Russian normative data for 375 action pictures and verbs

Testing the Continuum/Spectrum Model in Russian-Speaking Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

PURPOSE

Previously, Lancaster and Camarata (2019) showed that the continuum/spectrum model of the developmental language disorder (DLD) best explained the high heterogeneity of symptoms in children with DLD. We hypothesize that the continuum/spectrum approach can include not only children with DLD but also typically developing (TD) children with different timelines and patterns of language acquisition. This model can explain individual language profiles and deficits in children.

METHOD

We assessed language abilities in a group of Russian-speaking children with DLD aged 4-7 years (n = 53) and their age- and gender-matched peers without speech and language diagnoses (n = 53, TD). We evaluated the children's performance at four language levels in production and comprehension domains, using 11 subtests of the standardized language assessment for Russian: Russian Child Language Assessment Battery (RuCLAB). Using the k-means cluster method and RuCLAB scores, we obtained two clusters of children and analyzed their language performance in individual subtests.

RESULTS

The analysis revealed that the two clusters of children both included DLD and TD participants: Group 1, with higher test scores (TD = 45, DLD = 24 children), and Group 2, with lower scores (TD = 8, DLD = 29). Children from Group 1 mostly had lower scores at one of the language levels, whereas those from Group 2 struggled at several language levels. Furthermore, children with DLD from both groups tended to be more sensitive to linguistic features such as word length, noun case, and sentence reversibility compared to TD children.

CONCLUSIONS

The presence of two mixed groups shows that children with diagnosed DLD could perform on par with TD children, whereas some younger TD children could perform similarly to children with DLD. Our findings support the continuum/spectrum model: Linguistic skills in preschool children are a continuum, varying from high to poor skills at all language levels in comprehension and production. To describe a child's language profile, the tasks assessing all language levels should be used.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25521400.

Picture naming test through the prism of cognitive neuroscience and linguistics: adapting the test for cerebellar tumor survivors-or pouring new wine in old sacks?

A picture naming test (PNT) has long been regarded as an integral part of neuropsychological assessment. In current research and clinical practice, it serves a variety of purposes. PNTs are used to assess the severity of speech impairment in aphasia, monitor possible cognitive decline in aging patients with or without age-related neurodegenerative disorders, track language development in children and map eloquent brain areas to be spared during surgery. In research settings, picture naming tests provide an insight into the process of lexical retrieval in monolingual and bilingual speakers. However, while numerous advances have occurred in linguistics and neuroscience since the classic, most widespread PNTs were developed, few of them have found their way into test design. Consequently, despite the popularity of PNTs in clinical and research practice, their relevance and objectivity remain questionable. The present study provides an overview of literature where relevant criticisms and concerns have been expressed over the recent decades. It aims to determine whether there is a significant gap between conventional test design and the current understanding of the mechanisms underlying lexical retrieval by focusing on the parameters that have been experimentally proven to influence picture naming. We discuss here the implications of these findings for improving and facilitating test design within the picture naming paradigm. Subsequently, we highlight the importance of designing specialized tests with a particular target group in mind, so that test variables could be selected for cerebellar tumor survivors.

A Chinese verb semantic feature dataset (CVFD)

Language is an advanced cognitive function of humans, and verbs play a crucial role in language. To understand how the human brain represents verbs, it is critical to analyze what knowledge humans have about verbs. Thus, several verb feature datasets have been developed in different languages such as English, Spanish, and German. However, there is still a lack of a dataset of Chinese verbs. In this study, we developed a semantic feature dataset of 1140 Chinese Mandarin verbs (CVFD) with 11 dimensions including verb familiarity, agentive subject, patient, action effector, perceptual modality, instrumentality, emotional valence, action imageability, action complexity, action intensity, and the usage scenario of action. We calculated the semantic features of each verb and the correlation between dimensions. We also compared the difference between action, mental, and other verbs and gave some examples about how to use CVFD to classify verbs according to different dimensions. Finally, we discussed the potential applications of CVFD in the fields of neuroscience, psycholinguistics, cultural differences, and artificial intelligence. All the data can be found at https://osf.io/pv29z/ .

Stimuli in 3 Acts: A normative study on action-statements, action videos and object photos

The study of action observation and imagery, separately and combined, is expanding in diverse research areas (e.g., sports psychology, neurosciences), making clear the need for action-related stimuli (i.e., action statements, videos, and pictures). Although several databases of object and action pictures are available, norms on action videos are scarce. In this study, we validated a set of 60 object-related everyday actions in three different formats: action-statements, and corresponding dynamic (action videos) and static (object photos) stimuli. In Study 1, ratings of imageability, image agreement, action familiarity, action frequency, and action valence were collected from 161 participants. In Study 2, a different sample of 115 participants rated object familiarity, object valence, and object-action prototypicality. Most actions were rated as easy to imagine, familiar, and neutral or positive in valence. However, there was variation in the frequency with which participants perform these actions on a daily basis. High agreement between participants' mental image and action videos was also found, showing that the videos depict a conventional way of performing the actions. Objects were considered familiar and positive in valence. High ratings on object-action prototypicality indicate that the actions correspond to prototypical actions for most objects. 3ActStimuli is a comprehensive set of stimuli that can be useful in several research areas, allowing the combined study of action observation and imagery.

Polish norms for a set of colored drawings of 168 objects and 146 actions with predictors of naming performance

In this study, we present the first database of pictures and their corresponding psycholinguistic norms for Polish: the CLT database. In this norming study, we used the pictures from Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks (CLT): a set of colored drawings of 168 object and 146 actions. The CLT pictures were carefully created to provide a valid tool for multicultural comparisons. The pictures are accompanied by norms for Naming latencies, Name agreement, Goodness of depiction, Image agreement, Concept familiarity, Age of acquisition, Imageability, Lexical frequency, and Word complexity. We also report analyses of predictors of Naming latencies for pictures of objects and actions. Our results show that Name agreement, Concept familiarity, and Lexical frequency are significant predictors of Naming latencies for pictures of both objects and actions. Additionally, Age of acquisition significantly predicts Naming latencies of pictures of objects. The CLT database is freely available at osf.io/gp9qd. The full set of CLT pictures, including additional variants of pictures, is available on request at osf.io/y2cwr.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation modulates action naming over the left but not right inferior frontal gyrus

fMRI language mapping studies report right-hemispheric contribution to language in healthy individuals. However, it remains unclear whether these right-hemispheric patterns of activity are critical for language, which is highly relevant for clinical preoperative language mapping. The available findings are controversial. In this study, we first measured individual patterns of language lateralization with an fMRI language localizer in healthy participants with different handedness (N = 31). Then, the same participants received rTMS over the individual coordinates of peak fMRI-based activation in the left and right inferior frontal gyri. During rTMS, participants performed a picture naming task. It included both objects and actions to test whether naming of nouns and verbs would be equally modulated by rTMS. Stimulation of the left inferior frontal gyrus resulted in accuracy facilitation of verb production regardless of individual language lateralization. No modulation of object naming was found at any stimulation site in terms of accuracy nor reaction time. This study causally confirmed the critical contribution of the left, but not the right hemisphere to verb production regardless of the language lateralization patterns observed with fMRI. Also, the results stress that action rather than object naming is the task of choice for mapping language in the frontal lobe.

Development and validation of a novel corpus of 269 verb pictures in Kannada based on an argument structure taxonomy

Pictorial stimuli are crucial in psycholinguistic research and clinical practice. The development of culturally and linguistically appropriate, standardized picture corpora is a tedious and meticulous process. Yet, such readily accessible picture sets are useful for researchers and clinicians alike. The current study introduces a novel set of 269 verb pictures for an Indian language – Kannada. The included verbs were selected from a published database of 100,000 words along with their frequency scores in this language, and were subsequently categorized based on an argument structure taxonomy. Each picture is developed based on an exemplar sentence that depicts a scenario rather than a mere action. Norms are provided for verb name and argument agreement, image agreement, concept familiarity, and visual complexity, along with the orthographic frequency. Correlations between these measures are also described. The complete set of pictures are freely downloadable from https://osf.io/uk2af/?view_only=ecffbd92f48546a484c869b3f0b8ec94 for academic, research, and clinical usage in the future.

The Russian Aphasia Test: The first comprehensive, quantitative, standardized, and computerized aphasia language battery in Russian

The lack of standardized language assessment tools in Russian impedes clinical work, evidence-based practice, and research in Russian-speaking clinical populations. To address this gap in assessment of neurogenic language disorders, we developed and standardized a new comprehensive assessment instrument-the Russian Aphasia Test (RAT). The principal novelty of the RAT is that each subtest corresponds to a specific level of linguistic processing (phonological, lexical-semantic, syntactic, and discourse) in different domains: auditory comprehension, repetition, and oral production. In designing the test, we took into consideration various (psycho)linguistic factors known to influence language performance, as well as specific properties of Russian. The current paper describes the development of the RAT and reports its psychometric properties. A tablet-based version of the RAT was administered to 85 patients with different types and severity of aphasia and to 106 age-matched neurologically healthy controls. We established cutoff values for each subtest indicating deficit in a given task and cutoff values for aphasia based on the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis of the composite score. The RAT showed very high sensitivity (> .93) and specificity (> .96), substantiating its validity for determining presence of aphasia. The test's high construct validity was evidenced by strong correlations between subtests measuring similar linguistic processes. The concurrent validity of the test was also strong as demonstrated by a high correlation with an existing aphasia battery. Overall high internal, inter-rater, and test-retest reliability were obtained. The RAT is the first comprehensive aphasia language battery in Russian with properly established psychometric properties. It is sensitive to a wide range of language deficits in aphasia and can reliably characterize individual profiles of language impairments. Notably, the RAT is the first comprehensive aphasia test in any language to be fully automatized for administration on a tablet, maximizing further standardization of presentation and scoring procedures.

Expressive and Receptive Language in Russian Primary-School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

BACKGROUND

Abnormal language development in both expressive and receptive domains occurs in most children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), although the language deficit is not a core symptom of ASD. However, previous studies disagree on the difference in the degree of impairment between expressive and receptive language in ASD. Existing research has concentrated on vocabulary and 'global expressive and receptive language', often using parental reports for language assessment. Moreover, most of these studies have focused on toddlers and preschoolers with ASD, whereas data from school-aged children with ASD are very limited. At the same time, the age of children might account for the inconsistencies across publications on expressive-receptive language difference in children with ASD.

AIMS

The goal of the study was to directly compare the expressive and receptive language abilities of Russian primary-school-aged children with ASD (7-11 years old) at the levels of vocabulary, morphosyntax, and discourse.

METHODS

82 children with ASD participated in language testing. We used tests from the Russian Child Language Assessment Battery in order to assess vocabulary, morphosyntax, and discourse in expressive and receptive domains.

RESULTS

Our results revealed different expressive and receptive patterns, depending on the linguistic level and tests complexity. Importantly, we showed that children's non-verbal IQ partly accounted for the difference between production and comprehension abilities.

CONCLUSIONS

The expressive-better-than-receptive pattern in language has been considered by some authors as the unique hallmark of ASD. However, several studies, including our own, show that this is not a universal characteristic of ASD. We also revealed that expressive and receptive language patterns differed depending on the linguistic level, children's non-verbal IQ, and assessment tools.

Advancing Neurolinguistics in Russia: Experience and Implications of Building Experimental Research and Evidence-Based Practices

Russia has rich theoretical and behavioral research traditions in neurolinguistics and neuropsychology, but at the beginning of the twenty-first century contemporary experimental research in these disciplines remained limited, leading to proliferation of non-evidence-based approaches in education, healthcare, and public beliefs. An academic response to this was the establishment of the Center for Language and Brain at the HSE University, Moscow, which focused on experimental psycho- and neurolinguistic research and related evidence-based practices. The Center has grown from a small group of young researchers to a large interdisciplinary unit that conducts cutting-edge research utilizing multi-site settings and novel structural and functional neuroimaging methods. The overarching aim of the Center's research is to promote scientifically grounded treatment of the language-brain relationship in the educational, clinical, and industry settings. Specifically, translational research at the Center is contributing to the advancement of clinical practice in Russia: from providing the first standardized aphasia language test to implementing protocols for intraoperative language mapping in neurosurgery departments across the country. Within research projects, a new generation of scientists is successfully being fostered, while a broader student audience is reached via courses taught by staff of the Center to students of different majors. Notable examples of public outreach programs at the Center are the Annual Summer Neurolinguistics School attracting hundreds of attendees from different countries each year, and community projects focused on raising awareness about aphasia. Together, these efforts aim to increase scientific knowledge in a multi-professional audience. In this paper, we will share our joint experiences in establishing, building, and promoting a neurolinguistics research center in Russia and the impact that this work has had on the broader public. We will delineate specific milestones of this journey and focus on the main pillars that have contributed to our progress: research, clinical work, teaching, and public outreach programs. We hope that this critical appraisal of our experiences can serve simultaneously as an inspiration and a practical guide for other groups developing research, clinical, and educational programs in different neuroscientific disciplines across the globe and aiming to improve the quality of the neuroscientific information available to the public.

German normative data with naming latencies for 283 action pictures and 600 action verbs

Timed picture naming is a common psycholinguistic paradigm. In this task, participants are asked to label visually depicted objects or actions. Naming performance can be influenced by several picture and verb characteristics which demands fully characterized normative data. In this study, we provide a first German normative data set of picture and verb characteristics associated with a compilation of 283 freely available action pictures and 600 action verbs including naming latencies from 55 participants. We report standard measures for pictures and verbs such as name agreement indices, visual complexity, word frequency, word length, imageability and age of acquisition. In addition, we include less common parameters, such as orthographic Levenshtein distance, transitivity, reflexivity, morphological complexity, and motor content of the pictures and their associated verbs. We use repeated measures correlations in order to investigate associations between picture and word characteristics and linear mixed effects modeling for the prediction of naming latency. Our analyses reveal comparable results to previous studies in other languages, indicating high construct validity. We found that naming latency varied as a function of entropy of responses, word frequency and motor content of pictures and words. In summary, we provide first German normative data for action pictures and their associated verbs and identify variables influencing naming latency.

Language Abilities of Russian Primary-School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence from Comprehensive Assessment

The purpose of the present research was to comprehensively assess the language abilities of Russian primary-school-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), varying in non-verbal IQ, at all linguistic levels (phonology, lexicon, morphosyntax, and discourse) in production and comprehension. Yet, the influence of such non-language factors as children's age, the severity of autistic traits, and non-verbal IQ on language functioning was studied. Our results indicate a high variability of language skills in children with ASD (from normal to impaired) which is in line with the previous studies. Interestingly, the number of children with normal language abilities was related to the linguistic levels: according to more complex morphosyntax and discourse tests, fewer children with ASD were within the normal range unlike the results in simpler phonological and lexical tests. Importantly, we found that language abilities were best predicted by non-verbal IQ but were independent from age and the severity of autistic traits. The findings support the claim that formal language assessment of children with ASD needs to include all linguistic levels, from phonology to discourse, for helping speech-language therapists to choose an appropriate therapy target.

The Moroccan Arabic verb and noun test for language mapping (MAVNT-LP) under nTMS and DES

To maximize tumor resection and minimize postoperative neurological sequelae, intraoperative Direct Electrical Stimulation (DES) coupled with preoperative Navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (nTMS) is adopted as a more valid procedure when a tumor is located in or near language-positive cortical and subcortical brain areas/networks. To map language functions peri- and intraoperatively, naming tasks are usually administered given their sensitivity and practicality in mapping language networks and their association with positive postoperative outcomes. Linguistic protocols designed for stimulation under nTMS are relatively scarce, and non-existent in the Arabic language. The present study attempts to fill these gaps by presenting the processes of development, piloting, and standardization of the first (Moroccan) Arabic object and action naming protocol for use preoperatively under nTMS, and intraoperatively under DES. The MAVNT-LP was developed in accordance with both DES and nTMS time requirements and was balanced for relevant psycholinguistic as well as intrinsic factors. The test underwent piloting on a population of 10 Moroccan Arabic (MA)-speaking individuals and was validated on a population of 50 participants. The standardized version of the test consisted of 61 nouns and 61 verbs. The 122 items included in the test were named accurately by at least 80% of the participants and had a high naming agreement. Correlations between psycholinguistic factors and lexical retrieval are reported and discussed. The MAVNT-LP was found to be a valid instrument for use in a clinical setting either as a planning tool or as a protocol used to stimulate eloquent brain areas under awake brain surgery.

An early Spanish vocabulary for children who use AAC: developmental and linguistic considerations

For children with complex communication needs in the early stages of language development, access to appropriate vocabulary provides a means for social interaction and participation, and the foundation for the acquisition of grammar and other language related skills. While numerous resources are available to support decision making for speakers of English, there is a pressing need to rapidly expand such resources for other languages. Spanish is the official language in 20 countries, and in other countries (e.g., United States) Spanish-speaking communities represent a substantial proportion of the population. The aim of this study was to produce a developmentally-relevant word list for use by Spanish-speaking children in the early stages of language development. The list was developed from an analysis of overlap between published and validated lists of words produced by young Spanish speaking children with typical development. The list includes a wide range of word classes and semantic categories and is proposed as a tool to assist professionals, families and software developers in the process of selecting an initial lexicon for children who require AAC and are learning Spanish. Implications of our findings for vocabulary selection and future research directions are discussed.

Picture naming in bilingual and monolingual Chinese speakers: Capturing similarity and variability

Picture-naming latency differs across languages in bilingual speakers. We compared the effects of key psycholinguistic variables on picture naming among two groups of Chinese bilingual speakers and Mandarin monolingual speakers. First, we asked bilingual and monolingual speakers to estimate the age of acquisition, familiarity, visual complexity, name agreement, and imageability of a set of object and action pictures in Mandarin and Cantonese. Next, we recruited 60 Cantonese-English speakers, 50 Mandarin-Cantonese bilingual speakers, and 30 monolingual speakers who named the object and action pictures in Cantonese and Mandarin, respectively. We observed variability in the effects of item-level characteristics among groups, suggesting an interaction between item-level and individual-level characteristics as predicted. This variability was higher in bilingual speakers who spoke similar languages (Mandarin-Cantonese) in comparison to those speaking more distant languages (Cantonese-English). Our results suggest that monolingual norms and bilingual norms capture the same amount of variability; however, grammatical class interactions with other variables are explained differentially by the bilingual and monolingual norms. We discuss the implications of our findings in terms of norming studies for timed picture naming and effects of bilingualism on language processing.

Psycholinguistic norms for 92 action pictures and verbs in the Persian language in young- and middle-aged people

A verb as the fundamental part of a sentence is important and its retrieval consists of different cognitive stages. Additionally, verb retrieval difficulty is reported in some types of aphasia and other neurological diseases, and some psycholinguistic variables can influence the verb retrieval process. This study aimed to provide a normative database in the Persian language for 92 black and white action pictures and related verbs in two groups of young ages (20 to 40 years old) and middle ages (41 to 64 years old). A total of 150 volunteers participated in this study, and the groups had similar characteristics due to education. The pictures were normed for variables such as name agreement, familiarity, visual complexity, age of acquisition, and image agreement. Correlation coefficients were calculated values among these measures, and comparisons were made between the two age groups. The results of the comparisons between the two groups showed that name agreement and familiarities were age-dependent. The results revealed that all measures varied with age. Also, the present study provided a set of verbs and their pictures in the Persian language and normative data were obtained on the psycholinguistic variables such that it can be used for clinical practice and research in the areas of verb processing and their naming.

A new test of action verb naming: normative data from 290 Italian adults

INTRODUCTION

Verbs and nouns can be selectively impaired, suggesting that they are processed, at least in part, by distinct neural structures. While several tests of object naming are available, tasks involving action verb naming with normative data are lacking. We report the construction and standardization of a new test for the assessment of picture naming of actions.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The test includes 50 stimuli, strictly controlled for several confounding variables. Normative data on 290 Italian subjects pooled across homogenous subgroups for age, sex, and education are reported.

RESULTS

Multiple regression analyses revealed that age and education significantly correlated with the subject's score. In particular, increasing age negatively affected performance, while the performance increased with a higher education.

CONCLUSIONS

In the clinical practice, the availability of equivalent scores will help the comparison with performance in the picture naming of objects. This test allows investigating action naming deficits in aphasic patients, in Parkinson's disease patients and in further neurodegenerative disorders, in which a specific impairment of action verbs is expected, filling a gap in the clinical neuropsychological assessment.

Hand-use norms for Dutch and English manual action verbs: Implicit measures from a pantomime task

Many studies use manual action verbs to test whether people use neural systems for controlling manual actions to understand language about those actions. Yet, few of these studies empirically establish how people use their hands to perform the actions described by those verbs, relying instead on explicit self-report measures. Here, participants pantomimed the manual actions described by a large set of Dutch (N = 251) and English (N = 250) verbs, allowing us to approximate the extent to which people use each of their hands to perform these actions. After the pantomime task, participants also provided explicit ratings of each of these actions. The results from the pantomime task showed that most manual actions cannot be described accurately as either "unimanual" or "bimanual." With a few exceptions, unimanual action verbs do not describe actions that are performed with only one hand, and bimanual verbs do not describe actions that are performed by using both hands equally. Instead, individual actions vary continuously in the extent to which people use their non-dominant hand to perform them, and in the extent to which people consistently prefer one hand or the other to perform them. Finally, by comparing participants' implicit behavior to their explicit ratings, we found that participants' self-report showed only limited correspondence with their observed motor behavior. We provide all of our measures in both raw and summary format, offering researchers a precision tool for constructing stimulus sets for experiments on embodied cognition.

English norming data for 423 short animated action movie clips

We present a set of 423 animated action movie clips of 3 s, that we expect to be useful for a variety of experimental paradigms in which sentences are elicited. The clips either depict an action involving only an agent (intransitive action, e.g., a policeman that is sleeping), an action involving an agent and a patient (transitive action, e.g., a policeman shooting a pirate), or an action involving an agent, an object, and a beneficiary (ditransitive action, e.g., a policeman showing a hat to a pirate). In order to verify that the movie clips (when presented with a verb) indeed elicit intransitive, transitive, or ditransitive sentences, we conducted a written norming study with native speakers of American English. We asked 203 participants to describe the clips with a sentence using a given verb. The movie clips elicited valid responses in 90% of the cases. Moreover, there was an active response bias for the transitives, and a prepositional object dative (PO-dative) response bias for the ditransitives. This bias differed between verbs in the ditransitives. A list is provided with all clips and the proportion of each response type for each clip. The clips are stored as MP4-files and can be freely downloaded.

Razak R, Treffers-Daller J, Yap NT, Abboud L, Talebi A, Gureghian M, Tuller L, Haman E. Age of acquisition of 299 words in seven languages: American English, Czech, Gaelic, Lebanese Arabic, Malay, Persian and Western Armenian

We present a new set of subjective Age of Acquisition (AoA) ratings for 299 words (158 nouns, 141 verbs) in seven languages from various language families and cultural settings: American English, Czech, Scottish Gaelic, Lebanese Arabic, Malaysian Malay, Persian, and Western Armenian. The ratings were collected from a total of 173 participants and were highly reliable in each language. We applied the same method of data collection as used in a previous study on 25 languages which allowed us to create a database of fully comparable AoA ratings of 299 words in 32 languages. We found that in the seven languages not included in the previous study, the words are estimated to be acquired at roughly the same age as in the previously reported languages, i.e. mostly between the ages of 1 and 7 years. We also found that the order of word acquisition is moderately to highly correlated across all 32 languages, which extends our previous conclusion that early words are acquired in similar order across a wide range of languages and cultures.

Grey and white matter substrates of action naming

Despite a persistent interest in verb processing, data on the neural underpinnings of verb retrieval are fragmentary. The present study is the first to analyze the contributions of both grey and white matter damage affecting verb retrieval through action naming in stroke. We used voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) with an action naming task in 40 left-hemisphere stroke patients. Within the grey matter, we revealed the critical involvement of the left precentral and inferior frontal gyri, insula, and parts of basal ganglia. An overlay of white matter tract probability masks on the VLSM lesion map revealed involvement of left-hemisphere long and short association tracts with terminations in the frontal areas; and several projection tracts. The involvement of these structures is interpreted in the light of existing picture naming models, semantic control processes, and the embodiment cognition framework. Our results stress the importance of both cortico-cortical and cortico-subcortical networks of language processing.

Comprehension and production of nouns and verbs in temporal lobe epilepsy

Previous research on linguistic performance at the single-word level in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) has mostly been limited to the comprehension and production of nouns, and findings have been inconsistent. Results are likewise limited and controversial regarding the lateralization of the epileptogenic focus. The present study investigates comprehension and production of nouns and verbs in patients with left and right TLE (12 in each group). We designed a comprehension (word-picture matching) test and a production (naming) test, matched on a range of psycholinguistic parameters for the two word classes. The results showed impaired verb comprehension in patients with left TLE and impaired noun and verb production in both groups of patients compared to the control group. Patients with left and right TLE differed significantly on verb comprehension and noun production, whereas verb production was equally impaired in the two groups of patients. These findings suggest difficulties with single-word processing in patients with both left and right TLE, which are more prominent for verbs than for nouns in patients with left TLE. The verb production (action naming) test turned out to be the most effective tool for assessing linguistic difficulties at the single-word level in patients with TLE.

Ratings of age of acquisition of 299 words across 25 languages: Is there a cross-linguistic order of words?

We present a new set of subjective age-of-acquisition (AoA) ratings for 299 words (158 nouns, 141 verbs) in 25 languages from five language families (Afro-Asiatic: Semitic languages; Altaic: one Turkic language: Indo-European: Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Slavic, and Romance languages; Niger-Congo: one Bantu language; Uralic: Finnic and Ugric languages). Adult native speakers reported the age at which they had learned each word. We present a comparison of the AoA ratings across all languages by contrasting them in pairs. This comparison shows a consistency in the orders of ratings across the 25 languages. The data were then analyzed (1) to ascertain how the demographic characteristics of the participants influenced AoA estimations and (2) to assess differences caused by the exact form of the target question (when did you learn vs. when do children learn this word); (3) to compare the ratings obtained in our study to those of previous studies; and (4) to assess the validity of our study by comparison with quasi-objective AoA norms derived from the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDI). All 299 words were judged as being acquired early (mostly before the age of 6 years). AoA ratings were associated with the raters' social or language status, but not with the raters' age or education. Parents reported words as being learned earlier, and bilinguals reported learning them later. Estimations of the age at which children learn the words revealed significantly lower ratings of AoA. Finally, comparisons with previous AoA and MB-CDI norms support the validity of the present estimations. Our AoA ratings are available for research or other purposes.

Using the Visual World Paradigm to Study Retrieval Interference in Spoken Language Comprehension

The cue-based retrieval theory (Lewis et al., 2006) predicts that interference from similar distractors should create difficulty for argument integration, however this hypothesis has only been examined in the written modality. The current study uses the Visual World Paradigm (VWP) to assess its feasibility to study retrieval interference arising from distractors present in a visual display during spoken language comprehension. The study aims to extend findings from Van Dyke and McElree (2006), which utilized a dual-task paradigm with written sentences in which they manipulated the relationship between extra-sentential distractors and the semantic retrieval cues from a verb, to the spoken modality. Results indicate that retrieval interference effects do occur in the spoken modality, manifesting immediately upon encountering the verbal retrieval cue for inaccurate trials when the distractors are present in the visual field. We also observed indicators of repair processes in trials containing semantic distractors, which were ultimately answered correctly. We conclude that the VWP is a useful tool for investigating retrieval interference effects, including both the online effects of distractors and their after-effects, when repair is initiated. This work paves the way for further studies of retrieval interference in the spoken modality, which is especially significant for examining the phenomenon in pre-reading children, non-reading adults (e.g., people with aphasia), and spoken language bilinguals.