TEACHING SOCIAL LANGUAGE TO MODERATELY HANDICAPPED STUDENTS

Three students with moderate handicaps were taught to initiate and expand on conversational topics. The teaching procedure used stimuli generated from actual conversations with nonhandicapped peers. Generalization was assessed by audiotaping conversations between the handicapped students and their peers in natural school contexts without adult supervision. Results indicated that training generalized to natural contexts. These results were socially validated by undergraduate special education students, who rated tapes of two of the students' conversations during training phases as more socially competent than during baseline. Results are discussed in terms of the evaluation of complex social behavior as multioperant behaviors.     

Trading relations in the perception of speech by 5-year-old children

Five-year-old children were tested for perceptual trading relations between a temporal cue (silence duration) and a spectral cue (F₁ onset frequency) for the “say-stay” distinction. Identification functions were obtained for two synthetic “say-stay” continua, each containing systematic variations in the amount of silence following the /s/ noise. In one continuum, the vocalic portion had a lower F₁ onset than in the other continuum. Children showed a smaller trading relation than has been found with adults. They did not differ from adults, however, in their perception of an “ay-day” continuum formed by varying F₁ onset frequency only. The results of a discrimination task in which the two acoustic cues were made to “cooperate” or “conflict” phonetically supported the notion of perceptual equivalence of the temporal and spectral cues along a single phonetic dimension. The results indicate that young children, like adults, perceptually integrate multiple cues to a speech contrast in a phonetically relevant manner, but that they may not give the same perceptual weights to the various cues as do adults.     

Lies and bullshit: The negative effects of misinformation grow stronger over time

In a world where exposure to untrustworthy communicators is common, trust has become more important than ever for effective marketing. Nevertheless, we know very little about the long-term consequences of exposure to untrustworthy sources, such bullshitters. This research examines how untrustworthy sources—liars and bullshitters—influence consumer attitudes toward a product. Frankfurt's (1986) insidious bullshit hypothesis (i.e., bullshitting is evaluated less negatively than lying but bullshit can be more harmful than are lies) is examined within a traditional sleeper effect—a persuasive influence that increases, rather than decays over time. We obtained a sleeper effect after participants learned that the source of the message was either a liar or a bullshitter. However, compared to the liar source condition, the same message from a bullshitter resulted in more extreme immediate and delayed attitudes that were in line with an otherwise discounted persuasive message (i.e., an advertisement). Interestingly, attitudes returned to control condition levels when a bullshitter was the source of the message, suggesting that knowing an initially discounted message may be potentially accurate/inaccurate (as is true with bullshit, but not lies) does not result in the long-term discounting of that message. We discuss implications for marketing and other contexts of persuasion.     

We need to move beyond rating scales,white faces and adult perceivers: Invited Commentary on Sutherland & Young (2022), understanding trait impressions from faces

Sutherland and Young's perspective is a timely and rigorous examination of trait impressions based on facial cues. We propose three strtegies to further advance the field: incorporating natural language processing, including diverse facial stimuli, and re-interpreting developmental data.     

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.     

Nonwork-to-work spillover: A more balanced view of the experiences and coping of professional women and men

A more balanced view of nonwork-to-work spillover was advanced here. The concentration of research on the negative side may serve to support some damaging assumptions about professional women. A sample of 221 experienced managers indicated how parenting, community work, and recreation affected work both positively and negatively, and the extent they used certain coping strategies. Women comprised 35% of the sample and ethnic minorities comprised 18%. The managers agreed more strongly with statements about positive nonwork-to-work spillover than with those about the negative side. Women and men reported largely the same levels of nonwork involvement, time commitment, satisfaction, positive spillover, and use of the coping strategies. Compared to men, women did report lower negative spillover overall, and greater use of the strategies when they were parents. The findings suggest that employers should be less concerned with how active women are in nonwork, and more concerned with how well both men and women manage their various life domains.     

The protestant work ethic as a cultural phenomenon

A central contention of much of the literature about the nature of work values and the meaning of work is that there is (or at least has been) a consensual work ethic operating in modern industrial societies. This premise has surprisingly, rarely been put to the test. In this paper, evidence for a modern work ethic is obtained from the European Values Survey. The link between this work ethic and religion is then explored. While one conclusion of the analysis is that it is still an identifiably Protestant ethic, contextual analysis demonstrates that the effect of a country's religious culture is more potent than the religious beliefs of the individual.     

Book reviews

Modern American Religion, Vol. 3. Under God, Indivisible, 1941–1960 Martin E. Marty, 1996 Chicago: University of Chicago Press 548 pp. + xii. £27.96, US$34.95 ISBN 0–22–50898–6

Perspectives on New Religious Movements John A. Sauba, 1995 London: Geoffrey Chapman 240 pp., £12.99 (pb), £35.00 (hb) ISBN 0–225–66787–8 (pb),’ ISBN 0–225–66786‐X (hb)

New Religions and the New Europe Robert Towler, ed., 1995 Aarhus: Aarhus University Press 246 pp., £19.95 ISBN 87 7288 433 9

A New Dictionary of Religions John R. Hinnells, ed., 1995 Oxford: Blackwell 760 pp., US$74.95 (hb) ISBN 0–631–18139–3

Den Fremden verstehen: Eine Praktische Hermeneutik Theo Sundermeier, 1996 Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht 260 pp. ISBN 3–525–01619–0

Religion and Mass Media: Audiences and Adaptations Daniel A. Stout & Judith M. Buddenbaum, eds, 1996 Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications 294 pp., £37.00 (hb), £18.50 (pb) ISBN 0–8039–7173–7 (hb), 0–8039–7174–5 (pb)

Contemporary Mainstream Religion: Studies from Humberside and Lincolnshire Peter G. Forster, ed., 1995 Aldershot: Avebury xxxvii +135 pp., £30.00 ISBN 1–8562–919–2

One Earth Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue and Global Responsibility Paul F. Kntiter, 1995 Maryknoll, New York: Orbis xiv + 218 pp., US$17.00 ISBN 1–57075–037–8

A Wider Vision: A History of the World Congress of Faiths 1936–1996 Marcus Braybrooke, 1996 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 192 pp., £10.99, US$16.95 ISBN 1–85168–119–1

The Phenomenon of Teilhard: Prophet for a New Age David H. Lane, 1996 Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press xvi +192 pp., US$21.95 ISBN 0–86554–498–0

The Wisdom of the Wyrd: Teachings for Today from our Ancient Past Brian Bates, 1996 London: Rider xiii +306 pp., £12.99 ISBN 0‐712E‐7277‐X

Desinformation als Methode. Die Bahā'ísmus‐Monographie des F. Ficicchia Udo Schaefer, Nicola Towfigh, Ulrich Gollmer, 1995 Hildesheim Georg Olms Verlag xiii + 685 pp., DM 65.00 (hb) ISBN 3–487–10041‐X

The New Latin American Mission History (Latin American Studies Series) Erick Langer & Robert H. Jackson, eds, 1995 Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press 212 pp., £15.95 (pb), £32.95 (hb) ISBN 0–8032–7953–1 (pb), ISBN 0–8032–2911–9 (hb)

Gender Rituals: Female Initiation in Melanesia Nancy C. Lutkehaus & Paul B. Roscoe, eds, 1995 New York Routledge 265 pp., £13.99 (pb), £37.50 (hb) ISBN 0–415–91107–9 (pb), ISBN 0–415–91106–0 (hb)

Daughters of Anowa: African Women and Patriarchy Mercy Amba Oduyoye, 1995 Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books 229 pp., US$18.00 (pb) ISBN 0–88344–999–4

Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non‐Western Religion Kwame Bediako, 1995 Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; Maryknoll: Orbis Books 276 pp., £16.95 ISBN 0–7486–0625–4

The Christian Heritage in the Holy Land Anthony O'Mahony with Goran Gunner & Kevork Hintuan, eds, 1995 Epping, Essex: Scorpion Cavendish xi + 320 pp., £15.95 ISBN 1–900269–06–6 (pb)

Patterns of the Sacred: English Protestant and Russian Orthodox Pilgrims of the Nineteenth Century Ruth & Thomas Hummel, 1995 Epping, Essex: Scorpion Cavendish ix + 76 pp., £10.00 ISBN 1–900269–08–2 (pb)

Pilgrimage Past and Present: Sacred Travel and Sacred Space in the World Religions Simon Coleman & John Elsner, 1995 London: British Museum Press 240 pp., Illus., £20.00 ISBN 0–7141–1738–2