College of Arts & Humanities

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    THE CROSS-LANGUAGE ACTIVATION OF FIRST LANGUAGE (L1) HOMONYMS TRANSLATIONS IN SECOND LANGUAGE (L2) PROCESSING: AN INVESTIGATION OF WHETHER L1 TRANSLATION ARE ACTIVATED IN L2 SENTENCE CONTEXT
    (2024) Alsalmi, Mona Othman; Jiang, Nan; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    A present study aimed to investigate the role of a first language (L1) translation on a second language (L2) word processing in a sentential context by relatively advanced Arabic learners of English. The focus is on cases where a homonymous word in the L1 is realized by independent words in the L2, (e.g. Arabic قرش realized by English shark and coin). Using the visual-world paradigm, Arabic-English bilinguals and English native participants were auditorily presented with English sentences that are predictive of a target word (e.g., “shark” in Scuba divers saw the sharp teeth of a giant shark yesterday) while looking at a visual screen. The screen contained one of the three critical objects: a target object whose English name corresponded to the target word (shark; Arabic: قرش) in the target condition, an Arabic competitor object whose Arabic name shared the same Arabic translation with the target word (coin; Arabic: قرش) in the Arabic condition, or an object that was unrelated to the target word (drums; Arabic طبل) in the control condition.Compared to native speakers of English, relatively advanced Saudi learners of English made more fixations on the critical objects in the Arabic condition compared to the control condition. This study supports the potential automatic activation of L1 translations when processing sentences in L2, even in relatively proficient learners and suggests evidence for the verification model in L2 word recognition.
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    The Learning and Usage of Second Language Speech Sounds: A Computational and Neural Approach
    (2023) Thorburn, Craig Adam; Feldman, Naomi H; Linguistics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Language learners need to map a continuous, multidimensional acoustic signal to discrete abstract speech categories. The complexity of this mapping poses a difficult learning problem, particularly for second language learners who struggle to acquire the speech sounds of a non-native language, and almost never reach native-like ability. A common example used to illustrate this phenomenon is the distinction between /r/ and /l/ (Goto, 1971). While these sounds are distinct in English and native English speakers easily distinguish the two sounds, native Japanese speakers find this difficult, as the sounds are not contrastive in their language. Even with much explicit training, Japanese speakers do not seem to be able to reach native-like ability (Logan, Lively, & Pisoni, 1991; Lively, Logan & Pisoni, 1993) In this dissertation, I closely explore the mechanisms and computations that underlie effective second-language speech sound learning. I study a case of particularly effective learning--- a video game paradigm where non-native speech sounds have functional significance (Lim & Holt, 2011). I discuss the relationship with a Dual Systems Model of auditory category learning and extend this model, bringing it together with the idea of perceptual space learning from infant phonetic learning. In doing this, I describe why different category types are better learned in different experimental paradigms and when different neural circuits are engaged. I propose a novel split where different learning systems are able to update different stages of the acoustic-phonetic mapping from speech to abstract categories. To do this I formalize the video game paradigm computationally and implement a deep reinforcement learning network to map between environmental input and actions. In addition, I study how these categories could be used during online processing through an MEG study where second-language learners of English listen to continuous naturalistic speech. I show that despite the challenges of speech sound learning, second language listeners are able to predict upcoming material integrating different levels of contextual information and show similar responses to native English speakers. I discuss the implications of these findings and how the could be integrated with literature on the nature of speech representation in a second language.
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    Lexical development and masked orthographic priming in the second language
    (2022) Park, Kichan; Kira, Gor; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The fuzzy lexical representations (FLR) hypothesis proposes that form encoding of words in a second language (L2) is often fuzzy, and this concerns both phonological and orthographic representations. FLR occur because of difficulties in encoding of L2 word forms as well as insufficient L2 experience. The FLR hypothesis also suggests that fuzzy L2 orthographic representations are the reason for the weak lexical competition for orthographic neighbor prime-target pairs in the L2 that has been observed in previous research (e.g., Jiang, 2021). However, this hypothesis also assumes that as orthographic representations become robust along with learners’ L2 experience, L2 words are eventually able to take part in lexical competition just like first language (L1) words. The current study tests these hypotheses using the individual-differences measures of the quality (orthographic precision) and the quantity (vocabulary size) of orthographic representations. At the same time, this study explores the relationship between sound perception (word and phoneme identification) of nonnative contrasts (e.g., the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast for Korean L2 learners of English), phonolexical encoding, and form facilitation for minimal pairs with these contrasts. A masked priming LDT was employed, in which minimal pairs with a nonnative phonological contrast (e.g., read-LEAD) and minimal pairs without a confusing phonological contrast (e.g., dear-TEAR) were used as the prime and target. Before the experiment, it was predicted that low-proficiency L2 speakers would show significant form facilitation under all prime conditions. On the other hand, medium-proficiency L2 speakers were expected to show evidence of emerging lexical competition (a null priming effect) for prime-target pairs without a difficult phonological contrast (e.g., dear-TEAR), although they would still show form facilitation for minimal pairs with a nonnative phonological contrast (e.g., read-LEAD). The facilitation for the latter pairs was predicted to occur because of less successful orthographic encoding of these pairs caused by fuzzy phonological representations of L2 words with difficult phonological contrasts. It was further expected that high-proficiency L2 speakers would show a nativelike pattern of form priming across all the prime conditions. Thirty L1 speakers and 90 L2 learners of English with a wide range of L2 proficiency were recruited for the experiment. In auditory word and phoneme identification tasks, L2 speakers showed less accurate identification of the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast compared to L1 speakers indicating that they indeed had problems in accurate sound perception and/or phonological categorization of the nonnative contrast as had been predicted. In the masked priming LDT, L1 speakers showed a null priming effect across the prime conditions. L2 speakers showed significant form priming for words with the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast but not for other words without a difficult contrast. When form priming in each L2 participant group was examined separately, low- and medium-proficiency L2 speakers showed significant facilitation for pairs with the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast, but high-proficiency L2 speakers showed a null priming effect for these pairs as L1 speakers did. This finding supports the prediction of the current study. At the same time, the influence of global proficiency, as measured by a cloze test, on the orthographic form priming was statistically non-significant. Furthermore, form facilitation for prime-target pairs without a confusing contrast (e.g., dear-TEAR) was not significant even in low-proficiency L2 participant groups. Through a series of investigations on the relationships between the form priming found in L2 speakers and their performance on individual-differences measures (spelling, vocabulary, word identification and phoneme identification tasks), the present study discovered that form facilitation was significantly modulated by L2 speakers’ orthographic precision (spelling scores). Moreover, it was found that the influence of orthographic precision on the form facilitation was more prominent for words that were more difficult for accurate phonological encoding, and as a consequence, orthographic encoding (i.e., minimal pairs with the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast) than others without a confusing contrast. These findings support the FLR hypothesis which argues for the role of the quality of orthographic representations in lexical competition between orthographic neighbors. The role of vocabulary size (vocabulary scores) was also found for four-letter stimuli indicating that the development of the size of the mental lexicon also affects lexical competition. On the other hand, no modulating role was observed of accurate word or phoneme identification of nonnative contrasts in form priming for minimal pairs with these contrasts. Based on these findings, this study suggests that (1) the orthographic form facilitation discovered at initial stages of L2 lexical development is due to fuzzy L2 orthographic representations. In addition, it claims that (2) as L2 speakers establish a larger and more precise L2 lexicon, L2 words can take part in lexical competition just as L1 words do. It also proposes that (3) the establishment of precise orthographic (or phonological) representations of L2 words with a confusing phonological contrast is more challenging than those without a difficult contrast. (4) Finally, although the observed weak effect of sound perception on form priming seems to indicate no systematic relationship between the development of phonological categorization ability and the form facilitation for these words, the present study contends that it may be premature to draw a conclusion about the role of phonolexical representations involving a nonnative contrast in orthographic representations. Indeed, the results may be due to methodological limitations of the word and phoneme identification tasks as a measure of the quality of phonological representations.
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    Semantics and pragmatics in a modular mind
    (2021) McCourt, Michael Sullivan; Williams, Alexander; Philosophy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This dissertation asks how we should understand the distinction between semantic and pragmatic aspects of linguistic understanding within the framework of mentalism, on which the study of language is a branch of psychology. In particular, I assess a proposal on which the distinction between semantics and pragmatics is ultimately grounded in the modularity or encapsulation of semantic processes. While pragmatic processes involved in understanding the communicative intentions of a speaker are non-modular and highly inferential, semantic processes involved in understanding the meaning of an expression are modular and encapsulated from top-down influences of general cognition. The encapsulation hypothesis for semantics is attractive, since it would allow the semantics-pragmatics distinction to cut a natural joint in the communicating mind. However, as I argue, the case in favor of the modularity hypothesis for semantics is not particularly strong. Many of the arguments offered in its support are unsuccessful. I therefore carefully assess the relevant experimental record, in rapport with parallel debates about modular processing in other domains, such as vision. I point to several observations that raise a challenge for the encapsulation hypothesis for semantics; and I recommend consideration of alternative notions of modularity. However, I also demonstrate some principled strategies that proponents of the encapsulation hypothesis might deploy in order to meet the empirical challenge that I raise. I conclude that the available data neither falsify nor support the modularity hypothesis for semantics, and accordingly I develop several strategies that might be pursued in future work. It has also been argued that the encapsulation of semantic processing would entail (or otherwise strongly recommend) a particular approach to word meaning. However, in rapport with the literature on polysemy—a phenomenon whereby a single word can be used to express several related concepts, but not due to generality—I show that such arguments are largely unsuccessful. Again, I develop strategies that might be used, going forward, to adjudicate among the options regarding word meaning within a mentalistic linguistics.
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    Reparative Forms: Poetry and Psychology from the Fin de Siècle to WWI
    (2021) O'Neil, Lindsey; Rudy, Jason R; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    “Reparative Forms: Poetry and Psychology from the Fin de Siècle to WWI” identifies an as yet-unrecognized body of poetry written by women and colonial subjects that shows those authors’ engagements with early psychological writing. The years between the fin de siècle and the First World War saw the rebirth of psychology as a distinct discipline in contrast to its previous life as a vaguely scientific subset of philosophy. Across these decades, psychological discourse first engaged with and then finally overtook philosophy and poetry as the predominant framework for exploring the inner workings of the human mind. In tracing this history and the specific contributions of women’s poetry at the turn of the century, my dissertation actively engages in interdisciplinary work, incorporating the histories of science and medicine, Indigenous studies, and colonial studies. Women and colonial subjects employed the idioms of white male psychologists in order to represent both belonging to and estrangement from national identity. These writings constitute a greater British communal psychology whose characteristics scholarship has yet to account for. While some women and colonial subjects were bold iconoclasts, many more existed in an open-ended negotiation between their alliance to the nation and their alliance to themselves. While none of the texts resolve the conflicts and inconsistencies of poetry steeped in systems of sexism, imperialism, and nationalism, the framework of psychology is an important tool in order to navigate and make sense of the incomplete story of British nationalism. Questions of who can create, join, or destroy communities resonate with our current political and cultural moment. My dissertation traces a historical narrative that helps to make sense of our present moment in which the sovereignty of Britain is being renegotiated. More broadly, the anxiety surrounding the gradual decline of the British Empire and the literary reactions to this decline anticipate our current global political climate, including Euroscepticism, racially charged suspicions of immigrants, an increased emphasis on cultural integration, and a reinvigoration of nationalist rhetoric.
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    SELECTIVITY IN LEXICAL ACCESS AMONG BILINGUALS OF ORTHOGRAPHICALLY DISTINCT SCRIPTS AND THE ROLE OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS
    (2020) Al Thowaini, Buthainah M; Jiang, Nan; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    A fundamental inquiry within bilingual processing research addresses the underlying mechanisms of lexical access. Research involving bilinguals of orthographically similar scripts has revealed that cross-language activation is non-selective, which supposedly causes the bilingual brain to regularly manage the activation of two languages. Such continuous management of two languages has led some researchers to argue that the bilingual experience contributes to enhanced executive control. The research on selectivity in lexical access, nevertheless, has overwhelmingly involved bilingual speakers of orthographically similar scripts, with a scarcity of studies involving bilingual speakers of orthographically distinct scripts. Additionally, while active management of both languages is expected for bilinguals, little is known about whether language selectivity is related to individual variation in executive control. Instead, research investigating executive functions (EFs) in relation to bilingual processes has primarily been conducted within the context of switch costs, which has been associated with methodological issues. In light of the issues outlined above, the current study investigated selectivity in lexical access among bilinguals of orthographically distinct scripts and the relationship between the degree of selectivity and EFs (i.e., top-down goal maintenance, interference resolution, and working memory capacity). In addition to adopting an individual differences approach to lexical access, the study manipulated the degree of language task demands (comprehension and production). The study employed alternative non-switch tasks to investigate the relationships between EFs and cross-language activation. One hundred and thirty-eight Arabic-English bilinguals, 25 English native speakers, and 24 Arabic native speakers participated in a phoneme monitoring task and a masked primed lexical decision task involving monolingual materials. Bilingual participants also completed non-verbal visuo-spatial and visual single n-back tasks, as well as an AX-CPT task. The analyses revealed non-selective lexical access in language production but were inconclusive for language comprehension, where participants varied in the degree of selectivity. In addition, the results, although preliminary, demonstrated that top-down goal maintenance partially accounted for some of the variances in the degree of selectivity in language comprehension and production. The results suggest that selectivity is influenced by task-dependent variables as well as individual differences in executive functions.
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    SOCIAL CATALYSTS AND SOCIAL GOAL PURSUIT
    (2020) Irions, Amanda L; Hample, Dale J; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    People pursue goals but do not always successfully attain them. Existing theories of goal pursuit such as field theory and the goals-plans-actions model regard goal pursuit as a solitary activity that results either in success or frustrated failure. In stark contrast to this solitary-actor, sink-or-swim model of goal pursuit are observations from several social domains show that people ask other people to help them reach their goals instead of abandoning their goals entirely. This dissertation presents the quantitative findings from two studies of these helpers, and argues that analyzing and developing a theory of helpers is critical to a more complete and accurate model of goal pursuit. By introducing the constructs of resource improvement (helpers increase resources, diversify resources, and show their pursuers new paths around obstacles blocking goal pursuit) and the substitutability of helpers’ willingness and skills, this dissertation demonstrates the utility of unifying goal-pursuit theories with the social-support framework and situating those ideas in a social context. Study 1 reports an investigation of wingpeople, those offensive and defensive helpers (also called wingmen) who use communication to help people initiate or terminate initial romantic relationships. Key findings include that both offensive and defensive wingpeople use communication to help pursuers move toward a desired potential romantic partner and away from an undesirable one and that, in line with evolutionary psychological predications, wingpeople provided differential help to male and female pursuers. Notably, some participants in Study 1 spontaneously reported being helpers in social domains other than courtship. Study 2 investigated the generalizability of the helping phenomenon across social domains. Key findings include: participants reported being helpers in more than a dozen different social domains (e.g., academic, physical health, creative pursuits, and service) and more than 90% reported helping in domains other than courtship; participants used social support messages to improve their pursuers’ resources; and no differences between offensive and defensive helpers were observed on the personality traits measured. This dissertation concludes by using the evidence from the studies to make a case for helpers as social catalysts.
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    Reducing Relational Boredom in Romantic Relationships
    (2020) Dai, Yiwen; Hample, Dale; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    In this dissertation, I explored why relational boredom occurs in romantic relationships and how couples can cope with it. Specifically, I proposed shared participation in creative activities as a way to reduce relational boredom and improve relationship quality. Using the self-expansion model as the theoretical framework, I conducted two pilot studies to validate the newly created Partner Appraisal Scale and check the manipulation of creativity of activity. Two experimental questionnaire surveys were conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings of this dissertation have suggested that creativity interventions can be a double-edged sword in romantic relationships. On one hand, participants who rated a given activity to be more creative also thought more highly of their partner’s ability to help them self-expand cognitively, which in turn was associated with reduced relational boredom. On the other hand, those participants also rated their relationship to be more boring, perhaps due to a contrast effect. Additionally, creativity worked in reducing relational boredom only for participants who had been with their partner for a long (as opposed to short or moderate) period of time. Furthermore, it was perceived creativity of a given activity, not the activities themselves, that produced positive relational outcomes, suggesting that it might not be productive to search for one-size-fits-all interventions. Lastly, people’s innate tendency to feel bored and the degree to which they spontaneously connect themselves to their partner also affected various relational outcomes. Although there were limitations to the studies, the present dissertation has theoretical contributions to the self-expansion model and practical implications for those who aim at relationship betterment.
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    CONFRONTING THE POWER OF PSYCHIATRY: THE PSYCHIATRIC SURVIVORS’ MOVEMENT, 1972-1986
    (2018) Allen, Madeleine Marie Parra; Muncy, Robyn L; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis explores the history of the mental patients’ liberation movement in the 1970s-1980s. It shows how psychiatric survivors successfully contested the power and legitimacy of psychiatry via mutual support and self-help; activism as a grassroots social movement; and the creation of alternate conceptions of madness and patient-controlled alternatives to the mental health system. Ex-patients utilized their distinct knowledge to make the personal political, moving beyond the critiques of anti-psychiatrists, to fight psychiatric abuses such as electroshock and forced drugging. It covers the movement’s tactics, most successful local and national activism, and cross-movement alliances – especially its anti-incarceration work with the prisoners’ rights movement. It offers a nuanced understanding of the tensions that led to the movement’s fracturing, and argues that activists adapted by retaining a “tempered liberation focus” that enabled them to work towards change and human rights within the psychiatric system while remaining true to their original liberatory goals.
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    Explicit and Implicit Cognitive Aptitudes, L2 Outcome Measures, and Learning of Morphosyntax under an Incidental Condition
    (2018) Maie, Ryo; DeKeyser, Robert M; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study is the first to combine recent methodological advances to the measurement of explicit and implicit knowledge in an investigation of learning under incidental exposure. Participants were exposed to a semi-artificial language, Japlish, and subsequently tested as to the extent to which they had developed explicit and/or implicit knowledge. Subjective measures of awareness, objective measures of linguistic knowledge, and explicit and implicit cognitive aptitudes were employed to triangulate learning outcomes at two testing sessions. Overall results shed new light on the complexity of explicit and implicit learning under incidental conditions. Both learning types were confirmed in the experiment, but they occurred to a different degree and extent. Furthermore, the study identifies clear discrepancies among the four approaches to measuring explicit and implicit knowledge, with some being rigorous and others tending to underestimate or overestimate. The study calls for future research with more longitudinal and situated analyses of the phenomena.