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Developmental Psychology Dec 2018A fundamental question about the development of communication behavior in early life is how infants acquire adaptive communication behavior that is well-suited to their...
A fundamental question about the development of communication behavior in early life is how infants acquire adaptive communication behavior that is well-suited to their individual social environment, and how the experience of parent-child communication affects this development. The current study investigated how infants develop communication skills when their parents are visually impaired and cannot see their infants' eye gaze. We analyzed 6-min video recordings of naturalistic interaction between 14 sighted infants of blind parents (SIBP) with (a) their blind parent, and (b) a sighted experimenter. Data coded from these interactions were compared with those from 28 age-matched sighted infants of sighted parents (controls). Each infant completed two visits, at 6-10 months and 12-16 months of age. Within each interaction sample, we coded the function (initiation or response) and form (face gaze, vocalization, or action) of each infant communication behavior. When interacting with their parents, SIBP made relatively more communicative responses than initiations, and used more face gaze and fewer actions to communicate, than did controls. When interacting with a sighted experimenter, by contrast, SIBP made slightly (but significantly) more communicative initiations than controls, but otherwise used similar forms of communication. The differential communication behavior by infants of blind versus sighted parents was already apparent by 6-10 months of age, and was specific to communication with the parent. These results highlight the flexibility in the early development of human communication behavior, which enables infants to optimize their communicative bids and methods to their unique social environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Blindness; Child Development; Child of Impaired Parents; Female; Fixation, Ocular; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Infant; Interpersonal Relations; Male; Nonverbal Communication; Parent-Child Relations; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 30335435
DOI: 10.1037/dev0000564 -
PloS One 2018Grunting is pervasive in many athletic contests, and empirical evidence suggests that it may result in one exerting more physical force. It may also distract one's...
BACKGROUND
Grunting is pervasive in many athletic contests, and empirical evidence suggests that it may result in one exerting more physical force. It may also distract one's opponent. That grunts can distract was supported by a study showing that it led to an opponent being slower and more error prone when viewing tennis shots. An alternative explanation was that grunting masks the sound of a ball being hit. The present study provides evidence against this alternative explanation by testing the effect of grunting in a sport-mixed martial arts-where distraction, rather than masking, is the most likely mechanism.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
We first confirmed that kicking force is increased when a grunt is performed (Experiment 1), and then adapted methodology used in the tennis study to mixed martial arts (Experiment 2). Lifting the foot to kick is a silent act, and therefore there is nothing for a grunt to mask, i.e., its effect on an opponent's response time and/or accuracy can likely be attributed to attentional distraction. Participants viewed videos of a trained mixed martial artist kicking that included, or did not include, a simulated grunt. The task was to determine as quickly as possible whether the kick was traveling upward or downward. Overall, and replicating the tennis finding, the present results indicate that a participant's response to a kick was delayed and more error prone when a simulated grunt was present.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE
The present findings indicate that simulated grunting may distract an opponent, leading to slower and more error prone responses. The implications for martial arts in particular, and the broader question of whether grunting should be perceived as 'cheating' in sports, are examined.
Topics: Adult; Attention; Competitive Behavior; Female; Humans; Lower Extremity; Male; Martial Arts; Middle Aged; Motor Activity; Reaction Time; Verbal Behavior; Young Adult
PubMed: 29470505
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0192939 -
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) Jun 2019Verbal fluency tasks are generally thought to be mediated by frontal brain regions for letter fluency and temporal regions for category fluency. This idea, however, is...
Verbal fluency tasks are generally thought to be mediated by frontal brain regions for letter fluency and temporal regions for category fluency. This idea, however, is primarily based on lesion studies and adapted versions of the fluency tasks in functional neuroimaging, without fundamental evidence from structural neuroimaging in healthy individuals. We investigated the cortical structural correlates of letter and category fluency, including overlapping and different regions, in 505 individuals who participated in a community-based study of healthy aging. The correlation between cortical thickness and verbal fluency in whole-brain analyses revealed distinct cortical signatures for letter fluency, primarily in frontal regions, and category fluency, in frontal and temporal-parietal regions. There was a dissociation in the left inferior frontal gyrus between letter and category fluency, with increased thickness in the posterior-dorsal versus anterior-ventral parts, respectively. These results distinguish the detailed anatomical correlates for verbal fluency within the coarse frontal-temporal distinction inferred from lesion studies and among the mixture of regions identified in functional neuroimaging. The evidence for the anatomical substrates of letter and category fluency, each recruiting slightly different language and cognitive processes, can serve both clinical applications as well as a deeper theoretical understanding of the organization of the cerebral cortex.
Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Brain Mapping; Cerebral Cortex; Female; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 29893804
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhy138 -
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of... Mar 1968Human subjects were tested in a free-operant avoidance procedure. Shock could be avoided by the emission of a verbal response of adequate intensity and duration. These...
Human subjects were tested in a free-operant avoidance procedure. Shock could be avoided by the emission of a verbal response of adequate intensity and duration. These schedules were found to control the emission of verbal operants in the same way they control motor operants. Some subjects showed conventional control by this schedule with or without response-produced feedback. Other subjects verbalized at a high rate under both these conditions until the addition of response cost brought this behavior under conventional schedule control.
Topics: Avoidance Learning; Conditioning, Operant; Electroshock; Feedback; Humans; Reinforcement Schedule; Time Factors; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 5645875
DOI: 10.1901/jeab.1968.11-173 -
Journal of Communication Disorders 2012The purpose of the current study was to examine the relation between speech intelligibility and prosody production in children who use cochlear implants.
OBJECTIVES
The purpose of the current study was to examine the relation between speech intelligibility and prosody production in children who use cochlear implants.
METHODS
The Beginner's Intelligibility Test (BIT) and Prosodic Utterance Production (PUP) task were administered to 15 children who use cochlear implants and 10 children with normal hearing. Adult listeners with normal hearing judged the intelligibility of the words in the BIT sentences, identified the PUP sentences as one of four grammatical or emotional moods (i.e., declarative, interrogative, happy, or sad), and rated the PUP sentences according to how well they thought the child conveyed the designated mood.
RESULTS
Percent correct scores were higher for intelligibility than for prosody and higher for children with normal hearing than for children with cochlear implants. Declarative sentences were most readily identified and received the highest ratings by adult listeners; interrogative sentences were least readily identified and received the lowest ratings. Correlations between intelligibility and all mood identification and rating scores except declarative were not significant.
DISCUSSION
The findings suggest that the development of speech intelligibility progresses ahead of prosody in both children with cochlear implants and children with normal hearing; however, children with normal hearing still perform better than children with cochlear implants on measures of intelligibility and prosody even after accounting for hearing age. Problems with interrogative intonation may be related to more general restrictions on rising intonation, and the correlation results indicate that intelligibility and sentence intonation may be relatively dissociated at these ages.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
As a result of this activity, readers will be able to describe (1) methods for measuring speech intelligibility and prosody production in children with cochlear implants and children with normal hearing, (2) the differences between children with normal hearing and children with cochlear implants on measures of speech intelligibility and prosody production, and (3) the relations between speech intelligibility and prosody production in children with cochlear implants and children with normal hearing.
Topics: Case-Control Studies; Child; Cochlear Implants; Female; Humans; Male; Speech; Speech Intelligibility; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 22717120
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2012.05.003 -
Developmental Medicine and Child... Feb 2005This study evaluated the cognitive profiles of children with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), uniformly treated with valproic acid with well-controlled seizures.... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
This study evaluated the cognitive profiles of children with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), uniformly treated with valproic acid with well-controlled seizures. Twenty-four were neuropsychologically evaluated. They comprised: 14 females, 10 males: 12 with generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS), mean age 14y 4mo, SD ly 7mo, range 12y to 16y 4 mo; 12 with absence seizures (AS]) mean age 14y 5mo, SD ly 10mo, range 11y to 16y 4mo, with intellectual abilities within the normal range and age-appropriate scholastic skills, and 20 healthy controls (12 females, 8 males; mean age 14y 5mo, SD 1y 10mo, range 10y 7mo to 16y 7mo). As a group, children with IGE performed significantly poorer in all tests (non-verbal and verbal attention, verbal learning and memory, word fluency, and controlled sequential fine motor responses) excluding non-verbal memory. Analysis according to type of seizure revealed that both patient groups (AS and GTCS) had an attention deficit, whereas only children with AS showed deficits in verbal learning and memory, word fluency, and controlled fine motor responses. These results suggest a long-term risk of learning impairment for children with IGE, even if they have normal intelligence and their seizures are well controlled.
Topics: Adolescent; Attention; Case-Control Studies; Child; Cognition; Epilepsy, Absence; Epilepsy, Generalized; Female; Humans; Male; Neuropsychological Tests; Verbal Behavior; Verbal Learning
PubMed: 15707236
DOI: 10.1017/s0012162205000228 -
Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf... Apr 2013Talking to oneself can be silent (inner speech) or vocalized for others to hear (private speech, or soliloquy). We investigated these two types of self-communication in...
Talking to oneself can be silent (inner speech) or vocalized for others to hear (private speech, or soliloquy). We investigated these two types of self-communication in 28 deaf signers and 28 hearing adults. With a questionnaire specifically developed for this study, we established the visible analog of vocalized private speech in deaf signers. "Signed soliloquy" is employed regularly and valued as an integral part of everyday functioning. Deaf signers were also found to engage in inner speech, which appeared to have a mostly affirmative character. Together, the findings demonstrate a significantly more frequent use of both inner and private speech in the deaf sample. They underscore the benefits of self-talk in general and provide the first-ever description of an intriguing phenomenon in deaf signers' self-communication, that is, signed soliloquy.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Communication; Female; Hearing; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Persons With Hearing Impairments; Sign Language; Verbal Behavior; Young Adult
PubMed: 23325673
DOI: 10.1093/deafed/ens072 -
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 2009Topographically similar verbal responses may be functionally independent forms of operant behavior. For example, saying yes or no may have different functions based on...
Topographically similar verbal responses may be functionally independent forms of operant behavior. For example, saying yes or no may have different functions based on the environmental conditions in effect. The present study extends previous research on both the assessment and acquisition of yes and no responses across contexts in children with language deficits and further examined the functional independence of topographically similar responses. All participants in the present study acquired yes and no responses within verbal operants (e.g., mands). However, generalization of the responses across novel verbal operants (e.g., tacts to intraverbals) did not occur without additional training, thus supporting Skinner's (1957) assertion of functional independence of verbal operants.
Topics: Child; Child, Preschool; Conditioning, Operant; Generalization, Stimulus; Humans; Language Development Disorders; Language Tests; Male; Reinforcement Schedule; Speech Production Measurement; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 19949510
DOI: 10.1901/jaba.2009.42-209 -
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience Jun 2011Verbal working memory (VWM), the ability to maintain and manipulate representations of speech sounds over short periods, is held by some influential models to be... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study Randomized Controlled Trial
Verbal working memory (VWM), the ability to maintain and manipulate representations of speech sounds over short periods, is held by some influential models to be independent from the systems responsible for language production and comprehension [e.g., Baddeley, A. D. Working memory, thought, and action. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007]. We explore the alternative hypothesis that maintenance in VWM is subserved by temporary activation of the language production system [Acheson, D. J., & MacDonald, M. C. Verbal working memory and language production: Common approaches to the serial ordering of verbal information. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 50-68, 2009b]. Specifically, we hypothesized that for stimuli lacking a semantic representation (e.g., nonwords such as mun), maintenance in VWM can be achieved by cycling information back and forth between the stages of phonological encoding and articulatory planning. First, fMRI was used to identify regions associated with two different stages of language production planning: the posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) for phonological encoding (critical for VWM of nonwords) and the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) for lexical-semantic retrieval (not critical for VWM of nonwords). Next, in the same subjects, these regions were targeted with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) during language production and VWM task performance. Results showed that rTMS to the pSTG, but not the MTG, increased error rates on paced reading (a language production task) and on delayed serial recall of nonwords (a test of VWM). Performance on a lexical-semantic retrieval task (picture naming), in contrast, was significantly sensitive to rTMS of the MTG. Because rTMS was guided by language production-related activity, these results provide the first causal evidence that maintenance in VWM directly depends on the long-term representations and processes used in speech production.
Topics: Adult; Female; Humans; Language; Male; Memory, Short-Term; Photic Stimulation; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Speech; Temporal Lobe; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; Verbal Behavior; Young Adult
PubMed: 20617889
DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2010.21519 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Oct 2023Humans may retrieve words from memory by exploring and exploiting in "semantic space" similar to how nonhuman animals forage for resources in physical space. This has...
Humans may retrieve words from memory by exploring and exploiting in "semantic space" similar to how nonhuman animals forage for resources in physical space. This has been studied using the verbal fluency test (VFT), in which participants generate words belonging to a semantic or phonetic category in a limited time. People produce bursts of related items during VFT, referred to as "clustering" and "switching." The strategic foraging model posits that cognitive search behavior is guided by a monitoring process which detects relevant declines in performance and then triggers the searcher to seek a new patch or cluster in memory after the current patch has been depleted. An alternative body of research proposes that this behavior can be explained by an undirected rather than strategic search process, such as random walks with or without random jumps to new parts of semantic space. This study contributes to this theoretical debate by testing for neural evidence of strategically timed switches during memory search. Thirty participants performed category and letter VFT during functional MRI. Responses were classified as cluster or switch events based on computational metrics of similarity and participant evaluations. Results showed greater hippocampal and posterior cerebellar activation during switching than clustering, even while controlling for interresponse times and linguistic distance. Furthermore, these regions exhibited ramping activity which increased during within-patch search leading up to switches. Findings support the strategic foraging model, clarifying how neural switch processes may guide memory search in a manner akin to foraging in patchy spatial environments.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Semantics; Phonetics; Verbal Behavior; Neuropsychological Tests
PubMed: 37824523
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2312462120