Common phoneme and overall similarity relations among spoken syllables: Their use by children and adults

This paper contrasts two kinds of relations among spoken syllables. One relation is based on a single common phoneme; the second is based on overall similarity of whole syllables. On the basis of recent studies with multidimensional visual stimuli, we hypothesized that preliterate children respond primarily to overall similarity relations among syllables, whereas literate adults respond primarily to common phoneme relations. These hypotheses were tested in two experiments using spoken syllables. Experiment 1 investigated the classification of syllables by preliterate children (mean age: 4 years 4 months) and college students. Experiment 2 studied the memory confusions among syllables by children (mean age: 4 years 8 months) and college students. The results of both experiments suggest that overall similarity relations are primary for preliterate children, while common phoneme relations are primary for adults. Moreover, children's limited use of common phoneme relations is not confined to tasks that require explicit judgments about language. Implications for the learning of reading are discussed.The work reported here formed a portion of the first author's doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Pennsylvania. It was supported by Grant MH29453 to J. Baron and a Biomedical support grant through Indiana University to R. Treiman. We thank the children and teachers of the University of Pennsylvania Children's Center for their cooperation. Jonathan Baron, David Pisoni, Francis Ganong, Lila Gleitman, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Burton Rosner, Linda Smith, and Amanda Walley gave valuable comments on earlier versions of this paper.     

Automatic access of the meanings of ambiguous words in context: Some limitations of knowledge-based processing

Five experiments are described on the processing of ambiguous words in sentences. Two classes of ambiguous words (noun-noun and noun-verb) and two types of context (priming and nonpriming) were investigated using a variable stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) priming paradigm. Noun-noun ambiguities have two semantically unrelated readings that are nouns (e.g., PEN, ORGAN); noun-verb ambiguities have both noun and verb readings that are unrelated (e.g., TIRE, WATCH). Priming contexts contain a word highly semantically or associatively related to one meaning of the ambiguous word; nonpriming contexts favor one meaning of the word through other types of information (e.g., syntactic or pragmatic). In nonpriming contexts, subjects consistently access multiple meanings of words and select one reading within 200 msec. Lexical priming differentially affects the processing of subsequent noun-noun and noun-verb ambiguities, yielding selective access of meaning only in the former case. The results suggest that meaning access is an automatic process which is unaffected by knowledge-based (“top-down”) processing. Whether selective or multiple access of meaning is observed largely depends on the structure of the ambiguous word, not the nature of the context.     

Lateral asymmetries in the naming of words and corresponding line drawings

Laterally displaced line drawings and the words which name these drawings were tachistoscopically presented to adult subjects. For words, as expected, a right visual field-left hemisphere advantage was obtained. For line drawings, in contrast to previous studies which have typically reported a right visual field-left hemisphere advantage, no visual field asymmetry was found. The absence of a visual field asymmetry for line drawings is consistent with reports of a shift toward greater right hemisphere involvement in the recognition of pictographic as compared to phonetic writing systems and concrete/imageable words as compared to abstract/nonimageable words. Further, the present results seem consistent with findings on picture recognition and naming abilities in brain-damaged patients.     

Taste,odor, and tactile discrimination before and after smoking

Differential sensitivity was measured before and after smoking a cigarette by seven smokers, using six non-smokers as controls. Stimuli consisted of the tastes of sucrose, sodium chloride, citric acid, caffeine, and quinine hydrochloride; the odors of vanillin and 2-butanone; and the viscosity produced by a carrageenan gum. No significant jnds were observed between smokers and non-smokers, nor before vs after smoking. Therefore, the data supported neither longterm nor short-term influences of cigarette smoking. Practice effects were noted among the control group, as more correct responses were obtained on the second than on the first set of solutions in most of the test stimuli.     

Anatomoclinical correlations of the aphasias as defined through computerized tomography: Exceptions

We have studied the frequency of exceptions to classical aphasia localizations in right-handed, literate, adult, native speakers of Italian with focal vascular left-hemisphere lesions, correlating clinical and computerized tomography data. Two hundred sixty-seven subjects were given computerized tomography (CT) examinations; lesions were mapped onto lateral diagrams and the sites of the lesions were defined. Patients were then classified as nonfluent aphasics, fluent aphasics, and nonaphasics. Patients with negative CT scans (n = 10) or only "deep" lesions (n = 50) were not studied for anatomoclinical correlations. Of the remaining 207 patients, 36 presented unexpected findings. There were seven cases of fluent aphasia and "anterior" CT lesions and six cases with nonfluent aphasia and "posterior" CT lesions among them. The significance of these findings is discussed.     

Effects of modeling and videotape feedback with knowledge of results on motor performance

On the basis of social learning theory it can be hypothesized that information acquired through model observation can provide as rich a basis for a cognitive representation as that acquired by means of the usual KR procedure. A source of external information similar to that of model observation is videotape feedback (VTFB). Therefore, it was the purpose of this study to test the potency of these two sources of information with KR. The design was a 4 (groups) × 10 (blocks) factorial ANOVA with repeated measures on the last factor. Both immediate transfer and 48-hr retention effects were assessed. The immediate transfer analysis indicated a significant main effect for group. This effect appeared to be due to the poor performance of the VTFB group. The same effect approached significance after the 48-hr retention. Subsequent variance analysis indicated significant differences between transfer and retention within all conditions except modeling.     

Similarities and Differences in the Functions of Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury (NSSI) and Sex as Self‐Injury (SASI)

Differences and similarities were studied in the functions of two different self‐injurious behaviors (SIB): nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) and sex as self‐injury (SASI). Based on type of SIB reported, adolescents were classified in one of three groups: NSSI only (n = 910), SASI only (n = 41), and both NSSI and SASI (n = 76). There was support for functional equivalence in the two forms of SIB, with automatic functions being most commonly endorsed in all three groups. There were also functional differences, with adolescents in the SASI only group reporting more social influence functions than those with NSSI only. Adolescents reporting both NSSI and SASI endorsed the highest number of functions for both behaviors. Clinical implications are discussed, emphasizing the need for emotion regulation skills.     

Why do U.S. conservatives take fewer COVID-19 precautions? The role of worry,perceived risk,and governmental trust

Research suggests a U.S. political ideology gap for taking COVID-19 precautions, but we do not know the role of cognitive risk (assessed here as perceived risk) and affective risk (assessed here as worry) in explaining why conservative Americans participated in fewer recommended precautions (e.g., mask wearing) and whether governmental trust attenuates the effect. We predicted that conservatives (compared with liberals) would take fewer precautions because they thought they were less at risk and were less worried about COVID-19, but that this would be more pronounced for those with low governmental trust. In this study, U.S. adults (representative sample: N = 738; M_age = 46.8; 52% women; 78% white) who had not had COVID-19 took two online surveys 2 weeks apart during the first wave of the pandemic (April 2020). Participants reported ideology, perceived risk of getting or dying of COVID-19, worry about COVID-19, and trust in the CDC and state officials at baseline. At follow-up, participants reported on COVID-19 precautions: (1) prevention behavior participation (e.g., mask wearing) and (2) behavioral willingness for future behaviors (e.g., vaccination). Results showed that, politically conservative Americans took fewer precautions due to lower worry (but unexpectedly not due to lower perceived risk). As predicted, when trust was high, the ideology gap was muted for predicting precautions as well as for predicting perceived risk and worry. In sum, conservatives worried less about COVID-19 which predicted fewer precautions, but trust in governmental institutions reduced this ideological gap. Improving governmental trust could be one fruitful path to increasing COVID-19 precautions.