Impairment of rhyme judgments by silent and overt articulatory suppression

Two experiments showed that articulating “blah” repeatedly aloud or silently interfered with the speed and accuracy of judging whether pairs of words rhymed. Articulation from another voice affected only accuracy, and foot tapping had no effect. This suggests that it is mainly the articulatory component of articulatory suppression that interferes with this task and that rhyme judgments of words depend on an articulatory code or an acoustic code accessed via articulation.

A third experiment confirmed these effects on speed of judgment, but there were no significant effects on errors in this experiment. Non-verbal use of the articulatory musculature in chewing also slowed performance. Similar results were obtained for word and non-word rhyme judgments, though the latter effects were somewhat weaker. It is argued that the results fail to support the theory that there are different methods of accessing phonology for words or non-words and indicate that access to phonology was via articulation, rather than a means to achieving articulation. If the task incorporated mechanisms employed in normal reading, the results refute suggestions that conversion of print to sound, whether for words or non-words, occurs prior to retrieval of an articulatory code.     

II—Confirmation and Adequacy-for-Purpose in Climate Modelling

Lloyd (2009) contends that climate models are confirmed by various instances of fit between their output and observational data. The present paper argues that what these instances of fit might confirm are not climate models themselves, but rather hypotheses about the adequacy of climate models for particular purposes. This required shift in thinking—from confirming climate models to confirming their adequacy-for-purpose—may sound trivial, but it is shown to complicate the evaluation of climate models considerably, both in principle and in practice.     

Table talk: inviting students to share the feast

This account describes part of the first morning of the AFT accredited South Yorkshire Foundation Course in Family Therapy and Systemic Practice. The course committee members join together in a reflective conversation about the course. We share with the students our ‘kitchen table’ discussions, the history of our involvement, and how it has affected our lives. We aim to introduce social constructionist practice in which we present the context of the course and address the power relationships in the room by being transparent about our own experiences. We hope to create an atmosphere in which learning can flourish.     

Chronic stress burden, discrimination, and subclinical carotid artery disease in African American and Caucasian women.

This study examined the association between a composite index of stress that included measures of life events, ongoing stress, discrimination, and economic hardship and subclinical carotid disease among 109 African America and 225 Caucasian premenopausal women. African Americans reported more chronic stress and had higher carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) as compared with Caucasians. Among African Americans only, the composite stress index and unfair treatment were associated with higher IMT. These effects were partially mediated by biological risk factors. African American who reported experiencing racial discrimination had marginally more carotid plaque than did those who did not report experiencing racial discrimination. The results suggest that African Americans may be particularly vulnerable to the burden of chronic stress.     

Phonological awareness and language intervention in preschoolers from low socio‐economic backgrounds: A longitudinal investigation

This study examines the literacy outcomes for children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds who had received specific whole‐class phonological awareness (PA) and language intervention in preschool. The participants were 57 children who had been involved in the original intervention study. Their PA skills, letter‐sound knowledge, real word and non‐word spelling and reading comprehension were assessed in Grade 2. The results indicated that children who had received intervention in preschool performed similarly to the children who had not received intervention. The gains made in PA and language skills post intervention had failed to augment further literacy development. A post hoc examination of individual student profiles, however, revealed that a subgroup of children who had received intervention had maintained their enhanced performance and that the intervention cohort had similar scores on tests of PA ability to their age‐matched peers in the population. It was concluded that whole‐class, teacher‐delivered, PA and language intervention, while effective in the short term, does not lead to a generalized improvement in literacy skills in Grade 2. Possible reasons for the failure of the program to produce medium term gains are discussed.