Children's understanding of some temporal terms denoting order,duration, and simultaneity

This study examined the comprehension by children of the concepts of order, duration, and simultaneity as reflected in certain linguistic structures. The children in the study were 3, 5, and 7 years old. Temporal order was examined through children's comprehension of two-clause sentences containing the conjunctions after, before, since, and until. Temporal duration was examined through children's understanding of one-clause sentences containing the progressive aspect and two-clause sentences containing the conjunctions since and until. These two conjunctions signal duration in the main clause when they conjoin two clauses. Simultaneity was studied through children's comprehension of two-clause sentences containing while. The results revealed that the order sentence structures (before and after) were generally comprehended by the children before the duration or simultaneous sentence structures, although at 7 years of age children were still not performing above chance on the order relation in since and until sentences. The duration sentence structures were comprehended by the children before the simultaneous sentence structures. The results support the literature in cognitive psychology and in philosophy which argues that order is simpler than duration is simpler than simultaneity.This report is based on a dissertation submitted to the University of Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Ph.D.     

Talker-specific learning in speech perception

The effects of perceptual learning of talker identity on the recognition of spoken words and sentences were investigated in three experiments. In each experiment, listeners were trained to learn a set of 10 talkers’ voices and were then given an intelligibility test to assess the influence of learning the voices on the processing of the linguistic content of speech. In the first experiment, listeners learned voices from isolated words and were then tested with novel isolated words mixed in noise. The results showed that listeners who were given words produced by familiar talkers at test showed better identification performance than did listeners who were given words produced by unfamiliar talkers. In the second experiment, listeners learned novel voices from sentence-length utterances and were then presented with isolated words. The results showed that learning a talker’s voice from sentences did not generalize well to identification of novel isolated words. In the third experiment, listeners learned voices from sentence-length utterances and were then given sentence-length utterances produced by familiar and unfamiliar talkers at test. We found that perceptual learning of novel voices from sentence-length utterances improved speech intelligibility for words in sentences. Generalization and transfer from voice learning to linguistic processing was found to be sensitive to the talker-specific information available during learning and test. These findings demonstrate that increased sensitivity to talker-specific information affects the perception of the linguistic properties of speech in isolated words and sentences.     

Stress and the Control Beliefs of Prisoners: A Test of Three Models of Control-Limited Environments1

Three models are proposed to explain the relationship between individual differences in beliefs and stress responses in control-limited environments: (1) the Environmental Incongruency, (2) Differential Stress Responses, and (3) Undifferentiated Responses. The present research examined the support for each model using inmates differing in control beliefs and prison as the control-limited environment. The results did not support either the Incongruency or the Differential models. In contrast with previous studies of control-limited environments, there was no evidence of change in passive stress responses over time in prison, but there was an increase in active responses (e.g., conflicts with other inmates) early during incarceration. As predicted by the Undifferentiated Response M odel, inmates who were more external in Locus of Control experienced significantly more active and passive stress reactions. No differences were found in stress as a function of their internal beliefs.     

The role of elaborations in learning a skill from an instructional text

In these studies, we examined the role of elaborations for subjects learning a procedural skill (viz., using a personal computer) from an instructional text. In Experiment 1, we compared two sources of elaborations: those provided by the author and those generated by learners while reading. In the latter condition, subjects were given advance information about the tasks they were to perform so that they would generate more specific task-related elaborations while reading. Each source of elaborations facilitated skill performance. This result contrasts with results of the past experiments testing declarative knowledge in which author-provided elaborations were found to hurt performance. In Experiment 2, the author-provided elaborations were classified into those illustrating the syntax of the operating system commands and those explaining basic concepts and their applicability. Syntax elaborations produced significant facilitation for experienced and novice computer users. Concept elaborations produced no reliable improvement.     

Nature of spelling errors in transcortical sensory aphasia: A case study

The nature and extent of spelling errors in a patient with transcortical sensory aphasia were investigated. The two experimental conditions required the patient to spell monosyllabic and polysyllabic words both verbally and in written form. Analysis of the spelling errors revealed partially preserved knowledge of the visual image of a word as a whole, as well as preserved knowledge of temporal order. Our patient's error patterns in both conditions were more similar than dissimilar. These findings in conjunction with results reported in the literature indicate that patients exhibiting different aphasia syndromes use separate spelling strategies.     

Effects of spacing and embellishment on memory for the main points of a text

An advantage has been found for acquiring textbook knowledge by studying textbook summaries rather than reading the original prose (Reder & Anderson, 1980). Three studies are presented that help to establish the cause of the summary advantage. One possible cause is that reading summaries allows the subject to reread the main points at spaced intervals, and spaced practice is superior to massed practice. A second possible cause is that the presence of details distracts the subject’s attention away from the critical ideas that should be attended to. In Reder and Anderson (1980), these two factors were confounded, but they are unconfounded in the present studies. The results indicate that both possible causes, spaced practice and the absence of details, have significant, independent, and positive effects on retention of the central ideas of a passage.     

Looking beyond gender: The effects of racial differences on tokenism perceptions of women

This study looks beyond gender to explore the impact of the social status of race and of token difference defined by race. In a 2 × 4 design, 53 African American women and 76 white women undergraduates rated a woman target, of the same race as themselves, who was described as being of the same race and gender as the dominant members of her work group or as a token defined by her gender alone, race alone, or both her race and gender. White women tokens were perceived to experience better social relations, more supportive colleagues, and lower stress than African American targets. Across African American and white raters/targets, token representation, defined by any ascribed status, was associated with expected negative tokenism outcomes relative to those projected for dominants. The omnirelevance of race toward understanding tokenism processes is discussed.We wish to thank Marchell Bass, Paulina Beres, Darya Burns, Roy Carrera, Nicole Cassie, Comilita Jackson, Susan Mathews, Pamela Ramsey, Catina Scott, and Aretha Strickland for their invaluable help with data collection and entry. These findings were presented at the meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in May 1995 in Chicago.