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Dyslexia is theorised to be caused by phonological deficits, visuo-attentional deficits, or some combination of the two. The present study contrasted phonological and visuo-attentional theories of dyslexia using a lexical decision task administered to adult participants with and without dyslexia. Homophone and pseudo-homophone stimuli were included to explore whether the two groups differed in their reliance on phonological encoding. Transposed-letter stimuli, including both TL neighbours and TL non-words, measured potential orthographic impairment predicted by visuo-attentional deficit theories. The findings revealed no significant difference in response time or accuracy between the groups for the homophone and pseudo-homophone stimuli. However, dyslexics were significantly slower and less accurate in their responses to the TL stimuli than controls. Thus, dyslexics presented deficits consistent with visuo-attentional theories, but not with the phonological deficit theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An emerging body of studies has claimed that exposure to phonetically varying speech sounds results in strictly phonological representations of speech sounds by the brain's auditory prediction system (Cornell et al., 2011; Eulitz & Lahiri, 2004; Hestvik et al., 2020; Hestvik & Durvasula, 2016; Phillips et al., 2000). We test this claim by measuring mismatch negativity (MMN) to a subcategorical contrast with two sets of phonetically varying standards. When controlling for non-prediction related contributors to the MMN, we find a mismatch in a late time window. However, the mismatch effect is only significant for participants who perceived the contrast as an across-category contrast (/t/ vs /d/). Additionally, we find no modulation of mismatch amplitude predicated on phonetic distance between standards and deviant. Taken together, this indicates that the prediction generated by the auditory system in response to phonetically varying speech sounds is indeed phonological and lacks any fine-grained phonetic content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tsonga is a cross-border language spoken in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Eswatini. This article focuses on variations of Tsonga spoken in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The aim of this article is to discuss the phonological and semantic differences between Tsonga spoken in South Africa and Zimbabwe using a comparative approach. Interviews were conducted among 20 Tsonga first language speakers from Zimbabwe and South Africa. Document analysis was also used. Labov's (1972) variation theory, which points out that there is variation in any given language, was employed. The article discusses differences in places of articulation of consonants found in certain lexical items, highlighting phonological processes such as labialisation versus palatalisation, velarisation versus labialisation, nasalisation versus non- nasalisation, and aspiration versus non-aspiration. Semantic variations are also discussed. It was found that there are phonological and semantic similarities and differences between Tsonga spoken in Zimbabwe and South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Verbal fluency tasks are useful tools in clinical practice and research studies across languages and contexts, but specific data obtained using Spanish phonological tasks and semantic tasks with different levels of difficulty are lacking. The present study aimed to determine the difficulty level of a phonological tasks and semantic tasks among Spanish-speakers. Method: Both tasks were ordered across five difficulty levels based on the frequency of use in Mexican Spanish (phonological) and the number of elements given by a group of participants (semantic). One hundred healthy Mexican Spanish-speaking participants (aged 24–63 years; 55 females) were presented with five phonological and five semantic categories. The participants also underwent a neuropsychological test and sociodemographic interview. The number of words correctly produced in each category within one minute was calculated. An ANOVA and a Kruskal-Wallis analysis were conducted in order to know if there were different levels of difficulty in the tasks. Additionally, correlation analyzes were performed to test the effect of the sociodemographic and cognitive variables on the participants' responses. Results: According to the analyzes, there were different levels of difficulty in the categories; P was the easiest and O was the most difficult category in the phonological tasks, and body parts and precious stones were the easiest and most difficult, respectively, in the semantic tasks. Age had a negative correlation with four-legged animals and a positive correlation with O; Positive correlations were also found between education and professions, vegetables, and alcoholic beverages; and between IQ and D, N, musical instruments, sports, vegetables, and trees. Conclusions: Both tasks offer categories with different level of difficulty based on the performance of a highly educated Mexican population. These data may be useful for clinical and research purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phonetic encoding refers to the mapping of an abstract linguistic code of the utterance into motor programmes which guide speech articulation. The encoding of speech gestures involves complex cognitive-motor planning, which has received limited attention in the psycholinguistic literature on language production relative to linguistic encoding processes. Here we will review some issues on phonetic encoding and the related empirical results by integrating evidence from psycholinguistic, phonetic, neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies from the last 30 years. In particular, we will focus on (i) the distinction between phonological and phonetic encoding, (ii) the nature and size of phonetic representations and (iii) the dynamics of phonetic encoding in the time-course of utterance planning. We will end up showing that the transformation of a linguistic code into motor programmes likely involves a larger proportion of the overall utterance planning time than acknowledged in current models and with many open questions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While the facilitation of word production by phonological cueing is used in clinical practice to evaluate the integrity of the lexical representations in anomia, the mechanisms by which phonological cueing facilitates oral production remain poorly understood. Most interpretations in psycholinguistic studies favor the phonological (sub-lexical) hypothesis, whereas results from studies on aphasia report evidence suggesting a lexical locus. Aims: This study aims to directly test the impact of phonological cues on lexical retrieval in participants with aphasia by manipulating the size of the cohort of nouns sharing the onset provided by the cue. Methods & Procedure: Fourteen aphasic participants presenting either a lexico-semantic or a phonological anomic profile performed a noun/object picture-naming task preceded by congruent or incongruent phonological cues. We manipulated the size of the lexical cohort of the words starting with the cue, reasoning that if phonological cues facilitate at the lexical level, a cue corresponding to a small number of words should be more effective than a cue compatible with a larger cohort. Outcomes & Results: The cue only improved accuracy in participants with lexico-semantic impairment, with a reduction of errors as a function of the cohort size (facilitation restricted to cues associated with a small onset cohort). In contrast, the cue onset cohort size only affects production latencies in participants with phonological impairment (shorter latencies for cues related to a small noun-onset cohort size). Conclusions: The observed effect of the cohort size associated with the cue favors a lexical locus of facilitation by phonological cueing. The fact that this effect is observed in different groups corresponding to different underlying impairments in error and in latencies suggests that the analyses of latencies reflect spared processes, whereas the analyses of errors tap into the impaired process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been suggested that neuroimaging can be used to inform therapeutic intervention. The current study aimed to determine whether an individual would benefit more from training engaging their intact or their damaged neural pathway. Two males with chronic stroke aphasia participated, with DM showing milder disruption of connectivity along the dorsal language pathway relative to JS, according to distortion corrected diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Each patient received two blocks of six repetition training sessions over two weeks, one of which was "phonological" and the other "semantic" in nature. Both phonological and semantic training produced significant gains for both patients for trained items. For the untrained control items, significant gains were specific to training type for each patient. Only phonological training elicited significant generalisation for DM, which was greater than that seen for JS. Conversely, only semantic training elicited significant generalisation for JS, which was greater than that seen for DM. This double dissociation in generalisation effects suggests that a restitutive approach is more effective for patients with milder damage while a compensatory approach may be more effective for those with more severe damage. These results indicate the utility of neuroimaging to optimise relearning strategies and promote generalisation to untrained items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Phonological cuing in spoken picture naming is widely used to improve word production accuracy in aphasic participants and to investigate word planning processes in psycholinguistic experiments with healthy participants. However, different paradigms and different modalities have been used across studies and populations, with some contradictory results. Aims: Here, we investigate whether and how the modality in which a phonological cue is delivered impacts on word production in picture naming tasks using the exact same paradigm with healthy and with aphasic participants. Methods & Procedure: In experiment 1, behavioural and electroencephalographic event-related potential (ERP) responses to auditory, visual and audiovisual cues in a picture naming task were investigated in healthy participants. In experiment 2, the impact of the same cue modalities was studied on errors and latencies in 15 aphasic participants. Outcomes & Results: The modality in which the cue is delivered influenced phonological facilitation effects in both populations, the audio modality being the most facilitative on production latencies in healthy participants and in participants with mild aphasia. No further gains were obtained by a double modality audiovisual cue on production latencies, whereas the double cues interfered with production accuracy in aphasic participants. ERP results not only were compatible with facilitation of phonological encoding in all experimental conditions but also showed modulation of a late encoding time period for both the visual and audiovisual cues, likely reflecting interference of the visual modality during monitoring or motor speech encoding. The latter observation is indeed coherent with the interference of the audiovisual modality that was observed on error rates in the more severely impaired aphasic participants. Conclusions: These results suggest that unimodal auditory cuing is the facilitatory condition, while visual cues in unimodal or bimodal conditions give rise to both facilitation and interference which manifest behaviourally depending on the balance of these opposing effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Identifying associations or links between encoded stimuli can influence whether those stimuli are successfully retrieved at a later time. Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of semantic and phonological lexical targets on recall in individuals with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to identify if individuals with TBI form associations when recalling related information. Methods & Procedures: Forty-seven individuals, 14 with TBI, completed the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) word retrieval paradigm in which six digitally recorded word lists were presented auditorily. Three of the lists contained semantically related words and three contained phonologically related words. Outcomes & Results: Non-brain-injured (NBI) participants recalled significantly more phonological and semantic stimuli than participants with TBI. Phonologically related stimuli resulted in increased intrusions for both TBI and NBI participants. For participants with TBI, age and time post injury were not significantly correlated with performance on the DRM paradigm, though the number of semantically related items recalled was moderately correlated with performance on standardised assessments. Though TBI participants recalled fewer words, they appeared to utilise recall strategies in a manner similar to NBI peers with intrusion data suggesting that both groups were forming associations between words. Conclusions: Individuals with mild to moderate TBI successfully identify associations between encoded stimuli and used those associations when recalling target information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Semantic and phonological processing deficits are often present in aphasia. The degree of interdependence between the deficits has been widely studied with variable findings. Semantic variables such as category and typicality have been found to influence semantic processing in healthy individuals and persons with aphasia (PWA), but their influence on phonological processing is unknown. Aims: This study examined the nature of semantic and phonological access in aphasia by comparing adults with aphasia to healthy control participants. Semantic and phonological tasks were used to assess the difference in processing requirements between and within each group as well as examine the effects of category and typicality on different stages of semantic and phonological processing. Methods & Procedures: Thirty-two PWA and 10 neurologically healthy adults were administered nine tasks: Category Superordinate, Category Coordinate, Semantic Feature, Rhyme Judgment (No-Name), Syllable Judgment (No-Name), Phoneme Verification (No-Name), Rhyme Judgment (Name-Provided), Syllable Judgment (Name-Provided), and Phoneme Verification (Name-Provided). Accuracy and reaction time (RT) data were collected for each of these tasks and between-group and within-group differences were analysed via MANOVA/MANCOVA and hierarchical clustering analyses. Outcomes & Results: PWA performed with significantly lower accuracy than controls on phonological tasks but performed comparably on semantic tasks. Participants with aphasia were significantly slower than controls on all semantic and phonological tasks. Clustering of the nine tasks by accuracy revealed different processing requirements in the participants with aphasia compared to the control group while clustering by RT revealed similar trends in both groups in that phonological (no-name) items required the most processing time. Significant effects of category and typicality were noted in the semantic tasks but not in any of the phonological tasks. Conclusions: Individuals with aphasia demonstrated overall impaired phonological processing with relatively preserved semantic processing as compared to controls. Per accuracy and RT measures, distinct trends in processing load for semantic tasks versus phonological tasks were seen in the individuals with aphasia whereas only speed of processing and not accuracy was impacted by phonological processing load in the control group. The results align most closely with discrete serial processing models of lexical processing as category and typicality effects were robust in the semantic tasks but not in any of the phonological tasks. Alternative explanations for these results also are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to determine whether cross-sectional and growth effects in second language (L2) literacy are related to the executive component of working memory (WM) and whether inhibition may underlie the links between WM and reading in children whose first language (L1) is Spanish. Elementary school children (grades 1, 2 and 3) were administered a battery of cognitive [WM, short-term memory (STM), random generation, rapid naming, phonological processing], vocabulary and reading measures in both Spanish (L1) and English (L2) in Year 1 and again one year later. The regression analyses showed that L2 growth in WM significantly predicted growth in L2 reading skills even when inhibition was controlled. Further, the contributions of WM to reading growth in both L1 and L2 reading were independent of cross-language skills in phonological processing, STM, oral language and naming speed. Overall, the results suggest the mental activities that underlie WM and inhibition in predictions of L2 literacy reflect independent executive processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multidimensional analysis involves moving away from one-dimensional analyses such as most articulation tests to comprehensive analyses involving levels of phonological information from the word level down to segments. This article outlines one such approach that looks at four levels from words to segments, using nine phonological measures. It also presents a new methodology for comparing children across the levels (multidimensional assessment of phonological similarity (MAPS)), and demonstrates the approach through a comparison of four sibling pairs. The results show that children can differ greatly and unpredictably in their similarities and differences, and that only a multidimensional analysis can identify where these similarities and differences may occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Schizophrenia causes clinically conspicuous impairment of syntax and semantics as part of the disorganisation syndrome; however, little is known regarding its effect on the phonological stage of speech, where word meanings are resolved into speech imagery. Methods. We used a 'tongue-twister' task to probe phonological speech production and its clinical associations in six schizophrenia patients and 16 controls. Results. Errors induced by phonological similarity were more common in the patients (p=.003), were positively associated with psychomotor poverty symptoms (p=.02) and negatively associated with reality distortion symptoms (p=.03). Conclusions. Our findings suggest that phonological speech production is markedly disrupted by schizophrenia. Further, this phonological abnormality is distinct from disorganisation syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In earlier work the concept of Orientation (O) was proposed as the key factor in successful literacy acquisition. This article develops that idea further to discuss the potential of Orientation Theory (OT) to unite current conflicts between apparently opposing theories of dyslexia. After briefly outlining these theoretical differences it is proposed that by adopting an ecological paradigm, in place of a “within child” model, the three major theories of dyslexia can be seen to offer valid but partial explanations within the wider concept of orientation. Orientation (O) and Genetic Identity (GI) generated as the two essential factors of OT are described in relation to these three theories. The application of OT in both UK educational policy and early years development are outlined. Finally, some answers to Nicolson's six questions for dyslexia are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speeded verbal repetition of spoken words in simple and primed conditions was used to examine lexical processing deficits in children with specific language impairment (SLI). During simple verbal repetition, children with SLI (n = 18) were slower at repeating abstract verbs compared to concrete verbs. This same effect was not observed for nouns. Age matched typically developing (TD) children (n = 18) showed no effect of concreteness for either verbs or nouns. During primed verbal repetition the children heard prime-target word pairs (e.g., lion- tiger) on each trial. Semantically related primes speeded verbal repetition for the TD but not SLI group, suggesting inefficient spreading activation within lexical semantics for children with SLI. Phonologically related primes (e.g., tiny) slowed verbal repetition of the target (e.g., tiger) in both groups, suggesting children with SLI were similar to their age-matched peers in lexical phonological competition. The results are generally supportive of graded deficits in lexical processing skill in SLI consistent with connectionist accounts, and approaches to therapy that combine semantic and phonological dimensions at the word level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A common complaint among the healthy ageing population is the increased frequency of word-finding problems. The Transmission Deficit Hypothesis (TDH; Burke, MacKay, Worthley, & Wade, 1991) proposes that word retrieval difficulties in healthy ageing are due to a selective failure in the transmission of available semantic/syntactic information to the phonological system, as opposed to generalised slowing. This study examined the relative timing of sensory processing and substages in phonological retrieval, in healthy young and old adults, using event-related potential (ERP) measures. Aims: To examine the effects of age on retrieval of segmental and syllabic information within phonological processing, and to consider whether age-related changes in phonological processing are a result of relatively early (sensory: visual) delays or to true stage-specific phonological processing delays. Methods & Procedures: A total of 16 healthy young and 16 healthy old adults performed an implicit picture-naming task while making a segmental or syllabic decision in a Go/No-go paradigm. The ERP component N2d (No-go minus Go waves), reflecting response inhibition to the phonological decision, and the visual evoked potential (VEP) components, reflecting visual processing of the stimuli, served as dependent measures. Outcomes & Results: Both reaction time (RT) and N2d data demonstrated later latencies in the old than young group on both the segment and syllable tasks. More specifically, the N2d effect was found between 301 and 450 ms on the segment task and between 351 and 450 ms on the syllable task for the young adults. The old group demonstrated the N2d effect later, between 351 and 500 ms on the segment task, and 451 and 500 ms on the syllable task. By contrast, no substantial differences in the latencies of the VEPs were observed between groups for either task. Conclusions: The behavioural and N2d findings provide support for the TDH that there are age delays at the phonological level of encoding. The VEP findings confirm that stage-specific phonological processing deficits were not a consequence of a more general ageing effect. The cause of this delay in accessing phonological information is unknown, but it will be important to explore whether healthy old adults might benefit from phonological practice to improve retrieval. It will also be important to determine the extent to which these age-related findings enter into clinical naming disorders, such as anomia, and the extent to which individuals with anomia may be affected at different substages of retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study the verbal fluency procedure was used to investigate the organization of semantic and phonological representations in children with Down syndrome (DS) and typically developing children, matched pairwise for receptive vocabulary age. Productivity was found to be significantly reduced in the DS group in both the semantic and the phonological tasks. However, group differences in the number of clusters as opposed to cluster size suggest that this may reflect less efficient retrieval strategies rather than differences in the organization of linguistic representations. Together the findings point to executive deficits in Down syndrome rather than deviant language processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]