Contrasting speech patterns in apraxia of speech and phonemic paraphasia

This study was designed to determine if perceptual phonological analysis would reveal distinctions between patients with apraxia of speech and patients with phonemic paraphasic speech. Test findings from 10 Broca's aphasics with apraxia of speech were compared to findings from 10 paraphasic speakers (5 conduction and 5 Wernicke's aphasics). Several marked differences were revealed. Predominant locus of errors and relative difficulty of different classes of phonemic segments were significant discriminators. There was a nonsignificant trend for substituted phonemes to be further from target phonetically in the paraphasic patients. In addition, the two groups showed certain consistent differences in the types of errors they produced. Apraxic patients produced many errors of transitionalization, while sequencing errors were more typical of the patients with phonemic paraphasia. The findings are interpreted in relation to a neuropsychological model of speech. It is suggested that phonemic paraphasia represents a breakdown mainly in the retrieval of phonological word patterns, while apraxia of speech is characterized predominantly by a disturbance in encoding phonological patterns into appropriate speech movements.     

Infant state in relation to its environmental context

Two neonatal intensive care units (NICU) were observed every 15 minutes for at least 72 consecutive hours. Although infants on both NICUs were exposed to considerable amounts of stimulation, there were differences between the units for each environmental measure in the amount of stimulation and/or the pattern of circadian periodicity. The two NICUs also differed in the amount of time infants spent in various states and in the pattern of state periodicity. In general, the diurnal rhythms of the infant states were associated with the diurnal rhythms of different environmental events; furthermore, the patterns of association were not the same on the two NICUs. The results point to potential problems in depicting a “typical” NICU. More importantly, they suggest that the environmental of NICUs has a recognizable influence on aspects of their inhabitants' behavior and that the nature of influence is different from NICU to NICU. The effects are potentially significant for physical, social, and cognitive development.     

Aviator performance in week-long extended flight operations in a helicopter simulator

Psychological, physiological, and biochemical correlates of aviator crew performance, stress, and fatigue were measured in a week-long flight schedule in a helicopter simulator. Three two-man crews of rotary wing aviators performed 14 h of precision instrument flight on each of 4 successive days and 10 h on the 5th day. Missions involved repetitions of 2-h standardized day and night flight profiles that were occasionally interrupted by simulated emergencies. Aviator performance measures included meeting assigned airspeeds, altitudes, headings, turn rates, and navigation requirements. Pilots slept 4 h each night. Baseline data were collected prior to, and recovery data after, the extended flight schedule. Pilots maintained simulator flight parameters to within acceptable tolerances of assigned headings, airspeeds, and altitudes, even into the morning of the 4th day of the schedule. However, cognitive and judgmental errors were made. Even though flight surgeons deemed them unsafe to fly by the 3rd night, pilots continued to fly well to the 5th day.     

Word length and age influences on forward and backward immediate serial recall

The present research is aimed at understanding the processes involved in short-term memory and how they interact with age. Specifically, word length effects were examined under forward serial recall, backward serial recall, and item recognition tasks, with performance being interpreted within an item-order theoretical framework. The interaction of age, word length, and direction of recall was examined in two experiments, the first of which confirmed that the word length was present with forward recall and absent with backward recall. In addition, age effects were stronger in backward recall than in forward recall. In the second experiment, an item-order trade-off methodology was utilized with backward recall. When order memory was required, there was no word length effect and strong age effects. When memory was tested via an item recognition test, there was a reverse word length effect and no age effect. While word length effects can be interpreted within the item-order framework, age effects cannot.     

Once More Unto the Breach,My Dear Friends,Once More

Philosophical Studies -     

Can Accidents be Predicted? An Empirical Test of the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire

Cent cinquante neuf jeunes gens remplirent un questionnaire dans ie but d'évaluer la fréquence de diverses erreurs mentales banales. Les réponses au questionnaire furent alors comparées aux dossiers de chauffeur des sujets. Ceux qui obtenaient le plus d'erreurs mentales, devaient probablement être aussi ceux qui avaient causé des accidents de circulation, mais la corrélation apparut seulement après l'exclusion de ceux des sujets qui avaient des dossiers de chauffeur remarquablement mauvais. Dans un deuxième groupe de cent cinquante deux hommes, les réponses au questionnaire différenciaient également ces sujets qui avaient causé des accidents de ceux qui ne l'avait pas fait.
A total of 159 young men filled out a questionnaire designed to assess the frequency of various common mental slips. Their responses were then compared with the driving records of the respondents. Those subjects reporting more mental slips were also more likely to have caused traffic accidents, but the relationship only emerged following exclusion of those subjects with remarkably bad driving records. In a second group of 152 men, questionnaire responses again differentiated those subjects who had caused accidents from those who had not.