Inger Moen

Productive vocabulary size predicts event-related potential correlates of fast mapping in 20-month-olds

Although it is well documented that children undergo a productive vocabulary spurt late in the second year, it is unclear whether this development is accompanied by equally significant advances in receptive word processing. In the present study, we tested an electrophysiological procedure for assessing receptive word learning in young children, and the impact of productive vocabulary size for performance in this task. We found that 20-month-olds with high productive vocabularies displayed an N400 incongruity effect to violations of trained associations between novel words and pictures, whereas 20-month-olds with low productive vocabularies did not. However, both high and low producers showed an N400 effect for common real words paired with an incongruous object. These findings indicate that there may be substantial differences in receptive fast mapping efficiency between typically developing children who have reached a productive vocabulary spurt and typically developing children who have not yet reached this productive spurt.

Brain dynamics of word familiarization in 20-month-olds: effects of productive vocabulary size.

The present study investigated the brain mechanisms involved during young childrens receptive familiarization with new words, and whether the dynamics of these mechanisms are related to the childs productive vocabulary size. To this end, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from 20-month-old children in a pseudoword repetition task. Results revealed distinct patterns of repetition effects for children with large and small productive vocabularies. High producers showed evidence of recognizing the novel words already after three presentations, while the low producers needed five presentations to display a recognition effect. The familiarization process was manifested in the modulations of two components, the N200-400 and a later fronto-central component, which appeared to increase in amplitude until a certain level of encoding was reached and then decrease with further repetition. These findings suggest a relation between the onset of the productive vocabulary spurt and the rate of receptive word familiarization.

Foreign accent syndrome: A review of contemporary explanations

This paper presents an overview of the cases of the so-called foreign accent syndrome (FAS) which have appeared in the literature during the last ten to fifteen years and discusses the explanations that have been offered to account for the anomalous phonetic/phonological features of the patients speech. Explanations for the underlying nature of the production disorder in FAS have been given in terms of phonetic setting, in terms of mechanisms for the control of speech motor behaviour, in terms of cognitive processing and in terms of phonological theory. FAS can be seen as an apraxic condition where the ability to control and coordinate the various laryngeal and supralaryngeal features of speech has been damaged. Recent developments in phonological theory, models where the distinction between a phonetic and a phonological level of analysis is less clear cut than in most models, offer interesting perspectives on the description and analysis of FAS.

Brain responses to lexical-semantic priming in children at risk for dyslexia.

Deviances in early event-related potential (ERP) components reflecting auditory and phonological processing are well-documented in children at familial risk for dyslexia. However, little is known about brain responses which index processing in other linguistic domains such as lexicon, semantics and syntax in this group. The present study investigated effects of lexical-semantic priming in 20- and 24-month-olds at-risk for dyslexia and typically developing controls in two ERP experiments. In both experiments an early component assumed to reflect facilitated lexical processing for primed words was enhanced in the at-risk group compared to the control group. Moreover, an N400-like response which was prominent in the control group was attenuated or absent in at-risk children. Results suggest that deficiencies in young children at-risk for dyslexia are not restricted to perceptual and lower-level phonological abilities, but also affect higher order linguistic skills such as lexical and semantic processing.

Functional Lateralization of the Perception of Norwegian Word Tones - Evidence from a Dichotic Listening Experiment

The present paper addresses the question of the functional lateralization of the ability to perceive the tonal distinctions in tone languages. Dichotic listening experiments and investigations of the brain-damaged population have indicated that the left hemisphere is more active than the right in the perception of tone in East Asian tone languages like Mandarin Chinese and Thai. Two dichotic listening experiments involving speakers of Norwegian, a language with an opposition of two tones, have demonstrated a right-ear superiority in the perception of the tonal distinction, indicating left-hemisphere lateralization of the ability to perceive tonal distinctions in Norwegian as well as in the East Asian tone languages that have been previously investigated.

Semi-spontaneous oral text production: Measurements in clinical practice

Functionally relevant assessment of the language production of speakers with aphasia should include assessment of connected speech production. Despite the ecological validity of everyday conversations, more controlled and monological types of texts may be easier to obtain and analyse in clinical practice. This article discusses some simple measurements for the analysis of semi-spontaneous oral text production by speakers with aphasia. Specifically, the measurements are related to the production of verbs and nouns, and the realization of different sentence types. The proposed measurements should be clinically relevant, easily applicable, and linguistically meaningful. The measurements have been applied to oral descriptions of the ‘Cookie Theft’ picture by eight monolingual Norwegian speakers, four with an anomic type of aphasia and four without any type of language impairment. Despite individual differences in both the clinical and the non-clinical group, most of the measurements seem to distinguish between speakers with and without aphasia.

Norwegian retroflex stops in a cross linguistic perspective

Abstract In this paper, Norwegian retroflex stops are investigated through the combined use of electropalatography (EPG) and electromagnetic articulography (EMA), with extensive and detailed data from four informants. Cross linguistic investigations have shown considerable articulatory variation in retroflex consonants regarding both place of articulation and tongue configuration, making it difficult to establish common articulatory characteristics for these consonants. Through our detailed articulatory investigation, we were able to identify one characteristic only that was always present in retroflex stops in Norwegian, namely an apical articulation. Other characteristics often found in retroflexes, like a posterior place of articulation, a bending up (retroflexion) of the tongue tip, a flat tongue middle, and a forward movement of the tongue tip after the release of the stop (‘flapping out’), were found only in some contexts or in some individuals. Overall, the extensive articulatory variation in retroflexes often found in languages with relatively small inventories of coronal consonants was confirmed in our data.

Production and perception of word tones (pitch accents) in patients with left and right hemisphere damage.

The present paper addresses the question of the functional lateralization of tones in tone languages. Tonal perception and production of right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD) and left-hemisphere-damaged (LHD) speakers of East Norwegian were investigated. East Norwegian is a tone language with an opposition between two tones (pitch accents). The ability to distinguish auditorily between the two accents was normal in the RHD group but reduced in the LHD group. Tonal production was near normal in the RHD group, whereas the LHD group tended to have a production deficit.

Analysis of a case of the foreign accent syndrome in terms of the framework of gestural phonology

Abstract Brain damage which results in aphasia or apraxia of speech frequently causes deviant articulation; and in a limited number of cases the patients’ speech takes on characteristics normally associated with a dialect that is not their own, or it resembles the performance of a non-native speaker of the language. This condition is referred to as the foreign accent syndrome (FAS). FAS has been classified as an apraxic condition, a motor speech disorder in which the capacity to program the positioning of speech musculature and the sequencing of muscle movements for the volitional production of speech, has been disturbed. The present study is an analysis of the speech of a Norwegian FAS patient who after having suffered a stroke, developed what sounded like an English accent when speaking Norwegian. Her speech exhibited deviant features both on the segmental and on the prosodic level: deviant vowel and consonant articulations, deviant rhythmical patterns and deviant pitch patterns. This complex pattern of deviant features can be accounted for in terms of dysfunction of specific components in a gestural phonological model. The deviations can all be seen as the result of abnormal scaling or abnormal phasing of gestures.

Assessing prosodic skills in five European languages: Cross-linguistic differences in typical and atypical populations

Following demand for a prosody assessment procedure, the test Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C), has been translated from English into Spanish, French, Flemish and Norwegian. This provides scope to examine receptive and expressive prosodic ability in Romance (Spanish and French) as well as Germanic (English and Flemish) languages, and includes the possibility of assessing these skills with regard to lexical tone (Norwegian). Cross-linguistic similarities and differences relevant to the translation are considered. Preliminary findings concerning 8-year-old neurotypical children speaking the five languages are reported. The appropriateness of investigating contrastive stress in Romance as well as Germanic languages is considered: results are reported for assessing this skill in Spanish and English speakers and suggest that in Spanish it is acquired much later than in English. We also examine the feasibility of assessing and comparing prosodic disorder in the five languages, using assessments of prosody in Spanish and English speakers with Williams syndrome as an example. We conclude that, with caveats, the original design of the UK test may indicate comparable stages of prosodic development in neurotypical children and is appropriate for the evaluation of prosodic skills for adults and children, both neurotypical and with impairment, in all five languages.