Frontiers in psychology
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2015
A new perspective on word order preferences: the availability of a lexicon triggers the use of SVO word order.
Word orders are not distributed equally: SOV and SVO are the most prevalent among the world's languages. While there is a consensus that SOV might be the "default" order in human languages, the factors that trigger the preference for SVO are still a matter of debate. Here we provide a new perspective on word order preferences that emphasizes the role of a lexicon. ⋯ Consequently SVO, the more efficient word order to express syntactic relations, emerges. To test this hypothesis, we taught Italian (SVO) and Persian (SOV) speakers a set of gestures and later asked them to describe simple events. Confirming our prediction, results showed that in both groups a consistent use of SVO emerged after acquiring a stable gesture repertoire.
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2015
Interoceptive fear learning to mild breathlessness as a laboratory model for unexpected panic attacks.
Fear learning is thought to play an important role in panic disorder. Benign interoceptive sensations can become predictors (conditioned stimuli - CSs) of massive fear when experienced in the context of an initial panic attack (unconditioned stimulus - US). The mere encounter of these CSs on a later moment can induce anxiety and fear, and precipitate a new panic attack. ⋯ Further analyses on a subgroup of CS-US unaware participants confirmed the presence of startle eyeblink conditioning in the experimental group but not in the control group. Our findings suggest that interoceptive fear learning is not dependent on declarative knowledge of the CS-US relationship. The present interoceptive fear conditioning paradigm may serve as an ecologically valid laboratory model for unexpected panic attacks.
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2015
Psychometric properties of the multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness (MAIA) in a Chilean population.
The multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness (MAIA) is an instrument designed to assess interoceptive awareness. The aim of this study was to adapt the original MAIA scale to Spanish and to analyze its psychometric properties in a Chilean population. The MAIA was administered to 470 adults, aged 18-70 years, 76.6% women and 23.4% men, residents of the provinces of Valparaíso and Concepción, Chile. ⋯ The Spanish version showed appropriate indicators of construct validity and reliability, with a Cronbach's α of 0.90 for the total scale, and values between 0.40 and 0.86 for the different subscales. Similar to previous studies, low reliability was observed in two of the eight scales (Not-Distracting and Not-Worrying), thus further revision of these subscales is suggested. The Spanish version of MAIA proved to be a valid and reliable tool to investigate interoceptive awareness in the Chilean population.
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2015
Punctuation, Prosody, and Discourse: Afterthought Vs. Right Dislocation.
In a reading production experiment we investigate the impact of punctuation and discourse structure on the prosodic differentiation of right dislocation (RD) and afterthought (AT). Both discourse structure and punctuation are likely to affect the prosodic marking of these right-peripheral constructions, as certain prosodic markings are appropriate only in certain discourse structures, and punctuation is said to correlate with prosodic phrasing. With RD and AT clearly differing in discourse function (comment-topic structuring vs. disambiguation) and punctuation (comma vs. full stop), critical items in this study were manipulated with regard to the (mis-)match of these parameters. ⋯ Interestingly, for pitch range reduction no difference between RDs and ATs could be observed. Our results corroborate a language architecture model in which punctuation, prosody, syntax, and discourse-semantics are independent but interacting domains with correspondence constraints between them. Our findings suggest there are tight correspondence constraints between (i) punctuation (full stop and comma in particular) and syntax, (ii) prosody and syntax as well as (iii) prosody and discourse-semantics.
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2015
Words putting pain in motion: the generalization of pain-related fear within an artificial stimulus category.
Patients with chronic pain are often fearful of movements that never featured in painful episodes. This study examined whether a neutral movement's conceptual relationship with pain-relevant stimuli could precipitate pain-related fear; a process known as symbolic generalization. As a secondary objective, we also compared experiential and verbal fear learning in the generalization of pain-related fear. ⋯ The results showed that movements equivalent to the pain-relevant nonsense words evoked heightened pain-related fear as measured by pain-US expectancy, fear of pain, and unpleasantness ratings. Also, experience with the pain-US evinced stronger acquisition and generalization compared to experience with threatening information. The clinical importance and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.