The Experts below are selected from a list of 360 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Margaret Friend - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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translation equivalents facilitate lexical access in very young bilinguals
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2017Co-Authors: Diane Poulindubois, Olivia Kuzyk, Jacqueline Legacy, Pascal Eric Zesiger, Margaret FriendAbstract:The present study investigated the impact of translation equivalents (TE) on lexical processing in a sample of 36 French–English bilingual toddlers at 22-months of age. Children were administered the Computerized Comprehension Task (CCT; Friend & Keplinger, 2003) in each language and parents completed the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) in both English and French across two visits (one language per visit). Correct trials on the CCT were identified and classified into one of two categories: words with a known TE as reported on the CDI and words without a known TE on the CDI. Reaction times for correct trials were averaged and compared for each of the bilinguals’ languages. Interestingly, children were faster to retrieve words with a known TE on the CDI than words with no known TE. The present findings suggest that the translation facilitation effects reported in adult bilinguals are also present in very young bilinguals.
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evaluating the predictive validity of the computerized Comprehension Task Comprehension predicts production
Developmental Psychology, 2012Co-Authors: Margaret Friend, Sara A Schmitt, Adrianne M SimpsonAbstract:Until recently, the challenges inherent in measuring Comprehension have impeded our ability to predict the course of language acquisition. The present research reports on a longitudinal assessment of the convergent and predictive validity of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories: Words and Gestures (CDI: WG; Fenson et al., 1994, 1993, 2007) and the Computerized Comprehension Task (CCT; Friend & Keplinger, 2003, 2008). The CDI: WG and the CCT evinced good convergent validity; however, the CCT better predicted subsequent parent reports of language production. Language sample data in the 3rd year confirm this finding: The CCT accounted for 24% of the variance in unique word use. These studies provide evidence for the utility of a behavior-based approach to predicting the course of language acquisition into production.
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reliability and validity of the computerized Comprehension Task cct data from american english and mexican spanish infants
Journal of Child Language, 2008Co-Authors: Margaret Friend, Melanie KeplingerAbstract:Early language Comprehension may be one of the most important predictors of developmental risk. The need for performance-based assessment is predicated on limitations identified in the exclusive use of parent report and on the need for a performance measure with which to assess the convergent validity of parent report of Comprehension. Child performance data require the development of procedures to facilitate infant attention and compliance. Forty infants (20 at 1 ; 4 and 20 at 1 ; 8) acquiring English completed a standard picture book Task and the same Task was administered on a touch-sensitive screen. The computerized Task significantly improved Task attention, compliance and performance. Reliability was high, indicating that infants were not responding randomly. Convergent validity with parent report and 4-month stability was substantial. Preliminary data extending this approach to Mexican-Spanish are presented. Results are discussed in terms of the promise of this technique for clinical and research settings and the potential influences of cultural factors on performance.
Birgitta Sahlen - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the effect of voice quality and competing speakers in a passage Comprehension Task performance in relation to cognitive functioning in children with normal hearing
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 2018Co-Authors: Heike Von Lochow, Viveka Lybergahlander, Birgitta Sahlen, Tobias Kastberg, Jonas K BrannstromAbstract:Objective: This study explores the effect of voice quality and competing speaker/-s on children’s performance in a passage Comprehension Task. Furthermore, it explores the interaction between passa...
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the effect of voice quality and competing speakers in a passage Comprehension Task perceived effort in relation to cognitive functioning and performance in children with normal hearing
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 2018Co-Authors: Heike Von Lochow, Viveka Lybergahlander, Birgitta Sahlen, Tobias Kastberg, Jonas K BrannstromAbstract:AbstractThe study investigates the effect of voice quality and competing speakers on perceived effort in a passage Comprehension Task in relation to cognitive functioning. In addition, it explores if perceived effort was related to performance. A total of 49 children (aged 7:03 to 12:02 years) with normal hearing participated. The children performed an auditory passage Comprehension Task presented with six different listening conditions consisting of a typical voice or a dysphonic voice presented in quiet, with one competing speaker, and with four competing speakers. After completing the Task, they rated their perceived effort on a five-grade scale. The children also performed Tasks measuring working memory capacity (WMC) and executive functioning. The results show that voice quality had no direct effect on perceived effort but the children’s ratings of perceived effort were related to their executive functioning. A significant effect was seen for background listening condition indicating higher perceived...
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children s subjective ratings and opinions of typical and dysphonic voice after performing a language Comprehension Task in background noise
Journal of Voice, 2015Co-Authors: Jonas K Brannstrom, Viveka Lybergahlander, Tobias Kastberg, Lucas Holm, Magnus Haake, Birgitta SahlenAbstract:Objective Previous studies suggest that dysphonic voices are perceived more negatively than typical voices, and it is possible that vocal perception influences academic achievement and Comprehension. This study assessed children's subjective ratings and opinions of a typical and dysphonic voice after performing a language Comprehension Task in background noise. It also explored if subjective ratings were related to performance in the Comprehension Task. Study Design Ninety-three 8-year-old children participated and were randomly allocated to two groups. Methods A digital version of the Test for Reception of Grammar, version 2 (TROG-2) was used. In TROG-2, the child listens to a sentence and then, out of four possible pictures, selects the picture that corresponds to the sentence content. Each sentence assesses a specific grammatical construction. Test instructions were recorded using one speaker with two different voice qualities (typical voice and provoked dysphonic voice). One group of children performed TROG-2 with the typical voice and the other with the dysphonic voice, both presented in a multitalker babble noise using earphones. All children rated their subjective perception of the voice. Results The dysphonic voice received poorer ratings than the typical voice. Children making more positive ratings of the voice performed better on earlier blocks in TROG-2, but only in the typical voice group. Conclusions Children perceived the dysphonic voice more negatively even when listening to the same speaker. Performance is related to the perception of the voice, but only when the perceptual load of the Task-relevant stimuli is sufficiently low. (Less)
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on the interaction of speakers voice quality ambient noise and Task complexity with children s listening Comprehension and cognition
Frontiers in Psychology, 2015Co-Authors: Viveka Lybergahlander, K J Brannstrom, Birgitta SahlenAbstract:Suboptimal listening conditions interfere with listeners’ on-line Comprehension. A degraded source signal, noise that interferes with sound transmission and/or listeners’ cognitive or linguistic limitations are examples of adverse listening conditions. Few studies have explored the interaction of these factors in paediatric populations. Yet, they represent an increasing challenge in educational settings. We will in the following report on our research and address the effect of adverse listening conditions pertaining to speakers’ voices, background noise and children’s cognitive capacity on listening Comprehension. Results from our studies clearly indicate that children risk underachieving both in formal assessments and in noisy class-rooms when an examiner or teacher speaks with a hoarse (dysphonic) voice. This seems particularly true when Task complexity is low or when a child is approaching her/his limits of mastering a Comprehension Task.
Hungyu Kao - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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nlitrans at semeval 2018 Task 12 transfer of semantic knowledge for argument Comprehension
North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 2018Co-Authors: Timothy Niven, Hungyu KaoAbstract:The Argument Reasoning Comprehension Task is a difficult challenge requiring significant language understanding and complex reasoning over world knowledge. We focus on transfer of a sentence encoder to bootstrap more complicated architectures given the small size of the dataset. Our best model uses a pre-trained BiLSTM to encode input sentences, learns Task-specific features for the argument and warrants, then performs independent argument-warrant matching. This model achieves mean test set accuracy of 61.31%. Encoder transfer yields a significant gain to our best model over random initialization. Sharing parameters for independent warrant evaluation provides regularization and effectively doubles the size of the dataset. We demonstrate that regularization comes from ignoring statistical correlations between warrant positions. We also report an experiment with our best model that only matches warrants to reasons, ignoring claims. Performance is still competitive, suggesting that our model is not necessarily learning the intended Task.
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nlitrans at semeval 2018 Task 12 transfer of semantic knowledge for argument Comprehension
arXiv: Computation and Language, 2018Co-Authors: Timothy Niven, Hungyu KaoAbstract:The Argument Reasoning Comprehension Task requires significant language understanding and complex reasoning over world knowledge. We focus on transfer of a sentence encoder to bootstrap more complicated models given the small size of the dataset. Our best model uses a pre-trained BiLSTM to encode input sentences, learns Task-specific features for the argument and warrants, then performs independent argument-warrant matching. This model achieves mean test set accuracy of 64.43%. Encoder transfer yields a significant gain to our best model over random initialization. Independent warrant matching effectively doubles the size of the dataset and provides additional regularization. We demonstrate that regularization comes from ignoring statistical correlations between warrant features and position. We also report an experiment with our best model that only matches warrants to reasons, ignoring claims. Relatively low performance degradation suggests that our model is not necessarily learning the intended Task.
Viveka Lybergahlander - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the effect of voice quality and competing speakers in a passage Comprehension Task performance in relation to cognitive functioning in children with normal hearing
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 2018Co-Authors: Heike Von Lochow, Viveka Lybergahlander, Birgitta Sahlen, Tobias Kastberg, Jonas K BrannstromAbstract:Objective: This study explores the effect of voice quality and competing speaker/-s on children’s performance in a passage Comprehension Task. Furthermore, it explores the interaction between passa...
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the effect of voice quality and competing speakers in a passage Comprehension Task perceived effort in relation to cognitive functioning and performance in children with normal hearing
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 2018Co-Authors: Heike Von Lochow, Viveka Lybergahlander, Birgitta Sahlen, Tobias Kastberg, Jonas K BrannstromAbstract:AbstractThe study investigates the effect of voice quality and competing speakers on perceived effort in a passage Comprehension Task in relation to cognitive functioning. In addition, it explores if perceived effort was related to performance. A total of 49 children (aged 7:03 to 12:02 years) with normal hearing participated. The children performed an auditory passage Comprehension Task presented with six different listening conditions consisting of a typical voice or a dysphonic voice presented in quiet, with one competing speaker, and with four competing speakers. After completing the Task, they rated their perceived effort on a five-grade scale. The children also performed Tasks measuring working memory capacity (WMC) and executive functioning. The results show that voice quality had no direct effect on perceived effort but the children’s ratings of perceived effort were related to their executive functioning. A significant effect was seen for background listening condition indicating higher perceived...
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children s subjective ratings and opinions of typical and dysphonic voice after performing a language Comprehension Task in background noise
Journal of Voice, 2015Co-Authors: Jonas K Brannstrom, Viveka Lybergahlander, Tobias Kastberg, Lucas Holm, Magnus Haake, Birgitta SahlenAbstract:Objective Previous studies suggest that dysphonic voices are perceived more negatively than typical voices, and it is possible that vocal perception influences academic achievement and Comprehension. This study assessed children's subjective ratings and opinions of a typical and dysphonic voice after performing a language Comprehension Task in background noise. It also explored if subjective ratings were related to performance in the Comprehension Task. Study Design Ninety-three 8-year-old children participated and were randomly allocated to two groups. Methods A digital version of the Test for Reception of Grammar, version 2 (TROG-2) was used. In TROG-2, the child listens to a sentence and then, out of four possible pictures, selects the picture that corresponds to the sentence content. Each sentence assesses a specific grammatical construction. Test instructions were recorded using one speaker with two different voice qualities (typical voice and provoked dysphonic voice). One group of children performed TROG-2 with the typical voice and the other with the dysphonic voice, both presented in a multitalker babble noise using earphones. All children rated their subjective perception of the voice. Results The dysphonic voice received poorer ratings than the typical voice. Children making more positive ratings of the voice performed better on earlier blocks in TROG-2, but only in the typical voice group. Conclusions Children perceived the dysphonic voice more negatively even when listening to the same speaker. Performance is related to the perception of the voice, but only when the perceptual load of the Task-relevant stimuli is sufficiently low. (Less)
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on the interaction of speakers voice quality ambient noise and Task complexity with children s listening Comprehension and cognition
Frontiers in Psychology, 2015Co-Authors: Viveka Lybergahlander, K J Brannstrom, Birgitta SahlenAbstract:Suboptimal listening conditions interfere with listeners’ on-line Comprehension. A degraded source signal, noise that interferes with sound transmission and/or listeners’ cognitive or linguistic limitations are examples of adverse listening conditions. Few studies have explored the interaction of these factors in paediatric populations. Yet, they represent an increasing challenge in educational settings. We will in the following report on our research and address the effect of adverse listening conditions pertaining to speakers’ voices, background noise and children’s cognitive capacity on listening Comprehension. Results from our studies clearly indicate that children risk underachieving both in formal assessments and in noisy class-rooms when an examiner or teacher speaks with a hoarse (dysphonic) voice. This seems particularly true when Task complexity is low or when a child is approaching her/his limits of mastering a Comprehension Task.
Diane Poulindubois - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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translation equivalents facilitate lexical access in very young bilinguals
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2017Co-Authors: Diane Poulindubois, Olivia Kuzyk, Jacqueline Legacy, Pascal Eric Zesiger, Margaret FriendAbstract:The present study investigated the impact of translation equivalents (TE) on lexical processing in a sample of 36 French–English bilingual toddlers at 22-months of age. Children were administered the Computerized Comprehension Task (CCT; Friend & Keplinger, 2003) in each language and parents completed the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) in both English and French across two visits (one language per visit). Correct trials on the CCT were identified and classified into one of two categories: words with a known TE as reported on the CDI and words without a known TE on the CDI. Reaction times for correct trials were averaged and compared for each of the bilinguals’ languages. Interestingly, children were faster to retrieve words with a known TE on the CDI than words with no known TE. The present findings suggest that the translation facilitation effects reported in adult bilinguals are also present in very young bilinguals.
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lexical access and vocabulary development in very young bilinguals
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2013Co-Authors: Diane Poulindubois, Ellen Bialystok, Agnes Blaye, Alexandra Polonia, Jessica YottAbstract:This study compares lexical access and expressive and receptive vocabulary development in monolingual and bilingual toddlers. More specifically, the link between vocabulary size, production of translation equivalents, and lexical access in bilingual infants was examined as well as the relationship between the Communicative Development Inventories and the Computerized Comprehension Task. Twenty-five bilingual and 18 monolingual infants aged 24 months participated in this study. The results revealed significant differences between monolingual and bilinguals’ expressive vocabulary size in L1 but similar total vocabularies. Performance on the Computerized Comprehension Task revealed no differences between the two groups on measures of both reaction time and accuracy, and a strong convergent validity of the Computerized Comprehension Task with the Communicative Development Inventories was observed for both groups. Bilinguals with a higher proportion of translation equivalents in their expressive vocabulary showed faster access to words in the Computerized Comprehension Task.