Argentinean Psycholinguistic Picture Naming Test in color.

Color has demonstrated to have an influence on picture naming tasks. Objects with high color diagnosticity are recalled faster than objects with low value. That is why the Argentinean Psycholinguistic Picture Naming Test in color (PAPDIC in Spanish) was designed. The items and semantic cues were built considering local psycholinguistic norms. A series of psychometric analyses were performed on a sample of patients with focal brain damage with (n = 11) and without (n = 14) aphasia, a sample of patients with degenerative disease (n = 46) and two samples of healthy participants (young n = 27, old n = 50). Evidence of convergent validity was obtained through the correlation with the brief Boston Naming Test (r = 0.871; p < .001); of criteria validity by means of contrasted groups analysis (t = 4.059, p < .001), and through the ROC curve analysis (AUC = 0.993). Scores' reliability was explored by means of an internal consistency analysis (KR20 = 0.905). These results indicate that the PAPDIC is a promising color naming test which can be applied in the field of clinical neuropsychology to identify anomia. This test has several advantages in comparison with the available naming tests in Argentina.

Core Semantic Links or Lexical Associations: Assessing the Nature of Responses in Word Association Tasks.

The processes tapped by the widely-used word association (WA) paradigm remain a matter of debate: while some authors consider them as driven by lexical co-occurrences, others emphasize the role of meaning-based connections. To test these contrastive hypotheses, we analyzed responses in a WA task in terms of their normative defining features (those describing the object denoted by the cue word). Results indicate that 72.5% of the responses had medium-to-high coincidence with such defining semantic features. Moreover, 75.51% of responses had medium-to-high values of Relevance (a measure of the importance of the feature for construing a given concept). Furthermore, most responses (62.7%) referred to elements of the situation in which the concept usually appears, followed by sensory properties (e.g., color) of the denoted object (27.86%). These results suggest that the processes behind WA tasks involve a reactivation of the cue item's semantic properties, particularly those most relevant to its core meaning.

PAPDI: Prueba Argentina Psicolingüística de Denominación de Imágenes.: Segunda parte: Estudio de sus propiedades psicométricas / PAPDI: Argentinean Psycholinguistic Image Naming Test.: Second part: Study of psychometric properties

En el presente trabajo se detallan los análisis realizados con el fin de estudiar las propiedades psicométricas la Prueba Argentina Psicolingüística de Denominación de Imágenes (PAPDI). La misma cuenta con dos cualidades que representan un valor agregado frente a las pruebas actualmente disponibles en nuestro país: a) los estímulos fueron seleccionados controlando las variables que afectan las etapas de análisis visual y de representación conceptual de la imagen del objeto y se manipularon las variables que afectan la selección y recuperación de la etiqueta léxica, en base a valores normativos de población argentina; y b) las claves semánticas se elaboraron de acuerdo con normas de producción de atributos semánticos también recolectadas en nuestro país. En este trabajo se analizaron las propiedades psicométricas mediante el estudio de pacientes con demencia tipo Alzheimer, con lesiones cerebrales focales y participantes sin patología neurológica. Se buscaron evidencias de validez de criterio mediante el análisis de grupos contrastados y la correlación con el test de Boston. A su vez, se estudió la confiabilidad de las puntuaciones por dos métodos: consistencia interna y test-retest. También se analizó la capacidad de discriminación entre pacientes con y sin anomia mediante curvas ROC. Se estudiaron además los efectos de las variables manipuladas, se realizó un análisis cualitativo de los errores y se examinó el desempeño en función del uso de las claves. Los resultados de los análisis aportan evidencia de que presenta cualidades psicométricas sumamente aceptables para su uso en nuestra población.

In the current paper we present the psychometric analysis of the Argentinean Psycholinguistic Image Naming Test (PAPDI). This test has two characteristics that makes it different from those currently available in our country: a) the stimuli has been chosen and ordered controlling certain psycholinguistic variables proven to have influence on this task, such as Visual Complexity, Image Agreement, Image Variability, Familiarity, Name Agreement, Age of Acquisition and Frequency of Use, following Argentinean normative data base; and b) semantic cues were elaborated according to semantic feature production norms also from Argentina. We present here the psychometric analysis of its properties. There were analyzed through the study of patients with Alzheimer Disease (n = 25) and focal brain lesions (n = 27) and healthy partici-pants (n = 125). On the first place, in order to study criteria validity a group comparison analysis was carried out. On the one hand Alzheimer Disease patients were compared with healthy participants. On the other hand, two focal brain damaged patients were compared: with and without aphasia. Convergent validity was also studied through the correlation with Boston naming test. In the third place, scores reliability was studied through two methods: internal consistency analysis, for Alzheimer, focal and healthy groups, and test-retest for focal brain damage group. Forth, it was analyzed the capacity to discriminate between patient with and without aphasia through ROC curves analysis. The respective sensitivity and specificity values to detect anomia were established. Fifth, the demographic variables´ influence was analyzed through a regression analysis. Moreover, there were analyzed the effects of two psycholinguistic variables that were taken into account to order the images but were not normalized: Lexical Frequency and Age of Acquisition. Finally, type of errors and response to cues were studied for focal brain damaged patients. The results indicated that the PAPDI presents acceptable psychometric properties to be used as a tool in neuropsychological assessment. It showed evidence of internal and external validity and it was observed scores reliability through internal consistency and test-retest. A suggested cutting point was established to detect anomia. Furthermore a main influence of educational level was reported. There were also detected effects of Lexical Frequency and Age of Acquisition which were observed for Alzheimer and aphasic patients groups. Moreover it was illustrated the response profile analysis for aphasic and nonaphasic focal brain damaged patients regarding a proposed taxonomy of error types. It was also studied the response to semantic and phonological cues and it was observed that both contributed to improve patients´ performance.

Prueba Argentina Psicolingüística de Denominación de Imágenes (PAPDI): Construcción y desarrollo (Primera parte)* / Argentinean Psycholinguistic Image Naming Test (PAPDI): Design and development (First part)

En la primera parte de este trabajo se presenta la construcción y el desarrollo de la Prueba Argentina Psicolingüística de Denominación de Imágenes (PAPDI). La misma tiene dos características que la diferencian de las pruebas actualmente disponibles en nuestro medio: (a) Los estímulos fueron seleccionados controlando las variables que afectan las etapas de análisis visual y reconocimiento de la imagen (Complejidad visual y Concordancia con la imagen) y el conocimiento conceptual (Variabilidad de la Imagen y Familiaridad) del dibujo del objeto también se manipularon las variables (Frecuencia léxica y Edad de adquisición) que afectan la etapa que busca evaluar la prueba: activación, selección y recuperación de la etiqueta léxica. Los índices que operacionalizan a las variables son dependientes de la cultura y de la lengua de dónde se obtengan, por ello se tomaron sus valores de normas argentinas. (b) Las claves semánticas han sido elaboradas cuidadosamente, siguiendo las normas de producción de atributos semánticos también recolectadas en nuestro país, ya que el uso de las mismas permite generar hipótesis más precisas acerca de la localización del déficit. Por lo tanto, se presenta el proceso de construcción y desarrollo de la prueba mostrando cómo se tuvieron en cuenta estas particularidades, cuáles variables han sido controladas y cuáles manipuladas, y su justificación. Por último, los resultados de la prueba piloto permitieron seleccionar 30 ítems y la constitución de la versión final de la prueba, que es lo suficientemente breve para su uso en la clínica y de libre acceso.

In the current paper, first part, we present the design and development of the Argentinean Psycholinguistic Image Naming Test (PAPDI). This test has two characteristics that make it different from those currently available in our country: (a) the stimuli have been selected by controlling the variables that affect the stages of visual analysis and image recognition (Visual Complexity and Image Agreement) and conceptual knowledge (Image Variability and Familiarity) of the drawing of the object; and the variables (Frequency of Use and Age of Acquisition) that affect the stage that seeks to evaluate the test were manipulated: activation, selection and retrieval of the lexical label (phonological form of the name), to generate a gradient of difficulty in the items of the test. However, the variable Naming Agreement, that also affects this stage, was controlled to selected pictures with only one predominating name. The quantification of these factors by means of specific variables is influenced by the cultural and linguistic context from which they were obtained, consequently we took their values from Argentinean normative data base and (b) semantic cues were elaborated according to semantic feature production norms also from Argentina. The phonological cues corresponded to the first syllable of the object's name. Their use allows to generate more precise hypotheses about the location of the deficit and allows to infer relevant information about the cognitive profile. Therefore, the process of construction and development of the test is presented, showing how these particularities were taken into consideration, which variables were controlled and which were manipulated, and their justification. For the design of the test 62, black and white pictures were originally selected from the 400 pictures taken from Cycowicz's set (of frequent use in Experimental Psychology and Neuropsychology). They correspond to concrete concepts from different semantic categories belonging to both living andnon living domains. The criteria used to include those images were that they were moderately complex (in quantity of lines and details), moderately familiar and that they had a mean image variability value. They had to have a medium to high concordance degree between the mental image and its corresponding representation. Besides, these images had to have a naming agreement superior to 80%. To conform the first version of the test, the 62 images selected were ordered according to the variable Age of Acquisition and each image was assigned its corresponding semantic and phonological cues. The former were extracted from the Argentinean norms considering the most relevant features. The second consisted on the word´s first syllable. A pilot study with healthy population (n = 50), of different ages, both sexes and three educational levels, was carried out through which 30 images were selected that constituted the test´s final version. The deleted items were: figures that did not evokea univocal response, that is, they were easily confused with other objects; figures that had more than one acceptable answer although not all were correct; and items that presented a ceiling effect where the scores accumulated in high scores and did not allow to discriminate the participants' ability to select, retrieve and produce a word (only 25 and 30% of the items were retained). In the test´s final version, the items were reordered according to the Age of Acquisition and Frequency values and their difficulty in naming (following the percentage of successes in the spontaneous response). And images that were contain in another naming tests were deleted. The test is short enough for use in the clinic and freely accessible. The second part of the paper presents the psychometric studies that provide evidence of their relevance and validity.

La mutualidad perlocutiva en la comunicación preverbal en niños con madres con depresión postparto / Perlocutive mutuality in preverbal communication in children with mothers with postpartum depression

Esta revisión bibliográfica es un estudio teórico que presenta avances, actualización, comparación y análisis crítico de los resultados obtenidos en trabajos empíricos de autores nacionales e internacionales del campo de la Psicolingüística y referidos puntualmente al desarrollo infantil (Montero & León, 2007). Se hace hincapié en las cualidades de las interacciones madre-hijo en la etapa pre-lingüística, en situaciones de ausencia y presencia de indicadores de patología mental materna (específicamente depresión postparto- DPP). Se describe una serie de patrones y modalidades de comunicación que mamá y bebé adoptan durante dicha fase del desarrollo del lenguaje. En primer término, se presenta la caracterización acústica y kinestésica que el Habla Dirigida al Bebé (HDB) adquiere durante la etapa preverbal, diferenciando entre los patrones comunicacionales que corresponden tanto a los mensajes emitidos como recibidos y en segundo lugar, la caracterización acústica y kinésica de los patrones comunicacionales infantiles durante la primera etapa del desarrollo del lenguaje. Posteriormente, se plantea cómo resultan afectados dichos patrones en madres con indicios de DPP, identificando los patrones de comunicación del HDB en madres -con y sin DPP-, tanto los referidos a la emisión (aspectos acústicos, discursivos y kinestésicos) como a la recepción (aspectos perceptuales), así cómo se ven afectados los patrones comunicativos en los bebés de madres con DPP. Por último, se concluye sobre la trascendencia que tiene conocer las desviaciones observables en el proceso comunicativo mamá-bebé para el trabajo terapéutico en el vínculo diádico y para el desarrollo integral del infante.

This article is a theoretical review that analyzes the results of various psycholinguistic researches on language acquisition during the prelinguistic stage depending on the mother-child relationship in situations of absence and presence of mind pathology indicators-specifically maternal postpartum depression (PPD). It follows the description of a series of patterns and modes of communication that mother and son take during this phase of language development, following the findings of national and international renowned authors dedicated to this subject. This paper seeks, in the first instance, to conceptualize and establish the main properties of communicative exchanges that occur in the mother-child interactions during the preverbal stage in situations of no obvious pathology in the mother or the infant. Secondly, sought to focus on how these patterns and / or modes of interaction are affected when the mother shows signs of emotional involvement, timely postpartum depression. And also how, therefore, this affects these communicative exchanges. Indeed, this study will present a literature review of existing research data on the effects on the communication patterns between mother and baby-during preverbal stage- when the mother suffers PPD. This improvement is important because so far these data have not been found on one paper -but compiled partially written in various research- nor presented discriminating patterns that the various modes of communication that are acquired and used by each member of the dyad. Regarding the first objective, the results have been made by several scientific papers related to the characteristics that each of the modes in which communication between the preverbal child and primary adult caretaker-usually the mother- occurs. From this, one could envision that prosody is the feature of the HDB that has been studied through the objective measurement of various acoustic aspects such as fundamental frequency, melodic contours and pitch ranges. The combination, features and ways of using the various modes of communication depend intrinsically on the relationships between the biological, psychological, social and contextual conditions that occur and determine the course and the qualities of the mother-infant interaction. Regarding the second objective, it was possible to envision that when the mother is not emotionally available to the baby's demands behavior of the pair may be asynchronous. Even children of mother with PPD may get to use self-regulatory behaviors such as gaze aversion in order to reduce the negative affect arising from the lack of responsiveness and withdrawal that characterize the behavioral repertoire of their mothers (Tronick & Gianino, 1986). However, a substantial stand out in terms of the information gathered at this point of theoretical review, it was found that most of the data and reported results derived from research in developed European countries (mainly Germany and England) and United State. And samples were made up of middle-class mothers and / or high average, with a minimum level of higher education at age 13, adults, gilts or just another child without complications in pregnancy and childbirth and with healthy term infants. Just one research formed a heterogeneous sample of mothers from different races, belonging to lower social strata and lower education level -Kaplan, Burgess, Sliter, & Moreno, 2009). This implies that this investigation results can be generalized to the type of population, culture, language and race that has been studied. In the section dedicated to discussing matters relating to the socio-demographic characteristics of the sample and biases found, make impossible to universalize the results of detailed research group here treated. Finally, it concludes on the importance of knowing the observable deviations in the communication process mom-baby has for therapeutic work on the dyadic relationship, in general, and for the development of the infant, particularly.

Subliminal repetition primes help detection of phonemes in a picture: Evidence for a phonological level of the priming effects.

In this research, we combine a cross-form word-picture visual masked priming procedure with an internal phoneme monitoring task to examine repetition priming effects. In this paradigm, participants have to respond to pictures whose names begin with a prespecified target phoneme. This task unambiguously requires retrieving the word-form of the target picture's name and implicitly orients participants' attention towards a phonological level of representation. The experiments were conducted within Spanish, whose highly transparent orthography presumably promotes fast and automatic phonological recoding of subliminal, masked visual word primes. Experiments 1 and 2 show that repetition primes speed up internal phoneme monitoring in the target, compared to primes beginning with a different phoneme from the target, or sharing only their first phoneme with the target. This suggests that repetition primes preactivate the phonological code of the entire target picture's name, hereby speeding up internal monitoring, which is necessarily based on such a code. To further qualify the nature of the phonological code underlying internal phoneme monitoring, a concurrent articulation task was used in Experiment 3. This task did not affect the repetition priming effect. We propose that internal phoneme monitoring is based on an abstract phonological code, prior to its translation into articulation.

Bilingualism and Cognitive Reserve: A Critical Overview and a Plea for Methodological Innovations.

The decline of cognitive skills throughout healthy or pathological aging can be slowed down by experiences which foster cognitive reserve (CR). Recently, some studies on Alzheimer's disease have suggested that CR may be enhanced by life-long bilingualism. However, the evidence is inconsistent and largely based on retrospective approaches featuring several methodological weaknesses. Some studies demonstrated at least 4 years of delay in dementia symptoms, while others did not find such an effect. Moreover, various methodological aspects vary from study to study. The present paper addresses contradictory findings, identifies possible lurking variables, and outlines methodological alternatives thereof. First, we characterize possible confounding factors that may have influenced extant results. Our focus is on the criteria to establish bilingualism, differences in sample design, the instruments used to examine cognitive skills, and the role of variables known to modulate life-long cognition. Second, we propose that these limitations could be largely circumvented through experimental approaches. Proficiency in the non-native language can be successfully assessed by combining subjective and objective measures; confounding variables which have been distinctively associated with certain bilingual groups (e.g., alcoholism, sleep disorders) can be targeted through relevant instruments; and cognitive status might be better tapped via robust cognitive screenings and executive batteries. Moreover, future research should incorporate tasks yielding predictable patterns of contrastive performance between bilinguals and monolinguals. Crucially, these include instruments which reveal bilingual disadvantages in vocabulary, null effects in working memory, and advantages in inhibitory control and other executive functions. Finally, paradigms tapping proactive interference (which assess the disruptive effect of long-term memory on newly learned information) could also offer useful data, since this phenomenon seems to be better managed by bilinguals and it becomes conspicuous in early stages of dementia. Such considerations may shed light not just on the relationship between bilingualism and CR, but also on more general mechanisms of cognitive compensation.

Expanded norms for 400 experimental pictures in an Argentinean Spanish-speaking population.

The study of the cognitive processes in the production of language demands careful selection of stimuli and requires normative databases. The main goal of the present research was to collect normative data for the set of 400 figures taken from Cycowicz, Friedman, Rothstein, and Snodgrass (1997; including the 260 figures of Snodgrass & Vanderwart, 1980) using a sample of native Argentinean Spanish speakers. The pictures have been standardized on the following variables: name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, visual complexity, image variability, age of acquisition, and word association. The obtained norms were compared with the normative data of other studies in Spanish, English, and French. This comparison highlights the variability of some of the measures (e.g., name agreement in naming and verbal association) across the different studies and confirms the necessity of elaborating specific norms that are adapted to the studied population's linguistic and sociocultural context. The norms described may be downloaded as supplemental materials for this article from http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.

Long-term cognitive treatment of Alzheimer's disease: a single case study.

The effects of long-term treatment in a demented patient were evaluated in this study. One individual diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia (AD) was treated with neuropsychological rehabilitation techniques as well as drugs for a period of 2 years and 10 months. An A-B-A-B design was performed for the cognitive treatment. Neuropsychological treatment consisted of a combination of direct re-training and training in activities of daily living. Cognitive performance was monitored with the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale. Results showed improvement and a slower decline during the treatment phases (A) as compared to the no-treatment phases (B). The Conceptualisation and Attention subscales benefited most followed by the Memory subscale. Long-term treatment was shown to be effective in AD. Although cognitive drugs may have been beneficial neuropsychological rehabilitation played an important role in the success of this treatment, appearing as a necessary condition.

Análisis de contenido de las expresiones verbales de estudiantes universitarios con rasgos depresivos / Content analysis of verbal expressions in university students with depressive features

El objetivo del presente trabajo consistió en detectar, mediante la técnica de análisis de contenido, los errores en el procesamiento de la información propuestos por la Teoría de la Depresión elaborada por Beck en estudiantes universitarios con y sin rasgos depresivos. Los grupos se establecieron mediante la Escala Autoaplicada para la depresión de Zung. Posteriormente, se tomó una entrevista a cada participante que estuvo centrada en tres aspectos (sí mismo, relación con los demás, proyectos para el futuro) para su posterior análisis. Los resultados apoyan la propuesta de Beck sobre la presencia de errores en el procesamiento de la información en sujetos con rasgos depresivos. Análisis adicionales, considerando el sexo y los puntajes de los sujetos en la escala de Zung, muestran la misma tendencia. Asimismo, se observó cierta asociación entre el sexo y los juicios que denotan distorsiones cognitivas. Finalmente, el análisis de contenido léxico no arrojó resultados concluyentes. Se concluye que la técnica de análisis de contenido constituye una herramienta útil en los ámbitos de la investigación y la práctica clínica para la identificación de sesgos cognitivos.

Análisis de contenido de las expresiones verbales de estudiantes universitarios con rasgos depresivos / Content analysis of verbal expressions in university students with depressive features

El objetivo del presente trabajo consistió en detectar, mediante la técnica de análisis de contenido, los errores en el procesamiento de la información propuestos por la Teoría de la Depresión elaborada por Beck en estudiantes universitarios con y sin rasgos depresivos. Los grupos se establecieron mediante la Escala Autoaplicada para la depresión de Zung. Posteriormente, se tomó una entrevista a cada participante que estuvo centrada en tres aspectos (sí mismo, relación con los demás, proyectos para el futuro) para su posterior análisis. Los resultados apoyan la propuesta de Beck sobre la presencia de errores en el procesamiento de la información en sujetos con rasgos depresivos. Análisis adicionales, considerando el sexo y los puntajes de los sujetos en la escala de Zung, muestran la misma tendencia. Asimismo, se observó cierta asociación entre el sexo y los juicios que denotan distorsiones cognitivas. Finalmente, el análisis de contenido léxico no arrojó resultados concluyentes. Se concluye que la técnica de análisis de contenido constituye una herramienta útil en los ámbitos de la investigación y la práctica clínica para la identificación de sesgos cognitivos.(AU)