Comparison of Different Feedback Procedures in Second Language Vocabulary Learning

Research into the learning of Second Language (SL) vocabulary by beginning learners has indicated that the simultaneous presentation of the First and Second Language words results in blocking of the learning process by the familiar First Language (FL) word. Previous research also suggests that blocking by the First Language can be eliminated by bringing it in as informative feedback (either as a written or spoken word). Our experiments were designed to further extend this research. The use of a picture, either as feedback or simultaneously presented with its equivalent, along with the aural feedback and the conventional procedures were investigated in Experiment 1. Results revealed that pictures blocked the learning process less than the written FL word when both were presented with their SL referent. When used as feedback, however, pictures were not as good as the spoken FL word. Experiment 2 demonstrated that aural feedback was the best type of feedback when compared with the picture and written FL presentations, and that the picture feedback was better than the written feedback. Taken together, the results of these two studies showed that all forms of feedback overcame the problem of blocking created by simultaneous presentation of the FL and SL words, and that aural feedback was the most effective feedback procedure. It was suggested that the superiority of aural feedback was likely to be a consequence of the use of a different input channel to that of the visually presented written SL word.     

Touch and body language in family therapy

This paper describes the running of a workshop in body language in family therapy; it gives an account of the development of touch and body language techniques in therapy at Hill End Adolescent Unit; it traces over a hundred years, some of the literature and gives a few clinical examples.     

A qualitative evaluation of an employee counselling service from the perspective of client,counsellor and organization

An evaluation of a Fire Brigade counselling service examined the viewpoints of all three stakeholders (clients, counsellors and organization), using a multi-method approach using interviews, questionnaires and staff records. All parties expressed satisfaction with the provision, but noted the need for better communication and marketing. The counselling service was demonstrated to be needed and effective in both human and fiscal terms.     

Neurology of affective prosody and its functional-anatomic organization in right hemisphere

Unlike the aphasic syndromes, the organization of affective prosody in brain has remained controversial because affective-prosodic deficits may occur after left or right brain damage. However, different patterns of deficits are observed following left and right brain damage that suggest affective prosody is a dominant and lateralized function of the right hemisphere. Using the Aprosodia Battery, which was developed to differentiate left and right hemisphere patterns of affective-prosodic deficits, functional-anatomic evidence is presented in patients with focal ischemic strokes to support the concepts that (1) affective prosody is a dominant and lateralized function of the right hemisphere, (2) the intrahemispheric organization of affective prosody in the right hemisphere, with the partial exception of Repetition, is analogous to the organization of propositional language in the left hemisphere and (3) the aprosodic syndromes are cortically based as part of evolutionary adaptations underlying human language and communication.     

Kinematic analysis of goal-directed aims made against early and late perturbations: an investigation of the relative influence of two online control processes

Examination of goal-directed movements has evidenced two processes of visually regulated online control: early trajectory control that operates to make movement adjustments on the basis of limb velocity comparisons to internally generated models of the expected limb velocity, and late trajectory control that uses allocentric information about the limb and target positions. The results of experiments using illusory perturbations suggest that the two systems have an additive influence on movement outcome, and are relatively independent. In this theoretical context, three experiments were conducted in which actual perturbations to the aiming limb dynamics and the tasks demands were introduced. Compressed air expulsed through a stylus, in the direction of, or opposite to, that of the movement was used to impact limb velocity and the target location was moved at movement initiation to impact late evaluation of target and limb position. The results of the compressed air-only and moving target-only conditions replicated the previous evidence of early and late control, respectively. Interestingly, movement accuracy measures yielded an interactive effect of the two perturbations when presented in tandem. It appears that the perturbations prompted parallel operation of the two control processes.     

Communication and Structured Correlation

Philosophers and social scientists have recently turned to Lewis sender–receiver games to provide an account of how lexical terms can acquire meaning through an evolutionary process. However, the evolution of meaning is contingent on both the particular sender–receiver game played and the choice of evolutionary dynamic. In this paper I explore some differences between models that presume an infinitely large and randomly mixed population and models in which a finite number of agents communicate with their neighbors in a social network. My results show that communication with neighbors is more conducive to the evolution of meaning than communication with strangers. Additionally, I show that the behavior of the system is highly dependent on the topological structure of the social network. I argue that a specific class of networks—small world graphs—is especially conducive to the evolution of meaning. This is because small world graphs have a short characteristic path length while still maintaining a high degree of correlation between neighbors. Since many actual social networks, such as friendship networks and nervous systems, are conjectured to be small world structures, these results indicate that these networks are quite hospitable to the efficient evolution of meaning.