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This study used event-related potential (ERP) and retrieval practice effect paradigm to investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the retrieval practice effect in a third language (L3) vocabulary learning. Thirty-five Chinese (First Language, L1)-English (Second Language, L2) bilinguals without prior knowledge of French (L3) studied 120 French (L3)–English (L2) word pairs and then practiced the word pairs through retrieval practice or repeated studying. On a final recognition test 30 minutes later, the participants were asked to perform old/new recognition judgments while recording electroencephalography (EEG) signals. Behavioural results found that retrieval practice led to a higher accuracy rate and faster response time in the final test than repeated studying. ERP results found that retrieval practice elicited less negative N400 waveforms than repeated studying at the frontal site and less negative N400 waveforms than new condition at the central-parietal sites. By contrast, retrieval practice only elicited more positive LPC waveforms than new condition at the parietal site. In sum, the present results provide first neural evidence that retrieval practice facilitates L3 (French) vocabulary learning. These findings suggest that retrieval practice might involve more semantic information processing in L3 vocabulary learning, which supports the elaborative retrieval hypothesis of the retrieval practice effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three experiments explored how retrieval practice and corrective feedback affect a third language (L3) vocabulary learning. In the first two experiments, Chinese–English bilinguals without prior French language experience studied English (Second Language, L2)–French (L3) word pairs in repeated studying or retrieval practice without (Experiment 1)/with (Experiment 2) corrective feedback. A final recognition test was administered after a 30-min retention interval. Experiment 3 was identical to Experiment 2 in all respects, except that Chinese (First Language, L1)–French (L3) word pairs were used as study materials. Experiment 1 found that repeated studying led to greater accuracy and faster response time on the final test than retrieval practice without feedback. However, the opposite results were found in Experiment 2: retrieval practice with feedback yielded superior performance compared with repeated studying. The benefit of retrieval practice plus feedback was also found in Experiment 3, while it produced larger gains than Experiment 2. These results demonstrate that retrieval practice plus feedback is a powerful learning strategy, and L1–L3 learning is more effective than L2–L3 learning for L3 vocabulary learning. Our findings support the bifurcation model of the retrieval practice effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive evidence has demonstrated that bilinguals non-selectively activate lexicons of both languages when reading or hearing words in one language. Here, we further investigated the electrophysiological roles of cross-linguistic orthography and phonology in the processing of L2 spoken words in unbalanced Chinese (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals in a cross-modal situation. Relative to unrelated control, the recognition of auditory L2 words showed behavioral interference effects when paired with orthographic or phonological neighbors of the correct translations of L2 words. Moreover, the lexical effects were also exhibited in the electrophysiological data, as reflected by marginally less positive late positive component (500–800 ms) amplitudes in the frontal region. Importantly, the orthographic rather than phonological translation neighbor condition elicited less negative N400 (300–500 ms) amplitudes in the parietal–occipital regions, suggesting that this orthographic translation neighbor condition facilitated the co-activation of spoken L2 words. Taken together, these findings indicate that cross-linguistic orthographic and phonological activation have different temporal dynamics with both bottom-up parallel cross-linguistic activation and the top-down inhibitory control mechanism governing the two-language lexical organization in L2 spoken word recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the method of illumination normalization of face recognition based on edge-preserving filter and visually optimal criterion.

Five algorithms with its advantages and disadvantage for medical image fusion are analyzed. Four kinds of quantitative evaluation criteria for the quality of image fusion algorithms are proposed and these will give us some guidance for future research.