An event-related potential study on changes of violation and error responses during morphosyntactic learning

Based on recent findings showing electrophysiological changes in adult language learners after relatively short periods of training, we hypothesized that adult Dutch learners of German would show responses to German gender and adjective declension violations after brief instruction. Adjective declension in German differs from previously studied morphosyntactic regularities in that the required suffixes depend not only on the syntactic case, gender, and number features to be expressed, but also on whether or not these features are already expressed on linearly preceding elements in the noun phrase. Violation phrases and matched controls were presented over three test phases (pretest and training on the first day, and a posttest one week later). During the pretest, no electrophysiological differences were observed between violation and control conditions, and participants’ classification performance was near chance. During the training and posttest phases, classification improved, and there was a P600-like violation response to declension but not gender violations. An error-related response during training was associated with improvement in grammatical discrimination from pretest to posttest. The results show that rapid changes in neuronal responses can be observed in adult learners of a complex morphosyntactic rule, and also that error-related electrophysiological responses may relate to grammar acquisition

The influence of orthography on phonemic knowledge: An experimental investigation on German and Persian

This study investigated whether the phonological representation of a word is modulated by its orthographic representation in case of a mismatch between the two representations. Such a mismatch is found in Persian, where short vowels are represented phonemically but not orthographically. Persian adult literates, Persian adult illiterates, and German adult literates were presented with two auditory tasks, an AX-discrimination task and a reversal task. We assumed that if orthographic representations influence phonological representations, Persian literates should perform worse than Persian illiterates or German literates on items with short vowels in these tasks. The results of the discrimination tasks showed that Persian literates and illiterates as well as German literates were approximately equally competent in discriminating short vowels in Persian words and pseudowords. Persian literates did not well discriminate German words containing phonemes that differed only in vowel length. German literates performed relatively poorly in discriminating German homographic words that differed only in vowel length. Persian illiterates were unable to perform the reversal task in Persian. The results of the other two participant groups in the reversal task showed the predicted poorer performance of Persian literates on Persian items containing short vowels compared to items containing long vowels only. German literates did not show this effect in German. Our results suggest two distinct effects of orthography on phonemic representations: whereas the lack of orthographic representations seems to affect phonemic awareness, homography seems to affect the discriminability of phonemic representations

A meta-analysis of hemodynamic studies on first and second language processing: Which suggested differences can we trust and what do they mean?

This article presents the results of a meta-analysis of 30 hemodynamic experiments comparing first language (L1) and second language (L2) processing in a range of tasks. The results suggest that reliably stronger activation during L2 processing is found (a) only for task-specific subgroups of L2 speakers and (b) within some, but not all regions that are also typically activated in native language processing. A tentative interpretation based on the functional roles of frontal and temporal regions is suggested

a Mixed Methods staff-oriented exploratory study

Background: Flexible and integrative treatment, according to § 64b SGB V (FIT64b), has been implemented on an experimental basis in Germany since the year 2013. The current 23 FIT64b projects aim to support cross-sectoral and need-adapted treatment for people with mental disturbances on the financial basis of a “Global Treatment Budget”. Although evidence supports the importance of staff involvement for successful implementation processes, the staff perspective of FIT64b implementation has not yet been analyzed. The aim of this thesis is thus to study experiences, evaluations, and critical factors for successful FIT64b implementation from the staff perspective. Methods: Experiences and evaluations of twelve FIT64b projects from the perspective of physicians, psychologists, and nurses were approached between 01.07.2015 and 31.08.2017, using an exploratory Mixed Methods design. This approach was structured using defined and operationalized “FIT64b-specific components” (FIT64b-SCs), which were developed using the Grounded Theory Methodology. FIT64b-SCs address structural and procedural changes that follow FIT64b implementation. In a qualitative study, “core themes” were derived from staff experiences and evaluations by qualitative content analysis, according to Mayring. In a quantitative study, staff experiences and evaluations were analyzed descriptively and using bivariate statistics. Critical factors for successful FIT64b implementation were identified using a logistic regression analysis. Results: The qualitative results revealed a variety of ways in which FIT64b impacted staff, treatment culture, and ethos, such as increased freedom in therapeutic decisions and a change in the therapeutic attitude for service users. The quantitative results demonstrated that physicians and psychologists were more experienced than nurses with eight out of ten FIT64b-SCs. Overall, the results showed a positive evaluation of FIT64b, while considerably differing between the occupational groups (physicians/psychologists 4.4 out of 5 points, nurses 3.9 out of 5). Critical factors for successful FIT64b implementation from the physicians' and psychologists' perspective were the number of nurses/special therapists per physician/psychologist and the project duration, from the nurses' perspective it were the work conditions. Both groups shared the opportunity to join training programs on the objectives of FIT64b as a factor for successful implementation. These factors together explained 49% of the variance for physicians'/psychologists' evaluations and 34% of those of nurses. Implications: Results illustrate the importance of integrating the staff perspective into FIT64b research and implementation. The implementation process should be modified by establishing training programs on FIT64b objectives and the recognition of different needs of the occupational groups. The exploratory findings require validation through prospective and longitudinal observation.Hintergrund: Seit dem Jahr 2013 werden Projekte nach § 64b SGB V (FIT64b) in Deutschland modellhaft implementiert. Das Ziel der aktuell 23 FIT64b Projekte ist die Förderung sektorübergreifender und bedarfsadaptierter Versorgung von Menschen mit psychischen Störungen auf finanzieller Basis eines „Global Treatments Budgets“ (Globales Behandlungsbudget). Im Gegensatz zu der nachgewiesenen Bedeutung einer Beteiligung von Mitarbeitenden für erfolgreiche Implementierungsprozesse, wurde die Perspektive der Mitarbeitenden auf die Implementierung von FIT64b bislang nicht untersucht. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es daher, Erfahrungen, Bewertungen und Erfolgsfaktoren der FIT64b Implementierung aus der Mitarbeitendenperspektive zu untersuchen. Methodik: Erfahrungen und Bewertungen von FIT64b Projekten aus der Perspektive von Ärzt*innen, Psycholog*innen und Pflegenden aus zwölf FIT64b Projekten wurden zwischen dem 01.07.2015 und dem 31.08.2017 anhand eines Mixed Methods Designs untersucht. Dieser Ansatz wurde anhand definierter und operationalisierter „FIT64b-spezifischer Komponenten“ (FIT64b-SCs) strukturiert, die mittels Grounded Theory Methodologie entwickelt wurden. FIT64b-SCs beschreiben strukturelle und prozessuale Veränderungen in Folge der FIT64b Implementierung. Im Rahmen einer qualitativen Studie wurden sogenannte „core themes“ (Kernthemen), basierend auf Erfahrungen und Bewertungen von Mitarbeitenden, mittels qualitativer Inhaltsanalyse nach Mayring herausgearbeitet. Im Rahmen einer quantitativen Studie wurden Erfahrungen und Bewertungen der Mitarbeitenden deskriptiv und bivariat analysiert. Erfolgsfaktoren für die Implementierung von FIT64b Projekten wurden mittels logistischer Regressionsanalyse ermittelt. Ergebnisse: Qualitative Ergebnisse illustrierten verschiedene Einflüsse der FIT64b Implementierung auf Mitarbeitende, deren Haltung sowie die Behandlungskultur. Beispiele hierfür sind größere Freiräume hinsichtlich therapeutischer Entscheidungen und eine veränderte therapeutische Haltung gegenüber Angebotsnutzenden. Quantitative Ergebnisse zeigten eine größere Erfahrung von Ärzt*innen und Psycholog*innen bei acht von zehn FIT64b-SCs im Vergleich mit Pflegenden. Insgesamt zeigten sich positive Bewertungen von FIT64b Projekten, jedoch mit deutlichen Unterschieden zwischen den Berufsgruppen (Ärzt*innen/Psycholog*innen 4,4 von 5 Punkten, Pflegende 3,9 von 5). Erfolgsfaktoren der Implementierung aus der Perspektive von Ärzt*innen und Psycholog*innen waren die Anzahl von Pflegenden/Spezialtherapeut*innen pro Ärzt*in und Psycholog*in und die Projektdauer, aus Sicht der Pflegenden waren es die Arbeitsbedingungen. Erfolgsfaktor aus der Perspektive beider Gruppen war die Möglichkeit, an Schulungsprogrammen bezüglich der Ziele von FIT64b teilzunehmen. Zusammengenommen erklärten diese Faktoren 49% der Varianz der Bewertungen von Ärzt*innen und Psycholog*innen sowie 34% derer von Pflegenden. Implikationen: Die Ergebnisse veranschaulichen die Bedeutung der Integration der Mitarbeitendenperspektive in Forschungsvorhaben und in der Implementierung von FIT64b Modellprojekten. Eine Modifikation des Implementierungsprozesses mit der Etablierung von Schulungsprogrammen zu den Zielen von FIT64b sowie die Berücksichtigung verschiedener Bedürfnisse der Berufsgruppen erscheinen für weitere Implementierungsvorhaben notwendig. Die explorativen Ergebnisse bedürfen der Validierung durch prospektive und Längsschnittstudien

Plasticity of grammatical recursion in German learners of Dutch

Previous studies have examined cross-serial and embedded complement clauses in West Germanic in order to distinguish between different types of working memory models of human sentence processing, as well as different formal language models. Here, adult plasticity in the use of these constructions is investigated by examining the response of German-speaking learners of Dutch using magnetoencephalography (MEG). In three experimental sessions spanning their initial acquisition of Dutch, participants performed a sentence-scene matching task with Dutch sentences including two different verb constituent orders (Dutch verb order, German verb order), and in addition rated similar constructions in a separate rating task. The average planar gradient of the evoked field to the initial verb within the cluster revealed a larger evoked response for the German order relative to the Dutch order between 0.2 to 0.4 s over frontal sensors after 2 weeks, but not initially. The rating data showed that constructions consistent with Dutch grammar, but inconsistent with the German grammar were initially rated as unacceptable, but this preference reversed after 3 months. The behavioural and electrophysiological results suggest that cortical responses to verb order preferences in complement clauses can change within 3 months after the onset of adult language learning, implying that this aspect of grammatical processing remains plastic into adulthood

Introduction

This volume is a harvest of articles from the first conference in a series on the cognitive neuroscience of language. The first conference focused on the cognitive neuroscience of second language acquisition (henceforth SLA). It brought together experts from as diverse fields as second language acquisition, bilingualism, cognitive neuroscience, and neuroanatomy. The articles and discussion articles presented here illustrate state-of-the-art findings and represent a wide range of theoretical approaches to classic as well as newer SLA issues. The theoretical themes cover age effects in SLA related to the so-called Critical Period Hypothesis and issues of ultimate attainment and focus both on age effects pertaining to childhood and to aging. Other familiar SLA topics are the effects of proficiency and learning as well as issues concerning the difference between the end product and the process that yields that product, here discussed in terms of convergence and degeneracy. A topic more related to actual usage of a second language once acquired concerns how multilingual speakers control and regulate their two languages

Accessing Conceptual Representations for Speaking [Editorial]

Systematic investigations into the role of semantics in the speech production process have remained elusive. This special issue aims at moving forward toward a more detailed account of how precisely conceptual information is used to access the lexicon in speaking and what corresponding format of conceptual representations needs to be assumed. The studies presented in this volume investigated effects of conceptual processing on different processing stages of language production, including sentence formulation, lemma selection, and word form access

An inverse relation between event-related and time–frequency violation responses in sentence processing

The relationship between semantic and grammatical processing in sentence comprehension was investigated by examining event-related potential (ERP) and event-related power changes in response to semantic and grammatical violations. Sentences with semantic, phrase structure, or number violations and matched controls were presented serially (1.25 words/s) to 20 participants while EEG was recorded. Semantic violations were associated with an N400 effect and a theta band increase in power, while grammatical violations were associated with a P600 effect and an alpha/beta band decrease in power. A quartile analysis showed that for both types of violations, larger average violation effects were associated with lower relative amplitudes of oscillatory activity, implying an inverse relation between ERP amplitude and event-related power magnitude change in sentence processing

Head start for target language in bilingual listening

In this study we investigated the availability of non-target language semantic features in bilingual speech processing. We recorded EEG from Dutch-English bilinguals who listened to spoken sentences in their L2 (English) or L1 (Dutch). In Experiments 1 and 3 the sentences contained an interlingual homophone. The sentence context was either biased towards the target language meaning of the homophone (target biased), the non-target language meaning (non-target biased), or neither meaning of the homophone (fully incongruent). These conditions were each compared to a semantically congruent control condition. In L2 sentences we observed an N400 in the non-target biased condition that had an earlier offset than the N400 to fully incongruent homophones. In the target biased condition, a negativity emerged that was later than the N400 to fully incongruent homophones. In L1 contexts, neither target biased nor non-target biased homophones yielded significant N400 effects (compared to the control condition). In Experiments 2 and 4 the sentences contained a language switch to a non-target language word that could be semantically congruent or incongruent. Semantically incongruent words (switched, and non-switched) elicited an N400 effect. The N400 to semantically congruent language-switched words had an earlier offset than the N400 to incongruent words. Both congruent and incongruent language switches elicited a Late Positive Component (LPC). These findings show that bilinguals activate both meanings of interlingual homophones irrespective of their contextual fit. In L2 contexts, the target-language meaning of the homophone has a head start over the non-target language meaning. The target-language head start is also evident for language switches from both L2-to-L1 and L1-to-L