Examining the cognitive costs of counterfactual language comprehension: Evidence from ERPs

Recent empirical research suggests that understanding a counterfactual event (e.g. ‘If Josie had revised, she would have passed her exams’) activates mental representations of both the factual and counterfactual versions of events. However, it remains unclear when readers switch between these models during comprehension, and whether representing multiple ‘worlds’ is cognitively effortful. This paper reports two ERP studies where participants read contexts that set up a factual or counterfactual scenario, followed by a second sentence describing a consequence of this event. Critically, this sentence included a noun that was either consistent or inconsistent with the preceding context, and either included a modal verb to indicate reference to the counterfactual-world or not (thus referring to the factual-world). Experiment 2 used adapted versions of the materials used in Experiment 1 to examine the degree to which representing multiple versions of a counterfactual situation makes heavy demands on cognitive resources by measuring individuals’ working memory capacity. Results showed that when reference to the counterfactual-world was maintained by the ongoing discourse, readers correctly interpreted events according to the counterfactual-world (i.e. showed larger N400 for inconsistent than consistent words). In contrast, when cues referred back to the factual-world, readers showed no difference between consistent and inconsistent critical words, suggesting that they simultaneously compared information against both possible worlds. These results support previous dual-representation accounts for counterfactuals, and provide new evidence that linguistic cues can guide the reader in selecting which world model to evaluate incoming information against. Crucially, we reveal evidence that maintaining and updating a hypothetical model over time relies upon the availability of cognitive resources

Virtual Risk: How Msm And Tw In India Use Media For Partner Selection

In India, criminalization of adult consensual same-sex relationships and sexual encounters along with stigma toward men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TW) may impact the use of social media to help MSM and TW connect to their community and find sexual partners. Through 30 individual qualitative interviews with MSM, TW, and key informants, we sought to understand how social media shape how MSM and TW connect to their community, meet men for relationships and sex, and how use of social media influences sexual risk. Qualitative data were transcribed, translated, coded, and analyzed using grounded theory. Results show that social media usage, which is increasing among all education and income levels, allow MSM and TW to find partners quickly, conveniently, and in larger numbers than traditional (non-social media) methods. Themes included issues of privacy, identity formation, expanding community, and emerging safety concerns and risk behaviors. Concerns about privacy and the ability to control what information are shared is shaped by a stigmatizing environment and an unsupportive legal system. Findings suggest that in order to comprehensively address HIV prevention, current interventions targeting sexual risk behaviors must address social media behavior

Comprehending counterfactuals

Counterfactual reasoning, an understanding of events that are counter to reality, or false, is an essential ingredient of our everyday cognition. Counterfactual situations are frequently depicted through language, yet surprisingly little is known of how they are processed during reading or listening. This is remarkable given the social importance of understanding counterfactuals and the wealth of psychological research that has focused on the production of counterfactual statements. In this thesis, I present eight experiments that investigate how a counterfactual discourse can disrupt or facilitate processing of some subsequent linguistic input and address related comprehension issues involving negation and theory of mind. The main findings suggest that a counterfactual scenario (e.g. ‘If cats were vegetarians’) leads the comprehender to rapidly update their processing model to incorporate a counterfactual continuation. However, a secondary process briefly interferes at the point of ambiguity resolution in cases where world knowledge has been violated (e.g. ‘Families could feed their cat a bowl of fish/ carrots’). The effects are compared across the different experimental paradigms used, including eye- tracking, event- related brain potentials and the visual world paradigm, which reveal distinct integration, neural and anticipatory processes. Finally, these findings are discussed in relation to existing research on counterfactuals and the processing relationships between counterfactuals, negation and theory of mind reasoning

Mindset, Academic Motivation, And Academic Self-Efficacy As Correlates Of Academic Achievement Among Undergraduate Students in Communication Sciences and Disorders Programs

Problem Higher education serves many stakeholders including students, parents, faculty, staff, university administrators, and other contributors. Those stakeholders are all linked with one purpose: the success of the student. That success or failure is most commonly measured by achievement through grade point average (GPA). The academic demands within the college/university setting is high. Limited academic achievement can result in academic failure, being placed on academic probation, even losing scholarships and grants. Students enter college, progress through college, and often graduate without having a real understanding for what it truly takes to be academically successful and what factors may contribute to that success. The study examined the extent to which types of mindset, academic motivation, and academic self-efficacy correlated with academic achievement among undergraduate communication sciences and disorders students. Method Undergraduate communication sciences and disorders students in the Great Lakes States of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois completed a 75-item survey to determine the correlation between academic achievement and mindset, academic motivation, and academic self-efficacy. Descriptive analysis, Spearman Rank correlation, and categorical regression (CATREG) were used to analyze the data. Results Results of this current study indicate that undergraduate communication sciences and disorders students report average to higher than average GPAs. Undergraduate communication sciences and disorders students have very high extrinsic motivation (M = 5.90), high intrinsic motivation (M = 5.22), and very low amotivation (M = 1.62). Fifty-four percent of undergraduate communication sciences and disorders students have high self-efficacy and higher growth mindset than fixed mindset. The results of this study indicate that amotivation is negatively correlated to academic achievement. Therefore, the higher the academic achievement, the lower the amotivation. Academic self-efficacy is also correlated to academic achievement. Hence, the higher the academic self-efficacy, the higher the academic achievement. Conclusions Undergraduate communication sciences and disorders students, who are “average to higher than average” in their academic achievement are more extrinsically motivated. They present with almost no amotivation, and have generally high self-efficacy. The undergraduate communication disorders student has more of a growth mindset than a fixed mindset. This population is resilient, motivated more by externally contributing factors, and demonstrates learning-based development and changeability. They have positive feelings about their academic skills which are found to be directly related to their average to high-average academic achievement

Effect of Extracellular Survivin and Lymphoma Exosomes on Natural Killer Cells

Tumors alter their microenvironment to promote survival using methods such as angiogenesis promotion, growth signals, and immune suppression. The immune system becomes unresponsive to transformed neoplastic cells through a variety of methods including T cell suppression, increased myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), and reduced natural killer (NK) cell activity. NK cells have inherent killing capabilities and thus are among the first responders in recognizing and destroying abnormal cells. However, many types of cancers inhibit the surveillance and cytotoxic abilities of NK cells by releasing exosomes, vesicles that can modulate the tumor microenvironment (TME) and intercellular communication for the purpose of enhancing tumor malignancy. These 30-150 nm sized lipid bound vesicles are secreted by many cell types, including immune cells and tumor cells, and the specific protein, lipid, mRNA and miRNA contents contribute to the complex intercellular communication occurring between malignant and normal cells. Cancer patients often have increased numbers of exosomes circulating through their body, including patients with hematological malignancies, such as lymphoma. The focus of this research was to determine the interactions between B cell lymphoma exosomes and NK cells, and characterize the resultant effects on NK cell function. A specific objective of this research was to determine whether Survivin, an Inhibitor of Apoptosis protein recently found to be localized within exosomes, has a role in modulating NK cells similar to previous findings of T cell modulations. We report that lymphoma exosomes have low levels of internalization into NK cells, and no detectable presence of immune modulating proteins MICA/B or TGF-β. Exposure of NK cells to lymphoma exosomes did not result in observable changes in degranulation or cytotoxic ability. However, treatment with recombinant Survivin protein was able to decrease NKG2D receptor levels in NK cells stimulated with target cells, and decrease protein levels of TNF-α, IFN-γ, perforin, and Granzyme B. A better understanding of the underlying processes by which Survivin or exosomes suppress immune cells in the TME may pave the way to more efficacious immunological therapies against cancer

Delayed mortality effects cut the malaria transmission potential of insecticide resistant mosquitoes

Malaria transmission has been substantially reduced across Africa through the distribution of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs). However, the emergence of insecticide resistance within mosquito vectors risks jeopardizing the future efficacy of this control strategy. The severity of this threat is uncertain because the consequences of resistance for mosquito fitness are poorly understood: while resistant mosquitoes are no longer immediately killed upon contact with LLINs, their transmission potential may be curtailed because of longer-term fitness costs that persist beyond the first 24 h after exposure. Here, we used a Bayesian state-space model to quantify the immediate (within 24 h of exposure) and delayed (>24 h after exposure) impact of insecticides on daily survival and malaria transmission potential of moderately and highly resistant laboratory populations of the major African malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. Contact with LLINs reduced the immediate survival of moderately and highly resistant An. gambiae strains by 60–100% and 3–61%, respectively, and delayed mortality impacts occurring beyond the first 24 h after exposure further reduced their overall life spans by nearly one-half. In total, insecticide exposure was predicted to reduce the lifetime malaria transmission potential of insecticide-resistant vectors by two-thirds, with delayed effects accounting for at least one-half of this reduction. The existence of substantial, previously unreported, delayed mortality effects within highly resistant malaria vectors following exposure to insecticides does not diminish the threat of growing resistance, but posits an explanation for the apparent paradox of continued LLIN effectiveness in the presence of high insecticide resistance

Complement set reference after implicitly small quantities: An event-related potentials study

An anaphoric reference to the complement-set is a reference to the set which does not fulfil the predicate of the preceding sentence. Preferred reference to the complement-set has been found in eye movements when a character’s implicit desire for a high amount has been denied using a negative emotion. We recorded ERPs to examine if, when a character’s desire is denied with a negative emotion, the complement-set is immediately available for reference. Analysis of the N400 over posterior regions showed that while readers favoured the reference-set following a positive emotion, there was no difference in responses between complement-set and reference-set references following a negative emotion. Processing of a complement-set reference did lead to an overall increase in negativity of the N400, suggesting that interpreting a complement-set reference incurred a general processing cost. This study provides novel data on the range of circumstances under which the complement-set is available

Mesocosm experiments reveal the impact of mosquito control measures on malaria vector life history and population dynamics

The impact of control measures on mosquito vector fitness and demography is usually estimated from bioassays or indirect variables in the field. Whilst indicative, neither approach is sufficient to quantify the potentially complex response of mosquito populations to combined interventions. Here, large replicated mesocosms were used to measure the population-level response of the malaria vector Anopheles arabiensis to long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) when used in isolation, or combined with insecticidal eave louvers (EL), or treatment of cattle with the endectocide Ivermectin (IM). State-space models (SSM) were fit to these experimental data, revealing that LLIN introduction reduced adult mosquito survival by 91% but allowed population persistence. ELs provided no additional benefit, but IM reduced mosquito fecundity by 59% and nearly eliminated all populations when combined with LLINs. This highlights the value of IM for integrated vector control, and mesocosm population experiments combined with SSM for identifying optimal combinations for vector population elimination

Variations in household microclimate affect outdoor-biting behaviour of malaria vectors

Background: Mosquito behaviours including the degree to which they bite inside houses or outside is a crucial determinant of human exposure to malaria. Whilst seasonality in mosquito vector abundance is well documented, much less is known about the impact of climate on mosquito behaviour. We investigated how variations in household microclimate affect outdoor-biting by malaria vectors, Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles funestus. Methods: Mosquitoes were sampled indoors and outdoors weekly using human landing catches at eight households in four villages in south-eastern Tanzania, resulting in 616 trap-nights over 12 months. Daily temperature, relative humidity and rainfall were recorded. Generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) were used to test associations between mosquito abundance and the microclimatic conditions. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) were used to investigate the influence of microclimatic conditions on the tendency of vectors to bite outdoors (proportion of outdoor biting). Results: An. arabiensis abundance peaked during high rainfall months (February-May), whilst An. funestus density remained stable into the dry season (May-August). Across the range of observed household temperatures, a rise of 1ºC marginally increased nightly An. arabiensis abundance (~11%), but more prominently increased An. funestus abundance (~66%). The abundance of An. arabiensis and An. funestus showed strong positive associations with time-lagged rainfall (2-3 and 3-4 weeks before sampling). The degree of outdoor biting in An. arabiensis was significantly associated with the relative temperature difference between indoor and outdoor environments, with exophily increasing as temperature inside houses became relatively warmer. The exophily of An. funestus did not vary with temperature differences. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that malaria vector An. arabiensis shifts the location of its biting from indoors to outdoors in association with relative differences in microclimatic conditions. These environmental impacts could give rise to seasonal variation in mosquito biting behaviour and degree of protection provided by indoor-based vector control strategies