Allophonic mode of speech perception in dyslexia

Perceptual discrimination between speech sounds belonging to different phoneme categories is better than that between sounds falling within the same category. This property, known as "categorical perception," is weaker in children affected by dyslexia. Categorical perception develops from the predispositions of newborns for discriminating all potential phoneme categories in the world's languages. Predispositions that are not relevant for phoneme perception in the ambient language are usually deactivated during early childhood. However, the current study shows that dyslexic children maintain a higher sensitivity to phonemic distinctions irrelevant in their linguistic environment. This suggests that dyslexic children use an allophonic mode of speech perception that, although without straightforward consequences for oral communication, has obvious implications for the acquisition of alphabetic writing. Allophonic perception specifically affects the mapping between graphemes and phonemes, contrary to other manifestations of dyslexia, and may be a core deficit.     

Group therapy for depressed elderly women

We describe and evaluate a group therapy program targeting depression among elderly residents (N=303) of subsidized high-rise apartments in Nashville, TN. This eclectic program was comprised of 12 sessions (a total of 24 hours) that included modules on exercise and preventive health behaviors, cognitive and re-motivation therapy, reminiscence and grief therapy, and social skills development. Our multivariate regression analyses of pre-post measures using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) showed that the effects of the group therapy varied by race, age, and level of initial depression among the participants. The program was effective in reducing depression, but only among Caucasian women who reported at least moderate depression prior to the program, and it yielded greater benefits for women between 55 and 75 years of age.     

Reducing conflicts between motor vehicles and pedestrians: the separate and combined effects of pavement markings and a sign prompt

The effects of a symbolic "yield here to pedestrians" sign and advance yield pavement markings on pedestrian/motor vehicle conflicts, motorists' yielding behavior, and the distance motorists' yield in advance of crosswalks were evaluated at multilane crosswalks at uncontrolled T intersections. In Experiment 1, the sign, when used alone, reduced pedestrian/motor vehicle conflicts and increased motorist yielding distance. The use of fluorescent yellow-green sheeting as the background of the sign did not increase the effectiveness of the sign. Further reductions in pedestrian/motor vehicle conflicts and further increases in yielding distance were associated with the addition of advance yield pavement markings. In Experiment 2, advance yield pavement markings, when used alone, were as effective in reducing pedestrian/motor vehicle conflicts and increasing yielding distance as the sign combined with pavement markings. These data suggest that the pavement markings were the essential component for reducing conflicts and increasing yielding distance.     

Broca's aphasia, verbs and the mental lexicon

Verb production is notoriously difficult for individuals with Broca's aphasia, both at the word and at the sentence level. An intriguing question is at which level in the speech production these problems arise. The aim of the present study is to identify the functional locus of the impairment that results in verb production deficits in Broca's aphasia. Levelt's (1989) model is used as a theoretical framework for this study. Two experiments have been conducted, one on verb movement and one on verbs with alternating transitivity. The results suggest that the functional impairment in Broca's aphasia should be located in Levelt's "grammatical encoder."     

Reduction of left visual field lexical decision accuracy as a result of concurrent nonverbal auditory stimulation

To investigate whether concurrent nonverbal sound sequences would affect visual-hemifield lexical processing, lexical-decision performance of 24 strongly right-handed students (12 men, 12 women) was measured in three conditions: baseline, concurrent neutral sound sequence, and concurrent emotional sound sequence. With the neutral sequence, Naveteru, Roy, Ovelac, and Steinling (1992) had observed a right greater than left cerebral blood flow, and an opposite pattern with the emotional sequence. In the present study, the neutral sound sequence induced a significant accuracy reduction for lexical decisions to stimuli presented in the left visual field. It is hypothesized that RH activation in response to neutral sounds interferes with the limited lexical processing resources of that hemisphere.     

What is the right thing at the right time? Interactions between stages and processes of change among smokers who make a quit attempt.

C. A. Perz, C. C. DiClemente, and J. P. Carbonari (1996) claim support for the transtheoretical model notion that success in smoking cessation involves doing the right thing at the right time: emphasising experiential change processes during the contemplation and preparation stages and shifting to behavioral process activities during action. A key methodological limitation of Perz et al. was their failure to control for stage of change, a measure that has been shown to be predictive of cessation. This study replicates the prospective findings of Perz et al. in a different data set, then controls for stage of change when it is predictive of cessation, and finds that the measures of "appropriate" change process use developed by Perz et al. no longer predict cessation. The authors conclude that stage of change, in particular the distinction between smoking and not smoking, is more important than change process use in predicting cessation outcomes.     

Response reversals in recognition memory

Using a dynamic sequential sampling model and a recently proposed model for confidence judgments in recognition memory (T. Van Zandt, 2000b), the authors examine the tendency for rememberers to reverse their responses after a primary decision. In 4 experiments, speeded "old"-"new" decisions were made under bias followed by a 2nd response', either a confidence judgment or another simple choice. The data from these experiments showed that participants know when they have made a mistake and that they respond to this knowledge by reversing their responses. Response reversals are thus shown to be important for constructing models of the response-selection process in recognition memory.     

The success of Caucasian mothers in guiding adolescents

The purpose of this study was to determine how 391 Caucasian American mothers of 10- to 14-year-olds viewed their assets and limitations as parents and to find out how 352 adolescents perceived the parenting performance of their mothers. Both generations completed the Parent Success Indicator. It was found that the amount of time mothers spent talking to, and doing things with, their adolescent children had the greatest impact on how both generations rated mother success.     

A categorical and dimensional perspective on depression within a nonclinical sample of couples

The present study investigated the role of psychosocial variables that are indicators for depressive symptomatology within a couple. The variables chosen for this study were conflict communication, marital adjustment, attachment, attribution style, and personality traits--all potentially specific indicators. A global factor analysis on all our measures revealed that our individual and relational measures were stable findings. We wanted to compare a dimensional and categorical view of depression. First, we focused on the total nonclinical sample, considering depression on a continuum, and studying the selected characteristics along with the varying degree of depressive complaints. The results highlighted the importance of individual characteristics (neuroticism and life satisfaction) covarying with the level of depressive symptomatology in the nonclinical sample (n = 186 couples). Second, in addition to this correlational design, we compared the group of most depressed subjects and their partners with a control sample (n = 34). Both approaches pointed to the same conclusion: individual characteristics covaried with mild depression, whereas couple characteristics only came into the picture with a higher level of depressive complaints. The lowest levels of depressive complaints were associated with individual co-morbidity only, whereas increasing complaints went along with additional relational complaints. Implications for assessment and future research are discussed.