scholarly journals Discourse-Level Information Recall in Early and Late Bilinguals: Evidence From Single-Language and Cross-Linguistic Tasks

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Chou ◽  
Jiehui Hu ◽  
Edinson Muñoz ◽  
Adolfo M. García

Bilingualism research indicates that verbal memory skills are sensitive to age of second language (L2) acquisition (AoA). However, most tasks employ disconnected, decontextualized stimuli, undermining ecological validity. Here, we assessed whether AoA impacts the ability to recall information from naturalistic discourse in single-language and cross-linguistic tasks. Twenty-four early and 25 late Chinese-English bilinguals listened to real-life L2 newscasts and orally reproduced their information in English (Task 1) and Chinese (Task 2). Both groups were compared in terms of recalled information (presence and correctness of idea units) and key control measures (e.g., attentional skills, speech rate). Across both tasks, information completeness was higher for early than late bilinguals. This occurred irrespective of attentional speed, speech rate, and additional relevant factors. Such results bridge the gap between classical memory paradigms and ecological designs in bilingualism research, illuminating how particular language profiles shape information processing in daily communicative scenarios.

Author(s):  
Samantha L. Smith ◽  
Graham K. Edgar ◽  
Paul N. Russell ◽  
William S. Helton

The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) is a go/no-go task where participants must respond frequently to target stimuli and withhold responses from infrequent neutral stimuli. Researchers have shown that the fast and frequent responding characteristic of SART is typically associated with difficulty withholding responses to no-go stimuli. Imposing additional cognitive demands has been shown to further impair task performance. In the present research, participants completed a modified SART task, a narrative memory task, and a dual-task condition where both were done simultaneously. No significant performance impairments were found in the dual- compared to single-task conditions. The tasks’ non-overlapping resource demands, alongside a potential arousing benefit of the memory task, may explain the lack of notable dual-task interference. Future research is needed to better understand the effects of arousal and other factors that may help to uncouple errors of commission from response time, particularly in tasks with high ecological validity.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 233-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Peper ◽  
Simone N. Loeffler

Current ambulatory technologies are highly relevant for neuropsychological assessment and treatment as they provide a gateway to real life data. Ambulatory assessment of cognitive complaints, skills and emotional states in natural contexts provides information that has a greater ecological validity than traditional assessment approaches. This issue presents an overview of current technological and methodological innovations, opportunities, problems and limitations of these methods designed for the context-sensitive measurement of cognitive, emotional and behavioral function. The usefulness of selected ambulatory approaches is demonstrated and their relevance for an ecologically valid neuropsychology is highlighted.


HortScience ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 509e-509
Author(s):  
Robert P. Rice

The Cal Poly philosophy of “Learn and Understand by Doing” has been integrated with problem-based learning and the use of the latest technology to produce a class that closely simulates real-life pest control situations. Goals of the class, Disease and Pest Control Systems for Ornamental Plants, are to teach students pest monitoring, control and problem solving techniques, the use of resources including the internet and journals, and the use of the latest pest control equipment and application techniques. Students are shown pest situations and then work in groups to diagnose the problem, investigate management strategies, apply control measures, and monitor results. Weekly class presentations inform the class of the various projects and help to teach the class organization and presentation skills. Student evaluations and test performance have demonstrated that students achieve class objectives substantially better with the problem-based learning approach than with the previous lecture-based approach to the class.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Vogt

AbstractThe uptake of the QbTest in clinical practice is increasing and has recently been supported by research evidence proposing its effectiveness in relation to clinical decision-making. However, the exact underlying process leading to this clinical benefit is currently not well established and requires further clarification. For the clinician, certain challenges arise when adding the QbTest as a novel method to standard clinical practice, such as having the skills required to interpret neuropsychological test information and assess for diagnostically relevant neurocognitive domains that are related to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or how neurocognitive domains express themselves within the behavioral classifications of ADHD and how the quantitative measurement of activity in a laboratory setting compares with real-life (ecological validity) situations as well as the impact of comorbidity on test results. This article aims to address these clinical conundrums in aid of developing a consistent approach and future guidelines in clinical practice.


Author(s):  
Anuradha Mathrani ◽  
Sanjay Mathrani

Purpose The paper aims to capture the nuances of two client–supplier relationships to offer new insights on the influences of transactional, knowledge and social elements in outsourcing partnerships. Design/methodology/approach The study has used descriptive case studies with narrative storylines. Interviews were conducted with three relationship managers (boundary gatekeepers) to understand preferred governance practices between clients and suppliers in diverse economic markets. Findings Experiences of three real-life cases engaged in offshore outsourcing have helped to identify the market, operational knowledge and social influences in a relational exchange. Findings reveal that offshore partnerships are first constituted with service-level agreements, which set control measures and layout business expectations from both partners. Boundary gatekeepers bring further accountability across firms by designing social networks for capturing and sharing of knowledge, thereby reducing each partner’s perception of risk. As firms evaluate transactional, knowledge and social elements for building a futuristic relational exchange, more disaggregated and dispersed enterprises evolve as new opportunities are explored in foreign markets. Research limitations/implications The retrospective nature of the client–supplier partnership is a limitation in this research study. However, retrospection adds to experience, and to practice perspectives made in hindsight, and therefore has a positive influence in this study. Originality/value This paper shares real-world experiences that can be used by scholars and practitioners to better understand how relational governance practices operate in a global socio-economic setting.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062110426
Author(s):  
Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard ◽  
Lasse Suonperä Liebst ◽  
Richard Philpot ◽  
Mark Levine ◽  
Wim Bernasco

In real-life violence, bystanders can take an active role in de-escalating conflict and helping others. Recent meta-analytical evidence of experimental studies suggests that elevated danger levels in conflicts facilitate bystander intervention. However, this finding may lack ecological validity because ethical concerns prohibit exposing participants to potentially harmful situations. Using an ecologically valid method, based on an analysis of 80 interpersonal conflicts unobtrusively recorded by public surveillance cameras, the present study confirms that danger is positively associated with bystander intervention. In the presence of danger, bystanders were 19 times more likely to intervene than in the absence of danger. It extends this knowledge by discovering that incremental changes in the severity level of the danger (low, medium, and high), however, were not associated with bystander intervention. These findings confirm the importance of further investigating the role of danger for bystander intervention, in larger samples, and involving multiple types of real-life emergencies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Ian Ming Chong ◽  
Yogeswary Maniam ◽  
Yi Chian Chua ◽  
Charmaine Tang

Objective: Early intervention in patients with first episode psychosis (FEP) can improve cognitive abilities, with both short- and long-term benefits. In this paper, we describe the implementation and review of cognitive remediation training (CRT) in an Asian FEP population. The outcomes of the training are also evaluated and discussed.Methods: This naturalistic paper describes in detail the real-life implementation and conduct of CRT in an early psychosis intervention service. One hundred and nine patients with FEP underwent a 24-session CRT programme, using Cogpack and Neuropsychological Educational Approach to Remediation. The program is evaluated with pre- and post-CRT assessment scores which included Montreal Cognitive Assessment and Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia. The rates of improvement on these cognitive assessments were evaluated using paired t-tests, with statistical significance set at p ≤ 0.05.Results: Of the 109 patients who underwent CRT, a total of 92 (84.4%) completed all 24 sessions. Paired t-tests between pre- and post-CRT assessments scores revealed that participants significantly improved on majority of the measures, including verbal memory, digit sequencing, and symbol coding.Conclusion: As with other cognitive remediation programmes, CRT has shown to improve cognitive functioning in patients with FEP. The results support the use of CRT in an Asian context and may serve as guidance for the implementation of similar training programmes in other Asian early psychosis intervention services.


2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Chuan Chen ◽  
Gert Westermann

Infants are able to learn novel associations between visual objects and auditory linguistic labels (such as a dog and the sound /dɔg/) by the end of their first year of life. Surprisingly, at this age they seem to fail to learn the associations between visual objects and natural sounds (such as a dog and its barking sound). Researchers have therefore suggested that linguistic learning is special (Fulkerson and Waxman, 2007) or that unfamiliar sounds overshadow visual object processing (Robinson and Sloutsky, 2010). However, in previous studies visual stimuli were paired with arbitrary sounds in contexts lacking ecological validity. In the present study, we create animations of two novel animals and two realistic animal calls to construct two audiovisual stimuli. In the training phase, each animal was presented in motions that mimicked animal behaviour in real life: in a short movie, the animal ran (or jumped) from the periphery to the center of the monitor, and it made calls while raising its head. In the test phase, static images of both animals were presented side-by-side and the sound for one of the animals was played. Infant looking times to each stimulus were recorded with an eye tracker. We found that following the sound, 12-month-old infants preferentially looked at the animal corresponding to the sound. These results show that 12-month-old infants are able to learn novel associations between visual objects and natural sounds in an ecologically valid situation, thereby challenging our current understanding of the development of crossmodal association learning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 942-951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lanfang Liu ◽  
Yuxuan Zhang ◽  
Qi Zhou ◽  
Douglas D Garrett ◽  
Chunming Lu ◽  
...  

Abstract Whether auditory processing of speech relies on reference to the articulatory motor information of speaker remains elusive. Here, we addressed this issue under a two-brain framework. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was applied to record the brain activities of speakers when telling real-life stories and later of listeners when listening to the audio recordings of these stories. Based on between-brain seed-to-voxel correlation analyses, we revealed that neural dynamics in listeners’ auditory temporal cortex are temporally coupled with the dynamics in the speaker’s larynx/phonation area. Moreover, the coupling response in listener’s left auditory temporal cortex follows the hierarchical organization for speech processing, with response lags in A1+, STG/STS, and MTG increasing linearly. Further, listeners showing greater coupling responses understand the speech better. When comprehension fails, such interbrain auditory-articulation coupling vanishes substantially. These findings suggest that a listener’s auditory system and a speaker’s articulatory system are inherently aligned during naturalistic verbal interaction, and such alignment is associated with high-level information transfer from the speaker to the listener. Our study provides reliable evidence supporting that references to the articulatory motor information of speaker facilitate speech comprehension under a naturalistic scene.


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