汉语同音异形词意义识别中的抑制过程

使用被试自定步速逐词阅读的移动窗口技术,考察了视觉呈现的均衡型和偏向型两类汉语同音异形词意义识别中的抑制过程。实验要求被试阅读由三个分句组成的句子。重复条件下,句子第一个分句中的一个词与第三个分句中的一个词同音异形。同不重复条件(用控制词替换重复条件下第一个分句中的同音异形词)相比,重复条件下,被试对第三个分句中均衡型同音异形词之后的第一个区段阅读时间要长,即出现重复性效应。这种效应在偏向型同音异形词中并未出现。这一结果支持VHMR模型的抑制控制模块假设。简单的抑制假设或衰退假设均无法解释上述结果。此外,上述重复性效应仅出现在阅读速度较快的被试身上。这说明正是对无关信息的高效能的抑制,使得被试表现出较快的阅读速度。     

Rational Comprehension of Arguments in Theoretical Texts: A Program for an Argumentative-Linguistic Approach

A method of linguistically-oriented reasoning comprehension is proposed. It is based on semiological principles of text comprehension. Both content and form are essential for comprehending argumentative texts. A text recipient is viewed as a rational judge trying to detect all the components of the argument he/she considers and thus to see if the argument is consistent. Elementary and higher level argumentative units of the text are discovered by applying a modified S. Toulmin's model of argumentative functions. Validity and correctness of arguments are established by means of a new – linguistic – interpretation of traditional syllogistic.     

中文读写能力及其相关因素的结构模型

运用问卷调查法考查了中文儿童读写能力及其相关因素之间的关系.通过验证性因素分析对量表的信度和效度指标进行了分析,发现量表具有较好的项目信度和结构效度.结构模型分析发现阅读听写能力影响书面语意义理解和书写技能,而书面语意义理解和书写技能对书面表达有显著影响.家庭阅读背景影响儿童的口语能力和阅读听写能力,口语能力影响意义理解和阅读听写能力,基本知觉加工影响口语能力和阅读听写,动作技能影响书写技能.上述结果表明中文字词识别、书写技能和意义理解水平都影响书面表达,即段落产生能力.而口语能力、家庭阅读背景、基本知觉加工和动作技能分别对读写能力的不同侧面产生影响.本研究还分析了模型的年龄和性别特点.     

阅读理解的风景模型:整合的观点

阅读理解是构建篇章有效而连贯的心理表征的过程,研究者提出了许多模型,分别去解释阅读结果的心理表征和阅读的加工过程.风景模型则同时考虑了阅读的加工过程与心理表征,并描述了二者之间的动态、交互作用,整合了以往的理论模型.大量实验证据验证了风景模型的心理真实性,并发现它可以应用到各种阅读情景中.     

Degree of Language Experience Modulates Visual Attention to Visible Speech and Iconic Gestures During Clear and Degraded Speech Comprehension

Visual information conveyed by iconic hand gestures and visible speech can enhance speech comprehension under adverse listening conditions for both native and non‐native listeners. However, how a listener allocates visual attention to these articulators during speech comprehension is unknown. We used eye‐tracking to investigate whether and how native and highly proficient non‐native listeners of Dutch allocated overt eye gaze to visible speech and gestures during clear and degraded speech comprehension. Participants watched video clips of an actress uttering a clear or degraded (6‐band noise‐vocoded) action verb while performing a gesture or not, and were asked to indicate the word they heard in a cued‐recall task. Gestural enhancement was the largest (i.e., a relative reduction in reaction time cost) when speech was degraded for all listeners, but it was stronger for native listeners. Both native and non‐native listeners mostly gazed at the face during comprehension, but non‐native listeners gazed more often at gestures than native listeners. However, only native but not non‐native listeners' gaze allocation to gestures predicted gestural benefit during degraded speech comprehension. We conclude that non‐native listeners might gaze at gesture more as it might be more challenging for non‐native listeners to resolve the degraded auditory cues and couple those cues to phonological information that is conveyed by visible speech. This diminished phonological knowledge might hinder the use of semantic information that is conveyed by gestures for non‐native compared to native listeners. Our results demonstrate that the degree of language experience impacts overt visual attention to visual articulators, resulting in different visual benefits for native versus non‐native listeners.     

The interrelatedness between infants’ communicative gestures and lexicon size: A longitudinal study

Research has shown a close relationship between gestures and language development. In this study, we investigate the cross-lagged relationships between different types of gestures and two lexicon dimensions: number of words produced and comprehended. Information about gestures and lexical development was collected from 48 typically developing infants when these were aged 0;9, 1;0 and 1;3. The European Portuguese version of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Gestures (PT CDI:WG) was used. The results indicated that the total number of actions and gestures and the number of early gestures produced at 0;9 and at 1;0 year predicted the number of words comprehended three months later. Actions and gestures’ predictive power of the number of words produced was limited to the 0;9–1;0 year interval. The opposite relationship was not found: word comprehension and production did not predict action and gestures three months later. These results highlight the importance of non-verbal communicative behavior in language development.     

Reading and writing difficulties do not always occur as the researcher expects

Making a prognosis about reading and learning difficulties is a tricky business, even if a large array of relevant variables is taken into account. The present article discusses such an endeavour, on the basis of a longitudinal four-year study which started with an orthodox intervention on linguistic awareness. However, after initial success, new groups of reading, writing and math disabled children were identified in the course of years. Membership of these groups could not always be predicted on the basis of extensive cognitive diagnostics performed during the preschool. Rather, the pupil’s adaptive behaviour while coping with the demands of school work emerges as an important prognostic factor. This was particularly evident in an interaction combining math and reading comprehension in grade 3.     

A Very Strong Set Theory?

Studia Logica - Using two distinct membership symbols makes possible to base set theory on one general axiom schema of comprehension. Is the resulting system consistent? Can set theory and...     

Adolescent reading skill and engagement with digital and traditional literacies as predictors of reading comprehension

This study investigates the concurrent predictors of adolescent reading comprehension (literal, inferential) for fiction and non‐fiction texts. Predictors were examined from the cognitive (word identification, reading fluency), psychological (gender), and ecological (print exposure) domains. Print exposure to traditional and digital texts was surveyed using a diary method of reading habits. A cross‐sectional sample of 312 students in early (11–13 years) or middle adolescence (14–15 years) participated from a range of SES backgrounds. Word identification emerged as a strong predictor of reading comprehension across adolescence and text genres. Gender effects favouring female students were evident for reading frequency but not for reading skill itself. Reading habits also differed, and comprehension advantages were observed among females for fiction and males for non‐fiction. Age effects emerged for reading frequency, which was lower in middle adolescence. Although more time was spent on digital than on traditional texts, traditional extended text reading was the only reading habit to predict inference‐making in comprehension and to distinguish skilled from less skilled comprehenders. The theoretical and educational implications of these results are discussed.