Visual motion interferes with lexical decision on motion words

Embodied theories of cognition propose that neural substrates used in experiencing the referent of a word, for example perceiving upward motion, should be engaged in weaker form when that word, for example ‘rise’, is comprehended. Motivated by the finding that the perception of irrelevant background motion at near-threshold, but not supra-threshold, levels interferes with task execution, we assessed whether interference from near-threshold background motion was modulated by its congruence with the meaning of words (semantic content) when participants completed a lexical decision task (deciding if a string of letters is a real word or not). Reaction times for motion words, such as ‘rise’ or ‘fall’, were slower when the direction of visual motion and the ‘motion’ of the word were incongruent — but only when the visual motion was at nearthreshold levels. When motion was supra-threshold, the distribution of error rates, not reaction times, implicated low-level motion processing in the semantic processing of motion words. As the perception of near-threshold signals is not likely to be influenced by strategies, our results support a close contact between semantic information and perceptual systems.

Watching the words: drama and poems

Some poems are inherently dramatic due to their narrative content or the events, characters, places and emotions that are their subject. Others have the potential for dramatisation because of some aural or visual quality of their poetic form. However, if dramatising poems is to be meaningful and effective children need to be taught something about the art form of drama rather than just being left to their own devices. This chapter explores the learning potential of considering the printed text of a poem as a notation of sound, movement, gesture and use of space. The chapter recognises a progression from simple nursery rhymes to the sophisticated use of poetic language in different types of literature that is mirrored in the journey from infants’ clapping games to the dramatic juxtaposition of aural and visual images in theatre and the performing arts.

Analysing lexical richness in French learner language: what frequency lists and teacher judgements can tell us about basic and advanced words

We show how teacher judgements can be used to assess the quality of vocabulary used by L2 learners of French.

'They Shall Speak the Arabic Language and Take Pride in it': reconsidering the fate of Coptic after the Arab Conquest

The complaints on the adoption of Arabic by the Copts that are voiced by the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Samuel have often been quoted as the expiring words of the dying Coptic language. This article seeks to show that they are not to be taken so literally, and that they should rather be inserted in the context of a rift within the medieval Coptic church over the question of language choice, and beyond this, over that of accommodation with the Muslims. The use of Arabic by the episcopal church of Miṣr and by some prominent figures around it, which was linked to their proximity to the Fatimid court, was resented and denounced by more traditional circles, centred on the Patriarchate and on some important monasteries such as the one at Qalamūn where the Apocalypse was written. The suggestion is also made that the text is contemporary with the beginning of Coptic literary production in Arabic and with the introduction of Egyptian Christians at the caliphal court, namely in the last quarter of the tenth century, at the time of Severus ibn al-Muqqafa‘.

Beyond words: Visual metaphors that can demonstrate comprehension of KM as a paradoxical activity system

Following criticism that, in business and management, metaphor is largely verbal and primarily used to convey similarity, this paper explores how visual metaphors can communicate the anomalous and the paradoxical aspects of KM more concisely than words, whilst simultaneously presenting more tacit associations to stimulate creative thinking. It considers a series of 30 assessed posters that aimed to re-present six basic KM paradoxes through imagery that captures both the analogous and the anomalous. We found six categories of radial metaphors able to convey paradoxical complexity in a concise way. This has implications for organizations thinking about how to engage people with both the familiar and the strange. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Efficiency of pseudo-spectral algorithms with Anderson mixing for the SCFT of periodic block-copolymer phases

This study examines the numerical accuracy, computational cost, and memory requirements of self-consistent field theory (SCFT) calculations when the diffusion equations are solved with various pseudo-spectral methods and the mean field equations are iterated with Anderson mixing. The different methods are tested on the triply-periodic gyroid and spherical phases of a diblock-copolymer melt over a range of intermediate segregations. Anderson mixing is found to be somewhat less effective than when combined with the full-spectral method, but it nevertheless functions admirably well provided that a large number of histories is used. Of the different pseudo-spectral algorithms, the 4th-order one of Ranjan, Qin and Morse performs best, although not quite as efficiently as the full-spectral method.

How not to do things with words

If philosophy and poetry are to illuminate each other, we should first understand their tendencies to mutual antipathy. Examining (and, where possible, correcting) mutual misapprehension is part of this task. J. L. Austin's remarks on poetry offer one such point of entry: they are often cited by poets and critics as an example of philosophy's blindness to poetry (I). These remarks are complex and their purpose obscure—more so than those who take exception to them usually allow or admit (II). But it is reasonable to think that, for all his levity at their expense, what Austin offers poets is exemption from forms of commitment. Since such exemption is precisely what poets and critics have sought, this diagnosis is eirenic (III). This exemption has a price, but it may be affordable (IV).

The role of self-teaching in learning orthographic and semantic aspects of new words

This study explores how children learn the meaning (semantics) and spelling patterns (orthography) of novel words encountered in story context. English-speaking children (N = 88) aged 7 to 8 years read 8 stories and each story contained 1 novel word repeated 4 times. Semantic cues were provided by the story context such that children could infer the meaning of the word (specific context) or the category that the word belonged to (general context). Following story reading, posttests indicated that children showed reliable semantic and orthographic learning. Decoding was the strongest predictor of orthographic learning, indicating that self-teaching via phonological recoding was important for this aspect of word learning. In contrast, oral vocabulary emerged as the strongest predictor of semantic learning.