“Anaphora” is a label used for a referential expression that connects one entity (e.g. a pronoun) to another previously established entity (e.g. a proper name). The previously established entity is called an antecedent. The use of anaphora will, in this study, be referred to as referential behaviour. The study was based around audio and video recordings of free play between a Swedish parent and his/her child. 10 parents and their children were recorded. The referential behaviour of the parents was analysed. The sessions took place when the children were 3, 6, 9 and 12 months old. Recent studies indicate that speech directed at children during a child's first six months contains a larger amount of pronouns than the speech directed at children between 6 and 12 months of age. The purpose of the study was to examine if the decline of pronouns was visible in Swedish child- directed speech, and to see how different types of anaphora appeared in the same speech. Correlations between the visible changes of different types of referential expressions were also examined. A drop in the use of anaphoric pronoun with an explicit antecedent was found for the last two ages, which confirmed the study’s hypothesis. The results were also compared to each child’s vocabulary development.

No description available.

Multimedia theory has generated a number of principles and guidelines to support computer-based training (CBT) design. However, the cognitive processes responsible for learning, from which these principles and guidelines stem from, are only indirectly derived by focusing on cognitive learning outcome differences. Unfortunately, the effects that cognitive processes have on learning are based on the assumption that cognitive learning outcomes are indicative of certain cognitive processes. Such circular reasoning is what prompted this dissertation. Specifically, this dissertation looked at the notion of referential connections, which is a prevalent cognitive process that is thought to support knowledge acquisition in a multimedia CBT environment. Referential connections, and the related cognitive mechanisms supporting them, are responsible for creating associations between verbal and visual information; as a result, their impact on multimedia learning is theorized to be far reaching. Therefore, one of the main goals of this dissertation was to address the issue of indirectly assessing cognitive processes by directly measuring referential connections to (a) verify the presence of referential connections, and (b) to measure the extent to which referential connections affect cognitive learning outcomes. To achieve this goal, a complete review of the prevalent multimedia theories was brought fourth. The most important factors thought to be influencing referential connections were extracted and cataloged into variables that were manipulated, fixed, covaried, or randomized to empirically examine the link between referential connections and learning. Specifically, this dissertation manipulated referential connections by varying the temporal presentation of modalities and the color coding of instructional material. Manipulating the temporal presentation of modalities was achieved by either presenting modalities simultaneously or sequentially. Color coding manipulations capitalized on pre-attentive highlighting and pairing of elements (i.e., pairing text with corresponding visuals). As such, the computer-based training varied color coding on three levels: absence of color coding, color coding without pairing text and corresponding visual aids, and color coding that also paired text and corresponding visual aids. The modalities employed in the experiment were written text and static visual aids, and the computer-based training taught the principles of flight to naive participants. Furthermore, verbal and spatial aptitudes were used as covariates, as they consistently showed to affect learning. Overall, the manipulations were hypothesized to differentially affect referential connections and cognitive learning outcomes, thereby altering cognitive learning outcomes. Specifically, training with simultaneously presented modalities was hypothesized to be superior, in terms of referential connections and learning performance, to a successive presentation, and color coding modalities with pairing of verbal and visual correspondents was hypothesized to be superior to other forms of color coding. Finally, it was also hypothesized that referential connections would positively correlate with cognitive learning outcomes and, indeed, mediate the effects of temporal contiguity and color coding on learning. A total of 96 were randomly assigned to one of the six experimental groups, and were trained on the principles of flight. The key construct of referential connections was successfully measured with three methods. Cognitive learning outcomes were captured by a traditional declarative test and by two integrative (i.e., knowledge application) tests. Results showed that the two multimedia manipulation impacted cognitive learning outcomes and did so through corresponding changes of related referential connections (i.e., through mediation). Specifically, as predicted, referential connections mediated the impact of both temporal contiguity and color coding on lower- and higher-level cognitive learning outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed in relation to computer-based training design principles and guidelines. Specifically, theoretical implications focus on the contribution that referential connections have on multimedia learning theory, and practical implications are brought forth in terms of instructional design issues. Future research considerations are described as they relate to further exploring the role of referential connections within multimedia CBT paradigms.

Depression is a common psychopathology that causes affective, behavioral, and cognitive dysfunction and is present across cultural identities. To reduce the dysfunction and treat the symptoms that arise from depression, researchers have created positive psychological interventions (PPIs), which are empirically supported interventions that cause a positive change by targeting a positive variable. In the current study, I created a new PPI, the Best-Self PPI, that draws from elements of optimism, coherence, and character strengths PPIs. Specifically, I hypothesized that the Best-Self PPI would work by positively biasing self-referential processing, which may predict depression and psychological well-being. Participants (n = 133) were undergraduates between the ages of 18 and 32 (M = 19.97, SD = 1.66). Participants were primarily female (n = 85; 63.91%) and White (n = 87; 65.41%) and completed either the Best-Self PPI or wrote about a childhood memory (T1, +0 Days), completed the Self-Referential Encoding Task (T2 +1 Day), and then completed a set of outcome measures (T3, +8 Days). Although the intervention appeared to have no effect on depression, well-being, or affect compared to the control group, I found that: 1) self-referential processing bias partially mediates the relationship between self-critical rumination and depression, 2) self-referential processing bias and state self-esteem fully explain the relationship between self-critical rumination and depression, and 3) self-esteem fully explains the relationship between self-critical rumination and psychological well-being. The results provide new empirical evidence for why some interventions may reduce depression and promote psychological well-being through changes in self-evaluations. I encourage researchers to use the evidence in the current study that modifying self-referential processing and state self-esteem may affect depression and psychological well-being to improve existing interventions and create new interventions to promote psychological well-being above and beyond the elimination of suffering.

No description available.

Language production often requires speakers to convey information to a conversational partner about objects in their environment. According to Grice’s Maxim of Quantity (1975), speakers should provide only the precise amount of information needed to identify an object. However, it is frequently observed that speakers will include redundant adjectives in their referring expressions, rendering their descriptions overspecified. The majority of the research investigating overspecification has focused on how scene characteristics influence the likelihood of this behaviour. To date, less is known about the internal characteristics of the speaker that may play a role in the production of overspecified descriptions, and in referential communication more generally. The current experiment investigates the role of working memory in the generation of referential descriptions and examines how this interacts with manipulations of scene characteristics and cognitive load. Participants were asked to provide instructions to a confederate about which object to select from an array of either three or six unrelated objects while they simultaneously remembered a series of either zero, three, or five numbers. Participants also completed an operation span task to measure their individual working memory capacity (WMC). Results showed a main effect of array size for speech onset times, confirming that speakers are faster to initiate their speech when there are fewer objects in the display. Further, there was a significant three-way interaction between array size, cognitive load, and operation span scores, indicating that speakers with lower WMC are more likely to use redundant adjectives for three object arrays under low levels of load. Finally, there was a significant, negative correlation between speech rate and adjective use, indicating that speakers adjust their rate of speech depending on their choice of referring expression. The results of this research suggest a potential role for individual WMC in the production of overspecified descriptions. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Interactive communication often involves speakers relaying information to a conversational partner about objects in the environment, a phenomenon typically referred to as referential communication. A significant focus of previous research in this area is on how speakers chose to identify objects for a conversational partner. The focus of the current research is to examine the underlying cognitive mechanisms that support this behaviour. Participants were asked to communicate with a partner about objects on a computer screen while completing a secondary memory task. The findings of this research suggest that individual working memory capacity influences the amount of information speakers choose to include in their referential descriptions. Further, we show that including unnecessary information in object descriptions (i.e., referring to object attributes in the absence of contrastive objects) leads to a reduced speech rate, likely because of increased demands on speech planning.

The primary goal of this study was to examine how infants' language and emotion development intersect around the end of the first year. Specifically, is learning enhanced when a speaker is happy vs. neutral? Eighteen 12-month-old infants were familiarized and tested on four word-object associations that varied in bimodal emotion (happy vs. neutral), which were presented on a Tobii© T60 eye-tracker. Familiarization trials comprised of actresses looking towards and labeling a target object while ignoring a non-target distractor object on the opposite side of the screen. It was expected that infants would demonstrate better learning of word-object associations during the test trials when the speaker was happy. This hypothesis was partially supported, in that infants demonstrated a novelty preference for the novel non-target object compared to the familiar target object in the happy test trials only. However, no difference in attention was seen in happy test trials with the familiar target object and a familiar non-target object or for either of the neutral test trials. A second goal of this study was to examine infant-parent correspondence in emotion processing. Both infants and parents were presented with a series of emotion pairs on the eye-tracker, and the correlations between their gaze patterns were examined. In general, infants and parents had little to no correspondence in first look tendencies or overall fixation duration to either face in the pair. They also fixated on different areas of the face (infants on mouth region, parents on eye region). Finally, parental sensitivity was examined using a free-play interaction task. Parents' sensitivity was analyzed with respect to measures of infants learning during the language task as well as other infant characteristics (e.g. temperament, vocabulary). Overall, these findings add to the relatively limited research examining the intersection of language and socioemotional development in infancy. / Ph. D.

The subject matter of the diploma thesis is the bare noun phrase and its referential properties with focus to (in)definiteness. The aim is to present an empirical evaluation of factors that influence the interpretation of definiteness of bare noun phrases in Czech. The first part of the thesis recounts on existing theories of reference and definiteness, both in general and with focus to Czech as a language without obligatory determination. Our basic assumption is that the interpretation of definiteness of bare noun phrases is based on their position within a syntactic and semantic sentence structure, topic-focus articulation and word- or situational context. We focus on the relation between definiteness and an absolute position within a sentence, a verb-relative position and modification of the NP. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Les questions qui entourent les relations homme-chien, sont nombreuses. Parmi elles, la variabilité morphologique des chiens (Canis lupus familiaris) est au centre des attentions. Trouvant son origine entre sélection humaine et contraintes environnementales, la variabilité des chiens est la source de multiples utilisations, bien plus diverses que pour tout autre animal domestique. Les premiers témoins d’une sélection humaine en tant qu’acte délibéré sont fournis au cours de l’âge du Bronze et ceux de la première explosion de la variabilité morphologique sous l’Antiquité romaine. L’étude réalisée au cours de ce Doctorat a donc ciblé cet intervalle chronologique, en ouvrant une fenêtre orientée sur la Méditerranée nord-occidentale, lieu d’échanges culturels et économiques. Un référentiel inédit a été constitué afin d’étudier la variabilité morphologique des chiens actuels. Les méthodes de morphométrie utilisées ont par la suite été transposées à des spécimens issus de quatre sites archéologiques de France et de Catalogne (Espagne). Des comparaisons ont été faites avec les deux seuls canidés sauvages présents dans la zone d’étude depuis le début de l’Holocène, le loup gris (Canis lupus) et le renard roux (Vulpes vulpes). L’analyse des données portant sur les spécimens actuels a montré de nombreux critères diagnostiques, d’ordre typologique et spécifique, transposables au matériel archéologique. Les résultats font état pour l’âge du Bronze de populations soustraites au contrôle des hommes, se déplaçant et s’alimentant sans doute librement. A l’Antiquité, des morphotypes canins variés sont déterminés, certains attestés pour la première fois dans leur région de découverte. Les différences importantes entre les périodes et les sites sont l’œuvre de sélections plus ou moins intenses de la part des populations humaines dont les besoins et modes de vie ont considérablement orienté la gestion des chiens. / Among the questions about human-dog relationships, the morphological variability of dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) is the center of attention. Originating between human selection and environmental constraints, the variability of dogs is the source of many uses, more than any other domestic animal. The first evidences of human selection are given during the Bronze Age and those of the first explosion of variability come from the Roman period. This study had thus focused this chronological timeline, looking towards north-western Mediterranean, crossroad for trade and cultural exchanges. A unique referential was built in order to study the morphological variability of modern dogs. Morphometric methods used on modern animals were thereafter transposed on archaeological specimens from France and Catalonia (Spain). Comparisons were made with the only two wild canids living in the studied area during the Holocene, the grey wolf (Canis lupus) and the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). The analysis relating to modern specimens showed several diagnostic criteria, related to typological or specific features, and transferable to archaeological remains. Results for Bronze Age dogs outline populations of free-ranging dogs, feeding and traveling probably beyond human control. Roman dogs consist of diverse and identified morphotypes, some of them recorded for the first time in the studied area. Substantial differences between periods and sites originate from variable anthropic pressures, depending on the needs and lifestyles, which have deeply shaped the dogs.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo discutir as características das avaliações de conhecimentos em língua francesa presentes nos processos seletivos para a mobilidade de estudantes de graduação da Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Com base nas pesquisas e estudos na área de avaliação (PERRENOUD, 1999; GATTI, 2003; CHUEIRI, 2008; LUCKESI, 2011) e certificação em língua francesa (PORCHER, 1995, 2004; CUQ; GRUCA, 2003; TAGLIANTE, 2005; NOEL-JOTHY; SAMSONIS, 2006; CHARDENET, 1999, 2011 HUVER; SPRINGER, 2011; RIBA; MEGRE, 2014), realizamos uma pesquisa documental referente à identificação dos requisitos exigidos em língua francesa quando da publicação dos editais que definem os critérios das seleções para a candidatura a mobilidade internacional para a França. Além disso, investigamos do ponto de vista dos responsáveis diretos e indiretos pelos processos seletivos, qual o lugar da certificação em francês língua estrangeira na política de internacionalização da USP. O corpus desta pesquisa consiste em editais publicados pela USP no período de 2008 a 2012, nos editais do programa Ciência sem Fronteiras entre 2011 e 2014 e, por último, em entrevistas com representantes institucionais implicados na seleção direta de candidatos e também nas políticas oficiais do governo francês no que se refere à certificação na língua. Para as análises, além do referencial teórico mencionado sobre avaliação, consideramos os trabalhos na área do francês para objetivos universitários (MANGIANTE; PARPETTE, 2004). Os resultados de nossas análises indicam que há uma diversidade de entendimentos sobre o nível exigido em relação à língua francesa para a seleção do estudante que integrará o sistema universitário francês, assim como o valor social atribuído ao documento que atesta os conhecimentos na língua, com o objetivo de validar a candidatura. Além disso, constatamos a ausência de uma política linguística adequada ao contexto de internacionalização da USP, que se expressa na falta de clareza de dispositivos de formação e de avaliação para a preparação dos estudantes que vão realizar estudos em meio universitário na França. Esta pesquisa nos ajudou a compreender a complexidade das relações entre formação, avaliação e certificação em contexto específico de mobilidade internacional. Nosso trabalho contribui com uma visão crítica que pode vir a colaborar no desenvolvimento de ações concretas para a reformulação de critérios de avaliação de competências linguísticas em francês língua estrangeira que sejam mais condizentes com as necessidades especificas às quais um estudante de graduação da USP será confrontado. / This dissertation aims to discuss the characteristics of knowledge evaluation in the French language that is current on selective processes for the mobility of undergraduate students in the University of São Paulo (USP). Based on the researches and studies in the area of evaluation (PERRENOUD, 1999; GATTI, 2003; CHUEIRI, 2008; LUCKESI, 2011) and French language certification (PORCHER, 1995, 2004; CUQ; GRUCA, 2003; TAGLIANTE, 2005; NOEL-JOTHY; SAMSONIS, 2006; CHARDENET, 1999, 2011 HUVER; SPRINGER, 2011; RIBA; MEGRE, 2014), weve performed a documentary research for the identification of the requirements of the French language when the publication of the notices the define the criteria of selection for applying for international mobility to France. Furthermore weve delved the point of view of those directly and indirectly responsible for selective processes which is the place of French certification, an international language, on the internationalization policy of USP. The corpus of this research consists on notices published by USP between 2008 and 2012, in the notices of the Science Without Frontiers between 2011 and 2014 and, at last, on interviews with institutional representatives involved on the direct selection of the candidates and also on the official policy of the French government with regard in certification in language. For the analysis, beyond the theoretical framework mentioned about evaluation, weve regarded the work in the area of French for college goals (MANGIANTE; PARPETTE, 2004). Our analysis results indicate that there is diversity of understanding about the level required in relation to French language for the selection of the students that will integrate the French college system, as well as the social value assigned to the document attesting knowledge in the language, in order to validate the candidacy. Moreover, weve noticed the lack of a linguistic policy that adequate to the context of internationalization of USP, which is expressed in the lack of clarity of training and evaluation devices for the preparation of students who will conduct studies in the French Academy. This research helped us to understand the complexity of the relations between training, assessment and certification in the specific context of international mobility. Our work contributes with a more critical vision that might cooperate with the development of concrete actions to reformulate the evaluation criteria of linguistic proficiency in French, foreign language, that are more consistent with the specific needs to which an USP undergraduate shall be confronted.