-
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Jun 2024Young children learn language from their caregivers, family members, and friends. However, with few exceptions, contemporary developmental scientists have studied...
Young children learn language from their caregivers, family members, and friends. However, with few exceptions, contemporary developmental scientists have studied language input and language learning through the lens of the primary caregiver and the nuclear family, rather than the infants' broader communities. In many communities-and increasingly in the United States-nonnuclear family structures are common, and extended kin, fictive kin, and intergenerational relationships are relied upon for child care. Understanding children's relationships within kinship networks can allow for more inclusive depictions of children's social interactions and their language experiences. We drew upon methods used by researchers studying social networks to assess U.S. infants' and toddlers' network composition. Results showed that young children with a greater number of close relationships (but not those with larger networks overall) had larger vocabularies, after controlling for age and socioeconomic status. These findings suggest that distributed models of child-rearing are an influential factor in early language growth and call for increased attention to social networks for understanding children's developmental trajectories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
PubMed: 38913749
DOI: 10.1037/xge0001609 -
Psychology and Aging Jun 2024Older adults may experience certain forms of cognitive decline, but some forms of semantic memory remain intact in older age. To address how metaphor comprehension...
Older adults may experience certain forms of cognitive decline, but some forms of semantic memory remain intact in older age. To address how metaphor comprehension changes with age and whether metaphor comprehension relies more heavily on analogical reasoning (supported by fluid intelligence) or on conceptual combination (supported by crystalized intelligence), we compared performance of younger and older adults. In two experiments, healthy older adults (54-88 years) scored lower on a measure of fluid intelligence (Ravens Progressive Matrices) but higher on a measure of crystalized intelligence (Mill Hill Vocabulary Test) relative to younger adults (18-34 years). Groups were equally successful in comprehending relatively easy metaphors (Study 1), but older adults showed a striking advantage over younger adults for novel literary metaphors (Study 2). Mixed-effects modeling showed that measures of fluid and crystalized intelligence each made separable contributions to metaphor comprehension for both groups, but older adults relied more on crystalized intelligence than did younger adults. These age-related dissociations clarify cognitive effects of aging and highlight the importance of crystalized intelligence for metaphor comprehension in both younger and older adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
PubMed: 38913736
DOI: 10.1037/pag0000836 -
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Jun 2024Infants' early words tend to be phonologically similar. This may reflect a systematic approach to early production, as they adapt newly acquired forms to fit familiar...
Infants' early words tend to be phonologically similar. This may reflect a systematic approach to early production, as they adapt newly acquired forms to fit familiar structures in the output. This "rich-get-richer" approach to phonological acquisition, known as preferential attachment in network science, proposes that new words cluster together with existing phonologically similar words in the lexicon (or network). This contrasts with recent work (e.g., Fourtassi et al., 2020) showing that the learning environment is the key predictor of learning (preferential acquisition). This study expands on previous analyses of vocabulary norm data to analyze naturalistic data, namely phonetic transcriptions of nine infants' word productions, from word onset to age 2;6. Network growth models test whether (a) acquisition is best modeled through preferential attachment or preferential acquisition, (b) the trajectory of network growth changes over time, and (c) there are any differences in network growth of adult target forms versus infants' actual productions. Results show that preferential attachment predicts acquisition of new words more convincingly than preferential acquisition: newly acquired words are phonologically similar to existing words in the network. Furthermore, systematicity becomes increasingly apparent over the course of acquisition, and infants produce their early words more systematically than we would expect from looking at target forms alone. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
PubMed: 38913728
DOI: 10.1037/xlm0001368 -
Animal Cognition Jun 2024Due to their outstanding ability of vocal imitation, parrots are often kept as pets. Research has shown that they do not just repeat human words. They can use words... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
Due to their outstanding ability of vocal imitation, parrots are often kept as pets. Research has shown that they do not just repeat human words. They can use words purposefully to label objects, persons, and animals, and they can even use conversational phrases in appropriate contexts. So far, the structure of pet parrots' vocabularies and the difference between them and human vocabulary acquisition has been studied only in one individual. This study quantitatively analyses parrot and child vocabularies in a larger sample using a vocabulary coding method suitable for assessing the vocabulary structure in both species. We have explored the composition of word-like sounds produced by 21 grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) kept as pets in Czech- or Slovak-speaking homes, and compared it to the composition of early productive vocabularies of 21 children acquiring Czech (aged 8-18 months), who were matched to the parrots by vocabulary size. The results show that the 'vocabularies' of talking grey parrots and children differ: children use significantly more object labels, activity and situation labels, and emotional expressions, while parrots produce significantly more conversational expressions, greetings, and multiword utterances in general. These differences could reflect a strong link between learning spoken words and understanding the underlying concepts, an ability seemingly unique to human children (and absent in parrots), but also different communicative goals of the two species.
Topics: Animals; Parrots; Female; Male; Vocabulary; Humans; Infant; Czech Republic; Language Development; Pets; Slovakia
PubMed: 38913161
DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01883-5 -
Research in Developmental Disabilities Jun 2024Narrative ability is crucial for social participation in everyday and school life but involves different language abilities such as vocabulary and morpho-syntax. This is...
BACKGROUND
Narrative ability is crucial for social participation in everyday and school life but involves different language abilities such as vocabulary and morpho-syntax. This is particularly difficult for individuals who display both language and cognitive impairments. Previous research has identified productive vocabulary as a possible key factor for narrative performance in individuals with Down syndrome. Considering a close connection between lexical and morpho-syntactic performance within language acquisition and the distinct impairments that individuals with Down syndrome display concerning their morpho-syntactic skills, the nature of a relation between vocabulary and narrative skills under the influence of grammatical deficits requires further investigation.
METHODS
Narrations were obtained from 28 children and adolescents with Down syndrome (aged 10;0-20;1) using a non-verbal picture book. Narrative abilities were rated using the Narrative Scoring Scheme across seven narrative aspects (including macro- and microstructure). Vocabulary analyses and morpho-lexical context analyses including verb and conjunction enumerations, evaluation of verb position and MLU were conducted. Findings from the transcript analysis have been supplemented with data from standardized language measures evaluating expressive lexical and morpho-syntactic development. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify significant predictors for narrative outcome in the participants with Down syndrome.
RESULTS
Lexical analyses revealed a high heterogeneity in production of subordinating conjunctions as a link between lexical and morpho-syntactic abilities. Comparisons of standardized and narrative data demonstrated differences in subordinate clause production depending on the elicitation setting. A multiple regression analysis identified the number of different verbs in the narrative task as the most significant predictor for narrative performance in individuals with Down syndrome.
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
The findings of this study contribute to the knowledge regarding factors that influence narrative performance in individuals with language impairment. A differentiated verb lexicon can be identified as the key ability for reaching advanced narrative skills in participants with Down syndrome. These findings are of clinical relevance for therapeutic and educational support and contribute to an understanding of the relation between strengths in vocabulary and morpho-syntactic weaknesses in individuals with Down syndrome within communicative participation.
PubMed: 38908111
DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2024.104781 -
NPJ Science of Learning Jun 2024Reminders are a popular feature in smartphone apps designed to promote desirable behaviors that are best performed regularly. But can they also promote students' regular...
Reminders are a popular feature in smartphone apps designed to promote desirable behaviors that are best performed regularly. But can they also promote students' regular studying? In the present study with 85 lower secondary school students aged 10-12, we combined a smartphone-based between- and within-person experimental manipulation with logfile data of a vocabulary learning app. Students were scheduled to receive reminders on 16 days during the 36-day intervention period. Findings suggest that reminders can be a double-edged sword. The within-person experimental manipulation allowed a comparison of study probability on days with and without reminders. Students were more likely to study on days they received a reminder compared to days when they did not receive a reminder. However, when compared to a control group that never received reminders, the effect was not due to students studying more frequently on days with reminders. Instead, they studied less frequently on days without reminders than students in the control group. This effect increased over the study period, with students becoming increasingly less likely to study on days without reminders. Taken together, these results suggest a detrimental side effect of reminders: students become overly reliant on them.
PubMed: 38906868
DOI: 10.1038/s41539-024-00253-7 -
PloS One 2024Free Choice Profiling (FCP) methodology allows observers to qualitatively assess animal behavior using their own vocabulary. This study aims to investigate the ability...
Free Choice Profiling (FCP) methodology allows observers to qualitatively assess animal behavior using their own vocabulary. This study aims to investigate the ability of 3 different observer groups to recognize pain-related emotions in 20 dogs using FCP methodology, and to compare FCP data with the Glasgow Composite Pain Scale-Short Form (GCPS- SF) scores. The observer groups consisted of 10 dog owners, 10 veterinary students and 10 veterinarians. Ten healthy ("healthy") dogs and 10 dogs showing clinical signs of pain ("pain") were filmed, and the resulting 20 footages were shown to observers who were blind to the pain-related nature of the study. All observers described and scored animals' emotional expression using FCP; then, students and veterinarians scored all dogs using GCPS- SF. FCP data were analyzed using Generalized Procrustes Analysis (GPA). Spearman correlation coefficient (ρ) was used to determine the correlation among observer groups' FCP scores of the first two FCP dimensions (DIM1 and DIM2), and to compare GCPS-SF scores with FCP scores for the students and veterinarian observer groups. Each observer group reached a significant (p < 0.001) good consensus profile. "Healthy" dogs were mainly described as "quiet" and "lively", while the majority of "pain" dogs were considered "in pain" and "suffering". The correlation among FCP scores was high between owners' DIM1 and students' DIM1 (ρ = -0.86), owners' DIM2 and students' DIM2 (ρ = 0.72) and students' DIM2 and vets' DIM1 (ρ = 0.70). The correlation between GCPS-SF scores and FCP scores was high for students' DIM2 (ρ = 0.77) and for veterinarians' DIM1 (ρ = 0.92). Qualitative methods such as FCP could be used in association with semi-quantitative methods to evaluate the effect of pain on animal emotional expression. Observers' cultural background and personal experience did not substantially affect qualitative behavioral assessment in dogs with acute somatic pain.
Topics: Dogs; Animals; Behavior, Animal; Humans; Acute Pain; Male; Veterinarians; Female; Pain Measurement; Emotions
PubMed: 38905274
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0305925 -
JMIR Medical Informatics Jun 2024Dermoscopy is a growing field that uses microscopy to allow dermatologists and primary care physicians to identify skin lesions. For a given skin lesion, a wide variety...
BACKGROUND
Dermoscopy is a growing field that uses microscopy to allow dermatologists and primary care physicians to identify skin lesions. For a given skin lesion, a wide variety of differential diagnoses exist, which may be challenging for inexperienced users to name and understand.
OBJECTIVE
In this study, we describe the creation of the dermoscopy differential diagnosis explorer (D3X), an ontology linking dermoscopic patterns to differential diagnoses.
METHODS
Existing ontologies that were incorporated into D3X include the elements of visuals ontology and dermoscopy elements of visuals ontology, which connect visual features to dermoscopic patterns. A list of differential diagnoses for each pattern was generated from the literature and in consultation with domain experts. Open-source images were incorporated from DermNet, Dermoscopedia, and open-access research papers.
RESULTS
D3X was encoded in the OWL 2 web ontology language and includes 3041 logical axioms, 1519 classes, 103 object properties, and 20 data properties. We compared D3X with publicly available ontologies in the dermatology domain using a semiotic theory-driven metric to measure the innate qualities of D3X with others. The results indicate that D3X is adequately comparable with other ontologies of the dermatology domain.
CONCLUSIONS
The D3X ontology is a resource that can link and integrate dermoscopic differential diagnoses and supplementary information with existing ontology-based resources. Future directions include developing a web application based on D3X for dermoscopy education and clinical practice.
PubMed: 38904996
DOI: 10.2196/49613 -
Frontiers in Psychiatry 2024Mental health issues bring a heavy burden to individuals and societies around the world. Recently, the large language model ChatGPT has demonstrated potential in...
INTRODUCTION
Mental health issues bring a heavy burden to individuals and societies around the world. Recently, the large language model ChatGPT has demonstrated potential in depression intervention. The primary objective of this study was to ascertain the viability of ChatGPT as a tool for aiding counselors in their interactions with patients while concurrently evaluating its comparability to human-generated content (HGC).
METHODS
We propose a novel framework that integrates state-of-the-art AI technologies, including ChatGPT, BERT, and SHAP, to enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of mental health interventions. ChatGPT generates responses to user inquiries, which are then classified using BERT to ensure the reliability of the content. SHAP is subsequently employed to provide insights into the underlying semantic constructs of the AI-generated recommendations, enhancing the interpretability of the intervention.
RESULTS
Remarkably, our proposed methodology consistently achieved an impressive accuracy rate of 93.76%. We discerned that ChatGPT always employs a polite and considerate tone in its responses. It refrains from using intricate or unconventional vocabulary and maintains an impersonal demeanor. These findings underscore the potential significance of AIGC as an invaluable complementary component in enhancing conventional intervention strategies.
DISCUSSION
This study illuminates the considerable promise offered by the utilization of large language models in the realm of healthcare. It represents a pivotal step toward advancing the development of sophisticated healthcare systems capable of augmenting patient care and counseling practices.
PubMed: 38903640
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1383648 -
Research in Social & Administrative... Jun 2024The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus is the controlled vocabulary used to index articles in MEDLINE. MeSH were mainly manually selected until June 2022 when an...
BACKGROUND
The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus is the controlled vocabulary used to index articles in MEDLINE. MeSH were mainly manually selected until June 2022 when an automated algorithm, the Medical Text Indexer (MTI) automated was fully implemented. A selection of automated indexed articles is then reviewed (curated) by human indexers to ensure the quality of the process.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the association of MEDLINE indexing methods (i.e., manual, automated, and automated + curated) on the MeSH assignment in pharmacy practice journals compared with medical journals.
METHODS
Original research articles published between 2016 and 2023 in two groups of journals (i.e., the Big-five general medicine and three pharmacy practice journals) were selected from PubMed using journal-specific search strategies. Metadata of the articles, including MeSH terms and indexing method, was extracted. A list of pharmacy-specific MeSH terms had been compiled from previously published studies, and their presence in pharmacy practice journal records was investigated. Using bivariate and multivariate analyses, as well as effect size measures, the number of MeSH per article was compared between journal groups, geographic origin of the journal, and indexing method.
RESULTS
A total of 8479 original research articles was retrieved: 6254 from the medical journals and 2225 from pharmacy practice journals. The number of articles indexed by the various methods was disproportionate; 77.8 % of medical and 50.5 % of pharmacy manually indexed. Among those indexed using the automated system, 51.1 % medical and 10.9 % pharmacy practice articles were then curated to ensure the indexing quality. Number of MeSH per article varied among the three indexing methods for medical and pharmacy journals, with 15.5 vs. 13.0 in manually indexed, 9.4 vs. 7.4 in automated indexed, and 12.1 vs. 7.8 in automated and then curated, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed significant effect of indexing method and journal group in the number of MeSH attributed, but not the geographical origin of the journal.
CONCLUSIONS
Articles indexed using automated MTI have less MeSH than manually indexed articles. Articles published in pharmacy practice journals were indexed with fewer number of MeSH compared with general medical journal articles regardless of the indexing method used.
PubMed: 38902136
DOI: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2024.06.003