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- Genre: Masters Thesis
Description
I recently established the gleam-glum effect confirming in both English and Mandarin that words with the /i/ vowel-sound (like “gleam”) are rated more emotionally positive than matched words with the /ʌ/ vowel-sound (like “glum”). Here I confirm that these vowel sounds also influence the semantic perception of monosyllabic pseudo-words. In Experiment 1, 100 participants rated 50 individual /i/ monosyllabic pseudo-words (like “zeech”) as significantly more positive than 50 matched /ʌ/ pseudo-words (like “zuch”), replicating my previous findings with real words. Experiment 2 assessed the gleam-glum effect on pseudo-words using a forced-choice task. Participants (n = 148) were presented with the 50 pairs of pseudo-words used in Experiment 1 and tasked to guess the most likely meaning of each pseudo-word by matching them with one of two meaning words that were either extremely positive or extremely negative in affective valence (Warriner et al., 2013). I found a remarkably robust effect in which every one of the 50 pseudo-word pairs was on average more likely to have the /i/ word matched with the positive meaning word and /ʌ/ word with the negative one (exact binomial test, p < .001, z = 7.94). The findings confirm that the gleam-glum effect facilitates bootstrapping meaning of words from their pronunciations. These findings coupled with previous real word findings (Yu et al., in press), showing not only that the effect encompasses the entire English lexicon but can also be explained with an embodied facial musculature mechanism, is consistent with the idea that sound symbolism may shape vocabulary use of a language over time by influencing semantic perception.
ContributorsYu, Shin-Phing (Author) / McBeath, Michael K. (Thesis advisor) / Glenberg, Arthur M. (Thesis advisor, Committee member) / Stone, Gregory (Committee member) / Benitez, Viridiana (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Students at High Achieving Schools (HASs) have recently been identified as an at-risk population, and excessive pressure to excel is considered the cause of this maladjustment. However, the specific aspects of pressure that lead to these outcomes have yet to be comprehensively explored. In two schools, one public and one independent, this study examined multiple constructs potentially implicated: feelings of pressure to succeed from different sources (parents, teachers, coaches, the self, and friends) and total felt pressure. Also considered are dimensions of being overextended across commitments, including hours of sleep, homework, and levels of associated strain and enjoyment. These indices were all examined in relation to adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing symptoms, as well as feelings of disengagement with school, after controlling for attachment to both parents. Results showed that total felt pressure, and pressure felt from the self, were most notably related to internalizing symptoms and disengagement with school. Additionally, strain from commitments showed unique links with depression, anxiety, and negative feelings about school. Finally, enjoyment from different commitments showed robust links with feelings about school. Overall, the different pressure predictors showed sporadic links with externalizing behaviors and substance use. Findings are discussed in terms of directions for interventions as well as future research with HAS populations.
ContributorsBenoit, Renee, L (Author) / Luthar, Suniya (Thesis advisor) / Infurna, Frank (Committee member) / Benitez, Viridiana (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Dual language use is thought to afford certain cognitive advantages to bilingual children and may function as an additional resource to help low-income Mexican-American children achieve academically. Emotion regulation and executive functioning (e.g., inhibition) have been found to be particularly important in studies investigating pathways to early academic achievement. Understanding how we can capitalize on children’s bilingual abilities to strengthen their executive functioning and emotion regulation, or to offset problems in these domains, may be important to promote better educational outcomes and inform policy. Thus, the current study investigated the relation between emerging bilingualism, inhibition, emotion regulation, and academic achievement across early childhood in sample of 322 low-income, Mexican-American children. Data were collected in a laboratory space at child ages 36-, 54-, and 72-months. Bilingualism was indexed as the interaction of Spanish and English vocabulary, and a mediated moderation model was examined. Results provided further evidence that inhibition positively predicts academic achievement during early childhood. Greater Spanish language vocabulary indirectly predicted academic achievement while controlling for English language vocabulary, suggesting that children from immigrant families may benefit from maintaining their Spanish language abilities as they begin to immerse themselves in an English-speaking classroom. Advancing our understanding of the development of self-regulatory abilities within bilingual, immigrant populations could have significant implications for educational policy.
ContributorsWinstone, Laura K (Author) / Crnic, Keith (Thesis advisor) / Gonzales, Nancy (Committee member) / Benitez, Viridiana (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Statistical word learning (SWL) has been proposed and tested as a powerful mechanism for word learning under referential ambiguity. Learners are adept at resolving word-referent ambiguity by calculating the co-occurrences between words and referents across ambiguous scenes. Despite the generalizability of such capacity, it is less clear which underlying factors may play a role in SWL, such as learners’ language experience and individual differences of working memory. The current study therefore asked two questions: 1) How do learners of different language experience (monolinguals and bilinguals) approach SWL of different mapping types–when each referent has one name (1:1 mapping) or two names (2:1 mapping)? and 2) How do working memory capacities (spatial and phonological) play a role in SWL by mapping type? In this pre-registered study (OSF: https://osf.io/mte8s/), 69 English monolinguals and 88 bilinguals completed two SWL tasks (1:1 and 2:1 mapping), a symmetry span task indexing spatial working memory, and a listening span task indexing phonological working memory. Results showed no differences between monolinguals and bilinguals in SWL of both mapping types. However, spatial and phonological working memory positively predicted SWL regardless of language experience, but only in 1:1 mapping. The findings show a dissociation of working memory’s role in SWL of different mapping types. The study proposes a novel insight into a theoretical debate underlying statistical learning mechanisms: learners may adopt more explicit processes (i.e. hypothesis-testing) during 1:1 mapping but implicit processes (i.e. associative learning) during 2:1 mapping. Future studies can locate memory-related brain areas during SWL to test out the proposal.
ContributorsLi, Ye (Author) / Benitez, Viridiana (Thesis advisor) / Goldinger, Stephen (Committee member) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This thesis explores the interplay of aphasia symptoms and brain connectivityusing resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The research presented here is a step towards understanding the neural basis of linguistic prosody in particular, and its relationship with language impairments in post-stroke aphasia. This study focuses on examining the functional connectivities of the frontal-parietal control network and the dorsal attention networks with specific regions within traditional language networks, as a growing body of research suggests that prosodic cues in speech may recruit control and attention networks to support language processing. Using resting- state fMRI, the present study examined the functional connectivity of the frontal parietal control and dorsal attention networks with traditional language regions in 28 participants who have experienced a stroke-related language impairment (i.e. aphasia) and 32 matched neurotypical adults. Overall, the study reveals significant functional connectivity differences of the frontoparietal control and dorsal attention networks between the stroke and control groups, indicating that individuals with aphasia have brain connectivity differences beyond the traditional language networks. Multiple regression analyses were then used to determine if functional connectivities of the frontoparietal control and dorsal attention networks within themselves and with traditional language regions could predict aphasia symptoms, as measured by the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB). Overall, the regression results indicate that greater functional connectivity between the frontoparietal control and dorsal attention networks with traditional language regions is associated with improved language abilities, with different connectivities predicting different types of aphasia symptoms (e.g. speech, naming / word finding, auditory comprehension, overall impairment). Altogether this study contributes to the understanding of the neural bases of language impairments post-stroke, highlighting the intricate connections between language and other cognitive networks, which may be mediated by prosody.
ContributorsMendhe, Surbhi Haridas (Author) / Rogalsky, Corianne (Thesis advisor) / Braden, B. Blair (Committee member) / Benitez, Viridiana (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024