Of Mouses and Mans: A Test of Errorless Versus Error-Based Learning in Children.

For both adults and children, learning from one's mistakes (error-based learning) has been shown to be advantageous over avoiding errors altogether (errorless learning) in pedagogical settings. However, it remains unclear whether this advantage carries over to nonpedagogical settings in children, who mostly learn language in such settings. Using irregular plurals (e.

Is working memory domain-general or domain-specific?

Given the fundamental role of working memory (WM) in all domains of cognition, a central question has been whether WM is domain-general. However, the term 'domain-general' has been used in different, and sometimes misleading, ways. By reviewing recent evidence and biologically plausible models of WM, we show that the level of domain-generality varies substantially between three facets of WM: in terms of computations, WM is largely domain-general.

Similarity-induced interference or facilitation in language production reflects representation, not selection.

Researchers have long interpreted the presence or absence of semantic interference in picture naming latencies as confirming or refuting theoretical claims regarding competitive lexical selection. But inconsistent empirical results challenge any mechanistic interpretation. A behavioral experiment first verified an apparent boundary condition in a blocked picture naming task: when orthogonally manipulating association type, taxonomic associations consistently elicit interference, while thematic associations do not.

Transfer of statistical learning from passive speech perception to speech production.

Communicating with a speaker with a different accent can affect one's own speech. Despite the strength of evidence for perception-production transfer in speech, the nature of transfer has remained elusive, with variable results regarding the acoustic properties that transfer between speakers and the characteristics of the speakers who exhibit transfer. The current study investigates perception-production transfer through the lens of statistical learning across passive exposure to speech.

Different Electrophysiological Signatures of Similarity-induced and Stroop-like Interference in Language Production.

Contextual similarity between targets and competitors, whether semantic or phonological, often leads to behavioral interference in language production. It has been assumed that resolving such interference relies on control processes similar to those involved in tasks such as Stroop. This article tests this assumption by comparing the electrophysiological signatures of interference resulting from a contextual similarity versus a Stroop-like manipulation.

Trust my gesture or my word: How do listeners choose the information channel during communication?

Information can be conveyed via multiple channels such as verbal and gestural (visual) channels during communication. Sometimes the information from different channels does not match (e.g.

Precision of phonological errors in aphasia supports resource models of phonological working memory in language production.

Working memory (WM) is critical for many cognitive functions including language production. A key feature of WM is its capacity limitation. Two models have been proposed to account for such capacity limitation: slot models and resource models.

A narrative review of the anatomy and function of the white matter tracts in language production and comprehension.

Much is known about the role of cortical areas in language processing. The shift towards network approaches in recent years has highlighted the importance of uncovering the role of white matter in connecting these areas. However, despite a large body of research, many of these tracts' functions are not well-understood.

Correction Without Consciousness in Complex Tasks: Evidence from Typing.

It has been demonstrated that with practice, complex tasks can become independent of conscious control, but even in those cases, repairing errors is thought to remain dependent on conscious control. This paper reports two studies probing conscious awareness over repairs in nearly 15,000 typing errors collected from 145 participants in a single-word typing-to-dictation task. We provide evidence for subconscious repairs by ruling out alternative accounts, and report two sets of analyses showing that a) such repairs are not confined to a specific stage of processing and b) that they are sensitive to the final outcome of repair.

The limited role of hippocampal declarative memory in transient semantic activation during online language processing.

Recent findings point to a role for hippocampus in the moment-by-moment processing of language, including the use and generation of semantic features in certain contexts. What role the hippocampus might play in the processing of semantic relations in spoken language comprehension, however, is unknown. Here we test patients with bilateral hippocampal damage and dense amnesia in order to examine the necessity of hippocampus for lexico-semantic mapping processes in spoken language understanding.

A Comprehension- or a Production-Based Monitor? Response to Roelofs (2020).

Roelofs (2020) has put forth a rebuttal of the criticisms raised against comprehension-based monitoring and has also raised a number of objections against production-based monitors. In this response, I clarify that the model defended by Roelofs is not a comprehension-based monitor, but belongs to a class of monitoring models which I refer to as production-perception models. I review comprehension-based and production-perception models, highlight the strength of each, and point out the differences between them.

The dual origin of lexical perseverations in aphasia: Residual activation and incremental learning.

Lexical perseveration, the inappropriate repetition of a previous response, is common in aphasia. Two underlying mechanisms have been proposed: residual activation and incremental learning. Previous attempts to differentiate the two have relied on experimental paradigms that encourage semantically related errors and analysis techniques designed to detect perseverations over short distances, resulting in a bias towards detecting short-lag, semantically related perseverations that both mechanisms can account for.

Electrophysiological Correlates of Monitoring in Typing with and without Visual Feedback.

New theories of monitoring in language production, regardless of their mechanistic differences, all posit monitoring mechanisms that share general computational principles with action monitoring. This perspective, if accurate, would predict that many electrophysiological signatures of performance monitoring should be recoverable from language production tasks. In this study, we examined both error-related and feedback-related EEG indices of performance monitoring in the context of a typing-to-dictation task.

To select or to wait? Response to the commentaries.

In [Nozari, N., & Hepner, C. R.

The dual origin of semantic errors in access deficit: activation vs. inhibition deficit.

According to most models of language production, to name a picture one must first map semantic features onto lexical items. Even if both sets of representations are intact, problems in mapping semantic to lexical representations can impair production. Individuals with this problem, sometimes referred to as "access deficit", often demonstrate evidence of preserved semantic knowledge (e.

Learning in complex, multi-component cognitive systems: Different learning challenges within the same system.

Using word learning as an example of a complex system, we investigated how differences in the structure of the subcomponents in which learning occurs can have significant consequences for the challenge of integrating new information within such systems. Learning a new word involves integrating information into the two key stages/subcomponents of processing within the word production system. In the first stage, multiple semantic features are mapped onto a single word.

To select or to wait? The importance of criterion setting in debates of competitive lexical selection.

Competitive accounts of lexical selection propose that the activation of competitors slows down the selection of the target. Non-competitive accounts, on the other hand, posit that target response latencies are independent of the activation of competing items. In this paper, we propose a signal detection framework for lexical selection and show how a flexible selection criterion affects claims of competitive selection.

"Twisting fingers": The case for interactivity in typed language production.

Despite the obvious linguistic nature of typing, current psychological models of typing are, to a large extent, divorced from models of spoken language production. This gap has left unanswered many questions regarding the cognitive architecture of typing. In this article we advocate the use of a psycholinguistic framework for studying typing, by showing that such a framework could reveal important similarities and differences between spoken and typed production.

Is adaptive control in language production mediated by learning?

Recent work using the Picture Word Interference (PWI) paradigm has revealed that language production, similar to non-verbal tasks, shows a robust Congruency Sequence Effect (CSE), defined as a decreased congruency effect following incongruent trials. Although CSE is considered an index of adaptive control, its mechanism is debated. In two experiments, we tested the predictions of a learning model of adaptive control in production, using a task-switching paradigm fully balanced to evaluate CSE on a PWI trial as a function of the congruency of a 2-back PWI trial (within-task CSE), as well as a 1-back trial belonging to a different task (cross-task CSE).

Investigating the origin of nonfluency in aphasia: A path modeling approach to neuropsychology.

A major challenge in understanding the origin of clinical symptoms in neuropsychological impairments is capturing the complexity of the underlying cognitive structure. This paper presents a practical guide to path modeling, a statistical approach that is well-suited for modeling multivariate outcomes with a multi-factorial origin. We discuss a step-by-step application of such a model to the problem of nonfluency in aphasia.

Cognitive control during selection and repair in word production.

Production of an intended word entails selection processes, in which first the lexical item and then its segments are selected among competitors, as well as processes that covertly or overtly repair dispreferred words. In two experiments, we studied the locus of the control processes involved in selection () and intercepting errors (). Selection control was studied by manipulating the overlap (contextual similarity) in either semantics or in segments between two objects that participants repeatedly named.

The effects of utterance timing and stimulation of left prefrontal cortex on the production of referential expressions.

We examined the relationship between the timing of utterance initiation and the choice of referring expressions, e.g., pronouns (it), zeros (…and went down), or descriptive NPs (the pink pentagon).

The interplay of local attraction, context and domain-general cognitive control in activation and suppression of semantic distractors during sentence comprehension.

During sentence comprehension, real-time identification of a referent is driven both by local, context-independent lexical information and by more global sentential information related to the meaning of the utterance as a whole. This paper investigates the cognitive factors that limit the consideration of referents that are supported by local lexical information but not supported by more global sentential information. In an eye-tracking paradigm, participants heard sentences like "She will eat the red pear" while viewing four black-and-white (colorless) line-drawings.

The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates processing of sentential context to locate referents.

Left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) has been implicated in both integration and conflict resolution in sentence comprehension. Most evidence in favor of the integration account comes from processing ambiguous or anomalous sentences, which also poses a demand for conflict resolution. In two eye-tracking experiments we studied the role of VLPFC in integration when demands for conflict resolution were minimal.

Did I say dog or cat? A study of semantic error detection and correction in children.

Although naturalistic studies of spontaneous speech suggest that young children can monitor their speech, the mechanisms for detection and correction of speech errors in children are not well understood. In particular, there is little research on monitoring semantic errors in this population. This study provides a systematic investigation of detection and correction of semantic errors in children between the ages of 5 and 8years as they produced sentences to describe simple visual events involving nine highly familiar animals (the moving animals task).