Clinical Issues-May 2016.

PubMed

Van Wicklin, Sharon A

2016-05-01

Variations in documenting surgical wound classification Key words: surgical wound classification, clean, clean-contaminated, contaminated, dirty. Wearing long-sleeved jackets while preparing and packaging items for sterilization Key words: long-sleeved jackets, organic material, sterile processing. Endoscopic transmission of prions Key words: prions, high-risk tissue, low-risk tissue, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Wearing gloves when handling flexible endoscopes Key words: gloves, low-protein, powder-free, natural rubber latex gloves, latex-free gloves. Copyright © 2016 AORN, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Word Recall: Cognitive Performance Within Internet Surveys

PubMed Central

Craig, Benjamin M; Jim, Heather S

2015-01-01

Background The use of online surveys for data collection has increased exponentially, yet it is often unclear whether interview-based cognitive assessments (such as face-to-face or telephonic word recall tasks) can be adapted for use in application-based research settings. Objective The objective of the current study was to compare and characterize the results of online word recall tasks to those of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and determine the feasibility and reliability of incorporating word recall tasks into application-based cognitive assessments. Methods The results of the online immediate and delayed word recall assessment, included within the Women’s Health and Valuation (WHV) study, were compared to the results of the immediate and delayed recall tasks of Waves 5-11 (2000-2012) of the HRS. Results Performance on the WHV immediate and delayed tasks demonstrated strong concordance with performance on the HRS tasks (ρc=.79, 95% CI 0.67-0.91), despite significant differences between study populations (P<.001) and study design. Sociodemographic characteristics and self-reported memory demonstrated similar relationships with performance on both the HRS and WHV tasks. Conclusions The key finding of this study is that the HRS word recall tasks performed similarly when used as an online cognitive assessment in the WHV. Online administration of cognitive tests, which has the potential to significantly reduce participant and administrative burden, should be considered in future research studies and health assessments. PMID:26543924

[A co-word analysis of current research on neonatal jaundice].

PubMed

Bao, Shan; Yang, Xiao-Yan; Tang, Jun; Wu, Jin-Lin; Mu, De-Zhi

2014-08-01

To investigate the research on neonatal jaundice in recent years by co-word analysis and to summarize the hot spots and trend of research in this field in China. The CNKI was searched with "neonate" and "jaundice" as the key words to identify the papers published from January 2009 to July 2013 that were in accordance with strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. To reveal the relationship between different high-frequency key words, Microsoft Office Excel 2013 was used for statistical analysis of key words, and Ucinet 6.0 and Netdraw were used for co-occurrence analysis. A total of 2 054 papers were included, and 44 high-frequency key words were extracted. The current hotspots of research on neonatal jaundice in China were displayed, and the relationship between different high-frequency key words was presented. There has been in-depth research on clinical manifestations and diagnosis of neonatal jaundice in China, but further research is needed to investigate the etiology, mechanism, and treatment of neonatal jaundice.

40 CFR 63.1176 - Where can I find definitions of key words used in this subpart?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... words used in this subpart? 63.1176 Section 63.1176 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION... Production § 63.1176 Where can I find definitions of key words used in this subpart? The definitions of key words used in this subpart are in the Clean Air Act (Act), in § 63.2 of the general provisions in...

Possible Explanations for Children's Literal Interpretations of Homonyms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mazzocco, Michelle M. M.; Myers, Gwen F.; Thompson, Laurie A.; Desai, Sneha S.

2003-01-01

This study was designed to examine factors associated with literal interpretations of homonyms. Participants were 212 second graders, ages 7;0-8;11, who listened to a story containing 16 key words. The key words were homonymous words ("pseudo-homonyms"), nonsense words, or familiar words used accurately. While listening to the story, children…

Attention Demands of Spoken Word Planning: A Review

PubMed Central

Roelofs, Ardi; Piai, Vitória

2011-01-01

Attention and language are among the most intensively researched abilities in the cognitive neurosciences, but the relation between these abilities has largely been neglected. There is increasing evidence, however, that linguistic processes, such as those underlying the planning of words, cannot proceed without paying some form of attention. Here, we review evidence that word planning requires some but not full attention. The evidence comes from chronometric studies of word planning in picture naming and word reading under divided attention conditions. It is generally assumed that the central attention demands of a process are indexed by the extent that the process delays the performance of a concurrent unrelated task. The studies measured the speed and accuracy of linguistic and non-linguistic responding as well as eye gaze durations reflecting the allocation of attention. First, empirical evidence indicates that in several task situations, processes up to and including phonological encoding in word planning delay, or are delayed by, the performance of concurrent unrelated non-linguistic tasks. These findings suggest that word planning requires central attention. Second, empirical evidence indicates that conflicts in word planning may be resolved while concurrently performing an unrelated non-linguistic task, making a task decision, or making a go/no-go decision. These findings suggest that word planning does not require full central attention. We outline a computationally implemented theory of attention and word planning, and describe at various points the outcomes of computer simulations that demonstrate the utility of the theory in accounting for the key findings. Finally, we indicate how attention deficits may contribute to impaired language performance, such as in individuals with specific language impairment. PMID:22069393

Resources for Performance-Based Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Houston, W. Robert; And Others

This volume presents annotations of resources on performance-based teacher education. The materials, produced after 1967, include films, slide/tapes, modules, programmed texts, and multimedia kits for training pre- and in-service educational personnel. The materials are indexed according to both competency categories and key words, descriptions,…

Segmenting words from natural speech: subsegmental variation in segmental cues.

PubMed

Rytting, C Anton; Brew, Chris; Fosler-Lussier, Eric

2010-06-01

Most computational models of word segmentation are trained and tested on transcripts of speech, rather than the speech itself, and assume that speech is converted into a sequence of symbols prior to word segmentation. We present a way of representing speech corpora that avoids this assumption, and preserves acoustic variation present in speech. We use this new representation to re-evaluate a key computational model of word segmentation. One finding is that high levels of phonetic variability degrade the model's performance. While robustness to phonetic variability may be intrinsically valuable, this finding needs to be complemented by parallel studies of the actual abilities of children to segment phonetically variable speech.

Video Feedback in Key Word Signing Training for Preservice Direct Support Staff

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rombouts, Ellen; Meuris, Kristien; Maes, Bea; De Meyer, Anne-Marie; Zink, Inge

2016-01-01

Purpose: Research has demonstrated that formal training is essential for professionals to learn key word signing. Yet, the particular didactic strategies have not been studied. Therefore, this study compared the effectiveness of verbal and video feedback in a key word signing training for future direct support staff. Method: Forty-nine future…

[Medical Image Registration Method Based on a Semantic Model with Directional Visual Words].

PubMed

Jin, Yufei; Ma, Meng; Yang, Xin

2016-04-01

Medical image registration is very challenging due to the various imaging modality,image quality,wide inter-patients variability,and intra-patient variability with disease progressing of medical images,with strict requirement for robustness.Inspired by semantic model,especially the recent tremendous progress in computer vision tasks under bag-of-visual-word framework,we set up a novel semantic model to match medical images.Since most of medical images have poor contrast,small dynamic range,and involving only intensities and so on,the traditional visual word models do not perform very well.To benefit from the advantages from the relative works,we proposed a novel visual word model named directional visual words,which performs better on medical images.Then we applied this model to do medical registration.In our experiment,the critical anatomical structures were first manually specified by experts.Then we adopted the directional visual word,the strategy of spatial pyramid searching from coarse to fine,and the k-means algorithm to help us locating the positions of the key structures accurately.Sequentially,we shall register corresponding images by the areas around these positions.The results of the experiments which were performed on real cardiac images showed that our method could achieve high registration accuracy in some specific areas.

The role of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism in individual differences in long-term memory capacity.

PubMed

Montag, Christian; Felten, Andrea; Markett, Sebastian; Fischer, Luise; Winkel, Katja; Cooper, Andrew; Reuter, Martin

2014-12-01

The protein brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in diverse memory processes and is strongly expressed in the hippocampus. The hippocampus itself is a key structure involved in the processing of information from short-term to long-term memory. Due to the putative role of BDNF in memory consolidation, a prominent single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on the BDNF gene (BDNF Val66Met) was investigated in the context of long-term memory performance. N=138 students were presented with 40 words from 10 categories, each consisting of eight words such as 'fruits' or 'vehicles' in a memory recognition task (specifically the Deese-Roediger-McDermott Paradigm). Recognition performance was analyzed 25 min after the initial presentation of the word list and subsequently 1 week after the initial presentation. Overall, individual long-term memory performance immediately after learning the word list (T1) and performance 1 week later (T2) did not differ on the basis of the BDNF SNP, but an interaction effect of BDNF Val66Met by time-of-recall was found: Carriers of the Met66+ variant showed the strongest decline in hit rate performance over time.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Capellen, J.; Svec, H.J.; Sage, C.R.

This report covers the year 1972, and lists approximately 10,000 articles of interest to mass spectroscopists. This two-volume report consists of three sections. Vol. II contains the Key Word Out of Context Index (KWOC Index) section. The KWOC Index lists the key words, the reference numbers of the articles in which the key word appears, and the first 100 characters of the title. (auth)

Evaluating a Bilingual Text-Mining System with a Taxonomy of Key Words and Hierarchical Visualization for Understanding Learner-Generated Text

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kong, Siu Cheung; Li, Ping; Song, Yanjie

2018-01-01

This study evaluated a bilingual text-mining system, which incorporated a bilingual taxonomy of key words and provided hierarchical visualization, for understanding learner-generated text in the learning management systems through automatic identification and counting of matching key words. A class of 27 in-service teachers studied a course…

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: An ESL Textbook/Workbook [In Four Volumes]: (1) Teaching Guide; (2) Edition A. Key Vocabulary Words Translated into 6 Languages: Hmong, Laotian, Korean, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Chinese; (3) Edition B. Key Vocabulary Words Translated into 6 Languages: Spanish, Somali, Russian, Farsi, Bosnian, Arabic; (4) Edition C. Key Vocabulary Words Translated in 6 Languages: Spanish, Russian, Bosnian, Somali, Vietnamese, Hmong.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaRue, Charles

Each of these three separately-published textbook/workbook editions on the topic of recycling presents key vocabulary words relating to this topic for English as a Second Language students in six languages. These books are designed to increase students' understanding of what the most typical local recycling rules are, why complying with them is…

Deaf Children With Cochlear Implants Do Not Appear to Use Sentence Context to Help Recognize Spoken Words

PubMed Central

Conway, Christopher M.; Deocampo, Joanne A.; Walk, Anne M.; Anaya, Esperanza M.; Pisoni, David B.

2015-01-01

Purpose The authors investigated the ability of deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs) to use sentence context to facilitate the perception of spoken words. Method Deaf children with CIs (n = 24) and an age-matched group of children with normal hearing (n = 31) were presented with lexically controlled sentences and were asked to repeat each sentence in its entirety. Performance was analyzed at each of 3 word positions of each sentence (first, second, and third key word). Results Whereas the children with normal hearing showed robust effects of contextual facilitation—improved speech perception for the final words in a sentence—the deaf children with CIs on average showed no such facilitation. Regression analyses indicated that for the deaf children with CIs, Forward Digit Span scores significantly predicted accuracy scores for all 3 positions, whereas performance on the Stroop Color and Word Test, Children’s Version (Golden, Freshwater, & Golden, 2003) predicted how much contextual facilitation was observed at the final word. Conclusions The pattern of results suggests that some deaf children with CIs do not use sentence context to improve spoken word recognition. The inability to use sentence context may be due to possible interactions between language experience and cognitive factors that affect the ability to successfully integrate temporal–sequential information in spoken language. PMID:25029170

The emotional importance of key: do Beatles songs written in different keys convey different emotional tones?

PubMed

Whissel, R; Whissel, C

2000-12-01

Lyrics from 155 songs written by the Lennon-McCartney team were scored using the Dictionary of Affect in Language. Resultant scores (pleasantness, activation, and imagery of words) were compared across key signatures using one way analyses of variance. Words from songs written in minor keys were less pleasant and less active than those from songs written in major keys. Words from songs written in the key of F scored extremely low on all three measures. Lyrics from the keys of C, D, and G were relatively active in tone. Results from Dictionary scoring were compared with assignments of character to keys made more than one century ago and with current musicians' opinions.

Gestational diabetes insipidus: a review of an underdiagnosed condition.

PubMed

Aleksandrov, Nikolay; Audibert, François; Bedard, Marie-Josée; Mahone, Michèle; Goffinet, François; Kadoch, Isaac-Jacques

2010-03-01

To review the etiology, diagnosis, and management of diabetes insipidus during pregnancy. A search of the literature was performed in PubMed using key word searching and citation snowballing to identify articles published in English between January 1, 1980, and December 31, 2008, on the subject of diabetes insipidus during pregnancy. Once the articles were identified, a thorough review of all results was conducted. Results and conclusions were compiled and summarized. We reviewed 50 studies selected using the following key words: diabetes insipidus, pregnancy, arginine vasopressin, vasopressinase. Gestational diabetes insipidus is underdiagnosed because polyuria is often considered normal during pregnancy. Clinicians caring for pregnant women should consider screening for gestational diabetes insipidus, because it could be associated with serious underlying pathology.

Preparation of a Manuscript on Leadership Dynamics.

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-11-01

Sciences Division, Office of Naval Research IB- KEY WORDS (Confirm* en feverae »Id» II rfc*,,mr, and Identity fey Meek number,) Leadership ... Management , Supervision Leader-Follower Relations Leadership Effectiveness, 3roup and Organizational Performance, Planned Change j 20. ABSTRACT

The impact of intonation and valence on objective and subjective attention capture by auditory alarms.

PubMed

Ljungberg, Jessica K; Parmentier, Fabrice

2012-10-01

The objective was to study the involuntary capture of attention by spoken words varying in intonation and valence. In studies of verbal alarms, the propensity of alarms to capture attention has been primarily assessed with the use of subjective ratings of their perceived urgency. Past studies suggest that such ratings vary with the alarms' spoken urgency and content. We measured attention capture by spoken words varying in valence (negative vs. neutral) and intonation (urgently vs. nonurgently spoken) through subjective ratings and behavioral measures. The key behavioral measure was the response latency to visual stimuli in the presence of spoken words breaking away from the periodical repetition of a tone. The results showed that all words captured attention relative to a baseline standard tone but that this effect was partly counteracted by a relative speeding of responses for urgently compared with nonurgently spoken words. Word valence did not affect behavioral performance. Rating data showed that both intonation and valence increased significantly perceived urgency and attention grabbing without any interaction. The data suggest a congruency between subjective ratings and behavioral performance with respect to spoken intonation but not valence. This study demonstrates the usefulness and feasibility of objective measures of attention capture to help design efficient alarm systems.

Attention to gaze and emotion in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Schwartz, Barbara L; Vaidya, Chandan J; Howard, James H; Deutsch, Stephen I

2010-11-01

Individuals with schizophrenia have difficulty interpreting social and emotional cues such as facial expression, gaze direction, body position, and voice intonation. Nonverbal cues are powerful social signals but are often processed implicitly, outside the focus of attention. The aim of this research was to assess implicit processing of social cues in individuals with schizophrenia. Patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and matched controls performed a primary task of word classification with social cues in the background. Participants were asked to classify target words (LEFT/RIGHT) by pressing a key that corresponded to the word, in the context of facial expressions with eye gaze averted to the left or right. Although facial expression and gaze direction were irrelevant to the task, these facial cues influenced word classification performance. Participants were slower to classify target words (e.g., LEFT) that were incongruent to gaze direction (e.g., eyes averted to the right) compared to target words (e.g., LEFT) that were congruent to gaze direction (e.g., eyes averted to the left), but this only occurred for expressions of fear. This pattern did not differ for patients and controls. The results showed that threat-related signals capture the attention of individuals with schizophrenia. These data suggest that implicit processing of eye gaze and fearful expressions is intact in schizophrenia. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved

SU-E-T-191: PITSTOP: Process Improvement Techniques, Software Tools, and Operating Principles for a Quality Initiative Discovery Framework.

PubMed

Siochi, R

2012-06-01

To develop a quality initiative discovery framework using process improvement techniques, software tools and operating principles. Process deviations are entered into a radiotherapy incident reporting database. Supervisors use an in-house Event Analysis System (EASy) to discuss incidents with staff. Major incidents are analyzed with an in-house Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). A meta-Analysis is performed using association, text mining, key word clustering, and differential frequency analysis. A key operating principle encourages the creation of forcing functions via rapid application development. 504 events have been logged this past year. The results for the key word analysis indicate that the root cause for the top ranked key words was miscommunication. This was also the root cause found from association analysis, where 24% of the time that an event involved a physician it also involved a nurse. Differential frequency analysis revealed that sharp peaks at week 27 were followed by 3 major incidents, two of which were dose related. The peak was largely due to the front desk which caused distractions in other areas. The analysis led to many PI projects but there is still a major systematic issue with the use of forms. The solution we identified is to implement Smart Forms to perform error checking and interlocking. Our first initiative replaced our daily QA checklist with a form that uses custom validation routines, preventing therapists from proceeding with treatments until out of tolerance conditions are corrected. PITSTOP has increased the number of quality initiatives in our department, and we have discovered or confirmed common underlying causes of a variety of seemingly unrelated errors. It has motivated the replacement of all forms with smart forms. © 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Experiments with a Supersonic Multi-Channel Radial Diffuser.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-09-01

unlimited. 17 . DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT (o the *bsta~c entered nRItok 20, it dffttt Iton, Report) IS. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 19. KEY WORDS (Continue o...Improvements 17 VI SIGNIFICANT TEST RESULTS 20 1. General Considerations 20 2. Typical Radial Diffuser Performance 20 3. Flow Stability Experiments 22 VIII...Adjustments Indicated 39 16 Comparison of the Single Channel Performances for Two Extreme Channel Geometries 40 17 Typical Radial Diffuser Performance

Using Words Instead of Jumbled Characters as Stimuli in Keyboard Training Facilitates Fluent Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeFulio, Anthony; Crone-Todd, Darlene E.; Long, Lauren V.; Nuzzo, Paul A.; Silverman, Kenneth

2011-01-01

Keyboarding skill is an important target for adult education programs due to the ubiquity of computers in modern work environments. A previous study showed that novice typists learned key locations quickly but that fluency took a relatively long time to develop. In the present study, novice typists achieved fluent performance in nearly half the…

Relative speed of processing determines color-word contingency learning.

PubMed

Forrin, Noah D; MacLeod, Colin M

2017-10-01

In three experiments, we tested a relative-speed-of-processing account of color-word contingency learning, a phenomenon in which color identification responses to high-contingency stimuli (words that appear most often in particular colors) are faster than those to low-contingency stimuli. Experiment 1 showed equally large contingency-learning effects whether responding was to the colors or to the words, likely due to slow responding to both dimensions because of the unfamiliar mapping required by the key press responses. For Experiment 2, participants switched to vocal responding, in which reading words is considerably faster than naming colors, and we obtained a contingency-learning effect only for color naming, the slower dimension. In Experiment 3, previewing the color information resulted in a reduced contingency-learning effect for color naming, but it enhanced the contingency-learning effect for word reading. These results are all consistent with contingency learning influencing performance only when the nominally irrelevant feature is faster to process than the relevant feature, and therefore are entirely in accord with a relative-speed-of-processing explanation.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Capellen, J.; Svec, H.J.; Sage, C.R.

This report covers the year 1973, and lists approximately 8,000 articles of interest to mass spectroscopists. This report consists of three sections, a Bibliography section, an Author Index section and a Key Word Out of Context Index (KWOC Index) section. The Bibliography section lists the authors, the title and the publication data for each article. The Author Index lists the authors' names and the reference numbers of their articles. The KWOC Index lists the key words, the reference numbers of the articles in which the key word appears and the first 100 characters of the title.

The Strategic Design of Reward Systems.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-10-01

AuTO1 , 8 CO NTRACT Ok .NANT NUMO lll , Edward E. Lawler III N-00014-81-K-0048 9 PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADORErS 10. PROGRAM ELEMENT...SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES .iL L:~ 19 KEY WORDS (Continue on reveres side It necessary and Identify by block number) A Pay, performance appraisal, motivation...retention, culture development:, and skill development are considered. The relationship between these object iwv and such design options as performance pay

State Policy Is Key to Building Strong Leaders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

von Frank, Valerie

2010-01-01

Collective, comprehensive and cohesive are the words Gene Wilhoit uses to talk about education reform that involves multiple levels of the education system--states, districts, and schools. Today it is widely accepted that education leadership is crucial to improving student performance, and Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State…

Key Words in Instruction. The Student Information Scientist, Part I

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Callison, Daniel

2005-01-01

Information literacy standards for student learning, indicators for student performance, and hundreds of collaborative lesson plans around the country give some indication of the skills students are expected to master as effective and efficient users of information. Hopefully the goal is that all involved in information literacy education become…

School Leadership around the World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stewart, Vivien

2013-01-01

"Great teachers and school leaders hold the key to America's children getting a first-rate education, but we do a spotty job of preparing them." Citing these words of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Vivien Stewart plunges into a fascinating account of how top-performing countries are developing strong school leaders. While…

The Effects of Using Flashcards to Develop Automaticity with Key Vocabulary Words for Students with and without Learning Disabilities Enrolled in a High School Spanish Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stager, Phillip A.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using flashcards to develop automaticity (rapid word recognition) with key vocabulary words and phrases in order to improve fluency and reading comprehension skills for participants with and without diagnosed learning disabilities enrolled in a high school Spanish course. Eighty-seven…

A neurally plausible parallel distributed processing model of event-related potential word reading data.

PubMed

Laszlo, Sarah; Plaut, David C

2012-03-01

The Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) framework has significant potential for producing models of cognitive tasks that approximate how the brain performs the same tasks. To date, however, there has been relatively little contact between PDP modeling and data from cognitive neuroscience. In an attempt to advance the relationship between explicit, computational models and physiological data collected during the performance of cognitive tasks, we developed a PDP model of visual word recognition which simulates key results from the ERP reading literature, while simultaneously being able to successfully perform lexical decision-a benchmark task for reading models. Simulations reveal that the model's success depends on the implementation of several neurally plausible features in its architecture which are sufficiently domain-general to be relevant to cognitive modeling more generally. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluating Breast Self-Examinations in a Military Beneficiary Population

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-05-01

behaviors (p. 8), by I . Ajzen and M . Fishbein , 1980, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Belief of consequence Beliefs of others Motivation to comply...D. (1987). Performance of breast self-examination by women at high risk for breast cancer. Women & Health, 12(2), 29- 46. Ajzen , I . & Fishbein , M ...BSE performance. Key Words: Ajzen - Fishbein Theory of Reasoned Action; breast neoplasms; breast self- examination; cancer screening; military medicine

A further look at postview effects in reading: An eye-movements study of influences from the left of fixation.

PubMed

Jordan, Timothy R; McGowan, Victoria A; Kurtev, Stoyan; Paterson, Kevin B

2016-02-01

When reading from left to right, useful information acquired during each fixational pause is widely assumed to extend 14 to 15 characters to the right of fixation but just 3 to 4 characters to the left, and certainly no further than the beginning of the fixated word. However, this leftward extent is strikingly small and seems inconsistent with other aspects of reading performance and with the general horizontal symmetry of visual input. Accordingly, 2 experiments were conducted to examine the influence of text located to the left of fixation during each fixational pause using an eye-tracking paradigm in which invisible boundaries were created in sentence displays. Each boundary corresponded to the leftmost edge of each word so that, as each sentence was read, the normal letter content of text to the left of each fixated word was corrupted by letter replacements that were either visually similar or visually dissimilar to the originals. The proximity of corrupted text to the left of fixation was maintained at 1, 2, 3, or 4 words from the left boundary of each fixated word. In both experiments, relative to completely normal text, reading performance was impaired when each type of letter replacement was up to 2 words to the left of fixated words but letter replacements further from fixation produced no impairment. These findings suggest that key aspects of reading are influenced by information acquired during each fixational pause from much further leftward than is usually assumed. Some of the implications of these findings for reading are discussed. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect of Using Assist Devices on Exam Completion Questions among Thai College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schneider, Arthur E.

2017-01-01

Action research was undertaken to begin to explore the possibility of improving second-language Thai college student performance on completion questions by using bolded and underscored words in test item stems, called "assist devices." This intervention was designed to focus student attention on key terms. Twenty-one students, in an…

Comparison of meaning and graphophonemic feedback strategies for guided reading instruction of children with language delays.

PubMed

Kouri, Theresa A; Selle, Carrie A; Riley, Sarah A

2006-08-01

Guided reading is a common practice recommended for children in the early stages of literacy development. While experts agree that oral reading facilitates literacy skills, controversy exists concerning which corrective feedback strategies are most effective. The purpose of this study was to compare feedback procedures stemming from 2 different theoretical perspectives on literacy development. Fourteen children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 21 with typically developing language read aloud 2 stories to an adult examiner who presented corrective feedback prompts when reading miscues (errors) occurred. One type of feedback based on whole language principles emphasized meaning aspects of a text. The other type consisted of graphophonemic (GP) word-decoding strategies. Before reading, participants were provided instruction on 5 key words taken from each story text. This instruction emphasized either meaning or GP aspects of specific key words. Story comprehension questions followed readings. Findings indicated that more miscued words were corrected overall through the use of GP feedback cues; however, some meaning-based instructional advantages were indicated for key word identifications for children with SLI. Higher story comprehension scores were yielded in the GP condition for both groups. Both meaning-based and phonemic key word reviews, prior to oral reading, appear to be effective strategies for children with SLI. The use of GP word-decoding cues may be more effective than meaning-based cues for facilitating correction of reading miscues during children's oral readings. Further research findings are discussed along with clinical implications for using corrective feedback procedures.

Video Feedback in Key Word Signing Training for Preservice Direct Support Staff.

PubMed

Rombouts, Ellen; Meuris, Kristien; Maes, Bea; De Meyer, Anne-Marie; Zink, Inge

2016-04-01

Research has demonstrated that formal training is essential for professionals to learn key word signing. Yet, the particular didactic strategies have not been studied. Therefore, this study compared the effectiveness of verbal and video feedback in a key word signing training for future direct support staff. Forty-nine future direct support staff were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 key word signing training programs: modeling and verbal feedback (classical method [CM]), additional video feedback (+ViF), and additional video feedback and photo reminder (+ViF/R). Signing accuracy and training acceptability were measured 1 week after and 7 months after training. Participants from the +ViF/R program achieved significantly higher signing accuracy compared with the CM group. Acceptability ratings did not differ between any of the groups. Results suggest that at an equal time investment, the programs containing more training components were more effective. Research on the effect of rehearsal on signing maintenance is warranted.

Evaluating the developmental trajectory of the episodic buffer component of working memory and its relation to word recognition in children.

PubMed

Wang, Shinmin; Allen, Richard J; Lee, Jun Ren; Hsieh, Chia-En

2015-05-01

The creation of temporary bound representation of information from different sources is one of the key abilities attributed to the episodic buffer component of working memory. Whereas the role of working memory in word learning has received substantial attention, very little is known about the link between the development of word recognition skills and the ability to bind information in the episodic buffer of working memory and how it may develop with age. This study examined the performance of Grade 2 children (8 years old), Grade 3 children (9 years old), and young adults on a task designed to measure their ability to bind visual and auditory-verbal information in working memory. Children's performance on this task significantly correlated with their word recognition skills even when chronological age, memory for individual elements, and other possible reading-related factors were taken into account. In addition, clear developmental trajectories were observed, with improvements in the ability to hold temporary bound information in working memory between Grades 2 and 3, and between the child and adult groups, that were independent from memory for the individual elements. These findings suggest that the capacity to temporarily bind novel auditory-verbal information to visual form in working memory is linked to the development of word recognition in children and improves with age. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Working Memory and Speech Comprehension in Older Adults With Hearing Impairment.

PubMed

Nagaraj, Naveen K

2017-10-17

This study examined the relationship between working memory (WM) and speech comprehension in older adults with hearing impairment (HI). It was hypothesized that WM would explain significant variance in speech comprehension measured in multitalker babble (MTB). Twenty-four older (59-73 years) adults with sensorineural HI participated. WM capacity (WMC) was measured using 3 complex span tasks. Speech comprehension was assessed using multiple passages, and speech identification ability was measured using recall of sentence final-word and key words. Speech measures were performed in quiet and in the presence of MTB at + 5 dB signal-to-noise ratio. Results suggested that participants' speech identification was poorer in MTB, but their ability to comprehend discourse in MTB was at least as good as in quiet. WMC did not explain significant variance in speech comprehension before and after controlling for age and audibility. However, WMC explained significant variance in low-context sentence key words identification in MTB. These results suggest that WMC plays an important role in identifying low-context sentences in MTB, but not when comprehending semantically rich discourse passages. In general, data did not support individual variability in WMC as a factor that predicts speech comprehension ability in older adults with HI.

The New Unabridged English-Persian Dictionary.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aryanpur, Abbas; Saleh, Jahan Shah

This five-volume English-Persian dictionary is based on Webster's International Dictionary (1960 and 1961) and The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1959); it attempts to provide Persian equivalents of all the words of Oxford and all the key-words of Webster. Pronunciation keys for the English phonetic transcription and for the difficult Persian…

BIT BY BIT: A Game Simulating Natural Language Processing in Computers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kato, Taichi; Arakawa, Chuichi

2008-01-01

BIT BY BIT is an encryption game that is designed to improve students' understanding of natural language processing in computers. Participants encode clear words into binary code using an encryption key and exchange them in the game. BIT BY BIT enables participants who do not understand the concept of binary numbers to perform the process of…

Wiki or Word? Evaluating Tools for Collaborative Writing and Editing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dishaw, Mark; Eierman, Michael A.; Iversen, Jakob H.; Philip, George C.

2011-01-01

Businesses and other organizations are relying increasingly on virtual teams to perform a range of business activities. A key challenge in utilizing virtual teams is to support collaboration among team members who are separated by distance and/or time. In this paper we use a research model based on a combination of the Technology Acceptance Model…

A Language Skills Program for Secondary LD Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howe, Bill

1982-01-01

A program was developed to increase the receptive and expressive language skills of 24 secondary learning-disabled students. Program units covered word sorting, sight-word vocabulary, key-word reading, reading rate, reading comprehension, listening, and writing. (Author/SW)

Strategic Key Word Instruction: Increasing Fluency in Connected Expository Text

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coulter, Gail; Lambert, Michael C.

2015-01-01

The effects of preteaching key words on fluency in connected text were examined with three third-grade general education participants. Researchers used a multiple base-line design (i.e., Baseline and Wordlist Intervention) and found that preteaching increased fluency in connected text written above the participant's instructional level of reading…

A Study of the Applicability of Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (AES), Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopy, Direct Reading and Analytical Ferrography on High Performance Aircraft Engine Lubricating Oils

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-01-01

Ferrography on High Performance Aircraft Engine Lubricating Oils Allison M. Toms, Sharon 0. Hem, Tim Yarborough Joint Oil Analysis Program Technical...turbine engines by spectroscopy (AES and FT-IR) and direct reading and analytical ferrography . A statistical analysis of the data collected is...presented. Key Words: Analytical ferrography ; atomic emission spectroscopy; condition monitoring; direct reading ferrography ; Fourier transform infrared

When Language Experience Fails to Explain Word Reading Development: Early Cognitive and Linguistic Profiles of Young Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Chieh-Fang; Schuele, C. Melanie

2015-01-01

Although language experience is a key factor in successful foreign language (FL) learning, many FL learners fail to achieve performance levels that were predicted on the basis of their FL experience. This retrospective study investigated early cognitive and linguistic correlates of learning English as a foreign language (FL) in a group of…

Rapid formation and flexible expression of memories of subliminal word pairs.

PubMed

Reber, Thomas P; Henke, Katharina

2011-01-01

Our daily experiences are incidentally and rapidly encoded as episodic memories. Episodic memories consist of numerous associations (e.g., who gave what to whom where and when) that can be expressed flexibly in new situations. Key features of episodic memory are speed of encoding, its associative nature, and its representational flexibility. Another defining feature of human episodic memory has been consciousness of encoding/retrieval. Here, we show that humans can rapidly form associations between subliminal words and minutes later retrieve these associations even if retrieval words were conceptually related to, but different from encoding words. Because encoding words were presented subliminally, associative encoding, and retrieval were unconscious. Unconscious association formation and retrieval were dependent on a preceding understanding of task principles. We conclude that key computations underlying episodic memory - rapid encoding and flexible expression of associations - can operate outside consciousness.

The Model Method: Singapore Children's Tool for Representing and Solving Algebraic Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ng, Swee Fong; Lee, Kerry

2009-01-01

Solving arithmetic and algebraic word problems is a key component of the Singapore elementary mathematics curriculum. One heuristic taught, the model method, involves drawing a diagram to represent key information in the problem. We describe the model method and a three-phase theoretical framework supporting its use. We conducted 2 studies to…

JPKWIC - General key word in context and subject index report generator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jirka, R.; Kabashima, N.; Kelly, D.; Plesset, M.

1968-01-01

JPKWIC computer program is a general key word in context and subject index report generator specifically developed to help nonprogrammers and nontechnical personnel to use the computer to access files, libraries and mass documentation. This program is designed to produce a KWIC index, a subject index, an edit report, a summary report, and an exclusion list.

Mechanisms for Aiding Worker Adjustment to Technological Change: Volume 2: Concepts, Review of the Literature, Abstracts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Utah Univ., Salt Lake City. Human Resources Inst.

Volume 2, which accompanies "Mechanisms for Aiding Worker Adjustment to Technological Change, Volume 1," consists of a key word index for locating specific topics and the abstracts of literature reviewed in Volume 1. Key words, referring to aspects of worker adjustment to technological change appearing in the abstracted literature, are grouped…

40 CFR 370.3 - Which section contains the definitions of the key words used in this part?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 28 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Which section contains the definitions of the key words used in this part? 370.3 Section 370.3 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) SUPERFUND, EMERGENCY PLANNING, AND COMMUNITY RIGHT-TO-KNOW PROGRAMS HAZARDOUS...

40 CFR 355.3 - Which section contains the definitions of the key words used in this part?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 28 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Which section contains the definitions of the key words used in this part? 355.3 Section 355.3 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) SUPERFUND, EMERGENCY PLANNING, AND COMMUNITY RIGHT-TO-KNOW PROGRAMS EMERGENCY...

Preteaching Unknown Key Words with Incremental Rehearsal to Improve Reading Fluency and Comprehension with Children Identified as Reading Disabled

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, Matthew K.; Dean, Vincent J.; Foley, Sarah

2004-01-01

Research has consistently demonstrated that strategic preteaching activities led to improved reading fluency, but lacked studies examining the effect on reading comprehension. The current study investigated the effect of teaching unknown key words as a preteaching strategy with 20 students identified as learning disabled in basic reading skills…

Contextualising Higher Education Assessment Task Words with an "'Anti'-Glossary" Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richards, Kendall; Pilcher, Nick

2014-01-01

Key "generic" assessment task words such as "discuss" and "critically evaluate" are integral to higher education assessment. Although sources such as study skills guides give generic decontextualised glossaries of these words, much research rightly argues for greater dialogue between students (particularly…

Documentation and Analysis of the ’Miscellaneous’ Account Category within the DoD Instruction 7220.29-H Depot Level Maintenance Cost Accounting System.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-12-01

34MISCELLANEOUS" ACCOUNT CATEGORY WITHIN THE DOD INSTRUCTION 7220.29-H DEPOT LEVEL MAINTENANCE COST ACCOUNTING SYSTEM by a. Steven Eugene Lehr CDecember 1984...PERFORMING ONG. REPORT NUMBER Maintenance Cost Accounting System 7. AUTHOR(&) S. CONTRACT OR GRANT NUMBER(@) Steven Eugene Lehr 9. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION...Availability Codes IS. KEY WORDS (Continue on reverse *ids It necessary and Identify by block number) Dvi Special Uniform Cost Accounting System DoD

Effect of Mixed Culture Growth Conditions on the Cellular Fatty Acids of Streptococci (Analyzed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography),

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-10-16

mixed culture with Streptococcus S mutans , Streptococcus singuis Staphylococcus aureus,*and Escheric ia coi 1 - sA -DoWed n o quaI It atfI ve -c nah...of both S. mutans and S. scnguis. I 4 |I KEY WORDS: Fatty Acids . High Performance Liquid Chromatography Mixed Bacterial Cultures Streptococcus sal...AND METHODS Streptococcus mutans (ATCC 25175), Streptococcus sanguis (ATCC 10557), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923) and Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922

From Words to Concepts: Focusing on Word Knowledge When Teaching for Conceptual Understanding within an Inquiry-Based Science Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haug, Berit S.; Ødegaard, Marianne

2014-01-01

This qualitative video study explores how two elementary school teachers taught for conceptual understanding throughout different phases of science inquiry. The teachers implemented teaching materials with a focus on learning science key concepts through the development of word knowledge. A framework for word knowledge was applied to examine the…

The QWERTY effect: how typing shapes the meanings of words.

PubMed

Jasmin, Kyle; Casasanto, Daniel

2012-06-01

The QWERTY keyboard mediates communication for millions of language users. Here, we investigated whether differences in the way words are typed correspond to differences in their meanings. Some words are spelled with more letters on the right side of the keyboard and others with more letters on the left. In three experiments, we tested whether asymmetries in the way people interact with keys on the right and left of the keyboard influence their evaluations of the emotional valence of the words. We found the predicted relationship between emotional valence and QWERTY key position across three languages (English, Spanish, and Dutch). Words with more right-side letters were rated as more positive in valence, on average, than words with more left-side letters: the QWERTY effect. This effect was strongest in new words coined after QWERTY was invented and was also found in pseudowords. Although these data are correlational, the discovery of a similar pattern across languages, which was strongest in neologisms, suggests that the QWERTY keyboard is shaping the meanings of words as people filter language through their fingers. Widespread typing introduces a new mechanism by which semantic changes in language can arise.

Telemedicine information analysis center.

PubMed

Zajtchuk, Joan T; Zajtchuk, Russ; Petrovic, Joseph J; Gutz, Ryan P; Walrath, Benjamin D

2004-01-01

Congress mandated a pilot project to demonstrate the feasibility of establishing a Department of Defense (DoD) telemedicine information analysis center (TIAC). The project developed a medical information support system to show the core capabilities of a TIAC. The productivity and effectiveness of telemedicine researchers and clinical practitioners can be enhanced by the existence of an information analysis center (IACs) devoted to the collection, analysis, synthesis, and dissemination of worldwide scientific and technical information related to the field of telemedicine. The work conducted under the TIAC pilot project establishes the basic IAC functions and assesses the utility of the TIAC to the military medical departments. The pilot project capabilities are Web-based and include: (1) applying the science of classification (taxonomy) to telemedicine to identify key words; (2) creating a relational database of this taxonomy to a bibliographic database using these key words; (3) developing and disseminating information via a public TIAC Web site; (4) performing a specific baseline technical area task for the U.S. Army Medical Command; and (5) providing analyses by subject matter experts.

Embodiment of abstract categories in space… grounding or mere compatibility effects? The case of politics.

PubMed

Farias, Ana Rita; Garrido, Margarida V; Semin, Gün R

2016-05-01

In two experiments, the role played by stimulus response compatibility in driving the spatial grounding of abstract concepts is examined. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to classify politics-related words appearing to the left or the right side of a computer monitor as socialist or conservative. Responses were given by pressing vertically aligned keys and thus orthogonal to the spatial information that may have been implied by the words. Responses given by left or right index finger were counterbalanced. In Experiment 2, a lexical decision task, participants categorized political words or non-words presented to the left or the right auditory channels, by pressing the top/bottom button of a response box. The response category labels (word or non-word) were also orthogonal to the spatial information that may have been implied by the stimulus words. In both experiments, responses were faster when socialism-related words were presented on the left and conservatism-related words were presented on the right, irrespective of the reference of the response keys or labels. Overall, our findings suggest that the spatial grounding of abstract concepts (or at least politics-related ones) is independent of experimentally driven stimulus-response compatibility effects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Rapid Formation and Flexible Expression of Memories of Subliminal Word Pairs

PubMed Central

Reber, Thomas P.; Henke, Katharina

2011-01-01

Our daily experiences are incidentally and rapidly encoded as episodic memories. Episodic memories consist of numerous associations (e.g., who gave what to whom where and when) that can be expressed flexibly in new situations. Key features of episodic memory are speed of encoding, its associative nature, and its representational flexibility. Another defining feature of human episodic memory has been consciousness of encoding/retrieval. Here, we show that humans can rapidly form associations between subliminal words and minutes later retrieve these associations even if retrieval words were conceptually related to, but different from encoding words. Because encoding words were presented subliminally, associative encoding, and retrieval were unconscious. Unconscious association formation and retrieval were dependent on a preceding understanding of task principles. We conclude that key computations underlying episodic memory – rapid encoding and flexible expression of associations – can operate outside consciousness. PMID:22125545

How Can Book Reading Close the Word Gap? Five Key Practices from Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snell, Emily K.; Hindman, Annemarie H.; Wasik, Barbara A.

2015-01-01

Vocabulary development is critical for children's ability to learn to read and their success at school. Vocabulary has also been identified as a key factor in the achievement gap, with children from low-income families knowing significantly fewer words when they enter school. Although book reading has long been celebrated as an effective way for…

Access to General Education Curriculum: The Effect of Preteaching Key Words Upon Fluency and Accuracy in Expository Text

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coulter, Gail A.; Lambert, Michael C.

2015-01-01

The effects of preteaching key words on accuracy and fluency in connected text were examined with three fifth-grade participants identified with learning disability and reading two grade levels below their same age peers. Researchers incorporated a multiple baseline design (i.e., Baseline and Wordlist Intervention) and found that preteaching…

Use of Key Word Signing by Staff in Special Schools and in Day Centres for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rombouts, E.; Maes, B.; Zink, I.

2018-01-01

Background: Staff may encourage individuals with intellectual disabilities to use manual signs by modelling its use, but implementing key word signing during daily activities can be demanding. Method: Staff's use of manual signs was observed in four special schools and four day centres for adults with intellectual disabilities during communicative…

Putting Words in Their Mouths: The Alignment of Identities with System Goals through the Use of Individual Learning Plans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, Mary

2009-01-01

This article analyses the role of Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) in teachers' work in the "Skills for Life" sector. It shows how ILPs, originally a means of formative assessment, have become part of a system of performance indicators and function as a key mediating mechanism between local interactions and system goals. The article…

Acquired Affective Associations Induce Emotion Effects in Word Recognition: An ERP Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fritsch, Nathalie; Kuchinke, Lars

2013-01-01

The present study examined how contextual learning and in particular emotionality conditioning impacts the neural processing of words, as possible key factors for the acquisition of words' emotional connotation. 21 participants learned on five consecutive days associations between meaningless pseudowords and unpleasant or neutral pictures using an…

Using Signs to Facilitate Vocabulary in Children with Language Delays

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lederer, Susan Hendler; Battaglia, Dana

2015-01-01

The purpose of this article is to explore recommended practices in choosing and using key word signs (i.e., simple single-word gestures for communication) to facilitate first spoken words in hearing children with language delays. Developmental, theoretical, and empirical supports for this practice are discussed. Practical recommendations for…

An Essential Vocabulary: An Update.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Anita P.; McDaniel, Thomas R.

1998-01-01

Updates a list (originally published in 1963) of "survival" or essential words--words so important for survival and success in everyday life that everyone should know them. Notes that recognition of these key words and phrases may require non-English-speaking individuals, disabled readers, and adult literacy students to use rote memorization for…

A literature review of disaster nursing competencies in Japanese nursing journals.

PubMed

Kako, Mayumi; Mitani, Satoko

2010-01-01

Competencies is an important concept used for assessing health professionals' capability to perform their role. By means of a literature review of Japanese professional journals this paper will investigate the competencies concept, particularly with relation to disaster nursing. The literature research was conducted using the database ichu-shi (ver. 4). All literature is written and published in Japanese and was published between 2001 and 2008. Due to an unfamiliarity of the term 'competencies' in Japanese, the key words were sought while deconstructing the meaning and concepts of 'competencies' into terms more recognisable in the Japanese context. Twelve key words: disaster, capability, education, practice, licensure, ability, function, prevention, response, planning, emergency, and disaster nursing were chosen as being most likely to find literature relevant to the English Language concept of competencies. The searched articles were then written into the disaster nursing competencies review worksheet for analysis. One hundred and twenty articles were found by searching a combination of these key words. Of these articles, those that were not in the context of disaster nursing were eliminated. As a result, 43 articles were chosen as being suitable for analysis of the context. These articles are classified into four themes. These theme groups indicated a foundation for competencies in disaster nursing. The definition of competencies in Japanese nursing journals was quite varied and cannot be easily defined as common disaster nursing competencies. Given the variety of areas and the distinct phases in disaster nursing, as well as the 'what for' and 'who governs', disaster nursing competencies will need its own discussion in order to establish the common competencies internationally.

Investigating Peer Attitudes towards the Use of Key Word Signing by Children with Down Syndrome in Mainstream Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowles, Caoimhe; Frizelle, Pauline

2016-01-01

Background: Lámh is a key word signing approach used in Ireland, which can support the communication needs of children with Down syndrome. However, the success of this approach in mainstream schools relies heavily on the attitudes of those within the school environment. To date, two studies have explored the attitudes of teaching staff towards the…

Linking working memory and long-term memory: a computational model of the learning of new words.

PubMed

Jones, Gary; Gobet, Fernand; Pine, Julian M

2007-11-01

The nonword repetition (NWR) test has been shown to be a good predictor of children's vocabulary size. NWR performance has been explained using phonological working memory, which is seen as a critical component in the learning of new words. However, no detailed specification of the link between phonological working memory and long-term memory (LTM) has been proposed. In this paper, we present a computational model of children's vocabulary acquisition (EPAM-VOC) that specifies how phonological working memory and LTM interact. The model learns phoneme sequences, which are stored in LTM and mediate how much information can be held in working memory. The model's behaviour is compared with that of children in a new study of NWR, conducted in order to ensure the same nonword stimuli and methodology across ages. EPAM-VOC shows a pattern of results similar to that of children: performance is better for shorter nonwords and for wordlike nonwords, and performance improves with age. EPAM-VOC also simulates the superior performance for single consonant nonwords over clustered consonant nonwords found in previous NWR studies. EPAM-VOC provides a simple and elegant computational account of some of the key processes involved in the learning of new words: it specifies how phonological working memory and LTM interact; makes testable predictions; and suggests that developmental changes in NWR performance may reflect differences in the amount of information that has been encoded in LTM rather than developmental changes in working memory capacity.

Morphological and syntactic awareness in poor comprehenders: another piece of the puzzle.

PubMed

Tong, Xiuli; Deacon, S Hélène; Cain, Kate

2014-01-01

Poor comprehenders have intact word-reading skills but struggle specifically with understanding what they read. We investigated whether two metalinguistic skills, morphological and syntactic awareness, are specifically related to poor reading comprehension by including separate and combined measures of each. We identified poor comprehenders (n = 15) and average comprehenders (n = 15) in Grade 4 who were matched on word-reading accuracy and speed, vocabulary, nonverbal cognitive ability, and age. The two groups performed comparably on a morphological awareness task that involved both morphological and syntactic cues. However, poor comprehenders performed less well than average comprehenders on a derivational word analogy task in which there was no additional syntactic information, thus tapping only morphological awareness, and also less well on a syntactic awareness task, in which there were no morphological manipulations. Our task and participant-selection process ruled out key nonmetalinguistic sources of influence on these tasks. These findings suggest that the relationships among reading comprehension, morphological awareness, and syntactic awareness depend on the tasks used to measure the latter two. Future research needs to identify precisely in which ways these metalinguistic difficulties connect to challenges with reading comprehension.

The semantic distance task: Quantifying semantic distance with semantic network path length.

PubMed

Kenett, Yoed N; Levi, Effi; Anaki, David; Faust, Miriam

2017-09-01

Semantic distance is a determining factor in cognitive processes, such as semantic priming, operating upon semantic memory. The main computational approach to compute semantic distance is through latent semantic analysis (LSA). However, objections have been raised against this approach, mainly in its failure at predicting semantic priming. We propose a novel approach to computing semantic distance, based on network science methodology. Path length in a semantic network represents the amount of steps needed to traverse from 1 word in the network to the other. We examine whether path length can be used as a measure of semantic distance, by investigating how path length affect performance in a semantic relatedness judgment task and recall from memory. Our results show a differential effect on performance: Up to 4 steps separating between word-pairs, participants exhibit an increase in reaction time (RT) and decrease in the percentage of word-pairs judged as related. From 4 steps onward, participants exhibit a significant decrease in RT and the word-pairs are dominantly judged as unrelated. Furthermore, we show that as path length between word-pairs increases, success in free- and cued-recall decreases. Finally, we demonstrate how our measure outperforms computational methods measuring semantic distance (LSA and positive pointwise mutual information) in predicting participants RT and subjective judgments of semantic strength. Thus, we provide a computational alternative to computing semantic distance. Furthermore, this approach addresses key issues in cognitive theory, namely the breadth of the spreading activation process and the effect of semantic distance on memory retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Research and Implementation of Tibetan Word Segmentation Based on Syllable Methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Jing; Li, Yachao; Jiang, Tao; Yu, Hongzhi

2018-03-01

Tibetan word segmentation (TWS) is an important problem in Tibetan information processing, while abbreviated word recognition is one of the key and most difficult problems in TWS. Most of the existing methods of Tibetan abbreviated word recognition are rule-based approaches, which need vocabulary support. In this paper, we propose a method based on sequence tagging model for abbreviated word recognition, and then implement in TWS systems with sequence labeling models. The experimental results show that our abbreviated word recognition method is fast and effective and can be combined easily with the segmentation model. This significantly increases the effect of the Tibetan word segmentation.

ON THE QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION OF THE TERMINOLOGY OF A VOCABULARY.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

KRAVETS, L.G.

THE CREATION OF AN INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM OF MACHINE TRANSLATION WITH AUTOMATIC INDEXING OF THE TRANSLATED MATERIALS PRESUMES THE DEVELOPMENT OF DICTIONARIES WHICH PROVIDE FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF KEY WORDS AND WORD COMBINATIONS, FOLLOWED BY THEIR TRANSLATION INTO THE DESCRIPTORS OF THE SEARCH LANGUAGE. THREE SIGNS WHICH SHOW THAT A GIVEN WORD IS A…

Role of hand dominance in mapping preferences for emotional-valence words to keypress responses.

PubMed

Song, Xiaolei; Chen, Jing; Proctor, Robert W

2017-10-01

When a crossed-hands placement (right hand presses left key; left hand presses right key) is used in a two-choice spatial reaction task, the mapping of left stimulus to left key and right stimulus to right key yields faster responses than the opposite mapping. In contrast, de la Vega, Dudschig, De Filippis, Lachmair, and Kaup (2013) reported that when right-handed individuals classified words as having positive or negative affect, there was a benefit for mapping positive affect to the right hand (left key) and negative affect to the left hand (right key). The goal of the present study was to replicate and extend this seemingly distinct finding. Experiment 1 duplicated the design of that study without including nonword "no-go" trials but including a condition in which participants performed with an uncrossed hand placement. Results corroborated the benefit for mapping positive to the right hand and negative to the left hand with the hands crossed, and this benefit was as large as that obtained with the hands uncrossed. Experiment 2 confirmed the importance of the dominant/subordinate hand distinction with left-handed participants, and Experiment 3 showed, with right-handed participants, that it does not depend on which limb is placed over the other. The results verify that the mapping advantage for positive→right/negative→left is indeed due to the distinction between dominant and subordinate hands. Possible reasons for the difference between these results and those obtained with spatial-location stimuli are considered. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Novel Lithium-ion Laminated Pouch Cell Tested For Performance And Safety

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jeevarajan, Judith A.; Inoue, Takefumi

2006-01-01

A new Li-ion 4.0 Ah pouch cell from GS Yuasa has been tested to determine its performance and safety. The cell is of a laminate pouch design with liquid electrolyte. The rate, thermal and vacuum performance capabilities have been tested to determine the optimum parameters. Under vacuum conditions, the cells were cycled under restrained and unrestrained configurations. The burst pressure of the laminate pouch was also determined. The overcharge, overdischarge into reversal and external short circuit safety tests were also performed to determine the cell s tolerance to abuse. Key Words: Li-ion, safety, vacuum test, abuse, COTS batteries, rate capability

Seamless Collapsible Fuel Tanks. Phase 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-03-01

TITLE (and Subtitle) 5. TYrE OF REPORT & PERIOD COVERED Final Report: Phase I Seamless Collapsible Fuel Tanks April 1980 - March 1982 6. PERFORMING...KEY WORDS (Continue on reverse side it neceessery nd identify by block number) tubular weaving, pillow tanks, fuel resistance , water resistance ...ends x 28 picks per inch in a plain or basket weave. The fabric is then coated both sides with an appropriate fuel- resistant compound, usually a nitrile

Resolving Phase Ambiguities In OQPSK

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nguyen, Tien M.

1991-01-01

Improved design for modulator and demodulator in offset-quaternary-phase-key-shifting (OQPSK) communication system enables receiver to resolve ambiguity in estimated phase of received signal. Features include unique-code-word modulation and detection and digital implementation of Costas loop in carrier-recovery subsystem. Enchances performance of carrier-recovery subsystem, reduces complexity of receiver by removing redundant circuits from previous design, and eliminates dependence of timing in receiver upon parallel-to-serial-conversion clock.

Kleene Algebra and Bytecode Verification

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-04-27

computing the star (Kleene closure) of a matrix of transfer functions. In this paper we show how this general framework applies to the problem of Java ...bytecode verification. We show how to specify transfer functions arising in Java bytecode verification in such a way that the Kleene algebra operations...potentially improve the performance over the standard worklist algorithm when a small cutset can be found. Key words: Java , bytecode, verification, static

Molecular epidemiology and phylogeny of Nipah virus infection: A mini review.

PubMed

Angeletti, Silvia; Lo Presti, Alessandra; Cella, Eleonora; Ciccozzi, Massimo

2016-07-01

Nipah virus (NiV) is a member of the genus Henipavirus of the family Paramyxoviridae, characterized by high pathogenicity and endemic in South Asia. It is classified as a Biosafety Level-4 (BSL-4) agent. The case-fatality varies from 40% to 70% depending on the severity of the disease and on the availability of adequate healthcare facilities. At present no antiviral drugs are available for NiV disease and the treatment is just supportive. Phylogenetic and evolutionary analyses can be used to help in understanding the epidemiology and the temporal origin of this virus. This review provides an overview of evolutionary studies performed on Nipah viruses circulating in different countries. Thirty phylogenetic studies have been published from 2000 to 2015 years, searching on pub-med using the key words 'Nipah virus AND phylogeny' and twenty-eight molecular epidemiological studies from 2006 to 2015 have been performed, typing the key words 'Nipah virus AND molecular epidemiology'. Overall data from the published study demonstrated as phylogenetic and evolutionary analysis represent promising tools to evidence NiV epidemics, to study their origin and evolution and finally to act with effective preventive measure. Copyright © 2016 Hainan Medical College. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Engaging Participation and Promoting Active Learning through Student Usage of the Internet to Create Notes for General Chemistry in Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, Renee Monica

2017-01-01

Reported here is a study of an interactive component to General Chemistry I and General Chemistry II where a new pedagogy for taking notes in class was developed. These notes, called key word created class notes, prompted students to locate information using the Internet guided by a key word. Reference Web sites were added to a next generation of…

Investigation of Pre-Service English Language Teachers' Cognitive Structures about Some Key Concepts in Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Course through Word Association Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ersanli, Ceylan Yangin

2016-01-01

This study aims to map the cognitive structure of pre-service English language (EL) teachers about three key concepts related to approaches and methods in language teaching so as to discover their learning process and misconceptions. The study involves both qualitative and quantitative data. The researcher administrated a Word Association Test…

KWOC (Key-Word-Out-of-Context) Index of US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Regulatory Guide Series

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jennings, S.D.

1990-04-01

To meet the objectives of the program funded by the Department of Energy (DOE)-Nuclear Energy (NE) Technology Support Programs, the Performance Assurance Project Office (PAPO) administers a Performance Assurance Information Program that collects, compiles, and distributes program-related information, reports, and publications for the benefit of the DOE-NE program participants. THE KWOC Index of US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Regulatory Guide Series'' is prepared as an aid in searching for specific topics in the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Regulatory Guide Series.

Arithmetic learning with the use of graphic organiser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sai, F. L.; Shahrill, M.; Tan, A.; Han, S. H.

2018-01-01

For this study, Zollman’s four corners-and-a-diamond mathematics graphic organiser embedded with Polya’s Problem Solving Model was used to investigate secondary school students’ performance in arithmetic word problems. This instructional learning tool was used to help students break down the given information into smaller units for better strategic planning. The participants were Year 7 students, comprised of 21 male and 20 female students, aged between 11-13 years old, from a co-ed secondary school in Brunei Darussalam. This study mainly adopted a quantitative approach to investigate the types of differences found in the arithmetic word problem pre- and post-tests results from the use of the learning tool. Although the findings revealed slight improvements in the overall comparisons of the students’ test results, the in-depth analysis of the students’ responses in their activity worksheets shows a different outcome. Some students were able to make good attempts in breaking down the key points into smaller information in order to solve the word problems.

Maintenance Rehearsal: The Key to the Role Attention Plays in Storage and Forgetting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McFarlane, Kimberley A.; Humphreys, Michael S.

2012-01-01

Research with the maintenance-rehearsal paradigm, in which word pairs are rehearsed as distractor material during a series of digit recall trials, has previously indicated that low frequency and new word pairs capture attention to a greater degree than high frequency and old word pairs. This impacts delayed recognition of the pairs and interferes…

South Carolina Word List, Grades 1-12. Basic Skills Assessment Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Instructional Objectives Exchange, Los Angeles, CA.

Designed as a resource for reading teachers who are attempting to enhance their students' fundamental reading skills and to permit the more rigorous determination of readability levels for both instructional materials and testing devices, this word list provides a grade-by-grade set of key words students need to master for grades 1 through 12 The…

Cascaded processing in written compound word production

PubMed Central

Bertram, Raymond; Tønnessen, Finn Egil; Strömqvist, Sven; Hyönä, Jukka; Niemi, Pekka

2015-01-01

In this study we investigated the intricate interplay between central linguistic processing and peripheral motor processes during typewriting. Participants had to typewrite two-constituent (noun-noun) Finnish compounds in response to picture presentation while their typing behavior was registered. As dependent measures we used writing onset time to assess what processes were completed before writing and inter-key intervals to assess what processes were going on during writing. It was found that writing onset time was determined by whole word frequency rather than constituent frequencies, indicating that compound words are retrieved as whole orthographic units before writing is initiated. In addition, we found that the length of the first syllable also affects writing onset time, indicating that the first syllable is fully prepared before writing commences. The inter-key interval results showed that linguistic planning is not fully ready before writing, but cascades into the motor execution phase. More specifically, inter-key intervals were largest at syllable and morpheme boundaries, supporting the view that additional linguistic planning takes place at these boundaries. Bigram and trigram frequency also affected inter-key intervals with shorter intervals corresponding to higher frequencies. This can be explained by stronger memory traces for frequently co-occurring letter sequences in the motor memory for typewriting. These frequency effects were even larger in the second than in the first constituent, indicating that low-level motor memory starts to become more important during the course of writing compound words. We discuss our results in the light of current models of morphological processing and written word production. PMID:25954182

Cascaded processing in written compound word production.

PubMed

Bertram, Raymond; Tønnessen, Finn Egil; Strömqvist, Sven; Hyönä, Jukka; Niemi, Pekka

2015-01-01

In this study we investigated the intricate interplay between central linguistic processing and peripheral motor processes during typewriting. Participants had to typewrite two-constituent (noun-noun) Finnish compounds in response to picture presentation while their typing behavior was registered. As dependent measures we used writing onset time to assess what processes were completed before writing and inter-key intervals to assess what processes were going on during writing. It was found that writing onset time was determined by whole word frequency rather than constituent frequencies, indicating that compound words are retrieved as whole orthographic units before writing is initiated. In addition, we found that the length of the first syllable also affects writing onset time, indicating that the first syllable is fully prepared before writing commences. The inter-key interval results showed that linguistic planning is not fully ready before writing, but cascades into the motor execution phase. More specifically, inter-key intervals were largest at syllable and morpheme boundaries, supporting the view that additional linguistic planning takes place at these boundaries. Bigram and trigram frequency also affected inter-key intervals with shorter intervals corresponding to higher frequencies. This can be explained by stronger memory traces for frequently co-occurring letter sequences in the motor memory for typewriting. These frequency effects were even larger in the second than in the first constituent, indicating that low-level motor memory starts to become more important during the course of writing compound words. We discuss our results in the light of current models of morphological processing and written word production.

[A visualization study of research papers on childhood tuberculous meningitis in China and abroad over the past decade].

PubMed

Gan, Jing; Ye, Shao-Lin; Luo, Rong; Mu, De-Zhi; Wan, Chao-Min

2016-05-01

To introduce co-word analysis into the analysis of the current research status of childhood tuberculous meningitis, to compare the similarities and differences in research topics of the field in China and abroad over the past decade, and to discover the advantages and weak links in the study field in China. PubMed, CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang Data were searched for the articles which met the inclusion criteria. Ucinet 6.0 and Netdraw were used for co-occurrence analysis, and the co-article relationship between high-frequency key words was visualized. A total of 226 articles abroad and 186 Chinese articles on childhood tuberculous meningitis were obtained. The figures for co-occurrence analysis of high-frequency key words in research articles on childhood tuberculous meningitis in China and abroad were successfully plotted. Compared with the studies in China, the studies abroad were more sophisticated and well-developed, with more studies on drug-resistant tuberculosis, the relationship between tuberculosis and AIDS, and the epidemiology of tuberculosis. The key words listed in the studies abroad were more standard. The studies in China on childhood tuberculous meningitis concentrated on vaccination and nursing. In general, the studies on childhood tuberculous meningitis in China and abroad have the same directions. The studies abroad have a complicated network and use more standard key words. The studies on childhood tuberculous meningitis are well conducted in China. However, more studies are needed for drug-resistant tuberculosis, the relationship between tuberculosis and AIDS, and the epidemiology of tuberculosis in future.

Effect of training on word-recognition performance in noise for young normal-hearing and older hearing-impaired listeners.

PubMed

Burk, Matthew H; Humes, Larry E; Amos, Nathan E; Strauser, Lauren E

2006-06-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a training program for hearing-impaired listeners to improve their speech-recognition performance within a background noise when listening to amplified speech. Both noise-masked young normal-hearing listeners, used to model the performance of elderly hearing-impaired listeners, and a group of elderly hearing-impaired listeners participated in the study. Of particular interest was whether training on an isolated word list presented by a standardized talker can generalize to everyday speech communication across novel talkers. Word-recognition performance was measured for both young normal-hearing (n = 16) and older hearing-impaired (n = 7) adults. Listeners were trained on a set of 75 monosyllabic words spoken by a single female talker over a 9- to 14-day period. Performance for the familiar (trained) talker was measured before and after training in both open-set and closed-set response conditions. Performance on the trained words of the familiar talker were then compared with those same words spoken by three novel talkers and to performance on a second set of untrained words presented by both the familiar and unfamiliar talkers. The hearing-impaired listeners returned 6 mo after their initial training to examine retention of the trained words as well as their ability to transfer any knowledge gained from word training to sentences containing both trained and untrained words. Both young normal-hearing and older hearing-impaired listeners performed significantly better on the word list in which they were trained versus a second untrained list presented by the same talker. Improvements on the untrained words were small but significant, indicating some generalization to novel words. The large increase in performance on the trained words, however, was maintained across novel talkers, pointing to the listener's greater focus on lexical memorization of the words rather than a focus on talker-specific acoustic characteristics. On return in 6 mo, listeners performed significantly better on the trained words relative to their initial baseline performance. Although the listeners performed significantly better on trained versus untrained words in isolation, once the trained words were embedded in sentences, no improvement in recognition over untrained words within the same sentences was shown. Older hearing-impaired listeners were able to significantly improve their word-recognition abilities through training with one talker and to the same degree as young normal-hearing listeners. The improved performance was maintained across talkers and across time. This might imply that training a listener using a standardized list and talker may still provide benefit when these same words are presented by novel talkers outside the clinic. However, training on isolated words was not sufficient to transfer to fluent speech for the specific sentence materials used within this study. Further investigation is needed regarding approaches to improve a hearing aid user's speech understanding in everyday communication situations.

Impact of Prominent Themes in Clinician-Patient Conversations on Caregiver's Perceived Quality of Communication with Paediatric Dental Visits.

PubMed

Wong, Hai Ming; Bridges, Susan Margaret; McGrath, Colman Patrick; Yiu, Cynthia Kar Yung; Zayts, Olga A; Au, Terry Kit Fong

2017-01-01

Patients' perceived satisfaction is a key performance index of the quality health care service. Good communication has been found to increase patient's perceived satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the prominent themes arising from clinician-patient conversations on the caregiver's perceived quality of communication during paediatric dental visits. 162 video recordings of clinical dental consultations for 62 cases attending the Paediatric Dentistry Clinic of The Prince Philip Dental Hospital in Hong Kong were captured and transcribed. The patients' demographic information and the caregiver's perceived quality of communication with the clinicians were recorded using the 16-item Dental Patient Feedback on Consultation skills questionnaires. Visual text analytics (Leximancer™) indicated five prominent themes 'disease / treatment', 'treatment procedure related instructions', 'preparation for examination', 'positive reinforcement / reassurance', and 'family / social history' from the clinician-patient conversation of the recorded videos, with 60.2% of the total variance in concept words in this study explained through principal components analysis. Significant variation in perceived quality of communication was noted in five variables regarding the prominent theme 'Positive reinforcement / reassurance': 'number of related words' (p = 0.002), 'number of related utterances' (p = 0.001), 'percentage of the related words in total number of words' (p = 0.005), 'percentage of the related utterances in total number of utterances' (p = 0.035) and 'percentage of time spent in total time duration' (p = 0.023). Clinicians were perceived to be more patient-centered and empathetic if a larger proportion of their conversation showed positive reinforcement and reassurance via using related key words. Care-giver's involvement, such as clinicians' mention of the parent, was also seen as critical to perceptions of quality clinical experience. The study reveals the potential of the application of visual text analytics software in clinical consultations with implications for professional development regarding clinicians' communication skills for improving patients' clinical experiences and treatment satisfaction.

Neural correlates of the individual emotional Stroop in borderline personality disorder.

PubMed

Wingenfeld, Katja; Rullkoetter, Nina; Mensebach, Christoph; Beblo, Thomas; Mertens, Markus; Kreisel, Stefan; Toepper, Max; Driessen, Martin; Woermann, Friedrich G

2009-05-01

Emotional dysregulation is a key feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD) with altered inhibitory functions having suggested as being crucial. The anterior cingulate cortex and further prefrontal brain regions are crucial for response inhibition. The regulation of emotions is ensured via inhibitory control over the amygdala. The present study aimed to investigate neural correlates of response inhibition in BPD by using an emotional Stroop paradigm extending the task to word stimuli which were related to stressful life events. Twenty BPD patients and 20 healthy controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing the individual emotional Stroop task. A block design was used with the following word type conditions: neutral words, general negative words, and individual negative words. The individual negative words were recruited from a prior interview conducted with each participant. While BPD patients had overall slower reaction times in the Stroop task compared to healthy controls, there was no increased slowing with emotional interference. Controls exhibited significant fMRI blood oxygenation level-dependent signal increases in the anterior cingulate cortex as well as in frontal cortex contrasting generally negative vs. neutral and individual negative vs. neutral conditions, respectively. BPD patients did not show equivalent signal changes. These results provide further evidence for a dysfunctional network of brain areas in BPD, including the ACC and frontal brain regions. These areas are crucial for the regulation of stress and emotions, the core problems of BPD patients.

A more secure parallel keyed hash function based on chaotic neural network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Zhongquan

2011-08-01

Although various hash functions based on chaos or chaotic neural network were proposed, most of them can not work efficiently in parallel computing environment. Recently, an algorithm for parallel keyed hash function construction based on chaotic neural network was proposed [13]. However, there is a strict limitation in this scheme that its secret keys must be nonce numbers. In other words, if the keys are used more than once in this scheme, there will be some potential security flaw. In this paper, we analyze the cause of vulnerability of the original one in detail, and then propose the corresponding enhancement measures, which can remove the limitation on the secret keys. Theoretical analysis and computer simulation indicate that the modified hash function is more secure and practical than the original one. At the same time, it can keep the parallel merit and satisfy the other performance requirements of hash function, such as good statistical properties, high message and key sensitivity, and strong collision resistance, etc.

Rotorcraft Low Altitude CNS (Communications, Navigation and Surveillance) Benefit/Cost Analysis, Rotorcraft Operations Data

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-09-01

inventory of rotorcraft activity by mission and location. 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement Helicopter Helicopter Missions This document is available...helicopter is used to transport skiers /hikers to remote, normally inaccessible places. This mission is performed in rural or wilderness areas at altitudes...their applicability to the CNS benefit/cost analysis. Because of the uncertainty in the knowledge of the characteristics of both current and future

Latitudinal Variations of Auroral-Zone Ionization Distribution.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-02-01

CONTRACT OR GRANT NUMBER(s) Robert M. Robinson F49620-80-C-0014 Roland T. Tsunoda 9. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS 10. PROGRAM ELEMENT , PROJECT...scanned. A. Auroral Zone Ionospheric Conductivity A key element in modelling the magnetosphere-ionosphere circuit is the auroral zone ionospheric...while the maximum conductivity for the evening eastward electro- jet was less than 20 mho in our data set . In other words, both the south- ward field and

The Shock and Vibration Digest. Volume 15, Number 12

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-12-01

dletuning pendulums were claimed to be successful in limited tests [1-4, 12, 13,20, 22-24]. Pohlman and Landers [19] discussed the uniform and nonuniform ...figs. 24 refs 56 Key Words: Impact tests, Columns, Crash research lair - 83-2507 craft) Tramaoni Time-Reqapome Anady.. of 34Depeeiof- Freedom...series with the stiffness of the 83-2517 engine pedestal. The effects of cavitation on performance are Experience with Nonuniform Damping in the Seinic

Microbiological Water Quality of Impoundments: A Literature Review.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-12-01

A123-470 MICROBIOLOGICAL WATER QUALITY OF IMPOUNDMENTS:A i/i LITERATURE REYIEU(U) TEX S UNJY AT DALLAS RICHRDSON G BURTON DEC 82 NES/MP/E-82-6...REPORT G PERIOD COVERED . MICROBIOLOGICAL WATER QUALITY OF IMPOUNDMENTS: Final report A LITERATURE REVIEW 6. PERFORMING ORG. REPORT NUMBER 7. AUTHOR...Va. 22151. IS. KEY WORDS (Continue an reverse side It necessary mid Identify by black numnber) Bacteria Water quality S Impoundments Water sampling

Recommendations for Review of TRADOC Pam 351-4(T).

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-07-08

demonstrate proficiency in performing task at speed required on the job . Overtrain - Trainee must be trained to a high standard of retention ...20, It different from Report) OI. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 1. KEY WORDS (Continue on reveree aide It necessary and Identify by block number) Job Analysis...the analysis effort. The terminology in 351-4 is confusing. For example, no distinction is made between job and task analysis. There are no practical

Spotting words in handwritten Arabic documents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Srihari, Sargur; Srinivasan, Harish; Babu, Pavithra; Bhole, Chetan

2006-01-01

The design and performance of a system for spotting handwritten Arabic words in scanned document images is presented. Three main components of the system are a word segmenter, a shape based matcher for words and a search interface. The user types in a query in English within a search window, the system finds the equivalent Arabic word, e.g., by dictionary look-up, locates word images in an indexed (segmented) set of documents. A two-step approach is employed in performing the search: (1) prototype selection: the query is used to obtain a set of handwritten samples of that word from a known set of writers (these are the prototypes), and (2) word matching: the prototypes are used to spot each occurrence of those words in the indexed document database. A ranking is performed on the entire set of test word images-- where the ranking criterion is a similarity score between each prototype word and the candidate words based on global word shape features. A database of 20,000 word images contained in 100 scanned handwritten Arabic documents written by 10 different writers was used to study retrieval performance. Using five writers for providing prototypes and the other five for testing, using manually segmented documents, 55% precision is obtained at 50% recall. Performance increases as more writers are used for training.

Implicit semantic priming in Spanish-speaking children and adults: an auditory lexical decision task.

PubMed

Girbau, Dolors; Schwartz, Richard G

2011-05-01

Although receptive priming has long been used as a way to examine lexical access in adults, few studies have applied this method to children and rarely in an auditory modality. We compared auditory associative priming in children and adults. A testing battery and a Lexical Decision (LD) task was administered to 42 adults and 27 children (8;1-10; 11 years-old) from Spain. They listened to Spanish word pairs (semantically related/unrelated word pairs and word-pseudoword pairs), and tone pairs. Then participants pressed one key for word pairs, and another for pairs with a word and a pseudoword. They also had to press the two keys alternatively for tone pairs as a basic auditory control. Both groups of participants, children and adults, exhibited semantic priming, with significantly faster Reaction Times (RTs) to semantically related word pairs than to unrelated pairs and to the two word-pseudoword sets. The priming effect was twice as large in the adults compared to children, and the children (not the adults) were significantly slower in their response to word-pseudoword pairs than to the unrelated word pairs. Moreover, accuracy was somewhat higher in adults than children for each word pair type, but especially in the word-pseudoword pairs. As expected, children were significantly slower than adults in the RTs for all stimulus types, and their RTs decreased significantly from 8 to 10 years of age and they also decreased in relation to some of their language abilities development (e.g., relative clauses comprehension). In both age groups, the Reaction Time average for tone pairs was lower than for speech pairs, but only all adults obtained 100% accuracy (which was slightly lower in children). Auditory processing and semantic networks are still developing in 8-10 year old children.

The Princeton Review: Word Smart--Building an Educated Vocabulary. Revised Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Adam; And Others

Based on the idea that knowing which words to use and how to use them are keys to an individual's getting the most from his or her mind, this book aims to improve people's vocabularies. To find out which words should be known, research into the vocabularies of educated adults was conducted by "The Princeton Review." Newspapers from…

What Paves the Way to Conventional Language? The Predictive Value of Babble, Pointing, and Socioeconomic Status

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGillion, Michelle; Herbert, Jane S.; Pine, Julian; Vihman, Marilyn; dePaolis, Rory; Keren-Portnoy, Tamar; Matthews, Danielle

2017-01-01

A child's first words mark the emergence of a uniquely human ability. Theories of the developmental steps that pave the way for word production have proposed that either vocal or gestural precursors are key. These accounts were tested by assessing the developmental synchrony in the onset of babbling, pointing, and word production for 46 infants…

Required attention for synthesized speech perception for three levels of linguistic redundancy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simpson, C. A.; Hart, S. G.

1977-01-01

The study evaluates the attention required for synthesized speech perception with reference to three levels of linguistic redundancy. Twelve commercial airline pilots were individually tested for 16 cockpit warning messages eight of which consisted of two monosyllabic key words and eight of which consisted of two polysyllabic key words. Three levels of linguistic redundancy were identified: monosyllabic words, polysyllabic words, and sentences. The experiment contained a message familiarization phase and a message recognition phase. It was found that: (1) when the messages are part of a previously learned and recently heard set, and the subject is familiar with the phrasing, the attention needed to recognize the message is not a function of the level of linguistic redundancy, and (2) there is a quantitative and qualitative difference between recognition and comprehension processes; only in the case of active comprehension does additional redundancy reduce attention requirements.

Cognitive Abilities Explain Wording Effects in the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale.

PubMed

Gnambs, Timo; Schroeders, Ulrich

2017-12-01

There is consensus that the 10 items of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) reflect wording effects resulting from positively and negatively keyed items. The present study examined the effects of cognitive abilities on the factor structure of the RSES with a novel, nonparametric latent variable technique called local structural equation models. In a nationally representative German large-scale assessment including 12,437 students competing measurement models for the RSES were compared: a bifactor model with a common factor and a specific factor for all negatively worded items had an optimal fit. Local structural equation models showed that the unidimensionality of the scale increased with higher levels of reading competence and reasoning, while the proportion of variance attributed to the negatively keyed items declined. Wording effects on the factor structure of the RSES seem to represent a response style artifact associated with cognitive abilities.

A UMLS-based spell checker for natural language processing in vaccine safety.

PubMed

Tolentino, Herman D; Matters, Michael D; Walop, Wikke; Law, Barbara; Tong, Wesley; Liu, Fang; Fontelo, Paul; Kohl, Katrin; Payne, Daniel C

2007-02-12

The Institute of Medicine has identified patient safety as a key goal for health care in the United States. Detecting vaccine adverse events is an important public health activity that contributes to patient safety. Reports about adverse events following immunization (AEFI) from surveillance systems contain free-text components that can be analyzed using natural language processing. To extract Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) concepts from free text and classify AEFI reports based on concepts they contain, we first needed to clean the text by expanding abbreviations and shortcuts and correcting spelling errors. Our objective in this paper was to create a UMLS-based spelling error correction tool as a first step in the natural language processing (NLP) pipeline for AEFI reports. We developed spell checking algorithms using open source tools. We used de-identified AEFI surveillance reports to create free-text data sets for analysis. After expansion of abbreviated clinical terms and shortcuts, we performed spelling correction in four steps: (1) error detection, (2) word list generation, (3) word list disambiguation and (4) error correction. We then measured the performance of the resulting spell checker by comparing it to manual correction. We used 12,056 words to train the spell checker and tested its performance on 8,131 words. During testing, sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value (PPV) for the spell checker were 74% (95% CI: 74-75), 100% (95% CI: 100-100), and 47% (95% CI: 46%-48%), respectively. We created a prototype spell checker that can be used to process AEFI reports. We used the UMLS Specialist Lexicon as the primary source of dictionary terms and the WordNet lexicon as a secondary source. We used the UMLS as a domain-specific source of dictionary terms to compare potentially misspelled words in the corpus. The prototype sensitivity was comparable to currently available tools, but the specificity was much superior. The slow processing speed may be improved by trimming it down to the most useful component algorithms. Other investigators may find the methods we developed useful for cleaning text using lexicons specific to their area of interest.

A UMLS-based spell checker for natural language processing in vaccine safety

PubMed Central

Tolentino, Herman D; Matters, Michael D; Walop, Wikke; Law, Barbara; Tong, Wesley; Liu, Fang; Fontelo, Paul; Kohl, Katrin; Payne, Daniel C

2007-01-01

Background The Institute of Medicine has identified patient safety as a key goal for health care in the United States. Detecting vaccine adverse events is an important public health activity that contributes to patient safety. Reports about adverse events following immunization (AEFI) from surveillance systems contain free-text components that can be analyzed using natural language processing. To extract Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) concepts from free text and classify AEFI reports based on concepts they contain, we first needed to clean the text by expanding abbreviations and shortcuts and correcting spelling errors. Our objective in this paper was to create a UMLS-based spelling error correction tool as a first step in the natural language processing (NLP) pipeline for AEFI reports. Methods We developed spell checking algorithms using open source tools. We used de-identified AEFI surveillance reports to create free-text data sets for analysis. After expansion of abbreviated clinical terms and shortcuts, we performed spelling correction in four steps: (1) error detection, (2) word list generation, (3) word list disambiguation and (4) error correction. We then measured the performance of the resulting spell checker by comparing it to manual correction. Results We used 12,056 words to train the spell checker and tested its performance on 8,131 words. During testing, sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value (PPV) for the spell checker were 74% (95% CI: 74–75), 100% (95% CI: 100–100), and 47% (95% CI: 46%–48%), respectively. Conclusion We created a prototype spell checker that can be used to process AEFI reports. We used the UMLS Specialist Lexicon as the primary source of dictionary terms and the WordNet lexicon as a secondary source. We used the UMLS as a domain-specific source of dictionary terms to compare potentially misspelled words in the corpus. The prototype sensitivity was comparable to currently available tools, but the specificity was much superior. The slow processing speed may be improved by trimming it down to the most useful component algorithms. Other investigators may find the methods we developed useful for cleaning text using lexicons specific to their area of interest. PMID:17295907

Swearing, Euphemisms, and Linguistic Relativity

PubMed Central

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

Neural network for interpretation of multi-meaning Chinese words

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Qianhua; Xu, Bingzheng

1994-03-01

We proposed a neural network that can interpret multi-meaning Chinese words correctly by using context information. The self-organized network, designed for translating Chinese to English, builds a context according to key words of the processed text and utilizes it to interpret multi-meaning words correctly. The network is generated automatically basing on a Chinese-English dictionary and a knowledge-base of weights, and can adapt to the change of contexts. Simulation experiments have proved that the network worked as expected.

Exploiting domain information for Word Sense Disambiguation of medical documents.

PubMed

Stevenson, Mark; Agirre, Eneko; Soroa, Aitor

2012-01-01

Current techniques for knowledge-based Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) of ambiguous biomedical terms rely on relations in the Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus but do not take into account the domain of the target documents. The authors' goal is to improve these methods by using information about the topic of the document in which the ambiguous term appears. The authors proposed and implemented several methods to extract lists of key terms associated with Medical Subject Heading terms. These key terms are used to represent the document topic in a knowledge-based WSD system. They are applied both alone and in combination with local context. A standard measure of accuracy was calculated over the set of target words in the widely used National Library of Medicine WSD dataset. The authors report a significant improvement when combining those key terms with local context, showing that domain information improves the results of a WSD system based on the Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus alone. The best results were obtained using key terms obtained by relevance feedback and weighted by inverse document frequency.

Exploiting domain information for Word Sense Disambiguation of medical documents

PubMed Central

Agirre, Eneko; Soroa, Aitor

2011-01-01

Objective Current techniques for knowledge-based Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) of ambiguous biomedical terms rely on relations in the Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus but do not take into account the domain of the target documents. The authors' goal is to improve these methods by using information about the topic of the document in which the ambiguous term appears. Design The authors proposed and implemented several methods to extract lists of key terms associated with Medical Subject Heading terms. These key terms are used to represent the document topic in a knowledge-based WSD system. They are applied both alone and in combination with local context. Measurements A standard measure of accuracy was calculated over the set of target words in the widely used National Library of Medicine WSD dataset. Results and discussion The authors report a significant improvement when combining those key terms with local context, showing that domain information improves the results of a WSD system based on the Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus alone. The best results were obtained using key terms obtained by relevance feedback and weighted by inverse document frequency. PMID:21900701

Making a Bigger Deal of the Smaller Words: Function Words and Other Key Items in Research Writing by Chinese Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, David Y. W.; Chen, Sylvia Xiao

2009-01-01

In many mainland Chinese universities, undergraduate students specializing in English language and applied linguistics are required to write a dissertation, in English, of about 5000 words exploring some aspect of original research. This is a task which is of considerable difficulty not only at the genre or discourse level but also at the…

An English-French-German-Spanish Word Frequency Dictionary: A Correlation of the First Six Thousand Words in Four Single-Language Frequency Lists.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eaton, Helen S., Comp.

This semantic frequency list for English, French, German, and Spanish correlates 6,474 concepts represented by individual words in an order of diminishing occurrence. Designed as a research tool, the work is segmented into seven comparative "Thousand Concepts" lists with 115 sectional subdivisions, each of which begins with the key English word…

New ways to analyze word generation performance in brain injury: A systematic review and meta-analysis of additional performance measures.

PubMed

Thiele, Kristina; Quinting, Jana Marie; Stenneken, Prisca

2016-09-01

The investigation of word generation performance is an accepted, widely used, and well-established method for examining cognitive, language, or communication impairment due to brain damage. The performance measure traditionally applied in the investigation of word generation is the number of correct responses. Previous studies, however, have suggested that this measure does not capture all potentially relevant aspects of word generation performance and hence its underlying processes, so that its analytical and explanatory power of word generation performance might be rather limited. Therefore, additional qualitative or quantitative performance measures have been introduced to gain information that goes beyond the deficit and allows for therapeutic implications. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of original research that focused on the application of additional measures of word generation performance in adult clinical populations with acquired brain injury. Word generation tasks are an integral part of many different tests, but only few use additional performance measures in addition to the number of correct responses in the analysis of word generation performance. Additional measures, which showed increased or similar diagnostic utility relative to the traditional performance measure, regarded clustering and switching, error types, and temporal characteristics. The potential of additional performance measures is not yet fully exhausted in patients with brain injury. The temporal measure of response latencies in particular is not adequately represented, though it may be a reliable measure especially for identifying subtle impairments. Unfortunately, there is no general consensus as of yet on which additional measures are best suited to characterizing word generation performance. Further research is needed to specify the additional parameters that are best qualified for identifying and characterizing impaired word generation performance.

Processing negative valence of word pairs that include a positive word.

PubMed

Itkes, Oksana; Mashal, Nira

2016-09-01

Previous research has suggested that cognitive performance is interrupted by negative relative to neutral or positive stimuli. We examined whether negative valence affects performance at the word or phrase level. Participants performed a semantic decision task on word pairs that included either a negative or a positive target word. In Experiment 1, the valence of the target word was congruent with the overall valence conveyed by the word pair (e.g., fat kid). As expected, response times were slower in the negative condition relative to the positive condition. Experiment 2 included target words that were incongruent with the overall valence of the word pair (e.g., fat salary). Response times were longer for word pairs whose overall valence was negative relative to positive, even though these word pairs included a positive word. Our findings support the Cognitive Primacy Hypothesis, according to which emotional valence is extracted after conceptual processing is complete.

CIM explorer--intelligent tool for exploring the ICD Romanian version.

PubMed

Filip, F; Haras, C

2000-01-01

The CIM Explorer software provides us with an intelligent interface for exploring the Romanian version of the International Classification of Diseases (in Romanian Clasificarea Internationala a Maladiilor-CIM). The ICD was transposed from its initial appearance as a printed document into a database. The classification can be accessed in two modes: "Navigation" and "Code" and queried in the "Key words" mode. In the last mode CIM Explorer program searches for the right content of the ICD records starting from naturally written expressions which it "understands". As a results it returns all the records containing the key words regardless their grammatical form. This program implements the specificity of the Romanian language where the words are made up from a root and a flexional termination.

Cerebral Economics: Resource Competition within but not Between Hemispheres.

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-06-01

the Office of Naval Research and by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. 19. KEY WORDS (Continue on reveree side ifneceset, and Identify by...consistent RVF advantage on the naming task when it LI 6 was performed alone, the effect of adding the memory load made left hemisphere resources so...might be argued that the equivalent tradeoff effects we found when comparing the complete with the partial overlap situation might be evidence for some

USSR Space Life Sciences Digest. Index to issues 15-20

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hooke, Lydia Razran (Editor)

1989-01-01

This bibliography provides an index to issues 15 through 20 of the USSR Space Life Sciences Digest. There are two sections. The first section lists bibliographic citations of abstracts in these issues, grouped by topic area categories. The second section provides a key word index for the same abstracts. The topic categories include exobiology, space medicine and psychology, human performance and man-machine systems, various life/body systems, human behavior and adaptation, biospherics, and others.

USSR Space Life Sciences Digest. Index to issues 21-25

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hooke, Lydia Razran (Editor)

1990-01-01

This bibliography provides an index to issues 21 through 25 of the USSR Space Life Sciences Digest. There are two sections. The first section lists bibliographic citations of abstracts in these issues, grouped by topic area categories. The second section provides a key word index for the same abstracts. The topic categories include exobiology, space medicine and psychology, human performance and man-machine systems, various life/body systems, human behavior and adaptation, biospherics, and others.

USSR Space Life Sciences Digest. Index to issues 26-29

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stone, Lydia Razran (Editor)

1991-01-01

This bibliography provides an index to issues 26 through 29 of the USSR Space Life Sciences Digest. There are two sections. The first section lists bibliographic citations of abstracts in these issues, grouped by topic area categories. The second section provides a key word index for the same abstracts. The topic categories include exobiology, space medicine and psychology, human performance and man-machine systems, various life/body systems, human behavior and adaptation, biospherics, and others.

Changes in Nutrient Intakes of Conditioned Men during a 5-Day Period of Increased Physical Activity and Other Stresses

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-06-01

SUBJECT TERMS (Continue on reverse if necessary and identify by block number) FIELD GROUP SUB-GROUP nutrition minerals energy balanQe vitamins 19...Introduction and urinary constituents of 16 Navy servicemen were obtained before and during a period of 113 It is an axiom that proper nutrition will...deprivation. Psychological stresses included verbal confrontations, perform- Key words: Nutrition >- Energy balance -- Vita- ance anxiety, and activities with

Effects of a Word-Learning Training on Children With Cochlear Implants

PubMed Central

Lund, Emily

2014-01-01

Preschool children with hearing loss who use cochlear implants demonstrate vocabulary delays when compared to their peers without hearing loss. These delays may be a result of deficient word-learning abilities; children with cochlear implants perform more poorly on rapid word-learning tasks than children with normal hearing. This study explored the malleability of rapid word learning of preschoolers with cochlear implants by evaluating the effects of a word-learning training on rapid word learning. A single-subject, multiple probe design across participants measured the impact of the training on children’s rapid word-learning performance. Participants included 5 preschool children with cochlear implants who had an expressive lexicon of less than 150 words. An investigator guided children to identify, repeat, and learn about unknown sets of words in 2-weekly sessions across 10 weeks. The probe measure, a rapid word-learning task with a different set of words than those taught during training, was collected in the baseline, training, and maintenance conditions. All participants improved their receptive rapid word-learning performance in the training condition. The functional relation indicates that the receptive rapid word-learning performance of children with cochlear implants is malleable. PMID:23981321

Lexical and age effects on word recognition in noise in normal-hearing children.

PubMed

Ren, Cuncun; Liu, Sha; Liu, Haihong; Kong, Ying; Liu, Xin; Li, Shujing

2015-12-01

The purposes of the present study were (1) to examine the lexical and age effects on word recognition of normal-hearing (NH) children in noise, and (2) to compare the word-recognition performance in noise to that in quiet listening conditions. Participants were 213 NH children (age ranged between 3 and 6 years old). Eighty-nine and 124 of the participants were tested in noise and quiet listening conditions, respectively. The Standard-Chinese Lexical Neighborhood Test, which contains lists of words in four lexical categories (i.e., dissyllablic easy (DE), dissyllablic hard (DH), monosyllable easy (ME), and monosyllable hard (MH)) was used to evaluate the Mandarin Chinese word recognition in speech spectrum-shaped noise (SSN) with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 0dB. A two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted to examine the lexical effects with syllable length and difficulty level as the main factors on word recognition in the quiet and noise listening conditions. The effects of age on word-recognition performance were examined using a regression model. The word-recognition performance in noise was significantly poorer than that in quiet and the individual variations in performance in noise were much greater than those in quiet. Word recognition scores showed that the lexical effects were significant in the SSN. Children scored higher with dissyllabic words than with monosyllabic words; "easy" words scored higher than "hard" words in the noise condition. The scores of the NH children in the SSN (SNR=0dB) for the DE, DH, ME, and MH words were 85.4, 65.9, 71.7, and 46.2% correct, respectively. The word-recognition performance also increased with age in each lexical category for the NH children tested in noise. Both age and lexical characteristics of words had significant influences on the performance of Mandarin-Chinese word recognition in noise. The lexical effects were more obvious under noise listening conditions than in quiet. The word-recognition performance in noise increased with age in NH children of 3-6 years old and had not reached plateau at 6 years of age in the NH children. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Developmental change in children's sensitivity to sound symbolism.

PubMed

Tzeng, Christina Y; Nygaard, Lynne C; Namy, Laura L

2017-08-01

The current study examined developmental change in children's sensitivity to sound symbolism. Three-, five-, and seven-year-old children heard sound symbolic novel words and foreign words meaning round and pointy and chose which of two pictures (one round and one pointy) best corresponded to each word they heard. Task performance varied as a function of both word type and age group such that accuracy was greater for novel words than for foreign words, and task performance increased with age for both word types. For novel words, children in all age groups reliably chose the correct corresponding picture. For foreign words, 3-year-olds showed chance performance, whereas 5- and 7-year-olds showed reliably above-chance performance. Results suggest increased sensitivity to sound symbolic cues with development and imply that although sensitivity to sound symbolism may be available early and facilitate children's word-referent mappings, sensitivity to subtler sound symbolic cues requires greater language experience. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Nuclear facility decommissioning and site remedial actions: A selected bibliography, Volume 13: Part 2, Indexes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Goins, L.F.; Webb, J.R.; Cravens, C.D.

1992-09-01

This is part 2 of a bibliography on nuclear facility decommissioning and site remedial action. This report contains indexes on the following: authors, corporate affiliation, title words, publication description, geographic location, subject category, and key word.

Longitudinal changes in speech recognition in older persons.

PubMed

Dubno, Judy R; Lee, Fu-Shing; Matthews, Lois J; Ahlstrom, Jayne B; Horwitz, Amy R; Mills, John H

2008-01-01

Recognition of isolated monosyllabic words in quiet and recognition of key words in low- and high-context sentences in babble were measured in a large sample of older persons enrolled in a longitudinal study of age-related hearing loss. Repeated measures were obtained yearly or every 2 to 3 years. To control for concurrent changes in pure-tone thresholds and speech levels, speech-recognition scores were adjusted using an importance-weighted speech-audibility metric (AI). Linear-regression slope estimated the rate of change in adjusted speech-recognition scores. Recognition of words in quiet declined significantly faster with age than predicted by declines in speech audibility. As subjects aged, observed scores deviated increasingly from AI-predicted scores, but this effect did not accelerate with age. Rate of decline in word recognition was significantly faster for females than males and for females with high serum progesterone levels, whereas noise history had no effect. Rate of decline did not accelerate with age but increased with degree of hearing loss, suggesting that with more severe injury to the auditory system, impairments to auditory function other than reduced audibility resulted in faster declines in word recognition as subjects aged. Recognition of key words in low- and high-context sentences in babble did not decline significantly with age.

Analysis of word number and content in discourse of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

de Lira, Juliana Onofre; Minett, Thaís Soares Cianciarullo; Bertolucci, Paulo Henrique Ferreira; Ortiz, Karin Zazo

2014-01-01

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by impairments in memory and other cognitive functions such as language, which can be affected in all aspects including discourse. A picture description task is considered an effective way of obtaining a discourse sample whose key feature is the ability to retrieve appropriate lexical items. There is no consensus on findings showing that performance in content processing of spoken discourse deteriorates from the mildest phase of AD. To compare the quantity and quality of discourse among patients with mild to moderate AD and controls. A cross-sectional study was designed. Subjects aged 50 years and older of both sexes, with one year or more of education, were divided into three groups: control (CG), mild AD (ADG1) and moderate AD (ADG2). Participants were asked to describe the "cookie theft" picture. The total number of complete words spoken and information units (IU) were included in the analysis. There was no significant difference among groups in terms of age, schooling and sex. For number of words spoken, the CG performed significantly better than both the ADG 1 and ADG2, but no difference between the two latter groups was found. CG produced almost twice as many information units as the ADG1 and more than double that of the ADG2. Moreover, ADG2 patients had worse performance on IUs compared to the ADG1. Decreased performance in quantity and content of discourse was evident in patients with AD from the mildest phase, but only content (IU) continued to worsen with disease progression.

Analysis of word number and content in discourse of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease

PubMed Central

de Lira, Juliana Onofre; Minett, Thaís Soares Cianciarullo; Bertolucci, Paulo Henrique Ferreira; Ortiz, Karin Zazo

2014-01-01

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by impairments in memory and other cognitive functions such as language, which can be affected in all aspects including discourse. A picture description task is considered an effective way of obtaining a discourse sample whose key feature is the ability to retrieve appropriate lexical items. There is no consensus on findings showing that performance in content processing of spoken discourse deteriorates from the mildest phase of AD. Objective To compare the quantity and quality of discourse among patients with mild to moderate AD and controls. Methods A cross-sectional study was designed. Subjects aged 50 years and older of both sexes, with one year or more of education, were divided into three groups: control (CG), mild AD (ADG1) and moderate AD (ADG2). Participants were asked to describe the "cookie theft" picture. The total number of complete words spoken and information units (IU) were included in the analysis. Results There was no significant difference among groups in terms of age, schooling and sex. For number of words spoken, the CG performed significantly better than both the ADG 1 and ADG2, but no difference between the two latter groups was found. CG produced almost twice as many information units as the ADG1 and more than double that of the ADG2. Moreover, ADG2 patients had worse performance on IUs compared to the ADG1. Conclusion Decreased performance in quantity and content of discourse was evident in patients with AD from the mildest phase, but only content (IU) continued to worsen with disease progression. PMID:29213912

Implicit phonological priming during visual word recognition.

PubMed

Wilson, Lisa B; Tregellas, Jason R; Slason, Erin; Pasko, Bryce E; Rojas, Donald C

2011-03-15

Phonology is a lower-level structural aspect of language involving the sounds of a language and their organization in that language. Numerous behavioral studies utilizing priming, which refers to an increased sensitivity to a stimulus following prior experience with that or a related stimulus, have provided evidence for the role of phonology in visual word recognition. However, most language studies utilizing priming in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have focused on lexical-semantic aspects of language processing. The aim of the present study was to investigate the neurobiological substrates of the automatic, implicit stages of phonological processing. While undergoing fMRI, eighteen individuals performed a lexical decision task (LDT) on prime-target pairs including word-word homophone and pseudoword-word pseudohomophone pairs with a prime presentation below perceptual threshold. Whole-brain analyses revealed several cortical regions exhibiting hemodynamic response suppression due to phonological priming including bilateral superior temporal gyri (STG), middle temporal gyri (MTG), and angular gyri (AG) with additional region of interest (ROI) analyses revealing response suppression in the left lateralized supramarginal gyrus (SMG). Homophone and pseudohomophone priming also resulted in different patterns of hemodynamic responses relative to one another. These results suggest that phonological processing plays a key role in visual word recognition. Furthermore, enhanced hemodynamic responses for unrelated stimuli relative to primed stimuli were observed in midline cortical regions corresponding to the default-mode network (DMN) suggesting that DMN activity can be modulated by task requirements within the context of an implicit task. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Daytime Nap Facilitates Generalization of Word Meanings in Young Toddlers

PubMed Central

Horváth, Klára; Liu, Siying; Plunkett, Kim

2016-01-01

Study Objectives: One of the key processes in language development is generalization—the selection and extension of relevant features and information to similar objects and concepts. Little is known about how sleep influences generalization, and studies on the topic are inconclusive. Our aim was to investigate how a nap affects generalization in 16-mo-olds. We hypothesized that a nap is necessary for successful generalization of word meanings. Methods: Twenty-eight 16-mo-old, typically developing toddlers were randomly assigned to nap and wake groups. We trained toddlers with two novel object-word pairs and tested their initial ability to generalize. Toddlers took part in an intermodal preferential looking task, in which they were shown different colored versions of the original objects and heard one of the trained labels. If toddlers understand the label, they are expected to increase their looking time to the target. Looking behavior was measured with an automated eye tracker. Afterward, the nap group went to sleep, while the wake group stayed awake for approximately 2 h. We then repeated the test of their performance on the generalization task. Results: A significant interaction of group and session was found in preferential looking. The performance of the nap group increased after the nap, whereas that of the wake group did not change. Conclusions: Our results suggest that napping improves generalization in toddlers. Citation: Horváth K, Liu S, Plunkett K. A daytime nap facilitates generalization of word meanings in young toddlers. SLEEP 2016;39(1):203–207. PMID:26237777

Sperry Univac speech communications technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Medress, Mark F.

1977-01-01

Technology and systems for effective verbal communication with computers were developed. A continuous speech recognition system for verbal input, a word spotting system to locate key words in conversational speech, prosodic tools to aid speech analysis, and a prerecorded voice response system for speech output are described.

Grounding Abstractness: Abstract Concepts and the Activation of the Mouth

PubMed Central

Borghi, Anna M.; Zarcone, Edoardo

2016-01-01

One key issue for theories of cognition is how abstract concepts, such as freedom, are represented. According to the WAT (Words As social Tools) proposal, abstract concepts activate both sensorimotor and linguistic/social information, and their acquisition modality involves the linguistic experience more than the acquisition of concrete concepts. We report an experiment in which participants were presented with abstract and concrete definitions followed by concrete and abstract target-words. When the definition and the word matched, participants were required to press a key, either with the hand or with the mouth. Response times and accuracy were recorded. As predicted, we found that abstract definitions and abstract words yielded slower responses and more errors compared to concrete definitions and concrete words. More crucially, there was an interaction between the target-words and the effector used to respond (hand, mouth). While responses with the mouth were overall slower, the advantage of the hand over the mouth responses was more marked with concrete than with abstract concepts. The results are in keeping with grounded and embodied theories of cognition and support the WAT proposal, according to which abstract concepts evoke linguistic-social information, hence activate the mouth. The mechanisms underlying the mouth activation with abstract concepts (re-enactment of acquisition experience, or re-explanation of the word meaning, possibly through inner talk) are discussed. To our knowledge this is the first behavioral study demonstrating with real words that the advantage of the hand over the mouth is more marked with concrete than with abstract concepts, likely because of the activation of linguistic information with abstract concepts. PMID:27777563

Word embeddings and recurrent neural networks based on Long-Short Term Memory nodes in supervised biomedical word sense disambiguation.

PubMed

Jimeno Yepes, Antonio

2017-09-01

Word sense disambiguation helps identifying the proper sense of ambiguous words in text. With large terminologies such as the UMLS Metathesaurus ambiguities appear and highly effective disambiguation methods are required. Supervised learning algorithm methods are used as one of the approaches to perform disambiguation. Features extracted from the context of an ambiguous word are used to identify the proper sense of such a word. The type of features have an impact on machine learning methods, thus affect disambiguation performance. In this work, we have evaluated several types of features derived from the context of the ambiguous word and we have explored as well more global features derived from MEDLINE using word embeddings. Results show that word embeddings improve the performance of more traditional features and allow as well using recurrent neural network classifiers based on Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM) nodes. The combination of unigrams and word embeddings with an SVM sets a new state of the art performance with a macro accuracy of 95.97 in the MSH WSD data set. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Algorithms in the historical emergence of word senses.

PubMed

Ramiro, Christian; Srinivasan, Mahesh; Malt, Barbara C; Xu, Yang

2018-03-06

Human language relies on a finite lexicon to express a potentially infinite set of ideas. A key result of this tension is that words acquire novel senses over time. However, the cognitive processes that underlie the historical emergence of new word senses are poorly understood. Here, we present a computational framework that formalizes competing views of how new senses of a word might emerge by attaching to existing senses of the word. We test the ability of the models to predict the temporal order in which the senses of individual words have emerged, using an historical lexicon of English spanning the past millennium. Our findings suggest that word senses emerge in predictable ways, following an historical path that reflects cognitive efficiency, predominantly through a process of nearest-neighbor chaining. Our work contributes a formal account of the generative processes that underlie lexical evolution.

Development of Sampling and Preservation Techniques to Retard Chemical and Biological Changes in Water Samples

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-06-24

and vali- date methods for the analysis of the 12 munitions in water and sediment. Two high performance liquid chromatographic (IIPLC-UV) systems...t from Re.po.r) 11i. SUP•L.EMENTARY NOTES 1S. KEY WORDS (Conrinuo.on rovers* old* It necessary and Identify by biock number) Methods development...munition and 4-munition groups in sediment The method for eight munitions (DNP, RDX, TNB, DNB, 2,4-DNT, TNT, tetryl and DPA) in water samples consists of

Subpopulation Differences in Performance on Tests of Mental Ability: Historical Review and Annotated Bibliography

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-08-01

from "Classification of Men According to Their Natural Gifts" by Francis Galton i (1869) through "Three Faces of Intellect" by J.P. Guilford (1959...SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES t9. KEY WORDS (Continuo on revere* aid* If nec~eeary and Identify by block number) Aptitude/ Intelligence Testing Psychological...and intelligence testing; and (c) provide a general9 road map* for those who wish to pursue further the subject of the * ?aper. It should be noted that

A Comparison of the Protection against Immersion Hypothermia Provided by Coast Guard Anti-Exposure Clothing in Calm Versus Rough Seas

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-06-01

34 insulated garments excluded cold-water entry, tightness-of-fit was not an important factor in thermal performance. The "dry" garments in this study were...Supplemertary Notes I 16. Abstruct The puirpose of this study was to caopare the protection against immersion hypothermia provided by various types of Coat...survival tize pro ons fron calmr-veter studies . 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement Hypothermia Rough water Immersion Protective clothing Sea

Performance impact of stop lists and morphological decomposition on word-word corpus-based semantic space models.

PubMed

Keith, Jeff; Westbury, Chris; Goldman, James

2015-09-01

Corpus-based semantic space models, which primarily rely on lexical co-occurrence statistics, have proven effective in modeling and predicting human behavior in a number of experimental paradigms that explore semantic memory representation. The most widely studied extant models, however, are strongly influenced by orthographic word frequency (e.g., Shaoul & Westbury, Behavior Research Methods, 38, 190-195, 2006). This has the implication that high-frequency closed-class words can potentially bias co-occurrence statistics. Because these closed-class words are purported to carry primarily syntactic, rather than semantic, information, the performance of corpus-based semantic space models may be improved by excluding closed-class words (using stop lists) from co-occurrence statistics, while retaining their syntactic information through other means (e.g., part-of-speech tagging and/or affixes from inflected word forms). Additionally, very little work has been done to explore the effect of employing morphological decomposition on the inflected forms of words in corpora prior to compiling co-occurrence statistics, despite (controversial) evidence that humans perform early morphological decomposition in semantic processing. In this study, we explored the impact of these factors on corpus-based semantic space models. From this study, morphological decomposition appears to significantly improve performance in word-word co-occurrence semantic space models, providing some support for the claim that sublexical information-specifically, word morphology-plays a role in lexical semantic processing. An overall decrease in performance was observed in models employing stop lists (e.g., excluding closed-class words). Furthermore, we found some evidence that weakens the claim that closed-class words supply primarily syntactic information in word-word co-occurrence semantic space models.

There is no clam with coats in the calm coast: delimiting the transposed-letter priming effect.

PubMed

Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni; Perea, Manuel; Carreiras, Manuel

2009-10-01

In this article, we explore the transposed-letter priming effect (e.g., jugde-JUDGE vs. jupte-JUDGE), a phenomenon that taps into some key issues on how the brain encodes letter positions and has favoured the creation of new input coding schemes. However, almost all the empirical evidence from transposed-letter priming experiments comes from nonword primes (e.g., jugde-JUDGE). Indeed, previous evidence when using word-word pairs (e.g., causal-CASUAL) is not conclusive. Here, we conducted five masked priming lexical decision experiments that examined the relationship between pairs of real words that differed only in the transposition of two of their letters (e.g., CASUAL vs. CAUSAL). Results showed that, unlike transposed-letter nonwords, transposed-letter words do not seem to affect the identification time of their transposed-letter mates. Thus, prime lexicality is a key factor that modulates the magnitude of transposed-letter priming effects. These results are interpreted under the assumption of the existence of lateral inhibition processes occurring within the lexical level-which cancels out any orthographic facilitation due to the overlapping letters. We examine the implications of these findings for models of visual-word recognition.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) safety

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ordin, P. M.

1977-01-01

Bibliography, assembled from computer search of NASA Aerospace Safety Data Bank, including title of report, author, abstract, source, description of figures, key references, and key words or subject terms. Publication is indexed by key subjects and by authors. Items are relevant to design engineers and safety specialists.

Nuclear facility decommissioning and site remedial actions: A selected bibliography, Volume 13: Part 2, Indexes. Environmental Restoration Program

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Goins, L.F.; Webb, J.R.; Cravens, C.D.

1992-09-01

This is part 2 of a bibliography on nuclear facility decommissioning and site remedial action. This report contains indexes on the following: authors, corporate affiliation, title words, publication description, geographic location, subject category, and key word.

Jojoba: a wax-producing shrub of the Sonoran desert: literature review and annotated bibliography

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sherbrooke, W.C.; Haase, E.F.

Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) has recently received attention because its seed oil content of about 50% is a possible substitute for sperm whale oil. This document reviews the literature on its botany and natural history, and the utilization of the seed oil and the production of seed. Current research activities are also noted. However, the major portion of the paper consists of the annotated bibliography, which appears as a computer print-out with citations and key-words. Author and key-word indexes are included.

Continuous multiword recognition performance of young and elderly listeners in ambient noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sato, Hiroshi

2005-09-01

Hearing threshold shift due to aging is known as a dominant factor to degrade speech recognition performance in noisy conditions. On the other hand, cognitive factors of aging-relating speech recognition performance in various speech-to-noise conditions are not well established. In this study, two kinds of speech test were performed to examine how working memory load relates to speech recognition performance. One is word recognition test with high-familiarity, four-syllable Japanese words (single-word test). In this test, each word was presented to listeners; the listeners were asked to write the word down on paper with enough time to answer. In the other test, five continuous word were presented to listeners and listeners were asked to write the word down after just five words were presented (multiword test). Both tests were done in various speech-to-noise ratios under 50-dBA Hoth spectrum noise with more than 50 young and elderly subjects. The results of two experiments suggest that (1) Hearing level is related to scores of both tests. (2) Scores of single-word test are well correlated with those of multiword test. (3) Scores of multiword test are not improved as speech-to-noise ratio improves in the condition where scores of single-word test reach their ceiling.

Raise the Bar on Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Englard, Lisa

2010-01-01

In a 1981 diagnostic test, the Ministry of Education in Singapore found its country facing a challenge: Only 46 percent of students in grades 2-4 could solve word problems that were presented without such key words as "altogether" or "left." Yet today, according to results from the Trends in International Mathematics and…

Eye Movements Reveal Fast, Voice-Specific Priming

PubMed Central

Papesh, Megan H.; Goldinger, Stephen D.; Hout, Michael C.

2015-01-01

In spoken word perception, voice specificity effects are well-documented: When people hear repeated words in some task, performance is generally better when repeated items are presented in their originally heard voices, relative to changed voices. A key theoretical question about voice specificity effects concerns their time-course: Some studies suggest that episodic traces exert their influence late in lexical processing (the time-course hypothesis; McLennan & Luce, 2005), whereas others suggest that episodic traces influence immediate, online processing. We report two eye-tracking studies investigating the time-course of voice-specific priming within and across cognitive tasks. In Experiment 1, participants performed modified lexical decision or semantic classification to words spoken by four speakers. The tasks required participants to click a red “×” or a blue “+” located randomly within separate visual half-fields, necessitating trial-by-trial visual search with consistent half-field response mapping. After a break, participants completed a second block with new and repeated items, half spoken in changed voices. Voice effects were robust very early, appearing in saccade initiation times. Experiment 2 replicated this pattern while changing tasks across blocks, ruling out a response priming account. In the General Discussion, we address the time-course hypothesis, focusing on the challenge it presents for empirical disconfirmation, and highlighting the broad importance of indexical effects, beyond studies of priming. PMID:26726911

Effects of lexical characteristics and demographic factors on mandarin chinese open-set word recognition in children with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Liu, Haihong; Liu, Sha; Wang, Suju; Liu, Chang; Kong, Ying; Zhang, Ning; Li, Shujing; Yang, Yilin; Han, Demin; Zhang, Luo

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the open-set word recognition performance of Mandarin Chinese-speaking children who had received a multichannel cochlear implant (CI) and examine the effects of lexical characteristics and demographic factors (i.e., age at implantation and duration of implant use) on Mandarin Chinese open-set word recognition in these children. Participants were 230 prelingually deafened children with CIs. Age at implantation ranged from 0.9 to 16.0 years, with a mean of 3.9 years. The Standard-Chinese version of the Monosyllabic Lexical Neighborhood test and the Multisyllabic Lexical Neighborhood test were used to evaluate the open-set word identification abilities of the children. A two-way analysis of variance was performed to delineate the lexical effects on the open-set word identification, with word difficulty and syllable length as the two main factors. The effects of age at implantation and duration of implant use on open-set, word-recognition performance were examined using correlational/regressional models. First, the average percent-correct scores for the disyllabic "easy" list, disyllabic "hard" list, monosyllabic "easy" list, and monosyllabic "hard" list were 65.0%, 51.3%, 58.9%, and 46.2%, respectively. For both the easy and hard lists, the percentage of words correctly identified was higher for disyllabic words than for monosyllabic words, Second, the CI group scored 26.3%, 31.3%, and 18.8 % points lower than their hearing-age-matched normal-hearing peers for 4, 5, and 6 years of hearing age, respectively. The corresponding gaps between the CI group and the chronological-age-matched normal-hearing group were 47.6, 49.6, and 42.4, respectively. The individual variations in performance were much greater in the CI group than in the normal-hearing group, Third, the children exhibited steady improvements in performance as the duration of implant use increased, especially 1 to 6 years postimplantation. Last, age at implantation had significant effects on postimplantation word-recognition performance. The benefit of early implantation was particularly evident in children 5 years old or younger. First, Mandarin Chinese-speaking pediatric CI users' open-set word recognition was influenced by the lexical characteristics of the stimuli. The score was higher for easy words than for hard words and was higher for disyllabic words than for monosyllabic words, Second, Mandarin-Chinese-speaking pediatric CI users exhibited steady progress in open-set word recognition as the duration of implant use increased. However, the present study also demonstrated that, even after 6 years of CI use, there was a significant deficit in open-set, word-recognition performance in the CI children compared with their normal-hearing peers. Third, age at implantation had significant effects on open-set, word-recognition performance. Early implanted children exhibited better performance than children implanted later.

Visual feature-tolerance in the reading network.

PubMed

Rauschecker, Andreas M; Bowen, Reno F; Perry, Lee M; Kevan, Alison M; Dougherty, Robert F; Wandell, Brian A

2011-09-08

A century of neurology and neuroscience shows that seeing words depends on ventral occipital-temporal (VOT) circuitry. Typically, reading is learned using high-contrast line-contour words. We explored whether a specific VOT region, the visual word form area (VWFA), learns to see only these words or recognizes words independent of the specific shape-defining visual features. Word forms were created using atypical features (motion-dots, luminance-dots) whose statistical properties control word-visibility. We measured fMRI responses as word form visibility varied, and we used TMS to interfere with neural processing in specific cortical circuits, while subjects performed a lexical decision task. For all features, VWFA responses increased with word-visibility and correlated with performance. TMS applied to motion-specialized area hMT+ disrupted reading performance for motion-dots, but not line-contours or luminance-dots. A quantitative model describes feature-convergence in the VWFA and relates VWFA responses to behavioral performance. These findings suggest how visual feature-tolerance in the reading network arises through signal convergence from feature-specialized cortical areas. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Goodnight book: sleep consolidation improves word learning via storybooks

PubMed Central

Williams, Sophie E.; Horst, Jessica S.

2014-01-01

Reading the same storybooks repeatedly helps preschool children learn words. In addition, sleeping shortly after learning also facilitates memory consolidation and aids learning in older children and adults. The current study explored how sleep promotes word learning in preschool children using a shared storybook reading task. Children were either read the same story repeatedly or different stories and either napped after the stories or remained awake. Children's word retention were tested 2.5 h later, 24 h later, and 7 days later. Results demonstrate strong, persistent effects for both repeated readings and sleep consolidation on young children's word learning. A key finding is that children who read different stories before napping learned words as well as children who had the advantage of hearing the same story. In contrast, children who read different stories and remained awake never caught up to their peers on later word learning tests. Implications for educational practices are discussed. PMID:24624111

Stereotactic radiosurgery for tremor: systematic review.

PubMed

Martínez-Moreno, Nuria E; Sahgal, Arjun; De Salles, Antonio; Hayashi, Motohiro; Levivier, Marc; Ma, Lijun; Paddick, Ian; Régis, Jean; Ryu, Sam; Slotman, Ben J; Martínez-Álvarez, Roberto

2018-02-23

OBJECTIVE The aim of this systematic review is to offer an objective summary of the published literature relating to stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for tremor and consensus guideline recommendations. METHODS This systematic review was performed up to December 2016. Article selection was performed by searching the MEDLINE (PubMed) and EMBASE electronic bibliographic databases. The following key words were used: "radiosurgery" and "tremor" or "Parkinson's disease" or "multiple sclerosis" or "essential tremor" or "thalamotomy" or "pallidotomy." The search strategy was not limited by study design but only included key words in the English language, so at least the abstract had to be in English. RESULTS A total of 34 full-text articles were included in the analysis. Three studies were prospective studies, 1 was a retrospective comparative study, and the remaining 30 were retrospective studies. The one retrospective comparative study evaluating deep brain stimulation (DBS), radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RFT), and SRS reported similar tremor control rates, more permanent complications after DBS and RFT, more recurrence after RFT, and a longer latency period to clinical response with SRS. Similar tremor reduction rates in most of the reports were observed with SRS thalamotomy (mean 88%). Clinical complications were rare and usually not permanent (range 0%-100%, mean 17%, median 2%). Follow-up in general was too short to confirm long-term results. CONCLUSIONS SRS to the unilateral thalamic ventral intermediate nucleus, with a dose of 130-150 Gy, is a well-tolerated and effective treatment for reducing medically refractory tremor, and one that is recommended by the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society.

Studies on hand-held visual communication device for the deaf and speech-impaired 2. Keyboard design.

PubMed

Thurlow, W R

1980-01-01

Experiments with keyboard arrangements of letters show that simple alphabetic letter-key sequences with 4 to 5 letters in a row lead to most rapid visual search performance. Such arrangements can be used on keyboards operated by the index finger of one hand. Arrangement of letters in words offers a promising alternative because these arrangements can be readily memorized and can result in small interletter distances on the keyboard for frequently occurring letter sequences. Experiments on operation of keyboards show that a space or shift key operated by the left hand (which also holds the communication device) results in faster keyboard operation than when space or shift keys on the front of the keyboard (operated by right hand) are used. Special problems of the deaf-blind are discussed. Keyboard arrangements are investigated, and matching tactual codes are suggested.

Pattern matching techniques for correcting low-confidence OCR words in a known context

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ford, Glenn; Hauser, Susan E.; Le, Daniel X.; Thoma, George R.

2000-12-01

A commercial OCR system is a key component of a system developed at the National Library of Medicine for the automated extraction of bibliographic fields from biomedical journals. This 5-engine OCR system, while exhibiting high performance overall, does not reliably convert very small characters, especially those that are in italics. As a result, the 'affiliations' field that typically contains such characters in most journals, is not captured accurately, and requires a disproportionately high manual input. To correct this problem, dictionaries have been created from words occurring in this field (e.g., university, department, street addresses, names of cities, etc.) from 230,000 articles already processed. The OCR output corresponding to the affiliation field is then matched against these dictionary entries by approximate string-matching techniques, and the ranked matches are presented to operators for verification. This paper outlines the techniques employed and the results of a comparative evaluation.

Trends and topics in sports research in the Social Science Citation Index from 1993 to 2008.

PubMed

Gau, Li-Shiue

2013-02-01

This descriptive study evaluated behavioral and social science research on sport for 1993 through 2008, examined the characteristics of sport research, and identified mainstream issues appearing during these 16 years. Based on the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) database from 1993 to 2008, 7,655 articles referring to sport or sports were available. The publication analyses showed that 13 core journals published the most articles in the behavioral sciences of sport. By analyzing all titles, author keywords, and KeyWords Plus, the results showed that physical education, athlete performance, and sports participation were the mainstream issues of sport research in the 16-year study period. The words adolescent, youth, and children frequently appeared, indicating that the emphasis of sport research focused on these participant groups. This bibliometric study reviewed global sports research in SSCI, and described certain patterns or trends in prior research on sport.

Filtering large-scale event collections using a combination of supervised and unsupervised learning for event trigger classification.

PubMed

Mehryary, Farrokh; Kaewphan, Suwisa; Hakala, Kai; Ginter, Filip

2016-01-01

Biomedical event extraction is one of the key tasks in biomedical text mining, supporting various applications such as database curation and hypothesis generation. Several systems, some of which have been applied at a large scale, have been introduced to solve this task. Past studies have shown that the identification of the phrases describing biological processes, also known as trigger detection, is a crucial part of event extraction, and notable overall performance gains can be obtained by solely focusing on this sub-task. In this paper we propose a novel approach for filtering falsely identified triggers from large-scale event databases, thus improving the quality of knowledge extraction. Our method relies on state-of-the-art word embeddings, event statistics gathered from the whole biomedical literature, and both supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques. We focus on EVEX, an event database covering the whole PubMed and PubMed Central Open Access literature containing more than 40 million extracted events. The top most frequent EVEX trigger words are hierarchically clustered, and the resulting cluster tree is pruned to identify words that can never act as triggers regardless of their context. For rarely occurring trigger words we introduce a supervised approach trained on the combination of trigger word classification produced by the unsupervised clustering method and manual annotation. The method is evaluated on the official test set of BioNLP Shared Task on Event Extraction. The evaluation shows that the method can be used to improve the performance of the state-of-the-art event extraction systems. This successful effort also translates into removing 1,338,075 of potentially incorrect events from EVEX, thus greatly improving the quality of the data. The method is not solely bound to the EVEX resource and can be thus used to improve the quality of any event extraction system or database. The data and source code for this work are available at: http://bionlp-www.utu.fi/trigger-clustering/.

Use of acupuncture to treat cerebral infarction in the last 10 years: A Scopus-based literature analysis.

PubMed

Chen, Jiajun; Yao, Min; Zhao, Yunhua; Jin, Xiya; Li, Yuanbing; Huang, Lihong

2012-12-25

To identify global research trends in the use of acupuncture to treat cerebral infarction. We performed a bibliometric analysis of studies on the use of acupuncture to treat cerebral infarction published during 2002-2011, retrieved from Scopus, using the key words of acupuncture and cerebral infarction or ischemic stroke. peer-reviewed articles on the use of acupuncture to treat cerebral infarction indexed in Scopus and published between 2002 and 2011; types of publications were original research articles, reviews, meeting abstracts, proceedings papers, book chapters, editorial material, and news items. articles that required manual searching or telephone access; documents that were not published in the public domain; and corrected papers. (a) Annual publication output; (b) language of publication; (c) type of publication; (d) key words of publication; (e) publication by research field; (f) publication by journal; (g) publication by country and institution; (h) publication by author; (i) most-cited papers between 2002 and 2006; and (j) most-cited papers between 2007 and 2011. A total of 160 publications on the use of acupuncture to treat cerebral infarction from 2002-2011 were retrieved from Scopus. The number of publications increased gradually over the 10-year study period; most were written in Chinese or English. Articles and reviews constituted the major types. The most frequent key word used was acupuncture. The most prolific journals in this area were Zhongguo Zhen Jiu and the Chinese Journal of Clinical Rehabilitation. Of the 160 publications retrieved, half came from Chinese authors and institutions. Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine was the most prolific research institute. Two papers were cited 30 times; they were published in 2002 and 2009, respectively. In the field of neuroscience, there is little literature on acupuncture for cerebral infarction. The most-cited papers were cited 30 times in the past 3 years. We believe that, with advances in the study of mechanisms in neurobiology, research on acupuncture will also advance and will become the concern of more scholars.

Testing for a Signal with Unknown Location and Scale in a Stationary Gaussian Random Field

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-01-07

Secondary 60D05, 52A22. Key words and phrases. Euler characteristic, integral geometry, image analysis , Gaussian fields, volume of tubes. SUMMARY We...words and phrases. Euler characteristic, integral geometry. image analysis . Gaussian fields. volume of tubes. 20. AMST RACT (Coith..o an revmreo ef* It

Crossmodal Semantic Priming by Naturalistic Sounds and Spoken Words Enhances Visual Sensitivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Yi-Chuan; Spence, Charles

2011-01-01

We propose a multisensory framework based on Glaser and Glaser's (1989) general reading-naming interference model to account for the semantic priming effect by naturalistic sounds and spoken words on visual picture sensitivity. Four experiments were designed to investigate two key issues: First, can auditory stimuli enhance visual sensitivity when…

Meet your new president

Treesearch

M. E. Makie

1972-01-01

Utilization is a key word in Peter Koch's vocabulary-it's the first word in his soon-to-be-published book, Utilization of the Southern Pines; it's the motivation behind his striving to get the FPRS information retrieval project in working order; and it's the way he enjoys his free time activities (to the fullest). After the 26th...

Modeling Spoken Word Recognition Performance by Pediatric Cochlear Implant Users using Feature Identification

PubMed Central

Frisch, Stefan A.; Pisoni, David B.

2012-01-01

Objective Computational simulations were carried out to evaluate the appropriateness of several psycholinguistic theories of spoken word recognition for children who use cochlear implants. These models also investigate the interrelations of commonly used measures of closed-set and open-set tests of speech perception. Design A software simulation of phoneme recognition performance was developed that uses feature identification scores as input. Two simulations of lexical access were developed. In one, early phoneme decisions are used in a lexical search to find the best matching candidate. In the second, phoneme decisions are made only when lexical access occurs. Simulated phoneme and word identification performance was then applied to behavioral data from the Phonetically Balanced Kindergarten test and Lexical Neighborhood Test of open-set word recognition. Simulations of performance were evaluated for children with prelingual sensorineural hearing loss who use cochlear implants with the MPEAK or SPEAK coding strategies. Results Open-set word recognition performance can be successfully predicted using feature identification scores. In addition, we observed no qualitative differences in performance between children using MPEAK and SPEAK, suggesting that both groups of children process spoken words similarly despite differences in input. Word recognition ability was best predicted in the model in which phoneme decisions were delayed until lexical access. Conclusions Closed-set feature identification and open-set word recognition focus on different, but related, levels of language processing. Additional insight for clinical intervention may be achieved by collecting both types of data. The most successful model of performance is consistent with current psycholinguistic theories of spoken word recognition. Thus it appears that the cognitive process of spoken word recognition is fundamentally the same for pediatric cochlear implant users and children and adults with normal hearing. PMID:11132784

Information content versus word length in random typing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferrer-i-Cancho, Ramon; Moscoso del Prado Martín, Fermín

2011-12-01

Recently, it has been claimed that a linear relationship between a measure of information content and word length is expected from word length optimization and it has been shown that this linearity is supported by a strong correlation between information content and word length in many languages (Piantadosi et al 2011 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 108 3825). Here, we study in detail some connections between this measure and standard information theory. The relationship between the measure and word length is studied for the popular random typing process where a text is constructed by pressing keys at random from a keyboard containing letters and a space behaving as a word delimiter. Although this random process does not optimize word lengths according to information content, it exhibits a linear relationship between information content and word length. The exact slope and intercept are presented for three major variants of the random typing process. A strong correlation between information content and word length can simply arise from the units making a word (e.g., letters) and not necessarily from the interplay between a word and its context as proposed by Piantadosi and co-workers. In itself, the linear relation does not entail the results of any optimization process.

Are baboons learning "orthographic" representations? Probably not

PubMed Central

Bröker, Franziska; Ramscar, Michael; Baayen, Harald

2017-01-01

The ability of Baboons (papio papio) to distinguish between English words and nonwords has been modeled using a deep learning convolutional network model that simulates a ventral pathway in which lexical representations of different granularity develop. However, given that pigeons (columba livia), whose brain morphology is drastically different, can also be trained to distinguish between English words and nonwords, it appears that a less species-specific learning algorithm may be required to explain this behavior. Accordingly, we examined whether the learning model of Rescorla and Wagner, which has proved to be amazingly fruitful in understanding animal and human learning could account for these data. We show that a discrimination learning network using gradient orientation features as input units and word and nonword units as outputs succeeds in predicting baboon lexical decision behavior—including key lexical similarity effects and the ups and downs in accuracy as learning unfolds—with surprising precision. The models performance, in which words are not explicitly represented, is remarkable because it is usually assumed that lexicality decisions, including the decisions made by baboons and pigeons, are mediated by explicit lexical representations. By contrast, our results suggest that in learning to perform lexical decision tasks, baboons and pigeons do not construct a hierarchy of lexical units. Rather, they make optimal use of low-level information obtained through the massively parallel processing of gradient orientation features. Accordingly, we suggest that reading in humans first involves initially learning a high-level system building on letter representations acquired from explicit instruction in literacy, which is then integrated into a conventionalized oral communication system, and that like the latter, fluent reading involves the massively parallel processing of the low-level features encoding semantic contrasts. PMID:28859134

Are baboons learning "orthographic" representations? Probably not.

PubMed

Linke, Maja; Bröker, Franziska; Ramscar, Michael; Baayen, Harald

2017-01-01

The ability of Baboons (papio papio) to distinguish between English words and nonwords has been modeled using a deep learning convolutional network model that simulates a ventral pathway in which lexical representations of different granularity develop. However, given that pigeons (columba livia), whose brain morphology is drastically different, can also be trained to distinguish between English words and nonwords, it appears that a less species-specific learning algorithm may be required to explain this behavior. Accordingly, we examined whether the learning model of Rescorla and Wagner, which has proved to be amazingly fruitful in understanding animal and human learning could account for these data. We show that a discrimination learning network using gradient orientation features as input units and word and nonword units as outputs succeeds in predicting baboon lexical decision behavior-including key lexical similarity effects and the ups and downs in accuracy as learning unfolds-with surprising precision. The models performance, in which words are not explicitly represented, is remarkable because it is usually assumed that lexicality decisions, including the decisions made by baboons and pigeons, are mediated by explicit lexical representations. By contrast, our results suggest that in learning to perform lexical decision tasks, baboons and pigeons do not construct a hierarchy of lexical units. Rather, they make optimal use of low-level information obtained through the massively parallel processing of gradient orientation features. Accordingly, we suggest that reading in humans first involves initially learning a high-level system building on letter representations acquired from explicit instruction in literacy, which is then integrated into a conventionalized oral communication system, and that like the latter, fluent reading involves the massively parallel processing of the low-level features encoding semantic contrasts.

Something to talk about: enhancement of linguistic cohesion through tdCS in chronic non fluent aphasia.

PubMed

Marangolo, Paola; Fiori, Valentina; Campana, Serena; Calpagnano, Maria Antonietta; Razzano, Carmelina; Caltagirone, Carlo; Marini, Andrea

2014-01-01

Several studies have shown that the modulation of cortical activity through transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) enhances naming performance in persons with aphasia. In this study, we investigated the potential effects of tDCS in improving spontaneous speech and the ability to use connective words to establish cohesion among adjacent utterances in a group of eight participants with chronic non fluent aphasia. They were administered five short videoclips representing everyday life contexts and two picture description tasks. Three videoclips were used to elicit spontaneous conversation during the treatment, while the remaining tasks were presented to the patients only before and after the therapy. Patients were required to talk about each videoclip, with the help of a therapist, while they were treated with tDCS (20 min, 1 mA) over the left hemisphere in three different conditions: anodic tDCS over the Broca's area, anodic tDCS over the Wernicke's area and a sham condition. Each experimental condition was performed for ten consecutive daily sessions with 14 days of intersession interval. Only after Broca's stimulation, patients showed a greater improvement in producing words that enhanced the cohesion of their speech samples (i.e., pronouns, ellipses, word repetitions, conjunctions). Beneficial effects of the stimulation were generalized also to contexts presented to the patients at the beginning and at the end of the therapy sessions. Our data further confirm the key role of the left inferior frontal gyrus in binding words into a coherent speech. We believe that positive tDCS effects may be further extended to different linguistic domains, useful to promote language recovery. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The relation between children’s constructive play activities, spatial ability, and mathematical word problem-solving performance: a mediation analysis in sixth-grade students

PubMed Central

Oostermeijer, Meike; Boonen, Anton J. H.; Jolles, Jelle

2014-01-01

The scientific literature shows that constructive play activities are positively related to children’s spatial ability. Likewise, a close positive relation is found between spatial ability and mathematical word problem-solving performances. The relation between children’s constructive play and their performance on mathematical word problems is, however, not reported yet. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether spatial ability acted as a mediator in the relation between constructive play and mathematical word problem-solving performance in 128 sixth-grade elementary school children. This mediating role of spatial ability was tested by utilizing the current mediation approaches suggested by Preacher and Hayes (2008). Results showed that 38.16% of the variance in mathematical word problem-solving performance is explained by children’s constructive play activities and spatial ability. More specifically, spatial ability acted as a partial mediator, explaining 31.58% of the relation between constructive play and mathematical word problem-solving performance. PMID:25101038

The Relationships among Cognitive Correlates and Irregular Word, Non-Word, and Word Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Hamour, Bashir; University, Mu'tah; Urso, Annmarie; Mather, Nancy

2012-01-01

This study explored four hypotheses: (a) the relationships among rapid automatized naming (RAN) and processing speed (PS) to irregular word, non-word, and word reading; (b) the predictive power of various RAN and PS measures, (c) the cognitive correlates that best predicted irregular word, non-word, and word reading, and (d) reading performance of…

Talker and lexical effects on audiovisual word recognition by adults with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Kaiser, Adam R; Kirk, Karen Iler; Lachs, Lorin; Pisoni, David B

2003-04-01

The present study examined how postlingually deafened adults with cochlear implants combine visual information from lipreading with auditory cues in an open-set word recognition task. Adults with normal hearing served as a comparison group. Word recognition performance was assessed using lexically controlled word lists presented under auditory-only, visual-only, and combined audiovisual presentation formats. Effects of talker variability were studied by manipulating the number of talkers producing the stimulus tokens. Lexical competition was investigated using sets of lexically easy and lexically hard test words. To assess the degree of audiovisual integration, a measure of visual enhancement, R(a), was used to assess the gain in performance provided in the audiovisual presentation format relative to the maximum possible performance obtainable in the auditory-only format. Results showed that word recognition performance was highest for audiovisual presentation followed by auditory-only and then visual-only stimulus presentation. Performance was better for single-talker lists than for multiple-talker lists, particularly under the audiovisual presentation format. Word recognition performance was better for the lexically easy than for the lexically hard words regardless of presentation format. Visual enhancement scores were higher for single-talker conditions compared to multiple-talker conditions and tended to be somewhat better for lexically easy words than for lexically hard words. The pattern of results suggests that information from the auditory and visual modalities is used to access common, multimodal lexical representations in memory. The findings are discussed in terms of the complementary nature of auditory and visual sources of information that specify the same underlying gestures and articulatory events in speech.

Talker and Lexical Effects on Audiovisual Word Recognition by Adults With Cochlear Implants

PubMed Central

Kaiser, Adam R.; Kirk, Karen Iler; Lachs, Lorin; Pisoni, David B.

2012-01-01

The present study examined how postlingually deafened adults with cochlear implants combine visual information from lipreading with auditory cues in an open-set word recognition task. Adults with normal hearing served as a comparison group. Word recognition performance was assessed using lexically controlled word lists presented under auditory-only, visual-only, and combined audiovisual presentation formats. Effects of talker variability were studied by manipulating the number of talkers producing the stimulus tokens. Lexical competition was investigated using sets of lexically easy and lexically hard test words. To assess the degree of audiovisual integration, a measure of visual enhancement, Ra, was used to assess the gain in performance provided in the audiovisual presentation format relative to the maximum possible performance obtainable in the auditory-only format. Results showed that word recognition performance was highest for audiovisual presentation followed by auditory-only and then visual-only stimulus presentation. Performance was better for single-talker lists than for multiple-talker lists, particularly under the audiovisual presentation format. Word recognition performance was better for the lexically easy than for the lexically hard words regardless of presentation format. Visual enhancement scores were higher for single-talker conditions compared to multiple-talker conditions and tended to be somewhat better for lexically easy words than for lexically hard words. The pattern of results suggests that information from the auditory and visual modalities is used to access common, multimodal lexical representations in memory. The findings are discussed in terms of the complementary nature of auditory and visual sources of information that specify the same underlying gestures and articulatory events in speech. PMID:14700380

[Application of text mining approach to pre-education prior to clinical practice].

PubMed

Koinuma, Masayoshi; Koike, Katsuya; Nakamura, Hitoshi

2008-06-01

We developed a new survey analysis technique to understand students' actual aims for effective pretraining prior to clinical practice. We asked third-year undergraduate students to write fixed-style complete and free sentences on "preparation of drug dispensing." Then, we converted their sentence data in to text style and performed Japanese-language morphologic analysis on the data using language analysis software. We classified key words, which were created on the basis of the word class information of the Japanese language morphologic analysis, into categories based on causes and characteristics. In addition to this, we classified the characteristics into six categories consisting of those concepts including "knowledge," "skill and attitude," "image," etc. with the KJ method technique. The results showed that the awareness of students of "preparation of drug dispensing" tended to be approximately three-fold more frequent in "skill and attitude," "risk," etc. than in "knowledge." Regarding the characteristics in the category of the "image," words like "hard," "challenging," "responsibility," "life," etc. frequently occurred. The results of corresponding analysis showed that the characteristics of the words "knowledge" and "skills and attitude" were independent. As the result of developing a cause-and-effect diagram, it was demonstrated that the phase "hanging tough" described most of the various factors. We thus could understand students' actual feelings by applying text-mining as a new survey analysis technique.

Keyword Extraction from Multiple Words for Report Recommendations in Media Wiki

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elakiya, K.; Sahayadhas, Arun

2017-03-01

This paper addresses the problem of multiple words search, with the goal of using these multiple word search to retrieve, relevant wiki page which will be recommended to end user. However, the existing system provides a link to wiki page for only a single keyword only which is available in Wikipedia. Therefore it is difficult to get the correct result when search input has multiple keywords or a sentence. We have introduced a ‘FastStringSearch’ technique which will provide option for efficient search with multiple key words and which will increase the flexibility for the end user to get his expected content easily.

Influencing Memory Performance in Learning Disabled Students through Semantic Processing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Stephen C.; Poteet, James A.

1989-01-01

Thirty learning-disabled and 30 nonhandicapped intermediate grade children were assessed on memory performance for stimulus words, which were presented with congruent and noncongruent rhyming words and semantically congruent and noncongruent sentence frames. Both groups performed significantly better on words encoded using deep level congruent…

Novel word acquisition in aphasia: Facing the word-referent ambiguity of natural language learning contexts.

PubMed

Peñaloza, Claudia; Mirman, Daniel; Tuomiranta, Leena; Benetello, Annalisa; Heikius, Ida-Maria; Järvinen, Sonja; Majos, Maria C; Cardona, Pedro; Juncadella, Montserrat; Laine, Matti; Martin, Nadine; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni

2016-06-01

Recent research suggests that some people with aphasia preserve some ability to learn novel words and to retain them in the long-term. However, this novel word learning ability has been studied only in the context of single word-picture pairings. We examined the ability of people with chronic aphasia to learn novel words using a paradigm that presents new word forms together with a limited set of different possible visual referents and requires the identification of the correct word-object associations on the basis of online feedback. We also studied the relationship between word learning ability and aphasia severity, word processing abilities, and verbal short-term memory (STM). We further examined the influence of gross lesion location on new word learning. The word learning task was first validated with a group of forty-five young adults. Fourteen participants with chronic aphasia were administered the task and underwent tests of immediate and long-term recognition memory at 1 week. Their performance was compared to that of a group of fourteen matched controls using growth curve analysis. The learning curve and recognition performance of the aphasia group was significantly below the matched control group, although above-chance recognition performance and case-by-case analyses indicated that some participants with aphasia had learned the correct word-referent mappings. Verbal STM but not word processing abilities predicted word learning ability after controlling for aphasia severity. Importantly, participants with lesions in the left frontal cortex performed significantly worse than participants with lesions that spared the left frontal region both during word learning and on the recognition tests. Our findings indicate that some people with aphasia can preserve the ability to learn a small novel lexicon in an ambiguous word-referent context. This learning and recognition memory ability was associated with verbal STM capacity, aphasia severity and the integrity of the left inferior frontal region. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Novel word acquisition in aphasia: Facing the word-referent ambiguity of natural language learning contexts

PubMed Central

Peñaloza, Claudia; Mirman, Daniel; Tuomiranta, Leena; Benetello, Annalisa; Heikius, Ida-Maria; Järvinen, Sonja; Majos, Maria C.; Cardona, Pedro; Juncadella, Montserrat; Laine, Matti; Martin, Nadine; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni

2017-01-01

Recent research suggests that some people with aphasia preserve some ability to learn novel words and to retain them in the long-term. However, this novel word learning ability has been studied only in the context of single word-picture pairings. We examined the ability of people with chronic aphasia to learn novel words using a paradigm that presents new word forms together with a limited set of different possible visual referents and requires the identification of the correct word-object associations on the basis of online feedback. We also studied the relationship between word learning ability and aphasia severity, word processing abilities, and verbal short-term memory (STM). We further examined the influence of gross lesion location on new word learning. The word learning task was first validated with a group of forty-five young adults. Fourteen participants with chronic aphasia were administered the task and underwent tests of immediate and long-term recognition memory at 1 week. Their performance was compared to that of a group of fourteen matched controls using growth curve analysis. The learning curve and recognition performance of the aphasia group was significantly below the matched control group, although above-chance recognition performance and case-by-case analyses indicated that some participants with aphasia had learned the correct word-referent mappings. Verbal STM but not word processing abilities predicted word learning ability after controlling for aphasia severity. Importantly, participants with lesions in the left frontal cortex performed significantly worse than participants with lesions that spared the left frontal region both during word learning and on the recognition tests. Our findings indicate that some people with aphasia can preserve the ability to learn a small novel lexicon in an ambiguous word-referent context. This learning and recognition memory ability was associated with verbal STM capacity, aphasia severity and the integrity of the left inferior frontal region. PMID:27085892

Clinical Strategies for Sampling Word Recognition Performance.

PubMed

Schlauch, Robert S; Carney, Edward

2018-04-17

Computer simulation was used to estimate the statistical properties of searches for maximum word recognition ability (PB max). These involve presenting multiple lists and discarding all scores but that of the 1 list that produced the highest score. The simulations, which model limitations inherent in the precision of word recognition scores, were done to inform clinical protocols. A secondary consideration was a derivation of 95% confidence intervals for significant changes in score from phonemic scoring of a 50-word list. The PB max simulations were conducted on a "client" with flat performance intensity functions. The client's performance was assumed to be 60% initially and 40% for a second assessment. Thousands of estimates were obtained to examine the precision of (a) single lists and (b) multiple lists using a PB max procedure. This method permitted summarizing the precision for assessing a 20% drop in performance. A single 25-word list could identify only 58.4% of the cases in which performance fell from 60% to 40%. A single 125-word list identified 99.8% of the declines correctly. Presenting 3 or 5 lists to find PB max produced an undesirable finding: an increase in the word recognition score. A 25-word list produces unacceptably low precision for making clinical decisions. This finding holds in both single and multiple 25-word lists, as in a search for PB max. A table is provided, giving estimates of 95% critical ranges for successive presentations of a 50-word list analyzed by the number of phonemes correctly identified.

Novel-word learning deficits in Mandarin-speaking preschool children with specific language impairments.

PubMed

Chen, Yuchun; Liu, Huei-Mei

2014-01-01

Children with SLI exhibit overall deficits in novel word learning compared to their age-matched peers. However, the manifestation of the word learning difficulty in SLI was not consistent across tasks and the factors affecting the learning performance were not yet determined. Our aim is to examine the extent of word learning difficulties in Mandarin-speaking preschool children with SLI, and to explore the potent influence of existing lexical knowledge on to the word learning process. Preschool children with SLI (n=37) and typical language development (n=33) were exposed to novel words for unfamiliar objects embedded in stories. Word learning tasks including the initial mapping and short-term repetitive learning were designed. Results revealed that Mandarin-speaking preschool children with SLI performed as well as their age-peers in the initial form-meaning mapping task. Their word learning difficulty was only evidently shown in the short-term repetitive learning task under a production demand, and their learning speed was slower than the control group. Children with SLI learned the novel words with a semantic head better in both the initial mapping and repetitive learning tasks. Moderate correlations between stand word learning performances and scores on standardized vocabulary were found after controlling for children's age and nonverbal IQ. The results suggested that the word learning difficulty in children with SLI occurred in the process of establishing a robust phonological representation at the beginning stage of word learning. Also, implicit compound knowledge is applied to aid word learning process for children with and without SLI. We also provide the empirical data to validate the relationship between preschool children's word learning performance and their existing receptive vocabulary ability. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Understanding the symbolic values of Japanese onomatopoeia: comparison of Japanese and Chinese speakers].

PubMed

Haryu, Etsuko; Zhao, Lihua

2007-10-01

Do non-native speakers of the Japanese language understand the symbolic values of Japanese onomatopoeia matching a voiced/unvoiced consonant with a big/small sound made by a big/small object? In three experiments, participants who were native speakers of Japanese, Japanese-learning Chinese, or Chinese without knowledge of the Japanese language were shown two pictures. One picture was of a small object making a small sound, such as a small vase being broken, and the other was of a big object making a big sound, such as a big vase being broken. Participants were presented with two novel onomatopoetic words with voicing contrasts, e.g.,/dachan/vs./tachan/, and were told that each word corresponded to one of the two pictures. They were then asked to match the words to the corresponding pictures. Chinese without knowledge of Japanese performed only at chance level, whereas Japanese and Japanese-learning Chinese successfully matched a voiced/unvoiced consonant with a big/small object respectively. The results suggest that the key to understanding the symbolic values of voicing contrasts in Japanese onomatopoeia is some basic knowledge that is intrinsic to the Japanese language.

Unfolding Visual Lexical Decision in Time

PubMed Central

Barca, Laura; Pezzulo, Giovanni

2012-01-01

Visual lexical decision is a classical paradigm in psycholinguistics, and numerous studies have assessed the so-called “lexicality effect" (i.e., better performance with lexical than non-lexical stimuli). Far less is known about the dynamics of choice, because many studies measured overall reaction times, which are not informative about underlying processes. To unfold visual lexical decision in (over) time, we measured participants' hand movements toward one of two item alternatives by recording the streaming x,y coordinates of the computer mouse. Participants categorized four kinds of stimuli as “lexical" or “non-lexical:" high and low frequency words, pseudowords, and letter strings. Spatial attraction toward the opposite category was present for low frequency words and pseudowords. Increasing the ambiguity of the stimuli led to greater movement complexity and trajectory attraction to competitors, whereas no such effect was present for high frequency words and letter strings. Results fit well with dynamic models of perceptual decision-making, which describe the process as a competition between alternatives guided by the continuous accumulation of evidence. More broadly, our results point to a key role of statistical decision theory in studying linguistic processing in terms of dynamic and non-modular mechanisms. PMID:22563419

Motorcycle Start-stop System based on Intelligent Biometric Voice Recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winda, A.; E Byan, W. R.; Sofyan; Armansyah; Zariantin, D. L.; Josep, B. G.

2017-03-01

Current mechanical key in the motorcycle is prone to bulgary, being stolen or misplaced. Intelligent biometric voice recognition as means to replace this mechanism is proposed as an alternative. The proposed system will decide whether the voice is belong to the user or not and the word utter by the user is ‘On’ or ‘Off’. The decision voice will be sent to Arduino in order to start or stop the engine. The recorded voice is processed in order to get some features which later be used as input to the proposed system. The Mel-Frequency Ceptral Coefficient (MFCC) is adopted as a feature extraction technique. The extracted feature is the used as input to the SVM-based identifier. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed intelligent voice recognition and word recognition system. It show that the proposed method produces a good training and testing accuracy, 99.31% and 99.43%, respectively. Moreover, the proposed system shows the performance of false rejection rate (FRR) and false acceptance rate (FAR) accuracy of 0.18% and 17.58%, respectively. In the intelligent word recognition shows that the training and testing accuracy are 100% and 96.3%, respectively.

Effects of Word Width and Word Length on Optimal Character Size for Reading of Horizontally Scrolling Japanese Words

PubMed Central

Teramoto, Wataru; Nakazaki, Takuyuki; Sekiyama, Kaoru; Mori, Shuji

2016-01-01

The present study investigated, whether word width and length affect the optimal character size for reading of horizontally scrolling Japanese words, using reading speed as a measure. In Experiment 1, three Japanese words, each consisting of four Hiragana characters, sequentially scrolled on a display screen from right to left. Participants, all Japanese native speakers, were instructed to read the words aloud as accurately as possible, irrespective of their order within the sequence. To quantitatively measure their reading performance, we used rapid serial visual presentation paradigm, where the scrolling rate was increased until the participants began to make mistakes. Thus, the highest scrolling rate at which the participants’ performance exceeded 88.9% correct rate was calculated for each character size (0.3°, 0.6°, 1.0°, and 3.0°) and scroll window size (5 or 10 character spaces). Results showed that the reading performance was highest in the range of 0.6° to 1.0°, irrespective of the scroll window size. Experiment 2 investigated whether the optimal character size observed in Experiment 1 was applicable for any word width and word length (i.e., the number of characters in a word). Results showed that reading speeds were slower for longer than shorter words and the word width of 3.6° was optimal among the word lengths tested (three, four, and six character words). Considering that character size varied depending on word width and word length in the present study, this means that the optimal character size can be changed by word width and word length in scrolling Japanese words. PMID:26909052

Effects of Word Width and Word Length on Optimal Character Size for Reading of Horizontally Scrolling Japanese Words.

PubMed

Teramoto, Wataru; Nakazaki, Takuyuki; Sekiyama, Kaoru; Mori, Shuji

2016-01-01

The present study investigated, whether word width and length affect the optimal character size for reading of horizontally scrolling Japanese words, using reading speed as a measure. In Experiment 1, three Japanese words, each consisting of four Hiragana characters, sequentially scrolled on a display screen from right to left. Participants, all Japanese native speakers, were instructed to read the words aloud as accurately as possible, irrespective of their order within the sequence. To quantitatively measure their reading performance, we used rapid serial visual presentation paradigm, where the scrolling rate was increased until the participants began to make mistakes. Thus, the highest scrolling rate at which the participants' performance exceeded 88.9% correct rate was calculated for each character size (0.3°, 0.6°, 1.0°, and 3.0°) and scroll window size (5 or 10 character spaces). Results showed that the reading performance was highest in the range of 0.6° to 1.0°, irrespective of the scroll window size. Experiment 2 investigated whether the optimal character size observed in Experiment 1 was applicable for any word width and word length (i.e., the number of characters in a word). Results showed that reading speeds were slower for longer than shorter words and the word width of 3.6° was optimal among the word lengths tested (three, four, and six character words). Considering that character size varied depending on word width and word length in the present study, this means that the optimal character size can be changed by word width and word length in scrolling Japanese words.

Phonology without semantics? Good enough for verbal short-term memory. Evidence from a patient with semantic dementia.

PubMed

Papagno, Costanza; Vernice, Mirta; Cecchetto, Carlo

2013-03-01

There is considerable evidence that long-term knowledge has an influence on short-term memory (STM) performance. This reflects the activation of long-term representations involved in perceiving and comprehending spoken language. Still, this type of long-term knowledge might be of two different kinds. STM performance might be facilitated by information about the meaning of the word, or, alternatively, by familiarity with its phonological form. We investigated these two alternatives by assessing word span in MC, a patient with semantic dementia. Four different lists of words were used: known words, words whose phonological form was known by the patient although she could not report its meaning, words that the patient did not recognize as words and judged as nonwords, nonwords. The patient's performance was compared to that of six matched controls. MC did not differ from controls in the first two types of lists and performed at the same level with both, while for words whose phonological form was unknown (and therefore not recognized as words) her performance was comparable to that with nonwords; also, with this type of item, she produced significantly more phonemic substitutions than controls. The results show that long-term knowledge facilitates immediate serial recall. However, this facilitation is due to familiarity with phonological representations rather than to knowledge of meaning. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Approach to adolescent suicide prevention.

PubMed

Kostenuik, Marcia; Ratnapalan, Mohana

2010-08-01

To provide family physicians with an approach to suicide prevention in youth. A literature review was performed using Ovid MEDLINE with the key words suicide, attempted suicide, and evaluation studies or program evaluation, adolescent. Youth suicide might be prevented by earlier recognition and treatment of mental illness. Family physicians can and should screen for mental illness in youth; there are many diagnostic and treatment resources available to assist with this. Earlier detection and treatment of mental illness are the most important ways family physicians can reduce morbidity and mortality for youth who are contemplating suicide.

Individual differences in working memory capacity determine the effects of oculomotor task load on concurrent word recall performance.

PubMed

Lee, Eun-Ju; Kwon, Gusang; Lee, Aekyoung; Ghajar, Jamshid; Suh, Minah

2011-07-05

In this study, the interaction between individual differences in working memory capacity, which were assessed by the Korean version of the California Verbal Learning Test (K-CVLT), and the effects of oculomotor task load on word recall performance are examined in a dual-task experiment. We hypothesized that varying levels of oculomotor task load should result in different demands on cognitive resources. The verbal working memory task used in this study involved a brief exposure to seven words to be remembered, followed by a 30-second delay during which the subject carried out an oculomotor task. Then, memory performance was assessed by having the subjects recall as many words as possible. Forty healthy normal subjects with no vision-related problems carried out four separate dual-tasks over four consecutive days of participation, wherein word recall performances were tested under unpredictable random SPEM (smooth pursuit eye movement), predictive SPEM, fixation, and eyes-closed conditions. The word recall performance of subjects with low K-CVLT scores was significantly enhanced under predictive SPEM conditions as opposed to the fixation and eyes-closed conditions, but performance was reduced under the random SPEM condition, thus reflecting an inverted-U relationship between the oculomotor task load and word recall performance. Subjects with high K-CVLT scores evidenced steady word recall performances, regardless of the type of oculomotor task performed. The concurrent oculomotor performance measured by velocity error did not differ significantly among the K-CVLT groups. However, the high-scoring subjects evidenced smaller phase errors under predictive SPEM conditions than did the low-scoring subjects; this suggests that different resource allocation strategies may be adopted, depending on individuals' working memory capacity. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Second Language Learners' Contiguous and Discontiguous Multi-Word Unit Use over Time

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yuldashev, Aziz; Fernandez, Julieta; Thorne, Steven L.

2013-01-01

Research has described the key role of formulaic language use in both written and spoken communication (Schmitt, 2004; Wray, 2002), as well as in relation to L2 learning (Ellis, Simpson--Vlach, & Maynard, 2008). Relatively few studies have examined related fixed and semi-fixed multi-word units (MWUs), which comprise fixed parts with the potential…

Network Alterations Supporting Word Retrieval in Patients with Medial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Protzner, Andrea B.; McAndrews, Mary Pat

2011-01-01

Although the hippocampus is not considered a key structure in semantic memory, patients with medial-temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) have deficits in semantic access on some word retrieval tasks. We hypothesized that these deficits reflect the negative impact of focal epilepsy on remote cerebral structures. Thus, we expected that the networks that…

A Comparison of Key Concepts in Data Analytics and Data Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMaster, Kirby; Rague, Brian; Wolthuis, Stuart L.; Sambasivam, Samuel

2018-01-01

This research study provides an examination of the relatively new fields of Data Analytics and Data Science. We compare word rates in Data Analytics and Data Science documents to determine which concepts are mentioned most often. The most frequent concept in both fields is "data." The word rate for "data" is more than twice the…

Australian Thesaurus of Education Descriptors. A Word-Stock for Indexing and Retrieving Australian Educational Literature.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lavender, G. B.; Findlay, Margaret A.

This core thesaurus of terms suitable for indexing Australian educational literature was developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research by means of a systematic and thorough revision of the "Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors." Based on the actual terminology of education in Australia, this thesaurus includes: key words and…

The Frequency-Predictability Interaction in Reading: It Depends Where You're Coming from

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hand, Christopher J.; Miellet, Sebastien; O'Donnell, Patrick J.; Sereno, Sara C.

2010-01-01

A word's frequency of occurrence and its predictability from a prior context are key factors determining how long the eyes remain on that word in normal reading. Past reaction-time and eye movement research can be distinguished by whether these variables, when combined, produce interactive or additive results, respectively. Our study addressed…

Eye Movements to Pictures Reveal Transient Semantic Activation during Spoken Word Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yee, Eiling; Sedivy, Julie C.

2006-01-01

Two experiments explore the activation of semantic information during spoken word recognition. Experiment 1 shows that as the name of an object unfolds (e.g., lock), eye movements are drawn to pictorial representations of both the named object and semantically related objects (e.g., key). Experiment 2 shows that objects semantically related to an…

The Dyslexic Student and the Public Speaking Notecard.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayward, Pamela A.

To facilitate the extemporaneous speaking style, the preferred method of speech delivery in public speaking classes, students are advised to take a notecard with key words and phrases on it with them as they deliver the speech. In other words, the speech is to be well rehearsed but not given completely from memory or from a detailed manuscript.…

A Network Text Analysis of David Ayer's "Fury"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, Starling David; Smith, Susan

2015-01-01

Network Text Analysis (NTA) involves the creation of networks of words and/or concepts from linguistic data. Its key insight is that the position of words and concepts in a text network provides vital clues to the central and underlying themes of the text as a whole. Recent research has relied on inductive approaches to identify these themes. In…

Addressing Student Debt: A New Post Secondary Learning Support System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association of Canadian Community Colleges, 2001

2001-01-01

Access and affordability are bountiful concepts and key words used by policy makers in defining the role of post-secondary education and training in Canada. However, these words have not translated into action for many learners due to student debt. Incurred from high tuition fees, costly and complex payback schemes and under-funding, chronic…

Long frame sync words for binary PSK telemetry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Levitt, B. K.

1975-01-01

Correlation criteria have previously been established for identifying whether a given binary sequence would be a good frame sync word for phase-shift keyed telemetry. In the past, the search for a good K-bit sync word has involved the application of these criteria to the entire set of 2 exponent K binary K-tuples. It is shown that restricting this search to a much smaller subset consisting of K-bit prefixes of pseudonoise sequences results in sync words of comparable quality, with greatly reduced computer search times for larger values of K. As an example, this procedure is used to find good sync words of length 16-63; from a storage viewpoint, each of these sequences can be generated by a 5- or 6-bit linear feedback shift register.

Sex differences in memory estimates for pictures and words with multiple recall trials.

PubMed

Ionescu, Marcos D

2004-04-01

Undergraduate students (23 men and 23 women) provided memory performance estimates before and after each of three recall trials involving 80 stimuli (40 pictures and 40 words). No sex differences were found across trials for the total recall of items or for the recall of pictures and words separately. A significant increase in recall for pictures (not words) was found for both sexes across trials. The previous results of Ionescu were replicated on the first and second recall trials: men underestimated their performance on the pictures and women underestimated their performance on the word items. These differences in postrecall estimates were not found after the third recall trial: men and women alike underestimated their performance on both the picture and word items. The disappearance of item-specific sex differences in postrecall estimates for the third recall trial does not imply that men and women become more accurate at estimating their actual performance with multiple recall trials.

Overcoming the effect of letter confusability in letter-by-letter reading: a rehabilitation study.

PubMed

Harris, Lara; Olson, Andrew; Humphreys, Glyn

2013-01-01

Patients who read in a letter-by-letter manner can demonstrate effects of lexical variables when reading words comprised of low confusability letters, suggesting the capacity to process low-confusability words in parallel across the letters (Fiset, Arguin, & McCabe, 2006). Here a series of experiments is presented investigating letter confusability effects in MAH, a patient with expressive and receptive aphasia who shows reduced reading accuracy with longer words, and DM, a relatively "pure" alexic patient. Two rehabilitation studies were employed: (i) a word-level therapy and (ii) a letter-level therapy designed to improve discrimination of individual letters. The word-level treatment produced generalised improvement to low-confusability words only, but the serial processing treatment produced improvement on both high and low confusability words. The results add support to the hypothesis that letter confusability plays a key role in letter-by-letter reading, and suggest that a rehabilitation method aimed at reducing ambiguities in letter identification may be particularly effective for treating letter-by-letter reading.

ERP correlates of letter identity and letter position are modulated by lexical frequency

PubMed Central

Vergara-Martínez, Marta; Perea, Manuel; Gómez, Pablo; Swaab, Tamara Y.

2013-01-01

The encoding of letter position is a key aspect in all recently proposed models of visual-word recognition. We analyzed the impact of lexical frequency on letter position assignment by examining the temporal dynamics of lexical activation induced by pseudowords extracted from words of different frequencies. For each word (e.g., BRIDGE), we created two pseudowords: A transposed-letter (TL: BRIGDE) and a replaced-letter pseudoword (RL: BRITGE). ERPs were recorded while participants read words and pseudowords in two tasks: Semantic categorization (Experiment 1) and lexical decision (Experiment 2). For high-frequency stimuli, similar ERPs were obtained for words and TL-pseudowords, but the N400 component to words was reduced relative to RL-pseudowords, indicating less lexical/semantic activation. In contrast, TL- and RL-pseudowords created from low-frequency stimuli elicited similar ERPs. Behavioral responses in the lexical decision task paralleled this asymmetry. The present findings impose constraints on computational and neural models of visual-word recognition. PMID:23454070

Sex differences in memory estimates for pictures and words.

PubMed

Ionescu, M D

2000-08-01

Memory performance estimates of men and women before and after a recall test were investigated. College students (17 men and 20 women), all juniors, participated in a memory task involving the recall of 80 stimuli (40 pictures and 40 words). Before and after the task they were asked to provide estimates of their pre- and postrecall performance. Although no sex differences were found for total correct recall, recall for pictures, and recall for words, or in the estimates of memory performance before the recall task, there were significant differences after the test: women underestimated their performance on the words and men underestimated their performance on the picture items.

Word recognition using a lexicon constrained by first/last character decisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Sheila X.; Srihari, Sargur N.

1995-03-01

In lexicon based recognition of machine-printed word images, the size of the lexicon can be quite extensive. The recognition performance is closely related to the size of the lexicon. Recognition performance drops quickly when lexicon size increases. Here, we present an algorithm to improve the word recognition performance by reducing the size of the given lexicon. The algorithm utilizes the information provided by the first and last characters of a word to reduce the size of the given lexicon. Given a word image and a lexicon that contains the word in the image, the first and last characters are segmented and then recognized by a character classifier. The possible candidates based on the results given by the classifier are selected, which give us the sub-lexicon. Then a word shape analysis algorithm is applied to produce the final ranking of the given lexicon. The algorithm was tested on a set of machine- printed gray-scale word images which includes a wide range of print types and qualities.

Word Generalization by a Dog (Canis familiaris): Is Shape Important?

PubMed Central

van der Zee, Emile; Zulch, Helen; Mills, Daniel

2012-01-01

We investigated the presence of a key feature of human word comprehension in a five year old Border Collie: the generalization of a word referring to an object to other objects of the same shape, also known as shape bias. Our first experiment confirmed a solid history of word learning in the dog, thus making it possible for certain object features to have become central in his word comprehension. Using an experimental paradigm originally employed to establish shape bias in children and human adults we taught the dog arbitrary object names (e.g. dax) for novel objects. Two experiments showed that when briefly familiarized with word-object mappings the dog did not generalize object names to object shape but to object size. A fourth experiment showed that when familiarized with a word-object mapping for a longer period of time the dog tended to generalize the word to objects with the same texture. These results show that the dog tested did not display human-like word comprehension, but word generalization and word reference development of a qualitatively different nature compared to humans. We conclude that a shape bias for word generalization in humans is due to the distinct evolutionary history of the human sensory system for object identification and that more research is necessary to confirm qualitative differences in word generalization between humans and dogs. PMID:23185321

Word generalization by a dog (Canis familiaris): is shape important?

PubMed

van der Zee, Emile; Zulch, Helen; Mills, Daniel

2012-01-01

We investigated the presence of a key feature of human word comprehension in a five year old Border Collie: the generalization of a word referring to an object to other objects of the same shape, also known as shape bias. Our first experiment confirmed a solid history of word learning in the dog, thus making it possible for certain object features to have become central in his word comprehension. Using an experimental paradigm originally employed to establish shape bias in children and human adults we taught the dog arbitrary object names (e.g. dax) for novel objects. Two experiments showed that when briefly familiarized with word-object mappings the dog did not generalize object names to object shape but to object size. A fourth experiment showed that when familiarized with a word-object mapping for a longer period of time the dog tended to generalize the word to objects with the same texture. These results show that the dog tested did not display human-like word comprehension, but word generalization and word reference development of a qualitatively different nature compared to humans. We conclude that a shape bias for word generalization in humans is due to the distinct evolutionary history of the human sensory system for object identification and that more research is necessary to confirm qualitative differences in word generalization between humans and dogs.

Developing information literacy: a key to evidence-based nursing.

PubMed

Shorten, A; Wallace, M C; Crookes, P A

2001-06-01

This report describes the evaluation of a curriculum-integrated programme designed to help students develop an awareness of the nursing literature, the skills to locate and retrieve it, and skills required in its evaluation; in other words'information literacy'. Positive changes in student performance on objective measures of information-literacy skills were revealed as well as a significant increase in the levels of confidence of the student in performing those skills. Students who had undertaken the information-literacy programme ('programme' students) performed better on a range of objective measures of information literacy, as well as reporting higher levels of confidence in these skills, than students who had not participated in the programme ('non-programme' students). Evaluation of this programme provides evidence of the potential usefulness of a curriculum-integrated approach for the development of information-literacy skills within nursing education. With these underlying skills, students will be better equipped to consolidate and extend their key information-literacy skills to include research appreciation and application. These are vital for effective lifelong learning and a prerequisite to evidence-based practice.

Differential emotional processing in concrete and abstract words.

PubMed

Yao, Bo; Keitel, Anne; Bruce, Gillian; Scott, Graham G; O'Donnell, Patrick J; Sereno, Sara C

2018-02-12

Emotion (positive and negative) words are typically recognized faster than neutral words. Recent research suggests that emotional valence, while often treated as a unitary semantic property, may be differentially represented in concrete and abstract words. Studies that have explicitly examined the interaction of emotion and concreteness, however, have demonstrated inconsistent patterns of results. Moreover, these findings may be limited as certain key lexical variables (e.g., familiarity, age of acquisition) were not taken into account. We investigated the emotion-concreteness interaction in a large-scale, highly controlled lexical decision experiment. A 3 (Emotion: negative, neutral, positive) × 2 (Concreteness: abstract, concrete) design was used, with 45 items per condition and 127 participants. We found a significant interaction between emotion and concreteness. Although positive and negative valenced words were recognized faster than neutral words, this emotion advantage was significantly larger in concrete than in abstract words. We explored potential contributions of participant alexithymia level and item imageability to this interactive pattern. We found that only word imageability significantly modulated the emotion-concreteness interaction. While both concrete and abstract emotion words are advantageously processed relative to comparable neutral words, the mechanisms of this facilitation are paradoxically more dependent on imageability in abstract words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The animacy advantage for free-recall performance is not attributable to greater mental arousal.

PubMed

Popp, Earl Y; Serra, Michael J

2018-01-01

People often demonstrate better memory for animate concepts (e.g., lion and sailor) than for inanimate concepts (e.g., hammer and mountain). Researchers have attributed this effect to an adaptive memory mechanism that favours information relevant for survival, including information about living things. In the present experiment, we examined the hypothesis that people demonstrate better free-recall performance for animate than inanimate words because animate words tend to be associated with greater mental arousal than inanimate words, a factor that was not controlled for in previous experiments on this topic. To this end, we matched animate and inanimate word lists on mental arousal (and several other factors), and compared participants' free-recall performance for the two word types. We were able to replicate past findings that participants' free-recall of animate words exceeds their free-recall of inanimate words, but we found no support for the possibility that the effect stems from differences in mental arousal between animate and inanimate concepts, as this effect maintained even when the word lists were matched on mental arousal. The present results therefore indicate that mental arousal cannot explain the effects of animacy on free-recall performance.

[Brazilian bibliographical output on public oral health in public health and dentistry journals].

PubMed

Celeste, Roger Keller; Warmling, Cristine Maria

2014-06-01

The scope of this paper is to describe characteristics of the scientific output in the area of public oral health in journals on public health and dentistry nationwide. The Scopus database of abstracts and quotations was used and eight journals in public health, as well as ten in dentistry, dating from 1947 to 2011 were selected. A research strategy using key words regarding oral health in public health and key words about public health in dentistry was used to locate articles. The themes selected were based on the frequency of key words. Of the total number of articles, 4.7% (n = 642) were found in oral health journals and 6.8% (n = 245) in public health journals. Among the authors who published most, only 12% published in both fields. There was a percentile growth of public oral health publications in dentistry journals, though not in public health journals. In dentistry, only studies indexed as being on the topic of epidemiology showed an increase. In the area of public health, planning was predominant in all the phases studied. Research to evaluate the impact of research and postgraduate policies in scientific production is required.

Assessing language skills in adult key word signers with intellectual disabilities: Insights from sign linguistics.

PubMed

Grove, Nicola; Woll, Bencie

2017-03-01

Manual signing is one of the most widely used approaches to support the communication and language skills of children and adults who have intellectual or developmental disabilities, and problems with communication in spoken language. A recent series of papers reporting findings from this population raises critical issues for professionals in the assessment of multimodal language skills of key word signers. Approaches to assessment will differ depending on whether key word signing (KWS) is viewed as discrete from, or related to, natural sign languages. Two available assessments from these different perspectives are compared. Procedures appropriate to the assessment of sign language production are recommended as a valuable addition to the clinician's toolkit. Sign and speech need to be viewed as multimodal, complementary communicative endeavours, rather than as polarities. Whilst narrative has been shown to be a fruitful context for eliciting language samples, assessments for adult users should be designed to suit the strengths, needs and values of adult signers with intellectual disabilities, using materials that are compatible with their life course stage rather than those designed for young children. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A practical, intuitive brain-computer interface for communicating ‘yes’ or ‘no’ by listening

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hill, N. Jeremy; Ricci, Erin; Haider, Sameah; McCane, Lynn M.; Heckman, Susan; Wolpaw, Jonathan R.; Vaughan, Theresa M.

2014-06-01

Objective. Previous work has shown that it is possible to build an EEG-based binary brain-computer interface system (BCI) driven purely by shifts of attention to auditory stimuli. However, previous studies used abrupt, abstract stimuli that are often perceived as harsh and unpleasant, and whose lack of inherent meaning may make the interface unintuitive and difficult for beginners. We aimed to establish whether we could transition to a system based on more natural, intuitive stimuli (spoken words ‘yes’ and ‘no’) without loss of performance, and whether the system could be used by people in the locked-in state. Approach. We performed a counterbalanced, interleaved within-subject comparison between an auditory streaming BCI that used beep stimuli, and one that used word stimuli. Fourteen healthy volunteers performed two sessions each, on separate days. We also collected preliminary data from two subjects with advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), who used the word-based system to answer a set of simple yes-no questions. Main results. The N1, N2 and P3 event-related potentials elicited by words varied more between subjects than those elicited by beeps. However, the difference between responses to attended and unattended stimuli was more consistent with words than beeps. Healthy subjects’ performance with word stimuli (mean 77% ± 3.3 s.e.) was slightly but not significantly better than their performance with beep stimuli (mean 73% ± 2.8 s.e.). The two subjects with ALS used the word-based BCI to answer questions with a level of accuracy similar to that of the healthy subjects. Significance. Since performance using word stimuli was at least as good as performance using beeps, we recommend that auditory streaming BCI systems be built with word stimuli to make the system more pleasant and intuitive. Our preliminary data show that word-based streaming BCI is a promising tool for communication by people who are locked in.

Impaired semantic knowledge underlies the reduced verbal short-term storage capacity in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Peters, Frédéric; Majerus, Steve; De Baerdemaeker, Julie; Salmon, Eric; Collette, Fabienne

2009-12-01

A decrease in verbal short-term memory (STM) capacity is consistently observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although this impairment has been mainly attributed to attentional deficits during encoding and maintenance, the progressive deterioration of semantic knowledge in early stages of AD may also be an important determinant of poor STM performance. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of semantic knowledge on verbal short-term memory storage capacity in normal aging and in AD by exploring the impact of word imageability on STM performance. Sixteen patients suffering from mild AD, 16 healthy elderly subjects and 16 young subjects performed an immediate serial recall task using word lists containing high or low imageability words. All participant groups recalled more high imageability words than low imageability words, but the effect of word imageability on verbal STM was greater in AD patients than in both the young and the elderly control groups. More precisely, AD patients showed a marked decrease in STM performance when presented with lists of low imageability words, whereas recall of high imageability words was relatively well preserved. Furthermore, AD patients displayed an abnormal proportion of phonological errors in the low imageability condition. Overall, these results indicate that the support of semantic knowledge on STM performance was impaired for lists of low imageability words in AD patients. More generally, these findings suggest that the deterioration of semantic knowledge is partly responsible for the poor verbal short-term storage capacity observed in AD.

Interrupted Monosyllabic Words: The Effects of Ten Interruption Locations on Recognition Performance by Older Listeners with Sensorineural Hearing Loss.

PubMed

Wilson, Richard H; Sharrett, Kadie C

2017-01-01

Two previous experiments from our laboratory with 70 interrupted monosyllabic words demonstrated that recognition performance was influenced by the temporal location of the interruption pattern. The interruption pattern (10 interruptions/sec, 50% duty cycle) was always the same and referenced word onset; the only difference between the patterns was the temporal location of the on- and off-segments of the interruption cycle. In the first study, both young and older listeners obtained better recognition performances when the initial on-segment coincided with word onset than when the initial on-segment was delayed by 50 msec. The second experiment with 24 young listeners detailed recognition performance as the interruption pattern was incremented in 10-msec steps through the 0- to 90-msec onset range. Across the onset conditions, 95% of the functions were either flat or U-shaped. To define the effects that interruption pattern locations had on word recognition by older listeners with sensorineural hearing loss as the interruption pattern incremented, re: word onset, from 0 to 90 msec in 10-msec steps. A repeated-measures design with ten interruption patterns (onset conditions) and one uninterruption condition. Twenty-four older males (mean = 69.6 yr) with sensorineural hearing loss participated in two 1-hour sessions. The three-frequency pure-tone average was 24.0 dB HL and word recognition was ≥80% correct. Seventy consonant-vowel nucleus-consonant words formed the corpus of materials with 25 additional words used for practice. For each participant, the 700 interrupted stimuli (70 words by 10 onset conditions), the 70 words uninterrupted, and two practice lists each were randomized and recorded on compact disc in 33 tracks of 25 words each. The data were analyzed at the participant and word levels and compared to the results obtained earlier on 24 young listeners with normal hearing. The mean recognition performance on the 70 words uninterrupted was 91.0% with an overall mean performance on the ten interruption conditions of 63.2% (range: 57.9-69.3%), compared to 80.4% (range: 73.0-87.7%) obtained earlier on the young adults. The best performances were at the extremes of the onset conditions. Standard deviations ranged from 22.1% to 28.1% (24 participants) and from 9.2% to 12.8% (70 words). An arithmetic algorithm categorized the shapes of the psychometric functions across the ten onset conditions. With the older participants in the current study, 40% of the functions were flat, 41.4% were U-shaped, and 18.6% were inverted U-shaped, which compared favorably to the function shapes by the young listeners in the earlier study of 50.0%, 41.4%, and 8.6%, respectively. There were two words on which the older listeners had 40% better performances. Collectively, the data are orderly, but at the individual word or participant level, the data are somewhat volatile, which may reflect auditory processing differences between the participant groups. The diversity of recognition performances by the older listeners on the ten interruption conditions with each of the 70 words supports the notion that the term hearing loss is inclusive of processes well beyond the filtering produced by end-organ sensitivity deficits. American Academy of Audiology

Some factors underlying individual differences in speech recognition on PRESTO: a first report.

PubMed

Tamati, Terrin N; Gilbert, Jaimie L; Pisoni, David B

2013-01-01

Previous studies investigating speech recognition in adverse listening conditions have found extensive variability among individual listeners. However, little is currently known about the core underlying factors that influence speech recognition abilities. To investigate sensory, perceptual, and neurocognitive differences between good and poor listeners on the Perceptually Robust English Sentence Test Open-set (PRESTO), a new high-variability sentence recognition test under adverse listening conditions. Participants who fell in the upper quartile (HiPRESTO listeners) or lower quartile (LoPRESTO listeners) on key word recognition on sentences from PRESTO in multitalker babble completed a battery of behavioral tasks and self-report questionnaires designed to investigate real-world hearing difficulties, indexical processing skills, and neurocognitive abilities. Young, normal-hearing adults (N = 40) from the Indiana University community participated in the current study. Participants' assessment of their own real-world hearing difficulties was measured with a self-report questionnaire on situational hearing and hearing health history. Indexical processing skills were assessed using a talker discrimination task, a gender discrimination task, and a forced-choice regional dialect categorization task. Neurocognitive abilities were measured with the Auditory Digit Span Forward (verbal short-term memory) and Digit Span Backward (verbal working memory) tests, the Stroop Color and Word Test (attention/inhibition), the WordFam word familiarity test (vocabulary size), the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version (BRIEF-A) self-report questionnaire on executive function, and two performance subtests of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) Performance Intelligence Quotient (IQ; nonverbal intelligence). Scores on self-report questionnaires and behavioral tasks were tallied and analyzed by listener group (HiPRESTO and LoPRESTO). The extreme groups did not differ overall on self-reported hearing difficulties in real-world listening environments. However, an item-by-item analysis of questions revealed that LoPRESTO listeners reported significantly greater difficulty understanding speakers in a public place. HiPRESTO listeners were significantly more accurate than LoPRESTO listeners at gender discrimination and regional dialect categorization, but they did not differ on talker discrimination accuracy or response time, or gender discrimination response time. HiPRESTO listeners also had longer forward and backward digit spans, higher word familiarity ratings on the WordFam test, and lower (better) scores for three individual items on the BRIEF-A questionnaire related to cognitive load. The two groups did not differ on the Stroop Color and Word Test or either of the WASI performance IQ subtests. HiPRESTO listeners and LoPRESTO listeners differed in indexical processing abilities, short-term and working memory capacity, vocabulary size, and some domains of executive functioning. These findings suggest that individual differences in the ability to encode and maintain highly detailed episodic information in speech may underlie the variability observed in speech recognition performance in adverse listening conditions using high-variability PRESTO sentences in multitalker babble. American Academy of Audiology.

Some Factors Underlying Individual Differences in Speech Recognition on PRESTO: A First Report

PubMed Central

Tamati, Terrin N.; Gilbert, Jaimie L.; Pisoni, David B.

2013-01-01

Background Previous studies investigating speech recognition in adverse listening conditions have found extensive variability among individual listeners. However, little is currently known about the core, underlying factors that influence speech recognition abilities. Purpose To investigate sensory, perceptual, and neurocognitive differences between good and poor listeners on PRESTO, a new high-variability sentence recognition test under adverse listening conditions. Research Design Participants who fell in the upper quartile (HiPRESTO listeners) or lower quartile (LoPRESTO listeners) on key word recognition on sentences from PRESTO in multitalker babble completed a battery of behavioral tasks and self-report questionnaires designed to investigate real-world hearing difficulties, indexical processing skills, and neurocognitive abilities. Study Sample Young, normal-hearing adults (N = 40) from the Indiana University community participated in the current study. Data Collection and Analysis Participants’ assessment of their own real-world hearing difficulties was measured with a self-report questionnaire on situational hearing and hearing health history. Indexical processing skills were assessed using a talker discrimination task, a gender discrimination task, and a forced-choice regional dialect categorization task. Neurocognitive abilities were measured with the Auditory Digit Span Forward (verbal short-term memory) and Digit Span Backward (verbal working memory) tests, the Stroop Color and Word Test (attention/inhibition), the WordFam word familiarity test (vocabulary size), the BRIEF-A self-report questionnaire on executive function, and two performance subtests of the WASI Performance IQ (non-verbal intelligence). Scores on self-report questionnaires and behavioral tasks were tallied and analyzed by listener group (HiPRESTO and LoPRESTO). Results The extreme groups did not differ overall on self-reported hearing difficulties in real-world listening environments. However, an item-by-item analysis of questions revealed that LoPRESTO listeners reported significantly greater difficulty understanding speakers in a public place. HiPRESTO listeners were significantly more accurate than LoPRESTO listeners at gender discrimination and regional dialect categorization, but they did not differ on talker discrimination accuracy or response time, or gender discrimination response time. HiPRESTO listeners also had longer forward and backward digit spans, higher word familiarity ratings on the WordFam test, and lower (better) scores for three individual items on the BRIEF-A questionnaire related to cognitive load. The two groups did not differ on the Stroop Color and Word Test or either of the WASI performance IQ subtests. Conclusions HiPRESTO listeners and LoPRESTO listeners differed in indexical processing abilities, short-term and working memory capacity, vocabulary size, and some domains of executive functioning. These findings suggest that individual differences in the ability to encode and maintain highly detailed episodic information in speech may underlie the variability observed in speech recognition performance in adverse listening conditions using high-variability PRESTO sentences in multitalker babble. PMID:24047949

Children and adolescents' performance on a medium-length/nonsemantic word-list test.

PubMed

Flores-Lázaro, Julio César; Salgado Soruco, María Alejandra; Stepanov, Igor I

2017-01-01

Word-list learning tasks are among the most important and frequently used tests for declarative memory evaluation. For example, the California Verbal Learning Test-Children's Version (CVLT-C) and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test provide important information about different cognitive-neuropsychological processes. However, the impact of test length (i.e., number of words) and semantic organization (i.e., type of words) on children's and adolescents' memory performance remains to be clarified, especially during this developmental stage. To explore whether a medium-length non-semantically organized test can produce the typical curvilinear performance that semantically organized tests produce, reflecting executive control, we studied and compared the cognitive performance of normal children and adolescents by utilizing mathematical modeling. The model is based on the first-order system transfer function and has been successfully applied to learning curves for the CVLT-C (15 words, semantically organized paradigm). Results indicate that learning nine semantically unrelated words produces typical curvilinear (executive function) performance in children and younger adolescents and that performance could be effectively analyzed with the mathematical model. This indicates that the exponential increase (curvilinear performance) of correctly learned words does not solely depend on semantic and/or length features. This type of test controls semantic and length effects and may represent complementary tools for executive function evaluation in clinical populations in which semantic and/or length processing are affected.

The Involvement of Morphological Information in the Memorization of Chinese Compound Words: Evidence from Memory Errors.

PubMed

Liu, Duo

2016-02-01

The processing of morphological information during Chinese word memorization was investigated in the present study. Participants were asked to study words presented to them on a computer screen in the studying phase and then judge whether presented words were old or new in the test phase. In addition to parent words (i.e. the words studied in the study phase), the test phase also included conjunction lures (constructed out of morphemes in the parent words) and new words (constructed out of entirely new morphemes). Three kinds of words (i.e. subordinate compounds, coordinative compounds, and single-morpheme words) were involved. In both two experiments, performance on lures worsened when both parent words and lures were coordinative compounds, compared to the condition when both were subordinate compounds. The different performance between compounds with different compounding structures in the test phase suggests the involvement of morphological information in the memorization of Chinese compound words. The spreading activation theory for memory and the interactive activation model for the processing of morphologically complex words were referred to for interpreting the results.

Influences of emotion on context memory while viewing film clips.

PubMed

Anderson, Lisa; Shimamura, Arthur P

2005-01-01

Participants listened to words while viewing film clips (audio off). Film clips were classified as neutral, positively valenced, negatively valenced, and arousing. Memory was assessed in three ways: recall of film content, recall of words, and context recognition. In the context recognition test, participants were presented a word and determined which film clip was showing when the word was originally presented. In two experiments, context memory performance was disrupted when words were presented during negatively valenced film clips, whereas it was enhanced when words were presented during arousing film clips. Free recall of words presented during the negatively valenced films was also disrupted. These findings suggest multiple influences of emotion on memory performance.

Early Word Decoding Ability as a Longitudinal Predictor of Academic Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nordström, Thomas; Jacobson, Christer; Söderberg, Pernilla

2016-01-01

This study, using a longitudinal design with a Swedish cohort of young readers, investigates if children's early word decoding ability in second grade can predict later academic performance. In an effort to estimate the unique effect of early word decoding (grade 2) with academic performance (grade 9), gender and non-verbal cognitive ability were…

Vietnamese children and language-based processing tasks.

PubMed

Hwa-Froelich, Deborah A; Matsuo, Hisako

2005-07-01

Vietnamese children's performance on language-based processing tasks of fast-mapping (FM) word-learning and dynamic assessment (DA) word- and rule-learning tasks were investigated. Twenty-one first- and second-generation Vietnamese preschool children participated in this study. All children were enrolled in 2 Head Start programs in a large city in the Midwest. All children had passed a developmental assessment and routine speech, language, and hearing screenings. All participants were taught 4 invented monosyllabic words in an FM word task, an invented monosyllabic suffix rule (-po) meaning "a part of" in a DA rule task, and 4 invented bisyllabic words in a DA word task. Potential relationships among task performances were investigated. Receptive task performances, expressive task performances, and task totals were added to create receptive total, expressive total, and accumulated performance total (APT) scores. Relationships among receptive total, expressive total, and APT scores were also investigated. Significant correlations were found between FM word, DA rule, and the receptive total. The expressive total correlated with all task total scores, APT, age, and modifiability scores. Modifiability scores correlated with the two DA tasks, expressive total, and the APT. Findings indicate that FM word and the expressive total were positively correlated with most of the other tasks, composite totals, and age. Performance on language-based processing tasks may provide valuable information for separating typically developing Vietnamese preschool children from their peers with language disorders. Practitioners should consider linguistic characteristics of target stimuli. Comparisons should include task, receptive, expressive, and APT.

Neuropsychologic predictors of competency in Alzheimer's disease using a rational reasons legal standard.

PubMed

Marson, D C; Cody, H A; Ingram, K K; Harrell, L E

1995-10-01

To identify neuropsychologic predictors of competency performance and status in Alzheimer's disease (AD) using a specific legal standard (LS). This study is a follow-up to the competency assessment research reported in this issue of the archives. Univariate and multivariate analyses of independent neuropsychologic test measures with a dependent measure of competency to consent to treatment. University medical center. Fifteen normal older control subjects and 29 patients with probable AD. Subjects were administered a battery of neuropsychologic measures theoretically linked to competency function, as well as two clinical vignettes testing their capacity to consent to medical treatment under five different LSs. The present study focused on one specific LS: the capacity to provide "rational reasons" for a treatment choice (LS4). Neuropsychologic test scores were correlated with scores on LS4 for the normal control group and the AD group. The resulting univariate predictors were then analyzed using stepwise regression and discriminant function to identify the key multivariate predictors of competency performance and status under LS4. Measures of word fluency predicted the LS4 scores of controls (R2 = .33) and the AD group (R2 = .36). A word fluency measure also emerged as the best single predictor of competency status for the full subject sample (n = 44), correctly classifying 82% of cases. Dementia severity (Mini-Mental State Examination score) did not emerge as a multivariate predictor of competency performance or status. Interestingly, measures of verbal reasoning and memory were not strongly associated with LS4. Word fluency measures predicted the normative performance and intact competency status of older control subjects and the declining performance and compromised competency status of patients with AD on a "rational reasons" standard of competency to consent to treatment. Cognitive capacities related to frontal lobe function appear to underlie the capacity to formulate rational reasons for a treatment choice. Neuropsychologic studies of competency function have important theoretical and clinical value.

Enrichment Effects of Gestures and Pictures on Abstract Words in a Second Language.

PubMed

Repetto, Claudia; Pedroli, Elisa; Macedonia, Manuela

2017-01-01

Laboratory research has demonstrated that multisensory enrichment promotes verbal learning in a foreign language (L2). Enrichment can be done in various ways, e.g., by adding a picture that illustrates the L2 word's meaning or by the learner performing a gesture to the word (enactment). Most studies have tested enrichment on concrete but not on abstract words. Unlike concrete words, the representation of abstract words is deprived of sensory-motor features. This has been addressed as one of the reasons why abstract words are difficult to remember. Here, we ask whether a brief enrichment training by means of pictures and by self-performed gestures also enhances the memorability of abstract words in L2. Further, we explore which of these two enrichment strategies is more effective. Twenty young adults learned 30 novel abstract words in L2 according to three encoding conditions: (1) reading, (2) reading and pairing the novel word to a picture, and (3) reading and enacting the word by means of a gesture. We measured memory performance in free and cued recall tests, as well as in a visual recognition task. Words encoded with gestures were better remembered in the free recall in the native language (L1). When recognizing the novel words, participants made less errors for words encoded with gestures compared to words encoded with pictures. The reaction times in the recognition task did not differ across conditions. The present findings support, even if only partially, the idea that enactment promotes learning of abstract words and that it is superior to enrichment by means of pictures even after short training.

Accent modulates access to word meaning: Evidence for a speaker-model account of spoken word recognition.

PubMed

Cai, Zhenguang G; Gilbert, Rebecca A; Davis, Matthew H; Gaskell, M Gareth; Farrar, Lauren; Adler, Sarah; Rodd, Jennifer M

2017-11-01

Speech carries accent information relevant to determining the speaker's linguistic and social background. A series of web-based experiments demonstrate that accent cues can modulate access to word meaning. In Experiments 1-3, British participants were more likely to retrieve the American dominant meaning (e.g., hat meaning of "bonnet") in a word association task if they heard the words in an American than a British accent. In addition, results from a speeded semantic decision task (Experiment 4) and sentence comprehension task (Experiment 5) confirm that accent modulates on-line meaning retrieval such that comprehension of ambiguous words is easier when the relevant word meaning is dominant in the speaker's dialect. Critically, neutral-accent speech items, created by morphing British- and American-accented recordings, were interpreted in a similar way to accented words when embedded in a context of accented words (Experiment 2). This finding indicates that listeners do not use accent to guide meaning retrieval on a word-by-word basis; instead they use accent information to determine the dialectic identity of a speaker and then use their experience of that dialect to guide meaning access for all words spoken by that person. These results motivate a speaker-model account of spoken word recognition in which comprehenders determine key characteristics of their interlocutor and use this knowledge to guide word meaning access. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Key Relation Extraction from Biomedical Publications.

PubMed

Huang, Lan; Wang, Ye; Gong, Leiguang; Kulikowski, Casimir; Bai, Tian

2017-01-01

Within the large body of biomedical knowledge, recent findings and discoveries are most often presented as research articles. Their number has been increasing sharply since the turn of the century, presenting ever-growing challenges for search and discovery of knowledge and information related to specific topics of interest, even with the help of advanced online search tools. This is especially true when the goal of a search is to find or discover key relations between important concepts or topic words. We have developed an innovative method for extracting key relations between concepts from abstracts of articles. The method focuses on relations between keywords or topic words in the articles. Early experiments with the method on PubMed publications have shown promising results in searching and discovering keywords and their relationships that are strongly related to the main topic of an article.

Teaching Chinese Negotiating Style through Examination of Key Chinese Categories.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Myers, Dan

This study examined different shades of meaning that a single word may have in Chinese in an effort to better understand the relationship between language and culture. An understanding of the exact meaning of Chinese words and expressions can greatly assist non-Chinese in understanding both the language and the society as a whole. A total of 102…

The Food Code in the Yakut Culture: Semantics and Functions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gabysheva, Luiza Lvovna

2016-01-01

The relevance of researching the issue of a specific cultural meaning for a word in a folklore text is based on its being insufficiently studied and due to the importance for solving the problem of the folklore language semantic features. Yakut nominations for dairy products, which are the key words in the language of the Sakha people's folklore,…

Speaking My Mind: Why I No Longer Teach Vocabulary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heverly, Jerry

2011-01-01

It's one of those assumptions of the English teaching game that students must learn and store up vocabulary as a precondition of tackling literature or history or any of those fields that feature big words. How, some ask, could a child read a challenging passage if he or she didn't understand those key, usually multisyllabic, words often sprinkled…

Teaching Problem Solving to Students Receiving Tiered Interventions Using the Concrete-Representational-Abstract Sequence and Schema-Based Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flores, Margaret M.; Hinton, Vanessa M.; Burton, Megan E.

2016-01-01

Mathematical word problems are the most common form of mathematics problem solving implemented in K-12 schools. Identifying key words is a frequent strategy taught in classrooms in which students struggle with problem solving and show low success rates in mathematics. Researchers show that using the concrete-representational-abstract (CRA)…

Semantic Memory Is Key to Binding Phonology: Converging Evidence from Immediate Serial Recall in Semantic Dementia and Healthy Participants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffman, Paul; Jefferies, Elizabeth; Ehsan, Sheeba; Jones, Roy W.; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A.

2009-01-01

Patients with semantic dementia (SD) make numerous phoneme migration errors when recalling lists of words they no longer fully understand, suggesting that word meaning makes a critical contribution to phoneme binding in verbal short-term memory. Healthy individuals make errors that appear similar when recalling lists of nonwords, which also lack…

The "Trojan Horse" Affair and Radicalisation: An Analysis of Ofsted Reports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mogra, Imran

2016-01-01

This article provides an analysis of the frequency with which the word radicalisation appears in 21 Ofsted reports published as a result of inspections carried out in some Birmingham schools following the "Trojan Horse" affair. The technique of key-words-in-context was employed to study the range of its uses in the corpus of the reports.…

Affects of road sign wording on visitor survey - non-response bias

Treesearch

Susan M. Kocis; Stanley J. Zarnoch; Donald B.K. English

2004-01-01

On-site visitor interviewer data collection is a key component of the USDA Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM) program. In many areas, especially higher speed roads and roads with non-recreation traffic, many vehicles may not stop for an interview. Wording on the sign may condition non-recreation visitors to self-select as to whether or not they...

Rapid consolidation of new knowledge in adulthood via fast mapping.

PubMed

Coutanche, Marc N; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L

2015-09-01

Rapid word learning, where words are 'fast mapped' onto new concepts, may help build vocabulary during childhood. Recent evidence has suggested that fast mapping might help to rapidly integrate information into memory networks of the adult neocortex. The neural basis for this learning by fast mapping determines key properties of the learned information. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Amodal Semantic Representations Depend on both Anterior Temporal Lobes: Evidence from Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pobric, Gorana; Jefferies, Elizabeth; Ralph, Matthew A. Lambon

2010-01-01

The key question of how the brain codes the meaning of words and pictures is the focus of vigorous debate. Is there a "semantic hub" in the temporal poles where these different inputs converge to form amodal conceptual representations? Alternatively, are there distinct neural circuits that underpin our comprehension of pictures and words?…

School Readiness: The Views of Pre-Service Preschool Teachers and Pre-Service Primary Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahin Sak, Ikbal Tuba

2016-01-01

This study compares the views of the concept of school readiness held by 50 pre-service preschool teachers and 50 pre-service primary teachers. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview protocol, and the word-list and key-words-in-context techniques were used for qualitative data analysis. Findings show that pre-service preschool…

Affective biasing of choices in gambling task decision making.

PubMed

Hinson, John M; Whitney, Paul; Holben, Heather; Wirick, Aaron K

2006-09-01

The proponents of the somatic marker hypothesis presume that rational decision making is guided by emotional reactions that are developed from prior experience. Supporting evidence for the hypothesis comes almost exclusively from the short-term affective reactions that are learned during the course of a hypothetical decision-making task--the gambling task (GT). We examined GT performance and affective reactions to choices when those choices were biased by words that had preexisting affective value. In one experiment, affectively valued words directly signaled good and bad choices. A congruent relation between affective value of word and choice outcome improved GT performance, whereas an incongruent relation greatly interfered with performance. In another experiment, affectively valued words were maintained as a working memory (WM) load between GT choices. A WM load with affectively positive words somewhat improved GT performance, whereas affectively negative words interfered with performance. Somatic markers-indicated by differential anticipatory skin conductance response (SCR) amplitude for good and bad choices-appeared at a point in the GT session when choice performance was superior. However, differential SCR developed during the session after good choice performance was already established. These results indicate that preexisting affective biases can influence GT decision making. In addition, the somatic markers that are regular accompaniments of GT decision making appeared to be temporally lagging indicators of choice performance.

Newly learned word forms are abstract and integrated immediately after acquisition

PubMed Central

Kapnoula, Efthymia C.; McMurray, Bob

2015-01-01

A hotly debated question in word learning concerns the conditions under which newly learned words compete or interfere with familiar words during spoken word recognition. This has recently been described as a key marker of the integration of a new word into the lexicon and was thought to require consolidation Dumay & Gaskell, (Psychological Science, 18, 35–39, 2007; Gaskell & Dumay, Cognition, 89, 105–132, 2003). Recently, however, Kapnoula, Packard, Gupta, and McMurray, (Cognition, 134, 85–99, 2015) showed that interference can be observed immediately after a word is first learned, implying very rapid integration of new words into the lexicon. It is an open question whether these kinds of effects derive from episodic traces of novel words or from more abstract and lexicalized representations. Here we addressed this question by testing inhibition for newly learned words using training and test stimuli presented in different talker voices. During training, participants were exposed to a set of nonwords spoken by a female speaker. Immediately after training, we assessed the ability of the novel word forms to inhibit familiar words, using a variant of the visual world paradigm. Crucially, the test items were produced by a male speaker. An analysis of fixations showed that even with a change in voice, newly learned words interfered with the recognition of similar known words. These findings show that lexical competition effects from newly learned words spread across different talker voices, which suggests that newly learned words can be sufficiently lexicalized, and abstract with respect to talker voice, without consolidation. PMID:26202702

Putting more power in your pocket

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chapman, Karena

Representing the Northeastern Center for Chemical Energy Storage (NECCES), this document is one of the entries in the Ten Hundred and One Word Challenge. As part of the challenge, the 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers were invited to represent their science in images, cartoons, photos, words and original paintings, but any descriptions or words could only use the 1000 most commonly used words in the English language, with the addition of one word important to each of the EFRCs and the mission of DOE energy. The mission of NECCEC is to identify the key atomic-scale processes which govern electrode functionmore » in rechargeable batteries, over a wide range of time and length scales, via the development and use of novel characterization and theoretical tools, and to use this information to identify and design new battery systems.« less

A prototype system for perinatal knowledge engineering using an artificial intelligence tool.

PubMed

Sokol, R J; Chik, L

1988-01-01

Though several perinatal expert systems are extant, the use of artificial intelligence has, as yet, had minimal impact in medical computing. In this evaluation of the potential of AI techniques in the development of a computer based "Perinatal Consultant," a "top down" approach to the development of a perinatal knowledge base was taken, using as a source for such a knowledge base a 30-page manuscript of a chapter concerning high risk pregnancy. The UNIX utility "style" was used to parse sentences and obtain key words and phrases, both as part of a natural language interface and to identify key perinatal concepts. Compared with the "gold standard" of sentences containing key facts as chosen by the experts, a semiautomated method using a nonmedical speller to identify key words and phrases in context functioned with a sensitivity of 79%, i.e., approximately 8 in 10 key sentences were detected as the basis for PROLOG, rules and facts for the knowledge base. These encouraging results suggest that functional perinatal expert systems may well be expedited by using programming utilities in conjunction with AI tools and published literature.

Clusters of Word Properties as Predictors of Elementary School Children's Performance on Two Word Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tellings, Agnes; Coppens, Karien; Gelissen, John; Schreuder, Rob

2013-01-01

Often, the classification of words does not go beyond "difficult" (i.e., infrequent, late-learned, nonimageable, etc.) or "easy" (i.e., frequent, early-learned, imageable, etc.) words. In the present study, we used a latent cluster analysis to divide 703 Dutch words with scores for eight word properties into seven clusters of words. Each cluster…

Enrichment Effects of Gestures and Pictures on Abstract Words in a Second Language

PubMed Central

Repetto, Claudia; Pedroli, Elisa; Macedonia, Manuela

2017-01-01

Laboratory research has demonstrated that multisensory enrichment promotes verbal learning in a foreign language (L2). Enrichment can be done in various ways, e.g., by adding a picture that illustrates the L2 word’s meaning or by the learner performing a gesture to the word (enactment). Most studies have tested enrichment on concrete but not on abstract words. Unlike concrete words, the representation of abstract words is deprived of sensory-motor features. This has been addressed as one of the reasons why abstract words are difficult to remember. Here, we ask whether a brief enrichment training by means of pictures and by self-performed gestures also enhances the memorability of abstract words in L2. Further, we explore which of these two enrichment strategies is more effective. Twenty young adults learned 30 novel abstract words in L2 according to three encoding conditions: (1) reading, (2) reading and pairing the novel word to a picture, and (3) reading and enacting the word by means of a gesture. We measured memory performance in free and cued recall tests, as well as in a visual recognition task. Words encoded with gestures were better remembered in the free recall in the native language (L1). When recognizing the novel words, participants made less errors for words encoded with gestures compared to words encoded with pictures. The reaction times in the recognition task did not differ across conditions. The present findings support, even if only partially, the idea that enactment promotes learning of abstract words and that it is superior to enrichment by means of pictures even after short training. PMID:29326617

ERP signatures of conscious and unconscious word and letter perception in an inattentional blindness paradigm.

PubMed

Schelonka, Kathryn; Graulty, Christian; Canseco-Gonzalez, Enriqueta; Pitts, Michael A

2017-09-01

A three-phase inattentional blindness paradigm was combined with ERPs. While participants performed a distracter task, line segments in the background formed words or consonant-strings. Nearly half of the participants failed to notice these word-forms and were deemed inattentionally blind. All participants noticed the word-forms in phase 2 of the experiment while they performed the same distracter task. In the final phase, participants performed a task on the word-forms. In all phases, including during inattentional blindness, word-forms elicited distinct ERPs during early latencies (∼200-280ms) suggesting unconscious orthographic processing. A subsequent ERP (∼320-380ms) similar to the visual awareness negativity appeared only when subjects were aware of the word-forms, regardless of the task. Finally, word-forms elicited a P3b (∼400-550ms) only when these stimuli were task-relevant. These results are consistent with previous inattentional blindness studies and help distinguish brain activity associated with pre- and post-perceptual processing from correlates of conscious perception. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Regional brain activation/deactivation during word generation in schizophrenia: fMRI study.

PubMed

John, John P; Halahalli, Harsha N; Vasudev, Mandapati K; Jayakumar, Peruvumba N; Jain, Sanjeev

2011-03-01

Examination of the brain regions that show aberrant activations and/or deactivations during semantic word generation could pave the way for a better understanding of the neurobiology of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. To examine the pattern of functional magnetic resonance imaging blood oxygen level dependent activations and deactivations during semantic word generation in schizophrenia. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed on 24 participants with schizophrenia and 24 matched healthy controls during an overt, paced, 'semantic category word generation' condition and a baseline 'word repetition' condition that modelled all the lead-in/associated processes involved in the performance of the generation task. The brain regions activated during word generation in healthy individuals were replicated with minimal redundancies in participants with schizophrenia. The individuals with schizophrenia showed additional activations of temporo-parieto-occipital cortical regions as well as subcortical regions, despite significantly poorer behavioural performance than the healthy participants. Importantly, the extensive deactivations in other brain regions during word generation in healthy individuals could not be replicated in those with schizophrenia. More widespread activations and deficient deactivations in the poorly performing participants with schizophrenia may reflect an inability to inhibit competing cognitive processes, which in turn could constitute the core information-processing deficit underlying impaired word generation in schizophrenia.

Selective attention to phonology dynamically modulates initial encoding of auditory words within the left hemisphere.

PubMed

Yoncheva, Yuliya; Maurer, Urs; Zevin, Jason D; McCandliss, Bruce D

2014-08-15

Selective attention to phonology, i.e., the ability to attend to sub-syllabic units within spoken words, is a critical precursor to literacy acquisition. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence has demonstrated that a left-lateralized network of frontal, temporal, and posterior language regions, including the visual word form area, supports this skill. The current event-related potential (ERP) study investigated the temporal dynamics of selective attention to phonology during spoken word perception. We tested the hypothesis that selective attention to phonology dynamically modulates stimulus encoding by recruiting left-lateralized processes specifically while the information critical for performance is unfolding. Selective attention to phonology was captured by manipulating listening goals: skilled adult readers attended to either rhyme or melody within auditory stimulus pairs. Each pair superimposed rhyming and melodic information ensuring identical sensory stimulation. Selective attention to phonology produced distinct early and late topographic ERP effects during stimulus encoding. Data-driven source localization analyses revealed that selective attention to phonology led to significantly greater recruitment of left-lateralized posterior and extensive temporal regions, which was notably concurrent with the rhyme-relevant information within the word. Furthermore, selective attention effects were specific to auditory stimulus encoding and not observed in response to cues, arguing against the notion that they reflect sustained task setting. Collectively, these results demonstrate that selective attention to phonology dynamically engages a left-lateralized network during the critical time-period of perception for achieving phonological analysis goals. These findings suggest a key role for selective attention in on-line phonological computations. Furthermore, these findings motivate future research on the role that neural mechanisms of attention may play in phonological awareness impairments thought to underlie developmental reading disabilities. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Selective attention to phonology dynamically modulates initial encoding of auditory words within the left hemisphere

PubMed Central

Yoncheva; Maurer, Urs; Zevin, Jason; McCandliss, Bruce

2015-01-01

Selective attention to phonology, i.e., the ability to attend to sub-syllabic units within spoken words, is a critical precursor to literacy acquisition. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence has demonstrated that a left-lateralized network of frontal, temporal, and posterior language regions, including the visual word form area, supports this skill. The current event-related potential (ERP) study investigated the temporal dynamics of selective attention to phonology during spoken word perception. We tested the hypothesis that selective atten tion to phonology dynamically modulates stimulus encoding by recruiting left-lateralized processes specifically while the information critical for performance is unfolding. Selective attention to phonology was captured by ma nipulating listening goals: skilled adult readers attended to either rhyme or melody within auditory stimulus pairs. Each pair superimposed rhyming and melodic information ensuring identical sensory stimulation. Selective attention to phonology produced distinct early and late topographic ERP effects during stimulus encoding. Data- driven source localization analyses revealed that selective attention to phonology led to significantly greater re cruitment of left-lateralized posterior and extensive temporal regions, which was notably concurrent with the rhyme-relevant information within the word. Furthermore, selective attention effects were specific to auditory stimulus encoding and not observed in response to cues, arguing against the notion that they reflect sustained task setting. Collectively, these results demonstrate that selective attention to phonology dynamically engages a left-lateralized network during the critical time-period of perception for achieving phonological analysis goals. These findings support the key role of selective attention to phonology in the development of literacy and motivate future research on the neural bases of the interaction between phonological awareness and literacy, deemed central to both typical and atypical reading development. PMID:24746955

Word Problem Solving in Contemporary Math Education: A Plea for Reading Comprehension Skills Training

PubMed Central

Boonen, Anton J. H.; de Koning, Björn B.; Jolles, Jelle; van der Schoot, Menno

2016-01-01

Successfully solving mathematical word problems requires both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. In Realistic Math Education (RME), however, students primarily learn to apply the first of these skills (i.e., representational skills) in the context of word problem solving. Given this, it seems legitimate to assume that students from a RME curriculum experience difficulties when asked to solve semantically complex word problems. We investigated this assumption under 80 sixth grade students who were classified as successful and less successful word problem solvers based on a standardized mathematics test. To this end, students completed word problems that ask for both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. The results showed that even successful word problem solvers had a low performance on semantically complex word problems, despite adequate performance on semantically less complex word problems. Based on this study, we concluded that reading comprehension skills should be given a (more) prominent role during word problem solving instruction in RME. PMID:26925012

Word Problem Solving in Contemporary Math Education: A Plea for Reading Comprehension Skills Training.

PubMed

Boonen, Anton J H; de Koning, Björn B; Jolles, Jelle; van der Schoot, Menno

2016-01-01

Successfully solving mathematical word problems requires both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. In Realistic Math Education (RME), however, students primarily learn to apply the first of these skills (i.e., representational skills) in the context of word problem solving. Given this, it seems legitimate to assume that students from a RME curriculum experience difficulties when asked to solve semantically complex word problems. We investigated this assumption under 80 sixth grade students who were classified as successful and less successful word problem solvers based on a standardized mathematics test. To this end, students completed word problems that ask for both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. The results showed that even successful word problem solvers had a low performance on semantically complex word problems, despite adequate performance on semantically less complex word problems. Based on this study, we concluded that reading comprehension skills should be given a (more) prominent role during word problem solving instruction in RME.

The impact of lexical-semantic impairment and of executive dysfunction on the word reading performance of patients with probable Alzheimer dementia.

PubMed

Colombo, Lucia; Fonti, Cristina; Cappa, Stefano

2004-01-01

The influence of lexical-semantic impairment and of executive dysfunction on word naming performance was investigated in a group of patients with probable Alzheimer dementia (AD). The patients, who varied in the severity of the illness, were tested in a word naming task where they had to read aloud Italian three-syllable words with a dominant or subordinate stress pattern. These types of words have been shown to interact with frequency in normal adults [J. Exp. Psychol.: Hum. Percept. Perform. 18 (4) (1992) 987], so that the effect of the subordinate stress pattern (slower reading times) is only apparent for low frequency words. The frequency and stress effects on accuracy increased across dementia severity levels. Regression analyses showed that the impairment in reading low frequency words with subordinate stress depended largely on the level of lexical-semantic impairment, measured by a test of semantic memory and comprehension. Implications for the current reading models are discussed.

Pupils' over-reliance on linearity: a scholastic effect?

PubMed

Van Dooren, Wim; De Bock, Dirk; Janssens, Dirk; Verschaffel, Lieven

2007-06-01

From upper elementary education on, children develop a tendency to over-use linearity. Particularly, it is found that many pupils assume that if a figure enlarges k times, the area enlarges k times too. However, most research was conducted with traditional, school-like word problems. This study examines whether pupils also over-use linearity if non-linear problems are embedded in meaningful, authentic performance tasks instead of traditional, school-like word problems, and whether this experience influences later behaviour. Ninety-three sixth graders from two primary schools in Flanders, Belgium. Pupils received a pre-test with traditional word problems. Those who made a linear error on the non-linear area problem were subjected to individual interviews. They received one new non-linear problem, in the S-condition (again a traditional, scholastic word problem), D-condition (the same word problem with a drawing) or P-condition (a meaningful performance-based task). Shortly afterwards, pupils received a post-test, containing again a non-linear word problem. Most pupils from the S-condition displayed linear reasoning during the interview. Offering drawings (D-condition) had a positive effect, but presenting the problem as a performance task (P-condition) was more beneficial. Linear reasoning was nearly absent in the P-condition. Remarkably, at the post-test, most pupils from all three groups again applied linear strategies. Pupils' over-reliance on linearity seems partly elicited by the school-like word problem format of test items. Pupils perform much better if non-linear problems are offered as performance tasks. However, a single experience does not change performances on a comparable word problem test afterwards.

Semantic word category processing in semantic dementia and posterior cortical atrophy.

PubMed

Shebani, Zubaida; Patterson, Karalyn; Nestor, Peter J; Diaz-de-Grenu, Lara Z; Dawson, Kate; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2017-08-01

There is general agreement that perisylvian language cortex plays a major role in lexical and semantic processing; but the contribution of additional, more widespread, brain areas in the processing of different semantic word categories remains controversial. We investigated word processing in two groups of patients whose neurodegenerative diseases preferentially affect specific parts of the brain, to determine whether their performance would vary as a function of semantic categories proposed to recruit those brain regions. Cohorts with (i) Semantic Dementia (SD), who have anterior temporal-lobe atrophy, and (ii) Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA), who have predominantly parieto-occipital atrophy, performed a lexical decision test on words from five different lexico-semantic categories: colour (e.g., yellow), form (oval), number (seven), spatial prepositions (under) and function words (also). Sets of pseudo-word foils matched the target words in length and bi-/tri-gram frequency. Word-frequency was matched between the two visual word categories (colour and form) and across the three other categories (number, prepositions, and function words). Age-matched healthy individuals served as controls. Although broad word processing deficits were apparent in both patient groups, the deficit was strongest for colour words in SD and for spatial prepositions in PCA. The patterns of performance on the lexical decision task demonstrate (a) general lexicosemantic processing deficits in both groups, though more prominent in SD than in PCA, and (b) differential involvement of anterior-temporal and posterior-parietal cortex in the processing of specific semantic categories of words. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Model of the Dynamic Construction Process of Texts and Scaling Laws of Words Organization in Language Systems

PubMed Central

Li, Shan; Lin, Ruokuang; Bian, Chunhua; Ma, Qianli D. Y.

2016-01-01

Scaling laws characterize diverse complex systems in a broad range of fields, including physics, biology, finance, and social science. The human language is another example of a complex system of words organization. Studies on written texts have shown that scaling laws characterize the occurrence frequency of words, words rank, and the growth of distinct words with increasing text length. However, these studies have mainly concentrated on the western linguistic systems, and the laws that govern the lexical organization, structure and dynamics of the Chinese language remain not well understood. Here we study a database of Chinese and English language books. We report that three distinct scaling laws characterize words organization in the Chinese language. We find that these scaling laws have different exponents and crossover behaviors compared to English texts, indicating different words organization and dynamics of words in the process of text growth. We propose a stochastic feedback model of words organization and text growth, which successfully accounts for the empirically observed scaling laws with their corresponding scaling exponents and characteristic crossover regimes. Further, by varying key model parameters, we reproduce differences in the organization and scaling laws of words between the Chinese and English language. We also identify functional relationships between model parameters and the empirically observed scaling exponents, thus providing new insights into the words organization and growth dynamics in the Chinese and English language. PMID:28006026

Model of the Dynamic Construction Process of Texts and Scaling Laws of Words Organization in Language Systems.

PubMed

Li, Shan; Lin, Ruokuang; Bian, Chunhua; Ma, Qianli D Y; Ivanov, Plamen Ch

2016-01-01

Scaling laws characterize diverse complex systems in a broad range of fields, including physics, biology, finance, and social science. The human language is another example of a complex system of words organization. Studies on written texts have shown that scaling laws characterize the occurrence frequency of words, words rank, and the growth of distinct words with increasing text length. However, these studies have mainly concentrated on the western linguistic systems, and the laws that govern the lexical organization, structure and dynamics of the Chinese language remain not well understood. Here we study a database of Chinese and English language books. We report that three distinct scaling laws characterize words organization in the Chinese language. We find that these scaling laws have different exponents and crossover behaviors compared to English texts, indicating different words organization and dynamics of words in the process of text growth. We propose a stochastic feedback model of words organization and text growth, which successfully accounts for the empirically observed scaling laws with their corresponding scaling exponents and characteristic crossover regimes. Further, by varying key model parameters, we reproduce differences in the organization and scaling laws of words between the Chinese and English language. We also identify functional relationships between model parameters and the empirically observed scaling exponents, thus providing new insights into the words organization and growth dynamics in the Chinese and English language.

Annual Research Progress Report. Fiscal Year 1989. Volume 2

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-10-01

Date : 4 --- ---- Date of Periodic Review - -- Results Objective(s): i) Develop a conscious, tethered or lightly sedated , nonhuman primate model...Approach: All animal studies will be conducted at Incarnate Word College Division of Nursing and the Sciences. All procedures will be done as outlined...Gary Zarr, LTC, AN Academy of Health Sciences Dept/Svc Associate Investigators: Dpartment of Nursing Jeff Serogrham, LTC, AN Key Words: Accumulative

Words Can Help Manage Emotions: Using Research-Based Strategies for Vocabulary Instruction to Teach Emotion Words to Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallingane, Caitlin; Han, Heejeong Sophia

2015-01-01

One of the key objectives of childhood education is to build empathy and understanding in students. Young children with the ability to comprehend and regulate their own emotions--and empathize with the emotions and experiences of others--go on to achieve greater learning outcomes and more positive relationships than children who do not develop…

The growth and evolution of cardiovascular magnetic resonance: a 20-year history of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) annual scientific sessions.

PubMed

Lee, Daniel C; Markl, Michael; Dall'Armellina, Erica; Han, Yuchi; Kozerke, Sebastian; Kuehne, Titus; Nielles-Vallespin, Sonia; Messroghli, Daniel; Patel, Amit; Schaeffter, Tobias; Simonetti, Orlando; Valente, Anne Marie; Weinsaft, Jonathan W; Wright, Graham; Zimmerman, Stefan; Schulz-Menger, Jeanette

2018-01-31

The purpose of this work is to summarize cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) research trends and highlights presented at the annual Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) scientific sessions over the past 20 years. Scientific programs from all SCMR Annual Scientific Sessions from 1998 to 2017 were obtained. SCMR Headquarters also provided data for the number and the country of origin of attendees and the number of accepted abstracts according to type. Data analysis included text analysis (key word extraction) and visualization by 'word clouds' representing the most frequently used words in session titles for 5-year intervals. In addition, session titles were sorted into 17 major subject categories to further evaluate research and clinical CMR trends over time. Analysis of SCMR annual scientific sessions locations, attendance, and number of accepted abstracts demonstrated substantial growth of CMR research and clinical applications. As an international field of study, significant growth of CMR was documented by a strong increase in SCMR scientific session attendance (> 500%, 270 to 1406 from 1998 to 2017, number of accepted abstracts (> 700%, 98 to 701 from 1998 to 2018) and number of international participants (42-415% increase for participants from Asia, Central and South America, Middle East and Africa in 2004-2017). 'Word clouds' based evaluation of research trends illustrated a shift from early focus on 'MRI technique feasibility' to new established techniques (e.g. late gadolinium enhancement) and their clinical applications and translation (key words 'patient', 'disease') and more recently novel techniques and quantitative CMR imaging (key words 'mapping', 'T1', 'flow', 'function'). Nearly every topic category demonstrated an increase in the number of sessions over the 20-year period with 'Clinical Practice' leading all categories. Our analysis identified three growth areas 'Congenital', 'Clinical Practice', and 'Structure/function/flow'. The analysis of the SCMR historical archives demonstrates a healthy and internationally active field of study which continues to undergo substantial growth and expansion into new and emerging CMR topics and clinical application areas.

Invented Spelling, Word Stress, and Syllable Awareness in Relation to Reading Difficulties in Children.

PubMed

Mehta, Sheena; Ding, Yi; Ness, Molly; Chen, Eric C

2018-06-01

The study assessed the clinical utility of an invented spelling tool and determined whether invented spelling with linguistic manipulation at segmental and supra-segmental levels can be used to better identify reading difficulties. We conducted linguistic manipulation by using real and nonreal words, incorporating word stress, alternating the order of consonants and vowels, and alternating the number of syllables. We recruited 60 third-grade students, of which half were typical readers and half were poor readers. The invented spelling task consistently differentiated those with reading difficulties from typical readers. It explained unique variance in conventional spelling, but not in word reading. Word stress explained unique variance in both word reading and conventional spelling, highlighting the importance of addressing phonological awareness at the supra-segmental level. Poor readers had poorer performance when spelling both real and nonreal words and demonstrated substantial difficulty in detecting word stress. Poor readers struggled with spelling words with double consonants at the beginning and ending of words, and performed worse on spelling two- and three-syllable words than typical readers. Practical implications for early identification and instruction are discussed.

Brain basis of communicative actions in language

PubMed Central

Egorova, Natalia; Shtyrov, Yury; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2016-01-01

Although language is a key tool for communication in social interaction, most studies in the neuroscience of language have focused on language structures such as words and sentences. Here, the neural correlates of speech acts, that is, the actions performed by using language, were investigated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were shown videos, in which the same critical utterances were used in different communicative contexts, to Name objects, or to Request them from communication partners. Understanding of critical utterances as Requests was accompanied by activation in bilateral premotor, left inferior frontal and temporo-parietal cortical areas known to support action-related and social interactive knowledge. Naming, however, activated the left angular gyrus implicated in linking information about word forms and related reference objects mentioned in critical utterances. These findings show that understanding of utterances as different communicative actions is reflected in distinct brain activation patterns, and thus suggest different neural substrates for different speech act types. PMID:26505303

Modality Switching in a Property Verification Task: An ERP Study of What Happens When Candles Flicker after High Heels Click

PubMed Central

Collins, Jennifer; Pecher, Diane; Zeelenberg, René; Coulson, Seana

2011-01-01

The perceptual modalities associated with property words, such as flicker or click, have previously been demonstrated to affect subsequent property verification judgments (Pecher et al., 2003). Known as the conceptual modality switch effect, this finding supports the claim that brain systems for perception and action help subserve the representation of concepts. The present study addressed the cognitive and neural substrate of this effect by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) as participants performed a property verification task with visual or auditory properties in key trials. We found that for visual property verifications, modality switching was associated with an increased amplitude N400. For auditory verifications, switching led to a larger late positive complex. Observed ERP effects of modality switching suggest property words access perceptual brain systems. Moreover, the timing and pattern of the effects suggest perceptual systems impact the decision-making stage in the verification of auditory properties, and the semantic stage in the verification of visual properties. PMID:21713128

Modality Switching in a Property Verification Task: An ERP Study of What Happens When Candles Flicker after High Heels Click.

PubMed

Collins, Jennifer; Pecher, Diane; Zeelenberg, René; Coulson, Seana

2011-01-01

The perceptual modalities associated with property words, such as flicker or click, have previously been demonstrated to affect subsequent property verification judgments (Pecher et al., 2003). Known as the conceptual modality switch effect, this finding supports the claim that brain systems for perception and action help subserve the representation of concepts. The present study addressed the cognitive and neural substrate of this effect by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) as participants performed a property verification task with visual or auditory properties in key trials. We found that for visual property verifications, modality switching was associated with an increased amplitude N400. For auditory verifications, switching led to a larger late positive complex. Observed ERP effects of modality switching suggest property words access perceptual brain systems. Moreover, the timing and pattern of the effects suggest perceptual systems impact the decision-making stage in the verification of auditory properties, and the semantic stage in the verification of visual properties.

Brain basis of communicative actions in language.

PubMed

Egorova, Natalia; Shtyrov, Yury; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2016-01-15

Although language is a key tool for communication in social interaction, most studies in the neuroscience of language have focused on language structures such as words and sentences. Here, the neural correlates of speech acts, that is, the actions performed by using language, were investigated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were shown videos, in which the same critical utterances were used in different communicative contexts, to Name objects, or to Request them from communication partners. Understanding of critical utterances as Requests was accompanied by activation in bilateral premotor, left inferior frontal and temporo-parietal cortical areas known to support action-related and social interactive knowledge. Naming, however, activated the left angular gyrus implicated in linking information about word forms and related reference objects mentioned in critical utterances. These findings show that understanding of utterances as different communicative actions is reflected in distinct brain activation patterns, and thus suggest different neural substrates for different speech act types. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

L2-L1 Translation Priming Effects in a Lexical Decision Task: Evidence From Low Proficient Korean-English Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Lee, Yoonhyoung; Jang, Euna; Choi, Wonil

2018-01-01

One of the key issues in bilingual lexical representation is whether L1 processing is facilitated by L2 words. In this study, we conducted two experiments using the masked priming paradigm to examine how L2-L1 translation priming effects emerge when unbalanced, low proficiency, Korean-English bilinguals performed a lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, we used a 150 ms SOA (50 ms prime duration followed by a blank interval of 100 ms) and found a significant L2-L1 translation priming effect. In contrast, in Experiment 2, we used a 60 ms SOA (50 ms prime duration followed by a blank interval of 10 ms) and found a null effect of L2-L1 translation priming. This finding is the first demonstration of a significant L2-L1 translation priming effect with unbalanced Korean-English bilinguals. Implications of this work are discussed with regard to bilingual word recognition models. PMID:29599733

Rehabilitation with implant-supported overdentures in total edentulous patients: A review.

PubMed

Martínez-Lage-Azorín, Juan F; Segura-Andrés, Gustavo; Faus-López, Joan; Agustín-Panadero, Rubén

2013-12-01

The main aim of this review article is to discuss implant-supported overdentures (ISOs) as treatment in edentulous patients. Besides, we will try to discuss among the different treatment options in such patients and to analyze their validity when ISOs are compared with other clinical modalities. At the same time, we will try to suggest clinical guidelines supported by current clinical studies. We performed a Medline search and review of pertinent articles on the mentioned subject from 1986 to 2011. As a searching strategy, we used the following words: implant-supported overdentures, attachment systems, Locator attachment, cantilever, fixed prosthesis. Implant-supported overdentures constitute an accurate and predictable treatment option and achieve a higher patients' satisfaction. This type of treatment constitutes a cheaper treatment than fixed prostheses and in some patients, with loss of lip support or with an interoclusal space larger than 15 mm, the choice of implant-supported overdentures seems to prevent future aesthetic or phonetic problems. Key words:Overdentures, implant occlusion, implant rehabilitation, total edentulous rehabilitation, fixed prosthesis.

The Growth Dynamics of Words: How Historical Context Shapes the Competitive Linguistic Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tenenbaum, Joel; Petersen, Alexander; Havlin, Shlomo; Stanley, H. Eugene

2012-02-01

Using the massive Google n-gram database of over 10^11 word uses in English, Hebrew, and Spanish, we explore the connection between the growth rates of relative word use and the observed growth rates of disparate competing actors in a common environment such as businesses, scientific journals, and universities, supporting the concept that a language's lexicon is a generic arena for competition, evolving according to selection laws. We find aggregate-level anomalies in the collective statistics corresponding to the time of key historical events such as World War II and the Balfour Declaration.

Long-term priming of neighbours biases the word recognition process: evidence from a lexical decision task.

PubMed

Wagenmakers, Eric-Jan; Raaijmakers, Jeroen G W

2006-12-01

The role of orthographically similar words (i.e., neighbours) in the word recognition process has been studied extensively using short-term priming paradigms (e.g., Colombo, 1986). Here we demonstrate that long-term effects of neighbour priming can also be obtained. Experiment 1 showed that prior study of a neighbour (e.g., TANGO) increased later lexical decision performance for similar words (e.g., MANGO), but decreased performance for similar pseudowords (e.g., LANGO). Experiment 2 replicated this bias effect and showed that the increase in lexical decision performance due to neighbour priming is selectively due to words from a relatively sparse neighbourhood. Explanations of the bias effect in terms of lexical activation and episodic memory retrieval are discussed.

Beyond Capacity Limitations: Determinants of Word Recall Performance on Verbal Working Memory Span Tasks in Children With SLI

PubMed Central

Mainela-Arnold, Elina; Evans, Julia L.

2016-01-01

Reduced verbal working memory capacity has been proposed as a possible account of language impairments in specific language impairment (SLI). Studies have shown, however, that differences in strength of linguistic representations in the form of word frequency affect list recall and performance on verbal working memory tasks. This suggests that verbal memory capacity and long-term linguistic knowledge may not be distinct constructs. It has been suggested that linguistic representations in SLI are weak in ways that result in a breakdown in language processing on tasks that require manipulation of unfamiliar material. In this study, the effects of word frequency, long-term linguistic knowledge, and serial order position on recall performance in the competing language processing task (CLPT) were investigated in 10 children with SLI and 10 age-matched peers (age 8 years 6 months to 12 years 4 months). The children with SLI recalled significantly fewer target words on the CLPT as compared with their age-matched controls. The SLI group did not differ, however, in their ability to recall target words having high word frequency but were significantly poorer in their ability to recall words on the CLPT having low word frequency. Differences in receptive and expressive language abilities also appeared closely related to performance on the CLPT, suggesting that working memory capacity is not distinct from language knowledge and that degraded linguistic representations may have an effect on performance on verbal working memory span tasks in children with SLI. PMID:16378481

Translation Ambiguity but Not Word Class Predicts Translation Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prior, Anat; Kroll, Judith F.; Macwhinney, Brian

2013-01-01

We investigated the influence of word class and translation ambiguity on cross-linguistic representation and processing. Bilingual speakers of English and Spanish performed translation production and translation recognition tasks on nouns and verbs in both languages. Words either had a single translation or more than one translation. Translation…

Multilayered Word Structure Model for Assessing Spelling of Finnish Children in Shallow Orthography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kulju, Pirjo; Mäkinen, Marita

2017-01-01

This study explores Finnish children's word-level spelling by applying a linguistically based multilayered word structure model for assessing spelling performance. The model contributes to the analytical qualitative assessment approach in order to identify children's spelling performance for enhancing writing skills. The children (N = 105)…

Mind the gap: Increased inter-letter spacing as a means of improving reading performance.

PubMed

Dotan, Shahar; Katzir, Tami

2018-06-05

Theeffects of text display, specificallywithin-word spacing, on children's reading at different developmental levels has barely been investigated.This study explored the influence of manipulating inter-letter spacing on reading performance (accuracy and rate) of beginner Hebrew readers compared with older readers and of low-achieving readers compared with age-matched high-achieving readers.A computer-based isolated word reading task was performed by 132 first and third graders. Words were displayed under two spacing conditions: standard spacing (100%) and increased spacing (150%). Words were balanced for length and frequency across conditions. Results indicated that increased spacing contributed to reading accuracy without affecting reading rate. Interestingly, all first graders benefitted fromthe spaced condition. Thiseffect was found only in long words but not in short words. Among third graders, only low-achieving readers gained in accuracy fromthespaced condition. Thetheoretical and clinical effects ofthefindings are discussed. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Typography manipulations can affect priming of word stem completion in older and younger adults.

PubMed

Gibson, J M; Brooks, J O; Friedman, L; Yesavage, J A

1993-12-01

The experiments reported here investigated whether changes of typography affected priming of word stem completion performance in older and younger adults. Across all experiments, the typeface in which a word appeared at presentation either did or did not match that of its 3-letter stem at test. In Experiment 1, no significant evidence of a typography effect was found when words were presented with a sentence judgment or letter judgment task. However, subsequent experiments revealed that, in both older and younger adults, only words presented with a syllable judgment task gave rise to the typography effect (Experiments 2-4). Specifically, performance was greater, when the presentation and test typeface matched than when they did not. Experiment 5, which used stem-cued recall, did not reveal a difference between syllable and letter judgment tasks. These findings highlight the complex nature of word stem completion performance.

Approach to adolescent suicide prevention

PubMed Central

Kostenuik, Marcia; Ratnapalan, Mohana

2010-01-01

Abstract OBJECTIVE To provide family physicians with an approach to suicide prevention in youth. SOURCES OF INFORMATION A literature review was performed using Ovid MEDLINE with the key words suicide, attempted suicide, and evaluation studies or program evaluation, adolescent. MAIN MESSAGE Youth suicide might be prevented by earlier recognition and treatment of mental illness. Family physicians can and should screen for mental illness in youth; there are many diagnostic and treatment resources available to assist with this. CONCLUSION Earlier detection and treatment of mental illness are the most important ways family physicians can reduce morbidity and mortality for youth who are contemplating suicide. PMID:20705879

The Edge Factor in Early Word Segmentation: Utterance-Level Prosody Enables Word Form Extraction by 6-Month-Olds

PubMed Central

Johnson, Elizabeth K.; Seidl, Amanda; Tyler, Michael D.

2014-01-01

Past research has shown that English learners begin segmenting words from speech by 7.5 months of age. However, more recent research has begun to show that, in some situations, infants may exhibit rudimentary segmentation capabilities at an earlier age. Here, we report on four perceptual experiments and a corpus analysis further investigating the initial emergence of segmentation capabilities. In Experiments 1 and 2, 6-month-olds were familiarized with passages containing target words located either utterance medially or at utterance edges. Only those infants familiarized with passages containing target words aligned with utterance edges exhibited evidence of segmentation. In Experiments 3 and 4, 6-month-olds recognized familiarized words when they were presented in a new acoustically distinct voice (male rather than female), but not when they were presented in a phonologically altered manner (missing the initial segment). Finally, we report corpus analyses examining how often different word types occur at utterance boundaries in different registers. Our findings suggest that edge-aligned words likely play a key role in infants’ early segmentation attempts, and also converge with recent reports suggesting that 6-month-olds’ have already started building a rudimentary lexicon. PMID:24421892

The Emotions of Abstract Words: A Distributional Semantic Analysis.

PubMed

Lenci, Alessandro; Lebani, Gianluca E; Passaro, Lucia C

2018-04-06

Recent psycholinguistic and neuroscientific research has emphasized the crucial role of emotions for abstract words, which would be grounded by affective experience, instead of a sensorimotor one. The hypothesis of affective embodiment has been proposed as an alternative to the idea that abstract words are linguistically coded and that linguistic processing plays a key role in their acquisition and processing. In this paper, we use distributional semantic models to explore the complex interplay between linguistic and affective information in the representation of abstract words. Distributional analyses on Italian norming data show that abstract words have more affective content and tend to co-occur with contexts with higher emotive values, according to affective statistical indices estimated in terms of distributional similarity with a restricted number of seed words strongly associated with a set of basic emotions. Therefore, the strong affective content of abstract words might just be an indirect byproduct of co-occurrence statistics. This is consistent with a version of representational pluralism in which concepts that are fully embodied either at the sensorimotor or at the affective level live side-by-side with concepts only indirectly embodied via their linguistic associations with other embodied words. Copyright © 2018 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Object words modulate the activity of the mirror neuron system during action imitation.

PubMed

Wu, Haiyan; Tang, Honghong; Ge, Yue; Yang, Suyong; Mai, Xiaoqin; Luo, Yue-Jia; Liu, Chao

2017-11-01

Although research has demonstrated that the mirror neuron system (MNS) plays a crucial role in both action imitation and action-related semantic processing, whether action-related words can inversely modulate the MNS activity remains unclear. Here, three types of task-irrelevant words (body parts, verbs, and manufactured objects) were presented to examine the modulation effect of these words on the MNS activity during action observation and imitation. Twenty-two participants were recruited for the fMRI scanning and remaining data from 19 subjects were reported here. Brain activity results showed that word types elicited different modulation effects over nodes of the MNS (i.e., the right inferior frontal gyrus, premotor cortex, inferior parietal lobule, and STS), especially during the imitation stage. Compared with other word conditions, action imitation following manufactured objects words induced stronger activation in these brain regions during the imitation stage. These results were consistent in both task-dependent and -independent ROI analysis. Our findings thus provide evidence for the unique effect of object words on the MNS during imitation of action, which may also confirm the key role of goal inference in action imitation.

Effects of Picture Size and Placement on Memory for Written Words.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blischak, Doreen M.; McDaniel, Mark A.

1995-01-01

Normally developing kindergarten children (n=45) were shown written words under 4 conditions representing various size and position relationships between line drawings and orthography. Results showed superior performance for word-only and enhanced-word conditions, over those conditions pairing small or large drawings with written words. Results…

Analysis on online word-of-mouth of customer satisfaction in cultural and creative industries of Taiwan: using cultural heritage application and performance facilities as examples

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsai, Li-Fen; Shaw, Jing-Chi; Wang, Pei-Wen; Shih, Meng-Long; Su, Yi-Jing

2011-10-01

This study aims to probe into customers' online word-of-mouth regarding cultural heritage applications and performance facilities in Cultural and Creative Industries. Findings demonstrate that, regarding online word-of-mouth for art museums, museums, and art villages, items valued by customers are design aesthetics of displays and collections, educational functions, and environments and landscapes. The percentages are 10.102%, 11.208% and 11.44%, respectively. In addition, cultural heritage applications and performance facility industries in Taiwan are highly valued in online word-of-mouth.

Key Terrain: Application to the Layers of Cyberspace

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-01

in the early stages and exploration into better integrating military strategies could prove beneficial to those working to develop relevant and...200 words) The concept of key terrain is a common fixture in military strategy and tactics. The emergence of cyberspace, with characteristics unseen...concept of key terrain is a common fixture in military strategy and tactics. The emergence of cyberspace, with characteristics unseen in any

31 CFR 31.201 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Stabilization Act of 2008. Key individual means an individual providing services to a private sector entity who... agency agreement between a private sector entity and the Treasury for services under the TARP, other than... arrangement with the Treasury. For purposes of the definition of key individual, the words “personally and...

The Need for Transformational Leadership in Singapore's School-Based Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Retna, Kala S.; Ng, Pak Tee

2009-01-01

In Singapore, "decentralization" and "school-based reforms" are key words within the current education reform agenda. This article argues that a key success factor in this agenda is transformational leadership in school. With more autonomy given to the school, transformational leadership at the school level will facilitate the…

Keywords and Piagetian Concepts: A Suggestion.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veatch, Jeanette

In this paper, Piagetian stages are discussed in relation to the internalization of key vocabulary words by children. Research studies that indicate a parallel development using Sylvia Ashton-Warner's idea of key vocabulary of children are briefly discussed. The author agrees that three studies do not completely prove a hypothesis, however they…

The relationship between novel word learning and anomia treatment success in adults with chronic aphasia.

PubMed

Dignam, Jade; Copland, David; Rawlings, Alicia; O'Brien, Kate; Burfein, Penni; Rodriguez, Amy D

2016-01-29

Learning capacity may influence an individual's response to aphasia rehabilitation. However, investigations into the relationship between novel word learning ability and response to anomia therapy are lacking. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the novel word learning ability in post-stroke aphasia and to establish the relationship between learning ability and anomia treatment outcomes. We also explored the influence of locus of language breakdown on novel word learning ability and anomia treatment response. 30 adults (6F; 24M) with chronic, post-stroke aphasia were recruited to the study. Prior to treatment, participants underwent an assessment of language, which included the Comprehensive Aphasia Test and three baseline confrontation naming probes in order to develop sets of treated and untreated items. We also administered the novel word learning paradigm, in which participants learnt novel names associated with unfamiliar objects and were immediately tested on recall (expressive) and recognition (receptive) tasks. Participants completed 48 h of Aphasia Language Impairment and Functioning Therapy (Aphasia LIFT) over a 3 week (intensive) or 8 week (distributed) schedule. Therapy primarily targeted the remediation of word retrieval deficits, so naming of treated and untreated items immediately post-therapy and at 1 month follow-up was used to determine therapeutic response. Performance on recall and recognition tasks demonstrated that participants were able to learn novel words; however, performance was variable and was influenced by participants' aphasia severity, lexical-semantic processing and locus of language breakdown. Novel word learning performance was significantly correlated with participants' response to therapy for treated items at post-therapy. In contrast, participants' novel word learning performance was not correlated with therapy gains for treated items at 1 month follow-up or for untreated items at either time point. Therapy intensity did not influence treatment outcomes. This is the first group study to directly examine the relationship between novel word learning and therapy outcomes for anomia rehabilitation in adults with aphasia. Importantly, we found that novel word learning performance was correlated with therapy outcomes. We propose that novel word learning ability may contribute to the initial acquisition of treatment gains in anomia rehabilitation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sub-word based Arabic handwriting analysis for writer identification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maliki, Makki; Al-Jawad, Naseer; Jassim, Sabah

2013-05-01

Analysing a text or part of it is key to handwriting identification. Generally, handwriting is learnt over time and people develop habits in the style of writing. These habits are embedded in special parts of handwritten text. In Arabic each word consists of one or more sub-word(s). The end of each sub-word is considered to be a connect stroke. The main hypothesis in this paper is that sub-words are essential reflection of Arabic writer's habits that could be exploited for writer identification. Testing this hypothesis will be based on experiments that evaluate writer's identification, mainly using K nearest neighbor from group of sub-words extracted from longer text. The experimental results show that using a group of sub-words could be used to identify the writer with a successful rate between 52.94 % to 82.35% when top1 is used, and it can go up to 100% when top5 is used based on K nearest neighbor. The results show that majority of writers are identified using 7 sub-words with a reliability confident of about 90% (i.e. 90% of the rejected templates have significantly larger distances to the tested example than the distance from the correctly identified template). However previous work, using a complete word, shows successful rate of at most 90% in top 10.

Standard-Chinese Lexical Neighborhood Test in normal-hearing young children.

PubMed

Liu, Chang; Liu, Sha; Zhang, Ning; Yang, Yilin; Kong, Ying; Zhang, Luo

2011-06-01

The purposes of the present study were to establish the Standard-Chinese version of Lexical Neighborhood Test (LNT) and to examine the lexical and age effects on spoken-word recognition in normal-hearing children. Six lists of monosyllabic and six lists of disyllabic words (20 words/list) were selected from the database of daily speech materials for normal-hearing (NH) children of ages 3-5 years. The lists were further divided into "easy" and "hard" halves according to the word frequency and neighborhood density in the database based on the theory of Neighborhood Activation Model (NAM). Ninety-six NH children (age ranged between 4.0 and 7.0 years) were divided into three different age groups of 1-year intervals. Speech-perception tests were conducted using the Standard-Chinese monosyllabic and disyllabic LNT. The inter-list performance was found to be equivalent and inter-rater reliability was high with 92.5-95% consistency. Results of word-recognition scores showed that the lexical effects were all significant. Children scored higher with disyllabic words than with monosyllabic words. "Easy" words scored higher than "hard" words. The word-recognition performance also increased with age in each lexical category. A multiple linear regression analysis showed that neighborhood density, age, and word frequency appeared to have increasingly more contributions to Chinese word recognition. The results of the present study indicated that performances of Chinese word recognition were influenced by word frequency, age, and neighborhood density, with word frequency playing a major role. These results were consistent with those in other languages, supporting the application of NAM in the Chinese language. The development of Standard-Chinese version of LNT and the establishment of a database of children of 4-6 years old can provide a reliable means for spoken-word recognition test in children with hearing impairment. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Survey of keyword adjustment of published articles medical subject headings in journal of mazandaran university of medical sciences (2009-2010).

PubMed

Kabirzadeh, Azar; Siamian, Hasan; Abadi, Ebrahim Bagherian Farah; Saravi, Benyamin Mohseni

2013-01-01

NONE DECLARED. Keywords are the most important tools for Information retrieval. They are usually used for retrieval of articles based on contents of information reserved from printed and electronic resources. Retrieval of appropriate keywords from Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) can impact with exact, correctness and short time on information retrieval. Regarding the above mentioned matters, this study was done to compare the Latin keywords was in the articles published in the Journal of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. This is a descriptive study. The data were extracted from the key words of Englsih abstracts of articles published in the years 2009-2010 in the Journal of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences by census method. Checklist of data collection is designed, based on research objectives and literature review which has face validity. Compliance rate in this study was to determine if the keywords cited in this article as a full subject of the main subject headings in a MeSH (Bold and the selected word) is a perfect adjustment. If keywords were cited in the article but the main heading is not discussed in the following main topics to be discussed with reference to See and See related it has considered has partial adjustment. Out of 148 articles published in 12 issues in proposed time of studying, 72 research papers were analyzed. The average numbers of authors in each article were 4 ± 1. Results showed that most of specialty papers 42 (58. 4%), belonging to the (Department of Clinical Sciences) School of Medicine, 11 (15.3%) Basic Science, 6(8.4%) Pharmacy, Nursing and Midwifery 5(6.9%), 4(5.5%) Health, paramedical Sciences 3(4.2%), and non medical article 1(1.3%) school of medicine. In general, results showed that 80 (30%) of key words have been used to complete the adjustment. Also, only 1(1.4%) had complete adjustment with all the MeSH key words and in 8 articles(11.4%) key words of had no adjustment with MeSH. The results showed that only 17 articles could be retrieved if the search words are selected from the MeSH. In this case the expected 100% of published articles titles at this university the validity of exchange of research projects which is something noteworthy. The lack of correlation between number of authors and matching of Keywords with MeSH, may mean all of the papers' authors did not take part in writing and it is understanding that only one author wrote the paper.

Use of acupuncture to treat cerebral infarction in the last 10 years: A Scopus-based literature analysis☆

PubMed Central

Chen, Jiajun; Yao, Min; Zhao, Yunhua; Jin, Xiya; Li, Yuanbing; Huang, Lihong

2012-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To identify global research trends in the use of acupuncture to treat cerebral infarction. DATA RETRIEVAL: We performed a bibliometric analysis of studies on the use of acupuncture to treat cerebral infarction published during 2002–2011, retrieved from Scopus, using the key words of acupuncture and cerebral infarction or ischemic stroke. SELECTION CRITERIA: Inclusion criteria: peer-reviewed articles on the use of acupuncture to treat cerebral infarction indexed in Scopus and published between 2002 and 2011; types of publications were original research articles, reviews, meeting abstracts, proceedings papers, book chapters, editorial material, and news items. Exclusion criteria: articles that required manual searching or telephone access; documents that were not published in the public domain; and corrected papers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: (a) Annual publication output; (b) language of publication; (c) type of publication; (d) key words of publication; (e) publication by research field; (f) publication by journal; (g) publication by country and institution; (h) publication by author; (i) most-cited papers between 2002 and 2006; and (j) most-cited papers between 2007 and 2011. RESULTS: A total of 160 publications on the use of acupuncture to treat cerebral infarction from 2002–2011 were retrieved from Scopus. The number of publications increased gradually over the 10-year study period; most were written in Chinese or English. Articles and reviews constituted the major types. The most frequent key word used was acupuncture. The most prolific journals in this area were Zhongguo Zhen Jiu and the Chinese Journal of Clinical Rehabilitation. Of the 160 publications retrieved, half came from Chinese authors and institutions. Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine was the most prolific research institute. Two papers were cited 30 times; they were published in 2002 and 2009, respectively. CONCLUSION: In the field of neuroscience, there is little literature on acupuncture for cerebral infarction. The most-cited papers were cited 30 times in the past 3 years. We believe that, with advances in the study of mechanisms in neurobiology, research on acupuncture will also advance and will become the concern of more scholars. PMID:25317148

Key principles to guide development of consumer medicine information--content analysis of information design texts.

PubMed

Raynor, David K; Dickinson, David

2009-04-01

Effective written consumer medicines information is essential to support safe and effective medicine taking, but the wording and layout of currently provided materials do not meet patients' needs. To identify principles from the wider discipline of information design for use by health professionals when developing or assessing written drug information for patients. Six experts in information design nominated texts on best practice in information design applicable to consumer medicines information. A content analysis identified key principles that were tabulated to bring out key themes. Six texts that met the inclusion criteria, were identified, and content analysis indentified 4 themes: words, type, lines, and layout. Within these main themes, there were 24 subthemes. Selected principles relating to these subthemes were: use short familiar words, short sentences, and short headings that stand out from the text; use a conversational tone of voice, addressing the reader as "you"; use a large type size while retaining sufficient white space; use bullet points to organize lists; use unjustified text (ragged right) and bold, lower-case text for emphasis. Pictures or graphics do not necessarily improve a document. Applying the good information design principles identified to written consumer medicines information could support health professionals when developing and assessing drug information for patients.

Shock and awe: Distinct effects of taboo words on lexical decision and free recall.

PubMed

Madan, Christopher R; Shafer, Andrea T; Chan, Michelle; Singhal, Anthony

2017-04-01

Taboo stimuli are highly arousing, but it has been suggested that they also have inherent taboo-specific properties such as tabooness, offensiveness, or shock value. Prior studies have shown that taboo words have slower response times in lexical decision and higher recall probabilities in free recall; however, taboo words often differ from other words on more than just arousal and taboo properties. Here, we replicated both of these findings and conducted detailed item analyses to determine which word properties drive these behavioural effects. We found that lexical-decision performance was best explained by measures of lexical accessibility (e.g., word frequency) and tabooness, rather than arousal, valence, or offensiveness. However, free-recall performance was primarily driven by emotional word properties, and tabooness was the most important emotional word property for model fit. Our results suggest that the processing of taboo words is influenced by distinct sets of factors and by an intrinsic taboo-specific property.

Security of Y-00 and Similar Quantum Cryptographic Protocols

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-11-16

security of Y-00 type protocols is clarified. Key words: Quantum cryptography PACS: 03.67.Dd Anew approach to quantum cryptog- raphy called KCQ, ( keyed ...classical- noise key generation [2] or the well known BB84 quantum protocol [3]. A special case called αη (or Y-00 in Japan) has been experimentally in... quantum noise for typical op- erating parameters. It weakens both the data and key security , possibly information-theoretically and cer- tainly

Relation between brain activation and lexical performance.

PubMed

Booth, James R; Burman, Douglas D; Meyer, Joel R; Gitelman, Darren R; Parrish, Todd B; Mesulam, M Marsel

2003-07-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to determine whether performance on lexical tasks was correlated with cerebral activation patterns. We found that such relationships did exist and that their anatomical distribution reflected the neurocognitive processing routes required by the task. Better performance on intramodal tasks (determining if visual words were spelled the same or if auditory words rhymed) was correlated with more activation in unimodal regions corresponding to the modality of sensory input, namely the fusiform gyrus (BA 37) for written words and the superior temporal gyrus (BA 22) for spoken words. Better performance in tasks requiring cross-modal conversions (determining if auditory words were spelled the same or if visual words rhymed), on the other hand, was correlated with more activation in posterior heteromodal regions, including the supramarginal gyrus (BA 40) and the angular gyrus (BA 39). Better performance in these cross-modal tasks was also correlated with greater activation in unimodal regions corresponding to the target modality of the conversion process (i.e., fusiform gyrus for auditory spelling and superior temporal gyrus for visual rhyming). In contrast, performance on the auditory spelling task was inversely correlated with activation in the superior temporal gyrus possibly reflecting a greater emphasis on the properties of the perceptual input rather than on the relevant transmodal conversions. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Chinese Learners of English See Chinese Words When Reading English Words.

PubMed

Ma, Fengyang; Ai, Haiyang

2018-06-01

The present study examines when second language (L2) learners read words in the L2, whether the orthography and/or phonology of the translation words in the first language (L1) is activated and whether the patterns would be modulated by the proficiency in the L2. In two experiments, two groups of Chinese learners of English immersed in the L1 environment, one less proficient and the other more proficient in English, performed a translation recognition task. In this task, participants judged whether pairs of words, with an L2 word preceding an L1 word, were translation words or not. The critical conditions compared the performance of learners to reject distractors that were related to the translation word (e.g., , pronounced as /bei 1/) of an L2 word (e.g., cup) in orthography (e.g., , bad in Chinese, pronounced as /huai 4/) or phonology (e.g., , sad in Chinese, pronounced as /bei 1/). Results of Experiment 1 showed less proficient learners were slower and less accurate to reject translation orthography distractors, as compared to unrelated controls, demonstrating a robust translation orthography interference effect. In contrast, their performance was not significantly different when rejecting translation phonology distractors, relative to unrelated controls, showing no translation phonology interference. The same patterns were observed in more proficient learners in Experiment 2. Together, these results suggest that when Chinese learners of English read English words, the orthographic information, but not the phonological information of the Chinese translation words is activated. In addition, this activation is not modulated by L2 proficiency.

The case for testing memory with both stories and word lists prior to dbs surgery for Parkinson's Disease.

PubMed

Zahodne, Laura B; Bowers, Dawn; Price, Catherine C; Bauer, Russell M; Nisenzon, Anne; Foote, Kelly D; Okun, Michael S

2011-04-01

Patients seeking deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery for Parkinson's disease (PD) typically undergo neuropsychological assessment to determine candidacy for surgery, with poor memory performance interpreted as a contraindication. Patients with PD may exhibit worse memory for word lists than for stories due to the lack of inherent organization in a list of unrelated words. Unfortunately, word list and story tasks are typically developed from different normative datasets, and the existence of a memory performance discrepancy in PD has been challenged. We compared recall of stories and word lists in 35 non-demented PD candidates for DBS. We administered commonly used neuropsychological measures of word list and story memory (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test, Logical Memory), along with a second word list task that was co-normed with the story task. Age-corrected scores were higher for the story task than for both word list tasks. Compared to story recall, word list recall correlated more consistently with motor severity and composite measures of processing speed, working memory, and executive functioning. These results support the classic view of fronto-subcortical contributions to memory in PD and suggest that executive deficits may influence word list recall more than story recall. We recommend a multi-componential memory battery in the neuropsychological assessment of DBS candidates to characterize both mesial temporal and frontal-executive memory processes. One should not rely solely on a word list task because patients exhibiting poor memory for word lists may perform better with stories and therefore deserve an interdisciplinary discussion for DBS surgery.

A database of 629 English compound words: ratings of familiarity, lexeme meaning dominance, semantic transparency, age of acquisition, imageability, and sensory experience.

PubMed

Juhasz, Barbara J; Lai, Yun-Hsuan; Woodcock, Michelle L

2015-12-01

Since the work of Taft and Forster (1976), a growing literature has examined how English compound words are recognized and organized in the mental lexicon. Much of this research has focused on whether compound words are decomposed during recognition by manipulating the word frequencies of their lexemes. However, many variables may impact morphological processing, including relational semantic variables such as semantic transparency, as well as additional form-related and semantic variables. In the present study, ratings were collected on 629 English compound words for six variables [familiarity, age of acquisition (AoA), semantic transparency, lexeme meaning dominance (LMD), imageability, and sensory experience ratings (SER)]. All of the compound words selected for this study are contained within the English Lexicon Project (Balota et al., 2007), which made it possible to use a regression approach to examine the predictive power of these variables for lexical decision and word naming performance. Analyses indicated that familiarity, AoA, imageability, and SER were all significant predictors of both lexical decision and word naming performance when they were added separately to a model containing the length and frequency of the compounds, as well as the lexeme frequencies. In addition, rated semantic transparency also predicted lexical decision performance. The database of English compound words should be beneficial to word recognition researchers who are interested in selecting items for experiments on compound words, and it will also allow researchers to conduct further analyses using the available data combined with word recognition times included in the English Lexicon Project.

[Preserved ability to read aloud kanji idioms in left handed alexia].

PubMed

Suzuki, Taemi; Suzuki, Kyoko; Iizuka, Osamu; Endo, Keiko; Yamadori, Atushi; Mori, Eturou

2004-08-01

We report a 69-year-old left-handed man, who developed alexia after a right medial occipito-temporal lobe infarction. On admission to the rehabilitation department two months after the onset, neurological examination showed left hemianopia, left hemiparesis, decreased deep sensation on the left side, and alexia. A brain MRI demonstrated infarcts in the right medial occipito-temporal lobe and the splenium of the corpus callosum. Detailed neuropsychological examination was performed two months after the onset. The patient was alert and cooperative. His speech was fluent with some word-finding difficulty. Comprehension for spoken materials, repetition, and naming abilities were all preserved. Systematic examination for reading revealed that reading aloud was disturbed in both kanji and kana words. Reading comprehension was significantly better for kanji words than kana words. First, we examined the effects of number of characters in a word. The number of characters in a word didn't affect his reading performance. Second, his performance on reading aloud of usual kanji words was compared with that of kanji words representing idioms. A kanji idiom is different from usual kanji words, in which pronunciation of each character is selected from several options. Reading aloud kanji idioms was significantly better than usual kanji words. In addition, reaction time to complete reading a word was much shorter for kanji idioms than usual kanji. An analysis of qualitative features of errors revealed that most errors in kanji idiom reading were semantically similar to the correct answers, while many errors in usual kanji word reading were classified into "don't know" responses. These findings suggested that a kanji idiom was tightly connected to its pronunciation, which resulted in his much better performance for kanji idiom reading. Overlearning of a unique relationship between a kanji idiom and its pronunciation might modify neuronal organization for reading.

Experience with a second language affects the use of fundamental frequency in speech segmentation

PubMed Central

Broersma, Mirjam; Cho, Taehong; Kim, Sahyang; Martínez-García, Maria Teresa; Connell, Katrina

2017-01-01

This study investigates whether listeners’ experience with a second language learned later in life affects their use of fundamental frequency (F0) as a cue to word boundaries in the segmentation of an artificial language (AL), particularly when the cues to word boundaries conflict between the first language (L1) and second language (L2). F0 signals phrase-final (and thus word-final) boundaries in French but word-initial boundaries in English. Participants were functionally monolingual French listeners, functionally monolingual English listeners, bilingual L1-English L2-French listeners, and bilingual L1-French L2-English listeners. They completed the AL-segmentation task with F0 signaling word-final boundaries or without prosodic cues to word boundaries (monolingual groups only). After listening to the AL, participants completed a forced-choice word-identification task in which the foils were either non-words or part-words. The results show that the monolingual French listeners, but not the monolingual English listeners, performed better in the presence of F0 cues than in the absence of such cues. Moreover, bilingual status modulated listeners’ use of F0 cues to word-final boundaries, with bilingual French listeners performing less accurately than monolingual French listeners on both word types but with bilingual English listeners performing more accurately than monolingual English listeners on non-words. These findings not only confirm that speech segmentation is modulated by the L1, but also newly demonstrate that listeners’ experience with the L2 (French or English) affects their use of F0 cues in speech segmentation. This suggests that listeners’ use of prosodic cues to word boundaries is adaptive and non-selective, and can change as a function of language experience. PMID:28738093

Temporal Constraints of the Word Blindness Posthypnotic Suggestion on Stroop Task Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parris, Benjamin A.; Dienes, Zoltan; Hodgson, Timothy L.

2012-01-01

The present work investigated possible temporal constraints on the posthypnotic word blindness suggestion effect. In a completely within-subjects and counterbalanced design 19 highly suggestible individuals performed the Stroop task both with and without a posthypnotic suggestion that they would be unable to read the word dimension of the Stroop…

Working Memory and Literacy as Predictors of Performance on Algebraic Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Kerry; Ng, Swee-Fong; Ng, Ee-Lynn; Lim, Zee-Ying

2004-01-01

Previous studies on individual differences in mathematical abilities have shown that working memory contributes to early arithmetic performance. In this study, we extended the investigation to algebraic word problem solving. A total of 151 10-year-olds were administered algebraic word problems and measures of working memory, intelligence quotient…

Language, Arithmetic Word Problems, and Deaf Students: Linguistic Strategies Used To Solve Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zevenbergen, Robyn; Hyde, Merv; Power, Des

2001-01-01

Examines the performance of deaf and hearing-impaired students in Queensland, Australia when solving arithmetic word problems. Subjects' solutions of word problems confirmed trends for learning students but their performance was delayed in comparison. Confirms other studies in which deaf and hearing-impaired students are delayed in their language…

Individual Differences in Visual Word Recognition: Insights from the English Lexicon Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yap, Melvin J.; Balota, David A.; Sibley, Daragh E.; Ratcliff, Roger

2012-01-01

Empirical work and models of visual word recognition have traditionally focused on group-level performance. Despite the emphasis on the prototypical reader, there is clear evidence that variation in reading skill modulates word recognition performance. In the present study, we examined differences among individuals who contributed to the English…

Cognitive Factors Affecting Free Recall, Cued Recall, and Recognition Tasks in Alzheimer's Disease

PubMed Central

Yamagishi, Takashi; Sato, Takuya; Sato, Atsushi; Imamura, Toru

2012-01-01

Background/Aims Our aim was to identify cognitive factors affecting free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Subjects: We recruited 349 consecutive AD patients who attended a memory clinic. Methods Each patient was assessed using the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS) and the extended 3-word recall test. In this task, each patient was asked to freely recall 3 previously presented words. If patients could not recall 1 or more of the target words, the examiner cued their recall by providing the category of the target word and then provided a forced-choice recognition of the target word with 2 distracters. The patients were divided into groups according to the results of the free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks. Multivariate logistic regression analysis for repeated measures was carried out to evaluate the net effects of cognitive factors on the free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks after controlling for the effects of age and recent memory deficit. Results Performance on the ADAS Orientation task was found to be related to performance on the free and cued recall tasks, performance on the ADAS Following Commands task was found to be related to performance on the cued recall task, and performance on the ADAS Ideational Praxis task was found to be related to performance on the free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks. Conclusion The extended 3-word recall test reflects deficits in a wider range of memory and other cognitive processes, including memory retention after interference, divided attention, and executive functions, compared with word-list recall tasks. The characteristics of the extended 3-word recall test may be advantageous for evaluating patients’ memory impairments in daily living. PMID:22962551

Cognitive factors affecting free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Yamagishi, Takashi; Sato, Takuya; Sato, Atsushi; Imamura, Toru

2012-01-01

Our aim was to identify cognitive factors affecting free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). We recruited 349 consecutive AD patients who attended a memory clinic. Each patient was assessed using the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS) and the extended 3-word recall test. In this task, each patient was asked to freely recall 3 previously presented words. If patients could not recall 1 or more of the target words, the examiner cued their recall by providing the category of the target word and then provided a forced-choice recognition of the target word with 2 distracters. The patients were divided into groups according to the results of the free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks. Multivariate logistic regression analysis for repeated measures was carried out to evaluate the net effects of cognitive factors on the free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks after controlling for the effects of age and recent memory deficit. Performance on the ADAS Orientation task was found to be related to performance on the free and cued recall tasks, performance on the ADAS Following Commands task was found to be related to performance on the cued recall task, and performance on the ADAS Ideational Praxis task was found to be related to performance on the free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks. The extended 3-word recall test reflects deficits in a wider range of memory and other cognitive processes, including memory retention after interference, divided attention, and executive functions, compared with word-list recall tasks. The characteristics of the extended 3-word recall test may be advantageous for evaluating patients' memory impairments in daily living.

Relations Among Student Attention Behaviors, Teacher Practices, and Beginning Word Reading Skill

PubMed Central

Sáez, Leilani; Folsom, Jessica Sidler; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Schatschneider, Christopher

2011-01-01

The role of student attention for predicting kindergarten word reading was investigated among 432 students. Using SWAN behavior rating scores, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis, which yielded three distinct factors that reflected selective attention. In this study, we focused on the role of one of these factors, which we labeled attention-memory behaviors, for predicting reading performance. Teacher ratings of attention predicted word reading above and beyond the contribution of phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge. In addition, the relations between four teacher practices and attention ratings for predicting reading performance were examined. Using HLM, significant interactions between student attention and teacher practices observed during literacy instruction were found. In general, as ratings of attention improved, better kindergarten word reading performance was associated with high levels of classroom behavior management. However, by mid-year, better word reading performance was not associated with high levels of teacher task- orienting. A significant three-way interaction was also found among attention, individualized instruction, and teacher task re-directions. The role of regulating kindergarten student attention to support beginning word reading skill development is discussed. PMID:22207616

Individual Differences in Visual Word Recognition: Insights from the English Lexicon Project

PubMed Central

Yap, Melvin J.; Balota, David A.; Sibley, Daragh E.; Ratcliff, Roger

2011-01-01

Empirical work and models of visual word recognition have traditionally focused on group-level performance. Despite the emphasis on the prototypical reader, there is clear evidence that variation in reading skill modulates word recognition performance. In the present study, we examined differences between individuals who contributed to the English Lexicon Project (http://elexicon.wustl.edu), an online behavioral database containing nearly four million word recognition (speeded pronunciation and lexical decision) trials from over 1,200 participants. We observed considerable within- and between-session reliability across distinct sets of items, in terms of overall mean response time (RT), RT distributional characteristics, diffusion model parameters (Ratcliff, Gomez, & McKoon, 2004), and sensitivity to underlying lexical dimensions. This indicates reliably detectable individual differences in word recognition performance. In addition, higher vocabulary knowledge was associated with faster, more accurate word recognition performance, attenuated sensitivity to stimuli characteristics, and more efficient accumulation of information. Finally, in contrast to suggestions in the literature, we did not find evidence that individuals were trading-off in their utilization of lexical and nonlexical information. PMID:21728459

Familiar units prevail over statistical cues in word segmentation.

PubMed

Poulin-Charronnat, Bénédicte; Perruchet, Pierre; Tillmann, Barbara; Peereman, Ronald

2017-09-01

In language acquisition research, the prevailing position is that listeners exploit statistical cues, in particular transitional probabilities between syllables, to discover words of a language. However, other cues are also involved in word discovery. Assessing the weight learners give to these different cues leads to a better understanding of the processes underlying speech segmentation. The present study evaluated whether adult learners preferentially used known units or statistical cues for segmenting continuous speech. Before the exposure phase, participants were familiarized with part-words of a three-word artificial language. This design allowed the dissociation of the influence of statistical cues and familiar units, with statistical cues favoring word segmentation and familiar units favoring (nonoptimal) part-word segmentation. In Experiment 1, performance in a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task between words and part-words revealed part-word segmentation (even though part-words were less cohesive in terms of transitional probabilities and less frequent than words). By contrast, an unfamiliarized group exhibited word segmentation, as usually observed in standard conditions. Experiment 2 used a syllable-detection task to remove the likely contamination of performance by memory and strategy effects in the 2AFC task. Overall, the results suggest that familiar units overrode statistical cues, ultimately questioning the need for computation mechanisms of transitional probabilities (TPs) in natural language speech segmentation.

A Study on Environmental Research Trends Using Text-Mining Method - Focus on Spatial information and ICT -

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, M. J.; Oh, K. Y.; Joung-ho, L.

2016-12-01

Recently there are many research about analysing the interaction between entities by text-mining analysis in various fields. In this paper, we aimed to quantitatively analyse research-trends in the area of environmental research relating either spatial information or ICT (Information and Communications Technology) by Text-mining analysis. To do this, we applied low-dimensional embedding method, clustering analysis, and association rule to find meaningful associative patterns of key words frequently appeared in the articles. As the authors suppose that KCI (Korea Citation Index) articles reflect academic demands, total 1228 KCI articles that have been published from 1996 to 2015 were reviewed and analysed by Text-mining method. First, we derived KCI articles from NDSL(National Discovery for Science Leaders) site. And then we pre-processed their key-words elected from abstract and then classified those in separable sectors. We investigated the appearance rates and association rule of key-words for articles in the two fields: spatial-information and ICT. In order to detect historic trends, analysis was conducted separately for the four periods: 1996-2000, 2001-2005, 2006-2010, 2011-2015. These analysis were conducted with the usage of R-software. As a result, we conformed that environmental research relating spatial information mainly focused upon such fields as `GIS(35%)', `Remote-Sensing(25%)', `environmental theme map(15.7%)'. Next, `ICT technology(23.6%)', `ICT service(5.4%)', `mobile(24%)', `big data(10%)', `AI(7%)' are primarily emerging from environmental research relating ICT. Thus, from the analysis results, this paper asserts that research trends and academic progresses are well-structured to review recent spatial information and ICT technology and the outcomes of the analysis can be an adequate guidelines to establish environment policies and strategies. KEY WORDS: Big data, Test-mining, Environmental research, Spatial-information, ICT Acknowledgements: The authors appreciate the support that this study has received from `Building application frame of environmental issues, to respond to the latest ICT trends'.

Stress in Context: Morpho-Syntactic Properties Affect Lexical Stress Assignment in Reading Aloud.

PubMed

Spinelli, Giacomo; Sulpizio, Simone; Primativo, Silvia; Burani, Cristina

2016-01-01

Recent findings from English and Russian have shown that grammatical category plays a key role in stress assignment. In these languages, some grammatical categories have a typical stress pattern and this information is used by readers. However, whether readers are sensitive to smaller distributional differences and other morpho-syntactic properties (e.g., gender, number, person) remains unclear. We addressed this issue in word and non-word reading in Italian, a language in which: (1) nouns and verbs differ in the proportion of words with a dominant stress pattern; (2) information specified by words sharing morpho-syntactic properties may contrast with other sources of information, such as stress neighborhood. Both aspects were addressed in two experiments in which context words were used to induce the desired morpho-syntactic properties. Experiment 1 showed that the relatively different proportions of stress patterns between grammatical categories do not affect stress processing in word reading. In contrast, Experiment 2 showed that information specified by words sharing morpho-syntactic properties outweighs stress neighborhood in non-word reading. Thus, while general information specified by grammatical categories may not be used by Italian readers, stress neighbors with morpho-syntactic properties congruent with those of the target stimulus have a primary role in stress assignment. These results underscore the importance of expanding investigations of stress assignment beyond single words, as current models of single-word reading seem unable to account for our results.

Influence of Lexical Factors on Word-Finding Accuracy, Error Patterns, and Substitution Types

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newman, Rochelle S.; German, Diane J.; Jagielko, Jennifer R.

2018-01-01

This retrospective, exploratory investigation examined the types of target words that 66 children with/without word-finding difficulties (WFD) had difficulty naming, and the types of errors they made. Words were studied with reference to lexical factors (LFs) that might influence naming performance: word frequency, familiarity, length, phonotactic…

SUBTLEX-ESP: Spanish Word Frequencies Based on Film Subtitles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cuetos, Fernando; Glez-Nosti, Maria; Barbon, Analia; Brysbaert, Marc

2011-01-01

Recent studies have shown that word frequency estimates obtained from films and television subtitles are better to predict performance in word recognition experiments than the traditional word frequency estimates based on books and newspapers. In this study, we present a subtitle-based word frequency list for Spanish, one of the most widely spoken…

Semantic and Syntactic Associations During Word Search Modulate the Relationship Between Attention and Subsequent Memory.

PubMed

Zhou, Wei; Mo, Fei; Zhang, Yunhong; Ding, Jinhong

2017-01-01

Two experiments were conducted to investigate how linguistic information influences attention allocation in visual search and memory for words. In Experiment 1, participants searched for the synonym of a cue word among five words. The distractors included one antonym and three unrelated words. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to judge whether the five words presented on the screen comprise a valid sentence. The relationships among words were sentential, semantically related or unrelated. A memory recognition task followed. Results in both experiments showed that linguistically related words produced better memory performance. We also found that there were significant interactions between linguistic relation conditions and memorization on eye-movement measures, indicating that good memory for words relied on frequent and long fixations during search in the unrelated condition but to a much lesser extent in linguistically related conditions. We conclude that semantic and syntactic associations attenuate the link between overt attention allocation and subsequent memory performance, suggesting that linguistic relatedness can somewhat compensate for a relative lack of attention during word search.

The effect of aging on the brain network for exception word reading.

PubMed

Provost, Jean-Sebastien; Brambati, Simona M; Chapleau, Marianne; Wilson, Maximiliano A

2016-11-01

Cognitive and computational models of reading aloud agree on the existence of two procedures for reading. Pseudowords (e.g., atendier) are correctly read through subword processes only while exception words (e.g., pint) are only correctly read via whole-words processes. Regular words can be correctly read by means of either way. Previous behavioral studies showed that older adults relied more on whole-word processing for reading. The aim of the present fMRI study was to verify whether this larger whole-word reliance for reading in older adults was reflected by changes in the pattern of brain activation. Both young and elderly participants read aloud pseudowords, exception and regular words in the scanner. Behavioral results reproduced those of previous studies showing that older adults made significantly less errors when reading exception words. Neuroimaging results showed significant activation of the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), a key region implicated in whole-word reading for exception word reading in both young and elderly participants. Critically, ATL activation was also found for regular word reading in the elderly. No differences were observed in the pattern of activation between regular and pseudowords in the young. In conclusion, these results extend evidence on the critical role of the left ATL for exception word reading to elderly participants. Additionally, our study shows for the first time from a developmental point of view that the behavioral changes found in reading during normal aging also have a brain counterpart in the reading network changes that sustain exception and regular word reading in the elderly. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Building Vietnamese Herbal Database Towards Big Data Science in Nature-Based Medicine

DTIC Science & Technology

2018-01-04

metabolites, diseases, and geography in order to convey a composite description of each individual species. VHO consists of 2881 species, 10887 metabolites...plants, metabolites, diseases, and geography in order to convey a composite description of each individual species. VHO consists of 2881 species...feature description are extremely diverse and highly redundant. Besides the original words or the key words for description , there are millions of

Recommendations for Establishing Policy for Electronic Prescribing in the State of Texas: Graduate Management Project

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-06-24

of electronic prescribing, but physicians hold concerns that electronic prescribing systems may produce a significant cost burden to their practices...edition number, etc. 14. ABSTRACT. A brief (approximately 200 words) factual summary of the most significant information. 15. SUBJECT TERMS. Key words...in favor of electronic prescribing, but physicians hold concerns that electronic prescribing systems may produce a significant cost burden to their

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stevens, K; Huang, T; Buttler, D

We present the C-Cat Wordnet package, an open source library for using and modifying Wordnet. The package includes four key features: an API for modifying Synsets; implementations of standard similarity metrics, implementations of well known Word Sense Disambiguation algorithms, and an implementation of the Castanet algorithm. The library is easily extendible and usable in many runtime environments. We demonstrate it's use on two standard Word Sense Disambiguation tasks and apply the Castanet algorithm to a corpus.

Brain regions underlying word finding difficulties in temporal lobe epilepsy.

PubMed

Trebuchon-Da Fonseca, Agnes; Guedj, Eric; Alario, F-Xavier; Laguitton, Virginie; Mundler, Olivier; Chauvel, Patrick; Liegeois-Chauvel, Catherine

2009-10-01

Word finding difficulties are often reported by epileptic patients with seizures originating from the language dominant cerebral hemisphere, for example, in temporal lobe epilepsy. Evidence regarding the brain regions underlying this deficit comes from studies of peri-operative electro-cortical stimulation, as well as post-surgical performance. This evidence has highlighted a role for the anterior part of the dominant temporal lobe in oral word production. These conclusions contrast with findings from activation studies involving healthy speakers or acute ischaemic stroke patients, where the region most directly related to word retrieval appears to be the posterior part of the left temporal lobe. To clarify the neural basis of word retrieval in temporal lobe epilepsy, we tested forty-three drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy patients (28 left, 15 right). Comprehensive neuropsychological and language assessments were performed. Single spoken word production was elicited with picture or definition stimuli. Detailed analysis allowed the distinction of impaired word retrieval from other possible causes of naming failure. Finally, the neural substrate of the deficit was assessed by correlating word retrieval performance and resting-state brain metabolism in 18 fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose-Positron Emission Tomography. Naming difficulties often resulted from genuine word retrieval failures (anomic states), both in picture and in definition tasks. Left temporal lobe epilepsy patients showed considerably worse performance than right temporal lobe epilepsy patients. Performance was poorer in the definition than in the picture task. Across patients and the left temporal lobe epilepsy subgroup, frequency of anomic state was negatively correlated with resting-state brain metabolism in left posterior and basal temporal regions (Brodmann's area 20-37-39). These results show the involvement of posterior temporal regions, within a larger antero-posterior-basal temporal network, in the specific process of word retrieval in temporal lobe epilepsy. A tentative explanation for these findings is that epilepsy induces functional deafferentation between anterior temporal structures devoted to semantic processing and neocortical posterior temporal structures devoted to lexical processing.

The influence of talker and foreign-accent variability on spoken word identification.

PubMed

Bent, Tessa; Holt, Rachael Frush

2013-03-01

In spoken word identification and memory tasks, stimulus variability from numerous sources impairs performance. In the current study, the influence of foreign-accent variability on spoken word identification was evaluated in two experiments. Experiment 1 used a between-subjects design to test word identification in noise in single-talker and two multiple-talker conditions: multiple talkers with the same accent and multiple talkers with different accents. Identification performance was highest in the single-talker condition, but there was no difference between the single-accent and multiple-accent conditions. Experiment 2 further explored word recognition for multiple talkers in single-accent versus multiple-accent conditions using a mixed design. A detriment to word recognition was observed in the multiple-accent condition compared to the single-accent condition, but the effect differed across the language backgrounds tested. These results demonstrate that the processing of foreign-accent variation may influence word recognition in ways similar to other sources of variability (e.g., speaking rate or style) in that the inclusion of multiple foreign accents can result in a small but significant performance decrement beyond the multiple-talker effect.

Re-Examining the Automaticity and Directionality of the Activation of the Spatial-Valence "Good is Up" Metaphoric Association

PubMed Central

Huang, Yanli; Tse, Chi-Shing

2015-01-01

According to the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, people understand abstract concepts depending on the activation of more concrete concepts, but not vice versa. The present research aims to investigate the role of directionality and automaticity regarding the activation of the conceptual metaphor “good is up”. Experiment 1 tested the automaticity of the spatial-to-valence metaphoric congruency effect by having participants judge the valence of a positive or negative word that appeared either at the top or at the bottom of the screen. They performed the task concurrently with a 6-digit verbal rehearsal task in the working-memory-load (WML) blocks and without this task in the non-WML blocks. The spatial-to-valence metaphoric congruency effect occurred for the positive words in the non-WML blocks (i.e., positive words are judged more quickly when they appeared at the top than at the bottom of the screen), but not in the WML blocks, suggesting that this metaphoric association might not be activated automatically. Experiments 2-6 investigated the valence-to-spatial metaphoric association and its automaticity. Participants processed a positive or negative prime, which appeared at the center of the screen, and then identified a letter (p/q) that subsequently appeared at the top or bottom of the screen. The valence-to-spatial metaphoric congruency effect did not occur in the WML (6-digit verbal rehearsal) or non-WML blocks, whether response modality to the prime was key-press or vocal, or whether the prime was a word or a picture. The effect only unexpectedly occurred when the task was simultaneously performed with a 4-dot-position visuospatial rehearsal task. Nevertheless, the data collapsed across multiple experiments showed a null valence-to-spatial metaphoric congruency effect, suggesting the absence of the valence-to-spatial metaphoric association in general. The implications of the current findings for the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and its alternatives are discussed. PMID:25867748

Word encoding during sleep is suggested by correlations between word-evoked up-states and post-sleep semantic priming

PubMed Central

Ruch, Simon; Koenig, Thomas; Mathis, Johannes; Roth, Corinne; Henke, Katharina

2014-01-01

To test whether humans can encode words during sleep we played everyday words to men while they were napping and assessed priming from sleep-played words following waking. Words were presented during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Priming was assessed using a semantic and a perceptual priming test. These tests measured differences in the processing of words that had been or had not been played during sleep. Synonyms to sleep-played words were the targets in the semantic priming test that tapped the meaning of sleep-played words. All men responded to sleep-played words by producing up-states in their electroencephalogram. Up-states are NREM sleep-specific phases of briefly increased neuronal excitability. The word-evoked up-states might have promoted word processing during sleep. Yet, the mean performance in the priming tests administered following sleep was at chance level, which suggests that participants as a group failed to show priming following sleep. However, performance in the two priming tests was positively correlated to each other and to the magnitude of the word-evoked up-states. Hence, the larger a participant's word-evoked up-states, the larger his perceptual and semantic priming. Those participants who scored high on all variables must have encoded words during sleep. We conclude that some humans are able to encode words during sleep, but more research is needed to pin down the factors that modulate this ability. PMID:25452740

Language, arithmetic word problems, and deaf students: Linguistic strategies used to solve tasks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zevenbergen, Robyn; Hyde, Merv; Power, Des

2001-12-01

There has been limited examination of the intersection between language and arithmetic in the performance of deaf students, although some previous research has shown that deaf and hearing-impaired1 students are delayed in both their language acquisition and arithmetic performance. This paper examines the performance of deaf and hearing-impaired students in South-East Queensland, Australia, in solving arithmetic word problems. It was found that the subjects' solutions of word problems confirmed trends for hearing students, but that their performance was delayed in comparison. The results confirm other studies where deaf and hearing-impaired students are delayed in their language acquisition and this impacts on their capacity to successfully undertake the resolution of word problems.

The influence of autonomic arousal and semantic relatedness on memory for emotional words.

PubMed

Buchanan, Tony W; Etzel, Joset A; Adolphs, Ralph; Tranel, Daniel

2006-07-01

Increased memory for emotional stimuli is a well-documented phenomenon. Emotional arousal during the encoding of a stimulus is one mediator of this memory enhancement. Other variables such as semantic relatedness also play a role in the enhanced memory for emotional stimuli, especially for verbal stimuli. Research has not addressed the contributions of emotional arousal, indexed by self-report and autonomic measures, and semantic relatedness on memory performance. Twenty young adults (10 women) were presented neutral-unrelated words, school-related words, moderately arousing emotional words, and highly arousing taboo words while heart rate and skin conductance were measured. Memory was tested with free recall and recognition tests. Results showed that taboo words, which were both semantically related and high arousal were remembered best. School-related words, which were high on semantic relatedness but low on arousal, were remembered better than the moderately arousing emotional words and semantically unrelated neutral words. Psychophysiological responses showed that within the moderately arousing emotional and neutral word groups, those words eliciting greater autonomic activity were better remembered than words that did not elicit such activity. These results demonstrate additive effects of semantic relatedness and emotional arousal on memory. Relatedness confers an advantage to memory (as in the school-words), but the combination of relatedness and arousal (as in the taboo words) results in the best memory performance.

Preschool Children's Memory for Word Forms Remains Stable Over Several Days, but Gradually Decreases after 6 Months.

PubMed

Gordon, Katherine R; McGregor, Karla K; Waldier, Brigitte; Curran, Maura K; Gomez, Rebecca L; Samuelson, Larissa K

2016-01-01

Research on word learning has focused on children's ability to identify a target object when given the word form after a minimal number of exposures to novel word-object pairings. However, relatively little research has focused on children's ability to retrieve the word form when given the target object. The exceptions involve asking children to recall and produce forms, and children typically perform near floor on these measures. In the current study, 3- to 5-year-old children were administered a novel test of word form that allowed for recognition memory and manual responses. Specifically, when asked to label a previously trained object, children were given three forms to choose from: the target, a minimally different form, and a maximally different form. Children demonstrated memory for word forms at three post-training delays: 10 mins (short-term), 2-3 days (long-term), and 6 months to 1 year (very long-term). However, children performed worse at the very long-term delay than the other time points, and the length of the very long-term delay was negatively related to performance. When in error, children were no more likely to select the minimally different form than the maximally different form at all time points. Overall, these results suggest that children remember word forms that are linked to objects over extended post-training intervals, but that their memory for the forms gradually decreases over time without further exposures. Furthermore, memory traces for word forms do not become less phonologically specific over time; rather children either identify the correct form, or they perform at chance.

The effect of normal aging and age-related macular degeneration on perceptual learning.

PubMed

Astle, Andrew T; Blighe, Alan J; Webb, Ben S; McGraw, Paul V

2015-01-01

We investigated whether perceptual learning could be used to improve peripheral word identification speed. The relationship between the magnitude of learning and age was established in normal participants to determine whether perceptual learning effects are age invariant. We then investigated whether training could lead to improvements in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Twenty-eight participants with normal vision and five participants with AMD trained on a word identification task. They were required to identify three-letter words, presented 10° from fixation. To standardize crowding across each of the letters that made up the word, words were flanked laterally by randomly chosen letters. Word identification performance was measured psychophysically using a staircase procedure. Significant improvements in peripheral word identification speed were demonstrated following training (71% ± 18%). Initial task performance was correlated with age, with older participants having poorer performance. However, older adults learned more rapidly such that, following training, they reached the same level of performance as their younger counterparts. As a function of number of trials completed, patients with AMD learned at an equivalent rate as age-matched participants with normal vision. Improvements in word identification speed were maintained at least 6 months after training. We have demonstrated that temporal aspects of word recognition can be improved in peripheral vision with training across a range of ages and these learned improvements are relatively enduring. However, training targeted at other bottlenecks to peripheral reading ability, such as visual crowding, may need to be incorporated to optimize this approach.

The effect of normal aging and age-related macular degeneration on perceptual learning

PubMed Central

Astle, Andrew T.; Blighe, Alan J.; Webb, Ben S.; McGraw, Paul V.

2015-01-01

We investigated whether perceptual learning could be used to improve peripheral word identification speed. The relationship between the magnitude of learning and age was established in normal participants to determine whether perceptual learning effects are age invariant. We then investigated whether training could lead to improvements in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Twenty-eight participants with normal vision and five participants with AMD trained on a word identification task. They were required to identify three-letter words, presented 10° from fixation. To standardize crowding across each of the letters that made up the word, words were flanked laterally by randomly chosen letters. Word identification performance was measured psychophysically using a staircase procedure. Significant improvements in peripheral word identification speed were demonstrated following training (71% ± 18%). Initial task performance was correlated with age, with older participants having poorer performance. However, older adults learned more rapidly such that, following training, they reached the same level of performance as their younger counterparts. As a function of number of trials completed, patients with AMD learned at an equivalent rate as age-matched participants with normal vision. Improvements in word identification speed were maintained at least 6 months after training. We have demonstrated that temporal aspects of word recognition can be improved in peripheral vision with training across a range of ages and these learned improvements are relatively enduring. However, training targeted at other bottlenecks to peripheral reading ability, such as visual crowding, may need to be incorporated to optimize this approach. PMID:26605694

Taming Test Anxiety: The Activation of Failure-Related Concepts Enhances Cognitive Test Performance of Test-Anxious Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tempel, Tobias; Neumann, Roland

2016-01-01

We investigated processes underlying performance decrements of highly test-anxious persons. Three experiments contrasted conditions that differed in the degree of activation of concepts related to failure. Participants memorized a list of words either containing words related to failure or containing no words related to failure in Experiment 1. In…

Evaluating the Benefits of Displaying Word Prediction Lists on a Personal Digital Assistant at the Keyboard Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tam, Cynthia; Wells, David

2009-01-01

Visual-cognitive loads influence the effectiveness of word prediction technology. Adjusting parameters of word prediction programs can lessen visual-cognitive loads. This study evaluated the benefits of WordQ word prediction software for users' performance when the prediction window was moved to a personal digital assistant (PDA) device placed at…

Commonalities and Differences in Word Identification Skills among Learners of English as a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Min; Koda, Keiko

2005-01-01

This study examined word identification skills among Chinese and Korean college students learning to read English as a second language in a naming experiment and an auditory category judgment task. Both groups demonstrated faster and more accurate naming performance on high-frequency words than low-frequency words and on regular words than…

Hearing taboo words can result in early talker effects in word recognition for female listeners.

PubMed

Tuft, Samantha E; MᶜLennan, Conor T; Krestar, Maura L

2018-02-01

Previous spoken word recognition research using the long-term repetition-priming paradigm found performance costs for stimuli mismatching in talker identity. That is, when words were repeated across the two blocks, and the identity of the talker changed reaction times (RTs) were slower than when the repeated words were spoken by the same talker. Such performance costs, or talker effects, followed a time course, occurring only when processing was relatively slow. More recent research suggests that increased explicit and implicit attention towards the talkers can result in talker effects even during relatively fast processing. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether word meaning would influence the pattern of talker effects in an easy lexical decision task and, if so, whether results would differ depending on whether the presentation of neutral and taboo words was mixed or blocked. Regardless of presentation, participants responded to taboo words faster than neutral words. Furthermore, talker effects for the female talker emerged when participants heard both taboo and neutral words (consistent with an attention-based hypothesis), but not for participants that heard only taboo or only neutral words (consistent with the time-course hypothesis). These findings have important implications for theoretical models of spoken word recognition.

A further examination of word frequency and age-of-acquisition effects in English lexical decision task performance: The role of frequency trajectory.

PubMed

Juhasz, Barbara J; Yap, Melvin J; Raoul, Akila; Kaye, Micaela

2018-04-23

Word frequency is an important predictor of lexical-decision task performance. The current study further examined the role of this variable by exploring the influence of frequency trajectory. Frequency trajectory is measured by how often a word occurs in childhood relative to adulthood. Past research on the role of this variable in word recognition has produced equivocal results. In the current study, words were selected based on their frequencies in Grade 1 (child frequency) and Grade 13 (college frequency). In Experiment 1, four frequency trajectory conditions were factorially examined in a lexical-decision task with English words: high-to-high (world), high-to-low (uncle), low-to-high (brain) and low-to-low (opera). an interaction between Grade 1 and college frequency demonstrated that words in the low-to-high condition were processed significantly faster and more accurately than words in the low-to-low condition, whereas the high-to-high and high-to-low conditions did not differ significantly. In Experiment 2, an advantage for words with an increasing frequency trajectory was also supported in regression analyses on both lexical decision and naming times for 3,039 items selected from the English Lexicon Project (Balota et al., 2007). This was replicated in Experiment 3, based on a regression analysis of 2,680 words from the British Lexicon Project (BLP; Keuleers, Lacey, Rastle, & Brysbaert, 2012). In all analyses, rated age-of-acquisition also significantly impacted word recognition. Together, the results suggest that the age at which a word is initially learned as well as its frequency trajectory across childhood impact performance in the lexical-decision task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Structural and functional correlates for language efficiency in auditory word processing.

PubMed

Jung, JeYoung; Kim, Sunmi; Cho, Hyesuk; Nam, Kichun

2017-01-01

This study aims to provide convergent understanding of the neural basis of auditory word processing efficiency using a multimodal imaging. We investigated the structural and functional correlates of word processing efficiency in healthy individuals. We acquired two structural imaging (T1-weighted imaging and diffusion tensor imaging) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during auditory word processing (phonological and semantic tasks). Our results showed that better phonological performance was predicted by the greater thalamus activity. In contrary, better semantic performance was associated with the less activation in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), supporting the neural efficiency hypothesis that better task performance requires less brain activation. Furthermore, our network analysis revealed the semantic network including the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and pMTG was correlated with the semantic efficiency. Especially, this network acted as a neural efficient manner during auditory word processing. Structurally, DLPFC and cingulum contributed to the word processing efficiency. Also, the parietal cortex showed a significate association with the word processing efficiency. Our results demonstrated that two features of word processing efficiency, phonology and semantics, can be supported in different brain regions and, importantly, the way serving it in each region was different according to the feature of word processing. Our findings suggest that word processing efficiency can be achieved by in collaboration of multiple brain regions involved in language and general cognitive function structurally and functionally.

Structural and functional correlates for language efficiency in auditory word processing

PubMed Central

Kim, Sunmi; Cho, Hyesuk; Nam, Kichun

2017-01-01

This study aims to provide convergent understanding of the neural basis of auditory word processing efficiency using a multimodal imaging. We investigated the structural and functional correlates of word processing efficiency in healthy individuals. We acquired two structural imaging (T1-weighted imaging and diffusion tensor imaging) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during auditory word processing (phonological and semantic tasks). Our results showed that better phonological performance was predicted by the greater thalamus activity. In contrary, better semantic performance was associated with the less activation in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), supporting the neural efficiency hypothesis that better task performance requires less brain activation. Furthermore, our network analysis revealed the semantic network including the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and pMTG was correlated with the semantic efficiency. Especially, this network acted as a neural efficient manner during auditory word processing. Structurally, DLPFC and cingulum contributed to the word processing efficiency. Also, the parietal cortex showed a significate association with the word processing efficiency. Our results demonstrated that two features of word processing efficiency, phonology and semantics, can be supported in different brain regions and, importantly, the way serving it in each region was different according to the feature of word processing. Our findings suggest that word processing efficiency can be achieved by in collaboration of multiple brain regions involved in language and general cognitive function structurally and functionally. PMID:28892503

Learning to Learn: A Key-Competence for All Adults?!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hofmann, Peter

2008-01-01

Learning to learn is important and increasingly vital for people trying to deal with a rapidly changing world! Or, in the words of the European Union, learning to learn is one of the eight "key competences that citizens require for their personal fulfilment, social inclusion, active citizenship and employability in our knowledge-based…

Islamic value to the modification of BSC model (a case study in evaluating company performance)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harwati; Permana, Y.

2017-12-01

Halal is the key word for the Muslim community in consuming goods or services. Providing halal products is the main focus for companies with the largest consumers from the Muslim community. Halal is not only from the ingredients but also from the process in its production. The purpose of this study is to design a model of performance measurement for a company in order to provide halal products. Balance Score Card (BSC) is used as a framework. BSC as a performance measurement system has advantages not only focus on financial aspect but also non finance. Islamic values are incorporated into four perspective of BSC. They are: Selection of sharia financial institutions in financial perspective, payment method by consumer in consumer perspective, number of product with halal certificate and menu clarify in internal business process perspective, then accuracy of payroll time in learning and growth perspective. The modified BSC model obtains 17 Key Performance Indicators (KPI). The model is applied in a culinary industry (restaurant). Structured questionnaires and scheduled interviews are used to collect the important data. The result show that these industry fail to meet 8 from total 17 KPI so performance achievement is only 70.81%, and only reach 22.58% in Islamic value aspect. This is recorded by the company as an input to improve their performance in order to compete in halal food business.

The Word Composite Effect Depends on Abstract Lexical Representations But Not Surface Features Like Case and Font.

PubMed

Ventura, Paulo; Fernandes, Tânia; Leite, Isabel; Almeida, Vítor B; Casqueiro, Inês; Wong, Alan C-N

2017-01-01

Prior studies have shown that words show a composite effect: When readers perform a same-different matching task on a target-part of a word, performance is affected by the irrelevant part, whose influence is severely reduced when the two parts are misaligned. However, the locus of this word composite effect is largely unknown. To enlighten it, in two experiments, Portuguese readers performed the composite task on letter strings: in Experiment 1, in written words varying in surface features (between-participants: courier, notera, alternating-cAsE), and in Experiment 2 in pseudowords. The word composite effect, signaled by a significant interaction between alignment of the two word parts and congruence between parts was found in the three conditions of Experiment 1, being unaffected by NoVeLtY of the configuration or by handwritten form. This effect seems to have a lexical locus, given that in Experiment 2 only the main effect of congruence between parts was significant and was not modulated by alignment. Indeed, the cross-experiment analysis showed that words presented stronger congruence effects than pseudowords only in the aligned condition, because when misaligned the whole lexical item configuration was disrupted. Therefore, the word composite effect strongly depends on abstract lexical representations, as it is unaffected by surface features and is specific to lexical items.

A dual-task investigation of automaticity in visual word processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McCann, R. S.; Remington, R. W.; Van Selst, M.

2000-01-01

An analysis of activation models of visual word processing suggests that frequency-sensitive forms of lexical processing should proceed normally while unattended. This hypothesis was tested by having participants perform a speeded pitch discrimination task followed by lexical decisions or word naming. As the stimulus onset asynchrony between the tasks was reduced, lexical-decision and naming latencies increased dramatically. Word-frequency effects were additive with the increase, indicating that frequency-sensitive processing was subject to postponement while attention was devoted to the other task. Either (a) the same neural hardware shares responsibility for lexical processing and central stages of choice reaction time task processing and cannot perform both computations simultaneously, or (b) lexical processing is blocked in order to optimize performance on the pitch discrimination task. Either way, word processing is not as automatic as activation models suggest.

Effects of Individualized Word Retrieval in Kindergarten Vocabulary Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Damhuis, Carmen M. P.; Segers, Eliane; Scheltinga, Femke; Verhoeven, Ludo

2016-01-01

We examined the effects of adaptive word retrieval intervention on a classroom vocabulary program on children's vocabulary acquisition in kindergarten. In the experimental condition, word retrieval was provided in a classroom vocabulary program, combining implicit and explicit vocabulary instructions. Children performed extra word retrieval…

Effects of a Multitier Support System on Calculation, Word Problem, and Prealgebraic Performance Among At-Risk Learners.

PubMed

Powell, Sarah R; Fuchs, Lynn S; Cirino, Paul T; Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L; Changas, Paul C

2015-07-01

The focus of the present study was enhancing word-problem and calculation achievement in ways that support pre-algebraic thinking among 2 nd -grade students at risk for mathematics difficulty. Intervention relied on a multi-tier support system (i.e., responsiveness-to-intervention or RTI) in which at-risk students participate in general classroom instruction and receive supplementary small-group tutoring. Participants were 265 students in 110 classrooms in 25 schools. Teachers were randomly assigned to 3 conditions: calculation RTI, word-problem RTI, and business-as-usual control. Intervention lasted 17 weeks. Multilevel modeling indicated that calculation RTI improved calculation but not word-problem outcomes; word-problem RTI enhanced proximal word-problem outcomes as well as performance on some calculation outcomes; and word-problem RTI provided a stronger route than calculation RTI to pre-algebraic knowledge.

Effects of a Multitier Support System on Calculation, Word Problem, and Prealgebraic Performance Among At-Risk Learners

PubMed Central

Powell, Sarah R.; Fuchs, Lynn S.; Cirino, Paul T.; Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L.; Changas, Paul C.

2014-01-01

The focus of the present study was enhancing word-problem and calculation achievement in ways that support pre-algebraic thinking among 2nd-grade students at risk for mathematics difficulty. Intervention relied on a multi-tier support system (i.e., responsiveness-to-intervention or RTI) in which at-risk students participate in general classroom instruction and receive supplementary small-group tutoring. Participants were 265 students in 110 classrooms in 25 schools. Teachers were randomly assigned to 3 conditions: calculation RTI, word-problem RTI, and business-as-usual control. Intervention lasted 17 weeks. Multilevel modeling indicated that calculation RTI improved calculation but not word-problem outcomes; word-problem RTI enhanced proximal word-problem outcomes as well as performance on some calculation outcomes; and word-problem RTI provided a stronger route than calculation RTI to pre-algebraic knowledge. PMID:26097244

Early Word Comprehension in Infants: Replication and Extension

PubMed Central

Bergelson, Elika; Swingley, Daniel

2014-01-01

A handful of recent experimental reports have shown that infants of 6 to 9 months know the meanings of some common words. Here, we replicate and extend these findings. With a new set of items, we show that when young infants (age 6-16 months, n=49) are presented with side-by-side video clips depicting various common early words, and one clip is named in a sentence, they look at the named video at above-chance rates. We demonstrate anew that infants understand common words by 6-9 months, and that performance increases substantially around 14 months. The results imply that 6-9 month olds’ failure to understand words not referring to objects (verbs, adjectives, performatives) in a similar prior study is not attributable to the use of dynamic video depictions. Thus, 6-9 month olds’ experience of spoken language includes some understanding of common words for concrete objects, but relatively impoverished comprehension of other words. PMID:26664329

Information extraction and knowledge graph construction from geoscience literature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Chengbin; Ma, Xiaogang; Chen, Jianguo; Chen, Jingwen

2018-03-01

Geoscience literature published online is an important part of open data, and brings both challenges and opportunities for data analysis. Compared with studies of numerical geoscience data, there are limited works on information extraction and knowledge discovery from textual geoscience data. This paper presents a workflow and a few empirical case studies for that topic, with a focus on documents written in Chinese. First, we set up a hybrid corpus combining the generic and geology terms from geology dictionaries to train Chinese word segmentation rules of the Conditional Random Fields model. Second, we used the word segmentation rules to parse documents into individual words, and removed the stop-words from the segmentation results to get a corpus constituted of content-words. Third, we used a statistical method to analyze the semantic links between content-words, and we selected the chord and bigram graphs to visualize the content-words and their links as nodes and edges in a knowledge graph, respectively. The resulting graph presents a clear overview of key information in an unstructured document. This study proves the usefulness of the designed workflow, and shows the potential of leveraging natural language processing and knowledge graph technologies for geoscience.

Virtual Sliding QWERTY: A new text entry method for smartwatches using Tap-N-Drag.

PubMed

Cha, Jae-Min; Choi, Eunjung; Lim, Jihyoun

2015-11-01

A smaller screen of smartwatches compare to conventional mobile devices such as PDAs and smartphones is one of the main factors that makes users to input texts difficult. However, several studies have only proposed a concept for entering texts for smartwatches without usability tests while other studies showed low text input performance. In this study, we proposed a new text entry method called Virtual Sliding QWERTY (VSQ) which utilizes a virtual qwerty-layout keyboard and a 'Tap-N-Drag' method to move the keyboard to the desired position. In addition, to verify VSQ we conducted a usability test with 20 participants for a combination of 5 key sizes and 4 CD-gains. As a result, VSQ achieved an average of 11.9 Words per Minute which was higher than previous studies. In particular, VSQ at 5 × 5 key size and 2×, or 3× CD-gain had the highest performance in terms of the quantitative and qualitative usability test. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Reactive ion-beam-sputtering of fluoride coatings for the UV/VUV range

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schink, Harald; Kolbe, Jurgen; Zimmermann, F.; Ristau, Detlev; Welling, Herbert

1991-06-01

Fluoride coatings produced by thermal evaporation suffer from high scatter losses ageing and cracking due to high tensile stress. These problems impose severe limitations to the production of low loss multilayer coatings for the VUV range. A key position for improved performance is the microstructure of the layers. The aim of our investigations is to improve the microstructure of A1F3- and LaF3-'' films by ionbeamsputtering. Scatter measurements of single layers revealed lower values for lBS than for boat evaporation. Unfortunately sputtered fluoride films nave high absorption losses caused by decomposition of the coating material. By sputtering in reactive atmospheres and annealing we were able to reduce the absorption losses significantly. Antireflective as well as high reflective coatings were produced. Reflection and transmission values were obtained with a VUV-spectrophotometer. Damage tests at the 193 mu ArF laser wavelength were performed at the Laser-Laboratorium Gttingen. Key words: ion-beamsputtering fluoride films UVcoatings VUV-coatings color-center laser damage A]. F3 MgF2 LaF3. 1.

The Effect of Morphological Complexity on Verbal Working Memory: Results from Arabic Speaking Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen-Mimran, Ravit; Adwan-Mansour, Jasmeen; Sapir, Shimon

2013-01-01

To examine the role of morphology in verbal working memory. Forty nine children, all native speakers of Arabic from the same region and of the same dialect, performed a "Listening Word Span Task", whereby they had to recall Arabic uninflected words (i.e., base words), inflected words with regular (possessive) morphology, or inflected words with…

Rapid Word Recognition as a Measure of Word-Level Automaticity and Its Relation to Other Measures of Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frye, Elizabeth M.; Gosky, Ross

2012-01-01

The present study investigated the relationship between rapid recognition of individual words (Word Recognition Test) and two measures of contextual reading: (1) grade-level Passage Reading Test (IRI passage) and (2) performance on standardized STAR Reading Test. To establish if time of presentation on the word recognition test was a factor in…

An Adaptive Resonance Theory account of the implicit learning of orthographic word forms.

PubMed

Glotin, H; Warnier, P; Dandurand, F; Dufau, S; Lété, B; Touzet, C; Ziegler, J C; Grainger, J

2010-01-01

An Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) network was trained to identify unique orthographic word forms. Each word input to the model was represented as an unordered set of ordered letter pairs (open bigrams) that implement a flexible prelexical orthographic code. The network learned to map this prelexical orthographic code onto unique word representations (orthographic word forms). The network was trained on a realistic corpus of reading textbooks used in French primary schools. The amount of training was strictly identical to children's exposure to reading material from grade 1 to grade 5. Network performance was examined at each grade level. Adjustment of the learning and vigilance parameters of the network allowed us to reproduce the developmental growth of word identification performance seen in children. The network exhibited a word frequency effect and was found to be sensitive to the order of presentation of word inputs, particularly with low frequency words. These words were better learned with a randomized presentation order compared with the order of presentation in the school books. These results open up interesting perspectives for the application of ART networks in the study of the dynamics of learning to read. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Implicit and Explicit Attention to Pictures and Words: An fMRI-Study of Concurrent Emotional Stimulus Processing.

PubMed

Flaisch, Tobias; Imhof, Martin; Schmälzle, Ralf; Wentz, Klaus-Ulrich; Ibach, Bernd; Schupp, Harald T

2015-01-01

The present study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural processing of concurrently presented emotional stimuli under varying explicit and implicit attention demands. Specifically, in separate trials, participants indicated the category of either pictures or words. The words were placed over the center of the pictures and the picture-word compound-stimuli were presented for 1500 ms in a rapid event-related design. The results reveal pronounced main effects of task and emotion: the picture categorization task prompted strong activations in visual, parietal, temporal, frontal, and subcortical regions; the word categorization task evoked increased activation only in left extrastriate cortex. Furthermore, beyond replicating key findings regarding emotional picture and word processing, the results point to a dissociation of semantic-affective and sensory-perceptual processes for words: while emotional words engaged semantic-affective networks of the left hemisphere regardless of task, the increased activity in left extrastriate cortex associated with explicitly attending to words was diminished when the word was overlaid over an erotic image. Finally, we observed a significant interaction between Picture Category and Task within dorsal visual-associative regions, inferior parietal, and dorsolateral, and medial prefrontal cortices: during the word categorization task, activation was increased in these regions when the words were overlaid over erotic as compared to romantic pictures. During the picture categorization task, activity in these areas was relatively decreased when categorizing erotic as compared to romantic pictures. Thus, the emotional intensity of the pictures strongly affected brain regions devoted to the control of task-related word or picture processing. These findings are discussed with respect to the interplay of obligatory stimulus processing with task-related attentional control mechanisms.

Implicit and Explicit Attention to Pictures and Words: An fMRI-Study of Concurrent Emotional Stimulus Processing

PubMed Central

Flaisch, Tobias; Imhof, Martin; Schmälzle, Ralf; Wentz, Klaus-Ulrich; Ibach, Bernd; Schupp, Harald T.

2015-01-01

The present study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural processing of concurrently presented emotional stimuli under varying explicit and implicit attention demands. Specifically, in separate trials, participants indicated the category of either pictures or words. The words were placed over the center of the pictures and the picture-word compound-stimuli were presented for 1500 ms in a rapid event-related design. The results reveal pronounced main effects of task and emotion: the picture categorization task prompted strong activations in visual, parietal, temporal, frontal, and subcortical regions; the word categorization task evoked increased activation only in left extrastriate cortex. Furthermore, beyond replicating key findings regarding emotional picture and word processing, the results point to a dissociation of semantic-affective and sensory-perceptual processes for words: while emotional words engaged semantic-affective networks of the left hemisphere regardless of task, the increased activity in left extrastriate cortex associated with explicitly attending to words was diminished when the word was overlaid over an erotic image. Finally, we observed a significant interaction between Picture Category and Task within dorsal visual-associative regions, inferior parietal, and dorsolateral, and medial prefrontal cortices: during the word categorization task, activation was increased in these regions when the words were overlaid over erotic as compared to romantic pictures. During the picture categorization task, activity in these areas was relatively decreased when categorizing erotic as compared to romantic pictures. Thus, the emotional intensity of the pictures strongly affected brain regions devoted to the control of task-related word or picture processing. These findings are discussed with respect to the interplay of obligatory stimulus processing with task-related attentional control mechanisms. PMID:26733895

Cognitive Tools and Thinking Performance: The Case of Word Processors and Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kellogg, Ronald T.; Mueller, Suzanne

A study examined whether word processing amplifies writing performance and whether it restructures the process of writing. Sixteen college students wrote a short essay in a single session on either a word processor or in longhand. The quality of the essays was assessed by trained judges who rated their content and style. Text analysis methods were…

Color-Word Stroop test performance across the adult life span.

PubMed

Uttl, B; Graf, P

1997-06-01

In the Color-Word Stroop test (CWST), the basic task is to name the ink color of rows of XXXs, and performance in this condition is compared with performance in naming the ink-color of color words under conditions where word meanings and ink colors mismatch or are incongruent (e.g., the word red printed in green ink). The present study investigated whether Stroop test interference, defined as the cost associated with ink-color naming in the incongruous stimulus condition versus in the basic color-naming condition, provides positive evidence for a kind of processing qualitatively different than that which is required for color naming or for word reading. Does the pattern of age-related differences in Stroop interference force the conclusion that the incongruous condition taps a qualitatively different kind of processing than that required for color naming or for word reading? We gave the CWST to 310 healthy adults. Their performance in each condition of the test replicates and extends previous findings. Structural equation modeling of the data showed a significant, direct link between age and performance in the latent factor associated with the incongruent condition. However, this direct link with age produced a relatively small increase in the model's fit; it amounted to only a .024 increase in the proportion of variance explained in the incongruent condition. In light of this small direct influence due to age, the most parsimonious explanation of our findings is that age effects in Stroop interference are due to age-related slowing (which is also indexed by color naming and by word reading) primarily; the findings do not provide evidence for a qualitatively different kind of processing that declines with age.

Relations among student attention behaviors, teacher practices, and beginning word reading skill.

PubMed

Sáez, Leilani; Folsom, Jessica Sidler; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Schatschneider, Christopher

2012-01-01

The role of student attention for predicting kindergarten word reading was investigated among 432 students. Using Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD Symptoms and Normal Behavior Rating Scale behavior rating scores, the authors conducted an exploratory factor analysis, which yielded three distinct factors that reflected selective attention. In this study, the authors focused on the role of one of these factors, which they labeled attention-memory, for predicting reading performance. Teacher ratings of attention-memory predicted word reading above and beyond the contribution of phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge. In addition, the relations between four teacher practices and attention ratings for predicting reading performance were examined. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the authors found significant interactions between student attention and teacher practices observed during literacy instruction. In general, as ratings of attention improved, better kindergarten word reading performance was associated with high levels of classroom behavior management. However, better word reading performance was not associated with high levels of teacher task orienting. A significant three-way interaction was also found among attention, individualized instruction, and teacher task redirections. The role of regulating kindergarten student attention to support beginning word reading skill development is discussed.

Rapid word-learning in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired children: effects of age, receptive vocabulary, and high-frequency amplification.

PubMed

Pittman, A L; Lewis, D E; Hoover, B M; Stelmachowicz, P G

2005-12-01

This study examined rapid word-learning in 5- to 14-year-old children with normal and impaired hearing. The effects of age and receptive vocabulary were examined as well as those of high-frequency amplification. Novel words were low-pass filtered at 4 kHz (typical of current amplification devices) and at 9 kHz. It was hypothesized that (1) the children with normal hearing would learn more words than the children with hearing loss, (2) word-learning would increase with age and receptive vocabulary for both groups, and (3) both groups would benefit from a broader frequency bandwidth. Sixty children with normal hearing and 37 children with moderate sensorineural hearing losses participated in this study. Each child viewed a 4-minute animated slideshow containing 8 nonsense words created using the 24 English consonant phonemes (3 consonants per word). Each word was repeated 3 times. Half of the 8 words were low-pass filtered at 4 kHz and half were filtered at 9 kHz. After viewing the story twice, each child was asked to identify the words from among pictures in the slide show. Before testing, a measure of current receptive vocabulary was obtained using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-III). The PPVT-III scores of the hearing-impaired children were consistently poorer than those of the normal-hearing children across the age range tested. A similar pattern of results was observed for word-learning in that the performance of the hearing-impaired children was significantly poorer than that of the normal-hearing children. Further analysis of the PPVT and word-learning scores suggested that although word-learning was reduced in the hearing-impaired children, their performance was consistent with their receptive vocabularies. Additionally, no correlation was found between overall performance and the age of identification, age of amplification, or years of amplification in the children with hearing loss. Results also revealed a small increase in performance for both groups in the extended bandwidth condition but the difference was not significant at the traditional p = 0.05 level. The ability to learn words rapidly appears to be poorer in children with hearing loss over a wide range of ages. These results coincide with the consistently poorer receptive vocabularies for these children. Neither the word-learning or receptive-vocabulary measures were related to the amplification histories of these children. Finally, providing an extended high-frequency bandwidth did not significantly improve rapid word-learning for either group with these stimuli.

Influenza and immunization: a quantitative study of media coverage in the season of the «Fluad case».

PubMed

Odone, Anna; Chiesa, Valentina; Ciorba, Veronica; Cella, Paola; Pasquarella, Cesira; Signorelli, Carlo

2015-01-01

Seasonal influenza generates serious health and economic losses. In the last influenza season, the report of three deaths originally blamed on the Fluad vaccine drew widespread attention from the media and is likely to have had a major negative impact on vaccine uptake. We quantitatively analyzed media coverage on influenza and immunization-related topics on all published issues of the Italian newspaper ranking first in circulation, over one year. We retrieved relevant key words and articles, reporting on article topic, length, position, and approach to immunization, and on other selected indicators' summary statistics, trends, and correspondence with key events. Selected key words were retrieved 798 times over the study period, 34% specifically focusing on influenza. The average number of influenza-related key words per issue was 96%higher in the four-day «uncertainty» period from when the deaths were first reported to the release of the test results disproving any causal association between the deaths and the vaccine (time frame #1), as compared to the whole study period. Ninety relevant articles were included in the analysis, 51%focusing on influenza, the average number/issue being 97%higher during time frame #1. During time frame #1, articles were also longer and located in the main sections of the newspapers. No articles were published at the launch of the seasonal influenza immunization campaign. We propose an analytic model of media monitoring that could be effectively applied to support health authorities and representatives of the scientific community in conveying health education messages through the media.

Topical video object discovery from key frames by modeling word co-occurrence prior.

PubMed

Zhao, Gangqiang; Yuan, Junsong; Hua, Gang; Yang, Jiong

2015-12-01

A topical video object refers to an object, that is, frequently highlighted in a video. It could be, e.g., the product logo and the leading actor/actress in a TV commercial. We propose a topic model that incorporates a word co-occurrence prior for efficient discovery of topical video objects from a set of key frames. Previous work using topic models, such as latent Dirichelet allocation (LDA), for video object discovery often takes a bag-of-visual-words representation, which ignored important co-occurrence information among the local features. We show that such data driven co-occurrence information from bottom-up can conveniently be incorporated in LDA with a Gaussian Markov prior, which combines top-down probabilistic topic modeling with bottom-up priors in a unified model. Our experiments on challenging videos demonstrate that the proposed approach can discover different types of topical objects despite variations in scale, view-point, color and lighting changes, or even partial occlusions. The efficacy of the co-occurrence prior is clearly demonstrated when compared with topic models without such priors.

Word frequency influences on the list length effect and associative memory in young and older adults.

PubMed

Badham, Stephen P; Whitney, Cora; Sanghera, Sumeet; Maylor, Elizabeth A

2017-07-01

Many studies show that age deficits in memory are smaller for information supported by pre-experimental experience. Many studies also find dissociations in memory tasks between words that occur with high and low frequencies in language, but the literature is mixed regarding the extent of word frequency effects in normal ageing. We examined whether age deficits in episodic memory could be influenced by manipulations of word frequency. In Experiment 1, young and older adults studied short and long lists of high- and low-frequency words for free recall. The list length effect (the drop in proportion recalled for longer lists) was larger in young compared to older adults and for high- compared to low-frequency words. In Experiment 2, young and older adults completed item and associative recognition memory tests with high- and low-frequency words. Age deficits were greater for associative memory than for item memory, demonstrating an age-related associative deficit. High-frequency words led to better associative memory performance whilst low-frequency words resulted in better item memory performance. In neither experiment was there any evidence for age deficits to be smaller for high- relative to low-frequency words, suggesting that word frequency effects on memory operate independently from effects due to cognitive ageing.

Preschool Children’s Memory for Word Forms Remains Stable Over Several Days, but Gradually Decreases after 6 Months

PubMed Central

Gordon, Katherine R.; McGregor, Karla K.; Waldier, Brigitte; Curran, Maura K.; Gomez, Rebecca L.; Samuelson, Larissa K.

2016-01-01

Research on word learning has focused on children’s ability to identify a target object when given the word form after a minimal number of exposures to novel word-object pairings. However, relatively little research has focused on children’s ability to retrieve the word form when given the target object. The exceptions involve asking children to recall and produce forms, and children typically perform near floor on these measures. In the current study, 3- to 5-year-old children were administered a novel test of word form that allowed for recognition memory and manual responses. Specifically, when asked to label a previously trained object, children were given three forms to choose from: the target, a minimally different form, and a maximally different form. Children demonstrated memory for word forms at three post-training delays: 10 mins (short-term), 2–3 days (long-term), and 6 months to 1 year (very long-term). However, children performed worse at the very long-term delay than the other time points, and the length of the very long-term delay was negatively related to performance. When in error, children were no more likely to select the minimally different form than the maximally different form at all time points. Overall, these results suggest that children remember word forms that are linked to objects over extended post-training intervals, but that their memory for the forms gradually decreases over time without further exposures. Furthermore, memory traces for word forms do not become less phonologically specific over time; rather children either identify the correct form, or they perform at chance. PMID:27729880

Storage and retrieval properties of dual codes for pictures and words in recognition memory.

PubMed

Snodgrass, J G; McClure, P

1975-09-01

Storage and retrieval properties of pictures and words were studied within a recognition memory paradigm. Storage was manipulated by instructing subjects either to image or to verbalize to both picture and word stimuli during the study sequence. Retrieval was manipulated by representing a proportion of the old picture and word items in their opposite form during the recognition test (i.e., some old pictures were tested with their corresponding words and vice versa). Recognition performance for pictures was identical under the two instructional conditions, whereas recognition performance for words was markedly superior under the imagery instruction condition. It was suggested that subjects may engage in dual coding of simple pictures naturally, regardless of instructions, whereas dual coding of words may occur only under imagery instructions. The form of the test item had no effect on recognition performance for either type of stimulus and under either instructional condition. However, change of form of the test item markedly reduced item-by-item correlations between the two instructional conditions. It is tentatively proposed that retrieval is required in recognition, but that the effect of a form change is simply to make the retrieval process less consistent, not less efficient.

Selective Reminding and Free and Cued Selective Reminding in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer Disease.

PubMed

Lemos, Raquel; Afonso, Ana; Martins, Cristina; Waters, James H; Blanco, Filipe Sobral; Simões, Mário R; Santana, Isabel

2016-01-01

The Selective Reminding Test (SRT) and the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) are multitrial memory tests that use a common "selective reminding" paradigm that aims to facilitate learning by presenting only the missing words from the previous recall trial. While in the FCSRT semantic cues are provided to elicit recall, in the SRT, participants are merely reminded of the missing items by repeating them. These tests have been used to assess age-related memory changes and to predict dementia. The performance of healthy elders on these tests has been compared before, and results have shown that twice as many words were retrieved from long-term memory in the FCSRT compared with the SRT. In this study, we compared the tests' properties and their accuracy in discriminating amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI; n = 20) from Alzheimer disease (AD; n = 18). Patients with AD performed significantly worse than patients with aMCI on both tests. The percentage of items recalled during the learning trials was significantly higher for the FCSRT in both groups, and a higher number of items were later retrieved, showing the benefit of category cueing. Our key finding was that the FCSRT showed higher accuracy in discriminating patients with aMCI from those with AD.

Dissociating mere exposure and repetition priming as a function of word type.

PubMed

Butler, Laurie T; Berry, Dianne C; Helman, Shaun

2004-07-01

The mere exposure effect is defined as enhanced attitude toward a stimulus that has been repeatedly exposed. Repetition priming is defined as facilitated processing of a previously exposed stimulus. We conducted a direct comparison between the two phenomena to test the assumption that the mere exposure effect represents an example of repetition priming. In two experiments, having studied a set of words or nonwords, participants were given a repetition priming task (perceptual identification) or one of two mere exposure (affective liking or preference judgment) tasks. Repetition priming was obtained for both words and nonwords, but only nonwords produced a mere exposure effect. This demonstrates a key boundary for observing the mere exposure effect, one not readily accommodated by a perceptual representation systems (Tulving & Schacter, 1990) account, which assumes that both phenomena should show some sensitivity to nonwords and words.

Investigating the high school students' cognitive structures about the work concept

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tavukçuoǧlu, Erdem; Özcan, Özgür

2018-02-01

The purpose of this study is to determine the high school students' cognitive structures related to the concepts of work. The participants of the study were composed of the students enrolled in 11. and 12. class of an Anatolian high school in Turkey. The data were collected via word association test related to the key concept to determine the students' cognitive structures. The collected data were analyzed according to the content analysis method. In the data analysis process, we determined firstly the number of words, the number of answers and the semantic relations between the words written by students. The words having semantic connections were grouped under the same category. Thus, at the end of the study, high school students' cognitive structures and some alternative conceptions were determined related to concepts of work.

Implementation of Rivest Shamir Adleman Algorithm (RSA) and Vigenere Cipher In Web Based Information System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aryanti, Aryanti; Mekongga, Ikhthison

2018-02-01

Data security and confidentiality is one of the most important aspects of information systems at the moment. One attempt to secure data such as by using cryptography. In this study developed a data security system by implementing the cryptography algorithm Rivest, Shamir Adleman (RSA) and Vigenere Cipher. The research was done by combining Rivest, Shamir Adleman (RSA) and Vigenere Cipher cryptographic algorithms to document file either word, excel, and pdf. This application includes the process of encryption and decryption of data, which is created by using PHP software and my SQL. Data encryption is done on the transmit side through RSA cryptographic calculations using the public key, then proceed with Vigenere Cipher algorithm which also uses public key. As for the stage of the decryption side received by using the Vigenere Cipher algorithm still use public key and then the RSA cryptographic algorithm using a private key. Test results show that the system can encrypt files, decrypt files and transmit files. Tests performed on the process of encryption and decryption of files with different file sizes, file size affects the process of encryption and decryption. The larger the file size the longer the process of encryption and decryption.

Body in Mind: How Gestures Empower Foreign Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Macedonia, Manuela; Knosche, Thomas R.

2011-01-01

It has previously been demonstrated that enactment (i.e., performing representative gestures during encoding) enhances memory for concrete words, in particular action words. Here, we investigate the impact of enactment on abstract word learning in a foreign language. We further ask if learning novel words with gestures facilitates sentence…

An investigation into some implications of a Vygotskian perspective on the origins of mind: psychoanalysis and Vygotskian psychology, Part I.

PubMed

Wilson, A; Weinstein, L

1992-01-01

The Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky proposed an analysis of language, thought, and internalization that has direct relevance to the current concerns of psychoanalysts. Striking methodological and conceptual similarities and useful complementarities with psychoanalysis are discovered when one peers beneath the surface of Vygotskian psychology. Our adaptation of Vygostsky's views expands upon Freud's assigned role to language in the topographic model. We suggest that the analysand's speech offers several windows into the history of the individual, through prosody, tropes, word meaning, and word sense. We particularly emphasize Vygotsky's views on the genesis and utilization of word meanings. The acquisition of word meanings will contain key elements of the internal climate present when the word meaning was forged. Bearing this in mind, crucial theoretical questions follow, such as how psychoanalysis is to understand the unconscious fantasies, identifications, anxieties, and defenses associated with the psychodynamics of language acquisition and later language usage. We propose that the clinical situation is an ideal place to test these hypotheses.

A corpus and a concordancer of academic journal articles.

PubMed

Kwary, Deny A

2018-02-01

This data article presents a corpus (i.e. a selection of a big number of words in an electronic form) and a concordancer (i.e. a tool to show the word in its context of use) of academic journal articles. As the title suggests, the data were collected from research articles published in academic journals. The corpus contains 5,686,428 words selected from 895 journal articles published by Elsevier in 2011-2015. The corpus is classified into four subject areas: Health sciences, Life sciences, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences, following the classifications of Scopus, which is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. To ease the access and utilization of the corpus, a program to produce the key word in context (KWIC) and word frequency was created and placed on the website: corpus.kwary.net. The corpus is a valuable resource for researchers, teachers, and translators working on academic English.

Starting off on the right foot: strong right-footers respond faster with the right foot to positive words and with the left foot to negative words

PubMed Central

de la Vega, Irmgard; Graebe, Julia; Härtner, Leonie; Dudschig, Carolin; Kaup, Barbara

2015-01-01

Recent studies have provided evidence for an association between valence and left/right modulated by handedness, which is predicted by the body-specificity hypothesis (Casasanto, 2009) and also reflected in response times. We investigated whether such a response facilitation can also be observed with foot responses. Right-footed participants classified positive and negative words according to their valence by pressing a key with their left or right foot. A significant interaction between valence and foot only emerged in the by-items analysis. However, when dividing participants into two groups depending on the strength of their footedness, an interaction between valence and left/right was observed for strong right-footers, who responded faster with the right foot to positive words, and with the left foot to negative words. No interaction emerged for weak right-footers. The results strongly support the assumption that fluency lies at the core of the association between valence and left/right. PMID:25852609

Novel Blind Recognition Algorithm of Frame Synchronization Words Based on Soft-Decision in Digital Communication Systems.

PubMed

Qin, Jiangyi; Huang, Zhiping; Liu, Chunwu; Su, Shaojing; Zhou, Jing

2015-01-01

A novel blind recognition algorithm of frame synchronization words is proposed to recognize the frame synchronization words parameters in digital communication systems. In this paper, a blind recognition method of frame synchronization words based on the hard-decision is deduced in detail. And the standards of parameter recognition are given. Comparing with the blind recognition based on the hard-decision, utilizing the soft-decision can improve the accuracy of blind recognition. Therefore, combining with the characteristics of Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) signal, an improved blind recognition algorithm based on the soft-decision is proposed. Meanwhile, the improved algorithm can be extended to other signal modulation forms. Then, the complete blind recognition steps of the hard-decision algorithm and the soft-decision algorithm are given in detail. Finally, the simulation results show that both the hard-decision algorithm and the soft-decision algorithm can recognize the parameters of frame synchronization words blindly. What's more, the improved algorithm can enhance the accuracy of blind recognition obviously.

Negation handling in sentiment classification using rule-based adapted from Indonesian language syntactic for Indonesian text in Twitter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amalia, Rizkiana; Arif Bijaksana, Moch; Darmantoro, Dhinta

2018-03-01

The presence of the word negation is able to change the polarity of the text if it is not handled properly it will affect the performance of the sentiment classification. Negation words in Indonesian are ‘tidak’, ‘bukan’, ‘belum’ and ‘jangan’. Also, there is a conjunction word that able to reverse the actual values, as the word ‘tetapi’, or ‘tapi’. Unigram has shortcomings in dealing with the existence of negation because it treats negation word and the negated words as separate words. A general approach for negation handling in English text gives the tag ‘NEG_’ for following words after negation until the first punctuation. But this may gives the tag to un-negated, and this approach does not handle negation and conjunction in one sentences. The rule-based method to determine what words negated by adapting the rules of Indonesian language syntactic of negation to determine the scope of negation was proposed in this study. With adapting syntactic rules and tagging “NEG_” using SVM classifier with RBF kernel has better performance results than the other experiments. Considering the average F1-score value, the performance of this proposed method can be improved against baseline equal to 1.79% (baseline without negation handling) and 5% (baseline with existing negation handling) for a dataset that all tweets contain negation words. And also for the second dataset that has the various number of negation words in document tweet. It can be improved against baseline at 2.69% (without negation handling) and 3.17% (with existing negation handling).

The Processing and Mechanical Properties of High Temperature/High Performance Composites. Book 6, Section 4: Processing: Matrices and Composites. Part 2

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-10-15

discussed in the context of the above results. [Key words: sintering, densification, zirconia , powder fz irication, grain growth] Member, American...Ceram. Soc. 71 (4) 225-35 (1988). 3. M.A.C.G. van de Graaf, A.J. Burggraaf, ’Wet-Chemical Preparation of Zirconia Powders : Their Microstructure and...40h Zr0-1OY23 30- 1 Oh Zr2IY231WC 2 (A) 1.’DENSIFICATION OF ZIRCONIA POWDER l0 W 0.7-~tr~ TIME bRYST (B CONTAN CEli RSAETL10 w S0.45-- 0.4- 1060 110

Development and Application of Syndromic Surveillance for Severe Weather Events Following Hurricane Sandy.

PubMed

Tsai, Stella; Hamby, Teresa; Chu, Alvin; Gleason, Jessie A; Goodrow, Gabrielle M; Gu, Hui; Lifshitz, Edward; Fagliano, Jerald A

2016-06-01

Following Hurricane Superstorm Sandy, the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) developed indicators to enhance syndromic surveillance for extreme weather events in EpiCenter, an online system that collects and analyzes real-time chief complaint emergency department (ED) data and classifies each visit by indicator or syndrome. These severe weather indicators were finalized by using 2 steps: (1) key word inclusion by review of chief complaints from cases where diagnostic codes met selection criteria and (2) key word exclusion by evaluating cases with key words of interest that lacked selected diagnostic codes. Graphs compared 1-month, 3-month, and 1-year periods of 8 Hurricane Sandy-related severe weather event indicators against the same period in the following year. Spikes in overall ED visits were observed immediately after the hurricane for carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, the 3 disrupted outpatient medical care indicators, asthma, and methadone-related substance use. Zip code level scan statistics indicated clusters of CO poisoning and increased medicine refill needs during the 2 weeks after Hurricane Sandy. CO poisoning clusters were identified in areas with power outages of 4 days or longer. This endeavor gave the NJDOH a clearer picture of the effects of Hurricane Sandy and yielded valuable state preparation information to monitor the effects of future severe weather events. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:463-471).

Arabic handwritten: pre-processing and segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maliki, Makki; Jassim, Sabah; Al-Jawad, Naseer; Sellahewa, Harin

2012-06-01

This paper is concerned with pre-processing and segmentation tasks that influence the performance of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) systems and handwritten/printed text recognition. In Arabic, these tasks are adversely effected by the fact that many words are made up of sub-words, with many sub-words there associated one or more diacritics that are not connected to the sub-word's body; there could be multiple instances of sub-words overlap. To overcome these problems we investigate and develop segmentation techniques that first segment a document into sub-words, link the diacritics with their sub-words, and removes possible overlapping between words and sub-words. We shall also investigate two approaches for pre-processing tasks to estimate sub-words baseline, and to determine parameters that yield appropriate slope correction, slant removal. We shall investigate the use of linear regression on sub-words pixels to determine their central x and y coordinates, as well as their high density part. We also develop a new incremental rotation procedure to be performed on sub-words that determines the best rotation angle needed to realign baselines. We shall demonstrate the benefits of these proposals by conducting extensive experiments on publicly available databases and in-house created databases. These algorithms help improve character segmentation accuracy by transforming handwritten Arabic text into a form that could benefit from analysis of printed text.

Food Safety Is a Key Determinant of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Urban Beninese Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nago, Eunice S.; Verstraeten, Roosmarijn; Lachat, Carl K.; Dossa, Romain A.; Kolsteren, Patrick W.

2012-01-01

Objective: To identify the determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption in urban Beninese adolescents and elements to develop a school-based fruit and vegetable program. Design: Sixteen focus groups conducted with a key word guide. Setting and Participants: Two private and 2 public secondary schools in Cotonou, Benin. One hundred fifty-three…

Developing "Algebraic Thinking": Two Key Ways to Establish Some Early Algebraic Ideas in Primary Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ormond, Christine

2012-01-01

Primary teachers play a key role in their students' future mathematical success in the early secondary years. While the word "algebra" may make some primary teachers feel uncomfortable or worried, the basic arithmetic ideas underlying algebra are vitally important for older primary students as they are increasingly required to use "algebraic…

Event Recognition Based on Deep Learning in Chinese Texts

PubMed Central

Zhang, Yajun; Liu, Zongtian; Zhou, Wen

2016-01-01

Event recognition is the most fundamental and critical task in event-based natural language processing systems. Existing event recognition methods based on rules and shallow neural networks have certain limitations. For example, extracting features using methods based on rules is difficult; methods based on shallow neural networks converge too quickly to a local minimum, resulting in low recognition precision. To address these problems, we propose the Chinese emergency event recognition model based on deep learning (CEERM). Firstly, we use a word segmentation system to segment sentences. According to event elements labeled in the CEC 2.0 corpus, we classify words into five categories: trigger words, participants, objects, time and location. Each word is vectorized according to the following six feature layers: part of speech, dependency grammar, length, location, distance between trigger word and core word and trigger word frequency. We obtain deep semantic features of words by training a feature vector set using a deep belief network (DBN), then analyze those features in order to identify trigger words by means of a back propagation neural network. Extensive testing shows that the CEERM achieves excellent recognition performance, with a maximum F-measure value of 85.17%. Moreover, we propose the dynamic-supervised DBN, which adds supervised fine-tuning to a restricted Boltzmann machine layer by monitoring its training performance. Test analysis reveals that the new DBN improves recognition performance and effectively controls the training time. Although the F-measure increases to 88.11%, the training time increases by only 25.35%. PMID:27501231

Performance benefits and costs in forced choice perceptual identification in amnesia: Effects of prior exposure and word frequency.

PubMed

Keane, Margaret M; Martin, Elizabeth; Verfaellie, Mieke

2009-07-01

Accuracy in identifying a perceptually degraded word (e.g., stake) can be either enhanced by recent exposure to the same stimulus or reduced by recent exposure to a similar stimulus (e.g., stare). In the present study, we explored the mechanisms underlying these benefits and costs by examining the performance of amnesic and control groups in a forced choice perceptual identification (FCPI) task in which briefly flashed words (that were identical to studied words, similar to studied words, or new) had to be identified, and two response choices were provided that differed from each other by one letter. Control participants showed a performance benefit and cost in FCPI with both high- and low-frequency words. Amnesic participants showed a benefit (but no cost) with high-frequency words and a benefit and a cost with low-frequency words. The benefit/cost pattern with low-frequency words in amnesia was obtained even when the to-be-identified stimulus in the FCPI task was eliminated (Experiment 2), suggesting that this effect was driven by processes operating at the level of the response choices. Our findings suggest that implicit memory effects in FCPI reflect the operation of multiple mechanisms, the relative contributions of which may vary with the frequency of the test stimuli. The results also highlight the need for caution in interpreting results from normal participants in the FCPI task, since those findings may reflect a contribution of explicit memory processes.

Event Recognition Based on Deep Learning in Chinese Texts.

PubMed

Zhang, Yajun; Liu, Zongtian; Zhou, Wen

2016-01-01

Event recognition is the most fundamental and critical task in event-based natural language processing systems. Existing event recognition methods based on rules and shallow neural networks have certain limitations. For example, extracting features using methods based on rules is difficult; methods based on shallow neural networks converge too quickly to a local minimum, resulting in low recognition precision. To address these problems, we propose the Chinese emergency event recognition model based on deep learning (CEERM). Firstly, we use a word segmentation system to segment sentences. According to event elements labeled in the CEC 2.0 corpus, we classify words into five categories: trigger words, participants, objects, time and location. Each word is vectorized according to the following six feature layers: part of speech, dependency grammar, length, location, distance between trigger word and core word and trigger word frequency. We obtain deep semantic features of words by training a feature vector set using a deep belief network (DBN), then analyze those features in order to identify trigger words by means of a back propagation neural network. Extensive testing shows that the CEERM achieves excellent recognition performance, with a maximum F-measure value of 85.17%. Moreover, we propose the dynamic-supervised DBN, which adds supervised fine-tuning to a restricted Boltzmann machine layer by monitoring its training performance. Test analysis reveals that the new DBN improves recognition performance and effectively controls the training time. Although the F-measure increases to 88.11%, the training time increases by only 25.35%.

Precipitation forecast using artificial neural networks. An application to the Guadalupe Valley, Baja California, Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herrera-Oliva, C. S.

2013-05-01

In this work we design and implement a method for the determination of precipitation forecast through the application of an elementary neuronal network (perceptron) to the statistical analysis of the precipitation reported in catalogues. The method is limited mainly by the catalogue length (and, in a smaller degree, by its accuracy). The method performance is measured using grading functions that evaluate a tradeoff between positive and negative aspects of performance. The method is applied to the Guadalupe Valley, Baja California, Mexico. Using consecutive intervals of dt=0.1 year, employing the data of several climatological stations situated in and surrounding this important wine industries zone. We evaluated the performance of different models of ANN, whose variables of entrance are the heights of precipitation. The results obtained were satisfactory, except for exceptional values of rain. Key words: precipitation forecast, artificial neural networks, statistical analysis

Computerized training management system

DOEpatents

Rice, H.B.; McNair, R.C.; White, K.; Maugeri, T.

1998-08-04

A Computerized Training Management System (CTMS) is disclosed for providing a procedurally defined process that is employed to develop accreditable performance based training programs for job classifications that are sensitive to documented regulations and technical information. CTMS is a database that links information needed to maintain a five-phase approach to training-analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation independent of training program design. CTMS is designed using R-Base{trademark}, an-SQL compliant software platform. Information is logically entered and linked in CTMS. Each task is linked directly to a performance objective, which, in turn, is linked directly to a learning objective; then, each enabling objective is linked to its respective test items. In addition, tasks, performance objectives, enabling objectives, and test items are linked to their associated reference documents. CTMS keeps all information up to date since it automatically sorts, files and links all data; CTMS includes key word and reference document searches. 18 figs.

Computerized training management system

DOEpatents

Rice, Harold B.; McNair, Robert C.; White, Kenneth; Maugeri, Terry

1998-08-04

A Computerized Training Management System (CTMS) for providing a procedurally defined process that is employed to develop accreditable performance based training programs for job classifications that are sensitive to documented regulations and technical information. CTMS is a database that links information needed to maintain a five-phase approach to training-analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation independent of training program design. CTMS is designed using R-Base.RTM., an-SQL compliant software platform. Information is logically entered and linked in CTMS. Each task is linked directly to a performance objective, which, in turn, is linked directly to a learning objective; then, each enabling objective is linked to its respective test items. In addition, tasks, performance objectives, enabling objectives, and test items are linked to their associated reference documents. CTMS keeps all information up to date since it automatically sorts, files and links all data; CTMS includes key word and reference document searches.

High Performance COPVs for In-Space Storage of High Pressure Cryogenic Fuels

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schneider, Judy; Dyess, Mark; Hastings, Chad; Wang, Jun

2008-01-01

Polymeric composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) provide an attractive material system to support developing commercial launch business and alternate fuel ventures. However to be able to design with these materials, the mechanical behavior of the materials must be understood with regards to processing, performance, damage tolerance, and environment. For the storage of cryogenic propellants, it is important to evaluate the materials performance and impact damage resistance at cryogenic temperatures in order to minimize weight and to ensure safety and reliability. As part of this study, material tests of candidate fiber and resin systems were used as the basis for the selection of the material combinations for evaluation in a COPV at cryogenic conditions. This comprehensive approach has also been expanded to address issues with impact damage tolerance and material degradation due to environmental factors. KEY WORDS: Cryogenic testing, evaluation and applications for pressure vessels, COPVs, tanks, or storage vessels.

An argument for intolerance

PubMed Central

Catherwood, J.

2000-01-01

"Multiculturalism", "pluralism" and "tolerance" have become buzz words in applied ethics. While serious and well thought out work is going on in these areas, a misunderstanding of the importance of tolerance, and the difficulties raised by multicultural moral conflict seems common. In this paper I argue that intolerance of some cultural traditions is morally required, and suggest that the forging of a moral mono-culture is preferable to pluralism. Key Words: Pluralism • multicultural • tolerance • relativism PMID:11129841

Consequences of Stimulus Type on Higher-Order Processing in Single-Sided Deaf Cochlear Implant Users.

PubMed

Finke, Mareike; Sandmann, Pascale; Bönitz, Hanna; Kral, Andrej; Büchner, Andreas

2016-01-01

Single-sided deaf subjects with a cochlear implant (CI) provide the unique opportunity to compare central auditory processing of the electrical input (CI ear) and the acoustic input (normal-hearing, NH, ear) within the same individual. In these individuals, sensory processing differs between their two ears, while cognitive abilities are the same irrespectively of the sensory input. To better understand perceptual-cognitive factors modulating speech intelligibility with a CI, this electroencephalography study examined the central-auditory processing of words, the cognitive abilities, and the speech intelligibility in 10 postlingually single-sided deaf CI users. We found lower hit rates and prolonged response times for word classification during an oddball task for the CI ear when compared with the NH ear. Also, event-related potentials reflecting sensory (N1) and higher-order processing (N2/N4) were prolonged for word classification (targets versus nontargets) with the CI ear compared with the NH ear. Our results suggest that speech processing via the CI ear and the NH ear differs both at sensory (N1) and cognitive (N2/N4) processing stages, thereby affecting the behavioral performance for speech discrimination. These results provide objective evidence for cognition to be a key factor for speech perception under adverse listening conditions, such as the degraded speech signal provided from the CI. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Visual word ambiguity.

PubMed

van Gemert, Jan C; Veenman, Cor J; Smeulders, Arnold W M; Geusebroek, Jan-Mark

2010-07-01

This paper studies automatic image classification by modeling soft assignment in the popular codebook model. The codebook model describes an image as a bag of discrete visual words selected from a vocabulary, where the frequency distributions of visual words in an image allow classification. One inherent component of the codebook model is the assignment of discrete visual words to continuous image features. Despite the clear mismatch of this hard assignment with the nature of continuous features, the approach has been successfully applied for some years. In this paper, we investigate four types of soft assignment of visual words to image features. We demonstrate that explicitly modeling visual word assignment ambiguity improves classification performance compared to the hard assignment of the traditional codebook model. The traditional codebook model is compared against our method for five well-known data sets: 15 natural scenes, Caltech-101, Caltech-256, and Pascal VOC 2007/2008. We demonstrate that large codebook vocabulary sizes completely deteriorate the performance of the traditional model, whereas the proposed model performs consistently. Moreover, we show that our method profits in high-dimensional feature spaces and reaps higher benefits when increasing the number of image categories.

Tracking discourse complexity preceding Alzheimer's disease diagnosis: a case study comparing the press conferences of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush.

PubMed

Berisha, Visar; Wang, Shuai; LaCross, Amy; Liss, Julie

2015-01-01

Changes in some lexical features of language have been associated with the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease. Here we describe a method to extract key features from discourse transcripts, which we evaluated on non-scripted news conferences from President Ronald Reagan, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1994, and President George Herbert Walker Bush, who has no known diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Key word counts previously associated with cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease were extracted and regression analyses were conducted. President Reagan showed a significant reduction in the number of unique words over time and a significant increase in conversational fillers and non-specific nouns over time. There was no significant trend in these features for President Bush.

Using the false memory paradigm to test two key elements of alcohol expectancy theory.

PubMed

Reich, Richard R; Goldman, Mark S; Noll, Jane A

2004-05-01

Two key aspects of alcohol expectancy theory--(a) that memories about alcohol effects are stored as relatively cohesive templates of information and (b) that these templates are automatically activated in alcohol-related contexts--were tested using the Deese-Roediger- McDermott false memory paradigm. Alcohol expectancy adjectives were studied, and false memory for expectancy target words was tested in neutral and alcohol contexts. Results indicated that in the alcohol context heavier drinkers showed more false memory for alcohol expectancy words than they did in a neutral context. Differences were not found for lighter drinkers. These results were consistent with alcohol expectancy theory, which was then compared with various forms of association theory in explaining these results and larger issues in the addiction field. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

Oxford dictionary of Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isaacs, Alan

The dictionary is derived from the Concise Science Dictionary, first published by Oxford University Press in 1984 (third edition, 1996). It consists of all the entries relating to physics in that dictionary, together with some of those entries relating to astronomy that are required for an understanding of astrophysics and many entries that relate to physical chemistry. It also contains a selection of the words used in mathematics that are relevant to physics, as well as the key words in metal science, computing, and electronics. For this third edition a number of words from quantum field physics and statistical mechanics have been added. Cosmology and particle physics have been updated and a number of general entries have been expanded.

Disputed climate science in the media: do countries matter?

PubMed

Grundmann, Reiner; Scott, Mike

2014-02-01

This article presents findings from a large-scale newspaper analysis of climate change discourses in four developed countries, using corpus linguistics methodology. We map the discourse over time, showing peaks and troughs of attention and explaining their causes. Different connotations of common terms such as global warming and climate change in different countries are analysed. Cluster and key-word analysis show the relative salience of specific words and word combinations during crucial periods. We identify main claims makers and the relative visibility of advocates and sceptics. The main finding is that former are far more prominent in all countries. We also look at the coverage of 'climategate'. Finally, we make reference to existing theoretical frameworks.

Spelling across Tasks and Levels of Language in a Transparent Orthography

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

The paper reports the results of two studies on the spelling performance of 1st graders in a transparent writing system. The spelling performance of Italian children was assessed to determine the cross-task relationship between spelling to dictation and spontaneous spelling at the single word level (Study 1) and at the text level (Study 2), respectively. In study 1, 132 Italian children’s spelling performance was assessed in 1st grade through two standardized tasks, i.e., word dictation, and spontaneous word spelling. In study 2, spelling performance of 81 Italian children was assessed in 1st grade through two tasks, i.e., text dictation, and spontaneous text spelling. In Study 1, spelling words and pseudo-words to dictation was found to be more difficult than spontaneous spelling of words. This effect was verified for all children (including low achievers and spelling impaired). The moderate correlation found between spelling to dictation and spontaneous spelling indicated that the two tasks are supported by partially different spelling processes and confirmed suggestions for including both types of spelling assessments in the school. In Study 2, children's spelling performances were not dependent across the two tasks (i.e., spelling a text under dictation or spontaneously). The two tasks shared the level of difficulty but performance in one task was not predictive of performance in the second task. Strong individual differences between children were found at the text level as a function of task. Similar to Study 1, the moderate correlation between spelling text to dictation and spontaneous spelling confirmed the usefulness of adopting both spelling assessments at school. PMID:27658189

Spelling across Tasks and Levels of Language in a Transparent Orthography.

PubMed

Bigozzi, Lucia; Tarchi, Christian; Pinto, Giuliana

The paper reports the results of two studies on the spelling performance of 1st graders in a transparent writing system. The spelling performance of Italian children was assessed to determine the cross-task relationship between spelling to dictation and spontaneous spelling at the single word level (Study 1) and at the text level (Study 2), respectively. In study 1, 132 Italian children's spelling performance was assessed in 1st grade through two standardized tasks, i.e., word dictation, and spontaneous word spelling. In study 2, spelling performance of 81 Italian children was assessed in 1st grade through two tasks, i.e., text dictation, and spontaneous text spelling. In Study 1, spelling words and pseudo-words to dictation was found to be more difficult than spontaneous spelling of words. This effect was verified for all children (including low achievers and spelling impaired). The moderate correlation found between spelling to dictation and spontaneous spelling indicated that the two tasks are supported by partially different spelling processes and confirmed suggestions for including both types of spelling assessments in the school. In Study 2, children's spelling performances were not dependent across the two tasks (i.e., spelling a text under dictation or spontaneously). The two tasks shared the level of difficulty but performance in one task was not predictive of performance in the second task. Strong individual differences between children were found at the text level as a function of task. Similar to Study 1, the moderate correlation between spelling text to dictation and spontaneous spelling confirmed the usefulness of adopting both spelling assessments at school.

Phonological short-term store impairment after cerebellar lesion: a single case study.

PubMed

Chiricozzi, Francesca R; Clausi, Silvia; Molinari, Marco; Leggio, Maria G

2008-01-01

The cerebellum is a recent addition to the growing list of cerebral areas involved in the multifaceted structural system that sustains verbal working memory (vWM), but its contribution is still a matter of debate. Here, we present a patient with a selective deficit of vWM resulting from a bilateral cerebellar ischemic lesion. After this acute event, the patient had impaired immediate and delayed word-serial recall and auditory-verbal delayed recognition. The digit span, however, was completely preserved. To investigate the cerebellar contribution to vWM, four experiments addressing the function of different vWM phonological loop components were performed 18 months after the lesion, and results were compared with normative data or, when needed, with a small group of matched controls. In Experiment 1, digit span was assessed with different presentation and response modalities using lists of digits of varying lengths. In Experiment 2, the articulatory rehearsal system was analyzed by measurement of word length and articulatory suppression effects. Experiment 3 was devoted to analyzing the phonological short-term store (ph-STS) by the recency effect, the phonological similarity effect, short-term forgetting, and unattended speech. Data suggested a possible key role of the semantic component of the processed material, which was tested in Experiment 4, in which word and nonword-serial recall with or without interpolating activity were analyzed. The patient showed noticeably reduced scores in the tasks that primarily or exclusively engaged activity of the ph-STS, namely those of Experiment 3, and good performance in the tests that investigated the recirculation of verbal information. This pattern of results implicates the ph-STS as the cognitive locus of the patient's deficit. This report demonstrates a cerebellar role in encoding and/or strengthening the phonological traces in vWM.

Exploring auditory neglect: Anatomo-clinical correlations of auditory extinction.

PubMed

Tissieres, Isabel; Crottaz-Herbette, Sonia; Clarke, Stephanie

2018-05-23

The key symptoms of auditory neglect include left extinction on tasks of dichotic and/or diotic listening and rightward shift in locating sounds. The anatomical correlates of the latter are relatively well understood, but no systematic studies have examined auditory extinction. Here, we performed a systematic study of anatomo-clinical correlates of extinction by using dichotic and/or diotic listening tasks. In total, 20 patients with right hemispheric damage (RHD) and 19 with left hemispheric damage (LHD) performed dichotic and diotic listening tasks. Either task consists of the simultaneous presentation of word pairs; in the dichotic task, 1 word is presented to each ear, and in the diotic task, each word is lateralized by means of interaural time differences and presented to one side. RHD was associated with exclusively contralesional extinction in dichotic or diotic listening, whereas in selected cases, LHD led to contra- or ipsilesional extinction. Bilateral symmetrical extinction occurred in RHD or LHD, with dichotic or diotic listening. The anatomical correlates of these extinction profiles offer an insight into the organisation of the auditory and attentional systems. First, left extinction in dichotic versus diotic listening involves different parts of the right hemisphere, which explains the double dissociation between these 2 neglect symptoms. Second, contralesional extinction in the dichotic task relies on homologous regions in either hemisphere. Third, ipsilesional extinction in dichotic listening after LHD was associated with lesions of the intrahemispheric white matter, interrupting callosal fibres outside their midsagittal or periventricular trajectory. Fourth, bilateral symmetrical extinction was associated with large parieto-fronto-temporal LHD or smaller parieto-temporal RHD, which suggests that divided attention, supported by the right hemisphere, and auditory streaming, supported by the left, likely play a critical role. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Schema Intervention: Improving Word Problem Solving for English Language Learners with Mathematics Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Driver, Melissa K.; Powell, Sarah R.

2017-01-01

Word problems are prevalent on high-stakes assessments, and success on word problems has implications for grade promotion and graduation. Unfortunately, English Language Learners (ELLs) continue to perform significantly below their native English-speaking peers on mathematics assessments featuring word problems. Little is known about the…

Cross-Linguistic Activation in Bilingual Sentence Processing: The Role of Word Class Meaning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baten, Kristof; Hofman, Fabrice; Loeys, Tom

2011-01-01

This study investigates how categorial (word class) semantics influences cross-linguistic interactions when reading in L2. Previous homograph studies paid little attention to the possible influence of different word classes in the stimulus material on cross-linguistic activation. The present study examines the word recognition performance of…

The impact of iconic gestures on foreign language word learning and its neural substrate.

PubMed

Macedonia, Manuela; Müller, Karsten; Friederici, Angela D

2011-06-01

Vocabulary acquisition represents a major challenge in foreign language learning. Research has demonstrated that gestures accompanying speech have an impact on memory for verbal information in the speakers' mother tongue and, as recently shown, also in foreign language learning. However, the neural basis of this effect remains unclear. In a within-subjects design, we compared learning of novel words coupled with iconic and meaningless gestures. Iconic gestures helped learners to significantly better retain the verbal material over time. After the training, participants' brain activity was registered by means of fMRI while performing a word recognition task. Brain activations to words learned with iconic and with meaningless gestures were contrasted. We found activity in the premotor cortices for words encoded with iconic gestures. In contrast, words encoded with meaningless gestures elicited a network associated with cognitive control. These findings suggest that memory performance for newly learned words is not driven by the motor component as such, but by the motor image that matches an underlying representation of the word's semantics. Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Automatic activation of word phonology from print in deep dyslexia.

PubMed

Katz, R B; Lanzoni, S M

1992-11-01

The performance of deep dyslexics in oral reading and other tasks suggests that they are poor at activating the phonology of words and non-words from printed stimuli. As the tasks ordinarily used to test deep dyslexics require controlled processing, it is possible that the phonology of printed words can be better activated on an automatic basis. This study investigated this possibility by testing a deep dyslexic patient on a lexical decision task with pairs of stimuli presented simultaneously. In Experiment 1, which used content words as stimuli, the deep dyslexic, like normal subjects, showed faster reaction times on trials with rhyming, similarly spelled stimuli (e.g. bribe-tribe) than on control trials (consisting of non-rhyming, dissimilarly spelled words), but slower reaction times on trials with non-rhyming, similarly spelled stimuli (e.g. couch-touch). When the experiment was repeated using function words as stimuli, the patient no longer showed a phonological effect. Therefore, the phonological activation of printed content words by deep dyslexics may be better than would be expected on the basis of their oral reading performance.

How Linearity and Structural Complexity Interact and Affect the Recognition of Italian Derived Words.

PubMed

Bridgers, Franca Ferrari; Kacinik, Natalie

2017-02-01

The majority of words in most languages consist of derived poly-morphemic words but a cross-linguistic review of the literature (Amenta and Crepaldi in Front Psychol 3:232-243, 2012) shows a contradictory picture with respect to how such words are represented and processed. The current study examined the effects of linearity and structural complexity on the processing of Italian derived words. Participants performed a lexical decision task on three types of prefixed and suffixed words and nonwords differing in the complexity of their internal structure. The processing of these words was indeed found to vary according to the nature of the affixes, the order in which they appear, and the type of information the affix encodes. The results thus indicate that derived words are not a uniform class and the best account of these findings appears to be a constraint-based or probabilistic multi-route processing model (e.g., Kuperman et al. in Lang Cogn Process 23:1089-1132, 2008; J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 35:876-895, 2009; J Mem Lang 62:83-97, 2010).

A Short Report: Word-Level Phonological and Lexical Characteristics Interact to Influence Phoneme Awareness

PubMed Central

Hogan, Tiffany P.

2010-01-01

In this study, we examined the influence of word-level phonological and lexical characteristics on early phoneme awareness. Typically-developing children, ages 61–78 months, completed a phoneme-based, odd-one-out task that included consonant-vowel-consonant word sets (e.g., “chair-chain-ship”) that varied orthogonally by a phonological characteristic, sound-contrast similarity (similar vs. dissimilar), and a lexical characteristic, neighborhood density (dense vs. sparse). In a subsample of the participants – those with the highest vocabularies – results were in line with a predicted interactive effect of phonological and lexical characteristics on phoneme awareness performance: word sets contrasting similar sounds were less likely to yield correct responses in words from sparse neighborhoods than words from dense neighborhoods. Word sets contrasting dissimilar sounds were most likely to yield correct responses regardless of the words’ neighborhood density. Based on these findings, theories of early phoneme awareness development should consider both word-level (e.g., phonological and lexical characteristics) and child-level (e.g., vocabulary knowledge) influences on phoneme awareness performance. Attention to these word-level item influences is predicted to result in more sensitive and specific measures of reading risk. PMID:20574064

Reading vocabulary in children with and without hearing loss: the roles of task and word type.

PubMed

Coppens, Karien M; Tellings, Agnes; Verhoeven, Ludo; Schreuder, Robert

2013-04-01

To address the problem of low reading comprehension scores among children with hearing impairment, it is necessary to have a better understanding of their reading vocabulary. In this study, the authors investigated whether task and word type differentiate the reading vocabulary knowledge of children with and without severe hearing loss. Seventy-two children with hearing loss and 72 children with normal hearing performed a lexical and a use decision task. Both tasks contained the same 180 words divided over 7 clusters, each cluster containing words with a similar pattern of scores on 8 word properties (word class, frequency, morphological family size, length, age of acquisition, mode of acquisition, imageability, and familiarity). Whereas the children with normal hearing scored better on the 2 tasks than the children with hearing loss, the size of the difference varied depending on the type of task and word. Performance differences between the 2 groups increased as words and tasks became more complex. Despite delays, children with hearing loss showed a similar pattern of vocabulary acquisition as their peers with normal hearing. For the most precise assessment of reading vocabulary possible, a range of tasks and word types should be used.

Mark My Words: Tone of Voice Changes Affective Word Representations in Memory

PubMed Central

Schirmer, Annett

2010-01-01

The present study explored the effect of speaker prosody on the representation of words in memory. To this end, participants were presented with a series of words and asked to remember the words for a subsequent recognition test. During study, words were presented auditorily with an emotional or neutral prosody, whereas during test, words were presented visually. Recognition performance was comparable for words studied with emotional and neutral prosody. However, subsequent valence ratings indicated that study prosody changed the affective representation of words in memory. Compared to words with neutral prosody, words with sad prosody were later rated as more negative and words with happy prosody were later rated as more positive. Interestingly, the participants' ability to remember study prosody failed to predict this effect, suggesting that changes in word valence were implicit and associated with initial word processing rather than word retrieval. Taken together these results identify a mechanism by which speakers can have sustained effects on listener attitudes towards word referents. PMID:20169154

The effects of taboo-related distraction on driving performance.

PubMed

Chan, Michelle; Madan, Christopher R; Singhal, Anthony

2016-07-01

Roadside billboards containing negative and positive emotional content have been shown to influence driving performance, however, the impact of highly arousing taboo information is unknown. Taboo information more reliably evokes emotional arousal and can lead to greater attentional capture due to its inherent 'shock value.' The objective of the present study was to examine driver distraction associated with four types of information presented on roadside billboards: highly arousing taboo words, moderately arousing positive and negative words, and non-arousing neutral words. Participants viewed blocks of taboo, positive, negative and neutral words presented on roadside billboards while operating a driving simulator. They also responded to target (household-related) words by pressing a button on the steering wheel. At the end of the session, a surprise recall task was completed for all the words they saw while driving. Results showed that taboo words captured the most attention as revealed by better memory recall compared to all the other word types. Interestingly, taboo words were associated with better lane control compared to the other word types. We suggest that taboo-related arousal can enhance attentional focus during a complex task like simulated driving. That is, in a highly arousing situation, attention is selectively narrowed to the road ahead, resulting in better lane control. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Harmony Search Algorithm for Word Sense Disambiguation.

PubMed

Abed, Saad Adnan; Tiun, Sabrina; Omar, Nazlia

2015-01-01

Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) is the task of determining which sense of an ambiguous word (word with multiple meanings) is chosen in a particular use of that word, by considering its context. A sentence is considered ambiguous if it contains ambiguous word(s). Practically, any sentence that has been classified as ambiguous usually has multiple interpretations, but just one of them presents the correct interpretation. We propose an unsupervised method that exploits knowledge based approaches for word sense disambiguation using Harmony Search Algorithm (HSA) based on a Stanford dependencies generator (HSDG). The role of the dependency generator is to parse sentences to obtain their dependency relations. Whereas, the goal of using the HSA is to maximize the overall semantic similarity of the set of parsed words. HSA invokes a combination of semantic similarity and relatedness measurements, i.e., Jiang and Conrath (jcn) and an adapted Lesk algorithm, to perform the HSA fitness function. Our proposed method was experimented on benchmark datasets, which yielded results comparable to the state-of-the-art WSD methods. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the dependency generator, we perform the same methodology without the parser, but with a window of words. The empirical results demonstrate that the proposed method is able to produce effective solutions for most instances of the datasets used.

Harmony Search Algorithm for Word Sense Disambiguation

PubMed Central

Abed, Saad Adnan; Tiun, Sabrina; Omar, Nazlia

2015-01-01

Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) is the task of determining which sense of an ambiguous word (word with multiple meanings) is chosen in a particular use of that word, by considering its context. A sentence is considered ambiguous if it contains ambiguous word(s). Practically, any sentence that has been classified as ambiguous usually has multiple interpretations, but just one of them presents the correct interpretation. We propose an unsupervised method that exploits knowledge based approaches for word sense disambiguation using Harmony Search Algorithm (HSA) based on a Stanford dependencies generator (HSDG). The role of the dependency generator is to parse sentences to obtain their dependency relations. Whereas, the goal of using the HSA is to maximize the overall semantic similarity of the set of parsed words. HSA invokes a combination of semantic similarity and relatedness measurements, i.e., Jiang and Conrath (jcn) and an adapted Lesk algorithm, to perform the HSA fitness function. Our proposed method was experimented on benchmark datasets, which yielded results comparable to the state-of-the-art WSD methods. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the dependency generator, we perform the same methodology without the parser, but with a window of words. The empirical results demonstrate that the proposed method is able to produce effective solutions for most instances of the datasets used. PMID:26422368

Number word use in toddlerhood is associated with number recall performance at seven years of age.

PubMed

Libertus, Melissa E; Marschik, Peter B; Einspieler, Christa

2014-01-01

Previous studies have shown that verbal working memory and vocabulary acquisition are linked in early childhood. However, it is unclear whether acquisition of a narrow range of words during toddlerhood may be particularly related to recall of the same words later in life. Here we asked whether vocabulary acquisition of number words, location and quantifier terms over the first three years of life are associated with verbal and visuospatial working memory at seven years. Our results demonstrate that children who produced more number words between 20-26 months and started to produce the number words 1-10 earlier showed greater number recall at 7 years of age. This link was specific to numbers and neither extended to quantifier and location terms nor verbal and visuospatial working memory performance with other stimuli. These findings suggest a category-specific link between the mental lexicon of number words and working memory for numbers at an early age.

Developmental differences in the impact of contextual factors on susceptibility to retroactive interference.

PubMed

Levy-Gigi, Einat; Vakil, Eli

2010-01-01

The influence of contextual similarity on children's recognition memory performance was examined using a retroactive interference paradigm. In the study, 9- and 12-year-olds were randomly assigned to one of two contextual conditions. In both conditions, target and interfering information were presented in distinctive contexts by using different modalities (pictures and words, respectively). However, in one condition the test was presented in the same context as the target information (picture-word-picture [PWP] condition), whereas in the other condition the test was presented in the same context as the interfering information (picture-word-word [PWW] condition). Performance in these conditions was compared with performance in a noninterference control condition (picture-word [P-W]). As predicted, overall recognition performance in the PWP condition was significantly better than in the PWW condition. However, whereas in the PWP condition there was no age difference in performance, in the PWW condition the 12-year-old group produced significantly more hits and fewer false alarms than the 9-year-old group. The theoretical implications of the results are discussed in reference to the effortful engagement of developmentally dependent executive control processes.

Evaluation of a wireless audio streaming accessory to improve mobile telephone performance of cochlear implant users.

PubMed

Wolfe, Jace; Morais Duke, Mila; Schafer, Erin; Cire, George; Menapace, Christine; O'Neill, Lori

2016-01-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential improvement in word recognition in quiet and in noise obtained with use of a Bluetooth-compatible wireless hearing assistance technology (HAT) relative to the acoustic mobile telephone condition (e.g. the mobile telephone receiver held to the microphone of the sound processor). A two-way repeated measures design was used to evaluate differences in telephone word recognition obtained in quiet and in competing noise in the acoustic mobile telephone condition compared to performance obtained with use of the CI sound processor and a telephone HAT. Sixteen adult users of Nucleus cochlear implants and the Nucleus 6 sound processor were included in this study. Word recognition over the mobile telephone in quiet and in noise was significantly better with use of the wireless HAT compared to performance in the acoustic mobile telephone condition. Word recognition over the mobile telephone was better in quiet when compared to performance in noise. The results of this study indicate that use of a wireless HAT improves word recognition over the mobile telephone in quiet and in noise relative to performance in the acoustic mobile telephone condition for a group of adult cochlear implant recipients.

Cognitive control over memory - individual differences in memory performance for emotional and neutral material.

PubMed

Wierzba, M; Riegel, M; Wypych, M; Jednoróg, K; Grabowska, A; Marchewka, A

2018-02-28

It is widely accepted that people differ in memory performance. The ability to control one's memory depends on multiple factors, including the emotional properties of the memorized material. While it was widely demonstrated that emotion can facilitate memory, it is unclear how emotion modifies our ability to suppress memory. One of the reasons for the lack of consensus among researchers is that individual differences in memory performance were largely neglected in previous studies. We used the directed forgetting paradigm in an fMRI study, in which subjects viewed neutral and emotional words, which they were instructed to remember or to forget. Subsequently, subjects' memory of these words was tested. Finally, they assessed the words on scales of valence, arousal, sadness and fear. We found that memory performance depended on instruction as reflected in the engagement of the lateral prefrontal cortex (lateral PFC), irrespective of emotional properties of words. While the lateral PFC engagement did not differ between neutral and emotional conditions, it correlated with behavioural performance when emotional - as opposed to neutral - words were presented. A deeper understanding of the underlying brain mechanisms is likely to require a study of individual differences in cognitive abilities to suppress memory.

Image Location Estimation by Salient Region Matching.

PubMed

Qian, Xueming; Zhao, Yisi; Han, Junwei

2015-11-01

Nowadays, locations of images have been widely used in many application scenarios for large geo-tagged image corpora. As to images which are not geographically tagged, we estimate their locations with the help of the large geo-tagged image set by content-based image retrieval. In this paper, we exploit spatial information of useful visual words to improve image location estimation (or content-based image retrieval performances). We proposed to generate visual word groups by mean-shift clustering. To improve the retrieval performance, spatial constraint is utilized to code the relative position of visual words. We proposed to generate a position descriptor for each visual word and build fast indexing structure for visual word groups. Experiments show the effectiveness of our proposed approach.

Word-to-picture recognition is a function of motor components mappings at the stage of retrieval.

PubMed

Brouillet, Denis; Brouillet, Thibaut; Milhau, Audrey; Heurley, Loïc; Vagnot, Caroline; Brunel, Lionel

2016-10-01

Embodied approaches of cognition argue that retrieval involves the re-enactment of both sensory and motor components of the desired remembering. In this study, we investigated the effect of motor action performed to produce the response in a recognition task when this action is compatible with the affordance of the objects that have to be recognised. In our experiment, participants were first asked to learn a list of words referring to graspable objects, and then told to make recognition judgements on pictures. The pictures represented objects where the graspable part was either pointing to the same or to the opposite side of the "Yes" response key. Results show a robust effect of compatibility between objects affordance and response hand. Moreover, this compatibility improves participants' ability of discrimination, suggesting that motor components are relevant cue for memory judgement at the stage of retrieval in a recognition task. More broadly, our data highlight that memory judgements are a function of motor components mappings at the stage of retrieval. © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

Comparative analysis between scientific and the media communication following facial transplantation.

PubMed

Belanger, M; Harris, P G; Nikolis, A; Danino, A M

2009-03-01

Our aim was to analyze the communications about three outstanding medical reports. Was there any difference in the reports of the three allografts? Was there a correlation between the media and the scientific world? The Internet sites of three major newspapers were used for the media database. Those results were compared with PubMed between 2005 and 2007 using these key words: "facial graft," "facial allograft," "composite tissue allograft," and names of surgeons of the graft. We did a comparative analysis using a word processor and a quality analysis software. We analyzed 51 articles from the media and six from the PubMed database. In PubMed, 100% of the articles were on the first graft and respected the privacy of the patient compared to 67% of the media who unveiled the identity. The communication following a medical premiere depends on the team, which performes the act. We observed a major difference between the three cases. Ethical considerations are different for the media and for scientists. The communication management of a medical premiere takes preparation and evaluation.

CDP++.Italian: Modelling Sublexical and Supralexical Inconsistency in a Shallow Orthography

PubMed Central

Perry, Conrad; Ziegler, Johannes C.; Zorzi, Marco

2014-01-01

Most models of reading aloud have been constructed to explain data in relatively complex orthographies like English and French. Here, we created an Italian version of the Connectionist Dual Process Model of Reading Aloud (CDP++) to examine the extent to which the model could predict data in a language which has relatively simple orthography-phonology relationships but is relatively complex at a suprasegmental (word stress) level. We show that the model exhibits good quantitative performance and accounts for key phenomena observed in naming studies, including some apparently contradictory findings. These effects include stress regularity and stress consistency, both of which have been especially important in studies of word recognition and reading aloud in Italian. Overall, the results of the model compare favourably to an alternative connectionist model that can learn non-linear spelling-to-sound mappings. This suggests that CDP++ is currently the leading computational model of reading aloud in Italian, and that its simple linear learning mechanism adequately captures the statistical regularities of the spelling-to-sound mapping both at the segmental and supra-segmental levels. PMID:24740261

Voice recognition products-an occupational risk for users with ULDs?

PubMed

Williams, N R

2003-10-01

Voice recognition systems (VRS) allow speech to be converted both directly into text-which appears on the screen of a computer-and to direct equipment to perform specific functions. Suggested applications are many and varied, including increasing efficiency in the reporting of radiographs, allowing directed surgery and enabling individuals with upper limb disorders (ULDs) who cannot use other input devices, such as keyboards and mice, to carry out word processing and other activities. Aim This paper describes four cases of vocal dysfunction related to the use of such software, which have been identified from the database of the Voice and Speech Laboratory of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear infirmary (MEEI). The database was searched using key words 'voice recognition' and four cases were identified from a total of 4800. In all cases, the VRS was supplied to assist individuals with ULDs who could not use conventional input devices. Case reports illustrate time of onset and symptoms experienced. The cases illustrate the need for risk assessment and consideration of the ergonomic aspects of voice use prior to such adaptations being used, particularly in those who already experience work-related ULDs.

Rehabilitation with implant-supported overdentures in total edentulous patients: A review

PubMed Central

Segura-Andrés, Gustavo; Faus-López, Joan; Agustín-Panadero, Rubén

2013-01-01

Objectives: The main aim of this review article is to discuss implant-supported overdentures (ISOs) as treatment in edentulous patients. Besides, we will try to discuss among the different treatment options in such patients and to analyze their validity when ISOs are compared with other clinical modalities. At the same time, we will try to suggest clinical guidelines supported by current clinical studies. Material and methods: We performed a Medline search and review of pertinent articles on the mentioned subject from 1986 to 2011. As a searching strategy, we used the following words: implant-supported overdentures, attachment systems, Locator attachment, cantilever, fixed prosthesis. Results and conclusions: Implant-supported overdentures constitute an accurate and predictable treatment option and achieve a higher patients’ satisfaction. This type of treatment constitutes a cheaper treatment than fixed prostheses and in some patients, with loss of lip support or with an interoclusal space larger than 15 mm, the choice of implant-supported overdentures seems to prevent future aesthetic or phonetic problems. Key words:Overdentures, implant occlusion, implant rehabilitation, total edentulous rehabilitation, fixed prosthesis. PMID:24455093

Reading with sounds: sensory substitution selectively activates the visual word form area in the blind.

PubMed

Striem-Amit, Ella; Cohen, Laurent; Dehaene, Stanislas; Amedi, Amir

2012-11-08

Using a visual-to-auditory sensory-substitution algorithm, congenitally fully blind adults were taught to read and recognize complex images using "soundscapes"--sounds topographically representing images. fMRI was used to examine key questions regarding the visual word form area (VWFA): its selectivity for letters over other visual categories without visual experience, its feature tolerance for reading in a novel sensory modality, and its plasticity for scripts learned in adulthood. The blind activated the VWFA specifically and selectively during the processing of letter soundscapes relative to both textures and visually complex object categories and relative to mental imagery and semantic-content controls. Further, VWFA recruitment for reading soundscapes emerged after 2 hr of training in a blind adult on a novel script. Therefore, the VWFA shows category selectivity regardless of input sensory modality, visual experience, and long-term familiarity or expertise with the script. The VWFA may perform a flexible task-specific rather than sensory-specific computation, possibly linking letter shapes to phonology. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Statistical word learning in children with autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment.

PubMed

Haebig, Eileen; Saffran, Jenny R; Ellis Weismer, Susan

2017-11-01

Word learning is an important component of language development that influences child outcomes across multiple domains. Despite the importance of word knowledge, word-learning mechanisms are poorly understood in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined underlying mechanisms of word learning, specifically, statistical learning and fast-mapping, in school-aged children with typical and atypical development. Statistical learning was assessed through a word segmentation task and fast-mapping was examined in an object-label association task. We also examined children's ability to map meaning onto newly segmented words in a third task that combined exposure to an artificial language and a fast-mapping task. Children with SLI had poorer performance on the word segmentation and fast-mapping tasks relative to the typically developing and ASD groups, who did not differ from one another. However, when children with SLI were exposed to an artificial language with phonemes used in the subsequent fast-mapping task, they successfully learned more words than in the isolated fast-mapping task. There was some evidence that word segmentation abilities are associated with word learning in school-aged children with typical development and ASD, but not SLI. Follow-up analyses also examined performance in children with ASD who did and did not have a language impairment. Children with ASD with language impairment evidenced intact statistical learning abilities, but subtle weaknesses in fast-mapping abilities. As the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis (PDH) predicts, children with SLI have impairments in statistical learning. However, children with SLI also have impairments in fast-mapping. Nonetheless, they are able to take advantage of additional phonological exposure to boost subsequent word-learning performance. In contrast to the PDH, children with ASD appear to have intact statistical learning, regardless of language status; however, fast-mapping abilities differ according to broader language skills. © 2017 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Grounding statistical learning in context: The effects of learning and retrieval contexts on cross-situational word learning.

PubMed

Chen, Chi-Hsin; Yu, Chen

2017-06-01

Natural language environments usually provide structured contexts for learning. This study examined the effects of semantically themed contexts-in both learning and retrieval phases-on statistical word learning. Results from 2 experiments consistently showed that participants had higher performance in semantically themed learning contexts. In contrast, themed retrieval contexts did not affect performance. Our work suggests that word learners are sensitive to statistical regularities not just at the level of individual word-object co-occurrences but also at another level containing a whole network of associations among objects and their properties.

Some considerations in evaluating spoken word recognition by normal-hearing, noise-masked normal-hearing, and cochlear implant listeners. I: The effects of response format.

PubMed

Sommers, M S; Kirk, K I; Pisoni, D B

1997-04-01

The purpose of the present studies was to assess the validity of using closed-set response formats to measure two cognitive processes essential for recognizing spoken words---perceptual normalization (the ability to accommodate acoustic-phonetic variability) and lexical discrimination (the ability to isolate words in the mental lexicon). In addition, the experiments were designed to examine the effects of response format on evaluation of these two abilities in normal-hearing (NH), noise-masked normal-hearing (NMNH), and cochlear implant (CI) subject populations. The speech recognition performance of NH, NMNH, and CI listeners was measured using both open- and closed-set response formats under a number of experimental conditions. To assess talker normalization abilities, identification scores for words produced by a single talker were compared with recognition performance for items produced by multiple talkers. To examine lexical discrimination, performance for words that are phonetically similar to many other words (hard words) was compared with scores for items with few phonetically similar competitors (easy words). Open-set word identification for all subjects was significantly poorer when stimuli were produced in lists with multiple talkers compared with conditions in which all of the words were spoken by a single talker. Open-set word recognition also was better for lexically easy compared with lexically hard words. Closed-set tests, in contrast, failed to reveal the effects of either talker variability or lexical difficulty even when the response alternatives provided were systematically selected to maximize confusability with target items. These findings suggest that, although closed-set tests may provide important information for clinical assessment of speech perception, they may not adequately evaluate a number of cognitive processes that are necessary for recognizing spoken words. The parallel results obtained across all subject groups indicate that NH, NMNH, and CI listeners engage similar perceptual operations to identify spoken words. Implications of these findings for the design of new test batteries that can provide comprehensive evaluations of the individual capacities needed for processing spoken language are discussed.

Sentence Context and Word-Picture Cued-Recall Paired-Associate Learning Procedure Boosts Recall in Normal and Mild Alzheimer's Disease Patients.

PubMed

Iodice, Rosario; Meilán, Juan José García; Ramos, Juan Carro; Small, Jeff A

2018-01-01

The aim of this study was to employ the word-picture paradigm to examine the effectiveness of combined pictorial illustrations and sentences as strong contextual cues. The experiment details the performance of word recall in healthy older adults (HOA) and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). The researchers enhanced the words' recall with word-picture condition and when the pair was associated with a sentence contextualizing the two items. The sample was composed of 18 HOA and 18 people with mild AD. Participants memorized 15 pairs of words under word-word and word-picture conditions, with and without a sentence context. In the paired-associate test, the first item of the pair was read aloud by participants and used to elicit retrieval of the associated item. The findings suggest that both HOA and mild-AD pictures improved item recall compared to word condition such as sentences which further enabled item recall. Additionally, the HOA group performs better than the mild-AD group in all conditions. Word-picture and sentence context strengthen the encoding in the explicit memory task, both in HOA and mild AD. These results open a potential window to improve the memory for verbalized instructions and restore sequential abilities in everyday life, such as brushing one's teeth, fastening one's pants, or drying one's hands.

Sentence Context and Word-Picture Cued-Recall Paired-Associate Learning Procedure Boosts Recall in Normal and Mild Alzheimer's Disease Patients

PubMed Central

Meilán, Juan José García; Ramos, Juan Carro; Small, Jeff A.

2018-01-01

Introduction The aim of this study was to employ the word-picture paradigm to examine the effectiveness of combined pictorial illustrations and sentences as strong contextual cues. The experiment details the performance of word recall in healthy older adults (HOA) and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). The researchers enhanced the words' recall with word-picture condition and when the pair was associated with a sentence contextualizing the two items. Method The sample was composed of 18 HOA and 18 people with mild AD. Participants memorized 15 pairs of words under word-word and word-picture conditions, with and without a sentence context. In the paired-associate test, the first item of the pair was read aloud by participants and used to elicit retrieval of the associated item. Results The findings suggest that both HOA and mild-AD pictures improved item recall compared to word condition such as sentences which further enabled item recall. Additionally, the HOA group performs better than the mild-AD group in all conditions. Conclusions Word-picture and sentence context strengthen the encoding in the explicit memory task, both in HOA and mild AD. These results open a potential window to improve the memory for verbalized instructions and restore sequential abilities in everyday life, such as brushing one's teeth, fastening one's pants, or drying one's hands. PMID:29849813

[Effect of divided attention on explicit and implicit aspects of recall].

PubMed

Wippich, W; Schmitt, R; Mecklenbräuker, S

1989-01-01

If subjects have to form word images before spelling a word from the image, results of a repetition of the spelling test reveal a reliable priming effect: Old words can be spelled faster than comparable control words, reflecting a form of implicit memory. We investigated whether this kind of repetition priming remains stable under conditions of divided attention in the study phase. The subjects had to spell meaningful words, meaningless non-words, and non-words that were meaningful with a backward spelling direction (troper, for example). In the testing stage, recognition judgments as a form of explicit memory were required, too. Divided attention in the study phase had a negative effect on explicit memory, as revealed by performance on the recognition task, but had little effect on implicit memory, as revealed by performance on the repetition of the spelling test. A further dissociation between implicit and explicit memory showed up as meaningful words were recognized much better than non-words, whereas implicit memory was uninfluenced by the meaningfulness variable. The disadvantage of backward spellings was not reduced with non-words (like troper) spelled backwards. Finally, we analyzed the relations between spelling times and recognition judgments and found a pattern of dependency for non-words only. Generally, the results are discussed within processing-oriented approaches to implicit memory with a special emphasis on controversial findings concerning the role of attention in different expressions of memory.

Characteristics of Students at Risk for Mathematics Difficulties Predicting Arithmetic Word Problem Solving Performance: The Role of Attention, Behavior, and Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jitendra, Asha K.; Corroy, Kelly Cozine; Dupuis, Danielle N.

2013-01-01

The purposes of this study were (a) to evaluate differences in arithmetic word problem solving between high and low at-risk students for mathematics difficulties (MD) and (b) to assess the influence of attention, behavior, reading, and socio-economic status (SES) in predicting the word problem solving performance of third-grade students with MD.…

The effect of background noise on the word activation process in nonnative spoken-word recognition.

PubMed

Scharenborg, Odette; Coumans, Juul M J; van Hout, Roeland

2018-02-01

This article investigates 2 questions: (1) does the presence of background noise lead to a differential increase in the number of simultaneously activated candidate words in native and nonnative listening? And (2) do individual differences in listeners' cognitive and linguistic abilities explain the differential effect of background noise on (non-)native speech recognition? English and Dutch students participated in an English word recognition experiment, in which either a word's onset or offset was masked by noise. The native listeners outperformed the nonnative listeners in all listening conditions. Importantly, however, the effect of noise on the multiple activation process was found to be remarkably similar in native and nonnative listening. The presence of noise increased the set of candidate words considered for recognition in both native and nonnative listening. The results indicate that the observed performance differences between the English and Dutch listeners should not be primarily attributed to a differential effect of noise, but rather to the difference between native and nonnative listening. Additional analyses showed that word-initial information was found to be more important than word-final information during spoken-word recognition. When word-initial information was no longer reliably available word recognition accuracy dropped and word frequency information could no longer be used suggesting that word frequency information is strongly tied to the onset of words and the earliest moments of lexical access. Proficiency and inhibition ability were found to influence nonnative spoken-word recognition in noise, with a higher proficiency in the nonnative language and worse inhibition ability leading to improved recognition performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

[Generation Y : recruitment, retention and development].

PubMed

Schmidt, C E; Möller, J; Schmidt, K; Gerbershagen, M U; Wappler, F; Limmroth, V; Padosch, S A; Bauer, M

2011-06-01

There is a significant shortage of highly qualified personnel in medicine, especially skilled doctors and nurses. This shortage of qualified labor has led to competition between hospitals. Analyzing the circumstances of the competition, nurses and doctors of the so-called generation Y are of importance. Recruitment and retention of these staff members will become a critical success factor for hospitals in the future. An internet search was conducted using the key words "generation Y and medicine, demography, personnel and hospitals". A search in Medline/pubmed for scientific studies on the topics of labor shortage was performed using the key words "personnel, shortage doctors, generation X, baby boomer, personnel and demographic changes, staff". Finally, sources from public institutions and academic medical societies were analyzed. The data were sorted by main categories and relevance for hospitals. Statistical analysis was done using descriptive measures. The analysis confirmed the heterogeneous and complex flood of information on the topic demography and generation. A comparison of the generations showed that they can be separated into baby boomers (born 1946-1964 live to work), generation X (born 1965-1980 work to live) and generation Y (born 1981 and after, live while working). Members of generation Y "live while working" are oriented to competence and less with hierarchies. They exchange information using modern communication methods and within networks. Internet and computers are part of their daily routine. Employees of generation Y challenge leadership in hospitals by increasing the demands. However, generation Y can significantly increase professionalization and competitiveness for hospitals.

Hair testing of GHB: an everlasting issue in forensic toxicology.

PubMed

Busardò, Francesco Paolo; Pichini, Simona; Zaami, Simona; Pacifici, Roberta; Kintz, Pascal

2018-01-26

In this paper, the authors present a critical review of different studies regarding hair testing of endogenous γ-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), concentrations in chronic users, and values measured after a single GHB exposure in drug facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) cases together with the role of a recently identified GHB metabolite, GHB-glucuronide. The following databases (up to March 2017) PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science were used, searching the following key words: γ-hydroxybutyrate, GHB, GHB glucuronide, hair. The main key words "GHB" and "γ-hydroxybutyrate" were searched singularly and then associated individually to each of the other keywords. Of the 2304 sources found, only 20 were considered appropriate for the purpose of this paper. Summing up all the studies investigating endogenous GHB concentration in hair, a very broad concentration range from 0 to 12 ng/mg was found. In order to detect a single GHB dose in hair it is necessary to commonly wait 1 month for collecting hair and a segmental analysis of 3 or 5 mm fragments and the calculation of a ratio between the targeted segment and the others represent a reliable method to detect a single GHB intake considering that the ratios presently proposed vary from 3 and 10. The only two studies so far performed, investigating GHB-Glucuronide in hair, show that the latter does not seem to provide any diagnostic information regarding GHB exposure. A practical operative protocol is proposed to be applied in all suspected cases of GHB-facilitated sexual assault (GHB-FSA).

Spoken words can make the invisible visible-Testing the involvement of low-level visual representations in spoken word processing.

PubMed

Ostarek, Markus; Huettig, Falk

2017-03-01

The notion that processing spoken (object) words involves activation of category-specific representations in visual cortex is a key prediction of modality-specific theories of representation that contrasts with theories assuming dedicated conceptual representational systems abstracted away from sensorimotor systems. In the present study, we investigated whether participants can detect otherwise invisible pictures of objects when they are presented with the corresponding spoken word shortly before the picture appears. Our results showed facilitated detection for congruent ("bottle" → picture of a bottle) versus incongruent ("bottle" → picture of a banana) trials. A second experiment investigated the time-course of the effect by manipulating the timing of picture presentation relative to word onset and revealed that it arises as soon as 200-400 ms after word onset and decays at 600 ms after word onset. Together, these data strongly suggest that spoken words can rapidly activate low-level category-specific visual representations that affect the mere detection of a stimulus, that is, what we see. More generally, our findings fit best with the notion that spoken words activate modality-specific visual representations that are low level enough to provide information related to a given token and at the same time abstract enough to be relevant not only for previously seen tokens but also for generalizing to novel exemplars one has never seen before. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Word pair classification during imagined speech using direct brain recordings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, Stephanie; Brunner, Peter; Iturrate, Iñaki; Millán, José Del R.; Schalk, Gerwin; Knight, Robert T.; Pasley, Brian N.

2016-05-01

People that cannot communicate due to neurological disorders would benefit from an internal speech decoder. Here, we showed the ability to classify individual words during imagined speech from electrocorticographic signals. In a word imagery task, we used high gamma (70-150 Hz) time features with a support vector machine model to classify individual words from a pair of words. To account for temporal irregularities during speech production, we introduced a non-linear time alignment into the SVM kernel. Classification accuracy reached 88% in a two-class classification framework (50% chance level), and average classification accuracy across fifteen word-pairs was significant across five subjects (mean = 58% p < 0.05). We also compared classification accuracy between imagined speech, overt speech and listening. As predicted, higher classification accuracy was obtained in the listening and overt speech conditions (mean = 89% and 86%, respectively; p < 0.0001), where speech stimuli were directly presented. The results provide evidence for a neural representation for imagined words in the temporal lobe, frontal lobe and sensorimotor cortex, consistent with previous findings in speech perception and production. These data represent a proof of concept study for basic decoding of speech imagery, and delineate a number of key challenges to usage of speech imagery neural representations for clinical applications.

Word pair classification during imagined speech using direct brain recordings

PubMed Central

Martin, Stephanie; Brunner, Peter; Iturrate, Iñaki; Millán, José del R.; Schalk, Gerwin; Knight, Robert T.; Pasley, Brian N.

2016-01-01

People that cannot communicate due to neurological disorders would benefit from an internal speech decoder. Here, we showed the ability to classify individual words during imagined speech from electrocorticographic signals. In a word imagery task, we used high gamma (70–150 Hz) time features with a support vector machine model to classify individual words from a pair of words. To account for temporal irregularities during speech production, we introduced a non-linear time alignment into the SVM kernel. Classification accuracy reached 88% in a two-class classification framework (50% chance level), and average classification accuracy across fifteen word-pairs was significant across five subjects (mean = 58%; p < 0.05). We also compared classification accuracy between imagined speech, overt speech and listening. As predicted, higher classification accuracy was obtained in the listening and overt speech conditions (mean = 89% and 86%, respectively; p < 0.0001), where speech stimuli were directly presented. The results provide evidence for a neural representation for imagined words in the temporal lobe, frontal lobe and sensorimotor cortex, consistent with previous findings in speech perception and production. These data represent a proof of concept study for basic decoding of speech imagery, and delineate a number of key challenges to usage of speech imagery neural representations for clinical applications. PMID:27165452

Semantic and syntactic reading comprehension strategies used by deaf children with early and late cochlear implantation.

PubMed

Gallego, Carlos; Martín-Aragoneses, M Teresa; López-Higes, Ramón; Pisón, Guzmán

2016-01-01

Deaf students have traditionally exhibited reading comprehension difficulties. In recent years, these comprehension problems have been partially offset through cochlear implantation (CI), and the subsequent improvement in spoken language skills. However, the use of cochlear implants has not managed to fully bridge the gap in language and reading between normally hearing (NH) and deaf children, as its efficacy depends on variables such as the age at implant. This study compared the reading comprehension of sentences in 19 children who received a cochlear implant before 24 months of age (early-CI) and 19 who received it after 24 months (late-CI) with a control group of 19 NH children. The task involved completing sentences in which the last word had been omitted. To complete each sentence children had to choose a word from among several alternatives that included one syntactic and two semantic foils in addition to the target word. The results showed that deaf children with late-CI performed this task significantly worse than NH children, while those with early-CI exhibited no significant differences with NH children, except under more demanding processing conditions (long sentences with infrequent target words). Further, the error analysis revealed a preference of deaf students with early-CI for selecting the syntactic foil over a semantic one, which suggests that they draw upon syntactic cues during sentence processing in the same way as NH children do. In contrast, deaf children with late-CI do not appear to use a syntactic strategy, but neither a semantic strategy based on the use of key words, as the literature suggests. Rather, the numerous errors of both kinds that the late-CI group made seem to indicate an inconsistent and erratic response when faced with a lack of comprehension. These findings are discussed in relation to differences in receptive vocabulary and short-term memory and their implications for sentence reading comprehension. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Phonological similarity influences word learning in adults learning Spanish as a foreign language

PubMed Central

Stamer, Melissa K.; Vitevitch, Michael S.

2013-01-01

Neighborhood density—the number of words that sound similar to a given word (Luce & Pisoni, 1998)—influences word-learning in native English speaking children and adults (Storkel, 2004; Storkel, Armbruster, & Hogan, 2006): novel words with many similar sounding English words (i.e., dense neighborhood) are learned more quickly than novel words with few similar sounding English words (i.e., sparse neighborhood). The present study examined how neighborhood density influences word-learning in native English speaking adults learning Spanish as a foreign language. Students in their third-semester of Spanish language classes learned advanced Spanish words that sounded similar to many known Spanish words (i.e., dense neighborhood) or sounded similar to few known Spanish words (i.e., sparse neighborhood). In three word-learning tasks, performance was better for Spanish words with dense rather than sparse neighborhoods. These results suggest that a similar mechanism may be used to learn new words in a native and a foreign language. PMID:23950692

Exploring the Neural Representation of Novel Words Learned through Enactment in a Word Recognition Task

PubMed Central

Macedonia, Manuela; Mueller, Karsten

2016-01-01

Vocabulary learning in a second language is enhanced if learners enrich the learning experience with self-performed iconic gestures. This learning strategy is called enactment. Here we explore how enacted words are functionally represented in the brain and which brain regions contribute to enhance retention. After an enactment training lasting 4 days, participants performed a word recognition task in the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanner. Data analysis suggests the participation of different and partially intertwined networks that are engaged in higher cognitive processes, i.e., enhanced attention and word recognition. Also, an experience-related network seems to map word representation. Besides core language regions, this latter network includes sensory and motor cortices, the basal ganglia, and the cerebellum. On the basis of its complexity and the involvement of the motor system, this sensorimotor network might explain superior retention for enactment. PMID:27445918

Relating print and speech: the effects of letter names and word position on reading and spelling performance.

PubMed

Bowman, Margo; Treiman, Rebecca

2002-08-01

From an early age, children can go beyond rote memorization to form links between print and speech that are based on letter names in the initial positions of words (Treiman & Rodriguez, 1999; Treiman, Sotak, & Bowman, 2001). For example, children's knowledge of the name of the letter t helps them learn that the novel word TM is pronounced as team. Four experiments were carried out to determine whether letter names at the ends of words are equally useful. Four- and five-year-olds derived little benefit from such information in reading (Experiments 1 and 3) or spelling (Experiment 2), although adults did (Experiment 4). For young children, word-final information appears to have less influence on reading and spelling performance than does word-initial information. The results help delineate the circumstances under which children can go beyond a logographic approach in learning about print.

What are the early indicators of persistent word reading difficulties among Chinese readers in elementary grades?

PubMed

Yeung, Pui-Sze; Ho, Connie Suk-Han; Chan, David Wai-Ock; Chung, Kevin Kien-Hoa

2014-05-01

To identify the indicators of persistent reading difficulties among Chinese readers in early elementary grades, the performance of three groups of Chinese children with different reading trajectories ('persistent poor word readers', 'improved poor word readers' and 'skilled word readers') in reading-related measures was analysed in a 3-year longitudinal study. The three groups were classified according to their performance in a standardized Chinese word reading test in Grade 1 and Grade 4. Results of analysis of variance and logistic regression on the reading-related measures revealed that rapid naming and syntactic skills were important indicators of early word reading difficulty. Syntactic skills and morphological awareness were possible markers of persistent reading problems. Chinese persistent poor readers did not differ significantly from skilled readers on the measures of phonological skills. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Assessing the Effects of Momentary Priming on Memory Retention During an Interference Task

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schutte, Paul C.

2007-01-01

A memory aid, that used brief (33ms) presentations of previously learned information (target words), was assessed on its ability to reinforce memory for target words while the subject was performing an interference task. The interference task required subjects to learn new words and thus interfered with their memory of the target words. The brief presentation (momentary memory priming) was hypothesized to refresh the subjects memory of the target words. 143 subjects, in a within subject design, were given a 33ms presentation of the target memory words during the interference task in a treatment condition and a blank 33ms presentation in the control condition. The primary dependent measure, memory loss over the interference trial, was not significantly different between the two conditions. The memory prime did not appear to hinder the subjects performance on the interference task. This paper describes the experiment and the results along with suggestions for future research.

Reliability of functional MR imaging with word-generation tasks for mapping Broca's area.

PubMed

Brannen, J H; Badie, B; Moritz, C H; Quigley, M; Meyerand, M E; Haughton, V M

2001-10-01

Functional MR (fMR) imaging of word generation has been used to map Broca's area in some patients selected for craniotomy. The purpose of this study was to measure the reliability, precision, and accuracy of word-generation tasks to identify Broca's area. The Brodmann areas activated during performance of word-generation tasks were tabulated in 34 consecutive patients referred for fMR imaging mapping of language areas. In patients performing two iterations of the letter word-generation tasks, test-retest reliability was quantified by using the concurrence ratio (CR), or the number of voxels activated by each iteration in proportion to the average number of voxels activated from both iterations of the task. Among patients who also underwent category or antonym word generation or both, the similarity of the activation from each task was assessed with the CR. In patients who underwent electrocortical stimulation (ECS) mapping of speech function during craniotomy while awake, the sites with speech function were compared with the locations of activation found during fMR imaging of word generation. In 31 of 34 patients, activation was identified in the inferior frontal gyri or middle frontal gyri or both in Brodmann areas 9, 44, 45, or 46, unilaterally or bilaterally, with one or more of the tasks. Activation was noted in the same gyri when the patient performed a second iteration of the letter word-generation task or second task. The CR for pixel precision in a single section averaged 49%. In patients who underwent craniotomy while awake, speech areas located with ECS coincided with areas of the brain activated during a word-generation task. fMR imaging with word-generation tasks produces technically satisfactory maps of Broca's area, which localize the area accurately and reliably.

Cognitive and anatomic double dissociation in the representation of concrete and abstract words in semantic variant and behavioral variant frontotemporal degeneration.

PubMed

Cousins, Katheryn A Q; York, Collin; Bauer, Laura; Grossman, Murray

2016-04-01

We examine the anatomic basis for abstract and concrete lexical representations in semantic memory by assessing patients with focal neurodegenerative disease. Prior evidence from healthy adult studies suggests that there may be an anatomical dissociation between abstract and concrete representations: abstract words more strongly activate the left inferior frontal gyrus relative to concrete words, while concrete words more strongly activate left anterior-inferior temporal regions. However, this double dissociation has not been directly examined. We test this dissociation in two patient groups with focal cortical atrophy in each of these regions, the behavioral variant of Frontotemporal Degeneration (bvFTD) and the semantic variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia (svPPA). We administered an associativity judgment task for abstract and concrete words, where subjects select which of two words is best associated with a given target word. Both bvFTD and svPPA patients were significantly impaired in their overall performance compared to controls. While controls treated concrete and abstract words equally, we found a category-specific double dissociation in patients' judgments: bvFTD patients showed a concreteness effect (CE), with significantly worse performance for abstract compared to concrete words, while svPPA patients showed reversal of the CE, with significantly worse performance for concrete over abstract words. Regression analyses also revealed an anatomic double dissociation: The CE is associated with inferior frontal atrophy in bvFTD, while reversal of the CE is associated with left anterior-inferior temporal atrophy in svPPA. These results support a cognitive and anatomic model of semantic memory organization where abstract and concrete representations are supported by dissociable neuroanatomic substrates. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

What Paves the Way to Conventional Language? The Predictive Value of Babble, Pointing, and Socioeconomic Status.

PubMed

McGillion, Michelle; Herbert, Jane S; Pine, Julian; Vihman, Marilyn; dePaolis, Rory; Keren-Portnoy, Tamar; Matthews, Danielle

2017-01-01

A child's first words mark the emergence of a uniquely human ability. Theories of the developmental steps that pave the way for word production have proposed that either vocal or gestural precursors are key. These accounts were tested by assessing the developmental synchrony in the onset of babbling, pointing, and word production for 46 infants observed monthly between the ages of 9 and 18 months. Babbling and pointing did not develop in tight synchrony and babble onset alone predicted first words. Pointing and maternal education emerged as predictors of lexical knowledge only in relation to a measure taken at 18 months. This suggests a far more important role for early phonological development in the creation of the lexicon than previously thought. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Neuromagnetic correlates of audiovisual word processing in the developing brain.

PubMed

Dinga, Samantha; Wu, Di; Huang, Shuyang; Wu, Caiyun; Wang, Xiaoshan; Shi, Jingping; Hu, Yue; Liang, Chun; Zhang, Fawen; Lu, Meng; Leiken, Kimberly; Xiang, Jing

2018-06-01

The brain undergoes enormous changes during childhood. Little is known about how the brain develops to serve word processing. The objective of the present study was to investigate the maturational changes of word processing in children and adolescents using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Responses to a word processing task were investigated in sixty healthy participants. Each participant was presented with simultaneous visual and auditory word pairs in "match" and "mismatch" conditions. The patterns of neuromagnetic activation from MEG recordings were analyzed at both sensor and source levels. Topography and source imaging revealed that word processing transitioned from bilateral connections to unilateral connections as age increased from 6 to 17 years old. Correlation analyses of language networks revealed that the path length of word processing networks negatively correlated with age (r = -0.833, p < 0.0001), while the connection strength (r = 0.541, p < 0.01) and the clustering coefficient (r = 0.705, p < 0.001) of word processing networks were positively correlated with age. In addition, males had more visual connections, whereas females had more auditory connections. The correlations between gender and path length, gender and connection strength, and gender and clustering coefficient demonstrated a developmental trend without reaching statistical significance. The results indicate that the developmental trajectory of word processing is gender specific. Since the neuromagnetic signatures of these gender-specific paths to adult word processing were determined using non-invasive, objective, and quantitative methods, the results may play a key role in understanding language impairments in pediatric patients in the future. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The role of short-term memory impairment in nonword repetition, real word repetition, and nonword decoding: A case study.

PubMed

Peter, Beate

2018-01-01

In a companion study, adults with dyslexia and adults with a probable history of childhood apraxia of speech showed evidence of difficulty with processing sequential information during nonword repetition, multisyllabic real word repetition and nonword decoding. Results suggested that some errors arose in visual encoding during nonword reading, all levels of processing but especially short-term memory storage/retrieval during nonword repetition, and motor planning and programming during complex real word repetition. To further investigate the role of short-term memory, a participant with short-term memory impairment (MI) was recruited. MI was confirmed with poor performance during a sentence repetition and three nonword repetition tasks, all of which have a high short-term memory load, whereas typical performance was observed during tests of reading, spelling, and static verbal knowledge, all with low short-term memory loads. Experimental results show error-free performance during multisyllabic real word repetition but high counts of sequence errors, especially migrations and assimilations, during nonword repetition, supporting short-term memory as a locus of sequential processing deficit during nonword repetition. Results are also consistent with the hypothesis that during complex real word repetition, short-term memory is bypassed as the word is recognized and retrieved from long-term memory prior to producing the word.

Is semantic verbal fluency impairment explained by executive function deficits in schizophrenia?

PubMed

Berberian, Arthur A; Moraes, Giovanna V; Gadelha, Ary; Brietzke, Elisa; Fonseca, Ana O; Scarpato, Bruno S; Vicente, Marcella O; Seabra, Alessandra G; Bressan, Rodrigo A; Lacerda, Acioly L

2016-04-19

To investigate if verbal fluency impairment in schizophrenia reflects executive function deficits or results from degraded semantic store or inefficient search and retrieval strategies. Two groups were compared: 141 individuals with schizophrenia and 119 healthy age and education-matched controls. Both groups performed semantic and phonetic verbal fluency tasks. Performance was evaluated using three scores, based on 1) number of words generated; 2) number of clustered/related words; and 3) switching score. A fourth performance score based on the number of clusters was also measured. SZ individuals produced fewer words than controls. After controlling for the total number of words produced, a difference was observed between the groups in the number of cluster-related words generated in the semantic task. In both groups, the number of words generated in the semantic task was higher than that generated in the phonemic task, although a significant group vs. fluency type interaction showed that subjects with schizophrenia had disproportionate semantic fluency impairment. Working memory was positively associated with increased production of words within clusters and inversely correlated with switching. Semantic fluency impairment may be attributed to an inability (resulting from reduced cognitive control) to distinguish target signal from competing noise and to maintain cues for production of memory probes.

Bilingual Performance on Nonword Repetition in Spanish and English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Summers, Connie; Bohman, Thomas M.; Gillam, Ronald B.; Pena, Elizabeth D.; Bedore, Lisa M.

2010-01-01

Background: Nonword repetition (NWR) involves the ability to perceive, store, recall and reproduce phonological sequences. These same abilities play a role in word and morpheme learning. Cross-linguistic studies of performance on NWR tasks, word learning, and morpheme learning yield patterns of increased performance on all three tasks as a…

Clinicopathological effects of pepper (oleoresin capsicum) spray.

PubMed

Yeung, M F; Tang, William Y M

2015-12-01

Pepper (oleoresin capsicum) spray is one of the most common riot-control measures used today. Although not lethal, exposure of pepper spray can cause injury to different organ systems. This review aimed to summarise the major clinicopathological effects of pepper spray in humans. MEDLINE, EMBASE database, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were used to search for terms associated with the clinicopathological effects of pepper spray in humans and those describing the pathophysiology of capsaicin. A phone interview with two individuals recently exposed to pepper spray was also conducted to establish clinical symptoms. Major key words used for the MEDLINE search were "pepper spray", "OC spray", "oleoresin capsicum"; and other key words as "riot control agents", "capsaicin", and "capsaicinoid". We then combined the key words "capsaicin" and "capsaicinoid" with the major key words to narrow down the number of articles. A search with other databases including EMBASE and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was also conducted with the above phrases to identify any additional related articles. All article searches were confined to human study. The bibliography of articles was screened for additional relevant studies including non-indexed reports, and information from these was also recorded. Non-English articles were included in the search. Fifteen articles were considered relevant. Oleoresin capsicum causes almost instantaneous irritative symptoms to the skin, eyes, and respiratory system. Dermatological effects include a burning sensation, erythema, and hyperalgesia. Ophthalmic effects involve blepharospasm, conjunctivitis, peri-orbital oedema, and corneal pathology. Following inhalation, a stinging or burning sensation can be felt in the nose with sore throat, chest tightness, or dyspnoea. The major pathophysiology is neurogenic inflammation caused by capsaicinoid in the pepper spray. There is no antidote for oleoresin capsicum. Treatment consists of thorough decontamination, symptom-directed supportive measures, and early detection and treatment of systemic toxicity. Decontamination should be carefully carried out to avoid contamination of the surrounding skin and clothing. Pepper (oleoresin capsicum) spray is an effective riot-control agent and does not cause life-threatening clinical effects in the majority of exposed individuals. Early decontamination minimises the irritant effects.

Using Key Part-of-Speech Analysis to Examine Spoken Discourse by Taiwanese EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Yen-Liang

2015-01-01

This study reports on a corpus analysis of samples of spoken discourse between a group of British and Taiwanese adolescents, with the aim of exploring the statistically significant differences in the use of grammatical categories between the two groups of participants. The key word method extended to a part-of-speech level using the web-based…

The Roles of Semantic and Phonological Information in Word Production: Evidence from Spanish-English Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kennison, Shelia M.; Fernandez, Elaine C.; Bowers, J. Michael

2014-01-01

The research investigated the roles of semantic and phonological processing in word production. Spanish-English bilingual individuals produced English target words when cued with definitions that were also written in English. When the correct word was not produced, a secondary task was performed in which participants rated the ease of…

Health treaty dilution: a case study of Japan's influence on the language of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

PubMed Central

Assunta, Mary; Chapman, Simon

2006-01-01

Background The Japanese government is an important shareholder in the Japanese tobacco industry. Negotiations to develop the WHO's historic Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) were based on consensus, resulting in countries needing to agree to the lowest acceptable common denominator in clause development. Objective To illustrate Japan's role in negotiating key optional language in the FCTC text. Methods Summary reports, text proposals, conference papers, and speeches related to the six FCTC negotiation sessions were reviewed for repeated words, concepts and emerging themes. Key stakeholders were interviewed. Key words such as “sovereignty”, “appropriate”, “latitude”, “individual”, “flexibility”, and “may” representing optional language were examined. Results The Japanese government's proposals for “appropriate” and optional measures are reflected in the final FCTC text that accommodates flexibility on interpretation and implementation on key tobacco controls. While Japan was not alone in proposing optional language, consensus accommodated their proposals. Conclusion Japan's success in arguing for extensive optional language seriously weakened the FCTC. Accordingly, international tobacco control can be expected to be less successful in reducing the burden of disease caused by tobacco use. PMID:16905717

The impact of developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia on movement production during word writing.

PubMed

Kandel, Sonia; Lassus-Sangosse, Delphine; Grosjacques, Géraldine; Perret, Cyril

This study investigated how deficits in orthographic processing affect movement production during word writing. Children with dyslexia and dysgraphia wrote words and pseudo-words on a digitizer. The words were orthographically regular and irregular of varying frequency. The group analysis revealed that writing irregular words and pseudo-words increased movement duration and dysfluency. This indicates that the spelling processes were active while the children were writing the words. The impact of these spelling processes was stronger for the children with dyslexia and dysgraphia. The analysis of individual performance revealed that most dyslexic/dysgraphic children presented similar writing patterns. However, selective lexical processing deficits affected irregular word writing but not pseudo-word writing. Selective poor sublexical processing affected pseudo-word writing more than irregular word writing. This study suggests that the interaction between orthographic and motor processing constitutes an important cognitive load that may disrupt the graphic outcome of the children with dyslexia/dysgraphia.

Da Vinci's codex and the anatomy of healthcare.

PubMed

Stephens-Borg, Keith

2012-08-01

We usually display a laid-back approach to medical jargon throughout our theatre work. The word 'perioperative' is built from the Greek word 'peri' (around) and the Latin 'operari' (to work). Latin and Greek became the prefixed language of choice for Leonardo da Vinci, and his research was pivotal in determining the way in which surgical procedures are documented. Ancient manuscripts aided the unfolding of the secrets of anatomy, and Leonardo revealed that art was the key in expressive detailed explanation.

In favor of general probability distributions: lateral prefrontal and insular cortices respond to stimulus inherent, but irrelevant differences.

PubMed

Mestres-Missé, Anna; Trampel, Robert; Turner, Robert; Kotz, Sonja A

2016-04-01

A key aspect of optimal behavior is the ability to predict what will come next. To achieve this, we must have a fairly good idea of the probability of occurrence of possible outcomes. This is based both on prior knowledge about a particular or similar situation and on immediately relevant new information. One question that arises is: when considering converging prior probability and external evidence, is the most probable outcome selected or does the brain represent degrees of uncertainty, even highly improbable ones? Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the current study explored these possibilities by contrasting words that differ in their probability of occurrence, namely, unbalanced ambiguous words and unambiguous words. Unbalanced ambiguous words have a strong frequency-based bias towards one meaning, while unambiguous words have only one meaning. The current results reveal larger activation in lateral prefrontal and insular cortices in response to dominant ambiguous compared to unambiguous words even when prior and contextual information biases one interpretation only. These results suggest a probability distribution, whereby all outcomes and their associated probabilities of occurrence--even if very low--are represented and maintained.

Near-instant automatic access to visually presented words in the human neocortex: neuromagnetic evidence.

PubMed

Shtyrov, Yury; MacGregor, Lucy J

2016-05-24

Rapid and efficient processing of external information by the brain is vital to survival in a highly dynamic environment. The key channel humans use to exchange information is language, but the neural underpinnings of its processing are still not fully understood. We investigated the spatio-temporal dynamics of neural access to word representations in the brain by scrutinising the brain's activity elicited in response to psycholinguistically, visually and phonologically matched groups of familiar words and meaningless pseudowords. Stimuli were briefly presented on the visual-field periphery to experimental participants whose attention was occupied with a non-linguistic visual feature-detection task. The neural activation elicited by these unattended orthographic stimuli was recorded using multi-channel whole-head magnetoencephalography, and the timecourse of lexically-specific neuromagnetic responses was assessed in sensor space as well as at the level of cortical sources, estimated using individual MR-based distributed source reconstruction. Our results demonstrate a neocortical signature of automatic near-instant access to word representations in the brain: activity in the perisylvian language network characterised by specific activation enhancement for familiar words, starting as early as ~70 ms after the onset of unattended word stimuli and underpinned by temporal and inferior-frontal cortices.

Group-Level EEG-Processing Pipeline for Flexible Single Trial-Based Analyses Including Linear Mixed Models.

PubMed

Frömer, Romy; Maier, Martin; Abdel Rahman, Rasha

2018-01-01

Here we present an application of an EEG processing pipeline customizing EEGLAB and FieldTrip functions, specifically optimized to flexibly analyze EEG data based on single trial information. The key component of our approach is to create a comprehensive 3-D EEG data structure including all trials and all participants maintaining the original order of recording. This allows straightforward access to subsets of the data based on any information available in a behavioral data structure matched with the EEG data (experimental conditions, but also performance indicators, such accuracy or RTs of single trials). In the present study we exploit this structure to compute linear mixed models (LMMs, using lmer in R) including random intercepts and slopes for items. This information can easily be read out from the matched behavioral data, whereas it might not be accessible in traditional ERP approaches without substantial effort. We further provide easily adaptable scripts for performing cluster-based permutation tests (as implemented in FieldTrip), as a more robust alternative to traditional omnibus ANOVAs. Our approach is particularly advantageous for data with parametric within-subject covariates (e.g., performance) and/or multiple complex stimuli (such as words, faces or objects) that vary in features affecting cognitive processes and ERPs (such as word frequency, salience or familiarity), which are sometimes hard to control experimentally or might themselves constitute variables of interest. The present dataset was recorded from 40 participants who performed a visual search task on previously unfamiliar objects, presented either visually intact or blurred. MATLAB as well as R scripts are provided that can be adapted to different datasets.

Depth of word processing in Alzheimer patients and normal controls: a magnetoencephalographic (MEG) study.

PubMed

Walla, P; Püregger, E; Lehrner, J; Mayer, D; Deecke, L; Dal Bianco, P

2005-05-01

Effects related to depth of verbal information processing were investigated in probable Alzheimer's disease patients (AD) and age matched controls. During word encoding sessions 10 patients and 10 controls had either to decide whether the letter "s" appeared in visually presented words (alphabetical decision, shallow encoding), or whether the meaning of each presented word was animate or inanimate (lexical decision, deep encoding). These encoding sessions were followed by test sessions during which all previously encoded words were presented again together with the same number of new words. The task was then to discriminate between repeated and new words. Magnetic field changes related to brain activity were recorded with a whole cortex MEG.5 probable AD patients showed recognition performances above chance level related to both depths of information processing. Those patients and 5 age matched controls were then further analysed. Recognition performance was poorer in probable AD patients compared to controls for both levels of processing. However, in both groups deep encoding led to a higher recognition performance than shallow encoding. We therefore conclude that the performance reduction in the patient group was independent of depth of processing. Reaction times related to false alarms differed between patients and controls after deep encoding which perhaps could already be used for supporting an early diagnosis. The analysis of the physiological data revealed significant differences between correctly recognised repetitions and correctly classified new words (old/new-effect) in the control group which were missing in the patient group after deep encoding. The lack of such an effect in the patient group is interpreted as being due to the respective neuropathology related to probable AD. The present results demonstrate that magnetic field recordings represent a useful tool to physiologically distinguish between probable AD and age matched controls.

Deafness for the meanings of number words

PubMed Central

Caño, Agnès; Rapp, Brenda; Costa, Albert; Juncadella, Montserrat

2008-01-01

We describe the performance of an aphasic individual who showed a selective impairment affecting his comprehension of auditorily presented number words and not other word categories. His difficulty in number word comprehension was restricted to the auditory modality, given that with visual stimuli (written words, Arabic numerals and pictures) his comprehension of number and non-number words was intact. While there have been previous reports of selective difficulty or sparing of number words at the semantic and post-semantic levels, this is the first reported case of a pre-semantic deficit that is specific to the category of number words. This constitutes evidence that lexical semantic distinctions are respected by modality-specific neural mechanisms responsible for providing access to the meanings of words. PMID:17915265

Implementation and Validation of PACS Integrated Peer Review for Discrepancy Recording of Radiology Reporting.

PubMed

Olthof, A W; van Ooijen, P M A

2016-09-01

The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the possibility of implementation of a PACS-integrated peer review system based on RADPEER™ classification providing a step-wise implementation plan utilizing features already present in the standard PACS implementation and without the requirement of additional software development. Furthermore, we show the usage and effects of the system during the first 30 months of usage. To allow fast and easy implementation into the daily workflow the key-word feature of the PACS was used. This feature allows to add a key-word to an imaging examination for easy searching in the PACS database (e.g. by entering keywords for different kinds of pathology). For peer review we implemented a keyword structure including a code for each of the existing RADPEER™ scoring language terms and a keyword with the phrase "second reading" followed by the name of the individual radiologist. The use of the short-keys to enter the codes in relation to the peer review was a simple to use solution. During the study 599 reports were peer reviewed. The active participation in this study of the radiologists varies and ranges from 3 to 327 reviews per radiologist. The number of peer review is highest in CT and CR. There are no significant technical obstacles to implement a PACS-integrated RADPEER™ -system based on key-words allowing easy integration of peer review into the daily routine without the requirement of additional software. Peer review implemented in a non-random setting based on relevant priors could already help in increasing the quality of radiological reporting and serve as continuing education among peers. Decisiveness, tact and trust are needed to promote use of the system and collaborative discussion of the results by radiologist.

Examination of the neighborhood activation theory in normal and hearing-impaired listeners.

PubMed

Dirks, D D; Takayanagi, S; Moshfegh, A; Noffsinger, P D; Fausti, S A

2001-02-01

Experiments were conducted to examine the effects of lexical information on word recognition among normal hearing listeners and individuals with sensorineural hearing loss. The lexical factors of interest were incorporated in the Neighborhood Activation Model (NAM). Central to this model is the concept that words are recognized relationally in the context of other phonemically similar words. NAM suggests that words in the mental lexicon are organized into similarity neighborhoods and the listener is required to select the target word from competing lexical items. Two structural characteristics of similarity neighborhoods that influence word recognition have been identified; "neighborhood density" or the number of phonemically similar words (neighbors) for a particular target item and "neighborhood frequency" or the average frequency of occurrence of all the items within a neighborhood. A third lexical factor, "word frequency" or the frequency of occurrence of a target word in the language, is assumed to optimize the word recognition process by biasing the system toward choosing a high frequency over a low frequency word. Three experiments were performed. In the initial experiments, word recognition for consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) monosyllables was assessed in young normal hearing listeners by systematically partitioning the items into the eight possible lexical conditions that could be created by two levels of the three lexical factors, word frequency (high and low), neighborhood density (high and low), and average neighborhood frequency (high and low). Neighborhood structure and word frequency were estimated computationally using a large, on-line lexicon-based Webster's Pocket Dictionary. From this program 400 highly familiar, monosyllables were selected and partitioned into eight orthogonal lexical groups (50 words/group). The 400 words were presented randomly to normal hearing listeners in speech-shaped noise (Experiment 1) and "in quiet" (Experiment 2) as well as to an elderly group of listeners with sensorineural hearing loss in the speech-shaped noise (Experiment 3). The results of three experiments verified predictions of NAM in both normal hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. In each experiment, words from low density neighborhoods were recognized more accurately than those from high density neighborhoods. The presence of high frequency neighbors (average neighborhood frequency) produced poorer recognition performance than comparable conditions with low frequency neighbors. Word frequency was found to have a highly significant effect on word recognition. Lexical conditions with high word frequencies produced higher performance scores than conditions with low frequency words. The results supported the basic tenets of NAM theory and identified both neighborhood structural properties and word frequency as significant lexical factors affecting word recognition when listening in noise and "in quiet." The results of the third experiment permit extension of NAM theory to individuals with sensorineural hearing loss. Future development of speech recognition tests should allow for the effects of higher level cognitive (lexical) factors on lower level phonemic processing.

Vaporous Marketing: Uncovering Pervasive Electronic Cigarette Advertisements on Twitter.

PubMed

Clark, Eric M; Jones, Chris A; Williams, Jake Ryland; Kurti, Allison N; Norotsky, Mitchell Craig; Danforth, Christopher M; Dodds, Peter Sheridan

2016-01-01

Twitter has become the "wild-west" of marketing and promotional strategies for advertisement agencies. Electronic cigarettes have been heavily marketed across Twitter feeds, offering discounts, "kid-friendly" flavors, algorithmically generated false testimonials, and free samples. All electronic cigarette keyword related tweets from a 10% sample of Twitter spanning January 2012 through December 2014 (approximately 850,000 total tweets) were identified and categorized as Automated or Organic by combining a keyword classification and a machine trained Human Detection algorithm. A sentiment analysis using Hedonometrics was performed on Organic tweets to quantify the change in consumer sentiments over time. Commercialized tweets were topically categorized with key phrasal pattern matching. The overwhelming majority (80%) of tweets were classified as automated or promotional in nature. The majority of these tweets were coded as commercialized (83.65% in 2013), up to 33% of which offered discounts or free samples and appeared on over a billion twitter feeds as impressions. The positivity of Organic (human) classified tweets has decreased over time (5.84 in 2013 to 5.77 in 2014) due to a relative increase in the negative words 'ban', 'tobacco', 'doesn't', 'drug', 'against', 'poison', 'tax' and a relative decrease in the positive words like 'haha', 'good', 'cool'. Automated tweets are more positive than organic (6.17 versus 5.84) due to a relative increase in the marketing words like 'best', 'win', 'buy', 'sale', 'health', 'discount' and a relative decrease in negative words like 'bad', 'hate', 'stupid', 'don't'. Due to the youth presence on Twitter and the clinical uncertainty of the long term health complications of electronic cigarette consumption, the protection of public health warrants scrutiny and potential regulation of social media marketing.

Relations between Semantic and Cognitive Development in the One-Word Stage: The Specificity Hypothesis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gopnik, Alison; Meltzoff, Andrew N.

1986-01-01

Compares two types of semantic development (the acquisition of disappearance words and success-failure words) to performance on two types of cognitive tasks (object-permanence and means-ends tasks) among infants. (HOD)

[Effects of noise competition on monosyllabic and disyllabic word perception in children].

PubMed

Liu, H H; Liu, S; Li, Y; Zheng, Z P; Jin, X; Li, J; Ren, C C; Zheng, J; Zhang, J; Chen, M; Hao, J S; Yang, Y; Liu, W; Ni, X

2017-05-07

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of noise competition on word perception in normal hearing (NH) children and children with cochlear implantation (CI). Methods: To estimate the contribution of noise competition on speech perception, word perception in speech-shaped noise(SSN)and 4-talker babble noise(BN) with Mandarin Lexical Neighborhood Test were performed in 80 NH children and 89 children with CI. Corrected perception percentages were acquired in each group. Results: Both signal to noise ratio (SNR) and noise type influenced the word perception. In NH group, corrected percentages of disyllabic word perception in SSN were 24.2%, 55.9%, 77.1%, 85.1% and 88.9% at -8, -4, 0, 4 and 8 dB SNR, corresponding corrected percentages of monosyllabic word were 13.9%, 39.5%, 60.1%, 68.8% and 80.1%, respectively. In BN noise, corrected percentages of disyllabic word were 2.4%, 24.3%, 55.6%, 74.3% and 86.2%, corresponding monosyllabic word were 2.3%, 20.8%, 47.2%, 61.1% and 74.8%, respectively. In CI group, corrected percentages of dissyllabic word in SSN and BN at 10 dB SNR were 65.5% and 58.1%, respectively. Corresponding monosyllabic word were 49.0% and 41.0%. For SNR=5 dB, corrected percentages of disyllabic word in SSN and BN were 50.0% and 38.1%, corresponding corrected percentages of monosyllabic word were 40.8% and 25.1%, respectively. Analysis indicated that the masking effect were significantly higher in BN compared with SSN. Conclusions: Noise competition influence word perception performance significantly. In specific, the influence of noise on word perception is bigger in children with CI than in NH children. The masking effect is higher in BN noise when compared with SSN.

Self-referenced memory, social cognition, and symptom presentation in autism.

PubMed

Henderson, Heather A; Zahka, Nicole E; Kojkowski, Nicole M; Inge, Anne P; Schwartz, Caley B; Hileman, Camilla M; Coman, Drew C; Mundy, Peter C

2009-07-01

We examined performance on a self-referenced memory (SRM) task for higher-functioning children with autism (HFA) and a matched comparison group. SRM performance was examined in relation to symptom severity and social cognitive tests of mentalizing. Sixty-two children (31 HFA, 31 comparison; 8-16 years) completed a SRM task in which they read a list of words and decided whether the word described something about them, something about Harry Potter, or contained a certain number of letters. They then identified words that were familiar from a longer list. Dependent measures were memory performance (d') in each of the three encoding conditions as well as a self-memory bias score (d' self-d' other). Children completed The Strange Stories Task and The Children's Eyes Test as measures of social cognition. Parents completed the SCQ and ASSQ as measures of symptom severity. Children in the comparison sample showed the standard SRM effect in which they recognized significantly more self-referenced words relative to words in the other-referenced and letter conditions. In contrast, HFA children showed comparable rates of recognition for self- and other-referenced words. For all children, SRM performance improved with age and enhanced SRM performance was related to lower levels of social problems. These associations were not accounted for by performance on the mentalizing tasks. Children with HFA did not show the standard enhanced processing of self- vs. other-relevant information. Individual differences in the tendency to preferentially process self-relevant information may be associated with social cognitive processes that serve to modify the expression of social symptoms in children with autism.

Do eye movements reveal differences between monolingual and bilingual children's first-language and second-language reading? A focus on word frequency effects.

PubMed

Whitford, Veronica; Joanisse, Marc F

2018-09-01

An extensive body of research has examined reading acquisition and performance in monolingual children. Surprisingly, however, much less is known about reading in bilingual children, who outnumber monolingual children globally. Here, we address this important imbalance in the literature by employing eye movement recordings to examine both global (i.e., text-level) and local (i.e., word-level) aspects of monolingual and bilingual children's reading performance across their first-language (L1) and second-language (L2). We also had a specific focus on lexical accessibility, indexed by word frequency effects. We had three main findings. First, bilingual children displayed reduced global and local L1 reading performance relative to monolingual children, including larger L1 word frequency effects. Second, bilingual children displayed reduced global and local L2 versus L1 reading performance, including larger L2 word frequency effects. Third, both groups of children displayed reduced global and local reading performance relative to adult comparison groups (across their known languages), including larger word frequency effects. Notably, our first finding was not captured by traditional offline measures of reading, such as standardized tests, suggesting that these measures may lack the sensitivity to detect such nuanced between-group differences in reading performance. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that bilingual children's simultaneous exposure to two reading systems leads to eye movement reading behavior that differs from that of monolingual children and has important consequences for how lexical information is accessed and integrated in both languages. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Indicators of Terrorism Vulnerability in Africa

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-03-26

the terror threat and vulnerabilities across Africa. Key words: Terrorism, Africa, Negative Binomial Regression, Classification Tree iv I would like...31 Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Log -likelihood...70 viii Page 5.3 Classification Tree Description

The Influence of Child-Directed Speech on Word Learning and Comprehension.

PubMed

Foursha-Stevenson, Cassandra; Schembri, Taylor; Nicoladis, Elena; Eriksen, Cody

2017-04-01

This paper describes an investigation into the function of child-directed speech (CDS) across development. In the first experiment, 10-21-month-olds were presented with familiar words in CDS and trained on novel words in CDS or adult-directed speech (ADS). All children preferred the matching display for familiar words. However, only older toddlers in the CDS condition preferred the matching display for novel words. In Experiment 2, children 3-6 years of age were presented with a sentence comprehension task in CDS or ADS. Older children performed better overall than younger children with 5- and 6-year-olds performing above chance regardless of speech condition, while 3- and 4-year-olds only performed above chance when the sentences were presented in CDS. These findings provide support for the theory that CDS is most effective at the beginning of acquisition for particular constructions (e.g. vocabulary acquisition, syntactic comprehension) rather than at a particular age or for a particular task.

Abstract Word Definition in Patients with Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment

PubMed Central

Kim, Soo Ryon; Baek, Min Jae; Kim, HyangHee

2015-01-01

The aims of this study were to investigate concrete and abstract word definition ability (1) between patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and normal adults and (2) between the aMCI subtypes (i.e., amnestic single-domain MCI and amnestic multidomain MCI; asMCI and amMCI) and normal controls. The 68 patients with aMCI (29 asMCI and 39 amMCI) and 93 age- and education-matched normal adults performed word definition tasks composed of five concrete (e.g., train) and five abstract nouns (e.g., jealousy). Task performances were analyzed on total score, number of core meanings, and number of supplementary meanings. The results were as follows. First, the aMCI patients scored significantly poorer than the normal controls in only abstract word definition. Second, both subtypes of aMCI performed worse than the controls in only abstract word definition. In conclusion, a definition task of abstract rather than concrete concepts may provide richer information to show semantic impairment of aMCI. PMID:26347214

An investigation of the measurement properties of the Spot-the-Word test in a community sample.

PubMed

Mackinnon, Andrew; Christensen, Helen

2007-12-01

Intellectual ability is assessed with the Spot-the-Word (STW) test (A. Baddeley, H. Emslie, & I. Nimmo Smith, 1993) by asking respondents to identify a word in a word-nonword item pair. Results in moderate-sized samples suggest this ability is resistant to decline due to dementia. The authors used a 3-parameter item response theory model to investigate the measurement properties of the STW in a large community-dwelling sample (n=2,480) 60 to 64 years of age. A number of poorly performing items were identified. Substantial guessing was present; however, the number of words correctly identified was found to be an accurate index of ability. Performance was moderately related to a number of tests of cognitive performance and was effectively unrelated to visual acuity and to physical or mental health status. The STW is a promising test of ability that, in the future, may be refined by the deletion or replacement of poorly functioning items.

Neural Pattern Similarity in the Left IFG and Fusiform Is Associated with Novel Word Learning

PubMed Central

Qu, Jing; Qian, Liu; Chen, Chuansheng; Xue, Gui; Li, Huiling; Xie, Peng; Mei, Leilei

2017-01-01

Previous studies have revealed that greater neural pattern similarity across repetitions is associated with better subsequent memory. In this study, we used an artificial language training paradigm and representational similarity analysis to examine whether neural pattern similarity across repetitions before training was associated with post-training behavioral performance. Twenty-four native Chinese speakers were trained to learn a logographic artificial language for 12 days and behavioral performance was recorded using the word naming and picture naming tasks. Participants were scanned while performing a passive viewing task before training, after 4-day training and after 12-day training. Results showed that pattern similarity in the left pars opercularis (PO) and fusiform gyrus (FG) before training was negatively associated with reaction time (RT) in both word naming and picture naming tasks after training. These results suggest that neural pattern similarity is an effective neurofunctional predictor of novel word learning in addition to word memory. PMID:28878640

Tracking speakers' false beliefs: is theory of mind available earlier for word learning?

PubMed

Houston-Price, Carmel; Goddard, Kate; Séclier, Catherine; Grant, Sally C; Reid, Caitlin J B; Boyden, Laura E; Williams, Rhiannon

2011-07-01

Happé and Loth (2002) describe word learning as a 'privileged domain' in the development of a theory of mind. We test this claim in a series of experiments based on the Sally-Anne paradigm. Three- and 4-year-old children's ability to represent others' false beliefs was investigated in tasks that required the child either to predict the actions of a protagonist in a story or to learn the meaning of a new word used by the protagonist. Experiment 1 replicated previous findings of better performance in a false belief word-learning task compared to a false belief action-prediction task. However, systematic manipulation of the task parameters in Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that this performance discrepancy disappeared when tasks were equated in their 'referential pull' (Perner, Rendl & Garnham, 2007). We conclude that the notion of a precocious theory of mind for word learning is not required to explain dissociations in performance on false belief tasks. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Performance management in healthcare: a critical analysis.

PubMed

Hewko, Sarah J; Cummings, Greta G

2016-01-01

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying theoretical assumptions and implications of current micro-level performance management and evaluation (PME) practices, specifically within health-care organizations. PME encompasses all activities that are designed and conducted to align employee outputs with organizational goals. Design/methodology/approach - PME, in the context of healthcare, is analyzed through the lens of critical theory. Specifically, Habermas' theory of communicative action is used to highlight some of the questions that arise in looking critically at PME. To provide a richer definition of key theoretical concepts, the authors conducted a preliminary, exploratory hermeneutic semantic analysis of the key words "performance" and "management" and of the term "performance management". Findings - Analysis reveals that existing micro-level PME systems in health-care organizations have the potential to create a workforce that is compliant, dependent, technically oriented and passive, and to support health-care systems in which inequalities and power imbalances are perpetually reinforced. Practical implications - At a time when the health-care system is under increasing pressure to provide high-quality, affordable services with fewer resources, it may be wise to investigate new sector-specific ways of evaluating and managing performance. Originality/value - In this paper, written for health-care leaders and health human resource specialists, the theoretical assumptions and implications of current PME practices within health-care organizations are explored. It is hoped that readers will be inspired to support innovative PME practices within their organizations that encourage peak performance among health-care professionals.

Proceedings of the Quantum Computation for Physical Modeling Workshop 2004. Held in North Falmouth, MA on 12-15 September 2004

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-10-01

late the difficulty of some basic 1-bit and n-bit quantum and classical operations in an simple unconstrained scenario. KEY WORDS: Time evolution... quantum circuit and design are presented for an optimized entangling probe attacking the BB84 Protocol of quantum key distribution (QKD) and yielding...unambiguous, at least some of the time. It follows that the BB84 (Bennett-Brassard 1984) proto- col of quantum key distribution has a vulnerability similar to

Attempting to "Increase Intake from the Input": Attention and Word Learning in Children with Autism.

PubMed

Tenenbaum, Elena J; Amso, Dima; Righi, Giulia; Sheinkopf, Stephen J

2017-06-01

Previous work has demonstrated that social attention is related to early language abilities. We explored whether we can facilitate word learning among children with autism by directing attention to areas of the scene that have been demonstrated as relevant for successful word learning. We tracked eye movements to faces and objects while children watched videos of a woman teaching them new words. Test trials measured participants' recognition of these novel word-object pairings. Results indicate that for children with autism and typically developing children, pointing to the speaker's mouth while labeling a novel object impaired performance, likely because it distracted participants from the target object. In contrast, for children with autism, holding the object close to the speaker's mouth improved performance.

The effect of orthographic neighborhood in the reading span task.

PubMed

Robert, Christelle; Postal, Virginie; Mathey, Stéphanie

2015-04-01

This study aimed at examining whether and to what extent orthographic neighborhood of words influences performance in a working memory span task. Twenty-five participants performed a reading span task in which final words to be memorized had either no higher frequency orthographic neighbor or at least one. In both neighborhood conditions, each participant completed three series of two, three, four, or five sentences. Results indicated an interaction between orthographic neighborhood and list length. In particular, an inhibitory effect of orthographic neighborhood on recall appeared in list length 5. A view is presented suggesting that words with higher frequency neighbors require more resources to be memorized than words with no such neighbors. The implications of the results are discussed with regard to memory processes and current models of visual word recognition.

Effects on automatic attention due to exposure to pictures of emotional faces while performing Chinese word judgment tasks.

PubMed

Junhong, Huang; Renlai, Zhou; Senqi, Hu

2013-01-01

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the automatic processing of emotional facial expressions while performing low or high demand cognitive tasks under unattended conditions. In Experiment 1, 35 subjects performed low (judging the structure of Chinese words) and high (judging the tone of Chinese words) cognitive load tasks while exposed to unattended pictures of fearful, neutral, or happy faces. The results revealed that the reaction time was slower and the performance accuracy was higher while performing the low cognitive load task than while performing the high cognitive load task. Exposure to fearful faces resulted in significantly longer reaction times and lower accuracy than exposure to neutral faces on the low cognitive load task. In Experiment 2, 26 subjects performed the same word judgment tasks and their brain event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured for a period of 800 ms after the onset of the task stimulus. The amplitudes of the early component of ERP around 176 ms (P2) elicited by unattended fearful faces over frontal-central-parietal recording sites was significantly larger than those elicited by unattended neutral faces while performing the word structure judgment task. Together, the findings of the two experiments indicated that unattended fearful faces captured significantly more attention resources than unattended neutral faces on a low cognitive load task, but not on a high cognitive load task. It was concluded that fearful faces could automatically capture attention if residues of attention resources were available under the unattended condition.

Effects on Automatic Attention Due to Exposure to Pictures of Emotional Faces while Performing Chinese Word Judgment Tasks

PubMed Central

Junhong, Huang; Renlai, Zhou; Senqi, Hu

2013-01-01

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the automatic processing of emotional facial expressions while performing low or high demand cognitive tasks under unattended conditions. In Experiment 1, 35 subjects performed low (judging the structure of Chinese words) and high (judging the tone of Chinese words) cognitive load tasks while exposed to unattended pictures of fearful, neutral, or happy faces. The results revealed that the reaction time was slower and the performance accuracy was higher while performing the low cognitive load task than while performing the high cognitive load task. Exposure to fearful faces resulted in significantly longer reaction times and lower accuracy than exposure to neutral faces on the low cognitive load task. In Experiment 2, 26 subjects performed the same word judgment tasks and their brain event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured for a period of 800 ms after the onset of the task stimulus. The amplitudes of the early component of ERP around 176 ms (P2) elicited by unattended fearful faces over frontal-central-parietal recording sites was significantly larger than those elicited by unattended neutral faces while performing the word structure judgment task. Together, the findings of the two experiments indicated that unattended fearful faces captured significantly more attention resources than unattended neutral faces on a low cognitive load task, but not on a high cognitive load task. It was concluded that fearful faces could automatically capture attention if residues of attention resources were available under the unattended condition. PMID:24124486

Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex: wide-coverage evaluation sets of word similarity in biomedicine.

PubMed

Chiu, Billy; Pyysalo, Sampo; Vulić, Ivan; Korhonen, Anna

2018-02-05

Word representations support a variety of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. The quality of these representations is typically assessed by comparing the distances in the induced vector spaces against human similarity judgements. Whereas comprehensive evaluation resources have recently been developed for the general domain, similar resources for biomedicine currently suffer from the lack of coverage, both in terms of word types included and with respect to the semantic distinctions. Notably, verbs have been excluded, although they are essential for the interpretation of biomedical language. Further, current resources do not discern between semantic similarity and semantic relatedness, although this has been proven as an important predictor of the usefulness of word representations and their performance in downstream applications. We present two novel comprehensive resources targeting the evaluation of word representations in biomedicine. These resources, Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex, address the previously mentioned problems, and can be used for evaluations of verb and noun representations respectively. In our experiments, we have computed the Pearson's correlation between performances on intrinsic and extrinsic tasks using twelve popular state-of-the-art representation models (e.g. word2vec models). The intrinsic-extrinsic correlations using our datasets are notably higher than with previous intrinsic evaluation benchmarks such as UMNSRS and MayoSRS. In addition, when evaluating representation models for their abilities to capture verb and noun semantics individually, we show a considerable variation between performances across all models. Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex enable intrinsic evaluation of word representations. This evaluation can serve as a predictor of performance on various downstream tasks in the biomedical domain. The results on Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex using standard word representation models highlight the importance of developing dedicated evaluation resources for NLP in biomedicine for particular word classes (e.g. verbs). These are needed to identify the most accurate methods for learning class-specific representations. Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex are publicly available.

Lexical and semantic representations in the acquisition of L2 cognate and non-cognate words: evidence from two learning methods in children.

PubMed

Comesaña, Montserrat; Soares, Ana Paula; Sánchez-Casas, Rosa; Lima, Cátia

2012-08-01

How bilinguals represent words in two languages and which mechanisms are responsible for second language acquisition are important questions in the bilingual and vocabulary acquisition literature. This study aims to analyse the effect of two learning methods (picture- vs. word-based method) and two types of words (cognates and non-cognates) in early stages of children's L2 acquisition. Forty-eight native speakers of European Portuguese, all sixth graders (mean age = 10.87 years; SD= 0.85), participated in the study. None of them had prior knowledge of Basque (the L2 in this study). After a learning phase in which L2 words were learned either by a picture- or a word-based method, children were tested in a backward-word translation recognition task at two times (immediately vs. one week later). Results showed that the participants made more errors when rejecting semantically related than semantically unrelated words as correct translations (semantic interference effect). The magnitude of this effect was higher in the delayed test condition regardless of the learning method. Moreover, the overall performance of participants from the word-based method was better than the performance of participants from the picture-word method. Results were discussed concerning the most significant bilingual lexical processing models. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

"What" and "where" in word reading: ventral coding of written words revealed by parietal atrophy.

PubMed

Vinckier, Fabien; Naccache, Lionel; Papeix, Caroline; Forget, Joaquim; Hahn-Barma, Valerie; Dehaene, Stanislas; Cohen, Laurent

2006-12-01

The visual system of literate adults develops a remarkable perceptual expertise for printed words. To delineate the aspects of this competence intrinsic to the occipitotemporal "what" pathway, we studied a patient with bilateral lesions of the occipitoparietal "where" pathway. Depending on critical geometric features of the display (rotation angle, letter spacing, mirror reversal, etc.), she switched from a good performance, when her intact ventral pathway was sufficient to encode words, to severely impaired reading, when her parietal lesions prevented the use of alternative reading strategies as a result of spatial and attentional impairments. In particular, reading was disrupted (a) by rotating word by more than 50 degrees , providing an approximation of the invariance range for words encoding in the ventral pathway; (b) by separating letters with double spaces, revealing the limits of letter grouping into perceptual wholes; (c) by mirror-reversing words, showing that words escape the default mirror-invariant representation of visual objects in the ventral pathway. Moreover, because of her parietal lesions, she was unable to discriminate mirror images of common objects, although she was excellent with reversible pseudowords, confirming that the breaking of mirror symmetry was intrinsic to the occipitotemporal cortex. Thus, charting the display conditions associated with preserved or impaired performance allowed us to infer properties of word coding in the normal ventral pathway and to delineate the roles of the parietal lobes in single-word recognition.

Adult age differences in predicting memory performance: the effects of normative information and task experience.

PubMed

McDonald-Miszczak, L; Hunter, M A; Hultsch, D F

1994-03-01

Two experiments addressed the effects of task information and experience on younger and older adults' ability to predict their memory for words. The first study examined the effects of normative task information on subjects' predictions for 30-word lists across three trials. The second study looked at the effects of making predictions and recalling either an easy (15) or a difficult (45) word list prior to making predictions and recalling a moderately difficult (30) word list. The results from both studies showed that task information and experience affected subjects' predictions and that elderly adults predicted their performance more accurately than younger adults.

Auditory perception modulated by word reading.

PubMed

Cao, Liyu; Klepp, Anne; Schnitzler, Alfons; Gross, Joachim; Biermann-Ruben, Katja

2016-10-01

Theories of embodied cognition positing that sensorimotor areas are indispensable during language comprehension are supported by neuroimaging and behavioural studies. Among others, the auditory system has been suggested to be important for understanding sound-related words (visually presented) and the motor system for action-related words. In this behavioural study, using a sound detection task embedded in a lexical decision task, we show that in participants with high lexical decision performance sound verbs improve auditory perception. The amount of modulation was correlated with lexical decision performance. Our study provides convergent behavioural evidence of auditory cortex involvement in word processing, supporting the view of embodied language comprehension concerning the auditory domain.

The influence of encoding strategy on episodic memory and cortical activity in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Bonner-Jackson, Aaron; Haut, Kristen; Csernansky, John G; Barch, Deanna M

2005-07-01

Recent work suggests that episodic memory deficits in schizophrenia may be related to disturbances of encoding or retrieval. Schizophrenia patients appear to benefit from instruction in episodic memory strategies. We tested the hypothesis that providing effective encoding strategies to schizophrenia patients enhances encoding-related brain activity and recognition performance. Seventeen schizophrenia patients and 26 healthy comparison subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scans while performing incidental encoding tasks of words and faces. Subjects were required to make either deep (abstract/concrete) or shallow (alphabetization) judgments for words and deep (gender) judgments for faces, followed by subsequent recognition tests. Schizophrenia and comparison subjects recognized significantly more words encoded deeply than shallowly, activated regions in inferior frontal cortex (Brodmann area 45/47) typically associated with deep and successful encoding of words, and showed greater left frontal activation for the processing of words compared with faces. However, during deep encoding and material-specific processing (words vs. faces), participants with schizophrenia activated regions not activated by control subjects, including several in prefrontal cortex. Our findings suggest that a deficit in use of effective strategies influences episodic memory performance in schizophrenia and that abnormalities in functional brain activation persist even when such strategies are applied.

The search for common ground: Part I. Lexical performance by linguistically diverse learners.

PubMed

Windsor, Jennifer; Kohnert, Kathryn

2004-08-01

This study examines lexical performance by 3 groups of linguistically diverse school-age learners: English-only speakers with primary language impairment (LI), typical English-only speakers (EO), and typical bilingual Spanish-English speakers (BI). The accuracy and response time (RT) of 100 8- to 13-year-old children in word recognition and picture-naming tasks were analyzed. Within each task, stimulus difficulty was manipulated to include very easy stimuli (words that were high frequency/had an early age of acquisition in English) and more difficult stimuli (words of low frequency/late age of acquisition [AOA]). There was no difference among groups in real-word recognition accuracy or RT; all 3 groups showed lower accuracy with low-frequency words. In picture naming, all 3 groups showed a longer RT for words with a late AOA, although AOA had a disproportionate negative impact on BI performance. The EO group was faster and more accurate than both LI and BI groups in conditions with later acquired stimuli. Results are discussed in terms of quantitative differences separating EO children from the other 2 groups and qualitative similarities linking monolingual children with and without LI.

Proverbes anglo-americains (English/American Proverbs).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giauque, Gerald S.

A collection of the 550 best-known English-language proverbs provides an explanation of their meanings in French and gives French-language equivalents. A list of proverbs categorized by key words is appended. (MSE)

40 CFR 355.61 - How are key words in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... waste when mixed or commingled with bedding, compost, feed, soil and other typical materials found with... aqueous or organic solutions, slurries, viscous solutions, suspensions, emulsions, or pastes. State means...

40 CFR 355.61 - How are key words in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... waste when mixed or commingled with bedding, compost, feed, soil and other typical materials found with... aqueous or organic solutions, slurries, viscous solutions, suspensions, emulsions, or pastes. State means...

Selective Inhibition and Naming Performance in Semantic Blocking, Picture-Word Interference, and Color-Word Stroop Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shao, Zeshu; Roelofs, Ardi; Martin, Randi C.; Meyer, Antje S.

2015-01-01

In 2 studies, we examined whether explicit distractors are necessary and sufficient to evoke selective inhibition in 3 naming tasks: the semantic blocking, picture-word interference, and color-word Stroop task. Delta plots were used to quantify the size of the interference effects as a function of reaction time (RT). Selective inhibition was…

Phonological Contribution during Visual Word Recognition in Child Readers. An Intermodal Priming Study in Grades 3 and 5

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sauval, Karinne; Casalis, Séverine; Perre, Laetitia

2017-01-01

This study investigated the phonological contribution during visual word recognition in child readers as a function of general reading expertise (third and fifth grades) and specific word exposure (frequent and less-frequent words). An intermodal priming in lexical decision task was performed. Auditory primes (identical and unrelated) were used in…

Unconscious Congruency Priming from Unpracticed Words Is Modulated by Prime-Target Semantic Relatedness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ortells, Juan J.; Mari-Beffa, Paloma; Plaza-Ayllon, Vanesa

2013-01-01

Participants performed a 2-choice categorization task on visible word targets that were preceded by novel (unpracticed) prime words. The prime words were presented for 33 ms and followed either immediately (Experiments 1-3) or after a variable delay (Experiments 1 and 4) by a pattern mask. Both subjective and objective measures of prime visibility…

Category Priming in the Lexical Decision Task and Evidence of Repetition Effects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanza, James

Semantic priming is the process by which a subject performing a lexical decision task is prepared for a target word through the presentation of a semantically related word. Repetition of a given word at specific intervals is one form of priming that has been shown to reduce subject reaction time in word recognition tasks. A study was conducted to…

The relation between resource limitations and optional conceptual processing by children and adults.

PubMed

Ackerman, B P; Spiker, K; Bailey, K

1989-10-01

In some situations children fail to perform optional conceptual processing that they are able to perform. The purpose of the 4 experiments was to determine if the difficulty of word identification affects optional conceptual processing by second/third graders, fifth graders, and college students in a cued recall task. Conceptual processing was manipulated by presenting Hard (e.g., hawk eagle canary) or Easy (river lake canary) word triplets that varied in the contrastive processing necessary to identify the "odd" target word (canary). The orienting activity also varied: for the Oddity Choice activity, contrastive processing was obligatory because the subject had to identify the target; for the Read activity, contrastive processing was optional because the experimenter identified the target. A recall advantage for the Hard over the Easy triplets was the measure of contrastive processing. Finally, the difficulty of word identification varied in that the subjects read the stimuli or the experimenter read the stimuli, and all the words were degraded, only the nontarget words were degraded, or all the words were intact. The results established that contrastive processing facilitates recall, and that word identification difficulty may limit the extent of optional contrastive processing.

Semantic size does not matter: "bigger" words are not recognized faster.

PubMed

Kang, Sean H K; Yap, Melvin J; Tse, Chi-Shing; Kurby, Christopher A

2011-06-01

Sereno, O'Donnell, and Sereno (2009) reported that words are recognized faster in a lexical decision task when their referents are physically large than when they are small, suggesting that "semantic size" might be an important variable that should be considered in visual word recognition research and modelling. We sought to replicate their size effect, but failed to find a significant latency advantage in lexical decision for "big" words (cf. "small" words), even though we used the same word stimuli as Sereno et al. and had almost three times as many subjects. We also examined existing data from visual word recognition megastudies (e.g., English Lexicon Project) and found that semantic size is not a significant predictor of lexical decision performance after controlling for the standard lexical variables. In summary, the null results from our lab experiment--despite a much larger subject sample size than Sereno et al.--converged with our analysis of megastudy lexical decision performance, leading us to conclude that semantic size does not matter for word recognition. Discussion focuses on why semantic size (unlike some other semantic variables) is unlikely to play a role in lexical decision.

L1 and L2 Spoken Word Processing: Evidence from Divided Attention Paradigm.

PubMed

Shafiee Nahrkhalaji, Saeedeh; Lotfi, Ahmad Reza; Koosha, Mansour

2016-10-01

The present study aims to reveal some facts concerning first language (L 1 ) and second language (L 2 ) spoken-word processing in unbalanced proficient bilinguals using behavioral measures. The intention here is to examine the effects of auditory repetition word priming and semantic priming in first and second languages of these bilinguals. The other goal is to explore the effects of attention manipulation on implicit retrieval of perceptual and conceptual properties of spoken L 1 and L 2 words. In so doing, the participants performed auditory word priming and semantic priming as memory tests in their L 1 and L 2 . In a half of the trials of each experiment, they carried out the memory test while simultaneously performing a secondary task in visual modality. The results revealed that effects of auditory word priming and semantic priming were present when participants processed L 1 and L 2 words in full attention condition. Attention manipulation could reduce priming magnitude in both experiments in L 2 . Moreover, L 2 word retrieval increases the reaction times and reduces accuracy on the simultaneous secondary task to protect its own accuracy and speed.

Reading in developmental prosopagnosia: Evidence for a dissociation between word and face recognition.

PubMed

Starrfelt, Randi; Klargaard, Solja K; Petersen, Anders; Gerlach, Christian

2018-02-01

Recent models suggest that face and word recognition may rely on overlapping cognitive processes and neural regions. In support of this notion, face recognition deficits have been demonstrated in developmental dyslexia. Here we test whether the opposite association can also be found, that is, impaired reading in developmental prosopagnosia. We tested 10 adults with developmental prosopagnosia and 20 matched controls. All participants completed the Cambridge Face Memory Test, the Cambridge Face Perception test and a Face recognition questionnaire used to quantify everyday face recognition experience. Reading was measured in four experimental tasks, testing different levels of letter, word, and text reading: (a) single word reading with words of varying length,(b) vocal response times in single letter and short word naming, (c) recognition of single letters and short words at brief exposure durations (targeting the word superiority effect), and d) text reading. Participants with developmental prosopagnosia performed strikingly similar to controls across the four reading tasks. Formal analysis revealed a significant dissociation between word and face recognition, as the difference in performance with faces and words was significantly greater for participants with developmental prosopagnosia than for controls. Adult developmental prosopagnosics read as quickly and fluently as controls, while they are seemingly unable to learn efficient strategies for recognizing faces. We suggest that this is due to the differing demands that face and word recognition put on the perceptual system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Priming Ability-Relevant Social Categories Improves Intellectual Test Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Phoebe S.; Kennette, Lynne N.; Van Havermaet, Lisa R.; Frank, Nichole M.; McIntyre, Rusty B.

2012-01-01

Research shows that priming affects behavioral tasks; fewer studies, however, have been conducted on how social category primes affect cognitive tasks. The present study aimed to examine the effects of social category primes on math performance and word recall. It was hypothesized that Asian prime words would improve math performance and word…

The pond is wider than you think! Problems encountered when searching family practice literature.

PubMed Central

Rosser, W. W.; Starkey, C.; Shaughnessy, R.

2000-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To explain differences in the results of literature searches in British general practice and North American family practice or family medicine. DESIGN: Comparative literature search. SETTING: The Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto in Ontario. METHOD: Literature searches on MEDLINE demonstrated that certain search strategies ignored certain key words, depending on the search engine and the search terms chosen. Literature searches using the key words "general practice," "family practice," and "family medicine" combined with the topics "depression" and then "otitis media" were conducted in MEDLINE using four different Web-based search engines: Ovid, HealthGate, PubMed, and Internet Grateful Med. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The number of MEDLINE references retrieved for both topics when searched with each of the three key words, "general practice," "family practice," and "family medicine" using each of the four search engines. RESULTS: For each topic, each search yielded very different articles. Some search engines did a better job of matching the term "general practice" to the terms "family medicine" and "family practice," and thus improved retrieval. The problem of language use extends to the variable use of terminology and differences in spelling between British and American English. CONCLUSION: We need to heighten awareness of literature search problems and the potential for duplication of research effort when some of the literature is ignored, and to suggest ways to overcome the deficiencies of the various search engines. Images Figure 1 Figure 2 PMID:10660792

Design and performance of a large vocabulary discrete word recognition system. Volume 1: Technical report. [real time computer technique for voice data processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1973-01-01

The development, construction, and test of a 100-word vocabulary near real time word recognition system are reported. Included are reasonable replacement of any one or all 100 words in the vocabulary, rapid learning of a new speaker, storage and retrieval of training sets, verbal or manual single word deletion, continuous adaptation with verbal or manual error correction, on-line verification of vocabulary as spoken, system modes selectable via verification display keyboard, relationship of classified word to neighboring word, and a versatile input/output interface to accommodate a variety of applications.

The Effects of Schema-Broadening Instruction on Second Graders’ Word-Problem Performance and Their Ability to Represent Word Problems with Algebraic Equations: A Randomized Control Study

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Zumeta, Rebecca O.; Schumacher, Robin Finelli; Powell, Sarah R.; Seethaler, Pamela M.; Hamlett, Carol L.; Fuchs, Douglas

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of schema-broadening instruction (SBI) on second graders’ word-problem-solving skills and their ability to represent the structure of word problems using algebraic equations. Teachers (n = 18) were randomly assigned to conventional word-problem instruction or SBI word-problem instruction, which taught students to represent the structural, defining features of word problems with overarching equations. Intervention lasted 16 weeks. We pretested and posttested 270 students on measures of word-problem skill; analyses that accounted for the nested structure of the data indicated superior word-problem learning for SBI students. Descriptive analyses of students’ word-problem work indicated that SBI helped students represent the structure of word problems with algebraic equations, suggesting that SBI promoted this aspect of students’ emerging algebraic reasoning. PMID:20539822

Analogue evaluation of the effects of opportunities to respond and ratios of known items within drill rehearsal of Esperanto words.

PubMed

Szadokierski, Isadora; Burns, Matthew K

2008-10-01

Drill procedures have been used to increase the retention of various types of information, but little is known about the causal mechanisms of these techniques. The current study compared the effect of two key features of drill procedures, a large number of opportunities to respond (OTR) and a drill ratio that maintains a high percentage of known to unknown items (90% known). Using a factorial design, 27 4th graders were taught the pronunciation and meaning of Esperanto words using four versions of incremental rehearsal that varied on two factors, percentage of known words (high - 90% vs. moderate - 50%) and the number of OTR (high vs. low). A within-subject ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for OTR and non-significant effects for drill ratio and the interaction between the two variables. Moreover, it was found that increasing OTR from low to high yielded a large effect size (d=2.46), but increasing the percentage of known material from moderate (50%) to high (90%) yielded a small effect (d=0.16). These results suggest that a high number of OTR may be a key feature of flashcard drill techniques in promoting learning and retention.

Retroactive interference in short-term memory and the word-length effect.

PubMed

Campoy, Guillermo

2011-09-01

Two experiments investigated the possibility that the word-length effect in short-term memory (STM) is a consequence of long words generating a greater level of retroactive interference than shorter words. In Experiment 1, six-word lists were auditorily presented under articulatory suppression for immediate serial reconstruction of only the first three words. These three words were always drawn from a single set of middle-length words, whereas the last three positions were occupied by either short or long interfering words. The results showed worse memory performance when the to-be-remembered words were followed by long words. In Experiment 2, a recent-probes task was used, in which recent negative probes matched a target word in trial n-2. The results showed lower levels of proactive interference when trial n-1 involved long words instead of short words, suggesting that long words displaced previous STM content to a greater extent. By two different experimental approaches, therefore, this study shows that long words produce more retroactive interference than short words, supporting an interference-based account for the word-length effect. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Attentional capture by taboo words: A functional view of auditory distraction.

PubMed

Röer, Jan P; Körner, Ulrike; Buchner, Axel; Bell, Raoul

2017-06-01

It is well established that task-irrelevant, to-be-ignored speech adversely affects serial short-term memory (STM) for visually presented items compared with a quiet control condition. However, there is an ongoing debate about whether the semantic content of the speech has the capacity to capture attention and to disrupt memory performance. In the present article, we tested whether taboo words are more difficult to ignore than neutral words. Taboo words or neutral words were presented as (a) steady state sequences in which the same distractor word was repeated, (b) changing state sequences in which different distractor words were presented, and (c) auditory deviant sequences in which a single distractor word deviated from a sequence of repeated words. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that taboo words disrupted performance more than neutral words. This taboo effect did not habituate and it did not differ between individuals with high and low working memory capacity. In Experiments 3 and 4, in which only a single deviant taboo word was presented, no taboo effect was obtained. These results do not support the idea that the processing of the auditory distractors' semantic content is the result of occasional attention switches to the auditory modality. Instead, the overall pattern of results is more in line with a functional view of auditory distraction, according to which the to-be-ignored modality is routinely monitored for potentially important stimuli (e.g., self-relevant or threatening information), the detection of which draws processing resources away from the primary task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

A cross-linguistic study of real-word and non-word repetition as predictors of grammatical competence in children with typical language development

PubMed Central

Dispaldro, Marco; Deevy, Patricia; Altoe, Gianmarco; Benelli, Beatrice; Leonard Purdue, Laurence B.

2013-01-01

Background Although relationships among non-word repetition, real-word repetition and grammatical ability have been documented, it is important to study whether the specific nature of these relationships is tied to the characteristics of a given language. Aims The aim of this study is to explore the potential cross-linguistic differences (Italian and English) in the relationship among non-word repetition, real-word repetition, and grammatical ability in three- and four-year-old children with typical language development. Methods & Procedures To reach this goal, two repetition tasks (one real-word list and one non-word list for each language) were used. In Italian the grammatical categories were the third person plural inflection and the direct-object clitic pronouns, while in English they were the third person singular present tense inflection and the past tense in regular and irregular forms. Outcomes & Results A cross-linguistic comparison showed that in both Italian and English, non-word repetition was a significant predictor of grammatical ability. However, performance on real-word repetition explained children’s grammatical ability in Italian but not in English. Conclusions & Implications Abilities underlying non-word repetition performance (e.g., the processing and/or storage of phonological material) play an important role in the development of children’s grammatical abilities in both languages. Lexical ability (indexed by real-word repetition) showed a close relationship to grammatical ability in Italian but not in English. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of cross-linguistic differences, genetic research, clinical intervention and methodological issues. PMID:21899673