Vocal Expression and Perception of Emotion

Speech is an acoustically rich signal that provides considerable personal information about talkers. The expression of emotions in speech sounds and corresponding abilities to perceive such emotions are both fundamental aspects of human communication. Findings from studies seeking to characterize the acoustic properties of emotional speech indicate that speech acoustics provide an external cue to the level of nonspecific arousal associated with emotionalprocesses and to a lesser extent, the relative pleasantness of experienced emotions. Outcomes from perceptual tests show that listeners are able to accurately judge emotions from speech at rates far greater than expected by chance. More detailed characterizations of these production and perception aspects of vocal communication will necessarily involve knowledge aboutdifferences among talkers, such as those components of speech that provide comparatively stable cues to individual talkers identities.     

THE USE OF NONCONTINGENT ESCAPE TO REDUCE DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIORS IN CHILDREN WITH SPEECH DELAYS

Noncontingent escape (NCE) was used to reduce disruptive behavior in 3 children during regularly scheduled speech therapy sessions. Results showed rapid decreases in disruptive behavior and accompanying increases in compliance across children. Findings suggest that speech therapists with little expertise in behavior analysis can effectively implement NCE.     

ESTABLISHMENT OF NONDELUSIONAL RESPONSES IN A SOCIALLY WITHDRAWN CHRONIC SCHIZOPHRENIC1

Multiple treatment interventions including instructions, modelling, timeout, avoidance of repetition, and reinforcement were successful in establishing factual answers to personal background questions in a withdrawn and socially unresponsive chronic schizophrenic. The subject had previously persisted in giving only delusional responses to these questions. A multiple-baseline design across verbal replies to personal background questions demonstrated that the changes in behavior were brought about by the treatment interventions. During baseline, the subject was reinforced for any response to four questions. The experimental interventions were then introduced for the first question and moved sequentially to an additional question when the subject's responses reached the criterion of at least 80% correct for two consecutive sessions. Introduction of the experimental interventions produced an increase from a baseline level of zero to at least 80% correct for each question. The use of the token reinforcement procedure was faded out after the subject was able to answer all four questions correctly at least 80% of the time for two consecutive sessions. Fading of the token reinforcement procedure was accomplished by using increasingly intermittent schedules of token reinforcement during the last seven sessions. In the final session, no tokens were used to reinforce the subject's responding. Nine-, ten-, and 12-month followup interviews were conducted to evaluate the maintenance of treatment gains. Maintenance was found to be complete at the nine- and 10-month followups, but at the 12-month followup interview, the subject answered one question incorrectly. This study replicates an investigation previously reported in this journal.     

儿童最初词汇的获得及其过程

本文追踪研究了两名儿童获得最初词汇的过程。结果表明:在儿童最初语音发展过程中,所发出的音节日益丰富、分化,产生了连续音节,随意性和指向性逐渐增强。儿童获得最初词汇的过程,是连续音节逐渐被有指向的词取代的过程。根据连续音节和有指向的词的比例及沟通作用的变化,儿童获得最初词汇的过程可分为各具特点的三个阶段。两名儿童的最初词汇在其词类构成和功能意义上具有很高的一致性。结合两名儿童之间的个别差异,本文还初步探讨影响儿童获得最初词汇的因素——言语中枢和言语器官的发展、认知的发展,并探讨它们之间可能存在的相互关系。     

Coping with dialects from birth: Role of variability on infants’ early language development. Insights from Norwegian dialects

Previous research suggests that exposure to accent variability can affect toddlers’ familiar word recognition and word comprehension. The current preregistered study addressed the gap in knowledge on early language development in infants exposed to two dialects from birth and assessed the role of dialect similarity in infants’ word recognition and comprehension. A 12-month-old Norwegian-learning infants, exposed to native Norwegian parents speaking the same or two Norwegian dialects, took part in two eye-tracking tasks, assessing familiar word form recognition and word comprehension. Their parents’ speech was assessed for similarity by native Norwegian speakers. First, in contrast to previous research, our results revealed no listening preference for words over nonwords in both monodialectal and bidialectal infants, suggesting potential language-specific differences in the onset of word recognition. Second, the results showed evidence for word comprehension in monodialectal infants, but not in bidialectal infants, suggesting that exposure to dialectal variability impacts early word acquisition. Third, perceptual similarity between parental dialects tendentially facilitated bidialectal infants’ word recognition and comprehension. Forth, the results revealed a strong correlation between the raters and parents’ assessment of similarity between dialects, indicating that parental estimations can be reliably used to assess infants’ speech variability at home. Finally, our results revealed a strong relationship between word recognition and comprehension in monodialectal infants and the absence of such a relationship in bidialectal infants, suggesting that either these two skills do not necessarily align in infants exposed to more variable input, or that the alignment might occur at a later stage.     

Exploring the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on people's relationships with gardens

Gardens are places where science and art combine to create environments that often offer restorative and therapeutic experience to those who encounter them. During the Covid-19 pandemic, in the UK and elsewhere there has been a surge of interest in gardening. Public appreciation of gardens and other green spaces has grown and inequality of access to gardens and outdoor spaces has been extensively documented. Gardens are prevalent and of cultural significance in the UK, where their salutary properties have been documented for centuries. Yet people's relationships with gardens during the pandemic have been relatively underexplored in academia and were already under-researched prior to the pandemic's inception. This qualitative study investigates the relationships between people and gardens during the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, through thematic analysis based on in-depth interviews with 12 participants, it explores the effects that the pandemic had on people's relationships with gardens during an approximately 9-month period after the first national lockdown began in the UK. It places emphasis on health and wellbeing and garden design, using the concepts of agency and affordances as lenses through which to explore people's relationships with gardens. The results of this paper support others which have found people to be more supportive of nature-friendly garden design and to feel more connected with nature since the pandemic began.     

《国语》名称演变探源

《国语》本为先秦时期“事语”类文献的汇编,自西汉末刘歆始视其为《春秋》之“外传”,后人又多因之,称其为《春秋外传国语》、《春秋外传》、《春秋国语》,亦有简称《外传》,或直呼为《春秋》者。目录分类上《国语》亦多入经部“春秋类”当中,直至《四库全书》方黜《国语》出经部,而入于史部“杂史类”。本文搜集诸史材料,引述前贤之论,对《国语》名称之来源、演变及其缘由略作浅析。     

维果茨基论儿童言语的发生和发展

该文介绍了维果茨基关于言语的个体发生的论述,言语个体发生过程中思维和言语的关系。     

Exploring priming effects of social and non-social attention getters on older infants’ preferences for infant-directed speech

In infant research, various auditory/visual events are often used as attention getters to orient infants to a screen and alert them to upcoming information for their detection, discrimination, and/or recognition. Importantly, the influence of attention-getters on infants’ performance has rarely been systematically evaluated, even though these attention cues could be affecting subsequent information processing. This study investigated whether specific attention-getters could prime infants’ preferences for infant-directed speech (IDS) compared to adult-directed speech (ADS). Both a non-social and a social prime were chosen with the prediction that the social prime would strengthen infants' attention to IDS on a subsequent trial, but the non-social prime would have no differential effect on subsequent attention to either speech type. A total of 20 12- to 18-month old infants were presented with either a nonsocial (rotating form + chimes) or social (smiling female + voice) prime in an infant-controlled, speech preference procedure with both IDS and ADS speech types. Given previous research, we predicted that infants would show significantly more attention on trials during which looking produced IDS, but that this preference would be significantly augmented for infants in the condition receiving a social attention-getter before each trial. Results did not bear out this prediction, although we found a consistent, robust preference for IDS. The results will be discussed in terms of why these attention getters did not affect subsequent processing of two very different speech types, and what future modifications may be necessary in order to examine roles of attention getters in affecting experimental outcomes in infancy research. A secondary benefit of the findings is that we empirically established a growing preference for IDS in infants as old as 18-months of age.