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Cognitive Neuropsychology Feb 2024This study investigates factors influencing lexical access in language production across modalities (signed and oral). Data from deaf and hearing signers were reanalyzed...
This study investigates factors influencing lexical access in language production across modalities (signed and oral). Data from deaf and hearing signers were reanalyzed (Baus and Costa, 2015, On the temporal dynamics of sign production: An ERP study in Catalan Sign Language (LSC). , (1), 40-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2015.03.013; Gimeno-Martínez and Baus, 2022, Iconicity in sign language production: Task matters. , , 108166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108166) testing the influence of psycholinguistic variables and ERP mean amplitudes on signing and naming latencies. Deaf signers' signing latencies were influenced by sign iconicity in the picture signing task, and by spoken psycholinguistic variables in the word-to-sign translation task. Additionally, ERP amplitudes before response influenced signing but not translation latencies. Hearing signers' latencies, both signing and naming, were influenced by sign iconicity and word frequency, with early ERP amplitudes predicting only naming latencies. These findings highlight general and modality-specific determinants of lexical access in language production.
PubMed: 38377394
DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2024.2315823 -
Trends in Cognitive Sciences Nov 2023Prediction is often regarded as an integral aspect of incremental language comprehension, but little is known about the cognitive architectures and mechanisms that... (Review)
Review
Prediction is often regarded as an integral aspect of incremental language comprehension, but little is known about the cognitive architectures and mechanisms that support it. We review studies showing that listeners and readers use all manner of contextual information to generate multifaceted predictions about upcoming input. The nature of these predictions may vary between individuals owing to differences in language experience, among other factors. We then turn to unresolved questions which may guide the search for the underlying mechanisms. (i) Is prediction essential to language processing or an optional strategy? (ii) Are predictions generated from within the language system or by domain-general processes? (iii) What is the relationship between prediction and memory? (iv) Does prediction in comprehension require simulation via the production system? We discuss promising directions for making progress in answering these questions and for developing a mechanistic understanding of prediction in language.
Topics: Humans; Comprehension; Language; Anticipation, Psychological
PubMed: 37704456
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.08.003 -
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Mar 2024The article deals with language reflection, verbalization through metatexts, and interpretation. The expression of language reflection is defined in the works of writers...
The article deals with language reflection, verbalization through metatexts, and interpretation. The expression of language reflection is defined in the works of writers and poets. The research is directed at investigating the text, realizing the process of interpreting the works of great poet A. Kunanbayev from the point of linguistic consciousness, and determining the results. The poet conveys information by utilizing various language tools and constructs that prompt self-questioning. The definitions of concepts, classifications, and characteristics related to language reflection are given. The authors aimed to identify language reflection in A. Kunanbayev's works, classify reflexives marking the language reflection of the author, modeling them using the G. Gibbs' model, and comparing them with the psycholinguistic survey materials within the framework of reflexive linguistics. The authors agree that there are two classifications of reflexives, such as metatextual commentary and metalanguage interpretation. As a result of the study, the poet's self-reflection consisted of 6 elements (Gibbs' cycle), through the lexico-semantic analysis of the reflexives the poet's language units were classified as metatextual commentary and the respondents' answers as metalanguage interpretation. The syntactic structures of the language reflexives were determined, and it was found that they are often in interrogative and negative forms. According to the purpose of the article, the reflexives in the poet's poem were identified and classified into four groups (Describing the poet or providing additional information; Working on yourself; Working with character; Positive assessment) by the semantic nature of the respondents' interpretation of the work as a result of the psycholinguistic experiment.
Topics: Humans; Language; Semantics; Linguistics; Psycholinguistics
PubMed: 38506942
DOI: 10.1007/s10936-024-10069-6 -
Biology Letters Jan 2024Tail wagging is a conspicuous behaviour in domestic dogs (). Despite how much meaning humans attribute to this display, its quantitative description and evolutionary...
Tail wagging is a conspicuous behaviour in domestic dogs (). Despite how much meaning humans attribute to this display, its quantitative description and evolutionary history are rarely studied. We summarize what is known about the mechanism, ontogeny, function and evolution of this behaviour. We suggest two hypotheses to explain its increased occurrence and frequency in dogs compared to other canids. During the domestication process, enhanced rhythmic tail wagging behaviour could have (i) arisen as a by-product of selection for other traits, such as docility and tameness, or (ii) been directly selected by humans, due to our proclivity for rhythmic stimuli. We invite testing of these hypotheses through neurobiological and ethological experiments, which will shed light on one of the most readily observed yet understudied animal behaviours. Targeted tail wagging research can be a window into both canine ethology and the evolutionary history of characteristic human traits, such as our ability to perceive and produce rhythmic behaviours.
Topics: Animals; Dogs; Behavior, Animal; Canidae; Domestication; Social Behavior; Tail
PubMed: 38229554
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2023.0407 -
Quarterly Journal of Experimental... Jun 2024All major writing systems mandate the use of commas to separate clauses and list items. However, casual writers often omit mandatory commas. Little empirical or...
All major writing systems mandate the use of commas to separate clauses and list items. However, casual writers often omit mandatory commas. Little empirical or theoretical research has been done on the effect that omitting mandatory commas has on eye movement control during reading. We present an eye-tracking experiment in Spanish, a language with a clear standard as to mandatory comma use. Sentences were presented with or without mandatory commas while readers' eye movements were recorded. There was a local increase in the go-past time for the pre-comma region when commas were presented, which was balanced out by shorter first-pass and second-pass times on the subsequent regions. In global sentence reading time, there was no evidence for an advantage of presenting commas. These findings suggest that, even when commas are mandatory, their effect is primarily to shift when processing takes place rather than to facilitate processing overall.
Topics: Humans; Reading; Female; Male; Eye Movements; Adult; Young Adult; Eye-Tracking Technology; Psycholinguistics
PubMed: 37653706
DOI: 10.1177/17470218231200338 -
Journal of Child Language Nov 2023While there are well-known demonstrations that children can use distributional information to acquire multiple components of language, the underpinnings of these... (Review)
Review
While there are well-known demonstrations that children can use distributional information to acquire multiple components of language, the underpinnings of these achievements are unclear. In the current paper, we investigate the potential pre-requisites for a distributional learning model that can explain how children learn their first words. We review existing literature and then present the results of a series of computational simulations with Vector Space Models, a type of distributional semantic model used in Computational Linguistics, which we evaluate against vocabulary acquisition data from children. We focus on nouns and verbs, and we find that: (i) a model with flexibility to adjust for the frequency of events provides a better fit to the human data, (ii) the influence of context words is very local, especially for nouns, and (iii) words that share more contexts with other words are harder to learn.
Topics: Child; Humans; Language Development; Linguistics; Verbal Learning; Language; Learning; Vocabulary; Semantics
PubMed: 37337944
DOI: 10.1017/S0305000923000302 -
Trends in Genetics : TIG Apr 2024Recent studies of aging organisms have identified a systematic phenomenon, characterized by a negative correlation between gene length and their expression in various... (Review)
Review
Recent studies of aging organisms have identified a systematic phenomenon, characterized by a negative correlation between gene length and their expression in various cell types, species, and diseases. We term this phenomenon gene-length-dependent transcription decline (GLTD) and suggest that it may represent a bottleneck in the transcription machinery and thereby significantly contribute to aging as an etiological factor. We review potential links between GLTD and key aging processes such as DNA damage and explore their potential in identifying disease modification targets. Notably, in Alzheimer's disease, GLTD spotlights extremely long synaptic genes at chromosomal fragile sites (CFSs) and their vulnerability to postmitotic DNA damage. We suggest that GLTD is an integral element of biological aging.
Topics: Humans; Alzheimer Disease; DNA Damage
PubMed: 38519330
DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2024.01.009 -
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Dec 2023Language is one of the essential elements of communication. Learning some common language can help people overcome language barriers between people from different...
Language is one of the essential elements of communication. Learning some common language can help people overcome language barriers between people from different countries. English is one of the common languages and it helps individuals adapt to the modern world. Learning the English language is beneficial through teaching methods developed based on Psycholinguistics principles. Four languages are taught by the approach of psycholinguistics that are (to listen, to read, to write and to speak).Psycholinguistics is the integration of psychology (the study of the mind) and linguistics (the study of language). Hence, Psycholinguistics is the study of mind and language. It investigates the procedure taking place in the brain while the perception and creation of language. It studies the psychological impact of languages on the human mind. Recent research focuses on Psycholinguistics theories and talks over the significant impact of psycholinguistics techniques in English Language studying and training. Psycholinguistic studies are based on various ways of responding in a fundamental way and are based on evidence. This study contributes to our understanding of the importance of psychological approaches in teaching and learning English.
Topics: Humans; Language; Psycholinguistics; Learning; Linguistics; Reading
PubMed: 37402973
DOI: 10.1007/s10936-023-09977-w -
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Feb 2024Research investigating pragmatic abilities in healthy aging suggests that both production and comprehension might be compromised; however, it is not clear how pragmatic...
Research investigating pragmatic abilities in healthy aging suggests that both production and comprehension might be compromised; however, it is not clear how pragmatic abilities evolve in late adulthood, as well as when difficulties are more likely to arise. The aim of this study is to investigate the decline of pragmatic skills in aging, and to explore what cognitive and demographic factors support pragmatic competence. We assessed pragmatic production skills, including discourse abilities such as speech, informativeness, information flow, paralinguistic aspects, as well as the ability to produce informative descriptions of pictures, and pragmatic comprehension skills, which encompassed the ability to understand discourse and the main aspects of a narrative text, to infer non-literal meanings and to comprehend verbal humor in a group of elderly individuals and in a sample of younger participants. Moreover, specific cognitive functions (short-term memory, verbal and visuospatial working memory, inhibition Theory of Mind, and Cognitive Reserve) were assessed in both groups. Pragmatic difficulties seem to occur in late adulthood, likely around 70 years, and emerge more prominently when participants are asked to understand verbal humor. Age was the only predictor of general pragmatic performance in a sample of cognitively unimpaired older adults; conversely, when elderly individuals with less intact inhibitory control are considered, a general role of inhibition emerged, in addition to working memory and ToM in specific tasks.
Topics: Humans; Aged; Adult; Executive Function; Cognition; Memory, Short-Term; Speech; Narration; Theory of Mind; Comprehension
PubMed: 38424410
DOI: 10.1007/s10936-024-10061-0 -
Current Biology : CB Mar 2024Rapid advances over the last decade in DNA sequencing and statistical genetics enable us to investigate the genomic makeup of individuals throughout history. In a recent...
Rapid advances over the last decade in DNA sequencing and statistical genetics enable us to investigate the genomic makeup of individuals throughout history. In a recent notable study, Begg et al. used Ludwig van Beethoven's hair strands for genome sequencing and explored genetic predispositions for some of his documented medical issues. Given that it was arguably Beethoven's skills as a musician and composer that made him an iconic figure in Western culture, we here extend the approach and apply it to musicality. We use this as an example to illustrate the broader challenges of individual-level genetic predictions.
Topics: Humans; Male; Famous Persons; Music; Genomics; Hair; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Germany; Deafness
PubMed: 38531312
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.025