Language Learning最新文献

Concrete symbols (e.g., sun, run) can be learned in the context of objects and actions, thereby grounding their meaning in the world. However, it is controversial whether a comparable avenue to semantic learning exists for abstract symbols (e.g., democracy). When we simulated the putative brain mechanisms of conceptual/semantic grounding using brain-constrained deep neural networks, the learning of instances of concrete concepts outside of language contexts led to robust neural circuits generating substantial and prolonged activations. In contrast, the learning of instances of abstract concepts yielded much reduced and only short-lived activity. Crucially, when conceptual instances were learned in the context of wordforms, circuit activations became robust and long-lasting for both concrete and abstract meanings. These results indicate that, although the neural correlates of concrete conceptual representations can be built from grounding experiences alone, abstract concept formation at the neurobiological level is enabled by and requires the correlated presence of linguistic forms.

Taza in Spanish refers to cups and mugs in English, whereas glass refers to different glass types in Spanish: copa and vaso. It is still unclear whether such categorical distinctions induce early perceptual differences in speakers of different languages. In this study, for the first time, we report symmetrical effects of terminology on preattentive indices of categorical perception across languages. Native speakers of English or Spanish saw arrays of cups, mugs, copas, and vasos flashed in streams. Visual mismatch negativity, an implicit electrophysiological correlate of perceptual change in the peripheral visual field, was modulated for categorical contrasts marked in the participants’ native language but not for objects designated by the same label. Conversely, P3a, an index of attentional orienting, was modulated only for missing contrasts in the participants’ native language. Thus, whereas native labels influenced participants’ preattentive perceptual encoding of objects, nonverbally encoded dissociations reoriented their attention at a later processing stage.

The temporal focus hypothesis (TFH) entails that individuals who value the past tend to conceptualize it in front, whereas individuals who value the future tend to map the future in front instead (de la Fuente et al., 2014). This varies as a function of culture, individual differences, and context. Here, we extend this line of inquiry by testing a contextual variable, namely COVID-19 quarantine status, and an individual differences variable, namely future precautionary behavior towards COVID-19. Contrary to what the TFH would predict, we show that participants map the future to a frontal position, regardless of individual attitudes and quarantine status. However, participants who displayed more future precautionary behavior were also more future-focused than participants who displayed less such behaviour, but this did not predict their front–back mappings of the future. These findings suggest that individual differences may be stronger determinants of temporal focus than contextual variables.

Color terms divide the color spectrum differently across languages. Previous studies have reported that speakers of languages that have different words for light and dark blue (e.g., Russian siniy and goluboy) discriminate color chips sampled from these two linguistic categories faster than speakers of languages that use one basic color term for blue (e.g., English blue). This effect has been reported to be disrupted when participants engaged in a verbal interference task, suggesting that active language use can modulate the linguistic category effect. The current study provided a stringent test of this hypothesis by examining color discrimination under verbal interference in bilinguals speaking Lithuanian (two blue categories) and Norwegian (one blue category). The results revealed that the language activated during verbal interference had a significant impact on bilinguals’ color discrimination. Specifically, Lithuanian–Norwegian bilinguals exhibited a color category effect only when performing the task under verbal interference in Lithuanian but not in Norwegian. This demonstrated, within the same individuals, the momentary effect of active language processing on color perception.