Transitional probabilities and positional frequency phonotactics in a hierarchical model of speech segmentation

The present study explored the influence of a new metrics of phonotactics on adults’ use of transitional probabilities to segment artificial languages. We exposed French native adults to continuous streams of trisyllabic nonsense words. High-frequency words had either high or low congruence with French phonotactics, in the sense that their syllables had either high or low positional frequency in French trisyllabic words. At test, participants heard low-frequency words and part-words, which differed in their transitional probabilities (high for words, low for part-words) but were matched for frequency and phonotactic congruency. Participants’ preference for words over part-words was found only in the high-congruence languages. These results establish that subtle phonotactic manipulations can influence adults’ use of transitional probabilities to segment speech and unambiguously demonstrate that this prior knowledge interferes directly with segmentation processes, in addition to affecting subsequent lexical decisions. Implications for a hierarchical theory of segmentation cues are discussed.     

PERPETUAL FOREIGNER IN ONE'S OWN LAND: POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR IDENTITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT

The perpetual foreigner stereotype posits that members of ethnic minorities will always be seen as the "other" in the White Anglo-Saxon dominant society of the United States (Devos & Banaji, 2005), which may have negative implications for them. The goal of the present research was to determine whether awareness of this perpetual foreigner stereotype predicts identity and psychological adjustment. We conducted a series of studies with 231 Asian Americans and 211 Latino/as (Study 1), 89 African Americans (Study 2), and 56 Asian Americans and 165 Latino/as (Study 3). All participants completed measures of perceived discrimination, awareness of the perpetual foreigner stereotype, conflict between ethnic and national identities, sense of belonging to American culture, and demographics. In Study 3, participants also completed measures of psychological adjustment: depression, hope, and life satisfaction. All participants were students at a large, public university on the West Coast of the United States. Across studies, we found that even after controlling for perceived discrimination, awareness of the perpetual foreigner stereotype was a significant predictor of identity conflict and lower sense of belonging to American culture. From Study 3, we also found that, above and beyond perceived discrimination, awareness of the perpetual foreigner stereotype significantly predicted lower hope and life satisfaction for Asian Americans, and that it was a marginal predictor of greater depression for Latino/as. These results suggest that the perpetual foreigner stereotype may play a role in ethnic minority identity and adjustment.     

The use of the bared-teeth display during play fighting in Tonkean macaques (Macaca tonkeana): sometimes it is all about oneself

Play signals are viewed as important means by which animals inform each other that bites, strikes, and throws that occur during play fighting are indeed playful rather than serious. One such signal is the open mouth play face that is common in primates and many other mammals. Unfortunately, as most play fighting involves biting, it can be ambiguous as to whether any instance of opening the mouth is performed to communicate playful intent or is simply a preparation for biting. In this study, open mouths co-occurring with the bared-teeth display (teeth-baring) in Tonkean macaques were used to assess the context in which facial gestures only relevant for signaling (i.e., teeth-baring is not necessary for biting) are used during play. Two predictions arising from the hypothesis that play signals are used to facilitate playful contact were tested: that the open mouth with teeth-baring should (1) be most frequent preceding contact, and (2) that it should be performed most often when bites are directed at orientations that is visible to the recipient. The data only partially support these predictions. The open mouth with teeth-baring is also frequently used when a monkey withdraws from playful contact. Moreover, it is associated with bites to body targets, such as the rump, that offer little prospect for detection by the recipient; this supports the possibility that play signals may sometimes be emitted not to communicate with the partner but with the performer itself. Thus, play signals serve multiple functions during play fighting.     

Infant ability to tell voices apart rests on language experience

A visual fixation study tested whether 7-month-olds can discriminate between different talkers. The infants were first habituated to talkers producing sentences in either a familiar or unfamiliar language, then heard test sentences from previously unheard speakers, either in the language used for habituation, or in another language. When the language at test mismatched that in habituation, infants always noticed the change. When language remained constant and only talker altered, however, infants detected the change only if the language was the native tongue. Adult listeners with a different native tongue from the infants did not reproduce the discriminability patterns shown by the infants, and infants detected neither voice nor language changes in reversed speech; both these results argue against explanation of the native-language voice discrimination in terms of acoustic properties of the stimuli. The ability to identify talkers is, like many other perceptual abilities, strongly influenced by early life experience.     

Monkeys fail to reciprocate in an exchange task

Exchanges form the basis of human economies. Animals too can engage in reciprocal interactions but they do not barter goods like humans, which raises the question of the abilities necessary for trading to occur. Previous studies have shown that non-human primates can exchange food with human partners. Here, we tested the ability of brown capuchin monkeys and Tonkean macaques to reciprocate in a task requiring two conspecifics to exchange tokens in order to obtain rewards from an experimenter. We recorded 56 transfers between subjects in capuchin monkeys and 10 in Tonkean macaques. All transfers were passive in both species. Capuchins preferentially picked up tokens valuable for them in the partner’s compartment. They tended to manipulate the partner-valued tokens more often than the no-value ones, leading to more opportunities for these tokens to end up within reach of the partner. Despite optimal conditions where values of goods were defined and known by partners, however, none of the pairs tested engaged in short-term reciprocal interactions. These results indicate that calculated reciprocity was difficult if not impossible in the animals tested.     

Cognitive dissonance induced by writing a counterattitudinal essay facilitates performance on simple tasks but not on complex tasks that involve working memory

This article examines how performance is facilitated with simple tasks and is impaired with complex ones in individuals experiencing dissonance. Experiment 1 measured the performance of dissonance participants at a simple reaction time task. Reaction times were shortest in the dissonance condition. This facilitation effect was interpreted as resulting from increased arousal with dissonance. In Experiment 2, participants performed a more complex secondary memory task that required to memorize and to recall short and long series of numbers. Participants in the dissonance condition performed less well than participants in the no-dissonance condition only under a high memory load and did not differ with a low load. It is suggested that dissonance requires some working memory resources. Accordingly, it is assumed that the arousal properties of dissonance facilitate performance with simple task that do not involve working memory and require a dominant response, but that dissonance impairs performance with tasks that strongly involve working memory.     

The flexibility of source‐monitoring training: Reducing young children's source confusions

The effect of source‐monitoring training on the ability of 3‐ to 4‐year‐old children to discriminate between events seen live and those described in a story was examined. All children saw a live presentation of a target event and heard about a similar target event from a storybook. Three to 4 days later, the children received either source‐monitoring or control training involving a different set of events. Within each training condition, the children were taught to discriminate events (source training) or identify features of events (control training) acquired from sources that were either analogous (live–story events) or partially analogous (live—video events) to the target‐event sources. Immediately after training, all children were asked to monitor the source of the target events seen a few days earlier. The children in both the analogous and partially analogous source‐monitoring training groups more accurately distinguished between the target live and story events than did children in the control training groups. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Variability in behavior frequencies and consistency in transactions across seasons in captive Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata)

Consistent interspecific differences are found in macaque species, ranging from highly hierarchical and nepotistic societies to more tolerant and open social organizations. It still remains to be demonstrated whether intraspecific variation is narrower than interspecific variation. Herein, we quantified social behavior in a captive group of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) to estimate the range of intraspecific variation for a full array of measurements in three different seasons. Despite an increased frequency of aggression found on the part of males during the mating season, the form of the behaviors performed remained relatively unchanged. Transactions during conflicts, approaches, or grooming did not undergo significant variations in relation to season. Frequencies and durations seemed more sensitive to demographic and environmental variations. The values measured in the study group are representative of the Japanese macaque. The results validate the use of transaction measurements in interspecific comparisons, providing that additional factors such as age and sex are taken into account. Aggr. Behav. 29:81–93, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Before and after the vocabulary spurt: two modes of word acquisition?

This paper focuses on early lexical development, and especially the period around 18 months known as the vocabulary spurt. We first propose that this period corresponds to a shift from an associationist to a referential lexical acquisition mechanism following the developmental coupling of specific pre‐linguistic and cognitive abilities. This latter mechanism would allow the acquisition of genuine words, i.e. links between phonetically specified sound patterns and object categories. We then review the literature on early lexical acquisition by typically developing infants and infants with Down and Williams syndrome, and report some data that were recently collected on this issue. We conclude that the data so far are congruent with our proposal, but because they remain insufficient, we propose some future research that focuses on the relation between pre‐linguistic and cognitive developments.