Usage-based account of the acquisition of liaison: evidence from sensitivity to the singular/plural orientation of nouns

This study investigates whether children’s production and recognition of obligatory liaison sequences in French depend on the singular/plural orientation of nouns. Certain nouns occur more frequently in the plural (e.g., arbre “tree”), whereas others are found more often in the singular (e.g., arc-en-ciel “rainbow”). In the input, children more frequently encounter these plural-oriented nouns after determiners that indicate plurality (e.g., les,des “the”, deux “two”) and that are often associated with a /z/ liaison (e.g., deux arbres [døzarbr] “two trees”). In Experiment 1, 122 children (3 years 2 months to 6 years 3 months of age) were asked to produce nominal phrases with either /z/ liaisons (i.e., in plural contexts such as deux ours [døzurs] “two bears”) or /n/ liaisons (i.e., in singular contexts such as un ours [nurs] “one bear”). We found correlations between the plural orientation of the nouns and (a) the probability that they will be preceded by an incorrect /z/ liaison in the singular context and (b) the probability that they will be preceded by a correct /z/ liaison in the plural context. This result was, however, restricted to the younger children. In Experiment 2, 20 children (5 years 5 months to 6 years 3 months of age) were asked to monitor target words in auditorily presented sentences. The results showed shorter reaction times for singular-oriented nouns when preceded by a singular determiner than when preceded by a plural determiner. Conversely, plural-oriented nouns were responded to faster when preceded by a plural determiner than when preceded by a singular determiner. Results are discussed within the framework of a two-stage model of liaison acquisition recently proposed by Chevrot, Chabanal, and Dugua (Journal of French Language Studies,17 [2007] 103-128) as well as by Chevrot, Dugua, and Fayol (Journal of Child Language [in press]).     

Career Adapt-Abilities Scale in a French-speaking Swiss sample: Psychometric properties and relationships to personality and work engagement

The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) in a French-speaking Swiss sample and its relationship with personality dimensions and work engagement. The heterogeneous sample of 391 participants (M_age = 39.59, SD = 12.30) completed the CAAS-International and a short version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. To assess personality dimensions, participants completed either the Zuckerman–Kuhlman–Aluja Personality Questionnaire (n = 283) or the NEO-FFI-R (n = 108). The internal consistencies for the four subscales and total scores of the CAAS ranged from good to excellent, and skewness and kurtosis values indicated that scores were normally distributed. Gender differences and correlations with age were small or negligible. Several CFA models confirmed the factor structure of the French version of the CAAS-International, with loadings very similar to the ones observed for the international form. Adaptability was related to different personality dimensions, particularly neuroticism and conscientiousness, and also to work engagement. When predicting work engagement, career adaptability had a significant incremental validity over personality dimensions. Finally, career adaptability partially moderated the relationship between personality and work engagement, suggesting that career adaptability also contributes to regulating the expression of personality dispositions.     

Semantic similarity, predictability, and models of sentence processing

The effects of word predictability and shared semantic similarity between a target word and other words that could have taken its place in a sentence on language comprehension are investigated using data from a reading time study, a sentence completion study, and linear mixed-effects regression modeling. We find that processing is facilitated if the different possible words that could occur in a given context are semantically similar to each other, meaning that processing is affected not only by the nature of the words that do occur, but also the relationships between the words that do occur and those that could have occurred. We discuss possible causes of the semantic similarity effect and point to possible limitations of using probability as a model of cognitive effort.     

The benefits and costs of comparisons in a novel object categorization task: Interactions with development

We investigated how children use within- or between-category comparisons to generalize novel names for novel objects on the basis of a nonsalient dimension (texture) rather than a salient one (shape). Previous studies have not experimentally addressed the costs associated with comparisons. We conjectured that increasing the number of stimuli to be compared (and thus, converging evidence in favor of the target texture-based generalization), might not necessarily be beneficial, especially in young children (3- to 4-year-olds vs. 5- to 6-year-olds). Our results showed that more evidence in favor of texture (i.e., more within-category exemplars sharing the same texture) did not linearly increase texture-based choices in the same way for younger and older children. They also revealed that between-category comparisons gave rise to texture-based generalizations in both age groups. Overall, our results show that even though within- and between-category comparisons contribute to generalizations based on texture, they also generate cognitive constraints that interact with age.     

Dimensionality of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Its Relationships With the Three-and the Five-Factor Personality Models

The interpersonal correlates of the Guilt Inventory (Kugler &; Jones, 1992), which yields scores for state guilt, trait guilt, and moral standards, were assessed. Data collection addressed three issues including the relationships among Guilt Inventory scores and measures of: (a) interpersonal emotions and traits (e.g., shyness, self-consciousness, anger, etc.); (b) the social support network; and (c) ratings of trait guilt, moral standards, and relevant adjectives by friends and family members. Results indicated that trait and state guilt scores were significantly related to various interpersonal measures, most particularly, depression, anxiety, shyness, and loneliness, but only modestly related to satisfaction with social support. Moral standards were generally unrelated to these variables. Others tended to rate participants higher on trait guilt negatively (e.g., higher on contemptuous, angry, guilty, etc.), and participants higher on moral standards in socially acceptable terms (e.g., higher on prompt, self-reliant, moral, and religious). Results are interpreted in view of the frequently cited distinction between social and nonsocial emotions.     

Enacted Ebola Stigma and Health-related Quality of Life in Post Ebola Epidemic: A Psychosocial Mediation Framework Through Social Support,Self-Efficacy,and Coping

Applied Research in Quality of Life - On-site experiences and reports have shown that the multiple outbreaks of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) resulted in...     

Plausible Reasoning and the Resolution of Quantifier Scope Ambiguities

Despite overwhelming evidence suggesting that quantifier scope is a phenomenon that must be treated at the pragmatic level, most computational treatments of scope ambiguities have thus far been a collection of syntactically motivated preference rules. This might be in part due to the prevailing wisdom that a commonsense inferencing strategy would require the storage of and reasoning with a vast amount of background knowledge. In this paper we hope to demonstrate that the challenge in developing a commonsense inferencing strategy is in the discovery of the relevant commonsense data and in a proper formulation of the inferencing strategy itself, and that a massive amount of background knowledge is not always required. In particular, we present a very effective procedure for resolving quantifier scope ambiguities at the pragmatic level using simple quantitative data that is readily available in most database environments.     

Visual perception of writing and pointing movements

Studies of movement production have shown that the relationship between the amplitude of a movement and its duration varies according to the type of gesture. In the case of pointing movements the duration increases as a function of distance and width of the target (Fitts' law), whereas for writing movements the duration tends to remain constant across changes in trajectory length (isochrony principle). We compared the visual perception of these two categories of movement. The participants judged the speed of a light spot that portrayed the motion of the end-point of a hand-held pen (pointing or writing). For the two types of gesture we used 8 stimulus sizes (from 2.5 cm to 20 cm) and 32 durations (from 0.2 s to 1.75 s). Viewing each combination of size and duration, participants had to indicate whether the movement speed seemed "fast", "slow", or "correct". Results showed that the participants' perceptual preferences were in agreement with the rules of movement production. The stimulus size was more influential in the pointing condition than in the writing condition. We consider that this finding reflects the influence of common representational resources for perceptual judgment and movement production.