The Experts below are selected from a list of 2469 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Seana Coulson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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visuo spatial working memory and the Comprehension of iconic gestures
Cognitive Science, 2015Co-Authors: Ying Choon Wu, Bonnie Chinh, Seana CoulsonAbstract:Multi-modal Discourse Comprehension requires speakers to combine information from speech and gestures. To date, little research has addressed the cognitive resources that underlie these processes. Here we used a dual task paradigm to test the relative importance of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory in speech-gesture Comprehension. Healthy, collegeaged participants encoded either a series of digits (verbal load) or a series of dot locations in a grid (visuo-spatial load), and rehearsed them (secondary memory task) as they performed a (primary) Discourse Comprehension task. The latter involved watching a video of a man describing household objects, viewing a picture probe, and judging whether or not the picture was related to the video. Following the Discourse Comprehension task, participants recalled either the verbally or visuo-spatially encoded information. Regardless of the secondary task, performance on the Discourse Comprehension task was better when the speaker’s gestures were congruent with his speech than when they were incongruent. However, the congruency advantage was smaller when the concurrent memory task involved a visuo-spatial load than when it involved a verbal load. Results suggest that taxing the visuo-spatial working memory system reduced participants’ ability to benefit from the information in congruent iconic gestures.
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CogSci - Visuo-spatial Working Memory and the Comprehension of Iconic Gestures.
Cognitive Science, 2015Co-Authors: Bonnie Chinh, Seana CoulsonAbstract:Multi-modal Discourse Comprehension requires speakers to combine information from speech and gestures. To date, little research has addressed the cognitive resources that underlie these processes. Here we used a dual task paradigm to test the relative importance of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory in speech-gesture Comprehension. Healthy, collegeaged participants encoded either a series of digits (verbal load) or a series of dot locations in a grid (visuo-spatial load), and rehearsed them (secondary memory task) as they performed a (primary) Discourse Comprehension task. The latter involved watching a video of a man describing household objects, viewing a picture probe, and judging whether or not the picture was related to the video. Following the Discourse Comprehension task, participants recalled either the verbally or visuo-spatially encoded information. Regardless of the secondary task, performance on the Discourse Comprehension task was better when the speaker’s gestures were congruent with his speech than when they were incongruent. However, the congruency advantage was smaller when the concurrent memory task involved a visuo-spatial load than when it involved a verbal load. Results suggest that taxing the visuo-spatial working memory system reduced participants’ ability to benefit from the information in congruent iconic gestures.
Bonnie Chinh - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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visuo spatial working memory and the Comprehension of iconic gestures
Cognitive Science, 2015Co-Authors: Ying Choon Wu, Bonnie Chinh, Seana CoulsonAbstract:Multi-modal Discourse Comprehension requires speakers to combine information from speech and gestures. To date, little research has addressed the cognitive resources that underlie these processes. Here we used a dual task paradigm to test the relative importance of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory in speech-gesture Comprehension. Healthy, collegeaged participants encoded either a series of digits (verbal load) or a series of dot locations in a grid (visuo-spatial load), and rehearsed them (secondary memory task) as they performed a (primary) Discourse Comprehension task. The latter involved watching a video of a man describing household objects, viewing a picture probe, and judging whether or not the picture was related to the video. Following the Discourse Comprehension task, participants recalled either the verbally or visuo-spatially encoded information. Regardless of the secondary task, performance on the Discourse Comprehension task was better when the speaker’s gestures were congruent with his speech than when they were incongruent. However, the congruency advantage was smaller when the concurrent memory task involved a visuo-spatial load than when it involved a verbal load. Results suggest that taxing the visuo-spatial working memory system reduced participants’ ability to benefit from the information in congruent iconic gestures.
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CogSci - Visuo-spatial Working Memory and the Comprehension of Iconic Gestures.
Cognitive Science, 2015Co-Authors: Bonnie Chinh, Seana CoulsonAbstract:Multi-modal Discourse Comprehension requires speakers to combine information from speech and gestures. To date, little research has addressed the cognitive resources that underlie these processes. Here we used a dual task paradigm to test the relative importance of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory in speech-gesture Comprehension. Healthy, collegeaged participants encoded either a series of digits (verbal load) or a series of dot locations in a grid (visuo-spatial load), and rehearsed them (secondary memory task) as they performed a (primary) Discourse Comprehension task. The latter involved watching a video of a man describing household objects, viewing a picture probe, and judging whether or not the picture was related to the video. Following the Discourse Comprehension task, participants recalled either the verbally or visuo-spatially encoded information. Regardless of the secondary task, performance on the Discourse Comprehension task was better when the speaker’s gestures were congruent with his speech than when they were incongruent. However, the congruency advantage was smaller when the concurrent memory task involved a visuo-spatial load than when it involved a verbal load. Results suggest that taxing the visuo-spatial working memory system reduced participants’ ability to benefit from the information in congruent iconic gestures.
Yufang Yang - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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processing good fit anomalies is modulated by contextual accessibility during Discourse Comprehension erp evidence
Language cognition and neuroscience, 2020Co-Authors: Ruohan Chang, Xiaohong Yang, Yufang YangAbstract:Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we investigated whether processing good-fit anomalies is modulated by contextual accessibility during Discourse Comprehension. Five-sentence Discourses were u...
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How context features modulate the involvement of the working memory system during Discourse Comprehension
Neuropsychologia, 2018Co-Authors: Xiaohong Yang, Yufang Yang, Xiuping Zhang, Nan LinAbstract:Abstract Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated the effects of context features on the involvement of the working memory (WM) system during Discourse Comprehension. During the fMRI scan, participants were asked to read two-sentence Discourses in which the topic of the second sentence was either maintained, or was shifted from, the topic of the first. Changes in the level of coherence between the two sentences as well as context length were also investigated across Discourse items. The WM system was identified with a verbal N-back task. Analysis of the reading Comprehension task revealed that within the WM system, stronger activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus corresponded with increased bridging coherence demands between sentences, while greater activation in the left inferior and middle frontal gyri, bilateral superior frontal gyri, and bilateral inferior parietal lobules corresponded with increased context length. Topic variation showed no effect on activation of the WM system. These results provide new insights into understanding how different levels of context features modulate activation of the subcomponents of the WM system and indicate a role for the left inferior frontal gyrus as a core component of the WM system supporting Discourse processing.
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Looking at the Brains Behind Discourse Comprehension—A Quantitative Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies
Advances in Cognitive Neurodynamics (V), 2016Co-Authors: Xiaohong Yang, Nan Lin, Yufang YangAbstract:Discourse Comprehension is a complex cognitive process that requires the analysis of linguistic input and the dynamic integration of incoming information with contextual cues and prior world knowledge. The neural systems of Discourse Comprehension have been studied for years, but a consensus has yet to be reached. In this meta-analysis, we analyzed 22 functional neuroimaging studies focusing on Discourse Comprehension using the activation likelihood estimate (ALE) technique. Activations were widely distributed across both hemispheres but more prominent in the left hemisphere. The largest cluster was found in the left inferior and middle frontal gyri, which extended to the precentral gyrus. Large clusters were also observed in the bilateral middle temporal gyri, extending to the inferior and superior temporal gyri. In addition, activations in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, cuneus/precuneus, lingual gyrus, and parahippocampal gyri were seen mostly in the left hemisphere. The activation of these regions extends the previous knowledge on the network of Discourse Comprehension and brings to light the need for more subtle specification of Discourse Comprehension process.
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looking at the brains behind Discourse Comprehension a quantitative meta analysis of neuroimaging studies
2016Co-Authors: Xiaohong Yang, Nan Lin, Yufang YangAbstract:Discourse Comprehension is a complex cognitive process that requires the analysis of linguistic input and the dynamic integration of incoming information with contextual cues and prior world knowledge. The neural systems of Discourse Comprehension have been studied for years, but a consensus has yet to be reached. In this meta-analysis, we analyzed 22 functional neuroimaging studies focusing on Discourse Comprehension using the activation likelihood estimate (ALE) technique. Activations were widely distributed across both hemispheres but more prominent in the left hemisphere. The largest cluster was found in the left inferior and middle frontal gyri, which extended to the precentral gyrus. Large clusters were also observed in the bilateral middle temporal gyri, extending to the inferior and superior temporal gyri. In addition, activations in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, cuneus/precuneus, lingual gyrus, and parahippocampal gyri were seen mostly in the left hemisphere. The activation of these regions extends the previous knowledge on the network of Discourse Comprehension and brings to light the need for more subtle specification of Discourse Comprehension process.
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pitch accent and lexical tone processing in chinese Discourse Comprehension an erp study
Brain Research, 2008Co-Authors: Xiao Qing Li, Yufang Yang, Peter HagoortAbstract:Abstract In the present study, event-related brain potentials (ERP) were recorded to investigate the role of pitch accent and lexical tone in spoken Discourse Comprehension. Chinese was used as material to explore the potential difference in the nature and time course of brain responses to sentence meaning as indicated by pitch accent and to lexical meaning as indicated by tone. In both cases, the pitch contour of critical words was varied. The results showed that both inconsistent pitch accent and inconsistent lexical tone yielded N400 effects, and there was no interaction between them. The negativity evoked by inconsistent pitch accent had the some topography as that evoked by inconsistent lexical tone violation, with a maximum over central–parietal electrodes. Furthermore, the effect for the combined violations was the sum of effects for pure pitch accent and pure lexical tone violation. However, the effect for the lexical tone violation appeared approximately 90 ms earlier than the effect of the pitch accent violation. It is suggested that there might be a correspondence between the neural mechanism underlying pitch accent and lexical meaning processing in context. They both reflect the integration of the current information into a Discourse context, independent of whether the current information was sentence meaning indicated by accentuation, or lexical meaning indicated by tone. In addition, lexical meaning was processed earlier than sentence meaning conveyed by pitch accent during spoken language processing.
Ying Choon Wu - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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visuo spatial working memory and the Comprehension of iconic gestures
Cognitive Science, 2015Co-Authors: Ying Choon Wu, Bonnie Chinh, Seana CoulsonAbstract:Multi-modal Discourse Comprehension requires speakers to combine information from speech and gestures. To date, little research has addressed the cognitive resources that underlie these processes. Here we used a dual task paradigm to test the relative importance of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory in speech-gesture Comprehension. Healthy, collegeaged participants encoded either a series of digits (verbal load) or a series of dot locations in a grid (visuo-spatial load), and rehearsed them (secondary memory task) as they performed a (primary) Discourse Comprehension task. The latter involved watching a video of a man describing household objects, viewing a picture probe, and judging whether or not the picture was related to the video. Following the Discourse Comprehension task, participants recalled either the verbally or visuo-spatially encoded information. Regardless of the secondary task, performance on the Discourse Comprehension task was better when the speaker’s gestures were congruent with his speech than when they were incongruent. However, the congruency advantage was smaller when the concurrent memory task involved a visuo-spatial load than when it involved a verbal load. Results suggest that taxing the visuo-spatial working memory system reduced participants’ ability to benefit from the information in congruent iconic gestures.
Xiao Qing Li - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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pitch accent and lexical tone processing in chinese Discourse Comprehension an erp study
Brain Research, 2008Co-Authors: Xiao Qing Li, Yufang Yang, Peter HagoortAbstract:Abstract In the present study, event-related brain potentials (ERP) were recorded to investigate the role of pitch accent and lexical tone in spoken Discourse Comprehension. Chinese was used as material to explore the potential difference in the nature and time course of brain responses to sentence meaning as indicated by pitch accent and to lexical meaning as indicated by tone. In both cases, the pitch contour of critical words was varied. The results showed that both inconsistent pitch accent and inconsistent lexical tone yielded N400 effects, and there was no interaction between them. The negativity evoked by inconsistent pitch accent had the some topography as that evoked by inconsistent lexical tone violation, with a maximum over central–parietal electrodes. Furthermore, the effect for the combined violations was the sum of effects for pure pitch accent and pure lexical tone violation. However, the effect for the lexical tone violation appeared approximately 90 ms earlier than the effect of the pitch accent violation. It is suggested that there might be a correspondence between the neural mechanism underlying pitch accent and lexical meaning processing in context. They both reflect the integration of the current information into a Discourse context, independent of whether the current information was sentence meaning indicated by accentuation, or lexical meaning indicated by tone. In addition, lexical meaning was processed earlier than sentence meaning conveyed by pitch accent during spoken language processing.
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The Role of Accentuation in Spoken Discourse Comprehension
Acta Psychologica Sinica, 2004Co-Authors: Yu-fang Yang, Yufang Yang, Xiao Qing LiAbstract:Three experiments ere carried out to investigate the role accentuation plays in spoken Discourse Comprehension. The first experiment examined how accentuation influenced on-line processing speed during Discourse Comprehension, using sentence-by-sentence auditory moving window technique. The second and third experiments explored the effect of accentuation on the immediate results of Discourse processing (namely the activation of information in Discourse representation), using word recognition task. The results showed that: compared to neutral accentuation, appropriate accentuation speeded up Discourse processing and inappropriate accentuation slowed Discourse processing; compared to neutral accentuation, appropriate accentuation enhanced the activation of new information in Discourse representation; however, inappropriate accentuation suppressed the activation of important new information although it enhanced the activation of old information it marked. Therefore, appropriate accenting accelerated Discourse Comprehension and inappropriate accentuation impeded Discourse processing, both were exhibited both in on-line processing time and in the immediate result of Discourse processing.