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We investigated prediction skills of adult heritage speakers and the role of written and spoken language experience on predictive processing. Using visual world eye-tracking, we focused on predictive use of case-marking cues in verb-medial and verb-final sentences in Turkish with adult Turkish heritage speakers (N = 25) and Turkish monolingual speakers (N = 24). Heritage speakers predicted in verb-medial sentences (when verb-semantic and case-marking cues were available), but not in verb-final sentences (when only case-marking cues were available) while monolinguals predicted in both. Prediction skills of heritage speakers were modulated by their spoken language experience in Turkish and written language experience in both languages. Overall, these results strongly suggest that verb-semantic information is needed to scaffold the use of morphosyntactic cues for prediction in heritage speakers. The findings also support the notion that both spoken and written language experience play an important role in predictive spoken language processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous electroencephalography studies have yielded evidence for automatic processing of syntax and lexical stress. However, these studies looked at both effects in isolation, limiting their generalizability to everyday language comprehension. In the current study, we investigated automatic processing of grammatical agreement in the face of variation in lexical stress. Using an oddball paradigm, we measured the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) in Dutch-speaking participants while they listened to Dutch subject–verb sequences (linguistic context) or acoustically similar sequences in which the subject was replaced by filtered noise (nonlinguistic context). The verb forms differed in the inflectional suffix, rendering the subject–verb sequences grammatically correct or incorrect, and leading to a difference in the stress pattern of the verb forms. We found that the MMNs were modulated in both the linguistic and nonlinguistic condition, suggesting that the processing load induced by variation in lexical stress can hinder early automatic processing of grammatical agreement. However, as the morphological differences between the verb forms correlated with differences in number of syllables, an interpretation in terms of the prosodic structure of the sequences cannot be ruled out. Future research is needed to determine which of these factors (i.e., lexical stress, syllabic structure) most strongly modulate early syntactic processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research shows that family language patterns (i.e., which languages are spoken in the family and by whom) are associated with bilingual children's language use. However, it is unclear how input properties such as input quantity, parental proficiency, and language mixing may differ across family language patterns. It is also unclear whether the effects of family language patterns on children's language proficiency remain when differences in input properties are controlled. We investigated (i) which family language patterns occurred in bilingual families in the Netherlands (n = 136), (ii) whether input properties differed across patterns, and (iii) how patterns related to children's proficiency, once input properties were controlled. Home language situations were assessed through a questionnaire, children's proficiency in Dutch and the minority language through vocabulary tests and parent ratings. Three language patterns were found: one-parent-one-language, both parents mixed languages or used the minority language. The results showed differences in input properties across all patterns, as well as effects of these patterns on children's proficiency in Dutch and the minority language that disappeared once input properties were controlled. These findings do not provide robust evidence that family language patterns predict children's proficiency, but rather, that input quantity is crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: To the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of reliable, validated, and standardized (Dutch) measuring instruments to document visual speech perception in a structured way. This study aimed to: (1) evaluate the effects of age, gender, and the used word list on visual speech perception examined by a first version of the Dutch Test for (Audio-)Visual Speech Perception on word level (TAUVIS-words) and (2) assess the internal reliability of the TAUVIS-words. Methods: Thirty-nine normal-hearing adults divided into the following 3 age categories were included: (1) younger adults, age 18–39 years; (2) middle-aged adults, age 40–59 years; and (3) older adults, age >60 years. The TAUVIS-words consist of 4 word lists, i.e., 2 monosyllabic word lists (MS 1 and MS 2) and 2 polysyllabic word lists (PS 1 and PS 2). A first exploration of the effects of age, gender, and test stimuli (i.e., the used word list) on visual speech perception was conducted using the TAUVIS-words. A mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to analyze the results statistically. Lastly, the internal reliability of the TAUVIS-words was assessed by calculating the Chronbach α. Results: The results revealed a significant effect of the used list. More specifically, the score for MS 1 was significantly better compared to that for PS 2, and the score for PS 1 was significantly better compared to that for PS 2. Furthermore, a significant main effect of gender was found. Women scored significantly better compared to men. The effect of age was not significant. The TAUVIS-word lists were found to have good internal reliability. Conclusion: This study was a first exploration of the effects of age, gender, and test stimuli on visual speech perception using the TAUVIS-words. Further research is necessary to optimize and validate the TAUVIS-words, making use of a larger study sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the role of lexical processing in phrase structure building in sentence production. We asked whether speakers exploit a lexical cue as a lexical guide (i.e. the cued word occurs earlier in the sentence) and as a retrieval cue (i.e. a cue facilitates the retrieval of a memorised structure). In two experiments, participants recalled Dutch genitive sentences. In some recall trials, they received a lexical cue that repeated one argument of the to-be-recalled sentence. In two further experiments, participants read a genitive sentence and then generated a new one from a visually-presented triplet of arguments. The visual salience of the arguments and lexical overlap were manipulated. In all four experiments, speakers consistently started the phrase with the cued word. There was no evidence of a lexical cueing effect on structure retrieval. The findings suggest that speakers mainly exploit lexical information as a lexical guide when formulating phrase structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent constituent priming experiments show that Dutch and German prefixed verbs prime their stem, regardless of semantic transparency (e.g. Smolka et al. [(2014). 'Verstehen' ('understand') primes 'stehen' ('stand'): Morphological structure overrides semantic compositionality in the lexical representation of German complex verbs. Journal of Memory and Language, 72, 16–36. ]). We examine whether the processing of opaque verbs (e.g. herhalen "repeat") involves the retrieval of only the whole-word meaning, or whether the lexical-semantic meaning of the stem (halen as "take/get") is retrieved as well. We report the results of an auditory semantic priming experiment with Dutch prefixed verbs, testing whether the recognition of a semantic associate to the stem (BRENGEN "bring") is facilitated by the presentation of an opaque prefixed verb. In contrast to prior visual studies, significant facilitation after semantically opaque primes is found, which suggests that the lexical-semantic meaning of stems in opaque words is retrieved. We examine the implications that these findings have for auditory word recognition, and for the way in which different types of meanings are represented and processed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children who are refugees become bilingual in circumstances that are often challenging and that can vary across national contexts. We investigated the second language (L2) syntactic skills of Syrian children aged 6-12 living in Canada (n = 56) and the Netherlands (n = 47). Our goal was to establish the impact of the first language (L1 = Syrian Arabic) skills on L2 (English, Dutch) outcomes and whether L1–L2 interdependence is influenced by the length of L2 exposure. To measure L1 and L2 syntactic skills, cross-linguistic Litmus Sentence Repetition Tasks (Litmus-SRTs) were used. Results showed evidence of L1–L2 interdependence, but interdependence may only surface after sufficient L2 exposure. Maternal education level and refugee camp experiences differed between the two samples. Both variables impacted L2 outcomes in the Canadian but not in the Dutch sample, demonstrating the importance to examine refugee children's bilingual language development in different national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spelling has been found to be influenced by the frequency with which certain orthographic patterns occur. We examined whether Grades 2–5 children were already sensitive to orthographic frequency in spelling present tense verb inflections that sound the same but are spelled differently. Children were asked to spell present tenses in two homophonous forms; both inflections are pronounced with final /t/ but are spelled with final -d ("ik vind," I find) or -dt ("hij/zij vindt," he/she finds). Previous research has shown that adolescents and adults make inflection errors based on the relative frequency within a pair; as "vind' is more frequent than "vindt," "vind" is often used incorrectly. The children showed low correct scores for third person singular spellings, and overall better performance for -d dominant verbs. Surprisingly, they did make errors related to homophone inflection but in the wrong place, marking the wrong time: homophone-based errors occurred in present tense non-homophone verbs and in past tenses. We take our findings to mean that the children were not sensitive to homophone dominance. Furthermore, the findings illustrate the importance of specific graphotactic patterns in literacy development and call for attention to these patterns in models and teaching of spelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To ensure short gaps between turns in conversation, next speakers regularly start planning their utterance in overlap with the incoming turn. Three experiments investigate which stages of utterance planning are executed in overlap. E1 establishes effects of associative and phonological relatedness of pictures and words in a switch-task from picture naming to lexical decision. E2 focuses on effects of phonological relatedness and investigates potential shifts in the time-course of production planning during background speech. E3 required participants to verbally answer questions as a base task. In critical trials, however, participants switched to visual lexical decision just after they began planning their answer. The task-switch was time-locked to participants' gaze for response planning. Results show that word form encoding is done as early as possible and not postponed until the end of the incoming turn. Hence, planning a response during the incoming turn is executed at least until word form activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding spoken language requires the integration and weighting of multiple cues, and may call on cue integration mechanisms that have been studied in other areas of perception. In the current study, we used eye-tracking (visual-world paradigm) to examine how contextual speech rate (a lower-level, perceptual cue) and morphosyntactic knowledge (a higher-level, linguistic cue) are iteratively combined and integrated. Results indicate that participants used contextual rate information immediately, which we interpret as evidence of perceptual inference and the generation of predictions about upcoming morphosyntactic information. Additionally, we observed that early rate effects remained active in the presence of later conflicting lexical information. This result demonstrates that (1) contextual speech rate functions as a cue to morphosyntactic inferences, even in the presence of subsequent disambiguating information; and (2) listeners iteratively use multiple sources of information to draw inferences and generate predictions during speech comprehension. We discuss the implication of these demonstrations for theories of language processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the link between the perception and production in sound change in progress, both at the regional and the individual level. Two devoicing processes showing regional variation in Dutch are studied: the devoicing of initial labiodental fricatives and of initial bilabial stops. Five regions were selected, to represent different stages of change in progress. For each region, 20 participants took part in production (Study 1) and perception (Study 2) experiments. First, the results of the production tasks give additional insight in the regional and individual patterns of sound change. Second, the regional perceptual patterns in fricatives match the differences in production: perception is the most categorical in regions where the devoicing process is starting, and the least categorical in regions where the process of devoicing is almost completed. Finally, a clear link is observed between the production and perception systems undergoing sound change at the individual level. Changes in the perceptual system seem to precede changes in production. However, at the sound change completion, perception lags behind: individuals still perceive a contrast they no longer produce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Native listeners benefit from both visible speech and iconic gestures to enhance degraded speech comprehension (Drijvers & Ozyürek, 2017). We tested how highly proficient non-native listeners benefit from these visual articulators compared to native listeners. We presented videos of an actress uttering a verb in clear, moderately, or severely degraded speech, while her lips were blurred, visible, or visible and accompanied by a gesture. Our results revealed that unlike native listeners, non-native listeners were less likely to benefit from the combined enhancement of visible speech and gestures, especially since the benefit from visible speech was minimal when the signal quality was not sufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study to what extent linguistic differences in grammatical aspect systems and verb lexicalisation patterns of Dutch and mandarin Chinese affect how speakers conceptualise the path of motion in motion events, using description and memory tasks. We hypothesised that speakers of the two languages would show different preferences towards the selection of endpoint-, trajectory- or location-information in Endpoint-oriented (not reached) events, whilst showing a similar bias towards encoding endpoints in Endpoint-reached events. Our findings show that (1) groups did not differ in endpoint encoding and memory for both event types; (2) Dutch speakers conceptualised Endpoint-oriented motion focusing on the trajectory, whereas Chinese speakers focused on the location of the moving entity. In addition, we report detailed linguistic patterns of how grammatical aspect, verb semantics and adjuncts containing path-information are combined in the two languages. Results are discussed in relation to typologies of motion expression and event cognition theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Making an informed decision about colorectal cancer screening requires health literacy. Our aim was to develop and pilot-test a computer-based decision aid to support informed decision making about whether or not to participate in colorectal cancer screening for individuals with varying health literacy levels in the Netherlands.Methods: First, we designed and adapted the decision aid prototype among 25 individuals with low (n = 15) and adequate (n = 10) health literacy. Second, we used a before/after study to assess changes in knowledge, attitude, intention, decisional conflict, deliberation, anxiety and risk perception in an online survey among 81 individuals eligible for colorectal cancer screening with low (n = 35) and adequate (n = 46) health literacy.Results: The decision aid was acceptable, comprehensible, reduced decisional conflict, increased deliberation and improved knowledge about colorectal cancer screening, but not about colorectal cancer, among individuals with adequate and low health literacy. Usability was slightly higher for participants with adequate health literacy compared to those with low health literacy.Conclusion: The decision aid is promising in supporting informed decision making about colorectal cancer screening, also among individuals with lower health literacy.Practice Implications: Further refinement of interactive features, such as videos, animations and the values clarification exercise, is needed to increase the usability of the decision aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that the updating, inhibiting and shifting abilities underlying executive control are important for spoken language production in adults. However, little is known about this in children. Aims: To examine whether children with and without language impairment differ in all or only some of these executive abilities, and whether they show corresponding differences when these abilities are engaged in language production. Methods & Procedures: Thirty‐three children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 41 typically developing (TD) children (age matched, aged 8–12 years) completed standard executive control tests that measure the updating, inhibiting and shifting abilities. All children were native speakers of Dutch. Moreover, they performed a noun–phrase production task involving picture description within a picture–word interference paradigm. We measured their production accuracy and speed to assess length, distractor and switch effects, which reflect the updating, inhibiting and shifting abilities underlying executive control. Outcomes & Results: Compared with TD children, the children with SLI had lower scores on all executive control tests. Moreover, they were overall slower and made more errors in the noun–phrase production task. Additionally, the magnitude of the distractor and switch effects was larger for the SLI than for the TD group. Conclusions & Implications: The results suggest that children with SLI have impaired language production and executive control abilities, and that some of the differences in the executive control abilities between SLI and TD groups were reflected in their language production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aims of this study were to assess the reliability and validity of the Computer Articulation Instrument (CAI), a speech production test battery assessing phonological and speech motor skills in 4 tasks: (1) picture naming, (2) nonword imitation, (3) word and nonword repetition, and (4) maximum repetition rate (MRR). Method: Normative data were collected in 1,524 typically developing Dutch-speaking children (aged between 2;0 and 7;0 [years;months]). Parameters were extracted on segmental and syllabic accuracy (Tasks 1 and 2), consistency (Task 3), and syllables per second (Task 4). Interrater reliability and test-retest reliability were analyzed using subgroups of the normative sample and studied by estimating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Construct validity was investigated by determining agerelated changes of test results and factor analyses of the extracted speech measures. Results: ICCs for interrater reliability ranged from sufficient to good, except for percentage of vowels correct of picture naming and nonword imitation and for the MRRs for bisyllabic and trisyllabic items. The ICCs for test-retest reliability were sufficient (picture naming, nonword imitation) to insufficient (word and nonword repetition, MRR) due to larger-than-expected normal development and learning effects. Continuous norms showed developmental patterns for all CAI parameters. The factor analyses revealed 5 meaningful factors: all picture-naming parameters, the segmental parameters of nonword imitation, the syllabic structure parameters of nonword imitation, (non)word repetition consistency, and all MRR parameters. Conclusion: Its overall sufficient to good psychometric properties indicate that the CAI is a reliable and valid instrument for the assessment of typical and delayed speech development in Dutch children in the ages of 2-7 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important question in predictive language processing is the extent to which prediction effects can reliably be measured on pre-nominal material (e.g. articles before nouns). Here, we present a large sample (N = 58) close replication of a study by Otten and van Berkum (2009). They report ERP modulations in relation to the predictability of nouns in sentences, measured on gender-marked Dutch articles. We used nearly identical materials, procedures, and data analysis steps. We fail to replicate the original effect, but do observe a pattern consistent with the original data. Methodological differences between our replication and the original study that could potentially have contributed to the diverging results are discussed. In addition, we discuss the suitability of Dutch gender-marked determiners as a test-case for future studies of pre-activation of lexical items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined to what extent the variation in vocabulary learning outcomes (vocabulary knowledge, learning gain, and rate of forgetting) in English as a second language (L2) in context can be predicted from semantic contextual support, word characteristics (cognate status, Levenshtein distance, word frequency, and word length), and student characteristics (prior vocabulary knowledge, reading ability, and exposure to English) in 197 Dutch adolescents. Students were taught cognates, false friends, and control words through judging sentences with varying degrees of semantic contextual support using a pretest/posttest between subjects design. Participants were presented with an English target word and its Dutch translation, followed by an English sentence. They were instructed to judge the plausibility of the sentence. Mixed-efffects models indicated that learning gains were higher for sentences with more semantic contextual support and in students with stronger reading comprehension skills. We were the first to show that Levenshtein distance is an important predictor for L2 vocabulary learning outcomes. Furthermore, more accurate as well as faster learning task performance lead to higher learning outcomes. It can thus be concluded that L2 study materials containing semantically supportive contexts and that focus on words with little L1-L2 overlap are most effective for L2 vocabulary learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central question in the field of foreign language acquisition is whether the processes involved in reading development in a foreign language are universal or dependent on characteristics of the specific language involved. We investigated the impact of orthographic depth and writing system on word reading acquisition in a foreign orthography, by studying children who are proficient readers in the transparent alphabetic Dutch orthography and who learn to read simultaneously in the transparent alphabetic Spanish orthography, the nontransparent alphabetic French orthography and the nonalphabetic Chinese orthography. Results showed that the skills that underlie foreign language word reading are not universal, but are different for alphabetic and nonalphabetic orthographies, and are also different for transparent and nontransparent alphabetic orthographies, albeit to a lesser extent. Word reading acquisition in transparent alphabetic Spanish depended mainly on reading skills in the native language. In contrast, in nontransparent alphabetic French and nonalphabetic Chinese, word reading was mainly influenced by cognitive skills: French word reading by phonological awareness and verbal intelligence, and Chinese word reading by verbal and nonverbal intelligence. Findings thus suggest that the processes underlying foreign language word reading acquisition are not universal but rather depend on the specific language involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examined the learning of letter-speech sound correspondences within an artificial script and performed an experimental analysis of letter-speech sound learning among dyslexic and normal readers vis-à-vis phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, reading, and spelling. Participants were provided with 20 min of training aimed at learning eight new basic letter-speech sound correspondences, followed by a short assessment of mastery of the correspondences and word-reading ability in this unfamiliar script. Our results demonstrated that brief training is moderately successful in differentiating dyslexic readers from normal readers in their ability to learn letter-speech sound correspondences. The normal readers outperformed the dyslexic readers for accuracy and speed on a letter-speech sound matching task, as well as on a word-reading task containing familiar words written in the artificial orthography. Importantly, the new artificial script-related measures were related to phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming and made a unique contribution in predicting individual differences in reading and spelling ability. Our results are consistent with the view that a fundamental letter-speech sound learning deficit is a key factor in dyslexia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A still unresolved issue is in how far native language (L1) processing in bilinguals is influenced by the second language (L2). We investigated this in two word recognition experiments in L1, using homophonic near-cognates that are spelled in L2. In a German lexical decision task (Experiment 1), German-Dutch bilinguals had more difficulties to reject these Dutch-spelled near-cognates than other misspellings, while this was not the case for non-Dutch speaking Germans. In Experiment 2, the same materials were embedded in German sentences. Analyses of eye movements during reading showed that only non-Dutch speaking Germans, but not Dutch-speaking participants were slowed down by the Dutch cognate misspellings. Additionally, in both experiments, bilinguals with larger vocabulary sizes in Dutch tended to show larger near-cognate effects. Thus, Dutch word knowledge influenced word recognition in L1 German in both task contexts, suggesting that L1 word recognition in bilinguals is non-selective with respect to L2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilingual children with reduced exposure to one or both languages may have language profiles that are apparently similar to those of children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Children with DLD receive enough input, but have difficulty using this input for acquisition due to processing deficits. The present investigation aims to determine aspects of adjective production that are differentially affected by reduced input (in bilingualism) and reduced intake (in DLD). Adjectives were elicited from Dutch–Russian simultaneous bilinguals with limited exposure to Russian and Russian-speaking monolinguals with and without DLD. An antonym elicitation task was used to assess the size of adjective vocabularies, and a degree task was employed to compare the preferences of the three groups in the use of morphological, lexical, and syntactic degree markers. The results revealed that adjective–noun agreement is affected to the same extent by both reduced input and reduced intake. The size of adjective lexicons is also negatively affected by both, but more so by reduced exposure. However, production of morphological degree markers and learning of semantic paradigms are areas of relative strength in which bilinguals outperform monolingual children with DLD. We suggest that reduced input might be counterbalanced by linguistic and cognitive advantages of bilingualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 2nd language proficiency and linguistic uncertainty on performance and listening effort in mixed language contexts. Method: Thirteen native speakers of Dutch with varying degrees of fluency in English listened to and repeated sentences produced in both Dutch and English and presented in the presence of single-talker competing speech in both Dutch and English. Target and masker language combinations were presented in both blocked and mixed (unpredictable) conditions. In the blocked condition, in each block of trials the target--masker language combination remained constant, and the listeners were informed of both prior to beginning the block. In the mixed condition, target and masker language varied randomly from trial to trial. All listeners participated in all conditions. Performance was assessed in terms of speech reception thresholds, whereas listening effort was quantified in terms of pupil dilation. Results: Performance (speech reception thresholds) and listening effort (pupil dilation) were both affected by 2nd language proficiency (English test score) and target and masker language: Performance was better in blocked as compared to mixed conditions, with Dutch as compared to English targets, and with English as compared to Dutch maskers. English proficiency was correlated with listening performance. Listeners also exhibited greater peak pupil dilation in mixed as compared to blocked conditions for trials with Dutch maskers, whereas pupil dilation during preparation for speaking was higher for English targets as compared to Dutch ones in almost all conditions. Conclusions: Both listener's proficiency in a 2nd language and uncertainty about the target language on a given trial play a significant role in how bilingual listeners attend to speech in the presence of competing speech in different languages, but precise effects also depend on which language is serving as target and which as masker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language experience shapes musical and speech pitch processing. We investigated whether speaking a lexical tone language natively modulates neural processing of pitch in language and music as well as their correlation. We tested tone language (Mandarin Chinese), and non-tone language (Dutch) listeners in a passive oddball paradigm measuring mismatch negativity (MMN) for (i) Chinese lexical tones and (ii) three-note musical melodies with similar pitch contours. For lexical tones, Chinese listeners showed a later MMN peak than the non-tone language listeners, whereas for MMN amplitude there were no significant differences between groups. Dutch participants also showed a late discriminative negativity (LDN). In the music condition two MMNs, corresponding to the two notes that differed between the standard and the deviant were found for both groups, and an LDN were found for both the Dutch and the Chinese listeners. The music MMNs were significantly right lateralized. Importantly, significant correlations were found between the lexical tone and the music MMNs for the Dutch but not the Chinese participants. The results suggest that speaking a tone language natively does not necessarily enhance neural responses to pitch either in language or in music, but that it does change the nature of neural pitch processing: non-tone language speakers appear to perceive lexical tones as musical, whereas for tone language speakers, lexical tones and music may activate different neural networks. Neural resources seem to be assigned differently for the lexical tones and for musical melodies, presumably depending on the presence or absence of long-term phonological memory traces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a semantic priming experiment, the influence of lexical access and knowledge of semantic relations on reading comprehension was studied in Dutch monolingual and bilingual minority children. Both context-independent semantic relations in the form of category coordinates and context-dependent semantic relations involving concepts that co-occur in certain contexts were tested in an auditory animacy decision task, along with lexical access. Reading comprehension and the control variables vocabulary size, decoding skill, and mental processing speed were tested by means of standardized tasks. Mixed-effects modeling was used to obtain individual priming scores and to study the effect of individual differences in the various predictor variables on the reading scores. Semantic priming was observed for the coordinate pairs but not the context-dependently related pairs, and neither context-independent priming nor lexical access predicted reading comprehension. Only vocabulary size significantly contributed to the reading scores, emphasizing the importance of the number of words known for reading comprehension. Finally, the results show that the monolingual and bilingual children perform similarly on all measures, suggesting that in the current Dutch context, language status may not be highly predictive of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-frequency units are usually processed faster than low-frequency units in language comprehension and language production. Frequency effects have been shown for words as well as word combinations. Word co-occurrence effects can be operationalized in terms of transitional probability (TP). TPs reflect how probable a word is, conditioned by its right or left neighbouring word. This corpus study investigates whether three different age groups-younger children (8-12 years), adolescents (12-18 years) and older (62-95 years) Dutch speakers-show frequency and TP context effects on spoken word durations in reading aloud, and whether age groups differ in the size of these effects. Results show consistent effects of TP on word durations for all age groups. Thus, TP seems to influence the processing of words in context, beyond the well-established effect of word frequency, across the entire age range. However, the study also indicates that age groups differ in the size of TP effects, with older adults having smaller TP effects than adolescent readers. Our results show that probabilistic reduction effects in reading aloud may at least partly stem from contextual facilitation that leads to faster reading times in skilled readers, as well as in young language learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have problems not only with language performance but also with sustained attention, which is the ability to maintain alertness over an extended period of time. Although there is consensus that this ability is impaired with respect to processing stimuli in the auditory perceptual modality, conflicting evidence exists concerning the visual modality. Aims To address the outstanding issue whether the impairment in sustained attention is limited to the auditory domain, or if it is domain-general. Furthermore, to test whether children's sustained attention ability relates to their word-production skills. Methods & Procedures Groups of 7-9 year olds with SLI ( N = 28) and typically developing (TD) children ( N = 22) performed a picture-naming task and two sustained attention tasks, namely auditory and visual continuous performance tasks (CPTs). Outcomes & Results Children with SLI performed worse than TD children on picture naming and on both the auditory and visual CPTs. Moreover, performance on both the CPTs correlated with picture-naming latencies across developmental groups. Conclusions & Implications These results provide evidence for a deficit in both auditory and visual sustained attention in children with SLI. Moreover, the study indicates there is a relationship between domain-general sustained attention and picture-naming performance in both TD and language-impaired children. Future studies should establish whether this relationship is causal. If attention influences language, training of sustained attention may improve language production in children from both developmental groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent analyses have argued that when requests for confirmation are implemented with declarative word order, they are closure-implicative due to the relatively knowing stance indexed with the declarative. This article demonstrates, however, that in some cases participants show an orientation to both confirmation and elaboration as a relevant next action. By comparing requests for confirmation that are closure-implicative to those that are expansion-implicative, it is argued that in addition to epistemic stance, participants also orient to the lexical design features and sequential placement of these declarative yes/no-type initiating actions to determine the relevant type of response. Data are in Dutch with English translations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Employing a large sample of children from Dutch regular elementary schools, this study assessed the contributing and discriminating values of reading disability (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to two types of phonological processing skills, phonemic awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN). A second objective was to investigate whether comorbidity of RD and ADHD should be considered as an additive phenomenon as to RAN and PA. A total of 1,262 children, aged 8 to 13 years, were classified as RD (n = 121), ADHD (n = 17), comorbid (RD+ADHD; n = 16), or control (n = 1,108). Phonological processing was assessed by standardized tests of PA and RAN. Disability groups were compared to each other and contrasted to the control group. Although results indicate substantial effects for all three disability groups on both types of phonological processing, and the RAN/PA compound measure in particular, effect sizes were considerably larger for the RD groups, as compared to the ADHD-only group. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Given the complexity of sentence processing and the specific problems that children with specific language impairment (SLI) experience, we investigated the time course and characteristics of semantic processing at the sentence level in Dutch preschoolers with SLI. Method: We measured N400 responses to semantically congruent and incongruent spoken sentences (e.g., "My father is eating an apple/*blanket") in a group of 37 Dutch preschoolers with SLI and in a group of 25 typically developing (TD) peers. We compared the time course and amplitude of the N400 effect between the two groups. Results: The TD group showed a strong posterior N400 effect in time windows 300-500 ms and 500-800 ms. In contrast, the SLI group demonstrated only a reliable N400 effect in the later time window, 500-800 ms, and did not show a stronger presence at posterior electrodes. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the neuronal processing of semantic information at sentence level is atypical in preschoolers with SLI compared with TD children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In natural languages, two negating elements that cancel each other out (as innot impossible) are logically equivalent to the non-negated word form (in this case,possible). It has been proposed that the function of sentential double negation is to create coherence between sentences containing opposing information. Thus,not impossibleis functionally different frompossible. The present ERP study tested this hypothesis in Dutch. Native speakers read sentences in which evoked negative expectations are cancelled by a second sentence including either a double negation or the corresponding non-negated word form. Results showed that non-negated word forms, such aspossible, elicited a larger N400 effect than double negations, such asnot impossible. We suggest that canceling out a negative expectation by a double negation compared to the non-negated word form, makes it easier for the reader to integrate the two sentences semantically and connect them to the present discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: This study investigated whether and to what extent iconic co-speech gestures contribute to information from visible speech to enhance degraded speech comprehension at different levels of noise-vocoding. Previous studies of the contributions of these 2 visual articulators to speech comprehension have only been performed separately. Method: Twenty participants watched videos of an actress uttering an action verb and completed a free-recall task. The videos were presented in 3 speech conditions (2-band noise-vocoding, 6-band noise-vocoding, clear), 3 multimodal conditions (speech + lips blurred, speech + visible speech, speech + visible speech + gesture), and 2 visual-only conditions (visible speech, visible speech + gesture). Results: Accuracy levels were higher when both visual articulators were present compared with 1 or none. The enhancement effects of (a) visible speech, (b) gestural information on top of visible speech, and (c) both visible speech and iconic gestures were larger in 6-band than 2-band noise-vocoding or visual-only conditions. Gestural enhancement in 2-band noise-vocoding did not differ from gestural enhancement in visual-only conditions. Conclusions: When perceiving degraded speech in a visual context, listeners benefit more from having both visual articulators present compared with 1. This benefit was larger at 6-band than 2-band noise-vocoding, where listeners can benefit from both phonological cues from visible speech and semantic cues from iconic gestures to disambiguate speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dialogic storybook-based intervention integrating dialogic storybook reading with early literacy activities is studied with a longitudinal quasi-experimental study design. The effects of this intervention, in addition to a regular early childhood education (ECE) program, on kindergartners’ vocabulary and phonological awareness development are analyzed for children from different backgrounds. Results indicated that the intervention may be effective in stimulating expressive vocabulary development. With regard to receptive vocabulary and phonological awareness measures, the intervention seems to have a similar effect to using a regular ECE program. The intervention had a similar effect for all children. Findings suggest that an active participation, in which the children are encouraged to talk about language, seems to be beneficial to enhance children’s language use; this aspect might be elaborated in existing or future ECE programs. The intervention can be used to help children from underprivileged families to gain language skills to ensure an optimal start of formal education in Grade 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study assessed whether a categorical speech perception (CP) deficit is associated with dyslexia or familial risk for dyslexia, by exploring a possible cascading relation from speech perception to phonology to reading and by identifying whether speech perception distinguishes familial risk (FR) children with dyslexia (FRD) from those without dyslexia (FRND). Method: Data were collected from 9-year-old FRD (n = 37) and FRND (n = 41) children and age-matched controls (n = 49) on CP identification and discrimination and on the phonological processing measures rapid automatized naming, phoneme awareness, and nonword repetition. Results: The FRD group performed more poorly on CP than the FRND and control groups. Findings on phonological processing align with the literature in that (a) phonological processing related to reading and (b) the FRD group showed the lowest phonological processing outcomes. Furthermore, CP correlated weakly with reading, but this relationship was fully mediated by rapid automatized naming. Conclusion: Although CP phonological skills are related to dyslexia, there was no strong evidence for a cascade from CP to phonology to reading. Deficits in CP at the behavioral level are not directly associated with dyslexia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current study, we examined the developmental course of the perception of non-native tonal contrast. We tested 4, 6 and 12-month-old Dutch infants on their discrimination of Chinese low-rising tone and low-dipping tone using the visual fixation paradigm. The infants were tested in two conditions that differed in terms of degree of variability. The 4-month-olds did not show discrimination effect in either condition. The 6- and 12-month-old infants, however, discriminated the tones in both conditions. The improvement of perception might be the result of cognitive development carried over from learning the native phonology. Infants can become better listeners in general in the first year of life, as well as get cognitively better equipped in dealing with the variable input in speech in general. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The voicing contrast is neutralized syllable and word finally in Dutch and German, leading to alternations within the morphological paradigm (e.g., Dutch ‘bed(s)’, be[t]-be[d]en, German ‘dog(s)’, Hun[t]-Hun[d]e). Despite structural similarity, language-specific morphological, phonological and lexical properties impact on the distribution of this alternation in the two languages. Previous acquisition research has focused on one language only, predominantly focusing on children’s production accuracy, concluding that alternations are not acquired until late in the acquisition process in either language. This paper adapts a perceptual method to investigate how voicing alternations are represented in the mental lexicon of Dutch and German 3-year-olds. Sensitivity to mispronunciations of voicing word-medially in plural forms was measured using a visual fixation procedure. Dutch children exhibited evidence of overgeneralizing the voicing alternation, whereas German children consistently preferred the correct pronunciation to mispronunciations. Results indicate that the acquisition of voicing alternations is influenced by language-specific factors beyond the alternation itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interference Frisian (IF) is a variety of Frisian, spoken by mostly younger speakers, which is heavily influenced by Dutch. IF exhibits all six logically possible word orders in a cluster of three verbs. This phenomenon has been researched by Koeneman and Postma (2006), who argue for a parameter theory, which leaves frequency differences between various orders unexplained. Rejecting Koeneman and Postma’s parameter theory, but accepting their conclusion that Dutch (and Frisian) data are input for the grammar of IF, we will argue that the word order preferences of speakers of IF are determined by frequency and similarity. More specifically, three-verb clusters in IF are sensitive to: their linear left-to-right similarity to two-verb clusters and three-verb clusters in Frisian and in Dutch; the (estimated) frequency of two- and three-verb clusters in Frisian and Dutch. The model will be shown to work best if Dutch and Frisian, and two- and three-verb clusters, have equal impact factors. If different impact factors are taken, the model’s predictions do not change substantially, testifying to its robustness. This analysis is in line with recent ideas that the sequential nature of human speech is more important to syntactic processes than commonly assumed, and that less burden need be put on the hierarchical dimension of syntactic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess and compare the predictive values of group membership for rapid automatized naming (RAN) and phonemic awareness (PA) in Dutch school children with and without reading disabilities (RD) or specific language impairment (SLI). Method: A composite word reading index and a formal SLI diagnosis were used to classify a total of 1,267 children aged 8 to 13 years old either as RD-only (n = 126), SLI-only (n = 21), comorbid (RD+SLI; n = 30), or typically developing (n = 1,090). RAN and PA were assessed with 4 standardized subtests. The clinical subgroups were compared to each other and contrasted with the control group. Results: For each subgroup, results indicate substantial effect sizes of RAN and PA. However, the RD-only group seems to be more affected by poor RAN than the SLI-only group, whereas the 2 groups perform equally poorly on PA. The comorbid group was revealed as most severely impaired on all measurements. Conclusions: In studying RD and SLI, this research indicates that it is important to distinguish between RD-only, SLI-only, and comorbid groups. The comorbid group shows additive effects of both disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probabilistic phonotactic knowledge facilitates perception, but categorical phonotactic illegality can cause misperceptions, especially of non-native phoneme combinations. If misperceptions induced by first language (L1) knowledge filter second language input, access to second language (L2) probabilistic phonotactics is potentially blocked for L2 acquisition. The facilitatory effects of L2 probabilistic phonotactics and categorical filtering effects of L1 phonotactics were compared and contrasted in a series of cross-modal priming experiments. Dutch native listeners and L1 Spanish and Japanese learners of Dutch had to perform a lexical decision task on Dutch words that started with /sC/ clusters that were of different degrees of probabilistic wellformedness in Dutch but illegal in Spanish and Japanese. Versions of target words with Spanish illegality resolving epenthesis in the clusters primed the Spanish group, showing an L1 filter; a similar effect was not found for the Japanese group. In addition, words with wellformed /sC/ clusters were recognised faster, showing a positive effect on processing of probabilistic wellformedness. However, Spanish learners with higher proficiency were facilitated to a greater extent by wellformed but epenthesised clusters, showing that although probabilistic learning occurs in spite of the L1 filter, the acquired probabilistic knowledge is still affected by L1 categorical knowledge. Categorical phonotactic and probabilistic knowledge are of a different nature and interact in acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Children with severe cerebral palsy (CP) (i.e. 'non-speaking children with severely limited mobility') are restricted in many domains that are important to the acquisition of language. Aims To investigate comprehension of spoken language on sentence type level in non-speaking children with severe CP. Methods & Procedures From an original sample of 87 non-speaking children with severe CP, 68 passed the pre-test (i.e. they matched at least five spoken words to the corresponding objects) of a specifically developed computer-based instrument for low motor language testing (C-BiLLT), admitting them to the actual C-BiLLT computer test. As a result, the present study included 68 children with severe CP (35 boys, 33 girls; mean age 6;11 years, SD 3;0 years; age range 1;9-11;11 years) who were investigated with the C-BiLLT for comprehension of different sentence types: phrases, simple active sentences (with one or two arguments) and compound sentences. The C-BiLLT provides norm data of typically developing (TD) children (1;6-6;6 years). Binomial logistic regression analyses were used to compare the percentage correct of each sentence type in children with severe CP with that in TD children (subdivided into age groups) and to compare percentage correct within the CP subtypes. Outcomes & Results Sentence comprehension in non-speaking children with severe CP followed the developmental trajectory of TD children, but at a much slower rate; nevertheless, they were still developing up to at least age 12 years. Delays in sentence type comprehension increased with sentence complexity and showed a large variability between individual children and between subtypes of CP. Comprehension of simple and syntactically more complex sentences were significantly better in children with dyskinetic CP than in children with spastic CP. Of the children with dyskinetic CP, 10-13% showed comprehension of simple and compound sentences within the percentage correct of TD children, as opposed to none of the children with spastic CP. Conclusion & Implications In non-speaking children with severe CP sentence comprehension is delayed rather than deviant. Results indicate the importance of following comprehension skills across all age groups, even beyond age 12 years. Moreover, the subtype of CP should be considered when establishing an educational programme for sentence comprehension, and augmentative and alternative communication support. In addition, educational programmes for children with severe CP should take into account the linguistic hierarchy of sentence comprehension when focusing on the input and understanding of spoken language comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To test the effects of reading speed on second-language (L2) sentence processing and the potential influence of conflicting native language word order, we compared advanced L2 learners of English with native English speakers on a self-paced reading task. L2 learners read faster overall than native English speakers. When differences in reading speed were controlled for, L2 learners were as sensitive to grammaticality manipulations as native English speakers. On-line reading times did not reflect any effect of cross-language conflict in the learners. Results from an end-of-sentence verification task showed a stronger bias toward a subject–object order in the cross-language conflict conditions in speed-matched L2 learners but not in L2 learners reading faster than native speakers. Results are compatible with hypothesized differences in resource allocation between L2 and native language processing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In bilingual processing, cognates are associated with facilitatory processing, while switching between languages is associated with a processing cost. This study investigates whether co-activation of cognates affects the magnitude of switch costs in sentence context. A shadowing task was conducted to examine whether verb cognates reduce switch costs in sentences that switched between participants' L1 and L2. In addition, we considered whether these effects were influenced by L2 proficiency, switching direction and cross-linguistic overlap in syntactic structure. Bilinguals were presented with L1 and L2 sentences that contained a language switch preceded by a cognate. Shadowing latencies showed that switching to L2 was more costly than switching to L1. Switch costs in both directions were not modulated by the presence of a verb cognate, and this effect was not affected by syntactic structure or L2 proficiency. The results are informative for the field of bilingual processing and the lexical trigger hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In three cross-modal priming experiments we asked whether adaptation to a foreign-accented speaker is automatic, and whether adaptation can be seen after a long delay between initial exposure and test. Dutch listeners were exposed to a Hebrew-accented Dutch speaker with two types of Dutch words: those that contained [ɪ] (globally accented words), and those in which the Dutch [i] was shortened to [ɪ] (specific accent marker words). Experiment 1, which served as a baseline, showed that native Dutch participants showed facilitatory priming for globally accented, but not specific accent, words. In experiment 2, participants performed a 3.5-minute phoneme monitoring task, and were tested on their comprehension of the accented speaker 24 hours later using the same cross-modal priming task as in experiment 1. During the phoneme monitoring task, listeners were asked to detect a consonant that was not strongly accented. In experiment 3, the delay between exposure and test was extended to 1 week. Listeners in experiments 2 and 3 showed facilitatory priming for both globally accented and specific accent marker words. Together, these results show that adaptation to a foreign-accented speaker can be rapid and automatic, and can be observed after a prolonged delay in testing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: The effects of neighborhood density (ND) and lexical frequency on word recognition and the effects of phonotactic probability (PP) on nonword repetition (NWR) were examined to gain insight into processing at the lexical and sublexical levels in typically developing (TD) children and children with developmental language problems. Method: Tasks measuring NWR and word recognition were administered to 5 groups of children: 2 groups of TD children (5 and 8 years old), children with specific language impairment (SLI), children with reading impairment (RI), and children with SLI + RI (all 7–8 years old). Results: High ND had a negative effect on word recognition in the older TD children and in the children with RI only. There was no ND effect in the younger children or in the children with SLI, who all had lower receptive vocabulary scores than the age-matched TD children and the RI groups. For all groups, NWR items with low PP were more difficult to repeat than items with high PP. This effect was especially pronounced in children with RI. Conclusion: Both the stage of vocabulary development and the type of language impairment (SLI or RI) impact the way ND and PP affect word recognition and NWR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus of this article is to develop a better understanding of the developmental trajectories of literacy and phonological skills within Dutch-speaking children. Children at high and low risk for dyslexia were followed and compared at four different moments: kindergarten and first, third and sixth grades. Three groups were then compared: (1) dyslexic readers; (2) normal readers at high risk for dyslexia; and (3) normal readers at low risk for dyslexia. Children diagnosed with dyslexia scored lower than high-risk normal readers on phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), verbal short-term memory and literacy skills. Normal readers at high risk scored between both groups, confirming that dyslexia is to be considered as a continuum rather than an all-or-none condition. Growth analyses showed that the three groups evolved similarly on all measures except for phoneme deletion and literacy measures. Finally, solely PA and RAN explained a significant amount of variance in the evolution of reading skills. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production studies on event conceptualization have shown that the language inventory has a clear influence on event descriptions in different languages (e.g., Carroll & von Stutterheim, 2010). In our perception study with native speakers of German, English, and Dutch and Dutch learners of German and English, we were able to show that in addition to preferred verbalization patterns, there are other verbalization patterns that are rated as equally likely. Our results suggest that a more differentiated explanation is needed than that proposed by Slobin (1996b). Grammatical aspects of a language are easier to acquire and apply than lexical aspects. These differences can be explained in terms of automatization and cognitive control of first language and second language processes (Levelt, 1989). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study investigated the role of both cognitive and linguistic predictors in basic arithmetic skills (i.e., addition and subtraction) in 69 first-language (L1) learners and 60 second-language (L2) learners from the second grade of primary schools in the Netherlands. All children were tested on non-verbal intelligence, working memory, phonological awareness, grammatical ability as well as basic arithmetic skills. The L2 learners scored lower than L1 learners on phonological awareness, grammatical ability, and basic arithmetic skills (i.e., addition and subtraction), but not on non-verbal intelligence and working memory. For both groups, the same precursors applied to the variation in basic arithmetic skills. In addition to non-verbal intelligence and working memory, both phonological awareness and grammatical ability predicted basic arithmetic skills, indicating that assessment of arithmetic problems in L1 learners and L2 learners should take into account the cognitive and linguistic abilities that children bring to the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OCP-Place, a cross-linguistically well-attested constraint against pairs of consonants with shared [place], is psychologically real. Studies have shown that the processing of words violating OCP-Place is inhibited. Functionalists assume that OCP arises as a consequence of low-level perception: a consonant following another with the same [place] cannot be faithfully perceived as an independent unit. If functionalist theories were correct, then lexical access would be inhibited if two homorganic consonants conjoin at word boundaries—a problem that can only be solved with lexical feedback.Here, we experimentally challenge the functional account by showing that OCP-Place can be used as a speech segmentation cue during pre-lexical processing without lexical feedback, and that the use relates to distributions in the input.In Experiment 1, native listeners of Dutch located word boundaries between two labials when segmenting an artificial language. This indicates a use of OCP-Labial as a segmentation cue, implying a full perception of both labials. Experiment 2 shows that segmentation performance cannot solely be explained by well-formedness intuitions. Experiment 3 shows that knowledge of OCP-Place depends on language-specific input: in Dutch, co-occurrences of labials are under-represented, but co-occurrences of coronals are not. Accordingly, Dutch listeners fail to use OCP-Coronal for segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: In this study, the authors investigated whether errors with subject–verb agreement in monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) are influenced by verb phonology. In addition, the productive and receptive abilities of Dutch acquiring children with SLI regarding agreement inflection were compared. Method: An SLI group (6–8 years old), an age-matched group with typical development, and a language-matched, younger, typically developing (TD) group participated in the study. Using an elicitation task, the authors tested use of third person singular inflection after verbs that ended in obstruents (plosive, fricative) or nonobstruents (sonorant). The authors used a self-paced listening task to test sensitivity to subject–verb agreement violations. Results: Omission was more frequent after obstruents than nonobstruents; the younger TD group used inflection less often after plosives than fricatives, unlike the SLI group. The SLI group did not detect subject–verb agreement violations if the ungrammatical structure contained a frequent error (omission), but if the ungrammatical structure contained an infrequent error (substitution), subject–verb agreement violations were noticed. Conclusions: The use of agreement inflection by children with TD or SLI is affected by verb phonology. Differential effects in the 2 groups are consistent with a delayed development in Dutch SLI. Parallels between productive and receptive abilities point to weak lexical agreement inflection representations in Dutch SLI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do children use phonological knowledge about spoken language in acquiring literacy? Phonological precursors of literacy include phonological awareness, speech decoding skill, and lexical specificity (i.e., the richness of phonological representations in the mental lexicon). An intervention study investigated whether early literacy skills can be enhanced by training lexical specificity. Forty-two prereading 4-year-olds were randomly assigned to either an experimental group that was taught pairs of new words that differed minimally or a control group that received numeracy training. The experimental group gained on a rhyme awareness task, suggesting that learning phonologically specific new words fosters phonological awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]