The effects of attention and task-relevance on the processing of syntactic violations during listening to two concurrent speech streams

The notion of automatic syntactic analysis received support from some event-related potential (ERP) studies. However, none of these studies tested syntax processing in the presence of a concurrent speech stream. Here we present two concurrent continuous speech streams, manipulating two variables potentially affecting speech processing in a fully crossed design: attention (focused vs. divided) and task (lexical – detecting numerals vs. syntactical – detecting syntactic violations). ERPs elicited by syntactic violations and numerals as targets were compared with those for distractors (task-relevant events in the unattended speech stream) and attended and unattended task-irrelevant events. As was expected, only target numerals elicited the N2b and P3 components. The amplitudes of these components did not significantly differ between focused and divided attention. Both task-relevant and task-irrelevant syntactic violations elicited the N400 ERP component within the attended but not in the unattended speech stream. P600 was only elicited by target syntactic violations. These results provide no support for the notion of automatic syntactic analysis. Rather, it appears that task-relevance is a prerequisite of P600 elicitation, implying that in-depth syntactic analysis occurs only for attended speech under everyday listening situations.     

Alterity and the call of conscience: Heidegger,Levinas, and Ricoeur

Since the publication and reception of Levinas’s critique of Heidegger, it has become standard practice among some authors to argue that Heidegger’s thinking of being, both early and late, is an insistent meditation on the alterity of the self in the call of conscience and the alterity of being in relation to beings, and that this thought is consequently already ‘ethical’. This line of argument has been recently pursued by Dastur, Raffoul, and Ricoeur. None of them contests that there is a difference between the alterity of the self and the alterity of the other. But they argue that the experience of the first is the condition of possibility of gaining access to the second. There are several reasons why I have failed to be convinced by this argument. In this paper, I spell out those reasons and argue that Ricoeur’s attempt to carve out a path between Heidegger and Levinas remains unsuccessful.     

Hormonal,anthropometrical, and behavioral correlates of physical aggression in !Kung San men of Namibia

Differences in physical aggression among 114 male !Kung San (bushmen) from Namibia were investigated with regard to sex hormone levels, body dimensions, consumption of alcohol, and degree of acculturation. Subjects were classified from injuries resulting from prior conflicts with mutual physical aggression between the opponents as either violent or nonviolent. The comparison of mean sex hormone values (total serum testosterone, T_ser; serum 5α-dihydrotestosterone, DHT; serum estradiol 17β, E₂; “free,” non-SHBG-bound salivary testosterone, T_sal) and hormone ratios (T_sal/T_ser; DHT/T_ser) did not yield any significant differences between the violent and nonviolent group. However, correlation coefficients of sex hormone levels with the frequency of violent behavior within the group of physically aggressive San men were significantly positive for DHT, T_sal, and T_sal/T_ser (P < .05) while T_ser, E₂, and DHT/T_ser showed only weak positive correlations. Moreover, the violent men exhibit higher mean values in certain measures of physical robustness which may point to a possible pathway of indirect androgen action on human aggression. When the probands were classified according to their drinking habits, usually abstinent men had shown significantly less violent behavior in the past than men who habitually consume alcohol.     

Two‐year‐old children interpret abstract,purely geometric maps

In two experiments, 2.5‐year‐old children spontaneously used geometric information from 2D maps to locate objects in a 3D surface layout, without instruction or feedback. Children related maps to their corresponding layouts even though the maps differed from the layouts in size, mobility, orientation, dimensionality, and perspective, and even when they did not depict the target objects directly. Early in development, therefore, children are capable of noting the referential function of strikingly abstract visual representations.     

Attractiveness of own-race, other-race, and mixed-race faces

Averaged face composites, which represent the central tendency of a familiar population of faces, are attractive. If this prototypicality contributes to their appeal, then averaged composites should be more attractive when their component faces come from a familiar, own-race population than when they come from a less familiar, other-race population. We compared the attractiveness of own-race composites, other-race composites, and mixed-race composites (where the component faces were from both races). In experiment 1, Caucasian participants rated own-race composites as more attractive than other-race composites, but only for male faces. However, mixed-race (Caucasian/Japanese) composites were significantly more attractive than own-race composites, particularly for the opposite sex. In experiment 2, Caucasian and Japanese participants living in Australia and Japan, respectively, selected the most attractive face from a continuum with exaggerated Caucasian characteristics at one end and exaggerated Japanese characteristics at the other, with intervening images including a Caucasian averaged composite, a mixed-race averaged composite, and a Japanese averaged composite. The most attractive face was, again, a mixed-race composite, for both Caucasian and Japanese participants. In experiment 3, Caucasian participants rated individual Eurasian faces as significantly more attractive than either Caucasian or Asian faces. Similar results were obtained with composites. Eurasian faces and composites were also rated as healthier than Caucasian or Asian faces and composites, respectively. These results suggest that signs of health may be more important than prototypicality in making average faces attractive.     

WHAT TYPES OF SEX-ROLE BEHAVIOR SHOULD BEHAVIOR MODIFIERS PROMOTE?

Rekers and Lovaas (1974) reported a study using reinforcement procedures aimed at modifying the behavior of a 5-yr-old who engaged in cross-gender behavior. The use of traditional sex-role concepts in forming target behaviors is criticized and androgynous behavior is suggested as an empirically based alternative. The pathological nature of the behavior that the study was designed to prevent is also questioned, as is the ability to predict sex-role behavior from a 5-yr-old child's current behavior. These issues are raised in the context of the more general question, whom should the therapist serve?     

Encoding processes and the spacing effect

The differential encoding theory of the spacing effect was tested utilizing Martin's (1968) encoding variability notion, in which it is hypothesized that low-meaningfulness items are more variable in their encodings than are high-meaningfulness items. In a series of three experiments using a continuous paired associate learning task, it was predicted that the spacing vs. performance curves for CCC items would show a faster improvement in performance than would the curves for high-meaningfulness CVC items. None of the experiments supported this prediction. In addition, it was found that items recognized on their second presentation were more likely to be recalled than were those items not recognized. It was concluded that an item's repetitions are more effective if one code is formed and elaborated with each repetition rather than if more than one code is formed.