Distinguished Scientific Awards for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology: Fernanda Ferreira.

Cites Fernanda Ferreira for the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Awards for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology. Ferreira is recognized for her contributions to primary problems of psycholinguistics, including language comprehension, language production, and language acquisition, She has championed the modular approach to syntax processing, pioneered in the study of prosody, grappled with the problem of how syntactic proficiency is jointly determined by informal experience and formal instruction, and developed a new methodology, the "auditory moving window." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On theories and metatheories: An amplification of Miller.

In his recent article, George A. Miller (see record 1965-10025-001) makes a most articulate appeal for recognition of the failure of behavioristically oriented explanations of language acquisition and utilization. It should be noted that his "catalogue of preliminary admonitions" applies not only to the study of psycholinguistics, but also to many other areas and forms of behavior to which the more traditional, mechanistic metatheoretical frameworks have been applied for many years. The author expands on this topic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of language in therapy with the Spanish-English bilingual client.

The clinical and counseling psychology profession has witnessed a steady increase in research on the development and application of Hispanic/Latino-centered therapeutic approaches; however, little attention has been given to incorporating the dynamics of a client's language background in treatment. The authors discuss the important role of language representation and emotions and the implications for conducting therapy with bilingual clients who speak Spanish and English. The contributions of psychoanalysis and psycholinguistics that have guided the research on language issues in counseling and therapy are presented, and future directions in research, training, and practice are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Wallace E. Lambert (1922–2009).

On August 23, 2009, psychology lost an innovative researcher with the passing, at 86, of Wallace E. Lambert. A professor of psychology at McGill University from 1954 until 1990, Wallace (“Wally”) Lambert was among the founders of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. His highly productive career included contributions to social and cross-cultural psychology (intergroup attitudes, child-rearing values, and psychological consequences of living in multicultural societies), language education (the French immersion program), and bilingualism (measurement of language dominance, attitudes and motivation in second-language learning, and social, cognitive, and neuropsychological consequences of bilingualism). Indeed, because of the scope and influence of his work, Wally Lambert is widely considered the father of the psychological study of bilingualism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Illuminating language: A review of Pinker, S. (1994) The Language Instinct.

In The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker has undertaken the daunting task of informing lay audiences about forty years of progress in the study of the psychology of language. Toward this goal, he offers a striking array of incisive, revealing examples and insights about the distinct character of human language. These examples serve more than to inform and amuse us about language: They are interwoven to create Pinker's thesis about one of the oldest themes of modern psycholinguistics: namely, that human beings are uniquely equipped, by virtue of their genetic endowment, to use language. This capacity is Pinker's "language instinct." Further, the reader will be able to grasp these analyses because they are preceded with effective overviews of modern grammatical theories of syntax (chapters 4 and 7), morphology (chapter 5), and phonology (chapter 6). The principles and examples of these chapters provide the infrastructure on which Pinker builds his arguments concerning linguistic universals, language acquisition, neural mechanisms, and evolution. Overall, The Language Instinct will provide experimental psychologists with worthwhile updates of those domains of language research that they do not closely follow, with myriad examples with which to embellish undergraduate lectures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From conceptual roles to structural relations: Bridging the syntactic cleft.

The distinction between underlying and superficial linguistic structure is a staple of modern cognitive psychology. Despite increasingly diverse conceptions of syntactic relations in linguistic theory, the received view in psycholinguistics has remained one in which the entities assigned to underlying relations may assume different surface relations. This view is examined in the context of language production and evidence is reviewed that the disposition to bind animate entities to the surface subject relation is a basic feature of language use, suggesting that mappings from conceptual categories to syntactic relations form a main support of the bridge from conception to language. Proceeding on this assumption, an evaluation of competing accounts of the mapping process in production is given. Results argue against syntactic relation-changing operations, but favor a division between meaning- and form-related mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psycholinguistics and the Psychology of Language.

Comments that two recent papers in the American Psychologist deal with the problem of sentences in language (G. A. Miller, "Some psychological studies of grammar," American Psychologist, 1962, 17, 748-762, see record 1963-06655-001; C. E. Osgood, "On understanding and creating sentences," American Psychologist, 1963, 18, 735-751, see record 1964-07405-001). Earlier, a paper by Mowrer (1954) dealt with substantially the same subject. These papers attempt a psychological approach to what is traditionally a linguistic problem, hence are aptly labeled "psycholinguistic" efforts. The present author believes a distinction is in order between "psycholinguistics" in this sense, and the "psychology of language." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: James Earle Deese (1921–1999).

Memorializes James Earle Deese, a distinguished contributor to experimental psychology, psycholinguistics, and the study of ideas. Early efforts included his book The Psychology of Learning, published in 1952. By the end of the 1950s he was deeply immersed in the study of verbal behavior in humans. His later work dealt more with the history of ideas than with psychology as an experimental science. Deese's books and articles on the structure of associations and psycholinguistics are viewed as seminal, helping to move psychology from the era of verbal learning to the modern study of verbal behavior and an investigation of the structure among associations that words stimulate or imply. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavior and fact.

Advances in the study of cognition and psycholinguistics have been hampered (1) by the mistaken insistence that psychology is the science of behavior, and (2) by adherence to an independent-dependent variable model of experimental psychology, 1 derived from physical sciences but inappropriate to all but a minority of psychological problems. It is stated that certain concepts which have no behavioral status at all, e.g., understanding, are critical to a nontrivial account of cognitive and psycholinguistic problems. By way of illustration, understanding is shown to be different from interpretation and even more fundamental to linguistic processing. It leads to interpretation, which concerning language, has a semantic component different in nature from syntactic and other linguistic components. It is argued that the semantic component in interpretation consists of the application of certain fundamental structures, called categories after the Kantian model, to linguistic information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Normes de complétion pour 744 contextes linguistiques fran?ais de différents formats.

Discusses the significance of the N400 component in event-related brain potentials and in testing models derived from psycholinguistic research. Most previous research has been conducted in English and has used standardized materials which allow comparison between results obtained in different labs. This study provides such materials in French. 744 sentences were construced and presented to 52 native French speakers. The last word of each sentence was omitted, and Ss completed the sentence context with the 1st word that came to mind. The Cloze probability was computed for each sentence. Results are presented as a function of the number of words per sentence. Three sets of sentences were created depending on the terminal word's Cloze probability. The use of these sentences in experiments on the electrophysiology of language processing and as a database in psycholinguistics and cognitive neuropsychology is discussed. (French & English abstracts) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"She," "He," Coexistence, and Bastardy.

Before proposing a solution for the sex bias problems inherent in the generic use of the pronoun he, Spencer (see record 1990-58427-001) reviews some efforts to solve the problem. The attempted solutions are evaluated as "not an improvement ... awkward... jarring ... disturbing" (p. 782), In one case, Spencer notes that coauthors of a book "slip up" twice. To avoid the difficulties and the accompanying unpleasant experiences, Spencer suggests the use of co: "The form is derived from an old Indo-European common form for both male and female English pronouns" (p. 783). While arguing for the "goodness of fit" (p. 783) of co. Spencer acknowledges that "there is currently one exception in our language to this meaning of co-coed, in which the form has been bastardized and debased from its source" (p. 783). A clinical psychologist is assuredly not an expert in psycholinguistics, but one could reasonably argue the following: The concept of bastardy with all of its connotative meaning, including debased, derives from patriarchal, patrilineal, male primary societies and history. In short, it is a sexist concept. Ours is a difficult language to use and avoid the expression of bias. Perhaps we ought to be gentler with those who are trying. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do girls talk earlier?: Mean length of utterance in toddlers.

Notes that although older studies present consistent evidence that girls are advanced in language acquisition, newer findings are equivocal. This discrepancy might be due to a change in methodological approach. Older studies provide data on mean length of utterance (MLU) in sizable samples of toddlers. Since this methodological approach has proved to be sound in view of recent advances in developmental psycholinguistics, it was surprising to find that none of the newer studies had adopted it. To see if the discrepancy in the literature was due to a change in method or in children, the method of the older studies was applied to a contemporary sample. 66 younger toddlers (mean age 23.8 mo) and 64 older toddlers (mean age 28.57 mo) with sexes matched for age, class, and race were studied. Younger toddler girls were significantly advanced in MLU (words or morphemes) and also in upper bound (UB), length of longest utterance (words or morphemes). Older toddler girls were significantly advanced in UB, with the increment in MLU approaching significance. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Samuel J. Messick (1931-1998).

Memorializes Samuel J. Messick. His contributions to testing and psychometrics are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Colin Martindale (1943–2008).

When Colin Martindale passed away on November 16, 2008, psychology lost one of its greatest patrons. In the course of a career that spanned four decades, he worked tirelessly to promote the scientific study of aesthetics and creativity, in the process making important contributions not only to his primary focal areas but also to psycholinguistics, computerized content analysis, author attribution, psychoanalytic theory, statistical method, personality, abnormal psychology, interpersonal attraction, and oligonucleotide frequencies in DNA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguished Scientific Awards for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology.

Presents the winners of the American Psychological Association's Early Career Awards for 1996. Recipients of this award may not have held a PhD for more than 9 yrs. For purposes of this award, psychology has been divided into 8 areas: cognition and human learning, psychopathology, health, developmental, applied research/psychometrics, social/personality, perception/motor performance, and behavioral neuroscience/animal learning and behavior. Four areas are considered each year, with areas rotated in 2-yr cycles. The winners are Mark Gluck (behavioral neuroscience/animal learning and behavior), Lee Jussim (social/personality), David Lubinski (applied research/psychometrics), and Caroline Palmer (perception/motor performance). Their accomplishments are cited and biographies are provided. The winners since the establishment of the award are also listed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguished Scientific Awards for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology.

Presents the winners of the American Psychological Association's Early Career Awards for 1994. Recipients of this award may not have held a PhD for more than nine years. For purposes of this award, psychology has been divided into eight areas: cognition and human learning, psychopathology, health, developmental, applied research/psychometrics, social/personality, perception/motor performance, and biopsychology/animal learning and behavior. Four areas are considered each year, with areas rotated in two-year cycles. The winners are Patricia G. Devine (social/personality), Cheri Ostroff (applied research/psychometrics), Daniel J. Povinelli (biopsychology/animal behavior), and Steven Yantis (perception/motor performance). Their accomplishments are cited and biographies are provided. The winners since the establishment of the award are also listed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Language, cognition and deafness.

Reviews the book, Language, cognition and deafness by Michael Rodda and Carl Grove (see record 1987-97707-000). In this book, Rodda and Grove clearly subscribe to the view that along with speech and hearing, deaf persons should be allowed to use their "natural" language, Sign Language, American Sign Language (ASL), or in Canada, Canadian Sign Language (CSL). What makes this book unusual and important is that the authors have taken great pains to document their position through reference to hard experimental evidence, much of which has been done by psychologists. It is hard to imagine that anyone reading this book would not be definitively persuaded by their arguments, which are based on recent developments in psychology, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, as well as many other allied fields. Rodda and Grove clearly want to see Sign Language (ASL) accepted as part of the educational, psychological and cultural world of deaf adults, without demeaning the importance of speech and hearing in the communication process. This highly readable and informative book will undoubtedly help move the field in that direction, and I highly recommend it to the specialist and non-specialist alike. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Henry Felix Kaiser (1927–1992): Obituary.

Memorializes Henry F. Kaiser, who made significant contributions in psychometrics and statistical psychology. His contributions include the creation of Varimax (a computerized algorithm), his analytic criteria for communality estimation, development of a general computer package for performing orthogonal and oblique factors analysis, and invention of alpha factor analysis. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)