Specific-word frequency is not all that counts in speech production: comments on Caramazza,Costa, et al. (2001) and new experimental data

A. Caramazza, A. Costa, M. Miozzo, and Y. Bi (2001) reported a series of experiments demonstrating that the ease of producing a word depends only on the frequency of that specific word but not on the frequency of a homophone twin. A. Caramazza, A. Costa, et al. concluded that homophones have separate word form presentations and that the absence of frequency-inheritance effects for homophones undermines an important argument in support of 2-stage models of lexical access, which assume that syntactic (lemma) representations mediate between conceptual and phonological representations. The authors of this article evaluate the empirical basis of this conclusion, report 2 experiments demonstrating a frequency-inheritance effect, and discuss other recent evidence. It is concluded that homophones share a common word form and that the distinction between lemmas and word forms should be upheld.     

A cross-linguistic data bank for oral picture naming in Dutch, English, German, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish (PEDOI)

The well established effect of word frequency on adult's picture naming performance is now called into question. This is particularly true for variables which are correlated with frequency, as is the case of age of word acquisition. Since the work of [Carrol and White, 1973] there is growing agreement among researchers to confer an important role in lexical access to this variable. Indeed, it has been shown ( [Hodgson and Ellis, 1998]) that for normal English-speaking adults only the variables 'age-of-acquisition' and 'name agreement' are independent predictors of naming success among the various variables considered. However, when brain-damaged subjects with and without degenerative pathologies are studied, word frequency and word length as well as concept familiarity all give significant effects ( [Hirsh and Funnell, 1995]; [Lambon Ralph et al., 1998]; [Nickels and Howard, 1995]). Finally, it has been suggested that the production of specific error types may be related to such variables. According to [Nickels and Howard, 1994] the production of semantic errors is specifically affected by 'imageability' and in the recent study by [Kremin et al., 2001] 'age of acquisition' predicts (frank) word finding difficulties.     

Versuche zur multidimensionalen Skalierung von subjektiven Reizähnlichkeiten auf Grund von Schätzurteilen,Entscheidungszeiten und Verwechslungshäufigkeiten beim Wiedererkennen

Zusammenfassung Es wird über drei Experimente berichtet, in denen auf verschiedene Art und Weise subjektive Ähnlichkeitsbeziehungen zwischen Reizen ermittelt worden sind. Während im Versuch I Distanzen zwischen den Objekten auf Grund direkter Ähnlichkeitsschätzungen gewonnen wurden, sind im Experiment II die Ähnlichkeitsbeziehungen aus Entscheidungszeiten definiert worden, die von der Darbietung der Reizpaare bis zur Urteilsabgabe benötigt worden sind. Im Versuch III ist schließlich die Anzahl der Verwechslungen beim Wiedererkennen als quantitativer Ausdruck für die Ähnlichkeit verwandt worden.Mit Methoden der multidimensionalen Skalierung sind die aus den Ähnlichkeitsmatrizen analysierbaren Ordnungsgesichtspunkte ermittelt worden. Ihre psychologische Deutung ist durch Benennung der Skalen und durch Versuche zur Rekonstruktion der Urteils- bzw. Wiedererkennungsprozesse versucht worden. In den ersten beiden Versuchen konnten je drei interpretierbare Dimensionen ermittelt werden. Experiment III erbrachte einen weiteren vierten Faktor. Beim Vergleich der drei Ähnlichkeitsstrukturen konnten für jeweils zwei Skalen inhaltliche Übereinstimmungen erkannt werden. Dabei zeigten die auf Entscheidungszeiten zurückgehenden Dimensionen den jeweils geringsten Differenzierungsgrad mit nur wenigen Unterscheidungsklassen. Die verbleibenden Faktoren konnten weitgehend auf spezielle Bedingungen des jeweiligen Versuches zurückgeführt werden.

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Experiments in multidimensional scaling of subjective stimulus similarities based on ratings, descion times, and confusions in recognition

Summary This is a paper showing in different ways subjective relations of similarity between stimuli. While in experiment No. I distances between objects have been won due to direct ratings of similarity, the relations of similarity in experiment No. II have been defined from the time of presentation of the pairs of stimuli until the stating of judgement. In experiment No. III, finally, the number of mistakes in recognition were used as a quantitative expression of similarity.The analyzable aspects of classification, which were used by the Ss, have been won by means of procedures of multidimensional scaling. A psychological interpretation has been tried by denominating the scales and by tyring to reconstruct the processes of judgement respectively recognition. In each of the first two experiments three interpretable dimensions were found. Experiment No.III showed a further fourth factor. When comparing the three structures of similarity, agreement in content could be found out for the first two scales as well as for the second ones. The dimensions going back to the decision times showed the least rate of differentiation with only few classes of discrimination. The remaining factors could be attributed mostly to the special conditions of each of the experiments.

     

The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: Blocking or partial activation?

Tip-of-the-tongue states may represent the momentary unavailability of an otherwise accessible word or the weak activation of an otherwise inaccessible word. In three experiments designed to address these alternative views, subjects attempted to retrieve rare target words from their definitions. The definitions were followed by cues that were related to the targets in sound, by cues that were related in meaning, and by cues that were not related to the targets. Experiment 1 found that compared with unrelated cues, related cue words that were presented immediately after target definitions helped rather than hindered lexical retrieval, and that sound cues were more effective retrieval aids than meaning cues. Experiment 2 replicated these results when cues were presented after an initial target-retrieval attempt. These findings reverse a previous one (Jones, 1989) that was reproduced in Experiment 3 and shown to stem from a small group of unusually difficult target definitions.     

TECHNOLOGY,THEOLOGY, AND SPIRITUALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Digitalization and the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will bring about substantial changes in all aspects of life. This happens in a world marked by the poisonous synergy of five Ps, polarization, populism, protectionism, post‐truth, patriarchy, as well as an ambiguous interplay of secularization and new visibility of religion. If development of AI is to be beneficial for people and planet a number of challenges must be met. In this regard, religion‐and‐science dialogue needs improvement in making things not only intellectually but also spiritually fit. Ethics should be involved from the beginning rather than being called upon first when problems arise. Faith communities have a prophetical, diaconal, ethical, and theological role. Based on the characterization of life as a fourfold web of relationality, personal, social, political, as well as global issues are identified and discussed. These include mental health disorders, addiction, manipulation, and self‐exploitation. Reflections on leadership suggest resilience, coexistence, and hope as theological key components for navigating the uncharted realms of the digital age.     

Identifying ICT-Related Affective Events Across Life Domains and Examining their Unique Relationships with Employee Recovery

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of information and communication technology (ICT) use for employees by exploring affective ICT events and their relation to employee recovery. We conducted two daily diary studies with knowledge workers in Germany. In study 1 (N = 153), we followed a qualitative approach by developing a taxonomy of negative and positive ICT events at work and at home. We found 11 negative (e.g., multichannel use, work e-mails in the evening) and 10 positive ICT event clusters (e.g., utilizing idle times, availability at home). In study 2 (N = 154), we examined how the occurrence of ICT-related events in the evening is related to detachment from work and sleep quality using a multilevel design. Study 2 provided a differentiated picture of relationships between evening ICT events and recovery. Overall, results indicate that work-related ICT events in the evening—even in cases where they are appraised as positive—are detrimental for employee recovery. Our study contributes to the refinement of the operationalization of ICT use for future analyses of ICT impacts and sheds light on the differential effects of specific types of ICT events. ICT use conceptualized as the occurrence of affective events helps to advance our understanding of the diversity of ICT-related experiences. The negative effects of handling work e-mails at home imply that organizations should engage in optimizing their “e-mail culture.”     

Unambiguous generalization effects after treatment of non-canonical sentence production in German agrammatism

Agrammatism is-among others, characterized by a deficit in producing grammatical structures. Of specific difficulty is the utilization of complex, non-canonical sentence structures (e.g. object-questions, passives, object-clefts). Several studies have documented positive effects when applying a specific treatment protocol in terms of increasingly correct production of target complex sentence structures with some variance in generalization patterns noted across individuals. The objective of this intervention study was to evaluate an intervention program focussing on the production of non-canonical sentences. Hypotheses about the occurrence of treatment effects were formulated on the basis of syntactic complexity, referring to the amount of syntactic phrase structures necessary to generate specific German sentence structures. A multiple single case study with seven agrammatic participants was applied, each participant receiving training in the production of object-relative-clauses and who-questions. The investigation was designed to unambiguously evaluate for each individual, structure specific and generalized learning effects with respect to the production of object-relative-clauses, who-questions and passive sentences. Results showed significant improvements for all sentences types. This outcome is considered within methodological issues of treatment studies. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.     

Top-down effects of semantic knowledge in visual search are modulated by cognitive but not perceptual load

Moores, Laiti, and Chelazzi (2003) found semantic interference from associate competitors during visual object search, demonstrating the existence of top-down semantic influences on the deployment of attention to objects. We examined whether effects of semantically related competitors (same-category members or associates) interacted with the effects of perceptual or cognitive load. We failed to find any interaction between competitor effects and perceptual load. However, the competitor effects increased significantly when participants were asked to retain one or five digits in memory throughout the search task. Analyses of eye movements and viewing times showed that a cognitive load did not affect the initial allocation of attention but rather the time it took participants to accept or reject an object as the target. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of conceptual short-term memory and visual attention.     

Can Virtual Reality Increase the Realism of Role Plays Used to Teach College Women Sexual Coercion and Rape-Resistance Skills?

The present study evaluated whether virtual reality (VR) can enhance the realism of role plays designed to help college women resist sexual attacks. Sixty-two female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either the Role Play (RP) or Virtual Role Play (VRP) conditions, which were differentiated only by the use of VR technology in the VRP condition. A multimethod assessment strategy was used to evaluate the effects of VR on the experienced realism of sexually threatening role plays. Realism was assessed by participant self-reports of negative affect and perceptions of realism, direct observation of participants' verbal displays of negative affect during the role plays, and measurements of participant heart rate during the role plays. Results indicated that VR can indeed heighten the realism of sexually threatening role plays. Discussion focuses on issues regarding the use of VR-enhanced role plays for helping college women resist sexual attacks.