Prosodic influences on the resolution of temporary ambiguity during on-line sentence processing

We present three experiments designed to investigate the role of prosody during sentence processing. The first investigated the question of whether an utterance's prosodic contour influences its comprehension on-line. We spliced the beginning and end portions of direct object and embedded clause sentences and observed the consequent effects on comprehension using a dual-task procedure to measure processing load. Our second experiment sought to determine-whether the constituent structure of these sentences could be reliably predicted using prosodic information. We found that the duration and F₀ contour associated with the main-clause verb and the following NP reliably distinguished between the direct object and embedded clause constructions. In the final experiment, we manipulated the duration of the main-clause verb and found that subjects used this information to guide their initial parse during on-line sentence comprehension. The need for a model of sentence processing that addresses the use of prosodic information is discussed.The work reported in this paper was supported in part by NTH grant DC00494.     

Tasks and timing in the perception of linguistic anomaly

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the relative timing of syntactic and pragmatic anomaly detection during sentence processing. Experiment 1 was an eye movement study. Experiment 2 employed a dual-task paradigm with compressed speech input, to put the processing routines under time pressure. Experiment 3 used compressed speech input in an anomaly monitoring task. The outcomes of these experiments suggest that there is little or no delay in pragmatic processing relative to syntactic processing in the comprehension of unambiguous sentences. This narrows the possible explanations for any delays that are observed in the use of pragmatic information for ambiguity resolution.The research reported in this paper was supported by Program Project Grant HD-01994 to Haskins Laboratories from the National Institutes of Child and Human Development, and in part by a grant to Stephen Crain and Donald Shankweiler from the University of Connecticut Research Foundation. We thank Jacques Mehler and Gerry Altmann for helpful information about speech compression algorithms. We are especially grateful to Ignatius Mattingly for his generous expert advice on speech compression and design of the experimental materials, and also for recording all the speech stimuli. Julie Boland, Brian McElree, Janet Nicol, and Martin Pickering provided very helpful advice on an earlier draft.     

Culturally Sensitive AIDS Educational Videos for African American Audiences: Effects of Source, Message, Receiver, and Context

The importance of using culturally sensitive educational materials in HIV-related interventions with racial and ethnic minority groups is widely recognized. However, little empirical research has been conducted to assess the relative effectiveness of different techniques for creating culturally sensitive AIDS educational videos. Two field experiments with three samples of African American adults (N = 174, 173, and 143) were conducted to assess how source characteristics (race of communicator), message characteristics (multicultural message vs. culturally specific message), and audience characteristics (racial distrust and AIDS-related distrust) influence proximate (perceptions of the message's credibility and attractiveness) and distal (AIDS-related attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral intentions) output variables for AIDS educational videos. In Study 1, an AIDS video with a culturally specific message was rated as more credible, more attractive, and of higher quality than was a video with a multicultural message. The multicultural message was rated less favorably when delivered by a White announcer than when the announcer was Black. In Study 2, the same pattern was replicated with a second community sample and a campus-based sample. Study 2 also indicated that a multicultural message might be more effective if delivered in a culturally specific context, namely, after audience members watch a culturally specific video. Minimal changes were observed in distal outcome variables. It is argued that influencing proximate output variables is necessary, though not sufficient, for effecting long-term change in AIDS-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.     

Prayer in psychotherapy: a model for its use, ethical considerations, and guidelines for practice

Although few guidelines exist, many therapists use prayer as a part of psychotherapy. The immense variance inherent in prayer behaviors and the paucity of literature on its use beckons the profession to develop a model for its use in therapy, examine the ethical implications for such use, and prepare guidelines for practice. A tripartite model for the conceptualization and localization of prayer in therapy is presented, ethical issues of therapist bias and competence and clients' right to autonomous decision making are considered, and guidelines for employing prayer in psychotherapy are developed.     

An Evaluation of the Health Belief Model for Predicting Perceived and Actual Dietary Quality1

The health belief model was evaluated for its ability to predict perceived and actual dietary quality. The assessment relied upon data collected from 1,502 respondents by the US. Department of Agriculture in its 1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals and the Diet and Health Knowledge Survey. The health belief model provided good prediction of perceived dietary quality, but provided moderate to weak prediction of 7 measures of actual dietary quality that were calculated from food intake records. Implications are suggested for using the health belief model to understand the determinants of dietary quality.     

Personal Theories of Hunger and Eating1

Recent research on hunger and eating has shown that (a) among individuals with adlibitum access to food, hunger and eating are not regulated by deviations in the body's energy resources from set-points, and (b) it is healthier for people to consume their daily caloric intake as several small snacks than as 3 large meals. People's beliefs about hunger and eating were assessed in 2 questionnaire studies. In Study 1, a large sample of undergraduates was surveyed; in Study 2, dietetics students, nursing students, medical students, dietitians, nurses, and doctors were surveyed. Both studies revealed that people's personal theories of hunger and eating were inconsistent with research findings in ways that could promote overconsumption. These results suggest that educational programs designed to modify the beliefs about hunger and eating of people suffering from problems of overconsumption and of health professionals who treat problems of overconsumption may increase the effectiveness of current treatment regimens.     

ADVANCING BACKWARDS

The proposal of Friman, Hayes, and Wilson (1998) that the concept of emotion be incorporated into behavior analysis is questioned. Their proposal is undermined by the problem of the verification of private events by others. A focus on private events, as exemplified by the proposal of Friman et al., can lead to a reversion to notions of agency and the autonomous individual. Also, the anchoring of hypothetical constructs to the behavioral data language is ill advised.