Complex Grammar Processing in the Brain: Development and Evaluation of a Child-Friendly fMRI Paradigm

In der Folge von links-hemisphärischen Hirnläsionen in der Prä- und Perinatalzeit kann eine Reorganisation von Sprachfunktionen in homotope Hirnareale der rechten Hemisphäre beobachtet werden. Dieser Kompensationsmechanismus ermöglicht später eine Sprachentwicklung ohne klinisch offensichtliche Schwächen. Wenn man die betroffenen Kinder jedoch genauer untersucht, können durchaus distinkte Sprachdefizite gefunden werden. Eine Verhaltensstudie von Schwilling et al., 2012 entdeckte signifikante Unterschiede zwischen Patienten mit reorganisierter (rechts-hemisphärischer) Sprachorganisation und einer gesunden Kontrollgruppe im Verstehen von nicht-kanonischen, objekt-topikalisierten Satzstrukturen. Inspiriert durch diese Ergebnisse war es unser Ziel ein Paradigma zu entwickeln, um die neuronalen Grundlagen dieser Unterschiede zu untersuchen. Insbesondere interessierte uns hierbei die Repräsentation der Verarbeitung von komplexen (nicht-kanonischen) im Vergleich zu einfachen (kanonischen) Satzstrukturen. Das Paradigma sollte geeignet sein für die Untersuchung von Kindern, Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen mit reorganisierter Sprache. Diese Arbeit beschreibt, wie solch ein Paradigma entwickelt, umgesetzt und an 23 jungen Erwachsenen Probanden (12 Frauen; Durchschnittsalter: m = 24,39 ± 3,39 Jahre) erfolgreich pilotiert wurde. Es wurden 12 kindgerechte Szenarien mit jeweils 2 nicht-kanonischen und 2 kanonischen Satzbedingungen entwickelt. Die 48 Sätze wurden durch eine professionelle Sprecherin aufgenommen. Die visuelle Umsetzung erfolgte anhand kurzer Playmobil® stop-motion Filme. Als nicht-invasive bildgebende Methode wurde die funktionelle Magnetresonanztomographie (fMRT) genutzt. Eine Satz-Wiederholungs- („sentence repetition“, SR) und eine Wahrheits-Beurteilungs-Aufgabe („truth value judgement“, TVJ) wurden in ein gemischtes Block- und Event-Related Design eingebettet. Während der SR-Aufgabe mussten die Probanden den über Kopfhörer dargebotenen Satz laut und deutlich wiederholen (100% Konkordanz von Satz und Film). Während der TVJ-Aufgabe mussten die Probanden entscheiden, ob akustischer Satz und stop-motion Film inhaltlich übereinstimmten (50% Konkordanz von Satz und Film). Innerhalb der Aufgaben waren die 4 Satzbedingungen pseudorandomisiert. In beiden Aufgaben wurden die 2 nicht-kanonischen gegen die 2 kanonischen Satzbedingungen kontrastiert. Die Probanden zeigten keine Fehler bei der Wiederholung der Satzbedingungen. In der SR-Aufgabe zeigten sich Aktivierungen im linken superioren frontalen Gyrus, im rechten präzentralen Gyrus und im linken parahippocampalen Gyrus. Während der TVJ-Aufgabe waren die Fehlerraten für die nicht-kanonischen Satzbedingungen signifikant höher als für die kanonischen Satzbedingungen (11,9% nicht-kanonisch; 6,1% kanonisch; p = 0,0063). In der TVJ-Aufgabe zeigten sich Aktivierungen in der linken Insel, im linken inferioren frontalen Gyrus (pars opercularis), im rechten inferioren frontalen Gyrus (pars orbitalis) und im linken Cingulum. Die Aktivierung während der SR-Aufgabe im linken parahippocampalen Gyrus wird interpretiert als Hinweis darauf, dass das Merken und/oder Reproduzieren von objekt-topikalisierten Sätze auf mehr Unterstützung dieser Struktur angewiesen ist als bei kanonischen Satzstrukturen. Dies könnte durch das seltenere Auftreten von nicht-kanonischen Sätzen im Alltag oder durch deren höhere Komplexität zu erklären sein. Die Aktivierung im rechten präzentralen Gyrus könnte auf eine erschwerte auditorisch-zu-artikulatorische Planung hinweisen. Während der TVJ-Aufgabe könnte die Aktivierung in der linken Insel die motorische Planung von verdeckter Sprache widerspiegeln, welche zum Verstehen komplexer Inhalte genutzt wird. Die Aktivierung im linken Cingulum reflektiert wahrscheinlich eine ausgeprägtere kognitive Kontrolle bei der Bearbeitung der nicht-kanonischen Satzbedingungen. Dies könnte durch die unterschiedliche Vertrautheit der Strukturen oder durch ein nicht-Erfüllen der Erwartung der häufigeren kanonischen Struktur zu erklären sein. Die Beteiligung von linkem und rechtem inferiorem frontalen Gyrus (linker pars opercularis, rechter pars orbitalis) deutet auf höhere syntaktische und semantische Anforderungen für die Verarbeitung von nicht-kanonischen im Vergleich zu kanonischen Satzbedingungen hin. Das gute Abschneiden unserer Probanden in beiden Aufgaben deutet auf einen gewissen Deckeneffekt, welcher die resultierende Effektstärke limitiert haben könnte. Dies dürfte allerdings bei Kindern und Jugendlichen ein geringeres Problem sein. Die signifikant höhere Fehlerrate bei der nicht-kanonischen Satzstruktur, verbunden mit einem Aktivierungsmuster in Kern-Sprachregionen, deutet darauf hin, dass diese Aufgabe einen interessanten Ansatz für die Untersuchung dieses speziellen Aspektes des Sprachsystems bietet. Zusammenfassend lässt sich ableiten, dass dieses Paradigma sowohl geeignet wie auch vielversprechend ist für die Untersuchung der spezifischen Defizite bei Kindern und jungen Erwachsenen mit links-hemisphärischen Hirnläsionen

Graph Theory and Universal Grammar

Tese arquivada ao abrigo da Portaria nº 227/2017 de 25 de Julho-Registo de Grau EstrangeiroIn the last few years, Noam Chomsky (1994; 1995; 2000; 2001) has gone quite far in the direction of simplifying syntax, including eliminating X-bar theory and the levels of D-structure and S-structure entirely, as well as reducing movement rules to a combination of the more primitive operations of Copy and Merge. What remain in the Minimalist Program are the operations Merge and Agree and the levels of LF (Logical Form) and PF (Phonological form). My doctoral thesis attempts to offer an economical theory of syntactic structure from a graph-theoretic point of view (cf. Diestel, 2005), with special emphases on the elimination of category and projection labels and the Inclusiveness Condition (Chomsky 1994). The major influences for the development of such a theory have been Chris Collins’ (2002) seminal paper “Eliminating labels”, John Bowers (2001) unpublished manuscript “Syntactic Relations” and the Cartographic Paradigm (see Belletti, Cinque and Rizzi’s volumes on OUP for a starting point regarding this paradigm). A syntactic structure will be regarded here as a graph consisting of the set of lexical items, the set of relations among them and nothing more

Winthrop University Undergraduate Scholarship & Creative Activity 2020

University College and Winthrop University proudly present Undergraduate Scholarship and Creative Activity 2020. This ninth annual University- wide compilation of undergraduate work chronicles the accomplishments of students and faculty mentors from at least 35 academic departments and programs, spanning all five colleges of the university: College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), College of Business Administration (CBA), College of Education (COE), College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) and University College (UC).https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/undergradresearch_abstractbooks/1018/thumbnail.jp

Validity of the overclaiming technique as a method to account for response bias in self-assessment questions : analysis on the basis of the PISA 2012 data

The presented work is devoted to study the validity of overclaiming technique (OCT) as a measure of response (positivity) bias. Three main aims of the analyses performed were: a) assess methods' utility to enhance predictive validity of self-report by accounting for response biases, b) investigate proposed mechanisms of overclaiming, c) expand nomological network of the method by presenting a wide set of both individual-level and cluster-level (school) correlates. The obtained results pointed that OCT can be used in order to account for response biases in self-report data. Important differences regarding use and interpretation of the different OCT scoring systems were found and commented. Two systems, one based of signal detection theory (SDT), other on item response theory model (IRT), were proposed as viable scorings of OCT. Choice between them is not trivial as it influences results' interpretation and model specification. Three possible mechanisms of overclaiming were tested: a) motivated response bias (self-favouring bias, socially desirable responding), b) memory bias (overgeneralised knowledge or faulty memory control) and c) response styles and careless responding. The results pointed that all three mechanisms are probable and that overclaiming is most probably a heterogenous phenomenon of multiple causes. However, the analyses pointed out that one of the memory bias hypotheses, the overgeneralised knowledge account, does not hold and that there is much more evidence for the competitive metacognitive account. It is to said that overclaiming is at least partially attributable to insufficient monitoring of one's knowledge. Evidence for a relation between careless responding and overclaiming was also obtained, indicating that at least some of the overclaimed responses can be attributed due to inattentive responding. Obtained results on the relations between response styles and overclaiming were complicated; they warrant further studies as the results here probably greatly depend on the technical details of analysis, e.g. response style definition and coding adopted. The analysed cluster-level covariates demonstrated that only very limited portion of OCT variance can be ascribed to the school-level of analysis. Gender, socio-economic status and locus of control proved to be significantly related to overclaiming among the individual-level correlates assessed. Boys yielded higher overclaiming bias than girls and students of external locus of control were more biased in their self-reports in comparison to students of internal locus of control. The work comprises also analysis of the PISA's OCT latent structure. The results evidenced bifactor structure of the scale, with the general factor interpreted as math ability while the two specific factors were given a tentative explanation concentrated around item difficulty (one specific factor emerged for easy items, one for hard items). These findings point to a multi-dimensional character of OCT and a large role played by domain ability in OCT responding. Moreover, latent class analysis (LCA) performed identified an "overclaiming" group among the participants which was characterised by high overclaiming and unwarrantedly high self-report profile regarding math-related abilities and social life. However, this group counted only around 9% of the total sample. Implications of these findings are commented in the work, along with theoretical integration and ideas for future studies with the use of OCT

Investigating the function of alpha frequency oscillatory activity

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonA fundamental challenge in modern neuroscience is to understand the role of synchronous oscillatory activity of groups of neurons in information processing. This thesis addressed the problem of how alpha frequency oscillatory activity might help control the flow of information from both the external world and from higher cognitive areas (responsible for inhibitory control, top-down and bottom-up information flow). A series of experiments investigated how alpha neuronal dynamics might aid/control cognition. In order to study the functional significance of alpha frequency oscillatory activity, the effects on performance in cognitive tasks of alpha activity directly elicited using photic stimulation were examined. Initially, we were interested in the role of alpha oscillations in information transfer across cortical areas, which was probed using a numerical Stroop task with every trial preceded by a flicker prime. The incongruent trials of the Stroop task introduce a conflict between competing responses which results in people being slower in responses to the task compared with congruent trials. That slower response has been related to increased communication between conflict processing fronto-parietal and early somatosensory regions. If alpha oscillations improve communication efficiency across the cortex it was predicted that inducing stronger alpha oscillations would affect the performance, (i.e. the Stroop cost would diminish). That hypothesis was tested in a series of three experiments. None of the manipulations (different frequencies, amplitudes induced and alpha phases where the Stroop task was initiated) showed that alpha oscillatory activity reduces the Stroop effect. However, the last task showed that people were faster when the task was preceded by an alpha frequency flicker prime, especially around 10Hz. The fourth experiment built on the well-established phenomena that when alpha activity is elicited in a particular hemisphere it attenuates processing of sensory information in that hemisphere, while the opposite hemisphere, is characterised by increased efficiency of information processing/flow. The study tested whether that could occur within a hemisphere by localised entrainment of part of the visual field. This hypothesis was tested by examining whether it could resolve differences in results previously published by Mathewson et al., (2012) and Spaak et al., (2014). In this study, a target circle was presented at time points after the offset of an alpha flicker prime, such that it was either in or out of phase with the prime. The target was displayed briefly, and then a masking ring appeared around the target location. There were two experimental conditions. First priming occurred at the central target location, and this was expected to inhibit perception at that location, (i.e. the target would be best detected at out of alpha phase time points). In contrast, in the second condition, the target surround area (e.g. the mask location) was stimulated, and this was expected to inhibit perception at that location, (i.e. the mask would be most effective in phase time points and so the target more easily detected). However, in both instances, target detection was best at in-phase time points and attenuated at out of phase time points, in line with Mathewson et al., (2012) results. This gives us some insight into the role of the alpha phase in allowing the external stimuli to be perceived/detected. The fifth experiment tested whether the level of spatial uncertainty of briefly presented target determines the alpha phase position for its best detection. This task used a similar masked circle paradigm as the fourth experiment, but the target could appear at one of two locations either side of fixation, which were both preceded by a flicker prime (either alpha frequency or randomly jittered) and followed by masking rings. The hypothesis was that the optimal alpha phase for target detection depends on whether people are pre-guided (by an arrow cue) to the target location or uncued (a higher level of spatial uncertainty). This hypothesis was again tested by examining whether it could resolve differences in results previously published by Mathewson et al., (2012) and Spaak et al., (2014). This experiment showed that the level of spatial uncertainty of briefly presented target determines the optimal alpha phase for its detection. Targets whose location was not pre-guided were the most likely to be detected when presented at time points out of phase with the entrained alpha prime; targets whose location was pre-guided by a brief arrow were the most likely to be detected when presented at time points in phase with the entrained alpha prime. The sixth experiment used EEG to investigate the neural dynamics underlying the behaviourally tested phenomenon in the previous experiment. Results showed that for targets with a high level of spatial uncertainty, the average alpha power peak was detected earlier in anterior electrodes compared with posterior electrodes, which is consistent with a greater reliance on alpha top-down dynamics. In contrast, for targets at a spatially cued location, the average alpha power peak was detected earlier at posterior electrodes, which suggests a greater reliance on bottom-up alpha neuronal dynamics. In summary, this thesis confirmed that mid-alpha phase determines the probability of detection of a briefly presented target. Also, it showed that optimal alpha phase for detecting briefly presented target would differ depending on the level of spatial uncertainty of that target. Targets at non-predictable locations are more likely to be detected at a trough in the phase of alpha activity whilst those at cued locations are most likely to be detected in-phase. Hence, perception depends not only on the internal neuronal alpha dynamics but also on the type of the visual percept. This difference may highlight the role of two different neuronal alpha sources which dominate in the different scenarios. When the target location is uncertain, top-down alpha dynamics dominate. However, when the target location is pre-guided, bottom-up alpha dynamics dominate

God in context : a comparative study of the images of God in three select local Christian groups of women.

Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.This thesis, grounded in a select group of women's experience, critiques the exclusive images for God presented by the Church in its language and liturgy. My contention in this thesis is that in an emerging democracy such as South Africa, the metaphors and language used are increasingly restrictive - in terms of both the empowerment of women and the enrichment of men. I look at how feminist scholarship has focussed on the implications of patriarchy for women and the claim by feminist theologians that the ensuing symbols have been damaging for women The analysis includes means to recover traditional images for God and suggestions of ways to discover alternative images. Following the feminist analysis, I argue for a hermeneutic which locates the meaning of the tradition within the experience of three local, select groups of women

The news media and democracy in Ghana (1992-2000)

The study critically examines the role played by the news media in a modern African democracy. The issues of democracy and the theories that drive them are mostly either Euro-centric or Anglo-American. The perspective offered by this thesis showed that Africa has a unique system which calls for a hybridised approach to the study of media and democracy. The functioning of a state-owned media, insulated from governmental control by the 1992 Ghana Constitution alongside privately-owned media is a phenomenon worth the undertaking. What the study has done was an engagement with normative theories of media and democracy to determine whether or not the news media and more particularly, the newspaper media contribute to democratic development of Ghana. In this context, a comparative analytical study of the Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Chronicle, state and private entities respectively, underpinned the enquiry into the possible influences on elections, checks on democratic accountability and promotion of multiparty politics. Crucially, Ghana's return to the path of multiparty constitutional democracy since 1992, has potentially equipped the news media with muscles to engage the statemanagers inways that may significantly reduce the incidence of power abuse. With some degree of democratic consolidation, the focus of the news media, and even political activists, has significantly shifted towards the ensuring of democratic accountability and responsibility, and administrative transparency. Undoubtedly, the newspaper media as the `Fourth Estate' has a constitutional mandate in Ghana, for ensuring that political power-wielders operate within the standards required for `good governance'. An insight into how the exploits of the newspaper press acts as a catalyst for debate, deliberation and argumentation leading to opinion formation, in the political and democratic sphere in Ghana has been undertaken. This arguably has had an influence more widely in the continent of Africa. Within the framework of unearthing the dynamics of the newspaper press role in the democratic process for the period 1992.2000, a combination of methods were employed to analyse the research data. Importantly, the findings arising from the investigation, informed by the methodological strategy of triangulation, has assisted in addressing most of the research questions using the critical comparative framework. The effectiveness of the Ghanaian media in the democratic process is circumscribed by deep partisanships that wash over the political landscape. However, the bifurcation in the newspaper press offered by private/state ownership and control has arguably been a major contribution to the development of democracy as it allows for pluralism and diversity. This therefore defies the Western-held view that state-owned newspapers are an anathema to democratic development and progress. A major finding emerging from this study has been the combination of two different models of news media ownership contributing to the building of democracy in an African country. The emergence of findings in relation to the role of the state/private dichotomy in newspapers all promoting multiparty democracy in Ghana in particular constituted modest contributions to this field of study and may open the door into wider channels of enquiry into the news media and democracy paradox

Reaching the intersection of Indigenous and modern: A critical analysis of disaster risk management modernization in Ivatan Indigenous communities

Known for their Indigenous knowledge, systems, and practices (IKSPs) in managing disaster risks, the Ivatans of Batanes Province in the Philippines are faced with the pressures of modernizing such generations-old traditions. While noble in intent, the technologically-driven narrative of managing disaster risks idealized by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) brings to question the change it influences on Ivatan Indigenous communities. The intersection between Ivatan IKSPs and the NDRRMC’s initiatives reflected epistemological contrasts of positivist vis-à-vis constructivist approaches that warranted a critical view. Drawing new understanding and knowledge using the critical paradigm required an Action Research-driven methodology. Specific data gathering and collaboration methods included desk research; validation of an Ivatan DRRM IKSP inventory; FGDs and workshops that delved into understanding community and Local DRRM Council perceptions and critiques; and a workshop to craft recommendations for integrating Indigenous and scientific resiliency systems. Research findings pointed out hegemonic, top- down-centric policies that insisted outsider-oriented, technical solutions that were ineffective to the local context and were potentially damaging to traditional cultural systems and practices of resiliency. However, Ivatans were also faced with endogenous agencies such as the strong thrust for modernity through technology that may potentially wane traditional resiliency practices. Outcomes from community workshops also revealed a paradigm shift in society to integrate the scientific and traditional as a continuous evolution of IKSPs and resiliency in light of the increasing threat of climate change disruptions.