Morphological learning in a novel language: A cross-language comparison

Being able to extract and interpret the internal structure of complex word forms such as the English word dance+r+s is crucial for successful language learning. We examined whether the ability to extract morphological information during word learning is affected by the morphological features of one's native tongue. Spanish and Finnish adult participants performed a word–picture associative learning task in an artificial language where the target words included a suffix marking the gender of the corresponding animate object. The short exposure phase was followed by a word recognition task and a generalization task for the suffix. The participants' native tongues vary greatly in terms of morphological structure, leading to two opposing hypotheses. On the one hand, Spanish speakers may be more effective in identifying gender in a novel language because this feature is present in Spanish but not in Finnish. On the other hand, Finnish speakers may have an advantage as the abundance of bound morphemes in their language calls for continuous morphological decomposition. The results support the latter alternative, suggesting that lifelong experience on morphological decomposition provides an advantage in novel morphological learning.     

Task instructions determine the visuospatial and verbal–spatial nature of number–space associations

Evidence for number–space associations comes from the spatial–numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect, consisting in faster reaction times to small/large digits with the left/right hand, respectively. Two different proposals are commonly discussed concerning the cognitive origin of the SNARC effect: the visuospatial account and the verbal–spatial account. Recent studies have provided evidence for the relative dominance of verbal–spatial over visuospatial coding mechanisms, when both mechanisms were directly contrasted in a magnitude comparison task. However, in these studies, participants were potentially biased towards verbal–spatial number processing by task instructions based on verbal–spatial labels. To overcome this confound and to investigate whether verbal–spatial coding mechanisms are predominantly activated irrespective of task instructions, we completed the previously used paradigm by adding a spatial instruction condition. In line with earlier findings, we could confirm the predominance of verbal–spatial number coding under verbal task instructions. However, in the spatial instruction condition, both verbal–spatial and visuospatial mechanisms were activated to an equal extent. Hence, these findings clearly indicate that the cognitive origin of number–space associations does not always predominantly rely on verbal–spatial processing mechanisms, but that the spatial code associated with numbers is context dependent.     

Advances in experimental psychopatholinguistics: What can we learn from simulation of disorder-like symptoms in human volunteers?

For more than a century, work on patients with acquired or developmental language disorders has informed psycholinguistic models of normal linguistic processing in healthy persons. On the other hand, such models of healthy language processing have been used as blue-prints to gain further insights into the impairments of patients with language pathologies. Against the exemplary background of language production, the first part of this paper reflects this relationship and formulates a desideratum for naturalistic albeit controlled experimental settings. Two recent examples of behavioural and neurofunctional research are presented in which aphasia-like speech symptoms were elicited in healthy control subjects. In the second part, this idea to investigate disorder-like symptoms which are being experimentally induced for the course of the study is further pursued in the field of reading and dyslexia research. Here, it is argued, again on the basis of behavioural and neurofunctional data, that such an approach is advantageous in at least two respects:1. It allows a much more stringent control of experimental factors and confounds than could be potentially achieved in a clinical setting.2. It allows in-extenso piloting of experiments with healthy volunteers before actually recruiting selected (and sometimes rare) patients.It will be concluded that the experimental simulation of disorder-like symptoms in easily accessible healthy volunteers may be a useful approach to understand novel aspects of a language disorder on the basis of a human neurocognitive model of this disorder.     

A PROPOSAL FOR THE CREATION OF A HUMAN AND COMPUTER METALANGUAGE

Since the beginning of the last century, with the development of the Theory of Relativity, an ever-growing gap has come into being between our knowledge about the structure of the world around us and our ability to conceptualize it. Because language plays a major role in our ability to describe the world and our role within it, a need has been created to match the capabilities of language to the knowledge we currently possess about the world we inhabit. This article will focus on two main arguments: (A) our ability to describe and conceptualize the world using a language that is limited, problematic and finite and (B) The possibility of developing a new language based on other principles than those governing verbal speech, which can deal with these limitations and problems and which is better suited to describing the world as we know it today.     

Nine- and twelve-month-old infants relate emotions to people's actions

Under investigation was whether 9- to 12-month-olds appreciate that a person's expression of pleasure when gazing toward an object is consistent with that person's subsequent handling of the object. Infants were randomly assigned to an experimental and control group. In the experimental group infants during the pretrials saw a Happy or an Unhappy person saying either “Oh I like objects” or, “I don't like objects”, respectively, while looking at an abstract object. In the habituation phase, infants saw an actor holding the abstract object, but the emotional expression of the actor was obscured. In the posttrial, infants were alternately presented with either the Happy or the Unhappy actor holding the object. In the control group, infants received the same three phase procedure, except that no object was present during the pre- and habituation trials. Analyses comparing the between-subjects variables revealed that infants in the Experimental group looked significantly longer at the Unhappy actor than infants in the Control group but less long at the Happy actor. This study is the first to compare positive and negative emotions and to show that infants as young as 9 months use these emotions to make inferences about people's subsequent actions on objects.     

A left cerebral hemisphere’s superiority in processing spatial-categorical information in a non-verbal semantic format

It has been shown that the left and right cerebral hemispheres (LH and RH) respectively process qualitative or “categorical” spatial relations and metric or “coordinate” spatial relations. However, categorical spatial information could be thought as divided into two types: semantically-coded and visuospatially-coded categorical information. We examined whether a LH’s advantage in processing semantic-categorical information is observed in a non-verbal format, and also whether semantic- and visuospatial-categorical processing are differentially lateralized. We manipulated the colors and positions of the standard traffic light sign as semantic- and visuospatial-categorical information respectively, and tested performance with the divided visual field method. In the semantic-categorical matching task, in which the participants judged if the semantic-categorical information of a successive cue and target was the same, a right visual field advantage was observed, suggesting a LH’s preference for processing semantic-categorical information in a non-verbal format. In the visuospatial-categorical matching task, in which the participants judged if the visuospatial-categorical information of a successive cue and target was identical, a left visual field advantage was obtained. These results suggest that the processing of semantic-categorical information is lateralized in LH, and we discuss the dissociation between the two types of categorical information.     

The Map of Relational-Cultural Theory

SUMMARY

Psychological theory-building has long been dominated by White, European-male perspectives, perspectives that fail to account for the multifaceted experiences of diverse and marginalized populations. Feminist theory seeks to explore, encompass, and understand the wide range of human experience, a territory that is viewed as broad and complex and dynamic. Relational-Cultural Theory as it addresses the critical importance of relational exchange related to development and health provides an elaboration of some of the most basic feminist principles. Perhaps not surprisingly, this evolving theoretical model has emerged out of the relational work of five women and continues now within an ever-expanding and diverse network of women. This paper will present several elements of this work, its relevance to the larger work of feminist theory, and some of the major contributions of the founding “Monday Night Group.”     

Special Issues in Psychotherapy with Minority Deaf Women

Abstract

Minority Deaf women have been traditionally underserved by mental health professionals, and specifically, therapists are unaware of issues unique to this population. It would be highly unlikely for a minority Deaf woman to have a therapist who matches her in racial background, hearing status, and communication mode. Therefore, the therapy process will be completely cross-cultural. Therapists who provide psychotherapy services to minority Deaf women need to be aware that their clients are members of a community where deafness is a culture and not a disability. Minority Deaf women are also likely to report feeling forced to choose between competing identities in order to get important needs met. In the following article, case examples are provided which illustrate some of the major issues that are likely to arise in therapy with minority Deaf women. These issues include: access to important information; communication, support and level of involvement with biological families; competing cultural demands; health concerns; and coping with chronic mental illness.     

Evaluation of a School-Based Social Skills Program for Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is prevalent among school-aged children. An associated feature of the disorder is a deficit in social functioning, which can be detrimental in terms of long-term outcomes. Therefore, it is crucial to identify evidence-based interventions which can improve the social skills of children with ADHD. The current study was an evaluation of a school-based social skills training program, called Working Together: Building Children's Social Skills Through Folk Literature. The modified version of the program with generalization enhancers was delivered in three schools to 16 children over a 10-week period. Results indicated that this program was effective for improving social skills in children with ADHD, particularly for children with poor pragmatic language skills.     

Using Dynamic Field Theory to extend the embodiment stance toward higher cognition

The embodiment stance emphasizes that cognitive processes unfold continuously in time, are constantly linked to the sensory and motor surfaces, and adapt through learning and development. Dynamic Field Theory (DFT) is a neurally based set of concepts that has turned out to be useful for understanding how cognition emerges in an embodied and situated system. We explore how the embodiment stance may be extended beyond those forms of cognition that are closest to sensorimotor processes. The core elements of DFT are dynamic neural fields (DNFs), patterns of activation defined over different kinds of spaces. These may include retinal space and visual feature spaces, spaces spanned by movement parameters such as movement direction and amplitude, or abstract spaces like the ordinal axis along which sequences unfold. Instances of representation that stand for perceptual objects, motor plans, or action intentions are peaks of activation in the DNFs. We show how such peaks may arise from input and are stabilized by intra-field interaction. Given a neural mechanism for instantiation, the neuronal couplings between DNFs implement cognitive operations. We illustrate how these mechanisms can be used to enable architectures of dynamic neural fields to perform cognitive functions such as acquiring and updating scene representations, using grounded spatial language, and generating sequences of actions. Implementing these DFT models in autonomous robots demonstrates how these cognitive functions can be enacted in embodied, situated systems.