Browsing by Author "Maguire, Mandy J."
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Item Comparing Auditory and Written Word Learning in School-aged Children and Adolescents, and Identifying Factors That Contribute to Success(2021-12-01T06:00:00.000Z) Melamed, Tina C.; Warner-Czyz, Andrea; Maguire, Mandy J.; Touchstone, Emily; Rojas, Raul; Evans, JuliaThe purpose of this study was to examine developmental differences in children’s ability to deduce the meaning of unknown words from the surrounding linguistic context in the auditory and written modalities, and to identify the most important predictors of success in each modality. Eighty-nine children ages 8-15 either read or listened to a narrative that included eight novel words, with five exposures to each novel word. After the story, they participated in three posttests to assess how many word meanings they were able to deduce from the context of the story. Results showed higher scores in the written modality than in the auditory modality. A relative weights analysis revealed that age, vocabulary, and working memory were the most important predictors of success in the word meaning deduction tasks regardless of modality. Surprisingly, reading comprehension did not greatly influence success in the written modality, and language comprehension did not greatly influence success in the auditory modality. This study provides evidence that the written modality provides better support for novel word learning for children with larger vocabularies and better working memory abilities.Item Developmental Differences in Beta and Theta Power During Sentence Processing(Elsevier Ltd) Schneider, Julie M.; Abel, A. D.; Ogiela, D. A.; Middleton, Anna E.; Maguire, Mandy J.; 0000 0003 5139 1227 (Maguire, MJ)Although very young children process ongoing language quickly and effortlessly, research indicates that they continue to improve and mature in their language skills through adolescence. This prolonged development may be related to differing engagement of semantic and syntactic processes. This study used event related potentials and time frequency analysis of EEG to identify developmental differences in neural engagement as children (ages 10-12) and adults performed an auditory verb agreement grammaticality judgment task. Adults and children revealed very few differences in comprehending grammatically correct sentences. When identifying grammatical errors, however, adults displayed widely distributed beta and theta power decreases that were significantly less pronounced in children. Adults also demonstrated a significant P600 effect, while children exhibited an apparent N400 effect. Thus, when identifying subtle grammatical errors in real time, adults display greater neural activation that is traditionally associated with syntactic processing whereas children exhibit greater activity more commonly associated with semantic processing. These findings support previous claims that the cognitive and neural underpinnings of syntactic processing are still developing in adolescence, and add to them by more clearly identifying developmental changes in the neural oscillations underlying grammatical processing.Item Evoking Automated Word Reading(2017-05) Middleton, Anna E.; Maguire, Mandy J.Fluent reading is a complex skill that depends on many subcomponent reading abilities, such as the rate and accuracy with which a reader processes lexical and sublexical information. As a component of skilled reading, automaticity at the sublexical and lexical levels is necessary to free up cognitive resources for processing text at a higher level. Models of word reading support the use of orthographic and phonological codes during lexical access. However, the theoretical frameworks and methods with which researchers attempt to define and measure automaticity vary broadly. The current study evaluated methods for measuring the neurophysiological signature of reading automaticity, including event-related potentials (ERP) and time frequency analysis (TFA). To do this, subjects participated in two reading tasks. The first task was a rhyming task, designed to elicit orthographic and phonological processing of novel words. The second task was a recognition task, designed to measure automaticity through visual word recognition. The ERP analysis revealed an effect of training for pseudowords within the N350 timeframe, but not the N170 timeframe, suggesting that phonological processing plays an important role in automatization of early exposures to new words. Results from TFA analyses revealed a selective sensitivity within the beta (15-30 Hz) and alpha (8-12 Hz) frequency bands to trained pseudowords. Specifically, pseudowords initially read in phonologically congruent contexts elicit greater beta and alpha engagement during a subsequent word recognition task. Findings suggest that phonological processing plays an important role in the initial stages of the automatization process. Furthermore, neurophysiological indicators of cross-modal integration (beta) and attention/inhibition (alpha) support the use of TFA in the empirical identification of word reading automaticity.Item Face Identity “Likeness”: Insights for the Study of Face Perception and Identification(May 2023) Parde, Connor John 1992-; Maguire, Mandy J.; O'Toole, Alice J.; Golden, Richard M.; Castillo, Carlos D.; Sasson, Noah J.Colloquially, we commonly observe that some face images look more “like” an identity than others. This experience stems from the fact that different images of the same identity can vary in appearance, and that this appearance variation affects how closely an image resembles our own internal representation of what that identity should look like. Although we perceive the “likeness” of face identities on a daily basis, surprisingly little is known about how these perceptions are formed. Do we perceive face images as a better likeness if they are photographed a certain way? Are face images of an identity perceived as a better likeness if they resemble images of that identity which have been seen previously? Further, are identities represented by prototypes that reflect the viewing experience an observer has with that identity? In a set of experiments, I addressed each of these questions using a combination of psychological and computational methods. First, using face images of identities that participants are unfamiliar with and wherein each identity is shown across the same changes in viewpoint and illumination, I tested whether higher likeness ratings are assigned to certain viewpoint or illumination conditions (Experiment 1). The results showed that participants who are unfamiliar with a face identity rate images as a better likeness when the images show the identity in a more frontal viewpoint and with flash (as opposed to ambient) illumination. At profile viewpoints, there is no difference in the likeness ratings assigned to face images across illumination conditions. Next, using an image-based “face space” generated by processing face images through a deep convolutional neural network trained for face identification, I tested whether participants assign higher likeness ratings to face images that either a) resemble a “central identity prototype” of a given face identity, or b) exist within a more dense region of that identity’s specific subspace within the overall DCNN-generated face space (Simulation 1). This simulation demonstrated that measures of local area density are consistent with how human observers rate the perceived likeness of a face image. Further, the distance of an image from an identity-specific prototype showing the same identity was not consistent with human ratings of perceived likeness. Finally, by familiarizing participants with an identity using images that show the identity from a single viewpoint or illumination, I tested whether participants assign higher likeness ratings to images that resemble those which were seen previously for a given identity (Experiments 2 and 3). The results showed that, regardless of either the viewpoint/illumination of the face image being rated and the viewpoint/illumination of face images that were seen previously of a given identity, participants rate images as a better likeness if the image they are rating matches the viewpoint/illumination of the images they were shown previously. Collectively, these experiments provide insight into how variation in appearance is perceived across images of a given identity, and how this variation contributes to a face image being perceived as a good likeness of the identity being portrayed.Item Identifying Differences in the Neural Correlates Underlying Semantic and Syntactic Development(2018-05) Schneider, Julie M.; Maguire, Mandy J.Language comprehension requires millisecond level processing of semantic and syntactic information, yet children seem to integrate and comprehend all of this information with relative ease. Although this is done effortlessly, developmental differences exist in the speed by which children process speech. By understanding how variation in the developmental time-course of semantics and syntax may contribute to individual differences in language comprehension, we may lay a foundation to better understand how language develops in atypical populations. This study uses electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate how early school-age children, late school-age children, and adults process semantics and syntax in naturally paced sentences. Children ages 8-9 years, 12-13 years, and adults listened to semantically and syntactically correct and incorrect sentences and were asked to complete an acceptability judgment task. When processing a semantic error, there were no developmental differences in the N400; however, increases in theta, related to semantic processing, were greater for 8-9 year olds than 12-13 year olds and adults. These findings suggest that the N400 may be too gross a measure to identify more subtle aspects of semantic development that are ongoing in early school-aged children. For the syntactic task, errors resulted in a larger P600 and greater beta decrease than correct sentences, but the location of the P600 and the amplitude of beta decreases differed as a function of age, suggesting specialization of syntactic skills is ongoing through adolescence. Taken together, the findings from the current study suggest that the neural substrates underlying semantic processing appear to reach adult-like levels at a younger age, while syntactic skills develop over a protracted time course to support comprehension of natural language.Item Semantic interference and facilitation: the role of feature cues and category in naming(August 2023) Dugas, Christine Sofka April 12 1985-; Hart Jr., John; Owen, Margaret Tresch; Maguire, Mandy J.; Lee, Yune; Spence, JefferySemantic interference effects have been observed in a variety of naming paradigms where categorically related items, (i.e., cow, horse, sheep), elicit longer naming latencies than categorically unrelated items (i.e., book, knife, mirror). However, under certain conditions, semantic facilitation effects (i.e., shorter naming latencies) may be observed from categorically related items depending on the context and order of presentation within a paradigm. Semantic interference and facilitation effects observed in naming are also proposed to be differentially influenced by the correlational nature of the features that comprise these concepts. Using a lexically cued naming paradigm with word pairs designated as either “distinctive” or “shared” features to elicit a target concept which was either related to other concepts within a category or not, evidence for semantic facilitation effects were found for concepts from categorically related items (e.g., farm animals, zoo animals, pets, etc.) when cued by distinctive features. Interestingly, semantic interference effects were not observed in a lexically cued naming paradigm. Likewise, event-related potentials (ERPs) were evaluated, and a significant effect of category (related vs unrelated) was found in the left frontotemporal and right centroparietal regions between 600-1100ms. These ERPs are proposed to represent in the initiation of feature integration beginning approximately 600ms following stimulus presentation and approximately 1200ms prior to naming, indicating an amplitude divergence between categorically related and unrelated concepts. Given the behavioral and EEG data, the following account of semantic and lexical processing is proposed: Categorically related concepts facilitate semantic processing at the superordinate level (i.e., categorical or domain) and features of concepts less likely to co-occur with other concepts (i.e., “distinctive” features) facilitate activation of concepts at the basic level (i.e., specific concept) as measured by naming. Frequent activation of features common among related concepts facilitate subsequent activation of related concepts which facilitates superordinate level semantic processing and distinctive feature cues facilitate access to the basic-level identification required for naming. Categorical level effects are shown to influence naming and neural correlates and when related concepts (or concepts with increased activation of features) are cued by distinctive feature cues, naming latencies and errors are decreased compared to other conditions. Our results suggest when facilitation occurs at both superordinate and basic levels of conceptual processing, naming performance improves.Item Theta and Alpha Alterations in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment in Semantic Go/NoGo Tasks(Frontiers) Nguyen, Lydia T.; Mudar, Raksha A.; Chiang, Hsueh-Sheng; Schneider, Julie M.; Maguire, Mandy J.; Kraut, Michael A.; Hart, John, Jr.; 0000 0003 5139 1227 (Maguire, MJ); 0000 0000 5491 4773 (Hart, J); Chiang, Hsueh-Sheng; Schneider, Julie M.; Maguire, Mandy J.; Hart, John, Jr.Growing evidence suggests that cognitive control processes are impaired in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI); however the nature of these alterations needs further examination. The current study examined differences in electroencephalographic theta and alpha power related to cognitive control processes involving response execution and response inhibition in 22 individuals with aMCI and 22 age-, sex-, and education-matched cognitively normal controls. Two Go/NoGo tasks involving semantic categorization were used. In the basic categorization task, Go/NoGo responses were made based on exemplars of a single car (Go) and a single dog (NoGo). In the superordinate categorization task, responses were made based on multiple exemplars of objects (Go) and animals (NoGo). Behavioral data showed that the aMCI group had more false alarms during the NoGo trials compared to controls. The EEG data revealed between group differences related to response type in theta (4-7 Hz) and low-frequency alpha (8-10 Hz) power. In particular, the aMCI group differed from controls in theta power during the NoGo trials at frontal and parietal electrodes, and in low-frequency alpha power during Go trials at parietal electrodes. These results suggest that alterations in theta power converge with behavioral deterioration in response inhibition, whereas alterations in low-frequency alpha power appear to precede behavioral changes in response execution. Both behavioral and electrophysiological correlates combined provide a more comprehensive characterization of cognitive control deficits in aMCI.