Children's Productivity in the English Past Tense: The Role of Frequency, Phonology, and Neighborhood Structure

The productive use of English past tense morphology in school-aged children (N = 74; 3 years, 8 months to 13 years, 5 months) is explored using an elicited production task. Errors represented 20% of the responses overall. Virtually all of the children demonstrated productivity with regular (e.g., good) and irregular patterns (zero-marking, e.g., sit → sit; vowel-change, e.g., ride → rid). Overall frequency of errors decreased with age, yet the tendency for certain types of irregularizations increased in the older groups. Analyses across items indicated that all error types were predicted by combinations of item frequency, phonological characteristics of stems and past tense forms, and aspects of phonological past tense "neighborhoods". Contrary to "hybrid" or dual-mechanism models incorporating a phonologically-insensitive default mechanism (e.g., Prasada & Pinker, 1993), these results suggest that children's productivity with regular and irregular patterns is consistent with a phonologically-based constraint satisfaction system similar to that implemented in connectionist models (Daugherty & Seidenberg, 1992; Plunkett & Marchman, 1991, 1993).     

CLIENT PREFERENCE FOR COUNSELOR GENDER

This article presents the results of an investigation of male and female clients' expressed preferences for gender of their counselor. The study addressed two major comparisons: clients with a preference for therapist gender versus those without a preference, and clients with a preference for a male therapist versus those with a preference for a female therapist. LOGIT analyses indicate significant relationships among sex of the client, sex of the intake counselor, whether or not clients express a preference, and whether they express a preference for a male or female counselor. Results also suggest an influence of the sex of the intake counselor. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for counseling and research activities.     

The detection of a tone added to a narrow band of noise: The energy model revisited

In an effort to determine whether cues related to changes in energy contribute to the detection of a tone added to a narrow band of noise, we examined the effect of level variation on detection thresholds. In the first experiment, the level of each waveform was randomly varied on each presentation. Level variation had only marginal effects on performance. In addition, detection thresholds were obtained using bands of noise with equal energy across intervals. Neither increasing nor decreasing the variance of the noise-alone and tone-plus-noise energy difference distributions altered the detectability of a tone added to noise. Thus, the changes in energy that are concomitant with the addition of the tone are not the sole cue for the detection of the tone. In a second experiment, three psychometric functions were measured. One function was determined using no level variation, one was measured in the presence of level variation, and one was measured in the context of level variation, but for trials without level variation. The context of level variation slightly reduced detectability. In a third experiment, we compared detectability in three conditions: no level variation, across-trial level variation, and across-interval level variation. The thresholds obtained in the absence of level variation were superior to those measured in the presence of level variation, regardless of the manner in which the level variation was incorporated.     

How can a heterosexual man remove his body hair and retain his masculinity? Mapping stories of male body hair depilation

ABSTRACT

This study explores the gendered body hair removal norm and the meanings of male body hair by examining young people’s sense-making around male body hair removal. The novel technique of story completion was used to collect data from 102 psychology undergraduates. They were presented with a story “stem” featuring a young man (David) deciding to start body hair removal and asked to complete the stem. David was most often portrayed as a young heterosexual man who was excessively hairy, in the “wrong” places, was often subject to teasing and bullying, and was concerned about his diminished sexual capital. Hair removal did not always end “happily ever after” for David. While in some stories he “got the girl,” he was punished for his vanity and foolishness in others. These different endings arguably reflect currently ambivalent meanings around male body hair depilation. The production of a hairless, or less hairy, male body is both desirable and a potential threat to masculinity. The data spoke strongly to the power of social norms surrounding body hair practices and suggest that story completion provides a useful tool in interrogating the discourses that sustain these norms.