Generative theories in language and music descriptions

The style of a set of Swedish nursery tunes is described in terms of a generative rule system. A generative rule system producing melodically similar versions of an old Swedish folk song is also presented. Examples of melodies generated by these two rule systems are given.Both these rule systems are similar in several respects. Thus, the marking of the hierarchical constituent structure seems to be one of the important principles in composing simple melodies.The rule systems also show a number of similarities with the Chomsky & Halle (1968) generative phonology of English. For instance, the procedures used for deriving a stress contour from a tree diagram are almost identical. Moreover, in sentences as in melodies this stress, or prominence contour is of decisive importance to the generation of the surface structure, such as meter, harmony, and sequences of pitches. It is believed that such parallels between language and music reflect characteristics of man's perceptual and cognitive capacities.     

The logical study of science

The relation between logic and philosophy of science, often taken for granted, is in fact problematic. Although current fashionable criticisms of the usefulness of logic are usually mistaken, there are indeed difficulties which should be taken seriously — having to do, amongst other things, with different scientific mentalities in the two disciplines (section 1). Nevertheless, logic is, or should be, a vital part of the theory of science. To make this clear, the bulk of this paper is devoted to the key notion of a scientific theory in a logical perspective. First, various formal explications of this notion are reviewed (section 2), then their further logical theory is discussed (section 3). In the absence of grand inspiring programs like those of Klein in mathematics or Hilbert in metamathematics, this preparatory ground-work is the best one can do here. The paper ends on a philosophical note, discussing applicability and merits of the formal approach to the study of science (section 4).I would like to thank David Pearce and Veikko Rantala for their helpful comments.     

The variety of consequence,according to Bolzano

Contemporary historians of logic tend to credit Bernard Bolzano with the invention of the semantic notion, of consequence, a full century before Tarski. Nevertheless, Bolzano's work played no significant rôle in the genesis of modern logical semantics. The purpose of this paper is to point out three highly original, and still quite relevant themes in Bolzano's work, being a systematic study of possible types of inference, of consistency, as well as their meta-theory. There are certain analogies with Tarski's concerns here, although the main thrust seems to be different, both philosophically and technically. Thus, if only obliquely, we also provide some additional historical perspective on Tarski's achievement.     

Book reviews

Byrne, R. W. and Whiten, A. (Eds.) (1988). Machiavellian intelligence: Social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes, and humans. Oxford: Clarendon press. Pp. xiv + 413. ISBN 0-19-852175-8, £25.00 (paperback).

Dudai, Y. (1989). The neurobiology of memory. Concepts, findings, trends. Oxford: Oxford University press. pp. xi + 340. ISBN 0-19-854261-5, £40.00 (hardback), ISBN 0-19-854229-1, £18.00 (paperback).

Richards, R. J. (1987). Darwin and the emergence of evolutionary theories of mind and behavior. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, Pp. xvii + 700. ISBN 0-226-71199-4. £23.95.

Archer, T. & Nilsson, L. (Eds.) (1989). Aversion, avoidance and anxiety: Perspectives on aversively motivated behavior. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Pp. 491. ISBN 0-8058-0132-4. £29.95     

Incidental image memorability

ABSTRACT

Recent studies using intentional memory tasks showed that images differ consistently in memorability. Here, we used a surprise recognition memory test. We asked how incidental encoding would affect the consistency and ranking of the memorability scores. If memorability is truly an intrinsic property of the image, one should not expect large differences between incidental and intentional conditions. On the other hand, participants might process images differently when not anticipating a memory test, yielding different results. The study list of our incidental memory task was identical to our previous, intentional study. Participants were to watch the images of this list carefully as they appeared on the screen one by one (free viewing); supposedly for a study about eye movements. Afterwards, a surprise recognition memory test was administered. Despite the free viewing instructions during the study phase, the resulting incidental image memorability scores still showed high levels of consistency across participants. In addition, the overlap between the incidental and intentional memorability ranking was large. These results provide further support for the idea of memorability as an intrinsic image property and add to its ecological validity, as people rarely memorise images intentionally.     

Songs to syntax: the linguistics of birdsong

Unlike our primate cousins, many species of bird share with humans a capacity for vocal learning, a crucial factor in speech acquisition. There are striking behavioural, neural and genetic similarities between auditory-vocal learning in birds and human infants. Recently, the linguistic parallels between birdsong and spoken language have begun to be investigated. Although both birdsong and human language are hierarchically organized according to particular syntactic constraints, birdsong structure is best characterized as 'phonological syntax', resembling aspects of human sound structure. Crucially, birdsong lacks semantics and words. Formal language and linguistic analysis remains essential for the proper characterization of birdsong as a model system for human speech and language, and for the study of the brain and cognition evolution.     

Exploring consumer adoption of a high involvement eco‐innovation using value‐belief‐norm theory

Environmental problems are increasingly becoming everyday issues of international organizations, national governments, and individual consumers. In consumer behavior research considerable effort has been focused on understanding environmentally significant behaviors. One such research stream uses the value‐belief‐norm theory (VBN) to explain and predict a number of relatively low involvement proenvironmental consumer behaviors such as household energy use. However, many consumer behaviors with significant impact on the environment are categorized as high involvement behaviors where VBN theory has not yet been employed. The aim of this paper is to arrive at a better understanding of consumer adoption of a high involvement eco‐innovation using VBN theory. As an example of a high involvement eco‐innovation the alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) which runs on fossil oil‐alternative fuels such as electricity and biofuels is used. A representative sample of adopters and non‐adopters of these vehicles in Sweden were surveyed. Differences between adopters and non‐adopters on sociodemographic and VBN factors were analyzed and the explanatory ability of the different factors on adoption was analyzed using logistic regression. The results showed that early adopters had a higher level of education and were much more likely to live in multi‐person households compared to non‐adopters. In terms of attitudinal factors, adopters exhibited higher levels of proenvironmental values, beliefs, and personal norms (PNs). Furthermore the results established that VBN factors were successful in explaining the early adoption of a high involvement eco‐innovation such as the AFV. The implications for consumer research, public policymakers, and for marketers of eco‐innovations are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Homotypic Versus Heterotypic Continuity of Anxiety Symptoms in Young Adolescents: Evidence for Distinctions Between DSM-IV Subtypes

Objective: to investigate homotypic and heterotypic longitudinal patterns of symptoms of separation anxiety disorder (SAD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social phobia (SoPh), panic disorder (PD), and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in young adolescents from the Dutch general population. Method: 2,067 individuals (51.4% girls) from a Dutch community sample, who were assessed for the first time when they were aged 10 to 12 years, were followed up across a period of two years. At both assessments, anxiety symptoms were assessed with the RCADS, a self-report questionnaire. Results: Regression analyses indicated that homotypic continuity was relatively high for SAD, GAD, and SoPh symptoms, and for PD in girls. Conclusions: In many studies, anxiety disorders are treated as one group of disorders, and some widely used assessment instruments, such as the Child Behavior Checklist, do not even contain scales that tap different anxiety dimensions. In the present study, evidence for homotypic continuity was found, especially for symptoms of separation, social, and generalized anxiety, and for symptoms of panic disorder in girls, underscoring the usefulness of making distinctions between different anxiety constructs. An erratum to this article can be found at