No, No One Had Fun. Individual Differences in Nonliteral Language Perception

2021 ◽  
pp. 002383092110108
Author(s):  
Gitte Henssel Joergensen ◽  
Pavitra Rao Makarla ◽  
Matthew Fammartino ◽  
Lauren Benson ◽  
Kathrin Rothermich

Nonliteral language represents a complex form of communication that can be interpreted in numerous different ways. Our study explored how individual differences in personality and communication styles affect the evaluation of literal and nonliteral language in the context of assumptions made by the Tinge Hypothesis (Dews & Winner, 1995). Participants watched videos of social interactions focusing on positive, negative, sarcastic, and jocular statements. They evaluated speaker intentions and social impressions and completed several personality and communication style questionnaires. Individual differences in empathy, defense style, and sarcasm use correlated with the accuracy of identifying speaker intent. Additionally, positive statements were rated as friendlier when compared to jocular statements, thereby supporting the Tinge Hypothesis. However, literal negative statements were rated as more friendly than sarcastic statements, which is inconsistent with the Tinge Hypothesis. The current results provide novel evidence for the Tinge Hypothesis using multimodal, dynamic stimuli and highlight the role of the individual personality of the recipient in evaluating sarcasm and jocularity.

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Vanderwal ◽  
Jeffrey Eilbott ◽  
Emily S. Finn ◽  
R. Cameron Craddock ◽  
Adam Turnbull ◽  
...  

AbstractNaturalistic viewing paradigms such as movies have been shown to reduce participant head motion and improve arousal during fMRI scanning relative to task-free rest, and have been used to study both functional connectivity and task-evoked BOLD-signal changes. These task-evoked changes result in cortical activity that is synchronized across subjects and involves large areas of the cortex, and it is unclear whether individual differences in functional connectivity are enhanced or diminished under such naturalistic conditions. This work first aims to characterize variability in functional connectivity (FC) across two distinct movie conditions and eyes-open rest (n=34 healthy adults, 2 scan sessions each). At the whole-brain level, we found that movies have higher intra- and inter-subject correlations in cluster-wise FC relative to rest. The anatomical distribution of inter-subject variability was similar across conditions, with higher variability occurring at the lateral prefrontal lobes and temporoparietal junctions. Second, we used an unsupervised test-retest matching (or “finger-printin”) algorithm that identifies individual subjects from within a group based on functional connectivity patterns, quantifying the accuracy of the algorithm across the three conditions. We also evaluated the impact of parcellation resolution, scan duration, and number of edges on observed inter-individual differences. The movies and resting state all enabled identification of individual subjects based on FC matrices, with accuracies between 62 and 100%. Overall, pairings involving movies outperformed rest, and the more social and faster-paced movie attained 100% accuracy. When the parcellation resolution, scan duration and number of edges used were increased, accuracies improved across conditions, and the pattern of movies>rest was preserved. These results suggest that using dynamic stimuli such as movies enhances the detection of FC patterns that are distinct at the individual level.HighlightsIntra- and inter-subject FC correlations are compared across rest and movies.Movies outperformed rest in an unsupervised identification algorithm based on FC.Movies outperform rest regardless of parcellation, scan length, or number of edges.Watching movies enhances the detection of individual differences in FC.


Author(s):  
Benedetta Zavatta

Based on an analysis of the marginal markings and annotations Nietzsche made to the works of Emerson in his personal library, the book offers a philosophical interpretation of the impact on Nietzsche’s thought of his reading of these works, a reading that began when he was a schoolboy and extended to the final years of his conscious life. The many ideas and sources of inspiration that Nietzsche drew from Emerson can be organized in terms of two main lines of thought. The first line leads in the direction of the development of the individual personality, that is, the achievement of critical thinking, moral autonomy, and original self-expression. The second line of thought is the overcoming of individuality: that is to say, the need to transcend one’s own individual—and thus by definition limited—view of the world by continually confronting and engaging with visions different from one’s own and by putting into question and debating one’s own values and certainties. The image of the strong personality that Nietzsche forms thanks to his reading of Emerson ultimately takes on the appearance of a nomadic subject who is continually passing out of themselves—that is to say, abandoning their own positions and convictions—so as to undergo a constant process of evolution. In other words, the formation of the individual personality takes on the form of a regulative ideal: a goal that can never be said to have been definitively and once and for all attained.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiushi Wang ◽  
Yuehua Xu ◽  
Tengda Zhao ◽  
Zhilei Xu ◽  
Yong He ◽  
...  

Abstract The functional connectome is highly distinctive in adults and adolescents, underlying individual differences in cognition and behavior. However, it remains unknown whether the individual uniqueness of the functional connectome is present in neonates, who are far from mature. Here, we utilized the multiband resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 40 healthy neonates from the Developing Human Connectome Project and a split-half analysis approach to characterize the uniqueness of the functional connectome in the neonatal brain. Through functional connectome-based individual identification analysis, we found that all the neonates were correctly identified, with the most discriminative regions predominantly confined to the higher-order cortices (e.g., prefrontal and parietal regions). The connectivities with the highest contributions to individual uniqueness were primarily located between different functional systems, and the short- (0–30 mm) and middle-range (30–60 mm) connectivities were more distinctive than the long-range (>60 mm) connectivities. Interestingly, we found that functional data with a scanning length longer than 3.5 min were able to capture the individual uniqueness in the functional connectome. Our results highlight that individual uniqueness is present in the functional connectome of neonates and provide insights into the brain mechanisms underlying individual differences in cognition and behavior later in life.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0258042X2199101
Author(s):  
Mukti Clarence ◽  
Viju P. D. ◽  
Lalatendu Kesari Jena ◽  
Tony Sam George

In the recent times, researchers have shown an increased interest in positive psychological capital (PsyCap). However, it is acknowledged that due to the limited number of studies conducted on the antecedents of psychological capital, there is a lack of sufficient data for conclusively proving the antecedents of PsyCap. Consequently, this article aims to explore the potential antecedents of PsyCap as a reliable source of data in the context of rural school teachers. The focus is to investigate both the individual differences and the contextual factors as desirable variables that constitute PsyCap among the school teachers of rural Jharkhand, India. Samples of 1,120 respondents from different rural schools were collected and analysed with Structural Equation Modeling (AMOS 20.0). The findings of the study explained that both the individual differences ( proactive personality and emotional intelligence) and the contextual factors ( perceived organizational support, servant leadership and meaningful work) have a positive relationship with PsyCap. The impact of PsyCap on teacher performance can form the basis for further research on the subject. JEL Codes: M12, M53


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1026
Author(s):  
Robin Walb ◽  
Lorenzo von Fersen ◽  
Theo Meijer ◽  
Kurt Hammerschmidt

Studies in animal communication have shown that many species have individual distinct calls. These individual distinct vocalizations can play an important role in animal communication because they can carry important information about the age, sex, personality, or social role of the signaler. Although we have good knowledge regarding the importance of individual vocalization in social living mammals, it is less clear to what extent solitary living mammals possess individual distinct vocalizations. We recorded and analyzed the vocalizations of 14 captive adult Malayan tapirs (Tapirus indicus) (six females and eight males) to answer this question. We investigated whether familiarity or relatedness had an influence on call similarity. In addition to sex-related differences, we found significant differences between all subjects, comparable to the individual differences found in highly social living species. Surprisingly, kinship appeared to have no influence on call similarity, whereas familiar subjects exhibited significantly higher similarity in their harmonic calls compared to unfamiliar or related subjects. The results support the view that solitary animals could have individual distinct calls, like highly social animals. Therefore, it is likely that non-social factors, like low visibility, could have an influence on call individuality. The increasing knowledge of their behavior will help to protect this endangered species.


2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252198919
Author(s):  
Haoran Chu ◽  
Shupei Yuan ◽  
Sixiao Liu

This study examined the influences of perceived distance to communicator on the effects of aggressive style (i.e. personal attacks and intense languages) in communicating scientific issues such as COVID-19 to the public. With a multi-site experiment ( N = 464), we found that aggression led to a heightened violation of expected social norm regarding communication styles. However, the interpretation of violation varied depending on the individual’s perceived distance to the communicator. Close distance articulated the urgency and severity of COVID-19 risks conveyed with aggression, which further increased compliance with the message. Far distance perception amplified aggression’s negative influence on writer likeability. The findings showed that aggressive communication may generate positive outcomes when dealing with public understanding of scientific issues such as COVID-19, but communicators need to build a closer connection with their audience.


Author(s):  
Jihyun Kim ◽  
Kelly Merrill

These days, many individuals engage in a unique form of TV viewing that includes a simultaneous act of watching television content and talking about it with others in a mediated environment. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as social TV viewing. Responding to the popularity of this form of TV viewing behavior, the present study examines the individual differences of the social TV viewing experience, particularly with regard to different communication platforms (e.g. private vs. public). Based on the data collected from an online survey, primary findings indicate that extroverted and lonely individuals have different social TV viewing experiences such as preferences for a particular type of platforms for social TV viewing. Further, social presence plays an important role in the understanding of social TV enjoyment in private and public platforms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liu Meng

At present, with the development of entrepreneurship education, higher education draws more attention to students' learning processes and outcomes. Based on a scientific and standardized education system, entrepreneurship education requires higher education to provide students with more targeted, personalized, and flexible guidance to cater to their needs. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out personalized employment services and guidance. This paper aims to discuss how to provide personalized employment guidance and services according to the individual differences of students, and how to make the entrepreneurial education more diverse and get better results.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyla McConnell ◽  
Alice Blumenthal-Dramé

While it is widely acknowledged that both predictive expectations and retrodictive integration influence language processing, the individual differences that affect these two processes and the best metrics for observing them have yet to be fully described. The present study aims to contribute to the debate by investigating the extent to which experienced-based variables modulate the processing of word pairs (bigrams). Specifically, we investigate how age and reading experience correlate with lexical anticipation and integration, and how this effect can be captured by the metrics of forward and backward transition probability (TP). Participants read more and less strongly associated bigrams, paired in sets of four to control for known lexical covariates such as bigram frequency and semantic meaning (i.e., absolute control, total control, absolute silence, total silence) in a self-paced reading (SPR) task. They additionally completed assessments of exposure to print text (Author Recognition Test, Shipley vocabulary assessment, Words that Go Together task) and provided their age. Results show that both older age and lesser reading experience individually correlate with stronger TP effects. Moreover, TP effects differ across the spillover region (the two words following the noun in the bigram).


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