Children's Production of Unfamiliar Word Sequences Is Predicted by Positional Variability and Latent Classes in a Large Sample of Child-Directed Speech

We explore whether children's willingness to produce unfamiliar sequences of words reflects their experience with similar lexical patterns. We asked children to repeat unfamiliar sequences that were identical to familiar phrases (e.g., A piece of toast) but for one word (e.g., a novel instantiation of A piece of X, like A piece of brick). We explore two predictions-motivated by findings in the statistical learning literature-that children are likely to have detected an opportunity to substitute alternative words into the final position of a four-word sequence if (a) it is difficult to predict the fourth word given the first three words and (b) the words observed in the final position are distributionally similar. Twenty-eight 2-year-olds and thirty-one 3-year-olds were significantly more likely to correctly repeat unfamiliar variants of patterns for which these properties held. The results illustrate how children's developing language is shaped by linguistic experience.     

双语Stroop效应的性别差异研究

虽然许多研究发现男性和女性在语言能力上存在显著差异,但性别差异是否影响第二语言的水平和学习能力尚存在争议,相关研究较少。Stroop范式是语言研究的经典方法,它利用颜色信息和语义信息的相互干扰推论被试心理词典的表征结构。本研究利用此范式探讨不同性别的第二语言学习者在言语表征上的差异。结果显示被试性别与文字材料、性别与刺激类型均存在显著的交互作用,表明不同性别被试在第二语言表征上存在显著差异。     

Recent research on emergent verbal behavior: clinical applications and future directions

This paper describes recent studies that have evaluated the functional independence of verbal operants. Procedures that facilitate the emergence of untrained verbal operants and important areas of future research to increase efficiency of language programs for children diagnosed with developmental disabilities are discussed.     

Establishing five derived mands in three adolescent boys with autism

Three 14-year-old boys with diagnoses of autism learned to mand for the delivery or removal of tokens by presenting nonsense syllables (A(1-5), respectively). A match-to-sample procedure was used to establish conditional discriminations between the 5 A stimuli and 5 B stimuli and between the B stimuli and 5 C stimuli. Subsequently, each participant was able to use the C stimuli to mand, illustrating a transfer of function, although 1 participant first required multiple-exemplar training.     

Baby Wordsmith

ABSTRACT— How do infants acquire their first words? Word reference , or how words map onto objects and events, lies at the core of this question. The emergentist coalition model (ECM) represents a new wave of hybrid developmental theories suggesting that the process of vocabulary development changes from one based in perceptual salience and association to one embedded in social understanding. Beginning at 10 months, babies learn words associatively, ignoring the speaker's social cues and using perceptual salience to guide them. By 12 months, babies attend to social cues, but fail to recruit them for word learning. By 18 and 24 months, babies recruit speakers' social cues to learn the names of particular objects speakers label, regardless of those objects' perceptual attraction. Controversies about how to account for the changing character of word acquisition, along with the roots of children's increasing reliance on speakers' social intent, are discussed.     

中医理论变革：一个非明确限定性问题

以“传统中医理论如何变革”为中医务虚研究的核心问题,并从思维心理学的角度探讨了解决这一非明确限定性问题的三个阶段在准备阶段应理解中医理论的存在有双重意义,故应有两种问题表征;在产生解决办法阶段提议可借鉴西方心理学的流派发展倾向来认知中医变革的方法倾向,后又强调了语言形式对中医理论思维的重要影响,指出应当以语言学知识和临床实际去重建中医学术语言的“语义场”,参照信息加工理论,努力减少“编码”失误;在问题解决的评定阶段,强调由于评定本身就比较困难,所以在应对反馈意见时应坚持革新的信念,及时校正算子。     

老年病人心理干预的语言艺术

恰当运用临床医学语言与沟通技巧,对老年病人实施心理干预,既是一种重要的治疗手段,也是医德的重要组成部分,更是一门充满人文关怀的医疗艺术.     

The Logic and Meaning of Plurals. Part I

Contemporary accounts of logic and language cannot give proper treatments of plural constructions of natural languages. They assume that plural constructions are redundant devices used to abbreviate singular constructions. This paper and its sequel, “The logic and meaning of plurals, II”, aim to develop an account of logic and language that acknowledges limitations of singular constructions and recognizes plural constructions as their peers. To do so, the papers present natural accounts of the logic and meaning of plural constructions that result from the view that plural constructions are, by and large, devices for talking about many things (as such). The account of logic presented in the papers surpasses contemporary Fregean accounts in its scope. This extension of the scope of logic results from extending the range of languages that logic can directly relate to. Underlying the view of language that makes room for this is a perspective on reality that locates in the world what plural constructions can relate to. The papers suggest that reflections on plural constructions point to a broader framework for understanding logic, language, and reality that can replace the contemporary Fregean framework as this has replaced its Aristotelian ancestor.     

A MODIFIED INCIDENTAL-TEACHING PROCEDURE FOR AUTISTIC YOUTH: ACQUISITION AND GENERALIZATION OF RECEPTIVE OBJECT LABELS

A modified incidental-teaching procedure was used to increase the receptive language skills of autistic youth who had previously experienced lengthy institutionalization. At the time of the study, the two severely language-delayed children had recently been transitioned to a community-based group home. Receptive-labeling skills were taught for four sets of objects typically used in school lunch preparation. The percentage of correct, unprompted object identifications displayed by Youth 1 increased when the incidental-teaching package (gestural prompts, behavior-specific praise, and contingent access to lunch-making supplies) was sequentially introduced in a multiple-baseline design across sets of objects. These results were replicated with Youth 2. The youths' newly acquired language skills also generalized to a different setting (the dining room of the group home) and to a different activity occurring later in the day (a traditional sit-down, discrete-trial session). This research indicates that the linguistic skills of severely developmentally delayed autistic children can be accelerated by incidental instruction that is provided in the course of shaping other home-living skills.     

Biblical language instruction by the book: Rethinking the status quaestionis

Grammar‐translation pedagogy is the standard for biblical language instruction. Second language acquisition scholars have argued that grammar‐translation is ineffective and not empirically justified. Moreover, evidence suggests most seminary graduates do not use biblical languages effectively in ministry. Task‐based instruction is an important alternative pedagogy which focuses on the tasks students will be using the language for and designs the curriculum around those tasks. A task‐based approach de‐emphasizes translation and memorization of forms. Instead, the emphasis from the beginning is on biblical interpretation and exposition. Available software based resources offer new possibilities for task‐based teaching, as students can identify forms and vocabulary and have access to a library of resources. A task‐based pedagogy using these tools enables students to quickly develop skills in biblical interpretation that are normally reserved for the third or fourth semester of study. Task‐based pedagogy offers great promise for effective and efficient biblical language pedagogy.