Using event-related potentials to examine hemispheric differences in semantic processing

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used as the dependent measure in a divided visual field study examining the processing of lexically ambiguous words in the cerebral hemispheres. The goal was to determine if the N400 ERP component is sensitive measure of hemispheric differences in semantic processing. ERP waveforms were examined for lateralized target words that were related to either the dominant (MONEY) or subordinate (RIVER) meanings of ambiguous words (BANK). These waveforms were compared to trials where the prime-target pairs were unrelated. Reliable N400s, reflecting a significant difference between related and unrelated trials, were seen when targets were presented to the right visual field/left hemisphere. However, there were no N400s observed for either the dominant or subordinate conditions when targets were presented to the left visual field/right hemisphere.     

A comparison of semantic and syntactic event related potentials generated by children and adults

The present study employs event related potentials (ERPs) to verify the utility of using electrophysiological measures to study developmental questions within the field of language comprehension. Established ERP components (N400 and P600) that reflect semantic and syntactic processing were examined. Fifteen adults and 14 children (ages 8-13) processed spoken stimuli containing either semantic or syntactic anomalies. Adult participants showed a significant N400 in response to semantic anomalies and P600 components in response to syntactic anomalies. Children also show evidence of both ERP components. The children's N400 component differed from the adults' in scalp location, latency, and component amplitude. The children's P600 was remarkably similar to the P600 shown by adults in scalp location, component amplitude, and component latency. Theoretical implication for theories of language comprehension in adults and children will be discussed.     

Autonomic learning

Academic achievement was resolved into its intellectual and motivational components. IQ, personality variables, and parameters of operant and classical conditioning of autonomic nervous system controlled variables were examined in 99 black inner-city high school seniors. Six physiological variables(respiration, heart rate, finger plethysmogram, frontalis muscle potential, palmar skin conductance, and palmar skin potential) were analyzed by computer using analog-to-digital conversion and a Points of Interest (PI) program. Psychological measures were full WAIS IQ, Edwards Personality Inventory(EPI), Cattell Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire(16PF), McClelland need Achievement test(n Ach), Object Sorting test, Minnesota Counseling Inventory(MCI), Level of Aspiration Board, and Rotter—Miller Locus of Control. Achievement(Ach) was defined as the residuals of total grade point average(GPA) regressed on IQ. Each of 19 variables which discriminated significantly between high and low achievers was employed in step-wise regression analyses for GPA and Ach separately. In a regression analysis of variance of GPA, IQ=20.44%, EPI=9.08%, and physiological measures =21.37%(operant conditioning =18.70%; classical conditioning =2.67%). Combined measures of motivation(psychological and physiological) =30.45% of the variance in GPA. The entire psychological and physiological test battery, including IQ, contributed a total of 50.89% of the variance in GPA. In a regression analysis of variance in achievement, psychological measures, other than IQ(six EPI and one 16PF), =11.0% and physiological measures =30.3%. As a replication, this study demonstrated significant correlation between autonomic conditioning and school achievement.     

Learning deficits and activity changes: A partial laboratory model in postencephalitic rats for studies of brain damage

Rats ranging from 8–21 days of age were inoculated in the right cerebral hemisphere with St Louis encephalitis virus, Japanese B encephalitis virus, Murray Valley encephalitis virus. Mumps virus however, was injected at age one day. When very young rats were injected with these viral preparations, fatal encephalitis usually developed. Rats injected at ages of more than two weeks showed little or no clinical signs of infection. When inoculated at ages between these extremes, clinical disease developed in most rats but many survived. Physically most of these surviving animals appeared to be normal, but when tested at maturity in a rather complex maze, they showed a marked reduction in learning ability. Tilting-cage-type activity measurements taken overnight with the Murray Valley encephalitis group also indicated that most of the postinfectious rats were hyperactive. These data imply that such a laboratory model might be related to similar hyperactivity and learning disabilities seen in certain types of minimally brain damaged children. A viral-sex interaction often seen in earlier studies is also noted in our animals injected at younger ages.     

The New Rhetoric’s Inheritance. Argumentation and Discourse Analysis

This paper aims at showing how the New Rhetoric’s insights allow for an integration of argumentation studies in linguistic investigation, and more specifically in discourse analysis. Claiming that argumentativity is a constitutive feature of discourse, it endeavors to explore logos as both reason and language by analyzing patterns of reasoning in their discursive actualization. In this approach, the attempt at influencing the audience’s representations is analyzed in the complexity of a discourse explored in its formal and socio-institutional dimensions.

Mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual siblings: effects of gender, sexual orientation, and family

Self-identified lesbian, gay male, and bisexual (LGB) individuals were recruited via convenience sampling, and they in turn recruited their siblings (79% heterosexual, 19% LGB). The resulting sample of 533 heterosexual, 558 lesbian or gay male, and 163 bisexual participants was compared on mental health variables and their use of mental health services. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that sexual orientation predicted suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, self-injurious behavior, use of psychotherapy, and use of psychiatric medications over and above the effects of family adjustment. Sexual orientation was unrelated to current psychological distress, psychiatric hospitalizations, and self-esteem. This is the 1st study to model family effects on the mental health of LGB participants and their siblings.     

School related stress in early adolescence and academic performance three years later: the conditional influence of self expectations

The hypothesis was tested that educational expectations of junior high school students in interaction with school-related stress during early adolescence would adversely affect grades during high school. Multiple regression analyses of data from home interviews of 1034 students during junior high school and 3 years later during high school supported the hypothesis that early adolescent school-related stress both independently and in interaction with high academic expectations negatively affected academic performance 3 years later. These results suggest that for students in high stress school environments, an increase in academic expectations may serve to increase their school-related stress and impede their academic performance.     

Intergroup relations and the attribution of emotions: control over memory for secondary emotions associated with the ingroup and outgroup

This study tested the hypothesis that people perceive their ingroup as experiencing more uniquely human secondary emotions than the outgroup. Jacoby's process-dissociation procedure was used to measure participants' controlled recognition memory for materials that associated the ingroup or outgroup with secondary or primary emotions. Conscious memory was better for associations between the outgroup and secondary emotions than for associations between the ingroup and secondary emotions. No such difference was found for primary emotions. These results suggest that people attribute more humanity to the ingroup than to the outgroup.