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A new project for studying the language of the blind: Linguistic and neurocognitive evidence
328
Symposia Abstracts / International Journal of Psychophysiology 85 (2012) 291–360
sensory modality of the reinforcer for the future experiments. Experiment 1: Sixteen LD children with abnormally higher theta/ alpha ratio were randomly assigned to one of two groups: NFB + where a positive reward was given when the value of theta/alpha ratio was reduced or NFB − where a punishment was given when the value increased. Each subject obtained the positive or the negative reward (a tone of 500 Hz), depending on the group. NFB training consisted of 30 sessions of 30 min each. Both groups showed an improvement of the IQ, intellectual maturity, attention, academic achievement, and self-esteem. In addition, the NFB − group showed a significant improvement in reading comprehension and reasoning. Both groups showed changes in the EEG, which were compatible with EEG maturation, greater changes in the NFB − group were observed, which remains throughout the years. This implies that NFB given with either positive or negative reinforcement is useful for the treatment of LD children; however, NFB applied with a negative reward induces a greater and speedy improvement in behavior and EEG values than NFB applied with positive reward. Experiment 2: Twenty LD children with abnormally higher theta/alpha ratio were randomly assigned to one of two groups: AUD where a positive auditory reward (a tone of 500 Hz) or VIS where a positive visual reward (a white square) was given when the value of theta/alpha ratio was reduced. NFB training consisted of 30 sessions of 30 min each. Only AUD group showed behavioral/cognitive improvement, although both groups had signs consistent with maturation of the EEG, with the difference that only the AUD group evidenced increase in beta Relative Power mainly in temporal regions. Therefore, NFB with auditory reinforcer seems superior to NFB with visual reinforcer. In conclusion, the best protocol should be one that negatively reinforces the reduction of the ratio theta/alpha using an auditory stimulus as a reinforcer.
doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.06.105
Symposium C: Semantic representations in the language of the blind: Linguistic and neurocognitive studies Symposium Chair: Pietro Pietrini (Italy) and Giovanna Marotta (Italy) Visual experience is crucial in shaping conceptual structures and determining the semantic content of linguistic utterances. To define a word as “concrete" means to refer to its grounding in an entity with spatio-temporal extension, which can be perceived through vision. On the other hand, the prelinguistic modalities of spatial organization seem to influence linguistic structures. In the recent theories of semantic representation, the so-called “embodied cognition hypothesis” suggests that the meaning of concrete nouns and verbs can be reduced to sensory–motor information. In parallel, vision is normally claimed to be the most relevant sensory modality determining our representation of space and of the relations of objects in a space. Given how central vision is for learning conceptual categories and language structures, congenitally blind subjects become relevant subjects to be studied, because they learn representations of concrete objects and spatial concepts without any visual input. Therefore, we may ask:
– to what extent are semantic representations in the blind and sighted comparable? – how does the lack of visual cues affect linguistic categories and conceptual structures?
The Symposium would like to face these theoretical questions with crucial reference to the evidence coming from the empirical data collected in the last two years by our interdisciplinary scientific team.
A new project for studying the language of the blind: Linguistic and neurocognitive evidence G. Marotta Department of Linguistics “T. Bolelli”, University of Pisa, Italy Vision is normally assumed as the core sensory experience grounding human conceptual structure. In parallel, the semantic content of linguistic utterances appears to be heavily based on the sensory and motor properties of the concrete entities of the world. The relevance of the perceptive experience of the human beings becomes more and more relevant if we assume that the mind is embodied, i.e. that cognition is strictly connected with the physical experience of our body. In such a framework, a thorny question concerns the relation between cognition and language: are concepts directly derived from sensory experience? or, vice versa, are they strictly connected with the linguistic categories? More generally, we may ask whether the two systems of representation – cognition and language – are distinct, or only superficially different (Marotta, 2010). Given this framework, the study of congenitally blind subjects becomes extremely interesting, because they learn representations of concrete objects and abstract concepts without any visual input. If the human cognition is grounded in the sensory experience, the semantic representations of the blind should be at least in part different from those of the sighted individuals. On the other hand, if human cognition is based on linguistic structure, we may suppose that the lack of visual cues (and the consequent different weight given to other cues) affects conceptual structures only superficially. The long term goal of the project is to use the evidence collected on congenital blind subjects to get at a better understanding of the relationship between linguistic and perceptive information. Our hypothesis was that purely verbal input plays a fundamental role in the processing of the meaning of concrete terms as well as in the acquisition of linguistic abstract categories. The program of the project is innovative in two respects: a. in terms of topics, because we explore subjects often ignored by linguists and cognitive psychologists; b. in terms of investigation techniques, that range from classic methods of semantics to computational modeling and fMRI. Different analyses have been conducted in both domains: –
–
– –
linguistic analysis of multimodal corpora of spontaneous vocal productions, looking for the salient aspects of linguistic representation of space; psycholinguistic investigations, based on the collections of semantic and associative norms from blind subjects, and pertaining to concrete terms as well as spatial language; neurophysiological and neuroanatomical investigations of the semantic representations in blind subjects, using fMRI techniques. computational-linguistic analyses.
doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.06.106
Semantic feature norms for congenital blind subjects M. Baronia, A. Lencib a University of Trento, Italy b Department of Linguistics “T. Bolelli”, University of Pisa, Italy Congenital blind subjects are able to learn how to use color terms and other types of vision-related words in a way that is de facto
Symposia Abstracts / International Journal of Psychophysiology 85 (2012) 291–360
sensory modality of the reinforcer for the future experiments. Experiment 1: Sixteen LD children with abnormally higher theta/ alpha ratio were randomly assigned to one of two groups: NFB + where a positive reward was given when the value of theta/alpha ratio was reduced or NFB − where a punishment was given when the value increased. Each subject obtained the positive or the negative reward (a tone of 500 Hz), depending on the group. NFB training consisted of 30 sessions of 30 min each. Both groups showed an improvement of the IQ, intellectual maturity, attention, academic achievement, and self-esteem. In addition, the NFB − group showed a significant improvement in reading comprehension and reasoning. Both groups showed changes in the EEG, which were compatible with EEG maturation, greater changes in the NFB − group were observed, which remains throughout the years. This implies that NFB given with either positive or negative reinforcement is useful for the treatment of LD children; however, NFB applied with a negative reward induces a greater and speedy improvement in behavior and EEG values than NFB applied with positive reward. Experiment 2: Twenty LD children with abnormally higher theta/alpha ratio were randomly assigned to one of two groups: AUD where a positive auditory reward (a tone of 500 Hz) or VIS where a positive visual reward (a white square) was given when the value of theta/alpha ratio was reduced. NFB training consisted of 30 sessions of 30 min each. Only AUD group showed behavioral/cognitive improvement, although both groups had signs consistent with maturation of the EEG, with the difference that only the AUD group evidenced increase in beta Relative Power mainly in temporal regions. Therefore, NFB with auditory reinforcer seems superior to NFB with visual reinforcer. In conclusion, the best protocol should be one that negatively reinforces the reduction of the ratio theta/alpha using an auditory stimulus as a reinforcer.
doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.06.105
Symposium C: Semantic representations in the language of the blind: Linguistic and neurocognitive studies Symposium Chair: Pietro Pietrini (Italy) and Giovanna Marotta (Italy) Visual experience is crucial in shaping conceptual structures and determining the semantic content of linguistic utterances. To define a word as “concrete" means to refer to its grounding in an entity with spatio-temporal extension, which can be perceived through vision. On the other hand, the prelinguistic modalities of spatial organization seem to influence linguistic structures. In the recent theories of semantic representation, the so-called “embodied cognition hypothesis” suggests that the meaning of concrete nouns and verbs can be reduced to sensory–motor information. In parallel, vision is normally claimed to be the most relevant sensory modality determining our representation of space and of the relations of objects in a space. Given how central vision is for learning conceptual categories and language structures, congenitally blind subjects become relevant subjects to be studied, because they learn representations of concrete objects and spatial concepts without any visual input. Therefore, we may ask:
– to what extent are semantic representations in the blind and sighted comparable? – how does the lack of visual cues affect linguistic categories and conceptual structures?
The Symposium would like to face these theoretical questions with crucial reference to the evidence coming from the empirical data collected in the last two years by our interdisciplinary scientific team.
A new project for studying the language of the blind: Linguistic and neurocognitive evidence G. Marotta Department of Linguistics “T. Bolelli”, University of Pisa, Italy Vision is normally assumed as the core sensory experience grounding human conceptual structure. In parallel, the semantic content of linguistic utterances appears to be heavily based on the sensory and motor properties of the concrete entities of the world. The relevance of the perceptive experience of the human beings becomes more and more relevant if we assume that the mind is embodied, i.e. that cognition is strictly connected with the physical experience of our body. In such a framework, a thorny question concerns the relation between cognition and language: are concepts directly derived from sensory experience? or, vice versa, are they strictly connected with the linguistic categories? More generally, we may ask whether the two systems of representation – cognition and language – are distinct, or only superficially different (Marotta, 2010). Given this framework, the study of congenitally blind subjects becomes extremely interesting, because they learn representations of concrete objects and abstract concepts without any visual input. If the human cognition is grounded in the sensory experience, the semantic representations of the blind should be at least in part different from those of the sighted individuals. On the other hand, if human cognition is based on linguistic structure, we may suppose that the lack of visual cues (and the consequent different weight given to other cues) affects conceptual structures only superficially. The long term goal of the project is to use the evidence collected on congenital blind subjects to get at a better understanding of the relationship between linguistic and perceptive information. Our hypothesis was that purely verbal input plays a fundamental role in the processing of the meaning of concrete terms as well as in the acquisition of linguistic abstract categories. The program of the project is innovative in two respects: a. in terms of topics, because we explore subjects often ignored by linguists and cognitive psychologists; b. in terms of investigation techniques, that range from classic methods of semantics to computational modeling and fMRI. Different analyses have been conducted in both domains: –
–
– –
linguistic analysis of multimodal corpora of spontaneous vocal productions, looking for the salient aspects of linguistic representation of space; psycholinguistic investigations, based on the collections of semantic and associative norms from blind subjects, and pertaining to concrete terms as well as spatial language; neurophysiological and neuroanatomical investigations of the semantic representations in blind subjects, using fMRI techniques. computational-linguistic analyses.
doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.06.106
Semantic feature norms for congenital blind subjects M. Baronia, A. Lencib a University of Trento, Italy b Department of Linguistics “T. Bolelli”, University of Pisa, Italy Congenital blind subjects are able to learn how to use color terms and other types of vision-related words in a way that is de facto