Biomedical subjects

Usha Goswami

Publications and source records attributed to Usha Goswami.

21 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed2002

In the beginning was the rhyme? A reflection on Hulme, Hatcher, Nation, Brown, Adams, and Stuart (2002).

Phonological sensitivity at different grain sizes is a good predictor of reading acquisition in all languages. However, prior to any explicit tuition in alphabetic knowledge, phonological sensitivity develops at the larger grain sizes-syllables, onsets, and rimes-in all languages so far studied. There are also developmental differences in the grain size of lexical representations and reading strategies across orthographies. Phoneme-level skills develop fastest in children acquiring orthographically consistent languages with a simple syllabic (CV) structure, such as Finnish and Italian. For English, however, both "large" and "small" units are important for the successful acquisition of literacy.

Awareness↗

PubMed2002

Similarity relations among spoken words: the special status of rimes in English.

This paper presents an analysis of the distribution of phonological similarity relations among monosyllabic spoken words in English. It differs from classical analyses of phonological neighborhood density (e.g., Luce & Pisoni, 1998) by assuming that not all phonological neighbors are equal. Rather, it is assumed that the phonological lexicon has psycholinguistic structure. Accordingly, in addition to considering the number of phonological neighbors for any given word, it becomes important to consider the nature of these neighbors. If one type of neighbor is more dominant, neighborhood density effects may reflect levels of segmental representation other than the phoneme, particularly prior to literacy. Statistical analyses of the nature of phonological neighborhoods in terms of rime neighbors (e.g., hat/cat), consonant neighbors (e.g., hat/hit), and lead neighbors (e.g., hat/ham) were thus performed for all monosyllabic words in the Celex corpus (4,086 words). Our results show that most phonological neighbors are rime neighbors (e.g., hat/cat) in English. Similar patterns were found when a corpus of words for which age-of-acquisition ratings were available was analyzed. The resultant database can be used as a tool for controlling and selecting stimuli when the role of lexical neighborhoods in phonological development and speech processing is examined.

Humans↗

PubMed2001

Cognitive development: No stages please - we're British.

British cognitive developmental psychology is characterized by its interest in philosophical questions, its preference for linking basic research to applied issues in education and cognitive disorders, and its willingness to learn both methodologically and theoretically from work in animal psychology and in physiology more generally. It has also been influenced profoundly by Jean Piaget's cognitive stage theory although in general British work has focused on demonstrating early strengths, rather than early deficits, in infant and child cognition. Following an overview of British work that encompasses past and present interests, issues and challenges for the future are highlighted. While the perspectives of the founding members of the British Psychological Society (BPS), as outlined by Edgell (1947), are still apparent in British research in cognitive developmental psychology today, it is argued that future cognitive work must become even more interdisciplinary and that the symbiotic relationship between research in adult cognition and in cognitive development needs greater recognition.

Journal Article↗