Refractoriness and the healthy brain: A behavioural study on semantic access

While many behavioural studies on refractory phenomena in lexical/semantic access have focused on the mechanisms involved in the oral production of names, comprehension tasks have been almost exclusively used in neuropsychological studies on brain damaged patients. We report the results of two experiments on healthy participants conducted by means of speeded word to picture matching tasks. They assess the effects of the same variables examined in the study of refractory access dysphasic patients: semantic distance and word frequency (experiment 1) and presentation rate and serial position effects (experiment 2). Semantic access patients usually show little effect of word frequency but a large semantic distance effect. However, critical in characterising the syndrome as ‘refractory’, effects of presentation rate and serial position should also be present. The experiments involved the use of a deadline response procedure. The critical manipulation was the absence of a Response Stimulus Interval (RSI) in the fast presentation rate conditions; slower presentation rates involved 1 s RSI. With these manipulations the typical behavioural pattern of performance provided by semantic access dysphasic patients was reproduced. Semantic distance effects were more powerful than word frequency effects (experiment1). Presentation rate effects were found and, most important for a “refractory” account of the effects, a serial position effect was obtained (experiment 2). These results provide the first evidence of such a broad range of refractory effects at the same time in comprehension tasks in healthy subjects and support a purely semantic account for the locus of refractoriness. Moreover, error analysis showed a predominance of perseverative errors with subsequent representations of the same target, supporting a failure of cognitive control mechanisms as the cause of refractory behaviour. The findings are discussed in the light of current models of lexical and semantic processing.     

Hierarchy and scope of planning in subject–verb agreement production

Two subject–verb agreement error elicitation studies tested the hierarchical feature-passing account of agreement computation in production and three timing-based alternatives: linear distance to the head noun, semantic integration, and a combined effect of both (a scope of planning account). In Experiment 1, participants completed subject noun phrase (NP) stimuli consisting of a head NP followed by two prepositional phrase (PP) modifiers, where the first PP modified the first NP, and the second PP modified one of the two preceding NPs. Semantic integration between the head noun and the local noun within each PP was held constant across structures. The mismatch error pattern showed an effect of linear distance to the head noun and no influence of hierarchical distance. In Experiment 2, participants completed NP PP PP stimuli in which both PPs modified the head noun, and both the order of the two PPs and the local nouns’ degree of semantic integration with the head noun were varied. The pattern of mismatch errors reflected a combination of semantic integration and linear distance to the head noun. These studies indicate that agreement processes are strongly constrained by grammatical-level scope of planning, with local nouns planned closer to the head having a greater chance of interfering with agreement computation.     

早期宫颈癌术式选择的比较研究

根治性子宫切除术与保留生育功能的根治性宫颈切除术均可用于早期宫颈癌患者的手术治疗。根据生物-心理-社会医学模式的要求,本文采用比较治疗学的方法,对这两种手术方式,从适应证、手术方式、并发症、疗效等方面进行比较,为宫颈癌临床科学决策提供借鉴。     

4~7岁儿童汉字正字法意识的发展

本研究采用两项实验考察学龄前儿童正字法意识的发展情况。实验1选取146名4~7岁儿童被试,要求其在计算机上完成词汇判断任务,刺激材料分为部件错误非字,部件位置错误非字,假字和真字。结果显示：大班在两项非字条件上的正确率均显著高于假字,而小班各条件差异均不显著;中班在部件位置错误非字上的正确率显著高于假字。表明学龄前儿童的正字法意识已经开始逐渐发展,且部件位置意识比部件意识容易获得。实验2采用Tobii T120型眼动仪,记录24名大班儿童在词汇判断（同实验1）过程中对刺激项目关注的眼动行为,从实时加工的过程探讨学龄前儿童正字法意识的发展。结果显示：儿童对部件错误非字/部件位置错误非字的目标部件的晚期关注程度显著高于假字,有力地证明：学龄前大班儿童已经具有部件和部件位置的意识。     

绩效薪酬对员工突破性创造力和渐进性创造力的影响

研究分别从认知评价理论和习得性努力理论视角考察了绩效薪酬对员工突破性创造力和渐进性创造力的影响及其作用机制, 并检验了变革型领导和交易型领导对上述两条路径的调节效应。基于24家企业的364对上下级匹配数据的研究结果表明：绩效薪酬对内在动机和突破性创造力没有显著的影响, 对外在动机和渐进性创造力有显著的正向影响。变革型领导调节绩效薪酬与突破性创造力的关系：高变革领导情境下, 绩效薪酬通过正向影响内在动机间接对突破性创造力产生正向影响; 低变革领导情境下, 绩效薪酬通过负向影响内在动机间接对突破性创造力产生负向影响。交易型领导调节绩效薪酬与渐进性创造力的关系：交易型领导通过强化绩效薪酬对外在动机的影响进而放大了绩效薪酬对渐进性创造力的正向效应。针对上述结果, 讨论了本文的理论与实践意义。     

声符和义符在形声字语音、语义提取中的作用

采用眼动技术记录汉语阅读者在形声字的语音、语义提取中对声符和义符的注意规律, 考察形声字部件的位置、功能和正字法意识对汉字认知的影响。结果表明：(1)在汉字的视觉加工中, 阅读者对部件空间位置的注意加工优势受到声旁位置的调节。对左形右声结构的汉字, 被试更多地注意字的右边, 对右形左声结构的汉字, 被试更多地注意字的左边; (2)在汉语阅读者的正字法规则中, 存在着“左侧释义、右侧释音”的部件的位置-功能联结。(3)在通达形声字的语音、语义的过程中, 与义符相比, 声符具有注意资源的优势, 这种优势在语音提取任务中更加明显：声符无需依赖义符的信息便可以相对独立地激活整字的语音, 但声符需要义符的配合才能够提取整字的语义。     

义符熟悉性对低频形声字词汇通达的影响

采用启动词汇判断范式, 探讨义符熟悉性对低频形声字词汇通达的影响。结果表明, 义符加工与整字加工存在动态的交互作用。在加工早期, 低频形声字的整字语义并未得到激活, 但此时高熟悉义符出现了语义启动, 低熟悉义符的启动作用不明显。在加工晚期, 低频形声字的整字语义得到了激活, 高、低熟悉的义符均出现了语义激活, 但整字通达与义符通达之间存在竞争。在整字语义通达之后, 义符的词形信息也会激活。整个研究表明, 义符熟悉性和整字频率是影响词汇加工的重要因素, 不仅影响对整字语义通达的速度, 也影响亚词汇成分的加工。根据研究的结果, 构建了义符在词汇通达中的作用的模型。     

The pathology of validity

Stephen Read has presented an argument for the inconsistency of the concept of validity. We extend Read’s results and show that this inconsistency is but one half of a larger problem. Like the concept of truth, validity is infected with what we call semantic pathology, a condition that actually gives rise to two symptoms: inconsistency and indeterminacy. After sketching the basic ideas behind semantic pathology and explaining how it manifests both symptoms in the concept of truth, we present cases that establish the indeterminacy of validity and that link this indeterminacy with the concept’s inconsistency. Our conclusion is that an adequate treatment of the semantic pathology thus revealed must deal with both of its symptoms. Further, it must extend to the occurrences of this condition elsewhere: in the concept of truth, in the other central semantic notions, and even in certain philosophical concepts outside semantics.     

Processing events: behavioral and neuromagnetic correlates of Aspectual Coercion

Much recent psycho- and neuro-linguistic work has aimed to elucidate the mechanisms by which sentence meanings are composed by investigating the processing of semantic mismatch. One controversial case for theories of semantic composition is expressions such as the clown jumped for ten minutes, in which the aspectual properties of a punctual verb clash with those of a durative modifier. Such sentences have been proposed to involve a coercion operation which shifts the punctual meaning of the verb to an iterative one. However, processing studies addressing this hypothesis have yielded mixed results. In this study, we tested four hypotheses of how aspectual mismatch is resolved with self-paced reading and magnetoencephalography. Using a set of verbs normed for punctuality, we identified an immediate behavioral cost of mismatch. The neural correlates of this processing were found to match effects in midline prefrontal regions previously implicated in the resolution of complement coercion. We also identified earlier effects in right-lateral frontal and temporal sites. We suggest that of the representational hypotheses currently in the literature, these data are most consistent with an account where aspectual mismatch initially involves the composition of an anomalous meaning that is later repaired via coercion.     

Nature and facts about natural and artifactual categories: Sex differences in the semantic priming paradigm

There is abundant evidence from behavioral and neurophysiological experiments for the distinction of natural versus artifactual categories and a gender-specific difference: women’s performances in cognitive tasks increase when natural categories are used, whereas men’s performances increase with artifactual categories. Here, we used the semantic priming paradigm to study retrieval processes by presenting category labels as primes and exemplars as targets. Overall, in two experiments we found larger priming effects for natural than for artifactual categories. In addition, females showed positive priming effects for natural but negative effects for artifactual categories, whereas males showed positive priming effects for both categories. This pattern matches with that from other tasks and can be interpreted as evidence that the findings from these other tasks are, at least partially, indeed due to different representations or processing modes for males and females and not (exclusively) due to—for example—different familiarity with a category. In a further experiment, we showed that the found pattern for females can be manipulated by focusing on perceptual vs. functional features. The results can be interpreted as first evidence that there are (eventually in addition to different “crystallized” semantic structures) specific default processing modes that differ for males and females.