Idioms in sentences: Effects of frequency,literalness, and familiarity

This study investigated the relationship between subjective frequency of literal usage (literalness), subjective frequency of figurative usage (familiarity), and mean Kucera and Francis (1967) word frequency for idiom phrases. Kucera and Francis frequency was found to be independent of both familiarity and literalness. Furthermore, it was found that literalness, but not the Kucera and Francis frequency of the words in the phrase, affected reading time for literal uses of idioms. For figurative uses of idioms, familiarity and written frequency interacted. A model of idiom processing consistent with the current results and previous results is proposed. In addition, subjective familiarity and literalness norms are provided for 245 idioms.Portions of the normative study were based upon subjects in Schweigert and Cronk (1992).     

Aging and temporal discrimination of brief auditory intervals

Summary In a duration-discrimination experiment, young adults (mean age = 25.1), middle-aged adults (mean age = 45.5), and older adults (mean age = 64.6) were presented with two very brief auditorily marked intervals per trial, and their task was to decide which of the two was longer in duration. An adaptive psychophysical procedure was used to determine difference thresholds in relation to a constant standard interval of 50 ms. It was found that duration-discrimination performance was unaffected by age; all three age groups yielded a difference threshold of approximately 17 ms. It was concluded that the ability to discriminate durations of very brief auditory intervals appears to be based on an underlying timing mechanism that does not slow down with advancing adult age.     

Contextual effects on metaphor comprehension in reading

Subjects read target sentences preceded by either short or long context that induced either a metaphoric or a literal target reading. As had been found by Ortony, Schallert, Reynolds, and Antos (1978), metaphoric targets were comprehended about as quickly as literals when context was long, but more slowly than literals when context was short. The latter result may have been due to the failure of computing a conceptual relationship between short context and metaphoric target; targets unrelated to prior context took as long to comprehend as metaphoric targets. Another experiment showed that metaphorically expressed targets were read more quickly when they followed metaphorically expressed context than when they followed literal context, but literal targets were read quickest when they followed literal context. These results are discussed within a schema framework and within a “process priming” hypothesis.     

Sentence comprehension and production in children with cochlear implants: Errorless procedures and equivalence-based instruction

Research supports equivalence-based instruction (EBI) and matrix training for increased listening and speaking skills in children with cochlear implants (CI). We incorporated errorless procedures to optimize the EBI and evaluated the effects on the auditory comprehension and verbal responding at-sentences level in six CI children who were readers and showed inaccurate tacting. Subject-verb-object sentences were arranged in two matrices; diagonal combinations were trained and evaluated non-diagonal combinations. EBI included stimulus fading and exclusion to directly teach the dictated sentence-picture matching; written-sentences construction upon dictation also was taught. Probes assessed the derived stimulus-stimulus and stimulus-response relations. All participants learned the auditory-visual discriminations and the exclusion resulted in fewer errors than on a stimulus fading procedure. Five participants formed equivalence classes and increased verbal responding to equivalent stimuli, especially pictures tacting. They also showed recombinative generalization for both matrices. Professionals can incorporate errorless procedures to EBI for improving sentence comprehension, tacting, and productivity in CI children.     

A model to study orienting responses in zebrafish,and applications towards the emotion–cognition interaction

Animal Cognition - Orienting responses (ORs) are whole-organism reflexes that are elicited by innocuous stimuli, and which decrease in magnitude after stimulus repetition. ORs represent relatively...     

Goal setting in acquisition of a volleyball skill late in motor learning

To examine the effects of different types of goal setting on motor skill acquisition during advanced stages of learning. 44 female volleyball players were tested in four experimental training groups with generic goals, specific long-term goals, specific short-term goals, and as a control group. This study's pretest, training, and retention test phases used performance of a volleyball dig/forearm pass oriented to a target. Analyses yielded no significant differences among groups, although performance increased from pre- to retention test.     

Human bilateral deficit during a dynamic multi-joint leg press movement

Bilateral deficit has been used to describe the phenomenon of a reduction in performance during synchronous bilateral movements when compared to the sum of identical unilateral movements. The study of bilateral deficit in humans under isometric, and to a lesser extent, dynamic conditions has shown bilateral decreases in force and muscle activation, and delayed reaction time. Results are equivocal, however, and biomechanical analyses of dynamic conditions, i.e., movements, are lacking. Our purpose was to determine, through an analysis of kinematic, kinetic, and electromyographic (EMG) data, whether or not bilateral deficit was present during a dynamic multi-joint movement under conditions where the external load was relatively equal for unilateral and bilateral efforts. Five male participants performed repeated unilateral and bilateral maximal horizontal leg press jumps under 100% (1BW) and 200% (2BW) relative body weight loads. Significant bilateral deficits in resultant ground reaction impulse of 27.7% and 13.0% were present in 1BW and 2BW, respectively. Maximum joint power at the hip exhibited significant deficits in both 1BW and 2BW of 35.6% and 25.1%, respectively. In both 1BW and 2BW conditions, ankle (15.5% and 11.5%), knee (10.9% and 5.7%), and hip (38.5% and 30.4%) work was significantly affected. Statistically significant EMG bilateral deficits were found in every muscle in both conditions except for rectus femoris during the 2BW trials. Bilateral deficit values ranged from 9.1% to 20.9% for 1BW, while deficits between 6.1% and 20.7% were found in 2BW. These results indicate that during dynamic leg press, bilateral deficit does exist, but that individual muscle activation levels and joint kinetics are not equally affected.     

Orthographic neighbors and visual word recognition

Two lexical decision experiments, using words that were selected and closely matched on several criteria associated with lexical access, provide evidence of facilitatory effects of orthographic neighborhood size and no significant evidence of inhibitory effects of orthographic neighborhood frequency on lexical access. The words used in Experiment 1 had few neighbors that were higher in frequency. In Experiment 2, the words employed had several neighbors that were higher in frequency. Both experiments showed that words possessing few neighbors evoked slower responses than those possessing many neighbors. Also, in both experiments, neighborhood size effects occurred even though words from large neighborhoods had more potentially interfering higher-frequency neighbors than words from small neighborhoods.     

Reinstatement of episodic-like memory in rats by neurokinin-1 receptor antagonism

We previously showed that a systemic administration of the selective non-peptide neurokinin-1-receptor (NK-1-R) antagonist SR140333 increases hippocampal acetylcholine levels and facilitates long term memory. In the present study, we investigated whether systemic SR140333 has beneficial effects on episodic-like memory for unique experiences. Rats received either no injection, a vehicle injection or SR140333 at doses of 1, 3 and 9 mg/kg (i.p.) prior to the acquisition of an object memory for what, where and when. In line with previous results, untreated rats showed episodic-like memory, while vehicle-injected rats were impaired. A low dose of 1mg/kg SR140333 reinstated episodic-like memory. This result might be related to the effects of SR140333 on hippocampal cholinergic transmission and/or on the stress-response elicited by the injection procedure. Higher doses of SR140333 (3 and 9 mg/kg) induced psychomotor effects, including stereotypic behaviors and arched posture. Since NK-1-R antagonists have anxiolytic and promestic properties and induce hippocampal acetylcholine release at lower doses, they might be effective in the alleviation of the cognitive deficits and increased anxiety seen in early stages of Alzheimer's disease.     

The role of cultural and spiritual expressions in affirming a sense of self,place, and purpose among young urban,Indigenous Australians

This article sets out to discuss the impact that urban living has had on the lives of young Indigenous people. It will seek to discover some of the problems that occur when there is a meeting of two cultures, in this case the Indigenous culture of Australian Aboriginal people and the mainstream culture that has been derived largely from west European traditions which, in turn, was born out of Western Christian perspectives. As well, it will explore the challenges faced by minority groups who live in pluralist contexts when they attempt to hand on their ways to their young people, in particular, the difficulties faced by urban Indigenous Australians who try to ensure that their young people will develop knowledge about their cultural and spiritual heritage. Finally it will examine how the rights of young Indigenous people need to be protected so that they can continue to develop their particular identity and at the same time take their place with pride and integrity in the pluralist social context that defines Australia today.

Many Australians understand that Aboriginal people have a special respect for nature. The identity we have with the land is sacred and unique. Many people are beginning to understand this more. Also there are many Australians who appreciate that Aboriginal people have a very strong sense of community. All persons matter. All of us belong and there are many more Australians who understand that we are people who celebrate together.

What I want you to know about is another special quality of my people. I believe it is most important. It is our most unique gift. It is perhaps the greatest gift we can give to our fellow Australians. In our language it is the quality called dadirri. It is inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness.

Dadirri recognizes the deep spring inside us. We call on it and it calls to us. This is the gift that Australia is thirsting for. It is something like what you call ‘contemplation’. (Ungunmerr, 2003 Ungunmerr, Miriam‐Rose. 2003. “Dadirri—The spring within”. In Dadirri: the spring within—the spiritual art of the Aboriginal people from Australia’s Daly River region, Edited by: Farrelly, E. vii–ix. Darwin, NT, , Australia: Terry Knight and Associates.  [Google Scholar])