Maria da Graça Lisboa Castro Pinto

Correction to: Stimulation of dopamine D1 receptor improves learning capacity in cooperating cleaner fish

[ Proc. R. Soc. B 283 , 20152272. (20 January 2016; Published online 20 January 2016) ([doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.2272][2])][2] We recently discovered an error in the article cited above: we realized that the order of treatments did not seem to be counterbalanced in the cue discrimination task during

Procedimentos de pesquisa: alguns conselhos práticos para o estudo também psicolinguístico de realidades concretas

E objeto deste texto responder a algumas questoes que sao muitas vezes colocadas sobretudo pelos estudantes de pos-graduacao em Letras acerca dos “procedimentos de pesquisa” que devem ser seguidos pelos trabalhos que contemplem uma vertente pratica. Na medida em que a Psicolinguistica estuda realidades concretas e sujeitos reais, em virtude do seu carater pratico, os artigos de pesquisa nesta area terao de obedecer a criterios rigorosos de ordem metodologica a fim de que possamos estar perante estudos com a credibilidade que deles se espera. Das seccoes habituais dos artigos de investigacao (Introducao, Metodologia, Resultados, Discussao), serao tratados, em especial, os que mais se aproximam dos “procedimentos de pesquisa” (Metodologia e Resultados), tendo-se optado por dar a este texto a configuracao de respostas a duvidas apresentadas com frequencia pelos estudantes. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************ Research procedures: some practical tips aimed at studying concrete realities in psycholinguistics Abstract: This text aims to develop answers to questions usually asked by post-graduate students from Humanities courses concerned with research procedures which must be followed in articles with a practical component. As Psycholinguistics is concerned with concrete realities and real individuals, due to its practical nature, research articles related to it also have to observe rigorous methodological criteria in order to be considered credible studies. From the usual sections of research articles (Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion), those which are more linked to “research procedures” (Methodology and Results) will be dealt with. Due to its content, this text/article will consist of developing answers to doubts frequently presented by students. Keywords: Research procedures; Methodology; Results

Cross-Linguistic Influence in Third Language Acquisition. The Case of Portuguese as a Third Language in Serbian Students

The main aim of this paper is to determine the cross-linguistic influence of the languages university students already speak or are learning on Portuguese as a third language. The study was conducted on 37 Serbian students who attended the first year of a Portuguese course at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade during the 2010–2011 academic year. Since we do not intend to go into a terminological discussion in this context, the cover-term “cross-linguistic influence” will be used to signal the cases where the influence of a language acquired previously is visible in the target language. A previously prepared dictation served as the written material analysed in this study. Although it was our belief that a written task accomplished in these circumstances would be less prone to cross-linguistic influences, besides omission of words and spelling errors, we found deviations from the target language influenced mainly by languages typologically closer to Portuguese (Spanish, Italian and French). Spanish deserves special attention since it undoubtedly exerts the most influence. Indeed, it is important to highlight that Spanish is afforded a special status among the Serbian students. Our findings reveal that the influence of Spanish is not only present in the first year of learning Portuguese as a third language in this plurilingual student population, but also that such an influence is stronger on content words than on function words. A critical analysis of the influences observed leads us to recommend, in line with Gabrys-Barker (2007, p. 44), that the teaching of foreign languages should be accomplished in a more traditional manner in the initial stages (which is in effect our case), so as to prepare students to use the necessary grammatical rules more correctly.