语文学习困难儿童汉字记忆编码的神经机制研究

采用事件相关电位方法,探讨语文学习困难儿童汉字记忆编码过程的特点.研究发现:语文学习困难组和对照组在编码过程的300-700ms均存在显著的相继记忆效应.语文学习困难组与对照组的Dm效应存在着显著的时间与空间上的差异.在Dm效应出现前,语文学习困难组加工的P2潜伏期显著晚于对照组.同时还发现,不同能力组加工的N2和LPC差异与Dm效应十分相似,对照组比语文学习困难组更正,与Dm效应不同,不同能力组加工的分离明显大于Dm效应的分离,且持续时间更长,一直持续到1000ms之后,远远晚于Dm效应的分离时间,对照组比语文学习困难组有一个更正的晚正成分.语文学习困难组与对照组在加工程度上存在差异,使编码项目的记忆痕迹呈现出不同特点.     

Lexical norms,language comprehension,and the epistemology of testimony

It has recently been argued (for instance by Sanford Goldberg, expanding on earlier work by Tyler Burge) that public linguistic norms are implicated in the epistemology of testimony by way of underwriting the reliability of language comprehension. This paper argues that linguistic normativity, as such, makes no explanatory contribution to the epistemology of testimony, but instead emerges naturally out of a collective effort to maintain language as a reliable medium for the dissemination of knowledge. Consequently, the epistemologies of testimony and language comprehension are deeply intertwined from the start, and there is no room for grounding the one in terms of the other.     

My evangelical conviction

There are three things that may serve to disrupt the casual habits of intellect operative within a majority of studies that address American religion: (1) poesis must be practiced as a challenge to flat-footed analyses invested in common-sense literacy; (2) there must be an open and honest discussion of how scholars conceive of the characters they study and how they represent those subjects in print or other media; and (3) subtle attention must be paid to issues of discourse, that is, to issues of how people make themselves up even as they are made up by ideas, concepts, and words that have nothing essentially to do with them.     

Foreign Language Exposure,Cultural Threat,and Opposition to Immigration

In the present article, we extend the notion of cultural threat posed by immigrants beyond its current conceptualization as symbolic, collective‐level threats to American culture and identity. Instead, we argue that routine encounters with non‐English‐speaking immigrants cause many individuals to feel threatened because of real barriers to interpersonal communication and exchange. We draw upon survey and experimental data to demonstrate that local contact with immigrants who speak little to no English, as well as incidental exposure to the Spanish language, heighten feelings of cultural threat, which increases anti‐immigrant sentiment and policy preferences.     

Assessing Phonemic Fluency in Multilingual Contexts: Letter Selection Methodology and Demographically Stratified Norms for Three South African Language Groups

Because of their global clinical utility, phonemic fluency tests are frequently incorporated into neuropsychological assessment batteries. However, in heterogeneous societies their use is complicated by the lack of careful attention to using letters of equivalent difficulty across languages, and the paucity of norms stratified by relevant sociodemographic variables. In accordance with the International Test Commission's guidelines for adaptation of test material in multilingual contexts, this study provides (1) an internationally replicable methodological template for selecting appropriate letter sets; (2) empirical evidence to substantiate the equivalence of a letter set across three languages; (3) a template for evaluating the relative impact of sociodemographic variables on phonemic fluency; and (4) appropriately stratified norms for the letter set SBL (English and Afrikaans) / IBL (Xhosa) in a sample (N = 512) of urban participants (7–25 years with 1–17 years of education) from the Cape Town region of the Western Cape province of South Africa.     

Examining the Relationship Between Gender DIF and Language Complexity in Mathematics Assessments

This study investigated whether the linguistic complexity of items leads to gender differential item functioning (DIF) on mathematics assessments. Two forms of a mathematics test were developed. The first form consisted of algebra items based on mathematical expressions, terms, and equations. In the second form, the same items were written as word problems without changing their contents and solutions. The test forms were given to a sample of 671 sixth-grade students from 10 middle schools in Turkey. The tests were administered to the students with a 4-week interval. Explanatory item response modeling and logistic regression approaches were used to examine gender DIF. Several word problems were flagged as having gender DIF in favor of female examinees, whereas mathematically expressed forms of the same items did not function differently across male and female examinees. The verbal content of word problems seems to influence the way males and females respond to items.     

Using Baby Books to Increase New Mothers' Self‐Efficacy and Improve Toddler Language Development

Maternal self‐efficacy (MSE) has been shown to be important, yet little is known about how it develops over time and whether increasing knowledge about child development and parenting results in feeling more efficacious, especially for first‐time mothers. Furthermore, research is lacking about whether increased maternal self‐efficacy results in better child outcomes such as more receptive and expressive language. Using a randomized three‐group design, this study explores whether educational books, embedded with information about typical child development and optimal parenting, increase MSE for women over the first year and a half of motherhood and whether these increases result in better language skills for children at 18 months of age. Hierarchical linear model analyses show that MSE starts high and remains high and that providing educational books further increases the development of MSE. Increases in MSE have a positive impact on children's language skills, as does providing books, irrespective of educational content. These findings support the importance of MSE and demonstrate an inexpensive way to increase MSE and improve child outcomes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mother–Child Book‐Sharing and Children's Storytelling Skills in Ethnically Diverse,Low‐Income Families

The present study examined book‐sharing interactions between mothers and their 4‐year‐old children from African American (n = 62), Dominican (n = 67), Mexican (n = 59) and Chinese (n = 82) low‐income U.S. families, and children's independent storytelling skills one year later. Mothers' book‐sharing style was analysed in terms of how much storyline information they provided (story components), the extent to which they asked children about the story (dialogic emphasis) and which features of the story they highlighted (story content). African American mothers referred to more story components than did Dominican mothers, and Mexican mothers surpassed Dominican and Chinese mothers. Mothers of all groups were low in dialogic emphasis; they predominantly narrated rather than asked about the story, although Mexican mothers asked relatively more questions than did African American and Dominican mothers. In terms of content, compared with other groups, African American mothers were most likely to emphasize ‘individual goals’, and Chinese mothers were most likely to emphasize ‘negative consequences’. Latino mothers were more likely to emphasize ‘emotions’ than were Chinese mothers. Children's storytelling styles partially mirrored those seen in their mothers. Mothers' dialogic emphasis related to children's contributions to book‐sharing, which in turn predicted children's later independent storytelling skills. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation improves word production in Conduction Aphasia: Electroencephalographic and behavioral evidences

A Conduction Aphasic patient, RH, with many difficulties at the level of phonological output, was subjected to Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) therapy six months after suffering a stroke. Fifteen daily sessions were administered (five days per week). The treatment led to a better intra-hemispheric electrical coherence and inter-hemispheric balance, as shown by the quantitative EEG analysis. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation therapy was shown to be effective in inhibiting irregular activation of the right hemisphere, offering the healthy areas of the left hemisphere the possibility of reassuming their linguistic processing abilities. Also, the number of errors in picture naming and repetition of words and pseudowords dropped considerably following treatment. The recovery was greater for long stimuli and was not affected by semantic or lexical variables such as familiarity. These results suggest that the Phonological Output Buffer, a mechanism dedicated to the maintenance, ordering and production of phoneme strings, was the processing stage modified by the treatment.