Neutral Descriptions Research Articles

Game talk: exploring the linguistic features of sports commentary

This study is investigating the linguistic features of sports commentary. The focus is the politeness techniques using and gender-specific language variations observed in 2022 FIFA World Cup. This study used qualitative approach. This study was examining the collection of real-time commentary from various matches in 2022 World Cup. The analysis of this study focusses on prominent politeness methods, including softened criticism, neutral descriptions, respectful acknowledgments, and positive reinforcement. It further investigates the effectiveness of these strategies in the specific context of live sports broadcasting. The findings suggest that the use of politeness tactics is important for maintaining the professional users and engaging tone when commenting the match. This study also found that female commentators disposed to use more supportive and cooperative language, emphasizing teamwork and exertion, while male commentators disposed to use more competitive and authoritative language, focusing on individual performance and strategic analysis. These findings consistent with the research on gender communication and emphasize the significance of comprehending special style communication styles in sports commentary. This study branch holds significant importance for both the field of sports broadcasting and the branch of linguistics. The results indicate that commentator training programs should include knowledge of politeness techniques and gender-specific communication styles in order to improve audience involvement and provide a pleasant viewing experience. This work improves the knowledge of language usage in real-time sports commentary, such as dynamic and culturally significant situation in linguistic form. It highlights the significance of language in reflect and reinforce the cultural values and conventions, promoting inclusiveness, and deepening the spectator’s which tie up with the event. Keywords: Live Sports Commentary, Politeness Strategies, Sports Broadcasting.

How the public understands and reacts to the term “climate anxiety”

The term climate anxiety has increasingly appeared in the academic literature and popular discourse since 2019, typically when discussing young people's negative emotional responses to climate change. This paper reports results from a nationally representative survey of the Norwegian public (N = 2040) that investigated whether people respond differently to descriptions of young people “having climate anxiety”, compared with being “concerned” or “worried” about climate change. Results from the survey experiment showed stronger support for politicians taking young people's climate concern or climate worry into consideration when designing new climate policy as compared with young people's climate anxiety. Analyses of an open-ended question asking what people think of when they hear or read the term “climate anxiety” showed that most respondents (52%) provided neutral descriptions (e.g., worry about climate change impacts), 27% viewed climate anxiety as unfounded, irrational, or excessive, and equal proportions of respondents critiqued the term specifically for contributing to such negative associations (6%) or referred to climate anxiety as a reasonable and rational reaction (6%). These findings indicate that among some audiences, using the term climate anxiety may provoke reactance and be perceived as distracting from political actions to mitigate climate change. Our results give important insights into the potential consequences of the terms we use when reporting on climate distress.

TSNeRF: Text-driven stylized neural radiance fields via semantic contrastive learning

3D scene stylization aims to generate impressive stylized images from arbitrary novel views based on the stylistic reference. Existing image-driven 3D scene stylization methods require a specific style reference to be given, and lack the ability to produce diverse stylization results by combining style information from different aspects. In this paper, we propose a text-driven 3D scene stylization method based on semantic contrast learning, which takes Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) as the 3D scene representation and generates diverse 3D stylized scenes by leveraging the semantic capabilities of the Contrastive Language-Image Pre-Training (CLIP) model. For comprehensively exploiting the semantic knowledge to generate finely stylized results, we design a CLIP-based semantic contrast estimation loss, which can avoid the global stylistic inconsistency caused by the NeRF ray sampling method and avoid the tendency to stylize neutral descriptions due to the semantic averaging of the CLIP space. In addition, to reduce the memory burden arising from NeRF ray sampling, we propose a novel ray sampling method with gradient accumulation to optimize the NeRF rendering process. The experimental results indicate that our method generates high-quality and plausible results with cross-view consistency. Moreover, our method enables the creation of new styles that match the target text by combining multiple domains. The code will be available at .

Early childhood naps initiate emotional memory processing in preparation for enhanced overnight consolidation.

Early childhood naps support emotional memory, but benefits are only observed after overnight sleep. Whether emotional memory consolidation occurs during naps, or whether napping only prepares memories for overnight consolidation is unknown. We investigated whether naps protect emotional memories from interference, indicating consolidation. Between 2018 and 2020, 63 children in western Massachusetts preschools (30 female, 33 male; 33-67 months; 23.8% Hispanic, 87.3% White) learned faces paired with negative or neutral descriptions, followed by nap or wake. Before delayed recognition, half completed an interference task. Without interference, napping benefited recognition. With interference, children recognized fewer negative faces post-nap (compared to wake), with overnight sleep attenuating this difference. Results suggest that naps initially destabilize emotional memories, possibly reflecting partial processing that promotes long-term consolidation.

Do People Get Used to Insulting Language?

Verbal insults go against a universal moral imperative not to inflict harm on others, and they also pose a threat to one's face or reputation. As such, these “verbal slaps in the face” provide a unique opportunity to explore the interface between language and emotion. We used electroencephalography (EEG) and skin conductance (SC) recordings to compare the short-term impact of verbal insults such as “Linda is an idiot” or “Paula is horrible” to that of more positive evaluations (e.g., “Linda is an angel”, “Paula is impressive”) and neutral factual descriptions (e.g., “Linda is a student”), examining how responses to these various speech acts adapt as a function of massive repetition. By using either the participant's or somebody else's name, we also explored how statement impact depended on who was being evaluated. Multilevel ERP analysis with three predesignated latency ranges revealed an early insult effect in P2 amplitude that was highly robust over repetition and also did not depend on who the insult was about. This P2 effect points to a very rapid and stable capture of emotional attention, plausibly triggered by the retrieval of evaluative word meaning from long-term memory. Insults also elicited a larger late positive potential (LPP), again regardless of who the insult was about, but this later effect did not withstand repetition. Skin conductance responses showed that insults did not lead to more arousal than compliments did. In all, our findings suggest that in a standard psycholinguistic comprehension experiment without real interaction between speakers, insults deliver lexical “mini-slaps in the face,” such that the strongly negative evaluative words involved (e.g., “idiot”) automatically grab attention during lexical retrieval, regardless of how often that retrieval occurs.

Online Reviews of Hearing Aid Acquisition and Use: A Qualitative Thematic Analysis.

Online reviews have become increasingly common for consumers to share their experiences about products and to assist potential consumers with decision making. The current study was aimed to understand the hearing aid user experience from online consumer reviews using qualitative analysis. The study used a qualitative thematic analysis to analyze open text responses from consumers leaving hearing aid reviews on the http://www.HearingTracker.com website. One thousand three hundred seventy-eight online consumer hearing aid reviews (open-text responses) were extracted and analyzed. Three domains emerged within the data set, containing 11 themes and 136 subthemes. Domain one (Clinical Processes) contained two themes: Hearing Assessment and Hearing Aid Acquisition. Domain two (The Device) contained five themes: Function, Performance, Physical, Device Management, and Maintenance. Domain three (The Person) contained four themes: Satisfaction, Quality of Life, Personal Adjustment, and Knowledge. The themes gave an understanding that there were a contribution of factors that formed part of a consumers hearing aid user experience. Hearing aid users described a range of positive, negative, and neutral descriptions online about their hearing aid user experience and gave advice to fellow hearing aid users helping clinicians improve their hearing aid fitting skills in practice. These findings have implications to future product development as well as service delivery model in terms of developing strategies for fostering patient-centered audiological practice.

Sharing experiential information in online discussion: the case of coping with the COVID-19 epidemic

PurposeTo specify the nature of experiential information by examining how such information is articulated and shared in online discussion.Design/methodology/approachExperiential information is approached by identifying two constitutive aspects: (1) sensory information that an individual obtains from noticeable events lived through by means of human senses such as sight and touch and (2) cognitive–affective information that is indicative of how the individual interprets such events by means of cognitive operations like comparison and evaluation, as well as appraises the affective valence of such events. To examine the nature of experiential information, an empirical study was made by analysing how people articulate sensory and cognitive–affective information in online discussion about the COVID-19 epidemic. To this end, a sample of 1773 messages posted to the online forum hosted by the Canadian Broadcasting Company was scrutinized by means of descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis.FindingsExperiential information was mainly articulated in the depiction of visual observations of lived-through events, as well as in their comparison and evaluation. Experiential information was often articulated in conjunction with information of other types, most notably topic-related opinions, neutral descriptions of COVID-19 related issues and suggestions offered to fellow participants.Research limitations/implicationsAs the study concentrated on the sharing of experiential information about the COVID-19 epidemic in an online discussion forum, the findings cannot be extended to concern the exchange of experiential information in other contexts.Originality/valueThe study is among the first to characterize empirically the nature of experiential information by examining the articulations of online discussants.

Electrophysiological Studies of Cognitive Reappraisal Success and Failure in aMCI.

Background: Although successful reappraisal relies on cognitive resources, how cognitive impairment affects brain processes related to cognitive reappraisal is not yet clear. Methods: Forty-four amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) subjects and 72 healthy elderly controls (HECs) were divided into the MCI-Failure (n = 23), MCI-Success (n = 21), HEC-Failure (n = 26), and HEC-Success (n = 46) groups according to changes in self-reported affect using reappraisal. All participants viewed 30 negative and 30 neutral images preceded by straightforward descriptions of these images and 30 negative images preceded by more neutral descriptions. Results: Reappraisal failure was found to be more common in people with MCI. Reappraisal failure is associated with altered neurophysiological indices of negative-reappraisal stimuli processing that are reflected in smaller theta responsivity to negative-reappraisal stimuli between 350–550 ms. The MCI-Success group showed enhanced LPP for negative-reappraisal stimuli from 1200 to 3500 ms, reflecting compensatory effort to complete the reappraisal task, while subjects in other groups showed reduced LPP for negative-reappraisal stimuli from 550 to 1200 ms. Conclusions: These findings deepen our understanding of how cognitive decline impacts reappraisal and informs early diagnosis and interventions for MCI.

0087 Childhood Naps Promote Short-Term Destabilization but Long-Term Consolidation of Emotional Memories

Abstract Introduction Early childhood naps have been shown to support emotional memory consolidation, but this benefit only emerges the following day. It is unknown whether consolidation occurs during the nap itself, or if napping only prepares memories for overnight consolidation. In this study, we used a forced-choice recognition task to determine whether naps protect emotional memories against post-nap interference, which would indicate the occurrence of consolidation. Methods Preschool children (33–67 months; N=63) viewed neutral faces paired with negative or neutral descriptions. Following a nap or an equal interval awake (within-subjects, order counterbalanced, ~1 week apart), half of these participants (N=33) were presented with an interfering set of faces and descriptions, while the other half (N=30) did not receive interference. For all participants, recognition of the original faces was probed after encoding, after the nap or wake interval, and the next morning. Results To assess the influence of napping on changes in emotional memory, 2 (stimulus valence: negative vs. neutral) x 2 (condition: nap vs. wake) repeated-measures ANOVAs were performed. Recall of negative and neutral items did not immediately differ between the nap and wake conditions for the participants who received no interference. 24 hours later, these children trended towards recalling negative and neutral items better if they had napped the previous day (condition main effect: F(1,29)=3.539, p=0.070). In contrast, participants who received interference recalled fewer negative items than neutral items immediately following a nap (p=0.034), while this difference did not emerge following an interval awake. Conclusion Our results suggest that naps initially destabilize emotional memories rather than protecting them against interference. However, this initial destabilization may reflect the partial processing of memories during naps, perhaps allowing for enhanced long-term consolidation. Overall, our findings provide important insight into the mechanism of nap-dependent emotional processing. Support Supported by NIH R01 HL111695 and an Honors Research Grant from Commonwealth Honors College

Effects of perceptual load on eyewitness memory are moderated by individual differences in cognitive ability

ABSTRACTPrevious research has identified perceptual load – the amount of perceptual processing required by a scene – as a potentially important factor in eyewitness memory. Here, we investigated whether effects of perceptual load on eyewitness memory for a simulated crime are moderated by individual differences in cognitive ability. We presented participants with a video of a simulated crime that imposed either high or low perceptual load, followed by a written narrative which contained a mixture of neutral and misleading descriptions of critical details. We examined the effects of three cognitive variables (working memory capacity, verbal cognitive ability and analytical reasoning) on participants’ ability to accurately recall details of the video in both the misinformation and control conditions, and to detect a change in the clothing of a main character. General cognitive ability was associated with improved global memory for details of the event, and enhanced change detection under load. Greater WM capacity and a tendency towards analytical reasoning were both associated with resistance to misinformation under conditions of high perceptual load. We conclude that higher levels of cognitive ability, assessed across a number of domains, may enable eyewitnesses to withstand the effects of perceptual load and preserve the accuracy of their memories.

Training NHS staff to work with people with trauma induced emotional regulation and interpersonal relational difficulties (TIERI)/borderline personality disorder

PurposeImprovement is sorely needed to the National Health Service (NHS) care for people with trauma induced emotional regulation and interpersonal relational difficulties (TIERI), currently labelled as a variant of personality disorder [PD; borderline personalty disorder/emotionally unstable personality disorder (BPD/EUPD)]. This study aims to improve staff training.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-methods evaluation demonstrated the benefits of offering 495 staff three-day trainings with a clinician-designed, unique training package.FindingsStatistically significant improvements were reported in both staff confidence and optimism when dealing with people with a diagnosis of PD (PWDPD) and scores on the Helping Alliance questionnaire. No statistically significant changes in social attitude resulted. Qualitative data shows negative descriptions generated by staff decreased post-training with an increase in positive and neutral descriptions. The responses generated six different themes: resources, client demand, medical model, emotional, human and positive rewards. Differing proportions were found pre and post-training.Research limitations/implicationsThis was a clinical-world evaluation, not a formal research project. Different pairs/combinations of experienced clinicians (predominantly clinical psychologists) acted as trainers. Some minor variation occurred within the training package used and presentation.Practical implicationsGiven the expense of staff time and resources, this evaluation shows the resultant positive changes achieved. TIERI staff about the difficulties experienced by PWDPD and how to negotiate the relational dynamic is essential. Training helps improve staff perception of the people involved, improves staff confidence and promotes better therapeutic alliances (key to providing the relational and trauma work needed). Ongoing supervision is likely needed post-training.Originality/valuePositive changes resulted from a mixed-methods evaluation of three-day trainings by using a specially designed training package.

Exploring Depictions of Bedouins in Travels in Arabia Deserta by Charles Doughty

The discourse of Orientalism has often been explored from a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective in fiction works and news media published in the 20th and 21st centuries. What remains a largely unexplored area is Oriental views in non-fiction Western writings of the 19th century. One of the key books describing the people of Arabia from this era is Charles Doughty’s (1888) Travels in Arabia Deserta. For this reason, this study analyzed one chapter from this book to explore Doughty’s representation of the Arabian Peninsula Bedouins. By drawing on CDA and the Appraisal framework, this study identified evaluative lexical items used by Doughty to describe the Bedouins and related these lexical choices to three Oriental themes identified in the literature: (1) Oriental inferiority, (2) Oriental barbarity, and (3) Oriental untrustworthiness. An examination of the Oriental themes in Doughty’s book highlights two characteristics of the discourse of Orientalism. One is the underlying cultural superiority of the West and the other is the interdependence of texts describing the people of Arabia. As such, this paper supports the idea that what is encompassed by the label “discourse of Orientalism” can include even seemingly neutral descriptions of people of Arabia, and that existing representations of Arabs are a product of an accumulated body of work rather than from one specific text.

College Students View Clerical Work: Issues in the Social Construction of Skill

The level of skill that is attributed to a job is of enormous consequence for the political power, the income and the status of the workers who perform it. More skilled jobs attract more public respect and allow the people who perform them to demand better working conditions and higher rewards. Definitions of the skill level of a job, while purporting to be neutral descriptions of its character, in fact serve to justify its status and pay level, and to legitimize, or challenge the structure of inequality that exists in the workplace.

Neural mechanisms of implicit cognitive reappraisal: Preceding descriptions alter emotional response to unpleasant images

The importance of reappraising negative events to reduce negative emotional responses has been widely acknowledged. However, most neuroimaging studies have explored the neural mechanisms of deliberate and intentional reappraisal, while little is known about the neural correlates of reappraisal that occurs outside of one's awareness. Electrophysiological studies suggest that precedent neutral descriptions could implicitly reduce neural responses to unpleasant images. To investigate the neural mechanism underlying implicit reappraisal, functional magnetic resonance imaging was conducted on 25 participants while they passively viewed unpleasant images that were previously neutrally/positively or negatively described. Increased activity in prefrontal areas including the dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortices, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, and temporal cortex, and decreased activation in the amygdala was observed—similar to the pattern reported in deliberate emotion regulation—when unpleasant images were preceded by neutral/positive versus negative descriptions. Functional connectivity analysis revealed significant negative couplings between prefrontal regions and the amygdala. These findings suggest that implicit reappraisal recruits prefrontal regions to change semantic representations in the temporal cortex, in turn modulating the emotional response of the amygdala.

The temporal dynamics of directed reappraisal in high-trait-anxious individuals.

High-trait-anxious (HTA) individuals often experience high levels of negative emotions, signaling potential abnormalities in the down-regulation of negative emotions. In this study, we used event-related potentials to examine whether HTA individuals can effectively use directed reappraisal to down-regulate negative emotions. Participants completed a passive picture-viewing task in which pictures were preceded by audio descriptions of their content. For unpleasant pictures, descriptions were either neutral or negative, whereas for neutral pictures, only neutral descriptions were given. Self-report behavioral results indicated that HTA individuals reported greater unpleasantness for the pictures than did low-trait-anxious (LTA) individuals but revealed no abnormality in decreasing negative emotional experience. Such abnormality, however, did emerge neurally. Analyses focused on the central-parietal late positive potential (LPP), a neural marker of emotion regulation. LTA individuals showed an LPP reduction in response to unpleasant pictures with negative descriptions compared to neutral ones at 400-3000-ms post-picture-onset, indicating effective down-regulation of negative emotions. HTA individuals, however, showed no LPP reduction at 400- to 1,000-ms post picture onset. Instead, they showed an LPP increase in response to unpleasant pictures with negative descriptions compared to neutral ones at 1,000- to 2,000-ms post picture-onset. These abnormal central-parietal LPP patterns not only verify that HTA individuals exhibit ineffective use of directed reappraisal to down-regulate neural responses to unpleasant stimuli, but also reveal an abnormal time-course of directed reappraisal in such individuals. Our findings also suggest that the ineffective use of cognitive reappraisals may contribute to the generally elevated levels of negative emotionality in HTA individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record

Impaired cognitive reappraisal in panic disorder revealed by the late positive potential.

According to the cognitive model of panic disorder (PD), panic attacks are triggered and maintained by catastrophic misappraisals of bodily sensations. Clinically, PD is associated with impaired cognitive emotion regulation strategies involving cognitive reappraisal. To investigate the neural correlates and time course of cognitive reappraisal in patients with PD, event-related potentials were recorded from patients with PD and demographically matched control group during passive viewing of affective images under three conditions: (a) neutral pictures preceded by neutral descriptions, (b) unpleasant pictures preceded by negative descriptions, and (c) unpleasant pictures preceded by neutral descriptions. The late positive potential (LPP), an event-related potential component sensitive to cognitive change strategies, was examined as an index of cognitive reappraisal. Consistent with previous results, the unpleasant pictures preceded by negative descriptions had decreased valence ratings, increased arousal ratings, and increased LPP amplitudes compared with the unpleasant pictures preceded by neutral descriptions in the control group. In contrast, no reliable effect of description condition was observed for valence ratings in the PD group. The patients demonstrated differing response patterns from the control participants, with higher arousal ratings and larger LPPs during the 1000-2000 ms window when unpleasant pictures were preceded by a neutral description than when unpleasant pictures were preceded by a negative description. The present study suggests that emotion regulation is impaired in patients with PD. These findings describe the first electrophysiological correlates of abnormal cognitive reappraisal in patients with PD.

Intuitive versus analytical decision making modulates trust in e-commerce

The hypothesis that intuition and analytical processes affect differently trust in e-commerce was tested. Participants were offered products by a series of sellers via Internet. In the intuitive condition pictures of the sellers were followed by neutral descriptions and participants had less time to decide whether to trust the seller. In the analytical condition participants were given an informative description of the seller and had a longer time to decide. Interactions among condition, price and trust emerged in behavioral and psychophysiological responses. EMG signals increased during analytical processing, suggesting a cognitive effort, whereas higher cardiovascular measures mirrored the emotional involvement when faced to untrustworthy sellers. The study supported the fruitful application of the intuitive vs. analytical approach to e-commerce and of the combination of different sources of information about the buyers while they have to choose to trust the seller in a financial transaction over the Internet.

Emotions while awaiting lung transplantation: A comprehensive qualitative analysis.

Patients awaiting lung transplantation are at risk of negative emotional and physical experiences. How do they talk about emotions? Semi-structured interviews were performed (15 patients). Categorical analysis focusing on emotion-related descriptions was organized into positive–negative–neutral descriptions: for primary and secondary emotions, evaluation processes, coping strategies, personal characteristics, emotion descriptions associated with physical states, (and) contexts were listed. Patients develop different strategies to maintain positive identity and attitude, while preserving significant others from extra emotional load. Results are discussed within various theoretical and research backgrounds, in emphasizing their importance in the definition of emotional support starting from the patient’s perspective.

EPA-0142 – Neural changes in depressed patients during psychodynamic psychotherapy: An fMRI Study

Neuroimaging studies of depression have demonstrated treatment-specific changes involving the limbic system and regulatory regions in the prefrontal cortex. While these studies have examined the effect of short-term, interpersonal or cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy, the effect of long-term, psychodynamic intervention has never been assessed. Here, we investigated recurrently depressed ( DSM-IV ) unmedicated outpatients ( N =16) and control participants matched for sex, age, and education ( N =17) before and after 15 months of psychodynamic psychotherapy. Participants were scanned at two time points, during which presentations of attachment-related scenes with neutral descriptions alternated with descriptions containing personal core sentences previously extracted from an attachment interview. Outcome measure was the interaction of the signal difference between personal and neutral presentations with group and time, and its association with symptom improvement during therapy. Signal associated with processing personalized attachment material varied in patients from baseline to endpoint, but not in healthy controls. Patients showed a higher activation in the left anterior hippocampus/amygdala, subgenual cingulate, and medial prefrontal cortex before treatment and a reduction in these areas after 15 months. This reduction was associated with improvement in depressiveness specifically, and in the medial prefrontal cortex with symptom improvement more generally. This is the first study documenting neurobiological changes in circuits implicated in emotional reactivity and control after long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Impaired emotion regulation in schizophrenia: evidence from event-related potentials

Although several aspects of emotion seem to be intact in schizophrenia, there is emerging evidence that patients show an impaired ability to adaptively regulate their emotions. This event-related potential (ERP) study examined whether schizophrenia is associated with impaired neural responses to appraisal frames, that is when negative stimuli are presented in a less negative context. Thirty-one schizophrenia out-patients and 27 healthy controls completed a validated picture-viewing task with three conditions: (1) neutral pictures preceded by neutral descriptions ('Neutral'), (2) unpleasant pictures preceded by negative descriptions ('Preappraised negative'), and (3) unpleasant pictures preceded by more neutral descriptions ('Preappraised neutral'). Analyses focused on the late positive potential (LPP), an index of facilitated attention to emotional stimuli that is reduced following cognitive emotion regulation strategies, during four time windows from 300 to 2000 ms post-picture onset. Replicating prior studies, controls showed smaller LPP in Preappraised neutral and Neutral versus Preappraised negative conditions throughout the 300-2000-ms time period. By contrast, patients showed (a) larger LPP in Preappraised neutral and Preappraised negative versus Neutral conditions in the initial period (300-600 ms) and (b) an atypical pattern of larger LPP to Preappraised neutral versus Preappraised negative and Neutral conditions in the 600-1500-ms epochs. Modulation of neural responses by a cognitive emotion regulation strategy seems to be impaired in schizophrenia during the first 2 s after exposure to unpleasant stimuli.