ERP correlates of picking up new foreign-language words in dialogue Kristin Lemhöfer & Julia Egger Donders Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, University
INTRODUCTION
DESIGN
• New words in a second language (L2) are often learned incidentally in every-day situations
…then, you take a whisk…
• What are the ERP correlates of this incidental learning from spoken input? • Attempt to simulate this learning in the EEG-lab
R E S U LT S ( C n t d . )
• ‘Virtual partner’: pre-recorded female native speaker of British English
EEG: SUBSEQUENT MEMORY EFFECT
• Target (unknown) words always used by ‘virtual partner’ first
Block 1: unknown words later produced vs. not produced; N=14
• Training and testing embedded in the same game
• Mainly frontal Late Positive Component (LPC) from about 500 ms for learned words
• One exposure per target word in first block, one in second block • Retention interval (between input and testing): 3 trials
• ERPs during encoding are predictive of subsequent incidental learning
R E S U LT S BEHAVIORAL
METHOD
EEG AFTER LEARNING
P A R T I C I P A N T S & M A T E RF3I A L S
Fz
F4
-4
-4
-4
-2
-2
-2
0
0
2
2
E E G4
4
Block 2: known vs. just learnt vs. not yet learnt words; N=14
• 37 right-handed native speakers of Dutch (students) (more to be analyzed) • Regular use of L2 English (mean LexTALE score [1]: 72%) • Unaware of taking part in a learning study (cover story: make consistent price comparisons; in English because experimenter 0 does not speak Dutch) 2 • 40 low-frequent non-cognate target words, 120 well-known filler words 4
PRETEST
Block 1: listening to unknown vs. known words (targets vs. fillers; N=35)
Task: estimate the price of each object FILLER FILLER CRITICAL
0
500
0
500
0
C3
Cz
C4
-4
-4
-4
-2
-2
0
0
• Not yet learnt words remain to show an LPC in block 2 just as 500 at first exposure
“A lamp costs 15 Euros.” à KNOWN “An apple costs 50 Cent.” à KNOWN
-2
“A… the cooking thing costs 3 Euros.” à UNKNOWN
0
MAIN EXPERIMENT
(if known: exclude From analysis)
2
2
Dialog game (alternating with ‘virtual partner’) with price comparisons [2] 4
Listening to ‘virtual partner’
Own price comparison “A …6whisk is cheaper than a lamp”.
“An apple is cheaper than a whisk”.
0 3 intervening trials
…
à Agree or not?
[email protected]
4
6
6
500
P3
CONCLUSIONS • First study on on-line ‘picking up new words’ during dialog in L2
2
4 0
500
Pz
• LPC for novel vs. already known words (no N400) • Subsequent learning is predicted by LPC during encoding 0
REFERENCES
-4
• No N400, other than in L1 pseudoword ‘learning’ during reading -4 [3]
-2
• Broadly-2distributed Late Positive Component (LPC) from about -2 700 ms
[1] Lemhöfer & Broersma (2012). Introducing LexTALE: A quick and valid Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of
-4
0
0
2
2
2
4
4
4
6
6
6
0
500
• 500 Word-like ERP signature of newly learnt words after only one exposure
P4
0
0
500
• Just learnt words start to become indistinguishable from words known long before after only one exposure
English. Behavior Research Methods, 44. [2] de Vos, Schriefers, ten Bosch & Lemhöfer (under revision). High learning rates for interactive L2 vocabulary acquisition in a lab-based immersion setting. [3] Batterink & Neville (2011). Implicit and explicit mechanisms of word learning in a narrative context: An event-related potential study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23.
0
500