REPEATED MEMORY OF ORAL PROSE IN GHANA AND NEW YORK1

On a lu en anglais un court passage de prose à difféients groupes d'étudiants ghanéens et new yorkais. Ensuite, et par trois fois, on leur demande de dire ce qu'ils ont retenu. Le premier rappel a lieu après 30–45 minutes, le second et le troisiàme après plusieurs semaines. On a utilisé trois histoires différentes, mais chaque groupe de sujets n'en entendait qu'une seule. Les résultats montrent que, conformément à L'idée que la tradition orale est plus forte en Afrique Occidentale qu'à New York, les étudiants ghanéens retenaient mieux que les américains. Pour deux des histoires, on a enregistré peu de perte de rétention des thèmes entre le 1^er et le 3^e rappel; pour la troisiéme, entre le 2^e et le 3^e rappel. Mais la capacité à reteñir les thèmes de L'histoire ne s'explique pas uniquement par puré routine de mémoire. On peut penser que L'ordonnancement de L'histoire, loin de constituer un obstacle comme c'est souvent le cas quand on doit retenir dans L'ordre des faits sans liaison entre eux, favorisait ici la rétention des thèmes.     

Effects of uncertain warning signals on reaction time

Three experiments were conducted in an attempt to assess the effectiveness of a warning signal in reducing reaction time when (1) the signal to respond (danger signal) follows the warning signal with a probability less than 1.0, and (2) the interval between warning and danger signals (W-D interval) is variable. The required response was the depression of a foot pedal, as in automobile braking. It was determined that probabilistic warning information could be effective if observers made use of the W-D interval to prepare to make the response required by the danger signal. It was noted, however, that observers differed considerably in their tendency to do this. A model was proposed for describing different response strategies.     

Ethics in health care and medical technologies

In this paper a case is used to demonstrate how ethical analysis enables health care professionals, patients and family members to make treatment decisions which ensure that medical technologies are used in the overall best interests of the patient. The claim is made and defended that ethical analysis can secure four beneficial outcomes when medical technologies are employed: (1) not allowing any medical technologies to be employed until the appropriate decision makers are identified and consulted; (2) insisting that medical technologies be employed not merely to promote the medical interests of the patient but rather on the basis of their ability to contribute to the overall well-being of the patient; (3) challenging caregivers to reflect on the dynamic interplay between their conscious and unconscious values and consequent determinations of what is in the patient's best interests; and (4) providing a justification for selected interventions which makes possible rational dialogue between caregivers espousing different viewpoints about treatment options.     

Young infants’ perception of liquid coarticulatory influences on following stop consonants

Phonetic segments are coarticulated in speech. Accordingly, the articulatory and acoustic properties of the speech signal during the time frame traditionally identified with a given phoneme are highly context-sensitive. For example, due to carryover coarticulation, the front tongue-tip position for HI results in more fronted tongue-body contact for a /g/ preceded by /l/ than for a /g/ preceded by /r/. Perception by mature listeners shows a complementary sensitivity—when a synthetic /da/-/ga/ continuum is preceded by either /al/ or /ar/, adults hear more /g/s following HI rather than Irl. That is, some of the fronting information in the temporal domain of the stop is perceptually attributed to /l/ (Mann, 1980). We replicated this finding and extended it to a signaldetection test of discrimination with adults, using triads of disyllables. Three equidistant items from a /da/-/ga/ continuum were used preceded by /al/ and /ar/. In the identification test, adults had identified item ga5 as “ga”, and dal as “da”, following both /al/ and /ar/, whereas they identified the crucial item d/ga3 predominantly as “ga” after /al/ but as “da” after /ar/. In the discrimination test, they discriminated d/ga3 from dal preceded by /al/ but not /ar/; compatibly, they discriminated d/ga3 readily from ga5 preceded by /ar/ but poorly preceded by /al/. We obtained similar results with 4-month-old infants. Following habituation to either ald/ga3 or ard/ga3, infants heard either the corresponding ga5 or dal disyllable. As predicted, the infants discrimi-nated d/ga3 from dal following /al/ but not /ar/; conversely, they discriminated d/ga3 from ga5 following /ar/ but not /al/. The results suggest that prelinguistic infants disentangle consonant-consonant coarticulatory influences in speech in an adult-like fashion.     

Effects of Race,Racial Identity Development,and Orientation Style on Perceived Consultant Effectiveness

This study explores Black teachers' preferences for and ratings of consultant effectiveness as a function of consultant race, consultant style, and teacher stage of racial identity development. No significant differences were noted in preferences for either a same- or opposite-race consultant. Participants preferred and rated as more effective an instrumentally oriented consultant.     

Nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts in adolescents

To determine the frequency and correlates of nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts in 12–14 year olds, a two stage epidemiologic survey with a self-administered questionnaire (N=3283) followed by a psychiatric interview of a subsample of the adolescents and their parents (N=444) was used. Prevalence estimates of interview validated nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts were 2.46% in males and 2.79% in females. Significant relationships were found between nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts and suicidal ideation, major depression and undesirable life events. Data suggest that physically self-damaging acts occur at substantial rates during early adolescence. The strong correlation between nonsuicidal self-destructive acts and both suicidal ideation and major depression clarifies prior conflicting reports in the literature and suggests that a history of self-damaging acts should be taken into consideration when evaluating for possible depression and suicide risk.