In the present study, we leveraged computational methods to explore the extent to which, relative to direct access to semantics from orthographic cues, the additional appreciation of morphological ...cues is advantageous while inducing the meaning of affixed pseudo-words. We re-analyzed data from a study on a lexical decision task for affixed pseudo-words. We considered a parsimonious model only including semantic variables (namely, semantic neighborhood density, entropy, magnitude, stem proximity) derived through a word-form-to-meaning approach (ngram-based). We then explored the extent to which the addition of equivalent semantic variables derived by combining semantic information from morphemes (combination-based) improved the fit of the statistical model explaining human data. Results suggest that semantic information can be extracted from arbitrary clusters of letters, yet a computational model of semantic access also including a combination-based strategy based on explicit morphological information better captures the cognitive mechanisms underlying human performance. This is particularly evident when participants recognize affixed pseudo-words as meaningful stimuli.
The present study explored the effect of different degrees of relevance in discourse comprehension by using ERPs analysis. A principle of pragmatic relevance is supposed to guide inferential ...mechanism underlying discourse processing. Discourse level comprehension needs a system of predictions about which information is more relevant in order to process the ongoing sentence meaning. This system should construct a specific mental model, where inferences related to the present sentence are stored and maintained. Three degrees of relevance of a new information (new sentence) with respect to an old information (target sentence) were manipulated: directly relevant; indirectly relevant; not relevant. Twenty-one subjects participated to the experiment and they were asked to try to comprehend a set of two paired sentences (old-new paired sentences) based on their conceptual relevance. Two negative deflections, peaking respectively at about 410 msec post-stimulus (N400), more right anterior-centrally distributed, and at about 550 msec (late negativity, LrN), more right central localized, were found. Repeated measures ANOVA found that the amplitude of both the N400 and LrNis modulated by the degree of relevance and by the strength of the underlying associations between the two sentences. Indirect relevance resulted in increased negativities in comparison with direct relevance. Contrarily, non-relevant condition did not produce an increasing in N400 and LrNamplitude. Unrelevance of the knowledge related to the actual mental model of sentences may induce a rapid and costless discarding of non pertinent information. The conclusive inference is that a subset of neural processes responding to degree of relevance of information is separable and cortically more frontally and centrally localized. Functional differences between N400 and LrN for relevance were discussed.
A substantial body of literature indicates that, at least at some level of processing, complex words are broken down into their morphemes solely on the basis of their orthographic form (e.g., Rastle, ...Davis, & New, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 11:1090–1098,
2004
). Recent evidence has shown that this process might not be obligatory, as indicated by the fact that morpho-orthographic effects were not found in a cross-case same–different task—that is, when lexical access was not necessarily required (Duñabeitia, Kinoshita, Carreiras, & Norris, Language and Cognitive Processes 26:509–529,
2011
). In this study, we employed a task that required understanding a series of words and, thus, implied lexical access. Masked primes were shown very briefly right before the appearance of the target word; prime–target pairs entertained a morpho-semantic (
dealer
–
DEAL
), a morpho-orthographic (
corner
–
CORN
), or a purely orthographic (
brothel
–
BROTH
) relationship. Eye fixation times clearly indicated facilitation for transparent pairs, but not for opaque pairs (or for orthographic pairs, which were used as a baseline). Conversely, the usual morpho-orthographic pattern was found in a control experiment, employing a lexical decision task. These results indicate that the access to a morpho-orthographic level of representation is not always necessary for lexical identification, which challenges models of visual word identification that cannot account for task-induced effects.
Abstract
While morphemes are theoretically defined as linguistic units linking form and meaning, semantic effects in morphological
processing are not reported consistently in the literature on ...derived and compound words. The lack of consistency in this line of research
has often been attributed to methodological differences between studies or contextual effects. In this paper, we advance a different
proposal where semantic effects emerge quite consistently if semantics is defined in a dynamic and flexible way, relying on distributional
semantics approaches. In this light, we revisit morphological processing, taking a markedly cognitive perspective, as allowed by models that
focus on morphology as systematic meaning transformation or that focus on the mapping between the orthographic form of words and their
meanings.
This paper considers the cognitive and linguistic processes underlying the comprehension of frozen metaphors, by analyzing both neuropsychological and behavioral data. In order to explore the ...dichotomy between the pragmatic models (i.e. the metaphor as a semantic anomaly) and the direct comprehension view (the metaphor as a “standard” meaning) on the one hand, and between an iconic (more imagery-based) vs. not iconic (linguistic) representational modality on the other hand, the paper analyzed the event-related potentials (ERPs) and the behavioral data (response time) of subjects submitted to verbal stimuli. 36 participants were required to comprehend metaphoric and literal sentences, half congruous (semantically not anomalous) and half uncongruous (semantically anomalous). The morphological analysis of the electroencephalographic (EEG) profile allowed to observe two negative deflections (the N3–N4 complex), differently distributed on the scalp surface. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) applied to peak amplitude and latency variables underlined the different role of these deflections in metaphoric decoding. That is, the N4 effect appears to detect the presence of a semantic anomaly of the utterance (uncongruous condition) more localized on the posterior (Pz) area, but not sensitive to the metaphoric/literal content of the stimulus. On the contrary, N3 effect shows an ampler negativity for the metaphoric decoding, increased on the occipital area, likely a marker of a specific iconic representational format. Thus, though not equivalent, the two comprehension processes are not differentiated as a function of the way of the meaning access (direct or indirect), nor for their cognitive complexity (no response time variation) but for the typology of the representational format, more imagery-based for metaphoric stimuli, as it was showed by an increased N3 on the occipital visual area.
Background
Previous research has shown that deficits in the domain of emotions strongly characterize alcoholism. Patients diagnosed with alcoholism show impairments in emotional mimic recognition, as ...well as in the domain of emotional prosody. These data suggest that male alcoholics might suffer from a generalized emotional impairment associated with dysfunctions in empathy. Taken altogether, those deficits might influence alcoholics' relational domain and their performance in complex communicative situations such as ironic interactions. The present study investigates the ability of chronic male alcoholics to recognize the emotional component of ironic contexts and its relation to the comprehension of ironic meaning as a function of their empathic abilities.
Methods
Forty‐four male subjects participated in a story comprehension task. They were asked to read stories with either an ironic or a nonironic ending. Participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire about communicative intentions and the emotional states of the stories' characters. Moreover, the correct comprehension of the ironic meaning was assessed through a self‐reported questionnaire and related to the empathy quotient (EQ) which was measured in a preexperimental phase.
Results
Alcoholic subjects showed a lower EQ in comparison to healthy subjects and recognized significant fewer ironic endings. Social skills results were particularly impaired. The correlation between EQ and ironic endings recognition was significant. Moreover, alcoholics showed a tendency to attribute positive emotions to both ironic and nonironic contexts, showing an opposite pattern in comparison with control subjects who tended to associate negative emotions to ironic contexts.
Conclusions
The present study indicates that emotional recognition deficits that have been previously observed in chronic alcoholics extend to complex interactive contexts. This deficit is associated with a more general impairment of empathy, especially in its social skill component. Clinical implications of the present results are discussed.
Irony is part of our daily experience, that is probably the reason why a lot of studies have been trying to define its nature and the way we are able to understand the pragmatic intentions lying ...behind ironic communication. This study addresses the issue of pragmatic comprehension of language by analysing the differences or similarities in processing ironical and non-ironical language. The aim of the study is specifically to explore neuropsychological correlates (ERPs) of irony decoding. 10 subjects listened to 240 sentences presenting a counterfactual vs. non-counterfactual content (counterfactual modality) and spoken with ironical vs. neutral prosody (prosody modality). ERPs analysis showed a negative deflection peaking at about 460ms post stimulus onset (N400) for all the conditions. Statistical analyses (repeated measures ANOVA) applied to peak amplitudes showed no statistically significant differences between the conditions as a functions of the type of sentence (ironical vs. non ironical) and the content of ironical sentences (counterfactual vs. non counterfactual). An increase of N400 related to ironical sentences was observed although no statistical significant differences between ironical and non ironical sentences were found. The absence of an N400 effect may indicate that irony is not treated as a semantic anomaly, thus rejecting the standard pragmatic hypothesis. The observed differences in amplitude could be probably attributed to a higher requirement for the cognitive resources in order to integrate contrasting and complex lexical, prosodic and contextual cues.
Koolen-de Vries syndrome (KdVS) is a multisystem neurodevelopmental disorder caused by 17q21.31 deletions or mutations in
. It was mainly described in children.
A retrospective study on 9 subjects ...aged 19-45 years and revision of 18 literature patients, with the purpose to get insights into the phenotypic evolution with time, and into the clinical manifestations in adulthood.
Seven patients had a 17q21.31 deletion and two a point mutation in
. All had intellectual disability, which was mild in five (56%) and moderate in four (44%). Epilepsy was diagnosed in four subjects (44%), with onset from 1 to 7 years and full remission before 9 years in 3/4 patients. Scoliosis affected seven individuals (77.7%) and it was substantially stable with age in 5/7 patients, allowing for simple daily activities. Two subjects had severely progressive scoliosis, which was surgically corrected. Overweight or true obesity did occur after puberty in six patients (67%). Behaviour abnormalities were recorded in six patients (67%). The facial phenotype slightly evolved with time to include thick eyebrows, elongated nose and pronounced pointed chin. Despite behaviour abnormalities, happy disposition and sociable attitudes were common. Half of patients had fluent language and were good at writing and reading. Rich language, although limited to single words or short sentences, and very limited or absent skills in writing and reading were observed in the remaining patients. Autonomy in daily activities and personal care was usually limited.
Distinctive features in adult KdVS subjects include intellectual disability, overweight/obesity, behaviour abnormalities with preserved social interest, ability in language, slight worsening of the facial phenotype and no seizures.
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