Article
Reference
From ‘‘Twelve Hundred'' to ‘‘1200'': A Temporal, Spatial, and Kinematic Analysis of the Handwriting of Arabic Numerals as a
Function of the Verbal Input Form
LOCHY, Aliette, SERON, Xavier, ZESIGER, Pascal Eric
LOCHY, Aliette, SERON, Xavier, ZESIGER, Pascal Eric. From ‘‘Twelve Hundred'' to ‘‘1200'': A Temporal, Spatial, and Kinematic Analysis of the Handwriting of Arabic Numerals as a Function of the Verbal Input Form. Brain and Language , 1999, vol. 69, no. 3, p. 432-434
DOI : 10.1006/brln.1999.2174
Available at:
http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:81088
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From ‘‘Twelve Hundred’’ to ‘‘1200’’: A Temporal, Spatial, and Kinematic Analysis of the Handwriting of Arabic Numerals
as a Function of the Verbal Input Form
Aliette Lochy,* Xavier Seron,* and Pascal Zesiger†
*Universite´ Catholique de Louvain Louvain, Belgium; and †Universite´ de Gene`ve, Geneva, Switzerland
Introduction. This study analyzes the influence of the lexical and syntactic structure of verbal numerals on the handwritten production of Arabic numer- als. Numeral transcoding has mainly been studied in neuropsychology (for a review, see Seron & Noe¨l, 1995) and models disagree on the postulated processes and representations involved.
The semantic-dependent model (McCloskey, Caramazza, & Basili, 1985) presents a modular architecture that postulates the transformation by compre- hension mechanisms of the input numerals into a central abstract semantic representation, losing track of all properties of the entry code. For instance, two hundred fifty is represented by {2}10 exp2, {5}10 exp1. The production processes operate exclusively on this representation, by generating a syntac- tic frame, filled with the required digits.
The verbal-dependent model (Power & Dal Martello, 1990, 1997) postu- lates transcoding processes operating on verbal representations (i.e., lexical primitives and their relations), which activate specific rules: an overwriting rule for sum relationships (⬍C100⬎ ⫹ ⬍C2⬎ ⫽ 100 #2 ⫽ 102) and a concatenation rule for product relationships (⬍C100⬎ ⫻ ⬍C2⬎ ⫽ 2 &
00⫽ 200).
This study. In order to evaluate the pertinence of the two models, normal subjects were asked to write Arabic numerals corresponding to verbal numer- als in the range of 1100–1999, which can be expressed in French by two different syntactic structures: a teen-hundred (TH; twelve hundred ) or a thousand-unit-hundred structure (MUH; one thousand two hundred ). In the
ACADEMY OF APHASIA MEETING 433 semantic-dependent view, the two forms activate the same based-ten repre- sentation ({1}10 exp3, {2}10 exp2) and thus the same production processes.
Differences in the output forms are thus not expected.
In the verbal-dependent conception, these forms activate different seman- tic representations and production rules. Twelve hundred is represented by
⬍C12⬎ ⫻ ⬍C100⬎ and activates the concatenation operator 12 & 00 ⫽ 1200, while one thousand two hundred is represented by ⬍C1000⬎ ⫹ (⬍C2⬎ ⫻ ⬍C100⬎) and activates the operators⬍1000⬎ # (2 & 00) ⫽ 1000#200⫽ 1200. Differences are thus possible in the Arabic numeral’s production since the underlying representations preserve some aspects of the entry code.
We recorded handwriting samples with a digitizing tablet. Kinematics pa- rameters vary with biomechanical conditions, but also with cognitive and motor demands (Van Galen, 1991). Interdigit pauses (i.e., jumps) might thus reflect processes implied in the production mechanisms. In the verbal-depen- dent perspective, we expected a difference on the first pause (between the first and the second digit, i.e., 1 200) when comparing the two structures.
In MUH forms, it is located at an additive relationship between ‘‘thousand’’
and the rest of the sequence, while in TH forms, it is located inside a lexical primitive, the teen ‘‘twelve.’’ Since the overwriting operation has been shown to be difficult and to generate errors in neuropsychological and in developmental studies (Cipolotti, Butterworth, & Warrington, 1994; Noe¨l and Seron, 1995; Power and Dal Martello, 1990), we postulated a longer duration of the first pause when it required an overwriting operation, i.e., in MUH forms.
Method. Ten French-speaking subjects (mean age 22.9) wrote 144 Arabic numerals: 6 written verbal stimuli⫻2 types (TH, MUH)⫻3 final structures (-00, double zeros, e.g., 1200; -DUs, same digits, e.g., 1266; -DUd, different digits, e.g., 1248)⫻4 blocks. Handwriting samples were low-pass filtered at a 10-Hz cutoff frequency. The resulting trajectory and absolute velocity pattern were displayed on a monitor: digits and pauses were isolated at points of minimum velocity.
Results. A MANOVA on four dependent variables, duration, trajectory length, velocity, and dysfluency, was performed by position of the pause (1,2,3) with types (TH, MUH) and final structures (-00, -DUs, -DUd) as within-subjects factors in the analysis by subjects (F1) and as between-items factors in the corresponding MANOVA by items (F2). We do not report here results concerning the second and third pause since the main concern of this paper relates to the comparison of verbal structures.
The first pause was influenced by type, F1(4, 6)⫽ 3.94, p⬍.05; F2(4, 27)⫽7.76, p⬍.0003, on all parameters except velocity: its duration was shorter when a TH had to be written than when a MUH had to be written (128 and 142 ms, respectively), as well as its trajectory length (4.39 and 4.66 mm, respectively), and it contained less dysfluency (1.25 vs 1.46).
434 ACADEMY OF APHASIA MEETING
Discussion. The handwriting of Arabic numerals was studied with a dig- itizing tablet to evaluate the processes required in transcoding numerals. Our results shed light on an unsolved debate in the literature by showing an influ- ence of the verbal entry code on the production of Arabic numerals. They also add to the converging evidence of a greater difficulty of the overwriting operation than of the concatenation one, which is reflected here by a longer movement duration and trajectory length. This cannot be explained in a modular perspective like the semantic-dependent model (McCloskey et al., 1985), since it postulates that production processes operate on the basis of an obligatory central semantic representation, losing track of all properties of the entry code. Our findings favor the idea that transcoding verbal forms into Arabic digits operates on verbal representations that activate specific rules of transcoding (Power & Dal Martello, 1990, 1997).
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PET Activation Studies Comparing Counting and Naming in Normal and Aphasic Subjects
Diana Van Lancker* and Scott Grafton†
*University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California; and †Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
Background
Many patients with severe aphasia, whose effortful speech output is lim- ited to single, poorly articulated words, produce overlearned speech utter- ances with dramatically improved performance (e.g., counting, expletives,
