Continuous dynamics in behavior reveal perceptual nonlinearities aid speech categorization in noise

Spoken language comprehension requires listeners map continuous features of the speech signal to discrete category labels. Categories are however malleable to surrounding context; listeners’ percept can dynamically shift depending on the sequencing of adjacent stimuli resulting in a warping of the heard phonetic category (i.e., hysteresis). Here, we investigated whether such perceptual nonlinearities—which amplify categorical hearing—might further aid speech processing in noise-degraded listening scenarios. We measured continuous dynamics in perception and category judgments of an acoustic-phonetic vowel gradient via mouse tracking. Tokens were presented in serial vs. random orders to induce more/less perceptual warping while listeners categorized continua in clean and noise conditions. Listeners’ responses were faster and their mouse trajectories closer to the ultimate behavioral selection (marked visually on the screen) in serial vs. random order, suggesting increased perceptual attraction to category exemplars. Interestingly, order effects emerged earlier and persisted later in the trial time course when categorizing speech in noise. These data describe a new functional benefit of perceptual nonlinearities to speech perception yet undocumented: warping strengthens the behavioral attraction to relevant speech categories while simultaneously assisting perception in degraded acoustic environments.

Two-Dimension Assessment of Marital Functioning across Adulthood: The Quality of Relationships Inventory

Single-dimension measures of marital quality can obscure distinct effects of positive and negative aspects of relationships. The present study extended evidence regarding the two-dimension relationship quality model generally, and the Quality of Relationship Inventory (QRI) Support and Conflict scales in particular, by examining associations with overall marital adjustment, represented continuously and as a discrete category of significant marital discord, and depressive symptoms, using younger, middle-aged and older couples. Using multilevel modeling (MLM), QRI Support and Conflict scales were independently associated with overall marital adjustment in the continuous and categorical analyses. As expected, QRI Conflict was more consistently associated with depressive symptoms than was QRI Support. Results were consistent across age and sex. Hence, the two-dimension model is applicable for continuous and more clinically relevant categorical representations of marital quality across adulthood, and the QRI Support and Conflict scales provide additional measures of positive and negative aspects of relationship quality.

The Aspect and Tense Verb Categories and Their Relations

The paper aims at analyzing the problems of the verb categories: aspect and tense and their relations in the traditional aspect theory. The verb is one of the complicated parts of speech possessing several categories as aspect, tense, mood, voice, person, and number. The aspect category is one of the main verb categories. If verb category expresses action, the aspect category expresses its stages of internal development: process, result, fact, protracted and others. In spite of having the aspect category in their matrixes, some languages are considered to be temporal (Turkic) in spite of having a set of developed plans of expressions and plans of contents and some languages are considered to be aspectual (Slavic languages). All of these verb categories function in a single continuum of expression. It becomes the reason of some problems connected with aspect theory in general and the aspect category in particular. It is difficult subjectively to identify meaning, function of each discrete category of a verb because of single plane of expression. This reason affected the creation of an aspect category definition. According to traditional aspect theory, the aspect definition states, that aspect expresses ‘action occurs at the time or the distribution of the action in time’. On the basis of definition, the aspect category is created by tense category, when they are two independent categories with their discrete meanings. One concept is explained by another concept. It contradicts to logic laws. The main conclusion of the article is that the aspect category and tense category have two different discrete meanings and the role of tense category is not correctly defined in the aspect category, which leads to such division of languages as aspectual and temporal. All languages have the aspect category initially, because it is included in the matrix of a verb

Judicial Responses to Alcohol-Fuelled Public Violence: The Loveridge Effect

After the death of Thomas Kelly (2012) and Daniel Christie (2013) in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), there was widespread discussion and concern over the problem of so-called one punch alcohol-fuelled violence. A ‘centre-piece’ of the NSW Government’s response was the enactment, in January 2014, of what is known colloquially as the ‘One Punch Law’: the Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Assault and Intoxication) Act 2014 (NSW), which includes a mandatory minimum sentence for assault causing death whilst intoxicated. This paper analyses the judicial response to one punch alcohol-fuelled violence, with a focus on the effect of the decision in R v Loveridge [2014] NSWCCA 120. I show that the judiciary has rejected the existence of a discrete category of ‘one punch’ manslaughters and, instead, has defined a category of alcohol-fuelled public violence for which there is a strong need for general deterrence. Based on an analysis of cases handed down since the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal’s 2014 decision, I show that the ‘Loveridge effect’ has been to significantly increase sentences in such matters.

Do non-linguists practice linguistics?

This contribution discusses two issues: (a) it provides a definition and an analysis of the term “non-linguist“, which is conceptualized as a non-discrete category on a continuum and as an activity rather than as a permanent status, and (b) it discusses the general value of folk linguistic theories, which should not, despite their potential imperfections, be a priori excluded from but rather integrated into the scientific data of linguistics. The article will also present a provisional typology of folk linguistic positions based on recent empirical research on folk linguistics conducted by the author. Finally, a plea is made for a new description of the object of linguistics, incorporating the different varieties and degrees of linguistic knowledge ranging from scientific to folk conceptions.

YOUTH AS PERIL AND PROMISE: THE EMERGENCE OF ADOLESCENT PSYCHOLOGY IN POSTWAR EGYPT

A public discourse of “youth crisis” emerged in 1930s Egypt, partly as a response to the widespread student demonstrations of 1935 and 1936 that ushered in the figure of youth as an insurgent subject of politics. The fear of youth as unbridled political and sexual subjects foreshadowed the emergence of a discourse of adolescent psychology. By the mid-1940s, “adolescence” had been transformed into a discrete category of analysis within the newly consolidated disciplinary space of psychology and was reconfigured as a psychological stage of social adjustment, sexual repression, and existential anomie. Adolescence—perceived as both a collective temporality and a depoliticized individual interiority—became a volatile stage linked to a psychoanalytic notion of sexuality as libidinal raw energy, displacing other collective temporalities and geographies. New discursive formations, for example, of a psychology centered on unconscious sexual impulses and a cavernous interiority, and new social types, such as the “juvenile delinquent,” coalesced around the figure of adolescence in postwar Egypt.

Podcasts in Four Categories

Language instructors often struggle to find useful and learner-friendly podcasts to supplement their language instruction. In an attempt to address this issue, we examined a number of podcasts for their applicability for use in teaching vocabulary and language. Based on this analysis, we identified four categories of podcasts that are useful for the learning process: 1) Discrete Category, 2) ESL-Focused, 3) General Audience, and 4) Superpodcasts. In this chapter, we discuss each category of podcast, providing several examples, and then we explore the strengths and weaknesses of each variety. Finally, we offer pedagogical suggestions to demonstrate ways in which language teachers can effectively use the podcasts to organize both in- and out-of-class language learning activities. As a supplement to the chapter, a wiki is also available that includes a number of podcasts covering a variety of languages: http://languagepodcasts.pbworks.com/

Discriminating among Diagnostic Categories Using the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule

The Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule was administered to 1,308 subjects in eight diagnostic categories, including 296 with dissociative identity disorder. The study tested three hypotheses: (1) the Mahalanobis distance between dissociative identity disorder and each of seven other diagnostic categories would be large, (2) the closest diagnostic category to dissociative identity disorder would be dissociative disorder not otherwise specified, and (3) nondissociative diagnostic categories would be closer to each other than any one to dissociative identity disorder. All three hypotheses were confirmed by these data. The findings support the conclusion that dissociative identity disorder is a discrete category or taxon.