scholarly journals Preschoolers' comprehension of pronouns and reflexives: the impact of the task

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 777-803 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINA BERGMANN ◽  
MARKUS PAULUS ◽  
PAULA FIKKERT
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Typical Response ◽  
On Line ◽  
Referential Expressions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
New Evidence

ABSTRACTPronouns seem to be acquired in an asymmetrical way, where children confuse the meaning of pronouns with reflexives up to the age of six, but not vice versa. Children's production of the same referential expressions is appropriate at the age of four. However, response-based tasks, the usual means to investigate child language comprehension, are very demanding given children's limited cognitive resources. Therefore, they might affect performance. To assess the impact of the task, we investigated learners of Dutch (three- and four-year-olds) using both eye-tracking, a non-demanding on-line method, and a typical response-based task. Eye-tracking results show an emerging ability to correctly comprehend pronouns at the age of four. A response-based task fails to indicate this ability across age groups, replicating results of earlier studies. Additionally, biases seem to influence the outcome of the response-based task. These results add new evidence to the ongoing debate of the asymmetrical acquisition of pronouns and reflexives and suggest that there is less of an asymmetry than previously assumed.

scholarly journals The impact of product presentation on decision-making and purchasing

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosy Boardman ◽  
Helen McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Target Market ◽  
Consumer Decision Making ◽  
Consumer Decision ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Product Presentation ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how apparel product presentation influences consumer decision-making and whether there are any differences between age groups. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methodology was used including eye-tracking and qualitative in-depth interviews, with a purposive sample of 50 participants between age 20 and 70. Findings A higher number of product presentation features resulted in increased positive visual, cognitive and affective responses as consumers wanted as much visual information as possible to aid decision-making. Images of models attracted the most attention and were the most influential product presentation feature, followed by mannequin images and the zoom function. The 20 s spent much less time viewing and interacting with the product presentation features than middle age groups (30 s-50 s), had minimal fixations on mannequin images and had a much quicker decision-making process than other age groups. Practical implications The research informs retailers which product presentation features are the most effective for their target market to aid consumer decision-making with the aim of reducing returns. Originality/value The paper contributes to the literature by providing more in-depth insights than previous studies into the impact of online product presentation on consumer decision-making by using qualitative research and eye-tracking. The research also explores more product presentation features than previous research and investigates the presentation of apparel products, which are notoriously the most difficult products for consumers to assess online. The research is unique in its exploration of age differences in relation to product presentation features.

scholarly journals Before and After the Pandemic: Alcohol Consumption and Related Problems in Argentina

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. e1444
Author(s):  
Karina Conde ◽  
Paula Victoria Gimenez ◽  
Tomás Salomón ◽  
Raquel Inés Peltzer ◽  
Sebastián Laspiur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Heavy Episodic Drinking ◽  
Alcoholic Beverages ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Impact ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Alcohol Related Problems

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and isolation measures on alcohol consumption remains unknown among Latin-American countries. This paper characterizes differences in alcohol consumption and related problems before and after the pandemic among Argentinians from different genders, age groups, income levels, and behaviors regarding the acquisition of alcoholic beverages. Through an online survey 1446 participants were assessed regarding four alcohol consumption dimensions (frequency, quantity, heavy episodic drinking -HED- and alcohol-related problems) three months prior and after the first cases in the country and subsequent lockdown measures. Overall, participants reported small reductions for usual consumption and moderate ones for HED and related problems. As expected, very high reductions were found for those underage (14 to 18 years), and young adults (19 to 24 years). Those who had an increase in income after the pandemic did not report changes in consumption, while those whose income remained equal or lowered reported reductions. Those who did not report special behaviors to acquire alcohol (e.g. pre-stocking) informed decreases in consumption compared to those who did. This study provides new evidence on the impact of environmental factors in public health, suggesting restricted access to alcohol generates a significant decrease in alcohol consumption and related problems.

Rest Is Still Best

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
William S. Helton ◽  
Paul N. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Resource Theory ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Vigilance Decrement ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Cognitive Resource ◽  
The Impact

Objective: We examined the impact task interruptions of differing qualitative and quantitative load have on visuospatial vigilance sensitivity. Background: The vigilance decrement and attempts to develop countermeasures to the decrement is one of the most important human factors issues. There is an ongoing debate between those who interpret the increase in the rate of failures to detect signals over time as being due to objective task monotony or task underload and those who interpret this increased failure proneness as being predominately due to cognitive-resource depletion and task overload. Method: Participants were assigned at random to one of six interruptions: Participants were given a complete rest (rest); participants completed a 1-back verbal working-memory (WM) task, a 3-back verbal WM task, a 1-back spatial WM task, or a 3-back spatial WM task; or participants performed the primary vigilance task (continuous). Results: Postinterruption performance was best for rest and worst for continuous. A resource theory perspective led us to make two possible predictions of relative interruption effect orders of the six conditions out of 720 possible orderings. We found one of the two orders. Conclusion: Overall, the vigilance sensitivity decrement appears to be due to the recurring use of particular cognitive resources, and resource theorists should explore this more extensively in the future. Application: Countermeasures for the vigilance decrement should be based on clear cognitive-resource considerations. Rest is the best countermeasure. Intervening tasks should be chosen that minimize resource-demand overlap with the vigilance task.

Trends in Dietary Intake of Vitamins A, C, and E in German Children and Adolescents – Results of the DONALD Study

2003 ◽  
Vol 73 (5) ◽  
pp. 335-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexy ◽  
Kersting ◽  
Sichert-Hellert
Keyword(s):  
Vitamin E ◽  
Nutrition Education ◽  
Time Trends ◽  
Nutrient Intake ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Food Groups ◽  
Fortified Food ◽  
Vitamin Intake ◽  
Dietary Records ◽  
The Impact

Intake of vitamins A, C, and E was evaluated and age and time trends were assessed on the basis of 3-day weighed dietary records (n = 5121) of 2- to 18-year old boys (n = 417) and girls (n = 425) enrolled in the DONALD Study (Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed Study) 1986–2001. Intake of vitamin A remains stable over time, intake of vitamin C increases linearly, and intake of vitamin E follows a nonlinear trend. Age trends of vitamins A and C (per MJ) were nonlinear with a minimum at the beginning adolescence, while intake of vitamin E (per MJ) increased linearly. Girls had higher nutrient densities but lower intakes expressed as percent of reference values. Fortified food in total had a higher impact on time trends of nutrient intake than other single food groups defined here. Our results point to the impact of the food industry on long-term nutrient intake, but also underline the necessity of nutrition education even in young age groups to improve vitamin intake.

Activation and Persistence of Implicit Causality Information in Spoken Language Comprehension

2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pirita Pyykkönen ◽  
Juhani Järvikivi
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Implicit Causality ◽  
Causality Information ◽  
Spoken Language Comprehension

A visual world eye-tracking study investigated the activation and persistence of implicit causality information in spoken language comprehension. We showed that people infer the implicit causality of verbs as soon as they encounter such verbs in discourse, as is predicted by proponents of the immediate focusing account ( Greene & McKoon, 1995 ; Koornneef & Van Berkum, 2006 ; Van Berkum, Koornneef, Otten, & Nieuwland, 2007 ). Interestingly, we observed activation of implicit causality information even before people encountered the causal conjunction. However, while implicit causality information was persistent as the discourse unfolded, it did not have a privileged role as a focusing cue immediately at the ambiguous pronoun when people were resolving its antecedent. Instead, our study indicated that implicit causality does not affect all referents to the same extent, rather it interacts with other cues in the discourse, especially when one of the referents is already prominently in focus.

Should Attitudinal Views toward Innovation Development Play a Role in Policy in Peripheral EU Regions?: New Evidence from Vouchers Program in Northern Ireland

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-137
Author(s):  
Sean M. McDonald ◽  
Remi C. Claire ◽  
Alastair H. McPherson
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Regional Economic Development ◽  
Innovation Development ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
Eu Regions ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
New Evidence

The impact and effectiveness of policies to support collaboration for Research & Development (R&D) and Innovation is critical to determining the success of regional economic development. (O’Kane, 2008) The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the level of success of the Innovation Vouchers Program operated by Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) from 2009 to 2013 and address if attitudinal views towards innovation development should play in a role in future policy design in peripheral EU regions. 

Unemployment as an indicator of economic security in the employment sector: A regional dimension

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 715-729
Author(s):  
T.N. Savina
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
National Development ◽  
Federal District ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Employment Policy ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Band Theory ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Impact

Subject. To achieve a high level of economic security is a key priority of national development. Employment reveals one of the most important aspects of social development of the individual that is associated with his or her needs satisfaction in the sphere of employment and is boon to economic security. Objectives. The purpose of the study is to show the impact of unemployment on economic security in employment. Methods. I apply such scientific methods as dialectical, historical and logical unity, structural and functional analysis, traditional techniques of economic analysis and synthesis. The methods of multivariate statistical and comparative analysis serve as a methodological basis of the study. To determine the indicator of unemployment, I use the band theory. Results. I underpin the growing role of employment in ensuring economic security. The paper presents a comprehensive assessment of the unemployment status and a comparative analysis of the indicator in the Republic of Mordovia, the Volga Federal District, and the Russian Federation as a whole. I identify trends in the average duration of unemployment, show the distribution of unemployed by level of education and age groups. Conclusions. The average annual unemployment rate in the Republic of Mordovia is lower than in Russia and the Volga Federal District. The findings may be useful for public authorities to substantiate their employment policy at both macro- and meso-levels, for designing programs and strategies for socio-economic development of regions and the social security doctrine, as well as in practical activities of employment services.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychosocial condition of students in Poland and Ukraine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Długosz ◽  
Yana
Keyword(s):  
Distance Learning ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Psychosocial Condition ◽  
On Line ◽  
Line Survey ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Emotional Condition ◽  
Double Measurement

The article presents the results of research on psychosocial condition among Polish and Ukrainian students during the quarantine. The aim of the research was to verify the impact of the pandemic and its accompanying phenomena on the well-being of youth. In order to achieve this goal, the CAWI on-line survey method with double measurement was used. The first measurement carried out at the beginning of the quarantine resulted in 3659 filled out surveys in Poland and 739 in Ukraine. The second measurement conducted at the end of distance learning brought 1978 filled out surveys in Poland and 411 in Ukraine. The results of research indicate that the quarantine had a negative impact on the psychosocial condition of youth. The deterioration of emotional condition and the increase in mental disorders has been observed. Due to the pandemic and distance learning, the mental health of youth deteriorated significantly. Polish youth were negatively influenced by the pandemic to a greater extent than young Ukrainians.

The Opposition of Surprisal and Semantic Similarity in the Prediction of Language Processing: Evidence from Eye-tracking Data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kun Sun
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Semantic Similarity ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Tracking Data ◽  
Dynamic Approach

Expectations or predictions about upcoming content play an important role during language comprehension and processing. One important aspect of recent studies of language comprehension and processing concerns the estimation of the upcoming words in a sentence or discourse. Many studies have used eye-tracking data to explore computational and cognitive models for contextual word predictions and word processing. Eye-tracking data has previously been widely explored with a view to investigating the factors that influence word prediction. However, these studies are problematic on several levels, including the stimuli, corpora, statistical tools they applied. Although various computational models have been proposed for simulating contextual word predictions, past studies usually preferred to use a single computational model. The disadvantage of this is that it often cannot give an adequate account of cognitive processing in language comprehension. To avoid these problems, this study draws upon a massive natural and coherent discourse as stimuli in collecting the data on reading time. This study trains two state-of-art computational models (surprisal and semantic (dis)similarity from word vectors by linear discriminative learning (LDL)), measuring knowledge of both the syntagmatic and paradigmatic structure of language. We develop a `dynamic approach' to compute semantic (dis)similarity. It is the first time that these two computational models have been merged. Models are evaluated using advanced statistical methods. Meanwhile, in order to test the efficiency of our approach, one recently developed cosine method of computing semantic (dis)similarity based on word vectors data adopted is used to compare with our `dynamic' approach. The two computational and fixed-effect statistical models can be used to cross-verify the findings, thus ensuring that the result is reliable. All results support that surprisal and semantic similarity are opposed in the prediction of the reading time of words although both can make good predictions. Additionally, our `dynamic' approach performs better than the popular cosine method. The findings of this study are therefore of significance with regard to acquiring a better understanding how humans process words in a real-world context and how they make predictions in language cognition and processing.

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