scholarly journals Understanding user communication around loneliness on online forums

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0257791
Author(s):  
Anietie Andy
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Support Needs ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Online Interventions ◽  
Advice Seeking ◽  
Time Period

Increasingly, individuals experiencing loneliness are seeking support on online forums—some of which focus specifically on discussions around loneliness (loneliness forums); loneliness may influence how these individuals communicate in other online forums not focused on loneliness (non-loneliness forums). In order to provide effective and appropriate online interventions around loneliness, it is important to understand how users who publish posts in a loneliness forum communicate in the loneliness forum and non-loneliness forums they belong to. In this paper, using language features, the following analyses are conducted: (1) Posts published on an online loneliness forum on Reddit, /r/Lonely are compared to posts (published by the same users and around the same time period) on two Reddit online forums i.e. an advice seeking forum, /r/AskReddit and a forum focused on discussions around depression (depression forum), /r/depression. (2) Interventions related to loneliness may vary depending on if an individual is lonely and depressed or lonely but not depressed; language use differences in posts published in /r/Lonely by the following set of users are identified: (a) users who post in both /r/Lonely and a depression forum and (b) users who post in /r/Lonely but not in the depression forum. The findings from this work gain new insights, for example: (i) /r/Lonely users tend to seek advice/ask questions related to relationships in the advice seeking forum, /r/AskReddit and (ii) users who are members of the loneliness forum but not the depression forum tend to publish posts (on the loneliness forum) on topic themes related to work/job, however, those who are members of the loneliness and depression forums tend to use more words associated with anger, negation, death, and post on topic themes related to affection relative to relationships in their loneliness forum posts. Some of the findings from this work also align with prior work e.g. users who express loneliness in online forums tend to make more reference to self. These findings aid in gaining insights into how users communicate on these forums and their support needs, thereby informing loneliness interventions.

scholarly journals Inscribing Ethnicity: A Preliminary Analysis of Gaelic Headstone Inscriptions in Eastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton

Genealogy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Stanley-Blackwell ◽  
Michael Linkletter
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Maintenance ◽  
Word Choice ◽  
Visual Elements ◽  
Cape Breton ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Cultural Retention ◽  
Selection Of

Focusing on the verbal rather than the visual elements of early and more modern headstones in eastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, this essay will comment on a selection of Gaelic headstone inscriptions, highlighting such elements as word choice (whether secular or religious), cemetery location, time period, and the deceased’s background. Despite the striking paucity of Gaelic examples, it is our objective to discuss why Gaelic had a limited presence in Nova Scotia’s pioneer Scottish immigrant cemeteries and to demonstrate how these cemeteries were contested sites, which mirrored ongoing tensions between assimilation and cultural retention. In sum, this article will assess the importance of cemeteries as material articulations of language use and language maintenance among Nova Scotia’s diasporic Scots, set against the wider background of their struggles, aspirations, and shared values.

scholarly journals Limits to the Rational Production of Discourse Connectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Yung ◽  
Jana Jungbluth ◽  
Vera Demberg
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Experimental Setting ◽  
Task Instructions ◽  
Task Setting ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Rational Production ◽  
Conversational Partner ◽  
Discourse Connectives

Rational accounts of language use such as the uniform information density hypothesis, which asserts that speakers distribute information uniformly across their utterances, and the rational speech act (RSA) model, which suggests that speakers optimize the formulation of their message by reasoning about what the comprehender would understand, have been hypothesized to account for a wide range of language use phenomena. We here specifically focus on the production of discourse connectives. While there is some prior work indicating that discourse connective production may be governed by RSA, that work uses a strongly gamified experimental setting. In this study, we aim to explore whether speakers reason about the interpretation of their conversational partner also in more realistic settings. We thereby systematically vary the task setup to tease apart effects of task instructions and effects of the speaker explicitly seeing the interpretation alternatives for the listener. Our results show that the RSA-predicted effect of connective choice based on reasoning about the listener is only found in the original setting where explicit interpretation alternatives of the listener are available for the speaker. The effect disappears when the speaker has to reason about listener interpretations. We furthermore find that rational effects are amplified by the gamified task setting, indicating that meta-reasoning about the specific task may play an important role and potentially limit the generalizability of the found effects to more naturalistic every-day language use.

scholarly journals Understanding Communication in an Online Cancer Forum: Content Analysis Study

JMIR Cancer ◽  
10.2196/29555 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. e29555
Author(s):  
Anietie Andy ◽  
Uduak Andy
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Family Member ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Support Needs ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Linguistic Inquiry ◽  
Hospital Visits

Background Cancer affects individuals, their family members, and friends, and increasingly, some of these individuals are turning to online cancer forums to express their thoughts/feelings and seek support such as asking cancer-related questions. The thoughts/feelings expressed and the support needed from these online forums may differ depending on if (1) an individual has or had cancer or (2) an individual is a family member or friend of an individual who has or had cancer; the language used in posts in these forums may reflect these differences. Objective Using natural language processing methods, we aim to determine the differences in the support needs and concerns expressed in posts published on an online cancer forum by (1) users who self-declare to have or had cancer compared with (2) users who self-declare to be family members or friends of individuals with or that had cancer. Methods Using latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), which is a natural language processing algorithm and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a psycholinguistic dictionary, we analyzed posts published on an online cancer forum with the aim to delineate the language features associated with users in these different groups. Results Users who self-declare to have or had cancer were more likely to post about LDA topics related to hospital visits (Cohen d=0.671) and use words associated with LIWC categories related to health (Cohen d=0.635) and anxiety (Cohen d=0.126). By contrast, users who declared to be family members or friends tend to post about LDA topics related to losing a family member (Cohen d=0.702) and LIWC categories focusing on the past (Cohen d=0.465) and death (Cohen d=0.181) were more associated with these users. Conclusions Using LDA and LIWC, we show that there are differences in the support needs and concerns expressed in posts published on an online cancer forum by users with cancer compared with family members or friends of those with cancer. Hence, responders to online cancer forums need to be cognizant of these differences in support needs and concerns and tailor their responses based on these findings.

Information and Support Needs of Parents With Premature Infants: An Integrative Review

2020 ◽  
pp. 105381512095773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. Davis-Strauss ◽  
Ensa Johnson ◽  
Welma Lubbe
Keyword(s):  
Premature Infants ◽  
Integrative Review ◽  
Initial Time ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Support Needs ◽  
Post Discharge ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Discharge From Hospital

International research, while mostly conducted in high-income countries, repeatedly states that parents of premature infants have increased needs and require additional information and varied support channels after the infant’s initial discharge from hospital. However, the perceived self-reported needs of parents concerned with the caregiving of premature infants during the initial time period at home after discharge are not well known. This integrative review explores all extant literature that embodies self-reported or parent-quoted perceptions, experiences, and parent testimonials related to post-discharge infant caregiving information and support needs published from January 1990 to April 2019. Generated findings from the review that reveal parents, regardless of country, consistently reported unmet information and support needs, coupled with a lack of adequate community-based and health care professional support. Current gaps in literature are identified and recommendations for future research are also addressed.

scholarly journals Does invasive species research use more militaristic language than other ecology and conservation biology literature?

NeoBiota ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 27-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel M. Janovsky ◽  
Eric R. Larson
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Species ◽  
Conservation Biology ◽  
Basic Science ◽  
Language Use ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Use ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Controversial Topic

Invasive species research has been criticised for a reliance on hyperbolic or sensationalistic language, including the use of militaristic language that dates to the popularisation of this concept. We sought to evaluate whether the invasive species literature used more militaristic language than other literature across the fields of ecology and conservation biology, given that many research areas in these fields (e.g. competition) may routinely use militaristic language. We compared militaristic language use in journal articles on invasive species or other topics across both applied and basic science journals in the fields of ecology and conservation biology. We further restricted our study to papers where lead-authors were located at institutions in the United States, to evaluate whether militaristic language use varied over peace time and conflict periods for this country. We found no significant differences in the percentage of journal articles that used any militaristic language between either invasive species research or research on other topics, but we did find that invasive species research used a greater frequency (count) of militaristic language per article than research on other topics. We also found that basic rather than applied science journals were more likely to use militaristic language and we detected no significant effect of time period on the usage of militaristic language in the ecology and conservation biology literature. Researchers working on invasive species should continue to be conscientious about their language use on this occasionally controversial topic, particularly in basic science journals.

scholarly journals Studying how individuals who express the feeling of loneliness in an online loneliness forum communicate in a non-loneliness forum: An Observational Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anietie Andy
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Cohen’S D ◽  
Linguistic Inquiry Word Count ◽  
Cohen's D

BACKGROUND Loneliness is a public health concern and increasingly individuals experiencing loneliness are seeking support on online forums - some of which focus on discussions around loneliness (loneliness forum). Loneliness may influence how individuals express themselves and interact with others in different settings or forums not related to loneliness or well-being (non-loneliness forums). Hence, in order to design and implement appropriate and efficient online loneliness interventions, it is important to understand how individuals who express loneliness on online loneliness forums communicate in non-loneliness forums they belong; this could provide insights into the support needs of these users. OBJECTIVE This work studies how users who express the feeling of loneliness in an online loneliness forum communicate in an online non-loneliness forum. METHODS 2,401 users who expressed loneliness in posts published on a loneliness forum on Reddit and had published posts in a non-loneliness forum were identified. Using a natural language processing method, Latent dirichlet allocation (LDA), a psycholinguistic dictionary, Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC), and the word-score based language features: valence, arousal, and dominance, we determine the language use differences in posts published in the non-loneliness forum by these users compared to a control group of users who did not belong to any loneliness forum on Reddit. RESULTS We find that in posts published in the non-loneliness forum, users who expressed loneliness tend to use more words associated with the LIWC categories on sadness (cohen’s d =0.10) and seeking to socialize (cohen’s d =0.114) and use words associated with valence (cohen’s d=0.364) and dominance (cohen’s d = 0.117); also, they tend to publish posts related to LDA topics such as relationships (cohen’s d= 0.105) and family and friends / mental health (cohen’s d = 0.10). CONCLUSIONS There are clear distinctions in language use in non-loneliness forum posts by users who express loneliness compared to a control group of users. These findings can help with the design and implementation of online interventions around loneliness.

Autobiographical Memory: How Emotion Influences the Details Recalled

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Wardell ◽  
Christopher R Madan ◽  
Taylyn J. Jameson ◽  
Chantelle Cocquyt ◽  
Katherine Checknita ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Retention Interval ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Real World ◽  
Emotional Memory ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Autobiographical Memories ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Emotional Events

A wealth of research suggests that emotion enhances memory. Yet, emotion does not uniformly enhance all aspects of memory. The goal of the present study was to examine the effects of emotion on mnemonic detail production for real-world, autobiographical memories (AM). Building on prior work that suggests emotion enhances memory for sensory/perceptual details, we hypothesized that emotional events would contain more perceptually-related details than neutral events. We used a paradigm modified from St. Jacques & Levine (2007), administering the Autobiographical Interview (AI; Levine et al., 2002) to 56 participants. The AI is a semi-structured protocol that parses episodic AM details into specific categories (event, perceptual, thoughts, time, place). Participants recalled memories that were positive, negative, and neutral from a recent (≲3 months old) and remote (~1-5 years old) time period, with the resulting narratives classified into the AI categories. Our results showed that the recollection of perceptual details did not differ for emotional versus neutral AMs at either retention interval. By contrast, emotion affected memory for other types of episodic details, contingent on retention interval and valence. Our findings further enrich our understanding of the intricacy and nuance of emotional memory, complementing studies using other laboratory or naturalistic approaches.

scholarly journals Accuracy of online discussion forums on common childhood ailments

2018 ◽  
Vol 106 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Related Data ◽  
Online Discussion Forums ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Google Search

Objectives: The research sought to determine if the health advice provided in online discussion forms aimed at parents of young children is accurate and in agreement with evidence found in evidence-based resources and to discover whether or not these forums are an avenue for misinformation.Methods: To determine which online forums to use, Google was searched using five common childhood ailments. Forums that appeared five or more times in the first five pages of the Google search for each question were considered. Of these forums, those that met the inclusion criteria were used. Data from a six-month time period was collected and categorized from the discussion forums to analyze the advice being provided about common childhood ailments. Evidence-based resources were used to analyze the accuracy of the advice provided.Results: Two discussion forums were chosen for analysis. Seventy-four questions from one and 131 questions from the other were health related. Data were not analyzed together. Of the health-related questions on the 2 forums, 65.5% and 51.8%, respectively, provided some type of advice. Of the advice provided, 54.1% and 47.2%, respectively, agreed with the evidence provided in evidence-based resources. A further 16.2% and 6.3% was refuted or was somewhat refuted by the evidence found in evidence-based resources.Conclusion: While roughly half of the health-related advice provided in online discussion forums aimed at parents of young children is accurate, only a small portion of the advice is incorrect; therefore, these sources are not a major concern for the spread of misinformation.

scholarly journals Miten ja milloin yksilön kieli muuttuu?

Virittäjä ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Lappalainen ◽  
Liisa Mustanoja ◽  
Michael O'Dell
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Analysis ◽  
Bayesian Statistics ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Morphological Variables ◽  
The Individual

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan helsinkiläispuhujien idiolektin muutosta 40 vuoden aika­jänteellä. Kyseessä on sosiolingvistinen reaaliaikatutkimus, jossa yhdeksää 1950-luvulla syntynyttä puhujaa on haastateltu kolme kertaa: 1970-, 1990- ja 2010-luvulla. Haastattelut ovat osa Helsingin puhekielen pitkittäiskorpusta. Analyysin kohteeksi on valittu yhteensä 17 äänne- ja muotopiirrettä, joita on tarkasteltu myös aiemmissa Helsingin puhekielen variaatiota koskevissa tutkimuksissa. Tutkimusaineiston mallinnuksessa ja muutoksen arvioimisessa käytetään bayesilaisia tilastomenetelmiä. Tulokset osoittavat, että muutos on tavallisempaa kuin idiolektin säilyminen muuttumattomana. Koko aineiston näkökulmasta muutos on ollut suurempaa kahden ensimmäisen kuin kahden jälkimmäisen haastattelun välillä; useimmissa tapauksissa muutos on ensimmäisen ja toisen haastattelun välillä tapahtunut puhekielestä yleis­kielen suuntaan. Jälkimmäisellä jaksolla muutokset ovat olleet heterogeenisempiä ja pienempiä, mutta niitä on silti tapahtunut. Ainoastaan yksi tutkituista idiolekteista näyttää olevan 40 vuoden ajanjaksolla melko muuttumaton: siinä muutokset olivat niin vähäisiä, ettei tällä aineistolla saatu varmuutta muutoksen suunnasta. Muutossuuntia tarkasteltaessa pohditaan elämänvaiheiden ja haastatteluista ilmenevien kieli­asenteiden merkitystä idiolektissa tapahtuneiden muutosten tai sen muuttumattomuuden selittäjinä.   How and when does an idiolect change? Change in the idiolects of Finnish speakers in Helsinki and methods for studying the change This study concerns real-time change and variation at the individual level. The focus is on nine informants born in the 1950s who have been interviewed three times, in the 1970s, 1990s and 2010s. The database is part of The Longitudinal Corpus of Finnish Spoken in Helsinki. The aim is to find out whether informants’ language use has changed during this time period on the level of phonological and morphological ­variables. Altogether 17 variables have been chosen for analysis. The variability and change of these variables are evaluated using Bayesian statistics. Bayesian analysis enables the illustration of an error margin in the idiolect studies. With its help, it is possible to describe the occurrence of each chosen variable on both an individual and a group level at the same time. The results show that tendencies and changes in language use are partly shared, partly individual. The majority of the idiolects studied have changed over the period of 40 years, and changes have been greater from the 1970s to the 1990s than from the 1990s to the 2010s; only one idiolect can be considered stable. In most of the cases, the proportion of the standard variants have increased from youth (1970s) to adulthood (1990s). Variation and change are discussed in the light of those changes that have taken place in individuals’ lives and the language attitudes they present in their interviews.

A Positive Relationship Between Sign Language Comprehension and Mental Rotation Abilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Emily Kubicek ◽  
Lorna C Quandt
Keyword(s):  
Mental Rotation ◽  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Behavioral Performance ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Signed Language

Abstract Past work investigating spatial cognition suggests better mental rotation abilities for those who are fluent in a signed language. However, no prior work has assessed whether fluency is needed to achieve this performance benefit or what it may look like on the neurobiological level. We conducted an electroencephalography experiment and assessed accuracy on a classic mental rotation task given to deaf fluent signers, hearing fluent signers, hearing non-fluent signers, and hearing non-signers. Two of the main findings of the study are as follows: (1) Sign language comprehension and mental rotation abilities are positively correlated and (2) Behavioral performance differences between signers and non-signers are not clearly reflected in brain activity typically associated with mental rotation. In addition, we propose that the robust impact sign language appears to have on mental rotation abilities strongly suggests that “sign language use” should be added to future measures of spatial experiences.

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