Mónika Molnár
Biographic Data
| ID | 3584995 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mónika Molnár |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mónika |
| FAMILY NAME | Molnár |
| SIGNATURE | MOLNÁR M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5296-7924 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Oscillatory brain activity in response to familiar and unfamiliar languages in monolingual and bilingual young adults
This study investigated how bilingual experience modulates neural oscillations during spoken language processing as a function of language familiarity. Two groups of English-speaking young adults-monolinguals and simultaneous bilinguals-actively listened to long passages (∼30 s) in either a familiar (English) or unfamiliar (Hebrew) language while their EEG activity was recorded. To characterize the cognitive processes underpinning spoken language…
Exploring the concurrent validity of a linguistically responsive pre-reading assessment in bilingual children: The Urdu Phonological Tele-Assessment (U-Pass) tool
Introduction Childhood language and reading contribute to academic and socio-economic success. It is therefore important to identify school-aged children’s language and reading abilities as early as possible to provide additional support. Oral-language assessment tools are used by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and educators for early identification of children at risk for reading difficulties. Particularly, phonological processing is an ora…
Language-Specific Sound-Shape Matching at 12-Months of Age
By 12 months of age, infants exhibit behavioral sensitivity to sound symbolism (e.g. sound-shape correspondences) when they hear universally sound symbolic pseudowords (e.g. “bouba,” “kiki”). Here, we investigated whether infant’s sensitivity to sound-shape correspondences is affected when they hear language-specific sound symbolic words. Using the spontaneous preference-looking paradigm, we tested 12-month-old monolingual Spanish (n = 13) and Ba…
Bilinguals differ from monolinguals in attentional resource allocation during spoken language processing: Pupillometry evidence
Bilingual experience may enhance attentional control, but little work has addressed whether monolinguals and bilinguals differ in allocating attentional resources. Focusing on speech processing, we examined listening effort via pupillometry in English monolinguals and simultaneous bilinguals, while they listened to passages in a familiar or unfamiliar language. Results demonstrated similar pupil responses across conditions in bilinguals, yet mono…
Evaluating the feasibility of using heart rate to measure auditory attention allocation during spoken language processing
A deceleration in heart rate (HR), along with a lengthening of the time between heartbeats, has been associated with attentional engagement. Here, we investigated the feasibility of using changes in HR to estimate attentional engagement during spoken language processing. Prior neuroimaging studies suggest that speech processing of an unknown language is more cognitively demanding; we thus designed an experiment to test this finding through HR. In…
Characteristics of Dynamic Assessments of Word Reading Skills and Their Implications for Validity: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Dynamic assessments (DAs) of word reading skills demonstrate strong criterion reference validity with word reading measures (WRMs). However, DAs vary in the skills they assess, their format and administration method, and the type of words and symbols used in test items. These characteristics may have implications on assessment validity. To compare validity of DAs of word reading skills on these factors of interest, a systematic review of five dat…
Association between Screen Time and Sociodemographic Factors, Physical Activity, and BMI among Children in Six European Countries (Feel4Diabetes): A Cross-Sectional Study
Screen time among children in most European countries is notably high and is influenced by various sociodemographic and other factors. Our study aimed to explore the associations between parents' sociodemographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, body mass index (BMI), physical activity, risk status for type 2 diabetes, and their children's BMI, physical activity, and screen time. The data were sourced from the 2016 Feel4Diabetes study, invo…
Toddler-directed and adult-directed gesture frequency in monolingual and bilingual caregivers
Aims and objectives: This study was designed to assess whether bilingual caregivers, compared with monolingual caregivers, modify their nonverbal gestures to match the increased communicative and/or cognitive-linguistic demands of bilingual language contexts – as would be predicted based on the ‘Facilitative Strategy Hypothesis’. Methodology: We examined the rate of gestures (i.e., representational and beat gestures) in monolingual and bilingual …
The Processing of Spanish Article–Noun Gender Agreement by Monolingual and Bilingual Toddlers
We assessed monolingual Spanish and bilingual Spanish-Basque toddlers’ sensitivity to gender agreement in correct vs. incorrect Spanish noun phrases (definite article + noun), using a spontaneous preference listening paradigm. Monolingual Spanish-learning toddlers exhibited a tendency to listen longer to the grammatically correct phrases (e.g., la casa; “the house”), as opposed to the incorrect ones (e.g., * el casa). This listening preference to…
Speaker matters: Natural inter-speaker variation affects 4-month-olds’ perception of audio-visual speech
In the language development literature, studies often make inferences about infants’ speech perception abilities based on their responses to a single speaker. However, there can be significant natural variability across speakers in how speech is produced (i.e., inter-speaker differences). The current study examined whether inter-speaker differences can affect infants’ ability to detect a mismatch between the auditory and visual components of vowe…
Phonemic contrasts under construction? Evidence from Basque
Attunement theories of speech perception development suggest that native‐language exposure is one of the main factors shaping infants' phonemic discrimination capacity within the second half of their first year. Here, we focus on the role of acoustic–perceptual salience and language‐specific experience by assessing the discrimination of acoustically subtle Basque sibilant contrasts. We used the infant‐controlled version of the habituation procedu…
A unified descriptive method for analysing artificial cranial deformation from a palaeopathological perspective
The study's goal is to propose a unified descriptive method for analysing artificial cranial deformation (ACD) in order to achieve consistent descriptions as well as to document the modification from a palaeopathological perspective. A number of examinations have dealt with the fact that ACD can either directly cause or predispose the formation of pathological and neurological lesions. The bulk of earlier studies only have focused on one or a few…
The Role of Slow Speech Amplitude Envelope for Speech Processing and Reading Development
This study examined the putative link between the entrainment to the slow rhythmic structure of speech, speech intelligibility and reading by means of a behavioral paradigm. Two groups of 20 children (Grades 2 and 5) were asked to recall a pseudoword embedded in sentences presented either in quiet or noisy listening conditions. Half of the sentences were primed with their syllabic and prosodic amplitude envelope to determine whether a boost in au…
The development of spontaneous sound-shape matching in monolingual and bilingual infants during the first year
Recently it has been proposed that sensitivity to nonarbitrary relationships between speech sounds and objects potentially bootstraps lexical acquisition. However, it is currently unclear whether preverbal infants (e.g., before 6 months of age) with different linguistic profiles are sensitive to such nonarbitrary relationships. Here, the authors assessed 4- and 12-month-old Basque monolingual and Spanish-Basque bilingual infants' sensitivity to c…
Population development in a micro region (Northern Hajdúság) of Hungary in the 10th – 13th century – A craniometric analysis
Population development in a microregion (Northern Hajdúság) of Hungary in the 10th–13th century – A craniometric analysis. Exceptionally rich anthropological material is available from the Northern Hajdúság microregion (Tiszántúl region, Hungary) from the 10th–13th century through five representative cemeteries. The five cemeteries, namely Hajdúdorog-Gyúlás (10th century), Hajdúdorog-Kövecseshalom (11th century), Hajdúdorog-Temetőhegy (11th centu…
Within‐rhythm Class Native Language Discrimination Abilities of Basque‐Spanish Monolingual and Bilingual Infants at 3.5 Months of Age
Language rhythm determines young infants' language discrimination abilities. However, it is unclear whether young bilingual infants exposed to rhythmically similar languages develop sensitivities to cross‐linguistic rhythm cues to discriminate their dual language input. To address this question, 3.5‐month‐old monolingual Basque, monolingual Spanish and bilingual Basque‐Spanish infants' language discrimination abilities (across low‐pass filtered s…
The Roots of Language Learning: Infant Language Acquisition
The Amount of Language Exposure Determines Nonlinguistic Tone Grouping Biases in Infants From a Bilingual Environment
Duration-based auditory grouping preferences are presumably shaped by language experience in adults and infants, unlike intensity-based grouping that is governed by a universal bias of a loud-soft preference. It has been proposed that duration-based rhythmic grouping preferences develop as a function of native language phrasal prosody. Additionally, it has been suggested that phrasal prosody supports syntax acquisition (e.g., prosodic bootstrappi…
Speech Perception by 6‐to 8‐Month‐Olds in the Presence of Distracting Sounds
The role of selective attention in infant phonetic perception was examined using a distraction masker paradigm. We compared perception of /bu/ versus /gu/ in 6‐ to 8‐month‐olds using a visual fixation procedure. Infants were habituated to multiple natural productions of 1 syllable type and then presented 4 test trials (old‐new‐old‐new). Perception of the new syllable (indexed as novelty preference) was compared across 3 groups: habituated and tes…
The Amount of Language Exposure Determines Nonlinguistic Tone Grouping Biases in Infants From a Bilingual Environment
Duration-based auditory grouping preferences are presumably shaped by language experience in adults and infants, unlike intensity-based grouping that is governed by a universal bias of a loud-soft preference. It has been proposed that duration-based rhythmic grouping preferences develop as a function of native language phrasal prosody. Additionally, it has been suggested that phrasal prosody supports syntax acquisition (e.g., prosodic bootstrappi…
The development of spontaneous sound-shape matching in monolingual and bilingual infants during the first year
Recently it has been proposed that sensitivity to nonarbitrary relationships between speech sounds and objects potentially bootstraps lexical acquisition. However, it is currently unclear whether preverbal infants (e.g., before 6 months of age) with different linguistic profiles are sensitive to such nonarbitrary relationships. Here, the authors assessed 4- and 12-month-old Basque monolingual and Spanish-Basque bilingual infants' sensitivity to c…
The Roots of Language Learning: Infant Language Acquisition
Speech Perception by 6‐to 8‐Month‐Olds in the Presence of Distracting Sounds
The role of selective attention in infant phonetic perception was examined using a distraction masker paradigm. We compared perception of /bu/ versus /gu/ in 6‐ to 8‐month‐olds using a visual fixation procedure. Infants were habituated to multiple natural productions of 1 syllable type and then presented 4 test trials (old‐new‐old‐new). Perception of the new syllable (indexed as novelty preference) was compared across 3 groups: habituated and tes…
Within‐rhythm Class Native Language Discrimination Abilities of Basque‐Spanish Monolingual and Bilingual Infants at 3.5 Months of Age
Language rhythm determines young infants' language discrimination abilities. However, it is unclear whether young bilingual infants exposed to rhythmically similar languages develop sensitivities to cross‐linguistic rhythm cues to discriminate their dual language input. To address this question, 3.5‐month‐old monolingual Basque, monolingual Spanish and bilingual Basque‐Spanish infants' language discrimination abilities (across low‐pass filtered s…
The Roots of Language Learning: Infant Language Acquisition
The Amount of Language Exposure Determines Nonlinguistic Tone Grouping Biases in Infants From a Bilingual Environment
Duration-based auditory grouping preferences are presumably shaped by language experience in adults and infants, unlike intensity-based grouping that is governed by a universal bias of a loud-soft preference. It has been proposed that duration-based rhythmic grouping preferences develop as a function of native language phrasal prosody. Additionally, it has been suggested that phrasal prosody supports syntax acquisition (e.g., prosodic bootstrappi…
Population development in a micro region (Northern Hajdúság) of Hungary in the 10th – 13th century – A craniometric analysis
Population development in a microregion (Northern Hajdúság) of Hungary in the 10th–13th century – A craniometric analysis. Exceptionally rich anthropological material is available from the Northern Hajdúság microregion (Tiszántúl region, Hungary) from the 10th–13th century through five representative cemeteries. The five cemeteries, namely Hajdúdorog-Gyúlás (10th century), Hajdúdorog-Kövecseshalom (11th century), Hajdúdorog-Temetőhegy (11th centu…
The Role of Slow Speech Amplitude Envelope for Speech Processing and Reading Development
This study examined the putative link between the entrainment to the slow rhythmic structure of speech, speech intelligibility and reading by means of a behavioral paradigm. Two groups of 20 children (Grades 2 and 5) were asked to recall a pseudoword embedded in sentences presented either in quiet or noisy listening conditions. Half of the sentences were primed with their syllabic and prosodic amplitude envelope to determine whether a boost in au…
The development of spontaneous sound-shape matching in monolingual and bilingual infants during the first year
Recently it has been proposed that sensitivity to nonarbitrary relationships between speech sounds and objects potentially bootstraps lexical acquisition. However, it is currently unclear whether preverbal infants (e.g., before 6 months of age) with different linguistic profiles are sensitive to such nonarbitrary relationships. Here, the authors assessed 4- and 12-month-old Basque monolingual and Spanish-Basque bilingual infants' sensitivity to c…
A unified descriptive method for analysing artificial cranial deformation from a palaeopathological perspective
The study's goal is to propose a unified descriptive method for analysing artificial cranial deformation (ACD) in order to achieve consistent descriptions as well as to document the modification from a palaeopathological perspective. A number of examinations have dealt with the fact that ACD can either directly cause or predispose the formation of pathological and neurological lesions. The bulk of earlier studies only have focused on one or a few…
Speaker matters: Natural inter-speaker variation affects 4-month-olds’ perception of audio-visual speech
In the language development literature, studies often make inferences about infants’ speech perception abilities based on their responses to a single speaker. However, there can be significant natural variability across speakers in how speech is produced (i.e., inter-speaker differences). The current study examined whether inter-speaker differences can affect infants’ ability to detect a mismatch between the auditory and visual components of vowe…
Phonemic contrasts under construction? Evidence from Basque
Attunement theories of speech perception development suggest that native‐language exposure is one of the main factors shaping infants' phonemic discrimination capacity within the second half of their first year. Here, we focus on the role of acoustic–perceptual salience and language‐specific experience by assessing the discrimination of acoustically subtle Basque sibilant contrasts. We used the infant‐controlled version of the habituation procedu…
The Processing of Spanish Article–Noun Gender Agreement by Monolingual and Bilingual Toddlers
We assessed monolingual Spanish and bilingual Spanish-Basque toddlers’ sensitivity to gender agreement in correct vs. incorrect Spanish noun phrases (definite article + noun), using a spontaneous preference listening paradigm. Monolingual Spanish-learning toddlers exhibited a tendency to listen longer to the grammatically correct phrases (e.g., la casa; “the house”), as opposed to the incorrect ones (e.g., * el casa). This listening preference to…
Toddler-directed and adult-directed gesture frequency in monolingual and bilingual caregivers
Aims and objectives: This study was designed to assess whether bilingual caregivers, compared with monolingual caregivers, modify their nonverbal gestures to match the increased communicative and/or cognitive-linguistic demands of bilingual language contexts – as would be predicted based on the ‘Facilitative Strategy Hypothesis’. Methodology: We examined the rate of gestures (i.e., representational and beat gestures) in monolingual and bilingual …
Characteristics of Dynamic Assessments of Word Reading Skills and Their Implications for Validity: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Dynamic assessments (DAs) of word reading skills demonstrate strong criterion reference validity with word reading measures (WRMs). However, DAs vary in the skills they assess, their format and administration method, and the type of words and symbols used in test items. These characteristics may have implications on assessment validity. To compare validity of DAs of word reading skills on these factors of interest, a systematic review of five dat…
Association between Screen Time and Sociodemographic Factors, Physical Activity, and BMI among Children in Six European Countries (Feel4Diabetes): A Cross-Sectional Study
Screen time among children in most European countries is notably high and is influenced by various sociodemographic and other factors. Our study aimed to explore the associations between parents' sociodemographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, body mass index (BMI), physical activity, risk status for type 2 diabetes, and their children's BMI, physical activity, and screen time. The data were sourced from the 2016 Feel4Diabetes study, invo…
Exploring the concurrent validity of a linguistically responsive pre-reading assessment in bilingual children: The Urdu Phonological Tele-Assessment (U-Pass) tool
Introduction Childhood language and reading contribute to academic and socio-economic success. It is therefore important to identify school-aged children’s language and reading abilities as early as possible to provide additional support. Oral-language assessment tools are used by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and educators for early identification of children at risk for reading difficulties. Particularly, phonological processing is an ora…
Language-Specific Sound-Shape Matching at 12-Months of Age
By 12 months of age, infants exhibit behavioral sensitivity to sound symbolism (e.g. sound-shape correspondences) when they hear universally sound symbolic pseudowords (e.g. “bouba,” “kiki”). Here, we investigated whether infant’s sensitivity to sound-shape correspondences is affected when they hear language-specific sound symbolic words. Using the spontaneous preference-looking paradigm, we tested 12-month-old monolingual Spanish (n = 13) and Ba…
Bilinguals differ from monolinguals in attentional resource allocation during spoken language processing: Pupillometry evidence
Bilingual experience may enhance attentional control, but little work has addressed whether monolinguals and bilinguals differ in allocating attentional resources. Focusing on speech processing, we examined listening effort via pupillometry in English monolinguals and simultaneous bilinguals, while they listened to passages in a familiar or unfamiliar language. Results demonstrated similar pupil responses across conditions in bilinguals, yet mono…
Evaluating the feasibility of using heart rate to measure auditory attention allocation during spoken language processing
A deceleration in heart rate (HR), along with a lengthening of the time between heartbeats, has been associated with attentional engagement. Here, we investigated the feasibility of using changes in HR to estimate attentional engagement during spoken language processing. Prior neuroimaging studies suggest that speech processing of an unknown language is more cognitively demanding; we thus designed an experiment to test this finding through HR. In…
Oscillatory brain activity in response to familiar and unfamiliar languages in monolingual and bilingual young adults
This study investigated how bilingual experience modulates neural oscillations during spoken language processing as a function of language familiarity. Two groups of English-speaking young adults-monolinguals and simultaneous bilinguals-actively listened to long passages (∼30 s) in either a familiar (English) or unfamiliar (Hebrew) language while their EEG activity was recorded. To characterize the cognitive processes underpinning spoken language…
Psychology (13 works) · Language Development and Disorders (10 works) · Linguistics (9 works) · Cognitive psychology (8 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (7 works) · Communication (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (6 works) · Audiology (5 works) · Developmental psychology (5 works)