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Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2022/22675

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    Reduced Neural Responses to Vocal Fear: A Potential Biomarker for Callous-Uncaring Traits in Early Childhood
    (Developmental Science, 2018-07) Hoyniak, Caroline P.; Bates, John E.; Petersen, Isaac T.; Yang, Chung-Lin; Darcy, Isabelle; Fontaine, Nathalie M. G.
    Objective—Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by a lack of guilt and empathy, and low responsiveness to distress and fear in others. Children with CU traits are at-risk for engaging in early and persistent conduct problems. Individuals showing CU traits have been shown to have reduced neural responses to others’ distress (e.g., fear). However, the neural components of distress responses in children with CU traits have not been investigated in early childhood. In the current study, we examined neural responses that underlie the processing of emotionally-valenced vocal stimuli using the event-related potential technique in a group of preschoolers. Method—Participants between 2 and 5 years old took part in an auditory oddball task containing English-based pseudowords spoken with either a fearful, happy, or a neutral prosody while electroencephalography data were collected. The mismatch negativity (MMN) component, an index of the automatic detection of deviant stimuli within a series of stimuli, was examined in association with two dimensions of CU traits (i.e., callousness-uncaring and unemotional dimensions) reported by primary caregivers. Results—Findings suggest that the callousness-uncaring dimension of CU traits in early childhood is associated with reduced responses to fearful vocal stimuli. Conclusions—Reduced neural responses to vocal fear could be a biomarker for callous-uncaring traits in early childhood. These findings are relevant for clinicians and researchers attempting to identify risk factors for early callous-uncaring traits.
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    Annotating Antisemitic Online Content. Towards an Applicable Definition of Antisemitism
    (arXiv, 2019-10-03) Jikeli, Gunther; Cavar, Damir; Miehling, Daniel
    Online antisemitism is hard to quantify. How can it be measured in rapidly growing and diversifying platforms? Are the numbers of antisemitic messages rising proportionally to other content or is it the case that the share of antisemitic content is increasing? How does such content travel and what are reactions to it? How widespread is online Jew-hatred beyond infamous websites and fora, and closed social media groups? However, at the root of many methodological questions is the challenge of finding a consistent way to identify diverse manifestations of antisemitism in large datasets. What is more, a clear definition is essential for building an annotated corpus that can be used as a gold standard for machine learning programs to detect antisemitic online content. We argue that antisemitic content has distinct features that are not captured adequately in generic approaches of annotation, such as hate speech, abusive language, or toxic language. We discuss our experiences with annotating samples from our dataset that draw on a ten percent random sample of public tweets from Twitter. We show that the widely used definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance can be applied successfully to online messages if inferences are spelled out in detail and if the focus is not on intent of the disseminator but on the message in its context. However, annotators have to be highly trained and knowledgeable about current events to understand each tweet’s underlying message within its context. The tentative results of the annotation of two of our small but randomly chosen samples suggest that more than ten percent of conversations on Twitter about Jews and Israel are antisemitic or probably antisemitic. They also show that at least in conversations about Jews, an equally high number of tweets denounce antisemitism, although these conversations do not necessarily coincide.
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    Second Language Working Memory Deficits and Plasticity in Hearing Bimodal Learners of Sign Language
    (Psychology of Language and Communication, 2015-10) Williams, Joshua; Darcy, Isabelle; Newman, Sharlene
    Little is known about the acquisition of another language modality on second language (L2) working memory (WM) capacity. Differential indexing within the WM system based on language modality may explain differences in performance on WM tasks in sign and spoken language. We investigated the effect of language modality (sign versus spoken) on L2 WM capacity. Results indicated reduced L2 WM span relative to first language span for both L2 learners of Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL). Importantly, ASL learners had lower L2 WM spans than Spanish learners. Additionally, ASL learners increased their L2 WM spans as a function of proficiency, whereas Spanish learners did not. This pattern of results demonstrated that acquiring another language modality disadvantages ASL learners. We posited that this disadvantage arises out of an inability to correctly and efficiently allocate linguistic information to the visuospatial sketchpad due to L1-related indexing bias.
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    The Role of Inhibitory Control in Second Language Phonological Processing
    (Language Learning, 2016-02) Darcy, Isabelle; Mora, Joan C.; Daidone, Danielle
    This study investigated the role of inhibition in second language (L2) learners’ phonological processing. Participants were Spanish learners of L2 English and American learners of L2 Spanish. We measured inhibition through a retrieval‐induced inhibition task. Accuracy of phonological representations (perception and production) was assessed through a speeded ABX categorization task and a delayed sentence repetition task. We used a measure of L2 vocabulary size to tease out L2 proficiency effects. Higher inhibitory control was related to lower error rate in segmental perception. Inhibition was also related to consonant but not to vowel production accuracy. These results suggest a potential role for inhibition in L2 phonological acquisition, with inhibition enhancing the processing of phonologically relevant acoustic information in the L2 input, which in turn might lead to more accurate L2 phonological representations.
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    Editorial: Phonology in the Bilingual and Bidialectal Lexicon
    (Frontiers in Psychology, 2017-04) Darcy, Isabelle; Tremblay, Annie; Simonet, Miquel
    One critical step when trying to comprehend a spoken message is to identify the words that the speaker intended. To recognize spoken words, listeners continuously attempt to map the incoming speech signal onto lexical representations stored in memory (McClelland and Elman, 1986; Norris, 1994): Words that partially overlap with the signal are activated until the lexical candidate that best matches the input wins over its competitors, a process known as lexical competition. Models of spoken-word recognition, most of which are based on native listener behavior, assume that lexical representations are stable, and contain at least the phonological form of words in citation. While lexical representations likely also contain other forms, for example the reduced forms found in conversational speech, it is a matter of debate whether native listeners encode spoken words exclusively as phonetically detailed exemplars (Johnson, 1997; Goldinger, 1998) or whether phonological abstraction also takes place (McQueen et al., 2006). Another assumption of models of native spoken-word recognition is that, under normal circumstances, listeners’ perception of the input is optimal and faithful to the signal: Accurate lexical representations are easily contacted, and an optimal set of candidates is activated for quick lexical selection.
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    Object clauses, movement, and phrasal stress
    (Oxford University Press, 2010-05) Truckenbrodt, Hubert; Darcy, Isabelle
    In a production and perception experiment this paper investigates the prosody of object clause embedding in German. The prosodic pattern found separates the object clause from the (longer) matrix clause by an intonation phrase break. The matrix verb is stressed. The discussion addresses the interaction of movement and phrasal stress.
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    Phonological context effects for voicing and devoicing in French
    (Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2007) Darcy, Isabelle; Kügler, Frank
    We examine occurrences of categorical assimilation (neutralizations) in French, the perception of voiced and unvoiced word-final obstruents in different phonological contexts. We first show the categorical nature of the alternation (Exp. 1), supported in Exp. 2 by perceptual categorization data. In Exp. 3, the interpretation of this first percept appears to be corrected in certain contexts, inducing compensation. We argue that context effects are phonological in this case, rather than auditory or phonetic. We conclude that linguistic knowledge of alternations is necessary in compensation for categorical assimilation.
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    Bringing pronunciation instruction back into the classroom: An ESL teachers’ pronunciation “toolbox”
    (Proceedings of the 3rd Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, 2012) Darcy, Isabelle; Ewert, Doreen; Lidster, Ryan
    Pronunciation is difficult to teach for several reasons. Teachers are often left without clear guidelines and are confronted with contradictory practices for pronunciation instruction. To date, there is no agreed upon system of deciding what to teach, and when and how to do it. Another challenge is the lack of immediate visible results, or a lack of carry-over: very often, students who practice a given pronunciation feature in class do well, but the minute they turn their attention to the message content, the practice effect vanishes. As a result of these difficulties, teaching pronunciation is often secondary, and teachers don’t feel comfortable doing it. Yet researchers and teachers alike agree that pronunciation instruction is important and efficient in improving intelligibility and comprehensibility. In this paper, we describe a new pronunciation curriculum for communication classes currently being designed for an intensive English program. Pronunciation instruction functions as a modular component fully integrated into the institutional learning outcomes across all levels of proficiency, addressing both the lack of carry-over, and the difficulty to teach pronunciation at early levels. Our goal is to provide teachers with enhanced confidence in applying strategies for pronunciation instruction that will contribute to their teaching “toolbox.”
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    Pitch Prominence Matters: Perception of Thai Tones by Seoul Korean and Kyungsang Korean Speakers
    (Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 2014-03) Schaefer, Vance; Darcy, Isabelle
    This paper is a follow‐up analysis of a previous study on the perception of Thai tones by speakers of various L1s differing in pitch prominence. Varying degrees of pitch prominence (Mandarin, tone = high; Japanese, pitch accent = intermediate; English, word stress = reduced; Korean, none = low) globally resulted in the expected hierarchy of performance: Mandarin (M = 87% correct), Japanese (M = 77%), English and Korean (M = 67% for both). However, the equal performance between the English and Korean participants was not predicted. In this study, we examined whether differences in dialectal exposure among the Koreans influenced results. Three speakers of the Korean Kyungsang dialect featuring pitch accent performed with higher accuracy than Seoul dialect speakers, reaching comparable accuracy levels with the L1 Japanese speakers. Additionally, the Seoul dialect speakers performed less accurately than the L1 English speakers. Both results confirm the originally predicted hierarchy of performance.
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    Tongue movement in a second language: the case of Spanish /ei/-/e/ for English learners of Spanish
    (Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2015) Darcy, Isabelle; Mora, Joan C.
    This study examines the amount of tongue movement in the productions of native Spanish speakers and native English learners of Spanish for the Spanish diphthong/monophthong contrast /ei/-/e/. We hypothesized that English learners would use their native English category /eɪ/ for both Spanish vowels. However, results show that against our prediction, for both Spanish vowels, learners produced less tongue movement than was expected if they used their L1 category. Instead, they produced both vowels as the monophthong /e/, effectively neutralizing the contrast in terms of tongue movement.
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    Attention Control and Inhibition Influence Phonological Development in a Second Language
    (Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 2014-03) Darcy, Isabelle; Mora, Joan C.; Daidone, Danielle
    This study investigated the role of attention control and inhibition in L2 learners’ phonological processing. Participants were 16 L1‐Spanish/L2‐English learners, and 18 L1-English/L2‐Spanish learners. We measured attention and inhibition through a novel speech‐based attention‐switching task and a retrieval‐induced inhibition task. L2 phonology (perception and production) was assessed through a speeded ABX categorization task and a delayed sentence repetition task. We used a measure of L2 vocabulary size to partial out L2 proficiency effects. A more efficient attention control was associated with more accurate performance in ABX (for the L2‐English learners), and higher inhibitory skill was related to higher ABX accuracy in both learner groups. No clear relationship emerged with the production scores. These results suggest that a more efficient attention control and inhibitory skill enhance the processing of phonologically relevant acoustic information in the L2 input and may lead to more accurate L2 speech perception and production.
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    Lexical encoding and perception of palatalized consonants in L2 Russian
    (Proceedings of the 8th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, 2017) Simonchyk, Ala; Darcy, Isabelle
    Previous studies have investigated the link between lexical encoding and perception by analyzing contrasts that differ in primary features of articulation, e.g., /l/ vs. /ɹ/. The goal of this study was to explore how the lexical encoding of contrasts that differ in the secondary feature of palatalization, e.g., /l/ vs. /lʲ/, was affected by learners’ perceptual abilities. The participants in the study were 40 American English learners of Russian and 10 Russian native speakers. Error rates on an auditory word-picture matching task measured learners’ ability to encode and retrieve words with the plain/palatalized contrast. Learners’ scores on an ABX task assessed their perceptual abilities. Results suggest that learners did not have clearly separated lexical representations for words with palatalized and plain consonants. They accepted most non-words as possible productions of the target words, especially in the word-final position, whereas Russian native speakers did not. The ability to perceive the contrast between plain and palatalized consonants was found to be helpful in establishing separate lexical representations for words with this contrast among advanced learners, even though it did not guarantee that words with palatalized consonants would be encoded and retrieved as such.
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    Expressive meaning
    (Springer/J.B. Metzler, 2018) Amaral, Patrícia
    The term expressivity or expressive meaning has a long tradition in linguistics. Roman Jakobson, building on an earlier proposal by Bühler (1934), coined the term expressive or emotive for one of the functions of language. He describes it as “focused on the ADDRESSER [speaker], aims a direct expression of the speaker’s attitude toward what he is speaking about” (Jakobson 1960: 354) and gives interjections as the prime example of this function. The separation between emotive language and referential (or descriptive) language is clear in his characterization of interjections: “they are not components but equivalents of sentences” (Jakobson 1960: 354). Although there is significant overlap between this definition and later ones, later proposals, starting with D. Alan Cruse (1986), focus on diagnostics that underlie the distinction between expressive meaning and descriptive or truth-conditional meaning, the latter being meaning that can be explicitly denied and objectively verified in the actual world (cf. Lyons 1977).