Influence of preceding liquid on stop-consonant perception

Certain attributes of a syllable-final liquid can influence the perceived place of articulation of a following stop consonant. To demonstrate this perceptual context effect, the CV portions of natural tokens of [al-da], [al-ga], [ar-da], [ar-ga] were excised and replaced with closely matched synthetic stimuli drawn from a [da]-[ga] continuum. The resulting hybrid disyllables were then presented to listeners who labeled both liquids and stops. The natural CV portions had two different effects on perception of the synthetic CVs. First, there was an effect of liquid category: Listeners perceived “g” more often in the context of [al] than in that of [ar]. Second, there was an effect due to tokens of [al] and [ar] having been produced before [da] or [ga]: More “g” percepts occurred when stops followed liquids that had been produced before [g]. A hypothesis that each of these perceptual effects finds a parallel in speech production is supported by spectrograms of the original utterances. Here, it seems, is another instance in which findings in speech perception reflect compensation for coarticulation during speech production.     

Attribution of attitude as a function of behavioral direction and freedom: Reactance in the eye of the observer

In a variation of the Festinger and Carlsmith dull-task paradigm an actor-stooge was given free-choice, forced-compliance choice, or no-choice as to whether he should tell the “waiting subject” that the task was dull or that the task was enjoyable. Crosscutting this three-level manipulation of behavioral freedom was a two-level manipulation of behavioral direction. The actor-stooge either chose or agreed to inform the “waiting subject” that the task was dull or that the task was enjoyable. In agreement with Jones and Davis' theory of correspondent inference observer-subjects made positively correspondent inferences in the free-choice condition, i.e., the actor-stooge was attributed with a more unfavorable attitude toward the task when he chose to advocate the dullness of the task than when he chose to advocate the enjoyableness of the task. However, within the no-choice condition, previously unobtained negative correspondent inference occurred. The actor-stooge was attributed with a more unfavorable attitude toward the task when he was required to advocate the enjoyableness of the task than when he was required to advocate the dullness of the task. These later results were interpreted as indicating that the observers attributed reactance to the actor-stooge in the condition in which the most social pressure was exerted. A second experiment demonstrated that the negative correspondence effect was not due to assumptions regarding other subjects' preference and also demonstrated the dependence of the effect on the absence of a rationale for the no-choice assignment of behavioral direction.     

Gender differences in orthographic, verbal, and compositional fluency: Implications for assessing writing disabilities in primary grade children

Measures of oral verbal fluency (word finding), written orthographic fluency (alphabet task), and written composition (narrative and oral expository) were administered to 300 children (50 girls and 50 boys each in the first, second, and third grades). Both oral verbal fluency and written orthographic fluency correlated significantly with the number of words (fluency) and the number of clauses (microorganization) in the compositions, but boys performed significantly better than girls on oral verbal fluency and girls performed significantly better than boys on written orthographic fluency. Girls consistently outperformed boys on the number of words and the number of clauses produced in narrative and expository composition. Thus, in beginning writing, orthographic fluency may be relatively more important than verbal fluency and boys may be at greater risk for writing disabilities. However, more boys were identified as having a disability in composition when absolute criteria (lowest 5% of normal distribution) were used, but about the same number of boys and girls were identified as having a disability in composition when relative criteria (significant discrepancy between Verbal IQ and compositional skill, based on the Mahalanobis statistic) were used. School psychologists are encouraged to use standardized measures of othographic, verbal, and compositional fluency to identify primary grade children needing early intervention to prevent more severe writing disabilities.     

Early language processing efficiency predicts later receptive vocabulary outcomes in children born preterm

As rates of prematurity continue to rise, identifying which preterm children are at increased risk for learning disabilities is a public health imperative. Identifying continuities between early and later skills in this vulnerable population can also illuminate fundamental neuropsychological processes that support learning in all children. At 18 months adjusted age, we used socioeconomic status (SES), medical variables, parent-reported vocabulary, scores on the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (third edition) language composite, and children’s lexical processing speed in the looking-while-listening (LWL) task as predictor variables in a sample of 30 preterm children. Receptive vocabulary as measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (fourth edition) at 36 months was the outcome. Receptive vocabulary was correlated with SES, but uncorrelated with degree of prematurity or a composite of medical risk. Importantly, lexical processing speed was the strongest predictor of receptive vocabulary (r = ?.81), accounting for 30% unique variance. Individual differences in lexical processing efficiency may be able to serve as a marker for information processing skills that are critical for language learning.     

Bilingualism,executive control,and age at diagnosis among people with early‐stage Alzheimer's disease in Wales

The observation of a bilingual advantage in executive control tasks involving inhibition and management of response conflict suggests that being bilingual might contribute to increased cognitive reserve. In support of this, recent evidence indicates that bilinguals develop Alzheimer's disease (AD) later than monolinguals, and may retain an advantage in performance on executive control tasks. We compared age at the time of receiving an AD diagnosis in bilingual Welsh/English speakers (n = 37) and monolingual English speakers (n = 49), and assessed the performance of bilinguals (n = 24) and monolinguals (n = 49) on a range of executive control tasks. There was a non‐significant difference in age at the time of diagnosis, with bilinguals being on average 3 years older than monolinguals, but bilinguals were also significantly more cognitively impaired at the time of diagnosis. There were no significant differences between monolinguals and bilinguals in performance on executive function tests, but bilinguals appeared to show relative strengths in the domain of inhibition and response conflict. Bilingual Welsh/English speakers with AD do not show a clear advantage in executive function over monolingual English speakers, but may retain some benefits in inhibition and management of response conflict. There may be a delay in onset of AD in Welsh/English bilinguals, but if so, it is smaller than that found in some other clinical populations. In this Welsh sample, bilinguals with AD came to the attention of services later than monolinguals, and reasons for this pattern could be explored further.