19 research outputs found
Universal principles in the repair of communication problems
There would be little adaptive value in a complex communication system like human language if there were no ways to detect and correct problems. A systematic comparison of
conversation in a broad sample of the world’s languages reveals a universal system for the
real-time resolution of frequent breakdowns in communication. In a sample of 12 languages
of 8 language families of varied typological profiles we find a system of ‘other-initiated
repair’, where the recipient of an unclear message can signal trouble and the sender can
repair the original message. We find that this system is frequently used (on average about
once per 1.4 minutes in any language), and that it has detailed common properties, contrary
to assumptions of radical cultural variation. Unrelated languages share the same three functionally
distinct types of repair initiator for signalling problems and use them in the same
kinds of contexts. People prefer to choose the type that is the most specific possible, a principle
that minimizes cost both for the sender being asked to fix the problem and for the dyad
as a social unit. Disruption to the conversation is kept to a minimum, with the two-utterance
repair sequence being on average no longer that the single utterance which is being fixed.
The findings, controlled for historical relationships, situation types and other dependencies,
reveal the fundamentally cooperative nature of human communication and offer support for
the pragmatic universals hypothesis: while languages may vary in the organization of grammar
and meaning, key systems of language use may be largely similar across cultural groups. They also provide a fresh perspective on controversies about the core properties of
language, by revealing a common infrastructure for social interaction which may be the universal bedrock upon which linguistic diversity rests
Physical and cognitive impact following SARS-CoV-2 infection in a large population-based case-control study
© 2023. The Author(s).BACKGROUND: Persistent symptoms are common after SARS-CoV-2 infection but correlation with objective measures is unclear. METHODS: We invited all 3098 adults who tested SARS-CoV-2 positive in Iceland before October 2020 to the deCODE Health Study. We compared multiple symptoms and physical measures between 1706 Icelanders with confirmed prior infection (cases) who participated, and 619 contemporary and 13,779 historical controls. Cases participated in the study 5-18 months after infection. RESULTS: Here we report that 41 of 88 symptoms are associated with prior infection, most significantly disturbed smell and taste, memory disturbance, and dyspnea. Measured objectively, cases had poorer smell and taste results, less grip strength, and poorer memory recall. Differences in grip strength and memory recall were small. No other objective measure associated with prior infection including heart rate, blood pressure, postural orthostatic tachycardia, oxygen saturation, exercise tolerance, hearing, and traditional inflammatory, cardiac, liver, and kidney blood biomarkers. There was no evidence of more anxiety or depression among cases. We estimate the prevalence of long Covid to be 7% at a median of 8 months after infection. CONCLUSIONS: We confirm that diverse symptoms are common months after SARS-CoV-2 infection but find few differences between cases and controls in objective parameters measured. These discrepancies between symptoms and physical measures suggest a more complicated contribution to symptoms related to prior infection than is captured with conventional tests. Traditional clinical assessment is not expected to be particularly informative in relating symptoms to a past SARS-CoV-2 infection.Peer reviewe
Oscillatory brain responses reflect anticipation during comprehension of speech acts in spoken dialog
Everyday conversation requires listeners to quickly recognize verbal actions, so-called speech acts, from the underspecified linguistic code and prepare a relevant response within the tight time constraints of turn-taking. The goal of this study was to determine the time-course of speech act recognition by investigating oscillatory EEG activity during comprehension of spoken dialog. Participants listened to short, spoken dialogs with target utterances that delivered three distinct speech acts (Answers, Declinations, Pre-offers). The targets were identical across conditions at lexico-syntactic and phonetic/prosodic levels but differed in the pragmatic interpretation of the speech act performed. Speech act comprehension was associated with reduced power in the alpha/beta bands just prior to Declination speech acts, relative to Answers and Pre-offers. In addition, we observed reduced power in the theta band during the beginning of Declinations, relative to Answers. Based on the role of alpha and beta desynchronization in anticipatory processes, the results are taken to indicate that anticipation plays a role in speech act recognition. Anticipation of speech acts could be critical for efficient turn-taking, allowing interactants to quickly recognize speech acts and respond within the tight time frame characteristic of conversation. The results show that anticipatory processes can be triggered by the characteristics of the interaction, including the speech act type
Timeline.
<p>Mean onset of the first word, verb and final word in target utterances and a rough timeline for the early and late utterance time-windows.</p
Oscillatory Brain Responses Reflect Anticipation during Comprehension of Speech Acts in Spoken Dialog
Everyday conversation requires listeners to quickly recognize verbal actions, so-called speech acts, from the underspecified linguistic code and prepare a relevant response within the tight time constraints of turn-taking. The goal of this study was to determine the time-course of speech act recognition by investigating oscillatory EEG activity during comprehension of spoken dialog. Participants listened to short, spoken dialogs with target utterances that delivered three distinct speech acts (Answers, Declinations, Pre-offers). The targets were identical across conditions at lexico-syntactic and phonetic/prosodic levels but differed in the pragmatic interpretation of the speech act performed. Speech act comprehension was associated with reduced power in the alpha/beta bands just prior to Declination speech acts, relative to Answers and Pre-offers. In addition, we observed reduced power in the theta band during the beginning of Declinations, relative to Answers. Based on the role of alpha and beta desynchronization in anticipatory processes, the results are taken to indicate that anticipation plays a role in speech act recognition. Anticipation of speech acts could be critical for efficient turn-taking, allowing interactants to quickly recognize speech acts and respond within the tight time frame characteristic of conversation. The results show that anticipatory processes can be triggered by the characteristics of the interaction, including the speech act type
Early utterance time-window.
<p>A) Grand-averaged ERPs time-locked to the onset of the first word. Representative electrodes showing the relevant effects are highlighted in dashed boxes. B) Scalp distribution of the ERP effects in the early utterance time-window. All waveforms were low-pass filtered (10 Hz) for illustration purposes only. Negativity is plotted upwards.</p
Behavioural results.
<p>Mean accuracy (and standard deviation) in the categorization task for all items (overall) and for each stimulus Set.</p><p>Behavioural results.</p
Late utterance time-window.
<p>A) Grand-averaged ERPs time-locked to the onset of the final word. Representative electrodes showing the relevant effects are highlighted in dashed boxes. B) Scalp distribution of the ERP effects in the late utterance time-window.</p