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This study investigated the impact of home literacy environment (HLE) on the acquisition of English as a second language (L2) and reading skills in Chinese-speaking kindergarten children. The sample was 354 kindergarten children (mean age: 60.37 months, SD = 7.25; 186 boys, 52.5%) in Hong Kong, China. Mothers completed a questionnaire measuring family socioeconomic status (SES), parent-directed HLE, and child-initiated HLE in learning English. Children were assessed on their English language and reading skills: phonological awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, word reading, and rapid naming. After the role of family SES was controlled, child-initiated HLE instead of parent-directed HLE was found to uniquely predict phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and rapid naming, which jointly contributed to English word reading. Family SES was also a significant correlate of cognitive-linguistic skills and English language skills. The findings highlighted the importance of child-initiated HLE in promoting children's English language learning as L2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of orthographic mapping as a routine to improve spelling accuracy in primary grades. Topics include the developmental stages of spelling, the specific spelling needs of simultaneous bilinguals, and the benefits of direct phoneme-grapheme instruction in enhancing both spelling and reading skills.

Background: Language is a fundamental aspect of human social behavior that is linked to many rewarding social experiences, such as social bonding. Potential effects of alcohol on affiliative language may therefore be an essential feature of alcohol reward and may elucidate pathways through which alcohol is linked to social facilitation. Examinations of alcohol's impact on language content, however, are sparse. Accordingly, this investigation represents the first systematic review and meta‐analysis of alcohol's effects on affiliative language. We test the hypothesis that alcohol increases affiliative verbal approach behaviors and discuss future research directions. Methods: PsycInfo and Web of Science were systematically searched in March 2023 according to our preregistered plan. Eligible studies included social alcohol administration experiments in which affiliative verbal language was assessed. We present a random‐effects meta‐analysis that examines the effect of alcohol compared to control on measures of affiliative verbal behavior. Results: Our search identified 16 distinct investigations (comprising 961 participants) that examined the effect of alcohol on affiliative verbal behavior. Studies varied greatly in methods and measures. Meta‐analytic results demonstrated that alcohol is modestly associated with increases in affiliative verbal behavior (Hedges' g = 0.164, 95% CI [0.027, 0.301], p = 0.019). Study quality was rated using an adapted version of the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies and did not significantly moderate alcohol's effects. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence that alcohol can increase affiliative verbal behaviors. This effect may be an important feature of alcohol reward. Given heterogeneity in study features, low study quality ratings, and limited reporting of effect size data, results simultaneously highlight the promise of this research area and the need for more work. Advances in language processing methodologies that could allow future work to systematically expand upon this finding are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most fundamental distinctions in cognitive psychology is between processing that is "controlled" and processing that is "automatic." The widely held automatic processing account of visualword identification asserts that, among other characteristics, the presentation of a well-formed letter string triggers sublexical, lexical, and semantic activation in the absence of any intention to do so. Instead, the role of intention is seen as independent of stimulus identification and as restricted to selection for action using the products of identification (e.g., braking in response to a sign saying "BRIDGE OUT"). We consider four paradigms with respect to the role of an intention--defined here as a "task set" indicating how to perform in the current situation--when identifying single well-formed letter strings. Contrary to the received automaticity view, the literature regarding each of these paradigms demonstrates that the relation between an intention and stimulus identification is constrained in multiple ways, many of which are not well understood at present. One thing is clear: There is no simple relation between an intention, in the form of a task set, and stimulus identification. Automatic processing of words, if this indeed ever occurs, certainly is not a system default. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambiguity is ubiquitous in language; lexical ambiguity refers to instances where a single word has multiple meanings. The current investigation examined homonyms, words that have the same orthography and pronunciation in English but multiple meanings (e.g., BANK, meaning "financial institution" or "river's edge"). The processing of homonyms requires the engagement of executive control processes, for example, to select the appropriate meaning of the homonym while reducing interference from other meanings. Executive function processes are known to change over the lifespan and may be impacted by experiential factors such as bilingualism. The present study uses event-related brain potentials as an index of lexical access to examine whether bilingualism influences homonym processing in older adults. The results indicate that patterns of lexical access differ as a function of bilingual status in older adults and compared to young adults, suggesting that language experience may moderate language processing in both young and older adults, at least in situations where language processing is demanding on executive function, such as in the processing of homonyms. Importantly, we show that older bilinguals show a somewhat similar pattern of ambiguity processing as their younger counterparts, while age differences were observed in monolinguals when comparing across studies. This suggests that bilingual language experience may have a mitigating impact on age-related changes in ambiguity processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Verbal working memory is poorer for children with hearing loss than for peers with normal hearing (NH), even with cochlear implantation and early intervention. Poor verbal working memory can affect academic performance, especially in higher grades, making this deficit a significant problem. This study examined the stability of verbal working memory across middle childhood, tested working memory in adolescents with NH or cochlear implants (CIs), explored whether signal enhancement can improve verbal working memory, and tested two hypotheses proposed to explain the poor verbal working memory of children with hearing loss: (a) Diminished auditory experience directly affects executive functions, including working memory; (b) degraded auditory inputs inhibit children’s abilities to recover the phonological structure needed for encoding verbal material into storage. Design: Fourteen-year-olds served as subjects: 55 with NH; 52 with CIs. Immediate serial recall tasks were used to assess working memory. Stimuli consisted of nonverbal, spatial stimuli and four kinds of verbal, acoustic stimuli: nonrhyming and rhyming words, and nonrhyming words with two kinds of signal enhancement: audiovisual and indexical. Analyses examined (a) stability of verbal working memory across middle childhood, (b) differences in verbal and nonverbal working memory, (c) effects of signal enhancement on recall, (d) phonological processing abilities, and (e) source of the diminished verbal working memory in adolescents with cochlear implants. Results: Verbal working memory remained stable across middle childhood. Adolescents across groups performed similarly for nonverbal stimuli, but those with CIs displayed poorer recall accuracy for verbal stimuli; signal enhancement did not improve recall. Poor phonological sensitivity largely accounted for the group effect. Conclusions: The central executive for working memory is not affected by hearing loss or cochlear implantation. Instead, the phonological deficit faced by adolescents with CIs denigrates the representation in storage and augmenting the signal does not help. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with a range of cognitive-communicative deficits that interfere with everyday communication and social interaction. Considerable effort has been directed at characterizing the nature and scope of cognitive-communication disorders in TBI, yet the underlying mechanisms of impairment are largely unspecified. The present research examines sensitivity to a common communicative cue, disfluency, and its impact on memory for spoken language in TBI. Method: Fifty-three participants with moderate–severe TBI and 53 non-injured comparison participants listened to a series of sentences, some of which contained disfluencies. A subsequent memory test probed memory for critical words in the sentences. Results: Participants with TBI successfully remembered the spoken words (b = 1.57, p < .0001) at a similar level to non-injured comparison participants. Critically, participants with TBI also exhibited better recognition memory for words preceded by disfluency compared to words from fluent sentences (b = 0.57, p = .02). Conclusions: These findings advance mechanistic accounts of cognitive-communication disorder by revealing that, when isolated for experimental study, individuals with moderate–severe TBI are sensitive to attentional orienting cues in speech and exhibit enhanced recognition of individual words preceded by disfluency. These results suggest that some aspects of cognitive-communication disorders may not emerge from an inability to perceive and use individual communication cues, but rather from disruptions in managing (i.e., attending, weighting, integrating) multiple cognitive, communicative, and social cues in complex and dynamic interactions. This hypothesis warrants further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Nonword repetition (NWR) has been described as a clinical marker of developmental language disorder (DLD), as NWR tasks consistently discriminate between DLD and typical development (TD) cross-linguistically, with Cantonese as the only reported exception. This study reexamines whether NWR is able to generate TD/DLD group differences in Cantonese-speaking children by reporting on a novel set of NWR stimuli that take into account factors known to affect NWR performance and group differentiation, including lexicality, sublexicality, length, and syllable complexity. Method: Sixteen Cantonese-speaking children with DLD and 16 age-matched children with TD repeated two sets of high-lexicality nonwords, where all constituent syllables are morphemic in Cantonese but meaningless when combined, and one set of low-lexicality nonwords, where all constituent syllables are nonmorphemic. Low-lexicality nonwords were further classified on sublexicality in terms of consonant–vowel (CV) combination attestedness (whether or not CV combinations in nonword syllables occur in real Cantonese words). Results: Children with DLD scored significantly below their peers with TD. Effect sizes showed that high-lexicality nonwords and nonword syllables with attested CV combinations offered the greatest TD/DLD group differentiation. Nonword length and syllable complexity did not affect TD/DLD group differentiation. Conclusions: NWR can capture TD/DLD group differences in Cantonese speaking children. Lexicality and sublexicality effects must be considered in designing NWR stimuli for TD/DLD group differentiation. Future studies should replicate the present study on a larger sample size and a younger population as well as examine the diagnostic accuracy of this NWR test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The diagnosis of auditory processing disorder (APD) is controversial particularly due to the influence of higher order factors of language and cognition on the diagnostic APD testing. As a result, there might be a need for testing for other domains (e.g., cognition) along with conducting the diagnostic APD testing to rule out the influence of other domains. In order to make recommendations on whether cognitive testing is needed along with the auditory processing testing, as a starting point, the current study was conducted to examine the relationship between cognitive abilities and basic auditory processing in young adults. Method: A total of 38 young adults with normal audiometric thresholds between 250 and 8000 Hz participated in this study. They were tested on their executive function, language, processing speed, working memory, and episodic memory components of cognitive testing and tests for temporal fine structure and spectrotemporal sensitivity for auditory processing testing. Results: No significant correlation was found between the cognitive tests and the tests for basic auditory processing in young adults. Conclusions: These findings present contrast to the existing findings in children and older adults where a stronger correlation between cognitive abilities and auditory processing has been found. The current findings suggest that testing for cognitive abilities may not be needed when testing for basic auditory processing in young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces the Special Issue on Language Contact and Speaker Accommodation, which originates from the conference Phonetics and Phonology in Europe (PaPE) held at the University of Lecce, Italy, in 2019. It discusses the topics of language contact and speaker accommodation, summarizing the contributions included in the Special Issue, and arguing explicitly in favour of a unitary view of how both temporary and stable changes happen in (part of) the linguistic systems. Accommodation is seen as the same gradual and non-homogeneous process at play in different contact settings. In the introductory sections, a discussion is offered on various situations in which linguistic systems are in contact and on the main factors that may be at play; the following sections offer an overview of the papers included in the Special Issue, which focus on accommodation in L2 and heritage speakers as well as on the time dimension of dialect or language societal contact. Finally, accommodation is discussed as the same process that is at work in any interaction, that may modify temporarily or long-term the system of L2 learners and bilinguals (e.g., immigrants), that usually affects in the long-term the heritage speakers' system, and that only in the long term can lead to language changes involving entire communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies of speech accommodation focus on native speakers with different dialects, whereas only a limited number of studies work on L2 speakers' accommodation and discuss theories for second language (L2) accommodation. This paper aimed to fill the theoretical gap by integrating the revised speech learning model (SLM) with the exemplar-based models for L2 speech accommodation. A total of 19 Cantonese–English bilingual speakers completed map tasks with English speakers of Received Pronunciation and General American English in two separate experiments. Their pronunciations of THOUGHT and PATH vowels, and fricatives [z] and [θ] were examined before, during, and after the map tasks. The role of phonetic dissimilarity in L2 accommodation and L2 category formation in the revised SLM (SLM-r) were tested. First, the results suggested that global phonetic dissimilarity cannot predict Hong Kong English (HKE) speakers' accommodation patterns. Instead, the segment-specific phonetic dissimilarity between participants and interlocutors was found to be positively correlated with the participants' degree of accommodation. In addition, HKE speakers who did not form a new L2 category of [z] were found to significantly accommodate toward their interlocutor, suggesting that L2 accommodation might not be constrained by phonological category. An integrated exemplar model for L2 accommodation is proposed to explain these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent model of sound change posits that the direction of change is determined, at least in part, by the distribution of variation within speech communities. We explore this model in the context of bilingual speech, asking whether the less variable language constrains phonetic variation in the more variable language, using a corpus of spontaneous speech from early Cantonese–English bilinguals. As predicted, given the phonetic distributions of stop obstruents in Cantonese compared with English, intervocalic English /b d g/ were produced with less voicing for Cantonese–English bilinguals and word-final English /t k/ were more likely to be unreleased compared with spontaneous speech from two monolingual English control corpora. Whereas voicing initial obstruents can be gradient in Cantonese, the release of final obstruents is prohibited. Neither Cantonese–English bilingual initial voicing nor word-final stop release patterns were significantly impacted by language mode. These results provide evidence that the phonetic variation in crosslinguistically linked categories in bilingual speech is shaped by the distribution of phonetic variation within each language, thus suggesting a mechanistic account for why some segments are more susceptible to cross-language influence than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media Lengua (ML), a mixed language derived from Quichua and Spanish, exhibits a phonological system that largely conforms to that of Quichua acoustically. Yet, it incorporates a large number of vowel sequences from Spanish which do not occur in the Quichua system. This includes the use of mid-vowels, which are phonetically realized in ML as largely overlapping with the high-vowels in acoustic space. We analyze and compare production of vowel sequences by speakers of ML, Quichua, and Spanish through the use of generalized additive mixed models to determine statistically significant differences between vowel formant trajectories. Our results indicate that Spanish-derived ML vowel sequences frequently differ significantly from their Spanish counterparts, largely occupying a more central region of the vowel space and frequently exhibiting markedly reduced trajectories over time. In contrast, we find only one case where an ML vowel sequence differs significantly from its Quichua counterpart—and even in this case the difference from Spanish is substantially greater. Our findings show how the vowel system of ML successfully integrates novel vowel sequence patterns from Spanish into what is essentially Quichua phonology by markedly adapting their production, while still maintaining contrasts which are not expressed in Quichua. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To investigate the prevalence and clinical manifestations of reading, writing, and mathematics disorders in children with cerebral palsy (CP). We explored how the clinical profile of these children differed from those with specific learning disorders (SLDs), taking into account several factors, particularly IQ scores, neuropsychological aspects, and the presence of a visual impairment. Method: A prospective cross‐sectional study was conducted in 42 children with CP (mean age 9 years 8 months; SD = 2 years 2 months) and 60 children with SLDs (mean age 10 years; SD = 1 year 7 months). Clinical characteristics, neuromotor and cognitive profiles, neuropsychological aspects (speech performance, academic skills, visual attention, phonological awareness, working memory), and signs of visual impairment (visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, visual field, oculomotor functions) were assessed. A machine learning approach consisting of a random forest algorithm, where the outcome was the diagnosis and the covariates were the clinical variables collected in the sample, was used for the analyses. Results: About 59% of the children with CP had reading, writing, or mathematics disorders. Children with CP with learning disorders had a low performance IQ, normal phonological awareness, and working memory difficulties, whereas children with SLDs had normal performance IQ, impaired phonological awareness, and mild working memory difficulties. There were no differences in verbal IQ between the two groups. Interpretation: Learning disorders are frequently associated with CP, with different clinical characteristics, compared with SLDs. Assessment of academic skills is mandatory in these children, even if the IQ is normal. At school age, specific interventions to promote academic skills in children with CP could be a major rehabilitative goal. What this paper adds: Reading, writing, and mathematics disorders in cerebral palsy have specific clinical characteristics.Their underlying mechanisms differ from those described in specific learning disorders.Working memory impairment can be considered a hallmark of learning disorders in children with cerebral palsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Utterance production is affected under dual-task conditions, but so far studies have shown an impact either on lexical or on phonological processes, but not on both simultaneously. Aims: In the present study, we aimed at investigating how interference on lexical and phonological encoding is modulated by the timing of the concurrent task and by the attentional requirement (divided vs focused attention). Methods: Participants with aphasia (PWA) underwent a picture naming task and an auditory detection task, with auditory stimuli presented at different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). The dual-task was performed under divided (Experiment 1) and focused attention (Experiment 2). Outcome & Results: Omission errors increased under dual-task at early SOA only in Experiment 1 while phonological errors increased at later SOAs in both experiments. Conclusion: These patterns of errors indicate that lexical and phonological processes are impacted under dual-task conditions, giving rise to an increase of specific types of errors at specific SOAs. They also show that very mild anomia may be more severe when assessed under dual-task conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relevant visual information is available in speakers' faces during face-to-face interactions that improve speech perception. There is an ongoing debate, however, about how phonemes and their visual counterparts, visemes are mapped. An influential hypothesis claims that several phonemes can be mapped into a single visemic category (many-to-one phoneme-viseme mapping). In contrast, recent findings have challenged this view, reporting evidence for sub-visemic syllable discrimination. We aim to investigate whether Spanish words from the same visemic category can be identified or not. We designed a lip-reading task in which participants had to identify target words presented in silent video clips among 3 distractors differing in their visual resemblance from the target. Target words were identified above chance and significantly more than distractors from the same visemic category. Moreover, the error rate for distractors significantly decreased with decreasing visemic resemblance to the target. These results challenge the many-to-one phoneme-viseme mapping hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the interface between concepts and word meanings by asking English speakers to list members of superordinate categories under one of three conditions: (1) when cued by a label (e.g. animals), (2) an exemplar list (e.g. dog, cat, mouse), or (3) a definition (e.g. "living creatures that roam the Earth"). We find that categories activated by labels lead to participants listing more category-typical responses, as quantified through typicality ratings, similarity in word embedding space, and accuracy in guessing category labels. This effect is stronger for some categories than others (e.g. stronger for appetizers than animals). These results support the view that a word is not merely a label for a concept, but rather a unique way of accessing and organizing conceptual space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grainger et al. examined flanker effects in an experiment where target words could be morphologically complex (e.g. farmer), have a pseudo-morphological structure (e.g. corner), or have no morphological structure (e.g. cashew). Target words were flanked on both sides by the left-aligned embedded word in the related flanker condition (e.g. farm farmer farm; corn corner corn; cash cashew cash). Effects of related flankers were compared with matched unrelated flankers (e.g. book farmer book). Significantly greater effects of flanker relatedness were found with morphologically related flankers compared with both pseudo-morphological flankers and non-morphological embedded word flankers. However, more recent work in Spanish has failed to replicate this specific pattern. We therefore sought to replicate our findings in French, while increasing experimental power and modifying the nonword targets. The results of the present study successfully replicate the findings of Grainger et al. [(2021). Morphological processing in the flankers task. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 36(3), 288–295. ]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People are more disfluent in their second language (L2) than their first language (L1). Gesturing facilitates cognitive processes, including speech production. This study investigates speech disfluency and representational gesture production across Turkish-English bilinguals' L1 (Turkish) and L2 (English) through a narrative retelling task (N = 27). Results showed that people were more disfluent and used more representational gestures in English. Controlling for L2 proficiency, people were still more disfluent in English. The more people were proficient in L2, the more they used gestures in that language. Similarly, disfluency-gesture co-occurrences were more common in English. L2 proficiency was positively correlated with the likelihood of a disfluency being accompanied by a gesture. These findings suggest that gestures may not necessarily compensate for weak language skills. Rather, people might gesture during disfluent moments if they can detect their errors, suggesting a close link between representational gestures and language competency in benefiting from gestures when disfluent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sentences "More than half of the students passed the exam" and "Fewer than half of the students failed the exam" describe the same set of situations, and yet the former results in shorter reaction times in verification tasks. The two-step model explains this result by postulating that negative quantifiers contain hidden negation, which involves an extra processing stage. To test this theory, we applied a novel EEG analysis technique focused on detecting cognitive stages (HsMM-MVPA) to data from a picture-sentence verification task. We estimated the number of processing stages during reading and verification of quantified sentences (e.g. "Fewer than half of the dots are blue") that followed the presentation of pictures containing coloured geometric shapes. We did not find evidence for an extra step during the verification of sentences with fewer than half. We provide an alternative interpretation of our results in line with an expectation-based pragmatic account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manual co-speech gestures can facilitate language comprehension, especially in adverse listening conditions. However, we do not know whether gestures influence simultaneous interpreters' language comprehension in adverse listening conditions, and if so, whether this influence is modulated by interpreting experience, or by active simultaneous interpreting (SI). We exposed 24 interpreters and 24 bilinguals without interpreting experience to utterances with semantically related gestures, semantically unrelated gestures, or without gestures while engaging in comprehension (interpreters and bilinguals) or in SI (interpreters only). Tasks were administered in clear and noisy speech. Accuracy and reaction time were measured, and participants' gaze was tracked. During comprehension, semantically related gestures facilitated both groups' processing in noise. Facilitation was not modulated by interpreting experience. However, when interpreting noisy speech, interpreters did not benefit from gestures. This suggests that the comprehension component, and specifically crossmodal information processing, in SI differs from that of other language comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of proficiency in the second language (L2) on the neurocognitive processes that support the recognition of spoken words. Chinese native learners of English (N = 34) took part in the picture-word matching task and the AX Continuous Performance Test (AX-CPT). In the picture-word matching task, the component amplitudes for P50, N120, and P200 were found to be lower in the low proficiency group compared to the high proficiency group. Regarding the AX-CPT, the high-proficiency group exhibited a more balanced utilisation of proactive and reactive control, whereas the low-proficiency group displayed a greater reliance on proactive control. Additionally, a correlation was observed between various ERP components from the picture-word matching task and behavioural indicators obtained from the AX-CPT, suggesting different strategies of cognitive control may reflect the influence of language proficiency on neurocognitive mechanisms in spoken word recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the cognitive processes underlying the comprehension of reduced word pronunciation variants in natives and advanced learners of French. In a passive listening visual world task, participants heard sentences containing either a reduced or a full form and saw pictures representing the target word, a phonological competitor and two neutral distractors. After each sentence they saw a picture and had to decide whether it matched the content of that sentence. Eye movements and EEG were recorded simultaneously. Because the two recordings offer complementary information about cognitive processes, we developed methods for analysing the signals in combination. We found a stronger effect of reduction on phonetic processing and semantic integration in learners than in natives, but the effects are different from the N100/N400 and P600 effects found in previous research. Time-locking EEG signals on fixation moments in the eye movements offers a window onto the time course of semantic integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Auditory hallucinations (hearing voices) have been associated with a range of altered cognitive functions, pertaining to signal detection, source-monitoring, memory, inhibition and language processes. Yet, empirical results are inconsistent. Despite this, several theoretical models of auditory hallucinations persist, alongside increasing emphasis on the utility of a multidimensional framework. Thus, clarification of current evidence across the broad scope of proposed mechanisms is warranted. Method: A systematic search of the Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus databases was conducted. Records were screened to confirm the use of an objective behavioural cognitive task, and valid measurement of hallucinations specific to the auditory modality. Results: Auditory hallucinations were primarily associated with difficulties in perceptual decision-making (i.e. reduced sensitivity/accuracy for signal-noise discrimination; liberal responding to ambiguity), source-monitoring (i.e. self–other and temporal context confusion), working memory and language function (i.e. reduced verbal fluency). Mixed or limited support was observed for perceptual feature discrimination, imagery vividness/illusion susceptibility, source-monitoring for stimulus form and spatial context, recognition and recall memory, executive functions (e.g. attention, inhibition), emotion processing and language comprehension/hemispheric organisation. Conclusions: Findings were considered within predictive coding and self-monitoring frameworks. Of concern was the portion of studies which – despite offering auditory-hallucination-specific aims and inferences – employed modality-general measures, and/or diagnostic-based contrasts with psychologically healthy individuals. This review highlights disparities within the literature between theoretical conceptualisations of auditory hallucinations and the body of rigorous empirical evidence supporting such inferences. Future cognitive investigations, beyond the schizophrenia-spectrum, which explicitly define and measure the timeframe and sensory modality of hallucinations, are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have presented discrepant findings of e-stories' contribution to children's narrative comprehension, which can be attributed to not only the variation of multimedia features among studies but also to learner and text features. The main goal of the present study was to expand understanding of the effect of e-stories on children's narrative skills and reading attitudes for poor and good story comprehenders. A quasi-experimental factorial design was employed to explore the effect of book type and group level on children's narrative skills and reading attitudes. The participating children were pre-readers. The printed version of The Red Winged Owl was read aloud to small groups of 4–5 children. Participants included 41 good and 40 poor comprehenders (age range 59–68 months) who were identified based on narrative comprehension scores. The experimental group was exposed to four e-stories on an iPad, while the control group listened to readings of the printed versions of the same storybooks. Data were collected by administering pre- and post-tests and the preschool reading attitudes scale and by asking narrative comprehension questions. Children's retellings were audio-recorded. The findings revealed that (a) the poor and good comprehender groups had higher narrative comprehension in the short text e-story condition, (b) there was a significant interaction effect for the narrative comprehension of poor and good comprehenders in longer texts and (c) children's post-reading attitude scores did not differ by group level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argumentation is a fundamental communicative ability that children develop over time through formal schooling and daily practice with peers and family members. Literature on children's argumentation appears to have focused on their social interactions out of school, clinical environment, or informal pedagogic contexts. Even though there are research inquiries into children's argumentation in formal academic learning, many have been focused on argumentative writing in math or science classes. Much less is known about teacher-led argumentation and the youngest children's emerging argumentation in language art classes, where argumentation is formally and systematically introduced and learned. This paper reports a year-long ethnographic study on argumentation in a first-grade English language art classroom in the United States. Ethnographic discourse analysis was conducted to analyze two key literacy events from the daily reader's and writer's workshop. It is supplemented with qualitative analysis of the researchers' field notes and the students' artifacts. Our findings highlight the inherent intertextual nature of children's argumentation and a critical role the teacher played in eliciting and steering the children's argumentation construction through strategic instructional conversations (especially accountable talk). Our findings also revealed teacher-led children's intertextual argumentation as a powerful heuristic process and tool to enrich students' learning. The paper concludes some classroom argumentation teaching practices based on the research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the use of reporting speech devices (RS) in narrative retells by Spanish-speaking children with (and without) Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). We assessed 50 7-year-old children (25 with DLD and 25 with TD) and analyzed the narrative retells' length and the RS forms introduced by children. In addition, we considered the Type of Reported Speech linguistic mechanism (TRSm) and the Type of Voice Assignment (TVA). Neither the number of RS sequences introduced, narrative retells' length, nor the number of original sequences exhibit significant differences between both groups. We found a mean correlation among groups' differences and TRSm (Spearman: 0356 rho>: 0011). Although both groups behave in a very similar way in some indicators, we found slight differences that characterize different communicative profiles for DLD and TD. The results have implications for planning DLD language interventions, mainly in those designed to improve DLD grammar and narrative usages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The study aimed to investigate the mechanisms of impairment and recovery in graph naming functions among patients with aphasia due to cerebral infarction. Specifically, the study compared immediate effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) treatment in patients at different stages postinfarction: the acute phase (AP) and the recovery period (RP). Methods: Twenty-eight patients were selected, consisting of 16 in the AP and 12 in the RP, along with 18 healthy controls. Both patient groups underwent 2 weeks of tDCS treatment. Posttreatment changes in functional connectivity (FC) within language-related brain regions, as well as in graph naming abilities, were assessed in both patient groups. Results: Both AP and RP groups exhibited significant improvements in graph naming ability following tDCS treatment. Compared to healthy controls, patients showed decreased FC in multiple brain regions of both hemispheres, particularly in the dominant hemisphere. Posttreatment assessments revealed significant increases in FC within the bilateral frontotemporal lobes for both AP and RP groups, and within the bilateral temporo-occipital regions for the AP group. Moreover, the RP group demonstrated decreased FC in the left temporal lobe posttreatment, which had shown increased FC pre-treatment. Conclusions: This study suggests that tDCS can effectively enhance graph naming functions in patients with postinfarction aphasia. The therapeutic effects appear to be mediated by enhancing FC within bilateral frontotemporal lobes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connected speech is often used to assess many aspects of an individual's language abilities after stroke. However, it is unknown the degree to which elicitation methods differ in generating structural and syntactic aspects of connected speech, two critical components of successful communication. Quantifying the degree to which elicitation methods differ in eliciting structurally, syntactically, and lexically complex connected speech at the earliest stage of stroke before reorganization and rehabilitation of function independent of clinical diagnosis of aphasia has not been examined to date. Addressing this gap has implications for early clinical intervention as well as empirical studies of connected speech production. We compared two common elicitation methods, picture description and storytelling on lexical, structural, and syntactic measures of connected speech in speakers during the acute stage of left hemisphere stroke. We measured connected speech using an automated quantitative production analysis approach (Fromm et al., 2021) in 71 native-English speaking participants (27 female; 59 ± 13 years) within an average 3.9 days from left hemisphere stroke onset. We tested the degree of agreement and consistency between elicitation methods for lexical, structural, and syntactic measures of connected speech, as well as the degree of concordance in classifying deficits across individuals. Storytelling elicited significantly more words and more structurally complex, lexically diverse, and syntactically accurate speech in comparison to picture description. Elicitation methods differed in measuring outcomes across participants for the lexical and syntactic, but not structural complexity aspects of connected speech where storytelling classified more participants with impairments in comparison to picture description. These differences suggest storytelling provides assessment of connected speech abilities more reflective of real-world abilities where its use is particularly critical for examining individual differences and providing diagnoses of acute stroke language deficits. As a result, using storytelling as a connected speech elicitation method more effectively captures a patient's language capabilities after stroke, consequently informing clinical diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have demonstrated that people with nonfluent aphasia (PWNA) improve their language production after repeating personalized scripts, modeled by speech-language pathologists (SLPs). If PWNA could improve by using their own self-feedback, relying less on external feedback, barriers to aphasia treatment, such as a dearth of clinicians and mobility issues, can be overcome. Here we examine whether PWNA improve their language production through an automated procedure that exposes them to playbacks of their own speech, which are updated recursively, without any feedback from SLPs. We tested if recursive self-feedback could improve speech fluency in two persons with chronic nonfluent aphasia. We compared two treatments: script production with recursive self-feedback (a new technique) and a non-self-feedback training. We administered the treatments remotely to the participants through their smartphones using two versions of a mobile app we developed. Each participant engaged in each treatment for about three weeks. We estimated clinical improvements of script production through a quantitative trend analysis and nonoverlap of all pairs. Recursive self-feedback improved speaking rate and speech initiation latency of trained and untrained scripts in both participants. The control (non-self-feedback) training was also effective, but it induced a somewhat weaker improvement in speaking rate, and improved speech initiation latency in only one participant. Our findings provide preliminary evidence that PWNA can improve their speaking rate and speech initiation latency during production of scripts via fully automated recursive self-feedback. The beneficial effects of recursive self-feedback training suggest that speech unison and repeated exposures to written scripts may be optional ingredients of script-based treatments for aphasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the basic tenets of predictive theories of language processing is that of misprediction cost. Post-N400 positive event-related potential (ERP) components are suitable for studying misprediction cost but are not adequately described, especially in older adults, who show attenuated N400 ERP effects. We report a secondary analysis of a previously collected EEG data set. Using a picture–word matching paradigm, in which the target word could sometimes be predicted by context and sometimes not, the relationship between aging and late ERP effects was examined. Positivity effects for prediction violations were larger and more extended in older compared with younger adults, independent of context. Younger adults showed frontal negativity effects, indicating frame-shifting processes. Our data suggest that aging does not entail specific declines in prediction. Rather, they indicate that older adults may experience more processing difficulties than younger adults when their expectations are disconfirmed and that multiple mechanisms may be employed during language processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the efficacy of a Technology-Based Early Language Comprehension Intervention (TeLCI) designed to teach inferencing in a non-reading context. A group of Grades 1 and 2 students from 2 elementary schools in the U.S. Midwest identified as at risk of comprehension difficulties were assigned randomly to a business-as-usual control group or to use TeLCI over an 8-week period. TeLCI comprised three learning modules per week that involved (a) learning new vocabulary, (b) watching fiction or nonfiction videos, and (c) answering inferential questions. Students also engaged in small-group read-alouds with their teachers once per week. Students who experienced TeLCI improved their inferencing and benefited from scaffolding and feedback provided during the intervention. Students’ pre- to posttest inferencing gains were comparable with those of control students. Female students and those receiving special education services appeared less likely to benefit from TeLCI, whereas multilingual students were more likely to respond. Further work is needed to determine the optimal conditions under which TeLCI will benefit young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the Complementary Learning Systems model of word learning, only integrated novel words can interact with familiar words during lexical selection. The pre-registered study reported here is the first to examine behavioural and electrophysiological markers of integration in a task that relies primarily on automatic semantic processing. 71 young adults learned novel names for two sets of novel concepts, one set on each of two consecutive days. On Day 2, learning was followed by a continuous primed lexical decision task with EEG recording. In the N400 window, novel names trained immediately before testing differed from both familiar and untrained novel words, and, in the time window between 500–800 ms post onset, they also differed from novel names that had undergone a 24-hour consolidation, for which a small behavioural priming effect was observed. We develop an account that attributes the observed effects to processes rooted in episodic, rather than semantic, memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reflexive referentially depends on another NP. Long-standing inquiries in sentence processing literature revolve around whether and how forming this coreference relation during online sentence processing is susceptible to similarity-based interference. To address these questions, we conducted four experiments using L-maze tasks. The results revealed (delayed) interference in ungrammatical sentences, indicating facilitatory interference. We also found that structural information associated with a distractor and related to clause finiteness may influence memory retrieval. Interference effects were not observed in grammatical sentences across all experiments. These results suggest that online reflexive resolution may be susceptible to interference only when the reflexive mismatches its structurally accessible antecedent in features, and that structural information may influence how a distractor interferes with memory retrieval during online sentence processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speakers have been shown to find sentences with erroneous agreement acceptable under certain conditions. This so-called agreement attraction effect has also been found in genitive-possessive structures such as "the teacher's brother" in Turkish [Lago et al. (2019). Straight from the horsefs mouth: Agreement attraction effects with Turkish possessors. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 9(3), 398–426. ], which is in contrast to its absence in similar constructions in English [Nicol et al. (2016). Minimal interference from possessor phrases in the production of subject-verb agreement. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 548. ]. It has been hypothesised that this discrepancy is a result of the association between genitive case marking and being a controller in Turkish. We test an alternative explanation according to which Lago et al.'s findings are due to a potential confound in their experiment, as the morphology on all agreement controllers were locally ambiguous between possessive and accusative case. The results of our speeded acceptability judgment experiment suggest that the presence of case syncretism does not affect agreement attraction contrary to previous findings in the literature. Abbreviations: ACC, accusative; DAT, dative; GEN, genitive; NMLZ, nominaliser; PASS , passive; PL, plural; POSS, possessive; PST, past; SG, singular; WHEN, when. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study tested the activation of different phonological units of Chinese characters during silent sentence reading. Fifty-five participants were tested in an eye-tracking experiment. A highly predictable target character in each experimental sentence was replaced by four types of substitutes (i.e. no-violation, tone-violation, rime-violation, and double-violation). The participants exhibited a shorter total reading time in the no-violation and tone-violation conditions than in the double-violation baseline condition, whereas the rime-violation condition did not differ from the baseline. Moreover, the participants did not benefit from tonal information in addition to syllable-level phonological overlap. Our findings are consistent with a notion of late phonological activation in Chinese, and therefore suggest a direct route of lexical activation bypassing phonological mediation during visual word recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments investigated the effect of sustained cognitive control engagement on syntactic ambiguity resolution. Participants heard (Experiment 1) or read (Experiment 2) garden path sentences like "Put the kiwi on the rectangle on the circle", in which "on the rectangle" could temporarily reflect either a destination of "Put" or modifier of "kiwi", and they viewed visual arrays with a kiwi on a rectangle and an empty rectangle and circle. Cognitive control was manipulated experimentally by interleaving sentence trials among either mostly incongruent or mostly congruent Stroop trials. Across both experiments, garden path mouse cursor movements to incorrect destinations were reduced when sentence trials were interleaved among mostly incongruent Stroop trials, and in Experiment 2, garden path reading time effects were also reduced in this condition. These results suggest that a high proportion of incongruent trials supports the sustained engagement of cognitive control and causally improves sentence comprehension across (i.e. spoken and written) modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phonological awareness is recognized as a precursor to reading success. Choosing material to assess children's phonological awareness is a major challenge. The literature highlights factors that can influence children's phonological skills, such as the frequency of words, their lexical status, and their linguistic parameters. To date, no study has looked at the potential effect of the emotional parameters of words on phonological skills. The emotional polarity of words (valence: pleasant, unpleasant) has effects on cognitive skills related to phonological awareness, i.e., executive functions, and working memory. The aim of this research is to measure the influence of emotional (positive, negative) and non-emotional (neutral, nonwords) words on the phonological awareness of children aged 4–6 years. Our results show a differential effect of emotional valence words on phonological skills. More specifically, the emotional valence of words facilitates the performance of epiphonological tasks, whereas negative valence disrupts the performance of metaphonological tasks. These results are discussed in relation to current models of interaction between emotion and cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The use of telepractice in aphasia research and therapy is increasing in frequency. Teleassessment in aphasia has been demonstrated to be reliable. However, neuropsychological and clinical language comprehension assessments are not always readily translatable to an online environment and people with severe language comprehension or cognitive impairments have sometimes been considered to be unsuitable for teleassessment. Aim: This project aimed to produce a battery of language comprehension teleassessments at the single word, sentence and discourse level suitable for individuals with moderate‐severe language comprehension impairments. Methods: Assessment development prioritised response consistency and clinical flexibility during testing. Teleassessments were delivered in PowerPoint over Zoom using screen sharing and remote control functions. The assessments were evaluated in 14 people with aphasia and 9 neurotypical control participants. Modifiable assessment templates are available here: https://osf.io/r6wfm/. Main Contributions: People with aphasia were able to engage in language comprehension teleassessment with limited carer support. Only one assessment could not be completed for technical reasons. Statistical analysis revealed above chance performance in 141/151 completed assessments. Conclusions: People with aphasia, including people with moderate‐severe comprehension impairments, are able to engage with teleassessment. Successful teleassessment can be supported by retaining clinical flexibility and maintaining consistent task demands. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on the subject: Teleassessment for aphasia is reliable but assessment of auditory comprehension is difficult to adapt to the online environment. There has been limited evaluation of the ability of people with severe aphasia to engage in auditory comprehension teleassessment. What this paper adds to existing knowledge: Auditory comprehension assessment can be adapted for videoconferencing administration while maintaining clinical flexibility to support people with severe aphasia. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: Teleassessment is time and cost effective and can be designed to support inclusion of severely impaired individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children with phonological impairment present with pattern‐based errors in their speech production. While some children have difficulties with speech perception and/or the establishment of robust underlying phonological representations, the nature of phonological impairment in children is still not well understood. Given that phonological and lexical development are closely linked, one way to better understand the nature of the problem in phonological impairment is to examine word learning abilities in children. Aims: To examine word learning and its relationship with speech perception, speech production and vocabulary knowledge in children aged 4–5 years. There were two variables of interest: speech production abilities ranging from phonological impairment to typical speech; and vocabulary abilities ranging from typical to above average ('lexically precocious'). Methods & Procedures: Participants were 49 Australian‐English‐speaking children aged 48–69 months. Children were each taught four novel non‐words (out of a selection of eight) through stories, and word learning was assessed at 1 week post‐initial exposure. Word learning was assessed using two measures: confrontation naming and story retell naming. Data were analysed by group using independent‐samples t‐tests and Mann–Whitney U‐tests, and continuously using multiple linear regression. Outcomes & Results: There was no significant difference in word learning ability of children with and without phonological impairment, but regardless of speech group, children with above average vocabulary had significantly better word learning abilities than children with average vocabulary. In multiple linear regression, vocabulary was the only significant predictor of variance in word learning ability. Conclusions & Implications: Children with phonological impairment can be lexically precocious and learn new words like their peers without phonological impairment. Contrary to expectations, vocabulary knowledge rather than expressive phonological ability explained variance in measures of word learning. These findings question an assumption that children with phonological impairment have underspecified phonological representations. They also highlight the heterogeneity among children with phonological impairment and the need to better understand the nature of their difficulty learning the phonological system of the ambient language. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on the subject: There is limited research examining the word learning abilities of children with phonological impairment. Most previous research focuses on word properties such as phonotactic probability and neighbourhood density. Within the existing literature there are different reports and conclusions regarding the word learning abilities of children with phonological impairment and whether their word learning differs from that of children with typically developing speech. What this study adds to existing knowledge: This study found that vocabulary was the strongest predictor of word learning across children with and without phonological impairment. There was no significant difference in word learning ability between children with and without phonological impairment. However, children with lexically precocious vocabulary abilities were significantly better at word learning than children with average vocabulary abilities. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: Findings from this study support the importance of assessing and considering measures of word learning—including vocabulary—when working with children with phonological impairment. This study indicates that it is possible to use stories coupled with measures of confrontation naming and story retell to gain deeper insight into children's word learning abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to systematically examine whether actively maintaining a visual location in working memory can influence the processing of spatially related words. In five experiments, we asked participants to maintain either the location or the shape of a visually presented stimulus in working memory so that it could later be compared with a test stimulus concerning the relevant target features. In between, we presented participants with words that refer to objects typically encountered in the upper or lower vertical space (roof vs. root, respectively). The task participants performed as a response to these words differed between experiments. In Experiments 1–3, participants performed a lexical decision task, in Experiment 4 they performed a semantic task (deciding whether the word refers to an occupation), and in Experiment 5 they performed a spatial task (deciding whether the word refers to something in the upper or lower visual field.) Only in Experiment 5 did we observe an interaction between the position of the visual stimulus held in working memory (up vs. down) and the meaning of the spatial words (associated with up vs. down). Our results therefore suggest that actively maintaining a stimulus location in working memory does not automatically affect the processing of spatially related words, but does so if the relevant spatial dimension is made highly salient by the task. The results are thus in line with studies showing a strong context-dependency of embodiment effects and thus allow the conclusion that language processing proper is not operating on a sensorimotor representational format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several lines of research have shown that performing movements while learning new information aids later retention of that information, compared to learning by perception alone. For instance, articulated words are more accurately remembered than words that are silently read (the production effect). A candidate mechanism for this movement-enhanced encoding, sensorimotor prediction, assumes that acquired sensorimotor associations enable movements to prime associated percepts and hence improve encoding. Yet it is still unknown how the extent of prior sensorimotor experience influences the benefits of movement on encoding. The current study addressed this question by examining whether the production effect is modified by prior language experience. Does the production effect reduce or persist in a second language (L2) compared to a first language (L1)? Two groups of unbalanced bilinguals, German (L1) – English (L2) bilinguals (Experiment 1) and English (L1) – German (L2) bilinguals (Experiment 2), learned lists of German and English words by reading the words silently or reading the words aloud, and they subsequently performed recognition tests. Both groups showed a pronounced production effect (higher recognition accuracy for spoken compared to silently read words) in the first and second languages. Surprisingly, the production effect was greater in the second languages compared to the first languages, across both bilingual groups. We discuss interpretations based on increased phonological encoding, increased effort or attention, or both, when reading aloud in a second language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phonological networks are representations of word forms and their phonological relationships with other words in a given language lexicon. A principle underlying the growth (or evolution) of those networks is preferential attachment, or the "rich-gets-richer" mechanisms, according to which words with many phonological neighbors (or links) are the main beneficiaries of future growth opportunities. Due to their limited number of words, language lexica constitute node-constrained networks where growth cannot keep increasing in a linear way; hence, preferential attachment is likely mitigated by certain factors. The present study investigated obsolescence effects (i.e., a word's finite timespan of being active in terms of growth) in an evolving phonological network of English as a second language. It was found that phonological neighborhoods are constructed by one large initial lexical spurt, followed by sublinear growth spurts that eventually lead to very limited growth in later lexical spurts during network evolution. First-language-given neighborhood densities are rarely reached even by the most advanced language learners. An analysis of the strength of phonological relationships between phonological word forms revealed a tendency to incorporate phonetically more distant phonological neighbors at earlier acquisition stages. Overall, the findings suggest an obsolescence effect in growth that favors younger words. Implications for the second-language lexicon include leveraged learning mechanisms and learning bouts focused on a smaller range of phonological segments, and involve questions concerning lexical processing in aging networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors argue that embracing gestalt language development is an important neurodiversity-affirmative practice and offer clinical and research recommendations to promote understanding and respect for this alternative developmental pathway. They discuss the factor that affects research into gestalt language acquisition, personal accounts in which autistic people reflect on their gestalt language use, and benefits of embracing gestalts.

We explored reading comprehension development in children on the spectrum from pre-school to the first (YOS1) and third year of schooling (YOS3). Children were first assessed on meaning-related skills in pre-school. Forty-one children completed follow-up assessments of reading comprehension, reading accuracy, and listening comprehension in YOS1. Nineteen returned for assessments of reading accuracy, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension in YOS3. Children showed poorer reading comprehension than reading accuracy at both timepoints. Reading comprehension, reading accuracy, and listening comprehension were significantly concurrently correlated. Pre-school receptive vocabulary was a significant predictor of YOS3 reading comprehension. Results from this preliminary investigation highlight the potential for early identification of children on the spectrum at risk for reading comprehension difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The present meta-analysis investigated the efficacy of anomia treatment in bilingual and multilingual persons with aphasia (BPWAs) by assessing the magnitudes of six anomia treatment outcomes. Three of the treatment outcomes pertained to the “trained language”: improvement of trained words (treatment effect [TE]), within-language generalization of semantically related untrained words (WLG-Related), and within-language generalization of unrelated words (WLG-Unrelated). Three treatment outcomes were for the “untrained language”: improvement of translations of the trained words (crosslanguage generalization of trained words [CLG-Tx]), cross-language generalization of semantically related untrained words (CLG-Related), and crosslanguage generalization of unrelated untrained words (CLG-Unrelated). This study also examined participant- and treatment-related predictors of these treatment outcomes. Method: This study is registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) under the number CRD42023418147. Nine electronic databases were searched to identify word retrieval treatment studies of poststroke BPWAs of at least 6 months postonset. Pre- and posttreatment single-word naming scores were extracted for each eligible participant and used to calculate effect sizes (within-case Cohen’s d) of the six treatment outcomes. Random-effects meta-analyses were conducted to assess weighted mean effect sizes of the treatment outcomes across studies. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine the effects of participant-related variables (pretreatment single-word naming and comprehension representing poststroke lexical processing abilities) and treatment-related variables (type, language, and duration). The methodological quality of eligible studies and the risk of bias in this meta-analysis were assessed. Results: A total of 17 published studies with 39 BPWAs were included in the meta-analysis. The methodological quality of the included studies ranged from fair (n = 4) to good (n = 13). Anomia treatment produced a medium effect size for TE (M = 8.36) and marginally small effect sizes for WLG-Related (M = 1.63), WLG-Unrelated (M = 0.68), and CLG-Tx (M = 1.56). Effect sizes were nonsignificant for CLG-Related and CLG-Unrelated. TE was significantly larger than the other five types of treatment outcomes. TE and WLG-Related effect sizes were larger for BPWAs with milder comprehension or naming impairments and for treatments of longer duration. WLG-Unrelated was larger when BPWAs received phonological treatment than semantic and mixed treatments. The overall risk of bias in the meta-analysis was low with a potential risk of bias present in the study identification process. Conclusions: Current anomia treatment practices for bilingual speakers are efficacious in improving trained items but produce marginally small within-language generalization and cross-language generalization to translations of the trained items. These results highlight the need to provide treatment in each language of BPWAs and/or investigate other approaches to promote cross-language generalization. Furthermore, anomia treatment outcomes are influenced by BPWAs’ poststroke single-word naming and comprehension abilities as well as treatment duration and the provision of phonological treatment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore potential differences in suprathreshold auditory function among native and nonnative speakers of English as a function of age. Method: Retrospective analyses were performed on three large data sets containing suprathreshold auditory tests completed by 5,572 participants who were self-identified native and nonnative speakers of English between the ages of 18–65 years, including a binaural tone detection test, a digit identification test, and a sentence recognition test. Results: The analyses show a significant interaction between increasing age and participant group on tests involving speech-based stimuli (digit strings, sentences) but not on the binaural tone detection test. For both speech tests, differences in speech recognition emerged between groups during early adulthood, and increasing age had a more negative impact on word recognition for nonnative compared to native participants. Age-related declines in performance were 2.9 times faster for digit strings and 3.3 times faster for sentences for nonnative participants compared to native participants. Conclusions: This set of analyses extends the existing literature by examining interactions between aging and self-identified native English speaker status in several auditory domains in a cohort of adults spanning young adulthood through middle age. The finding that older nonnative English speakers in this age cohort may have greater-than-expected deficits on speech-in-noise perception may have clinical implications on how these individuals should be diagnosed and treated for hearing difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Anomia, or word-finding difficulty, is a prevalent and persistent feature of aphasia, a neurogenic language disorder affecting millions of people in the United States. Anomia assessments are essential for measuring performance and monitoring outcomes in clinical settings. This study aims to evaluate the reliability of response time (RT) annotation based on spectrograms and assess the predictive utility of proxy RTs collected during computerized naming tests. Method: Archival data from 10 people with aphasia were used. Trained research assistants phonemically transcribed participants’ responses, and RTs were generated from the onset of picture stimulus to the initial phoneme of the first complete attempt. RTs were measured in two ways: hand-generated RTs (from spectrograms) and proxy RTs (automatically extracted online). Interrater agreement was evaluated based on interclass correlation coefficients and generalizability theory tools including variance partitioning and the ϕ-coefficient. The predictive utility of proxy RTs was evaluated within a linear mixed-effects framework. Results: RT annotation reliability showed near-perfect agreement across research assistants (ϕ-coefficient = .93), and the variance accounted for by raters was negligible. Furthermore, proxy RTs significantly and strongly predicted handannotated RTs (R² = ~0.82), suggesting their utility as an alternative measure. Conclusions: The study confirms the reliability of RT annotation and demonstrates the predictive utility of proxy RTs in estimating RTs during computerized naming tests. Incorporating proxy RTs can enhance clinical assessments, providing additional information for cognitive measurement. Further research with larger samples and exploring the impact of using proxy RTs in different psychometric models could optimize clinical protocols and improve communication interventions for individuals with aphasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Shared reading provides preschool-age children with the opportunity to learn novel, low-frequency words. Abundant empirical evidence demonstrates that children can learn the meanings of such words during shared reading, referred to as “semantic learning.” However, less is known about whether children learn the spellings of words during shared reading, referred to as “orthographic learning,” and whether this learning is related to early word reading. The present study tested relations between individual differences in 4- to 6-year-old children’s semantic and, critically, orthographic learning during shared reading and their early word reading skill. Method: In an adaptation of the self-teaching paradigm, children listened to a storybook about novel inventions referred to with nonword names. Children then completed orthographic and semantic choice tests, as well as standardized measures of early word reading and phonological awareness. Results: Individual differences in orthographic, but not semantic, learning during shared reading were related to early word reading, after controls for age and phonological awareness. Conclusions: This study provides a novel test of learning during shared reading, helping to specify the relation between orthographic and semantic learning and early word reading skill. These findings hold implications for theoretical perspectives on relations between learning during shared reading and early word reading, as well as implications for educational practice [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) tend to interpret noncanonical sentences like passives using event probability (EP) information regardless of structure (e.g., by interpreting “The dog was chased by the squirrel” as “The dog chased the squirrel”). Verbs are a major source of EP information in adults and children with typical development (TD), who know that “chase” implies an unequal relationship among participants. Individuals with DLD have poor verb knowledge and verb-based sentence processing. Yet, they also appear to rely more on EP information than their peers. This paradox raises two questions: (a) How do children with DLD use verb-based EP information alongside other information in online passive sentence interpretation? (b) How does verb vocabulary knowledge support EP information use? Method: We created novel EP biases by showing animations of agents with consistent action tendencies (e.g., clumsy vs. helpful actions). We then used eye tracking to examine how this EP information was used during online passive sentence processing. Participants were 4- to 5-year-old children with DLD (n = 20) and same-age peers with TD (n = 20). Results: In Experiment 1, children with DLD quickly integrated verb-based EP information with morphosyntax close to the verb but failed to do so with distant morphosyntax. In Experiment 2, the quality of children’s sentence-specific verb vocabulary knowledge was positively associated with the use of EP information in both groups. Conclusion: Depending on the morphosyntactic context, children with DLD and TD used EP information differently, but verb vocabulary knowledge aided its use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]