Referential Choices in a Collaborative Storytelling Task: Discourse Stages and Referential Complexity Matter

During a narrative discourse, accessibility of the referents is rarely fixed once and for all. Rather, each referent varies in accessibility as the discourse unfolds, depending on the presence and prominence of the other referents. This leads the speaker to use various referential expressions to refer to the main protagonists of the story at different moments in the narrative. This study relies on a new, collaborative storytelling in sequence task designed to assess how speakers adjust their referential choices when they refer to different characters at specific discourse stages corresponding to the introduction, maintaining, or shift of the character in focus, in increasingly complex referential contexts. Referential complexity of the stories was manipulated through variations in the number of characters (1 vs. 2) and, for stories in which there were two characters, in their ambiguity in gender (different vs. same gender). Data were coded for the type of reference markers as well as the type of reference content (i.e., the extent of the information provided in the referential expression). Results showed that, beyond the expected effects of discourse stages on reference markers (more indefinite markers at the introduction stage, more pronouns at the maintaining stage, and more definite markers at the shift stage), the number of characters and their ambiguity in gender also modulated speakers' referential choices at specific discourse stages, For the maintaining stage, an effect of the number of characters was observed for the use of pronouns and of definite markers, with more pronouns when there was a single character, sometimes replaced by definite expressions when two characters were present in the story. For the shift stage, an effect of gender ambiguity was specifically noted for the reference content with more specific information provided in the referential expression when there was referential ambiguity. Reference content is an aspect of referential marking that is rarely addressed in a narrative context, yet it revealed a quite flexible referential behavior by the speakers

Text comprehension, cognitive resources and aging

Aging brings cognitive changes. Language is not immune to these changes. The use of compensation strategies may permit older adults to achieve a performance level identical to the one obtained by younger adults. This research aims to study text comprehension in aging and the reading strategies used for by older and younger adults. Kintsch's cognitive model (1988) allows the identification of different levels of representation within text treatment (linguistic form, macrostructure, microstructure and situation model) and predicts the underlying cognitive components. Eye-tracking analyses during reading permit inference about the moments of reading treatment and detection of reading strategies. Sixty highly educated participants were assessed. They were divided in two age groups (20-40 and 60-80 years old). Participants were asked to read and understand three texts constructed to highlight the features of text comprehension within each one of the different levels of text representation. The amount of detail and the necessity of updating the situation model varied for each text. Eye movements were registered by an eyetracker (Cambridge research) during the reading process. Specific complementary tasks were administered to evaluate working memory, long-term memory, and executive functions. Variances analyses showed significantly lower performance by older adults regarding: 1) recall of the microstructure of the two texts with a high degree of detail, 2) macrostructure of the text with fewer details, and 3) performance on all tasks that evaluated cognitive components. Aging influenced treatment of levels of text representation depending on text characteristics. However, cluster analysis of the text comprehension and eye-tracker data revealed a group of older adults whose performance in reading comprehension was identical to the performance of younger adults, with the same reading profile. This result seems to show that use of compensation strategies by older adults at the onset of signs of cognitive deterioration is not necessary in reading

The storytelling in sequence test: assessing theory of mind through discourse production.

International audienceIntroduction: We present first normative data of a new interactive task, the storytelling in sequence test, used to evaluate theory of mind's abilities via discourse production. Derived from a princeps study [1], this test assesses the ability to update mental representations of another person's knowledge with a referential communication paradigm. This paradigm allows examining the (co)construction of a mutual knowledge through the differentiated use of reference linguistics markers (anaphoric pronouns, definite and indefinite markers). Method: 45 French-Speaking Swiss speakers (two age groups: 19-39 and 40-49) participated to the storytelling test. They were asked to tell 9 story sequences to another person whose task was to order these pictures correctly. The 9 sequences, of three increasing difficulty levels, were built to elicit 3 referential speech steps: introduction, maintain and shift of character. For each step of each sequence, we used the verbal productions of our groups to calculate a conventionality index (CI) of each referential marker [2]. Results: In both age groups, the type of conventional referential markers differed according to referential speech step: on average across both groups, CI was 0.75 for indefinite markers in introduction step; 0.87 for anaphoric pronouns in maintain step, and 0.57 for definite markers in shift step. Conclusion: Healthy speakers conventionally adjust their referential marker use to the presumed knowledge of their interlocutor. Interestingly these CI may be used as normative data enabling one to calculate personal scores of conventionality (SPECs) for patients with communicative deficits (i.e. schizophrenia, TCC…). The storytelling in sequence test is the first task designed to propose norms to assess the (co)construction of mutual knowledge through analysis of reference linguistic markers

Referential Choices in a Collaborative Storytelling Task: Discourse Stages and Referential Complexity Matter

During a narrative discourse, accessibility of the referents is rarely fixed once and for all. Rather, each referent varies in accessibility as the discourse unfolds, depending on the presence and prominence of the other referents. This leads the speaker to use various referential expressions to refer to the main protagonists of the story at different moments in the narrative. This study relies on a new, collaborative storytelling in sequence task designed to assess how speakers adjust their referential choices when they refer to different characters at specific discourse stages corresponding to the introduction, maintaining, or shift of the character in focus, in increasingly complex referential contexts. Referential complexity of the stories was manipulated through variations in the number of characters (1 vs. 2) and, for stories in which there were two characters, in their ambiguity in gender (different vs. same gender). Data were coded for the type of reference markers as well as the type of reference content (i.e., the extent of the information provided in the referential expression). Results showed that, beyond the expected effects of discourse stages on reference markers (more indefinite markers at the introduction stage, more pronouns at the maintaining stage, and more definite markers at the shift stage), the number of characters and their ambiguity in gender also modulated speakers' referential choices at specific discourse stages, For the maintaining stage, an effect of the number of characters was observed for the use of pronouns and of definite markers, with more pronouns when there was a single character, sometimes replaced by definite expressions when two characters were present in the story. For the shift stage, an effect of gender ambiguity was specifically noted for the reference content with more specific information provided in the referential expression when there was referential ambiguity. Reference content is an aspect of referential marking that is rarely addressed in a narrative context, yet it revealed a quite flexible referential behavior by the speakers

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<p>During a narrative discourse, accessibility of the referents is rarely fixed once and for all. Rather, each referent varies in accessibility as the discourse unfolds, depending on the presence and prominence of the other referents. This leads the speaker to use various referential expressions to refer to the main protagonists of the story at different moments in the narrative. This study relies on a new, collaborative storytelling in sequence task designed to assess how speakers adjust their referential choices when they refer to different characters at specific discourse stages corresponding to the introduction, maintaining, or shift of the character in focus, in increasingly complex referential contexts. Referential complexity of the stories was manipulated through variations in the number of characters (1 vs. 2) and, for stories in which there were two characters, in their ambiguity in gender (different vs. same gender). Data were coded for the type of reference markers as well as the type of reference content (i.e., the extent of the information provided in the referential expression). Results showed that, beyond the expected effects of discourse stages on reference markers (more indefinite markers at the introduction stage, more pronouns at the maintaining stage, and more definite markers at the shift stage), the number of characters and their ambiguity in gender also modulated speakers' referential choices at specific discourse stages, For the maintaining stage, an effect of the number of characters was observed for the use of pronouns and of definite markers, with more pronouns when there was a single character, sometimes replaced by definite expressions when two characters were present in the story. For the shift stage, an effect of gender ambiguity was specifically noted for the reference content with more specific information provided in the referential expression when there was referential ambiguity. Reference content is an aspect of referential marking that is rarely addressed in a narrative context, yet it revealed a quite flexible referential behavior by the speakers.</p

MOZ-TIF2-induced acute myeloid leukemia requires the MOZ nucleosome binding motif and TIF2-mediated recruitment of CBP

The MOZ-TIF2 fusion is associated with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with inv(8)(p11q13). MOZ is a MYST family histone acetyltransferase (HAT), whereas TIF2 is a nuclear receptor coactivator that associates with CREB binding protein (CBP). Here we demonstrate that MOZ-TIF2 has transforming properties in vitro and causes AML in a murine bone marrow transplant assay. The C2HC nucleosome recognition motif of MOZ is essential for transformation, whereas MOZ HAT activity is dispensable. However, MOZ-TIF2 interaction with CBP through the TIF2 CBP interaction domain (CID) is essential for transformation. These results indicate that nucleosomal targeting by MOZ and recruitment of CBP by TIF2 are critical requirements for MOZ-TIF2 transformation and indicate that MOZ gain of function contributes to leukemogenesis