Bilingual lexical access in context: Evidence from eye movement recordings

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Maya Libben & Debra Titone Department of Psychology, McGill

Abstract

Current models of bilingualism posit that lexical access during reading is not language selective. However, much of this research is based on the comprehension of words in isolation. We investigated whether non-selective access occurs for words embedded in sentence contexts that semantically bias a target language. Eye movements were recorded as French–English bilinguals read English sentences containing cognates, interlingual homographs or matched control words. Sentences provided low- or high-semantic constraint for target-language meanings. Our results suggest that, in semantically biased contexts, bilingual lexical access is language non-selective at early-stages of lexical access and this non-selectivity is resolved at later-stages of comprehension.

Speech segmentation in infants and the effects of language exposure

2

Jennifer Proulx & Linda PolkaSCSD, McGill

Abstract

Infants become familiar with the rhythm of their native language, and use these cues to assist them in word segmentation. Segmentation skills can be transferred to other rhythmically similar languages, but not to rhythmically different ones. Therefore, it is of interest to investigate the segmentation strategies of bilinguals. Previous cross-linguistic comparisons have only been in one language. However, within group comparisons that investigate both languages in one, single session, provide more direct tests of segmentation. The objective of this study was to investigate the emergence of segmentation in bilingual and monolingual infants in a single session. Both French and English monolinguals segmented in their native language but not their rhythmically different, non-native one. These results replicate previous findings while reducing attrition and thereby prove that testing within one single session is feasible.

Perception of English intonation by native speakers and second language learners

15

Hyekyung Hwang Department of Linguistics, McGill

Abstract

Previous research has shown that advanced Korean learners of English (L2ers) use intermediate phrases (ips) less effectively than native speakers (L1ers) to recover English syntactic structure. This study examined whether the effect is due to perceptual differences between English L1ers and Korean L2ers. In an AX discrimination task, intonational contour of English utterances crossed with boundary strength. The results showed highly correlated discrimination patterns between the two language groups. The falling-level contour contrast was more salient than the rising-level contrast (in the context tested) and contour contrasts were more salient than boundary strength contrasts. This suggests that the L2ers' poor use of ips in comprehension is likely due to difficulty with prosody-syntax mappings.

Speech motor adaptation in adults with profound hearing loss

5

Sazzad M. Nasir & David J. Ostry Department of Psychology, McGill

Abstract

It is a puzzle how post-lingually deaf speakers, despite hearing loss, maintain speech intelligibility. Somatosensory input may possibly provide the needed sensory support for intelligible speech. In this study we assessed the role of somatosensory feedback in speech production in cochlear-implanted subjects who were tested with their implants turned off. We used a robotic device to alter speech movements, and hence somatosensory feedback, by delivering mechanical loads to the jaw. We found that even with limited training subjects adapted to the loads. Thus, somatosensory input mediates speech movements and hence, presumably also aids in maintaining speech intelligibility, in deaf adults.

Calculating telicity in L2

14

Larissa Nossalik Department of Linguistics, McGill University

Abstract

Recent linguistic research reveals that natural languages encode information about event structure (i.e., telicity, boundedness, dynamicity) syntactically. Although telicity is calculated within the little vP-domain cross-linguistically, the exact mechanism via which a verbal predicate acquires the telic value is language-specific.

The goal of my study is to determine whether L2 learners can acquire a telicity assigning mechanism different from their L1 mechanism. The results of the experiment that I conducted suggest that even less advanced L2 learners have no difficulties in acquiring the L2 telicity assigning mechanism, given that all L2 participants demonstrated native-like knowledge of it.

Une étude acoustique des séquences CVC produites par des sujets atteints de la maladie de Parkinson

4

Gabrielle Richard*, Amélie Brisebois*, Lucie Ménard*, Henri Cohen** et Emmanuelle Pourcher*** *Département de linguistique et de didactique des langues, UQAM), **Département de psychologie, UQAM, ***Clinique Mémoire et Mouvement de Québec

Abstract

La maladie de Parkinson (MP) est une maladie neurodégénérative qui affecte le système dopaminergique. La MP est connue pour ses effets sur le système moteur : bradykinésie, akinésie, rigidité musculaire et tremblements au repos. La parole requérant un contrôle moteur fin, cette étude pilote propose d'explorer les effets potentiels de la MP sur la production de la parole. Pour ce faire, nous avons enregistré 7 patients atteints de MP et 1 locuteur contrôle. Dans un premier volet, l'analyse acoustique à partir des valeurs formantiques nous permettra d'étudier les variations selon les contextes consonantiques et prosodiques, ainsi que les effets sur la coarticulation. Dans un deuxième volet, nous étudierons les stratégies articulatoires à partir des images recueillies avec l'ultrason. Nous espérons que les résultats obtenus mettront en relief des spécificités permettant de mieux qualifier la MP.

Brain processes underlying the integration of audio-visual speech and non-speech information

3

Axel H. Winneke & Natalie A. PhillipsDepartment of Psychology, Concordia University

Abstract

We investigated the electrophysiological processes underlying audio-visual (AV) speech perception. Participants performed a categorization task and response times were smallest for AV trials relative to A-alone and V-alone trials. This AV benefit was accompanied by a reduced auditory N1 relative to A-alone trials. This suggests that visual cues, which precede the auditory signal, prime the auditory system which thus processes speech sounds more efficiently. These findings differ from an earlier AV non-speech study (animal sounds and photos), which revealed an AV-related reduction in the visual N1. This indicates that AV speech is processed differently than multisensory non-speech stimuli.

Effects of auditory feedback on hearing-impaired subjects’ production of the rounding feature: a pilot study

6

Johanna-Pascale Roy, Lucie Ménard, Mark Tiede & Amélie Brisebois Département de linguistique et de didactique des langues, UQAM

Abstract

This paper describes a pilot study that investigated the effects of auditory feedback on vowel production in prelingually hearing-impaired subjects. The rounding feature in French vowels is used to study the effects of hearing state on labial configurations and acoustic patterns. Subjects wererecorded in two conditions: without their hearing aid (no auditory feedback) and with their hearing aid (with auditory feedback). The results show that temporary deprivation of auditory feedback causes changes in vowel production in the labial space. However, these changes are not reflected by a variation in vowel contrast, even though subjects tend to speak more clearly without their aid. It may be hypothesized that prelingually hearing-impaired subjects produce robust rounding features minimally influenced by temporary deprivation of auditory feedback.

Sensory and motor adaptation following auditory perturbation of /s/ production.

11

Douglas Shiller, Marc Sato, Vincent Gracco & Shari Baum SCSD, McGill University

Abstract

Studies of speech adaptation to altered auditory feedback have revealed that motor plans underlying vowel production are flexible, and that subjects will readily alter their motor output in order to achieve auditory perceptual targets. In the present study, we have extended this work by spectrally shifting the acoustic signal for the sibilant /s/ during the production of short /s/-initial words. Evidence of motor adaptation was observed following a brief, intensive period of practice under altered auditory conditions, indicating a role for auditory feedback in sibilant production. In addition to changes in speech motor output, subjects showed changes to their auditory speech-sound representations following the manipulation, suggesting that adaptation was not limited to the motor domain.

Do verbal cues facilitate the learning of nouns?

12

Marie Lippeveld & Yuriko Oshima-Takane Department of Psychology, McGill University

Abstract

Previous research has shown that object manipulation is an important factor for young children to extend object names by function. We investigated whether French-speaking children under 3 years of age are able to extend the names of novel objects by function, without prior object manipulation, when they hear the verb form of the novel noun. Children in the specific verb condition heard a novel noun as well as its verb form denoting the function of the object during the teaching trial, while those in the non-specific condition heard a novel noun and a general-purpose verb. The results indicate that only children in the specific verb condition were able to extend the novel name to a previously unseen object by function.