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Fusaroli R, Weed E, Rocca R, Fein D, Naigles L. Repeat After Me? Both Children With and Without Autism Commonly Align Their Language With That of Their Caregivers. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13369. [PMID: 37905374 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Revised: 10/02/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 11/02/2023]
Abstract
Linguistic repetitions in children are conceptualized as negative in children with autism - echolalia, without communicative purpose - and positive in typically developing (TD) children - linguistic alignment involved in shared engagement, common ground and language acquisition. To investigate this apparent contradiction we analyzed spontaneous speech in 67 parent-child dyads from a longitudinal corpus (30 minutes of play activities at 6 visits over 2 years). We included 32 children with autism and 35 linguistically matched TD children (mean age at recruitment 32.76 and 20.27 months). We found a small number of exact repetitions in both groups (roughly 1% of utterances across visits), which increased over time in children with autism and decreased in the TD group. Partial repetitions were much more frequent: children reused caregivers' words at high rates regardless of diagnostic group (24% of utterances at first visit), and this increased in frequency (but not level) over time, faster for TD children (at final visit: 33% for autism, 40% for TD). The same happened for partial repetition of syntax and semantic alignment. However, chance alignment (as measured by surrogate pairs) also increased and findings for developmental changes were reliable only for syntactic and semantic alignment. Children with richer linguistic abilities also displayed a higher tendency to partially re-use their caregivers' language (alignment rates and semantic alignment). This highlights that all children commonly re-used the words, syntax, and topics of their caregivers, albeit with some quantitative differences, and that most repetition was at least potentially productive, with repeated language being re-contextualized and integrated with non-repeated language. The salience of echolalia in ASD might be partially explained by slight differences in frequency, amplified by lower semantic alignment, persistence over time, and expectations of echolalia. More in-depth qualitative and quantitative analyses of how repetitions are used and received in context are needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
- Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania
| | - Ethan Weed
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
| | - Roberta Rocca
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
| | - Deborah Fein
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut
| | - Letitia Naigles
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut
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2
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Dideriksen C, Christiansen MH, Dingemanse M, Højmark-Bertelsen M, Johansson C, Tylén K, Fusaroli R. Language-Specific Constraints on Conversation: Evidence from Danish and Norwegian. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13387. [PMID: 38009981 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2023] [Revised: 10/30/2023] [Accepted: 11/13/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Establishing and maintaining mutual understanding in everyday conversations is crucial. To do so, people employ a variety of conversational devices, such as backchannels, repair, and linguistic entrainment. Here, we explore whether the use of conversational devices might be influenced by cross-linguistic differences in the speakers' native language, comparing two matched languages-Danish and Norwegian-differing primarily in their sound structure, with Danish being more opaque, that is, less acoustically distinguished. Across systematically manipulated conversational contexts, we find that processes supporting mutual understanding in conversations vary with external constraints: across different contexts and, crucially, across languages. In accord with our predictions, linguistic entrainment was overall higher in Danish than in Norwegian, while backchannels and repairs presented a more nuanced pattern. These findings are compatible with the hypothesis that native speakers of Danish may compensate for its opaque sound structure by adopting a top-down strategy of building more conversational redundancy through entrainment, which also might reduce the need for repairs. These results suggest that linguistic differences might be met by systematic changes in language processing and use. This paves the way for further cross-linguistic investigations and critical assessment of the interplay between cultural and linguistic factors on the one hand and conversational dynamics on the other.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Morten H Christiansen
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus University
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University
| | | | | | - Christer Johansson
- Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen
| | - Kristian Tylén
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus University
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus University
- Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania
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3
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Tylén K, Fusaroli R, Østergaard SM, Smith P, Arnoldi J. The Social Route to Abstraction: Interaction and Diversity Enhance Performance and Transfer in a Rule-Based Categorization Task. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13338. [PMID: 37705241 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13338] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2022] [Revised: 07/20/2022] [Accepted: 08/28/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023]
Abstract
Capacities for abstract thinking and problem-solving are central to human cognition. Processes of abstraction allow the transfer of experiences and knowledge between contexts helping us make informed decisions in new or changing contexts. While we are often inclined to relate such reasoning capacities to individual minds and brains, they may in fact be contingent on human-specific modes of collaboration, dialogue, and shared attention. In an experimental study, we test the hypothesis that social interaction enhances cognitive processes of rule-induction, which in turn improves problem-solving performance. Through three sessions of increasing complexity, individuals and groups were presented with a problem-solving task requiring them to categorize a set of visual stimuli. To assess the character of participants' problem representations, after each training session, they were presented with a transfer task involving stimuli that differed in appearance, but shared relations among features with the training set. Besides, we compared participants' categorization behaviors to simulated agents relying on exemplar learning. We found that groups performed superior to individuals and agents in the training sessions and were more likely to correctly generalize their observations in the transfer phase, especially in the high complexity session, suggesting that groups more effectively induced underlying categorization rules from the stimuli than individuals and agents. Crucially, variation in performance among groups was predicted by semantic diversity in members' dialogical contributions, suggesting a link between social interaction, cognitive diversity, and abstraction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristian Tylén
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
- Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania
| | | | - Pernille Smith
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
- Department of Management, Aarhus University
| | - Jakob Arnoldi
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
- Department of Management, Aarhus University
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4
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Marrero H, Yagual SN, Lemus A, García-Marco E, Díaz JM, Gámez E, Urrutia M, Beltrán D. Social approach and avoidance in language: N400-like ERP negativity indexes congruency and theta rhythms the conflict. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:1300-1309. [PMID: 35368078 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2021] [Revised: 03/13/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Motivational congruency has been examined using tasks where participants perform approach or avoidance movements towards socially positive or negative faces. Language is tightly intertwined with interpersonal cognition. Thus, similar situations could be represented by means of language in interpersonal contexts: adjectives furnish valence to people (e.g. someone is cordial or arrogant), and attitudinal verbs define direction to relationship-actions: approach-avoidance (e.g. accept vs. reject). In an Electroencephalography (EEG) study, 40 participants were presented with sentences where a character was valenced (e.g. "Arthur is cordial/arrogant") before being the target of a relationship-actions ("Grisela welcomed/ignored Arthur at the party"). We analyzed both Event-related potential (ERP) amplitude and time-frequency power in response to the attitudinal verb. For ERP amplitudes, we found a significant cluster between 280 and 370 ms, covering part of the development of a N400-like ERP component. This cluster reflects an interaction driven by congruency between motivational direction and target valence. Likewise, time-frequency power analysis revealed an enhancement of theta rhythms under incongruent conditions, most likely indexing conflict processing. Results support that relationship-actions are represented as approach and avoidance and thus involve conflict processing and resolution of incongruent situations. Implications for the interweaving of affective language and social cognition within Embodiment Simulation Theory are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hipólito Marrero
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencias. Universidad de La Laguna, 38071 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
| | - Sara Nila Yagual
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencias. Universidad de La Laguna, 38071 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.,Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y de la Salud, Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena (UPSE), La Libertad Santa Elena, Provincia de Santa Elena EC240250, Ecuador
| | - Alejandro Lemus
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencias. Universidad de La Laguna, 38071 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
| | - Enrique García-Marco
- Departamento de Psicología Cognitiva, Social y Organizacional, Universidad de La Laguna, 38071 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.,Instituto Universitario de Neurociencias. Universidad de La Laguna, 38071 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.,Facultad de Ciencias de La Salud, Universidad Europea de Canarias, 38300 La Orotava, Spain
| | - Jose Miguel Díaz
- Departamento de Psicología Cognitiva, Social y Organizacional, Universidad de La Laguna, 38071 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.,Instituto Universitario de Neurociencias. Universidad de La Laguna, 38071 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
| | - Elena Gámez
- Departamento de Psicología Cognitiva, Social y Organizacional, Universidad de La Laguna, 38071 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.,Instituto Universitario de Neurociencias. Universidad de La Laguna, 38071 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
| | - Mabel Urrutia
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencias. Universidad de La Laguna, 38071 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.,Facultad de Educación, Universidad de Concepción, Victor Lamas, Concepción 1290, Chile
| | - David Beltrán
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencias. Universidad de La Laguna, 38071 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.,Departamento de Psicología Básica I, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain
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5
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Dingemanse M, Liesenfeld A, Rasenberg M, Albert S, Ameka FK, Birhane A, Bolis D, Cassell J, Clift R, Cuffari E, De Jaegher H, Novaes CD, Enfield NJ, Fusaroli R, Gregoromichelaki E, Hutchins E, Konvalinka I, Milton D, Rączaszek-Leonardi J, Reddy V, Rossano F, Schlangen D, Seibt J, Stokoe E, Suchman L, Vesper C, Wheatley T, Wiltschko M. Beyond Single-Mindedness: A Figure-Ground Reversal for the Cognitive Sciences. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13230. [PMID: 36625324 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2022] [Accepted: 11/27/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
A fundamental fact about human minds is that they are never truly alone: all minds are steeped in situated interaction. That social interaction matters is recognized by any experimentalist who seeks to exclude its influence by studying individuals in isolation. On this view, interaction complicates cognition. Here, we explore the more radical stance that interaction co-constitutes cognition: that we benefit from looking beyond single minds toward cognition as a process involving interacting minds. All around the cognitive sciences, there are approaches that put interaction center stage. Their diverse and pluralistic origins may obscure the fact that collectively, they harbor insights and methods that can respecify foundational assumptions and fuel novel interdisciplinary work. What might the cognitive sciences gain from stronger interactional foundations? This represents, we believe, one of the key questions for the future. Writing as a transdisciplinary collective assembled from across the classic cognitive science hexagon and beyond, we highlight the opportunity for a figure-ground reversal that puts interaction at the heart of cognition. The interactive stance is a way of seeing that deserves to be a key part of the conceptual toolkit of cognitive scientists.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Marlou Rasenberg
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
| | - Saul Albert
- Discourse and Rhetoric Group, Loughborough University
| | | | - Abeba Birhane
- Mozilla Foundation
- School of Computer Science, University College Dublin
| | - Dimitris Bolis
- Independent Max Planck Research Group for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry
- National Institute for Physiological Sciences
| | - Justine Cassell
- School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
- Paris Artificial Intelligence Research Institute
| | - Rebecca Clift
- Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex
| | - Elena Cuffari
- Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College
| | - Hanne De Jaegher
- IAS-Research Center for Mind, Life and Society, Department of Philosophy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
| | | | - N J Enfield
- Department of Linguistics, The University of Sydney
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science & Semiotics, Aarhus University
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
- Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania
| | | | - Edwin Hutchins
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego
| | - Ivana Konvalinka
- Section for Cognitive Systems, DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark
| | | | | | | | - Federico Rossano
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego
| | | | - Johanna Seibt
- Research Unit for Robophilosophy and Integrative Social Robotics, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
| | - Elizabeth Stokoe
- Discourse and Rhetoric Group, Loughborough University
- Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, London School of Economics
| | | | - Cordula Vesper
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science & Semiotics, Aarhus University
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
| | - Thalia Wheatley
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College
- Santa Fe Institute
| | - Martina Wiltschko
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Universitat Pompeu Fabra
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6
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Epstein R, Bordyug M, Chen YH, Chen Y, Ginther A, Kirkish G, Stead H. Toward the search for the perfect blade runner: a large-scale, international assessment of a test that screens for “humanness sensitivity”. AI & SOCIETY 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s00146-022-01398-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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7
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Hurley Z, Al-Ali K. Feminist Postdigital Inquiry in the Ruins of Pandemic Universities. POSTDIGITAL SCIENCE AND EDUCATION 2021. [PMCID: PMC8414460 DOI: 10.1007/s42438-021-00254-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
During Covid-19, higher education made an unprecedented entry into the domestic sphere. However, not all students welcomed the emergency delivery of online courses. Consequently, some learners have been developing resistant practices to technology-driven learning, including being on mute and turning off cameras, but these silences, gaps and evasions are difficult to grasp through normative perspectives. Meanwhile, big tech continues to profit significantly from its encroachment on pedagogy. Conversely, we need alternate conceptions of learners’ varying responses to technologies. To develop a novel perspective, the study considers the Middle East’s traditional mashrabiyya windows, which are carved through an elaborate wooden latticework screen of geometric patterns and designed to deflect rather than let in the light. This mashrabiyya structure is applied as a theoretical metaphor to consider Arab women learners’ technological veiled affordances of filters, avatars and not replying. The mashrabiyya feminist postdigital framework develops unique inquiry into learners’ subtle practices; the authors’ self-reflexivity; and analysis of a (silent) email exchange and a Twitter avatar. Theorising suggests silences, invisibilities and disconnection are not necessarily a deficit but refractive responses enabling students and educators to stay below the radar.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zoë Hurley
- Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
| | - Khadija Al-Ali
- Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, Kuwait City, Kuwait
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8
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Tison R, Poirier P. Communication as Socially Extended Active Inference: An Ecological Approach to Communicative Behavior. ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/10407413.2021.1965480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
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9
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Tison R, Poirier P. Active Inference and Cooperative Communication: An Ecological Alternative to the Alignment View. Front Psychol 2021; 12:708780. [PMID: 34456822 PMCID: PMC8397515 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.708780] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
We present and contrast two accounts of cooperative communication, both based on Active Inference, a framework that unifies biological and cognitive processes. The mental alignment account, defended in Vasil et al., takes the function of cooperative communication to be the alignment of the interlocutor's mental states, and cooperative communicative behavior to be driven by an evolutionarily selected adaptive prior belief favoring the selection of action policies that promote such an alignment. We argue that the mental alignment account should be rejected because it neglects the action-oriented nature of cooperative communication, which skews its view of the dynamics of communicative interaction. We introduce our own conception of cooperative communication, inspired by a more radical ecological interpretation of the active inference framework. Cooperative communication, on our ecological conception, serves to guide and constrain the dynamics of the cooperative interaction via the construction and restructuring of shared fields of affordances, in order to reach the local goals of the joint actions in which episodes of cooperative communication are embedded. We argue that our ecological conception provides a better theoretical standpoint to account for the action-oriented nature of cooperative communication in the active inference framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rémi Tison
- Department of Philosophy, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montreal, QC, Canada
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10
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Ricca M. Cultures in Orbit, or Justi-fying Differences in Cosmic Space: On Categorization, Territorialization and Rights Recognition. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE SEMIOTICS OF LAW - REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE SÉMIOTIQUE JURIDIQUE 2018; 31:829-875. [DOI: 10.1007/s11196-018-9578-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/02/2023]
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11
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12
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Sinha C. Ontogenesis, semiosis and the epigenetic dynamics of biocultural niche construction. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.09.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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13
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Christensen P, Fusaroli R, Tylén K. Environmental constraints shaping constituent order in emerging communication systems: Structural iconicity, interactive alignment and conventionalization. Cognition 2015; 146:67-80. [PMID: 26402649 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.09.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2014] [Revised: 07/23/2015] [Accepted: 09/06/2015] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Where does linguistic structure come from? Recent gesture elicitation studies have indicated that constituent order (corresponding to for instance subject-verb-object, or SVO in English) may be heavily influenced by human cognitive biases constraining gesture production and transmission. Here we explore the alternative hypothesis that syntactic patterns are motivated by multiple environmental and social-interactional constraints that are external to the cognitive domain. In three experiments, we systematically investigate different motivations for structure in the gestural communication of simple transitive events. The first experiment indicates that, if participants communicate about different types of events, manipulation events (e.g. someone throwing a cake) and construction events (e.g. someone baking a cake), they spontaneously and systematically produce different constituent orders, SOV and SVO respectively, thus following the principle of structural iconicity. The second experiment shows that participants' choice of constituent order is also reliably influenced by social-interactional forces of interactive alignment, that is, the tendency to re-use an interlocutor's previous choice of constituent order, thus potentially overriding affordances for iconicity. Lastly, the third experiment finds that the relative frequency distribution of referent event types motivates the stabilization and conventionalization of a single constituent order for the communication of different types of events. Together, our results demonstrate that constituent order in emerging gestural communication systems is shaped and stabilized in response to multiple external environmental and social factors: structural iconicity, interactive alignment and distributional frequency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peer Christensen
- Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Helgonabacken 12, 221 00 Lund, Sweden; The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Center for Semiotics, Department for Aesthetics and Communication, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Kristian Tylén
- Center for Semiotics, Department for Aesthetics and Communication, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
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14
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Fusaroli R, Tylén K. Investigating Conversational Dynamics: Interactive Alignment, Interpersonal Synergy, and Collective Task Performance. Cogn Sci 2015; 40:145-71. [PMID: 25988263 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2013] [Revised: 07/30/2014] [Accepted: 11/12/2014] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
This study investigates interpersonal processes underlying dialog by comparing two approaches, interactive alignment and interpersonal synergy, and assesses how they predict collective performance in a joint task. While the interactive alignment approach highlights imitative patterns between interlocutors, the synergy approach points to structural organization at the level of the interaction-such as complementary patterns straddling speech turns and interlocutors. We develop a general, quantitative method to assess lexical, prosodic, and speech/pause patterns related to the two approaches and their impact on collective performance in a corpus of task-oriented conversations. The results show statistical presence of patterns relevant for both approaches. However, synergetic aspects of dialog provide the best statistical predictors of collective performance and adding aspects of the alignment approach does not improve the model. This suggests that structural organization at the level of the interaction plays a crucial role in task-oriented conversations, possibly constraining and integrating processes related to alignment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riccardo Fusaroli
- Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University.,The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
| | - Kristian Tylén
- Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University.,The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
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15
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Abstract
This article aims to explore the scope of a Situated and Embodied Social Psychology (ESP). At first sight, social cognition seems embodied cognition par excellence. Social cognition is first and foremost a supra-individual, interactive, and dynamic process (Semin & Smith, 2013). Radical approaches in Situated/Embodied Cognitive Science (Enactivism) claim that social cognition consists in an emergent pattern of interaction between a continuously coupled organism and the (social) environment; it rejects representationalist accounts of cognition (Hutto & Myin, 2013). However, mainstream ESP (Barsalou, 1999, 2008) still takes a rather representation-friendly approach that construes embodiment in terms of specific bodily formatted representations used (activated) in social cognition. We argue that mainstream ESP suffers from vestiges of theoretical solipsism, which may be resolved by going beyond internalistic spirit that haunts mainstream ESP today.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wim T. J. L. Pouw
- VU University Amsterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands and University of Wollongong, Australia
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16
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Elias JZ, Tylén K. Instituting interaction: normative transformations in human communicative practices. Front Psychol 2014; 5:1057. [PMID: 25295020 PMCID: PMC4172005 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2014] [Accepted: 09/03/2014] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent experiments in semiotics and linguistics demonstrate that groups tend to converge on a common set of signs or terms in response to presented problems, experiments which potentially bear on the emergence and establishment of institutional interactions. Taken together, these studies indicate a spectrum, ranging from the spontaneous convergence of communicative practices to their eventual conventionalization, a process which might be described as an implicit institutionalization of those practices. However, the emergence of such convergence and conventionalization does not in itself constitute an institution, in the strict sense of a social organization partly created and governed by explicit rules. A further step toward institutions proper may occur when others are instructed about a task. That is, given task situations which select for successful practices, instructions about such situations make explicit what was tacit practice, instructions which can then be followed correctly or incorrectly. This transition gives rise to the normative distinction between conditions of success versus conditions of correctness, a distinction which will be explored and complicated in the course of this paper. Using these experiments as a basis, then, the emergence of institutions will be characterized in evolutionary and normative terms, beginning with our adaptive responses to the selective pressures of certain situational environments, and continuing with our capacity to then shape, constrain, and institute those environments to further refine and streamline our problem-solving activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Z. Elias
- Department of Philosophy, School of Humanities, University of HertfordshireHatfield, UK
- *Correspondence: John Z. Elias, Department of Philosophy, School of Humanities, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK e-mail:
| | - Kristian Tylén
- Department of Aesthetics and Communication, Center for Semiotics, Aarhus UniversityAarhus, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus UniversityAarhus, Denmark
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17
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Jensen TW. Emotion in languaging: languaging as affective, adaptive, and flexible behavior in social interaction. Front Psychol 2014; 5:720. [PMID: 25076921 PMCID: PMC4100442 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2014] [Accepted: 06/22/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
This article argues for a view on languaging as inherently affective. Informed by recent ecological tendencies within cognitive science and distributed language studies a distinction between first order languaging (language as whole-body sense making) and second order language (language as system like constraints) is put forward. Contrary to common assumptions within linguistics and communication studies separating language-as-a-system from language use (resulting in separations between language vs. body-language and verbal vs. non-verbal communication etc.) the first/second order distinction sees language as emanating from behavior making it possible to view emotion and affect as integral parts languaging behavior. Likewise, emotion and affect are studied, not as inner mental states, but as processes of organism-environment interactions. Based on video recordings of interaction between (1) children with special needs, and (2) couple in therapy and the therapist patterns of reciprocal influences between interactants are examined. Through analyzes of affective stance and patterns of inter-affectivity it is exemplified how language and emotion should not be seen as separate phenomena combined in language use, but rather as completely intertwined phenomena in languaging behavior constrained by second order patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas W Jensen
- Centre for Human Interactivity, Institute of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark Slagelse, Denmark
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Fusaroli R, Konvalinka I, Wallot S. Analyzing Social Interactions: The Promises and Challenges of Using Cross Recurrence Quantification Analysis. SPRINGER PROCEEDINGS IN MATHEMATICS & STATISTICS 2014. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-09531-8_9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
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