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PubMed2002

Ecological interface design for Pasteurizer II: a process description of semantic mapping.

Ecological interface design (EID) is proving to be a promising approach to the design of interfaces for complex dynamic systems. Although the principles of EID and examples of its effective use are widely available, few readily available examples exist of how the individual displays that constitute an ecological interface are developed. This paper presents the semantic mapping process within EID in the context of prior theoretical work in this area. The semantic mapping process that was used in developing an ecological interface for the Pasteurizer II microworld is outlined, and the results of an evaluation of the ecological interface against a more conventional interface are briefly presented. Subjective reports indicate features of the ecological interface that made it particularly valuable for participants. Finally, we outline the steps of an analytic process for using EID. The findings presented here can be applied in the design of ecological interfaces or of configural displays for dynamic processes.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

Semantic processing in alcoholics with and without antisocial symptomatology.

OBJECTIVE: Chronic alcoholics with a comorbid diagnosis of antisocial personality (ASP) symptomatology often exhibit early onset, severe course, and poor treatment outcomes. In addition, antisocial characteristics have been associated with a variety of cognitive deficits, including abnormalities of semantic processing, a deficit also found in alcoholics. Using the N400 task, this study investigated whether comorbid ASP symptomatology in alcoholics and community controls contributes to deficits in cognitive efficiency. METHOD: The N400 component of the event-related potential was elicited in detoxified alcoholics (n = 71; 56 male) and community controls (n = 36; 22 female) by sentences with congruent, related/incongruent or unrelated/incongruent terminal words. Difference waveforms were derived, and both amplitude and latency measures were obtained. Antisocial personality symptomatology was assessed using the ASP section of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule IV. RESULTS: Data were analyzed via linear regression using alcoholism, ASP positive (ASP+) status and their interaction term as predictors of N400 amplitude and latency. Significant latency findings were noted in the related/incongruent sentence condition. Increased N400 latency was predicted by ASP+ status at electrode site Pz (p = .01). The interaction of alcoholism and ASP+ status predicted increased N400 latency at electrode site P4 (p = .009), with ASP+ alcoholics demonstrating the greatest latency. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of N400 latency differences in response to related/incongruent semantic information in the current study differs from previous findings in studies of chronic alcoholism that do not account for ASP. These data suggest that antisocial personality disorder and alcoholism may affect cognitive function via different underlying mechanisms.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

[Semantic equivalence of the Portuguese version of the Abuse Assessment Screen tool used for the screening of violence against pregnant women].

INTRODUCTION: Research programs and actions regarding family violence have been growing steadily. Therefore, there's a need to develop data collection tools. In Brazil, further problems come up since tools that have been developed elsewhere need to be adapted and translated. This study focuses on the Abuse Assessment Screening (AAS) used to detect violence against pregnant women. The objective is to evaluate the semantic equivalence between the original tool in English and two Portuguese versions, and propose a synthetic version to be used in the field. METHODS: The evaluation of semantic equivalence was carried out in 4 steps: (1) translation, (2) back translation, (3) formal appreciation of equivalence and (4) a final critical assessment by family violence experts. RESULTS: Translation, back translation and the steps 3 and 4 assessment are presented for each item of the tool, along with the original in English. The text covers each discussion that led to the final version. Both versions were quite similar in 14 out of 15 items. Nevertheless, the second version showed to be slightly more adequate although for some items the decision was to combine both versions or, in one case, use an item from version 1. CONCLUSION: The procedure undertaken in this study is discussed in the light of Herdman et al.'s proposal (1998) regarding transcultural equivalence. The study also stresses the importance of using more than one version in the process and the appropriateness of including an additional step about the assessment of the target population's understanding of the tool.

Battered Women↗

PubMedDate not supplied

An ontology of quality initiatives and a model for decentralized, collaborative quality management on the (semantic) World-Wide-Web.

This editorial provides a model of how quality initiatives concerned with health information on the World Wide Web may in the future interact with each other. This vision fits into the evolving "Semantic Web" architecture - ie, the prospective that the World Wide Web may evolve from a mess of unstructured, human-readable information sources into a global knowledge base with an additional layer providing richer and more meaningful relationships between resources. One first prerequisite for forming such a "Semantic Web" or "web of trust" among the players active in quality management of health information is that these initiatives make statements about themselves and about each other in a machine-processable language. I present a concrete model on how this collaboration could look, and provide some recommendations on what the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other policy makers in this framework could be.

Internet↗

PubMed1976

Semantic memory: a bibliography, 1968-1975.

Semantic memory research is briefly described. Then a bibliography of 105 published references in semantic memory, calendar years, 1968-1975, is presented.

Bibliographies as Topic↗

PubMed1983

Perceptual dimensions of infant cry signals: a semantic differential analysis.

In the present study the Semantic Differential technique was used to examine perceived characteristics of infant cry sounds. 24 cries (6 each of pain, hunger, birth, and "pleasure") were rated by 39 mothers on 50 scales. A factor analysis of the scale ratings uncovered three main factors, labelled Affect, Potency, and Evaluation, respectively. 5 "factorially-pure" scales were selected to represent each factor. A hierarchical cluster analysis of the mean factor-scale ratings uncovered 3 major cry clusters which essentially represented 3 cry-type groups, hunger, pleasure, and pain/birth. A close correspondence was found between this set of clusters and another set generated independently from cry-recognition data, indicating that the semantic differential factor-scales effectively discriminated perceptually distinct cries. This procedure adequately separates the physical (acoustic) properties of signals from their listener-perceived (auditory) ones. This distinction is not possible with studies which depend upon multivariate techniques and casts doubt on their findings.

Adult↗

PubMed1983

Semantic generalization investigated using second-order conditioned visual afterimages.

A series of experiments is reported during which three subjects were initially classically conditioned to produce visual percepts to a sound only, second-order conditioned to transfer that response to an animal name, and finally taught a "foreign language". The results suggest that semantic generalization occurs whether the semantic relationships are formed either before or after the conditioned response is established.

Afterimage↗

PubMed1985

Death anxiety as a semantic conditioned suppression paradigm.

Death anxiety and more severe forms of thanatophobia are encountered frequently in the clinical population. However, approaches that allow behavioral solutions to these experiences are conspicuously absent in the literature. From an operant perspective, death anxiety arises from repeated exposures to direct and implicit forms of the statement "I will die". It is the semantic equivalent of a conditioned suppression paradigm. Historically, the human organism has attempted to reduce the aversive consequences of this reinforcement schedule by extinguishing one of its three components. The "solutions" characterize the fundamental philosophical and religious treatments of death anxiety. A behavioral semantics approach is proposed as suitable for dealing with death anxiety of a religious, educated young adults, particularly those dying of terminal diseases.

Anxiety↗

PubMed1994

Communicative responsibility and semantic task in aphasia and "schizophasia".

A probe technique requiring convergent and divergent semantic behavior and representing five levels of communicative responsibility served as the research tool. Stimuli were presented to 29 asphasic adults (13 Broca's, 7 Wernicke's, and 9 anomic), 26 adults with chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia, and 32 normal elderly control subjects. Within each group significant differences were observed on the semantic task (convergent and divergent) and on level of communicative responsibility. Among subjects with aphasia, differences appeared to relate more to severity than type. Differences between unclassified aphasic and "schizophasic" groups occurred only when multiword responses were required. We conclude that continued use of the term "schizophasia" may be unwarranted and that the linguistic behaviors we observed in aphasia and the language of schizophrenia may contribute to differential diagnosis.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Semantic activation by Japanese kanji: evidence from event-related potentials.

In a character-judgment paradigm, the subject quickly pressed a key when a hiragana (Japanese syllabary) appeared on a display and did nothing when a kanji (Japanese logograph) appeared. The amplitude of the N400 component was compared when four types of visual stimuli were used: (Type 1) single kanji--Grade 1- to 3-level words, (Type 2) single kanji--Grade 1- to 3-level bound morphemes, (Type 3) single kanji--high school- and college-level bound morphemes, and (Type 4) obsolete kanji. Analysis showed that N400 was largest in the temporal-occipital areas for the Type 1 stimuli and larger in the right parietal area for Type 2 than Type 3 stimuli. The analyses of N400 to semantic stimulations have been conducted and discussed in terms of their meaningfulness, age when writing of these kanji was mastered, and linguistic status (kanji versus nonkanji). Most interestingly, the Types 3 and 4 kanji did not activate semantic responses, showing that they did not function as linguistic units, i.e., kanji, in the mental lexicon.

Evoked Potentials↗

PubMed1998

Word-type effects in word-stem priming: evidence for semantic processing in the perceptual representation system?

While a presemantic Perceptual Representation System is believed to mediate implicit memory tasks such as word-stem priming, clinical studies suggest semantic information can be processed during priming. To clarify the nature of this system, we investigated word-type effects in word-stem priming in a nonclinical sample of 41 undergraduates who rated the pleasantness of threatening and nonthreatening words, performed implicit and explicit memory tasks, and completed measures of mood state. More nonthreatening words were primed and scores on the Beck Depression Inventory were negatively correlated with production of nonthreatening words. During cued recall, more threatening than nonthreatening words were remembered and ratings of state anxiety were negatively correlated with recall of nonthreatening words. Our findings support the contention that semantic information is processed during priming and that mood congruent biases also operate. These results may call for a reconceptualization of the Perceptual Representation System.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Relationship between semantic paraphasias and related nonverbal factors.

Word-finding deficits are a common problem in aphasic patients. One hypothesis suggests that the difficulty that patients experience in naming objects or pictures is related to a disruption in the ability to access the lexicon. Another hypothesis suggests that these problems are caused by a disruption of the mental dictionary and the semantic representations contained in it. The main purpose of this study is to assess whether nonverbal factors such as the ability to distinguish between similar attributes of objects is related to word-use problems in aphasia. 14 adults with left hemisphere cerebrovascular accidents and some word use deficit were administered the first 30 items of the Boston Naming Test and the Conceptual Matching subtest of the Detroit Test of Learning Aptitude. Errors on the Conceptual Matching subtest correlated significantly with the number of semantic paraphasias.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Request solicitation and semantic evocation of freedom: an evaluation in a computer-mediated communication context.

The "But you are free of..." technique is a compliance procedure which solicits someone to comply with a request by simply telling him that he is free to accept or to refuse the request. This semantic evocation leads to increased compliance with the request. A new evaluation of the generality of this technique was tested in an experiment in which subjects received an anonymous electronic mail which asked them to consult the site of a humanitarian association for children. Analysis showed that, when the semantic evocation of freedom is included in the message, a higher compliance rate was observed than in a situation in which this evocation was omitted.

Advertising↗

PubMed2004

Communicative responsibility and semantic task in the language of adults with dementia.

A probe technique requiring convergent and divergent semantic behavior and representing five levels of communicative responsibility served as the research tool. Stimuli were presented to adults identified as having Alzheimer disease or multi-infarct dementia. Within each group differences were observed on the semantic task (convergent and divergent) and on communicative responsibility. Group characteristics are compared with data previously published in 1994 on aphasic and schizophrenic adults responding to the same stimuli.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

Sensitivity of the semantic fluency subtest of the repeatable battery for the assessment of neuropsychological status.

This study examined the concurrent validity of the Semantic Fluency subtest of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status. Performance by cognitively impaired vs nonimpaired neurological patients was examined in relation to the performance of these groups on the Controlled Oral Word Association Test. Analyses indicated these tests are largely equivalent with respect to both sensitivity to neurocognitive dysfunction and discrimination of cognitively impaired from nonimpaired neurological patients. Findings support the psychometric validity of the Semantic Fluency subtest in the evaluation of brain dysfunction.

Aged↗

PubMed1981

Lateralized differences associated with semantically varied auditory material.

EEGs were recorded from 13 subjects while they listened to four tape-recorded passages differing in semantic content. The distribution of alpha band power over the two hemispheres, measured at T3/T4, was found to show significant task-dependent shifts. More reality-oriented passages tended to be processed with greater left-hemisphere involvement, while "pleasurable" material showed significant right-hemisphere involvement. Since the differences in laterality were not related to grammatical measures of linguistic complexity, the apparent shifts were attributed to semantic differences between the tasks. Explanation of the results is made in terms of a theory of the metacontrol of cerebral processing.

Dominance, Cerebral↗

PubMed1996

A play-based methodology for assessing idiom comprehension in children with semantic-pragmatic difficulties.

In response to the lack of suitable material for assessing idiom comprehension in children with semantic-pragmatic difficulties, a new, play-based methodology is presented. The child listens to a tape-recorded story into which are embedded a range of idiomatic expressions. The child then acts out the story as it is played again, sentence by sentence. The play is video-recorded and transcribed. Actions for each idiom are categorised and are then amenable to within-child, between-child, and between-group analyses. The results of a pilot project indicate that this methodology overcomes may of the problems inherent in assessing children identified as having semantic-pragmatic difficulties.

Acting Out↗

PubMed2006

Evaluation of unsupervised semantic mapping of natural language with Leximancer concept mapping.

The Leximancer system is a relatively new method for transforming lexical co-occurrence information from natural language into semantic patterns in a nunsupervised manner. It employs two stages of co-occurrence information extraction-semantic and relational-using a different algorithm for each stage. The algorithms used are statistical, but they employ nonlinear dynamics and machine learning. This article is an attempt to validate the output of Leximancer, using a set of evaluation criteria taken from content analysis that are appropriate for knowledge discovery tasks.

Equipment Design↗