Research shows that bilingualism confers substantial cognitive benefits in children and the elderly. Bilingual advantages on nonverbal working memory, updating, shifting and inhibition tasks are widely reported. However, advantages are not always observed in young adults. These disparities may be due to varied proficiency levels and task types (verbal versus nonverbal) administered. This study sought to detect bilingual performance advantages on executive function and working memory tasks (verbal and nonverbal working memory, updating, shifting and inhibition tasks) between groups of 37 high and 37 low proficiency Spanish-English bilingual and 40 English monolingual young adults. ... Young adulthood may represent a lull during which bilingualism does not confer cognitive advantages for functions examined. / by Laxmi N. Lalwani. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Xu, Bo. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-144). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND HUMANITIES. / Includes bibliographies. / by Edward Palmer Stabler, Jr. / Ph.D.

To most people, a question like “What colour is the letter A?” may seem nonsensical, but to a grapheme-colour synaesthete, each letter and word has an automatically evoked colour sensation associated with it. This thesis asks whether the synaesthetic colours for letters and words are shaped by the same influences that inform the typical use of language – that is, if grapheme-colour synaesthesia is fundamentally psycholinguistic in nature. If this is the case, the colour experiences of synaesthetes for letters and words can also be used to investigate long-standing questions about how language acquisition and processing work for everyone. This thesis addresses two aspects of the psycholinguistic roots of synaesthesia: structure/morphology and meaning/semantics. The first two studies on word structure collected colour responses from synaesthetes for compound words (e.g. rainbow), the constituent morphemes of those words separately (e.g. rain and bow), and the letters that in turn form those words (e.g. R, A, B, etc.). These studies showed that synaesthetic word colouring does indeed encode linguistic properties such as word frequency and morphological structure. Furthermore, both linguistic and colour elements of words were important in determining their synaesthetic colour. The second two studies turned to the semantic aspect of language, asking how the meanings associated with words (e.g. red, fire) and even individual letters (e.g. A, Q) can influence the colours that a synaesthete experiences for them. The first of these studies indicated that the synaesthetic colour for a word like red or fire was measurably influenced by the colour that word typically evokes (e.g. the red of red and the orange of fire). The second showed that trends in letter-colour associations in large-scale studies (e.g. A is typically red) may be rooted in connections to particular words (e.g. A is red because A is for apple and apples are red). Overall, this thesis shows that both word structure and meaning have a systematic, measureable effect on synaesthetic colour, which allows these colours to then be used as a new tool to investigate psycholinguistic questions.

Data resulting from eye-tracking experiments allows researchers to analyze the decision making process as study participants consider alternative items prior to the ultimate end point selection. The aim of such an analysis is to extract the underlying cognitive decision making process that develops throughout the experiment. Resulting data can be difficult to analyze, however, as eye-tracking curves have very high autocorrelation values which consists of measurements that are milliseconds apart, as mandated by the nature of eye movements. We propose an analytic approach to eye-tracking data that tests for statistically significant differences at every time point along the curve while calculating an appropriate familywise error rate correction which is based upon an autoregressive correlation assumption of the test statistics. Our technique has been implemented in the R package BDOTS with various extensions relevant to the real-world analysis of highly correlated nonlinear data. A popular alternative approach to analyzing eye-tracking data is to fit mixed models to the area under the curve. Through simulation studies we provide evidence for the benefit of using information criterion measures in selection of the random effects structure and make an argument against current industry-standard approaches such as sequential likelihood ratio tests or always using a maximal random effects structure.

Following the loss of a loved one, grief is a near-universal experience. While most grieving individuals are able to cope effectively and return to baseline functioning over time, some develop persistent complex bereavement disorder (PCBD). This dissertation aims to elucidate the ways in which cognitive and emotional processing go awry in the context of PCBD. More specifically, it examines the relationship between the types of language that bereaved individuals use and their trajectories of adjustment in the first year following a loss. In particular, this dissertation examines context sensitivity in word use. Context sensitivity describes the degree to which an individual is attuned to the particular demands of a given task or situation. In the present study, linguistic context-sensitivity was measured by analyzing the use of words pertaining to certain categories within specific contexts (e.g., participants were asked to discuss a recent positive event, and the use of positive emotion words within their responses was analyzed). Results indicated that, among those individuals who display high levels of grief immediately following the loss of their spouse, the use of context-sensitive language predicted a favorable course of adjustment in the first year of bereavement with low levels of grief at one- year post-loss. Conversely, the use of context insensitive language predicted high levels of grief at one-year post-loss. These findings indicate that context sensitivity may instrumental in the development of PCBD and, as such, may help predict an individual’s course of adjustment immediately following a significant loss. A better understanding of these early signs of PCBD may greatly assist in the timely detection of the disorder so that intervention may be most effective. Furthermore, this field of inquiry also has the potential to deeply inform treatment modalities designed to help individuals cope in the wake of bereavement.

No description available.

Bibliography: p. 249-261.

The Review of the Five Year Education Plan (1976-1980) carried out by the Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research (IASER,1979) presented thoroughly researched, factual information regarding the standard of education in Papua New Guinea. The Review stated that there had been a decline in standards of education. It claimed that "there [was] the greatest need for a more highly skilled and dedicated professional group of teachers" (IASER,1979:61) and that considerable dissatisfaction had been noted at community level because of the "reported evidence that many Grade 6 leavers [were] illiterate" (IASER,1979:24). Since English is the nationally prescribed language of instruction at all levels of education, the standard achieved in English is particularly important. It has been shown that the skills students have in the use of English "stand out as contributing most in overall academic prediction" (Ord,1971:8). It is also claimed that a psycholinguistic analysis of oral reading miscues following the taxonomy of Goodman (1968,1971,1977) enables the researcher to examine the subject's total language competence and that such an analysis can reveal the degree of bilingualism achieved by second language learners (Allen,1976). The purpose of this study was therefore, to examine the oral reading of a large sample of first-year students at Teachers' College in Papua New Guinea. It was hypothesised that a pattern of strengths and weaknesses would emerge from the study of oral reading miscues (Goodman and Burke,1971). It was further hypothesised that an examination of the actual problems that were revealed by an analysis of the miscues would provide evidence to be used as the basis for recommendations to be formulated regarding the teaching of Reading in the Community Schools of Papua New Guinea and also regarding remedial and developmental emphases that might prove beneficial to students in the Teachers' Colleges. On the basis of this research it would appear that students at College level do have "serious reading problems" (Price,1973: 15) and that they are unable to read text judged to be College level with understanding. Students seemed to have achieved a certain degree of oral fluency in reading which could be the result of their skill in using the grapho-phonic and syntactic cueing systems. However, this fluency was found to cloak a lack of understanding of content. There was evidence that students achieved a relatively low level of comprehension when the readings contained concepts that were familiar; however, when the concepts contained in the passage were unfamiliar, the scores for Comprehension were significantly lower. During the retelling of passages read orally, students gave evidence of a relatively low level of facility in English expression. It was judged to be doubtful that in the period of their training those students could acquire the command of oral English considered indispensible for their profession in an education system where the English language is the medium of instruction. The students tested were the products of the present national policy of education through English from Grade One. While changes regarding the optimum academic level of students to be accepted into Teachers' Colleges, necessary inservicing of College Staff, appropriate Courses in Educational Psychology and English Language Method have been recommended, these can only be seen as remedial. In order to effect the desired change at the Teachers' College Level it would seem necessary to introduce change at the level of the Community Schools in the language of initial literacy.

Bibliography: p. 249-261. / viii, 271 p. : tables ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 2003?