Dissertations / Theses: 'Psychology of language'

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Krahé, Barbara. "Personality and language." Universität Potsdam, 1992. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2009/3407/.

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Content Introduction Towards a framework for personality and language Personality and language Personal pronouns Adjectives as disposilional markers Cognitive properties of trait terms Everyday language and personality Speech end personality Conclusions and directions References

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Kliegl, Reinhold, and Douglas Bates. "International Collaboration in Psychology is on the Rise." Universität Potsdam, 2011. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2011/5704/.

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There has been a substantial increase in the percentage for publications with co-authors located in departments from different countries in 12 major journals of psychology. The results are evidence for a remarkable internationalization of psychological research, starting in the mid 1970s and increasing in rate at the beginning of the 1990s. This growth occurs against a constant number of articles with authors from the same country; it is not due to a concomitant increase in the number of co-authors per article. Thus, international collaboration in psychology is obviously on the rise.

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Griffin, Gerard Francis. "Aspects of the psychology of second language vocabulary list learning." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1992. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/36070/.

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The learning of second language vocabulary in lists of word-pairs is a widespread practice despite the disapproval of many in the second language learning domain. There is an acknowledged mismatch between psychological theories on the one hand and techniques of vocabulary learning on the other. Psychology does not address the relevant issues directly and second language learning practice is often atheoretical and unprincipled. This thesis reviews aspects of psychology which appear to be relevant to second language vocabulary learning and their applicability. A series of experiments is conducted with comprehensive school students learning French, aged 11-13. The first part of the study deals with the presentation of vocabulary items to be learned. Presenting items in the order First Language - Second Language is the more versatile form of presentation if both generation and comprehension are required on the part of the learner. The transferability of list learning to testing in a sentential context depends on the ability of the learner and the task involved. Higher-ability list learners are inhibited in a generation task but not in a comprehension task; the opposite is true for lower-ability learners. Learning in a context improves the performance of higher-ability learners in generation but makes little difference to lower-ability learners. An explanation is suggested in terms of transfer-appropriate processing. The position of items in the list is not a reliable indicator of learnability. Primacy, recency, and serial effects may be obtained but none of them is consistent. The same conclusion applies to different ways of presenting wordpairs. The second part of the study examines aspects of word learnability. Objective word frequency is not a reliable indicator of learnability in this context. Word category and the presence of an English word embedded in a French word are promising indicators of leamability.

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Kumcu, Alper. "Looking for language in space : spatial simulations in memory for language." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2019. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/8842/.

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Grounded-embodied theories hold that language is understood and remembered through perceptual and motor simulations (i.e., activations and re-activations of sensorimotor experiences). This thesis aims to illustrate simulations of space in memory for language. In four experiments, we explored (1) how individuals encode and re-activate word locations and (2) how word meanings activate locations in space (e.g., "bird" - upward location). Experiment 1 reveals that the propensity to refer to the environment during retrieval correlates with individual's visuospatial memory capacity. Experiment 2 shows that words which are more difficult to remember and, particularly, words that are more difficult to visualise in mind lead to more reliance on the environment during word retrieval. Experiment 3, which is a norming study, demonstrates that there is a high degree of agreement among individuals when linking words to locations in space although there are no explicit conventions with regard to word - space associations. Experiment 4, in which recognition memory for words with spatial associations was probed, shows that both language-based simulation of space and simulation of word locations dictate memory performance even if space is irrelevant and unnecessary for successful retrieval. Results are discussed within grounded-embodied and extended approaches to memory and language.

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Gauthier, Karine. "Language development in internationally-adopted children acquiring French as a "second first language"." Thesis, McGill University, 2010. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=86603.

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Investigating the development of internationally-adopted (IA) children makes it possible to examine how early life experiences might affect later development and, in particular, the extent to which the language faculty is flexible and can adapt to a new language after interruption in acquisition of the birth language. The general purpose of the present research program was to study the ability of IA children to acquire their "second first language" and to identify factors that might favor or impede the development of their new language, French in the case of the studies presented in this thesis. In contrast with other studies, except for Cohen, Lojkasek, Zadeh, Pugliese and Kiefer (2008), variables that have been shown to have an impact on language development, namely familial socio-economic status, and sex, were carefully controlled in the present studies. To our knowledge, these are the first studies to examine the acquisition of French in IA children.
Study 1 is a longitudinal study in which the language skills, non-verbal intelligence, socio-emotional adjustment, and general health of Chinese-born children adopted into Canadian French-speaking families were compared to those of matched non-adopted monolingual French-speaking children. The children were assessed a first time at 4 years of age, on average, and again 16 months later. They had been in their adoptive families for 3 and 4 years, on average, respectively. The results of the initial assessment showed that the two groups did not differ with respect to socio-emotional adjustment or non-verbal intelligence. Moreover, the IA children performed in the average range on most language tests when compared to test norms, suggesting resiliency in their language acquisition abilities. However, an important percentage of IA children performed significantly below the norms on the Recalling Sentences subtest of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Revised. Also, as a group, the IA children performed significantly lower than their non-adopted peers particularly on expressive language tests (lexical and grammatical).
To better characterize the language abilities of the IA children, spontaneous language samples of a subgroup of the IA children from Study 1 were analyzed in detail in Study 2. Results of Study 2 indicated that the IA children had a remarkable capacity to catch-up to their non-adopted peers with respect to diverse features of language, such as mean length of utterance, lexical diversity, and tense morphology; but, they made significantly more errors with complement clitics.
Study 3 was undertaken in order to examine IA children's very early communicative and language development and the nature of adoptive mothers' language input and attention regulation strategies with their adoptive children soon after adoption. The results support the conclusion that adoptive mothers play an active role in promoting and maintaining joint attention with their adopted children and that the interaction strategy they use most, redirecting their child's attentional focus, contrasts with what has been shown to be effective for biological children raised in Western cultures (Baldwin, 1991; Tomasello & Farrar, 1986) but was, nevertheless positively associated with the internationally-adopted children's later lexical development.
Overall, the findings suggest that IA children exhibited accelerated development in diverse domains of their second first language; but, however, there were significant differences in specific aspects of their language development in comparison to matched control children that suggest the possibility of very early age of acquisition effects.
L'adoption internationale engendre une expérience linguistique unique dans laquelle les enfants adoptés ont à apprendre une nouvelle langue alors que l'exposition à leur langue première prend fin brusquement. L'objectif principal du présent programme de recherches était d'étudier les capacités des enfants adoptés de Chine à acquérir leur « seconde langue première » et d'identifier les facteurs influençant le développement de leur nouvelle langue. Contrairement aux autres études effectuées dans ce domaine, à l'exception de Cohen (2008), des variables reconnues comme ayant une influence sur le développement du langage, soit le statut socio-économique et le sexe, ont été contrôlées dans les présentes études. À notre connaissance, il s'agit des premières études portant spécifiquement sur l'acquisition du français chez les enfants adoptés.
La première étude est une étude longitudinale visant à comparer les habiletés langagières, le fonctionnement intellectuel non-verbal et l'ajustement socio-émotionnel d'enfants adoptés de Chine par des familles québécoises francophones à celles d'enfants non-adoptés et unilingues francophones du même niveau socio-économique. Les enfants ont été évalués une première fois vers l'âge de 4 ans et ensuite 16 mois plus tard. Les résultats de l'évaluation initiale ont démontré que les deux groupes étaient similaires quant à leur niveau d'ajustement socio-émotionnel et à leur fonctionnement intellectuel non-verbal. De plus, les enfants adoptés ont performé dans la moyenne des normes dans la majorité des tests de langage, ce qui suggère de la résilience au plan de leur capacité d'acquisition du langage. Toutefois, un pourcentage important des enfants adoptés ont performé significativement sous les normes au sous-test Répétition de phrases du Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Revised (CELF-R). En tant que groupe, la performance des enfants adoptés était significativement plus faible que celle des enfants non-adoptés notamment aux tests évaluant le langage expressif (vocabulaire et grammaire).
Afin de mieux caractériser le profil langagier des enfants adoptés, des échantillons de langage naturel provenant d'un sous-groupe d'enfants adoptés évalués lors de la première étude ont été analysés en détail dans le cadre de la seconde étude. Les résultats de la deuxième étude ont démontré que les enfants adoptés présentent une capacité remarquable de récupération leur permettant de rattraper leurs pairs non-adoptés dans plusieurs sphères langagières, notamment au plan de la longueur moyenne des énoncés produits, de la diversité lexicale et de la morphologie des verbes. Cependant, les enfants adoptés ont fait significativement plus d'erreurs en utilisant les clitiques.
La troisième étude a été entreprise afin d'examiner le développement des habiletés de communication et de langage chez les enfants nouvellement adoptés ainsi que la nature du langage et des stratégies de régulation de l'attention utilisées par les mères adoptives. Les résultats suggèrent que les mères adoptives ont joué un rôle actif dans l'initiation et le maintien des épisodes d'« attention conjointe » avec leur enfant. Par ailleurs, la stratégie d'interaction qu'elles utilisent le plus fréquemment, rediriger l'attention de leur enfant, était reliée positivement au développement lexical ultérieur des enfants adoptés, ce qui contraste avec les résultats d'études effectuées auprès d'enfants non-adoptés élevés au sein de familles occidentales (Baldwin, 1991; Tomasello & Farrar, 1986).
Globalement, les résultats suggèrent que les enfants adoptés présentent un développement accéléré dans plusieurs sphères relatives à l'apprentissage de leur « seconde langue première »; toutefois, des différences significatives sont présentes au plan de certains aspects de leur développement langagier en comparaison avec des enfants non-adoptés du même niveau socio-économique et du même sexe, suggérant la possibilité d'effets reliés à l'âge d'acquisition.

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Katz, Laura. "EXPLORING DEMOGRAPHIC CORRELATES OF LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AMONG ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2012. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/170310.

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School Psychology
Ph.D.
Contemporary research suggests that multiple criteria, including SES, ethnicity, first and second language proficiency levels, language dominance, immigrant and/or generational status, acculturation status, and educational placement history predict ELL student achievement levels (Abedi, 2008). However, the majority of states do not examine these factors and instead use a combination of the Home Language Survey (HLS) plus an English language proficiency test for screening and identification, though it is debated if these instruments adequately measure the type of language proficiency needed to be successful in mainstream classrooms (O'Malley & Pierce, 1994). Because of these findings, it seems that multiple criteria are important to examine when screening students for English Language Learner (ELL) placement. It is hypothesized that a more detailed classification system will better predict students' academic language abilities as part of a universal screening effort, and truly identify those at most need for specialized language support. The present study uses a correlational design to examine the relationship between a parent interview form, the Bilingual Parent Interview (BPI) and students' language proficiency scores in both their native and second languages, as well as their academic achievement. It was hypothesized that the multiple criteria assessed with the BPI would be more associated with language proficiency abilities and academic achievement than the HLS. English-Language Learners (ELLs; n= 42) in grades two through five were targeted for participation. Families were recruited from a public elementary school in a city in Southern California. Record reviews were conducted to collect parents' responses on the HLS and the BPI, as well as students' language proficiency scores on the California English Language Development Test (CELDT), the Language Assessment Scales Links Español, and the Preschool Language Assessment Scales 2000 Español 2000 (Pre-LAS 2000). In addition, students' academic achievement based upon the California STAR program was also collected. It was anticipated that items on the BPI would better correlate students' language abilities and academic achievement than those from the HLS. However, it was determined that the HLS better correlated with measures of English Language Proficiency and Spanish Language Proficiency, therefore providing initial support for the validity of this measure. Examination of the socio-cultural factors related to the language abilities and academic outcomes of at-risk ELL students expands upon efforts to identify students in need of remedial support as part of an early prevention model. In addition, the assessment of language proficiency and achievement data in both English and Spanish extends the effort to discriminate between endogenous learning disabilities and language delays resulting from second language acquisition amongst ELL children who struggle academically.
Temple University--Theses

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Melcher, Charlene. "Provocatively and evocatively vivid language: An extension of Language Expectancy Theory." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/284504.

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The effects of vividness have been argued to be weak, elusive, and illusory. This study reconceptualized vividness as a language characteristic along four dimensions: emotional interest, concreteness, proximity, and image valence, and attempted to extend Language Expectancy Theory as the explanatory mechanism for vividness. Based on LET, it was proposed that an interaction effect between source characteristics (sex and credibility) and message characteristics (vividness) would occur. No support for the hypothesized interaction effects were found although the extension of Language Expectancy Theory to vividness is, ultimately, supported. Based on this study's finding that vivid messages were only slightly persuasive (creating more positive message evaluation and message agreement than did pallid messages), it is concluded that vivid language is not a promising message strategy for the health context. Refinements of Language Expectancy Theory in terms of expectancy strength and source credibility are suggested, and directions for future research advanced.

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Bradley, Alan. "The child's language of pain." Thesis, Durham University, 1990. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6622/.

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A series of experiments was conducted with children, aged between five and eleven years, which sought to determine the utility of using their verbal, and non-verbal, communications to measure the quality or intensity of the pain they are experiencing. Experiments which investigated children's ability to use language to communicate pain suggested that children are aged seven years, and older, before they discriminate between pain and non-pain words, or can show that these words share a similar meaning with an adult comparison group. When children aged between seven and ten years completed verbal pain questionnaires, the results showed that the seven year olds demonstrated only rudimentary discrimination between five acute painful situations. Discrimination improved with age, but the ten year olds were not as discriminating as an adult comparison group. Children aged five to ten years were asked to recall, and describe, all of their past painful experiences. Results show significant developmental trends in the following; the number of painful experiences that children can recall, the figurative use of language to describe the recalled pain, and the number of pain descriptions that children generate. An experiment investigated the reliability of non-verbal rating scales when completed by children aged between five and ten years. Results indicate that children below the age of seven failed to show satisfactory levels of reliability, and that the response strategies that they use may overestimate the degree of reliability they do show. Older children do show reliable responses using these scales. The final experiment looked for changes in children’s behaviour when they received either a drug or placebo, whilst undergoing a painful medical procedure. Results are not conclusive, but do suggest that the frequency and intensity of facial expressions, and vocalisations, decrease when an analgesic was administered. Overall, these studies show that children are, on average, seven years of age before we can use their own pain communications as reliable indicators of the quality and severity of the pain they experience.

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Snyder, Jodi Deeann. "The relationship between attachment, behavior problems, and parental stress in language delayed and non-language delayed children." Scholarly Commons, 1992. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2840.

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The present study was designed to assess the relationship between language disorders, maternal attachment, behavior problems, and parental stress. The mothers of the following four groups of children were studied: (a) language delayed children without behavior problems, (b) language delayed children with behavior problems, (c) non-language delayed children without behavior problems, and (d) non-language delayed children with behavior problems. Mothers completed three measures: (a) The Maternal Perceptions of Child Attachment, (b) The Maternal Gratification Scale, and (c) The Parenting Stress Index. Contrary to expectations, mothers of language delayed children reported more attachment to their children than did mothers of non-language delayed children. The presence of behavior problems did not seem to affect the mothers' perceived attachment but was associated with greater maternal stress. The results suggested that the child's needs associated with having a disability may actually enhance attachment while behavior problems not the disability itself contributed to maternal stress.

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Hargraves, Lisa. "The linguistic system of a deaf language learner : examining the effects of delayed language exposure." Thesis, McGill University, 2002. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=78374.

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This investigation reports on the linguistic and communicative abilities of a deaf child whose initial exposure to conventional linguistic input occurred at the age of 10. At the time of data collection, the participant had been exposed to American Sign Language (ASL) for three years. Information concerning the participant's background, language and communication abilities was collected through caregiver interviews. Language samples were gathered through storybook and video retelling tasks and spontaneous conversations. Samples were videotaped, and later transcribed by a native deaf signer of ASL. Analyses of the participant's lexical, morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic skills were performed. Results showed deficits across linguistic subsystems. Comparisons to native language learners of ASL and late first-language learners of spoken and signed languages revealed both typical and unique characteristics of late language acquisition. The results contradict past theoretical claims concerning the selective impact of language deprivation on the faculty of grammar. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

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Ecke, Peter 1964. "Cross-language studies of lexical retrieval: Tip-of-the-tongue states in first and foreign languages." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/282099.

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This dissertation investigates "tip-of-the-tongue" states (TOTs) in native speakers of English, Russian, and Spanish, studying foreign languages, and in fluent Spanish-English bilinguals. Study (1) explored retrospective reports of subjects' every-day experiences with TOTs. Study (2) investigated TOTs (fragmentary information, associated words, resolution type) that were recorded in structured diaries over a four-week period. Experimental study (3) examined TOTs elicited through definition and translation primes in Spanish-English bilinguals in the U.S., and speakers of Spanish in Mexico. Studies (1) and (2) found that English, Russian, and Spanish TOTs display similar characteristics, but also differences concerning reported letters, syllable numbers, and associates. Foreign language TOTs also displayed differences compared to first language TOTs (different target word types, more phonologically related associates, 24% interlingual associates, extensive reference use). Bilingual TOTs involved 22% interlingual associates and above-average resolutions through reference use. Most of the TOT targets across all groups were nouns; proper names occurred relatively infrequently. Subjects' access to gender in Russian and Spanish noun TOTs, strong syntactic constraints on word associates, and the similarity of most target-associate pairs in either meaning or form support two-stage models of lexical production: Word meaning and syntax is processed at a first stage, dissociated from a second stage at which sound structure is accessed. Study (3) elicited high TOT rates for targets from the diaries supporting the respresentativeness of the diary data. Bilinguals were found more susceptible to TOTs (32%) compared to the control group (14%). Translation proved to be a useful TOT elicitation technique reducing ambiguity compared to definition primes. A comparison of targets of different cognate status found increased recall for cognates compared to non-cognates but no reduction in TOT elicitation. Concerning TOT causation and development, it is argued that neither the incomplete activation hypothesis nor the blocking hypothesis can completely account for this data corpus. Various TOT types were suggested: incomplete activation (with or without non-blocking or facilitating associates), incomplete activation with late blocking associates, and early blocking. Whereas most TOTs appeared to be the product of incomplete target activation, some TOTs occurred as a consequence of word substitution errors.

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Lainez, Gloria. "Assessing Cultural and Linguistic Competencies in Doctoral Clinical Psychology Students." Thesis, Pepperdine University, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13812228.

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With an increase of Spanish-speakers residing in the United States, there is an increase in the need for Spanish-speaking mental health providers. Psychologists have to undergo years of education and extensive training in order to get licensed to provide services. However, little is known about the education and training of psychologists who are bilingual Spanish-English speakers providing mental health services to monolingual Spanish-speaking clients. This qualitative study gathered feedback via phone interviews from seven doctoral level psychology students who identified as bilingual Spanish-English. Feedback gathered was on the Spanish Language Assessment measure created by Dr. Rogelio Serrano in the hope of modifying the measure for future use. In addition, feedback was gathered on each participant?s experience in graduate school as it relates to preparedness for working with the Spanish-speaking population, suggestions for improving education and training in this area, and their understanding of cultural and linguistic competence. A thematic analysis outlined themes in participant responses. The findings will help shed light on the assessment for linguistic and cultural competence in bilingual Spanish-English clinicians, in addition to exploring ways to improve clinical graduate training for those working with Spanish-speaking populations. Keywords: bilingual, assessment, evaluation, training, cultural competence, linguistic competence, graduate training

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Gates, Andrea. "The effects of delayed first-language exposure on language acquisition : a case study." Thesis, McGill University, 2002. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=78365.

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The language and communication abilities of a deaf child (15;9) acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) as his first-language after puberty were investigated. The participant had been exposed to ASL for approximately three years at the time of testing. Background information and data concerning the participant's language and communication skills were collected from his foster parents. Videotaped language samples were collected in conversational and narrative contexts using various elicitation devices. Data from the language samples were transcribed and analyzed with respect to the participant's lexical, morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic skills. Comparison of the results of these analyses to what is known about native language acquisition, homesign, and late first-language acquisition revealed both similarities and differences between the participant and members of each of these three groups. Contrary to previous claims of dissociations between lexical, morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic development by late first-language learners, the participant demonstrated relatively similar abilities across different areas of language and communication. The theoretical implications of these results, as well as clinical implications and directions for future research, are discussed.

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Kanero, Junko Kanero. "Where Linguistics Meets Psychology: Can Talmy's Categories of Motion Events Explain How Children Learn Verbs?" Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2016. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/398534.

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Psychology
Ph.D.
This dissertation uses Talmy’s linguistic analysis to evaluate the Typological Prevalence Hypothesis – the idea that concepts that are consistently lexicalized across languages are easier to learn than less-consistently-lexicalized concepts, especially for young language learners (Gentner & Bowerman, 2009). We predicted that, for 2-year-olds, who have just begun verb acquisition, mapping a novel verb onto its referent should be easiest for categories that are consistently represented in the world’s verb systems (PATH of motion), followed by less consistently-represented concepts (MANNER of motion), and then concepts that are never represented (COLOR of an actor) (Research Question 1). We also evaluated whether this mapping pattern was predicted by age (Research Question 2) or individual differences in vocabulary levels (Research Question 3). Largely confirming our prediction, 2-year-olds were better at mapping verbs for PATH and MANNER than COLOR. Thus, at the early stage of verb acquisition, children are already equipped with basic knowledge of what verbs should encode. Later into development, 4-year-olds showed the language-specific verb-to-MANNER bias. Further, adults were most likely to associate a novel verb with MANNER, followed by PATH, and then COLOR, exactly mirroring the way the English verb system encodes motion events. Individual differences in language skills predicted the verb learning patterns in adults but not in children. Taken together, this dissertation provides an important step towards understanding how the semantic organization of language may relate to the process of verb acquisition.
Temple University--Theses

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McGinnis, Amanda Marie. "The role of attention in second language development implications for language classrooms /." CONNECT TO THIS TITLE ONLINE, 2007. http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05312007-125934/.

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Cox, Ethan Andrew. "Second language perception of accented speech." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/282887.

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The present study addresses a core issue in the study of speech perception, the question of how stable phonological representations are accessed from an inherently variable speech signal. In particular, the research investigates the perception of accented English speech by native and non-native listeners. It is known from previous research that foreign-accented speech is harder for native listeners to process than native-accented speech. The reason for this lies in not only qualities of the input (deviation from native production norms, for example) but also in qualities of the listener. Specifically, listeners' speech perception systems are tuned from an early age to pay attention to useful distinctions in the language environment but to attenuate differences which are not useful. This quality of the listeners' speech processing system suggests that in addition to being native speakers of a language or languages, we are also native listeners. However, what is a liability for native listeners (non-native input) may be a benefit for non-native listeners. When the foreign accent is derived from a single language shared between the speaker and the listener, application of native-language processing strategies to the accented input may result in more efficient processing of the input. The experiments in this dissertation address this possibility. In an experiment involving Dutch listeners processing Dutch-accented and American English-accented sentence materials, a reaction time advantage was observed for the mutually-accented materials. Experiments testing the main hypothesis with native Spanish-listening participants showed a different pattern of results. These participants, who had more experience with English overall that the Dutch participants, performed similarly to native-listening controls in displaying faster verification times for native accented materials than mutually-accented materials. These experiments lead to the conclusion that native-like listening, as assessed by the sentence verification paradigm employed in these experiments, can be achieved by non-native listeners. In particular, non-native listeners with little experience processing spoken English benefit from hearing input produced in a matching accent. Non-native listeners with sufficiently more experience processing spoken English, however, perform similar to native listeners, displaying an advantage for native accented input.

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O'Bryan, Erin Leigh. "Event structure in language comprehension." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289983.

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This dissertation presents and evaluates the hypothesis that event structure information such as telicity is used during language comprehension. A verb or verb phrase is telic if it denotes an event that necessarily progresses towards an endpoint. The major experimental finding presented in this dissertation is that garden pathing is less severe in reduced relative clause sentences with telic embedded verbs than in those with atelic embedded verbs. For example, in the structurally ambiguous sentence 'The actress awakened/sketched by the writer left in a hurry', less comprehension difficulty occurs on the word 'by' when the embedded verb is telic ('awakened') than when it is atelic ('sketched'). On-line measures of comprehension difficulty in three different experimental paradigms showed this result at the earliest disambiguation point (on the by-phrase). Two of these paradigms involved comprehension in reading, and the third one involved spoken language comprehension. These experiments also included the factor of obligatory transitivity: whether or not the verb requires a direct object. The results show that telicity and obligatory transitivity both immediately affect the severity of the garden path independently of each other. In order to address the issue of how to categorize verb phrases as telic or atelic, I conducted a computerized study which collected semantic judgments and grammaticality judgments on verb phrases used in three classic telicity tests from the event structure literature. The participants in the study were 24 English-speaking students in an introductory linguistics course. The results provide preliminary evidence that sentence frames, such as the adverbials 'for an hour' and 'in an hour', provide an objective means of categorizing verb phrases as telic or atelic. The research strongly suggests that verb telicity information should be included in models of human language comprehension. I discuss means of including telicity in several pre-existing comprehension models. The account that best explains the telicity and transitivity effects taken together is based on identifying canonical sentence patterns associated with thematic roles, as proposed by Townsend and Bever (2001). The information that a verb is inherently telic activates the use of an NV(N) template with an obligatory theme role.

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Lake, J. "Positive Psychology and Second Language Motivation: Empirically Validating a Model of Positive L2 Self." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2015. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/357658.

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Teaching & Learning
Ph.D.
Positive psychology is rapidly developing as a field in psychology. Many constructs associated with positive psychology have been developed but relationships have not been demonstrated to second language (L2) learning or L2 learning motivation. The main purpose of this study was to explore empirically some core constructs of positive psychology and L2 learning motivation by testing a structural model of the causal relationships among levels of self-concept, and L2 proficiency. In order to do that, it was first necessary to validate measurable components of each of the levels. The self-concept constructs were: a global positive self-concept, a domain-specific positive L2 self, and L2 skill specific self-efficacy. The various self-constructs were organized into finer levels of specificity, from the global to L2 domain to L2 domain skills. A structural model was created from three latent variables that were in turn created from measured variables at each level of specificity. For the latent positive self-concept the measured variables consisted of flourishing, hope, and curiosity. For the latent variable of positive L2 self the measured variables consisted of an interested-in-L2 self, passion-for-L2-learning self, and L2 mastery goal orientation. For the latent motivational variable of L2 self-efficacy the measured variables were L2 speaking self-efficacy, L2 listening self-efficacy, and L2 reading self-efficacy. The measured variables were based on adapted or newly created self-reports. To demonstrate that the model holds beyond self-reports, objective L2 proficiency measures were also modeled with the latent variables of positive self-concept and positive L2 self. To demonstrate the generalizability of the self-model with L2 proficiency, a cross-validation study was done with two different objective measures of L2 proficiency, TOEIC and TOEIC Bridge. The results for the study were all positive for the creation of composite variables and fit to causal models. Latent variables were created for a composite positive self-concept, a composite positive L2 self, and a composite L2 motivation variable. The positive self-concept and positive L2 self also fit a model that included an objective measure of L2 proficiency. Finally, structural equation modeling confirmed causal relationships among positive self-concept, positive L2 self with both L2 motivation and with L2 proficiency. This study showed how constructs from the rapidly expanding field of positive psychology can be integrated with second language motivation. This study showed one way positive psychology can be applied to second language learning and suggests that positive psychology might invigorate future L2 motivation studies.
Temple University--Theses

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19

Kamra, Kregert Karolina. "Language Barriers in Eyewitness Testimonies : The Effects of Speaking a Non-native Language on Accuracy and Perceived Confidence." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Psykologiska institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-194512.

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Testifying can be a highly stressful and taxing experience for an eyewitness. When testifying in a non-native language, the native language may interfere with the memory retrieval process. Thus, non-native speaking eyewitnesses face additional difficulties when providing their testimonies. However, it is unknown how the language barrier may affect the accuracy of the testimony. A sample of 33 Swedish-speaking participants were shown a mock crime film and gave a testimony in either a native or non-native (English) language. Ratings of perceived cognitive effort, perceived credibility and confidence of the testimony were also given. No significant differences were found. However, small differences were found with non-native speaking participants reporting fewer correct details, lower confidence, and lower perceived credibility. This could suggest that the judicial system needs to be aware of the difficulties faced by non-native speaking eyewitnesses and take these into account when evaluating these witnesses in order to achieve legal certainty. Sample size, other limitations and suggestions for future research is further discussed.

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Salley, Brenda J., and Wallace E. Jr Dixon. "Temperamental and Joint Attentional Predictors of Language Development." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2007. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/4898.

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Individual differences in child temperament have been associated with individual differences in language development. Similarly, relationships have been reported between early nonverbal social communication (joint attention) and both temperament and language. The present study examined whether individual differences in joint attention might mediate temperament-language relationships. Temperament, language, and joint attention were assessed in 51 21-month-olds. Results indicated an inverse relationship between aspects of temperamental difficulty, including low executive control and high negative affect, and language development. Temperamental aspects of negative affect were also inversely predictive of joint attention. However, the utility of a model in which joint attention mediates the relationship between temperament and language during the second year was not supported.

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21

Garza, Maria. "Second Language Recall in Methods of Learning." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/6788.

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This dissertation examined the relationship between the acquisition and recall of English language vocabulary. This study explored 2 different learning recall strategies to determine which approach was the quickest or more efficient way to remember vocabulary words. Previous researchers had focused on learning a second language phonetically and had not explored different instructional strategies to study the most useful or quickest way to learn a second language for adults. However, there remains an important gap in the current research regarding how to present different methods of instruction to acquire a new second language more rapidly. The purpose of this study was to determine which method was easier and quicker to assist the second language learner to recall and acquire vocabulary. The sample came from 3 different adult second language classrooms. The participants completed a pretest to assess their English word knowledge before the treatment. The participants had a timed 15-min or 30-min period to learn the cards for recall using flash cards with words only or with words and pictures. Once the period was over, the participants completed a posttest measure of language acquisition. There were no statistically significant differences in posttest scores based on method of learning, length of time for learning, or the interaction between the two. The results of the study added to the research on determining whether different instructional methods assisted an adult second language learner to acquire a second language more swiftly.

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22

Gibb, Catherine Elizabeth. "Temporal lobe epilepsy : the effects on language." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.362519.

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Rookstool, Kelsey, Kelsey Long, Lauren P. Driggers-Jones, and Wallace E. Jr Dixon. "Effects of Birth Order on Temperament and Language." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/4908.

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Birth order effects have been the subject of considerable research in the developmental literature. One aim of the present investigation was to explore links between temperament and birth order. Temperament should be linked to birth order. Because infant temperament is related to maternal stress during pregnancy (Huizink et al, 2002), and because mothers caring for children while pregnant presumably experience more stress, laterborn children could have different temperamental profiles than earlier-born children. Research has also shown reliable links between birth order and vocabulary size in infancy; with second born children demonstrating significantly larger vocabularies at 21 months (Oshima-Takane et al., 1996). However, to our knowledge, no studies have investigated the relationship between birth order and gestural productivity. Because gestural production is linked to language development (Iverson & Goldin-Meadow, 2005), it stands to reason that birth order should also be linked to gestural production. Thus, our second aim was to evaluate the relationship between birth order and gestural production. Eighty-three children (32 girls) visited the lab at M = 15.45 months (SD = 1.92 months). Caregivers completed the Infant Behavioral Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R), the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Gestures (MCDIWG), and a demographic questionnaire assessing family size and birth order. The IBQ-R produced three overarching superdimensions: surgency, negative affectivity, and effortful control. Gestural productivity was derived from the MCDI-WG. In line with our first aim, we evaluated correlations between infant temperament and birth order. These analyses revealed a significant and positive relationship between later-born status and temperamental negative affectivity (r = .27, p = .03), indicating that later-born children were rated by mothers as temperamentally more negative in affective expression. Neither other temperament superdimension was related to birth order. Follow-up analyses revealed that sadness was the only subdimension of negative affectivity to be associated with later-born status (r = .31, p < .01). To investigate whether birth order was related to gestural production, we analyzed correlations between birth order and the MCDI-WG categories of "performing actions with objects" and "imitation". Positive and significant associations between birth order and both gestural production measures were found (performing actions with objects, r = .30, p = .03; and imitation, r = .35, p < .01). Although these results were in line with our expectations, they remain to be supported by replication. In the meantime, these results suggest interesting findings for both temperament and language researchers. First, later born children appear more at risk for temperamental difficulty. The source of this risk could include heightened maternal prenatal stress during pregnancy. But the source could also be postnatal, perhaps exacerbated by later-borns spending proportionally less time with caregivers, or more time sharing with siblings. Secondly, the gestural production results suggest that later born children are at a particular advantage. This advantage may be due to the fact that later born children, by virtue of their larger families, have more mode.

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Feiman, Roman. "The Structure and Development of Logical Representations in Thought and Language." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:23845487.

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The expressive power of human thought and language comes from the ability to systematically combine a finite vocabulary of concepts into a boundless number of meaningful thoughts. What properties of conceptual representations enable their combination? Three papers investigate different aspects of the combinatorial system in the context of a single general approach – taking logical concepts as a special case of concepts whose content is completely specified by their combinatorial properties. The first paper looks at infants’ ability to represent two types of goals: approach and avoid, where each goal-type could be represented as the negation of the other. Consistent with past literature, we find evidence of children representing approach at 7 month, but failing to represent avoid at both 7 and 14 months. This suggests that these children cannot combine their representation of approach with a negation operator, possibly because they do not yet have this operator. In the second paper, we continue to look at the emergence of logical negation through the relationship between the emergence of the concept and the words that label it. We find that, although 15-month-olds say the word “no”, they do not understand its logical meaning until 24 months. This is the same age at which they begin to produce the word “not”, comprehend its logical meaning, and use both “no” and “not” to deny the truth of others’ statements. This pattern of results suggest a common limiting factor on the mapping of any word to the concept of logical negation. This factor could be the emergence of the concept, or a linguistic limitation common to both “no” and “not”. The third paper looks at the properties of the combinatorial system in adults, taking linguistic quantifier scope ambiguity phenomena as a case study. Using a priming paradigm, we find evidence for independent combinatorial operations for the universal quantifiers EACH, EVERY and ALL, but common operations for the numbers THREE, FOUR and FIVE. We also find that the semantic operations that compose quantifier meanings abstract away from the verb and noun content of sentences. This suggests a division of labor in adult combinatorial thought, with conceptual content represented separately from the combinatorial properties of concepts.
Psychology

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Esquivel, Adriana. "Language Brokering a Dynamic Phenomenon: A Qualitative Study Examining the Experiences of Latina/o Language Brokers." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/52.

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Language brokers are children of immigrants who use their skills as bilinguals to interpret or translate for their family and/or community members. Although language brokering may begin in childhood or preadolescence, language brokering may continue until adulthood. While there are a small number of studies that have touched upon change over time, this study’s primary focus is on language brokers’ experiences relating to change over time. This was accomplished through semi-structured in depth retrospective interviews among Latina/o young adults attending small liberal arts colleges. Three aspects of language brokering were examined, the practice of language brokering, feeling towards language brokering, and family dynamics. Three new aspects of language brokering emerged, brokering for parent’s business, brokering for the community, and brokering technology. Siblings played the role of the language broker at different points in time and to different extents. Parents’ English language developed, and they were able to navigate some tasks due to their language development and their experience completing typical forms. Feelings of joy and frustration, in deed, coexist. Feelings towards language brokering also changed from embarrassment and nervousness to confidence and satisfaction. The patterns and experiences found in this study highlight the complexity and dynamic nature of language brokering.

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Verbos, John. "Non-symbolic Exact Quantity Representation in a Language-Impaired Population." Thesis, Duquesne University, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10844959.

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The linguistic relativity hypothesis argues that language influences non-linguistic cognition. One version of the hypothesis suggests that language is a set of tools or technologies that variously enhance or dampen an individual’s capacity to perceive and operate upon the world in certain ways. A domain in which this may be tested is number, where it is hypothesized that counting language allows us to bridge our innate capacities for recognizing small exact quantities (subitizing) and approximating quantities larger than three or four (analog magnitude estimation). To test this, previous studies have asked adult participants who have limited or no access to counting language to re-present non-symbolic exact quantities—that is, for participants to create an array of objects equal in number to a target array of objects presented to the participant. In these studies, both English-speakers whose access to number language was artificially compromised by verbal interference and the Pirahã—an Amazonian tribe whose language does not contain exact number words—appeared to rely on analog magnitude estimation for representing non-symbolic exact quantities greater than three. This suggests that the ability to consistently and accurately recognize and re-present non-symbolic exact quantities is impaired by having limited or no access to counting language. Here, sixteen participants with left-hemisphere damage from stroke and resulting aphasia performed the same five non-verbal, non-symbolic matching tasks from these previous studies. It was expected that coefficients of variation for particular tasks, and correlations between target magnitude with both respect to both error rate and error size across tasks, would suggest use of analog magnitude estimation by these verbally impaired participants. Participants also completed three additional number tasks (number elicitation, confrontation naming with Arabic numerals, and a count list recitation task) and a subset of participants completed nonverbal semantic processing and short-term memory tasks (Pyramids and Palm Trees and a verbal semantic category probe) to better understand errors on nonverbal matching tasks. Results indicated that for people with aphasia, non-symbolic exact quantity representation was more difficult than for people without aphasia, except when target quantities were presented in subitizable groups. Overall, participants made more frequent and larger errors when representing larger quantities and struggled when the target was not visible. Participants who had difficulty with tasks where the target was visible during response also had difficulty with tasks where the target was not visible during response. However, another group of participants only had difficulty with tasks where the target was not visible during response. Additionally, participants who had difficulty with non-verbal aphasia assessment subtests were more likely to err on non-symbolic exact quantity representation tasks where the target was visible during response, while participants who had difficulty with aphasia assessment subtests that required verbal responses were more likely to err on non-symbolic exact quantity representation tasks where the target was not visible during response. These results, alongside correlations with aphasia assessment battery performance, suggest that (1) accuracy on non-symbolic exact quantity matching tasks where the target is visible on response rely more heavily on visuospatial abilities than on language or memory; (2) tasks involving subitizing small exact quantities do not appear to require the same visuospatial capacities; and (3) non-symbolic exact quantity matching tasks where the target is not visible on response rely upon language and memory abilities—especially the capacity for verbal counting. Taken together, these findings reinforce the notion that verbal counting facilitates the consistent and accurate recognition and representation of exact quantities larger than three or four by bridging innate human capacities for subitizing and analog magnitude estimation. Overall, the present results further inform our understanding of tasks previously used to understand the relationship between language and number in a culture lacking words for number concepts.

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Shi, Enchao. "Second language grammar and secondary predication." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289919.

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This study aims to formulate a theory of L2 grammar adequate enough to account for the final L2 state. We argued that L 2 I-language was free of L1 properties, the basis of the CHL2 Uniformity Hypothesis (CUH), and that L1-related performance data were effects of the Relativized Transfer Condition (RTC), constituting the L2 performance systems. The English resultatives (Mary painted the house red), available in Mandarin and depictives (John ate the meat raw), unavailable in Mandarin, were used to examine the hypotheses. Nineteen Mandarin speakers of English and nineteen native speakers of English participated in the study. The L2 subjects had lived in the United States for an average of ten years and 5 months at the time of the experiments. The subjects were tested in four experiments: the Guided Production (GP) test, the Clause-combining (CC) test, the Grammaticality Judgment (GJ) test, and the Interpretation (IT) test. Results were processed through t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and factorial ANOVA procedures. Important findings emerged. First, L 2 subjects showed knowledge of both English resultatives and depictives, indistinct from that of the controls in some, but not all, tests. Second, while their knowledge of the canonical constructions resembled that of the controls, L2 subjects were more reluctant to construct resultatives and depictives than the native counterparts in some tests. We attribute such irregularities to the modality of measurements, which affected the L 2 subjects' performance, but not their grammatical knowledge. This speculation was confirmed in experiments (i.e., the CC, GJ, and IT tests), where L 2 subjects, when specifically directed to produce resultatives and depictives, performed just like the controls. We therefore conclude that the final L 2 state coincides with the final state attained by the native speakers. We further claim that it is logical to speculate that the linguistic and acquisitional mechanisms that led to the final L2 state must constitute exactly the same set as the one employed by the native speakers. Therefore, we conclude that the CUH (CHL2 Uniformity Hypothesis) is true of late L 2 speakers. By the same token, we also conclude that the RTC (Relativized Transfer Condition) consists of adult L2 development.

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Mason, Laura L. "Extended Pedigree Analysis of Language Impairment and Reading Disability." The Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1525698390041457.

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29

Gillstrom, Brenda Jean. "Language-related hand gestures in criminal psychopaths." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28052.

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Hand gestures were coded from videotaped interviews of male prison inmates divided into high (P), medium (M) and low (NP) groups based on the Psychopathy Checklist (Hare, 1980). Compared with other groups, psychopaths were found to make more beats (a type of nonreferential language-related gesture) when speaking about their family background but not when speaking about their criminal history. There were no group differences in the use of other language gestures or nonlanguage gestures. The results are discussed in terms of speech encoding difficulties that psychopaths may experience in relation to content that involves concepts or words that are abstract or emotion-laden. The results are consistent with language research, and suggest that psychopaths differ from others in the processing and use of language.
Arts, Faculty of
Psychology, Department of
Graduate

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Libben, Maya. "The role of context in bilingual language processing." Thesis, McGill University, 2010. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=86797.

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This thesis investigates the linguistic factors that mediate lexical access in bilinguals. A fundamental question regarding bilingualism is whether the bilingual lexicon has a language-specific organization (having independent or modular memory stores for each known language) or a language-non-specific organization (having an integrated memory store containing all known words in both languages). Previous studies have largely demonstrated that bilinguals simultaneously access representations from both languages during comprehension, thus adhering to the non-selective activation approach. However, the degree to which activation spreads across language representations has been found to depend on several mitigating factors, which are the focus of this research.
The three studies presented in this dissertation investigate access to words that exist across languages such as interlingual homographs (e.g., chat - casual talk in English, cat in French) and cognates (e.g., film and piano, which are identical in English and French). In Chapter 2 (Libben & Titone, 2009), we investigate the effect of sentence context and semantic constraint on non-selective access for bilinguals reading in their second language, using eye-movement methodology. French-English bilinguals read English sentences containing cognates, interlingual homographs, or matched control words. Sentences provided low or high semantic constraint for target-language meanings. Results suggested that bilinguals, reading in their second language, show non-selective access to cross-linguistically ambiguous words during sentence reading, but that this activation is attenuated in high constraint contexts during later stages of processing.
Chapter 3 (Libben et al., under revision) presents two experiments that use a similar sentence reading paradigm as that employed in Chapter 2, but tested English dominant English-French bilinguals reading in their native language. In Experiment 1, participants were presented only with English sentences while in Experiment 2, French filler sentences were also included. Results suggested that, when bilinguals read in their native language they are able to selectively access the context-appropriate language. However, in the presence of second language cues, non-selective spreading of activation occurs. The three experiments presented in Chapter 4 use behavioural techniques to test the generalizability of the findings reported in the previous two studies and investigate specific participant- and lexical-features that contribute to non-selective access patterns.
Together these studies argue for an integrated and context-sensitive bilingual language processing system where the semantic framework that is constructed during reading provides important top-down influences on lexical access of words that are cross-linguistically ambiguous. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings, as well as avenues for future research are discussed.
Cette thèse de doctorat explore les facteurs linguistiques qui affectent l'accès lexical chez les individus bilingues. Une question fondamentale ayant trait au bilinguisme est de déterminer si le lexique bilingue possède une organisation spécifique à chaque langue (comportant des recueils de mots en mémoire qui sont indépendants ou modulaires pour chaque langue connue) ou une organisation intégrée non-spécifique (comportant un seul recueil pour les mots connus dans les deux langues). Des études récentes ont démontré que les bilingues accèdent simultanément aux représentations mentales de mots provenant des deux langues durant la compréhension, supportant ainsi la notion d'accès non-sélectif à un lexique intégré. Cependant, la mesure dans laquelle l'activation lexicale se propage d'une langue à l'autre dépend de plusieurs facteurs mitigeant, et ceux-ci représentent le focus des travaux de recherches présentés ici.
Les trois études présentées dans cette thèse de doctorat explorent l'accès à des mots existant dans deux langues tels que des homographes interlinguales (chat, par exemple, signifie une conversation légère en anglais et un chat en français) et des mots « cognats » (film et piano, par exemple, sont identiques en anglais et en français). Dans le chapitre 2 (Libben & Titone, 2009), nous utilisons la méthode de traçage oculaire pour investiguer les effets que le niveau de contrainte sémantique créé par des phrases a sur l'accès non-sélectif des mots chez des individus bilingues lisant dans leur langue seconde. Dans le cadre de cette étude, des individus bilingues français-anglais lisaient des phrases anglaises contenant des mots cognats, des homographes interlinguales ou des mots contrôles. Les résultats suggèrent que des individus bilingues lisant dans leur langue seconde accèdent de façon non-sélective à des mots pouvant être qualifiés comme ambigus de par leur existence dans les deux langues, mais que cette activation est atténuée à des étapes plus avancées du traitement lexical lorsque les mots rencontrés sont contenus dans des phrases créant un contexte sémantique fort.
Le chapitre 3 (Libben et al., en révision) présente deux expériences utilisant un paradigme de lecture de phrases similaire à celui employé dans le chapitre 2, mais chez des individus bilingues anglais-français dont la langue maternelle est l'anglais lisant dans leur langue maternelle. Dans la première expérience, les participants lisaient une liste de phrases présentées uniquement en anglais, alors que dans la seconde expérience les listes contenaient aussi des phrases françaises. Les résultats suggèrent que les individus bilingues peuvent accéder à leur lexique de manière sélective lorsqu'ils lisent dans leur langue maternelle, activant uniquement les représentations propres à la langue appropriée dans le contexte. Cependant, lorsque mis en présence d'indices provenant de la langue seconde, l'activation lexicale se propage de façon non-sélective. Finalement, les trois expériences présentées dans le chapitre 4 utilisent des techniques comportementales afin de tester la généralisabilité des résultats obtenus dans les deux études précédentes et explorent les facteurs spécifiques aux participants ou aux caractéristiques lexicales qui contribuent aux patrons d'accès non-sélectifs obtenus.
Les résultats de ces études plaident en faveur d'un système de traitement lexical intégré mais sensible au contexte chez les individus bilingues, où le cadre sémantique élaboré durant la lecture procure d'importantes influences de haut en bas sur l'accès lexical de mots dont l'appartenance linguistique est ambigüe. Les implications théoriques et appliquées de ces résultats ainsi que des avenues à explorer dans le futur sont discutées.

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31

Street, Vanessa. "Autonomous language learning : the role of the computer." Thesis, University of Kent, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.342272.

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Timol, Ridwana. "Aphasia and the presence of language in dreams." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8044.

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A study was done to ascertain the presence of dreams and the quality of language in dreams in patients with aphasia. 24 aphasic subjects were interviewed using Kagan's (1998) Supported Conversation for Adults with Aphasia (SCA) technique of communication. The main hypothesis investigated was that aphasic patients would experience a better quality of language while dreaming than while awake. Severity being kept constant, aphasia in its acute stage displays greater discrepancy between pre- morbid and morbid language abilities than in its recovering, chronic stage. Therefore, a secondary hypothesis was formulated whereby the difference between language in waking life and language in dreams would be more significant in acute aphasics than in chronic aphasics. Thirdly, it was hypothesized that fluent aphasics would experience less dreaming, if any, since posterior lesions have been found to correlate with cessation or reduction in dreaming. Language in dreams was found to be significantly better than language in waking life amongst the 63% of subjects who reported dreaming. Differences in trends between the categories i) acute and chronic and ii) fluent and non- fluent aphasics, that is the second and third hypotheses, did not achieve statistical significance.

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33

Chong, De La Cruz Isis Arlen. "The role of language profiles in complex driving environments." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10007414.

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Bilinguals have been found to outperform monolinguals across a variety of cognitive tasks (e.g., Bialystok, Craik, & Luk, 2008). Research regarding the generalizability of the bilingual advantage in driving, however, has not been conclusive (Chong & Strybel, 2015; Telner, Wiesenthal, Bialystok, & York, 2008). This study aimed to investigate differences in monolingual and bilingual performance in a simulated driving task. The Lane Change Test (LCT) was used to assess driving performance in the presence of a peripheral detection task (PDT), delayed digit recall task (2-back task), and visuospatial task (clock task). Results demonstrated that both monolinguals and bilinguals performed equally across all tasks. Completing a cognitive task, however, was found to be detrimental to both driving and the detection of peripheral stimuli. Given the controversial nature of the bilingual advantage, possible explanations for the null results obtained for the two language profiles are discussed.

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Hubbard, Chris. "The Role of Foreign Language Experience on Executive Control." Ohio Dominican University Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oduhonors1462358824.

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Dixon, Wallace E. Jr. "Toward an Attention-Competition Model of Temperament-Language Relationships." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2009. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/4932.

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Gardner, Eliza Racquel. "Language Acquisition with English Language Learners Who Have Developmental Delays." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2017. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6725.

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The current study examined the effects of language instruction with two preschool age students who are English language learners who have developmental delays using the incidental teaching method. Language targets were randomly chosen according to the language level of each student and the targets were either in Spanish (L1) or English (L2). The students were in a special education classroom and researchers worked with them one-on-one, using the natural learning environment to teach and to better implement learning objectives. Targets were withheld during play and students had to mand, tact, or use intraverbal skills to receive the item. Their reward was the object they desired after they manded, tacted, or used intraverbal language. The experimental effects were measured using a single case, repeated acquisition design. The intervention was maintained for five months. The results indicated that acquisition of English (L2) is acquired faster after Spanish (L1) has been appropriately taught. Implications for further research are discussed.

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Goodman, Kaylen E. "Lorem Ipsum| Language and Its Nonmeanings." Thesis, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13806655.

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Words are a human medium for relaying any and all psychic states, from mundane to profound, and as a medium of description language also is considered an archetype. In the practice of psychotherapy the practitioner and client must find common linguistic ground in order to collaborate effectively and facilitate the therapeutic process. This thesis utilizes hermeneutic, alchemical hermeneutic, and heuristic methodologies— interweaving mythology, philosophy, psychology, and literature—as a means of emphasizing the poetic nature of the soul and a multifaceted approach to what James Hillman referred to as "soul-making." The research is guided by the principal question: How does language shift the imaginative landscape and deepen experience? Hermes is present in this work as a mythological figure as well as the archetypal representation of shape-shifting, uncertainty, and the ability to move in and out of literal and nonliteral realms, emphasizing the importance of metaphor in the therapeutic encounter.

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Gouge, Natasha B., and Wallace E. Jr Dixon. "Temperament-Language Relationships During the First Formal Year of School." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2013. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/4920.

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Bisi, Elizabeth A. "Impacts of Motor and Sensory Impairment on Language in Young Children with Autism." Thesis, Seattle Pacific University, 2021. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=28023622.

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Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present with varying degrees of deficit in the broader areas of social communication and stereotyped behaviors, but emerging research proposes delayed motor skill and atypical sensory processing as additional factors worth closer examination. In the current study, I sought to investigate the impacts of visual motor skills and sensory differences on language ability in young children with autism. I hypothesized that young children with autism, atypical sensory processing (Short Sensory Profile, 2nd Edition), and impaired visual motor integration (Beery VMI, 6th Edition) would have the most impacted language ability scores (Differential Ability Scales, 2nd Edition). A total of 22 children, eight with autism (25% female; M age = 66 months or 5.5 years) and 14 with typical development (50% female; M age = 73 months or 6 years) between the ages of 3:0 and 9:6 and their parents completed measures for this study. Findings were significant for the relations of status (i.e., TD vs. ASD) on language ability [t(20) = 2.66, p = .015], status on visual motor integration [t(20) = 2.27, p = .035], and for status on sensory processing [t(20) = −5.35, p < .001]. Results of the three-way interaction indicated that 72% of the variance in language ability was accounted for by the key variables in this model, but this hypothesis was not supported: p = .09, B = .15, CI95 = −.031 to .33. Related hypotheses of visual motor integration on status and language, sensory processing on status and language, and between visual motor integration and sensory were also not supported. Ancillary analyses of individual moderation indicated significant status group (TD vs. ASD) differences for children with visual motor integration full form standard scores of 119 and below (p < .05) and for children with total sensory scores of 25 to 36 (p < .05). These post hoc findings are consistent with previous literature and demonstrate promise for replication in future research with a larger and more heterogeneous sample. Further research on these constructs is encouraged as it could inform meaningful pathways for early intervention.

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Hayes, Rachel L. "How are second language phoneme contrasts learned." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289939.

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Listeners are sensitive to phonetic differences that correspond to phonemic contrasts in their native language, and they often exhibit difficulty discriminating sounds that are not contrastive in their native language. Although a large literature shows that learners can improve their perception of novel contrasts with exposure to a second language, there is still little understanding of how learners accomplish this. There are at least two possible sources of evidence that learners might use to acquire sensitivity to novel sound contrasts. First, learners might use their knowledge of minimal pairs in the language to determine which sounds are contrastive. For example, knowing the minimal pair toe-doe may provide learners with evidence that /t/ and /d/ are contrastive in English (Lexical-Contrast-Based Evidence). Second, learners might compute the statistical distributions of the acoustic-phonetic properties of their second language input. The logic is that two contrastive speech sounds will be represented by distinct distributions along a of a number of acoustic-phonetic dimensions (Distribution-Based Evidence). Although both are possible sources of the evidence learners use to acquire novel second language sound contrasts, the relative influence of these two types of information is not yet known. Experiments 1 and 2 of this dissertation employ a variety of training techniques to determine the relative influence of Lexical-Contrast-Based and Distribution-Based evidence on participants' sensitivity to a novel contrast. Results indicate that while both kinds of evidence affect sensitivity, Lexical-Contrast-Based evidence had a stronger influence on discrimination performance. While Experiments 1 and 2 tested learners' sensitivity to novel contrasts, it is not yet clear that improved discrimination ability is of benefit in subsequent second language learning. Experiment 3 examined the linguistic relevance of participants' improved discrimination ability by testing learners' lexical representations for new words that differed minimally with respect to the trained contrast. Regardless of training condition, participants did not record the new contrast distinctly in their lexical representations. That participants exhibited sensitivity to the novel contrast but were nonetheless unable to record the contrast lexically suggests a dissociation between learners' acoustic-phonetic knowledge of their second language and their ability to represent that knowledge contrastively in their lexicon.

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Morgan, Gary. "The development of discourse cohesion in British sign language." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1983/f4b4bbd5-59d1-4321-8554-71d73a2bf461.

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Bailey, Beth A., Andrea D. Clements, Jessica Scott, and Lana McGrady. "Prenatal Smoke Exposure and Language Outcomes at 15 Months: Social Aspects of Communication Versus Expressive and Receptive Language." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2011. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/7273.

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Gouge, Natasha Benfield. "Temperament-Language Relationships during the First Formal Year of School." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2011. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1288.

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The purpose of the current study was to investigate temperament-language relationships among school-age children and across a wider variety of SES. Head Start, Pre-K, and Kindergarten classes of 10 elementary schools located in rural Appalachia were sent information about the study and 35 children were consented to participate. Parents completed a short demographic survey and the Child Behavior Questionnaire Very Short Form (CBQ-VSF). Children were administered the Preschool Language Scale-4 (PLS-4). Participants were split into low and high SES groups so associations between the CBQ and PLS-4 scores could be compared at each SES strata. Both reactivity and self-regulation were associated with language outcomes, consistent with prior research. Importantly, socioeconomic status was not found to moderate observed temperament-language relationships, so prior temperament-language research findings do not seem to be an artifact of high SES samples.

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Dixon, Wallace E. Jr, Natasha B. Gouge, Jaima S. Price, and Lauren P. Driggers-Jones. "Household Income Moderates the Relationship Between Temperament and Language Development." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2017. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/4909.

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Price, Jaima, and Wallace E. Jr Dixon. "Infant Attentional Processing and Language Acquisition: The Role of Posture." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2016. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/4913.

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Vdovichenko, Susan E. Crangle. ""Durku Vklyuchili!" the attitude of Russian speakers in Ukraine towards the Ukrainian language and its speakers /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1211480658.

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Zavaleta, Kaitlyn Leigh. "The Role of Executive Control in Language Learning." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/332902.

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This dissertation examines whether enhanced executive function plays a role in successful second language acquisition (SLA). Specifically, I examine learners’ performance in language learning tasks and in three tasks argued to reflect components of Miyake et al.’s (2000) model of executive control. Many studies in the past decade have claimed to find superior performance in executive control tasks by lifelong bilinguals (e.g., Bialystok, 2011). There is also research that supports a relationship between bilingualism and success in third language acquisition (TLA) (e.g., Kaushanskaya & Marian, 2009). The purpose of the present research is to explore whether an advantage in learning an additional language might be due to enhanced executive function. If enhanced executive function aids language learning, then I expect to find a significant correlation between performance on a language learning task and performance on executive function tasks, even for learners without a history of bilingualism. In this dissertation, I first describe the literature that examines the variables that support SLA, as well as research showing a bilingual advantage in executive function. Next I present empirical studies I conducted in which monolinguals, language learners, and bilinguals were taught novel words in an unfamiliar language (Turkish) and completed a series of language learning and executive function tasks, as well as another study in which language learners and bilinguals currently enrolled in a second language course were tested in the same tasks. Results show some group effects for executive function and language learning tasks, but the results are not consistent with previous research. Furthermore, the relationship between executive function skills and language learning success is complex and inconsistent, suggesting that further research is needed.

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Harrington, Val. "Analysis of the lived experiences of young adults with specific language impairment and/or pragmatic language impairment to inform counselling psychology practice." Thesis, University of Wolverhampton, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2436/209937.

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Some seven percent of children in the general population are affected by Specific Language Impairment and/or Pragmatic Language Impairment with numerous cases undiagnosed. It is known that difficulty in communication affects psychosocial functioning and is likely to be a source of mental distress but the data on people’s access to and benefit from psychological intervention are limited. There is also limited understanding of psychologists’ capacity to meet these clients’ needs although their problems continue into adulthood. This research questions the population of counselling and clinical psychologists about their knowledge and experience of these disorders using an electronic questionnaire. Qualitative methods were then adopted with three participants with SLI/PLI and four psychologist practitioners familiar with such clients; this involved semi-structured interviews analysed using IPA and TA respectively. The purpose was to interpret and develop the clients' lived experiences into themes which were then used to look for possible connecting themes in the psychologists’ transcripts. This process was termed "interconnection" and was intended to reveal the coincidence and convergence of the two sides of the client/psychologist dyad. Results showed that whereas findings demonstrated the young men possessed a spectrum of coping and defence strategies as constituent parts of resilience, including self-esteem, self-identity and self-efficacy, the psychologists did not see the client as a congruent whole, addressing either their impairment or their mental health problem. Client resiliencies were not used in therapy and psychosocial difficulties were not recognised as a focus of distress although they did endeavour to modify their therapeutic approaches. Finally, consideration is given to whether the research aim is met, the implications for counselling psychology and possible future research. It is proposed that this methodology of interconnection has the potential to provide a novel approach to inform any future research and service development for this and other client groups in the way it takes patients/clients into account and connects them with professional working.

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Lin, Hui-Ju. "Bilingualism, feedback, cognitive capacity, and learning strategies in L3 development." Connect to Electronic Thesis (ProQuest) Connect to Electronic Thesis (CONTENTdm), 2009. http://worldcat.org/oclc/453905362/viewonline.

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Waninge, Freerkien. "Emotion and motivation in language learning." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2017. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47639/.

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This thesis investigates the interaction of emotion and motivation in language learning. By means of three independent research studies, I analyse the interaction of affective, motivational, and cognitive factors as they appear in relation to the context of a classroom. Rather than studying motivation, affect, or cognition in relative isolation in terms of their impact on language development, I argue that it is worthwhile to study the amalgams formed by these three forces by means of a dynamic systems–based research methodology. The research methodology employed for the first research study is primarily based on the concept of attractor states: salient and relatively stable states of a dynamic system. I demonstrate the existence of four main classroom states: interest, boredom, neutral attention, and anxiety. The factors forming the attractor basin for these states are cognitive, affective, motivational, and contextual in nature. This indicates that affect and motivation have an impact on language learners via the state they produce through their interaction with cognitive and contextual factors. In the second research study of this thesis, I analyse the self-regulation and perseverance of ten language learners from various backgrounds. I argue that a learner’s attractor basin produces a stronger and more positive attractor when there are strong motivational elements present, such as a well thought-out goal orientation. Although other factors may diminish in strength due, for example, to a new teacher with whom the learner does not get along, or a new topic that is no longer enjoyable, a well-defined and sufficiently internalised goal orientation can be the key to successful self-regulation and, ultimately, greater success in learning the target language. In the final research study, I demonstrate that the factors that contribute to the construction of the aforementioned state in the classroom are different for younger and older learners. For older learners, the motivational element plays a significantly more prominent part, while for younger learners the affective, cognitive, and contextual elements are more important. Furthermore, the older learners have the ability to analyse and deconstruct their classroom state, while this is not the case for younger learners. Instead, the experience of the classroom for younger learners is made up of an indistinguishable combination of affective, cognitive, and contextual elements, which combine into an overall feeling of “I like it” or “It is difficult”. Although this can result in the impression that a young learner’s state is determined entirely by affective elements, this is not, in fact, the case; rather, these states are most likely a combination of affective, cognitive, and contextual elements.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Psychology of language'

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