scholarly journals Gaze as a Window to the Process of Novel Adjective Mapping

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Hanako Yoshida ◽  
Aakash Patel ◽  
Joseph Burling

This study evaluated two explanations for how learning of novel adjectives is facilitated when all the objects are from the same category (e.g., exemplar and testing objects are all CUPS) and the object category is a known to the children. One explanation (the category knowledge account) focuses on early knowledge of syntax–meaning correspondence, and another (the attentional account) focuses on the role of repeated perceptual properties. The first account presumes implicit understanding that all the objects belong to the same category, and the second account presumes only that redundant perceptual experiences minimize distraction from irrelevant features and thus guide children’s attention directly to the correct item. The present study tests the two accounts by documenting moment-to-moment attention allocation (e.g., looking at experimenter’s face, exemplar object, target object) during a novel adjective learning task with 50 3-year-olds. The results suggest that children’s attention was guided directly to the correct item during the adjective mapping and that such direct attention allocation to the correct item predicted children’s adjective mapping performance. Results are discussed in relation to their implication for children’s active looking as the determinant of process for mapping new words to their meanings.

Author(s):  
Sarah M. Miller ◽  
Wai-Tat Fu

Models of visual attention allocation suggest that monitoring is driven primarily by proximal cues like bandwidth and value. However, these cues might not always be predictive of the meaningful events an operator is asked to monitor. The aim of the current study is to extend visual sampling models by studying whether sampling can be influenced by more distal cues, like detecting patterns in the monitored signal, when proximal cues, like bandwidth, are not predictive of the meaningful events the operator is asked to monitor. Ten participants completed a task based on Senders' (1964) experiment where operators were asked to monitor a series of four gauges to detect when the gauges traveled into the alarm region. The performance results suggest that participants could successfully adapt to the temporal sequence. However, participants did not show explicit awareness of the sequence, indicating that this type of learning could, in some cases, be implicit. Implications for display design and training are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1320
Author(s):  
Katherine Esterline ◽  
Rebecca L. Gómez

Daytime napping contributes to retention of new word learning in children. Importantly, children transition out of regular napping between ages 3–5 years, and the impact of this transition on memory is unclear. Here, we examined the performance of both non-habitually napping children (nap 0–3 days per week, n = 28) and habitually napping children (nap 4–7 days per week, n = 30) on a word learning task after a delay including either sleep or wakefulness. Children ages 3.5–4.5 years old experienced a brief exposure to two novel labels and their referents during training, a scenario that replicates learning experiences children encounter every day. After a 4-h delay, children were tested on the object-label associations. Using mixed effects logistic regression, we compared retention performance. Non-habitual nappers and habitual nappers displayed a different pattern of retention such that non-habitually napping children did equally well on a test of retention regardless of whether they napped or stayed awake during the delay. In contrast, habitually napping children needed a nap after learning to retain the novel object-label associations 4 h later. As a group, habitual nappers who remained awake after learning performed no better than chance on the retention test. As children transition out of naps, they may be less susceptible to interference and are better able to retain newly learned words across a delay including wakefulness.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anaïs Thibault Landry ◽  
Marylène Gagné ◽  
Jacques Forest ◽  
Sylvie Guerrero ◽  
Michel Séguin ◽  
...  

Abstract. To this day, researchers are debating the adequacy of using financial incentives to bolster performance in work settings. Our goal was to contribute to current understanding by considering the moderating role of distributive justice in the relation between financial incentives, motivation, and performance. Based on self-determination theory, we hypothesized that when bonuses are fairly distributed, using financial incentives makes employees feel more competent and autonomous, which in turn fosters greater autonomous motivation and lower controlled motivation, and better work performance. Results from path analyses in three samples supported our hypotheses, suggesting that the effect of financial incentives is contextual, and that compensation plans using financial incentives and bonuses can be effective when properly managed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Patrick T. Davies ◽  
Morgan J. Thompson ◽  
Jesse L. Coe ◽  
Melissa L. Sturge-Apple

Abstract This study examined children's duration of attention to negative emotions (i.e., anger, sadness, fear) as a mediator of associations among maternal and paternal unsupportive parenting and children's externalizing symptoms in a sample of 240 mothers, fathers, and their preschool children (Mage = 4.64 years). The multimethod, multi-informant design consisted of three annual measurement occasions. Analysis of maternal and paternal unsupportive parenting as predictors in latent difference changes in children's affect-biased attention and behavior problems indicated that children's attention to negative emotions mediated the specific association between maternal unsupportive parenting and children's subsequent increases in externalizing symptoms. Maternal unsupportive parenting at Wave 1 predicted decreases in children's attention to negative facial expressions of adults from Wave 1 to 2. Reductions in children's attention to negative emotion, in turn, predicted increases in their externalizing symptoms from Wave 1 to 3. Additional tests of children's fearful distress and hostile responses to parental conflict as explanatory mechanisms revealed that increases in children's fearful distress reactivity from Wave 1 to 2 accounted for the association between maternal unsupportive parenting and concomitant decreases in their attention to negative emotions. Results are discussed in the context of information processing models of family adversity and developmental psychopathology.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9s1 ◽  
pp. JEN.S32735
Author(s):  
Darryl J. Mayeaux ◽  
Sarah M. Tandle ◽  
Sean M. Cilano ◽  
Matthew J. Fitzharris

In animal models of depression, depression is defined as performance on a learning task. That task is typically escaping a mild electric shock in a shuttle cage by moving from one side of the cage to the other. Ovarian hormones influence learning in other kinds of tasks, and these hormones are associated with depressive symptoms in humans. The role of these hormones in shuttle-cage escape learning, however, is less clear. This study manipulated estradiol and progesterone in ovariectomized female rats to examine their performance in shuttle-cage escape learning without intentionally inducing a depressive-like state. Progesterone, not estradiol, within four hours of testing affected latencies to escape. The improvement produced by progesterone was in the decision to act, not in the speed of learning or speed of escaping. This parallels depression in humans in that depressed people are slower in volition, in their decisions to take action.


Author(s):  
Svitlana Korol

The article deals with one of the most common types of word formation in German as word compounding. Compound nouns have become the object of study, as this part of the language leads the way in the formation of new words in this way. The relevance of the research is reinforced by the fact that German compound nouns differ by their multicomponent structure and are in the process of regular growth of their numbers, so they are attracting the attention of Germanists of different generations continuously. The study has examined the nature of the component composition of composites, the types of bonding between components, the types of constituent components, the role of the connecting element, the syllable’s accentuation of components of the compound noun etc. The compound can be built from nouns, adjectives, verbs or an invariable element (prepositions). There is no limit of the number of the associated words. The last word in the compound always determines the gender and plural form of the compound noun. The connectors or linking elements in existing German compound words often correspond to old case endings (e.g., plural, genitive). These endings expressed the relationship of the compound parts to one another. The article considers the causes of the formation of complex nouns. Compounds make the German language more flexible. In general, compounds are used to convey more information in one word and for reasons of language economy. Special attention deserves such a phenomenon as Denglish. This is the mashing of words from the two languages to create new hybrid words.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayne Morriss ◽  
Nicolo Biagi ◽  
Tina B. Lonsdorf ◽  
Marta Andreatta

AbstractIndividuals, who score high in self-reported intolerance of uncertainty (IU), tend to find uncertainty anxiety-provoking. IU has been reliably associated with disrupted threat extinction. However, it remains unclear whether IU would be related to disrupted extinction to other arousing stimuli that are not threatening (i.e., rewarding). We addressed this question by conducting a reward associative learning task with acquisition and extinction training phases (n = 58). Throughout the associative learning task, we recorded valence ratings (i.e. liking), skin conductance response (SCR) (i.e. sweating), and corrugator supercilii activity (i.e. brow muscle indicative or negative and positive affect) to learned reward and neutral cues. During acquisition training with partial reward reinforcement, higher IU was associated with greater corrugator supercilii activity to neutral compared to reward cues. IU was not related to valence ratings or SCR’s during the acquisition or extinction training phases. These preliminary results suggest that IU-related deficits during extinction may be limited to situations with threat. The findings further our conceptual understanding of IU’s role in the associative learning and extinction of reward, and in relation to the processing of threat and reward more generally.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0243171
Author(s):  
Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias ◽  
Erik Gjesfjeld ◽  
Lucio Vinicius

The origins of linguistic diversity remain controversial. Studies disagree on whether group features such as population size or social structure accelerate or decelerate linguistic differentiation. While some analyses of between-group factors highlight the role of geographical isolation and reduced linguistic exchange in differentiation, others suggest that linguistic divergence is driven primarily by warfare among neighbouring groups and the use of language as marker of group identity. Here we provide the first integrated test of the effects of five historical sociodemographic and geographic variables on three measures of linguistic diversification among 50 Austronesian languages: rates of word gain, loss and overall lexical turnover. We control for their shared evolutionary histories through a time-calibrated phylogenetic sister-pairs approach. Results show that languages spoken in larger communities create new words at a faster pace. Within-group conflict promotes linguistic differentiation by increasing word loss, while warfare hinders linguistic differentiation by decreasing both rates of word gain and loss. Finally, we show that geographical isolation is a strong driver of lexical evolution mainly due to a considerable drift-driven acceleration in rates of word loss. We conclude that the motor of extreme linguistic diversity in Austronesia may have been the dispersal of populations across relatively isolated islands, favouring strong cultural ties amongst societies instead of warfare and cultural group marking.


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