WorldWideScience

Sample records for linguistics cognitive science

  1. Science knowledge and cognitive strategy use among culturally and linguistically diverse students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Okhee; Fradd, Sandra H.; Sutman, Frank X.

    Science performance is determined, to a large extent, by what students already know about science (i.e., science knowledge) and what techniques or methods students use in performing science tasks (i.e., cognitive strategies). This study describes and compares science knowledge, science vocabulary, and cognitive strategy use among four diverse groups of elementary students: (a) monolingual English Caucasian, (b) African-American, (c) bilingual Spanish, and (d) bilingual Haitian Creole. To facilitate science performance in culturally and linguistically congruent settings, the study included student dyads and teachers of the same language, culture, and gender. Science performance was observed using three science tasks: weather phenomena, simple machines, and buoyancy. Data analysis involved a range of qualitative methods focusing on major themes and patterns, and quantitative methods using coding systems to summarize frequencies and total scores. The findings reveal distinct patterns of science knowledge, science vocabulary, and cognitive strategy use among the four language and culture groups. The findings also indicate relationships among science knowledge, science vocabulary, and cognitive strategy use. These findings raise important issues about science instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse groups of students.Received: 3 January 1995;

  2. Structures, Not Strings: Linguistics as Part of the Cognitive Sciences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Everaert, Martin B H; Huybregts, Marinus A C; Chomsky, Noam; Berwick, Robert C; Bolhuis, Johan J

    2015-12-01

    There are many questions one can ask about human language: its distinctive properties, neural representation, characteristic uses including use in communicative contexts, variation, growth in the individual, and origin. Every such inquiry is guided by some concept of what 'language' is. Sharpening the core question--what is language?--and paying close attention to the basic property of the language faculty and its biological foundations makes it clear how linguistics is firmly positioned within the cognitive sciences. Here we will show how recent developments in generative grammar, taking language as a computational cognitive mechanism seriously, allow us to address issues left unexplained in the increasingly popular surface-oriented approaches to language. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. COGNITIVE METAPHOR IN MODERN LINGUISTICS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonina KARTASHOVA

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available The article outlines the basic notions connected with cognitive metaphor which has lately undergone a thorough examination. The contribution made by linguists resulted in the rise of cognitive linguistics. This science regards metaphor not as a linguistic phenomenon but as a mental one that establishes connection between language and mind in the form of understanding new notions in terms of notions and categories known due to the previously gained experience. The interaction of new and previous experience can generate three main types of metaphors: structural metaphors which imply the structuring of target domain in terms of source domain, ontological metaphors which view abstract notions as concrete objects with clear outlines and orientational metaphors which represent the ways to fix the experience of spatial orientation. The classification of metaphors complemented with examples is presented below along with some controversial cases of determining the type of metaphor.

  4. COGNITIVE SCIENCE: FROM MULTIDISCIPLINARITY TO INTERDISCIPLINARITY

    OpenAIRE

    Marina Bogdanova

    2017-01-01

    Cognitive science is a network of interrelated scientific disciplines engaged in researching human cognition and its brain mechanisms. The birth of cognitive science has been the result of numerous integrated processes. Cognitive science is made up of experimental psychology cognition, philosophy consciousness, neuroscience, cognitive anthropology, linguistics, computer science and artificial intelligence. In recent years, a number of other research areas have been added to the body of cognit...

  5. Translation Meets Cognitive Science: The Imprint of Translation on Cognitive Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rojo, Ana

    2015-01-01

    Translation has long played a role in linguistic and literary studies research. More recently, the theoretical and methodological concerns of process research have given translation an additional role in cognitive science. The interest in the cognitive aspects of translation has led scholars to turn to disciplines such as cognitive linguistics,…

  6. Cognitive linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, Vyvyan

    2012-03-01

    Cognitive linguistics is one of the fastest growing and influential perspectives on the nature of language, the mind, and their relationship with sociophysical (embodied) experience. It is a broad theoretical and methodological enterprise, rather than a single, closely articulated theory. Its primary commitments are outlined. These are the Cognitive Commitment-a commitment to providing a characterization of language that accords with what is known about the mind and brain from other disciplines-and the Generalization Commitment-which represents a dedication to characterizing general principles that apply to all aspects of human language. The article also outlines the assumptions and worldview which arises from these commitments, as represented in the work of leading cognitive linguists. WIREs Cogn Sci 2012, 3:129-141. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1163 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

  7. Early Detection of Cognitive-Linguistic Change Associated with Mild Cognitive Impairment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleming, Valarie B.

    2014-01-01

    Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may present with subtle declines in linguistic ability that go undetected by tasks not challenging enough to tax a relatively intact cognitive-linguistic system. This study was designed to replicate and extend a previous study of cognitive-linguistic ability in MCI using a complex discourse…

  8. Thought and Language in Cognitive Science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Destéfano, Mariela

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available In cognitive science, the discussion about the relations between language and thought is very heterogeneous. It involves developments on linguistics, philosophy, psychology, etc. Carruthers and Boucher (1998 identify different criteria that would organize the diversity of positions about language and thought assumed in linguistics, philosophy and psychology. One of them is the constitution thesis (CT, which establishes that language is constitutively involved in thought. In this paper I would like to show some problems of CT in order to understand the relation between language and thought in cognitive science.

  9. Mathematical Approaches to Cognitive Linguistics

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    Chuluundorj Begz

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Cognitive linguistics, neuro-cognitive and psychological analysis of human verbal cognition present important area of multidisciplinary research. Mathematical methods and models have been introduced in number of publications with increasing attention to these theories. In this paper we have described some possible applications of mathematical methods to cognitive linguistics. Human verbal perception and verbal mapping deal with dissipative mental structures and symmetric/asymmetric relationships between objects of perception and deep (also surface structures of language. In that’s way methods of tensor analysis are ambitious candidate to be applied to analysis of human verbal thinking and mental space.

  10. Linguistic Intuitions and Cognitive Penetrability

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    Michael Devitt

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Metalinguistic intuitions play a very large evidential role in both linguistics and philosophy. Linguists think that these intuitions are products of underlying linguistic competence. I call this view “the voice of competence” (“VoC”. Although many philosophers seem to think that metalinguistic intuitions are a priori many may implicitly hold the more scientifically respectable VoC. According to VoC, I argue, these intuitions can be cognitively penetrated by the central processor. But, I have argued elsewhere, VoC is false. Instead, we should hold “the modest explanation” (“ME” according to which these intuitions are fairly unreflective empirical theory-laden central-processor responses to phenomena. On ME, no question of cognitive penetration arises. ME has great methodological significance for the study of language. Insofar as we rely on intuitions as evidence we should prefer those of linguists and philosophers because they are more expert. But, more importantly, we should be seeking other evidence in linguistic usage.

  11. Linguistic embodiment and verbal constraints: human cognition and the scales of time

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cowley, Stephen

    2014-01-01

    Using radical embodied cognitive science, the paper offers the hypothesis that language is symbiotic: its agent-environment dynamics arise as linguistic embodiment is managed under verbal constraints. As a result, co-action grants human agents the ability to use a unique form of phenomenal......, linguistic symbiosis grants access to diachronic resources. On this distributed-ecological view, language can thus be redefined as: “activity in which wordings play a part.”...

  12. COGNITIVE SCIENCE: FROM MULTIDISCIPLINARITY TO INTERDISCIPLINARITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marina Bogdanova

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Cognitive science is a network of interrelated scientific disciplines engaged in researching human cognition and its brain mechanisms. The birth of cognitive science has been the result of numerous integrated processes. Cognitive science is made up of experimental psychology cognition, philosophy consciousness, neuroscience, cognitive anthropology, linguistics, computer science and artificial intelligence. In recent years, a number of other research areas have been added to the body of cognitive science. Among researchers there have been discussions about whether cognitive science is a separate research area or it consists of a series of specialized areas. In fact, the point at issue is whether cognitive science is still a multidisciplinary project or already an interdisciplinary one. P. Thagard believes that cognitive science has reached the level of interdisciplinarity and explains the advances in this area through the metaphor of “trading zones”. The success elements of cognitive science are: fruitful unification of scientific interests of cognitive science founders; organizational structure of the scientific community – universities, where a special interdisciplinary intellectual environment has been created; a large number of joint research projects supported by governments and business; integrated use of scientific methods and fundamental ideas. D. Sperber and J. Miller prefer to talk not about a unified cognitive science but cognitive sciences, i.e., the commonwealth of sciences working together on the study of a single object - human cognition, however, the extent of their interactive communication is still small. Thus, we should speak about multidisciplinarity rather than genuine interdisciplinarity of the joint research of separate sciences.

  13. Image schemas and mimetic schemas in cognitive linguistics and gesture studies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cienki, A.J.

    2013-01-01

    Image schemas have been a fundamental construct in cognitive linguistics, providing grounds for psychological, philosophical, as well as linguistic research. Given the focus in cognitive linguistics on embodied experience as a fundamental basis for language structure and meaning, the employment of

  14. On the importance of a rich embodiment in the grounding of concepts: perspectives from embodied cognitive science and computational linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thill, Serge; Padó, Sebastian; Ziemke, Tom

    2014-07-01

    The recent trend in cognitive robotics experiments on language learning, symbol grounding, and related issues necessarily entails a reduction of sensorimotor aspects from those provided by a human body to those that can be realized in machines, limiting robotic models of symbol grounding in this respect. Here, we argue that there is a need for modeling work in this domain to explicitly take into account the richer human embodiment even for concrete concepts that prima facie relate merely to simple actions, and illustrate this using distributional methods from computational linguistics which allow us to investigate grounding of concepts based on their actual usage. We also argue that these techniques have applications in theories and models of grounding, particularly in machine implementations thereof. Similarly, considering the grounding of concepts in human terms may be of benefit to future work in computational linguistics, in particular in going beyond "grounding" concepts in the textual modality alone. Overall, we highlight the overall potential for a mutually beneficial relationship between the two fields. Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  15. OCCASIONAL ADNOMINAL IDIOM MODIFICATION - A COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC APPROACH

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    Andreas Langlotz

    2006-06-01

    Full Text Available occasional Adnominal Idiom Modification - A Cognitive Linguistic Approach From a cognitive-linguistic perspective, this paper explores alternative types of adnoniinal modification in occasional variants of English verbal idioms. Being discussed against data extracted from the British National Corpiis (BNC, the model claims that in idioni-production idiomatic constructions are activated as complex linguistic schemas to code a context-specific target-conceptualisation. Adnominal pre- and postmodifications are one specific form of creative alteration to adapt the idiom for this purpose. Semantically, idiom-interna1 NPextension is not a uniforni process. It is necessary to distinguish two systematic types of adnominal modification: external and internal modification (Ernst 1981. While external NPmodification has adverbial function, ¡.e. it modifies the idiom as a unit, internal modification directly applies to the head-noun and thus depends on the degree of motivation and analysability of a given idiom. Following the cognitive-linguistic framework, these dimensions of idiom-transparency result from the language user's ability to remotivate the bipartite semantic structure by conceptual metaphors and metonymies.

  16. Saussurean structuralism and cognitive linguistics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Elffers, E.

    2012-01-01

    Cognitive linguistics (CL) is often regarded as a continuation of Saussurean structuralism. This paper explores the relationship between the two paradigms, focussing on the connection between semantics and views on the language-thought relationship. As it turns out, the similarity in this respect

  17. Applied linguistics - a science of culture?

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    Benke, Gertraud

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available In this article, the status of applied linguistics as discipline is questioned and problems of establishing it - and other newly formed scientific enterprises like cultural science - as disciplines are discussed. This discussion is contextualized using the author's own experience as applied linguist working in (the institutional structure of Austria. Secondly, applied linguistics is presented as complementing cultural science, with both exploring at times the same phenomena albeit under different perspectives and focussing on different levels of experience. Two examples of research involving such a joint interest with different foci are discussed.

  18. Cognitive-Linguistic Deficit and Speech Intelligibility in Chronic Progressive Multiple Sclerosis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mackenzie, Catherine; Green, Jan

    2009-01-01

    Background: Multiple sclerosis is a disabling neurological disease with varied symptoms, including dysarthria and cognitive and linguistic impairments. Association between dysarthria and cognitive-linguistic deficit has not been explored in clinical multiple sclerosis studies. Aims: In patients with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis, the…

  19. Linguistic fire and human cognitive powers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cowley, Stephen

    2012-01-01

    To view language as a cultural tool challenges much of what claims to be linguistic science while opening up a new people-centred linguistics. On this view, how we speak, think and act depends on, not just brains (or minds), but also cultural traditions. Yet, Everett is conservative: like others...... theory, bodily dynamics themselves act as cues to meaning. Linguistic exostructures resemble tools that constrain how people concert acting-perceiving bodies. The result is unending renewal of verbal structures: like artefacts and institutions, they function to sustain a species-specific cultural ecology...

  20. Cognitive, cultural, and linguistic sources of a handshape distinction expressing agentivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brentari, Diane; Di Renzo, Alessio; Keane, Jonathan; Volterra, Virginia

    2015-01-01

    In this paper the cognitive, cultural, and linguistic bases for a pattern of conventionalization of two types of iconic handshapes are described. Work on sign languages has shown that handling handshapes (H-HSs: those that represent how objects are handled or manipulated) and object handshapes (O-HSs: those that represent the class, size, or shape of objects) express an agentive/non-agentive semantic distinction in many sign languages. H-HSs are used in agentive event descriptions and O-HSs are used in non-agentive event descriptions. In this work, American Sign Language (ASL) and Italian Sign Language (LIS) productions are compared (adults and children) as well as the corresponding groups of gesturers in each country using "silent gesture." While the gesture groups, in general, did not employ an H-HS/O-HS distinction, all participants (signers and gesturers) used iconic handshapes (H-HSs and O-HSs together) more often in agentive than in no-agent event descriptions; moreover, none of the subjects produced an opposite pattern than the expected one (i.e., H-HSs associated with no-agent descriptions and O-HSs associated with agentive ones). These effects are argued to be grounded in cognition. In addition, some individual gesturers were observed to produce the H-HS/O-HS opposition for agentive and non-agentive event descriptions-that is, more Italian than American adult gesturers. This effect is argued to be grounded in culture. Finally, the agentive/non-agentive handshape opposition is confirmed for signers of ASL and LIS, but previously unreported cross-linguistic differences were also found across both adult and child sign groups. It is, therefore, concluded that cognitive, cultural, and linguistic factors contribute to the conventionalization of this distinction of handshape type. Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  1. [An essay about science and linguistics].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cugini, P

    2011-01-01

    Both the methodology and epistemology of science provided the criteria by which the scientific research can describe and interpret data and results of its observational or experimental studies. When the scientist approaches the conclusive inference, it is mandatory to think that both the knowledge and truth imply the use of words semantically and etymologically (semiologically) appropriate, especially if neologisms are required. Lacking a vocabulary, there will be the need of popularizing the inference to the linguistics of the context to which the message is addressed. This could imply a discrepancy among science, knowledge, truth and linguistics, that can be defined "semiologic bias". To avoid this linguistic error, the scientist must feel the responsibility to provide the scientific community with the new words that are semantically and etymologically coherent with what it has been scientifically discovered.

  2. LINGUISTICS AND SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING: AN ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    methods, the cognitive code method and the cognitive anti-method, emerged, both drawing on .... sciences; he must have some knowledge of linguistics. ... much as the nature of the organising power that is capable of handling such data.

  3. Linguistic embodiment and verbal constraints: human cognition and the scales of time

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cowley, Stephen J.

    2014-01-01

    Using radical embodied cognitive science, the paper offers the hypothesis that language is symbiotic: its agent-environment dynamics arise as linguistic embodiment is managed under verbal constraints. As a result, co-action grants human agents the ability to use a unique form of phenomenal experience. In defense of the hypothesis, I stress how linguistic embodiment enacts thinking: accordingly, I present auditory and acoustic evidence from 750 ms of mother-daughter talk, first, in fine detail and, then, in narrative mode. As the parties attune, they use a dynamic field to co-embody speech with experience of wordings. The latter arise in making and tracking phonetic gestures that, crucially, mesh use of artifice, cultural products and impersonal experience. As observers, living human beings gain dispositions to display and use social subjectivity. Far from using brains to “process” verbal content, linguistic symbiosis grants access to diachronic resources. On this distributed-ecological view, language can thus be redefined as: “activity in which wordings play a part.” PMID:25324799

  4. Cognitive poetics and biocultural (configurations of life, cognition and language. Towards a theory of socially integrated science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juani Guerra

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Based on the biocultural dynamics of Greek poiesis and autopoiesis as evolutionary processes of meaning evaluative (configuration, Cognitive Poetics proposes key methodological adjustments, mainly at the philological, ontological and cultural levels. The aim is to improve our understanding of cognitive and conceptual activity and the social foundations of individual language. From its new status as a fundamental metacognitive theory, it searches for a theory of socially integrated sciences from a new alliance as that discerned in current Cognitive Sciences: from Linguistics or Psychology, through Anthropology, Neurophilosophy or Literary Studies, to Neurobiology or Artificial Life Sciences. From a realist turn to a view of cognition as (social action, it provides new unforeseen accounts of the complex dynamics of human understanding processes studying and analyzing all form of texts as active data

  5. Unravelling the influence of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) on cognitive-linguistic processing: a comparative group analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barwood, Caroline H S; Murdoch, Bruce E

    2013-06-01

    Cognitive-linguistic deficits often accompany traumatic brain injury (TBI) and can negatively impact communicative competency. The linguistic sequelae underpinning mild TBI (MTBI) remain largely unexplored in contemporary literature. The present research methods aim to provide group evidence pertaining to the influence of MTBI on linguistic and higher-level language processing. Extrapolating on the findings of recent case reports, it is hypothesized that performance of the MTBI patients will be significantly reduced compared to normal controls performance on the employed high-level linguistic tasks. Sixteen patients with MTBI and 16 age- and education-matched normal control participants were assessed using a comprehensive battery of cognitive-linguistic assessments. The results demonstrated statistically significant differences between MTBI and normal control group performance across a number of higher-level linguistic, general cognitive and general language tasks. MTBI group performance was significantly lower than the normal control group on tasks requiring complex lexical semantic operations and memory demands, including: Recall, organization, making inferences, naming and perception/discrimination. These outcomes confer that post-MTBI, cognitive, high-level language and isolated general language performance (e.g. naming) is significantly reduced in MTBI patients, compared to normal controls. Furthermore, the detailed cognitive-linguistic profile offered provides a necessary direction for the identification of areas of linguistic decline in MTBI and targets for therapeutic intervention of impaired cognitive-linguistic processes to ultimately improve communicative outcomes in MTBI.

  6. Linguistic and Cognitive Characteristics of the Composition of the Text of J. K. Rowling's English Tales

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solodova, Elena

    2015-01-01

    This article focuses on linguistic and cognitive characteristics inherent in the composition of the English postmodern tales written by J.K. Rowling. The composition of the text is viewed as linguistic and cognitive construal that integrates compositional plot structure, compositional meaning structure, linguistic and stylistic means of their…

  7. The Study of Critical Eco-Linguistic in Green Discourse: Prospective Eco-Linguistic Analysis

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    Tommi Yuniawan

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Eco-linguistic studies are influenced by one of the other interdisciplinary sciences, namely critical discourse analysis. The combination of these two sciences is called critical eco-linguistic studies. Critical eco-linguistic examines the discourse about the environment and various forms of discourse and their ideology which concerns people and the environment. The environmental discourse with all its manifestations (oral text, written text is called green discourse. To that end, critical eco-linguistic dictates the linguistic aspects contained in the green discourse. Utilization of lingual units in green discourse will affect the sense and logic of people involved in the discourse, ie the writers and readers or the speakers and the speakers. What is recorded in their cognition, will affect their attitudes and actions to the environment. If green discourse is constructive, then their attitude and actions to the environment are constructive. Conversely, if green discourse is more destructive and exploitative, then their attitudes and actions towards the environment will also be affected towards destruction and exploitation. For this reason, critical eco-linguistic studies in green discourse deserve to be given space as a form of prospective eco-linguistic analysis.

  8. Cognitive-Linguistic Functioning and Learning to Read in Preschoolers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldstein, David M.

    1976-01-01

    The major results partially confirm the hypothesis of a reciprocal relationship between the experience of learning to read and the cognitive-linguistic skills which undergo development between the ages of five and seven. (RC)

  9. Entrenchment and the Psychology of Language Learning: How We Reorganize and Adapt Linguistic Knowledge. Language and the Human Lifespan Series

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmid, Hans-Jorg, Ed.

    2017-01-01

    In recent years, linguists have increasingly turned to the cognitive sciences to broaden their investigation into the roots and development of language. With the advent of cognitive-linguistic, usage-based and complex-adaptive models of language, linguists today are utilizing approaches and insights from cognitive psychology, neuropsychology,…

  10. Exploring interdisciplinary relationships between linguistics and information retrieval from the 1960s to today

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Engerer, Volkmar Paul

    2017-01-01

    This article explores how linguistics has influenced information retrieval (IR) and attempts to explain the impact of linguistics through an analysis of internal developments in information science generally, and IR in particular. It notes that information science/IR has been evolving from a case...... science into a fully fledged, “disciplined”/disciplinary science. The article establishes correspondences between linguistics and information science/IR using the three established IR paradigms—physical, cognitive, and computational—as a frame of reference. The current relationship between information...... science/IR and linguistics is elucidated through discussion of some recent information science publications dealing with linguistic topics and a novel technique, “keyword collocation analysis,” is introduced. Insights from interdisciplinarity research and case theory are also discussed. It is demonstrated...

  11. Semio-Linguistic Creative Actualization of the Concept “Information About the Future” in the Science Fiction Discourse

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    Andrey Vladimirovich Olyanich

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with the cognitive category of "semio-linguistic creativity", that serves as a tool for implification of the concept "Information about the future" in the science fiction discourse. The correlation between the categories of future and information is studied in semio-linguistic aspect; the conceptual core, internal and external zones of the concept "Information about the future" are explored in connection with the concepts "Future", "Myths" and "Expectations" that are viewed as belonging to the science fiction discourse. The following issues are considered: coordination between axiological and imaginative spheres of the concept "Information about the future"; the mechanism of transforming information from present and past into the future by means of literary imagination, which is aimed at constructing the imaginary hyper-reality with the use of concepts that belong to contemporary reality; it is stated that such activity lays the basis for multiple forecasts. After the analysis of the novels by Vasily Golovachev, a famous Russian science fiction writer, the authors present their interpretation of the process of science-fiction discourse unfolding that involves groups of signs from the following semio-linguistic clusters (The Man as a species; Food; Space, Earth, their semantic content is directly related to the needs of the future. The proposed algorithm of analysis may be applied to studying other semio-linguistic clusters: "Habitat," "Communications", "Social Environment", "Transport", "Technology", that may explicate the concept "Information about the future".

  12. THREE TYPES OF ETHNO-SPECIFICITY IN PHRASEOLOGY: ETHNO-LINGUISTIC, ETHNO-CULTURAL, AND ETHNO-COGNITIVE SPECIFICITY

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    Marina Gutovskaya

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available The ethno-specific phraseology – the phraseology which manifests interlanguage differences – is contemplated in the paper considering the phraseology corpora of the Russian and English languages. The popular opinion that ethno-specificity in phraseology is predetermined solely by unique features of the national culture is questioned. The three types of phraseological ethno-specificity are differentiated: ethno-linguistic (ensured by distinctive features of the national language, ethno-cultural (connected with the originality of the national culture, and ethno-cognitive (ordained by the uniqueness of the national worldview. The characteristics of the phraseological units that belong to each of the three types of ethno-specificity are enumerated, and the circles of questions on the ethno-specific phraseology to be studied within traditional linguistics, cultural linguistics, and cognitive linguistics are outlined. The possibility of coexistence of several types of ethno-specificity in one phraseological unit is shown. It is noted that in order to comprehend ethno-specific phraseological units of the three types a different degree of immersion in the foreign linguistic-cultural-cognitive space is required.

  13. Cognitive Systematicity of Semantic Change: Cross-Linguistic Evidence

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    Baseel A. AlBzour

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Banking on intrinsic generative assumptions of cognitive semantics, this paper is a humble attempt that specifically sheds light on some major aspects of overtly intricate yet covertly systematic interaction that steers our conceptual processing of inherent semantic and pragmatic changes. The basic premises of such cognitive operations stem from yet may exceed the limitations of Elizabeth Traugott’s and Eve Sweetser’s historical pragmatic approach that elaborately envisages such lexical changes as meaning relations with their metaphorically polysemous progress in light of relevant epistemic constraints that can help us decode ambiguous components of some functional and lexical categories. Therefore, this paper examines in principle how schematic lexical meaning can be cross-linguistically and cross-culturally traced, handled and perceived in order to cater for an optimal matrix and some rule-governed clues and rules that may explain the internal universal design and flow of semanticity and pragmaticity in charge of such linguistic behavior. The data this study exploits and explores draw on some English and Arabic representative examples that can satisfactorily exhibit an interesting well-established cognitive mechanism that can reveal the role of Homo sapiens’ encyclopedic and collective faculty vis-à-vis such word processing; the data primarily encompass the English words silly, simple, innocent and naïve as well as their Arabic counterparts.

  14. Cognitive grammar and aphasic discourse.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manning, Molly; Franklin, Sue

    2016-01-01

    In cognitive grammar (CG), there is no clear division between language and other cognitive processes; all linguistic form is conceptually meaningful. In this pilot study, a CG approach was applied to investigate whether people with aphasia (PWA) have cognitive linguistic difficulty not predicted from traditional, componential models of aphasia. Narrative samples from 22 PWA (6 fluent, 16 non-fluent) were compared with samples from 10 participants without aphasia. Between-group differences were tested statistically. PWA had significant difficulty with temporal sequencing, suggesting problems that are not uniquely linguistic. For some, these problems were doubly dissociated with naming, used as a general measure of severity, which indicates that cognitive linguistic difficulties are not linked with more widespread brain damage. Further investigation may lead to a richer account of aphasia in line with contemporary linguistics and cognitive science approaches.

  15. Review of Nuria del Campo Martínez: Illocutionary Constructions in English: Cognitive Motivation and Linguistic Realization (2013)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Kim Ebensgaard

    2014-01-01

    A review of Nuria del Campo Martínez: Illocutionary Constructions in English: Cognitive Motivation and Linguistic Realization (2013)......A review of Nuria del Campo Martínez: Illocutionary Constructions in English: Cognitive Motivation and Linguistic Realization (2013)...

  16. A cognitive linguistic exploration of metaphors within the WATER ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    A cognitive linguistic exploration of metaphors within the WATER frame in Swami Vivekananda's Complete Works : A corpus-driven study in light of conceptual metaphor theory. ... Which terms to search for specifically was determined after a manual reading of a sample from the Complete Works. The data were then tagged ...

  17. Making Sense of Phrasal Verbs: A Cognitive Linguistic Account of L2 Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonzalez, Rafael Alejo

    2010-01-01

    Phrasal verbs (PVs) have recently been the object of interest by linguists given their status as phraseological units whose meaning is non-compositional and opaque. They constitute a perfect case for theories of language processing and language acquisition to be tested. Cognitive linguists have participated in this debate and shown a certain…

  18. Study of Applying Cognitive Linguistic Theory into Japanese Grammar Teaching——Taking Causative Sentence as an Example

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Zhang Yu[1

    2016-01-01

    The traditional Japanese grammar teaching often only pays attention to the interpretation of syntax and the integrity of grammar structure. This violates the cultivation of communicative competence, and is not in conformity with the society’s requirements of applied foreign language talents. Cognitive linguistics theory, which links language form with semantic concept, reveals the internal relation of man’s thinking and language. If we can subtly apply cognitive linguistic theory into Japanese grammar teaching to explore the cognitive process in the speakers’ brain while expressing, we can get a good understanding of diffi cult points and “special case”. This paper explores the introductory methods and efficacy of the cognitive linguistics theory applied in Japanese grammar teaching method, by lecturing causative sentences an example.

  19. Good-enough linguistic representations and online cognitive equilibrium in language processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karimi, Hossein; Ferreira, Fernanda

    2016-01-01

    We review previous research showing that representations formed during language processing are sometimes just "good enough" for the task at hand and propose the "online cognitive equilibrium" hypothesis as the driving force behind the formation of good-enough representations in language processing. Based on this view, we assume that the language comprehension system by default prefers to achieve as early as possible and remain as long as possible in a state of cognitive equilibrium where linguistic representations are successfully incorporated with existing knowledge structures (i.e., schemata) so that a meaningful and coherent overall representation is formed, and uncertainty is resolved or at least minimized. We also argue that the online equilibrium hypothesis is consistent with current theories of language processing, which maintain that linguistic representations are formed through a complex interplay between simple heuristics and deep syntactic algorithms and also theories that hold that linguistic representations are often incomplete and lacking in detail. We also propose a model of language processing that makes use of both heuristic and algorithmic processing, is sensitive to online cognitive equilibrium, and, we argue, is capable of explaining the formation of underspecified representations. We review previous findings providing evidence for underspecification in relation to this hypothesis and the associated language processing model and argue that most of these findings are compatible with them.

  20. A forgotten social science? Creating a place for linguistics in the historical dialogue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin-Nielsen, Janet

    2011-01-01

    The post-World War II era was one of great triumph for American linguists-and yet linguistics is all but absent from the historical literature on postwar social science. This paper aims to illuminate this curious situation: to understand its provenance, evaluate its merits, and contextualize it broadly. I argue that the historiographic lacuna results from two factors: (1) the opt-out of linguists from the wider American social science community, and (2) historical-developmental and -orientational factors that stand linguistics apart from the social science mainstream. The resultant isolation of linguistics has led to a parallel isolation in the historical literature. Ultimately, this paper poses a pivotal and timely question: How is the postwar social science space construed within the existing historiographic framework, and how should it be construed in order to maximize understanding? I propose a rethink of the received historiography centered on intellectual transformations and cross-disciplinary integration. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  1. Cognitive anthropology is a cognitive science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boster, James S

    2012-07-01

    Cognitive anthropology contributes to cognitive science as a complement to cognitive psychology. The chief threat to its survival has not been rejection by other cognitive scientists but by other cultural anthropologists. It will remain a part of cognitive science as long as cognitive anthropologists research, teach, and publish. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  2. The Two-Word Stage: Motivated by Linguistic or Cognitive Constraints?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berk, Stephanie; Lillo-Martin, Diane

    2012-01-01

    Child development researchers often discuss a "two-word" stage during language acquisition. However, there is still debate over whether the existence of this stage reflects primarily cognitive or linguistic constraints. Analyses of longitudinal data from two Deaf children, Mei and Cal, not exposed to an accessible first language (American Sign…

  3. Cognitive and linguistic sources of variance in 2-year-olds’ speech-sound discrimination: a preliminary investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lalonde, Kaylah; Holt, Rachael Frush

    2014-02-01

    This preliminary investigation explored potential cognitive and linguistic sources of variance in 2-year-olds’ speech-sound discrimination by using the toddler change/ no-change procedure and examined whether modifications would result in a procedure that can be used consistently with younger 2-year-olds. Twenty typically developing 2-year-olds completed the newly modified toddler change/no-change procedure. Behavioral tests and parent report questionnaires were used to measure several cognitive and linguistic constructs. Stepwise linear regression was used to relate discrimination sensitivity to the cognitive and linguistic measures. In addition, discrimination results from the current experiment were compared with those from 2-year-old children tested in a previous experiment. Receptive vocabulary and working memory explained 56.6% of variance in discrimination performance. Performance was not different on the modified toddler change/no-change procedure used in the current experiment from in a previous investigation, which used the original version of the procedure. The relationship between speech discrimination and receptive vocabulary and working memory provides further evidence that the procedure is sensitive to the strength of perceptual representations. The role for working memory might also suggest that there are specific subject-related, nonsensory factors limiting the applicability of the procedure to children who have not reached the necessary levels of cognitive and linguistic development.

  4. Cognitive, Linguistic and Adaptive Functioning in Williams Syndrome: Trajectories from Early to Middle Adulthood

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howlin, Patricia; Elison, Sarah; Udwin, Orlee; Stinton, Christopher

    2010-01-01

    Background: Little is known about trajectories of cognitive functioning as individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) move though adulthood. Method: The present study investigated cognitive, linguistic and adaptive functioning in adults with WS aged 19-55 years, using both cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches. Results: Data from the…

  5. Cognitive and Linguistic Precursors to Early Literacy Achievement in Children With Specific Language Impairment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Weerdenburg, M.W.C. van; Verhoeven, L.T.W.; Balkom, L.J.M. van; Bosman, A.M.T.

    2009-01-01

    This study investigated the role of cognitive and language skills as predictors of early literacy skills in children with Specific Language Impairment. A range of cognitive and linguistic skills were assessed in a sample of 137 eight-year-old children with SLI at the beginning of the school year,

  6. Does Naming Therapy Make Ordering in a Restaurant Easier? Dynamics of Co-Occurring Change in Cognitive-Linguistic and Functional Communication Skills in Aphasia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Jeffrey P.; Villard, Sarah; Kiran, Swathi

    2017-01-01

    Purpose This study was conducted to investigate the static and dynamic relationships between impairment-level cognitive-linguistic abilities and activity-level functional communication skills in persons with aphasia (PWA). Method In Experiment 1, a battery of standardized assessments was administered to a group of PWA (N = 72) to examine associations between cognitive-linguistic ability and functional communication at a single time point. In Experiment 2, impairment-based treatment was administered to a subset of PWA from Experiment 1 (n = 39) in order to examine associations between change in cognitive-linguistic ability and change in function and associations at a single time point. Results In both experiments, numerous significant associations were found between scores on tests of cognitive-linguistic ability and a test of functional communication at a single time point. In Experiment 2, significant treatment-induced gains were seen on both types of measures in participants with more severe aphasia, yet cognitive-linguistic change scores were not significantly correlated with functional communication change scores. Conclusions At a single time point, cognitive-linguistic and functional communication abilities are associated in PWA. However, although changes on standardized assessments reflecting improvements in both types of skills can occur following an impairment-based therapy, these changes may not be significantly associated with each other. PMID:28196373

  7. Cognitive science contributions to decision science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Busemeyer, Jerome R

    2015-02-01

    This article briefly reviews the history and interplay between decision theory, behavioral decision-making research, and cognitive psychology. The review reveals the increasingly important impact that psychology and cognitive science have on decision science. One of the main contributions of cognitive science to decision science is the development of dynamic models that describe the cognitive processes that underlay the evolution of preferences during deliberation phase of making a decision. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Cognitive bias in spider-phobic children: Comparison of a pictorial and a linguistic spider Stroop.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kindt, M.; Brosschot, J.F.

    1999-01-01

    Examined the relation between spider fear in children and cognitive processing bias toward threatening information. It was investigated whether spider fear in children is related to a cognitive bias for threatening pictures and words. Pictorial and linguistic Stroop stimuli were administered to 28

  9. HALF A CENTURY OF GENERATIVE LINGUISTICS – WHAT HAS THE PARADIGM GIVEN TO SOCIAL SCIENCE?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mihailo Antović

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims to join marking the fiftieth anniversary of generativelinguistics by focusing on some principal contributions the field has given to science in general. In the first part of the paper, I discuss the issue of 'modern linguistics', as it is widely taught in local universities, and examine the importance of the generative school in this notion of modernity. In the second part, I analyze the fundamental conceptions and epistemological framework of this school in the study of language, pinpointing fifteen legacies it seems to have already left to human thought, as follows: breakup withbehaviourism; reinstitution of the hypothetico-deductive method; elaboration of the mind-body issue; revival of the thesis that the only true reality is that of the human mind; reintroduction and extension of the term 'cognitive'; participation in rapidterminological changes in the social sciences; return to the problem of language universals with a strong focus on the genetic origins of language faculty; extended usage of the term 'grammar'; contribution to the deletion of clear boundaries between the natural and social sciences, especially in psychology; rise of reductionism in formalsciences; return to the once forgotten Gestalt principles of perception; radical breakup between lexical and sentence semantics; neo-Darwinism; rise of neuroscience; impetus to the foundation of new fields, often multidisciplinary ones. Reconciliation of cognitiveand generative linguistics in the future is anticipated.

  10. Constructing a philosophy of science of cognitive science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bechtel, William

    2009-07-01

    Philosophy of science is positioned to make distinctive contributions to cognitive science by providing perspective on its conceptual foundations and by advancing normative recommendations. The philosophy of science I embrace is naturalistic in that it is grounded in the study of actual science. Focusing on explanation, I describe the recent development of a mechanistic philosophy of science from which I draw three normative consequences for cognitive science. First, insofar as cognitive mechanisms are information-processing mechanisms, cognitive science needs an account of how the representations invoked in cognitive mechanisms carry information about contents, and I suggest that control theory offers the needed perspective on the relation of representations to contents. Second, I argue that cognitive science requires, but is still in search of, a catalog of cognitive operations that researchers can draw upon in explaining cognitive mechanisms. Last, I provide a new perspective on the relation of cognitive science to brain sciences, one which embraces both reductive research on neural components that figure in cognitive mechanisms and a concern with recomposing higher-level mechanisms from their components and situating them in their environments. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  11. Applying Cognitive Linguistics to Instructed L2 Learning: The English Modals

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    Tyler, Andrea; Mueller, Charles M.; Ho, Vu

    2010-01-01

    This paper reports the results of a quasi-experimental effects-of-instruction study examining the efficacy of applying a Cognitive Linguistic (CL) approach to L2 learning of the semantics of English modals. In spite of their frequency in typical input, modal verbs present L2 learners with difficulties, party due to their inherent…

  12. The Creative Mind: Cognition, Society and Culture

    OpenAIRE

    Bondebjerg, Ib

    2017-01-01

    This article provides an overview of the main tendencies and ideas in the embodied mind paradigm in the expanding field of modern cognitive science. The focus is noton the biological and neurological aspects of cognitive science, rather the article demonstrates how basic concepts and theories from cognitive science have influenced linguistics, sociology, the understanding of art and creativity, film and film perception, as well as our understanding of historical film narratives and mediated m...

  13. Words Get in the Way: Linguistic Effects on Talker Discrimination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Narayan, Chandan R; Mak, Lorinda; Bialystok, Ellen

    2017-07-01

    A speech perception experiment provides evidence that the linguistic relationship between words affects the discrimination of their talkers. Listeners discriminated two talkers' voices with various linguistic relationships between their spoken words. Listeners were asked whether two words were spoken by the same person or not. Word pairs varied with respect to the linguistic relationship between the component words, forming either: phonological rhymes, lexical compounds, reversed compounds, or unrelated pairs. The degree of linguistic relationship between the words affected talker discrimination in a graded fashion, revealing biases listeners have regarding the nature of words and the talkers that speak them. These results indicate that listeners expect a talker's words to be linguistically related, and more generally, indexical processing is affected by linguistic information in a top-down fashion even when listeners are not told to attend to it. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  14. Fine-Grained Linguistic Soft Constraints on Statistical Natural Language Processing Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-01-01

    his engaging phonology and cognitive science classes. I also had the pleasure and privilege of collaborating with, and learning from, Chris Callison...semantic constraints models can be viewed as instances? What possible benefits this might have? A few stylistic remarks: 1. Throughout the...although I make no cognitive or neuroscientific claims in this dissertation. Two “classic” views on linguistic representations in the brain are

  15. Music cognition and the cognitive sciences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pearce, Marcus; Rohrmeier, Martin

    2012-10-01

    Why should music be of interest to cognitive scientists, and what role does it play in human cognition? We review three factors that make music an important topic for cognitive scientific research. First, music is a universal human trait fulfilling crucial roles in everyday life. Second, music has an important part to play in ontogenetic development and human evolution. Third, appreciating and producing music simultaneously engage many complex perceptual, cognitive, and emotional processes, rendering music an ideal object for studying the mind. We propose an integrated status for music cognition in the Cognitive Sciences and conclude by reviewing challenges and big questions in the field and the way in which these reflect recent developments. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  16. How fifth grade Latino/a bilingual students use their linguistic resources in the classroom and laboratory during science instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stevenson, Alma R.

    2013-12-01

    This qualitative, sociolinguistic research study examines how bilingual Latino/a students use their linguistic resources in the classroom and laboratory during science instruction. This study was conducted in a school in the southwestern United States serving an economically depressed, predominantly Latino population. The object of study was a fifth grade science class entirely comprised of language minority students transitioning out of bilingual education. Therefore, English was the means of instruction in science, supported by informal peer-to-peer Spanish-language communication. This study is grounded in a social constructivist paradigm. From this standpoint, learning science is a social process where social, cultural, and linguistic factors are all considered crucial to the process of acquiring scientific knowledge. The study was descriptive in nature, examining specific linguistic behaviors with the purpose of identifying and analyzing the linguistic functions of students' utterances while participating in science learning. The results suggest that students purposefully adapt their use of linguistic resources in order to facilitate their participation in science leaning. What is underscored in this study is the importance of explicitly acknowledging, supporting, and incorporating bilingual students' linguistic resources both in Spanish and English into the science classroom in order to optimize students' participation and facilitate their understanding.

  17. Mimicry in online conversations : an exploratory study of linguistic analysis techniques

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Carrick, Tom; Rashid, Awais; Taylor, Paul Jonathon; Kumar, Ravi; Caverlee, James; Tong, Hanghang

    2016-01-01

    A number of computational techniques have been proposed that aim to detect mimicry in online conversations. In this paper, we investigate how well these reflect the prevailing cognitive science model, i.e. the Interactive Alignment Model. We evaluate Local Linguistic Alignment, word vectors, and

  18. Forensic linguistics: Applications of forensic linguistics methods to anonymous letters

    OpenAIRE

    NOVÁKOVÁ, Veronika

    2011-01-01

    The title of my bachelor work is ?Forensic linguistics: Applications of forensic linguistics methods to anonymous letters?. Forensic linguistics is young and not very known branch of applied linguistics. This bachelor work wants to introduce forensic linguistics and its method. The bachelor work has two parts ? theory and practice. The theoretical part informs about forensic linguistics in general. Its two basic aspects utilized in forensic science and respective methods. The practical part t...

  19. Cognitive logical systems with artificial intelligence

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liss, E

    1983-09-01

    The simulation of cognitive processes for the purpose of the technical development of learning systems with intelligent behavior is a basic object of the young interdisciplinary cognition science which is based upon artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, computer science, linguistics and pedagogics. Cognitive systems may be described as knowledge-based logical systems. Based on structural and functional principles of intelligent automata and elementary information processing systems with structural learning capability the future process, machine and robot controls, advising units and fifth generation computers may be developed.

  20. Linguistic ability in early life and cognitive function and Alzheimer's disease in late life. Findings from the Nun Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snowdon, D A; Kemper, S J; Mortimer, J A; Greiner, L H; Wekstein, D R; Markesbery, W R

    1996-02-21

    To determine if linguistic ability in early life is associated with cognitive function and Alzheimer's disease in late life. Two measures of linguistic ability in early life, idea density and grammatical complexity, were derived from autobiographies written at a mean age of 22 years. Approximately 58 years later, the women who wrote these autobiographies participated in an assessment of cognitive function, and those who subsequently died were evaluated neuropathologically. Convents in the United States participating in the Nun Study; primarily convents in the Milwaukee, Wis, area. Cognitive function was investigated in 93 participants who were aged 75 to 95 years at the time of their assessments, and Alzheimer's disease was investigated in the 14 participants who died at 79 to 96 years of age. Seven neuropsychological tests and neuropathologically confirmed Alzheimer's disease. Low idea density and low grammatical complexity in autobiographies written in early life were associated with low cognitive test scores in late life. Low idea density in early life had stronger and more consistent associations with poor cognitive function than did low grammatical complexity. Among the 14 sisters who died, neuropathologically confirmed Alzheimer's disease was present in all of those with low idea density in early life and in none of those with high idea density. Low linguistic ability in early life was a strong predictor of poor cognitive function and Alzheimer's disease in late life.

  1. A Study of Cognitive Linguistic Structure Based on the Four Conditions of the Mulamadhyamakakarika

    Science.gov (United States)

    You, Hee Jong

    2013-01-01

    The main purpose of this study is to depict Nagarjuna's implication on how he redefined the Four Conditions ("atvarah pratyaya") as the cognitive linguistic structure by allocating 32 functional metadata throughout the texts of Mulamadhyamakakarika (MMK). Following subtle traces of "okasamvrtisatya" (the conventional truth) in…

  2. Top-Down Cognitive and Linguistic Influences on the Suppression of Spontaneous Otoacoustic Emissions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Viorica Marian

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available Auditory sensation is often thought of as a bottom-up process, yet the brain exerts top-down control to affect how and what we hear. We report the discovery that the magnitude of top-down influence varies across individuals as a result of differences in linguistic background and executive function. Participants were 32 normal-hearing individuals (23 female varying in language background (11 English monolinguals, 10 Korean-English late bilinguals, and 11 Korean-English early bilinguals, as well as cognitive abilities (working memory, cognitive control. To assess efferent control over inner ear function, participants were presented with speech-sounds (e.g., /ba/, /pa/ in one ear while spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs were measured in the contralateral ear. SOAEs are associated with the amplification of sound in the cochlea, and can be used as an index of top-down efferent activity. Individuals with bilingual experience and those with better cognitive control experienced larger reductions in the amplitude of SOAEs in response to speech stimuli, likely as a result of greater efferent suppression of amplification in the cochlea. This suppression may aid in the critical task of speech perception by minimizing the disruptive effects of noise. In contrast, individuals with better working memory exert less control over the cochlea, possibly due to a greater capacity to process complex stimuli at later stages. These findings demonstrate that even peripheral mechanics of auditory perception are shaped by top-down cognitive and linguistic influences.

  3. Philosophy for the rest of cognitive science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stepp, Nigel; Chemero, Anthony; Turvey, Michael T

    2011-04-01

    Cognitive science has always included multiple methodologies and theoretical commitments. The philosophy of cognitive science should embrace, or at least acknowledge, this diversity. Bechtel's (2009a) proposed philosophy of cognitive science, however, applies only to representationalist and mechanist cognitive science, ignoring the substantial minority of dynamically oriented cognitive scientists. As an example of nonrepresentational, dynamical cognitive science, we describe strong anticipation as a model for circadian systems (Stepp & Turvey, 2009). We then propose a philosophy of science appropriate to nonrepresentational, dynamical cognitive science. Copyright © 2011 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  4. Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism: Digging Deeper for the Contributions of Language Dominance, Linguistic Knowledge, Socio-Economic Status and Cognitive Abilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mueller Gathercole, Virginia C.; Thomas, Enlli Mon; Jones, Leah; Guasch, Nestor Vinas; Young, Nia; Hughes, Emma K.

    2010-01-01

    This study explores the extent to which a bilingual advantage can be observed for executive function tasks in children of varying levels of language dominance, and examines the contributions of general cognitive knowledge, linguistic abilities, language use and socio-economic level to performance. Welsh-English bilingual and English monolingual…

  5. Linguistic and Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism with Regional Minority Languages: A Study of Sardinian–Italian Adult Speakers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garraffa, Maria; Obregon, Mateo; Sorace, Antonella

    2017-01-01

    This study explores the effects of bilingualism in Sardinian as a regional minority language on the linguistic competence in Italian as the dominant language and on non-linguistic cognitive abilities. Sardinian/Italian adult speakers and monolingual Italian speakers living in the same geographical area of Sardinia were compared in two kinds of tasks: (a) verbal and non-verbal cognitive tasks targeting working memory and attentional control and (b) tasks of linguistic abilities in Italian focused on the comprehension of sentences differing in grammatical complexity. Although no difference was found between bilinguals and monolinguals in the cognitive control of attention, bilinguals performed better on working memory tasks. Bilinguals with lower formal education were found to be faster at comprehension of one type of complex sentence (center embedded object relative clauses). In contrast, bilinguals and monolinguals with higher education showed comparable slower processing of complex sentences. These results show that the effects of bilingualism are modulated by type of language experience and education background: positive effects of active bilingualism on the dominant language are visible in bilinguals with lower education, whereas the effects of higher literacy in Italian obliterate those of active bilingualism in bilinguals and monolinguals with higher education. PMID:29163288

  6. Relationship between conversational repair strategies and cognitive-linguistic skills in children with moderate hearing loss in Ahvaz, Southern Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peyman Zamani

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Conversational repair skills are essential for establishing mutually successful verbal communication. Cognitive and linguistic disorders can have negative effects on these skills. Children with hearing loss have special cognitive and linguistic issues. This study was performed to contribute to the paucity of data on conversational repair strategies used by hearing impaired children.Methods: The participants included 58 children with moderate hearing loss (38 boys and 20 girls aged 6 to 7 from Ahvaz city. A cross-sectional study design was used. Frequency of using different types of repair strategies in ten repair situations was calculated. Scores of intelligence, memory, word finding, lexical richness, and mean length of sentences was obtained through cognitive-linguistic tests. Data was analyzed employing an independent t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and logistic regression.Results: A direct correlation was observed between clarification strategy and communicative social intelligence (p=0.045. A direct correlation was observed between applying different types of conversational repair strategies and linguistic abilities in children with moderate hearing loss (p<0.05.Conclusion: Children with moderate hearing loss (age: 6-7 years use repetition more than any other strategy to repair conversation. One unit increase in word finding ability or in mean length of sentence predicts one unit increase in the degree of using repetition strategy.

  7. Anthropology in cognitive science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bender, Andrea; Hutchins, Edwin; Medin, Douglas

    2010-07-01

    This paper reviews the uneven history of the relationship between Anthropology and Cognitive Science over the past 30 years, from its promising beginnings, followed by a period of disaffection, on up to the current context, which may lay the groundwork for reconsidering what Anthropology and (the rest of) Cognitive Science have to offer each other. We think that this history has important lessons to teach and has implications for contemporary efforts to restore Anthropology to its proper place within Cognitive Science. The recent upsurge of interest in the ways that thought may shape and be shaped by action, gesture, cultural experience, and language sets the stage for, but so far has not fully accomplished, the inclusion of Anthropology as an equal partner. Copyright © 2010 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  8. Psychology in cognitive science: 1978-2038.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gentner, Dedre

    2010-07-01

    This paper considers the past and future of Psychology within Cognitive Science. In the history section, I focus on three questions: (a) how has the position of Psychology evolved within Cognitive Science, relative to the other disciplines that make up Cognitive Science; (b) how have particular Cognitive Science areas within Psychology waxed or waned; and (c) what have we gained and lost. After discussing what's happened since the late 1970s, when the Society and the journal began, I speculate about where the field is going. Copyright © 2010 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  9. On the Diversity of Linguistic Data and the Integration of the Language Sciences

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    Roberta D’Alessandro

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available An integrated science of language is usually advocated as a step forward for linguistic research. In this paper, we maintain that integration of this sort is premature, and cannot take place before we identify a common object of study. We advocate instead a science of language that is inherently multi-faceted, and takes into account the different viewpoints as well as the different definitions of the object of study. We also advocate the use of different data sources, which, if non-contradictory, can provide more solid evidence for linguistic analysis. Last, we argue that generative grammar is an important tile in the puzzle.

  10. Cognitive science in popular film: the Cognitive Science Movie Index.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Motz, Benjamin

    2013-10-01

    HAL 9000. Morpheus. Skynet. These household names demonstrate the strong cultural impact of films depicting themes in cognitive science and the potential power of popular cinema for outreach and education. Considering their wide influence, there is value to aggregating these movies and reflecting on their renderings of our field. The Cognitive Science Movie Index (CSMI) serves these purposes, leveraging popular film for the advancement of the discipline. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Embodied social cognition

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    Lindblom, Jessica

    2015-01-01

    This book clarifies the role and relevance of the body in social interaction and cognition from an embodied cognitive science perspective. Theories of embodied cognition have during the last decades offered a radical shift in explanations of the human mind, from traditional computationalism, to emphasizing the way cognition is shaped by the body and its sensorimotor interaction with the surrounding social and material world. This book presents a theoretical framework for the relational nature of embodied social cognition, which is based on an interdisciplinary approach that ranges historically in time and across different disciplines. It includes work in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, phenomenology, ethology, developmental psychology, neuroscience, social psychology, linguistics, communication, and gesture studies. The theoretical framework is illustrated by empirical work that provides some detailed observational fieldwork on embodied actions captured in three different episodes of spontaneous s...

  12. Teaching and learning science in linguistically diverse classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Emilee; Evnitskaya, Natalia; Ramos-de Robles, S. Lizette

    2017-01-01

    In this paper we reflect on the article, Science education in a bilingual class: problematising a translational practice, by Zeynep Ünsal, Britt Jakobson, Bengt-Olav Molander and Per-Olaf Wickman (Cult Stud Sci Educ, 10.1007/s11422-016-9747-3). In their article, the authors present the results of a classroom research project by responding to one main question: How is continuity between everyday language and the language of science construed in a bilingual science classroom where the teacher and the students do not speak the same minority language? Specifically, Ünsal et al. examine how bilingual students construe relations between everyday language and the language of science in a class taught in Swedish, in which all students also spoke Turkish, whereas the teacher also spoke Bosnian, both being minority languages in the context of Swedish schools. In this forum, we briefly discuss why close attention to bilingual dynamics emerging in classrooms such as those highlighted by Ünsal et al. matters for science education. We continue by discussing changing ontologies in relation to linguistic diversity and education more generally. Recent research in bilingual immersion classroom settings in so-called "content" subjects such as Content and Language Integrated Learning, is then introduced, as we believe this research offers some significant insights in terms of how bilingualism contributes to knowledge building in subjects such as science. Finally, we offer some reflections in relation to the classroom interactional competence needed by teachers in linguistically diverse classrooms. In this way, we aim to further the discussion initiated by Ünsal et al. and to offer possible frameworks for future research on bilingualism in science education. In their article, Ünsal et al. conclude the analysis of the classroom data by arguing in favor of a translanguaging pedagogy, an approach to teaching and learning in which students' whole language repertoires are used as

  13. Speech Errors as a Window on Language and Thought: A Cognitive Science Perspective

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    Giulia M.L. Bencini

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available We are so used to speaking in our native language that we take this ability for granted. We think that speaking is easy and thinking is hard. From the perspective of cognitive science, this view is wrong. Utterances are complex things, and generating them is an act of linguistic creativity, in the face of the computational complexity of the task. On occasion, utterance generation goes awry and the speaker’s output is different from the planned utterance, such as a speaker who says “Fancy getting your model renosed!” when “fancy getting your nose remodeled” was intended. With some notable exceptions (e.g. Fromkin 1971 linguists have not taken speech error data to be informative about speakers’ linguistic knowledge or mental grammars. The paper strives to put language production errors back onto the linguistic data map. If errors involve units such as phonemes, syllables, morphemes and phrases, which may be exchanged, moved around or stranded during spoken production, this shows that they are both representational and processing units. If similar units are converged upon via multiple methods (e.g. native speaker judgments, language corpora, speech error corpora, psycholinguistic experiments those units have stronger empirical support. All other things being equal, theories of language that can account for both representation and processing are to be preferred.

  14. The Borrowers: Researching the cognitive aspects of translation

    OpenAIRE

    O'Brien, Sharon

    2013-01-01

    The paper considers the interdisciplinary interaction of research on the cognitive aspects of translation. Examples of influence from linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, reading and writing research and language technology are given, with examples from specific sub-disciplines within each one. The breadth of borrowing by researchers in cognitive translatology is made apparent, but the minimal influence of cognitive translatology on the respective disciplines themselves i...

  15. Cognitive neuroscience: the troubled marriage of cognitive science and neuroscience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cooper, Richard P; Shallice, Tim

    2010-07-01

    We discuss the development of cognitive neuroscience in terms of the tension between the greater sophistication in cognitive concepts and methods of the cognitive sciences and the increasing power of more standard biological approaches to understanding brain structure and function. There have been major technological developments in brain imaging and advances in simulation, but there have also been shifts in emphasis, with topics such as thinking, consciousness, and social cognition becoming fashionable within the brain sciences. The discipline has great promise in terms of applications to mental health and education, provided it does not abandon the cognitive perspective and succumb to reductionism. Copyright © 2010 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  16. Mild cognitive impairment: loss of linguistic task-induced changes in motor cortex excitability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bracco, L; Giovannelli, F; Bessi, V; Borgheresi, A; Di Tullio, A; Sorbi, S; Zaccara, G; Cincotta, M

    2009-03-10

    In amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), functional neuronal connectivity may be altered, as suggested by quantitative EEG and neuroimaging data. In young healthy humans, the execution of linguistic tasks modifies the excitability of the hand area of the dominant primary motor cortex (M1(hand)), as tested by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We used TMS to investigate functional connectivity between language-related cortical areas and M1(hand) in aMCI. Ten elderly women with aMCI and 10 age-matched women were recruited. All participants were right handed and underwent a neuropsychological evaluation. In the first TMS experiment, participants performed three different tasks: reading aloud, viewing of non-letter strings (baseline), and nonverbal oral movements. The second experiment included the baseline condition and three visual searching/matching tasks using letters, geometric shapes, or digits as target stimuli. In controls, motor evoked potentials (MEP) elicited by suprathreshold TMS of the left M1(hand) were significantly larger during reading aloud (170% baseline) than during nonverbal oral movements, whereas no difference was seen for right M1(hand) stimulation. Similarly, MEP elicited by left M1(hand) stimulation during letter and shape searching/matching tasks were significantly larger compared to digit task. In contrast, linguistic task performance did not produce any significant MEP modulation in patients with aMCI, although neuropsychological evaluation showed normal language abilities. Findings suggest that functional connectivity between the language-related brain regions and the dominant M1(hand) may be altered in amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Follow-up studies will reveal whether transcranial magnetic stimulation application during linguistic tasks may contribute to characterize the risk of conversion to Alzheimer disease.

  17. A phylogenetic and cognitive perspective on linguistic complexity ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In recent years a growing interest in the nature of linguistic complexity has emerged in linguistic circles. A striking feature of this interest is that linguistic complexity is taken to be a phenomenon in its own right. In fact, an extreme construal of the inherent complexity of language is represented in the notion of universal ...

  18. Language Teacher Cognition in Applied Linguistics Research: Revisiting the Territory, Redrawing the Boundaries, Reclaiming the Relevance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kubanyiova, Magdalena; Feryok, Anne

    2015-01-01

    Understanding language teachers' "mental lives" (Walberg, 1972), and how these shape and are shaped by the activity of language teaching in diverse sociocultural contexts, has been at the forefront of the sub discipline of applied linguistics that has become known as "language teacher cognition." Although the collective…

  19. Extended cognition in science communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ludwig, David

    2014-11-01

    The aim of this article is to propose a methodological externalism that takes knowledge about science to be partly constituted by the environment. My starting point is the debate about extended cognition in contemporary philosophy and cognitive science. Externalists claim that human cognition extends beyond the brain and can be partly constituted by external devices. First, I show that most studies of public knowledge about science are based on an internalist framework that excludes the environment we usually utilize to make sense of science and does not allow the possibility of extended knowledge. In a second step, I argue that science communication studies should adopt a methodological externalism and accept that knowledge about science can be partly realized by external information resources such as Wikipedia. © The Author(s) 2013.

  20. Early life linguistic ability, late life cognitive function, and neuropathology: findings from the Nun Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riley, Kathryn P; Snowdon, David A; Desrosiers, Mark F; Markesbery, William R

    2005-03-01

    The relationships between early life variables, cognitive function, and neuropathology were examined in participants in the Nun Study who were between the ages of 75 and 95. Our early life variable was idea density, which is a measure of linguistic ability, derived from autobiographies written at a mean age of 22 years. Six discrete categories of cognitive function, including mild cognitive impairments, were evaluated, using the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) battery of cognitive tests. Neuropathologic data included Braak staging, neurofibrillary tangle and senile plaque counts, brain weight, degree of cerebral atrophy, severity of atherosclerosis, and the presence of brain infarcts. Early-life idea density was significantly related to the categories of late-life cognitive function, including mild cognitive impairments: low idea density was associated with greater impairment. Low idea density also was significantly associated with lower brain weight, higher degree of cerebral atrophy, more severe neurofibrillary pathology, and the likelihood of meeting neuropathologic criteria for Alzheimer's disease.

  1. Can cognitive science create a cognitive economics?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chater, Nick

    2015-02-01

    Cognitive science can intersect with economics in at least three productive ways: by providing richer models of individual behaviour for use in economic analysis; by drawing from economic theory in order to model distributed cognition; and jointly to create more powerful 'rational' models of cognitive processes and social interaction. There is the prospect of moving from behavioural economics to a genuinely cognitive economics. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  2. Language Networks as Models of Cognition: Understanding Cognition through Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beckage, Nicole M.; Colunga, Eliana

    Language is inherently cognitive and distinctly human. Separating the object of language from the human mind that processes and creates language fails to capture the full language system. Linguistics traditionally has focused on the study of language as a static representation, removed from the human mind. Network analysis has traditionally been focused on the properties and structure that emerge from network representations. Both disciplines could gain from looking at language as a cognitive process. In contrast, psycholinguistic research has focused on the process of language without committing to a representation. However, by considering language networks as approximations of the cognitive system we can take the strength of each of these approaches to study human performance and cognition as related to language. This paper reviews research showcasing the contributions of network science to the study of language. Specifically, we focus on the interplay of cognition and language as captured by a network representation. To this end, we review different types of language network representations before considering the influence of global level network features. We continue by considering human performance in relation to network structure and conclude with theoretical network models that offer potential and testable explanations of cognitive and linguistic phenomena.

  3. Cognitive and psychological science insights to improve climate change data visualization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harold, Jordan; Lorenzoni, Irene; Shipley, Thomas F.; Coventry, Kenny R.

    2016-12-01

    Visualization of climate data plays an integral role in the communication of climate change findings to both expert and non-expert audiences. The cognitive and psychological sciences can provide valuable insights into how to improve visualization of climate data based on knowledge of how the human brain processes visual and linguistic information. We review four key research areas to demonstrate their potential to make data more accessible to diverse audiences: directing visual attention, visual complexity, making inferences from visuals, and the mapping between visuals and language. We present evidence-informed guidelines to help climate scientists increase the accessibility of graphics to non-experts, and illustrate how the guidelines can work in practice in the context of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change graphics.

  4. Interface of Linguistic and Visual Information During Audience Design.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fukumura, Kumiko

    2015-08-01

    Evidence suggests that speakers can take account of the addressee's needs when referring. However, what representations drive the speaker's audience design has been less clear. This study aims to go beyond previous studies by investigating the interplay between the visual and linguistic context during audience design. Speakers repeated subordinate descriptions (e.g., firefighter) given in the prior linguistic context less and used basic-level descriptions (e.g., man) more when the addressee did not hear the linguistic context than when s/he did. But crucially, this effect happened only when the referent lacked the visual attributes associated with the expressions (e.g., the referent was in plain clothes rather than in a firefighter uniform), so there was no other contextual cue available for the identification of the referent. This suggests that speakers flexibly use different contextual cues to help their addressee map the referring expression onto the intended referent. In addition, speakers used fewer pronouns when the addressee did not hear the linguistic antecedent than when s/he did. This suggests that although speakers may be egocentric during anaphoric reference (Fukumura & Van Gompel, 2012), they can cooperatively avoid pronouns when the linguistic antecedents were not shared with their addressee during initial reference. © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  5. Evo-devo and cognitive science

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ploeger, A.; Galis, F.; Nuno de la Rosa, L.; Müller, G.

    2016-01-01

    Evo-devo is an approach that integrates knowledge on evolution and development. Cognitive science is a research field that tries to unravel the functioning of the mind and the underlying processes. In this chapter, the main subfields within cognitive science that have contributed to a better

  6. Why cognitive science needs philosophy and vice versa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thagard, Paul

    2009-04-01

    Contrary to common views that philosophy is extraneous to cognitive science, this paper argues that philosophy has a crucial role to play in cognitive science with respect to generality and normativity. General questions include the nature of theories and explanations, the role of computer simulation in cognitive theorizing, and the relations among the different fields of cognitive science. Normative questions include whether human thinking should be Bayesian, whether decision making should maximize expected utility, and how norms should be established. These kinds of general and normative questions make philosophical reflection an important part of progress in cognitive science. Philosophy operates best, however, not with a priori reasoning or conceptual analysis, but rather with empirically informed reflection on a wide range of findings in cognitive science. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  7. Linguistics and the Literary Text.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferrar, Madeleine

    1984-01-01

    Discusses the opposing viewpoints of the two most influential linguists of this century--Saussure and Chomsky--suggesting that while both are interested in form as opposed to substance, Saussure sees linguistics as a branch of semiotics and Chomsky sees it as part of cognitive psychology. Evaluates the relevance of these two viewpoints to the…

  8. Linguistics, human communication and psychiatry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, P; Fraser, W

    1994-11-01

    Psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics have extended our understanding of the abnormal communication seen in psychosis, as well as that of people with autism and Asperger's syndrome. Psycholinguistics has the potential to increase the explanatory power of cognitive and neuropsychological approaches to psychosis and new methods of assessment and therapy are now being developed, based on linguistic theory. A MEDLINE literature search was used. Of 205 relevant articles identified, 65 were selected for review. Greater familiarity with linguistic theory could improve psychiatrists' assessment skills and their understanding of the relevance of human communication to the new cognitive models of psychosis.

  9. Spatial Frames of Reference in Traditional Negev Arabic: Language-to-Cognition Correlation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cerqueglini, Letizia

    2015-09-01

    Linguistic and cognitive tasks on spatial Frames of Reference (FoRs) in Traditional Negev Arabic (TNA) show that TNA is a referentially promiscuous language, using Intrinsic, Relative and Absolute FoRs. FoRs are selected in context according to culture-specific features of the ground (G). TNA speakers exclusively use the Absolute FoR in cognitive tasks, similarly to Mesoamerican languages (Bohnemeyer et al. in Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Austin, 2014). Absolute FoR in TNA is anchored on the four cardinal directions. Nevertheless, in TNA and in other varieties of Nomadic Arabic, geocentric sub-types of the Absolute FoR are also observable. Indeed, as in other Absolute-framing systems worldwide, different anchoring strategies (geocentric and astronomic) tend to coexist. I define their coexistence "Absolute Referential Modularity" (ARM). ARM appears in TNA in cognitive referential tasks and in some lexical items, not in linguistic tasks (as elaborated by Levinson et al. in Space stimuli kit 1.2: November 1992. Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, pp 7-14, 1992). Cardinal directions across Nomadic Arabic varieties show great cultural salience. They are associated with concrete geographical elements and encode topological relations: east-west axis encodes the mountain-sea opposition, beside many symbolic meanings, and encodes the oppositions Up/Down and Inside (familiar)/Outside (foreign). The detection of cognitive and linguistic Absolute referential practices-characterized by Modularity-and the cultural salience of cardinal directions within the whole Nomadic Arabic linguistic group, support the bias for Absolute cognition in promiscuous systems and its antecedence with respect to later linguistic referential strategies (Bohnemeyer et al. 2014). TNA linguistic promiscuity represents an innovation with respect to the cognitive concepts and demonstrates that language first generates semantic structures

  10. Linguistic analysis of communication in therapist-assisted internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy for generalized anxiety disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dirkse, Dale; Hadjistavropoulos, Heather D; Hesser, Hugo; Barak, Azy

    2015-01-01

    Therapist-assisted Internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) involves elements of expressive writing through secure messaging with a therapist. Expressive writing has been associated with psychological and physical health benefits in past research; furthermore, certain linguistic dimensions in expressive writing have been identified as particularly beneficial to health, such as less frequent use of negative emotion words and greater use of positive emotion words. No research, to date, has analyzed linguistic dimensions in client communication over the course of therapist-assisted ICBT for individuals with symptoms of generalized anxiety. This naturalistic study examined messages sent to therapists during the course of ICBT using linguistic analysis, and explored covariation of word use with symptom improvement. Data were obtained from patients with symptoms of generalized anxiety (N = 59) who completed 12 modules of therapist-assisted ICBT and rated symptoms of anxiety, depression, and panic at the beginning of each module. Linguistic analysis categorized text submitted to therapists into different word categories. Results found that patients' use of negative emotion, anxiety, causation, and insight words reduced over the course of treatment, while past tense words increased. Furthermore, negative emotion words significantly covaried with symptom ratings over the course of treatment. While causal statements cannot be made, findings improve our understanding of patient communication in ICBT and suggest that the further study of linguistic dimensions as psychological indicators and the potential utility of expressive writing strategies in therapist-assisted ICBT may be worthwhile.

  11. The Cognitive Advantages of Counting Specifically: A Representational Analysis of Verbal Numeration Systems in Oceanic Languages.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bender, Andrea; Schlimm, Dirk; Beller, Sieghard

    2015-10-01

    The domain of numbers provides a paradigmatic case for investigating interactions of culture, language, and cognition: Numerical competencies are considered a core domain of knowledge, and yet the development of specifically human abilities presupposes cultural and linguistic input by way of counting sequences. These sequences constitute systems with distinct structural properties, the cross-linguistic variability of which has implications for number representation and processing. Such representational effects are scrutinized for two types of verbal numeration systems-general and object-specific ones-that were in parallel use in several Oceanic languages (English with its general system is included for comparison). The analysis indicates that the object-specific systems outperform the general systems with respect to counting and mental arithmetic, largely due to their regular and more compact representation. What these findings reveal on cognitive diversity, how the conjectures involved speak to more general issues in cognitive science, and how the approach taken here might help to bridge the gap between anthropology and other cognitive sciences is discussed in the conclusion. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  12. How can philosophy be a true cognitive science discipline?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bechtel, William

    2010-07-01

    Although philosophy has been only a minor contributor to cognitive science to date, this paper describes two projects in naturalistic philosophy of mind and one in naturalistic philosophy of science that have been pursued during the past 30 years and that can make theoretical and methodological contributions to cognitive science. First, stances on the mind-body problem (identity theory, functionalism, and heuristic identity theory) are relevant to cognitive science as it negotiates its relation to neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience. Second, analyses of mental representations address both their vehicles and their contents; new approaches to characterizing how representations have content are particularly relevant to understanding the relation of cognitive agents to their environments. Third, the recently formulated accounts of mechanistic explanation in philosophy of science both provide perspective on the explanatory project of cognitive science and may offer normative guidance to cognitive science (e.g., by providing perspective on how multiple disciplinary perspectives can be integrated in understanding a given mechanism). Copyright © 2010 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  13. Language and Cognition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fusaroli, Riccardo

    The Ph.D dissertation “Language and Cognition” addresses the way social uses of language – e.g. on the media, or in conversation – shape the way we think and act. Cognitive sciences have started focusing on embodiment and joint cognition – the way in which cognitive processes are deeply shaped...... interacting, without making place for and relying upon the external world, for its structures, its resistances and its dynamics. Cognition is thus a relational process aimed at - perceiving the regularities and affordances (possibilities for further action, perception and, more generally, cognition...... to linguistic use, but also the effects of these processes on the coordination of other cognitive processes. It involved conceptual and experimental methodologies. Chapter 2 The cognitive study of metaphors largely focuses on showing how abstract thought and language uses are strongly shaped by embodied...

  14. Cognitive Science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cocking, Rodney R.; Mestre, Jose P.

    The focus of this paper is on cognitive science as a model for understanding the application of human skills toward effective problem-solving. Sections include: (1) "Introduction" (discussing information processing framework, expert-novice distinctions, schema theory, and learning process); (2) "Application: The Expert-Novice…

  15. Learning to Teach Elementary Science through Iterative Cycles of Enactment in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Contexts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bottoms, SueAnn I.; Ciechanowski, Kathryn M.; Hartman, Brian

    2015-01-01

    Iterative cycles of enactment embedded in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts provide rich opportunities for preservice teachers (PSTs) to enact core practices of science. This study is situated in the larger Families Involved in Sociocultural Teaching and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (FIESTAS) project, which weaves…

  16. Ideologeme "Order" in Modern American Linguistic World Image

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ibatova, Aygul Z.; Vdovichenko, Larisa V.; Ilyashenko, Lubov K.

    2016-01-01

    The paper studies the topic of modern American linguistic world image. It is known that any language is the most important instrument of cognition of the world by a person but there is also no doubt that any language is the way of perception and conceptualization of this knowledge about the world. In modern linguistics linguistic world image is…

  17. Defining the Roles, Responsibilities, and Functions for Data Science Within the Defense Intelligence Agency

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-01-01

    different variables. Specifically, this component consisted of a mixture of organizational, psychological , and cognitive sciences and has not been...organizational science, etc.) and a branch of terms strongly associated with cognitive science, psychology , linguistics, and artificial intelligence. We binned...blog post, n.d.; Jeffrey Goldstein , “Resource Guide and Glossary for Nonlinear/Complex Systems Terms,” PlexusInstitute.org, n.d

  18. Towards a cognitive semiotics of science

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    May, Michael; Skriver, Karen; Dandanell, Gert

    2016-01-01

    be seen as moving towards a cognitive semiotics of science, and furthermore that philosophical, historical, and didactic aspects of science and science teaching from this perspective are closely interrelated. The case of chemical reaction kinetics is used to exemplify the approach and its relevance......In a programmatic sense a “semiotics of science” was announced by Charles W. Morris but never realized as an empirical investigation of the sciences from the point of view of semiotics. In this chapter it is argued that recent cognitive approaches to the philosophy and history of science can...

  19. Human reasoning and cognitive science

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stenning, K.; van Lambalgen, M.

    2008-01-01

    In Human Reasoning and Cognitive Science, Keith Stenning and Michiel van Lambalgen—a cognitive scientist and a logician—argue for the indispensability of modern mathematical logic to the study of human reasoning. Logic and cognition were once closely connected, they write, but were "divorced" in the

  20. Does the road go up the mountain? Fictive motion between linguistic conventions and cognitive motivations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stosic, Dejan; Fagard, Benjamin; Sarda, Laure; Colin, Camille

    2015-09-01

    Fictive motion (FM) characterizes the use of dynamic expressions to describe static scenes. This phenomenon is crucial in terms of cognitive motivations for language use; several explanations have been proposed to account for it, among which mental simulation (Talmy in Toward a cognitive semantics, vol 1. MIT Press, Cambridge, 2000) and visual scanning (Matlock in Studies in linguistic motivation. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin and New York, pp 221-248, 2004a). The aims of this paper were to test these competing explanations and identify language-specific constraints. To do this, we compared the linguistic strategies for expressing several types of static configurations in four languages, French, Italian, German and Serbian, with an experimental set-up (59 participants). The experiment yielded significant differences for motion-affordance versus no motion-affordance, for all four languages. Significant differences between languages included mean frequency of FM expressions. In order to refine the picture, and more specifically to disentangle the respective roles of language-specific conventions and language-independent (i.e. possibly cognitive) motivations, we completed our study with a corpus approach (besides the four initial languages, we added English and Polish). The corpus study showed low frequency of FM across languages, but a higher frequency and translation ratio for some FM types--among which those best accounted for by enactive perception. The importance of enactive perception could thus explain both the universality of FM and the fact that language-specific conventions appear mainly in very specific contexts--the ones furthest from enaction.

  1. Language learning, language use and the evolution of linguistic variation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Kenny; Perfors, Amy; Fehér, Olga; Samara, Anna; Swoboda, Kate; Wonnacott, Elizabeth

    2017-01-05

    Linguistic universals arise from the interaction between the processes of language learning and language use. A test case for the relationship between these factors is linguistic variation, which tends to be conditioned on linguistic or sociolinguistic criteria. How can we explain the scarcity of unpredictable variation in natural language, and to what extent is this property of language a straightforward reflection of biases in statistical learning? We review three strands of experimental work exploring these questions, and introduce a Bayesian model of the learning and transmission of linguistic variation along with a closely matched artificial language learning experiment with adult participants. Our results show that while the biases of language learners can potentially play a role in shaping linguistic systems, the relationship between biases of learners and the structure of languages is not straightforward. Weak biases can have strong effects on language structure as they accumulate over repeated transmission. But the opposite can also be true: strong biases can have weak or no effects. Furthermore, the use of language during interaction can reshape linguistic systems. Combining data and insights from studies of learning, transmission and use is therefore essential if we are to understand how biases in statistical learning interact with language transmission and language use to shape the structural properties of language.This article is part of the themed issue 'New frontiers for statistical learning in the cognitive sciences'. © 2016 The Authors.

  2. Linguistic and other cognitive abilities in children with Specific Language Impairment as compared to children with High-Functioning Autism

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schaeffer, J.

    2018-01-01

    This study investigates the question as to whether and how the linguistic and other cognitive abilities of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) differ from those of children with High-Functioning Autism (HFA). To this end, 27 Dutch-speaking elementary-school-age children with SLI, 27

  3. Linguistic and Cognitive Abilities in Children with Specific Language Impairment as Compared to Children with High-Functioning Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaeffer, Jeannette

    2018-01-01

    This study investigates the question as to whether and how the linguistic and other cognitive abilities of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) differ from those of children with High-Functioning Autism (HFA). To this end, 27 Dutch-speaking elementary-school-age children with SLI, 27 age-matched children with HFA, and a control group…

  4. Lancaster Summer School in Corpus Linguistics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaka Čibej

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Med 12. in 15. julijem je na Univerzi v Lancastru potekala poletna šola korpusnega jezikoslovja Lancaster Summer Schools in Corpus Linguistics and Other Digital Methods. Poletno šolo so organizirali UCREL (University Centre for Computer Corpus Research on Language, ERC (Evropski svet za raziskave – European Research Council, CASS (ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science in ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council, razdeljena pa je bila na šest programov, prilagojenih različnim področjem: Korpusno jezikoslovje za proučevanje jezikov (Corpus Linguistics for Language Studies, Korpusno jezikoslovje za družbene vede (Corpus Linguistics for Social Science, Korpusno jezikoslovje za humanistiko (Corpus Linguistics for Humanities, Statistika za korpusno jezikoslovje (Statistics for Corpus Linguistics, Geografski informacijski sistemi za digitalno humanistiko (Geographical Information Systems for the Digital Humanities in Korpusno podprta obdelava naravnih jezikov (Corpus-based Natural Language Processing.

  5. Word classes in the brain: implications of linguistic typology for cognitive neuroscience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kemmerer, David

    2014-09-01

    Although recent research on the neural substrates of word classes has generated some valuable findings, significant progress has been hindered by insufficient attention to theoretical issues involving the nature of the lexical phenomena under investigation. This paper shows how insights from linguistic typology can provide cognitive neuroscientists with well-motivated guidelines for interpreting the extant data and charting a future course. At the outset, a fundamental distinction is made between universal and language-particular aspects of word classes. Regarding universals, prototypical nouns involve reference to objects, and their meanings rely primarily on the ventral temporal lobes, which represent the shape features of entities; in contrast, prototypical verbs involve predication of actions, and their meanings rely primarily on posterior middle temporal regions and frontoparietal regions, which represent the visual motion features and somatomotor features of events. Some researchers maintain that focusing on object nouns and action verbs is inappropriate because it conflates the semantic and grammatical properties of each word class. However, this criticism not only ignores the importance of the universal prototypes, but also mistakenly assumes that there are straightforward morphological and/or syntactic criteria for identifying nouns and verbs in particular languages. In fact, at the level of individual languages, the classic method of distributional analysis leads to a proliferation of constructionally based entity-denoting and event-denoting word classes with mismatching memberships, and all of this variation must be taken seriously, not only by linguists, but also by cognitive neuroscientists. Many of these word classes involve remarkably close correspondences between grammar and meaning and hence are highly relevant to the neurobiology of conceptual knowledge, but so far hardly any of them have been investigated from a neurolinguistic perspective

  6. Wittgenstein and the linguistic turn in social theory

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hermansen, Jens Christian

    of Winch in social theory, the wider and more recent influence of Wittgenstein in areas such as technology and science studies, social theory, feminist and gender studies and conversation and discourse analysis is also considered. Historically, the readings of Wittgenstein in the social sciences have taken...... of the linguistic turn in social theory, the linguistic turn is a double-edged sword of both profound insights and limits; the claim is that the limits of the linguistic turn are the strengths of functionalist, structuralist and materialist approaches to the social sciences. The approach of the critical turn...... is to develop a more comprehensive social theory that is sensitive to these strengths and thus supersedes the limits of the linguistic turn. This paper suggests a different approach. Against the critical turn, the paper argues that the limits of the linguistic turn are identical with the very assumptions...

  7. Linguistica matematica, statistica linguistica e linguistica applicata. Una nota storica sui lessici di frequenza e l'educazione linguistica (Mathematical Linguistics, Linguistic Statistics, and Applied Linguistics. An Historical Note on Word Frequencies and Linguistic Education)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elia, Annibale

    1977-01-01

    This article traces the history of several themes in applied linguistics and to show the relationships between linguistic theory and the sciences concerned with the learning and teaching of languages. Interest in word frequency statistics is discussed in particular. (Text is in Italian.) (CFM)

  8. Cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading comprehension in children with intellectual disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Wingerden, Evelien; Segers, Eliane; van Balkom, Hans; Verhoeven, Ludo

    2014-11-01

    A considerable number of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) are able to acquire basic word reading skills. However, not much is known about their achievements in more advanced reading comprehension skills. In the present study, a group of 49 children with ID and a control group of 21 typically developing children with word decoding skills in the normal ranges of first grade were compared in lower level (explicit meaning) and higher level (implicit meaning) reading comprehension abilities. Moreover, in the group of children with ID it was examined to what extent their levels of lower level and higher level reading comprehension could be predicted from their linguistic skills (word decoding, vocabulary, language comprehension) and cognitive skill (nonverbal reasoning). It was found that children with ID were weaker than typically developing children in higher level reading comprehension but not in lower level reading comprehension. Children with ID also performed below the control group on nonverbal reasoning and language comprehension. After controlling for nonverbal reasoning, linguistic skills predicted lower level reading comprehension but not higher level reading comprehension. It can be concluded that children with ID who have basic decoding skill do reasonably well on lower level reading comprehension but continue to have problems with higher level reading comprehension. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Possible Selves, Body Schemas, and Sādhana: Using Cognitive Science and Neuroscience in the Study of Medieval Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā Hindu Tantric Texts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Glen Alexander Hayes

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available In recent decades, historians of religions have turned to, and developed, entirely new methodologies for the study of religion and human consciousness. Foremost among these are a collection of approaches often termed the “cognitive science of religion” (CSR, typically drawing on cognitive science, neuroscience, linguistics, and contemporary metaphor theory. Although we are still “early” in this enterprise, I hope to show how a meaningful dialogue between religious studies and contemporary neuroscience and cognitive science can help us to better understand some intriguing mystical texts and practices from a tradition of medieval South Asian Hinduism. Known collectively as the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās, these followers of transgressive and antinomian Tantric Yoga provide excellent examples for exploring the nature of religion, ritual, consciousness, embodiment, identity, gender, emotions and sexuality. This paper will show how the study of these rich materials from 17th through 18th century Bengal in northeastern South Asia can be enhanced using insights from the philosopher, Shaun Gallagher, and the neurologist, Patrick McNamara.

  10. Can delusions be understood linguistically?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinzen, Wolfram; Rosselló, Joana; McKenna, Peter

    2016-07-01

    Delusions are widely believed to reflect disturbed cognitive function, but the nature of this remains elusive. The "un-Cartesian" cognitive-linguistic hypothesis maintains (a) that there is no thought separate from language, that is, there is no distinct mental space removed from language where "thinking" takes place; and (b) that a somewhat broadened concept of grammar is responsible for bestowing meaning on propositions, and this among other things gives them their quality of being true or false. It is argued that a loss of propositional meaning explains why delusions are false, impossible and sometimes fantastic. A closely related abnormality, failure of linguistic embedding, can additionally account for why delusions are held with fixed conviction and are not adequately justified by the patient. The un-Cartesian linguistic approach to delusions has points of contact with Frith's theory that inability to form meta-representations underlies a range of schizophrenic symptoms. It may also be relevant to the nature of the "second factor" in monothematic delusions in neurological disease. Finally, it can inform the current debate about whether or not delusions really are beliefs.

  11. The cognitive enterprise in Romania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mariana Neagu

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper focuses on some cognitive linguistic topics (e.g. categorization, polysemy, motivation of idioms, etc. approached by Romanian linguists in the last two decades. The selection of contributions that this paper presents is intended to offer an overview of the main attempts to introduce and develop cognitive linguistics in Romania. The claims put forward for English (especially American English have been contrasted and checked against data from Romanian. Generally, Romanian studies from a cognitive linguistic perspective shed light on various linguistic phenomena at both a theoretical and a practical level. Theoretically, they are relevant through their comparative and contrastive analyses, while practically they contribute insights to language acquisition and translation studies.

  12. Computer Access and Computer Use for Science Performance of Racial and Linguistic Minority Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Mido; Kim, Sunha

    2009-01-01

    This study examined the effects of computer access and computer use on the science achievement of elementary school students, with focused attention on the effects for racial and linguistic minority students. The study used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) database and conducted statistical analyses with proper weights and…

  13. Learning Science: Some Insights from Cognitive Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matthews, P. S. C.

    Theories of teaching and learning, including those associated with constructivism, often make no overt reference to an underlying assumption that they make; that is, human cognition depends on domain-free, general-purpose processing by the brain. This assumption is shown to be incompatible with evidence from studies of children's early learning. Rather, cognition is modular in nature, and often domain-specific. Recognition of modularity requires a re-evaluation of some aspects of current accounts of learning science. Especially, children's ideas in science are sometimes triggered rather than learned. It is in the nature of triggered conceptual structures that they are not necessarily expressible in language, and that they may not be susceptible to change by later learning.

  14. Cognitive science and mathematics education

    CERN Document Server

    Schoenfeld, Alan H

    1987-01-01

    This volume is a result of mathematicians, cognitive scientists, mathematics educators, and classroom teachers combining their efforts to help address issues of importance to classroom instruction in mathematics. In so doing, the contributors provide a general introduction to fundamental ideas in cognitive science, plus an overview of cognitive theory and its direct implications for mathematics education. A practical, no-nonsense attempt to bring recent research within reach for practicing teachers, this book also raises many issues for cognitive researchers to consider.

  15. The Linguistic and Embodied Nature of Conceptual Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Louwerse, Max M.; Jeuniaux, Patrick

    2010-01-01

    Recent theories of cognition have argued that embodied experience is important for conceptual processing. Embodiment can be contrasted with linguistic factors such as the typical order in which words appear in language. Here, we report four experiments that investigated the conditions under which embodiment and linguistic factors determine…

  16. MODERN LINGUODIDACTIC ASPECTS OF COGNITIVE APPROACH REALIZATION IN TEACHING STYLISTICS OF THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE TO STUDENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anzhelika Popovych

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available An approach to teaching stylistics – is a fundamental methodological category that defines the system of studying discipline, the ways of organizing the teaching material and the peculiarities of the interaction of all components of the educational process: principles, methods, ways of teaching. The linguocognitive approach in the study of stylistics aims at identifying aspects of the speech world picture, interpreting texts from the standpoint of cognitive processes, forming the cognitive and linguistic culture of students and the corresponding way of linguistic expression. The following levels of linguocognitive approach to the study of stylistics in higher education are distinguished, such as knowledge, practical and educational levels. The knowledge level involves students studying the foundations of cognitive linguistics and cognitive stylistics, systematic consideration of cognitive structures and processes, understanding the meaning of «concept» and interpreting the language and aesthetic characters of national culture. The perception of the text, its decoding, as well as the production are realized on a practical level. The educational level is aimed at forming the national linguistic and speech consciousness; respect for Ukrainian language traditions; education of speech culture; the desire to follow the aesthetic and ethical norms of communication. According to the contemporary aspects of the development of linguistic and linguistic-stylistic science, not only the clarification of the linguistic structural-level stylistic features of texts, the presence of traces and stylistic figures, but the identification of aspects of the linguistic picture of the world, the linguistic and aesthetic signs of national culture are relevant. Therefore, the cognitive-stylistic analysis of the text will be appropriate for the lessons of stylistics. The linguocognitive approach to the study of the stylistics of the Ukrainian language is extremely

  17. Physical computation and cognitive science

    CERN Document Server

    Fresco, Nir

    2014-01-01

    This book presents a study of digital computation in contemporary cognitive science. Digital computation is a highly ambiguous concept, as there is no common core definition for it in cognitive science. Since this concept plays a central role in cognitive theory, an adequate cognitive explanation requires an explicit account of digital computation. More specifically, it requires an account of how digital computation is implemented in physical systems. The main challenge is to deliver an account encompassing the multiple types of existing models of computation without ending up in pancomputationalism, that is, the view that every physical system is a digital computing system. This book shows that only two accounts, among the ones examined by the author, are adequate for explaining physical computation. One of them is the instructional information processing account, which is developed here for the first time.   “This book provides a thorough and timely analysis of differing accounts of computation while adv...

  18. The cognitive science of metaphor from philosophy to neuropsychology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tim Rohrer

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available In this paper I review some of the theoretical issues surrounding metaphor, and trace them through the context of the cognitive neuroscience debate. Metaphor, like all figurative language, has been usually explained as a secondary linguistic process which takes place as a function taking place on literal language. However this explanation does not fit well with some of the recent work on right hemisphere processing of language or recent cognitive studies, both of which suggest that the figurative and literal language are processed simultaneously and share much structure. In seeking ways to operationalize the Lakoff and Johnson view of metaphor as a constitutive cognitive phenomenon, I begin to spell out what kinds of theoretical predictions the Lakoff-Johnson model would make on the neurophysiological levels cognitive investigation. I conclude by offering some rudimentary thoughts on possible proposals for further investigation using these methods.

  19. What's on Your Mind? Conversation Topics Chosen by People With Degenerative Cognitive-Linguistic Disorders for Communication Boards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fried-Oken, Melanie; Daniels, Darlene; Ettinger, Olivia; Mooney, Aimee; Noethe, Glory; Rowland, Charity

    2015-05-01

    Conversational topics chosen by a group of adults with degenerative cognitive-linguistic disorders for personalized communication board development were examined. The patient-generated themes commonly selected are presented to guide treatment planning and communication board development. Communication boards were created for 109 adults as part of a larger research project. One autobiographical topic that each participant would enjoy discussing multiple times was represented on each communication board with 16 pictures and word labels. For this review, topics were collapsed into general themes through a consensus process and examined by gender and age. Sixty unique conversational topics were identified from 109 participants and collapsed into 9 general themes: Hobbies, Family, Travel, Work, Home/Places I've Lived, Sports/Fitness, Religion, Animals, and World War II. Age and gender produced variations in themes chosen, though no significance in rank orders was found across groups. Topics selected by adults with degenerative cognitive-linguistic disorders for communication boards resemble common conversational adult themes and do not center around basic needs or medical issues. Differences in gender and age for topic selection tend to be based on traditional roles. These general themes should be used when creating personalized communication boards for those who benefit from conversational aids.

  20. COGNITIVE SCIENCE DAN COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT DALAM PEMROSESAN INFORMASI (INFORMATION PROCESSING PADAANAK

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ellen Prima

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Cognitive science is a science which studies how human mental processes to influence one’s behavior. Principal major issue that needs to be known in the understanding of cognitive science and their development is related to how the initial state of cognitive science itself, the mind is adapted, the development process starting from the concrete to the abstract, the conceptual nature of the change, the difference between learning and development, format representation of the underlying changes in development, the role of implicit and explicit cognitions in the development, the role of the association and the rules in the development, the universal development, cognitive domain and how to influence the development of brain structure. There are three difference in the cognitive domain of the most common sense that domain as a module, as the domain of expertise, and domain as a model of mind.   Ilmu kognitif adalah suatu pengetahuan yang mempelajari tentang bagaimana proses mental manusia dalam mempengaruhi perilaku seseorang. Pokok pembahasan utama yang perlu diketahui dalam memahami ilmu kognitif dan perkembangannya yaitu terkait dengan bagaimana keadaan awal dari ilmu kognitif itu sendiri, pikiran yang teradaptasi, proses perkembangan mulai dari hal yang kongkrit sampai dengan abstrak, sifat konseptual dalam perubahan, perbedaan antara belajar dan pengembangan, format representasi yang mendasari perubahan dalam perkembangan, peran kognisi implisit dan eksplisit dalam perkembangan, peran asosiasi dan aturan dalam perkembangan, perkembangan secara universal, domain kognitif dan bagaimana struktur otak mempengaruhi perkembangan. Ada tiga perbedaan domain kognitif dari indera yang paling umum yaitu domain sebagai modul, domain sebagai bidang keahlian, dan domain sebagai model pikiran.

  1. Can delusions be understood linguistically?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinzen, Wolfram; Rosselló, Joana; McKenna, Peter

    2016-01-01

    ABSTRACT Delusions are widely believed to reflect disturbed cognitive function, but the nature of this remains elusive. The “un-Cartesian” cognitive-linguistic hypothesis maintains (a) that there is no thought separate from language, that is, there is no distinct mental space removed from language where “thinking” takes place; and (b) that a somewhat broadened concept of grammar is responsible for bestowing meaning on propositions, and this among other things gives them their quality of being true or false. It is argued that a loss of propositional meaning explains why delusions are false, impossible and sometimes fantastic. A closely related abnormality, failure of linguistic embedding, can additionally account for why delusions are held with fixed conviction and are not adequately justified by the patient. The un-Cartesian linguistic approach to delusions has points of contact with Frith’s theory that inability to form meta-representations underlies a range of schizophrenic symptoms. It may also be relevant to the nature of the “second factor” in monothematic delusions in neurological disease. Finally, it can inform the current debate about whether or not delusions really are beliefs. PMID:27322493

  2. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Readiness: Ethno-linguistic and gender differences in high-school course selection patterns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adamuti-Trache, Maria; Sweet, Robert

    2014-03-01

    The study examines science-related course choices of high-school students in the culturally diverse schools of the province of British Columbia, Canada. The analysis employs K-12 provincial data and includes over 44,000 students born in 1990 who graduated from high school by 2009. The research sample reflects the presence of about 27% of students for whom English is not a first language. We construct an empirical model that examines ethno-linguistic and gender differences in Grade 12 course choices while accounting for personal and situational differences among students. The study employs a course selection typology that emphasizes readiness for science, technology, engineering and math fields of study. Findings indicate that math- and science-related course selection patterns are strongly associated with ethnicity, qualified not only by gender and prior math and science achievement but also by the individual's grade level at entry to the system and enrollment in English as a Second Language program. Students who are more likely to engage in math and science courses belong to Asian ethno-linguistic groups and entered the provincial school system during the senior high-school years. We suggest that ethnic diversity and broader academic exposure may play a crucial role in changing the gender composition of science classrooms, university fields of study and science-related occupations.

  3. The part of cognitive science that is philosophy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dennett, Daniel C

    2009-04-01

    There is much good work for philosophers to do in cognitive science if they adopt the constructive attitude that prevails in science, work toward testable hypotheses, and take on the task of clarifying the relationship between the scientific concepts and the everyday concepts with which we conduct our moral lives. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  4. Towards a theoretical framework for analyzing complex linguistic networks

    CERN Document Server

    Lücking, Andy; Banisch, Sven; Blanchard, Philippe; Job, Barbara

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this book is to advocate and promote network models of linguistic systems that are both based on thorough mathematical models and substantiated in terms of linguistics. In this way, the book contributes first steps towards establishing a statistical network theory as a theoretical basis of linguistic network analysis the boarder of the natural sciences and the humanities.This book addresses researchers who want to get familiar with theoretical developments, computational models and their empirical evaluation in the field of complex linguistic networks. It is intended to all those who are interested in statisticalmodels of linguistic systems from the point of view of network research. This includes all relevant areas of linguistics ranging from phonological, morphological and lexical networks on the one hand and syntactic, semantic and pragmatic networks on the other. In this sense, the volume concerns readers from many disciplines such as physics, linguistics, computer science and information scien...

  5. Embodied Language Learning and Cognitive Bootstrapping

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lyon, C.E.; Nehaniv, C. L.; Saunders, Joe

    2016-01-01

    Co-development of action, conceptualization and social interaction mutually scaffold and support each other within a virtuous feedback cycle in the development of human language in children. Within this framework, the purpose of this article is to bring together diverse but complementary accounts...... of research methods that jointly contribute to our understanding of cognitive development and in particular, language acquisition in robots. Thus, we include research pertaining to developmental robotics, cognitive science, psychology, linguistics and neuroscience, as well as practical computer science...... the humanoid robot iCub are reported, while human learning relevant to developmental robotics has also contributed useful results. Disparate approaches are brought together via common underlying design principles. Without claiming to model human language acquisition directly, we are nonetheless inspired...

  6. Why metaphor and other tropes? Linguistic approaches to analysing policies and the political

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Yanow, D.; Cienki, A.

    2013-01-01

    The articles in this special issue on linguistic approaches to analysing policies and the political share the goal of taking language seriously, achieved through detailed attention to linguistic usage in its respective contexts. They reflect a stance common to both cognitive linguistic and

  7. How Do Different Cognitive and Linguistic Variables Contribute to Reading in Arabic? A Cross-Sectional Study from First to Sixth Grade

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asadi, Ibrahim A.; Khateb, Asaid; Ibrahim, Raphiq; Taha, Haitham

    2017-01-01

    The contribution of linguistic and cognitive variables to reading processes might vary depending on the particularities of the languages studied. This view is thought to be particularly true for Arabic which is a diglossic language and has particular orthographic and morpho-syntactic systems. This cross-sectional study examined the contribution of…

  8. On the concept of a linguistic variable

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kerre, E.

    1996-01-01

    The concept of a linguistic variable plays a crucial role in the representation of imprecise knowledge in information sciences. A variable is called linguistic as soon as its values are linguistic terms rather than numerical ones. The power of daily communication and common sense reasoning lies in the use of such linguistic values. Even when exact numerical values are available, experts tend to transform these values into linguistic ones. A physician will usually translate a numerical measurement of a blood pressure into linguistic specifications such as normal, very high, too low... Zadeh has argued that the set of values for a linguistic variable assumes a more-or-less fixed structure. Starting from an atomic value and its antonym all remaining values are constructed using logical connectives on the one hand and linguistic hedges on the other hand. In this paper we will describe how to represent the value set of a linguistic variable in general and of linguistic hedges in particular

  9. From a dictionary to an atlas: segmental mapping of the linguistic picture of the world

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sergey N. Gagarin

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available 'At the heart of any language lies a vision. It embraces the world around us in myriads of complex ways. It is the lifeblood of every people's identity. It is so essential and indispensable that few assets of humankind can rival it for value or timelessness. It is known as the linguistic picture of the world, and it is notorious for being among the knottiest study subjects of language science. No coherent methodology has been proposed to date as to how it should be consistently structured to result in a systemic and navigable map of its core words and concepts. This constitutes a conspicuous gap in contemporary linguistics, which the present article addresses from the perspective of cognitive lexicology and lexicography while engaging the linguistic picture of the world on a segment-by-segment basis. In keeping with the aforesaid approach, one segment at a time is selected, and the discourse that reflects it is analysed with a view to identifying transcendental notions contained therein. The latter are construed as a type of cognitive concepts which epitomise the core ideas inherent in a particular type of spoken or written discourse. Being verbalised by means of relevant verbal fields, these transcendental notions permeate the cognitive and textual fabric of the selected segment of a linguistic picture of the world. By way of demonstrating the feasibility of this approach, a new type of dictionary has been compiled by the author, which captures and reveals in a semantically structured way the verbal side of the transcendental notion "countering" in the socio-political discourse of English-language media. Along with other transcendental notions, such as "facilitation", "communication", "attitude", etc., it is viewed as part of a range of the cognitive pillars which are essential to a limited segment of a linguistic picture of the world, but are by no means reserved to it, stretching far beyond and reaching throughout the vision of the world

  10. The linguistic repudiation of Wundt.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nerlich, B; Clarke, D D

    1998-08-01

    Wilhelm Wundt's influence on the development of linguistics and psychology was pervasive. The foundations for this web of influence on the sciences of mind and language were laid down in Wundt's own research program, which was quite different from other attempts at founding a new psychology, as it was deeply rooted in German philosophy. This resulted in certain gaps in Wundt's conception of mind and language. These gaps provoked a double repudiation of Wundt's theories, by linguists and psychologists. The psychological repudiation has been studied by historians of psychology, and the linguistic repudiation has been studied by historians of linguistics. The intent of this article is to bring the linguistic repudiation to the attention of historians of psychology, especially the one outlined by two important figures in the history of psychology: Karl Buhler and George Mead.

  11. Paradigm Changes in Linguistics: From Reductionism to Holism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weigand, Edda

    2011-01-01

    Linguistics like any science has undergone a series of paradigm changes, one of the most important being the change from the view of language as a sign system to that of language-in-use. In the face of the progress made in the natural and social sciences in recent years, from biology to economics, the question has to be posed where linguistics and…

  12. Auditory expectation: the information dynamics of music perception and cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pearce, Marcus T; Wiggins, Geraint A

    2012-10-01

    Following in a psychological and musicological tradition beginning with Leonard Meyer, and continuing through David Huron, we present a functional, cognitive account of the phenomenon of expectation in music, grounded in computational, probabilistic modeling. We summarize a range of evidence for this approach, from psychology, neuroscience, musicology, linguistics, and creativity studies, and argue that simulating expectation is an important part of understanding a broad range of human faculties, in music and beyond. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  13. Design Features for Linguistically-Mediated Meaning Construction: The Relative Roles of the Linguistic and Conceptual Systems in Subserving the Ideational Function of Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, Vyvyan

    2016-01-01

    Recent research in language and cognitive science proposes that the linguistic system evolved to provide an "executive" control system on the evolutionarily more ancient conceptual system (e.g., Barsalou et al., 2008; Evans, 2009, 2015a,b; Bergen, 2012). In short, the claim is that embodied representations in the linguistic system interface with non-linguistic representations in the conceptual system, facilitating rich meanings, or simulations, enabling linguistically mediated communication. In this paper I build on these proposals by examining the nature of what I identify as design features for this control system. In particular, I address how the ideational function of language-our ability to deploy linguistic symbols to convey meanings of great complexity-is facilitated. The central proposal of this paper is as follows. The linguistic system of any given language user, of any given linguistic system-spoken or signed-facilitates access to knowledge representation-concepts-in the conceptual system, which subserves this ideational function. In the most general terms, the human meaning-making capacity is underpinned by two distinct, although tightly coupled representational systems: the conceptual system and the linguistic system. Each system contributes to meaning construction in qualitatively distinct ways. This leads to the first design feature: given that the two systems are representational-they are populated by semantic representations-the nature and function of the representations are qualitatively different. This proposed design feature I term the bifurcation in semantic representation. After all, it stands to reason that if a linguistic system has a different function, vis-à-vis the conceptual system, which is of far greater evolutionary antiquity, then the semantic representations will be complementary, and as such, qualitatively different, reflecting the functional distinctions of the two systems, in collectively giving rise to meaning. I consider the

  14. Confidence in the Knowledge Base of English Language Learners Studying Science: Using Agency to Compensate for the Lack of Adequate Linguistic Identity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hayes, Aneta L.; Mansour, Nasser

    2017-04-01

    Changes in the cultural and linguistic environments of learners are often associated with identity shifts. The aim of this study was to explore what identity shifts occur when science students from Bahraini national schools transition to an international university. The role of two aspects of learner identity—that is, English proficiency and science background knowledge, was examined in this study. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted with students and with university lecturers. The analysis suggested three conceptual themes of (1) reliance on science knowledge, (2) the auxiliary role of professional language and (3) adequacy of student learning strategies, demonstrating what subjective meanings the participants ascribe to the interplay between science knowledge and linguistic ability. The findings suggest that despite the lack of adequate linguistic attributes, the students are still able to successfully learn science in the context of language change. It is also implied that through strategically utilising their academic background in science, students preserve their identity as successful learners from school through to university. We conclude that agency plays a separate role in transition and is not a sole function of identity. We also contest the idea of language as a necessary attribute of one's identity as it was perceived by our participants to be an advantage and an auxiliary tool rather than a requirement.

  15. Introduction to cognition in science and technology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorman, Michael E

    2009-10-01

    Cognitive studies of science and technology have had a long history of largely independent research projects that have appeared in multiple outlets, but rarely together. The emergence of a new International Society for Psychology of Science and Technology suggests that this is a good time to put some of the latest work in this area into topiCS in a way that will both acquaint readers with the cutting edge in this domain and also give them a hint of its history. One core theme includes how scientists, inventors, and engineers represent and solve problems; another, related theme is the extent to which they distribute and share cognition. Methodologies include fine-grained studies of historical records, protocols of working scientists, observations and comparisons of engineering science laboratories, and computational simulations designed both to serve as research tools and also to improve scientific problem-solving. The series of articles will conclude with the Associate Editor's suggestions for future research. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  16. Impact of cognitive and linguistic ability on gaze behavior in children with hearing impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olof eSandgren

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available In order to explore verbal-nonverbal integration, we investigated the influence of cognitive and linguistic ability on gaze behavior during spoken language conversation between children with mild-to-moderate hearing impairment (HI and normal-hearing (NH peers. Ten HI-NH and ten NH-NH dyads performed a referential communication task requiring description of faces. During task performance, eye movements and speech were tracked. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to model associations between performance on cognitive and linguistic tasks and the probability of gaze to the conversational partner’s face. Analyses compare the listeners in each dyad (HI: n = 10, mean age = 12;6 years, SD = 2;0, mean better ear pure-tone average 33.0 dB HL, SD = 7.8; NH: n = 10, mean age = 13;7 years, SD = 1;11. Group differences in gaze behavior – with HI gazing more to the conversational partner than NH – remained significant despite adjustment for ability on receptive grammar, expressive vocabulary, and complex working memory. Adjustment for phonological short term memory, as measured by nonword repetition, removed group differences, revealing an interaction between group membership and nonword repetition ability. Stratified analysis showed a twofold increase of the probability of gaze-to-partner for HI with low phonological short term memory capacity, and a decreased probability for HI with high capacity, as compared to NH peers. The results revealed differences in gaze behavior attributable to performance on a phonological short term memory task. Participants with hearing impairment and low phonological short term memory capacity showed a doubled probability of gaze to the conversational partner, indicative of a visual bias. The results stress the need to look beyond the hearing impairment in diagnostics and intervention. Acknowledgment of the finding requires clinical assessment of children with hearing impairment to be supported by tasks tapping

  17. On projecting grammatical persons into social neurocognition: a view from linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, Nicholas

    2013-08-01

    Though it draws on the grammatical metaphor of person (first, third, second) in terms of representations, Schilbach et al.'s target article does not consider an orthogonal line of evidence for the centrality of interaction to social cognition: the many grammatical phenomena, some widespread cross-linguistically and some only being discovered, which are geared to supporting real-time interaction. My commentary reviews these, and the contribution linguistic evidence can make to a fuller account of social cognition.

  18. Text Linguistics in the Context of the Communication Sciences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silviu Serban

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper tries to analyse the conditions of emerging of text linguistics, taking into consideration the rootsof the preoccupations in its domain, originated in the framework of the communication studies. Thus, the change ofthe perspective on communication, from the mechanistic transmission to interactivity and the exchange of themeanings, led to the pragmatic orientation of the linguistic researches, not just to the message itself, but also to theelements of the communicative act and to the context where the exchange of the meanings takes place. As a result,text linguistics defines the text as communicational occurrence, involving both the members of the communicationand the conditions of the production and the reception of the message, unlike conventional linguistics which studiesthe text in abstracto, just the message itself, ignoring the world that the text refers to, or the users of the message, thetransmitter and the receiver.

  19. Racial identification, knowledge, and the politics of everyday life in an Arizona science classroom: A linguistic ethnography

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Connor, Brendan Harold

    This dissertation is a linguistic ethnography of a high school Astronomy/Oceanography classroom in southern Arizona, where an exceptionally promising, novice, white science teacher and mostly Mexican-American students confronted issues of identity and difference through interactions both related and unrelated to science learning. Through close analysis of video-recorded, naturally-occurring interaction and rich ethnographic description, the study documents how a teacher and students accomplished everyday classroom life, built caring relationships, and pursued scientific inquiry at a time and in a place where nationally- and locally-circulating discourses about immigration and race infused even routine interactions with tension and uncertainty. In their talk, students appropriated elements of racializing discourses, but also used language creatively to "speak back" to commonsense notions about Mexicanness. Careful examination of science-related interactions reveals the participants' negotiation of multiple, intersecting forms of citizenship (i.e., cultural and scientific citizenship) in the classroom, through multidirectional processes of language socialization in which students and the teacher regularly exchanged expert and novice roles. This study offers insight into the continuing relevance of racial, cultural, and linguistic identity to students' experiences of schooling, and sheds new light on classroom discourse, teacher-student relationships, and dimensions of citizenship in science learning, with important implications for teacher preparation and practice.

  20. [Conceptual Development in Cognitive Science. Part II].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fierro, Marco

    2012-03-01

    Cognitive science has become the most influential paradigm on mental health in the late 20(th) and the early 21(st) centuries. In few years, the concepts, problem approaches and solutions proper to this science have significantly changed. Introduction and discussion of the fundamental concepts of cognitive science divided in four stages: Start, Classic Cognitivism, Connectionism, and Embodying / Enacting. The 2(nd) Part of the paper discusses the above mentioned fourth stage and explores the clinical setting, especially in terms of cognitive psychotherapy. The embodying/enacting stage highlights the role of the body including a set of determined evolutionary movements which provide a way of thinking and exploring the world. The performance of cognitive tasks is considered as a process that uses environmental resources that enhances mental skills and deploys them beyond the domestic sphere of the brain. On the other hand, body and mind are embedded in the world, thus giving rise to cognition when interacting, a process known as enacting. There is a close connection between perception and action, hence the interest in real-time interactions with the world rather than abstract reasoning. Regarding clinics, specifically the cognitive therapy, there is little conceptual discussion maybe due to good results from practice that may led us to consider that theoretical foundations are firm and not problem-raising. Copyright © 2012 Asociación Colombiana de Psiquiatría. Publicado por Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

  1. Formal linguistics as a cue to demographic history.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Longobardi, Giuseppe; Ceolin, Andrea; Ecay, Aaron; Ghirotto, Silvia; Guardiano, Cristina; Irimia, Monica-Alexandrina; Michelioudakis, Dimitris; Radkevich, Nina; Pettener, Davide; Luiselli, Donata; Barbujani, Guido

    2016-06-20

    Beyond its theoretical success, the development of molecular genetics has brought about the possibility of extraordinary progress in the study of classification and in the inference of the evolutionary history of many species and populations. A major step forward was represented by the availability of extremely large sets of molecular data suited to quantitative and computational treatments. In this paper, we argue that even in cognitive sciences, purely theoretical progress in a discipline such as linguistics may have analogous impact. Thus, exactly on the model of molecular biology, we propose to unify two traditionally unrelated lines of linguistic investigation: 1) the formal study of syntactic variation (parameter theory) in the biolinguistic program; 2) the reconstruction of relatedness among languages (phylogenetic taxonomy). The results of our linguistic analysis have thus been plotted against data from population genetics and the correlations have turned out to be largely significant: given a non-trivial set of languages/populations, the description of their variation provided by the comparison of systematic parametric analysis and molecular anthropology informatively recapitulates their history and relationships. As a result, we can claim that the reality of some parametric model of the language faculty and language acquisition/transmission (more broadly of generative grammar) receives strong and original support from its historical heuristic power. Then, on these grounds, we can begin testing Darwin's prediction that, when properly generated, the trees of human populations and of their languages should eventually turn out to be significantly parallel.

  2. Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic Preference Utility Set and Its Application in Selection of Fire Rescue Plans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Si, Guangsen; Xu, Zeshui

    2018-01-01

    Hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set provides an effective tool to represent uncertain decision information. However, the semantics corresponding to the linguistic terms in it cannot accurately reflect the decision-makers’ subjective cognition. In general, different decision-makers’ sensitivities towards the semantics are different. Such sensitivities can be represented by the cumulative prospect theory value function. Inspired by this, we propose a linguistic scale function to transform the semantics corresponding to linguistic terms into the linguistic preference values. Furthermore, we propose the hesitant fuzzy linguistic preference utility set, based on which, the decision-makers can flexibly express their distinct semantics and obtain the decision results that are consistent with their cognition. For calculations and comparisons over the hesitant fuzzy linguistic preference utility sets, we introduce some distance measures and comparison laws. Afterwards, to apply the hesitant fuzzy linguistic preference utility sets in emergency management, we develop a method to obtain objective weights of attributes and then propose a hesitant fuzzy linguistic preference utility-TOPSIS method to select the best fire rescue plan. Finally, the validity of the proposed method is verified by some comparisons of the method with other two representative methods including the hesitant fuzzy linguistic-TOPSIS method and the hesitant fuzzy linguistic-VIKOR method. PMID:29614019

  3. Linguistic Resources Used in Grade 8 Students' Submicro Level Explanations—Science Items from TIMSS 2007

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frändberg, Birgitta; Lincoln, Per; Wallin, Anita

    2013-12-01

    Explanations involving submicro levels of representation are central to science education, but known to be difficult for students in secondary school. This study examines students' written explanations of physical and chemical phenomena regarding matter and changes in matter, in a large-scale test. This is done in order to understand linguistic challenges in constructing submicro level explanations involving the particle model of matter. Drawing from systemic functional linguistics, the lexicogrammatics used in explanations for realising experiential meaning in student explanations were analysed. We used answers to two partly constructed response items from the Swedish part of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies 2007, grade 8, to sort out explanations referring to the particle model of matter. These answers (86 from 954) were analysed regarding choices of vocabulary and grammar to distinguish between macro and submicro level of representation. The results show that students use a wide variety of lexicogrammatical resources to realise what happens on both macro and submicro level of representation, with greater diversity of verbs on the submicro level of explanation. The results suggest an uncertainty about the distinction between macro and submicro level of explanation.

  4. Cognitive apprenticeship in health sciences education: a qualitative review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyons, Kayley; McLaughlin, Jacqueline E; Khanova, Julia; Roth, Mary T

    2017-08-01

    Cognitive apprenticeship theory emphasizes the process of making expert thinking "visible" to students and fostering the cognitive and meta-cognitive processes required for expertise. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the use of cognitive apprenticeship theory with the primary aim of understanding how and to what extent the theory has been applied to the design, implementation, and analysis of education in the health sciences. The initial search yielded 149 articles, with 45 excluded because they contained the term "cognitive apprenticeship" only in reference list. The remaining 104 articles were categorized using a theory talk coding scheme. An in depth qualitative synthesis and review was conducted for the 26 articles falling into the major theory talk category. Application of cognitive apprenticeship theory tended to focus on the methods dimension (e.g., coaching, mentoring, scaffolding), with some consideration for the content and sociology dimensions. Cognitive apprenticeship was applied in various disciplines (e.g., nursing, medicine, veterinary) and educational settings (e.g., clinical, simulations, online). Health sciences education researchers often used cognitive apprenticeship to inform instructional design and instrument development. Major recommendations from the literature included consideration for contextual influences, providing faculty development, and expanding application of the theory to improve instructional design and student outcomes. This body of research provides critical insight into cognitive apprenticeship theory and extends our understanding of how to develop expert thinking in health sciences students. New research directions should apply the theory into additional aspects of health sciences educational research, such as classroom learning and interprofessional education.

  5. Rotterdam Aphasia Therapy Study (RATS – 3: “The efficacy of intensive cognitive-linguistic therapy in the acute stage of aphasia”; design of a randomised controlled trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nouwens Femke

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Aphasia is a severely disabling condition occurring in 20 to 25% of stroke patients. Most patients with aphasia due to stroke receive speech and language therapy. Methodologically sound randomised controlled trials investigating the effect of specific interventions for patients with aphasia following stroke are scarce. The currently available evidence suggests that intensive speech and language therapy is beneficial for restoration of communication, but the optimal timing of treatment is as yet unclear. In the Rotterdam Aphasia Therapy Study-3 we aim to test the hypothesis that patients with aphasia due to stroke benefit more from early intensive cognitive-linguistic therapy than from deferred regular language therapy. Methods/design In a single blinded, multicentre, randomised controlled trial, 150 patients with first ever aphasia due to stroke will be randomised within two weeks after stroke to either early intensive cognitive-linguistic therapy (Group A or deferred regular therapy (Group B. Group A will start as soon as possible, at the latest two weeks after stroke, with a four week period of one hour a day treatment with cognitive-linguistic therapy. In Group B professional speech and language therapy is deferred for four weeks. After this period, patients will follow the conventional procedure of speech and language therapy. Participants will be tested with an extensive linguistic test battery at four weeks, three months and six months after inclusion. Primary outcome measure is the difference in score between the two treatment groups on the Amsterdam-Nijmegen Everyday Language Test, a measure of everyday verbal communication, four weeks after randomisation. Trial registration This trial is registered in the Dutch Trial Register (http://www.trialregister.nl, NTR3271.

  6. Analysis of Idiom Variation in the Framework of Linguistic Subjectivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zhengyuan

    2012-01-01

    Idiom variation is a ubiquitous linguistic phenomenon which has raised a lot of research questions. The past approach was either formal or functional. Both of them did not pay much attention to cognitive factors of language users. By putting idiom variation in the framework of linguistic subjectivity, we have offered a new perspective in the…

  7. A Review about Functional Illiteracy: Definition, Cognitive, Linguistic and Numerical Aspects

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    Réka Vágvölgyi

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Formally, availability of education for children has increased around the world over the last decades. However, despite having a successful formal education career, adults can become functional illiterates. Functional illiteracy means that a person cannot use reading, writing and calculation skills for his/her own and the community’s development. Functional illiteracy has considerable negative effects not only on personal development, but also in economic and social terms. Although functional illiteracy has been highly publicized in mass media in the recent years, there is limited scientific knowledge about the people termed functional illiterates; definition, assessment and differential diagnoses with respect to related numerical and linguistic impairments are rarely studied and controversial.The first goal of our review is to give a comprehensive overview of the research on functional illiteracy by describing gaps in knowledge within the field and to outline and address the basic questions concerning who can be considered as functional illiterates: (1 Do they possess basic skills? (2 In which abilities do they have the largest deficits? (3 Are numerical and linguistic deficits related? (4 What is the fundamental reason for their difficulties? (5 Are there main differences between functional illiterates, illiterates and dyslexics? We will see that despite partial evidence, there is still much research needed to answer these questions.Secondly, we emphasize the timeliness for a new and more precise definition that results in uniform sampling, better diagnosis, conclusion and intervention. We propose the following working definition as the result of the review: functional illiteracy is the incapability to understand complex texts despite adequate schooling, age, language skills, elementary reading skills and IQ. These inabilities must also not be fully explained by sensory, domain-general cognitive, neurological or mental disorders.In sum, we

  8. A MODEL OF THE CONFLICT LINGUISTIC PERSONALITY IN EVERYDAY CONFLICT DISCOURSE

    OpenAIRE

    Belova E. V.

    2015-01-01

    The aim of the study is to describe the concept of conflict linguistic personality and construct a model of linguistic identity. By summing up common features of the individual personalities we have created the model of conflict linguistic personality, based on three levels: verbal-semantic, cognitive and pragmatic. 1. Verbal - semantic level. Unlike other subtypes of conflict discourse, everyday conflict discourse is characterized by slang, invective, obscene vocabulary. Another feature of e...

  9. Linguistic complex networks as a young field of quantitative linguistics. Comment on "Approaching human language with complex networks" by J. Cong and H. Liu

    Science.gov (United States)

    Köhler, Reinhard

    2014-12-01

    We have long been used to the domination of qualitative methods in modern linguistics. Indeed, qualitative methods have advantages such as ease of use and wide applicability to many types of linguistic phenomena. However, this shall not overshadow the fact that a great part of human language is amenable to quantification. Moreover, qualitative methods may lead to over-simplification by employing the rigid yes/no scale. When variability and vagueness of human language must be taken into account, qualitative methods will prove inadequate and give way to quantitative methods [1, p. 11]. In addition to such advantages as exactness and precision, quantitative concepts and methods make it possible to find laws of human language which are just like those in natural sciences. These laws are fundamental elements of linguistic theories in the spirit of the philosophy of science [2,3]. Theorization effort of this type is what quantitative linguistics [1,4,5] is devoted to. The review of Cong and Liu [6] has provided an informative and insightful survey of linguistic complex networks as a young field of quantitative linguistics, including the basic concepts and measures, the major lines of research with linguistic motivation, and suggestions for future research.

  10. Culture shapes the evolution of cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Bill; Kirby, Simon; Smith, Kenny

    2016-04-19

    A central debate in cognitive science concerns the nativist hypothesis, the proposal that universal features of behavior reflect a biologically determined cognitive substrate: For example, linguistic nativism proposes a domain-specific faculty of language that strongly constrains which languages can be learned. An evolutionary stance appears to provide support for linguistic nativism, because coordinated constraints on variation may facilitate communication and therefore be adaptive. However, language, like many other human behaviors, is underpinned by social learning and cultural transmission alongside biological evolution. We set out two models of these interactions, which show how culture can facilitate rapid biological adaptation yet rule out strong nativization. The amplifying effects of culture can allow weak cognitive biases to have significant population-level consequences, radically increasing the evolvability of weak, defeasible inductive biases; however, the emergence of a strong cultural universal does not imply, nor lead to, nor require, strong innate constraints. From this we must conclude, on evolutionary grounds, that the strong nativist hypothesis for language is false. More generally, because such reciprocal interactions between cultural and biological evolution are not limited to language, nativist explanations for many behaviors should be reconsidered: Evolutionary reasoning shows how we can have cognitively driven behavioral universals and yet extreme plasticity at the level of the individual-if, and only if, we account for the human capacity to transmit knowledge culturally. Wherever culture is involved, weak cognitive biases rather than strong innate constraints should be the default assumption.

  11. The cognitive viewpoint on information science and processing information in cognitive psychology - a vision for interdisciplinary

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shirley Guimarães Pimenta

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available The interaction amongst the ‘user’, ‘information’, and ‘text’ is of interest to Information Science although it has deserved insufficient attention in the literature. This issue is addressed by this paper whose main purpose is to contribute to the discussion of theoretical affinity between the cognitive viewpoint in Information Science and the information processing approach in Cognitive Psychology. Firstly, the interdisciplinary nature of Information Science is discussed and justified as a means to deepen and strengthen its theoretical framework. Such interdisciplinarity helps to avoid stagnation and keep pace with other disciplines. Secondly, the discussion takes into consideration the cognitive paradigm, which originates the cognitive viewpoint approach in Information Science. It is highlighted that the cognitive paradigm represented a change in the Social Sciences due to the shift of focus from the object and the signal to the individual. Besides that, it sheds light to the notion of models of worlds, i.e., the systems of categories and concepts that guide the interaction between the individual and his/her environment. Thirdly, the theoretical assumptions of the cognitive viewpoint approach are discussed, with emphasis on the concept of ‘information’, as resulting of cognitive processes and as related to the notion of ‘text’. This approach points out the relevance of understanding the interaction amongst users, information, and text. However, it lacks further development. Using notions which are common to both approaches, some of the gaps can be fulfilled. Finally, the concept of ‘text’, its constituents and structures are presented from the perspective of text comprehension models and according to the information processing approach. As a concluding remark, it is suggested that bringing together the cognitive viewpoint and the information processing approach can be enriching and fruitful to the both Information

  12. Applications of Mathematical Logic in Philosophy and Linguistics, Papers of a Conference

    CERN Document Server

    Malzkom, Wolfgang; Räsch, Thoralf

    2003-01-01

    "Foundations of the Formal Sciences" (FotFS) is a series of interdisciplinary conferences in mathematics, philosophy, computer science and linguistics. The main goal is to reestablish the traditionally strong links between these areas of research that have been lost in the past decades. The second conference in the series had the subtitle "Applications of Mathematical Logic in Philosophy and Linguistics" and brought speakers from all parts of the Formal Sciences together to give a holistic view of how mathematical methods can improve our philosophical and technical understanding of language and scientific discourse, ranging from the theoretical level up to applications in language recognition software. Audience: This volume is of interest to all formal philosophers and theoretical linguists. In addition to that, logicians interested in the applications of their field and logic students in mathematics, computer science, philosophy and linguistics can use the volume to broaden their knowledge of applications of...

  13. Sociolinguistic variables and cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, Erik R

    2011-11-01

    Sociolinguistics has examined mental organization of language only sporadically. Meanwhile, areas of linguistics that deal with cognitive organization seldom delve deeply into language variation. Variation is essential for understanding how language is structured cognitively, however. Three kinds of evidence are discussed to illustrate this point. First, style shifting demonstrates that language users develop detailed associations of when to produce specific linguistic forms, depending on the pragmatic context. Second, variation in fine-grained phonetic cues shows that cognitive organization applies to linguistic forms not otherwise known to be under speakers' control. Finally, experiments on dialect comprehension and identification demonstrate that listeners have detailed cognitive associations of language variants with groups of people, whether or not they can produce the same variants themselves. A model is presented for how sociolinguistic knowledge can be viewed in relation to other parts of language with regard to cognitive and neural representations. WIREs Cogni Sci 2011 2 701-716 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.152 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  14. Information Technology and the Cognitive Sciences

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasmussen, Jens

    -computer interaction' studies have been focused on analysis of interface communication. These approaches have, quite naturally, resulted in a rather technology driven, bottom-up research strategy. Application of advanced information technology in large scale installation, however, also calls for a more system oriented......Different approaches to the study of cognitive systems can be identified. The AI related'cognitive science' is based on the information processing metaphor of human cognition in an attempt to reach 'computational' models for behaviour in well-formed micro worlds. Within the field of 'human...

  15. Cognitive computing and eScience in health and life science research: artificial intelligence and obesity intervention programs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marshall, Thomas; Champagne-Langabeer, Tiffiany; Castelli, Darla; Hoelscher, Deanna

    2017-12-01

    To present research models based on artificial intelligence and discuss the concept of cognitive computing and eScience as disruptive factors in health and life science research methodologies. The paper identifies big data as a catalyst to innovation and the development of artificial intelligence, presents a framework for computer-supported human problem solving and describes a transformation of research support models. This framework includes traditional computer support; federated cognition using machine learning and cognitive agents to augment human intelligence; and a semi-autonomous/autonomous cognitive model, based on deep machine learning, which supports eScience. The paper provides a forward view of the impact of artificial intelligence on our human-computer support and research methods in health and life science research. By augmenting or amplifying human task performance with artificial intelligence, cognitive computing and eScience research models are discussed as novel and innovative systems for developing more effective adaptive obesity intervention programs.

  16. Book Review: Signs of Science - Linguistics meets Biology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert Prinz

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available „Biosemiotics“ is an integrative and interdisciplinary research effort that investigates living systems with concepts borrowed from linguistics and the communication sciences. Life is seen as an entanglement of communicative processes relating entities with each other by defined rules. Those “rules” are the very heart of (biosemiotic analysis. A hallmark of life is the existence of rules that are very different from natural laws. We can find such rules embedded in the genetic code, for example, where a transfer RNA relates a codon in mRNA to an amino acid. Nevertheless, it could have evolved in another way as well as genetic code engineering shows. Apparently arbitrary relationships are inherent to all levels of biological organization: from cells to organisms. Parts are connected in ways that can hardly be inferred from physical (thermodynamic principles and still await reconciliation in a reasonable manner.   Essential Readings in Biosemiotics Anthology and Commentary Series: Biosemiotics, Vol. 3 Favareau, Donald (editor 1st Edition., 2010, 880 p., 219,94 €, Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-9649-5

  17. Second Language Experience Facilitates Statistical Learning of Novel Linguistic Materials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Potter, Christine E; Wang, Tianlin; Saffran, Jenny R

    2017-04-01

    Recent research has begun to explore individual differences in statistical learning, and how those differences may be related to other cognitive abilities, particularly their effects on language learning. In this research, we explored a different type of relationship between language learning and statistical learning: the possibility that learning a new language may also influence statistical learning by changing the regularities to which learners are sensitive. We tested two groups of participants, Mandarin Learners and Naïve Controls, at two time points, 6 months apart. At each time point, participants performed two different statistical learning tasks: an artificial tonal language statistical learning task and a visual statistical learning task. Only the Mandarin-learning group showed significant improvement on the linguistic task, whereas both groups improved equally on the visual task. These results support the view that there are multiple influences on statistical learning. Domain-relevant experiences may affect the regularities that learners can discover when presented with novel stimuli. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  18. A Linguistic Overview of the Nigel Text Generation Grammar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1983-10-01

    guag speifedby oes ais*tothiesW ratherthanusinglthe stle ofa person . Pesarc of 96 adr has been gead In in scattered helulon foramr a decade, general... charateristics of a syntactic unit, formally termed grammatical features. Each syntactic unit is fira developed sea set of grammatical features, which realization...Fawcett 80] Fawcett, R. P., Exeter Linguistic Studies. Volume 3: Cognitive Linguistics and Social Interaction, Julius Groos Vedag Heidelberg and Exeter

  19. Linguistic Levels of Translation: A Generic Exploration of Translation Difficulties in Literary Textual Corpus

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    Magda Madkour

    2016-11-01

    Social Sciences (SPSS, and qualitative data depended on the software NVivo. The results of data analysis indicated a correlation between using cognitive teaching methodology and students’ performance in literary translation. The themes that emerged from the qualitative analysis referred to topics related to causes of  translation problems, including lack of experience in the field of literary translation; weakness in literary translation skills; and challenges in interpreting literary devices and eloquence. Data analysis revealed that these problems were due to using traditional teaching methods that were based on giving lectures and direct instructions, and rote learning. The emergent themes concerning ways of resolving these problems include the importance of employing cognitive methods to stimulate students’ creative abilities, and motivate them to improve their analytical and critical thinking.  The discussions, presented in the literature review of the present study, focus on five issues: the linguistics levels of literary translation; the characteristics of literary texts; the problems of translating literary texts; the main principles of the cognitive method which makes it appropriate for teaching literary translation; and the relationship between literary translation theories, cognition, and creativity. The research recommendations highlight the importance of bridging the gap between translation theory and practice to provide strategies for solving the problems of translating literary texts. The recommendations also include the procedures for integrating Newmark’s translation theory into cognitive taxonomies to enhance students’ knowledge, and help them acquire refined skills for translating literary texts efficiently.

  20. The Effects of Cognitive Conflict Management on Cognitive Development and Science Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Budiman, Zainol Badli; Halim, Lilia; Mohd Meerah, Subahan; Osman, Kamisah

    2014-01-01

    Three teaching methods were compared in this study, namely a Cognitive Conflict Management Module (CCM) that is infused into Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE), (Module A) CASE without CCM (Module B) and a conventional teaching method. This study employed a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design using non-equivalent…

  1. Science Education for Women: Situated Cognition, Feminist Standpoint Theory, and the Status of Women in Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinnick, Cassandra L.

    2008-01-01

    This paper examines the relation between situated cognition theory in science education, and feminist standpoint theory in philosophy of science. It shows that situated cognition is an idea borrowed from a long since discredited philosophy of science. It argues that feminist standpoint theory ought not be indulged as it is a failed challenge to…

  2. The Influence of Bloomfield's Linguistics on Skinner

    Science.gov (United States)

    Passos, Maria de Lourdes R. da F.; Matos, Maria Amelia

    2007-01-01

    Bloomfield's "Linguistics as a Science" (1930/1970), "Language" (1933/1961), and "Language or Ideas?" (1936a/1970), and Skinner's "Verbal Behavior" (1957) and "Science and Human Behavior" (1953) were analyzed in regard to their respective perspectives on science and scientific method, the verbal episode, meaning, and subject matter. Similarities…

  3. Crowdsourcing Samples in Cognitive Science

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    N. Stewart (Neil); J. Chandler (Jesse); G. Paolacci (Gabriele)

    2017-01-01

    textabstractCrowdsourcing data collection from research participants recruited from online labor markets is now common in cognitive science. We review who is in the crowd and who can be reached by the average laboratory. We discuss reproducibility and review some recent methodological innovations

  4. Smart phone, smart science: how the use of smartphones can revolutionize research in cognitive science.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephane Dufau

    Full Text Available Investigating human cognitive faculties such as language, attention, and memory most often relies on testing small and homogeneous groups of volunteers coming to research facilities where they are asked to participate in behavioral experiments. We show that this limitation and sampling bias can be overcome by using smartphone technology to collect data in cognitive science experiments from thousands of subjects from all over the world. This mass coordinated use of smartphones creates a novel and powerful scientific "instrument" that yields the data necessary to test universal theories of cognition. This increase in power represents a potential revolution in cognitive science.

  5. Characteristics of High School Students' and Science Teachers' Cognitive Frame about Effective Teaching Method for High School Science Subject

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Duk Ho; Park, Kyeong-Jin; Cho, Kyu Seong

    2016-04-01

    We investigated the cognitive frame of high school students and inservice high school science teachers about effective teaching method, and we also explored how they understood about the teaching methods suggested by the 2009 revised Science Curriculum. Data were collected from 275 high school science teachers and 275 high school students. We analyzed data in terms of the words and the cognitive frame using the Semantic Network Analysis. The results were as follows. First, the teachers perceived that an activity oriented class was the effective science class that helped improve students'' problem-solving abilities and their inquiry skills. The students had the cognitive frame that their teacher had to present relevant and enough teaching materials to students, and that they should also receive assistance from teachers in science class to better prepare for college entrance exam. Second, both students and teachers retained the cognitive frame about the efficient science class that was not reflected 2009 revised Science Curriculum exactly. Especially, neither groups connected the elements of ''convergence'' as well as ''integration'' embedded across science subject areas to their cognitive frame nor cognized the fact that many science learning contents were closed related to one another. Therefore, various professional development opportunities should be offered so that teachers succinctly comprehend the essential features and the intents of the 2009 revised Science Curriculum and thereby implement it in their science lessons effectively. Keywords : semantic network analysis, cognitive frame, teaching method, science lesson

  6. Mathematical representations in science: a cognitive-historical case history.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tweney, Ryan D

    2009-10-01

    The important role of mathematical representations in scientific thinking has received little attention from cognitive scientists. This study argues that neglect of this issue is unwarranted, given existing cognitive theories and laws, together with promising results from the cognitive historical analysis of several important scientists. In particular, while the mathematical wizardry of James Clerk Maxwell differed dramatically from the experimental approaches favored by Michael Faraday, Maxwell himself recognized Faraday as "in reality a mathematician of a very high order," and his own work as in some respects a re-representation of Faraday's field theory in analytic terms. The implications of the similarities and differences between the two figures open new perspectives on the cognitive role of mathematics as a learned mode of representation in science. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  7. Theoretical Implications of Contemporary Brain Science for Japanese EFL Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clayton, John Lloyd

    2015-01-01

    Recent advances in brain science show that adult native Japanese speakers utilize a different balance of language processing routes in the brain as compared to native English speakers. Biologically this represents the remarkable flexibility of the human brain to adapt universal human cognitive processes to fit the specific needs of linguistic and…

  8. Thinking forensics: Cognitive science for forensic practitioners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edmond, Gary; Towler, Alice; Growns, Bethany; Ribeiro, Gianni; Found, Bryan; White, David; Ballantyne, Kaye; Searston, Rachel A; Thompson, Matthew B; Tangen, Jason M; Kemp, Richard I; Martire, Kristy

    2017-03-01

    Human factors and their implications for forensic science have attracted increasing levels of interest across criminal justice communities in recent years. Initial interest centred on cognitive biases, but has since expanded such that knowledge from psychology and cognitive science is slowly infiltrating forensic practices more broadly. This article highlights a series of important findings and insights of relevance to forensic practitioners. These include research on human perception, memory, context information, expertise, decision-making, communication, experience, verification, confidence, and feedback. The aim of this article is to sensitise forensic practitioners (and lawyers and judges) to a range of potentially significant issues, and encourage them to engage with research in these domains so that they may adapt procedures to improve performance, mitigate risks and reduce errors. Doing so will reduce the divide between forensic practitioners and research scientists as well as improve the value and utility of forensic science evidence. Copyright © 2016 The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Contemporary journalistic texts of Latvia in the discoursively cognitive aspect

    OpenAIRE

    Milevich, I.

    2010-01-01

    In article the questions devoted to methods of studying of modern publicism of Latvia are considered. The most effective method now admits discoursive various versions – discoursive functional, discoursive cognitive, and comparative discoursive cognitive a method of studying which answers problems of cognitive and pragmatical linguistics. The research of contrastive cognitive journalistic discourse corresponds with the assignments of the cognitive and pragmatic linguistic direction in describ...

  10. The fluid linguistic zone of causalities: areas of contrast and overlap

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andre Vinicius Lopes Coneglian

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The fluid linguistic zone of causalities: areas of contrast and overlap Abstract: This article is an investigation of the fluid linguistic adverbial zone of causalities. By conjugating functional and cognitive premisses in order to analyze language in use, we analyze the adverbial relations of cause, condition and concession aiming at identifying the semantic and pragmatic parameters through which we observe areas of contrast and overlap between these categories. The treatment given these adverbial relations presupposes that they be considered categories which present more prototypical members, that is, exemplar members, and more peripheral members, that may be allocated in areas of transition between categories. Ultimately, we argue in favor of a view a non-rigid grammatical categories, in this case, the category of adverbial relations, giving continuity to a trend of studies in functional and cognitive linguistics such as Dancygier and Sweetser (2005 and Neves (2010, 2012.

  11. Bioinformation processing a primer on computational cognitive science

    CERN Document Server

    Peterson, James K

    2016-01-01

    This book shows how mathematics, computer science and science can be usefully and seamlessly intertwined. It begins with a general model of cognitive processes in a network of computational nodes, such as neurons, using a variety of tools from mathematics, computational science and neurobiology. It then moves on to solve the diffusion model from a low-level random walk point of view. It also demonstrates how this idea can be used in a new approach to solving the cable equation, in order to better understand the neural computation approximations. It introduces specialized data for emotional content, which allows a brain model to be built using MatLab tools, and also highlights a simple model of cognitive dysfunction.

  12. Explaining how the mind works: on the relation between cognitive science and philosophy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trigg, Jonathan; Kalish, Michael

    2011-04-01

    In this paper, we argue that under certain prevalent interpretations of the nature and aims of cognitive science, theories of cognition generate a forced choice between a conception of cognition which depends on the possibility of a private language, and a conception of cognition which depends on mereological confusions. We argue, further, that this should not pose a fundamental problem for cognitive scientists since a plausible interpretation of the nature and aims of cognitive science is available that does not generate this forced choice. The crucial difference between these interpretations is that on the one hand the aim of theories of cognition is to tell us what thinking (etc.) is, and on the other it is to tell us what is causally necessary if an intelligent creature is to be able to think. Our argument draws heavily on a Wittgensteinian conception of philosophy in which no philosophical theory can explain what thinking, perceiving, remembering, etc. are, either. The positive, strictly therapeutic, purpose of a philosophy of cognitive science should be to show that, since the traditional problems which constitute the philosophy of mind are chimerical, there is nothing for philosophical theorizing in cognitive science to achieve. Copyright © 2011 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  13. How Fifth Grade Latino/a Bilingual Students Use Their Linguistic Resources in the Classroom and Laboratory during Science Instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stevenson, Alma R.

    2013-01-01

    This qualitative, sociolinguistic research study examines how bilingual Latino/a students use their linguistic resources in the classroom and laboratory during science instruction. This study was conducted in a school in the southwestern United States serving an economically depressed, predominantly Latino population. The object of study was a…

  14. Functional specificity for high-level linguistic processing in the human brain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fedorenko, Evelina; Behr, Michael K; Kanwisher, Nancy

    2011-09-27

    Neuroscientists have debated for centuries whether some regions of the human brain are selectively engaged in specific high-level mental functions or whether, instead, cognition is implemented in multifunctional brain regions. For the critical case of language, conflicting answers arise from the neuropsychological literature, which features striking dissociations between deficits in linguistic and nonlinguistic abilities, vs. the neuroimaging literature, which has argued for overlap between activations for linguistic and nonlinguistic processes, including arithmetic, domain general abilities like cognitive control, and music. Here, we use functional MRI to define classic language regions functionally in each subject individually and then examine the response of these regions to the nonlinguistic functions most commonly argued to engage these regions: arithmetic, working memory, cognitive control, and music. We find little or no response in language regions to these nonlinguistic functions. These data support a clear distinction between language and other cognitive processes, resolving the prior conflict between the neuropsychological and neuroimaging literatures.

  15. Knowledge and Regulation of Cognition in College Science Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roshanaei, Mehrnaz

    2014-01-01

    The research focused on three issues in college science students: whether there was empirical support for the two factor (knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition) view of metacognition, whether the two factors were related to each other, and whether either of the factors was related to empirical measures of cognitive and metacognitive…

  16. The New Development of the Study of Discourse Anaphora ------Review of Discourse Anaphora: A Cognitive-Functional Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Meixia Li

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available The English word anaphora is derived from the Greek word ἀναφορά, meaning carrying back. For a long time anaphora has been the object of research in a wide range of disciplines, such as rhetoric, philosophy, theoretical linguistics and so on. A great number of remarkable achievements have been made in these fields. In the 1970’s there was a “discourse turn” in the domain of the humanities and the social sciences, which marked the birth and flourishing of such cross-disciplines as psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, cognitive linguistics, corpus linguistics, discourse studies and so on, and which also paved the way for the turn of the study of anaphora from focusing on intrasentential anaphora to intersentential anaphora. Intrasentential anaphora refers to the relationship between a pronoun and its antecedent being contained within one sentence, while intersentential anaphora can also be called discourse anaphora, which refers to “the relationship between a pronoun and its antecedent earlier in the discourse” (Clark & Parikh, 2006, p. 1. From the late 20th century on, discourse anaphora has become one of the hot topics in several fields such as psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, etc. Many fruitful research results (i.e. Huang, 2002; Clark & Parikh, 2006, etc. have been obtained. Ming-Ming Pu’s monograph Discourse Anaphora: A Cognitive-Functional Approach, published by LINCOM GmbH in Muenchen, Germany in 2011 is another important work of the study of discourse anaphora. In this book, the author first proposes a cognitive-functional model to account for how the construction of mental structures determines the use and resolution of discourse anaphora. Afterwards he does a comparative quantitative study of both English and Chinese empirical and text data, which demonstrates that on the one hand the occurrence and distribution of discourse anaphora is more universal in nature than language

  17. Cognitive science and the cultural nature of music.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cross, Ian

    2012-10-01

    The vast majority of experimental studies of music to date have explored music in terms of the processes involved in the perception and cognition of complex sonic patterns that can elicit emotion. This paper argues that this conception of music is at odds both with recent Western musical scholarship and with ethnomusicological models, and that it presents a partial and culture-specific representation of what may be a generic human capacity. It argues that the cognitive sciences must actively engage with the problems of exploring music as manifested and conceived in the broad spectrum of world cultures, not only to elucidate the diversity of music in mind but also to identify potential commonalities that could illuminate the relationships between music and other domains of thought and behavior. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  18. Science anxiety and social cognitive factors predicting STEM career aspirations of high school freshmen in general science class

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skells, Kristin Marie

    Extant data was used to consider the association between science anxiety, social cognitive factors and STEM career aspirations of high school freshmen in general science classes. An adapted model based on social cognitive career theory (SCCT) was used to consider these relationships, with science anxiety functioning as a barrier in the model. The study assessed the following research questions: (1) Do social cognitive variables relate in the expected way to STEM career aspirations based on SCCT for ninth graders taking general science classes? (2) Is there an association between science anxiety and outcomes and processes identified in the SCCT model for ninth graders taking general science classes? (3) Does gender moderate these relationships? Results indicated that support was found for many of the central tenants of the SCCT model. Science anxiety was associated with prior achievement, self-efficacy, and science interest, although it did not relate directly to STEM career goals. Gender was found to moderate only the relationship between prior achievement and science self-efficacy.

  19. Sensory, cognitive, and linguistic factors in the early academic performance of elementary school children: The Benton-IU project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Charles S; Kidd, Gary R; Homer, Douglas G; Connell, Phil J; Lowther, Andrya; Eddins, David A; Krueger, Glenn; Goss, David A; Rainey, Bill B; Gospel, Mary D; Watson, Betty U

    2003-01-01

    Standardized sensory, perceptual, linguistic, intellectual, and cognitive tests were administered to 470 children, approximately 96% of the students entering the first grade in the four elementary schools of Benton County, Indiana, over a 3-year period (1995--1997). The results of 36 tests and subtests administered to entering first graders were well described by a 4-factor solution. These factors and the tests that loaded most heavily on them were reading-related skills (phonological awareness, letter and word identification); visual cognition (visual perceptual abilities, spatial perception, visual memory); verbal cognition (language development, vocabulary, verbal concepts); and speech processing (the ability to understand speech under difficult listening conditions). A cluster analysis identified 9 groups of children, each with a different profile of scores on the 4 factors. Within these groups, the proportion of students with unsatisfactory reading achievement in the first 2 years of elementary school (as reflected in teacher-assigned grades) varied from 3% to 40%. The profiles of factor scores demonstrated the primary influence of the reading-related skills factor on reading achievement and also on other areas of academic performance. The second strongest predictor of reading and mathematics grades was the visual cognition factor, followed by the verbal cognition factor. The speech processing factor was the weakest predictor of academic achievement, accounting for less than 1% of the variance in reading achievement. This project was a collaborative effort of the Benton Community School Corporation and a multidisciplinary group of investigators from Indiana University.

  20. Linguistic Engineering and Linguistic of Engineering: Adaptation of Linguistic Paradigm for Circumstance of Engineering Epoch

    OpenAIRE

    Natalya Halina

    2014-01-01

    The article is devoted to the problems of linguistic knowledge in the Engineering Epoch. Engineering Epoch is the time of adaptation to the information flows by knowledge management, The system of adaptation mechanisms is connected with linguistic and linguistic technologies, forming in new linguistic patterns Linguistic Engineering and Linguistic of Engineering.

  1. Les sciences cognitives ne sont pas des sciences humaines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Albert Ogien

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Cet article analyse les limites du naturalisme social que Laurence Kaufman et Laurent Cordonier proposent d’adopter dans cette même revue, en critiquant leur plaidoyer pour l’intégration des savoirs des sciences cognitives et des sciences humaines et sociales. Cette critique repose sur la réfutation de trois idées soutenues par les auteurs : 1 la description scientifique des mécanismes cognitifs élémentaires fournit une explication causale des conduites sociales qui doit se substituer à celles des sciences humaines et sociales ; 2 le recours au naturalisme permet de falsifier les préconceptions que ces dernières continuent à entretenir ; 3 le programme de naturalisation de l’esprit n’implique aucune forme de réductionnisme. Cette triple critique permet de rejeter leur appel en faveur d’un modèle intégré de la conduite humaine, en avançant un constat : dans la mesure où on ne sait pas comment combler le hiatus qui sépare les descriptions détaillées du cerveau au travail de l’explication des conduites des individus et de la manière dont ils en assurent la coordination dans le temps même où ils agissent en commun, les sciences humaines et sociales ont peu de choses à aller glaner du côté des sciences cognitives pour améliorer la manière dont elles analysent l’action. C’est que le travail de celles-ci se situe soit au niveau infra-humain du fonctionnement moléculaire, soit au niveau supra-humain de l’évolution ; et que seules les sciences humaines et sociales placent leurs analyses à un niveau simplement humain, en faisant des individus tels qu’ils vivent ensemble la mesure de toutes les choses qui les concernent. Ce qu’elles ne peuvent faire sur un mode naturaliste.Cognitive sciences are not social sciencesThis article examines the limits of the social naturalism proposed by Laurence Kauffman and Laurent Cordonier in this journal by criticizing their plea concerning knowledge integration of

  2. When Cognitive Sciences Meet Real Life

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Smith, Viktor; Selsøe Sørensen, Henrik; Nissilä, Niina

    2012-01-01

    Consumers in general pay little attention to food labels. The study of expert-to-layperson communication related to food labels integrates many aspects of what cognitive sciences are about: Knowledge modelling and knowledge transfer, termhood and precision as well as fuzziness, interaction between...

  3. Cognitive science in the era of artificial intelligence: A roadmap for reverse-engineering the infant language-learner.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dupoux, Emmanuel

    2018-04-01

    Spectacular progress in the information processing sciences (machine learning, wearable sensors) promises to revolutionize the study of cognitive development. Here, we analyse the conditions under which 'reverse engineering' language development, i.e., building an effective system that mimics infant's achievements, can contribute to our scientific understanding of early language development. We argue that, on the computational side, it is important to move from toy problems to the full complexity of the learning situation, and take as input as faithful reconstructions of the sensory signals available to infants as possible. On the data side, accessible but privacy-preserving repositories of home data have to be setup. On the psycholinguistic side, specific tests have to be constructed to benchmark humans and machines at different linguistic levels. We discuss the feasibility of this approach and present an overview of current results. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Introduction: philosophy in and philosophy of cognitive science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brook, Andrew

    2009-04-01

    Despite being there from the beginning, philosophical approaches have never had a settled place in cognitive research and few cognitive researchers not trained in philosophy have a clear sense of what its role has been or should be. We distinguish philosophy in cognitive research and philosophy of cognitive research. Concerning philosophy in cognitive research, after exploring some standard reactions to this work by nonphilosophers, we will pay particular attention to the methods that philosophers use. Being neither experimental nor computational, they can leave others bewildered. Thought experiments are the most striking example but not the only one. Concerning philosophy of cognitive research, we will pay particular attention to its power to generate and test normative claims, claims about what should and should not be done. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  5. High school Physical Sciences teachers' competence in some basic cognitive skills

    OpenAIRE

    Selvaratnam, Mailoo

    2011-01-01

    The successful implementation of the national high school Physical Sciences curriculum in South Africa, which places strong emphasis on critical thinking and reasoning abilities of students, would need teachers who are competent in cognitive skills and strategies. The main objectives of this study were to test South African high school Physical Sciences teachers' competence in the cognitive skills and strategies needed for studying Physical Sciences effectively and also to identify possible r...

  6. Non-linguistic learning and aphasia: Evidence from a paired associate and feedback-based task

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vallila-Rohter, Sofia; Kiran, Swathi

    2013-01-01

    Though aphasia is primarily characterized by impairments in the comprehension and/or expression of language, research has shown that patients with aphasia also show deficits in cognitive-linguistic domains such as attention, executive function, concept knowledge and memory (Helm-Estabrooks, 2002 for review). Research in aphasia suggests that cognitive impairments can impact the online construction of language, new verbal learning, and transactional success (Freedman & Martin, 2001; Hula & McNeil, 2008; Ramsberger, 2005). In our research, we extend this hypothesis to suggest that general cognitive deficits influence progress with therapy. The aim of our study is to explore learning, a cognitive process that is integral to relearning language, yet underexplored in the field of aphasia rehabilitation. We examine non-linguistic category learning in patients with aphasia (n=19) and in healthy controls (n=12), comparing feedback and non-feedback based instruction. Participants complete two computer-based learning tasks that require them to categorize novel animals based on the percentage of features shared with one of two prototypes. As hypothesized, healthy controls showed successful category learning following both methods of instruction. In contrast, only 60% of our patient population demonstrated successful non-linguistic category learning. Patient performance was not predictable by standardized measures of cognitive ability. Results suggest that general learning is affected in aphasia and is a unique, important factor to consider in the field of aphasia rehabilitation. PMID:23127795

  7. A Systemic Functional Linguistic Analysis of the Utterances of Three South African Physical Sciences Teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jawahar, Kavish; Dempster, Edith R.

    2013-06-01

    In this study, the sociocultural view of science as a language and some quantitative language features of the complementary theoretical framework of systemic functional linguistics are employed to analyse the utterances of three South African Physical Sciences teachers. Using a multi-case study methodology, this study provides a sophisticated description of the utterances of Pietermaritzburg Physical Sciences teachers in language contexts characterised by varying proportions of English Second Language (ESL) students in each class. The results reveal that, as expected, lexical cohesion as measured by the cohesive harmony index and proportion of repeated content words relative to total words, increased with an increasing proportion of ESL students. However, the use of nominalisation by the teachers and the lexical density of their utterances did not decrease with an increasing proportion of ESL students. Furthermore, the results reveal that each individual Physical Sciences teacher had a 'signature' talk, unrelated to the language context in which they taught. This study signals the urgent and critical need for South African science teacher training programmes to place a greater emphasis on the functional use of language for different language contexts in order to empower South African Physical Sciences teachers to adequately apprentice their students into the use of the register of scientific English.

  8. Using science digital storytelling to increase students’ cognitive ability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dewi, N. R.; Savitri, E. N.; Taufiq, M.; Khusniati, M.

    2018-04-01

    The purpose of this research is to understand whether or not science digital storytelling can improve cognitive ability. The research design used in this study was one shoot case study. The population of the research was seventh-grade students of junior high school. The number of samples involved in this study was two classes with a total of 68 students. Data of students' cognitive ability were collected using a test. The data that has been collected were then analyzed using N-gain test. Results of data analysis showed that N-gain values of experimental groups are equal to 0.48 and 0.42 which are categorized into medium category. This finding indicates that science digital storytelling can improve students' cognitive ability.

  9. Should anthropology be part of cognitive science?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beller, Sieghard; Bender, Andrea; Medin, Douglas L

    2012-07-01

    Anthropology and the other cognitive science (CS) subdisciplines currently maintain a troubled relationship. With a debate in topiCS we aim at exploring the prospects for improving this relationship, and our introduction is intended as a catalyst for this debate. In order to encourage a frank sharing of perspectives, our comments will be deliberately provocative. Several challenges for a successful rapprochement are identified, encompassing the diverging paths that CS and anthropology have taken in the past, the degree of compatibility between (1) CS and (2) anthropology with regard to methodology and (3) research strategies, (4) the importance of anthropology for CS, and (5) the need for disciplinary diversity. Given this set of challenges, a reconciliation seems unlikely to follow on the heels of good intentions alone. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  10. Cognitive knowledge, attitude toward science, and skill development in virtual science laboratories

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babaie, Mahya

    The purpose of this quantitative, descriptive, single group, pretest posttest design study was to explore the influence of a Virtual Science Laboratory (VSL) on middle school students' cognitive knowledge, skill development, and attitudes toward science. This study involved 2 eighth grade Physical Science classrooms at a large urban charter middle school located in Southern California. The Buoyancy and Density Test (BDT), a computer generated test, assessed students' scientific knowledge in areas of Buoyancy and Density. The Attitude Toward Science Inventory (ATSI), a multidimensional survey assessment, measured students' attitudes toward science in the areas of value of science in society, motivation in science, enjoyment of science, self-concept regarding science, and anxiety toward science. A Virtual Laboratory Packet (VLP), generated by the researcher, captured students' mathematical and scientific skills. Data collection was conducted over a period of five days. BDT and ATSI assessments were administered twice: once before the Buoyancy and Density VSL to serve as baseline data (pre) and also after the VSL (post). The findings of this study revealed that students' cognitive knowledge and attitudes toward science were positively changed as expected, however, the results from paired sample t-tests found no statistical significance. Analyses indicated that VSLs were effective in supporting students' scientific knowledge and attitude toward science. The attitudes most changed were value of science in society and enjoyment of science with mean differences of 1.71 and 0.88, respectively. Researchers and educational practitioners are urged to further examine VSLs, covering a variety of topics, with more middle school students to assess their learning outcomes. Additionally, it is recommended that publishers in charge of designing the VSLs communicate with science instructors and research practitioners to further improve the design and analytic components of these

  11. How age and linguistic competence alter the interplay of perceptual and cognitive factors when listening to conversations in a noisy environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Meital eAvivi-Reich

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Multi-talker conversations challenge the perceptual and cognitive capabilities of older adults and those listening in their second language (L2. In older adults these difficulties could reflect declines in the auditory, cognitive, or linguistic processes supporting speech comprehension. The tendency of L2 listeners to invoke some of the semantic and syntactic processes from their first language (L1 may interfere with speech comprehension in L2. These challenges might also force them to reorganize the ways in which they perceive and process speech, thereby altering the balance between the contributions of bottom-up versus top-down processes to speech comprehension. Younger and older L1s as well as young L2s listened to conversations played against a babble background, with or without spatial separation between the talkers and masker, when the spatial positions of the stimuli were specified either by loudspeaker placements (real location, or through use of the precedence effect (virtual location. After listening to a conversation, the participants were asked to answer questions regarding its content. Individual hearing differences were compensated for by creating the same degree of difficulty in identifying individual words in babble. Once compensation was applied, the number of questions correctly answered increased when a real or virtual spatial separation was introduced between babble and talkers. There was no evidence that performance differed between real and virtual locations. The contribution of vocabulary knowledge to dialogue comprehension was found to be larger in the virtual conditions than in the real whereas the contribution of reading comprehension skill did not depend on the listening environment but rather differed as a function of age and language proficiency. The results indicate that the acoustic scene and the cognitive and linguistic competencies of listeners modulate how and when top-down resources are engaged in aid of speech

  12. How age and linguistic competence alter the interplay of perceptual and cognitive factors when listening to conversations in a noisy environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Avivi-Reich, Meital; Daneman, Meredyth; Schneider, Bruce A

    2014-01-01

    Multi-talker conversations challenge the perceptual and cognitive capabilities of older adults and those listening in their second language (L2). In older adults these difficulties could reflect declines in the auditory, cognitive, or linguistic processes supporting speech comprehension. The tendency of L2 listeners to invoke some of the semantic and syntactic processes from their first language (L1) may interfere with speech comprehension in L2. These challenges might also force them to reorganize the ways in which they perceive and process speech, thereby altering the balance between the contributions of bottom-up vs. top-down processes to speech comprehension. Younger and older L1s as well as young L2s listened to conversations played against a babble background, with or without spatial separation between the talkers and masker, when the spatial positions of the stimuli were specified either by loudspeaker placements (real location), or through use of the precedence effect (virtual location). After listening to a conversation, the participants were asked to answer questions regarding its content. Individual hearing differences were compensated for by creating the same degree of difficulty in identifying individual words in babble. Once compensation was applied, the number of questions correctly answered increased when a real or virtual spatial separation was introduced between babble and talkers. There was no evidence that performance differed between real and virtual locations. The contribution of vocabulary knowledge to dialog comprehension was found to be larger in the virtual conditions than in the real whereas the contribution of reading comprehension skill did not depend on the listening environment but rather differed as a function of age and language proficiency. The results indicate that the acoustic scene and the cognitive and linguistic competencies of listeners modulate how and when top-down resources are engaged in aid of speech comprehension.

  13. Grammaticality, Acceptability, and Probability: A Probabilistic View of Linguistic Knowledge.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lau, Jey Han; Clark, Alexander; Lappin, Shalom

    2017-07-01

    The question of whether humans represent grammatical knowledge as a binary condition on membership in a set of well-formed sentences, or as a probabilistic property has been the subject of debate among linguists, psychologists, and cognitive scientists for many decades. Acceptability judgments present a serious problem for both classical binary and probabilistic theories of grammaticality. These judgements are gradient in nature, and so cannot be directly accommodated in a binary formal grammar. However, it is also not possible to simply reduce acceptability to probability. The acceptability of a sentence is not the same as the likelihood of its occurrence, which is, in part, determined by factors like sentence length and lexical frequency. In this paper, we present the results of a set of large-scale experiments using crowd-sourced acceptability judgments that demonstrate gradience to be a pervasive feature in acceptability judgments. We then show how one can predict acceptability judgments on the basis of probability by augmenting probabilistic language models with an acceptability measure. This is a function that normalizes probability values to eliminate the confounding factors of length and lexical frequency. We describe a sequence of modeling experiments with unsupervised language models drawn from state-of-the-art machine learning methods in natural language processing. Several of these models achieve very encouraging levels of accuracy in the acceptability prediction task, as measured by the correlation between the acceptability measure scores and mean human acceptability values. We consider the relevance of these results to the debate on the nature of grammatical competence, and we argue that they support the view that linguistic knowledge can be intrinsically probabilistic. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  14. Cognitive Principles in Metonymic Headlines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena S. Milkevich

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The article focuses on metonymy as a linguistic device. Traditionally metonymy is considered within the domain of stylistics. However, methods of cognitive linguistics help to penetrate into the essence of language phenomena and explain their nature as part f more general process of human cognition. Cognitive linguistics puts forward the hypothesis that the use of metonymy is governed by cognitive principles. They are based on our experience, perception and culture. The article presents a study of metonymy in political headlines and analyses the application of cognitive principles to metonymy. We analyse the cases of metonymy presented by proper nouns geographical names such as names of countries, capital, continents. We come to the conclusion that the concept «COUNTRY» is the metonymic vehicle in three types of models: most frequent types of metonymy are: «COUNTRY FOR ITS GOVERNMENT», «COUNTRY FOR EVENT» and «COUNTRY FOR ACTION». The concept «COUNTRY» can also be the target in metonymy types «CAPITAL FOR COUNTRY» and «CONTINENT FOR COUNTRIES». The leading cognitive principles in such types of metonymic relationships are: based on human experience «CONCRETE OVER ABSTRACT», «INERACTIONAL OVER NON-INTERACTIONAL»; based on perceptual selectivity «DOMINANT OVER LESS DOMINANT», «MORE OVER LESS»; based on cultural preference «CENTRAL OVER PERIPHERAL», «MORE IMPORTANT OVER LESS IMPORTANT».

  15. Peut-on se passer de représentations en sciences cognitives?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bault, N.; Chambon, V.; Maïonchi-Pino, N.; Pénicaud, F.X.; Putois, B.; Roy, J.M.

    2011-01-01

    La naissance des sciences cognitives est étroitement liée à la réhabilitation du concept de représentation contre le behaviorisme, à la fin des années 1950. L’engagement initial des sciences cognitives en faveur du concept de représentation s’est néanmoins retrouvé puissamment remis en cause ces

  16. Background music and cognitive performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angel, Leslie A; Polzella, Donald J; Elvers, Greg C

    2010-06-01

    The present experiment employed standardized test batteries to assess the effects of fast-tempo music on cognitive performance among 56 male and female university students. A linguistic processing task and a spatial processing task were selected from the Criterion Task Set developed to assess verbal and nonverbal performance. Ten excerpts from Mozart's music matched for tempo were selected. Background music increased the speed of spatial processing and the accuracy of linguistic processing. The findings suggest that background music can have predictable effects on cognitive performance.

  17. Two Accounts of Moral Diversity: The Cognitive Science of Pluralism and Absolutism

    OpenAIRE

    Bolender, Asst. Prof. John

    2004-01-01

    Advances in cognitive science are relevant to the debate between moral pluralism and absolutism. Parametric structure, which plausibly underlies syntax, gives some idea of how pluralism might be true. The cognitive mechanisms underlying mathematical intelligence give some idea of how far absolutism is right. Advances in cognitive science should help us better understand the extent to which we are divided and how far we are potentially harmonious in our values.

  18. Machine Learning from Garden Path Sentences: The Application of Computational Linguistics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiali Du

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses the application of computational linguistics in the machine learning (ML system for the processing of garden path sentences. ML is closely related to artificial intelligence and linguistic cognition. The rapid and efficient processing of the complex structures is an effective method to test the system. By means of parsing the garden path sentence, we draw a conclusion that the integration of theoretical and statistical methods is helpful for the development of ML system.

  19. When cognitive scientists become religious, science is in trouble

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Geertz, Armin W.

    2009-01-01

    Since the 1990s medical technology has afforded exciting possibilities for studying the brain. Together with knowledge accrued through psychology and psychiatry, it has set the stage for pioneering research and stimulated disciplines such as Social Neuroscience, the Cognitive Science of Religion......, Cognitive Anthropology, and Cognitive Archaeology. Another discipline has arisen, Neurotheology, which is interested in the brain and religious experience. Early proponents such as d'Aquili and Newberg had a religious agenda in their work. Others, such as members of Transcendental Meditation, have used...... experimental and brain studies to legitimate religious agendas. Experiential shamanists have embarked on a similar legitimation process. The differences between science and therapy and spirituality have been slurred or denied. Neurotheological attempts to discover special areas of the brain responsible...

  20. WORD-FORMATION IN THE CONTEXT OF MULTI-DISCIPLINARY COGNITIVE PARADIGM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abrosimova Larisa

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Traditional  structure-oriented analysis of derivatives does not comply with the requirements of the  new cognitive paradigm of linguistic knowledge, which incorporates knowledge gained within different sciences. Word-formation serves the explication of human cognitive potential, which originates from linguistic personality’s individual and collective experience.The analysis of  -er, -ee, -ant / -ent and -ist  revealed that the considered affixes which are characterized by close semantic links can objectify cognitive structures with similar meanings although the derivatives with these suffixes are characterized by a wide degree of polysemy. Thus, any concrete derivational mechanism objectifies the act of thought production in a verbal-sign form. Specificity and regularity of   major operations with knowledge structures in mental space of a linguistic personality are represented in the basic derivational mechanisms which take place in a lexico-semantic subsystem of this or that language.The results of this research indicate the inseparable connection of derivational processes with the idea of a language as a mental phenomenon, focusing on organizing, processing and transferring information. Cognitive word-formation analysis of derivatives can represent the basis for our knowledge organization at the junction of «language» and «thought». /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Обычная таблица"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

  1. Are computers effective lie detectors? A meta-analysis of linguistic cues to deception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hauch, Valerie; Blandón-Gitlin, Iris; Masip, Jaume; Sporer, Siegfried L

    2015-11-01

    This meta-analysis investigates linguistic cues to deception and whether these cues can be detected with computer programs. We integrated operational definitions for 79 cues from 44 studies where software had been used to identify linguistic deception cues. These cues were allocated to six research questions. As expected, the meta-analyses demonstrated that, relative to truth-tellers, liars experienced greater cognitive load, expressed more negative emotions, distanced themselves more from events, expressed fewer sensory-perceptual words, and referred less often to cognitive processes. However, liars were not more uncertain than truth-tellers. These effects were moderated by event type, involvement, emotional valence, intensity of interaction, motivation, and other moderators. Although the overall effect size was small, theory-driven predictions for certain cues received support. These findings not only further our knowledge about the usefulness of linguistic cues to detect deception with computers in applied settings but also elucidate the relationship between language and deception. © 2014 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

  2. Social science and linguistic text analysis of nurses' records: a systematic review and critique.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buus, Niels; Hamilton, Bridget Elizabeth

    2016-03-01

    The two aims of the paper were to systematically review and critique social science and linguistic text analyses of nursing records in order to inform future research in this emerging area of research. Systematic searches in reference databases and in citation indexes identified 12 articles that included analyses of the social and linguistic features of records and recording. Two reviewers extracted data using established criteria for the evaluation of qualitative research papers. A common characteristic of nursing records was the economical use of language with local meanings that conveyed little information to the uninitiated reader. Records were dominated by technocratic-medical discourse focused on patients' bodies, and they depicted only very limited aspects of nursing practice. Nurses made moral evaluations in their categorisation of patients, which reflected detailed surveillance of patients' disturbing behaviour. The text analysis methods were rarely transparent in the articles, which could suggest research quality problems. For most articles, the significance of the findings was substantiated more by theoretical readings of the institutional settings than by the analysis of textual data. More probing empirical research of nurses' records and a wider range of theoretical perspectives has the potential to expose the situated meanings of nursing work in healthcare organisations. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Avram Noam Chomsky and His Cognitive Development Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costley, Kevin C.; Nelson, Jaime

    2013-01-01

    Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, cognitive scientist, logician, historian, political critic and activist. Chomsky is an Institute Professor and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT where he has worked for over fifty years. Chomsky has been described as the father of modern linguistics and a major…

  4. "Voices" and "Voces": Cultural and Linguistic Dimensions of Giftedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Ellen Riojas; Gonzalez, Virginia

    1998-01-01

    Assessments of a 6-year-old Spanish monolingual and 5-year-old bilingual children included a home-language survey, parents' and teachers' ratings, cartoon conservation scales, and standardized tests. Nonverbal cognitive development was shown to influence language acquisition. Cultural and linguistic factors affected children differently. (SK)

  5. Game-XP: Action Games as Experimental Paradigms for Cognitive Science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, Wayne D

    2017-04-01

    Why games? How could anyone consider action games an experimental paradigm for Cognitive Science? In 1973, as one of three strategies he proposed for advancing Cognitive Science, Allen Newell exhorted us to "accept a single complex task and do all of it." More specifically, he told us that rather than taking an "experimental psychology as usual approach," we should "focus on a series of experimental and theoretical studies around a single complex task" so as to demonstrate that our theories of human cognition were powerful enough to explain "a genuine slab of human behavior" with the studies fitting into a detailed theoretical picture. Action games represent the type of experimental paradigm that Newell was advocating and the current state of programming expertise and laboratory equipment, along with the emergence of Big Data and naturally occurring datasets, provide the technologies and data needed to realize his vision. Action games enable us to escape from our field's regrettable focus on novice performance to develop theories that account for the full range of expertise through a twin focus on expertise sampling (across individuals) and longitudinal studies (within individuals) of simple and complex tasks. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  6. Flexible and fast: linguistic shortcut affects both shallow and deep conceptual processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Connell, Louise; Lynott, Dermot

    2013-06-01

    Previous research has shown that people use linguistic distributional information during conceptual processing, and that it is especially useful for shallow tasks and rapid responding. Using two conceptual combination tasks, we showed that this linguistic shortcut extends to the processing of novel stimuli, is used in both successful and unsuccessful conceptual processing, and is evident in both shallow and deep conceptual tasks. Specifically, as predicted by the ECCo theory of conceptual combination, people use the linguistic shortcut as a "quick-and-dirty" guide to whether the concepts are likely to combine into a coherent conceptual representation, in both shallow sensibility judgment and deep interpretation generation tasks. Linguistic distributional frequency predicts both the likelihood and the time course of rejecting a novel word compound as nonsensical or uninterpretable. However, it predicts the time course of successful processing only in shallow sensibility judgment, because the deeper conceptual process of interpretation generation does not allow the linguistic shortcut to suffice. Furthermore, the effects of linguistic distributional frequency are independent of any effects of conventional word frequency. We discuss the utility of the linguistic shortcut as a cognitive triage mechanism that can optimize processing in a limited-resource conceptual system.

  7. Lessons from cognitive neuropsychology for cognitive science: a reply to Patterson and Plaut (2009).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coltheart, Max

    2010-01-01

    A recent article in this journal (Patterson & Plaut, 2009) argued that cognitive neuropsychology has told us very little over the past 30 or 40 years about "how the brain accomplishes its cognitive business." This may well be true, but it is not important, because the principal aim of cognitive neuropsychology is not to learn about the brain. Its principal aim is instead to learn about the mind, that is, to elucidate the functional architecture of cognition. I show that this is so (a) via extensive quotations from leading figures in this field and (b) by analysis of the subject matter of articles in the leading journal in the field, Cognitive Neuropsychology. Recent reviews of the past 25 years of work in this field (Coltheart & Caramazza, 2006) have concluded that cognitive neuropsychology has told us much about the functional architecture of cognition in a variety of cognitive domains. Patterson and Plaut (2009) did not consider this aim of cognitive neuropsychology. Therefore, their conclusions that cognitive neuropsychology has not been successful, and that this is because the particular methods it uses are flawed, are not justified. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  8. Analyse linguistique, normes scolaires et differenciations socio-culturelles (Linguistic Analysis, Educational Standards, and Socio-Cultural Differentiation).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Francois, Frederic

    1980-01-01

    Questions the validity of some child language studies that measure cognitive ability by the degree of complexity of the linguistic expression. Claims that these studies ignore many facets of the children's sociocultural experience as well as the influence of situational factors on their choice of linguistic codes, perpetuating socially biased…

  9. Neurological evidence linguistic processes precede perceptual simulation in conceptual processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Louwerse, Max; Hutchinson, Sterling

    2012-01-01

    There is increasing evidence from response time experiments that language statistics and perceptual simulations both play a role in conceptual processing. In an EEG experiment we compared neural activity in cortical regions commonly associated with linguistic processing and visual perceptual processing to determine to what extent symbolic and embodied accounts of cognition applied. Participants were asked to determine the semantic relationship of word pairs (e.g., sky - ground) or to determine their iconic relationship (i.e., if the presentation of the pair matched their expected physical relationship). A linguistic bias was found toward the semantic judgment task and a perceptual bias was found toward the iconicity judgment task. More importantly, conceptual processing involved activation in brain regions associated with both linguistic and perceptual processes. When comparing the relative activation of linguistic cortical regions with perceptual cortical regions, the effect sizes for linguistic cortical regions were larger than those for the perceptual cortical regions early in a trial with the reverse being true later in a trial. These results map upon findings from other experimental literature and provide further evidence that processing of concept words relies both on language statistics and on perceptual simulations, whereby linguistic processes precede perceptual simulation processes.

  10. Songs to syntax: the linguistics of birdsong.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berwick, Robert C; Okanoya, Kazuo; Beckers, Gabriel J L; Bolhuis, Johan J

    2011-03-01

    Unlike our primate cousins, many species of bird share with humans a capacity for vocal learning, a crucial factor in speech acquisition. There are striking behavioural, neural and genetic similarities between auditory-vocal learning in birds and human infants. Recently, the linguistic parallels between birdsong and spoken language have begun to be investigated. Although both birdsong and human language are hierarchically organized according to particular syntactic constraints, birdsong structure is best characterized as 'phonological syntax', resembling aspects of human sound structure. Crucially, birdsong lacks semantics and words. Formal language and linguistic analysis remains essential for the proper characterization of birdsong as a model system for human speech and language, and for the study of the brain and cognition evolution. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. When quantum mechanics interacts with cognitive science

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Blutner, R.

    2010-01-01

    I reflect on several aspects of the general claim that a quantum-like approach to Cognitive Science is advantageous over classical approaches. The classical approaches refer to the symbolic approaches including models using a classical (Kolmogorov) probability calculus. The general claim seems to be

  12. Penicillin for Education: How Cognitive Science Can Contribute to Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruer, John T.

    1995-01-01

    Education can benefit from knowledge derived from cognitive and developmental psychology. Family demographics have actually improved between 1970 and 90 and so have NAEP scores. Three innovative programs demonstrating cognitive science applications include the Teaching Number Sense elementary math program, reciprocal teaching (reading strategy),…

  13. Linguistic Processing of Accented Speech Across the Lifespan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alejandrina eCristia

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available In most of the world, people have regular exposure to multiple accents. Therefore, learning to quickly process accented speech is a prerequisite to successful communication. In this paper, we examine work on the perception of accented speech across the lifespan, from early infancy to late adulthood. Unfamiliar accents initially impair linguistic processing by infants, children, younger adults, and older adults, but listeners of all ages come to adapt to accented speech. Emergent research also goes beyond these perceptual abilities, by assessing links with production and the relative contributions of linguistic knowledge and general cognitive skills. We conclude by underlining points of convergence across ages, and the gaps left to face in future work.

  14. Applied Linguistics and the "Annual Review of Applied Linguistics."

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaplan, Robert B.; Grabe, William

    2000-01-01

    Examines the complexities and differences involved in granting disciplinary status to the role of applied linguistics, discusses the role of the "Annual Review of Applied Linguistics" as a contributor to the development of applied linguistics, and highlights a set of publications for the future of applied linguistics. (Author/VWL)

  15. The Frequency of Rapid Pupil Dilations as a Measure of Linguistic Processing Difficulty.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vera Demberg

    Full Text Available While it has long been known that the pupil reacts to cognitive load, pupil size has received little attention in cognitive research because of its long latency and the difficulty of separating effects of cognitive load from the light reflex or effects due to eye movements. A novel measure, the Index of Cognitive Activity (ICA, relates cognitive effort to the frequency of small rapid dilations of the pupil. We report here on a total of seven experiments which test whether the ICA reliably indexes linguistically induced cognitive load: three experiments in reading (a manipulation of grammatical gender match/mismatch, an experiment of semantic fit, and an experiment comparing locally ambiguous subject versus object relative clauses, all in German, three dual-task experiments with simultaneous driving and spoken language comprehension (using the same manipulations as in the single-task reading experiments, and a visual world experiment comparing the processing of causal versus concessive discourse markers. These experiments are the first to investigate the effect and time course of the ICA in language processing. All of our experiments support the idea that the ICA indexes linguistic processing difficulty. The effects of our linguistic manipulations on the ICA are consistent for reading and auditory presentation. Furthermore, our experiments show that the ICA allows for usage within a multi-task paradigm. Its robustness with respect to eye movements means that it is a valid measure of processing difficulty for usage within the visual world paradigm, which will allow researchers to assess both visual attention and processing difficulty at the same time, using an eye-tracker. We argue that the ICA is indicative of activity in the locus caeruleus area of the brain stem, which has recently also been linked to P600 effects observed in psycholinguistic EEG experiments.

  16. Formal monkey linguistics

    OpenAIRE

    Schlenker, Philippe; Chemla, Emmanuel; Schel, Anne M.; Fuller, James; Gautier, Jean-Pierre; Kuhn, Jeremy; Veselinović, Dunja; Arnold, Kate; Cäsar, Cristiane; Keenan, Sumir; Lemasson, Alban; Ouattara, Karim; Ryder, Robin; Zuberbühler, Klaus

    2016-01-01

    Zuberbühler: The research leading to these results received funding from the European Research Council under ERC grant ‘Prilang 283871’ and also from the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant ‘FN 310030_143359/1’. We argue that rich data gathered in experimental primatology in the last 40 years can benefit from analytical methods used in contemporary linguistics. Focusing on the syntactic and especially semantic side, we suggest that these methods could help clarify five questions:...

  17. The fruits of a functional approach for psychological science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stewart, Ian

    2016-02-01

    The current paper introduces relational frame theory (RFT) as a functional contextual approach to complex human behaviour and examines how this theory has contributed to our understanding of several key phenomena in psychological science. I will first briefly outline the philosophical foundation of RFT and then examine its conceptual basis and core concepts. Thereafter, I provide an overview of the empirical findings and applications that RFT has stimulated in a number of key domains such as language development, linguistic generativity, rule-following, analogical reasoning, intelligence, theory of mind, psychopathology and implicit cognition. © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

  18. To naturalize or not to naturalize? An issue for cognitive science as well as anthropology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stenning, Keith

    2012-07-01

    Several of Beller, Bender, and Medin's (2012) issues are as relevant within cognitive science as between it and anthropology. Knowledge-rich human mental processes impose hermeneutic tasks, both on subjects and researchers. Psychology's current philosophy of science is ill suited to analyzing these: Its demand for ''stimulus control'' needs to give way to ''negotiation of mutual interpretation.'' Cognitive science has ways to address these issues, as does anthropology. An example from my own work is about how defeasible logics are mathematical models of some aspects of simple hermeneutic processes. They explain processing relative to databases of knowledge and belief-that is, content. A specific example is syllogistic reasoning, which raises issues of experimenters' interpretations of subjects' reasoning. Science, especially since the advent of understandings of computation, does not have to be reductive. How does this approach transfer onto anthropological topics? Recent cognitive science approaches to anthropological topics have taken a reductive stance in terms of modules. We end with some speculations about a different cognitive approach to, for example, religion. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  19. Precedent Phenomena in Quebecois Linguistic World View

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ксения Эдуардовна Болотина

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This article is devoted to the linguocultural analysis of precedent phenomena as parts of Quebecois’ cognitive base. Precedent phenomena being cultural facts are one of the key issues in modern linguistic and cognitive studies. By precedent phenomena we mean, according to Y.E. Prohorov, such entities when verbalized in discourse that refer to a certain cultural fact behind them. In the article the precedent phenomena such as precedent text, precedent situation, precedent utterance, and precedent name are analyzed. The main theses of the precedence theory given in the article (Y.N. Karaulov, Y.E. Prohorov, V.V. Krasnyh, D.B. Gudkov are at the heart of precedence studies on the basis of different languages. However, a complex analysis of precedent phenomena in the Quebec national variant of French is new to Russian linguistics. The study of precedent phenomena enables us to elicit features of their functioning in ethnospecific discourse and determine cultural dominants existing in Quebecois’ linguistic world view. Given the fact that the size of the article is limited, we undertooke the analysis of eight phenomena precedent of the bearers of Quebec linguoculture. The choice of phenomena is determined by the frequency of their use in discourse. The facts analyzed are of national character, i.e. known to all members of the linguocultural community. A certain cultural fact is at the very core of each precedent phenomenon given in the article. To get the whole picture we analysed historic, political, and cultural context connected to the precedent phenomena in question. The study enables us to elicit distinctive features that are at the core of each phenomenon. The results are backed with the supportive material drawn from analysis of different types of discourse. The analysis of precedent phenomena undertaken in this article allows us to reconstruct, to a certain extent, Quebec cultural space and is a stepping stone to the reconstruction of the

  20. Effects of maternal sensitivity and cognitive and linguistic stimulation on cochlear implant users' language development over four years.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quittner, Alexandra L; Cruz, Ivette; Barker, David H; Tobey, Emily; Eisenberg, Laurie S; Niparko, John K

    2013-02-01

    To examine the effects of observed maternal sensitivity (MS), cognitive stimulation (CS), and linguistic stimulation on the 4-year growth of oral language in young, deaf children receiving a cochlear implant. Previous studies of cochlear implants have not considered the effects of parental behaviors on language outcomes. In this prospective, multisite study, we evaluated parent-child interactions during structured and unstructured play tasks and their effects on oral language development in 188 deaf children receiving a cochlear implant and 97 normal-hearing children as controls. Parent-child interactions were rated on a 7-point scale using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Early Childcare Study codes, which have well-established psychometric properties. Language was assessed using the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventories, the Reynell Developmental Language Scales, and the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language. We used mixed longitudinal modeling to test our hypotheses. After accounting for early hearing experience and child and family demographics, MS and CS predicted significant increases in the growth of oral language. Linguistic stimulation was related to language growth only in the context of high MS. The magnitude of effects of MS and CS on the growth of language was similar to that found for age at cochlear implantation, suggesting that addressing parenting behaviors is a critical target for early language learning after implantation. Copyright © 2013 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Linguistic Privilege and Justice: What can we learn from STEM?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pronskikh, V. [Fermilab

    2018-01-19

    The linguistic privilege of native speakers in scientific communication, both oral and written, has been widely reported to influence researchers’ publications and careers in and beyond academia. I analyze social structure and communication in the STEM field through the example of big science and attempt to answer the question of why language injustice has a less significant effect on nonnative scientists and engineers than on humanity scholars, scrutinizing the role of signs and nonlinguistic boundary objects in STEM practice and written communication and how they mitigate the emphasis on linguistic eloquence. I suggest that although big science is relatively linguistically inclusive, for collaborative publications and presentations the rhetoric component requirements nevertheless remain at a level comparable to that of the humanities. I draw on the theory of justice to argue that to increase L2 speakers’ and writers’ satisfaction, language standards for international communication must be adjusted to a level convenient for an average L2.

  2. Confidence in the Knowledge Base of English Language Learners Studying Science: Using Agency to Compensate for the Lack of Adequate Linguistic Identity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hayes, Aneta L.; Mansour, Nasser

    2017-01-01

    Changes in the cultural and linguistic environments of learners are often associated with identity shifts. The aim of this study was to explore what identity shifts occur when science students from Bahraini national schools transition to an international university. The role of two aspects of learner identity--that is, English proficiency and…

  3. Soft Computing Techniques in Vision Science

    CERN Document Server

    Yang, Yeon-Mo

    2012-01-01

    This Special Edited Volume is a unique approach towards Computational solution for the upcoming field of study called Vision Science. From a scientific firmament Optics, Ophthalmology, and Optical Science has surpassed an Odyssey of optimizing configurations of Optical systems, Surveillance Cameras and other Nano optical devices with the metaphor of Nano Science and Technology. Still these systems are falling short of its computational aspect to achieve the pinnacle of human vision system. In this edited volume much attention has been given to address the coupling issues Computational Science and Vision Studies.  It is a comprehensive collection of research works addressing various related areas of Vision Science like Visual Perception and Visual system, Cognitive Psychology, Neuroscience, Psychophysics and Ophthalmology, linguistic relativity, color vision etc. This issue carries some latest developments in the form of research articles and presentations. The volume is rich of contents with technical tools ...

  4. Toward Cognitively Constrained Models of Language Processing: A Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Margreet Vogelzang

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Language processing is not an isolated capacity, but is embedded in other aspects of our cognition. However, it is still largely unexplored to what extent and how language processing interacts with general cognitive resources. This question can be investigated with cognitively constrained computational models, which simulate the cognitive processes involved in language processing. The theoretical claims implemented in cognitive models interact with general architectural constraints such as memory limitations. This way, it generates new predictions that can be tested in experiments, thus generating new data that can give rise to new theoretical insights. This theory-model-experiment cycle is a promising method for investigating aspects of language processing that are difficult to investigate with more traditional experimental techniques. This review specifically examines the language processing models of Lewis and Vasishth (2005, Reitter et al. (2011, and Van Rij et al. (2010, all implemented in the cognitive architecture Adaptive Control of Thought—Rational (Anderson et al., 2004. These models are all limited by the assumptions about cognitive capacities provided by the cognitive architecture, but use different linguistic approaches. Because of this, their comparison provides insight into the extent to which assumptions about general cognitive resources influence concretely implemented models of linguistic competence. For example, the sheer speed and accuracy of human language processing is a current challenge in the field of cognitive modeling, as it does not seem to adhere to the same memory and processing capacities that have been found in other cognitive processes. Architecture-based cognitive models of language processing may be able to make explicit which language-specific resources are needed to acquire and process natural language. The review sheds light on cognitively constrained models of language processing from two angles: we

  5. Efficacy of ACA strategies in biography-driven science teaching: an investigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacDonald, Grizelda L.; Miller, Stuart S.; Murry, Kevin; Herrera, Socorro; Spears, Jacqueline D.

    2013-12-01

    This study explored the biography-driven approach to teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students in science education. Biography-driven instruction (BDI) embraces student diversity by incorporating students' sociocultural, linguistic, cognitive, and academic dimensions of their biographies into the learning process (Herrera in Biography-driven culturally responsive teaching. Teachers College Press, New York, 2010). Strategies have been developed (Herrera, Kavimandan and Holmes in Crossing the vocabulary bridge: differentiated strategies for diverse secondary classrooms. Teachers College Press, New York, 2011) that provide teachers with instructional routines that facilitate BDI. Using systematic classroom observations we empirically demonstrate that these activate, connect, affirm, strategies are likely to be effective in increasing teachers' biography-driven practices. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

  6. A New Direction in Psychology and Politics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldstein, Evan R.

    2008-01-01

    Jonathan Haidt remembers reading "Metaphors We Live By", the influential book that George P. Lakoff, a professor of linguistics and cognitive science at the University of California at Berkeley, wrote with Mark L. Johnson, a professor of philosophy at the University of Oregon. The book drew on cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, and…

  7. A Forgotten Social Science?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Martin-Nielsen, Janet

    2011-01-01

    The post–World War II era was one of great triumph for American linguists—and yet linguistics is all but absent from the historical literature on postwar social science. This paper aims to illuminate this curious situation: to understand its provenance, evaluate its merits, and contextualize...... of linguistics has led to a parallel isolation in the historical literature. Ultimately, this paper poses a pivotal and timely question: How is the postwar social science space construed within the existing historiographic framework, and how should it be construed in order to maximize understanding? I propose...... it broadly. I argue that the historiographic lacuna results from two factors: (1) the opt-out of linguists from the wider American social science community, and (2) historical-developmental and -orientational factors that stand linguistics apart from the social science mainstream. The resultant isolation...

  8. Neuroplasticity-based Cognitive and Linguistic Skills Training Improves Reading and Writing Skills in College Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beth eRogowsky

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available This study reports an evaluation of the effect of computer-based cognitive and linguistic training on college students’ reading and writing skills. The computer-based training included a series of increasingly challenging software programs that were designed to strengthen students’ foundational cognitive skills (memory, attention span, processing speed, and sequencing in the context of listening and higher level reading tasks. Twenty-five college students (12 native English language; 13 English Second Language who demonstrated poor writing skills participated in the training group. The training group received daily training during the spring semester (11 weeks with the Fast ForWord Literacy (FFW-L and upper levels of the Fast ForWord Reading series (Levels 3, 4 and 5. The comparison group (n=28 selected from the general college population did not receive training. Both the training and comparison groups attended the same university. All students took the Gates MacGinitie Reading Test (GMRT and the Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS Written Expression Scale at the beginning (Time 1 and end (Time 2 of the spring college semester. Results from this study showed that the training group made a statistically greater improvement from Time 1 to Time 2 in both their reading skills and their writing skills than the comparison group. The group who received training began with statistically lower writing skills before training, but exceeded the writing skills of the comparison group after training.

  9. Linguistics, cognitive psychology, and the Now-or-Never bottleneck.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Endress, Ansgar D; Katzir, Roni

    2016-01-01

    Christiansen & Chater (C&C)'s key premise is that "if linguistic information is not processed rapidly, that information is lost for good" (sect. 1, para. 1). From this "Now-or-Never bottleneck" (NNB), C&C derive "wide-reaching and fundamental implications for language processing, acquisition and change as well as for the structure of language itself" (sect. 2, para. 10). We question both the premise and the consequentiality of its purported implications.

  10. Salva Phaenomenis. Phenomenological Dimension of Subjectivity in the Frame of the Reductionist Paradigm of the Cognitive Sciences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kobiela Filip

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The paper addresses the family of questions that arose from the field of interactions between phenomenology and the cognitive sciences. On the one hand, apparently partial coextensivity of research domain of phenomenology and the cognitive sciences sets the goal of their cooperation and mutual inspiration. On the other hand, there are some obstacles on the path to achieve this goal: phenomenology and the cognitive sciences have different traditions, they speak different languages, they have adopted different methodological approaches, and last but not least, their prominent exponents exhibits different styles of thinking. In order to clarify this complicated area of tensions, the paper presents the results of philosophical reflections of such topics as: 1 philosophical presuppositions and postulates of the cognitive sciences 2 abstraction of some phenomena during idealisation and the dialectical model of science's development 3 argumentation based on prediction of future development of the cognitive sciences. This finally leads to the formulation of a phenomenology-based postulate for adequate model of mind and the discussion of humanistic dimension of cognitive sciences.

  11. Perceptual effects of linguistic category priming: the Stapel and Semin (2007) paradigm revisited in twelve experiments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    IJzerman, Hans; Regenberg, Nina F E; Saddlemyer, Justin; Koole, Sander L

    2015-05-01

    Linguistic category priming is a novel paradigm to examine automatic influences of language on cognition (Semin, 2008). An initial article reported that priming abstract linguistic categories (adjectives) led to more global perceptual processing, whereas priming concrete linguistic categories (verbs) led to more local perceptual processing (Stapel & Semin, 2007). However, this report was compromised by data fabrication by the first author, so that it remains unclear whether or not linguistic category priming influences perceptual processing. To fill this gap in the literature, the present article reports 12 studies among Dutch and US samples examining the perceptual effects of linguistic category priming. The results yielded no evidence of linguistic category priming effects. These findings are discussed in relation to other research showing cultural variations in linguistic category priming effects (IJzerman, Saddlemyer, & Koole, 2014). The authors conclude by highlighting the importance of conducting and publishing replication research for achieving scientific progress. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Metaphors in Congressional Discourse: Cognitive Frames of the Political Status of Puerto Rico

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nickels, Edelmira L.

    2013-01-01

    Linguistics research has demonstrated the commonness and functions of metaphors to carry cognitive frames, which influence the way people understand and act on information. This work conveys the results of three analyses employed to describe cognitive frames: forms of linguistic metaphors used, functions of systematic metaphors that emerged, and…

  13. Conversation Analysis in Applied Linguistics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kasper, Gabriele; Wagner, Johannes

    2014-01-01

    on applied CA, the application of basic CA's principles, methods, and findings to the study of social domains and practices that are interactionally constituted. We consider three strands—foundational, social problem oriented, and institutional applied CA—before turning to recent developments in CA research...... on learning and development. In conclusion, we address some emerging themes in the relationship of CA and applied linguistics, including the role of multilingualism, standard social science methods as research objects, CA's potential for direct social intervention, and increasing efforts to complement CA......For the last decade, conversation analysis (CA) has increasingly contributed to several established fields in applied linguistics. In this article, we will discuss its methodological contributions. The article distinguishes between basic and applied CA. Basic CA is a sociological endeavor concerned...

  14. Speaking under pressure: low linguistic complexity is linked to high physiological and emotional stress reactivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saslow, Laura R; McCoy, Shannon; van der Löwe, Ilmo; Cosley, Brandon; Vartan, Arbi; Oveis, Christopher; Keltner, Dacher; Moskowitz, Judith T; Epel, Elissa S

    2014-03-01

    What can a speech reveal about someone's state? We tested the idea that greater stress reactivity would relate to lower linguistic cognitive complexity while speaking. In Study 1, we tested whether heart rate and emotional stress reactivity to a stressful discussion would relate to lower linguistic complexity. In Studies 2 and 3, we tested whether a greater cortisol response to a standardized stressful task including a speech (Trier Social Stress Test) would be linked to speaking with less linguistic complexity during the task. We found evidence that measures of stress responsivity (emotional and physiological) and chronic stress are tied to variability in the cognitive complexity of speech. Taken together, these results provide evidence that our individual experiences of stress or "stress signatures"-how our body and mind react to stress both in the moment and over the longer term-are linked to how complex our speech under stress. Copyright © 2013 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

  15. Linguistic Correlates of Asymmetric Motor Symptom Severity in Parkinson's Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holtgraves, Thomas; McNamara, Patrick; Cappaert, Kevin; Durso, Raymond

    2010-01-01

    Asymmetric motor severity is common in Parkinson's Disease (PD) and provides a method for examining the neurobiologic mechanisms underlying cognitive and linguistic deficits associated with the disorder. In the present research, PD participants (N = 31) were assessed in terms of the asymmetry of their motor symptoms. Interviews with the…

  16. University of New Mexico Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 1.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meehan, Teresa M., Ed.; Schwenter, Scott A., Ed.

    This volume contains working papers on a variety of topics in linguistics. They include: "A View of Phonology from a Cognitive and Functional Perspective" (Joan Bybee); "The Geography of Language Shift: Distance from the Mexican Border and Spanish Language Claiming in the Southwestern United States" (Garland D. Bills, Eduardo…

  17. Behavioural phenotypes of the mucopolysaccharide disorders: a systematic literature review of cognitive, motor, social, linguistic and behavioural presentation in the MPS disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cross, E M; Hare, D J

    2013-03-01

    The mucopolysaccharide disorders (MPS) are a group of recessively inherited metabolic disorders resulting in progressive physical and cognitive decline. MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Embase databases were searched, alongside manual screening, to identify relevant literature. Papers were included in the review if they were published in a peer reviewed journal and conducted empirical research into cognitive, motor, social or linguistic development or behaviour in one or more MPS disorders. Twenty-five papers were reviewed. Two papers used methodology of a sufficiently high standard to demonstrate a behavioural phenotype; both found sleep disturbance to be part of the phenotype of MPS III. Fearfulness and sleep disturbance were frequently observed in people with MPS I and II. Cognitive and motor impairment and decline, and challenging behaviour were highly prevalent in the severe form of MPS II. Cognitive decline and severe behavioural problems relating to aggression, hyperactivity, orality, unusual affect and temper tantrums were seen in MPS III. Sleep disturbance is part of the behavioural phenotype of MPS III, and challenging behaviour is highly prevalent in MPS II and MPS III, therefore the efficacy of behavioural interventions for these populations should be investigated. Further research into the behaviour and adaptive skills of children with MPS III and MPS IV is required.

  18. On Linguistic Abilities, Multilingualism, and Linguistic Justice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iannàccaro Gabriele

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The notion of linguistic justice should be related to the concept of linguistic ease, by which we mean the full social and communicative freedom of concern of the speaker in a given social interaction involving the use of language(s present in the society, according to the social norms of use. To acquire an acceptable degree of linguistic ease, the knowledge of at least one L2 is considered important. But the acquisition of a L2 is interfered by the previous linguistic skills of the learner/speaker who, in many cases, does not have a suitable competence even of the languages of the society in which he/she lives.

  19. [Cross-cultural validated adaptation of dysfunctional voiding symptom score (DVSS) to Japanese language and cognitive linguistics in questionnaire for pediatric patients].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Imamura, Masaaki; Usui, Tomoko; Johnin, Kazuyoshi; Yoshimura, Koji; Farhat, Walid; Kanematsu, Akihiro; Ogawa, Osamu

    2014-07-01

    Validated questionnaire for evaluation of pediatric lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) is of a great need. We performed cross-cultural validated adaptation of Dysfunctional Voiding Symptom Score (DVSS) to Japanese language, and assessed whether children understand and respond to questionnaire correctly, using cognitive linguistic approach. We translated DVSS into two Japanese versions according to a standard validation methodology: translation, synthesis, back-translation, expert review, and pre-testing. One version was written in adult language for parents, and the other was written in child language for children. Pre-testing was done with 5 to 15-year-old patients visiting us, having normal intelligence. A specialist in cognitive linguistics observed the response by children and parents to DVSS as an interviewer. When a child could not understand a question without adding or paraphrasing the question by the parents, it was defined as 'misidentification'. We performed pretesting with 2 trial versions of DVSS before having the final version. The pre-testing for the first trial version was done for 32 patients (male to female ratio was 19 : 13). The pre-testing for the second trial version was done for 11 patients (male to female ratio was 8 : 3). In DVSS in child language, misidentification was consistently observed for representation of time or frequency. We completed the formal validated translation by amending the problems raised in the pre-testing. The cross-cultural validated adaptation of DVSS to child and adult Japanese was completed. Since temporal perception is not fully developed in children, caution should be taken for using the terms related with time or frequency in the questionnaires for children.

  20. The effect of perceived regional accents on individual economic behavior: a lab experiment on linguistic performance, cognitive ratings and economic decisions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephan Heblich

    Full Text Available Does it matter if you speak with a regional accent? Speaking immediately reveals something of one's own social and cultural identity, be it consciously or unconsciously. Perceiving accents involves not only reconstructing such imprints but also augmenting them with particular attitudes and stereotypes. Even though we know much about attitudes and stereotypes that are transmitted by, e.g. skin color, names or physical attractiveness, we do not yet have satisfactory answers how accent perception affects human behavior. How do people act in economically relevant contexts when they are confronted with regional accents? This paper reports a laboratory experiment where we address this question. Participants in our experiment conduct cognitive tests where they can choose to either cooperate or compete with a randomly matched male opponent identified only via his rendering of a standardized text in either a regional accent or standard accent. We find a strong connection between the linguistic performance and the cognitive rating of the opponent. When matched with an opponent who speaks the accent of the participant's home region--the in-group opponent--, individuals tend to cooperate significantly more often. By contrast, they are more likely to compete when matched with an accent speaker from outside their home region, the out-group opponent. Our findings demonstrate, firstly, that the perception of an out-group accent leads not only to social discrimination but also influences economic decisions. Secondly, they suggest that this economic behavior is not necessarily attributable to the perception of a regional accent per se, but rather to the social rating of linguistic distance and the in-group/out-group perception it evokes.

  1. Music lessons improve auditory perceptual and cognitive performance in deaf children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rochette, Françoise; Moussard, Aline; Bigand, Emmanuel

    2014-01-01

    Despite advanced technologies in auditory rehabilitation of profound deafness, deaf children often exhibit delayed cognitive and linguistic development and auditory training remains a crucial element of their education. In the present cross-sectional study, we assess whether music would be a relevant tool for deaf children rehabilitation. In normal-hearing children, music lessons have been shown to improve cognitive and linguistic-related abilities, such as phonetic discrimination and reading. We compared auditory perception, auditory cognition, and phonetic discrimination between 14 profoundly deaf children who completed weekly music lessons for a period of 1.5-4 years and 14 deaf children who did not receive musical instruction. Children were assessed on perceptual and cognitive auditory tasks using environmental sounds: discrimination, identification, auditory scene analysis, auditory working memory. Transfer to the linguistic domain was tested with a phonetic discrimination task. Musically trained children showed better performance in auditory scene analysis, auditory working memory and phonetic discrimination tasks, and multiple regressions showed that success on these tasks was at least partly driven by music lessons. We propose that musical education contributes to development of general processes such as auditory attention and perception, which, in turn, facilitate auditory-related cognitive and linguistic processes.

  2. Music lessons improve auditory perceptual and cognitive performance in deaf children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Françoise eROCHETTE

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Despite advanced technologies in auditory rehabilitation of profound deafness, deaf children often exhibit delayed cognitive and linguistic development and auditory training remains a crucial element of their education. In the present cross-sectional study, we assess whether music would be a relevant tool for deaf children rehabilitation. In normal-hearing children, music lessons have been shown to improve cognitive and linguistic-related abilities, such as phonetic discrimination and reading. We compared auditory perception, auditory cognition, and phonetic discrimination between 14 profoundly deaf children who completed weekly music lessons for a period of 1.5 to 4 years and 14 deaf children who did not receive musical instruction. Children were assessed on perceptual and cognitive auditory tasks using environmental sounds: discrimination, identification, auditory scene analysis, auditory working memory. Transfer to the linguistic domain was tested with a phonetic discrimination task. Musically-trained children showed better performance in auditory scene analysis, auditory working memory and phonetic discrimination tasks, and multiple regressions showed that success on these tasks was at least partly driven by music lessons. We propose that musical education contributes to development of general processes such as auditory attention and perception, which, in turn, facilitate auditory-related cognitive and linguistic processes.

  3. Mill and Mental Phenomena: Critical Contributions to a Science of Cognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven L. Bistricky

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Attempts to define cognition preceded John Stuart Mill’s life and continue to this day. John Stuart Mill envisioned a science of mental phenomena informed by associationism, empirical introspection, and neurophysiology, and he advanced specific ideas that still influence modern conceptions of cognition. The present article briefly reviews Mill’s personal history and the times in which he lived, and it traces the evolution of ideas that have run through him to contemporary cognitive concepts. The article also highlights contemporary problems in defining cognition and supports specific criteria regarding what constitutes cognition.

  4. Mill and mental phenomena: critical contributions to a science of cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bistricky, Steven L

    2013-06-01

    Attempts to define cognition preceded John Stuart Mill's life and continue to this day. John Stuart Mill envisioned a science of mental phenomena informed by associationism, empirical introspection, and neurophysiology, and he advanced specific ideas that still influence modern conceptions of cognition. The present article briefly reviews Mill's personal history and the times in which he lived, and it traces the evolution of ideas that have run through him to contemporary cognitive concepts. The article also highlights contemporary problems in defining cognition and supports specific criteria regarding what constitutes cognition.

  5. The linguistically aware teacher and the teacher-aware linguist.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCartney, Elspeth; Ellis, Sue

    2013-07-01

    This review evaluates issues of teacher linguistic knowledge relating to their work with children with speech, language and communication difficulties (SLCD). Information is from Ellis and McCartney [(2011a). Applied linguistics and primary school teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press], a state-of-the-art text deriving from a British Association of Applied Linguistics/Cambridge University Press expert seminar series that details: linguistic research underpinning primary school curricula and pedagogy; the form of linguistic knowledge useful for teachers supporting children with SLCD in partnership with speech and language therapists; and how and when teachers acquire and learn to apply such knowledge. Critical analysis of the options presented for teacher learning indicate that policy enjoinders now include linguistic application as an expected part of teachers' professional knowledge, for all children including those with SLCD, but there is a large unmet learning need. It is concluded that there is a role for clinical linguists to disseminate useable knowledge to teachers in an accessible format. Ways of achieving this are considered.

  6. An organizing model for recent cognitive science work on the self.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pageler, Ben

    2016-10-01

    An organizing model of 'the self' emerges from applying various kinds of brain injury to recent cognitive science and philosophical work on 'the self'. This model unifies various contents and mechanisms central to current notions of the self. The article then highlights several criteria and aspects of this notion of self. Qualities of the right type and level of psychological significance delineate 'the self' as an organizing concept useful for recent philosophical work and cognitive science research. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Linguistic Polyphony

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nølke, Henning

    on the Scandinavian variant of polyphony, ScaPoLine. ScaPoLine is a formal linguistic theory whose main purpose is to specify the instructions conveyed through linguistic form for the creation of polyphonic meaning. The theoretical introduction is followed by polyphonic analyses of linguistic phenomena...

  8. COGNITIVE-COMMUNICATIVE PERSONALITY CATEGORY IN THE KAZAKH LANGUAGE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Orynay Sagingalievna Zhubaeva

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of the research is to reveal the character of anthropocentricity of grammatical categories in their meaning and functioning. Materials and methods. According to the research objectives and goals, the methods used were as follows: the descriptive method, general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, cognitive analysis, method of experiment, contextual analysis, structural-semantic analysis, transformation technique, comparative analysis. Results. For the first time in the Kazakh linguistics the substantial aspect of grammatical categories is characterized being a result of both conceptualization and categorization processes. Based on generalization and the comparative analysis of nature and forms of the human factor reflection in the Kazakh grammatical categories there has been revealed the national-cultural specific character of grammatical categories. Practical implications. The research materials can be used in theoretical courses onf grammar and linguistics, as well as in the development of special courses on cognitive linguistics, cognitive grammar, etc.

  9. On evolution of thinking about semiosis: semiotics meets cognitive science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Piotr Konderak

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to sketch an idea—seen from the point of view of a cognitive scientist—of cognitive semiotics as a discipline. Consequently, the article presents aspects of the relationship between the two disciplines: semiotics and cognitive science. The main assumption of the argumentation is that at least some semiotic processes are also cognitive processes. At the methodological level, this claim allows for application of cognitive models as explanations of selected semiotic processes. In particular, the processes of embedded interpretation (in contrast to interpretability in principle are considered: belief revision, dynamic organization of meaning and metaknowledge. The explanations are formulated in terms of artificial cognitive agents of the GLAIR/SNePS cognitive architecture. Finally, it is suggested that even if someone rejects the idea of artificial cognitive systems as simulations of semiotic processes, they may acknowledge the usefulness of cognitive modeling in analysis of semiotic processes in virtual, simulated worlds and in the area of “new media”.

  10. Linguistic and Perceptual Mapping in Spatial Representations: An Attentional Account.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valdés-Conroy, Berenice; Hinojosa, José A; Román, Francisco J; Romero-Ferreiro, Verónica

    2018-03-01

    Building on evidence for embodied representations, we investigated whether Spanish spatial terms map onto the NEAR/FAR perceptual division of space. Using a long horizontal display, we measured congruency effects during the processing of spatial terms presented in NEAR or FAR space. Across three experiments, we manipulated the task demands in order to investigate the role of endogenous attention in linguistic and perceptual space mapping. We predicted congruency effects only when spatial properties were relevant for the task (reaching estimation task, Experiment 1) but not when attention was allocated to other features (lexical decision, Experiment 2; and color, Experiment 3). Results showed faster responses for words presented in Near-space in all experiments. Consistent with our hypothesis, congruency effects were observed only when a reaching estimate was requested. Our results add important evidence for the role of top-down processing in congruency effects from embodied representations of spatial terms. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  11. Language learning, language use and the evolution of linguistic variation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perfors, Amy; Fehér, Olga; Samara, Anna; Swoboda, Kate; Wonnacott, Elizabeth

    2017-01-01

    Linguistic universals arise from the interaction between the processes of language learning and language use. A test case for the relationship between these factors is linguistic variation, which tends to be conditioned on linguistic or sociolinguistic criteria. How can we explain the scarcity of unpredictable variation in natural language, and to what extent is this property of language a straightforward reflection of biases in statistical learning? We review three strands of experimental work exploring these questions, and introduce a Bayesian model of the learning and transmission of linguistic variation along with a closely matched artificial language learning experiment with adult participants. Our results show that while the biases of language learners can potentially play a role in shaping linguistic systems, the relationship between biases of learners and the structure of languages is not straightforward. Weak biases can have strong effects on language structure as they accumulate over repeated transmission. But the opposite can also be true: strong biases can have weak or no effects. Furthermore, the use of language during interaction can reshape linguistic systems. Combining data and insights from studies of learning, transmission and use is therefore essential if we are to understand how biases in statistical learning interact with language transmission and language use to shape the structural properties of language. This article is part of the themed issue ‘New frontiers for statistical learning in the cognitive sciences’. PMID:27872370

  12. Enactivism, Radical Enactivism and Predictive Processing: What is Radical in Cognitive Science?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gärtner Klaus

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available According to Enactivism, cognition should be understood in terms of a dynamic interaction between an acting organism and its environment. Further, this view holds that organisms do not passively receive information from this environment, they rather selectively create this environment by engaging in interaction with the world. Radical Enactivism adds that basic cognition does so without entertaining representations and hence that representations are not an essential constituent of cognition. Some proponents think that getting rid of representations amounts to a revolutionary alternative to standard views about cognition. To emphasize the impact, they claim that this ‘radicalization’ should be applied to all enactivist friendly views, including, another current and potentially revolutionary approach to cognition: predictive processing. In this paper, we will show that this is not the case. After introducing the problem (section 2, we will argue (section 3 that ‘radicalizing’ predictive processing does not add any value to this approach. After this (section 4, we will analyze whether or not radical Enactivism can count as a revolution within cognitive science at all and conclude that it cannot. Finally, in section 5 we will claim that cognitive science is better off when embracing heterogeneity.

  13. Cognitive Correlates of Performance in Algorithms in a Computer Science Course for High School

    Science.gov (United States)

    Avancena, Aimee Theresa; Nishihara, Akinori

    2014-01-01

    Computer science for high school faces many challenging issues. One of these is whether the students possess the appropriate cognitive ability for learning the fundamentals of computer science. Online tests were created based on known cognitive factors and fundamental algorithms and were implemented among the second grade students in the…

  14. A Fuzzy Linguistic Methodology to Deal With Unbalanced Linguistic Term Sets

    OpenAIRE

    Herrera, F.; Herrera-Viedma, Enrique; Martinez, L.

    2008-01-01

    Many real problems dealing with qualitative aspects use linguistic approaches to assess such aspects. In most of these problems, a uniform and symmetrical distribution of the linguistic term sets for linguistic modeling is assumed. However, there exist problems whose assessments need to be represented by means of unbalanced linguistic term sets, i.e., using term sets that are not uniformly and symmetrically distributed. The use of linguistic variables implies processes of computing with words...

  15. A Framework for Re-thinking Learning in Science from Recent Cognitive Science Perspectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tytler, Russell; Prain, Vaughan

    2010-10-01

    Recent accounts by cognitive scientists of factors affecting cognition imply the need to reconsider current dominant conceptual theories about science learning. These new accounts emphasize the role of context, embodied practices, and narrative-based representation rather than learners' cognitive constructs. In this paper we analyse data from a longitudinal study of primary school children's learning to outline a framework based on these contemporary accounts and to delineate key points of difference from conceptual change perspectives. The findings suggest this framework provides strong theoretical and practical insights into how children learn and the key role of representational negotiation in this learning. We argue that the nature and process of conceptual change can be re-interpreted in terms of the development of students' representational resources.

  16. Processing demands upon cognitive, linguistic, and articulatory functions promote grey matter plasticity in the adult multilingual brain: Insights from simultaneous interpreters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elmer, Stefan; Hänggi, Jürgen; Jäncke, Lutz

    2014-05-01

    Until now, considerable effort has been made to determine structural brain characteristics related to exceptional multilingual skills. However, at least one important question has not yet been satisfactorily addressed in the previous literature, namely whether and to which extent the processing demands upon cognitive, linguistic, and articulatory functions may promote grey matter plasticity in the adult multilingual brain. Based on the premise that simultaneous interpretation is a highly demanding linguistic task that places strong demands on executive and articulatory functions, here we compared grey matter volumes between professional simultaneous interpreters (SI) and multilingual control subjects. Thereby, we focused on a specific set of a-priori defined bilateral brain regions that have previously been shown to support neurocognitional aspects of language control and linguistic functions in the multilingual brain. These regions are the cingulate gyrus, caudate nucleus, frontal operculum (pars triangularis and opercularis), inferior parietal lobe (IPL) (supramarginal and angular gyrus), and the insula. As a main result, we found reduced grey matter volumes in professional SI, compared to multilingual controls, in the left middle-anterior cingulate gyrus, bilateral pars triangularis, left pars opercularis, bilateral middle part of the insula, and in the left supramarginal gyrus (SMG). Interestingly, grey matter volume in left pars triangularis, right pars opercularis, middle-anterior cingulate gyrus, and in the bilateral caudate nucleus was negatively correlated with the cumulative number of interpreting hours. Hence, we provide first evidence for an expertise-related grey matter architecture that may reflect a composite of brain characteristics that were still present before interpreting training and training-related changes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Linguistic explanation and domain specialization: a case study in bound variable anaphora.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adger, David; Svenonius, Peter

    2015-01-01

    The core question behind this Frontiers research topic is whether explaining linguistic phenomena requires appeal to properties of human cognition that are specialized to language. We argue here that investigating this issue requires taking linguistic research results seriously, and evaluating these for domain-specificity. We present a particular empirical phenomenon, bound variable interpretations of pronouns dependent on a quantifier phrase, and argue for a particular theory of this empirical domain that is couched at a level of theoretical depth which allows its principles to be evaluated for domain-specialization. We argue that the relevant principles are specialized when they apply in the domain of language, even if analogs of them are plausibly at work elsewhere in cognition or the natural world more generally. So certain principles may be specialized to language, though not, ultimately, unique to it. Such specialization is underpinned by ultimately biological factors, hence part of UG.

  18. The Effects of Item Format and Cognitive Domain on Students' Science Performance in TIMSS 2011

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liou, Pey-Yan; Bulut, Okan

    2017-12-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine eighth-grade students' science performance in terms of two test design components, item format, and cognitive domain. The portion of Taiwanese data came from the 2011 administration of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), one of the major international large-scale assessments in science. The item difficulty analysis was initially applied to show the proportion of correct items. A regression-based cumulative link mixed modeling (CLMM) approach was further utilized to estimate the impact of item format, cognitive domain, and their interaction on the students' science scores. The results of the proportion-correct statistics showed that constructed-response items were more difficult than multiple-choice items, and that the reasoning cognitive domain items were more difficult compared to the items in the applying and knowing domains. In terms of the CLMM results, students tended to obtain higher scores when answering constructed-response items as well as items in the applying cognitive domain. When the two predictors and the interaction term were included together, the directions and magnitudes of the predictors on student science performance changed substantially. Plausible explanations for the complex nature of the effects of the two test-design predictors on student science performance are discussed. The results provide practical, empirical-based evidence for test developers, teachers, and stakeholders to be aware of the differential function of item format, cognitive domain, and their interaction in students' science performance.

  19. Linguacultural space “Man-Nature” in literary texts: cognitive and pragmatic approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eldarova Ruzanna Alievna

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The magnitude of representation of nature images, the links to the author’s mind, the hero, the reader can be considered in literary texts as one of the most important sources for identifying the parameters of the national picture of the world and the individually author’s transformation of its components. Researches that identify patterns of functioning linguacultural spaces in the texts are able to give new results projected in the linguistic picture of the ethnic group of the world due to reflections in literary texts of archetypal, stereotyped images of peculiar linguistic culture and ethnic group as a whole as well as individually-copyright, which characterize a particular linguistic identity and its conception of the world. Cognitive paradigm of modern linguistics, anthropocentric in nature allows to consider culture as a process modeling language, which naturally highlights the problem of linguistic linguaculture of predetermined value. Great importance in this regard is the concept of space as linguocultural cognitive model of objective reality. Cognitive-pragmatic potential of a literary text is deepening due to the introduction the descriptions of nature, since they always implement the ethical, aesthetic, and intellectual abilities of the creative subject.

  20. How the Study of Cognitive Growth Can Benefit From a Cultural Lens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Serpell, Robert

    2017-09-01

    Applications of psychology to education and assessment often take for granted Western cultural assumptions about the nature of intelligence, ignore cultural features of human cognition other than language, and liken the influence of socialization on development to biological nutrition. Such oversimplifications can lead to stigmatizing culturally different persons as atypical or deficient and to perpetuating oppressive cultural hegemony. A cultural lens can benefit psychological science by facilitating communication with diverse audiences, channeling new knowledge into social progress, and generating theoretical insights about human behavior and experience, such as linguistic flexibility as a dimension of cognition, social responsibility as a dimension of intelligence, and intimate culture as a filter between larger social representations and the frame of reference for an individual mind.

  1. The linguistics of schizophrenia: thought disturbance as language pathology across positive symptoms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinzen, Wolfram; Rosselló, Joana

    2015-01-01

    We hypothesize that linguistic (dis-)organization in the schizophrenic brain plays a more central role in the pathogenesis of this disease than commonly supposed. Against the standard view, that schizophrenia is a disturbance of thought or selfhood, we argue that the origins of the relevant forms of thought and selfhood at least partially depend on language. The view that they do not is premised by a theoretical conception of language that we here identify as 'Cartesian' and contrast with a recent 'un-Cartesian' model. This linguistic model empirically argues for both (i) a one-to-one correlation between human-specific thought or meaning and forms of grammatical organization, and (ii) an integrative and co-dependent view of linguistic cognition and its sensory-motor dimensions. Core dimensions of meaning mediated by grammar on this model specifically concern forms of referential and propositional meaning. A breakdown of these is virtually definitional of core symptoms. Within this model the three main positive symptoms of schizophrenia fall into place as failures in language-mediated forms of meaning, manifest either as a disorder of speech perception (Auditory Verbal Hallucinations), abnormal speech production running without feedback control (Formal Thought Disorder), or production of abnormal linguistic content (Delusions). Our hypothesis makes testable predictions for the language profile of schizophrenia across symptoms; it simplifies the cognitive neuropsychology of schizophrenia while not being inconsistent with a pattern of neurocognitive deficits and their correlations with symptoms; and it predicts persistent findings on disturbances of language-related circuitry in the schizophrenic brain.

  2. The linguistics of schizophrenia: thought disturbance as language pathology across positive symptoms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wolfram eHinzen

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available We hypothesize that linguistic (dis- organization in the schizophrenic brain plays a much more central role in the pathogenesis of this disease than commonly supposed. Against the standard view, that schizophrenia is a disturbance of thought or selfhood, we argue that the origins of the relevant forms of thought and selfhood at least partially depend on language. The view that they do not is premised by a theoretical conception of language that we here identify as ‘Cartesian’ and contrast with a recent ‘un-Cartesian’ model. This linguistic model empirically argues for both (i a one-to-one correlation between human-specific thought or meaning and forms of grammatical organization, and (ii an integrative and co-dependent view of linguistic cognition and its sensory-motor dimensions. Core dimensions of meaning mediated by grammar on this model specifically concern forms of referential and propositional meaning. A breakdown of these is virtually definitional of core symptoms. Within this model the three main positive symptoms of schizophrenia fall into place as failures in language-mediated forms of meaning, manifest either as a disorder of speech perception (Auditory Verbal Hallucinations, AVHs, abnormal speech production running without feedback control (Formal Thought Disorder, FTD, or production of abnormal linguistic content (Delusions. Our hypothesis makes testable predictions for the language profile of schizophrenia across symptoms; it simplifies the cognitive neuropsychology of schizophrenia while not being inconsistent with a pattern of neurocognitive deficits and their correlations with symptoms; and it predicts persistent findings on disturbances of language-related circuitry in the schizophrenic brain.

  3. Articles on Practical Cybernetics. Computer-Developed Computers; Heuristics and Modern Sciences; Linguistics and Practice; Cybernetics and Moral-Ethical Considerations; and Men and Machines at the Chessboard.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berg, A. I.; And Others

    Five articles which were selected from a Russian language book on cybernetics and then translated are presented here. They deal with the topics of: computer-developed computers, heuristics and modern sciences, linguistics and practice, cybernetics and moral-ethical considerations, and computer chess programs. (Author/JY)

  4. Smart phone, smart science: how the use of smartphones can revolutionize research in cognitive science

    OpenAIRE

    Dufau, Stephane; Dunabeitia, Jon Andoni; Moret-Tatay, Carmen; McGonigal, Aileen; Peeters, David; Alario, F -Xavier; Balota, David A; Brysbaert, Marc; Carreiras, Manuel; Ferrand, Ludovic; Ktori, Maria; Perea, Manuel; Rastle, Kathy; Sasburg, Olivier; Yap, Melvin J

    2011-01-01

    Investigating human cognitive faculties such as language, attention, and memory most often relies on testing small and homogeneous groups of volunteers coming to research facilities where they are asked to participate in behavioral experiments. We show that this limitation and sampling bias can be overcome by using smartphone technology to collect data in cognitive science experiments from thousands of subjects from all over the world. This mass coordinated use of smartphones creates a novel ...

  5. Cognition-Based Approaches for High-Precision Text Mining

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shannon, George John

    2017-01-01

    This research improves the precision of information extraction from free-form text via the use of cognitive-based approaches to natural language processing (NLP). Cognitive-based approaches are an important, and relatively new, area of research in NLP and search, as well as linguistics. Cognitive approaches enable significant improvements in both…

  6. Biomedical Engineering and Cognitive Science Secondary Science Curriculum Development: A Three Year Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, Stacy S.; Sherwood, Robert D.

    2005-01-01

    This study reports on a multi-year effort to create and evaluate cognitive-based curricular materials for secondary school science classrooms. A team of secondary teachers, educational researchers, and academic biomedical engineers developed a series of curriculum units that are based in biomedical engineering for secondary level students in…

  7. Idea density measured in late life predicts subsequent cognitive trajectories: implications for the measurement of cognitive reserve.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farias, Sarah Tomaszewski; Chand, Vineeta; Bonnici, Lisa; Baynes, Kathleen; Harvey, Danielle; Mungas, Dan; Simon, Christa; Reed, Bruce

    2012-11-01

    The Nun Study showed that lower linguistic ability in young adulthood, measured by idea density (ID), increased the risk of dementia in late life. The present study examined whether ID measured in late life continues to predict the trajectory of cognitive change. ID was measured in 81 older adults who were followed longitudinally for an average of 4.3 years. Changes in global cognition and 4 specific neuropsychological domains (episodic memory, semantic memory, spatial abilities, and executive function) were examined as outcomes. Separate random effects models tested the effect of ID on longitudinal change in outcomes, adjusted for age and education. Lower ID was associated with greater subsequent decline in global cognition, semantic memory, episodic memory, and spatial abilities. When analysis was restricted to only participants without dementia at the time ID was collected, results were similar. Linguistic ability in young adulthood, as measured by ID, has been previously proposed as an index of neurocognitive development and/or cognitive reserve. The present study provides evidence that even when ID is measured in old age, it continues to be associated with subsequent cognitive decline and as such may continue to provide a marker of cognitive reserve.

  8. COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC AND ESP: USING METAPHOR AS A USEFUL DEVICE FOR TEACHING L2 BUSINESS ENGLISH LEARNERS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ida Hendriyani

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Cognitive Linguistics is language essentially and inherently symbolic in nature. It means that all linguistic expressions such as; words, phrases and sentences, utterances, signs or writting are symbols of concept in a speaker’s mind. Metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action that it does not literally denote in order to imply a resemblance. Many people have encountered them in literature and poetry, and most of us know that even when we talk casually, we may take advantage of such figurative language, perhaps especially when there are some evasive, hard-to-grasp emotions or thought that we want to communicate. We can find several metaphors in newspapers, literature or scientific articles, etc. Metaphor is a central issue in ESP teaching. The purposes of this paper are (1 to increase the students’ knowledge of technical and semi-technical business vocabulary. (2 to improve business reading fluency and (3 to enrich vocabulary in business texts or readings. Metaphor in a specific English language program can provide students with a useful device to raise awareness of key concepts, models and issues and to improve their reading in business. The term of Business English refers to a wide range of ESL (English for Specific Learning courses characterized by having sense of purpose, specific content and general. This frequent presence of metaphor in economic and business texts are for second language learners, to improve language learners’ specialized reading of business texts and to help them produce native-like discourse when they translate business texts.

  9. Conceptual Metaphor and Embodied Cognition in Science Learning: Introduction to Special Issue

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amin, Tamer G.; Jeppsson, Fredrik; Haglund, Jesper

    2015-01-01

    This special issue of "International Journal of Science Education" is based on the theme "Conceptual Metaphor and Embodied Cognition in Science Learning." The idea for this issue grew out of a symposium organized on this topic at the conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) in September 2013.…

  10. Social Cognitive Predictors of Interest in Research Among Life Sciences Academics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sawitri, Dian R.; Nurtjahjanti, Harlina; Prasetyo, Anggun R.

    2018-02-01

    Research interest is the degree to which an individual is interested in conducting research-related activities. Nowadays, Indonesian higher education academics are expected to be research productive, especially those in life sciences. However, what predicts interest in research among life sciences academics is rarely known. We surveyed 240 life sciences academics (64.6% female, mean age = 31.91 years) from several higher degree institutions in Indonesia, using interest in research, research self-efficacy, and research outcome expectations questionnaires. We used social cognitive career theory which proposes that individual’s interests are the results of the interaction between one’s self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations overtime. Structural equation modelling demonstrated that research self-efficacy was directly and indirectly associated with interest in research via research outcome expectations. Understanding the social cognitive predictors of interest in research contributes to an understanding of the associations between research self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interest in research. Recommendations for life sciences academics, faculties, and higher education institutions are discussed.

  11. Evoking and Measuring Identification with Narrative Characters - A Linguistic Cues Framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Krieken, Kobie; Hoeken, Hans; Sanders, José

    2017-01-01

    Current research on identification with narrative characters poses two problems. First, although identification is seen as a dynamic process of which the intensity varies during reading, it is usually measured by means of post-reading questionnaires containing self-report items. Second, it is not clear which linguistic characteristics evoke identification. The present paper proposes that an interdisciplinary framework allows for more precise manipulations and measurements of identification, which will ultimately advance our understanding of the antecedents and nature of this process. The central hypothesis of our Linguistic Cues Framework is that identification with a narrative character is a multidimensional experience for which different dimensions are evoked by different linguistic cues. The first part of the paper presents a literature review on identification, resulting in a renewed conceptualization of identification which distinguishes six dimensions: a spatiotemporal, a perceptual, a cognitive, a moral, an emotional, and an embodied dimension. The second part argues that each of these dimensions is influenced by specific linguistic cues which represent various aspects of the narrative character's perspective. The proposed relations between linguistic cues and identification dimensions are specified in six propositions. The third part discusses what psychological and neurocognitive methods enable the measurement of the various identification dimensions in order to test the propositions. By establishing explicit connections between the linguistic characteristics of narratives and readers' physical, psychological, and neurocognitive responses to narratives, this paper develops a research agenda for future empirical research on identification with narrative characters.

  12. A Route to the Teaching of Polysemous Lexicon: Benefits from Cognitive Linguistics and Conceptual Metaphor Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leonardo Veliz

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses some implications and applications of the field of Cognitive linguistics (CL to the teaching of English as a second, foreign or additional language (ESL, EFL or EAL. Some of the areas to which CL has immensely contributed are the teaching and learning of grammar, including modality and prepositions (e.g. Langacker, 1991; Langacker, 2008, the teaching and learning of lexis, especially metaphorically-used words and expressions (e.g. Boers, 2004; Deignan, Gabrys, & Solska, 1997; Kalyuga & Kalyuga, 2008; Kövecses, 1996, and the teaching and development of literacy skills, in particular the skills to better understand texts with metaphors embedded (e.g. Boers, 2000. A discussion of all these areas is certainly beyond the scope of this paper. The area to which some attention is drawn in this article is that of teaching metaphorical lexis, with a particular focus on the teaching of polysemous words. General suggestions and teaching recommendations are made in an attempt to bring this field closer to language practitioners.

  13. Corpus linguistics and statistics with R introduction to quantitative methods in linguistics

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    Desagulier, Guillaume

    2017-01-01

    This textbook examines empirical linguistics from a theoretical linguist’s perspective. It provides both a theoretical discussion of what quantitative corpus linguistics entails and detailed, hands-on, step-by-step instructions to implement the techniques in the field. The statistical methodology and R-based coding from this book teach readers the basic and then more advanced skills to work with large data sets in their linguistics research and studies. Massive data sets are now more than ever the basis for work that ranges from usage-based linguistics to the far reaches of applied linguistics. This book presents much of the methodology in a corpus-based approach. However, the corpus-based methods in this book are also essential components of recent developments in sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, computational linguistics, and psycholinguistics. Material from the book will also be appealing to researchers in digital humanities and the many non-linguistic fields that use textual data analysis and t...

  14. Cognitive-linguistic effort in multidisciplinary stroke rehabilitation: Decreasing vs. increasing cues for word retrieval.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choe, Yu-Kyong; Foster, Tammie; Asselin, Abigail; LeVander, Meagan; Baird, Jennifer

    2017-04-01

    Approximately 24% of stroke survivors experience co-occurring aphasia and hemiparesis. These individuals typically attend back-to-back therapy sessions. However, sequentially scheduled therapy may trigger physical and mental fatigue and have an adverse impact on treatment outcomes. The current study tested a hypothesis that exerting less effort during a therapy session would reduce overall fatigue and enhance functional recovery. Two stroke survivors chronically challenged by non-fluent aphasia and right hemiparesis sequentially completed verbal naming and upper-limb tasks on their home computers. The level of cognitive-linguistic effort in speech/language practice was manipulated by presenting verbal naming tasks in two conditions: Decreasing cues (i.e., most-to-least support for word retrieval), and Increasing cues (i.e., least-to-most support). The participants completed the same upper-limb exercises throughout the study periods. Both individuals showed a statistically significant advantage of decreasing cues over increasing cues in word retrieval during the practice period, but not at the end of the practice period or thereafter. The participant with moderate aphasia and hemiparesis achieved clinically meaningful gains in upper-limb functions following the decreasing cues condition, but not after the increasing cues condition. Preliminary findings from the current study suggest a positive impact of decreasing cues in the context of multidisciplinary stroke rehabilitation.

  15. Cognitive science as an interface between rational and mechanistic explanation.

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    Chater, Nick

    2014-04-01

    Cognitive science views thought as computation; and computation, by its very nature, can be understood in both rational and mechanistic terms. In rational terms, a computation solves some information processing problem (e.g., mapping sensory information into a description of the external world; parsing a sentence; selecting among a set of possible actions). In mechanistic terms, a computation corresponds to causal chain of events in a physical device (in engineering context, a silicon chip; in biological context, the nervous system). The discipline is thus at the interface between two very different styles of explanation--as the papers in the current special issue well illustrate, it explores the interplay of rational and mechanistic forces. Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  16. Complex systems and health behavior change: insights from cognitive science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orr, Mark G; Plaut, David C

    2014-05-01

    To provide proof-of-concept that quantum health behavior can be instantiated as a computational model that is informed by cognitive science, the Theory of Reasoned Action, and quantum health behavior theory. We conducted a synthetic review of the intersection of quantum health behavior change and cognitive science. We conducted simulations, using a computational model of quantum health behavior (a constraint satisfaction artificial neural network) and tested whether the model exhibited quantum-like behavior. The model exhibited clear signs of quantum-like behavior. Quantum health behavior can be conceptualized as constraint satisfaction: a mitigation between current behavioral state and the social contexts in which it operates. We outlined implications for moving forward with computational models of both quantum health behavior and health behavior in general.

  17. Quantum mechanics meets cognitive science: explanatory vs descriptive approaches

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    Blutner, R.

    2010-01-01

    We reflect on several aspects of the general claim that a quantum-like approach to Cognitive Science is advantageous over classical approaches. The classical approaches refer to the symbolic approaches including models using a classical (Kolmogorov) probability calculus. The general claim seems to

  18. Setting a new paradigm in cognitive science information: contributions to the process of knowing the information professional

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    Paula Regina Dal' Evedove

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Studies about human cognition represent a relevant perspective in information science, considering the subjective actions of information professionals and dialogic process that should permeate the activity of subjects dealing with the organization and representation of information.Objective: Explore the approach of the cognitive perspective in information science and their new settings by contemporary needs of information to reflect on the process of meeting the professional information through the social reality that permeates the contexts of information.Methodology: Reflection on theoretical aspects that deal with the cognitive development to discuss the implications of the cognitive approach in information science and its evolution in the scope of the representation and processing of information.Results: Research in Information Science must consider issues of cognitive and social order that underlie information processing and the process of knowing the information professional as knowledge structures must be explained from the social context of knowing subjects.Conclusions: There is a need to investigate the process of knowing the information professional in the bias of socio-cognitive approach, targeting new elements for the understanding of the relationship information (cognitive manifestations and its implications on the social dimension.

  19. New Approaches to a Subject of Anthropocentric Linguistics

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    Lee, Valentine S.; Tumanova, Ainakul B.; Salkhanova, Zhanat H.

    2016-01-01

    The article studies theoretical issues of modern anthropocentric paradigm of scientific knowledge from the history of anthropocentric linguistics development as a special field of language science. The purpose of this study is to answer the question about human influence on the semiotic system. The material result is the unification of specific…

  20. Breathing new life into cognitive science

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    Tom Froese

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available In this article I take an unusual starting point from which to argue for a unified cognitive science, namely a position defined by what is sometimes called the ‘life-mind continuity thesis’. Accordingly, rather than taking a widely accepted starting point for granted and using it in order to propose answers to some well defined questions, I must first establish that the idea of life-mind continuity can amount to a proper starting point at all. To begin with, I therefore assess the conceptual tools which are available to construct a theory of mind on this basis. By drawing on insights from a variety of disciplines, especially from a combination of existential phenomenology and organism-centered biology, I argue that mind can indeed be conceived as rooted in life, but only if we accept at the same time that social interaction plays a constitutive role for our cognitive capacities.

  1. The Implications of the Cognitive Sciences for the Relation between Religion and Science Education: The Case of Evolutionary Theory

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    Blancke, Stefaan; De Smedt, Johan; De Cruz, Helen; Boudry, Maarten; Braeckman, Johan

    2012-01-01

    This paper discusses the relationship between religion and science education in the light of the cognitive sciences. We challenge the popular view that science and religion are compatible, a view that suggests that learning and understanding evolutionary theory has no effect on students' religious beliefs and vice versa. We develop a cognitive…

  2. Cultural psychology as a bridge between anthropology and cognitive science.

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    Fryberg, Stephanie A

    2012-07-01

    The theory and methods of cultural psychology begin with the assumption that psychological processes are socioculturally and historically grounded. As such, they offer a new approach for understanding the diversity of human functioning because they (a) question the presumed neutrality of the majority group perspective; (b) take the target's point-of-view (i.e., what it means to be a person in a particular context); (c) assume that there is more than one viable way of being a competent or effective person; and (d) provide a road map for understanding and reducing social inequities. As illustrated in this essay, a cultural psychological approach provides a bridge between anthropology and the cognitive sciences, and in so doing it offers an alternative set of explanations and interventions for group differences. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  3. A cognitively plausible model for grammar induction

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    Roni Katzir

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims to bring theoretical linguistics and cognition-general theories of learning into closer contact. I argue that linguists' notions of rich UGs are well-founded, but that cognition-general learning approaches are viable as well and that the two can and should co-exist and support each other. Specifically, I use the observation that any theory of UG provides a learning criterion -- the total memory space used to store a grammar and its encoding of the input -- that supports learning according to the principle of Minimum Description-Length. This mapping from UGs to learners maintains a minimal ontological commitment: the learner for a particular UG uses only what is already required to account for linguistic competence in adults. I suggest that such learners should be our null hypothesis regarding the child's learning mechanism, and that furthermore, the mapping from theories of UG to learners provides a framework for comparing theories of UG.

  4. Evoking and Measuring Identification with Narrative Characters – A Linguistic Cues Framework

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    van Krieken, Kobie; Hoeken, Hans; Sanders, José

    2017-01-01

    Current research on identification with narrative characters poses two problems. First, although identification is seen as a dynamic process of which the intensity varies during reading, it is usually measured by means of post-reading questionnaires containing self-report items. Second, it is not clear which linguistic characteristics evoke identification. The present paper proposes that an interdisciplinary framework allows for more precise manipulations and measurements of identification, which will ultimately advance our understanding of the antecedents and nature of this process. The central hypothesis of our Linguistic Cues Framework is that identification with a narrative character is a multidimensional experience for which different dimensions are evoked by different linguistic cues. The first part of the paper presents a literature review on identification, resulting in a renewed conceptualization of identification which distinguishes six dimensions: a spatiotemporal, a perceptual, a cognitive, a moral, an emotional, and an embodied dimension. The second part argues that each of these dimensions is influenced by specific linguistic cues which represent various aspects of the narrative character’s perspective. The proposed relations between linguistic cues and identification dimensions are specified in six propositions. The third part discusses what psychological and neurocognitive methods enable the measurement of the various identification dimensions in order to test the propositions. By establishing explicit connections between the linguistic characteristics of narratives and readers’ physical, psychological, and neurocognitive responses to narratives, this paper develops a research agenda for future empirical research on identification with narrative characters. PMID:28751875

  5. Science Adjustment, Parental and Teacher Autonomy Support and the Cognitive Orientation of Science Students

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    Jungert, Tomas; Koestner, Richard

    2015-01-01

    Research has shown that autonomy support has positive effects on academic development, but no study has examined how systemising cognitive orientation is related to important outcomes for science students, and how it may interact with autonomy support. This prospective investigation considered how systemising and support from teachers and parents…

  6. Linguistic Structure Prediction

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    Smith, Noah A

    2011-01-01

    A major part of natural language processing now depends on the use of text data to build linguistic analyzers. We consider statistical, computational approaches to modeling linguistic structure. We seek to unify across many approaches and many kinds of linguistic structures. Assuming a basic understanding of natural language processing and/or machine learning, we seek to bridge the gap between the two fields. Approaches to decoding (i.e., carrying out linguistic structure prediction) and supervised and unsupervised learning of models that predict discrete structures as outputs are the focus. W

  7. Social Cognitive Predictors of Interest in Environmental Science: Recommendations for Environmental Educators

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    Quimby, Julie L.; Seyala, Nazar D.; Wolfson, Jane L.

    2007-01-01

    The authors examined the influence of social cognitive variables on students' interest in environmental science careers and investigated differences between White and ethnic minority students on several career-related variables. The sample consisted of 161 undergraduate science majors (124 White students, 37 ethnic minority students). Results of…

  8. Crowdsourcing Samples in Cognitive Science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stewart, Neil; Chandler, Jesse; Paolacci, Gabriele

    2017-10-01

    Crowdsourcing data collection from research participants recruited from online labor markets is now common in cognitive science. We review who is in the crowd and who can be reached by the average laboratory. We discuss reproducibility and review some recent methodological innovations for online experiments. We consider the design of research studies and arising ethical issues. We review how to code experiments for the web, what is known about video and audio presentation, and the measurement of reaction times. We close with comments about the high levels of experience of many participants and an emerging tragedy of the commons. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  9. Spatial cognition in apes and humans.

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    Gentner, Dedre

    2007-05-01

    The debate on whether language influences cognition is sometimes seen as a simple dichotomy: cognitive development is governed either by innate predispositions or by influences of language and culture. In two recent papers on spatial cognition, Haun and colleagues break new ground in bringing together a comparative cognition approach with a cross-linguistic framework to arrive at a third position: that humans begin with the same spatial reference frames as our near relatives, the great apes, and diverge later owing to the influence of language and culture.

  10. Towards Cognitive Load Theory as Guideline for Instructional Design in Science Education

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    Meissner, Barbara; Bogner, Franz X.

    2013-01-01

    We applied cognitive load theory in an heuristic out-of-school science lesson. The lesson comprises experiments concerning major attributes of NaCl and was designed for 5th to 8th grade students. Our interest focused on whether cognitive load theory provides sufficient guidelines for instructional design in the field of heuristic science…

  11. Symbol Grounding Without Direct Experience: Do Words Inherit Sensorimotor Activation From Purely Linguistic Context?

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    Günther, Fritz; Dudschig, Carolin; Kaup, Barbara

    2018-05-01

    Theories of embodied cognition assume that concepts are grounded in non-linguistic, sensorimotor experience. In support of this assumption, previous studies have shown that upwards response movements are faster than downwards movements after participants have been presented with words whose referents are typically located in the upper vertical space (and vice versa for downwards responses). This is taken as evidence that processing these words reactivates sensorimotor experiential traces. This congruency effect was also found for novel words, after participants learned these words as labels for novel objects that they encountered either in their upper or lower visual field. While this indicates that direct experience with a word's referent is sufficient to evoke said congruency effects, the present study investigates whether this direct experience is also a necessary condition. To this end, we conducted five experiments in which participants learned novel words from purely linguistic input: Novel words were presented in pairs with real up- or down-words (Experiment 1); they were presented in natural sentences where they replaced these real words (Experiment 2); they were presented as new labels for these real words (Experiment 3); and they were presented as labels for novel combined concepts based on these real words (Experiment 4 and 5). In all five experiments, we did not find any congruency effects elicited by the novel words; however, participants were always able to make correct explicit judgements about the vertical dimension associated to the novel words. These results suggest that direct experience is necessary for reactivating experiential traces, but this reactivation is not a necessary condition for understanding (in the sense of storing and accessing) the corresponding aspects of word meaning. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  12. Hoping for more: How cognitive science has and hasn't been helpful to the OCD clinician.

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    Ouimet, Allison J; Ashbaugh, Andrea R; Radomsky, Adam S

    2018-04-12

    Cognitive-behavioural models of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) stemmed from knowledge acquired from cognitive science. Researchers continue to apply basic cognitive-affective science methods to understanding OCD, with the overarching goal of improving and refining evidence-based treatments. However, the degree to which such research has contributed to this goal is unclear. We reviewed OCD research in the general areas that comprise basic cognitive science, and evaluated the degree to which it has contributed to our understanding of the development, maintenance, and treatment of OCD. We focused on studies that either compared people with and without OCD and/or used experimental psychopathology methods with human participants, and attempted to resolve some of the conflicting theories related to the importance of cognitive deficits vs. cognitive biases. Overall, we observed equivocal findings for deficits in perception, attention, memory, and executive functioning. Moreover, many so-called deficits were moderated and/or explained by OCD-relevant beliefs, highlighting the role of confidence in cognitive processes as integral to our understanding of OCD. We discussed these findings in terms of cognitive measurement, cognitive-behavioural models, and clinical applicability, and made recommendations for future research that may offer innovation and insight helpful to clinicians working to improve the symptoms and lives of people with OCD. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. [Social cognition of schizophrenia: bridging gap between brain science and psychosocial intervention].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ikebuchi, Emi; Nakagome, Kazuyuki; Ikezawa, Satoru; Miura, Sachie; Yamasaki, Syudo; Nemoto, Takahiro; Hidai, Shin-Ichi; Mogami, Tamiko

    2012-01-01

    The concept and assessment tools for social cognition of schizophrenia were reviewed in order to bridge the gap between brain cognitive science and psycho-social intervention. Social cognition as well as neuro-cognition strongly influences social functioning, and the impact of neuro-cognition is mediated by social cognition. Neuronal networks of personal identification, facial perception, emotional identification, eye contact, "theory of mind", mutual communication, and the decision-making process have been clarified recently. The results of face discrimination and emotion recognition tasks show impairment in persons with schizophrenia as compared with healthy controls, especially fear, dislike, and sad recognition tasks. It might be difficult for them to link ambiguous stimuli with specific emotions, and they have a tendency to recognize uncomfortable emotions easily. "Jumping to conclusions" tendency (JTC) was identified in previous research on delusion. JTC develops from information uptake bias and confidence bias, and they might be thought to be trait and state. Social problem-solving is the skill to use social cognition to comprehensively adjust to specific social situations, and processing skills of social problem-solving are related to divergent thinking. Rating scales and the results of previous studies on emotion recognition, social perception, attribution style, and "theory of mind" were summarized. Furthermore, psycho-social interventions to improve emotion recognition directly, JTC, and divergent thinking were reported. Interventions aiming at improving social cognition or meta-cognition directly have been recently developed, which might improve some components of social functioning that used to be difficult to improve. These concepts of social cognition and researches on brain science, assessment tools, and intervention methods would clarify the mechanisms of the effects of psycho-social interventions, improve their methodology, and help to develop new

  14. Cognitive abilities and motivational processes in high school students' science achievement and engagement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lau, Shun

    The dissertation presents two analytic approaches, a variable-centered and person-centered approach, to investigating holistic patterns of the cognitive, motivational, and affective correlates of science achievement and engagement in a sample of 491 10th and 11th grade high-school students. Building on Snow's (1989) idea of two pathways to achievement outcomes, Study 1 adopted a variable-centered approach to examining how cognitive and motivational factors associated with the performance and commitment pathways, respectively, contributed to the prediction of achievement outcomes in science. Results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that (a) students' cognitive abilities were the strongest predictors of their performance in science as measured by standardized test scores; (b) motivational processes enhanced the predictive validity for science test scores and grades beyond the variance accounted for by ability and demography; (c) motivational processes were the strongest predictors of students' commitment to science in the form of situational engagement and anticipated choices of science-related college majors and careers; and (d) competence beliefs served as a point of contact between the performance and commitment pathways. These results are consistent with Snow's (1989) conjecture that both performance and commitment pathway-related factors are necessary for understanding the full range of person-level inputs to achievement outcomes. Study 2 adopted a person-centered approach to examining holistic organizations of psychological factors within individuals and their relations to science achievement and engagement. Four types of students characterized by unique configurations of cognitive, motivational, and affective attributes were identified in both the male and female subsamples using inverse factor analysis. Type membership was found to distinguish students in various indicators of science achievement and engagement. Two of the four types were also found

  15. Literacy Strategies in the Science Classroom The Influence of Teacher Cognitive Resources on Implementation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mawyer, Kirsten Kamaile Noelani

    Scientific literacy is at the heart of science reform (AAAS, 1989; 1993: NRC, 1996). These initiatives advocate inquiry-based science education reform that promotes scientific literacy as the prerequisite ability to both understand and apply fundamental scientific ideas to real-world problems and issues involving science, technology, society and the environment. It has been argued that literacy, the very ability to read and write, is foundational to western science and is essential for the attainment of scientific literacy and the reform of science education in this country (Norris & Phillips, 2004). With this wave of reform comes the need to study initiatives that seek to support science teachers, as they take on the task of becoming teachers of literacy in the secondary science classroom. This qualitative research examines one such initiative that supports and guides teachers implementing literacy strategies designed to help students develop reading skills that will allow them to read closely, effectively, and with greater comprehension of texts in the context of science. The goal of this study is to gather data as teachers learn about literacy strategies through supports built into curricular materials, professional development, and implementation in the classroom. In particular, this research follows four secondary science teachers implementing literacy strategies as they enact a yearlong earth and environmental science course comprised of two different reform science curricula. The findings of this research suggest teacher's development of teacher cognitive resources bearing on Teaching & Design can be dynamic or static. They also suggest that the development of pedagogical design capacity (PDC) can be either underdeveloped or emergent. This study contributes to current understandings of the participatory relationship between curricular resources and teacher cognitive resources that reflects the design decision of teachers. In particular, it introduces a

  16. Crowdsourcing for cognitive science--the utility of smartphones.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harriet R Brown

    Full Text Available By 2015, there will be an estimated two billion smartphone users worldwide. This technology presents exciting opportunities for cognitive science as a medium for rapid, large-scale experimentation and data collection. At present, cost and logistics limit most study populations to small samples, restricting the experimental questions that can be addressed. In this study we investigated whether the mass collection of experimental data using smartphone technology is valid, given the variability of data collection outside of a laboratory setting. We presented four classic experimental paradigms as short games, available as a free app and over the first month 20,800 users submitted data. We found that the large sample size vastly outweighed the noise inherent in collecting data outside a controlled laboratory setting, and show that for all four games canonical results were reproduced. For the first time, we provide experimental validation for the use of smartphones for data collection in cognitive science, which can lead to the collection of richer data sets and a significant cost reduction as well as provide an opportunity for efficient phenotypic screening of large populations.

  17. Estudos cognitivos em ciência da informaçãoCognitive studies in information science

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    Gercina Ângela Borem de Oliveira Lima

    2003-05-01

    Full Text Available The study of the influences from Cognitive Sciences in the information Science. The Information Science has as objects of study the very basic concepts of information and knowledge. Since such concepts have an inherently trans-disciplinary character, the Information Science has been largely influenced by many disciplines, particularly the Cognitive Science. Regardless of this, it is observed that such concepts have not been properly discussed within the Information Science. To deal with this concern, it has been structured in the Escola de Ciência da Informação (ECI of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG, a research group denoted “Cognitive Studies in Information Science”. This work aims to discuss the relationships between the Information Science and the Cognitive Science. In order to achieve this purpose, one formerly presents the major approaches within the Cognitive Science, contextualizing their aspects that mostly influence the Information Science, and then one discuss some perspectives for the future relationship of these two disciplines.O estudo da influência das Ciências Cognitivas na Ciência da Informação. A Ciência da Informação, que tem como objetos de estudo a informação e o conhecimento, discute-os sob vários pontos de vista, sendo um deles, o cognitivo. Observa-se que os conceitos não têm sido adequadamente discutidos à luz das Ciências Cognitivas, apesar da Ciência da Informação sofrer muitas influências daquela disciplina. Em função dessas questões, estruturou-se, na Escola de Ciência da Informação–ECI da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais-UFMG, o Grupo de Pesquisa “Estudos Cognitivos em Ciência da Informação” – GECCI. Neste trabalho, marco inicial das discussões do grupo, tem-se o objetivo de discutir as relações da Ciência da Informação com as Ciências Cognitivas. Para melhor compreensão desse relacionamento, serão apresentadas as principais vertentes das ci

  18. Probabilistic linguistics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bod, R.; Heine, B.; Narrog, H.

    2010-01-01

    Probabilistic linguistics takes all linguistic evidence as positive evidence and lets statistics decide. It allows for accurate modelling of gradient phenomena in production and perception, and suggests that rule-like behaviour is no more than a side effect of maximizing probability. This chapter

  19. When physics is not "just physics": complexity science invites new measurement frames for exploring the physics of cognitive and biological development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelty-Stephen, Damian; Dixon, James A

    2012-01-01

    The neurobiological sciences have struggled to resolve the physical foundations for biological and cognitive phenomena with a suspicion that biological and cognitive systems, capable of exhibiting and contributing to structure within themselves and through their contexts, are fundamentally distinct or autonomous from purely physical systems. Complexity science offers new physics-based approaches to explaining biological and cognitive phenomena. In response to controversy over whether complexity science might seek to "explain away" biology and cognition as "just physics," we propose that complexity science serves as an application of recent advances in physics to phenomena in biology and cognition without reducing or undermining the integrity of the phenomena to be explained. We highlight that physics is, like the neurobiological sciences, an evolving field and that the threat of reduction is overstated. We propose that distinctions between biological and cognitive systems from physical systems are pretheoretical and thus optional. We review our own work applying insights from post-classical physics regarding turbulence and fractal fluctuations to the problems of developing cognitive structure. Far from hoping to reduce biology and cognition to "nothing but" physics, we present our view that complexity science offers new explanatory frameworks for considering physical foundations of biological and cognitive phenomena.

  20. On Some of the Aspects of the Linguistic Theory of Law

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andruszkiewicz Marta

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The article analyses the approach to the study of the sphere of language between theory of law and the philosophy of language. The aim of the paper is to study the range of applicability of philosophical and linguistic conceptions in theory of law. Law theory reflects certain movements and controversies that have been significant in linguistic sciences. The analyses, which, so far, have been conducted in theory of law, concentrated mainly on the use of the results of such achievements made by the representatives of the philosophy of language and linguistics as formal languages theories, transformational-generative theories, structuralism, formalism, pragmalinguistics. In this article, it is claimed that contemporary changes in the humanities justify the expansion of the range of jurisprudence integration to some other approaches, different from formalistic and pragmatic ones.

  1. Cognitive decline in normal aging and its prevention: a review on non-pharmacological lifestyle strategies

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    Klimova B

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Blanka Klimova,1,2 Martin Valis,2 Kamil Kuca3,4 1Department of Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove, 2Department of Neurology, 3Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Hradec Kralove, 4Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Hradec Kralove, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the selected non-pharmacological lifestyle activities on the delay of cognitive decline in normal aging. This was done by conducting a literature review in the four acknowledged databases Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE, and Springer, and consequently by evaluating the findings of the relevant studies. The findings show that physical activities, such as walking and aerobic exercises, music therapy, adherence to Mediterranean diet, or solving crosswords, seem to be very promising lifestyle intervention tools. The results indicate that non-pharmacological lifestyle intervention activities should be intense and possibly done simultaneously in order to be effective in the prevention of cognitive decline. In addition, more longitudinal randomized controlled trials are needed in order to discover the most effective types and the duration of these intervention activities in the prevention of cognitive decline, typical of aging population groups. Keywords: cognitive impairment, healthy older individuals, intervention, benefits

  2. Getting from neuron to checkmark: Models and methods in cognitive survey research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Holleman, B.C.; Murre, J.M.J.

    2008-01-01

    Since the 1980s much work has been done in the field of Cognitive Survey Research. In an interdisciplinary endeavour, survey methodologists and cognitive psychologists (as well as social psychologists and linguists) have worked to unravel the cognitive processes underlying survey responses: to

  3. Why formal learning theory matters for cognitive science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fulop, Sean; Chater, Nick

    2013-01-01

    This article reviews a number of different areas in the foundations of formal learning theory. After outlining the general framework for formal models of learning, the Bayesian approach to learning is summarized. This leads to a discussion of Solomonoff's Universal Prior Distribution for Bayesian learning. Gold's model of identification in the limit is also outlined. We next discuss a number of aspects of learning theory raised in contributed papers, related to both computational and representational complexity. The article concludes with a description of how semi-supervised learning can be applied to the study of cognitive learning models. Throughout this overview, the specific points raised by our contributing authors are connected to the models and methods under review. Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  4. Social cognition in preschoolers: effects of early experience and individual differences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniela Bulgarelli

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Social cognition is the way in which people process, remember and use information in social contexts to explain and predict their own behaviour and that of others. Children’s social cognition may be influenced by multiple factors, both external and internal to the child. In the current study, two aspects of social cognition were examined: Theory of Mind (ToM and Emotion Understanding (EU. The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of type of early care (0-3 years of age, maternal education, parents’ country of birth, and child’s language on the social cognition of 118 Italian preschoolers. To our knowledge, the joint effect of these variables on social cognition has not previously been investigated in the literature. The measures used to collect social cognition and linguistic data were not parent- or teacher-reports, but based on direct assessment of the children through two standardized tests, the Test of Emotion Comprehension and the ToM Storybooks. Relationships among the variables showed a complex pattern. Overall, maternal education and linguistic competence showed a systematic effect on social cognition; the linguistic competence mediated the effect of maternal education. In children who had experienced centre-base care in the first three years of life, the effect of maternal education disappeared, supporting the protective role of centre-base care for children with less educated mothers. The children with native and foreign parents did not significantly differed on the social cognition tasks. Limits of the study, possible educational outcomes and future research lines were discussed.

  5. Establishing the norm of Cognitive Adaptive Test/Clinical Linguistic and Auditory Milestone Scale (CAT/CLAMS) in Chinese infants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Y C; Huang, C C; Hu, S C

    1998-01-01

    The Cognitive Adaptive Test/Clinical Linguistic and Auditory Milestone Scale (CAT/CLAMS) has been recommended as a useful diagnostic tool for cognitive delay. To provide wider application of this instrument as a general screening tool for pediatricians, a normative percentile graph from a large convenience sample of Chinese infants has been established. The effects of environmental factors on early language and adaptive development were also analyzed. A total of 402 normal infants aged 4 to 36 months attending well-child clinics were recruited. These infants were from all socioeconomic strata, and half were bilingual with Mandarin and Taiwanese. Grandmothers were the chief caretakers or co-caretakers in 28% of this population. The milestones were attained in a sequential and orderly fashion. In contrast to the adaptive ability, there was a wide variation in language acquisition between age 12 and 24 months. Multiple stepwise regression of demographic and environmental factors revealed that age was the main variance in CAT score (P = 0.0001). In CLAMS score, however, age and caretakers were the significant predictors (P = 0.0001). Infants cared for by both mothers and grandmothers had higher CLAMS score by two months over those cared by mothers only (P = 0.001). Those cared for by grandmothers only had lower language score than those by mothers only, though without statistical significance (P = 0.05). Bilingualism, birth order, numbers of siblings, familial structures, and parental socioeconomic status had no effect on early development.

  6. Towards psychoanalytic contribution to linguistic metaphor theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caspi, Tair

    2017-07-05

    This paper lays out a formulation of the psychoanalytical contribution to linguistic metaphor theory. The author's main argument is that psychoanalysis can help enrich and shed light on linguistic metaphor theories, since these have focused on the cognitive aspect, to the exclusion of the role played by affect. Based on the tight link between metaphor and symbol - both configurations of figurative language - the author shall apply ideas sourced from some of the key psychoanalytic symbolization theories, focusing in particular on Klein, Winnicott, and Ogden. The course of exploration will serve to trace the unconscious emotional aspects that participate in the metaphor's mechanism, just as they participate in the symbol's workings. The study leads to the main conclusion that the intersubjective transitional space is of substantial importance to metaphor's constitution, particularly in regard to novel metaphors. Expanding the understanding of metaphor's modus operandi has important implications in conceptual clarification and for an in-depth analytical work, and is of immense significance when it comes to analytical work with patients who suffer impairment of their metaphoric ability. Copyright © 2017 Institute of Psychoanalysis.

  7. Book Review “Louder than words: The new science of how the mind makes meaning”

    OpenAIRE

    Schultz, Jeffrey

    2018-01-01

    This paper examines Benjamin K. Bergen’s book, “Louder than words: The new science of how the mind makes meaning.” Using cognitive linguistic experiments and neuropsychology, Bergen explains the action-sentence compatibility effect paradigm, that is, how the brain uses the areas that control movement to process language and create meaning. In so doing, he gives good examples of research into how the brain creates language and how this research is supported by neurobiology.

  8. Corpora and Cultural Cognition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Kim Ebensgaard

    2017-01-01

    Cultural cognition is, to a great extent, transmitted through language and, consequently, reflected and replicated in language use. Cultural cognition may be instantiated in various patterns of language use, such as the discursive behavior of constructions. Very often, such instantiations can be ...... is addressed. In the third part of the chapter, three case studies are presented – one from Danish and two from English – to illustrate the analysis of cultural conceptualization via corpus-linguistic techniques....

  9. The diverging force of imitation: integrating cognitive science and hermeneutics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Keestra, M.

    2008-01-01

    Recent research on infant and animal imitation and on mirror neuron systems has brought imitation back in focus in psychology and cognitive science. This topic has always been important for philosophical hermeneutics as well, focusing on theory and method of understanding. Unfortunately, relations

  10. OLD SCHOOL LINGUISTICS MADE NEW— REVIEW OF Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. 5th ed. By William O’Grady, John Archibald, Mark Arnoff, and Janie Rees-Miller. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005. Pp. xxvi + 684.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chris Wen-chao Li

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available Amidst the recent explosion of interest in linguistic science and the subsequent publication of large numbers of introductory works on the subject, O'Grady et al.'s Contemporary Linguistics (5th ed. stands out as a solid general purpose primer directed at an academic audience. Written by some eighteen contributors specializing in each of the seventeen branches of linguistics covered, topics are judiciously chosen while drawing on current scholarship and integrating different theoretical persuasions, without losing sight of the book's target readership. The result is an up-to-date text balanced in its treatment of subject matter and perspectives--a work that lives up to its moniker of "Contemporary" Linguistics.

  11. Linguistically modulated perception and cognition: the label feedback hypothesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gary eLupyan

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available How does language impact cognition and perception? A growing number of studies show that language, and specifically, the practice of labeling, exerts rapid and pervasive effects on putatively nonverbal processes such as categorization, visual discrimination, and simple detection. Progress on the empirical front, however, has not been accompanied by an increased understanding of the mechanisms by which language affects these processes. Among the puzzles is how the effects of language can be both deep in the sense of affecting even basic visual processes, and yet vulnerable to manipulations such as verbal interference which can sometimes nullify effects of language. In this paper, I review some of the evidence for effects of language on cognition and perception, showing that sensory processes that have been presumed to be language-free are in fact rapidly and pervasively affected by language. I argue that a clearer understanding of the relationship between language and cognition can be achieved by rejecting the distinction between verbal and nonverbal representations and adopting a framework in which language modulates ongoing cognitive and perceptual processing.

  12. Language Hotspots: What (Applied) Linguistics and Education Should Do about Language Endangerment in the Twenty-First Century

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Gregory D. S.

    2011-01-01

    I outline the concept of "Language Hotspots", seeking to direct public and professional awareness of the global language extinction crisis. The loss of a single language leaves the science of linguistics impoverished and yet even few linguists realize that the vast majority of "language families" will likely be lost by the end…

  13. Student cognition and motivation during the Classroom BirdWatch citizen science project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tomasek, Terry Morton

    The purpose of this study was to examine and describe the ways various stakeholders (CBW project developer/coordinator, elementary and middle school teachers, and 5th through 8th grade students) envisioned, implemented and engaged in the citizen science project, eBird/Classroom BirdWatch. A multiple case study mixed-methods research design was used to examine student engagement in the cognitive processes associated with scientific inquiry as part of citizen science participation. Student engagement was described based on a sense of autonomy, competence, relatedness and intrinsic motivation. A goal of this study was to expand the taxonomy of differences between authentic scientific inquiry and simple inquiry to include those inquiry tasks associated with participation in citizen science by describing how students engaged in this type of science. This research study built upon the existing framework of cognitive processes associated with scientific inquiry described by Chinn and Malhotra (2002). This research provides a systematic analysis of the scientific processes and related reasoning tasks associated with the citizen science project eBird and the corresponding curriculum Classroom BirdWatch . Data consisted of responses to surveys, focus group interviews, document analysis and individual interviews. I suggest that citizen science could be an additional form of classroom-based science inquiry that can promote more authentic features of scientific inquiry and engage students in meaningful ways.

  14. Department-Level Representations: A New Approach to the Study of Science Teacher Cognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hutner, Todd L.; Markman, Arthur B.

    2016-01-01

    Research on science teacher cognition is important as findings from this research can be used to improve teacher training, leading to improved classroom practice. Previous research has often relied on two underlying assumptions: Cognition is an individual process, and these processes are detailed and introspective. In this paper, we put forth a…

  15. Fuzzy cognitive maps for applied sciences and engineering from fundamentals to extensions and learning algorithms

    CERN Document Server

    2014-01-01

    Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCM) constitute cognitive models in the form of fuzzy directed graphs consisting of two basic elements: the nodes, which basically correspond to “concepts” bearing different states of activation depending on the knowledge they represent, and the “edges” denoting the causal effects that each source node exercises on the receiving concept expressed through weights. Weights take values in the interval [-1,1], which denotes the positive, negative or neutral causal relationship between two concepts. An FCM can be typically obtained through linguistic terms, inherent to fuzzy systems, but with a structure similar to the neural networks, which facilitates data processing, and has capabilities for training and adaptation. During the last 10 years, an exponential growth of published papers in FCMs was followed showing great impact potential. Different FCM structures and learning schemes have been developed, while numerous studies report their use in many contexts with highly successful m...

  16. A New Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic TOPSIS Method for Group Multi-Criteria Linguistic Decision Making

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fangling Ren

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Hesitant fuzzy linguistic decision making is a focus point in linguistic decision making, in which the main method is based on preference ordering. This paper develops a new hesitant fuzzy linguistic TOPSIS method for group multi-criteria linguistic decision making; the method is inspired by the TOPSIS method and the preference degree between two hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (HFLTSs. To this end, we first use the preference degree to define a pseudo-distance between two HFLTSs and analyze its properties. Then we present the positive (optimistic and negative (pessimistic information of each criterion provided by each decision maker and aggregate these by using weights of decision makers to obtain the hesitant fuzzy linguistic positive and negative ideal solutions. On the basis of the proposed pseudo-distance, we finally obtain the positive (negative ideal separation matrix and a new relative closeness degree to rank alternatives. We also design an algorithm based on the provided method to carry out hesitant fuzzy linguistic decision making. An illustrative example shows the elaboration of the proposed method and comparison with the symbolic aggregation-based method, the hesitant fuzzy linguistic TOPSIS method and the hesitant fuzzy linguistic VIKOR method; it seems that the proposed method is a useful and alternative decision-making method.

  17. SCHOOL LINGUISTIC CREATIVITY BASED ON SCIENTIFIC GEOGRAPHICAL TEXTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    VIORICA BLÎNDĂ

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The analysis and observation of the natural environment and of the social and economic one, observing phenomena, objects, beings, and geographical events are at the basis of producing geographical scientific texts. The symbols of iconotexts and cartotexts are another source of inspiration for linguistic interpretation. The linguistic creations that we selected for our study are the scientific analysis, the commentary, the characterization, the parallel, the synthesis, epitomizing and abstracting, the scientific communication, the essay, and the scientific description. The representations on maps, photos, graphics and profiles are translated into verbal or written expression in order to render geographical scientific information from diagrams and images through diverse discursive procedures. Through school linguistic creations, teachers develop their students’ observation spirit, in a written and oral form, their geographical thinking through metaphors, they develop and stimulate their students’ imagination and fantasy, their cognitive, reflexive and affective sensitivity, their abilities to express themselves, to present and argument in a scientific way according to different criteria (sufficiency, demonstrative reasoning, lineal reasoning, pros and cons, giving examples, inferential deduction through using truth tables, etc.. Trough description, students give names and define geographical objects and beings (plants, animals, and people according to their form and aspect, they explain toponyms and appellatives, they classify and make hierarchies, they define their identity through processes of differentiation, emblematizing, personification, location in time and space.

  18. Exploring How Korean Teacher's Attitudes and Self-Efficacy for Using Inquiry and Language Based Teaching Practices Impacts Learning for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students: Implications for Science Teacher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Jennifer; Chu, Hye-Eun; Martin, Sonya N.

    2016-01-01

    Demographic trends in Korea indicate that the student population is becoming more diverse with regards to culture, ethnicity and language. These changes have implications for science classrooms where inquiry-based, student-centered activities require culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students to connect with their peers and successfully…

  19. Linguistic Imperialism

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Phillipson, Robert

    2013-01-01

    The study of linguistic imperialism focuses on how and why certain languages dominate internationally, and attempts to account for such dominance in a theoretically informed way.......The study of linguistic imperialism focuses on how and why certain languages dominate internationally, and attempts to account for such dominance in a theoretically informed way....

  20. Cognitive science, psychoanalysis and neuroscience: A Brief History of a current trend (Part II

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio Imbasciati

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available For decades, cognitive sciences and psychoanalysis have been ignored each other for a mutual distrust, producing in scholars of both disciplines a progressive mutual ignorance and misunderstanding about their developments. The latest studies of cognitive sciences on the role of emotions have allowed a partial approach to psychoanalysis. But above all, recent studies in neuroscience on the emotional basis of all mental processes, about the formation of the subjectivity, about identity and sense of self (neuro psychoanalysis, are opening up a horizon of integration between the three different sciences. In this perspective the epigenetics is playing a fundamental role, that the Author hopes will produce significant developments from a social and anthropological point of view. 

  1. Cognitive science, psychoanalysis and neuroscience: A Brief History of a current trend (Part I

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio Imbasciati

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available For decades, cognitive sciences and psychoanalysis have been ignored each other for a mutual distrust, producing in scholars of both disciplines a progressive mutual ignorance and misunderstanding about their developments. The latest studies of cognitive sciences on the role of emotions have allowed a partial approach to psychoanalysis. But above all, recent studies in neuroscience on the emotional basis of all mental processes, about the formation of the subjectivity, about identity and sense of self (neuro psychoanalysis, are opening up a horizon of integration between the three different sciences. In this perspective the epigenetics is playing a fundamental role, that the Author hopes will produce significant developments from a social and anthropological point of view. 

  2. The cerebellum: its role in language and related cognitive and affective functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Smet, Hyo Jung; Paquier, Philippe; Verhoeven, Jo; Mariën, Peter

    2013-12-01

    The traditional view on the cerebellum as the sole coordinator of motor function has been substantially redefined during the past decades. Neuroanatomical, neuroimaging and clinical studies have extended the role of the cerebellum to the modulation of cognitive and affective processing. Neuroanatomical studies have demonstrated cerebellar connectivity with the supratentorial association areas involved in higher cognitive and affective functioning, while functional neuroimaging and clinical studies have provided evidence of cerebellar involvement in a variety of cognitive and affective tasks. This paper reviews the recently acknowledged role of the cerebellum in linguistic and related cognitive and behavioral-affective functions. In addition, typical cerebellar syndromes such as the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS) and the posterior fossa syndrome (PFS) will be briefly discussed and the current hypotheses dealing with the presumed neurobiological mechanisms underlying the linguistic, cognitive and affective modulatory role of the cerebellum will be reviewed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. What Is Applied Linguistics?

    Science.gov (United States)

    James, Carl

    1993-01-01

    Ostensive and expository definitions of applied linguistics are assessed. It is suggested that the key to a meaningful definition lies in the dual articulation of applied linguistics: it is an interface between linguistics and practicality. Its role as an "expert system" is suggested. (45 references) (Author/LB)

  4. On the Science of Embodied Cognition in the 2010s: Research Questions, Appropriate Reductionism, and Testable Explanations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nunez, Rafael

    2012-01-01

    "The Journal of the Learning Sciences" has devoted this special issue to the study of embodied cognition (as it applies to mathematics), a topic that for several decades has gained attention in the cognitive sciences and in mathematics education, in particular. In this commentary, the author aims to address crucial questions in embodied…

  5. Frame as representation of knowledge in the cognitive aspect

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ирина Николаевна Ивашкевич

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available The article is devoted to the problem of representation of different types of knowledge in cognitive linguistics. The author makes a special emphasis on the presentation of frame which is considered to be one of the cognitive structures of knowledge within the meaning of words.

  6. Science learning and literacy performance of typically developing, at-risk, and disabled, non-English language background students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larrinaga McGee, Patria Maria

    Current education reform calls for excellence, access, and equity in all areas of instruction, including science and literacy. Historically, persons of diverse backgrounds or with disabilities have been underrepresented in science. Gaps are evident between the science and literacy achievement of diverse students and their mainstream peers. The purpose of this study was to document, describe, and examine patterns of development and change in the science learning and literacy performance of Hispanic students. The two major questions of this study were: (1) How is science content knowledge, as evident in oral and written formats, manifested in the performance of typically developing, at-risk, and disabled non-English language background (NELB) students? and (2) What are the patterns of literacy performance in science, and as evident in oral and written formats, among typically developing, at-risk, and disabled NELB students? This case study was part of a larger research project, the Promise Project, undertaken at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation. The study involved 24 fourth-grade students in seven classrooms located in Promise Project schools where teachers were provided with training and materials for instruction on two units of science content: Matter and Weather. Four students were selected from among the fourth-graders for a closer analysis of their performance. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods were used to document, describe, and examine specific events or phenomena in the processes of science learning and literacy development. Important findings were related to (a) gains in science learning and literacy development, (b) students' science learning and literacy development needs, and (c) general and idiosyncratic attitudes toward science and literacy. Five patterns of science "explanations" identified indicated a developmental cognitive/linguistic trajectory in science

  7. An Exploration of Students' Science Learning Interest Related to Their Cognitive Anxiety, Cognitive Load, Self-Confidence and Learning Progress Using Inquiry-Based Learning with an iPad

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong, Jon-Chao; Hwang, Ming-Yueh; Tai, Kai-Hsin; Tsai, Chi-Ruei

    2017-01-01

    Based on the cognitive-affective theory, the present study designed a science inquiry learning model, "predict-observe-explain" (POE), and implemented it in an app called "WhyWhy" to examine the effectiveness of students' science inquiry learning practice. To understand how POE can affect the cognitive-affective learning…

  8. An Exploration of Students' Science Learning Interest Related to Their Cognitive Anxiety, Cognitive Load, Self-Confidence and Learning Progress Using Inquiry-Based Learning With an iPad

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong, Jon-Chao; Hwang, Ming-Yueh; Tai, Kai-Hsin; Tsai, Chi-Ruei

    2017-12-01

    Based on the cognitive-affective theory, the present study designed a science inquiry learning model, predict-observe-explain (POE), and implemented it in an app called "WhyWhy" to examine the effectiveness of students' science inquiry learning practice. To understand how POE can affect the cognitive-affective learning process, as well as the learning progress, a pretest and a posttest were given to 152 grade 5 elementary school students. The students practiced WhyWhy during six sessions over 6 weeks, and data related to interest in learning science (ILS), cognitive anxiety (CA), and extraneous cognitive load (ECL) were collected and analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis with structure equation modeling. The results showed that students with high ILS have low CA and ECL. In addition, the results also indicated that students with a high level of self-confidence enhancement showed significant improvement in the posttest. The implications of this study suggest that by using technology-enhanced science learning, the POE model is a practical approach to motivate students to learn.

  9. CODE SWITCHING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTIC SYSTEM OF SIMULTANEOUS BILINGUAL CHILDREN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leni Amelia Suek

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Code switching and code mixing are the phenomena commonly seen done by a bilingual. This behavior is influenced by several aspects such as the linguistic system, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and language competence of the bilingual. If children are able to distinguish two different languages since early age, they will be considered simultaneous bilinguals. They show that they develop multiple, rather than single, linguistic systems. However, it was understood that code switching and code mixing were due to the failure in using proper words, language features, and sociolinguistic competence. Yet, recent studies have shown that bilingual children are able to use both languages proficiently with no signs of confusion or failure in language use. This ability also does not hinder their cognitive development.

  10. THE LINGUISTICS OF SPEECH PRINCIPLES TO BE IMPLEMENTED IN THE LISTENING COMPREHENSION CLASS TO ENHANCE LEARNERS‟ SPEAKING SKILLS

    OpenAIRE

    Oktavia Tri Sanggala Dewi; Nukmatus Syahria

    2017-01-01

    Linguistics of Speech as linguistic science is about language in use, and the only way to get data is through observations of how language works in real language contexts, and in which the focus is on meaning rather than structure (Kretszmar, W.A.Jr. 2009: 11). The emphasis in meaning is also currently implemented in the implementation of SFL–GBA (Systematic Funtional Linguistic - Genre Based Approach) in Indonesia, in which the use of translation is encouraged (to a certain extend) to improv...

  11. Seeking a rapprochement between anthropology and the cognitive sciences: a problem-driven approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitehouse, Harvey; Cohen, Emma

    2012-07-01

    Beller, Bender, and Medin question the necessity of including social anthropology within the cognitive sciences. We argue that there is great scope for fruitful rapprochement while agreeing that there are obstacles (even if we might wish to debate some of those specifically identified by Beller and colleagues). We frame the general problem differently, however: not in terms of the problem of reconciling disciplines and research cultures, but rather in terms of the prospects for collaborative deployment of expertise (methodological and theoretical) in problem-driven research. For the purposes of illustration, our focus in this article is on the evolution of cooperation. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  12. Linguistic and Psycho-Linguistic Principles of Linguadidactics (theoretical interpretation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liudmila Mauzienė

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available This article considers linguadidactics being closely related to linguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics and didactics and applies their theoretical statements and regularities in its scientific studies. Methodology refers to linguistics which investigates the language as a teaching subject. Methodology is linked to psychology in two ways. First of all, it is based on psychology as the teaching process is an intellectual psychical act and its regularities are necessary to know. On the other hand, methodology applies rules of pedagogy that predicts ways of learning and development of language skills. The article emphasizes that sustainable work experience and analysis of scientific research show that teaching process is more effective if consistent patterns of linguistics and psychology are appropriately applied.

  13. The cognitive bases of the development of past and future episodic cognition in preschoolers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ünal, Gülten; Hohenberger, Annette

    2017-10-01

    The aim of this study was to use a minimalist framework to examine the joint development of past and future episodic cognition and their underlying cognitive abilities in 3- to 5-year-old Turkish preschoolers. Participants engaged in two main tasks, a what-where-when (www) task to measure episodic memory and a future prediction task to measure episodic future thinking. Three additional tasks were used for predicting children's performance in the two main tasks: a temporal language task, an executive function task, and a spatial working memory task. Results indicated that past and future episodic tasks were significantly correlated with each other even after controlling for age. Hierarchical multiple regressions showed that, after controlling for age, the www task was predicted by executive functions, possibly supporting binding of episodic information and by linguistic abilities. The future prediction task was predicted by linguistic abilities alone, underlining the importance of language for episodic past and future thinking. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. The influence of linguistic and cognitive factors on the time course of verb-based implicit causality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koornneef, Arnout; Dotlačil, Jakub; van den Broek, Paul; Sanders, Ted

    2016-01-01

    In three eye-tracking experiments the influence of the Dutch causal connective "want" (because) and the working memory capacity of readers on the usage of verb-based implicit causality was examined. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that although a causal connective is not required to activate implicit causality information during reading, effects of implicit causality surfaced more rapidly and were more pronounced when a connective was present in the discourse than when it was absent. In addition, Experiment 3 revealed that-in contrast to previous claims-the activation of implicit causality is not a resource-consuming mental operation. Moreover, readers with higher and lower working memory capacities behaved differently in a dual-task situation. Higher span readers were more likely to use implicit causality when they had all their working memory resources at their disposal. Lower span readers showed the opposite pattern as they were more likely to use the implicit causality cue in the case of an additional working memory load. The results emphasize that both linguistic and cognitive factors mediate the impact of implicit causality on text comprehension. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of the ongoing controversies in the literature-that is, the focusing-integration debate and the debates on the source of implicit causality.

  15. Relationships among Linguistic Processing Speed, Phonological Working Memory, and Attention in Children Who Stutter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Julie D.; Wagovich, Stacy A.

    2010-01-01

    Relatively recently, experimental studies of linguistic processing speed in children who stutter (CWS) have emerged, some of which suggest differences in performance among CWS compared to children who do not stutter (CWNS). What is not yet well understood is the extent to which underlying cognitive skills may impact performance on timed tasks of…

  16. Biological simplexity and cognitive heteronomy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gahrn-Andersen, Rasmus

    2018-01-01

    Heteronomy informs parts of human sense-making including perceptual and linguistic activities. This article explores Berthoz's (2012) notion of simplexity in relation to heteronomous aspects of human cognition while it criticises proponents of Active Externalism for presuming that cognitive...... activity is based in strong autonomy. Specifically, its negative target is the problematic aspects of Varelian Enactivism and Extended Cognitive Functionalism which are linked to the assumption that cognition is conditioned by the cogniser's strong autonomy. Since active externalists presume that cognition...... has a clear agent-to-world directionality, they prove unable to account for cases where cognition is informed by novel sensuous inputs. The article presents a positive argument that acknowledges the embodied basis of human sense-making as well as the weak autonomy of the cogniser. It argues...

  17. The Nun study: clinically silent AD, neuronal hypertrophy, and linguistic skills in early life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iacono, D; Markesbery, W R; Gross, M; Pletnikova, O; Rudow, G; Zandi, P; Troncoso, J C

    2009-09-01

    It is common to find substantial Alzheimer disease (AD) lesions, i.e., neuritic beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, in the autopsied brains of elderly subjects with normal cognition assessed shortly before death. We have termed this status asymptomatic AD (ASYMAD). We assessed the morphologic substrate of ASYMAD compared to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in subjects from the Nun Study. In addition, possible correlations between linguistic abilities in early life and the presence of AD pathology with and without clinical manifestations in late life were considered. Design-based stereology was used to measure the volumes of neuronal cell bodies, nuclei, and nucleoli in the CA1 region of hippocampus (CA1). Four groups of subjects were compared: ASYMAD (n = 10), MCI (n = 5), AD (n = 10), and age-matched controls (n = 13). Linguistic ability assessed in early life was compared among all groups. A significant hypertrophy of the cell bodies (+44.9%), nuclei (+59.7%), and nucleoli (+80.2%) in the CA1 neurons was found in ASYMAD compared with MCI. Similar differences were observed with controls. Furthermore, significant higher idea density scores in early life were observed in controls and ASYMAD group compared to MCI and AD groups. 1) Neuronal hypertrophy may constitute an early cellular response to Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology or reflect compensatory mechanisms that prevent cognitive impairment despite substantial AD lesions; 2) higher idea density scores in early life are associated with intact cognition in late life despite the presence of AD lesions.

  18. Exploring Cognitive Relations Between Prediction in Language and Music.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patel, Aniruddh D; Morgan, Emily

    2017-03-01

    The online processing of both music and language involves making predictions about upcoming material, but the relationship between prediction in these two domains is not well understood. Electrophysiological methods for studying individual differences in prediction in language processing have opened the door to new questions. Specifically, we ask whether individuals with musical training predict upcoming linguistic material more strongly and/or more accurately than non-musicians. We propose two reasons why prediction in these two domains might be linked: (a) Musicians may have greater verbal short-term/working memory; (b) music may specifically reward predictions based on hierarchical structure. We provide suggestions as to how to expand upon recent work on individual differences in language processing to test these hypotheses. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  19. Motor recovery in post-stroke patients with aphasia: the role of specific linguistic abilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ginex, Valeria; Veronelli, Laura; Vanacore, Nicola; Lacorte, Eleonora; Monti, Alessia; Corbo, Massimo

    2017-09-01

    Aphasia is a serious consequence of stroke but aphasics patients have been routinely excluded from participation in some areas of stroke research. To assess the role of specific linguistic and non-verbal cognitive abilities on the short-term motor recovery of patients with aphasia due to first-ever stroke to the left hemisphere after an intensive rehabilitation treatment. 48 post-acute aphasic patients, who underwent physiotherapy and speech language therapy, were enrolled for this retrospective cohort-study. Four types of possible predictive factors were taken into account: clinical variables, functional status, language and non-verbal cognitive abilities. The motor FIM at discharge was used as the main dependent variable. Patients were classified as follows: 6 amnestic, 9 Broca's, 7 Wernicke's, and 26 global aphasics. Motor FIM at admission (p = 0.003) and at discharge (p = 0.042), all linguistic subtests of Aachener AphasieTest (p = 0.001), and non-verbal reasoning abilities (Raven's CPM, p = 0.006) resulted significantly different across different types of aphasia. Post-hoc analyses showed differences only between global aphasia and the other groups. A Multiple Linear Regression shows that admission motor FIM (p = 0.001) and Token test (p = 0.040), adjusted for clinical, language, and non-verbal reasoning variables, resulted as independent predictors of motor FIM scores at discharge, while Raven's CPM resulted close to statistical significance. Motor function at admission resulted as the variable that most affects the motor recovery of post-stroke patients with aphasia after rehabilitation. A linguistic test requiring also non-linguistic abilities, including attention and working memory (i.e. Token test) is an independent predictor as well.

  20. Patterns of rationality recurring inferences in science, social cognition and religious thinking

    CERN Document Server

    Bertolotti, Tommaso

    2015-01-01

    This book proposes an applied epistemological framework for investigating science, social cognition and religious thinking based on inferential patterns that recur in the different domains. It presents human rationality as a tool that allows us to make sense of our (physical or social) surroundings. It shows that the resulting cognitive activity produces a broad spectrum of outputs, such as scientific models and experimentation, gossip and social networks, but also ancient and contemporary deities. The book consists of three parts, the first of which addresses scientific modeling and experimentation, and their application to the analysis of scientific rationality. Thus, this part continues the tradition of eco-cognitive epistemology and abduction studies. The second part deals with the relationship between social cognition and cognitive niche construction, i.e. the evolutionarily relevant externalization of knowledge onto the environment, while the third part focuses on what is commonly defined as "irrational...

  1. Forensic Linguistics: The Linguistic Analyst and Expert Witness of Language Evidence in Criminal Trials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jordan, Sherilynn Nidever

    Forensic linguistics (FL) provides consultation to lawyers through the analysis of language evidence during the pre-trial investigation. Evidence commonly analyzed by linguists in criminal cases includes transcripts of police interviews and language crimes (such as bribery) and anonymous or questioned texts. Forensic linguistic testimony is rarely…

  2. Integrating Cognitive Science and Technology Improves Learning in a STEM Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, Andrew C.; Marsh, Elizabeth J.; Slavinsky, J. P.; Baraniuk, Richard G.

    2014-01-01

    The most effective educational interventions often face significant barriers to widespread implementation because they are highly specific, resource intense, and/or comprehensive. We argue for an alternative approach to improving education: leveraging technology and cognitive science to develop interventions that generalize, scale, and can be…

  3. Sample Undergraduate Linguistics Courses. Linguistics in the Undergraduate Curriculum, Appendix 5.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linguistic Society of America, Washington, DC.

    Thirty-six nontraditional undergraduate courses in linguistics are described. Course topics include: animal communication, bilingualism, sociolinguistics, introductory linguistics, language and formal reasoning, language and human conflict, language and power, language and sex, language and the brain, language planning, language typology and…

  4. Swearing, Euphemisms, and Linguistic Relativity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bowers, Jeffrey S.; Pleydell-Pearce, Christopher W.

    2011-01-01

    Participants read aloud swear words, euphemisms of the swear words, and neutral stimuli while their autonomic activity was measured by electrodermal activity. The key finding was that autonomic responses to swear words were larger than to euphemisms and neutral stimuli. It is argued that the heightened response to swear words reflects a form of verbal conditioning in which the phonological form of the word is directly associated with an affective response. Euphemisms are effective because they replace the trigger (the offending word form) by another word form that expresses a similar idea. That is, word forms exert some control on affect and cognition in turn. We relate these findings to the linguistic relativity hypothesis, and suggest a simple mechanistic account of how language may influence thinking in this context. PMID:21799832

  5. Exploring Music-Based Rehabilitation for Parkinsonism through Embodied Cognitive Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schiavio, Andrea; Altenmüller, Eckart

    2015-01-01

    Recent embodied approaches in cognitive sciences emphasize the constitutive roles of bodies and environment in driving cognitive processes. Cognition is thus seen as a distributed system based on the continuous interaction of bodies, brains, and environment. These categories, moreover, do not relate only causally, through a sequential input–output network of computations; rather, they are dynamically enfolded in each other, being mutually implemented by the concrete patterns of actions adopted by the cognitive system. However, while this claim has been widely discussed across various disciplines, its relevance and potential beneficial applications for music therapy remain largely unexplored. With this in mind, we provide here an overview of the embodied approaches to cognition, discussing their main tenets through the lenses of music therapy. In doing so, we question established methodological and theoretical paradigms and identify possible novel strategies for intervention. In particular, we refer to the music-based rehabilitative protocols adopted for Parkinson’s disease patients. Indeed, in this context, it has recently been observed that music therapy not only affects movement-related skills but that it also contributes to stabilizing physiological functions and improving socio-affective behaviors. We argue that these phenomena involve previously unconsidered aspects of cognition and (motor) behavior, which are rooted in the action-perception cycle characterizing the whole living system. PMID:26539155

  6. Exploring Music-Based Rehabilitation for Parkinsonism through Embodied Cognitive Science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea eSchiavio

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Recent embodied approaches in cognitive sciences emphasise the constitutive roles of bodies and environment in driving cognitive processes. Cognition is thus seen as a distributed system based on the continuous interaction of bodies, brains, and environment. These categories, moreover, do not relate only causally, through a sequential input-output network of computations; rather, they are dynamically enfolded in each other, being mutually implemented by the concrete patterns of actions adopted by the cognitive system. However, while this claim has been widely discussed across various disciplines, its relevance and potential beneficial applications for music therapy remain largely unexplored. With this in mind, we provide here an overview of the embodied approaches to cognition, discussing their main tenets through the lenses of music therapy. In doing so we question established methodological and theoretical paradigms and identify possible novel strategies for intervention. In particular, we refer to the music-based rehabilitative protocols adopted for Parkinson’s Disease (PD patients. Indeed, in this context it has recently been observed that music therapy not only affects movement-related skills but that it also contributes to stabilising physiological functions and improving socio-affective behaviours. We argue that these phenomena involve previously unconsidered aspects of cognition and (motor behaviour, which are rooted in the action-perception cycle characterising the whole living system.

  7. Making an Art of Creativity: The Cognitive Science of Duchamp and Dada

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Prager, Phillip

    2012-01-01

    Dada is the infant terrible of art history, an anarchic movement that is typically referred to as nihilistic, pathological, and firmly enshrined within the modernist paradigm and the context of WWI. Through the lens of classical, romantic, and psychoanalytic notions, it certainly appears almost...... antithetical to creativity. Yet from a cognitive point-of-view, Dada marks a watershed in the understanding of creativity, and articulates principles of creative cognition with surprising insight and precision many decades ahead of science....

  8. An assessment of the impact of demographic, cognitive, and non-cognitive variables on student success in a community college science course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mackey, Audrey Leroy

    The impact of demographic, cognitive, and non-cognitive variables on academic success among community college science students was studied. Demographic variables included gender, employment status, and ethnicity. Cognitive variables included college grade point average, assessment status, course prerequisites, college course success ratios, final course grade, withdrawal patterns, and curriculum format. Non-cognitive variables included enrollment status, educational objectives, academic expectations, and career goals. The sample population included students enrolled in human anatomy courses (N = 191) at a large metropolitan community college located in central Texas. Variables that potentially influence attrition and achievement in college level science courses were examined. Final course grade and withdrawal phenomena were treated as dependent variables, while all other variables were treated as independent variables. No significant differences were found to exist between any of the demographic variables studied and the numbers of students who withdrew passing or failing. A difference was shown to be associated with the ethnicity variable and achievement levels. Educational objectives and career goals were shown to have an impact on the number of students who withdrew failing. The career goals variable and the academic expectations variable were shown to have an impact on achievement among daytime and evening students. College grade point average and course success ratios were shown to make a difference among students who withdrew passing. None of the other cognitive variables studied were shown to influence the numbers of students who withdrew passing or failing. College grade point average and course prerequisites, however, were shown to make a difference in achievement. The collaborative learning instructional format was found to have no impact on attrition or achievement, however, mean scores earned by students experiencing the collaborative learning format

  9. Linguistics and the digital humanities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Kim Ebensgaard

    2014-01-01

    Corpus linguistics has been closely intertwined with digital technology since the introduction of university computer mainframes in the 1960s. Making use of both digitized data in the form of the language corpus and computational methods of analysis involving concordancers and statistics software......, corpus linguistics arguably has a place in the digital humanities. Still, it remains obscure and figures only sporadically in the literature on the digital humanities. This article provides an overview of the main principles of corpus linguistics and the role of computer technology in relation to data...... and method and also offers a bird's-eye view of the history of corpus linguistics with a focus on its intimate relationship with digital technology and how digital technology has impacted the very core of corpus linguistics and shaped the identity of the corpus linguist. Ultimately, the article is oriented...

  10. Grounding language in action and perception: from cognitive agents to humanoid robots.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cangelosi, Angelo

    2010-06-01

    In this review we concentrate on a grounded approach to the modeling of cognition through the methodologies of cognitive agents and developmental robotics. This work will focus on the modeling of the evolutionary and developmental acquisition of linguistic capabilities based on the principles of symbol grounding. We review cognitive agent and developmental robotics models of the grounding of language to demonstrate their consistency with the empirical and theoretical evidence on language grounding and embodiment, and to reveal the benefits of such an approach in the design of linguistic capabilities in cognitive robotic agents. In particular, three different models will be discussed, where the complexity of the agent's sensorimotor and cognitive system gradually increases: from a multi-agent simulation of language evolution, to a simulated robotic agent model for symbol grounding transfer, to a model of language comprehension in the humanoid robot iCub. The review also discusses the benefits of the use of humanoid robotic platform, and specifically of the open source iCub platform, for the study of embodied cognition. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Children with speech sound disorder: Comparing a non-linguistic auditory approach with a phonological intervention approach to improve phonological skills

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristina eMurphy

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to compare the effects of a non-linguistic auditory intervention approach with a phonological intervention approach on the phonological skills of children with speech sound disorder. A total of 17 children, aged 7-12 years, with speech sound disorder were randomly allocated to either the non-linguistic auditory temporal intervention group (n = 10, average age 7.7 ± 1.2 or phonological intervention group (n = 7, average age 8.6 ± 1.2. The intervention outcomes included auditory-sensory measures (auditory temporal processing skills and cognitive measures (attention, short-term memory, speech production and phonological awareness skills. The auditory approach focused on non-linguistic auditory training (eg. backward masking and frequency discrimination, whereas the phonological approach focused on speech sound training (eg. phonological organisation and awareness. Both interventions consisted of twelve 45-minute sessions delivered twice per week, for a total of nine hours. Intra-group analysis demonstrated that the auditory intervention group showed significant gains in both auditory and cognitive measures, whereas no significant gain was observed in the phonological intervention group. No significant improvement on phonological skills was observed in any of the groups. Inter-group analysis demonstrated significant differences between the improvement following training for both groups, with a more pronounced gain for the non-linguistic auditory temporal intervention in one of the visual attention measures and both auditory measures. Therefore, both analyses suggest that although the non-linguistic auditory intervention approach appeared to be the most effective intervention approach, it was not sufficient to promote the enhancement of phonological skills.

  12. What can cognitive science tell us about scientific revolutions?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander Bird

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions is notable for the readiness with which it drew on the results of cognitive psychology. These naturalistic elements were not well received and Kuhn did not subsequently develop them in his pub- lished work. Nonetheless, in a philosophical climate more receptive to naturalism, we are able to give a more positive evaluation of Kuhn’s proposals. Recently, philosophers such as Nersessian, Nickles, Andersen, Barker, and Chen have used the results of work on case-based reasoning, analogical thinking, dynamic frames, and the like to illuminate and develop various aspects of Kuhn’s thought in Structure. In particular this work aims to give depth to the Kuhnian concepts of a paradigm and incommensurability. I review this work and identify two broad strands of research. One emphasizes work on concepts; the other focusses on cognitive habits. After contrasting these, I argue that the conceptual strand fails to be a complete account of scientific revolutions. We need a broad approach that draws on a variety of resources in psychology and cognitive science.

  13. The Routledge Applied Linguistics Reader

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Li, Ed.

    2011-01-01

    "The Routledge Applied Linguistics Reader" is an essential collection of readings for students of Applied Linguistics. Divided into five sections: Language Teaching and Learning, Second Language Acquisition, Applied Linguistics, Identity and Power and Language Use in Professional Contexts, the "Reader" takes a broad…

  14. La lingüística hoy: su (reconfiguración a través de los diferentes objetos de estudio Modern linguistics: its (reconfiguration through the different obJects of study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miguel Ángel Mahecha Bermúdez

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Este trabajo se sitúa en el ámbito de la historiografía lingüística. El propósito es mostrar las condiciones extra e interdisciplinares que permiten la configuración de objetos de estudio particulares a medida que las comunidades científicas evolucionan. Se verá que la lingüística actual (cognitiva es el resultado de un largo proceso de pulimento del objeto de estudio de la lingüística general, considerada aquella no solo como campo disciplinar, sino también como una actividad "cerebral" humana.This work is located within the field of Linguistic Historiography. The goal is to show the extra and interdisciplinary conditions that allow for the configuration of a particular object of study along with the evolution of the scientific communities. It will be demonstrated that current linguistics (cognitive linguistics is the result of a long process of improvement of the object of study of general linguistics and that cognitive linguistics is not only a discipline but also an activity of the human brain.

  15. Gelada vocal sequences follow Menzerath’s linguistic law

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gustison, Morgan L.; Semple, Stuart; Ferrer-i-Cancho, Ramon; Bergman, Thore J.

    2016-01-01

    Identifying universal principles underpinning diverse natural systems is a key goal of the life sciences. A powerful approach in addressing this goal has been to test whether patterns consistent with linguistic laws are found in nonhuman animals. Menzerath’s law is a linguistic law that states that, the larger the construct, the smaller the size of its constituents. Here, to our knowledge, we present the first evidence that Menzerath’s law holds in the vocal communication of a nonhuman species. We show that, in vocal sequences of wild male geladas (Theropithecus gelada), construct size (sequence size in number of calls) is negatively correlated with constituent size (duration of calls). Call duration does not vary significantly with position in the sequence, but call sequence composition does change with sequence size and most call types are abbreviated in larger sequences. We also find that intercall intervals follow the same relationship with sequence size as do calls. Finally, we provide formal mathematical support for the idea that Menzerath’s law reflects compression—the principle of minimizing the expected length of a code. Our findings suggest that a common principle underpins human and gelada vocal communication, highlighting the value of exploring the applicability of linguistic laws in vocal systems outside the realm of language. PMID:27091968

  16. The relation between cognitive and metacognitive strategic processing during a science simulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dinsmore, Daniel L; Zoellner, Brian P

    2018-03-01

    This investigation was designed to uncover the relations between students' cognitive and metacognitive strategies used during a complex climate simulation. While cognitive strategy use during science inquiry has been studied, the factors related to this strategy use, such as concurrent metacognition, prior knowledge, and prior interest, have not been investigated in a multidimensional fashion. This study addressed current issues in strategy research by examining not only how metacognitive, surface-level, and deep-level strategies influence performance, but also how these strategies related to each other during a contextually relevant science simulation. The sample for this study consisted of 70 undergraduates from a mid-sized Southeastern university in the United States. These participants were recruited from both physical and life science (e.g., biology) and education majors to obtain a sample with variance in terms of their prior knowledge, interest, and strategy use. Participants completed measures of prior knowledge and interest about global climate change. Then, they were asked to engage in an online climate simulator for up to 30 min while thinking aloud. Finally, participants were asked to answer three outcome questions about global climate change. Results indicated a poor fit for the statistical model of the frequency and level of processing predicting performance. However, a statistical model that independently examined the influence of metacognitive monitoring and control of cognitive strategies showed a very strong relation between the metacognitive and cognitive strategies. Finally, smallest space analysis results provided evidence that strategy use may be better captured in a multidimensional fashion, particularly with attention paid towards the combination of strategies employed. Conclusions drawn from the evidence point to the need for more dynamic, multidimensional models of strategic processing that account for the patterns of optimal and non

  17. Comprehension of amalgamation for future digital society

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Byeong Uk

    2010-08-01

    This book deals with understanding of amalgamation for future digital society, which describes outline of amalgamation, ubiquitous environment, cognitive science I such as psychology and neurology, cognitive science II like philosophy, linguistics and anthropology, an automatic machine, evolution theory and amalgamation, brain science and consciousness, mind and software and creativity and art. Each chapter has introduction, composition, related science, function and models.

  18. Comprehension of amalgamation for future digital society

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Byeong Uk

    2010-08-15

    This book deals with understanding of amalgamation for future digital society, which describes outline of amalgamation, ubiquitous environment, cognitive science I such as psychology and neurology, cognitive science II like philosophy, linguistics and anthropology, an automatic machine, evolution theory and amalgamation, brain science and consciousness, mind and software and creativity and art. Each chapter has introduction, composition, related science, function and models.

  19. Philosophical conceptions of the self: implications for cognitive science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gallagher

    2000-01-01

    Several recently developed philosophical approaches to the self promise to enhance the exchange of ideas between the philosophy of the mind and the other cognitive sciences. This review examines two important concepts of self: the 'minimal self', a self devoid of temporal extension, and the 'narrative self', which involves personal identity and continuity across time. The notion of a minimal self is first clarified by drawing a distinction between the sense of self-agency and the sense of self-ownership for actions. This distinction is then explored within the neurological domain with specific reference to schizophrenia, in which the sense of self-agency may be disrupted. The convergence between the philosophical debate and empirical study is extended in a discussion of more primitive aspects of self and how these relate to neonatal experience and robotics. The second concept of self, the narrative self, is discussed in the light of Gazzaniga's left-hemisphere 'interpreter' and episodic memory. Extensions of the idea of a narrative self that are consistent with neurological models are then considered. The review illustrates how the philosophical approach can inform cognitive science and suggests that a two-way collaboration may lead to a more fully developed account of the self.

  20. "Voices of the people": linguistic research among Germany's prisoners of war during World War I.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaplan, Judith

    2013-01-01

    This paper investigates the history of the Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission, a body that collected and archived linguistic, ethnographic, and anthropological data from prisoners-of-war (POWs) in Germany during World War I. Recent literature has analyzed the significance of this research for the rise of conservative physical anthropology. Taking a complementary approach, the essay charts new territory in seeking to understand how the prison-camp studies informed philology and linguistics specifically. I argue that recognizing philological commitments of the Phonographic Commission is essential to comprehending the project contextually. My approach reveals that linguists accommodated material and contemporary evidence to older text-based research models, sustaining dynamic theories of language. Through a case study based on the Iranian philologist F. C. Andreas (1846-1930), the paper ultimately argues that linguistics merits greater recognition in the historiography of the behavioral sciences. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  1. Unity and disunity in evolutionary sciences: process-based analogies open common research avenues for biology and linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    List, Johann-Mattis; Pathmanathan, Jananan Sylvestre; Lopez, Philippe; Bapteste, Eric

    2016-08-20

    For a long time biologists and linguists have been noticing surprising similarities between the evolution of life forms and languages. Most of the proposed analogies have been rejected. Some, however, have persisted, and some even turned out to be fruitful, inspiring the transfer of methods and models between biology and linguistics up to today. Most proposed analogies were based on a comparison of the research objects rather than the processes that shaped their evolution. Focusing on process-based analogies, however, has the advantage of minimizing the risk of overstating similarities, while at the same time reflecting the common strategy to use processes to explain the evolution of complexity in both fields. We compared important evolutionary processes in biology and linguistics and identified processes specific to only one of the two disciplines as well as processes which seem to be analogous, potentially reflecting core evolutionary processes. These new process-based analogies support novel methodological transfer, expanding the application range of biological methods to the field of historical linguistics. We illustrate this by showing (i) how methods dealing with incomplete lineage sorting offer an introgression-free framework to analyze highly mosaic word distributions across languages; (ii) how sequence similarity networks can be used to identify composite and borrowed words across different languages; (iii) how research on partial homology can inspire new methods and models in both fields; and (iv) how constructive neutral evolution provides an original framework for analyzing convergent evolution in languages resulting from common descent (Sapir's drift). Apart from new analogies between evolutionary processes, we also identified processes which are specific to either biology or linguistics. This shows that general evolution cannot be studied from within one discipline alone. In order to get a full picture of evolution, biologists and linguists need to

  2. Action and language integration: from humans to cognitive robots.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borghi, Anna M; Cangelosi, Angelo

    2014-07-01

    The topic is characterized by a highly interdisciplinary approach to the issue of action and language integration. Such an approach, combining computational models and cognitive robotics experiments with neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and linguistic approaches, can be a powerful means that can help researchers disentangle ambiguous issues, provide better and clearer definitions, and formulate clearer predictions on the links between action and language. In the introduction we briefly describe the papers and discuss the challenges they pose to future research. We identify four important phenomena the papers address and discuss in light of empirical and computational evidence: (a) the role played not only by sensorimotor and emotional information but also of natural language in conceptual representation; (b) the contextual dependency and high flexibility of the interaction between action, concepts, and language; (c) the involvement of the mirror neuron system in action and language processing; (d) the way in which the integration between action and language can be addressed by developmental robotics and Human-Robot Interaction. Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  3. Measuring Linguistic Empathy: An Experimental Approach to Connecting Linguistic and Social Psychological Notions of Empathy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kann, Trevor

    2017-01-01

    This dissertation investigated the relationship between Linguistic Empathy and Psychological Empathy by implementing a psycholinguistic experiment that measured a person's acceptability ratings of sentences with violations of Linguistic Empathy and correlating them with a measure of the person's Psychological Empathy. Linguistic Empathy…

  4. Cognitive Onomastics: A Look from Europe. Review of the book: Brendler, S. (Ed.. (2016. Cognitive Onomastics: A Reader. Hamburg: Baar.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natalia V. Vasilyeva

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The review provides a critical survey of the book which is the first anthology on cognitive onomastics. The book comprises articles by ten onomasticians from Austria, Hungary, Germany, Poland, and Finland for the period 2004–2014, selected by the editor Silvio Brendler as those most clearly expressing ideas and the diversity of the given research field. The book also includes the work Of Names (1655 by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, as the forerunner of the cognitive approach to language and to proper names. The articles are grouped into sections: Onomastics and Cognitive Science (1 article; Nature of Names (3 articles; Grammatical Description of Names (1 article; Meaning of Names (3 articles; Names in Literature (2 articles. Each article is analyzed in detail by the reviewer. The productivity of cognitive linguistics’ tools for onomastic research (such as Construction Grammar, the theory of prototypes, conceptual metaphor, axiological profiling, etc. is noted. A particular attention is drawn to the fact that onomastics not only borrows ideas and tools from «wider» cognitive linguistics, but also generates its own cognitive theories, such as Ernst Hansack’s theory of name and Silvio Brendler’s nomematics. In conclusion, the reviewer emphasizes the didactic and awarenessraising value of this anthology, as well as the relevance of the genre for this new and largely controversial research area: it provides the interested readers with an opportunity to make their own judgment in regards to cognitive onomastics, drawing information from primary sources. In general, getting acquainted with this book is very useful as it raises the concern of what cognitive onomastics is in our country and whether a similar book based on domestic material would help answer this question.

  5. LANGUE AND PAROLE IN AMERICAN LINGUISTICS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    LEVIN, SAMUEL R.

    THE PROBLEM OF THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE STRUCTURE IS CONSIDERED AND THE FORM WHICH ANY LINGUISTIC DESCRIPTION SHOULD TAKE. THE AUTHOR EXAMINES THE INFLUENCE OF THE SWISS LINGUIST, FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE, ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN LINGUISTICS. THE QUESTION OF "MENTALISM" IN LINGUISTICS IS REDUCED TO THE PROBLEM OF WHETHER LINGUISTIC…

  6. Linguistic Modality and Female Identity in Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stadnik Katarzyna

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available While exploring the situated nature of conceptual knowledge, the paper investigates the linguistic construction of identity relative to the language user’s sociocultural situatedness, which is regarded as a derivative of the continuity of language and culture. In this functionally-oriented study, we examine how the situatedness of the language user affects their expression of the selves, which in the article we construe in terms of social roles performed by men and women in a specific cultural community. Importantly, we claim that, although the data are historical in nature, they nevertheless help us address the problem of the elusive nature of human identity, a theme recurring in the linguistic study of subjectivity. We seek to explore the general question of experiential motivation behind the frequency patterns of linguistic usage. We illustrate the issue by referring to the historical data taken from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale. The poet’s use of selected modal verbs is contextualized in relation to the late medieval community of his present. We account for the poet’s usage of shul, mot- (in the sense ‘must’, o(ught(e, as well as mouen ‘may’, and willen, indicating the need for a more nuanced approach to the way in which the key modal notions of NECESSITY/OBLIGATION are applied in the study of linguistic modality. We thus advocate the adoption of a situated view of the abstract concepts. Furthermore, we argue that the usage patterns concerning the frequency with which the selected modal verbs are used in specific contexts of Chaucer’s narrative might be indicative of the ways in which the identity of a community member was negotiated in the late medieval society of the poet’s present. In conclusion, we indicate the challenges to present-day pragmatic research into the linguistic construction of identity. Specifically, the emphasis is laid on how findings from recent research into situated and social cognition can

  7. Linguistic Communications 1.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monash Univ., Clayton, Victoria (Australia).

    The present compilation of papers on linguistics is the result of joint efforts by the Classical Studies, French, Japanese, Linguistics, and Russian Departments of Monash University. Selections in the Pre-Prints and Articles section include: "For/Arabic Bilingualism in the Zalingei Area," by B. Jernudd; "Prosodic Problems in a Generative Phonology…

  8. Gene, environment and cognitive function

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Xu, Chunsheng; Sun, Jianping; Duan, Haiping

    2015-01-01

    BACKGROUND: the genetic and environmental contributions to cognitive function in the old people have been well addressed for the Western populations using twin modelling showing moderate to high heritability. No similar study has been conducted in the world largest and rapidly ageing Chinese...... population living under distinct environmental condition as the Western populations. OBJECTIVE: this study aims to explore the genetic and environmental impact on normal cognitive ageing in the Chinese twins. DESIGN/SETTING: cognitive function was measured on 384 complete twin pairs with median age of 50...... years for seven cognitive measurements including visuospatial, linguistic skills, naming, memory, attention, abstraction and orientation abilities. Data were analysed by fitting univariate and bivariate twin models to estimate the genetic and environmental components in the variance and co...

  9. TOWARDS A USAGE-BASED COGNITIVE PHONOLOGY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gitten Kristiansen

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available The usage-based conception of language is a major tenet in Cognitive Linguistics, but cognitive phonology has not yet been developed sufficiently in this direction. Often, phonemic analysis is carried out at the high level of abstraction of `a language´, disregarding rich patterns of languageinternal variation. This paper first argues that cognitive phonology must aim at a higher degree of descriptive refinement, especially in the direction of social variation. Then it goes on to examine the implications of a usage-based and multi-faceted model for a theoretical discussion of the phoneme as a prototype category.

  10. Working Memory for Linguistic and Non-linguistic Manual Gestures: Evidence, Theory, and Application.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rudner, Mary

    2018-01-01

    Linguistic manual gestures are the basis of sign languages used by deaf individuals. Working memory and language processing are intimately connected and thus when language is gesture-based, it is important to understand related working memory mechanisms. This article reviews work on working memory for linguistic and non-linguistic manual gestures and discusses theoretical and applied implications. Empirical evidence shows that there are effects of load and stimulus degradation on working memory for manual gestures. These effects are similar to those found for working memory for speech-based language. Further, there are effects of pre-existing linguistic representation that are partially similar across language modalities. But above all, deaf signers score higher than hearing non-signers on an n-back task with sign-based stimuli, irrespective of their semantic and phonological content, but not with non-linguistic manual actions. This pattern may be partially explained by recent findings relating to cross-modal plasticity in deaf individuals. It suggests that in linguistic gesture-based working memory, semantic aspects may outweigh phonological aspects when processing takes place under challenging conditions. The close association between working memory and language development should be taken into account in understanding and alleviating the challenges faced by deaf children growing up with cochlear implants as well as other clinical populations.

  11. LINGUISTICS AND SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING: AN ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The relationship between linguistics and second language teaching has always been a controversial one. Many linguists have argued that linguistics has nothing to say to the teacher. Sampson (1980, p.10), for example, says: ·"1 do not believe that linguistics has any contribution to make to the teaching of English or the.

  12. Que peuvent apporter les faits linguistiques a l'analyse de l'argumentation en biologie? (What Can Linguistic Data Contribute to Argumentation Analysis in Biology?)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaslawsky, D.

    1976-01-01

    Attempts to determine to what extent a linguistic analysis can contribute to an epistemological study of scientific texts. Considerations are also given on the methodological role of argumentation in linguistic science. (Text is in French.) (CDSH/AM)

  13. Clinical Linguistics--Retrospect and Prospect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grunwell, Pamela

    In the past 20 years, linguistics has gained a prominent position in speech and language pathology in Britain, evolving into a new field, clinical linguistics. It includes three related areas of activity: training of speech pathologists/therapists; professional practice; and research. Linguistics and speech/language pathology have developed as…

  14. Early Speech Motor Development: Cognitive and Linguistic Considerations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nip, Ignatius S. B.; Green, Jordan R.; Marx, David B.

    2009-01-01

    This longitudinal investigation examines developmental changes in orofacial movements occurring during the early stages of communication development. The goals were to identify developmental trends in early speech motor performance and to determine how these trends differ across orofacial behaviors thought to vary in cognitive and linguistic…

  15. UNITS OF MEASUREMENT: ORAL TRADITION, TRANSLATION STUDIES AND CORPUS LINGUISTICS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John ZEMKE

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The study of the world’s verbal arts offers an opportunity to consider ways that computational analysis and modeling of narratives may lead to new understandings of how they are constructed, their dynamics and relationships. Similarly, as corpus linguistics operations must define metrics, it offers an occasion to review basic interpretive concepts such as “units of analysis, context, and genre." My essay begins with an admittedly cursory overview from a novice perspective of what capabilities corpus linguistics currently possesses for the analysis and modeling of narratives. Consideration is given to the epistemological issue in the social sciences with the positivistic prescription or empiricist description of units of analysis and the potential pitfalls or advantages corpus linguistics encounters in searching for adequate equivalent terms. This review leads naturally to reflection on the crucial determinative action of context on meaning and the extent to which current computational interfaces are able to account for and integrate into global analysis of linguistic and performance dimensions such as performer, intonation, gesture, diction, idioms and figurative language, setting, audience, time, and occasion. As a tentative conclusion from this review, it can be stated that artificial intelligence for modeling narratives or devising narrative algorithms must develop capacities to account for performance dimensions in order to fulfill their analytical potential.

  16. Ladies First? Not So Fast: Linguistic Sexism in Peer-Reviewed Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willis, Malachi; Jozkowski, Kristen N

    2018-02-01

    The words we use reflect and influence our interpretation of the world. The role of gender within a language varies; biases based on social gender are referred to as linguistic sexism. Male firstness is the practice of persistently ordering masculine terms before feminine terms. Because academic writing is mandated to be free of bias, peer-reviewed research should not contain any form of linguistic sexism. To assess the presence of male firstness in academic writing, we examined 862 contemporary articles from 10 social science journals across three disciplines: sexuality, health, and psychology. To assess male firstness, we tallied common gendered pairs (e.g., "women and men"; "male and female") and calculated percentages indicating how often men were presented before women. We found that male firstness bias was present in each of the 10 journals. For individual journals, the percentage of gendered phrases that presented masculine terms first ranged from 57.7% to 88.8%. Sexuality and health journals demonstrated less linguistic sexism than psychology; however, there were no consistent trends between journals within each discipline. We discuss the current presence of male firstness in academic journals and the issues this bias triggers. Recommendations for reducing linguistic sexism in peer-reviewed research are also discussed.

  17. Etymology and Modern Linguistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malkiel, Yakov

    1975-01-01

    Discusses the estrangement between etymology and modern linguistics, and concludes that a reconciliation between spatio-temporal linguistics and etymology must occur, because without it, both disciplines are doomed to inanition. (Author/AM)

  18. Science school and culture school: improving the efficiency of high school science teaching in a system of mass science education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charlton, Bruce G

    2006-01-01

    Educational expansion in western countries has been achieved mainly by adding years to full-time education; however, this process has probably reduced efficiency. Sooner or later, efficiency must improve, with a greater educational attainment per year. Future societies will probably wish more people to study science throughout high school (aged c. 11-19 years) and the first college degree. 'Science' may be defined as any abstract, systematic and research-based discipline: including mathematics, statistics and the natural sciences, economics, music theory, linguistics, and the conceptual or quantitative social sciences. Since formal teaching is usually necessary to learn science, science education should be regarded as the core function of high schools. One standard way to improve efficiency is the 'division of labour', with increased specialization of function. Modern schools are already specialized: teachers are specialized according to age-group taught, subject matter expertise, and administrative responsibilities. School students are stratified by age and academic aptitude. I propose a further institutional division of school function between science education, and cultural education (including education in arts, sports, ethics, social interaction and good citizenship). Existing schools might split into 'science school' and 'culture school', reflected in distinct buildings and zones, separate administrative structures, and the recruitment of differently-specialized teaching personnel. Science school would be distinguished by its focus on education in disciplines which promote abstract systematic cognition. All students would spend some part of each day (how much would depend on their aptitude and motivation) in the 'science school'; experiencing a traditional-style, didactic, disciplined and rigorous academic education. The remainder of the students' time at school would be spent in the cultural division, which would focus on broader aspects, and aim to generate

  19. Prospects for direct social perception: a multi-theoretical integration to further the science of social cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiltshire, Travis J; Lobato, Emilio J C; McConnell, Daniel S; Fiore, Stephen M

    2014-01-01

    In this paper we suggest that differing approaches to the science of social cognition mirror the arguments between radical embodied and traditional approaches to cognition. We contrast the use in social cognition of theoretical inference and mental simulation mechanisms with approaches emphasizing a direct perception of others' mental states. We build from a recent integrative framework unifying these divergent perspectives through the use of dual-process theory and supporting social neuroscience research. Our elaboration considers two complementary notions of direct perception: one primarily stemming from ecological psychology and the other from enactive cognition theory. We use this as the foundation from which to offer an account of the informational basis for social information and assert a set of research propositions to further the science of social cognition. In doing so, we point out how perception of the minds of others can be supported in some cases by lawful information, supporting direct perception of social affordances and perhaps, mental states, and in other cases by cues that support indirect perceptual inference. Our goal is to extend accounts of social cognition by integrating advances across disciplines to provide a multi-level and multi-theoretic description that can advance this field and offer a means through which to reconcile radical embodied and traditional approaches to cognitive neuroscience.

  20. Precollege science achievement growth: Racial-ethnic and gender differences in cognitive and psychosocial constructs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muller, Patricia Ann

    The purpose of this study was to gain a more complete understanding of the differences in science, mathematics and engineering education among racial-ethnic and gender subgroups by exploring factors related to precollege science achievement growth rates. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) and multi-wave, longitudinal data from the first three waves of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988--1994 (NELS:88/94), this study examined precollege science achievement growth rates during the 8th to 10th grade period and the 10th to 12th grade period for African American males, African American females, Latino males, Latina females, Asian American males, Asian American females, White males and White females. For the 8th--10th grade period, previous grades were significantly and positively related to science achievement growth for all subgroups; and socio-economic status and high school program were significantly and positively related to science achievement growth for all subgroups except one (Latino males, and Asian American males respectively). For the 10th--12th grade period, the quantity of science courses completed (science units) was the only variable that was statistically significant for more than one racial-ethnic by gender subgroup. Science units taken were significantly and positively related to 10 th--12th grade growth rates for all racial-ethnic by gender subgroups except Latino males. Locus-of-control was the only cognitive or psychosocial factor included from Eccles, Adler, Futterman, Goff, Kaczala, Meece and Midgley's (1983) theoretical framework for achievement behaviors that appeared to exhibit any pattern across race-ethnicities. Locus-of-control was positively related to 8th--10 th grade science achievement growth for females across all racial-ethnic subgroups, as well as for African American males. However, for both the 8 th--10th grade and 10th--12 th grade periods, there was no consistency across racial-ethnic or gender subgroups in

  1. Age correction in cognitive, linguistic, and motor domains for infants born preterm: an analysis of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition developmental patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morsan, Valentina; Fantoni, Carlo; Tallandini, Maria Anna

    2018-03-15

    To verify whether it is appropriate to use age correction for infants born preterm in all the developmental domains (cognitive, linguistic, and motor) considered by the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III). Seventy-three infants born preterm (26-35wks) without major neurological sequelae and 67 infants born at term were assessed at 12 months (corrected age for infants born preterm). The performance of the infants born preterm was assessed with two different evaluations: scores based on uncorrected age and scores based on corrected age. The developmental trends of infants born at term and infants born preterm differ across domains. Statistical analysis shows that age correction produces an overrated estimate of motor performance (12.5 points [95% confidence interval 9.05-16.01]) but not of cognitive performance. Given the broad use of the Bayley-III by psychologists and paediatricians, these results are important in the early diagnosis of developmental difficulties for children born preterm. Correction for gestational age should be applied for the cognitive domain only; whereas for the motor domain, chronological age should be used. No clear data emerged for language. Age correction with Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III) for infants born preterm should be applied differently in cognitive, language, and motor domains. Using corrected age with Bayley-III, the motor skills are overrated. Correction for preterm births adequately measures cognitive skills. No clear indication emerged about language skills. © 2018 Mac Keith Press.

  2. Linguistic Corpora and Language Teaching.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murison-Bowie, Simon

    1996-01-01

    Examines issues raised by corpus linguistics concerning the description of language. The article argues that it is necessary to start from correct descriptions of linguistic units and the contexts in which they occur. Corpus linguistics has joined with language teaching by sharing a recognition of the importance of a larger, schematic view of…

  3. Linguistic dating of biblical texts

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Young, Ian; Rezetko, Robert; Ehrensvärd, Martin Gustaf

    Since the beginning of critical scholarship biblical texts have been dated using linguistic evidence. In recent years this has become a controversial topic, especially with the publication of Ian Young (ed.), Biblical Hebrew: Studies in Chronology and Typology (2003). However, until now there has...... been no introduction and comprehensive study of the field. Volume 1 introduces the field of linguistic dating of biblical texts, particularly to intermediate and advanced students of biblical Hebrew who have a reasonable background in the language, having completed at least an introductory course...... in this volume are: What is it that makes Archaic Biblical Hebrew archaic , Early Biblical Hebrew early , and Late Biblical Hebrew late ? Does linguistic typology, i.e. different linguistic characteristics, convert easily and neatly into linguistic chronology, i.e. different historical origins? A large amount...

  4. Visual Linguistic Analysis of Political Discussions : Measuring Deliberative Quality

    OpenAIRE

    Gold, Valentin; El-Assady, Mennatallah; Hautli-Janisz, Annette; Bögel, Tina; Rohrdantz, Christian; Butt, Miriam; Holzinger, Katharina; Keim, Daniel

    2017-01-01

    This article reports on a Digital Humanities research project which is concerned with the automated linguistic and visual analysis of political discourses with a particular focus on the concept of deliberative communication. According to the theory of deliberative communication as discussed within political science, political debates should be inclusive and stakeholders participating in these debates are required to justify their positions rationally and respectfully and should eventually def...

  5. Soccer science and the Bayes community: exploring the cognitive implications of modern scientific communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shrager, Jeff; Billman, Dorrit; Convertino, Gregorio; Massar, J P; Pirolli, Peter

    2010-01-01

    Science is a form of distributed analysis involving both individual work that produces new knowledge and collaborative work to exchange information with the larger community. There are many particular ways in which individual and community can interact in science, and it is difficult to assess how efficient these are, and what the best way might be to support them. This paper reports on a series of experiments in this area and a prototype implementation using a research platform called CACHE. CACHE both supports experimentation with different structures of interaction between individual and community cognition and serves as a prototype for computational support for those structures. We particularly focus on CACHE-BC, the Bayes community version of CACHE, within which the community can break up analytical tasks into "mind-sized" units and use provenance tracking to keep track of the relationship between these units. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  6. Working Memory for Linguistic and Non-linguistic Manual Gestures: Evidence, Theory, and Application

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mary Rudner

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Linguistic manual gestures are the basis of sign languages used by deaf individuals. Working memory and language processing are intimately connected and thus when language is gesture-based, it is important to understand related working memory mechanisms. This article reviews work on working memory for linguistic and non-linguistic manual gestures and discusses theoretical and applied implications. Empirical evidence shows that there are effects of load and stimulus degradation on working memory for manual gestures. These effects are similar to those found for working memory for speech-based language. Further, there are effects of pre-existing linguistic representation that are partially similar across language modalities. But above all, deaf signers score higher than hearing non-signers on an n-back task with sign-based stimuli, irrespective of their semantic and phonological content, but not with non-linguistic manual actions. This pattern may be partially explained by recent findings relating to cross-modal plasticity in deaf individuals. It suggests that in linguistic gesture-based working memory, semantic aspects may outweigh phonological aspects when processing takes place under challenging conditions. The close association between working memory and language development should be taken into account in understanding and alleviating the challenges faced by deaf children growing up with cochlear implants as well as other clinical populations.

  7. Theoretical approaches to natural language understanding

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1985-01-01

    This book discusses the following: Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science and the current state of natural language understanding. Three topics form the focus for discussion; these topics include aspects of grammars, aspects of semantics/pragmatics, and knowledge representation.

  8. Who Chooses STEM Careers? Using A Relative Cognitive Strength and Interest Model to Predict Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Ming-Te; Ye, Feifei; Degol, Jessica Lauren

    2017-08-01

    Career aspirations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are formulated in adolescence, making the high school years a critical time period for identifying the cognitive and motivational factors that increase the likelihood of future STEM employment. While past research has mainly focused on absolute cognitive ability levels in math and verbal domains, the current study tested whether relative cognitive strengths and interests in math, science, and verbal domains in high school were more accurate predictors of STEM career decisions. Data were drawn from a national longitudinal study in the United States (N = 1762; 48 % female; the first wave during ninth grade and the last wave at age 33). Results revealed that in the high-verbal/high-math/high-science ability group, individuals with higher science task values and lower orientation toward altruism were more likely to select STEM occupations. In the low-verbal/moderate-math/moderate-science ability group, individuals with higher math ability and higher math task values were more likely to select STEM occupations. The findings suggest that youth with asymmetrical cognitive ability profiles are more likely to select careers that utilize their cognitive strengths rather than their weaknesses, while symmetrical cognitive ability profiles may grant youth more flexibility in their options, allowing their interests and values to guide their career decisions.

  9. Communicative-pragmatic impairment in schizophrenia: Cognitive rehabilitative training

    OpenAIRE

    Francesca Marina Bosco; Francesca Marina Bosco; Ilaria eGabbatore; Luigi eGastaldo; Katiuscia eSacco; Katiuscia eSacco

    2016-01-01

    This paper aims to verify in patients with schizophrenia, the efficacy of Cognitive Pragmatic Treatment (CPT), a new remediation program for improving communicative-pragmatic abilities. The CPT program consists of 20 group sessions, focused on several communication modalities, i.e. linguistic, extralinguistic and paralinguistic, Theory of Mind (ToM) and other cognitive functions that can affect communicative performance, such as awareness and planning. A group of 17 patients with schizophreni...

  10. Combination Across Domains: An MEG Investigation into the Relationship between Mathematical, Pictorial, and Linguistic Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bemis, Douglas K.; Pylkkänen, Liina

    2013-01-01

    Debates surrounding the evolution of language often hinge upon its relationship to cognition more generally and many investigations have attempted to demark the boundary between the two. Though results from these studies suggest that language may recruit domain-general mechanisms during certain types of complex processing, the domain-generality of basic combinatorial mechanisms that lie at the core of linguistic processing is still unknown. Our previous work (Bemis and Pylkkänen, 2011, 2012) used magnetoencephalography to isolate neural activity associated with the simple composition of an adjective and a noun (“red boat”) and found increased activity during this processing localized to the left anterior temporal lobe (lATL), ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and left angular gyrus (lAG). The present study explores the domain-generality of these effects and their associated combinatorial mechanisms through two parallel non-linguistic combinatorial tasks designed to be as minimal and natural as the linguistic paradigm. In the first task, we used pictures of colored shapes to elicit combinatorial conceptual processing similar to that evoked by the linguistic expressions and find increased activity again localized to the vmPFC during combinatorial processing. This result suggests that a domain-general semantic combinatorial mechanism operates during basic linguistic composition, and that activity generated by its processing localizes to the vmPFC. In the second task, we recorded neural activity as subjects performed simple addition between two small numerals. Consistent with a wide array of recent results, we find no effects related to basic addition that coincide with our linguistic effects and instead find increased activity localized to the intraparietal sulcus. This result suggests that the scope of the previously identified linguistic effects is restricted to compositional operations and does not extend generally to all tasks that are merely similar

  11. Grammatical polysemy and grammaticalization in cognitive and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Cognitive and generative approaches to linguistics have taken a different perspective on grammatical polysemy and grammaticalization. While the former see polysemy as a core characteristic of language and a necessary result of grammaticalization within idiolects, the latter see it as a less interesting phenomenon ...

  12. Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience: Insights from Deafness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corina, David; Singleton, Jenny

    2009-01-01

    The condition of deafness presents a developmental context that provides insight into the biological, cultural, and linguistic factors underlying the development of neural systems that impact social cognition. Studies of visual attention, behavioral regulation, language development, and face and human action perception are discussed. Visually…

  13. Testing a model of science process skills acquisition: An interaction with parents' education, preferred language, gender, science attitude, cognitive development, academic ability, and biology knowledge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Germann, Paul J.

    Path analysis techniques were used to test a hypothesized structural model of direct and indirect causal effects of student variables on science process skills. The model was tested twice using data collected at the beginning and end of the school year from 67 9th- and 10th-grade biology students who lived in a rural Franco-American community in New England. Each student variable was found to have significant effects, accounting for approximately 80% of the variance in science process skills achievement. Academic ability, biology knowledge, and language preference had significant direct effects. There were significant mediated effects by cognitive development, parents' education, and attitude toward science in school. The variables of cognitive development and academic ability had the greatest total effects on science process skills. Implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.

  14. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus: Journal Sponsorship

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Publisher. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics (SPiL) is published by the Department of General Linguistics of Stellenbosch University. Department of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University. Sources of Support. The Department of General Linguistics acknowledges the financial support provided by the Fonds ...

  15. Peace linguistics for language teachers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francisco GOMES DE MATOS

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This text aims at presenting the concept of Peace Linguistics - origins and recent developments -- as being implemented in the author's ongoing work in that emerging branch of Applied Linguistics. Examples of applicational possibilities are given, with a focus on language teaching-learning and a Checklist is provided, of topics for suggested linguistic-educational research, centered on communicative peace.

  16. Legal Linguistics as a Mutual Arena for Cooperation: Recent Developments in the Field of Applied Linguistics and Law

    Science.gov (United States)

    Engberg, Jan

    2013-01-01

    This article reports on some of the recent projects and individual works in the field of Legal Linguistics as examples of cooperation between Applied Linguistics and law. The article starts by discussing relevant prototypical concepts of Legal Linguistics. Legal Linguistics scrutinizes interactions between human beings in the framework of legal…

  17. Cognitive and Emotive Empathy in Discourse: Towards an Integrated Theory of Mind

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Martinovsky, Bilyana

    2006-01-01

    .... The study identifies discursive and linguistic features, which realize cognitive, emotive, parallel and reactive empathy and suggests that imitation, simulation and representation could be non...

  18. COGNITIVE MODELING OF EPISTEMIC MENTAL STATES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yurovitskaya, L.N.

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Epistemic states of mind, connected with the cognitive activity of a man, are aimed not only at apprehending the world around us, but also at the process of this apprehension. A very important step on this way is an attempt to model these states and processes in terms of formal logics and semantics, irrespective of the language of cognition. The article presents the idea of how formal logical and linguistic modeling of the process of thinking shows the correlation and the interdependence of semantic units connected with mental activities of human brain. The basic notions of the conceptual field of cognition are presented in the article

  19. Language used in interaction during developmental science instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Avenia-Tapper, Brianna

    The coordination of theory and evidence is an important part of scientific practice. Developmental approaches to instruction, which make the relationship between the abstract and the concrete a central focus of students' learning activity, provide educators with a unique opportunity to strengthen students' coordination of theory and evidence. Therefore, developmental approaches may be a useful instructional response to documented science achievement gaps for linguistically diverse students. However, if we are to leverage the potential of developmental instruction to improve the science achievement of linguistically diverse students, we need more information on the intersection of developmental science instruction and linguistically diverse learning contexts. This manuscript style dissertation uses discourse analysis to investigate the language used in interaction during developmental teaching-learning in three linguistically diverse third grade classrooms. The first manuscript asks how language was used to construct ascension from the abstract to the concrete. The second manuscript asks how students' non-English home languages were useful (or not) for meeting the learning goals of the developmental instructional program. The third manuscript asks how students' interlocutors may influence student choice to use an important discourse practice--justification--during the developmental teaching-learning activity. All three manuscripts report findings relevant to the instructional decisions that teachers need to make when implementing developmental instruction in linguistically diverse contexts.

  20. Prospects for direct social perception: A multi-theoretical integration to further the science of social cognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Travis J. Wiltshire

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we suggest that differing approaches to the science of social cognition mirror the arguments between radical embodied and traditional approaches to cognition. We contrast the use in social cognition of theoretical inference and mental simulation mechanisms with approaches emphasizing a direct perception of others’ mental states. We build from a recent integrative framework unifying these divergent perspectives through the use of dual-process theory and supporting social neuroscience research. Our elaboration considers two complementary notions of direct perception: one primarily stemming from ecological psychology and the other from enactive cognition theory. We use this as the foundation from which to offer an account of the informational basis for social information and assert a set of research propositions to further the science of social cognition. In doing so, we point out how perception of the minds of others can be supported in some cases by lawful information, supporting direct perception of social affordances and perhaps, mental states, and in other cases by cues that support indirect perceptual inference. Our goal is to extend accounts of social cognition by integrating advances across disciplines to provide a multi-level and multi-theoretic description that can advance this field and offer a means through which to reconcile radical embodied and traditional approaches to cognitive neuroscience.

  1. Prospects for direct social perception: a multi-theoretical integration to further the science of social cognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiltshire, Travis J.; Lobato, Emilio J. C.; McConnell, Daniel S.; Fiore, Stephen M.

    2015-01-01

    In this paper we suggest that differing approaches to the science of social cognition mirror the arguments between radical embodied and traditional approaches to cognition. We contrast the use in social cognition of theoretical inference and mental simulation mechanisms with approaches emphasizing a direct perception of others’ mental states. We build from a recent integrative framework unifying these divergent perspectives through the use of dual-process theory and supporting social neuroscience research. Our elaboration considers two complementary notions of direct perception: one primarily stemming from ecological psychology and the other from enactive cognition theory. We use this as the foundation from which to offer an account of the informational basis for social information and assert a set of research propositions to further the science of social cognition. In doing so, we point out how perception of the minds of others can be supported in some cases by lawful information, supporting direct perception of social affordances and perhaps, mental states, and in other cases by cues that support indirect perceptual inference. Our goal is to extend accounts of social cognition by integrating advances across disciplines to provide a multi-level and multi-theoretic description that can advance this field and offer a means through which to reconcile radical embodied and traditional approaches to cognitive neuroscience. PMID:25709572

  2. Measuring the diffusion of linguistic change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nerbonne, John

    2010-12-12

    We examine situations in which linguistic changes have probably been propagated via normal contact as opposed to via conquest, recent settlement and large-scale migration. We proceed then from two simplifying assumptions: first, that all linguistic variation is the result of either diffusion or independent innovation, and, second, that we may operationalize social contact as geographical distance. It is clear that both of these assumptions are imperfect, but they allow us to examine diffusion via the distribution of linguistic variation as a function of geographical distance. Several studies in quantitative linguistics have examined this relation, starting with Séguy (Séguy 1971 Rev. Linguist. Romane 35, 335-357), and virtually all report a sublinear growth in aggregate linguistic variation as a function of geographical distance. The literature from dialectology and historical linguistics has mostly traced the diffusion of individual features, however, so that it is sensible to ask what sort of dynamic in the diffusion of individual features is compatible with Séguy's curve. We examine some simulations of diffusion in an effort to shed light on this question.

  3. Linguistic Dating of Biblical Texts

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ehrensvärd, Martin Gustaf

    2003-01-01

    For two centuries, scholars have pointed to consistent differences in the Hebrew of certain biblical texts and interpreted these differences as reflecting the date of composition of the texts. Until the 1980s, this was quite uncontroversial as the linguistic findings largely confirmed the chronol......For two centuries, scholars have pointed to consistent differences in the Hebrew of certain biblical texts and interpreted these differences as reflecting the date of composition of the texts. Until the 1980s, this was quite uncontroversial as the linguistic findings largely confirmed...... the chronology of the texts established by other means: the Hebrew of Genesis-2 Kings was judged to be early and that of Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles to be late. In the current debate where revisionists have questioned the traditional dating, linguistic arguments in the dating of texts have...... come more into focus. The study critically examines some linguistic arguments adduced to support the traditional position, and reviewing the arguments it points to weaknesses in the linguistic dating of EBH texts to pre-exilic times. When viewing the linguistic evidence in isolation it will be clear...

  4. Social science and linguistic text analysis of nurses’ records

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Buus, N.; Hamilton, B. E.

    2016-01-01

    that included analyses of the social and linguistic features of records and recording. Two reviewers extracted data using established criteria for the evaluation of qualitative research papers. A common characteristic of nursing records was the economical use of language with local meanings that conveyed little......' disturbing behaviour. The text analysis methods were rarely transparent in the articles, which could suggest research quality problems. For most articles, the significance of the findings was substantiated more by theoretical readings of the institutional settings than by the analysis of textual data. More...... probing empirical research of nurses' records and a wider range of theoretical perspectives has the potential to expose the situated meanings of nursing work in healthcare organisations. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd....

  5. Test Every Senior Project: Evidence of Cognitive Processes Related to Science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nardine, Frank E.

    Reported is a study designed to evaluate differences in cognitive processes related to science among (1) college bound high school students who had studied both physics and chemistry, (2) college bound students who had not studied either subject, and (3) non-college bound students who had not studied either subject. The test used to assess the…

  6. Learning Biases Predict a Word Order Universal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Culbertson, Jennifer; Smolensky, Paul; Legendre, Geraldine

    2012-01-01

    How recurrent typological patterns, or universals, emerge from the extensive diversity found across the world's languages constitutes a central question for linguistics and cognitive science. Recent challenges to a fundamental assumption of generative linguistics--that universal properties of the human language acquisition faculty constrain the…

  7. About the Linguistic Impossibility of Claiming that Small Planets are not Planets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nedeljkovic, A. B.

    2012-12-01

    Philology, which is, the science of language and literature, must now offer assistance to the science of astronomy, about one question of terminology and logic. Namely, if something belongs to one category, then it is, regardless of its size (large, or medium, or small) a member of that category. Therefore, it was linguistically wrong to claim that Pluto is one of the dwarf planets and therefore not a planet. This mistake, much noticed by the world's public opinion, ought to be corrected immediately.

  8. Conversational informatics a data-intensive approach with emphasis on nonverbal communication

    CERN Document Server

    Nishida, Toyoaki; Ohmoto, Yoshimasa; Mohammad, Yasser

    2014-01-01

    This book covers an approach to conversational informatics which encompasses science and technology for understanding and augmenting conversation in the network age. A major challenge in engineering is to develop a technology for conveying not just messages but also underlying wisdom. Relevant theories and practices in cognitive linguistics and communication science, as well as techniques developed in computational linguistics and artificial intelligence, are discussed.

  9. Moving Beyond Concepts: Getting Urban High School Students Engaged in Science through Cognitive Processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Renu

    In order to maintain its global position, the United States needs to increase the number of students opting for science careers. Science teachers face a formidable challenge. Students are not choosing science because they do not think coursework is interesting or applies to their lives. These problems often compound for adolescents in urban areas. This action research investigated an innovation aimed at engaging a group of adolescents in the science learning process through cognitive processes and conceptual understanding. It was hoped that this combination would increase students' engagement in the classroom and proficiency in science. The study was conducted with 28 juniors and sophomores in an Environmental Science class in an urban high school with a student body of 97% minority students and 86% students receiving free and reduced lunch. The study used a mixed-methods design. Instruments included a pre- and post-test, Thinking Maps, transcripts of student discourse, and a two-part Engagement Observation Instrument. Data analysis included basic descriptives and a grounded theory approach. Findings show students became engaged in activities when cognitive processes were taught prior to content. Furthermore it was discovered that Thinking Maps were perceived to be an easy tool to use to organize students' thinking and processing. Finally there was a significant increase in student achievement. From these findings implications for future practice and research are offered.

  10. Conséquences cognitives des transferts en langue des signes

    OpenAIRE

    Courtin, Cyril; Sallandre, Marie-Anne

    2015-01-01

    National audience; The aim of this study is to bring new elements to the debate on the relationship between language and thought through the study of a sign language. This paper combines in a pioneering way some key concepts of cognitive psychology and linguistics of French Sign Language. We tried to determine how personal transfers (also called role taking) influence cognitive development in two specific areas: theories of mind and cognitive flexibility. In order to do this, an experimental ...

  11. Aesthetic concepts, perceptual learning, and linguistic enculturation: considerations from Wittgenstein, language, and music.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Croom, Adam M

    2012-03-01

    Aesthetic non-cognitivists deny that aesthetic statements express genuinely aesthetic beliefs and instead hold that they work primarily to express something non-cognitive, such as attitudes of approval or disapproval, or desire. Non-cognitivists deny that aesthetic statements express aesthetic beliefs because they deny that there are aesthetic features in the world for aesthetic beliefs to represent. Their assumption, shared by scientists and theorists of mind alike, was that language-users possess cognitive mechanisms with which to objectively grasp abstract rules fixed independently of human responses, and that cognizers are thereby capable of grasping rules for the correct application of aesthetic concepts without relying on evaluation or enculturation. However, in this article I use Wittgenstein's rule-following considerations to argue that psychological theories grounded upon this so-called objective model of rule-following fail to adequately account for concept acquisition and mastery. I argue that this is because linguistic enculturation, and the perceptual learning that's often involved, influences and enables the mastery of aesthetic concepts. I argue that part of what's involved in speaking aesthetically is to belong to a cultural practice of making sense of things aesthetically, and that it's within a socio-linguistic community, and that community's practices, that such aesthetic sense can be made intelligible.

  12. Proceedings of KogWis 2010 : 10th Biannual Meeting of the German Society for Cognitive Science

    OpenAIRE

    2010-01-01

    As the latest biannual meeting of the German Society for Cognitive Science (Gesellschaft für Kognitionswissenschaft, GK), KogWis 2010 at Potsdam University reflects the current trends in a fascinating domain of research concerned with human and artificial cognition and the interaction of mind and brain. The Plenary talks provide a venue for questions of the numerical capacities and human arithmetic (Brian Butterworth), of the theoretical development of cognitive architectures and intelligent ...

  13. Collaboration Modality, Cognitive Load, and Science Inquiry Learning in Virtual Inquiry Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erlandson, Benjamin E.; Nelson, Brian C.; Savenye, Wilhelmina C.

    2010-01-01

    Educational multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) have been shown to be effective platforms for situated science inquiry curricula. While researchers find MUVEs to be supportive of collaborative scientific inquiry processes, the complex mix of multi-modal messages present in MUVEs can lead to cognitive overload, with learners unable to…

  14. M.Yu. Lermontov’s linguistic/literary personality through perspective of linguistic personality perception by philologist V.V. Vinogrado

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Larisa N. Kuznetsova

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available The article considers M.Yu. Lermontov’s linguistic / literary personality through perspective of linguistic personality perception by Great Russian scientist-philologist and linguist, Academician V.V. Vinogradov.

  15. Teaching Hispanic Linguistics: Strategies to Engage Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knouse, Stephanie M.; Gupton, Timothy; Abreau, Laurel

    2015-01-01

    Even though many post-secondary institutions offer a variety of Hispanic linguistics classes (Hualde 2006; Lipski 2006), research on the pedagogy of Hispanic linguistics is an underdeveloped or non-existent area of the discipline. Courses in Hispanic linguistics can present not only linguistic challenges for non-native speakers of Spanish, but…

  16. Mathematics and linguistics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Landauer, C.; Bellman, K.L.

    1996-12-31

    In this paper, we study foundational issues that we believe will help us develop a theoretically sound approach to constructing complex systems. The two theoretical approaches that have helped us understand and develop computational systems in the past are mathematics and linguistics. We describe some differences and strengths of the approaches, and propose a research program to combine the richness of linguistic reasoning with the precision of mathematics.

  17. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics (SPiL) is an annual/biannual open access, peer-reviewed international journal, published by the Department of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University. The papers published in SPiL are ... Poetry in South African Sign Language: What is different? EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL ...

  18. Mathematical reasoning analogies, metaphors, and images

    CERN Document Server

    English, Lyn D

    2013-01-01

    How we reason with mathematical ideas continues to be a fascinating and challenging topic of research--particularly with the rapid and diverse developments in the field of cognitive science that have taken place in recent years. Because it draws on multiple disciplines, including psychology, philosophy, computer science, linguistics, and anthropology, cognitive science provides rich scope for addressing issues that are at the core of mathematical learning. Drawing upon the interdisciplinary nature of cognitive science, this book presents a broadened perspective on mathematics and mat

  19. Linguistic markers of psychological change surrounding September 11, 2001.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohn, Michael A; Mehl, Matthias R; Pennebaker, James W

    2004-10-01

    The diaries of 1,084 U.S. users of an on-line journaling service were downloaded for a period of 4 months spanning the 2 months prior to and after the September 11 attacks. Linguistic analyses of the journal entries revealed pronounced psychological changes in response to the attacks. In the short term, participants expressed more negative emotions, were more cognitively and socially engaged, and wrote with greater psychological distance. After 2 weeks, their moods and social referencing returned to baseline, and their use of cognitive-analytic words dropped below baseline. Over the next 6 weeks, social referencing decreased, and psychological distancing remained elevated relative to baseline. Although the effects were generally stronger for individuals highly preoccupied with September 11, even participants who hardly wrote about the events showed comparable language changes. This study bypasses many of the methodological obstacles of trauma research and provides a fine-grained analysis of the time line of human coping with upheaval.

  20. Cognitive disorders in children's hydrocephalus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zielińska, Dorota; Rajtar-Zembaty, Anna; Starowicz-Filip, Anna

    Hydrocephalus is defined as an increase of volume of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricular system of the brain. It develops as a result of cerebrospinal fluid flow disorder due to dysfunctions of absorption or, less frequently, as a result of the increase of its production. Hydrocephalus may lead to various cognitive dysfunctions in children. In order to determine cognitive functioning in children with hydrocephalus, the authors reviewed available literature while investigating this subject. The profile of cognitive disorders in children with hydrocephalus may include a wide spectrum of dysfunctions and the process of neuropsychological assessment may be very demanding. The most frequently described cognitive disorders within children's hydrocephalus include attention, executive, memory, visual, spatial or linguistic dysfunctions, as well as behavioral problems. Copyright © 2017 Polish Neurological Society. Published by Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z o.o. All rights reserved.

  1. "Blame" Concept in Phraseology: Cognitive-Semantic Aspect (Based on the French Language)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zalavina, Tatyana Y.; Kisel, Olesya V.

    2016-01-01

    Phraseology is one of the basic and most important objects of study in cognitive linguistics. The article deals with verbal fixed phrases in their correlation with the cognitive structure of knowledge--a concept. The used definitional analysis method to identify the basic notions of the conceptual content of the concept of blame and basic…

  2. Impressive Words: Linguistic Predictors of Public Approval of the U.S. Congress

    OpenAIRE

    Decter-Frain, Ari; Frimer, Jeremy A.

    2016-01-01

    What type of language makes the most positive impression within a professional setting? Is competent/agentic language or warm/communal language more effective at eliciting social approval? We examined this basic social cognitive question in a real world context using a big data approach—the recent record-low levels of public approval of the U.S. Congress. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), we text analyzed all 123+ million words spoken by members of the U.S. House of Representa...

  3. Demystifying Consciousness With Mysticism? Cognitive Science and Mystical Traditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sebastjan Vörös

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The article considers whether, and how, current scientific studies of consciousness might benefit from insights of mystical traditions. Although considerable effort has been expanded towards introducing mysticism into mainstream cognitive science, the topic is still controversial, not least because of the multifariousness of meaning associated with the term (from “illogical thinking” through “visions” and “raptures” to “paranormal” and “psychopathological phenomena”. In the context of the present article, mysticism is defined as a set of practices, beliefs, values etc. developed within a given religious tradition to help the practitioner realize the experiential and existential transformations associated with mystical experiences, i.e. experiences characterized by the breakdown of the subject-object dichotomy. It is then examined in which areas mysticism so defined might provide beneficial for consciousness studies; broadly, three such areas are identified: phenomenological research (mysticism as a repository of unique experiential material and practical know-how for rigorous phenomenological analyses, the problem of the self (mysticism as a repository of experiential-existential insights into one’s fundamental selflessness, and the so-called hard problem of consciousness (mysticism as a unique experiential-existential answer to the mind-body problem. It is contended that, contrary to popular belief, cognitive science could benefit from insights and practices found in mystical traditions, especially by way of grounding its findings in the lived experience and thereby (potentially demystifying some of its self-imposed abstract conundrums.

  4. The Dutch Linguistic Intraoperative Protocol: a valid linguistic approach to awake brain surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Witte, E; Satoer, D; Robert, E; Colle, H; Verheyen, S; Visch-Brink, E; Mariën, P

    2015-01-01

    Intraoperative direct electrical stimulation (DES) is increasingly used in patients operated on for tumours in eloquent areas. Although a positive impact of DES on postoperative linguistic outcome is generally advocated, information about the neurolinguistic methods applied in awake surgery is scarce. We developed for the first time a standardised Dutch linguistic test battery (measuring phonology, semantics, syntax) to reliably identify the critical language zones in detail. A normative study was carried out in a control group of 250 native Dutch-speaking healthy adults. In addition, the clinical application of the Dutch Linguistic Intraoperative Protocol (DuLIP) was demonstrated by means of anatomo-functional models and five case studies. A set of DuLIP tests was selected for each patient depending on the tumour location and degree of linguistic impairment. DuLIP is a valid test battery for pre-, intraoperative and postoperative language testing and facilitates intraoperative mapping of eloquent language regions that are variably located. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. The Unbalanced Linguistic Aggregation Operator in Group Decision Making

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Zou

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Many linguistic aggregation methods have been proposed and applied in the linguistic decision-making problems. In practice, experts need to assess a number of values in a side of reference domain higher than in the other one; that is, experts use unbalanced linguistic values to express their evaluation for problems. In this paper, we propose a new linguistic aggregation operator to deal with unbalanced linguistic values in group decision making, we adopt 2-tuple representation model of linguistic values and linguistic hierarchies to express unbalanced linguistic values, and moreover, we present the unbalanced linguistic ordered weighted geometric operator to aggregate unbalanced linguistic evaluation values; a comparison example is given to show the advantage of our method.

  6. Cognitive neuroscience in forensic science: understanding and utilizing the human element

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dror, Itiel E.

    2015-01-01

    The human element plays a critical role in forensic science. It is not limited only to issues relating to forensic decision-making, such as bias, but also relates to most aspects of forensic work (some of which even take place before a crime is ever committed or long after the verification of the forensic conclusion). In this paper, I explicate many aspects of forensic work that involve the human element and therefore show the relevance (and potential contribution) of cognitive neuroscience to forensic science. The 10 aspects covered in this paper are proactive forensic science, selection during recruitment, training, crime scene investigation, forensic decision-making, verification and conflict resolution, reporting, the role of the forensic examiner, presentation in court and judicial decisions. As the forensic community is taking on the challenges introduced by the realization that the human element is critical for forensic work, new opportunities emerge that allow for considerable improvement and enhancement of the forensic science endeavour. PMID:26101281

  7. Quantitative Research in Systemic Functional Linguistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Qingshun

    2018-01-01

    The research of Systemic Functional Linguistics has been quite in-depth in both theory and practice. However, many linguists hold that Systemic Functional Linguistics has no hypothesis testing or experiments and its research is only qualitative. Analyses of the corpus, intelligent computing and language evolution on the ideological background of…

  8. Linguistic fuzzy selection of liquid levelmeters in nuclear facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ghyym, S. H.

    1999-01-01

    In this work, a selection methodology of liquid levelmeters, especially, level sensors in non-nuclear category, to be installed in nuclear facilities is developed using a linguistic fuzzy approach. Depending on defuzzification techniques, the linguistic fuzzy methodology leads to either linguistic (exactly, fully-linguistic) or cardinal (i.e., semi-linguistic) evaluation. In the case of the linguistic method, for each alternative, fuzzy preference index is converted to linguistic utility value by means of a similarity measure determining the degree of similarity between fuzzy index and linguistic ratings. For the cardinal method, the index is translated to cardinal overall utility value. According to these values, alternatives of interest are linguistically or numerically evaluated and a suitable alternative can be selected. Under given selection criteria, the suitable selections out of some liquid levelmeters for nuclear facilities are dealt with using the linguistic fuzzy methodology proposed. Then, linguistic fuzzy evaluation results are compared with numerical results available in the literature. It is found that as to a suitable option the linguistic fuzzy selection is in agreement with the crisp numerical selection. In addition, this comparison shows that the fully-linguistic method facilitates linguistic interpretation regarding evaluation results

  9. Linguistic fuzzy selection of liquid levelmeters in nuclear facilities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ghyym, S. H. [KEPRI, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

    1999-10-01

    In this work, a selection methodology of liquid levelmeters, especially, level sensors in non-nuclear category, to be installed in nuclear facilities is developed using a linguistic fuzzy approach. Depending on defuzzification techniques, the linguistic fuzzy methodology leads to either linguistic (exactly, fully-linguistic) or cardinal (i.e., semi-linguistic) evaluation. In the case of the linguistic method, for each alternative, fuzzy preference index is converted to linguistic utility value by means of a similarity measure determining the degree of similarity between fuzzy index and linguistic ratings. For the cardinal method, the index is translated to cardinal overall utility value. According to these values, alternatives of interest are linguistically or numerically evaluated and a suitable alternative can be selected. Under given selection criteria, the suitable selections out of some liquid levelmeters for nuclear facilities are dealt with using the linguistic fuzzy methodology proposed. Then, linguistic fuzzy evaluation results are compared with numerical results available in the literature. It is found that as to a suitable option the linguistic fuzzy selection is in agreement with the crisp numerical selection. In addition, this comparison shows that the fully-linguistic method facilitates linguistic interpretation regarding evaluation results.

  10. Understanding Online Health Groups for Depression: Social Network and Linguistic Perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Ronghua; Zhang, Qingpeng

    2016-03-10

    Mental health problems have become increasingly prevalent in the past decade. With the advance of Web 2.0 technologies, social media present a novel platform for Web users to form online health groups. Members of online health groups discuss health-related issues and mutually help one another by anonymously revealing their mental conditions, sharing personal experiences, exchanging health information, and providing suggestions and support. The conversations in online health groups contain valuable information to facilitate the understanding of their mutual help behaviors and their mental health problems. We aimed to characterize the conversations in a major online health group for major depressive disorder (MDD) patients in a popular Chinese social media platform. In particular, we intended to explain how Web users discuss depression-related issues from the perspective of the social networks and linguistic patterns revealed by the members' conversations. Social network analysis and linguistic analysis were employed to characterize the social structure and linguistic patterns, respectively. Furthermore, we integrated both perspectives to exploit the hidden relations between them. We found an intensive use of self-focus words and negative affect words. In general, group members used a higher proportion of negative affect words than positive affect words. The social network of the MDD group for depression possessed small-world and scale-free properties, with a much higher reciprocity ratio and clustering coefficient value as compared to the networks of other social media platforms and classic network models. We observed a number of interesting relationships, either strong correlations or convergent trends, between the topological properties and linguistic properties of the MDD group members. (1) The MDD group members have the characteristics of self-preoccupation and negative thought content, according to Beck's cognitive theory of depression; (2) the social structure

  11. Logic Programming for Linguistics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christiansen, Henning

    2010-01-01

    This article gives a short introduction on how to get started with logic pro- gramming in Prolog that does not require any previous programming expe- rience. The presentation is aimed at students of linguistics, but it does not go deeper into linguistics than any student who has some ideas of what...

  12. Functional MR imaging of cerebral auditory cortex with linguistic and non-linguistic stimulation: preliminary study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kang, Su Jin; Kim, Jae Hyoung; Shin, Tae Min

    1999-01-01

    To obtain preliminary data for understanding the central auditory neural pathway by means of functional MR imaging (fMRI) of the cerebral auditory cortex during linguistic and non-linguistic auditory stimulation. In three right-handed volunteers we conducted fMRI of auditory cortex stimulation at 1.5 T using a conventional gradient-echo technique (TR/TE/flip angle: 80/60/40 deg). Using a pulsed tone of 1000 Hz and speech as non-linguistic and linguistic auditory stimuli, respectively, images-including those of the superior temporal gyrus of both hemispheres-were obtained in sagittal plases. Both stimuli were separately delivered binaurally or monoaurally through a plastic earphone. Images were activated by processing with homemade software. In order to analyze patterns of auditory cortex activation according to type of stimulus and which side of the ear was stimulated, the number and extent of activated pixels were compared between both temporal lobes. Biaural stimulation led to bilateral activation of the superior temporal gyrus, while monoaural stimulation led to more activation in the contralateral temporal lobe than in the ipsilateral. A trend toward slight activation of the left (dominant) temporal lobe in ipsilateral stimulation, particularly with a linguistic stimulus, was observed. During both biaural and monoaural stimulation, a linguistic stimulus produced more widespread activation than did a non-linguistic one. The superior temporal gyri of both temporal lobes are associated with acoustic-phonetic analysis, and the left (dominant) superior temporal gyrus is likely to play a dominant role in this processing. For better understanding of physiological and pathological central auditory pathways, further investigation is needed

  13. The Generic Style Rules for Linguistics

    OpenAIRE

    Haspelmath, Martin

    2014-01-01

    The Generic Style Rules for Linguistics provide a style sheet that can be used by any linguistics journal or edited book, or for teaching purposes. They regulate aspects of text-structure style such as typographic highlighting, citation style, use of capitalization, and bibliographic style (based on the LSA's Unified Stylesheet for linguistics).

  14. Effect of Parkinson's Disease on the Production of Structured and Unstructured Speaking Tasks: Respiratory Physiologic and Linguistic Considerations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huber, Jessica E.; Darling, Meghan

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: To examine the effects of cognitive-linguistic deficits and respiratory physiologic changes on respiratory support for speech in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) using two speech tasks: reading and extemporaneous speech. Method: Five women with PD, 9 men with PD, and 14 age- and sex-matched control participants read a passage and…

  15. Evidence-based Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapy: a meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaharia, Cătălin; Reiner, Melita; Schütz, Peter

    2015-12-01

    Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Framework has enjoyed enormous popularity in the field of applied psychology. NLP has been used in business, education, law, medicine and psychotherapy to identify people's patterns and alter their responses to stimuli, so they are better able to regulate their environment and themselves. NLP looks at achieving goals, creating stable relationships, eliminating barriers such as fears and phobias, building self-confidence, and self-esteem, and achieving peak performance. Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapy (NLPt) encompasses NLP as framework and set of interventions in the treatment of individuals with different psychological and/or social problems. We aimed systematically to analyse the available data regarding the effectiveness of Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapy (NLPt). The present work is a meta-analysis of studies, observational or randomized controlled trials, for evaluating the efficacy of Neuro Linguistic Programming in individuals with different psychological and/or social problems. The databases searched to identify studies in English and German language: CENTRAL in the Cochrane Library; PubMed; ISI Web of Knowledge (include results also from Medline and the Web of Science); PsycINFO (including PsycARTICLES); Psyndex; Deutschsprachige Diplomarbeiten der Psychologie (database of theses in Psychology in German language), Social SciSearch; National library of health and two NLP-specific research databases: one from the NLP Community (http://www.nlp.de/cgi-bin/research/nlprdb.cgi?action=res_entries) and one from the NLP Group (http://www.nlpgrup.com/bilimselarastirmalar/bilimsel-arastirmalar-4.html#Zweig154). From a total number of 425 studies, 350 were removed and considered not relevant based on the title and abstract. Included, in the final analysis, are 12 studies with numbers of participants ranging between 12 and 115 subjects. The vast majority of studies were prospective observational. The actual paper represents the first

  16. The construction of a questionnaire to evaluate the science orientedness of students’ identities as learners from a cognitive perspective

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Taconis, R.; Putter-Smits, de L.G.A.; Henry, S.F.; Brok, den P.J.; Beijaard, D.

    2010-01-01

    Forming a science-oriented identity is considered a process underlying both interest and achievement in science education. A questionnaire is developed for describing "identities as learners" and evaluating their science orientedness. The instrument (k = 65) focuses on cognitive aspects. An internal

  17. Variable discursive constructions of three genres of science ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The present study reports on a comparison of the research article, university textbook and science news article as a preamble to capturing ideological differences between these three genres of scientific writing. The linguistic dimension to the comparison relies on Systemic Functional Linguistics, specifically the ...

  18. Linguistic Markers of Stereotype in National Character Descriptions (Based on Ukrainian Newspaper Articles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Falafivka Olesya

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Background: Ethnic stereotypes are in the focus of current linguistic research, because they play an important role in the formation of international relations that develop rapidly in the modern world. The majority of linguistic studies today are devoted to the cognitive nature of stereotypes. However, researchers also pay attention to means of stereotype verbalization in different languages. The main ones have been identified already: these are ethnonyms, toponyms, ethnically marked anthroponyms, ethnically marked color names, names of religions, names of national symbols and values, ethnic and national realia and code switching. Nevertheless, not always do these units verbalize ethnic stereotypes in discourse. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to develop a method of identification and suggest a typology of linguistic markers of stereotype that occur in descriptions of different national characters in Ukrainian journalistic discourse. Results: Linguistic markers of stereotype have been identified at almost all levels of the language structure. They are morphemes, lexemes, set phrases, idioms, proverbs, certain syntactic structures and even texts (anecdotes, the semantic structure of which contains the semes MANY and ALWAYS. Importantly, linguistic markers of stereotype are used in combination rather than separately. Discussion: Ethnic stereotypes can be identified in discourse using two basic criteria. The first one is explicit description or implicit reference to the features of a certain national character (ethnonyms, toponyms, realia etc. are indispensable elements of such a description or reference; the second one is occurrence of the aforesaid markers of stereotype (different language units, the semantic structure of which includes the semes MANY and ALWAYS in the text. The prospect of this research is comparative analysis of markers of ethnic stereotypes in Ukrainian and other languages.

  19. [Linguistic concerns and lexical mechanisms in the "Introducción a la Historia Natural, y a la Geografía Fisica de España" by William Bowles].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Díez de Revenga Torres, Pilar; Puche Lorenzo, Miguel Angel

    2007-01-01

    Linguistic mechanisms of 18th century scientific language are studied in the first Natural History text originally drafted in Spanish. William Bowles describes linguistic concerns in science over the definition of terms that refer to realities in the three natural kingdoms. Diatopic and diastratic variants and definition procedures are reported, demonstrating the importance of these texts to the History of Science and the History of the Spanish Language.

  20. Having Linguistic Rules and Knowing Linguistic Facts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter Ludlow

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available

    'Knowledge' doesn't correctly describe our relation to linguistic rules. It is too thick a notion (for example, we don't believe linguistic rules. On the other hand, 'cognize', without further elaboration, is too thin a notion, which is to say that it is too thin to play a role in a competence theory. One advantage of the term 'knowledge'-and presumably Chomsky's original motivation for using it-is that knowledge would play the right kind of role in a competence theory: Our competence would consist in a body of knowledge which we have and which we may or may not act upon-our performance need not conform to the linguistic rules that we know.

    Is there a way out of the dilemma? I'm going to make the case that the best way to talk about grammatical rules is simply to say that we have them. That doesn't sound very deep, I know, but saying that we have individual rules leaves room for individual norm guidance in a way that 'cognize' does not. Saying we have a rule like subjacency is also thicker than merely saying we cognize it. Saying I have such a rule invites the interpretation that it is a rule for me-that I am normatively guided by it. The competence theory thus becomes a theory of the rules that we have. Whether we follow those rules is another matter entirely.

  1. THE LINGUISTICS OF SPEECH PRINCIPLES TO BE IMPLEMENTED IN THE LISTENING COMPREHENSION CLASS TO ENHANCE LEARNERS‟ SPEAKING SKILLS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oktavia Tri Sanggala Dewi

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Linguistics of Speech as linguistic science is about language in use, and the only way to get data is through observations of how language works in real language contexts, and in which the focus is on meaning rather than structure (Kretszmar, W.A.Jr. 2009: 11. The emphasis in meaning is also currently implemented in the implementation of SFL–GBA (Systematic Funtional Linguistic - Genre Based Approach in Indonesia, in which the use of translation is encouraged (to a certain extend to improve understanding (Emilia,E.2011: 34, 41 }. In English classes of Listening Comprehension in Indonesia, as it is found anywhere else in non-English speaking countries, the emphasis is on meaning, i.e enabling students to understand language spoken by native speakers using both standard and spoken English in and about unlimited number ofcontexts and topics.As stated in the title, the goal of this research is to find out whether the basic concept and nature of ―Language‖, which is ―Language is Speech‖, could be materialized through implementing the principles of the Linguistics of Speech, the most important principle of which is the fact that this study concentrates on the ―speech circuit‖, which includes the oral implementation of articulatory, perceptual, physiological, and cognitive ―internal‖ aspects, with reference to ―external‖ considerations like geography, ethnology, policies, and institutions (Kretchmar 2009:62. Related to this, concerning Englishlearning context in Indonesia, the elements affecting learners seriously would be the perceptual andcognitive aspects, as these two have been paved by the policy of the Indonesian government which established Bahasa Indonesia as the first/ national language to be spoken anywhere and any time by Indonesians, and English as the formal second language. Thus the ―Indonesian grammar‖ way of thinking has quite an impact on thesetwo mental activities (perceptual and cognitive in learning and

  2. Resolución de problemas científicos desde la historia de la ciencia: retos y desafíos para promover competencias cognitivo lingüísticas en la química escolar History of Science in the resolution of scientific problems: contributions to promote linguistic cognitive strengths for school Chemistry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Johanna Patricia Camacho González

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available En este artículo proponemos abordar el enfrentamiento a la resolución de problemas en la química escolar por parte de los y las estudiantes asumiendo situaciones a las que se han enfrentado los científicos y las científicas en determinados y contextualizados momentos de la Historia de la Ciencia. Para ello, argumentamos algunos aspectos desde la literatura especializada en Didáctica de las Ciencias, que permiten sustentar esta propuesta. A continuación, describimos un episodio histórico sobre la discusión del S. XVIII entre Lavoisier y Priestley respecto a la descomposición del aire para ser utilizada como estrategia que promueva el desarrollo de las competencias cognitivolingüísticas. Finalmente, planteamos algunas directrices para orientar al profesorado de química en el logro de estos propósitos.The objective of this article is to approach the resolution of problems in the construction of knowledge in school science. In first place, show some aspects from specialized Literature. Later, we describe a historical episode of the discussion of Lavoisier and Priestley in S.XVIII about the combustion of the air. This is to be used as a strategy that promotes linguistic cognitive strengths. Finally, we propose some methodological directives to orient professors of chemistry to profit from these findings.

  3. Non-linguistic Conditions for Causativization as a Linguistic Attractor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nichols, Johanna

    2017-01-01

    An attractor, in complex systems theory, is any state that is more easily or more often entered or acquired than departed or lost; attractor states therefore accumulate more members than non-attractors, other things being equal. In the context of language evolution, linguistic attractors include sounds, forms, and grammatical structures that are prone to be selected when sociolinguistics and language contact make it possible for speakers to choose between competing forms. The reasons why an element is an attractor are linguistic (auditory salience, ease of processing, paradigm structure, etc.), but the factors that make selection possible and propagate selected items through the speech community are non-linguistic. This paper uses the consonants in personal pronouns to show what makes for an attractor and how selection and diffusion work, then presents a survey of several language families and areas showing that the derivational morphology of pairs of verbs like fear and frighten , or Turkish korkmak 'fear, be afraid' and korkutmak 'frighten, scare', or Finnish istua 'sit' and istutta 'seat (someone)', or Spanish sentarse 'sit down' and sentar 'seat (someone)' is susceptible to selection. Specifically, the Turkish and Finnish pattern, where 'seat' is derived from 'sit' by addition of a suffix-is an attractor and a favored target of selection. This selection occurs chiefly in sociolinguistic contexts of what is defined here as linguistic symbiosis, where languages mingle in speech, which in turn is favored by certain demographic, sociocultural, and environmental factors here termed frontier conditions. Evidence is surveyed from northern Eurasia, the Caucasus, North and Central America, and the Pacific and from both modern and ancient languages to raise the hypothesis that frontier conditions and symbiosis favor causativization.

  4. Principles of minimal cognition : Casting cognition as sensorimotor coordination

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Duijn, Marc van; Keijzer, F.A.; Franken, Daan

    2006-01-01

    Within the cognitive sciences, cognition tends to be interpreted from an anthropocentric perspective, involving a stringent set of human capabilities. Instead, we suggest that cognition is better explicated as a much more general biological phenomenon, allowing the lower bound of cognition to extend

  5. Meaning Making Through Minimal Linguistic Forms in Computer-Mediated Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Shaban Rafi

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate the linguistic forms, which commonly constitute meanings in the digital environment. The data were sampled from 200 Bachelor of Science (BS students (who had Urdu as their primary language of communication and English as one of the academic languages or the most prestigious second language of five universities situated in Lahore, Pakistan. The procedure for analysis was conceived within much related theoretical work on text analysis. The study reveals that cyber-language is organized through patterns of use, which can be broadly classified into minimal linguistic forms constituting a meaning-making resource. In addition, the expression of syntactic mood, and discourse roles the participants technically assume tend to contribute to the theory of meaning in the digital environment. It is hoped that the study would make some contribution to the growing literature on multilingual computer-mediated communication (CMC.

  6. The Impact of Labov's Contribution to general Linguistic Theory

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gregersen, Frans; Cornips, Leonie

    2016-01-01

    The paper first discusses the influence of Labov on certain recent Chomskyan developments, starting from an identification of two radically different readings of the relationship between Labovian variationist sociolinguistics and the dominant theoretical paradigm of the latter half of the 20th ce...... argue that this calls for a broader definition of sociolinguistics than just variationism and poses demands for both internal integration, viz. of linguistic disciplines, and external integration of the language sciences with evolutionary psychology, anthropology and social history....

  7. SOME ASPECTS OF COGNITIVE- LINGUISTIC INTERPRETATION OF TURKIC LANGUAGE CONCEPT TÜRK DİLİ KAVRAMININ BİLİŞSEL-LENGÜİSTİK AÇIKLANMASI ÜZERİNE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kamal ABDULLA

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available In the given article cognitive-linguistic interpretation of Turkic language concept was done according to the Turkic world and culture context and to the Turkic language-conversation borrowings used in the Russian language. From this point of view according to the “TurkicSlavistic” notion, Turkic-Russian language relationships were looked through and some language-conversation borrowings from Turkic into Russian were analysed. According to the text and proverb examples from “Taury Kassandra” by Chingiz Aytmatov. Some textual-linguistic and parameological borrowings used in Russian are appreciated as conceptual-linguistic. Türk dili kavramının bilişsel-lengüistik açıklanması, Türk dünyası ve uygarlığı bağlamına ve Rusça’da kullanılan Türkçe dil-konuşma alıntılarına göre yapılmıştır. Bu bakımdan makalede “Türkslavistik” anlayışına göre Türkçe-Rusça ilişkileri bütün olarak ele alınmış ve Türkçeden Rusçaya geçen dil-konuşma alıntıları tahlil edilmiştir. Şöyle ki; C. Aytmatov’un “Tavrı Kassandra” eserinden alınan metin ve atasözü örneklerine göre Rusçada kullanılan metindilbilimsel ve atasözübilimsel nitelikteki bazı alıntılar kavramsal-lengüistik olarak değerlendirilmiştir.

  8. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 2001. Linguistics, Language, and the Real World: Discourse and Beyond.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tannen, Deborah, Ed.; Alatis, James E., Ed.

    This book contains papers from the 2001 Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, "Linguistics, Language, and the Real World: Discourse and Beyond." Papers include: "Introduction" (Deborah Tannen); "A Brief History of the Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics" (James E.…

  9. Exploration as a Mediator of the Relation between the Attainment of Motor Milestones and the Development of Spatial Cognition and Spatial Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oudgenoeg-Paz, Ora; Leseman, Paul P. M.; Volman, M. J. M.

    2015-01-01

    The embodied-cognition approach views cognition and language as grounded in daily sensorimotor child-environment interactions. Therefore, the attainment of motor milestones is expected to play a role in cognitive-linguistic development. Early attainment of unsupported sitting and independent walking indeed predict better spatial cognition and…

  10. Cognitive reasoning a formal approach

    CERN Document Server

    Anshakov, Oleg M

    2010-01-01

    Dealing with uncertainty, moving from ignorance to knowledge, is the focus of cognitive processes. Understanding these processes and modelling, designing, and building artificial cognitive systems have long been challenging research problems. This book describes the theory and methodology of a new, scientifically well-founded general approach, and its realization in the form of intelligent systems applicable in disciplines ranging from social sciences, such as cognitive science and sociology, through natural sciences, such as life sciences and chemistry, to applied sciences, such as medicine,

  11. Conversation Analysis and Applied Linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schegloff, Emanuel A.; Koshik, Irene; Jacoby, Sally; Olsher, David

    2002-01-01

    Offers biographical guidance on several major areas of conversation-analytic work--turn-taking, repair, and word selection--and indicates past or potential points of contact with applied linguistics. Also discusses areas of applied linguistic work. (Author/VWL)

  12. Assessing cognitive-linguistic abilities in South African adults living ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The overall scores revealed that 87.5% of the participants presented with some form of cognitive deficit, 81% exhibited deficits in memory and executive functioning, 75% showed deficits in attention and visual perception, and 50% exhibited language deficits. Thus, this instrument may be usefully employed with patients who ...

  13. Czy kompetencja językowa jest wiedzą? (Is linguistic competence knowledge?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jan Wawrzyniak

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available The subject of this article is the nature of linguistic competence. My consideration starts with the question whether a competence in our native language should be conceived as a kind of knowledge. The answer is positive, and the main reason is the fact that while describing linguistic competence we use the words “to know”, “knowledge”. Looking at the problem in this way leads to the next question: what is the nature of this kind of knowledge? More precisely, the problem which I consider concerns the nature of cognitive relation between a speaker and his or her mother tongue, or rather one of its aspects, namely the meaning. My discussion of this question begins with the criticism of the conception which treats the knowledge of our native tongue as the knowledge of a theory of meaning of this language. After that, I examine the possibility of using the distinction between know that and know how to investigate and solve that problem. I indicate that linguistic knowledge is neither classically or narrowly conceived knowledge that (a collection of true and justified beliefs, nor such a practical skill like the ability to swim. On the other hand, in the first place, a knowledge of a language satisfies grammatical criteria of knowledge that, however, a content of that knowledge is not beliefs, but rather rules – rules which are constitutive not regulative. From that I draw the conclusion that a linguistic competence cannot be explained from outside of any language. Secondly, one cannot deny that knowledge of a language is a practical ability, but it is a capacity of a very special kind. One of essential features of linguistic knowledge, which I emphasize, is its ostensive character. It is revealed, among other things, in the fact that learning our native language and the world constitute one process.It is worth stressing that the discussed question has a great significance to analytic philosophy. Many adherents of this trend claim that

  14. Consideration of the linguistic characteristics of letters makes the universal model of reading more universal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Kyungil; Lee, Chang H; Lee, Yoonhyoung

    2012-10-01

    We suggest that the linguistic characteristics of letters also need to be considered to fully understand how a reader processes printed words. For example, studies in Korean showed that unambiguity in the assignment of letters to their appropriate onset, vowel, or coda slot is one of the main sources of the letter-transposition effect. Indeed, the cognitive system that processes Korean is tuned to the structure of the Korean writing system.

  15. The personal is professional: Connecting white urban middle school science teachers' biographies to their teaching of all students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oey, Esther Ruth

    The purpose of this study was to examine if and in what ways white, urban middle school science teachers use experiences of being marginalized or feeling different to connect to students coming from backgrounds unlike their own---especially students who are racially, culturally, linguistically and otherwise different from them, the school culture and the dominant society. Personal biography was used to frame this study. Data consisted of structured and semi-structured interviews and classroom observations of one female and two male science teachers gathered over one academic year. Results indicated that experiences with difference may be used to inform teachers' practices, but personal biography alone was insufficient to enable the teachers to reflect on their experiences with race, class, gender, and difference. Also, attending to emotions appeared to be an important factor in helping students develop cognitive skills in science classrooms.

  16. Development of The Students' Learning Process and Meta cognitive Strategies in Science on Nuclear Energy through Science, Technology and Society (STS) approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Siriuthen, Warawun; Yuenyong, Chokchai

    2009-07-01

    Full text: This research aimed to develop 48 Grade 10 students' learning process and meta cognitive strategies in the 'Nuclear Energy' topic through the Science, Technology and Society (STS) approach, which consists of five teaching stages: identification of social issues; identification of potential solutions; need for knowledge; decision-making; and socialization. The data were analyzed through rubric score of learning process and meta cognitive strategies, which consists of five strategies: recalling, planning, monitoring and maintaining, evaluating, and relating. The findings revealed that most students used learning process in a high level. However, they performed a very low level in almost all of the meta cognitive strategies. The factors potentially impeded their development of awareness about learning process and meta cognitive strategies were characteristics of content and students, learning processes, and student habit

  17. Creativity, Problem Solving and Innovative Science: Insights from History, Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aldous, Carol R.

    2007-01-01

    This paper examines the intersection between creativity, problem solving, cognitive psychology and neuroscience in a discussion surrounding the genesis of new ideas and innovative science. Three creative activities are considered. These are (a) the interaction between visual-spatial and analytical or verbal reasoning, (b) attending to feeling in…

  18. Predicting panel scores by linguistic analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Van den Besselaar, P.; Stout, L.; Gou, X

    2016-07-01

    In this paper we explore the use of text analysis for deriving quality indicators of project proposals. We do full text analysis of 3030 review reports. After term extraction, we aggregate the term occurrences to linguistic categories. Using thse linguistic categories as independent variables, we study how well these predict the grading by the review panels. Together, the different linguistic categories explain about 50% of the variance in the grading of the applications. The relative importance of the different linguistic categories inform us about the way the panels work. This can be used to develop altmetrics for the quality of the peer and panel review processes. (Author)

  19. English linguistic purism: history, development, criticism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Grishechko Ovsanna Savvichna

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Linguistic purism as an area of linguistic analysis describes the practices of identification and acknowledgement of a certain language variety as more structurally advanced as compared to its other varieties. Linguistic protection is associated with preservation of some abstract, classical, conservative linguistic ideal and performs the regulatory function, above all. The puristic approach to the development of the English language has been subjected to heated debate for several centuries and is reflected in both scientific research and literary texts. Supporters of purification of the English language champion the idea of protection of “pure language”. The idea, however, is actively criticized by opponents.

  20. "This war for men's minds": the birth of a human science in Cold War America.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin-Nielsen, Janet

    2010-01-01

    The past decade has seen an explosion of work on the history of the human sciences during the Cold War. This work, however, does not engage with one of the leading human sciences of the period: linguistics. This article begins to rectify this knowledge gap by investigating the influence of linguistics and its concept of study, language, on American public, political and intellectual life during the postwar and early Cold War years. I show that language emerged in three frameworks in this period: language as tool, language as weapon, and language as knowledge. As America stepped onto the international stage, language and linguistics were at the forefront: the military poured millions of dollars into machine translation, American diplomats were required to master scores of foreign languages, and schoolchildren were exposed to language-learning on a scale never before seen in the United States. Together, I argue, language and linguistics formed a critical part of the rise of American leadership in the new world order - one that provided communities as dispersed as the military, the diplomatic corps, scientists and language teachers with a powerful way of tackling the problems they faced. To date, linguistics has not been integrated into the broader framework of Cold War human sciences. In this article, I aim to bring both language, as concept, and linguistics, as discipline, into this framework. In doing so, I pave the way for future work on the history of linguistics as a human science.

  1. Writing, Literacy, and Applied Linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leki, Ilona

    2000-01-01

    Discusses writing and literacy in the domain of applied linguistics. Focus is on needs analysis for literacy acquisition; second language learner identity; longitudinal studies as extensions of identity work; and applied linguistics contributions to second language literacy research. (Author/VWL)

  2. Why Should We Study Experience More Systematically: Neurophenomenology and Modern Cognitive Science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Toma Strle

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available In the article I will defend the view that cognitive science needs to use first- and second-person methods more systematically, as part of everyday research practice, if it wants to understand the human mind in its full scope. Neurophenomenological programme proposed by Varela as a remedy for the hard problem of consciousness (i.e. the problem of experience does not solve it on the ontological level. Nevertheless, it represents a good starting point of how to tackle the phenomenon of experience in a more systematic, methodologically sound way. On the other hand, Varela’s criterion of phenomenological reduction as a necessary condition for systematic investigation of experience is too strong. Regardless of that and some other problems that research of experience faces (e.g. the problem of training, the question of what kind of participants we want to study, it is becoming clear that investigating experience seriously – from first- and second-person perspective – is a necessary step cognitive science must take. This holds especially when researching phenomena that involve consciousness and/or where differentiation between conscious and unconscious processing is crucial. Furthermore, gathering experiential data is essential for interpreting experimental results gained purely by quantitative methods – especially when we are implicitly or explicitly referring to experience in our conclusions and interpretations. To support these claims some examples from the broader area of decision making will be given (the effect of deliberation-without-attention, cognitive reflection test.

  3. MUSIC, MODULARITY AND SYNTAX

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Javier Valenzuela

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available First generation cognitive science has always maintained that the mind/brain is a modular system. This has been especially apparent in linguistics, where the modularity thesis goes largely unquestioned by the linguistic mainstream. Cognitive linguists have long disputed the reality of modular architectures of grammar. Instead of conceiving syntax as a computational system of a relatively small set of formal principles and parameters, cognitive linguists take the notion of grammatical construction to be the basic unit of syntax: syntax is simply our repertoire of form-meaning pairings. On such a view, there is no a-priori reason to believe that semantics and phonology cannot affect syntax. In the present paper, we want to take things a step further and suggest, more generally, that language is not a module of cognition in any strict sense. We present preliminary results from research in progress concerning the effect of music on grammatical constructions. More specifically, our experiment compares reaction times between two grammatical constructions that differ in semantics and intonational curves but share lexical material. Our data so far suggests that subjects take less time reading the construction when the semantic bias and intonation match than in non-matching cases. This, we argue, suggests not only that semantics, phonology and syntax form an information bundle (i.e. a construction in the cognitive linguistic sense, but that perceived similarity of music can influence linguistic cognition.

  4. The new science of moral cognition: the state of the art

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio Olivera La Rosa

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The need for multidisciplinary approaches to the scientific study of human nature is a widely supported academic claim. This assumption has proved to be especially successful in the field of moral psychology. Although studies of moral topics have been ubiquitous in both humanities and social sciences, it is not until the integration of different scientific disciplines in the convergent science of moral psychology that the study of morality seems to start its flourishing age. Thus, in the last ten years, a growing body of research from cognitive sciences, experimental philosophy, primatology, clinical and developmental psychology, economy and anthropology have made possible a "new era" on the study of morality. In this paper, we review the most striking findings that constitute the "state of the art' of moral psychology, with the aim to facilitate a better understanding of how the mind functions in the moral domain.

  5. The idea of Santa Claus in terms of Cognitive Sciences. Cultural persistence and interference with the Christian Religion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    PhD. Paul SCARLAT

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The idea of Santa Claus is a universal one, which has been carried on for generations despite many obstacles. Although related to fantasy and imagination, he belongs to all cultures and for children he maintains a real presence. Cognitive Science examines the idea of this mysterious individual and brings clarification to his existence in society. Because this “superhero” plays a part in society, he needs a mental structure that can be imagined, a particular and specific cognitive structure. The study identifies the cognitive mechanisms by which the idea of Santa Claus is generated. The history of Santa has interfered with religion since ancient times. He is sometimes confused with religious figures. Cognitive Sciences as applied to religion seem to confirm the universality of religious beliefs and a certain similarity between the idea of Santa Claus and that of holy persons, such as St. Nicholas. However, there are opinions within this field of research that differentiate between the two areas: fantastic and religious.

  6. Non-linguistic Conditions for Causativization as a Linguistic Attractor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Johanna Nichols

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available An attractor, in complex systems theory, is any state that is more easily or more often entered or acquired than departed or lost; attractor states therefore accumulate more members than non-attractors, other things being equal. In the context of language evolution, linguistic attractors include sounds, forms, and grammatical structures that are prone to be selected when sociolinguistics and language contact make it possible for speakers to choose between competing forms. The reasons why an element is an attractor are linguistic (auditory salience, ease of processing, paradigm structure, etc., but the factors that make selection possible and propagate selected items through the speech community are non-linguistic. This paper uses the consonants in personal pronouns to show what makes for an attractor and how selection and diffusion work, then presents a survey of several language families and areas showing that the derivational morphology of pairs of verbs like fear and frighten, or Turkish korkmak ‘fear, be afraid’ and korkutmak ‘frighten, scare’, or Finnish istua ‘sit’ and istutta ‘seat (someone’, or Spanish sentarse ‘sit down’ and sentar ‘seat (someone’ is susceptible to selection. Specifically, the Turkish and Finnish pattern, where ‘seat’ is derived from ‘sit’ by addition of a suffix—is an attractor and a favored target of selection. This selection occurs chiefly in sociolinguistic contexts of what is defined here as linguistic symbiosis, where languages mingle in speech, which in turn is favored by certain demographic, sociocultural, and environmental factors here termed frontier conditions. Evidence is surveyed from northern Eurasia, the Caucasus, North and Central America, and the Pacific and from both modern and ancient languages to raise the hypothesis that frontier conditions and symbiosis favor causativization.

  7. Cognitive neuroscience in forensic science: understanding and utilizing the human element.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dror, Itiel E

    2015-08-05

    The human element plays a critical role in forensic science. It is not limited only to issues relating to forensic decision-making, such as bias, but also relates to most aspects of forensic work (some of which even take place before a crime is ever committed or long after the verification of the forensic conclusion). In this paper, I explicate many aspects of forensic work that involve the human element and therefore show the relevance (and potential contribution) of cognitive neuroscience to forensic science. The 10 aspects covered in this paper are proactive forensic science, selection during recruitment, training, crime scene investigation, forensic decision-making, verification and conflict resolution, reporting, the role of the forensic examiner, presentation in court and judicial decisions. As the forensic community is taking on the challenges introduced by the realization that the human element is critical for forensic work, new opportunities emerge that allow for considerable improvement and enhancement of the forensic science endeavour. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  8. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics: Contact

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Mailing Address. Editors SPiL. Department of General Linguistics University of Stellenbosch Private Bag X1 Matieland, 7602. Stellenbosch South Africa. Principal Contact. Dr Kate Huddlestone Journal Manager Department of General Linguistics. University of Stellenbosch. Private Bag X1. Matieland, 7602. Stellenbosch.

  9. Evaluating automatically annotated treebanks for linguistic research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bloem, J.; Bański, P.; Kupietz, M.; Lüngen, H.; Witt, A.; Barbaresi, A.; Biber, H.; Breiteneder, E.; Clematide, S.

    2016-01-01

    This study discusses evaluation methods for linguists to use when employing an automatically annotated treebank as a source of linguistic evidence. While treebanks are usually evaluated with a general measure over all the data, linguistic studies often focus on a particular construction or a group

  10. Determining Science Student Teachers' Cognitive Structure on the Concept of "Food Chain"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Çinar, Derya

    2015-01-01

    The current study aims to determine science student teachers' cognitive structure on the concept of food chain. Qualitative research method was applied in this study. Fallacies detected in the pre-service teachers' conceptual structures are believed to result in students' developing misconceptions in their future classes and will adversely affect…

  11. An Interdisciplinary Team Project: Psychology and Computer Science Students Create Online Cognitive Tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flannery, Kathleen A.; Malita, Mihaela

    2014-01-01

    We present our case study of an interdisciplinary team project for students taking either a psychology or computer science (CS) course. The project required psychology and CS students to combine their knowledge and skills to create an online cognitive task. Each interdisciplinary project team included two psychology students who conducted library…

  12. Genetic and linguistic coevolution in Northern Island Melanesia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunley, Keith; Dunn, Michael; Lindström, Eva; Reesink, Ger; Terrill, Angela; Healy, Meghan E; Koki, George; Friedlaender, Françoise R; Friedlaender, Jonathan S

    2008-10-01

    Recent studies have detailed a remarkable degree of genetic and linguistic diversity in Northern Island Melanesia. Here we utilize that diversity to examine two models of genetic and linguistic coevolution. The first model predicts that genetic and linguistic correspondences formed following population splits and isolation at the time of early range expansions into the region. The second is analogous to the genetic model of isolation by distance, and it predicts that genetic and linguistic correspondences formed through continuing genetic and linguistic exchange between neighboring populations. We tested the predictions of the two models by comparing observed and simulated patterns of genetic variation, genetic and linguistic trees, and matrices of genetic, linguistic, and geographic distances. The data consist of 751 autosomal microsatellites and 108 structural linguistic features collected from 33 Northern Island Melanesian populations. The results of the tests indicate that linguistic and genetic exchange have erased any evidence of a splitting and isolation process that might have occurred early in the settlement history of the region. The correlation patterns are also inconsistent with the predictions of the isolation by distance coevolutionary process in the larger Northern Island Melanesian region, but there is strong evidence for the process in the rugged interior of the largest island in the region (New Britain). There we found some of the strongest recorded correlations between genetic, linguistic, and geographic distances. We also found that, throughout the region, linguistic features have generally been less likely to diffuse across population boundaries than genes. The results from our study, based on exceptionally fine-grained data, show that local genetic and linguistic exchange are likely to obscure evidence of the early history of a region, and that language barriers do not particularly hinder genetic exchange. In contrast, global patterns may

  13. Genetic and linguistic coevolution in Northern Island Melanesia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Keith Hunley

    2008-10-01

    Full Text Available Recent studies have detailed a remarkable degree of genetic and linguistic diversity in Northern Island Melanesia. Here we utilize that diversity to examine two models of genetic and linguistic coevolution. The first model predicts that genetic and linguistic correspondences formed following population splits and isolation at the time of early range expansions into the region. The second is analogous to the genetic model of isolation by distance, and it predicts that genetic and linguistic correspondences formed through continuing genetic and linguistic exchange between neighboring populations. We tested the predictions of the two models by comparing observed and simulated patterns of genetic variation, genetic and linguistic trees, and matrices of genetic, linguistic, and geographic distances. The data consist of 751 autosomal microsatellites and 108 structural linguistic features collected from 33 Northern Island Melanesian populations. The results of the tests indicate that linguistic and genetic exchange have erased any evidence of a splitting and isolation process that might have occurred early in the settlement history of the region. The correlation patterns are also inconsistent with the predictions of the isolation by distance coevolutionary process in the larger Northern Island Melanesian region, but there is strong evidence for the process in the rugged interior of the largest island in the region (New Britain. There we found some of the strongest recorded correlations between genetic, linguistic, and geographic distances. We also found that, throughout the region, linguistic features have generally been less likely to diffuse across population boundaries than genes. The results from our study, based on exceptionally fine-grained data, show that local genetic and linguistic exchange are likely to obscure evidence of the early history of a region, and that language barriers do not particularly hinder genetic exchange. In contrast

  14. DEVELOPING LINGUISTIC SKILLS AND ABILITIES IN EMP STUDENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nataša Milosavljević

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available English for medical purposes falls within the category of discipline-specific language learning. It is characterized by specific linguistic features and requires specific study that is possible to carry out using specially designed programmes. Reading skill is one way of learning strategy of English for medical purposes. Most often, students use this skill in order to obtain information for some particular topic from the area of medical science, or because they need some sort of instruction in order to carry out certain task. Vocabulary acquisition plays a very important role in EMP teaching. It is achieved best through learning vocabulary in context, rather than in isolation. One of the most important questions in EMP teaching is related to what grammatical constructions should be analysed and emphasised. Some types of these activities would include, for example, asking students to find examples of one particular structure in the text or fill in the blanks with the missing forms such as tenses, passive forms, prepositions, etc. Speaking skill represents productive skill the aim of which is communication. In order for foreign language communication to be suucessful, a student should know linguistic and cultural features of native speakers and follow certain rules and conventions that are not easy to define. It is of crucial importance that during teaching process students develop strategies and techniques that will help them use linguistic structures fluently, apply language in different situations, take part in discussions, and use acquired vocabulary in accurate and precise way.

  15. Talking while walking: Cognitive loading and injurious falls in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    LaPointe, Leonard L; Stierwalt, Julie A G; Maitland, Charles G

    2010-10-01

    Multitasking has become a way of life, from operating multiple software packages simultaneously on a computer, to carrying on a conversation on a cell phone while driving. Perhaps one of the most common dual tasks performed is talking while walking. In isolation, neither task would be considered difficult to perform, yet when coupled, the relative ease of each task may change. This paper details significant problems that result from injurious falls, and points out the vulnerability of those who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In addition, it provides an illustrative study that demonstrates the potential danger of talking while walking, especially when the cognitive-linguistic complexity of verbal tasks is manipulated. In this investigation, 25 participants with Parkinson's disease and 13 participants without neurological compromise completed gait tasks while conducting tasks of low (counting by ones), middle (serial subtraction of threes), and high load (alpha-numeric sequencing). The results indicated that cognitive-linguistic demand had an impact on gait, the effects of which were demonstrated in individuals without neurological compromise as well as those with Parkinson's disease. One finding, altered double-support time, distinguished the Parkinson group from the control participants. These results suggest that it might be prudent for healthcare professionals and caregivers to alter expectations and monitor the cognitive-linguistic demands placed on elderly individuals, particularly those with neurological compromise who might be at greater risk for injurious falls.

  16. Literacy in Somali: Linguistic Consequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biber, Douglas; Hared, Mohamed

    1991-01-01

    Linguistic consequences of literacy in Somalia are examined in a review of the literature and through a study of five dimensions of variation among Somali registers and the expansion of linguistic variation in Somali resulting from the introduction of written registers. (36 references) (LB)

  17. A call to arms: Time to do cognitive science in Latin America

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Previous theoretical reviews about the development of Psychology in Latin America suggest that Latin American psychology has a promising future. This paper empirically checks whether that status remains justified. In so doing, the frequency of programs/research domains in three salient psychological areas is assessed in Latin America and in two other regions of the world. A chi-square statistic is used to analyse the collected data. Programs/research domains and regions of the world are the independent variables and frequency of programs/research domains per world region is the dependent variable. Results suggest that whereas in Latin America the work onSocial/Organizational Psychology is moving within expected parameters, there is a rather strong focus on Clinical/Psychoanalytical Psychology. Results also show that Experimental/Cognitive Psychology is much underestimated. In Asia, however, the focus on all areas of psychology seems to be distributed within expected parameters, whereas Europe outperforms regarding Experimental/Cognitive Psychology research. Potentialreasons that contribute to Latin America's situation are discussed and specific solutions are proposed. It is concluded that the scope of Experimental/Cognitive Psychology in Latin America should be broadened into a Cognitive Science research program.

  18. Functional categories in comparative linguistics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rijkhoff, Jan

    , Roger M. 1979. Linguistic knowledge and cultural knowledge: some doubts and speculation. American Anthropologist 81-1, 14-36. Levinson, Stephen C. 1997. From outer to inner space: linguistic categories and non-linguistic thinking. In J. Nuyts and E. Pederson (eds.), Language and Conceptualization, 13......). Furthermore certain ‘ontological categories’ are language-specific (Malt 1995). For example, speakers of Kalam (New Guinea) do not classify the cassowary as a bird, because they believe it has a mythical kinship relation with humans (Bulmer 1967).       In this talk I will discuss the role of functional...

  19. Language in complexity the emerging meaning

    CERN Document Server

    Licata, Ignazio; Perconti, Pietro

    2017-01-01

    This contributed volume explores the achievements gained and the remaining puzzling questions by applying dynamical systems theory to the linguistic inquiry. In particular, the book is divided into three parts, each one addressing one of the following topics: 1) Facing complexity in the right way: mathematics and complexity 2) Complexity and theory of language 3) From empirical observation to formal models: investigation of specific linguistic phenomena, like enunciation, deixis, or the meaning of the metaphorical phrases The application of complexity theory to describe cognitive phenomena is a recent and very promising trend in cognitive science. At the time when dynamical approaches triggered a paradigm shift in cognitive science some decade ago, the major topic of research were the challenges imposed by classical computational approaches dealing with the explanation of cognitive phenomena like consciousness, decision making and language. The target audience primarily comprises researchers and experts in th...

  20. Types of Lexicographical Information Needs and their Relevance for Information Science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bergenholtz, Henning

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available In some situations, you need information in order to solve a problem that has occurred. In information science, user needs are often described through very specific examples rather than through a classification of situation types in which information needs occur. Furthermore, information science often describes general human needs, typically with a reference to Maslow's classification of needs (1954, instead of actual information needs. Lexicography has also focused on information needs, but has developed a more abstract classification of types of information needs, though (until more recent research into lexicographical functions with a particular interest in linguistic uncertainties and the lack of knowledge and skills in relation to one or several languages. In this article, we suggest a classification of information needs in which a tripartition has been made according to the different types of situations: communicative needs, cognitive needs, and operative needs. This is a classification that is relevant and useful in general in our modern information society and therefore also relevant for information science, including lexicography.

  1. Spanish translation and linguistic validation of the quality of life in neurological disorders (Neuro-QoL) measurement system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Correia, H; Pérez, B; Arnold, B; Wong, Alex W K; Lai, J S; Kallen, M; Cella, D

    2015-03-01

    The quality of life in neurological disorders (Neuro-QoL) measurement system is a 470-item compilation of health-related quality of life domains for adults and children with neurological disorders. It was developed and cognitively debriefed in English and Spanish, with general population and clinical samples in the USA. This paper describes the Spanish translation and linguistic validation process. The translation methodology combined forward and back-translations, multiple reviews, and cognitive debriefing with 30 adult and 30 pediatric Spanish-speaking respondents in the USA. The adult Fatigue bank was later also tested in Spain and Argentina. A universal approach to translation was adopted to produce a Spanish version that can be used in various countries. Translators from several countries were involved in the process. Cognitive debriefing results indicated that most of the 470 Spanish items were well understood. Translations were revised as needed where difficulty was reported or where participants' comments revealed misunderstanding of an item's intended meaning. Additional testing of the universal Spanish adult Fatigue item bank in Spain and Argentina confirmed good understanding of the items and that no country-specific word changes were necessary. All the adult and pediatric Neuro-QoL measures have been linguistically validated with Spanish speakers in the USA. Instruments are available for use at www.assessmentcenter.net.

  2. Machine Learning and Applied Linguistics

    OpenAIRE

    Vajjala, Sowmya

    2018-01-01

    This entry introduces the topic of machine learning and provides an overview of its relevance for applied linguistics and language learning. The discussion will focus on giving an introduction to the methods and applications of machine learning in applied linguistics, and will provide references for further study.

  3. Ontological problems of contemporary linguistics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    А В Бондаренко

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available The article studies linguistic ontology problems such as evolution of essential-existential views of language, interrelation within Being-Language-Man triad, linguistics gnosiological principles, language essence localization, and «expression» as language metalinguistic unit as well as architectonics of language personality et alia.

  4. Concise Lexicon for Sign Linguistics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    dr. Jan Nijen Twilhaar; Dr. Beppie van den Bogaerde

    2016-01-01

    This extensive, well-researched and clearly formatted lexicon of a wide variety of linguistic terms is a long overdue. It is an extremely welcome addition to the bookshelves of sign language teachers, interpreters, linguists, learners and other sign language users, and of course of the Deaf

  5. Heritage language and linguistic theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scontras, Gregory; Fuchs, Zuzanna; Polinsky, Maria

    2015-01-01

    This paper discusses a common reality in many cases of multilingualism: heritage speakers, or unbalanced bilinguals, simultaneous or sequential, who shifted early in childhood from one language (their heritage language) to their dominant language (the language of their speech community). To demonstrate the relevance of heritage linguistics to the study of linguistic competence more broadly defined, we present a series of case studies on heritage linguistics, documenting some of the deficits and abilities typical of heritage speakers, together with the broader theoretical questions they inform. We consider the reorganization of morphosyntactic feature systems, the reanalysis of atypical argument structure, the attrition of the syntax of relativization, and the simplification of scope interpretations; these phenomena implicate diverging trajectories and outcomes in the development of heritage speakers. The case studies also have practical and methodological implications for the study of multilingualism. We conclude by discussing more general concepts central to linguistic inquiry, in particular, complexity and native speaker competence. PMID:26500595

  6. Increasing women's aspirations and achievement in science: The effect of role models on implicit cognitions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phelan, Julie E.

    This research investigated the role of implicit science beliefs in the gender gap in science aspirations and achievement, with the goal of testing identification with a female role model as a potential intervention strategy for increasing women's representation in science careers. At Time 1, women's implicit science stereotyping (i.e., associating men more than women with science) was linked to more negative (implicit and explicit) attitudes towards science and less identification with science. For men, stereotypes were either non-significantly or positively related to science attitudes and identification. Time 2 examined the influence of implicit and explicit science cognitions on students' science aspirations and achievement, and found that implicit stereotyping, attitudes, and identification were all unique predictors of science aspirations, but not achievement. Of more importance, Time 2 examined the influence of science role models, and found that identification with a role model of either gender reduced women's implicit science stereotyping and increased their positive attitudes toward science. Implications for decreasing the gender gap in advanced science achievement are discussed.

  7. Right Lateral Cerebellum Represents Linguistic Predictability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lesage, Elise; Hansen, Peter C; Miall, R Chris

    2017-06-28

    Mounting evidence indicates that posterolateral portions of the cerebellum (right Crus I/II) contribute to language processing, but the nature of this role remains unclear. Based on a well-supported theory of cerebellar motor function, which ascribes to the cerebellum a role in short-term prediction through internal modeling, we hypothesize that right cerebellar Crus I/II supports prediction of upcoming sentence content. We tested this hypothesis using event-related fMRI in male and female human subjects by manipulating the predictability of written sentences. Our design controlled for motor planning and execution, as well as for linguistic features and working memory load; it also allowed separation of the prediction interval from the presentation of the final sentence item. In addition, three further fMRI tasks captured semantic, phonological, and orthographic processing to shed light on the nature of the information processed. As hypothesized, activity in right posterolateral cerebellum correlated with the predictability of the upcoming target word. This cerebellar region also responded to prediction error during the outcome of the trial. Further, this region was engaged in phonological, but not semantic or orthographic, processing. This is the first imaging study to demonstrate a right cerebellar contribution in language comprehension independently from motor, cognitive, and linguistic confounds. These results complement our work using other methodologies showing cerebellar engagement in linguistic prediction and suggest that internal modeling of phonological representations aids language production and comprehension. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The cerebellum is traditionally seen as a motor structure that allows for smooth movement by predicting upcoming signals. However, the cerebellum is also consistently implicated in nonmotor functions such as language and working memory. Using fMRI, we identify a cerebellar area that is active when words are predicted and

  8. The Extension of Quality Function Deployment Based on 2-Tuple Linguistic Representation Model for Product Design under Multigranularity Linguistic Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ming Li

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Quality function deployment (QFD is a customer-driven approach for product design and development. A QFD analysis process includes a series of subprocesses, such as determination of the importance of customer requirements (CRs, the correlation among engineering characteristics (ECs, and the relationship between CRs and ECs. Usually more than group of one decision makers are involved in the subprocesses to make the decision. In most decision making problems, they often provide their evaluation information in the linguistic form. Moreover, because of different knowledge, background, and discrimination ability, decision makers may express their linguistic preferences in multigranularity linguistic information. Therefore, an effective approach to deal with the multi-granularity linguistic information in QFD analysis process is highly needed. In this study, the QFD methodology is extended with 2-tuple linguistic representation model under multi-granularity linguistic environment. The extended QFD methodology can cope with multi-granularity linguistic evaluation information and avoid the loss of information. The applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated with a numerical example.

  9. New Conceptualizations of Linguistic Giftedness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biedron, Adriana; Pawlak, Miroslaw

    2016-01-01

    This state-of-the art paper focuses on the issue of linguistic giftedness, somewhat neglected in the second language acquisition (SLA) literature, attempting to reconceptualize, expand and update this concept in response to latest developments in the fields of psychology, linguistics and neurology. It first discusses contemporary perspectives on…

  10. Critical and Alternative Directions in Applied Linguistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pennycook, Alastair

    2010-01-01

    Critical directions in applied linguistics can be understood in various ways. The term "critical" as it has been used in "critical applied linguistics," "critical discourse analysis," "critical literacy" and so forth, is now embedded as part of applied linguistic work, adding an overt focus on questions of power and inequality to discourse…

  11. Embodied cognition and science criticism

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schilhab, Theresa

    2017-01-01

    provided by Nietzsche seem relevant to contemporary biologically inspired approaches to cognition found within biosemiotics, as well as the embodied cognition paradigm. Here, I discuss how Nietzsche’s biological conception of our relation to what is, incessantly emphasises a critical approach to our...

  12. Science and thinking: The write connection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, Gene

    1991-09-01

    The effective use of writing in science instruction may open the way for students to grow in their ability to exercise higher order thinking skills (Bland & Koppel, 1988). Scinto (1986) makes a compelling case for writing as a means of stimulating thinking when he states: The production of written text demands more elaborate strategies of preplanning. Written language demands the conscious organization of ensembles of propositions to achieve its end. The need to manipulate linguistic means in such a conscious and deliberate fashion entails a level of linguistic self-reflection not called forth in oral discourse (p. 101). Science educators may find that the writing process is one technique to help them move away from the teacher-centered, textbook-driven science classroom of today, and move toward the realization of science education which will ensure that students are able to function as scientifically literate citizens in our contemporary society.

  13. Connecting cognition and consumer choice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartels, Daniel M; Johnson, Eric J

    2015-02-01

    We describe what can be gained from connecting cognition and consumer choice by discussing two contexts ripe for interaction between the two fields. The first-context effects on choice-has already been addressed by cognitive science yielding insights about cognitive process but there is promise for more interaction. The second is learning and representation in choice where relevant theories in cognitive science could be informed by consumer choice, and in return, could pose and answer new questions. We conclude by discussing how these two fields of research stand to benefit from more interaction, citing examples of how interfaces of cognitive science with other fields have been illuminating for theories of cognition. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Language and Science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atkinson, Dwight

    1999-01-01

    Reviews recent applied linguistic research on science and language, especially studies conducted during the period between 1990 and 1998. Outlines major changes that have taken place in this area since van Naerssen and Kaplan's 1987 review. (Author/VWL)

  15. On Redundancy in Describing Linguistic Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vladimir Borissov Pericliev

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available On Redundancy in Describing Linguistic Systems The notion of system of linguistic elements figures prominently in most post-Saussurian linguistics up to the present. A “system” is the network of the contrastive (or, distinctive features each element in the system bears to the remaining elements. The meaning (valeur of each element in the system is the set of features that are necessary and jointly sufficient to distinguish this element from all others. The paper addresses the problems of “redundancy”, i.e. the occurrence of features that are not strictly necessary in describing an element in a system. Redundancy is shown to smuggle into the description of linguistic systems, this infelicitous practice illustrated with some examples from the literature (e.g. the classical phonemic analysis of Russian by Cherry, Halle, and Jakobson, 1953. The logic and psychology of the occurrence of redundancy are briefly sketched and it is shown that, in addition to some other problems, redundancy leads to a huge and unresolvable ambiguity of descriptions of linguistic systems (the Buridan’s ass problem.

  16. Linguistic Theory and Actual Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Segerdahl, Par

    1995-01-01

    Examines Noam Chomsky's (1957) discussion of "grammaticalness" and the role of linguistics in the "correct" way of speaking and writing. It is argued that the concern of linguistics with the tools of grammar has resulted in confusion, with the tools becoming mixed up with the actual language, thereby becoming the central…

  17. The Perilous Life of a Linguistic Genre Convention

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Borchmann, Simon

    2014-01-01

    , the descriptions are more informative than the structures hitherto described by text linguistics. Secondly, as historical norms, they are a testimony to the development and change of language use. Thirdly, the descriptions contribute to language users’ awareness of the origin of standards, their understanding......The primary, theoretical aim of the article is to present a linguistic text analysis that differs from standard text linguistic approaches by being informative with regard to the linguistic choices and textual organisation that characterise a text as a social act. The analysis is exemplified...... by using texts of a relatively new Danish journalistic genre nyhedsanalyse (news analysis). The secondary, empirical aim of the article is to present a corpus-based, linguistic analysis of central elements of the genre nyhedsanalyse within the Danish system of newspaper genres. Text linguistics is based...

  18. Language Works. Linguistic Journal

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hartling, Anna Sofie; Nørreby, Thomas Rørbeck; Skovse, Astrid Ravn

    2016-01-01

    Language works! – and with this initiative and this journal we want to give the opportunity to many more students to present their linguistic research to each other, to the scientific community and to all interested.......Language works! – and with this initiative and this journal we want to give the opportunity to many more students to present their linguistic research to each other, to the scientific community and to all interested....

  19. Determining the Association between Language and Cognitive Tests in Poststroke Aphasia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kylie J. Wall

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available BackgroundIndividuals with aphasia are often excluded from studies exploring poststroke cognition because so many of the standard cognitive assessments rely on language ability. Our primary objective was to examine the association between performance on cognitive tests and performance on comprehension and naming tests in poststroke aphasia. Second, we aimed to determine the association between language performance and a real-life measure of cognition (Kettle Test. Third, we explored the feasibility of administering cognitive tests in aphasia.MethodsThirty-six participants with poststroke aphasia and 32 controls were assessed on a battery of pen-and-paper cognitive tests recommended in stroke. Auditory comprehension was measured using the Comprehensive Aphasia Test and naming was measured using the Boston Naming Test. Twenty-two community dwelling participants with aphasia and controls were also asked to complete the Kettle Test. Multiple linear regressions were used to explore the relationship between language performance and performance on the cognitive tests. Feasibility was determined by quantifying missing data.ResultsThe cognitive tests with the highest variance accounted for by auditory comprehension and naming were animal fluency (R2 = 0.67, R2 = 0.78 and the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (recognition discrimination index (R2 = 0.65, R2 = 0.78. All cognitive tests were significantly associated with auditory comprehension and naming, except for the Star Cancellation Test and the Kettle Test. Thirty-three percent of participants with aphasia were unable to complete all the cognitive tests.ConclusionLanguage and non-linguistic cognitive processes are often interrelated. Most pen-and-paper cognitive tests were significantly associated with both auditory comprehension and naming, even in tests that do not require a verbal response. Language performance was not significantly associated with a real-life cognitive performance measure. Task

  20. Interpretation, Cognition: From Multivector Translation Theory To Efficient Practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksandra Nikolaevna Usacheva

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper discusses Translation Studies state-of-the-art which can be described as the existence of both traditional linguistic theories and many other concepts and models of translation offered by scientists from different countries in recent decades. The authors of this paper focus on the three concepts significant for the modern Translation Studies – the Skopos Theory, the Interpretative Theory and the Cognitive Theory. The paper compares several current points of view presented by Translation Studies researchers from Russia and abroad. The differences in these views are determined by some social and cultural peculiarities of different native speakers as well as by cultural specificity of linguistic signs' semantics, hence the problem of linguistic world-image compatibility. We describe the analysis results of some conceptual components of communicative and functional approach, as well as fundamental provisions of cognitive and pragmatic approaches to the translation process interpretation. Basing on their professional activity, the authors offer proven assessment of possible usage of the theories under consideration in training will-be translators and interpreters to ensure their future practice efficiency. The article describes didactic tools summarizing the best practice of Russian and Western Translation Studies schools. It gives clear examples illustrating the possibility of using the results of high-quality multi-vector and multicultural theoretical research results in specialized university training courses.