Disentangling sources of incomplete acquisition: an explanation for competence divergence across heritage grammars.

This article brings to light an important variable involved in explaining a type of competence divergence in an instance of bilingual acquisition: heritage speaker (HS) bilingualism. We present results of experiments with European Portuguese (EP) heritage speakers (HSs), showing that they have full morpho-syntactic and semantic competence of inflected infinitives, similar to EP monolinguals. We show this constitutes clear evidence of competence mismatches between heritage speakers of European and Brazilian Portuguese, comparing our results to Rothman’s (2007) experimental evidence that Brazilian Portuguese (BP) heritage speakers lack knowledge of inflected infinitives. These comparative results are especially relevant because inflected infinitives were argued (Pires, 2002, 2006) to have been lost in colloquial BP dialects, although educated monolinguals demonstrate target competence.

Why all counter-evidence to the critical period hypothesis in second language acquisition is not equal or problematic

That adult and child language acquisitions differ in route and outcome is observable. Notwithstanding, there is controversy as to what this observation means for the Critical Period Hypothesis’ (CPH) application to adult second language acquisition (SLA). As most versions of the CPH applied to SLA claim that differences result from maturational effects on in-born linguistic mechanisms, the CPH has many implications that are amendable to empirical investigation. To date, there is no shortage of literature claiming that the CPH applies or does not apply to normal adult SLA. Herein, I provide an epistemological discussion on the conceptual usefulness of the CPH in SLA (cf. Singleton 2005) coupled with a review of Long's (2005) evaluation of much available relevant research. Crucially, I review studies that Long did not consider and conclude differently that there is no critical/sensitive period for L2 syntactic and semantic acquisition.

Variation, asymmetry and working memory in the process of second language acquisition

Calls for understanding the interface between L2 linguistic knowledge and development (Gregg 1996; Carroll 2001; Towell 2003) provide a context for analysing the role of memory (Paradis 2004), specifically working memory (Baddeley 1986, 2003) in L2 development. Miyake and Friedman (1998) have claimed that Working Memory (WM) may be the key to L2 acquisition, especially in explaining individual variation in L2 acquisition. Recent findings found a robust connection between greater working memory (WM) capacity and rapid, successful acquisition of L2 vocabulary, reading and oral fluency (Service 1992; Harrington and Sawyer 1992; Fortkamp 1999). This study adds to the growing body of research by investigating correlations between WM and variation in grammatical development, focusing on asymmetries in processing L2 English wh-constructions in an immersion setting.

Haptics in medicine and clinical skill acquisition

THE clinical skills of medical professionals rely strongly on the sense of touch, combined with anatomical and diagnostic knowledge. Haptic exploratory procedures allow the expert to detect anomalies via gross and fine palpation, squeezing, and contour following. Haptic feedback is also key to medical interventions, for example when an anaesthetist inserts an epidural needle, a surgeon makes an incision, a dental surgeon drills into a carious lesion, or a veterinarian sutures a wound. Yet, current trends in medical technology and training methods involve less haptic feedback to clinicians and trainees. For example, minimally invasive surgery removes the direct contact between the patient and clinician that gives rise to natural haptic feedback, and furthermore introduces scaling and rotational transforms that confuse the relationship between movements of the hand and the surgical site. Similarly, it is thought that computer-based medical simulation and training systems require high-resolution and realistic haptic feedback to the trainee for significant training transfer to occur. The science and technology of haptics thus has great potential to affect the performance of medical procedures and learning of clinical skills. This special section is about understanding

Linguistic and cognitive motivations for the typological primacy model of third language (L3) transfer: considering the role of timing of acquisition and proficiency in the previous languages

This article elucidates the Typological Primacy Model (TPM; Rothman, 2010, 2011, 2013) for the initial stages of adult third language (L3) morphosyntactic transfer, addressing questions that stem from the model and its application. The TPM maintains that structural proximity between the L3 and the L1 and/or the L2 determines L3 transfer. In addition to demonstrating empirical support for the TPM, this article articulates a proposal for how the mind unconsciously determines typological (structural) proximity based on linguistic cues from the L3 input stream used by the parser early on to determine holistic transfer of one previous (the L1 or the L2) system. This articulated version of the TPM is motivated by argumentation appealing to cognitive and linguistic factors. Finally, in line with the general tenets of the TPM, I ponder if and why L3 transfer might obtain differently depending on the type of bilingual (e.g. early vs. late) and proficiency level of bilingualism involved in the L3 process.

Effects of chlordiazepoxide on extinction and re-acquisition of operant behaviour in mice

Relatively little is known about the role of the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in extinction of appetitively motivated tasks. The benzodiazepine (BZ) chlordiazepoxide (CDP) was administered during extinction and re-acquisition of lever pressing by mice following food reinforced discrete-trial fixed-ratio 5 (FR-5) training. Typical FR behaviour was established during baseline training and persisted for several extinction sessions. There were 15 extinction sessions in all, followed by six re-acquisition sessions where food reinforcement was re-introduced. In a 2x2x2 between-group design, CDP (15 mg/kg) or vehicle injections were given prior to either the last two food reinforcement sessions and the first 10 extinction sessions, or the final five extinction sessions, or the six re-acquisition sessions. Initially CDP had no effect on the rate of extinction, but after several extinction sessions it significantly facilitated it. Surprisingly, if CDP was administered only after several sessions of extinction, it immediately produced facilitation. Thus the delayed effects of CDP are not due to drug accumulation. These data suggest that some neural change must occur before CDP can affect extinction processes. In re-acquisition sessions, CDP facilitated the reinstatement of food-reinforced lever pressing. Implications for neural and behavioural accounts of operant extinction are discussed.