Dataset Information

Incidental vocabulary learning with subtitles in a new language: Orthographic markedness and number of exposures.

ABSTRACT: The present study is set to explore the way the orthographic distributional properties of novel written words and the number of exposures to these words affect their incidental learning in terms of recall and recognition. To that end, two experiments were conducted using videos with captions. These videos included written nonwords (orthographically marked language-specific items) and pseudowords (orthographically unmarked items) as captions paired to the spoken targets, presented either in isolation (Experiment 1) or within sentences (Experiment 2). Our results consistently show that items containing legal letter combinations (i.e., pseudowords) are better recalled and recognized than those with illegal combinations (i.e., nonwords). Further analysis in the recall task indicate that frequency modulates the learning of pseudowords and nonwords in a different way. The learning of pseudowords increases linearly with repetitions, while nonwords are equally learned across frequencies. These differential effects found in the recall task do not show up in the recognition task. Although participants took more time to recognize nonwords in the recognition task, increased exposure to the items similarly modulated reading times and accuracy for nonwords and pseudowords. Additionally, higher accuracy rates were found in Experiment 2, which underscores the beneficial effect of supportive visual information.

SUBMITTER: Perez-Serrano M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7919001 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Incidental vocabulary learning with subtitles in a new language: Orthographic markedness and number of exposures.

Pérez-Serrano Mercedes M Nogueroles-López Marta M Duñabeitia Jon Andoni JA

PloS one 20210216 2

The present study is set to explore the way the orthographic distributional properties of novel written words and the number of exposures to these words affect their incidental learning in terms of recall and recognition. To that end, two experiments were conducted using videos with captions. These videos included written nonwords (orthographically marked language-specific items) and pseudowords (orthographically unmarked items) as captions paired to the spoken targets, presented either in isola ...[more]

PMID: 33592075

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Project description:INTRODUCTION:It is well known that a difficulty in forming lexical representations is a strong predictor of reading and spelling difficulties even after controlling for the effects of other cognitive skills. Our study had two main interrelated aims. First, we wanted to examine whether the ability to learn new written words (lexical learning) varies as a function of the orthographic consistency of the language of the learner. Second, we wanted to evaluate the cognitive abilities involved in orthographic lexical learning and whether they differed as a function of language consistency. METHOD:163 Italian children and 128 English children performed a lexical learning task as well as tasks assessing several cognitive skills potentially related to the ability to establish orthographic representations. RESULTS:We found that children learning an orthographic inconsistent orthography (English) were better able to learn novel written words presented in association with pictures than children learning a consistent orthography (Italian). This was true for both younger and older primary school children and also when children were matched for school grade. Lexical learning may be better in English children because the many irregularities of this language promote storing in memory whole-word representations and processing larger orthographic units. In Italian, instead, reading can be accomplished successfully on the basis of grapheme-phoneme conversion rules and on processing smaller orthographic units. This interpretation was supported by the pattern of cognitive skills associated with lexical learning skills in the two languages. Variations in lexical learning were explained by spatial visual memory and phonological awareness tasks in both languages, but phonological STM explained further variance in Italian, while a task tapping visuo-attentional capacity explained further variance in English. CONCLUSION:Learning a language with inconsistent orthography is associated with better lexical learning skills in children at different stages of primary school; the pattern of cognitive skills associated with lexical learning skills is also partially modulated by orthographic consistency.

Project description:This study investigated Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners' use of vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) and its relationship with vocabulary knowledge (VK), especially in relation to proficiency, gender, and discipline. Structural equation models were established following exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedures, and mediation analyses and multiple-group analyses, as well as analyses of variance, were conducted. Four hundred nineteen sophomores' strategy use frequency, Vocabulary Size Test (VST) scores (indicative of breadth of VK), Word Associates Test (WAT) scores (indicative of depth of VK), College English Test Band-4 scores, and gender and discipline categories were used as data. Proficiency significantly predicted Attention and Guessing positively but was a negative predictor of Socializing (asking others for help). Girls liked making notes while using dictionaries (DictNote) and Socializing, and students of arts also took more notes. Attention and Guessing significantly predicted VST and WAT positively, but Socializing significantly predicted the breadth and depth of VK negatively, and DictNote, Association, and Repetition had no significant relationship. The predictive power of Attention, Guessing, and Socializing, however, was achieved mainly, or for an important part, via the mediating or indirect effects of proficiency. Gender moderated the predictive power of Attention, Socializing, and DictNote over VST, greater for male students, whereas discipline moderated the relationship between Guessing and WAT, stronger for arts students. The findings are related to strategy features, gender characteristics, disciplinary influence, the EFL context and culture, and effective learning. This study reveals the complex relationships among use of VLSs, VK, and learner variables. Attention is called for to third-party factors in understanding VLSs-VK relationships. Given the important mediating effects of proficiency, it is proposed that vocabulary learning be strategically integrated into the accumulative process of English learning.

Project description:It is well established that networks within multiple-demand cortex (MDC) become active when diverse skills and behaviors are being learnt. However, their causal role in learning remains to be established. In the present study, we first performed functional magnetic resonance imaging on healthy female and male human participants to confirm that MDC was most active in the initial stages of learning a novel vocabulary, consisting of pronounceable nonwords (pseudowords), each associated with a picture of a real object. We then examined, in healthy female and male human participants, whether repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of a frontal midline node of the cingulo-opercular MDC affected learning rates specifically during the initial stages of learning. We report that stimulation of this node, but not a control brain region, substantially improved both accuracy and response times during the earliest stage of learning pseudoword-object associations. This stimulation had no effect on the processing of established vocabulary, tested by the accuracy and response times when participants decided whether a real word was accurately paired with a picture of an object. These results provide evidence that noninvasive stimulation to MDC nodes can enhance learning rates, thereby demonstrating their causal role in the learning process. We propose that this causal role makes MDC candidate target for experimental therapeutics; for example, in stroke patients with aphasia attempting to reacquire a vocabulary.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Learning a task involves the brain system within which that specific task becomes established. Therefore, successfully learning a new vocabulary establishes the novel words in the language system. However, there is evidence that in the early stages of learning, networks within multiple-demand cortex (MDC), which control higher cognitive functions, such as working memory, attention, and monitoring of performance, become active. This activity declines once the task is learnt. The present study demonstrated that a node within MDC, located in midline frontal cortex, becomes active during the early stage of learning a novel vocabulary. Importantly, noninvasive brain stimulation of this node improved performance during this stage of learning. This observation demonstrated that MDC activity is important for learning.

Dataset Information

Incidental vocabulary learning with subtitles in a new language: Orthographic markedness and number of exposures.

Publications

Incidental vocabulary learning with subtitles in a new language: Orthographic markedness and number of exposures.

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