Cross-linguistic adaptations of The Comprehensive Aphasia Test: Challenges and solutions

Comparative research on aphasia and aphasia rehabilitation is challenged by the lack of comparable assessment tools across different languages. In English, a large array of tools is available, while in most other languages, the selection is more limited. Importantly, assessment tools are often simple translations and do not take into consideration specific linguistic and psycholinguistic parameters of the target languages. As a first step in meeting the needs for comparable assessment tools, the Comprehensive Aphasia Test is currently being adapted into a number of languages spoken in Europe. In this article, some key challenges encountered in the adaptation process and the solutions to ensure that the resulting assessment tools are linguistically and culturally equivalent, are proposed. Specifically, we focus on challenges and solutions related to the use of imageability, frequency, word length, spelling-to-sound regularity and sentence length and complexity as underlying properties in the selection of the testing material

Noun and verb knowledge in monolingual preschool children across 17 languages: Data from cross-linguistic lexical tasks (LITMUS-CLT)

This article investigates the cross-linguistic comparability of the newly developed lexical assessment tool Cross-linguistic Lexical Tasks (LITMUS-CLT). LITMUS-CLT is a part the Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings (LITMUS) battery (Armon-Lotem, de Jong & Meir, 2015). Here we analyse results on receptive and expressive word knowledge tasks for nouns and verbs across 17 languages from eight different language families: Baltic (Lithuanian), Bantu (isiXhosa), Finnic (Finnish), Germanic (Afrikaans, British English, South African English, German, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Swedish), Romance (Catalan, Italian), Semitic (Hebrew), Slavic (Polish, Serbian, Slovak) and Turkic (Turkish). The participants were 639 monolingual children aged 3;0-6;11 living in 15 different countries. Differences in vocabulary size were small between 16 of the languages; but isiXhosa-speaking children knew significantly fewer words than speakers of the other languages. There was a robust effect of word class: accuracy was higher for nouns than verbs. Furthermore, comprehension was more advanced than production. Results are discussed in the context of cross-linguistic comparisons of lexical development in monolingual and bilingual populations

Imageability ratings across languages

Imageability is a psycholinguistic variable that indicates how well a word gives rise to a mental image or sensory experience. Imageability ratings are used extensively in psycholinguistic, neuropsychological, and aphasiological studies. However, little formal knowledge exists about whether and how these ratings are associated between and within languages. Fifteen imageability databases were cross-correlated using nonparametric statistics. Some of these corresponded to unpublished data collected within a European research network-the Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (COST IS1208). All but four of the correlations were significant. The average strength of the correlations (rho = .68) and the variance explained (R (2) = 46%) were moderate. This implies that factors other than imageability may explain 54% of the results. Imageability ratings often correlate across languages. Different possibly interacting factors may explain the moderate strength and variance explained in the correlations: (1) linguistic and cultural factors; (2) intrinsic differences between the databases; (3) range effects; (4) small numbers of words in each database, equivalent words, and participants; and (5) mean age of the participants. The results suggest that imageability ratings may be used cross-linguistically. However, further understanding of the factors explaining the variance in the correlations will be needed before research and practical recommendations can be made

Entrepreneurial Orientation of the Female Students of Educational Professions

The complex professional demands placed on teachers include the demand that they should act formatively and encourage the development of entrepreneurial competencies of their students, especially the development of entrepreneurial orientation – the dynamic dimension of these competencies. The development of the entrepreneurial orientation of the pre-service and in-service teachers, visible in action, is an important model for students. In this paper, the entrepreneurial orientation scale was used to examine this orientation of female students – future preschool and primary school teachers. The sample included 237 female students from three different faculties. It was established that female students assessed their own entrepreneurial orientation as moderate, although the degree of their conscious, declarative entrepreneurial orientation is relatively high. Proactivity is more emphasized than the other components, whereas competitiveness is the least emphasized component. The internal locus of control positively correlates with willingness to take risks and proactivity, but not with other components of entrepreneurial orientation. The structure and degree of entrepreneurial orientation of the female students of different educational professions, as well as of different years of study, are similar, which indicates the homogeneity of the population of the female students of educational professions in terms of this orientation, but also that it is necessary to enrich university entrepreneurial education as a factor of strengthening determination for entrepreneurial behavior

Pain and executive functions: a unique relationship between Stroop task and experimentally induced pain

There is a growing body of evidence that a higher level of cognitive inhibition is associated with lower experimental pain sensitivity. However, a systematic examination of the association between executive functions, which include not only inhibition but also updating and shifting, and experimental pain sensitivity is lacking. This study aimed to overcome this limitation by exploring the relationship between a range of executive functions and different measures of experimentally induced cold pain in healthy participants. In a group of 54 healthy participants (age 21-24 years), executive functions (EF) were investigated in a systematic manner following a well-established framework developed by Miyake and collaborators. The investigation included multiple tests of inhibition (Stroop, Stop-signal, and Left-right), updating (Keep-track, Letter-memory, and Spatial n-back), and set-shifting (Plus-minus, Number-letter, and Local-global). The cold pressor test was used to obtain measures of pain threshold (the first sensation of pain), sensitivity to pain (the moment when substantial pain was reported), and pain tolerance (the moment when pain became unbearable). Results showed no relationship between pain measures and measures of updating and shifting. All pain measures were related to Stroop interference inhibition score, but not to other two inhibition tasks. Further analyses confirmed the unique relationship between Stroop-type of inhibition and response to pain. We argue that there is a fundamental relationship between cognitive inhibition and pain experience, which relies on one's ability to suppress automatic processes