs to be scheduled). Such number-of-numbers parameterized problems often reduce to subproblems about transition systems of various kinds, parameterized by the size of the system description. We consider several core problems of this kind relevant to number-of-numbers parameterization. Our main hardness result considers the problem: given a non-deterministic Mealy machine M (a finite state automaton outputting a letter on each transition), an input word x, and a census requirement c for the output word specifying how many times each letter of the output alphabet should be written, decide whether there exists a computation of M reading x that outputs a word y that meets the requirement c. We show that this problem is hard for W[1]. If the question is whether there exists an input word x such that a computation of M on x outputs a word that meets c, the problem becomes fixed-parameter tractable.

Antimnemonic effects of schemas in young and older adults

PubMed Central

Badham, Stephen P.; Maylor, Elizabeth A.

2016-01-01

Schema-consistent material that is aligned with an individual’s knowledge and experience is typically more memorable than abstract material. This effect is often more extreme in older adults and schema use can alleviate age deficits in memory. In three experiments, young and older adults completed memory tasks where the availability of schematic information was manipulated. Specifying nonobvious relations between to-be-remembered word pairs paradoxically hindered memory (Experiment 1). Highlighting relations within mixed lists of related and unrelated word pairs had no effect on memory for those pairs (Experiment 2). This occurred even though related word pairs were recalled better than unrelated word pairs, particularly for older adults. Revealing a schematic context in a memory task with abstract image segments also hindered memory performance, particularly for older adults (Experiment 3). The data show that processing schematic information can come with costs that offset mnemonic benefits associated with schema-consistent stimuli. PMID:25980799

Low-frequency periodicity in the coordination of progressive handwriting.

PubMed

Thomassen, A J; Meulenbroek, R G

1998-11-01

The paper addresses the question how the effector segments are coordinated during handwriting, in particular as a function of the left-to-right progression within words. It studies the phase relations between wrist and finger-joint rotations during a repetitive graphic task (long words consisting of letters 'e'), and it subjects the resulting continuous phase-relation plots to autocorrelation analysis. A novel phenomenon, viz. that of low-frequency (1-Hz) periodicity, is observed which presumably reflects adjustments of the coordination pattern about once per second, i.e., after every three or four letters 'e'. Moreover, word length and word position are found to affect this periodicity in a predictable manner. These results are related to those of an earlier study which used an ad-hoc method of analysing wrist-finger coordination adjustments. The paper underlines the value of phase-relation analysis for certain graphic tasks, but it also points out its limitations for this purpose.

Ideophones in Japanese modulate the P2 and late positive complex responses

PubMed Central

Lockwood, Gwilym; Tuomainen, Jyrki

2015-01-01

Sound-symbolism, or the direct link between sound and meaning, is typologically and behaviorally attested across languages. However, neuroimaging research has mostly focused on artificial non-words or individual segments, which do not represent sound-symbolism in natural language. We used EEG to compare Japanese ideophones, which are phonologically distinctive sound-symbolic lexical words, and arbitrary adverbs during a sentence reading task. Ideophones elicit a larger visual P2 response than arbitrary adverbs, as well as a sustained late positive complex. Our results and previous literature suggest that the larger P2 may indicate the integration of sound and sensory information by association in response to the distinctive phonology of ideophones. The late positive complex may reflect the facilitated lexical retrieval of arbitrary words in comparison to ideophones. This account provides new evidence that ideophones exhibit similar cross-modal correspondences to those which have been proposed for non-words and individual sounds. PMID:26191031

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.

Temporally selective attention supports speech processing in 3- to 5-year-old children.

PubMed

Astheimer, Lori B; Sanders, Lisa D

2012-01-01

Recent event-related potential (ERP) evidence demonstrates that adults employ temporally selective attention to preferentially process the initial portions of words in continuous speech. Doing so is an effective listening strategy since word-initial segments are highly informative. Although the development of this process remains unexplored, directing attention to word onsets may be important for speech processing in young children who would otherwise be overwhelmed by the rapidly changing acoustic signals that constitute speech. We examined the use of temporally selective attention in 3- to 5-year-old children listening to stories by comparing ERPs elicited by attention probes presented at four acoustically matched times relative to word onsets: concurrently with a word onset, 100 ms before, 100 ms after, and at random control times. By 80 ms, probes presented at and after word onsets elicited a larger negativity than probes presented before word onsets or at control times. The latency and distribution of this effect is similar to temporally and spatially selective attention effects measured in adults and, despite differences in polarity, spatially selective attention effects measured in children. These results indicate that, like adults, preschool aged children modulate temporally selective attention to preferentially process the initial portions of words in continuous speech. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of metric hierarchy and rhyme predictability on word duration in The Cat in the Hat.

PubMed

Breen, Mara

2018-05-01

Word durations convey many types of linguistic information, including intrinsic lexical features like length and frequency and contextual features like syntactic and semantic structure. The current study was designed to investigate whether hierarchical metric structure and rhyme predictability account for durational variation over and above other features in productions of a rhyming, metrically-regular children's book: The Cat in the Hat (Dr. Seuss, 1957). One-syllable word durations and inter-onset intervals were modeled as functions of segment number, lexical frequency, word class, syntactic structure, repetition, and font emphasis. Consistent with prior work, factors predicting longer word durations and inter-onset intervals included more phonemes, lower frequency, first mention, alignment with a syntactic boundary, and capitalization. A model parameter corresponding to metric grid height improved model fit of word durations and inter-onset intervals. Specifically, speakers realized five levels of metric hierarchy with inter-onset intervals such that interval duration increased linearly with increased height in the metric hierarchy. Conversely, speakers realized only three levels of metric hierarchy with word duration, demonstrating that they shortened the highly predictable rhyme resolutions. These results further understanding of the factors that affect spoken word duration, and demonstrate the myriad cues that children receive about linguistic structure from nursery rhymes. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Image segmentation using fuzzy LVQ clustering networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tsao, Eric Chen-Kuo; Bezdek, James C.; Pal, Nikhil R.

1992-01-01

In this note we formulate image segmentation as a clustering problem. Feature vectors extracted from a raw image are clustered into subregions, thereby segmenting the image. A fuzzy generalization of a Kohonen learning vector quantization (LVQ) which integrates the Fuzzy c-Means (FCM) model with the learning rate and updating strategies of the LVQ is used for this task. This network, which segments images in an unsupervised manner, is thus related to the FCM optimization problem. Numerical examples on photographic and magnetic resonance images are given to illustrate this approach to image segmentation.

Artificial neural networks for document analysis and recognition.

PubMed

Marinai, Simone; Gori, Marco; Soda, Giovanni; Society, Computer

2005-01-01

Artificial neural networks have been extensively applied to document analysis and recognition. Most efforts have been devoted to the recognition of isolated handwritten and printed characters with widely recognized successful results. However, many other document processing tasks, like preprocessing, layout analysis, character segmentation, word recognition, and signature verification, have been effectively faced with very promising results. This paper surveys the most significant problems in the area of offline document image processing, where connectionist-based approaches have been applied. Similarities and differences between approaches belonging to different categories are discussed. A particular emphasis is given on the crucial role of prior knowledge for the conception of both appropriate architectures and learning algorithms. Finally, the paper provides a critical analysis on the reviewed approaches and depicts the most promising research guidelines in the field. In particular, a second generation of connectionist-based models are foreseen which are based on appropriate graphical representations of the learning environment.

Multi-object segmentation using coupled nonparametric shape and relative pose priors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uzunbas, Mustafa Gökhan; Soldea, Octavian; Çetin, Müjdat; Ünal, Gözde; Erçil, Aytül; Unay, Devrim; Ekin, Ahmet; Firat, Zeynep

2009-02-01

We present a new method for multi-object segmentation in a maximum a posteriori estimation framework. Our method is motivated by the observation that neighboring or coupling objects in images generate configurations and co-dependencies which could potentially aid in segmentation if properly exploited. Our approach employs coupled shape and inter-shape pose priors that are computed using training images in a nonparametric multi-variate kernel density estimation framework. The coupled shape prior is obtained by estimating the joint shape distribution of multiple objects and the inter-shape pose priors are modeled via standard moments. Based on such statistical models, we formulate an optimization problem for segmentation, which we solve by an algorithm based on active contours. Our technique provides significant improvements in the segmentation of weakly contrasted objects in a number of applications. In particular for medical image analysis, we use our method to extract brain Basal Ganglia structures, which are members of a complex multi-object system posing a challenging segmentation problem. We also apply our technique to the problem of handwritten character segmentation. Finally, we use our method to segment cars in urban scenes.

Constructing Meaning: Think-Aloud Protocols of ELLs on English and Spanish Word Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Celedon-Pattichis, Sylvia

This one-year qualitative study analyzed how nine middle school English language learners (ELLs) of Mexican descent constructed meaning on think-aloud protocols of Spanish and English word problems. Strategies used by these students to process information from English to their native language included translating to Spanish, reading the problem at…

The Model Method: Singapore Children's Tool for Representing and Solving Algebraic Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ng, Swee Fong; Lee, Kerry

2009-01-01

Solving arithmetic and algebraic word problems is a key component of the Singapore elementary mathematics curriculum. One heuristic taught, the model method, involves drawing a diagram to represent key information in the problem. We describe the model method and a three-phase theoretical framework supporting its use. We conducted 2 studies to…

Cognitive Benefits and Costs of Bilingualism in Elementary School Students: The Case of Mathematical Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kempert, Sebastian; Saalbach, Henrik; Hardy, Ilonca

2011-01-01

Previous research has emphasized the importance of language for learning mathematics. This is especially true when mathematical problems have to be extracted from a meaningful context, as in arithmetic word problems. Bilingual learners with a low command of the instructional language thus may face challenges when dealing with mathematical…

Factors Influencing Filipino Children's Solutions to Addition and Subtraction Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bautista, Debbie; Mitchelmore, Michael; Mulligan, Joanne

2009-01-01

Young Filipino children are expected to solve mathematical word problems in English, which is not their mother tongue. Because of this, it is often assumed that Filipino children have difficulties in solving problems because they cannot read or comprehend what they have read. This study tested this assumption by determining whether presenting word…

Students' Mathematics Word Problem-Solving Achievement in a Computer-Based Story

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gunbas, N.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a computer-based story, which was designed in anchored instruction framework, on sixth-grade students' mathematics word problem-solving achievement. Problems were embedded in a story presented on a computer as computer story, and then compared with the paper-based version of the same story…

Word Spotting and Recognition with Embedded Attributes.

PubMed

Almazán, Jon; Gordo, Albert; Fornés, Alicia; Valveny, Ernest

2014-12-01

This paper addresses the problems of word spotting and word recognition on images. In word spotting, the goal is to find all instances of a query word in a dataset of images. In recognition, the goal is to recognize the content of the word image, usually aided by a dictionary or lexicon. We describe an approach in which both word images and text strings are embedded in a common vectorial subspace. This is achieved by a combination of label embedding and attributes learning, and a common subspace regression. In this subspace, images and strings that represent the same word are close together, allowing one to cast recognition and retrieval tasks as a nearest neighbor problem. Contrary to most other existing methods, our representation has a fixed length, is low dimensional, and is very fast to compute and, especially, to compare. We test our approach on four public datasets of both handwritten documents and natural images showing results comparable or better than the state-of-the-art on spotting and recognition tasks.

Optimization-based interactive segmentation interface for multiregion problems

PubMed Central

Baxter, John S. H.; Rajchl, Martin; Peters, Terry M.; Chen, Elvis C. S.

2016-01-01

Abstract. Interactive segmentation is becoming of increasing interest to the medical imaging community in that it combines the positive aspects of both manual and automated segmentation. However, general-purpose tools have been lacking in terms of segmenting multiple regions simultaneously with a high degree of coupling between groups of labels. Hierarchical max-flow segmentation has taken advantage of this coupling for individual applications, but until recently, these algorithms were constrained to a particular hierarchy and could not be considered general-purpose. In a generalized form, the hierarchy for any given segmentation problem is specified in run-time, allowing different hierarchies to be quickly explored. We present an interactive segmentation interface, which uses generalized hierarchical max-flow for optimization-based multiregion segmentation guided by user-defined seeds. Applications in cardiac and neonatal brain segmentation are given as example applications of its generality. PMID:27335892

Patient-specific semi-supervised learning for postoperative brain tumor segmentation.

PubMed

Meier, Raphael; Bauer, Stefan; Slotboom, Johannes; Wiest, Roland; Reyes, Mauricio

2014-01-01

In contrast to preoperative brain tumor segmentation, the problem of postoperative brain tumor segmentation has been rarely approached so far. We present a fully-automatic segmentation method using multimodal magnetic resonance image data and patient-specific semi-supervised learning. The idea behind our semi-supervised approach is to effectively fuse information from both pre- and postoperative image data of the same patient to improve segmentation of the postoperative image. We pose image segmentation as a classification problem and solve it by adopting a semi-supervised decision forest. The method is evaluated on a cohort of 10 high-grade glioma patients, with segmentation performance and computation time comparable or superior to a state-of-the-art brain tumor segmentation method. Moreover, our results confirm that the inclusion of preoperative MR images lead to a better performance regarding postoperative brain tumor segmentation.

The Sound Pattern of Japanese Surnames

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tanaka, Yu

2017-01-01

Compound surnames in Japanese show complex phonological patterns, which pose challenges to current theories of phonology. This dissertation proposes an account of the segmental and prosodic issues in Japanese surnames and discusses their theoretical implications. Like regular compound words, compound surnames may undergo a sound alternation known…

Visual speech information: a help or hindrance in perceptual processing of dysarthric speech.

PubMed

Borrie, Stephanie A

2015-03-01

This study investigated the influence of visual speech information on perceptual processing of neurologically degraded speech. Fifty listeners identified spastic dysarthric speech under both audio (A) and audiovisual (AV) conditions. Condition comparisons revealed that the addition of visual speech information enhanced processing of the neurologically degraded input in terms of (a) acuity (percent phonemes correct) of vowels and consonants and (b) recognition (percent words correct) of predictive and nonpredictive phrases. Listeners exploited stress-based segmentation strategies more readily in AV conditions, suggesting that the perceptual benefit associated with adding visual speech information to the auditory signal-the AV advantage-has both segmental and suprasegmental origins. Results also revealed that the magnitude of the AV advantage can be predicted, to some degree, by the extent to which an individual utilizes syllabic stress cues to inform word recognition in AV conditions. Findings inform the development of a listener-specific model of speech perception that applies to processing of dysarthric speech in everyday communication contexts.

Using visible speech to train perception and production of speech for individuals with hearing loss.

PubMed

Massaro, Dominic W; Light, Joanna

2004-04-01

The main goal of this study was to implement a computer-animated talking head, Baldi, as a language tutor for speech perception and production for individuals with hearing loss. Baldi can speak slowly; illustrate articulation by making the skin transparent to reveal the tongue, teeth, and palate; and show supplementary articulatory features, such as vibration of the neck to show voicing and turbulent airflow to show frication. Seven students with hearing loss between the ages of 8 and 13 were trained for 6 hours across 21 weeks on 8 categories of segments (4 voiced vs. voiceless distinctions, 3 consonant cluster distinctions, and 1 fricative vs. affricate distinction). Training included practice at the segment and the word level. Perception and production improved for each of the 7 children. Speech production also generalized to new words not included in the training lessons. Finally, speech production deteriorated somewhat after 6 weeks without training, indicating that the training method rather than some other experience was responsible for the improvement that was found.

Fostering Analogical Transfer: The Multiple Components Approach to Algebra Word Problem Solving in a Chemistry Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ngu, Bing Hiong; Yeung, Alexander Seeshing

2012-01-01

Holyoak and Koh (1987) and Holyoak (1984) propose four critical tasks for analogical transfer to occur in problem solving. A study was conducted to test this hypothesis by comparing a multiple components (MC) approach against worked examples (WE) in helping students to solve algebra word problems in chemistry classes. The MC approach incorporated…

A Review of the Effects of Visual-Spatial Representations and Heuristics on Word Problem Solving in Middle School Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kribbs, Elizabeth E.; Rogowsky, Beth A.

2016-01-01

Mathematics word-problems continue to be an insurmountable challenge for many middle school students. Educators have used pictorial and schematic illustrations within the classroom to help students visualize these problems. However, the data shows that pictorial representations can be more harmful than helpful in that they only display objects or…

Teaching High School Students with Learning Disabilities to Use Model Drawing Strategy to Solve Fraction and Percentage Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dennis, Minyi Shih; Knight, Jacqueline; Jerman, Olga

2016-01-01

This article describes how to teach fraction and percentage word problems using a model-drawing strategy. This cognitive strategy places emphasis on explicitly teaching students how to draw a schematic diagram to represent the qualitative relations described in the problem, and how to formulate the solution based on the schematic diagram. The…

Errors Made by Elementary Fourth Grade Students When Modelling Word Problems and the Elimination of Those Errors through Scaffolding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ulu, Mustafa

2017-01-01

This study aims to identify errors made by primary school students when modelling word problems and to eliminate those errors through scaffolding. A 10-question problem-solving achievement test was used in the research. The qualitative and quantitative designs were utilized together. The study group of the quantitative design comprises 248…

Effects of Cognitive Strategy Interventions and Cognitive Moderators on Word Problem Solving in Children at Risk for Problem Solving Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, H. Lee; Lussier, Cathy; Orosco, Michael

2013-01-01

This study investigated the role of strategy instruction and cognitive abilities on word problem solving accuracy in children with math difficulties (MD). Elementary school children (N = 120) with and without MD were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: general-heuristic (e.g., underline question sentence), visual-schematic presentation…

A Comparison of Updating Processes in Children Good or Poor in Arithmetic Word Problem-Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Passolunghi, Maria Chiara; Pazzaglia, Francesca

2005-01-01

This study examines the updating ability of poor or good problem solvers. Seventy-eight fourth-graders, 43 good and 35 poor arithmetic word problem-solvers, performed the Updating Test used in Palladino et al. [Palladino, P., Cornoldi, C., De Beni, R., and Pazzaglia F. (2002). Working memory and updating processes in reading comprehension. Memory…

Application of Graph Theory in an Intelligent Tutoring System for Solving Mathematical Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nabiyev, Vasif V.; Çakiroglu, Ünal; Karal, Hasan; Erümit, Ali K.; Çebi, Ayça

2016-01-01

This study is aimed to construct a model to transform word "motion problems" in to an algorithmic form in order to be processed by an intelligent tutoring system (ITS). First; categorizing the characteristics of motion problems, second; suggesting a model for the categories were carried out. In order to solve all categories of the…

Use of a Mathematics Word Problem Strategy to Improve Achievement for Students with Mild Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taber, Mary R.

2013-01-01

Mathematics can be a difficult topic both to teach and to learn. Word problems specifically can be difficult for students with disabilities because they have to conceptualize what the problem is asking for, and they must perform the correct operation accurately. Current trends in mathematics instruction stem from the National Council of Teachers…

The longevity of statistical learning: When infant memory decays, isolated words come to the rescue.

PubMed

Karaman, Ferhat; Hay, Jessica F

2018-02-01

Research over the past 2 decades has demonstrated that infants are equipped with remarkable computational abilities that allow them to find words in continuous speech. Infants can encode information about the transitional probability (TP) between syllables to segment words from artificial and natural languages. As previous research has tested infants immediately after familiarization, infants' ability to retain sequential statistics beyond the immediate familiarization context remains unknown. Here, we examine infants' memory for statistically defined words 10 min after familiarization with an Italian corpus. Eight-month-old English-learning infants were familiarized with Italian sentences that contained 4 embedded target words-2 words had high internal TP (HTP, TP = 1.0) and 2 had low TP (LTP, TP = .33)-and were tested on their ability to discriminate HTP from LTP words using the Headturn Preference Procedure. When tested after a 10-min delay, infants failed to discriminate HTP from LTP words, suggesting that memory for statistical information likely decays over even short delays (Experiment 1). Experiments 2-4 were designed to test whether experience with isolated words selectively reinforces memory for statistically defined (i.e., HTP) words. When 8-month-olds were given additional experience with isolated tokens of both HTP and LTP words immediately after familiarization, they looked significantly longer on HTP than LTP test trials 10 min later. Although initial representations of statistically defined words may be fragile, our results suggest that experience with isolated words may reinforce the output of statistical learning by helping infants create more robust memories for words with strong versus weak co-occurrence statistics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Finding Words and Word Structure in Artificial Speech: The Development of Infants' Sensitivity to Morphosyntactic Regularities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marchetto, Erika; Bonatti, Luca L.

2015-01-01

To achieve language proficiency, infants must find the building blocks of speech and master the rules governing their legal combinations. However, these problems are linked: words are also built according to rules. Here, we explored early morphosyntactic sensitivity by testing when and how infants could find either words or within-word structure…

Elimination of RF inhomogeneity effects in segmentation.

PubMed

Agus, Onur; Ozkan, Mehmed; Aydin, Kubilay

2007-01-01

There are various methods proposed for the segmentation and analysis of MR images. However the efficiency of these techniques is effected by various artifacts that occur in the imaging system. One of the most encountered problems is the intensity variation across an image. To overcome this problem different methods are used. In this paper we propose a method for the elimination of intensity artifacts in segmentation of MRI images. Inter imager variations are also minimized to produce the same tissue segmentation for the same patient. A well-known multivariate classification algorithm, maximum likelihood is employed to illustrate the enhancement in segmentation.

Effects of Preventative Tutoring on the Mathematical Problem Solving of Third-Grade Students With Math and Reading Difficulties.

PubMed

Fuchs, Lynn S; Seethaler, Pamela M; Powell, Sarah R; Fuchs, Douglas; Hamlett, Carol L; Fletcher, Jack M

2008-01-01

This study assessed the effects of preventative tutoring on the math problem solving of third-grade students with math and reading difficulties. Students (n = 35) were assigned randomly to continue in their general education math program or to receive secondary preventative tutoring 3 times per week, 30 min per session, for 12 weeks. Schema-broadening tutoring taught students to (a) focus on the mathematical structure of 3 problem types; (b) recognize problems as belonging to those 3 problem-type schemas; (c) solve the 3 word-problem types; and (d) transfer solution methods to problems that include irrelevant information, 2-digit operands, missing information in the first or second positions in the algebraic equation, or relevant information in charts, graphs, and pictures. Also, students were taught to perform the calculation and algebraic skills foundational for problem solving. Analyses of variance revealed statistically significant effects on a wide range of word problems, with large effect sizes. Findings support the efficacy of the tutoring protocol for preventing word-problem deficits among third-grade students with math and reading deficits.

Effects of Preventative Tutoring on the Mathematical Problem Solving of Third-Grade Students With Math and Reading Difficulties

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Seethaler, Pamela M.; Powell, Sarah R.; Fuchs, Douglas; Hamlett, Carol L.; Fletcher, Jack M.

2009-01-01

This study assessed the effects of preventative tutoring on the math problem solving of third-grade students with math and reading difficulties. Students (n = 35) were assigned randomly to continue in their general education math program or to receive secondary preventative tutoring 3 times per week, 30 min per session, for 12 weeks. Schema-broadening tutoring taught students to (a) focus on the mathematical structure of 3 problem types; (b) recognize problems as belonging to those 3 problem-type schemas; (c) solve the 3 word-problem types; and (d) transfer solution methods to problems that include irrelevant information, 2-digit operands, missing information in the first or second positions in the algebraic equation, or relevant information in charts, graphs, and pictures. Also, students were taught to perform the calculation and algebraic skills foundational for problem solving. Analyses of variance revealed statistically significant effects on a wide range of word problems, with large effect sizes. Findings support the efficacy of the tutoring protocol for preventing word-problem deficits among third-grade students with math and reading deficits. PMID:20209074

NASA Taxonomies for Searching Problem Reports and FMEAs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.; Throop, David R.

2006-01-01

Many types of hazard and risk analyses are used during the life cycle of complex systems, including Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Hazard Analysis, Fault Tree and Event Tree Analysis, Probabilistic Risk Assessment, Reliability Analysis and analysis of Problem Reporting and Corrective Action (PRACA) databases. The success of these methods depends on the availability of input data and the analysts knowledge. Standard nomenclature can increase the reusability of hazard, risk and problem data. When nomenclature in the source texts is not standard, taxonomies with mapping words (sets of rough synonyms) can be combined with semantic search to identify items and tag them with metadata based on a rich standard nomenclature. Semantic search uses word meanings in the context of parsed phrases to find matches. The NASA taxonomies provide the word meanings. Spacecraft taxonomies and ontologies (generalization hierarchies with attributes and relationships, based on terms meanings) are being developed for types of subsystems, functions, entities, hazards and failures. The ontologies are broad and general, covering hardware, software and human systems. Semantic search of Space Station texts was used to validate and extend the taxonomies. The taxonomies have also been used to extract system connectivity (interaction) models and functions from requirements text. Now the Reconciler semantic search tool and the taxonomies are being applied to improve search in the Space Shuttle PRACA database, to discover recurring patterns of failure. Usual methods of string search and keyword search fall short because the entries are terse and have numerous shortcuts (irregular abbreviations, nonstandard acronyms, cryptic codes) and modifier words cannot be used in sentence context to refine the search. The limited and fixed FMEA categories associated with the entries do not make the fine distinctions needed in the search. The approach assigns PRACA report titles to problem classes in the taxonomy. Each ontology class includes mapping words - near-synonyms naming different manifestations of that problem class. The mapping words for Problems, Entities and Functions are converted to a canonical form plus any of a small set of modifier words (e.g. non-uniformity NOT + UNIFORM.) The report titles are parsed as sentences if possible, or treated as a flat sequence of word tokens if parsing fails. When canonical forms in the title match mapping words, the PRACA entry is associated with the corresponding Problem, Entity or Function in the ontology. The user can search for types of failures associated with types of equipment, clustering by type of problem (e.g., all bearings found with problems of being uneven: rough, irregular, gritty ). The results could also be used for tagging PRACA report entries with rich metadata. This approach could also be applied to searching and tagging failure modes, failure effects and mitigations in FMEAs. In the pilot work, parsing 52K+ truncated titles (the test cases that were available), has resulted in identification of both a type of equipment and type of problem in about 75% of the cases. The results are displayed in a manner analogous to Google search results. The effort has also led to the enrichment of the taxonomy, adding some new categories and many new mapping words. Further work would make enhancements that have been identified for improving the clustering and further reducing the false alarm rate. (In searching for recurring problems, good clustering is more important than reducing false alarms). Searching complete PRACA reports should lead to immediate improvement.

The effects of energetic and informational masking on The Words-in-Noise Test (WIN).

PubMed

Wilson, Richard H; Trivette, Cristine P; Williams, Daniel A; Watts, Kelly L

2012-01-01

In certain masking paradigms, the masker can have two components, energetic and informational. Energetic masking is the traditional peripheral masking, whereas informational masking involves confusions (uncertainty) between the signal and masker that originate more centrally in the auditory system. Sperry et al (1997) used Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (NU-6) words in multitalker babble to study the differential effects of energetic and informational masking using babble played temporally forward (FB) and backward (BB). The FB and BB are the same except BB is void of the contextual and semantic content cues that are available in FB. It is these informational cues that are thought to fuel informational masking. Sperry et al found 15% better recognition performance (∼3 dB) on BB than on FB, which can be interpreted as the presence of informational masking in the FB condition and not in the BB condition (Dirks and Bower, 1969). The Words-in-Noise Test (WIN) (Wilson, 2003; Wilson and McArdle, 2007) uses NU-6 words as the signal and multitalker babble as the masker, which is a combination of stimuli that potentially could produce informational masking. The WIN presents 5 or 10 words at each of seven signal-to-noise ratios (S/N, SNR) from 24 to 0 dB in 4 dB decrements with the 50% correct point being the metric of interest. The same recordings of the NU-6 words and multitalker babble used by Sperry et al are used in the WIN. To determine whether informational masking was involved with the WIN. Descriptive, quasi-experimental designs were conducted in three experiments using FB and BB in various paradigms in which FB and BB varied from 4.3 sec concatenated segments to essentially continuous. Eighty young adults with normal hearing and 64 older adults with sensorineural hearing losses participated in a series of three experiments. Experiment 1 compared performance on the normal WIN (FB) with performance on the WIN in which the babble segment with each word was reversed temporally (BB). Experiment 2 examined the effects of continuous FB and BB segments on WIN performance. Experiment 3 replicated the Sperry et al (1997) experiment at 4 and 0 dB S/N using NU-6 words in the FB and BB conditions. Experiment 1-with the WIN paradigm, recognition performances on FB and BB were the same for listeners with normal hearing and listeners with hearing loss, except at the 0 dB S/N with the listeners with normal hearing at which performance was significantly better on BB than FB. Experiment 2-recognition performances on FB and BB were the same at all SNRs for listeners with normal hearing using a slightly modified WIN paradigm. Experiment 3-there was no difference in performances on the FB and BB conditions with either of the two SNRs. Informational masking was not involved in the WIN paradigm. The Sperry et al results were not replicated, which is thought to be related to the way in which the Sperry et al BB condition was produced. American Academy of Audiology.

Semantic Image Segmentation with Contextual Hierarchical Models.

PubMed

Seyedhosseini, Mojtaba; Tasdizen, Tolga

2016-05-01

Semantic segmentation is the problem of assigning an object label to each pixel. It unifies the image segmentation and object recognition problems. The importance of using contextual information in semantic segmentation frameworks has been widely realized in the field. We propose a contextual framework, called contextual hierarchical model (CHM), which learns contextual information in a hierarchical framework for semantic segmentation. At each level of the hierarchy, a classifier is trained based on downsampled input images and outputs of previous levels. Our model then incorporates the resulting multi-resolution contextual information into a classifier to segment the input image at original resolution. This training strategy allows for optimization of a joint posterior probability at multiple resolutions through the hierarchy. Contextual hierarchical model is purely based on the input image patches and does not make use of any fragments or shape examples. Hence, it is applicable to a variety of problems such as object segmentation and edge detection. We demonstrate that CHM performs at par with state-of-the-art on Stanford background and Weizmann horse datasets. It also outperforms state-of-the-art edge detection methods on NYU depth dataset and achieves state-of-the-art on Berkeley segmentation dataset (BSDS 500).

Effects of Word Frequency and Modality on Sentence Comprehension Impairments in People with Aphasia

PubMed Central

DeDe, Gayle

2014-01-01

Purpose It is well known that people with aphasia have sentence comprehension impairments. The present study investigated whether lexical factors contribute to sentence comprehension impairments in both the auditory and written modalities using on-line measures of sentence processing. Methods People with aphasia and non-brain-damaged controls participated in the experiment (n=8 per group). Twenty-one sentence pairs containing high and low frequency words were presented in self-paced listening and reading tasks. The sentences were syntactically simple and differed only in the critical words. The dependent variables were response times for critical segments of the sentence and accuracy on the comprehension questions. Results The results showed that word frequency influences performance on measures of sentence comprehension in people with aphasia. The accuracy data on the comprehension questions suggested that people with aphasia have more difficulty understanding sentences containing low frequency words in the written compared to auditory modality. Both group and single case analyses of the response time data also pointed to more difficulty with reading than listening. Conclusions The results show that sentence comprehension in people with aphasia is influenced by word frequency and presentation modality. PMID:22294411

Investigating lexical competition and the cost of phonemic restoration.

PubMed

Balling, Laura Winther; Morris, David Jackson; Tøndering, John

2017-12-01

Due to phonemic restoration, listeners can reliably perceive words when a phoneme is replaced with noise. The cost associated with this process was investigated along with the effect of lexical uniqueness on phonemic restoration, using data from a lexical decision experiment where noise replaced phonemes that were either uniqueness points (the phoneme at which a word deviates from all nonrelated words that share the same onset) or phonemes immediately prior to these. A baseline condition was also included with no noise-interrupted stimuli. Results showed a significant cost of phonemic restoration, with 100 ms longer word identification times and a 14% decrease in word identification accuracy for interrupted stimuli compared to the baseline. Regression analysis of response times from the interrupted conditions showed no effect of whether the interrupted phoneme was a uniqueness point, but significant effects for several temporal attributes of the stimuli, including the duration and position of the interrupted segment. These results indicate that uniqueness points are not distinct breakpoints in the cohort reduction that occurs during lexical processing, but that temporal properties of the interrupted stimuli are central to auditory word recognition. These results are interpreted in the context of models of speech perception.

Serial recall, word frequency, and mixed lists: the influence of item arrangement.

PubMed

Miller, Leonie M; Roodenrys, Steven

2012-11-01

Studies of the effect of word frequency in the serial recall task show that lists of high-frequency words are better recalled than lists of low-frequency words; however, when high- and low-frequency words are alternated within a list, there is no difference in the level of recall for the two types of words, and recall is intermediate between lists of pure frequency. This pattern has been argued to arise from the development of a network of activated long-term representations of list items that support the redintegration of all list items in a nondirectional and nonspecific way. More recently, it has been proposed that the frequency effect might be a product of the coarticulation of items at word boundaries and their influence on rehearsal rather than a consequence of memory representations. The current work examines recall performance in mixed lists of an equal number of high- and low-frequency items arranged in contiguous segments (i.e., HHHLLL and LLLHHH), under quiet and articulatory suppression conditions, to test whether the effect is (a) nondirectional and (b) dependent on articulatory processes. These experiments demonstrate that neither explanation is satisfactory, although the results suggest that the effect is mnemonic. A language-based approach to short-term memory is favored with emphasis on the role of speech production processes at output.

Fracture Mechanics Method for Word Embedding Generation of Neural Probabilistic Linguistic Model.

PubMed

Bi, Size; Liang, Xiao; Huang, Ting-Lei

2016-01-01

Word embedding, a lexical vector representation generated via the neural linguistic model (NLM), is empirically demonstrated to be appropriate for improvement of the performance of traditional language model. However, the supreme dimensionality that is inherent in NLM contributes to the problems of hyperparameters and long-time training in modeling. Here, we propose a force-directed method to improve such problems for simplifying the generation of word embedding. In this framework, each word is assumed as a point in the real world; thus it can approximately simulate the physical movement following certain mechanics. To simulate the variation of meaning in phrases, we use the fracture mechanics to do the formation and breakdown of meaning combined by a 2-gram word group. With the experiments on the natural linguistic tasks of part-of-speech tagging, named entity recognition and semantic role labeling, the result demonstrated that the 2-dimensional word embedding can rival the word embeddings generated by classic NLMs, in terms of accuracy, recall, and text visualization.

Use of Common-Sense Knowledge, Language and Reality in Mathematical Word Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sepeng, Percy

2014-01-01

The study reported in this article sought to explore and observe how grade 9 learners solve real-wor(l)d problems (a) without real context and (b) without real meaning. Learners' abilities to make sense of the decontextualised word problems set in the real world were investigated with regard to learners' use of common sense in relation to problem…

The Effect of Using the TI-92 on Basic College Algebra Students' Ability To Solve Word Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Runde, Dennis C.

As part of an effort to improve community college algebra students' ability to solve word problems, a study was undertaken at Florida's Manatee Community College to determine the effects of using heuristic instruction (i.e., providing general rules for solving different types of math problems) in combination with the TI-92 calculator. The TI-92…

The Case for an Open Data Model

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-08-01

Microsoft Word, Pagemaker, and Framemaker , and the drawing programs MacDraw, Adobe Illustrator, and Microsoft PowerPoint, use their own proprietary...needs a custom word counting tool, since no utility could work in Word and other word processors. Framemaker for Windows does not have a word counting...supplied in 2 At least none that I could find in Framemaker 5.5 for Windows. Another problem with

Reading is fundamentally similar across disparate writing systems: A systematic characterization of how words and characters influence eye movements in Chinese reading

PubMed Central

Li, Xingshan; Bicknell, Klinton; Liu, Pingping; Wei, Wei; Rayner, Keith

2013-01-01

While much previous work on reading in languages with alphabetic scripts has suggested that reading is word-based, reading in Chinese has been argued to be less reliant on words. This is primarily because in the Chinese writing system words are not spatially segmented, and characters are themselves complex visual objects. Here, we present a systematic characterization of the effects of a wide range of word and character properties on eye movements in Chinese reading, using a set of mixed-effects regression models. The results reveal a rich pattern of effects of the properties of the current, previous, and next words on a range of reading measures, which is strikingly similar to the pattern of effects of word properties reported in spaced alphabetic languages. This finding provides evidence that reading shares a word-based core and may be fundamentally similar across languages with highly dissimilar scripts. We show that these findings are robust to the inclusion of character properties in the regression models, and are equally reliable when dependent measures are defined in terms of characters rather than words, providing strong evidence that word properties have effects in Chinese reading above and beyond characters. This systematic characterization of the effects of word and character properties in Chinese advances our knowledge of the processes underlying reading and informs the future development of models of reading. More generally, however, this work suggests that differences in script may not alter the fundamental nature of reading. PMID:23834023

The nature of the language input affects brain activation during learning from a natural language

PubMed Central

Plante, Elena; Patterson, Dianne; Gómez, Rebecca; Almryde, Kyle R.; White, Milo G.; Asbjørnsen, Arve E.

2015-01-01

Artificial language studies have demonstrated that learners are able to segment individual word-like units from running speech using the transitional probability information. However, this skill has rarely been examined in the context of natural languages, where stimulus parameters can be quite different. In this study, two groups of English-speaking learners were exposed to Norwegian sentences over the course of three fMRI scans. One group was provided with input in which transitional probabilities predicted the presence of target words in the sentences. This group quickly learned to identify the target words and fMRI data revealed an extensive and highly dynamic learning network. These results were markedly different from activation seen for a second group of participants. This group was provided with highly similar input that was modified so that word learning based on syllable co-occurrences was not possible. These participants showed a much more restricted network. The results demonstrate that the nature of the input strongly influenced the nature of the network that learners employ to learn the properties of words in a natural language. PMID:26257471

The Utility of Cognitive Plausibility in Language Acquisition Modeling: Evidence from Word Segmentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillips, Lawrence; Pearl, Lisa

2015-01-01

The informativity of a computational model of language acquisition is directly related to how closely it approximates the actual acquisition task, sometimes referred to as the model's "cognitive plausibility." We suggest that though every computational model necessarily idealizes the modeled task, an informative language acquisition…

Pronunciation Instruction through Twitter: The Case of Commonly Mispronounced Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fouz-González, Jonás

2017-01-01

This paper presents the results of a study aimed at exploring the possibilities Twitter offers for pronunciation instruction. It investigates the potential of a Twitter-based approach based on explicit instruction and input enhancement techniques to help English Foreing Language (EFL) learners improve their pronunciation of segmental and…

Deaf College Students' Mathematical Skills Relative to Morphological Knowledge, Reading Level, and Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Ronald R.; Gaustad, Martha G.

2007-01-01

This study of deaf college students examined specific relationships between their mathematics performance and their assessed skills in reading, language, and English morphology. Simple regression analyses showed that deaf college students' language proficiency scores, reading grade level, and morphological knowledge regarding word segmentation and…

Range and Precision of Formant Movement in Pediatric Dysarthria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allison, Kristen M.; Annear, Lucas; Annear, Lucas; Policicchio, Marisa; Hustad, Katherine C.

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study aimed to improve understanding of speech characteristics associated with dysarthria in children with cerebral palsy by analyzing segmental and global formant measures in single-word and sentence contexts. Method: Ten 5-year-old children with cerebral palsy and dysarthria and 10 age-matched, typically developing children…

Anthropometric and Mass Distribution Characteristics of the Adult Female. Revised

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-09-01

syst ms, and development of body prostheses. 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement Anthropometry , Anatomical Axis, Body Document is available to the...COLLECTION............ . . . ....................... 3 The Subjects ..................................... 3 Anthropometry ...OF TAB&ES Table No. Anthropometry and Mass Distribution Data for the Total Body and Its Segment4: 1 Head

Statistical Learning Is Related to Early Literacy-Related Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spencer, Mercedes; Kaschak, Michael P.; Jones, John L.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2015-01-01

It has been demonstrated that statistical learning, or the ability to use statistical information to learn the structure of one's environment, plays a role in young children's acquisition of linguistic knowledge. Although most research on statistical learning has focused on language acquisition processes, such as the segmentation of words from…

Semantic Similarity Graphs of Mathematics Word Problems: Can Terminology Detection Help?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

John, Rogers Jeffrey Leo; Passonneau, Rebecca J.; McTavish, Thomas S.

2015-01-01

Curricula often lack metadata to characterize the relatedness of concepts. To investigate automatic methods for generating relatedness metadata for a mathematics curriculum, we first address the task of identifying which terms in the vocabulary from mathematics word problems are associated with the curriculum. High chance-adjusted interannotator…

A Design To Improve Children's Competencies in Solving Mathematical Word Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zimmerman, Helene

A discrepancy exists between children's ability to compute and their ability to solve mathematical word problems. The literature suggests a variety of methods that have been attempted to improve this skill with varying success. The utilization of manipulatives, visualization, illustration, and emphasis on improving listening skills all were…

Work in Society and in Montessori Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chattin-McNichols, John

2013-01-01

Montessori educators follow Montessori's lead and use the word "work" to describe the child's concentrated attention with a hands-on material. But this word may lead to communication problems with parents and those in the non-Montessori world: educators, administrators, accreditors, and so on. These communication problems are…

Can Group Discussions and Individualized Assignments Help More Students Succeed in Developmental Mathematics?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jaafar, Reem

2015-01-01

Students taking developmental mathematics courses resist attempting word problems when they are presented to them. Although word problems can help students contextualize learning, develop better understanding of the concepts and apply world knowledge, they constitute an impediment to students' progress in developmental mathematics courses. A…

Raise the Bar on Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Englard, Lisa

2010-01-01

In a 1981 diagnostic test, the Ministry of Education in Singapore found its country facing a challenge: Only 46 percent of students in grades 2-4 could solve word problems that were presented without such key words as "altogether" or "left." Yet today, according to results from the Trends in International Mathematics and…

Teaching Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability to Solve Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Browder, Diane M.; Spooner, Fred; Lo, Ya-yu; Saunders, Alicia F.; Root, Jenny R.; Ley Davis, Luann; Brosh, Chelsi R.

2018-01-01

This study evaluated an intervention developed through an Institute of Education Sciences-funded Goal 2 research project to teach students with moderate intellectual disability (moderate ID) to solve addition and subtraction word problems. The intervention involved modified schema-based instruction that embedded effective practices (e.g.,…

Word Fluency: A Task Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laine, Matti

It is suggested that models of human problem solving are useful in the analysis of word fluency (WF) test performance. In problem-solving terms, WF tasks would require the subject to define and clarify the conditions of the task (task acquisition), select and employ appropriate strategies, and monitor one's performance. In modern neuropsychology,…

Semantic Structures of One-Step Word Problems Involving Multiplication or Division.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmidt, Siegbert; Weiser, Werner

1995-01-01

Proposes a four-category classification of semantic structures of one-step word problems involving multiplication and division: forming the n-th multiple of measures, combinatorial multiplication, composition of operators, and multiplication by formula. This classification is compatible with semantic structures of addition and subtraction word…

Guiding Preservice Teachers to Adapt Mathematics Word Problems through Interactions with ELLs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kurz, Terri L.; Gómez, Conrado; Jimenez-Silva, Margarita

2017-01-01

In this article, the authors present a framework for guiding elementary preservice teachers in adapting mathematics word problems to better meet English language learners' (ELLs) needs. They analyze preservice teachers' ELL adaptations implemented in a one-on-one setting. Through qualitative methods, four themes regarding implemented adaptations…

People Considerations in Word Processing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diamond, Marion L.

1984-01-01

Business educators preparing students for jobs in business and industry should become aware of the problems faced by workers in a typical large office environment. Word processor operators face many of the same problems as factory assembly line workers--lack of personalization, lack of incentive, and removal from the mainstream. (JOW)

Phonological effects in handwriting production: evidence from the implicit priming paradigm.

PubMed

Afonso, Olivia; Álvarez, Carlos J

2011-11-01

In the present article, we report 3 experiments using the odd-man-out variant of the implicit priming paradigm, aimed at determining the role played by phonological information during the handwriting process. Participants were asked to write a small set of words learned in response to prompts. Within each block, response words could share initial segments (constant homogeneous) or not (heterogeneous). Also, 2 variable homogeneous blocks were created by including a response word that did not share orthographic onset with the other response (odd-man-out). This odd-man-out could be phonologically related to the targets or not. Experiment 1 showed a preparation effect in the constant homogeneous condition, which disappeared (spoil effect) in the variable condition not phonologically related. However, no spoil effect was found when the odd-man-out shared the phonological initial segment with the targets. In Experiment 2, we obtained a spoil effect in the variable phonologically related condition, but it was significantly smaller than in the variable not phonologically related condition. The effects observed in Experiment 2 vanished in Experiment 3 under articulatory suppression, suggesting that they originated at a sublexical level. These findings suggest that phonological sublexical information is used during handwriting and provide evidence that the implicit priming paradigm (and the odd-man-out version of this) is a suitable tool for handwriting production research.

Video-Based Intervention in Teaching Fraction Problem-Solving to Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Yakubova, Gulnoza; Hughes, Elizabeth M; Hornberger, Erin

2015-09-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a point-of-view video modeling intervention to teach mathematics problem-solving when working on word problems involving subtracting mixed fractions with uncommon denominators. Using a multiple-probe across students design of single-case methodology, three high school students with ASD completed the study. All three students demonstrated greater accuracy in solving fraction word problems and maintained accuracy levels at a 1-week follow-up.

Multiple sclerosis lesion segmentation using dictionary learning and sparse coding.

PubMed

Weiss, Nick; Rueckert, Daniel; Rao, Anil

2013-01-01

The segmentation of lesions in the brain during the development of Multiple Sclerosis is part of the diagnostic assessment for this disease and gives information on its current severity. This laborious process is still carried out in a manual or semiautomatic fashion by clinicians because published automatic approaches have not been universal enough to be widely employed in clinical practice. Thus Multiple Sclerosis lesion segmentation remains an open problem. In this paper we present a new unsupervised approach addressing this problem with dictionary learning and sparse coding methods. We show its general applicability to the problem of lesion segmentation by evaluating our approach on synthetic and clinical image data and comparing it to state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore the potential of using dictionary learning and sparse coding for such segmentation tasks is investigated and various possibilities for further experiments are discussed.

Do preschool children learn to read words from environmental prints?

PubMed

Zhao, Jing; Zhao, Pei; Weng, Xuchu; Li, Su

2014-01-01

Parents and teachers worldwide believe that a visual environment rich with print can contribute to young children's literacy. Children seem to recognize words in familiar logos at an early age. However, most of previous studies were carried out with alphabetic scripts. Alphabetic letters regularly correspond to phonological segments in a word and provide strong cues about the identity of the whole word. Thus it was not clear whether children can learn to read words by extracting visual word form information from environmental prints. To exclude the phonological-cue confound, this study tested children's knowledge of Chinese words embedded in familiar logos. The four environmental logos were employed and transformed into four versions with the contextual cues (i.e., something apart from the presentation of the words themselves in logo format like the color, logo and font type cues) gradually minimized. Children aged from 3 to 5 were tested. We observed that children of different ages all performed better when words were presented in highly familiar logos compared to when they were presented in a plain fashion, devoid of context. This advantage for familiar logos was also present when the contextual information was only partial. However, the role of various cues in learning words changed with age. The color and logo cues had a larger effect in 3- and 4- year-olds than in 5-year-olds, while the font type cue played a greater role in 5-year-olds than in the other two groups. Our findings demonstrated that young children did not easily learn words by extracting their visual form information even from familiar environmental prints. However, children aged 5 begin to pay more attention to the visual form information of words in highly familiar logos than those aged 3 and 4.

Do Preschool Children Learn to Read Words from Environmental Prints?

PubMed Central

Zhao, Jing; Zhao, Pei; Weng, Xuchu; Li, Su

2014-01-01

Parents and teachers worldwide believe that a visual environment rich with print can contribute to young children's literacy. Children seem to recognize words in familiar logos at an early age. However, most of previous studies were carried out with alphabetic scripts. Alphabetic letters regularly correspond to phonological segments in a word and provide strong cues about the identity of the whole word. Thus it was not clear whether children can learn to read words by extracting visual word form information from environmental prints. To exclude the phonological-cue confound, this study tested children's knowledge of Chinese words embedded in familiar logos. The four environmental logos were employed and transformed into four versions with the contextual cues (i.e., something apart from the presentation of the words themselves in logo format like the color, logo and font type cues) gradually minimized. Children aged from 3 to 5 were tested. We observed that children of different ages all performed better when words were presented in highly familiar logos compared to when they were presented in a plain fashion, devoid of context. This advantage for familiar logos was also present when the contextual information was only partial. However, the role of various cues in learning words changed with age. The color and logo cues had a larger effect in 3- and 4- year-olds than in 5-year-olds, while the font type cue played a greater role in 5-year-olds than in the other two groups. Our findings demonstrated that young children did not easily learn words by extracting their visual form information even from familiar environmental prints. However, children aged 5 begin to pay more attention to the visual form information of words in highly familiar logos than those aged 3 and 4. PMID:24465677

[Intervention in dyslexic disorders: phonological awareness training].

PubMed

Etchepareborda, M C

2003-02-01

Taking into account the systems for the treatment of brain information when drawing up a work plan allows us to recreate processing routines that go from multisensory perception to motor, oral and cognitive production, which is the step prior to executive levels of thought, bottom-up and top-down processing systems. In recent years, the use of phonological methods to prevent or resolve reading disorders has become the fundamental mainstay in the treatment of dyslexia. The work is mainly based on phonological proficiency, which enables the patient to detect phonemes (input), to think about them (performance) and to use them to build words (output). Daily work with rhymes, the capacity to listen, the identification of phrases and words, and handling syllables and phonemes allows us to perform a preventive intervention that enhances the capacity to identify letters, phonological analysis and the reading of single words. We present the different therapeutic models that are most frequently employed. Fast For Word (FFW) training helps make progress in phonematic awareness and other linguistic skills, such as phonological awareness, semantics, syntax, grammar, working memory and event sequencing. With Deco-Fon, a programme for training phonological decoding, work is carried out on the auditory discrimination of pure tones, letters and consonant clusters, auditory processing speed, auditory and phonematic memory, and graphophonological processing, which is fundamental for speech, language and reading writing disorders. Hamlet is a programme based on categorisation activities for working on phonological conceptualisation. It attempts to encourage the analysis of the segments of words, syllables or phonemes, and the classification of a certain segment as belonging or not to a particular phonological or orthographical category. Therapeutic approaches in the early phases of reading are oriented towards two poles based on the basic mechanisms underlying the process of learning to read, the grapheme phoneme transformation process and global word recognition. The interventionalist strategies used at school are focused on the use of cognitive strategy techniques. The purpose of these techniques is to teach pupils practical strategies or resources aimed at overcoming specific deficiencies.

The role of interword spacing in reading Japanese: an eye movement study.

PubMed

Sainio, Miia; Hyönä, Jukka; Bingushi, Kazuo; Bertram, Raymond

2007-09-01

The present study investigated the role of interword spacing in a naturally unspaced language, Japanese. Eye movements were registered of native Japanese readers reading pure Hiragana (syllabic) and mixed Kanji-Hiragana (ideographic and syllabic) text in spaced and unspaced conditions. Interword spacing facilitated both word identification and eye guidance when reading syllabic script, but not when the script contained ideographic characters. We conclude that in reading Hiragana interword spacing serves as an effective segmentation cue. In contrast, spacing information in mixed Kanji-Hiragana text is redundant, since the visually salient Kanji characters serve as effective segmentation cues by themselves.

Visual words for lip-reading

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hassanat, Ahmad B. A.; Jassim, Sabah

2010-04-01

In this paper, the automatic lip reading problem is investigated, and an innovative approach to providing solutions to this problem has been proposed. This new VSR approach is dependent on the signature of the word itself, which is obtained from a hybrid feature extraction method dependent on geometric, appearance, and image transform features. The proposed VSR approach is termed "visual words". The visual words approach consists of two main parts, 1) Feature extraction/selection, and 2) Visual speech feature recognition. After localizing face and lips, several visual features for the lips where extracted. Such as the height and width of the mouth, mutual information and the quality measurement between the DWT of the current ROI and the DWT of the previous ROI, the ratio of vertical to horizontal features taken from DWT of ROI, The ratio of vertical edges to horizontal edges of ROI, the appearance of the tongue and the appearance of teeth. Each spoken word is represented by 8 signals, one of each feature. Those signals maintain the dynamic of the spoken word, which contains a good portion of information. The system is then trained on these features using the KNN and DTW. This approach has been evaluated using a large database for different people, and large experiment sets. The evaluation has proved the visual words efficiency, and shown that the VSR is a speaker dependent problem.

Polysemy and the Taxonomic Constraint: Children's Representation of Words That Label Multiple Kinds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Srinivasan, Mahesh; Snedeker, Jesse

2014-01-01

How do children resolve the problem of indeterminacy when learning a new word? By one account, children adopt a "taxonomic assumption" and expect the word to denote only members of a particular taxonomic category. According to one version of this constraint, young children should represent polysemous words that label multiple kinds--for…

Slow Mapping: Color Word Learning as a Gradual Inductive Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Katie; Dobkins, Karen; Barner, David

2013-01-01

Most current accounts of color word acquisition propose that the delay between children's first production of color words and adult-like understanding is due to problems abstracting color as a domain of meaning. Here we present evidence against this hypothesis, and show that, from the time children produce color words in a labeling task they use…

Printed Arabic optical character segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohammad, Khader; Ayyesh, Muna; Qaroush, Aziz; Tumar, Iyad

2015-03-01

A considerable progress in recognition techniques for many non-Arabic characters has been achieved. In contrary, few efforts have been put on the research of Arabic characters. In any Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system the segmentation step is usually the essential stage in which an extensive portion of processing is devoted and a considerable share of recognition errors is attributed. In this research, a novel segmentation approach for machine Arabic printed text with diacritics is proposed. The proposed method reduces computation, errors, gives a clear description for the sub-word and has advantages over using the skeleton approach in which the data and information of the character can be lost. Both of initial evaluation and testing of the proposed method have been developed using MATLAB and shows 98.7% promising results.

MRI Segmentation of the Human Brain: Challenges, Methods, and Applications

PubMed Central

Despotović, Ivana

2015-01-01

Image segmentation is one of the most important tasks in medical image analysis and is often the first and the most critical step in many clinical applications. In brain MRI analysis, image segmentation is commonly used for measuring and visualizing the brain's anatomical structures, for analyzing brain changes, for delineating pathological regions, and for surgical planning and image-guided interventions. In the last few decades, various segmentation techniques of different accuracy and degree of complexity have been developed and reported in the literature. In this paper we review the most popular methods commonly used for brain MRI segmentation. We highlight differences between them and discuss their capabilities, advantages, and limitations. To address the complexity and challenges of the brain MRI segmentation problem, we first introduce the basic concepts of image segmentation. Then, we explain different MRI preprocessing steps including image registration, bias field correction, and removal of nonbrain tissue. Finally, after reviewing different brain MRI segmentation methods, we discuss the validation problem in brain MRI segmentation. PMID:25945121

Masked Morphological Priming in German-Speaking Adults and Children: Evidence from Response Time Distributions

PubMed Central

Hasenäcker, Jana; Beyersmann, Elisabeth; Schroeder, Sascha

2016-01-01

In this study, we looked at masked morphological priming effects in German children and adults beyond mean response times by taking into account response time distributions. We conducted an experiment comparing suffixed word primes (kleidchen-KLEID), suffixed nonword primes (kleidtum-KLEID), nonsuffixed nonword primes (kleidekt-KLEID), and unrelated controls (träumerei-KLEID). The pattern of priming in adults showed facilitation from suffixed words, suffixed nonwords, and nonsuffixed nonwords relative to unrelated controls, and from both suffixed conditions relative to nonsuffixed nonwords, thus providing evidence for morpho-orthographic and embedded stem priming. Children also showed facilitation from real suffixed words, suffixed nonwords, and nonsuffixed nonwords compared to unrelated words, but no difference between the suffixed and nonsuffixed conditions, thus suggesting that German elementary school children do not make use of morpho-orthographic segmentation. Interestingly, for all priming effects, a shift of the response time distribution was observed. Consequences for theories of morphological processing are discussed. PMID:27445899

Pharmacological and histological examinations of regional differences of guinea-pig lung: a role of pleural surface smooth muscle in lung strip contraction.

PubMed Central

Wong, W. S.; Bloomquist, S. L.; Bendele, A. M.; Fleisch, J. H.

1992-01-01

1. Parenchymal lung strip preparations have been widely used as an in vitro model of peripheral airway smooth muscle. The present study examined functional responses of 4 consecutive guinea-pig lung parenchymal strips isolated from the central region (segment 1) to the distal edge (segment 4) of the lower lung lobe. The middle two segments were designated as segments 2 and 3. 2. Lung segments 1 and 4 exhibited significantly greater contraction than the other 2 segments to KCl when responses were expressed as mg force per mg tissue weight. Contractile responses to bronchospastic agents including histamine, carbachol, endothelin-1, leukotrienes (LT) B4 and D4, and the thromboxane A2-mimetic U46619 demonstrated no significant difference in EC50 values among the 4 lung segments. 3. Contractile responses of segments 1 and 4 to antigen-challenge (ovalbumin), ionophore A23187 and substance P were significantly greater than the other 2 segments with respect to either sensitivity or maximum responsiveness. 4. U46619-induced contractions of the 4 lung segments were relaxed in similar manner by papaverine and theophylline up to 100%, salbutamol up to 80%, and sodium nitroprusside by only 20%. In contrast, sodium nitroprusside markedly reversed U46619-induced contraction of pulmonary arterial rings and bronchial rings. 5. Histological studies identified 2-4 layers of smooth muscle cells underlying the lung pleural surface. Mast cells were prominent in this area. Moreover, morphometric studies showed that segment 4 possessed the least amount of smooth muscle structures from bronchial/bronchiolar wall and vasculatures as compared to the other 3 segments, and a significant difference in this respect was evident between segment 1 and segment 4.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) Images Figure 1 Figure 6 PMID:1378341

Primary School Text Comprehension Predicts Mathematical Word Problem-Solving Skills in Secondary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Björn, Piia Maria; Aunola, Kaisa; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

2016-01-01

This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the extent to which primary school text comprehension predicts mathematical word problem-solving skills in secondary school among Finnish students. The participants were 224 fourth graders (9-10 years old at the baseline). The children's text-reading fluency, text comprehension and basic calculation…

Contribution of Equal-Sign Instruction beyond Word-Problem Tutoring for Third-Grade Students with Mathematics Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Sarah R.; Fuchs, Lynn S.

2010-01-01

Elementary school students often misinterpret the equal sign (=) as an operational rather than a relational symbol. Such misunderstanding is problematic because solving equations with missing numbers may be important for the development of higher order mathematics skills, including solving word problems. Research indicates equal-sign instruction…

Effects of Graphic Organiser on Students' Achievement in Algebraic Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owolabi, Josiah; Adaramati, Tobiloba Faith

2015-01-01

This study investigated the effects of graphic organiser and gender on students' academic achievement in algebraic word problem. Three research questions and three null hypotheses were used in guiding this study. Quasi experimental research was employed and Non-equivalent pre and post test design was used. The study involved the Senior Secondary…

Automatic Item Generation via Frame Semantics: Natural Language Generation of Math Word Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deane, Paul; Sheehan, Kathleen

This paper is an exploration of the conceptual issues that have arisen in the course of building a natural language generation (NLG) system for automatic test item generation. While natural language processing techniques are applicable to general verbal items, mathematics word problems are particularly tractable targets for natural language…

Diagramming Word Problems: A Strategic Approach for Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Garderen, Delinda; Scheuermann, Amy M.

2015-01-01

While often recommended as a strategy to use in order to solve word problems, drawing a diagram is a complex process that requires a good depth of understanding. Many middle school students with learning disabilities (LD) often struggle to use diagrams in an effective and efficient manner. This article presents information for teaching middle…

Is Word-Problem Solving a Form of Text Comprehension?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L.; Hamlett, Carol L.; Wang, Amber Y.

2015-01-01

This study's hypotheses were that (a) word-problem (WP) solving is a form of text comprehension that involves language comprehension processes, working memory, and reasoning, but (b) WP solving differs from other forms of text comprehension by requiring WP-specific language comprehension as well as general language comprehension. At the start of…

Effects of Three Modes of Personalisation on Students' Achievement in Mathematical Word Problems in Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Awofala, A. O. A.; Balogun, T. A.; Olagunju, M. A.

2011-01-01

This study investigated the effects of modes of personalisation of instruction crossed with two levels each of verbal ability and cognitive style as moderator variables on the mathematical word problems achievement of 450 junior secondary Nigerian students. Personalisation was accomplished by incorporating selected information with students'…

Amphetamine primes motivation to gamble and gambling-related semantic networks in problem gamblers.

PubMed

Zack, Martin; Poulos, Constantine X

2004-01-01

Previous research suggests that gambling can induce effects that closely resemble a psychostimulant drug effect. Modest doses of addictive drugs can prime motivation for drugs with similar properties. Together, these findings imply that a dose of a psychostimulant drug could prime motivation to gamble in problem gamblers. This study assessed priming effects of oral D-amphetamine (AMPH) (30 mg) in a within-subject, counter-balanced, placebo-controlled design in problem gamblers (n=10), comorbid gamblerdrinkers (n=6), problem drinkers (n=8), and healthy controls (n=12). Modified visual analog scales assessed addictive motivation and subjective effects. A modified rapid reading task assessed pharmacological activation of words from motivationally relevant and irrelevant semantic domains (Gambling, Alcohol, Positive Affect, Negative Affect, Neutral). AMPH increased self-reported motivation for gambling in problem gamblers. Severity of problem gambling predicted positive subjective effects of AMPH and motivation to gamble under the drug. There was little evidence that AMPH directly primed motivation for alcohol in problem drinkers. On the reading task, AMPH produced undifferentiated improvement in reading speed to all word classes in Nongamblers. By contrast, in the two problem gambler groups, AMPH improved reading speed to Gambling words while profoundly slowing reading speed to motivationally irrelevant Neutral words. The latter finding was interpreted as directly congruent with models, which contend that priming of addictive motivation involves a linked suppression of motivationally irrelevant stimuli. This study provides experimental evidence that psychostimulant-like neurochemical activation is an important component of gambling addiction.

Hidden Markov random field model and Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno algorithm for brain image segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guerrout, EL-Hachemi; Ait-Aoudia, Samy; Michelucci, Dominique; Mahiou, Ramdane

2018-05-01

Many routine medical examinations produce images of patients suffering from various pathologies. With the huge number of medical images, the manual analysis and interpretation became a tedious task. Thus, automatic image segmentation became essential for diagnosis assistance. Segmentation consists in dividing the image into homogeneous and significant regions. We focus on hidden Markov random fields referred to as HMRF to model the problem of segmentation. This modelisation leads to a classical function minimisation problem. Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno algorithm referred to as BFGS is one of the most powerful methods to solve unconstrained optimisation problem. In this paper, we investigate the combination of HMRF and BFGS algorithm to perform the segmentation operation. The proposed method shows very good segmentation results comparing with well-known approaches. The tests are conducted on brain magnetic resonance image databases (BrainWeb and IBSR) largely used to objectively confront the results obtained. The well-known Dice coefficient (DC) was used as similarity metric. The experimental results show that, in many cases, our proposed method approaches the perfect segmentation with a Dice Coefficient above .9. Moreover, it generally outperforms other methods in the tests conducted.

Segmentation of High Angular Resolution Diffusion MRI using Sparse Riemannian Manifold Clustering

PubMed Central

Wright, Margaret J.; Thompson, Paul M.; Vidal, René

2015-01-01

We address the problem of segmenting high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) data into multiple regions (or fiber tracts) with distinct diffusion properties. We use the orientation distribution function (ODF) to represent HARDI data and cast the problem as a clustering problem in the space of ODFs. Our approach integrates tools from sparse representation theory and Riemannian geometry into a graph theoretic segmentation framework. By exploiting the Riemannian properties of the space of ODFs, we learn a sparse representation for each ODF and infer the segmentation by applying spectral clustering to a similarity matrix built from these representations. In cases where regions with similar (resp. distinct) diffusion properties belong to different (resp. same) fiber tracts, we obtain the segmentation by incorporating spatial and user-specified pairwise relationships into the formulation. Experiments on synthetic data evaluate the sensitivity of our method to image noise and the presence of complex fiber configurations, and show its superior performance compared to alternative segmentation methods. Experiments on phantom and real data demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method in segmenting simulated fibers, as well as white matter fiber tracts of clinical importance in the human brain. PMID:24108748

Remedial Sheets for Progress Checks, Segments 19-40.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New York Inst. of Tech., Old Westbury.

The second part of the Self-Paced Physics Course remediation materials is presented for U. S. Naval Academy students who miss core problems on the progress check. The total of 101 problems is incorporated in this volume to match study segments 19 through 40. Each remedial sheet is composed of a statement of the missed problem and references to…

Fourth Graders and Non-Routine Problems: Are Strategies Decisive for Success?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yazgan, Yeliz

2016-01-01

This study aims to determine the explanatory and discriminative powers of non-routine problem solving strategies used by fourth graders. Six problems were asked to 240 pupils. After scoring answers between 0 and 10, bottom and top segments of 27% were determined based on total scores. Lastly, all scripts of students in these segments were…

Co-occurrence statistics as a language-dependent cue for speech segmentation.

PubMed

Saksida, Amanda; Langus, Alan; Nespor, Marina

2017-05-01

To what extent can language acquisition be explained in terms of different associative learning mechanisms? It has been hypothesized that distributional regularities in spoken languages are strong enough to elicit statistical learning about dependencies among speech units. Distributional regularities could be a useful cue for word learning even without rich language-specific knowledge. However, it is not clear how strong and reliable the distributional cues are that humans might use to segment speech. We investigate cross-linguistic viability of different statistical learning strategies by analyzing child-directed speech corpora from nine languages and by modeling possible statistics-based speech segmentations. We show that languages vary as to which statistical segmentation strategies are most successful. The variability of the results can be partially explained by systematic differences between languages, such as rhythmical differences. The results confirm previous findings that different statistical learning strategies are successful in different languages and suggest that infants may have to primarily rely on non-statistical cues when they begin their process of speech segmentation. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Processing voiceless vowels in Japanese: Effects of language-specific phonological knowledge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ogasawara, Naomi

2005-04-01

There has been little research on processing allophonic variation in the field of psycholinguistics. This study focuses on processing the voiced/voiceless allophonic alternation of high vowels in Japanese. Three perception experiments were conducted to explore how listeners parse out vowels with the voicing alternation from other segments in the speech stream and how the different voicing statuses of the vowel affect listeners' word recognition process. The results from the three experiments show that listeners use phonological knowledge of their native language for phoneme processing and for word recognition. However, interactions of the phonological and acoustic effects are observed to be different in each process. The facilitatory phonological effect and the inhibitory acoustic effect cancel out one another in phoneme processing; while in word recognition, the facilitatory phonological effect overrides the inhibitory acoustic effect.

Dissociated repetition deficits in aphasia can reflect flexible interactions between left dorsal and ventral streams and gender-dimorphic architecture of the right dorsal stream

PubMed Central

Berthier, Marcelo L.; Froudist Walsh, Seán; Dávila, Guadalupe; Nabrozidis, Alejandro; Juárez y Ruiz de Mier, Rocío; Gutiérrez, Antonio; De-Torres, Irene; Ruiz-Cruces, Rafael; Alfaro, Francisco; García-Casares, Natalia

2013-01-01

Assessment of brain-damaged subjects presenting with dissociated repetition deficits after selective injury to either the left dorsal or ventral auditory pathways can provide further insight on their respective roles in verbal repetition. We evaluated repetition performance and its neural correlates using multimodal imaging (anatomical MRI, DTI, fMRI, and18FDG-PET) in a female patient with transcortical motor aphasia (TCMA) and in a male patient with conduction aphasia (CA) who had small contiguous but non-overlapping left perisylvian infarctions. Repetition in the TCMA patient was fully preserved except for a mild impairment in nonwords and digits, whereas the CA patient had impaired repetition of nonwords, digits and word triplet lists. Sentence repetition was impaired, but he repeated novel sentences significantly better than clichés. The TCMA patient had tissue damage and reduced metabolism in the left sensorimotor cortex and insula. DTI showed damage to the left temporo-frontal and parieto-frontal segments of the arcuate fasciculus (AF) and part of the left ventral stream together with well-developed right dorsal and ventral streams, as has been reported in more than one-third of females. The CA patient had tissue damage and reduced metabolic activity in the left temporoparietal cortex with additional metabolic decrements in the left frontal lobe. DTI showed damage to the left temporo-parietal and temporo-frontal segments of the AF, but the ventral stream was spared. The direct segment of the AF in the right hemisphere was also absent with only vestigial remains of the other dorsal subcomponents present, as is often found in males. fMRI during word and nonword repetition revealed bilateral perisylvian activation in the TCMA patient suggesting recruitment of spared segments of the left dorsal stream and right dorsal stream with propagation of signals to temporal lobe structures suggesting a compensatory reallocation of resources via the ventral streams. The CA patient showed a greater activation of these cortical areas than the TCMA patient, but these changes did not result in normal performance. Repetition of word triplet lists activated bilateral perisylvian cortices in both patients, but activation in the CA patient with very poor performance was restricted to small frontal and posterior temporal foci bilaterally. These findings suggest that dissociated repetition deficits in our cases are probably reliant on flexible interactions between left dorsal stream (spared segments, short tracts remains) and left ventral stream and on gender-dimorphic architecture of the right dorsal stream. PMID:24391569

Dissociated repetition deficits in aphasia can reflect flexible interactions between left dorsal and ventral streams and gender-dimorphic architecture of the right dorsal stream.

PubMed

Berthier, Marcelo L; Froudist Walsh, Seán; Dávila, Guadalupe; Nabrozidis, Alejandro; Juárez Y Ruiz de Mier, Rocío; Gutiérrez, Antonio; De-Torres, Irene; Ruiz-Cruces, Rafael; Alfaro, Francisco; García-Casares, Natalia

2013-01-01

Assessment of brain-damaged subjects presenting with dissociated repetition deficits after selective injury to either the left dorsal or ventral auditory pathways can provide further insight on their respective roles in verbal repetition. We evaluated repetition performance and its neural correlates using multimodal imaging (anatomical MRI, DTI, fMRI, and(18)FDG-PET) in a female patient with transcortical motor aphasia (TCMA) and in a male patient with conduction aphasia (CA) who had small contiguous but non-overlapping left perisylvian infarctions. Repetition in the TCMA patient was fully preserved except for a mild impairment in nonwords and digits, whereas the CA patient had impaired repetition of nonwords, digits and word triplet lists. Sentence repetition was impaired, but he repeated novel sentences significantly better than clichés. The TCMA patient had tissue damage and reduced metabolism in the left sensorimotor cortex and insula. DTI showed damage to the left temporo-frontal and parieto-frontal segments of the arcuate fasciculus (AF) and part of the left ventral stream together with well-developed right dorsal and ventral streams, as has been reported in more than one-third of females. The CA patient had tissue damage and reduced metabolic activity in the left temporoparietal cortex with additional metabolic decrements in the left frontal lobe. DTI showed damage to the left temporo-parietal and temporo-frontal segments of the AF, but the ventral stream was spared. The direct segment of the AF in the right hemisphere was also absent with only vestigial remains of the other dorsal subcomponents present, as is often found in males. fMRI during word and nonword repetition revealed bilateral perisylvian activation in the TCMA patient suggesting recruitment of spared segments of the left dorsal stream and right dorsal stream with propagation of signals to temporal lobe structures suggesting a compensatory reallocation of resources via the ventral streams. The CA patient showed a greater activation of these cortical areas than the TCMA patient, but these changes did not result in normal performance. Repetition of word triplet lists activated bilateral perisylvian cortices in both patients, but activation in the CA patient with very poor performance was restricted to small frontal and posterior temporal foci bilaterally. These findings suggest that dissociated repetition deficits in our cases are probably reliant on flexible interactions between left dorsal stream (spared segments, short tracts remains) and left ventral stream and on gender-dimorphic architecture of the right dorsal stream.

What is the evidence for retrieval problems in the elderly?

PubMed

White, N; Cunningham, W R

1982-01-01

To determine whether older adults experience particular problems with retrieval, groups of young and elderly adults were given free recall and recognition tests of supraspan lists of unrelated words. Analysis of number of words correctly recalled and recognized yielded a significant age by retention test interaction: greater age differences were observed for recall than for recognition. In a second analysis of words recalled and recognized, corrected for guessing, the interaction disappeared. It was concluded that previous interpretations that age by retention test interactions are indicative of retrieval problems of the elderly may have been confounded by methodological problems. Furthermore, it was suggested that researchers in aging and memory need to be explicit in identifying their underlying models of error processes when analyzing recognition scores: different error models may lead to different results and interpretations.

Character Reading Fluency, Word Segmentation Accuracy, and Reading Comprehension in L2 Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shen, Helen H.; Jiang, Xin

2013-01-01

This study investigated the relationships between lower-level processing and general reading comprehension among adult L2 (second-language) beginning learners of Chinese, in both target and non-target language learning environments. Lower-level processing in Chinese reading includes the factors of character-naming accuracy, character-naming speed,…

21 CFR 145.130 - Canned figs.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... flavoring. (2) Spice. (3) Vinegar. (4) Unpeeled segments of citrus fruits. (5) Salt. Such food is sealed in... chapter and a declaration of any spice or seasoning that characterizes the product; for example, “Spice added”, or in lieu of the word “Spice”, the common name of the spice, “Seasoned with vinegar” or...

Dictionary of Afro-American Slang.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Major, Clarence

The speech habits of the most oppressed --and the largest-- segment of the black population in the United States did not spring solely from an inability to handle acceptable forms of spoken English, nor mainly from the limitations caused by the particular stock of words known to the speaker. Black slang stems from a somewhat disseminated rejection…

Predictive Validity of Early Literacy Measures for Korean English Language Learners in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, Jeanie Nam; Vanderwood, Michael L.; Lee, Catherine Y.

2015-01-01

This study examined the predictive validity of early literacy measures with first-grade Korean English language learners (ELLs) in the United States at varying levels of English proficiency. Participants were screened using Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF), DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency…

Songs as an Aid for Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schon, Daniele; Boyer, Maud; Moreno, Sylvain; Besson, Mireille; Peretz, Isabelle; Kolinsky, Regine

2008-01-01

In previous research, Saffran and colleagues [Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N., & Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science, 274, 1926-1928; Saffran, J. R., Newport, E. L., & Aslin, R. N. (1996). Word segmentation: The role of distributional cues. "Journal of Memory and Language," 35, 606-621.] have shown that adults…

21 CFR 145.130 - Canned figs.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... flavoring. (2) Spice. (3) Vinegar. (4) Unpeeled segments of citrus fruits. (5) Salt. Such food is sealed in... chapter and a declaration of any spice or seasoning that characterizes the product; for example, “Spice added”, or in lieu of the word “Spice”, the common name of the spice, “Seasoned with vinegar” or...

Application of a Multitiered System of Support with English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vanderwood, Mike L.; Tung, Catherine; Arellano, Elizabeth

2014-01-01

This study examined the effects of a phonological awareness (PA) intervention on the phonological and alphabetic principle skills of first-grade English language learners (ELLs). Nine first-grade classrooms in two large elementary schools were screened with DIBELS Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF) and Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) in the fall and…

Say It like You Mean It: Mothers' Use of Prosody to Convey Word Meaning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herold, Debora S.; Nygaard, Lynne C.; Namy, Laura L.

2012-01-01

Prosody plays a variety of roles in infants' communicative development, aiding in attention modulation, speech segmentation, and syntax acquisition. This study investigates the extent to which parents also spontaneously modulate prosodic aspects of infant directed speech in ways that distinguish semantic aspects of language. Fourteen mothers of…

Acquisition of L2 Vowel Duration in Japanese by Native English Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okuno, Tomoko

2013-01-01

Research has demonstrated that focused perceptual training facilitates L2 learners' segmental perception and spoken word identification. Hardison (2003) and Motohashi-Saigo and Hardison (2009) found benefits of visual cues in the training for acquisition of L2 contrasts. The present study examined factors affecting perception and production…

L2 Perception of Spanish Palatal Variants across Different Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shea, Christine; Renaud, Jeffrey

2014-01-01

While considerable dialectal variation exists, almost all varieties of Spanish exhibit some sort of alternation in terms of the palatal obstruent segments. Typically, the palatal affricate [??] tends to occur in word onset following a pause and in specific linear phonotactic environments. The palatal fricative [?] tends to occur in syllable onset…

Putting Two and Two Together: Middle School Students' Morphological Problem-Solving Strategies for Unknown Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pacheco, Mark B.; Goodwin, Amanda P.

2013-01-01

Adolescents often use root word and affix knowledge to figure out unknown words. Anglin (1993) found that younger readers favor the Part-to-Whole strategy, and Tyler and Nagy (1989) confirmed the importance of root-word knowledge for middle school students. This study seeks to understand the different strategies middle school readers use so that…