Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34129727›Full record

ArticleBrain and behavior2021

Using EEG to decode semantics during an artificial language learning task.

Chris Foster, Chad C Williams, Olave E Krigolson, Alona Fyshe

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In one paragraph

Article in Brain and behavior, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

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0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Chris FosterDepartment of Computer Science, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada.
Chad C WilliamsCentre for Biomedical Research, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada.
Olave E KrigolsonCentre for Biomedical Research, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada.
Alona FysheDepartments of Computing Science and Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAs we learn a new nonnative language (L2), we begin to build a new map of concepts onto orthographic representations. Eventually, L2 can conjure as rich a semantic representation as our native language (L1). However, the neural processes for mapping a new orthographic representation to a familiar meaning are not well understood or characterized.

methodsUsing electroencephalography and an artificial language that maps symbols to English words, we show that it is possible to use machine learning models to detect a newly formed semantic mapping as it is acquired.

resultsThrough a trial-by-trial analysis, we show that we can detect when a new semantic mapping is formed. Our results show that, like word meaning representations evoked by a L1, the localization of the newly formed neural representations is highly distributed, but the representation may emerge more slowly after the onset of the symbol. Furthermore, our mapping of word meanings to symbols removes the confound of the semantics to the visual characteristics of the stimulus, a confound that has been difficult to disentangle previously.

conclusionWe have shown that the L1 semantic representation conjured by a newly acquired L2 word can be detected using decoding techniques, and we give the first characterization of the emergence of that mapping. Our work opens up new possibilities for the study of semantic representations during L2 learning.

Indexed as

MultilingualismSemanticsElectroencephalographyHumansLanguageLanguage Developmentelectroencephalographylanguagelanguage learningmachine learningsemantics

Identifiers

PMID34129727
PMCPMC8413773

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.