Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： In sentence production, syntactic priming effect refers to a phenomenon that speakers or writers tend to reuse syntactic structures that they have recently processed, and the repeated syntactic structures elicit shorter sentence production latencies than the novel ones. Different theories have been proposed to account for the syntactic priming effect. Among them, both the Residual Activation Theory and the Implicit Learning Theory aim to address speakers’ syntactic choices ratio, but with different theoretical bases on memory and learning, respectively. In addition, the Two-stage Competition Model attempts to explain the syntactic priming in syntactic choices ratio as well as production latencies. Experimental works have demonstrated that syntactic priming stably exists even after excluding the semantic and lexical relevance between the prime sentence and the target sentence, which suggests that syntactic priming actually reflects syntactic processing in sentence production. In the present study, we explored the cognitive mechanism of syntactic processing in Mandarin spoken sentence production using a syntactic priming paradigm. In this paradigm, participants were firstly instructed to read the prime sentence aloud and then judge whether the sentence’s description matched the prime picture. Then, participants were instructed to describe the target picture using the verb at the bottom. The dependent variables included not only the syntactic choices ratio but also the sentence production latencies. In experiment 1, we manipulated syntax structure of the prime sentence (double object dative vs. prepositional object dative) and verb overlap between the prime sentence and the target sentence (no verb overlap vs. verb overlap). In experiment 2, we added a within-subjects factor of lag by manipulating whether the target picture was presented immediately after the prime sentence, or after two or six intervening descriptions (Lag 0 vs. Lag 2 vs. Lag 6). For the syntactic choices ratio, results indicated that participants produced significantly more double-object sentences following double-object primes than following prepositional-object primes, and the syntactic priming was much stronger in the verb overlapping condition than in the verb non-overlapping condition. Furthermore, we found that the syntactic priming effect persisted when the prime sentence and the target sentence did not share the verb, whereas the lexical boost effect (i.e. a stronger syntactic priming effect caused by the verb overlap between the prime sentence and the target sentence) disappeared after six intervening descriptions. For the sentence production latencies, results indicated that the repetition of syntactic structures significantly speeded up target sentence production. Besides, we found that verb overlap slowed down the sentence production as the lag between primes and targets increased (also known as the lexical suppression effect) only when the syntactic structure was repeated. Unifying the different findings in the syntactic choices ratio and the production latencies, we suggest that, apart from the stage where a sentence is planned specifically, sentence production comprises a syntactic construction stage in which speakers map the thematic roles to one structural alternative. These findings are consistent with the Two-stage Competition Model. In methodology, we also suggest that syntactic choices ratio is sensitive to sentence generation process.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Language is a complex lifelong faculty supported by the general cognitive system as well as the dynamic interactions between comprehension and production processes within the language system. Studies reported that while normal aging impairs important aspects of language production, most core processes of comprehension are robust. However, accumulating evidence suggests a decline in comprehension when comparing older adults with young ones. Thus it is plausible to assume that there might be a general degradation in older adults’ language capacity. The information-universal theories assume that the aging of language is contributed by the declines in general cognitive abilities including processing speed, working memory and inhibitory function, while the information-specific theories highlight the unique changes of linguistic representations and their connections in the brain, which may result in decreased interplay between comprehension and production. The current study investigated the relationships among language comprehension capacity, production capacity, and general cognitive abilities, and explored the factors that influence the aging of language processing. We employed two groups of participants (103 young adults and 114 older adults), and measured their general cognitive abilities and language capacities with different tasks. General cognitive abilities were assessed in three dimensions: processing speed by color judgment and numerical judgment tasks, working memory by digit span forward and backward tasks, and inhibitory function by STROOP color-word judgment task. Language comprehension and production capacities were measured at word, sentence and discourse processing levels, respectively. We first compared the performance between the two age groups, and then conducted hierarchical regression analyses to examine the contributions of information-universal and information-specific factors to language performance. Results showed lower scores in older adults than their young counterparts on all measures. The first hierarchical regression analyses revealed that there were differences between the older and the young groups, which presented not only in the contributions of general cognitive abilities to language capacities but also in the contributions of comprehension and production capacities to each other. For word processing, young adults’ performance was predicted by both general cognitive abilities and the other language capacities, while the former did not predict older adults’ performance; for sentence processing, young adults’ performance was predicted by general cognitive abilities (only in comprehension) and the other language capacities, while neither of them explained older adults’ performance; for discourse processing, young adults’ comprehension scores were predicted by their production capacity, while older adults’ scores of comprehension and production were predicted by their general cognitive abilities and comprehension capacity respectively. Results of the second hierarchical regression analyses indicated that both general cognitive abilities and the other language capacities contributed to the group differences in language performance, and the contributions of the former were larger than those of the latter. In sum, older adults show an overall age-related decline in general cognitive abilities, language comprehension and production capacities. We suggest that the aging of language processing is subject to both the information- universal factor as well as the information-specific factor, with the former reflected as the general degradation in cognitive abilities and the latter related to specific changes in the architecture of language system.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Languages may differ in the proximate units of phonological encoding in spoken word production. It has been demonstrated that syllables are proximate units of phonological encoding in Chinese speech production. Previous studies report that the θ band oscillations has been associated with syllables processing in language comprehension, however, it remains unknown what are the neural oscillations for syllables retrieval in speech production. The present study aims to investigate the neural oscillations of syllables retrieval at the stage of phonological encoding in Chinese spoken word production. We employed a masked priming paradigm and electrophysiological signals were recorded concurrently. In the task, participants were instructed to name pictures with disyllabic words which were preceded by briefly presented and masked prime words. Prime words were syllabically or phonemically related to the first syllable of targets or were unrelated, and the experimental design includes prime type (syllable vs. phoneme), relatedness (related vs. unrelated), and repetition (first vs. second). Behavioral data analysis showed a significant triple interaction among prime type, relatedness and repetition. In the first repetition, naming latencies were faster in syllabically related than unrelated condition, whereas latencies were longer in the phonemically related than unrelated condition. Time-frequency analysis also showed a significant interaction between prime type and relatedness in the time window of 300-600 ms after pictures onset. Specifically, theta band power was lower for syllabically related than unrelated while no significant differences between phonemically related and unrelated. Cluster based permutation test showed that, in the first repetition, syllabically related condition elicited lower θ band power than unrelated in the time window of 270-460 ms, while phoneme relatedness produced marginally higher θ band power than phoneme unrelatedness in the 340-390 ms time window. These effects were absent in the second repetition. In sum, we found that syllable priming effect was reflected by the decrease of θ oscillation in spoken word production in Chinese. Time-frequency analysis also revealed an early syllable priming effect, and a late phonemic inhibition effect in Chinese spoken word production, which provides evidence for the proximate units principle.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Whether and how L2 spoken word production influences the similarities and differences between L1 network and L2 network is still controversial. Studies in language comprehension have documented that bilinguals present an accommodation or an assimilation pattern in L2 processing. For bilinguals, an accommodation pattern of L2 involves additional neural correlates than L1, while an assimilation one shows overlapping neural correlates with L1. Using electrophysiological measures, the present study thus aims to compare the patterns of L2 phonological encoding in spoken word production for bilingual speakers. In a picture-word interference task, we combined the event-related potential (ERP) technique and spatio-temporal segmentation method to examine assimilation and accommodation mechanisms of L2 phonological encoding in English-Chinese bilinguals. Twenty-two native Mandarin speakers (13 males, mean age: 21.9) and 18 English-Chinese bilinguals (13 males, mean age: 22.9) participated in the study. The stimuli materials were designed into two languages (Chinese and English) and paired with three phonologically related conditions (syllabically related, phonemically related, and unrelated). Participants were required to ignore distracter word and name the picture as accurately as possible. Behavioral data revealed a significant syllable effect in Chinese native speakers, and English-Chinese bilinguals name pictures in both English and Chinese, showing that pictures paired with syllabically related distractors were named faster than those paired with unrelated distractors. ERP data showed that syllabically related distractors elicited a larger modulated ERPs than unrelated ones in the time window of 250~300 ms in native Chinese speakers, and phonemically related distractors elicited a larger waveform than the one in unrelated ones in the time window of 200~250 ms in English-Chinese bilinguals naming pictures in English or Chinese. Results of spatio-temporal segmentation revealed identical microstates (Map1、Map3 and Map4) in English-Chinese bilinguals naming pictures in English or Chinese. There was only a significant difference in microstate duration. However, Chinese native speakers exhibited a different brain microstate (Map2) when they named pictures in Chinese.In sum, ERP and spatio-temporal segmentation results consistently indicated that English-Chinese bilinguals show an assimilation pattern in speaking Chinese (L2) network, in which the electrophysiological pattern is more similar to the one when they speak native English, rather than the one when native Chinese speakers speak Chinese.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： A debatable issue between serial discrete models and interactive models is whether non-target lemmas activate their phonological words in spoken word production. Serial discrete models assume that only target lemma activates its corresponding phonological node to articulation, whereas interactive models assume that the semantic and phonological nodes linked to multiple candidates are co-activated during the retrieval of target word. Multiple phonological activation has been supported by evidences from alphabetic languages, but it remains unknown whether this finding can be generalized to non-alphabetic languages. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate whether the not-to-be named pictures activate their phonological nodes in Chinese spoken word production.Using electrophysiological measures, the present study employed a word translation task in native Chinese speakers with a high level of English proficiency. Thirty-two participants (13 males, average 22.94 years) were presented with an English probe word and a context picture (semantically related or unrelated, phonologically related or unrelated to target word) simultaneously. Eighty-six English probe words from CELEX database and forty-three black and white line pictures from a standardized picture database in Chinese were chosen as stimuli. Participants were asked to translate English probe words into Chinese as accurately and quickly as possible while ignoring context pictures presented simultaneously.Behavioral results showed a typical semantic facilitation effect, with faster translation latencies in the semantically related condition than in the semantically unrelated condition. More importantly, phonological overlap, which generally elicits priming in Indo-European languages, resulted in a null finding for Chinese production. Electrophysiological results revealed that semantic relatedness induced significant effects of ERPs after stimuli presentation: a widely distributed positivity in the 400- to 600-ms interval, while marginally significant effects were observed for phonological relatedness in the time interval of 600~700 ms in the right middle region. Furthermore, a negative correlation between the difference of translation latencies (semantically related minus semantically unrelated) and the difference of mean amplitudes (semantically related minus semantically unrelated) approached significance in the 400~600 ms time window in the middle posterior region, suggesting that more positive mean amplitudes were associated with shorter translation latencies.Although speakers present a weak but reliable neural activation, we suggest that phonological overlap between context pictures and target words had no impact on the translation processing in behavioral. That is, the non-target lemma did not activate their phonological node, and multiple phonological activation was absent in Chinese spoken production. Meanwhile, the semantic information of context pictures was indeed activated, and according to the temporal course of word translation, the time window of 400~600 ms was estimated for conceptual preparation when Chinese-English bilinguals completed a word translation task, although this activation was not transmitted from semantic level to phonological level. Overall, the present findings support a serial discrete model rather than an interactive model in Chinese spoken word production.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： A controversial in word production is that how speakers retrieve words from the mental lexicon. The picture-word interference (hereafter PWI) paradigm has been broadly used to investigate this issue. In this task, speakers are instructed to name pictures while ignoring written distractor words superimposed onto the pictures. A typical finding is the semantic interference effect, which is that categorically related distractors (e.g., bus) slow down picture naming (e.g., car) relative to unrelated distractors (e.g., pen). By varying stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between pictures and distractors, studies have reported semantic facilitation effect when semantically related distractors were presented before pictures such as 400 ms (-400 ms), and semantic interference effect when semantically related distractors were presented closely to pictures. Lexical competition hypothesis assumes that semantic interference reflects the lexical selection competition among co-activated semantically related lexical representations during lemma retrieval, while response exclusion hypothesis assumes that semantically related distractors are more difficult to exclude from the response buffer than unrelated ones. It assumes that semantic facilitation effect arises at the conceptual processing. However, little is known about the temporal courses of both effects. The present study aims to examine the influence of SOA on semantic effect with the PWI task using electrophysiological measures. Forty-five undergraduate and graduate students participate in the experiment (22 males, average 22.85 years). Forty-two black and white line pictures were chosen from a standardized picture database as targets with disyllabic names. Each target picture was paired with a semantically related distractor word and an unrelated distractor word. Context words in the semantically related condition were then recombined with the picture names to form unrelated conditions. Target pictures and context words are basic-level concepts selected from 14 semantic categories. The experimental design included relatedness (semantically related vs. semantically unrelated), SOA (-400 vs. 0 ms) and repetition (first vs. second) as within-participants factors. Behavioral results indicated a typical semantic interference effect at SOA of 0 ms while the semantic effect was absent at SOA of -400 ms. Electrophysiological results showed that at SOA of 0 ms semantically related distractors elicited a smaller modulated waveform than unrelated ones in the time window of 344~414 ms in the first repetition and 356~418 ms in the second repetition. There was a larger waveform in the semantically related distractors than unrelated ones in the time window of 462~594 ms in the first repetition and 460~544 ms in the second repetition. At SOA of -400 ms, results showed an early semantic effect in the time window of 0~76 ms in the first repetition but disappeared in the second repetition, and a late semantic effect in the time window of 284~390 ms in the first repetition and 274~382 ms in the second repetition. In sum, the present findings indicated that there is a semantic facilitation effect arising at the conceptual processing (0~200 ms) and a semantic interference effect arising at the lexical selection stage (250~450 ms) in Chinese spoken word production. Our findings firstly provide evidence for lexical competition hypothesis rather than response exclusion hypothesis. Furthermore, with high-time resolution measures, we firstly provide electrophysiological evidence for the trade-off of semantic facilitation and interference effect in spoken word production.
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2020-06-16
Abstract： Languages may differ in the proximate units of phonological encoding in spoken word production. It has been demonstrated that syllables are proximate units of phonological encoding in Chinese speech production. Previous studies report that the θ band oscillations has been associated with syllables processing in language comprehension, however, it remains unknown what are the neural oscillations for syllables retrieval in speech production. The present study aims to investigate the neural oscillations of syllables retrieval at the stage of phonological encoding in Chinese spoken word production. We employed a masked priming paradigm and electrophysiological signals were recorded concurrently. In the task, participants were instructed to name pictures with disyllabic words which were preceded by briefly presented and masked prime words. Prime words were syllabically or phonemically related to the first syllable of targets or were unrelated, and the experimental design includes prime type (syllable overlapped vs. phoneme overlapped), relatedness (related vs. unrelated), and repetition (first vs. second). Behavioral data analysis showed a significant triple interaction among prime type, relatedness and repetition. In the first repetition, naming latencies were faster in syllabically related than unrelated condition, whereas latencies were longer in the phonemically related than unrelated condition. Time-frequency analysis also showed a significant triple interaction in the time window of 300~600 ms after pictures onset. Specifically, theta band power was lower for syllabically related than unrelated while no significant differences between phonemically related and related, in the first repetition. Cluster based permutation test showed that, in the first repetition, syllabically related condition elicited lower θ band power than unrelated in the time window of 270~460 ms, while phoneme relatedness produce marginally higher θ band power than phoneme unrelatedness in the 340~390 ms time window. These effects were absent in the second repetition. In sum, we found that syllable priming effect was reflected by the decrease of θ oscillation in spoken word production in Chinese. Time-frequency analysis also revealed an early syllable priming effect, and a late phonemic inhibition effect in Chinese spoken word production, which provides evidence for the proximate units principle. " "
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2020-01-02
Abstract： The final stage in the process of spoken production is articulation, which involves the integration of feedforward and feedback control in speech motor system. Specifically, feedforward control (top-down mechanism) refers to speakers’ ability to retrieve and execute the motor commands responsible for producing target speech sounds, while feedback control (bottom-up mechanism) refers to speakers’ ability to adjust speech movements based on the sensory feedback generated by articulation. Sensory goals and sensory predictions are important hubs linking feedforward and feedback control systems. Based on the neural computational model DIVA (directions into velocities of articulators), the cognitive and neural mechanisms of the integration between feedforward and feedback control are illustrated in the stage of speech acquisition and speech production. On the basis of previous studies, how speakers utilize auditory feedback to control online speech and update feedforward motor representations, and the cognitive significance of the P1-N1-P2 components in the ERP studies are especially discussed. Furthermore, various factors that influence feedforward and feedback control are summarized, including individual variabilities, training experience and task demands. Additionally, some suggestions are proposed for future investigation.
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2019-12-13
Abstract： Languages may differ in terms of the proximate units of phonological encoding in spoken word production. It is widely accepted that phonemes are the primary units used in Indo-European languages. However, it is controversial what the functional units (syllables or phonemes) are in Chinese spoken word production. In the framework of proximate unit principle hypothesis for Mandarin Chinese spoken word production, phonological content is activated in a syllable while its syllabic frame is retrieved. Both syllabic content and frame are linked sequentially and tone is also specified at this point. Crucially, syllables are retrieved at an early stage of word form encoding, and then the phonemes of the syllable are retrieved in parallel and linked to their position in the syllable frame. The present study investigated the temporal courses of syllables and phonemes in word production using an implicit priming paradigm, and electrophysiological signals were measured concurrently. Specifically, participants were young native Chinese speakers with low level of English ability for excluding the influence of the second language. In an implicit priming paradigm, four sets of word pairs served as experimental stimuli. Each set consisted of four pairs, and the first word of a pair was the cue word, while the second was the response word. In the homogeneous conditions, four response words in a set shared certain phonological properties. For instance, the four response words in a set were危机(/wei1ji1/, crisis), 围墙 (/wei2qiang2/, bounding wall), 尾巴 (/wei3ba/, tail), and 卫星(/wei4xing1/, satellite), which share the first syllable but not tone. The heterogeneous conditions used the same word pairs, but assigned them to sets in which they didn’t share any properties. Two homogeneous conditions (syllable shared and initial phoneme shared) were used in the study. Participants were asked to memorize the sets of four pairs of associate words, after which they were presented with the cue words, and were required to produce the response words. Behavioral results didn’t show any syllable or phoneme effects. EEG results revealed that syllable overlap conditions elicited significant effects in the time window of 100~400 ms, and the effect firstly showed up in the left and right anterior regions, following in the middle anterior region, and finally in the left and right anterior regions, right and middle posterior regions. While the phoneme effects only appeared between 500~600 ms after the cue words were presented, and were distributed in the right anterior and posterior regions. Both the syllabically and phonemically homogeneous conditions were characterized by more positive ERP waveforms when compared to the heterogeneous conditions. We suggested that syllable overlap effect arises at the early stage of phonological encoding, whereas the phoneme overlap effect possibly arises at the later stage of phonological encoding, or phonetic encoding in Chinese spoken word production. Our findings provide support for the assumption of the proximate unit principle. "
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2019-11-27
Abstract： In sentence production, syntactic priming, syntactic priming effectrefers to a phenomenon that speakers or writers tend to reuse syntactic structures that they have recently processed, and the repeated syntactic structures elicit shorter sentence production latencies than the novel ones. Different theories have been proposed to account for the syntactic priming effect. Among them, both the Residual Activation Theory and the Implicit Learning Theory aim to address speakers’ syntactic choices ratio, but with different theoretical bases on memory and learning, respectively. In addition, the Two-stage Competition Model attempts to explain the syntactic priming in syntactic choices ratio as well as production latencies. Experimental works have demonstrated that syntactic priming stably exists even after excluding the semantic and lexical relevance between the prime sentence and the target sentence, which suggests that syntactic priming actually reflects syntactic processing in sentence production. In the present study, we explored the cognitive mechanism of syntactic processing in Mandarin spoken sentence production using a syntactic priming paradigm. In this paradigm, participants were firstly instructed to read the prime sentence aloud and then judge whether the sentence’s description matched the prime picture. Then, participants were instructed to describe the target picture using the verb at the bottom. The dependent variables included not only the syntactic choices ratio but also the sentence production latencies. In experiment 1, we manipulated syntax structure of the prime sentence (double object dative vs. prepositional object dative) and verb overlap between the prime sentence and the target sentence (no verb overlap vs. verb overlap). In experiment 2, we added a within-subjects factor of lag by manipulating whether the target picture was presented immediately after the prime sentence, or after two or six intervening descriptions (Lag 0 vs. Lag 2 vs. Lag 6). For the syntactic choices ratio, results indicated that participants produced significantly more double-object sentences following double-object primes than following prepositional-object primes, and the syntactic priming was much stronger in the verb overlapping condition than in the verb non-overlapping condition. Furthermore, we found that the syntactic priming effect persisted when the prime sentence and the target sentence did not share the verb, whereas the lexical boost effect (i.e. a stronger syntactic priming effect caused by the verb overlap between the prime sentence and the target sentence) disappeared after six intervening descriptions. For the sentence production latencies, results indicated that the repetition of syntactic structures significantly speeded up target sentence production. Besides, we found that verb overlap slowed down the sentence production as the lag between primes and targets increased (also known as the lexical suppression effect) only when the syntactic structure was repeated. Unifying the different findings in the syntactic choices ratio and the production latencies, we suggest that, apart from the stage where a sentence is planned specifically, sentence production comprises a syntactic construction stage in which speakers map the thematic roles to one structural alternative. These findings are consistent with the Two-stage Competition Model. In methodology, we also suggest that syntactic choices ratio is sensitive to sentence generation process. "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2019-08-19
Abstract： Two research perspectives exist concerning tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) in the field of spoken production, either cognition or metacognition. The perspective of cognition focuses mainly on the process of lexical access, assuming that TOT is the failure to activate or retrieve the information sufficiently. However, the perspective of metacognition focuses mainly on the metacognitive process in spoken production, assuming that it is speakers’ monitoring of the retrievable state of the target words that leads to the occurrence of TOT. The metacognitive process involved in TOT can not only monitor the retrievable state of the target words and the retrieval of relevant information during lexical access, but also exert control over the process of lexical access to make sure that the target words could be successfully retrieved after TOT occurrence. The evidence so far has suggested that cognitive and metacognitive perspectives are dissociative in respects of cognitive mechanism, influencing factors and neural basis. Further studies should investigate the mechanism and neural networks underlying how TOT monitors and controls the cognitive system in retrieving the target words, and address the properties of TOT occurring in Mandarin spoken production and the positive effect of TOT on aging of spoken production.
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2019-06-25
Abstract： "
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2019-01-09
Abstract： Age of Acquisition (AoA) refers to the age at which a concept is learned. Early-acquired words have an advantage over late-acquired words in processing accuracy and speed. Which stage of AoA playing its role in spoken word production remains controversial. The phonological completeness hypothesis assumes that AoA may have a phonological locus, while the semantic hypothesis assumes that AoA affects semantic processing (i.e., conceptual preparation, lexical selection). The network plasticity hypothesis assumes that AoA arises at multiple processing levels, in spoken word production.In a picture naming task, we used the event-related potential (ERP) technique to examine the loci of AoA effect in object and action pictures naming. Twenty-eight participants (9 males, mean range: 22.18, SD: 2.56) participated in this study. We selected a total of 188 words and their corresponding black and white line pictures, half of which were object pictures, and half were action pictures. Within each type of picture, half were early acquired, and half were late acquired. Therefore, the age of acquisition of picture names (early vs. late) and word type (noun vs. verb) served as within-participants variables. During the experiment, participants were asked to name each picture as accurately and quickly as possible. Behavioral data indicated a typical AoA effect in object pictures naming, showing that object pictures corresponding to early-acquired nouns were named faster than those corresponding to late-acquired ones. In contrast, action pictures corresponding to early-acquired verbs were named slower than those corresponding to late-acquired verbs. ERP data also showed distinct AoA effect patterns in object and action picture naming. For object picture naming, late-acquired nouns elicited a larger positivity than early-acquired nouns between 250~300 ms over left-prefrontal regions. In contrast, for action picture naming, early-acquired verbs evoked a larger positivity than late-acquired verbs within 200~250 ms, 300~400 ms and 450~600 ms time windows over the left hemisphere. We suggest that the AoA effect in object naming may originate in the lexical selection of spoken word production, supporting the semantic hypothesis. In contrast, the AoA effects in action naming may originate in multiple processes, such as lexical selection, phonological encoding and phonetic encoding, supporting the network plasticity hypothesis. The distinct AoA effects between the naming of object and action pictures probably relate to the distinct semantic networks that represent objects and actions. Therefore, the AoA effect in action picture naming is much more complicated than in object picture naming and needs further investigation.
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2018-12-20
Abstract： The “tip of the tongue” (TOT) refers to a state in which one cannot recall a familiar word but can recall words of similar form and meaning in speech production, which is common in our daily life, especially for the old speakers. The perspectives of cognitive (how linguistic properties and general cognitive abilities influence aging of TOT) and meta-cognitive (how the meta-cognitive evaluations of TOT influence TOT’s processing) have been proposed to explain the aging of TOT. However, little research has addressed this question in Chinese. The present study aims to examine how (a) individual characteristics (i.e., emotion, age) influence daily TOTs and (b) the interplay of cognitive factors and meta-cognitive factors influence daily TOTs. A sample of 67 participants (36 old adults, 13 males, age ranges: 60~81 years, M = 66.91, SD = 6.85; 31 young adults, 16 males, age ranges: 18~25 years, M = 21.50, SD = 2.43) filled in a quantitative and qualitative diary for 4 weeks (including weekends) to investigate their experience of TOTs. The questions and measurements used in our diary questionnaire included cognitive and meta-cognitive characteristics of TOT in speech production. Results indicated that the old adults generated more TOTs and took longer time to retrieve target words in successful production than the young adults in daily life, which confirmed our hypothesis that there was an aging of speech production in Chinese. Furthermore, when TOT happened, both old and young people could successfully retrieve alternative words and (or) semantically related information, but less phonologically related information, which supported transmission deficit hypothesis about aging of speech production. For the meta-cognitive experience, we found that young adults experienced higher degree of excitement and fatigueness than the old adults. In addition, the resolution time of TOTs was influenced by factors of target words familiarity, the presence of alternates and the comfort level when TOT happened. The assessments on TOT’s cognitive and meta-cognitive states affected the resolution time of the subsequent TOTs, reflecting that participants took more efforts and time to resolve TOTs after evaluating their meta-cognitive states. We suggest that TOT is the products of cognitive and meta-cognitive processes in Chinese speech production. "
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