Referential choice in stories with characters of one or different genders: A study of monolingual Croatian speakers

2020 ◽  
pp. 014272372094972
Author(s):  
Gordana Hržica ◽  
Jelena Kuvač Kraljević
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Picture Stimuli ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
Referential Expressions ◽  
Referential Choice ◽  
Oriented Approach

During narration, speakers constantly choose appropriate referential forms (nominals or pronominals). Children may engage in this reference marking differently than adults. Discourse- or listener-oriented approaches make different predictions about referential behaviour in cognitively demanding situations: the first predicts a higher number of nominals; the second, a higher number of pronominals. The current study explores referential forms chosen by 50 children (6;0–6;11) and 50 adults, all monolingual speakers of Croatian, under the increased cognitive load of having to narrate a story from picture stimuli involving three characters of one or different genders. Generally, adults produce more referential expressions in their narratives. For both story types, children and adults use nominals more often than pronominals, children use a higher percentage of nominals than adults, and both groups use nouns to introduce and re-introduce characters. When maintaining characters in the narrative, both groups use more nouns and fewer pronouns in the story with characters of one gender, whereas they use fewer nouns and more pronouns in the story with characters of different genders. These findings suggest that Croatian monolingual adults and children more often use nominals for referencing in cognitively demanding stories, consistent with the discourse-oriented approach.

scholarly journals ASL Production

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Rubio-Fernandez ◽  
Anne Wienholz ◽  
Carey M. Ballard ◽  
Simon Kirby ◽  
Amy Lieberman
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Developmental Factors ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Communicative Efficiency ◽  
Referential Expressions ◽  
Scalar Adjectives ◽  
Referential Choice

Previous research has pointed at naturalness and communicative efficiency as possible constraints on language structure. Here, we investigated adjective position in American Sign Language (ASL), a language with relatively flexible word order, to test the incremental efficiency hypothesis, according to which both speakers and signers try to produce efficient referential expressions that are sensitive to the word order of their languages. The results of three experiments using a standard referential communication task confirmed that deaf ASL signers tend to produce absolute adjectives, such as color or material, in prenominal position, while scalar adjectives tend to be produced in prenominal position when expressed as lexical signs, but in postnominal position when expressed as classifiers. Age of ASL exposure also had an effect on referential choice, with early-exposed signers producing more classifiers than late-exposed signers. Overall, our results suggest that linguistic, pragmatic and developmental factors affect referential choice in ASL, supporting the hypothesis that communicative efficiency is an important factor in shaping language structure.

The effects of affective picture stimuli on blink modulation in adults and children

2005 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison M. Waters ◽  
Ottmar V. Lipp ◽  
Susan H. Spence
Keyword(s):  
Picture Stimuli ◽  
Adults And Children

scholarly journals Switch-reference and its role in referential choice in Mbyá Guaraní narratives

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Thomas ◽  
Gregory Antono ◽  
Laurestine Bradford ◽  
Angelika Kiss ◽  
Darragh Winkelman
Keyword(s):  
Main Function ◽  
Reference Tracking ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Referential Expressions ◽  
Mbya Guarani ◽  
Referential Choice ◽  
Oxford University Press

Abstract Switch-reference has been analyzed as a reference tracking mechanism, whose main function is to avoid ambiguity of reference. One domain where this function has been argued to manifest itself is referential choice. Kibrik (Kibrik, Andrej. 2011. Reference in discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press) notably proposed that switch-reference marking plays the role of a referential aid, which helps to prevent referential conflict, thereby enabling the production of reduced referential expressions such as pronouns and zeros. The present study probes this theory through an analysis of the role of switch-reference marking in multifactorial models of referential choice in Mbyá Guaraní. We show that while switch-reference increases the likelihood of mention reduction in Mbyá Guaraní, this effect is marginal relative to other predictors of referential choice. We argue that this result is compatible with the analysis of switch-reference as a referential aid, but also supports analyses that emphasize the multiplicity of its functions, beyond the disambiguation of reference.

Referential choice in narratives of Mandarin-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder: Form, function, and adequacy

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen-hui Sah
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Form Function ◽  
Information Status ◽  
Referential Expressions ◽  
Referential Choice

This study investigates the referential choice of Mandarin-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The data consist of narratives from 16 children with ASD and 16 typically-developing (TD) children. The narratives were elicited using the wordless picture book Frog, where are you? Participants’ referential expressions were coded in terms of referential form, function, and adequacy. The results revealed that, compared with the IQ- and language-matched TD children, the children with ASD used significantly more pronominal forms for subsequent mentions, showed insufficient ability to use definite and indefinite noun phrases to mark the information status of referents, and made fewer adequate reintroductions. Additionally, this study demonstrated the potential of the three-category classification to advance our understanding of referential choice in ASD. The outcomes underscore the importance of analyzing referential adequacy across referential functions, and suggest that referential functions are not equally difficult.

Cognitive Load Affects Speech Motor Performance Differently in Older and Younger Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1258-1277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan K. MacPherson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Incongruent Condition ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Movement Duration ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Speech Motor

PurposeThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of cognitive load imposed by a speech production task on the speech motor performance of healthy older and younger adults. Response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory were the primary cognitive processes of interest.MethodTwelve healthy older and 12 healthy younger adults produced multiple repetitions of 4 sentences containing an embedded Stroop task in 2 cognitive load conditions: congruent and incongruent. The incongruent condition, which required participants to suppress orthographic information to say the font colors in which color words were written, represented an increase in cognitive load relative to the congruent condition in which word text and font color matched. Kinematic measures of articulatory coordination variability and movement duration as well as a behavioral measure of sentence production accuracy were compared between groups and conditions and across 3 sentence segments (pre-, during-, and post-Stroop).ResultsIncreased cognitive load in the incongruent condition was associated with increased articulatory coordination variability and movement duration, compared to the congruent Stroop condition, for both age groups. Overall, the effect of increased cognitive load was greater for older adults than younger adults and was greatest in the portion of the sentence in which cognitive load was manipulated (during-Stroop), followed by the pre-Stroop segment. Sentence production accuracy was reduced for older adults in the incongruent condition.ConclusionsIncreased cognitive load involving response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory processes within a speech production task disrupted both the stability and timing with which speech was produced by both age groups. Older adults' speech motor performance may have been more affected due to age-related changes in cognitive and motoric functions that result in altered motor cognition.

Partner-Specific Communication Deficits in Individuals With Alzheimer's Disease

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Eun Jin Paek ◽  
Si On Yoon
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Audience Design ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Design Skills ◽  
Referential Expressions

Purpose Speakers adjust referential expressions to the listeners' knowledge while communicating, a phenomenon called “audience design.” While individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show difficulties in discourse production, it is unclear whether they exhibit preserved partner-specific audience design. The current study examined if individuals with AD demonstrate partner-specific audience design skills. Method Ten adults with mild-to-moderate AD and 12 healthy older adults performed a referential communication task with two experimenters (E1 and E2). At first, E1 and participants completed an image-sorting task, allowing them to establish shared labels. Then, during testing, both experimenters were present in the room, and participants described images to either E1 or E2 (randomly alternating). Analyses focused on the number of words participants used to describe each image and whether they reused shared labels. Results During testing, participants in both groups produced shorter descriptions when describing familiar images versus new images, demonstrating their ability to learn novel knowledge. When they described familiar images, healthy older adults modified their expressions depending on the current partner's knowledge, producing shorter expressions and more established labels for the knowledgeable partner (E1) versus the naïve partner (E2), but individuals with AD were less likely to do so. Conclusions The current study revealed that both individuals with AD and the control participants were able to acquire novel knowledge, but individuals with AD tended not to flexibly adjust expressions depending on the partner's knowledge state. Conversational inefficiency and difficulties observed in AD may, in part, stem from disrupted audience design skills.

Stimulus Ratio Effects on Speech Discrimination by Children and Adults

1991 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 671-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan E. Sussman
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Response Pattern ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Speech Discrimination ◽  
Adult Group ◽  
Discrimination Accuracy ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
Adults And Children

This investigation examined the response strategies and discrimination accuracy of adults and children aged 5–10 as the ratio of same to different trials was varied across three conditions of a “change/no-change” discrimination task. The conditions varied as follows: (a) a ratio of one-third same to two-thirds different trials (33% same), (b) an equal ratio of same to different trials (50% same), and (c) a ratio of two-thirds same to one-third different trials (67% same). Stimuli were synthetic consonant-vowel syllables that changed along a place of articulation dimension by formant frequency transition. Results showed that all subjects changed their response strategies depending on the ratio of same-to-different trials. The most lax response pattern was observed for the 50% same condition, and the most conservative pattern was observed for the 67% same condition. Adult response patterns were most conservative across condition. Differences in discrimination accuracy as measured by P(C) were found, with the largest difference in the 5- to 6-year-old group and the smallest change in the adult group. These findings suggest that children’s response strategies, like those of adults, can be manipulated by changing the ratio of same-to-different trials. Furthermore, interpretation of sensitivity measures must be referenced to task variables such as the ratio of same-to-different trials.

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