The Cognitive Mechanisms of the SNARC Effect: An Individual Differences Approach

Access to mental representations of smaller vs. larger number symbols is associated with leftward vs. rightward spatial locations, as represented on a number line. The well-replicated SNARC effect (Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes) reveals that simple decisions about small numbers are facilitated when stimuli are presented on the left, and large numbers facilitated when on the right. We present novel evidence that the size of the SNARC effect is relatively stable within individuals over time. This enables us to take an individual differences approach to investigate how the SNARC effect is modulated by spatial and numerical cognition. Are number-space associations linked to spatial operations, such that those who have greater facility in spatial computations show the stronger SNARC effects, or are they linked to number semantics, such that those showing stronger influence of magnitude associations on number symbol decisions show stronger SNARC effects? Our results indicate a significant correlation between the SNARC effect and a 2D mental rotation task, suggesting that spatial operations are at play in the expression of this effect. We also uncover a significant correlation between the SNARC effect and the distance effect, suggesting that the SNARC is also related to access to number semantics. A multiple regression analysis reveals that the relative contributions of spatial cognition and distance effects represent significant, yet distinct, contributions in explaining variation in the size of the SNARC effect from one individual to the next. Overall, these results shed new light on how the spatial-numerical associations of response codes are influenced by both number semantics and spatial operations.     

Understanding and using the meaning of statements in a bio-ontology: recasting the Gene Ontology in OWL

   

The bio-ontology community falls into two camps: first we have biology domain experts, who actually hold the knowledge we wish to capture in ontologies; second, we have ontology specialists, who hold knowledge about techniques and best practice on ontology development. In the bio-ontology domain, these two camps have often come into conflict, especially where pragmatism comes into conflict with perceived best practice. One of these areas is the insistence of computer scientists on a well-defined semantic basis for the Knowledge Representation language being used. In this article, we will first describe why this community is so insistent. Second, we will illustrate this by examining the semantics of the Web Ontology Language and the semantics placed on the Directed Acyclic Graph as used by the Gene Ontology. Finally we will reconcile the two representations, including the broader Open Biomedical Ontologies format. The ability to exchange between the two representations means that we can capitalise on the features of both languages. Such utility can only arise by the understanding of the semantics of the languages being used. By this illustration of the usefulness of a clear, well-defined language semantics, we wish to promote a wider understanding of the computer science perspective amongst potential users within the biological community.     

Affectedness and Differential Object Marking in Spanish

In this study we investigate the impact of affectedness on the diachronic development of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Spanish. DOM in Spanish synchronically depends on (i) the referential features of the direct object, such as animacy and referentiality, and (ii) the semantics of the verb. Several studies have also shown that the diachronic development of DOM proceeds along the Animacy Scale and the Referentiality Scale, and some recent corpus studies have indicated an influence of the verb??s semantics on this diachronic process. This study presents new findings from a detailed analysis of extensive corpus research on the distribution of DOM with respect to affectedness, understood as ??the persistent change of an event participant??. We use Tsunoda??s Affectedness Scale to order the verb classes under investigation. Our findings provide evidence that this scale can be partly correlated with the diachronic spread of DOM in Spanish which would tend to confirm the influence of verbal semantics on DOM in Spanish.     

Principal Semantic Components of Language and the Measurement of Meaning

Metric systems for semantics, or semantic cognitive maps, are allocations of words or other representations in a metric space based on their meaning. Existing methods for semantic mapping, such as Latent Semantic Analysis and Latent Dirichlet Allocation, are based on paradigms involving dissimilarity metrics. They typically do not take into account relations of antonymy and yield a large number of domain-specific semantic dimensions. Here, using a novel self-organization approach, we construct a low-dimensional, context-independent semantic map of natural language that represents simultaneously synonymy and antonymy. Emergent semantics of the map principal components are clearly identifiable: the first three correspond to the meanings of “good/bad” (valence), “calm/excited” (arousal), and “open/closed” (freedom), respectively. The semantic map is sufficiently robust to allow the automated extraction of synonyms and antonyms not originally in the dictionaries used to construct the map and to predict connotation from their coordinates. The map geometric characteristics include a limited number (∼4) of statistically significant dimensions, a bimodal distribution of the first component, increasing kurtosis of subsequent (unimodal) components, and a U-shaped maximum-spread planar projection. Both the semantic content and the main geometric features of the map are consistent between dictionaries (Microsoft Word and Princeton''s WordNet), among Western languages (English, French, German, and Spanish), and with previously established psychometric measures. By defining the semantics of its dimensions, the constructed map provides a foundational metric system for the quantitative analysis of word meaning. Language can be viewed as a cumulative product of human experiences. Therefore, the extracted principal semantic dimensions may be useful to characterize the general semantic dimensions of the content of mental states. This is a fundamental step toward a universal metric system for semantics of human experiences, which is necessary for developing a rigorous science of the mind.     

Toward the Problem of Stages in the Mental Development of Children

The problem of stages' in the mental development of the child is the fundamental problem of child psychology. Elaboration of this problem has important theoretical significance since it is by determining the stages of mental development and by discovering the patterns of transition from one stage to the next that psychology will eventually solve the problem of the motive forces of mental development. We contend that every conception of the motive forces of mental development must first be tested on the "proving grounds" of the theory of developmental stages.     

Lecture 36. Thinking and Activity

An infant's communication with an adult is the basis on which the child's mental development takes place. Hence, for proper organization of the educational process in infancy, knowledge of the role of communication with adults in a child's mental development and clear notions of the nature of this communication are necessary. The present article deals with the characteristics of the stages of development of communication in the first year of a child's life and their role in the child's mental development.     

Patterns of Development of Intellectual Functions in Deaf Children 7-12 Years Old

Study of the developmental characteristics of higher mental functions in congenitally deaf children who otherwise have no primary mental defects should help us improve differential diagnosis of abnormal mental development in children with this sensory defect and further differentiate remedial, medical, and pedagogical measures that take into account the specifics of both the sensory defect and the cerebral anomaly. Much has been achieved in study of the distinctive features of cognitive development in deaf children, thanks to the efforts of Zh.I. Shif, T.V. Rozanova, N.V. Iakovleva, A.P. Gozova, and N.V. Iashkova [8,9]. Nevertheless, some aspects of the development of intellectual functions in the deaf and, in particular, the nature of the interrelations among the different mental functions in the process of individual development, have not been sufficiently studied at the different ontogenetic stages in children with this sensory impairment.     

The anatomy of meaning and syntax

Recent brain imaging studies have provided evidence that distinct parts of the left frontal cortex are involved in processing the structure (syntax) and meaning (semantics) of a sentence, setting the stage for the development of more precise neuroanatomical models of language processing.     

Semiotes: a semantics for sharing

MOTIVATION: Reliable, automated communication of biological information requires methods to declare the information's semantics. In this paper I describe an approach to semantic declaration intended to permit independent, distributed databases, algorithms, and servers to exchange and process requests for information and computations without requiring coordination or agreement among them on universe of discourse, data model, schema, or implementation. RESULTS: This approach uses Glossa, a formal language defining the semantics of biological ideas, information, and algorithms, to executably define the semantics of complex ideas and computations by constructs of semiotes, terms which axiomatically define very simple notions. A database or algorithm wishing to exchange information or computations maintains a set of mappings between its particular notions and semiotes, and a parser to translate between its indigenous ideas and implementation and the semiotes. Requests from other databases or algorithms are issued as semiotic messages, locally interpreted and processed, and the results returned as semiotes to the requesting entity. Thus, semiotes serve as a shared, abstract layer of definitions which can be computably combined by each database or algorithm according to its own needs and ideas. By combining the explicit declaration of semantics with the computation of the semantics of complex ideas, Glossa and its semiotes permit independent computational entities to lightly federate their capabilities as desired while maintaining their unique perspectives on both scientific and technical questions.     

Semantics of Multimodal Network Models

A multimodal network (MMN) is a novel graph-theoretic formalism designed to capture the structure of biological networks and to represent relationships derived from multiple biological databases. MMNs generalize the standard notions of graphs and hypergraphs, which are the bases of current diagrammatic representations of biological phenomena, and incorporate the concept of mode. Each vertex of an MMN is a biological entity, a biot, while each modal hyperedge is a typed relationship, where the type is given by the mode of the hyperedge. The semantics of each modal hyperedge e is given through denotational semantics, where a valuation function f_{e} defines the relationship among the values of the vertices incident on e. The meaning of an MMN is denoted in terms of the semantics of a hyperedge sequence. A companion paper defines MMNs and concentrates on the structural aspects of MMNs. This paper develops MMN denotational semantics when used as a representation of the semantics of biological networks and discusses applications of MMNs in managing complex biological data.     

Community-based mental health care in Africa: mental health workers’ views

The World Health Organization (WHO) has for long proposed the development of community-based mental health services worldwide. However, the progress toward community mental health care in most African countries is still hampered by a lack of resources, with specialist psychiatric care essentially based in large, centrally located mental hospitals. It is again time to reconsider the direction of mental health care in Africa. Based on a small inquiry to a number of experienced mental health professionals in sub-Saharan Africa, we discuss what a community concept of mental health care might mean in Africa. There is a general agreement that mental health services should be integrated in primary health care. A critical issue for success of this model is perceived to be provision of appropriate supervision and continuing education for primary care workers. The importance of collaboration between modern medicine and traditional healers is stressed and the paper ends in a plea for WHO to take the initiative and develop mental health services according to the special needs and the socio-cultural conditions prevailing in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Semantics and ambiguity of stochastic RNA family models

Stochastic models, such as hidden Markov models or stochastic context-free grammars (SCFGs) can fail to return the correct, maximum likelihood solution in the case of semantic ambiguity. This problem arises when the algorithm implementing the model inspects the same solution in different guises. It is a difficult problem in the sense that proving semantic nonambiguity has been shown to be algorithmically undecidable, while compensating for it (by coalescing scores of equivalent solutions) has been shown to be NP-hard. For stochastic context-free grammars modeling RNA secondary structure, it has been shown that the distortion of results can be quite severe. Much less is known about the case when stochastic context-free grammars model the matching of a query sequence to an implicit consensus structure for an RNA family. We find that three different, meaningful semantics can be associated with the matching of a query against the model--a structural, an alignment, and a trace semantics. Rfam models correctly implement the alignment semantics, and are ambiguous with respect to the other two semantics, which are more abstract. We show how provably correct models can be generated for the trace semantics. For approaches, where such a proof is not possible, we present an automated pipeline to check post factum for ambiguity of the generated models. We propose that both the structure and the trace semantics are worth-while concepts for further study, possibly better suited to capture remotely related family members.     

An Evolutionary Aspect of Social Structure and a Verb "Have"

Bradfield has pointed out that little is known of the relationship between grammatical forms and the "values and attitudes associated with economic activity." This paper reports on a current research project which is exploring the relationship between possession and transitivity and property-based societies. The author posits an evolutionary sequence of possessive verb development similar to the evolutionary development of color terms shown in the work of Berlin and Kay . [language and culture, cultural evolution, ethnolinguistics (semantics), possession (grammatical), cross-cultural study]     

Ontogenetic migration of the mental foramen in Neandertals and modern humans

Since the nineteenth century, researchers have noted that Neandertal and modern human adults differ in mental foramen position, although the ontogenetic changes in the position of this feature have only recently come under the scrutiny of paleoanthropologists. Research on mental foramen position has focused on whether this feature is inferior to a particular tooth. However, tooth position may not be a reliable indicator of mental foramen position because of variability in tooth size within and between taxa and during eruption events. As opposed to observing the mental foramen with respect to the postcanine teeth, we examined linear distances from the mental foramen to other mandibular landmarks. Modern human adults may appear truncated, or paedomorphic, in mental foramen position with respect to Neandertal adults. However, infants of the two taxa differ substantially in anterior mandibular form. The initial differences in the shape of the mental region may be related to the embryological position of the mental foramen in modern humans and its role in the development of the mental trigone. The shape changes that accrue thereafter, possibly from faster mandibular growth rates in Neandertals, further distinguish the adults from one another. Although mandibular shape differences exist from early infancy onwards, adults of the two taxa are broadly similar in bi-mental foramen breadth with respect to mandibular size. For this reason, qualitative assessments of mental foramen position may provide less taxonomic information than previously thought.     

Hemizygosity of delta-catenin (CTNND2) is associated with severe mental retardation in cri-du-chat syndrome

Delta-catenin is an adherens junction protein involved in cell motility and expressed early in neuronal development. It was discovered as an interactor with presenilin-1. The genomic structure of the human delta-catenin gene (Human Gene Nomenclature Committee-approved symbol CTNND2) was determined and mapped to 5p15.2. A deletion of this chromosomal region has been associated with the cri-du-chat syndrome (CDCS), a segmental aneusomy syndrome of 5p that is associated with an unusual high-pitched cry at birth, facial dysmorphology, poor growth, and severe mental retardation. delta-catenin maps to a specific region in 5p15.2 that has been implicated in the mental retardation phenotype. The breakpoints in patients with 5p terminal deletions were characterized with respect to the severity of mental retardation and the physical location of the delta-catenin gene. A strong correlation was found between the hemizygous loss of delta-catenin and severe mental retardation. These findings and the properties of delta-catenin as a neuronal-specific protein, expressed early in development and involved in cell motility, support its role in the mental retardation of CDCS when present in only one copy.     

Mental Representation and Mental Practice: Experimental Investigation on the Functional Links between Motor Memory and Motor Imagery

Recent research on mental representation of complex action has revealed distinct differences in the structure of representational frameworks between experts and novices. More recently, research on the development of mental representation structure has elicited functional changes in novices'' representations as a result of practice. However, research investigating if and how mental practice adds to this adaptation process is lacking. In the present study, we examined the influence of mental practice (i.e., motor imagery rehearsal) on both putting performance and the development of one''s representation of the golf putt during early skill acquisition. Novice golfers (N = 52) practiced the task of golf putting under one of four different practice conditions: mental, physical, mental-physical combined, and no practice. Participants were tested prior to and after a practice phase, as well as after a three day retention interval. Mental representation structures of the putt were measured, using the structural dimensional analysis of mental representation. This method provides psychometric data on the distances and groupings of basic action concepts in long-term memory. Additionally, putting accuracy and putting consistency were measured using two-dimensional error scores of each putt. Findings revealed significant performance improvements over the course of practice together with functional adaptations in mental representation structure. Interestingly, after three days of practice, the mental representations of participants who incorporated mental practice into their practice regime displayed representation structures that were more similar to a functional structure than did participants who did not incorporate mental practice. The findings of the present study suggest that mental practice promotes the cognitive adaptation process during motor learning, leading to more elaborate representations than physical practice only.     

The hall of dragon metamorphoses: A unique,indigenous asylum for chronic mental patients in Taiwan

This paper describes the spontaneous rise of an indigenous asylum for the chronic mentally ill, called Lung Hwa Tang (The Hall of Dragon Metamorphoses), in contemporary Taiwan. Sociocultural factors relevant to the asylum, including the roles played by Chinese families and the current situation of mental health care in Taiwanese communities, are discussed. Despite its detrimental effect on patients, this asylum stands for an alternative mental health care system in the folk sector; it reflects a great demand from the communities for access to modern mental health services, the development of which have been very slow and inadequate in the past four decades in this rapidly developing country.     

Neural substrates of processing syntax and semantics in music

Growing evidence indicates that syntax and semantics are basic aspects of music. After the onset of a chord, initial music-syntactic processing can be observed at about 150-400 ms and processing of musical semantics at about 300-500 ms. Processing of musical syntax activates inferior frontolateral cortex, ventrolateral premotor cortex and presumably the anterior part of the superior temporal gyrus. These brain structures have been implicated in sequencing of complex auditory information, identification of structural relationships, and serial prediction. Processing of musical semantics appears to activate posterior temporal regions. The processes and brain structures involved in the perception of syntax and semantics in music have considerable overlap with those involved in language perception, underlining intimate links between music and language in the human brain.     

A Sociopsychological Analysis of Conflicts among Children during Play

The problem of conflict has been attracting the increasing attention of scholars [3,4,7,8,11,12], Whereas earlier, conflicts of various sorts—intergroup, interpersonal, and internal conflicts—were regarded mainly as a negative phenomenon, today the positive consequences of conflict in relations among members of a group or a family in the process of a person's creative activity are being studied more and more. The next stage of research might deal with the role conflict plays in mental development as a whole and in the development of the personality. Vygotsky's ideas on the development of higher mental functions, which he regarded in terms of the development of the personality, are of value in this connection:

Cultural forms of behavior are responses of the individual personality. When we study them, we are dealing not with Aparate processes considered abstractly and playing themselves in the individual, but with the individual personality as a whole. 111 following the cultural development of mental functions, we are tracing out the path of development of a child's personality. [l. P. 841     

Evidence for Shared Cognitive Processing of Pitch in Music and Language

Language and music epitomize the complex representational and computational capacities of the human mind. Strikingly similar in their structural and expressive features, a longstanding question is whether the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underlying these abilities are shared or distinct – either from each other or from other mental processes. One prominent feature shared between language and music is signal encoding using pitch, conveying pragmatics and semantics in language and melody in music. We investigated how pitch processing is shared between language and music by measuring consistency in individual differences in pitch perception across language, music, and three control conditions intended to assess basic sensory and domain-general cognitive processes. Individuals’ pitch perception abilities in language and music were most strongly related, even after accounting for performance in all control conditions. These results provide behavioral evidence, based on patterns of individual differences, that is consistent with the hypothesis that cognitive mechanisms for pitch processing may be shared between language and music.