Cognitive Context Research Articles

Translation of Shaanxi Intangible Cultural Heritage Based on Optimal Relevance

The intangible cultural heritage in Shaanxi, which reflects the life and culture of the people in Shaanxi, contains rich cultural connotations with Shaanxi characteristics. Therefore, the translation of Shaanxi intangible cultural heritage (Shaanxi ICH) plays a significant role in the spread of Chinese culture. Translation is seen as a communication activity among different cultures, and the quality of translation has a great influence on communication effect. The optimal relevance between the original text and target readers’ cognitive context, as the core of relevance theory, can be used as a standard to criticize translation. Based on these understandings, this study applies optimal relevance to the translation of Shaanxi ICH in order to explore its translation and propose several Shaanxi ICH translation strategies that achieve optimal relevance and effective communication, so as to improve the spread of Shaanxi ICH to the outside world.

Acoustic discrimination in the grey bamboo shark Chiloscyllium griseum

Cognitive abilities of sharks are well developed and comparable to teleosts and other vertebrates. Most studies exploring elasmobranch cognitive abilities have used visual stimuli, assessing a wide range of discrimination tasks, memory retention and spatial learning abilities. Some studies using acoustic stimuli in a cognitive context have been conducted, but a basic understanding of sound induced behavioural changes and the underlying mechanisms involved are still lacking. This study explored the acoustic discrimination abilities of seven juvenile grey bamboo sharks (Chiloscyllium griseum) using a Go/No-Go method, which so far had never been tested in sharks before. After this, the smallest frequency difference leading to a change in behaviour in the sharks was studied using a series of transfer tests. Our results show that grey bamboo sharks can learn a Go/No-Go task using both visual and acoustic stimuli. Transfer tests elucidated that, when both stimulus types were presented, both were used. Within the tested range of 90–210 Hz, a frequency difference of 20–30 Hz is sufficient to discriminate the two sounds, which is comparable to results previously collected for sharks and teleosts. Currently, there is still a substantial lack of knowledge concerning the acoustic abilities and sound induced behaviours of sharks while anthropogenic noise is constantly on the rise. New insights into shark sound recognition, detection and use are therefore of the utmost importance and will aid in management and conservation efforts of sharks.

Differences between multimodal brain-age and chronological-age are linked to telomere shortening

Telomere shortening is theorized to accelerate biological aging, however, this has not been tested in the brain and cognitive contexts. We used machine learning age-prediction models to determine brain/cognitive age and quantified the degree of accelerated aging as the discrepancy between brain and/or cognitive and chronological ages (i.e., age gap). We hypothesized these age gaps are associated with telomere length (TL). Using healthy participants from the ADNI-3 cohort (N = 196, Agemean=70.7), we trained age-prediction models using 4 modalities of brain features and cognitive scores, as well as a ‘stacked’ model combining all brain modalities. Then, these 6 age-prediction models were applied to an independent sample diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (N = 91, Agemean=71.3) to determine, for each subject, the model-specific predicted age and age gap. TL was most strongly associated with age gaps from the resting-state functional connectivity model after controlling for confounding variables. Overall, telomere shortening was significantly related to older brain but not cognitive age gaps. In particular, functional relative to structural brain-age gaps, were more strongly implicated in telomere shortening.

Cognitive Context in a Work of Art

The article discusses issues related to the explication of the cognitive context in the analysis of a work of art. Considering that a literary text is a single conceptual space, it was found that in addition to extralinguistic factors (for example, sociocultural information), one of the most important components of the cognitive integrity of a text is intertextuality, which represents additional conceptually significant information. Such an approach to the interpretation of a work, first of all, is necessary at the stage of pre-translation analysis of the text in the process of literary translation.

Social Media Usage among Older Adults: Insights from Nigeria

ABSTRACT There has been very little research and policy regarding the inclusion of older adults in new technological applications in Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African region. The study examined the use of social media among older adults in Ibadan, South-West, Nigeria using a semi-structured interview. A qualitative explorative study was set-up, involving six consenting members of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Ibadan branch whose age is above 55 years. Purposive sampling technique was used to include the participants who have access to a social media-enabled phone. A semi-structured was conducted to obtain information about the social media usage among the older adults. Thematic analysis was used to analyze interview transcripts. The mean age of the older adults is 58.5. Two themes emerged from the interview session: experience and barriers to social media use. Participants had an exciting experience using social media to maintain social connectedness and barriers associated with privacy, poor access to the internet, illiteracy, and frustration. The study concludes that social media use is essential to sustaining social connectedness among older adults. Desire to use social media among the older adults is embedded in their social, personal, and cognitive context. The study advocates for inclusive digital programming for older adults.

空间维度形容词“THICK/THIN”的词汇类型学研究

Drawing on the theoretical framework and methodology of the Moscow Lexical Typology Group (MLexT), this paper examines the usage of the basic meanings of the spatial dimensional adjectives “THICK/THIN” in thirteen languages. Our conclusions are as follows: Among the thirteen languages investigated, the basic meanings of “THICK/THIN” in all Asian and European languages can indicate the distance between the upper and lower surfaces of a flat object, including “the upper and lower surfaces of a flat, solid object”, “the upper and lower surfaces of liquid”, “the irregular upper and lower surfaces of gas”, and “the upper and lower surfaces of a flat body part”. This reflects the cognitive commonality of different countries from different regions and cultures. For most Asian languages, “THICK/THIN” can only be used to describe the upper and lower surfaces of flat objects. For most European languages, “thick/thin” can describe flat as well as cylindrical and linear objects, which reflects cognitive characteristics of each country in different regions. Even within Asia, “THICK/THIN” are used in very different ways in Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesian. In Korean, “THICK/THIN” can describe not only flat objects but also “linear objects on a flat surface”, while Vietnamese can describe not only flat objects but also “linear objects”, “linear objects on a flat surface”, and “cross-sections of cylindrical objects”. These two languages expand the semantic range of “THICK/THIN” in Asian languages. As with European languages, Indonesian and Thai use “thick/thin” for flat objects as well as cylindrical objects. However, “THICK/THIN” in Indonesian cannot describe the “cross-section of a cylindrical body part”. It is possible in Thai, but one cannot use “THICK/THIN” to describe the four limbs. Among European languages, French is an exception. “THICK/THIN” cannot describe a linear object placed in a three-dimensional space and not on a flat surface. We have thereby demonstrated cross-linguistic semantic commonalities and verified the feasibility and applicability of the MLexT theory in lexical typology. Meanwhile, the differences between different languages in different regions and in the same region also reveal the differences in the socio-cultural context of human cognition.

Competitive interactions between cognitive reappraisal and mentalizing

To better understand how cognitive context can impact emotion regulation through cognitive reappraisal, we evaluated the effects of an additional mentalizing instruction on reappraisal. This manipulation models an existing therapeutic technique in which a client is instructed to imagine advising a friend in a similar situation. We examined the effects of this manipulation on self-reported affect and difficulty as well as fMRI measures of neural function. We hypothesized that the mentalizing context would facilitate the cognitive processing and performance of reappraisal due to the engagement of common neurocognitive resources across these processes. We trained participants to reappraise negative pictures using reinterpretation, and crossed mentalizing with reappraisal in a within-subjects factorial design. Self-report results indicated that the mentalizing instruction did not impact reappraisal performance. We did, however, identify neural interactions between mentalizing and reappraisal. The particular patterns of interaction suggested that reappraisal processing may have been dominant and mentalizing processing diminished when both were instructed. Overall, our findings suggested that mentalizing and reappraisal did engage shared neurocognitive resources, but this overlap resulted in competition between these processes rather than facilitation. We discuss potential mechanisms and identify directions for future research. This study was preregistered at https://osf.io/ym28u/.

Теоретическое исследование контекста средового дизайна

This article examines the influence of various socio-economic and cultural realities on the practice of environmental design through the prism of the “context” concept. In other words, the work is aimed to study the process of forming the “practical context” of environmental design. The paper studies the place of environmental design as an academic discipline in the bachelor system of leading universities in various countries of the world. The author comes to the conclusion that only in Russia and China this major is referred to the field of art and is considered as an “artistic” discipline, which is due to the close methodological interconnection. Attention is paid on the question of components that make up the “practical context” of environmental design. The paper dwells on the classification of “context” idea. The author considers the possibilities of using linguistic concepts “linguistic context”, “socio-communicative context” and “cognitive context” in environmental design. “Linguistic context” includes aims, methods and content of environmental design and forms its internal factor. The “socio-communicative context” as an external factor can be divided into two types: a “situational context” (functions of main phenomena in concrete time), and “cultural context”, which is reflected in cultural needs of society. The “cognitive context” of environmental design is responsible for the designer's understanding of the processes occurring in the surrounding space. It is indicated that the Internet as part of the “situational context”, is one of the most important phenomena of the modern era, a key channel for transmitting information, and has the following properties: “accessibility”, “interactivity”, “openness”, “universality”. On the issue of “cultural context”, it is noted that environmental design pays special attention to the “spiritual” component of human culture and at the same time can not be considered in isolation from the cultural needs of society, which in the modern world can be characterized by the concepts of “complexity”, “diversity”, “practical nature” and “territoriality”. Within the “cognitive context” of environmental design, it is introduced the category of “aesthetic trends in design”, which symbolizes designer's perception of aesthetic issues. By establishing a balance between internal and external factors, the environment designer sets a “cognitive context” based on the relationship between “characteristics of cultural consumption”, “aesthetic trends in design” and “functionality of phenomena of time periods”. All the described types of context constitute the “practical context” of environmental design. The text and graphic materials of this work can be useful in the research, systematization, and creation of practical projects of environment design, as well as in teaching.

Cognitive approach to the study of precedent names in media discourse (based on the material of Russian and French)

The object of study was precedent phenomena, or rather precedent names, and their functioning in modern Russian and French media discourse was considered as the subject of the study. Precedent names that perform appellative, cognitive, communicative, expressive, text-forming functions are strong elements of the text and are able to influence the mass consciousness. The frequency of their use in the materials of mass media discourse is steadily growing, which explains the relevance of the study. In the course of the study, the goal of analyzing precedent names was fulfilled, the comprehension of which requires referring to the cognitive context REAL ECONOMY, which is a component of a private matrix that includes the concept PERSONALITY as a core. Using the method of cognitive-matrix analysis to describe the components of the matrix as a system of cognitive contexts or conceptual areas, it was revealed that when comprehending a precedent name in relation to the context REAL ECONOMY, the cognitive contexts APPEARANCE, PSYCHE AND STATUS of the concept PERSONALITY are actualized. It is proved that the STATUS cognitive context when referring to the REAL ECONOMY conceptual area is most often interpreted. The study made it possible to draw a conclusion about the importance of the text-forming function of precedent names, which have become an effective tool for speech influence, and the importance of studying the cognitive mechanisms of their functioning.

ЧЕЛОВЕК И МИР В СИТУАЦИИ ИЗМЕНЕНИЙ: ТРАНСДИСЦИПЛИНАРНЫЙ ПОДХОД

The problem of studying the transformations of modernity is relevant today in psychology and social sciences. The most well-founded changes in man and the world were considered in international anthropology, starting from the second half of the twentieth century. At the specific scientific level of methodology, research strategies were developed here and new directions arose – anthropology of contemporary, anthropology of globalization, anthropology of the future. At the general scientific level of methodology, the instrument for studying the transformations of man and the world is a transdisciplinary approach that integrates the studies of psychology and social sciences. At the same time, transdisciplinarity manifests itself today not only as a conscious methodological strategy, but also as a spontaneous practice in a problem-oriented cognitive space. The issues of identity formation, socialization of the younger generations, personal development in the context of globalization and in a situation of change constitute today the general problem field of psychology, anthropology and other social sciences. Psychology in this cognitive context is able to expand the horizon of ideas about man and the world, including through the reception of modern anthropological concepts. One of the problems that is being considered today in psychology, sociology, and anthropology is the clash in one socio-cultural space of different values, lifestyles and worldviews. Discussed in the context of the anthropology of contemporary, the forms of socialization are united by a transdisciplinary approach, which, integrating these studies at the general scientific level of methodology, at the specific scientific level, reveals the antinomies of simplicity and complexity, commonality and differences, constancy and change, structures and processes. Normative diversity is introduced as a construct that reflects the idea of positive socialization in modern society, characterized by increased sociocultural mobility, creolization (cultural mixing) phenomena, and diversification of life strategies.

ЖАНРОВІ ІННОВАЦІЇ В СУЧАСНИХ УКРАЇНСЬКИХ МАСМЕДІА

The article expertly comments on the trend of genre innovations in modern Ukrainian mass media. The author's argumentation is based on the functional evolution of the literary language, which is reflected in the change of the style's communicative nature, in particular, media. Logically also in his genre system. The situation of genre forms' modeling according to the criteria of syncretism, updated in time and space of modern Ukrainian-language communication, is commented on, which is connected with the need of recipients to perceive information from the media not linearly, but constructively – multifaceted and variable. It results in the active emergence of genre variants, actualized in the media space, which modify its functional and stylistic resource and potential. Genre innovations are interpreted in the context of a professional analysis of language show genre new for national media, which appears as a communicative invariant of intellect show and is synchronized with the style of the edutainment format. Language factology attests the conceptualization of the cultural and linguistic context of social communication in Ukrainian language, which is based on current rules, established tradition, and transitional forms that undergo communicative adaptation. Thus, the novelty of the genre is formulated, which consists in the intellectual understanding of the communicative nature of Ukrainian language in media space. The mass audience gets an objective opportunity to participate in the comprehension and understanding of the processes that indicate the dynamics of the literary language, its norms and exceptions. The thesis is proved that new for the media language show genre is a syncretic phenomenon in terms of functional and stylistic resource and genre nature, which is based on a communicatively motivated combination of information and entertainment functions. Information in this case relies on the cognitive context of verbalization, as it concerns the actualization of cognitive processes of the development of mass language consciousness, which is provided by the creolized resource of media entertainment.

VASILI SESEMAN’S TRANSCENDENTAL THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE: BETWEEN PHENOMENOLOGY AND NEO-KANTIANISM

The article considers the theory of cognition of the Russian and Soviet philosopher Vasily Seseman (1884-1963) in its relation to the main philosophical orientations in early 20th-century: phenomenology, neokantianism, and intuitionism. Seseman’s theory of cognition is interesting today because, following the tradition of neo-Kantianism, it largely shares the principles and methods of phenomenology, poses epistemological problems that were not explicitly formulated by Edmund Husserl, and offers solutions that are relevant today. The article highlights a common thematic field combining phenomenology, neo-Kantianism, and intuitionism. This field is set by the initial subject-object cognitive attitude, the desire to identify the conditions for the possibility of cognition, the recognition of the presence of a non-linguistic level of knowledge. Moving in this unified theoretical cognitive context of the early twentieth century, Seseman offers his own solution to the following problems: defining the subject of cognition, developing the method of intuition in general and in relation to the contemplation of essence, distinguishing between objective and non-objective attitudes and using this distinction to describe different types of cognition, thematizing the irrational in cognition, and understanding the judgment and its role in the final formation of cognition. Seseman believes that the cognition of reality is preceded by the perception of its objects. He diverges from the Neo-Kantians, who claim that the objects of cognition are formed only in judgment, and holds a position than Husserl, according to whom we perceive the world around us already objectively. However, unlike Husserl, Seseman does not recognize the cognitive nature of perception and argues that knowledge begins with a reflexive fixation of the object of cognition. The cognition of an individual object is embodied in a judgment in which the relation of the object to its environment is fixed and the object is defined as a unique combination of universal properties. Finally, it is shown that the solution of epistemological questions inevitably leads Seseman to ontological issues.

The interdisciplinary problem: an analysis

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept of the interdisciplinary problem using the categories of the logic of questions. The problem is seen in a logical and epistemic sense: the problem is a meaning of the question, and the question is a formulation of the problem in a particular language. Demonstrating that the interdisciplinarity of an interdisciplinary problem is understood in terms of a particular kind of complexity, I indicate the places where it is realized in the structure of the problem-question, in the problem’s solution-answer to the question, and in the cognitive context of the problem solving - answering to the question. The paper also displays how an interdisciplinary problem is situated within the broader structure of an interdisciplinary research process. Thus, the paper provides not only a metatheoretical characterization of the interdisciplinary problem but also a general methodological tool for analyzing particular interdisciplinary problems.

Meaning Construction of Multimodal Metaphor from Relevance Theory

The proposal of multimodal metaphor and its following research propels metaphor study into a new phase. According to relevance theory, the understanding of metaphor, similar to other language phenomena, is governed by the principle of relevance. Context is a dynamic concept, once the input is processed, it will be incorporated as part of the cognitive context, enriches and enlarges the context for the process of the next input. During the meaning construction of multimodal metaphor, the process sequence of multimodal information has an influence on the dynamic adjustment and construction of cognitive context, leads to various deduction paths, and eventually produces distinct cognitive effects.

Перевод многозначных и синонимичных терминов английского языка: возможности когнитивного подхода

The article describes the problem of translating polysemantic and synonymous investment terms and is studied from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, namely in the light of the prototypes theory, which presupposes the identification of the content core as the best representative of the word's semantics. The subject of the research are the semantic processes taking place in the English term system reflecting investment activity. By the example of the research of term dealer and its synonyms broker and agent, the authors have defined that the meanings of polysemantic and synonymous terms are not isolated, but are united by a meaningful core and develop according to the laws of semantic derivation based on the common language nominative-non-derivative meaning. The authors found that the reduction of translation failures in the transfer of terms is possible due to the competent use of the cognitive context and the correct definition of the content core of the terminological unit. The research is carried out by means of such methods as the prototypical semantics method, a definitional and component analysis. When identifying the content core of a polysemantic term it is first of all necessary to define the average primary meaning of this term on the basis of dictionary definitions. As a result, the most frequent meaning is determined. Then etymological analysis of the meaning is carried out. At the next stage, in order to model the cognitive image of a word, contextual analysis is performed, and metaphorical comparisons are investigated. Based on the obtained data, a content core of the term is formulated generalizing all the derived meanings and demonstrating their connections. The results obtained allow the authors to prove that the meanings of polysemantic and synonymous terms are connected by a single content core and are developed on the basis of a common linguistic meaning. The practical value of the scientific research is in the possibility to use the results of the work in lexicographic practice when compiling terminological dictionaries, and when writing university courses in terminology and translation studies. The identification of a content core is necessary while translating polysemantic and synonymous terms, because it reveals the meaning of the term in the context and defines the choice of a right translation variant.

Moving From Bilingual Traits to States: Understanding Cognition and Language Processing Through Moment-to-Moment Variation.

The study of how bilingualism is linked to cognitive processing, including executive functioning, has historically focused on comparing bilinguals to monolinguals across a range of tasks. These group comparisons presume to capture relatively stable cognitive traits and have revealed important insights about the architecture of the language processing system that could not have been gleaned from studying monolinguals alone. However, there are drawbacks to using a group-comparison, or Traits, approach. In this theoretical review, we outline some limitations of treating executive functions as stable traits and of treating bilinguals as a uniform group when compared to monolinguals. To build on what we have learned from group comparisons, we advocate for an emerging complementary approach to the question of cognition and bilingualism. Using an approach that compares bilinguals to themselves under different linguistic or cognitive contexts allows researchers to ask questions about how language and cognitive processes interact based on dynamically fluctuating cognitive and neural states. A States approach, which has already been used by bilingualism researchers, allows for cause-and-effect hypotheses and shifts our focus from questions of group differences to questions of how varied linguistic environments influence cognitive operations in the moment and how fluctuations in cognitive engagement impact language processing.

Humans use forward thinking to exploit social controllability.

The controllability of our social environment has a profound impact on our behavior and mental health. Nevertheless, neurocomputational mechanisms underlying social controllability remain elusive. Here, 48 participants performed a task where their current choices either did (Controllable), or did not (Uncontrollable), influence partners' future proposals. Computational modeling revealed that people engaged a mental model of forward thinking (FT; i.e., calculating the downstream effects of current actions) to estimate social controllability in both Controllable and Uncontrollable conditions. A large-scale online replication study (n=1342) supported this finding. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (n=48), we further demonstrated that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) computed the projected total values of current actions during forward planning, supporting the neural realization of the forward-thinking model. These findings demonstrate that humans use vmPFC-dependent FT to estimate and exploit social controllability, expanding the role of this neurocomputational mechanism beyond spatial and cognitive contexts.

Revisie in vertaling: wanneer en wat

Translators often go through their texts several times before considering their translations ‘done’. In most translation process research the different runs through the text after producing a draft version of the translation are considered as a single revision stage of the translation process. If, however, the factor time is taken into account, it might be expected that the revision activities a translator performs differ in nature and function depending on the moment where they occur during the translation process. The present article is a search for describing and understanding revision processes based on this view. Revision activities in the think-aloud protocols of five translators are analysed with regard to cognitive context and text processing characteristics. Results show that there is little evidence that revision activities vary during the translation process. Revision activities seem to occur at random throughout the translation process and appear to be triggered locally.

Revisie in vertaling: wanneer en wat

Translators often go through their texts several times before considering their translations ‘done’. In most translation process research the different runs through the text after producing a draft version of the translation are considered as a single revision stage of the translation process. If, however, the factor time is taken into account, it might be expected that the revision activities a translator performs differ in nature and function depending on the moment where they occur during the translation process. The present article is a search for describing and understanding revision processes based on this view. Revision activities in the think-aloud protocols of five translators are analysed with regard to cognitive context and text processing characteristics. Results show that there is little evidence that revision activities vary during the translation process. Revision activities seem to occur at random throughout the translation process and appear to be triggered locally.

«От автора» к читателю «Братьев Карамазовых» Тайна, чудо и авторитет – герменевтическая перспектива в предисловии романа

“From the Author” to the Reader of The Brothers Karamazov. Mystery, Miracle and Authority – Hermeneutic Perspectives in the Preface to the Novel. The paper offers new aspects to the critical reading of the widely interpreted preface “From the Author” in Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov. Giving a synthesis of the historical, narratological and rethorical perspectives in the interpretation of the given text, this new approach enters a systematic metapoetic explanation. The semantic units examined lead to the triple motif construction, familiar from “The Grand Inqusitor” – mystery, miracle and authority. It is mystery that stands at the focus of the examination within the problem context of cognition, understanding, interpretation. The internally contradictory idea of elucidating something which is still unclear is projected upon such time concepts as pred – post, beginning – end, the actual moment and processuality. These motifs make reference both to the modelled reality and the modelling literary discourse, metapoetically setting a reading strategy for the recipient.