VICAL: Visual Cognitive Architecture to Understanding Image Semantic Content

Abstract Gilead et al. propose an ontology of abstract representations based on folk-psychological conceptions of cognitive architecture. There is, however, no evidence that the experience of cognition reveals the architecture of cognition. Scale-free architectural models propose that cognition has the same computational architecture from sub-cellular to whole-organism scales. This scale-free architecture supports representations with diverse functions and levels of abstraction.

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A Longitudinal Posthumous Study of Letter Writing in a Late Elderly Case

Perspectives on Gerontology ◽

10.1044/gero20.1.22 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 22-33

Author(s):

Angel Ball ◽

Jean Neils-Strunjas ◽

Kate Krival

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Elderly Woman ◽

Semantic Content ◽

Cognitive Status ◽

Letter Writing ◽

Linguistic Performance ◽

Errors Analysis ◽

Normal Status

This study is a posthumous longitudinal study of consecutive letters written by an elderly woman from age 89 to 93. Findings reveal a consistent linguistic performance during the first 3 years, supporting “normal” status for late elderly writing. She produced clearly written cursive form, intact semantic content, and minimal spelling and stroke errors. A decline in writing was observed in the last 6–9 months of the study and an analysis revealed production of clausal fragmentation, decreasing semantic clarity, and a higher frequency of spelling, semantic, and stroke errors. Analysis of writing samples can be a valuable tool in documenting a change in cognitive status differentiated from normal late aging.

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A Developmental Study of Intonation Recognition

Journal of Speech and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.1104.825 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 825-832 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marilyn M. Corlew

Keyword(s):

Significant Interaction ◽

Multiple Choice ◽

Semantic Content ◽

First Grade ◽

Choice Test ◽

Developmental Study ◽

Multiple Choice Test ◽

The Third ◽

Matching Test ◽

Better Than

Two experiments investigated the information conveyed by intonation from speaker to listener. A multiple-choice test was devised to test the ability of 48 adults to recognize and label intonation when it was separated from all other meaning. Nine intonation contours whose labels were most agreed upon by adults were each matched with two English sentences (one with appropriate and one with inappropriate intonation and semantic content) to make a matching-test for children. The matching-test was tape-recorded and given to children in the first, third, and fifth grades (32 subjects in each grade). The first-grade children matched the intonations with significantly greater agreement than chance; but they agreed upon significantly fewer sentences than either the third or fifth graders. Some intonation contours were matched with significantly greater frequency than others. The performance of the girls was better than that of the boys on an impatient question and a simple command which indicates that there was a significant interaction between sex and intonation.

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Semantic Conflict Processing in the Color-Word Stroop and the Emotional Stroop

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000100 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 149-164 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Montserrat Zurrón ◽

Marta Ramos-Goicoa ◽

Fernando Díaz

Keyword(s):

Stroop Task ◽

Color Word ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Semantic Content ◽

Emotional Stroop ◽

Semantic Equivalence ◽

Incongruent Color ◽

Semantic Conflict ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Temporal Locus

With the aim of establishing the temporal locus of the semantic conflict in color-word Stroop and emotional Stroop phenomena, we analyzed the Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) elicited by nonwords, incongruent and congruent color words, colored words with positive and negative emotional valence, and colored words with neutral valence. The incongruent, positive, negative, and neutral stimuli produced interference in the behavioral response to the color of the stimuli. The P150/N170 amplitude was sensitive to the semantic equivalence of both dimensions of the congruent color words. The P3b amplitude was smaller in response to incongruent color words and to positive, negative, and neutral colored words than in response to the congruent color words and colored nonwords. There were no differences in the ERPs induced in response to colored words with positive, negative, and neutral valence. Therefore, the P3b amplitude was sensitive to interference from the semantic content of the incongruent, positive, negative, and neutral words in the color-response task, independently of the emotional content of the colored words. In addition, the P3b amplitude was smaller in response to colored words with positive, negative, and neutral valence than in response to the incongruent color words. Overall, these data indicate that the temporal locus of the semantic conflict generated by the incongruent color words (in the color-word Stroop task) and by colored words with positive, negative, and neutral valence (in the emotional Stroop task) appears to occur in the range 300–450 ms post-stimulus.

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On the Semantic Content of Grammatical Gender and Its Impact on the Representation of Human Referents

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000044 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 57 (5) ◽

pp. 367-375 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Lisa Irmen ◽

Julia Kurovskaja

Keyword(s):

Semantic Content ◽

Grammatical Gender ◽

Differential Effects ◽

Gender Information ◽

Masculine Role ◽

Feminine Role ◽

And Gender ◽

Gender Categories ◽

Open Question

Grammatical gender has been shown to provide natural gender information about human referents. However, due to formal and conceptual differences between masculine and feminine forms, it remains an open question whether these gender categories influence the processing of person information to the same degree. Experiment 1 compared the semantic content of masculine and feminine grammatical gender by combining masculine and feminine role names with either gender congruent or incongruent referents (e.g., Dieser Lehrer [masc.]/Diese Lehrerin [fem.] ist mein Mann/meine Frau; This teacher is my husband/my wife). Participants rated sentences in terms of correctness and customariness. In Experiment 2, in addition to ratings reading times were recorded to assess processing more directly. Both experiments were run in German. Sentences with grammatically feminine role names and gender incongruent referents were rated as less correct and less customary than those with masculine forms and incongruent referents. Combining a masculine role name with an incongruent referent slowed down reading to a greater extent than combining a feminine role name with an incongruent referent. Results thus specify the differential effects of masculine and feminine grammatical gender in denoting human referents.

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