On the generation of content

This chapter explores the view that the contents of fictions and non-fictions are generated in the same way. It advocates a general principle of content generation which extends the account of fictional truths proposed by David Lewis. It is argued that, in generating the contents of fictions and non-fictions, the same issues arise and they may be dealt with in the same way. The proposal rests on Stalnaker's view that the assumptions shared by the participants in a conversational exchange provide the material out of which propositions are constructed. The idea underlying the account is that the communicative exchange involved in an author's producing a work for an audience, whether the work is fictive or non-fictive, is no different in principle from communicative exchanges in conversations. Differences in content related to fictional vs. non-fictional status are argued to depend on the role that conventions play in generating implicit truths in both fictive and non-fictive works.

How bilinguals perceive speech depends on which language they think they’re hearing.

Bilinguals understand when the communication context calls for speaking a particular language and can switch from speaking one language to the other based on such conceptual knowledge. There is disagreement regarding whether conceptually-based language switching is also possible in the listening modality. For example, can bilingual listeners perceptually adjust to changes in pronunciation across languages based on their conceptual understanding of which language they’re currently hearing? We asked French- and Spanish-English bilinguals to identify nonsense monosyllables as beginning with /b/ or /p/, speech categories that French and Spanish speakers pronounce differently than English speakers. We conceptually cued each bilingual group to one of their two languages or the other by explicitly instructing them that the speech items were word onsets in that language, uttered by a native speaker thereof. Both groups adjusted their /b–p/ identification boundary in accordance with this conceptual cue to the language context. These results support a bilingual model permitting conceptually-based language selection on both the speaking and listening end of a communicative exchange.

Negotiating the other: museum exhibition and the construction of heritage in marginalized groups

How heritage messages are conceived and presented at museums, and how people make sense of and debate these messages is an overarching concern of this paper. For the purposes of this report, heritage is defined as the cultural legacy, including tangible and intangible histories and practices, that is handed down from the past within a community, and which is an essential element of an individual's and a community's sense of identity. Museums operate as sites where people experience and learn about their heritage. But a central concern is how these public institutions encompass marginalized groups within this construction of heritage, identity and community. The focal point of those interactions between museums and people is their exhibitions. This essential communicative tool of museums, this media of production and consumption of meaning, is the point of interest for this paper. As the place where the interests of both sides of the communicative exchange converge, exhibitions reveal the tensions within the system, and the process by which changing ideas about heritage and community are negotiated. Exhibits can be seen as texts anchored in the contexts and processes of their production and reception. Or they can be seen as the dialogic space in which a political relationship unfolds. This paper offers insights into how the political nature of communicative practices underlying the production and consumption of museum exhibitions affects the heritage of marginalized groups. How exhibitions come into being - their modes of production - how they communicate as texts and how they are used or read is illuminated, using as a case study a particular museum exhibit about African-Canadians entitled The Underground Railroad: Next Stop Freedom. Developed by the Department of Canadian Heritage to be displayed in Toronto, the exhibit was installed at the Royal Ontario Museum in 2002 and is currently on view at Black Creek Pioneer Village. The research encompasses the circuit of communication as it relates to the conditions surrounding the conceptualizing and negotiation of this exhibition: what is presented, why it is presented, how it is presented, to whom, and how it is received.

Negotiating the other: museum exhibition and the construction of heritage in marginalized groups

How heritage messages are conceived and presented at museums, and how people make sense of and debate these messages is an overarching concern of this paper. For the purposes of this report, heritage is defined as the cultural legacy, including tangible and intangible histories and practices, that is handed down from the past within a community, and which is an essential element of an individual's and a community's sense of identity. Museums operate as sites where people experience and learn about their heritage. But a central concern is how these public institutions encompass marginalized groups within this construction of heritage, identity and community. The focal point of those interactions between museums and people is their exhibitions. This essential communicative tool of museums, this media of production and consumption of meaning, is the point of interest for this paper. As the place where the interests of both sides of the communicative exchange converge, exhibitions reveal the tensions within the system, and the process by which changing ideas about heritage and community are negotiated. Exhibits can be seen as texts anchored in the contexts and processes of their production and reception. Or they can be seen as the dialogic space in which a political relationship unfolds. This paper offers insights into how the political nature of communicative practices underlying the production and consumption of museum exhibitions affects the heritage of marginalized groups. How exhibitions come into being - their modes of production - how they communicate as texts and how they are used or read is illuminated, using as a case study a particular museum exhibit about African-Canadians entitled The Underground Railroad: Next Stop Freedom. Developed by the Department of Canadian Heritage to be displayed in Toronto, the exhibit was installed at the Royal Ontario Museum in 2002 and is currently on view at Black Creek Pioneer Village. The research encompasses the circuit of communication as it relates to the conditions surrounding the conceptualizing and negotiation of this exhibition: what is presented, why it is presented, how it is presented, to whom, and how it is received.

Case Report: Feasibility of a Novel Virtual Reality-Based Intervention for Patients With Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe and disabling mental illness, associated with persistent difficulties in social functioning. While gaining and retaining a job or staying socially integrated can be very difficult for the patients, the treatment of poor functionality remains challenging with limited options in pharmacotherapy. To address the limitations of medical treatment, several interesting and innovative approaches have been introduced in the field of psychotherapy. Recent approaches incorporate modern technology as well, such as virtual reality. A potential therapeutic benefit of virtual reality is particularly significant when an interpersonal dimension of the problem needs to be addressed. One example is a Virtual Reality based Theory of Mind Intervention (VR-ToMIS), a novel method, which enables patients to practice complex social interactions without the burden of real-life consequences. Our paper presents a case report showing promising results of VR-ToMIS. Ms. Smith is a 50- year-old patient who has been suffering from schizophrenia for 20 years. Although in her case there was no problem with compliance throughout the years, she had severe problems regarding social functionality. With VR-ToMIS, she improved in ToM and communicative-pragmatic skills. The effects of the intervention went beyond the increased scores of the tests. Before the intervention there was a risk of the patient becoming unemployed as she was unable to follow the main principles of communicative exchange. Usually, her contribution was more informative than was required. After the intervention her communication became more balanced and she could retain her job. This case suggests that VR-ToMIS may be a promising tool for treating social disfunction in schizophrenia.

Media aesthetic environment of image formation

This paper is devoted to the “nature of image” in the new media environment. The author re-conceptualizes the image as a basis of textual, visual and audial culture. Two factors of this revision are explained: (1) the facilitation of the complex creation and consumption of communicative unities, or artifacts (complexes of video, audio, texts and other forms), (2) the ability to capture a massive interest for new forms of imagery in social networks and the internet (a research evidence of this interest). The theory of the image, presented in the writings of Jean-Luc Nancy, is applied to the actual facts of communicative exchange allowing to identify some new directions for the development of media aesthetic phenomena. The main empirical material of the article is the growing mass interest in video and audio clips, such as #oddlysatisfying and ASMR. The author uses this material to confirm Nancy’s idea on the concentration of image formation in an “invisible” zone (beyond the representation of the object itself: the image is interlined, it is between sounds, it is behind pictures).

Análise discursiva das apreciações das rodas vinculantes no contexto universitário latino-americano

This research analyses the discursive characteristic of social binding wheels discourse made in the framework of educational and communicative processes with different social and educational agents from different indigenous communities, from Pastaza (Ecuador). This discursive analysis consists of a qualitative inquiry of quantitative data regarding the potential of integrative community therapy (ICT) and the binding wheels. It aims to assess their impacts, their achievements, their difficulties through a methodology of mixed quanti-qualitative cutting. The obtained results demonstrate that binding wheels allow self-reflection and communicative exchange, promote resilience, and evidence community empowerment. Finally, we consider (that) this analysis may be of special interest to improve educational and communicative strategies in intercultural educational context of the Ecuadorian Amazon, allowing social value analysis and promoting personal development.

Mental Chronometry of Speaking in Dialogue: Semantic Interference Turns into Facilitation

Numerous studies demonstrate that the production of words is delayed when speakers process in temporal proximity semantically related words. Yet the experimental settings underlying this effect are different from those under which we typically speak. This study demonstrates that semantic interference disappears, and can even turn into facilitation, when semantically related words are embedded in a meaningful communicative exchange. Experiment 1 and 3 (each N=32 university students) implemented a picture-word interference task in a game played between two participants: one named the distractor word and, after a stimulus-onset-asynchrony of −150ms or −650ms, the other named a semantically related or unrelated target picture. Semantic interference reappeared with identical experimental parameters in a single-person picture-word interference setting (Experiment 2, N=32). We conclude that the inhibitory context effects leading to semantic interference in single-subject settings are attenuated whereas facilitatory effects are enhanced in communicative settings.HighlightsIn isolated speakers processing semantically related words interferes with speakingYet we typically speak to communicate with othersThis study transfers picture-word interference to a communicative settingSemantically related words produced by a partner do not interfere with speaking

Más allá de la imagen. La literatura visual del artista invisible

Resumen: El presente artículo gira en torno al proceso constructivo de la comunicación pictórica contemporánea en el caso de la producción de Joan Millet (Gandía, 1958). Así pues, en él se abordan diferentes cuestiones que se devienen esenciales para la configuración de su particular discurso, tales como la intención narrativa primigenia, la estructura semiótica de la imagen o el valor expresivo de la propia materia. Entender la conjunción entre lo narrativo y lo sensitivo resulta primordial para la comprensión de la intencionalidad del artista en cuestión, que siempre articula sus imágenes minuciosamente, atendiendo y sirviéndose de cualquier recurso compositivo, literario o experiencial que esté a su alcance. Además, también se hace hincapié en la posición que ocupa el posible espectador en el rodeo comunicativo que el artista inicia con la obra. Del receptor, en definitiva, es de quien depende el eventual salto hacia el plano simbólico. Palabras clave: Pintura, narración, literatura, comunicación, bellas artes, arte contemporáneo Abstract: This article revolves around the constructive process of contemporary pictorial communication in Joan Millet’s production (Gandia, 1958). Thus, it addresses different issues that become essential for the configuration of his discourse, such as the original narrative intention, the semiotic structure of the image, or the expressive value of the subject itself. Understanding the conjunction between the narrative and the sensitive is paramount to the comprehension of the artist’s intention, as he always articulates his images meticulously, attending and using any compositional, literary, or experiential resource in his reach. Emphasis is placed on the position of the potential viewer in the communicative exchange that the artist begins with his work, hence being the receiver the one on whom the eventual jump to the symbolic level depends. Keywords: Painting, narration, literature, comunication, fine arts, contemporary art