Statistical learning enables humans to involuntarily process and utilize different kinds of patterns from the environment. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying the simultaneous acquisition of ...multiple regularities from different perceptual modalities remain unclear. A novel multidimensional serial reaction time task was developed to test 40 participants' ability to learn simple first-order and complex second-order relations between uni-modal visual and cross-modal audio-visual stimuli. Using the difference in reaction times between sequenced and random stimuli as the index of domain-general statistical learning, a significant difference and dissociation of learning occurred between the initial and final learning phases. Furthermore, we used a negative and positive occurrence-frequency-and-reaction-time correlation to indicate implicit and explicit learning, respectively, and found that learning simple uni-modal patterns involved an implicit-to-explicit segue, while acquiring complex cross-modal patterns required an explicit-to-implicit segue, resulting in a X-shape crossing of regularity learning. Thus, we propose an X-way hypothesis to elucidate the dynamic interplay between the implicit and explicit systems at two distinct stages when acquiring various regularities in a multidimensional probability space.
A compelling demonstration of implicit learning is the human ability to unconsciously detect and internalize statistical patterns of complex environmental input. This ability, called statistical ...learning, has been investigated in people with dyslexia using various tasks in different orthographies. However, conclusions regarding impaired or intact statistical learning in dyslexia remain mixed. This study conducted a systematic literature search of published and unpublished studies that compared statistical learning between people with and without dyslexia using different learning paradigms in different orthographies. We identified 49 papers consisting of 59 empirical studies, representing the data from 1,259 participants with dyslexia and 1,459 typically developing controls. The results showed that, on average, individuals with dyslexia performed worse in statistical learning than age-matched controls, regardless of the learning paradigm or orthography (average weighted effect size d = 0.47, 95% confidence interval 0.36, 0.59, p < .001). Meta-regression analyses further revealed that the heterogeneity of effect sizes between studies was significantly explained by one reader characteristic (i.e., verbal IQ) but no task characteristics (i.e., task paradigm, task modality, and stimulus type). These findings suggest domain-general statistical learning weakness in dyslexia across languages, and support the need for a new theoretical model of statistical learning and reading, that is, the SLR model, which elucidates how reader and task characteristics are regulated by a multicomponent memory system when establishing statistically optimal representations for deep learning and reading.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a life-threatening form of pneumonia caused by SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). From late 2002 to mid 2003, it infected more than 8000 people worldwide, of ...which a majority of cases were found in China. Owing to the absence of definitive therapeutic Western medicines,
Houttuynia cordata Thunb. (Saururaceae) (HC) was shortlisted by Chinese scientists to tackle SARS problem as it is conventionally used to treat pneumonia.
The present study aimed to explore the SARS-preventing mechanisms of HC in the immunological and anti-viral aspects.
Results showed that HC water extract could stimulate the proliferation of mouse splenic lymphocytes significantly and dose-dependently. By flow cytometry, it was revealed that HC increased the proportion of CD4
+ and CD8
+ T cells. Moreover, it caused a significant increase in the secretion of IL-2 and IL-10 by mouse splenic lymphocytes. In the anti-viral aspect, HC exhibited significant inhibitory effects on SARS-CoV 3C-like protease (3CL
pro) and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). On the other hand, oral acute toxicity test demonstrated that HC was non-toxic to laboratory animals following oral administration at 16
g/kg.
The results of this study provided scientific data to support the efficient and safe use of HC to combat SARS.
This study investigated the similarities and differences in perception of Cantonese tones and English stress patterns by Cantonese-English bilingual children, adults, and English monolingual adults. ...All three groups were asked to discriminate pairs of syllables that minimally differed in either Cantonese tone or in English stress. Bilingual children's performance on tone perception was comparable to their performance on stress perception. By contrast, bilingual adults' performance on tone perception was lower than their performance on stress perception, and there was a similar pattern in English monolingual adults. Bilingual adults tended to perform better than English monolingual adults on both the tone and stress perception tests. A significant correlation between tone perception and stress perception performance was found in bilingual children but not in bilingual adults. All three groups showed lower accuracy in the high rising-low rising contrast than any of the other 14 Cantonese tone contrasts. The acoustic analyses revealed that average F0, F0 onset, and F0 major slope were the critical acoustic correlates of Cantonese tones, whereas multiple acoustic correlates were salient in English stress, including average F0, spectral balance, duration and intensity. We argue that participants' difficulty in perceiving high rising-low rising contrasts originated from the contrasts' similarities in F0 onset and average F0; indeed the difference between their major slopes was the only cue with which to distinguish them. Acoustic-perceptual correlation analyses showed that although the average F0 and F0 onset were associated with tone perception performance in all three groups, F0 major slope was only associated with tone perception in the bilingual adult group. These results support a dynamic interactive account of suprasegmental speech perception by emphasizing the positive prosodic transfer between Cantonese tone and English stress, and the role that level of bilingual language experience and age play in shaping suprasegmental speech perception.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Dyslexia is characterized by its diverse causes and heterogeneous manifestations. Chinese children with dyslexia exhibit orthographic, phonological, and semantic deficits across character and radical ...levels when writing. However, whether character dictation can be used to distinguish children with dyslexia from their typically developing peers remains unexplored.
A dataset of written characters from 1,015 Chinese children with and without dyslexia from Grades 2-6 was used to train multiple machine models with different learning algorithms.
The multi-level multidimensional model reached a predictive accuracy of 78.0%, with stroke, grade, lexicality, and character configuration manifesting as the most predictive features. The accuracy of the model improved to 80.0% when only these features were included.
These results not only provide evidence for the multidimensional causes of Chinese dyslexia, but also highlight the utility of machine learning in distinguishing children with dyslexia from their peers via Chinese dictation, which elucidates a promising area of future research.
This study employed a multi-dimensional (i.e., orthographic, phonological, and semantic) and bi-level (i.e., character and radical) approach to analyze the character writing of 120 Hong Kong Chinese ...children with developmental dyslexia in Grades 2-5 and 120 typically developing age-matched controls. Relative to their typically developing peers, children with dyslexia were less sensitive to the positional and functional consistencies of sublexical radicals and exhibited prolonged use of phonology at the character level as grade-level advanced. Furthermore, the children with dyslexia relatively relied more on phonology at the radical level than younger, reading level-matched children. These results indicate the effects of implicit statistical learning on the development of Chinese character writing skills and suggest that the prolonged use and overreliance on phonology in character writing by Chinese children with dyslexia may reflect their difficulties in implicit statistical learning.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the suspension of face-to-face classes and a considerable increase in the use of telepractice services in speech-language pathology. However, little is ...known about parents' and students' satisfaction with telepractice services and their preferences for different service delivery modes. These factors may affect therapy effectiveness and the future adoption of telepractice.
We evaluated students' and parents' perceptions of telepractice efficacy and their preferences for different service delivery modes (ie, on-site practice vs telepractice). We also identified factors that affect parents' and students' preferences for different service delivery modes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A 19-question survey on telepractice satisfaction and preferences was administered to 41 Hong Kong Chinese students and 85 parents who received telepractice services from school-based speech-language pathologists during the COVID-19 class suspension period. In addition to providing demographic information and data on the implementation of telepractice services, all participants were asked to rate their perceptions of the efficacy of telepractice services and compare on-site practices to telepractice on a 5-point Likert scale (ie, 1=strongly disagree/prefer the use of on-site speech-language therapy services and 5=strongly agree/prefer the use of telepractice services).
Despite the fact that telepractice efficacy was highly rated by parents (95% CI 3.30-3.66) and students (95% CI 3.21-3.76), both groups believed that telepractice was less effective than on-site practices (parents: 95% CI 2.14-2.52; students: 95% CI 2.08-2.65). Moreover, parents preferred on-site practices over telepractice (95% CI 2.04-2.43), whereas students did not prefer one mode of practice over the other (95% CI 2.74-3.41). A significant association between telepractice efficacy and a preference for telepractice services was found only among the students (τ=.43, P<.001), not the parents (τ=.07; P=.44).
Although telepractice is an acceptable alternative service delivery option for providing speech and language therapy services to school-aged individuals, speech-language therapists and parents must play a more proactive role in telepractice services to facilitate effective communication between clinicians and parents.
Background
Face‐to‐face class suspensions during the coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic in 2019 increased telepractice in speech and language therapy. However, little is known about speech and ...language therapists’ (SLTs) perceived effectiveness of telepractice and its antecedents.
Aims
To examine the use of telepractice and the factors affecting its perceived effectiveness in Hong Kong mainstream schools during COVID‐19.
Methods & Procedures
Seventy‐two school‐based Hong Kong SLTs completed a 110‐item online survey with six structural components: (1) concerns, (2) adoption, (3) student selection criteria, (4) perceived effectiveness, (5) continuous professional development and (6) attitudes/beliefs.
Outcomes & Results
Over 90% of respondents adopted telepractice during the pandemic. Confirmatory factor analysis identified reliable constructs from their component measures. These participants reported great telepractice difficulties (especially in therapy preparation and managing students’ attention and/or communication). Mixed‐response analysis revealed that psychosocial factors (i.e., students’ engagement and SLTs’ attitudes towards telepractice) but not professional practice skill factors (i.e., student client selection criteria and SLTs’ years of experience in school settings) contributed to SLTs’ self‐perceived effectiveness of telepractice.
Conclusions & Implications
Our findings suggest that psychosocial factors play a more important role than professional practice skill factors in the self‐perceived effectiveness of telepractice.
WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS
What is already known on the subject
Previous surveys reported that although SLTs were interested in using telepractice before the COVID‐19 pandemic, they showed concern about its effectiveness, resulting in a low adoption rate. One critical question naturally arises: What factors may affect the perceived effectiveness of telepractice by SLTs?
What this paper adds to existing knowledge
This study demonstrates for the first time that despite the high adoption rate of telepractice during the COVID‐19 pandemic, school‐based SLTs exhibited great difficulties, and the SLTs’ self‐perceived effectiveness of telepractice was related to psychosocial factors instead of professional practice skill factors.
What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work
Professional support is needed to alter the attitudes of SLTs towards telepractice for enhancing their self‐perceived effectiveness and positive clinical practice experience.
Previous studies have suggested that word processing in English as a second language (L2) is affected by first language (L1) orthographic features. However, little is known about what affects L2 ...Chinese character processing in adult Chinese learners with different L1 orthographies such as Japanese, Korean, and English. With a picture-character mapping task, we found that when no cue was provided, the Japanese and Korean groups used semantic and phonetic radicals equally, whereas the English group preferred semantic radicals. With semantic (or phonetic) cues, all 3 groups showed increased use of semantic (phonetic) radicals, but the English group benefited less from phonetic cues than the Korean group, and the Japanese group benefited more from semantic cues than the other 2 groups. These results support a non-native Chinese character processing model (NCCP), which reflects the properties of the Chinese writing system and assumes a dynamic interaction between L1-L2 orthographies and learners' instructional experience.
PDF
