Verbs as linguistic markers of agency: The social side of grammar

Basic grammatical categories may carry social meanings irrespective of their semantic content. In a set of four studies, we demonstrate that verbs—a basic linguistic category present and distinguishable in most languages—are related to the perception of agency, a fundamental dimension of social perception. In an archival analysis of actual language use in Polish and German, we found that targets stereotypically associated with high agency (men and young people) are presented in the immediate neighborhood of a verb more often than non‐agentic social targets (women and older people). Moreover, in three experiments using a pseudo‐word paradigm, verbs (but not adjectives and nouns) were consistently associated with agency (but not with communion). These results provide consistent evidence that verbs, as grammatical vehicles of action, are linguistic markers of agency. In demonstrating meta‐semantic effects of language, these studies corroborate the view of language as a social tool and an integral part of social perception.     

Influence of semantic consistency and perceptual features on visual attention during scene viewing in toddlers

Conceptual representations of everyday scenes are built in interaction with visual environment and these representations guide our visual attention. Perceptual features and object-scene semantic consistency have been found to attract our attention during scene exploration. The present study examined how visual attention in 24-month-old toddlers is attracted by semantic violations and how perceptual features (i. e. saliency, centre distance, clutter and object size) and linguistic properties (i. e. object label frequency and label length) affect gaze distribution. We compared eye movements of 24-month-old toddlers and adults while exploring everyday scenes which either contained an inconsistent (e.g., soap on a breakfast table) or consistent (e.g., soap in a bathroom) object. Perceptual features such as saliency, centre distance and clutter of the scene affected looking times in the toddler group during the whole viewing time whereas looking times in adults were affected only by centre distance during the early viewing time. Adults looked longer to inconsistent than consistent objects either if the objects had a high or a low saliency. In contrast, toddlers presented semantic consistency effect only when objects were highly salient. Additionally, toddlers with lower vocabulary skills looked longer to inconsistent objects while toddlers with higher vocabulary skills look equally long to both consistent and inconsistent objects. Our results indicate that 24-month-old children use scene context to guide visual attention when exploring the visual environment. However, perceptual features have a stronger influence in eye movement guidance in toddlers than in adults. Our results also indicate that language skills influence cognitive but not perceptual guidance of eye movements during scene perception in toddlers.     

Language Use and Coalition Formation in Multiparty Negotiations

The alignment of bargaining positions is crucial to a successful negotiation. Prior research has shown that similarity in language use is indicative of the conceptual alignment of interlocutors. We use latent semantic analysis to explore how the similarity of language use between negotiating parties develops over the course of a three‐party negotiation. Results show that parties that reach an agreement show a gradual increase in language similarity over the course of the negotiation. Furthermore, reaching the most financially efficient outcome is dependent on similarity in language use between the parties that have the most to gain from such an outcome.     

新颖语义联结形成的右半球优势效应

新颖语义联结形成是创造性思维的重要加工过程。采用谜题型歇后语为材料,直接操控语义联结的新颖性,通过两个实验考察汉语新颖语义联结形成的神经机制。实验1采用fMRI记录谜题型歇后语阅读理解过程的神经活动,结果显示相对于寻常语义关联条件,新颖语义关联条件更强地激活了右侧颞上回,该脑区可能与新颖语义信息的激活有关。实验2采用ERP技术在语义关联性判断任务中考察新颖语义联结形成神经加工的时空特征,结果显示相对于寻常语义关联条件,新颖语义关联条件在右侧颞区和右侧额区诱发了更正的晚期正成分,可能分别反映了新颖语义信息的激活以及选择与整合。研究结果支持了新颖语义联结形成的右半球加工优势效应。     

Autism and ‘disease’: The semantics of an ill-posed question

It often seems incorrect to say that psychiatric conditions are diseases, and equally incorrect to say that they are not. This results in what would seem to be an unsatisfactory stalemate. The present essay examines the considerations that have brought us to such a stalemate in our discussions of autism. It argues that the stalemate in this particular case is a reflection of the fact that we need to find the logical space for a position that rejects both positive and negative answers. It then suggests one way in which we might find such space, by applying Michael Dummett’s notion of semantic disharmony.     

Psychological support for families of ICU patients: longitudinal documentation of the service

This study is the first systematic effort to investigate psychological services provided to relatives of ICU patients at Nicosia General Hospital. Documentation of psychological sessions provided to relatives of ICU patients for the years 2011–2014 was analyzed. To investigate possible differences in the total number of sessions for the referenced years, the records were analyzed using patients’ demographics, the outcome of hospitalization and the total number of sessions with relatives. A questionnaire was sent to the ICU staff aiming to identify their perception towards the need for psychological support. A total number of 863 psychological sessions were conducted with 640 relatives of 345 patients hospitalized in the ICU. Results indicate that more sessions are recorded when the outcome of younger patients’ condition worsens, whereas the number of sessions decreases for older patients’ families. When comparing the personnel’s beliefs, regarding the importance of providing psychological services to different age groups, significant difference was found suggesting that the older the patient the less sessions they believe are required indicating a possible ageism bias.     

Exploring classical conditioning for strengthening the links between semantic and lexical representations in pure anomia: Preliminary findings from a single case study

The same language symptom might arise at different functional loci in people with aphasia. Therefore, it is plausible that different therapeutic interventions should be adopted to approach the same difficulties in different patients. Although this point of view is still widely accepted, recently the focus has shifted from the functional locus of a rehabilitative intervention to the mechanisms of action underlying the relearning process. We maintain that both aspects should be taken into account when programming a rehabilitative intervention; furthermore, investigating relearning mechanisms might shed new light on the functional architecture of the disrupted processes. Here, we investigated, in a single case study, whether classical conditioning was a suitable relearning paradigm for targeting word‐finding difficulties in pure anomia, that is in a patient with an impairment in accessing intact output lexical representations from a spared semantic system. Using a word‐repetition task on picture presentation, we contrasted a condition in which the stimulus onset asynchrony between word and picture stimuli was well suited to produce classical conditioning with a condition in which repetition training could not benefit from this learning mechanism. Only classical conditioning training exerted a significant, long‐lasting effect on our patient's naming skill. Tentative implications of our results for the functional architecture of single‐word processing are discussed.     

How semantic organisation influences primary school children’s working memory

The present study focuses on the semantic organisation of material in working memory. We developed a new measure in which students memorised unrelated words from lists. In our study, we manipulated the association between words in the lists. The material was organised so as to elicit a semantic organisation (categorical and thematic). The task was then administered to a group of 6–10-year-old children. The semantic organisation of the material prompted a better recall, which depended on the type of semantic organisation. In the same vein, the number of intrusion errors was influenced by the semantic links between words and was higher when words in the list were associated categorically. These results seemed to depend partly on the participants’ age, being evident only in the younger children.     

左侧额下回在句子语义整合加工中的作用

语义整合帮助人们在阅读理解中将小信息块整合成一个完整、连贯的句子意义表达, 是阅读理解中非常重要的认知过程。通过对比40多篇句子加工相关的脑机制研究, 发现左侧额下回在fMRI研究中是参与语义整合加工激活概率最高的区域, 而颞叶及后部是MEG研究中激活概率最高的区域。另外, 左侧额下回是如何参与语义整合、它在内隐和外显语义整合中的机制是否相同、以及这种整合加工与一般的控制性加工、词汇启动的关系都是研究者广泛关注的问题。本文对上述问题进行了详细的综述和讨论。     

识别电位认知功能探析

识别电位(Recognition Potential, RP)是被试看到可识别视觉刺激时, 在200~250ms内达到峰值的脑电反应。识别电位的研究正处于理论探讨阶段, 有两种主要观点用于解释RP。一种观点强调RP反映了视知觉分析成分; 另一种观点强调RP反映了语义或概念加工成分。两种观点至今未达成一致。最近, 针对两种观点质疑, 研究者们提出了类别特征加工的观点, 这一新观点在理论上符合大脑经济性的原则, 具有一定的优越性, 但尚需要更多的实证研究的支持。未来的RP研究应从实验材料的多样化、多研究方法结合、类别特征加工能力的习得机制等方面展开。