Behavioral and fMRI evidence that cognitive ability modulates the effect of semantic context on speech intelligibility

Text cues facilitate the perception of spoken sentences to which they are semantically related (Zekveld, Rudner, et al., 2011). In this study, semantically related and unrelated cues preceding sentences evoked more activation in middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) than nonword cues, regardless of acoustic quality (speech in noise or speech in quiet). Larger verbal working memory (WM) capacity (reading span) was associated with greater intelligibility benefit obtained from related cues, with less speech-related activation in the left superior temporal gyrus and left anterior IFG, and with more activation in right medial frontal cortex for related versus unrelated cues. Better ability to comprehend masked text was associated with greater ability to disregard unrelated cues, and with more activation in left angular gyrus (AG). We conclude that individual differences in cognitive abilities are related to activation in a speech-sensitive network including left MTG, IFG and AG during cued speech perception.     

Spatial probability cuing and right hemisphere damage

In this experiment we studied statistical learning, inter-trial priming, and visual attention. We assessed healthy controls and right brain damaged (RBD) patients with and without neglect, on a simple visual discrimination task designed to measure priming effects and probability learning. All participants showed a preserved priming effect for item color. Contrary to healthy controls and RBD participants without neglect, RBD participants with neglect did not show positional priming and both RBD groups learned the underlying spatial probability distribution of target locations to a lesser degree. To see if the latter deficiency could be improved, we tested a patient with long standing chronic spatial neglect on three separate days and observed improved identification times for left sided, high probability, targets. In summary, we found preservation of priming per se in people with spatial neglect. However, this was only clearly demonstrable for color priming and not for positional priming. Associated with this impairment was a difficulty in learning the overall statistical structure of target locations. In a patient with severe persistent neglect we were able to demonstrate that the deficit in statistical learning was not absolute, as this subject improved his identification times for targets appearing in high probability regions of the test display.     

Moral chronicity and social information processing: Tests of a social cognitive approach to the moral personality

Following Higgins, King, and Mavin (1982) chronicity paradigm, we examined the effects of chronically accessed moral constructs for prototypic moral character using two different research paradigms, spontaneous trait inferencing and lexical decision. Study 1 presented target sentences in a deliberate or spontaneous processing condition. Recall was cued with either a dispositional or semantic cue. Moral chronics made more spontaneous trait inferences with dispositional cues than semantic cues. In Study 2, participants read stories about characters who did or did not help. Moral chronics were faster responding to probes reflecting negative evaluations of story characters who did not help when requested (e.g., “disloyal”). Findings support claims that the moral personality is usefully conceptualized in terms of the chronic accessibility of moral knowledge structures.     

论《易纬》对《周易》经传的阐释

纬书是相对经书而言的,因此,纬书中有很多内容是阐发和解释经书的。《易纬》是纬书的一种,对《周易》经传阐发和解释也是《易纬》的一个重要内容。在内容阐发上,其对《周易》的起源、作者以及乾坤二卦和象数等方面提出了与众不同的看法;在经文解释上,其对《周易》的经文作了直接的解释。由此我们可以看出《易纬》与汉代其它易学学派不同的易学观。     

Evidence for a Disturbance of the Body Schema in Neglect

Subjects with left neglect often fail to use and, in some instances, recognize the left side of the body. We performed a series of investigations to determine if this deficit is, at least in part, attributable to an impairment in the “body schema,” an internal three-dimensional, dynamic representation of the spatial and biomechanical properties of one's body. First, subjects were shown a series of pictures of a single hand and asked to determine if the stimulus was a right or left hand. Subjects with neglect but not other subjects with brain lesions identified pictures of left (contralesional) hands significantly less reliably than pictures of right hands. On the basis of evidence demonstrating that the identification of pictured hands involves the matching of the stimuli to an on-line mental representation of one's body, these data suggest that neglect may be associated with a disruption of, or failure to attend to, the body schema. Data from subsequent investigations contrasting patients with left neglect and Gerstmann's syndrome argue for a distinction between a body schema and a “body image,” or conceptual representation of the body which articulates with language.     

Gender differences in unilateral spatial neglect within 24 hours of ischemic stroke

Hemispatial neglect is a common and disabling consequence of stroke. Previous reports examining the relationship between gender and the incidence of unilateral spatial neglect (USN) have included either a large numbers of patients with few neglect tests or small numbers of patients with multiple tests. To determine if USN was more common and/or severe in men or women, we examined a large group of patients (312 right-handed) within 24 hours of acute right hemisphere ischemic stroke. Multiple spatial neglect tasks were used to increase the sensitivity of neglect detection. No differences based upon gender were observed for the prevalence, severity, or a combined task measure of USN.     

Influence of suggestion in the DRM paradigm: what state of consciousness is associated with false memory?

We assessed the effect of suggestion on the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm and associated it with the Remember–Know–Guess paradigm. Undergraduate students were given either lists of semantically related words or texts containing these words. After the recall task, if participants did not produce the critical lure, the experimenter suggested that the word had been present, using either a question (moderate suggestion) or an assertion (strong suggestion); these conditions were compared to a condition without suggestion. Afterwards, participants took a recognition test. The results showed that strong suggestions lead to more false recognitions than other conditions and the state of consciousness associated with false recognitions tends to be a feeling of knowing rather than remembering, regardless of the verbal version (list or text). Therefore moderate suggestions did not lead to more false recognitions compare to no suggestion. We discuss the impact of suggestion on consciousness associated with false memories.     

Aggregation of opinions based on correlated cues and advisors

We study the process by which decision makers (DMs) aggregate probabilistic opinions from multiple, correlated sources with a special emphasis on the determinants of the DM's confidence, which is a predictor of the DM's willingness to accept the implications of the aggregation process. Our model assumes that (a) DM combines the advisors' opinions by weighting them according to the amount of information underlying them, and (b) the DM's confidence increases as a function of a variety of factors that reduce the variance of the aggregate. We report results of three studies that manipulate the predictive validity of the cues and their inter‐correlations. Most of the models' predictions are supported but, contrary to the model's prediction, the DMs' confidence is not sensitive to the inter‐cue correlation. The best predictors of the DMs' confidence are the perceived predictability of the event, the level of agreement among the advisors, and the advisors' self‐reports of confidence. This pattern of results is explained by the ‘system neglect’ hypothesis. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sem-analysing events: towards a cultural pedagogy of hope

This paper locates the concept of learning among real-life human experiences and events. Functioning as a sign, a meaningful event can be understood in terms of a cultural extra-linguistic “text.” Reading and interpreting diverse cultural “texts” are equivalent to constructing and learning critical symbolic lessons embedded in a continuous process of our experiential, both intellectual and ethical, growth. The paper employs Julia Kristeva’s theory of the abjection and her method of semanalysis as a synthesis of philosophy, psychoanalysis and semiotics. Extending semiotic analysis to the level of informal education, the paper asserts that real-life events, such as the destruction of the Twin Towers on September 11, can become a means towards constructing the cultural pedagogy of hope paramount to sustaining a global society.