Many Labs 5: Registered Replication of Crosby, Monin, and Richardson (2008)

Crosby, Monin, and Richardson (2008) found that hearing an offensive remark caused subjects ( N = 25) to look longer at a potentially offended person, but only if that person could hear the remark. On the basis of this result, they argued that people use social referencing to assess the offensiveness. However, in a direct replication in the Reproducibility Project: Psychology, the result for Crosby et al.’s key effect was not significant. In the current project, we tested whether the size of the social-referencing effect might be increased by a peer-reviewed and preregistered protocol manipulation in which some participants were given context to understand why the remark was potentially offensive. Three labs in Europe and the United States ( N = 283) took part. The protocol manipulation did not affect the size of the social-referencing effect. However, we did replicate the original effect reported by Crosby et al., albeit with a much smaller effect size. We discuss these results in the context of ongoing debates about how replication attempts should treat statistical power and contextual sensitivity.

Many Labs 5: Testing Pre-Data-Collection Peer Review as an Intervention to Increase Replicability

Replication studies in psychological science sometimes fail to reproduce prior findings. If these studies use methods that are unfaithful to the original study or ineffective in eliciting the phenomenon of interest, then a failure to replicate may be a failure of the protocol rather than a challenge to the original finding. Formal pre-data-collection peer review by experts may address shortcomings and increase replicability rates. We selected 10 replication studies from the Reproducibility Project: Psychology (RP:P; Open Science Collaboration, 2015) for which the original authors had expressed concerns about the replication designs before data collection; only one of these studies had yielded a statistically significant effect ( p < .05). Commenters suggested that lack of adherence to expert review and low-powered tests were the reasons that most of these RP:P studies failed to replicate the original effects. We revised the replication protocols and received formal peer review prior to conducting new replication studies. We administered the RP:P and revised protocols in multiple laboratories (median number of laboratories per original study = 6.5, range = 3–9; median total sample = 1,279.5, range = 276–3,512) for high-powered tests of each original finding with both protocols. Overall, following the preregistered analysis plan, we found that the revised protocols produced effect sizes similar to those of the RP:P protocols (Δ r = .002 or .014, depending on analytic approach). The median effect size for the revised protocols ( r = .05) was similar to that of the RP:P protocols ( r = .04) and the original RP:P replications ( r = .11), and smaller than that of the original studies ( r = .37). Analysis of the cumulative evidence across the original studies and the corresponding three replication attempts provided very precise estimates of the 10 tested effects and indicated that their effect sizes (median r = .07, range = .00–.15) were 78% smaller, on average, than the original effect sizes (median r = .37, range = .19–.50).

Interpreting nonverbal cues to deception in real time

When questioning the veracity of an utterance, we perceive certain non-linguistic behaviours to indicate that a speaker is being deceptive. Recent work has highlighted that listeners’ associations between speech disfluency and dishonesty are detectable at the earliest stages of reference comprehension, suggesting that the manner of spoken delivery influences pragmatic judgements concurrently with the processing of lexical information. Here, we investigate the integration of a speaker’s gestures into judgements of deception, and ask if and when associations between nonverbal cues and deception emerge. Participants saw and heard a video of a potentially dishonest speaker describe treasure hidden behind an object, while also viewing images of both the named object and a distractor object. Their task was to click on the object behind which they believed the treasure to actually be hidden. Eye and mouse movements were recorded. Experiment 1 investigated listeners’ associations between visual cues and deception, using a variety of static and dynamic cues. Experiment 2 focused on adaptor gestures. We show that a speaker’s nonverbal behaviour can have a rapid and direct influence on listeners’ pragmatic judgements, supporting the idea that communication is fundamentally multimodal.

Real-time social reasoning: the effect of disfluency on the meaning of some

The scalar quantifier some is locally ambiguous between pragmatic (some-but-not-all) and literal (some-and-possibly-all) meanings. Although comprehenders typically favour an eventual pragmatic interpretation, debate persists regarding what factors influence interpretation, the time course of comprehension, and whether literal meaning takes precedence. We investigate how the interpretation of some depends on social reasoning derived from a speaker’s manner of delivery. Specifically, we test the effect of disfluency on the derivation of meaning in a context where hesitation may signal speaker embarrassment due to potential face-loss associated with the literal meaning of “some”. Participants $$(n=24)$$(n=24) viewed displays comprising two different snack quantities while hearing a recorded utterance describing how much a speaker had eaten. Critical utterances $$(n=16)$$(n=16) contained the quantifier some, half with a filled pause disfluency (“I ate <uh>, some oreos”). Participants’ eye and mouse movements showed (via empirical logit regressions) that fluent utterances yielded a bias toward a pragmatic interpretation, while disfluency attenuated this bias in favour of the literal meaning (where the speaker ate all the oreos). Crucially, this difference emerged rapidly post-onset of some. Taken together, our findings do not support a literal-first account of scalar comprehension, but rather, suggest that some is interpreted rapidly in a context-dependent manner.

Ypsolopha rhinolophi sp. nov. (Lepidoptera: Ypsolophidae), a new species from Portugal and France unveiled by bats

A new species Ypsolopha rhinolophi Corley is described from northern Portugal and south-east France. It resembles Y. alpella (Denis Schiffermüller, 1775) and Y. lucella (Fabricius, 1775) but shows clear differences from both species in DNA barcode and in male and female genitalia. Male genitalia of Y. lucella are illustrated for the first time. The new species has been collected at light, reared from larvae on Quercus pyrenaica Willd. and recognised from DNA barcode fragments obtained from droppings of horseshoe bats.

Individual differences in the production of disfluency: A latent variable analysis of memory ability and verbal intelligence

Recent work has begun to focus on the role that individual differences in executive function and intelligence have on the production of fluent speech. However, isolating the underlying causes of different types of disfluency has been difficult given the speed and complexity of language production. In this study, we focused on the role of memory abilities and verbal intelligence, and we chose a task that relied heavily on memory for successful performance. Given the task demands, we hypothesised that a substantial proportion of disfluencies would be due to memory retrieval problems. We contrasted memory abilities with individual differences in verbal intelligence as previous work highlighted verbal intelligence as an important factor in disfluency production. A total of 78 participants memorised and repeated 40 syntactically complex sentences, which were recorded and coded for disfluencies. Model comparisons were carried out using hierarchical structural equation modelling. Results showed that repetitions were significantly related to verbal intelligence. Unfilled pauses and repairs, in contrast, were marginally ( p < .09) related to memory abilities. The relationship in all cases was negative. Conclusions explore the link between different types of disfluency and particular problems arising in the course of production, and how individual differences inform theoretical debates in language production.

Speaker-Versus Listener-Oriented Disfluency: A Re-examination of Arguments and Assumptions from Autism Spectrum Disorder

We re-evaluate conclusions about disfluency production in high-functioning forms of autism spectrum disorder (HFA). Previous studies examined individuals with HFA to address a theoretical question regarding speaker- and listener-oriented disfluencies. Individuals with HFA tend to be self-centric and have poor pragmatic language skills, and should be less likely to produce listener-oriented disfluency. However, previous studies did not account for individual differences variables that affect disfluency. We show that both matched and unmatched controls produce fewer repairs than individuals with HFA. For silent pauses, there was no difference between matched controls and HFA, but both groups produced more than unmatched controls. These results identify limitations in prior research and shed light on the relationship between autism spectrum disorders and disfluent speech.

Three new species and one new subspecies of Depressariinae (Lepidoptera) from Europe

The species Depressariaalbarracinella Corley, sp. n., Agonopterixcarduncelli Corley, sp. n. and Agonopterixpseudoferulae Buchner & Junnilainen, sp. n. and the subspecies DepressariasaharaeGastón & Vivesssp.tabelli Buchner, ssp. n. are described.

Depressariaalbarracinella was first found in Spain in 1969 and recognised as apparently new but the specimens in NHMUK have remained undescribed. Additional Spanish material has been located in ZMUC and other collections and three specimens have been found from Greece.

Agonopterixcarduncelli. A single male of an unidentified Agonopterix of the pallorella group was found in Algarve, Portugal in 2010. A search for larvae in March 2011 was successful and one male and one female were reared from Carthamuscaeruleus. Additional specimens of the new species have been located in collections from Spain, Greece and Morocco.

Agonopterixpseudoferulae. A specimen from Greece with the name Agonopterixferulae (Zeller, 1847) found in the Klimesch collection in ZSM had forewing markings which suggested that it might be a different species. Further specimens from Italy and Greece have been examined, among them two reared from Elaeoselinumasclepium (Apiaceae). Both genitalia and barcode show that this is an undescribed species.

Depressariasaharae Gastón & Vives, 2017 was described very recently (Gastón and Vives 2017) from northern Spain with a brief description, and figures of two males and male genitalia. Here the new species is redescribed, and additional data on distribution and relationships of the new species added. The opportunity is also taken to show that Canary Islands specimens with the same male genitalia should be treated as a new subspecies D.saharaessp.tabelli Buchner, ssp. n.

Effects of Disfluency in Online Interpretation of Deception

A speaker's manner of delivery of an utterance can affect a listener's pragmatic interpretation of the message. Disfluencies (such as filled pauses) influence a listener's off-line assessment of whether the speaker is truthful or deceptive. Do listeners also form this assessment during the moment-by-moment processing of the linguistic message? Here we present two experiments that examined listeners' judgments of whether a speaker was indicating the true location of the prize in a game during fluent and disfluent utterances. Participants' eye and mouse movements were biased toward the location named by the speaker during fluent utterances, whereas the opposite bias was observed during disfluent utterances. This difference emerged rapidly after the onset of the critical noun. Participants were similarly sensitive to disfluencies at the start of the utterance (Experiment 1) and in the middle (Experiment 2). Our findings support recent research showing that listeners integrate pragmatic information alongside semantic content during the earliest moments of language processing. Unlike prior work which has focused on pragmatic effects in the interpretation of the literal message, here we highlight disfluency's role in guiding a listener to an alternative non-literal message.

Perfectionism and stuttering: Findings of an online survey

PURPOSE

Using a multi-dimensional measure of perfectionism: the Frost Multi-dimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS: Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990), this study investigates: (a) whether adults who stutter (AWS) display more perfectionistic attitudes and beliefs than those who do not stutter, and (b) whether, in AWS, more perfectionistic attitudes and beliefs are associated with greater self-reported difficulty communicating verbally and speaking fluently.

METHOD

In the first analysis, FMPS responses from 81 AWS and 81 matched, normally-fluent controls were analyzed using logistic regression to investigate the relative contributions of four FMPS perfectionism-subscale self-ratings to the likelihood of being in the AWS group. In the subsequent analyses, data from the 81 AWS were analyzed using linear multiple regression to determine which FMPS subscale self-ratings best predicted their Communication-Difficulty and Fluency-Difficulty scores.

RESULTS

Both the likelihood of being a member of the AWS group, and also the magnitude of the AWS group's Communication-Difficulty and Fluency-Difficulty scores, were positively part-correlated to respondents' Concern over Mistakes-Doubts about Actions (CMD) subscale self-ratings but negatively part-correlated to their Personal Standards (PS) subscale self-ratings.

CONCLUSIONS

The FMPS profiles of respondents who stutter suggest that, as a group, they are not abnormally perfectionistic overall, but may be (or perceive themselves to be) abnormally error-prone. Also, AWS who are more concerned about their errors and uncertain of their actions experience more difficulty communicating verbally and speaking fluently.

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

After reading this article, participants will be able to: (a) describe the findings of previous research investigating the role of perfectionism in stuttering and psychopathologies; (b) discuss why a multidimensional assessment of perfectionism is important in relation to stuttering; (c) discuss ways in which data from perfectionism assessments can contribute to the planning of therapy for adults who stutter.

Revisiting Bloodstein's Anticipatory Struggle Hypothesis from a psycholinguistic perspective: a Variable Release Threshold hypothesis of stuttering

This paper reviews Bloodstein's (1975) Anticipatory Struggle Hypothesis of stuttering, identifies its weaknesses, and proposes modifications to bring it into line with recent advances in psycholinguistic theory. The review concludes that the Anticipatory Struggle Hypothesis provides a plausible explanation for the variation in the severity of stuttered disfluencies across speaking situations and conversation partners. However, it fails to explain the forms that stuttered disfluencies characteristically take or the subjective experience of loss of control that accompanies them. The paper then describes how the forms and subjective experiences of persistent stuttering can be accounted for by a threshold-based regulatory mechanism of the kind described in Howell's (2003) revision of the EXPLAN hypothesis. It then proposes that shortcomings of both the Anticipatory Struggle and EXPLAN hypotheses can be addressed by combining them together to create a 'Variable Release Threshold' hypothesis whereby the anticipation of upcoming difficulty leads to the setting of an excessively high threshold for the release of speech plans for motor execution. The paper also reconsiders the possibility that two stuttering subtypes exist: one related to formulation difficulty and other to difficulty initiating motor execution. It concludes that research findings that relate to the one may not necessarily apply to the other.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (1) summarize the key strengths and weaknesses of Bloodstein's Anticipatory Struggle Hypothesis; (2) describe two hypothesized mechanisms behind the production of stuttered disfluencies (tension and fragmentation & release threshold mechanisms); and (3) discuss why the notion of anticipation is relevant to current hypotheses of stuttering.

The influence of anticipation of word misrecognition on the likelihood of stuttering

This study investigates whether the experience of stuttering can result from the speaker's anticipation of his words being misrecognized. Twelve adults who stutter (AWS) repeated single words into what appeared to be an automatic speech-recognition system. Following each iteration of each word, participants provided a self-rating of whether they stuttered on it and the computer then provided feedback implying its correct or incorrect recognition of it. Each word was repeated four times. Unbeknown to participants, 'Correct' and 'Incorrect' recognition of words by the system was pre-determined and bore no relation to the actual quality of participants' iterations of those words. For words uttered in the 'Correct recognition' condition, the likelihood of AWS self-reporting stuttering on a word diminished across iterations, whereas for words in the 'Incorrect recognition' condition it remained static. On the basis of the findings it is argued that: (a) in AWS, the anticipation that a word will be misrecognized increases the relative likelihood of stuttering on that word in the future; and (b) this effect is independent of the degree of difficulty inherent in the formulation and motor execution of the word itself, although it may interact with it. Mechanisms that can account for these findings and yet are also congruent with the wider range of evidence from psycholinguistic and speech motor control domains are discussed. It is concluded that stuttered disfluencies may best be explained as resulting from the inappropriate functioning of covert repair and/or variable release threshold mechanisms in response to the anticipation of communication failure.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

This article informs readers about two different theoretical approaches to explaining developmental stuttering: (1) stuttering as an adaptation response to an underlying impairment; and (2) stuttering as an anticipatory struggle response. It describes how these approaches account for different symptoms of the disorder, and proposes that both theoretical approaches are needed in order to fully account for the range of symptoms and experimental findings associated with stuttering.

Error biases in inner and overt speech: evidence from tongue twisters

To compare the properties of inner and overt speech, Oppenheim and Dell (2008) counted participants' self-reported speech errors when reciting tongue twisters either overtly or silently and found a bias toward substituting phonemes that resulted in words in both conditions, but a bias toward substituting similar phonemes only when speech was overt. Here, we report 3 experiments revisiting their conclusion that inner speech remains underspecified at the subphonemic level, which they simulated within an activation-feedback framework. In 2 experiments, participants recited tongue twisters that could result in the errorful substitutions of similar or dissimilar phonemes to form real words or nonwords. Both experiments included an auditory masking condition, to gauge the possible impact of loss of auditory feedback on the accuracy of self-reporting of speech errors. In Experiment 1, the stimuli were composed entirely from real words, whereas, in Experiment 2, half the tokens used were nonwords. Although masking did not have any effects, participants were more likely to report substitutions of similar phonemes in both experiments, in inner as well as overt speech. This pattern of results was confirmed in a 3rd experiment using the real-word materials from Oppenheim and Dell (in press). In addition to these findings, a lexical bias effect found in Experiments 1 and 3 disappeared in Experiment 2. Our findings support a view in which plans for inner speech are indeed specified at the feature level, even when there is no intention to articulate words overtly, and in which editing of the plan for errors is implicated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring the relationship between gestural recognition and imitation: evidence of dyspraxia in autism spectrum disorders

In this study, the relationship between gesture recognition and imitation was explored. Nineteen individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were compared to a control group of 23 typically developing children on their ability to imitate and recognize three gesture types (transitive, intransitive, and pantomimes). The ASD group performed more poorly than controls on all tasks of recognition and imitation. Higher performance on tests of working memory was associated with increased odds of successful imitation in both groups. Group differences remained even when working memory was statistically controlled for. An association was revealed in the ASD group between pantomime recognition and imitation but a similar association was not identified for intransitive gestures suggesting that recognition alone is not sufficient for imitation success.

Investigating the inner speech of people who stutter: evidence for (and against) the covert repair hypothesis

In their Covert Repair Hypothesis, Postma and Kolk (1993) suggest that people who stutter make greater numbers of phonological encoding errors, which are detected during the monitoring of inner speech and repaired, with stuttering-like disfluencies as a consequence. Here, we report an experiment that documents the frequency with which such errors are made. Thirty-two people who stutter (PWS) and thirty-two normally fluent controls, matched for age, gender and education, recited tonguetwisters and self-reported any errors they perceived themselves to have made. In 50% of trials the tonguetwisters were recited silently and errors reported were those detected in inner speech. Compared to controls, PWS produced significantly more word-onset and word-order errors. Crucially, this difference was found in inner as well as in overt speech. Comparison of experimenter ratings and participants' own self-ratings of their overt speech revealed similar levels of accuracy across the two groups, ruling out a suggestion that PWS were simply more sensitive to the errors they made. However, the frequency of participants' inner-speech errors was not correlated to their SSI4 scores, nor to two other measures of stuttering severity. Our findings support Postma and Kolk's contention that, when speech rate is held constant, PWS make, and therefore detect, more errors of phonological encoding. They do not, however, support the hypothesis that stuttering-like disfluencies in everyday speech stem from covert repairs of errors of phonological encoding.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Readers will learn about three current psycholinguistic theories of stuttering, and how speech-errors elicited during tonguetwister recitation can be used to explore the controversies that exist surrounding: (a) Whether or not people who stutter are more prone to making language production errors; and (b) The extent to which stuttering-like disfluencies stem from covert repairs of language-production errors.

Listening to the sound of silence: disfluent silent pauses in speech have consequences for listeners

Silent pauses are a common form of disfluency in speech yet little attention has been paid to them in the psycholinguistic literature. The present paper investigates the consequences of such silences for listeners, using an Event-Related Potential (ERP) paradigm. Participants heard utterances ending in predictable or unpredictable words, some of which included a disfluent silence before the target. In common with previous findings using er disfluencies, the N400 difference between predictable and unpredictable words was attenuated for the utterances that included silent pauses, suggesting a reduction in the relative processing benefit for predictable words. An earlier relative negativity, topographically distinct from the N400 effect and identifiable as a Phonological Mismatch Negativity (PMN), was found for fluent utterances only. This suggests that only in the fluent condition did participants perceive the phonology of unpredictable words to mismatch with their expectations. By contrast, for disfluent utterances only, unpredictable words gave rise to a late left frontal positivity, an effect previously observed following ers and disfluent repetitions. We suggest that this effect reflects the engagement of working memory processes that occurs when fluent speech is resumed. Using a surprise recognition memory test, we also show that listeners were more likely to recognise words which had been encountered after silent pauses, demonstrating that silence affects not only the process of language comprehension but also its eventual outcome. We argue that, from a listener's perspective, one critical feature of disfluency is the temporal delay which it adds to the speech signal.

Cascading influences on the production of speech: evidence from articulation

Recent investigations have supported the suggestion that phonological speech errors may reflect the simultaneous activation of more than one phonemic representation. This presents a challenge for speech error evidence which is based on the assumption of well-formedness, because we may continue to perceive well-formed errors, even when they are not produced. To address this issue, we present two tongue-twister experiments in which the articulation of onset consonants is quantified and compared to baseline measures from cases where there is no phonemic competition. We report three measure of articulatory variability: changes in tongue-to-palate contact using electropalatography (EPG, Experiment 1), changes in midsagittal spline of the tongue using ultrasound (Experiment 2), and acoustic changes manifested as voice-onset time (VOT). These three sources provide converging evidence that articulatory variability increases when competing onsets differ by one phonological feature, but the increase is attenuated when onsets differ by two features. This finding provides clear evidence, based solely on production, that the articulation of phonemes is influenced by cascading activation from the speech plan.

The role of inhibition in the production of disfluencies

Disfluency is a common occurrence in speech and is generally thought to be related to difficulty in the production system. One unexplored issue is the extent to which inhibition is required to prevent incorrect speech plans from being articulated. Therefore, we examined disfluency production in participants with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is linked to deficits in inhibitory function and response suppression (Nigg, 2001). Participants completed a sentence production task in which they were presented with two pictures and a verb and their task was to produce a sentence. If inhibition plays a role in preventing incorrect speech plans, we would expect ADHD participants to produce more repetition and repair disfluencies than would non-ADHD controls. The results showed that one subtype of ADHD (i.e., the combined) produced more repair disfluencies as task demands increased. We conclude that the production system relies on inhibitory control in order to prevent errors in language production.

Not all disfluencies are are equal: The effects of disfluent repetitions on language comprehension

Disfluencies can affect language comprehension, but to date, most studies have focused on disfluent pauses such as er. We investigated whether disfluent repetitions in speech have discernible effects on listeners during language comprehension, and whether repetitions affect the linguistic processing of subsequent words in speech in ways which have been previously observed withers. We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to measure participants' neural responses to disfluent repetitions of words relative to acoustically identical words in fluent contexts, as well as to unpredictable and predictable words that occurred immediately post-disfluency and in fluent utterances. We additionally measured participants' recognition memories for the predictable and unpredictable words. Repetitions elicited an early onsetting relative positivity (100-400 ms post-stimulus), clearly demonstrating listeners' sensitivity to the presence of disfluent repetitions. Unpredictable words elicited an N400 effect. Importantly, there was no evidence that this effect, thought to reflect the difficulty of semantically integrating unpredictable compared to predictable words, differed quantitatively between fluent and disfluent utterances. Furthermore there was no evidence that the memorability of words was affected by the presence of a preceding repetition. These findings contrast with previous research which demonstrated an N400 attenuation of, and an increase in memorability for, words that were preceded by an er. However, in a later (600-900 ms) time window, unpredictable words following a repetition elicited a relative positivity. Reanalysis of previous data confirmed the presence of a similar effect following an er. The effect may reflect difficulties in resuming linguistic processing following any disruption to speech.

It’s the way that you, er, say it: Hesitations in speech affect language comprehension

Everyday speech is littered with disfluency, often correlated with the production of less predictable words (e.g., Beattie & Butterworth [Beattie, G., & Butterworth, B. (1979). Contextual probability and word frequency as determinants of pauses in spontaneous speech. Language and Speech, 22, 201-211.]). But what are the effects of disfluency on listeners? In an ERP experiment which compared fluent to disfluent utterances, we established an N400 effect for unpredictable compared to predictable words. This effect, reflecting the difference in ease of integrating words into their contexts, was reduced in cases where the target words were preceded by a hesitation marked by the word er. Moreover, a subsequent recognition memory test showed that words preceded by disfluency were more likely to be remembered. The study demonstrates that hesitation affects the way in which listeners process spoken language, and that these changes are associated with longer-term consequences for the representation of the message.

Brief Report: Imitation of Meaningless Gestures in Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-functioning Autism

Nineteen people with Asperger syndrome (AS)/High-Functioning Autism (HFA) (ages 7-15) were tested on imitation of two types of meaningless gesture: hand postures and finger positions. The individuals with AS/HFA achieved lower scores in the imitation of both hand and finger positions relative to a matched neurotypical group. The between-group difference was primarily accounted for by performance on a test of visual motor integration, together with a hand imitation deficit which was specifically due to errors in body part orientation. Our findings implicate both visuomotor processes (Damasio and Maurer, 1978) and self-other mapping (Rogers and Pennington, 1991) in ASD imitation deficits. Following Goldenberg (1999), we propose that difficulties with body part orientation may underlie problems in meaningless gesture imitation.

Seeing ahead: Experience and language in spatial perspective

Spatial perspective can be directed by various reference frames, as well as by the direction of motion. In the present study, we explored how ambiguity in spatial tasks can be resolved. Participants were presented with virtual reality environments in order to stimulate a spatialreference frame based on motion. They interacted with an ego-moving spatial system in Experiment 1 and an object-moving spatial system in Experiment 2. While interacting with the virtual environment, the participants were presented with either a question representing a motion system different from that of the virtual environment or a nonspatial question relating to physical features of the virtual environment. They then performed the target task assign the label front in an ambiguous spatial task. The findings indicate that the disambiguation of spatial terms can be influenced by embodied experiences, as represented by the virtual environment, as well as by linguistic context.

The performance of fibrous peat biofilters in treating domestic strength wastewater

Peat is an abundant resource in Ireland and has the capacity to be used in low-cost, low-maintenance wastewater treatment systems for single houses. In this study four fibrous peat columns, of varying depths were constructed and tested in the laboratory for their capacity to remove contaminants from domestic-strength synthetic wastewater. The four filters had peat depths of 0.3 m, 0.6 m, 0.9 m and 1.2 m. During the 360 day study the filters were intermittently loaded with domestic strength synthetic wastewater at a hydraulic loading rate of 180 l/m2cd. Hydrographs and residence times for each filter were examined as was their ability to remove impurities from the wastewater. Removal of 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and total chemical oxygen demand (CODt) were > or =96% and 84%, respectively, in all filters with almost complete nitrification (> or =99%) being recorded for each filter. The removal of total suspended solids (TSS) was excellent at > or =94% and no clogging was recorded on any filter during the study. For the 0.6 m, 0.9 m and 1.2 m deep filters, total viable counts (TVC) were less than EU surface water directive limits for Class A2 potable water sources. The systems were cheap to construct and very easy to maintain.

Judgment of disfluency in people who stutter and people who do not stutter: results from magnitude estimation

Two experiments used a magnitude estimation paradigm to test whether perception of disfluency is a function of whether the speaker and the listener stutter or do not stutter. Utterances produced by people who stutter were judged as "less fluent," and, critically, this held for apparently fluent utterances as well as for utterances identified as containing disfluency. Additionally, people who stutter tended to perceive utterances as less fluent, independent of who produced these utterances. We argue that these findings are consistent with a view that articulatory differences between the speech of people who stutter and people who do not stutter lead to perceptually relevant vocal differences. We suggest that these differences are detected by the speech self-monitoring system (which uses speech perception) resulting in covert repairs. Our account therefore shares characteristics with the Covert Repair (Postma & Kolk, 1993) and Vicious Circle (Vasić & Wijnen, 2005) hypotheses. It differs from the Covert Repair hypothesis in that it no longer assumes an additional deficit at the phonological planning level. It differs from the Vicious Circle hypothesis in that it no longer attributes hypervigilant monitoring to unknown, external factors. Rather, the self-monitor becomes hypervigilant because the speaker is aware that his/her speech is habitually deviant, even when it is not, strictly speaking, disfluent.

Speak before you Think: The Role of Language in Verb Concepts

Abstract

This study investigates the role of language on verb concepts in a cross-linguistic environment. The inflectional morphology of verbs in Tamil is contrasted with Mandarin, a language that does not explicitly reflect tense changes in the same manner as Tamil and English. In the baseline condition in experiment 1, participants were required to rate the similarity of object picture pairs; and in the experimental condition, they were asked to rate the similarity of action picture pairs. In experiment 2, participants' similarity judgments and response latencies were recorded when they were presented with the object and action picture pairs. This allowed us to investigate the strength of linguistic influence when representing event concepts. Data from this study revealed a moderate influence of language on verb concepts in the target populations. There was a significant different in the response latencies of the Tamil and Chinese participants, although both language groups exhibited a similar response pattern in the action picture judgment task. This finding suggests that while both groups perceived the events similarly, language may be mediating their responses, resulting in longer response times for the Chinese participants. This could be because considering tense in Mandarin is not 'automatic' and requires extra work, possibly because it is not intrinsic to the verb.

Syntactic priming in English sentence production: categorical and latency evidence from an Internet-based study

To date, syntactic priming in sentence production has been investigated categorically, in terms of the probabilities of reusing particular syntactic structures. In this paper, we report a web-based replication of Pickering and Branigan (1998), Experiment 1, using a typed sentence completion paradigm that made it possible to record not only the responses made but also the response onset latency for each sentence completion. In conditions where priming occurred (as determined categorically), responses took less time when target completions were of the same type as preceding prime completions than when they differed. As well as validating Internet-based research by direct comparison with laboratory-based work, our findings strengthen the support for an architectural account of syntactic priming as envisaged by Pickering and Branigan.

Continuous measurement of backrest elevation in critical care: a research strategy

OBJECTIVE

To develop and test a procedure for continuous measurement of backrest elevation in critical care for enhancing the precision of this measurement for research purposes.

DESIGN

Descriptive, correlational. SETTING AND MEASUREMENTS: Backrest elevation, defined as the height of the head of the bed in degrees of elevation above horizontal, can be continuously monitored by using two transducers, one attached to the bed frame just distal to the head of the bed gatch and another attached to the bed frame at the top of the bed. By monitoring the differential head pressure between the two pressure channels, the height of the head of the bed can be calculated. A total of 30 random measurements of backrest elevation, from 0 degrees to 60 degrees, were taken by using the backrest elevation measurement on the bed frame, a handheld protractor, and the pressure differential between two transducers attached to the bed frame. Data collectors recorded one measurement independent of the other measurements. All measurements were conducted on the same bed.

RESULTS

When the transduced method was compared with measurements by using a protractor, the Bland-Altman analysis technique yielded upper and lower limits of agreement of 8.93 degrees and -5.91 degrees, respectively. The bias was 1.51 degrees, and the precision was 3.71 degreees.

CONCLUSIONS

The measurement technique described here was developed for research purposes to add precision to research studies examining the appropriate height of the backrest. However, the procedure could be used in a continuous quality improvement process to enhance compliance with patient care procedures involving backrest elevation or to confirm actual nursing practice and its correlation with patient outcome. In light of the risks associated with the use of supine positioning in critically ill and mechanically ventilated patients, the information gained from continuous measurement of backrest position could be an extremely valuable research tool.

Endotracheal suctioning: ventilator vs manual delivery of hyperoxygenation breaths

BACKGROUND: Despite a large number of studies on endotracheal suctioning, there is little data on the impact of clinically practical hyperoxygenation techniques on physiologic parameters in critically ill patients. OBJECTIVE: To compare the manual and mechanical delivery of hyperoxygenation before and after endotracheal suctioning using methods commonly employed in clinical practice. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was used, with twenty-nine ventilated patients with a lung injury index of 1.54 (mild-moderate lung injury). Three breaths were given before and after each of two suction catheter passes using both the manual resuscitation bag and the ventilator. Arterial pressure, capillary oxygen saturation, heart rate, and cardiac rhythm were monitored for 1 minute prior to the intervention to obtain a baseline, continuously throughout the procedure, and for 3 minutes afterward. Arterial blood gases were collected immediately prior to the suctioning intervention, immediately after, and at 30, 60, 120, and 180 seconds after the intervention. Data were analyzed with repeated measures analysis of variance. RESULTS: Arterial oxygen partial pressures were significantly higher using the ventilator method. Peak inspiratory pressures during hyperoxygenation were significantly higher with the manual resuscitation bag method. Significant increases were observed in mean arterial pressure during and after suctioning, with both delivery methods, with no difference between methods. Maximal increases in arterial oxygen partial pressure and arterial oxygen saturation occurred 30 seconds after hyperoxygenation, falling to baseline values at 3 minutes for both methods. CONCLUSION: Using techniques currently employed in clinical practice, these findings support the use of the patient's ventilator for hyperoxygenation during suctioning.

Endotracheal suctioning: ventilator vs manual delivery of hyperoxygenation breaths

BACKGROUND

Despite a large number of studies on endotracheal suctioning, there is little data on the impact of clinically practical hyperoxygenation techniques on physiologic parameters in critically ill patients.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the manual and mechanical delivery of hyperoxygenation before and after endotracheal suctioning using methods commonly employed in clinical practice.

METHODS

A quasi-experimental design was used, with twenty-nine ventilated patients with a lung injury index of 1.54 (mild-moderate lung injury). Three breaths were given before and after each of two suction catheter passes using both the manual resuscitation bag and the ventilator. Arterial pressure, capillary oxygen saturation, heart rate, and cardiac rhythm were monitored for 1 minute prior to the intervention to obtain a baseline, continuously throughout the procedure, and for 3 minutes afterward. Arterial blood gases were collected immediately prior to the suctioning intervention, immediately after, and at 30, 60, 120, and 180 seconds after the intervention. Data were analyzed with repeated measures analysis of variance.

RESULTS

Arterial oxygen partial pressures were significantly higher using the ventilator method. Peak inspiratory pressures during hyperoxygenation were significantly higher with the manual resuscitation bag method. Significant increases were observed in mean arterial pressure during and after suctioning, with both delivery methods, with no difference between methods. Maximal increases in arterial oxygen partial pressure and arterial oxygen saturation occurred 30 seconds after hyperoxygenation, falling to baseline values at 3 minutes for both methods.

CONCLUSION

Using techniques currently employed in clinical practice, these findings support the use of the patient's ventilator for hyperoxygenation during suctioning.

Effect of level of lung injury on HR, MAP and SaO2 changes during suctioning

25 patients with documented lung injury were suctioned using a manual resuscitation bag (MRB) and a standardised procedure. Level of lung injury was not significantly correlated with changes from baseline in heart rate (HR) oxygen saturation (SaO2) or mean arterial pressure (MAP). However, HR and MAP increased significantly returning to baseline at 5 min. Patients' SaO2 did not change significantly during the procedure or up to 15 min afterwards. No changes in cardiac rhythm were found during the event or for 15 min afterwards. Standards for hyperoxygenation and hyperinflation could not be achieved using the MRB even with a standardised procedure.

The myth of 100% oxygen delivery through manual resuscitation bags

OBJECTIVE

To determine the actual oxygen delivery of the manual resuscitation bags (MRBs) hanging at the bedsides of patients receiving mechanical ventilation.

DESIGN

Descriptive study of 24 MRBs in use at the patient's bedside from six adult ICUs at a 1100-bed Mid-Atlantic medical center.

METHODS

MRBs were Puritan Manual Resuscitators with reservoir. Oxygen concentration delivered was measured with a Ventronic Oxygen Analyzer Model 5575. Oxygen flow to the MRB was recorded before collecting data and then set at 15 L/min. The MRBs were compressed three times, with a 5-second interval between compressions.

RESULTS

Oxygen flow before data collection varied from 6 L/min to 15 L/min. Measurements taken at the exit port before MRB compression ranged from 23% to 97%. Oxygen concentration ranged from 26% to 95%, with a mean of 59%. The oxygen values for each compression time were significantly lower than 100% (p < 0.001). The first compression values differed significantly from the second compression (p < 0.001) and the second differed from the third compression (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

MRBs are not delivering the level of oxygen nurses have assumed. In addition, variation in oxygen delivery occurs from compression to compression.