TY - THES A1 - Schröder, Astrid T1 - Semantische Kategorien und Merkmalswissen : eine experimentelle Studie zur semantischen Repräsentation konkreter Objektbegriffe T1 - Semantic categories and attribute knowledge : an experimental study on the semantic representations of concrete objects N2 - Die Arbeit untersucht die Annahme einer unterschiedlichen Gewichtung von distinktiven enzyklopädischen, funktionalen und sensorischen Merkmalen innerhalb der Repräsentationen von Objekten der belebten und unbelebten semantischen Domäne. Hierzu wurde ein Reaktionszeitexperiment zur Merkmalsverifikation durchgeführt. Vorab wurden deutsche Normen über das geschätzte Erwerbsalter für 244 Stimuli aus dem Korpus von Snodgrass & Vanderwart (1980) erhoben. Weiterhin wurde eine Datenbank von Merkmalsnormen für 80 konkrete Objektbegriffe erstellt. Insgesamt wurden zwei Reaktionszeitexperimente durchgeführt, die sich lediglich durch die Darbietungsdauer des Konzeptbegriffes unterschieden. Der Konzeptbegriff wurde entweder 1000 ms (lange Darbietung) oder 250 ms (kurze Darbietung) präsentiert, bevor das zu verifizierende semantische Merkmal erschien. Bei langer Präsentationszeit des Objektbegriffes zeigten sich für Objekte der unbelebten Domäne schnellere Reaktionszeiten beim Verifizieren von distinktiven funktionalen Merkmalen als beim Verifizieren von distinktiven enzyklopädischen Merkmalen. Dieser Effekt wurde bei kurzer Darbietungsdauer des Konzeptbegriffes repliziert. Bei kurzer Darbietung konnten für Objekte der unbelebten Domäne zusätzlich kürzere Reaktionszeiten beim Verifizieren distinktiver funktionaler Merkmale als beim Verifizieren distinktiver sensorischer Merkmale beobachtet werden. Für Objekte der belebten Domäne lagen weder nach kurzer noch nach langer Präsentation des Objektbegriffes Unterschiede in den Reaktionszeiten beim Verifizieren der semantischen Merkmale vor. Die Ergebnisse werden vor dem Hintergrund aktueller neurolinguistischer Modelle zur Organisation des semantischen Gedächtnisses diskutiert. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass innerhalb der Objektrepräsentationen belebter Objekte alle drei Merkmalstypen interkorrelieren. Für Objekte der unbelebten Domäne werden starke Interkorrelationen zwischen funktionalen und sensorischen Merkmalen angenommen. Zusätzlich wird davon ausgegangen, dass distinktive funktionale Merkmale innerhalb der Repräsentationen unbelebter Objekte besonders stark gewichtet sind. N2 - The study investigates the assumption of a differential weighting of distinctive encyclopaedic, functional and sensory semantic attributes within the concept representations of living and nonliving objects. A speeded feature verification task was conducted. In order to control the stimuli for various aspects, German norms were collected of estimated age of acquistion for 244 stimuli of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) pictures. In addition, a feature listing study was carried out for 80 concrete living and nonliving concepts. Two reaction time experiments were conducted with different duration times of the presented object name. In Experiment 1 (long duration time), the object name was presented for 1000 ms, whereas in Experiment 2 (short duration time), the object name was presented for 250 ms before the semantic feature appeared. With long duration time, distinctive functional features of nonliving objects were verified faster than distinctive encyclopaedic features. This effect was replicated in Experiment 2 after short presentation of the object names. In addition, in Experiment 2, shorter reaction times were observed for functional features than for sensory features of nonliving objects. For living objects, no differences were observed in verifying the different feature types neither in Experiment 1 nor in Experiment 2. The results are discussed within the framework of different models of semantic memory. The results suggest that within the category of living objects, distinctive encyclopaedic, functional and sensory features are highly intercorrelated. For nonliving objects, it is assumed that distinctive sensory and functional but not encyclopaedic features are highly intercorrelated. In addition, distinctive functional features of nonliving objects seem to be weighted more strongly than distinctive sensory features within the object representations of nonliving objects. KW - semantisches Gedächtnis KW - semantische Merkmale KW - Merkmalsverifikation KW - Merkmalsauflistung KW - Erwerbsalter KW - semantic memory KW - attribute knowledge KW - feature listing KW - feature verification task KW - age of acquisition Y1 - 2006 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-12837 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Wattendorf, Elise A1 - Festman, Julia A1 - Westermann, Birgit A1 - Keil, Ursula A1 - Zappatore, Daniela A1 - Franceschini, Rita A1 - Luedi, Georges A1 - Radue, Ernst-Wilhelm A1 - Münte, Thomas F. A1 - Rager, Günter A1 - Nitsch, Cordula T1 - Early bilingualism influences early and subsequently later acquired languages in cortical regions representing control functions T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Early acquisition of a second language influences the development of language abilities and cognitive functions. In the present study, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate the impact of early bilingualism on the organization of the cortical language network during sentence production. Two groups of adult multilinguals, proficient in three languages, were tested on a narrative task; early multilinguals acquired the second language before the age of three years, late multilinguals after the age of nine. All participants learned a third language after nine years of age. Comparison of the two groups revealed substantial differences in language-related brain activity for early as well as late acquired languages. Most importantly, early multilinguals preferentially activated a fronto-striatal network in the left hemisphere, whereas the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) was activated to a lesser degree than in late multilinguals. The same brain regions were highlighted in previous studies when a non-target language had to be controlled. Hence the engagement of language control in adult early multilinguals appears to be influenced by the specific learning and acquisition conditions during early childhood. Remarkably, our results reveal that the functional control of early and subsequently later acquired languages is similarly affected, suggesting that language experience has a pervasive influence into adulthood. As such, our findings extend the current understanding of control functions in multilinguals. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 384 KW - multilingual KW - language acquisition KW - narration KW - age of acquisition KW - functional magnetic resonance imaging KW - emergentist framework Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-404092 IS - 384 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wattendorf, Elise A1 - Festman, Julia A1 - Westermann, Birgit A1 - Keil, Ursula A1 - Zappatore, Daniela A1 - Franceschini, Rita A1 - Luedi, Georges A1 - Radue, Ernst-Wilhelm A1 - Muente, Thomas F. A1 - Rager, Guenter A1 - Nitsch, Cordula T1 - Early bilingualism influences early and subsequently later acquired languages in cortical regions representing control functions JF - International journal of bilingualism : cross-disciplinary, cross-linguistic studies of language behavior N2 - Early acquisition of a second language influences the development of language abilities and cognitive functions. In the present study, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate the impact of early bilingualism on the organization of the cortical language network during sentence production. Two groups of adult multilinguals, proficient in three languages, were tested on a narrative task; early multilinguals acquired the second language before the age of three years, late multilinguals after the age of nine. All participants learned a third language after nine years of age. Comparison of the two groups revealed substantial differences in language-related brain activity for early as well as late acquired languages. Most importantly, early multilinguals preferentially activated a fronto-striatal network in the left hemisphere, whereas the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) was activated to a lesser degree than in late multilinguals. The same brain regions were highlighted in previous studies when a non-target language had to be controlled. Hence the engagement of language control in adult early multilinguals appears to be influenced by the specific learning and acquisition conditions during early childhood. Remarkably, our results reveal that the functional control of early and subsequently later acquired languages is similarly affected, suggesting that language experience has a pervasive influence into adulthood. As such, our findings extend the current understanding of control functions in multilinguals. KW - Multilingual KW - language acquisition KW - narration KW - age of acquisition KW - functional magnetic resonance imaging KW - emergentist framework Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006912456590 SN - 1367-0069 SN - 1756-6878 VL - 18 IS - 1 SP - 48 EP - 66 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Clahsen, Harald A1 - Verissimo, Joao Marques T1 - Investigating grammatical processing in bilinguals The case of morphological priming JF - Linguistic approaches to bilingualism N2 - In this article we discuss methods for investigating grammatical processing in bilinguals. We will present a methodological approach that relies on: (i) linguistic theory (in our case, morphology) for the construction of experimental materials; (ii) a design that allows for direct (within-experiment, within-participant, and within-item) comparisons of the critical conditions; and (iii) data analysis techniques that make both linear and non-linear gradient effects visible. We review recent studies of masked morphological priming in bilinguals in which the application of these methodological principles revealed highly selective interactions of age of acquisition (and the native/non-native contrast) with the linguistic distinction between inflection and derivation. We believe that such considerations are not only relevant for grammatical processing experiments, but also for studying bilingualism, and its potential cognitive advantages, more generally. KW - Morphological priming KW - inflection KW - derivation KW - age of acquisition KW - critical period Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.15039.cla SN - 1879-9264 SN - 1879-9272 VL - 6 SP - 685 EP - 698 PB - John Benjamins Publishing Co. CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bastiaanse, Roelien A1 - Wieling, Martijn A1 - Wolthuis, Nienke T1 - The role of frequency in the retrieval of nouns and verbs in aphasia JF - Aphasiology : an international, interdisciplinary journal N2 - Background: Word retrieval in aphasia involves different levels of processinglemma retrieval, grammatical encoding, lexeme retrieval, and phonological encodingbefore articulation can be programmed and executed. Several grammatical, semantic, lexical, and phonological characteristics, such as word class, age of acquisition, imageability, and word frequency influence the degree of success in word retrieval. It is, however, not yet clear how these factors interact. The current study focuses on the retrieval of nouns and verbs in isolation and in sentence context and evaluates the impact of the mentioned factors on the performance of a group of 54 aphasic speakers.Aims: The main aim is to measure the effect of word frequency on the retrieval of nouns and verb by disentangling the influence of word class, age of acquisition, imageability, and lemma and lexeme frequencies on word retrieval in aphasia.Methods & Procedures: Four tests for retrieval of nouns, verbs in isolation, and infinitives and finite verbs were administered to 54 aphasic speakers. The influence of lemma and lexeme frequency, Age of Acquisition on the word retrieval abilities was analysed.Outcomes and Results: Word class, age of acquisition, and imageability play a significant role in the retrieval of nouns and verbs: nouns are easier than verbs; the earlier a word has been learned and the more concrete it is, the easier it is to retrieve. When performance is controlled for these factors, lemma frequency turns out to play a minor role: only in object naming does it affect word retrieval: the higher the lemma frequency of a noun, the easier it is to access. Such an effect does not exist for verbs, neither on an action-naming test, nor when verbs have to be retrieved in sentence context. Lexeme frequency was not found to be a better predictor than lemma frequency in predicting word retrieval in aphasia.Conclusions: Word retrieval in aphasia is influenced by grammatical, semantic, and lexical factors. Word frequency only plays a minor role: it affects the retrieval of nouns, but not of verbs. KW - Word frequency KW - age of acquisition KW - imageability KW - verbs KW - nouns KW - aphasia Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2015.1100709 SN - 0268-7038 SN - 1464-5041 VL - 30 SP - 1221 EP - 1239 PB - Karger CY - Abingdon ER - TY - THES A1 - Räling, Romy T1 - Age of acquisition and semantic typicality effects T1 - Erwerbsalter- und semantische Typikalitätseffekte BT - evidences for distinct processing origins from behavioural and ERP data in healthy and impaired semantic processing BT - Evidenzen für distinktive Verarbeitungsursprünge aus behavioralen und elektrophysiologischen Daten der sprachgesunden und beeinträchtigten semantischen Verarbeitung N2 - Age of acquisition (AOA) is a psycholinguistic variable that significantly influences behavioural measures (response times and accuracy rates) in tasks that require lexical and semantic processing. Its origin is – unlike the origin of semantic typicality (TYP), which is assumed at the semantic level – controversially discussed. Different theories propose AOA effects to originate either at the semantic level or at the link between semantics and phonology (lemma-level). The dissertation aims at investigating the influence of AOA and its interdependence with the semantic variable TYP on particularly semantic processing in order to pinpoint the origin of AOA effects. Therefore, three studies have been conducted that considered the variables AOA and TYP in semantic processing tasks (category verifications and animacy decisions) by means of behavioural and partly electrophysiological (ERP) data and in different populations (healthy young and elderly participants and in semantically impaired individuals with aphasia (IWA)). The behavioural and electrophysiological data of the three studies provide evidence for distinct processing levels of the variables AOA and TYP. The data further support previous assumptions on a semantic origin for TYP but question the same for AOA. The findings, however, support an origin of AOA effects at the transition between the word form (phonology) and the semantic level that can be captured at the behavioural but not at the electrophysiological level. N2 - Das Erwerbsalter (engl. age of acquisition, AOA) ist eine psycholinguistische Variable, die Verhaltensdaten (Reaktionszeiten und Fehlerraten) von sprachgesunden Studienteilnehmern in Aufgaben zur lexikalisch-semantischen Verarbeitung nachweislich beeinflusst. Während für die Typikalität (engl. typicality, TYP), eine weitere wichtige psycholinguistische Variable, der Verarbeitungsursprung auf der semantischen Ebene als sicher angenommen werden kann, wird der Ursprung des Erwerbsalters bis heute kontrovers diskutiert. Verschiedene Theorien erwägen den Ursprung von Erwerbsaltereffekten entweder auf der semantischen Ebene oder auf der Verbindungsroute zwischen der Semantik und der Phonologie (Lemma-Level). Das Ziel der Dissertation ist die Evaluation eines semantischen Ursprunges von Erwerbsaltereffekten sowie des Wechselspiels des Erwerbsalters mit der semantischen Variable Typikalität. Im Rahmen des Promotionsprojektes wurden drei Studien durchgeführt, die die Variablen Erwerbsalter und Typikalität in Aufgaben zum Sprachverständnis (Belebtheits-Entscheiden und Kategorie-Vertreter-Verifikation) mit Hilfe unterschiedlicher Methoden (Verhaltens- und EEG-Messungen) und Populationen (junge und ältere Sprachgesunde und Aphasiker mit einem spezifisch semantischen Defizit) untersuchen. Die erhobenen Daten der drei Studien liefern Evidenzen für unterschiedliche Verarbeitungsursprünge der Variablen Erwerbsalter und Typikalität. Während die Daten bisherige Annahmen eines semantischen Ursprunges von Typikalitätseffekten unterstützen, stellen sie entsprechendes für Erwerbsaltereffekte in Frage. Insbesondere die behavioralen Ergebnisse liefern jedoch Evidenzen für einen Verarbeitungsursprung des Erwerbsalters auf den Verbindungsrouten zwischen den Wortformebenen (phonologisches bzw. graphematisches Inputlexikon) und der semantischen Ebene. KW - semantische Typikalität KW - Erwerbsalter KW - Aphasie KW - semantische Verarbeitung KW - ereigniskorrelierte Potentiale KW - semantic typicality KW - age of acquisition KW - aphasia KW - semantic processing KW - event-related potentials Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-95943 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Verissimo, João Marques T1 - Sensitive periods in both L1 and L2 BT - Some conceptual and methodological suggestions T2 - Bilingualism : language and cognition N2 - The keynote article (Mayberry & Kluender, 2017) makes an important contribution to questions concerning the existence and characteristics of sensitive periods in language acquisition. Specifically, by comparing groups of non-native L1 and L2 signers, the authors have been able to ingeniously disentangle the effects of maturation from those of early language exposure. Based on L1 versus L2 contrasts, the paper convincingly argues that L2 learning is a less clear test of sensitive periods. Nevertheless, we believe Mayberry and Kluender underestimate the evidence for maturational factors in L2 learning, especially that coming from recent research. KW - critical period for language KW - sensitive periods KW - language acquisition KW - age of acquisition KW - bilingualism Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728918000275 SN - 1366-7289 SN - 1469-1841 VL - 21 IS - 5 SP - 932 EP - 933 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER -