Natural Sounds and Musical Sounds: A Dual Distinction

In this article I consider the relationship between natural sounds and music. I evaluate two prominent accounts of this relationship. These accounts satisfy an important condition, the difference condition: musical sounds are different from natural sounds. However, they fail to meet an equally important condition, the interaction condition: musical sounds and natural sounds can interact in aesthetically important ways to create unified aesthetic objects. I then propose an alternative account of the relationship between natural sounds and music that meets both conditions. I argue that natural sounds are distinct from music in that they express a kind of alterity or “otherness,” which occurs in two ways. It occurs referentially, because the sources of natural sounds are natural objects rather than artifactual objects, such as instruments; it also occurs acoustically, because natural sounds tend to contain more microtones than macrotones. On my account, the distinction between music and natural sounds is both conventional and vague; it therefore allows music and natural sounds to come together.     

Language Experience Affects Grouping of Musical Instrument Sounds

Language experience clearly affects the perception of speech, but little is known about whether these differences in perception extend to non‐speech sounds. In this study, we investigated rhythmic perception of non‐linguistic sounds in speakers of French and German using a grouping task, in which complexity (variability in sounds, presence of pauses) was manipulated. In this task, participants grouped sequences of auditory chimeras formed from musical instruments. These chimeras mimic the complexity of speech without being speech. We found that, while showing the same overall grouping preferences, the German speakers showed stronger biases than the French speakers in grouping complex sequences. Sound variability reduced all participants’ biases, resulting in the French group showing no grouping preference for the most variable sequences, though this reduction was attenuated by musical experience. In sum, this study demonstrates that linguistic experience, musical experience, and complexity affect rhythmic grouping of non‐linguistic sounds and suggests that experience with acoustic cues in a meaningful context (language or music) is necessary for developing a robust grouping preference that survives acoustic variability.     

Need-Reinforcer Correspondence As a Predictor of Job Satisfaction

The “good fit” principle was applied to the prediction of job satisfaction, based on a proposition of the theory of work adjustment that satisfaction is a function of “correspondence” between individual needs and job reinforcers. Measures of needs, job reinforcers, and job satisfaction were administered to three groups of store employees. Five indices of need-reinforcer correspondence were calculated for each individual and applied as predictors of job satisfaction. For cashiers and sales clerks, correspondence measures correlated as high as .37 and .45, respectively, with job satisfaction; “hit rates” were as high as .68 and .73, respectively. Results for the checker-markers were not significant.     

儿童执行功能对数学能力的预测模型

使用数点数广度任务(C-span)、Stroop任务、威斯康星卡片分类任务(WCST)测查儿童的执行功能,用《小学儿童数学能力测查量表》(一年级)、《韦克斯勒儿童智力测量》分别测查儿童的数学能力和智力,对64名小学一年级儿童的执行功能(抑制、转换、刷新)和数学能力的关系进行了研究,相关分析和回归分析发现,数学能力与执行功能任务测量都有显著相关,抑制、转换和刷新都分别对数学能力存在显著回归效应;在此基础上,建立了执行功能及其对儿童数学能力的预测模型。结果表明,抑制控制、转换和刷新都能对数学能力产生直接影响,但抑制控制还通过转换和刷新对数学能力产生间接影响。说明儿童数学能力的认知差异,主要在于抑制控制能力的差异,而抑制控制的差异又导致转换和刷新能力表现的差异。     

非言语声音影响汉语听者言语声音的知觉

采用启动范式, 以汉语听者为被试, 考察了非言语声音是否影响言语声音的知觉。实验1考察了纯音对辅音范畴连续体知觉的影响, 结果发现纯音影响到辅音范畴连续体的知觉, 表现出频谱对比效应。实验2考察了纯音和复合音对元音知觉的影响, 结果发现与元音共振峰频率一致的纯音或复合音加快了元音的识别, 表现出启动效应。两个实验一致发现非言语声音能够影响言语声音的知觉, 表明言语声音知觉也需要一个前言语的频谱特征分析阶段, 这与言语知觉听觉理论的观点一致。     

心理测验在人才测评中的应用

本文探讨了心理测验在人才测评中应用价值和存在的问题,讨论了科学的人才测评与心理测验的关系,期望可以科学的把心理测验应用到人才测评工作中,提高人才测评的有效性和可靠性。     

Alleviating Choking: The Sounds of Distraction

“Choking” is defined as a critical deterioration in the execution of habitual processes as a result of an elevation in anxiety levels under perceived pressure, leading to substandard performance. In the current study, music was used in a “dual-task” paradigm to facilitate performance under pressure. Three “choking-susceptible” experienced female basketball players were purposively sampled from 41 screened players. Participants completed 240 basketball free throws in a single-case A₁-B₁-A₂-B₂ design (A phases = “low-pressure” and B phases = “high-pressure”), with the music intervention occurring during the B₂ phase. Following completion of the phases, an interview was conducted to examine perceptions of choking and cognitions associated with the effects of the music lyrics. Participants improved performance in the B₂ phase, and explained that choking resulted from an increase in public self-awareness (S-A). The music intervention decreased S-A, and enabled participants to minimize explicit monitoring of execution and reduce general distractibility.     

Right-Wing Ideology as a Predictor of Collective Action: A Test Across Four Political Issue Domains

Despite a vast literature documenting motivations for collective action, the role of sociopolitical ideologies, including right-wing ideologies, in predicting collective action is underresearched. Literature on right-wing ideological beliefs suggests that those higher in right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) or social dominance orientation (SDO) hold specific attitudes or endorse specific policies, in part, because of factors such as perceived fear-based threat or empathy. In the present research, structural equation modeling (SEM) was run on pooled data from a diverse Canadian university sample and two American adult samples (total N = 1,469). Participants completed measures of RWA, SDO, fear-based threat, empathy, and domain-specific collective action. Results showed that RWA and SDO both related positively to collective action targeting societal moral breakdown but negatively to collective action aimed at equalizing race relations or fighting climate change. Whereas the indirect effects of right-wing ideologies via fear-based threat or empathy were significant in all four domains for SDO, the indirect effect of RWA was only significant in the climate change domain. Implications are discussed.     

概念提示和音乐经验对音乐张力感知发展的影响

以小四、初二和高二年级中有音乐经验和无音乐经验的学生为被试,采用等级量表评定法,通过两个实验,分别在无概念提示和有概念提示的条件下,要求被试对音乐旋律片段的张力进行判断,探讨概念提示和音乐经验对于音乐张力感知的影响。结果发现：（1）音乐张力感知是一个随个体成熟而不断发展的过程,小学四年级到初中二年级之间音乐张力感知变化较大,到高中二年级趋于稳定;音乐训练经验仅对小学四年级被试的音乐张力感知有促进作用;（2）概念提示有助于小学四年级被试对音乐张力概念的理解,而对高二被试无显著促进作用,说明音乐张力概念的掌握     

基于视听双通道的音乐情绪加工机制及情绪类型和音乐经验的影响

为了探讨视听双通道下的音乐情绪加工机制及音乐情绪类型和音乐训练背景对加工机制的影响,本研究采用表达开心和悲伤的音乐表演视频为材料,比较音乐组被试和非音乐组被试在单听觉通道、单视觉通道和视听双通道三种情境下的情绪评定速度、正确率和强度。结果发现：1）视听双通道与单视觉通道差异显著,与单听觉通道差异不显著。2）非音乐组被试对悲伤的评定正确率高于音乐组被试,对开心的评定正确率低于音乐组被试。说明音乐情绪加工的视听双通道整合优势仅相对单视觉通道存在;非音乐组被试对视觉通道情绪信息的变化更敏感,音乐组被试更依赖音乐经验;可在音乐表演时加入协调的视觉通道情绪信息帮助没有音乐训练经验的听赏者。     

The Property Theory of Musical Works

The property theory of musical works says that each musical work is a property that is instantiated by its occurrences, that is, the work's performances and playings. The property theory provides ontological explanations very similar to those given by its popular cousin, the type/token theory of musical works, but it is both simpler and stronger. However, type/token theorists often dismiss the property theory. In this essay, I formulate a version of the property theory that identifies each type (thus, each musical work) with a unique property. I then scrutinize the arguments offered for thinking that types, including musical works, are distinct from properties. I respond that no such argument is forceful and conclude that the property theory of musical works is superior to the type/token theory.