The development of voicing categories: A quantitative review of over 40 years of infant speech perception research

Most research on infant speech categories has relied on measures of discrimination. Such work often employs categorical perception as a linking hypothesis to enable inferences about categorization on the basis of discrimination measures. However, a large number of studies with adults challenge the utility of categorical perception in describing adult speech perception, and this in turn calls into question how to interpret measures of infant speech discrimination. We propose here a parallel channels model of discrimination (built on Pisoni and Tash Perception & Psychophysics, 15(2), 285–290, 1974), which posits that both a noncategorical or veridical encoding of speech cues and category representations can simultaneously contribute to discrimination. This can thus produce categorical perception effects without positing any warping of the acoustic signal, but it also reframes how we think about infant discrimination and development. We test this model by conducting a quantitative review of 20 studies examining infants’ discrimination of voice onset time contrasts. This review suggests that within-category discrimination is surprisingly prevalent even in classic studies and that, averaging across studies, discrimination is related to continuous acoustic distance. It also identifies several methodological factors that may mask our ability to see this. Finally, it suggests that infant discrimination may improve over development, contrary to commonly held notion of perceptual narrowing. These results are discussed in terms of theories of speech development that may require such continuous sensitivity.     

Demands,Resources, Well-Being and Strain: Meta-Analyzing Moderator Effects of Workforce Racial Composition

Racial diversity in the U.S. workforce is increasing, and many organizations are more racially diverse than ever before. Racial minority employees experience the ecosystem of work demands and resources differently to white employees; including perceiving higher demands, lower control and support, greater stress and psychological strain, and less well-being. However, there remains little research on how relationships between these work characteristics and well-being and strain, and interrelationships differ across more racially diverse versus homogeneous (e.g., predominantly white) workplaces. This limits understanding of optimal job redesign practices as workplaces continue to become more racially diverse. Through the lens of the job demands, control, support (JDC[S]), and the job demands-resources (JD-R) frameworks, we build on previous meta-analyses by examining workplace racial composition as a moderator of demand-resource relationships with well-being and strain, and interrelationships, in 63 studies of U.S. workers (N_{(Individuals)} = 93,974). Our findings show several moderation effects. For example, as the proportion of racial minority employees increases, the positive control and well-being relationship increases, and the positive relationship between supervisor support and well-being decreases. Further, as the proportion of African-American employees (versus white and all other racial subgroups) increases, the positive control and supervisor support relationship decreases, as does the positive coworker support and well-being relationship. Our results offer new insights into the role of workplace racial composition on how work is experienced, and job design recommendations in a time of increasing workplace racial diversity.

     

Punishment and the potential for negative reinforcement with histamine injection

The present study examined punishment of responding with histamine injection, and its potential to generate avoidance of punishment. Sprague–Dawley rats were trained under concurrent schedules in which responses on one lever (the punishment lever) produced food under a variable‐interval schedule, and under some conditions intermittent injections of histamine, which suppressed behavior. Responses on a second (avoidance) lever prevented histamine injections scheduled on the punishment lever. After stabilization of punished responding, a variable‐interval 15‐s schedule of cancellation of histamine (avoidance) was added for responding on the second/avoidance lever, without subsequent acquisition of responding on that lever. Progressive decreases in the length of the punishment variable‐interval schedule increased suppression on the punishment lever without increases in response rates on the avoidance lever. Exchanging contingencies on the levers ensured that response rates on the avoidance lever were sufficiently high to decrease the histamine injection frequency; nonetheless response rates on the avoidance lever decreased over subsequent sessions. Under no condition was responding maintained on the avoidance lever despite continued punishing effectiveness of histamine throughout. The present results suggest that avoidance conditioning is not a necessary condition for effective punishment, and confirm the importance of empirical rather than presumed categorization of behavioral effects of stimulus events.     

Assessing elements of women's decisions about mammography.

We investigated motivational and cognitive processes of behavior change with respect to mammography screening. One hundred forty-two women (ages 40 and older) recruited from three worksites answered a 41-item questionnaire consisting of statements based on constructs from the transtheoretical model of behavior change. Principal-components analysis identified two factors: a six-item component representing positive perceptions of mammography (Pros) and a six-item component representing avoidance of mammography (Cons). Analysis of variance showed that Pros, Cons, and a derived Decisional Balance measure (Pros minus Cons) were associated with stage of mammography adoption. Results are consistent with applications of the model to smoking cessation. The model is also discussed as it relates to other theories of behavior change and as a general strategy for analyzing perceptual data pertinent to health-related actions and intentions for behavioral change.     

Interpersonal feedback: a social relations perspective

The social relations model (SRM; Kenny, 1994) is a statistical model for studying interpersonal perception and behavior that can be meaningfully applied to the group therapy situation. It consists of four primary components that correspond to (a) the general emotional or attitudinal climate of the group, (b) the perspective of the perceiver providing the feedback, (c) the group's consensual view of the target who receives the feedback, and (d) the unique relationship between the perceiver and the target. Because of its rigor and specificity, the components of the SRM may serve as a heuristic for thinking about interpersonal feedback in group therapy. A case example is used to demonstrate how an SRM perspective could guide therapists' ways of conceptualizing feedback.     

Screening for malingering in a criminal-forensic sample with the personality assessment inventory

In this study, the authors examined how overreporting of psychopathology indices on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; L. C. Morey, 1991) performed as screening measures for malingering in a sample of 166 defendants undergoing pretrial court-ordered evaluations in the federal criminal justice system. Using results from the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS; R. Rogers, R. M. Bagby, & S. E. Dickens, 1992) as the criterion measure of malingering, the authors found that the Negative Impression scale (NIM) was the most effective PAI screening measure (cut score > or = 81 T). NIM performed as well as an established comparison measure from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory--2 (J. N. Butcher, W. G. Dahlstrom, J. R. Graham, A. Tellegen, & B. Kaemmer, 1989; Infrequency [F] cut score > or = 95 T), supporting the use of either of these indices as reasonable screening measures to identify potential malingerers for subsequent evaluation.