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The auditory dorsal stream connects the auditory cortex with the parietal lobe, which in turn connects with inferior frontal gyrus. In both humans and non-human primates, the auditory dorsal stream is responsible for sound localization, and is accordingly known as the auditory 'where' pathway. In humans, this pathway (... |
The auditory dorsal stream also has non-language related functions, such as sound localization and guidance of eye movements. Recent studies also indicate a role of the ADS in localization of family/tribe members, as a study that recorded from the cortex of an epileptic patient reported that the pSTG, but not aSTG, is ... |
Neuroscientific research has provided a scientific understanding of how sign language is processed in the brain. There are over 135 discrete sign languages around the world- making use of different accents formed by separate areas of a country. |
By resorting to lesion analyses and neuroimaging, neuroscientists have discovered that whether it be spoken or sign language, human brains process language in general, in a similar manner regarding which area of the brain is being used. Lesion analyses are used to examine the consequences of damage to specific brain re... |
Previous hypotheses have been made that damage to Broca's area or Wernicke’s area does not affect sign language being perceived; however, it is not the case. Studies have shown that damage to these areas are similar in results in spoken language where sign errors are present and/or repeated. In both types of languages,... |
There are obvious patterns for utilizing and processing language. In sign language, Broca’s area is activated while processing sign language employs Wernicke’s area similar to that of spoken language |
There have been other hypotheses about the lateralization of the two hemispheres. Specifically, the right hemisphere was thought to contribute to the overall communication of a language globally whereas the left hemisphere would be dominant in generating the language locally. Through research in aphasias, RHD signers w... |
There is a comparatively small body of research on the neurology of reading and writing. Most of the studies performed deal with reading rather than writing or spelling, and the majority of both kinds focus solely on the English language. English orthography is less transparent than that of other languages using a Lati... |
In terms of spelling, English words can be divided into three categories – regular, irregular, and “novel words” or “nonwords.” Regular words are those in which there is a regular, one-to-one correspondence between grapheme and phoneme in spelling. Irregular words are those in which no such correspondence exists. Nonwo... |
An issue in the cognitive and neurological study of reading and spelling in English is whether a single-route or dual-route model best describes how literate speakers are able to read and write all three categories of English words according to accepted standards of orthographic correctness. Single-route models posit t... |
The single-route model for reading has found support in computer modelling studies, which suggest that readers identify words by their orthographic similarities to phonologically alike words. However, cognitive and lesion studies lean towards the dual-route model. Cognitive spelling studies on children and adults sugge... |
Far less information exists on the cognition and neurology of non-alphabetic and non-English scripts. Every language has a morphological and a phonological component, either of which can be recorded by a writing system. Scripts recording words and morphemes are considered logographic, while those recording phonological... |
In terms of complexity, writing systems can be characterized as “transparent” or “opaque” and as “shallow” or “deep.” A “transparent” system exhibits an obvious correspondence between grapheme and sound, while in an “opaque” system this relationship is less obvious. The terms “shallow” and “deep” refer to the extent th... |
A Growth Point is a technical term in cognitive linguistics and gesture research. It refers to the earliest beginnings of a spoken utterance in the mind of a speaker, combining the beginnings of a mimetic gesture with the preliminary verbal expression of the person's thought. |
An alternate theory of deriving the meaning of newly learned words by young children during language acquisition stems from John Locke's "associative proposal theory". Compared to the "intentional proposal theory", associative proposal theory refers to the deduction of meaning by comparing the novel object to environme... |
Some researchers are concerned that experiments testing for fast mapping are produced in artificial settings. They feel that fast mapping doesn't occur as often in more real life, natural situations. They believe that testing for fast mapping should focus more on the actual understanding of a word instead of just its r... |
Variables affecting an individual's fast mapping ability. |
When learning novel words, it is believed that early exposure to multiple linguistic systems facilitates the acquisition of new words later in life. This effect was referred to by Kaushanskaya and Marian (2009) as the bilingual advantage. That being said, a bilingual individual's ability to fast map can vary greatly th... |
During the language acquisition process, a child may require a greater amount of time to determine a correct referent than a child who is a monolingual speaker. By the time a bilingual child is of school age, they perform equally on naming tasks when compared to monolingual children. By the age of adulthood, bilingual ... |
Bilingualism can increase an individual's cognitive abilities and contribute to their success in fast mapping words, even when they are using a nonnative language. |
Children growing up in a low-socioeconomic status environment receive less attention than those in high-socioeconomic status environments. As a result, these children may be exposed to fewer words and therefore their language development may suffer. On norm-references vocabulary tests, children from low- socioeconomic ... |
Three learning supports that have been proven to help with the fast mapping of words are saliency, repetition and generation of information. The amount of face-to-face interaction a child has with their parent affects his or her ability to fast map novel words. Interaction with a parent leads to greater exposure to wor... |
Evidence of fast mapping in other animals. |
It appears that fast mapping is not only limited to humans, but can occur in dogs as well. |
The first example of fast mapping in dogs was published in 2004. In it, a dog named Rico was able to learn the labels of over 200 various items. He was also able to identify novel objects simply by exclusion learning. Exclusion learning occurs when one learns the name of a novel object because one is already familiar w... |
In 2010, a second example was published. This time, a dog named Chaser demonstrated, in a controlled research environment, that she had learned over 1000 object names. She also demonstrated that she could attribute these objects to named categories through fast mapping inferential reasoning. It's important to note that... |
Another study on Chaser was published in 2013. In this study, Chaser demonstrated flexible understanding of simple sentences. In these sentences, syntax was altered in various contexts to prove she had not just memorized full phrases or inferred the expectation through gestures from her evaluators. Discovering this ski... |
However, excitement about the fast-mapping skills of dogs should be tempered. Research in humans has found fast-mapping abilities and vocabulary size are not correlated in unenriched environments. Research has determined that language exposure alone is not enough to develop vocabulary through fast-mapping. Instead, the... |
It is not commonplace to communicate with dogs, nor any non-primate animal, in a productive fashion as they are non-verbal. As such, Chaser's vocabulary and sentence comprehension is attributed to Dr. Pilley's rigorous methodology. |
An experiment was performed to assess fast mapping in adults with typical language abilities, disorders of spoken/written language (hDSWL), and adults with hDSWL and ADHD. |
The conclusion draws from the experiment revealed that adults with ADHD were the least accurate at "mapping semantic features and slower to respond to lexical labels." |
The article reasoned that the tasks of fast mapping requires high attentional demand and so "a lapse in attention could lead to diminished encoding of the new information." |
Research in artificial intelligence and machine learning to reproduce computationally this ability, termed one-shot learning. This is pursued to reduce the learning curve, as other models like reinforcement learning need thousand of exposures to a situation to learn it. |
Autoclitics are verbal responses that modify the effect on the listener of the primary operants that comprise B.F. Skinner's classification of Verbal Behavior. |
An autoclitic is a verbal behavior that modifies the functions of other verbal behaviors. For example, "I think it is raining" possesses the autoclitic "I think," which moderates the strength of the statement "it is raining." Research that involves autoclitics includes Lodhi & Greer (1989). |
Skinner describes grammatical manipulations, such as the order or grouping of responses, as autoclitic. The ordering of patterns may be a function of relevant strength, temporal ordering, or other factors. Skinner speaks to the use of predication and the use of tags, contrasting the Latin forms, which use tags—and Engl... |
Composition represents a special class of autoclitic responding, because the responding is itself a response to previously existing verbal responses. The autoclitic is controlled not only by the effects on the listener but upon the speaker as listener of their own responses. Skinner notes that "emotional and imaginal" ... |
Self-editing as a compositional process follows the autoclitic process of manipulating responses. After the responses are changed with autoclitics they are examined for their effects and then "rejected or released." Conditions may prevent self-editing, such as a very high response strength. |
The physical topography of the rejection of verbal behavior in the process of editing varies from the partial emission of a written word to the apparent non-emission of a vocal response. It may include ensuring that responses simply do not reach a listener, as in not delivering a manuscript or letter. Manipulative auto... |
A speaker may fail to react as a listener to their own speech under conditions where the emission of verbal responses is very quick. The speed may be a function of strength or of differential reinforcement. Physical interruption may arise as in the case of those who are hearing impaired, or under conditions of mechanic... |
The main use of language is to transfer thoughts from one mind, to another mind. The bits of linguistic information that enter into one person's mind, from another, cause people to entertain a new thought with profound effects on his world knowledge, inferencing, and subsequent behavior. Language neither creates nor di... |
Language of thought theories rely on the belief that mental representation has linguistic structure. Thoughts are "sentences in the head", meaning they take place within a mental language. Two theories work in support of the language of thought theory. Causal syntactic theory of mental practices hypothesizes that menta... |
LOTH hinges on the belief that the mind works like a computer, always in computational processes. The theory believes that mental representation has both a combinatorial syntax and compositional semantics. The claim is that mental representations possess combinatorial syntax and compositional semantic—that is, mental r... |
Another prominent linguist, Stephen Pinker, developed this idea of a mental language in his book "The Language Instinct" (1994). Pinker refers to this mental language as "mentalese". In the glossary of his book, Pinker defines mentalese as a hypothetical language used specifically for thought. This hypothetical languag... |
Different cultures use numbers in different ways. The Munduruku culture for example, has number words only up to five. In addition, they refer to the number 5 as "a hand" and the number 10 as "two hands". Numbers above 10 are usually referred to as "many". |
Language may influence color processing. Having more names for different colors, or different shades of colors, makes it easier both for children and for adults to recognize them. Research has found that all languages have names for black and white and that the colors defined by each language follow a certain pattern (... |
The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis is the premise of the 2016 science fiction film "Arrival". The protagonist explains that "the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis is the theory that the language you speak determines how you think". |
A psycholinguist is a social scientist who studies psycholinguistics, which connects psychology and linguistics. Psycholinguistics is interdisciplinary in nature and is studied by people in a variety of fields, such as, psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, neuroscience and many more. The main aim of psycholingui... |
More specifically, a psycholinguist studies language, speech production, and comprehension by using behavioral and neurological methods traditionally developed in the field of psychology, but other methods such as corpus analysis are also widely used. Psycholinguists typically receive undergraduate degrees in linguisti... |
Psycholinguists currently represent a widely diverse field. Many psycholinguists are also considered to be neurolinguists, cognitive linguists, neurocognitive linguists, or are associated with those who are. There are subtle differences between the titles, though they are all attempting to use different facets of simil... |
When conducting research, psycholinguists use a variety of techniques that can involve qualitative and/or quantitative data. Typical methods of research include: observation (language recording), experimentation (issuing language tests), and self-reports (participants report what they are experiencing). The research te... |
There are many associations that include professionals in the psycholinguist field worldwide, such as the following: |
In psycholinguistics, the collaborative model (or conversational model) is a theory for explaining how speaking and understanding work in conversation, specifically how people in conversation coordinate to determine definite references. |
The model was initially proposed in 1986 by psycholinguists Herb Clark and Deanna Wilkes-Gibbs. It asserts that conversation partners must act collaboratively to reach a mutual understanding – i.e. the speaker must tailor their utterances to better suit the listener, and the listener must indicate to the speaker that t... |
In this ongoing process, both conversation partners must work together in order to establish what a given noun phrase is referring to. The referential process can be initiated by the speaker using one of at least six types of noun phrases: the elementary noun phrase, the episodic noun phrase, the installment noun phras... |
Once this presentation is made, the listener must accept it either through presupposing acceptance (i.e. letting the speaker continue uninterrupted) or asserting acceptance (i.e. through a continuer such as "yes", okay", or a head nod). The speaker must then acknowledge this signal of acceptance. In this process, prese... |
The collaborative model finds its roots in Grice's cooperative principle and four Gricean maxims, theories which prominently established the idea that conversation is a collaborative process between speaker and listener. |
However, until the Clark & Wilkes-Gibbs study, the prevailing theory was the literary model (or autonomous model or traditional model). This model likened the process of a speaker establishing reference to an author writing a book to distant readers. In the literary model, the speaker is the one who retains complete co... |
This autonomous view of reference establishment wasn't challenged until a paper by D.R. Olson was published in 1970. It was then suggested that there very well could be a collaborative element in the process of establishing reference. Olson, while still holding to the literary model, suggested that speakers select the ... |
Clark and Wilkes-Gibbs criticized the literary model in their 1986 paper; they asserted that the model failed to account for the dynamic nature of verbal conversations. |
In the same paper, they proposed the Collaborative Model as an alternative. They believed this model was more able to explain the aforementioned features of conversation. They had conducted an experiment to support this theory and also to further determine how the acceptance process worked. |
The experiment consisted of two participants seated at tables separated by an opaque screen. On the tables in front of each participant were a series of Tangram figures arranged in different orders. One participant, called the director, was tasked with getting the other participant, called the matcher, to accurately ma... |
The collaborative model they proposed allowed them to make several predictions about what would happen. They predicted that it would require many more words to establish reference the first time, as the participants would need to use non-standard noun phrases which would make it difficult to determine which figures wer... |
The results of the study confirmed many of their beliefs, and outlined some of the processes of collaborative reference, including establishing the types of noun phrases used in presentation, and their frequency. |
The following actions were observed in participants working towards mutual acceptance of a reference; |
Grounding is the final stage in the collaborative process. The concept was proposed by Herbert H. Clark and Susan E. Brennan in 1991. It comprises the collection of "mutual knowledge, mutual beliefs, and mutual assumptions" that is essential for communication between two people. Successful grounding in communication re... |
The parties engaging in grounding exchange information over what they do or do not understand over the course of a communication and they will continue to clarify concepts until they have agreed on grounding criterion. There are generally two phases in grounding: |
Subsequent studies affirmed many of Clark and Wilkes-Gibbs' theories. These included a study by Clark and Michael Schober in 1989 that dealt with overhearers and contrasting how well they understand compared to direct addressees. In the literary model, overhearers would be expected to understand as well as addressees, ... |
The study conducted by the pair mimicked the Clark/Wilkes-Gibbs study, but included a silent overhearer as part of the process. The speaker and addressee were allowed to converse, while the overhearer attempted to arrange his figures according to what the speaker was saying. In different versions of this study, overhea... |
The study found that overhearers had significantly more difficulty than addressees in both experiments, therefore, according to the researchers, lending credence to the collaborative model. |
The literary model described above still stands as a directly opposing viewpoint to the collaborative model. Subsequent studies also sought to point out weaknesses in the theory. One study, by Brown and Dell, took issue with the aspect of the theory that suggests that speakers have particular listeners in mind when det... |
Another study, in 2002 by Barr and Keysar, also criticized the particular listener view and partner-specific reference. In the experiment, addresses and speakers established definite references for a series of objects on a wall. Then, another speaker entered, using the same references. The theory was that, if the partn... |
In neuroscience and psychology, the term language center refers collectively to the areas of the brain which serve a particular function for speech processing and production. Language is a core system, which gives humans the capacity to solve difficult problems and provides them with a unique type of social interaction... |
Information is exchanged in a larger system including language-related regions. These regions are connected by white matter fiber tracts that make possible the transmission of information between regions. The white matter fiber bunches were recognized to be important for language production after suggesting that it is ... |
Broca's Area was first suggested to play a role in speech function by the French neurologist and anthropologist Paul Broca in 1861. The basis for this discovery was the analysis of speech problems resulting from injuries to this region of the brain, located in the inferior frontal gyrus. Paul Broca had a patient called... |
Broca’s area is well-known for being the syntactic processing “center”. It has been known since Paul Broca associated speech production with an area in the posterior inferior frontal gyrus, which he called “Broca’s area”. Although this area is in charge of speech production, its particular role in the language system ... |
In a simple explanation of speech production, this area approaches phonological word representation chronologically divided into segments of syllables which then is sent to different motor areas where they are converted into a phonetic code. The study of how this area produces speech has been made with paradigms using ... |
Broca’s area is correlated with phonological segmentation, unification, and syntactic processing, which are all connected to linguistic information. This area, although it synchronizes the transformation of information within cortical systems involved in spoken word production, does not contribute to the production of ... |
Furthermore, Broca’s area is structurally related to the thalamus and both are engaged in language processing. The connectivity between both areas is two thalamic nuclei, the pulvinar, and the ventral nucleus, which are involved in language processing and linguistic functions similar to BA 44 and 45 in Broca’s area. Pu... |
Broca's Area is today still considered an important language center, playing a central role in processing syntax, grammar, and sentence structure. |
Wernicke’s area was named for German doctor Carl Wernicke, who discovered it in 1874 in the course of his research into aphasias (loss of ability to speak).This area of the brain is involved in language comprehension. Therefore, Wernicke’s area is for understanding oral language. Besides Wernicke’s area, the left poste... |
While the finale of speech production is a sequence of muscle movements, the activation of knowledge about the sequence of phonemes (consonants and vowel speech sounds) that creates a word is a phonological retrieval. Wernicke’s area contributes to phonological retrieval. All speech production tasks (e.g. word retrieva... |
The angular gyrus is an important element in processing concrete and abstract concepts. It also has a role in verbal working memory during retrieval for verbal information and in visual memory for when turning written language into spoken language. The left AG is activated in semantic processing requiring concept retri... |
The insula is implicated in speech and language, taking part in functional and structural connections with motor, linguistic, sensory, and limbic brain areas. The knowledge about the function of the insula in speech production comes from different studies with patients who suffered from apraxia of speech. These studies... |
Many different sources state that the study of the brain and therefore, language disorders, originated in the 19th century and linguistic analysis of those disorders began throughout the 20th century. Studying language impairments in the brain after injuries aids to comprehend how the brain works and how it changes aft... |
There are numerous distinctive ways in which language can be affected. Phonemic paraphasia, an attribute of conduction aphasia and Wernicke aphasia, is not the speech comprehension impairment. Instead, it is the speech production damage, where the desire phonemes are selected erroneously or in an incorrect sequence. Th... |
Another lesion that involves impairment in language production and processing is the “apraxia of speech”, a difficulty synchronizing articulators essential for speech production. This lesion is located in the superior pre-central gyrus of the insula and is more likely to occur to patients with Broca’s aphasia. Dominant... |
Dyslexia is a language processing disorder. It involves learning difficulties such as reading, writing, word recognition, phonological recording, numeracy, and spelling. Although having access to appropriate intervention during childhood, these difficulties continue throughout the lifespan. Moreover, children are diagn... |
Some characteristics that distinguish dyslexics are incompetent phonological processing abilities causing misread of unfamiliar words and affecting comprehension; inadequacy of working memory affecting speaking, reading, and writing; errors in oral reading; oral skills difficulties as expressing oneself; and writing sk... |
Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder caused by damage in the central and/or peripheral nervous system and it is related to degenerative neurological diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Dysarthria is caused by a mechanical difficulty in the vocal cords... |
Improvements in computer technology, in the late 20th century, has allowed a better understanding of the correlation between brain and language, and the disorder that this entails. This improvement has permitted a better visualization of the brain structure in high resolution three-dimensional images. It has also allow... |
In the past, research was primarily based on observations of loss of ability resulting from damage to the cerebral cortex. Indeed, medical imaging has represented a radical step forward for research on speech processing. Since then, a whole series of relatively large areas of the brain are involved in speech processing... |
· "Superior temporal gyrus" (STG): morphosyntactic processing (anterior section), integration of syntactic and semantic information (posterior section) |
· "Inferior frontal gyrus" (IFG, Brodmann area (BA) 45/47): syntactic processing, working memory |
· "Inferior frontal gyrus" (IFG, BA 44): syntactic processing, working memory |
· "Middle temporal gyrus" (MTG): lexical semantic processing |
· Angular gyrus (AG): semantic processes (posterior temporal cortex) |
The left hemisphere is usually dominant in right-handed people, although bilateral activations are not uncommon in the area of syntactic processing. It is now accepted that the right hemisphere plays an important role in the processing of suprasegmental acoustic features like prosody; which is “the rhythmic and melodic... |
Most areas of speech processing develop in the second year of life in the dominant half (hemisphere) of the brain, which often (though not necessarily) corresponds to the opposite of the dominant hand. 98% of right-handed people are left-hemisphere dominant, and the majority of left-handed people are as well. |
Computerized tomographic (CT) scans is another technique of the 1970s, which produce low spatial resolution but provides the location of the injury "in vivo". Moreover, Voxel-based Lesion Symptom Mapping (VLSM) and Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) techniques contributed to the understanding that specific brain regions hav... |
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