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Frau F, Cerami C, Dodich A, Bosia M, Bambini V. Weighing the role of social cognition and executive functioning in pragmatics in the schizophrenia spectrum: A systematic review and meta-analysis. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2024; 252:105403. [PMID: 38593743 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2024.105403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2023] [Revised: 02/06/2024] [Accepted: 03/10/2024] [Indexed: 04/11/2024]
Abstract
Pragmatic impairment is diffused in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, but the literature still debates its neurocognitive underpinnings. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the neurocognitive correlates of pragmatic disorders in schizophrenia and determine the weight of social cognition and executive functioning on such disorders. Of the 2,668 records retrieved from the literature, 16 papers were included in the systematic review, mostly focused on non-literal meanings and discourse production in schizophrenia. Ten studies were included in the meta-analysis: pragmatics was moderately associated with both social cognition and executive functions (especially inhibition), but the link with social cognition was stronger. The mediation analysis showed that social cognition mediated the relationship between executive functions and pragmatics. Based on this, we proposed a hierarchical neurocognitive model where pragmatics stems from social cognition, while executive functions are the fertile ground supporting the other two domains, and we discuss its theoretical and clinical implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federico Frau
- Laboratory of Neurolinguistics and Experimental Pragmatics (NEP), Department of Humanities and Life Sciences, University School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, Italy.
| | - Chiara Cerami
- IUSS Cognitive Neuroscience (ICoN) Center, University School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, Italy; Dementia Research Center, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - Alessandra Dodich
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences-CIMeC, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Marta Bosia
- School of Medicine, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy; Schizophrenia Research and Clinical Unit, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy
| | - Valentina Bambini
- Laboratory of Neurolinguistics and Experimental Pragmatics (NEP), Department of Humanities and Life Sciences, University School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, Italy
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Alipour J, Ranjbar M. A metaphorical advantage for bilingual children? Understanding figurative meaning by L2 and L3 EFL learners. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2024; 51:339-358. [PMID: 36814400 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000923000065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
This study compared school-aged monolingual and bilingual English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners in terms of understanding metaphors on recall, multiple-choice, and reasoning tasks. It also examined the relationship between cognitive capacity and understanding metaphors on different measures. A hundred and thirty Persian-Turkish early bilinguals and 122 monolingual Persian-speaking EFL learners took three different tests of metaphor comprehension and the Figural Intersections Test, a test of cognitive capacity. Bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in terms of cognitive capacity and understanding metaphors on two of the tasks, though with a small effect size. Furthermore, there was a significant positive relationship between cognitive capacity and the scores on the multiple-choice and reasoning tests, but not the recall test. Results suggest that bilingual L3 learners have an edge in understanding metaphors, reflecting a cognitive advantage.
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Shorland J, Douglas J, O'Halloran R. Insights into social communication following traumatic brain injury sustained in older adulthood. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2024; 59:449-462. [PMID: 36583452 DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12837] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2022] [Accepted: 12/02/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND There is a lack of evidence relating to cognitive-communication difficulties following traumatic brain injury (TBI) sustained in older adulthood. A prominent area in which post-TBI cognitive-communication difficulties manifest is at the level of social communication. An investigation of social communication focusing on comparison of those injured in older and younger adulthood is a practical starting point for age-related cognitive-communication outcome comparison. AIMS The overall objective of this study was to explore the social communication of individuals who sustained severe TBI in an early period of older adulthood (50-70 years) compared to younger adulthood (18-40 years), as informed by self and close other reports. METHODS & PROCEDURES This exploratory controlled group comparison study involved analysis of self-reported and close other reported La Trobe Communication Questionnaire data for 22 adults with severe TBI (11 older at injury; 11 younger at injury) and 22 control participants (11 older; 11 younger). TBI participants were matched for injury variables and participant groups were matched for sex, age and education. OUTCOMES & RESULTS The close others of the older and younger adults with TBI reported them to have significantly more frequent difficulty with social communication than the close others of age-matched control groups. Older adults with TBI reported significantly more frequent difficulty with social communication than uninjured older adults. In contrast, younger adults with TBI and uninjured younger adults reported a similar frequency of difficulty with social communication. No age-based difference in the frequency of social communication difficulty was evident when comparing the self or close other reports of older and younger adults with TBI. Awareness of social communication difficulty, as indexed by comparing self and close other perceptions, showed a different pattern across the TBI groups. The older TBI group rated themselves as having significantly less frequent social communication difficulty than was perceived by their close others. In contrast, no statistically significant difference was evident between the self and close other social communication ratings of the younger TBI group. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Where possible clinicians need to work with close communication partners to understand the nature and degree of social communication difficulty following severe TBI. This may be especially important when working with people who sustain TBI in older adulthood if future research shows that this population have greater difficulty with self-awareness of social communication difficulty. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS What is already known on the subject Cognitive-communication difficulties are a common consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that can have long-term impact on everyday functioning. These challenges have primarily been investigated in individuals who sustained TBI in younger adulthood. What this paper adds to existing knowledge Individuals who sustain severe TBI in early older adulthood have a higher frequency of reported social communication difficulty to non-injured adults of a similar age, albeit they may underreport such difficulties potentially in the context of reduced self-awareness. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Social communication difficulty is an issue for people who sustain severe TBI in early older adulthood. However, a poorer overall social communication outcome in comparison to those injured in younger adulthood should not be assumed. Clinical service delivery for these challenges is most optimally delivered in a collaborative manner with the individual and their close others. Future research is required to investigate the identified trends from this study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joanna Shorland
- Discipline of Speech Pathology, School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Jacinta Douglas
- Living with Disability Research Centre, School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Summer Foundation, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Robyn O'Halloran
- Discipline of Speech Pathology, School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Baraldi MA, Domaneschi F. Pragmatic Skills in Late Adulthood. JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH 2024; 53:20. [PMID: 38424410 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-024-10061-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/08/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024]
Abstract
Research investigating pragmatic abilities in healthy aging suggests that both production and comprehension might be compromised; however, it is not clear how pragmatic abilities evolve in late adulthood, as well as when difficulties are more likely to arise. The aim of this study is to investigate the decline of pragmatic skills in aging, and to explore what cognitive and demographic factors support pragmatic competence. We assessed pragmatic production skills, including discourse abilities such as speech, informativeness, information flow, paralinguistic aspects, as well as the ability to produce informative descriptions of pictures, and pragmatic comprehension skills, which encompassed the ability to understand discourse and the main aspects of a narrative text, to infer non-literal meanings and to comprehend verbal humor in a group of elderly individuals and in a sample of younger participants. Moreover, specific cognitive functions (short-term memory, verbal and visuospatial working memory, inhibition Theory of Mind, and Cognitive Reserve) were assessed in both groups. Pragmatic difficulties seem to occur in late adulthood, likely around 70 years, and emerge more prominently when participants are asked to understand verbal humor. Age was the only predictor of general pragmatic performance in a sample of cognitively unimpaired older adults; conversely, when elderly individuals with less intact inhibitory control are considered, a general role of inhibition emerged, in addition to working memory and ToM in specific tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Alice Baraldi
- Laboratory of Language and Cognition, Department of Humanities, University of Genoa, Via Balbi 2, 16126, Genoa, Italy.
- Department of Educational Sciences, Psychology Unit, University of Genoa, Corso Podestà 2, 16128, Genoa, Italy.
| | - Filippo Domaneschi
- Laboratory of Language and Cognition, Department of Humanities, University of Genoa, Via Balbi 2, 16126, Genoa, Italy
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Nys BL, Wong W, Schaeken W. Some scales require cognitive effort: A systematic review on the role of working memory in scalar implicature derivation. Cognition 2024; 242:105623. [PMID: 37857056 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105623] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Revised: 09/08/2023] [Accepted: 09/12/2023] [Indexed: 10/21/2023]
Abstract
If some inferences require cognitive effort, could that mean, that all of them do? The scalar term "some" has long fascinated academics from various backgrounds, as it can be interpreted either purely semantically, as "some and possibly all", or pragmatically, as "some and not all". The pragmatic reading implies the generation of what is called a scalar implicature. While scientific investigation of such implicatures has given rise to many potential explanations of the "pragmatic enrichment" phenomenon behind them, the debate between the two dominant frameworks-the literal-first and the default accounts-has not convincingly been settled. With the birth of a new interdisciplinary field, appropriately dubbed experimental pragmatics, the last 20 years have led to a substantial amount of new empirical data on scalar implicatures. In this ongoing investigation, the loading and measuring of Working Memory has become an important experimentation tool, as it allows to test the contrasting hypotheses with regard to the cognitive effort of implicature generation, which are made by the two main theoretical accounts. The current systematic review evaluates the relevant literature until March 08, 2022 in an attempt to shed light on the role of Working Memory in implicature derivation. A comprehensive search, and two-step review procedure yielded a sample of 18 studies, containing data of 23 relevant experiments. Findings were bundled in a narrative synthesis and combined through two separate meta-analyses. Our results support the literal-first account, by showing that the derivation of scalar implicatures is a cognitively effortful process that is sensitive to changes in the available Working Memory resources. However, as the reported effects are relatively weak and capricious, we argue that the development of more sophisticated paradigms and eventually, stronger theories within the field, will be crucial in order to both fully understand the current results and set-up fruitful future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bojan Luc Nys
- Faculty of Arts, KU Leuven, Belgium; Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium.
| | - Wai Wong
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium; Faculty of Engineering Technology, KU Leuven, Belgium
| | - Walter Schaeken
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium
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Tsolakopoulos D, Kasselimis D, Laskaris N, Angelopoulou G, Papageorgiou G, Velonakis G, Varkanitsa M, Tountopoulou A, Vassilopoulou S, Goutsos D, Potagas C. Exploring Pragmatic Deficits in Relation to Theory of Mind and Executive Functions: Evidence from Individuals with Right Hemisphere Stroke. Brain Sci 2023; 13:1385. [PMID: 37891754 PMCID: PMC10605575 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13101385] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Revised: 09/18/2023] [Accepted: 09/22/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Research investigating pragmatic deficits in individuals with right hemisphere damage focuses on identifying the potential mechanisms responsible for the nature of these impairments. Nonetheless, the presumed shared cognitive mechanisms that could account for these deficits have not yet been established through data-based evidence from lesion studies. This study aimed to examine the co-occurrence of pragmatic language deficits, Theory of Mind impairments, and executive functions while also exploring their associations with brain lesion sites. Twenty-five patients suffering from unilateral right hemisphere stroke and thirty-seven healthy participants were recruited for this study. The two groups were tested in pragmatics, Theory of Mind, and executive function tasks. Structural imaging data were also obtained for the identification of the lesion sites. The findings of this study suggest a potential convergence among the three aforementioned cognitive mechanisms. Moreover, we postulate a hypothesis for a neural circuitry for communication impairments observed in individuals with right hemisphere damage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dimitrios Tsolakopoulos
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 72-74 Vas. Sofias Av., 11528 Athens, Greece
| | - Dimitrios Kasselimis
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 72-74 Vas. Sofias Av., 11528 Athens, Greece
- Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 17671 Athens, Greece
| | - Nikolaos Laskaris
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 72-74 Vas. Sofias Av., 11528 Athens, Greece
- Department of Industrial Design and Production Engineering, School of Engineering, University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece
| | - Georgia Angelopoulou
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 72-74 Vas. Sofias Av., 11528 Athens, Greece
| | - Georgios Papageorgiou
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 72-74 Vas. Sofias Av., 11528 Athens, Greece
| | - Georgios Velonakis
- Second Department of Radiology, Attikon General University Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15772 Athens, Greece
| | - Maria Varkanitsa
- Center for Brain Recovery, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Argyro Tountopoulou
- Stroke Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15772 Athens, Greece
| | - Sofia Vassilopoulou
- Stroke Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15772 Athens, Greece
| | - Dionysis Goutsos
- Department of Linguistics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15772 Athens, Greece
| | - Constantin Potagas
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 72-74 Vas. Sofias Av., 11528 Athens, Greece
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Autism traits and real-world executive functioning in parents of children with disabilities and undergraduates. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-04097-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
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Shaharban N, Rangaiah B, Thirumeni D. Executive control functions and theory of mind among plurilingual adults. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2022.2119989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- N.V. Shaharban
- Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India
| | - B. Rangaiah
- Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India
| | - D. Thirumeni
- Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India
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Alduais A, Al-Qaderi I, Alfadda N, Alfadda H. Pragmatics: Mapping Evidence on Enhancing Children’s Use of Linguistic and Non-Linguistic Capacities for Interactive Communication. CHILDREN 2022; 9:children9091318. [PMID: 36138626 PMCID: PMC9497313 DOI: 10.3390/children9091318] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2022] [Revised: 08/08/2022] [Accepted: 08/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
New-born infants communicate from the first minute they come to life. This non-linguistic and non-verbal capacity to interact from the first day they come to life enables them to express their needs and evidence their typical development. This capacity to interact develops to include linguistic and non-linguistic use of verbal and non-verbal interaction, that is, pragmatics. Because pragmatics is heterogeneously structured of semiotic, cognitive, motor and sensory elements so it is vital to ensure successful human interaction. The other language elements (i.e., phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic) are essential inputs for this human interaction outcome (i.e., pragmatics). Accordingly, this study sought to map evidence that pragmatics can enhance children’s use of linguistic and non-linguistic capacities for interactive communication. This was addressed by conducting bibliometric and scientometric analyses of 6554 documents from Scopus, 1167 from WOS and 11,230 from Lens between 1939 and 2022. We analysed the past, present and future developments of the field of pragmatics using bibliometric and scientometric indicators. The scientometric analysis was conducted using CiteSpace 5.8.R3 and VOSviewer 1.6.18 software, which enabled the tabulation, visualisation and measurement of the impact of central influencers in the field of pragmatics. In the light of our results, pragmatics continues to expand in order to understand human interaction in a deeper way and to enhance children’s typical interactions with the environment around them. The group should also include adults or elderly people whose pragmatic language skills have been impaired due to any acquired or developmental disorder, such as a brain injury.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ahmed Alduais
- Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona, 37126 Verona, Italy
- Correspondence:
| | - Issa Al-Qaderi
- Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw, 01-445 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Najla Alfadda
- Department of English Language and Translation, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
| | - Hind Alfadda
- Department of Curriculum and Instruction, King Saud University, Riyadh 11362, Saudi Arabia
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Hilviu D, Gabbatore I, Parola A, Bosco FM. A cross-sectional study to assess pragmatic strengths and weaknesses in healthy ageing. BMC Geriatr 2022; 22:699. [PMID: 35999510 PMCID: PMC9400309 DOI: 10.1186/s12877-022-03304-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2021] [Accepted: 07/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Ageing refers to the natural and physiological changes that individuals experience over the years. This process also involves modifications in terms of communicative-pragmatics, namely the ability to convey meanings in social contexts and to interact with other people using various expressive means, such as linguistic, extralinguistic and paralinguistic aspects of communication. Very few studies have provided a complete assessment of communicative-pragmatic performance in healthy ageing. Methods The aim of this study was to comprehensively assess communicative-pragmatic ability in three samples of 20 (N = 60) healthy adults, each belonging to a different age range (20–40, 65–75, 76–86 years old) and to compare their performance in order to observe any potential changes in their ability to communicate. We also explored the potential role of education and sex on the communicative-pragmatic abilities observed. The three age groups were evaluated with a between-study design by means of the Assessment Battery for Communication (ABaCo), a validated assessment tool characterised by five scales: linguistic, extralinguistic, paralinguistic, contextual and conversational. Results The results indicated that the pragmatic ability assessed by the ABaCo is poorer in older participants when compared to the younger ones (main effect of age group: F(2,56) = 9.097; p < .001). Specifically, significant differences were detected in tasks on the extralinguistic, paralinguistic and contextual scales. Whereas the data highlighted a significant role of education (F(1,56) = 4.713; p = .034), no sex-related differences were detected. Conclusions Our results suggest that the ageing process may also affect communicative-pragmatic ability and a comprehensive assessment of the components of such ability may help to better identify difficulties often experienced by older individuals in their daily life activities. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-022-03304-z.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dize Hilviu
- GIPSI Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Ilaria Gabbatore
- GIPSI Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy. .,Research Unit of Logopedics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
| | - Alberto Parola
- GIPSI Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.,Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Francesca M Bosco
- GIPSI Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.,Neuroscience Institute of Turin - NIT, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
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Schaeken W, Van de Weyer L, De Hert M, Wampers M. The Role of Working Memory in the Processing of Scalar Implicatures of Patients With Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders. Front Psychol 2021; 12:635724. [PMID: 34025508 PMCID: PMC8134522 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.635724] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2020] [Accepted: 04/06/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
A number of studies have demonstrated pragmatic language difficulties in people with Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders. However, research about how people with schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders understand scalar implicatures (SIs) is surprisingly rare, since SIs have generated much of the most recent literature. Scalar implicatures are pragmatic inferences, based on linguistic expressions like some, must, or, which are part of a scale of informativeness (e.g., some/many/all). Logically, the less informative expressions imply the more informative ones, but pragmatically people usually infer that the presence of a less informative term implies that the more informative term was not applicable. In one of the few existing studies with people with schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders, Wampers et al. (2018) observed that in general, people with schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders were less likely to derive SIs than controls. The current study has three main aims. First, we want to replicate the original finding with the scalar terms some-all. Second, we want to investigate how these patients deal with different scalar terms, that is, we want to investigate if scalar diversity is also observed in this clinical group. Third, we investigate the role of working memory, often seen as another important mechanism to enable inferring SIs. Twenty-one individuals with a psychotic disorder and 21 matched controls answered 54 under-informative statements, in which seven different pairs of scalar terms were used. In addition, working memory capacity was measured. Patients with schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders did not make more logical interpretations when processing quantifiers, disconfirming Wampers et al. (2018). However, certain scalar scales elicited more pragmatic interpretations than others, which is in line with the scalar diversity hypothesis. Additionally, we observed only partial evidence for the role of working memory. Only for the scalar scale and-or, a significant effect of working memory was observed. The implications of these results for patients with schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders are discussed, but also the role of working memory for pragmatic inferences, as well as the place of SIs in experimental pragmatics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Walter Schaeken
- Brain and Cognition, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Linde Van de Weyer
- Brain and Cognition, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Marc De Hert
- University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Center for Clinical Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences Antwerp Health Law and Ethics Chair, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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Bambini V, Tonini E, Ceccato I, Lecce S, Marocchini E, Cavallini E. How to improve social communication in aging: Pragmatic and cognitive interventions. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2020; 211:104864. [PMID: 33137591 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104864] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2019] [Revised: 07/21/2020] [Accepted: 09/14/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Among all aspects of the linguistic and communicative competence, pragmatics seems especially vulnerable in aging, due also to cognitive decline. However, pragmatics has never been considered as an intervention target in healthy aging. Here we tested the effects of a novel training program to improve pragmatics (PragmaCom) in older adults, compared with an active cognitive control group in a randomized-controlled-trial design. Both the PragmaCom group and the control group improved in pragmatic skills such as understanding metaphors and avoiding off-topic speech, indicating that it is possible to improve pragmatics in aging both with a specific training and with a cognitive training. Individual cognitive factors predicted pragmatic improvement in the control group, while in the PragmaCom group benefits were less dependent on individual characteristics. We discuss the results in terms of pragmatic plasticity, highlighting the importance of these findings for promoting older adults' social communication and well-being.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Bambini
- Center for Neurocognition, Epistemology and Theoretical Syntax (NEtS), University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia, Piazza della Vittoria 15, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
| | - Elisabetta Tonini
- Center for Neurocognition, Epistemology and Theoretical Syntax (NEtS), University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia, Piazza della Vittoria 15, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Irene Ceccato
- Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, University G. d'Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Via Luigi Polacchi 11, 66100 Chieti, Italy
| | - Serena Lecce
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Piazza Botta 11, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Eleonora Marocchini
- Laboratory of Language and Cognition, University of Genoa, Via Balbi 30, 16128 Genoa, Italy
| | - Elena Cavallini
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Piazza Botta 11, 27100 Pavia, Italy
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