The speaker as listener

This study reports the results of an experiment with 4 female 5-year-old children, in which the verbal behavior of the children (talking to themselves) was studied under two conditions—an anthropomorphic toy condition and a nonanthropomorphic toy condition. The anthropomorphic condition consisted of three-dimensional toys such as dolls, stuffed animals, and figurines. The nonanthropomorphic toy condition consisted of two-dimensional materials such as puzzles, coloring books, and story books. The independent variables were the toy conditions. The dependent variables were verbal-behavior units; these included mands, tacts, intraverbals, autoclitics, and conversational units. The conditions were compared using a multiple schedule design. The results showed that more total units occurred in the anthropomorphic toy condition than in the nonanthropomorphic toy condition and that conversational units occurred in the anthropomorphic condition only. Consistent with Skinner's (1957) hypothesis, the children acted as both speaker and listener when emitting verbal behavior to themselves in the anthropomorphic condition.     

Analyzing nonverbal listener responses using parallel recordings of multiple listeners

In this paper, we study nonverbal listener responses on a corpus with multiple parallel recorded listeners. These listeners were meant to believe that they were the sole listener, while in fact there were three persons listening to the same speaker. The speaker could only see one of the listeners. We analyze the impact of the particular setup of the corpus on the behavior and perception of the two types of listeners: the listeners that could be seen by the speaker and the listeners that could not be seen. Furthermore, we compare the nonverbal listening behaviors of these three listeners to each other with regard to timing and form. We correlate these behaviors with behaviors of the speaker, like pauses and whether the speaker is looking at the listeners or not.     

Analyzing nonverbal listener responses using parallel recordings of multiple listeners

In this paper, we study nonverbal listener responses on a corpus with multiple parallel recorded listeners. These listeners were meant to believe that they were the sole listener, while in fact there were three persons listening to the same speaker. The speaker could only see one of the listeners. We analyze the impact of the particular setup of the corpus on the behavior and perception of the two types of listeners: the listeners that could be seen by the speaker and the listeners that could not be seen. Furthermore, we compare the nonverbal listening behaviors of these three listeners to each other with regard to timing and form. We correlate these behaviors with behaviors of the speaker, like pauses and whether the speaker is looking at the listeners or not.     

Relationship between religious characteristics and responses to vigilantism

Religious characteristics are often related to attitudes about legal issues (e.g., death penalty). This study investigated whether U.S. university students’ religious beliefs (i.e., fundamentalism, devotionalism, evangelism) and religious motivations (i.e., intrinsic, extrinsic religiosity) were associated with responses to vigilantism (i.e., whether the vigilante is justified, should be legally responsible, should receive a lighter sentence). Participants read three scenarios describing vigilantism in response to different crimes (murder, drug dealing, child molestation). More punitive responses to vigilantism were associated with being low in fundamentalism, extrinsic religiosity, and evangelism, and with being high in devotionalism and intrinsic religiosity. Motivations were more frequent predictors of responses to vigilantism than beliefs. Results are the first step in explaining relationships between religious characteristics and responses to vigilantism.     

Infants' vocalizations as a diagnostic tool

This article reviews the literature concerning infants' vocalizations and their relation to development of language and to diagnosis in studies of pathology. Some researchers believe that pre-speech vocalizations are reflexes, random activities that serve as practice for motor activities. Others believe they are directly related to the development of language. The literature reviewed dealing with the relationship between abnormal cries and pathology suggest a differential diagnosis of certain pathologies. Crying should be included in the collected symptoms to achieve a more accurate and comprehensive diagnosis.     

Facilitating referential communication among children: The listener as teacher

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that systematic variations in listener behavior can have an important influence on both speaker behavior and communicative success among children. In particular, we investigated the idea that systematic variations in listener behavior might have not only within-trial effects on the adequacy of speakers' messages and the accuracy of communication among children, but also cumulative effects on speakers' initial messages across trials. Effects of stimulus complexity were also examined. Pairs of 7- and 9-year-old children participated in a referential communication game, with the younger child serving as speaker and the older one as listener. Half of the listeners were given a plan for effective listening which emphasized the importance of asking questions if the speakers' messages were ambiguous. Replicating earlier findings, the plan manipulation was successful in encouraging listeners to ask questions when necessary. The major result was that listener questions not only had the expected trial-by-trial effect on message adequacy and communicative accuracy, but also showed a cumulative effect on speaker performance. When exposed to systematic listener feedback, speakers improved their initial messages over trials. Stimulus complexity was not a major determinant of performances. These findings suggest that provision of systematic listener feedback may be an effective method for teaching speaker skills to young children.     

Ultrasonic vocalizations as indices of affective states in rats

Adult rats spontaneously vocalize in ultrasonic frequencies. Although these ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) have been described as by-products of locomotor activity or social signals, accumulating evidence suggests that they may also index anticipatory affective states. Converging ethological, pharmacological, and brain stimulation research indicates that whereas long low-frequency (> 0.3-s, approximately 22-kHz) USVs occur during anticipation of punishment or avoidance behavior, short, high-frequency (< 0.3-s, approximately 50-kHz) USVs typically occur during anticipation of reward or approach behavior. Thus, long 22-kHz USVs may index a state of negative activation, whereas short, 50-kHz USVs may instead index a state of positive activation. This hypothesis has theoretical implications for understanding the brain circuitry underlying mammalian affective states and clinical applicability for modeling hedonic properties of different psychotropic compounds.     

Face the noise: embodied responses to nonverbal vocalizations of discrete emotions

Extensive prior research has shown that the perception of an emotional facial expression automatically elicits a corresponding facial expression in the observer. Theories of embodied emotion, however, suggest that such reactions might also occur across expressive channels, because simulation is based on integrated motoric and affective representations of that emotion. In the present studies, we examined this idea by focusing on facial and experiential reactions to nonverbal emotion vocalizations. In Studies 1 and 2, we showed that both hearing and reproducing vocalizations of anger, disgust, happiness, and sadness resulted in specific facial behaviors, as well as congruent self-reported emotions (Study 2). In Studies 3 and 4, we showed that the inhibition of congruent facial actions impaired listeners' processing of emotion vocalizations (Study 3), as well as their experiences of a concordant subjective state (Study 4). Results support the idea that cross-channel simulations of others' states serve facilitative functions similar to more strict imitations of observed expressive behavior, suggesting flexibility in the motoric and affective systems involved in emotion processing and interpersonal emotion transfer. We discuss implications for embodiment research and the social consequences of expressing and matching emotions across nonverbal channels.     

Cross-sectional study of coordination between infants' gaze and vocalizations towards their mothers

The study aimed at providing more precise information about infants' capacity to coordinate their vocalizations with gaze towards their mothers. A total of 32 infants were observed, four boys and four girls in each of four age groups (4, 6, 8 and 10 months), in an observational setting aimed at minimizing infants' casual looks to their mothers. Videotapes of mother-infant-toy interactions were coded separately for infants' vocalizations and gaze towards their mothers, and the difference between observed and expected cooccurrence of these two communicative behaviours was evaluated by transfromation into z-scores. Results indicate that only at 10 months of age do infants develop the ability to coordinate vocalizations and gazes towards mother. Moreover, more competent subjects show temporal relationships between gaze and vocalizations different from those observed in less competent subjects.     

Effects of the match between listener expectancies and coarticulatory cues on the perception of speech

Several experiments have attempted to establish the order in which various linguistic units (e.g., syllables and words) are processed. This article presents an alternative interpretation (the target-stimulus mismatch interpretation) for those earlier results. This interpretation states that the closer the match between the listener's expectancies about how the stimulus will sound (the target) and the sound of the acoustic stimulus the listener actually hears (the stimulus), the faster the listener will recognize the stimulus. This interpretation was tested in an experiment in which the match between the target and the stimulus was varied by manipulating the acoustic (coarticulatory) properties of the stimulus while the size of the target (syllable) was held constant. The results suggest that earlier findings explained in terms of linguistic units or levels can be explained more readily by the target-stimulus mismatch interpretation, and these results provide evidence that coarticulatory information is utilized by the perceiver of speech.     

Relation between food preference and food-elicited vocalizations in golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia).

We report the results of 2 studies on food-elicited vocalizations in golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia). First, we investigated the preferences of 10 golden lion tamarins for 6 foods. Tamarins prefer mealworms and raisins significantly more than apple, egg, carrot, or marmoset diet. Food preference rank was significantly and positively correlated with the rank of latency to choose a particular food. Second, we investigated the relation between food preference and 15 vocal parameters measured from the calls emitted by 5 tamarins to a subset of the foods. Only 1 parameter was significantly correlated with food preference across animals. Within-subjects multivariate analysis of variance showed that the vocalizations to foods are significantly different. Our results support an hypothesis that food-elicited vocalizations vary in ways that correspond to the caller's preference but not in a manner that labels food type.     

Rodent ultrasonic vocalizations as biomarkers of future alcohol use: A predictive analytic approach

Excessive alcohol consumption has a vast, negative impact on society. Rodent models have been successful in furthering our understanding of the biological underpinnings that drive alcohol consumption. Rodents emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) that are each composed of several acoustic characteristics (e.g., frequency, duration, bandwidth, power). USVs reflect neurotransmitter activity in the ascending limb of the mesolimbic dopaminergic and cholinergic neurotransmitter systems and serve as noninvasive, real-time biomarkers of dopaminergic and cholinergic neurotransmission in the limbic system. In the present study, we recorded spontaneously emitted USVs from alcohol-naïve Long-Evans (LE) rats and then measured their alcohol intake. We compared the USV acoustic characteristics and alcohol consumption data from these LE rats with previously published data from selectively bred high-alcohol (P and HAD-1) and low-alcohol (NP and LAD-1) drinking lines from studies with the same experimental method. Predictive analytic techniques were applied simultaneously to this combined data set and revealed that (a) USVs emitted by alcohol-naïve rats accurately discriminated among high-alcohol consuming, LE, and low-alcohol consuming rat lines, and (b) future alcohol consumption in these same rat lines was reliably predicted from the USV data collected in an alcohol-naïve state. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that alcohol consumption is predicted directly from USV profiles of alcohol-naïve rats. Because USV acoustic characteristics are sensitive to underlying neural activity, these findings suggest that baseline differences in mesolimbic cholinergic and dopaminergic tone could determine the propensity for future alcohol consumption in rodents.     

Relationship between intelligence and vocabulary

This study explored the correlations of scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III in screening language problems and scores on the three Comprehensive Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test subscales. Participants were 243 students ages 6 to 17 years in Grades K-11 who were identified as learning disabled, learning disabled with speech impairment, mentally retarded, and speech impaired. Analysis indicated strong correlations between the two measures, particularly between the CREVT General Vocabulary and WISC-III Verbal IQ (r = .80), WISC-III Verbal Comprehension Index (r =.83), and the Vocabulary subtest (r =.76). These results held across the grades. Supporting earlier studies of relationships of Verbal IQ and Receptive Vocabulary, correlations were lower between participants in Grades K through 2 than those in higher grades on the WISC-III Verbal IQ and the Receptive Vocabulary subtest. An analysis of the accuracy of the WISC-III for classifying students with language problems indicated improvement in classification over chance. These findings suggest that the WISC-III may be an effective screen for language problems.     

Risk-Taking Behavior as a Mediator of the Relationship between Children's Temperament and Injury Liability

The relationship between childhood temperament, risk-taking behavior and injury liability is investigated in a sample of 209 two- to nine-year-old children using parental report. Temperament was found to be significantly related to both risk-taking behavior and the number of injuries sustained; moreover, risk-taking behavior was a significant predictor of injuries. A mediational model was tested and risk-taking behavior was found to mediate the relationship between temperament and injury liability. The implications of these findings are discussed within the context of preventive actions.     

心理授权、心理氛围与工作绩效的关系

为获低成本、高绩效和高弹性的竞争优势,组织授权员工的重要性日益增加.本文对深圳、上海和长沙的18家企业307名员工的心理氛围、心理授权与工作绩效的关系进行了研究,结果表明:①心理氛围、心理授权与工作绩效两两之间都存在显著正相关关系;②心理授权、心理氛围能有效地预测任务绩效、周边绩效和工作绩效;③心理氛围能有效地预测工作绩效,其中心理授权是心理氛围与工作绩效之间关系的缓冲变量,缓冲作用主要是通过自我效能和自主性两个维度来实现的.