Letter perception: from item-level ERPs to computational models

ISBN : 978-2-9532965-0-1In the present study, online measures of letter identification were used to test computational models of letter perception. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to letters and pseudo-letters revealing a transition from feature analysis to letter identification in the 100-200 ms time window. Measures indexing this transition were then computed at the level of individual letters. Simulations with several versions of an interactive-activation model of letter perception were fitted with these item-level ERP measures. The results are in favor of a model of letter perception with feedforward excitatory connections from the feature to the letter levels, lateral inhibition at the letter level, and excitatory feedback from the letter to the feature levels

General-Purpose Monitoring during Speech Production

WOS:000289063000012International audienceThe concept of "monitoring" refers to our ability to control our actions on-line. Monitoring involved in speech production is often described in psycholinguistic models as an inherent part of the language system. We probed the specificity of speech monitoring in two psycholinguistic experiments where electro-encephalographic activities were recorded. Our focus was on a component previously reported in nonlinguistic manual tasks and interpreted as a marker of monitoring processes. The error negativity (Ne, or error-related negativity), thought to originate in medial frontal areas, peaks shortly after erroneous responses. A component of seemingly comparable properties has been reported, after errors, in tasks requiring access to linguistic knowledge (e.g., speech production), compatible with a generic error-detection process. However, in contrast to its original name, advanced processing methods later revealed that this component is also present after correct responses in visuomotor tasks. Here, we reported the observation of the same negativity after correct responses across output modalities (manual and vocal responses). This indicates that, in language production too, the Ne reflects on-line response monitoring rather than error detection specifically. Furthermore, the temporal properties of the Ne suggest that this monitoring mechanism is engaged before any auditory feedback. The convergence of our findings with those obtained with nonlinguistic tasks suggests that at least part of the monitoring involved in speech production is subtended by a general-purpose mechanism

MEGALEX:A megastudy of visual and auditory word recognition

Using the megastudy approach, we report a new database (MEGALEX) of visual and auditory lexical decision times and accuracy rates for tens of thousands of words. We collected visual lexical decision data for 28,466 French words and the same number of pseudowords, and auditory lexical decision data for 17,876 French words and the same number of pseudowords (synthesized tokens were used for the auditory modality). This constitutes the first large-scale database for auditory lexical decision, and the first database to enable a direct comparison of word recognition in different modalities. Different regression analyses were conducted to illustrate potential ways to exploit this megastudy database. First, we compared the proportions of variance accounted for by five word frequency measures. Second, we conducted item-level regression analyses to examine the relative importance of the lexical variables influencing performance in the different modalities (visual and auditory). Finally, we compared the similarities and differences between the two modalities. All data are freely available on our website ( https://sedufau.shinyapps.io/megalex/ ) and are searchable at www.lexique.org , inside the Open Lexique search engine

"Science XL" project: How the use of smartphones can revolutionize research in cognitive science

International audienceInvestigating human cognitive faculties such as language, attention, and memory most often relies on testing small and homogeneous groups of volunteers coming to research facilities where they are asked to participate in behavioral experiments. We show that this limitation and sampling bias can be overcome by using smartphone technology to collect data in cognitive science experiments from thousands of subjects from all over the world. We used iPhones and iPads to measure response times in a lexical decision study involving seven languages (Basque, Catalan, Dutch, English, French, Malay, Spanish). This innovative method allows millisecond-precise measurements, identical equipment across multiple countries, standardized cross-language studies, low experimental costs, and rapid transfer of data. The data collected so far show that response time distributions are strikingly similar to those obtained in laboratory conditions and predicted by mathematical models of decision processes i.e., right-skewed normal distribution. This mass coordinated use of smartphones creates a novel and powerful scientific “instrument” that yields the data necessary to test universal theories of cognition. This increase in power represents a potential revolution in cognitive science

Refactoring Google’s N-gram frequency norms for psycholinguistic studies

International audienc

Science needs you: Test your word power on iPhone / iPad with Science XL free app

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS42qfFR8TUInvestigating human cognitive faculties such as language, attention, and memory most often relies on testing small and homogeneous groups of volunteers coming to research facilities where they are asked to participate in behavioral experiments. We show that this limitation and sampling bias can be overcome by using smartphone technology to collect data in cognitive science experiments from thousands of subjects from all over the world. This mass coordinated use of smartphones creates a novel and powerful scientific “instrument” that yields the data necessary to test universal theories of cognition. This increase in power represents a potential revolution in cognitive science.Here, the video shows how a participant could interact with the software interface

Le contrôle cognitif - présentation d'une étude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McOsMKug0Yghttps://dopcontrol.hypotheses.orgLe projet de recherche DOPCONTROL (Développement de l’optimisation du contrôle cognitif) a démarré en 2005 et sera clôturé en 2020. Il rassemble des équipes de psychologie du développement des Universités d’Aix-Marseille et de Bordeaux, et des spécialistes en neurosciences de l’université d’Aix-Marseille. Il est soutenu financièrement par nos tutelles, nos universités et le CNRS, ainsi que par l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche.Qu’est-ce que le contrôle cognitif ?Le contrôle cognitif est en jeu chaque fois que nous sommes placés dans des situations que nous ne pouvons pas résoudre de manière automatique, routinière au moyen de schémas de réponse que nous pourrions d’emblée mobiliser. En d’autres termes, le contrôle cognitif est requis chaque fois que nous devons traiter des situations nouvelles et/ou complexes pour lesquelles nous devons sélectionner et hiérarchiser les actions qui nous permettront d’atteindre l’objectif fixé. Le contrôle cognitif guide alors nos pensées, nos actions vers l’objectif. Une des fonctions centrales du contrôle cognitif consiste ainsi à gérer efficacement les multiples sources de distraction qui sont susceptibles d’interférer avec ce que nous sommes en train de faire et de nous faire perdre de vue l’objectif. Les situations d’apprentissage constituent typiquement des situations pour lesquelles nous ne disposons pas de réponses routinières : le contrôle cognitif joue un rôle central dans les apprentissages.L’importance d’un contrôle cognitif efficaceLes travaux récents des chercheurs ont établi que l’efficacité du contrôle cognitif d’un élève pouvait en partie prédire ses performances scolaires, et au-delà, sa santé et son bien-être bien des années plus tard, jusque et y compris à l’âge adulte. Bien évidemment, cette valeur prédictive est estimée en éliminant ce qui pourrait relever de différences socio-économiques, du niveau d’intelligence, etc..Plus de détail sur ce projet finacé par l'ANR ici: https://dopcontrol.hypotheses.orgCette vidéo montre comment un jeune participant se prête à l'étude du contrêle cognitif

Self-Organizing Map supports open bigram coding of words

International audienc

Windows Executable Software for the Progressive Demasking Task (PDM)

International audienc