Fixation-related EEG frequency band power analysis: A promising methodology for studying instructional design effects of multimedia learning material

During the last decade the combined recording of eye-tracking data and electroencephalographic (EEG) data has led to the methodology of fixation-related potentials analysis (FRP). This methodology has been increasingly and successfully used to study EEG correlates in the time domain (i.e., event-related potentials, ERPs) of cognitive processing in free viewing situations like text reading or natural scene perception. Basically, fixation-onset serves as time-locking event for epoching and analysing the EEG data. Here, we propose a methodology of fixation-related frequency band power analysis (FRBP) to study cognitive load and affective variations in learners during free viewing situations of multimedia learning materials (i.e., combinations of textual and pictorial elements). The EEG alpha frequency band power at parietal electrodes may serve as a valid measure of cognitive load, whereas the frontal alpha asymmetry may serve as a measure of affective variations. We will briefly introduce and motivate the measures and the methodology, and discuss methodological challenges. The methodology is frontline for learning research, first, as to date the EEG has been seldom used to study design effects of multimedia learning materials and second, as fixation-related EEG data analysis has rarely been done focussing on the frequency domain (i.e., FRBP). Despite methodological challenges still to be solved, FRBP may provide a more in-depth picture of cognitive processing during multimedia learning compared to eye-tracking data or EEG data in isolation and thus may help clarifying effects of multimedia design decisions

Participatory Theater, Is It Really? A Critical Examination of Practices in Timor-Leste

Dance, music, and oral narratives are an important and vibrant part of cultural practice and heritage in Timor-Leste. But while Timorese people have used such creative methods and processes during rituals, celebrations, and their fight for independence, today arts and artistic expression become an increasingly popular strategy in development cooperation. Especially diff erent forms of so-called participatory theater with origins in development cooperation, arts, and social movements, present themselves as innovative, participatory, and well applicable in terms of capacity building and stimulating positive social transformation. Based on the author’s experience and observations, this article critically examines the alliance between various stakeholders in Timor-Leste engaging with the fact that the current scene of participatory theater can hardly be seen as an independent grassroots or even social movement, rather than an initiated top-down process by donors with specific agendas

Thailand in the Face of the 1997 Asian Crisis and the Current Financial Crisis: an Interview With Johannes Dragsbæk Schmidt

Johannes Dragsbæk Schmidt studied International Relations and Development Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark. Since 1993, he has been Associate Professor in the Department of History, International and Social Studies. Prof Dragsbæk Schmidt has held visiting research fellowships in Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Poland, and was a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Political Economy, Carleton University, Canada in 2009. Additionally he has been a consultant to UNESCO, the World Bank and the Irish Development Agency. Prof Dragsbæk Schmidt has a broad spectrum of research interests, varying from globalisation and international division of labour via refugees and human rights to social and welfare policy and state regulations with a focus on East and South-East Asia. / The interview was conducted by e-mail on 3 April, 27 April and 4 May 2010

Predictive Processing in Poetic Language: Event-Related Potentials Data on Rhythmic Omissions in Metered Speech

Predictions during language comprehension are currently discussed from many points of view. One area where predictive processing may play a particular role concerns poetic language that is regularized by meter and rhyme, thus allowing strong predictions regarding the timing and stress of individual syllables. While there is growing evidence that these prosodic regularities influence language processing, less is known about the potential influence of prosodic preferences (binary, strong-weak patterns) on neurophysiological processes. To this end, the present electroencephalogram (EEG) study examined whether the predictability of strong and weak syllables within metered speech would differ as a function of meter (trochee vs. iamb). Strong, i.e., accented positions within a foot should be more predictable than weak, i.e., unaccented positions. Our focus was on disyllabic pseudowords that solely differed between trochaic and iambic structure, with trochees providing the preferred foot in German. Methodologically, we focused on the omission Mismatch Negativity (oMMN) that is elicited when an anticipated auditory stimulus is omitted. The resulting electrophysiological brain response is particularly interesting because its elicitation does not depend on a physical stimulus. Omissions in deviant position of a passive oddball paradigm occurred at either first- or second-syllable position of the aforementioned pseudowords, resulting in a 2-by-2 design with the factors foot type and omission position. Analyses focused on the mean oMMN amplitude and latency differences across the four conditions. The result pattern was characterized by an interaction of the effects of foot type and omission position for both amplitudes and latencies. In first position, omissions resulted in larger and earlier oMMNs for trochees than for iambs. In second position, omissions resulted in larger oMMNs for iambs than for trochees, but the oMMN latency did not differ. The results suggest that omissions, particularly in initial position, are modulated by a trochaic preference in German. The preferred strong-weak pattern may have strengthened the prosodic prediction, especially for matching, trochaic stimuli, such that the violation of this prediction led to an earlier and stronger prediction error. Altogether, predictive processing seems to play a particular role in metered speech, especially if the meter is based on the preferred foot type

Freud : pensador da diferença

O presente artigo tem como objetivo percorrer brevemente os textos de Freud em que o tema da diferença comparece. O ponto de partida é seguir por conceitos como o complexo do próximo, narcisismo, identificação, relação entre interno e externo, relação eu-outro, o estranho, etc. A proposta é, portanto, traçar um percurso teórico por alguns textos freudianos e a partir daí defender que a temática da diferença se faz presente em todos eles, permanecendo como fio constante de interesse do autor. A intenção é indicar que a dinâmica do psiquismo, para Freud, sempre tem relação com aquilo que de algum modo é outro, com aquilo que se difere. O sujeito depende de outrem quando nasce, se vincula as pessoas e a cultura, se apaixona, se identifica. O sujeito está a todo tempo lidando com um dentro e um fora, com aquilo que é eu e aquilo que é outro. O conceito de outro aqui referido não compreende apenas o que se encontra fora do sujeito, já que mesmo internamente é possível ele experimentar algo como outro, tal é o caso do inconsciente quando faz-se presente através dos lapsos de linguagem e dos atos falhos. Também aí comparece uma alteridade e a vivência de uma diferença. Freud, portanto, pensou a temática da diferença de modo permanente. _______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThis article is meant to provide a brief overview of texts by Freud dealing with the topic of difference. The starting point is to address concepts such as the complex of the fellow human being, narcissism, identification, the internal-external relationship, the Iother relationship, the stranger, etc. The proposal is, therefore, to draw a theoretical path through some Freudian texts and, based on it, defend that difference-related topics are present in all of them as a constant link of interest to the author. The intention is to indicate that Freud believed that the dynamics of psychism is always related to what is, in one way or another, the other one, to what differs. Subjects depend on other subjects when they are born, they develop relations with people and culture, they fall in love with things and people, they identify themselves. Subjects are constantly dealing with the inside and the outside, with what is oneself and the other. The concept of “other” mentioned here doesn’t comprise only what is outside the subject, since even internally it is possible for one to experience something as different, as when the unconscious makes itself present through language lapses and faulty actions. In this connection, the notion of otherness and the experience of a difference are also present. What this means is that Freud insistently addressed the topic of difference

Cognitive Science

Abstract Research on the relation between sound and meaning in language has reported substantial evidence for implicit associations between articulatory?acoustic characteristics of phonemes and emotions. In the present study, we specifically tested the relation between the acoustic properties of a text and its emotional tone as perceived by readers. To this end, we asked participants to assess the emotional tone of single stanzas extracted from a large variety of poems. The selected stanzas had either an extremely high, a neutral, or an extremely low average formant dispersion. To assess the average formant dispersion per stanza, all words were phonetically transcribed and the distance between the first and second formant per vowel was calculated. Building on a long tradition of research on associations between sound frequency on the one hand and non-acoustic concepts such as size, strength, or happiness on the other hand, we hypothesized that stanzas with an extremely high average formant dispersion would be rated lower on items referring to Potency (dominance) and higher on items referring to Activity (arousal) and Evaluation (emotional valence). The results confirmed our hypotheses for the dimensions of Potency and Evaluation, but not for the dimension of Activity. We conclude that, at least in poetic language, extreme values of acoustic features of vowels are a significant predictor for the emotional tone of a text

Contiguity-based sound iconicity: The meaning of words resonates with phonetic properties of their immediate verbal contexts

We tested the hypothesis that phonosemantic iconicity––i.e., a motivated resonance of sound and meaning––might not only be found on the level of individual words or entire texts, but also in word combinations such that the meaning of a target word is iconically expressed, or highlighted, in the phonetic properties of its immediate verbal context. To this end, we extracted single lines from German poems that all include a word designating high or low dominance, such as large or small, strong or weak, etc. Based on insights from previous studies, we expected to find more vowels with a relatively short distance between the first two formants (low formant dispersion) in the immediate context of words expressing high physical or social dominance than in the context of words expressing low dominance. Our findings support this hypothesis, suggesting that neighboring words can form iconic dyads in which the meaning of one word is sound-iconically reflected in the phonetic properties of adjacent words. The construct of a contiguity-based phono-semantic iconicity opens many venues for future research well beyond lines extracted from poems