The role of accent salience and joint accent structure in meter perception.

Previous research indicates that temporal accents (TAs; accents due to time changes) play a strong role in meter perception, but evidence favoring a role for melodic accents (MAs; accents due to pitch changes) is mixed. The authors claim that this mixed support for MAs is the result of a failure to control for accent salience and addressed this hypothesis in Experiment 1. Listeners rated the metrical clarity of 13-tone melodies in which the magnitude and pattern of MAs and TAs were varied. Results showed that metrical clarity increased with both MA and TA magnitude. In Experiment 2, listeners were asked to rate metrical clarity in melodies with combinations of MA and TA patterns to allow the authors to ascertain whether these two accent types combined additively or interactively in meter perception. With respect to the additive or interactive debate, the findings highlighted the importance of (a) accent salience, (b) scoring methods, and (c) conceptual versus statistical interpretations of data. Implications for dynamic attending and neuropsychological investigations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tracking musical patterns using joint accent structure.

Joint Accent Structure (JAS) is a construct that uses temporal relationships between different accents in a melodic pattern as indices of its complexity. The present study examines the role of different JASs in real time, attending to simple musical events. 39 adults with or without musical training were told to selectively attend to and synchronize finger taps with accents in 2 experiments that examined attentional tracking to musical patterns having a concordant or discordant JAS. Results indicate that tapping was more variable with discordant than with concordant JAS patterns, both with respect to produced inter-accent time periods and with respect to the phase of taps relative to accent onsets. These findings are interpreted in terms of real time attending and its control by event time structure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal integration in structure from motion.

A temporal integration model is proposed that predicts the results reported in 4 psychophysical experiments. The main findings were (a) the initial part of a structure-from-motion (SFM) sequence influences the orientation evoked by the final part of that sequence (an effect lasting for more than 1 s), and (b) for oscillating SFM sequences, perceived slant is affected by the oscillation frequency and by the sign of the final gradient. For contracting optic flows (i.e., rotations away from the image plane), the sequence with the lowest oscillation frequency appeared more slanted; for expanding optic flows (i.e., rotations toward the image plane), the sequence with the highest oscillation frequency appeared more slanted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Encoding orientation and the remembering of schizophrenic young adults.

Schizophrenic memory following an experimenter-imposed encoding task was examined in a levels-of-processing framework. In Session 1, 17 schizophrenics (mean age 23.5 yrs), 17 nonschizophrenic psychiatric patients (mean age 24.3 yrs), and 17 normal college students (mean age 20.0 yrs) were required to make yes–no judgments about whether a probe word contained 2 letters, rhymed with a word, belonged to a conceptual category, or fitted into a sentence. In Session 2, they were required to produce an appropriate word for each question. The 3 groups recalled semantically processed words better than nonsemantically processed words and "yes" words better than "no" words and revealed similar recall and recognition patterns over the different levels of encodings. However, the schizophrenics' recall for "yes" words (Session 1) and for the self-generated words (Session 2) was inferior to that of normals. Theoretical implications are discussed. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of global coherence in life narratives across adolescence: Temporal, causal, and thematic aspects.

Extending the study of autobiographical narratives to entire life narratives, we tested the emergence of globally coherent life narratives in adolescence, as hypothesized by McAdams (1985). Participants were 102 children and young adults (ages 8, 12, 16, and 20 years) who narrated their lives twice. Between narrations, half of each age group participated in tasks designed to train autobiographical reasoning; the other half participated in control tasks. Coherence was measured by the relative frequency of local temporal, causal, and thematic linguistic indicators identified qualitatively at the level of propositions, as well as by quantitative global rating scales measuring the impressions of the listeners. Coherence increased across the age span. Overall, repeated narrating and training did not increase coherence. Crystallized and fluid intelligence, number of negative life events, and frequency of biographical practices and confiding in others did not contribute substantially to the prediction of coherence beyond age. Results are interpreted in the context of adolescent identity development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditioning, remembering, and forgetting.

Argues that the separation of theories of learning and of memory should be abandoned. Remembering and forgetting play an important role in simple conditioning experiments. For example, conditioned performance can readily recover after extinction because extinction is susceptible to forgetting. Memory itself involves the kind of associative learning that conditioning experiments are designed to investigate (e.g., conditioning experiments provide insight into the mechanisms of memory retrieval). Learning, remembering, and forgetting all occur within the same biological context; their adaptive functions are therefore intertwined. Taken together, they shed light on some of the mechanisms of clinical relapse. Conditioning theory enriches, and is enriched by, the field of memory as well as other fields of behavioral science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The processing of temporal and nontemporal information in the remembering of event durations and musical structure

Within the field of cognitive psychology, one issue of theoretical debate concerns the relationship between an event's temporal (e.g., rhythm, rate, total duration) and nontemporal (e.g., sequence of pitch intervals) information. Some argue these are jointly encoded into the cognitive system, whereas others claim they are encoded in an independent fashion. This issue was investigated in 2 experiments that systematically manipulated participants' attention to the temporal and pitch properties of melodies and then examined participants' subsequent remembering of these structural dimensions. The results indicate that the nature of encoding is strongly dependent on the structure of environmental events and the degree of learning experience. This relationship in turn has implications for theories of both music cognition and time estimation behavior.     

The remembering of auditory event durations.

Three experiments examined the incidental remembering of event durations. In each study, Ss engaged in an initial learning phase in which they performed a set of perceptual ratings on events for a varying number of trials. These events consisted of tonal sequences or ecological sounds that varied in their internal structure and ending. Ss were then given a surprise memory task in which they were asked to recognize the duration of each event (Exps 1 and 3) or extrapolate its completion (Exp 2). Results showed that in contrast to irregularly timed events, those filled with regularly timed or continuous pitch information yielded high levels of accuracy that increased with greater learning experience. In addition, durations marked by a nonarbitrary ending were more accurately remembered than those marked by an arbitrary ending which, in fact, were misremembered as shorter than their actual duration. These findings are discussed in terms of an approach that emphasizes the role of event structure on perceiving and remembering activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comprehension of a novel accent by young and older listeners.

The authors investigated perceptual learning of a novel accent in young and older listeners through measuring speech reception thresholds (SRTs) using speech materials spoken in a novel—unfamiliar—accent. Younger and older listeners adapted to this accent, but older listeners showed poorer comprehension of the accent. Furthermore, perceptual learning differed across groups: The older listeners stopped learning after the first block, whereas younger listeners showed further improvement with longer exposure. Among the older participants, hearing acuity predicted the SRT as well as the effect of the novel accent on SRT. Finally, a measure of executive function predicted the impact of accent on SRT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structural parallels between pretend play and narratives.

Pretend play productions of 46 children from 4 through 8 years of age were analyzed using a story grammar. Results showed structural parallels between pretend play and stories for 76% of Ss. Older Ss' play was Episodic (story-like); younger Ss' play was Preepisodic. Given structural parallels, a play complexity measure was established on the basis of the semantic link between Episodes. Preepisodic play was also differentiated. There were strong correlations between age and play level, and age and play length in Episodes. But number of propositions per episode remained constant at approximately 6. Ss' verbalizations explicated two aspects of pretend, setting-up and play, and some Ss indicated a preference. The authors conclude with a discussion about the relationship between play's form and function. Story grammar analysis proved a valid tool for studying play's structure within a developmental framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning-disabled adolescents' comprehension of naturalistic narratives.

The ability of 20 normally achieving and 20 learning-disabled 8th- and 9th-grade readers to comprehend and interpret 2 fairly long and complex narratives, describing the emotional reactions of characters to realistic situations, was compared. The pattern of recall across story categories was similar for both groups. However, the learning-disabled readers not only recalled less overall than the normal readers, they were also less successful at differentiating levels of importance in the macrostructure of the stories. All students included less of the information needed to understand the characters' interactions in the more difficult story than in the easier story. Although normal readers could supply this information when directly probed for it, learning-disabled students were less successful in this respect, suggesting serious weaknesses in their ability to construct an appropriate situation model. Implications for the instruction of learning-disabled students are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Efficacy of the accent method of voice therapy

There is an increasing need for studies of efficacy of behavior readjustment therapy procedures in human communicative disorders. Legal, social, scientific and professional considerations point up the need for more careful documentation of the effects of treatment techniques used by phoniatricians and speech-language pathologists. This study is conducted in order to evaluate the efficacy of the accent method of voice therapy (AM). The AM is one of the holistic approaches for behavior readjustment voice therapy. It tackles collectively and simultaneously the various parameters of voice such as pitch, loudness and timbre. The results of intervention utilizing the AM in this clinical trial are assessed in a relatively controlled setup. Patients with voice problems resulting from various etiologic vocal pathologies are distributed randomly into two groups. Group 1 (G1) is given the full aspect of the AM, that is, voice hygiene advice plus the accent exercises to correct the faulty vocal technique (habit). Group 2 (G2) receives only voice hygiene advice. The AM is administered in individual sessions 20 min each, twice a week, while the voice hygiene advice counseling is given once a week. The assessment of the vocal pathology is done following a diagnostic protocol utilizing subjective as well as quasi-objective measures of evaluation. The initial assessment presents the baseline (pretest) data for both groups. The follow-up evaluations are done at mid intervention (mid-test), that is, 10 sessions for G1 and 5 sessions for G2, and at the termination of intervention/therapy (post-test). The difference in improvement between G1 and G2 at the end of the observation was generally significant in favor of G1. There were significant improvements in G1 in certain items specific for the various etiologic categories. The improvement from pretest to mid-test to post-test values followed a linear tendency. The significance of the results is discussed and the conclusions are outlined and criticized.     

Depth of processing and interference effects in the learning and remembering of sentences.

In 2 experiments with a total of 140 undergraduates, Ss who completed the last words of sentences they read learned more than Ss who simply read whole sentences. This facilitation was observed even with sentences that were almost always completed with the wrong words. However, proactive interference attributable to acquisition errors appeared on recall and recognition tests administered after a 1-wk interval. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reduction of anxiety in children facing hospitalization and surgery by use of filmed modeling.

60 4-12 yr old children about to undergo elective surgery for hernias, tonsillectomies, or urinary-genital tract difficulties were shown on hospital admission either a relevant peer modeling film of a child being hospitalized and receiving surgery or an unrelated control film. Both groups received extensive preparation by the hospital staff. State measures of anxiety, including the Hospital Fears Rating Scale, the Observer Rating Scale of Anxiety, and Palmar Sweat Index, revealed a significant reduction of preoperative (night before) and postoperative (3-4 wk postsurgery examination) fear arousal in the experimental as compared to the control film group. The parents reported a significant posthospital increment in the frequency of behavior problems in the children who had not seen the modeling film. Trait measures of anxiety (e.g., Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale and the Human Figure Drawing Test) did not reflect the group differences due to the hospital experience. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective encoding and consequent remembering in schizophrenic young adults.

Investigated whether schizophrenics' recall deficit can be ameliorated if appropriate encoding behaviors are experimentally induced, using 18 schizophrenics, 15 nonschizophrenic psychiatric patients, and 19 normals. In Session 1, the S was shown 50 words on a screen one at a time and rated them in terms of pleasantness-unpleasantness (orienting task); an unexpected free recall followed (incidental recall). In Session 2 given 1 wk later, the S was forewarned about the recall test prior to his engagement in the orienting task for another 50-word list; 4 free-recall trials followed (intentional recall). The recalls of the 3 groups were comparable in both sessions. The recall performance was also examined separately for the pleasant and unpleasant words, as rated by the Ss. All 3 groups tended to recall pleasant words more often than unpleasant words. It is, therefore, concluded that the schizophrenics' recall and pleasure deficits are probably remediable by means of attentional and encoding treatments. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A global theory of remembering and forgetting from multiple lists.

Forgetting is frustrating, usually because it is unintended. Other times, one may purposely attempt to forget an event. A global theory of recognition and free recall that explains both types of forgetting and remembering from multiple list experiments is presented. The critical assumption of the model is that both intentional and unintentional forgetting are often due to contextual interference. Unintentional forgetting is the natural result of contextual changes between study and test. Intentional forgetting is accomplished by a rapid, metacognitively instigated change in mental context that renders to-be-forgotten information relatively inaccessible and renders to-be-remembered information more accessible (L. Sahakyan & C. M. Kelley, 2002). This occurs for both recognition and free recall. Implications for item-method directed forgetting, exclusion recognition, source memory, and encoding operations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)