scholarly journals Conducting Language Production Research Online: A Web-based Study of Semantic Context and Name Agreement Effects in Multi-Word Production

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jieying He ◽  
Antje S. Meyer ◽  
Ava Creemers ◽  
Laurel Brehm

Few web-based experiments have explored spoken language production, perhaps due to concerns of data quality, especially for measuring onset latencies. The present study highlights how speech production research can be done outside of the laboratory by measuring utterance durations and speech fluency in a multiple-object naming task when examining two effects related to lexical selection: semantic context and name agreement. A web-based modified blocked-cyclic naming paradigm was created, in which participants named a total of sixteen simultaneously presented pictures on each trial. The pictures were either four tokens from the same semantic category (homogeneous context), or four tokens from different semantic categories (heterogeneous context). Name agreement of the pictures was varied orthogonally (high, low). In addition to onset latency, five dependent variables were measured to index naming performance: accuracy, utterance duration, total pause time, the number of chunks (word groups pronounced without intervening pauses), and first chunk length. Bayesian analyses showed effects of semantic context and name agreement for some of the dependent measures, but no interaction. We discuss the methodological implications of the current study and make best practice recommendations for spoken language production research in an online environment.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Wöhner ◽  
Andreas Mädebach ◽  
Jörg D. Jescheniak

Semantic context effects obtained in naming tasks have been most influential in devising and evaluating models of word production. We re-investigated this effect in the frequently used blocked-cyclic naming task in which stimuli are presented repeatedly either sorted by semantic category (homogeneous context) or intermixed (heterogeneous context). Previous blocked-cyclic naming studies have shown slower picture naming responses in the homogeneous context. Our study compared this context effect in two task versions, picture naming and sound naming. Target words were identical across task versions (e.g., participants responded with the word “dog” to either the picture of that animal or to the sound [barking] produced by it). We found semantic interference in the homogeneous context also with sounds and the effect was substantially larger than with pictures (Experiments 1 and 2). This difference is unlikely to result from extended perceptual processing of sounds as compared to pictures (Experiments 3 and 4) or from stronger links between pictures and object names than between sounds and object names (Experiment 5). Overall, our results show that semantic context effects in blocked-cyclic naming generalize to stimulus types other than pictures and – in part – also reflect pre-lexical processes that depend on the nature of the stimuli used for eliciting the naming responses.


2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 1567-1586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Aristei ◽  
Alissa Melinger ◽  
Rasha Abdel Rahman

In this study, we investigated semantic context effects in language production with event-related brain potentials, extracted from the ongoing EEG recorded during overt speech production. We combined the picture–word interference paradigm and the semantic blocking paradigm to investigate the temporal dynamics and functional loci of semantic facilitation and interference effects. Objects were named in the context of semantically homogeneous blocks consisting of related objects and heterogeneous blocks consisting of unrelated objects. In each blocking condition, semantically related and unrelated distractor words were presented. Results show that classic patterns of semantically induced facilitation and interference effects in RTs can be directly related to ERP modulations located at temporal and frontal sites, starting at about 200 msec. Results also suggest that the processes associated with semantic facilitation and interference effects (i.e., conceptual and lexical processing) are highly interactive and coincide in time. Implications for the use of event-related brain potentials in speech production research and implications for current models of speech production are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Wöhner ◽  
Andreas Mädebach ◽  
Jörg D. Jescheniak

Semantic context effects obtained in naming tasks have been most influential in devising and evaluating models of word production. We re-investigated this effect in the frequently used blocked-cyclic naming task in which stimuli are presented repeatedly either sorted by semantic category (homogeneous context) or intermixed (heterogeneous context). Previous blocked-cyclic naming studies have shown slower picture naming responses in the homogeneous context. Our study compared this context effect in two task versions, picture naming and sound naming. Target words were identical across task versions (e.g., participants responded with the word “dog” to either the picture of that animal or to the sound [barking] produced by it). We found semantic interference in the homogeneous context also with sounds and the effect was substantially larger than with pictures (Experiments 1 and 2). This difference is unlikely to result from extended perceptual processing of sounds as compared to pictures (Experiments 3 and 4) or from stronger links between pictures and object names than between sounds and object names (Experiment 5). Overall, our results show that semantic context effects in blocked-cyclic naming generalize to stimulus types other than pictures and – in part – also reflect pre-lexical processes that depend on the nature of the stimuli used for eliciting the naming responses.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga A. Wudarczyk ◽  
Murat Kirtay ◽  
Doris Pischedda ◽  
Verena V. Hafner ◽  
John-Dylan Haynes ◽  
...  

AbstractDespite recent developments in integrating autonomous and human-like robots into many aspects of everyday life, social interactions with robots are still a challenge. Here, we focus on a central tool for social interaction: verbal communication. We assess the extent to which humans co-represent (simulate and predict) a robot’s verbal actions. During a joint picture naming task, participants took turns in naming objects together with a social robot (Pepper, Softbank Robotics). Previous findings using this task with human partners revealed internal simulations on behalf of the partner down to the level of selecting words from the mental lexicon, reflected in partner-elicited inhibitory effects on subsequent naming. Here, with the robot, the partner-elicited inhibitory effects were not observed. Instead, naming was facilitated, as revealed by faster naming of word categories co-named with the robot. This facilitation suggests that robots, unlike humans, are not simulated down to the level of lexical selection. Instead, a robot’s speaking appears to be simulated at the initial level of language production where the meaning of the verbal message is generated, resulting in facilitated language production due to conceptual priming. We conclude that robots facilitate core conceptualization processes when humans transform thoughts to language during speaking.


Author(s):  
Robert J. Hartsuiker ◽  
Lies Notebaert

A picture naming experiment in Dutch tested whether disfluencies in speech can arise from difficulties in lexical access. Speakers described networks consisting of line drawings and paths connecting these drawings, and we manipulated picture name agreement. Consistent with our hypothesis, there were more pauses and more self-corrections in the low name agreement condition than the high name agreement condition, but there was no effect on repetitions. We also considered determiner frequency. There were more self-corrections and more repetitions when the picture name required the less frequent (neuter-gender) determiner “het” than the more frequent (common-gender) determiner “de”. These data suggest that difficulties in distinct stages of language production result in distinct patterns of disfluencies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (S1) ◽  
pp. 103-103
Author(s):  
Rose-Marie Dröes ◽  
Yvette Vermeer ◽  
Sébastien Libert ◽  
Sophie Gaber ◽  
Sarah Wallcook ◽  
...  

The Interdisciplinary Network for Dementia Using Current Technology, INDUCT, is a Marie Sklodowska Curie funded International Training Network that aims to develop a multi-disciplinary, inter-sectorial educational research framework for Europe to improve technology and care for people with dementia, and to provide the evidence to show how technology can improve the lives of people with dementia. Within INDUCT (2016-2020) 15 Early Stage Researchers worked on projects in the areas of Technology to support every day life; technology to promote meaningful activities; and health care technology.Three transversal objectives were adopted by INDUCT: 1) To determine the practical, cognitive and social factors needed to make technology more useable for people with dementia; 2) To evaluate the effectiveness of specific contemporary technology; and 3) To trace facilitators and barriers for implementation of technology in dementia care.The main recommendations resulting from the research projects are integrated in a web-based digital Best Practice Guidance on Human Interaction with Technology in Dementia which will be presented at the congress. The recommendations are meant to be helpful for different target groups, i.e. people with dementia, their formal and informal carers, policy makers, designers and researchers, who can easily select the for them relevant recommendations in the Best Practice Guidance by means of a selection tool. The main aim of the Best Practice Guidance is to improve the development, usage and implementation of technology for people with dementia in the three mentioned technology areas.This Best Practice Guidance is the result of the intensive collaborative partnership of INDUCT with academic and non-academic partners as well as the involvement of representatives of the different target groups throughout the INDUCT project.Acknowledgements: The research presented was carried out within the Marie Sklodowska Curie International Training Network (ITN) action, H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015, grant agreement number 676265.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingqing Qu ◽  
Markus F. Damian

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia van Scherpenberg ◽  
Rasha Abdel Rahman ◽  
Hellmuth Obrig

Semantic context modulates precision and speed of language production. Using different experimental designs including the Picture-Word-Interference (PWI) paradigm, it has consistently been shown that categorically related distractor words (e.g., cat) inhibit retrieval of the target picture name (dog). Here we introduce a novel variant of the PWI paradigm in which we present 8 words prior to a to be named target picture. Within this set, the number of words categorically related was varied between 3 and 5, and the picture to be named was either related or unrelated to the respective category. To disentangle interacting effects of semantic context we combined different naming paradigms manipulating the number of competitors, and assessing the effect of repeated naming instances. Evaluating processing of the cohort by eye-tracking provided us with a metric of the (implicit) recognition of the semantic cohort. Results replicate the interference effect in that overall naming of pictures categorically related to the distractor set was slower compared to unrelated pictures. However, interference did not increase with increasing number of distractors. Tracking this effect across naming repetitions, we found that interference is prominent at the first naming instance of every picture only, whereby it is stable across distractor conditions, but dissipates across the experiment. Regarding eye-tracking our data show that participants fixated longer on semantically related items, indicating the identification of the lexico-semantic cohort. Our findings confirm the validity of the novel paradigm and indicate that besides interference during first exposure, repeated exposure to the semantic context may facilitate picture naming and counteract lexical interference.


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