Age-related differences in idea generation and selection for propositional language

Conceptual preparation mechanisms such as novel idea generation and selection from amongst competing alternatives are critical for language production and may contribute to age-related language deficits. This study investigated whether older adults show diminished idea generation and selection abilities, compared to younger adults. Twenty younger (18–35 years) and 20 older (60–80 years) adults completed two novel experimental tasks, an idea generation task and a selection task. Older participants were slower than younger participants overall on both tasks. Importantly, this difference was more pronounced for task conditions with greater demands on generation and selection. Older adults were also significantly reduced on a semantic, but not phonemic, word fluency task. Overall, the older group showed evidence of age-related decline specific to idea generation and selection ability. This has implications for the message formulation stage of propositional language decline in normal aging.     

Retrieval of propositional information from long-term memory

Three experiments are reported in which subjects learn propositions like A hippie is in the park. The experiments manipulate the number of such propositions involving a particular person (e.g., hippie) or a particular location (e.g., park). After learning the material, subjects are asked to judge whether particular probe propositions are from the study set. Times to make these judgments about probe propositions increase with the number of study propositions involving the person or location used in the probe proposition. A model is presented which assumes a subject simultaneously accesses memory from all concepts in a probe proposition and serially searches through all study propositions involving each concept. Search of memory terminates as soon as one search process from a concept finds the probe proposition or exhausts the study propositions attached to that concept.     

The phenomenology of propositional attitudes

Propositional attitudes are often classified as non-phenomenal mental states. I argue that there is no good reason for doing so. The unwillingness to view propositional attitudes as being essentially phenomenal stems from a biased notion of phenomenality, from not paying sufficient attention to the idioms in which propositional attitudes are usually reported, from overlooking the considerable degree to which different intentional modes can be said to be phenomenologically continuous, and from not considering the possibility that propositional attitudes may be transparent, just like sensations and emotions are commonly held to be: there may be no appropriate way of describing their phenomenal character apart from describing the properties and objects they represent.     

A propositional theory of recognition memory

This paper modifies the Anderson and Bower (1972) theory of recognition memory for words. A propositional representation is outlined for the contextual information underlying word recognition. Logical arguments are offered for preferring this representation over the undifferentiated associative representation used earlier. The propositional representation is used to interpret effects of verbal context upon recognition memory. The implications of these context effects are considered for two-process models of recall and recognition.     

Modal companions of intermediate propositional logics

This paper is a survey of results concerning embeddings of intuitionistic propositional logic and its extensions into various classical modal systems.     

Automatic measurement of aspects of speech reflecting motor coordination

An experimental setting and a method of measurement are described in which five parameters are recorded to reflect speech motor activity. From a psychological or clinical point of view, these parameters are a valuable supplement to traditional motor parameters. In the first experiment, it is shown that this method allows for an objective measure of these parameters. The second experiment proves their high short-term stability. This method requires an IBM-compatible PC, an AD-converter card, software, and microphones. Since a computer is used to evaluate the parameters, a simple registration of these parameters is possible. Applications in the area of speech disorders and short-term changes of speech are discussed.     

A pragmatic interpretation of intuitionistic propositional logic

We construct an extension ^P of the standard language of classical propositional logic by adjoining to the alphabet of a new category of logical-pragmatic signs. The well formed formulas of are calledradical formulas (rfs) of ^P;rfs preceded by theassertion sign constituteelementary assertive formulas of ^P, which can be connected together by means of thepragmatic connectives N, K, A, C, E, so as to obtain the set of all theassertive formulas (afs). Everyrf of ^P is endowed with atruth value defined classically, and everyaf is endowed with ajustification value, defined in terms of the intuitive notion of proof and depending on the truth values of its radical subformulas. In this framework, we define the notion ofpragmatic validity in ^P and yield a list of criteria of pragmatic validity which hold under the assumption that only classical metalinguistic procedures of proof be accepted. We translate the classical propositional calculus (CPC) and the intuitionistic propositional calculus (IPC) into the assertive part of ^P and show that this translation allows us to interpret Intuitionistic Logic as an axiomatic theory of the constructive proof concept rather than an alternative to Classical Logic. Finally, we show that our framework provides a suitable background for discussing classical problems in the philosophy of logic.This paper is an enlarged and entirely revised version of the paper by Dalla Pozza (1991) worked out in the framework of C.N.R. project n. 89.02281.08, and published in Italian. The basic ideas in it have been propounded since 1986 by Dalla Pozza in a series of seminars given at the University of Lecce and in other Italian Universities. C. Garola collected the scattered parts of the work, helped in solving some conceptual difficulties and refining the formalism, yielded the proofs of some propositions (in particular, in Section 3) and provided physical examples (see in particular Remark 2.3.1).     

Quantified extensions of canonical propositional intermediate logics

The quantified extension of a canonical prepositional intermediate logic is complete with respect to the generalization of Kripke semantics taking into consideration set-valued functors defined on a category.     

The propositional basis of cue-controlled reward seeking

Two experiments examined the role of propositional and automatic (ideomotor) processes in cue-elicited responding for rewarding outcomes (beer and chocolate). In a training phase, participants earned either chocolate or beer points by making one of two button-press responses. Rewards were indicated by the presentation of chocolate and beer pictures. On test, each trial began with a picture of beer or chocolate, or a blank screen, and choice of the beer versus chocolate response was assessed in the presence of these three pictures. Participants tended to choose the beer and chocolate response in the presence of the beer and chocolate pictures, respectively. In Experiment 1, instructions signalling that the pictures did not indicate which response would be rewarded significantly reduced the priming effect. In Experiment 2, instructions indicating that the pictures signified which response would not be rewarded resulted in a reversed priming effect. Finally, in both experiments, the priming effect correlated with self-reported beliefs that the cues signalled which response was more likely to be reinforced. These results suggest that cue-elicited response selection is mediated by a propositional belief regarding the efficacy of the response–outcome relationship, rather than an automatic ideomotor mechanism.     

The disjunction property of intermediate propositional logics

This paper is a survey of results concerning the disjunction property, Halldén-completeness, and other related properties of intermediate prepositional logics and normal modal logics containing S4.     

Determinants of processing for a propositional structure

The main purpose of this study was to characterize differences among propositions within a propositional structure. Propositions were described in terms of degree (the number of other propositions to which each is connected) and in terms of a kind of hierarchical level. Paragraphs having a given structure were tested in three tasks: selection of the most important proposition, free recall, and reading under two orienting instructions. Performance was analyzed according to degree and level of the individual propositions and according to the sequences of propositions within the paragraphs. All of these variables affected performance in various tasks. The results were discussed in terms of the distinction between initial encoding and subsequent recall.