A Developmental Perspective on Processing Semantic Context: Preliminary Evidence from Sentential Auditory Word Repetition in School-Aged Children

Abstract

The current investigation examined the developmental changes involved in processing semantic context in auditorily presented sentences, as well as underlying attentional and suppression mechanisms. Thirty-nine typically developing school-aged children aged 6;0-14;0 years participated in the current cross-sectional sentential auditory word repetition study. Component processes involved in auditory word recognition were examined and their respective developmental trajectories systematically delineated. Experimental manipulations included semantic congruity (congruous, incongruous), sentence constraint (high, low), cloze probability (high, low), and processing mode. High sentence constraints elicited top-down pre-potency type effects, which resulted in active suppression of anticipated cloze words and longer naming latencies of perceived cloze words when violated with conflicting bottom-up information. In addition, developmental changes in component processes reflected underlying changes in attention, with evidence that suppression mechanisms remained relatively constant with age. Findings are interpreted in line with the Trace (McClelland and Elman in Cogn Psychol 18(1):1-86, 1986) model of auditory word recognition.

Temporal and topographical changes in theta power between middle childhood and adolescence during sentence comprehension

“…Quickly and accurately retrieving individual word meanings and integrating them into an ongoing sentence is a complex skill that children are generally able to perform quickly and seemingly effortlessly at quite young ages ( Fernald et al, 2001; Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff, 1996 ; Lew-Williams and Fernald, 2007 ; Swingley et al, 1999 ; Valleau et al, 2018 ). However, behavioral studies indicate significant improvements in the speed and efficiency of semantic retrieval over the course of the school years ( Hurks et al, 2006 , Mahler and Chenery, 2019 ). Recent findings using time frequency analysis of the EEG indicate that changes in neural oscillations, specifically within the theta frequency (4–8 Hz), support semantic aspects of sentence comprehension in adult populations ( Bastiaansen et al, 2002 , Hagoort et al, 2004 , Lam et al, 2016 , Maguire et al, 2010 , Mellem et al, 2013 ).…”

Semantic Cues Modulate Children’s and Adults’ Processing of Audio-Visual Face Mask Speech

“…Reaction times of all accurate responses were analyzed with linear mixed-effects models after removing extreme values above 2,000 ms and below −400 ms (55 trials, 0.9%, cf . Mahler and Chenery, 2019 ) and subsequently removing outliers three standard deviations from the mean (70 outliers, 1.2%). Models were fitted first to the full dataset and then to adults and children separately.…”

“… Randazzo et al, 2021 ). Face mask research has so far predominantly concentrated on adults’ perception of masked speech, not children’s, despite evidence that language processing mechanisms change across the lifespan ( Wightman et al, 2006 ; Mahler and Chenery, 2019 ). The present study addresses these gaps with a novel, internet-based cued shadowing task developed to capture precise response times to masked speech and compares the interaction between acoustic, visual, and semantic cues when children and adults process language produced through face masks.…”

“…Growing evidence indicates that contextual processing becomes more efficient with increasing age ( Atchley et al, 2006 ). However, it is unclear how much of this is due to developing processing mechanisms (including attentional and inhibitory processes) or lack of experience ( Mahler and Chenery, 2019 ). Little is known about the effect of face masks on semantic processing, and whether children are able to use semantic predictions to compensate for the degraded signal to the same extent as adults when listening to a teacher wearing a face mask.…”

“… Houben et al, 2013 ; Peelle, 2018 ). As such, the method is well-suited to both children and adults ( Mahler and Chenery, 2019 ). Collecting high-precision naming latencies has recently been successfully adapted and validated for internet-based data collection using picture naming ( Fairs and Strijkers, 2021 ; Vogt et al, 2021 ).…”