Children's Production of Unfamiliar Word Sequences Is Predicted by Positional Variability and Latent Classes in a Large Sample of Child-Directed Speech

We explore whether children's willingness to produce unfamiliar sequences of words reflects their experience with similar lexical patterns. We asked children to repeat unfamiliar sequences that were identical to familiar phrases (e.g., A piece of toast) but for one word (e.g., a novel instantiation of A piece of X, like A piece of brick). We explore two predictions-motivated by findings in the statistical learning literature-that children are likely to have detected an opportunity to substitute alternative words into the final position of a four-word sequence if (a) it is difficult to predict the fourth word given the first three words and (b) the words observed in the final position are distributionally similar. Twenty-eight 2-year-olds and thirty-one 3-year-olds were significantly more likely to correctly repeat unfamiliar variants of patterns for which these properties held. The results illustrate how children's developing language is shaped by linguistic experience.     

双语Stroop效应的性别差异研究

虽然许多研究发现男性和女性在语言能力上存在显著差异,但性别差异是否影响第二语言的水平和学习能力尚存在争议,相关研究较少。Stroop范式是语言研究的经典方法,它利用颜色信息和语义信息的相互干扰推论被试心理词典的表征结构。本研究利用此范式探讨不同性别的第二语言学习者在言语表征上的差异。结果显示被试性别与文字材料、性别与刺激类型均存在显著的交互作用,表明不同性别被试在第二语言表征上存在显著差异。     

Recent research on emergent verbal behavior: clinical applications and future directions

This paper describes recent studies that have evaluated the functional independence of verbal operants. Procedures that facilitate the emergence of untrained verbal operants and important areas of future research to increase efficiency of language programs for children diagnosed with developmental disabilities are discussed.     

Establishing five derived mands in three adolescent boys with autism

Three 14-year-old boys with diagnoses of autism learned to mand for the delivery or removal of tokens by presenting nonsense syllables (A(1-5), respectively). A match-to-sample procedure was used to establish conditional discriminations between the 5 A stimuli and 5 B stimuli and between the B stimuli and 5 C stimuli. Subsequently, each participant was able to use the C stimuli to mand, illustrating a transfer of function, although 1 participant first required multiple-exemplar training.     

Sociolinguistic awareness and false belief in young Cantonese learners of English

In this study, we examined whether sociolinguistic awareness and false belief were uniquely related in 3- and 4-year-old Cantonese-speaking children learning English as a second language. The English-use background of these children varied so that they possessed sociolinguistic awareness to different degrees. Results indicated that sociolinguistic awareness predicted false belief uniquely after controlling for age, nonverbal intelligence, English vocabulary, and family income for both the second language learners and the more balanced bilinguals. The group difference in false belief was adequately explained by the corresponding difference in sociolinguistic awareness over and above the other variables. Such findings provide evidence for the claim that false belief understanding is critically related to sociolinguistic awareness, which in turn is influenced by how a second language is learned.     

第二语言句子加工的ERP研究

研究者对第一语言句子加工的事件相关电位(ERP)进行研究,提出了句子加工三阶段模型及对应的ERP成分。第二语言(L2)句子加工的ERP研究结果很不一致。首先,从句子加工的ERP反应模式上来看,大多数研究发现L2学习者的ERP反应模式和母语者有质的差异,少数研究发现L2学习者加工L2句子的ERP模式类似母语者,但其反应的时间进程、波幅或分布与母语者有显著差异。被试的学习年龄、熟练程度以及学习者的两种语言的相似性程度可能是影响第二语言句子加工ERP反应的主要因素。     

Baby Wordsmith

ABSTRACT— How do infants acquire their first words? Word reference , or how words map onto objects and events, lies at the core of this question. The emergentist coalition model (ECM) represents a new wave of hybrid developmental theories suggesting that the process of vocabulary development changes from one based in perceptual salience and association to one embedded in social understanding. Beginning at 10 months, babies learn words associatively, ignoring the speaker's social cues and using perceptual salience to guide them. By 12 months, babies attend to social cues, but fail to recruit them for word learning. By 18 and 24 months, babies recruit speakers' social cues to learn the names of particular objects speakers label, regardless of those objects' perceptual attraction. Controversies about how to account for the changing character of word acquisition, along with the roots of children's increasing reliance on speakers' social intent, are discussed.     

中医理论变革：一个非明确限定性问题

以“传统中医理论如何变革”为中医务虚研究的核心问题,并从思维心理学的角度探讨了解决这一非明确限定性问题的三个阶段在准备阶段应理解中医理论的存在有双重意义,故应有两种问题表征;在产生解决办法阶段提议可借鉴西方心理学的流派发展倾向来认知中医变革的方法倾向,后又强调了语言形式对中医理论思维的重要影响,指出应当以语言学知识和临床实际去重建中医学术语言的“语义场”,参照信息加工理论,努力减少“编码”失误;在问题解决的评定阶段,强调由于评定本身就比较困难,所以在应对反馈意见时应坚持革新的信念,及时校正算子。     

后现代语境下医学语言的伦理解读

医学的现代性遗产和后现代世界的冲突在不断加剧,导致了对医学语言理解的困境和伦理意义的丧失。后现代主义极力寻求人类理解的解释性基础,使后现代医学语言的伦理选择成为可能。在后现代语境下,医学语言的伦理应该是摆脱现代性“文化霸权”的一种诠释学的谈话,是一种境遇伦理。     

老年病人心理干预的语言艺术

恰当运用临床医学语言与沟通技巧,对老年病人实施心理干预,既是一种重要的治疗手段,也是医德的重要组成部分,更是一门充满人文关怀的医疗艺术.