Learning foreign sounds in an alien world: videogame training improves non-native speech categorization

Although speech categories are defined by multiple acoustic dimensions, some are perceptually weighted more than others and there are residual effects of native-language weightings in non-native speech perception. Recent research on nonlinguistic sound category learning suggests that the distribution characteristics of experienced sounds influence perceptual cue weights: Increasing variability across a dimension leads listeners to rely upon it less in subsequent category learning (Holt & Lotto, 2006). The present experiment investigated the implications of this among native Japanese learning English /r/-/l/ categories. Training was accomplished using a videogame paradigm that emphasizes associations among sound categories, visual information, and players' responses to videogame characters rather than overt categorization or explicit feedback. Subjects who played the game for 2.5h across 5 days exhibited improvements in /r/-/l/ perception on par with 2-4 weeks of explicit categorization training in previous research and exhibited a shift toward more native-like perceptual cue weights.     

Correction to urošević et Al. (2012)

Reports an error in "Longitudinal Changes in Behavioral Approach System Sensitivity and Brain Structures Involved in Reward Processing During Adolescence" by Sne?ana Uro?evi?, Paul Collins, Ryan Muetzel, Kelvin Lim and Monica Luciana (Developmental Psychology, Advanced Online Publication, Mar 5, 2012, np). Figure 2 was distorted in production. The correct version is presented in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2012-05404-001.) Adolescence is a period of radical normative changes and increased risk for substance use, mood disorders, and physical injury. Researchers have proposed that increases in reward sensitivity (i.e., sensitivity of the behavioral approach system [BAS]) and/or increases in reactivity to all emotional stimuli (i.e., reward and threat sensitivities) lead to these phenomena. The present study is the first longitudinal investigation of changes in reward (i.e., BAS) sensitivity in 9- to 23-year-olds across a 2-year follow-up. Support was found for increased reward sensitivity from early to late adolescence, and evidence was found for decline in the early 20s. This decline is combined with a decrease in left nucleus accumbens (Nacc) volume, a key structure for reward processing, from the late teens into the early 20s. Furthermore, we found longitudinal increases in sensitivity to reward to be predicted by individual differences in the Nacc and medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) volumes at baseline in this developmental sample. Similarly, increases in sensitivity to threat (i.e., behavioral inhibition system sensitivity) were qualified by sex, with only females participants experiencing this increase, and predicted by individual differences in lateral OFC volumes at baseline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Longitudinal changes in behavioral approach system sensitivity and brain structures involved in reward processing during adolescence

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 48(5) of Developmental Psychology (see record 2012-09244-001). Figure 2 was distorted in production. The correct version is presented in the erratum.] Adolescence is a period of radical normative changes and increased risk for substance use, mood disorders, and physical injury. Researchers have proposed that increases in reward sensitivity (i.e., sensitivity of the behavioral approach system [BAS]) and/or increases in reactivity to all emotional stimuli (i.e., reward and threat sensitivities) lead to these phenomena. The present study is the first longitudinal investigation of changes in reward (i.e., BAS) sensitivity in 9- to 23-year-olds across a 2-year follow-up. Support was found for increased reward sensitivity from early to late adolescence, and evidence was found for decline in the early 20s. This decline is combined with a decrease in left nucleus accumbens (Nacc) volume, a key structure for reward processing, from the late teens into the early 20s. Furthermore, we found longitudinal increases in sensitivity to reward to be predicted by individual differences in the Nacc and medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) volumes at baseline in this developmental sample. Similarly, increases in sensitivity to threat (i.e., behavioral inhibition system sensitivity) were qualified by sex, with only females participants experiencing this increase, and predicted by individual differences in lateral OFC volumes at baseline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Mentoring,job satisfaction,gender, and the legal profession

We examine the prevalence of mentoring among lawyers and the effect mentoring has on their employment situations, with special attention to gender differences. The data come from a 1989 cross-sectional survey of 1132 Georgia lawyers (80% white and 18% black). No significant difference in having mentors was found across racial categories. Results initially show female lawyers are more likely than males to have mentors, but this is due to gender differences in type of law practice and position in them; among associate-level lawyers in law firms there is no gender difference in having a mentor. Having a mentor improves lawyers' job satisfaction; and the size of this benefit is the same for both sexes.A revision of a paper presented at the 1992 annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 12.     

Temporal and interactional effects in short-term storage

The operation of temporal and interactional processes in short-term storage was studied under conditions which require that information about all items presented be stored and the relative retention of all be evaluated concurrently, but preclude further interference after presentation by testing or retrieval effects. Random sequences of twelve two digit numbers from a known set of thirteen were presented visually at 1, 2, or 4 per sec. for full interval and .25 sec. presentation durations to 15 Ss who reported the missing number that was not presented from the set. For 1/sec. full duration presentations the missing scan serial position error distribution shows a linear decrease in errors from first through last presented items. As rate of presentation increases there is a linear increase in total errors, a linearly increasing primacy effect, and an increase of errors over at least the last half of the sequence such that the error distribution remains linear with the same slope. These findings are compatible with the operation of time dependent interactional and perceptual processes in short-term storage but not with autonomous decay.     

Genograms: Use in Therapy with Asian Families with Diverse Cultural Heritages

This article focuses on the ways in which genograms can be an effective psychosocial tool for use with Asian families of diverse cultural heritages. Using the case examples of Asians from three countries, viz., Malaysia, Japan, and Cambodia, the authors delineate salient therapeutic themes and map changes from a transgenerational perspective with attention to socio-cultural and political processes. An anthropological stance (Becvar, Contemp Fam Ther 30:1–2, 2008) allows a therapist to be curious about Asian family and kinship systems and join with the family in creating a new narrative that broadens spaces for living. Drawing upon surveys from three training contexts, the voices of Asian mental health practitioners, suggesting culture specific issues for the effective use of genograms with Asian families, are included.     

A method for cross-cultural adaptation of a verbal memory assessment

Verbal memory tests—although important to the neuropsychological assessment of memory—are biased to many cultures. In the present article, we highlighted the limitations associated with the direct translation of tests and word matching, as well as the lack of ecological validity and cultural appropriateness when tests developed in one culture are used in another. To overcome these limitations, a verbal memory paradigm was developed that framed the memory assessment with a shopping-list format, but that developed culturally specific stimuli for the different language groups. The aim of the present study was to determine the equivalence of this shopping list memory test in different cultural and language groups. Eighty-three adults from English-, French-, Malay-, and Chinese-speaking cultures participated in four experiments. The results of all the experiments indicated that performance of verbal list learning is equivalent, irrespective of the language used. These results support the use of this methodology for minimizing cross-cultural test bias, and have important implications for testing culturally and linguistically diverse individuals.