Effects of vowel variety and sample lenght on identification of a speaker in a line-up

Subjects (average age 21 years, recruited by personal contact and through a school) were presented with a spoken sentence on tape and then heard six speakers of the same sex, including the original speaker, say the same sentence. They were required to indicate which was the original speaker. The task was repeated with seven different sentences and sets of speakers. One group of subjects heard short sentences containing an average of 2.14 different vowel sounds and 6.28 syllables, another group heard short sentences containing an average of 6.14 vowel sounds (7.28 syllables) and a third group heard longer sentences containing an average of 6.28 vowel sounds (11.00 syllables). Accuracy of speaker identification improved significantly when more vowel sounds were heard, but increased sentence length had no significant effect on performance. Performance was significantly better when the listener was the same sex as the speaker than when the listener was of the other sex.     

On the processing of arguments

This paper is concerned with the processing of informal arguments, that is, arguments involving probable truth. A model of informal argument processing is presented that is based upon Hample's (1977) expansion of Toulmin's (1958) model of argument structure. The model postulates that a claim activates an attitude, the two components forming a complex that in turn activates reasons. Furthermore, the model holds occurrence of the reason, or possibly the claim and the reason, activates values. Three experiments are described that provide support for the model.This research was supported by the Mellon Foundation and by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the Department of Education via an award for the Center for the Study of Learning to the Learning Research and Development Center. The contents of the paper are not necessarily the position of any of these organizations.     

Parental assessment of the adjustment of children following abduction by the other parent

We present a multiple regression model that explores post-return adjustment of school-age children who experienced abduction by a parent. The model includes: a) child and family characteristics preceding abduction, b) characteristics of the abduction experience, and c) child and family characteristics following return. Overall, the model accounts for 21% of the variance in post-return adjustment of children (p.05). The most salient finding is that post-return adjustment of children was best explained by characteristics of the child and family before the abduction occurred. Domestic violence perpetrated by one or both parents was the most significant factor.     

Properties of spatial representations: Data from sighted and blind subjects

Five questions concerning the properties of spatial representations are explored. (1) How accurately does a spatial representation correspond to the true scene? (2) If inaccurate, how does it differ? (3) Are representations of a familiar scene more accurate than those of an unfamiliar one? (4) Do representations of a scene currently in view differ from those retained in memory? (5) Do the representations of the blind have properties comparable to those-of the sighted? Seven sighted and 7 highly mobile blind subjects, all familiar with a room, and 6 sighted subjects unfamiliar with it, were asked to estimate the absolute distances between 10 salient objects in the room. The 14 familiar subjects made their estimates twice: while they were in the room, and while they were remote from it. Regression analyses showed that the estimates of all subjects had strong metric properties, being linearly related to true distance, with a true zero point; and multidimensional scaling showed that all subjects produced distance estimates that could be scaled in two dimensions to closely match the actual locations of the objects. Familiarity had no effect. The effect of location of testing was the same for both the sighted and the blind: all subjects displayed better spatial knowledge when tested in the room; and all subjects underestimated true distance substantially when tested out of the room. The results showed no qualitative differences as a function of blindness, at least for these highly skilled blind travelers.     

CHANGING PROTECTIVE AND RISKY BEHAVIORS TO PREVENT CHILD-TO-PARENT TRANSMISSION OF CYTOMEGALOVIRUS

Child-to-parent transmission of cytomegalovirus may be reduced by increasing protective behaviors (handwashing and glove use) and decreasing risky behaviors (intimate contact between child and parent). This study showed that an educational intervention resulted in increases in reported and objective measures of protective behaviors and decreases in reported risky behaviors. Further study must determine if changes in protective and risky behavior are maintained and prevent cytomegalovirus transmission.     

The effects of hormones,Type A behavior pattern,and provocation on aggression in men

Thirty-eight male college students, classified as either Type A or Type B based on their Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS-T) scores, competed in a reaction time task that allowed them to administer shocks to an increasingly provocative fictitious opponent. Salivary testosterone and cortisol were measured both prior to and after the task. Aggression was defined as the level of shock the subject was willing to set for the opponent. The results of this study indicate that a relationship exists between endogenous testosterone levels in men and direct physical aggression. Some evidence for the moderating effects of hormones on the level of aggression expressed by Type As was observed. No direct relationship between Type A and aggression was found.     

Variations on incremental interpretation

The strict competence hypothesis has sparked a small dialogue among several researchers attempting to understand its ramifications for human sentence processing and incremental interpretation in particular. In this paper, we review the dialogue, reconstructing the arguments in an attempt to make them more uniform and crisp, and provide our own analyses of certain of the issues that arise. We argue that strict competence, because it requires a synchronous computation mechanism, may actually lead to more complex, rather than simpler, models of incremental interpretation. Asynchronous computation, which is arguably both psychologically more plausible and conceptually more basic, allows for incremental interpretation to fall out naturally, without additional machinery for interpreting partial constituents. We show that this is true regardless of whether the presumed interpretation mechanism is top-down or bottom-up, contra previous conclusions in the literature, and propose a particular implementation of some of these ideas using a novel representation based on tree-adjoining grammars.The research in this paper was supported in part by grant IRI-9157996 from the National Science Foundation to the first author. The authors would like to thank Fernando Pereira, Edward Stabler, and Mark Steedman for discussions on the topic of this paper and for their comments on previous drafts.     

Stress,coping, and adjustment in mothers and young adolescents in single- and two-parent families

Compared stress, coping, and psychological adjustment in single (divorced or separated) and married mothers and their young adolescent children. Single mothers reported more daily hassles related to economic, family, and personal health problems, and more symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychoticism. Single mothers also reported using more coping strategies related to accepting responsibility and positive reappraisal. After controlling for level of family income, differences in family hassles and coping strategies remained significant. The two groups did not differ on subtypes of symptoms after controlling for income, but single mothers still reported more total psychological symptoms. No differences were found between children in these two family constellations on maternal reports of emotional/behavioral problems or on children's self-reported emotional/behavioral problems, stressful events, or coping. Implications of these findings for adjustment to life in single-parent families are discussed.