Influence of Tasking During Vestibular Testing

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of different types of tasking on the measurement of peak slow phase velocity (SPV) for caloric testing and rotary chair testing. Method This study evaluated the peak SPV response for caloric testing and rotary chair across five conditions. Three verbal, one tactile, and one condition without tasking were used for both caloric testing and rotary chair. The subjects consisted of 20 young adults (age range: 22–33 years, M = 26.65, SD = 3.72; seven male, 13 female) with normal vestibular function and no history of ear surgery or vestibular disorder. Study participation consisted of two visits with 24 hr minimum between each, one for caloric testing and one for rotary chair testing. The test completed at each visit was counterbalanced. Caloric Testing : The caloric irrigations were performed 5 times, with the ears randomized and tasking conditions randomized. Rotary Chair Testing : Rotary chair sinusoidal harmonic acceleration testing was performed 5 times at 0.08 Hz with the tasking conditions randomized. Results Tasking of any kind resulted in significantly larger peak SPV responses when compared to the no tasking condition for rotary chair testing. When comparing each type of tasking, no significant differences were noted. No significant difference was noted when comparing the conditions with tasking to the no tasking condition for caloric testing. Conclusions Clinically, either mental or tactile tasking can be utilized as a method to reduce VOR suppression during rotary chair testing. As no difference was found when comparing different verbal tasks to each other, the type of tasking can be catered to the patient. If verbal tasking cannot be completed, the braiding tactile task is a valid substitution. Caloric results varied widely across subjects and did not reach statistical significance, so conclusions on the need for tasking cannot be drawn.

Influence of homophone processing during auditory language comprehension on executive control processes: A dual-task paradigm

In the present preregistered study, we evaluated the possibility of a shared cognitive mechanism during verbal and non-verbal tasks and therefore the implication of domain-general cognitive control during language comprehension. We hypothesized that a behavioral cost will be observed during a dual-task including both verbal and non-verbal difficult processing. Specifically, to test this claim, we designed a dual-task paradigm involving: an auditory language comprehension task (sentence comprehension) and a non-verbal Flanker task (including congruent and incongruent trials). We manipulated sentence ambiguity and evaluated if the ambiguity effect modified behavioral performances in the non-verbal Flanker task. Under the assumption that ambiguous sentences induce a more difficult process than unambiguous sentences, we expected non-verbal flanker task performances to be impaired only when a simultaneous difficult language processing is performed. This would be specifically reflected by a performance cost during incongruent Flanker items only during ambiguous sentence presentation. Conversely, we observed a facilitatory effect for the incongruent Flanker items during ambiguous sentence suggesting better non-verbal inhibitory performances when an ambiguous sentence was simultaneously processed. Exploratory data analysis suggests that this effect is not only related to a more difficult language processing but also to the previous (n-1) Flanker item. Indeed, results showed that incongruent n-1 Flanker items led to a facilitation of the incongruent synchronized Flanker items only when ambiguous sentences were conjointly presented. This result, even if it needs to be corroborated in future studies, suggests that the recruitment of executive control mechanisms facilitates subsequent executive control implication during difficult language processing. The present study suggests a common executive control mechanism during difficult verbal and non-verbal tasks.

Individual Differences in Decisions on Physical Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic decisions on physical distancing including decisions on wearing face masks in public may depend on a number of individual characteristics, representations of threats and the degree of personal responsibility for complying with the imposed requirements.. This study on a Russian sample (N = 308) took placeduring April-May 2020. We used verbal tasks on social distancing to test the hypotheses that individual differences in empathy, implicit theories of emotions, the Dark Triad traits, rationality, and risk readiness predict decisions on whether or not to wear a mask. We developed five verbal tasks – situations where decisions on whether to wear a mask or not were made by choosing from several given reasons. Among the reasons for wearing a mask, Care for Self was chosen by 46% of participants who received this as a reason, the Law-abidingness reason was chosen by 44%, and 31% selected Care for Others. Regarding the reasons for not wearing a mask, 16% of participants chose Autonomy for Oneself, 11% – Risk Underestimation and 5% – Autonomy for Others. Logistic regressions identified that empathy, rationality, and narcissism were significant predictors of a decision to wear a face mask, while risk readiness and psychopathy were predictors of a decision not to wear a mask. Implicit theories of emotions and problem-solving self-efficacy were significant predictors only for choices between the reasons for wearing a mask. Personality variables of empathy, rationality, risk readiness, and the Dark Triad traits influence decisions on adhering to physical distancing.

Identification of Word Retrieval Difficulties in the Normally Aging Population

Purpose This study examined variations in performance on different verbal tasks completed by typically aging, non-neurologically impaired adults who self-identified as either having or not having word retrieval difficulties that frequently affected their lifestyle. Method Fifty-seven adults aged 54–71 years, who were recruited based on case history responses that indicated the presence or absence of word retrieval difficulties, completed two standardized, norm-referenced language tests, two naming tasks, and three verbal fluency measures. Results Although scores on standardized language tests fell within normal limits for all of the participants, significant differences between those with and those without self-reported word retrieval difficulties were found on the Expressive Vocabulary Test–Second Edition as well as on tasks of naming members of categories and producing procedural narratives. A significantly greater percentage of disfluencies in procedural narratives were found in the group that reported word retrieval difficulties. This fluency indicator was the only factor that was predictive of word retrieval difficulties. Conclusions Many studies have examined the differences in word retrieval in older versus younger populations or in persons with aphasia versus persons without aphasia, but they have not offered definitive pictures of the differences between those with and those without word retrieval difficulties in the normally aging population who have otherwise normal language. This study identified three tasks that appear to be sensitive to the word-finding difficulties experienced by some adults.

Literacy, metalinguistic, and executive functions processing in bilingual children speakers of similar typology languages in a border area

This study aimed to analyze whether there are differences between bilingual (Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish) and monolingual (Brazilian Portuguese) school children regarding reading and writing learning achievement, in executive functions (EF) components and metalinguistic abilities. Twenty-three bilingual and 23 monolingual children, aged 6 to 8 years, were assessed in terms of their writing, reading, and metalinguistic abilities, and with verbal and non-verbal tasks testing EF. A bilingual advantage was observed in reading and writing abilities and in 16 of the 44 EF measures, including subcomponents of working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and executive attention, mainly in non-verbal paradigms, while monolingual children outperformed bilingual ones in three scores: counting errors (Five Digits Test), omission of bells (Bells test) and sequential trial B (Trail Making Test). There were moderate and weak effect sizes in metalinguistic subcomponents showing bilingual advantage. Literacy improvement seems to have the potential to increase linguistic and cognitive abilities.

Nonverbal Semantics Test (NVST)—A Novel Diagnostic Tool to Assess Semantic Processing Deficits: Application to Persons with Aphasia after Cerebrovascular Accident

Assessment of semantic processing capacities often relies on verbal tasks which are, however, sensitive to impairments at several language processing levels. Especially for persons with aphasia there is a strong need for a tool that measures semantic processing skills independent of verbal abilities. Furthermore, in order to assess a patient’s potential for using alternative means of communication in cases of severe aphasia, semantic processing should be assessed in different nonverbal conditions. The Nonverbal Semantics Test (NVST) is a tool that captures semantic processing capacities through three tasks—Semantic Sorting, Drawing, and Pantomime. The main aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between the NVST and measures of standard neurolinguistic assessment. Fifty-one persons with aphasia caused by left hemisphere brain damage were administered the NVST as well as the Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT). A principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted across all AAT and NVST subtests. The analysis resulted in a two-factor model that captured 69% of the variance of the original data, with all linguistic tasks loading high on one factor and the NVST subtests loading high on the other. These findings suggest that nonverbal tasks assessing semantic processing capacities should be administered alongside standard neurolinguistic aphasia tests.

A Multimodal Comparison of Emotion Categorization Abilities in Children With Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose Current research has demonstrated that behavioral, emotional, and/or social difficulties often accompany developmental language disorder (DLD). It is an open question to what degrees such difficulties arise as consequence of impaired language and communicative skills, or whether they might also be driven by deficits in verbal and nonverbal emotion processing (e.g., the reduced ability to infer and verbalize emotional states from facial expressions). Regarding the existence of nonverbal deficits, previous research has yielded inconsistent findings. This study was aimed at gaining deeper knowledge of the basic aspects of emotion understanding in children with DLD by comparing their performance on nonverbal and verbal emotion categorization tasks to that of typically developing children. Method Two verbal tasks (Lexical Decision and Valence Decision With Emotion Terms) and two nonverbal tasks (Face Decision and Valence Decision With Facial Expressions) were designed to parallel each other as much as possible, and conducted with twenty-six 6- to 10-year-old children diagnosed with DLD. The same number of typically developed children, carefully matched by age and gender, served as a control group. Results The children with DLD showed lower performance in both verbal tasks and exhibited noticeable problems in the nonverbal emotion processing task. In particular, they achieved lower accuracy scores when they categorized faces by their valence (positive or negative), but did not differ in their ability to distinguish these faces from pictures displaying animals. Conclusions This study provides evidence for the hypothesis that problems in emotion processing in children with DLD might be multimodal. Therefore, the results support the idea of mutual influences in the development of language and emotion skills and contribute to the current debate about the domain specificity of DLD (formerly referred to as specific language impairment).

“Red-Green” or “Brown-Green” Dichromats? The Accuracy of Dichromat Basic Color Terms Metacognition Supports Denomination Change

Two experiments compared “Red-Green” (R-G) dichromats’ empirical and metacognized capacities to discriminate basic color categories (BCCs) and to use the corresponding basic color terms (BCTs). A first experiment used a 102-related-colors set for a pointing task to identify all the stimuli that could be named with each BCT by each R-G dichromat type (8 protanopes and 9 deuteranopes). In a second experiment, a group of R-G dichromats (15 protanopes and 16 deuteranopes) estimated their difficulty discriminating BCCs-BCTs in a verbal task. The strong coincidences between the results derived from the pointing and the verbal tasks indicated that R-G dichromats have very accurate metacognition about their capacities (they only had considerable difficulty discriminating 13 out of the total of 55 possible BCT pairs) and limitations (Brown-Green and Blue-Purple pairs were rated especially difficult to differentiate) in the use of BCTs. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) solutions derived from both tasks were very similar: BCTs in R-G dichromats were properly represented in 2D MDS solutions that clearly show one chromatic dimension and one achromatic dimension. Important concordances were found between protanopes and deuteranopes. None of these dichromats showed substantial difficulty discriminating the Red-Green pair. So, to name them “R-G” dichromats is misleading considering their empirical capacities and their metacognition. Further reasons to propose the use of the alternative denomination “Brown-Green” dichromats are also discussed. We found some relevant differences between the “Brown-Green” dichromats’ empirical and self-reported difficulties using BCTs. Their metacognition can be considered a “caricature” of their practical difficulties. This caricature omits some difficulties including their problems differentiating “white” and “black” from other BCTs, while they overestimate their limitations in differentiating the most difficult pairs (Brown-Green and Blue-Purple). Individual differences scaling (INDSCAL) analyses indicated that the metacognition regarding the use of BCTs in “Brown-Green” dichromats, especially deuteranopes, is driven slightly more by the chromatic dimension and driven slightly less by the achromatic dimension, than their practical use of BCTs. We discuss the relevance of our results in the framework of the debate between the linguistic relativity hypothesis (LRH) and the universal evolution (UE) theories.

Which Divergent Thinking Index is More Associated with Problem Construction Ability? The Role of Flexibility and Task Nature

Problem construction and divergent thinking (DT) are considered to be indicators of creative potential. Previous studies, with different goals, suggest a positive correlation between problem construction and DT. However, none of these works have explicitly examined which index of DT is more associated with problem construction. The current investigation examined the association between problem construction and three main indexes of DT: fluency, flexibility, and originality. It also tested whether such a relation differs based on task nature (verbal versus figural). The sample consisted of 90 sixth graders who completed three tests: (a) a verbal DT test, (b) a figural DT test, and (c) a problem construction test. Correlational analysis showed that flexibility was highly correlated with problem construction in the verbal DT test, whereas originality was highly correlated with problem construction in the figural test. The association between problem construction and verbal versus figural DT significantly differed in all DT indexes. This finding suggests that figural and verbal tasks assess DT in a different way, which was confirmed by a canonical correlation analysis. Finally, results of a multiple regression analysis showed that verbal DT significantly explained 59% of the variance in fluency scores in problem construction and 60% in originality scores in problem construction. Meanwhile, figural DT explained 8% to 9% of the variability in fluency and originality scores in problem construction. As suggested by experts in the field of problem construction, the role of flexibility in problem construction is a fertile area to be considered in future studies.

Belief-Based Evaluations of Helping in Infancy

Two experiments investigated whether infants’ social evaluations privilege the objective consequences of others’ acts of helping or the beliefs on which helping is based, even when others’ beliefs are false and their actions produce no beneficial outcomes. Fifteen-month-old infants (N = 94) viewed videotaped puppet shows in which a protagonist sought to obtain one of two objects, each inside a different box, and two helpers alternately opened the box containing that object. Then the two objects switched boxes, either in the helpers’ presence or absence, and infants saw one helper open the new box, affording access to the desired object, and the other helper open the original box, affording access to the forsaken object. When both helpers had witnessed the change in object locations, infants preferentially reached for and looked at the former helper, who acted to make the desired object available in its new location. In contrast, when neither helper had witnessed the change in object locations, infants preferentially reached for and looked at the helper who opened the original box where the two helpers had last seen the desired object. The latter effect provides evidence that infants inferred the beliefs of the helpers from the events they did or did not witness, and infants evaluated the helpers in accord with their inferred beliefs. Belief-based social evaluation thus occurs early in the second year, well before children begin to talk about beliefs or connect false beliefs to actions in a wide array of explicit, verbal tasks.