Diminutives in child-directed speech supplement metric with distributional word segmentation cues

In two experiments, we explored whether diminutives (e.g.,birdie, Patty, bootie), which are characteristic of child-directed speech in many languages, aid word segmentation by regularizing stress patterns and word endings. In an implicit learning task, adult native speakers of English were exposed to a continuous stream of synthesized Dutch nonsense input comprising 300 randomized repetitions of six bisyllabic target nonwords. After exposure, the participants were given a forced choice recognition test to judge which strings had been present in the input. Experiment 1 demonstrated that English speakers used trochaic stress to isolate strings, despite being unfamiliar with Dutch phonotactics. Experiment 2 showed benefits from invariance introduced by affricates, which are typically found at onsets of final syllables in Dutch diminutives. Together, the results demonstrate that diminutives contain prosodic and distributional features that are beneficial for word segmentation.     

Perceptions of present, ideal, and future lives among Chinese adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage

Perceptions of present, ideal, and future lives among 12 Chinese adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage were examined via qualitative interviews. Results showed that most of the adolescents evaluated their present lives positively. In general, they also had positive perceptions of their future lives, although there also were some negative feelings. Although money did not play an important role in their perceptions of present lives, future lives, life goals, and ideal careers, economic sufficiency emerged as a major theme from the perspective of their ideal lives. While adolescents with better psychosocial adjustment appeared to evaluate their present lives more positively than did adolescents with relatively poorer psychosocial adjustment, no differences were found between the two groups in terms of their views on ideal and future lives.     

From unidentified to 'misidentified' newborn: male bias in recognition of sex

Our study tests in newborns the perceptual bias described in 1979 by Hildebrandt and Fitzgerald in recognizing the sex of infants, using videorecords instead of still photographs. Analysis showed a tendency for young adults to perceive newborn infants as male immediately after birth, and this perceptual bias diminished if the babies smile.     

Relations between preventive health behavior and hardiness

To estimate the relationship between hardiness and preventive health behaviors a hardiness scale and a health hazard appraisal were administered to 211 college students. Multiple regression analysis indicated that modest amounts of variance on the hardiness measures were explained by the components of the health-hazard appraisals. Indications are that the concepts of hardiness and preventive health behavior are related and need further clarification.     

Wenn ja,wie lange? – Dauer antiandrogener Behandlung von Sexualstraftätern mit paraphilen Störungen

Background

Since 2010 a total of 15 individually justified, therapeutically accompanied treatment-free intervals from antiandrogenic treatment (ADT) have been carried out in the Forensic Therapeutic Outpatient (FTA) department in Berlin.

Material and methods

This article describes the conditions under which a responsible and legally justifiable cessation of ADT can be carried out.

Results

In all 15 of the investigated stable, forensically rehabilitated patients who had been on long-term psychotherapeutic treatment, no criminally prognostic or clinically relevant destabilization has so far occurred, which would have necessitated cessation of the treatment-free interval with resumption of the antiandrogenic depot medication.

Conclusion

The short-term experiences from the clinical aftercare practice have so far shown that in a strictly structered aftercare setting with continuous clinical monitoring, it is possible to withdraw even long-standing antiandrogenic medication. This is important not least to attest the argumentation for a removal of supervision of conduct in case destabilization does occur. Further long-term longitudinal investigations will be the subject of later publications.

     

Priming of pop-out: II. The role of position

In an earlier paper (Maljkovic & Nakayama, 1994) we showed that repetition of an attention-driving feature primes the deployment of attention to the same feature on subsequent trials. Here we show that repetition of the targetposition also primes subsequent trials. Position priming shows a characteristic spatial pattern. Facilitation occurs when the target position is repeated on subsequent trials, and inhibition occurs when the target falls on a position previously occupied by a distractor. Facilitation and inhibition also exist, though somewhat diminished, for positions adjacent to those of the target and distractors. Assessing the effect of a single trial over time, we show that the characteristic memory trace exerts its strongest influence on immediately following trials and decays gradually over the succeeding, approximately five to eight, trials. Throughout this period, target-position facilitation is always stronger than distractor-position inhibition. The characteristics of position priming are also seen under conditions in which the attention-driving feature either stays the same or differs from the previous trial, suggesting that feature and position priming operate independently. In a separate experiment, using the fact that position priming is cumulative over trials, we show that position priming is largely object- or landmark-centered.     

Longitudinal examination of teachers' burnout in a school district.

Teachers in a rural school district were administered the Maslach Burnout Inventory three times over a five-year period. Teachers scoring high on emotional exhaustion and low on personal accomplishment were classified as "experiencing burnout." Across the three waves, the proportion of teachers meeting these criteria for burnout were 7%, 11%, and 11%, respectively. By grade, burnout was noted among 3%, 8%, and 9%, respectively, over time for senior high-school teachers; 7%, 7%, and 11% for junior high-school teachers; and 9%, 17%, and 12% for elementary school teachers. Interventions must consider grade-taught and are probably most cost-effective for elementary school. It is important to establish norms across time and across school settings to determine high-risk groups deserving interventions.