关于普通话声调知觉中心的初步研究

通常将普通话单音节的声调F0曲线划分成“弯头段”、“调型段”和“降尾段”。考察“调型段”的具体位置和相对长度,对普通话语音教学,对开发语音识别和语音合成系统,都是很有意义的。本文使用两大类合成刺激连续体,通过辨认试验,初步确定了“调型段”在音节F0曲线上的位置,即一个单音节,不论是清声母音节,还是浊声母音节,也不论是何种声调和调域,其声调知觉中心(P-CT)的位置位于韵母段中部,而且,只要“调型段”的长度为浊音段的一半左右,就可能被感知成相应的调类。     

Can rapport building strategies,age, and question type influence preschoolers’ disclosures of adult wrongdoing?

In the present experiment, we examined preschoolers’ disclosures of a secret as a function of rapport building strategies used in Scandinavian field settings (verbal rapport building vs. prop rapport building), age in months (33–75 months) and question type (open-ended free recall invitation vs. suggestive questions). Fifty-three preschoolers (M = 60.5 months old, SD = 11.4) witnessed a researcher break a toy and were asked to keep the toy breakage a secret. The children were thereafter interviewed about the incident. Overall, 18.9% of the children disclosed the secret after an open-ended free recall invitation. The disclosure rate rose to 83% after the final phase of the interviews when questions containing suggestive details were asked of the children. Notably, we did not observe any significant effects as a function of manipulating rapport building strategy. A linear regression model showed that child age (in months) significantly predicted the amount of reported details, with younger preschoolers reporting fewer details compared to older preschoolers. Age also predicted the amount of correct details, but not the amount of incorrect details. No age differences were found with regard to children’s disclosure tendencies or proportion of central details about the secret. Methodological limitations and practical implications will be addressed.     

Behavioral skills training to increase interview skills of adolescent males in a juvenile residential treatment facility

Some studies suggest that acquiring employment following release from prison may reduce recidivism; however, few studies have evaluated procedures for teaching job-related skills to adolescents in residential detention facilities. Stocco et al. (2017) used behavioral skills training (BST) to improve interview skills of college students. The current study used a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants to evaluate the extent to which BST improved interview skills for 7 adolescents who had been adjudicated for sexual offenses. Results show that BST increased appropriate responses to interview questions for 4 students and BST plus modifications (i.e., stimulus and response prompts) increased correct responding to questions for the other 3. In addition, BST increased appropriate questions, correct posture, and smiling, and decreased fidgeting for all 7 students. We briefly discuss the social implications of teaching interview skills to adjudicated adolescents, as well as the limitations of the findings.     

Mock juror's perceptions of a child witness passing or failing a truth and lies discussion or promising to tell the truth

This study examined the effect of a child passing or failing the UK truth and lies discussion (TLD) compared with the Canadian promise to tell the truth on mock jurors' decisions regarding witness credibility and truthfulness and defendant guilt. Ninety-two participants read a vignette that described a child witnessing his father physically attacking his mother. The vignette was manipulated for witness age (age 4 years and age 8 years) and TLD performance/promise. Supporting the hypotheses, participants rated the witness's credibility and truthfulness significantly higher after a witness passed a TLD and after promising to tell the truth. The age of the child witness did not significantly affect jurors' decision making. The results are discussed in relation to arguments regarding the abolition of the UK's TLD in favour of introducing a promise to tell the truth.     

Meter isn't everything: The case of a timeline-oriented Cuban polyrhythm

Meter serves as a robust temporal referent for the creation and perception of musical rhythm. In music from Africa and the diaspora, a parallel referent is often present in the form of repetitive rhythmic patterns known as timelines. This paper examines how a well-known timeline (the standard pattern) serves as a grounding framework for quinto (lead conga drum) rhythms heard in different drumming performances of Afro-Cuban rumba columbia. Focusing on the layout of alignment points between the constituent elements of the various temporal layers—rhythm, timeline, and possible meters—indicates that the quinto players may be orienting their playing according to the timeline's onsets.     

Expressing embarrassment (or not): Which effects on produced impression on others and on attributed social value?

IntroductionEmbarrassment is a negative but prosocial emotion, which often arises from the transgression of a social norm. Its expression thus plays a crucial role in the social perception.ObjectiveThe aim of this paper is to document this role during both ordinary and extra-ordinary situations (i.e., with stakes).MethodUsing scenarios’ method, 27 participants and 100 recruiters evaluated persons expressing embarrassment or not.ResultsStudy 1 showed that during ordinary situations, nonverbal expression of embarrassment led to make a good impression by signalling desire of appeasement and prosociality. In contrast, Study 2 revealed that during a job interview, verbal expression of embarrassment through defensive tactics was rather negatively perceived.ConclusionThe manipulation of emotions as emotive communication tools will be discussed.     

Testing a modified cognitive interview with category clustering recall in Iran

The cognitive interview (CI) has been an effective method for interviewing eyewitnesses often leading to changes in legislation and practice in many countries. This study was the first to employ the CI in Iran and test whether category clustering recall (CCR) was superior to a free recall when incorporated within an investigative interview. A between‐subjects design assigned 66 participants to one of three interview conditions after they watched a mock robbery. The participants were interviewed 48 hr later using either a structured interview (SI), the CI, or a modified cognitive interview (MCI) that replaced free recall with CCR at the first retrieval attempt. Analysis of variance suggests CCR was more effective than free recall and the CI group recalled more information than the SI group, replicating the CI superiority effect. This has implications for law enforcement in Iran and worldwide by suggesting these techniques can be used to enhance recall.     

Religious authority and the transmission of abstract god concepts

According to the Standard Model account of religion, religious concepts tend to conform to “minimally counterintuitive” schemas. Laypeople may, to varying degrees, verbally endorse the abstract doctrines taught by professional theologians. But, outside the Sunday school exam room, the implicit representations that tend to guide people’s everyday thinking, feeling, and behavior are about minimally counterintuitive entities. According to the Standard Model, these implicit representations are the essential thing to be explained by the cognitive science of religion (CSR). It is argued here that this theoretical orientation of mainstream CSR misses a whole dimension of religiosity—the acceptance of certain religious authorities, that is, the acceptance of other people’s superior expertise. Average believers (especially in doctrinal traditions) tend to accept the authority of religious experts who espouse highly counterintuitive ideas that they (the laypeople) understand in a distorted form, if at all. These highly counterintuitive ideas are culturally successful because laypeople see them as being justified by people they have reason to regard as epistemic authorities. The tendency for people to endorse (without fully understanding) highly counterintuitive religious ideas espoused by intellectuals may explain parallels in the development of separate traditions (e.g., Judaism and Hinduism), as religious philosophers follow parallel lines of reasoning.     

Eyewitness identification in simultaneous and sequential lineups: an investigation of position effects using receiver operating characteristics

For decades, sequential lineups have been considered superior to simultaneous lineups in the context of eyewitness identification. However, most of the research leading to this conclusion was based on the analysis of diagnosticity ratios that do not control for the respondent’s response criterion. Recent research based on the analysis of ROC curves has found either equal discriminability for sequential and simultaneous lineups, or higher discriminability for simultaneous lineups. Some evidence for potential position effects and for criterion shifts in sequential lineups has also been reported. Using ROC curve analysis, we investigated the effects of the suspect’s position on discriminability and response criteria in both simultaneous and sequential lineups. We found that sequential lineups suffered from an unwanted position effect. Respondents employed a strict criterion for the earliest lineup positions, and shifted to a more liberal criterion for later positions. No position effects and no criterion shifts were observed in simultaneous lineups. This result suggests that sequential lineups are not superior to simultaneous lineups, and may give rise to unwanted position effects that have to be considered when conducting police lineups.