The accuracy with which adults who do not stutter predict stuttering-related communication attitudes

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which adults who do not stutter can predict communication-related attitudes of adults who do stutter. 40 participants (mean age of 22.5 years) evaluated speech samples from an adult with mild stuttering and an adult with severe stuttering via audio-only (n = 20) or audio-visual (n = 20) modes to predict how the adults had responded on the S24 scale of communication attitudes. Participants correctly predicted which speaker had the more favorable S24 score, and the predicted scores were significantly different between the severity conditions. Across the four subgroups, predicted S24 scores differed from actual scores by 4–9 points. Predicted values were greater than the actual values for 3 of 4 subgroups, but still relatively positive in relation to the S24 norm sample. Stimulus presentation mode interacted with stuttering severity to affect prediction accuracy. The participants predicted the speakers’ negative self-attributions more accurately than their positive self-attributions. Findings suggest that adults who do not stutter estimate the communication-related attitudes of specific adults who stutter in a manner that is generally accurate, though, in some conditions, somewhat less favorable than the speaker's actual ratings. At a group level, adults who do not stutter demonstrate the ability to discern minimal versus average levels of attitudinal impact for speakers who stutter. The participants’ complex prediction patterns are discussed in relation to stereotype accuracy and classic views of negative stereotyping.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to (a) summarize main findings on research related to listeners’ attitudes toward people who stutter, (b) describe the extent to which people who do not stutter can predict the communication attitudes of people who do stutter; and (c) discuss how findings from the present study relate to previous findings on stereotypes about people who stutter.     

Comparing judgments of stuttering made by students, clinicians, and highly experienced judges

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare judgments of stuttering made by students and clinicians with previously available judgments made by highly experienced judges in stuttering. Method: On two occasions, 41 university students and 31 speech-language pathologists judged the presence or absence of stuttering in each of 216 audiovisually recorded 5-s intervals of the speech of adults who stutter. Intrajudge and interjudge agreement were calculated, and comparisons were made to judgments previously made about the same recordings by 10 highly experienced judges of stuttering. Results: Students and clinicians showed similar and relatively high levels of intrajudge and interjudge agreement, but both students and clinicians identified less than half as much stuttering as the highly experienced judges had identified. Conclusions: These results replicate previous findings of high agreement coexisting with low accuracy in students’ judgments of stuttering, extending those findings to show that similar problems are evident in judgments made by practicing clinicians. Implications include the need for explicit stuttering judgment training programs for both students and practicing clinicians.

Educational objectives: After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (1) describe different methods for identifying stuttering and possible problems associated with each method; (2) describe two different methods for reporting interjudge reliability; (3) describe how the identification of stuttering differs for student, clinician, and highly experienced judges.     

Bilingual children who stutter: Convergence,gaps and directions for research

PurposeThe aim of this systematic review is to examine the early interactions between bilingualism and stuttering to synthesize knowledge that could inform diagnosis and treatment for bilingual children who stutter.MethodScopus, Science Direct, PubMed, ERIC Ebsco, and Google Scholar were searched with no limits placed on the year of publication. Search terms consisted of: (“stuttering” [MeSH] OR “stutter”) AND (“child” [MeSH] OR “children”) AND (“multilingualism” [MeSH] OR “bilingualism”). Inclusion criteria were children who stutter, bilinguals who stutter, empirical research articles, and published in peer review journals. Exclusion criteria were studies that reported on only adults, only monolinguals, or were not published in English.ResultsA total of 50 articles met the criteria. There was convergence with monolingual studies reporting sexually dimorphic and familial trends in the prevalence of stuttering and rates of recovery. Findings surrounding language proficiency, cross-linguistic stuttering severity, and development were ambivalent. Results point to the difficulty in identifying stuttering in bilingual children, and the need for culturally competent research and interpretations.ConclusionCurrent findings offer a fragmented view of bilingual development and echoes a recurring theme, i.e., the current understanding of bilingualism and stuttering is limited and more research is warranted.     

The role of language familiarity in voice identification

Four experiments examined the effects of language characteristics on voice identification. In Experiment 1, monolingual English listeners identified bilinguals' voices much better when they spoke English than when they spoke German. The opposite outcome was found in Experiment 2, in which the listeners were monolingual in German. In Experiment 3, monolingual English listeners also showed better voice identification when bilinguals spoke a familiar language (English) than when they spoke an unfamiliar one (Spanish). However, English-Spanish bilinguals hearing the same voices showed a different pattern, with the English-Spanish difference being statistically eliminated. Finally, Experiment 4 demonstrated that, for English-dominant listeners, voice recognition deteriorates systematically as the passage being spoken is made less similar to English by rearranging words, rearranging syllables, and reversing normal text. Taken together, the four experiments confirm that language familiarity plays an important role in voice identification.     

Recognition memory for faces: When familiarity supports associative recognition judgments

Recognition memory for single items can be dissociated from recognition memory for the associations between items. For example, recognition tests for single words produce curvilinear receiver operating characteristics (ROCs), but associative recognition tests for word pairs produce linear ROCs. These dissociations are consistent with dual-process theories of recognition and suggest that associative recognition relies on recollection but that item recognition relies on a combination of recollection and assessments of familiarity. In the present study, we examined associative recognition ROCs for facial stimuli by manipulating the central and external features, in order to determine whether linear ROCs would be observed for stimuli other than arbitrary word pairs. When the faces were presented upright, familiarity estimates were significantly above zero, and the associative ROCs were curvilinear, suggesting that familiarity contributed to associative judgments. However, presenting the faces upside down effectively eliminated the contribution of familiarity to associative recognition, and the ROCs were linear. The results suggest that familiarity can support associative recognition judgments, if the associated components are encoded as a coherent gestalt, as in upright faces.     

Use of the familiarity difference cue in inferential judgments

The familiarity difference cue has been regarded as a general cue for making inferential judgments (Honda, Abe, Matsuks, & Yamagishi in Memory and Cognition, 39(5), 851–863, 2011; Schwikert & Curran in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(6), 2341–2365, 2014). The current study tests a model of inference based on familiarity differences that encompasses the recognition heuristic (Goldstein & Gigerenzer, 1999, Goldstein & Gigerenzer in Psychological Review, 109(1), 75–90, 2002). In two studies, using a large pool of stimuli, participants rated their familiarity of cities and made choices on a typical city-size task. The data were fitted with the r-s model (Hilbig, Erdfelder, & Pohl in, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 37(4), 827–839, 2011), which was adapted to include familiarity differences. The results indicated that people used the familiarity difference cue because the participants ignored further knowledge in a substantial number of cases when the familiarity difference cue was available. An analysis of reaction-time data further indicated that the response times were shorter for heuristic judgments than for knowledge-only-based judgments. Furthermore, when knowledge was available, the response times were shorter when knowledge was congruent with a heuristic cue than when it was in conflict with it. Differences between the familiarity difference cue and the fluency heuristic (Schooler & Hertwig, 2005, Psychological Review, 112, 610–628) are discussed.     

Domain familiarity as a cue for judgments of learning

Students differ in how much they already know about topics within and across their courses. Few studies, however, have examined the relationship between participants’ levels of knowledge across topics (i.e., their “domain familiarity”) and their learning of information from those topics, their study choices related to those topics, and their subjective self-assessments of their learning about the topics. As such, in two studies we had participants (Study 1, college students; Study 2, Mturk workers) rank their domain familiarity for several to-be-studied domains (e.g., chemistry, history), rate their efficacy and interest in those domains, study and make judgments of learning (JOLs) for facts from each domain, and finally complete a short-answer test over those facts. Participants’ efficacy and interest ratings for the topics were linearly related to their topic rankings, as were their recall of and JOLs for facts from those domains. Although the JOLs were consistently overconfident, they were more overconfident for better-known than for lesser-known topics. Participants’ study times were not related to their topic rankings (Studies 1 and 2), but participants did use domain familiarity to strategically decide which domains to restudy before the test (Study 2). Participants typically chose to restudy their least-familiar topics, but chose to restudy their best-known topic under extremely limited restudy conditions. As a whole, the results suggest that participants effectively use their domain familiarity as a basis for their JOLs and restudy choices, but to some extent overuse this factor to assess their learning, and underuse it to guide initial study.     

Proficiency in a second language influences the processing of number words

We evaluated whether proficiency in a second language (L2) influenced the processing of numerical information. In Experiment 1, two groups of German/English bilinguals, one less proficient in English (L2) and the other more proficient in L2, performed two-digit number comparison tasks while the unit–decade compatibility was evaluated. All participants presented compatibility effect with Arabic digits regardless of their L2 proficiency. However, when bilinguals with less proficiency in L2 performed verbal number comparison tasks they showed regular compatibility effect in German and reverse compatibility effect in English, whereas more proficient bilinguals did not show compatibility effects in either German or English. In Experiment 2, the same pattern of results was obtained with highly proficient bilinguals after controlling their working memory span. These results indicate that L2 proficiency influences the processing of two-digit number words.     

Differential effects of familiarity on judgments of sameness and difference

Ss indicated whether pairs of simultaneously presented objects were “same” or “different.” In Experiments 1, 2, and 3 the stimuli were pairs of letters, and familiarity was manipulated by showing the letters in either an upright or an upside-down orientation. In Experiments 4 and 5 the stimuli were pairs of trigrams, and familiarity was manipulated either by rotation or by selection according to rated meaningfulness. Analysis of reaction times indicated that familiar pairs were responded to more quickly than were unfamiliar pairs; however, this was true only for “same” judgments, not for “different” judgments. In addition, Experiment 3 indicated that familiarity influenced discrimination accuracy under conditions of tachistoscopic exposure. Finally, in Experiment 6 an effort was made to disentangle the effects of meaningfulness from the effects of pronounceability. The present results stand in contrast to previous research using perceptual comparison tasks, since the earlier work failed to indicate any effect of familiarity.     

Stored word sequences in language learning: the effect of familiarity on children's repetition of four-word combinations

Recent accounts of the development of grammar propose that children remember utterances they hear and draw generalizations over these stored exemplars. This study tested these accounts' assumption that children store utterances as wholes by testing memory for familiar sequences of words. Using a newly available, dense corpus of child-directed speech, we identified frequently occurring chunks in the input (e.g., sit in your chair) and matched them to infrequent sequences (e.g., sit in your truck). We tested young children's ability to produce these sequences in a sentence-repetition test. Three-year-olds (n= 21) and 2-year-olds (n= 17) were significantly more likely to repeat frequent sequences correctly than to repeat infrequent sequences correctly. Moreover, the 3-year-olds were significantly faster to repeat the first three words of an item if they formed part of a chunk (e.g., they were quicker to say sit in your when the following word was chair than when it was truck). We discuss the implications of these results for theories of language development and processing.     

The effect of familiarity on rotational transformation

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - Familiarity, established by preliminary reproduction training with unfamiliar dot patterns, decreased “same” reaction time in a...     

The effect of familiarity on face adaptation

Face aftereffects can provide information on how faces are stored by the human visual system (eg Leopold et al, 2001 Nature Neuroscience 4 89-94), but few studies have used robustly represented (highly familiar) faces. In this study we investigated the influence of facial familiarity on adaptation effects. Participants were adapted to a series of distorted faces (their own face, a famous face, or an unfamiliar face). In experiment 1, figural aftereffects were significantly smaller when participants were adapted to their own face than when they were adapted to the other faces (ie their own face appeared significantly less distorted than a famous or unfamiliar face). Experiment 2 showed that this 'own-face' effect did not occur when the same faces were used as adaptation stimuli for participants who were unfamiliar with them. Experiment 3 replicated experiment 1, but included a pre-adaptation baseline. The results highlight the importance of considering facial familiarity when conducting research on face aftereffects.     

An ingroup advantage for confidence in emotion recognition judgments: the moderating effect of familiarity with the expressions of outgroup members

The confidence we have in our assessment of an interaction partner's emotional state can have important consequences for the quality of the interaction. Two studies assessed the hypothesis that immigrants are more confident in their judgment of others' emotional facial expressions if the expresser is a member of their cultural ingroup rather than a member of the host community or another cultural group. In addition, the effects of the perceived familiarity with the type of expression, the length of residence in the host country, the quality of cross-cultural contact, the level of acculturation, and the intensity of the facial expressions were assessed. Overall, the results revealed an ingroup advantage effect for confidence ratings as well as support for the notion that individuals are more confident when judging expressions that they consider as more frequently displayed in everyday life. Furthermore, individuals were more confident when judging happiness expressions as well as more intense expressions in general.     

The Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter scale: Reliability, known groups validity, and negativity of elementary school-age children's attitudes

Psychometric properties of the Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter (PATCS) scale (Langevin, M., & Hagler, P. (2004). Development of a scale to measure peer attitudes toward children who stutter. In A.K. Bothe (Ed.), Evidence-based treatment of stuttering: empirical bases and clinical applications (pp. 139–171). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.) and the extent to which peer attitudes are negative were re-examined. Results show that internal consistency was .97 and test–retest reliability was .85. In a known groups analysis participants who had contact with someone who stutters had statistically significant higher mean scores (more positive attitudes) than those who had not had contact. Nonsignificant findings for gender and grade call into question the usefulness of these variables as discriminators in future tests of known groups validity of peer attitudes toward children who stutter. Approximately one-fifth of participants had PATCS scores that were somewhat to very negative. These findings support calls for school-based education about stuttering.

Educational objectives

The reader will be able to: (1) summarize the social impacts of stuttering on school-age children who stutter, (2) describe the known groups method to test construct validity, (3) evaluate the psychometric properties of the Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter scale, and (4) provide information about the proportion of students who appear to hold negative attitudes toward children who stutter.     

The effect of bilingualism on lexical learning and memory across two language modalities: some evidence for a domain-specific,but not general,advantage

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted to replicate bilingual advantages in short-term memory for language-like material and word learning in young adults and extend this research to the sign domain, ultimately with the goal of investigating the domain specificity of bilingual advantages in cognition. Data from 112 monolingual hearing non-signers and 78 bilingual hearing non-signers were analysed for this study. Participants completed a battery of tasks assessing sign and word learning, short-term memory, working memory capacity, intelligence, and a language and demographic questionnaire. Overall, the results of this study suggested a bilingual advantage in memory for speech-like material – no other advantage (or disadvantage) was found. Results are discussed within the context of recent large-scale experimental and meta-analytic studies that have failed to find bilingual advantages in domain-general abilities such as attention control and working memory capacity in young adults.     

道德外语效应及其调节变量：来自元分析的证据

同一个道德决策情景使用外语(相比母语)呈现时,个体会表现出更强的功利性倾向,即道德外语效应。随着研究的深入,结论并不一致。本研究运用元分析方法首次探讨了语言类型(母语vs.外语)对道德判断中功利性倾向的影响,并分析了相关的调节变量。通过文献检索及梳理,共有19篇文献46个独立样本97个效应量符合元分析标准(N=9672)。结果显示存在较小但稳定的道德外语效应(g=0.23);调节效应分析表明,道德外语效应受故事类型的影响,在个人道德两难故事中存在较小但稳定的外语效应(g=0.32),但在非个人道德两难故事(g=0.11)与日常道德评价故事中(g=0.12)不存在外语效应;非个人道德两难故事中的外语效应受记分方式的影响,多点记分在该故事类型下存在效应(g=0.27),二点记分不存在效应(g=0.05);性别和语系类型没有显著的调节效应。这些结果表明语言类型对个体面对道德困境时的选择倾向有一定程度的影响,道德故事类型和记分方式在未来的研究中需要加以考虑。     

Credibility judgments of narratives: language, plausibility, and absorption

Two experiments were conducted in order to find out whether textual features of narratives differentially affect credibility judgments made by judges having different levels of absorption (a disposition associated with rich visual imagination). Participants in both experiments were exposed to a textual narrative and requested to judge whether the narrator actually experienced the event he described in his story. In Experiment 1, the narrative varied in terms of language (literal, figurative) and plausibility (ordinary, anomalous). In Experiment 2, the narrative varied in terms of language only. The participants' perceptions of the plausibility of the story described and the extent to which they were absorbed in reading were measured. The data from both experiments together suggest that the groups applied entirely different criteria in credibility judgments. For high-absorption individuals, their credibility judgment depends on the degree to which the text can be assimilated into their own vivid imagination, whereas for low-absorption individuals it depends mainly on plausibility. That is, high-absorption individuals applied an experiential mental set while judging the credibility of the narrator, whereas low-absorption individuals applied an instrumental mental set. Possible cognitive mechanisms and implications for credibility judgments are discussed.     

Memory for non-native language: The role of lexical processing in the retention of surface form

Research on memory for native language (L1) has consistently shown that retention of surface form is inferior to that of gist (e.g., Sachs, 1967). This paper investigates whether the same pattern is found in memory for non-native language (L2). We apply a model of bilingual word processing to more complex linguistic structures and predict that memory for L2 sentences ought to contain more surface information than L1 sentences. Native and non-native speakers of English were tested on a set of sentence pairs with different surface forms but the same meaning (e.g., “The bullet hit/struck the bull's eye”). Memory for these sentences was assessed with a cued recall procedure. Responses showed that native and non-native speakers did not differ in the accuracy of gist-based recall but that non-native speakers outperformed native speakers in the retention of surface form. The results suggest that L2 processing involves more intensive encoding of lexical level information than L1 processing.