The balance of storage and computation in morphological processing: The role of word formation type, affixal homonymy, and productivity.

This article is concerned with the way in which the balance of storage—storing and processing words through full-form representations—and computation—storing and processing words through morpheme-based representations—in lexical processing in the visual modality is affected by the following 3 factors: word formation type (roughly, inflection vs. derivation), productivity, and affixal homonymy. Experimental results for 5 different Dutch suffixes, combined with previous results obtained for 4 comparable Finnish suffixes (R. Bertram, M. Laine, & K. Karvinen, 1999) and 2 Dutch suffixes (R. H. Baayen, T. Dijkstra, & R. Schreuder, 1997), show that none of these factors in isolation is a reliable cross-linguistic predictor of the balance of storage and computation. The authors offer a general framework that outlines how morphological processing is influenced by the interaction of word formation type, productivity, and affixal homonymy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural Sensitivity in Conventional Psychotherapy: A Comment On Martínez-Taboas (2005).

A. Martínez-Taboas (2005) presents a compelling case of a woman with psychogenic seizures treated with a combination of cognitive therapy and an affirmation of espiritismo, the belief among some Latino individuals in spiritual possession and intercession (see record 2005-03040-003). Martínez-Taboas's sensitivity to the cultural beliefs of the patient is commendable; however, integrating cultural sensitivity with more conventional treatment approaches offers the potential for an effective, more generalizable model of intervention. In this article, the author argues for a greater appreciation of culture-bound syndromes in clinical presentation. In addition, the utility of more culturally sensitive adaptations of existing treatment models is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Estrogen and/or Progesterone Administered Systemically or to the Amygdala Can Have Anxiety-, Fear-, and Pain-Reducing Effects in Ovariectomized Rats.

Estrogen (E?) and/or progesterone (P) in the amygdala may influence anxiety, fear, and pain behaviors. Ovariectomized rats were administered subcutaneous or intra-amygdala vehicle, E?, P, or E? + P:Effects on open field, elevated plus-maze, defensive freezing, and hot-plate task performance were observed. Subcutaneous E? + P or intra-amygdala E?, P, or E? + P increased open field central entries and open arm time in the plus-maze compared with vehicle. Subcutaneous or intra-amygdala E?, P, or E? + P decreased time spent freezing postshock compared with vehicle. Subcutaneous or intra-amygdala E? + P increased latencies to lick paws compared with vehicle. Thus, E? and P may have effects in the amygdala to decrease anxiety, fear, and/or pain responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Morphological errors and the representation of morphology in the lexical-semantic system

Neuropsychological studies support the hypothesis that morphology is represented autonomously, both at the level of word meaning and at the level of word form. In output processes, morphologically organized semantic information activates lexical representations of roots and affixes, which are composed before production. In input processes, the stimulus is parsed along the morphological dimension, to access root and affix lexical representations, which in turn activate morphologically organized semantic information. Inflectional and derivational morphology are represented independently in the lexicon. Inflected words are fully decomposed; derived words are decomposed into base form+inflection. In aphasia, morphological errors in transcoding tasks always co-occur with semantic and/or phonemic errors. Morphological errors in transcoding tasks require combined damage to morphological representations in the semantic-lexical system and to sublexical conversion procedures; they co-occur with semantic errors when also root representations are damaged. The co-occurrence of morphological and phonemic errors can be accounted for by several hypotheses, but its theoretical meaning is still uncertain.     

Introduction to the Special Section on Metric in Meta-Analysis.

A key issue for meta-analysts is how to represent study outcomes--in other words, what is the best metric for study outcomes? This introduction describes four articles in a special section on metric in meta-analysis. Do meta-analyses require standardized measures of study outcome? C. F. Bond, W. L. Wiitala, and F. D. Richard (2003) argue that standardization is often not needed and can obscure results. Another aspect of scaling outcomes is dichotomization. J. Sánchez-Meca, F. Marín-Martínez, and S. Chacón-Moscoso (2003) compare estimators appropriate when a meta-analysis includes treatment-control studies with dichotomized outcomes. Two articles deal with additional design complexities. R. Gillett (2003) describes mean-difference estimators, outlining indices comparable to effects from the t test. S. Olejnik and J. Algina (2003) provide a formula for generalized eta squared and omega squared statistics that are comparable across research designs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Decomposing words into their constituent morphemes: Evidence from English and Hebrew.

Participants segmented and shifted a sequence of letters from a source word to a target word and then named the product aloud. Morphemic and nonmorphemic letter sequences (e.g., EN) from phonemically matched words such as HARDEN and GARDEN were compared. In 4 experiments, naming latencies were faster for morphemic sequences than their nonmorphemic controls in both English, in which the morphemic status of the shifted sequence was varied and sequences were appended after the base morpheme (linearly concatenated), and in Hebrew, in which morphological transparency of the root (base morpheme) was varied and 1 morpheme was infixed inside the other (nonconcatenative) so that the phonological and orthographic integrity of the morphemic constituents was disrupted. Moreover, the likelihood with which both affixes and bases combine to form words influenced segment shifting times. In conclusion, skilled readers are sensitive to the morphological components of words whether or not they form contiguous orthographic or phonological units. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Le lexique mental: Modèle d'organisation du lexique mental.

Discusses a model of a mental lexicon that considers the position of a word in a sentence, the morphological structure of the word, and morphological rules for interpreting unknown words. The model suggests that the mental lexicon contains 3 dictionaries: 1 of radical and root words, 1 of affixes, and 1 of rules. The application of morphological rules, especially the rules for derived words, and methods of accessing the mental lexicon are examined. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naming multisyllabic words.

The process of reading multisyllabic words aloud from print was examined in 4 experiments. Experiment 1 used multisyllabic words that vary in terms of the consistency of component spelling-sound correspondences. The stimuli were regular, regular inconsistent, and exception words analogous to the monosyllabic items used in previous studies. Both regular inconsistent and exception words produced longer naming latencies than regular words. In Experiment 2 these differences between word types were found to be limited to lower frequency items. Experiment 3 showed that effects of number of syllables on naming latency are also limited to lower frequency words. In the final experiment, consistency effects were obtained for both higher and lower frequency words when the stimulus display forced subjects to use syllabic units. Thus, frequency modulates the effects of two aspects of lexical structure—consistency of spelling-sound correspondences and number of syllables. The results suggest that the naming of multisyllabic words draws on some of the same knowledge representations and processes as monosyllabic words; however, naming does not require syllabic decomposition. The results are discussed in the context of current models of naming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the meaning of the latent variables in the CT-C(M-1) model: A comment on Maydeu-Olivares and Coffman (2006).

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 13(2) of Psychological Methods (see record 2008-06808-007). In Figures 3B and 3D, the question marks (?) should read as multiplication signs (×). That is, it should read as β×λ?, β×λ?, and β×λ?? instead of β?λ?, β?λ?, and β?λ?? in Figure 3B and as γ×λ? and γ×λ? instead of γ?λ? and γ?λ? in Figure 3D.] In a recent article, A. Maydeu-Olivares and D. L. Coffman (2006; see record 2006-22258-002) presented a random intercept factor approach for modeling idiosyncratic response styles in questionnaire data and compared this approach with competing confirmatory factor analysis models. Among the competing models was the CT-C(M-1) model (M. Eid, 2000). In an application to the Life Orientation Test (M. F. Scheier & C. S. Carver, 1985), Maydeu-Olivares and Coffman found that results obtained from the CT-C(M-1) model were difficult to interpret. In particular, Maydeu-Olivares and Coffman challenged the asymmetry of the CT-C(M-1) model. In the present article, the authors show that the difficulties faced by Maydeu-Olivares and Coffman rest upon an improper interpretation of the meaning of the latent factors. The authors' aim is to clarify the meaning of the latent variables in the CT-C(M-1) model. The authors explain how to properly interpret the results from this model and introduce an alternative restricted model that is conceptually similar to the CT-C(M-1) model and nested within it. The fit of this model is invariant across different reference methods. Finally, the authors provide guidelines as to which model should be used in which research context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

General slowing in semantic priming and word recognition.

Analyses of lexical decision studies revealed that (1) older (O) adults' mean semantic priming effect was 1.44 times that of younger (Y) adults, (2) regression lines describing the relations between O and Y adults' latencies in related (O?=?1.54 Y?–?112) and unrelated conditions (O?=?1.50 Y?–?93) were not significantly different, and (3) that there was a proportional relation between O and Y adults' priming effects (O?=?1.48 Y?–?2). Analyses of word-naming studies yielded similar results. Analyses of delayed pronunciation data (D. A. Balota & J. M. Duchek, 1988) revealed that word recognition was 1.47 times slower in O adults, whereas O adults' output processes were only 1.26 times slower. Overall, analyses of whole latencies and durations of component processes provide converging evidence for a general slowing factor of approximately 1.5 for lexical information processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correction to Geiser et al. (2008).

Reports an error in "On the meaning of the latent variables in the CT-C(M-1) model: A comment on Maydeu-Olivares and Coffman (2006)" by Christian Geiser, Michael Eid and Fridtjof W. Nussbeck (Psychological Methods, 2008[Mar], Vol 13[1], 49-57). In Figures 3B and 3D, the question marks (?) should read as multiplication signs (×). That is, it should read as β×λ?, β×λ?, and β×λ?? instead of β?λ?, β?λ?, and β?λ?? in Figure 3B and as γ×λ? and γ×λ? instead of γ?λ? and γ?λ? in Figure 3D. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2008-02525-004.) In a recent article, A. Maydeu-Olivares and D. L. Coffman (2006; see record 2006-22258-002) presented a random intercept factor approach for modeling idiosyncratic response styles in questionnaire data and compared this approach with competing confirmatory factor analysis models. Among the competing models was the CT-C(M-1) model (M. Eid, 2000). In an application to the Life Orientation Test (M. F. Scheier & C. S. Carver, 1985), Maydeu-Olivares and Coffman found that results obtained from the CT-C(M-1) model were difficult to interpret. In particular, Maydeu-Olivares and Coffman challenged the asymmetry of the CT-C(M-1) model. In the present article, the authors show that the difficulties faced by Maydeu-Olivares and Coffman rest upon an improper interpretation of the meaning of the latent factors. The authors' aim is to clarify the meaning of the latent variables in the CT-C(M-1) model. The authors explain how to properly interpret the results from this model and introduce an alternative restricted model that is conceptually similar to the CT-C(M-1) model and nested within it. The fit of this model is invariant across different reference methods. Finally, the authors provide guidelines as to which model should be used in which research context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Morphological Family Size in a Morphologically Rich Language: The Case of Finnish Compared With Dutch and Hebrew.

Finnish has a very productive morphology in which a stem can give rise to several thousand words. This study presents a visual lexical decision experiment addressing the processing consequences of the huge productivity of Finnish morphology. The authors observed that in Finnish words with larger morphological families elicited shorter response latencies. However, in contrast to Dutch and Hebrew, it is not the complete morphological family of a complex Finnish word that codetermines response latencies but only the subset of words directly derived from the complex word itself. Comparisons with parallel experiments using translation equivalents in Dutch and Hebrew showed substantial cross-language predictivity of family size between Finnish and Dutch but not between Finnish and Hebrew, reflecting the different ways in which the Hebrew and Finnish morphological systems contribute to the semantic organization of concepts in the mental lexicon. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic vigilance for negative words is categorical and general.

With other factors controlled, negative words elicit slower lexical decisions and naming than positive words (Estes & Adelman, 2008; see record 2008-09984-001). Moreover, this marked difference in responding to negative words and to positive words (i.e., between-category discontinuity) was accompanied by relatively uniform responding among negative words (i.e., within-category equivalence), thus suggesting a categorical model of automatic vigilance. Larsen, Mercer, Balota, and Strube (this issue; see record 2008-09984-002) corroborated our observation that valence predicts lexical decision and word naming latencies. However, on the basis of an interaction between linear arousal and linear valence, they claim that automatic vigilance does not occur among arousing stimuli and they purport to reject the categorical model. Here we show that (a) this interaction is logically irrelevant to whether automatic vigilance is categorical; (b) the linear interaction is statistically consistent with the categorical model; (c) the interaction is not observed within the categorical model; and (d) despite having 5 fewer parameters, the categorical model predicts word recognition times as well as the interaction model. Thus, automatic vigilance is categorical and generalizes across levels of arousal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sharing morphemes without sharing meaning: Production and comprehension of German verbs in the context of morphological relatives.

We investigated the impact of derived German verbs on the production and recognition of morphologically related simple verbs. In order to disentangle effects of morphological, semantic, and phonological relatedness, target verbs were combined (e.g., z?hlen – to count) with four context verbs: Two morphologically related context verbs that were either semantically transparent (verz?hlen – to miscount) or semantically opaque (erz?hlen – to tell), a semantically related (rechnen – to calculate) and a phonologically related (z?hmen – to tame) context verb. Morphologically related complex verbs reduced picture naming latencies as well as lexical decision latencies. Semantically related verbs did not show any reliable effects. In production, morphological facilitation was almost four times larger than phonological facilitation. In comprehension, pure form overlap produced inhibition. We argue that in German, production and comprehension processes operate on morphologically decomposed lexical form representations. Independent from semantic transparency, complex verbs are broken down into their morphemes during comprehension and are assembled during production. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The specific-word frequency effect: Implications for the representation of homophones in speech production.

In a series of experiments, the authors investigated whether naming latencies for homophones (e.g., /nΛn/) are a function of specific-word frequency (i.e., the frequency of nun) or a function of cumulative homophone frequency (i.e., the sum of the frequencies of nun and none). Specific-word but not cumulative-homophone frequency affected picture-naming latencies. This result was obtained in 2 languages (English and Chinese). An analogous finding was obtained in a translation task, where bilingual speakers produced the English names of visually presented Spanish words. Control experiments ruled out that these results are an artifact of orthographic or articulatory factors, or of visual recognition. The results argue against the hypothesis that homophones share a common word-form representation, and support instead a model in which homophones have fully independent representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does priming a specific illness schema result in an attentional information-processing bias for specific illnesses?

Objective: To test a hypothesis derived from H. Leventhal, D. Meyer, and D. Nerenz's (1980) commonsense model that people possess implicit schemas for specific illnesses. Design: A 2 (illness vs. neutral shopping prime) × 2 (illness-related vs. control word) mixed design with repeated measures on the second factor. Participants primed for the common cold (Experiment 1) and cardiovascular disease (Experiment 2) were compared with participants receiving a neutral shopping prime on a modified Stroop color naming task. Main Outcome Measures: Attentional bias to illness related words was calculated as the difference between response latencies to illness words and neutral words under the prime conditions. Results: In Experiment 1, participants primed with common cold showed a response bias to words related to the common cold but not to words related to cardiovascular disease. Attentional bias among participants primed for common cold was significantly correlated with explicit illness representations assessed by the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire. Experiment 2 replicated the findings in a different illness domain. Conclusion: Illness-specific illness schemas can be activated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Frequency and neighborhood effects on lexical access: Lexical similarity or orthographic redundancy?

Five experiments investigated the effects of word frequency, neighborhood size, and bigram frequency on lexical decision and word-naming performance. Large neighborhood size, manipulated independently of bigram frequency, facilitated lexical decision and standard naming latencies for low-frequency words but had no effect on delayed naming performance. Bigram frequency, manipulated independently of neighborhood size, had no effect on lexical decision or naming performance. The data suggest that effects of neighborhood size reflect lexical similarity rather than orthographic redundancy and that they are due to lexical access rather than processes specific to lexical decision or naming tasks. The results are incompatible with models assuming that lexical access involves a serial comparison process. The implications for parallel models assuming localized and distributed representations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concreteness and semantic repetition effects in free recall: Evidence for dual-coding theory.

Tested the prediction of A. Paivio's (1971, 1976) dual-coding model, which states that semantic-repetition effects will be obtained for concrete but not abstract words. Dual-coding theory also asserts that semantic equivalents are encoded as a combination of separate verbal representations for all words and common imaginal representations for concrete equivalents. 96 undergraduates recalled a list that contained no-repetition, synonym-repetition, and identical-repetition items, half of which were concrete and half of which were abstract. Results show that, for concrete words, recall of synonym- and identical-repetition items did not differ significantly, and both conditions facilitated recall relative to no-repetition items. For abstract words, however, recall of synonym- and no-repetition items did not differ significantly, whereas identical-repetition items facilitated recall relative to both of these conditions. Findings support the prediction and demonstrate the importance of concreteness in semantic-repetition effects. (French abstract) (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)