Rhyme, rime, and the onset of reading

There is recent evidence that children naturally divide syllables into the opening consonant or consonant cluster (the onset) and the rest of the syllable (the rime). This suggests an explanation for the fact that preschool children are sensitive to rhyme, but often find tasks in which they have to isolate single phonemes extremely difficult. Words which rhyme share a common rime and thus can be categorized on that speech unit. Single phonemes on the other hand may only be part of one of these speech units. This analysis leads to some clear predictions. Young children, even children not yet able to read, should manage to categorize words on the basis of a single phoneme when the phoneme coincides with the word's onset ("cat," "cup") but not when it is only part of the rime ("cat," "pit"). They should find it easier to work out that two monosyllabic words have a common vowel which is not shared by another word when all three words end with the same consonant ("lip," "hop," "tip") but the odd word has a different rime than when the three words all start with the same consonant ("cap," "can," "cot") and thus all share the same onset. The hypothesis also suggests that children should be aware of single phonemes when these coincide with the onset before they learn to read. We tested these predictions in two studies of children aged 5, 6, and 7 years. The results clearly support these predictions.     

The relationships among clinical depression, suicide, and other actions that may hasten death

Clinical depression and other psychological disorders have been associated with suicidal ideation, attempts, and deaths. Because of the link between suicide and mental illness, whenever discussion of "assisted suicide" arises, the possibility that major depression is affecting the decision arises. This article examines the literature on clinical depression as it relates to suicide, "assisted suicide," and other decisions that will hasten death (i.e. withholding and withdrawing treatment, terminal sedation, and voluntarily stopping eating and drinking). Ethical and legal considerations when working with individuals who are considering taking an action that would hasten death are also briefly reviewed. The article ends with practice and policy recommendations.     

Absolutism in diaries of suicides

Two diaries, one from a completed suicide and one from an attempted suicide, were examined for the use of three words indicating absolutist thinking (perfect, always, and never). The diary of the attempted suicide had a significantly higher frequency use of "never" (2.75 per 1,000 words versus 1.73) but not the other words.     

The fusion of pressing situation and releasing writing: on adolescent suicide poetry

The poetry of adolescents in despair may provide us with early signs of suicide; hence referral to professional help may result at an early stage. The present study concentrated on two adolescents who wrote poetry and committed suicide. The words used in these adolescents' poetry and in the poetry of two nonsuicidal adolescents were analyzed and classified into semantic fields. Significant differences were found between the suicide and the control groups. These differences showed themselves in the vigor and intensity of the loaded words in the suicide group, as well as in the more extreme occurrence of two major foci, "Death" and "Bad Situation." These foci are demonstrated in a constructed model that may guide parents and professionals in early detection of suicide.     

Multiple suicide attempts and informal labeling: an exploratory study

Attempted suicide is considered to be a form of deviant behavior. Multiple suicide attempts are evaluated within the labeling perspective. Specifically, it is determined if labeling theory can explain acts of repeated suicide attempts as a form of deviance. Two hypotheses are created to test the influence of informal labeling on multiple suicide attempts. Family and friends constitute the categories most important in informal labeling. Labeling by them is measured through a series of behavioral scales. It is hypothesized that the greater the labeling by each of these categories, the greater the likelihood of recurrence of attempted suicide. It is also predicted that the greater the "self concept as suicidal," the greater the likelihood of recurrence. Labeling by family and friends was found to be significantly related to repeat. Conclusions about the relationship between "suicidal self-concept" and repeat were not drawn.     

Conceptions of death and suicide in children ages 6-12 and their implications for suicide prevention.

Interviews were conducted with 65 public school children in Grades 1-5 concerning their understanding of and experiences with death and suicide, and investigating the development of the Piagetian concepts of life and age. By third grade, children have an elaborate understanding of suicide, and younger children generally understand "killing oneself," although their understanding of death and living may be immature. Children learn about suicide from television and discussions with other children, but they rarely discuss suicide with adults. The level of development of the concept of suicide is related to maturity rather than specific experiences. Implications for primary prevention are discussed.     

Teachers' knowledge of facts and myths about suicide

Suicidal behavior is a serious public health concern that has prompted the development of prevention strategies, which include increasing community members' knowledge about suicide. Given that teachers are in a key position to recognize and respond to suicidal behavior, this study examined teachers' knowledge about suicide to identify how they need to be educated relative to its prevention. 82 Canadian school teachers from middle and high schools were administered a revised version of the 32-item Facts on Suicide Quiz to examine their knowledge of suicide. Analysis indicated that general information about suicide was limited, while knowledge of clinically relevant information about suicide, e.g., "Suicide rarely happens without warning," was relatively high.     

Letter search through words and nonwords: The effect of fixed,absent, or mutilated targets

The present study attempted to eliminate the word superiority effect found in letter search by holding the target letter fixed across trials. The expectation was that the target would thereby become so familiar and salient that the subject would "see" only that letter during search. Even with the target-letter held fixed (Experiment I), however, search was still faster through words than through nonwords, indicating that nontarget letters had been "seen" as well. Search also remained faster through words than through nonwords when the number of exposures to the target was further increased by having the subject search for the absence rather than the presence of the target letter (Experiment III). In line with the notion of "proofreader's errors," however, search became relatively more accurate on nonwords than on words when it required detection of the "mutilation" produced by substituting an F for an E, e.g., BASKFT, BAKFRY (Experiment IV).     

THE VOCABULARIES OF ACADEMIA

Abstract— It has been demonstrated that humanists are far more likely to use filled pauses ("uh,""ah," or "um") during their lectures than are social or natural scientists This finding has been interpreted in terms of the hypothesis that filled pauses indicate time out while the speaker searches for the next word or phrase Based on the assumption that the more options at a choice point, the more likely a speaker will say "uh," it is hypothesized that the humanities are characterized by richer vocabularies (i e, more synonyms) than are the sciences An analysis of the number of different words used in lectures and in professional publications indicates that this is indeed the case Scientists consistently use fewer different words than do humanists Further, the number of different words correlates positively with the frequency of saying "uh" during lectures These findings are not restricted to academics, for in newspaper accounts, journalists use fewer different words in stories about science than in stories about the arts     

The suicide survivor's grief and recovery

While official estimates report approximately 30,000 completed suicides each year, some researchers claim the numbers range much higher. Each suicide has severe and prolonged effects on the family members and friends left behind. Those left behind, the survivors of the suicide, tend to experience a very complicated form of bereavement. This is due to the combination of the sudden shock, the unanswered question of "why," and possibly the trauma of discovering or witnessing the suicide. Survivors' grief reactions can become even more exacerbated by inappropriate responses from the community to the suicide. A mental health professional can help the survivor through this difficult grieving process by direct and indirect means.     

Mental health professionals' determinations of adolescent suicide attempts

The degree of ambiguity in the term suicide attempt was examined among 14 expert suicidologists, and 59 general mental health clinicians who either did or did not receive a standard definition of the term. The participants judged whether each of ten vignettes of actual adolescent self-harm behaviors was a suicide attempt. Low levels of agreement were found within each group, although agreement was better for the most and least serious cases. Possible explanations were examined, including how professionals weight suicidal intent and medical lethality in their suicide attempt decisions, and the use of a "fuzzy," natural language conceptualization of suicide attempts was proposed.     

Use of case vignettes in suicide risk assessment

Thirty-three brief case histories of suicidal patients were given to 19 experienced crisis workers for 7-point ratings of short- and long-term suicide risk. The ratings revealed considerable variability, raising questions about the reliability of such global assessments of suicidality. The most consistently rated cases were selected to operationally define "mild," "moderate," and "high" risk. Thus, each level was "anchored" by several vignettes. It was hoped that these anchor points would lead to more uniform future ratings among crisis workers. The correlation between short- and long-term risk ranged from near zero for some vignettes to as high as .82 (median = .46), demonstrating the need to rate both separately. Long-term risk was more difficult to rate, as demonstrated by a larger number of cases judged to be unrateable because of "insufficient information" (94 vs. 53 rater-case combinations). When the anchor vignettes were provided as a guide to the same sample of crisis workers, their ratings of suicide risk, as expected, showed significantly improved consistency.     

Lethality of suicide attempt rating scale

An 11-point (0-10) scale for measuring the degree of lethality of suicide attempts is presented. The scale has nine example "anchors" and uses the relative lethality of an extensive table of drugs. The psychometric studies show the scale to be of at least equal-interval, possibly even ratio measurement level. The equal-interval quality allows suicidal behaviors to be specified in numeric relationship to each other relieving us of the burden of using unquantified labels such as "mild," "moderate," and "serious." Having a standardized, commonly used reference scale should greatly facilitate our research and clinical efforts to communicate our findings. The scale can be used reliably by nonmedical personnel with no prior training.     

Lexical access of resyllabified words: Evidence from phoneme monitoring

Resyllabification is a phonological process in which consonants are attached to syllables other than those from which they originally came. In four experiments, we investigated whether resyllabified words, such as "my bike is" pronounced as "mai.bai.kis," are more difficult to recognize than nonresyllabified words. Using a phoneme-monitoring task, we found that phonemes in resyllabified words were detected more slowly than those in nonresyllabified words. This difference increased when recognition of the carrier word was made more difficult. Acoustic differences between the target words themselves could not account for the results, because cross-splicing the resyllabified and nonresyllabified carrier words did not change the pattern. However, when nonwords were used as carriers, the effect disappeared. It is concluded that resyllabification increases the lexical-processing demands, which then interfere with phoneme monitoring.     

From grammatical number to exact numbers: early meanings of 'one', 'two', and 'three' in English, Russian, and Japanese

This study examined whether singular/plural marking in a language helps children learn the meanings of the words 'one,' 'two,' and 'three.' First, CHILDES data in English, Russian (which marks singular/plural), and Japanese (which does not) were compared for frequency, variability, and contexts of number-word use. Then young children in the USA, Russia, and Japan were tested on Counting and Give-N tasks. More English and Russian learners knew the meaning of each number word than Japanese learners, regardless of whether singular/plural cues appeared in the task itself (e.g., "Give two apples" vs. "Give two"). These results suggest that the learning of "one," "two" and "three" is supported by the conceptual framework of grammatical number, rather than that of integers.     

Suicide and prostitution among street youth: a qualitative analysis

This study presents the results of a qualitative analysis of the narratives of 29 street youth in which they describe their experiences with, and understanding of, suicide. A history of attempted suicide was reported by 76% of the participants and the analysis revealed themes of isolation, rejection/betrayal, lack of control, and most centrally, low self-worth as forming the basis of their experiences concerning suicide. Additionally it was found that trading sex, in which most participants had been or were currently involved, was linked with their suicidal experiences and may account for the high attempt rate. Finally, variables related to suicide were found that have not been examined previously in the literature on street youth, including loss of control, assault during prostituted sex, drug abuse as a "slow suicide," and breakups in intimate relationships.     

The Reasons for Living Inventory: psychometric properties

The test-retest reliability, internal consistency reliability, normative, and item analysis data of the Reasons for Living Inventory were investigated in a sample of 116 college students. The inventory has six subscales, each of which assesses a category of adaptive beliefs and expectations considered reasons for not committing suicide. The inventory was administered twice, with a 3-week interval between testings. Test-retest coefficients for the men, women, and total sample were moderate to high. The alpha coefficients and item-total correlations for the subscales and the total inventory provided strong support for internal consistency. 26 items were consistently endorsed by 30% or more of our total sample as "extremely important," while only four were suggested as "not at all important" reasons for not committing suicide.     

Word-to-word variation in ERP component latencies: spoken words

Data were collected shedding light on the brain electrical activity underlying word recognition. Subjects listened to a list of 48 spoken words in six random orders under two instructional sets: first to "think about the meanings of the words," and second, to learn the list. The scalp EEG associated with hearing and identifying the words was recorded at F3, F4, Cz, P3, P4, Pz, and Oz. Standard within-subjects time-locked averaging across words showed a late negative-positive complex with N2-P3 topography, the negative component peaking around 480 msec, the positive component peaking around 830 msec. Averaging within words across subjects uncovered considerable latency variability in both components. Within-word N2 and P3 component latencies covaried with word durations and with the "recognition points" predicted for the words by the "cohort theory" of word recognition. N2 latencies corresponded closely to the "N400" effect elicited with semantically incongruous sentence-final spoken words. Implications for ERP investigations of language processing are discussed.