Autism and ostensive communication: The relevance of metarepresentation

AbstractRecent empirical and theoretical work on both normal and pathological development has led to the formulation of the metarepresentational conjecture for autism. This account of autistic development links the core impairments in imaginative abilities, communicative skills, and social competence to dysfunction of a single set of underlying cognitive mechanisms. In this context, Mundy and Sigman (1989) argue that the impairment of early gestural communication in autism cannot be accounted for by the metarepresentational theory. On the contrary, this early communication impairment in autism is highly consistent with a faulty theory-of-mind module. In normal development, this module is available from around the first year to handle estensive communication – shared pretense being a prime, though slightly later, example. We briefly consider the role in communication of perceptual processes that may trigger metarepresentation. This early theory-of-mind module, with its metarepresentational processes, provides the specific developmental basis for later versions of the child's theory of mind.

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Empathy in nurse-patient interaction: a conversation analysis

BMC Nursing ◽

10.1186/s12912-021-00535-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Yijin Wu

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Study ◽

Qualitative Analysis ◽

Conversation Analysis ◽

Nursing Care ◽

Theoretical Work ◽

Audio Recording ◽

Communicative Skills ◽

Patient Interaction ◽

Female Nurses

Abstract Background Considerable attention has been drawn to empathy in nursing and the concept of empathy has firmly been embedded in nursing discourse. However, little has been known about the details of how nurses express empathy to their patients. In this study, we aim to conduct a qualitative study of actual nurse-patient conversations through which empathy was achieved. Methods The data in this study was based on audio-recording of sessions of conversations between participating nurses and patients in two Chinese hospitals. The participants in this study involved 6 female nurses and 14 patients. Based on Bachelor’s (1988) categorization of empathy, this study described and analyzed the actual empathic sequences in nursing conversations in an attempt to demonstrate how nursing empathy was interactionally achieved using the method of conversation analysis. Conversation analysis (CA), focusing on the study of talk in interaction, is a useful method for the qualitative analysis of empathic talk in nursing. Results By drawing on prior theoretical work as well as on empathic sequence in nursing, this study described and analyzed some of the conversational resources nurses and patients used in achieving empathy. It has been shown that empathy can be interactionally and sequentially achieved in actual sequences of talk. Specifically, nursing empathy is a collaboratively constructed action instead of the nurse’s own committed action, which is produced in specific interactional contexts. Conclusion Conversation analysis is a very useful method for describing and analyzing the nurse-patient interaction, especially for studying empathy in nursing care. The sequences in this study present example of exemplary empathic interaction between nurses and patients, which might shed some light on how nurses express empathy to their patients. Also, this study could help to increase the understanding of the mirco-process of empathy in nursing and contribute to improving nursing communicative skills.

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Genre Knowledge and Writing Development: Results From the Writing Transfer Project

Written Communication ◽

10.1177/0741088319882313 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 69-103 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dana Lynn Driscoll ◽

Joseph Paszek ◽

Gwen Gorzelsky ◽

Carol L. Hayes ◽

Edmund Jones

Keyword(s):

General Education ◽

Institutional Design ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

Theoretical Work ◽

Writing Development ◽

First Year ◽

Writing Courses ◽

Key Factor ◽

Genre Knowledge ◽

Audience Awareness

Using a mixed-methods, multi-institutional design of general education writing courses at four institutions, this study examined genre as a key factor for understanding and promoting writing development. It thus aims to provide empirical validation of decades of theoretical work on and qualitative studies of genre and the nature of genre knowledge. While showing that both simplistic and nuanced genre knowledge promote writing development, our findings suggest that nuanced genre knowledge correlates with writing development over the course of a semester. Based on these findings, we propose an expanded view of Tardy’s four genre knowledge components and argue for their explanatory power. We recognize these genre components can be cultivated by using three particular strategies: writing for nonclassroom audiences, using source texts explicitly to join existing disciplinary conversations, and cultivating two types of metacognitive awareness (awareness of the writing strategies used to complete specific tasks and awareness of one’s levels of proficiency in particular types of writing knowledge). Findings can be used to enrich first-year or upper-division writing curricula in the areas of genre knowledge, audience awareness, and source use.

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Error Analysis of Students Essays: A Case of First Year Students of the University of Health and Allied Sciences

International Journal of Higher Education ◽

10.5430/ijhe.v6n4p54 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 54

Author(s):

Benjamin Amoakohene

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Error Analysis ◽

Language Learning ◽

Academic Writing ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Communicative Skills ◽

Daunting Task ◽

Integral Role ◽

The University

Writing is considered as a daunting task in second language learning. It is argued by most scholars that this challenge is not only limited to second language speakers of English but even to those who speak English as their first language. Thus, the ability to communicate effectively in English by both native and non-native speakers requires intensive and specialized instruction. Due to the integral role that writing plays in students’ academic life, academic literacy has garnered considerable attention in several English-medium universities in which Ghanaian universities are no exception. It is therefore surprising that prominence is not given to Academic Writing and Communicative Skills at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS). In this paper, I argue for much time and space to be given to Academic Writing and Communicative Skills, a programme that seeks to train students to acquire the needed skills and competence in English for their academic and professional development. This argument is based on the findings that came out after I explored the errors in a corpus of 50 essays written by first year students of UHAS. The findings revealed that after going through the Communicative Skills programme for two semesters, students still have serious challenges of writing error-free texts. Out of the 50 scripts that were analyzed, 1,050 errors were detected. The study further revealed that 584 (55.6%) of these errors were related to grammatical errors, 442 (42.1%) were mechanical errors and 24 (2.3%) of the errors detected were linked to the poor structuring of sentences. Based on these findings, recommendations and implications which are significant to educators, policy makers and curriculum developers are provided. This study has implications for pedagogy and further research in error analysis.

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The Baby Boom

Reading Minds ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0007 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 65-75

Author(s):

Henry M. Wellman

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Mind ◽

Social Development ◽

Baby Boom ◽

First Year ◽

Social Understanding ◽

Social Worlds ◽

Careful Observation ◽

Massive Growth ◽

The Social ◽

To Come

When and how do theory-of-mind understandings begin? This chapter assesses infants’ social understanding. Babies are not the mindless beings scientists and philosophers once thought them. Even in the first year of infancy, they have remarkable knowledge about their social worlds. This is not something babies gain innately. Instead, among their innate abilities is an extraordinary predisposition to learn, especially about their social worlds. Before age two, the end of infancy, children have a foundation for all the social development that is to come, setting the stage for the massive growth in social understanding seen in preschoolers. Like their preschool siblings, infants learn by careful observation and by putting pieces together.

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The interaction between oxytocin receptor gene methylation and maternal behavior on children's early theory of mind abilities

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579419000257 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

pp. 511-519

Author(s):

Anna L. MacKinnon ◽

Nancy Feeley ◽

Ian Gold ◽

Barbara Hayton ◽

Leonora King ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Mind ◽

Maternal Behavior ◽

Maternal Education ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Receptor Gene ◽

Community Sample ◽

Mental States ◽

Oxytocin Receptor ◽

Early Theory ◽

Oxytocin Receptor Gene

AbstractTheory of mind, the ability to represent the mental states of others, is an important social cognitive process, which contributes to the development of social competence. Recent research suggests that interactions between gene and environmental factors, such as oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms and maternal parenting behavior, may underlie individual differences in children's theory of mind. However, the potential influence of DNA methylation of OXTR remains unclear. The current study investigated the roles of OXTR methylation, maternal behavior, and their statistical interaction on toddlers’ early emerging theory of mind abilities. Participants included a community sample of 189 dyads of mothers and their 2- to 3-year-old children, whose salivary DNA was analyzed. Results indicated that more maternal structuring behavior was associated with better performance, on a battery of three theory of mind tasks, while higher OXTR methylation within exon 3 was associated with poorer performance. A significant interaction also emerged, such that OXTR methylation was related to theory of mind among children whose mothers displayed less structuring, when controlling for children's age, sex, ethnicity, number of child-aged siblings, verbal ability, and maternal education. Maternal structuring behavior may buffer the potential negative impact of hypermethylation on OXTR gene expression and function.

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Psycholinguistic Background of Training English Discussion Skills in Students of Philology Departments

International Journal of Higher Education ◽

10.5430/ijhe.v9n7p289 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (7) ◽

pp. 289

Author(s):

Mariia L. Pysanko ◽

Iryna V. Zaytseva ◽

Olena A. Lysenko ◽

Iryna A. Liahina ◽

Maryna A. Zvereva

Keyword(s):

Learning Process ◽

Teaching Methods ◽

Skills Training ◽

First Year ◽

Teaching English ◽

First Year Students ◽

Communicative Skills ◽

Initial Stage ◽

High Motivation

The efficiency of training of students of Philology Departments depends on the level of their communicative skills, that is, their abilities to participate in spontaneous discussion. This arises the issue of training these skills in the English majors. The research intends to determine and analyse the psychological background of Training English discussion skills in students of Philology Departments, to substantiate the difficulties that may arise at the initial stage. The authors analysed theoretical findings and practitioners’ experience on discussion skills training. The survey determined motives of Ukrainian university students for participation in discussions and the obstacles that may arise. The article identifies the attitude of students of Philology Departments towards the problems and issues to be discussed, and the most urgent, interesting and challenging topics for the discussion. The discussion is characterised by the role of communication, motivation, cotextuality, spontaneity, emotional colouring, and the topic of discussion. Age peculiarities of the first-year students have an impact on the learning process and may complicate it. As a social group, students are characterised by confidence in their future profession, a stable attitude towards the chosen profession, while the level of the students’ perceptions of their profession directly correlates with the level of their attitude towards the studies. The results of the survey prove the students’ high motivation, their readiness to communicate and participate in discussions organised by the teachers in class. The topics and problems suggested included personally, professionally, socially and socio-culturally related issues that can be discussed. The most part of the students chose ‘youth problems’ (57%) as the most urgent. The survey gives the opportunity to determine four groups of difficulties/obstacles that most of the students come across when participating in English discussion: psycholinguistic (caused by the nature of the dialogical speech); linguistic (caused by the language); psychological (caused by students); methodological (caused by teaching methods). The findings can be taken into account while conducting the further research on the problem of developing curricula, syllabus, teaching materials and manuals for teaching English as the major in the universities.

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Listener-adapted speech

Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism ◽

10.1075/lab.16054.lor ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 376-397 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Isabelle Lorge ◽

Napoleon Katsos

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Mind ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Cognitive Measures ◽

Pitch Range ◽

Communicative Skills ◽

Adult Participants

Abstract While a significant amount of research has focussed on whether bilingualism bestows advantages in cognitive skills, perspective-taking and Theory of Mind, less is known about the effect of bilingualism in communicative tasks where these and related skills may be called for. This study examines bilingual and monolingual adults’ communicative skills through their production of two types of listener-adapted speech (LAS): child-directed speech and foreigner-directed speech. 20 monolinguals and 20 bilingual adults were asked to explain a cooking recipe to a child, a non-native adult and a control native adult. Participants adapted their speech for the child and the foreigner compared to the native adult. Furthermore, bilinguals adapted some features of their speech to a greater extent and in a fine-tuned way (wider pitch range addressing the child and vowel hyperarticulation addressing the foreigner). The prevalence of these features in bilingual speech was not correlated with personality or cognitive measures. We discuss possible sources of this difference in speech adaptation and implications for theories of bilingual cognition.

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Aggression, Sibling Antagonism, and Theory of Mind During the First Year of Siblinghood: A Developmental Cascade Model

Child Development ◽

10.1111/cdev.12530 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 87 (4) ◽

pp. 1250-1263 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Ju-Hyun Song ◽

Brenda L. Volling ◽

Jonathan D. Lane ◽

Henry M. Wellman

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Mind ◽

Cascade Model ◽

First Year

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Non-literal speech comprehension in preschool children – an example from a study on verbal irony

Psychology of Language and Communication ◽

10.2478/plc-2013-0020 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 309-324 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Natalia Banasik

Keyword(s):

Preschool Children ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Developmental Trajectories ◽

Age Groups ◽

Age Effect ◽

Speech Comprehension ◽

Early Theory ◽

Verbal Irony ◽

Comprehension Task ◽

Children's Narratives

Abstract The study aims to answer questions about the developmental trajectories of irony comprehension. The research focuses on the problem of the age at which ironic utterances can first be understood. The link between ironic utterance comprehension and early Theory of Mind (ToM) is examined as well. In order to approach the topic, 46 preschool children were tested with the Irony Comprehension Task (Banasik & Bokus, 2013) and the Reflection on Thinking Test (Białecka-Pikul, 2012) in three age groups: four-year-olds, five-year-olds and six-year-olds. The study showed no age effect in the Irony Comprehension Task and a significant effect in the Reflection on Thinking Test. On some of the measures, irony comprehension correlates with theory of mind. Also, an analysis of children’s narratives was conducted to observe how children explain the intention of the speaker who uttered the ironic statement. The children’s responses fall into four categories, one of which involves a function similar to a white lie being ascribed to the utterance.

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Children’s Pronoun Interpretation Problems Are Related to Theory of Mind and Inhibition, But Not Working Memory

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.610401 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Sanne J. M. Kuijper ◽

Catharina A. Hartman ◽

Petra Hendriks

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Cognitive Mechanisms ◽

Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Children With Asd ◽

The Subject ◽

Object Pronouns

In several languages, including English and Dutch, children’s acquisition of the interpretation of object pronouns (e.g., him) is delayed compared to that of reflexives (e.g., himself). Various syntactic and pragmatic explanations have been proposed to account for this delay in children’s acquisition of pronoun interpretation. This study aims to provide more insight into this delay by investigating potential cognitive mechanisms underlying this delay. Dutch-speaking children between 6 and 12 years old with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 47), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 36) or typical development (TD; n = 38) were tested on their interpretation and production of object pronouns and reflexives and on theory of mind, working memory, and response inhibition. It was found that all three groups of children had difficulty with pronoun interpretation and that their performance on pronoun interpretation was associated with theory of mind and inhibition. These findings support an explanation of object pronoun interpretation in terms of perspective taking, according to which listeners need to consider the speaker’s perspective in order to block coreference between the object pronoun and the subject of the same sentence. Unlike what is predicted by alternative theoretical accounts, performance on pronoun interpretation was not associated with working memory, and the children made virtually no errors in their production of object pronouns. As the difficulties with pronoun interpretation were similar for children with ASD, children with ADHD and typically developing children, this suggests that certain types of perspective taking are unaffected in children with ASD and ADHD.

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