Vowel articulation affected by word frequency

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 39(6) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition (see record 2013-27860-001). In the article there were omissions in Figure 1. All versions of this article have been corrected.] The word frequency paradox refers to the finding that low frequency words are better recognized than high frequency words yet high frequency words are better recalled than low frequency words. Rather than comparing separate groups of low and high frequency words, we sought to quantify the functional relation between word frequency and memory performance across the broad range of frequencies typically used in episodic memory experiments. Here we report that both low frequency and high frequency words are better recalled than midfrequency words. In contrast, we only observe a low frequency advantage when participants were given a subsequent item recognition test. The U-shaped relation between word frequency and recall probability may help to explain inconsistent results in studies using mixed lists with separate groups of high and low frequency words.

Word frequency plays a role in reduction processes: high-frequency words undergo more reduction than low-frequency words. Pretonic schwa reduction in Dutch is susceptible to frequency effects in this way, but the well-formedness of the cluster that remains after schwa deletion also plays a role. An experiment shows that cluster well-formedness and frequency effects in fact interact with each other. This suggests that phonological models should incorporate both lexical as well a grammatical information. Key words: Frequency effects, phonotactics, pretonic schwa, reduction. Introduction It has been observed for Dutch, that schwa deletion is more likely to be applied, when the resulting consonant cluster consists of an obstruent and subsequent liquid (Booij 1995). Thus all other things being equal, gelijk >$%–O- $%–QLS@µPHDQ¶, because in Dutch $O is a well-formed cluster but $n is not. However, pretonic vowels in Dutch are also known to be more reduced in high-frequency (HF) words than in low-frequency (LF) words (van Oostendorp 1999). This raises the question of whether frequency effects interact with the well-formedness of the cluster that remains after deletion. Is it the case that frequency effects are only found in potential well-formed onset clusters? Or is it rather the case that schwa reduction in consonant-liquid clusters is dependent on word frequency? How does frequency interact with phonotactics exactly? To investigate the effect of cluster well-formedness (CWF) and frequency, a word reading task was carried out. HF and LF words were extracted from Corpus Gesproken Nederlands (Spoken Dutch Corpus) available on www.tst.inl.nl and from the CELEX database on www.celex.mpi. Each HF word with WKHFRQWH[W&%&- was matched with an LF word following a number of criteria: the consonants preceding the schwa and following the schwa were identical, the number of syllables was identical, the number of phonemes was matched as much as possible and stress placement was identical. The corpus frequency counts may deviate from the frequency of the individual lexicon of the subjects. It is well-known in psycholinguistics that word frequency is related to naming latency, in the sense that HF words have shorter latencies than LF words (Oldfield & Wingfield 1965, Jescheniak &

Possible determinants of the word-frequency effect (WFE), that is, the finding that lowfrequency (LF) words are recognized more accurately than high-frequency (HF) words, are evaluated. Three studies examined the view that, since HF words have more meanings than LF words, it is less likely that the word sense tagged at time of presentation will be accessed at time of test and a correct response will be made. To ensure the same word sense was accessed at time of presentation and time of test in the case of both HF and LF words, sentence contexts used during presentation were combined with cuing procedures at time of test. Recognition performance improved, but the WFE was unaltered even when the identical sentence context was used during presentation and test. A fourth study considered GlarLzer and Bowles’ (19761 suggestion that associates of both HF and LF words tend to be HF words that are (1)likely to be activated and derivatively encoded during presentation and (2) likely to include a number of distractors from the recognition test sufficient to impair performance on HF words. Analysis of associative responses of subjects to HF and LF words, and the errors they made, support strongly such an interference-type interpretation of the WFE.

Event Abstract Back to Event Semantic diversity affects word processing similarly for PWA with and without semantic deficits: Evidence against the semantic control hypothesis Curtiss A. Chapman1* and Randi Martin1 1 Rice University, Psychology, United States Introduction. Although a benefit for high frequency (HF) words over low frequency (LF) words is ubiquitous in language processing, persons with aphasia (PWA) with multimodal semantic deficits sometimes show reverse word frequency effects (WFEs; e.g., in synonymy judgments; Almaghyuli et al., 2012). Hoffman and colleagues suggest that this reversal results from the greater semantic diversity (SemD; Hoffman, et al., 2011) of HF words – i.e., a greater range of associated semantic representations which become activated during word processing and compete with selection of the target word meaning. Difficulty selecting among competing semantic representations is argued to be part of these individuals’ underlying semantic deficit—one of controlled access to semantics (Hoffman, et al., 2011). Our study tested two predictions following from these claims: 1) smaller WFEs should be observed for high than low SemD words, 2) this interaction of frequency and SemD should be greater—with even smaller WFEs for high SemD words—for PWA with semantic deficits than those without, due to their greater sensitivity to competition. Method and Results. Data from 117 PWA from the Moss Aphasia Psycholinguistics Project Database were analyzed, including 81 who had semantic deficits and 36 who did not have multimodal semantic impairments (> 2 sd below control means on verbal and nonverbal semantic tasks). Errors on the Philadelphia Naming Test (PNT) and the Philadelphia Repetition Test (PRT) were regressed on group, SemD, frequency, and their interactions. In PNT and PRT, we observed an effect of group (semantic deficit < non-semantic deficit; p’s<.001), a beneficial effect of HF (p’s<.001), and no SemD effect (p’s>.23). For PNT, we observed the expected interaction of SemD and frequency (p=.001), with larger WFEs for low than high SemD words, but no interactions with group were significant (p’s>.59). Interestingly, the SemD x frequency interaction showed a negative effect of SemD for HF words but a positive effect of SemD for LF words. For PRT, we observed a group x frequency interaction (p=.01), but surprisingly PWA with semantic deficits showed a stronger WFE than did those without. There was a marginal interaction between group, frequency, and SemD (p=.06), such that the semantic deficit group showed an interaction between frequency and SemD like that in picture naming (p<.001), whereas the non-semantic deficit group did not (p=.16). However, further analysis revealed no group difference in WFEs for high SemD words, but larger WFEs for low SemD words in the semantic deficit group. Conclusions. As predicted, WFEs were diminished for high SemD words. However, as PWA with and without semantic deficits showed this interaction in picture naming and only WFEs for low SemD words were stronger for those with semantic deficits in repetition, it is unlikely that this interaction arose from semantic control difficulties in those with semantic deficits. Interestingly, the interaction showed that while high SemD hurt performance for HF words, it improved performance for LF words – perhaps because weak activation of associates for LF words aids in their comprehension whereas strong activation of associates for HF words creates competition. References Almaghyuli, A., Thompson, H., Lambon Ralph, M. A., & Jefferies, E. (2012). Deficits of semantic control produce absent or reverse frequency effects in comprehension: Evidence from neuropsychology and dual task methodology. Neuropsychologia, 50, 1968-1979. Hoffman, P., Lambon Raph, M. A., & Rogers, T. T. (2013). Semantic diversity: A measure of semantic ambiguity based on variability in the contextual usage of words. Behav. Res., 45, 718-730. Hoffman, P., Rogers, T. T., & Lambon Ralph, M. A. (2011). Semantic diversity accounts for the “missing” word frequency effect in stroke aphasia: Insights using a novel method to quantify contextual variability in meaning. J. Cog. Neuroscience, 23(9), 2432-2446. Keywords: Semantic diversity, Semantic control, word frequency effect, semantic deficits, People with aphasia Conference: Academy of Aphasia 56th Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada, 21 Oct - 23 Oct, 2018. Presentation Type: poster presentation Topic: Eligible for a student award Citation: Chapman CA and Martin R (2019). Semantic diversity affects word processing similarly for PWA with and without semantic deficits: Evidence against the semantic control hypothesis. Conference Abstract: Academy of Aphasia 56th Annual Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2018.228.00052 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 17 Apr 2018; Published Online: 22 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Mr. Curtiss A Chapman, Rice University, Psychology, Houston, United States, curtiss.a.chapman@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Curtiss A Chapman Randi Martin Google Curtiss A Chapman Randi Martin Google Scholar Curtiss A Chapman Randi Martin PubMed Curtiss A Chapman Randi Martin Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

ABSTRACTStudies have shown that distracters that are relevant to a target can negatively affect visual search performance. Recent studies have looked at performance when targets are embedded within a distracter. Various factors have been explored such as automaticity, spatial location and timing. This study asked, If distracters affected a different dimension would that produce a detriment to visual search performance? Would competition for attention occur if distracters were on an irrelevant dimension such as lexicality? The results of this study suggest that lexicality, as demonstrated by word frequency, is a disruptive distracter dimension. This study also showed that two distracters of different word frequencies can serve to disrupt attentional capture.Keywords: Lexical Distracter, Attention Capture, Visual Search1. INTRODUCTIONThis experiment expanded on a previous examination of word frequency effects in visual search tasks (Grabbe, 2014) by allowing a simultaneous comparison of distracter words with embedded targets and distracter words without embedded targets within the same trial. This facilitated a greater examination of comparative word frequency effects as distracters (example, the target could be embedded within a low frequency word in a letter string which also contains a high frequency word).This study will answer the question: If there was a proximity effect that disrupted the effect of lexicality, would the distracter influence of lexicality still be disruptive when proximity (embeddedness) is also a factor. This will allow a thorough examination of holistic effects of distracter words on the target search task. Grabbe showed an advantage for targets embedded within a word and the reverse word frequency effect. This study will examine the proximity dimension of distracters by utilizing targets embedded within a word and have an additional, nonembedded distracter word.Hypothesis 1A holistic bias will lead to longer reaction time for targets embedded within high frequency words.Hypothesis 2High frequency distracter words will cause a greater distraction than low frequency words. Therefore longer reaction times will be observed for high frequency word distracters.2. MATERIALS AND METHODS2.1. ParticipantsNineteen participants were recruited from psychology courses at the State University of New York, Plattsburgh. The age range was from 21 to 51 years of age. All participants were screened for normal or corrected-to-normal visions. Informed consent was obtained from all participants.2.2. ProcedureParticipants completed a visual search task in which they searched for a target letter within a letter string. The target letter was presented before each trial. In the experiment all targets were embedded within a word or nonword in a letter string. Each letter string also had a second word which served as a distracter and did not have an embedded target.For the purpose of clarity the distracter in which a target is embedded (which can be a word or nonword) will be referred to as the first distracter and the distracter that does not contain an embedded target (which is always a word) is referred to as the second distracter. Example, the target is the letter L and the letter string is XRATOHOLEYSDT. In that letter string the target appears is embedded in the first distracter (the word hole) while the word rat serves as the second distracter (Fig. 1).Participants completed 10 practice trials before completing 600 experiment trials. Target present trials were composed of three word frequency categories. Each word frequency category for first distracters contained 160 trials of nonreplaced words along with second distracters that were spread equally across word frequency category. Words from word frequency database of Brysbaert and New (2009) were used in this experiment in the target absent condition, no letter string contained a legal, English word. …

Low-frequency (LF) words produce higher hit rates and lower false alarm rates than high-frequency (HF) words. This word frequency mirror pattern has been interpreted within dual-process models of recognition, which assume the contributions of a slower recollective process and a relatively fast-acting familiarity process. In the present experiments, recollection and familiarity were placed in opposition using Jacoby, L. L., Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 513-541 (1991), two-list exclusion paradigm with HF and LF words. Exclusion errors to LF words exceeded those to HF words at fast deadlines, whereas the reverse occurred at slow deadlines. In Experiments 2 and 3, false alarms to HF nonpresented lures were higher than to LF nonpresented lures, indicating the use of baseline familiarity for totally new items. Combined, these results indicate that in addition to baseline familiarity and recollection, a third process involving the assessment of a relative change in familiarity is involved in recognition performance. Both relative changes in familiarity and recollection processes have distinct time courses and are engaged when there is diagnostic list information available, whereas baseline familiarity is used when there is no diagnostic information available (e.g., for nonpresented lure items).

Contemporary psycholinguistic models suggest that there may be dual routes operating in phonetic encoding: a direct route which uses stored syllabic units, and an indirect route which relies on the on-line assembly of sub-syllabic units. The more computationally efficient direct route is more likely to be used for high frequency words, while the indirect route is most likely to be used for novel or low frequency words. We suggest that the acquired neurological disorder of apraxia of speech (AOS), provides a window to speech encoding mechanisms and that the disorder represents an impairment of direct route encoding mechanisms and, therefore, a reliance on indirect mechanisms. We report an investigation of the production of high and low frequency words across three subject groups: non-brain damaged control (NBDC, N=3); brain damaged control (BDC, N=3) and speakers with AOS (N=4). The results are presented and discussed within the dual-route phonetic encoding hypothesis.

Free recall of words has been extensively used in psychopharmacology to assess the effects of CNS-active drugs on memory functions. However, there is a relative lack of information on the impact of word frequency on the subsequent recall of words following the administration of psychoactive drugs. The present double-blind, placebo-controlled, repeated-measures experiment used lorazepam and alcohol to test the effects of word frequency on immediate and delayed word recall in 24 healthy volunteers. One half of the words contained in the lists had a high frequency (HF) of occurrence and the remainder were of low frequency (LF). The results showed that LF words were more sensitive to memory impairment than HF words. However, the more accurate recall of HF words (with respect to LF words) was eliminated when a combination of lorazepam with alcohol was administered. These findings indicate that word frequency has a significant impact on memory and, as such, is a factor to be taken into account when using memory recall tasks to assess the effects of psychoactive drugs on memory.

Modulation of the word frequency effect in recognition memory after an unrelated lexical decision task

Adult subjects decided whether strings of four, five, or six letters formed words or nonwords. Words and nonwords were equally probable stimuli, and there were equal numbers of stimuli of high and low mean bigram frequency. Half the words were common and half occurred rarely i[~ printed English. Mean bigram frequency had no effect on subjects' response times for common words and for nonwords, but the reaction times for rare words were significantly longer for words of high mean bigram frequency than for words of low mean bigram frequency. This result may be accounted for by a modification of Rumelhart and Siple's (1974) model of word perception to include the mapping of simple features to units which correspond to common spelling patterns.

This study examined how lexical properties, such as word frequency, word length, and morphological features, affect the word recognition of Korean Hangul among adult readers. Ninety-four native Korean students performed a lexical decision task on disyllabic and trisyllabic words and nonwords. Results of cross-classified and hierarchical linear modeling showed a significant frequency effect but null effects of word length and their interactions on word recognition. The null syllable effect might be contributable to the block structure of syllables, which does not require syllabic decomposition in recognition. Given that Chinese-derived Sino-Korean words account for about 70% of the Korean lexicon, morphological features embedded in the word were examined in order to further understand the morphological undercurrent of multisyllabic word recognition. Word type (bound-morphemic words vs. compound words), word origin (native or semi-native words vs. Chinese-derived words), and morphemic transparency (opaque morpheme vs. transparent morpheme) were significant predictors of the speed of visual word recognition. An analysis of frequency split showed that compound words and morpheme transparency facilitated word recognition for high frequency words, while the number of morphemes within the word, Korean native and semi-native words, and morphemic transparency facilitated word recognition for low frequency words. These results suggest that high and low frequency words function differently according to morphological information available within the multisyllabic word in visual word recognition in Hangul.

Current unsupervised part-of-speech tagging algorithms build context vectors containing high frequency words as features and cluster words – regarding to their context vectors – into classes. While part-of-speech disambiguation for mid and low frequency words is achieved by applying a Hidden Markov Model, no corresponding method is applied to high frequency terms. But those are exactly the words being essential for analyzing syntactic dependencies of natural language. Thus, we want to introduce an approach employing unsupervised clustering of contexts to detect and separate a word’s different syntactic roles. Experiments on German and English corpora show how this methodology addresses and solves some of the major problems of unsupervised part-of-speech tagging.

Much research has been devoted to how learners use diverse and sophisticated or low frequency words in their English as a foreign language (EFL) written language production. However, the question of how EFL students use high frequency words, especially common verbs such as have, get, make, etc., in EFL writing has remained underexplored, despite the fact that they occur frequently and constitute a large proportion of words in written texts (Nation, 2013). The present study therefore examined how Vietnamese EFL students used the high frequency verb MAKE in their written opinion essays. The freeware AntConc (Anthony, 2020) was used to identify the different forms of the target MAKE and their frequency in 200 opinion essays written by Vietnamese EFL university students in three English writing classes as progress tests. Each concordance line in the AntConc output was subsequently examined to discover patterns of uses of MAKE according to Altenberg and Granger’s (2001) framework. The results show that causative and delexical uses of MAKE were most common and students still committed errors with MAKE. The findings have important pedagogical implications for feedback giving and writing instruction.

Rehearsal and the word frequency effect in recognition memory

This study examined lexical effects on word recognition by children with multichannel cochlear implants. Based on computational analyses, word lists were constructed to allow systematic examination of the effects of word frequency, lexical density (i.e., the number of phonemically similar words, or neighbors), mean neighborhood word frequency, and word length. The percent of words correctly identified was significantly higher for lexically ‘‘easy’’ words (high frequency words with few neighbors) than for ‘‘hard’’ words (low frequency words with many neighbors). The percent of phonemes correctly identified did not differ between the ‘‘easy’’ and ‘‘hard’’ words, suggesting that phoneme scores do not accurately reflect word recognition. Word recognition scores were also better for multisyllabic than for monosyllabic words. These results demonstrate that children with multichannel cochlear implants systematically organize words in long-term lexical memory using processes similar to listeners with normal hearing. Lexical effects will also be examined on a longitudinal basis to determine if performance increases with implant use. [Work supported by NIH.]