Motor Performance of Stutterers and Nonstutterers on Timing and Force Control Tasks

Recently it has been suggested that speech and manual timing tasks share a common central process (Franz, Zelaznik, & Smith, 1992). Because stuttering is thought to be related to deficits in motoric processes such as timing, stutterers (n = 15) were compared with a set of age-, education-, and sex-matched nonstutterers on timing and isometric force-production tasks. In the timing tasks, subjects flexed and extended the right index finger at the metacarpophalangeal joint at cycle durations of 600, 500, 400, 300, and 200 ms. In the force-production tasks, subjects generated isometric forces to match target force levels displayed on a cathode-ray tube (CRT) screen. There were five levels of force, ranging from .11 to 7.85 newtons. Overall, there were no differences in timing and force-production performance between stutterers and nonstutterers. These results are similar to those obtained recently by Hulstijn, Summers, van Lieshout, and Peters (1992). We suggest that stuttering is not characterized by a general deficit in rhythmic timing. Instead, the motor deficit associated with stuttering should be viewed as speech specific.     

Reasons for (prior) belief in Bayesian epistemology

Bayesian epistemology tells us with great precision how we should move from prior to posterior beliefs in light of new evidence or information, but says little about where our prior beliefs come from. It offers few resources to describe some prior beliefs as rational or well-justified, and others as irrational or unreasonable. A different strand of epistemology takes the central epistemological question to be not how to change one’s beliefs in light of new evidence, but what reasons justify a given set of beliefs in the first place. We offer an account of rational belief formation that closes some of the gap between Bayesianism and its reason-based alternative, formalizing the idea that an agent can have reasons for his or her (prior) beliefs, in addition to evidence or information in the ordinary Bayesian sense. Our analysis of reasons for belief is part of a larger programme of research on the role of reasons in rational agency (Dietrich and List, Nous, 2012a, in press; Int J Game Theory, 2012b, in press).     

Observational Context of Mother-Child Interaction: Impact of a stress Context on Emotional Availability

Previous studies have found that a stressful observational context challenges the mother-child relationship, thus highlighting negative interactive behavior. However, the impact of observational context has only been investigated in infants and preschoolers without specifically using the Emotional Availability Scales. Nor have they explored whether the association of mother-child interaction with children’s emotional or behavioral problems depends on the observational context. We observed 140 mothers and their five to 12-year-old children in non-stressful free play and in a stressful task context. In general, dyads showed higher emotional availability in the task context compared to the free play. Specifically, mothers showed higher levels of Sensitivity, Structuring and Nonhostility, but lower levels of Nonintrusiveness during the task compared to the free play context; children showed higher levels of Responsiveness during the task than during free play. After controlling for dyadic stress, contextual effects decreased for all dimensions of emotional availability. The association of mother-child interaction with child problem behavior depended on the observational context. Specifically, we found maternal emotional availability during free play to be more strongly associated with child problem behavior than during the stressful task; however, emotional availability of the child was more strongly associated with problem behavior when obtained during the task. We conclude that context impacts on mother-child interactive behavior and also on the association of mother-child-interaction and child behavior. Stress is a relevant contextual factor influencing mother-child interactive behavior.     

The beneficial and detrimental effects of major depression on intuitive decision-making

Intuitions play a central role in everyday life decision-making but little is known regarding this capacity during depression. Thus, in Study 1, N?=?39 depressed in-patients completed two well-established tasks, assessing intuitions of visual and semantic coherence. In the semantic coherence task, patients judged whether presented words triads were coherent (e.g. SALT DEEP FOAM, related to SEA) or not (e.g. DREAM BALL BOOK, no denominator). In the visual coherence task, patients judged whether blurred pictures depicted real-life objects (coherent) or not (incoherent). Results showed that higher depressive symptomatology was associated with impaired intuitions of semantic coherence but with enhanced intuitions of visual coherence. In Study 2, visual coherence intuitions of depressed patients (n?=?27) were compared to healthy control participants (n?=?30). Depressed patients outperformed the healthy control subjects in the visual coherence task. This pattern of findings shows both detrimental and beneficial decisional consequences of depression.     

Long‐Term Effects of Social Investment: The Case of Partnering in Young Adulthood

ABSTRACT On the basis of the assumptions of the dynamic transactional paradigm, the current study investigates the effects of success and failure of social investment on personality development across young adulthood. Using longitudinal data from the Michigan Study of Adolescent and Adult Life Transitions (MSALT), the authors demonstrate that entering into the first long‐term romantic relationship was accompanied by decreases in facets of neuroticism, thereby fully replicating findings by Neyer and Lehnart (2007) based on a German longitudinal study. In addition, remaining single over 8 years was related to decreasing self‐esteem, especially for men. These results demonstrate long‐term effects of investment and lack of investment in social roles and provide further evidence of the interrelatedness of social or relationship experiences and personality development.     

Parental and school effects on students' occupational exploration: A longitudinal and multilevel analysis

The study examines school and parental influences on adolescents' occupational exploration. Analyses of data from 859 6th, 8th, and 10th graders attending high- and lower-track high schools in the German federal state of Thuringia suggested more extensive exploration among students closer to the school-to-work transition. Besides cross-sectional effects of parenting and achievement orientation at school, acceptance and openness students experienced in class predicted increases of their exploratory behaviors. Multilevel analyses showed, however, that school effects operated on the level of subjective perceptions (individual level), but not on the level of intersubjective reality (classroom level). Implications for attempts to foster and facilitate exploration are discussed.     

Contrasting the Theory of Planned Behavior With the Value‐Belief‐Norm Model in Explaining Conservation Behavior1

In this paper, we contrast the value‐belief‐norm (VBN) model and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) for the first time regarding their ability to explain conservation behavior. The participants represent a convenience sample of 468 university students. Using survey data and adopting previously established compound measures, structural equation analyses revealed a remarkable explanatory power for both theories: TPB's intention accounted for 95% of people's conservation behavior and VBN's personal norms accounted for 64%. Compared to the VBN model, the TPB covered its concepts more fully in terms of proportions of explained variance. More importantly, the fit statistics revealed that only the TPB depicts the relations among its concepts appropriately, whereas the VBN model does not.     

Multiple citizenship and naturalization: An evaluation of German and Dutch policies

In many countries the trend has been toward greater acceptance of multiple citizenship and more naturalizations of immigrants. This article analyses and compares developments in Germany and the Netherlands. Central questions are how policies toward dual citizenship have developed and to what extent these policies have influenced naturalization rates. The far-reaching toleration of dual citizenship in the Netherlands in the 1990s resulted in high naturalization rates. However, there were large differences between immigrant groups. Similar differences are found in Germany. Multiple citizenship carries little importance for European Union (EU) citizens, who feel no need to naturalize, and for refugees, who have no desire to retain the citizenship of their country of origin.     

关于上帝存在问题的理论及其实践的意义

一、任何人在开始作一个系列讲座的时候,都一定会首先阐明讲座主题的重要性,以引起读者对这项探索性研究的兴趣.有时候这是需要的,但就我们目前的讲座而言,这一点肯定是不必要的.