When bicycle pump is harder to read than bicycle bell: effects of parsing cues in first and second language compound reading

Reading and understanding morphologically complex words can sometimes be a particular challenge to nonnative speakers. For example, compound words consist of multiple free morphemes, oftentimes without explicit marking of the morpheme boundaries. In a lexical decision task, we investigated compound reading in native and nonnative speakers of Dutch. The compounds differed in that the letter bigram that formed the morpheme boundary could or could not occur within a Dutch morpheme, thus providing an orthotactic cue as to the position of the morpheme boundary. Native and nonnative speakers responded faster to compounds that contained such an orthotactic cue. Additional analyses showed that although native speakers used this cue for long, but not for short compounds, no such word length modulation was observed for nonnative speakers. It is suggested that orthotactic parsing cues are used during compound reading and possibly even more so in nonnative speakers.     

Extraversion and its positive emotional core--further evidence from neuroscience

Converging evidence from self-report data demonstrated that extraversion and dispositional positive affect are systematically related. Several authors therefore considered positive affect as the conceptual core of extraversion. Because the ventral striatum is regarded as a core region in the physiological basis of extraversion, the present study examines the importance of this neural substrate with a special focus on positive affect. Baseline cerebral blood flow was measured in 38 participants and regressed to the extraversion and dispositional positive affect scales. Partial correlational and indirect-effects analyses indicated that striatal blood flow was no longer associated with extraversion when positive affect was statistically controlled. In contrast, when extraversion was statistically controlled, striatal blood flow was still associated with positive affect. This finding suggests that the striatal region is not a biological basis of extraversion per se. Rather, this region sustains positive affect, which in turn appears to be a core feature of extraversion.     

On the creative role of axiomatics. The discovery of lattices by Schröder,Dedekind, Birkhoff,and others

Three different ways in which systems of axioms can contribute to the discovery of new notions are presented and they are illustrated by the various ways in which lattices have been introduced in mathematics by Schröder et al. These historical episodes reveal that the axiomatic method is not only a way of systematizing our knowledge, but that it can also be used as a fruitful tool for discovering and introducing new mathematical notions. Looked at it from this perspective, the creative aspect of axiomatics for mathematical practice is brought to the fore.     

The hide-and-seek of retrospective revaluation: recovery from blocking is context dependent in human causal learning

In a typical blocking procedure, pairings of a compound consisting of 2 stimuli, A and X, with the outcome are preceded by pairings of only A with the outcome (i.e., A+ then AX+). This procedure is known to diminish responding to the target cue (X) relative to a control group that does not receive the preceding training with blocking cue A. We report 2 experiments that investigated the effect of extinguishing a blocking cue on responding to the target cue in a human causal learning paradigm (i.e., A+ and AX+ training followed by A- training). The results indicate that extinguishing a blocking cue increases conditioned responding to the target cue. Moreover, this increase appears to be context dependent, such that increased responding to the target is limited to the context in which extinction of the blocking cue took place. We discuss these findings in the light of associative and propositional learning theories.     

Pr?diktoren tumorassoziierter Fatigue

Fatigue is a serious cancer-related syndrome reported by cancer patients during and after treatment. Especially the impact of chronic fatigue on quality of life is substantial. The aim of this study was to identify predictors of fatigue after finishing treatment from an early stage of the cancer treatment. A sample of 551 cancer patients with heterogeneous diagnoses completed questionnaires assessing fatigue, psychological and psychosomatic data plus treatment data. The patients were recruited from an acute care hospital (t1) and the participants completed the questionnaire 2?C2.5 years after treatment (t2). Regression analysis showed that the strongest predictor of later fatigue was fatigue during the therapy. Other impact factors are radiotherapy and pain. The results suggest that the diagnosis and treatment of acute fatigue should be carried out at an early stage of cancer treatment to prevent chronic fatigue. Suitable diagnostic methods and treatment options will be presented.     

Behavioral and fMRI evidence that cognitive ability modulates the effect of semantic context on speech intelligibility

Text cues facilitate the perception of spoken sentences to which they are semantically related (Zekveld, Rudner, et al., 2011). In this study, semantically related and unrelated cues preceding sentences evoked more activation in middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) than nonword cues, regardless of acoustic quality (speech in noise or speech in quiet). Larger verbal working memory (WM) capacity (reading span) was associated with greater intelligibility benefit obtained from related cues, with less speech-related activation in the left superior temporal gyrus and left anterior IFG, and with more activation in right medial frontal cortex for related versus unrelated cues. Better ability to comprehend masked text was associated with greater ability to disregard unrelated cues, and with more activation in left angular gyrus (AG). We conclude that individual differences in cognitive abilities are related to activation in a speech-sensitive network including left MTG, IFG and AG during cued speech perception.     

Psychoedukation bei Borderline-Pers?nlichkeitsst?rungen für Betroffene und Angeh?rige

Psychoeducation programs have been developed for patients with psychoses and also for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Psychoeducation has the function of a basic psychotherapeutic program that offers patients and their relatives a better understanding of the illness and of the treatment options as well as a means of communication at eye level with the therapists. This article introduces the Munich model of psychoeducation for BPD and the modifications for the work with relatives.     

Twice random,once mixed: Applying mixed models to simultaneously analyze random effects of language and participants

Psychologists, psycholinguists, and other researchers using language stimuli have been struggling for more than 30 years with the problem of how to analyze experimental data that contain two crossed random effects (items and participants). The classical analysis of variance does not apply; alternatives have been proposed but have failed to catch on, and a statistically unsatisfactory procedure of using two approximations (known as F ₁ and F ₂) has become the standard. A simple and elegant solution using mixed model analysis has been available for 15 years, and recent improvements in statistical software have made mixed models analysis widely available. The aim of this article is to increase the use of mixed models by giving a concise practical introduction and by giving clear directions for undertaking the analysis in the most popular statistical packages. The article also introduces the djmixed add-on package for SPSS, which makes entering the models and reporting their results as straightforward as possible.     

Divine Self-Invention: Leontius of Jerusalem'S Reinterpretation of the Patristic Model of the Christian God

This article analyses the Trinitarian theology of the seventh-centurytheologian Leontius of Jerusalem. Leontius’ overridingconcern was to demonstrate that the concept of composition,which seemed to entail change in the component parts, couldbe applied to the incarnation of the Word. However, in developinghis argument he radically reinterpreted traditional Trinitariantheology. He not only reorganized the Trinity according to thechristological model so that the relation between Father andSon mirrors the relation between Word and flesh but also turnedit from a timeless framework, within which the event of theincarnation takes place, into the result of a previous act ofdivine self-constitution. Such reasoning became possible becauseLeontius conceived of God not in terms of being but in termsof action and will: God must act in order to be God in the truesense but at the same time he is not constrained by his ownnature and can therefore reinvent himself whenever he wishes.Leontius’ model of God is not a complete innovation: theconceptual framework had existed for a long time. However, onlyafter the radical deconstruction of the Patristic understandingof God with its careful balance between voluntaristic and ontologicalelements could it become the basis of Christian belief.