bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Demonstratives and non-embedded nominalisations in three Papuan languages of the Timor-Alor-Pantar family
Authors: Schapper Antoinette , San Roque Lila
Published: September 2011

This paper explores the use of demonstratives in non-embedded clausal nominalisations. We present data and analysis from three Papuan languages of the Timor-Alor-Pantar family in south-east Indonesia. In these languages, demonstratives can apply to the clausal as well as to the nominal domain, contributing contrastive semantic content in assertive stance-taking and attention-directing utterances. In the Timor-Alor-Pantar constructions, meanings that are to do with spatial and discourse locations at the participant level apply to spatial, temporal and mental locations at the state or event level.
Feature-based natural language processing for GSL synthesis
Authors: Efthimiou Eleni , Fotinea Stavroula-Evita , Sapountzaki Galini
Published: September 2011

The work reported in this study is based on research that has been carried out while developing a sign synthesis system for Greek Sign Language (GSL): theoretical linguistic analysis as well as lexicon and grammar resources derived from this analysis. We focus on the organisation of linguistic knowledge that initiates the multi-functional processing required to achieve sign generation performed by a virtual signer. In this context, structure rules and lexical coding support sign synthesis of GSL utterances, by exploitation of avatar technologies for the representation of the linguistic message. Sign generation involves two subsystems: a Greek-to-GSL conversion subsystem and a sign performance subsystem. The conversion subsystem matches input strings of written Greek-to-GSL structure patterns, exploiting Natural Language Processing (NLP) mechanisms. The sign performance subsystem uses parsed output of GSL structure patterns, enriched with sign-specific information, to activate a virtual signer for the performance of properly coded linguistic messages. Both the conversion and the synthesis procedure are based on adequately constructed electronic linguistic resources. Applicability of sign synthesis is demonstrated with the example of a Web-based prototype environment for GSL grammar teaching.
The Tati Language Group in The Sociolinguistic Context of Northwestern Iran and Transcaucasia
Authors: Stilo Donald L.
Published: September 2011

The purpose of the present paper is to demonstrate some features of sociolinguistic interaction and language convergence phenomena in northern Iran and Transcaucasia. In particular, I wish to explore some of the problems of language classification and the effect of sociological and geographic factors on language diversity in the extended geographic area of Iran, with the aim of offering a new and more productive model for the study of Iranian dialects and languages. Since the material that forms the basis of my discussion is the Tāti language group, I will present here a brief description of it before going on to more general questions.

Tāti, in the context of Iranian linguistics, generally refers to at least two groups of Iranian languages of different origin. The use which interests us presently refers to a group of languages of Northwest Iranian origin, generally classified as a subgroup of the Central Plateau Languages.
Iranian trade, 1800–1914
Authors: Issawi Charles
Published: September 2011

In the course of the 19th century Iran was drawn into the network of the international economy mainly through foreign trade. Immigration into Iran was negligible, unlike some other countries of the Middle East and North Africa and, until the very end of the period, foreign investment was very small.

This survey of foreign trade emphasizes mainly the first half of the period and attempts to answer five broad questions:

(1)

What was the growth in value and quantum of trade?

(2)

What was the composition of imports and exports?

(3)

With which countries did Iran trade?

(4)

What were the channels through which trade flowed?

(5)

Who carried on the trade?

I have converted all figures into pounds sterling, since the pound was both the stablest currency and the one most widely used in international trade.
Minority-State Relations in Contemporary Iran
Authors: Higgins Patricia J.
Published: September 2011

By all accounts the departure of the shah from Iran in January 1979 was met by most Iranians with the expectation of greater freedom for both the individual and the group. For a number of minority groups, this included the expectation of greater cultural and political autonomy. Initially, the new regime appeared to be sympathetic to such expectations, but by the summer of 1979 violent conflicts were erupting between the central government and members of several tribal, regional, and ethnic minority groups. While the central government appears to have contained the ethnic and regional autonomy movements, officials and analysts have continued to express concern over the possible fragmentation of Iran, and autonomy movements are viewed by many as a significant obstacle to the consolidation of the new regime and/or a threat to its stability.
The Development of a Literary Canon in Medieval Persian Chronicles: The Triumph of Etiquette
Authors: Poliakova E. A.
Published: September 2011

Islamic chronicles have always been an important source, and in most cases the only source, for studying the history of the Middle East and Central Asia. Consequently, scholars have, as a rule, concentrated on the facts contained in them while overlooking their narrative styles. Moreover, the complexity of many chronicles has made it difficult for scholars to grasp their contents on the one hand while making it easy for them to be critical of these sources on the other.

However, a number of scholars have formulated a quite different approach to the language of medieval works. For example, I. Yu. Krachkovskii has concluded that it is necessary to consider the Quran not only a religious, philosophical, and legislative composition, but also a work of fiction. A. K. Arends has the same opinion of Bayhaqi's eleventh-/fifth-century chronicle, Tarikh-e Mas'udi.
Valentyn Moroz: A Voice of the Ukrainian National Renaissance
Authors: Sawczuk Konstantyn
Published: September 2011

The fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics has come and gone in 1972, but the grave problems concerning the “national question” in this multi-national state have not withered away. On the contrary, they have become more acute; the “national question” is far from solved. no matter what the official line from the Kremlin tries to present. The dissatisfaction with Moscow's policies towards the non-Russian nationalities has assumed the form of anti-Kremlin dissent, or, rather, opposition. Voices in defense of national rights, traditions and languages are being heard in several non-Russian Republics. In Ukraine, the largest non-Russian Republic, this opposition is being forged into a new. twentieth century National Renaissance. One of the leading figures of this movement is Va1entyn Moroz. This paper is devoted to him.
Russian Loans in Uzbek
Authors: Austin Paul M.
Published: September 2011

Fears have often been expressed outside the Soviet Union that the influx of Russian words into the non-Russian languages is part of an attempt to russianize them with a view to make them ultimately superfluous. These fears now seem to be greatly exaggerated, as there is little evidence to show that these languages are losing their vitality or are doomed to extinction. While the total lexicon of any given language, in this case Uzbek, the third language numerically (after Russian and Ukrainian) and the largest non-Slavic language, may have a significant number of Russian loanwords, it does not necessarily follow that all these words are in fact an essential segment of the language. The life and viability of a language depend not upon the percentage of so-called foreign words in its vocabulary, but upon its daily use in ordinary situations and in creative writing. The major problem in this area has been the apparently large number of Russian borrowings seen in the non-Russian languages, especially those in non-Slavic ones using Cyrillic. Words are often taken in their Russian orthographic shape without regard for the internal rules of the various languages. Even a cursory glance at any newspaper is enough to show the casual observer that these languages have been russianized to a certain extent. Soviet sources have always emphasized that there has been a “sovietization” of non-Russian languages, while admitting that Russian is the main source for new vocabulary. However it is pointed out that most of these borrowings are “international” words taken into the several languages via Russian. Counter arguments have emphasized that the “common-spelling” principle, by which all words from Russian, be they “international” or not, are borrowed in their exact Russian spelling, proves that russianization, not sovietization, is taking place.
Slovenian Ethnic Studies
Authors: Gobetz Giles Edward
Published: September 2011

Beginnings of the Slovenian ethnic research in America go back to the first known Slovenian settler in the New World, Mark Anton Kapus (1657–1717), a Jesuit of Kamna Gorica, Slovenia, who was active as a missionary and explorer in what is now Mexico and Arizona, in the years between 1687 and 1717. Although writings by Kapus and his co-authors Kono and Mangus deal primarily with their early explorations of relatively unknown territories and Indian peoples, they supplement other preserved records and correspondence in providing a description of the life and work of this first known Slovenian settler in America.
The Provisional Government and the Latvians in 1917
Authors: Ezergailis Andrew
Published: September 2011

The problem raised in the title of the paper asks for an answer on two levels: how did the relationships between these two entities work out 1) on the administrative level–the day-to-day relationships and 2) on the ideological/political one. I shall be very brief in answering the first problem and somewhat more lengthy in answering the second one. My reasons for doing so may become obvious as I go along.
The Contributions of Oscar Halecki to American Historical Scholarship
Authors: Gromada Thaddeus V.
Published: September 2011

Most of the one and one-half million Poles who immigrated to the United States before World War II were people of rural, Catholic, Slavic stock in search of greater economic and social opportunities. They settled in urban centers primarily in the middle Atlantic, mid-Western, and New England states where they formed communities (Polonias) around the steel mills, coal and iron mines, slaughter houses and meat packing plants, oil refineries, shoe and textile factories, granaries and milling plants. Their labor was an important element in the industrialization of America. They were among the millions of unknown persons from eastern and southern Europe, as Michael Novak put it, “who have strengthened family and neighborhood life in America, and from 1930's to the present have made possible the longest strides in the nation's history in economic matters and civil rights.” Very few scholars and intellectuals, however, could be found among these Polish immigrants. When Polish scholars, intellectuals, or artists emigrated from partitioned Poland, usually after unsuccessful revolutions, they settled in France or some other European country.
The Act of Ems (1876) and its Effect on Ukrainian Theatre
Authors: Revutsky Valerian
Published: September 2011

The Act of Ems of 1876 completely paralized the Ukrainian arts, including the theatre. The situation created with the enforcement of the Act in Urkaine was vividly described by the well known acter Marko Kropyvnytsky. During his visit to Kiev in 1879 he found the Ukrainian population of this city in such a state of fear, that, when he was asked to sing in Ukrainian at the house of Mykola Lysenko, a Ukrainian composer, someone stood watch outside. When strangers appeared on the street he was motioned to stop. Apparently, “volunteers” were ready to report any seditious activity to the Governor-General of Kiev, Alexander Drentelm.
Nationality Question in the Resolutions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1898–1964
Authors: Forgus Silvia P.
Published: September 2011

Since its conception in 1898 the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has had to contend with the nationality question. The Party has had to formulate programs and make organizational and functional decisions pertaining to national rights. It has had to dwell on political aspects of the issue and adopt resolutions touching on the social, economic, and cultural problems of non-Russian nations in the Russian Empire and the Soviet State. What were these resolutions and what effect, if any, did ideological considerations, domestic power struggles, situational factors, and personal styles of the party leaders have on the resolutions?
Beneš-Stalin-Roosevelt-Truman
Authors: Roucek Joseph S.
Published: September 2011

The year of 1948 was one of the most critical ones of the postwar period. The presence of the Cold War could no longer be denied. Berlin was under Soviet blockade; Yugoslavia had broken with the Cominform; in elections in Italy it was feared that the Italian Communist party would be widely successful; France was in the grip of Communist-inspired workers’ strikes; Mao Tse-Tung was triumphing in China. Above all, Czechoslovakia, a country which had enjoyed real democracy from its birth in 1918, until the tragic Munich Agreement in 1938, where its people treasured political and personal freedom above everything else, and at the same time entertained the friendliest possible feelings towards the Russians, lost its democracy and became a Soviet satellite with the connivance of Moscow. Dr. Eduard Beneš, who had returned to his country, via Moscow, as President of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, and who had been promised by Stalin and Molotov, on several occasions, that they would not interfere with the internal affairs of his country, lost his power to Gottwald and his communist group while Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Zorin, who “happened” to be in Prague at the critical moment on a trade mission, supervised the transfer of power to the new masters of Czechoslovakia.
Lithuanian Relations with Germany, 1939
Authors: Slavenas Julius P.
Published: September 2011

The ultimate course of Lithuanian history was determined at the outbreak of the Second World War by the provisions of the secret protocols to the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939. In the original agreement of August 23, Lithuania was placed within the German sphere of influence with both powers recognizing Lithuania's interest in the Vilnius area which since the 1920 coup by General Lucjan Żeligowski had been under Polish sovereignty — to Lithuania's constant chagrin. In this same treaty, Latvia and Estonia were allotted to the Soviet Union. On September 28, however, this agreement received significant alterations, and Lithuania was now placed within the Soviet sphere with only one strip of land in the Southwest of Lithuania to be left for Germany. In exchange for this, the province of Lublin and parts of the province of Warsaw were transferred to the German sphere.
Reflections on Intellectual Independence of Scientists in Eastern Europe
Authors: Gella Alexander , Mieczkowski Bogdan
Published: September 2011

Personal independence of scientists, particularly in social sciences, presents a multidimensional problem. We propose to base our observations mainly on the careers of scientists in Poland, as seen against the background of the relations between the power elite and the cultural elite in a communist country. There are differences in time and place, but certain general tendencies can be observed.
Primordial Ethnicity or Modern Nationalism: The Case of Yugoslavia's Muslims
Authors: Ramet Pedro
Published: September 2011

One of the longest standing debates in social science has been that which has divided students of ethnicity over the issue of modernization. On the one side are the tribalists, who emphasize that the ethnonational consciousness of a self-defined group is historically rooted and believe that processes of racial and cultural homogenization associated with the broader phenomenon of modernization promote the gradual break-down of ethnic boundaries within states and ultimately encourage the spread of global culture and the disappearance of ‘tribal’ languages (here one might include such examples as Catalan, Sorb, Romansch, and perhaps also Welsh, Macedonian and Estonian). In this view, ethnocentrism is negatively correlated with the degree of interaction, and multiethnic societies are supposed to be less ethnocentric than ethnically homogeneous societies. There are two chief variants of this approach represented by the functionalists (assimilationists) and the Marxists.
Re‐theorising the student dialogically across and between boundaries of multiple communities
Authors: Akkerman Sanne Floor , Van Eijck Michiel
Published: September 2011

Both cognitive and sociocultural traditions have customarily theorised learning in terms of processes of progression within single communities. More recently, educational scholars have started to focus on learning as a horizontal process of boundary crossing between multiple communities. A problem of this approach is that boundaries are often laid out analytically on a system level, without explaining whether and how boundaries relate to discontinuities at the level of an individual student's learning process. The latter requires theoretical elaboration on how an individual learner can, simultaneously, be part of more than one practice. By drawing on a dialogical approach to self, we intend to theorise learners as participants in practices, and as transcendent selves. In doing so, we point out that boundaries are dynamically evolving discontinuities that mediate or obstruct potential hybridisations of school and everyday life experiences in learning.
Production and reception formats: an alternative participation framework for analysis of classroom discourse?
Authors: Crichton Hazel
Published: September 2011

This article aims to offer an alternative to traditional participation frameworks used to analyse teacher/pupil talk in the classroom. Within curricular areas where learners are encouraged to articulate their own meaning and be creative in their use of language, a traditional participation framework, such as Intitation, Response, Follow‐up, may not be appropriate to capture the interaction that takes place between teachers and learners, nor how the learners' developing understanding may be tracked effectively. Examples from the modern languages classroom are used to illustrate the way Goffman's production format and Wadensjö's reception format can be employed effectively in the analysis of classroom discourse to track the way teachers scaffold pupils' learning through interactive processes leading to successful expression of understanding.
Much ado …
Authors: Havel Vaclav
Published: September 2011

On 25 December, 1975, Vaclav Havel sent a letter to various Party and local government officials in response to the harassment of a large number of people who had taken part in an amateur performance of his new play, as well as of many members of the audience. He pointed out that he had earlier written to the State Security authorities, asking them to stop the harassment, and to the mayor of Prague.

We are publishing an abbreviated text of his letter.
Mental cookery: An illustration of fact retrieval from plans
Authors: Byrne Richard
Published: September 2011

Anyone who is able to cook a certain dish will probably also be able to list its ingredients from memory. Detailed recording of this verbal listing exposes structural regularities. These imply that people can search a representation which is essentially the same as that used in the actual cooking. In effect, the dish can be “mentally cooked” and the necessary ingredients reported when they occur. This ability to mentally simulate plans allows considerable cognitive economy.
Facilitating Word Recognition: Evidence for Strategic and Automatic Factors
Authors: Tweedy James R. , Lapinski Robert H.
Published: September 2011

An appropriate semantic context has been demonstrated to facilitate word recognition in a variety of paradigms. The present experiment examined the consequences of varying the probability that word pairs presented in a lexical decision task would be related in meaning. Early in the 20-min session, the recent density of semantic relationships between words had little influence on the size of the contextual facilitation effect, but later the influence was marked. The results suggest that the processing facilitation provided by an appropriate semantic context consisted of both a relatively automatic component and a labile strategic component with an influence that was modulated by the recent usefulness of the information provided by semantic context.
The form of the Information and Selective Counting by ESN(M) Pupils
Authors: Mageean Bernard
Published: September 2011

The study springs from views on attentional deficits in retarded performers. Three experiments are reported in which educationally sub-normal (mild) category pupils and average ability pupils matched with them for mental age perform a speeded classification of cards on the basis of an enumeration of a group of items on each card. This group may be the total of the items on the card or a selected part of that total. Interest focuses upon the relationship between performance in the selective situation and the form or structure of the item group. It is argued initially that attentional patterns may be expected to vary in relation to the specific structure of the information available and the way the performer appreciates that structure. The results support this notion. ESN(M) subjects perform in a similar fashion to the matched group, even given selective instructions, when what must be counted is the whole of a vertical linear series of items. However, when what must be counted is in the form of a part of a vertical linear item series, the performance of the ESN(M) group is significantly slower than that of the matched group. In addition the matched group appear more sensitive to discontinuity within the vertical item series while the ESN(M) group may have a less differentiated approach to such information founded mainly on the appreciation of verticality. It is suggested that aspects of information available to performers must be studied in relation to the kind of whole the particular performer takes the information to be. Although retardates do not carry appropriate structural expectations from situation to situation, suitable organisation of information can be appreciated, leading to more successful performance.
Attentional Asymmetries during Concurrent Bimanual Performance
Authors: Peters Michael
Published: September 2011

An asymmetry of attention was observed when subjects attempted to perform concurrent, relatively independent tasks with the two hands: right-handed subjects performed very much better on a dual task which required them to follow the beat of a metronome with the left while tapping as quickly as they could with the right than with the converse arrangement. It is suggested that attentional strategies which have evolved to allow guidance of interdependent skilled bimanual activities are also used when subjects attempt to perform relatively independent concurrent bimanual movements, which are not observed in the naturally occurring motor repertoire. Thus, interactions between hand, hand preference and nature of task are an important factor in dual task performance.
Drawing Styles of Schooled and Unschooled Adults: A Study in Ghana
Authors: Jahoda Gustav
Published: September 2011

The study is a replication of the work of Willats (1977), who identified six classes of drawing systems in a sample of schoolchildren in London. The primary aim was to discover whether, as Willats claimed, the drawing systems were largely independent of formal teaching and that the depiction of overlap followed a line of development distinct from that of drawing systems. Results comparing schooled and entirely unschooled Ghanaian adults essentially confirmed Willats’ findings. Nearly all Ghanaian drawings could be reliabily allocated to Willats’ classes, and the distribution of classes was unrelated to experience of elementary schooling: by contrast, depiction of overlap was significantly enhanced by schooling. While the Ghanaian data generally support Willats’ scheme, they also suggest certain modifications in the definition of classes and raise questions about their implications, which are discussed.
Visual Comparison of Rotated and Reflected Random-Dot Patterns as a Function of Their Positional Symmetry and Separation in the Field
Authors: Kahn Jeremy I. , Foster David H.
Published: September 2011

Subjects viewed pairs of random-dot patterns which were presented in a number of arrangements varying in the transformations applied to the patterns, in the distance between the patterns, and in the symmetry of the pattern positions with respect to the point of fixation. The task was to judge whether the patterns were “the same” taking into account possible rotations or reflections, or “different”. It was found that correct judgements for identical patterns were most affected by the distance between the two patterns, whereas correct judgements for patterns where one had been rotated through 180° or reflected were most affected by the symmetry of the pattern positions. A scheme modelling the visual recognition of transformed patterns, sufficient to explain the results, is presented.
Wholistic and Analytic Stimulus Processing: The Development of Selective Perceptual Strategies
Authors: Fletcher Ben (C)
Published: September 2011

This experiment reports an investigation of the development of selective processing strategies as subjects become increasingly more practised at a serial self-paced RT task. It demonstrates the effect a preceding stimulus can have on the analysis of a current signal and the development of active analytic strategies in favour of passive wholistic processing, with practice. The stimuli used were letters with irrelevant visual noise dot patterns superimposed on them. The letter, or the dot pattern, or both, could be repeated on successive trials. Early in practice repetition of both stimulus components simultaneously produced short reponse latencies relative to repetition of the letter alone. The number of noise dots markedly affected RT. Late in practice, however, letter repetition RTs were small, irrespective of whether or not the noise dot pattern was repeated. Furthermore, the number of noise dots no longer had an effect on the RT to these stimulus transitions. The results suggest that subjects appear to be able to select relevant information to process as they become progressively more practised, even though there is evidence that they compare the current stimulus with an iconic representation of the immediately preceding one.
Response Selection and the Processing of Auditory Intensity
Authors: van der Molen M. W. , Keuss P. J. G.
Published: September 2011

Eight subjects were used in an experiment investigating the relationship between auditory intensity and choice reaction time (RT). The subject's task was to translate the pitch of a monaural tone into a left or right key-press response, The monaural tone was presented to either the left or the right ear in a random order. The random presentation and the instruction to obey the tonal command required either ipsilateral or contralateral reactions which place different demands on response selection. The RT/intensity functions indicate that the relation between auditory intensity and choice RT depends on the extent of the demands on response selection. As these demands increase RT becomes less reduced and even increases at high intensities (>80 dB). This finding was taken to extend the available evidence on the additional intensity effect of strong auditory stimulation which is usually described as the extra immediate arousal effect in the literature.
Functionally Lateralised Information Processing and its Allocation to Response: Inferences from Three Measures of Letter Identification Performance following Lateralised Visual Input
Authors: Haun Forrest
Published: September 2011

Identification errors were analysed for single letters presented in each visual hemi-field. The kinds of errors occurring reflected both how the letters were made difficult to see, and the informational relationships among the possible stimulus letters. The particular pattern of errors was different in the two hemifields, with the direction of that difference suggesting the letters were better differentiated following left half-brain input. But this left-sided superiority in letter differentiation was only sometimes reflected in faster or more accurate responses overall. Instead, the extent of left-sided performance superiority in RT and accuracy depended in a complex way on the degree of difficulty of the task. This influence of task difficulty on the RT and accuracy measures of functional laterality was considered to reflect a greater or lesser allocation to response of the lateralised letter-differentiation process revealed by the errors analysis.
Eye Movement Control during Reading: Evidence for Direct Control
Authors: Rayner Keith , Pollatsek Alexander
Published: September 2011

In three experiments, subjects read text as their eye movements were monitored and display changes in the text were made contingent upon the eye movements. In one experiment, a window of text moved in synchrony with the eyes. In one condition, the size of the window was constant from fixation to fixation, while in the other condition the size of the window varied from fixation to fixation. In the other experiments, a visual mask was presented at the end of each saccade which delayed the onset of the text, and the length of the delay was varied. The pattern of eye movements was influenced by both the size of the window and the delay of the onset of the text, even when the window size or text delay was varying from fixation to fixation. However, there was also evidence that saccade length was affected by the size of the window on the prior fixation and that certain decisions to move the eye are programmed either before the fixation begins or are programmed during the fixation but without regard to the text fixated on. The results thus provide support for a mixed control model of eye movements in reading, in which decisions about when and where to move the eyes are based on information from the current fixation, the prior fixations, and possibly, other sources as well.
This and THAP — Constraints on the Pronunciation of New, Written Words
Authors: Campbell Ruth , Besner Derek
Published: September 2011

The pronunciation of nonwords that start with TH is investigated in lists and sentences. The initial phoneme is usually unvoiced (as in THOUGHT) when the nonword is embedded in lists of words and nonwords. In contrast, the initial phoneme is usually voiced (as in THIS) when such nonwords are read aloud in a function word position in a sentence. These findings are inconsistent with the current dual process theory of the routes from print to sound which implies that the phonology of a new word or nonword can be derived only from a form of letter-sound correspondence which is independent of lexical/syntactic pressures.
The Interaction of Subjectivization and Concept Placement in the Processing of Cleft Sentences
Authors: Engelkamp Johannes , Zimmer Hubert D.
Published: September 2011

In four experiments the interaction of grammatical subjectivization of a concept and placing a concept at the head of a cleft sentence has been studied. It has been assumed that on the speaker's part both features are the result of attention focusing and in the case of the listener serve to focus his attention. Further it has been assumed that the speaker might be expected to avoid sentences in which the “marked-off” concept is not at the same time subjectized and that the listener should be irritated by, and rate negatively, sentences with two competing attentional foci. The four experiments described in this paper confirmed these predictions.
Insight into the Law of Large Numbers: A Comparison of Piagetian and Judgement Theory
Authors: Jones Christopher J. , Harris Paul L.
Published: September 2011

Subjects were tested for their understanding of the law of large numbers in three ways: by means of a Piagetian task involving the distribution of balls between two compartments, by means of written tasks similar to those devised by Kahneman and Tversky (1972), and by means of a task involving comparisons of samples of counters drawn from a larger population. For the sample comparison task, subjects relied heavily on proportional information-ignoring sample size, thereby supporting the conclusions of Kahneman and Tversky (1972). However with regard to the other two tasks an order effect was found: subjects did significantly better with the Kahneman and Tversky tasks if they had first been tested on a Piagetian task. In Experiment II, the order effect was replicated, indicating that subjects may have a narrow insight into the law of large numbers which is not recruited in appropriate contexts unless primed by the task environment.
Knowledge of Spatial Relations: Varying the Precision with Which Locations Must be Specified
Authors: Wilton R. N. , Pidcock B.
Published: September 2011

In previous studies, subjects have been asked whether one named town is north (say) of another. The results have shown that as the distance between the towns increases, reaction times decrease. Explanations have focused on a subject's disposition to derive an answer by using less precise information about location when the towns are far apart. In the present experiments, subjects who had memorized a map of Europe were asked whether an imaginary line connecting two named towns passes through a named country. The country was either large or small in area, and the distance between the towns was either long or short. It was expected that in the large country condition less precise information would be used when the distance was long than when it was short, as inferred in previous experiments. Accordingly, reaction times decreased as the distance increased. In the small country condition it was supposed that some degree of precision would be required to determine that the line ran through the country, regardless of the distance between the towns. Therefore, it was expected that the size of the country would limit the degree to which a decrease in precision could occur with an increase in distance. Consistent with this expectation, distance and size of country interacted, such that when the country was small an increase in distance did not cause a decrease in reaction time. Similar results were found in a second experiment.
Syntax in Pictures
Authors: Jones Sheila
Published: September 2011

It was hypothesised that pictures drawn to represent active and passive sentences would reflect this syntactic difference. Specifically, it was predicted that the reversal of the order in which the logical subject (LS) and the logical object (LO) occur in the change from active to passive form of sentence will affect the order in which they occur in their pictorial representations. A significant directional preference was found for placing the LO to the left of the LS in the pictorial representations of passive but not active sentences. This was discussed in terms of the marked status of the passive in relation to the active. In the case of sentences differing only in lexical marking there was no asymmetric directionality effect corresponding to that found for actives and passives. A significant tendency to match the surface order of the sentences in the pictures was found for both lexically marked and unmarked sentences. The possibility that other spatial or physical dimensions might be used to express syntactic and semantic factors in the pictorial representation of sentences is considered.
Suffix Effects and Probe Modality in Probed Recall: Implications for Readout from Sensory Memory
Authors: Penney Catherine G.
Published: September 2011

The effect of a redundant stimulus suffix was investigated in three experiments using a probed recall task. The probe modality was auditory in the first experiment and visual in the second. In the third experiment, both probe modalities were tested. The presentation rate was varied in all three experiments and was confounded with the delay of the suffix. The suffix was found to have a small and approximately equal effect on the last six serial positions. In contrast to the predictions from Crowder and Morton's (1969) PAS model, presentation rate and suffix delay did not interact with the suffix effect. The results indicate that at least six items can be simultaneously represented in PAS, that there is no appreciable decay of information from PAS during presentation of the last list items, and that readout of PAS information does not occur either during list presentation or between the end of list presentation and the beginning of overt report.
Sentence Coding: Tests of the Address-Contents Model and the Fragmentation-Conceptual Focus Hypothesis
Authors: Wilhite Stephen C.
Published: September 2011

Predictions of the address-contents model of sentence coding (Broadbent, 1971, 1973) were contrasted in two experiments with predictions based on the fragmentation hypothesis (Jones, 1974, 1976, 1978) and the conceptual focus hypothesis (Tannenbaum and Williams, 1968a, b). Participants attempted to recall lists of active-voice subject-verb-object sentences in response to a noun cue from each sentence. For persons instructed to image the sentences in Experiment I, there was a subject cuing superiority for verb partial recalls, but there were no reliable cuing asymmeties for complete sentence or noun partial recalls. For persons instructed to repeat the sentences aloud, the subject superiority for verb partial recalls did not appear. In Experiment II, there was overall a subject superiority for verb partial recall and symmetry for complete and noun partial recalls. This pattern was not affected by whether a question following each sentence required the subject or the object as response. These results support the fragmentation-conceptual focus hypothesis.
Models of Lexical Access in Visual Word Recognition
Authors: Besner Derek , Swan Margaret
Published: September 2011

This paper reviews the ability of Morton's Logogen model and Becker's Verification model to accommodate RT data from the lexical decision literature. While both of the models can account for the simple effects of word frequency, word context and word repetition, Morton's Logogen model can not account for some of the patterns of additivity and interaction when the effects of stimulus degradation are considered.

An experiment on lexical decision is then reported in which stimulus degradation and repetition are factorially varied; degradation and repetition are shown to be interacting factors. These results are inconsistent with the Verification model but consistent with the Logogen model.

Finally, further versions of both the Logogen and Verification models are considered and possible multiple sources are proposed to account for the effects of degradation, repetition and word frequency.
Ninth Bartlett Memorial Lecture. Thinking as a Skill
Authors: Johnson-Laird P. N.
Published: September 2011

There are two conflicting views about the nature of thought: it is invariably rational or invariably irrational. Bartlett argued that thinking is a high level skill, and this idea suggests an obvious third possibility: thought is sometimes rational and sometimes irrational. This view is defended in the present paper, which argues that the doctrine of logical infallibility is either falsified by the results of some experiments on syllogistic reasoning or else empirically vacuous. There is no need to postulate a mental logic of the sort that Piaget and others have proposed. The rapid implicit inferences of daily life depend on the ability to interpret sentences by constructing mental models of the states of affairs that they describe. Deliberate deductions depend on the further ability to search for alternative models that violate putative conclusions. All that you need to know to assess validity is the fundamental semantic principle of deduction: an inference is valid if, and only if, its conclusion is true in every situation in which its premises are true and there is no way of interpreting the premises so as to render the conclusion false. This principle guides the construction of all logics though it is not explicitly stated in any of them. The paper concludes by examining the ways in which people differ in their ability to reason, the practical need to improve this ability, and some of the pedagogical implications of the present studies.
Laterality Effects in Visual Information Processing: Hemispheric Specialisation or the Orienting of Attention?
Authors: Schwartz Steven , Kirsner Kim
Published: September 2011

The notion that visual laterality patterns may be attributable to attentional allocation rather than hemispheric specialisation was examined in three experiments. In Experiment I, high verbal ability subjects were found to be less lateralised on a letter name match task than low verbals. In Experiment II, stimulus probability was shown to affect laterality patterns for name but not for physical matches. Again, low verbals were affected more than highs. Experiment III produced results identical to those of Experiment II although, in the latter experiment, visual fields were defined vertically rather than horizontally from the midline. Together, these results support the following generalisations: (1) visual asymmetries have their locus in a post-perceptual information processing stage; (2) visual asymmetries may be altered by manipulating stimulus probability; (3) verbal ability differences in laterality may not reflect neuroanatomical differences but merely cognitive capacity and (4) it may be unnecessary to invoke differential hemispheric specialisation in order to account for visual lateral asymmetries.
Sentential Context and the Interpretation of Unambiguous Words
Authors: Tabossi Patrizia
Published: September 2011

Two experiments were carried out in order to investigate how the linguistic context (in the form of a sentence) facilitates the interpretation of unambiguous words. Experiment I established that if a sentential context as a whole is sufficient to evoke an inference that calls to mind a particular aspect of a word's meaning, the presence of a verb with appropriate selectional restrictions does not enhance the process. Experiment II showed that when no other cues are provided within a sentence, both verbs and adjectives are effective in enhancing a specific aspect of the meaning of a word. These findings were taken to support the hypothesis that in understanding a sentence, people instantiate particular aspects of the meanings of words in order to construct specific interpretations, and linguistic context guides this process of selection.
Some Boundary Conditions for a Word Superiority Effect
Authors: Purcell Dean G. , Stanovich Keith E.
Published: September 2011

A word superiority effect was obtained using a fixed stimulus set, positional certainty of the critical letter, mixed trial type, and instructions to fixate the critical letter. Control experiments established that this effect was not due to lateral masking. Further experiments extended the finding of a fixed-set word superiority effect to other stimulus sets, and to lowercase and mixed-case stimuli. The mixed-case word superiority effect is inconsistent with supraletter feature models of word recognition and, instead, lends support to hierarchical codes models. It was demonstrated that an unusually wide spacing of letters can disrupt the formation of word-level codes, and that wide visual angles are not necessarily disruptive as long as normal spacing is maintained.
Identification and Classification of Words and Drawings in Two Languages
Authors: Shanon Benny
Published: September 2011

American and Israeli bilinguals were presented with Hebrew and English words, as well as with drawings of concrete objects. They were timed as they named and classified these items in either their native or non-native languages. The pattern of response times suggests that following reading, semantic processing is conducted in a language-independent mode. Specifically, the patterns exhibited by the two subject groups were almost identical, and neither native-language advantage nor advantage due to a match between language of input and language of output were found.
Reading Strategies and the Integration of Information as Indicated by Recall and Reading Times
Authors: Wilkes A. L. , Alred G. , Al-Ahmar H.
Published: September 2011

Three experiments are reported in which subjects read and recalled two paragraphs of text which could be consistently related, inconsistent or unrelated. Recall biasses associated with directly primed inconsistency are described (Experimen I) and they are dependent upon attempts to integrate the whole text (Experiment II). The biasses are attributed to editing processes occurring during acquisition (Experiment III).
Misreadings by Beginning Readers of Serbo-Croatian
Authors: Ognjenovi Vesna , Lukatela G. , Feldman Laurie B. , Turvey M. T.
Published: September 2011

Errors in reading aloud by the beginning reader have been interpreted as reflecting the difficulty and the importance of phonemic segmentation for the acquisition of reading skills. Results from previous studies on English words patterned as consonant-vowel-consonant showed: (1) more errors on vowels than on consonants; (2) more errors on word final consonants than on word initial consonants; and suggested that (3) consonant errors were based on phonetic confusions while vowel errors were not. In contrast to their English counterparts, the beginning readers of Serbo-Croatian tested in the present study committed proportionally fewer errors on their reading of vowels than of consonants but in common with their English counterparts, their reading of final consonants was more vulnerable to error than their reading of initial consonants. This pattern of errors was found for both word and pseudoword consonant-vowel-consonant structures and the pattern of vowel confusion, like the pattern of consonant confusions, was rationalized by speech-related factors. The differences between the patterns of confusions for Serbo-Croatian and for English could be due to the difference between the two orthographies in the precision with which they represent the phonology or to the fact that the vowels of English are qualitatively less distinct phonologically than the vowels of Serbo-Croatian.
Conditions for a Linear Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off in Aimed Movements
Authors: Wright Charles E. , Meyer David E.
Published: September 2011

A linear speed-accuracy trade-off has been found for rapid, precisely timed movements from a home position toward a target point. In this trade-off, We = K1 + K2(D/T), where D is the distance between the home position and the target, T is a pre-specified movement time, and We is the standard deviation of the distances actually moved. This result differs from Fitts' law, the commonly observed logarithmic trade-off in aimed movements. A new experiment with wrist rotations was performed to determine what conditions induce the linear trade-off rather than Fitts' law. Three types of condition are considered: movement brevity, feedback deprivation, and temporal precision. The experiment yielded a linear trade-off for precisely timed movements even when their durations significantly exceeded an amount of time (200 ms) sufficient to process visual feedback. This result suggests that the linearity does not depend on movement brevity and/or feedback deprivation per se. Instead it supports a temporal-precision hypothesis that the linear trade-off occurs when aimed movements must have precisely specified durations.