Using the speeded word fragment completion task to examine semantic priming

Can grammatical morphemes be taught? Evidence of gestures influencing second language procedural learning in middle childhood

What kind of practice makes perfect when children learn to use grammatical morphemes in a second language? Gestures are communicative hand and arm movements which teachers naturally employ as a teaching tool in the classroom. Gesture theory has proposed that gestures package information and previous studies suggest their value for teaching specific items, such as words, as well as abstract systems, such as language. There is broad consensus that implicit learning mechanisms in children are more developed than explicit ones and that everyday use of grammar is implicit and entails developing implicit knowledge. However, while many learners have difficulties acquiring new morpho-syntactic structures, such as the plural{-s} and 3rd person possessive {-s} in English, research on gesture and syntax in middle childhood remains rare. The present study (N = 19) was conducted to better understand if gestures which embody grammatical morphemes during instruction can contribute to procedural learning. Using a novel task, the gesture speeded fragment completion task, our behavioral results show a decrease in mean response times after instruction in the test condition utilizing syntactically specific gestures. This increase in procedural learning suggests that learners in this age group can benefit from embodied instruction in the classroom which visually differentiates between grammatical morphemes which differ in meaning but sound the same.

The (un)reliability of item-level semantic priming effects

Many researchers have tried to predict semantic priming effects using a myriad of variables (e.g., prime-target associative strength or co-occurrence frequency). The idea is that relatedness varies across prime-target pairs, which should be reflected in the size of the priming effect (e.g., cat should prime dog more than animal does). However, it is only insightful to predict item-level priming effects if they can be measured reliably. Thus, in the present study we examined the split-half and test-retest reliabilities of item-level priming effects under conditions that should discourage the use of strategies. The resulting priming effects proved extremely unreliable, and reanalyses of three published priming datasets revealed similar cases of low reliability. These results imply that previous attempts to predict semantic priming were unlikely to be successful. However, one study with an unusually large sample size yielded more favorable reliability estimates, suggesting that big data, in terms of items and participants, should be the future for semantic priming research.

Retrieval activates related words more than presentation

Retrieving information enhances learning more than restudying. One explanation of this effect is based on the role of mediators (e.g., sand-castle can be mediated by beach). Retrieval is hypothesised to activate mediators more than restudying, but existing tests of this hypothesis have had mixed results [Carpenter, S. K. (2011). Semantic information activated during retrieval contributes to later retention: Support for the mediator effectiveness hypothesis of the testing effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37(6), 1547-1552. doi: 10.1037/a0024140 ; Lehman, M., & Karpicke, J. D. (2016). Elaborative retrieval: Do semantic mediators improve memory? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42(10), 1573-1591. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000267 ]. The present experiments explored an explanation of the conflicting results, testing whether mediator activation during a retrieval attempt depends on the accessibility of the target information. A target was considered less versus more accessible when fewer versus more cues were given during retrieval practice (Experiments 1 and 2), when the target had been studied once versus three times initially (Experiment 3), or when the target could not be recalled versus could be recalled during retrieval practice (Experiments 1-3). A mini meta-analysis of all three experiments revealed a small effect such that retrieval activated mediators more than presentation, but mediator activation was not reliably related to target accessibility. Thus, retrieval may enhance learning by activating mediators, in part, but these results suggest the role of other processes, too.

Exploring the Organization of Semantic Memory through Unsupervised Analysis of Event-related Potentials

Modern multivariate methods have enabled the application of unsupervised techniques to analyze neurophysiological data without strict adherence to predefined experimental conditions. We demonstrate a multivariate method that leverages priming effects on the evoked potential to perform hierarchical clustering on a set of word stimuli. The current study focuses on the semantic relationships that play a key role in the organization of our mental lexicon of words and concepts. The N400 component of the event-related potential is considered a reliable neurophysiological response that is indicative of whether accessing one concept facilitates subsequent access to another (i.e., one "primes" the other). To further our understanding of the organization of the human mental lexicon, we propose to utilize the N400 component to drive a clustering algorithm that can uncover, given a set of words, which particular subsets of words show mutual priming. Such a scheme requires a reliable measurement of the amplitude of the N400 component without averaging across many trials, which was here achieved using a recently developed multivariate analysis method based on beamforming. We validated our method by demonstrating that it can reliably detect, without any prior information about the nature of the stimuli, a well-known feature of the organization of our semantic memory: the distinction between animate and inanimate concepts. These results motivate further application of our method to data-driven exploration of disputed or unknown relationships between stimuli.

Integrative Priming of Compositional and Locative Relations

Integrative priming refers to the facilitated recognition of a target word (bench) as a real word following a prime (park). Prior integrative priming studies have used a wide variety of integrative relations including temporal (summer rain), topical (travel book), locative (forest river), and compositional (peach pie) relations. Yet differences in the types of integrative relations may yield differences in the underlying explanatory processes of integrative priming. In this study, we compared the magnitude, time course, and three theoretically based correlates of integrative priming for compositional (stone table) and locative (patio table) pairs in a lexical decision task across four stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs; 50, 300, 800, and 1,600 ms). Based on the Complementary Role Activation theory, integrative ratings (the extent to which the prime and target can be combined into a meaningful phrase) were predicted to facilitate target RTs. Based on the Embodied Conceptual Combination (ECCo) theory, the local co-occurrence of the prime and target, and the ability to perceptually simulate (visually experience) the prime-target pair were tested as predictors. In comparison to unrelated pairs (nose table), target RTs were faster for the compositional and locative pairs, though did not differ between these relations. In support of the Complementary Role Activation theory, integrative ratings predicted target RTs above and beyond our control variables. In support of the ECCo theory, co-occurrence emerged as an early predictor of target RTs, and visual experience ratings was a reliable predictor at the 300 ms SOA, though only for the compositional relations.

Filling the gaps: A speeded word fragment completion megastudy

In the speeded word fragment completion task, participants have to complete fragments such as tom_to as quickly and accurately as possible. Previous work has shown that this paradigm can successfully capture subtle priming effects (Heyman, De Deyne, Hutchison, & Storms Behavior Research Methods, 47, 580-606, 2015). In addition, it has several advantages over the widely used lexical decision task. That is, the speeded word fragment completion task is more efficient, more engaging, and easier. Given its potential, we conducted a study to gather speeded word fragment completion norms. The goal of this megastudy was twofold. On the one hand, it provides a rich database of over 8,000 stimuli, which can, for instance, be used in future research to equate stimuli on baseline response times. On the other hand, the aim was to gain insight into the underlying processes of the speeded word fragment completion task. To this end, item-level regression and mixed-effects analyses were performed on the response latencies using 23 predictor variables. Since all items were selected from the Dutch Lexicon Project (Keuleers, Diependaele, & Brysbaert Frontiers in Psychology, 1, 174, 2010), we ran the same analyses on lexical decision latencies to compare the two tasks. Overall, the results revealed many similarities, but also some remarkable differences, which are discussed. We propose that both tasks are complementary when examining visual word recognition. The article ends with a discussion of potential process models of the speeded word fragment completion task.

Uncovering underlying processes of semantic priming by correlating item-level effects

The current study examines the underlying processes of semantic priming using the largest priming database available (i.e., Semantic Priming Project, Hutchison et al. Behavior Research Methods, 45(4), 1099-1114, 2013). Specifically, it compares priming effects in two tasks: lexical decision and pronunciation. Task similarities were assessed at two different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) (i.e., 200 and 1,200 ms) and for both primary and other associates. To evaluate how consistent priming is across these two tasks, item-level priming effects obtained in each task were correlated for each condition separately. The results revealed significant correlations at the short SOA for both primary and other associates. The correlations at the long SOA were significantly smaller and only reached significance when z-transformed response times were used. Furthermore, this pattern remained essentially the same when only asymmetric forward associates (e.g., panda-bear) were considered, suggesting that the cross-task stability at the short SOA was not merely caused by retrospective processes such as semantic matching. Instead, these findings provide evidence for a rapidly operating, item-based, relational characteristic such as spreading activation.