Decrements in Logical Reasoning Performance under Conditions of Sleep Loss and Physical Exercise: The Factor of Sentence Complexity

1985 ◽  
Vol 61 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1179-1188 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H. Ryman ◽  
Paul Naitoh ◽  
Carl E. Englund

Baddeley's Logical Reasoning Test was used in a series of Sustained Operations (SUSOP) studies involving 100 US Matine Corps enlisted subjects, to assess the effects of sleep loss and long-term physical exercise on the ability to process complex information. The percent correct answers to the eight Logical Reasoning sentence types involving different voice (active vs passive), use of negatives, and outcome (true vs false) were analyzed over three days across three levels of exercise and rest conditions in the seven studies. A multivariate analysis of variance indicated no differences on the baseline day among the seven studies. Analyses on the baseline day and throughout the next two continuous workdays (CWs) showed consistently higher percent correct for the actively worded than for the passively worded sentences. The sleep loss over the two CWs resulted in a significant decrease in percent correct for the statements which had active wording. Sleep loss had no effect on statements with passive wording. There were no differences in comprehension between groups which had different rest conditions (no rest, 3- or 4-hr. nap, 8-hr. sleep) between the two CWs for any of the sentences; and there was no recovery from pretest to postrest. Fatigue due to exercise during either CW had no effect on comprehension for any of the sentence types. The sleep loss effects on comprehension seem due to a lessening of the attention given to those more simple sentences in active voice, whereas increased arousal may have been elicited by the more complex sentences in passive voice. The increased attention to the passive statements may have overcome the effects of sleep loss. The present study shows the usefulness of analyzing responses to the logical reasoning test by sentence complexity for indicating selective cognitive changes in the processing of information.

Author(s):  
Margreet Vogelzang ◽  
Christiane M. Thiel ◽  
Stephanie Rosemann ◽  
Jochem W. Rieger ◽  
Esther Ruigendijk

Purpose Adults with mild-to-moderate age-related hearing loss typically exhibit issues with speech understanding, but their processing of syntactically complex sentences is not well understood. We test the hypothesis that listeners with hearing loss' difficulties with comprehension and processing of syntactically complex sentences are due to the processing of degraded input interfering with the successful processing of complex sentences. Method We performed a neuroimaging study with a sentence comprehension task, varying sentence complexity (through subject–object order and verb–arguments order) and cognitive demands (presence or absence of a secondary task) within subjects. Groups of older subjects with hearing loss ( n = 20) and age-matched normal-hearing controls ( n = 20) were tested. Results The comprehension data show effects of syntactic complexity and hearing ability, with normal-hearing controls outperforming listeners with hearing loss, seemingly more so on syntactically complex sentences. The secondary task did not influence off-line comprehension. The imaging data show effects of group, sentence complexity, and task, with listeners with hearing loss showing decreased activation in typical speech processing areas, such as the inferior frontal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus. No interactions between group, sentence complexity, and task were found in the neuroimaging data. Conclusions The results suggest that listeners with hearing loss process speech differently from their normal-hearing peers, possibly due to the increased demands of processing degraded auditory input. Increased cognitive demands by means of a secondary visual shape processing task influence neural sentence processing, but no evidence was found that it does so in a different way for listeners with hearing loss and normal-hearing listeners.


Author(s):  
Muthia Damaiyanti ◽  
Edwar Kemal

Speaking is one of the activities conducted by human everyday. In speaking, the sentences can be simple sentences and even complex sentences. Sometimes, in speaking the words and phrases are used to fill a syntactic position without having a meaning or referent. It is called expletive. The research analyzes the form and function of expletive in utterances of kubang society. The data were collected through interviews and recording technique and the theory used from Azar and Manser. The data were presented in written form. The research shows that there are fiften expletive words used by Kubang society in conversation. Expletive often appears in adverb. Though, it is only a filler, expletive words are often used by Kubang society.


2010 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Frenck-Mestre ◽  
Nathalie Zardan ◽  
Annie Colas ◽  
Alain Ghio

Abstract Eye movements were examined to determine how readers with Down syndrome process sentences online. Participants were 9 individuals with Down syndrome ranging in reading level from Grades 1 to 3 and a reading-level-matched control group. For syntactically simple sentences, the pattern of reading times was similar for the two groups, with longer reading times found at sentence end. This “wrap-up” effect was also found in the first reading of more complex sentences for the control group, whereas it only emerged later for the readers with Down syndrome. Our results provide evidence that eye movements can be used to investigate reading in individuals with Down syndrome and underline the need for future studies.


Author(s):  
T. V. Repnina

By poly-predicative conditional constructions we mean complex sentences that contain at least three simple sentences, each representing either a condition or a consequence. Poly-predicative sentences can in addition contain other simple sentences that represent neither condition, nor consequence. Poly-predicative constructions that, apart from one condition and one consequence, also include other simple sentences, are not classified here as poly-predicative conditional constructions. While poly-predicative constructions in general have already been in the focus of researches attention, this article seems to address them on Catalan material for the first time. The purpose of this article is an analysis of syntactic relations in poly-predicative conditional constructions. Its objectives include their comparison in Catalan, Spanish, and French, identification of the main types of these constructions, and an analysis of their characteristics. Since the use of tenses and moods in the constructions addressed coincides with that in prototypical bi-predicative conditional constructions, we do not examine it here. The methods, used in this study, included: sampling during corpus collection, classification, description, comparison, transformational analysis and synthesis. The study is based on Catalan texts and their translations into Spanish and French. The findings of the study include: 1) Poly-predicative conditional constructions with several condition and/or consequence clauses are possible. Condition and consequence clauses can occupy different positions in poly-predicative conditional constructions; 2) In contrast to Catalan and Spanish, French admits the replacement of the conditional conjunction si by que; 3) Prototypical conditional and poly-predicative constructions are invariably characterized by subordination relations, with coordination parataxis possible as well. In addition, more complex syntactic structures are possible like, e. g., parallel co-coordination; 4) A prototypical conditional construction being a complex sentence, this limits possible syntactic types of poly-predicative conditional constructions. They cannot be structured as a string of simple sentences connected by coordination or subordination. Consecutive subordination of three or more subordinate sentences is not characteristic of conditional constructions; 5) The study identified a similarity between poly-predicative conditional constructions in Catalan, Spanish, and French. The present research is a contribution into the syntax of Romance languages.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 733
Author(s):  
Yasaman Rouhani ◽  
Asghar Moulavi Nafchi ◽  
Seyyed Mehdi Ziaee

This review study explores four methods of teaching writing to students with disabilities. The goal of this review study, therefore, is to investigate writing interventions intended for students with more debilities than learning disabilities (LD) attempting to determine if students’ writing developed during the intervention. About 13 studies use self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) instruction and two studies combine SRSD with other instructions. Moreover, this review attempts to determine the possibility of applying journal writing instruction, persuasive writing, and sentence-level skills. Diverse strategies and skills, such as integration of reading and writing, handwriting, sentence construction, and grammar or usage are to be explicated. The results show that handwriting is an effective means to improve writing. Moreover, students are able to change the simple sentences to complex sentences. In addition, limitations and suggestions for further research have been presented.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 228-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aysegul Ozcan ◽  
Gulmira Kuruoglu ◽  
Koksal Alptekin ◽  
Sumru Ozsoy

Patients with schizophrenia often display unusual language impairments and these abnormalities in language are among the most extreme and obvious symptoms in Schizophrenia Disorder. In this context, this research attempts to analyze and compare the schizophrenic patients’ and control group’s speech  in terms of complex sentence structures. Fifty patients with schizophrenia diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria have been includedd in the study and compared to fifty healthy subjects matched for age, sex and education level with the patients.  The subjects’ speech  has been  evaluated in four stages.  These are narration, story picture sequencing, semi-structured speech and free speech. The data consists of 8-10 minute recorded interviews.  The recordings have been transcribed based on DuBois’ Discourse Transcription Symbols. The statistical  and linguistic analyses have shown significant differences between complex sentence types’ of patients with schizophrenia and healthy subjects’. The findings have demonstrated that due to the possible cognitive problems the speech produced by schizophrenia patients  is syntactically less complex than that of controls. Additionally, patients with schizophrenia use shorter and simple sentences instead of complex sentences compared to healthy subjects.Keywords: schizophrenia, sentence structure, complex sentence, language disorder, thought disorder.


2003 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 149-175
Author(s):  
Ayumi Matsuo

This paper reports results from a series of experiments that investigated whether semantic and/or syntactic complexity influences young Dutch children’s production of past tense forms. The constructions used in the three experiments were (i) simple sentences (the Simple Sentence Experiment), (ii) complex sentences with CP complements (the Complement Clause Experiment) and (iii) complex sentences with relative clauses (the Relative Clause Experiment). The stimuli involved both atelic and telic predicates. The goal of this paper is to address the following questions. Q1. Does semantic complexity regarding temporal anchoring influence the types of errors that children make in the experiments? For example, do children make certain types of errors when a past tense has to be anchored to the Utterance Time (UT), as compared to when it has to be anchored to the matrix topic time (TT)? Q2. Do different syntactic positions influence children’s performance on past-tense production? Do children perform better in the Simple Sentence Experiment compared to complex sentences involving two finite clauses (the Complement Clause Experiment and the Relative Clause Experiment)? In complex sentence trials, do children perform differently when the CPs are complements vs. when the CPs are adjunct clauses? (Lebeaux 1990, 2000) Q3. Do Dutch children make more errors with certain types of predicate (such as atelic predicates)? Alternatively, do children produce a certain type of error with a certain type of predicates (such as producing a perfect aspect with punctual predicates)? Bronckart and Sinclair (1973), for example, found that until the age of 6, French children showed a tendency to use passé composé with perfective events and simple present with imperfective events; we will investigate whether or not the equivalent of this is observed in Dutch.  


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiago do Carmo Nogueira ◽  
Eudes de Souza Campos ◽  
Deller James Ferreira

The scientific logical reasoning became an important skill in the students' cognitive development in algorithm teaching-learning processes, stimulating their reasoning and creativity. From this perspective, gamification has been adopted as a mediating tool in this process. Studies report that the inclusion of gamification in algorithm teaching-learning processes stimulates the students to develop new skills, making the knowledge more efficient. Therefore, this paper's purpose is to measure and understand the cognitive development and the experiences lived by students at the addition of gamification in algorithm teaching, evaluating the scientific logical knowledge acquired by them. Consequently, 44 computer higher education students were selected. They were divided into two groups: students that used the Gamification-Mediated Algorithm Teaching Method and those who participated in the traditional teaching method. To evaluate the cognitive development between these two groups, the Scientific Logical Reasoning Test was applied. The results showed that a significant number of students that used the Gamification-Mediated Algorithm Teaching Method reached the transitory intermediary and transitory scientific knowledge levels, with greater right answer rates. We also noticed that both genders gave more right answers using the gamification-mediated algorithm teaching method.


Author(s):  
S. E. Kruck ◽  
John J. Maher ◽  
Reza Barkhi

It is well documented that electronic spreadsheet models utilized in many professions to enhance decision-making frequently contain errors that have negative effects on the ultimate quality of decisions. Limited research has been published that systematically identifies potential reasons for the causes of these errors, and what procedures can be taken to minimize or eliminate them. Our research provides initial evidence concerning this problem area by investigating how several important cognitive skills are affected by formalized spreadsheet training. Results indicate that one cognitive skill, logical reasoning, significantly increases after a six-week training period. Importantly, the greater the increase in logical reasoning skill, the more effectively the subject performed developing competent spreadsheet models. These findings provide a meaningful step in more perceptibly understanding and defining important cognitive changes that occur in individuals as they undergo formalized spreadsheet development training. Further extensions of this research should more clearly refine our understanding of the cognitive changes that occur in spreadsheet developers and eventually cultivate the development of more efficient and effective training methods for spreadsheet model designers.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document