Contextual Coherence Research Articles

Vector probability diffusion

The basic motivation of this work is to introduce contextual information into image segmentation tasks by adding spatial coherence to the posterior probabilities corresponding to the classes present in the scene. A method for isotropic and anisotropic diffusion of vector probabilities in general, and posterior probabilities in particular, is introduced. The technique is based on diffusing via coupled partial differential equations restricted to the semi-hyperplane corresponding to probability functions. Both the partial differential equations and their corresponding numerical implementation guarantee that the vector remains a probability vector, having all its components positive and adding to one. Applying the method to posterior probabilities in classification problems, spatial and contextual coherence is introduced before the maximum a posteriori (MAP) decision, thereby improving the classification results.

Linguagem oral na escola em tempo de redes

O presente artigo propõe reflexões sobre as possibilidades de ensino da língua oral, a partir das concepções veiculadas nos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais (Brasil) do ensino fundamental e de críticas consensuais que evidenciam a carência de materiais didáticos e de currículos que dêem à língua falada e às produções orais um tratamento didático-pedagógico à altura do papel que esses fenômenos desempenham, tanto no uso pragmático da língua como no campo literário. As reflexões são elaboradas a partir de uma concepção que assume a língua como instrumento, meio de interação e constituição de subjetividades; adotam o conceito de gêneros do discurso de Bakthin e constroem sua coerência contextual tendo como base a práxis pedagógica do autor em cursos de formação de professores (iniciais e em serviço). Argumenta em prol de uma perspectiva curricular que considere a oralidade, neste contexto de novas tecnologias, um campo complexo, dinâmico e suficientemente propício a impregnações com a escrita, sobretudo com a literatura. Sugere-se um esboço de modelo que propõe o tratamento didático-pedagógico das atividades de escuta e produção oral em conjunção explícita com as atividades de leitura e produção escrita e, ainda, apresenta reflexões sobre as possibilidades e vantagens de incluir, sem preconceitos, produções orais contemporâneas e as originárias da tradição do oral.

Contextual coherence and attention in phoneme monitoring

In a series of experiments (Eimas, Hornstein, & Payton, Journal of Memory and Language, 1990, 29, 160–180) , secondary tasks that required lexical knowledge induced lexical effects on phoneme monitoring times when the target-bearing items were presented in isolation. Lexical effects were not found in the absence of secondary tasks. In the present series of experiments in which the same target-bearing items were embedded in sentential contexts, lexical effects were not obtained with or without a secondary task. A word frequency effect was obtained, however, when target-bearing words were embedded in incoherent contexts composed of randomly ordered word strings, but only when a secondary task was required. The influence of sentential coherence and processing demands and their relation to the focus of attention during phoneme monitoring was discussed along with the role of lexical knowledge on the formation of a prelexical, presumably phonetic code during perception of connected speech.

Literary Structure and the Study of Poetic Language

In the stylistic examination of a literary work use may well be made of all previously mentioned contextualizations, both extratextual and intratextual. This 'reading with a sense for continuity, for contextual coherence, for wholeness'2 must be an essential part of stylistic study; it is a necessary check on the equally necessary discreteness which any aspectual ivork on a text, linguistic or otherwise, requires. When examining style, and using linguistics in so doing, the analyst should, we believe, not only take into account linguistic features in isolation, but also consider their relation to other aspects of the text and its contextual setting. Otherwise his final statement will be merely linguistic.