Syllables as processing units in handwriting production.

This research focused on the syllable as a processing unit in handwriting. Participants wrote, in uppercase letters, words that had been visually presented. The interletter intervals provide information on the timing of motor production. In Experiment 1, French participants wrote words that shared the initial letters but had different syllable boundaries. In Experiment 2, French- and Spanish-speaking participants wrote cognates and pseudowords with a letter sequence that was always intrasyllabic in French and intersyllabic in Spanish. In Experiment 3, French-Spanish bilinguals wrote the cognates and pseudowords with the same type of sequences. In the 3 experiments, the critical interletter intervals were longer between syllables than within syllables, indicating that word syllable structure constrains motor production both in French and Spanish. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Building phonotactic knowledge in bilinguals: Role of early exposure.

Timing and amount of exposure to a 2nd language in the acquisition of phonotactic restrictions was examined in 4 experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, 10-month-old monolingual and bilingual Catalan-Spanish infants were presented with nonwords that were phonotactically legal or illegal in Catalan and phonotactically illegal in Spanish. Differences between the 4 groups of infants were obtained as a function of language dominance. In Experiments 3 and 4, adult Spanish-Catalan bilinguals were compared with the same materials. Catalan-dominant bilinguals were more accurate than Spanish-dominant bilinguals in their perception of legal sequences; however, they were not more accurate with illegal sequences. The findings suggest a complex correlation between the pattern of preference and the amount and timing of exposure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Song Perception During the Sensitive Period of Song Learning in Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata).

The sensitive period is a special time for auditory learning in songbirds. However, little is known about perception and discrimination of song during this period of development. The authors used a go/no-go operant task to compare discrimination of conspecific song from reversed song in juvenile and adult zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), and to test for possible developmental changes in perception of syllable structure and syllable syntax. In Experiment 1, there were no age or sex differences in the ability to learn the discrimination, and the birds discriminated the forward from reversed song primarily on the basis of local syllable structure. Similar results were found in Experiment 2 with juvenile birds reared in isolation from song. Experiment 3 found that juvenile zebra finches could discriminate songs on the basis of syllable order alone, although this discrimination was more difficult than one based on syllable structure. The results reveal well-developed song discrimination and song perception in juvenile zebra finches, even in birds with little experience with song. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age of learning affects rate-dependent processing of stops in a second language

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of speaking rate changes on the perception of English stop consonants by four groups of subjects: English and Spanish monolinguals, 'early' Spanish/English bilinguals who learned English in childhood, and 'late' bilinguals who learned English in adulthood. Subjects identified, and then later rated for goodness as exemplars of the English /p/ category, the members of two voice onset time (VOT) continua. The English monolinguals identified a well-defined range of VOT stimuli as English /p/, and stimuli with longer VOT values as 'exaggerated' instances of English /p/. Their goodness ratings increased as VOT increased, then showed a systematic decrease as VOT began to exceed values typical for English /p/. The English monolinguals' goodness ratings also varied systematically as a function of speaking rate, which was simulated in the two continua by varying syllable duration. The Spanish monolinguals, on the other hand, failed to consistently identify any of the stimuli as English /p/. Although speaking rate influenced their goodness ratings, the Spanish monolinguals' rate effects differed significantly from the English monolinguals'. The early bilinguals resembled the English monolinguals, and differed from the Spanish monolinguals to a greater extent than did the late Spanish/English bilinguals. This was taken as support for the hypothesis that early bilinguals are more likely than are late bilinguals to establish new phonetic categories for stop consonants in a second language.     

Speech errors reflect newly learned phonotactic constraints.

Speech errors reveal the speaker's implicit knowledge of phonotactic constraints, both languagewide constraints (e.g., /K/ cannot be a syllable onset when one is speaking English) and experimentally induced constraints (e.g., /k/ cannot be an onset during the experiment). Four experiments investigated the acquisition of novel 2nd-order constraints, in which the allowable position of a consonant depends on some other property of the syllable (e.g., /k/ can only be an onset if the vowel is /I/). Participants recited strings of syllables that exhibited the novel constraints throughout a 4-day experiment. Their errors reflected the newly learned constraints but not until the 2nd day of training. This contrasts with previous research showing that errors become sensitive to 1st-order constraints almost immediately. A model that learns to assign phonemes to syllable positions is presented. It attributes the relative slowness of the acquisition of 2nd-order constraints to the self-interfering property of these constraints. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How do highly proficient bilinguals control their lexicalization process? Inhibitory and language-specific selection mechanisms are both functional.

The authors report 4 experiments exploring the language-switching performance of highly proficient bilinguals in a picture-naming task. In Experiment 1, they tested the impact of language similarity and age of 2nd language acquisition on the language-switching performance of highly proficient bilinguals. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 assessed the performance of highly proficient bilinguals in language-switching contexts involving (a) the 2nd language (L2) and the L3 of the bilinguals, (b) the L3 and the L4, and (c) the L1 and a recently learned new language. Highly proficient bilinguals showed symmetrical switching costs regardless of the age at which the L2 was learned and of the similarities of the 2 languages and asymmetrical switching costs when 1 of the languages involved in the switching task was very weak (an L4 or a recently learned language). The theoretical implications of these results for the attentional mechanisms used by highly proficient bilinguals to control their lexicalization process are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The spatial constraint in intersensory pairing: No role in temporal ventriloquism.

A sound presented in temporal proximity to a light can alter the perceived temporal occurrence of that light (temporal ventriloquism). The authors explored whether spatial discordance between the sound and light affects this phenomenon. Participants made temporal order judgments about which of 2 lights appeared first, while they heard sounds before the 1st and after the 2nd light. Sensitivity was higher (i.e., a lower just noticeable difference) when the sound-light interval was ～100 ms rather than ～0 ms. This temporal ventriloquist effect was unaffected by whether sounds came from the same or a different position as the lights, whether the sounds were static or moved, or whether they came from the same or opposite sides of fixation. Yet, discordant sounds interfered with speeded visual discrimination. These results challenge the view that intersensory interactions in general require spatial correspondence between the stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of language usage on the emotional experience of Spanish-English and English-Spanish bilinguals.

This study assessed the effects of the mother tongue and the second tongue on the affective experience of 80 English-Spanish and Spanish-English coordinate bilinguals. Ss were randomly assigned to a mother tongue condition or a 2nd language condition. It was predicted that Ss would express more affect in their mother tongue. Results of a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) revealed a statistically significant interaction in which English-Spanish bilinguals expressed more affect in their second language (Spanish) and Spanish-English bilinguals expressed more affect in their mother tongue (Spanish). That is, all Ss answered with significantly greater affect in the Spanish language condition, and they differed in levels of anxiety and depression depending on which language they were using. Implications are discussed for the assessment of bilinguals as well as for psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

English speakers attend more strongly than Spanish speakers to manner of motion when classifying novel objects and events.

Three experiments provide evidence that the conceptualization of moving objects and events is influenced by one's native language, consistent with linguistic relativity theory. Monolingual English speakers and bilingual Spanish/English speakers tested in an English-speaking context performed better than monolingual Spanish speakers and bilingual Spanish/English speakers tested in a Spanish-speaking context at sorting novel, animated objects and events into categories on the basis of manner of motion, an attribute that is prominently marked in English but not in Spanish. In contrast, English and Spanish speakers performed similarly at classifying on the basis of path, an attribute that is prominently marked in both languages. Similar results were obtained regardless of whether categories were labeled by novel words or numbered, suggesting that an English-speaking tendency to focus on manner of motion is a general phenomenon and not limited to word learning. Effects of age of acquisition of English were also observed on the performance of bilinguals, with early bilinguals performing similarly in the 2 language contexts and later bilinguals showing greater contextual variation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The time it takes bilinguals and monolinguals to draw pictures and write words.

In 4 experiments, picture-word translation was studied in Spanish-English bilinguals and English monolinguals. In Experiment 1, bilinguals drew pictures or wrote English or Spanish words for picture or English or Spanish word stimuli. Equivalent increases in production onset latency for cross-language/modality translation were found. In Experiment 2, bilinguals and monolinguals drew pictures or wrote English words for picture or English word stimuli. Cross-modality translation equivalence was replicated, though bilinguals were slower than monolinguals overall. In Experiment 3, bilinguals and monolinguals were equivalent when they drew or wrote names from pictures as blocked tasks. In Experiment 4, bilinguals replicated Experiment 1 but were faster for blocked than mixed tasks, indicating that stimulus-processing uncertainty slows them. Results support a revised concept mediation model, with equivalent semantic access for pictures and words for bilinguals and monolinguals (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Planning and articulation in incremental word production: Syllable-frequency effects in English.

We investigated the role of syllables during speech planning in English by measuring syllable-frequency effects. So far, syllable-frequency effects in English have not been reported. English has poorly defined syllable boundaries, and thus the syllable might not function as a prominent unit in English speech production. Speakers produced either monosyllabic (Experiment 1) or disyllabic (Experiment 2–4) pseudowords as quickly as possible in response to symbolic cues. Monosyllabic targets consisted of either high- or low-frequency syllables, whereas disyllabic items contained either a 1st or 2nd syllable that was frequency-manipulated. Significant syllable-frequency effects were found in all experiments. Whereas previous findings for disyllables in Dutch and Spanish—languages with relatively clear syllable boundaries—showed effects of a frequency manipulation on 1st but not 2nd syllables, in our study English speakers were sensitive to the frequency of both syllables. We interpret this sensitivity as an indication that the production of English has more extensive planning scopes at the interface of phonetic encoding and articulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What Is a TOT? Cognate and Translation Effects on Tip-of-the-Tongue States in Spanish-English and Tagalog-English Bilinguals.

The authors induced tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs) for English words in monolinguals and bilinguals using picture stimuli with cognate (e.g., vampire, which is vampiro in Spanish) and noncognate (e.g., funnel, which is embudo in Spanish) names. Bilinguals had more TOTs than did monolinguals unless the target pictures had translatable cognate names, and bilinguals had fewer TOTs for noncognates they were later able to translate. TOT rates for the same targets in monolinguals indicated that these effects could not be attributed to target difficulty. Two popular TOT accounts must be modified to explain cognate and translatability facilitation effects, and cross-language interference cannot explain bilinguals' increased TOTs rates. Instead the authors propose that, relative to monolinguals, bilinguals are less able to activate representations specific to each language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Difference limens for formant patterns of vowel sounds

Studies of thresholds for discrimination of formant frequency variation in synthetic vowel sounds have been predominantly limited to variations in a single formant. Here, differences limens (DLs) are presented for multiformant variations expressed in measures of delta F and as distances in the auditory-perceptual space (APS) proposed by J. D. Miller [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 85, 2114-2134 (1989)]. DLs for four subjects were estimated along 102 synthetic vowel continua representing five patterns of formant variation [(1) single variation in F1; (2) single variation in F2; (3) parallel simultaneous variation in F1 and F2; (4) opposing simultaneous variation in F1 and F2; and parallel simultaneous variation in F1, F2, and F3] and 17 within- or between-category vowel sounds. Minimal uncertainty methodology was employed utilizing an adaptive up-down procedure with a cued, two-interval forced-choice (2IFC) task. The results of this experiment reflect smaller DLs for both single- and multiple-formant changes than have been found in the past and also suggest that discrimination of parallel multiformant variation is significantly better than opposing multiformant or single-formant variation.     

Translation and Associative Priming With Cross-Lingual Pseudohomophones: Evidence for Nonselective Phonological Activation in Bilinguals.

Using a lexical-decision task performed by Dutch-English bilinguals, the author showed that the recognition of visually presented first language (L1; e.g., touw) and second language (L2; e.g., back) targets is facilitated by L2 and L1 masked primes, respectively, which are pseudohomophones (roap and ruch) of the target's translation equivalent (rope and rug). Moreover, recognition of L2 targets (e.g., church) was also facilitated by L1 pseudohomophones (pous) of related words (paus [pope]). Contrastingly, no priming was observed for L1 targets (e.g., been [leg]) and L2 pseudohomophone associative primes (knea). Finally, the author found that an L2 target word (e.g., corner) is facilitated by a more frequent L2 (intralingual) homophone (e.g., hook) of its L1 translation equivalent (hoek). These findings strongly suggest language-independent activation of phonological representations in bilinguals and are compatible with the temporal delay assumption of the bilingual interactive activation plus model (A. Dijkstra & W. Van Heuven, 2002). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speech audiometry using the American Word Lists for Japanese subjects with normal hearing

The characteristics of listening to English words for Japanese people were studied in ten normal hearing subjects who had taken English classes to the level of college graduates and had opportunities to learn English continuously. Following pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry was performed using the Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) W-1 and W-22 word lists for English and the 67-S word lists for Japanese. The speech reception thresholds (SRTs) for the CID W-1 lists were significantly higher than average pure tone threshold (PTT), although the SRTs for the 67-S lists were equal to the average PTT. The difference in average SRT between the CID W-1 lists and the 67-S lists was about 15dB, which is statistically significant. The speech discrimination rate for the CID W-22 lists ranged from 78 to 100 percent with an average of 89.5 percent, while all subjects achieved the discrimination rate of 100 percent for the 67-S lists. Analysis with transient matrices of the perceived words demonstrated that the articulation rates were below 90 percent for the consonants /m/, /n/, /p/ and /delta/ . The observed variation in the speech discrimination score and the pattern of confusion among the subjects was assumed to be much more pronounced in noisy conditions.     

Latency–probability curves for sequential decision models: A comment on Weatherburn.

Discusses D. Weatherburn's (see record 1979-25180-001) mathematical argument that shows that the relationship between response latency and response probability in sensory discrimination experiments does not determine the form of an underlying sequential decision process unless the time rates for implicit events are also specified. This argument is not denied, but in many cases the expected variation of time rates is not sufficient to rule out the use of the latency–probability graph. This is particularly the case if time rate variation is directly determined by stimulus magnitude or if variations due to motivation occur only from trial to trial rather than from session to session. It is concluded that, even if such variation is large, there is a considerable amount of information to be gained from latency–probability analysis. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of alcohol on controlled and automatic memory processes.

The authors used the process-dissociation procedure (L. L. Jacoby, 1998) to examine the effects of alcohol on controlled and automatic influences on memory performance. Participants studied 1 of 2 word lists and subsequently were cued with word stems to recall the words from both lists. Fifty-four men were administered either a moderate dose of alcohol (0.82 g/kg) or placebo prior to studying the word list. Results indicated that alcohol decreased estimates of controlled contributions to performance on the task. In contrast, alcohol did not appear to affect automatic influences on this task. Integrated with recent findings using a different cognitive task, these data suggest that alcohol impairs performance on implicit, conceptually driven tasks but not on implicit, perceptually driven tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bilingualism reduces native-language interference during novel-word learning.

The goal of the present work was to examine the effects of bilingualism on adults’ ability to resolve cross-linguistic inconsistencies in orthography-to-phonology mappings during novel-word learning. English monolinguals and English–Spanish bilinguals learned artificially constructed novel words that overlapped with English orthographically but diverged from English phonologically. Native-language orthographic information presented during learning interfered with encoding of novel words in monolinguals but not in bilinguals. In general, bilinguals outperformed monolinguals on the word-learning task. These findings indicate that knowledge of 2 languages facilitates word learning and shields English–Spanish bilinguals from interference associated with cross-linguistic inconsistencies in letter-to-phoneme mappings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Basic processes in reading: Two phonological codes.

In Exp I, 16 undergraduates viewed letter strings that varied in phonological similarity and lexical status. Under a no-interference condition, phonologically distinct lists were better recalled than phonologically confusable ones, and lists with entries in a phonological lexicon (e.g., BRANE) were better recalled than lists without lexical status (e.g., SLINT). When Ss were required to articulate irrelevant sounds, the phonological similarity effect was completely eliminated, but a lexicality effect persisted. In Exp II, another 16 Ss viewed letter strings that varied in syllabic length and lexical status. Pseudohomophones were better recalled than control nonwords under both quiet and articulation conditions, but a syllabic length effect was obtained only in the no-articulation condition. Results show that at least 2 phonological codes underlie performance in a memory-span task. The 1st code permits lexical access from print; suppression does not prevent this code from accessing lexical memory. The 2nd underlies both word length and phonological similarity effects in span; suppression prevents the formation or utilization of this code. Implications for understanding normal reading and developmental reading problems are noted. (French abstract) (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual word recognition by bilinguals in a sentence context: Evidence for nonselective lexical access.

Recent research on bilingualism has shown that lexical access in visual word recognition by bilinguals is not selective with respect to language. In the present study, the authors investigated language-independent lexical access in bilinguals reading sentences, which constitutes a strong unilingual linguistic context. In the first experiment, Dutch-English bilinguals performing a 2nd language (L2) lexical decision task were faster to recognize identical and nonidentical cognate words (e.g., banaan-banana) presented in isolation than control words. A second experiment replicated this effect when the same set of cognates was presented as the final words of low-constraint sentences. In a third experiment that used eyetracking, the authors showed that early target reading time measures also yield cognate facilitation but only for identical cognates. These results suggest that a sentence context may influence, but does not nullify, cross-lingual lexical interactions during early visual word recognition by bilinguals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)