3,501 research outputs found

    Linking language and emotion: how emotion is understood in language comprehension, production and prediction using psycholinguistic methods

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    Emotions are an integral part of why and how we use language in everyday life. We communicate our concerns, express our woes, and share our joy through the use of non-verbal and verbal language. Yet there is a limited understanding of when and how emotional language is processed differently to neutral language, or of how emotional information facilitates or inhibits language processing. Indeed, various efforts have been made to bring back emotions into the discipline of psycholinguistics in the last decade. This can be seen in many interdisciplinary models focusing on the role played by emotion in each aspect of linguistic experience. In this thesis, I answer this call and pursue questions that remain unanswered in psycholinguistics regarding its interaction with emotion. The general trend that I am using to bring emotion into psycholinguistic research is straightforward. Where applicable and relevant, I use well-established tasks or paradigms to investigate the effects of emotional content in language processing. Hence, I focused on three main areas of language processing: comprehension, production and prediction. The first experimental chapter includes a series of experiments utilising the Modality Switching Paradigm to investigate whether sentences describing emotional states are processed differently from sentences describing cognitive states. No switching effects were found consistently in my 3 experiments. My results suggest that these distinct classes of interoceptive concepts, such as ‘thinking’ or ‘being happy’, are not processed differently from each other, suggesting that people do not switch attention between different interoceptive systems when comprehending emotional or cognitive sentences. I discuss the implications for grounded cognition theory in the embodiment literature. In my second experimental chapter, I used the Cumulative Semantic Interference Paradigm to investigate these two questions: (1) whether emotion concepts interfere with one another when repeatedly retrieved (emotion label objects), and (2) whether similar interference occurs for concrete objects that share similar valence association (emotion-laden objects). This could indicate that people use information such as valence and arousal to group objects in semantic memory. I found that interference occurs when people retrieve direct emotion labels repeatedly (e.g., “happy” and “sad”) but not when they retrieve the names of concrete objects that have similar emotion connotations (e.g., “puppy” and “rainbow”). I discuss my findings in terms of the different types of information that support representation of abstract vs. concrete concepts. In my final experimental chapter, I used the Visual World Paradigm to investigate whether the emotional state of an agent is used to inform predictions during sentence processing. I found that people do use the description of emotional state of an agent (e.g., “The boy is happy”) to predict the cause of that affective state during sentence processing (e.g., “because he was given an ice-cream”). A key result here is that people were more likely to fixate on the emotionally congruent objects (e.g., ice-cream) compared to incongruent objects (e.g., broccoli). This suggests that people rapidly and automatically inform predictions about upcoming sentence information based on the emotional state of the agent. I discuss our findings as a novel contribution to the Visual World literature. I conducted a diverse set of experiments using a range of established psycholinguistic methods to investigate the roles of emotional information in language processing. I found clear results in the eye-tracking study but inconsistent effects in both switching and interference studies. I interpret these mixed findings in the following way: emotional content does not always have effects in language processing and that effect are most likely in tasks that explicitly require participants to simulate emotion states in some way. Regardless, not only was I successful in finding some novel results by extending previous tasks, but I was also able to show that this is an avenue that can be explored more to advance the affective psycholinguistic field

    UMSL Bulletin 2023-2024

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    The 2023-2024 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1088/thumbnail.jp

    Differences in Out-Of-School Suspensions Between Black and White High School Students When Controlling for Student Factors, School Factors, and Delinquency

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    This quantitative, correlational study aims to determine how accurately out-of-school suspensions can be predicted from a linear combination of student delinquency, in-school delinquency, and prior suspensions for Black and White high school students. Further, a causal-comparative design is used to determine if there is a statically significant difference in out-of-school suspensions between Black and White high school students when controlling for student factors, school factors, and student delinquency factors. The study consists of five guiding theories that inform two general hypotheses. The first hypothesis, referred to as the differential selection hypothesis, is guided by critical race theory (CRT) and implicit bias theory. The second hypothesis, referred to as the differential involvement hypothesis, is guided by self-control, social learning, and attachment theories. These general hypotheses are used to guide the selection of control variables to determine if there is a statistically significant difference in out-of-school suspensions between Black and White high school students. This study will fill a gap in the literature concerning the understudied differential involvement hypothesis and the fidelity of the differential selection hypothesis. Using a series of instruments and student survey to collect demographic, school, and delinquency information, data was collected from 120 White and 120 Black high school students in central California. Data was analyzed using multiple regression and an ANCOVA. A discussion of the study’s limitations and future recommendations is offered following the findings

    NURSING AND MIDWIFERY STUDENTS’ LENS: CONNECTING THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE WITH CLINICAL PRACTICE: AN INTERPRETATIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY

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    Aim: To explore and critically analyse the strategies employed by final-year BSc pre-registration nursing and midwifery students at an inner London university to connect theoretical knowledge with clinical practice, to promote their learning and professional development. Background: Navigating the theory-practice gap has been a significant challenge for nursing and midwifery students. While there are many perspectives from academics and clinicians, how theoretical knowledge is connected with clinical practice is rarely discussed and studied from the students’ perspectives. Design: Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to understand nursing and midwifery students' experiences in connecting theoretical knowledge with clinical practice. Rather than attempting to establish objective truth, this thesis focused on participants’ subjective experiences. Method: This study employed a qualitative research design. The data was obtained using semi-structured interviews and analysed using an inductive approach. The study population included (n=12) pre-registration nursing and midwifery students enrolled on a Bachelor of Science programs. Findings: Four themes emerged (1) Complexity of embodied knowledge; (2) Sensing the meaning of personal and professional learning; (3) Demographic attributes and self-understanding; (4) Sense-making of COVID-19. Conclusion: The process by which pre-registration nursing and midwifery students connect theoretical knowledge with clinical practice is complex and multifaceted. It intersects with other factors and cannot be understood in isolation. This interconnectedness necessitates a thorough examination of all the variables involved

    The role of heterosocial perception in men's likelihood to sexually harass

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    Sexual harassment against women represents sexually aggressive and coercive behaviour that violates women’s dignity and creates an offensive environment, which threatens women’s well-being and ability to prosper in day to day life (Pina, Gannon & Saunders, 2009). Understanding the perceptual characteristics of men with inclinations to sexually harass, through how they perceive women is important in delineating the reasons why some men may engage in the sexual harassment of women. Heterosocial perception is a concept of how an individual perceives another person interacting with the opposite sex. It is typically measured using the Test of Reading Affective Cues (TRAC), a tool encompassing an array of video clips showing a woman interacting with a man, whereby the woman displays a range of affective cues. The perceiver is assessed on their perceptual accuracy when judging the affective cues. Perceptual accuracies of male rapists and male child molesters have been well researched (Lipton, McDonel & McFall, 1987; Stahl & Sacco, 1995), yet male sexual harassment as a singular category has been neglected. The current thesis explores the potential heterosocial perception characteristics of a distinct group of men who are relatively high in the likelihood to engage in sexual harassment of women from scores on Pryor’s (1987) Likelihood to Sexually Harass (LSH) scale focusing on their differences in performance on the TRAC in comparison to those men who are lower in the likelihood to engage in sexual harassment of women. Five empirical studies are reported in this thesis. Study 1 presents a modernized version of the TRAC and incorporates an analysis to develop it as a research tool, enabling judgements on five affective cues displayed by a woman; friendly, romantic, neutral, bored and rejecting. The tool provides this range of affective cues that were used in later studies to measure differences in heterosocial perception. Study 2 addressed theoretical explanations taken from previous perception research with sexually aggressive men (Malamuth & Brown, xiv 1994) to explain differences in heterosocial perception for men high in LSH. Explanations are given for potential biases evidenced by men high in LSH focusing on Error Management Theory (Haselton & Buss, 2000) arguing that an overperception bias will increase the frequency of falsely inferring a woman’s sexual intent towards sexual pursuit, but considerably reduce the costs of losing a sexual opportunity by falsely inferring that a woman lacked sexual intent. Altogether, study 2 provided support for the misidentification of negative affective cues (negativeness blindness), the overperception of negative affective cues and the romantic overperception bias of friendly affective cues in the perception of men high in LSH. Study 3 tested the established theoretical link that internal concepts of social power have within men who report sexual aggression and sexual coercion and the subsequent impact on perception. Unexpectedly, power did not exacerbate perceptual inaccuracy for negative affective cues and the romantic overperception bias of friendly affective cues. In study 4, objectification was assessed in its relationship to perception in high LSH men. Instrumental and both specific and general sexual objectification were significantly higher for men high in LSH. Specific sexual objectification was found to negatively mediate romantic categorizations of romantic affective cues, but general sexual objectification was found to positively mediate romantic categorizations of friendly affective cues for men high in LSH. Results also showed that men high in LSH showed poorest perceptual accuracy on bored and rejecting affective cues, and evidenced a greater romantic judgement of friendly affective cues overperception bias. In study 5, the impact of different mental states on perception was assessed, via the use of a cooling system to facilitate self-regulation. A cooling system is a psychological framework proposed for understanding self-control (Metcalfe & Mischel, 1999), and in this study it incorporated techniques of distraction, distancing and empathy enhancement. Results showed that the cooling system was not beneficial in making high LSH xv men’s perceptual judgements more accurate and in making their judgements accurate to the level of low and medium LSH men for negative affective cues. However, cooling did improve perceptual accuracy of friendly affective cues removing the overperception bias to romantic judgements in comparison to the neutral condition. The cooling system was not found to reduce instrumental and sexual objectification for high LSH men. There were differences found on empathy between men high and low and medium on LSH. Differences were found such that men high in LSH showed more state empathy, but less trait empathy than men low and medium in LSH

    UMSL Bulletin 2022-2023

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    The 2022-2023 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1087/thumbnail.jp

    A Critical Review Of Post-Secondary Education Writing During A 21st Century Education Revolution

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    Educational materials are effective instruments which provide information and report new discoveries uncovered by researchers in specific areas of academia. Higher education, like other education institutions, rely on instructional materials to inform its practice of educating adult learners. In post-secondary education, developmental English programs are tasked with meeting the needs of dynamic populations, thus there is a continuous need for research in this area to support its changing landscape. However, the majority of scholarly thought in this area centers on K-12 reading and writing. This paucity presents a phenomenon to the post-secondary community. This research study uses a qualitative content analysis to examine peer-reviewed journals from 2003-2017, developmental online websites, and a government issued document directed toward reforming post-secondary developmental education programs. These highly relevant sources aid educators in discovering informational support to apply best practices for student success. Developmental education serves the purpose of addressing literacy gaps for students transitioning to college-level work. The findings here illuminate the dearth of material offered to developmental educators. This study suggests the field of literacy research is fragmented and highlights an apparent blind spot in scholarly literature with regard to English writing instruction. This poses a quandary for post-secondary literacy researchers in the 21st century and establishes the necessity for the literacy research community to commit future scholarship toward equipping college educators teaching writing instruction to underprepared adult learners

    Business Functions Capabilities and Small and Medium Enterprises’ Internationalization

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    Ineffective global expansion can adversely affect small and medium enterprises (SMEs) business outcomes. Business leaders are concerned with developing effective global expansion strategies to penetrate potential international markets, thus enhancing sustainability. Grounded in the business management systems theory, the purpose of this qualitative multi-case study was to explore strategies that leaders of Sub-Saharan Africa manufacturing SMEs use for global expansion. The participants were five manufacturing value-adding SME leaders participating in export markets. Using Yin’s five steps data analysis process, six themes emerged: (a) enterprise characterization, (b) understanding the enterprise’s product, (c) intra-enterprise factor-based strategies for export participation, (d) the enterprise’s external factor-based strategies for successful export venture, (e) global expansion strategies, and (f) serendipitous findings. A key recommendation for SME leaders is to analyze the critical components of their products and prepare to adjust them to the demand dimensions of the target market. The implications for positive social change include the potential to increase the enterprise’s wealth, increase employment, reduce poverty for all value chain participants, and growth in gross domestic product

    Introduction to Psychology

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    Introduction to Psychology is a modified version of Psychology 2e - OpenStax
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