The effects of feedback and consequences on transitional cursive letter formation

Twelve first-grade students were employed to analyze the effects of (1) Verbal and Visual Feedback, (2) Verbal and Visual Feedback plus immediate rewriting of trained letters with one or more incorrect letter strokes, and (3) Potential Reinforcement on cursive letter strokes. Students practised both a set of trained and a set of untrained letters during each session. Feedback and reinforcement was administered only for trained letter strokes. The percentage of correct trained letter strokes increased during all conditions. Performance on the untrained but practiced and trained letter strokes followed the same general trend in response pattern. No consistent pattern of generalization was demonstrated with untrained and unpracticed letter strokes.     

Planning at the Phonological Level during Sentence Production

In two picture–word interference experiments we examined whether phrase boundaries affected how far in advance speakers plan the sounds of words during sentence production. Participants produced sentences of varying lengths (short determiner + noun + verb or long determiner + adjective + noun + verb) while ignoring phonologically related and unrelated words to the verb of the sentence. Response times to begin producing both types of sentences were faster in the presence of a related versus unrelated distractor. The results suggest that the activation of phonological properties of words outside the first phrase and first and second phonological word affect onset of articulation during sentence production. The results are discussed in the light of previous evidence of phonological planning during multi-word production. Implications for the phonological facilitation effect in the picture–word interference paradigm are also discussed.The research reported in this article served as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD degree at Harvard University for Tatiana T. Schnur     

Pulling out the intentional structure of action: the relation between action processing and action production in infancy

Adults and children readily construct action representations organized with respect to an ultimate goal. These representations allow one to predict the consequences of action, interpret and describe actions, and categorize action sequences. In this paper, we explore the ontogeny of hierarchically organized action representations, and its relation to infants' ability to produce similar sequences. To do so, we examine infants' perception and performance of a means-end sequence: pulling a cloth to retrieve a toy. Using a visual habituation paradigm, we demonstrate that 12-month-old infants understand that the initial step of the cloth-pulling sequence is directed toward the ultimate goal of attaining the toy, and use their knowledge of the causal constraints of the sequence to make this goal attribution. Ten-month-olds, however, appear transitional with respect to this understanding: their ability to identify the goal of the cloth-pulling sequence is related to their own ability to planfully solve a similar sequence. These findings are consistent with a burgeoning body of literature suggesting an intimate link between action production and perception, and suggest that this link is in place by at least 10 months of age.     

Contrasting effects of phonological priming in aphasic word production

Two fluent aphasics, IG and GL, performed a phonological priming task in which they repeated an auditory prime then named a target picture. The two patients both had selective deficits in word production: they were at or near ceiling on lexical comprehension tasks, but were significantly impaired in picture naming. IG's naming errors included both semantic and phonemic paraphasias, as well as failures to respond, whereas GL's errors were mainly phonemic and formal paraphasias. The two patients responded very differently to phonological priming: IG's naming was facilitated (both accuracy and speed) only by begin-related primes (e.g. ferry-feather), whereas GL benefited significantly only from end-related primes (e.g. brother-feather), showing no more than a facilitatory trend with begin-related primes. We interpret these results within a two-stage model of word production, in which begin-related and end-related primes are said to operate at different stages. We then discuss implications for models of normal and aphasic word production in general and particularly with respect to sequential aspects of the phonological encoding process.     

The impact of memory demands on audience design during language production

Speakers often tailor their utterances to the needs of particular addressees--a process called audience design. We argue that important aspects of audience design can be understood as emergent features of ordinary memory processes. This perspective contrasts with earlier views that presume special processes or representations. To support our account, we present a study in which Directors engaged in a referential communication task with two independent Matchers. Over several rounds, the Directors instructed the Matchers how to arrange a set of picture cards. For half the triads, the Directors' card categories were initially distributed orthogonally by Matcher (e.g. Directors described birds and dogs with one Matcher and fish and frogs with the other). For the other triads, the Directors' card categories initially overlapped across Matchers (e.g. Directors described two members of each category with each Matcher). We predicted that the orthogonal configuration would more readily allow Directors to encode associations between particular cards and particular Matchers--and thus allow those Directors to provide more evidence for audience design. Content analyses of Directors' utterances from two final rounds supported our prediction. We suggest that audience design depends on the memory representations to which speakers have ready access given the time constraints of routine conversation.     

周敦颐的《太极图说》、《易》象数及西方有关学说

本文从《易》象数的角度来解释周敦颐的《太极图说》与《通书》,认为这种象数的“二对生”的区别性特征是周氏学说的内在发动结构,由此而提出一些很不同于流行的“宇宙论加上伦理学”的解释模式的思路。在一些被长久争论的问题上,比如“太极与无极的关系”、“太极与两仪的关系”、“诚与太极的关系”、“中与太极和诚的关系”,都提出了新的看法。在这新的理解方式中,周敦颐的《太极图说》就不止是程朱陆王的一个含糊的先导,而是融合了儒道释的思想精华,而又有着自己独特的思想原发力与中和的精微境界的划时代的哲理学说,其蕴义(比如超出理气二分的原本发生论)并未被后来的理学家们穷尽。本文最后将周敦颐的思想与西方的毕达哥拉斯及莱布尼兹的学说进行对比,一方面揭示“象数”在伟大的哲理传统中的关键作用,另一方面又表明中西两大传统之间存在的深刻差异在结构上的原因。     

汉字笔迹与个性测评研究

本文采用汉字笔迹测量法和80－8神经类型量表法对大、中、小学生共计2153人进行了团体测验,各项测量指标所得到的数据,经统计检验,其主要结论如下：1．笔迹特征表现为年龄越小,以直笔、重笔、慢速、光边占的比例越大,13岁以后,笔迹特征出现明显分化,这表明,个性在13、14岁年龄阶段开始加速形成与发展．2．笔迹书写形式、书写速度、书写压力及稳定性等心理特征指标与其神经类型特征有密切的关系．3．根据笔迹书写形式、速度、压力及稳定性等基本特征指标的不同组合,划分为8种气质类型,并在实际应用中获得较为满意的效果．     

Learning argumentative capacities

In the fields of linguistics and psychology the didactic implementation of new knowledge relative to argumentative discourse and its acquisition has led us to develop a didactic sequence focused on the teaching of argumentation in 11–12 year old pupils. This sequence was experimented in six schools in order to assess the effect of these new educational methods on the capacities of pupils to treat the dialogic dimensions of argumentation in the writing of monologues. An analysis of the productions of the puils who had been submitted to the didactic sequence, compared with those of a control group, showed a significant improvement in the capacities of the first group. These improvements concerned aspects such as backing up arguments, acknowledging the addressee, negotiating with an eventual contradictor and using of a certain number of units and linguistic expressions t specific to argumentative texts (expressions of responsability taking, textual organisers of cause and conclusion, modalisations of probability and of certitude, concessions and polite expressions).     

学龄弱智儿童语言发展研究

本研究运用三项测试,考查了学龄弱智儿童语言发展状况。结果表明,弱智儿童语言发展过程和规律与正常儿童相似,并没有脱离正常儿童语言发展的一般模式,但他们语言发展速度极其缓慢,即使匹配了智龄,也远不如正常儿童,而且弱智儿童在语言运用上有其特点,与正常儿童有“质”的差异。