The delayed trigger voice key: an improved analogue voice key for psycholinguistic research

Many researchers rely on analogue voice keys for psycholinguistic research. However, the triggering of traditional simple threshold voice keys (STVKs) is delayed after response onset, and the delay duration may vary depending on initial phoneme type. The delayed trigger voice key (DTVK), a standalone electronic device that incorporates an additional minimum signal duration parameter, is described and validated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, recorded responses from a nonword naming task were presented to the DTVK and an STVK. As compared with hand-coded reaction times from visual inspection of the waveform, the DTVK was more accurate than the STVK, overall and across initial phoneme type. Rastle and Davis (2002) showed that an STVK more accurately detected an initial [s] when it was followed by a vowel than when followed by a consonant. Participants’ responses from that study were presented to the DTVK in Experiment 2, and accuracy was equivalent for initial [s] in vowel and consonant contexts. Details for the construction of the DTVK are provided.     

Differential memory impairment in dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer's disease

This study was conducted in order to elucidate the functioning of the Central Executive System of Working Memory (WM) and to clarify the status of other cognitive functions in Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Fourteen DLB, 22 AD, and 23 control subjects were assessed with the dual task paradigm and other cognitive tests. When compared with controls, DLB subjects performed more poorly in concurrent conditions on semantic WM tasks, and AD subjects performed more poorly on the spatial WM task. The DLB subjects had an inferior verbal span and AD subjects, an inferior recall on the CVLT. These data suggest relative impairments of verbal and semantic WM in DLB and relative impairments of spatial WM and verbal episodic memory in AD.     

Different Ways to Hurt: An Elderly Woman's Narrative of Suffering

This article presents and interprets the case study of an elderly woman's story of suffering. It results from interviews conducted with African-American and Caucasian men and women, aged 70 and above, concerning their personal definitions, attributions, and theories about suffering. Elders' experiences of suffering were examined under the rubrics of gerontology, narrative, and religious studies. Key themes offered in this case study are: (a) How the life course unfolds because of or despite suffering, (b) what moral status an elder confers on past or present suffering, (c) how a personal sense of the sacred accommodates suffering, (d) how this particular respondent alters her identity based on assimilating the new information of suffering, and (e) how the story of suffering stands out against or blends in with the backdrop of the life story. The uniqueness of this case study also mirrors commonalities of elders' narratives of suffering, particularly those of women. This elder's story demonstrates that smaller individual suffering is rooted in the frame of the larger public world. It also illustrates that the language women use to attribute, define, and theorize suffering is embedded in relationships.     

Planning and executing simple movements: contributions of relative-time and overall-duration specification

In 3 experiments, the authors used a precuing protocol to examine the nature and cost of programming and the subsequent reprogramming of a movement's relative time and overall duration. Initial programming followed a fixed-order specification; knowledge of the necessary relative time was required before information regarding overall duration could be used in a manner that expedited response planning. In the case of reprogramming, however, when a modification had to be made in either the relative time or overall duration of the anticipated and already-prepared response, performers chose to completely reprogram the entire response. Complete reprogramming occurred even when the performer had correctly prepared the higher order relative-time component and only had to modify the overall duration of the movement. The data indicate that organizing movement timing before movement initiation is accomplished in a fundamentally different manner depending on whether the movement is being initially compiled or modified.     

Patterns of apraxia associated with the production of intransitive limb gestures following left and right hemisphere stroke

The model of apraxia proposed by Roy (1996) states that three patterns of apraxia should be observed across pantomime and imitation conditions. In the present analysis the frequency and severity of each pattern of apraxia were examined in a consecutive sample of left-(LHD) and right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD) patients during the production of intransitive limb gestures. The results indicated that a significant proportion of LHD and RHD patients were selectively impaired in formulating the ideational component of intransitive limb gestures.     

The bizarreness effect: evidence for the critical influence of retrieval processes

People show better memory for bizarre sentences relative to common sentences, a finding referred to as the bizarrness effect. Interestingly, this effect is typically only obtained using a mixed-list design, in which participants study common and bizarre sentences in the same list. This bizarreness effect in mixed-list designs has been explained as the result of both enhanced encoding processes and efficient retrieval processes. The present experiment was designed to isolate the unique contributions of the retrieval context to the bizarreness effect. Participants studied common sentences in one room under one set of instructions, and bizarre sentences in another room under another set of instructions. At test, participants recalled the common and bizarre sentences either together or separately. The results showed that the bizarreness effect was only obtained when participants recalled the common and bizarre items together; no bizarreness advantage emerged when participants were required to recall the common and bizarre items separately. These results suggest that differential encoding processes are not necessary for explaining the bizarreness effect in memory. Rather, retrieval of the mixed-list context appears to be critical for obtaining the effect.     

victims and offenders: accounts of paybacks,invulnerability, and financial gain among homeless youth

In recent years, club-drug use among a segment of urban gay men has gained in popularity, contributing to a range of effects, including heightened sexual stimulation, increased sexual performance and endurance, but also, unsafe sexual practices, drug overdose, drug addiction and death. This article draws from a larger study of urban sexual careers and identifies two prominent forms of club-drug use: the first, to facilitate sexual performance; and the second, to facilitate community. The author argues that the basis of both patterns of drug use lie in adaptations to the institutional organization of urban gay sexual sociality.     

Examining the relationship of perfectionism,depression, and optimism: Testing for mediation and moderation

The present study investigated the relationship between perfectionism and depression, and the mediation/moderation effects of optimism. Participants were126 adults (78% women, mean age = 27 years) who completed an online survey that included the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990), the Revised Life Orientation Test (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994), and the Hamilton Depression Inventory (Reynolds & Kobak, 1995). Maladaptive, adaptive and total perfectionism were examined in separate analyses. In most analyses, the data fit a mediation model. Optimism limited the effect (relationship) of total and maladaptive perfectionism on depression. Adaptive perfectionism was related to depression only through optimism. There was a small gender difference, with indirect effects greater for men. These results are consistent with past research and support the notion that correlations between perfectionism, as a trait, and affective variables must be examined using multivariate models that allow for the determination of complex relationships.