Overview of Computer Measures of the Referential Process

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Linguistics
• Computational Social Science

Background:

• The Referential Process (RP) framework explains how individuals link nonverbal experiences with verbal expression.
• Understanding this connection is crucial for analyzing communication, particularly in therapeutic contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and describe the Discourse Attributes Analysis Program (DAAP).
• To demonstrate how DAAP models the three functions of the Referential Process: Arousal, Symbolizing, and Reflecting/Reorganizing.
• To showcase DAAP's application in analyzing verbal data, with a focus on psychotherapy transcripts.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing specialized dictionaries and word lists to quantify discourse attributes.
• Applying the DAAP computer system to various verbal data, including psychotherapy session transcripts.
• Generating data at multiple discourse levels: word-by-word, turn-by-turn, speaker-specific, and session-wide.

Main Results:

• DAAP produces quantitative and graphical data illustrating the dynamics of the Referential Process within discourse.
• Visualizations show the fluctuations of RP functions throughout therapy sessions.
• The study presents new relational measures and discusses the RP database comprising data from 22 treatments.

Conclusions:

• DAAP provides a robust computational framework for modeling the Referential Process in any discourse.
• The program's ability to generate detailed, multi-level data enhances the analysis of communication patterns.
• Findings suggest DAAP's utility in research and clinical applications for understanding the interplay between experience and language.