Influence of Pictures on Word Recognition

The picture superiority effect is a well-documented phenomenon that is defined as the superior memory of pictorial stimuli compared to word stimuli. The predominant explanation for this effect is that pictures are encoded more effectively than words, and are therefore able to be better remembered. Research has demonstrated the benefit that pictures provide for remembering words. However, little work has been to done to examine any negative and/or intrusion effects of pictures on memory for words. The current study further explored the picture superiority effect and facilitation effects of pictures on words as well as interference effects of pictures on word memory. Results indicated that matching and semantically related pictures facilitated word recognition memory. Incongruent/unmatching pictures however were of no detriment. Implications of picture processing and pictorial influence on word processing are discussed

Bo-NO-bouba-kiki: picture-word mapping but no spontaneous sound symbolic speech-shape mapping in a language trained bonobo

Humans share the ability to intuitively map ‘sharp’ or ‘round’ pseudowords, such as ‘bouba’ versus ‘kiki’, to abstract edgy versus round shapes, respectively. This effect, known as sound symbolism, appears early in human development. The phylogenetic origin of this phenomenon, however, is unclear: are humans the only species capable of experiencing correspondences between speech sounds and shapes, or could similar effects be observed in other animals? Thus far, evidence from an implicit matching experiment failed to find evidence of this sound symbolic matching in great apes, suggesting its human uniqueness. However, explicit tests of sound symbolism have never been conducted with nonhuman great apes. In the present study, a language-competent bonobo completed a cross-modal matching-to-sample task in which he was asked to match spoken English words to pictures, as well as ‘sharp’ or ‘round’ pseudowords to shapes. Sound symbolic trials were interspersed among English words. The bonobo matched English words to pictures with high accuracy, but did not show any evidence of spontaneous sound symbolic matching. Our results suggest that speech exposure/comprehension alone cannot explain sound symbolism. This lends plausibility to the hypothesis that biological differences between human and nonhuman primates could account for the putative human specificity of this effect

Novel second-language words and asymmetric lexical access

The lexical and phonetic mapping of auditorily confusable L2 nonwords was examined by teaching L2 learners novel words and by later examining their word recognition using an eye-tracking paradigm. During word learning, two groups of highly proficient Dutch learners of English learned 20 English nonwords, of which 10 contained the English contrast /ε/-æ/ (a confusable contrast for native Dutch speakers). One group of subjects learned the words by matching their auditory forms to pictured meanings, while a second group additionally saw the spelled forms of the words. We found that the group who received only auditory forms confused words containing /æ/ and /ε/ symmetrically, i.e., both /æ/ and /ε/ auditory tokens triggered looks to pictures containing both /æ/ and /ε/. In contrast, the group who also had access to spelled forms showed the same asymmetric word recognition pattern found by previous studies, i.e., they only looked at pictures of words containing /ε/ when presented with /ε/ target tokens, but looked at pictures of words containing both /æ/ and /ε/ when presented with /æ/ target tokens. The results demonstrate that L2 learners can form lexical contrasts for auditorily confusable novel L2 words. However, and most importantly, this study suggests that explicit information over the contrastive nature of two new sounds may be needed to build separate lexical representations for similar-sounding L2 words.peer-reviewe

K–2nd Grade: English Level 1, Learning Packet #1 • Theme: Back to School

My Plan for the Week Day 1 • Design and name your Buddy, Back to school words, All about me, Trace numbers 1-12, Count the pencils Day 2 • Sentences with school words, Letter Aa, What goes inside?, Label the pictures, How many pencils?, Connect the dots Day 3 • Memory game, Letter A book, Scavenger hunt - A, Let\u27s add and color, Let\u27s move Day 4 • Letter Bb, Draw yourself at school, Dictionary, Matching numbers and words, How many books? Day 5 • Scavenger hunt - Bb, Number line, Get up and danc

Bo-NO-bouba-kiki : picture-word mapping but no spontaneous sound symbolic speech-shape mapping in a language trained bonobo

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy through EXC 2025/1 ‘Matters of Activity (MoA)’ and by the ‘The Sound of Meaning (SOM)’, Pu 97/22–1 and ‘Phonological Networks (PhoNet)’, Pu 97/25-1. K.M. was supported by the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, by the Onassis foundation, and by the Fyssen foundation. M.A. was supported by the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement no. 609819, SOMICS.Humans share the ability to intuitively map ‘sharp’ or ‘round’ pseudowords, such as ‘bouba’ versus ‘kiki’, to abstract edgy versus round shapes, respectively. This effect, known as sound symbolism, appears early in human development. The phylogenetic origin of this phenomenon, however, is unclear: are humans the only species capable of experiencing correspondences between speech sounds and shapes, or could similar effects be observed in other animals? Thus far, evidence from an implicit matching experiment failed to find evidence of this sound symbolic matching in great apes, suggesting its human uniqueness. However, explicit tests of sound symbolism have never been conducted with nonhuman great apes. In the present study, a language-competent bonobo completed a cross-modal matching-to-sample task in which he was asked to match spoken English words to pictures, as well as ‘sharp’ or ‘round’ pseudowords to shapes. Sound symbolic trials were interspersed among English words. The bonobo matched English words to pictures with high accuracy, but did not show any evidence of spontaneous sound symbolic matching. Our results suggest that speech exposure/comprehension alone cannot explain sound symbolism. This lends plausibility to the hypothesis that biological differences between human and nonhuman primates could account for the putative human specificity of this effect.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

ENSINO DE RELAÇÕES ENTRE FIGURAS E PALAVRAS IMPRESSAS COM EMPARELHAMENTO MULTIMODELO A CRIANÇAS COM AUTISMO

This study evaluated the efficacy of a multiple-sample matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure (MTS with compound samples and selection of all comparisons, each comparison corresponding to one element in the sample) for teaching arbitrary relations between pictures and printed words and to produce emergence of derived relations. Relations between printed words and pictures and picture naming were directly taught. Tests assessed derived oral naming of printed words, matching printed words to dictated words, matching printed words to pictures, and vice-versa. Three participants with autism learned the arbitrary relations, named printed words, and showed derived relations involving some of the stimuli. The results extend findings on the efficacy of the adapted multiple-sample procedure, previously used in identity matching, to learning of arbitrary relations and to the emergence of rudimentary reading skills in this population. Key words: relational learning, matching-to-sample, multiple-sample stimuli, stimulus equivalence, reading acquisition, autismEste estudo avaliou a eficácia de um procedimento adaptado de emparelhamento com o modelo (MTS multimodelo, com modelos compostos e seleção dos estímulos de comparação correspondentes a cada elemento do modelo) no ensino de relações arbitrárias e na emergência de relações derivadas. Foram ensinadas relações entre palavras impressas e figuras e nomeação de figuras, e avaliadas as relações derivadas nomeação oral das palavras impressas, emparelhamento entre palavras ditadas-palavras impressas e palavras impressas-figuras. Três participantes com autismo aprenderam as relações arbitrárias, nomearam as palavras impressas e apresentaram as relações derivadas para parte dos estímulos. Os resultados estendem os achados sobre a eficácia do procedimento multimodelo adaptado, utilizado anteriormente em emparelhamento de identidade, à aprendizagem de relações arbitrárias e à emergência de habilidades rudimentares de leitura nessa população. Palavras-chave: aprendizagem relacional, emparelhamento com o modelo, modelos múltiplos, equivalência de estímulos, ensino de leitura, autismo

Bilingualism and increased attention to speech: Evidence from event-related potentials

A number of studies have shown that from an early age, bilinguals outperform their monolingual peers on executive control tasks. We previously found that bilingual children and adults also display greater attention to unexpected language switches within speech. Here, we investigated the effect of a bilingual upbringing on speech perception in one language. We recorded monolingual and bilingual toddlers' event-related potentials (ERPs) to spoken words preceded by pictures. Words matching the picture prime elicited an early frontal positivity in bilingual participants only, whereas later ERP amplitudes associated with semantic processing did not differ between groups. These results add to the growing body of evidence that bilingualism increases overall attention during speech perception whilst semantic integration is unaffected

N400 Amplitude Reduction Correlates with an Increase in Pupil Size

Pupil dilation is classically associated with increase in cognitive load in humans. Here, we studied the potential link between human pupil dilation and meaning integration effort as indexed by event-related brain potentials (ERPs). We recorded pupil size variation and ERPs simultaneously while participants were presented with matching or unrelated picture–word pairs. Whilst relatedness in meaning between spoken words and pictures typically modulated ERPs, pupil size was also affected quickly after picture onset. Moreover, during the time-window associated with meaning integration, greater pupil dilation correlated with less negative N400 amplitudes elicited by unrelated pictures. Since pupil dilation has been linked to activity of the locus coeruleus–norepinephrine (LC–NE) system, these findings may provide new insights into the suggested link between human high-level cognitive function and activity of the LC–NE system

English Language Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Strategies Used to Teach and Assess EFL Vocabulary in Elementary Schools in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

The purpose of the study was to investigate vocabulary teaching strategies used by English language teachers in AI Ain public schools in the United Arab Emirates. The research focuses on three areas: investigating the strategies that teachers use to teach vocabulary, strategies teachers use to consolidate newly learned vocabulary and strategies teachers use to assess vocabulary learning. Such a study is important to evaluate and categorize the most frequent and effective strategies in the context of vocabulary instruction in AI Ain. The research used quantitative and qualitative approaches exemplified in a questionnaire and an interview. A questionnaire was used to gather primary data from 197 English language teachers in AI Ain public school, besides seven face-to-face interviews were conducted in the same vein. The research findings stated the importance of integrating vocabulary learning concept in the daily instruction. It has been found that the primary vocabulary strategies that were used by teachers in AI Ain public school are relating unfamiliar words to pictures or real objects, focusing on pronunciation and spelling of the new words, studying new word lists, use new words in sentences, using flash cards of new words in classroom. Second, the most common used strategy to teach new vocabulary was found in using pictures, real objects or drawing, using vocabulary exercises in worksheets, using reading tasks which require the students to encounter the new words. The research has found that the most frequently used strategy in vocabulary assessment is using matching words with pictures exercises and documenting students work using portfolios such as using vocabulary logs. The findings of this research indicated that English language teachers are aware of using various strategies to teach and assess vocabulary. Questionnaire and interviews declared that teachers do not focus only on one strategy but use many various strategies depending on the classroom context and instruction. The implementation of these strategies supports a more holistic and balanced approach to the effective of teaching Vocabulary