......................................................................................................................... 2 Chapter 1 Semantic Word Embedding ........................................................................ 3 1.1 The Skip-gram moel ..................................................................................... 3 1.2 SWE as Constrained Optimization ....................

This study investigated the effects of blog-mediated instruction on English-as-a-foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing performance and anxiety. In addition, it aimed to probe into the EFL learners’ attitudes towards blog-mediated writing instruction. The participants of the study included forty-six Iranian EFL learners from two intact university classes, who were randomly assigned to the Con...

the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of pressure andattentional instruction on table tennis players' performance. for this purpose, 16table tennis players were tested in 4 conditions with different attentionalinstructions and pressure conditions. the test included a table tennis task: the ballcolor signified the target where the ball had to be hit and the player had to p...

Task-based language teaching, which requires learners to transact tasks resembling their real life language needs, demands language learners to perform planning at different stages of their learning. Since various types of tasks can be used in task-based instruction, the present study examined the effect of task types and various participatory structures during pre-task planning on the quality ...

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is based on the assumption that a decision maker is equally motivated to seek reward and avoid punishment, and that decision making is governed solely by the intertemporal attribute (i.e., preference for an option that produces an immediate outcome instead of one that yields a delayed outcome is believed to reflect risky decision making and is considered a deficit)....

Whether unconscious stimuli can modulate the preparation of a cognitive task is still controversial. Using a backward masking paradigm, we investigated whether the modulation could be observed even if the prime was made unconscious in 100% of the trials. In two behavioral experiments, subjects were instructed to initiate a phonological or semantic task on an upcoming word, following an explicit...