Learning With Real Machines or Diagrams: Application of Knowledge to Real-World Problems

In this study, we investigated how learning from different media, either from real pulley systems or from simple line diagrams, affected mechanical learning and problem solving. Novice subjects learned about pulley systems by comparing the efficiency of different systems and receiving feedback on their accuracy. The main outcome measures were subjects' ability to compare pulley system efficiency, their level of mechanical reasoning, and their ability to apply knowledge of system efficiency and construction details. Experiment 1 showed that (a) subjects learning with the two types of media made equal improvement on the learning task, and (b) all subjects showed an increase in quantitative understanding as they learned, but (c) subjects who learned hands-on, by manipulating real pulley systems, solved application problems more accurately than those who learned from diagrams. Experiment 2 showed that both the realism of the stimuli and the opportunity to manipulate systems contributed to the improved performance on application problems.     

Word Knowledge Dimensions in L2 Lexical Inference: Testing Vocabulary Knowledge and Partial Word Knowledge

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - This study explored the role of word knowledge dimensions in second language (L2) word-meaning inference. College-level L2 learners (N?=?121)...     

When is a Word a Word: The Development of Word Knowledge

The present study was conducted to determine if children's increasing knowledge of wordness could be characterized as conforming to a system of successively mastered levels of understanding similar to acquisitions in a number of other cognitive domains. Stimuli differing on dimensions of word appearance and meaning were presented to first-, third-, fifth-, and seventh-grade students and to college students, who were required to identify whether or not each stimulus was a word and to indicate their certainty about these decisions. The validity of a hierarchical system of levels of understanding of wordness was confirmed. In addition, developmental predictions about accuracy and certainty were supported. It was concluded that children's word knowledge is not unidimensional but involves several underlying component processes.     

汉语双字复合词识别中语义、词类和构词法信息的激活

以90名中国大学生为被试,采用启动条件下的词汇判断任务,探讨了SOA在57ms、157ms和314ms条件下汉语双字复合词语义、词类和构词法等词汇信息激活的相对时间进程。结果表明,在57ms时语义信息已经被激活,在157ms时语义和词类两种信息均被激活,在314ms时激活了语义、词类和构词法三类信息。汉语双字复合词识别中最先激活语义信息,接着激活词类信息,构词法信息激活最晚。语义和词类信息激活后,随着SOA增加,其激活强度有增强的趋势。语义信息在整个词汇信息激活中占有优势。     

Real-World Knowledge Facilitates Interpretation of Paintings by Naive Art Observers

It is often assumed that women kill themselves because of love and men because of achievement problems. The authors evaluated the suicide notes of 56 U.S. adult women and men with regard to love and achievement motives. Love themes were significantly more common than achievement themes, independent of sex and age. This suggests that, at least for U.S. adults who leave suicide notes, relationship concerns may be a dominant component of the motivation for suicide.     

汉语言语产生中词类信息的激活

用图词干扰范式考察汉语言语产生中词类信息的激活.结果表明,无论单个名词命名还是名词短语命名,SOA=-100ms时都出现词类干扰效应,名词干扰条件下图片命名反应时显著长于动词干扰条件下,表明词类信息已经激活.     

Automatic Activation of Word Phonology from Print in Deep Dyslexia

The performance of deep dyslexics in oral reading and other tasks suggests that they are poor at activating the phonology of words and non-words from printed stimuli. As the tasks ordinarily used to test deep dyslexics require controlled processing, it is possible that the phonology of printed words can be better activated on an automatic basis. This study investigated this possibility by testing a deep dyslexic patient on a lexical decision task with pairs of stimuli presented simultaneously. In Experiment 1, which used content words as stimuli, the deep dyslexic, like normal subjects, showed faster reaction times on trials with rhyming, similarly spelled stimuli (e.g. bribe-tribe) than on control trials (consisting of non-rhyming, dissimilarly spelled words), but slower reaction times on trials with non-rhyming, similarly spelled stimuli (e.g. couch-touch). When the experiment was repeated using function words as stimuli, the patient no longer showed a phonological effect. Therefore, the phonological activation of printed content words by deep dyslexics may be better than would be expected on the basis of their oral reading performance.     

The Effects of Real-World Knowledge on Text Processing Among Older Adults

In the present study, the effects of knowledge on text processing were investigated among older adults. Past research has shown that knowledge reduces processing time among older readers, however, this finding was based on schematic knowledge. Schematic knowledge is a highly prescribed knowledge that draws on commonly held general world knowledge. Domain knowledge, on the other hand, is specialized real-world knowledge within a particular area (e.g., chess, physics, cooking). Past research has shown that domain knowledge engages additional processing resources among younger adults. If this is true of the elderly, then this type of knowledge may pose a challenge to older adults. Regression analyses were used to investigate word-by-word reading time patterns among high- and low-knowledge older adults. Older high-knowledge readers did in fact increase resource allocation to texts that drew on domain knowledge and in turn showed higher levels of recall. These data suggest that knowledge promotes the productive allocation of processing resources among older adults, thus enabling them to take full advantage of knowledge.     

Word Learning and Attention Allocation Based on Word Class and Category Knowledge

Attention allocation in word learning may vary developmentally based on the novelty of the object. It has been suggested that children differentially learn verbs based on the novelty of the agent, but adults do not because they automatically infer the object's category and thus treat it like a familiar object. The current research examined whether adults and children differentially learn words or attend to objects without access to category knowledge in a relatively difficult (Experiment 1, adult n = 54, child n = 66) and a relatively easy task (Experiment 2, adult n = 88, child n = 62). Results show that category knowledge affects noun and verb extension for children but not adults and that adults similarly attended to objects when learning a verb regardless of category knowledge. These findings highlight the importance of investigating how word class, attention allocation, and categorical inference interact across development. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Feature Statistics Modulate the Activation of Meaning During Spoken Word Processing

Understanding spoken words involves a rapid mapping from speech to conceptual representations. One distributed feature‐based conceptual account assumes that the statistical characteristics of concepts’ features—the number of concepts they occur in (distinctiveness/sharedness) and likelihood of co‐occurrence (correlational strength)—determine conceptual activation. To test these claims, we investigated the role of distinctiveness/sharedness and correlational strength in speech‐to‐meaning mapping, using a lexical decision task and computational simulations. Responses were faster for concepts with higher sharedness, suggesting that shared features are facilitatory in tasks like lexical decision that require access to them. Correlational strength facilitated responses for slower participants, suggesting a time‐sensitive co‐occurrence‐driven settling mechanism. The computational simulation showed similar effects, with early effects of shared features and later effects of correlational strength. These results support a general‐to‐specific account of conceptual processing, whereby early activation of shared features is followed by the gradual emergence of a specific target representation.     

Usefulness of Tables for Solving Word Problems

Our previous research on algebra word problems (Reed, Dempster, & Ettinger, 1985) revealed that students usually could not use one problem's solution to solve a similar problem that required a slight modification of the solution. In an attempt to improve their performance, we gave students practice on either filling in tables or using completed tables. Practice on entering values into tables usually did not improve performance on constructing equations because students often failed to enter the correct values. Students' use of completed tables resulted in improved performance when the tables were provided but did not result in transfer to isomorphic problems in which the tables were not provided. Encouraging students to use previous solutions resulted in partial success on the isomorphic problems, which was explained by using a task analysis based on Sternberg's (1977) model for four-term analogy problems.     

蒙语词汇识别中语音自动激活的ERP研究

采用快速掩蔽启动范式、Go/No-go范式和事件相关电位（ERP）技术,探讨蒙语词汇识别过程中语音自动激活的时程及对语义通达的作用。实验中要求被试执行一个额外的语义分类任务,对关键刺激不做明显的行为反应。结果发现,SOA为67ms时,语音启动在头皮的额区诱发了明显的P150和N400成分;SOA为167ms时,语音启动在头皮的额区和中央区诱发了明显的P200成分,在整个大脑皮层诱发了明显的N400成分。结果表明,语音在蒙语词汇识别的早期自动激活并促进语义的通达。     

Assessing the Effect of Language Demand in Bundles of Math Word Problems

Differential bundle functioning (DBF) analyses were conducted to determine whether seventh and eighth grade second language learners (SLLs) had lower probabilities of answering bundles of math word problems correctly that had heavy language demands, when compared to non-SLLs of equal math proficiency. Math word problems on each of four test forms (two at Grade 7 and two at Grade 8) were bundled together if they used the passive voice, conditional clause, relative clause, or a combination of any two. The results showed that the average total scores for SLLs was significantly lower than that for non-SLLs on each test form. However, only two bundles (passive voice and conditional clause at Grade 7 on Form 2) indicated statistically significant DBF against SLLs in favor of matched non-SLLs. An additional step was taken to determine whether the two bundles that showed statistically significant DBF against SLLs had biased the mean total scores for this group.The Walker, Zhang, Banks, and Cappaert (2012) procedure established for this purpose showed that this was not the case. Implications of the results are provided as well as suggestions for future research.     

汉语听觉词汇加工中声调信息对语义激活的制约作用

进行了三个跨通道启动词汇判断实验,探讨汉语听觉词汇加工中声调信息对语义激活的制约作用。实验一和二使用具有相同音段信息、但不同声调信息的双音节合成词（如“条约”和“跳跃”）作为听觉启动词,与其中一个词有语义关系的双字词作为视觉探测词。语义启动词与其配对的声调不匹配词在第一音节的声调、第二音节的声调、或两个声调上有所不同。实验三改变语义启动词的第一或第二音节的声调,以产生声调不匹配的假词启动项;实验三还同时变化了原来的声调与产生的声调之间的相似性。实验结果表明,声调不匹配的启动项目是否产生显著的启动效应取决于词汇竞争的环境、声调输入与深层声调表征之间匹配的程度,以及不匹配的声调所在的位置。文章从语音输入中的声调信息如何激活词汇表征、声调信息如何存储在心理词典中、声调对语义激活的制约作用如何受竞争环境的影响这三个方面讨论了研究的发现。     

Knowledge Based Solution Strategies in Medical Reasoning

The techniques of propositionol analysis are used to examine the protocols of seven cardiologists in a task involving the diagnosis of a case of acute bacterial endocarditis and an explanation of its underlying pathophysiology. It is shown that the explanations of physicians making an accurate diagnosis can be accounted for in terms of a model consisting of pure forward reasoning through a network of causal rules, actuated by relevant propositions embedded in the stimulus text. These rules appear to derive from the physician's underlying knowledge base rather than any information in the text itself. In contrast, subjects with inacurate diagnoses tend to make use of a mixture of forward and backward reasoning, beginning with a high level hypothesis and proceeding in a top-down fashion to the propositions embedded in stimulus text, or to the generation of irrelevant rules.     

Learning to Troubleshoot: Multistrategy Learning of Diagnostic Knowledge for a Real-World Problem-Solving Task

This article presents a computational model of the learning of diagnostic knowledge, based on observations of human operators engaged in real-world troubleshooting tasks. We present a model of problem solving and learning in which the reasoner introspects about its own performance on the problem-solving task, identifies what it needs to learn to improve its performance, formulates learning goals to acquire the required knowledge, and pursues its learning goals using multiple learning strategies. The model is implemented in a computer system which provides a case study based on observations of troubleshooting operators and protocol analysis of the data gathered in the test area of an operational electronics manufacturing plant. The model not only addresses issues in human learning, but, in addition, is computationally justified as a uniform, extensible framework for multistrategy learning.     

同音字族内的听觉通道词频效应与同音字表征的激活

对于同音词家族较大的词汇(例如汉语单音节词), 听觉通道的词汇通达和词汇表征的激活会受同音词汇歧义怎样的影响, 仍不很清楚。本研究采用了两个听觉通道的实验。实验一的听写任务发现在孤立音节的同音字选择上存在歧义的同时还存在同音字族内的高频偏向, 并非随机选择; 实验二的音-字同音判断任务对比同音与不同音条件得到同音促进量, 揭示了孤立音节在激活语音表征时还会引起同音高频字表征的自动激活, 而同音低频字则受到抑制。结果说明存在同音字族内的听觉通道词频效应, 同音的高、中、低频字的表征激活具有不同等性, 导致不穷尽通达, 且同音的最高频字得到更多通达机会。这些发现难以被现有的词汇通达和同音词表征激活模型解释, 文章提出一个能够解释这些听觉通道发现的模型。     

Partial Knowledge of Word Meanings: Thematic and Taxonomic Representations

The type of information (taxonomic or thematic) available at different levels of knowledge was investigated. Following extensive norming to identify taxonomic and thematic associates of low-frequency nouns, participants determined if taxonomic or thematic associates were meaningfully related to target words at three levels of knowledge: target words they correctly defined (known), recognized as familiar (frontier), or mistakenly denied as part of the language (unknown). In another experiment, participants reported which type of relationship (taxonomic or thematic) was preferred. Results indicated that both types of information were available at all levels of knowledge. However, accuracy and preference were greater for taxonomic associates across word levels. A differential increase in available thematic information relative to taxonomic information was found. Implications for the acquisition and representation of word meanings are discussed.