Comprehension of Yes/No- and Wh-questions Across Autism Spectrum Conditions

[eng] Understanding questions is key for successful communication. Although deficits in communication are the hallmark of Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC), how both yes/no-questions and wh-questions are understood by children with ASC has been poorly investigated in Spanish. Nevertheless, questions play an important role in ASC diagnostic tests and neurocognitive assessments. Although there is a widespread assumption of visual support easing linguistic production and comprehension, it has not been extensively investigated in question comprehension research. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a more comprehensive picture of language impairments in ASC by targeting questions as a specific and neglected dimension of language in ASC. Specific research questions concern the impact of syntactic differences in question type, syntactic complexity and other linguistic, cognitive and age factors on question comprehension. Finally, the role of visual support as a facilitator of question comprehension is investigated. 34 children with ASC–ID (autism without intellectual disability, mean age = 9.99) were recruited and matched on VMA (verbal mental age) with 34 TD (typically developing) participants (mean age = 8.85). 14 individuals with ASC+ID (autism with intellectual disability, mean age = 12.95) were also recruited. These were compared to 7 ID (intellectual disability) participants without ASC (mean age = 12.86). The task design of the experiment used narratives to control the context in which yes/no-questions and different types of wh-questions (namely wh-questions in simple and complex sentences, long-distance wh-questions in complex sentences and local wh-questions in complex sentences) were asked. Participants responded immediately after having been exposed to narratives with either visual support or audio support only. Participants’ ability to answer questions about these narratives was assessed as a measure of their question comprehension. Significant results showed that both ASC and TD groups had greater difficulties in wh-questions than yes/no-questions. Compared to TD, ASC–ID also had lower wh- question comprehension. In addition, the ASC+ID group showed a lower level of question comprehension in yes/no-questions and in wh-questions compared to the ASC– ID and ID groups. All wh-questions in complex sentences and local wh-questions in complex sentences were more difficult for the ASC–ID group in comparison to the TD group. The ASC+ID group underperformed in all types of wh-question comprehension in comparison to the ASC–ID participants and had greater difficulties to comprehend local wh-questions in complex sentences compared to the ID group. Visual support aided question comprehension both in ASC and in TD. In between- group comparisons significantly greater question comprehension difficulties in tasks with visual support in the ASC–ID relative to the TD group remained. The ASC+ID group scored significantly lower in both visual and non-visual tasks in comparison to both ASC– ID and ID groups. VMA and VIQ (verbal intelligence quotient) correlated with yes/no- question comprehension in TD and in ASC–ID participants. In TD individuals, there was a correlation with these variables and wh-question comprehension. In the ID group, working memory and VIQ had a positive relation with the comprehension of some types of wh-questions. These results provide novel evidence for a question comprehension impairment in ASC with and without ID, which specifically centers on wh-questions. As age and cognitive factors were more related to question comprehension in TD and ID groups than in ASC, different underlying cognitive mechanisms might be at work in ASC. At a practical level, this thesis incites reflection on the roles of question types both in diagnostic assessments and interventions.[cat] La comprensió de les preguntes és essencial per a la comunicació. Tot i que els dèficits en la comunicació són característics de les Condicions de l’Espectre Autista (CEA), la comprensió de les preguntes sí/no i de les preguntes qu- ha estat poc investigada en castellà. Tampoc s’ha estudiat l’impacte del suport visual, encara que es pressuposa que és beneficiós. L’objectiu d’aquest estudi és demostrar com el tipus de pregunta, la complexitat sintàctica i altres factors lingüístics, cognitius i d’edat així com també el suport visual poden influenciar la comprensió d’estructures interrogatives. Amb aquesta finalitat, es van seleccionar 34 persones amb CEA–DI (autisme sense discapacitat intel·lectual, edat mitjana = 9,99), 34 persones amb DT (desenvolupament típic) edat mitjana = 8,85), 14 individus amb CEA+DI (autisme amb discapacitat intel·lectual, edat mitjana = 12,95) i 7 participants amb DI (discapacitat intel·lectual) sense CEA (edat mitjana = 12,86). Es va relacionar el grup amb CEA–DI i el grup amb DT segons l’edat verbal mental. Tant els grups amb CEA com amb DT van tenir més dificultats en la comprensió de les preguntes qu- que en les preguntes sí/no. Comparativament, el grup amb DT respecte del grup amb CEA–DI va mostrar un nivell de comprensió significativament menor de les preguntes qu-. El grup amb CEA+DI va mostrar un dèficit més elevat tant en les preguntes sí/no com en les qu- en comparació amb els grups amb CEA–DI i DI. Totes les preguntes qu- en frases complexes i les preguntes qu- locals en aquestes frases van ser significativament més difícils per al grup amb CEA–DI que per al grup amb DT. El suport visual va afavorir la comprensió de preguntes tant de les persones amb CEA, com del grup amb DT. Altres factors lingüístics, cognitius o d’edat mostren escasses correlacions i complexes amb la comprensió de preguntes, en el CEA. Aquests resultats demostren dèficits en la comprensió de preguntes en tot l’espectre autista, fins i tot en absència de discapacitat intel·lectual

Digital Anthropology and the Renewal of Waishengren Studies: From Digitized Tombs to Identity Claims

In this study we illustrate the potential contribution of digital archives to the study of variation among Taiwan’s Waishengren. Using the digital archive ThakBong of gravesites in Taiwan, into which the census data of 1956 have been merged, we show thatWaishengren varied in their practices and their social structure from North to South and through time in yet unobserved patterns. Our interpretation is that Waishengren assimilated and potentially even merged into existing Holo communities in the South, while in theNorth, Waishengren developed social distinctions through these practices to reflect power and ethnicity. Regional distinctions will thus be central in future Waishengren-studies.V tej študiji predstavljamo potencialni prispevek digitalnih arhivov k študiji variacij med tajvanskim ljudstvom Waishengren. Z uporabo digitalnega arhiva ThakBong, ki ponazarja pozicijo grobišč na Tajvanu, ki vključuje popis prebivalstva iz leta 1956, prikazujemo, da se je ljudstvo Waishengren na severu in jugu kot tudi skozi čas razlikovalo med sabo v svojih običajih in družbeni strukturi v vzorcih, ki še niso bili opazovani. Naša interpretacija pravi, da se je ljudstvo Waishengren asimiliralo in potencialno tudi spojilo z obstoječimi skupnostmi Holo na jugu, medtem ko so na severu razvili družbene posebnosti skozi svoje običaje, da bi izrazili njihovo moč in etničnost. Regionalne razlike bodo tako središče prihodnjih raziskav ljudstva Waishengren

A Mechanistic Approach to Cross-Domain Perceptual Narrowing in the First Year of Life

Language and face processing develop in similar ways during the first year of life. Early in the first year of life, infants demonstrate broad abilities for discriminating among faces and speech. These discrimination abilities then become tuned to frequently experienced groups of people or languages. This process of perceptual development occurs between approximately 6 and 12 months of age and is largely shaped by experience. However, the mechanisms underlying perceptual development during this time, and whether they are shared across domains, remain largely unknown. Here, we highlight research findings across domains and propose a top-down/bottom-up processing approach as a guide for future research. It is hypothesized that perceptual narrowing and tuning in development is the result of a shift from primarily bottom-up processing to a combination of bottom-up and top-down influences. In addition, we propose word learning as an important top-down factor that shapes tuning in both the speech and face domains, leading to similar observed developmental trajectories across modalities. Importantly, we suggest that perceptual narrowing/tuning is the result of multiple interacting factors and not explained by the development of a single mechanism

Directional adposition use in English, Swedish and Finnish

Directional adpositions such as to the left of describe where a Figure is in relation to a Ground. English and Swedish directional adpositions refer to the location of a Figure in relation to a Ground, whether both are static or in motion. In contrast, the Finnish directional adpositions edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) solely describe the location of a moving Figure in relation to a moving Ground (Nikanne, 2003). When using directional adpositions, a frame of reference must be assumed for interpreting the meaning of directional adpositions. For example, the meaning of to the left of in English can be based on a relative (speaker or listener based) reference frame or an intrinsic (object based) reference frame (Levinson, 1996). When a Figure and a Ground are both in motion, it is possible for a Figure to be described as being behind or in front of the Ground, even if neither have intrinsic features. As shown by Walker (in preparation), there are good reasons to assume that in the latter case a motion based reference frame is involved. This means that if Finnish speakers would use edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) more frequently in situations where both the Figure and Ground are in motion, a difference in reference frame use between Finnish on one hand and English and Swedish on the other could be expected. We asked native English, Swedish and Finnish speakers’ to select adpositions from a language specific list to describe the location of a Figure relative to a Ground when both were shown to be moving on a computer screen. We were interested in any differences between Finnish, English and Swedish speakers. All languages showed a predominant use of directional spatial adpositions referring to the lexical concepts TO THE LEFT OF, TO THE RIGHT OF, ABOVE and BELOW. There were no differences between the languages in directional adpositions use or reference frame use, including reference frame use based on motion. We conclude that despite differences in the grammars of the languages involved, and potential differences in reference frame system use, the three languages investigated encode Figure location in relation to Ground location in a similar way when both are in motion. Levinson, S. C. (1996). Frames of reference and Molyneux’s question: Crosslingiuistic evidence. In P. Bloom, M.A. Peterson, L. Nadel & M.F. Garrett (Eds.) Language and Space (pp.109-170). Massachusetts: MIT Press. Nikanne, U. (2003). How Finnish postpositions see the axis system. In E. van der Zee & J. Slack (Eds.), Representing direction in language and space. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Walker, C. (in preparation). Motion encoding in language, the use of spatial locatives in a motion context. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Lincoln, Lincoln. United Kingdo

A Culturally Aware Approach to Learning System Interface Design

This mixed methods research explored interface design strategies for users from different cultures and localized settings. Guided by the cultural-historical development theory and HCI research, four critical factors—navigation design, information organization, layout design, and visuals—were investigated in designing culturally relevant interfaces for Americans and Taiwanese. American and Taiwanese groups—both contained two sub-groups of 30 participants—were recruited for the quantitative phase. Each participant was exposed to only one interface with content composed in their native language. However, one sub-group in each ethnic group was exposed to a culturally relevant interface and another was exposed to an alien interface. MANOVA on overall performance in both American and Taiwanese groups were significant. Americans performed better using the American interface (Wilks’s Λ=.85, F= 5.15, p< .01). They had significantly shorter performance time in the American (M=775) than the Taiwanese (M=1003) interface (F=6.29, p<.05), but differences on performance accuracy were not significant (F=2.74, p=.103). Taiwanese performed better using the Taiwanese interface (Wilks’s Λ=.67, F=14.06, p< .01). They had shorter performance time in the Taiwanese (M=743) than the American (M=1353) interface (F=6.29, p<.05), and they also had higher performance accuracy on the Taiwanese (M=11.7) than the American (M=10.0) interface (F=7.94, p<.01). In addition, t-test on overall preference in both American and Taiwanese groups were significant. Americans preferred the American (M=58.5) over the Taiwanese (M=53.0) interface (t=2.11, p< .05). And Taiwanese preferred the Taiwanese (M=58.7) over the American (M=46.9) interface (t=3.48, p<.01). Qualitative interviews of six American and six Taiwanese participants revealed three themes: First, when searching, Taiwanese were explorative and relied on hierarchical relationships; while Americans relied on prior experiences and analytical categorizations. Second, both groups have higher affiliation with design features matching their preferences. Finally, matching design features with users’ expectations and needs promotes positive perceptions and enhances interface usability. Both quantitative and qualitative Results imply that user interface designers should consider cultural perspectives when designing interfaces for online learning systems. Further studies might consider the relative impacts of the navigation, information structure, layout, and visual design on a broad range of user differences might have on learning

Türgi, eesti ja vene keele värvisõnavara: Millised on põhivärvinimed?

Brent Berlin ja Paul Kay loodud põhivärvinimeteooria sai alguse ideest, et teatud värvinimed on universaalsed. Nad eeldasid, et igas keeles on olemas piiratud arv sõnu värvi tähistamiseks. Neid universaalseid värvinimesid nimetasid nad põhivärvinimedeks. Kas keeles võib olla vaid üks sinine? Eelnevad uurimused kinnitavad, et sinine võib jaguneda kaheks: vene keeles on omaette kategooriad kahele sinise kategooriale, SINIJ ‘sinine’ ja GOLUBOJ ‘helesinine’. Järelikult on ka teisi võimalusi peale üheainsa sinise kategooria. Sinise jagunemine toetab keelelise relatiivsuse teooriat. Kas ka eesti sinine jaguneb (ala)kategooriateks? Kas türgi keeles on samuti kaks sinise kategooriat, nagu eelnevad uurimused (vt Özgen ja Davies 1998) kinnitavad? Vastuse saamiseks küsitleti türgi (N=56), eesti (N=39), ja eestivene (N=30) keelejuhte. Neilt küsiti loetelukatses kõikide värvide kohta, mida nad teavad. Nimeandmiskatses esitati neile ükshaaval värvipaberiga kaetud tahvlikesi küsides: „Mis värvi see stimul on?“. Eesti ja eestivene keelejuhid osalesid loetelu-ja nimeandmiskatse vahe peal ka sorteerimiskatses, kus nad sorteerisid sarnasuse alusel tahvlikesi gruppidesse ja pärast sorteerimist andsid neile gruppidele nimed.The theory of basic colour terms by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay (1969) started with an idea that certain colour categories are universal. They proposed that in every language there is a small, limited amount of words for designating colour. They called these universal colour names basic colour terms. From the theory of basic colour terms and previous research into Turkish, Estonian and Russian basic colour terms arise the questions of whether the behaviour of one blue is universal, and how the category of blue might be divided. There being only one blue category reinforces the universalist view of colour terms, while the appearance of more than one blue category, especially in the sorting task, supports a weak relativist approach. Russian is exceptional because both SINIJ ‘blue’ and GOLUBOJ ‘light blue’ mark blue equally. Are Turkish terms MAVI ‘blue’ and LACIVERT ‘dark blue’ similar? Is Estonian SININE ‘blue’ influenced by Russian and therefore also divided into more than one blue category? Turkish (N=56), Estonian (N=39) and Estonian Russian (N=30) participants were questioned to find an answer to those questions. The participants were asked about all the colours they knew in the list task. In the naming task the participants named coloured stimuli one by one answering the question: “What colour is it?”. Estonian and Estonian Russian participants also completed a sorting task between the list and naming tasks. They sorted coloured stimuli into groups by similarity and after sorting named the groups

Decolonizing Psychic Space: Remembering the Indigenous Psychology Movement in Taiwan

This project is part of the historical struggle of the indigenous psychology movement in Taiwan. It turns a critical gaze back upon the movement itself in order to decolonize it from colonial cultural imaginary. The contribution of this project is two-fold. First, on the theoretical level, it introduces a critical perspective into the growing body of indigenous psychological research. The indigenous psychology movement risks repeating the vicious cycle of colonization and re-colonization without critically looking back at its own historical trajectory. Second, on the level of intervention, writing the history of the indigenous psychology movement will make this project a crucial first step toward relieving Taiwanese psychologists from the cultural aphasia resulting from the traumatic encounter between two worlds

Chinese DE constructions in secondary predication: Historical and typological perspectives

This dissertation investigates the history of Chinese DE [tə] constructions in light of the typology of secondary predication. A secondary predicate, such as hot in He drank the tea hot, is a predicate that provides subsidiary information to a substructure (the participant tea) of the more salient primary event (drank). Mandarin DE features in two strategies: (i) a DE-marked primary event elaborated by a predicate following it, and (ii) a DE-marked secondary predicate preposed to the primary predicate. Focusing on Late Medieval Chinese (7th to mid-13th c.), the study examines the evolution of the DE-marked strategies from three distinctive constructions: resultative [V DE1 VP] by DE1 (得), nominal modification by DE2 (底/的), and secondary predication by DE3 (地). The first theme concerns the interactions between DE2-marked nominalization and DE3-marked secondary predicate constructions. Results show that DE2 and DE3 developed from opposite poles of the attribution vs. predication continuum, overlapping in categories intermediate between prototypical restrictive modification and secondary predication. Their distinctive information-packaging functions are consistently mapped to different construals of a property’s time-stability, which are reflected in their collocational preferences. The second theme of the study deals with the merger of DE1 and DE2 constructions and the creation of the [V DE Pred] topic-comment schema, where [V DE] represents an event as the topic, and Pred makes an assertion about a substructure of V. The discussion focuses on the structural and semantic changes of the [V DE1 VP] construction that facilitate its alignment with the DE2-marked topic-comment construction. The development of DE constructions mirrors semantic shifts between temporally anterior vs. simultaneous relations and conceptual fluidity between event- vs. participant-orientation, parameters that feature in the encoding of secondary predication crosslinguistically (Verkerk 2009, Himmelmann and Schultze-Berndt 2005, van der Auwera and Malchukov 2005, Loeb-Diehl 2005). The findings also suggest a reevaluation of the typology. Notably, semantic orientation is not crucial to whether a semantic relation is encoded by a DE construction, or which DE construction is selected. Instead, it is information-packaging functions, construals of time-stability, and iconic principles that play a dominant role