Browsing by Subject "Semantics"

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Open Access
A comparison of dimensional models of emotion: evidence from emotions, prototypical events, autobiographical memories, and words.
(Memory, 2009-11) Rubin, David C; Talarico, Jennifer M
The intensity and valence of 30 emotion terms, 30 events typical of those emotions, and 30 autobiographical memories cued by those emotions were each rated by different groups of 40 undergraduates. A vector model gave a consistently better account of the data than a circumplex model, both overall and in the absence of high-intensity, neutral valence stimuli. The Positive Activation - Negative Activation (PANA) model could be tested at high levels of activation, where it is identical to the vector model. The results replicated when ratings of arousal were used instead of ratings of intensity for the events and autobiographical memories. A reanalysis of word norms gave further support for the vector and PANA models by demonstrating that neutral valence, high-arousal ratings resulted from the averaging of individual positive and negative valence ratings. Thus, compared to a circumplex model, vector and PANA models provided overall better fits.
Open Access
A new phylogenetic data standard for computable clade definitions: the Phyloreference Exchange Format (Phyx).
(PeerJ, 2022-01) Vaidya, Gaurav; Cellinese, Nico; Lapp, Hilmar
To be computationally reproducible and efficient, integration of disparate data depends on shared entities whose matching meaning (semantics) can be computationally assessed. For biodiversity data one of the most prevalent shared entities for linking data records is the associated taxon concept. Unlike Linnaean taxon names, the traditional way in which taxon concepts are provided, phylogenetic definitions are native to phylogenetic trees and offer well-defined semantics that can be transformed into formal, computationally evaluable logic expressions. These attributes make them highly suitable for phylogeny-driven comparative biology by allowing computationally verifiable and reproducible integration of taxon-linked data against Tree of Life-scale phylogenies. To achieve this, the first step is transforming phylogenetic definitions from the natural language text in which they are published to a structured interoperable data format that maintains strong ties to semantics and lends itself well to sharing, reuse, and long-term archival. To this end, we developed the Phyloreference Exchange Format (Phyx), a JSON-LD-based text format encompassing rich metadata for all elements of a phylogenetic definition, and we created a supporting software library, phyx.js, to streamline computational management of such files. Together they form a foundation layer for digitizing and computing with phylogenetic definitions of clades.
Open Access
Age-related differences in resolving semantic and phonological competition during receptive language tasks.
(Neuropsychologia, 2016-12) Zhuang, Jie; Johnson, Micah A; Madden, David J; Burke, Deborah M; Diaz, Michele T
Receptive language (e.g., reading) is largely preserved in the aging brain, and semantic processes in particular may continue to develop throughout the lifespan. We investigated the neural underpinnings of phonological and semantic retrieval in older and younger adults during receptive language tasks (rhyme and semantic similarity judgments). In particular, we were interested in the role of competition on language retrieval and varied the similarities between a cue, target, and distractor that were hypothesized to affect the mental process of competition. Behaviorally, all participants responded faster and more accurately during the rhyme task compared to the semantic task. Moreover, older adults demonstrated higher response accuracy than younger adults during the semantic task. Although there were no overall age-related differences in the neuroimaging results, an Age×Task interaction was found in left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), with older adults producing greater activation than younger adults during the semantic condition. These results suggest that at lower levels of task difficulty, older and younger adults engaged similar neural networks that benefited behavioral performance. As task difficulty increased during the semantic task, older adults relied more heavily on largely left hemisphere language regions, as well as regions involved in perception and internal monitoring. Our results are consistent with the stability of language comprehension across the adult lifespan and illustrate how the preservation of semantic representations with aging may influence performance under conditions of increased task difficulty.
Open Access
Age-related differences in the neural bases of phonological and semantic processes in the context of task-irrelevant information.
(Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience, 2019-08) Diaz, Michele T; Johnson, Micah A; Burke, Deborah M; Truong, Trong-Kha; Madden, David J
As we age we have increasing difficulty with phonological aspects of language production. Yet semantic processes are largely stable across the life span. This suggests a fundamental difference in the cognitive and potentially neural architecture supporting these systems. Moreover, language processes such as these interact with other cognitive processes that also show age-related decline, such as executive function and inhibition. The present study examined phonological and semantic processes in the presence of task-irrelevant information to examine the influence of such material on language production. Older and younger adults made phonological and semantic decisions about pictures in the presence of either phonologically or semantically related words, which were unrelated to the task. FMRI activation during the semantic condition showed that all adults engaged typical left-hemisphere language regions, and that this activation was positively correlated with efficiency across all adults. In contrast, the phonological condition elicited activation in bilateral precuneus and cingulate, with no clear brain-behavior relationship. Similarly, older adults exhibited greater activation than younger adults in several regions that were unrelated to behavioral performance. Our results suggest that as we age, brain-behavior relations decline, and there is an increased reliance on both language-specific and domain-general brain regions that are seen most prominently during phonological processing. In contrast, the core semantic system continues to be engaged throughout the life span, even in the presence of task-irrelevant information.
Open Access
Age-related differences in the neural bases of phonological and semantic processes.
(Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 2014-12) Diaz, Michele T; Johnson, Micah A; Burke, Deborah M; Madden, David J
Changes in language functions during normal aging are greater for phonological compared with semantic processes. To investigate the behavioral and neural basis for these age-related differences, we used fMRI to examine younger and older adults who made semantic and phonological decisions about pictures. The behavioral performance of older adults was less accurate and less efficient than younger adults' in the phonological task but did not differ in the semantic task. In the fMRI analyses, the semantic task activated left-hemisphere language regions, and the phonological task activated bilateral cingulate and ventral precuneus. Age-related effects were widespread throughout the brain and most often expressed as greater activation for older adults. Activation was greater for younger compared with older adults in ventral brain regions involved in visual and object processing. Although there was not a significant Age × Condition interaction in the whole-brain fMRI results, correlations examining the relationship between behavior and fMRI activation were stronger for younger compared with older adults. Our results suggest that the relationship between behavior and neural activation declines with age, and this may underlie some of the observed declines in performance.
Open Access
Age-related slowing in the retrieval of information from long-term memory.
(Journal of gerontology, 1985-03) Madden, DJ
The present experiment investigated adult age differences in the retrieval of information from long-term memory. Each trial required a decision regarding the synonymy of two visually presented words. On the yes-response trials, the two words were either identical, differed only in case, or were synonyms that differed in case. Age differences in absolute decision time were greater for the synonyms than for the other word pairs, but the proportional slowing of decision time exhibited by the older adults was constant across word-pair type. A generalized age-related slowing in the speed of information processing can currently account for age differences in the retrieval of letter-identity and semantic information from long-term memory.
Open Access
Associative asymmetry, availability, and retrieval.
(Mem Cognit, 1983-01) Rubin, DC
Open Access
At 6-9 months, human infants know the meanings of many common nouns.
(Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2012-02-28) Bergelson, Elika; Swingley, Daniel
It is widely accepted that infants begin learning their native language not by learning words, but by discovering features of the speech signal: consonants, vowels, and combinations of these sounds. Learning to understand words, as opposed to just perceiving their sounds, is said to come later, between 9 and 15 mo of age, when infants develop a capacity for interpreting others' goals and intentions. Here, we demonstrate that this consensus about the developmental sequence of human language learning is flawed: in fact, infants already know the meanings of several common words from the age of 6 mo onward. We presented 6- to 9-mo-old infants with sets of pictures to view while their parent named a picture in each set. Over this entire age range, infants directed their gaze to the named pictures, indicating their understanding of spoken words. Because the words were not trained in the laboratory, the results show that even young infants learn ordinary words through daily experience with language. This surprising accomplishment indicates that, contrary to prevailing beliefs, either infants can already grasp the referential intentions of adults at 6 mo or infants can learn words before this ability emerges. The precocious discovery of word meanings suggests a perspective in which learning vocabulary and learning the sound structure of spoken language go hand in hand as language acquisition begins.
Open Access
Clustering by alcoholic Korsakoff patients.
(Neuropsychologia, 1981-01) Rubin, DC; Butters, N
Twelve alcoholic Korsakoff patients and 12 alcoholic controls recalled two clusterable lists, and two nonclusterable lists. Korsakoff patients recalled more from the clusterable than the nonclusterable lists. Detailed analysis of the Korsakoff results indicate that while some forms of semantic organization are impaired, the ability to use associative structure remains intact. © 1981.
Open Access
Differential Mnemonic Contributions of Cortical Representations during Encoding and Retrieval.
(Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 2024-10) Howard, Cortney M; Huang, Shenyang; Hovhannisyan, Mariam; Cabeza, Roberto; Davis, Simon W
Several recent fMRI studies of episodic and working memory representations converge on the finding that visual information is most strongly represented in occipito-temporal cortex during the encoding phase but in parietal regions during the retrieval phase. It has been suggested that this location shift reflects a change in the content of representations, from predominantly visual during encoding to primarily semantic during retrieval. Yet, direct evidence on the nature of encoding and retrieval representations is lacking. It is also unclear how the representations mediating the encoding-retrieval shift contribute to memory performance. To investigate these two issues, in the current fMRI study, participants encoded pictures (e.g., picture of a cardinal) and later performed a word recognition test (e.g., word "cardinal"). Representational similarity analyses examined how visual (e.g., red color) and semantic representations (e.g., what cardinals eat) support successful encoding and retrieval. These analyses revealed two novel findings. First, successful memory was associated with representational changes in cortical location (from occipito-temporal at encoding to parietal at retrieval) but not with changes in representational content (visual vs. semantic). Thus, the representational encoding-retrieval shift cannot be easily attributed to a change in the nature of representations. Second, in parietal regions, stronger representations predicted encoding failure but retrieval success. This encoding-retrieval "flip" in representations mimics the one previously reported in univariate activation studies. In summary, by answering important questions regarding the content and contributions to the performance of the representations mediating the encoding-retrieval shift, our findings clarify the neural mechanisms of this intriguing phenomenon.
Open Access
Influence of encoding difficulty, word frequency, and phonological regularity on age differences in word naming.
(Experimental aging research, 2011-05) Allen, Philip A; Bucur, Barbara; Grabbe, Jeremy; Work, Tammy; Madden, David J
It is presently unclear as to why older adults take longer than younger adults to recognize visually presented words. To examine this issue in more detail, the authors conducted two word-naming studies (Experiment 1: 20 older adults and 20 younger adults; Experiment 2: 60 older adults and 60 younger adults) to determine the relative effects of orthographic encoding (case type), lexical access (word frequency), and phonological regularity (regular vs. irregular phonology). The hypothesis was that older adults attempt to compensate for sensory and motor slowing by using progressively larger perceptual units (holistic encoding). However, if forced to use smaller perceptual units (e.g., by using mixed-case presentation), it was predicted that older adults would be particularly challenged. Older adults did show larger case-mixing effects than younger adults (suggesting that older adults' performances were especially poor when they were forced to use smaller perceptual units), but there were no age differences in word frequency or phonological regularity even though both age groups showed main effects for these variables. These results suggest that lexical access skill remains stable in the addressed (orthographic/semantic) and assembled (phonological) routes over the life span, but that older adults slow down in recognizing words because it takes them longer to normalize (perceptually "clean up") noisier sensory information.
Open Access
Inner speech and bilingual autobiographical memory: a Polish-Danish cross-cultural study.
(Memory, 2002-01) Larsen, Steen Folke; Schrauf, Robert W; Fromholt, Pia; Rubin, David C
Thirty years after fleeing from Poland to Denmark, 20 immigrants were enlisted in a study of bilingual autobiographical memory. Ten "early immigrators" averaged 24 years old at the time of immigration, and ten "late immigrators" averaged 34 years old at immigration. Although all 20 had spent 30 years in Denmark, early immigrators reported more current inner speech behaviours in Danish, whereas late immigrators showed more use of Polish. Both groups displayed proportionally more numerous autobiographical retrievals that were reported as coming to them internally in Polish (vs Danish) for the decades prior to immigration and more in Danish (vs Polish) after immigration. We propose a culture- and language-specific shaping of semantic and conceptual stores that underpins autobiographical and world knowledge.
Open Access
Mapping the semantic structure of cognitive neuroscience.
(J Cogn Neurosci, 2014-09) Beam, Elizabeth; Appelbaum, L Gregory; Jack, Jordynn; Moody, James; Huettel, Scott A
Cognitive neuroscience, as a discipline, links the biological systems studied by neuroscience to the processing constructs studied by psychology. By mapping these relations throughout the literature of cognitive neuroscience, we visualize the semantic structure of the discipline and point to directions for future research that will advance its integrative goal. For this purpose, network text analyses were applied to an exhaustive corpus of abstracts collected from five major journals over a 30-month period, including every study that used fMRI to investigate psychological processes. From this, we generate network maps that illustrate the relationships among psychological and anatomical terms, along with centrality statistics that guide inferences about network structure. Three terms--prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and anterior cingulate cortex--dominate the network structure with their high frequency in the literature and the density of their connections with other neuroanatomical terms. From network statistics, we identify terms that are understudied compared with their importance in the network (e.g., insula and thalamus), are underspecified in the language of the discipline (e.g., terms associated with executive function), or are imperfectly integrated with other concepts (e.g., subdisciplines like decision neuroscience that are disconnected from the main network). Taking these results as the basis for prescriptive recommendations, we conclude that semantic analyses provide useful guidance for cognitive neuroscience as a discipline, both by illustrating systematic biases in the conduct and presentation of research and by identifying directions that may be most productive for future research.
Open Access
Memory in posttraumatic stress disorder: properties of voluntary and involuntary, traumatic and nontraumatic autobiographical memories in people with and without posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms.
(J Exp Psychol Gen, 2008-11) Rubin, David C; Boals, Adriel; Berntsen, Dorthe
One hundred fifteen undergraduates rated 15 word-cued memories and their 3 most negatively stressful, 3 most positive, and 7 most important events and completed tests of personality and depression. Eighty-nine also recorded involuntary memories online for 1 week. In the first 3-way comparisons needed to test existing theories, comparisons were made of memories of stressful events versus control events and involuntary versus voluntary memories in people high versus low in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. For all participants, stressful memories had more emotional intensity, more frequent voluntary and involuntary retrieval, but not more fragmentation. For all memories, participants with greater PTSD symptom severity showed the same differences. Involuntary memories had more emotional intensity and less centrality to the life story than voluntary memories. Meeting the diagnostic criteria for traumatic events had no effect, but the emotional responses to events did. In 533 undergraduates, correlations among measures were replicated and the Negative Intensity factor of the Affect Intensity Measure correlated with PTSD symptom severity. No special trauma mechanisms were needed to account for the results, which are summarized by the autobiographical memory theory of PTSD.
Open Access
On measuring fuzziness: a comment on "A fuzzy set approach to modifiers and vagueness in natural language".
(Journal of experimental psychology. General, 1979-12) Rubin, DC
Hersh and Caramazza's application of fuzzy set theory to vagueness in natural language is criticized for including in their measures of fuzziness response variability due to experimental and statistical procedures.
Open Access
Phenex: ontological annotation of phenotypic diversity.
(PLoS One, 2010-05-05) Balhoff, James P; Dahdul, Wasila M; Kothari, Cartik R; Lapp, Hilmar; Lundberg, John G; Mabee, Paula; Midford, Peter E; Westerfield, Monte; Vision, Todd J
BACKGROUND: Phenotypic differences among species have long been systematically itemized and described by biologists in the process of investigating phylogenetic relationships and trait evolution. Traditionally, these descriptions have been expressed in natural language within the context of individual journal publications or monographs. As such, this rich store of phenotype data has been largely unavailable for statistical and computational comparisons across studies or integration with other biological knowledge. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we describe Phenex, a platform-independent desktop application designed to facilitate efficient and consistent annotation of phenotypic similarities and differences using Entity-Quality syntax, drawing on terms from community ontologies for anatomical entities, phenotypic qualities, and taxonomic names. Phenex can be configured to load only those ontologies pertinent to a taxonomic group of interest. The graphical user interface was optimized for evolutionary biologists accustomed to working with lists of taxa, characters, character states, and character-by-taxon matrices. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Annotation of phenotypic data using ontologies and globally unique taxonomic identifiers will allow biologists to integrate phenotypic data from different organisms and studies, leveraging decades of work in systematics and comparative morphology.
Open Access
Predicting which words get recalled: measures of free recall, availability, goodness, emotionality, and pronunciability for 925 nouns.
(Mem Cognit, 1986-01) Friendly, M; Rubin, David C
Open Access
Properties of word cues for autobiographical memory.
(Psychol Rep, 1997-08) Rubin, DC; Schulkind, MD
A sample of 124 words were used to cue autobiographical memories in 120 adults varying in age from 20 to 73 years. Individual words reliably cued autobiographical memories of different ages with different speeds. For all age groups, words rated high in imagery produced older memories and faster reaction times.
Open Access
Puzzling thoughts for H. M.: can new semantic information be anchored to old semantic memories?
(Neuropsychology, 2004-10) Skotko, Brian G; Kensinger, Elizabeth A; Locascio, Joseph J; Einstein, Gillian; Rubin, David C; Tupler, Larry A; Krendl, Anne; Corkin, Suzanne
Researchers currently debate whether new semantic knowledge can be learned and retrieved despite extensive damage to medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures. The authors explored whether H. M., a patient with amnesia, could acquire new semantic information in the context of his lifelong hobby of solving crossword puzzles. First, H. M. was tested on a series of word-skills tests believed important in solving crosswords. He also completed 3 new crosswords: 1 puzzle testing pre-1953 knowledge, another testing post-1953 knowledge, and another combining the 2 by giving postoperative semantic clues for preoperative answers. From the results, the authors concluded that H. M. can acquire new semantic knowledge, at least temporarily, when he can anchor it to mental representations established preoperatively.
Open Access
Recall of semantic domains.
(Memory & cognition, 1980-07) Rubin, DC; Olson, MJ
The order of recall of lists of words learned incidentally was analyzed by multidimensional scaling similarity matrices based on the number of times words were retrieved next to each other. For the semantic domains of mammals, birds, and kinship terms, retrieval from very long-term memory, both for groups and individuals, and recall of recently learned lists produced multidimensional solutions similar to published solutions based on judged relatedness and associative overlap. For the squares of the Monopoly board and the names of the members of the Lawrence University faculty, for which clear a priori category structures exist, the form of clustering in the order and timing of recall that is commonly found in recall of lists learned recently in the laboratory was also found in the retrieval of lists learned incidentally through multiple exposures over long periods of time in the real world. © 1980 Psychonomic Society, Inc.