Do children with SLI use verbs to predict arguments and adjuncts: evidence from eye movements during listening

Different psycholinguistic theories have suggested the importance of verb semantics in rapidly anticipating upcoming information during real-time sentence comprehension. To date, no study has examined if children use verbs to predict arguments and adjuncts in sentence comprehension using children with specific language impairment (SLI).Twenty-five children with SLI (aged 5 years and 3 months to 8 years and 2 months), twenty-five age-matched controls (aged 5 years and 3 months to 8 years and 2 months), twenty-five MLU-w controls (aged 3 years and 3 months to 7 years and 1 month), and 31 adults took part in the study. The eye movements of participants were monitored while they heard twenty-four sentences, such as El hombre lee con atención un cuento en la cama (translation: The man carefully reads a storybook in bed), in the presence of four depicted objects, one of which was the target (storybook), another, the competitor (bed), and another two, distracters (wardrobe and grape). The proportion of looks revealed that, when the meaning of the verb was retrieved, the upcoming argument and adjunct referents were rapidly anticipated. However, the proportion of looks at the theme, source/goal and instrument referents were significantly higher than the looks at the locatives. This pattern was found in adults as well as children with and without language impairment. The present results suggest that, in terms of sentence comprehension, the ability to understand verb information is not severely impaired in children with SLI

Semantic priming and schizotypal personality: reassessing the link between thought disorder and enhanced spreading of semantic activation

The term schizotypy refers to a group of stable personality traits with attributes similar to symptoms of schizophrenia, usually classified in terms of positive, negative or cognitive disorganization symptoms. The observation of increased spreading of semantic activation in individuals with schizotypal traits has led to the hypothesis that thought disorder, one of the characteristics of cognitive disorganization, stems from semantic disturbances. Nevertheless, it is still not clear under which specific circumstances (i.e., automatic or controlled processing, direct or indirect semantic relation) schizotypy affects semantic priming or whether it does affect it at all. We conducted two semantic priming studies with volunteers varying in schizotypy, one with directly related prime-target pairs and another with indirectly related pairs. Our participants completed a lexical decision task with related and unrelated pairs presented at short (250 ms) and long (750 ms) stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). Then, they responded to the brief versions of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire and the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences, both of which include measures of cognitive disorganization. Bayesian mixed-effects models indicated expected effects of SOA and semantic relatedness, as well as an interaction between relatedness and directness (greater priming effects for directly related pairs). Even though our analyses demonstrated good sensitivity, we observed no influence of cognitive disorganization over semantic priming. Our study provides no compelling evidence that schizotypal symptoms, specifically those associated with the cognitive disorganization dimension, are rooted in an increased spreading of semantic activation in priming tasks

Causal illusion as a cognitive basis of pseudoscientific beliefs

Causal illusion has been proposed as a cognitive mediator of pseudoscientific beliefs. However, previous studies have only tested the association between this cognitive bias and a closely related but different type of unwarranted beliefs, those related to superstition and paranormal phenomena. Participants (n = 225) responded to a novel questionnaire of pseudoscientific beliefs designed for this study. They also completed a contingency learning task in which a possible cause, infusion intake, and a desired effect, headache remission, were actually non‐contingent. Volunteers with higher scores on the questionnaire also presented stronger causal illusion effects. These results support the hypothesis that causal illusions might play a fundamental role in the endorsement of pseudoscientific beliefs

Truth is in the eye of the beholder... Isn't it? Study of the differences between detecting truth or lies in L1 and L2 speakers

En aquest TFG s'investigaran les diferències entre la producció de veritats o mentides mitjançant un procediment experimental dividit en dues parts. Primerament s'obtindran vídeos de persones en les quals la primera llengua (L1) sigui espanyol o català i la segona llengua (L2) sigui l'anglès i se'ls demanarà que es gravin explicant dues anècdotes d'aproximadament 2 minuts de durada, una que sigui veritat (V) i una altra que sigui falsa (M), en ambdues L1 i L2. La primera part consistirà en una anàlisi d'expressions facials i de propietats acústiques, utilitzant els programes ELAN per a l'anàlisi d'expressions facials i PRAAT per a l'anàlisi de propietats acústiques. La segona part consistirà en un experiment de percepció de veritats i mentides amb participants de 3 condicions diferents: persones nadiues en L1 anglès, participants en els quals la seva primera llengua sigui l'espanyol o català i L2 anglès i participants amb l'L2-anglès però una L1 diferent de l'espanyol/català.En este TFG se investigarán las diferencias entre la producción de verdades o mentiras mediante un procedimiento experimental dividido en dos partes. Primeramente se obtendrán vídeos de personas en las que la primera lengua (L1) sea español o catalán y la segunda lengua (L2) sea el inglés y se les pedirá que se graben contando dos anécdotas de aproximadamente 2 minutos de duración, una que sea verdad (V) y otra que sea falsa (M), en ambas L1 y L2. La primera parte consistirá en un análisis de expresiones faciales y de propiedades acústicas, utilizando los programas ELAN para el análisis de expresiones faciales y PRAAT para el análisis de propiedades acústicas. La segunda parte consistirá en un experimento de percepción de verdades y mentiras con participantes de 3 condiciones diferentes: personas nativas en L1 inglés, participantes en los que su primera lengua sea el español o catalán y L2 inglés y participantes con el L2- inglés pero una L1 diferente del español / catalán.This TFG will investigate the differences between the production of truths or lies using an experimental procedure divided into two parts. Firstly, videos will be obtained from people in whom the first language (L1) is Spanish or Catalan and the second language (L2) is English, and they will be asked to record themselves with two anecdotes of approximately 2 minutes long, one that is true (V) and another that is false (M), in both L1 and L2. The first part will consist of an analysis of facial expressions and acoustic properties, using the ELAN programs for the analysis of facial expressions and PRAAT for the analysis of acoustic properties. The second part will consist of an experiment of perception of truths and lies with participants from 3 different conditions: people native to L1 English, participants in whom their first language is Spanish or Catalan and L2 English and participants with L2-English but a L1 different from Spanish / Catalan

Spelling problems after early oral language difficulties

Recent research has stated that early oral language acquisition difficulties are related to reading and writing difficulties. Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) experience difficulties with several dimensions of language. In this study we focus on the specific difficulties of children with DLD in spelling. We examine the impact of lexicality and length in written production of Spanish-speaking children with DLD. A total of 18 children with language difficulties (Mage = 8;4) were compared with age-matched children (Mage = 8;2). Participants completed a spelling-to-dictation task of words and pseudowords, where length was manipulated. A digital tablet was used to collect data and obtain measures of accuracy, latencies and total writing durations. Results showed that children with DLD produced more errors, longer latencies and longer writing durations than age-matched children. Regarding accuracy, analysis of the errors shows that children in the control group produce few errors, most being substitutions, while children with DLD made more errors and of more varied categories. Moreover, they were more affected by length on writing accuracy than the control group

Authority Brings Responsibility: Feedback from Experts Promotes an Overweighting of Health-Related Pseudoscientific Beliefs

The popularity and spread of health-related pseudoscientific practices is a worldwide problem. Despite being counteracted by competent agents of our societies, their prevalence and spread continue to grow. Current research has focused on identifying which characteristics make us more likely to hold pseudoscientific beliefs. However, how we hold these beliefs despite all the available information against them is a question that remains unanswered. Here, we aimed to assess if the development of health-related pseudoscientific beliefs could be driven by a positive bias in belief updating. Additionally, we aimed to explore whether this bias could be exacerbated, depending on source credibility. In this study, participants (N = 116) underwent a belief updating task where they offered their agreement with various health-related pseudoscientific statements before and after receiving supporting and discrediting feedback from (a) experts (doctors), (b) peers, or (c) a random number generator. Our results suggest that when receiving feedback from experts (but not from peers or random feedback), the participants preferentially integrated supporting information relative to discrediting information about health-related pseudoscience. We discuss the implications of this biased belief updating pattern on health-related pseudoscientific research and suggest new strategies for intervention focused on increasing awareness, training, and consensus among healthcare practitioners

Positive schizotypy increases the acceptance of unpresented materials in false memory tasks in non-clinical individuals

Enhanced spreading of semantic activation has been hypothesized to underlie some of the most significant symptoms of schizotypal personality, like thought disorder, odd speech, delusion, or magical thinking. We applied the Deese/Roediger-McDermott false memory task to the study of semantic activation in a group of 123 non-clinical individuals varying in the three dimensions of schizotypal personality: positive, negative and disorganized schizotypy. In the study phase, we presented them with lists composed of words semantically associated to unpresented critical words. Then, they responded to a recognition questionnaire including previously presented words and critical unpresented lures, as well as weakly related and unrelated unpresented lures. Participants rated their confidence in recognizing each word. They also filled in a standardized schizotypal personality questionnaire. Confirming the false memory effect, recognition ratings provided in response to critical words were higher than those produced for both weakly related and unrelated items. Crucially, scores in the positive dimension increased recognition percentages and confidence ratings for weakly related and unrelated lures. This study indicates that high levels of positive schizotypy might influence the tendency to accept false memories of unrelated unpresented material

Consistency of a nonword repetition task to discriminate children with and without developmental language disorder in Catalan-Spanish and European Portuguese speaking children

Nonword repetition has been proposed as a diagnostic marker of developmental language disorder (DLD); however, the inconsistency in the ability of nonword repetition tasks (NRT) to identify children with DLD raises significant questions regarding its feasibility as a clinical tool. Research suggests that some of the inconsistency across NRT may be due to differences in the nature of the nonword stimuli. In this study, we compared children’s performance on NRT between two cohorts: the children in the Catalan–Spanish cohort (CS) were bilingual, and the children in the European Portuguese cohort (EP) were monolingual. NRT performance was assessed in both Spanish and Catalan for the bilingual children from Catalonia-Spain and in Portuguese for the monolingual children from Portugal. Results show that although the absolute performance differed across the two cohorts, with NRT performance being lower for the CS, in both Catalan and Spanish, as compared to the EP cohort in both, the cut-points for the likelihood ratios (LH) were similar across the three languages and mirror those previously reported in previous studies. However, the absolute LH ratio values for this study were higher than those reported in prior research due in part to differences in wordlikeness and frequency of the stimuli in the current study. Taken together, the findings from this study show that an NRT consisting of 3-, 4-, and 5-syllable nonwords, which varies in wordlikeness ratings, when presented in a random order accurately identifies and correctly differentiates children with DLD from TD controls the child is bilingual or monolingual.This research was funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) Grant [R0105263] awarded to Dr. Evans, from The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Grant [P30HD03352] awarded to the Waisman Center, The University of Wisconsin Madison; by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad Grant [2016EDU2016-75368-P/BES-2014-070511] awarded from Dr. Andreu and from the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) de la Generalitat de Catalunya [2017SGR387] awarded to the Grup de Recerca en Cognició i Llenguatge (UOC-UB); by the CIEd—Research Centre on Education, Institute of Education, University of Minho, projects [UIDB/01661/2020] and [UIDP/01661/2020], through national funds of FCT/MCTES-PT