Comprehension of indirect requests by persons with fluent aphasia

This study examined the judgments and response latencies of 10 participants with aphasia and 10 participants without aphasia for responses to indirect requests. Modals such as can and should were drawn from 5 indirect request categories. There was a significant difference in judgment errors and response latency between participants with and without aphasia. There were no significant differences between aphasic participants' judgments for literal versus nonliteral contrasts. There was a significant effect among the modals and among the categories of indirect requests. Response latency reflected aphasic participants' understanding of these indirect requests.     

The effects of narrative context on French verbal inflections: A developmental perspective

This experiment examines how narrative context affects French subjects' selection of past imperfective (imparfait) vs. perfective inflections with different predicate types. Adults and 10-year-old children were asked to inflect verbs presented in their written infinitive form in two conditions: (a) in isolated sentences; (b) embedded in the beginning, middle, or end of narratives. Regardless of conditions, the adults rarely used theimparfait with punctual resultative predicates. In both conditions, the frequency ofimparfait was high with durative predicates, particularly with aresultative ones, but it varied with position in the narratives, being highest at the beginning and lowest at the end. Although the children also used the imparfait frequently with durative predicates, they overgeneralized it to punctual resultative ones, regardless of conditions and of positions. These results show that adult uses of the imperfective/perfective distinction are determined by both predicate properties and grounding in narrative context. The children are less sensitive to some predicate properties than the adults and they do not differentiate imperfective/perfective aspect consistently as a function of discourse context.     

Appreciation of pragmatic interpretations of indirect commands: comparison of right and left hemisphere brain-damaged patients

Indirect commands can elicit "literal" interpretations, directly reflecting the content and form of the utterance, or "pragmatic" interpretations, incorporating knowledge of paralinguistic, social, or historical cues. The aim of this study was to demonstrate how right brain-damaged (RBD) subjects would perform on judgments of these forms of communication. It was predicted that relative to normal controls or aphasic subjects, the RBD subjects would have significant difficulty appreciating the pragmatic interpretation relative to the literal one. Subjects judged the appropriateness of two-part exchanges consisting of indirect commands, direct commands, Wh-questions coupled with pragmatic responses, literal responses, responses verifying the physical surround, or syntactically similar responses. The results confirm that the RBD subjects had a selective difficulty appreciating the indirect commands. Their preference of literal over pragmatic interpretations was significantly different to that of aphasics or normal controls. Hypotheses are offered to explain these data.     

Comprehension and memory for nonliteral utterances: The problem of sarcastic indirect requests

Three experiments examined understanding and memory for sarcastic indirect requests. Experiment 1 showed that people process sarcastic indirect requests, like I sure love a messy room (meaning ‘Clean up this room’), faster than they comprehend either literal uses of the same sentences, or nonsarcastic indirect requests, like Would you clean up your room? This suggests that people can understand sarcastic utterances without having to analyze the literal meanings of these expressions before figuring out their sarcastic interpretations. The results of experiment 2 showed that people better recognize sarcastic indirect requests than they do nonsarcastic ones. Experiment 3 ruled out the possibility that subjects remembered sarcastic expressions best because of any special intonation properties associated with these utterances. Overall, the results of these studies support the idea that sarcastic utterances are not necessarily more difficult to understand in conversation and that their special pragmatic properties makes them particularly memorable.     

Threat of pain influences social context effects on verbal pain report and facial expression

Current theoretical models of pain catastrophizing have diverging predictions regarding the role of social context and perceived threat on pain expression. The communal coping model of catastrophizing predicts that high pain catastrophizers display more pain expression in the presence of another, regardless of the threat value of the pain, while a cognitive appraisal model predicts high pain catastrophizers to express more pain when pain has increased threat value, regardless of social context. A 2 × 2 factorial design was used to test the validity of both predictions. Healthy participants with varying levels of pain catastrophizing were exposed to a cold pressor task, consisting of a 60 s immersion and 60 s recovery period. Interestingly, the immersion results revealed that beyond and independent from the effects of pain catastrophizing, the effect of threat on verbal pain report and facial expression was dependent on social context and vice versa. In a threatening context, perceived threat of pain mediated the inhibitory effect of social presence on pain expression, suggesting that the observer acted as a safety signal. In the recovery period, social presence enhanced facial expression, but only when no threat was induced. The results are discussed in terms of the dynamic interaction between social context and threat appraisals.     

Comprehension of familiar phrases by left- but not by right-hemisphere damaged patients

Single words, familiar phrases (idioms and speech formulas), and novel sentences (matched to the familiar phrases in length, frequency, and structure) were selected for a picture-matching auditory comprehension task and administered to left- and right-brain damaged (LBD, RBD) subjects. The groups did not differ in single word comprehension. A 2 x 2 ANOVA revealed opposite patterns on the two other tasks, with LBD subjects performing worse on novel than familiar phrases, and RBD subject impaired on familiar phrase but not on novel sentence comprehension. The role of grammatical/referential vs. holistic/inferential meaning in left and right hemisphere function is discussed.     

Effect of sentence length on the production of linguistic stress by left- and right-hemisphere-damaged patients

An acoustical/perceptual study of phonemic stress (e.g., HOTdog vs. hot DOG) was conducted to evaluate the effect of sentence length on stress production after brain damage. Productions of phonemic stress pairs were elicited in sentence contexts of increasing length from eight left-hemisphere-damaged nonfluent (LHD-NFL), fluent LHD-FL), right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD), and normal speakers (n = 32). Tape recordings of subjects' productions were presented to na?ve listeners for perceptual identification of stress placement. Acoustic analysis focused on fundamental frequency, duration, and intensity of the initial and final syllables as well as pause duration between syllables. Perceptual tests indicated that regardless of sentence length, all brain-damaged groups exhibited an impairment in the production of linguistic stress when compared to normals. The LHD-NFL group experienced the greatest difficulty in signaling stress contrasts, followed in order by the LHD-FL and RHD groups. In medium-length sentences, the LHD-FL group's performance was degraded by comparison to short-length sentences. Acoustic analysis showed that pause duration was the strongest predictor of phonemic stress for all groups. Acoustic profiles of the RHD group were similar qualitatively to those of normals, but differed quantitatively in terms of magnitude of effect associated with shifts in stress patterns. Findings are brought to bear on the nature of the stress production deficit after unilateral brain damage, the role of the right hemisphere in linguistic prosody, and the concept of "subtle phonetic deficit" in fluent aphasia.     

On problems of context and attribution in verbal reasoning

Investigated the effect of the verb on inferences in reasoning tasks with conditionals. Subjects were 60 pupils, both male and female, aged 17 to 18 years. Six verbs (buy, have, understand, ignore, hate, avoid) served as independent variables in conditional tasks consisting of two premises. The results which are statistically, highly significant, show an effect due to the verb depending upon the logical form of the task (2Î = 86.1, df= 30). indicate that certain semantic characteristics implicit in verbs determine the way in which a reasoning task is interpreted. A second experiment investigated why verbs differ in this way. Interviews were carried out with subjects using the verbs ‘buy’ and ‘ignore’. It is suggested that implicit meanings acquired through processes of social attribution play an essential role in verbal reasoning. In the present case, such attributions concern the depositional and episodic character of verbs and appear to be responsible for the interpretation of the premises of our tasks. It is concluded that any logical model aiming at an adequate representation of language in reasoning must take these implicit social attributions into account.     

Sensitivity to local sentence context information in lexical ambiguity resolution: evidence from left- and right-hemisphere-damaged individuals

Using a cross-modal semantic priming paradigm, the present study investigated the ability of left-hemisphere-damaged (LHD) nonfluent aphasic, right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD) and non-brain-damaged (NBD) control subjects to use local sentence context information to resolve lexically ambiguous words. Critical sentences were manipulated such that they were either unbiased, or biased toward one of two meanings of sentence-final equibiased ambiguous words. Sentence primes were presented auditorily, followed after a short (0 ms) or long (750 ms) interstimulus interval (ISI) by the presentation of a first- or second-meaning related visual target, on which subjects made a lexical decision. At the short ISI, neither patient group appeared to be influenced by context, in sharp contrast to the performance of the NBD control subjects. LHD nonfluent aphasic subjects activated both meanings of ambiguous words regardless of context, whereas RHD subjects activated only the first meaning in unbiased and second-meaning biased contexts. At the long ISI, LHD nonfluent aphasic subjects failed to show evidence of activation of either meaning, while RHD individuals activated first meanings in unbiased contexts and contextually appropriate meanings in second-meaning biased contexts. These findings suggest that both left (LH) and right hemisphere (RH) damage lead to deficits in using local contextual information to complete the process of ambiguity resolution. LH damage seems to spare initial access to word meanings, but initially impairs the ability to use context and results in a faster than normal decay of lexical activation. RH damage appears to initially disrupt access to context, resulting in an over-reliance on frequency in the activation of ambiguous word meanings.     

Odour‐based context reinstatement effects with indirect measures of memory: The curious case of rosemary

Previous studies examining environmental context‐dependent memory (ECDM) effects using indirect measures of memory have produced inconsistent findings. We report three experiments that examined ECDM in an indirect memory paradigm (word‐fragment completion) using ambient odours as environmental contexts. Expt 1 manipulated the odour present at learning and testing (rosemary or lemon) to produce reinstated‐context or switched‐context conditions. Reinstating rosemary led to a striking ECDM effect, indicating that indirect memory testing can be sensitive to ECDM manipulations. Odour ratings also indicated that rosemary induced a more unpleasant mood in participants than lemon. Expt 2 assessed the influence on indirect retrieval of odour‐based mood induction as well as odour distinctiveness, and indicated that rosemary's capacity to promote ECDM effects appears to arise from an additive combination of its unpleasantness‐inducing properties and its distinctiveness. Expt 3 partially supported these proposals. Overall, our findings indicate that some odours are capable of producing ECDM effects using indirect testing procedures. Moreover, it appears that it is the inherent proprieties of odours on dimensions such as unpleasantness and distinctiveness that mediate the emergence of ECDM effects, thereby explaining the particular potency of rosemary's mnemonic influence when it is reinstated.     

The link between maternal and child verbal abilities: An indirect effect through maternal responsiveness

Language abilities in early childhood show stability over time and play an important role in the development of other cognitive processes. Identifying modifiable environmental risk factors is important to informing prevention and early intervention efforts. Maternal verbal ability has been previously linked to child verbal ability. The current study examined whether maternal and child verbal abilities were linked indirectly through early childhood maternal responsiveness. Data come from a longitudinal birth cohort study. Participants included 133 mothers and their children recruited from maternity wards shortly after birth. Maternal verbal ability was measured using the Vocabulary subtest from the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, Second Edition (child age 8 months). Child verbal ability was assessed using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (36 months). A latent maternal responsiveness variable was estimated using three developmentally sensitive indicators; one during infancy (child age 8 months) and two when children were 36 months. Results of a structural equation model indicated a significant indirect effect from maternal verbal abilities to child verbal abilities through maternal responsiveness. This indirect path was significant even after inclusion of another indirect path from maternal executive functioning to child verbal ability through maternal responsiveness (which was not significant). Future studies will benefit from experimental, genetically sensitive and/or cross‐lagged designs to allow for conclusions related to directionality and causality. This body of research has implications for the study of the intergenerational transmission of verbal abilities and associated skills, behaviours and adaptive outcomes.     

Absorption and hypnotizability: context effects reexamined

Two independent studies failed to find evidence consistent with Council, Kirsch, and Hafner (1986), who argued that the repeatedly observed correlations between Tellegen's (1981) Absorption Scale (TAS) and hypnosis measures were artifacts of testing context, and de Groot, Gwynn, and Spanos (1988), who claimed evidence for a Gender x Context moderator effect. In the present studies, Ss completed the TAS and other personality questionnaires on 2 occasions: during an independent survey and later immediately prior to an assessment of hypnotizability. In Experiment 1 (N = 475), the effect of context on the relation between questionnaire scores and hypnotizability was weak and variable; in Experiment 2 (N = 434), these weak effects were reversed. The results reaffirm the construct validity of absorption as both a major dimension of personality and as a predictor of hypnotic responsiveness.     

Television and conceptions about sex roles: Maintaining conventionality and the status quo

This paper explores the image of men and women in annual sample of primetime network dramatic television programming, and the relationship between television viewing and espousing sexist views of the roles of men and women in society. The analysis revealed that sex role images, over the past 10–15 years, have been quite stable, traditional, conventional, and supportive of the status quo. The cultivation analysis, a secondary analysis of data from the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) General Social Surveys, provides some evidence that television viewing may be related to more sexist views of women's role in society.     

Clarification of the dual task dilemma: Lateralized effects for perfunctory and purposeful tasks in left- and right-handed males

The hypothesis that behavioral asymmetries with the dual task paradigm represent manual dominance was investigated with right- and left-handed males performing verbal and spatial tasks ordered by complexity. Lateralization was assessed for nonideational (perfunctory) and ideational (purposeful) components of tasks with multivariate and ANCOVA procedures. The outcomes of prerequisite tests showed the assumptions for conducting ANCOVA procedures were not satisfied with different handedness groups in the same design. However, results of the multivariate analyses suggest lateralized effects are more likely to represent the cognitive task when interference is high and may represent manual dominance when interference is low.     

Sex differences in physical,verbal, and indirect aggression: A review of recent research

In the present article, recent research on sex differences in aggressive styles is reviewed. The concept of indirect aggression is particularly presented and discussed. It is argued that it is incorrect, or rather, nonsensical, to claim that males are more aggressive than females. A theory regarding the development of styles of aggressive behavior is presented.     

Modality effects and the structure of short-term verbal memory

The effects of auditory and visual presentation upon short-term retention of verbal stimuli are reviewed, and a model of the structure of short-term memory is presented. The main assumption of the model is that verbal information presented to the auditory and visual modalities is processed in separate streams that have different properties and capabilities. Auditory items are automatically encoded in both the A (acoustic) code, which, in the absence of subsequent input, can be maintained for some time without deliberate allocation of attention, and a P (phonological) code. Visual items are retained in both the P code and a visual code. Within the auditory stream, successive items are strongly associated; in contrast, in the visual modality, it is simultaneously presented items that are strongly associated. These assumptions about the structure of short-term verbal memory are shown to account for many of the observed effect of presentation modality.