Phonological Awareness of Stress and Syllable

For a number of years, researches have studied children\u27s intuitive knowledge of sounds and syllables because of contributions of these linguistic units to language learning, and more specifically literacy. Children learn to interpret streams of speech through the development of segmentation skills. This study investigated the abilites of preschool and school age children through measurement of their performance on two-syllable, three-syllable, and four-syllable pseudo-word forms with varying stress patterns. The present study examined the participants\u27 ability to identify targeted syllables and targeted stressed elements. That is, in one group (syllable group), participants were required to identify the location of a target syllable regardless of the stress pattern, following a training set. In the other group (stress group), participants were required to identify the location of target stressed elements following a training set. The participants were exposed to the pseudo-word forms during a pre-training, training, and experimental task. The participants demonstrated their abilities by placing tokens within a grid based on the peudo-word that was presented. Upon completion of the collection of data, the participants were divided into a young group and an old group based on age. This comparison was made to distinguish any differences in ability based on age. The lexical stress task was less complex as compared to the syllable task at the two-syllable level. Those participants who did not achieve criterion during the training task performed better on the lexical stress task at the two-syllable level. There was not a difference in the participants\u27 abilities at the three-syllable level. The four-syllable task was too advanced for any of the participants to reach criterion in the training task or to perform the experimental task. There was no difference in the abilities of the participants in the young group compared to those participants in the old group at the two-syllable or the three-syllable level

Connectionist modelling of lexical segmentation and vocabulary acquisition

Adults typically hear sentences in their native language as a sequence of separate words and we might therefeore assume, that words in speech are physically separated in the way that they are perceived. However, when listening to an unfamiliar language we no longer experience sequences of discrete words, but rather hear a continuous stream of speech with boundaries separating individual sentences or utterances. Theories of how adult listeners segment the speech stream into words emphasise the role that knowledge of individual words plays in the segmentation of speech. However, since words can not be learnt until the speech stream can be segmented, it seems unlikely that infants will be able to use word recognition to segment connected speech. For this reason, researchers have proposed a variety of strategies and cues that infants could use to identify word boundaries without being able to recognise the words that these boundaries delimit. This chapter, describes some computational simulations proposing ways in which these cues and strategies for the acquisition of lexical segmentation can be integrated with the infants’ acquisition of the meanings of words. The simulations reported here describe simple computational mechanisms and knowledge sources that may support these different aspects of language acquisition

Characterizing the overlap between SLI and dyslexia in Chinese: The role of phonology and beyond

This study examined the overlap of dyslexia and specific language impairment (SLI) in Cantonese-Chinese-speaking children. Thirty children with a prior diagnosis of SLI and 9 normal controls, aged between 6;0 and 11;3, participated. The children with SLI were tested for language impairment and dyslexia. Seven retained a diagnosis of SLI but were dyslexia-free (SLI-only), 13 received a comorbid diagnosis of dyslexia (SLI-D), and SLI had become history (SLI-H) in the other 10 children with no co-morbid diagnoses of dyslexia. The SLI-only group did worse on textual comprehension, but better on left-right reversal (an orthographic skill), than the SLI-D group. The SLI-only and the SLI-D group shared the same range of cognitive deficits relative to age norms and showed no difference in phonological processing. The SLI-D group did worse than the normal group on phonological representation, and both the SLI-only and the SLI-D group had difficulties with morphological awareness. © 2010 Society for the Scientific Study of Reading.postprin

Studies towards a description of the development and functioning of children's awareness of linguistic variability

PhD ThesisChildren's language acquisition does not consist solely of the mastery,, of linguistic form and structure, children must also acquire the rules for appropriate use of that form and structure. To become competent speaker-hearers children must learn how to handle linguistic variability. Almost nothing is knoýnabout how children acquire the' sociolinguistic skills'and patterns of sociolinguistic variability which have been reported for adult speakers. This thesis therefore investigates some aspects of'the structure and functioning of linguistic variability in children's speech. It is shown that non-segmental variability-in children's speech constitutes an area of primý, importance for study. Children systematically employ the resources of non-segmental variability for a variety of social and affective purposes. The structured nature of this non-segmental variability is revealed by a quantitative analysis of the prosodic and-paralinguistic features in children's speech

Languages as categories: Reframing the “one language or two” question in early bilingual development

One of the most enduring questions in the field of bilingualism is whether bilingual infants and children initially have “one language system or two”. Research with adults indicates that while bilinguals do not represent their languages in two fully encapsulated language systems, they are able to functionally differentiate their languages. This paper proposes that bilinguals differentiate their languages insofar as they can treat elements of their languages as belonging to different categories. Several lines of research with bilingual adults and children are considered in the context of perceptual and conceptual language categories. The paper ends with a discussion of how language categories might emerge over the course of early bilingual development, and outlines directions for future research

Assessment of Phonological and Orthographic Differences in Adults With Reading Disabilities

There is debate surrounding how to effectively identify and distinguish reading disabilities from other deficits in college populations. Although several theories have proposed a positive relationship between nonword decoding weaknesses and higher intelligence levels, currently there is no conclusive evidence supporting these claims. The primary purpose of the current study was to determine if individuals of diverging levels of verbal intellectual functioning display profile differences with regard to accuracy for spelling and single word reading of regular words and nonwords. Identifying the specific deficits displayed in populations with reading disabilities assists in formulating interventions targeted at areas of weakness and in determining appropriate academic accommodations. Participants consisted of college students who have received a formal diagnosis of a reading disability. Participants’ Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) scores on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale scores were used to determine grouping (High, Average, Low). Participants’ performance on intellectual and achievement tests for nonword reading, nonword spelling, real word reading and real world spelling served as the dependent variables. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to analyze mean differences among the three groups’ spelling and word reading scores for real words and nonwords. Results indicated that the three groups significantly differed on all reading subscales variables. Notably, the High Reading group scored significantly higher than the Low and Average Reading groups on all subtests of reading. These findings were partially consistent with the study’s hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications are explored further

Exploring association between musical sophistication and emotion recognition in individuals differing in musical abilities

Dissertação de Mestrado Interuniversitário, Neuropsicologia Clínica e Experimental, 2021, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de PsicologiaMusic training and musical sophistication have been shown to be associated with nonmusical domains of cognition. Many authors argue that these associations demonstrate experience-driven neuroplasticity. This study attempts to replicate and lend additional support to the idea that both trained and untrained individuals with higher selfreported musical abilities can achieve similar performance levels in three identical emotion recognition tasks. In the current study, participants (N = 31) with different scores on the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index had to identify the emotion that best characterized each exemplar of faces, prosody or nonverbal vocalizations in separate tasks, using one of seven response options representing emotional labels. Contrary to the hypothesis, we did not find a significant association between musical sophistication and average accuracy scores in vocal emotion recognition tasks. Also, as predicted, we found no association between musical sophistication and recognition accuracy in the facial emotion task. An exploratory analysis revealed an association between musical sophistication and recognition of fear. These mixed findings are partly in line with the musical sophistication/musical training literature. Possible methodological pitfalls are discussed. Future studies are to continually improve on the current body of work with different techniques and research methods.A formação musical ao longo da vida e as aprendizagens a ela associadas apresentam-se como bons modelos para estudar a plasticidade do cérebro humano, na medida em que a prática de um instrumento, por exemplo, requer um conjunto de faculdades cognitivas que, por sua vez, estão relacionadas com determinadas estruturas e funções cerebrais implicadas no processamento de conteúdo cognitivo-afetivo. A especificidade deste tipo de processamento (com treino vs. sem treino musical) tem sido analisada em estudos de imagiologia cerebral, eletrofisiológicos e comportamentais que revelam efeitos de facilitação numa variedade de processos cognitivos de âmbito geral (e.g., funções executivas e inteligência) e particular (e.g., processamento da fala, linguagem escrita, capacidades visuoespaciais, etc). Deste modo, os investigadores argumentam que os correlatos encontrados constituem casos onde a neuroplasticidade é orientada pela experiência, através de um mecanismo que denominam de far transfer (“transferência longa”), uma vez que ocorre normalmente entre um domínio musical (e.g., aulas de canto/treino vocal) e um domínio não-musical (e.g., cognitivo). Por oposição, a near transfer (“transferência curta”) ocorre no mesmo domínio, no qual a aptidão aprendida tem aplicação imediata na tarefa experimental (e.g., aprender acordes e tocálos no instrumento). Ora, certos autores (Sala & Gobet, 2020) admitem que a formação musical não promove melhorias nas faculdades cognitivas ou na excelência académica, visto que a maioria dos estudos analisados são transversais e o impacto é nulo. Nestes casos, a validade ecológica pode ser posta em causa, uma vez que estes estudos usaram metodologias distintas e nem sempre as mais adequadas, variando quase sempre ao nível do delineamento da intervenção (e.g., individual ou grupal), das idades dos participantes e da operacionalização das variáveis representativas do treino musical e das faculdades cognitivas em foco. Além disso, a evidência de estudos longitudinais é escassa e apresenta igualmente um conjunto de limitações, entre as quais a não aleatorização dos participantes, a não utilização de condições controlo equivalentes ao treino musical e a falta de medidas de controlo adequadas (e.g., traços de personalidade, estatuto socioeconómico e indicadores de funcionamento cognitivo). Contudo, outros autores (Bigand & Tillmann, 2021) reanalisaram esses dados e demonstraram efeitos de transferência “modestos”, mas estatisticamente significativos, quando compararam os resultados das condições experimentais e de controlo de estudos de transferências longas. Assim sendo, a plasticidade induzida pelo treino poderá não explicar todas as diferenças entre músicos e indivíduos sem formação musical. De facto, a experiência musical ou os conhecimentos musicais são muitas vezes aferidos pela capacidade de tocar um instrumento musical e o nível de proficiência exibido, enquanto que outras capacidades que dizem respeito à relação do indivíduo com a música não são tidas em conta. Na literatura, esta relação é definida pelo conceito de sofisticação musical (“musical sophistication”; Mullensiefen et al., 2014), que engloba comportamentos e competências musicais numa diversidade de dimensões como o envolvimento ativo com a música (e.g., quanto tempo e recursos monetários são investidos em música), competências percetivas (e.g., audição musical), treino musical (e.g., treino musical formal recebido), competências de canto (e.g., performance vocal durante o canto), e envolvimento emocional com a música (e.g., capacidade de falar sobre emoções expressas pela música). Por conseguinte, é possível identificar estes comportamentos/competências na população em geral, e não só exclusivamente em músicos. Acresce que certos autores (e.g., Martins et al., 2021) reforçam que fatores preexistentes como predisposições genéticas podem favorecer o surgimento de competências musicais naturalmente boas em indivíduos sem treino musical. De facto, estudos recentes têm mostrado que boas competências de perceção musical em indivíduos sem treino musical estão relacionadas com melhores desempenhos em domínios não musicais (e.g., Mankel & Bidelman, 2018; Swaminathan & Schellenberg, 2017). Outros fatores, nomeadamente ambientais, como as faculdades cognitivas, a personalidade e o estatuto socioeconómico parecem, no entanto, predizer diferenças individuais no treino musical (Corrigall et al., 2013; Swaminathan & Schellenberg, 2018). Nas últimas duas décadas, tem havido interesse crescente em investigar aspetos do processamento socioemocional, nomeadamente a capacidade de reconhecer emoções através da voz e faces. Embora a música esteja intimamente ligada com processos emocionais e sociais, o estudo de efeitos de transferência para estes domínios tem conhecido tímidos avanços, sobretudo no que toca à sofisticação musical. O presente estudo teve como objetivo usar medidas explícitas de reconhecimento emocional para explorar associações entre a sofisticação musical, avaliada com recurso à adaptação portuguesa do Gold-MSI (Lima et al., 2020), e o reconhecimento de vozes e faces, com base na precisão das respostas dos participantes (em Hu scores; Wagner, 1993). Nesse sentido, três tarefas idênticas foram administradas a todos os participantes. Para cada tarefa, os participantes ou viam ou ouviam exemplares pré-selecionados de estímulos de três categorias (vocalizações não verbais, prosódia de discurso e expressões faciais) e tinham de identificar a qualidade emocional do estímulo apresentado com um de sete rótulos que representavam as seis emoções (raiva, nojo, medo, alegria, tristeza e neutralidade) e a opção “nenhuma das anteriores”, para quando a voz/face não expressasse nenhum dos estados emocionais atrás mencionados. Os participantes também responderam ao questionário Gold-MSI e a outros relativos a informação sociodemográfica e a sintomas de COVID-19, que, quando presentes, poderiam levar ao cancelamento da sessão experimental. Quanto às hipóteses, nós esperávamos que a sofisticação musical estivesse associada ao reconhecimento emocional de vozes, fosse para a prosódia de discurso ou para as vocalizações não verbais. Especificamente, em linha com Correia e colaboradores (2020), os participantes que reportassem maiores competências percetivas teriam um melhor desempenho no reconhecimento de vozes. Também esperávamos que a sofisticação musical não estivesse associada ao reconhecimento de expressões faciais. Ainda explorámos a possibilidade da sofisticação musical estar associada ao reconhecimento de emoções específicas para cada tarefa de reconhecimento. As análises de correlação não revelaram nenhuma associação entre a sofisticação musical e o reconhecimento de vozes e faces. Além disso, a associação encontrada para as faces foi negativa, ao contrário da nossa predição, sendo apenas verificada parcialmente. Assim, apesar de sustentarem a ideia de que não existe uma vantagem clara no reconhecimento emocional de faces para indivíduos com valores elevados no GoldMSI, estes resultados não mostraram a relação previamente identificada entre sofisticação musical e desempenho nas tarefas de reconhecimento de vozes (ver Correia et al., 2020). Por outro lado, a análise exploratória revelou uma correlação marginalmente significativa entre o Envolvimento Ativo (i.e., subescala do Gold-MSI) e o reconhecimento de medo. Houve uma correlação particularmente forte entre o reconhecimento do medo na tarefa da prosódia de discurso e o envolvimento ativo com a música que parece ter contribuído de forma decisiva para que a anterior estivesse mais saliente. Em suma, esta investigação propôs-se explorar correlações entre os dados da escala de autoavaliação Gold-MSI e as médias da precisão de resposta (corrigida quanto a potenciais enviesamentos) em três tarefas de reconhecimento emocional variando apenas no que toca ao estímulo usado. Os resultados não mostraram melhorias de desempenho nos indivíduos que pontuaram tendencialmente mais alto no Gold-MSI, tanto para as tarefas de voz como para a de faces. Poderá ser importante no futuro utilizar métodos complementares para se compreender as variáveis de interesse e as relações entre elas de forma extensiva. Por exemplo, técnicas de EEG poderão ajudar a descrever o decurso temporal do processamento emocional para cada tipo de estímulo, enquanto que as de fMRI poderão localizar as regiões ativas durante o reconhecimento emocional e como esses padrões de conectividade variam de acordo com o tipo de emoção. Posto isto, defendemos que este estudo tem relevância na literatura da sofisticação musical

Evaluation of core vocabulary therapy for deaf children: Four treatment case studies

This study evaluated whether core vocabulary intervention (CVT) improved single word speech accuracy, consistency and intelligibility in four 9−11-year-old children with profound sensori-neural deafness fitted with cochlear implants and/or digital hearing aids. Their speech was characterized by inconsistent production of different error forms for the same lexical item. The children received twice weekly therapy sessions for eight weeks. Fifty target words were drilled and changes in production assessed for accuracy and consistency. Generalization of consistency and accuracy was assessed on non-targeted words. There were four assessment points: six weeks pre-therapy; immediately before therapy; immediately following therapy and six weeks post-therapy. In addition, 10 unfamiliar listeners judged the intelligibility of audio recordings of the children’s speech before and after therapy. The children’s consistency and accuracy of single word production improved following CVT. Consistency generalized to untreated words. Sentence intelligibility ratings improved and more target words were identified after therapy. These case studies suggest that CVT merits further investigation as an effective intervention approach for deaf children, enhancing consistency, accuracy and intelligibility of speech