College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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Item Linking frequency to bilingual switch costs during real-time sentence comprehension(Cambridge University Press, 2023-05-30) Salig, Lauren K.; Valdés Kroff, Jorge R.; Slevc, L. Robert; Novick, Jared M.Bilinguals experience processing costs when comprehending code-switches, yet the magnitude of the cost fluctuates depending on numerous factors. We tested whether switch costs vary based on the frequency of different types of code-switches, as estimated from natural corpora of bilingual speech and text. Spanish–English bilinguals in the U.S. read single-language and code-switched sentences in a self-paced task. Sentence regions containing code-switches were read more slowly than single-language control regions, consistent with the idea that integrating a code-switch poses a processing challenge. Crucially, more frequent code-switches elicited significantly smaller costs both within and across most classes of switch types (e.g., within verb phrases and when comparing switches at verb-phrase and noun-phrase sites). The results suggest that, in addition to learning distributions of syntactic and semantic patterns, bilinguals develop finely tuned expectations about code-switching behavior – representing one reason why code-switching in naturalistic contexts may not be particularly costly.Item Verb Comprehension and Use in Down Syndrome(2009) Michael, Sarah Elizabeth; Ratner, Nan B.; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined verb and argument structure retrieval in 18 individuals, nine with Down syndrome (DS), ages 11 years, 11 months (11;11) to 32;10 and nine language age-matched typically-developing (TD) children ages 3;2 to 13;6. It was hypothesized that individuals with DS would exhibit a specific deficit in verb and argument structure retrieval. Results from verb and noun comprehension tasks, verb and noun naming tasks, grammaticality judgments, and narrative tasks were compared between groups. Neither single verb comprehension nor single verb naming differentiated the DS and TD groups. Individuals with DS performed significantly worse than TD individuals when asked to judge sentence grammaticality. Individuals with DS omitted verbs in elicited narratives significantly more often than TD individuals, specifically when productions of two-place and three-place verbs were attempted. Individuals with DS also omitted other necessary elements of argument structure, such as subjects, in sentences containing two-place and three-place verbs significantly more often than TD individuals.Item The Development of Syntactic Complexity and the Irregular Past Tense in Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter(2009) Bauman, Jessica; Ratner, Nan B; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined spontaneous language samples and standardized test data obtained from 31 pairs of children who stutter (CWS), ages 25-59 months, and age-matched children who do not stutter (CWNS). Developmental Sentence Scores (DSS; Lee, 1974) as well as the relationships among age, DSS, and other standardized test scores were compared for both groups. No substantial differences were found between groups in the syntactic complexity of spontaneous language; however, the two groups show different relationships between age and DSS and between test scores and DSS. Additionally, observed differences between CWS and CWNS in patterns of past-tense errors and usage are discussed in light of a recent theoretical model of language performance in populations with suspected basal ganglia involvement (Ullman, 2004).Item Infant speech perception in noise and early childhood measures of syntax and attention abilities(2008) Blayney, Elizabeth Sarah Sanford; Newman, Rochelle; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Childhood outcomes in syntactic and attention abilities were measured for 23 children (mean age = 5:3) who, as infants, had either succeeded or failed at identifying their name in the presence of multitalker background noise. Children from the unsuccessful infant group were rated by parents as having significantly more difficulty with attention-related behaviors than children from the successful infant group. The two groups did not perform significantly differently on standardized measures of morphosyntactic ability, but the unsuccessful group was found to have significantly lower MLUs on narrative language samples than the successful group.Item A Voxel Based Approach to Identifying Lesion Sites in Aphasia: Comprehension and Production Deficits in Syntax, Semantics and Phonology(2007-08-20) Kling, Therese Danielle; Shah, Yasmeen; Braun, Allen; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The cortical regions of the brain traditionally associated with deficits of production and comprehension in language are Broca's and Wernicke's areas. Recent evidence suggests that other brain regions are involved and may be specific to linguistic areas of syntax, semantics and phonology. This paper describes the MRI results and language scores of 31 left hemisphere stroke patients with aphasia. Patients' lesions obtained from these MRI scans were reconstructed onto templates and entered into a voxel-based analysis program called Analysis of Brain lesion (ABLe) (Solomon, Raymont, Braun, Butman & Grafman, 2007) along with language scores. The results provided evidence for five key neuroanatomical regions of interest. These include the insula, the planum temporale, the operculum, the temporoparietal occipital (TPO) junction and the putamen. The results revealed common as well as unique areas of brain lesion for each of the behaviors.