Number-of-translation norms for Dutch—English translation pairs: A new tool for examining language production

We collected number-of-translation norms on 562 Dutch-English translation pairs from several previous studies of cross-language processing. Participants were highly proficient Dutch—English bilinguals. Form and semantic similarity ratings were collected on the 1,003 possible translation pairs. Approximately 40% of the translations were rated as being similar across languages with respect to spelling/sound (i.e., they were cognates). Approximately 45% of the translations were rated as being highly semantically similar across languages. At least 25% of the words in each direction of translation had more than one translation. The form similarity ratings were found to be highly reliable even when obtained with different bilinguals and modified rating procedures. Number of translations and meaning factors significantly predicted the semantic similarity of translation pairs. In future research, these norms may be used to determine the number of translations of words to control for or study this factor. These norms are available at http://www.talkbank.org/norms/tokowicz/.     

Do English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently?

Time is a fundamental domain of experience. In this paper we ask whether aspects of language and culture affect how people think about this domain. Specifically, we consider whether English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently. We review all of the available evidence both for and against this hypothesis, and report new data that further support and refine it. The results demonstrate that English and Mandarin speakers do think about time differently. As predicted by patterns in language, Mandarin speakers are more likely than English speakers to think about time vertically (with earlier time-points above and later time-points below).     

Moving beyond Kučera and Francis: A critical evaluation of current word frequency norms and the introduction of a new and improved word frequency measure for American English

Word frequency is the most important variable in research on word processing and memory. Yet, the main criterion for selecting word frequency norms has been the availability of the measure, rather than its quality. As a result, much research is still based on the old Kučera and Francis frequency norms. By using the lexical decision times of recently published megastudies, we show how bad this measure is and what must be done to improve it. In particular, we investigated the size of the corpus, the language register on which the corpus is based, and the definition of the frequency measure. We observed that corpus size is of practical importance for small sizes (depending on the frequency of the word), but not for sizes above 16–30 million words. As for the language register, we found that frequencies based on television and film subtitles are better than frequencies based on written sources, certainly for the monosyllabic and bisyllabic words used in psycholinguistic research. Finally, we found that lemma frequencies are not superior to word form frequencies in English and that a measure of contextual diversity is better than a measure based on raw frequency of occurrence. Part of the superiority of the latter is due to the words that are frequently used as names. Assembling a new frequency norm on the basis of these considerations turned out to predict word processing times much better than did the existing norms (including Kučera & Francis and Celex). The new SUBTL frequency norms from the SUBTLEXUS corpus are freely available for research purposes from http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental, as well as from the University of Ghent and Lexique Web sites.     

Children’s reasoning about norms and traits as motives for behavior

Two important sources of information for social judgments are personality dispositions (traits) and social norms. Existing research suggests that young children do not find traits salient. To what extent might they rely on a different source of information? Two experiments explored how information about preferences (what someone likes) and rules (what is allowed or forbidden) affected social judgments. Five-year-olds predicted people’s future behavior would be consistent with rules, but appeared insensitive to information about preferences. Preferences were better predictors than rules for 8-year-olds. Older children and adults consistently judged that actors would want to, and be happy to, satisfy preferences rather than rules. Younger children were more likely to use rules to infer people’s psychological states. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that deontic relations, such as rules and norms play a central role in young children’s social cognition, with ideas of individual psychological dispositions emerging in middle childhood.     

Discrete emotion norms for nouns: Berlin affective word list (DENN–BAWL)

The Berlin Affective Word List (BAWL, Võ, Jacobs, &; Conrad, Behavior Research Methods, 35, 606-609, 2006) and the BAWL-R (Võ et al. in Behavior Research Methods 38, 606-609, 2009) are two commonly used lists to investigate affective properties of German words. The two-dimensional valence and arousal model of affect underlying the BAWL is traditionally contrasted with models describing affect in discrete emotional categories, which, however, are not currently incorporated in the BAWL. In order to allow future studies to investigate affective processing from both perspectives—or to directly compare them—in the present study, we collected data by assigning nouns taken from the BAWL-R to discrete emotion intensities, which in turn allowed the assignment to discrete emotion categories. In the study, we present Discrete Emotion Norms for Nouns–Berlin Affective Word List (DENN–BAWL). Using these ratings and the psycholinguistic indexes from the BAWL-R, the DENN–BAWL allows researchers to design experiments using highly controlled and reliable word material. Data have been archived at www.fu-berlin.de/allgpsy/DENN-BAWL     

French categorization norms for 70 semantic categories and comparison with Van Overschelde et al.’s (2004) English norms

The present methodological note provides categorization norms for 70 semantic categories collected from 200 participants. The categories were mainly derived from a French translation of the Van Overschelde, Rawson, and Dunlosky (2004) inductor terms including a large set of semantic categories. Our study also extends recent French norms (Léger, Boumlak, & Tijus, 2008; Marchal & Nicolas, 2003) and tests their stability. These 70 categories constitute the widest French categorization norms to date and will be of use to studies in the fields of both linguistics and psycholinguistics. A cross-linguistic comparison, with both quantitative and qualitative results, is also performed, which should prove useful for bilingual and/or cross-linguistic studies. The norms collected for all 70 categories are available for download as supplemental materials from http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Tone matters for Cantonese–English bilingual children’s English word reading development: A unified model of phonological transfer

Languages differ considerably in how they use prosodic features, or variations in pitch, duration, and intensity, to distinguish one word from another. Prosodic features include lexical tone in Chinese and lexical stress in English. Recent cross-sectional studies show a surprising result that Mandarin Chinese tone sensitivity is related to Mandarin–English bilingual children’s English word reading. This study explores the mechanism underlying this relation by testing two explanations of these effects: the prosodic hypothesis and segmental phonological awareness transfer. We administered multiple measures of Cantonese tone sensitivity, English stress sensitivity, segmental phonological awareness in Cantonese and English, nonverbal ability, and English word reading to 123 Cantonese–English bilingual children ages 7 and 8 years. Structural equation modeling revealed a longitudinal prediction of Cantonese tone sensitivity to English word reading between 8 and 9 years of age. This relation was realized through two parallel routes. In one, Cantonese tone sensitivity predicted English stress sensitivity, and English stress sensitivity, in turn, significantly predicted English word reading, as postulated by the prosodic hypothesis. In the second, Cantonese tone sensitivity predicted English word reading through the transfer of segmental phonological awareness between Cantonese and English, as predicted by segmental phonological transfer. These results support a unified model of phonological transfer, emphasizing the role of tone in English word reading for Cantonese–English bilingual children.     

Do Chinese and English speakers think about time differently? Failure of replicating Boroditsky (2001)

English uses the horizontal spatial metaphors to express time (e.g., the good days ahead of us). Chinese also uses the vertical metaphors (e.g., 'the month above' to mean last month). Do Chinese speakers, then, think about time in a different way than English speakers? Boroditsky [Boroditsky, L. (2001). Does language shape thought? Mandarin and English speakers' conceptions of time. Cognitive Psychology, 43(1), 1-22] claimed that they do, and went on to conclude that 'language is a powerful tool in shaping habitual thought about abstract domains' (such as time). By estimating the frequency of usage, we found that Chinese speakers actually use the horizontal spatial metaphors more often than the vertical metaphors. This offered no logical ground for Boroditsky's claim. We were also unable to replicate her experiments in four different attempts. We conclude that Chinese speakers do not think about time in a different way than English speakers just because Chinese also uses the vertical spatial metaphors to express time.     

The effect of identical word pairs on people's metamemory judgments: What are the contributions of processing fluency and beliefs about memory?

Judgments of learning (JOLs) are higher for identical pairs (dog–dog) than for related pairs (dog–cat). This identical effect may be mediated (a) by processing fluency (i.e., identical pairs are processed faster than related pairs) or (b) by a belief that identical pairs are better remembered or (c) by both factors. In the present work, we assessed the contribution of both factors. We evaluated whether a measure of processing fluency (i.e., self-paced study) mediated the relationship between pair type and JOLs (Experiment 1) and attempted to disrupt processing fluency using an AlTeRnAtInG presentation format (Experiment 2). We also evaluated whether judgments made in the absence of processing fluency demonstrated the identical effect (Experiment 3), and, finally, we had participants read a vignette about an experiment that included both pair types and estimate which pairs would be best remembered (Experiment 4). Evidence from all experiments converged on the conclusion that people's beliefs about how variables affect memory—and not differential fluency—best explain the identical effect, although we cannot entirely rule out the possibility that fluency plays a small role. The outcomes were consistent with the analytic-processing theory of JOLs—namely, when instructed to make JOLs, people adopt an analytic problem-solving approach that involves identifying variation across pairs that plausibly relate to memory and then use this variation to make JOLs.     

Exploring the time course of semantic interference and associative priming in the picture–word interference task

The picture–word interference (PWI) task is a widely used technique for exploring effects of semantic context on lexical access. In this task, printed words are superimposed over pictures to be named, with the timing of the interfering word relative to the picture systematically manipulated. Two experiments (N = 24 adults in each) explored the time course of effects of associates (e.g., CARROT superimposed on a picture of a rabbit) versus coordinates (e.g., CHIPMUNK superimposed on a picture of a rabbit) on naming latencies. Associates led to faster picture naming than did unrelated words, with facilitative effects occurring at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs, in ms) ranging from –450 to 0. Coordinates led to slower naming latencies, with the interference effect restricted to SOAs of –150 and 0. The overlapping time course of associative priming and coordinate interference provides important constraints on models of lexical access in speech production.     

Stimulus–response compatibility for mixed mappings and tasks with unique responses

For two stimulus locations mapped to two keypresses, reaction time is shorter when the mapping is compatible than when it is not (the stimulus–response compatibility, SRC, effect). A similar result, called the Simon effect, occurs when stimulus location is irrelevant, and colour is relevant. When compatibly mapped trials are intermixed with incompatibly mapped trials or Simon task trials, the compatibility effect is eliminated, and the Simon effect is influenced by the location mapping. In five experiments, we examined whether similar mixing effects occur when the two spatial mappings or location-relevant and location-irrelevant tasks use distinct keypresses on the left and right hands. Mixing had considerably less influence on the SRC and Simon effects than it does when the intermixed trial types or tasks share the same responses, even though response time was lengthened to a similar extent. Mixing two tasks for which stimulus location was irrelevant yielded no within-task Simon effect, but the effect was also absent when four stimuli were assigned to two responses on a single hand. The relative lack of influence of mixing on the SRC and Simon effects when the tasks have unique responses implies that suppression of direct activation of the corresponding response occurs primarily when the tasks share responses.     

Swedish norms for the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for children 3–5 years rated by parents and preschool teachers

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a widespread tool for assessing behavior problems in children and adolescents. Despite being investigated thoroughly concerning both validity and reliability, peer reviewed studies that provide norms, especially for preschool children, are lacking. This paper provides Swedish norms using data from a large community sample of children aged 3–5, based on mothers’, fathers’, and preschool teacher’s ratings. Preschool teachers’ ratings were generally lower than parents’ ratings, which contradicts some previous studies. Differences between girls and boys were found, suggesting that boys display higher levels of behavior problems. Lower parental education and country of origin outside of Sweden were also associated with more difficulties. Cut-offs are presented for each age group, gender and rater category. Population-specific norms and percentile cut-offs provided in this study facilitate identifying children in need of interventions in paediatric care and enable cross-country comparisons of children’s mental health problems.     

A comment on Heathcote,Brown, and Mewhort’s QMLE method for response time distributions

Heathcote, Brown, and Mewhort (2002) have introduced a new, robust method of estimating response time distributions. Their method may have practical advantages over conventional maximum likelihood estimation. The basic idea is that the likelihood of parameters is maximized given a few quantiles from the data. We show that Heathcote et al.’s likelihood function is not correct and provide the appropriate correction. However, although our correction stands on firmer theoretical ground than Heathcote et al.’s, it appears to yield worse parameter estimates. This result further indicates that, at least for some distributions and situations, quantile maximum likelihood estimation may have better nonasymptotic properties than a more theoretically justified approach.     

Reaction time measures in deception research: Comparing the effects of irrelevant and relevant stimulus–response compatibility

Evidence regarding the validity of reaction time (RT) measures in deception research is mixed. One possible reason for this inconsistency is that structurally different RT paradigms have been used. The aim of this study was to experimentally investigate whether structural differences between RT tasks are related to how effective those tasks are for capturing deception. We achieved this aim by comparing the effectiveness of relevant and irrelevant stimulus–response compatibility (SRC) tasks. We also investigated whether an intended but not yet completed mock crime could be assessed with both tasks. Results showed (1) a larger compatibility effect in the relevant SRC task compared to the irrelevant SRC task, (2) for both the completed and the intended crime. These results were replicated in a second experiment in which a semantic feature (instead of color) was used as critical response feature in the irrelevant SRC task. The findings support the idea that a structural analysis of deception tasks helps to identify RT measures that produce robust group effects, and that strong compatibility effects for both enacted crimes as well as merely intended crimes can be found with RT measures that are based on the manipulation of relevant SRC.     

Name–picture verification as a control measure for object naming: A task analysis and norms for a large set of pictures

The name–picture verification task is widely used in spoken production studies to control for nonlexical differences between picture sets. In this task a word is presented first and followed, after a pause, by a picture. Participants must then make a speeded decision on whether both word and picture refer to the same object. Using regression analyses, we systematically explored the characteristics of this task by assessing the independent contribution of a series of factors that have been found relevant for picture naming in previous studies. We found that, for “match” responses, both visual and conceptual factors played a role, but lexical variables were not significant contributors. No clear pattern emerged from the analysis of “no-match” responses. We interpret these results as validating the use of “match” latencies as control variables in studies or spoken production using picture naming. Norms for match and no-match responses for 396 line drawings taken from Cycowicz, Friedman, Rothstein, and Snodgrass (1997) can be downloaded at: http://language.psy.bris.ac.uk/name-picture_verification.html     

Research applications for An Object and Action Naming Battery to assess naming skills in adult Spanish–English bilingual speakers

Virtually no valid materials are available to evaluate confrontation naming in Spanish–English bilingual adults in the U.S. In a recent study, a large group of young Spanish–English bilingual adults were evaluated on An Object and Action Naming Battery (Edmonds & Donovan in Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 55:359–381, 2012). Rasch analyses of the responses resulted in evidence for the content and construct validity of the retained items. However, the scope of that study did not allow for extensive examination of individual item characteristics, group analyses of participants, or the provision of testing and scoring materials or raw data, thereby limiting the ability of researchers to administer the test to Spanish–English bilinguals and to score the items with confidence. In this study, we present the in-depth information described above on the basis of further analyses, including (1) online searchable spreadsheets with extensive empirical (e.g., accuracy and name agreeability) and psycholinguistic item statistics; (2) answer sheets and instructions for scoring and interpreting the responses to the Rasch items; (3) tables of alternative correct responses for English and Spanish; (4) ability strata determined for all naming conditions (English and Spanish nouns and verbs); and (5) comparisons of accuracy across proficiency groups (i.e., Spanish dominant, English dominant, and balanced). These data indicate that the Rasch items from An Object and Action Naming Battery are valid and sensitive for the evaluation of naming in young Spanish–English bilingual adults. Additional information based on participant responses for all of the items on the battery can provide researchers with valuable information to aid in stimulus development and response interpretation for experimental studies in this population.     

Bad–good constraints on a polarity correspondence account for the spatial–numerical association of response codes (SNARC) and markedness association of response codes (MARC) effects

Performance in numerical classification tasks involving either parity or magnitude judgements is quicker when small numbers are mapped onto a left-sided response and large numbers onto a right-sided response than for the opposite mapping (i.e., the spatial–numerical association of response codes or SNARC effect). Recent research by Gevers et al. [Gevers, W., Santens, S., Dhooge, E., Chen, Q., Van den Bossche, L., Fias, W., & Verguts, T. (2010). Verbal-spatial and visuospatial coding of number–space interactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139, 180–190] suggests that this effect also arises for vocal “left” and “right” responding, indicating that verbal–spatial coding has a role to play in determining it. Another presumably verbal-based, spatial–numerical mapping phenomenon is the linguistic markedness association of response codes (MARC) effect whereby responding in parity tasks is quicker when odd numbers are mapped onto left-sided responses and even numbers onto right-sided responses. A recent account of both the SNARC and MARC effects is based on the polarity correspondence principle [Proctor, R. W., & Cho, Y. S. (2006). Polarity correspondence: A general principle for performance of speeded binary classification tasks. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 416–442]. This account assumes that stimulus and response alternatives are coded along any number of dimensions in terms of – and + polarities with quicker responding when the polarity codes for the stimulus and the response correspond. In the present study, even–odd parity judgements were made using either “left” and “right” or “bad” and “good” vocal responses. Results indicated that a SNARC effect was indeed present for the former type of vocal responding, providing further evidence for the sufficiency of the verbal–spatial coding account for this effect. However, the decided lack of an analogous SNARC-like effect in the results for the latter type of vocal responding provides an important constraint on the presumed generality of the polarity correspondence account. On the other hand, the presence of robust MARC effects for “bad” and “good” but not “left” and “right” vocal responses is consistent with the view that such effects are due to conceptual associations between semantic codes for odd–even and bad–good (but not necessarily left–right).     

No time for compromises: Age as a moderator of the relation between needs–supply fit and job satisfaction

In the light of the current demographic change, organizations need to be aware of factors influencing job satisfaction of older workers in order to maintain high motivation and commitment. The present study addresses this issue by examining the moderating effect of age on the relationship between needs–supply fit and job satisfaction. Based on the general assumption that older workers are more sensitive to circumstances that threaten their well-being (Carstensen, 2006 Carstensen, L. L. 2006. The influence of a sense of time on human development. Science, 312: 1913–1915. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), we hypothesize that older as compared to younger workers should react more negatively to a misfit between their needs and available job supplies. Hence, older as compared to younger workers should report lower levels of job satisfaction when experiencing a misfit between needs and supplies. This hypothesis was tested in a sample of 471 employed workers from different occupational areas. Results confirmed our hypothesis for four out of five domains of needs–supply fit: Significant three-way interactions between needs, supply, and age were observed. The present result that older as compared to younger workers react more strongly to needs–supply misfits additionally underlines the benefits of considering age-related changes in work values and needs in age-sensitive human resource practices.