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.

Time flows vertically in Chinese.

Speakers of Mandarin Chinese are thought to conceptualise time along the vertical axis-as evidence for metaphor embodiment-but the extant behavioural evidence remains unclear. Here, we used electrophysiology to test space-time conceptual relationships implicitly in native speakers of Chinese. We employed a modified arrow flanker task, in which the central arrow in a set of three was replaced by a spatial word (e.

Rapid learning of a phonemic discrimination in the first hours of life.

Human neonates can discriminate phonemes, but the neural mechanism underlying this ability is poorly understood. Here we show that the neonatal brain can learn to discriminate natural vowels from backward vowels, a contrast unlikely to have been learnt in the womb. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, we examined the neuroplastic changes caused by 5 h of postnatal exposure to random sequences of natural and reversed (backward) vowels (T1), and again 2 h later (T2).

The psychological reality of picture name agreement.

Picture name agreement is commonly used as both a control variable and independent variable in studies of language production. It describes the proportion of participants who volunteer a picture's modal name in a norming study-a population-level descriptor-but researchers often assume that name agreement also indexes cognitive processes that occur within individuals. For instance, if norms show that 50% of speakers name a picture as couch, then each time a person tries to name the picture, they might have a 50% chance of selecting couch.

Audiovisual Learning in Dyslexic and Typical Adults: Modulating Influences of Location and Context Consistency.

Learning to read involves efficient binding of visual to auditory information. Aberrant cross-modal binding skill has been observed in both children and adults with developmental dyslexia. Here, we examine the contribution of episodic memory to acquisition of novel cross-modal bindings in typical and dyslexic adult readers.

Longitudinal evidence for simultaneous bilingual language development with shifting language dominance, and how to explain it.

Theories of how language works have shifted from rule-like competence accounts to more skill-like incremental learning accounts. Under these, people acquire language incrementally, through practice, and may even lose it incrementally as they acquire competing mappings. Incremental learning implies that (1) a bilingual's abilities in their languages should depend on how much they practice each (not merely age of acquisition), and (2) using an L2 more could cause a bilingual to gradually 'unlearn' their L1.

"Did I Say ?" Error Patterns on a Blocked Cyclic Naming Task for Bilingual Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder.

Purpose Using a blocked cyclic picture-naming task, we compared accuracy and error patterns across languages for Spanish-English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Pictured stimuli were manipulated for semantic similarity across two (Same and Mixed) category contexts. Children's productions were scored off-line for accuracy, error frequency, and error type.

Bilinguals apply language-specific grain sizes during sentence reading.

Languages differ in the consistency with which they map orthography to phonology, and a large body of work now shows that orthographic consistency determines the style of word decoding in monolinguals. Here, we characterise word decoding in bilinguals whose two languages differ in orthographic consistency, assessing whether they maintain two distinct reading styles or settle on a single 'compromise' reading style. In Experiment 1, Welsh-English bilinguals read cognates and pseudowords embedded in Welsh and English sentences.

Found in Translation: Late Bilinguals Do Automatically Activate Their Native Language When They Are Not Using It.

In their paper "Do Bilinguals Automatically Activate Their Native Language When They Are Not Using it?", Costa, Pannunzi, Deco, and Pickering (Cognitive Science, 2017) proposed a reinterpretation of Thierry and Wu's (2004, 2007) finding of native language-based (Chinese, L1) ERP effects when they tested Chinese-English late bilinguals exclusively in their second language (English, L2). Using simulations in a six-node Hebbian learning model (three L1 nodes, three L2 nodes), Costa et al. suggested that form overlaps in L1 between otherwise unrelated words create a persistent relationship between their L2 translations.

Episodic traces and statistical regularities: Paired associate learning in typical and dyslexic readers.

Learning visual-phonological associations is a key skill underlying successful reading acquisition. However, we are yet to understand the cognitive mechanisms that enable efficient learning in good readers, and those which are aberrant in individuals with developmental dyslexia. Here, we use a repeated cued-recall task to examine how typical and reading-impaired adults acquire novel associations between visual and phonological stimuli, incorporating a looking-at-nothing paradigm to probe implicit memory for target locations.

The paca that roared: Immediate cumulative semantic interference among newly acquired words.

With 40,000 words in the average vocabulary, how can speakers find the specific words that they want so quickly and easily? Cumulative semantic interference in language production provides a clue: when naming a large series of pictures, with a few mammals sprinkled about, naming each subsequent mammal becomes slower and more error-prone. Such interference mirrors predictions from an incremental learning algorithm applied to meaning-driven retrieval from an established vocabulary, suggesting retrieval benefits from a constant, implicit, re-optimization process (Oppenheim et al., 2010).

Interactions between Lexical Access and Articulation.

This study investigates the interaction of lexical access and articulation in spoken word production, examining two dimensions along which theories vary. First, does articulatory variation reflect a fixed plan, or do lexical access-articulatory interactions continue after response initiation? Second, to what extent are interactive mechanisms hard-wired properties of the production system, as opposed to flexible? In two picture-naming experiments, we used semantic neighbor manipulations to induce lexical and conceptual co-activation. Our results provide evidence for multiple sources of interaction, both before and after response initiation.

A blind spot in correct naming latency analyses.

Speech errors and naming latencies provide two complementary sets of behavioural data for understanding language production processes. A recent analytical trend-applied to intact and impaired production alike-highlights a link between specific features of correct picture naming latency distributions and the retrieval processes thought to underlie them. Although chronometric approaches to language production typically consider correct response times in isolation, adequately accounting for their distributions in error-prone situations requires also considering the errors that sometimes censor them.

Inner speech as a forward model?

Pickering & Garrod (P&G) consider the possibility that inner speech might be a product of forward production models. Here I consider the idea of inner speech as a forward model in light of empirical work from the past few decades, concluding that, while forward models could contribute to it, inner speech nonetheless requires activity from the implementers.

The case for subphonemic attenuation in inner speech: comment on Corley, Brocklehurst, and Moat (2011).

Corley, Brocklehurst, and Moat (2011) recently demonstrated a phonemic similarity effect for phonological errors in inner speech, claiming that it contradicted Oppenheim and Dell's (2008) characterization of inner speech as lacking subphonemic detail (e.g., features).

Motor movement matters: the flexible abstractness of inner speech.

Inner speech is typically characterized as either the activation of abstract linguistic representations or a detailed articulatory simulation that lacks only the production of sound. We present a study of the speech errors that occur during the inner recitation of tongue-twister-like phrases. Two forms of inner speech were tested: inner speech without articulatory movements and articulated (mouthed) inner speech.

MR imaging helps predict time from symptom onset in patients with acute stroke: implications for patients with unknown onset time.

Purpose: To assess the value of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging parameters as surrogate markers of stroke duration.

Materials And Methods: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Ile de France III and was found to conform to generally accepted scientific principles and ethical standards. The authors studied 130 patients with acute stroke of known onset time who underwent 1.

The dark side of incremental learning: a model of cumulative semantic interference during lexical access in speech production.

Naming a picture of a dog primes the subsequent naming of a picture of a dog (repetition priming) and interferes with the subsequent naming of a picture of a cat (semantic interference). Behavioral studies suggest that these effects derive from persistent changes in the way that words are activated and selected for production, and some have claimed that the findings are only understandable by positing a competitive mechanism for lexical selection. We present a simple model of lexical retrieval in speech production that applies error-driven learning to its lexical activation network.

Saying the right word at the right time: Syntagmatic and paradigmatic interference in sentence production.

Retrieving a word in a sentence requires speakers to overcome syntagmatic, as well as paradigmatic interference. When accessing cat in "The cat chased the string," not only are similar competitors such as dog and cap activated, but also other words in the planned sentence, such as chase and string. We hypothesize that both types of interference impact the same stage of lexical access, and review connectionist models of production that use an error-driven learning algorithm to overcome that interference.

Inner speech slips exhibit lexical bias, but not the phonemic similarity effect.

Inner speech, that little voice that people often hear inside their heads while thinking, is a form of mental imagery. The properties of inner speech errors can be used to investigate the nature of inner speech, just as overt slips are informative about overt speech production. Overt slips tend to create words (lexical bias) and involve similar exchanging phonemes (phonemic similarity effect).

Memory versus intelligence in dementia screening--MMSE.

The Mini-Mental State exam is a widely used screening instrument for dementia. Recent research has suggested that errors in classification reported for this instrument may be due to premorbid levels of intelligence and education, Thirty-one ambulatory patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease were administered a standard neuropsychological testing battery. MMSE scores and intelligence are significantly correlated.

The earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease.

Insufficient clarity of definition of the clinical features in the earliest stages of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) has impeded the execution of clinical and biologic studies into this major public health problem. Defining the earliest signs of a disease with such an insidious onset can prove to be a most elusive task, particularly in a disease whose very nature renders the patients' self-report unreliable. We therefore administered a structured interview to the close family caregivers of 83 patients with probable AD, in order to investigate the earliest perceived signs of illness in the patients.

Headache as a presentation of angina: reproduction of symptoms during angioplasty.

We report a case of angina presenting as headache in a 59-year-old man. Headaches were relieved by nitroglycerin and were reproduced by occlusion of the first obtuse marginal artery during angioplasty. Headaches resolved after successful angioplasty.