Tracking the time-course of spoken word recognition of Cantonese Chinese in sentence context: Evidence from eye movements.

In this study, we conducted an eye-tracking experiment to investigate the effects of sentence context and tonal information on spoken word recognition processes in Cantonese Chinese. We recruited 60 native Cantonese listeners to participate in the eye-tracking experiment. The target words (phonologically similar words) were manipulated to either (1) a congruent context or (2) an incongruent context in the experiment. The resulting eye-movement patterns in the incongruent context condition clearly revealed that (1) sentence context produced a garden-path effect in the initial stage of the spoken word recognition processes and then (2) the lexical tone of the word (bottom-up information) overrode the contextual effects to help listeners to discriminate between different similar-sounding words during lexical access. In conclusion, the patterns of eye-tracking data show the interactive processes between the lexical tone (an acoustic cue within a Cantonese word) and sentence context played in different phases to the spoken word recognition of Cantonese Chinese.

Cross-situational word learning of Cantonese Chinese.

In this study, we recruited 60 native Cantonese speakers to participate in a standard cross-situational word-learning task to explore the cross-situational learning effects of minimal word pairs in Cantonese Chinese. In the cross-situational word-learning task, four different types of word pairs were used: (1) a non-minimal word pair [N]; (2) a consonant minimal word pair [C]; (3) a rime minimal word pair [R]; and (4) a tone minimal word pair [T]. The results showed that the participants could learn the word-referent mapping for all word-pair types, but they performed better on the N and T types than on the other two (i.e., C and R). Together with other previous evidence, these findings suggest that Cantonese language learners can learn and encode those phonetic details while they learn the word-referent co-occurrence probabilities. The results also suggested that the tonal information seemed to be more important than the other phonological components in Cantonese Chinese word learning.

The foreign language effects on strategic behavior games.

The present study examined foreign language effects on the decisions made in a series of strategic behavioral games (e.g., the Prisoner's Dilemma, the Oligopolistic Competition, and the Volunteer's Dilemma). We recruited 154 native Chinese-speaking university students, with English as their second language, as participants. They were asked to make decisions while playing four simple behavioral games in either Chinese or English language version and to complete a Language History Questionnaire. The results showed that 1) the participants in each language group performed differently in the Prisoner's Dilemma Game and in one condition of the Volunteer's Dilemma Game which involved a relatively high level of uncertainty; and 2) foreign language proficiency, frequency of application and cultural identity triggered by the corresponding foreign language moderated the foreign language effects. This pattern of results is consistent with the Cultural Accommodation Hypothesis and the risk-aversion preference to use one's native language.

Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of procrastination assessment scale for students.

The procrastination assessment scale for students (PASS) has been used widely in evaluating the patterns of university students' procrastination on academic tasks and their procrastination behavior. The present study validated the psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the PASS (PASS-C) by recruiting two representative independent sample of Hong Kong Chinese university students (S1 used in the EFA study: 506; S2 used in the CFA study: 506). The results confirmed that this modified Chinese version is a valid and appropriate tool to assess university students' procrastination tendencies in Chinese educational settings.

Cognitive Consequences of Bilingualism and Multilingualism: Cross-Linguistic Influences.

Bilingualism and multilingualism are common in almost all communities worldwide today. Research studies on the psycholinguistics of bilingualism and multilingualism in East Asia region has developed tremendously in the past 20 years. Along with the new methodologies, innovative approaches, and the development of those state-of-the-art technologies (Altarriba and Heredia (eds) in An introduction to bilingualism: principles and processes, Routledge, 2018), a lot of new research findings on this line of research have been reported.

Working memory and lexical ambiguity resolution in Cantonese Chinese.

The present study examined how working memory functions in the underlying mechanism of the lexical disambiguation process (in activation approach or in inhibition approach). We recruited sixty native Cantonese listeners to participate in two experimental tasks: (a) a Cantonese-version reading span task to measure their working memory (WM) capacity and (b) a standard cross-modal priming task to measure the lexical disambiguation time. The results revealed that (1) the underlying mechanism of the disambiguation process seemed favorable for an inhibition approach and (2) the frequency of the individual meanings of the ambiguous words and the numbers of their meanings might interact with the WM capacity during lexical access, particularly for the low-WM span group.

Stroke Encoding Processes of Chinese Character During Sentence Reading.

The present study was conducted to examine whether traditional and simplified Chinese readers (TCRs and SCRs) differed in stroke encoding in character processing by an eye-tracking experiment. We recruited 66 participants (32 TCRs and 34 SCRs) to read sentences comprising characters with different proportions and types of strokes removed in order to explore whether any visual complexity effect existed in their processing of simplified and traditional Chinese characters. The present study found a cross-script visual complexity effect and that SCRs were more influenced by visual complexity change in lexical access than were TCRs. In addition, the stroke-order effect appeared to be more salient for TCRs than for SCRs.

Psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (B-YAACQ).

AIM: This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (B-YAACQ). METHOD: In this study, 1616 Chinese university students (male = 58.66%; Mage = 19.88) reporting past-year drinking experience voluntarily completed an anonymous questionnaire. Rasch analysis, reliability analysis, and linear modeling were performed to examine the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of B-YAACQ. RESULTS: Results of Rasch analysis and reliability analysis supported the assumption of uni-dimensionality, local independence, and internal consistency of the 24-item B-YAACQ in our Chinese sample. However, six items had marginal outfit statistics and/or potential gender bias; therefore, a model with 18 items was also tested after removing these items. The 18-item model showed excellent fit to the uni-dimensional model with no gender bias. However, the Pearson correlation between the 24-item and 18-item versions was r = 0.98, suggesting highly similar measurement. Both versions demonstrated concurrent validity through positive association with the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) subscales, even after controlling for the effects of age and gender. CONCLUSION: This study is the first to validate a measurement tool for negative drinking consequences for university students in China. Despite some limitations, the original 24-item B-YAACQ was shown to have satisfactory psychometric properties when applied to Chinese university students. We recommend the shorter 18-item version without significant gender bias for testing gender differences.

Processing Homophones Interactively: Evidence from eye-movement data.

The question of how to process an ambiguous word in context has been long-studied in psycholinguistics and the present study examined this question further by investigating the spoken word recognition processes of Cantonese homophones (a common type of ambiguous word) in context. Sixty native Cantonese listeners were recruited to participate in an eye-tracking experiment. Listeners were instructed to listen carefully to a sentence ending with a Cantonese homophone and then look at different visual probes (either Chinese characters or line-drawing pictures) presented on the computer screen simultaneously. Two findings were observed. First, the results revealed that sentence context exerted an early effect on homophone processes. Second, visual probes that serve as phonological competitors only had a weak effect on the spoken word recognition processes. Consistent with previous studies, the patterns of eye-movement results appeared to support an interactive processing approach in homophone recognition.

Context Effects and Spoken Word Recognition of Chinese: An Eye-Tracking Study.

This study examined the time-course of context effects on spoken word recognition during Chinese sentence processing. We recruited 60 native Mandarin listeners to participate in an eye-tracking experiment. In this eye-tracking experiment, listeners were told to listen to a sentence carefully, which ended with a Chinese homophone, and look at different visual probes (Chinese characters or different line-drawing pictures) presented concurrently on the computer screen naturally. Different types of context and probe types were manipulated in the experiment. The results showed that (1) preceding sentence context had an early effect on spoken word recognition processes and (2) phonological information of the distracters had only a negligible effect on the spoken word recognition processes. Finally, the patterns of eye-tracking results seemed to favor an interactive approach in spoken word recognition.

Probabilistic Phonotactics as a Cue for Recognizing Spoken Cantonese Words in Speech.

Previous experimental psycholinguistic studies suggested that the probabilistic phonotactics information might likely to hint the locations of word boundaries in continuous speech and hence posed an interesting solution to the empirical question on how we recognize/segment individual spoken word in speech. We investigated this issue by using Cantonese language as a testing case in the present study. A word-spotting task was used in which listeners were instructed to spot any Cantonese word from a series of nonsense sound sequences. We found that it was easier for the native Cantonese listeners to spot the target word in the nonsense sound sequences with high transitional probability phoneme combinations than those with low transitional probability phoneme combinations. These results concluded that native Cantonese listeners did make use of the transitional probability information to recognize the spoken word in speech.

Phonotactics Constraints and the Spoken Word Recognition of Chinese Words in Speech.

Two word-spotting experiments were conducted to examine the question of whether native Cantonese listeners are constrained by phonotactics information in spoken word recognition of Chinese words in speech. Because no legal consonant clusters occurred within an individual Chinese word, this kind of categorical phonotactics information of Chinese word may be most likely to cue native Cantonese listeners the locations of possible word boundaries in speech. The observed results from the two word-spotting experiments confirmed this prediction. Together with other relevant studies, we suggest that phonotactics constraint is one of the useful sources of information in spoken word recognition processes of Chinese words in speech.

Spoken Word Recognition of Chinese Words in Continuous Speech.

The present study examined the role of positional probability of syllables played in recognition of spoken word in continuous Cantonese speech. Because some sounds occur more frequently at the beginning position or ending position of Cantonese syllables than the others, so these kinds of probabilistic information of syllables may cue the locations of syllable boundaries in speech. Two word-spotting experiments were conducted to investigate the role of positional probability in the spoken word recognition process of Cantonese speech. It was found that listeners indeed made use of the positional probability of a syllable's onset but not of a syllable's ending sound in the spoken word recognition process. Together with other relevant studies in different languages, we propose that probabilistic phonotactics are one useful source of information in the spoken word recognition and speech segmentation process.

Meaning Inhibition and Sentence Processing in Chinese.

The present study examined the inhibitory processes of spoken word recognition of Chinese homophones during sentence processing, using a standard cross-modal naming experiment with an innovative design and materials construction. Results confirmed that (1) preceding sentence context has exerted an early effect on disambiguating among different alternative meanings of the homophones; (2) the contextually inappropriate meanings of the ambiguous word were inhibited rapidly during sentence processing; and (3) the present results also demonstrated that the inhibitory mechanism could be sustained to a longer duration following the occurrence of the ambiguous word (homophone). Finally, all these results clearly revealed the dynamics of interaction of context effects and spoken word recognition processes.

A pilot study: application of hemoglobin and cortisol levels, and a memory test to evaluate the quality of life of breast cancer patients on chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Short-term memory (STM) decline in breast cancer patients resulting from chemotherapy was evaluated by means of blood biomarkers, a questionnaire, and a computerized STM test. METHODS: This study was conducted from January 2013 to June 2013, recruiting 90 subjects: 30 breast cancer patients beginning the 3rd of 4th cycles of docetaxel and cyclophosphamide chemotherapy, 30 recovered patients (who completed 4 cycles of docetaxel for a minimum of 6 months), and 30 healthy subjects (disease-free females). The levels of hemoglobin, red and white blood cells, and cortisol in serum, and a computerized STM test were analyzed to estimate the effects of chemotherapy on STM. A questionnaire was given to all subjects to assess quality of life. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were observed for the blood parameters (hemoglobin, red and white blood cells, and cortisol levels) between healthy and on-treatment subjects (respectively 13.47 ± 0.96 g/dL vs 5.37 ± 0.38 g/dL, 4.58 ± 0.41 10(12)/L vs 2.07 ± 0.13 10(12)/L, and 6.15 ± 1.03 10(9)/L vs 0.86 ± 0.41 10(9)/L). Scores of the STM test were significantly lower for patients compared to healthy subjects. As indicated by the results of the questionnaire, breast cancer patients had a higher tendency to forget than healthy controls (X(2)=3.15; p<0.0001) and recovered subjects (X(2)=3.15; p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: We found depleted levels of hemoglobin, red and white blood cells as a result of chemotherapy, and elevated levels of stress correlated with poor performances in the computerized STM test. A higher cortisol level might be an important precursor of STM deterioration. Monitoring cortisol would be beneficial for evaluating the quality of life of breast cancer patients on chemotherapy.

Status of oral ulcerative mucositis and biomarkers to monitor posttraumatic stress disorder effects in breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to assess oral ulcerative mucositis, C-reactive protein, blood pressure, heart rate and thyroid function in breast cancer patients in relation to the occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). METHODS: A total of 120 female breast cancer patients and women 100 healthy subjects were enrolled in this study. PTSD status was assessed by questionnaire. Before and after treatment (modified radical mastectomy and chemotherapy), serum samples were collected and measured for levels of triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) by ELISA. Oral ulcerative mucositis was evaluated by the number and duration of oral ulcers and the degree of pain. RESULTS: Breast cancer patients experienced long-term PTSD and had elevated serum T3 and T4 levels. Patients experienced more severe pain and longer duration of oral ulcers compared with the healthy group. Oral ulcers were significantly associated with PTSD score in terms of the number of ulcers (p=0.0025), the degree of pain (p<0.0001) and the duration of ulcers (p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: These findings support that thyroid function is altered in breast cancer patients with PTSD. Elevation of T3 and T4 and oral ulcerative mucositis might be indicative of the emotional status of breast cancer patients.

Processing of segmental and tonal information of Chinese syllables.

In the phonological system of Chinese, a unique Chinese syllable usually comprises three components: onset, rime, and tone. The present study, with 30 participants, examined how native Chinese listeners process these subsyllabic components of Chinese by a syllable comparison task. Analysis showed that the cognitive processing of these subsyllabic components was different after the encoding process of the Chinese syllable. These results are discussed in light of the perception of Chinese language.