Oliver Müller

Orthographic and associative neighborhood density effects: What is shared, what is different?

Words with many orthographic neighbors elicit a larger N400 than words with few orthographic neighbors. This has been interpreted as stronger overall semantic activation due to orthographic neighbors activating their semantic representations. To investigate this claim, we manipulated the number of associates of words (NoA), a variable directly affecting overall semantic activation, and compared this to the ERP effect of the number of orthographic neighbors (N) in a lexical decision task. Words with high NoA and with high N produced a very similar increase of the N400. In addition, a higher N increased the amplitude of the Late Positive Complex. The common N400 effect suggests that N affects semantic activation, like NoA does. The late positive effect specific to N could occur because words with few orthographic neighbors initially elicit little activity in the orthographic system, thereby resembling nonwords, which leads to distinct processing.

Access to Lexical Information in Language Comprehension: Semantics before Syntax

The recognition of a word makes available its semantic and syntactic properties. Using electrophysiological recordings, we investigated whether one set of these properties is available earlier than the other set. Dutch participants saw nouns on a computer screen and performed push-button responses: In one task, grammatical gender determined response hand (left/right) and semantic category determined response execution (go/no-go). In the other task, response hand depended on semantic category, whereas response execution depended on gender. During the latter task, response preparation occurred on no-go trials, as measured by the lateralized readiness potential: Semantic information was used for response preparation before gender information inhibited this process. Furthermore, an inhibition-related N2 effect occurred earlier for inhibition by semantics than for inhibition by gender. In summary, electrophysiological measures of both response preparation and inhibition indicated that the semantic word property was available earlier than the syntactic word property when participants read single words.

Electrophysiological evidence for phonological priming in Spanish Sign Language lexical access

Interactive activation models of lexical access assume that the presentation of a given word activates not only its lexical representation but also those corresponding to words similar in form. Current theories are based on data from oral and written languages, and therefore signed languages represent a special challenge for existing theories of word recognition and lexical access since they allow us to question what the genuine fundamentals of human language are and what might be modality-specific adaptation. The aim of the present study is to determine the electrophysiological correlates and time course of phonological processing of Spanish Sign Language (LSE). Ten deaf native LSE signers and ten deaf non-native but highly proficient LSE signers participated in the experiment. We used the ERP methodology and form-based priming in the context of a delayed lexical decision task, manipulating phonological overlap (i.e. related prime-target pairs shared either handshape or location parameters). Results showed that both parameters under study modulated brain responses to the stimuli in different time windows. Phonological priming of location resulted in a higher amplitude of the N400 component (300-500 ms window) for signs but not for non-signs. This effect may be explained in terms of initial competition among candidates. Moreover, the fact that a higher amplitude N400 for related pairs was found for signs but not for non-signs points to an effect at the lexical level. Handshape overlap produced a later effect (600-800 ms window). In this window, a more negative-going wave for the related condition than for the unrelated condition was found for non-signs in the native signers group. The findings are discussed in relation to current models of lexical access and word recognition. Finally, differences between native and non-native signers point to a less efficient use of phonological information among the non-native signers.

Masked constituent priming of English compounds in native and non-native speakers

ABSTRACT The present research explores the degree of morphological structure of compound words in the native and non-native lexicons, and provides additional data on the access to these representations. Native and non-native speakers (L1 Spanish) of English were tested using a lexical decision task with masked priming of the compound’s constituents in isolation, including two orthographic conditions to control for a potential orthographic locus of effects. Both groups displayed reliable priming effects, unmediated by semantics, for the morphological but not the orthographic conditions as compared to an unrelated baseline. Results contribute further evidence of morphological structure in the lexicon of native speakers, and suggest that lexical representation and access in a second language are qualitatively comparable at relatively advanced levels of proficiency.

La percepción del habla durante el primer año de vida

Language acquisition involves a number of complex skills that evolve in correlation with each other, thus making it possible for learners of their first spoken language —or sign language— to achieve the best results with minimal effort, as long as they do so within the appropriate period of time. In this regard, it is proposed that early speech perception has a primary role in language acquisition. In order to provide an overview of the current scientific knowledge as to the capabilities of children under the age of one to perceive spoken language, this paper presents the results of the most relevant research on discrimination of classes and types of words, interidiomatic and prosodic discrimination,

Retrieving semantic and syntactic word properties : ERP studies on the time course in language comprehension

The present doctoral thesis investigates the temporal characteristics of the retrieval of semantic and syntactic word properties in language comprehension. In particular, an attempt is made to assess the retrieval order of semantic category and grammatical gender information, using the lateralized readiness potential and the inhibition-related N2 effect. Chapter 1 contains a general introduction. Chapter 2 reports an experiment that employs the two-choice go/nogo task in combination with EEG recordings to establish the retrieval order of semantic category and grammatical gender for written words presented in isolation. The results point to a time course where semantic information becomes available before syntactic information. Chapter 3 focuses on the retrieval of grammatical gender. In order to examine whether gender retrieval can be speeded up by context, nouns are presented in gender congruent and gender incongruent prime-target pairs and reaction times for gender decisions are measured. For stimulus onset asynchronies of 100 ms and 0 ms, gender congruent pairs show faster responses than incongruent ones, whereas there is no effect of gender congruity for a stimulus onset asynchrony of 300 ms. A simulation with a localist computational model that implements competition between gender representations (WEAVER; Roelofs, 1992) is able to capture these findings. In chapter 4, the gender congruency manipulation is transferred to another ERP experiment with the two-choice go/nogo task. As the time course of gender retrieval is altered through primes, the order relative to semantic category retrieval is assessed again. The results indicate that with gender congruent primes, grammatical gender becomes available before semantic category. Such a reversal of retrieval order, as compared to chapter 2, implies a parallel rather than a serial discrete arrangement of the retrieval processes, since the latter variant precludes changes in retrieval order. Finally, chapter 5 offers a summary and general discussion of the main findings.

Chomsky's new clothes

Clahsens view on language is intimately linked with the Chomskian distinction between competence and performance. He uses performance to verify theoretical assumptions about the underlying structure of competence. Using mostly off-line tasks, he may fail to answer the question of how language is generated and perceived in natural situations.