Tagged: Language
An Understanding of Language-Processing with Audiobooks
When I read a book such as the one about the romantic life of Peeta and Katniss, I delve into the lives of the characters so much that I worry about myself because I relate myself to the characters’ fantastical lives. All readers face this and that is incredible. Neuroscientists like Roel Willems and Annabel Nijhof would completely agree. In fact, they recently published a study revealing the neurological effects of listening to audiobooks.
In the experiment, researchers had the subjects listen to chapters of several different audiobooks and recorded their neurological responses using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). According to the results, the subjects focused mostly on either the actions of characters or the feelings and intentions of the characters. In the subjects that reported to prefer empathizing with the characters more, the fMRIs showed heightened activity in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, whereas those that reported enjoying the action aspect of the story more had elevated activity in the motor cortex. Interestingly enough, the subjects that showed higher activation of the anterior medial prefrontal cortex displayed lower activation of the motor cortex when listening to the action parts of the stories. On the contrary, the subjects that engaged more with the actions of the story were applicable. This study provides neurological evidence that people relatively have different strengths and preferences when it comes to reading.
These findings imply this study could be used to know how people engage with literature. If we master what literature people prefer, we might be able to turn literature into a very fun activity. This research also offers further understanding on how we process language. As stated above, it shows that when listening to narration some people focus more on empathizing aspects while others focus more on the action-packed plot. Not only this teaches how we read books, but also how we process written and oral stories.
Source:
The Mentioned Experiment: http://neurosciencenews.com/literature-neuroimaging-psychology-1748/
Lolo, Ubongo, Cerebro, Cervello, Cerveau, Brein = BRAIN!
Know any of the above words from ubongo to brein? If so, you can (surprisingly to you of course) say BRAIN in Hawaiian, Swahili, Spanish, Italian, French, or Dutch. And if you can (read this and) fluently speak at least one of these languages, or another not shown, you are multilingual (again, SO surprisingly to you…) – and may consequently reap some benefits from this status! More
Are you and your significant other meant to be?
Well, no one truly knows the answer to that question until they're looking back on their life and reminiscing about the time they spent with their partner. However, a new theory suggests that certain subtleties in language style can determine compatibility between two people. This includes speaking as well as personal writing styles, from Facebook chat to an essay sample.
Researchers have postulated that the use of common words called "function words", including 'me', 'a', 'and', 'but', as well as a number of other prepositions, pronouns, adverbs, etc. can at least estimate the compatibility of a couple. These researchers have devised an equation using the basic-level function words to determine "language style matching" (LSM). A higher LSM means more compatible writing styles, and ergo, a more compatible couple.
A study that analyzed the writing styles of online chats of various couples over the course of ten days revealed much about this theory. According to an article about this study in The Daily Telegraph, "almost 80 percent of the couples whose writing style matched were still dating three months later, compared with approximately 54 percent of the couples who did not match as well."
An online LSM generator has been created by this team of researchers. You can go to this site and insert various writing samples from IM chats to poetry. But this is not solely to determine compatibility in a relationship; you are able to compare writing styles of strangers, friends, and even two of your own pieces. I've tried it and find it to be intriguing at least. In no way would I assert that this is a completely accurate way to determine personality similarity, but it seems to me that it has some logic to it and is not as absurd as I had originally expected.
Language Style Matching Predicts Relationship Initiation and Stability- Association for Psychological Science
Scientists find true language of love - The Telegraph
