Cross-modal digit span and vocabulary proficiency in deaf or hard-of-hearing children.

This study aims to examine the relationship between vocabulary proficiency and short-term memory capacity in deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. We test the hypothesis that the relationship between vocabulary skills and digit span performance could be strengthened when the digit span task encompasses cross-modal integration processes. A group of DHH children performed two types of auditory digit span tasks. Furthermore, they participated in a standardized vocabulary proficiency test, comprising two subtests: Receptive Vocabulary and Expressive Vocabulary. The verbal digit span served as a significant predictor of Expressive Vocabulary among the DHH children. Simultaneously, the auditory-pointing digit span accounted for a substantial portion of performance variation in both Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary. After considering the impact of the duration of auditory-verbal intervention through regression models, likelihood ratio tests demonstrated that the auditory-pointing digit span persisted as a significant determinant of both receptive and expressive vocabulary skills. A positive influence of the intervention was also confirmed by the present results. This study provides evidence that memory span and the ability to integrate cross-modal information could serve as significant cognitive correlates of vocabulary proficiency in DHH children.

Neural substrates of phonological selection for Japanese character Kanji based on fMRI investigations.

Japanese and Chinese both share the same ideographic/logographic character system. How these characters are processed, however, is inherently different for each language. We harnessed the unique property of homophone judgment in Japanese kanji to provide an analogous Chinese condition using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 33 native Japanese speakers. We compared two types of kanji: (1) kanji that usually evokes only one pronunciation to Japanese speakers, which is representative of most Chinese characters (monophonic character); (2) kanji that evoked multiple pronunciation candidates, which is typical in Japanese kanji (heterophonic character). Results showed that character pairs with multiple sound possibilities increased activation in posterior regions of the left, middle and inferior frontal gyri (MFG and IFG), the bilateral anterior insulae, and the left anterior cingulate cortex as compared with those of kanji with only one sound. The activity seen in the MFG, dorsal IFG, and ventral IFG in the left posterior lateral prefrontal cortex, which was thought to correspond with language components of orthography, phonology, and semantics, respectively, was discussed in regards to their potentially important roles in information selection among competing sources of the components. A comparison with previous studies suggested that detailed analyses of activation in these language areas could explain differences between Japanese and Chinese, such as a greater involvement of the prefrontal language production regions for Japanese, whereas, for Chinese there is more phonological processing of inputs in the superior temporal gyrus.

C-CAT: a computer software used to analyze and select Chinese characters and character components for psychological research.

The Character-Component Analysis Toolkit (C-CAT) software was designed to assist researchers in constructing experimental materials using traditional Chinese characters. The software package contains two sets of character stocks: one suitable for research using literate adults as subjects and one suitable for research using schoolchildren as subjects. The software can identify linguistic properties, such as the number of strokes contained, the character-component pronunciation regularity, and the arrangement of character components within a character. Moreover, it can compute a character's linguistic frequency, neighborhood size, and phonetic validity with respect to a user-selected character stock. It can also search the selected character stock for similar characters or for character components with user-specified linguistic properties.

Dissociated roles of the middle frontal gyri in the processing of Chinese characters.

The present study examined a hypothesis that the right middle frontal gyrus participates in processing orthography of Chinese characters, while the left middle frontal gyrus mediates access to phonology and semantics. Brain activation during three character tasks, which required processing orthography, phonology, or semantics of Chinese characters, respectively, was measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Comparable neural activity in the right middle frontal gyrus was observed in all three character tasks that always demand orthographical processing. In contrast, the left middle frontal gyrus showed greater activation in the phonological and semantic tasks than in the orthographic task. These results suggest that the right and left middle frontal gyrus have dissociable functions in achieving Chinese character recognition.

Constraining the comprehension of pronominal expressions in Chinese.

This paper reports a series of self-paced reading time experiments designed to probe how the reference of pronominal expressions is resolved on-line in (Mandarin) Chinese. It is assumed that pronoun resolution is achieved by narrowing the candidate set of potential antecedents for a pronoun. The experimental evidence reported here indicates that two factors--syntactic prominence and the matching of lexical features (e.g. gender)--play a significant role in filtering this candidate set. It is shown that syntactic prominence and feature matching work in conjunction with each other rather than in a competitive, winner-take-all manner. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that syntactic prominence is sensitive to structural relations rather than exclusively to grammatical functions (such as subject and direct object) or semantic roles (such as agent and patient) as has been assumed in the psycholinguistic literature.