The Relationship Between Artificial and Second Language Learning

Artificial language learning (ALL) experiments have become an important tool in exploring principles of language and language learning. A persistent question in all of this work, however, is whether ALL engages the linguistic system and whether ALL studies are ecologically valid assessments of natural language ability. In the present study, we considered these questions by examining the relationship between performance in an ALL task and second language learning ability. Participants enrolled in a Spanish language class were evaluated using a number of different measures of Spanish ability and classroom performance, which was compared to IQ and a number of different measures of ALL performance. The results show that success in ALL experiments, particularly more complex artificial languages, correlates positively with indices of L2 learning even after controlling for IQ. These findings provide a key link between studies involving ALL and our understanding of second language learning in the classroom.     

The Katz-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Judaism: Internal Consistency Reliability and Construct Validity among Female Undergraduate Students in Israel

The Katz-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Judaism was developed to extend to the Jewish community a growing body of international research concerned to map the correlates, antecedents, and consequences of individual differences in attitude toward religion as assessed by the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Katz-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Judaism were supported by data provided by 284 Hebrew-speaking female undergraduate students attending Bar-Ilan University. This instrument is commended for application in further research.     

A comparison of response cost and differential reinforcement of other behavior to reduce disruptive behavior in a preschool classroom

This study investigated the effectiveness of response cost and differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) in reducing the disruptive behaviors of 25 children in a preschool classroom. Using an alternating treatments design, disruptive behavior was reduced when the participants earned tokens for the absence of disruptive behavior (DRO) or lost tokens for the occurrence of disruptive behavior (response cost). Initially, DRO was more successful in reducing the number of disruptive behaviors; however, over time, response cost proved to be more effective.     

Task and sex modulate the brain response to emotional incongruity in Asian listeners

In order to recognize banter or sarcasm in social interactions, listeners must integrate verbal and vocal emotional expressions. Here, we investigated event-related potential correlates of this integration in Asian listeners. We presented emotional words spoken with congruous or incongruous emotional prosody. When listeners classified word meaning as positive or negative and ignored prosody, incongruous trials elicited a larger late positivity than congruous trials in women but not in men. Sex differences were absent when listeners evaluated the congruence between word meaning and emotional prosody. The similarity of these results to those obtained in Western listeners suggests that sex differences in emotional speech processing depend on attentional focus and may reflect culturally independent mechanisms.     

The influence of activity choice on problem behaviors maintained by escape versus attention

This study assessed whether the function of an individual's problem behavior was related to the effectiveness of an intervention involving choice among tasks. Analogue functional analyses were conducted with 7 students with various diagnoses to determine whether problem behaviors were maintained by escape or attention. Following identification of the function of each student's problem behavior, reversal designs were used to assess the effectiveness of an intervention that allowed the students to choose their own instructional tasks. Results showed that students who displayed escape-maintained problem behavior showed substantial reductions in such behavior when they were provided with opportunities to choose among tasks. On the other hand, students who displayed attention-maintained problem behavior did not show any effects as a result of the choice intervention. These findings are discussed in terms of the effective use of behavior management programs involving choice and the reduction of problem behavior.     

Correlation between religion and happiness: a replication

For a sample of 89 students in Wales who completed the Oxford Happiness Inventory and the Francis Scale of Attitude Toward Christianity scores correlated .38.     

Presupposition and Accommodation: Understanding the Stalnakerian Picture

This paper offers a critical analysis ofStalnaker's work on presupposition (Stalnaker1973, 1974, 1979, 1999, 2002). The paperexamines two definitions of speakerpresupposition offered by Stalnaker – the familiar common ground view, and the earlier,less familiar, dispositional account – and howStalnaker relates this notion to the linguisticphenomenon of presupposition. Special attentionis paid to Stalnaker's view of accommodation. Iargue that given Stalnakers views,accommodation is not rightly seen as driven bythe presuppositional requirements ofutterances, but only by the interests ofspeakers in eliminating perceived differencesamong presuppositions. I also consider therevisions which are needed either to thedefinition of speaker presupposition or to thedefinition of sentence presupposition in lightof the possibility of informativepresupposition. In the concluding section, Idiscuss the ways in which some recent accountsof context and speaker presupposition departfrom their Stalnakerian foundations.     

Reliability of the Francis Scale of Attitude Toward Christianity among 8-yr-olds

The Francis Scale of Attitude Toward Christianity was completed by 78 8-yr.-olds (40 boys and 38 girls) whose data support reliability measured as the internal consistency of the scale for this young sample.     

SOCIALIZATION OF THE PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS STEREOTYPE: PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS AND VERBAL BEHAVIORS

Two investigations were completed to study the parental socialization process underlying the intergenerational transmission of the use of the physical attractiveness stereotype. In the first study, preschool (n = 31), first- (n = 27) and third- and fifth-grade children (n = 28) and their mothers and fathers engaged in social choice and attribution tasks directed at stimuli portraying a facially attractive or unattractive, mesomorphic or endomorphic and normal and handicapped child. Children and parents were observed to use a physical stereotype response in their behaviors. Further, a significant correlation was observed between parental expectations of the child's use of a physical attractiveness stereotype and the child's actual use of the stereotype in a social choice context. In the second study 20 mothers were asked to tell a story about a normal, obese, and handicapped child to their own child. Content analysis of the stories, using a coding scheme devised to assess stereotypic verbal messages, revealed parents communicated various types of subtle communications to their children that were consistent with a physical attractiveness stereotype. A combination of research methodologies designed to study parental expectations and subtle verbal communications may provide considerable promise for the study of the socialization of the use of stereotypic based attitudes and behaviors.     

Applying processing trees in social psychology

Processing tree models offer a powerful research framework by which the contributions of cognitive processes to a task can be separated and quantified. The present article reviews a number of applications of processing tree models in the domain of social psychology in order to illustrate the steps to be taken in developing and validating a given model and applying it to the measurement and comparison of processes across experimental and quasi-experimental conditions. Process dissociation models are discussed as special cases of processing tree models. Crucial assumptions of processing tree models are considered and methods to overcome violations of such assumptions are reviewed. In addition to the application of processing tree models for the analysis of social and cognitive processes, their value is also discussed for the elicitation of truthful responses to socially sensitive questions.