The Benefits of Executive Control Training and the Implications for Language Processing

Recent psycholinguistics research suggests that the executive function (EF) skill known as conflict resolution – the ability to adjust behavior in the service of resolving among incompatible representations – is important for several language processing tasks such as lexical and syntactic ambiguity resolution, verbal fluency, and common-ground assessment. Here, we discuss work showing that various EF skills can be enhanced through consistent practice with working-memory tasks that tap these EFs, and, moreover, that improvements on the training tasks transfer across domains to novel tasks that may rely on shared underlying EFs. These findings have implications for language processing and could launch new research exploring if EF training, within a “process-specific” framework, could be used as a remediation tool for improving general language use. Indeed, work in our lab demonstrates that EF training that increases conflict-resolution processes has selective benefits on an untrained sentence-processing task requiring syntactic ambiguity resolution, which relies on shared conflict-resolution functions. Given claims that conflict-resolution abilities contribute to a range of linguistic skills, EF training targeting this process could theoretically yield wider performance gains beyond garden-path recovery. We offer some hypotheses on the potential benefits of EF training as a component of interventions to mitigate general difficulties in language processing. However, there are caveats to consider as well, which we also address

Evolution of the Level lnterfluvial Divides on the Kansan Till Plain in Iowa and Missouri

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and evaluate various alternative hypotheses concerning the evolution of the level interfluvial divides on the Kansan Till plain in southern Iowa and northern Missouri. About four-fifths of the plain is dissected (3), but the undissected remnants have an almost flat surface. In contrast to this the undissected portion of the much younger surfaces of the Mankato and Cary till plains have an undulating topography with numerous closed depressions and isolated low knolls

Thrombolysis for acute graft occlusion during elective endovascular aortic aneurysm repair.

A 65-year-old man developed acute arterial thrombosis with stent graft occlusion, during elective endovascular aneurysm repair, with bilateral acute lower limb ischaemia. We describe successful endovascular and pharmacological management using a combination of mechanical disruption of the thrombus (using the access sheaths) followed by intra-arterial thrombolysis (Actilyse) infusion. Within 4-h the endograft had completely re-canalized. The patient made an uncomplicated recovery and was discharged on the second post-operative day

Problems Associated with Soils Stabilization. in the Vicinity of Point Barrow, Alaska

Point Barrow is located in the northernmost extremity of the Arctic Coastal Plain (Figure 1). The coastal plain is an undulating surface of low relief, the major relief being in the vicinity of the major northflowing rivers. The general lack of relief is largely due to the fact that the area is a recently elevated segment of the continental shelf, and thus, it has the low relief characteristics of most recently emerged coastal plains

Observation of numerous E2 mode phonon replicas in the room temperature photoluminescence spectra of ZnO nanowires: Evidence of strong deformation potential electron-phonon coupling

The authors report the observation of numerous (\u3e20)phonon replica peaks in the room temperature photoluminescence spectrum of ZnOnanowires embedded in 50nm diameter pores of an anodic alumina film. The peaks are spaced in energy by ∼54meV, which is the energy of a nonpolar phonon with symmetry E2 in ZnO. These peaks are possibly caused by resonant phonon-assisted decay of photoexcited electrons to an impurity band, followed by radiative recombination. These results suggest that even though ZnO is strongly polar, deformation potential coupling to a nonpolar phonon mode may be stronger than Fröhlich coupling to polar phonon modes

A Drumlinoid Hill, Story County, Iowa

This is a brief report on an interesting hill occurring on the Cary drift plain in central Story County. The hill is situated in sections 7 and 8, T. 84 N., R. 22 W., about four miles north of Nevada. It forms a conspicuous, isolated prominence in an area of several square miles of relatively featureless drift plain. The hill is about two miles long, and one-quarter mile wide. The long axis is directed northwest-southeast with an essentially even crest line. The maximum height of the hill above the adjacent plain is about 60 feet as shown on a profile along the road between sections 7 and 8. (See Figure 1) Our attention was first directed to the hill because of its distinctly lighter color as observed on air photos, its isolated occurrence, and its position with respect to drainage

Spins in the Vortices of a High Temperature Superconductor

Neutron scattering is used to characterise the magnetism of the vortices for the optimally doped high-temperature superconductor La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4) (x=0.163) in an applied magnetic field. As temperature is reduced, low frequency spin fluctuations first disappear with the loss of vortex mobility, but then reappear. We find that the vortex state can be regarded as an inhomogeneous mixture of a superconducting spin fluid and a material containing a nearly ordered antiferromagnet. These experiments show that as for many other properties of cuprate superconductors, the important underlying microscopic forces are magnetic

Non-generality of the Kadowaki-Woods ratio in correlated oxides

An explicit expression for the Kadowaki-Woods ratio in correlated metals is derived by invoking saturation of the (high-frequency) Fermi-liquid scattering rate at the Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit. Significant deviations observed in a number of oxides are quantitatively explained due to variations in carrier density, dimensionality, unit cell volume and the number of individual sheets in the Brillouin zone. A generic re-scaling of the original Kadowaki-Woods plot is also presented.Comment: 9 pages of text, 1 table, 2 figure