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This study investigates the diachronic shift of revised card texts in the tabletop collectible card game ‘Magic: The Gathering’. The lexicogrammatical patterns found are compared to theories on comprehension and learning, and to the development of the game. To answer how the texts have changed, a sample of twenty cards with old and revised texts has been analysed according to systemic functional linguistics. The metafunctions used for the SFL analysis are interpersonal, ideational and textual. Additionally, a descriptive analysis has been conducted to answer how the changes in the linguistic metafunctions relate to comprehension and development. The analysis shows that there are general patterns within all the investigated metafunctions, which correspond to research on learning, language development and notions on text cohesion. Furthermore, the findings correlate to the game development and functions in the gameplay. While the sample size is limited in comparison to all available cards in the game, the diachronic shifts are distributed over a variety of card types matching the available cards overall, and with the initial interconnections found it is assumed that the patterns are generalisable. Further research could explore the findings in relation to general games development, games as a source of learning or genre and discourses.

La metáfora es un fenómeno de altísima frecuencia en la comunicación humana, aunque su comprensión requiere de unos procesos interpretativos complejos. Hasta hace poco, la mayoría de los trabajos apuntaban a un desarrollo tardío, sobre los 7-10 años, de la comprensión de los enunciados no literales (Winner et al. 1976; Johnson 1982; Dryll 2009), aunque estudios más recientes han reflejado la posibilidad de un desarrollo más temprano, a los 3 o 4 años (Siqueira y Gibbs 2007; Pouscoulous y Tomasello 2019). Así, los principales objetivos del trabajo son (i) estudiar la comprensión temprana de enunciados no literales del ámbito metafórico desde una perspectiva pragmática en un grupo hispanohablante atendiendo a las variables edad y sexo, y (ii) analizar la relación entre comprensión metafórica y conocimiento semántico específico. Para ello, contamos con una muestra de 115 niños de 3 y 4 años hablantes nativos de español a los que pasamos, en primer lugar, una prueba de comprensión de metáforas perceptivas basada en estímulos visuales —selección de imágenes— para no añadir complejidad metodológica a la tarea. En segundo lugar, se realizó una prueba de comprobación semántica que nos permitiese evaluar el conocimiento de las palabras necesarias para realizar correctamente la interpretación pragmática de la primera prueba. Los datos recogidos se analizaron con el programa estadístico SPSS. Los resultados de la investigación aportan evidencia científica a favor de un desarrollo más temprano de las habilidades pragmáticas pues los niños de las edades estudiadas demostraron ser capaces de interpretar correctamente los enunciados metafóricos seleccionados para el estudio, siendo la edad además una variable significativa y predictora constante. La otra variable estudiada no demostró ser estadísticamente significativa en la interpretación de los resultados. En cuanto al segundo objetivo, se establece una correlación positiva y significativa entre nivel de comprensión metafórica y, The metaphor is a phenomenon of very high frequency in human communication, although its comprehension requires complex interpretative processes. Until recent years, most of the work showed a late development of the comprehension of non-literal utterances, at about 7-10-year-old (Winner et al. 1976; Johnson 1982; Dryll 2009), while recent studies have noted the possibility of earlier development, at 3 or 4 years old (Siqueira & Gibbs 2007; Pouscoulous & Tomasello 2019). Thus, the main aims of this study are (i) to examine the early comprehension of non-literal utterances of the metaphoric field from a pragmatic perspective in a Spanish-speaking group considering age and gender variables, and (ii) to analyse the relationship between metaphoric comprehension and specific semantic knowledge. For that purpose, we took a sample of 115 children aged 3 and 4, all Spanish native speakers, and a visual comprehension test —image selection— of perceptive metaphors was performed at a first moment, trying with this type of test to avoid including methodological complexity to the task. Secondly, a semantic verification test was performed to evaluate the knowledge of the words which are necessary for a correct pragmatic interpretation of the first test. Collected data was analysed with SPSS Statistical programme. The results of the research provide scientific evidence for an earlier development of pragmatic abilities as children of the analysed ages proved to be able to correctly interpret the metaphoric utterances of this study, being age a significative and constant predictor variable. The other analysed variable did not prove to be statistically significative when interpreting the results. As for the second aim, a positive and significative correlation is established between metaphoric comprehension level and specific semantic knowledge. This work has provided scientific evidence to an emerging field of study in which only future research will solve those questions still with a

This study investigates the diachronic shift of revised card texts in the tabletop collectible card game ‘Magic: The Gathering’. The lexicogrammatical patterns found are compared to theories on comprehension and learning, and to the development of the game. To answer how the texts have changed, a sample of twenty cards with old and revised texts has been analysed according to systemic functional linguistics. The metafunctions used for the SFL analysis are interpersonal, ideational and textual. Additionally, a descriptive analysis has been conducted to answer how the changes in the linguistic metafunctions relate to comprehension and development. The analysis shows that there are general patterns within all the investigated metafunctions, which correspond to research on learning, language development and notions on text cohesion. Furthermore, the findings correlate to the game development and functions in the gameplay. While the sample size is limited in comparison to all available cards in the game, the diachronic shifts are distributed over a variety of card types matching the available cards overall, and with the initial interconnections found it is assumed that the patterns are generalisable. Further research could explore the findings in relation to general games development, games as a source of learning or genre and discourses.

A view that has been gaining prevalence over the past decade is that the human conceptual system is malleable, dynamic, context-dependent, and task-dependent, that is, flexible. Within the flexible conceptual representation framework, conceptual representations are constructed ad hoc, forming a different, idiosyncratic instantiation upon each occurrence. In this review, we scrutinize the neurocognitive literature to better understand the nature of this flexibility. First, we identify some key characteristics of these representations. Next, we consider how these flexible representations are constructed by addressing some of the open questions in this framework: We review the age-old question of how to reconcile flexibility with the apparent need for shareable stable definitions to anchor meaning and come to mutual understanding, as well as some newer questions we find critical, namely, the nature of relations among flexible representations, the role of feature saliency in activation, and the viability of all-or-none feature activations. We suggest replacing the debate about the existence of a definitional stable core that is obligatorily activated with a question of the degree and probability of activation of the information constituting a conceptual representation. We rely on published works to suggest that (1) prior featural salience matters, (2) feature activation may be graded, and (3) Bayesian updating of prior information according to current demands offers a viable account of how flexible representations are constructed. This proposal provides a theoretical mechanism for incorporating a changing momentary context into a constructed representation, while still preserving some of the concept's constituent meaning.

OF THE DISSERTATIONMeasuring Youth’s Knowledge, Comprehension, and Appreciation of Miranda Warnings: Do Words Matter?Less than 10% of adolescents have a basic understanding of Miranda warnings, a U.S. Supreme Court mandate to provide information of constitutional rights against self-incrimination and the right to legal representation to arrested individuals, yet they waive them nearly 96% of the time. While valid waivers require arrestees to waive their rights knowingly and intelligently, almost all juvenile waivers fall short of meeting these criteria, with potentially disastrous consequences. I created a version of Miranda, incorporating developmentally appropriate vocabulary and sentence structures for adolescent listeners. I examined the impact of language complexity on adolescents’ knowledge, comprehension, and appreciation of Miranda utilizing video presentations of two versions of Miranda currently used with juvenile arrestees and my original version. 289 adolescents accessed an on-line survey including questionnaires, video presentations, and a set of tasks following each presentation. I hypothesized: 1) improved knowledge over multiple exposures to Miranda language, 2) greater improvement in Miranda knowledge after viewing the developmentally-adjusted version than the other two versions, 3) greater comprehension of Miranda language after viewing the developmentally-adjusted version than the other two versions, and 4) greater appreciation of the consequence of waiving their rights after viewing the developmentally-adjusted version than the other two versions. Our data supports hypotheses 1, 2, and 3. Hypothesis 4 is partially supported with the developmentally-adjusted version yielding better appreciation than one of the two control versions, but not both. Findings from our sample suggest this developmentally-adjusted version of Miranda improves knowledge, comprehension, and appreciation of Miranda warnings. Clear, intelligible, and developmentally

The study aimed to investigate the effect of computer simulation and animation-integrated instruction on pre-service science teacher trainees' conceptual understanding and retention of acid-base chemistry and stoichiometry. A quantitative approach with a pretest–posttest-delayed test quasi-experimental design was used. In the study area, there were only two sections of first-year trainees in the natural science department. So a comprehensive sampling technique of the two intact sections was employed. The two intact classes were randomly assigned to an intervention group (IG) and a comparison group (CG). Data was collected using Acid-Base Chemistry and Stoichiometry Conceptual Understanding of a two-tier multiple-choice Test (ABSCUT). Parametric statistics (independent sample t-test and ANCOVA) were used for the data analysis. The independent sample t-test was used for the pre-test analysis to examine the prerequisite experiences of trainees in the two groups and male and female trainees in the IG before the intervention. The result showed no significant difference between the mean score of the CG and IG. The result also showed no significant difference in the mean score of male and female trainees in the IG. The ANCOVA was used for post-test and delayed test analysis after the intervention. The result indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups on conceptual understanding, F (1, 49) =5.07, p=.029, partial eta squared=0.094, in favor of IG. This tends to imply the concepts of the trainees who received the intervention outperformed the comparison group. The ANCOVA result also indicated that gender difference has no statistically significant difference in the IG, F(1,24)=3.68, p=.067. The delayed-test analysis showed that the IG has higher retention than the CG. Based on the results, this study recommended that policymakers, chemistry curriculum experts, chemistry curricular material developers, and practitioners alike conside, Peer Reviewed

In 2018, the Philippines faced a controversy surrounding the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, which revealed a score of 340 points in Reading comprehension. As we enter the 21st century, the issue of declining reading comprehension skills has become more pressing, with many individuals being distracted by social media and spending less time reading productively. To address this issue, a research study was conducted to investigate the effects of social media on the reading comprehension of selected Senior High School students of BCP. The study found that digital natives tend to excessively use social media for entertainment, which can be detrimental to their reading comprehension skills if they become too distracted by the content. To combat this, it is recommended that students increase their digital literacy and prioritize their reading comprehension skills to achieve success in their academic pursuits.

In 2018, the Philippines faced a controversy surrounding the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, which revealed a score of 340 points in Reading comprehension. As we enter the 21st century, the issue of declining reading comprehension skills has become more pressing, with many individuals being distracted by social media and spending less time reading productively. To address this issue, a research study was conducted to investigate the effects of social media on the reading comprehension of selected Senior High School students of BCP. The study found that digital natives tend to excessively use social media for entertainment, which can be detrimental to their reading comprehension skills if they become too distracted by the content. To combat this, it is recommended that students increase their digital literacy and prioritize their reading comprehension skills to achieve success in their academic pursuits.

This article explores the Aarhus theologian Johannes Sløk’s sermon guides, published in Præsteforeningens Blad in 1980 and 1982 respectively, in order to cast light on the question of continuity in Sløk’s thought and the ‘narrative turn’ in his authorship. The article consists of two parts: i) a diachronic reading and comparison of Sløk’s sermon guides vis-a-vis Sløk’s sermons from the 1940’s, to show how Sløk’s theology develops in this time span, and ii) a synchronic reading of the sermon guides, which points to three decisive theological topics in the sermon guides that are also constitutive for Sløk’s thought in general. Thus, the article consolidates the position in Sløk research that although a development and a ‘narrative turn’ does indeed take place in Sløk’s theology, this is not to be considered a break, but rather, a refinement.

This article explores the Aarhus theologian Johannes Sløk’s sermon guides, published in Præsteforeningens Blad in 1980 and 1982 respectively, in order to cast light on the question of continuity in Sløk’s thought and the ‘narrative turn’ in his authorship. The article consists of two parts: i) a diachronic reading and comparison of Sløk’s sermon guides vis-a-vis Sløk’s sermons from the 1940’s, to show how Sløk’s theology develops in this time span, and ii) a synchronic reading of the sermon guides, which points to three decisive theological topics in the sermon guides that are also constitutive for Sløk’s thought in general. Thus, the article consolidates the position in Sløk research that although a development and a ‘narrative turn’ does indeed take place in Sløk’s theology, this is not to be considered a break, but rather, a refinement.

In the extension of the research article, the interactive model of reading (MIL) was analyzed from multiple conceptual, social, technological and pedagogical postures, as a strategy for the teaching of reading in students of the third grade of elementary school based on a qualitative type of research methodology, resulting in a relational type of design, using as main source of validation and use of information, the data collection technique of documentary or bibliographic review of research related to the article and its theoretical-practical representations. The most important results or conclusions are that the applicability of the MIL is reiterated in different educational contexts, as a tool to mitigate the problems related to the acquisition of reading and writing skills., En la extensión del artículo de investigación, se analizó desde múltiples posturas conceptuales, sociales, tecnológicas y pedagógicas, el modelo interactivo de lectura (MIL) como estrategia para la enseñanza de la lectura en los estudiantes del grado tercero de básica primaria a partir de una metodología de investigación de tipo cualitativo, desprendiéndose un diseño de tipo relacional, utilizando como principal fuente de validación y uso de información, la técnica de recolección de datos de tipo revisión documental o bibliográfica de investigaciones relacionadas al artículo y sus representaciones teórico-practicas. Los resultados o conclusiones más importantes esta que se reitera la aplicabilidad del MIL en los diferentes contextos educativos, como herramienta para mitigar los problemas relacionados con la adquisición de competencias lectoescritoras.

The extent to which L2 television is viewed by foreign language learners will depend on the degree to which it is understood. The addition of captions has been shown to support comprehension (e.g., Birulés-Muntané & Soto-Faraco, 2016; Montero-Perez, Peters, & Desmet, 2014), especially when proficiency is low (e.g., Lavaur & Bairstow, 2011). Yet, little is known about the extent to which captions benefit comprehension as L2 proficiency increases. This study seeks to investigate the effect of captions at different proficiency levels, and to identify the level at which captions cease to enhance comprehension. A total of 250 Catalan/Spanish university students, who had L2 English proficiency ranging from A1 to C2, viewed nine episodes of an English TV series with and without captions. Results showed that captioned viewing had a significant advantage over uncaptioned viewing in comprehension tests with multiple-choice and true-false items, and that learners with higher L2 proficiency and larger vocabulary performed better. While having access to captions increased the odds of a correct response independently of learners’ L2 proficiency and vocabulary knowledge, the additive benefits of captions were no longer significant at the C2 level, suggesting a threshold beyond which uncaptioned viewing does not negatively impact comprehension. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

In the extension of the research article, the interactive model of reading (MIL) was analyzed from multiple conceptual, social, technological and pedagogical postures, as a strategy for the teaching of reading in students of the third grade of elementary school based on a qualitative type of research methodology, resulting in a relational type of design, using as main source of validation and use of information, the data collection technique of documentary or bibliographic review of research related to the article and its theoretical-practical representations. The most important results or conclusions are that the applicability of the MIL is reiterated in different educational contexts, as a tool to mitigate the problems related to the acquisition of reading and writing skills., En la extensión del artículo de investigación, se analizó desde múltiples posturas conceptuales, sociales, tecnológicas y pedagógicas, el modelo interactivo de lectura (MIL) como estrategia para la enseñanza de la lectura en los estudiantes del grado tercero de básica primaria a partir de una metodología de investigación de tipo cualitativo, desprendiéndose un diseño de tipo relacional, utilizando como principal fuente de validación y uso de información, la técnica de recolección de datos de tipo revisión documental o bibliográfica de investigaciones relacionadas al artículo y sus representaciones teórico-practicas. Los resultados o conclusiones más importantes esta que se reitera la aplicabilidad del MIL en los diferentes contextos educativos, como herramienta para mitigar los problemas relacionados con la adquisición de competencias lectoescritoras.

La comprensione di frasi è un processo complesso che coinvolge sia competenze linguistiche sia extra-linguistiche. Fare chiarezza sulle cause che sottostanno ai deficit nella comprensione del linguaggio avrebbe implicazioni teoriche e cliniche, in particolare dal punto di vista diagnostico e riabilitativo. Il presente lavoro ha l’obiettivo di approfondire il ruolo della complessità sintattica e della memoria a breve termine, in particolare la memoria a breve termine uditivo-verbale e la memoria di lavoro, nella comprensione di frasi. Gli studi ad oggi condotti hanno come principale oggetto di studio la popolazione di soggetti con afasia non fluente, variante agrammatica, a seguito di evento cerebrovascolare. Tale popolazione clinica mostra infatti frequentemente difficoltà di comprensione sintattica, in associazione a deficit di memoria a breve termine uditivo-verbale. Nel contesto del presente lavoro è stato condotto uno studio osservazionale finalizzato ad approfondire il profilo della comprensione delle persone con agrammatismo e i rispettivi ruoli della complessità sintattica e della memoria a breve termine uditivo-verbale. A tale scopo è stata impiegata la Batteria Comprendo quale principale misura di outcome (Capitolo 1). In risposta ad alcune limitazioni rilevate nei contesti clinici e di ricerca a seguito dell’uso della Batteria Comprendo, è stata sviluppata negli anni successivi una versione revisionata denominata Ri-Comprendo, della quale sono stati raccolti dati normativi su un campione della popolazione italiana (Capitolo 2). La batteria Ri-Comprendo è stata successivamente impiegata in uno studio clinico randomizzato in doppio cieco volto ad esplorare i potenziali effetti della stimolazione transcranica a corrente continua anodica (AtDCS) associata al trattamento linguistico standard sulla comprensione delle frasi in persone affette da afasia cronica non fluente (Capitolo 3). La relazione tra memoria a breve termine e comprensione sintattica è, Sentence comprehension is a complex process involving both linguistic and extra-linguistic skills. Shedding light on the underlying causes of language comprehension deficits would have theoretical and clinical implications, particularly from both diagnostic and rehabilita-tive standpoints. The present work aims to gain a deeper understanding of the role of syntactic complexity and short-term memory, specifically, phonological short-term memory (pSTM) and working memory (WM) in sentence comprehension. The conducted studies mainly focused on people with non-fluent agrammatic aphasia due to cerebrovascular disease, who frequently show pSTM deficits and impaired sentence comprehension. A prospective observational study was conducted to delve into the comprehension profile of people with agrammatism and the respective contributions of syntactic complexity and pSTM, using the Comprendo battery as the primary outcome measure (Chapter 1). In response to some limitations observed in clinical and research settings after using the Comprendo battery, a revised version named Ri-Comprendo was developed and normative data were collected in an Italian population sample (Chapter 2). Ri-Comprendo was adopted in a double-blind randomized crossover trial aimed at exploring potential effects of anodal transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (AtDCS) associated with standard language treatment (STL), on sentence comprehension in non-fluent chronic apha-sia (Chapter 3). The relationship between pSTM, WM, and syntactic comprehension was finally investigated through a systematic literature review and meta-analysis in individuals with Alzheimer's disease (Chapter 4). Overall, our findings within the aphasia population confirm that pSTM is involved in the comprehension of complex structures with an important computational load, in particular coordinated sentences, and long-distance filler gap dependencies. Consistent results emerge in AD population, with a stronger correlation for WM than pSTM

Referencias bibliográficas: • Aguilar, M., Navarro., J.I., Menacho, I., Alcalde, C., Marchena, E., & Ramiro, P. (2010). Velocidad de nombrar y conciencia fonológica en el aprendizaje inicial de la lectura [Naming speed and phonological awareness in early reading learning]. Psicothema, 22(3), 436-442. • Alburquerque, C.P. (2012). Rapid naming contributions to reading and writing acquisition of European Portuguese. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 25, 775- 797. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9299-6 • Bar-Kochva, I. & Breznitz, Z. (2014). Reading scripts that differ in orthographic transparency: A within-participant-and-language investigation of underlying skills. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 121, 12-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2013.07.011 • Boyadzhiev, T. & Tilkov, D. (1999). Fonetika na balgarskiya knizhoven ezik [Phonetics of the Bulgarian Literary Language]. Bulgaria: St Cyril and St Methodius University of Velilo Taborno. • Calet, N., Gutiérrez-Palma, N., Simpson, I.C., González-Trujillo, M.C., & Defior, S. (2015). Suprasegmental phonology development and Reading acquisition: A longitudinal study. Scientific Studies of Reading, 19(1), 51-71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2014.976342 • Caravolas, M. (2006). Learning to spell in different languages: How orthographic variables might affect early literacy. In R.M. Joshi & P.G. Aaron (Eds.), Handbook of orthography and literacy (pp. 497-511). Mahwah, NJ: Earlbaum. • Caravolas, M., Lervåg, A., Mousikou, P., Efrim, C., Litavsky, M., Ochonie-Quintanilla, E., Salas, N., Schöffelová, M., Defior, S., Mikulajová, M., Seidlová-Málková, G., & Hulme, C. (2012). Common patterns of prediction of literacy development in different alphabetic orthographies. Psychological Science, 23, 678-686. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797611434536 • Caravolas, M., Volín, J., Hulme, C. (2005). Phoneme awareness is a key component of alphabetic literacy skills in consistent and inconsistent orthogr, Introduction. The present study provides description of two typologically diverse languages in origin (Slavic vs. Latin), script (Cyrillic vs. Roman), and internal structure. One of the similarities, between the two studied orthographies is that spelling-sound transparency is quite consistent in both languages. The goal of the present study was to offer a comparison of learning to read in these languages. Specifically, the study compared the importance of several predictors in the development of reading among children learning two consistent orthographies (Bulgarian and Spanish). Method. A total of 157 children, native speakers of Bulgarian (n=80) and Spanish (n=77), were recruited from three public schools (one in Sofia and two in Madrid) located in middleclass areas. Correlational and regression analyses revealed that Bulgarian and Spanish data were fitted by the same predictors of passage reading efficiency and reading speed. Results. The analyses showed that RAN-Letters played an important role in predicting reading fluency and passage reading efficiency among children in both languages. In addition, Vocabulary appeared to be a core component skill of reading comprehension, which was equally important for learners of both orthographies. Results showed that when equivalent reading predictors are assessed, the core components of fluency and higher level literacy skills (reading comprehension) appear to be very similar in both consistent orthographies. Discussion and Conclusion. Theoretical and educational implications that highlight the importance of RAN and Vocabulary assessement and intervention in the first primary school years are discussed., Introducción. El presente estudio presenta la descripción de dos lenguas tipológicamente diferentes en origen (eslavo y latín), alfabeto (cirílico y romano) y estructura. Una de las similitudes entre las dos lenguas es que la transparencia entre la correspondencia grafemafonema es muy consistente en ambas. El objetivo del presente estudio fue presentar una comparación del aprendizaje de la lectura en las dos lenguas. Concretamente, el estudio comparó la importancia de varios predictores en el desarrollo de la lectura en niños aprendiendo a leer en dos ortografías consistentes (Búlgaro y Español). Método. Un total de 157 niños, hablantes nativos del búlgaro (n=80) y español (n=77), participaron en el estudio, procedentes de tres escuelas públicas (una en Sofía y dos en Madrid) localizadas en áreas de clase social media. Los análisis de correlación y regresión realizados muestran que los datos de los niños Búlgaros y Españoles en eficiencia y velocidad lectora fueron explicados por las mismas variables. Resultados. Los análisis realizados mostraron que la velocidad de nombrar letras (VN-L) juega un rol importante en la predicción de la fluidez y eficiencia lectora en ambas lenguas. Además, el vocabulario es la variable que mejor explica la comprensión lectora, igualmente importante para los aprendices en ambas ortografías. Los resultados mostraron que cuando se evalúan predictores de la lectura equivalentes, los componentes básicos de la fluidez y de habilidades superiores de la lectura (comprensión lectora) son muy similares en las dos ortografías consistentes estudiadas. Discusión y conclusiones. Se discuten las implicaciones teóricas y prácticas que subrayan la importancia de la evaluación e intervención en la VN y el vocabulario en los primeros cursos de primaria., Depto. de Didáctica de las Lenguas, Artes y Educación Física, Fac. de Educación, TRUE, pub

This study investigates Swedish upper secondary students’ familiarity with English idioms, and whether or not there are differences depending on what level of proficiency the students are at. The participating students took an idiom familiarity test adapted from Nippold & Rudzinski (1993) which aimed at measuring students’ familiarity with a number of English idioms. The test included 15 items, and was designed to elicit responses based on a linear scale from 1 to 5. The results showed that there were differences depending on the year of English studies at upper-secondary school level. A possible conclusion is that students develop their idiom familiarity as they are being more exposed to English language both in school and outside of the school. The study has implications for the upper-secondary school English curriculum in Sweden.

This study investigates Swedish upper secondary students’ familiarity with English idioms, and whether or not there are differences depending on what level of proficiency the students are at. The participating students took an idiom familiarity test adapted from Nippold & Rudzinski (1993) which aimed at measuring students’ familiarity with a number of English idioms. The test included 15 items, and was designed to elicit responses based on a linear scale from 1 to 5. The results showed that there were differences depending on the year of English studies at upper-secondary school level. A possible conclusion is that students develop their idiom familiarity as they are being more exposed to English language both in school and outside of the school. The study has implications for the upper-secondary school English curriculum in Sweden.

Many companies implemented remote work procedures during the pandemic and for many organizations video meetings have since remained a staple. Remote working has enabled employees to be more flexible with their schedules and technical solutions such as live captioning has been identified as potentially enabling deaf/hard-of-hearing employees during meetings. However with new procedures comes concern about how we potentially can be affected by the changes. Some earlier research has shown that speech intelligibility can be improved by the inclusion of text support, but they also raised the possibility that it could have unwanted adverse effects on cognitive abilities (Zhong, Noud et al., 2022). This study was conducted with this focus, studying the effects of text support on specifically listening effort and comprehension during normal as well as adverse conditions (featuring added noise). To investigate the effects of text support a 2 (Noise, No Noise) x 2 (Text Support, No Text Support) design was used. The participants were shown 16 short videos simulating video meetings and after each video were asked to rate their perceived listening effort as well as a comprehension question about the contents of the discussion. Each of the four conditions were equally represented but the order of the specific video files and conditions that applied were randomised for each participant to mitigate undue effects. The results of the study indicate that the presence of captions decrease effort and raise comprehension in both normal and adverse conditions. Noise was found to strongly effect the listening effort required by participants but no significant effect was found upon comprehension. Some concerns regarding the ecological validity were identified during the course of the study such as only studying energetic noise and unrealistic presentation of captions. However the results are nonetheless believed to be generalizable in most regards and showcase that captions can have a posi

A renowned classification of visual metaphor (depicting e.g. TOOTHPASTE IS DIAMOND) is the one by Phillips and McQuarrie differentiating between juxtaposition, fusion and replacement. Replacements are oftentimes treated as one unambiguous construct. We reason that there are three disparate replacement types varying in audience responses because of differences in presence and type of visual context: 1) source without target context (e.g. diamond on neutral background), 2) source in target context (e.g. diamond on toothbrush) and 3) target in source context (e.g. tube of toothpaste on ring). We validated our refinement in an experiment with replacement type as within-subjects factor and perceived processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure as dependent variables. Metaphor comprehension was also taken into account. Participants saw 6 ads (2 per replacement type) for fictitious brands. Overall, perceived processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure were highest for source in target context ads. Source without target context ads and target in source context ads were perceived as equally fluent to process and aesthetically pleasing. For comprehended metaphors, perceived processing fluency was higher for target in source context ads than for source without target context ads. This study shows that Phillips and McQuarrie’s replacement category needs to be refined. Studies comparing replacements with juxtapositions and fusions need to be wary of the crucial role of visual context. Replacements showing the source object in the context of the target (e.g. diamond on toothbrush) outperform the other replacement types.

This study presents an innovative approach to understanding differences in student comprehension in online programming courses by analyzing note-Taking and questioning patterns and the distribution of grades. It enables instructing educators to understand learners' learning behaviors better. We designed and developed a system to support online learning that enables students to take notes and ask questions while viewing online courses and allows instructors to grasp overall feedback. We used a visualization method based on the location of notes and questions as they appear in the learning videos to enable instructors to capture their learners' learning better. Visualizing the distribution of notes and questions shows differences among students' note-Taking patterns and learning strategies. The underlying comprehension patterns involved lead to differences in the patterns of notes and questions. We compared data from learners in different score bands to verify the correlation between note types and scores. By visualizing and comparing notes with the same type of correlation, the results show the correlation between note types and grades and the potential of the visualization method to analyze students' learning strategies and learning personalities. It provides valuable insights into student engagement, comprehension, and learning strategies, which can inform the development of more effective teaching methods. This study is relevant in the contemporary educational landscape, particularly as many institutions transition to online formats. Detecting student engagement and comprehension levels in these contexts is crucial. © 2023 IEEE.

This study explores literature reading and reception of narrative texts among Swedish middle school students. Through a written assignment and a think-aloud protocol, students’ comprehension and interpretation of narrative texts are investigated. The study shows that Swedish middle school students tend to focus mainly on the plot. The main comprehension hindrance is at the lexical level, but cultural aspects, such as general knowledge of the surrounding world, are also crucial. The students also tend to have difficulties interpreting the gaps in the text and making meaning from the implicit. However, the students are also capable of interpretations and conclusions that go beyond the text. The study suggests that literature teaching in middle school should strive to activate both syntagmatic and paradigmatic thinking [Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible words. Harvard University Press] to help students to a better comprehension of the literary text, but that the syntagmatic reading should be emphasised to encourage the joy of reading., Funding: Linkopings Universitet, Styrelsen for utbildningsvetenskap

This study explores literature reading and reception of narrative texts among Swedish middle school students. Through a written assignment and a think-aloud protocol, students’ comprehension and interpretation of narrative texts are investigated. The study shows that Swedish middle school students tend to focus mainly on the plot. The main comprehension hindrance is at the lexical level, but cultural aspects, such as general knowledge of the surrounding world, are also crucial. The students also tend to have difficulties interpreting the gaps in the text and making meaning from the implicit. However, the students are also capable of interpretations and conclusions that go beyond the text. The study suggests that literature teaching in middle school should strive to activate both syntagmatic and paradigmatic thinking [Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible words. Harvard University Press] to help students to a better comprehension of the literary text, but that the syntagmatic reading should be emphasised to encourage the joy of reading., Funding: Linkopings Universitet, Styrelsen for utbildningsvetenskap

The increasing dependence on digital infrastructure leaves individuals, societies and even nations vulnerable in the case of a cyberattack. To prepare for threats and attacks, cyberattacks be simulated in environments called cyber ranges. CYBER RANGE AND TRAINING ENVIRONMENT (CRATE), Sweden's cyber range, is an example of such an environment. This environment is sophisticated and complex, but challenges remain for the operatives in how to interpret the multitude of information items that are produced during a simulation. An emerging field of study is the study of situational awareness in the cyber domain, which describes how an operative can render an accurate mental picture, which enables for quick assessment and decision-making in a situation where a multitude of data or information items are involved. An integral part of situational awareness is effective visualization. Visualization can form the linkage in the human-computer interaction and has been demonstrated in other industries and fields to facilitate situational awareness. However, the linkage between situational awareness and visualization in the unique context of a cyber range was a new topic of study. This thesis aim was to provide insight and advance the knowledge of visualization for situational awareness in the unique context of the cyber range CRATE. Conclusively, in the development of a visualization software, the abstraction levels and time frame of the information items collected should be considered. Each information item is of different relevance depending on both the operative's role and in which time frame through which the information is analyzed. A visualization technique that recognizes the abstraction level and the time frame increases the situational awareness for the operative conducting the simulation because it renders both an estimation of critical core processes, current events that are unfolding and enables for the future projection of events.

Background: Domestic violence occurs in many forms and is a public health problem all over the world. Many women described the importance of how they are received by nurses when they seek medical care for the violence. Trust, empathy and a feeling of safety were things women described as mostly valuable. Feelings of not being listened to or even trusted were on top of the list of negative experiences. Aim: The aim was to highlight nurses’ experiences of meeting women exposed to domestic violence. Method: A litterature review was implemented, which included analysis of 12 scientific articles, whence seven qualitative, four quantitative and one mixed method. Results: Nurses mentioned difficulties understanding the women due to cultural- and linguistical differences. Enabling factors to get women to talk about the violence were feelings of trust and safety, as well as routine screening. Conclusion: Encouraging victims of domestic violence to talk about their experience, requires trust and safety. Cultural- and linguistical differences constitutes the main obstacles to achieve this. Appreciation of the women’s situation, as well as the culture they come from, needs to improve and this requires further education.

Background: Domestic violence occurs in many forms and is a public health problem all over the world. Many women described the importance of how they are received by nurses when they seek medical care for the violence. Trust, empathy and a feeling of safety were things women described as mostly valuable. Feelings of not being listened to or even trusted were on top of the list of negative experiences. Aim: The aim was to highlight nurses’ experiences of meeting women exposed to domestic violence. Method: A litterature review was implemented, which included analysis of 12 scientific articles, whence seven qualitative, four quantitative and one mixed method. Results: Nurses mentioned difficulties understanding the women due to cultural- and linguistical differences. Enabling factors to get women to talk about the violence were feelings of trust and safety, as well as routine screening. Conclusion: Encouraging victims of domestic violence to talk about their experience, requires trust and safety. Cultural- and linguistical differences constitutes the main obstacles to achieve this. Appreciation of the women’s situation, as well as the culture they come from, needs to improve and this requires further education.

The increasing dependence on digital infrastructure leaves individuals, societies and even nations vulnerable in the case of a cyberattack. To prepare for threats and attacks, cyberattacks be simulated in environments called cyber ranges. CYBER RANGE AND TRAINING ENVIRONMENT (CRATE), Sweden's cyber range, is an example of such an environment. This environment is sophisticated and complex, but challenges remain for the operatives in how to interpret the multitude of information items that are produced during a simulation. An emerging field of study is the study of situational awareness in the cyber domain, which describes how an operative can render an accurate mental picture, which enables for quick assessment and decision-making in a situation where a multitude of data or information items are involved. An integral part of situational awareness is effective visualization. Visualization can form the linkage in the human-computer interaction and has been demonstrated in other industries and fields to facilitate situational awareness. However, the linkage between situational awareness and visualization in the unique context of a cyber range was a new topic of study. This thesis aim was to provide insight and advance the knowledge of visualization for situational awareness in the unique context of the cyber range CRATE. Conclusively, in the development of a visualization software, the abstraction levels and time frame of the information items collected should be considered. Each information item is of different relevance depending on both the operative's role and in which time frame through which the information is analyzed. A visualization technique that recognizes the abstraction level and the time frame increases the situational awareness for the operative conducting the simulation because it renders both an estimation of critical core processes, current events that are unfolding and enables for the future projection of events.

Based on the awareness of the intrinsic difficulty that exists in every actof translation –especially in the poetic language–, this article aims atechoing this act as a bridge between cultures, paying attention to thevarious intricacies with which the translating activity can operate. Thus,with Octavio Paz as a guiding thread and focus of thought; the hypothesisto be worked on here is that, despite the latent untranslatability ofpoetic activity, this polysemic work remains more than necessary to createcommon fabrics between languages, from which they derive in turn,artistic and social growth. The poem is, therefore, an eternal space ofconflicts that are never completely solved; but which, nevertheless, it isworthwhile to continue to approach and try to think from — as the Mexicanpoet teaches us well — the complexity and depth of this symbolicand diverse language., Partiendo de la conciencia acerca de la dificultad intrínseca que hay en cada acto de traducción —más aún en lo que a la lengua poética se refiere—, el presente artículo pretende hacerse eco de este acto en tanto que puente entre culturas, atendiendo a los variados entresijos con los que la actividad traductora puede operar. Así, con Octavio Paz como hilo conductor y foco de pensamiento; la hipótesis que aquí se trabajará es que, pese a la intraducibilidad latente de la actividad poética, esta labor polisémica sigue siendo más que necesaria para crear tejidos comunes entre las lenguas, de las que derivan, a su vez, en un crecimiento artístico y social. Es poema es, por lo tanto, un espacio eterno de conflictos que no se solucionan nunca del todo; pero que, sin embargo, merece la pena seguir abordando y tratar de pensar desde —como bien nos enseña el poeta mexicano— la complejidad y profundidad de esta lengua simbólica y diversa.

Reading is one of the important macro-skills that can greatly contribute to the success and achievements of an individual. Without proper guidance and support from the parents and teachers, too often, children encounter various problems in understanding the text when reading which leads to frustration and loss of interest. Moreover, researchers have found that one of the key elements in enhancing students’ comprehension is the utilization of different reading strategies. However, some teachers do not have a solid foundation for teaching these comprehension strategies. Therefore, teachers need to craft an enhancement program that focuses on improving the comprehension of students and on alleviating the reading difficulties that they are encountering during the reading process. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to improve the reading comprehension of students through a reading enhancement program. For data collection, the researcher demonstrated the reading strategies to thirty-five students of Grade 10. After, to measure the students’ reading comprehension, the researcher conducted a pre-reading assessment at the beginning of the school year and a post-reading assessment. After that, improved comprehension was shown in Table 3 based on the reading assessment that was conducted for SY 2022-2023.

ObjectiveElectrocortical stimulation mapping (ECS) is widely used to identify essential language areas, but sentence-level processing has rarely been investigated.MethodsWhile undergoing awake surgery in the dominant left hemisphere, 6 subjects were asked to comprehend sentences varying in their demands on syntactic processing.ResultsIn all 6 subjects, stimulation of the inferior frontal gyrus disrupted comprehension of passive sentences, which critically depend on syntactic processing to correctly assign grammatical roles, without disrupting comprehension of simpler tasks. In 4 of the 6 subjects, these sites were localized to the pars opercularis. Sentence comprehension was also disrupted by stimulation of other perisylvian sites, but in a more variable manner.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that there may be language regions that differentially contribute to sentence processing and which therefore are best identified using sentence-level tasks. The functional consequences of resecting these sites remain to be investigated.

Working in pairs can create favourable conditions for students’ involvement in reading comprehension strategies. The literature has shown practical advantages of organisation in pairs in classrooms, assimilating the functioning of the pair to that of the "good reader"(Hall et al., 1989). Following previous research inspired by a Reciprocal Teaching protocol (Calvani & Chiappetta Cajola, 2019), the goal of the present work was to analyse the interactions of some pairs. The processes of understanding the text have been described when the pairs worked in two different procedures: when both students play an alternating tutorial role (tutorial procedure) and when two students tackle the comprehension tasks jointly (joint procedure). The interactions between the two students in the pairs (cognitive, regulative, and affective) are significantly focused on the texts, both in low-skilled pairs and in those with more advanced skills, with a greater prevalence in the joint procedure compared to the tutorial one.

Language comprehension must require some degree of attentional focus, but how do periods of inattention and/or split attention impact how language is processed? Here EEG was recorded while participants listened to full-length stories, and were periodically asked about whether they were fully attentive, were completely inattentive, or felt that they were in a split attention state. The ERP response to the words immediately preceding these attention questions was examined as a function of participant response, which allowed for the comparison of word processing in each of these attentional states. When participants were on-task, typical N400 effects of lexical frequency (smaller N400 for common compared to less common words), word position (smaller N400 for words appearing late in a sentence compared to words appearing with less preceding context), and surprisal (smaller N400 for relatively expected words compared to relatively unexpected words) were observed. When participants were in a fully inattentive state, the word-level effect of frequency was intact, but the context-dependent effects of word position and surprisal were significantly reduced. Interestingly, the pattern of results when participants were in a split attention state closely matched that of the fully inattentive state. Overall, the results demonstrate how attentional state influences sensitivity to language context during comprehension, and show that the consequences of inattention and split attention on word processing in context are quite similar, at least on the indices measured here.

Inference generation is a process that is key to successful reading (e.g., Bowyer- Crane and Snowling, 2005; Oakhill and Cain, 2012) and that begins to develop early in the reading acquisition process, through listening comprehension (e.g., Kendeou et al., 2009). Despite being able to generate inferences, such as cause and effect, as early as four years old (Lynch and van den Broek, 2007) inference generation is a skill not explicitly taught to many emergent readers. This study looked at wordless picturebooks and how they could be used with linguistic prompting to develop inferential thinking in young readers, building on the work of Grolig et al. (2020). The study involved a a quasi-experimental, 2-between subjects (wordless/worded picturebooks) and 2-within subjects (pre/post-assessment) design examining the impact of a reading intervention on emergent readers' inferential narrative comprehension. One group's intervention utilized wordless picturebooks, while the second group used a worded picturebook. The gains from pre- to post-assessment suggested that wordless picturebooks, alongside the planned prompts, did have an impact on the inferential narrative comprehension of the students (t (35) = 4.99, d = 1.63, p<.001) and that the intervention as a whole positively impacts members of both groups.

Since the start of software, comprehension has always been an issue solved through various methods, such as bottom-up models or visualizing code, specifically graphs. They are used to obtain a bird’s-eye view and the execution path of the software. Although these tools exist, they must include important usability features. When creating software, it is essential to prioritize usability as a crucial factor. This thesis aims to identify gaps in call graph-generating software in terms of its usability. Through this, we aim to fill the gaps by creating a new call graph-generating tool with improved usability and functionality. We conducted a literature review to identify the gaps in the understanding of software comprehension. Our findings emphasize the significance of software comprehension in enhancing maintainability, usability, and guidelines. These guidelines were used to assess the open-source tools available. The gaps found helped build a foundation for creating the tool code while following the five usability guidelines. Subsequently, we conducted a within-subject study with interviews with developers and managers using our tool (CodeViz) and an open-source tool. During the interviews, we took note of the participants' feedback and completed a form. Using this data, we created graphs for the Likert data and categorizing of the text questions. We found various improvements in these aspects through Likert data, with 31\% responding more positively to comprehending the graph. With the categorizing of the questions, we found that the participants found the interactivity very useful. The simplicity of obtaining an overview of the project helped improve its effectiveness and comprehension. Furthermore, being able to aid their comprehension helps software maintainability.

The quantifier "some" often elicits a scalar implicature during comprehension: "Some of today's letters have checks inside" is often interpreted to mean that not all of today's letters have checks inside. In previous work, Goodman and Stuhlmüller (G&S) proposed a model that predicts that this implicature should depend on the speaker's knowledgeability: If the speaker has only examined some of the available letters (e.g., two of three letters), people are less likely to infer that "some" implies "not all" than if the speaker has examined all of the available letters. G&S also provided behavioral evidence in support of their model. In this paper, we first show that a simple extension of G&S's model (1) predicts G&S's knowledgeability effects, and in addition, (2) predicts that the knowledgeability effect will be reduced when the speaker's usage indicates numeral alternatives are available. We tested the new model's predictions in four preregistered experiments. All experiments supported the first model prediction, replicating G&S's finding of a main effect of the speaker's knowledge. Further, Experiments 2 and 4 supported the second model prediction showing that the words that a speaker tends to use affect the strength of scalar implicature that comprehenders make. In particular, when the speaker has partial knowledge (e.g., has only examined two of three letters), comprehenders think that "some" is more likely to mean "not all" when the speaker also tends to produce number words in similar sentences (e.g., "2 of today's rooms have working smoke detectors."). These results have important ramifications for theories of meaning: the context beyond the sentence (e.g., the speaker's tendency to use particular words) affects the set of alternatives that comprehenders consider when inferring meaning.

Since the start of software, comprehension has always been an issue solved through various methods, such as bottom-up models or visualizing code, specifically graphs. They are used to obtain a bird’s-eye view and the execution path of the software. Although these tools exist, they must include important usability features. When creating software, it is essential to prioritize usability as a crucial factor. This thesis aims to identify gaps in call graph-generating software in terms of its usability. Through this, we aim to fill the gaps by creating a new call graph-generating tool with improved usability and functionality. We conducted a literature review to identify the gaps in the understanding of software comprehension. Our findings emphasize the significance of software comprehension in enhancing maintainability, usability, and guidelines. These guidelines were used to assess the open-source tools available. The gaps found helped build a foundation for creating the tool code while following the five usability guidelines. Subsequently, we conducted a within-subject study with interviews with developers and managers using our tool (CodeViz) and an open-source tool. During the interviews, we took note of the participants' feedback and completed a form. Using this data, we created graphs for the Likert data and categorizing of the text questions. We found various improvements in these aspects through Likert data, with 31\% responding more positively to comprehending the graph. With the categorizing of the questions, we found that the participants found the interactivity very useful. The simplicity of obtaining an overview of the project helped improve its effectiveness and comprehension. Furthermore, being able to aid their comprehension helps software maintainability.

This study explores literature reading and reception of narrative texts among Swedish middle school students. Through a written assignment and a think-aloud protocol, students’ comprehension and interpretation of narrative texts are investigated. The study shows that Swedish middle school students tend to focus mainly on the plot. The main comprehension hindrance is at the lexical level, but cultural aspects, such as general knowledge of the surrounding world, are also crucial. The students also tend to have difficulties interpreting the gaps in the text and making meaning from the implicit. However, the students are also capable of interpretations and conclusions that go beyond the text. The study suggests that literature teaching in middle school should strive to activate both syntagmatic and paradigmatic thinking [Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible words. Harvard University Press] to help students to a better comprehension of the literary text, but that the syntagmatic reading should be emphasised to encourage the joy of reading., Funding: Linkopings Universitet, Styrelsen for utbildningsvetenskap

This study aimed to establish the impact of exposure to controlled, aphasia-friendly articles about dietary mindfulness on the nutritional literacy of people with aphasia. The student researcher evaluated five participants from the Butler Aphasia Community to determine their level of reading impairment, the severity of their aphasia, and baseline nutritional knowledge. Participants attended two pretest sessions, two reading sessions, and one post-test session. They were exposed to eight nutritional articles, four in an aphasia-friendly format and four in a traditional format, and evaluated on reading speed and comprehension. During their final session, the student researcher re-administered the assessment of nutritional literacy and interviewed the participants about their preferences regarding the two article formats: aphasia-friendly and traditional. Participants demonstrated statistically significant improvement in nutritional literacy but did not statistically significantly improve reading speed or comprehension. However, this study provides insight into the potential of bolstering reading enjoyment with aphasia-friendly textual modifications as participants reported more positive reading experiences when given aphasia-friendly adaptations.

The aim of the article is a practical study of the effectiveness of digital technologies in the development of listening comprehension strategies in future philologists in higher educational institutions (HEIs). In Methodology, the research involved the questionnaire survey and the delphi technique. Anderson-Darling, Cramér-von Mises, Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Shapiro–Francia tests, as well as Student’s t-test were used to process mathematical data. It can be noted that the level of students’ listening comprehension skills in the control (CG) and experimental (EG) groups is approximately the same (52% and 56%). The prevailing level of learning the material in CG and EG is threshold, which indicates insufficient training of students in this direction. In conclusion, the study revealed the high efficiency of digital technologies in the development of listening comprehension strategies of future philologists. The relationship between a high ability to perceive a foreign language aurally and the use of digital multimedia educational tools was experimentally proven., El objetivo del artículo es un estudio práctico de la efectividad de las tecnologías digitales en el desarrollo de estrategias de comprensión auditiva en futuros filólogos pertenecientes a instituciones de educación superior (IES). En la metodología. la investigación involucró la encuesta por cuestionario y la técnica delphi. Para el procesamiento de datos matemáticos se utilizaron las pruebas de Anderson-Darling, Cramér-von Mises, Kolmogorov-Smirnov y Shapiro-Francia, así como la prueba t de Student. Los resultados notan que el nivel de habilidades de comprensión auditiva de los estudiantes en los grupos de control (GC) y experimental (GE) es aproximadamente el mismo (52% y 56%). El nivel predominante de aprendizaje de la materia en GC y GE es umbral, lo que indica una insuficiente formación de los alumnos en esta dirección. En conclusion, el estudio reveló la alta eficiencia de las tecnologías digitales en el desarrollo de estrategias de comprensión auditiva de los futuros filólogos. Se comprobó experimentalmente la relación entre una alta capacidad para percibir auditivamente una lengua extranjera y el uso de herramientas educativas multimedia digitales.

The meaning of words in natural language depends crucially on context. However, most neuroimaging studies of word meaning use isolated words and isolated sentences with little context. Because the brain may process natural language differently from how it processes simplified stimuli, there is a pressing need to determine whether prior results on word meaning generalize to natural language. fMRI was used to record human brain activity while four subjects (two female) read words in four conditions that vary in context: narratives, isolated sentences, blocks of semantically similar words, and isolated words. We then compared the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of evoked brain responses, and we used a voxelwise encoding modeling approach to compare the representation of semantic information across the four conditions. We find four consistent effects of varying context. First, stimuli with more context evoke brain responses with higher SNR across bilateral visual, temporal, parietal, and prefrontal cortices compared with stimuli with little context. Second, increasing context increases the representation of semantic information across bilateral temporal, parietal, and prefrontal cortices at the group level. In individual subjects, only natural language stimuli consistently evoke widespread representation of semantic information. Third, context affects voxel semantic tuning. Finally, models estimated using stimuli with little context do not generalize well to natural language. These results show that context has large effects on the quality of neuroimaging data and on the representation of meaning in the brain. Thus, neuroimaging studies that use stimuli with little context may not generalize well to the natural regime.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Context is an important part of understanding the meaning of natural language, but most neuroimaging studies of meaning use isolated words and isolated sentences with little context. Here, we examined whether the results of neuroimaging

The present research study was developed with the objective of diagnosing storytelling as a didactic tool used by teachers to promote reading comprehension in the teaching-learning process of 4th grade elementary students at the Horacio Hidrovo Peñaherrera school. For achieving the proposed objective, the study was framed in a mixed approach methodology, using descriptive and documentary methods, and under an analytical research level, applying an interview with 3 teachers and a reading comprehension test applied as a survey through the google form platform to the 18 students that make up the sample in the study. Finding that the 4th grade students of the Horacio Hidrovo Peñaherrera school currently present a difficulty in understanding and comprehension of reading texts. This situation is mainly due to the fact that teachers lack effective strategies that lead to an effective and successful teaching process in which students can learn to understand the information contained in books or texts that contribute to a comprehensive and quality educational training. In this sense, storytelling is presented as an innovative tool for the 4th grade teachers of the Horacio Hidrovo Peñaherrera school, who, although have not applied this strategy as a useful tool for the development of reading, they feel encouraged to develop their knowledge about the use of storytelling as a method to strengthen student reading comprehension., El presente estudio de investigación se desarrolló con el objetivo de diagnosticar el storytelling como herramienta didáctica utilizada por los docentes para favorecer la comprensión lectora en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de los estudiantes de 4to grado de EGB, de la escuela Horacio Hidrovo Peñaherrera. Para alcanzar el objetivo planteado, se enmarcó el estudio en una metodología de enfoque mixto, utilizando los métodos descriptivos, documentales, y bajo un nivel de investigación analítico, aplicando una entrevista dirigida a 3 docentes y un test de comprensión lectora aplicado en forma de encuesta mediante la plataforma de Google forms a los 18 estudiantes que conforman la muestra en el estudio. Encontrando que los estudiantes del 4to grado de la escuela Horacio Hidrovo Peñaherrera en la actualidad presentan una dificultad para el entendimiento y la comprensión de la lectura de textos, esta situación se debe principalmente a que los docentes carecen de estrategias efectivas que conduzcan a un proceso de enseñanza efectivo y exitoso en el cual, los estudiantes puedan aprender a comprender la información contenida en los libros o textos que contribuyen a una formación educativa integral y de calidad. En este sentido, el storytelling se presenta como una herramienta de innovación para los docentes del 4to grado de la escuela Horacio Hidrovo Peñaherrera quienes, aunque en la actualidad no han aplicado esta estrategia como una herramienta útil para el desarrollo de la lectura, se sienten incentivados por fortalecer los conocimientos sobre el uso del storytelling como método para fortalecer la comprensión lectora estudiantil.

Child labor remains a serious problem in many parts of the world. Many of the children involved live in underdeveloped countries. In Catarman, the capital town of Northern Samar, this social dilemma holds true. The economic state of the province as one of the poorest provinces of the country has great impact on the most vulnerable sectors of the province’s populace, particularly the children. In fact, the Child Labor Committee of the municipality validated the existence of the following forms of child labor in the province: domestic helping; stevedoring; PD cab driving; farming; KTV or bar waiting; and vending. Non-government offices like United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Plan Philippines intervene to strengthen and implement appropriate measures to eradicate forms of child labor. This paper determined the parents’ knowledge level about Catarman child labor and evaluated the effectiveness of the print materials used by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Plan Philippines in campaigning against child labor as perceived by the parents. A mix of quantitative (survey) and qualitative (key informant) was used in generating data on the perceptions of parents and their sources of information. As to the perceived effectiveness of the print materials, the following themes were used: attractiveness; comprehension, self-involvement and persuasion. A thematic analysis on the transcribed key informants interviews was employed for the qualitative part.

Article; Early Access, Relative clause (RC) production has been a major tool used for understanding language production mechanism in experimental linguistics. The present study analyzes language production mechanisms in Turkish by utilizing animacy effect on RC production. A picture description task was applied to two participant groups. The data were combined and analyzed to see how animacy influenced RC formation. The outcomes were also compared to the distributions of RC use in corpus data. Both participant and corpus data demonstrated significant level of passivization for RCs with animate heads, strongly affirming the grammatical function assignment proposal by Bock and Warren (Cognition 21(1):47-67, 1985) as well as the premise of Production-Distribution-Comprehension account (MacDonald in Front Psychol 4:226, 2013), emphasizing the relationship between language production mechanisms and typology. However, the corpus data were observed to have higher numbers of passivization with animate condition. Accordingly, a coarse comparison of the participant RC production proportions in the current study with some other crosslinguistic research suggests that some language-specific or discourse-related interventions can also compete with the animacy accessibility during the sentence planning procedure, which needs an extra inquiry especially in Turkish language.

While listening to meaningful speech, auditory input is processed more rapidly near the end (vs. beginning) of sentences. Although several studies have shown such word-to-word changes in auditory input processing, it is still unclear from which processing level these word-to-word dynamics originate. We investigated whether predictions derived from sentential context can result in auditory word-processing dynamics during sentence tracking. We presented healthy human participants with auditory stimuli consisting of word sequences, arranged into either predictable (coherent sentences) or less predictable (unstructured, random word sequences) 42-Hz amplitude-modulated speech, and a continuous 25-Hz amplitude-modulated distractor tone. We recorded RTs and frequency-tagged neuroelectric responses (auditory steady-state responses) to individual words at multiple temporal positions within the sentences, and quantified sentential context effects at each position while controlling for individual word characteristics (i.e., phonetics, frequency, and familiarity). We found that sentential context increasingly facilitates auditory word processing as evidenced by accelerated RTs and increased auditory steady-state responses to later-occurring words within sentences. These purely top-down contextually driven auditory word-processing dynamics occurred only when listeners focused their attention on the speech and did not transfer to the auditory processing of the concurrent distractor tone. These findings indicate that auditory word-processing dynamics during sentence tracking can originate from sentential predictions. The predictions depend on the listeners' attention to the speech, and affect only the processing of the parsed speech, not that of concurrently presented auditory streams.

Article; Early Access, Relative clause (RC) production has been a major tool used for understanding language production mechanism in experimental linguistics. The present study analyzes language production mechanisms in Turkish by utilizing animacy effect on RC production. A picture description task was applied to two participant groups. The data were combined and analyzed to see how animacy influenced RC formation. The outcomes were also compared to the distributions of RC use in corpus data. Both participant and corpus data demonstrated significant level of passivization for RCs with animate heads, strongly affirming the grammatical function assignment proposal by Bock and Warren (Cognition 21(1):47-67, 1985) as well as the premise of Production-Distribution-Comprehension account (MacDonald in Front Psychol 4:226, 2013), emphasizing the relationship between language production mechanisms and typology. However, the corpus data were observed to have higher numbers of passivization with animate condition. Accordingly, a coarse comparison of the participant RC production proportions in the current study with some other crosslinguistic research suggests that some language-specific or discourse-related interventions can also compete with the animacy accessibility during the sentence planning procedure, which needs an extra inquiry especially in Turkish language.

Context: Patient experience is an important component of high-quality care and is linked to improved clinical outcomes across a range of different conditions. Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) are psychometrically validated instruments designed to identify where strengths and vulnerabilities in care exist. Currently, there is no validated instrument available to measure patient experience among people aged over 65 years attending the emergency department (ED). Objective: This paper aims to describe the process of generating, refining and prioritising candidate items for inclusion in a new PREM measuring older adults' experiences in ED (PREM-ED 65). Design: One hundred and thirty-six draft items were generated via a systematic review, interviews with patients and focus groups with ED staff exploring older adults' experiences in the ED. A 1-day multiple stakeholder workshop was then convened to refine and prioritise these items. The workshop entailed a modified nominal groups technique exercise comprised of three discrete parts—(i) item familiarisation and comprehension assessment, (ii) initial voting and (iii) final adjudication. Setting and Participants: Twenty-nine participants attended the stakeholder workshop, conducted in a nonhealthcare setting (Buckfast Abbey). The average age of participants was 65.6 years. Self-reported prior experiences of emergency care among the participants included attending the ED as a patient (n = 16, 55.2%); accompanying person (n = 11, 37.9%) and/or as a healthcare provider (n = 7, 24.1%). Results: Participants were allocated time to familiarise themselves with the draft items, suggest any improvements to the item structure or content, and suggest new items. Two additional items were proposed by participants, yielding a total of 138 items for prioritisation. Initial prioritisation deemed most items ‘critically important’ (priority 7–9 out of 9, n = 104, 75.4%). Of these, 70 items demonstrated suitable inter-rater agreemen

Bilinguals experience processing costs when comprehending code-switches, yet the magnitude of the cost fluctuates depending on numerous factors. We tested whether switch costs vary based on the frequency of different types of code-switches, as estimated from natural corpora of bilingual speech and text. Spanish–English bilinguals in the U.S. read single-language and code-switched sentences in a self-paced task. Sentence regions containing code-switches were read more slowly than single-language control regions, consistent with the idea that integrating a code-switch poses a processing challenge. Crucially, more frequent code-switches elicited significantly smaller costs both within and across most classes of switch types (e.g., within verb phrases and when comparing switches at verb-phrase and noun-phrase sites). The results suggest that, in addition to learning distributions of syntactic and semantic patterns, bilinguals develop finely tuned expectations about code-switching behavior – representing one reason why code-switching in naturalistic contexts may not be particularly costly.

Many companies implemented remote work procedures during the pandemic and for many organizations video meetings have since remained a staple. Remote working has enabled employees to be more flexible with their schedules and technical solutions such as live captioning has been identified as potentially enabling deaf/hard-of-hearing employees during meetings. However with new procedures comes concern about how we potentially can be affected by the changes. Some earlier research has shown that speech intelligibility can be improved by the inclusion of text support, but they also raised the possibility that it could have unwanted adverse effects on cognitive abilities (Zhong, Noud et al., 2022). This study was conducted with this focus, studying the effects of text support on specifically listening effort and comprehension during normal as well as adverse conditions (featuring added noise). To investigate the effects of text support a 2 (Noise, No Noise) x 2 (Text Support, No Text Support) design was used. The participants were shown 16 short videos simulating video meetings and after each video were asked to rate their perceived listening effort as well as a comprehension question about the contents of the discussion. Each of the four conditions were equally represented but the order of the specific video files and conditions that applied were randomised for each participant to mitigate undue effects. The results of the study indicate that the presence of captions decrease effort and raise comprehension in both normal and adverse conditions. Noise was found to strongly effect the listening effort required by participants but no significant effect was found upon comprehension. Some concerns regarding the ecological validity were identified during the course of the study such as only studying energetic noise and unrealistic presentation of captions. However the results are nonetheless believed to be generalizable in most regards and showcase that captions can have a posi

We defend in this essay Paul Ricœur’s hermeneutics of suspicion against Toril Moi’s debunking of it as a misguided interpretation of the practice of critical inquiry, and we relate the practice of a rigorous and critical empathy to the hermeneutics of suspicion. For Ricœur, empathy would not be a mere psychological mechanism by which one subject transiently identifies with another, but the ontological presence of the self with the Other as a way of being —listening as a human action that is a fundamental way of being with the Other in which “hermeneutics can stand on the authority of the resources of past ontologies.” In a rational reconstruction of what a Ricœur-friendly approach to empathy would entail, a logical space can be made for empathy to avoid the epistemological paradoxes of Husserl and the ethical enthusiasms of Levinas. How this reconstruction of empathy would apply to empathic understanding, empathic responsiveness, empathic interpretation, and empathic receptivity is elaborated from a Ricœurian perspective., Dans cet essai, nous prenons la défense de l’herméneutique du soupçon de Paul Ricœur contre la réfutation de Toril Moi qui y voit une interprétation erronée de la pratique de l’enquête critique, et nous mettons en relation la pratique d’une empathie rigoureuse et critique avec l’herméneutique du soupçon. Pour Ricœur, l’empathie ne saurait se réduire à un simple mécanisme psychologique par lequel un sujet s’identifie momentanément à un autre. Elle est une présence ontologique du moi à l’Autre – façon de se mettre à son écoute et une action humaine qui correspond à une manière fondamentale d’être avec l’Autre dans laquelle « l’herméneutique peut s’appuyer sur l’autorité des ressources des ontologies passées ». En procédant à une reconstruction rationnelle des implications d’une approche de l’empathie favorable à Ricœur, il est possible de ménager un espace logique pour l’empathie, afin que cette dernière évite les paradoxes épistémologiques de Husserl et les enthousiasmes éthiques de Levinas. Cet article tente de penser dans une perspective ricœurienne la manière dont cette reconstruction de l’empathie est susceptible de s’appliquer à la compréhension empathique, à la réactivité empathique, à l’interprétation empathique et à la réceptivité empathique.

The purpose of the study was to compare the level of understanding of students taught using audio-visual and those taught without using audio visual. The study employed quasi-experimental design. The study also revealed that the treatment group's students comprehended the material being taught to them. Students in the treatment group were able to give the right answers, give examples to back their responses, and only share their experiences if they were relevant to the answer, they gave during the evaluation of what they had been taught. The control group could not have been compared to this. The study also revealed that, in contrast to those in the control group, students in the treatment group were engaged and eager to take part in group projects and demonstrations throughout class. Students in the treatment group showed greater interest in class, but those in the control group were uninterested and passive. Finally, the test scores of the treatment group children were much better than those of the control group.