Comprensión de textos como una situación de solución de problemas

La investigación en la comprensión de textos ha dado detalles de cómo las características del texto y los procesos cognitivos interactúan con el fin de consituir la comprensión y generar significado. Sin embargo, no existe un vínculo explícito entre los procesos cognitivos desplegados durante la comprensión de textos y su lugar en la cognición de orden superior, como en la resolución de problemas. El propósito de este trabajo es proponer un modelo cognitivo en el que la comprensión de textos se hace similar a una resolución de problemas y la situación que se basa en la investigación actual sobre los procesos cognitivos conocidos como la generación de la inferencia, la memoria y las simulaciones. La característica clave del modelo es que incluye explícitamente la formulación de las preguntas como un componente que aumenta la potencia de representación. Otras características del modelo se especifican y sus extensiones a la investigación básica y en la comprensión de textos y de orden superior los procesos cognitivos se describen aplican.Research in text comprehension has provided details as to how text features and cognitive processes interact in order to build comprehension and generate meaning. However, there is no explicit link between the cognitive processes deployed during text comprehension and their place in higher-order cognition, as in problem solving. The purpose of this paper is to propose a cognitive model in which text comprehension is made analogous to a problem solving situation and that relies on current research on well-known cognitive processes such as inference generation, memory, and simulations. The key characteristic of the model is that it explicitly includes the formulation of questions as a component that boosts representational power. Other characteristics of the model are specified and its extensions to basic and applied research in text comprehension and higher-order cognitive processes are outlined.Fil: Marmolejo Ramos, Fernando. University of Adelaide; AustraliaFil: Yomha Cevasco, Jazmin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

A simple method for the detection of outliers

This article presents a simple and efficient method to detect multiple outliers using a modification of the Akaike's Information Criterion. The proposed method is exemplified using various examples and implemented in the statistical package R. The core features of the method are that it depends on simple computations, it does not depend on traditional p values, and it signals the absence of outliers. The proposed procedure is applicable to analyse data in all sciences

Getting the most from your curves: Exploring and reporting data using informative graphical techniques

Most psychological research employs tables to report descriptive and inferential statistics. Unfortunately, those tables often misrepresent critical information on the shape and variability of the datas distribution. In addition, certain information such as the modality and score probability density is hard to report succinctly in tables and, indeed, not reported typically in published research. This paper discusses the importance of using graphical techniques not only to explore data but also to report it effectively. In so doing, the role of exploratory data analysis in detecting Type I and Type II errors is considered. A small data set resembling a Type II error is simulated to demonstrate this procedure, using a conventional parametric test. A potential analysis routine to explore data is also presented. The paper proposes that essential summary statistics and information about the shape and variability of data should be reported via graphical techniques

A call to arms: time to do cognitive science in Latin America

Previous theoretical reviews about the development of Psychology in Latin America suggest that Latin American psychology has a promising future. This paper empirically checks whether that status remains justified. In so doing, the frequency of programs/research domains in three salient psychological areas is assessed in Latin America and in two other regions of the world. A chi-square statistic is used to analyse the collected data. Programs/research domains and regions of the world are the independent variables and frequency of programs/research domains per world region is the dependent variable. Results suggest that whereas in Latin America the work on Social/Organizational Psychology is moving within expected parameters, there is a rather strong focus on Clinical/Psychoanalytical Psychology. Results also show that Experimental/Cognitive Psychology is much underestimated. In Asia, however, the focus on all areas of psychology seems to be distributed within expected parameters, whereas Europe outperforms regarding Experimental/Cognitive Psychology research. Potential reasons that contribute to Latin Americas situation are discussed and specific solutions are proposed. It is concluded that the scope of Experimental/Cognitive Psychology in Latin America should be broadened into a Cognitive Science research program

La formación en competencias ciudadanas en el preescolar

El escrito propone una estrategia para formar a niños de edad preescolar en competencias ciudadanas basada en elementos propios de la psicología del lenguaje y del desarrollo en relación con este nivel de escolaridad. Para argumentar la propuesta se retoman los lineamientos ofrecidos desde políticas educativas acerca de la formación en estas competencias, haciendo hincapié en dos de sus componentes: los procesos cognitivos y el manejo de las emociones. Se propone el trabajo con textos narrativos como una vía apropiada para poner en evidencia la comprensión que alcanzan los niños frente a las competencias ciudadanas. Por último se presentan elementos de intervención pedagógica basada en hallazgos hechos desde la psicología y que pueden ser empleados por quienes están encargados de la formación de niños pequeños.This paper shows a potential way to train preschoolers in citizenship competences by gathering foundations from psychology of language and socio-cognitive development appropriate for this group of age. To sustain this proposal there are stated ideas coming from educational politics about what is essential to citizenship competences, stressing specialty its cognitive processes and emotional components. Working with narrative texts is proposed as the best form to disclose children comprehension about this matter. Finally, there are presented some suggestions based in psychopedagogical basis to use in school settings

The comprehension of emotions in narrative texts : The role of embodied knowledge

"This work explores how current embodied theories of cognition can account for the comprehension of narrative texts. Theoretically, this thesis develops a framework for the study of narrative text comprehension by linking current advances in embodied theories of cognition, discourse processing, and neurosciences. Experimentally, two experiments are reported in which participants were required to read passages of text implying emotional states. The coherence of critical sentences in relation to the preceding text was manipulated in terms of both the emotional adjectives used and the sensory-motor component. In the first experiment, three tasks were used to index the effect of the manipulations on the critical sentences. The first was an on-line naming task in which response times to name emotional labels which matched the implied emotional state of the texts were recorded. [...] The second experiment used backward masking in the naming task with the aim of providing a more sensitive index of the effect of the text manipulations on on-line processing."Master of Applied Science by researc

Automatic detection of discordant outliers via the Ueda's method

The importance of identifying outliers in a data set is well known. Although variousoutlier detection methods have been proposed in order to enable reliable inferencesregarding a data set, a simple but less known method has been proposed by Ueda(1996/2009). Since this new method, called Uedas method, has not been systematicallyanalysed in previous research, a simulation study addressing its performance androbustness is presented. Although the method was derived assuming that theunderlying data is normally distributed, its performance was analysed using data fromvarious outlier-prone distributions commonly found in several research fields. Theresults obtained enable us to define the strengths and weaknesses of the methodalong with its limits of applicability. Furthermore, an unforeseen field of application ofthe method, which requires further studies was also identified

The importance of studying prosody in the comprehension of spontaneous spoken discourse

The study of the role of prosodic breaks and pitch accents in comprehension has usually focused on sentence processing, through the use of laboratory speech produced by both trained and untrained speakers. In comparison, little attention has been paid to their role in the comprehension and production of spontaneous discourse, or to the interplay between prosodic cues and pitch accents and the generation of inferences. This article describes studies which have focused on the effects of prosodic boundaries and pitch accents in sentence comprehension. Their results suggest that prosody has an early influence in the parsing of sentences as well as the processing of the information structure of a statement. It also presents a new model of spontaneous discourse comprehension that can accommodate paralinguistic factors, like pitch andprosody, and other communication channels and their relation to cognitive processes. Stemming from the model presented, future research directions are suggested as well as the importance of including spontaneous spoken discourse materials and examining the role of prosodic cues and pitch accents in the establishment of connections among spoken statements is highlighted

A Graphical Diagnostic Test for Two-Way Contingency Tables

We propose and illustrate a new graphical method to perform diagnostic analyses in two-way contingency tables. In this method, one observation is added or removed from each cell at a time, whilst the other cells are held constant, and the change in a test statistic of interest is graphically represented. The method provides a very simple way of determining how robust our model is (and hence our conclusions) to small changes introduced to the data. We illustrate via four examples, three of them from real-world applications, how this method worksProponemos e ilustramos un nuevo método gráfico para realizar análisis de diagníistico en tablas de contingencia de doble entrada. En este método, se adiciona o remueve una observación de cada celda a la vez mientras las demás se mantienen constantes, y el cambio en un estadístico de interés se representa gráficamente. El método proporciona una manera simple de determinar cuán robusto es nuestro modelo (y por lo tanto nuestras conclusiones) cuando se introducen pequeños cambios en los datos. Ilustramos cómo funciona el método con cuatro ejemplos, tres de ellos con datos reale