Toward a Conversation Partner Agent for People with Aphasia: Assisting Word Retrieval

2016 ◽  
pp. 203-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuhiro Kuwabara ◽  
Takayuki Iwamae ◽  
Yudai Wada ◽  
Hung-Hsuan Huang ◽  
Keisuke Takenaka
Keyword(s):  
Word Retrieval ◽  
Conversation Partner

Abstract Semantic Associative Network Training: A Replication and Update of an Abstract Word Retrieval Therapy Program

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 1574-1595
Author(s):  
Chaleece W. Sandberg ◽  
Teresa Gray
Keyword(s):  
Concrete Word ◽  
Abstract Word ◽  
Distinct Pattern ◽  
Word Retrieval ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Associative Network ◽  
Direct Training ◽  
Network Training ◽  
Abstract Words ◽  
Concrete Words

Purpose We report on a study that replicates previous treatment studies using Abstract Semantic Associative Network Training (AbSANT), which was developed to help persons with aphasia improve their ability to retrieve abstract words, as well as thematically related concrete words. We hypothesized that previous results would be replicated; that is, when abstract words are trained using this protocol, improvement would be observed for both abstract and concrete words in the same context-category, but when concrete words are trained, no improvement for abstract words would be observed. We then frame the results of this study with the results of previous studies that used AbSANT to provide better evidence for the utility of this therapeutic technique. We also discuss proposed mechanisms of AbSANT. Method Four persons with aphasia completed one phase of concrete word training and one phase of abstract word training using the AbSANT protocol. Effect sizes were calculated for each word type for each phase. Effect sizes for this study are compared with the effect sizes from previous studies. Results As predicted, training abstract words resulted in both direct training and generalization effects, whereas training concrete words resulted in only direct training effects. The reported results are consistent across studies. Furthermore, when the data are compared across studies, there is a distinct pattern of the added benefit of training abstract words using AbSANT. Conclusion Treatment for word retrieval in aphasia is most often aimed at concrete words, despite the usefulness and pervasiveness of abstract words in everyday conversation. We show the utility of AbSANT as a means of improving not only abstract word retrieval but also concrete word retrieval and hope this evidence will help foster its application in clinical practice.

scholarly journals The Influence of Conversational Content on College Students’ Safe Sex Intentions: A Mixed Method Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Lennie Donné ◽  
Carel Jansen ◽  
John Hoeks
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Safe Sex ◽  
Sex Behavior ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Health Campaign ◽  
Behavioral Determinants ◽  
The Social ◽  
Conversation Partner

Even though health campaign designers are advised to specifically focus on triggering conversations between people about health issues, there is still a lot unknown about what aspects of a conversation may contribute to safe sex behavior and intentions. Empirical research in this field so far has mainly focused on conversational occurrence rather than conversational content, and where content is taken into account, this mostly concerns self-reports. In this mixed method study, we looked into the quantitative effects of real-life conversations about safe sex, triggered by a safe sex message, on college students’ intentions related to safe sex. We then used a qualitative analysis to try and identify content-related aspects that may be related to the quantitative effects. Two weeks after filling in a questionnaire on their safe sex-related intentions, participants (N = 24) were instructed to watch and talk about a safe sex video with a conversation partner of choice, followed by filling in a questionnaire. The conversational data were analyzed qualitatively. The results suggest that the conversations increased safe sex-related intentions compared to pretest scores, and that content-related aspects such as conversational valence, type of communication behavior and behavioral determinants were related to these effects. Thus, our findings provide enhanced insight into the social norms and behavioral patterns related to safe sex, and indicate that it is important to look at conversational content in detail rather than to focus on mere conversational occurrence or quantitative effects.

Modulation of the Visual Word Retrieval System in Writing: A Functional MRI Study on the Japanese Orthographies

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimihiro Nakamura ◽  
Manabu Honda ◽  
Shigeru Hirano ◽  
Tatsuhide Oga ◽  
Nobukatsu Sawamoto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Retrieval System ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Word Retrieval ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Input Stimulus ◽  
Semantic Judgment ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Mri Study ◽  
Mental Recall

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether the act of writing involves different neuro-psychological mechanisms between the two script systems of the Japanese language: kanji (ideogram) and kana (phonogram). The main experiments employed a 2 × 2 factorial design that comprised writing-to-dictation and visual mental recall for kanji and kana. For both scripts, the actual writing produced a widespread fronto-parietal activation in the left hemisphere. Especially, writing of kanji activated the left posteroinferior temporal cortex (lPITC), whereas that of kana also yielded a trend of activation in the same area. Mental recall for both scripts activated similarly the left parieto-temporal regions including the lPITC. The writing versus mental recall comparison revealed greater activations in the left sensorimotor areas and right cerebellum. The kanji versus kana comparison showed increased responses in the left prefrontal and anterior cingulate areas. Especially, the lPITC showed a significant task-by-script interaction. Two additional control tasks, repetition (REP) and semantic judgment (SJ), activated the bilateral perisylvian areas, but enhanced the lPITC response only weakly. These results suggest that writing of the ideographic and phonographic scripts, although using the largely same cortical regions, each modulates the visual word-retrieval system according to their graphic features. Furthermore, comparisons with two additional tasks indicate that the activity of the lPITC increases especially in expressive language operations regardless of sensory modalities of the input stimulus.

Visual Word Recognition in Multilinguals

2018 ◽  
pp. 117-143
Author(s):  
Ton Dijkstra ◽  
Walter J. B. van Heuven
Keyword(s):  
Pattern Recognition ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Sentence Context ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Word Retrieval ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Temporal Properties ◽  
Interlingual Homographs

This chapter on the reading of words by multilinguals considers how retrieving words in two or more languages is affected by the lexical properties of the words, the sentence context in which they occur, and the language to which they belong. Reaction time and event-related potential (ERP) studies are discussed that investigate the processing of cognates, interlingual homographs, and words with different numbers of neighbors, both in isolation and in sentence context. After reviewing different models for multilingual word retrieval, it is concluded that multilingual word recognition involves a language-independent, context-sensitive, and interactive pattern recognition routine, with temporal properties that can be determined not only by “classical” reaction time techniques, but even better by up-to-date research techniques such as eye-tracking and ERP recordings.

scholarly journals Lexical Alignment to Non-native Speakers

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-173
Author(s):  
Iva Ivanova ◽  
Holly Branigan ◽  
Janet McLean ◽  
Albert Costa ◽  
Martin Pickering
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Audience Design ◽  
Additional Increase ◽  
British English ◽  
Correct Usage ◽  
Grammatical Errors ◽  
Matching Performance ◽  
Communicative Success ◽  
Castilian Spanish ◽  
Conversation Partner

Two picture-matching-game experiments investigated if lexical-referential alignment to non-native speakers is enhanced by a desire to aid communicative success (by saying something the conversation partner can certainly understand), a form of audience design. In Experiment 1, a group of native speakers of British English that was not given evidence of their conversation partners’ picture-matching performance showed more alignment to non-native than to native speakers, while another group that was given such evidence aligned equivalently to the two types of speaker. Experiment 2, conducted with speakers of Castilian Spanish, replicated the greater alignment to non-native than native speakers without feedback. However, Experiment 2 also showed that production of grammatical errors by the confederate produced no additional increase of alignment even though making errors suggests lower communicative competence. We suggest that this pattern is consistent with another collaborative strategy, the desire to model correct usage. Together, these results support a role for audience design in alignment to non-native speakers in structured task-based dialogue, but one that is strategically deployed only when deemed necessary.

scholarly journals Interreligious Learning, Ricoeur, and the Problem of Testimonial and Hermeneutical Injustice

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-223
Author(s):  
Marianne Moyaert
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Critical Potential ◽  
Conversation Partner ◽  
Interreligious Education

Abstract Ricoeur’s philosophy of religion as well as his suggestion that we may consider interreligious dialogue as a specific form of linguistic hospitality has inspired many to think through the challenges of interfaith learning in a post-secular age. I am one of those scholars who have found Ricoeur a particularly helpful conversation partner as I sought to create a nonviolent and transformative space of encounter in my interreligious classroom. In this article, I elaborate on how my lived experiences as an interreligious educator have made me wonder if Ricoeur’s philosophy of religion and his plea for interreligious hospitality are not actually limiting the critical potential of interreligious education. Ricoeur’s interreligious hermeneutics strongly resonates with a modern (Protestant) understanding of religion and its implicit, normative distinction between good (mature) and bad (immature) religiosity, which to this day belongs to the sociopolitical imagination of the majority in most Western European countries (this is certainly true for the Netherlands). It has been my pedagogical experience that this distinction between good and bad religion contributes to and reinforces testimonial and hermeneutical injustice in my classroom, which results in the marginalization of some of my students, especially those whose religious practice does not fit the understanding of what religion ought to be.

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