DISCOURSE 2 DEC 2, 2015 – DAY 39 Brain & Language LING 4110-4890-5110-7960 NSCI 4110-4891-6110 Fall 2015.

DISCOURSE 2DEC 2, 2015 – DAY 39

Brain & Language

LING 4110-4890-5110-7960

NSCI 4110-4891-6110

Fall 2015

2

Course organization• Schedule:

• http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/BrLg/t1-Intro.html#schedule-of-topics

• Today's chapter:• http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/BrLg/t21-Discourse.html

• Fun with https://www.facebook.com/BrLg15/• Quiz on Monday will be in class & on Blackboard.

12/02/15 Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University

http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/BrLg/t1-Intro.html%23schedule-of-topics

http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/BrLg/t1-Intro.html%23schedule-of-topics

http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/BrLg/t21-Discourse.html

https://www.facebook.com/BrLg15/

3

GradesQ1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9

MIN 6 5 5 4 7 3 4 5 7

AVG 9.0 8.8 8.8 8.4 9.2 7.5 8.7 9.3 8.9

MAX 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10


4

COMBINATORIAL NET 2


Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 5

What do you understand as discourse?

• To me, a text (perhaps spoken) that is longer than 1 sentence.

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Major problems underlying discourse deficits associated with RHD

Reduced ability to generate inferences.

Reduced ability to comprehend and produce main concepts and central themes.

Reduced level of informative content.

• Reduced ability to manage alternative meanings.

• Reduced sensitivity to communicative context (Theory of Mind).

Odd fact: RHD often looks like prefrontal disorders.

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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 712/02/15

Thanksgiving Waiting room Breaking ties


Verbose & excessive discourse• Digressions, tangentiality, intrusions, ‘looseness’ of

expression • > twice as many words as NBD, even after excluding

tangential comments. • May wander off the topic or bury it an avalanche of

unnecessary detail. May confabulate.


Abrupt & perfunctory discourse• Thanksgiving painting: “Looks like the mother’s got turkey.

That’s it.”

• Waiting room painting: “They’re sitting on a bench is all.”


Verbose & excessive discourse (1): RHD describing ‘waiting room’ scene

There are three people waiting, sitting on a bench. An older man. It looks like he has a bandage on his head. And the boy in the middle has his hands clenched in his lap. He’s wearing blue shorts, white shoes with striped socks. And the man on the end of the bench is wearing leather shoes. And the boy on this end of the bench, I guess he’s between the two of them in age. And he has a cigarette tray right by him. And he looks a little anxious. He’s got his elbows on his knees. He’s got his chin in his hand. He’s wearing a khaki suit. The boy’s wearing a short sleeved shirt, blue shorts. The man’s wearing a dark suit with a tie, and the man has a bandage on his head.


Verbose & excessive discourse (2): RHD describing ‘leaving home’ sceneWell, collie or Lassie – looks like they’re going to take him back to college. That's State U, or U State. State U. And they’ve had car trouble somewhere. Old Dad's still puffin’ on cigarettes. This is before cigarettes went out of fashion. They better watch out about that porch they're sitting on there. Isn’t that a mess? It’s all rotted away. Termites must be at it. Look at those bumper shoes that kid – he’s a collegiate. Look at the socks. Striped socks and he’s got those snub-nosed kickers on. Must be gonna be the kicker for the team. He’s got a yellow handkerchief in his shirt – coat jacket – and he thinks he’s very dapper. You'll find this hard to believe, but that is an Atlas tire and I sold those stinkers for 20 years. Now how do I know? I know because of the figuration on the side of the tire. That’s an Atlas junior, sold by Atlas TBA Company to Exxon, and American Oil, and Chevron on a wire wheel and that tire is probably a 475 by 17. I mounted many of those. That's a Model A Ford truck.


Visuospatial organization

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LHD - stimulus - RHD

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DISCOURSE 2



Generating alternate meanings &Deficits in non-literal meanings• Figurative language

• See next slide

• Indirect requests• RHD have reduced sensitivity to non-literal meaning, e.g. Can you

open the window?

• Humor• RHD can pick a potentially surprising and funny punch line, but

they have trouble picking one that is coherent with body of joke.


Jack & Mary found

some leftover cake in

the kitchen, but when

Jack divided it up,

Mary complained

that he had taken the

lion’s share.

Which picture best

describes the text?


Why?• Difficulty maintaining literal and figurative meanings

simultaneously.• Picking literal reading given salience of lion in picture is

less effortful.• May lose track of expression as a whole.• Depiction of literal meaning has narrower range (must

include a lion) than depiction of figurative meanings.


What do you see here?

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Inference revision• We have no (or little) difficulty revising our first impression

as we get new information.• RHD disrupts this ability.


Describe this picture to yourself

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RHD description of cookie theft

I see a woman holding a plate. I see a boy standing on a small stool. I see shoes. The boy is opening a jar – feeling cookies, I guess. He might fall. The woman is mother. I see a girl. Her left arm is upraised. The boy – presumably his sister.


Describe this painting to yourself.


Responses: (list from Myers 1999:190, Fig. 8-4; see discussion of Main Concepts Guidelines p. 167)

NBD RHD

Father/man reading the paper 86% 73%

Family/mother & children 66% 68%

Family going to (getting ready for) church 83% 59%

Father/husband 69% 50%

Father not dressed/in pajamas 41% 9%

Father guilty 38% 9%

Family ignoring him 21% 0%

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Describe this painting to yourself.


Responses(list from Myers 1999:190, Fig. 8-5; see discussion of Main Concepts Guidelines p. 167)

NBD RHDLittle/Young girl 59% 45%

Looking at/Admiring herself in the mirror 66% 36%

Using make-up/Fixing herself up/Fixing her hair 62% 23%

Trying to emulate picture/Wondering whether she’ll look like picture/Wondering what she’ll look like when she grows up

59% 23%

Picture of a woman/movie star on her lap 55% 18%

Trying to /Wants to be/Playing at look(ing) grown up 31% 9%

Has a doll /Has cast a doll aside 70% 5%

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Theory of mind deficits• A theory of mind (TOM) is a theory about the internal

mental state of others that helps one interpret their external behavior.

• It is a set of inferences because the internal mental states of others are not directly observable or explicit.

• TOM is a meta-representational skill, i.e. beliefs about beliefs (about something).

• Autistic children appear to have TOM deficits, i.e. poor social skills.

• RHD show similar impairments, as seen in previous slides.


Pragmatic deficits• Conversations have ‘rules’ about …

• when it is appropriate to talk (turn-taking), • what it is appropriate to talk about (topic maintenance),

and • how detailed one needs to be (shared knowledge).

• RHD creates deficits in all of these, i.e. in …• talking in turn,• keeping to the topic,• recognizing the limits of shared knowledge.• (example on next slide)


RHD discourse interaction• Clinician: So, are you hoping to get out of the hospital on

Tuesday?• Patient: It’s just like with Marta. I said that to her, and she said

that was all well and good to say, but did I know? So different from Dr. James.

• C: Marta? Who is Marta?• P: Marta always looks on the bleak side of things. Dr. James

is much more um cheerful. Like he was with my other sister when we were all up north, but you wouldn’t know about that.

• C: No, I wouldn’t. But Dr. James? Who is he – your physician?• P: What? No, he isn’t my physician. Of course not. He’s my

brother.• C: Oh.

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Analysis• Does the patient take turns speaking with the clinician

appropriately? • Does the patient stay on topic?• Does the patient recognize what knowledge he/she

shares with the clinician?


SummaryLH (disrupted by LHD)

a) ?

b) Part

c) ?

d) Literal meanings (?)

e) ?

f) ?

g) ?

RH (disrupted by RHD)

a) Macrostructure inferences

b) Whole

c) Information content

d) Non-literal meanings

e) Inference revision

f) Theory of mind

g) Conversational rules

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Final project• Improve a Wikipedia article about any of the topics

mentioned in class or any other topic broadly related to neurolinguistics.

• Write a short essay explaining what you did and why you did it.

• Print the article before you improve it, highlighting any subtractions.

• Print the article after you improve it, highlighting your additions.


NEXT TIMEQ11

12/02/15 Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 31

DISCOURSE 2 DEC 2, 2015 – DAY 39 Brain & Language LING 4110-4890-5110-7960 NSCI 4110-4891-6110 Fall 2015.

Documents

brain languageling

kid hes

reduced sensitivity

u state

thats state u

rhdreduced ability

blue shorts

white shoes