A Neuro-Phenomenological Perspective on the Autism Phenotype

In the current paper, we present a view of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) which avoids the typical relational issues, instead drawing on philosophy, in particular Husserlian phenomenology. We begin by following the recent etiological perspectives that suggest a natural predisposition of a part of individuals with ASD towards hypersensitivity and the reduced influence of cognitive priors (i.e., event schemas). Following this perspective, these two characteristics should be considered as a sort of phenomenological a priori that, importantly, could predispose people with ASD towards a spiritual experience, not intended in its religious meaning, but as an attribute of consciousness that consists of being aware of and attentive to what is occurring in the present moment. Potential clinical implications are discussed.

Schema-Related Eye Movements Support Episodic Simulation

Recent work indicates that eye movements support the retrieval of episodic memories by reactivating the spatiotemporal context in which they were encoded. Although similar mechanisms have been thought to support simulation of future episodes, there is currently no evidence to support this proposal. In the present study, we investigated the role of eye movements in episodic simulation by comparing the gaze patterns of individual participants imagining future scene and event scenarios to across-participant gaze templates for those same scenarios, reflecting their shared features (i.e., schemas). Our results provide novel evidence that eye movements during episodic simulation in the face of distracting visual noise are (1) schema-specific and (2) predictive of simulation success. Together, these findings suggest that eye movements support episodic simulation via reinstatement of scene and event schemas, and more broadly, that interactions between the memory and oculomotor effector systems may underlie critical cognitive processes including constructive episodic simulation.

Representation of emotion in English syntax and teaching Russian EFL students

The article looks into English simple utterances about a person’s emotional state. The authors dwell on the ways the English simple sentence patterns are employed in utterances about emotional states and reveal the types of sentence patterns and types of propositions (event schemas) structuring emotional states. The authors also discuss the factors that determine the way a particular emotional event is conceptualized and structured and describe the mechanisms underlying the representation of emotional states in syntax and the choice of a sentence pattern for an utterance about this event. Special attention is given to the mechanism of conceptual metaphor that manifests itself in sentence patterns. The paper lists types of propositional schemas mapped onto concepts of emotional experiences and singles out regular correspondences between the source domain and the target-domain in these metaphorical mappings. The authors also tackle the issue of applying knowledge of sentence representation of emotional states in teaching Russian EFL students to use English syntax correctly and authentically. Teaching syntax in the proposed approach is aimed at helping students to assimilate propositional schemas of the English sentence as models of structuring reality with their metaphoric extensions and then to develop skills of employing these schemas in speaking.

The Application of Journalistic Language Diction in Immoral Criminal News in Samarinda Pos Newspaper

This study aims to determine, describe, and analyze the application of journalistic language diction in the Teun A. van Dijk analysis model on criminal news of immoral types on the front page of the Samarinda Pos newspaper in October 2017 edition. The method used in this study is a descriptive qualitative method, using the Teun A. van Dijk discourse analysis model. The results of this study indicate that from the text dimension, the use of diction or choice of words is straightforward, concrete and specific. But also found diction that is general and worth the taste. From the dimension of social cognition, Samarinda Pos editors construct immoral criminal reporting based on event schemas by prioritizing the selection of diction which does not have a legal and pro-­‐‑market impact. From the dimension of social analysis, the influence of power and access can be seen through comments and leads that tend to use vulgar language that potentially marginalizes women.

Semantyka staropolskich terminów bartniczych – na przykładzie (po)łazić pszczoły/miód – w ujęciu kognitywnym

Semantics of Old Polish Beekeeping Terms: The Case of (po)łazić pszczoły/miód ‘Take Honey from the Bees’ in a Cognitive PerspectiveThis article aims to explain the process of terminologisation of the verb (po)łazić in beekeeping terminology. We present its stages and hypotheses concerning the semantics of the Old Polish term under consideration, including possible event schemas and its non-prepositional syntax. The analysis indicates that the terminologisation of word combinations with the verb (po)łazić in beekeeping terminology: (po)łazić pszczoły/miód ‘take honey from the bees’ involved the process of shifting the semantic dominant and, consequently, changing the event schema (“self-motion schema” → “caused motion schema” or “transfer”). On the level of syntactic analysis, we put forward a hypothesis about the possible origin of the non-prepositional structure generated as a result of transformation of the prepositional phrase: łazić po pszczoły/miód → połazić pszczoły/miód with a general meaning ‘perform the action directed at the singled-out object that changes its location as a result’. Semantyka staropolskich terminów bartniczych – na przykładzie (po)łazić pszczoły/miód – w ujęciu kognitywnym Celem pracy jest wyjaśnienie zjawiska terminologizacji czasownika (po)łazić w użyciu bartniczym – przedstawienie jej etapów oraz hipotez dotyczących semantyki badanego terminu staropolskiego, w tym realizowanych możliwych schematów zdarzeń, oraz jego bezprzyimkowej składni. Analiza pokazuje, że proces terminologizacji badanych połączeń wyrazowych: (po)łazić pszczoły/barć/miód polegał na przesuwaniu się dominanty znaczeniowej, a w konsekwencji zmiany schematu zdarzenia (samoprzemieszczanie → powodowanie ruchu lub przekazywanie). Z kolei w analizie składniowej badanego terminu postawiona została hipoteza o możliwym pochodzeniu konstrukcji bezprzyimkowej z przekształcenia formacji z wyrażeniem przyimkowym: łazić po pszczoły/ miód → połazić pszczoły/miód o znaczeniu ogólnym ‘wykonać daną czynność ukierunkowaną na wyróżniony obiekt, który w wyniku tej czynności zmienia swoją lokalizację’.

Learning Naturalistic Temporal Structure in the Posterior Medial Network

The posterior medial network is at the apex of a temporal integration hierarchy in the brain, integrating information over many seconds of viewing intact, but not scrambled, movies. This has been interpreted as an effect of temporal structure. Such structure in movies depends on preexisting event schemas, but temporal structure can also arise de novo from learning. Here, we examined the relative role of schema-consistent temporal structure and arbitrary but consistent temporal structure on the human posterior medial network. We tested whether, with repeated viewing, the network becomes engaged by scrambled movies with temporal structure. Replicating prior studies, activity in posterior medial regions was immediately locked to stimulus structure upon exposure to intact, but not scrambled, movies. However, for temporally structured scrambled movies, functional coupling within the network increased across stimulus repetitions, rising to the level of intact movies. Thus, temporal structure is a key determinant of network dynamics and function in the posterior medial network.