Journal of Psycholinguistic Research最新文献

Research on alphabetic reading presents conflicting findings concerning the timing of orthographic and meaning processes in reading morphologically complex words. Chinese characters offer distinct visual cues for morphemes, enabling straightforward manipulations to examine orthographic and meaning processes. Guided by the Character-Word Dual Function model, we report four priming experiments that test how a reader's lexical quality impacts the emergence of orthographic and semantic priming effects in reading Chinese compounds. We conducted comparisons between native Chinese speakers and Chinese L2 learners, who vary in their quality of lexical representations. By manipulating the semantic transparency of prime-target pairs, we distinguished meaning from orthographic effects. The emergence of these effects was revealed by varying prime exposure durations. Orthographic effects emerged at shorter exposures for both L1 and L2 readers. However, meaning effects appeared at longer exposure durations only for L1 readers. These results confirm the generality of the orthography-first emergence of morphological effect in reading Chinese and suggest that readers' access to morphological meaning relations increases with experience.

In spite of the proliferation of research studies on vocabulary knowledge, investigating the relationship between self-regulation, vocabulary size, and collocational knowledge among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners has received scant attention. The current study aimed to investigate whether vocabulary and collocation size can explain EFL learners' self-regulated vocabulary learning. A population of 271 EFL learners from three state universities located in Iran participated in taking lexical measures (VST, Lex30, and a collocation test) and filling a questionnaire (SRCvoc). To check the relationship between self-regulated vocabulary learning, vocabulary and collocation size, standard multiple regression was conducted with SPSS. The results of standard multiple regression analysis showed that EFL learners' vocabulary and collocation size could explain a significant portion of the variance in the score of their self-regulation in vocabulary learning. The findings also indicated that verb-noun collocation size and productive vocabulary size were significant predictors of EFL learners' self-regulated capacity in vocabulary learning. Finally, implications and suggestions for future research are offered.

Whether conscious awareness is critical for detecting semantic information in individual words remains debated. We hypothesize that this issue is specific to language type and that orthography serves as a mediator between semantics and conscious awareness. Using a priming-based paradigm called breaking continuous flash suppression (b-CFS) with a full factorial design, this study investigated whether orthographic similarity and semantic relatedness between the prime and target could modulate conscious access to Chinese single characters. Statistics indicated that semantic relatedness did not facilitate the character's breakthrough from CFS unless combined with orthographic similarity, although orthographic similarity alone had an inhibitory effect. The results were discussed in light of the "unconscious binding" hypothesis and object-updating theory in visual perception as well as the unique sub-morphemic construction in psycholinguistics. Our findings demonstrate the possibility of orthography-based semantic processing occurring outside of conscious awareness and suggest that the multilevel interaction activation model may be applicable to the early recognition of Chinese characters.

The research aims to enhance the handling of modal verbs (MVs) in EFL textbooks by leveraging perspectives from corpora that include both native speakers' language data and the language data of individuals who are learning the language. To assess the authenticity of language in textbooks, an analysis between the native corpus and a collection of language data compiled from textbook is conducted. The research delves into the developmental patterns of MV usage among learners through a stratified analysis of student essays (Grades 7, 8, 9). Comparisons between learner patterns and a graded textbook series are made to ascertain potential correlations. A novel aspect of the examination explores how the salience and complexity of L2 forms and functions shape the impact of EFL textbooks on learner production. Findings reveal significant differences in the use of MVs between EFL textbooks and the British National Corpus (BNC). Moreover, analysis of student essays indicates a substantial influence of textbooks on learners' MV usage. The study proposes strategies to enhance EFL textbook design, advocating for authenticity and learner-centric approaches. Utilizing native and learner corpora facilitates targeted instruction, addressing common errors and challenges. The incorporation of authentic language examples from the native corpus is recommended to expose learners to real-world language use. This research underscores the significance of integrating native and learner corpora insights in EFL textbook design, ultimately fostering more effective language learning outcomes.

Chinese/Mandarin language teaching to undergraduate students from non-Chinese speaker countries has garnered significant attention due to China's pivotal role in global political and economic transformations. Mandarin, spoken by 70% of the Chinese population, is not only taught within China but also in several other countries. However, similar to teaching any second or foreign language, instructing Mandarin comes with its share of challenges, which, to the best of our knowledge, have not been thoroughly explored. To delve into these issues, we employed a qualitative (phenomenological) research approach. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 15 teachers and 20 Mandarin language learners, selected using theoretical sampling. Subsequently, the interviews were transcribed into text files and analyzed utilizing qualitative data analysis software, MAXQDA. The challenges and problems identified were categorized into four primary themes: linguistic, educational, psychological, and social/political. The findings hold potential implications for Chinese/Mandarin language policymakers, educators, curriculum developers, and learners.

To avoid misunderstandings, ironic speakers may accompany their ironic remarks with a particular intonation and specific facial expressions that signal that the message should not be taken at face value. The acoustic realization of the ironic tone of voice differs from language to language, whereas the ironic face manifests the speaker's negative stance and might thus have a universal basis. We conducted a study on 574 participants speaking 6 different languages (French, German, Dutch, English, Mandarin, and Italian-the control group) to verify whether they could recognize ironic remarks uttered in Italian in three different modalities: watching muted videos, listening to audio tracks, and when both cues were present. We found that speakers of other languages could overall recognize irony uttered in Italian when all the markers were present, and they relied mostly on visual cues: In all these language groups, accuracy in the audio-only modality was always lower than accuracy in the video-only modality, although this trend was significant only for Chinese and Dutch participants. Moreover, the rate of recognition in the audio-visual modality was always significantly higher compared to the audio-only, while the difference between the audio-visual and the video-only modality was significant only for the English group. Overall, these results speak in favor of the hypothesis of a common basis for the visual expression of irony, whereas the acoustic markers alone do not constitute a reliable cue for the cross-linguistic recognition of irony.

Psychonarratology is a discipline that combines classic frameworks in narratology and psycholinguistics. The goal of this review article is to highlight the contributions that recent evidence from causality processing studies, conceptual metaphor theory and embodied cognition can make to Psychonarratology, in order to promote a more comprehensive study of narrative. We argue that, in order to increase its descriptive and explanatory power, Psychonarratology would benefit from a more strongly interdisciplinary approach. This approach would integrate grounded theoretical cognition and recent methods from different disciplines. With this aim, we review study evidence that highlights the fundamental link between cognition and causal connections in narratives, as well as proposals from conceptualization theories. These approaches indicate that metaphorical mappings and discourse connections play a crucial role in the establishment of narrative sequences. Moreover, we elaborate on the contributions that recent advances in research on embodied cognition, causality processing and Conceptual Metaphor Theory can make to the theoretical and methodological framework of Psychonarratology, such as promoting the design of more ecologically valid tasks, and the study of narrative production and comprehension by non-neurotypical participants.

While previous research has demonstrated the beneficial role of pop music in foreign language learning, there is a lack of studies exploring the potential impact of Chinese folk songs on Mandarin language acquisition. This study aimed to investigate whether a curriculum based on Chinese folk songs enhances the outcomes of Mandarin Chinese learning in foreign speakers. International students in a university in Beijing who were attending regular Mandarin courses were allocated into two groups: the group receiving an additional Chinese folk song-based curriculum (intervention) and the group not (control). Mandarin proficiency after one and two semesters between the two groups was assessed using the Chinese Proficiency Test (i.e., Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, HSK) by the Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) analyses. 16 international students were analysed (intervention: 8; control: 8). After adjusting for time, the intervention group showed a significantly higher HSK score in listening section (adjusted β = 7.86, p = 0.015) than that of the control group. In conclusions, Chinese folk song-based curriculum has the potential to enhance Mandarin listening among foreign speakers.

Increased metalinguistic awareness (MLA) has been associated with improved performance in tasks of theory of mind; researchers have proposed that individuals with increased MLA, such as bilinguals, rely on metalinguistic skills when completing tasks that require taking other people's perspective into account compared to other individuals who mostly rely on general executive control to complete the same tasks. MLA would, therefore, act as a less effortful path to understanding other perspectives, especially when they differ from one's own. However, the evidence underlying this claim is scant and largely limited to children's theoretical frameworks. In this study, we investigated whether individual differences in MLA predict perspective-taking Theory of Mind above and beyond inhibitory control in a sample of diverse adults across a wide range of linguistic, socioeconomic, and cognitive factors. Bootstrapped mediation analyses revealed that inhibitory control partially, but not fully, mediated the relationship between MLA and perspective-taking. In addition, when differences in language, education and culture were controlled for, the effects of both MLA and inhibitory control were reduced. Overall, the findings emphasize the need to consider multivariate approaches towards understanding the mechanisms underlying theory of mind.

EFL listening comprehension has been a stark challenge for language learners, but little is known about the combined effect of individual differences, such as working memory capacity, and metacognitive intervention. Thus, the present experimental study investigates the effect of metacognitive intervention on the listening performance and metacognitive awareness of high- and low-WMC EFL learners. For this purpose, Oxford Placement Tests were distributed among 120 male Iranian EFL learners, of which 94 were identified as intermediate. Then, backward visual digit span tests were administered to measure their working memory capacity. Based on the median of all scores, 80 learners were selected and randomly assigned to two experimental groups and two control groups each with 20 participants. Next, their performance on the International English Language Testing System and the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire was measured before and after the 8-session metacognitive intervention. Results showed that high-WMC experimental learners had a higher gain with a large effect size in terms of listening performance compared with all the other groups. In addition, the experimental group learners reported the significantly higher use of the metacognitive strategies with a moderate effect size. Interestingly, low-WMC learners' listening performance and metacognitive awareness also improved as a result of the intervention. Our findings bear pedagogical significance in that individual differences in WMC should be considered more in both EFL language classes and the future line of research involving the metacognitive intervention.