Single-word naming in a transparent alphabetic orthography.

The cognitive processes involved in single-word naming of the transparent Turkish orthography were examined in a series of nine naming experiments on adult native readers. In Experiment 1, a significant word frequency effect was observed when matched (i.e. on initial phoneme, letter length and number of syllables) high- and low-frequency words were presented for naming. However, no frequency effect was found in Experiment 2, when an equal number of matched (i.e. on initial phoneme, letter length and number of syllables) nonword fillers were mixed with the target words. A null frequency effect was also found in Experiment 3 when conditions were mixed-blocks, i.e. high- and low frequency were words presented in separate blocks mixed with an equal number of matched nonword fillers. Experiment 4 served the purpose of creating and validating nonwords (to be used in Experiments 5 and 6) that could be named as fast as high- and low-frequency words by manipulating the letter length of nonwords. A significant word frequency effect emerged with both the mixed-block design (Experiment 5) and mixed design (Experiment 6) when the nonword fillers matched the target words in speed of naming. Experiment 7, however, found no frequency effect when high- and low-frequency words were mixed with word fillers that were slower to be named (longer in length) than the target words. In Experiment 8, frequency was factorially manipulated with imageability (high vs. low) and level of skill (very skilled vs. skilled) which found significant main effects for word frequency and level of skill, and a significant 2-way interaction of skill by imageability and a significant 3-way interaction of skill by imageability by frequency. In Experiment 9, however, there was only a main effect for frequency when previously skilled readers performed on the same words used in Experiment 8. These findings suggest that whilst a lexical route dominates in naming the transparent Turkish orthography, an explanation that the readers shut down the operation of this route in the presence of nonword fillers is not entertained. Instead, the results suggest that both routes operate in naming, with the inclusion of filler stimuli and their “perceived difficulty” having an impact in the time criterion for articulation. Moreover, there are indications that a semantic route is involved in naming Turkish only when level of skill is taken into account. Implications of these findings for models of single-word naming are discussed

Phonological encoding in Vietnamese: An experimental investigation

In English, Dutch, and other Germanic languages the initial phonological unit used in word production has been shown to be the phoneme; conversely, others have revealed that in Chinese this is the atonal syllable and in Japanese the mora. The current paper is, to our knowledge, the first to report chronometric data on Vietnamese phonological encoding. Vietnamese, a tonal language, is of interest as, despite its Austroasiatic roots, it has clear similarities with Chinese through extended contact over a prolonged period. Four experiments (i.e., masked priming, phonological Stroop, picture naming with written distractors, picture naming with auditory distractors) have been conducted to investigate Vietnamese phonological encoding. Results show that in all four experiments both onset effects as well as whole syllable effects emerge. This indicates that the fundamental phonological encoding unit during Vietnamese language production is the phoneme despite its apparent similarities to Chinese. This result might have emerged due to tone assignment being a qualitatively different process in Vietnamese compared to Chinese

Cross-linguistic similarity and task demands in Japanese-English bilingual processing

Even in languages that do not share script, bilinguals process cognates faster than matched noncognates in a range of tasks. The current research more fully explores what underpins the cognate ‘advantage’ in different script bilinguals (Japanese-English). To do this, instead of the more traditional binary cognate/noncognate distinction, the current study uses continuous measures of phonological and semantic overlap, L2 (second language) proficiency and lexical variables (e.g., frequency). An L2 picture naming (Experiment 1) revealed a significant interaction between phonological and semantic similarity and demonstrates that degree of overlap modulates naming times. In lexical decision (Experiment 2), increased phonological similarity (e.g., bus/basu/vs. radio/rajio/) lead to faster response times. Interestingly, increased semantic similarity slowed response times in lexical decision. The studies also indicate how L2 proficiency and lexical variables modulate L2 word processing. These findings are explained in terms of current models of bilingual lexical processing

Distance maps between Japanese kanji characters based on hierarchical optimal transport

We introduce a general framework for assigning distances between kanji based on their dissimilarity. What we mean by this term may depend on the concrete application. The only assumption we make is that the dissimilarity between two kanji is adequately expressed as a weighted mean of penalties obtained from matching nested structures of components in an optimal way. For the cost of matching, we suggest a number of modules that can be freely combined or replaced with other modules, including the relative unbalanced ink transport between registered components, the distance between the transformations required for registration, and the difference in prespecified labels. We give a concrete example of a kanji distance function obtained in this way as a proof of concept. Based on this function, we produce 2D kanji maps by multidimensional scaling and a table of 100 randomly selected J\=oj\=o kanji with their 16 nearest neighbors. Our kanji distance functions can be used to help Japanese learners from non-CJK backgrounds acquire kanji literacy. In addition, they may assist editors of kanji dictionaries in presenting their materials and may serve in text processing and optical character recognition systems for assessing the likelihood of errors.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure

Ventral occipito-temporal cortex function and anatomical connectivity in reading

Previous functional neuroimaging studies of reading in skilled readers, acquired dyslexia and developmental dyslexia have all shown that the left ventral occipito-temporal cortex (vOT) is involved in visual word recognition. Specifically, a region in the left posterior occipito-temporal sulcus lateral to fusiform gyrus and medial to inferior temporal gyrus has been reported to play an important role. However, the precise functional contribution of this area in reading is yet to be fully explored. In this thesis, I empirically evaluated a claim that vOT responds not only to bottom-up processing demands of the visual stimuli but is also influenced by automatic, top-down non-visual processing demands, as proposed by the Interactive Account of vOT functioning. The first part of this thesis investigated the functional properties of vOT during reading, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In the first project, the top-down influences on vOT were investigated, teasing apart visual and non-visual properties of written stimuli. In the second project, using the Japanese orthography I disentangled a word’s lexical frequency from the frequency of its visual form – an important distinction for understanding the neural information processing in regions engaged by reading and further explored the interactive nature of the vOT responses. The second part then investigated the anatomical basis of these functional interactions between vOT and other cortical regions. I used diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and tractography, the only method currently available to identify and measure white matter fibre pathways non-invasively and in vivo. My research has demonstrated that vOT integrates bottom-up visual information and top-down predictions from regions encoding non-visual attributes of the stimulus in an interactive fashion. It also illustrated the putative anatomical basis for functional connectivity during reading, which is consistent with the parallel cortical visual pathways seen in other primates. Altogether, the results provide strong support for the Interactive Account

Cross-linguistic similarity in Japanese-English bilingual processing and representation

The present thesis is devoted to the analysis of how cognates are processed and represented in the minds of Japanese-English bilinguals. Cognates are an interesting and important category of words in languages as they are distinguished by their similarity across languages, which includes both formal and semantic features. This thesis presents the most comprehensive description and analysis of Japanese-English cognates and how they are processed and represented in the minds of bilinguals. A large number of rating and norming data are presented, which will be of use to researchers in the field of bilingualism who are interested in languages that differ in script, such as Japanese and English. Utilising measures of formal (phonological) and semantic cross-linguistic similarity derived from bilinguals’ ratings, the present thesis presents evidence that cross-linguistic similarity impacts bilingual processing and representation in a variety of tasks, but is modulated by task type and language dominance. The findings of the present study complement previous research, which has often focused on languages that share script (e.g., Dutch-English), while advancing the use of continuous measures of formal and semantic similarity. Such measures are argued to be more appropriate in terms of current cognitive models of bilingual processing and representation. Following a review of previously documented cognitive models, the results are interpreted in terms of the most relevant models that address the issues of cross-linguistic similarity and language proficiency/dominance. The results are important for cognitive science, psycholinguistics and bilingual studies and may also feed into applied linguistics in terms of the potential implications for language learning and teaching

Contributo do processamento fonológico consoante a fase de aquisição da leitura em várias ortografias

Dissertação de mestrado, Neurociências Cognitivas e Neuropsicologia, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, 2014O presente estudo está estruturado como uma meta-análise com o objectivo de identificar o contributo que o processamento fonológico tem na aquisição da leitura, mais concretamente, em que fase da leitura se torna de maior relevância. Outro objectivo é o de encontrar efeitos do nível de transparência de várias ortografias nessa influência. A análise dos 61 estudos encontrados que focam estes aspectos confirmou a existência de um período de aprendizagem da leitura que favorece o uso da fonologia. Em relação à associação com a opacidade das ortografias, não se encontraram resultados significativos. As conclusões são apresentadas no final como discussão destes resultados

The effect of orthographic systems on the developing reading system:Typological and computational analyses

Orthographic systems vary dramatically in the extent to which they encode a language’s phonological and lexico-semantic structure. Studies of the effects of orthographic transparency suggest that such variation is likely to have major implications for how the reading system operates. However, such studies have been unable to examine in isolation the contributory effect of transparency on reading because of covarying linguistic or sociocultural factors. We first investigated the phonological properties of languages using the range of the world’s orthographic systems (alphabetic, alphasyllabic, consonantal, syllabic, and logographic), and found that, once geographical proximity is taken into account, phonological properties do not relate to orthographic system. We then explored the processing implications of orthographic variation by training a connectionist implementation of the triangle model of reading on the range of orthographic systems while controlling for phonological and semantic structure. We show that the triangle model is effective as a universal model of reading, able to replicate key behavioral and neuroscientific results. The model also generates new predictions deriving from an explicit description of the effects of orthographic transparency on how reading is realized and defines the consequences of orthographic systems on reading processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved