Paradigmatic associations and individual variability in early lexical–semantic networks: Evidence from a free association task.

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Erica H. Wojcik ◽  
Padmapriya Kandhadai
Keyword(s):  
Free Association ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Association Task

scholarly journals Towards an individualised neural assessment of receptive language in children

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selene Petit ◽  
Nicholas A. Badcock ◽  
Tijl Grootswagers ◽  
Anina N. Rich ◽  
Jon Brock ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Detection Rate ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Univariate Analysis ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Grade System ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Research Grade

AbstractPurposeWe aimed to develop a non-invasive neural test of language comprehension to use with non-speaking children for whom standard behavioural testing is unreliable (e.g., minimally-verbal autism). Our aims were three-fold. First, we sought to establish the sensitivity of two auditory paradigms to elicit neural responses in individual neurotypical children. Second, we aimed to validate the use of a portable and accessible electroencephalography (EEG) system, by comparing its recordings to those of a research-grade system. Third, in light of substantial inter-individual variability in individuals’ neural responses, we assessed whether multivariate decoding methods could improve sensitivity.MethodsWe tested the sensitivity of two child-friendly covert N400 paradigms. Thirty-one typically developing children listened to identical spoken words that were either strongly predicted by the preceding context or violated lexical-semantic expectations. Context was given by a cue word (Experiment 1) or sentence frame (Experiment 2) and participants either made an overall judgement on word relatedness or counted lexical-semantic violations. We measured EEG concurrently from a research-grade system, Neuroscan’s SynAmps2, and an adapted gaming system, Emotiv’s EPOC+.ResultsWe found substantial inter-individual variability in the timing and topology of N400-like effects. For both paradigms and EEG systems, traditional N400 effects at the expected sensors and time points were statistically significant in around 50% of individuals. Using multivariate analyses, detection rate increased to 88% of individuals for the research-grade system in the sentences paradigm, illustrating the robustness of this method in the face of inter-individual variations in topography.ConclusionsThere was large inter-individual variability in neural responses, suggesting inter-individual variation in either the cognitive response to lexical-semantic violations, and/or the neural substrate of that response. Around half of our neurotypical participants showed the expected N400 effect at the expected location and time point. A low-cost, accessible EEG system provided comparable data for univariate analysis but was not well suited to multivariate decoding. However, multivariate analyses with a research-grade EEG system increased our detection rate to 88% of individuals. This approach provides a strong foundation to establish a neural index of language comprehension in children with limited communication.

Attitudes, Cognitive Structures and Emotional Reactivity to Sex and Security: Sex Differences

1974 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 715-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard S. Cimbalo ◽  
Paulette A. Anzelone ◽  
Patricia A. Ryan ◽  
Marianne P. Younkers
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Physiological Response ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Free Association ◽  
Cognitive Structures ◽  
Sexual Stimuli ◽  
Association Task

An attempt was made to determine if sex differences existed for attitudes, cognitive structures, and emotional reactivity for concepts of sex and security and for stimuli. It was hypothesized that for males, the concept of sex and/or sexual stimuli will be ranked higher, elicit a stronger physiological response, elicit a greater number of responses in a free-association task, and be more prevalent in compositions written about love, and that for females, the concept of security and/or security stimuli will be greater on the above measures. The data (with the exception of the paragraph written about love) were interpreted as supporting the sex differences along the sex and security dimensions.

Differentiating Views of Inheritance: The Free Association Task as a Method to Assess Social Representations of Wealth, Inherit, and Bequeath

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Stark ◽  
Christoph Kogler ◽  
Helmut Gaisbauer ◽  
Clemens Sedmak ◽  
Erich Kirchler
Keyword(s):  
Social Representations ◽  
Free Association ◽  
Association Task

Spreading activation of lexical–semantic networks in Parkinson's disease

2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (7) ◽  
pp. 1908-1914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul S. Foster ◽  
Valeria Drago ◽  
David B. FitzGerald ◽  
Barry M. Skoblar ◽  
Gregory P. Crucian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
Spreading Activation ◽  
Lexical Semantic

scholarly journals Unconstrained multivariate EEG decoding can help detect lexical-semantic processing in individual children

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selene Petit ◽  
Nicholas A. Badcock ◽  
Tijl Grootswagers ◽  
Alexandra Woolgar
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Neural Signals ◽  
Individual Subject ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Semantic Comprehension ◽  
Autistic Population

AbstractIn conditions such as minimally-verbal autism, standard assessments of language comprehension are often unreliable. Given the known heterogeneity within the autistic population, it is crucial to design tests of semantic comprehension that are sensitive in individuals. Recent efforts to develop neural signals of language comprehension have focused on the N400, a robust marker of lexical-semantic violation at the group level. However, homogeneity of response in individual neurotypical children has not been established. Here, we presented 20 neurotypical children with congruent and incongruent visual animations and spoken sentences while measuring their neural response using EEG. Despite robust group-level responses, we found high inter-individual variability in response to lexico-semantic anomalies. To overcome this, we analysed our data using temporally and spatially unconstrained MVPA, supplemented by descriptive analyses to examine the timecourse, topography, and strength of the effect. Our results show that neurotypical children exhibit heterogenous responses to lexical-semantic violation, implying that any application to heterogenous disorders such as ASD will require individual-subject analyses that are robust to variation in topology and timecourse of neural responses.

scholarly journals The structure of developing semantic networks: Evidence from single and multiple nominal word associations in young monolingual and bilingual readers

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1141-1169
Author(s):  
Tessa Spätgens ◽  
Rob Schoonen
Keyword(s):  
Word Association ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Coding System ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Word Associations ◽  
Association Task ◽  
Multiple Association

ABSTRACTThe present study focuses on the effect of an important methodological choice in word association studies in children: the elicitation of single versus multiple responses. This choice has been shown to affect the numbers and types of associations adults produce, however, little is known about how it affects children’s word associations. A total of 11,725 associations to 80 nouns from 207 monolingual and bilingual minority children were classified according to a detailed coding system, and differences between the semantic characteristics of first, second, and third responses were examined. We show that in children as well, the multiple association task elicits more and qualitatively different responses, resulting in more diversified semantic networks surrounding the stimulus nouns. On the speaker level, reading comprehension scores were related differently to initial and later responses, suggesting a more complex measure of semantic knowledge emerges from the multiple word association task. No differences were found between monolingual and bilingual children’s associative preferences. We argue that the multiple association task produces more detailed data on language users’ semantic networks than the single association task, and suggest a number of ways in which this task could be employed in future research.

scholarly journals Word Co-occurrence in Child-directed Speech Predicts Children's Free Word Associations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdellah Fourtassi
Keyword(s):  
Computational Linguistics ◽  
Conceptual Development ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Free Association ◽  
Semantic Model ◽  
Word Associations ◽  
Association Task ◽  
Associative Behavior ◽  
Free Word ◽  
Large Corpus

The free association task has been very influential both in cognitive science and in computational linguistics. However, little research has been done to study how free associations develop in childhood. The current work focuses on the developmental hypothesis according to which free word associations emerge by mirroring the co-occurrence distribution of children's linguistic environment. I trained a distributional semantic model on a large corpus of child language and I tested if it could predict children's responses. The results largely supported the hypothesis: Co-occurrence-based similarity was a strong predictor of children's associative behavior even controlling for other possible predictors such as phonological similarity, word frequency, and word length. I discuss the findings in the light of theories of conceptual development.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document