Construct validity of the Concern For Appropriateness scale

Construct validity of the Concern For Appropriateness scale (CFA; Lennox & Wolfe, 1984), a measure of the tendency to adopt protective self-presentation styles, is examined using a multitrait-multimethod approach. Self-ratings on the CFA and ratings by suitemates constitute the two methods, and concern for appropriateness, interpersonal trust, and boredom susceptibility are assessed with each. Multitrait-multimethod analysis shows that the CFA scale exhibits convergent validity against peer ratings and discriminant validity against boredom susceptibility, the only other variable demonstrating convergence. Results indicate that the CFA exhibits construct validity and might therefore prove useful as an operationalization for self-presentation tendencies.     

The abstract representations in speech processing

Speech processing by human listeners derives meaning from acoustic input via intermediate steps involving abstract representations of what has been heard. Recent results from several lines of research are here brought together to shed light on the nature and role of these representations. In spoken-word recognition, representations of phonological form and of conceptual content are dissociable. This follows from the independence of patterns of priming for a word's form and its meaning. The nature of the phonological-form representations is determined not only by acoustic-phonetic input but also by other sources of information, including metalinguistic knowledge. This follows from evidence that listeners can store two forms as different without showing any evidence of being able to detect the difference in question when they listen to speech. The lexical representations are in turn separate from prelexical representations, which are also abstract in nature. This follows from evidence that perceptual learning about speaker-specific phoneme realization, induced on the basis of a few words, generalizes across the whole lexicon to inform the recognition of all words containing the same phoneme. The efficiency of human speech processing has its basis in the rapid execution of operations over abstract representations.     

How effective are the cross-examination and expert testimony safeguards? Jurors' perceptions of the suggestiveness and fairness of biased lineup procedures

Mock jurors (N = 800) viewed a videotaped trial that included information about a lineup identification procedure. Suggestiveness of the eyewitness identification procedure varied in terms of foil, instruction, and presentation biases. Expert testimony regarding the factors that influence lineup suggestiveness was also manipulated. Criteria included juror ratings of lineup suggestiveness and fairness, ratings of defendant culpability, and verdicts. Jurors were sensitive to foil bias but only minimally sensitive to instruction and presentation biases. Expert testimony enhanced juror sensitivity only to instruction bias. These results have implications for the effectiveness of cross-examination and expert testimony as safeguards against erroneous convictions resulting from mistaken identifications.     

Merging information in speech recognition: feedback is never necessary

Top-down feedback does not benefit speech recognition; on the contrary, it can hinder it. No experimental data imply that feedback loops are required for speech recognition. Feedback is accordingly unnecessary and spoken word recognition is modular. To defend this thesis, we analyse lexical involvement in phonemic decision making. TRACE (McClelland & Elman 1986), a model with feedback from the lexicon to prelexical processes, is unable to account for all the available data on phonemic decision making. The modular Race model (Cutler & Norris 1979) is likewise challenged by some recent results, however. We therefore present a new modular model of phonemic decision making, the Merge model. In Merge, information flows from prelexical processes to the lexicon without feedback. Because phonemic decisions are based on the merging of prelexical and lexical information, Merge correctly predicts lexical involvement in phonemic decisions in both words and nonwords. Computer simulations show how Merge is able to account for the data through a process of competition between lexical hypotheses. We discuss the issue of feedback in other areas of language processing and conclude that modular models are particularly well suited to the problems and constraints of speech recognition.     

Cross-language word segmentation by 9-month-olds

Dutch-learning and English-learning 9-month-olds were tested, using the Headturn Preference Procedure, for their ability to segment Dutch words with strong/weak stress patterns from fluent Dutch speech. This prosodic pattern is highly typical for words of both languages. The infants were familiarized with pairs of words and then tested on four passages, two that included the familiarized words and two that did not. Both the Dutch- and the English-learning infants gave evidence of segmenting the targets from the passages, to an equivalent degree. Thus, English-learning infants are able to extract words from fluent speech in a language that is phonetically different from English. We discuss the possibility that this cross-language segmentation ability is aided by the similarity of the typical rhythmic structure of Dutch and English words.     

Judging jury service: results of the North Carolina administrative office of the courts juror survey

This study examined venirepersons' and jurors' levels of satisfaction with jury service. Surveys were distributed to all persons who reported for state court jury service during two one-week periods in each North Carolina county. Questions concerned satisfaction with various aspects of jury service, the effects of service, hardships experienced, details of and reactions to cases heard, and basic demographic information. Responses were obtained from 82 of the 100 counties and 4,654 venirepersons (of whom 1,478 served as jurors). Consistent with prior research on juror experiences, results generally revealed high levels of satisfaction and positive opinions about various aspects of jury service. Service did not influence opinions about the courts for most respondents, and those whose opinions changed tended to become more positive about jury service. Suggestions for future research emphasize giving higher priority to publishing unpublished research on jury experience, explaining the high satisfaction levels observed in samples of jurors, and examining the impact of trial reform on juror satisfaction levels.     

Performance feedback improves the resolution of confidence judgments

A training experiment was carried out to examine whether feedback concerning the appropriateness of confidence judgments, given in terms of probability, improves calibration and resolution skills. Subjects participated in four separate sessions in which they responded to a series of general knowledge questions. Immediately before completing the questionnaires in Sessions 2, 3, and 4, half of the subjects were given detailed feedback concerning their confidence levels and accuracy rates. The remaining half were given no such feedback, and thus served as a control group. The resolution of confidence judgments improved across sessions to a greater extent for the group exposed to performance feedback than for the control group. Calibration of confidence judgments was uninfluenced by the performance feedback manipulation.     

Social pressures on organizational website adoption

Innovation adoption research has demonstrated that organizational features and perceived benefits of innovations play significant roles in explaining organizational‐level decisions to adopt new technologies. Beyond such motivations, however, social pressures operating at the interorganizational level have been proposed to influence the decision to adopt innovations, even without regard to any proven or anticipated benefit from the innovation itself. To empirically determine the influence of organizational features, perceived benefits, and social pressures on organizations' innovation adoption decisions, this study examined the decisions of 288 organizations to adopt Internet websites. Organizational social pressures were found to be the most significant discriminators of adopters and non adopters, although they were not particularly important in predicting the likelihood of future adoption for those organizations currently without websites. This finding suggests that social pressures are significant in innovation adoption, but that they may have their strongest effect during the early phases of innovation diffusion. Organizational features and perceived benefits were also reasonable discriminators of adopters and nonadopters as well as effective predictors of the likelihood of adoption for nonadopters. To a lesser degree, these factors were also predictive of the stage of adoption for those organizations that have already adopted websites.     

Abstraction and the (Misnamed) Language Familiarity Effect

Talkers are recognized more accurately if they are speaking the listeners’ native language rather than an unfamiliar language. This “language familiarity effect” has been shown not to depend upon comprehension and must instead involve language sound patterns. We further examine the level of sound‐pattern processing involved, by comparing talker recognition in foreign languages versus two varieties of English, by (a) English speakers of one variety, (b) English speakers of the other variety, and (c) non‐native listeners (more familiar with one of the varieties). All listener groups performed better with native than foreign speech, but no effect of language variety appeared: Native listeners discriminated talkers equally well in each, with the native variety never outdoing the other variety, and non‐native listeners discriminated talkers equally poorly in each, irrespective of the variety's familiarity. The results suggest that this talker recognition effect rests not on simple familiarity, but on an abstract level of phonological processing.