14234 research outputs found
Sort by
Experimental Setup
No full textThis is the detailed documentation of the experimental setup. It serves as instruction for the research assistants collection the data
When language background does not matter: Both mono- and bilingual children use mutual exclusivity and pragmatic context to learn novel words
No full textDo mono- and bilingual children differ in the way they learn novel words in ambiguous settings? Listeners may resolve referential ambiguity by assuming that novel words refer to unknown, rather than known, objects –a response known as the mutual exclusivity effect. Past research suggested that mono- and bilinguals differ with regard to this disambiguation strategy, perhaps because, across languages, bilinguals’ experience contradicts one-to-one mappings of label and referent. Another line of research suggested a bilingual advantage in resolving referential ambiguity, based on bilinguals’ advanced pragmatic skills. Here, we examine both these claims in a preregistered study with comparable samples of mono- and bilingual 3-year-olds (n=74) and adults (n=86). We tested referent disambiguation and retention in two tasks: In the Mutual-Exclusivity task, a speaker used a novel label in the presence of a known and an unknown object. In the Pragmatic task, she used another novel label in the presence of two unknown objects and participants could infer from the pragmatic context that the speaker referred to the object that was new in their discourse. Mono- and bilinguals were equally successful in inferring the correct label-referent links in both tasks and retained them after a delay. These findings indicate that children with different language backgrounds can develop the same strategies and pragmatic skills to learn novel words. Children can use their lexical knowledge and socio-cognitive skills to infer the meanings of novel words, irrespective of whether they are acquiring one or more languages
Data for the study '' Exploring Theory of Mind Abilities in Older Adults with Idiopathic Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus''
No full textSharing the world – a social aspect of consciousness
No full textMoving through our environment generates multiple changes in my sensations. But I do not experience the environment as changing. My conscious perceptual experience is of a stable environment through which I move. This perception is created by intricate neural computations that automatically take account of my movements. The stable environment that I experience is independent of my actions. As a result, I experience it as objective: a set of facts about the world that constrain my movements. Because it is objective I expect that it will also constrain the movements of others in the same way, whether these are rocks rolling down a hill or animals foraging for food.
This experience of objectivity creates a shared understanding of the world that enhances our interactions with others. Our perceptual experiences, while personal, are shaped by our model of the world, and since others are modelling the same world, their models will be very similar. Interactions with others will further increase this similarity. The models create a form of common knowledge. This common knowledge is an inherent feature of our basic conscious perception, even when we're not actively reflecting on or deliberately sharing our experiences. The common knowledge created by our conscious perception of the world enables the coordination of behaviour which is a critical precursor for the evolution of cooperative behaviour
Register variation and linguistic background modulate accuracy in detecting morphosyntactic errors
No full textAn introduction to Sequential Monte Carlo for Bayesian inference and model comparison -- with examples for psychology and behavioural science
No full textBayesian inference is becoming an increasingly popular framework for statistics in the behavioural sciences. However, its application is hampered by its computational intractability -- almost all Bayesian analyses require a form of approximation. While some of these approximate inference algorithms, such as Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), have become well-known throughout the literature, other approaches exist that are not as widespread. Here, we provide an introduction to another family of approximate inference techniques known as Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC). We show that SMC brings a number of benefits, which we illustrate in three different examples: linear regression and variable selection for depression, growth curve mixture modelling of grade point averages, and in computational modelling of the Iowa Gambling Task. These use cases demonstrate that SMC is efficient in exploring posterior distributions, reaching similar predictive performance as state-of-the-art MCMC approaches, in less wall-clock time. Moreover, they show that SMC is effective in dealing with multi-modal distributions, and that SMC not only approximates the posterior distribution, but simultaneously provides a useful estimate of the marginal likelihood, which is the essential quantity in Bayesian model comparison. All of this comes at no additional effort of the end user
Organizational Dynamics of Memory Across Days
No full textWhen individuals repeatedly study and recall information across multiple learning trials their responses exhibit increasing levels of subjective organization. Whereas classic studies investigated the evolution of organization across lists within the short-time span of a single session, here we ask how memory changes over many days. Specifically, we examine how semantic, temporal, and subjective organization during a recall period shapes memory after days of intervening cognitive activity. Analyzing data from two multi-session free recall experiments, we find that subjects demonstrate a strong tendency to cluster recalls based on previous output order, with this effect strengthening across sessions. In line with the idea that thoughts become memories, we show that even false memories produced on a given session tend to re-occur on subsequent days. Our results attest to the crucial role that retrieval plays in shaping long-term episodic memory
Foundational Reading Knowledge of Rural Special Educators of Students with IDD
No full textRural elementary special education teachers primarily working with students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) may have less access to training in foundational reading content. We report results of a foundational reading knowledge assessment administered to a national sample of 220 special education teachers working in various locales. On average, teachers answered 67% of items correctly. We conducted subgroup analyses using two approaches for parsing school locales (i.e., postsprawl dichotomous and proximity). Using the postsprawl dichotomous approach, we found that rural teachers (M = 13.13; SD = 2.47) had significantly greater knowledge than non-rural teachers (M = 11.84; SD = 3.17; p = .005). Descriptive item analyses revealed that rural teachers scored higher on several items assessing knowledge of terminology and lower on application items. The omnibus test was significant for the proximity group analysis as well (p = .048), but no pairwise comparisons were significant. We discuss implications for research and practice