On the Comparison of TAT and Free Speech Techniques in Personality Assessment

Schnurr, Rosenberg, and Oxman (1992) recently compared the free speech samples and Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) responses of 95 normal adults. They concluded that the two techniques are not interchangeable, and that the TAT, which proved superior in the prediction of individual differences, may be preferable to free speech instructions for eliciting data in content analytic studies. We disagree with both conclusions. Various forms of narrative speech samples may be highly correlated, so long as psychologically meaningful, well-validated, and higher order content categories are used. The use of first-order content categories is less likely to contribute to the study of personality.     

Comparison of TAT and Free Speech Techniques for Eliciting Source Material in Computerized Content Analysis

We compared the free speech samples and Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) responses of 95 community-residing volunteers by using the General Inquirer content analysis computer program and the Harvard III Psychosociological Dictionary (Stone, Dunphy, Smith, & Ogitvie, 1966). Comparability was assessed by computing mean differences and correlations among techniques. The techniques were evaluated by assessing the ability of data derived from each to predict individual differences in developmental level, gender, depressive symptomatology, and personality. Results show highly discriminable profiles and low reliability among techniques. TAT data were superior in predicting individual, differences. We suggest that structured techniques like the TAT are preferable to standard free speech instructions for eliciting data in content analytic studies and discuss the possibility of computerized content analysis as a method of scoring the TAT.     

Comparison of TAT and free speech techniques for eliciting source material in computerized content analysis

We compared the free speech samples and Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) responses of 95 community-residing volunteers by using the General Inquirer content analysis computer program and the Harvard III Psychosociological Dictionary (Stone, Dunphy, Smith, & Ogitvie, 1966). Comparability was assessed by computing mean differences and correlations among techniques. The techniques were evaluated by assessing the ability of data derived from each to predict individual differences in developmental level, gender, depressive symptomatology, and personality. Results show highly discriminable profiles and low reliability among techniques. TAT data were superior in predicting individual, differences. We suggest that structured techniques like the TAT are preferable to standard free speech instructions for eliciting data in content analytic studies and discuss the possibility of computerized content analysis as a method of scoring the TAT.     

A Developmental Study of Sexual Functioning by Means of a Cognitive Analysis

Zeldow and McAdams (1993) recently presented artifactual explanations for our data showing dissimilarity between the content of speech elicited by the Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943) and free speech tasks (Schnurr, Rosenberg, &; Oxman, 1992). In particular, they alleged that our findings resulted from a lack of psychological meaning in our content categories and in the free speech task. We cite empirical and theoretical support to refute this allegation and provide additional analyses of our data that are consistent with our earlier suggestion that text samples elicited under different conditions may not be interchangeable.     

Issues in the comparison of techniques for eliciting source material in computerized content analysis

Zeldow and McAdams (1993) recently presented artifactual explanations for our data showing dissimilarity between the content of speech elicited by the Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943) and free speech tasks (Schnurr, Rosenberg, & Oxman, 1992). In particular, they alleged that our findings resulted from a lack of psychological meaning in our content categories and in the free speech task. We cite empirical and theoretical support to refute this allegation and provide additional analyses of our data that are consistent with our earlier suggestion that text samples elicited under different conditions may not be interchangeable.     

An analysis of speech disfluencies in down''s syndrome and in normally intelligent subjects

Spontaneous speech samples were obtained from 19 institutionalized mongoloids and from 19 normally intelligent individuals. All subjects were evaluated by a panel of speech pathologists to be nonstutterers. Subjects' speech samples were analyzed to determine (a) frequency of occurance of seven disfluency categories per 100 words spoken, (b) the proportion of each category in the total number of disfluencies. Statistically significant differences indicated that the mongoloids were more disfluent both absolutely and relatively, on categories that have been regarded as most typical to speech of stutterers. Interpretations were made to reflect on factors which may enhance the high prevalence of stuttering among Down's Syndrome patients.     

Listener perceptions along a fluency--disfluency continuum: a phenomenological analysis

The purpose of this study was to conduct a phenomenological analysis (a qualitative research method) of unbiased listeners' perceptions to six speech samples across a fluency-disfluency continuum. A sample of 60 individuals heard only one sample chosen from three levels of fluent or three levels of disfluent speech. Listeners were interviewed following the presentation of the speech sample and their comments were analyzed with respect to the perception of the speaker's communicative effectiveness. Communicative effectiveness was supported by three phenomenological categories: speaker attributes, listener attributes, and story attributes. Five theme clusters further supported these categories: speech production, context, speaker identity, listener comfort, and story comprehension. The results showed that listener perceptions within theme clusters varied across the six speech samples. The results also showed that listeners differentially respond to a broad array of information in the speech signal (not simply fluency or disfluency). These findings support Traunmuller's (1994) modulation theory associated with information that can be obtained from the speech signal. Implications for the treatment of stuttering are also discussed. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn (1) how listeners may have multiple and varying perceptual experiences depending upon where along a fluency-disfluency continuum a speech sample is heard; (2) how perceptual experiences are influenced by speaker, listener, and story attributes; and (3) how phenomenological analysis may expand our understanding of multifactorial issues associated with stuttering.     

Does Freedom of Speech Include Hate Speech?

I take it that liberal justice recognises special protections against the restriction of speech and expression; this is what I call the Free Speech Principle. I ask if this Principle includes speech acts which might broadly be termed ‘hate speech’, where ‘includes’ is sensitive to the distinction between coverage and protection, and between speech that is regulable and speech that should be regulated. I suggest that ‘hate speech’ is too broad a designation to be usefully analysed as a single category, since it includes many different kinds of speech acts, each of which involves very different kinds of free speech interests, and may cause very different kinds of harm. I therefore propose to disaggregate hate speech into various categories which are analysed in turn. I distinguish four main categories of hate speech, namely (1) targeted vilification, (2) diffuse vilification, (3) organised political advocacy for exclusionary and/or eliminationist policies, and (4) other assertions of fact or value which constitute an adverse judgment on an identifiable racial or religious group. Reviewing these categories in the light of the justifications for the Free Speech Principle, I will argue that category (1) is uncovered by the Principle, categories (2) and (3) are covered but unprotected, and that category (4) is protected speech.     

Is hostility linked with affiliation among males and with achievement among females? A critique of Pollak and Gilligan

This investigation attempted to replicate and to clarify methodologically an investigation by Pollak and Gilligan (1982). Those investigators reported sex differences in violence imagery to Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) pictures depicting affiliation and achievement situations. Pollak and Gilligan concluded that men perceive danger in situations of affiliation whereas women perceive danger in situations of achievement. It was demonstrated in the present study that Pollak and Gilligan incorrectly classified TAT cards into motivational categories, which may have resulted in incorrect inferences. In addition, their findings could not be replicated when using four different systems for classifying TAT cards into motivational categories. Other potential sources of error in their research, including a restrictive scoring scheme for hostility, unusual instructions, and failure to control for sex role in the TAT pictures, did not influence the pattern of results.     

Types of private speech produced by hyperactive and nonhyperactive boys

Types and amount of private speech (audible talking that is not addressed to another person) were assessed during the free play of 16 hyperactive and 16 nonhyperactive boys. Verbalizations were coded into nine categories that denoted the boys' level of use of verbal control of their own behavior (Luria, 1961; Kohlberg, Yeager, & Hjertholm; 1968). Differences in amount and type of private speech between hyperactive and nonhyperactive boys were found to indicate that hyperactive boys may be presenting a specific or general cognitive lag in development. Treatment ramifications are discussed.     

Formal characteristics of Thematic Apperception Test stories as indices of emotional disturbance in children

Formal characteristics of stories told about picture cards from the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) were defined as reflecting the storyteller's ability to accomplish the task and were distinguished from content that expresses the unique concerns of the individual. It was argued that increased emphasis on formal aspects of TAT responses is warranted, because these characteristics can be determined more objectively and are more suitable for direct group comparison. Therefore, the variables included in our study consisted of an integration and expansion of formal characteristics previously developed with adults, which showed promise in differentiating disturbed and normal groups of children. Based on these formal characteristics of TAT stories, 95% of the comparison group members and 85% of the disturbed group members were correctly classified. Emotionally disturbed boys (n = 40) differed from a comparison group (n = 40) on seven formal scoring categories which were hypothesized to differentiate the groups.     

Formal Characteristics of Thematic Apperception Test Stories as Indices of Emotional Disturbance in Children

Formal characteristics of stories told about picture cards from the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) were defined as reflecting the storyteller's ability to accomplish the task and were distinguished from content that expresses the unique concerns of the individual. It was argued that increased emphasis on formal aspects of TAT responses is warranted, because these characteristics can be determined more objectively and are more suitable for direct group comparison. Therefore, the variables included in our study consisted of an integration and expansion of formal characteristics previously developed with adults, which showed promise in differentiating disturbed and normal groups of children. Based on these formal characteristics of TAT stories, 95% of the comparison group members and 85% of the disturbed group members were correctly classified. Emotionally disturbed boys (n = 40) differed from a comparison group (n = 40) on seven formal scoring categories which were hypothesized to differentiate the groups.     

Semantic priming by irrelevant speech

To-be-ignored, task-irrelevant speech disrupts serial recall performance relative to a quiet control condition. In most studies, the content of the auditory distractors had no effect on their disruptive potential, one’s own name being one of the few exceptions. There are two possible explanations of this pattern: (1) Semantic features of the irrelevant speech are usually not processed, except for highly relevant auditory distractors, or (2) semantic processing of the irrelevant speech always occurs, but usually does not affect serial recall performance. To test these explanations, we presented to-be-ignored auditory distractor words drawn from different categories while participants memorized visual targets for serial recall. Afterwards, participants were invited to what they believed to be an unrelated norming study, in which they were required to spontaneously produce words from the categories from which the auditory distractor words were drawn. Previously ignored words were produced with a higher probability than words from a parallel, nonpresented set, demonstrating that features of to-be-ignored, task-irrelevant speech that do not interfere with immediate serial recall performance are nevertheless processed semantically and may have substantial effects on subsequent behavior.     

Prediction of Action- and Thought-Oriented Response: Behavioral Style or Situational Demand?

Male college students (N = 72) were administered an occupations/activities preference scale as a measure of action- and thought-oriented behavior styles, and responded to seven TAT cards varying in degrees of “stimulus pull” for action and thought modes of expression. Verbs in TAT stories were assigned to action and thought categories. Mean percentages of action and thought verbs were significantly related to both Ss’ behavior styles and to TAT stimulus demands. The results support Phillips’ (1968) action-thought typology, but suggest that situational demand may be equally as important as behavior style in determining one's action or thought mode of response in a given situation. Additional results raised questions concerning the adequacy of Phillips’ developmental conceptualization of action-thought behavior styles.     

Identification of stuttering in bilingual Lebanese children across two presentation modes

The goals of this study were to investigate whether Lebanese speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are accurate at identifying stuttering in bilingual children, to examine whether the use of video-recordings instead of audio-recordings allows for better analyses, and to explore factors that may affect the SLPs’ judgments. In phase 1, 32 SLPs listened to narrative samples in Lebanese Arabic of 6 children who do not stutter (CWNS) and 2 who stutter (CWS). They were instructed to label each child as stuttering or not, and to explain what motivated their decisions. Afterwards, they were asked to provide background information by means of a questionnaire. In phase 2, they were asked to judge the same speech samples on the basis of video-recordings, and to explain for each child which speech characteristics they relied on to make their decisions. The results showed that misidentification happens frequently, is significantly more likely to happen with CWNS than with CWS, but also varies within these categories. Moreover, the use of video-recordings does not provide more reliable analyses of speech disfluencies, and speech samples’ characteristics and bilingual profile rather than SLPs’ characteristics seem to influence the judgments. Qualitative analyses indicate that, in the current study, misidentification may be driven by neglecting or misinterpreting physical concomitants. In general, the findings indicate that identifying and analyzing speech fluency behaviors remain a challenging perceptual task, which underlies the need for developing consistent methods for training students and clinicians in identifying stuttering, especially in a bilingual context.     

Conditional advice and inducements: are readers sensitive to implicit speech acts during comprehension?

Conditionals can implicitly convey a range of speech acts including promises, tips, threats and warnings. These are traditionally divided into the broader categories of advice (tips and warnings) and inducements (promises and threats). One consequence of this distinction is that speech acts from within the same category should be harder to differentiate than those from different categories. We examined this in two self-paced reading experiments. Experiment 1 revealed a rapid processing penalty when inducements (promises) and advice (tips) were anaphorically referenced using a mismatching speech act. In Experiment 2 a delayed penalty was observed when a speech act (promise or threat) was referenced by a mismatching speech act from the same category of inducements. This suggests that speech acts from the same category are harder to discriminate than those from different categories. Our findings not only support a semantic distinction between speech act categories, but also reveal pragmatic differences within categories.     

Analyzing mothers' speech to young autistic children: A methodological study

The development of a technique for analyzing mothers' speech to young children is described. The need for such a measure arose from two linked studies of autistic children, one comparing them with developmental dysphasic children and the other evaluating the results of a home-based approach to treatment. A 17-category system was developed which could encompass almost all the types of speech shown by mothers of young autistic and normal children and which differentiated between the speech used by different mothers in a way that was meaningfully related to the child's level of language development. The categories proved to be easily applicable and to show good inter-observer reliability. Tape-recordings made during home observations were found to be the best source of speech samples. The problems of time sampling, length and nature of speech sample, and observer effects are discussed.We are most grateful to our colleagues Dr. Lionel Hersov and Mr. William Yule for many helpful suggestions in developing the measures and for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper. The study is supported by a grant from the (British) Department of Health and Social Security.     

Dual-learning systems during speech category learning

Dual-system models of visual category learning posit the existence of an explicit, hypothesis-testing reflective system, as well as an implicit, procedural-based reflexive system. The reflective and reflexive learning systems are competitive and neurally dissociable. Relatively little is known about the role of these domain-general learning systems in speech category learning. Given the multidimensional, redundant, and variable nature of acoustic cues in speech categories, our working hypothesis is that speech categories are learned reflexively. To this end, we examined the relative contribution of these learning systems to speech learning in adults. Native English speakers learned to categorize Mandarin tone categories over 480 trials. The training protocol involved trial-by-trial feedback and multiple talkers. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effect of manipulating the timing (immediate vs. delayed) and information content (full vs. minimal) of feedback. Dual-system models of visual category learning predict that delayed feedback and providing rich, informational feedback enhance reflective learning, while immediate and minimally informative feedback enhance reflexive learning. Across the two experiments, our results show that feedback manipulations that targeted reflexive learning enhanced category learning success. In Experiment 3, we examined the role of trial-to-trial talker information (mixed vs. blocked presentation) on speech category learning success. We hypothesized that the mixed condition would enhance reflexive learning by not allowing an association between talker-related acoustic cues and speech categories. Our results show that the mixed talker condition led to relatively greater accuracies. Our experiments demonstrate that speech categories are optimally learned by training methods that target the reflexive learning system.     

Is infant-directed speech prosody a result of the vocal expression of emotion?

Many studies have found that infant-directed (ID) speech has higher pitch, has more exaggerated pitch contours, has a larger pitch range, has a slower tempo, and is more rhythmic than typical adult-directed (AD) speech. We show that the ID speech style reflects free vocal expression of emotion to infants, in comparison with more inhibited expression of emotion in typical AD speech. When AD speech does express emotion, the same acoustic features are used as in ID speech. We recorded ID and AD samples of speech expressing love-comfort, fear, and surprise. The emotions were equally discriminable in the ID and AD samples. Acoustic analyses showed few differences between the ID and AD samples, but robust differences across the emotions. We conclude that ID prosody itself is not special. What is special is the widespread expression of emotion to infants in comparison with the more inhibited expression of emotion in typical adult interactions.