Cogprints: No conditions. Results ordered -Date, Title. 2018-01-17T14:28:51ZEPrintshttp://cogprints.org/images/sitelogo.gifhttp://cogprints.org/2013-09-17T14:29:14Z2013-09-17T14:29:14Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/9029This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/90292013-09-17T14:29:14ZSpontaneous eye movements during passive spoken language comprehension reflect grammatical processingLanguage is tightly connected to sensory and motor systems. Recent research using eye- tracking typically relies on constrained visual contexts, viewing a small array of objects on a computer screen. Some critiques of embodiment ask if people simply match their simulations to the pictures being presented. This study compared the comprehension of verbs with two different grammatical forms: the past progressive form (e.g., was walking), which emphasizes the ongoing nature of actions, and the simple past (e.g., walked), which emphasizes the end-state of an action. The results showed that the distribution and timing of eye movements mirrors the underlying conceptual structure of this linguistic difference in the absence of any visual stimuli. Thus, eye movement data suggest that visual inputs are unnecessary to solicit perceptual simulations.Ms. Stephanie Huetteshuette@ucmerced.eduMr. Bodo WinterBodo Winter <bwinter@ucmerced.edu>Dr. Teenie Matlocktmatlock@ucmerced.eduDr. David Ardelldardell@ucmerced.eduDr. Michael Spiveymspivey@ucmerced.edu2015-02-21T14:36:33Z2015-04-20T11:42:49Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/9724This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/97242015-02-21T14:36:33ZABaCo: Assessment Battery for Communication
Human communication is
one of the most complex social
activity: it is a process of meaning
construction which cooperatively
involves all participants taking
part in the interaction. Various
clinical conditions may lead to
impairments of communicative
abilities: developmental disorders
(e.g., autism, specific language
impairment, Down syndrome),
brain pathologies (e.g., closed
head injury, right hemisphere
damage, aphasia), psychiatric disorders
(schizophrenia), disorders
of old age (e.g. dementia). The
assessment of a patient’s abilities
and disabilities is the crucial starting
point for planning an efficient
rehabilitation path, where
residual capacities are strengthen
and, whenever possible, impaired
components are restored. However,
while the phonological,
syntactic and semantic components
of language can be assessed
by numerous tests, instruments
for the evaluation of pragmatic
aspects of communication are
scarce (see Sacco et al., 2008 for a
more detailed analysis of the existing
instruments for the assessment
of communication).
The Assessment Battery for
Communication (ABaCo) has
been created to be a theoretically
grounded, wide-range clinical
instrument. Its theoretical bases
stem from Cognitive Pragmatics
theory (Airenti, Bara & Colombetti,
1993; Bara, 2010), a theory of
the cognitive processes underlying
human communicative exchanges,
framed within the inferential
model of communication (Grice,
1975) and the speech acts perspective
(Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969).
The theory has been shown to
be able to make predictions on
typically developing children (Bucciarelli,
Colle & Bara, 2003; Bosco,
Bucciarelli & Bara, 2004; 2006;
Bosco & Buciarelli, 2008; Bosco,
Vallana & Bucciarelli, 2012), atypically
developing children (Bara,
Bosco & Bucciarelli, 1999; Bara,
Bucciarelli & Colle, 2001; De
Marco, Colle & Bucciarelli, 2007),
patients with traumatic brain injury
(Bara, Tirassa & Zettin, 1997;
Bara, Cutica & Tirassa, 2001; Angeleri
et al., 2008), patients with right
and left focal brain lesions (Cutica,
Bucciarelli & Bara, 2006), patients
with Alzheimer’s disease (Bara,
Bucciarelli & Geminiani, 2000)
and patients with schizophrenia
(Bosco, Bono & Bara, 2012). In
this view, communication is the
ability to comprehend and produce
linguistic and extralinguistic
communication acts, accompanied
by suitable paralinguistic features,
appropriate with respect to discourse
and social norms, and fluently
integrated within the conversation.
The ABaCo assesses each of
these components, encompassing
the major aspects involved in communication.
In this paper, we will
briefly describe the features of the
battery, and summarize its psychometric
properties, providing some
suggestions for clinical application.Ph.D Katiuscia Saccokatiuscia.sacco@unito.itPh.D. Romina Angeleriromina.angeleri@unito.itPh.D. Livia Collelivia.colle@unito.itPh.D. Ilaria Gabbatoreilaria.gabbatore@unito.itProf. Bruno G. Barabruno.bara@unito.itProf. Francesca M. Boscofrancesca.bosco@unito.it2015-02-21T14:36:41Z2015-04-20T11:42:35Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/9725This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/97252015-02-21T14:36:41ZAbilità linguistiche ed extralinguistiche in pazienti con afasiaL’afasia è una condizione patologica che si verifica prevalentemente a
seguito di una lesione cerebrale in specifiche aree dell’emisfero sinistro, che
comporta deficit che limitano gravemente l’efficacia comunicativa nella vita
quotidiana (Darrigrand et al., 2011). Tradizionalmente si sono indagate soprattutto
le implicazioni sul piano del linguaggio e sono stati proposti numerosi
strumenti per la valutazione del puro deficit linguistico: WAB (Kertesz,
1982), BADA (Miceli et al., 1994), Test dei Gettoni (De Renzi e Vignolo,
1962).
Anche la componente gestuale della comunicazione, tuttavia, sembra
compromessa. Cutica e colleghi (2006) hanno evidenziato prestazioni deficitarie
dei pazienti con lesione cerebrale sinistra nella comprensione di atti comunicativi
complessi, come inganni e ironie, espresse attraverso i gesti. La
performance era, invece, paragonabile a quella dei soggetti di controllo nei
compiti comunicativi più semplici. Sebbene l’utilizzo di gesti possa rappresentare
una modalità di compenso del deficit linguistico nei pazienti afasici,
questo sembra valere solo per compiti che non implichino la gestione di rappresentazioni
mentali complesse. Questi dati sono interpretabili in riferimento
al modello di Bara e Tirassa (1999) che definiscono la comunicazione come
un processo nel quale la via linguistica ed extralinguistica rappresentano
due modalità espressive parallele e integrantisi a vicenda. Conferme a riguardo
derivano dalla psicologia dello sviluppo: bambini a sviluppo tipico mostrano
la stessa difficoltà di comprensione di differenti compiti pragmatici,
sia che si realizzino per via linguistica sia per via extralinguistica (Bucciarelli
et al., 2003). Inoltre, studi mostrano come la competenza comunicativa sia
indipendente dalla modalità specifica e come la modalità linguistica e extralinguistica
presentino gli stessi tratti di acquisizione (Bara et al., 2000). Il
presente lavoro si inserisce nel quadro teorico della teoria della Pragmatica
Cognitiva (Bara, 2010) una teoria dei processi mentali sottostanti la comunicazione.
All’interno di tale quadro teorico è possibile ordinare diversi fenomeni
pragmatici lungo un gradiente di difficoltà crescente, in base alla complessità
delle rappresentazioni mentali coinvolte, e indipendente dalla modalità
in cui sono espresse (Angeleri et al., 2008; Bosco et al., 2006; Bosco e
Bucciarelli, 2008; Bara et al., 2001).Ph.D. Ilaria Gabbatoreilaria.gabbatore@unito.itPh. D. romina angeleriromina.angeleri@unito.itProf. bruno barabruno.bara@unito.itprof. francesca boscofrancesca.bosco@unito.itPh.D. katiuscia saccokatiuscia.sacco@unito.it2012-11-09T19:41:26Z2013-02-18T15:15:37Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8268This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/82682012-11-09T19:41:26ZBiases in the relationship between dream threats and level of anxiety upon awakeningObjectives:
Controlling report length in dream content analysis comprises a significant methodological problem. Individual differences occur in report length which can influence category coding and rating scales. Differences are also found in dream content by sex and age. The aim of this study is to determine the bias of certain variables in dream content analysis when using rating scales, coding systems and questionnaires. As such, an evaluation was performed of the bias of these variables on the relationship between anxiety upon awakening, social threats (ST) and terrifying threats (TT) established in a previous study.
Methods: The sample consisted of 215 dreams collected in dreamers' homes (63 belonged to men and 152 to women). The dreamer's level of anxiety upon awakening was assessed with the CEAD. The level of social and terrifying threats in the content of the dreams was also assessed. Other variables entered into the analysis were sex, age, dream length, number of hours before answering the questionnaire, number of hours' sleep and the frequency with which the dreamer suffers nightmares.
Results:
Use of the Mann Whitney U found significant differences by sex in the dreamer's nightmare frequency (z=-2.53 p=.011), in terrifying threats in the dream (z=-2.03 p= .042) and by dream time (z=-2.51 p=.012). The Spearman Rho correlation coefficient indicated a positive relationship between anxiety upon awakening and nightmare frequency (Rho=.26 p<.001). Social and terrifying threats were also positively correlated with word count and the number of dream characters (Rho=.37 p<.001, Rho=.17 p=.010). Both anxiety upon awakening and social and terrifying threats were negatively correlated with the age of the dreamer (RhoCEAD-AGE=-.20 p=.006, RhoST-AGE=-.30 p<.001, RhoTT-AGE=-.37 p<.001). Possible biases due to sex, age, word count and the number of characters were statistically controlled by means of partial correlation. Through the use of partial correlations, the significance between anxiety upon awakening, social threats and terrifying threats in the dream was observed to be maintained (rCEAD-TS=.17 p=.025, rCEAD-TT=.19 p=.011).
Conclusion:
The sex, age of the dreamer, the report word count and the number of dream characters must be controlled in research into dream content. In addition, after eliminating these biases, a significant relationship was confirmed between threats which appear in the dream and the dreamer's level of anxiety upon awakening.Iñigo Saez-Uribarriinisaezu@bilbao.com2013-09-17T14:25:23Z2013-09-17T14:25:23Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8979This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/89792013-09-17T14:25:23ZInvestigating the dual function of gesture in blind and visually impaired children. (Poster)Co-speech gesture research explores the role of gesture in communication, i.e. whether gestures are intended for the listener/audience (e.g. Mol et al. 2009; Alibali et al., 2001; Holler & Beattie, 2003) or support the process of speech production (Kita & Davies, 2009; Hostetter et al. 2007). To investigate the role of gesture in communication we turn to blind and visually impaired speakers whose opportunities to learn gestures visually are limited (cf. Iverson & Goldin-Meadow 1998; 2001). The present study aims at providing insight into the nature and occurrence of co-speech gestures in spontaneous speech: between blind, severely visually impaired and sighted individuals. Participants were asked to read a short story (either in print or in Braille) and to re-tell it to the interviewer. Care was taken to establish an environment in which the participants would feel safe and would not refrain from gesturing for fear of hurting themselves or others. We predicted that if blind speakers did not gesture as much as their visually impaired peers it would suggest that gesture is to some extent acquired through visual instruction. However, following Iverson et al. (2000) and Iverson and Goldin-Meadow (1998) we hypothesized that despite the absence of visual gestural stimuli during the language-learning process gesture is present in the language of the blind participants - but there would be differences in gesture form, types and functions. The present study aims at exploring and categorizing these differences, with regard to how sensory references are visible in the gestures of participants with various degrees of sight impairment. Regardless of dissimilarities, the presence of gesture in both the blind and impaired individuals points towards a dual function of co-speech gestures, i.e. a device for both the speaker and their interlocutor.Anna Jelecajelec@wa.amu.edu.plZuzanna FleischerDorota Jaworska2013-05-04T22:47:49Z2013-05-04T22:47:49Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8831This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/88312013-05-04T22:47:49ZThe Processing of Lexical SequencesPsycholinguistics has traditionally been defined as the study of how we process units of language such as letters, words and sentences. But what about other units? This dissertation concerns itself with short lexical sequences called n- grams, longer than words but shorter than most sentences. N-grams can be phrases (such as the 3-gram "the great divide") or just fragments (such as the 4- gram means "nothing to a"). Words are often thought to be the universal, atomic building block of longer lexical sequences, but n-grams are equally capable of carrying meaning and being combined to create any sentence. Are n-grams more than just the sum of their parts (the sum of their words)? How do language users process n-grams when they are asked to read them or produce them? Using evidence that I have gathered, I will address these and other questions with the goal of better understanding n-gram processing.Dr. Cyrus Shaoulcyrus.shaoul@ualberta.ca2012-12-22T13:16:23Z2013-02-18T15:10:17Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8773This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/87732012-12-22T13:16:23ZConstructive Conversation Analysis in psychotherapy: cognitive relevance of actants in terms of linguistic constructionsPychotherapists produce pseudo-structured discourse with their clients that can be analysed with linguistics and pragmatics. Conversation Analysis is often qualitative, non-sistematic. The Therapeutic Cycles Model (TCM) uses ad-hoc software to perform textual analysis of psychoterapeutic transcripts, in order to elicit significant elements in the therapeutic interaction, but it does not consider linguistic constructions as units of analysis. Constructive Adpositional Grammars (CxAdGrams) are the ground for the Conversation Analysis so to fill the gap left by the TCM.Dr Federico Gobbofederico.gobbo@uninsubria.itRiccardo A. Preziosir.amedeo.preziosi@gmail.com2010-10-18T11:00:45Z2011-03-11T08:57:45Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7048This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/70482010-10-18T11:00:45ZOctologyThe manuscript describes a new sciencific discipline called Octology, which should unify morphogenetic linguistics and neurobiology to investigate the development of the words, cognition and behavior.Dr. Andrej Poleevandrejpoleev@yahoo.com2010-07-29T01:52:07Z2011-03-11T08:57:38Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6877This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/68772010-07-29T01:52:07ZCommunication failureThis is an encyclopedia entry and does not include an abstract.Francesca BoscoMaurizio Tirassamaurizio.tirassa@unito.it2010-04-01T11:36:18Z2011-03-11T08:57:36Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6817This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/68172010-04-01T11:36:18ZThe complexity of theory of mindThere is no abstract for this paper.Livia ColleFrancesca M. BoscoMaurizio Tirassamaurizio.tirassa@unito.it2010-04-01T11:36:29Z2011-03-11T08:57:36Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6816This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/68162010-04-01T11:36:29ZTh.o.m.a.s.: An exploratory assessment of Theory of Mind in schizophrenic subjectsA large body of literature agrees that persons with schizophrenia suffer from a Theory of Mind (ToM) deficit. However, most empirical studies have focused on third-person, egocentric ToM, underestimating other facets of this complex cognitive skill. Aim of this research is to examine the ToM of schizophrenic persons considering its various aspects (first vs. second order, first vs. third person, egocentric vs. allocentric, beliefs vs. desires vs. positive emotions vs. negative emotions and how each of these mental state types may be dealt with), to determine whether some components are more impaired than others. We developed a Theory of Mind Assessment Scale (Th.o.m.a.s.) and administered it to 22 persons with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia and a matching control group. Th.o.m.a.s. is a semi-structured interview which allows a multi-component measurement of ToM. Both groups were also administered a few existing ToM tasks and the schizophrenic subjects were administered the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale and the WAIS-R. The schizophrenic persons performed worse than control at all the ToM measurements; however, these deficits appeared to be differently distributed among different components of ToM. Our conclusion is that ToM deficits are not unitary in schizophrenia, which also testifies to the importance of a complete and articulated investigation of ToM.Francesca M. BoscoLivia ColleSilvia De FazioAdele BonoSaverio RubertiMaurizio Tirassa2008-07-13T11:03:39Z2011-03-11T08:57:09Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6123This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/61232008-07-13T11:03:39Z“Io sono evoluto e quello è un uomo di Neanderthal”:
Un’analisi linguistica cognitivista del concetto di evoluzione“Evoluzione” è una parola usata ormai frequentemente dall’uomo comune nonché in tutte le discipline, umanistiche e scientifiche. Culturalmente radicata, è diventata una metafora potente. Una definizione corrente è “sviluppo lento e graduale; svolgimento da una forma a un’altra, generalmente più completa e perfetta” (Garzanti). In questi termini non si parla soltanto dell’evoluzione biologica dell’uomo, ma anche dell’evoluzione del linguaggio, della società, della cognizione umana – a prescindere da un’effettiva conoscenza delle teorie evoluzionistiche.
L’evoluzione, in quanto teoria biologica, rimanda quasi automaticamente alla teoria di Darwin, il quale, tuttavia, ha usato il termine solo una volta, nel paragrafo finale del suo celeberrimo L’origine delle specie (1859). Nel concetto di evoluzione è comunemente implicato il passaggio da una specie “primitiva” ad una specie “progredita”, più avanzata o sofisticata e strutturalmente più complessa. Nei suoi scritti, Darwin preferiva parlare di “discendenza con modificazioni” anziché di “evoluzione”, termine usato invece da Bonnet (1762) nella sua teoria dell’homunculus, proprio perché portatore della valenza semantica di “progresso”, non presente nella teoria che Darwin proponeva. Infatti, per quest’ultimo “evoluzione” ha più a che fare con il cambiamento (x --> y) che con il progresso (x --> x+1). L’idea che il concetto di evoluzione abbia a che fare con quello di progresso è in realtà posteriore: nell’accezione più comune del termine è presente l’idea di una temporalità lineare, nella quale l’hic et nunc è visto come la massima compiutezza dello sviluppo, della complessità e della “modernità”, e il passato è visto da un punto di vista situato in un setting storico del presente (antropo-, etno-, euro-, ego-centrico etc), in un’opposizione binaria tra “adesso” e “allora”, tra “noi” e “loro”, tra “progredito” e “primitivo”. Eppure l’evoluzione, in senso stretto, non è teleologica e non c’è un “avanti” o un “indietro”, c’è solo un cambiamento causato dall’adattamento nell’ecosistema in cui l’essere storico si trova. Evoluzione non è necessariamente sinonimo di ottimizzazione (chi può dire che la “prossima generazione” sarà migliore?).
La mia ipotesi è che questa metafora (linguaggio) influenza il nostro modo di concepire e ragionare circa un oggetto (pensiero). Anticipando qualche dato, mi avvalgo delle discipline linguistiche, nell’ambito delle quali si parla dell’evoluzione non solo del linguaggio, ma anche della lingua. Ad esempio l’idea che una lingua sia meno complessa sintatticamente, come nel caso della lingua dei Pirahã del Sudamerica, ha generato il giudizio di “primitivismo” nei confronti del popolo che la parla da parte soprattutto di alcuni filochomskyiani e altri1. In altre scienze sociali, alcune manifestazioni culturali, come l’arte, vengono intese come “primitive” o “moderne”, oppure si parla di evoluzione di generi letterari. La dimostrazione forse più eclatante di questo antropocentrismo riguarda il problema del genere Homo, in cui l’avvento dell’Uomo Anatomicamente Moderno si fa coincidere con la nascita della cultura, utilizzando un doppio standard di modernità, visto che Neandertal fu probabilmente molto più simile a noi di quanto si tende a pensare2.
L’utilizzo dell’idea di evoluzione come metafora può essere estremamente potente nell’ambiente accademico, ma occorre prestare attenzione alle sue possibili implicazioni. Il mio intento è quello di analizzare questa metafora usata comunemente all’interno delle varie discipline dal punto di vista della linguistica cognitiva (frames e metafore concettuali), mettendo in evidenza come il concetto target eredita delle implicazioni che emergono a causa delle qualità proprie del concetto source, per dimostrare che il modo in cui avviene il framing del concetto condiziona sovente la metodologia di studio, nonché la tassonomia applicata all’oggetto studiato. Vito Evolaevola@unipa.it2008-06-27T01:44:01Z2011-03-11T08:57:09Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6111This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/61112008-06-27T01:44:01ZHow Body and Soul Interact with the Spiritual Mind Cognitive Linguistics as an enterprise provides new theoretical and methodological instruments in understanding the relationship between people’s thoughts and the language they use. Spiritual and religious experiences (particularly the ones involving some type of revelation from or communication with a transcendent being) are especially interesting since they involve some type of external, physically invisible force or agent, contributing an “ineffable” quality to the phenomenon. However, people can and do describe such events, and metaphors and blends pervade the representations of certain concepts of the transcendental when attempting to talk about such abstract ideas. One of the main tenants of Cognitive Linguistics is that people’s views about themselves and the world around them are deeply rooted in their conceptual systems, created by their experiences and their bodily interactions with the world, whether they be physical, psychological or social.
People who practice spirituality reach certain states by means of personal or collective rituals, such as prayer, meditation, and bodily procedures involving discipline, as is the case of fasting or re-understanding pain. When they then communicate certain religious and spiritual concepts, they are revealing a great deal about themselves and their world and the way they interact with it. Concepts dealing with people’s system of beliefs are very “meaningful” for the individual, and the more entrenched a frame of mind is, the less plastic it is, a fact confirmed by the neurosciences which claim that it is difficult to break down and reconstruct certain synaptic structures of the brain.
But how do people who have had such awesome experiences represent these supernatural encounters and their states of being? What is the relationship between the concepts of body and soul in devotees who torture their bodies, who have out of body experiences or who describe a body possessed by other spirits? What does the language they use say about the individuals’ concept of themselves and their world?
I will present some of my own research data containing conceptual metaphors and blends collected in various sacred texts and during a series of interviews of people who claim to have had such supernatural experiences. The data includes linguistic expressions as well as gesture. Moreover, the interviewees were asked to draw on paper certain experiences of spiritual nature and then to describe their pictures. My investigation will try to shed new light on the phenomenology of spiritual experiences and personhood, using cognitive linguistics as a prime tool of analysis.
Vito Evolaevola@unipa.it2008-12-04T17:41:03Z2011-03-11T08:57:16Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6286This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/62862008-12-04T17:41:03ZA Thing Is What We Say It Is: Referential Communication and Indirect Category LearningThis study investigates the interaction of referential communication and the structure of perceptual features on the joint processes of inventing a referential lexicon for novel objects and discovering the functional significance of those objects during an indirect category learning activity. During the learning task, participants worked either individually or as cooperative dyads to learn four combinations of orthogonal functional features--nutritive vs. not nutritive and destructive vs. not destructive--that defined four categories of fictional extra-terrestrial creatures. These categories were not specifically identified or labeled; rather, participants had to infer them indirectly as they predicted the functions. Also, these functionally defined categories exhibited a complex perceptual structure: a unidimensional (simple) rule predicted one function, while a family resemblance (complex) sub-structure predicted the other function. The function-learning task yielded function prediction data. In addition, each learner worked individually to sort the creatures (pre- and post-function learning) and to predict their functions in an individual function prediction posttest that also yielded selective attention data.
Together, the prediction data, sort data, and selective attention data supported three a priori hypotheses. Referential communication generates conceptual homogeneity (H3) and enhances indirect category learning (H1), though simple rules are learned earlier and better than complex relationships (H2). In explaining the learning advantages observed among dyadic learners, I argue that referential communication may highlight attention to relationships between features (perceptual and functional) and actions as well as render such relationships more memorable. Moreover, communication may foster greater motivation among collaborators and may allow them to take advantage of the differing expectations and heuristics each collaborator brings to the task. In explaining the simplicity advantages observed among dyadic learners, I argue that referential communication may provide explicit "rules" for otherwise implicit (and perhaps more difficult) judgements. Dyads appear to have established reference to simple rules earlier than they established reference to complex rules; thus, they could explicitly (and perhaps more easily) learn the simple rule earlier than the complex rule. Finally, in explaining the conceptual homogeneity between and within dyads, I consider whether communication pushes "public" conceptualizations and publicly-formed "private" conceptualizations towards a limited range of widely shareable conceptual structures.John Voiklisjv37@columbia.edu2008-08-24T10:57:41Z2011-03-11T08:57:09Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6113This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/61132008-08-24T10:57:41ZLa metafora come carrefour cognitivo del pensiero e del linguaggioNell’ultimo trentennio, le scienze cognitive hanno proposto una teoria alternativa a quelle che intendevano la metafora come strumento linguistico, cioè che il processo metaforico si potesse ridurre al livello letterale, semantico o pragmatico. Secondo la teoria della metafora concettuale, la metafora è un modo di rappresentare ed organizzare il nostro mondo, piuttosto che uno strumento semplicemente decorativo del linguaggio avente un ruolo puramente comunicativo. Questo shift paradigmatico ha influenzato anche altri aspetti delle scienze cognitive. In questo contributo si vuole delineare lo stato attuale della teoria esposta da Lakoff e Johnson e la maturazione del pensiero rispetto alla prima pubblicazione di Metaphors We Live By (1980/1998). Dopo avere illustrato i principi teorici, si daranno degli esempi di metafore culturali e multimodali e si puntualizzerà il ruolo analogo, ma distinto, alla metafora che la metonimia copre nell’ambito dei nostri sistemi concettuali.
Vito Evolaevola@unipa.it2008-06-27T01:43:55Z2008-06-27T01:43:55Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6110This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/61102008-06-27T01:43:55ZMultimodal Semiotics of Representing God and the Self:
a Cognitive Linguistic View of Metaphors and Gestures
in Religious Discourse
I will explore some of my conclusions concerning conceptual metaphors collected during a series of interviews, in particular with two Christian street preachers. The data includes speech, gesture, and commented drawings of God, themselves and paradise.
Some of the metaphors analyzed are: metaphors for God (FATHER, SHEPHERD, LOVER, etc); GOOD/GOD IS UP; BAD IS DOWN; STRICT FATHER vs. NURTURING PARENT; MORAL ACCOUNTABILITY. This data demonstrates that the more entrenched a frame of mind is, the less plastic it is, because the primary source domain of our habitual conceptual metaphor will always motivate any other “laminated domain mappings”, or blends, especially for such meaningful concepts like personhood or belief systems.
My investigation will try to shed new light on the phenomenology of religious experiences and personhood, using cognitive linguistics as a prime tool of analysis.
Vito Evolaevola@unipa.it2008-12-04T17:28:55Z2011-03-11T08:57:17Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6288This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/62882008-12-04T17:28:55ZCooperative Categorization: Coordination of Reference and Categories in Learning a Joint Prediction TaskWe investigated the interaction of structure and convention in the emergence of schemes for joint reference in the context of indirect category learning. Participants worked individually or in dyads to learn a set of functionally-defined categories, instantiated as supposed alien creatures. The perceptual structure of these categories was complex: one function could be predicted by a unidimensional rule but the other was defined by a family-resemblance substructure. In addition to the main function-prediction task, each learner worked individually to sort the exemplars (pre- and post-function prediction) and in an individual prediction test that yielded selective attention data. Dyadic learners predicted the functional features with significantly greater accuracy compared to individual learners. This dyadic advantage was even greater for predicting the simple rule-based function compared to the FR function. Also, the post-task sorts produced by dyadic learners correlated more closely to the true categories than did those of individual learners.John Voiklisjv37@columbia.eduJames Cortercorter@tc.edu2008-05-11T02:39:51Z2011-03-11T08:57:07Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6071This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/60712008-05-11T02:39:51ZOn the origin of the cumulative semantic inhibition effectWe report an extension of the cumulative semantic inhibition effect found by Howard, Nickels, Coltheart, and Cole-Virtue (2006). Using more sensitive statistical analyses, we found a significant variation in the magnitude of the effect across categories. This variation cannot be explained by the naming speed of each category. In addition, using a sub-sample of the data, a second cumulative effect arouse for newly-defined supra-categories, over and above the effect of the original ones. We discuss these findings in terms of the representations that drive lexical access, and interpret them as supporting featural or distributed hypotheses.Dr F.-Xavier ALARIODr Fermin MOSCOSO DEL PRADO MARTIN2008-06-27T01:44:06Z2011-03-11T08:57:09Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6112This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/61122008-06-27T01:44:06ZMultimodal Semiotics of Spiritual Experiences: Representing Beliefs, Metaphors, and ActionsTraditionally, spiritual experiences have been considered "ineffable," but metaphors pervade the representations of certain concepts of the transcendental in an attempt to talk about such abstract ideas. Whether it be during the description of a vision or simply talking about morality, people use conceptual metaphors to reason and talk about these concepts. Many representations of God, spirits, or the afterlife are culturally based, but whereas some may differ based on individual experiences, others seem to have a more universal character. From a phenomenological point of view, it seems that the descriptions are contingent and not necessary, that is, the language a believer is exposed to may influence, but not condition a priori, his or her own spiritual experience as Constructivists have thought. People's views about themselves and the world around them are deeply rooted in their conceptual systems, which are created by their experiences and their bodily interactions with the world, whether it's having to do with gravity in the case of UP and DOWN, or what our individual and social concepts are. When people talk about religious and spiritual concepts, they are revealing a great deal about their world and themselves and the way they interact with it. Concepts dealing with people's system of beliefs are very "meaningful" for the individual, and the more entrenched a frame of mind is, the less plastic it is, a fact confirmed by the neurosciences, which claim that it is difficult to break down and reconstruct certain synaptic structures of the brain. How do today's common "faithful" relate to certain metaphors about spiritual concepts transmitted by their faiths? What do these metaphors say about the individuals' concepts of themselves and their world? I will explore some of my own conclusions concerning conceptual metaphors and figurative language collected in various sacred texts and during a series of interviews of religious people with different backgrounds of religious systems. The data include linguistic expressions as well as gesture. Moreover, the interviewees were asked to draw on paper certain experiences of religious nature and then to describe their pictures. My investigation will try to shed new light on the phenomenology of religious experiences and personhood, using cognitive linguistics as a prime tool of analysis.Vito Evolaevola@berkeley.edu2010-10-26T18:23:28Z2011-03-11T08:57:46Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7069This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/70692010-10-26T18:23:28ZAnxiety upon Awakening and Attributes of Dream CharactersObjective: To explore the attributes of dream characters related to anxiety upon awakening, and the possibility of using these attributes to construct a questionnaire administered to dreamers as an alternative to traditional methods of dream content coding via trained judges, such as those of Hall and Van de Castle and Gottschalk-Gleser. Method: A sample of 169 volunteers rated their dream characters with adjectives. Character attributes related to anxiety upon awakening were analysed through an exploratory factor analysis with orthogonal rotation. Results: With 37 character attributes a KMO sampling adequacy index of 0.83 was obtained and 33.87% of the variance was explained. Four factors were extracted: Psychological Threat, Auxiliary, Terrifying Threat and Spectator/Victim. Their corresponding alpha coefficients ranged between 0.85 and 0.73 and three of the factors presented significant (p £ 0.05)correlations with the anxiety of subjects upon awakening. Conclusions: Our results indicate that self-report questionnaires about subjects’ dreams are a reliable and valid alternative for assessing dream content. Information obtained about the characters allows for the assessment of the dream and provides indicators which allow for a simple interpretation, which does not contain biases due to the assessor or the ability of the subject to create a report.Iñigo Saez-Uribarriinisaezu@bilbao.com2008-08-10T08:56:48Z2011-03-11T08:57:10Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6159This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/61592008-08-10T08:56:48ZOn the nature and role of intersubjectivity in communicationWe outline a theory of human agency and communication and discuss the role that the capability to share (that is, intersubjectivity) plays in it. All the notions discussed are cast in a mentalistic and radically constructivist framework. We also introduce and discuss the relevant literature.Maurizio Tirassatirassa@psych.unito.itFrancesca M. Boscobosco@psych.unito.it2008-07-15T09:56:00Z2011-03-11T08:57:09Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6116This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/61162008-07-15T09:56:00ZCognitive Linguistics and the Evolution of Body and Soul
in the Western World: from Ancient Hebrew to Modern EnglishA philological and comparative analysis of the lexical items
concerning personhood in Ancient Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Modern English reveals semantic shifts concerning the relative lexical concepts. Ancient Hebrew presents an essentially holistic idea of personhood, whereas, via Biblical translations and Greek philosophical influences, the Western World has conceptualized humans as being
dualistic in nature. I analyze the polysemy and semantic shifts in the lexicon used for "body" and "soul" in Ancient Hebrew and Ancient Greek, which are the two linguistic systems known by St. Paul of Tarsus, and then confront them with Paul's usage context, and finally with Modern English, hypothesizing a possible case of linguistic relativity.Vito Evolaevola@unipa.it2007-04-04Z2011-03-11T08:56:49Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5482This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/54822007-04-04ZRegimes in Babel are Confirmed: Report on Findings in Several Indonesian Ethnic Biblical Texts The paper introduces the presence of three statistical regimes in the Zipfian analysis of texts in quantitative linguistics: the Mandelbrot, original Zipf, and Cancho- Solé-Montemurro regimes. The work is carried out over nine different languages of the same intention semantically: the bible from different languages in Indonesian ethnic and national language. As always, the same analysis is also brought in English version of the Bible for reference. The existence of the three regimes are confirmed while in advance the length of the texts are also becomes an important issue. We outline some further works regarding the quantitative analysis for parameterization used to analyze the three regimes and the task to have broad explanation, especially the microstructure of the language in human decision or linguistic effort – emerging the robustness of them.Hokky Situngkir2007-04-04Z2011-03-11T08:56:49Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5481This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/54812007-04-04ZAn Observational Framework to the Zipfian Analysis among Different Languages: Studies to Indonesian Ethnic Biblical Texts
The paper introduces the used of Zipfian statistics to observe the human languages by using the same (meaning) corpus/corpora but different in grammatical and structural utterances. We used biblical texts since they contain corpuses that have been most widely and carefully translated into many languages. The idea is to reduce the possibility of noise came from the meaning of the texts in distinctive language. The result is that the robustness of the Zipfian law is observable and some statistical differences are discovered between English and widely used national and several ethnic languages in Indonesia. The paper ends by modestly propose further possible framework in interdisciplinary approaches to human language evolution.Hokky Situngkir2008-07-15T09:55:43Z2011-03-11T08:57:09Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6118This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/61182008-07-15T09:55:43ZSt. Paul's Error: The Semantic Changes of BODY and SOUL in the Western World Historically Christianity owes much to Judaism. St. Paul’s Christianity, however, changed the way of thinking of many of the first Jews because of a new way of reasoning about selfhood, the human body, and human cognition. Without wanting to treat certain theological concepts, I want to underline how modern science’s view of the person is closer to traditional Judaism than it is to Christianity, and how Paul’s “error” was diffused throughout the Western world, by analyzing the semantics of linguistic references to the body, the soul, and emotions.
What was St. Paul’s error? The question means to be both allusive and provocative. He was born by the name Saul in the city of Tarsus, in modern Turkey, during the height of its splendour as a Roman-Greek city. Paul grew up as a “free man”, that is, as a Roman citizen in a cosmopolitan environment. He is considered to be the most influential and productive of the testimonies of the Christian thought throughout Asia Minor and Western Europe. His epistles circulated throughout his time and continue to influence millions of followers, who often interpret his thoughts in contrasting manner, but nonetheless attest to his authority.
An erudite Greek-Roman, persecutor of the first Christians, Paul battled to spread the story of Jesus of Nazareth. His ideology, indeed, is a blend of Greek-Roman thought and of what he learned from the first Christians. The Hellenic characteristics of his faith created a divergence from traditional Judaic thought within what was to become the Christian creed though his influence. As a matter of fact, Christianity came to have a more coherent structure because of Paul, and Christian belief in a way is more Paul’s thought than it is Jesus’.
Jewish teaching circa selfhood was quite holistic. The Hebrew word nephesh is often translated as “soul” but also means “body”, whereas Paul clearly distinguishes the two, talking about a co-existence, “concupiscence” and the necessity of dominating the body to exalt the spirit. I will examine the semantic changes in words dealing with body and soul, and how Paul’s authority eventually influenced the Western world’s way of reasoning about such concepts.Vito Evolaevola@unipa.it2006-07-03Z2011-03-11T08:56:28Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4954This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/49542006-07-03ZRELATIONSHIP OF BODILY COMMUNICATION WITH COGNITIVE AND PERSONALITY VARIABLES
ABSTRACT
RELATIONSHIP OF BODILY COMMUNICATION
WITH COGNITIVE AND PERSONALITY VARIABLES
Ulaş Başar Gezgin
PhD, Department of Cognitive Science
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şükriye Ruhi
May 2006, 212 pages
Why are there individual differences in people’s bodily communication performance success? Which variables may be responsible for the variation in the performance success? Which analogies would appear to dominate in bodily communication, and in what ways would the metaphorization and metonymization processes operate? In this study, the relationship of bodily communication performance with cognitive and personality variables was investigated. 218 students participated to the first phase of the study while 88 of them participated to the second phase of it. In the first phase, a set of tests was given successively to determine the levels of certain cognitive and personality variables. In the experimental setting, the participants were instructed to communicate certain words one by one nonverbally just as in the ‘Silent Movie’ game. The stability of bodily communication expectancy ratings, the factor structure of bodily communication performance and the frequency of the ways of representation for each word were analyzed. Interrater reliability analysis, third eye analysis and case studies were conducted; the unsuccessful representations were described and finally, structural equation modeling results were presented. The theories and research on personality and cognition, metaphors, metonymies, analogies, bodily representations, mind-reading, pragmatics and the notion of relevance were reviewed in the dissertation and after the exposition of the strategies, schemata and scripts employed in the experiments, a model of bodily communication was proposed aiming to integrate the manifold aspects of bodily communication.
Keywords: Bodily communication, metaphors, metonymies, mind-reading, inference.
Dr. Ulas Basar Gezgin2006-03-16Z2011-03-11T08:56:21Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4764This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/47642006-03-16ZThe Missing Link between Morphemic Assemblies and Behavioral Responses:a Bayesian Information-Theoretical model of lexical processingWe present the Bayesian Information-Theoretical (BIT) model of lexical processing: A mathematical model illustrating a novel approach to the modelling of language processes. The model shows how a neurophysiological theory of lexical processing relying on Hebbian association and neural assemblies can directly account for a variety of effects previously observed in behavioural experiments. We develop two information-theoretical measures of the distribution of usages of a morpheme or word, and use them to predict responses in three visual lexical decision datasets investigating inflectional morphology and polysemy. Our model offers a neurophysiological basis for the effects of
morpho-semantic neighbourhoods. These results demonstrate how distributed patterns of activation naturally result in the arisal of symbolic structures. We conclude by arguing that the modelling framework exemplified here, is
a powerful tool for integrating behavioural and neurophysiological results.Dr Fermin Moscoso del Prado MartinProf Aleksandar KosticDusica Filipovic-Djurdjevic2006-03-06Z2011-03-11T08:56:21Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4754This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/47542006-03-06ZThe Missing Link between Morphemic Assemblies and Behavioral Responses:a Bayesian Information-Theoretical model of lexical processingWe present the Bayesian Information-Theoretical (BIT) model of lexical processing: A mathematical model illustrating a novel approach to the modelling of language processes. The model shows how a neurophysiological theory of lexical processing relying on Hebbian association and neural assemblies can directly account for a variety of eects previously observed in behavioral experiments. We develop two information-theoretical measures of the distribution of usages of a word or morpheme. These measures are calculated through unsupervised means from corpora. We show that our measures succesfully predict responses in three visual lexical decision datasets investigating the processing of in
ectional morphology in Serbian and English languages, and the eects of polysemy and homonymy in English. We discuss how our model provides a neurophysiological grounding for the facilitatory and inhibitory eects of dierent types of lexical neighborhoods. In addition, our results show how, under a model based on neural assemblies, distributed patterns of activation naturally result in the arisal of discrete symbol-like structures. Therefore, the BIT model oers a point of reconciliation in the debate between distributed connectionist and discrete localist models. Finally, we argue that the modelling framework exemplied by the BIT model, is a powerful tool for integrating the different levels of the description of the human language
processing system.Fermin Moscoso del Prado MartinKostic AleksandarFilipovic-Djurdjevic Dusica2009-01-21T22:44:26Z2011-03-11T08:57:18Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6319This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/63192009-01-21T22:44:26ZCero Macareno's tablet: Exploratory data analysis around a piece of archeology (La tableta de Cero Macareno: Análisis exploratorio de datos en torno a una pieza de arqueología).Cerro Macareno’s tablet is a piece of fired clay with many incisions that pose puzzling chronological and functional queries. The information provided by the incisions has been studied with the purpose of elucidating their function. Following a coding process, several statistical techniqueshave been used. It has been proven that incisions are not randomly distributed. And while the idea that they might stand for some kind of writing loses weight, the fact that the piece may be a record of some event taking place over the time and/or space horizon is gaining importance.Iñigo Saez-Uribarriinisaezu@bilbao.com2006-12-08Z2011-03-11T08:56:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5269This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/52692006-12-08ZPolisemia e slittamenti semantici nei concetti ANIMA e CORPO nel mondo occidentale, ovvero l'errore di San PaoloStoricamente il cristianesimo deve molto al giudaismo. Il cristianesimo di San Paolo, tuttavia, ha cambiato il modo di ragionare su concetti come il sé, il corpo, e la cognizione umana. Senza volere trattare certi concetti teologici, mi prefiggo di sottolineare come il punto di vista della scienza moderna è più vicino al giudaismo tradizionale che al cristianesimo, e di spiegare la diffusione dell’“errore” di Paolo nel mondo occidentale, analizzando la semantica dei riferimenti linguistici (e in particolar modo le metafore e le metonimie) dei concetti anima e corpo e del rapporto con la concezione del sé.
Cresciuto da “uomo franco” cioè, da cittadino romano in un ambiente cosmopolita, Paolo è considerato il testimone più influente e produttivo del pensiero cristiano nell’Asia Minore e nell’Europa Occidentale. Le sue epistole circolarono durante la sua vita e continuano ad influenzare miliardi di seguaci, i quali spesso interpretano le sue idee in modo contrastante, ma ciononostante attestando una specifica autorevolezza.
Erudito greco-romano, inizialmente persecutore dei primi Cristiani, Paolo ha lottato per diffondere la storia di Gesù di Nazareth. La sua ideologia, infatti, è stata vista da molti come un amalgama tra il pensiero greco-romano e ciò che egli stesso ha appreso dai primi cristiani. Queste caratteristiche elleniche, più o meno reali, del sistema religioso introdussero una differenza significativa all’interno del pensiero giudaico tradizionale, dal quale, per mezzo dell’influenza dei suoi scritti, si sarebbe sviluppato il credo cristiano. Di fatti, il cristianesimo ha acquisito una struttura più coerente grazie a Paolo, quasi da inferire che la fede cristiana deve più a Paolo che a Gesù.
Quale era l’errore di San Paolo? La domanda vuole essere sia allusiva che provocatoria. L’insegnamento giudaico a proposito del concetto del sé era piuttosto olistico. Per esempio, la parola ebraica nephesh è spesso tradotta come “anima” ma, metaforicamente, significa anche “corpo”, mentre, secondo i suoi interpreti, Paolo chiaramente fa delle distinzioni dualistiche, e parlando della “concupiscenza” predica la necessità di dominare la carne per esaltare lo spirito. Con gli strumenti della linguistica cognitiva, propongo un’analisi della polisemia e degli slittamenti semantici nei concetti di ANIMA e CORPO, e come l’autorità attribuita a Paolo eventualmente ha influenzato il pensiero occidentale sul ragionare di queste rappresentazioni mentali.
Vito Evola2006-02-26Z2011-03-11T08:56:20Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4739This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/47392006-02-26ZA broad-coverage distributed connectionist model of visual word recognitionIn this study we describe a distributed connectionist model of morphological processing, covering a realistically sized sample of the English language. The purpose of this model is to explore how effects of discrete, hierarchically structured morphological paradigms, can arise as a result of the statistical sub-regularities in the mapping between
word forms and word meanings. We present a model that learns to produce at its output a realistic semantic representation of a word, on presentation of a distributed representation of its orthography. After training, in three experiments, we compare the outputs of the model with the lexical decision latencies for large sets of English nouns and verbs. We show that the model has developed detailed representations of morphological structure, giving rise to effects analogous to those observed in visual lexical decision experiments. In addition, we show how the association between word form and word meaning also
give rise to recently reported differences between regular and irregular verbs, even in their completely regular present-tense forms. We interpret these results as underlining the key importance for lexical processing of the statistical regularities in the mappings between form and meaning.
Dr Fermin Moscoso del Prado MartinProf R. Harald Baayen2005-09-18Z2011-03-11T08:56:10Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4536This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/45362005-09-18ZComputational Cognitive Models of Summarization Assessment SkillsThis paper presents a general computational cognitive model of the way a summary is assessed by teachers. It is based on models of two subprocesses: determining the importance of sentences and guessing the cognitive rules that the student may have used. All models are based on Latent Semantic Analysis, a computational model of the representation of the meaning of words and sentences. Models' performances are compared with data from an experiment conducted with 278 middle school students. The general model was implemented in a learning environment designed for helping students to write summaries.Benoit LemaireSonia MandinPhilippe DessusGuy Denhière2007-03-06Z2011-03-11T08:56:47Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5435This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/54352007-03-06ZName Strategy: Its Existence and ImplicationsIt is argued that colour name strategy, object name strategy, and chunking strategy in memory are all aspects of the same general phenomena, called stereotyping, and this in turn is an example of a know-how representation. Such representations are argued to have their origin in a principle called the minimum duplication of resources. For most the subsequent discussions existence of colour name strategy suffices. It is pointed out that the Berlin†- Kay† universal partial ordering of colours and the frequency of traffic accidents classified by colour are surprisingly similar; a detailed analysis is not carried out as the specific colours recorded are not identical. Some consequences of the existence of a name strategy for the philosophy of language and mathematics are discussed: specifically it is argued that in accounts of truth and meaning it is necessary throughout to use real numbers as opposed to bi-valent quantities; and also that the concomitant label associated with sentences should not be of unconditional truth, but rather several real-valued quantities associated with visual communication. The implication of real-valued truth quantities is that the Continuum Hypothesis of pure mathematics is side-stepped, because real valued quantities occur ab initio. The existence of name strategy shows that thought/sememes and talk/phonemes can be separate, and this vindicates the assumption of thought occurring before talk used in psycho-linguistic speech production models..Dr Mark D Roberts2004-10-06Z2011-03-11T08:55:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3850This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/38502004-10-06ZHow Far Can We Go Through Social System?The paper elaborates an endeavor on applying the algorithmic information-theoretic computational complexity to meta-social-sciences. It is motivated by the effort on seeking the impact of the well-known incompleteness theorem to the scientific methodology approaching social phenomena. The paper uses the binary string as the model of social phenomena to gain understanding on some problems faced in the philosophy of social sciences or some traps in sociological theories. The paper ends on showing the great opportunity in recent social researches and some boundaries that limit them.Hokky Situngkir2006-04-29Z2011-03-11T08:55:00Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2446This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/24462006-04-29ZBlending the Erotic and the Divine in Mystical LiteratureTHE BEGINNINGS OF SYMBOLIC-RELIGIOUS COGNITION -
Cognitive Archeology and Cognitive Fluidity: About 30,000 years ago (70,000 years after the fossil records of the anatomically modern human), religious thought and symbolic conceptual activity arose from the capacity of integrating specific-domain a process called "cognitive fluidity" (Mithen 1996).
Metaphor, Anthropomorphism and Cognitive Science: Metaphor is a basic mental capacity by which people understand themselves and the world around them through conceptual mappings of knowledge between mental spaces, using everyday knowledge to reason about more abstract concepts. Of all the templates for supernatural concepts, the ones that seriously matter to people are invariably person-like, because people are the most complex type of object that people know (Boyer 2001).
WHY GOD AS AN EROTIC LOVER? -
Diffusion and elaboration of religious memes: To reason about the ties between divine and human, man looks at his repertoire of human relationships, and the more significant ones are used to explain and speak of re-ligio. There are many metaphors used to represent the relationship between the divinity and the devotee (father/child, doctor/patient, teacher/pupil, etc.) The most significant relationship chosen by the mystic in terms of balance is Lover-Beloved.
Blending between God and Lover: The idealized conceptual models of the Divinity/beloved and of a devotee/lover began to blend through composition, completion and elaboration. The concept of human love relationship of these ancient cultures probably needs to be re-evaluated by modern students if it had become such an entrenched concept to be used as a source for a cognitive input space.
BLENDING THE EROTIC AND THE RELIGIOUS -
Examples of erotic religious texts and emergent structure: Sir hassirim, or Song of Songs (Judeo-Christian); Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda (Hindu); Rumi’s Mathanawi (Islam). Strongly erotic in content, these are part of the canons of the respective religious traditions, and so have deeply influenced subsequent elaboration of the erotic symbolism The lover (the faithful) and the Beloved (the Divinity) are usually on a par, and the domination of one is hardly ever present. Poetic descriptions include psychological states of jealousy, passion, separation and reunion, and ultimate union. The time of reunion is spring and the place is nature. What emerges is a relationship that not only unilaterally satisfies the material and spiritual needs of the religious person, but is reciprocal. In other words, the needs of both parties are fulfilled (devotee: food, explanations; god: praise, sacrifice). Moreover, due to the blend, an emotional need is also fulfilled. The dignity of the woman is finding her place in society, like the devotee finds his/her place in his/her creator’s creation, and so their relationship must be lived in the same natural setting. Because of the fusion between counterpart input spaces, there is a completion that humanizes the divinity so it becomes a he, the Man, motivated by the dominating role. However the elaboration of the blend tends to eliminate any domination in the relationship, as the needs of both sides are equal, and only when they are united do they feel completely realized. Their place is in nature, at
it’s most energetic and vibrant moment of springtime (ideally the time of life), and the time is eternal. Vito Evola2005-04-14Z2011-03-11T08:55:50Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4069This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/40692005-04-14ZEcological Theory of Language AcquisitionThis poster outlines an Ecological Theory of Language Acquisition (ETLA). The theory views the early phases of the language acquisition process as an emergent consequence of the interaction between the infant and its linguistic environment. The newborn infant is considered to be linguistically and phonetically naïve but endowed with the ability to register a wide range of multi-sensory inputs along with the ability to detect similarity between the multi-sensory stimuli it is exposed to. The initial steps of the language acquisition process are explained as unintended and inevitable consequences of the infant’s multisensory interaction with the adult.
The theoretical model deriving from ETLA is tested using the experimental data presented in the two additional contributions from our research team (Gustavsson et al, “Integration of audiovisual information in 8-months-old infants”; Lacerda, Marklund et al. “On the linguistic implications of context-bound adult-infant interactions”). The generality of the ETLA’s concept is likely to be of significance for a wide range of scientific areas, like robotics, where a central issue concerns addressing general problems of how organisms or systems might develop the ability to tap on the structure of the information embedded in their operating environments.Francisco LacerdaEeva KlintforsLisa GustavssonLisa LagerkvistEllen MarklundUlla Sundberg2004-06-05Z2011-03-11T08:55:36Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3657This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36572004-06-05ZFrequency Value Grammar and Information TheoryI previously laid the groundwork for Frequency Value Grammar (FVG) in papers I submitted in the proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Cognitive Science (2003), Sydney Australia, and Corpus Linguistics Conference (2003), Lancaster, UK. FVG is a formal syntax theoretically based in large part on Information Theory principles. FVG relies on dynamic physical principles external to the corpus which shape and mould the corpus whereas generative grammar and other formal syntactic theories are based exclusively on patterns (fractals) found occurring within the well-formed portion of the corpus. However, FVG should not be confused with Probability Syntax, (PS), as described by Manning (2003). PS is a corpus based approach that will yield the probability distribution of possible syntax constructions over a fixed corpus. PS makes no distinction between well and ill formed sentence constructions and assumes everything found in the corpus is well formed. In contrast, FVG’s primary objective is to distinguish between well and ill formed sentence constructions and, in so doing, relies on corpus based parameters which determine sentence competency. In PS, a syntax of high probability will not necessarily yield a well formed sentence. However, in FVG, a syntax or sentence construction of high ‘frequency value’ will yield a well-formed sentence, at least, 95% of the time satisfying most empirical standards. Moreover, in FVG, a sentence construction of ‘high frequency value’ could very well be represented by an underlying syntactic construction of low probability as determined by PS. The characteristic ‘frequency values’ calculated in FVG are not measures of probability but rather are fundamentally determined values derived from exogenous principles which impact and determine corpus based parameters serving as an index of sentence competency. The theoretical framework of FVG has broad applications beyond that of formal syntax and NLP. In this paper, I will demonstrate how FVG can be used as a model for improving the upper bound calculation of entropy of written English. Generally speaking, when a function word precedes an open class word, the backward n-gram analysis will be homomorphic with the information source and will result in frequency values more representative of co-occurrences in the information source.
Asa M Stepak2004-08-25Z2011-03-11T08:55:40Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3779This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/37792004-08-25ZIncremental Construction of an Associative Network from a CorpusThis paper presents a computational model of the incremental construction of an associative network from a corpus. It is aimed at modeling the development of the human semantic memory. It is not based on a vector representation, which does not well reproduce the asymmetrical property of word similarity, but rather on a network representation. Compared to Latent Semantic Analysis, it is incremental which is cognitively more plausible. It is also an attempt to take into account higher-order co-occurrences in the construction of word similarities. This model was compared to children association norms. A good correlation as well as a similar gradient of similarity were found.Benoît LemaireGuy Denhière2005-04-14Z2011-03-11T08:55:50Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4065This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/40652005-04-14ZIntegration of audio-visual information in 8-months-old infantsThe results from a series of perception experiments designed to test 8-month-old infants’ ability to derive linguistic information from audio-visual events are reported in this presentation.
Using a visual preference technique, groups of 8-month-old infants were tested on their ability to extract linguistic information implicit in short video sequences where the images displayed different puppets and the audio tracks presented sentences describing the puppets in naturalistic infant-directed speech style. To assess the relative importance of memory and attention factors, the prosodic and syntactic structure of the speech materials was systematically changed across different groups of subjects. The experimental results are interpreted in terms of the emergentistic acquisition model discussed in the paper presented by Lacerda et al. (“Ecological theory of language acquisition”).Lisa GustavssonUlla SundbergEeva KlintforsEllen MarklundLisa LagerkvistFrancisco Lacerda2006-04-29Z2011-03-11T08:56:24Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4856This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/48562006-04-29ZProsodic Styles and Personality Styles: are the two interrelatedThe “individuation” of oral language - what makes a speaker different from another - is still largely an unknown territory [1], especially with respect to the individual and creative use of speech prosody. This pilot study raises fundamental, methodological and empirical issues concerning the relationship between speakers’ prosodic styles and their personality profiles. Our preliminary results support the hypothesis of a relationship between prosodic styles and "personality style" as perceived by listeners.Dr. Brigitte Zellner Keller2003-10-24Z2011-03-11T08:55:23Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3246This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/32462003-10-24ZWorking Memory in Writing: Empirical Evidence From the Dual-Task TechniqueThe dual-task paradigm recently played a major role in understanding the role of working memory in writing. By reviewing recent findings in this field of research, this article highlights how the use of the dual-task technique allowed studying processing and short-term storage functions of working memory involved in writing. With respect to processing functions of working memory (namely, attentional and executive functions), studies investigated resources allocation, step-by-step management and parallel coordination of the writing processes. With respect to short-term storage in working memory, experiments mainly attempted to test Kellogg's (1996) proposals on the relationship between the writing processes and the slave systems of working memory. It is concluded that the dual-task technique revealed fruitful in understanding the relationship between writing and working memory.Thierry Olive2003-10-24Z2011-03-11T08:55:23Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3239This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/32392003-10-24ZAspects of Cognitive PoeticsThis paper is a short introduction to Cognitive Poetics. Cognitive poetics as I conceive of it is a far cry from what goes nowadays under the label "cognitive linguistics". Cognitive linguistics does not ask the questions this paper asks; consequently it does not answer them. In an important respect, the two approaches are even diametrically opposed. Cognitive linguistics shows very succesfully how a wide range of quite different metaphors can be reduced to the same underlying conceptual metaphor, whereas cognitive poetics makes significant distinctions between very similar metaphors, claiming that these differences make poetic expression unique. It accounts for the perceived effects of poetic texts, and relates perceived effects to poetic texts in a prin cipled manner. What is more, cognitive poetics has a lot to say about thematic, semantic, and syntactic structures, the reader's cognitive style preferring one or another "mental performance", rhyme patterns, and their interaction in generating the perce i ved effects. New Criticism, Structuralism and Formalism treated these effects, sometimes quite brilliantly, in a pre-theoretical manner. Cognitive poetics is devised to handle them in a principled manner. Finally, cognitive poetics conceives of the sema ntic and the rhythmic structure of a poem by a homogeneous set of principles. In both respects it allows for alternative (mental or vocal) performances, and handles the conflicting terms of a metaphor as well as the conflicting patterns of poetic rhythm i n conformity with the aesthetic principle of an "elegant solution to a problem": the conflicting terms of a metaphor are accommodated in a semantic interpretation; the conflicting patterns of poetic rhythm in a rhythmical performance. Above all, both semantic and rhythmic structures are shaped and constrained by cognitive processes. Cognitive Linguistics, by contrast, offers no tools for handling poetic rhythm; and objects to the Controversion Theory of metaphor. ? Reuven Tsur2004-03-10Z2011-03-11T08:55:18Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3044This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/30442004-03-10ZThe emergence of noun and verb categories
in the acquisition of French
This paper considers whether the child's early vocabulary shows signs of being organized into word categories. Two main kinds of evidence are looked for: 1. differential production of fillers (referred to here more neutrally as Prefixed Additional Elements); ii. relevant phonomoprhological variation for verb-words, and only in them. Results of analyses of natural speech production provided by the longitudinal studies of two French acquiring children followed between the ages of 1;3 and 2;3, show that there is a first period in which words seem to constitute one, formally undifferentiated, set. Differentiation between noun-words and verb-words appears progressively, as evidenced by the differential occurrence of PAEs in prenominal and in preverbal positions, and in the appearance of phonomorphologically relevant variations only in words that are verbs in the language. Looking at connected aspects of language, other péhenomena are observed to occur at the same time, in particular, a significant increase in the production of multiword speech, that becomes the dominant way of expression.E Veneziano2004-09-03Z2011-03-11T08:55:40Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3787This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/37872004-09-03ZA neuro-socio-cognitive model of self-awarenessPresents a model of self-awareness that proposes the existence of three sources of self-information. (1) The social milieu includes self-relevant feedback, a social comparison mechanism leading to perspective-taking, and audiences. (2) The physical environment contains self-focusing and reflecting stimuli such as mirrors and video cameras. (3) The self can develop bodily awareness through proprioception and can reflect upon itself using imagery and inner speech. Furthermore, self-awareness is mainly mediated by the prefrontal lobes. Various links are established between these different neurological, social, and cognitive elements of the model.Alain Morin2003-07-23Z2011-03-11T08:55:19Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3079This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/30792003-07-23ZThe psychological reality of rhythm classes: Perceptual studiesLinguists have traditionally classified languages into three
rhythm classes, namely stress-timed, syllable-timed and mora-timed languages. However, this classification has remained controversial for various reasons: the search for reliable acoustic cues to the different rhythm types has long remained elusive; some languages are claimed to belong to none of the three classes; and few perceptual studies has bolstered the notion. We have previously proposed an acoustic/phonetic model of the different types of linguistic rhythm, and of their categorisation as such by
listeners. Here, we present perceptual experiments that directly test the notion of rhythm classes, our model's predictions, and the question of intermediate languages. Language discrimination experiments were run using a speech resynthesis technique to ensure that only rhythmic cues were available to the subjects. Languages investigated were English, Dutch, Spanish, Catalan and Polish. Our results are consistent with the idea that English and Dutch are stress-timed, Spanish and Catalan are syllable-timed,
but Polish seems to be different from any other language studied and thus may constitute a new rhythm class. We propose that perceptual studies tapping the ability to discriminate languages' rhythm are the proper way to generate more empirical data relevant to rhythm typology.Franck RamusEmmanuel DupouxJacques Mehler2003-10-18Z2011-03-11T08:55:22Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3235This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/32352003-10-18ZPhonetic Cues and Dramatic Function
Artistic Recitation of Metered SpeechThis article attempts a brief synthesis of two of my research areas: sound symbolism and poetic rhythm, focussed on Simon Russel Beale's performance of Gloucester's first soliloquy in Richard III. It explores three structural relationships between phoneti c cues and their effects: redundancy (when several phonetic cues combine to the same effect); conflicting cues (which serve to convey conflicting prosodic effects by the same stretch of speech); and overdetermination (when one phonetic cue serves to conve y a variety of unrelated -- e.g., phonological, rhythmical and expressive -- effects). Iván Fónagy speaks of dual coding of phonetic cues; the same cues convey phonological and emotive information. This article proposes "triple coding": the same cues conv ey phonological, emotive and rhythmic information.
The expanded version concerns two instances of stress maxima in weak positions in Gloucester's soliloquy, performed by an outstanding British actor. One of them is the least performable kind, and this is sofar my only chance for studying it. The expansion attempts to explore a methodological innovation too: The audio version of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary offers recordings of the entries by highly trained speakers, to which the artistic reading can be compared. It may serve as a standard from which the artistic recital deviates. But this suggested to me an additional, completely unexpected possibility as well. When Cleanth Brooks speaks of irony, he means "the kind of qualification which the various elements in a context receive from the context". I suddenly realised that this allowed me to explore the kind of qualification which certain intonation contours receive from the context.
.eReuven Tsur2003-10-24Z2011-03-11T08:55:23Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3247This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/32472003-10-24ZSuppressing visual feedback in written composition: Effects on processing demands and coordination of the writing processesThe goal of this experiment was to investigate the role of visual feedback during written composition. Effects of suppression of visual feedback were analysed both on processing demands and on on-line coordination of low-level execution processes and of high-level conceptual and linguistic processes. Writers composed a text and copied it either with or without visual feedback. Processing demands of the writing processes were evaluated with reaction times to secondary auditory probes that were analysed according to whether participants were handwriting (in a composing and a copying tasks) or engaged in high level processes (when pausing in a composing task). Suppression of visual feedback increased reaction times interference (secondary reaction time minus baseline reaction time) during handwriting in the copying task and not during pauses in the composing task. This suggests that suppression of visual feedback affected processing demands of only execution processes and not those of high-level conceptual and linguistic processes. This is confirmed by analysis of quality of the texts produced by participants that were little, if any, affected by the suppression of visual feedback. Results also indicate that the increase in processing demands of execution related to suppression of visual feedback affected on-line coordination of the writing processes. Indeed, when visual feedback was suppressed, reaction time interferences associated to handwriting were not reliable different in the copying task and in the composing task but were significantly different in the composition task, RT interference associated to handwriting being lower in the copying task than in the composition task. When visual feedback was suppressed, writers activated step-by-step execution processes and high-level writing processes, whereas they concurrently activated these writing processes when composing with visual feedback. Thierry OliveAnnie Piolat2002-03-25Z2011-03-11T08:54:54Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2149This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/21492002-03-25ZAge of acquisition effects in word reading and other tasksRecent studies have suggested that age of acquisition (AoA) has an impact on skilled reading independent of factors such as frequency. This result raises questions about previous studies in which AoA was not controlled, and about current theories in which it is not addressed. Analyses of the materials used in previous studies suggest that the observed AoA effects may have been due to other factors. We also found little evidence for an AoA effect in computational models of reading which used words that exhibit normal spelling-sound regularities. An AoA effect was observed, however, in a model in which early and late learned words did not overlap in terms of orthography or phonology. The results suggest that, with other correlated properties of stimuli controlled, AoA effects occur when what is learned about early patterns does not carry over to later ones. This condition is not characteristic of learning spelling-sound mappings but may be relevant to tasks such as learning the names for objects.Jason D. ZevinMark S. Seidenberg2002-06-12Z2011-03-11T08:54:56Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2273This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/22732002-06-12ZAcoustic correlates of linguistic rhythm: PerspectivesThe empirical grounding of a typology of languages' rhythm is again a hot issue. The currently popular approach is based on the durations of vocalic and intervocalic intervals and their variability. Despite some successes, many questions remain. The main findings still need to be generalised to much larger corpora including many more languages. But a straightforward continuation of the current work faces many difficulties. Perspectives are outlined for future work, including proposals for the cross-linguistic control of speech rate, improvements on the statistical analyses, and prospects raised by automatic
speech processing.Franck Ramus2002-01-11Z2011-03-11T08:54:52Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2014This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/20142002-01-11ZComputer simulation: A new scientific approach to the study of language evolution(summary of the whole book)
This volume provides a comprehensive survey of computational models and methodologies used for studying the origin and evolution of language and communication. With contributions from the most influential figures in the field, Simulating the Evolution of Language presents and summarises current computational approaches to language evolution and highlights new lines of development. Among the main discussion points are:
· Analysis of emerging linguistic behaviours and structures
· Demonstration of the strict interaction and interdependence between language and other non-linguistic abilities
· Direct comparisons between simulation studies and empirical research
Essential reading for researchers and students in the areas of evolutionary and adaptive systems, language evolution, modelling and linguistics, it will also be of particular interest to computer scientists working on multi-agent systems, robotics and internet agents.
Angelo CangelosiDomenico Parisi2002-07-03Z2011-03-11T08:54:56Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2306This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/23062002-07-03ZConnectionist modelling of lexical segmentation and vocabulary acquisitionAdults typically hear sentences in their native language as a sequence of separate words and we might therefeore assume, that words in speech are physically separated in the way that they are perceived. However, when listening to an unfamiliar language we no longer experience sequences of discrete words, but rather hear a continuous stream of speech with boundaries separating individual sentences or utterances. Theories of how adult listeners segment the speech stream into words emphasise the role that knowledge of individual words plays in the segmentation of speech. However, since words can not be learnt until the speech stream can be segmented, it seems unlikely that infants will be able to use word recognition to segment connected speech. For this reason, researchers have proposed a variety of strategies and cues that infants could use to identify word boundaries without being able to recognise the words that these boundaries delimit. This chapter, describes some computational simulations proposing ways in which these cues and strategies for the acquisition of lexical segmentation can be integrated with the infants acquisition of the meanings of words. The simulations reported here describe simple computational mechanisms and knowledge sources that may support these different aspects of language acquisition.Matt H. Davis2003-08-27Z2011-03-11T08:55:20Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3119This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/31192003-08-27ZA distributional model of semantic context effects in lexical processingaOne of the most robust findings of experimental psycholinguistics is that the context in which a word is presented influences the effort involved in processing that word. We present a novel model of contextual facilitation based on word co-occurrence prob ability distributions, and empirically validate the model through simulation of three representative types of context manipulation: single word priming, multiple-priming and contextual constraint. In our simulations the effects of semantic context are mod eled using general-purpose techniques and representations from multivariate statistics, augmented with simple assumptions reflecting the inherently incremental nature of speech understanding. The contribution of our study is to show that special-purpose m echanisms are not necessary in order to capture the general pattern of the experimental results, and that a range of semantic context effects can be subsumed under the same principled account.›oScott McDonaldChris Brew2002-06-26Z2011-03-11T08:54:56Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2295This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/22952002-06-26ZHolographic Reduced Representations for Oscillator Recall: A Model of Phonological ProductionThis paper describes a new computational
model of phonological production, Holographic
Reduced Representations for Oscillator Recall, or HORROR. HORROR's
architecture accounts
for phonological speech error patterns by combining
the hierarchical oscillating context signal of the OSCAR serial-order
model~\cite{VousdenEtAl:2000,BrownEtAl:2000} with a holographic associative
memory~\cite{Plate:1995}.
The resulting model is novel in a number of
ways.
Most importantly, all of the noise needed to generate errors is intrinsic
to the system, instead of being generated by an external process. The
model features
fully-distributed hierarchical phoneme
representations and a single distributed associative memory.
Using
fewer parameters and a more parsimonious design than OSCAR, HORROR accounts
for error type proportions, the syllable-position constraint, and other
constraints seen in the human speech error data.
Harlan Harris2002-07-03Z2011-03-11T08:54:56Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2309This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/23092002-07-03ZHolographic Reduced Representations for Oscillator Recall: A Model of Phonological ProductionThis paper describes a new computational
model of phonological production, Holographic
Reduced Representations for Oscillator Recall, or HORROR. HORROR's
architecture accounts
for phonological speech error patterns by combining
the hierarchical oscillating context signal of the OSCAR serial-order
model~\cite{VousdenEtAl:2000,BrownEtAl:2000} with a holographic associative
memory~\cite{Plate:1995}.
The resulting model is novel in a number of
ways.
Most importantly, all of the noise needed to generate errors is intrinsic
to the system, instead of being generated by an external process. The
model features
fully-distributed hierarchical phoneme
representations and a single distributed associative memory.
Using
fewer parameters and a more parsimonious design than OSCAR, HORROR accounts
for error type proportions, the syllable-position constraint, and other
constraints seen in the human speech error data.
Harlan Harris2003-07-25Z2011-03-11T08:55:19Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3085This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/30852003-07-25ZInformation processing and dynamical systems approaches are complementaryShanker and King trumpet the adoption of a ‘new paradigm’ in communication studies, exemplified by Ape Language Research. While cautiously sympathetic, I maintain that their argument relies on a false dichotomy between ‘information’ and ‘dynamical systems’ theory, and that the resulting confusion prevents them from seeing and taking the main chance their line of thinking suggests.Dr David Spurrett4662002-06-12Z2011-03-11T08:54:56Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2274This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/22742002-06-12ZLanguage discrimination by newborns: Teasing apart phonotactic, rhythmic, and intonational cuesSpeech rhythm has long been claimed to be a useful bootstrapping cue in the very first steps of language acquisition. Previous studies have suggested that newborn infants do categorize varieties of speech rhythm, as demonstrated by their ability to discriminate between certain languages. However, the existing evidence is not unequivocal: in previous studies, stimuli discriminated by newborns always contained additional speech cues on top of rhythm. Here, we conducted a series of experiments assessing discrimination between Dutch and Japanese by newborn infants, using a speech resynthesis technique to progressively degrade non-rhythmical properties of the sentences. When the stimuli are resynthesized using identical phonemes and artificial intonation contours for the two languages, thereby preserving only their rhythmic and broad phonotactic structure, newborns still seem to be able to discriminate between the two languages, but the effect is weaker than when intonation is present. This leaves open the possibility that the temporal correlation between intonational and rhythmic cues might actually facilitate the processing of speech rhythm.Franck Ramus2002-03-25Z2011-03-11T08:54:54Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2150This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/21502002-03-25ZModeling the development of lexicon with a growing self-organizing mapWe present a self-organizing neural network model that can acquire an incremental lexicon. The model allows the acquisition of new words without disrupting learned structure. The model consists of three major components. First, the word co-occurrence detector computes word transition probabilities and represents word meanings in terms of context vectors. Second, word representations are projected to a lower, constant dimension. Third, the growing lexical map (GLM) self-organizes on the dimension-reduced word representations. The model is initialized with a subset of units in GLM and a subset of the lexicon, which enables it to capture the regularities of the input space and
decrease chances of catastrophic interference. During growth, new nodes are inserted in order to reduce the map quantization error, and the insertion occurs only to yet unoccupied grid positions, thus preserving the 2D map topology. We have tested GLM on a portion of parental speech extracted from the CHILDES database, with an initial 200 words scattered among 800 nodes. The model demonstrates the ability to highly preserve learned lexical structure when 100 new words are gradually added. Implications of the model are discussed with respect to language acquisition by children.
Igor FarkasPing Li2003-02-12Z2011-03-11T08:55:10Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2767This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/27672003-02-12ZNeuromagnetic evidence that differences in verb and noun processing are modulated by the presence of a syntactic contextWe investigated the hypothesis that differences in the processing of verbs and nouns are modulated by the presence or absence of a syntactic context. When presented in isolation, no word category differences were observed over the left hemisphere. Verbs elicited slightly stronger magnetic fields than nouns over the right hemisphere. When presented in a minimal syntactic context, nouns elicited stronger fields than verbs over left posterior temporal regions (as indicated by root mean square signals and brain surface current density maps). Analysis of BSCD maps also indicated that verbs in context elicit stronger responses than nouns over left anterior regions.Christian J. FiebachBurkhard MaessAngela D. Friederici2002-06-25Z2011-03-11T08:54:56Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2294This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/22942002-06-25ZOral Metaphor Construct--New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics Abstract:
Oral Metaphor Construct,(OMC), is a new concept in Cognitive Linguistics based upon metaphor dynamics that ,also, has significance in numerous related fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Anthropology, Automated Voice Systems, Clinical Psychology, Psychiatry, Communicative Disorders, Second Language Acquisition, etc. The Oral Metaphor Construct is a language imprint that identifies the predisposed space time metaphorical configuration of articulation and semantic objects of the Mind that is passed from one generation to the next via the genome which mediates language acquisition and facilitates the learning of a second language.
Asa M. Stepak2003-03-12Z2011-03-11T08:55:07Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2658This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/26582003-03-12ZPhonemic Coding Might Result From
Sensory-Motor Coupling DynamicsHuman sound systems are invariably phonemically coded. Furthermore,
phoneme inventories follow very particular tendancies. To explain
these phenomena, there existed so far three kinds of approaches :
``Chomskyan''/cognitive innatism, morpho-perceptual innatism
and the more recent approach of ``language as a complex cultural system
which adapts under the pressure of efficient communication''.
The two first approaches are clearly not satisfying, while
the third, even if much more convincing,
makes a lot of speculative assumptions and did not
really bring answers to the question of phonemic coding. We propose
here a new hypothesis based on a low-level model of
sensory-motor interactions. We show that certain very
simple and non language-specific neural devices
allow a population of agents to build signalling systems
without any functional pressure. Moreover, these systems
are phonemically coded. Using a realistic vowel articulatory
synthesizer, we show that the inventories of vowels
have striking similarities with human vowel systems.Pierre-Yves Oudeyer2004-05-06Z2011-03-11T08:55:33Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3608This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36082004-05-06ZPrise de notes par des élèves de 10-12 ans plus ou moins bons lecteurs et rédacteursCette contribution présente une recherche visant à repérer la nature des notes prises par des élèves 10-12 ans soumis à une tâche de rédaction d'un texte argumentatif nécessitant une documentation préalable. La PDN implique deux savoir-faire : 1) Spatialiser le matériau linguistique ; 2) Abréger le format de mots ainsi que celui de la mise en phrase. 40 élèves, distingués en lecteurs plus ou moins avancés, ont été prévenus qu'ils auraient à rédiger un texte argumentatif sur la défense du transport des produits pétroliers par voie maritime, texte dont le début et la fin étaient fixés. Ils ont puisé des informations sur un site WEB (40 minutes). Puis environ une semaine après, ils ont rédigé leur texte (45 minutes). La très grande majorité des enfants transcrivent de façon continue et linéaire, en préservant un formatage compact du texte, les notes puisées dans des parties différentes du document électronique. Seuls les bons lecteurs séparent leurs notes (traits ou indentation). De plus, très rares sont ceux qui abrègent les énoncés et qui éliminent les joncteurs qui les relient à des énoncés non transcrits. Ils n'abrègent pas les unités lexicales. Pour ces élèves, prendre des notes consiste à copier intégralement la portion de texte sélectionnée. Leur attention est focalisée sur la mise en texte et le respect des conventions linguistiques. Pour prendre des notes à moindre coup, il faudrait que, via un enseignement approprié, ils attribuent à l'écriture deux nouvelles fonctions : (a) Faire office d'un produit à caractère privé ; (b) Constituer une mémoire écrite externe dont le format et la lecture peuvent être soumis à d'autres règles que celle de la linéarisation du langage écrit conventionnel.A PiolatJY RousseyC Gérouit2002-05-28Z2011-03-11T08:54:55Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2226This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/22262002-05-28ZTruthfulness and relevanceThis paper questions the widespread view that verbal communication is governed by a maxim, norm or convention of truthfulness which applies at the level of what is literally meant, or what is said. Pragmatic frameworks based on this view must explain the frequent occurrence and acceptability of loose and figurative uses of language. We argue against existing explanations of these phenomena and provide an alternative account, based on the assumption that verbal communication is governed not by expectations of truthfulness but by expectations of relevance, raised by literal, loose and figurative uses alike. Sample analyses are provided, and some consequences of this alternative account are explored. In particular, we argue that the notions of literal meaning and what is said play no useful theoretical role in the study of language use, and that the nature of explicit communication will have to be rethought.Deirdre WilsonDan Sperber2002-06-16Z2011-03-11T08:54:56Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2276This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/22762002-06-16ZThe immune system and other cognitive systemsIn the following pages we propose a theory on cognitive systems and the common strategies of perception, which are at the basis of their function. We demonstrate that these strategies are easily seen to be in place in known cognitive systems such as vision and language. Furthermore we show that taking these strategies into consideration implies a new outlook on immune function calling for a new appraisal of the immune system as a cognitive system.Uri HershbergSol Efroni2002-03-22Z2011-03-11T08:54:54Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2143This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/21432002-03-22ZConstrained Emergence of Universals and Variation in Syllable SystemsA computational model of emergent syllable systems is developed based on a set of functional constraints on syllable systems and the assumption that language structure emerges through cumulative change over time. The constraints were derived from general communicative factors as well as from the phonetic principles of perceptual distinctiveness and articulatory ease. Through evolutionary optimization, the model generated mock vocabularies optimized for the given constraints. Several simulations were run to understand how these constraints might define the emergence of universals and variation in complex sound systems. The predictions were that (1) CV syllables would be highly frequent in all vocabularies evolved under the constraints; (2) syllables with consonant clusters, consonant codas and vowel onsets would occur much less frequently; (3) a relationship would exist between the number of syllable types in a vocabulary and the average word length in the vocabulary; (4) different syllable types would emerge according to, what we termed, an <EM iterative principle of syllable structure> and their frequency would be directly related to their complexity; and (5) categorical differences would emerge between vocabularies evolved under the same constraints. Simulation results confirmed these predictions and provided novel insights into why regularities and differences may occur across languages. Specifically, the model suggested that both language universals and variation are consistent with a set of functional constraints that are fixed relative to one another. Language universals reflect underlying constraints on the system and language variation represents the many different and equally-good solutions to the unique problem defined by these constraints. Melissa A. RedfordChun Chi ChenRisto Miikkulainen2002-06-10Z2011-03-11T08:54:56Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2249This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/22492002-06-10ZAttentional and Semantic AnticipationsWhy are attentional processes important in the driving of anticipations? Anticipatory processes are fundamental cognitive abilities of living systems, in order to rapidly and accurately perceive new events in the environment, and to trigger adapted behaviors to the newly perceived events. To process anticipations adapted to sequences of various events in complex environments, the cognitive system must be able to run specific anticipations on the basis of selected relevant events. Then more attention must be given to events potentially relevant for the living system, compared to less important events.
What are useful attentional factors in anticipatory processes? The relevance of events in the environment depend on the effects they can have on the survival of the living system. The cognitive system must then be able to detect relevant events to drive anticipations and to trigger adapted behaviors. The attention given to an event depends on i) its external physical relevance in the environment, such as time duration and visual quality, and ii) on its internal semantic relevance in memory, such as knowledge about the event (semantic field in memory) and anticipatory power (associative strength to anticipated associates).
How can we model interactions between attentional and semantic anticipations? Specific types of distributed recurrent neural networks are able to code temporal sequences of events as associated attractors in memory. Particular learning protocol and spike rate transmission through synaptic associations allow the model presented to vary attentionally the amount of activation of anticipations (by activation or inhibition processes) as a function of the external and internal relevance of the perceived events. This type of model offers a unique opportunity to account for both anticipations and attention in unified terms of neural dynamics in a recurrent network.
Frédéric LavigneSylvain Denis2002-01-11Z2011-03-11T08:54:52Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2020This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/20202002-01-11ZHow nouns and verbs differentially affect the behavior of artificial organismsThis paper presents an Artificial Life and Neural Network (ALNN) model for the evolution of syntax. The simulation methodology provides a unifying approach for the study of the evolution of language and its interaction with other behavioral and neural factors. The model uses an object manipulation task to simulate the evolution of language based on a simple verb-noun rule. The analyses of results focus on the interaction between language and other non-linguistic abilities, and on the neural control of linguistic abilities. The model shows that the beneficial effects of language on non-linguistic behavior are explained by the emergence of distinct internal representation patterns for the processing of verbs and nouns.Angelo CangelosiDomenico Parisi2002-01-11Z2011-03-11T08:54:52Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2019This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/20192002-01-11ZA Hybrid Neural Network and Virtual Reality System for Spatial Language ProcessingThis paper describes a neural network model for the study of spatial language. It deals with both geometric and functional variables, which have been shown to play an important role in the comprehension of spatial prepositions. The network is integrated with a virtual reality interface for the direct manipulation of geometric and functional factors. The training uses experimental stimuli and data. Results show that the networks reach low training and generalization errors. Cluster analyses of hidden activation show that stimuli primarily group according to extra-geometrical variables.Guillermina MartinezAngelo CangelosiKenny Coventry2010-04-01T11:36:48Z2011-03-11T08:57:35Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6813This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/68132010-04-01T11:36:48ZNeuropragmatics: Extralinguistic communication after closed head injuryThis work is concerned with the decay of communicative abilities after head trauma. A protocol composed of 16 videotaped scenes was devised in order to investigate the comprehension of several types of communicative actions realized with extralinguistic means, like pointing or clapping. The protocol was administered to 30 closed head injured individuals. The results showed a decreasing performance from simple standard acts, to complex standard acts, deceits, and ironies. The subjects' performance was worse with the scenes reproducing failing, rather than successful, communicative actions. The results are compared with those we previously obtained with a linguistic protocol. A theory of the cognitive processes underlying intentional communication is outlined and used to explain the results.Bruno G. BaraIlaria CuticaMaurizio Tirassamaurizio.tirassa@unito.it2003-10-18Z2011-03-11T08:55:22Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3232This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/32322003-10-18ZOnomatopoeia: Cuckoo-Language and Tick-Tocking+◊This paper is a brief phonetic investigation of the nature of onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is the imitation of natural noises by speech sounds. To understand this phenomenon, we must realize that there is a problem here which is by no means trivial. There i s an infinite number of noises in nature, but only twenty-something letters in an alphabet that convey in any language a closed system of about fifty (up to a maximum of 100) speech sounds. I have devoted a book length study to the expressiveness of lang u age (What Makes Sound Patterns Expressive? -- The Poetic Mode of Speech Perception), but have only fleetingly touched upon onomatopoeia. In this paper I will recapitulate from that book the issue of acoustic coding, and then will toy around with two spe ci fic cases: why does the cuckoo say "kuku" in some languages, and why the clock prefers to say "tick-tock" rather than, say, tip-top. Only fleetingly I will touch upon the question why the speech sounds [s] and [S] (S represents the initial consonant of sh oe; s the initial consonant of sue) serve generally as onomatopoeia for noise. By way of doing all this, I will discuss a higher-order issue as well: How are effects translated from reality to some semiotic system, or from one semiotic system to ano ther.U.cnsReuven Tsur2001-08-24Z2011-03-11T08:54:46Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1765This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/17652001-08-24ZOutstanding questions about phonological processing in dyslexiaIt is widely accepted that developmental dyslexia results from some sort of phonological deficit. Yet, it can be argued that phonological representations and their processing have been insufficiently tested in dyslexia research.
Firstly, claims about how tasks tap into certain kinds of representations or processes are best appreciated in the light of an explicit information-processing model. Here, a cognitive model of lexical access is described, incorporating speech perception, reading and object recognition. The model emphasises that phonological forms of lexical items are distinct from non-lexical phonological representations
Secondly, phonology, as a linguistic discipline, teaches us that there is much more to it than phonemic categorisation and awareness. The phonological level of representation also embodies phonotactic regularities, patterns of phoneme assimilation and alternation, as well as supra-segmental knowledge pertaining to syllable structure, stress, intonation and rhythm. All those aspects are in part language-dependent, and therefore must be learnt by children in order to become proficient native speakers and listeners. If all levels of phonological representations were affected in dyslexia, dyslexic children would presumably have difficulties acquiring these aspects of their language. This prediction is as yet untested. A possible research agenda is outlined, aiming to provide a more comprehensive assessment of the phonological theory of dyslexia.
Franck Ramus2002-06-12Z2011-03-11T08:54:56Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2272This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/22722002-06-12ZOutstanding questions about phonological processing in dyslexiaIt is widely accepted that developmental dyslexia results from some sort of phonological deficit. Yet, it can be argued that phonological representations and their processing have been insufficiently tested in dyslexia research.
Firstly, claims about how tasks tap into certain kinds of representations or processes are best appreciated in the light of an explicit information-processing model. Here, a cognitive model of lexical access is described, incorporating speech perception, reading and object recognition. The model emphasises that phonological forms of lexical items are distinct from non-lexical phonological representations
Secondly, phonology, as a linguistic discipline, teaches us that there is much more to it than phonemic categorisation and awareness. The phonological level of representation also embodies phonotactic regularities, patterns of phoneme assimilation and alternation, as well as supra-segmental knowledge pertaining to syllable structure, stress, intonation and rhythm. All these aspects are in part language-dependent, and therefore must be learnt by children in order to become proficient native speakers and listeners. If phonological representations were affected in dyslexia, dyslexic children would presumably have difficulties acquiring these aspects of their language. This prediction is as yet untested. A possible research agenda is outlined, aiming to provide a more comprehensive assessment of the phonological theory of dyslexia.
Franck Ramus2001-11-23Z2011-03-11T08:54:50Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1914This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/19142001-11-23ZA self-organizing neural network model of the acquisition of word meaningIn this paper we present a self-organizing connectionist model of the acquisition of word meaning. Our model consists of two neural networks and builds on the basic concepts of Hebbian learning and self-organization. One network learns to approximate word transition probabilities, which are used for lexical representation, and the other network, a self-organizing map, is trained on these representations, projecting them onto a 2D space. The model relies on lexical co-occurrence information to represent word meanings in the lexicon. The results show that our model is able to acquire semantic representations from both artificial data and real corpus of language use. In addition, the model demonstrates the ability to develop rather accurate word representations even with a sparse training set.
Igor FarkasPing Li2002-04-12Z2011-03-11T08:54:55Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2177This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/21772002-04-12ZERP analysis of cognitive sequencing : a left-anterior negativity related to structural transformation processingA major objective of cognitive neuroscience is to identify those neurocomputational processes that may be shared by multiple cognitive functions vs those that are highly specifc. This problem of identifying general vs specialized functions is of particular interest in the domain of language processing. Within this domain, event related brain potential (ERP) studies have demonstrated a left anterior negativity (LAN) in a range 300 to 700 ms, associated with syntactic processing, often linked to grammatical function words. These words have little or no
semantic content, but rather play a role in encoding syntactic structure required for parsing. In the current study we test the hypothesis that the LAN reflects the operation of a more general sequence processing capability in which special symbols encode structural information that, when combined with past elements in the sequence, allows the prediction of successor elements. We recorded ERPs during a non-linguistic sequencing task that required subjects (nà10) to process special symbols possessing the functional property defined above. When compared to ERPs in a control condition, function symbol processing elicits a left anterior negative shift between with temporal and spatial characteristics quite similar to the LAN described during function word processing in language, supporting
our hypothesis. These results are discussed in the
context of related studies of syntactic and cognitive sequence processing. Michel HoenPeter-Ford Dominey2000-07-17Z2011-03-11T08:54:21Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/870This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8702000-07-17ZLanguage discrimination by human newborns and by cotton-top tamarin monkeysHumans, but no other animal, make meaningful use of spoken language. What is unclear, however, is whether this capacity depends on a unique constellation of perceptual and neurobiological mechanisms, or whether a subset of such mechanisms are shared with other organisms. To explore this problem, we conducted parallel experiments on human newborns and cotton-top tamarin monkeys to assess their ability to discriminate unfamiliar languages. Using a habituation-dishabituation procedure, we show that human newborns and tamarins can discriminate sentences from Dutch and Japanese, but not if the sentences are played backwards. Moreover, the cues for discrimination are not present in backward speech. This suggests that the human newborns' tuning to certain properties of speech relies on general processes of the primate auditory system.Franck RamusMarc D. HauserCory MillerDylan MorrisJacques Mehler2000-06-14Z2011-03-11T08:53:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/149This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1492000-06-14ZTHE MIND AND BRAIN SCHOLAR AS A HITCH-HIKER IN POST-GUTENBERG GALAXY: PUBLISHING AT 2000 AND BEYONDElectronic journal (e-journal) publishing has started to change the ways we think about publish-ing. However, many scholars and scientists in the mind and brain sciences are still ignorant of the new possibilities and on-going debates. This paper will provide a summary of the issues in-volved, give an update of the current discussion, and supply practical information on issues re-lated to e- journal publishing and self-archiving relevant for the mind and brain sciences. Issues such as differences between traditional and e-journal publishing, open archive initiatives, world-wide conventions, quality control, costs involved in e-journal publishing, and copyright questions will be addressed. Practical hints on how to self-archive, how to submit to the e-journal Psycolo-quy, how to create an open research archive, and where to find information relevant to e-publishing will be supplied.Brigitte StemmerMarianne CorreYves Joanette2000-05-13Z2011-03-11T08:53:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/146This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1462000-05-13ZNeuropragmatics in the 21st centuryOne of the great challenges of the new millennium is the continuing search of how the mind works. Although a relatively young field, the study of neuropragmatics can greatly contribute to this search by its interdisciplinary nature, the possibility to be applied to different research meth-ods and by the opportunity to study its nature by taking vastly different perspectives.Brigitte StemmerPaul Walter Schönle2002-06-10Z2011-03-11T08:54:56Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2248This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/22482002-06-10ZAnticipatory Semantic ProcessesWhy anticipatory processes correspond to cognitive abilities of living systems? To be adapted to an environment, behaviors need at least i) internal representations of events occurring in the external environment; and ii) internal anticipations of possible events to occur in the external environment. Interactions of these two opposite but complementary cognitive properties lead to various patterns of experimental data on semantic processing.
How to investigate dynamic semantic processes? Experimental studies in cognitive psychology offer several interests such as: i) the control of the semantic environment such as words embedded in sentences; ii) the methodological tools allowing the observation of anticipations and adapted oculomotor behavior during reading; and iii) the analyze of different anticipatory processes within the theoretical framework of semantic processing.
What are the different types of semantic anticipations? Experimental data show that semantic anticipatory processes involve i) the coding in memory of sequences of words occurring in textual environments; ii) the anticipation of possible future words from currently perceived words; and iii) the selection of anticipated words as a function of the sequences of perceived words, achieved by anticipatory activations and inhibitory selection processes.
How to modelize anticipatory semantic processes? Localist or distributed neural networks models can account for some types of semantic processes, anticipatory or not. Attractor neural networks coding temporal sequences are presented as good candidate for modeling anticipatory semantic processes, according to specific properties of the human brain such as i) auto-associative memory; ii) learning and memorization of sequences of patterns; and iii) anticipation of memorized patterns from previously perceived patterns.
Frédéric LavignePascal Lavigne2001-03-02Z2011-03-11T08:54:29Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1249This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/12492001-03-02ZAspects of schematic processing in Indigenous speakers of Aboriginal English: An initial explorationSchema theory provides a meeting place for the studies of language, culture, and cognition. Cultural knowledge and experience are represented in the form of cognitive schemas, which underlie the production of cultural discourse. Thus, an examination of distinctive patterns of discourse produced by cultural groups may provide us with an understanding of their underlying cultural schemas. Discourse in English produced by Aboriginal students reveals certain Aboriginal cultural schemas. A closer analysis of Aboriginal English discourse also reveals some salient patterns which may be explained by the way these cultural schemas are processed. The present study is an initial attempt to explore these patterns in the light of schema theory. In this analysis, certain features suggest distinctive patterns of schema activation, while some other point to the possibility of a distinctive role played by schemas in the use of referential devices. Farzad Sharifian2000-07-17Z2011-03-11T08:54:21Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/871This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8712000-07-17ZAn empirical study of the perception of language rhythmLinguists have traditionally classified languages into three rhythm classes, namely stress-timed, syllable-timed and mora-timed languages. However, this classification has remained controversial for various reasons: the search for reliable acoustic cues to the different rhythm types has long remained elusive; some languages are claimed to belong to none of the three classes; and no perceptual study has bolstered the notion. However, Ramus, Nespor & Mehler (1999), Cognition 73, 265-292, have recently proposed an acoustic/phonetic model of the different types of linguistic rhythm, and of their categorization as such by listeners. Their simulations make predictions as to which languages can be discriminated on the basis of their rhythm. Here, we present perceptual experiments that directly test the notion of rhythm classes, the simulations' predictions and the question of intermediate languages. Language discrimination experiments were run using a speech resynthesis technique to ensure that only rhythmical cues are available to the subjects. Languages investigated are English, Spanish, Catalan and Polish. Discrimination results are compatible with the rhythm class hypothesis, but Polish rhythm seems to be different from any other language studied and thus may constitute a new rhythm class. A revised version of the rhythm perception model is proposed to accommodate these findings and more simulations are run to generate new predictions.Franck RamusEmmanuel DupouxRenate ZanglJacques Mehler2002-01-11Z2011-03-11T08:54:52Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2023This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/20232002-01-11ZEvolution of Symbolisation in Chimpanzees and Neural Netsfrom Introduction: Animal communication systems and human languages can be characterised by the type of cognitive abilities that are required. If we consider the main semiotic distinction between communication using icons, signals, or symbols (Peirce, 1955; Harnad, 1990; Deacon, 1997) we can identify different cognitive loads for each type of reference. The use and understanding of icons require instinctive behaviour (e.g. emotions) or simple perceptual processes (e.g. visual similarities between an icon and its meaning). Communication systems that use signals are characterised by referential associations between objects and visual or auditory signals. They require the cognitive ability to learn stimulus associations, such as in conditional learning. Symbols have double associations. Initially, symbolic systems require the establishment of associations between signals and objects. Secondly, other types of relationships are learned between the signals themselves. The use of rule for the logical combination of symbols is an example of symbolic relationship. Symbolisation is the ability to acquire and handle symbols and symbolic relationships.
Angelo Cangelosi2001-06-19Z2011-03-11T08:54:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1619This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/16192001-06-19ZFrom Sensorimotor Praxis and Pantomine to Symbolic RepresentationsWhat lies on the two sides of the linguistic divide is fairly clear: On one side, you have organisms
buffeted about to varying degrees, depending on their degree of autonomy and plasticity, by the states of affairs
in the world they live in. On the other side, you have organisms capable of describing and explaining the states
of affairs in the world they live in. Language is what distinguishes one side from the other. How did we get here
from there? In principle, one can tell a seamless story about how inborn, involuntary communicative signals and
voluntary instrumental praxis could have been shaped gradually, through feedback from their consequences,
first into analog pantomime with communicative intent, and then into arbitrary category names combined into
all-powerful, truth-value-bearing propositions, freed from the iconic "shape" of their referents and able to tell all.
The attendant increase in speed and scope in acquiring and sharing information can be demonstrated in simple
artificial life simulations that place the old and new means into direct competition: Symbolic theft always beats
sensorimotor toil, and the strategy is evolutionarily stable, as long as the bottom-level categories are grounded in
sensorimotor toil.Stevan Harnad2001-05-22Z2011-03-11T08:54:38Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1507This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/15072001-05-22ZThe influence of semantic context on initial eye landing sites in wordsTo determine the role of ongoing processing on eye guidance in reading, two studies examined the effects of semantic context on the eyes' initial landing position in words of different levels of processing diffculty. Results from both studies clearly indicate a shift of the initial fixation location towards the end of the words for words that can be predicted from a prior semantic context. However, shifts occur only in high-frequency words and with prior fixations
close to the beginning of the target word. These results suggest that ongoing perceptual and linguistic processes can affect the decision of where to send the eyes next in reading. They are explained in terms of the easiness of processing associated with the target words when located
in parafoveal vision. It is concluded that two critical factors might help observing effects of linguistic variables on initial landing sites, namely, the frequency of the target word and the position where the eyes are launched from as regards to the beginning of the target word. Results also provide evidence for an early locus of semantic context effects in reading.Frédéric LavigneFrançoise VituGéry d'Ydewalle1999-08-26Z2011-03-11T08:53:52Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/391This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3911999-08-26ZIs Supervenience Asymmetric?After some preliminary clarifications, arguments for the supposed asymmetry of supervenience and determination, such as they are, are shown to be unsound. An argument against the supposed asymmetry is then constructed and defended against objections. This is followed by explanations of why the intuition of asymmetry is nonetheless so entrenched, and of how the asymmetric ontological priority of the physical over the non-physical can be understood without the supposed asymmetry of supervenience and determination.John F. Post2000-09-01Z2011-03-11T08:54:23Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/949This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/9492000-09-01ZLanguage comprehension as guided experienceLanguage comprehension is best viewed as guided experience. The linguistic input provides cues to the human brain as to how to construct experiential simulations of the state of affairs it denotes. We show that this view of language comprehension is consistent with a range of extant evidence in a variety of fields,
ranging from historical linguistics to cognitive neuroscience. We furthermore discuss new evidence that directly supports the experience-based view. We argue that the prevailing amodal view of language comprehension is unable to coherently account for this
evidence.
Rolf ZwaanBarbara KaupRobert StanfieldCarol Madden2010-04-01T11:36:55Z2011-03-11T08:57:35Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6812This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/68122010-04-01T11:36:55ZNeuropragmatics: Brain and communicationThere is no abstract for this paper.Bruno G. BaraMaurizio Tirassamaurizio.tirassa@unito.it2000-07-17Z2011-03-11T08:54:21Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/872This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8722000-07-17ZPerception of linguistic rhythm by newborn infantsPrevious studies have shown that newborn infants are able to discriminate between certain languages, and it has been suggested that they do so by categorizing varieties of speech rhythm. However, in order to confirm this hypothesis, it is necessary to show that language discrimination is still performed by newborns when all speech cues other than rhythm are removed. Here, we conducted a series of experiments assessing discrimination between Dutch and Japanese by newborn infants, using a speech resynthesis technique to progressively degrade non-rhythmical properties of the sentences. When the stimuli are resynthesized using identical phonemes and artificial intonation contours for the two languages, thereby preserving only their rhythmic structure, newborns are still able to discriminate the languages. We conclude that new-borns are able to classify languages according to their type of rhythm, and that this ability may help them bootstrap other phonological properties of their native language.Franck Ramus2003-02-12Z2011-03-11T08:55:09Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2766This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/27662003-02-12ZWh-movement vs. scrambling: The brain makes a difference(no abstract)Angela D. FriedericiMatthias SchlesewskyChristian J. Fiebach2000-08-11Z2011-03-11T08:54:22Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/929This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/9292000-08-11ZWord recognition: do we need phonological representations?Under what format(s) are spoken words memorized by the brain? Are word forms stored as abstract phonological representations? Or rather, are they stored as detailed acoustic-phonetic representations? (For example as a set of acoustic exemplars associated with each word). We present a series of experiments whose results point to the existence of prelexical phonological processes in word recognition and suggest that spoken words are accessed using a phonological code.Christophe Pallier2008-05-11T02:40:20Z2011-03-11T08:57:07Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6070This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/60702008-05-11T02:40:20ZAspects sémantiques et syntaxiques de l’accès au lexique lors de la production de parole[IN FRENCH] The speech production processes that have been studied in this thesis are the mechanisms of information processing that bridge the gap between the selection of a message to communicate and the articulation of the words that will covey it. More precisely, we conducted a cognitive study of the processes involved in lexical access. The first part of this thesis is a general introduction to the field that includes a survey of the literature. Secondly, we present a collection of normative data that characterizes an important number of experimental stimuli (pictures and words). The study of the semantic and syntactic aspects of lexical selection is then approached by means of the picture naming paradigm, among others.
The experiments that tackled the role of syntactic information show the existence of a syntactic congruency effect when grammatical gender properties are manipulated. This effect is only present for closed-class primes (determiners) and is not due to the phonological form of the prime-target pairs. It is interpreted as the consequence of an irrepressible binding of the prime and the target. Such a binding is probably due to the influence of a syntactic processing initiated by the prime on the lexical selection of a name for the picture.
The experiments on the semantic aspects show a dissociation between semantics and verbal association in the production system. After being operationally distinguished, theses two kinds of relations showed very different priming patterns. Moreover, these priming effects were differently affected by time parameters. The results are interpreted in the context of models of lexical access during the production of isolated words.Dr. F.-Xavier ALARIOFrancois-Xavier.Alario@univ-provence.fr2000-05-13Z2011-03-11T08:53:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/145This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1452000-05-13ZDiscourse studies in neurologically impaired populations: A quest for actionOrganism and environment are in a state of constant interaction, and discourse is vie-wed as one form of manifestation of this interaction. Through the study of discourse in-sights can be gained into those components that bring about mental events. Verbal structure, communication of beliefs and action/interaction are highly interactive dimensi-ons of discourse. Taking this perspective as a framework, the findings of discourse stu-dies with particular emphasis on right-hemisphere brain damaged individuals are discussed. Neurolinguistic studies of discourse can be divided into four categories: (1) studies that focus primarily at providing a detailed description of the structural and inter-actional abilities of brain-damaged individuals, (2) studies that are mainly concerned with investigating the processing aspects of discourse, (3) studies that investigate the influ-ence of cognitive systems such as attention or memory on discourse processing, and (4) studies that try to relate discourse processing mechanisms to underlying biological sub-strates or neurophysiological mechanisms. A quest is made for future research to base discourse studies on well-defined processing theories, to include different processing components and levels, and to systematically investigate the impact of facets of cogniti-ve systems on such processing. Established methodological approaches should be complemented by electrophysiological procedures (such as the event related potentials technique), or functional imaging techniques (such as fMRI) to tackle relationships bet-ween discourse processing mechanisms, cognitive systems and underlying biological mechanisms. Consideration of the influence of biochemical processes (such as asym-metries of neurotransmitters, endocrine functions or influence of pharmacological agents) on component processes may add to our insights.Brigitte Stemmer2001-02-25Z2011-03-11T08:54:33Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1315This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/13152001-02-25ZRegional Naming Patterns and the Culture of HonorThroughout American history, violence has been more common in
southern and western states than in northern states. Violence
continues to be viewed more positively and constructively in
these regions. This paper tests whether these regional
differences in violent behaviors and attitudes have had
linguistic consequences, in particular for name usage. Study
1 shows that place names in the South and West are more
likely than place names in the North to begin with violent
words like "gun" (e.g., Gun Point, FL) and "war" (e.g., War,
WV). Study 2 extends this phenomenon beyond place name
"fossils" to contemporary name choices by showing that
business names in the South and West are more likely than
those in the North to begin with violent words. Implications
of these naming patterns for the maintenance of regional
differences in violence are discussed.Michael Kelly2004-09-03Z2011-03-11T08:55:40Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3782This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/37822004-09-03ZACCESSING REFERENTIAL INFORMATION DURING TEXT COMPOSITION :
WHEN AND WHY ?When composing a text, writers have to continually shift between content planning and content translating. This continuous shifting gives the writing activity its cyclic nature. The first section of this paper will analyse the writing process as a hierarchical cyclic activity. A methodological paradigm will be proposed for the investigation of the writing process. In the second section, we will partially present two experiments that were conducted independently, with this paradigm. Both give a coherent and interesting picture of what happens with content while the writer is planning. The characteristics of cycles depend both on the nature of the content information being recovered and on the complexity of the processes applied to this content.Christophe DansacDenis Alamargot1999-10-19Z2011-03-11T08:53:44Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/221This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2211999-10-19ZASPECTS OF METALINGUISTIC ACTIVITYThe naive language user acts as the subject investigating (and creating) language. The metalinguistic component is singled out as one of those components of language activity that exercise an essential influence upon its organization and process. Anyhow, metalanguage activity is also carried out in a more explicit manner: from clearly expressed "personal theories" of language study and activity, to less obvious beliefs concerning the essence and the character of language units and actions mythologemes of language activity. As well as any other activity, metalanguage activity is governed by dynamic stereotyped patterns, which form a mythological picture of the life of language and of the life in language as environment. It is essential for understanding human language activity to disclose these implicit mechanisms. All words in language seem to possess a mythological nature. Besides, one can also distinguish mythologemes of general systemic and procedural character, without which language would not be able to exist and to be executed. Mythologemes of this kind constitute the language game as such: the "thingness" of words and the natural discreteness of their meanings. The mythological character of the users attitude to the words of language comes to light when roles are changed: when the included observer who is usually within the limits of the 'circle of language' (Humboldts metaphor) changes his role to that of a meta-observer. The negative influence of mythologemes on language activity is associated with the swap of positions and temporary moments of the actual language process. Many mythologemes in language teaching are formed on the basis (or bias) of the mechanistic determinism not only of everyday knowledge, but also that of school grammars. A systematic study of proto-scientific and implicit knowledge of language should bring its contribution both to understanding the essence of language activity, and to the task of optimizing linguistic technologies (in language teaching, mass communication etc.).Viatcheslav B. Kashkin2010-04-01T11:37:03Z2011-03-11T08:57:35Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6811This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/68112010-04-01T11:37:03ZCommunicative competence and the architecture of the mind/brainCognitive pragmatics is concerned with the mental processes involved in intentional communication. I discuss a few issues that may help clarify the relationship between this area and the broader cognitive science and the contribution that they give, or might give, to each other. Rather than dwelling on the many technicalities of the various theories of communication that have been advanced, I focus on the different conceptions of the nature and the architecture of the mind/brain that underlie them. My aims are, first, to introduce and defend mentalist views of communication in general; second, to defend one such view, namely that communication is a cognitive competence, that is, a faculty, and the underlying idea that the architecture of the mind/brain is domain-specific; and, third, to review the (scarce) neuropsychological evidence that bears on these issues.Maurizio Tirassamaurizio.tirassa@unito.it2004-05-06Z2011-03-11T08:55:33Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3614This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36142004-05-06ZContextes de production et justification écrite d'un point de vue par des enfants âgés de 10 à 13 ansThis study investigates both qualitative and quantitative production of sentences produced by 113 writers between 10 to 13 year of age for justifying points of views. Eight different production contexts were constructed from the modalities of three factors (familiarity with the topic, acceptance of the to be defended thesis and consensual opinion), such as they appear for example in sentences like "eating candies is good because..." or "going on a trip is not good, because...". The results clearly showed than from ten years of age children were able to justify whichever point of view and its opposite by referring to specific information which are largely shared. However, the number and the nature of the arguments varied as a function of contexts. Children write more arguments when they have to defend a view which conform a consensual opinion, whereas they diversify their arguments by supporting points of views which do not conform a consensual perspective.
The lack of practice with the activity constitutes in both cases a favorable condition. Within the framework of developing aids for school training and argumentative writing, our findings show that it is possible to use with non expert writers either context which favor quantitative production or contexts which bring to a qualitative diversification of arguments.
JY RousseyA PiolatA Gombert1999-04-21Z2011-03-11T08:53:44Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/218This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2181999-04-21ZCorrelates of linguistic rhythm in the speech signalSpoken languages have been classified by linguists according to their rhythmic properties, and psycholinguists have relied on this classification to account for infants capacity to discriminate languages. Although researchers have measured many speech signal properties, they have failed to identify reliable acoustic characteristics for language classes. This paper presents instrumental measurements based on a consonant/vowel segmentation for eight languages. The measurements suggest that intuitive rhythm types reflect specific phonological properties, which in turn are signaled by the acoustic/phonetic properties of speech. The data support the notion of rhythm classes and also allow the simulation of infant language discrimination, consistent with the hypothesis that newborns rely on a coarse segmentation of speech. A hypothesis is proposed regarding the role of rhythm perception in language acquisition.Franck RamusMarina NesporJacques Mehler2000-07-17Z2011-03-11T08:54:21Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/869This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8692000-07-17ZCorrelates of linguistic rhythm in the speech signalSpoken languages have been classified by linguists according to their rhythmic properties, and psycholinguists have relied on this classification to account for infants capacity to discriminate languages. Although researchers have measured many speech signal properties, they have failed to identify reliable acoustic characteristics for language classes. This paper presents instrumental measurements based on a consonant/vowel segmentation for eight languages. The measurements suggest that intuitive rhythm types reflect specific phonological properties, which in turn are signaled by the acoustic/phonetic properties of speech. The data support the notion of rhythm classes and also allow the simulation of infant language discrimination, consistent with the hypothesis that newborns rely on a coarse segmentation of speech. A hypothesis is proposed regarding the role of rhythm perception in language acquisition.Franck RamusMarina NesporJacques Mehler1999-12-15Z2011-03-11T08:53:41Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/125This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1251999-12-15ZIntroductionThe introduction to the special issue briefly discusses the origins and development of the word "pragmatics", pragmatic theory and its application to neurolinguistics. The special issue covers a total of 11 articles investigating pragmatic and neuropragmatic issues from different theoretical, experimental and clinical perspectives.Brigitte Stemmer1999-03-18Z2011-03-11T08:54:17Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/801This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8011999-03-18ZLanguage identification with suprasegmental cues: A study based on speech resynthesisThis paper proposes a new experimental paradigm to explore the discriminability of languages, a question which is crucial to the child born in a bilingual environment. This paradigm employs the speech resynthesis technique, enabling the experimenter to preserve or degrade acoustic cues such as phonotactics, syllabic rhythm or intonation from natural utterances. English and Japanese sentences were resynthesized, preserving broad phonotactics, rhythm and intonation (Condition 1), rhythm and intonation (Condition 2), intonation only (Condition 3), or rhythm only (Condition 4). The findings support the notion that syllabic rhythm is a necessary and sufficient cue for French adult subjects to discriminate English from Japanese sentences. The results are consistent with previous research using low-pass filtered speech, as well as with phonological theories predicting rhythmic differences between languages. Thus, the new methodology proposed appears to be well-suited to study language discrimination. Applications for other domains of psycholinguistic research and for automatic language identification are considered.Franck RamusJacques Mehler1999-12-15Z2011-03-11T08:53:41Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/126This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1261999-12-15ZAn On-Line Interview with Noam Chomsky: On the Nature of Pragmatics and Related IssuesThe authors and editor of the special issue of Brain and Language: Pragmatics: Theoretical and Clinical Issues as well as the editor of Brain and Language framed some questions which were sent to and readily discussed by Noam Chomsky via e-mail.Brigitte Stemmer2000-08-11Z2011-03-11T08:54:22Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/928This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/9282000-08-11ZPhonological representations and repetition primingAn ubiquitous phenomenon in psychology is the `repetition effect': a repeated stimulus is processed better on the second occurrence than on the first. Yet, what counts as a repetition? When a spoken word is repeated, is it the acoustic shape or the linguistic type that matters? In the present study, we contrasted the contribution of acoustic and phonological features by using participants with different linguistic backgrounds: they came from two populations sharing a common vocabulary (Catalan) yet possessing different phonemic systems. They performed a lexical decision task with lists containing words that were repeated verbatim, as well as words that were repeated with one phonetic feature changed. The feature changes were phonemic, i.e. linguistically relevant, for one population, but not for the other. The results revealed that the repetition effect was modulated by linguistic, not acoustic, similarity: it depended on the subjects' phonemic system.
Christophe PallierNuria Sebastian-GallesAngels Colome2002-04-12Z2011-03-11T08:54:55Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2173This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/21732002-04-12ZWhen marking tone reduces fluency: an orthography experiment in CameroonShould an alphabetic orthography for a tone language include tone marks? Opinion and
practice are divided along three lines: zero marking, phonemic marking and various reduced
marking schemes. This paper examines the success of phonemic tone marking for Dschang, a
Grassfields Bantu language which uses tone to distinguish lexical items and some grammatical
constructions. Participants with a variety of ages and educational backgrounds, and having
different levels of exposure to the orthography were tested on location in the Western
Province of Cameroon. All but one had attended classes on tone marking. Participants read
texts which were marked and unmarked for tone, then added tone marks to the unmarked
texts. Analysis shows that tone marking degrades reading fluency and does not help to resolve
tonally ambiguous words. Experienced writers attain an accuracy score of 83.5% in adding
tone marks to a text, while inexperienced writers score a mere 53%, which is not much better
than chance. The experiment raises serious doubts about the suitability of the phonemic
method of marking tone for languages having widespread tone sandhi effects, and lends
support to the notion that a writing system should have `fixed word images'. A critical review
of other experimental work on African tone orthography lays the groundwork for the
experiment, and contributes to the establishment of a uniform experimental paradigm. Steven Bird1998-10-03Z2011-03-11T08:54:15Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/742This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7421998-10-03ZLight, Fire, Prison: A Cognitive Analysis of Religious Imagery in PoetryThis paper explores the cognitive foundations and literary applications of spatial imagery. Cognitively, concrete visual images constitute a bundle of features and allow efficient coding of information for creativity. One image encoding many meaning units (an instance of "unity-in-variety") saves mental energy--a possible source of pleasure. The recoding of information into spatial imagery may help the cognitive system to overcome some of its limitations. Fast-changing or lowly-differentiated information may be recoded into a more stable and differentiated spatial template. Conceptually presented information may become less differentiated when recoded in Gestalt-free imagery. The paper explores how figurative language turns religious ideas into verbal imitations of religious experience, in two stylistic modes: "Metaphysical" and "Mystic-Romantic". It also investigates the problem of fusing the Biblical conception of a personal Creator with the Neo-Platonic conception of creation as light emanation. Four English poets and two medieval poets, Hebrew and Armenian, are compared in their handling of light, fire and prison images in this cognitive mode and in the literary modes of allegory, symbol and archetypal patterns.Reuven Tsur2000-08-11Z2011-03-11T08:54:22Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/930This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/9302000-08-11ZPerceptual adjustment to time-compressed Speech: a
cross-linguistic studyrevious research has shown that, when hearers listen to artificially speeded speech, their performance improves over the course of 10-15 sentences, as if their perceptual system was "adapting" to these fast rates of speech. In this paper, we further investigate the mechanisms that are responsible for such effects. In Experiment 1, we report that, for bilingual speakers of Catalan and Spanish, exposure to
compressed sentences in either language improves performance on sentences in the other language. Experiment 2 reports that Catalan/Spanish transfer of performance occurs even in monolingual speakers of Spanish who do not understand Catalan. In Experiment 3, we study another pair of languages--namely, English and French--and report no transfer of adaptation between these two languages for English-French bilinguals. Experiment 4, with monolingual English speakers, assesses transfer of adaptation from French, Dutch, and English toward English. Here we find that there is no adaptation from French and intermediate adaptation from Dutch. We discuss the locus of the adaptation to compressed speech and relate our findings to other cross-linguistic studies in speech perception.
Christophe PallierNuria Sebastian-GallésEmmanuel DupouxJacques Mehler1998-06-22Z2011-03-11T08:54:12Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/699This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6991998-06-22ZRule and Idiosyncratically Derived Denominal Verbs: Effects on Language Production and ComprehensionA distinction is drawn between two classes of denominal verbs, and four experiments examine the effects of this distinction on the production and comprehension of denominalizations. "Rule derived" (RD) denominals are formed from nouns belonging to semantic categories whose members share the same meaning when used as verbs. For instance, denominal verbs formed from vehicles generally mean "To travel/convey by X" where X represents the specific vehicle. In contrast, "idiosyncratically derived" (ID) denominals are drawn from categories whose members possess diverse meanings when used as verbs. Thus, "to fish" means "to try to catch fish" whereas "to dog" means "to chase tirelessly." Because the verb meanings of rule derived items are relatively predictable, they might be more easily produced and understood. Experiments 1 and 2 show that speakers are more likely to select RD terms for denominalization, and are faster at creating denominal uses for RD terms. Experiments 3 and 4 show that RD denominals are rated easier to understand than ID denominals, and that they are interpreted more uniformly across readers. The Discussion considers pragmatic accounts of the results, the theoretical basis for the distinction between RD and ID terms, and the more general point that experimental methods can be used to study creative uses of language.Michael H. Kelly1999-04-22Z2011-03-11T08:53:39Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/81This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/811999-04-22ZAnatomy of word and sentence meaningReading and listening involve complex psychological processes that recruit many brain areas. The anatomy of processing English words has been studied by a variety of imaging methods. Although there is widespread agreement on the general anatomical areas involved in comprehending words, there are still disputes about the computations that go on in these areas. Examination of the time relations (circuitry) among these anatomical areas can aid in under-standing their computations. In this paper we concentrate on tasks which involve obtaining the meaning of a word in isolation or in relation to a sentence. Our current data support a finding in the literature that frontal semantic areas are active well before posterior areas. We use the subjects attention to amplify relevant brain areas involved either in semantic classification or in judging the relation of the word to a sentence in order to test the hypothesis that frontal areas are concerned with lexical semantics while posterior areas are more involved in comprehension of propositions that involve several words.Michael I. PosnerAntonella Pavese2004-05-06Z2011-03-11T08:55:33Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3615This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36152004-05-06ZEffet du traitement de texte et des correcteurs sur la maîtrise de l'orthographe et de la grammaire en langue secondeDeux recherches ont permis d'évaluer les performances d'élèves de seconde qui s'entraînaient à rédiger en anglais avec ou sans ordinateur. Parallèlement, des enquêtes par questionnaire ont permis de cerner les représentations des élèves sur l'utilisation des correcteurs. Ces deux recherches ont montré, à des degrés différents, que l'usage de l'ordinateur a un effet bénéfique sur la production écrite des élèves en langue seconde. 11 apparaît particulièrement que les élèves bénéficient différemment de l'outil informatique selon le type de logiciels qu'ils utilisent, et selon le type de textes qu'ils doivent rédiger.ML BarbierA PiolatJY Roussey1998-10-15Z2011-03-11T08:54:15Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/744This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7441998-10-15ZEpenthetic vowels in Japanese: A perceptual illusion?In four cross-linguistic experiments comparing French and Japanese hearers, we found that the phonotactic properties of Japanese (very reduced set of syllable types) induce Japanese listeners to perceive ``illusory'' vowels inside consonant clusters in VCCV stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 2, we used a continuum of stimuli ranging from no vowel (e.g. ebzo) to a full vowel between the consonants (e.g. ebuzo). Japanese, but not French participants, reported the presence of a vowel [u] between consonants, even in stimuli with no vowel. A speeded ABX discrimination paradigm was used in Experiments 3 and 4, and revealed that Japanese participants had trouble discriminating between VCCV and VCuCV stimuli. French participants, in contrast had problems discriminating items that differ in vowel length (ebuzo vs. ebuuzo), a distinctive contrast in Japanese but not in French. We conclude that models of speech perception have to be revised to account for phonotactically-based assimilations.Dupoux EmmanuelKakehi KazohikoHirose YukiPallier ChristopheMehler Jacques1998-10-16Z2011-03-11T08:54:15Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/747This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7471998-10-16ZEpenthetic vowels in Japanese: A perceptual illusion?In four cross-linguistic experiments comparing French and Japanese hearers, we found that the phonotactic properties of Japanese (very reduced set of syllable types) induce Japanese listeners to perceive ``illusory'' vowels inside consonant clusters in VCCV stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 2, we used a continuum of stimuli ranging from no vowel (e.g. ebzo) to a full vowel between the consonants (e.g. ebuzo). Japanese, but not French participants, reported the presence of a vowel [u] between consonants, even in stimuli with no vowel. A speeded ABX discrimination paradigm was used in Experiments 3 and 4, and revealed that Japanese participants had trouble discriminating between VCCV and VCuCV stimuli. French participants, in contrast had problems discriminating items that differ in vowel length (ebuzo vs. ebuuzo), a distinctive contrast in Japanese but not in French. We conclude that models of speech perception have to be revised to account for phonotactically-based assimilations.E. DupouxK. KakehiY. HiroseC. PallierJ. Mehler1998-03-24Z2011-03-11T08:54:07Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/617This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6171998-03-24ZThe evolution of language and languagesHuman languages, such as French, Cantonese or American Sign Language, are socio- cultural entities. Knowledge of them (`competence') is acquired by exposure to the ap- propriate environment. Languages are maintained and transmitted by acts of speaking and writing; and this is also the means by which languages evolve. The utterances of one generation are processed by their children to form mental grammars, which in some sense summarize, or generalize over, the children's linguistic experiences. These grammars are the basis for the production of a new avalanche of utterances to which the next generation in its turn is subjected. (This picture is simplified, of course, as generations overlap.) Languages inhabit two distinct and separate modes of existence, which have been called (by Chomsky, 1986) `E-Language' and `I-Language'. E-language is the external observable behaviour --- utterances and inscriptions and manifestations of their meanings. E-language is regarded by some as so chaotic and subject to the vicissitudes of everyday human life as to be a poor candidate for systematic study. (E-Language corresponds to what Chomsky, in earlier terminology, called `performance'.) Out of this blooming buzzing confusion the individual child distils an order internal to the mind; the child constructs a coherent systematic set of rules mapping meanings onto forms. This set of rules is the child's I-Language (where `I' is for `internal'). No two individuals' I-Languages have to be the same, although those of people living in the same community will overlap very significantly. But there will usually be at least some slight difference between the I-language features prevalent in one generation and those prevalent in the next. This is the stuff of language evolution, in the sense of the historical development of individual languages, such as Swedish, Navaho or Zulu.James R Hurford1998-04-27Z2011-03-11T08:53:43Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/194This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1941998-04-27ZFunctional Innateness: explaining the critical period for language acquisitionIn recent years, several explanations have been offered for the critical period in language acquisition, itself, a priori a somewhat surprising phenomenon. Two such explanations are considered here. Both studies use computer simulations, but the factors they model are very different. Hurford (1991) simulates the phylogenetic evolution over hundreds of generations of a species in which the timing of life history traits is under genetic control. The period when an individual is most proficient at language acquisition is just such a life history trait, and is capable of adaptive evolution. Evolutionary simulations lead to a concentration of language acquisition proficiency in the period up to puberty, with a subsequent tailing off. Elman (1993) demonstrates `the advantages of starting small' in neural networks learning mini-languages with many of the complex interacting grammatical factors found in real languages. A neural network which starts mature, with a full adult `working memory' cannot acquire such complex grammatical competence, whereas a net whose attention span is initially limited and then grows with maturation can acquire the appropriate grammar. This explains, in adaptive terms, the existence of a period in which an organism's characteristics, relevant to the language learning task, change, increasing a certain capacity (`working memory') from an immature to an adult value. These accounts are complementary and mutually compatible. An evolutionary account is proposed, in which genetically controlled `working memory' size in relation to life history is the variable operated on by natural selection. This account promises to produce a more detailed explanation of the critical period, which can be related to a wider range of data, including the coincidence with puberty and the involvement of sentence processing in language acquisition The relationships between Elman's `working memory' and the distinct psychological concept of working memory are also explored.Jim Hurford1998-07-01Z2011-03-11T08:54:13Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/714This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7141998-07-01ZImplicit ConsequentialityThis paper examines the way in which high level semantic information influences the production and comprehension of pronouns. It reports a new type of verb semantic processing bias. We examine the effects of this bias on language comprehension.Andrew J. StewartMartin J. PickeringAnthony J. Sanford1998-06-29Z2011-03-11T08:54:13Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/712This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7121998-06-29ZReal Language UsersThe idea of a perfectly competent but resource limited language user is the basis of many models of sentence comprehension. It is widely assumed that linguistic competence is a) uniform; b) generative; c) autonomous; d) automatic and e) constant. It is also believed that the free expression of these properties is frustrated by limits in the availability of computational resources. However, no firm experimental evidence for the classical language user appears to exist. Negative evidence for each assumption is reviewed here and the notion of resource limitations is shown to be suspect. An experiment is reported which tested each of the five assumptions underlying the conventional notion of linguistic competence. It was found that native speakers of English a) differed in grammatical skill; b) often failed to display productivity; c) violated syntax in favour of plausibility; d) expended conscious effort to comprehend some sentences and e) appeared to adapt to novel structures as the experiment progressed. In line with previous studies, a relationship was found between comprehension skill and formal education. A new finding is that highly educated non-native speakers of English can outperform less educated native speakers of English in comprehending grammatically challenging English sentences. The results indicate that the classical language user is an inaccurate model of real language users, who appear to differ considerably in linguistic skill. A number of specific questions for further research are raised.Ngoni. Chipere1998-07-01Z2011-03-11T08:53:59Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/485This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4851998-07-01ZReference Frames for Spatial Inference in Text UnderstandingWe present an approach to spatial reasoning that is based on homogenous coordinate systems and their transformations. In contrast to qualitative approaches, spatial relations are not represented by symbolic expressions only but additionally by parameters with constraints, which are subsets of real numbers. Our work is based on the notion of mental models in text understanding introduced in cognitive science. That is, we model the understanding of descriptions of spatial configurations by constructing a representation of the class of situations that are compatible with the description. Within our approach a spatial relation between two objects is represented by constraining the position of one of the objects with respect to the reference frame of the other one. That is, inferences of spatial relations not given explicitly in a text depend on the frame of reference which is presumed by the (human or computer) system. In this paper we describe a general framework for spatial reasoning based on the notion of mental models and we present some empirical results concerning the influence of the selected reference frame on the inference process.Berry ClausKlaus EyferthCarsten GipsRobin HörnigUte SchmidSylvia WiebrockFritz Wysotzki1998-10-16Z2011-03-11T08:54:15Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/748This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7481998-10-16ZWhere is the length effect? A cross-linguistic study.Many models of speech production assume that one cannot begin to articulate a word before all its segmental units are inserted into the articulatory plan. Moreover, some of these models assume that segments are serially inserted from left to right. As a consequence, latencies to name words should increase with word length. In a series of five experiments, however, we showed that the time to name a picture or retrieve a word associated with a symbol is not affected by the length of the word. Experiments 1 and 2 used French materials and participants, while Experiments 3, 4 and 5 were conducted with English materials and participants. These results are discussed in relation to current models of speech production, and previous reports of length effects are reevaluated in light of these findings. We conclude that if words are encoded serially, then articulation can start before an entire phonological word has been encoded.A.C. Bachoud-LéviE. DupouxL. CohenJ. Mehler1998-06-15Z2011-03-11T08:53:48Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/315This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3151998-06-15ZThe Body in Literature: Mark Johnson, Metaphor, and FeelingAn inadequate grasp of the role of imagination has vitiated understanding of human cognition in western thinking. Extending a project initiated with George Lakoff in <I>Metaphors we Live By</I> (1980), Mark Johnson's book <I>The Body in the Mind</I> (1987) offers the claim that all thinking originates in bodily experience. A range of schemata formed during our early experience manipulating a physical world of surfaces, distances, and forces, lays the foundation of later, more abstract modes of thought. In presenting his argument, Johnson lays special stress on the qualities and dynamics of the image schemata, the (generally unnoticed) metaphoricity of the transformations underlying abstract thought, and the new significance that should be attributed to the imagination, which is the general term Johnson wishes to claim for the mental processes he expounds. In this paper I draw attention to the importance of Johnson's insights for understanding literary response. In particular, I will show how a typical procedure of literary texts involves bringing to awareness image schemata of the kind that Johnson describes. At the same time, several problems in Johnson's account which limit its usefulness will also be examined: an undue reliance upon the spatial properties of schemata; a conflation of dead with live or poetic metaphors; and a neglect of other bodily influences on thought, especially kinaesthetic and affective aspects. These problems, for example, limit the usefulness of Johnson's attempt to build on Kant's theory of imagination. In comparison with Coleridge, who also attempted to build on Kant, Johnson is unable to overcome the formalism of Kant's theory. Coleridge's account of imagination, I will suggest, provides a better foundation for examining the bodily basis of meaning, while remaining compatible with Johnson's intentions and his more valuable insights.David S. Miall1998-10-15Z2011-03-11T08:54:15Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/743This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7431998-10-15ZA limit on behavioral plasticity in speech perception.It is well attested that we perceive speech through the filter of our native language: a classic example is that of Japanese listeners who cannot discriminate between the American /l/ and /r/ and identify both as their own /r/ phoneme (Goto, 1971). Studies in the laboratory have shown, however, that perception of non-native speech sounds can be learned through training (Lively, Pisoni, Yamada, & Tohkura, 1994). This is consistent with neurophysiological evidence showing considerable experience-dependent plasticity in the brain at the first levels of sensory processing (Edeline & Weinberger, 1993; Kraus, et al., 1995; Merzenich & Sameshima, 1993; Weinberger, 1993). Outside of the laboratory, however, the situation seems to differ: we here report a study involving Spanish-Catalan bilingual subjects who have had the best opportunities to learn a new contrast but did not do it. Our study demonstrates a striking lack of behavioral plasticity: early and extensive exposure to a second language is not sufficient to attain the ultimate phonological competence of native speakers.C. PallierL. BoschN. Sebastian-Gallés2001-02-23Z2011-03-11T08:54:28Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1178This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/11782001-02-23ZBut What Have You Done for Us Lately?: Some Recent Perspectives on Linguistic NativismThe problem with many contemporary criticisms of Chomsky and linguistic nativism is that they are based upon features of the theory that are no longer germane; aspects that have either been superseded by more adequate proposals, or that have been dropped altogether under the weight of contravening evidence. In this paper, rather than rehashing old debates that are voluminously documented elsewhere, we intend to focus on more recent developments. To this end, we have put a premium on references from the 1990s and the latter half of the 1980s. First, we will describe exactly what is now thought to be innate about language, and why it is thought to be innate rather than learned. Second, we will examine the evidence that many people take to be the greatest challenge to the nativist claim: ape language. Third, we will briefly consider how an innate language organ might have evolved. Fourth we will look at how an organism might communicate without benefit of the innate language structure proposed by Chomsky, and examine a number of cases in which this seems to be happening. Finally we will try to sum up our claims and characterize what we believe will be the most fruitful course of debate for the immediate future. Christopher D. GreenJohn Vervaeke1998-06-24Z2011-03-11T08:53:59Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/474This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4741998-06-24ZContext as a Social ConstructThis position paper argues that in addition to the familiar approach using formal contexts, there is now a need in AI to study contexts as social constructs. As a successful example of the latter approach, I draw attention to `interpretation' (in the sense of literary theory), viz. the reconstruction of intended meaning of a literary text that takes into account the context in which the author assumed the reader would place the text. An important contribution here comes from Harris (1988), enumerating the seven crucial dimensions of context: knowledge of reality, knowledge of language, and the authorial, generic, collective, specific, and textual dimensions. Finally, two thought-provoking papers in interpretation, (Barwise 1989) and (Hobbs 1990), are analyzed as useful attempts which also come to grips with the notion of context.Varol Akman2001-06-29Z2011-03-11T08:54:44Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1663This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/16632001-06-29ZCross-language hierarchical spreading of activationThe present study investigated whether in bilingual memory, activation of a node in a lexicon, through presentation of the relevant word stimulus, would spread to a lower node in the other lexicon. Two experiments examined the priming effect of a higher node in one lexicon on the task of translation of a lower node in the other lexicon. In Experiment 1, the primed words representing higher nodes were from subjects' L1 and to-be-translated target words representing lower nodes were from subjects' L2. In Experiment 2, the order of languages was reversed. In both experiments, the primed translation condition was compared with an un-primed translation condition. The results showed a facilitatory effect for the L2 prime-L1 target (L1-to-L2 translation) condition. The result of L1 prime-L2 target
(L2-to-L1 translation) condition, however, did not reach significance. The RT difference between L1-to-L2 and L2-to-L1 translation tasks in the un-primed conditions was not significant.R. SamaniF. Sharifian1998-10-16Z2011-03-11T08:54:15Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/749This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7491998-10-16ZA destressing "deafness" in French?French is a language in which accent is mandatory on the last syllable of every content word. In contrast, Spanish uses accent to distinguish different lexical items (e.g., b'ebe vs beb'e). Two population of subjects were tested on the same materials to study whether such linguistic differences have an impact on the perceptual capacities of listeners. In Experiment 1, using an ABX paradigm, we find that French Subjects have a surprising deficit compared to Spanish Subjects in making accent distinctions. In Experiment 2, we find that Spanish subjects cannot ignore irrelevant differences in accent in a phoneme-based ABX task, whereas French Subjects have no difficulty at all. In Experiment 3, we replicate the basic French finding, and find that Spanish subjects benefit from redundant accent information even when phonemic information alone is sufficient to perform the task. In our final Experiment 4, we show that French subjects can hear the acoustic correlates of accent; their problem seem to arise at the level of short term memory. Implications for language-specific processing and acquisition are discussed.E. DupouxC. PallierN. SebastianJ. Mehler2004-05-06Z2011-03-11T08:55:33Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3616This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36162004-05-06ZEffect of screen presentation on text reading and revising. International Journal of Human-Computer StudiesTwo studies using the methods of experimental psychology assessed the effects of two types of text presentation (page-by-page vs. scrolling) on participants' performance while reading and revising texts. Greater facilitative effects of the page-by-page presentation were observed in both tasks. The participants' reading task performance indicated that they built a better mental representation of the text as a whole and were better at locating relevant information and remembering the main ideas. Their revising task performance indicated a larger number of global corrections (which are the most difficult to make).A PiolatJY RousseyO Thunin2002-02-21Z2011-03-11T08:54:53Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2084This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/20842002-02-21ZEvent-related potentials elicited by spoken relative clausesSentence-length event-related potential (ERP) waveforms were obtained from 23 scalp sites as 24 subjects listened to normally spoken sentences of various syntactic structures. The critical materials consisted of 36 sentences each containing one of 2 types of relative clauses that differ in processing difficulty, namely Subject Object (SO) and Subject Subject (SS) relative clauses. Sentence-length ERPs showed several differences in the slow scalp potentials elicited by SO and SS sentences that were similar in their temporal dynamics to those elicited by the same stimuli in a word-by-word reading experiment, although the effects in the two modalities have non identical distributions. Just as for written sentences, there was a large, fronto-central negativity beginning at the linguistically defined "gap" in the SO sentences; this effect was largest for listeners with above-median comprehension rates, and is hypothesized to index changes in on-line processing demands during comprehension.Horst M. MuellerJonathan W. KingMarta Kutas2002-02-01Z2011-03-11T08:54:53Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2061This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/20612002-02-01ZHierarchical spreading of activationThe present study investigated, within the framework of spreading activation model, whether or not nodes are activated in a hierarchical fashion in the memory network. If, for example, activation of plant spreads to flower and then to rose, subjects should take longer to detect the relation between plant and rose than that between either plant and flower or flower and rose. The results of an experiment conducted to test the above hypothesis showed a significant difference between subjects' RTs for the three kinds of word pairs. Appropriate post-hoc comparisons of the mean RTs supported the hypothesis of this study. That is, the time taken for subjects to detect the relation between pairs such as plant-rose was significantly greater than the time taken for them to detect the relation between the words in either plant-flower or flower-rose pair types.
F. SharifianR. Samani2004-04-07Z2011-03-11T08:55:31Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3554This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/35542004-04-07ZMental states in communicationAbstract. This paper is concerned with the mental processes involved in intentional communication. I describe an agent's cognitive architecture as the set of cognitive dynamics (i.e., sequences of mental states with contents) she may entertain. I then describe intentional communication as one such specific dynamics, arguing against the prevailing view that communication consists in playing a role in a socially shared script. The cognitive capabilities needed for such dynamics are midreading (i.e., the ability to reason upon another individual's mental states), and communicative planning (i.e., the ability to dynamically represent and act in a communicative situation).Maurizio Tirassa2010-04-01T11:37:11Z2011-03-11T08:57:35Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6810This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/68102010-04-01T11:37:11ZNeuropragmatics: Neuropsychological constraints on formal theories of dialogueWe are interested in the validation of a cognitive theory of human communication, grounded in a speech acts perspective. The theory we refer to is outlined, and a number of predictions are drawn from it. We report a series of protocols administered to 13 brain-injured subjects and to a comparable control group. The tasks included direct and indirect speech acts, irony, deceits, failures of communication, and theory of mind inferences. All the predicted trends of difficulty are consistently verified; in particular, difficulty increases from direct/indirect speech acts to irony, from irony to deceits, and from deceits to failure recovery. This trend symmetrically shows both in the successful situation and in the failure situation. Further, failure situations prove more difficult to handle than the relevant successful situation. In sharp contrast with previous literature, there is no difference between the subjects' comprehension of direct and indirect speech acts. The results are discussed in the light of our theoretical approach.Bruno G. BaraMaurizio Tirassamaurizio.tirassa@unito.itMarina Zettin1998-10-19Z2011-03-11T08:54:16Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/751This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7511998-10-19ZPhonemes and Syllables in Speech Perception: size of the attentional focus in French.A study by Pitt and Samuel (1990) found that English speakers could narrowly focus attention onto a precise phonemic position inside spoken words [1]. This led the authors to argue that the phoneme, rather than the syllable, is the primary unit of speech perception. Other evidence, obtained with a syllable detection paradigm, has been put forward to propose that the syllable is the unit of perception; yet, these experiments were ran with French speakers [2]. In the present study, we adapted Pitt & Samuel's phoneme detection experiment to French and found that French subjects behave exactly like English subjects: they too can focus attention on a precise phoneme. To explain both this result and the established sensitivity to the syllabic structure, we propose that the perceptual system automatically parses the speech signal into a syllabically-structured phonological representation.Christophe Pallier2000-08-11Z2011-03-11T08:54:22Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/931This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/9312000-08-11ZProsodic structure and phonetic processing: A cross-linguistic studyDutch and Spanish differ in how predictable the stress pattern is as a function of the segmental content: it is correlated with syllable weight in Dutch but not in Spanish. In the present study, two experiments were run to compare the abilities of Dutch and Spanish speakers to separately process segmental and stress information. It was predicted that the Spanish speakers would have more difficulty focusing on the segments and ignoring the stress pattern than the Dutch speakers. The task was a speeded classification task on CVCV syllables, with blocks of trials in which the stress pattern could vary versus blocks in which it was fixed. First, we found interference due to stress variability in both languages, suggesting that the processing of segmental information cannot be performed independently of stress. Second, the effect was larger for Spanish than for Dutch, suggesting that that the degree of interference from stress variation may be partially mitigated by the predictability of stress placement in the language.
Christophe PallierAnne CutlerNuria Sebastian-Gallés1999-09-29Z2011-03-11T08:53:41Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/119This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1191999-09-29ZTACIT INTEGRATION AND REFERENTIAL STRUCTURE IN THE LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION OF APHASICS AND NORMALSAphasics, brain damaged patients with no language deficit, neurologically intact elderly subjects and university undergraduates matched pictures to sentences having compelling tacit implications (e.g. the sentence The fox grabs the hen strongly invites one to assume that the fox will eat the hen). All groups made, for the same sentences, qualitatively similar referential errors consisting in choosing a tacit implication picture. Two auxiliary experiments using the same target sentences in other interpretive situations permitted ruling out the possibility that these errors were due to the putative intrinsic semantic properties of the sentences, showing that the sentences which were most liable to elicit integrative error varied from task to task. These results are interpreted within the conceptual framework which posits that reliable directions for interpretation are couched by the speaker in the very structure of his utterances (the utterance's referential structure) providing the hearer with means to restructure the relevant personal knowledge integrated into the interpretive process in accordance with the speaker's communicative intent. The determination of the referential structure (RSD) of utterances thus seems critical to their correct or, more precisely, conventional interpretation, and, along with the tacit integration of relevant sources of personal knowledge, constitutes the principal cognitive device enabling us to understand each other. But this device appears to be easily corruptible. It is suggested that many errors made by aphasics in language interpretation are due to a failure to follow all referential instructions, but that qualitatively similar failures also occur in normal subjects, though to a lesser degree. Language interpretation is a fallible process and aphasic errors provide remarkable clues for the understanding of its subtle referential mechanisms.Victor RosenthalPatrizia Bisiacchi2001-11-16Z2011-03-11T08:54:49Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1887This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/18872001-11-16ZAuditory Implicit Learning, and Its Transfer to and from Visual Implicit LearningReber and others have shown that the passive learning of synthetic grammars ("implicit learning") is a robust phenomenon when visual stimulus materials are employed. It was the main aim of this study to discover if the same effects occur in the auditory modality, and then to determine if such learning can be transferred from the visual to the auditory mode, and vice versa. In the present study, first, the standard effect was replicated with visual material (Experiment I). Second the effect was also shown to occur when the same material was presented to the auditory modality (Experiment II). It was then shown that implicitly learned material can be transferred from the visual to the auditory modality (Experiment III) and from the auditory to the visual modality (Experiment IV). The implications of the results are discussed with respect to the debate about the "abstractness" or "concreteness" of the mental representation of the material learned.Christopher D. GreenPhilip R. Groff2004-05-06Z2011-03-11T08:55:33Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3617This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36172004-05-06ZCharge mentale et mobilisation des processus rédactionnels : examen de la procédure de Kellogg The method used by Kellogg (1987) requires that the writer performs a concurrent task followed by a supplementary task. The subjects must react to auditory signals during writing (the recorded RT's express the weight of the subject's cognitive effort) and then qualify (directed retrospection) the ongoing writing activity (planning, translating or reviewing). The goal of experiment 1 is to test the role of bips distribution (15, 30, 60 sec) on the cognitive load. Experiment 2 tests how the retrospective task (retrospection with training, without retrospection vs. Kellogg's retrospection) affects the cognitive effort. The results show that the bips distribution as well as a training on retrospection had effects on RT's but not on the activation of writing processes. Contrary to Kellogg's findings, RT's are not different for the three writing processes. Writers distribute their cognitive resources as a function of the tasks' constraints: writing, quick reaction and retrospection. It is concluded that Kellogg's method must be revaluated as an appropriate tool for measuring the cognitive effort involved in the various writing processes.A PiolatJY RousseyT OliveF Farioli1998-08-18Z2011-03-11T08:54:15Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/736This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7361998-08-18ZPostscript to "Rhyme and Cognitive Poetics"The cognitive approach in my paper "Rhyme and Cognitive Poetics" has been criticised from the point of view of historical poetics. This paper enumerates the points of criticism and answers them. The following paragraph sums up my position in answer to that criticism: Cognitive Poetics uses quantitative investigations to establish regularities, makes a sustained effort to ascertain what "the specific effects of poetry" are, through introspection, in controlled experiments in the psychological laboratory, by considering statements of professional critics in their published writings, or by collecting casual reports of students in the classroom. It offers hypotheses drawn from the various branches of cognitive science to relate, systematically, poetic effects to poetic structures with which they have been regularly associated. By the same token, it helps further to refine the formulation of perceived affects collected in a variety of ways from a variety of respondents. Far from relying "on a reader 'in general,' or on a modern (and sometimes unsophisticated) reader", it helps to break up a homogeneous past into a multiplicity of related attitudes, but avoiding scepticism, idiosyncrasy, or chaos. While the historical approach encountered here "is based not so much on insight and intuition as on wide quantitative analyses of observable facts", Cognitive Poetics assumes that the readers of past ages had insights and intuitions, no less than presentday readers; that to understand such insights and intuitions one must study the responses of living readers, and then try to find out in what respects can the responses of readers in the past be supposed to differ from the responses of present-day readers; and that to abandon such inquiries is too high a price to pay for "scientific objectivity".Reuven Tsur1998-08-18Z2011-03-11T08:54:15Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/735This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7351998-08-18ZRhyme and Cognitive PoeticsIn this essay I provide a comprehensive cognitive view of rhyme, one of the most powerful resources of poetic language. Readers and critics have strong intuitions on the matter of rhyme but find it difficult systematically to address its manifestations and the construction of its overall affect in the poetic passage. Hence critics all too frequently discuss rhymes impressionalistically, in sporadic, ad hoc semantic analyses, and rely on readers to work out how these account for a poems perceived affect(s). At other times, critics gorund their argument in intertextuality, recasting rhyme as an enigma displaced from one text to another. Here I attempt to uncover the sources of possible affects of rhyme, suggesting critical tools for addressing it in a meaningful way in the hope of systematically relating its affects to its structure. Speech sounds are abstract categories, from which rich precategorical sensory information is typically stripped away. Nevertheless, some of this information does reach the cognitive system, reverberating briefly in short-term memory and facilitating, by way of certain cognitive tasks, the processing of certain verbal material. Rhyme exploits and enhances this sensory information. There is some experimental evidence that memory traces of two words that appear consecutively, that is, spread out in time, may be fused and perceived as if they were simultaneously present. Basing some of my findings on adaptations of gestalt psychology, I suggest that similar processes may occur in the interaction between phonetic categories and the underlying acoustic information, enhancing them or toning them down. Further, I consider the possible interaction of semantic or thematic features with acoustic information underlying speech sounds, as well as some conditions that maximize our tendency to respond to groups of individual stimuli as unified percepts, which may account for the perceived qualities regularly associated with certain rhyme patterns, and I examine the relatively rare dactylic rhyme in and attempt to account for some contradictions regularly ascribed to itReuven Tsur2004-05-06Z2011-03-11T08:55:33Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3618This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36182004-05-06ZStudents' drafting strategies and text qualityThe study reports an analysis of the drafts produced by two groups of students during an exam. Drafts were categorized as a function of some of their graphic features (e.g. their length), and of their different planning strategies used for their production (e.g. note draft, organized draft, composed draft). Grades obtained by the students on their essays related to the different categories of drafts. Results show that 2/3 of both groups of students made some kinds of draft. Drafts mostly consisted of note drafts or long composed drafts. Very few consisted of organized drafts. However, students that wrote these latter drafts obtained the best ratings. Drafting strategy was homogeneous for half of the students who used one category. The other half successively used two drafting modes. In that case they mostly associated writing with jotting down notes or with some marks of organization. Here, again, students who organized, even partially, their drafts obtained the highest grades.
Very few corrections were brought to the long drafts and they concerned the surface (spelling or lexicon), not the content or the plan. This research shows that only a limited number of students used an efficient drafting (organized draft) even though such a strategy is generally associated with the highest ratings.
A PiolatJY Roussey1998-04-02Z2011-03-11T08:53:37Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/13This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/131998-04-02ZWhat's in a name? Electrophysiological differences between spoken nouns, proper nouns and one's own nameTo investigate the neural processing of different word categories, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from 32 individuals listening to sentences, beginning either with a proper name (first name), the subject's own name, or a common noun. Names and nouns both elicited ERP waveforms with the same early componentry, but the N1 and P2 components were larger for proper names than common nouns. The ERPs to the subject's own name also had a large N1/P2 plus a prominent negativity at parieto-central site peaking around 400 ms and a late positivity between 500-800 ms over left lateral-frontal sites. These findings are consistent with differential processing of people's first names within the category of nouns.H.M. MuellerM. Kutas2002-02-21Z2011-03-11T08:54:53Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2100This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/21002002-02-21ZWhat's in a name? Electrophysiological differences between spoken nouns, proper nouns and one's own nameTo investigate the neural processing of different word categories, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from 32 individuals listening to sentences, beginning either with a proper name (first name), the subject's own name, or a common noun. Names and nouns both elicited ERP waveforms with the same early componentry, but the N1 and P2 components were larger for proper names than common nouns. The ERPs to the subject's own name also had a large N1/P2 plus a prominent negativity at parieto-central site peaking around 400 ms and a late positivity between 500-800 ms over left lateral-frontal sites. These findings are consistent with differential processing of people's first names within the category of nouns.Horst M. MuellerMarta Kutas1998-06-15Z2011-03-11T08:53:38Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/40This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/401998-06-15ZAnticipation and feeling in literary response: A neuropsychological perspectiveAnticipation and feeling are taken to be significant components of the process of literary reading, although cognitive theories of reading have tended to neglect them. Recent neuropsychological research is described that casts light on these processes: the paper focuses on the integrative functions of the prefrontal cortex responsible for anticipation and on the contribution of feeling to the functions of the right cerebral hemisphere. It is shown how feelings appear to play a central role in initiating and directing the interpretive activities involved in such complex activities as reading. In particular, a key feature of literary texts that captures and directs response is foregrounding, that is, distinctive stylistic features: these defamiliarize and arouse feeling. Such responses are likely to be mediated by the right hemisphere, which is specialized to process novelty. An analysis of the neuropsychological mechanisms implicated in response to foregrounding suggests how readers discriminate among competing interpretive possibilities, and how other important elements of literary response such as imagery, memory, and self-referential themes and concerns are recruited. Several studies are cited indicating that response to various characteristic components of literary texts is mediated by this hemisphere, including the prosodic aspects of foregrounding, figurative language, and narrative structure. This hemisphere also provides the context for elaborating and contextualizing negative feelings, a process related to Aristotle's notion of catharsis. It is argued that the neuropsychological evidence sketched in this paper provides a more reliable basis for future theoretical and empirical studies of literary reading.David S. Miall2002-10-01Z2011-03-11T08:55:00Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2485This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/24852002-10-01ZCharacteristics of an effective internal dialogue in the acquisition of self-informationThis article raises the question of how self-talk mediates self-awareness. It is argued that the process of acquiring self-information
can be seen as a problem-solving task, and that self-talk can facilitate this process (as it does for any other problem) by promoting a
precise formulation and approach to the problem, by adequately focusing attention on the task, and through constant self-evaluations. A
complementary analysis of the possible characteristics of an effective internal dialogue in the acquisition of self-information is
undertaken. Among other things, taking others' perspective through self-talk, possessing a rich vocabulary about oneself, and paying
attention to the content of one's self-talk are believed to be important in that respect. Clinical implications raised by this analysis are also
discussed.Alain Morin2001-11-18Z2011-03-11T08:54:49Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1891This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/18912001-11-18ZImplicit Learning of Spatial SequencesImplicit learning for verbal strings generated by a finite state machine (FSM) has been demonstrated repeatedly. No one,
however, has investigated whether such learning can take place when the information to be learned is spatial in nature. In this
study, subjects learned sequences of FSM-generated spatial information displayed on a 3´3 grid. They were able to learn
these sequences faster than subjects similarly set to learn random spatial sequences. As is typical in implicit learning studies,
although the subjects in the experimental group were unable to articulate the rules governing the sequences, they were
nevertheless able to distinguish new grammatical strings from random ones at a rate far above chance.Christopher D. GreenEllen Munro2001-05-29Z2011-03-11T08:54:39Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1516This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/15162001-05-29ZOptional deep case filling and focus control with mental images: ANTLIMA-KOREFThe connection of vision and natural language systems in AI research relies on what is often called reference semantics. In the situation of a radio reporter for soccer games an utterance must be perceptually anchored and coherent in order to be understandable to a listener not able to see the scene. Accordingly, the speaker must be able to anticipate the listeners' understanding by means of mental images. In this paper we demonstrate the comparison of mental images and visual perception on the level of spatial relations and show how to employ the results for cooperatively filling optional deep cases and for controlling the use of underspecific definite descriptions.
Anselm BlocherJörg R.J. Schirra2004-05-06Z2011-03-11T08:55:33Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3619This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36192004-05-06ZParler, rédiger: présentation d'un outil d'analyse syntaxique et de quelques résultatsLe psychologue peut analyser la production langagière en étudiant trois types de phénomènes et leurs interrelations : 1) les conditions contextuelles dans lesquelles la production émerge, 2) les processus et connaissances mis en oeuvre pour réaliser la tâche langagière, 3) les caractéristiques du produit langagier. Dans le travail de psychologie expérimentale présenté ci-après, l'organisation syntaxique de corpus oraux et écrits a été caractérisée e quantifiée afin de repérer les déterminants de situation (destinataire, thème) et les contraintes fonctionnelles (cadence de production, possibilité d'autocorrection) qui provoquent des variations dans la structuration syntaxique. Si l'on appelle "système de production", un ensemble articulé de contraintes fonctionnelles qui conditionnent la nature et le déroulement de l'activité d'élaboration d'un texte lors de son ajustement à une situation de communication donnée, les résultats obtenus ont permis de conclure, pour les deux modalités de production (parler, rédiger), à l'utilisation de deux systèmes différents. Leur communauté fonctionnelle n'enlève rien à leurs différences qu'il n'est pas réaliste de négliger ou de réduire à quelques contraintes périphériques de type phonologique ou calligraphique. D'ailleurs, avec de nouvelles méthodologies qui permettent d'étudier, en temps réel, le déroulement même de l'activité (particulièrement de l'activité rédactionnelle, Piolat, 1990), la mise en évidence des différences fonctionnelles entre la production par écrit et la production par oral est encore plus patente.A Piolat1998-08-21Z2011-03-11T08:54:15Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/737This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7371998-08-21ZForegrounding, Defamiliarization, and Affect: Response to Literary StoriesThe notion that stylistic features of literary texts deautomatize perception is central to a tradition of literary theory from Coleridge through Shklovsky and Mukarovský to Van Peer. Stylistic variations, known as foregrounding, hypothetically prompt defamiliarization, evoke feelings, and prolong reading time. These possibilities were tested in four studies in which segment by segment reading times and ratings were collected from readers of a short story. In each study, foregrounded segments of the story were associated with increased reading times, greater strikingness ratings, and greater affect ratings. Response to foregrounding appeared to be independent of literary competence or experience. Reasons for considering readers' response to foregrounding as a distinctive aspect of interaction with literary texts are discussed.David S. MiallDon Kuiken1998-07-19Z2011-03-11T08:54:13Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/724This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7241998-07-19ZBeyond Text Theory: Understanding Literary ResponseApproaches to text comprehension that focus on propositional, inferential, and elaborative processes have often been considered capable of extension in principle to literary texts, such as stories or poems. However, we argue that literary response is influenced by stylistic features that result in defamiliarization; that defamiliarization invokes feeling which calls on personal perspectives and meanings; and that these aspects of literary response are not addressed by current text theories. The main differences between text theories and defamiliarization theory are discussed. We offer a historical perspective on the theory of defamiliarization from Coleridge to the present day, and mention some empirical studies that tend to support it.David S. MiallDon Kuiken2010-07-29T01:47:51Z2011-03-11T08:57:38Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6887This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/68872010-07-29T01:47:51ZThe optimal viewing position for children with normal and with poor reading abilities.This paper describes the optimal viewing position effect in normal young readers and children treated for dyslexia.M. Brysbaertmarc.brysbaert@ugent.beC. Meyers2004-05-06Z2011-03-11T08:55:33Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3620This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36202004-05-06ZTraitement de texte et stratégies rédactionnellesThe objective of this experimental observation is to show how the use of a standard word processor changes the writing strategies devised by advanced users during the production of short texts. Empirical research has indicated that word processors, in fact, have a negative impact on writing strategies. Analysis of the conditions under which "man-machine" dialogue takes place, has shown that screen size and linear management both have an effect on writing. Before determining the ways in which a word processor can disrupt common writing practices, we must gain a better understanding of how a text is actually composed in real time, with or without a computer. Although the various writing processes have been clearly identified, the functional scenario describing the succession of writing phases and accompagnying activities is still poorly defined. The marks produced by writers on paper, whether linguistic (words, sentence fragments, sentences) or non-linguistic (arrows, underlining, indexation, diagrams, etc.), reflect the planning, translating, and revising processes being carried out by the writer. Sharples and Pemberton (1990) describe the exact functions of these marks in the elaboration of the ideas to be translated into text form (levels of organization). However, more knowledge about their frequency of use at the different stages of text composition is required. This is one of the goals of the present experimental observation. For the most part, such marks cannot be displayed and manipulated on the screen of a standard word processor as they can on paper. It is therefore crucial that we observe the means employed by writers to adapt their use of these necessary devices to word processing.
The main results indicate that writers who use a word processor still resort to "pencil and paper" for the initial planning. The small amount of text preparation done by computer users (manifested by chronological and hierarchical organization marks) compared to writers who produce without a word processor is compensated by extensive revision on the screen. However, while writing strategies are highly dependent on production conditions, the quality of the texts produced does not vary significantly. The possibility of eliminating one of the important drawbacks of computer-assisted writing i. e. the fact that the information must be displayed linearly on the screen, is currently being studied by designers of planning aids that accompagny word processors. Before such aids can actually be developed, however, more knowledge is needed of the phases of writing and the marks used by writers throughout the production process.A PiolatN IsnardV Della Valle2004-05-06Z2011-03-11T08:55:33Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3622This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36222004-05-06ZNarrative and descriptive text revising strategies and proceduresForty-eight children and forty-eight adults of contrasting degrees of expertise made a series of corrections in order to improve a text (narrative or description) in which three within-statement errors and three between-statement errors had been inserted. Subjects used a simplified word processor (SCRIPREV) which recorded all movements of linguistic units. The purpose of this research was to study revising strategies by examining the correction-sequencing procedures implemented by these subjects. The procedures, which were coded in the form of time series, were compared to the time series of model revising procedures (i.e. effective ones) representing three strategies based on certain predefined functional principles (linguistic level, execution order). The adults used two of these strategies. The Simultaneous Strategy for the narrative, and the Local-then-Global Strategy for the description. The children used the Local-then-Global Strategy for the narrative, but did not use any identifiable procedure to revise the description, which they did not manage to totally improve in the expected manner.A PiolatJY Roussey2004-05-06Z2011-03-11T08:55:33Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3623This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36232004-05-06ZRevising strategies for different text typesForty-eight children and forty-eight adults of contrasting degrees of expertise made a series of corrections in order to improve a text (narrative or description) in which three within-statement errors and three between-statement errors had been inserted. Subjects used a simplified word processor (SCRIPREV) which recorded all movements of linguistic units. The purpose of this research was to study revising strategies by examining the correction-sequencing procedures implemented by these subjects. The procedures, which were coded in the form of time series, were compared to the time series of model revising procedures (i.e. effective ones) representing three strategies based on certain predefined functional principles (linguistic level, execution order). The adults used two of these strategies: the Simultaneous Strategy for the narrative, and the Local-then-Global Strategy for the description. The children used the Local-then-Global Strategy for the narrative, but did not use any identifiable procedure to revise the description, which they did not manage to totally improve in the expected manner.JY RousseyA PiolatF Guercin2010-09-13T03:48:51Z2011-03-11T08:57:44Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7023This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/70232010-09-13T03:48:51ZTachistoscopic presentation of verbal stimuli for assessing cerebral dominance: Reliability data and some practical recommendations.Reliability data point to rather high test-retest correlations (>.65) for VHF data with four- and live-letter words as stimuli, but replicate previous findings that the first test score correlates poorly with later test scores. The same results are obtained for accuracy and latency data, though small differences exist. All laterality indices lead to the same conclusions and have high intercorrelations. The point-biserial correlation coefficient is, however, a slightly more reliable index of naming latency than the mere difference between LVF and RVF. No such superiority is found for the indices based on accuracy data. The results also point to the need to present a sufficient number of stimuli before firm conclusions can be drawn.M. Brysbaertmarc.brysbaert@ugent.beG. d'Ydewalle1998-06-15Z2011-03-11T08:54:12Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/688This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6881998-06-15ZBeyond the schema given: Affective comprehension of literary narratives.The narratives studied by schema-based models or story grammars are generally simpler than those found in literary texts, such as short stories or novels. Literary narratives are indeterminate, exhibiting conflicts between schemata and frequent ambiguities in the status of narrative elements. An account of the process of comprehending such complex narratives is beyond the reach of purely cognitive models. It is argued that during comprehension response is controlled by affect, which directs the creation of schemata more adequate to the text. Several properties of affect that make it appropriate for this model of narrative are discussed. A short story by Virginia Woolf is analysed in the light of the proposed model. A study with readers of this story is described, which illustrates the process of schema formation: Shifts in the relative importance of story phrases across the reading and the comments made by readers point to a process of schema creation under the control of affect. It is argued that affect may play a more productive role in cognitive processes than is generally acknowledged.David S. Miall2006-05-25Z2011-03-11T08:56:24Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4880This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/48802006-05-25ZBlissymbolics, cognition, and the handicappedAdvantages and disadvantages of alphabetic and logographic writing systems are discussed, with particular emphasis on Blissymbolics as an example of a logographic system. It is concluded that logographic systems might be easier to learn than alphabetic systems and, in particular, that Blissymbols could be a useful communication device for people with various kinds of handicaps. This suggestion is substantiated by empirical research.P. Muter2001-12-20Z2011-03-11T08:54:51Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1992This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/19922001-12-20ZLearning Logographies and Alphabetic CodesIn three experiments, literate English-speaking adults learned either to identify or to extract meaning from either logographs (Blissymbols or Chinese characters) or English words written in an unfamiliar alphabetic code. Performance was substantially and reliably better in the logographic conditions than in the alphabetic conditions. Vocabulary sized ranged from 30 to 240 words per condition. In a fourth experiment, learning was slower with inconsistent mapping of graphemes to phonemes (similar to English) than with consistent mapping. These results indicate that, under a reasonably wide range of conditions, logographic writing systems may be easier to learn to read than alphabetic writing systems.Paul MuterElizabeth E. Johns2001-06-18Z2011-03-11T08:54:40Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1569This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/15692001-06-18ZMetaphor and Mental DualityGiven certain premises, there are both empirical and logical reasons for
expecting a certain division of labor in the processing of information by the
human brain: a functional bifurcation into what may be called, to a first
approximation, "verbal" and "nonverbal" modes of information- processing.
This dichotomy is not quite satisfactory, however, for metaphor, which in its
most common guise is a literary, and hence a fortiori a "verbal" phenomenon,
may in fact be more a function of the "nonverbal" than the "verbal" mode.Stevan Harnad1998-03-10Z2011-03-11T08:54:07Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/612This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6121998-03-10ZLinguisitic and Other Psychological Aspects of Paroxysmal AphasiaA case of paroxysmal aphasia is reported. Aphasic spells occurred, in this patient, without modification in consciousness and without involvement of behaviors others than those related to oral and written speech and language. Longer spells successively recapitulated the clinical pictures of global, Wernicke's. conduction, and amnestic aphasia. Besides aphasiological evaluations, neurological, psychometrical, electroencephalographical, and CT-scan documents were obtained. The discussion bears on four main points : the linguistic characteristics of paroxysmal aphasia as compared to those of aphasias of other etiologies; Pierre Marie's oneness doctrine of aphasia; the mutual relationships of language and thought (in aphasia); the affective experience lived by one with severe aphasia, with special reference to the notion of anosognosia.Andre Roch LecoursJoanette Yves