Integrating attachment and linguistic perspectives on the coherence of narratives regarding close relationships: A qualitative illustration.

In this multidisciplinary study, we offer an integrative view on the coherence of narratives regarding close relationships. We show how coherence, as conceptualized by attachment researchers, is manifested in discursive syntactic structure, as conceptualized by linguists. To illustrate this correspondence, we use narratives of six mothers about their adolescent child and their relationship. Narratives were elicited with the widely used Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) procedure and were coded according to the FMSS-coherence manual, tapping their clarity, consistency, and multidimensionality. In addition, the syntactic constructions employed by mothers were analyzed. FMSS were segmented into Clause Packages (CPs). Within CPs, overt syntactic markers, such as 'because,' as well as unmarked thematic and pragmatic relations, such as new vs. given information, were categorized as reflecting different levels of integration between clauses. As we demonstrate, mothers whose narratives were rated as more coherent employed more integrated CPs. We conclude by discussing the multi-layered nature of coherence. We consider how a multidisciplinary approach to coherence can enrich the understanding of personal narratives and open a new direction for research of close relationships as well as inform functional analyses of the linguistic expression of coherence.

Decomposition in early stages of learning novel morphologically derived words: The impact of linear vs. non-linear structure.

We examined whether morphological decomposition takes place in early stages of learning a novel language, and whether morphological structure (linear vs. non-linear) influences decomposition. Across four sessions, 41 native-Hebrew speakers learned morphologically derived words in a novel morpho-lexicon, with two complex conditions: linear and non-linear; and a third simple condition with monomorphemic words. Participants showed faster learning of trained words in the linear condition, and better generalization to untrained words for both complex conditions compared to the simple condition, with better performance for linear than non-linear morphology. Learning the root morpheme, which provides a concrete meaning, was better than learning template/suffix morphemes, which are more abstract. Overall, our results suggest that saliency of discrete units plays an important role in decomposition in early stages of learning derived words, even for speakers highly familiar with the non-linear structure in their L1.

Linguistic Variation, Discourse Analysis, and Deaf Education: Case Studies from ISL.

Variation in language has been acknowledged as central to the characterization of spoken and written discourse. Speakers' ability to change and adjust language according to the communicative circumstances is a prominent factor that demonstrates their linguistic literacy and skill. Nonetheless, few studies have explored the characterization of discursively motivated variation in sign languages, and little is known about the topic. The purpose of the current study is to present features of variation in Israeli Sign Language as they appear in two discourse types-narrative versus expository texts. We present this aspect of linguistic literacy as it is expressed in two case studies of two adult signers in two domains: sign parameters and the use of signing space. The findings reveal a discourse type effect on the way that these aspects are expressed and highlight the importance of discourse and linguistic knowledge to educators of deaf students.

A role for incidental auditory learning in auditory-visual word learning among kindergarten children.

This study focused on the potential role of incidental, auditory perceptual learning in among children learning new words. To this end, we examined how irrelevant auditory similarities across words, that provide no cues regarding their visual or conceptual attributes, influence pseudo-word learning in a name/picture matching paradigm. Two types of irrelevant auditory similarities were used: shared sequences of vowels or consonants. Learning word-to-picture associations in these two conditions was compared to a baseline condition in which items did not share either sequence. Kindergarten children readily learned items in all conditions, but auditory similarity interfered with learning (odds ratio, 1.12). Individual differences in reasoning and vocabulary did not account for the interference effect. These findings suggest that the sensory properties of words continue to influence language learning during the preschool years through rapid incidental learning, even if the effect is relatively small. Consistent with previous studies in the visual modality, we now suggest that incidental perceptual learning occurs in the auditory modality. Furthermore, the current findings suggest that this learning can interfere with word learning, highlighting the importance of the perceptual structure of words in real-world-like learning environments.

Expressive writing - Who is it good for? Individual differences in the improvement of mental health resulting from expressive writing.

OBJECTIVE: we examined individual differences in the effects of expressive writing. We hypothesized that moderate levels of neuroticism, low levels of experiential avoidance, and highly rated subjective severity would be linked to greater change in well-being post-writing. DESIGN: participants were randomly assigned to the expressive group (N = 104) who wrote about emotion-laden experiences, or the control group (N = 51) who wrote about everyday events. All completed the IES and BSI pre and 1, 3, and 6 weeks post-writing. RESULTS: overall, we replicated the seminal result, with greater reductions in IES scores in the expressive writing group. In addition, in the expressive group, as expected, participants with higher severity scores had greater reductions in BSI scores. Surprisingly, individuals with high rather than moderate neuroticism and high rather than low experiential avoidance scores also experienced more benefit. CONCLUSIONS: participants who are more aware of, in touch with, and suffer more from negative feelings are those who gain the most from expressive writing. Based on this conclusion, clinical implications relevant to both psychotherapy patients and non-patients are suggested.

Computational evaluation of the Traceback Method.

Several models of language acquisition have emerged in recent years that rely on computational algorithms for simulation and evaluation. Computational models are formal and precise, and can thus provide mathematically well-motivated insights into the process of language acquisition. Such models are amenable to robust computational evaluation, using technology that was developed for Information Retrieval and Computational Linguistics. In this article we advocate the use of such technology for the evaluation of formal models of language acquisition. We focus on the Traceback Method, proposed in several recent studies as a model of early language acquisition, explaining some of the phenomena associated with children's ability to generalize previously heard utterances and generate novel ones. We present a rigorous computational evaluation that reveals some flaws in the method, and suggest directions for improving it.

The Hebrew CHILDES corpus: transcription and morphological analysis.

We present a corpus of transcribed spoken Hebrew that reflects spoken interactions between children and adults. The corpus is an integral part of the CHILDES database, which distributes similar corpora for over 25 languages. We introduce a dedicated transcription scheme for the spoken Hebrew data that is sensitive to both the phonology and the standard orthography of the language. We also introduce a morphological analyzer that was specifically developed for this corpus. The analyzer adequately covers the entire corpus, producing detailed correct analyses for all tokens. Evaluation on a new corpus reveals high coverage as well. Finally, we describe a morphological disambiguation module that selects the correct analysis of each token in context. The result is a high-quality morphologically-annotated CHILDES corpus of Hebrew, along with a set of tools that can be applied to new corpora.