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Linguistic intergroup bias: differential expectancies or in-group protection?

The linguistic intergroup bias describes the tendency to communicate positive in-group and negative out-group behaviors more abstractly than negative in-group and positive out-group behaviors. This article investigated whether this bias is driven by differential expectancies or by in-group protective motives. In Experiment 1, northern and southern Italian participants (N = 151) described positive and negative behaviors of northern or southern protagonists that were either congruent or incongruent with stereotypic expectancies. Regardless of valence, expectancy-congruent behaviors were described more abstractly than incongruent ones. Experiment 2 (N = 40) showed that language is used in an equally biased fashion for individuals as previously demonstrated for groups. Experiment 3 (N = 192) induced expectancies experimentally and found greater abstraction for expectancy-congruent behaviors regardless of valence. All experiments confirmed the differential expectancy approach.

Adolescent↗

Revisiting the past and back to the future: memory systems and the linguistic representation of social events.

Five studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between how people communicate about social events and how representations of these events are stored in memory. It was hypothesized that more distant events in memory would be described with more abstract linguistic predicates, and recent events with more concrete language. The 1st study supported this hypothesis. The 2nd and 3rd experiments demonstrated that abstract predicates used as prompts elicit memories that are significantly more removed in time than concrete predicates. Two final experiments showed that these outcomes are not merely a function of the type of semantic cue but an interaction between memory and preferential predicate use. The findings illustrate a link between memory and communicative behavior of a type that has not been previously studied. The results are discussed in terms of a recent, well-supported model of 2 separate fast-learning and slow-learning memory systems.

Affect↗

Short-term memory errors for spoken syllables are affected by the linguistic structure of the syllables.

Three experiments on short-term serial memory for spoken syllables are reported. The stimuli were CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) syllables in Experiment 1, CCVs in Experiment 2, and VCCs in Experiment 3. Analyses of subjects' errors showed that the phonemes within a syllable were not equally free to break apart and recombine. Certain groups of phonemes-the vowel-final consonant group of a CVC, the initial cluster of a CCV, and a vowel-liquid group within a VCC-tended to behave as units. These results are consistent with the view that syllables are coded in terms of an onset (initial consonant or cluster) and a rime (remainder). Errors in short-term memory for spoken syllables are affected by the linguistic structure of the syllables.

Humans↗

Bilingual telephone-assisted computerized speech-recognition assessment: is a voice-activated computer program a culturally and linguistically appropriate tool for screening depression in English and Spanish?

The purpose of this study was to evaluate an automated voice-interactive program for screening depression in English and Spanish. The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) was administered in two interview formats: a speech recognition program presented by cellular telephone, and a face-to-face method. In a single-session counterbalanced design, 32 English speakers and 23 Spanish speakers completed randomly ordered administrations of the two CES-D methods, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Short Acculturation Scale (SAS). There was strong evidence that the two CES-D methods were psychometrically equivalent, reliable, and valid in both languages. The two methods were highly rated by both language groups. The Spanish speakers did not display a preference for either method, but the English speakers preferred the face-to-face method. The results also suggested that verbal response latency time was positively correlated with depression scores. Last, the Spanish-speakers' acculturation levels were not correlated with depression scores. Differences in age, education, and income between the language groups were confounded by unequal sample sizes. The findings generally supported the viability of the automated CES-D as a culturally and linguistically appropriate tool for screening depression in English and Spanish. Furthermore, the analyses of respondent voice characteristics show promise as a method for screening depression in both languages.

Acculturation↗

Acts without agents: an analysis of linguistic avoidance in journal articles on men who batter women.

Articles on abuse of women by men were surveyed in eleven journals across four disciplines. Introductory sections from 46 articles were coded for linguistic choices--such as use of the passive voice, nominalization, and diffuse terminology--that obscure the attribution of responsibility. In half or more of the references to abuse, sentence structure and language were deemed problematic, with diffusion of responsibility the most frequent strategy of avoidance. Professional and gender biases were found, with articles by social workers less likely, and articles with male authors more likely, to contain problematic writing.

Family Therapy↗

Spatial tapping interferes with the processing of linguistic spatial relations.

Simple spatial relations may be represented either in a propositional format that is dependent on verbal rehearsal or in a picture-like format that is maintained by visual-spatial rehearsal. In sentence-picture and picture-picture verification tasks, we examined the effect of an articulatory suppression and a spatial tapping dual task on the encoding of simple spatial relations (e.g., triangle left of circle). Articulatory suppression did not interfere, while spatial tapping lowered performance in both tasks. Apparently, both linguistic and perceptual inputs of simple spatial relations engaged the visual-spatial working memory. In the sentence-picture verification experiments, spatial tapping only hampered performance of participants who were classified on the basis of their RT patterns as having used a visual-spatial strategy, while it had no effect for those who were classified as having applied a verbal strategy. Therefore, this study provides converging evidence, using a dual-task methodology, that both separate verbal and visual-spatial strategies exist for the processing of simple spatial sentences.

Analysis of Variance↗

Early phonological behavior in normal-speaking and language disordered children: evidence for a synergistic view of linguistic disorders.

Various aspects of the phonological behavior of three normal-speaking and three language disordered children, matched on the basis of mean utterance length, sex, and cognitive development, were compared. The children's spontaneous speech was analyzed to reveal selection constraints inferred from characteristics of the adult form of the words attempted by the child, production constraints inferred from characteristics of the children's productions, phonological processes, and five dimensions of phonological variability. While some individual variation was noted, no substantial group differences were revealed. The phonologies of the normal-speaking and language disordered children were strikingly similar. The implications of these similarities are discussed in terms of a synergistic view of linguistic disorders and remediation.

Child Language↗

Motoric and linguistic variables among children who stutter: a factor analysis.

Seventy-six children who stuttered, aged 5-12, were administered tests of motor coordination, psycholinguistic abilities, and stuttering severity. A factor analysis of 19 selected variables yielded four statistically useful factors that implicate linguistic integration, oral motor ability, and auditory processing abilities as underlying components among the sample population. These components are assumed to affect a child's threshold for fluency and to permit stuttering development. Stuttering frequency or severity was not related to any of the four factors. The implications for diagnosing and treating children who stutter are discussed.

Auditory Perception↗

Word knowledge acquisition in retarded children: a longitudinal study of acquisition of a complex linguistic structure.

The purpose of this 1-year longitudinal study was to investigate the acquisition of word knowledge by 18 retarded children. The words examined were relevant to the correct interpretation of sentences of the type "John is eager/easy to please." The interest was in how retarded children acquire the subcategorization features of these words. The study revealed that retarded children, like intellectually normal children, show great inconsistencies in their interpretations of specific words during an intermediate stage of performance on this linguistic structure; but the errors by retarded children, in contrast to those by intellectually normal children, were highly correlated with word frequency. The results are interpreted in representations. Interpretations based on gradual acquisition of word knowledge are contrasted with a reorganization theory, and a synthesis of the two views is given. Possible explanations for the finding that the retarded children nevertheless differed from intellectually normal children in the relation of their errors to word frequency are also given.

Adolescent↗

Responses to requests for clarification by linguistically normal and language-impaired children in conversation.

This study compared the conversational repair strategies employed by 8 language-impaired children (mean chronological age 9:2 years) and their linguistically normal age- and language-matched peers in response to a stacked series of requests for clarification. A 30-min language sample was elicited by an adult examiner from each of the subjects. During the course of the conversation, the examiner initiated 10 stacked request for clarification sequences. Each sequence consisted of three different neutral requests for clarification (Huh?, What?, and I didn't understand that.) and the subject's response to each request. All of the subjects appeared to recognize the obligatory nature of the neutral clarification requests employed. However, there were differences noted in the performance of the three groups. These included differences related to language maturity as well as differences specific to language condition.

Adolescent↗

Reaction times of aging subjects to monaural verbal stimuli: some evidence for a reduction in right-hemisphere linguistic processing capacity.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of advanced aging on hemispheric organization for linguistic processing. Specifically, it was an attempt to identify whether the neurological substrate responsible for right-hemispheric language analysis diminishes in function. Measures of the influence on reaction time of the hand used to respond versus the hemisphere stimulated were obtained for a geriatric sample in an attempt to obtain an index of right-versus left-hemisphere auditory-verbal processing ability. Twenty-four right-handed geriatric subjects responded to monaurally presented verbal stimuli with their right and left hands at separate times. Reaction times were significantly faster when subjects heard the words in their right ears, regardless of the hand used to respond. Such findings were consistent with a strict model of neurolinguistic organization that suggests that the left hemisphere was responsible solely for language processing in the present group of elderly subjects. Compared to data previously gathered for young subjects, the current findings were interpreted to suggest that right-hemispheric language processing ability is inhibited in the more advanced stages of life.

Aged↗

A 28-year follow-up of adults with a history of moderate phonological disorder: linguistic and personality results.

The present investigation is a follow-up to a longitudinal speech and academic study involving approximately 400 normally developing children begun in 1960 by Mildred Templin. From this large data base, the present project invited the participation of two groups of subjects (now aged 32 to 34): (a) 24 adults with a documented history of moderately severe phonological disorder that persisted at least through the end of first grade (probands) and (b) 28 adults from the same birth cohort and schools who were known to have had at least average articulation skills over the same period (controls). Results of follow-up testing revealed that the proband adults performed significantly more poorly than the control adults on all of the administered measures of articulation, expressive language, and receptive language. Results obtained from a screening of nonverbal reasoning ability were equivocal. On a questionnaire measure of personality, both groups scored well within the normal range for the dimensions of extroversion and neuroticism when compared to the test's normative sample. These results have been interpreted as suggesting that although many adults with a childhood history of delayed phonological development will continue to experience linguistic outcomes that are less favorable than those of controls, their performance in selected nonlanguage domains (e.g., nonverbal reasoning, personality) will be far more typical of the general population.

Adult↗

Contextual and linguistic correlates of intelligibility in children with developmental phonological disorders.

Listeners' glosses of children's intended words provided data for two studies of the potential influence of selected contextual and linguistic variables on word intelligibility. Several regularities associated with the occurrence of unintelligible words were identified. In Study I, intelligibility outcomes were associated with utterance length and fluency, word position, intelligibility of adjacent words, phonological complexity, and grammatical form. In Study II, intelligibility outcomes were associated with phonological complexity, syllabic structure, and grammatical form. Discussion considers the implications of these and other regularities associated with the occurrence of unintelligible words for a comprehensive perspective on the utterance-to-utterance intelligibility deficits of children with phonological disorders of unknown origin.

Child Language↗

Lexical learning by children with specific language impairment: effects of linguistic input presented at varying speaking rates.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of speaking rate variations in the linguistic input provided to children during a novel word learning task. Thirty-two school-age children participated in this investigation, including 16 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 16 normal language (NL) controls matched on mental age (MA). The younger half of the NL group also served as a vocabulary level comparison for the older half of the children with SLI. No significant rate effects were found for comprehension of novel words, with all children performing at relatively high levels of accuracy. The group with SLI demonstrated the same recognition accuracy pattern as MA matched controls for target labels versus phonetically similar/dissimilar foils only for words trained at slow rate. Rate effects were most pronounced for items with the highest difficulty level, namely production of novel words. Children with SLI produced significantly fewer words that had been presented at fast rate during training than NL children matched on mental age or vocabulary level. Individual differences and production error patterns on fast rate items were examined. The finding that variations in speaking rate had a disproportionate impact upon word learning for children with SLI was interpreted within a framework of limited processing capacity.

Child↗

Visuo-spatial and linguistic abilities in a twin with Williams syndrome.

The present study reports a case of dizygotic twins, one boy with Williams syndrome (WS) and one typically developing girl, and compares their neuropsychological profiles. The goal of the present authors was to verify whether the child with WS displayed a cognitive profile which is unique to the syndrome. Several tests designed to assess visuo-perceptual, visuo-motor, linguistic and memory abilities were administered to both children when they were 10.9 years old. Compared to his sister, the boy with WS displayed a homogeneous developmental delay in both non-verbal and verbal abilities. He achieved a level of performance similar to his sister only in facial recognition, phonological word fluency and memory for phonologically similar words. Furthermore, despite the overall delayed performance of the boy, both the twins displayed a cognitive profile characterized by strength in lexical comprehension and relative weakness in visuo-motor abilities.

Child↗

Defining the content for the objective structured clinical examination component of the professional and linguistic assessments board examination: development of a blueprint.

INTRODUCTION: We describe the steps taken to develop an appropriate list of 'clinical problems' used to define the content of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) component of the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) examination. METHOD: A blueprint and list of 255 clinical problems was compiled by reviewing PLAB questions, published curricula of the UK Royal Colleges and other sources such as the General Medical Council's own guidelines. This list was sent to a random sample of 251 successful PLAB candidates who were asked to rate the clinical problems using a scale of 'seen frequently/seldom/never' and to 120 members of the accident and emergency (A&E) specialists' association who were asked to identify 'important' tasks. The list was further validated using activity data obtained for consecutive A&E attendances (934) and admissions (6130) at three hospitals. RESULTS: After two mailings, 131/251 (52%) former PLAB candidates and 89/120 (74%) A&E specialists replied. All of the 255 clinical problems were seen by some former candidates and were felt to be important by some A&E specialists. Of the 255 problems, 40 were neither rated as important nor as seen frequently/seldom by over 50% of respondents. The 255 clinical problems covered a mean 94% consecutive A&E attendances and 97.6% reasons for hospital admission. The correlation between clinical problems that were frequently encountered and those felt to be important was rho=0.38 (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: The clinical problems appear to be appropriate for defining the content of the PLAB OSCE. We suggest that our problem list is useful in that all the problems are seen by some senior house officers, are felt to be important by some A&E specialists and cover greater than or equal to 94% of the conditions for which patients both attend and are admitted from casualty. The correlation between clinical task importance and the frequency that they were seen was only moderate, partly reflecting the relative seriousness of some uncommon medical conditions, which should not be missed on clinical assessment. The content of the OSCE component of the PLAB examination is being reviewed in the light of the findings of this study. The limitations of the study are discussed.

Clinical Competence↗

Nurses' experiences of caring for culturally and linguistically diverse families when their child dies.

Nurses experience the care of a dying child and their family as a challenging but distressing event. In a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), Melbourne, Australia, nurses expressed a concern that they may not be providing the most appropriate care when a cultural disparity exists between nurses and families experiencing the death of their child. A critically informed study was undertaken with six PICU nurses to explore their experiences of caring for a culturally and linguistically diverse family whose child had died. Three consecutive focus group interviews were conducted with the nurses to identify issues in this area of their nursing practice and to contemplate how their practice might be changed. The focus of this paper is on one particular finding of the study about the nurses' use of controlling practices to ensure families conformed to the established routines and values of the PICU staff.

Adult↗

The Finnish version of The National Institutes Of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index correlates well with the visual pain scale: translation and results of a modified linguistic validation study.

UNLABELLED: Authors from Finland have assessed a version in their language of the National Institutes of Health-Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index; they found that their translated version was valid and easily understandable in the management of the symptoms of chronic pelvic pain syndrome. They felt it should be used as a primary outcome measure in studies with these patients. There are three papers in this issue relating to the effect of drugs on LUTS; the first of these is a pooled analysis of three double-blind placebo-controlled studies into the safety and efficacy of the 10 mg dose of alfuzosin. The second evaluates the effect on quality-of-life issues of treatment with dutasteride. Finally, authors from Australia compare the effect of a Serenoa repens extract with placebo for LUTS. OBJECTIVES: To provide a fluent and easily comprehensible Finnish version of the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI) and to study its linguistic validity and correlation with a visual pain scale (VAS). PATIENTS AND METHODS: The double-back translation method with two interim modifications was used to produce the Finnish version of the NIH-CPSI. The validity was tested by presenting the questionnaire to 155 men with clinically confirmed chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS) and 12 controls with no previous urological symptoms. Convergent validity of the NIH-CPSI was tested by determining the correlation between the Finnish NIH-CPSI and VAS. Patients' and urologists' opinions about the utility of the Finnish NIH-CPSI were also reviewed. RESULTS: The total Finnish NIH-CPSI scores and the pain domain and voiding symptom domain scores differed significantly (P < 0.001) between the groups, suggesting good discriminant validity of the symptom index. The NIH-CPSI scores correlated well with the VAS (Pearson's correlation 0.76). The preciseness and comprehensibility of the questionnaire were consistently evaluated to be 'good' or 'excellent' both by patients and urologists. CONCLUSIONS: The Finnish version of the NIH-CPSI is valid and easily comprehensible for measuring CPPS symptoms. In addition, it provides good discriminant and convergent validity in distinguishing CPPS symptoms and should be used as primary outcome measure in CPPS studies.

Case-Control Studies↗