Prognostic indicators for stuttering: the value of computer-based speech analysis

There are currently no known acoustic parameters by which stuttering children can be appraised in order to predict the further course of their speech disfluency. The present study investigates the usefulness of a computer-based speech analysis of fluent utterances. Correlations between acoustic variables, severity, and course of stuttering were sought in a prospective longitudinal study. This analyzed 57 preschool children at 6-month intervals over a period of 4.6 years. The acoustic analyses yielded no clearly distinguishing characteristics. There was, however, one subgroup consisting of children who were still disfluent at study end which showed more variable values at various measurement points for different parameters. Speech control seems to be different in children exhibiting chronic stuttering.     

Instructions to authors

Instructions for Authors

Instructions to authors     

Instructions to authors

Instructions for Authors

Instructions to authors     

Pappus in optical space

Optical space differs from physical space. The structure of optical space has generally been assumed to be metrical. In contradistinction, we do not assume any metric, but only incidence relations (i.e., we assume that optical points and lines exist and that two points define a unique line, and two lines a unique point). (The incidence relations have generally been assumed implicitly by earlier authors.) The condition that makes such an incidence structure into a projective space is the Pappus condition. The Pappus condition describes a projective relation between three collinear triples of points, whose validity can--in principle--be verified empirically. The Pappus condition is a necessary condition for optical space to be a homogeneous space (Lobatchevski hyperbolic or Riemann elliptic space) as assumed by, for example, the well-known Luneburg theory. We test the Pappus condition in a full-cue situation (open field, broad daylight, distances of up to 20 m, visual fields of up to 160 degrees diameter). We found that although optical space is definitely not veridical, even under full-cue conditions, violations of the Pappus condition are the exception. Apparently optical space is not totally different from a homogeneous space, although it is in no way close to Euclidean.     

Predicting anxiety and depression from personality: is there a synergistic effect of neuroticism and extraversion?

In a longitudinal study of college students, B. S. Gershuny and K. J. Sher (1998) found that high neuroticism and low extraversion had a synergistic effect in predicting anxiety and depression 3 years later. This article attempted to replicate their finding using data from 2 community samples: (a) a cross-sectional survey of 2,677 persons aged 18-79 years, and (b) a longitudinal study in which 441 persons aged 70 or older were followed over 3-4 years. Both studies found that neuroticism predicted anxiety and depression, but there were no Neuroticism x Extraversion interaction effects. These results cast doubt on the generalizability of the original findings.     

Psychiatric Hospitalization and School and Community Adjustment of Children and Adolescents with Acquired Brain Injury

There is a high prevalence of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents who have acquired brain injury (ABI). We examined the records of 82 students with ABI who were admitted to a community-based school for education and neurorehabilitation over a three-year period to determine how many experienced one or more psychiatric hospitalizations before admission, and whether hospitalization status was related to positive school and community adjustment. Results were that 30.4% of the students had a documented history of one or more psychiatric hospitalizations. Of this group, 60.0% were able to be maintained in the community-based school program and 40.0% were discharged to other settings. When discharged, 70.0% of students entered more restrictive treatment programs (e.g., psychiatric hospital, secure residential facility, residential school). The number of psychiatric hospitalizations did not predict discharge from the community-based school and was unrelated to the type of discharge setting. Clinical and research issues concerning psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents with ABI in relation to post-acute adjustment are discussed.     

Hot dogs and zavy cats: preschoolers' and adults' expectations about familiar and novel adjectives

In recent years, a growing body of research has begun to examine the processes that underlie young children's acquisition of adjectival meanings. In the present studies, we examined whether preschoolers' willingness to extend adjectives was influenced by the type of property labeled by familiar adjectives (Experiment 1) and by semantic information conveyed in the sentence used to introduce novel adjectives (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we examined preschoolers' and adults' expectations about the generalizability of familiar adjectives of three different types: emotional state terms, physiological state terms, and stable trait terms. On each trial, we labeled a target animal with one of the three different types of adjectives and asked whether these terms could apply to a subordinate-level match, a basic-level match, a superordinate-level match, or an inanimate object. Results indicated that 4-year-olds and adults extended the trait terms, but not the emotional or physiological terms, to members of the same basic-level category. In Experiment 2, we presented 4-year-olds and adults with novel adjectives in one of two verb frames: stable ("This X is very daxy") or transient ("This X feels very daxy"). Participants were more likely to extend the novel adjective to subordinate matches if they were in the Stable frame group than if they were in the Transient frame group. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for young children's expectations about familiar and novel adjectives.     

National personality characteristics: II. Adaption-innovation in Canadian,American, and British samples

On the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory 1,106 Canadians scored as more adaptive than American and British standardization samples. Means for Canadian females and males were congruent with those in national samples from six other countries.     

Exocentric pointing to opposite targets

We use an exocentric pointing task to study exocentric visual directions to targets that are opposite to a pointer relative to the observer. (The apparent distance between the target and the pointer always exceeded 90 degrees of visual angle.) All pointing takes place in the horizontal plane at eye height. Observers could not see both target and pointer at a single glance. They had to look back and forth between them, using combinations of eye movements, head turns, twists at the waist and turning on the feet. In the limit of diametrically opposite targets we find that the observers pick either one of two distinct orientations of the pointer as equally "visually correct". Which one results depends on the stance assumed by the observer. The difference between the two equally acceptable pointings is between 5 degrees and 10 degrees. Such a result is predicted from earlier measurements in the context of a model that describes the geometry of the horizon as a Riemannian space with varying intrinsic curvature. The present results thus fit--perhaps surprisingly--very well in such a picture.