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Stark K, van Scherpenberg C, Obrig H, Abdel Rahman R. Web-based language production experiments: Semantic interference assessment is robust for spoken and typed response modalities. Behav Res Methods 2023; 55:236-262. [PMID: 35378676 PMCID: PMC9918579 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-021-01768-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
For experimental research on language production, temporal precision and high quality of the recorded audio files are imperative. These requirements are a considerable challenge if language production is to be investigated online. However, online research has huge potential in terms of efficiency, ecological validity and diversity of study populations in psycholinguistic and related research, also beyond the current situation. Here, we supply confirmatory evidence that language production can be investigated online and that reaction time (RT) distributions and error rates are similar in written naming responses (using the keyboard) and typical overt spoken responses. To assess semantic interference effects in both modalities, we performed two pre-registered experiments (n = 30 each) in online settings using the participants' web browsers. A cumulative semantic interference (CSI) paradigm was employed that required naming several exemplars of semantic categories within a seemingly unrelated sequence of objects. RT is expected to increase linearly for each additional exemplar of a category. In Experiment 1, CSI effects in naming times described in lab-based studies were replicated. In Experiment 2, the responses were typed on participants' computer keyboards, and the first correct key press was used for RT analysis. This novel response assessment yielded a qualitatively similar, very robust CSI effect. Besides technical ease of application, collecting typewritten responses and automatic data preprocessing substantially reduce the work load for language production research. Results of both experiments open new perspectives for research on RT effects in language experiments across a wide range of contexts. JavaScript- and R-based implementations for data collection and processing are available for download.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirsten Stark
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Neurocognitive Psychology, 10099, Berlin, Germany.
- Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Einstein Center for Neurosciences Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin School of Mind and Brain, 10099, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Cornelia van Scherpenberg
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin School of Mind and Brain, 10099, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
- Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Hellmuth Obrig
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin School of Mind and Brain, 10099, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
- Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Rasha Abdel Rahman
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Neurocognitive Psychology, 10099, Berlin, Germany
- Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Einstein Center for Neurosciences Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin School of Mind and Brain, 10099, Berlin, Germany
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The influence of orthographic experience on the development of phonological preparation in spoken word production. Mem Cognit 2017; 45:956-973. [PMID: 28710600 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-017-0712-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Three sets of experiments using the picture naming tasks with the form preparation paradigm investigated the influence of orthographic experience on the development of phonological preparation unit in spoken word production in native Mandarin-speaking children. Participants included kindergarten children who have not received formal literacy instruction, Grade 1 children who are comparatively more exposed to the alphabetic pinyin system and have very limited Chinese character knowledge, Grades 2 and 4 children who have better character knowledge and more exposure to characters, and skilled adult readers who have the most advanced character knowledge and most exposure to characters. Only Grade 1 children showed the form preparation effect in the same initial consonant condition (i.e., when a list of target words shared the initial consonant). Both Grade 4 children and adults showed the preparation effect when the initial syllable (but not tone) among target words was shared. Kindergartners and Grade 2 children only showed the preparation effect when the initial syllable including tonal information was shared. These developmental changes in phonological preparation could be interpreted as a joint function of the modification of phonological representation and attentional shift. Extensive pinyin experience encourages speakers to attend to and select onset phoneme in phonological preparation, whereas extensive character experience encourages speakers to prepare spoken words in syllables.
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Timmer K, Chen Y. Dutch-Cantonese Bilinguals Show Segmental Processing during Sinitic Language Production. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1133. [PMID: 28736540 PMCID: PMC5500769 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2016] [Accepted: 06/20/2017] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
This study addressed the debate on the primacy of syllable vs. segment (i.e., phoneme) as a functional unit of phonological encoding in syllabic languages by investigating both behavioral and neural responses of Dutch-Cantonese (DC) bilinguals in a color-object picture naming task. Specifically, we investigated whether DC bilinguals exhibit the phonemic processing strategy, evident in monolingual Dutch speakers, during planning of their Cantonese speech production. Participants named the color of colored line-drawings in Cantonese faster when color and object matched in the first segment than when they were mismatched (e.g., 藍駱駝, /laam4/ /lok3to4/, “blue camel;” 紅饑駝, /hung4/ /lok3to4/, “red camel”). This is in contrast to previous studies in Sinitic languages that did not reveal such phoneme-only facilitation. Phonemic overlap also modulated the event-related potentials (ERPs) in the 125–175, 200–300, and 300–400 ms time windows, suggesting earlier ERP modulations than in previous studies with monolingual Sinitic speakers or unbalanced Sinitic-Germanic bilinguals. Conjointly, our results suggest that, while the syllable may be considered the primary unit of phonological encoding in Sinitic languages, the phoneme can serve as the primary unit of phonological encoding, both behaviorally and neurally, for DC bilinguals. The presence/absence of a segment onset effect in Sinitic languages may be related to the proficiency in the Germanic language of bilinguals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kalinka Timmer
- Center for Brain and Cognition, Pompeu Fabra UniversityBarcelona, Spain.,Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden UniversityLeiden, Netherlands
| | - Yiya Chen
- Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden UniversityLeiden, Netherlands.,Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden UniversityLeiden, Netherlands
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Parafoveal activation of sign translation previews among deaf readers during the reading of Chinese sentences. Mem Cognit 2016; 43:964-72. [PMID: 25707914 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-015-0511-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
In the present study, we manipulated the different types of information available in the parafovea during the reading of Chinese sentences and examined whether deaf readers could activate sign translations of Chinese words during reading. The main finding was that, as compared to unrelated previews, the deaf readers had longer fixation durations on the target words when sign-phonologically related preview words were presented; this preview cost effect due to sign-phonological relatedness was absent for reading-level-matched hearing individuals. These results indicate that Chinese deaf readers activate sign language translations of parafoveal words during reading. We discuss the implications for notions of parafoveal processing in reading.
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The effect of orthographic form-cuing on the phonological preparation unit in spoken word production. Mem Cognit 2014; 43:563-78. [PMID: 25398357 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-014-0484-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Two experiments using the form-preparation paradigm were conducted to investigate the effect of orthographic form-cuing on the phonological preparation unit during spoken word production with native Mandarin speakers. In both experiments, participants were instructed to memorize nine prompt-response monosyllabic word pairs, after which an associative naming session was conducted in which the prompts were presented and participants were asked to say the corresponding response names as quickly and accurately as possible. In both experiments, the response words in the homogeneous lists shared the same onsets, or shared the same rimes; the response names had no common aspects of pronunciation in the heterogeneous lists. Chinese characters (Experiment 1) and Pinyin (phonetic transcription of the characters) (Experiment 2) were used to investigate the effect of the orthographic form. Significant onset facilitation and rime inhibition was shown for Pinyin syllables but not for characters. The contrasts of the onset and rime effect in the two orthographic forms suggest that a specific phonological unit is promoted in spoken word production in a certain orthographic form. Pinyin cued the participants to prepare the onset whereas Chinese characters did not. The rime interference effect may arise as a result of lexical competition in spoken word production.
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Chen JY, Chen TM. Word form encoding in mandarin Chinese typewritten word production: evidence from the implicit priming task. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2013; 142:148-53. [PMID: 23261962 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2012.11.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2012] [Revised: 11/14/2012] [Accepted: 11/19/2012] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Employing the implicit priming task, we examined whether Chinese words that shared the initial onset consonant could be typed, using the phonetic-based method (called zhuyin), with faster response times than words that did not share the initial onset consonant. We also examined the effect of sharing the initial tonal syllable. A significant onset preparation effect and a significant syllable preparation effect were both observed. The latter was found to vary linearly with the number of segments in the syllable. The slope of 63ms was similar to the 70-ms onset effect, suggesting that the syllable effect was segment-based. The results contrasted with the lack of an onset effect previously reported for speaking, and were interpreted as supporting the output constraint hypothesis which states that the kind of outputs a production system is designed to produce (speaking vs. typing) can flexibly and adaptively alter the way the system is organized and operates.
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Phonological units in spoken word production: insights from Cantonese. PLoS One 2012; 7:e48776. [PMID: 23144965 PMCID: PMC3492434 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048776] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2012] [Accepted: 10/01/2012] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Evidence from previous psycholinguistic research suggests that phonological units such as phonemes have a privileged role during phonological planning in Dutch and English (aka the segment-retrieval hypothesis). However, the syllable-retrieval hypothesis previously proposed for Mandarin assumes that only the entire syllable unit (without the tone) can be prepared in advance in speech planning. Using Cantonese Chinese as a test case, the present study was conducted to investigate whether the syllable-retrieval hypothesis can be applied to other Chinese spoken languages. In four implicit priming (form-preparation) experiments, participants were asked to learn various sets of prompt-response di-syllabic word pairs and to utter the corresponding response word upon seeing each prompt. The response words in a block were either phonologically related (homogeneous) or unrelated (heterogeneous). Participants' naming responses were significantly faster in the homogeneous than in the heterogeneous conditions when the response words shared the same word-initial syllable (without the tone) (Exps.1 and 4) or body (Exps.3 and 4), but not when they shared merely the same word-initial phoneme (Exp.2). Furthermore, the priming effect observed in the syllable-related condition was significantly larger than that in the body-related condition (Exp. 4). Although the observed syllable priming effects and the null effect of word-initial phoneme are consistent with the syllable-retrieval hypothesis, the body-related (sub-syllabic) priming effects obtained in this Cantonese study are not. These results suggest that the syllable-retrieval hypothesis is not generalizable to all Chinese spoken languages and that both syllable and sub-syllabic constituents are legitimate planning units in Cantonese speech production.
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The syllable as the proximate unit in Mandarin Chinese word production: An intrinsic or accidental property of the production system? Psychon Bull Rev 2012; 20:154-62. [DOI: 10.3758/s13423-012-0326-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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You W, Zhang Q, Verdonschot RG. Masked syllable priming effects in word and picture naming in Chinese. PLoS One 2012; 7:e46595. [PMID: 23056360 PMCID: PMC3466322 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0046595] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2012] [Accepted: 09/03/2012] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Four experiments investigated the role of the syllable in Chinese spoken word production. Chen, Chen and Ferrand (2003) reported a syllable priming effect when primes and targets shared the first syllable using a masked priming paradigm in Chinese. Our Experiment 1 was a direct replication of Chen et al.’s (2003) Experiment 3 employing CV (e.g., 拔营,/ba2.ying2/, strike camp) and CVG (e.g., 白首,/bai2.shou3/, white haired) syllable types. Experiment 2 tested the syllable priming effect using different syllable types: e.g., CV (气球,/qi4.qiu2/, balloon) and CVN (蜻蜓,/qing1.ting2/, dragonfly). Experiment 3 investigated this issue further using line drawings of common objects as targets that were preceded either by a CV (e.g., 企,/qi3/, attempt), or a CVN (e.g., 情,/qing2/, affection) prime. Experiment 4 further examined the priming effect by a comparison between CV or CVN priming and an unrelated priming condition using CV-NX (e.g., 迷你,/mi2.ni3/, mini) and CVN-CX (e.g., 民居,/min2.ju1/, dwellings) as target words. These four experiments consistently found that CV targets were named faster when preceded by CV primes than when they were preceded by CVG, CVN or unrelated primes, whereas CVG or CVN targets showed the reverse pattern. These results indicate that the priming effect critically depends on the match between the structure of the prime and that of the first syllable of the target. The effect obtained in this study was consistent across different stimuli and different tasks (word and picture naming), and provides more conclusive and consistent data regarding the role of the syllable in Chinese speech production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenping You
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Qingfang Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- * E-mail:
| | - Rinus G. Verdonschot
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, & Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Graduate School of Languages and Cultures, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
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