Atypical Development of Attentional Control Associates with Later Adaptive Functioning, Autism and ADHD Traits

Funder: H2020 European Research Council; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010663Funder: Research Foundation FlandersFunder: Universiteit Gent; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004385Funder: Marguerite-Marie DelacroixFunder: Autistica; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100011706Funder: Riksbankens Jubileumsfond; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004472; Grant(s): NHS14-1802:1Funder: K.F. Hein FondsFunder: Scott Family Junior Research FellowshipAbstract: Autism is frequently associated with difficulties with top-down attentional control, which impact on individuals’ mental health and quality of life. The developmental processes involved in these attentional difficulties are not well understood. Using a data-driven approach, 2 samples (N = 294 and 412) of infants at elevated and typical likelihood of autism were grouped according to profiles of parent report of attention at 10, 15 and 25 months. In contrast to the normative profile of increases in attentional control scores between infancy and toddlerhood, a minority (7–9%) showed plateauing attentional control scores between 10 and 25 months. Consistent with pre-registered hypotheses, plateaued growth of attentional control was associated with elevated autism and ADHD traits, and lower adaptive functioning at age 3 years

Subject and adjacency effects in the Old Northumbrian gloss to the Lindisfarne Gospels

The subject and adjacency effects found to condition the distribution of present verbal morphology in northern Middle English, and commonly referred to as the Northern Subject Rule (NSR), are generally regarded to be an Early Middle English development that did not condition the distribution of verbal morphology in northern varieties of Old English (Isaac 2003; Pietsch 2005; de Haas 2008; de Haas & van Kemenade 2015). Using data taken from the tenth-century interlinear gloss to the Lindisfarne Gospels, this study considers variation between the present-tense markers -ð and -s in Late Old Northumbrian and discusses evidence which indicates that the subject and adjacency effects at the crux of the NSR were already operative in Old Northumbrian with different morphological material. The findings also debunk the traditional conviction that -s spread first to second-person plural contexts and only subsequently to the third-person plural and singular (Holmqvist 1922; Blakeley 1949/50; Stein 1986)

An optimality theory perspective on speech segmentation

要旨 : 話者が音声の流れを どのよ う に区切っ て意味理解を果たすかと いう 「音声分節化の問題」 は, 従来か ら心理言語学において, 特に言語処理や言語獲得の観点から取り 扱われてき た。 本稿では, こ の問題が音韻 論にいかな る示唆を与え るかとい う 点について考察を加え る。 そ し て, 「音声分節化の問題」 が, 1) 音素配 列制約の心理的実在性に関する検証に役立つこ と, 2) 音韻文法のモデルと し ての最適性理論の証拠付けに な るこ と , 3) 言語獲得の観点から モ デルの是非 (習得可能か否か) を検証で き るこ と , な どを主張す る。検証に用い る言語は人工言語であり , モデルは STAGE (Adriaans and Kager 2010) である

Four- to five-year-olds use of word order and prosody in focus marking in Dutch

This study investigates Dutch-speaking four- to five-year-olds’ use of word order and prosody in distinguishing focus types (broad focus, narrow focus, and contrastive narrow focus) via an interactive answer-reconstruction game. We have found an overall preference for the unmarked word order SVO and no evidence for the use of OVS to distinguish focus types. But the children used pitch and duration in the subject-nouns to distinguish focus types in SVO sentences. These findings show that Dutch-speaking four- to five-year-olds differ from their German- and Finnish-speaking peers, who show evidence of varying choice of word order to mark specific focus types, and use prosody to distinguish focus types in subject and object nouns in both SVO and OVS sentences. These comparisons suggest that typological differences in the relative importance between word order and prosody can lead to differences in children’s use of word order and prosody in unmarked and marked word orders. A more equal role of word order and prosody in the ambient language can stimulate more extensive use of prosody in the marked word order, whereas a more limited role of word order can restrict the use of prosody in the unmarked word order

Layered feet and syllable-integrity violations: The case of Copperbelt Bemba bounded tone spread

We identify evidence supporting two amendments to standard metrical theory: the inclusion of layered feet, and the allowance of syllable-integrity violations, where a foot parses some, but not all, of a syllable’s constituents. The evidence comes from a High tone spreading process attested in Copperbelt Bemba (CB), which as reported by Bickmore and Kula (2013) et seq., occurs over a ternary domain. In quintessentially metrical fashion, the domain is sensitive to the presence and position of heavy syllables. Thus, we argue that metrical theory should take the CB data into account. CB ternary spreading can occur in contexts with an abundance of unparsed syllables on either side of the domain. We argue that this property is problematic for ‘Weak Layering’ accounts using binary feet (McCarthy and Prince 1986; Hayes 1995), which revolve around the minimal presence of unparsed syllables. We propose an alternative account using layered feet (Martínez-Paricio and Kager 2015), specifying an inner quantity-sensitive iamb and a strictly monomoraic adjunct. We show that a principled characterization of the spreading domain is that tone associates to all and only footed moras. We argue that a metrical analysis provides a more principled account of the data than can be achieved by Bickmore and Kula’s purely autosegmental analysis. Finally, we show that foot-based accounts of CB ternary spreading predict syllable-integrity violations (SIVs), where parsing consumes only the first of two tautosyllabic moras. Contrary to the common view that SIVs are universally disallowed, we embrace this result and put it in a typological context. We adopt an Optimality Theory constraint set to model SIVs (Kager and Martínez-Paricio 2018b), and extend it, paving the way for a typological investigation of SIVs

What’s in a word: Sounding sarcastic in British English

Using a simulated telephone conversation task, we elicited sarcastic production in different utterance types (i.e. declaratives, tag questions and wh-exclamatives from native speakers of the southern variety of British English. Unlike previous studies which focus on static prosodic measurements at the utterance level (e.g. mean pitch, pitch span, intensity), we examined both static prosodic measurements and continuous changes in contour shape in the semantically most important words (or key words) of the sarcastic utterances and their counterparts in the sincere utterances. To this end, we adopted Functional Data Analysis to model pitch variation as contours and represent the contours as continuous function in statistical analysis. We found that sarcasm and sincerity are prosodically distinguishable in the key words alone. The key words in sarcastic utterances are realised with a longer duration and a flatter fall than their counterparts in sincere utterances regardless of utterance types and speaker gender. These results are compatible with previous reports on the use of a smaller pitch span and a slower speech rate in sarcastic utterances than in sincere utterances in North American English. We also observed notable differences in the use of minimum pitch, maximum pitch and contour shape in different utterance types and in the use of mean pitch and duration by male and female speakers. Additionally, we found that the prosody of the key words in sarcastic utterances and their counterparts in sincere utterances has yielded useful predictors for the presence (or absence) of sarcasm in an utterance. Together, our results lend direct support to a key-word–based approach. However, the prosodic predictors included in our analysis alone can achieve only an accuracy of 70.4%, suggesting a need to examine additional prosodic parameters and prosody beyond the key words

Effects of bilingualism on cue weighting: How do bilingual children perceive the Dutch [ɑ]-[a:] contrast?

The effects of bilingualism on vowel perception and cue weighting behaviour have not been established definitively. What influence does heritage bilingualism have on cue weighting of spectral and durational cues? What role does the duration cue play in cue weighting behaviour of heritage bilinguals: is it universally accessible or related to the first language? Purpose: This study examines the perception and cue weighting of child heritage bilinguals to assess whether exposure to multiple acoustic systems has an effect on cue weighting. Design: Bilinguals with a language containing a durational vowel contrast (Moroccan-Arabic) or a non-durational contrast (Turkish) were tested in order to explore cue preference and cue weighting behaviour for the multiple cued Dutch [ɑ]-[a:] contrast: their alternate first language. Data and analysis: An identification task was performed for the Dutch [ɑ] and [a:]. The F1 and F2 were logarithmically manipulated, in equal steps for the spectral and durational cue, creating a seven-step continuum. The analysis revealed cue preference by examining cue usage and relative cue weight. Conclusions: Dutch monolinguals use both cues but assign more weight to the spectral cue. Moroccan-Arabic/Dutch heritage speaker (HS) bilinguals use both cues, but weigh the spectral cue more heavily. Turkish/Dutch HS bilinguals rely almost exclusively on the spectral cue. This suggests a transfer from the alternate first language onto the perception of Dutch, regardless of language dominance. Originality: Not much research on the cue weighting behaviour of school-aged heritage bilinguals has been conducted, as this age group is yet to develop their perceptual behaviour completely. The results of this case study show an influence on perceptual behaviour as a result of bilingualism. Significance: This study provides insight into the cue weighting behaviour and cue preference of school-aged heritage bilinguals