The neural basis for writing from dictation in the temporoparietal cortex.

Cortical electrical stimulation mapping was used to study neural substrates of the function of writing in the temporoparietal cortex. We identified the sites involved in oral language (sentence reading and naming) and writing from dictation, in order to spare these areas during removal of brain tumours in 30 patients (23 in the left, and 7 in the right hemisphere). Electrostimulation of the cortex impaired writing ability in 62 restricted cortical areas (.25 cm2). These were found in left temporoparietal lobes and were mostly located along the superior temporal gyrus (Brodmann's areas 22 and 42). Stimulation of right temporoparietal lobes in right-handed patients produced no writing impairments. However there was a high variability of location between individuals. Stimulation resulted in combined symptoms (affecting oral language and writing) in fourteen patients, whereas in eight other patients, stimulation-induced pure agraphia symptoms with no oral language disturbance in twelve of the identified areas. Each detected area affected writing in a different way. We detected the various different stages of the auditory-to-motor pathway of writing from dictation: either through comprehension of the dictated sentences (word deafness areas), lexico-semantic retrieval, or phonologic processing. In group analysis, barycentres of all different types of writing interferences reveal a hierarchical functional organization along the superior temporal gyrus from initial word recognition to lexico-semantic and phonologic processes along the ventral and the dorsal comprehension pathways, supporting the previously described auditory-to-motor process. The left posterior Sylvian region supports different aspects of writing function that are extremely specialized and localized, sometimes being segregated in a way that could account for the occurrence of pure agraphia that has long-been described in cases of damage to this region.

Breaking up the writing process: how wikis can support understanding the composition and revision strategies of young writers

Understanding how best to support immature writers in the development of their understanding of the writing process is an important concern for researchers and teachers. Social technologies have become key features of leisure and work place writing, yet knowledge about how to design educational settings that take full advantage of the affordances of web 2.0 technologies to support early writing is scarce. This paper presents a small scale study that investigated how writing in a wiki environment might facilitate and support students’ use of composition and revision strategies. Our findings show that wiki can enlarge young writers’ experience of the process of composition and revision both through their own efforts and by observing the process in others. In this study students employed a wide range of types of revisions both surface and text based changes. These revisions took place during the process of composition as well as at the end. It is argued here that writing in a wiki not only provides young writers with experience of a mode of composition prevalent in the contemporary work environment, but breaks up the process of writing in a way that may support students’ understanding of the processes of composition and revision.

Re-writing and Its Pedagogical Value: A Case Study

Tenint en compte el temps i la energia que els mestres i professors dediquen a la correcció de redaccions i produccions escrites i el poc efecte que aquestes semblen tenir en altres produccions dels aprenents, es va dissenyar la recerca que es presenta en aquest article. Els resultats de l'estudi semblen suggerir que les correccions no faciliten l'aprenentatge. Com presentem aquesta activitat de retroalimentació a l'alumnat i la posició que li donem dins d'un enfocament basat en el procés de l'escriptura seran clau per fer que les correccions siguin facilitadores de l'aprenentatge de la producció escrita.

Transferring control demands across incidental learning tasks - Stronger sequence usage in serial reaction task after shortcut option in letter string checking

After incidentally learning about a hidden regularity, participants can either continue to solve the task as instructed or, alternatively, apply a shortcut. Past research suggests that the amount of conflict implied by adopting a shortcut seems to bias the decision for vs. against continuing instruction-coherent task processing. We explored whether this decision might transfer from one incidental learning task to the next. Theories that conceptualize strategy change in incidental learning as a learning-plus-decision phenomenon suggest that high demands to adhere to instruction-coherent task processing in Task 1 will impede shortcut usage in Task 2, whereas low control demands will foster it. We sequentially applied two established incidental learning tasks differing in stimuli, responses and hidden regularity (the alphabet verification task followed by the serial reaction task, SRT). While some participants experienced a complete redundancy in the task material of the alphabet verification task (low demands to adhere to instructions), for others the redundancy was only partial. Thus, shortcut application would have led to errors (high demands to follow instructions). The low control demand condition showed the strongest usage of the fixed and repeating sequence of responses in the SRT. The transfer results are in line with the learning-plus-decision view of strategy change in incidental learning, rather than with resource theories of self-control.

Boosting Future Prospects or Softening Promises of Success? The Use of Emphatics and Hedging in the Letter to Shareholders Sections of Annual Reports

Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma käsittelee yritysten vuosikertomusten Toimitusjohtajan katsaus -osioissa esiintyvää metatekstiä. Erityisenä tutkimuskohteena ovat yrityksen tulevaisuutta käsittelevät lauseet ja niissä käytetty interpersonaalinen metateksti, jonka avulla kirjoittaja pyrkii joko vahvistamaan (emphatics-keinoin) tai heikentämään (hedging-keinoin) ilmaisujensa vahvuutta ja lukijalle niiden kautta välittyvää kuvaa viestin varmuudesta ja vakuuttavuudesta. Sijoittajille suunnattu Toimitusjohtajan katsaus käsittelee yleensä yrityksen edellisen vuoden tulosta, taloudellista asemaa sekä tulevaisuudennäkymiä. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää, vaikuttaako yrityksen taloudellinen menestys vuosikertomuksen tässä osiossa käytetyn metatekstin määrään ja laatuun. Tutkimuksen teoriaosuudessa käsitellään ensiksi lyhyesti vuosikertomuksia ja niiden parissa tehtyä aiempaa kielitieteellistä tutkimusta, minkä jälkeen perehdytään tarkemmin metatekstin sekä hedging- ja emphatics-keinojen määrittelyyn. Näissä osioissa apuna toimivat muunmuassa Hylandin (1998) ja Cromptonin (1997) tutkimukset. Tutkimusaineistossa esiintyvien metatekstilajien määrittelyssä ja tunnistamisessa käytettiin apuna pääosin Crismore & Farnsworthin (1990) ja Grabe & Kaplanin (1997) tutkimuksia. Tutkimuksen aineistona oli yhteensä 23 yhdentoista amerikkalaisen yrityksen vuosikertomusta. Ne käsittivät esimerkkejä kunkin yhtiön talouden kannalta sekä erityisen hyviltä että huonoilta vuosilta. Aineistosta löydetty interpersonaalinen metateksti luokiteltiin viiteen eri ryhmään: modaaliverbit, hedging-verbit, muut hedging-keinot, emphatics-keinot ja evaluatives-keinot (eli kirjoittajan tekstistään tekemät subjektiiviset huomiot ja arviot). Tulokset osoittivat, että metatekstin käytössä ilmeni melkoista vaihtelua yksittäisten yritysten ja niiden hyvien ja huonojen vuosien välillä. Nämä eroavuudet eivät kuitenkaan vaikuttaneet merkittävästi koko aineiston kattaviin keskivertolukuihin, joiden avulla pyrittiin selvittämään hyvien ja huonojen vuosien välisiä yleisiä eroja. Tutkimuksen perusteella voidaan todeta, että Toimitusjohtajan katsaus –osioiden viittaukset yhtiön tulevaisuuteen heijastavat tavallisesti kirjoittajan varmuutta yrityksen menestyksekkäästä tulevaisuudesta riippumatta siitä, minkälainen vuosikertomuksessa käsitelty vuosi on ollut yhtiölle taloudellisesti. Yleisesti ottaen yhtiön taloudellisen tilan ei siis havaittu vaikuttavan Toimitusjohtajan katsauksessa käytetyn metadiskurssin määrään tai laatuun.

Expressive writing intervention for mothers following the birth of their premature baby.

The birth of a preterm infant is in most cases unexpected and can be a distressing experience for parents. Parents of premature babies report more stress, experience more adjustment difficulties and need for support during the first year after delivery compared to parents of infants born at term. It has been documented that parents may experience posttraumatic stress reactions, anxiety and depression following the premature birth of their baby, which subsequently may impact on the mother-baby-interactions, their attachment relationship and the cognitive, social and behavioural development of the baby. In this pilot study, we offered an expressive writing intervention to women who recently had a premature baby to alleviate their psychological distress and to improve their physical health. During the expressive writing intervention, women were asked to write down their deepest thoughts and feelings about the most traumatic aspect of their experience of having a premature baby for 15 min over three consecutive days. The aims of the study were as follows: (1) To evaluate the effect of expressive writing on psychological and physical health in women who recently had a premature baby. (2) To evaluate the effect of expressive writing on the use of healthcare services and medication in this population. (3) To evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of this intervention for this population. Forty participants were randomly allocated to either the expressive writing intervention group or a wait list control group. Pre- and post questionnaires to evaluate the effectiveness of the expressive writing intervention, as well as their acceptability and feasibility were completed. The intervention took place when the baby was 3 months of corrected age. Post-measures were completed at 1 and 3 months following the intervention. Results and their clinical implications will be discussed with regards to the implementation of this safe and cost-effective method as a preventative measure in the routine care of women who recently gave birth to a premature baby