Connective ties in discourse: Three ERP studies on causal, temporal and concessive connective ties and their influence on language processing. <br><br> Questions<br><br> In four experiments the influence of lexical connectives such as " darum", therefore, " danach", afterwards, and " trotzdem", nevertheless, on the processing of short two-sentence discourses was examined and compared to the processing of deictical sentential adverbs such as " gestern", yesterday, and " lieber", rather. These latter words do not have the property of signaling a certain discourse relation between two sentences, as connective ties do. Three questions were central to the work: <br><br> * Do the processing contrasts found between connective and non-connective elements extend to connective ties and deictical sentential adverbs (experiments 2 and 3)? <br><br> * Does the semantic content of the connective ties play the primary role, i.e is the major distinction to be made indeed between connective and non-connective or instead between causal, temporal and concessive? <br><br> * When precisely is the information provided by connective ties used? There is some evidence that connective ties can have an immediate influence on the integration of subsequent elements, but the end of the second sentences appears to play an important role as well: experiments 2, 3, and 4. <br><br> Conclusions<br><br> First of all, the theoretical distinction between connective and non-connective elements does indeed have " cognitive reality" . This has already been shown in previous studies. The present studies do however show, that there is also a difference between one-place discourse elements (deictical sentential adverbs) and two-place discourse elements, namely connective ties, since all experiments examining this contrast found evidence for qualitatively and quantitatively different processing (experiments 1, 2, and 3).<br><br> Secondly, the semantic type of the connective ties also plays a role. This was not shown for the LAN, found for all connective ties when compared to non-connective elements, and consequently interpreted as a more abstract reflection of the integration of connective ties. There was also no difference between causal and temporal connective ties before the end of the discourses in experiment 3. <br><br> However, the N400 found for incoherent discourses in experiment 2, larger for connective incoherent than non-connective incoherent discourses, as well as the P3b found for concessive connective ties in the comparison between causal and concessive connective ties gave reason to assume that the semantic content of connective ties is made use of in incremental processing, and that the relation signaled by the connective tie is the one that readers attempt to construct.<br><br> Concerning when the information provided by connective ties is used, it appears as if connectivity is generally and obligatorily taken at face value. As long as the meaning of a connective tie did not conflict with a preferred canonical discourse relation, there were no differences found for varying connective discourses (experiment 3). However, the fact that concessive connective ties announce the need for a more complex text representation was recognized and made use of immediately (experiment 4). Additionally, a violation of the discourse relation resulted in more difficult semantic integration if a connective tie was present (experiment 2). It is therefore concluded here that connective ties influence processing immediately.<br><br> This claim has to be modified somewhat, since the sentence-final elements suggested that connective ties trigger different integration processes than non-connective elements. It seems as if the answer to the question of when connective ties are processed is neither exclusively immediately nor exclusively afterwards, but that both viewpoints are correct. It is suggested here that before the end of a discourse economy plays a central role in that a canonical relation is assumed unless there is evidence to the contrary. A connective tie could have the function of reducing the dimensions evaluated in a discourse to the one signaled by the connective tie. At the end of the discourse the representation is evaluated and verified, and an integrated situation model constructed. Here, the complexity of the different discourse relations that connective ties can signal, is expressed. / Konnektiva im Diskurs: Drei EKP-Studien zu kausalen, temporalen und konzessiven Konnektoren und ihrem Einfluss auf die Sprachverarbeitung. <br><br> Einführung und Fragestellung<br><br> In vier Experimenten wurde der Einfluss von lexikalischen Konnektiva wie " darum", " danach" und " trotzdem" auf die Verarbeitung von kurzen zweisätzigen Diskursen untersucht und mit der Verarbeitung von deiktischen Satzaderbien wie " gestern" und " lieber" verglichen, die nicht wie die Konnektiva die Eigenschaft haben, die Diskursrelation zwischen zwei Sätzen explizit auszudrücken.<br><br> Drei Fragen standen im Mittelpunkt der Arbeit: <br><br> * Findet sich der Kontrast zwischen konnektiven und nicht-konnektiven Elementen auch zwischen Konnektiva und deiktischen Satzadverbien wieder (Experimente 2 und 3)? <br><br> * Spielt der semantische Inhalt der Konnektiva die primäre Rolle: ist die Hauptunterscheidung zwischen konnektiven und nicht-konnektiven Elementen zu machen, oder zwischen kausalen (darum, deshalb), temporalen (danach, hinterher) und konzessiven (trotzdem, dennoch) Elementen (Experimente 3 / 4)? <br><br> * Wann genau wird die Information, die Konnektiva bieten, genutzt? Es gibt Evidenz dafür, dass Konnektiva einen sofortigen Einfluss haben, aber auch dafür, dass das Ende der Texte eine gewichtige Rolle spielt: Experimente 2, 3, und 4. <br><br> Konklusionen<br><br> Zunächst einmal hat die theoretische Unterscheidung zwischen konnektiven und nicht-konnektiven Worten tatsächlich " kognitive Realität" . Dies wurde bereits in früheren Studien gezeigt. Die aktuellen Experimente zeigten jedoch, dass es auch einen Unterschied zwischen einstelligen (deiktische Satzadverbien) und zweistelligen (Konnektiva) Diskursrelationen gibt, da alle Experimente, die diesen Kontrast untersuchten, qualitativ und quantitativ andere Verarbeitung für Konnektiva zeigten (Experimente 1, 2 und 3).<br><br> Zweitens spielt der semantische Typus der Konnektiva ebenfalls eine Rolle. Dieser Einfluss zeigte sich nicht für die LAN, die für alle Konnektiva im Vergleich mit nicht-konnektiven Elementen gefunden wurde, und die dementsprechend auch als Korrelat abstrakterer Integration von Konnektiva vorgeschlagen wird. Es zeigte sich ebenfalls kein Unterschied zwischen kausalen und temporalen Konnektiva vor dem Ende des Diskurses in Experiment 3. Die N400, gefunden für inkohärente Satzpaare in Experiment 2, größer für inkohärent konnektive als inkohärent nicht-konnektive Diskurse, wie auch die P3b, gefunden im Vergleich zwischen kausalen und konzessiven Konnektiva in Experiment 4, lieferten jedoch Grund zu der Annahme, dass die Bedeutung von Konnektiva in der inkrementellen Verarbeitung genutzt wird, und dass die Relation, die Konnektiva signalisieren, diejenige ist, die Leser versuchen zu erstellen.<br><br> Im Hinblick auf wann die Information, die Konnektiva liefern, genutzt wird, scheint es, also ob Konnektivität generell und obligatorisch für bare Münze genommen wird. So lange die Bedeutung der Konnektiva nicht mit einer präferierten kanonischen Diskursrelation konfligierte, zeigten sich keine Differenzen innerhalb verschiedener konnektiver Diskurse (Experiment 3), aber die Tatsache, dass konzessive Konnektiva die Notwendigkeit einer komplexeren Textrepräsentation voraussagen, wurde sofort erkannt und genutzt (Experiment 4). Zusätzlich resultierte eine Verletzung der Diskursrelation in Experiment 2 in erschwerterer semantischer Integration, wenn ein Konnektivum vorhanden war. Es wird daher gefolgert, dass Konnektiva die Verarbeitung sofort beeinflussen. <br><br> Diese Schlussfolgerung muss jedoch etwas abgeschwächt werden, da die satzfinalen Elemente darauf hinwiesen, dass Konnektiva andere Integrationsprozesse am Ende der Diskurse auslösten als nicht-konnektive Elemente. Es scheint, dass die Antwort auf die Frage, wann Konnektiva verarbeitet werden, weder sofort noch hinterher ist, sondern dass beide Sichtweisen korrekt sind. Es wird hier vorgeschlagen, dass vor dem Ende eines Diskurses Ökonomie insofern eine entscheidende Rolle spielt, als eine kanonische Relation angenommen wird so lange es keine gegenteilige Evidenz gibt. Ein Konnektivum könnte die evaluierten Dimensionen in einem Diskurs auf die signalisierten reduzieren. Am Ende des Diskurses wird die erstellte Textrepräsentation evaluiert und verifiziert, und ein integriertes Situationsmodell erstellt. Hier drückt sich dann die Komplexität der verschiedenen Diskursrelationen, die Konnktiva signalisieren können, aus.

L’approche cognitive du trouble obsessionnel-compulsif (TOC) propose un lien bidirectionnel entre les émotions et les cognitions. Cependant, même si des études montrent une association entre les émotions et le TOC, aucune étude ne s’est attardée à la relation entre les émotions, les cognitions et les comportements au cours d’une thérapie cognitive. La présente étude a pour but d’examiner la relation entre les processus cognitif, béhavioral et émotionnel au cours d’une thérapie basée sur les inférences (TBI) chez des personnes souffrant du TOC. Plus précisément, nous avons observé comment les émotions et les symptômes du TOC s’influencent et comment ils s’influencent à travers le temps. Les patients ont rempli un journal de bord tout au long du processus thérapeutique, notant (de 0 à 100) des émotions clés, ainsi que les croyances et les comportements ciblés durant la thérapie. Des analyses à mesures répétées ont été utilisées afin de maximiser le potentiel des données longitudinales. Les résultats montrent que l’anxiété, la tristesse et la joie ont des trajectoires similaires aux croyances et aux comportements au cours de la thérapie. Les forces et limites de l’étude sont discutées. Les implications des résultats pour le traitement des émotions et des pensées à différents moments de la thérapie sont aussi discutées. / Cognitive approach of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has suggested a bidirectional link between emotions and cognitions. Few studies have looked at a link between those two components. Although some studies tend to show a relationship between emotions and OCD, no study has looked into the relationship between emotions, cognitions and behaviours over the course of a cognitive therapy. The present case series examines the relationship between cognitive, behavioural and emotional processes over the course of an inference-based therapy (IBT) in OCD clients. More precisely, we looked at how emotions and OCD symptoms influence each other and how they influence each other over time (through therapy). Clients filled in daily diaries rating key emotions, behaviours and beliefs over the course of treatment. A longitudinal analysis based on an event-based approach was used to maximize the potential of longitudinal data. Results showed that anxiety, sadness and joy share similar trajectories with beliefs and behaviours over the course of therapy. Strengths and limitations of the study are noted. Implications for targeting emotions and thoughts at different stages of therapy are also discussed.

[pt] O crescimento da Internet das Coisas (IoT) nos trouxe a oportunidade de criar aplicações em diversas áreas com o uso de sensores e atuadores. Um dos problemas encontrados em sistemas de IoT é a dificuldade de adicionar relações semânticas aos dados brutos produzidos por estes sensores e conseguir inferir novos fatos a partir destas relações. Além disso, devido à natureza destes sistemas, os dados produzidos por eles, conhecidos como streams, precisam ser analisados em tempo real. Streams são uma sequência de elementos de dados com variação de tempo e que não devem ser tratados como dados a serem armazenados para sempre e consultados sob demanda. Os dados em streaming precisam ser consumidos rapidamente por meio de consultas contínuas que analisam e produzem novos dados relevantes. A capacidade de inferir novas relações semânticas sobre dados em streaming é chamada de inferência sobre streams. Nesta pesquisa, propomos um modo semântico e um mecanismo para processamento e inferência sobre streams em tempo real baseados em Processamento de Eventos Complexos (CEP), RDF (Resource Description Framework) e OWL (Web Ontology Language). Apresentamos um middleware que suporta uma inferência contínua sobre dados produzidores por sensores. As principais vantagens de nossa abodagem são: (a) considerar o tempo como uma relação-chave entre a informação; (b) processamento de fluxo por ser implementado usando o CEP; (c) é geral o suficiente para ser aplicado a qualquer sistema de gerenciamento de fluxo de dados (DSMS). Foi desenvolvido no Laboratório de Colaboração Avançada (LAC) utlizando e um estudo de caso no domínio da detecção de incêndio é conduzido e implementado, elucidando o uso de inferência em tempo real sobre streams. / [en] The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has brought the opportunity to create applications in several areas, with the use of sensors and actuators. One of the problems encountered in IoT systems is the difficulty of adding semantic relations to the raw data produced by the sensors and being able to infer new facts from these relations. Moreover, due to the fact that many IoT applications are online and need to react instantly on sensor data collected by them, they need to be analyzed in real-time. Streams are a sequence of time-varying data elements that should not be stored forever and queried on demand. Streaming data needs to be consumed quickly through ongoing queries that continue to analyze and produce new relevant data, i.e. stream of output/result events. The ability to infer new semantic relationships over streaming data is called Stream Reasoning. We propose a semantic model and a mechanism for real-time data stream processing and reasoning based on Complex Event Processing (CEP), RDF (resource description structure) and OWL (Web Ontology Language). This work presents a middleware service that supports continuous reasoning on data produced by sensors. The main advantages of our approach are: (a) to consider time as a key relationship between information; (b) flow processing can be implemented using CEP; (c) is general enough to be applied to any data flow management system (DSMS). It was developed in the Advanced Collaboration Laboratory (LAC) and a case study in the field of fire detection is conducted and implemented, elucidating the use of real-time inference on streams.

[pt] A computação ubíqua prevê a integração de sistemas computacionais ao nosso dia-a-dia para prover informações e funcionalidades em qualquer momento e lugar. Sistemas desse tipo englobam diferentes tipos de sensores e dispositivos móveis interconectados através de uma combinação de várias tecnologias de rede sem fio. Uma tendência particular nessa área é explorar o paradigma dos Ambientes Inteligentes (AmI), o qual visa à integração de tecnologias inovativas para criar ambientes mediados por computador que, através de serviços específicos, auxiliam os usuários em suas atividades com mínima intervenção. Em sistemas de AmI, mecanismos de inferência são fundamentais para disparar ações ou adaptações de acordo com situações que podem ser significativas e relevantes para aplicações. Muitos sistemas adotam uma abordagem centralizada para seus mecanismos de inferência. Em AmI, entretanto, essas operações podem ter que avaliar dados de contexto coletados de fontes distribuídas e armazenados em diferentes dispositivos, uma vez que geralmente nem todo dado de contexto está prontamente disponível para os serviços de inferência. O objetivo desta tese é propor uma abordagem descentralizada para executar inferência de contexto baseada em regras. Para isso, definimos um modelo de contexto assumindo que os dados de contexto são distribuídos em dois lados, o lado do usuário, representado pelos usuários e seus dispositivos móveis, e o lado do ambiente, representado pela infrastrutura computacional fixa e os serviços do ambiente. Formalizamos a operação de inferência cooperativa - na qual duas entidades cooperam para executar a inferência descentralizada baseada em regras - e definimos um processo completo para realizar esta operação. Finalmente, para mostrar que essa abordagem é possível, projetamos, implementamos e avaliamos o protótipo de um serviço de middleware que executa inferência baseada no processo de inferência cooperativa. / [en] Ubiquitous computing features the seamless integration of computer systems into the everyday lives of users to provide information and functionalities anytime and anywhere. Such systems encompass different kinds of sensors and mobile devices interconnected through a combination of several wireless network technologies. A particular trend in this area is exploring the Ambient Intelligence (AmI) paradigm, which aims at the integration of innovative technologies to create computer-mediated environments that support user activities through specific services, with minimal user intervention. In AmI systems, reasoning is fundamental for triggering actions or adaptations according to specific situations that may be meaningful and relevant to some applications. Most middleware systems adopt a centralized approach for their reasoning mechanisms. In AmI environments, however, these reasoning operations may need to evaluate context data collected from distributed sources and stored in different devices, as usually not all context data is readily available to the reasoners within a ubiquitous system. The goal of this thesis is to propose a decentralized reasoning approach for performing rule-based reasoning about context data targeting AmI systems. For this sake, we defined a context model assuming that in AmI environments context data is distributed over two sides, the user side, represented by the users and their mobile devices, and the ambient side, represented by the fixed computational infrastructure and ambient services. We formalized the cooperative reasoning operation - in which two entities cooperate to perform decentralized rule-based reasoning - and defined a complete process to perform this operation. Finally, to show the feasibility of this approach, we designed, implemented and evaluated a middleware service supporting decentralized reasoning based cooperative reasoning process.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work presents and discusses the extension of traditional Aristotelian syllogistics carried out by John Neville Keynes in the beginning of the twentieth century, through the introduction of a notation for negative terms into logical theory. The primary bibliography used was the fourth edition, dated 1906, of the Keynes‟s textbook on Logic Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic . Keynes has an extensional interpretation of the use of negative terms: they are understood as an extensional complement of the corresponding positive terms relative the universe of discourse; in this sense, his conception of the negation of terms obeys the Principle of Excluded Middle. The extension of traditional syllogistics by the addition of negative terms also leads to an extension of the number logical relations among the categorical propositions, as well as the number of valid immediate inferences. The Square of Oppositions is transformed into an Octagon of Oppositions, to which three new logical relations between the categorical propositions are added, namely, complementarity, sub-complementarity and contra-complementarity; the validity of these new logical relations does not require existential presupposition of any of the involved terms. Regarding immediate inferences, besides the conversion process, three new types of formal processes are obtained: obversion, contraposition (partial and total) and inversion (partial and total). To prove the validity of these formal processes, as well as of any syllogistic inference, Keynes lays out a diagrammatic method based on the well-known Euler method; in Keynes‟s method, however, negative terms are represented. In Keynes‟s version of Euler‟s diagrammatic method validity is understood as preservation of information: a collection of basic diagrams, corresponding to elementary information, is assigned to categorical propositions; and an inference is valid if, and only if, the diagrams assigned to the premises are also assigned to the conclusion. / Este trabalho apresenta e discute a ampliação da silogística tradicional aristotélica, realizada por John Neville Keynes no início do século XX, mediante a introdução de uma notação para termos negativos na teoria lógica. A bibliografia primária utilizada foi a quarta edição, datada de 1906, do manual de Lógica de Keynes Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic. Keynes tem uma interpretação extensional acerca do uso dos termos negativos: eles são entendidos como o complemento extensional do seu correspondente termo positivo em relação ao universo do discurso; neste sentido, a sua concepção da negação terminística obedece ao Princípio do Terceiro Excluído. A ampliação da silogística tradicional pelo acréscimo dos termos negativos leva, também, a uma ampliação do número de relações lógicas entre as proposições categóricas, assim como do número de inferências imediatas válidas. O Quadrado de Oposições é transformado em um Octógono de Oposições, no qual são acrescentadas três novas relações lógicas entre as proposições categóricas, a saber, a complementaridade, a subcomplementaridade, e a contracomplementaridade; a validade destas novas relações lógicas não exige o pressuposto existencial de nenhum dos termos envolvidos. Quanto às inferências imediatas, além do processo de conversão, três novos tipos destes processos formais são obtidos: a obversão, a contraposição (parcial e total) e a inversão (parcial e total). Para provar a validade destes processos formais, assim como de quaisquer inferências na silogística, Keynes apresenta um método diagramático desenvolvido a partir do conhecido método de Euler; no método de Keynes, porém, há a representação de termos negativos. Na versão de Keynes do método diagramático de Euler a validade é entendida como preservação de informação: uma coleção de diagramas básicos, correspondentes às informações elementares, é atribuída às proposições categóricas; e uma inferência é válida se, e somente se, os diagramas atribuídos às premissas também estão atribuídos à conclusão.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:12:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RenatoMJ.pdf: 302842 bytes, checksum: 740d121ea6f32e914bba6e0a61a27825 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-11-26 / Starting from the idea that the result of the Humean analysis of causal inferences must be applied coherently to the remaining part of his work, including its moral theory, the present master thesis aims at investigating whether Hume?s moral philosophy is essentially based on feeling, or whether this would not be rather essentially a consequence of our causal inferences in human actions and deliberations. The main idea consists in showing that our moral inferences, to the extent that they are for Hume empirical , depend on our belief in a connexion between something which has been previously observed and something which is not being observed ( but that it is expected to occur or to be observed in the future). Thus, this very belief must base our moral inferences concerning the actions and deliberations of the individuals. Therefore, must e o ipso induce us to associate actions and behaviors, as well as character and moral claims of men to certain moral feelings. Accordingly, the thesis is unfolded in three chapters. In the first chapter Hume?s theory of the perception is reported as essential part of the explanation or the principles that bind ideas in our mind and constitute our inferences. In the second chapter, the Humean analysis of causal inferences is presented and the way they contribute in the formation of our moral inferences is explained. In the third and last chapter, the formation of our moral inferences and the real contribution of the doctrine of freedom and necessity for the examination or our actions are analysed and discussed. / Partindo da id?ia de que o resultado da an?lise humeana das infer?ncias causais deve aplicar-se coerentemente ao restante de sua obra, incluindo sua teoria moral, a presente disserta??o objetiva investigar se a filosofia moral de Hume se fundamenta no sentimento, ou se isto n?o seria antes essencialmente uma conseq??ncia de nossas infer?ncias causais. A id?ia central consiste em mostrar que nossas infer?ncias morais, na medida em que para Hume s?o emp?ricas, dependem da nossa cren?a em uma conex?o entre o que foi anteriormente observado e algo que n?o ? observado ( mas espera-se ocorrer ou observar-se no futuro ). Assim, essa mesma cren?a fundamentaria nossas infer?ncias morais sobre as a??es dos indiv?duos, e conseq?entemente, nos levaria a associar determinados comportamentos, bem como o car?ter e as convic??es morais dos homens a certos sentimentos morais . A disserta??o desdobra-se em tr?s cap?tulos. No primeiro cap?tulo relata-se a teoria da percep??o e mostra-se que ela constitui parte essencial da explica??o das nossas infer?ncias . No segundo cap?tulo, trata-se da an?lise das infer?ncias causais e como contribuem na forma??o das nossas infer?ncias morais. No terceiro, a partir da an?lise anterior, investiga-se a forma??o de nossas infer?ncias morais e a real contribui??o da doutrina da necessidade e da liberdade para o exame de nossas a??es.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Both the acquisition of reading and the development of comprehension are fundamental in order for individuals to have autonomy in literate societies. And if we intend to contribute to students’ formation, it therefore becomes necessary to develop and increase these competences. This research report aims to present a new pedagogic intervention proposal for reading a literary text whose product is a Pedagogic Notebook. This research is an attempt to make interactive reading and inference construction viable in order for students to develop reading skills and broaden their comprehension. This paper contains the research sources which substantiate the didactic proposal, a summary of the procedure Didactic Sequencing, the actions which consolidated the proposed strategies, the final considerations and its references. The aim is to promote the development and the improvement of the students’ textual comprehension from reading the literary text, as literature contributes to one’s maturing process, helping us to say the world and say ourselves (COSSON, 2006). The sugges ted strategies justify themselves for the fact that the contemporary educational context demands the formation of proficient readers who are not limited to the text surface when building the text meanings, but who build meanings and mobilize a set of knowledge, in diverse linguistic communicating situations. This proposal has the studies of COSSON (2006), DELL’ISOLA (2001), KLEIMAN (2000a; 2000b), KOCH & ELIAS (2006), LEFFA (1996), MARCUSCHI (2008), SOLÉ (1998), among others as theoretical basis. The intervention occurred in a 7th grade group and its results demonstrated that creating opportunities in which students actively participate in the building of text meanings, use their previous knowledge and experiences to formulate hypothesis, reflect about the texts form and content in order to justify their own points of view, build inferences which are necessary to textual comprehension is strongly positive. At first, the theoretical aspects which support the proposal are explained; then, it presents the research proposing and how the basic sequence execution was mediated and at last, the intervention results are analyzed. The Leitura, interação, compreensão! notebook brings orientations as for developing the present intervention proposal. / Tanto a aquisição da leitura quanto o desenvolvimento da compreensão são fundamentais para agirmos com autonomia nas sociedades letradas. Sendo assim, se pretendemos contribuir para a formação dos estudantes, tornam-se necessários o desenvolvimento e a ampliação dessas competências. Este relatório de pesquisa tem por objetivo apresentar uma proposta de intervenção didática para a leitura do texto literário cujo produto é um Caderno Pedagógico. A pesquisa é uma tentativa de viabilizar a leitura interativa e a construção de inferências, a fim de que os estudantes desenvolvam habilidades de leitura e ampliem sua compreensão. Ele contém a fonte de pesquisa que fundamenta a proposta didática, uma síntese do procedimento Sequência Didática, as ações que concretizaram as estratégias propostas, as considerações finais e as referências utilizadas. O objetivo é promover o desenvolvimento e o aprimoramento da compreensão textual dos estudantes a partir da leitura do texto literário, uma vez que a literatura contribui para o amadurecimento de cada um, ao nos ajudar a dizer o mundo e a nos dizer a nós mesmos (COSSON, 2006). As estratégias sugeridas justificam-se pelo fato de o contexto educacional contemporâneo exigir a formação de leitores proficientes que não se limitem à superfície textual na construção dos sentidos do texto, mas construam sentidos e mobilizem um conjunto de saberes, em diferentes situações de comunicação linguística. Esta proposta tem como base teórica os estudos de COSSON (2006), DELL’ISOLA (2001), KLEIMAN (2000a; 2000b), KOCH & ELIAS (2006), LEFFA (1996), MARCUSCHI (2008), SOLÉ (1998), entre outros. A intervenção ocorreu em uma turma de sétimo ano do ensino fundamental e o resultado evidenciou que oportunizar situações em que os estudantes participem ativamente da construção de sentidos do texto, utilizem seus conhecimentos e as suas experiências para formular hipóteses, reflitam sobre a forma e conteúdo dos textos a fim de justificarem seus próprios pontos de vista e construam inferências necessárias à compreensão textual é algo construtivo. Inicialmente, os aspectos teóricos que fundamentam a proposta são explicitados; em seguida, a proposição da pesquisa e a maneira como a execução da sequência básica foi mediada é apresentada e, por fim, o resultado da investigação é analisado. No Caderno Leitura, interação, compreensão! constam orientações acerca de como desenvolver a presente proposta de intervenção.

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What is the role of reading comprehension strategy practices in Grades 4 and 5 learners’ reading literacy achievement in the South African Progress in International Literacy (PIRLS) 2006 study? Herein lies the main question of this study. South Africa’s participation and perpetually poor performance in more than one international study highlights literacy as a serious problem in South Africa. The results of literacy studies such as SACMEQ II 2000, the 1999 MLA study, and in particular, the South African PIRLS 2006 study, revealed the predicament in which South African primary education finds itself. The results of these studies emphasise the consistently poor reading literacy achievement by South African primary school learners. The findings that emanated from the South African Progress in International Literacy (PIRLS) 2006 study, showed considerable differences between the various groups of learners in South Africa. The following examples will indicate the differences in reading literacy achievement. The South African Grade 4 learners achieved an average score of 253 (SE=4.6). The Grade 5 learners achieved an average score of 302 (SE=5.6). Both these scores fall far below the fixed international average of 500 (Howie et al. 2007, p. 23). However, in an analysis of the eleven official languages in the PIRLS 2006 study, learners from the Afrikaans language group achieved the highest scores with the Grade 5 girls achieving an average of 427 (SE=11.6). The aim of the study was to identify the effective reading comprehension strategies used at a primary school where the highest scores in South Africa were achieved, then to determine the role that reading comprehension strategies played in literacy achievement as uncovered in the PIRLS 2006 study. This research was conducted at an Afrikaans speaking school in Gauteng where the learners achieved the highest scores in PIRLS 2006. Based on a review of the literature, the study focused on five reading comprehension strategies, namely, identifying main ideas; making inferences; questioning; mental imagery and summarising. These reading comprehension strategies were underpinned by the processes of comprehension outlined for PIRLS 2006 and the PIRLS 2006 model of Contexts for the Development of Reading Literacy was used as a conceptual framework for this study. A profile of Afrikaans Grade 4 and 5 teachers was compiled based on the analysis of the PIRLS 2006 Afrikaans teacher questionnaire data. Teacher profiles consisted of teachers’ biographical information such as age and gender, and their academic and professional background. The practice of reading comprehension strategies was tested on data from a case study of one Grade 4 and one Grade 5 Afrikaans teacher. The findings of the study showed that the use of teaching reading comprehension strategies are essential for learners to achieve any standard of reading literacy. A high standard of reading literacy mainly stems from teachers who perform reading comprehension strategy practices that will mirror the orchestration of instructional strategy activities and comprehension assessment activities. It appears that effective teachers of reading comprehension operate as conductors to guide learners during the reading comprehension process into a constant reader-text-activity dynamic, which enables readers to bring vocabulary and strategy knowledge to the act of reading. The role that reading comprehension strategy practice plays on learners’ reading literacy achievement is illustrated in PIRLS 2006. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

In this dissertation a formalisation of nonmonotonic reasoning, namely Default logic, is discussed. A proof theory for default logic and a variant of Default logic - Prioritised Default logic - is presented. We also pursue an investigation into the relationship between default reasoning and making inferences in a neural network. The inference problem shifts from the logical problem in Default logic to the optimisation problem in neural networks, in which maximum consistency is aimed at The inference is realised as an adaptation process that identifies and resolves conflicts between existing knowledge about the relevant world and external information. Knowledge and data are transformed into constraint equations and the nodes in the network represent propositions and constraint equations. The violation of constraints is formulated in terms of an energy function. The Hopfield network is shown to be suitable for modelling optimisation problems and default reasoning. / Computer Science / M.Sc. (Computer Science)