A sound effect: Exploration of the distinctiveness advantage in voice recognition

Two experiments are presented, which explore the presence of a distinctiveness advantage when recognising unfamiliar voices. In Experiment 1, distinctive voices were recognised significantly better, and with greater confidence, in a sequential same/different matching task compared with typical voices. These effects were replicated and extended in Experiment 2, as distinctive voices were recognised better even under challenging listening conditions imposed by nonsense sentences and temporal reversal. Taken together, the results aligned well with similar results when processing faces, and provided a useful point of comparison between voice and face processing.     

Dispositional gratitude mediates the relationship between a past-positive temporal frame and well-being

Both past-positive temporal frame, which involves dwelling on positive memories of the past, and dispositional gratitude are associated with positive life outcomes, including greater life satisfaction. A past-positive temporal frame may provide a foundation for the development of dispositional gratitude. The present study examined a model positing that gratitude mediates the relationship between past-positive temporal frame and well-being. Two hundred and thirty-three participants (mean age = 34.10 years; SD = 14.21) completed measures of characteristic past-positive temporal frame, dispositional gratitude, and several indices of well-being. Higher levels of a past positive temporal frame were associated with greater gratitude and indices of well-being. Higher levels of gratitude were associated with indices of well-being. Gratitude mediated the relationship between past-positive temporal frame and well-being. These results provide information regarding a possible process through which past-positive temporal frames have beneficial effects.     

Musical ability and non‐native speech‐sound processing are linked through sensitivity to pitch and spectral information

Is the observed link between musical ability and non‐native speech‐sound processing due to enhanced sensitivity to acoustic features underlying both musical and linguistic processing? To address this question, native English speakers (N = 118) discriminated Norwegian tonal contrasts and Norwegian vowels. Short tones differing in temporal, pitch, and spectral characteristics were used to measure sensitivity to the various acoustic features implicated in musical and speech processing. Musical ability was measured using Gordon's Advanced Measures of Musical Audiation. Results showed that sensitivity to specific acoustic features played a role in non‐native speech‐sound processing: Controlling for non‐verbal intelligence, prior foreign language‐learning experience, and sex, sensitivity to pitch and spectral information partially mediated the link between musical ability and discrimination of non‐native vowels and lexical tones. The findings suggest that while sensitivity to certain acoustic features partially mediates the relationship between musical ability and non‐native speech‐sound processing, complex tests of musical ability also tap into other shared mechanisms.     

Eye movements of monkey observers viewing vocalizing conspecifics

Primates, including humans, communicate using facial expressions, vocalizations and often a combination of the two modalities. For humans, such bimodal integration is best exemplified by speech-reading - humans readily use facial cues to enhance speech comprehension, particularly in noisy environments. Studies of the eye movement patterns of human speech-readers have revealed, unexpectedly, that they predominantly fixate on the eye region of the face as opposed to the mouth. Here, we tested the evolutionary basis for such a behavioral strategy by examining the eye movements of rhesus monkeys observers as they viewed vocalizing conspecifics. Under a variety of listening conditions, we found that rhesus monkeys predominantly focused on the eye region versus the mouth and that fixations on the mouth were tightly correlated with the onset of mouth movements. These eye movement patterns of rhesus monkeys are strikingly similar to those reported for humans observing the visual components of speech. The data therefore suggest that the sensorimotor strategies underlying bimodal speech perception may have a homologous counterpart in a closely related primate ancestor.     

DELAYED REINFORCEMENT OF OPERANT BEHAVIOR

The experimental analysis of delay of reinforcement is considered from the perspective of three questions that seem basic not only to understanding delay of reinforcement, but, also, by implication, the contributions of temporal relations between events to operant behavior. The first question is whether effects of the temporal relation between responses and reinforcers can be isolated from other features of the environment that often accompany delays, such as stimuli or changes in the temporal distribution or rate of reinforcement. The second question is that of the effects of delays on operant behavior. Beyond the common denominator of a temporal separation between reinforcers and the responses that produce them, delay of reinforcement procedures differ from one another along several dimensions, making delay effects circumstance dependent. The final question is one of interpreting delay of reinforcement effects. It centers on the role of the response—reinforcer temporal relation in the context of other, concurrently operating behavioral processes.     

The Influence of Temporal Orientation and Affective Frame on Use of Ethical Decision-Making Strategies

This study examined the role of temporal orientation and affective frame in the execution of ethical decision-making strategies. In reflecting on a past experience or imagining a future experience, participants thought about experiences that they considered either positive or negative. The participants recorded their thinking about that experience by responding to several questions, and their responses were content-analyzed for the use of ethical decision-making strategies. The findings indicated that a future temporal orientation was associated with greater strategy use. Likewise, a positive affective frame was associated with greater strategy use. Future orientation may permit better strategy execution than a past orientation because it facilitates more objective, balanced contemplation of the reflected-upon situation and minimizes potential self-threat associated with past behavior. A positive affective frame likely improves strategy execution because it facilitates active analysis of the experience. Future directions and implications of these findings are discussed.     

Influenceability of Sex Differences under Conditions of Risk Taking

In an experiment on the effect of intensity accents on the perception of time intervals between tones. H. G. Tekman (2001) found that the regular placement of deviant time intervals in short sequences of tones reduced detection, especially if intensity accents marked the deviant time intervals. That was the opposite of what one wòuld have expected on the basis of the dynamic attending theory of M. R. Jones (1976). The effect might have occurred because temporally deviant tones create cumulative onset shifts that affect all the subsequent tones. If the deviations were randomly placed, then they could follow each other in close succession and change the local tempo. In the present study, the changes of local tempo, which might have acted as a cue for the detection of temporal deviations in the random sequences, were eliminated by compensating for deviant time intervals with equal deviations in the opposite direction in the interval that followed. That change in the stimuli eliminated the negative main effect of regularity, and the accenting interacted with regularity in favor of detection in the regular sequences. However, a simple advantage of regular over random sequences was not observed. The author discusses possible reasons for the lack of a facilitatory effect of regularity.     

Self-Perceived Peer Acceptance in Preschoolers of Differing Economic and Cultural Backgrounds

Self-evaluation begins in early childhood and becomes more nuanced as children get older. However, little is known about the specific factors that predict self-perception and in particular peer acceptance, early in life. This is especially true for low-income children and children of different ethnicities. This study examined 4-year-old children's feelings of social acceptance relative to teachers' perceptions. It also explored whether temperament, language skills, traditional parenting, and teachers' perceptions of peer acceptance were related to children's self-perceptions. Using 94 preschoolers from different cultural and economic backgrounds as participants, results of a mixed model analysis of variance indicated that the relation between children's self-perceptions and teachers' ratings were not uniform across economic and cultural groups. In addition, results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that traditional parenting was one of the strongest predictors of children's social self-perceptions. Beyond parenting, children with relatively good verbal skills, who were not temperamentally shy, tended to perceive themselves as socially competent.     

Efectos de los cambios cognitivos y del esfuerzo de procesamiento sobre los juicios de duración prospectivos y retrospectivos

Resumen

El objetivo de esta investigación ha sido someter a prueba en un mismo diseño las variables representativas de cada uno de los tres principales modelos contemporáneos que tratan de explicar la experiencia humana sobre la duración. Además, se ha efectuado una comparación entre los paradigmas experimentales prospectivo y retrospectivo igualados en el tiempo que transcurre hasta la realización del juicio, así como una medición directa mediante un índice independiente del esfuerzo cognitivo involucrado en la realización de las tareas experimentales. El experimento realizado ha sido aplicado a 192 estudiantes de Psicología de la Universidad de Salamanca. Los resultados muestran que cuando se atiende de forma intencional al tiempo, los cambios ocurridos en el contexto cognitivo son utilizados como los indicios primordiales para la configuración de los juicios de tiempo más precisos. Sin embargo, cuando la atención al tiempo es tan sólo incidental, el esfuerzo cognitivo es el factor que mejor explica la estimación temporal mediante una relación inversa con el tamaño de la reproducción efectuada.