Early Goal-Directed Top-Down Influences in the Production of Speech

It was recently reported that the conscious intention to produce speech affects the speed with which lexical information is retrieved upon presentation of an object (Strijkers et al., 2011). The goal of the present study was to elaborate further on the role of these top-down influences in the course of planning speech behavior. In an event-related potentials (ERP) experiment, participants were required to overtly name pictures and words in one block of trials, while categorizing the same stimuli in another block of trials. The ERPs elicited by the naming task started to diverge very early on (∼170 ms) from those elicited by the semantic categorization task. Interestingly, these early ERP differences related to task intentionality were identical for pictures and words. From these results we conclude that (a) in line with Strijkers et al. (2011), goal-directed processes play a crucial role very early on in speech production, and (b) these task-driven top-down influences function at least in a domain-general manner by modulating those networks which are always relevant for the production of language, irrespective of which cortical pathways are triggered by the input

The impact of compassion from others and self-compassion on psychological distress, flourishing, and meaning in life among university students

Objectives: Research shows that compassion from others and from the self may enable university students to face, overcome, and bounce back from adversity and generate a greater sense of thriving and meaning in life. However, the underlying processes are largely unknown. The present study aimed to examine the associations of compassion with psychological distress, flourishing, and meaning in life among university students and explore the mechanisms underlying these associations. Methods: A total of 536 Hong Kong university students completed questionnaires measuring their experiences of compassion from others, self-compassion, resilience, psychological distress, flourishing, and meaning in life. Results: Serial mediation analyses showed that compassion from others was associated positively with self-compassion, which was, in turn, linked to greater resilience and consequently lower levels of psychological distress and higher levels of flourishing and meaning in life. Conclusions: Our findings reveal the associations of compassion from others and self-compassion with the well-being and life meaning of university students. The findings highlight the importance of being open and receptive to love and kindness from others. The findings also point to the importance of developing a caring attitude toward oneself

Right on Time: The Framing of Predicted Duration

This study examined the linguistic framing effects of temporal metaphor and subjective temporal distance on predicted duration estimates. Eighty participants were presented with a video prime designed to elicit the temporal metaphor of time- or ego-motion (i.e. time moving towards or with one's self). After the prime, participants received task instructions in writing, which were framed in one of the two temporal metaphors (ego-/time-motion) and two subjective temporal distances (near/far). Participants in all conditions then completed a task of sorting 100 journals by title and publishing date. Afterwards, participants gave a retrospective estimate of task duration and completed a series of personality questionnaires. It was hypothesized that the time-motion metaphor and near subjective temporal distance would both reduce the underestimation bias typically observed in predictive duration estimates. Results supported the hypotheses, with temporal metaphor having a greater impact than subjective temporal distance. In addition, a multiple regression analysis of the questionnaire data revealed that several behavioral indices significantly predict the magnitude at which the underestimation bias occurs: high scores on the\ud Future orientation subscale in the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, low scores on the Task Hurry subscale in the Time Urgency Scale, and low scores on Order in the Conscientiousness facet of NEO-PI. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications

Impact of characteristics of L1 literacy experience on picture processing: ERP data from trilingual non-native Chinese and English readers

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Effects of picture-word integration on reading visual narratives in L1 and L2

Multimodal education materials are pervasive in language learning. This study investigated the causal mechanisms of multimodal reading effects in first language (L1) and second language (L2). Seventy-five adult bilingual readers in Hong Kong read Chinese and English passages with different degrees of picture-word integration in a within-subject design. Results showed that tight text-picture integration facilitated better comprehension than independent text-picture presentation in L2, but not L1. Perceived ease and interest differentially mediated multimodal reading performance for L1 and L2 passages. Importantly, separate images in L2 passages led to poorer comprehension accuracy relative to plain text, but tended to have higher ratings of ease and interest, indicating that readers may be overconfident in their multimodal reading performance. In general, results support the notion that integration of text and pictures can moderate the process of meaning making, and these may differ depending on the language presented to a bilingual reader

TRACKING LEXICALITY EFFECTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE VOCABULARY LEARNING

20th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive-Neuroscience-Society, San Francisco, CA, APR 13-16, 2013International audienceno abstrac

TRACKING LEXICALITY EFFECTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE VOCABULARY LEARNING

20th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive-Neuroscience-Society, San Francisco, CA, APR 13-16, 2013International audienceno abstrac

Intercultural sensitivity and prosocial behavior towards South Asians in Hong Kong: mediating mechanisms of warmth and stigma

Previous research shows that intercultural sensitivity is associated with a myriad of positive outcomes. However, few studies have examined the mechanisms for why and how it is related to positive experiences. To fill the gap in the literature, the present study tested the mediating roles of warmth and stigma between intercultural sensitivity and prosocial behaviors towards South Asians in Hong Kong. A total of 151 Chinese university students in Hong Kong (107 female, 70.86%), ranging in age from 18 to 26 years (M = 21.31; SD = 1.77), completed a self-report questionnaire that assessed the variables under study. Structural equation modeling was conducted to investigate the mediation model. The findings revealed that intercultural sensitivity was related to greater warmth towards South Asians. Greater warmth was, in turn, related to lower stigma, which was then associated with greater prosocial behavior towards South Asians in Hong Kong. Bootstrapping analysis further showed that warmth and stigma were mediators between intercultural sensitivity and prosocial behavior. The present study adds new evidence to the literature by demonstrating the correlates of intercultural sensitivity. Specifically, the findings demonstrate the mediating roles of warmth and stigma between intercultural sensitivity and prosocial behavior towards ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. As a practical implication, this study calls for policies to increase positive intercultural encounters in the public and across service sectors in the society. To holistically understand and enhance positive intercultural encounters, it is therefore crucial to examine both positive and negative correlates between ethnic groups

Internet of Things (IoT)-Enhanced Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for Special Education Needs

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) has become a popular behavioral therapy in the special education needs (SEN) community. ABA is used to manage SEN students’ behaviors by solving problems in socially important settings, and puts emphasis on having precise measurements on physical and observable events. In this work, we present how Internet of Things (IoT) technologies can be applied to enhance ABA therapy in normal SEN classroom settings. We measured (1) learning performance data, (2) learners’ physiological data, and (3) learning environment sensors’ data. Upon preliminary analysis, we have found that learners’ physiological data is highly diverse, while learner performance seems to be related to learners’ electrodermal activity. Our preliminary findings suggest the possibility of enhancing ABA for SEN with IoT technologies