scholarly journals From speech and talkers to the social world: The neural processing of human spoken language

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 366 (6461) ◽  
pp. 58-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie K. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Social World ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Linguistic Processing ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Use

Human speech perception is a paradigm example of the complexity of human linguistic processing; however, it is also the dominant way of expressing vocal identity and is critically important for social interactions. Here, I review the ways that the speech, the talker, and the social nature of speech interact and how this may be computed in the human brain, using models and approaches from nonhuman primate studies. I explore the extent to which domain-general approaches may be able to account for some of these neural findings. Finally, I address the importance of extending these findings into a better understanding of the social use of speech in conversations.

scholarly journals Seven Computations of the Social Brain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanaz Molapour ◽  
Cindy C Hagan ◽  
Brian Silston ◽  
Haiyan Wu ◽  
Maxwell Ramstead ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Verbal Cues ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Multiple Modalities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Processing Demands ◽  
Social Signaling ◽  
The Brain

ABSTRACT The social environment presents the human brain with the most complex of information processing demands. The computations that the brain must perform occur in parallel, combine social and nonsocial cues, produce verbal and non-verbal signals, and involve multiple cognitive systems; including memory, attention, emotion, learning. This occurs dynamically and at timescales ranging from milliseconds to years. Here, we propose that during social interactions, seven core operations interact to underwrite coherent social functioning; these operations accumulate evidence efficiently – from multiple modalities – when inferring what to do next. We deconstruct the social brain and outline the key components entailed for successful human social interaction. These include (1) social perception; (2) social inferences, such as mentalizing; (3) social learning; (4) social signaling through verbal and non-verbal cues; (5) social drives (e.g., how to increase one’s status); (6) determining the social identity of agents, including oneself; and (7) minimizing uncertainty within the current social context by integrating sensory signals and inferences. We argue that while it is important to examine these distinct aspects of social inference, to understand the true nature of the human social brain, we must also explain how the brain integrates information from the social world.

Theorising love in sociological thought: Classical contributions to a sociology of love

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihai Stelian Rusu
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Body ◽  
Talcott Parsons ◽  
Sociological Tradition ◽  
Binding Force ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Set Up

This article sets out to explore the contributions of classical social thinkers to a sociological understanding of love. It builds on the premise that despite its major relevance and consequential importance in shaping both individual lives and the social world, until recently love was a heavily undertheorised topic in the sociological tradition. Moreover, the body of disparate sociological reflections that have been made on the social nature of love has been largely forgotten in the discipline’s intellectual legacy. The article then proceeds in unearthing the classics’ contributions to a sociology of love. It starts with Max Weber’s view that love promises to be a means of sensual salvation in an increasingly rationalised social world based on impersonal formal relationships. Next, it critically examines Pitirim A. Sorokin’s integral theory of love. It then moves to address Talcott Parsons’ view on love as a binding force whose social function is to integrate the conjugal couple of the modern nuclear family in the absence of the external pressures exerted by the kinship network. The article concludes by showing how these conceptualisations of love were all embedded in wider theoretical constructions set up to account for the modernisation process.

Depressive Symptoms and Self-Esteem as Moderators of Metaperceptions of Social Rejection Versus Acceptance: A Truth and Bias Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 252-265
Author(s):  
Daniel Moritz ◽  
John E. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Rejection ◽  
Bias Analysis ◽  
Depressive Realism ◽  
The Social

Metaperception involves making judgments regarding what others think of us and is important in navigating the social world. We measured the degree of accuracy and bias in metaperceptions of liking and desire for future contact following unstructured social interactions with new acquaintances and tested how depression and self-esteem influence bias and accuracy in these judgments. Results indicated that depression and lower self-esteem are associated with negative directional biases but are also associated with lower reciprocity bias (the tendency to assume that partners return one’s feelings of liking and acceptance). In addition, individuals with lower self-esteem displayed greater meta-insight (accuracy when controlling for bias) compared with those with higher self-esteem. Implications for cognitive and depressive realism theories of depression are discussed.

Moving between frames: The basis of the stable and dialogical self

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 510-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Moore ◽  
Carol Jasper ◽  
Alex Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Self ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Dialogical Self ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Stability And Instability ◽  
The Social ◽  
Clear Link ◽  
The Stability

Research on the dialogical self has tended to emphasize instability over stability. Grossen and Salazar Orvig (2011) show how norms, values, material objects, and institutions feed into the stability of the self. We expand upon this contribution by introducing Goffman’s (1974) concept of “frames” to theorize both stability and instability. Social interactions do not begin with individuals but with socially given and pre-existing cultural-historical frames which people are called upon to inhabit. Frames comprise historical, institutional, material, and cultural aspects. The key point is that action within a frame tends to stabilize the self, while being caught between frames tends to destabilize the self. The concept of frames can thus provide a clear link between the structure of the social world and the structure of the dialogical self. We use the concept of frames to distinguish the stability produced by one set of expectations, within one frame, from the peculiar instability and dialogical tensions which result from being embedded in discrepant or contradictory frames.

A Critique of the ‘Curse/Death’ Interpretation of 1 Corinthians 5.1–8

1993 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. South
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Social World ◽  
Sociological Analysis ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Communal Life ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sociological Studies

There has been in recent years an upsurge of interest in the social description of early Christianity, particularly in the reconstruction of its ‘social world’. Any valid sociological analysis of early Christianity of necessity depends upon the exacting interpretation of the NT texts, since these constitute the necessary data for such studies. In many cases such exegetical ground-work has been done thoroughly and well, so that fruitful social studies can be conducted on the basis of the resulting data. Unfortunately, in the case of early Christian disciplinary practices, relatively little careful research has been done, and much of what has been done is, in the opinion of the present writer, seriously flawed. Social descriptions based upon this data are inevitably likewise flawed, and a distorted picture of early Christian communal life is the unfortunate result. The nature of early Christian discipline is obviously a problem of a social nature, but before serious sociological studies can be done, there must be a correction of the distortions which are currently prevalent in the scholarly consensus regarding this subject.

Pain, Subjectivity, and the Social

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Ablow
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Epistemological Problem ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social

This introductory chapter first describes two different recent approaches to the relation between pain and social life. The first position casts the pain of the other primarily as an epistemological problem—the thing we cannot, but most need to, know. The second approach emphasizes how pain is always already part of a social world. The chapter then considers some of the terms in which Victorian medical professionals, caregivers, and sufferers understood the social nature of pain. Finally, this chapter discusses what is meant by the book's title, “Victorian Pain.” The goal here is to explain why this book seeks to describe not how pain was represented or constructed, but instead how pain was used by a range of writers at a particular time.

Social behavior of alpine marmots (Marmota marmota): seasonal, group, and individual variability

1993 ◽  
Vol 71 (10) ◽  
pp. 1945-1953 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Perrin ◽  
Jacques Coulon ◽  
Michel Le Berre
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Active Season ◽  
Play Fighting ◽  
Marmota Marmota ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Social Events ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Family Groups

The composition and social interactions of three family groups of Marmota marmota were observed during a study in the Vanoise National Park (French Alps) from mid-June to late September. Interactions between members of the same group were mainly cohesive, which confirms the social nature of this species. Social interactions between marmots from different family groups were rare and agonistic. The rate of social interactions decreased as the season progressed, probably in relation to a shift in allocation of energy to preparation for hibernation. Some cohesive interactions increased just before immergence, when marmots restricted their activity to the main burrow system. Rates of social interactions differed between groups and between individuals. Fewer agonistic acts, more play-fighting, and persistence of play-fighting late in the active season among immatures suggest the influence of an ontogenetic component. The most agonistic of the studied groups included an adult male that had recently immigrated. He focused most of his agonistic acts on three 2-year-old males, of which two dispersed during the season. Social events characteristic of each group, individual variability, and level of familiarity between group members influence the quality of social interactions and the dispersal of immatures. Social relationships between familiar individuals are amicable and can facilitate the retention of immatures in their natal group as well as their recruitment by emigrant adults.

scholarly journals Investigating the Relationship Between Event Knowledge, Autistic Traits, and Social Ability Using Graph Theory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kara Elise Hannah ◽  
Kevin Brown ◽  
Mikayla Hall-Bruce ◽  
Ryan A Stevenson ◽  
Ken McRae
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Social Ability ◽  
Event Knowledge ◽  
Communication Problems ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Abilities ◽  
The Relationship

Event knowledge, a person’s understanding of patterns of activities in the world, is crucial for everyday social interactions. Atypical event knowledge could contribute to social communication problems, which are prominent in autism spectrum disorder. Previous research has found atypical event knowledge in autistic individuals; however, research is minimal. In two studies, the relationship between event knowledge and autistic traits, namely social abilities, was investigated. We predicted associations between atypical event knowledge and poorer social abilities. In Study 1, lower social ability correlated with more atypical ordering of event activities. In Study 2, for atypical activity ordering, a relationship was found between social ability and the social nature of events. No significant results were found for other measures of event knowledge. These findings suggest a relationship exists between autistic traits, namely social abilities, and event activity ordering, but does not exist for other areas of event knowledge in the general population.

scholarly journals Discourse Analysis: Examining Language Use in Context

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Adjei
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Social World ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Psychological Phenomenon ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
People’S Perception

Discourse analysis is paramount in the negotiation and construction of meaning of the social world. Dis cursive psychologists believe that truth is a discursive construction and that the world can be represented in an unlimited number of ways. This paper discusses the importance of context and culture in discursive interactions. The paper discusses knowledge as situated and contingent and thus an explanation of a psychological phenomenon should take into account the context or culture and circumstances of social interactions. The relevance of positioning and intertextuality in discursive interactions and meaning making processes are highlighted. It is further discussed that people’s perception about a psychological phenomenon is not enduring and stable across situations and time; instead, it can change to suit the context and purpose of discourse. It is suggested that discourse analysts should systematically adduce reasons to justify and validate the value of their research claims.

THE SOCIAL NATURE OF INFORMATION AND THE ROLE OF TRUST

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (03n04) ◽  
pp. 381-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
CRISTIANO CASTELFRANCHI
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Interacting Agents ◽  
Information Agents ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nature Of Information

In this paper, I claim that "information" is a social construct, is created and tailored on purpose by somebody for somebody else or collectively, accepted, believed, or propagated through social interactions. In particular, I argue about the essential social nature of several crucial aspects of information in IT and specifically in relation to Information Agents. After situating this view of information within the broader perspective of Social Artificial Intelligence — the new AI paradigm — I analyize the intrinsic social aspects of information ontology, search and access, presentation, overload, credibility and sources, value. The issue of real "collaboration" in providing information deserves special attention and I introduce our theory of over-help and of the ability to provide something different from what is requested in order to satisfy the real need beyond the request. In the second part, I focus on the crucial role of trust (an intrinsically social and cognitive notion) for dealing with information and sources especially on the web. My objective is to claim that: if information per se is a social construct, then its technology should be socially designed and integrated, and that machines must be involved in real social relationships because they have to mediate them among humans. It is necessary incorporating some part of this social knowledge and capability in the information technology itself, especially in adaptive and interacting "agents" and MAS.

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