Activating words without language: beta and theta oscillations reflect lexical access and control processes during verbal and non-verbal object recognition tasks.

The intention to name an object modulates neural responses during object recognition tasks. However, the nature of this modulation is still unclear. We established whether a core operation in language, i.e. lexical access, can be observed even when the task does not require language (size-judgment task), and whether response selection in verbal versus non-verbal semantic tasks relies on similar neuronal processes. We measured and compared neuronal oscillatory activities and behavioral responses to the same set of pictures of meaningful objects, while the type of task participants had to perform (picture-naming versus size-judgment) and the type of stimuli to measure lexical access (cognate versus non-cognate) were manipulated. Despite activation of words was facilitated when the task required explicit word-retrieval (picture-naming task), lexical access occurred even without the intention to name the object (non-verbal size-judgment task). Activation of words and response selection were accompanied by beta (25-35 Hz) desynchronization and theta (3-7 Hz) synchronization, respectively. These effects were observed in both picture-naming and size-judgment tasks, suggesting that words became activated via similar mechanisms, irrespective of whether the task involves language explicitly. This finding has important implications to understand the link between core linguistic operations and performance in verbal and non-verbal semantic tasks.

Task-Relevant Representations and Cognitive Control Demands Modulate Functional Connectivity from Ventral Occipito-Temporal Cortex During Object Recognition Tasks.

The left ventral occipito-temporal cortex (vOTC) supports extraction and processing of visual features. However, it has remained unclear whether left vOTC-based functional connectivity (FC) differs according to task-relevant representations (e.g., lexical, visual) and control demands imposed by the task, even when similar visual-semantic processing is required for object identification. Here, neural responses to the same set of pictures of meaningful objects were measured, while the type of task that participants had to perform (picture naming versus size-judgment task), and the level of cognitive control required by the picture naming task (high versus low interference contexts) were manipulated. Explicit retrieval of lexical representations in the picture naming task facilitated activation of lexical/phonological representations, modulating FC between left vOTC and dorsal anterior-cingulate-cortex/pre-supplementary-motor-area. This effect was not observed in the size-judgment task, which did not require explicit word-retrieval of object names. Furthermore, retrieving the very same lexical/phonological representation in the high versus low interference contexts during picture naming increased FC between left vOTC and left caudate. These findings support the proposal that vOTC functional specialization emerges from interactions with task-relevant brain regions.

Voice onset time and vowel formant measures in online testing and laboratory-based testing with(out) surgical face masks.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, conducting experiments online is increasingly common, and face masks are often used in everyday life. It remains unclear whether phonetic detail in speech production is captured adequately when speech is recorded in internet-based experiments or in experiments conducted with face masks. We tested 55 Spanish-Basque-English trilinguals in picture naming tasks in three conditions: online, laboratory-based with surgical face masks, and laboratory-based without face masks (control). We measured plosive voice onset time (VOT) in each language, the formants and duration of English vowels /iː/ and /ɪ/, and the Spanish/Basque vowel space. Across conditions, there were differences between English and Spanish/Basque VOT and in formants and duration between English /iː/-/ɪ/; between conditions, small differences emerged. Relative to the control condition, the Spanish/Basque vowel space was larger in online testing and smaller in the face mask condition. We conclude that testing online or with face masks is suitable for investigating phonetic detail in within-participant designs although the precise measurements may differ from those in traditional laboratory-based research.

When A Nonnative Accent Lets You Spot All the Errors: Examining the Syntactic Interlanguage Benefit.

In our continuously globalizing world, cross-cultural and cross-linguistic communications are far from exceptional. A wealth of research has indicated that the processing of nonnative-accented speech can be challenging for native listeners, both at the level of phonology. However, few online studies have examined the underpinnings of accented speech recognition from the perspective of the nonnative listener, even though behavioral studies indicate that accented input may be easier to process for such individuals (i.e., the interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit. The current EEG study first examined the phonological and syntactic analysis of nonnative-accented speech among nonnative listeners. As such, 30 English learners of Spanish listened to syntactically correct and incorrect Spanish sentences produced in native and nonnative-accented Spanish. The violation in the incorrect sentences was caused by errors that are typical (i.e., gender errors; *la color) or atypical (i.e., number errors; *los color) for English learners of Spanish. Results indicated that nonnative listeners elicit a phonological mismatch negativity (PMN) when attending to speech produced by a native Spanish speaker. Furthermore, the nonnative listeners showed a P600 for all grammatical violations, indicating that they repair all errors regardless of their typicality or the accent in which they are produced. Follow-up analyses compared our novel data to the data of native listeners from the methodologically identical precursor study. These analyses showed that native and nonnative listeners exhibit directionally opposite PMN effects; whereas natives exhibited a larger PMN for English-accented Spanish, nonnatives displayed a larger PMN in response to native Spanish utterances (a classic interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit). An additional difference was observed at the syntactic level: Whereas natives repaired only atypical number errors when they were English-accented, nonnative participants exhibited a P600 in response to all English-accented syntactic errors, regardless of their typicality (a syntactic interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit). Altogether, these results suggest that accented speech is not inherently difficult to process; in fact, nonnatives may benefit from the presence of a nonnative accent. Thus, our data provide some of the first electrophysiological evidence supporting the existence of the classic interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit and its novel syntactic counterpart.

Functional connectivity reveals dissociable ventrolateral prefrontal mechanisms for the control of multilingual word retrieval.

This functional magnetic resonance imaging study established that different portions of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) support reactive and proactive language control processes during multilingual word retrieval. The study also examined whether proactive language control consists in the suppression of the nontarget lexicon. Healthy multilingual volunteers participated in a task that required them to name pictures alternately in their dominant and less-dominant languages. Two crucial variables were manipulated: the cue-target interval (CTI) to either engage (long CTI) or prevent (short CTI) proactive control processes, and the cognate status of the to-be-named pictures (noncognates vs. cognates) to capture selective pre-activation of the target language. The results of the functional connectivity analysis showed a clear segregation between functional networks related to mid-vlPFC and anterior vlPFC during multilingual language production. Furthermore, the results revealed that multilinguals engage in proactive control to prepare the target language. This proactive modulation, enacted by anterior vlPFC, is achieved by boosting the activation of lexical representations in the target language. Finally, control processes supported by both mid-vlPFC and the left inferior parietal lobe, were similarly engaged by reactive and proactive control, possibly exerted on phonological representations to reduce cross-language interference.

When is irony influenced by communicative constraints? ERP evidence supporting interactive models.

Distinct theoretical proposals have described how communicative constraints (contextual biases, speaker identity) impact verbal irony processing. Modular models assume that social and contextual factors have an effect at a late stage of processing. Interactive models claim that contextual biases are considered early on. The constraint-satisfaction model further assumes that speaker's and context's characteristics can compete at early stages of analysis. The present ERP study teased apart these models by testing the impact of context and speaker features (i.e., speaker accent) on irony analysis. Spanish native speakers were presented with Spanish utterances that were ironic or literal. Each sentence was preceded by a negative or a positive context. Each story was uttered in a native or a foreign accent. Results showed that contextual biases and speaker accent interacted as early as 150 ms during irony processing. Greater N400-like effects were reported for ironic than literal sentences only with positive contexts and native accent, possibly suggesting semantic difficulties when non-prototypical irony was produced by natives. A P600 effect of irony was also reported indicating inferential processing costs. The results support the constraint-satisfaction model and suggest that multiple sources of information are weighted and can interact from the earliest stages of irony analysis.

Can Faces Prime a Language?

Bilinguals have two languages that are activated in parallel. During speech production, one of these languages must be selected on the basis of some cue. The present study investigated whether the face of an interlocutor can serve as such a cue. Spanish-Catalan and Dutch-French bilinguals were first familiarized with certain faces, each of which was associated with only one language, during simulated Skype conversations. Afterward, these participants performed a language production task in which they generated words associated with the words produced by familiar and unfamiliar faces displayed on-screen. When responding to familiar faces, participants produced words faster if the faces were speaking the same language as in the previous Skype simulation than if the same faces were speaking a different language. Furthermore, this language priming effect disappeared when it became clear that the interlocutors were actually bilingual. These findings suggest that faces can prime a language, but their cuing effect disappears when it turns out that they are unreliable as language cues.

Reconciling phonological neighborhood effects in speech production through single trial analysis.

A crucial step for understanding how lexical knowledge is represented is to describe the relative similarity of lexical items, and how it influences language processing. Previous studies of the effects of form similarity on word production have reported conflicting results, notably within and across languages. The aim of the present study was to clarify this empirical issue to provide specific constraints for theoretical models of language production. We investigated the role of phonological neighborhood density in a large-scale picture naming experiment using fine-grained statistical models. The results showed that increasing phonological neighborhood density has a detrimental effect on naming latencies, and re-analyses of independently obtained data sets provide supplementary evidence for this effect. Finally, we reviewed a large body of evidence concerning phonological neighborhood density effects in word production, and discussed the occurrence of facilitatory and inhibitory effects in accuracy measures. The overall pattern shows that phonological neighborhood generates two opposite forces, one facilitatory and one inhibitory. In cases where speech production is disrupted (e.g. certain aphasic symptoms), the facilitatory component may emerge, but inhibitory processes dominate in efficient naming by healthy speakers. These findings are difficult to accommodate in terms of monitoring processes, but can be explained within interactive activation accounts combining phonological facilitation and lexical competition.

Cross-modal interactions in language production: evidence from word learning.

Literate adults are able to produce the same word in different language modalities-for instance, through speaking and writing. Yet how speaking and writing interact is not well understood. The present study takes a new perspective on the question of the co-activation of phonological and orthographic representations in speaking and writing by examining the acquisition of novel words. We tested how novel words get integrated into modality-specific lexicons by biasing novel word acquisition toward speaking or writing and assessing cross-modal transfer at the first stages of learning. Participants learned novel words paired with pictures of novel objects and practiced them overtly through speaking or typing. At test, typed training led to higher recall accuracy than spoken training whether words were recalled through typing or speaking. Performance in typing (RT and durations) benefited more from typed than spoken training. Crucially, performance in speaking did not benefit specifically from spoken training and was similar after spoken or typed training. Results are compatible with an asymmetric integration in the phonological and orthographic lexicons according to the modality of training, with representations created in the orthographic lexicon directly transferring to the phonological lexicon, while the opposite doesn't seem to occur. Cross-modal transfer dynamics are discussed according to the level of lexical activation.

Processing of Synonyms and Homographs in Bilingual and Monolingual Speakers.

Bilinguals have long-lasting experience with cross-language double-mappings (i.e., translation equivalents and interlingual homographs (or false friends)). Considering this, we examined whether bilinguals differ from monolinguals in within-language double-mapping (i.e., synonyms and homographs) processing. Across two experiments, we compared performances from Spanish monolinguals and Spanish-Basque bilinguals on a behavioral picture-word matching task. The words were all presented in Spanish, the native language of all participants. Participants responded to synonyms and homographs (both double-mappings) or single-mappings (controls). The reaction times in both experiments showed clear and significant costs in processing within-language double-mapping stimuli, as well as intrinsic differences in processing homographs versus synonyms. However, these effects did not differ between bilinguals and monolinguals. The present findings thus suggest that the bilinguals' extensive experience with cross-linguistic double-mappings does not transfer onto within-language double-mapping processing.

When Jack isn't Jacques: Simultaneous opposite language-specific speech perceptual learning in French-English bilinguals.

Humans are remarkably good at understanding spoken language, despite the huge variability of the signal as a function of the talker, the situation, and the environment. This success relies on having access to stable representations based on years of speech input, coupled with the ability to adapt to short-term deviations from these norms, e.g. accented speech or speech altered by ambient noise. In the last two decades, there has been a robust research effort focused on a possible mechanism for adjusting to accented speech. In these studies, listeners typically hear 15 - 20 words in which a speech sound has been altered, creating a short-term deviation from its longer-term representation. After exposure to these items, listeners demonstrate "lexically driven phonetic recalibration"-they alter their categorization of speech sounds, expanding a speech category to take into account the recently heard deviations from their long-term representations. In the current study, we investigate such adjustments by bilingual listeners. French-English bilinguals were first exposed to nonstandard pronunciations of a sound (/s/ or /f/) in one language and tested for recalibration in both languages. Then, the exposure continued with both the original type of mispronunciation in the same language, plus mispronunciations in the other language, in the opposite direction. In a final test, we found simultaneous recalibration in opposite directions for the two languages-listeners shifted their French perception in one direction and their English in the other: Bilinguals can maintain separate adjustments, for the same sounds, when a talker's speech differs across two languages.

Parafoveal processing in bilingual readers: Semantic access within but not across languages.

Prior research has investigated the quality of information a reader can extract from upcoming parafoveal words. However, very few studies have considered parafoveal processing in bilingual readers, who may differ from monolinguals due to slower lexical access and susceptibility to cross-language activation. This eye-tracking experiment, therefore, investigated how bilingual readers process parafoveal semantic information within and across languages. We used the boundary technique to replace a preview word in a sentence with a different target word during the first rightward saccade from the pretarget region. We manipulated both preview language (nonswitch vs. code-switch) and semantic relatedness (synonym/translation vs. unrelated) between previews and targets. Upon fixation, target words always appeared in the same language as the rest of the sentence to create an essentially monolingual language context. Semantic preview benefits emerged for nonswitched synonym previews but not for code-switched translation previews. Furthermore, participants skipped code-switched previews less often than nonswitched previews and no more often than previews that were unfamiliar to them. These data suggest that bilinguals can extract within-language semantic information from the parafovea in both native and nonnative languages, but that cross-language words are not accessible while reading in a monolingual language mode, as per the partial selectivity hypothesis of bilingual language control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Phonetic accommodation in non-native directed speech supports L2 word learning and pronunciation.

This study assessed whether Non-native Directed Speech (NNDS) facilitates second language (L2) learning, specifically L2 word learning and production. Spanish participants (N = 50) learned novel English words, presented either in NNDS or Native-Directed Speech (NDS), in two tasks: Recognition and Production. Recognition involved matching novel objects to their labels produced in NNDS or NDS. Production required participants to pronounce these objects' labels. The novel words contained English vowel contrasts, which approximated Spanish vowel categories more (/i-ɪ/) or less (/ʌ-æ/). Participants in the NNDS group exhibited faster recognition of novel words, improved learning, and produced the /i-ɪ/ contrast with greater distinctiveness in comparison to the NDS group. Participants' ability to discriminate the target vowel contrasts was also assessed before and after the tasks, with no improvement detected in the two groups. These findings support the didactic assumption of NNDS, indicating the relevance of the phonetic adaptations in this register for successful L2 acquisition.

Noise Modulates Crosslinguistic Effects on Second-Language Auditory Word Recognition.

PURPOSE: This study investigates whether crosslinguistic effects on auditory word recognition are modulated by the quality of the auditory signal (clear and noisy). METHOD: In an online experiment, a group of Spanish-English bilingual listeners performed an auditory lexical decision task, in their second language, English. Words and pseudowords were either presented in the clear or were embedded in white auditory noise. Target words were varied in the degree to which they overlapped in their phonological form with their translation equivalents and were categorized according to their overlap as cognates (form and meaning) or noncognates (meaning only). In order to test for effects of crosslinguistic competition, the phonological neighborhood density of the targets' translations was also manipulated. RESULTS: The results show that crosslinguistic effects are impacted by noise; when the translation had a high neighborhood density, performance was worse for cognates than for noncognates, especially in noise. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that noise increases lexical competition across languages, as it does within a language, and that the crosslinguistic phonological overlap for cognates compared with noncognates can further increase the pool of competitors by co-activating crosslinguistic lexical candidates. The results are discussed within the context of the bilingual word recognition literature and models of language and bilingual lexical processing.

Déjà-lu: When Orthographic Representations are Generated in the Absence of Orthography.

When acquiring novel spoken words, English-speaking children generate preliminary orthographic representations even before seeing the words' spellings (Wegener et al., 2018). Interestingly, these orthographic skeletons are generated even when novel words' spellings are uncertain, at least in transparent languages like Spanish (Jevtovic et al., 2022). Here we investigate whether this process depends on the orthographic rules of the language, and specifically, whether orthographic skeletons for words with uncertain spellings are generated even when the probability of generating an incorrect representation is high. Forty-six French adults first acquired novel words via aural instruction and were then presented with words' spellings in a self-paced reading task. Importantly, novel words were presented in their unique (consistent words) or one of their two possible spellings (preferred and unpreferred inconsistent words). A significant reading advantage observed for aurally acquired words indicates that participants indeed generated orthographic representations before encountering novel words' spellings. However, while no differences in reading times were found for aurally acquired words with unique and those presented in their preferred spellings, unpreferred spellings yielded significantly longer reading times. This shows that orthographic skeletons for words with multiple spellings were generated even in a language in which the risk of generating an incorrect representation is high. This finding raises a possibility that generating orthographic skeletons during spoken word learning may be beneficial. In line with this conclusion is the finding showing that - in interaction with good phonological short-term memory capacity - generating orthographic skeletons is linked to better word recall.

Characterizing the bilingual disadvantage in noun phrase production.

Up to now, evidence on bilingual disadvantages in language production comes from tasks requiring single word retrieval. The present study aimed to assess whether there is a bilingual disadvantage in multiword utterances, and to determine the extent to which such effect is present in onset latencies, articulatory durations, or both. To do so, we tested two groups of Spanish speakers (monolinguals and early highly proficient bilinguals using their first and dominant language) each in two different production tasks: bare noun and noun phrase production. Onset latencies were longer for bilinguals relative to monolinguals in both production tasks. Regarding articulatory durations, we observed a clear bilingual disadvantage in noun phrase production and a strong tendency in bare noun production. These findings generalize the bilingual disadvantage in speech production to various performance measures (onset latency and articulatory duration of production) and beyond single words.

Speaker Accent Modulates the Effects of Orthographic and Phonological Similarity on Auditory Processing by Learners of English.

The cognate effect refers to translation equivalents with similar form between languages-i.e., cognates, such as "band" (English) and "banda" (Spanish)-being processed faster than words with dissimilar forms-such as, "cloud" and "nube." Substantive literature supports this claim, but is mostly based on orthographic similarity and tested in the visual modality. In a previous study, we found an inhibitory orthographic similarity effect in the auditory modality-i.e., greater orthographic similarity led to slower response times and reduced accuracy. The aim of the present study is to explain this effect. In doing so, we explore the role of the speaker's accent in auditory word recognition and whether native accents lead to a mismatch between the participants' phonological representation and the stimulus. Participants carried out a lexical decision task and a typing task in which they spelled out the word they heard. Words were produced by two speakers: one with a native English accent (Standard American) and the other with a non-native accent matching that of the participants (native Spanish speaker from Spain). We manipulated orthographic and phonological similarity orthogonally and found that accent did have some effect on both response time and accuracy as well as modulating the effects of similarity. Overall, the non-native accent improved performance, but it did not fully explain why high orthographic similarity items show an inhibitory effect in the auditory modality. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed.

Gepo with a G, or Jepo with a J? Skilled Readers Generate Orthographic Expectations for Novel Spoken Words Even When Spelling is Uncertain.

English-speaking children and adults generate orthographic skeletons (i.e., preliminary orthographic representations) solely from aural exposure to novel words. The present study examined whether skilled readers generate orthographic skeletons for all novel words they learn or do so only when the words have a unique possible spelling. To that end, 48 Spanish adults first provided their preferred spellings for all novel words that were to appear in the experiment. Critically, consistent words had only one, while inconsistent words had two possible spellings. Two weeks later, they were trained on the pronunciations of the novel words through aural instruction. They then saw the spellings of these newly acquired words, along with a set of untrained words, in a self-paced sentence reading task. Participants read previously acquired consistent and inconsistent words presented in their preferred spellings faster than inconsistent words with unpreferred spellings. Importantly, no differences were observed in reading untrained consistent and inconsistent words (either preferred or unpreferred). This suggests that participants had generated orthographic skeletons for trained words with two possible spellings according to their individual spelling preferences. These findings provide further evidence for the orthographic skeleton account and show that initial orthographic representations are generated even when the spelling of a newly acquired word is uncertain.

An ERP investigation of accented isolated single word processing.

Previous studies show that there are differences in native and non-native speech processing (Lev-Ari, 2018). However, less is known about the differences between processing native and dialectal accents. Is dialectal processing more similar to foreign or native speech? To address this, two theories have been proposed. The Perceptual Distance Hypothesis states that the mechanisms underlying dialectal accent processing are attenuated versions of those of foreign (Clarke & Garrett, 2004). Conversely, the Different Processes Hypothesis argues that the mechanisms of foreign and dialectal accent processing are qualitatively different (Floccia et al., 2009). The present study addresses these hypotheses. Electroencephalographic data was recorded from 25 participants who listened to 40 isolated words in different accents. Event-Related Potential mean amplitudes were extracted: P2 [150-250 ms], PMN [250-400 ms] and N400 [400-600 ms]. Support for the Different Processes Hypothesis was found in different time windows. Results show that early processing mechanisms distinguish only between native and non-native speech, with a reduced P2 amplitude for foreign accent processing, supporting the Different Processes Hypothesis. Furthermore, later processing mechanisms show a similar binary difference in the processing of the accents, with a larger PMN negativity elicited in the foreign accent than the others, further supporting the Different Processes Hypothesis. Results contribute to the understanding of single word processing, in which it is uniquely difficult to extract acoustic characteristics from foreign accent, and in which foreign accented speech is associated with the largest cost, as compared to native and dialectal speech, of phonological matching between representations and acoustic input.

The Acoustic Features and Didactic Function of Foreigner-Directed Speech: A Scoping Review.

PURPOSE: This scoping review considers the acoustic features of a clear speech register directed to nonnative listeners known as foreigner-directed speech (FDS). We identify vowel hyperarticulation and low speech rate as the most representative acoustic features of FDS; other features, including wide pitch range and high intensity, are still under debate. We also discuss factors that may influence the outcomes and characteristics of FDS. We start by examining accommodation theories, outlining the reasons why FDS is likely to serve a didactic function by helping listeners acquire a second language (L2). We examine how this speech register adapts to listeners' identities and linguistic needs, suggesting that FDS also takes listeners' L2 proficiency into account. To confirm the didactic function of FDS, we compare it to other clear speech registers, specifically infant-directed speech and Lombard speech. CONCLUSIONS: Our review reveals that research has not yet established whether FDS succeeds as a didactic tool that supports L2 acquisition. Moreover, a complex set of factors determines specific realizations of FDS, which need further exploration. We conclude by summarizing open questions and indicating directions and recommendations for future research.