bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sonar Doppler Discrimination and the Effect of a Visual Alertness Indicator upon Detection of Auditory Sonar Signals in a Sonar Watch
Authors: O'Hanlon J. , Schmidt A. , Baker C. H.
Published: July 2017

Research reported nearly 20 years ago concluded that the ability to make auditory pitch discriminations is impaired in some Ss by prolonged listening to sonar returns. As a special type of pitch discrimination, discrimination of doppler, is of importance in classifying sonar signals, an experiment was performed to determine whether or not listening to sonar returns for 90 minutes impairs the ability to discriminate doppler. No impairment was found. A second aim of this experiment was to evaluate the effectiveness of an alertness indicator when listening for sonar signals. With the indicator 16 per cent more signals were detected than without it.
Performance Sharing in an Audio-Visual Vigilance Task
Authors: Mcgrath James J.
Published: July 2017

The phenomenon of performance sharing, discovered in an earlier experiment, was verified in the present one, and attributed to differences in signal detectability when two vigilance tasks are performed concurrently. Performance on a vigilance display presenting easily detectable signals was shown to be enhanced by requiring the observer to monitor simultaneously another display, presenting difficult signals via a different sensory modality. Several theoretical approaches to the explanation of the phenomenon are discussed, and implications for display design and research are suggested.
The Effects of Signal and Response Complexity on Eighteen Hours of Visual Monitoring
Authors: Montague William E. , Webber Carl E. , Adams Jack A.
Published: July 2017

Subjects monitored a complex display composed of three rows of four digital display boxes each containing a constant reference number. A change in the number lasting six seconds, was the signal to be detected. Signals occurred for different groups of subjects at rates of either 16 or 64 per hour. Response complexity was varied by having some subjects merely report the change while others evaluated the size of the change. Four groups of 15 subjects received a different combination of rate and complexity. Neither rate nor complexity influenced performance. All groups showed significant vigilance decrement during the session. The magnitude of the decrement was relatively trivial, however, and in substantial agreement with other studies. In complex tasks man seems to be an adequate monitor over rather extended time periods.
Individuals and Us
Authors: Christensen Julien M.
Published: July 2017

Since behavior is a function of both heredity and environment, it is axiomatic that those who directly or indirectly structure the environment determine to some extent the behavior of the residents of that environment. Systems and design engineers are responsible for a very significant proportion of the artifactual elements of a modern society and probably have a much greater influence on human behavior than has been generally recognized. The members of the Human Factors Society have a special responsibility and a unique opportunity to see that equipment and systems are designed so as to take advantage of such qualities of man as creativity, flexibility, etc. Further, insofar as possible the human factors specialist should assure that the jobs and man-machine interactions created by specific designs not only take advantage of man's presence but also contribute positively to his personal development and fulfillment.
Training for Vigilance: A Comparison of Different Techniques
Authors: Colquhoun W. P.
Published: July 2017

In a 40-minute vigilance session, 72 subjects inspected a series of displays, each of which consisted of a row of 6 small disks, for the occasional presence of a disk 17 percent greater in area than the remainder. The possibility of improving the generally low levels of performance observed with this task by special training was studied by pre-exposing subjects to a session of similar length with either knowledge of results (KR), one of 3 kinds of cueing of signal occurrence, a mixed KR/cueing program, or no task information. No differential effect of the various training techniques was found, but both the efficiency with which signals were discriminated, and the degree of caution exercised in reporting their occurrence increased during the experiment. It is concluded that greater understanding of the factors affecting signal detectability and decision-criteria in vigilance tasks is required before an appropriate method of training can be devised.
The Effect of Signal Rate on Performance in Two Kinds of Vigilance Task
Authors: Mackworth Jane F.
Published: July 2017

Signal rates of 180 or 30/hr were presented to 80 subjects in two kinds of vigilance task, the Continuous and the Jump Clocks. In the former, signats were brief pauses in the steady movement of the clock hand, in the latter they were double jumps of the clock hand. The signal rate had little effect on the percentage of signals detected but more false alarms were given at the slow signal rate, so that the detectability (ď) or sensitivity for the signals and the criterial level (beta) tended to be lower. The Continuous Clock with its high required rate of observing showed significant decrements in ď during the session, but the Jump Clock did not. Increases in beta during the session were greater with the fast signal rate. The results are discussed in terms of habituation and observing behavior.
Feasibility of Studying Driver Reaction to Sudden Pedestrian Emergencies in an Automobile Simulator
Authors: Barrett Gerald V.
Published: July 2017

An experiment was conducted to determine the feasibility of studying driver reaction to sudden pedestrian emergencies in an unprogrammed automobile simulator. A random sample of 11 male subjects followed an identical procedure. Each subject went through a speed estimation study which was designed so that the subject would drive past the shed containing the pedestrian (dummy) 11 times. This was done so that the emergence of the pedestrian would be completely unsuspected. The subject drove in the right lane of the road at approximately 25 mph. When the subject was 82.5 ft. from the shed containing the pedestrian, a microswitch was tripped which released the dummy into the center of the road at a controlled rate. During the study a continuous record of speed, time, brake position, steering wheel position, lateral position of vehicle, longitudinal position of vehicle, and position of pedestrian was recorded. All of the subjects tried to avoid the pedestrian, either by brake application or by a steering change. Since this was a feasibility study with a small sample, no conclusions were drawn beyond the data, but the possibility of productive research in this area using simulation techniques seems to have been opened up.
Human Factors Evaluation of Head-Up Display and Flight Performance by Photography and Data-Reduction Methods
Authors: Debotton Isaac
Published: July 2017

A photographic method is presented which can determine flight parameters, and many measures of the quality of an electronic Head-Up Display which uses MicrovisionR1 and an electronic horizon as real world information. In conjunction with pilot input factors and pilot acceptance and evaluative factors which can be obtained through other means, there are enough parameters to relate the quality of the display to good flight performance. One method proposed involves the taking of motion pictures through the head-up display while the pilot is using it to fly the airplane. With the use of a film reader, the x and y coordinates of 12 points are obtained as the raw data. This, in turn, through simplified approximate formulas, can be converted to flight parameters and quality of the display which, in turn, can be related to flight performance.
Human Frequency Response as a Function of Visual Feedback Delay
Authors: Leslie John M. , Thompson David A.
Published: July 2017

This paper uses a light-matching tracking study to determine the human frequency band pass characteristics in the presence of significantly large external transmission delays which are introduced into the stimulus-response information loop. Such delays occur in real time operation of vehicles and other equipment which is at some distance from the operator (near earth or deep orbit, surface of the moon, etc.). When information in the visual sensory channel is delayed because of transmission times between man's controlling action and the displayed results, this interacts with the relatively short normal delay of the other sensory feedback loops such as tactual and kinesthetic information loops, causing substantial phase interference problems between otherwise in-phase parallel sensory information channels. A representative model was used for the human transfer function for the system studied, which matched the experimental data reasonably well. The maximum frequency at which a person could meaningfully accept and act on random inputs (where the cut-off point was defined as the 3 db down point) is fco = 0.16/(T + 0.15)0.85 for a T second transmission delay.
Measuring Metafacts
Authors: Lyman John
Published: July 2017

Metafacts are those factors in society which set human values and thus become forces that profoundly influence behavior. Study of the principles by which metafacts may be generated and controlled appears to be urgently needed for the orderly development of future technological-sociological interfaces.
Glove Characteristics Influencing Control Manipulability
Authors: Bradley James V.
Published: July 2017

Both objective measurements and subjective ratings were made of the degree to which each of 18 widely differing gloves possessed each of the following characteristics: tenacity (i.e., resistance to sliding over a grasped surface), snugness of fit, suppleness, and protection against injury to the enclosed hand. Twenty-two subjects performed each of five different control operations while wearing each of the 18 gloves and while barehanded. For both objective and subjective measurement of the characteristics, it was found that degree of tenacity is correlated with speed of gloved operation of on-off controls, that amount of suppleness is correlated with rapidity of gloved operation of adjustable controls, and that increasing snugness of fit improves operation time for both types of control. The difference between operation times, gloved and barehanded, was found to depend strongly on the type of control operation required.
The Measurement of Tracking Proficiency
Authors: Kelley Charles R.
Published: July 2017

The problem of measuring tracking proficiency is reviewed and analyzed. The five classes of measurements discussed are:

(1) single-axis error amplitude scores;

(2) multi-axis error amplitude scores;

(3) simple frequency scores; control effort;

(4) special engineering measurement techniques;

(5) adaptive tracking measurements.

The most widely used score in psychological investigations, time on target, is shown not to be an interval measurement of tracking error amplitude and, in addition, is shown to be unreliable. Seventeen equations for the measurement of tracking skill are described. Adaptive tracking measurement techniques are shown to be more effective than are techniques employing fixed-difficulty tasks.
The Industrial-Engineering/Human Factors Interface
Authors: Mccormick Ernest J.
Published: July 2017

Industrial engineers affect the jobs that millions of people perform every day of their lives. The human factors aspects of industrial engineering so pervade our economy that industrial engineers constitute one of the most important groups of appliers of human factors information.
Computer Techniques for Analyzing the Microstructure of Serial-Action Work in Industry
Authors: Rigney Joseph W. , Towne Douglas M.
Published: July 2017

Three computer-based techniques for analyzing and simulating serial-action tasks are described. The first, called BETS, measured the efficiency, in terms of expected information, of tests made by technicians who were troubleshooting malfunctioning electronic circuits. It computed efficiency ratios for a technician's test sequences in comparison to optimal sequences. The second method, ARMAN, generated detailed time-and-motion analyses from gross descriptions of serial-action tasks and man-machine interfaces and computed the time costs of these tasks. The third technique incorporates a general model of the action-goal structure of serial-action work. It operates on this structure with special functions composed in a symbol manipulation language. This program, called TASKSYM, can generate all alternative correct ways to accomplish serial-action work and can track a subject through the performance of this work. The model includes an anti-goal structure which identifies action sequences leading to catastrophic error, e.g., electrical damage to the equipment or shock hazard to the performer. An extension of the program to computer-aided instruction is described.
An Industrial Experiment in Organized Rest Pauses
Authors: Bhatia Nirmala , Murrell K. F. H.
Published: July 2017

It was discovered during recent explorations in various industries that many hours were wasted in irregularly recurring pauses. This paper outlines an experiment which attempted to regularize these unofficial pauses and to test whether fixed rest pauses could be introduced to reduce fatigue and improve quality and operatives' job satisfaction, without loss of production and earnings. This openly acknowledged the operatives' social need for communication. “Compensatory relaxation allowances” were therefore given as actual rest of 10 minutes at the end of each hour. Four 15-minute breaks at longer intervals were also tried. Interviews were held at three different stages to assess the effect of the experiment on the operatives' attitudes toward the job, colleagues, supervisors, etc. Improvement in production and its quality and in earnings was found at the end of the experiment, and the more frequent and shorter break of 10 minutes was unanimously preferred.
Identification of Cartographic Symbols from TV Displays
Authors: Wong Kam W. , Yacoumelos Nick G.
Published: July 2017

An experiment was conducted to investigate the resolution capability of TV displays in distinguishing details from line-maps and picto-maps, and to establish the relative merits of color and black-and-white TV display systems. The experimental variables included two display types, three map types, four symbol types, and three image-resolution levels. The results showed that a color display offered some advantage over a black-and-white display of equivalent effective resolution. However, a black-and-white system could provide the same performance at the expense of a slightly higher effective resolution. At an image-resolution level of nine TV-lines/mm, alphanumeric symbols were identified almost 100% correctly for all map types and display types. Area and line symbols achieved their maximum level of performance at five and seven TV-lines/mm, respectively. United States Geological Survey (USGS) 1:24,000 maps were significantly better than TOPOCOM line-maps and picto-maps.
Iethodology for Evaluation of Image Enhancement Techniques
Authors: Sidoruk Alter
Published: July 2017

A two-phased experimental design is proposed for evaluation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image enhancement techniques. In SAR operation crew tasks are clearly differentiated into cognitive and psychomotor behaviors. Accordingly, Phase I static adaptive learning experiments are designed to assess cognitive (image interpretation) behavior, and Phase 2 real-time simulation experiments assess psychomotor behaviors associated with target designation and tracking. The two-phased paradigm can be effectively applied to any electro-optical image quality/enhancement design study. The two-phases are complementary and offer an improved and more cost effective methodology as contrasted to the use of classical ANOVA designs for the entire procedure.
A Simple Nonparametric Test for Correlation
Authors: Cochran David J. , Gibson Jerry D.
Published: July 2017

The polarity coincidence correlator (PCC), a nonparametric hypothesis testing procedure, is presented as an alternative to the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r). Previous theoretical results indicate that the PCC statistic should be inferior to the correlation coefficient when the data are normal, but it may outperform r for non-normal data with a highly peaked probability density function. Application of the PCC to a human factors experiment is illustrated. For this particular application, the PCC performance compares favorably to the product-moment correlation test when the data are normal and exceeds that of the correlation test for non-normal data. The results, combined with the ease of PCC computation, support the PCC as a promising test for human factors experimentation.
Influence of Ethyl Alcohol in Moderate Levels on the Ability to Steer a Fixed-Base Shadowgraph Driving Simulator
Authors: Dott Andrew B. , McKelvey Robert K.
Published: July 2017

This report describes an investigation of the effects of moderate levels of blood alcohol on ability to steer a constantly turning course in a fixed-base shadowgraph driving simulator. An analysis of tracking error responses showed a statistically significant impairment of the performance of subjects less than 35 years old at a blood alcohol level of 50 mg%. Subjects over the age of 35 had difficulty operating the equipment. It is suspected that part of the decrement experienced by the older subjects must be attributed to task difficulty artificially raised by mechanical limitations of the simulator.
A Field Study of the Effects of Drivers' Adaptation to Automobile Velocity
Authors: Matthews Michael L.
Published: July 2017

A roadside survey of vehicle velocities was carried out by radar on a four lane, median divided highway with a 50 mile-per-hour (80 km/h) legal speed limit. Northbound traffic on the highway had been previously exposed to expressway conditions with vehicle speeds in excess of 96 km/h, whereas southbound traffic had been previously exposed to an urban highway with speeds of about 64 km/h. Northbound traffic velocities exceeded those of southbound traffic by an average of 6.9 km/h, which, it is argued, is the result of drivers of northbound vehicles being exposed to conditions under which velocity adaptation occurs. An analysis of the data by vehicle category indicates that while large cars are driven significantly faster than small cars under all conditions, the magnitude of the velocity adaptation effect is greater for drivers of small cars.
Elite Views on American Education
Authors: Karier Clarence J.
Published: July 2017

The abler persons in the world in the long run are the more clean, decent, just, and kind. Edward L. Thorndike

If the aristocratic principle continues to give way to the equalitarian denial of the need of leadership, parliamentary government may ultimately become impossible. Irving Babbitt

A second set of requisites of a humane civilization is that the dominant elite should know what they want, that they should give the people what they think best for the people, and that they should make the people both like and fit the scheme. Lawrence Dennis
Carl Rogers, Religion, and the Role of Psychology in American Culture
Authors: Fuller Robert C.
Published: July 2017

Humanistic psychology is often caricatured as having both aided and abetted the rise of modern narcissism. This charge is, however, a seriously misguided one as becomes evident through a closer reading of one of the movement's preeminent spokespersons—Carl Rogers. This article explores the ontological framework underlying Rogers' thought and in so doing demonstrates the important sense in which his writings have given psychological embodiment to the religious and ethical assumptions that have shaped the successive articulation of a peculiarly American spirituality.
A Note on the Informativeness of Parts of Words
Authors: Bruner Jerome S. , O'Dowd Donald
Published: July 2017

The experiment reported in this paper was designed to determine which part of a printed word is most useful to a reader as a basis for recognition of the whole word. Versions of ninety common English nouns were prepared in which typographical reversals were inserted at the beginning, middle or end of the word. These were then presented in a tachistoscope to subjects who were asked to recognize the words.

The results of the experiment showed that an error in the beginning of a word is significantly more disruptive of recognition than an error in the middle or the end of a word and that an error at the end is more disruptive than an error in the middle.
Place Cues for /ptk/ in Lower Cut-Off Frequency Shifts of Contiguous /s/
Authors: Malécot André , Chermak Andrew
Published: July 2017

In contexts containing /ptk/ between /s/'s, or in terminal position after a single /s/, spectrograms of real speech show transitions in the lower cut-off frequency of the sibilance. For the first /s/, they proceed upward for /t/, straight for /k/, and downward for /p/. When another /s/ follows, its transition is a mirror-image of the first. Synthetic speech and tape-cutting experiments show that the /p/ and /t/ transitions constitute powerful place cues for the stop, but that a burst is required for intelligible /k/'s.
The Effect of Differing Noise Spectra On the Consistency of Identification of Consonants
Authors: Busch Allen C. , Eldredge Donald
Published: July 2017

This experiment was an analytical study which attempted to clarify the effects of differing noise spectra on the consistency of identification of consonants. The two noise spectra used in this experiment were those spectra most closely associated with communications media. The materials used in analysing the effects were of sufficiently diverse nature as to preclude any a priori assumption of similarity. The results indicate that a considerable amount of consistency exists for consonantal confusions, with some predictable shifts. The implications of this study, for design and development of communications devices and systems, are that phonemic confusions, when analysed by using white noise as a masking agent, are probably representative of the types of confusions that occur in communications networks.
Synthetic Vowel Categorization and Dialectology
Authors: Willis Clodius
Published: July 2017

A series of synthetic vowel categorization tests were administered to subjects from four dialect regions; Western New York State, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Ontario (Canada). The aims of the experiment were (1) to establish the feasibility of using such tests in less than ideal testing environments; and (2) to test the hypothesis that differences in manner of categorization correlate with differences in dialect. The results of the experiment indicate that it is feasible to use such tests in less than ideal testing environments, thus opening up the possibility of applications in dialectology field work. Correlations between differences in dialect and differences in manner of categorization were found (1) in the categorization of the vowels of " add ", " tar ", and " odd " by Massachusetts subjects as compared to subjects from Western New York; (2) in the categorization of the vowels of " hat " and " hot " by subjects from Western New York as compared with Massachusetts subjects; and (3) in the poor performance in categorization of the contrast /ε/-/æ/ by subjects from Western New York as compared to other groups. The article concludes with a discussion of applications of synthetic vowel categorization tests to dialectology.
The Effect of Stimulus Mildness-Broadness in the Evaluation of Accents
Authors: Giles Howard
Published: July 2017

Past research has not considered the possibility of stimulus mildness-broadness variations affecting the evaluation of spoken accents and dialects. This study was designed to consider whether listeners can perceive vocal differences along this pronunciation dimension, and if they could, whether their evaluations of the aesthetic, status and communicative contents of a standard, neutral passage of prose were a function of broadness. The results support the notion of this dimension's saliency, with "experience" (defined in terms of age and length of regional membership) being considered an important evaluative determinant. The data are discussed within the context of related research.
Sentence Imitation in Pre-School Children
Authors: Miller Jon F.
Published: July 2017

Surface structure complexity, transformational sentence type and sentence length were investigated as variables in a sentence imitation task with pre-school children. Sentences were varied on Yngve depth (High-Low), transformational sentence type (active, negative, wh- question and passive) and sentence length (5-9 words). Sentence length was found to affect sentence imitation in a consistent manner. As sentence length increased, correct imitation decreased. There was an interaction between Yngve depth and transformational sentence type.
Who Is " Dada "?: Some Aspects of the Semantic and Phonological Development of a Child's First Words
Authors: Greenfield Patricia Marks
Published: July 2017

Head and eye orientation was used as an index of verbal comprehension in a study of earliest language acquisition. The development of the first association between sound and meaning and the later growth of semantic markers were observed in the author's own child between the ages of eight and a half and eleven and three-quarter months. There was evidence of a systematic internalization of meaning and a gradual co-ordination of comprehension and speaking. " Dada, " the first word, and two later lexical items were found to be organized in terms of three gradually acquired semantic dimensions.
Referential Effects on Articulatory Learning
Authors: Leonard Laurence B.
Published: July 2017

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of referent changes on the articulatory learning of familiar words.

Two groups of school-age children learned correct articulatory productions of /s/ in /saIn/ and /saId/ in sequences ranging from single-word imitation to spontaneous production in connected discourse. One group was presented with new definitions and pictorial referents when learning the utterances /saIn/ and /saId/, while the other group learned /saIn/ and /saId/ in the familiar semantic context.

The results suggest that the articulatory response /s/, in /saIn/ and /saId/, may be learned more effectively by an approach that assigns a nonsense referent to /saIn/ and /saId/, rather than an approach that maintains the original meaningful referent while training correct /s/ productions. Correct /s/ productions learned in this nonsense context, however, do not readily generalize to original semantic contexts. Additional training must be provided to establish these correct productions when the phonemic configurations, /saIn/ and /saId/, are under the stimulus control of the original, meaningful referent. Lastly, it appears that /s/ productions learned in the original context are generalized more easily to other meaningful words than /s/ productions learned in the nonsense context.
Glossolalia as Regressive Speech
Authors: Samarin William J.
Published: July 2017

Although there is considerable agreement about the phonological characteristics of religious glossolalia, based for the most part on utterances produced by native speakers of English, opinions differ widely about the causation of glossolalia. Most of the explanations are psychological or physiological.

It is demonstrated that these explanations are inadequate because they are ad hoc and because they do not comprehend enough data. One hypothesis is treated in detail, namely, that glossolalia is a product of trance.

This paper claims that a causative explanation for glossolalia must account for (1) religious glossolalic behaviour that is not demonstrably pathological or dissociative and (2) other spontaneous, ephemeral, and " meaningless " utterances in non-religious contexts.

It is suggested that there is a single phenomenon of linguistic " regression " whose basic component is a stream of speech produced unconsciously with early-acquired rules of phonation but more or less consciously modified according to socially meaningful values and attitudes.

It would appear, therefore, that there is a broad spectrum of anomalous speech of which religious glossolalia is only one manifestation. Moreover, although physiological-psychological states are not irrelevant to glossolalic output, socio-cultural factors are also determinant.
The Role of Intonation in the Recall of Various Linguistic Stimuli"
Authors: Leonard Laurence B.
Published: July 2017

The effects of intonation on the recall of normal sentences, anomalous (grammatical but unmeaningful) sentences, anagram (ungrammatical but meaningful) strings, and word lists were examined. Results indicated that intonation facilitated recall only in the anomalous sentence condition, suggesting that, in such learning situations, intonation may function as an additional component of grammar, rather than as an independent linguistic variable.
Definiteness in Discourse
Authors: Grieve Robert
Published: July 2017

A recent study has attempted to relate definiteness to topicalization. In an utterance with two nominals, there is a tendency to distinguish the nominals in the topic from the nominal in the comment by marking the former with the and the latter with a, for in discourse the speaker must presuppose of his listener knowledge of topic (the + noun), and ignorance of comment (a + noun). However, since this clearly assumes that use of the is related to knowledge, and a to lack of knowledge, the present study attempts to test these assumptions. The results of two experiments support the hypotheses.
Maximum Rate and Minimal Duration of Repeated Syllables
Authors: Sigurd Bengt
Published: July 2017

Among the interesting questions related to tongue-twisters is the question how fast syllables of different types can be repeated. A simple pilot experiment with strings of open syllables such as [tatata...], [stastasta...], [strastrastra ...] was carried out. Differences in the results are interpreted as being due to individual differences in motor skills and to differences in the phonetic material of the syllables. Two simple mathematical models are derived to predict the data. The last model predicts repetition rate from assumed inherent durational values of the consonants involved. A correction factor (K) is established to compensate for the difference between observed and predicted values. This factor seems to depend on difficulties in co-ordinating articulatory movements. Finally, some hypotheses and speculations concerning the connection between the results and the phonological structure of languages are advanced.
Right Ear Advantage for Speech Presented Monaurally
Authors: Fry D. B.
Published: July 2017

In a series of choice reaction time experiments members of minimal pairs of English words were presented monaurally to the right and left ears of right-handed subjects, who made a key-pressing response indicating the word they had heard. The word pairs used were /pit:bit/, /bit:bet/, /lei:rei/ and /splei:sprei/; the stimuli were recorded natural utterances.

Mean reaction times showed a highly significant right ear advantage of 25 msec. in the case of the word pair /splei:sprei/, a significant right ear advantage of 15 msec. for /lei:rei/ and no significant difference between the ears for /pit:bit/ or /bit:bet/.
Some Theoretical Considerations of Articulation Substitution Phenomena
Authors: Cairns Helen S. , Cairns Charles E. , Williams Fredrick
Published: July 2017

Articulation substitutes in the speech samples of American children, grades one through six, representing standard American English, Black English, and Spanish-influenced-English were analysed using a distinctive features approach. Results indicated that beyond variations due to dialect and second language influences, most substitutions could be predicted from phonemic complexity criteria developed from phonological theory. Specially, markedness theory was demonstrated as a basis of predicting the phonetic feature characteristics of substitutions.
Dialectal Differences Between Middle-Class Black and White Children Who do and do Not Associate with Lower-Class Black Children
Authors: Terrell Francis
Published: July 2017

Hypothesized that middle-class boys (regardless of race) who associate with lower-class boys would be more capable of recognizing non-standard English features than middle-class boys (regardless of race) who do not associate with lower-class boys. Males ( n = 123) between the ages of 9-12 years were selected. Subjects consisted of 43 lower-class black children who were used to obtain verbal dialogues and reliability estimates. The remaining 80 subjects were middle-class boys consisting of 20 black children who associate with lower-class black children (BH); 20 white children who associate with lower-class black children (WH); 20 black children who do not associate with lower-class black children (BL); and 20 white children who do not associate with lower-class black children (WL). All subjects were required to listen to verbal dialogues and fill in the missing words. The results support the hypothesis of this study. However an unexpected finding was that race was also significant. These results are discussed in terms of parental and ideological influences on dialects.
Elicited Imitation and Production of Language By Severely Subnormal Children
Authors: Berry P. , Taylor J.
Published: July 2017

The relationship between elicited imitation and production of language is confusing in the available psycholinguistic literature. The research reported in this paper attempts to clarify this relationship. Severely mentally handicapped children (mean chronological age, 137.12 months, mean vocabulary age, 43.47 months) were involved in a series of studies in which they were asked (i) to imitate a wide range of linguistic stimuli, including single words through to complex sentences and (ii) to talk to the experimenter about a series of picture stimuli. It was concluded that the children used linguistic strategies on both tasks indicating that similar psycholinguistic skills are involved.
Lexical Derivation and the Form Class of Word Associations
Authors: Richardson John T.E.
Published: July 2017

Certain words are claimed by linguists to be derived out of simple lexical items. Such words should therefore be likely to elicit free associates from the grammatical category of their stems. Simple words, on the other hand, should follow the usual rule of eliciting associates from their own grammatical category. Previous research suggests that this is the case, but provides no criterion for distinguishing between simple and derived words. The present study explicitly specifies which words are to be regarded as derived, and finds no effect of the grammatical category of the stem upon the category of the associate.
Naming and Describing in Social Communication
Authors: Carroll John M.
Published: July 2017

Naming and describing provide referential labels for entities. They seem to have much in common, but they also seem to be distinct. The social communication task developed by Robert M. Krauss (Krauss, Garlock, Bricker and McMahon, 1977; Krauss and Blucksberg, 1977; Krauss and Weinheimer, 1964, 1966) provides a functional model of how naming and describing are related and yet distinct modes of reference. Eighteen of Krauss's original dialogue transcripts were reanalyzed in order to characterize both the sequential relation between naming and describing (i.e., how a referential description is shortened into a name through use) and the structural relation between the two reference types (i.e., what parts of antecedent descriptive phrases are abbreviated and composed to form the consequent name).
The Written Language of Young English Deaf Children
Authors: Ivimey G.P. , Lachterman D.H.
Published: July 2017

Utilizing a controlled elicitation sampling (C.E.S.) method used earlier with a single child (Ivimey, 1976a), the written syntax of a group of young English profoundly deaf children is analysed. The data on which the analysis is performed closely resemble those reported by earlier investigators, and the structured nature of the syntax of deaf children is demonstrated and described. Contamination of the syntax by manual media of communication is rejected, and it is shown that there are similarities between the syntax of 11-year-old profoundly deaf children and 2-2½-year-old hearing children. However, the deaf children appear to be using their syntactic skills for communication more appropriate to their chronological ages.
Evidence for the Specialness of the "Baby Talk" Register
Authors: Depaulo Bella M. , Coleman Lerita M.
Published: July 2017

Ninety-one high school students watched, heard, and/or read communications addressed to children, adults, foreigners, or mentally retarded adults, and rated the speakers along 10 dimensions, including friendliness, concern, competence, and dominance. Stimulus materials portrayed only the speakers; hence, subjects had no information about the type of listener who was being addressed. Factor analyses of the 10 ratings made of the communications addressed to each of the four listener types revealed, in addition to a warmth factor, a controllingness factor, and a tension factor, a special "baby talk" factor. That is, judgments of communications addressed to children, made on a variety of different dimensions, were more highly related to each other than to the same judgments made about the communications addressed to the three other kinds of listeners. Particular listener characteristics that might elicit special communicative styles were discussed. It was speculated that sensitivity to subtle linguistic variations might predict important personal and interpersonal outcomes.
Dynamic and Target Theories of Vowel Classification: Evidence from Monophthongs and Diphthongs in Australian English
Authors: Harrington Jonathan , Cassidy Stephen
Published: July 2017

Recent studies on the perception of speech have suggested that vowel identification depends on dynamic cues, rather than a single ‘static’ spectral slice at the vowel midpoint. The experiments reported in this paper seek both to test the extent to which vowel recognition depends on dynamic information, and to identify the nature of the dynamic cues on which such recognition might depend. Gaussian classification techniques, as well as different kinds of neural network architectures, were used to classify some 3000 vowels in /CVd/ citation-form Australian English words, following training on roughly the same number of vowel tokens produced by different talkers. The first set of experiments shows that when vowels are classified from three spectral slices taken at the vowel margins and midpoint, only diphthongs, but not monophthongs, benefit from the additional spectral information at the vowel margins. A further experiment shows that vowels are no better classified from a time-delay neural network than from the three-slice network in which time is not explicitly represented. At least for the citation-form, Australian English vowels in this study, these results are interpreted as being more consistent with a target, rather than a dynamic, theory of vowel perception.
The Function of Sentence Accents and Given/New Information in Speech Processing: Different Strategies for Normal-Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Listeners?
Authors: van Donselaar Wilma , Lentz Jürgen
Published: July 2017

Two experiments were carried out to investigate how the correspondence between sentence accentuation and distribution of information is used in human word processing. A forced-choice task with target words embedded in sentences was employed for this purpose. Target words provided either ‘given’ or ‘new’ information, and were either accented or unaccented. The subjects had to choose between two words that differed in the last consonant by one phonetic feature (e.g., mouth/mouse). The first experiment involved both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. A fixed amount of noise was used to reduce the quality of speech for normal-hearing listeners, in order to enable a comparison between the two listener groups. The results of the first experiment showed different processing patterns for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. The hearing-impaired listeners were more accurate with words that were properly accented for their information value, whereas the normal-hearing subjects were more accurate with accented than unaccented words regardless of their information value. A new group of normal-hearing subjects was tested in a second experiment with speech of more severely reduced quality. The results indicated that, under these circumstances, the normal-hearing listeners changed their strategy and also showed an interaction between information value and accent. It seems that, as speech becomes less intelligible, listeners depend increasingly on linguistic expectations stemming from the correlation between information value and accentuation.
Lost Prosodic Oppositions: A Study of Contrastive Duration in Estonian Funeral Laments
Authors: Ross Jaan , Lehiste Ilse
Published: July 2017

This study examined the temporal structure of three recorded South-Eastern Estonian laments, a vocal style close to the old folksong tradition of the same region. A one-to-one correspondence was found between syllables in the text and notes in the melody. The duration of more than 700 syllables was measured. Syllable duration was found to vary by a considerable amount. In spoken language, the three quantities of disyllabic Estonian words are signalled by characteristic ratios between the durations of the first and the second syllable (S1/S2 ratio), which have approximately the values of 0.67, 1.5, and 2.0 for short, long, and overlong degrees. In laments, the range of S1/S2 ratios was much smaller. The difference in S1/S2 ratio between long and overlong disyllabic words was nonsignificant in all three performances, and that between short and long words was nonsignificant in one performance. This tendency toward rhythmic regularity may be explained on the basis of the original activity-associated nature of the old folksong tradition.
Preaccentual Pitch and Speaker Attitude in Dutch
Authors: Grabe Esther , Gussenhoven Carlos , Marsi Judith Haan Erwin , Post Brecht Je
Published: July 2017

Native speaker reactions to high-pitched and low-pitched pronunciations of the unstressed syllables before the first pitch accent in an utterance—or high and low “preheads” respectively—show that their pragmatic effect depends on the initial pitch of the following pitch accent. The results were obtained in one specific conversational context, in which the intonation contours appeared on utterances that offered a solution to some problem, and with the help of a limited set of semantic scales. Listeners gave more favorable judgements to high preheads than to low preheads if the following pitch accent began low, but when the following pitch accent began high, they gave more favorable judgements to low preheads than to high preheads. Current theories of intonational structure do not predict this kind of interaction. In these theories, the preaccentual pitch is interpreted as a separate morpheme from the following pitch accent, which suggests that the semantic contribution of the preaccentual pitch is independent of the various pitch accents with which it combines. However, these theories are not ruled out by the results, which can be accommodated if the theories are interpreted appropriately.
Pap Smear Rates among Haitian Immigrant Women in Eastern Massachusetts
Authors: Green Eric H. , Freund Karen M. , Posner Michael A. , David Michele M.
Published: July 2017

Objective.

Given limited prior evidence of high rates of cervical cancer in Haitian immigrant women in the U.S., this study was designed to examine self-reported Pap smear screening rates for Haitian immigrant women and compare them to rates for women of other ethnicities.

Methods.

Multi-ethnic women at least 40 years of age living in neighborhoods with large Haitian immigrant populations in eastern Massachusetts were surveyed in 2000–2002. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine the effect of demographic and health care characteristics on Pap smear rates.

Results.

Overall, 81% (95% confidence interval 79%, 84%) of women in the study sample reported having had a Pap smear within three years. In unadjusted analyses, Pap smear rates differed by ethnicity ( p=0.003), with women identified as Haitian having a lower crude Pap smear rate (78%) than women identified as African American (87%), English-speaking Caribbean (88%), or Latina (92%). Women identified as Haitian had a higher rate than women identified as non-Hispanic white (74%). Adjustment for differences in demographic factors known to predict Pap smear acquisition (age, marital status, education level, and household income) only partially accounted for the observed difference in Pap smear rates. However, adjustment for these variables as well as those related to health care access (single site for primary care, health insurance status, and physician gender) eliminated the ethnic difference in Pap smear rates.

Conclusions.

The lower crude Pap smear rate for Haitian immigrants relative to other women of color was in part due to differences in ( 1) utilization of a single source for primary care, ( 2) health insurance, and ( 3) care provided by female physicians. Public health programs, such as the cancer prevention programs currently utilized in eastern Massachusetts, may influence these factors. Thus, the relatively high Pap rate among women in this study may reflect the success of these programs. Public health and elected officials will need to consider closely how implementing or withdrawing these programs may impact immigrant and minority communities.
Findings from Mental Health Screening of Newly Arrived Refugees in Colorado
Authors: Savin Daniel , Seymour Deborah J. , Littleford Linh Nguyen , Bettridge Juli , Giese Alexis
Published: July 2017

States are required to provide a public health screening for all newly arrived refugees in the United States. In 1997, a comprehensive program was created to include both a physical examination and a mental health screening. This article provides a complete description of the mental health screening process, including two illustrative cases, and reports information about the refugees who participated in the program. Ten percent of screened refugees were offered mental health referrals; of those, 37% followed up. Refugees who presented for treatment reported a higher number of symptoms upon screening compared with those who were offered referrals but did not follow up. Psychiatric evaluation confirmed that those who screened positive and presented for treatment were experiencing a high level of suffering and qualified for mental health diagnoses. The findings support inclusion of a mental health screening as part of the public health screening.