Contribution of the priming paradigm to the understanding of the conceptual developmental shift from 5 to 9 years of age

Age-related differences in expectation-based novel word learning

Adult language users can infer the meaning of a previously unfamiliar word from a single exposure to this word in a semantically and thematically constrained context, henceforth, predictive context (Borovsky et al., 2010 Cognition, 116(2), 289-296; Borovsky et al., 2012 Language Learning and Development, 8(3), 278-302). Children use predictive contexts to anticipate upcoming stimuli (Borovsky et al., 2012 Language Learning and Development, 8(3), 278-302; Mani & Huettig, 2012 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 38(4), 843-847), but the extent to which they rely on prediction to learn novel word forms is unclear (Gambi et al., 2021 Cognition, 211, 104650). Here, we examine children's one-shot learning from predictive contexts using a modified version of the one-shot learning ERP paradigm for children aged 7-13 years. In a first learning phase, we presented audio recordings of expected words and unexpected novel pseudowords in strongly and weakly constraining sentence contexts. In the following priming phase, the same recorded words and pseudowords were used as primes to identical/synonymous, related, and unrelated target words. We measured N400 modulations to the word and pseudoword continuations in the learning phase and to the identical/synonymous, related, or unrelated target words in the priming phase. When initially presented in strongly constraining sentences, novel pseudowords primed synonymous targets equally well as word primes of the same intended meaning. This pattern was particularly pronounced in older children. Our findings suggest that, around early adolescence, children can use single exposures to constraining contexts to infer the meaning of novel words and to integrate these novel words in their lexicons.

Processing Verb Meanings and the Declarative/Procedural Model: A Developmental Study

According to the Declarative/Procedural Model, the lexicon depends on declarative memory while grammar relies on procedural memory. Furthermore, procedural memory underlies the sequential processing of language. Thus, this system is important for predicting the next item in a sentence. Verb processing represents a good candidate to test this assumption. Semantic representations of verbs include information about the protagonists in the situations they refer to. This semantic knowledge is acquired implicitly and used during verb processing, such that the processing of a verb preactivates its typical patients (e.g., the window for break). Thus, determining how the patient typicality effect appears during children’s cognitive development could provide evidence about the memory system that is dedicated to this effect. Two studies are presented in which French children aged 6–10 and adults made grammaticality judgments on 80 auditorily presented sentences. In Experiment 1, the verb was followed by a typical patient or by a less typical patient. In Experiment 2, grammatical sentences were constructed such that the verb was followed either by a typical patient or by a noun that could not be a patient of that verb. The typicality effect occurs in younger children and is interpreted in terms of developmental invariance. We suggest that this effect may depend on procedural memory, in line with studies that showed that meaning is necessary to allow procedural memory to learn the sequence of words in a sentence.

Do manufactured and natural objects evoke similar motor information? The case of action priming

There is considerable evidence that visually presented manipulable objects evoke motor information, supporting the existence of affordance effects during object perception. However, most arguments come from stimulus-response compatibility paradigms, raising the issue of the automaticity of affordance effects. Action priming paradigms overcome this issue but show less reliable results, possibly because affordance effects are moderated by additional factors. The present study aimed to assess whether affordance effects highlighted in action priming paradigms could be affected by object category (manufactured or natural). A total of 24 young adults performed a semantic categorisation task on natural and manufactured target objects presented after neutral (non-grasping hand postures) or action (congruent power or precision grips) primes. Results revealed a modulation of action priming effects as a function of object category. Object semantic categorisation was faster after action than neutral primes, but only for manufactured objects. Results suggest that natural and manufactured objects evoke distinct types of affordances and that action priming paradigms favour the evocation of functional affordances during object semantic categorisation. This finding fuels the debate on the nature of the motor information evoked by visual objects.

Tool and object affordances: An ecological eye-tracking study

In the present eye-tracking study, we analysed the visuo-spatial attentional patterns of participants looking at 3D images depicting single tools and object-tool pairs. The object-tool pairs could be thematically consistent, thematically inconsistent or spatially inconsistent. During the first 500 ms of visual exploration, tools were fixated longer on their functional area in all experimental conditions. However, extending the time-window of analysis to 1750 ms, the visual scene was encoded in a faster and more suited-for-action way in the thematically consistent condition (e.g., hammer-nail). Most important, the visual exploration of the thematically consistent pairs focused on the manipulation area of the tool (e.g., the handle of the hammer) more than on its functional area (e.g., the head of the hammer). Finally, when single tools were shown and the entire time-window of analysis was considered (1750 ms), fixation focused on the tool's manipulation area. These results are discussed within the reasoning-based framework of tool use. They highlight the relative role of the visuo-perceptual context in affordance perception and suggest a novel interpretation of the cognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of tools and object-tool pairs in terms of action reappraisal (i.e., a re-functionalization process when the action possibility is mined by the visuo-perceptual context).

Functional fixedness and body-part-as-object production in pantomime

In pantomiming the use of tools, it is possible to use a body part as the object (BPO) or imagine the object (IO). The present four studies test how conceptualizing the functions of objects may underlie BPO production in a non-clinical adult population. We showed that familiar vs. unfamiliar tools (Study 1) and visual experience only vs. visual + motor experience with novel tools (Study 2) made no difference in BPO production. In Study 3, participants showed a trend for higher BPO production for tools presented in two-dimensional pictures rather than in reality. In Study 4, participants' functional fixedness was experimentally manipulated: participants were told unfamiliar tools had either five functions or only one function. Participants produced significantly more BPOs in the one-function condition. These results suggest that conceptualizing objects as having a fixed function is a predictor of BPO production.

Bilingual children's lexical strategies in a narrative task

We investigated how bilinguals choose words in a narrative task, contrasting the possibilities of a developmental delay vs. compensatory strategies. To characterize a developmental delay, we compared younger (three to five years) and older (seven to ten years) children's lexicalization of target words (Study 1). The younger children told shorter stories, omitting many of the target concepts. To characterize compensatory strategies, we compared late second language learning adults to (seven- to ten-year-old) monolingual children (Study 2). The adults often lexicalized the target concepts even when not producing the target words. Finally, we compared French-English bilingual children with French and English monolinguals, all seven to ten years old (Study 3). The bilinguals produced fewer target words than the monolinguals. However, when not producing the target words, the bilinguals often lexicalized the concepts, sharing more in common with the adults (Study 2) in their use of compensatory strategies than with the younger children (Study 1). This interpretation was further corroborated by comparisons across studies (Study 4).

Thematic relatedness production norms for 100 object concepts

Knowledge of thematic relations is an area of increased interest in semantic memory research because it is crucial to many cognitive processes. One methodological issue that researchers face is how to identify pairs of thematically related concepts that are well-established in semantic memory for most people. In this article, we review existing methods of assessing thematic relatedness and provide thematic relatedness production norming data for 100 object concepts. In addition, 1,174 related concept pairs obtained from the production norms were classified as reflecting one of the five subtypes of relations: attributive, argument, coordinate, locative, and temporal. The database and methodology will be useful for researchers interested in the effects of thematic knowledge on language processing, analogical reasoning, similarity judgments, and memory. These data will also benefit researchers interested in investigating potential processing differences among the five types of semantic relations.

Taxonomic and thematic semantic systems

Object concepts are critical for nearly all aspects of human cognition, from perception tasks like object recognition, to understanding and producing language, to making meaningful actions. Concepts can have 2 very different kinds of relations: similarity relations based on shared features (e.g., dog-bear), which are called "taxonomic" relations, and contiguity relations based on co-occurrence in events or scenarios (e.g., dog-leash), which are called "thematic" relations. Here, we report a systematic review of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience evidence of this distinction in the structure of semantic memory. We propose 2 principles that may drive the development of distinct taxonomic and thematic semantic systems: differences between which features determine taxonomic versus thematic relations, and differences in the processing required to extract taxonomic versus thematic relations. This review brings together distinct threads of behavioral, computational, and neuroscience research on semantic memory in support of a functional and neural dissociation, and defines a framework for future studies of semantic memory. (PsycINFO Database Record

Individual and developmental differences in preschoolers' categorization biases and vocabulary across tasks

This study bridges prior research on young children's use of taxonomic versus thematic relations to categorize objects with prior research on their use of shared shape versus shared function to categorize artifacts. Specifically, this research examined associations in children's categorization tendencies across these two dichotomies, including assessments of individual differences, developmental trends, and vocabulary level. Preschoolers (3- to 5-year-olds) completed a receptive vocabulary assessment and two match-to-sample tasks: one pitting (superordinate) taxonomic and thematic relations against each other and one pitting shape and function similarity against each other. The results revealed individual and developmental variation in children's cross-task categorization biases, with a predominant tendency to focus on both thematic and function relations that became increasingly stronger with age. In 3- and 5-year-olds, function-based categorization was also positively associated with verb vocabulary. These findings demonstrate an emerging tendency to focus on relational information during the preschool years that, among other learning effects, may benefit verb acquisition. The results are discussed in terms of the real-time processing and developmental factors that might contribute to the development of strategies for learning about objects and categories during early childhood.

The Development of Object Function and Manipulation Knowledge: Evidence from a Semantic Priming Study

Object semantics include object function and manipulation knowledge. Function knowledge refers to the goal attainable by using an object (e.g., the function of a key is to open or close a door) while manipulation knowledge refers to gestures one has to execute to use an object appropriately (e.g., a key is held between the thumb and the index, inserted into the door lock and then turned). To date, several studies have assessed function and manipulation knowledge in brain lesion patients as well as in healthy adult populations. In patients with left brain damage, a double dissociation between these two types of knowledge has been reported; on the other hand, behavioral studies in healthy adults show that function knowledge is processed faster than manipulation knowledge. Empirical evidence has shown that object interaction in children differs from that in adults, suggesting that the access to function and manipulation knowledge in children might also differ. To investigate the development of object function and manipulation knowledge, 51 typically developing 8-9-10 year-old children and 17 healthy young adults were tested on a naming task associated with a semantic priming paradigm (190-ms SOA; prime duration: 90 ms) in which a series of line drawings of manipulable objects were used. Target objects could be preceded by three priming contexts: related (e.g., knife-scissors for function; key-screwdriver for manipulation), unrelated but visually similar (e.g., glasses-scissors; baseball bat-screwdriver), and purely unrelated (e.g., die-scissors; tissue-screwdriver). Results showed a different developmental pattern of function and manipulation priming effects. Function priming effects were not present in children and emerged only in adults, with faster naming responses for targets preceded by objects sharing the same function. In contrast, manipulation priming effects were already present in 8-year-olds with faster naming responses for targets preceded by objects sharing the same manipulation and these decreased linearly between 8 and 10 years of age, 10-year-olds not differing from adults. Overall, results show that the access to object function and manipulation knowledge changes during development by favoring manipulation knowledge in childhood and function knowledge in adulthood.

The role of within-language vocabulary size in children's semantic development: evidence from bilingual children

This study tested whether bilingual children show a lag in semantic development (the schematic-categorical shift) relative to monolingual children due to smaller vocabularies within a language. Twenty French-English bilingual and twenty English monolingual children (seven to ten years old) participated in a picture-naming task in English. Their errors were coded for schematic or categorical relations. The bilingual children made more schematic errors than monolinguals, a difference that was accounted for statistically by vocabulary score differences. This result suggests that within-language vocabulary size is one important factor in semantic development and may explain why bilingual children sometimes show a lag relative to monolingual children in one of their languages, perhaps the language in which they have received less formal instruction.

Semantic relations differentially impact associative recognition memory: electrophysiological evidence

Though associative recognition memory is thought to rely primarily on recollection, recent research indicates that familiarity might also make a substantial contribution when to-be-learned items are integrated into a coherent structure by means of an existing semantic relation. It remains unclear how different types of semantic relations, such as categorical (e.g., dancer-singer) and thematic (e.g., dancer-stage) relations might affect associative recognition, however. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we addressed this question by manipulating the type of semantic link between paired words in an associative recognition memory experiment. An early midfrontal old/new effect, typically linked to familiarity, was observed across the relation types. In contrast, a robust left parietal old/new effect was found in the categorical condition only, suggesting a clear contribution of recollection to associative recognition for this kind of pairs. One interpretation of this pattern is that familiarity was sufficiently diagnostic for associative recognition of thematic relations, which could result from the integrative nature of the thematic relatedness compared to the similarity-based nature of categorical pairs. The present study suggests that the extent to which recollection and familiarity are involved in associative recognition is at least in part determined by the properties of semantic relations between the paired associates.

Different influences on lexical priming for integrative, thematic, and taxonomic relations

Word pairs may be integrative (i.e., combination of two concepts into one meaningful entity; e.g., fruit-cake), thematically related (i.e., connected in time and place; e.g., party-cake), and/or taxonomically related (i.e., shared features and category co-members; e.g., muffin-cake). Using participant ratings and computational measures, we demonstrated distinct patterns across measures of similarity and co-occurrence, and familiarity for each relational construct in two different item sets. In a standard lexical decision task (LDT) with various delays between prime and target presentation (SOAs), target RTs and priming magnitudes were consistent across the three relations for both item sets. However, across the SOAs, there were distinct patterns among the three relations on some of the underlying measures influencing target word recognition (LSA, Google, and BEAGLE). These distinct patterns suggest different mechanisms of lexical priming and further demonstrate that integrative relations are distinct from thematic and taxonomic relations.

The time course of argument reactivation revealed: using the visual world paradigm

Previous research has found that the single argument of unaccusative verbs (such as fall) is reactivated during sentence processing, but the argument of agentive verbs (such as jump) is not (Bever & Sanz, 1997; Friedmann, Taranto, Shapiro, & Swinney, 2008). An open question so far was whether this difference in processing is caused by a difference in thematic roles the verbs assign, or a difference in the underlying syntactic structure. In the present study we tease apart these two potential sources. In order to achieve this, we included a set of verbs (like sparkle) which are equal to unaccusative verbs in the thematic role they assign to their argument, but equal to agentive verbs in the syntactic status of their argument (henceforth mixed verbs). As a method we used the visual world paradigm as this enables us to measure processing of the sentences continuously. This method also allowed us to test another hypothesis, namely the hypothesis that not only the argument of unaccusative verbs is reactivated during processing, but also the argument of agentive verbs. This reactivation is expected as the result of integrating the verb and its argument into one representation. In our experiment, participants listened to sentences including one of the three types of verbs. While listening, they viewed a visual display in which one of four objects was strongly related to the argument of the verb (wood-saw). The gaze record showed that the eyes moved to the related object (saw) upon presentation of the argument (wood). More interestingly, the eyes moved back to the related object upon presentation of the verb (fell). We found that looks to the related object increase only late after verb offset for unaccusative verbs, replicating the findings of previous research. We also found a rise in looks to the related object in agentive verbs, but this rise took place much earlier, starting slightly after verb onset. Finally, we found that mixed verbs pattern in processing with agentive verbs. We conclude that the argument of the verb is always reactivated, independent of verb type. In addition, the timing of integration differs per verb type and depends on the syntactic status of the argument and not on the thematic role that is assigned to the argument.

The semantic-similarity effect in children: influence of long-term knowledge on verbal short-term memory

The present research was designed to highlight the relation between children's categorical knowledge and their verbal short-term memory (STM) performance. To do this, we manipulated the categorical organization of the words composing lists to be memorized by 5- and 9-year-old children. Three types of word list were drawn up: semantically similar context-dependent (CD) lists, semantically similar context-independent (CI) lists, and semantically dissimilar lists. In line with the procedure used by Poirier and Saint-Aubin (1995), the dissimilar lists were produced using words from the semantically similar lists. Both 5- and 9-year-old children showed better recall for the semantically similar CD lists than they did for the unrelated lists. In the semantic similar CI condition, semantic similarity enhanced immediate serial recall only at age 9 but contributed to item information memory both at ages 5 and 9. These results, which indicate a semantic influence of long-term memory (LTM) on serial recall from age 5, are discussed in the light of current models of STM. Moreover, we suggest that differences between results at 5 and 9 years are compatible with pluralist models of development.

The Neuroscience of Storing and Molding Tool Action Concepts: How "Plastic" is Grounded Cognition?

Choosing how to use tools to accomplish a task is a natural and seemingly trivial aspect of our lives, yet engages complex neural mechanisms. Recently, work in healthy populations has led to the idea that tool knowledge is grounded to allow for appropriate recall based on some level of personal history. This grounding has presumed neural loci for tool use, centered on parieto-temporo-frontal areas to fuse perception and action representations into one dynamic system. A challenge for this idea is related to one of its great benefits. For such a system to exist, it must be very plastic, to allow for the introduction of novel tools or concepts of tool use and modification of existing ones. Thus, learning new tool usage (familiar tools in new situations and new tools in familiar situations) must involve mapping into this grounded network while maintaining existing rules for tool usage. This plasticity may present a challenging breadth of encoding that needs to be optimally stored and accessed. The aim of this work is to explore the challenges of plasticity related to changing or incorporating representations of tool action within the theory of grounded cognition and propose a modular model of tool–object goal related accomplishment. While considering the neuroscience evidence for this approach, we will focus on the requisite plasticity for this system. Further, we will highlight challenges for flexibility and organization of already grounded tool actions and provide thoughts on future research to better evaluate mechanisms of encoding in the theory of grounded cognition.