Previous studies using artificial languages suggest that sentence production can be guided by verb-specific as well as verb-general statistics present in the language input. Here we investigated whether the statistical properties of ongoing input in the speakers' native language systematically affected their sentence production. Three experiments…

Recent research that explored how input exposure and learner characteristics influence novel L2 morphosyntactic pattern learning has exposed participants to either text or static images rather than dynamic visual events. Furthermore, it is not known whether incorporating eye gaze cues into dynamic visual events enhances dual pattern learning.…

Two experimental paradigms, a picture-naming task and a Stroop interference task, were employed to address the structure of the multilingual mental lexicon; more specifically, the process of multilingual non-selective lexical access. German-English-French speakers named objects in their native and most dominant language in a task that included a…

Previous research on reference tracking has revealed a tendency towards over-explicitness in second language (L2) learners. Only limited evidence exists that this trend extends to situations where the learner's first and second languages do not share a sensory-motor modality. Using a story-telling paradigm, this study examined how hearing novice…

Recent studies on the learning of L2 prosody have suggested that pitch gestures can enhance the learning of the L2 lexical tones. Yet it remains unclear whether the use of these gestures can aid the learning of L2 intonation, especially by tonal-language speakers. Sixty-four Mandarin speakers with basic-level Spanish were asked to learn three…

This study examined the effect of native language background on listeners' perception of native and non-native vowels spoken by native (Hong Kong Cantonese) and non-native (Mandarin and Australian English) speakers. They completed discrimination and an identification task with and without visual cues in clear and noisy conditions. Results…

In this article, we explore whether cross-linguistic differences in grammatical aspect encoding may give rise to differences in memory and cognition. We compared native speakers of two languages that encode aspect differently (English and Swedish) in four tasks that examined verbal descriptions of stimuli, online triads matching, and memory-based…

What helps us determine whether a word is a noun or a verb, without conscious awareness? We report on cues in the way individual English words are spelled, and, for the first time, identify their neural correlates via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We used a lexical decision task with trisyllabic nouns and verbs containing…

KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN WERE USED AS SUBJECTS IN AN ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER WHETHER CHILDREN WITH SHORT AND LONG MEMORY SPANS USE DIFFERENT CUES TO RECOGNIZE WORDS AND WHETHER MEMORY SPAN TESTS ARE EFFECTIVE PREDICTORS OF DIFFICULTY IN LEARNING TO READ. IT WAS HOPED THAT CHILDREN WOULD EXHIBIT A CONSISTENT PATTERN OF CHOICES OVER TRIALS, WHICH MIGHT…

This research project assessed: (1) the practicality of recording heart rate in 18-month-old infants as they watched events filmed on color, silent motion picture films; and (2) the validity and sensitivity of heart rate change as an index of differential attention arousal elicited by changes within and between complex visual events. The research…

Describes three experiments designed to determine whether grapheme-to-phoneme rules are automatically applied when a word pattern is encoded. Concludes that grapheme-to-phoneme translation is a natural response to written words, at least when naming is required, and that mediation by visual mechanisms can be ruled out. (Author/MES)

Seven different age levels were used to test the correlation between age and unfilled pauses (UP) and between age and parenthetical remarks (PR) in narratives elicited by visual stimuli. (Author/AM)

The ability to use sequential constraints in recognizing letters in three-letter words flashed on a screen at low contrast thresholds and the relationship of this ability to grade level and reading achievement were investigated. Eighty subjects were randomly selected, 20 each from grades 1 through 4. Ten adults were also tested for comparison with…