Resolution of grammatical tense into actual time, and its application in Time Perspective study in the tweet space.

Time Perspective (TP) is an important area of research within the 'psychological time' paradigm. TP, or the manner in which individuals conduct themselves as a reflection of their cogitation of the past, the present, and the future, is considered as a basic facet of human functioning. These perceptions of time have an influence on our actions, perceptions, and emotions. Assessment of TP based on human language on Twitter opens up a new avenue for research on subjective view of time at a large scale. In order to assess TP of users' from their tweets, the foremost task is to resolve grammatical tense into the underlying temporal orientation of tweets as for many tweets the tense information, and their temporal orientations are not the same. In this article, we first resolve grammatical tense of users' tweets to identify their underlying temporal orientation: past, present, or future. We develop a minimally supervised classification framework for temporal orientation task that enables incorporating linguistic knowledge into a deep neural network. The temporal orientation model achieves an accuracy of 78.7% when tested on a manually annotated test set. This method performs better when compared to the state-of-the-art technique. Secondly, we apply the classification model to classify the users' tweets in either of the past, present or future categories. Tweets classified this way are then grouped for each user which gives rise to unidimensional TP. The valence (positive, negative, and neutral) is added to the temporal orientation dimension to produce the bidimensional TP. We finally investigate the association between the Twitter users' unidimensional and bidimensional TP and their age, education and six basic emotions in a large-scale empirical manner. Our analysis shows that people tend to think more about the past as well as more positive about the future when they age. We also observe that future-negative people are less joyful, more sad, more disgusted, and more angry while past-negative people have more fear.

Grounding the neurobiology of language in first principles: The necessity of non-language-centric explanations for language comprehension.

Recent decades have ushered in tremendous progress in understanding the neural basis of language. Most of our current knowledge on language and the brain, however, is derived from lab-based experiments that are far removed from everyday language use, and that are inspired by questions originating in linguistic and psycholinguistic contexts. In this paper we argue that in order to make progress, the field needs to shift its focus to understanding the neurobiology of naturalistic language comprehension. We present here a new conceptual framework for understanding the neurobiological organization of language comprehension. This framework is non-language-centered in the computational/neurobiological constructs it identifies, and focuses strongly on context. Our core arguments address three general issues: (i) the difficulty in extending language-centric explanations to discourse; (ii) the necessity of taking context as a serious topic of study, modeling it formally and acknowledging the limitations on external validity when studying language comprehension outside context; and (iii) the tenuous status of the language network as an explanatory construct. We argue that adopting this framework means that neurobiological studies of language will be less focused on identifying correlations between brain activity patterns and mechanisms postulated by psycholinguistic theories. Instead, they will be less self-referential and increasingly more inclined towards integration of language with other cognitive systems, ultimately doing more justice to the neurobiological organization of language and how it supports language as it is used in everyday life.

Logopedia en paciente con mapeo cortical intraoperatorio / Speech therapy in a patient with intraoperative cortical mapping

El mapeo cortical intraoperatorio es una técnica segura y de alta fiabilidad para la resección de tumores en el área elocuente sensitivo-motriz sin producir más déficit. Cada día se está implantando en más hospitales. Se necesita de un equipo multidisciplinar con profesionales altamente cualificados. La incorporación del médico foniatra y del logopeda a este equipo puede ser clave en cualquiera de sus fases. Durante la cirugía el paciente se mantiene despierto y colabora de forma activa cuando se trata de resecciones en áreas del lenguaje. Antes de extirpar se realiza el mapeo aplicando estimulación eléctrica cortical mientras se va explorando continuamente el lenguaje con el fin de minimizar secuelas. Finalizada la exéresis se vuelve a explorar lingüísticamente al paciente antes de dormirle para el cierre. El postoperatorio suele transcurrir sin complicaciones y el control con resonancia magnética postoperatoria confirma si la extirpación ha sido completa o no. Posteriormente se evalúa al paciente en planta y en consultas externas y se plantea un tratamiento precoz que identifique, recupere y/o compense los posibles déficits lingüísticos diagnosticados. El tratamiento de logopedia es de menor duración y con mejor pronóstico. La labor del servicio de foniatría-logopedia se torna relevante para colaborar antes, durante y después de la cirugía. Es importante conocer en profundidad esta técnica para abordar al paciente con mejores resultados. En el presente artículo se ilustra la técnica de mapeo cerebral intraoperatorio y la posterior rehabilitación a partir de un caso clínico

The intraoperative cortical mapping is a safe and highly reliable technique for tumor resection in the eloquent sensorimotor cortex. This technique is currently being implemented in hospitals worldwide. For its implementation, a multidisciplinary team of highly qualified professionals is required and the incorporation of a phoniatrician and a speech therapist into this team may be crucial in any of its stages. During the surgical procedure, the patient remains awake and actively collaborates when it comes to language areas resections. While the mapping is applied, the patient performs a language test in order to minimize sequelae. Once the excision is complete, the patient is re-evaluated linguistically before putting to sleep in order to perform the closure of the craniotomy. Postoperative complications are rare and MRI controls can confirm whether the removal was complete or not. Eventually, the patient must be checked for any superimposed neurological deficits during admission or outpatient visits. Early treatment must be applied to identify, recover and/or compensates the possible linguistic deficits previously diagnosed. The speech and language therapy is shorter and with a better prognosis. The role of the phoniatry and speech therapy are significant before, during and after the surgical procedure. It is important to profoundly know this technique in order to treat the patient with better results. This article illustrates the intraoperative brain mapping technique and the subsequent rehabilitation process with phoniatry and speech therapy based on a clinical case (AU)

Applicability of dual-route reading models to Spanish / Aplicabilidad de los modelos de lectura de doble ruta al español

Two opposing points of view have been presented with regard to the applicability of the dual-route reading models Spanish. Some authors maintain that, given the transparency of the reading system, non-lexical reading is the strategy followed predominantly by Spanish readers and for that reason these models are not appropriate to explain alexias (acquired dyslexias) in Spanish. Other authors, consider that since several cases of phonological, surface and deep alexia have been reported, dual-route reading models are applicable to Spanish in the same way that to the irregular writing systems. In order to contrast these two points of view, an analysis of the two main factors that influence the reading is made: characteristics of the Spanish orthography and characteristics of the Spanish readers. It is conclude that, (1) Due to its transparency, non-lexical reading represents -as in other transparent orthographies- the initial reading strategy in Spanish; (2) the «reading threshold» (i.e., time required to become literate) is lower in Spanish because there are no irregular words to learn; (3) as reading experience increases, speed increases and lexical reading becomes used more; (4) Given the characteristics of the Spanish reading system, it is understandable that frequency of deep dyslexia is so low

Se han propuesto dos puntos de vista diferentes con relación a la aplicabilidad de los modelos de lectura de doble ruta al español. Algunos autores sugieren que dada la transparencia del sistema de lectura, la lectura no-léxica es la estrategia predominante en los lectores españoles, y esos modelos no son apropiados para explicar las alexias (dislexias adquiridas) en español. Otros autores consideran que, puesto que se han reportado varios casos de alexia fonológica, superficial y profunda en hispanohablantes, los modelos de doble ruta son aplicables al español. Para contrastar estas dos perspectivas se realizó un análisis de los dos principales factores que influyen en la lectura: las características del sistema ortográfico y las características del lector hispanohablante. Se concluye: (1) Dada su transparencia, la lectura fonológica representa la estrategia inicial de lectura; (2) el «umbral de lectura» (tiempo requerido para aprender a leer) es más bajo en español ya que no hay palabras irregulares; (3) a medida que aumenta la experiencia lectora, aumenta la velocidad y la lectura léxica se hace progresivamente más frecuente; (4) dadas las características del sistema de lectura español, es comprensible que la frecuencia con la que aparecen casos de dislexia profunda sea tan baja

Megastudies, crowdsourcing, and large datasets in psycholinguistics: An overview of recent developments.

This paper introduces and summarizes the special issue on megastudies, crowdsourcing, and large datasets in psycholinguistics. We provide a brief historical overview and show how the papers in this issue have extended the field by compiling new databases and making important theoretical contributions. In addition, we discuss several studies that use text corpora to build distributional semantic models to tackle various interesting problems in psycholinguistics. Finally, as is the case across the papers, we highlight some methodological issues that are brought forth via the analyses of such datasets.

EHME: a new word database for research in basque language

This article presents EHME, the frequency dictionary of Basque structure, an online program that enables researchers in psycholinguistics to extract word and nonword stimuli, based on a broad range of statistics concerning the properties of Basque words. The database consists of 22.7 million tokens, and properties available include morphological structure frequency and word-similarity measures, apart from classical indexes: word frequency, orthographic structure, orthographic similarity, bigram and biphone frequency, and syllable-based measures. Measures are indexed at the lemma, morpheme and word level. We include reliability and validation analysis. The application is freely available, and enables the user to extract words based on concrete statistical criteria, as well as to obtain statistical characteristics from a list of words (AU)

No disponible

La conciencia pragmática de adultos con síndrome de Asperger / The pragmatic awareness of adults with Asperger syndrome

La conciencia pragmática es un concepto complejo que se asocia a una ciencia cognitiva híbrida como es la psicolingüística. En este caso, se analiza el proceso relacionado con la percepción del propio sujeto sobre el uso lingüístico y la capacidad para referirlo. El primer paso fue elaborar un Cuestionario de Conciencia Pragmática (CCP), compuesto por 26 ítems, utilizando una escala Likert, al que contestaron 18 varones diagnosticados con síndrome de Asperger (SA) y 18 adultos con desarrollo típico (DT). El objetivo fue, por un lado, estudiar la dimensionalidad del CCP, aplicando un análisis factorial exploratorio (AFE) y, por otro, comparar las medias de las respuestas en cada uno de los ítems pragmáticos en función del grupo, por medio de la prueba U Mann-Whitney. Los resultados revelaron una estructura tridimensional para el CCP y las categorías se agruparon en torno a tres dimensiones pragmáticas: enunciativa, textual e interactiva. Los adultos con SA no mostraron, en general, diferencias significativas en los ítems referidos al área textual (mensaje, dominios léxico y gramatical). No ocurrió lo mismo en las áreas enunciativa e interactiva, donde exhibieron una conciencia pragmática deficitaria en relación con los adultos con DT. El presente trabajo constituye una primera aproximación al análisis del comportamiento comunicativo (verbal y no verbal) de adultos jóvenes con SA (AU)

Pragmatic awareness is a complex concept associated with a hybrid cognitive science such as psycholinguistics. In this case, the process related to the perception of one's own linguistic use and the capacity to report it, is analysed. The first step was to elaborate a Pragmatic Awareness Questionnaire (PAQ), composed of 26 items, using a Likert scale, which was answered by 18 male patients diagnosed with Asperger syndrome (AS), and 18 adults with typical development (TD). The objective was, on the one hand, to study the dimensionality of PAQ, applying an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and, on the other, to compare the average amongst the answers to each pragmatic item according to the group by performing a Mann-Whitney U test. The results revealed a three-factor structure for the PAQ and the categories were divided into three pragmatic dimensions: enunciative, textual and interactive. Adults with AS, in general, did not show significant differences in items related to textual area (message, lexical and grammatical domains). However, in enunciative and interactive areas they exhibited deficits with regard to TD adults. The present work represents a first approach to the analysis of communicative behaviour (verbal and non-verbal) of young adults with AS (AU)

Funcionamiento cognitivo general y habilidades psicolingüísticas en niños con síndrome de Smith-Magenis / General cognitive functioning and psycholinguistic abilities in children with Smith-Magenis Syndrome

Presentamos un estudio psicolingüístico de una afección genética rara por microdelección que cursa con discapacidad intelectual y una relativamente buena preservación de las habilidades lingüísticas, el síndrome de Smith-Magenis (SSM) del que no existe ninguna descripción del perfil cognitivo y psicolingüístico con población española. Se ha caracterizado el perfil cognitivo y psicolingüístico del SSM a partir de una muestra de 9 pacientes niños españoles con edades comprendidas entre 7 y 11 años. El perfil cognitivo y psicolingüístico se evaluó con las pruebas estandarizadas Escala de Inteligencia de Wechsler para niños-IV, Test Illinois de Aptitudes Psicolingüísticas y el Test de Vocabulario en Imágenes Peabody. Los resultados sugieren un perfil específi co caracterizado por un C.I. bajo y relativamente buenas habilidades para integrar información proveniente de diferentes canales; las difi cultades observadas se centran en problemas de atención y comportamiento hiperactivo que se han puesto de manifiesto en la interacción durante la evaluación. Este estudio es la primera evidencia existente acerca de la descripción del perfil cognitivo y psicolingüístico en pacientes con SSM en España y ayudará a establecer pautas de intervención diferencial educativas y psicoterapéuticas respecto de otras enfermedades genéticas con baja incidencia con perfi les similares a los estudiados (AU)

This study is a neuropsycholinguistic research of a rare genetic syndrome with microdeletion that co-occurs with intellectual disabilities and relatively good language abilities, the Smith-Magenis Syndrome (SMS). Nevertheless, there are no cognitive and psycholinguistic profile analyses performed with Spanish population. In this sense, we characterized the cognitive and psycholinguistic profile of a sample with 9 participants with SMS (7 to 11 years of age). The cognitive and psychological profile was assessed with diverse standardized tests: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - IV version, Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Results suggest a specific cognitive and psychological profile characterized by a low IQ and relative good abilities in integrating information, whereas attention problems and hyperactive behaviors were displayed when interacting with the child during the assessment. This work is the first evidence of the cognitive and psycholinguistic profile characterization in patients with SMS in Spain, and will help to guide a more accurate diagnosis and differential intervention in rare genetic diseases with similar cognitive and psycholinguistic profiles (AU)

La morfosintaxis de los enunciados: ¿categorías lingüísticas de la profundidad a la superficie o regulaciones en línea sobre base pragmático-semántica? / The morphosyntax of utterances: linguistic categories from depth to surface or pragmatic and semantic rules?

Una idea muy extendida en la psicología del lenguaje considera que las categorías formales y funcionales utilizadas en lingüística estructural para describir los hechos de lengua tienen realidad psicológica para la organización de los enunciados. A continuación demostramos que esta creencia no es sostenible. Una orientación teórica alternativa prevé una traducción directa de las relaciones de significado, proporcionadas por una matriz semántica que interviene dentro de un marco pragmático, en secuencias léxicas de superficie; y los registros productivos se constituyen a través de analogías sustitutivas aprendidas de forma implícita. Esta afirmación, mucho más cerca de la opinión de los partidarios de las neurociencias cognitivas, tiene importantes implicaciones para la terapia de rehabilitación en logopedia de la morfosintaxis. © 2010 AELFA. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L. Todos los derechos reservados (AU)

A widely held idea in the psychology of language is that the formal and functional categories used in structural linguistics to describe language phenomena have a psychological reality for the organization of utterances. In the present article, we demonstrate that this belief is untenable. An alternative theoretical approach envisages direct translation of meaning relations, provided by a semantic matrix that intervenes within a pragmatic framework, in superficial lexical sequences; productive registers are created through implicitly learned substitution analogies. This affirmation, which is closer to the viewpoint of the cognitive neurosciences, has important implications for the speech therapy of morphosyntactic difficulties (AU)

Datos normativos de concreción de 730 palabras utilizadas por sujetos de habla castellana / Normative values of concreteness for 730 words used by spanish speakers

El presente estudio se planteó con el objetivo de calcular el índice psicolingüístico de concreción de una serie de palabras que resultan de interés en la investigación psicológica. El corpus analizado constó de 730 palabras, la mayoría de las cuales son ejemplares frecuentes de categorías naturales de acuerdo con normas de producción categorial en castellano. El resto, que fueron añadidas con fines metodológicos, se tomaron de una de las bases de datos de índices psicolingüísticos más frecuentemente utilizadas en castellano. Esta inclusión nos permitió, además, actualizar los valores de concreción de estas palabras y poner a prueba la estabilidad de dicho índice. Los resultados apoyan la estabilidad del mismo ante cambios generacionales y cambios en el tamaño muestral. Los datos obtenidos permiten un empleo más sofisticado de los estímulos verbales a los profesionales que trabajan en el campo de la investigación, la neuropsicología clínica y la educación. Finalmente, el estudio expone las principales limitaciones asociadas a los estudios normativos de obtención de índices psicolingüísticos y propone estrategias para su afrontamiento(AU)

The present study was aimed at compiling the concreteness values for a pool of words of particular interest to psychological research. The analyzed set included 730 words, most of which were common exemplars of natural categories according to Spanish-language norms. The rest of the words, which were added for methodological reasons, were selected from one of the most frequently used databases of psycholinguistic indexes in Spanish. This inclusion gave us the opportunity to update the concreteness values of these words as well as testing the stability of this index. The results support the stability of this index despite generational changes and changes in the sample size. The data obtained in this study enable researchers, clinicians and other professionals to make a more sophisticated usage of the verbal stimuli. Finally, this paper identifies the main limitations associated to normative studies for obtaining psycholinguistic indexes and suggests strategies for addressing these limitations(AU)

Foveal vs. parafoveal processing in anxiety: broadened spatial attention for threat words

El presente estudio investiga el procesamiento parafoveal de palabras de amenaza, de contenido emocional positivo, y neutras, en función de diferencias individuales en rasgo de ansiedad. En una tarea de decision léxica, palabras estímulo (prime) fueron presentadas durante 150 ms parafovealmente (alejadas 2.2° del punto de fijación; Experimento 1) o fovealmente (en el punto de fijación; Experimento 3), seguidas por una palabra de prueba (probe), o bien las palabras probe fueron presentadas solas (sin prime; Experimento 2). Los resultados mostraron que las prime parafoveales de amenzaza facilitaron las respuestas a las probe de amenaza en los participantes con ansiedad elevada, en comparación con las palabras positivas y las neutras, y con los participantes con ansiedad baja. En contraste, cuando las prime fueron presentadas fovealmente, no se produjeron diferencias en los niveles básicos de activación de las probe aisladas (línea base de accesibilidad), ni tampoco en los umbrales de activación por el prime, en función del contenido emocional de las palabras o de la ansiedad de los participantes. Esto revela un sesgo en la atención encubierta a estímulos amenazantes en las personas con ansiedad elevada(AU)

We investigated the processing of threat-related, positive, and neutral words in parafoveal and in foveal vision as a function of individual differences in trait anxiety. In a lexical-decision task, word primes were presented for 150 ms either parafoveally (2.2° away from fixation; Experiment 1) or foveally (at fixation; Experiment 3) followed by a probe word; or a foveal probe word was presented alone (with no prime; Experiment 2). Results showed that parafoveal prime threat words facilitated responses to probe threat words for high-anxiety individuals, in comparison with neutral and positive words, and relative to low-anxiety individuals. In contrast, when the words were presented foveally, there were no differences in resting activation level (i.e., accessibility to single word meanings) or firing thresholds (i.e., foveal priming) as a function of emotional content and anxiety. This reveals a covert attention bias towards threat stimuli in anxiety(AU)

Plus or minus 30 years in the language sciences.

The language sciences­Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, and Computational Linguistics­have not been broadly represented at the Cognitive Science Society meetings of the past 30 years, but they are an important part of the heart of cognitive science. This article discusses several major themes that have dominated the controversies and consensus in the study of language and suggests the most pressing issues of the future. These themes include differences among the language science disciplines in their view of numbers and symbols and of modular and distributed cognition, and the need for an increasing prominence of questions concerning language and the brain.

Una revisión de la investigación sobre lenguaje en el deterioro cognitivo leve / Research on language in mild cognitive impairment: a review

Aunque existen muchas investigaciones sobre el perfil neuropsicológico del deterioro cognitivo leve (DCL), los estudios centrados en analizar específicamente sus características psicolingüísticas no son concluyentes. El objetivo de este estudio es revisar las evidencias disponibles sobre la caracterización lingüística del DCL e identificar los mejores candidatos a predecir el DCL. Los estudios poblacionales han encontrado que medidas de fluidez verbal, denominación y memoria de palabras son buenas predictoras de la evolución del DCL hacia la demencia. Los estudios experimentales que comparan DCL con otros grupos proponen las tareas de fluidez verbal y de denominación, y en menor medida otras dimensiones, como la comprensión de oraciones y de textos, o la producción narrativa en cuanto a contenido semántico y estructuración sintáctica. Se informa de los hallazgos de algunos estudios que han buscado los correlatos neurológicos de los procesos implicados en el deterioro del lenguaje en el DCL. La presente revisión subraya la necesidad de estudiar nuevas dimensiones lingüísticas, sus relaciones con otros procesos cognitivos y sus fundamentos psicofisiológicos. Se menciona también la necesidad de realizar experiencias de intervención que permitan disminuir el deterioro y evitar en la medida de lo posible su evolución a la demencia (AU)

There are many studies on the neuropsychological profi le of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) but the results of investigations specifi cally addressing its psycholinguistic characteristics have been inconclusive. The present article aims to review the main population-based and experimental studies on language in MCI and to identify the features that help to predict deterioration. Population-based studies have found that the main predictors of MCI and its progression to dementia are measures of verbal fluency, naming and word memory. Experimental studies comparing patients with MCI and matched healthy controls have mainly analyzed performance in different fl uency and naming tasks and, to a lesser extent, other dimensions such as comprehension of sentences and texts and production of narrative speech, taking into account its semantic content and syntactic structures. The results of studies seeking neurological correlates of the processes involved in language deterioration in MCI are discussed. The present review highlights the need to explore new linguistic features of MCI, their relationships with other cognitive processes and their psychophysiological bases. The need for interventions to attenuate deterioration and avoid progression to dementia as far as possible is also discussed (AU)

Influencia de las variables psicolingüísticas sobre el efecto de generación / The influence of the psicholinguistic variables on the generation effect

El efecto de generación ha demostrado ser una técnica útil para mejorar el aprendizaje y el recuerdo de muy diversos tipos de materiales. Sin embargo no se ha encontrado este efecto en materiales sin significado, como las pseudopalabras, por lo que es lógico pensar que la familiaridad de los estímulos (su frecuencia y edad de adquisición) podría influir en la eficacia de esta técnica. Para comprobar esta hipótesis se llevaron a cabo dos experimentos en los que se manipulaban la frecuencia y la edad de adquisición. La potencia del efecto de generación impidió que se manifestaran los efectos de estas dos variables en la tarea de recuerdo libre, pero ambas influyeron en la tarea de reconocimiento. Así, se obtuvo "efecto espejo" tanto de frecuencia como de edad de adquisición, de manera que los estímulos menos familiares fueron mejor reconocidos que los más familiares (AU)

The generation effect has demonstrated to be an effective technique to improve learning and memory of several types of materials. However, this effect has not been found when meaningless materials are used, such as pseudo words. That is why it is logical to think that the familiarity of the stimuli (their frequency and age of acquisition) could influence the efficacy of this technique. To test this hypothesis two experiments, in which the frequency and the age of acquisition were manipulated, were carried out. The power of the generation effect did not allow the effects of these two variables to become evident in the recall task, but both influenced there cognition task. A "mirror effect" of frequency and age of acquisition was obtained, as the participants recognized the unfamiliar better than the familiar stimuli (AU)

Suicide notes in Hong Kong in 2000.

Suicide notes have been regarded as one of the most informative data sources to understand the reasons why people commit suicide. However, there is a paucity of suicide note studies, leaving researchers with an assumption that this phenomenon remains static over time. This study examines this assumption by comparing the characteristics of note-leavers of the same population at 2 different points in time. The authors investigated the characteristics of 316 note-leavers in 2000 in Hong Kong and compared them to note-leavers in 1992. The proportion of people who left suicide notes increased from 20% to 35% between 1992 and 2000, a change that may be related to changes in suicide methods. Note-leavers in 2000 were characterized as individuals aged 25-59 years old, employed, with no physical illness, no psychiatric illness, and died as a result of charcoal-burning. Present data suggest that reasons for leaving suicide notes may have changed over the 8 years from 1992 to 2000.

[Communication, language and the brain: from past anterior to near future]. / Communication, langage et cerveau : du passé antérieur au futur proche.

The goal of this article is to share some reflection on the astonishing evolution of the ideas in communication neuroscience and neurolinguistics over the last 30 years, since the founding of the société de neuropsychologie de langue française. in particular, a number of conceptual and methodological advancements have characterized this period, many of which have been lead or heavily contributed by french-speaking research groups in that field. among the advances discussed, are (a) the widening to discourse and pragmatic components of the concept of language, as well as the theoretical and clinical implication of this conceptual extension, (b) the unique contribution of anatomical and functional neuroimaging, (c) the massive impact of the cognitive revolution on theoretical frameworks of language components, and its influence on therapy, (d) the disappearance and the re-appearance of the brain in the main stream research on language over this period, (e) the new perspectives offered though attention put on social aspects of language and the social participation of the individual with language disorders, (f) the emergence of a genuine science of aphasia rehabilitation, and (g) the rediscovery of inter-individual characteristics both genetically- and environmentally- determined. The authors then risk themselves in trying to envision what could characterize the evolution in the field for the next 30 years. Though perilous, this speculative exercise allowed to pinpoint to a number of anticipated advancements including (a) a probable reconciliation between cognitive and connectionist models to the benefit of both visions, (b) an increased contribution of social and emotional neurosciences, (c) some inescapable technological advancements, including light portable neuroimaging devices which will allow to study the neurobiological bases of communication in natural contexts, (d) the integration between communication and aging in cognitive neuroscience and (e) the development of new research fields at some unexpected cross-roads (e.g., physical activity and communication ?) as well as the description of new types of aphasia (e.g., towards a chat aphasia !). Taken together, the advancements made over the 30 last years, and the perspective of future development, confirms the premier role of cognitive neuroscience of language and neurolinguistics in setting the pace through innovative approaches that allow unveiling the mysteries of the mutual relationships between brain and cognition.

Negative semantic priming from consciously vs. unconsciously perceived single words

El presente estudio investiga si la obtención depriming semántico negativo ante una única palabra ignorada depende delnivel de conciencia de dicha palabra. En cada ensayo aparecía brevementeuna palabra previa seguida inmediatamente o tras un intervalo de demora,por una máscara de patrón. A continuación aparecía una palabra objetivoante la que los participantes debían realizar una tarea de categorizaciónsemántica o una tarea de identificación de elección forzada. Se instruyó alos sujetos a que atendieran la palabra objetivo e ignoraran la palabra previa,considerándola como un distractor. Las palabras previa y objetivopertenecían a la misma categoría semántica en la mitad de los ensayos, y adistintas categorías en los ensayos restantes. Los resultados mostraron unpatrón diferencial de efectos de priming semántico en función del tipo deenmascaramiento: Priming negativo con la máscara demorada, y facilitacióncon la máscara inmediata. Estos resultados demuestran que el tipo deenmascaramiento, que supuestamente afecta a la percepción consciente vs.no consciente de la palabra previa, constituiría una variable crítica paraobtener priming semántico negativo ante una única palabra. También sonconsistentes con la idea de que la percepción con y sin conciencia produceconsecuencias comportamentales cualitativamente diferentes, que reflejan lacontribución de procesos controlados y automáticos, respectivamente(AU)

The present research explores whether obtaining semantic negative primingfrom a single ignored word depends on whether that word is eitherconsciously or unconsciously perceived. On each trial a prime word wasbriefly displayed and followed either immediately or after a delay by apattern mask. The mask offset was followed by a probe display containing asingle target word that participants were required to either categorize oridentify. Participants were instructed to attend to the target while ignoringthe prime word. On half of trials the prime-target pairs were highlyassociated words belonging to the same semantic category, whereas on theremaining half they belonged to different semantic categories. A differentialpriming pattern as a function of the masking condition was found: Semanticnegative priming when the mask presentation was delayed, and positivepriming when the prime word was immediately masked, thus preventing itsconscious identification. These results suggest that masking type, whichsupposedly affects prime awareness, would be a critical factor to obtainnegative semantic priming from single words. They also provide evidencethat perceiving a stimulus with or without awareness can lead toqualitatively different behavioral consequences, which reflect thecontribution of controlled and automatic components, respectively(AU)

Veinticinco años reformulando el concepto del lenguaje en psicolingüística clínica y en logopedia / Twentyfive years re-formulating the concept of language in clinical psycholinguistics and logopedics

En este numero efemérico de los 25 años de publicación de la Revista de Logopedia Foniatría y Audiología el autor realiza un breve resumen crítico de la evolución del concepto de lenguaje en dicho ámbito. En el repaso se valora la evolución hacia una visión más funcionalista, dentro de la neuropsicología cognitiva, de posturas formalistas e idealistas. También se revisan los motivos de insatisfacción y de los límites de los cambios actuales. Finalmente, y ya centrados en el Trastorno Especifico del lenguaje (TEL), se propone un modelo causal para que sirva de guía en su evaluación e intervención y pueda ser un marco de trabajo para futuras investigaciones

In this ephemeric issue for the 25th year of the Revista de Logopedia Foniatría y Audiología publication, the author offers a brief and critical summary of the evolution of the concept of Language in this field. In this critical review the author values the evolution of formalistic and idealistic postures towards a more functionalistic point of view, integrated in the cognitive neuropsychology. The reasons of dissatisfaction are revised, including the limits of some current innovations. Finally, and focusing in the Specific Language Impairment (SLI), a new causal model is outlined in order to help its evaluation and intervention, and also as a working frame for future research

Producción de habla y fenómenos de vacilación en la conversación de adultos jóvenes y adultos mayores / Production of speech and phenomena of hesitation in conversation of young and old-aged adults

En psicolingüística se ha planteado la necesidad de desvelar los aspectos cognitivos que se reflejan en la producción del habla. Los estudios sobre producción lingüística consideran el análisis de fenómenos verbales (sílabas, palabras, enunciados, entre otros) y no verbales (repeticiones de palabras, reformulaciones y pausas silentes y llenas). El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo comparar las unidades verbales y no verbales en la producción de habla de 25 adultos mayores y de 25 adultos jóvenes. Para ello, se obtuvieron muestras de habla de entrevistas grabadas a modo de conversación sobre la descripción de un barrio de la ciudad de Concepción (Chile) y de la lámina “El robo de las galletas” del test de Boston. El análisis de los resultados indica que los adultos mayores producen más unidades lingüísticas, más palabras inconclusas y menos reformulaciones que los adultos jóvenes. Si bien los adultos mayores producen más palabras, aportan menos información nueva, pues presentan más circunloquios. Además las reformulaciones, o cambio de tópico que no interrumpen los enunciados, parecen demandar más carga cognitiva que otros recursos de vacilación, dado que son actividades que requieren de un mayor control sobre la producción del habla. Al parecer, con la edad se pierde la capacidad de realizar precisiones o cambios de tópico no previstos durante la locución

In psicolinguistics, the necessity to reveal the cognitiveaspects that are reflected in the production ofspeech has been considered. The studies on linguisticproduction consider the analysis of verbal (syllables,words, statements, among others) and non verbal phenomena(repetition of words, reformulations and pauses).This work aims at comparing the verbal and nonverbalunits in the production of speech of 25 old-agedadults and 25 young adults. Samples of speech frominterviews recorded as a conversation were obtained onthe description of a district of the city of Concepción(Chile) and of the picture “the robbery of cookies” fromthe Test of Boston.The analysis of the results indicates that the old agedadults produce more linguistic units, more unfinishedwords and less reformulations than the young adults.Although the old aged adults produce more words, theycontribute with less new information, because they displaymore circumlocution. In addition, the reformulationsor change of topic that do not interrupt the statements,seem to demand more cognitive load than otherresources of hesitation since they are activities thatrequire of a greater control on the production of speech.Apparently, with age, the capacity to make precisions ornot anticipated changes of topic during the locution islost

Juan Huarte de San Juan in cartesian and modern psycholinguistics: an encounter with Noam Chomsky / Juan Huarte de San Juan y su influencia en la psicolingüística cartesiana y moderna: un encuentro con Noam Chomsky

This article presents Noam Chomsky’s standpoint on the relevance of Juan Huarte de San Juan’s workExamen de ingenios para las ciencias (The Examination of Men’s Wits, 1575-1594) for Cartesian linguistics and cognitive science. Huartian conceptions relevant to psycholinguistics and to Chomskian generativism include: (a) the generative quality of human understanding, (b) qualitative differences between human and animal capacity, (c) universality of language structure, (d) the brain as the material site for what we would call cognitive functions, and (e) the innateness of cognitive functions. These issues are discussed in the context of Cartesian linguistics and the history of science. Among the topics discussed: (a) relationship between the Huartian conception, Cartesian linguistics and modern psycholinguistics, (b) dualism and physicism present in Descartes and Huarte, and (c) mind-body relationship in Descartes’ and Huarte’s works (AU)

Noam Chomsky comenta la relevancia del Examen de ingenios para las ciencias (Huarte, 1575-1594) sobre la lingüística cartesiana y la ciencia cognitiva. Se destacan como precedentes de la psicolingüística y del generativismo chomskiano los siguientes posicionamientos huartianos:(a) carácter generativo del entendimiento y el ingenio; (b) universalidad de la estructura del lenguaje;(c) diferencias cualitativas entre capacidades cognitivas animales y humanas; (d) el cerebro como órgano material para las funciones cognitivas; y (e) el innatismo de las funciones cognitivas. Estos aspectos son discutidos en el contexto de la lingüística cartesiana y la historia de la ciencia; en particular:(a) relación entre Huarte, Descartes y la psicolingüística moderna; (b) dualismo y fisicalismo en las obras de Descartes y Huarte; y (c) relación mente-cuerpo en Descartes y Huarte (AU)