Detection and resolution of audio-visual incompatibility in the perception of vowels

If audio and video recordings of a talker speaking consonant-vowel syllables containing different consontants are approximately synchronised, observers may fail to detect conflict between the modalities and perceive consonants presented in neither individual modality. The present experiments demonstrate an analogous effect in the perception of vowels. Vision can bias the identity of an acoustical vowel to be more like the vowel presented visually, even when observers detect conflict and are instructed to report only what they hear. The size of the effect is positively related to the size of the physical difference between the visible configuration of the lips and the configuration that would naturally accompany the acoustical vowel. In demonstrating these and other phenomena in audio-visual speech perception, observers behave as if they compute a continuous estimate of the filter function of the vocal tract from both visual and acoustical evidence. If the visual evidence is potent, observers may appear to interpret the acoustical evidence in novel ways. However, these compromises can be predicted from known patterns of acoustical similarity and visual distinctiveness and do not require ad hoc explanations involving categorical levels of perceptual process.     

Establishing and Evaluating the Key Functions of an Interactive Systems Framework Using an Assets-Getting to Outcomes Intervention

Community practitioners can face difficulty in achieving outcomes demonstrated by prevention science. Building a community practitioner's prevention capacity—the knowledge and skills needed to conduct critical prevention practices—could improve the quality of prevention and its outcomes. The purpose of this article is to: (1) describe how an intervention called Assets‐Getting To Outcomes (AGTO) was used to establish the key functions of the ISF and present early lessons learned from that intervention's first 6 months and (2) examine whether there is an empirical relationship between practitioner capacity at the individual level and the performance of prevention at the program level—a relationship predicted by the ISF but untested. The article describes an operationalization of the ISF in the context of a five‐year randomized controlled efficacy trial that combines two complementary models designed to build capacity: Getting To Outcomes (GTO) and Developmental Assets. The trial compares programs and individual practitioners from six community‐based coalitions using AGTO with programs and practitioners from six similar coalitions that are not. In this article, we primarily focus on what the ISF calls innovation specific capacity and discuss how the combined AGTO innovation structures and uses feedback about its capacity‐building activities, which can serve as a model for implementing the ISF. Focus group discussions used to gather lessons learned from the first 6 months of the AGTO intervention suggest that while the ISF may have been conceptualized as three distinct systems, in practice they are less distinct. Findings from the baseline wave of data collection of individual capacity and program performance suggest that practitioner capacity predicts, in part, performance of prevention programs. Empirically linking practitioner capacity and performance of prevention provides empirical support for both the ISF and AGTO. Special Issue: Advances in Bridging Research and Practice Using the Interactive System Framework for Dissemination and Implementation; Guest Editors: Abraham Wandersman, Paul Flaspohler, Catherine A. Lesesne, Richard Puddy; Action Editor: Emilie Phillips Smith     

Adult Attachment Ratings (AAR): An Item Response Theory Analysis

The Adult Attachment Ratings (AAR) include 3 scales for anxious, ambivalent attachment (excessive dependency, interpersonal ambivalence, and compulsive care-giving), 3 for avoidant attachment (rigid self-control, defensive separation, and emotional detachment), and 1 for secure attachment. The scales include items (ranging from 6–16 in their original form) scored by raters using a 3-point format (0 = absent, 1 = present, and 2 = strongly present) and summed to produce a total score. Item response theory (IRT) analyses were conducted with data from 414 participants recruited from psychiatric outpatient, medical, and community settings to identify the most informative items from each scale. The IRT results allowed us to shorten the scales to 5-item versions that are more precise and easier to rate because of their brevity. In general, the effective range of measurement for the scales was 0 to +2 SDs for each of the attachment constructs; that is, from average to high levels of attachment problems. Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity of the scales was investigated by comparing them with the Experiences of Close Relationships–Revised (ECR–R) scale and the Kobak Attachment Q-sort. The best consensus among self-reports on the ECR–R, informant ratings on the ECR–R, and expert judgments on the Q-sort and the AAR emerged for anxious, ambivalent attachment. Given the good psychometric characteristics of the scale for secure attachment, however, this measure alone might provide a simple alternative to more elaborate procedures for some measurement purposes. Conversion tables are provided for the 7 scales to facilitate transformation from raw scores to IRT-calibrated (theta) scores.     

Acoustic masking disrupts time-dependent mechanisms of memory encoding in word-list recall

Recall of recently heard words is affected by the clarity of presentation: Even if all words are presented with sufficient clarity for successful recognition, those that are more difficult to hear are less likely to be recalled. Such a result demonstrates that memory processing depends on more than whether a word is simply “recognized” versus “not recognized.” More surprising is that, when a single item in a list of spoken words is acoustically masked, prior words that were heard with full clarity are also less likely to be recalled. To account for such a phenomenon, we developed the linking-by-active-maintenance model (LAMM). This computational model of perception and encoding predicts that these effects will be time dependent. Here we challenged our model by investigating whether and how the impact of acoustic masking on memory depends on presentation rate. We found that a slower presentation rate causes a more disruptive impact of stimulus degradation on prior, clearly heard words than does a fast rate. These results are unexpected according to prior theories of effortful listening, but we demonstrated that they can be accounted for by LAMM.     

Attentional disengagement deficit in nondemented elderly over 75 years of age

Healthy older adults in the age range of 60-75 years are moderately deficient in visuospatial attention when central location cues are used to shift attention, but not when peripheral cues are used. In contrast, older adults with dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) exhibit an attention shifting (disengagement) deficit for both central and peripheral cues. If the effects of dementia and normal aging on visuospatial attention differ qualitatively, then peripherally cued shifts of attention should be unaffected even in very old nondemented persons. to examine this possibility, subjects in six age groups (17-24, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65-74, and 75-85 years) were tested on a visuospatial attention task. Valid, invalid and neutral location cues preceded a letter target requiring, in separate conditions, either speeded detection or discrimination. Combined costs and benefits of cue validity on reaction time (RT) increased with age in the discrimination but not in the detection task. the oldest group (75-85) showed significantly larger RT costs and benefits than the next oldest group (65-74), for both central and peripheral cues. the 75-85 year-olds were significantly slower than the 65-75 year-olds on invalid trials (costs) but not on valid trials (benefits), pointing to a disengagement deficit, as reported previously for patients with either parietal lobe damage or DAT. the results suggest that in healthy nondemented subjects of advanced age (over 75 years), visuospatial attention is affected similarly to younger patients in the early, mild stages of Alzheimer's disease.     

The Role of Personality Factors in the Dynamics of Context and Psychological Well-Being

The purpose of this study was to determine personality factors that mediate between context and psychological well-being. A convenience sample of 514 mutlicultural participants from Potchefstroom (n=384) and Mafikeng (n=130) comprising mainly of black and white students was drawn. The participants completed measures on extraversion and agreeableness and psychological well-being in a cross-sectional survey. Context was defined in terms of differentials pertaining to race, socioeconomic differentials and infrastructural resources. Regression analyses indicated the viability of relationships among context, personality and psychological well-being. Structural equation models showed that both extraversion and agreeableness mediate the relationship between context and psychological well-being. Future research using longitudinal designs may study the importance of social context, personality factors and psychological well-being within and between groups.     

Psychometric Properties of Various Scales Measuring Psychological Well-Being in a South African Context: The FORT 1 Project

The aim of this study was to do a first phase screening of psychometric properties of various scales measuring facets of psychological well-being so as to address further questions in the FORT 1 project (FORT 1 = Clarifying the nature of psychological strengths). All scales (except one) were developed in a Western context, and measure facets of cognitive, affective, conative, social, and spiritual psychological well-being. As it could not be assumed that scales are valid in South African contexts, a broad screening of their psychometric properties was necessary before specific questions could be adressed. A convenience sample (N=514) including white (n=384) and black (n=130) students and adults from the North West Province and Gauteng areas completed all questionnaires. Psychometric properties of scales varied from acceptable to unacceptable for use in a specific subgroup.     

Individuals with congenital amusia imitate pitches more accurately in singing than in speaking: Implications for music and language processing

In this study, we investigated the impact of congenital amusia, a disorder of musical processing, on speech and song imitation in speakers of a tone language, Mandarin. A group of 13 Mandarin-speaking individuals with congenital amusia and 13 matched controls were recorded while imitating a set of speech and two sets of song stimuli with varying pitch and rhythm patterns. The results indicated that individuals with congenital amusia were worse than controls in both speech and song imitation, in terms of both pitch matching (absolute and relative) and rhythm matching (relative time and number of time errors). Like the controls, individuals with congenital amusia achieved better absolute and relative pitch matching and made fewer pitch interval and contour errors in song than in speech imitation. These findings point toward domain-general pitch (and time) production deficits in congenital amusia, suggesting the presence of shared pitch production mechanisms but distinct requirements for pitch-matching accuracy in language and music processing.     

Simulation of adatom clustering on a stepped surface

Study of the interaction and evolution behaviour of adatoms is fundamental to many surface phenomena. In the present paper, a continuum mechanics method, based on the force dipole concept, is presented to study the evolution of adatoms adsorbed on a smooth or stepped surface. The effects of elastic and van der Waals interactions are examined. It is found that the elastic interaction among adatoms usually serves as the main driving force for the clustering behaviour of adatoms and that the presence of surface defects, such as steps, may significantly influence the evolutionary arrangement of interacting adatoms.     

Phase-field model for ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys

A computational model is developed to predict the ferroelastic and ferromagnetic domain structures in ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys by combining the phase-field approach, micromagnetics and the microelasticity theory of Khachaturyan [Theory of Structural Transformations in Solid (Wiley, New York, 1983)]. As an example, the NiMnGa ferromagnetic shape-memory alloy is considered. Both the magnetic domain structures and martensite microstructures are studied. The emphasis is on the overall strain response and associated evolution of both magnetic domain structure and martensite microstructure under an applied magnetic field with different initial conditions. The results are compared with existing experiment measurements and observations.