1,721,045 research outputs found
Influence of visual distractors on movement trajectory
Full text linkIn the present study, we explored the influence of a visual distractor on the trajectory of movements made to join two dots. The two dots could be unconnected (D) or connected by a straight (L) or curved line, convex either to the left (LL) or to the right (RL). The connecting line constituted the visual distractor. In Experiment 1, subjects were asked to perform the joining movement as straight as possible. The results showed that hand trajectory moved to the left of the midsagittal axis in LL and to the right in RL, while it was almost straight both in L and D. In Experiment 2, subjects were explicitly required to follow the connecting line during their movements to verify whether, in the previous experiment, they had used curved lines as guide for their movements. An increase of movement time and different hand paths showed that this was not the case. In Experiment 3, subjects were asked to move as straight as possible without vision of their hand. Hand trajectories were shifted to the left in all experimental conditions, but the leftward shift was greater in LL than in all other conditions, and also greater in D and L than in RL. These findings suggest that the visual distractor influenced hand trajectory by attracting subject's attention and competing with target for motor response. It is hypothesized that the attracting influence operated by the distractor was sustained by involuntary attentional mechanisms
A study of glycoproteins in the adult human brain (author's transl) [Studio delle glicoproteine del cervello di uomo adulto]
No full textAge-related differences in the production of textual descriptions
No full textNarratives produced by 69 healthy Italian adults were analyzed for age-related changes of microlinguistic,
macrolinguistic and informative aspects. The participants were divided into five age
groups (20–24, 25–39, 40–59, 60–74, 75–84). One single-picture stimulus and two cartoon
sequences were used to elicit three stories per subject. Age-related differences were found with
respect to semantic paraphasias, paragrammatisms, syntactic complexity, degree of both local
and global coherence, local coherence errors (like ambiguous referencing), and in the level
of informativeness conveyed by the stories. The results showed some null effects of age, some
effects with a sharp drop in performance in the oldest group, and several effects suggesting a
gradual decrease in performance across age groups. No age differences were found with respect
to phonological selection and noun–verb ratio. In the proportion of details vs. main themes, the
results indicated a possibly better story construction ability in the middle aged (40–59) and
young elderly (60–74) groups compared to the younger or the oldest group. Story-type (single
picture vs. picture sequence) had a significant influence on some macrolinguistic and informativeness
measures
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
The role played by the right hemisphere in the organization of complex textual structures
No full textEleven patients with right hemisphere damage (RHD), 11 left hemisphere damaged (LHD) nonaphasic subjects, and 11 neurologically intact controls were given three story description tasks. The two brain-damaged groups had no language, visuospatial, memory, or conceptual deficits on standardized neuropsychological testing. In the first experiment, the subjects were asked to retell previously read stories. In the second they had to tell stories which were depicted in cartoon-like fashion. In the third experiment, the story content was also depicted but pictures were given unordered so that the participants had first to arrange them in a plausible sequence. The elicited narratives were analyzed with a method which allowed examining within-sentence (lexical selection and syntactic complexity) and between-sentence (cohesion and coherence) processing abilities of the three groups. In the first experiment all groups performed quite well on both within- and between-sentence measures. In the two picture description tasks, however, the performances of the right hemisphere damaged subjects were poorer than those of normal controls when examined in terms of information content or coherent and cohesive aspects of narrative production. These findings agree with the hypothesis that RHD subjects are impaired in deriving from visual information the mental model of a story. They also indicate that clinical methods for analyzing structural aspects of discourse are suitable to identify these symptom
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Low molecular weight glucosaminoglycans in the urine (author's transl) [Studio dei glicosaminoglicani urinari di basso peso molecolare]
No full textUn test per la valutazione della produzione e della comprensione di narrative nell’adulto cerebroleso con deficit di comunicazione
No full textA number of experimental studies have shown that standardized aphasia assessment results do not allow predicting performance in the brain damaged subjects on discourse comprehension. It is then necessary in routine clinical activity with these subjects to have specific assessment tools. Furthermore, it has been shown that standardised functional evaluation of information content in elicited speech samples (picture description task) from the brain damaged subjects may offer reliable measures of discourse efficiency. In this study we describe an Italian version of the Discourse Comprehension Test (Brookshire & Nicholas, 1993) that was administered together with picture description task to subjects with and without brain damage. These speech samples were evaluated with standardized method (CIUs analysis by Nicholas and Brookshire, 1993). The results show that both methods have reliable diagnostic value useful for assessing discourse abilities in communicatively impaired brain damaged subjects. We also describe a single case follow-up study where these methods were used
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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