Штыров Юрий Юрьевич

Orthographic Learning In L1 And L2 Alphabets: The Impact of Phonological Inconsistency Across Cyrillic and Roman Scripts

2020 · PREPRINT · en

The acquisition of new orthographic representations has been systematically found as a fast and accurate process in monolingual readers. The present study aims to extended this research to biliterate and bialphabetic population, addressing the impact of phonological inconsistencies across the native (L1) and second (L2) alphabet. Naming latencies were collected from 50 Russian-English biliterates through a reading-aloud task, in which familiar and novel words were repeatedly presented across 10 blocks. The stimuli were equally divided in three script conditions: Cyrillic, Roman (in both cases, using script-specific graphemes) and ambiguous (using graphemes common to L1 and L2 alphabets, and thus phonologically inconsistent). Linear mixed-effects modelling revealed differences in the process of orthographic learning depending on the script. Thus, although naming latencies for novel and familiar words in the ambiguous condition were matched along the training, this effect was much faster in conditions of phonological consistency. Nonetheless, post-training outcomes of learning revealed similar recall and recognition performance in familiar and trained words regardless of the script. Overall, our results indicate that phonological inconsistency interferes with the decoding of novel words but does not prevent the efficient achievement of orthographic representations in biliterates.

Neurophysiological Correlates of Top-Down Phonological and Semantic Influence during the Orthographic Processing of Novel Visual Word-Forms

2020 · ARTICLE · en

The acquisition of new vocabulary is usually mediated by previous experience with language. In the visual domain, the representation of orthographically unfamiliar words at the phonological or conceptual levels may facilitate their orthographic learning. The neural correlates of this advantage were investigated by recording EEG activity during reading novel and familiar words across three different experiments (n = 22 each), manipulating the availability of previous knowledge on the novel written words. A different pattern of event-related potential (ERP) responses was found depending on the previous training, resembling cross-level top-down interactive effects during vocabulary acquisition. Thus, whereas previous phonological experience caused a modulation at the post-lexical stages of the visual recognition of novel written words (~520 ms), additional semantic training influenced their processing at a lexico-semantic stage (~320 ms). Moreover, early lexical differences (~180 ms) elicited in the absence of previous training did not emerge after both phonological and semantic training, reflecting similar orthographic processing and word-form access.

Cognitive and brain reserve in bilinguals: field overview and explanatory mechanisms

2020 · ARTICLE · en

There is an ongoing debate on potential neuroprotective effects of bilingualism against cognitive decline during healthy aging. In this paper, we consider the neural and cognitive mechanisms through which these protective effects may operate. We review the evidence suggesting that bilingualism can act as a booster of neuroplasticity and/or as a brain protection mechanism providing effective compensation. Our main aim is to better define the linkage between reserve and lifetime bilingual experience and their effects on the mind and brain. We first illustrate the concept of reserve and contextualize existing results of bilingualism research within the reserve framework. Then, we discuss how bilingualism-induced enhancements of certain cognitive functions may constitute the basis for the neural underpinnings of reserve, i.e., brain reserve (BR) and cognitive reserve (CR). Finally, we discuss how the interplay between BR and CR fostered by multiple language use can provide protection to the aging brain.

Rapid acquisition of novel written word-forms: ERP evidence

2020 · ARTICLE · en

Background:Novel word acquisition is generally believed to be a rapid process, essential for ensuring a flexible and efficient communication system; at least in spoken language, learners are able to construct memory traces for new linguistic stimuli after just a few exposures. However, such rapid word learning has not been systematically found in visual domain, with different confounding factors obscuring the orthographic learning of novel words. This study explored the changes in human brain activity occurring online, during a brief training with novel written word‑forms using a silent reading taskResults:Single‑trial, cluster‑based random permutation analysis revealed that training caused an extremely fast (after just one repetition) and stable facilitation in novel word processing, reflected in the modulation of P200 and N400 components, possibly indicating rapid dynamics at early and late stages of the lexical processing. Furthermore, neural source estimation of these effects revealed the recruitment of brain areas involved in orthographic and lexico‑seman‑tic processing, respectively.Conclusions:These results suggest the formation of neural memory traces for novel written word‑forms after a mini‑mal exposure to them even in the absence of a semantic reference, resembling the rapid learning processes known to occur in spoken language.

Anterior temporal lobe is necessary for efficient lateralised processing of spoken word identity

2020 · ARTICLE · en

n the healthy human brain, the processing of language is strongly lateralised, usually to the left hemisphere, while the processing of complex non-linguistic sounds recruits brain regions bilaterally. Here we asked whether the anterior temporal lobes, strongly implicated in semantic processing, are critical to this special treatment of spoken words. Nine patients with semantic dementia (SD) and fourteen age-matched controls underwent magnetoencephalography and structural MRI. Voxel based morphometry demonstrated the stereotypical pattern of SD: severe grey matter loss restricted to the anterior temporal lobes, with the left side more affected. During magnetoencephalography, participants listened to word sets in which identity and meaning were ambiguous until word completion, for example PLAYED versus PLATE. Whereas left-hemispheric responses were similar across groups, patients demonstrated increased right hemisphere activity 174–294 msec after stimulus disambiguation. Source reconstructions confirmed recruitment of right-sided analogues of language regions in SD: atrophy of anterior temporal lobes was associated with increased activity in right temporal pole, middle temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus. Overall, the results indicate that anterior temporal lobes are necessary for normal and efficient lateralised processing of word identity by the language network.

(NON)EXISTENCE OF ZERO MORPHEME: ERP EVIDENCE

2020 · CHAPTER · en

A NORMATIVE STUDY OF RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS

2020 · CHAPTER · en

Effects of Visual Priming and Event Orientation on Word Order Choice in Russian Sentence Production

2019 · ARTICLE · en

Existing research shows that distribution of the speaker’s attention among event’s protagonists affects syntactic choice during sentence production. One of the debated issues concerns the extent of the attentional contribution to syntactic choice in languages that put stronger emphasis on word order arrangement rather than the choice of the overall syntactic frame. To address this, the current study used a sentence production task, in which Russian native speakers were asked to verbally describe visually perceived transitive events. Prior to describing the target event, a visual cue directed the participants’ attention to the location of either the agent or the patient of the subsequently presented visual event. In addition, we also manipulated event orientation (agent-left vs. agent-right) as another potential contributor to syntactic choice. The number of patient-initial sentences was the dependent variable compared between conditions. First, the obtained results replicated the effect of visual cueing on the word order in Russian language: more patient-initial sentences in patient cued condition. Second, we registered a novel effect of event orientation: Russian native speakers produced more patient-initial sentences after seeing events developing from right to left as opposed to left-to-right events. Our study provides new evidence about the role of the speaker’s attention and event orientation in syntactic choice in language with flexible word order.

EEG correlates of false information processing

2019 · CHAPTER · en

Human memory is not a literal record of our experiences but a fallible and malleable cognitive process. Because of the reconstructive nature of memory, we are often prone to accept false events and recall them as truthful (Bartlett, 1932). One easy and reliable method to create and study false memories in the laboratory is the misinformation paradigm. In this paradigm participants are presented with a story (original information). After some time, parts of this story are presented again but now including some modifications (misinformation). Finally, the memory is measured for the original information, the misinformation, and, as control, some other incorrect information never presented before. The misinformation effect occurs when the percentage of misinformation accepted is higher than the acceptance of control incorrect information. This effect has been largely studied in relation to its applied relevance in eyewitness testimony research. Yet, the neural substrates and temporal dynamics of processing correct and false information remain scarcely studied. In this study the neural activity was recorded using EEG while participants performed a memory recognition test which comprised misinformation, true, and simply incorrect items. The only previous EEG study on neural correlates focused on misinformation pointed to the P3b and LPC (late positive component) ERPs components as the key to distinguishing between memories for correct and false memories. High P3b is linked with a strong match between the expectation and the stimuli presented. LPC is a late component around 400 to 800 ms after the stimulus presentation, associated with the recollection of accurate information. Our results show that for the contrasts of misinformation accepted vs rejected, and false information accepted vs rejected (correct rejections), P3b was significantly more positive when the inaccurate information was accepted. These differences suggest a larger cognitive workload on accepting this type of information than when it is correctly rejected. Furthermore, in both contrasts we found differences in P600 which is linked to reprocessing of detected anomalies in the input. Here, we found a more expressed P600 for accepted than for rejected misinformation. P600 was also stronger for correct rejections than false alarms. In this latter case, the higher P600 amplitude may reflect the detection and reanalysis of the rejection of this false information. Interestingly, in the case of acceptance of misinformation, the higher P600 amplitude suggest that participants are not totally blind to the inaccuracy of the misinformation, though still they accept it. The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project №19-18-00534).

Differential neural basis for different levels of metacognitive evaluations

2019 · CHAPTER · en

Metacognitive monitoring is a powerful tool that supports our ongoing cognitive processes (Flavell, 1976). In applied settings, such as when we are trying to learn a new language, monitoring the learning progress may determine the difference between success and failure. One way to measure metacognitive monitoring in relation to learning new material is the so-called Judgments of Learning (JOLs). JOLs are estimations of future success in recalling recently learned information. Depending on the confidence that we have in remembering the new information later, we may decide to keep rehearsing it or just move on. Existing research shows that several variables can mislead our JOLs in relation to the subsequent recall accuracy; at the same time, other variables that influence the recall itself do not affect JOLs. Perceptual fluency, manipulated in different sensory modalities by e.g. font size or presentation volume, leads to differences in JOLs (e.g., higher JOLs for bigger font size), although recall accuracy remains the same regardless of the manipulation. On the other and, the animacy manipulation (e.g., dog vs. table) does not affect JOLs but animate words are remembered better. Our main aim was to study JOL brain correlates for variables that differently affect JOLs and memory. Participants were presented with words in an easy- or difficult to-read font that referred to animate or inanimate objects while EEG was recorded. For each word, participants had to choose on a 0-100% scale the confidence they had in remembering it in near future. We found a higher P2 response for high- (70–100%) than to medium- JOLs (40–60%) ratings, which may reflect attentional recruitment resulting in modulation of perceptual processing. Furthermore, we found a greater P600 response for medium- than high-JOLs, suggesting a deeper reanalysis of these type of “less confident” answers. When animacy and perceptual fluency are split between medium and high-JOLs, we found LPC (late positive component) only for animacy, being showing a higher amplitude for the high- than medium-JOLs.. This might indicate a higher involvement of memory processes during the processing of animacy-related information. Finally, when comparing difficult type font words rated with medium and high-JOLs, we obtained larger P3b for high-JOLs rated words, which may attributed to their deeper evaluation. This is the first evidence of differential brain signatures for JOLs depending on their ratings level and different experimental manipulations. Our results highlight the relevance of metacognitive evaluations in the cognitive processing. The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project №19-18-00534).