Production of non-canonical sentences in agrammatic aphasia: limits in representation or rule application?

The study reported here compares two linguistically informed hypotheses on agrammatic sentence production, the TPH [Friedmann, N., & Grodzinsky, Y. (1997). Tense and agreement in agrammatic production: Pruning the syntactic tree. Brain and Language, 56, 397-425.] and the DOP [Bastiaanse, R., & van Zonneveld, R. (2005). Sentence production with verbs of alternating transitivity in agrammatic Broca's aphasia. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 18, 59-66]. To explain impaired production of non-canonical sentences in agrammatism, the TPH basically relies on deleted or pruned clause structure positions in the left periphery, whereas the DOP appeals to limitations in the application of movement rules. Certain non-canonical sentences such as object-questions and object-relative clauses require the availability of nodes in the left periphery as well as movement to these nodes. In languages with relatively fixed word order such as English, the relevant test cases generally involve a coincidence of left periphery and movement, such that the predictions of the TPH and the DOP are identical although for different reasons. In languages with relatively free word order such as German, on the other hand, it is possible to devise specific tests of the different predictions due to the availability of scrambling. Scrambled object sentences, for example, do not involve the left periphery but do require application of movement in a domain below the left periphery. A study was conducted with German agrammatic subjects which elicited canonical sentences without object movement and non-canonical scrambled sentences with object movement. The results show that agrammatic speakers have a particular problem with the production of scrambled sentences. Further evidence reported in the study from spontaneous speech, elicitation of object relatives, questions and passives and with different agrammatic subjects confirms that non-canonical sentences are generally harder to produce for agrammatics. These findings provide evidence in favor of the DOP and it will be argued that a cross-modal explanation of agrammatic deficits is possible if two factors--movement and canonicity--are taken into consideration.     

Forgiveness and psychological adjustment following interpersonal transgressions: A longitudinal analysis

Forgiveness is often assumed to be adaptive for psychological adjustment following interpersonal transgressions. Three hundred and forty seven individuals who had experienced a recent interpersonal transgression were surveyed on four occasions over the course of six weeks. Forgiveness was assessed with scales measuring interpersonal avoidance and revenge motivation and psychological adjustment was assessed with scales measuring depression and rumination. Latent growth curve analyses showed that intraindividual changes in forgiveness were positively correlated with changes in adjustment. Latent difference score analyses indicated that adjustment predicted subsequent change in forgiveness, but that forgiveness did not predict subsequent change in adjustment. The results suggest that adjustment facilitates forgiveness, but not that forgiveness facilitates adjustment.     

Antecedent-Relative Comparative World Similarity

In “Backward Causation and the Stalnaker–Lewis Approach to Counterfactuals,” Analysis 62:191–7, (2002), Michael Tooley argues that if a certain kind of backward causation is possible, then a Stalnaker–Lewis comparative world similarity account of the truth conditions of counterfactuals cannot be sound. In “Tooley on Backward Causation,” Analysis 63:157–62, (2003), Paul Noordhof argues that Tooley’s example can be reconciled with a Stalnaker–Lewis account of counterfactuals if the comparative world similarity relation on which the Stalnaker–Lewis account relies is allowed to be antecedent-relative. In this paper I show that taking comparative world similarity to be antecedent-relative results in a formal semantics which is a comparative world similarity semantics in name only.     

Do You Know What I Feel? Partners' Predictions and Judgments of Each Other's Emotional Reactions to Emotion-Eliciting Situations

The goal of the present study was to investigate empathic accuracy in couples, specifically the partners' ability to predict each other's emotional reactions to social situations. For this, 36 French Canadian couples aged from 18 to 34 years predicted their own reactions as well as their partner's reactions to a series of emotional situations. They then role-played these emotional situations while being videotaped. At a later time, the taped role-play segments were rated by the role-play actors themselves, by their partners, and by 5 individuals who did not know the actors. Results revealed high levels of empathic accuracy when we compared the partners' predictions of each other's reactions. However, when these predictions were compared with the participants' self-evaluations of their role-plays or with evaluations by individuals who did not know the actors, partners showed a positive bias in that they predicted more appropriate and fewer inappropriate reactions to the social situations for their partners than were self-rated by the partners themselves or rated by individuals who did not know the actors. Finally, the existence of couple-specific private meaning systems could not be confirmed in the present context as the evaluations of emotional expressions by unknown others, the actors' partners, and the actors themselves were largely congruent.     

The Reliability and Validity of Big Five Inventory Scores With African American College Students

The reliability and validity of scores on the Big Five Inventory (BFI; O. P. John, E. M. Donahue, & R. L. Kentle, 1991) were examined in a sample of 336 African American college students. Results indicated moderate reliability and structural validity for BFI scores. Additionally, BFI subscales had few meaningful correlations with self‐esteem and social desirability. La fiabilidad y la validez de los resultados del Inventario “Big Five” (BFI; O. P. John, E. M. Donahue, y R. L. Kentle, 1991) se examinan en una muestra de 336 estudiantes universitarios afro‐americanos. Los resultados indican una fiabilidad moderada y una validez estructural para los resultados del BFI. Adicionalmente, las subescalas del BFI tuvieron pocas correlaciones importantes con el auto‐estima y el deseo social.     

Meta-analyses and systematic reviews of psychological treatments for chronic pain: relevance to an evidence-based practice.

As evidence-based practitioners become more reliant on systematic reviews to inform treatment, it becomes important to systematize reporting details as well as improve the quality of the primary studies that will later be incorporated into this secondary literature. In this article, the authors consider several specific factors that can serve this function in the area of chronic pain: (a) adhering to a standardized set of reporting standards; (b) measuring a standardized set of short- and long-term outcome variables; (c) providing information about individual differences; and (d) providing detailed, easily accessible documentation of the treatment program (or progams). The article also highlights ways that practitioners and researchers can collaborate on treatment outcome research, thereby improving the ability to discover and disseminate effective treatments for patients who suffer from chronic pain.     

Psychopathology,family functioning,and cognitive style in urban adolescents with suicide attempts

This study examined psychopathology, family functioning, and cognitive style in 121 African-American adolescents who attempted suicide. Group means suggested that these youths, when taken together, were not reporting significant psychological distress. However, after classifying the youths into three groups by level of depressive symptoms interesting findings emerged. Youth self-reports of depressive symptoms on the Children's Depression Inventory were associated with the presence of internalizing and externalizing disorders on the Youth Self-Report and Child Behavior Checklist, and with a maladaptive attributional style. Sixty-seven percent of participants classified their family types as maladaptive in terms of levels of cohesion and/or adaptability. In fact, the majority of adolescents and parents reported their families as disengaged. These findings are discussed from a culturally and developmentally sensitive framework which considers key demographic variables (race, socioeconomic status, age). Clinical implications are offered for individual and family interventions.     

LOTTERIES AND THE TIME HORIZON

Abstract— People chose between hypothetical alternatives of (a) a million-dollar lottery prize and (b) a much smaller but certain amount of money When probabilities of winning the lottery were above about 1/100,000, subjects avoided risk, for example, a 1/100,000 probability of the million-dollar prize was chosen about as often as $700 for sure But at probabilities below 1/100,000, subjects sought risk, for example, a 1/1,000,000 probability of the million-dollar prize was chosen about as often as $9 for sure This crossover from risk aversion to risk seeking is predicted by Mazur's (1987) hyperbolic delay discount function with probability expressed as average delay due to strings of losses followed by a win, together with a time horizon limiting subjective delay