Flexible spatial mapping of different notations of numbers in Chinese readers

The spatial component of numerical and ordinal information has been explored in previous research. However, how such mapping emerges and how it is affected by the learning experience are issues still under debate. In the current study, we examined the orientation of the mental number line for different numerical notations (e.g., “1”, “—-”, “”) in Chinese readers. Our data demonstrated that Arabic numbers are mentally aligned horizontally with a left-to-right directionality, while Chinese number words are aligned vertically with a top-to-bottom directionality. These findings indicate that different notations of the same concept have flexible mappings within space, which is plausibly shaped by the dominant context in which the numerical notations appear.     

Quantifying developing country research capacity in the areas of malaria,schistosomiasis, and leprosy

Implicit in addressing the issue of how to build and strengthen health related endogenous research capacity is that both donor organizations and developing country policymakers distinguish betweenhealth priorities andhealth research priorities. This distinction has important policy consequences in that the majority of developing countries are not in a position, either in financial or human resource terms, to simultaneously generate and implement broad-based priorities in both areas. In this context, it is important that health research priority setting be developed in tandem with existing research capacity. This underlines the importance of assessing the amount and nature of available expertise, and positioning research output, both in the national health needs, and the international science research contexts. The present article, which more properly constitutes a feasibility study, uses scientometric methods to assess the amount and nature of scientific output in three important tropical diseases: malaria, schistosomiasis and leprosy. The major goals of this study have been to i) compare the amount and nature of research produced in developed and developing countries for the three diseases; ii) determine in how far scientometric methods can be used to measure research capacity, and whether this measurement can facilitate the determination of health (research) priorities.     

Processing of disyllabic compound words in Chinese aphasia: evidence for the processing limitations account

The current study addresses the debate between so-called 'structural' and 'processing limitation' accounts of aphasia, i.e., whether language impairments reflect the 'loss' of linguistic knowledge or its representations, or instead reflect a limitation in processing resources. Confrontation-naming task and category-judgment tasks were used to examine and compare the performance of non-fluent and fluent aphasics on different compound types of nouns and verbs. We demonstrate that aphasic patients' performance is modulated by the canonicity of the particular compound type, a result that holds true even for the category in which patients show a 'selective category deficit.' These findings weigh against the 'loss' of linguistic representations as the underlying cause of noun-verb deficits, instead supporting a 'processing limitations' approach.     

Postural configuration affects the perception of earth-based space during pitch tilt

This study investigates the relative contribution of body parts in the elaboration of a whole-body egocentric attraction phenomenon previously observed during earth-based judgments. This was addressed through a particular earth-based task requiring estimating the possibility of passing under a projected line, imagining a forward horizontal displacement. Different postural configurations were tested, involving whole-body tilt, trunk tilt alone or head tilt alone. Two legs positions relative to the trunk were manipulated. Results showed systematic deviations of the subjective “passability” toward the tilt, linearly related to the tilt magnitude. For each postural configuration, the egocentric influence appeared to be highly dependent on the position of trunk and head axes, whereas the legs position appeared not relevant. When compared to the whole-body tilt condition, tilting the trunk alone consistently reduced the amount of the deviation toward the tilt, whereas tilting the head alone consistently increased it. Our results suggest that several specific effects from multiple body parts can account for the global deviation of the estimates observed during whole-body tilt. Most importantly, we support that the relative contribution of the body segments could mainly depend on a reweighting process, probably based on the reliability of sensory information available for a particular postural set.