Effects of gender and topic on speech style

Male and female subjects described nine photographs that had been selected to be of interest to males, females, or both. The resulting speech samples were analyzed for the incidence of five features of word production and five features associated with a women's language (WL) speech style. Results showed that topic (photograph type) determined aspects of speech production. However, there were no gender differences in production or style. Correlations between dependent variables suggested that WL is a consistent set of features. Its use by both female and male speakers may reflect social uncertainty.The authors thank Janis Glenn and Cynthia Johnson for help in collecting and transcribing data.     

ASYMMETRY IN MOUTH OPENING DURING DIFFERENT SPEECH TASKS

When a normal subject is speaking, the right side of the mouth typically opens more widely or moves over a greater total distance. This asymmetry is most consistent during purely verbal word list generation and verbal recall tasks, less consistent when emotional expression and/or visual imagery is involved, and reversed during smiling. Aphasic patients also show the right bias during word lists, repetition, and conversation, but not during serial speech, singing and smiling. Since observable mouth asymmetry is presumed to result from hemispheric asymmetry in motor control, these observations confirm the major role of a left hemisphere control system for pure verbal expression and provide evidence for involvement of the right hemisphere in mouth motor control during emotional and prosodic expression or visual imagery. Therapeutic possibilities are also suggested.     

A role for hemispheric asymmetry in human behavioral variability

A model is presented in which functional lateral specialization and selective hemisphere priming combine to provide a mechanism for behavioral variability. The model is tested and supported by two experiments in which lateral attentional priming produces significant reductions in between-subject and within-subject variability. These findings help us to understand the source of behavioral variability, broaden our knowledge of the gross structures and functions of the brain, provide information about the manipulation of perceived control, and offer a technique for increasing statistical power in a wide variety of research settings.     

The effects of an interpersonally based problem-solving process on consultation outcomes

The relationship was examined between the extent to which school psychologists incorporated an interpersonally based problem-solving process (IBPSP) in their consultation and several defined outcomes of consultation. The study also investigated the degree to which utilizing and IBPSP correlated with other variables that have been either empirically or theoretically identified in the literature as having an impact on the outcomes of consultation.

A highly significant positive relationship exists between the IBPS Scale and each of the four criterion variables: general behavior change, teacher satisfaction, problem-in-resolution and professional growth. Moreover, the IBPS Scale correlates more highly with each of the dependent variables than do the other predictor variables.     

Extended workdays: Effects on performance and ratings of fatigue and alertness

The present investigation provided a laboratory test of long workdays and served as an initial step in developing a field-test battery that is sensitive to fatigue. Six subjects worked both a 12-h/4-day workweek and an 8-h/6-day week at a data-entry job simulation. Before and after the first and last days of each week, they completed a battery of brief tests measuring cognitive, perceptual-motor, task-sharing, motor, and sensory capacities, as well as subjective feelings. Results suggest that the 12-h/4-day week was more fatiguing than the 8 h/6-day week. In the data-entry job, it was easier to improve performance across the 8 h/6-day week. This result suggested that the fatigue of the 12-h days slowed the rate of improvement across the week. With respect to the test battery, two cognitive tasks (grammatical reasoning and digit addition) and several self-report scales also reflected greater fatigue in the 12-h/4day week. Performance efficiency decreased and reports of drowsiness and lack of concentration increased from the beginning to the end of the final 12-h workday. On the basis of these results, it was concluded that the test battery has utility for the assessment of the potential fatigue effects of long workdays in actual work settings.     

Social environmental predictors of children's adjustment in elementary school classrooms

Relationships between qualities of the perceived social environment and children's adjustment were examined in 30 second- to fourth-grade classrooms. Based on Moos' conceptual framework, social environment was assessed from both teachers' and children's perspectives. There was little agreement between the two views. Nine teacher- and peer-rated adjustment variables were used as criterion measures in multiple regression analyses which controlled for the potential confounding influence of grade level and family income. The main substantive findings were that peer sociometric ratings were more positive at lower grade levels and in classes rated by children as high in Order and Organization; teachers rated less acting-out behavior in classes seen by children as high in Affiliation, Teacher Control, and Task Orientation; and teachers rated children as more likeable in classes seen by Children as high in Teacher Control and Competition. Implications of the study's findings for future primary preventive efforts to engineer health-promoting classroom environments are discussed.     

CHANGED CONCEPTS OF BRAIN AND CONSCIOUSNESS: SOME VALUE IMPLICATIONS

Abstract. Prospects for uniting religion and science are brightened by recently changed views of consciousness and mind-brain interaction. Mental, vital, and spiritual forces, long excluded and denounced by materialist philosophy, are reinstated in nonmystical form. A revised scientific cosmology emerges in which reductive materialist interpretations emphasizing causal control from below upward are replaced by revised concepts that emphasize the reciprocal control exerted by higher emergent forces from above downward. Scientific views of ourselves and the world and the kinds of values upheld by scientific belief undergo basic transformations, making them more compatible with religious motivation and moral responsibility.     

A confirmatory evaluation of the profile of mood states: Convergent and discriminant item validity

The Profile of Mood States was administered to samples of 182 college males, 179 college females, and 257 prison inmates. College males and females did not differ significantly from each other in terms of scale elevation but differed from prison inmates on all scales except Fatigue-Inertia. The college samples differed from the published normative college samples, suggesting the importance of using local norms. A confirmatory item factor analysis suggested convergent item validity with the scoring key and similarity of structure across samples. Discriminant item validity, however, suggested that a smaller number of mood scales would offer a more justifiable interpretation of this inventory.This study was supported by the Alberta Hospital Edmonton, the Solicitor General of Canada, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Grant 410-80-0576-XI.     

Children's reactions to serial murder

This study examined the psychological reactions of children who lived in a community exposed to serial murder. The research also examined how parents coped with their children's psychological responses. Thirty-four parents of 64 children between the ages of 5 and 18, inclusive, were asked to identify changes in their children since the serial murders. Data collection began 4 weeks following the murders and included assessment of emotional, cognitive and behavioral aspects of the child's responses. Follow-up data collection occurred at 9 months and 18 months after the murders. Results indicated that children, as a group, experienced a number of psychological changes following the murders, even though none of the actual victims were children. The most frequently reported symptoms were anxiety-based (fear of being alone, difficulty falling asleep and wanting to sleep with patents). Most children showed a significant decline in symptoms across time. The most popular parent coping strategies involved discussing issues of risk minimization, talking about the murders, and spending more time with children.     

Escalation of Commitment and the Framing Effect: An Empirical Investigation

Research and theory are reviewed which consider two decision biases: escalation of commitment and decision framing. Some authors (Bazerman, 1986; Whyte, 1986) have suggested that escalation of commitment may be explained by the decision framing used in the research paradigms. A study was conducted which simultaneously manipulated both responsibility for a prior decision and decision frame. Results show a main effect on resource allocation for responsibility and no effect for decision frame. A follow-up study found that amount of information provided systematically affected the framing bias, and that when responsibility was added to a large amount of contextual information, the framing effect became nonsignificant. These results suggest a need to further examine the boundary conditions of framing.