scholarly journals "If you catch my drift...": ability to infer implied meaning is distinct from vocabulary and grammar skills

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander C. Wilson ◽  
Dorothy V.M. Bishop

Background: Some individuals with autism find it challenging to use and understand language in conversation, despite having good abilities in core aspects of language such as grammar and vocabulary. This suggests that pragmatic skills (such as understanding implied meanings in conversation) are separable from core language skills. However, it has been surprisingly difficult to demonstrate this dissociation in the general population. We propose that this may be because prior studies have used tasks in which different aspects of language are confounded. Methods: The present study used novel language tasks and factor analysis to test whether pragmatic understanding of implied meaning, as part of a broader domain involving social understanding, is separable from core language skills. 120 adult participants were recruited online to complete a 7-task battery, including a test assessing comprehension of conversational implicature. Results: In confirmatory analysis of a preregistered model, we compared whether the data showed better fit to a two-factor structure (including a “social understanding” and “core language” factor) or a simpler one-factor structure (comprising a general factor). The two-factor model showed significantly better fit. Conclusions: This study supports the view that interpreting context-dependent conversational meaning is partially distinct from core language skills. This has implications for understanding the pragmatic language impairments reported in autism.

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander C. Wilson ◽  
Dorothy V.M. Bishop

Background: Some individuals with autism find it challenging to use and understand language in conversation, despite having good abilities in core aspects of language such as grammar and vocabulary. This suggests that pragmatic skills (such as understanding implied meanings in conversation) are separable from core language skills. However, it has been surprisingly difficult to demonstrate this dissociation in the general population. We propose that this may be because prior studies have used tasks in which different aspects of language are confounded. Methods: The present study used novel language tasks and factor analysis to test whether pragmatic understanding of implied meaning, as part of a broader domain involving social understanding, is separable from core language skills. 120 adult participants were recruited online to complete a 7-task battery, including a test assessing comprehension of conversational implicature. Results: In confirmatory analysis of a preregistered model, we compared whether the data showed better fit to a two-factor structure (including a “social understanding” and “core language” factor) or a simpler one-factor structure (comprising a general factor). The two-factor model showed significantly better fit. Conclusions: This study supports the view that interpreting context-dependent conversational meaning is partially distinct from core language skills. This has implications for understanding the pragmatic language impairments reported in autism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Alexander C. Wilson ◽  
Dorothy V.M. Bishop

Background: Some individuals with autism find it challenging to use and understand language in conversation, despite having good abilities in core aspects of language such as grammar and vocabulary. This suggests that pragmatic skills (such as understanding implied meanings in conversation) are separable from core language skills. However, it has been surprisingly difficult to demonstrate this dissociation in the general population. We propose that this may be because prior studies have used tasks in which different aspects of language are confounded. Methods: The present study used novel language tasks and factor analysis to test whether pragmatic language skills are separable from core language skills. 120 adult participants were recruited online to complete a 7-task battery, including a test assessing comprehension of conversational implicature. Results: In confirmatory analysis of a preregistered model, we compared whether the data showed better fit to a two-factor structure (including a pragmatic conversation comprehension and core language factor) or a simpler one-factor structure (comprising a general language factor). The two-factor model showed significantly better fit. Conclusions: This study supports the view that interpreting context-dependent conversational meaning is partially distinct from core language skill. This has implications for understanding the pragmatic language impairments reported in autism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 137-170
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Ali Moussa ◽  
◽  
Hisham Ibrahim Ismael Elnersh ◽  

The study aimed to construct a test for the behavioral implications of verbal working memory among Savant syndrome and Verify the factor structure of the test using factor analysis. The study relied on the Geweke & Singleton (1980) approach to select the participants. The study sample consisted of a targeted sample with Savant syndrome. 32 Savant syndrome cases had selected. The verbal working memory test was applied electronically with the help of four colleagues in the field of special education. The applying procedure lasted nine months. The Exploratory Factor Analysis results reached a fitted general factor model. The confirmatory analysis results revealed the fitted construct of the first-order three-factor model structure. The results indicated the possibility of the three-factors loading on a second-order general factor structure.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 759-773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riet van Bork ◽  
Sacha Epskamp ◽  
Mijke Rhemtulla ◽  
Denny Borsboom ◽  
Han L. J. van der Maas

Recent research has suggested that a range of psychological disorders may stem from a single underlying common factor, which has been dubbed the p-factor. This finding may spur a line of research in psychopathology very similar to the history of factor modeling in intelligence and, more recently, personality research, in which similar general factors have been proposed. We point out some of the risks of modeling and interpreting general factors, derived from the fields of intelligence and personality research. We argue that: (a) factor-analytic resolution, i.e., convergence of the literature on a particular factor structure, should not be expected in the presence of multiple highly similar models; and (b) the true underlying model may not be a factor model at all, because alternative explanations can account for the correlational structure of psychopathology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 470-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonella Somma ◽  
Serena Borroni ◽  
Laura E. Drislane ◽  
Christopher J. Patrick ◽  
Andrea Fossati

This study sought to characterize the factor structure of the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM) using data from a sample of 1,082 community-dwelling Italian adults. Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) was used to compare the fit of a bifactor model for each TriPM scale, in which specific-content factors were specified along with a general factor, with the fit of a single, general-factor model. Robust weighted least square (WLSMV) ESEM supported a bifactor latent structure of the TriPM items for all individual scales. When we jointly factor analyzed the 58 TriPM items, a WLSMV ESEM three-factor structure showed adequate fit; the three ESEM factors were akin to TriPM Boldness, Meanness, and Disinhibition theoretical dimensions, respectively, and could be effectively replicated across gender subgroups. Our findings support the three-factor structure of TriPM items, at least in Italian community-dwelling adults, and provide further evidence for the construct validity of the TriPM.


Psico-USF ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monalisa Muniz ◽  
Cristiano Mauro Assis Gomes ◽  
Sonia Regina Pasian

Abstract This study's objective was to verify the factor structure of Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM). The database used included the responses of 1,279 children, 50.2% of which were males with an average age of 8.48 years old and a standard deviation of 1.49 yrs. Confirmatory factor analyses were run to test seven models based on CPM theory and on a Brazilian study addressing the test's structure. The results did not confirm the CPM theoretical proposition concerning the scales but indicated that the test can be interpreted by one general factor and one specific factor or one general factor and three specific factors; both are bi-dimensional models. The three-factor model is, however, more interpretable, suggesting that the factors can be used as a means of screening children's cognitive developmental stage.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026553222110181
Author(s):  
Tingting Liu ◽  
Vahid Aryadoust ◽  
Stacy Foo

This study evaluated the validity of the Michigan English Test (MET) Listening Section by investigating its underlying factor structure and the replicability of its factor structure across multiple test forms. Data from 3255 test takers across four forms of the MET Listening Section were used. To investigate the factor structure, each form was fitted with four Bayesian confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models: (1) a three correlated-factor model, (2) a bi-factor model, (3) a higher-order factor model, and (4) a single general-factor model. In addition, a four-pronged heuristic comprising construct delineation, construct operationalization, factor structure analysis, and congruence coefficient was developed to examine the replicability of factor structures across the test forms. Results from the CFA models showed that the test forms were unidimensional and the four-pronged heuristic indicated that the test construct was consistently operationalized across forms. Furthermore, the congruence coefficient indicated that the factor structure representing listening was highly similar and replicable across test forms. In sum, the construct of the MET Listening Section did not comprise divisible subskills. Yet, the unidimensional factor structure of the test was replicable across the test forms.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Alexander C. WILSON ◽  
Dorothy V. M. BISHOP

Abstract It remains unclear whether pragmatic language skills and core language skills (grammar and vocabulary) are distinct language domains. The present work aimed to tease apart these domains using a novel online assessment battery administered to almost 400 children aged 7 to 13 years. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that pragmatic and core language domains could be measured separately, but that both domains were highly related (r = .79). However, zero-order correlations between pragmatic tests were quite small, indicating that task-specific skills played an important role in performance, and follow-up exploratory factor analysis suggested that pragmatics might be best understood as a family of skills rather than a domain. This means that these different pragmatic skills may have different cognitive underpinnings and also need to be assessed separately. However, our overall results supported the idea that pragmatic and core aspects of language are closely related during development, with one area scaffolding development in the other.


Psihologija ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-356
Author(s):  
Jelena Zeleskov-Djoric ◽  
Ivana Pedovic ◽  
Vladimir Hedrih

The goal of our study was exploration of the factor structure of the MFQ-FF inventory on a sample from Serbian population, and the relations of measures from this inventory (friendship functions) with personality traits, as operationalized by the seven factor model proposed by Tellegen and Waller. For this purpose 154 University of Nis students completed the Serbian version of the MFQ-FF inventory and Lexi-70. The results show that factor structures of certain MFQ-FF scales deviate somewhat from theoretical expectations. Confirmatory factor analysis produced relatively poor levels of fit, while exploratory factor analysis showed that loadings of five items differ substantially from theoretical expectations. As for correlations with personality traits, evaluative dimensions and negative emotionality were found to correlate with the MFQ-FF general factor, and correlations of specific functions with Openness to experience, Positive emotionality and Consciousness were also found. All obtained correlations were low.


Author(s):  
Trine Wigh Arildskov ◽  
Anne Virring ◽  
Rikke Lambek ◽  
Anders Helles Carlsen ◽  
Edmund J.S. Sonuga-Barke ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the factor structure of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by comparing the fit of a single-factor model, a correlated model with two or three factors, and a bifactor model with one general and two or three specific factors. Different three-factor solutions that varied with regard to the specification of the item “talks excessively” as impulsivity or hyperactivity were also tested. Parent ratings on the ADHD-Rating Scale (ADHD-RS-IV) were collected in a sample of 2044 schoolchildren (1st to 3rd grade) from the general population and in a clinical sample of 165 children and adolescents with ADHD referred to a public regional child and adolescent psychiatric hospital. Confirmatory factor analyses found a satisfactory fit for most models in both samples. However, a correlated three-factor model where “talks excessively” was included as an indicator of impulsivity and especially the bifactor version of this model with one general and three specific factors fit the data slightly better in the general population. In the clinical sample, a number of models performed equally well (the same version of the correlated three-factor model and all the bifactor models). Overall, the factor structure of ADHD seems to be better characterized by a bifactor model with a strong general factor and two or three weaker specific factors. Due to the strong general factor, we suggest emphasizing the ADHD-RS-IV total score rather than the subscale scores in clinical practice.


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