The relationship between information processing and language production.

We explored the relationships between information processing and language in order to further the understanding of language disturbances in psychiatric patients. To assess the impact of reduced processing capacity on language, 50 undergraduates completed an interview concurrent with a category monitoring task and a control interview without a concurrent task. Syntactic complexity, verbosity, and pause patterns were all disrupted by a reduction in processing capacity. In addition, individual differences in syntactic complexity and information processing were significantly associated, even after accounting for verbal intelligence. We discuss the relevance of the results for understanding language disturbances in psychopathology and hypothesize that a reduction in processing capacity may underlie the decreased syntactic complexity, decreased verbal output, and increased pause length found in schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optical information about the severity of upcoming contacts.

The time derivative (τ?) of the inverse of the relative rate of optical expansion (τ) may have critical values with potential implications for controlling activity. The present research addresses the particular hypothesis that τ?     

Professional Affairs Committee report on upcoming change in licensing regulations in California.

The Professional Affairs Committee has been discussing the issue of licensure for consulting psychologists. We have been supporting a change in the regulations and are happy to announce that the State of California will be doing so. The new part of the regulations reads: "Due to lack of training sites of qualified supervisors, typically in the areas of applied psychological research, industrial-organizational psychology and social-experimental psychology but not including those involving direct mental health delivery service, a plan for supervised experience may be submitted by the candidate to the board for approval on a case-by-case basis" (Amendment 3 of Regulation section 1387). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structural dependency in language production.

The subjects and verbs of English agree in number. This superficially simple operation is regularly implemented by speakers, but occasionally derails in sentences such as "The time for fun and games are over". Such mistakes are interesting because their systematic deviations from the structural dependencies that govern normal agreement may shed light on how such dependencies are ordinarily implemented in speech. There were two issues at the focus of this work. The first had to do with the nature of the information that is used in carrying out agreement, and the second with the scope of processing operations. The findings from several experiments are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal change in language production: Effects of aging and dementia on grammatical complexity and propositional content.

Mixed modeling was used to examine longitudinal changes in linguistic ability in healthy older adults and older adults with dementia. Language samples, vocabulary scores, and digit span scores were collected annually from healthy older adults and semiannually from older adults with dementia. The language samples were scored for grammatical complexity and propositional content. For the healthy group, age-related declines in grammatical complexity and propositional content were observed. The declines were most rapid in the mid 70s. For the group with dementia, grammatical complexity and propositional content also declined over time, regardless of age. Rates of decline were uniform across individuals. These analyses reveal how both grammatical complexity and proposition content are related to late-life changes in cognition in healthy older adults as well as those with dementia. Alzheimer's disease accelerates this decline, regardless of age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Statistics as a second language? A model for predicting performance in psychology students.

Tested a model twice among 91 university students (Test 1) and 64 of the 91 Ss (Test 2) for predicting the performance of psychology students in statistics. Previous research (e.g., L. B. Feinberg and S. Halperin; see record 1980-22092-001) examined statistical performance in relation to 3 classes of variables: anxiety, attitudes, and ability. These variables were the essential components of an educational model developed by R. C. Gardner (see record 1985-10751-001) within the context of 2nd language learning. Measures assessing mathematical aptitude, math anxiety, and attitudinal and motivational variables were administered to Ss. A causal model linking these variables was proposed and tested, using a LISREL analysis. Results generally supported the model. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal working memory and language production: Common approaches to the serial ordering of verbal information.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 136(3) of Psychological Bulletin (see record 2010-07936-010). In the article “Verbal Working Memory and Language Production: Common Approaches to the Serial Ordering of Verbal Information” by Daniel J. Acheson and Maryellen C. MacDonald (Psychological Bulletin, 2009, Vol. 135, No. 1, pp. 50–68), the initial sentence of the text of the article (p. 50) contains an error. The first name of the researcher Andrew W. Ellis was listed incorrectly. The sentence should read as follows: Nearly 30 years ago, Andrew W. Ellis (1980) observed that errors on tests of verbal working memory (WM) paralleled those that occur naturally in speech production.] Verbal working memory (WM) tasks typically involve the language production architecture for recall; however, language production processes have had a minimal role in theorizing about WM. A framework for understanding verbal WM results is presented here. In this framework, domain-specific mechanisms for serial ordering in verbal WM are provided by the language production architecture, in which positional, lexical, and phonological similarity constraints are highly similar to those identified in the WM literature. These behavioral similarities are paralleled in computational modeling of serial ordering in both fields. The role of long-term learning in serial ordering performance is emphasized, in contrast to some models of verbal WM. Classic WM findings are discussed in terms of the language production architecture. The integration of principles from both fields illuminates the maintenance and ordering mechanisms for verbal information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

FFC - a force for change in magnet production?

The low-emission electric car is tantalisingly close. But the rare-earth magnets that are key components are expensive to produce. A new electrolytic technique pioneered at Cambridge may usher in cheaper processing and help bring the widespread adoption of electric transport technology to reality…     

An information manager for the Assessment Protocol for Excellence in Public Health

The Assessment Protocol for Excellence in Public Health (APEXPH) is a method for comprehensive public health planning that can be implemented by state and local health departments. Many local health departments have limited resources for the data analysis and synthesis needed for APEXPH. To facilitate the implementation of APEXPH in Michigan, we used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Epi Info software package to develop an APEXPH information manager (CDC-AIM) for use by the 50 local health departments in that state. This report describes our methods for formatting, compressing, and presenting data. Examples of tables are provided for demographics by age and sex, numbers of deaths, years of potential life lost, crude mortality rates, and perinatal indicators such as low birthweight. Areas where additional work is needed to further improve CDC-AIM are discussed. Our experience in Michigan suggests that CDC-AIM potentially is an extremely helpful tool to assist state and local health departments in working with their communities to establish public health program plans based on mortality, morbidity, and risk-factor data.     

Assessment of preferences for self-treatment and information in health care.

Reports the development and validation of the Krantz Health Opinion Survey, a measure of preferences for different treatment approaches. This measure yields a total score and 2 relatively independent subscales that measure preferences for information and for behavioral involvement (i.e., self-care and active participation) in medical care. The pilot studies with 764 undergraduates and 3 related studies with 230 Ss demonstrated the ability of the subscales or total score to predict with some specificity (a) criterion group membership (clinic users and enrollees in a self-care course), (b) reported use of clinic facilities, and (c) overt behavior (e.g., inquisitiveness, self-diagnosis) in a medical setting. Discriminant validity of the instrument was also established. Theoretical implications of the preference constructs are described in terms of personal control; practical implications of the measure are also presented. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

清洁生产审核技术在韶钢的应用

介绍清洁生产审核技术在韶钢的应用.     

The intriguing role of spanish language vocabulary knowledge in predicting English reading comprehension.

This study explored a holistic model of English reading comprehension among a sample of 135 Spanish-English bilingual Latina and Latino 4th-grade students This model took into account Spanish language reading skills and language of initial literacy instruction. Controlling for language of instruction, English decoding skill, and English oral language proficiency, the authors explored the effects of Spanish language alphabetic knowledge, fluency, vocabulary knowledge, and listening comprehension on English reading comprehension. Results revealed a significant main effect for Spanish vocabulary knowledge and an interaction between Spanish vocabulary and English fluency, such that faster English readers benefited more from Spanish vocabulary knowledge than their less fluent counterparts. This study demonstrates the existence of literary skills transfer from the 1st to the 2nd language, as well as limits on such transfer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

能源生产管理综合信息系统的开发

介绍了现代化企业能源管理的特点，开发了包括企业生产流程、技术特点、创新点、主要节能措施和环保技术为主要内容的多媒体能源生产管理综合信息系统。该系统包括能源中心综述篇和以详尽技术资料为主的能源中心专业篇两部分，其中前者有中、英文两种版本。系统采用Authorware作为主要开发平台，使用Access作为数据信息库开发工具，数据信息库与Authorware之间的接口通过ODBC技术来实现，极大地方便了用户对数据系统的更新。此外，本文还对系统开发的设计思想、开发特点和实施方法、应用领域等进行了详尽介绍。     

基于WEB的生产信息管理系统

提出了一个基于wEB的生产信息管理系统,应用动态服务器页面实现了设备动态、生产动态、生产信息等的多条件录入、查询、更新等功能,并根据班产量、月产量生成报表以,供查询和成本核算。     

Event perception by children in the early stages of language production

The distribution of attention to the actors in a visual event and the influence of linguistic variables on attention were studied. 1-word and 2-word children viewed a filmed event that portrayed a brief agent-action-recipient sequence in the presence of a nonparticipant. The event was accompanied by linguistic input that was general or named an actor. A habituation paradigm was used with a cardiac response measure. Response recovery to brief occlusions of the actors in the test trials indicated the existence of a neutral period before the action began during which attention was evenly distributed across the actors. During and after the action, the agent commanded a priority in the distribution of attention. Naming an actor had a strong directing influence on attention in the neutral period and more limited effects on attention during and after the action. There were no effects of sex or language status.     

Abstract phonological structure in language production: Evidence from Spanish.

In this study, 4 experiments were carried out to investigate if segmental and structural information are represented separately in phonological encoding in speech production. In Experiments 1 and 2, a picture-word interference paradigm was used. Participants had to name a picture while a word was auditorily presented 150 ms after the onset of the target. In Experiments 3 and 4, participants had to read aloud lists of printed words (inductors) and then had to name a picture. Results of the first 3 experiments indicate that naming latencies are faster when target and interfering stimulus (in the first 2 experiments) and inductors (in the 3rd) share the same abstract phonological structure. The 4th experiment showed that the priming effect observed previously is due to facilitation of the first-syllable structure, supporting the notion that an abstract syllabic structure is used in phonological encoding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic relatedness and the scope of facilitation for upcoming words in sentences.

Three experiments examined the generality of context effects displayed for congruous completions appearing in high- and low-constraint sentences. Exp 1 found an effect of context for a broader range of completions for low-constraint than high-constraint sentences. Lexical decisions for unexpected congruous words that were related in meaning to the most expected completion for the sentence showed a benefit from context in low-constraint sentences only. Unexpected words that were unrelated to the most expected completion never benefited from appearing in either high- or low-constraint sentence contexts. Exp 2 varied the semantic relatedness of the unexpected words within Ss and found that unrelated words still did not benefit from sentence context. Exp 3 included only low-constraint sentences to encourage Ss to develop broader expectations for upcoming words. Unrelated words continued not to display any benefit from context. It is concluded that the scope of facilitation for upcoming words demonstrated in a lexical decision task is wider for low-constraint than high-constraint sentences, but never includes unrelated, although acceptable, completions for the sentence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of information reliability in predicting task performance using ability and effort.

Past research concluded that predictions of performance are a multiplicative function of ability and effort, although these studies were not designed to test between the averaging and multiplying models. The present study with 65 undergraduates competitively tested these models by manipulating the reliability of information about effort and ability. Results show that the greater the reliability of the ability information, the greater was its effect on judged performance. Similarly, the greater the reliability of the effort information, the greater was its effect on judged performance; in addition, the greater the reliability of 1 type of information, the less the effect of the other type of information. Findings are inconsistent with a multiplying model, but they are consistent with an averaging model in which the reliability of information influences its weight. Individual differences in weighting of effort and ability information were also found, and these differences were predictable from self-reports of the relative importance of the variables. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)