scholarly journals Individual Differences in the Adoption of Sound Change

2020 ◽  
pp. 002383092095975
Author(s):  
Cesko C. Voeten

It is still unclear whether an individual’s adoption of on-going sound change starts in production or in perception, and what the time course of the adoption of sound change is in adult speakers. These issues are investigated by means of a large-scale (106 participants) laboratory study of an on-going vowel shift in Dutch. The shift involves the tense mid vowels /eː,øː,oː/, which are changing into phonologically conditioned upgliding diphthongs, and the original diphthongs /εi,œy,ɔu/, whose nuclei are lowering. These changes are regionally stratified: they have all but completed in the Netherlands, but have not affected the variety of Dutch spoken in neighboring Belgium. The study compares production (word-list reading) and perception (rhyme decision) data from control groups from each country to those of 18 “sociolinguistic migrants”: Belgian individuals who moved to the Netherlands years ago. Data are analyzed using mixed-effects models, considering not just the group level, but also individual differences. Production results show that at the group level, the migrant group is in between the two control groups, but at the individual level it becomes apparent that some migrants have adopted the Netherlandic norms, but others have not. Perception results are similar to the production results at the group level. Individual-level results do not provide a clear picture for the perception data, but the individual differences in perception correlate with those in production. The results agree with and extend previous findings on the role of individual differences in the individual adoption and eventual community propagation of on-going sound change.

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (10) ◽  
pp. 1385-1404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther F. J. C. van Ginneken ◽  
Hanneke Palmen ◽  
Anouk Q. Bosma ◽  
Miranda Sentse

Little is known about the relative influence of shared and individual perceptions of prison climate on adjustment to incarceration. This study investigated the relationship between prison climate and well-being among a sample of 4,538 adults incarcerated in the Netherlands. Prison climate dimensions were considered both as prison unit-level variables and as individual-level perceptions. Multilevel analysis results showed that most variance for well-being is found at the individual rather than the unit level. This implies that it does not make much of a difference for well-being in which prison unit someone resides. Positive effects of prison climate on well-being were primarily found for individual perceptions of prison climate, rather than for the aggregate unit measures. More research is needed to determine whether this finding holds true in other countries. The findings confirm the importance of disentangling the contribution of prison climate at the individual and group level.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Payne ◽  
Heidi A. Vuletich ◽  
Kristjen B. Lundberg

The Bias of Crowds model (Payne, Vuletich, & Lundberg, 2017) argues that implicit bias varies across individuals and across contexts. It is unreliable and weakly associated with behavior at the individual level. But when aggregated to measure context-level effects, the scores become stable and predictive of group-level outcomes. We concluded that the statistical benefits of aggregation are so powerful that researchers should reconceptualize implicit bias as a feature of contexts, and ask new questions about how implicit biases relate to systemic racism. Connor and Evers (2020) critiqued the model, but their critique simply restates the core claims of the model. They agreed that implicit bias varies across individuals and across contexts; that it is unreliable and weakly associated with behavior at the individual level; and that aggregating scores to measure context-level effects makes them more stable and predictive of group-level outcomes. Connor and Evers concluded that implicit bias should be considered to really be noisily measured individual construct because the effects of aggregation are merely statistical. We respond to their specific arguments and then discuss what it means to really be a feature of persons versus situations, and multilevel measurement and theory in psychological science more broadly.


2021 ◽  
pp. 073563312110308
Author(s):  
Fan Ouyang ◽  
Si Chen ◽  
Yuqin Yang ◽  
Yunqing Chen

Group-level metacognitive scaffolding is critical for productive knowledge building. However, previous research mainly focuses on the individual-level metacognitive scaffoldings in helping learners improve knowledge building, and little effort has been made to develop group-level metacognitive scaffolding (GMS) for knowledge building. This research designed three group-level metacognitive scaffoldings of general, task-oriented, and idea-oriented scaffoldings to facilitate in-service teachers’ knowledge building in small groups. A mixed method is used to examine the effects of the GMSs on groups’ knowledge building processes, performances, and perceptions. Results indicate a complication of the effects of GMSs on knowledge building. The idea-oriented scaffolding has potential to facilitate question-asking and perspective-proposing inquiry through peer interactions; the general scaffolding does not necessarily lessen teachers’ idea-centered explanation and elaboration on the individual level; the task-oriented scaffolding has the worst effect. Pedagogical and research implications are discussed to foster knowledge building with the support of GMSs.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariano Calvo Martín ◽  
Stamatios C. Nicolis ◽  
Isaac Planas-Sitjà ◽  
Jean-Christophe de Biseau ◽  
Jean-Louis Deneubourg

AbstractCockroaches, like most social arthropods, are led to choose collectively among different alternative resting places. These decisions are modulated by different factors, such as environmental conditions (temperature, relative humidity) and sociality (groups size, nature of communications). The aim of this study is to establish the interplay between environmental conditions and the modulation of the interactions between individuals within a group leading to an inversion of preferences. We show that the preferences of isolated cockroaches and groups of 16 individuals, on the selection of the relative humidity of a shelter are inversed and shed light on the mechanisms involved. We suggest that the relative humidity has a multi-level influence on cockroaches, manifested as an attractant effect at the individual level and as a negative effect at the group level, modulating the interactions.


2022 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Paul Schneider ◽  
Ben van Hout ◽  
Marike Heisen ◽  
John Brazier ◽  
Nancy Devlin

Introduction Standard valuation methods, such as TTO and DCE are inefficient. They require data from hundreds if not thousands of participants to generate value sets. Here, we present the Online elicitation of Personal Utility Functions (OPUF) tool; a new type of online survey for valuing EQ-5D-5L health states using more efficient, compositional elicitation methods, which even allow estimating value sets on the individual level. The aims of this study are to report on the development of the tool, and to test the feasibility of using it to obtain individual-level value sets for the EQ-5D-5L. Methods We applied an iterative design approach to adapt the PUF method, previously developed by Devlin et al., for use as a standalone online tool. Five rounds of qualitative interviews, and one quantitative pre-pilot were conducted to get feedback on the different tasks. After each round, the tool was refined and re-evaluated. The final version was piloted in a sample of 50 participants from the UK. A demo of the EQ-5D-5L OPUF survey is available at: https://eq5d5l.me Results On average, it took participants about seven minutes to complete the OPUF Tool. Based on the responses, we were able to construct a personal EQ-5D-5L value set for each of the 50 participants. These value sets predicted a participants' choices in a discrete choice experiment with an accuracy of 80%. Overall, the results revealed that health state preferences vary considerably on the individual-level. Nevertheless, we were able to estimate a group-level value set for all 50 participants with reasonable precision. Discussion We successfully piloted the OPUF Tool and showed that it can be used to derive a group-level as well as personal value sets for the EQ-5D-5L. Although the development of the online tool is still in an early stage, there are multiple potential avenues for further research.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel Haines ◽  
Peter D. Kvam ◽  
Louis H. Irving ◽  
Colin Smith ◽  
Theodore P. Beauchaine ◽  
...  

Behavioral tasks (e.g., Stroop task) that produce replicable group-level effects (e.g., Stroop effect) often fail to reliably capture individual differences between participants (e.g., low test-retest reliability). This “reliability paradox” has led many researchers to conclude that most behavioral tasks cannot be used to develop and advance theories of individual differences. However, these conclusions are derived from statistical models that provide only superficial summary descriptions of behavioral data, thereby ignoring theoretically-relevant data-generating mechanisms that underly individual-level behavior. More generally, such descriptive methods lack the flexibility to test and develop increasingly complex theories of individual differences. To resolve this theory-description gap, we present generative modeling approaches, which involve using background knowledge to specify how behavior is generated at the individual level, and in turn how the distributions of individual-level mechanisms are characterized at the group level—all in a single joint model. Generative modeling shifts our focus away from estimating descriptive statistical “effects” toward estimating psychologically meaningful parameters, while simultaneously accounting for measurement error that would otherwise attenuate individual difference correlations. Using simulations and empirical data from the Implicit Association Test and Stroop, Flanker, Posner Cueing, and Delay Discounting tasks, we demonstrate how generative models yield (1) higher test-retest reliability estimates, and (2) more theoretically informative parameter estimates relative to traditional statistical approaches. Our results reclaim optimism regarding the utility of behavioral paradigms for testing and advancing theories of individual differences, and emphasize the importance of formally specifying and checking model assumptions to reduce theory-description gaps and facilitate principled theory development.


2022 ◽  
pp. 250-279
Author(s):  
Ewilly Jie Ying Liew ◽  
Wei Li Peh ◽  
Zhuan Kee Leong

This chapter seeks to examine the influence of public perceptions of trust in people and confidence in institutions on cryptocurrency adoption, taking into account the individual-level demographic factors and the regional-level contextual factors. Data is obtained from three large-scale international surveys and national databases and analyzed using R software. The multivariate results demonstrate that individuals' public perceptions of trust and confidence significantly contribute to cryptocurrency adoption. Lower perceived trust in people and higher perceived confidence in civil service and international regulatory bodies increase cryptocurrency adoption, while perceived confidence in political and financial institutions discourages cryptocurrency adoption. Additionally, the univariate results find significant comparisons of gender and perceived trust differences on the predictors of cryptocurrency adoption. This chapter discusses and provides insights on the social impact and future of cryptocurrency adoption, particularly among the upper- and lower-middle-income countries.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 660-685
Author(s):  
Anne-France Pinget ◽  
René Kager ◽  
Hans Van de Velde

This study investigates the link between the perception and production in sound change in progress, both at the regional and the individual level. Two devoicing processes showing regional variation in Dutch are studied: the devoicing of initial labiodental fricatives and of initial bilabial stops. Five regions were selected, to represent different stages of change in progress. For each region, 20 participants took part in production (Study 1) and perception (Study 2) experiments. First, the results of the production tasks give additional insight in the regional and individual patterns of sound change. Second, the regional perceptual patterns in fricatives match the differences in production: perception is the most categorical in regions where the devoicing process is starting, and the least categorical in regions where the process of devoicing is almost completed. Finally, a clear link is observed between the production and perception systems undergoing sound change at the individual level. Changes in the perceptual system seem to precede changes in production. However, at the sound change completion, perception lags behind: individuals still perceive a contrast they no longer produce.


2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Baten ◽  
Andreas Böhm

Abstract The average height of children is an indicator of the quality of nutrition and healthcare. In this study, we assess the effect of unemployment and other factors on this variable. In the Eastern German Land of Brandenburg, a dataset of 253,050 preschool height measurements was compiled and complemented with information on parents’ schooling and employment status. Unemployment might have negative psychological effects, with an impact on parental care. Both a panel analysis of districts and an assessment at the individual level yield the result that increasing unemployment, net out-migration and fertility were in fact reducing height.


2012 ◽  
Vol 114 (2) ◽  
pp. 621-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edsel L. Beja ◽  
David B. Yap

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