Rethinking First Language–Second Language Similarities and Differences in English Proficiency: Insights From the ENglish Reading Online (ENRO) Project

This article presents the ENglish Reading Online (ENRO) project that offers data on English reading and listening comprehension from 7,338 university-level advanced learners and native speakers of English representing 19 countries. The database also includes estimates of reading rate and seven component skills of English, including vocabulary, spelling, and grammar, as well as rich demographic and language background data. We first demonstrate high reliability for ENRO tests and their convergent validity with existing meta-analyses.We then provide a bird’s-eye view of first (L1) and second (L2) language comparisons and examine the relative role of various predictors of reading and listening comprehension and reading speed. Across analyses, we found substantially more overlap than differences between L1 and L2 speakers, suggesting that English reading proficiency is best considered across a continuum of skill, ability, and experiences spanning L1 and L2 speakers alike. We end by providing pointers for how researchers can mine ENRO data for future studies.Este artículo se encuentra publicado en Language Learning, 73(1)

Parsing a Perceptual Decision into a Sequence of Moments of Thought

Theoretical, computational, and experimental studies have converged to a model of decision-making in which sensory evidence is stochastically integrated to a threshold, implementing a shift from an analog to a discrete form of computation. Understanding how this process can be chained and sequenced – as virtually all real-life tasks involve a sequence of decisions – remains an open question in neuroscience. We reasoned that incorporating a virtual continuum of possible behavioral outcomes in a simple decision task – a fundamental ingredient of real-life decision-making – should result in a progressive sequential approximation to the correct response. We used real-time tracking of motor action in a decision task, as a measure of cognitive states reflecting an internal decision process. We found that response trajectories were spontaneously segmented into a discrete sequence of explorations separated by brief stops (about 200 ms) – which remained unconscious to the participants. The characteristics of these stops were indicative of a decision process – a “moment of thought”: their duration correlated with the difficulty of the decision and with the efficiency of the subsequent exploration. Our findings suggest that simple navigation in an abstract space involves a discrete sequence of explorations and stops and, moreover, that these stops reveal a fingerprint of moments of thought

Human and computer estimations of predictability of words on written language

When we read printed text, we continuously predict the follow words in order to integrate information and direct future eye movements to forthcoming words. Thus the Predictability has become one the most important variables when explaining human behavior and information processing during reading. In this study we present results of word predictability in long Spanish texts, estimated from human responses in a massive web-based task. We used Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) as a way to estimate human-based predictability values computationally. We validated the human estimation of predictability with local and global properties of the text, and we showed that LSA-distance on adequate timescale captures some semantic aspects of the prediction.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Human and computer estimations of predictability of words on written language

When we read printed text, we continuously predict the follow words in order to integrate information and direct future eye movements to forthcoming words. Thus the Predictability has become one the most important variables when explaining human behavior and information processing during reading. In this study we present results of word predictability in long Spanish texts, estimated from human responses in a massive web-based task. We used Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) as a way to estimate human-based predictability values computationally. We validated the human estimation of predictability with local and global properties of the text, and we showed that LSA-distance on adequate timescale captures some semantic aspects of the prediction.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Human and computer estimations of predictability of words on written language

When we read printed text, we continuously predict the follow words in order to integrate information and direct future eye movements to forthcoming words. Thus the Predictability has become one the most important variables when explaining human behavior and information processing during reading. In this study we present results of word predictability in long Spanish texts, estimated from human responses in a massive web-based task. We used Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) as a way to estimate human-based predictability values computationally. We validated the human estimation of predictability with local and global properties of the text, and we showed that LSA-distance on adequate timescale captures some semantic aspects of the prediction.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

A model of phase-coupled delay equations for the dynamics of word usage

Cycles of word usage have been described using an integro-differential Volterra model close to a Hopf bifurcation. Here we transform this system to a phase model, which allows us to phase-couple the words and address the observation of coherent oscillations in word usage.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. APP, GM, and MT designed and performed the research, APP and DES analyzed the data, and APP, ET and MT wrote the paper. The authors declare no conflict of intere

Fabrication of Artificial Graphene in a GaAs Quantum Heterostructure

The unusual electronic properties of graphene, which are a direct consequence of its two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb lattice, have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. Creation of artificial lattices that recreate graphene's honeycomb topology, known as artificial graphene, can facilitate the investigation of graphene-like phenomena, such as the existence of massless Dirac fermions, in a tunable system. In this work, we present the fabrication of artificial graphene in an ultra-high quality GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well, with lattice period as small as 50 nm, the smallest reported so far for this type of system. Electron-beam lithography is used to define an etch mask with honeycomb geometry on the surface of the sample, and different methodologies are compared and discussed. An optimized anisotropic reactive ion etching process is developed to transfer the pattern into the AlGaAs layer and create the artificial graphene. The achievement of such high-resolution artificial graphene should allow the observation for the first time of massless Dirac fermions in an engineered semiconductor.Comment: 13 pages text, 8 figures, plus reference

Evaluación del lenguaje oral en niños y niñas con hipoacusia: Los tests estandarizados y la edad auditiva

Muchos niños y niñas con hipoacusia que usan lenguaje oral (NHA) tienen un desarrollo lingüístico inferior al de los niños con desarrollo típico. Para estimular su desarrollo es crucial evaluar sus habilidades lingüísticas. Los test estandarizados, si bien son útiles para medir diferencias entre el nivel de desarrollo lingüístico de NHA y el desarrollo típico esperado para su edad, pueden mostrar un efecto piso en NHA debido al desfase entre su experiencia auditiva y su edad. El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar si los puntajes estándar calculados con la edad auditiva en lugar de la edad cronológica brindan información más precisa sobre las habilidades lingüísticas de NHA. Se evaluó a 56 NHA hablantes de español con el test de vocabulario receptivo Peabody. El efecto piso fue significativamente menos frecuente en los puntajes estándar calculados con edad auditiva. Se observó además una diferencia significativa entre la edad cronológica y la edad equivalente (i.e., la edad a la que corresponde su nivel de vocabulario), con una diferencia media mayor a tres años, pero no entre la edad equivalente y la edad auditiva. Estos resultados sugieren que examinar los puntajes estándar calculados con la edad auditiva puede dar información más precisa del desarrollo lingüístico de los NHA que los puntajes estándar calculados con la edad cronológica y, por ende, puede ser un buen complemento en la evaluación. Además, señalan la ventaja de contar con test que provean baremos del nivel de los niños en determinada habilidad, independientemente de su edad cronológica.Este artículo se encuentra publicado en Revista Signos, 55(110), 928-947

Risks for Child Cognitive Development in Rural Contexts

While poverty all over the world is more typical and extreme in rural contexts, interventions to improve cognition in low socioeconomic status (SES) children are for the most part based on studies conducted in urban populations. This paper investigate how poverty and rural or urban settings affect child cognitive performance. Executive functions and non-verbal intelligence performance, as well as individual and environmental information was obtained from 131 5-year-old children. For the same level of SES, children in rural settings performed consistently worse than children in urban settings. These differences could be accounted mostly by the months of past preschool attendance and the father’s completed level of education. These results should inform policies and programs for children living in rural poverty worldwide, and specially in Latin America