Examining the effects of variation in emotional tone of voice on spoken word recognition

Emotional tone of voice (ETV) is essential for optimal verbal communication. Research has found that the impact of variation in nonlinguistic features of speech on spoken word recognition differs according to a time course. In the current study, we investigated whether intratalker variation in ETV follows the same time course in two long-term repetition priming experiments. We found that intratalker variability in ETVs affected reaction times to spoken words only when processing was relatively slow and difficult, not when processing was relatively fast and easy. These results provide evidence for the use of both abstract and episodic lexical representations for processing within-talker variability in ETV, depending on the time course of spoken word recognition.     

员工为什么不建言:基于中国文化视角的解析

在中国背景下,员工常常对问题视而不见或不敢表达.立足于中国文化视角,对这种状况分析得出,中庸思维不利于自我冒进式建言;较高的面子意识和人情观念,促使员工更多关注自身和被建言者的面子保全,往往选择保留自己的观点;集体主义关注组织和谐的特征不利于组织中建言行为的发生;权力距离抑制建言行为的表达;长期观念可能也会抑制建言行为的表达.未来研究应进一步明确具体文化因素对建言行为的影响及其发生机制.     

程序公正作用机制中的调节变量

程序公正是指用于决定分配的过程是否公正。回顾近年来程序公正作用机制的相关理论以及实证研究结果发现, 对程序公正的效果起调节作用的主要有四类因素, 分别为情景因素、个体特征因素、分配结果因素以及领导者因素。今后该主题的研究应进一步关注发言权效应的跨文化验证、探索本土化程序公正原则、进一步考察情景变量的调节效应、加强领导者因素的研究、结合分配公正进行研究, 并应加强程序公正的应用性研究。     

Small Shoes, Big Steps! Empowering Children as Active Researchers

The concept of children as researchers has gained credence in response to changing perspectives on their status in society, recognition of their role as consumers and increased attention to children’s rights. While this has led to greater involvement of children as participant and co-researchers, research led by children—research they design, carry out and disseminate themselves with adult support rather than adult management—is still relatively rare. Children designing and leading their own research opens up new protagonist frontiers. Children are party to the subculture of childhood which gives them a unique “insider” perspective critical to our understanding of their worlds. Child-to-child enquiry generates different data from adult-to-child enquiry because children observe with different eyes, ask different questions and communicate in fundamentally different ways. This paper explores some of the issues in empowering children as active researchers and draws on theory relating to participation, empowerment, voice and emancipation. Its primary focus is to celebrate and value children’s own research and includes the full text of an original research study by an 11-year-old girl.     

Conceptualizing and Measuring Youth–Adult Partnership in Community Programs: A Cross National Study

Youth participation in program and community decision making is framed by scholars as an issue of social justice, a platform for positive youth development and effective citizenry, and a strategy for nation building. Recent literature reviews have consistently identified youth–adult partnership (Y–AP) as an effective type of youth participation across highly diverse contexts. These same reviews, however, note that indicators of Y–AP have not been conceptualized and validated for measurement purposes. The present study addresses this limitation by developing a brief measure of Y–AP that is explicitly grounded in current theory, research, and community practice. The measure was administered to youth in the United States, Malaysia, and Portugal (N = 610). Validation was assessed through factor analysis and tests of factorial, discriminant, and concurrent validity. Results confirmed the two predicted dimensions of the Y–AP measure: youth voice in decision making and supportive adult relationships. These two dimensions were also found to be distinct from other measures of program quality: safety and engagement. As predicted, they also significantly correlated with measures of agency and empowerment. It is concluded that the measure has the potential to support community efforts to maximize the quality of youth programs.     

When proactivity produces a power struggle: how supervisors’ power motivation affects their support for employees’ promotive voice

Previous research informs us about facilitators of employees’ promotive voice. Yet little is known about what determines whether a specific idea for constructive change brought up by an employee will be approved or rejected by a supervisor. Drawing on interactionist theories of motivation and personality, we propose that a supervisor will be least likely to support an idea when it threatens the supervisor’s power motive, and when it is perceived to serve the employee’s own striving for power. The prosocial versus egoistic intentions attributed to the idea presenter are proposed to mediate the latter effect. We conducted three scenario-based studies in which supervisors evaluated fictitious ideas voiced by employees that – if implemented – would have power-related consequences for them as a supervisor. Results show that the higher a supervisors’ explicit power motive was, the less likely they were to support a power-threatening idea (Study 1, N = 60). Moreover, idea support was less likely when this idea was proposed by an employee that was described as high (rather than low) on power motivation (Study 2, N = 79); attributed prosocial intentions mediated this effect. Study 3 (N = 260) replicates these results.     

Spatial location and emotion modulate voice perception

ABSTRACT

How do we perceive voices coming from different spatial locations, and how is this affected by emotion? The current study probed the interplay between space and emotion during voice perception. Thirty participants listened to nonverbal vocalizations coming from different locations around the head (left vs. right; front vs. back), and differing in valence (neutral, positive [amusement] or negative [anger]). They were instructed to identify the location of the vocalizations (Experiment 1) and to evaluate their emotional qualities (Experiment 2). Emotion-space interactions were observed, but only in Experiment 1: emotional vocalizations were better localised than neutral ones when they were presented from the back and the right side. In Experiment 2, emotion recognition accuracy was increased for positive vs. negative and neutral vocalizations, and perceived arousal was increased for emotional vs. neutral vocalizations, but this was independent of spatial location. These findings indicate that emotional salience affects how we perceive the spatial location of voices. They additionally suggest that the interaction between spatial (“where”) and emotional (“what”) properties of the voice differs as a function of task.     

Exploring the meaning of participation in a community art project: A case study on the Seeming project

In Australia, community art has drawn significant research attention in regard to its potential as a community development strategy. Despite the fact that researchers have presented evidence for the positive developmental outcomes of participation in community art projects, a gap remains in understanding how and why people's participation in a community art project can lead to those positive outcomes. This research explored the meaning of participation in a community art project from the vantage point of the people who experience it. Ten participants were interviewed about their participation in a community art project (The Seeming) held in Bendigo, Australia. Following thematic analyses we identified three themes of how participants viewed their participation in a community arts project. These themes included giving voice to the silenced, creation of social connections and challenging and reproducing stereotypes. Participation means coming together and the findings highlight the potential of community arts projects for promoting the creation of new relationships and new stories about community. However, there are also problematic stories about self and others that were not deconstructed. It is argued that the settings in which different groups join can be meaningfully extended if there is an explicit concern with consciousness raising and deconstruction of normative stories. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.