Reaching Wuthering Heights with Brave New Words: The Influence of Originality of Words on the Success of Outstanding Best‐Sellers

The judgment and ultimately the success of creative products should be determined by their properties. However, it has not been considered so far whether the same applies to books. Earlier research has found an inverted‐U relationship between originality of stimuli and their success. Linguistic originality as a text feature could influence the success of books as creative products in a natural experiment. The present historiometric study investigated whether originality predicts the popularity in a significant sample, the most best‐selling English books from 200 years. Originality was calculated based on word frequency using a commercial service. Popularity was assessed with a composite measure including indicators like number of sold copies. Regression analysis indicated originality had a direct linear effect on popularity, partially moderated by the time of first publishing. That is, while originality was generally beneficial for the success of a best‐seller, the same originality was more appreciated at a later point in time. This is the first quantitative study supporting the long‐held assumption that the evaluation of creative narratives is influenced by temporal context. The fact that some works like The Great Gatsby got more appreciation when they were rediscovered may reflect a general principle rather than mere exceptions.     

Quadriceps-hamstrings intermuscular coherence during single-leg squatting 3–12 years following a youth sport-related knee injury

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of co-contraction as per electromyographic gamma-band intermuscular coherence of the quadricep (Q) and hamstring (H) muscles during single-leg squatting (SLS), and to assess the influence of sex and self-reported knee complaints on the association between knee injury history and medial and lateral Q-H intermuscular coherence.Participants included 34 individuals who suffered a youth sport-related intra-articular knee injury 3–12 years previously, and 37 individuals with no knee injury history. Surface electromyographic signals were recorded from medial and lateral thigh muscles bilaterally to determine the gamma-band (30–60 Hz) intermuscular coherence between medial and lateral Q-H muscle pairs during SLS. Multivariable linear regression (α = 0.05) was performed to investigate the relationship between knee injury history (main exposure) and medial and lateral Q-H coherence (outcome) while accounting for the influence of sex and self-reported knee pain and symptoms (covariates).The median age of participants was 25 (range 18–30) and 67% were female. Q-H gamma-band coherence was present for 60–90% of legs. Medial and lateral Q-H coherence was higher in females compared to males. There was no evidence for an association between medial Q-H coherence, knee injury history, knee pain, or symptoms. There was evidence for an association between knee injury history and lateral Q-H coherence, which was modified by sex such that previously injured males demonstrated reduced Q-H coherence compared to uninjured males.These finding suggest that females demonstrate a more pronounced Q-H co-contraction strategy during a SLS than males regardless of knee injury history. Further, that male who suffered a youth sport-related knee injury 3–12 years previously demonstrate less Q-H co-contraction during a SLS than uninjured males. The mechanisms behind differences in neuromuscular control between males and females as well as previously injured and uninjured males require further investigation.     

The semantic structure of emotion words across languages is consistent with componential appraisal models of emotion

Appraisal theories of emotion, and particularly the Component Process Model, claim that the different components of the emotion process (action tendencies, physiological reactions, expressions, and feeling experiences) are essentially driven by the results of cognitive appraisals and that the feeling component constitutes a central integration and representation of these processes. Given the complexity of the proposed architecture, comprehensive experimental tests of these predictions are difficult to perform and to date are lacking. Encouraged by the “lexical sedimentation” hypothesis, here we propose an indirect examination of the compatibility of the theoretical assumptions with the semantic structure of a set of major emotion words as measured in a cross-language and cross-cultural study. Specifically, we performed a secondary analysis of the large-scale data set with ratings of affective features covering all components of the emotion process for 24 emotion words in 27 countries, constituting profiles of emotion-specific appraisals, action tendencies, physiological reactions, expressions, and feeling experiences. The results of a series of hierarchical regression analyses to examine the prediction of the theoretical model are highly consistent with the claim that appraisal patterns determine the structure of the response components, which in turn predict central dimensions of the feeling component.     

Interactions of reading and semantics along the ventral visual processing stream

Converging evidence supports a distributed-plus-hub view of semantic processing, in which there are distributed modular semantic sub-systems (e.g., for shape, colour, and action) connected to an amodal semantic hub. Furthermore, object semantic processing of colour and shape, and lexical reading and identification, are processed mainly along the ventral stream, while action semantic processing occurs mainly along the dorsal stream. In Experiment 1, participants read a prime word that required imagining either the object or action referent, and then named a lexical word target. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants performed a lexical decision task (LDT) with the same targets as in Experiment 1, in the presence of foils that were legal nonwords (NW; Experiment 2) or pseudohomophones (PH; Experiment 3). Semantic priming was similar in effect size regardless of prime type for naming, but was greater for object primes than action primes for the LDT with PH foils, suggesting a shared-stream advantage when the task demands focus on orthographic lexical processing. These experiments extend the distributed-plus-hub model, and provide a novel paradigm for further research.     

The vocabulary spurt predicts the emergence of backward semantic inhibition in 18‐month‐old toddlers

The current study examines the relationship between 18‐month‐old toddlers’ vocabulary size and their ability to inhibit attention to no‐longer relevant information using the backward semantic inhibition paradigm. When adults switch attention from one semantic category to another, the former and no‐longer‐relevant semantic category becomes inhibited, and subsequent attention to an item that belongs to the inhibited semantic category is impaired. Here we demonstrate that 18‐month‐olds can inhibit attention to no‐longer relevant semantic categories, but only if they have a relatively large vocabulary. These findings suggest that an increased number of items (word knowledge) in the toddler lexical‐semantic system during the “vocabulary spurt” at 18‐months may be an important driving force behind the emergence of a semantic inhibitory mechanism. Possessing more words in the mental lexicon likely results in the formation of inhibitory links between words, which allow toddlers to select and deselect words and concepts more efficiently. Our findings highlight the role of vocabulary growth in the development of inhibitory processes in the emerging lexical‐semantic system.     

Word recognition in Alzheimer's disease: Effects of semantic degeneration

Impairments of word recognition in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been less widely investigated than impairments affecting word retrieval and production. In particular, we know little about what makes individual words easier or harder for patients with AD to recognize. We used a lexical selection task in which participants were shown sets of four items, each set consisting of one word and three non‐words. The task was simply to point to the word on each trial. Forty patients with mild‐to‐moderate AD were significantly impaired on this task relative to matched controls who made very few errors. The number of patients with AD able to recognize each word correctly was predicted by the frequency, age of acquisition, and imageability of the words, but not by their length or number of orthographic neighbours. Patient Mini‐Mental State Examination and phonological fluency scores also predicted the number of words recognized. We propose that progressive degradation of central semantic representations in AD differentially affects the ability to recognize low‐imageability, low‐frequency, late‐acquired words, with the same factors affecting word recognition as affecting word retrieval.     

我对卒中单元的体会

卒中单元作为卒中治疗的最佳模式,逐渐被临床医生所接受,就卒中单元的概念、特点及我国卒中的现状等多数人所关心的问题进行了分析和探讨,以助于更好的理解。     

建立有中国特色的卒中单元

卒中单元是一种医疗管理模式,它将治疗脑卒中的有效手段集中在一起,让病人在有效治疗时间窗内的到他所需要的最佳治疗,尽可能地使卒中病人恢复神经功能,恢复自我,回归社会。但我国的卒中单元还存在许多问题,需共同努力建立有中国特色的卒中单元。     

中-英双语语义通达机制的启动效应实验

采用不同加工水平的词汇判断任务,考察了启动刺激对目标刺激的启动效应,来探讨中英双语的语义通达机制。被试为大学生38名。结果发现：当启动刺激（英）和目标刺激（英）之间存在语义联想关系,得到了显著的启动效应（实验一）;当启动刺激（中）和目标刺激（英）之间存在语义联想关系,也得到了显著的跨语言启动效应（实验二）;当启动刺激（中）的翻译对等词和目标刺激（英）之间存在语音相同或相近关系时,采用基于语音的词汇判断任务,也得到了显著的跨语言启动效应。这一结果表明,对于中英双语者来说,第二语言的词汇表征既直接通达语义概念表征,又可以借助第一语言的词汇表征为中介再通达语义概念表征。     

不熟练汉英双语学习者第二语言词汇和概念表征的特点

本研究采用翻译识别任务探查了不同熟练程度的汉英双语儿童的词汇和概念表征的特点。被试为从一年级开始学习英语的小学三、五年级和初中一年级儿童共50名,结果发现．各组被试在进行翻译识别时．反应错误率随着熟练程度的提高逐渐降低,且各组被试都产生了显著的正字法干扰效应和语义干扰效应。这一结果表明,不熟练的汉英双语儿童可以通过词汇联系和概念联系加工第二语言中的词。