Amount Of Talking Research Articles

Mother's engagement with infant linked to infant's responding to threat

AbstractThe early development of threat perception in infancy might be dependent on caregiver context, but this link has not yet been studied in human infants. This study examined the emergence of the young infant's response to threat in the context of variations in caregiving behavior. Eighty infant‐caregiver dyads (39 female infants, all of western European descent) visited the laboratory when the infant was 5 months old. Each dyad completed a free‐play task, from which we coded for the mother's level of engagement: the amount of talking, close proximity, positive affect, and attention directed toward the infant. When the infant was 7 months old, they came back to the laboratory and we used functional near infrared spectroscopy and eye tracking to measure infants’ neural and attentional responses to threatening angry faces. In response to threat, infants of more‐engaged mothers showed increased brain responses in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex—a brain region associated with emotion regulation and cognitive control among adults—and reduced attentional avoidance. These results point to a role for caregiver behavioral context in the early development of brain systems involved in human threat responding.

Validation of connected speech as a marker for cognitive change in late‐middle aged African American adults at risk for Alzheimer's disease

AbstractBackgroundConnected speech‐language (CSL) (linguistic, acoustic, and temporal measures from spoken language) is a promising performance‐based measure of cognition for studies researching Alzheimer’s disease (AD). CSL represents everyday communication and thus may be less influenced by sociocultural factors, but research investigating CSL in underrepresented groups is scarce. Picture description tasks are common for eliciting CSL, typically the Cookie Theft (CT). However, CT is outdated, it does not represent the US’s cultural diversity, and subsequently may not be effective for all groups. Our aims were 1) characterize CSL from late‐middle‐aged African Americans (AA) by sex and APOE; 2) compare AA CSL change vs. standardized language tests across cognitive statuses 3) determine if AA and non‐Hispanic whites (NHW) respond differently to the CT prompt.MethodCSL measures (Figure 1) were automatically extracted from picture description transcripts from WRAP’s Milwaukee site (AA n=48; NHW n=30). Aims 1 and 3 statistics included t‐tests, chi‐square tests, and ANCOVA. Aim 2 used linear mixed‐effects models in AA with >1‐timepoint (n=30), examining whether longitudinal CSL varied by cognitive status.ResultTable 1 shows speech metrics and demographics of AA participants by sex. AA and NHW did not differ on most baseline CSL measures including total words spoken (Table 2,3, Figure 2). Changes in CSL (Table 4) and BNT were associated with cognitive status in AA participants, but verbal fluency was not. Literacy was not related to CSL outcomes. CSL had higher effect sizes than BNT (b=.41 vs. .20).ConclusionIn one of the first studies to characterize prospective CSL from an AD‐risk‐enriched sample of AA adults, we found no sex/APOE carrier status differences in AA CSL, and no differences between AA and NHW on most CSL measures. AA and NHW did not differ in the amount of talking in response to CT. CSL change among cognitively‐declining AAs was similar to that seen previously in a NHW sample. This combined with predominantly weak associations between CSL measures and WRAT‐3 suggest that CSL may reflect a socioculturally unbiased cognitive activity. Future directions include developing an ethnoculturally relevant stimulus picture, analyses with increased time points, sample sizes and AD biomarkers.

Evaluating the predictive validity of personality trait judgments using a naturalistic behavioral criterion: A preliminary test of the self-other knowledge asymmetry model

We tracked 87 participants over two days using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR). Coded variables included expressions of mood, amount of talking in various situations (e.g., with one other person, with a friend, etc.), locations, and behavioral markers of the Big Five. Collection of self-, informant-, and stranger-ratings on markers of the Big Five allowed for a unique test of the Self-Other Knowledge Asymmetry (SOKA) model. Although effect sizes were modest, there was evidence for the validity of both self- and informant-ratings across most trait dimensions. Stranger-ratings showed evidence of validity in the domain of Extraversion. Predictions derived from the SOKA model were partially supported, though more research with larger samples is needed to provide stronger tests of SOKA.

Prevalence of Hoarseness in School-aged Children

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine the prevalence of hoarseness in children attending the first or second grade of primary school and to explore possible background factors for hoarseness in children. The participants were 217 children, aged 6-10years, from 10 different schools. Questionnaires were filled in by the parents and the teachers of the children and voice samples were recorded. The voice samples from the children were perceptually evaluated by eight trained listeners and intra- and inter-rater reliability was calculated. Additionally, the parents and teachers were in the questionnaires asked to rate the children's voices. Connections between background factors and voice quality were explored. Both the intra- and inter-rater reliability for the trained listeners were relatively high and significant. The prevalence of hoarseness for the whole group was 12.0% as judged by the trained listeners. For girls, the prevalence of hoarseness was 7.8% and for boys 15.8%. A lower teacher rating of degree of maturity correlated significantly with the voice quality. Additionally, there was a significant negative correlation between the amount of talking at home and voice quality. For girls, heavy voice use as an infant correlated significantly with voice quality. For boys, being the youngest sibling correlated significantly with voice quality. The results from the present study indicate that more attention should be paid to hoarseness in children and that background factors should be further explored.

Quality of voice after radiotherapy in early vocal cord cancer

Early glottic cancer (T1, T2N0M0), a disease of the voice box, mainly affects the voice. It can be effectively treated with both surgery and radiotherapy. Preservation of the voice while treating vocal cord cancer is not simply retaining the ability to vocalize. It is the determinant of choice of treatment and quality of life following curative management. Radiotherapy has resulted in excellent control rates with voice preservation and has been the standard of care for many decades. Several patient- (e.g., smoking, age, amount of talking during treatment), disease- (e.g., extent and site of lesion) and treatment- (e.g., radiation field size and dose, voice therapy) related factors adversely affect the quality of voice after radiotherapy. Several studies have evaluated voice quality either subjectively or objectively. Still, little is known about it. Voice quality after radiotherapy improves but does not reach the standard of the normal controls.

Corpus analysis of problem-based learning transcripts: an exploratory study

Problem-based learning (PBL) is one of the most researched areas of medical education; numerous studies and meta-analyses have examined its overall effectiveness compared with that of traditional methods. Fewer studies have looked at the processes occurring within the PBL group, considering that a key difference between PBL and traditional teaching is the amount of talking in which students engage: a typical PBL week might involve 3-5 hours of talk. Little research has attempted to capture the vocabulary used or to analyse the cognitive processes that occur during PBL discussions and that might contribute to the advantages of this method of learning. We professionally transcribed a recording of a facilitator and seven students engaging in a PBL case consisting of three sessions. The text was analysed by using Wmatrix2 (UCREL, Lancaster University, UK), a powerful linguistic program used for corpus analysis. This allowed the inter-sessional comparative quantification of the use of technical vocabulary, as well as of reasoning, questioning and explaining episodes. We have compared the frequency of technical words and of reasoning, explaining and questioning episodes between sessions and related these differences to the focus of each session. We have been able to build concordances of important words and phrases within sentences which can be used to identify and monitor examples of questioning, explaining and reasoning. In this exploratory study we have shown that corpus analysis can be a useful tool with which to analyse PBL transcriptions. This technique can be used to monitor the development of a technical vocabulary and skills in scientific and clinical reasoning as students progress through a PBL curriculum. We propose this methodology will become a powerful tool to help explore the much wider cognitive and linguistic developments of students and facilitators as they engage in PBL discourse.

“The Talking Cure”: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis

What is the ethics of psychoanalysis? The question is likely to be viewed with suspicion by many analysts who see ethics, as Freud did, as representing the unrealistic and overly severe demands of culture that psychoanalysis is frequently obliged to oppose (Freud, 1930, p. 143). According to the classic Freudian picture, psychoanalysis has no ethics, or at least it has none in intent. The relation between analyst and patient (or analysand) should be ethically neutral. The analyst must not allow his or her personal values to intrude into the analysis, nor attempt to force his or her own ideals upon the patient (Freud, 1919a, pp. 164–165). The analyst should have a professional interest in the mental health of the patient, while resisting the urge to play the role of guide, mentor, or parent. Freud (1912) made the recommendation that the psychoanalyst should follow the model of the surgeon “who puts aside all his feelings, even his human sympathy, and concentrates his mental forces on the single aim of performing the operation as skilfully as possible” (p. 115). The analyst, in order to promote the transference phenomenon, should be relatively anonymous to the patient (pp. 117–118), which requires limiting the amount of talking one does (Freud, 1913, p. 124), and sitting out of sight, behind the patient (pp. 133– 134). The analyst should resist offering the patient substitute

Moderators of gender effects on parents' talk to their children: a meta-analysis.

Two sets of meta-analyses of studies examining gender effects on parents' observed language with their children were conducted. One looked at studies comparing mothers and fathers in amount of talking, supportive speech, negative speech, directive speech, informing speech, and questions and requests. The other looked at studies comparing mothers' interactions with daughters versus with sons in amount of talking, supportive speech, and directive speech. Across studies, mothers tended to talk more (d = .26), use more supportive (d = .23) and negative (d = .13) speech, and use less directive (d = .19) and informing (d = .15) speech than did fathers. Also, mothers tended to talk more (d = .29) and use more supportive speech (d = .22) with daughters than with sons. Medium or large effect sizes occurred in most analyses when particular moderator variables were taken into account. Effect sizes varied, depending on aspects of the interactive setting, the child's age, sampling and measurement, and publication characteristics. The results are interpreted in relation to a contextual-interactive model of gender typing.

Individual differences in young adults' shyness and sociability: Personality and health correlates

Differences in personality and health-related ailments among 40 young women who were selected for high (HI) and low (LO) self-ratings of shyness and sociability were examined. Self- and independent-ratings of personality were also measured following a dyadic interaction with an unfamiliar woman. The analyses revealed a significant Shyness × Sociability interaction for measures of self-reported talkativeness and extraversion. HISHY/LOSOCIABLE subjects rated themselves significantly lower on amount of talking during the dyadic interaction and lower on extraversion compared with subjects in the other three groups. Extreme shyness was also a consistent predictor of both emotional and psychosomatic problems. HISHY subjects reported significantly more neuroticism, loneliness, depression, social anxiety, fearfulness, retrospective inhibition, and had lower self-esteem than their LOSHY counterparts. In addition, a significantly higher portion of HISHY subjects reported problems with allergies and gastrointestinal functioning compared with LOSHY subjects. These results provide further support for the independence of shyness and sociability, and replicate and extend earlier findings on the role of extreme shyness in emotional and psychosomatic problems.

Biosocial Factors in Early Infancy as Predictors of Competence in Adolescents Who Were Born Prematurely

In a prospective longitudinal study of a cohort of 105 subjects born prematurely, competence was assessed from infancy through late adolescence. A biosocial model guided the research. Neonatal neurobehavioral organization (a composite of term visual attention, amount of time in active sleep, and 407 EEG pattern) and early social stimulation (the amount of talking the mother addressed to the infant during a home observation when the infant was 1 month old) in conjunction with social class were used to predict competence at key age periods through late adolescence. Intellectual competence, school achievement, social competence, and self perception of cognitive competence were studied. The results indicate that measures taken in the early infancy period were predictive of later competence, particularly intellectual competence, above and beyond social class. Twenty-eight percent of the variance in 18-year IQ scores was explained by the predictor variables. The study highlights the importance of directing efforts to improve the social environment of both the infant and the family.

The Influence of Play Material on Discourse During Play

The present study examined the effect that selected play materials have on certain aspects of children's conversational behavior. Thirty-six children, ranging in age from 48-59 months, served as subjects within eighteen same-sex dyads. Each dyad engaged in three separate ten-minute play sessions. The dyads played with a different material during each of the three sessions. The materials used were Playdoh, a Fisher-Price farm set, and a set of four animal puppets. The conversations occurring during each play session were transcribed. Each utterance was then categorized as a Topic Initiation, Topic Extension, Topic Maintenance, or Topic Extension-Tangential. Results indicate that each toy elicited the same amount of talking. However, there were differences in discourse structure attributable to the different play materials. The discourse of boys and girls was similar. However, boys did tend to initiate more topics during play than did girls.

The quality of health care and the role of medical audit

Writing in 1987 Alex Paton’ said :‘No amount of talking or writing will get the (audit) process off the ground. Talk has been the story of my professional life for the past 20 years, and new enthusiasts keep reinventing the wheel. It may sound trite, but the only way to do audit is to get started . . . The time is long overdue for medical audit to be standard practice in all hospitals. . .’ Prior to the White Paper* (Working Paper 6) of 1989, audit has largely been understood as an activity involving peer group colleagues reviewing certain types of clinical cases or topics on a voluntary basis without sanctions, with a view to improving the quality of subsequent medical care offered. Whilst exceptions to this voluntary informal approach exist and are well documented, the White Paper dramatically altered the context and nature of medical audit, which now occupies a major ‘upfront’ position on the medical ‘agenda’. The White Paper has, in fact, put into terms of formalised requirements Paton’s plea of 1987. In parallel with the very sudden imperative to ‘do’ Medical Audit, is a much broader thrust which has seen the growth of a major new activity known as ‘quality assurance’, of which it is probably appropriate to view Medical Audit as one component. In this paper a brief relevant history, some definitions and significant theoretical contributions to the thinking in medical audit are examined, and bearing in mind the newness of the subject and the explosive rate at which new writing is emerging, thus potentially rendering any review as quickly out of date, this paper confines itself to ideas, history and suggestions for

The Relations among Talking, Liking, and Similarity between Friends

Self-concept similarity in 58 female first-year roommate pairs was examined using the spontaneous trait generation task. On the basis of the trait overlap identified by this task, friends were more similar than nonfriends. Correlational analyses demonstrated that the amount of talking between roommates was more highly related to trait overlap than was liking or reported time spent together, suggesting that conversation between friends may be a key to the development of self-concept similarity. These results were interpreted as support for a model of self-concept change in which exposure to new interpersonal constructs leads to their adoption as self-schemata. Conversation between friends is discussed as one means of exposure to new constructs.

Patient exposition and provider explanation in routine interviews and hypertensive patients' blood pressure control.

Hypertensive patients' expressing themselves in their own words (Exposition) and providers' giving information (Explanation) during medical interviews were hypothesized to be associated with subsequent blood pressure control. Transcripts of routine return visits to clinics in low-income areas of Houston, TX, were coded using the Verbal Response Modes (VRM) system. VRM indexes of Patient Exposition and Provider Explanation were tested in relation to systolic and diastolic blood pressure obtained during home interviews 2 weeks after the clinic visits. Patient Exposition was significantly correlated with reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure from clinic visit to home interview, and Provider Explanation was significantly correlated with lower diastolic blood pressure at home interview. The results suggest that patients' and providers' verbal behavior in medical interviews should be included in predictive models of blood pressure control.

Talkativeness and verbal aptitude: Perception and reality

Little attention has been given to the implicit theories linking or the actual relationship between talkativeness and aptitude. In this study, we hypothesized a positive relationship between verbal aptitude and amount of talking. A correlational analysis was conducted using subjects’ scores on the verbal section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test and how much they talked while getting acquainted or solving a group problem. Verbal aptitude proved to be unrelated to overall amount of talking but was positively related to pausing between the vocalizations within each speaker’s turn.

The feasibility and urgency of monitoring human populations for the genetic effects of radiation: the Hiroshima-Nagasaki experience.

By actual account, this is the eighth symposium devoted to some aspect of risk assessment with reference to ionizing radiation and chemical agents in which I have participated in the past 5 years. All of these have resulted in impressive-appearing publications, as I presume, will this one. We are doing a tremendous amount of talking. I wish I felt the progress was proportional to the verbiage.

New Ideas in the Workplace: Learning from Interactive Television

Data collected in a study of cable television use for in-service training by teachers in elementary schools were analyzed in terms of learning about new ideas to be used in the classroom. The findings present a direct challenge to the traditional bias of strict reliance upon the individual as the unit of analysis in television research in general. Learning about and implementing new ideas did not emerge as simple linear effects of viewing. Rather, they proved to be processes strongly related to differences in viewing contexts (viewing alone or with others) and levels of feedback (interpersonal or technological interaction), as well as a function of communications structure within the organization (amount of talking and levels of agreement about good teaching within a school).

Nurse-midwifery practice: A descriptive study of prenatal care

Since 1925, nurse-midwives in the United States have provided prenatal care to an essentially normal population and have contributed to decreased maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. The purpose of this investigation was to identify and describe the components of prenatal care provided by certified nurse-midwives. The components of prenatal care were defined as content (the services provided, the physical examination, and the subjects discussed) and process (approaches, attitudes, and the amount of talking). Data were collected by audio tape recordings of 40 prenatal visits between 23 certified nurse-midwives and their clients. Quantification of the components of prenatal care was accomplished by measuring the frequency and/or duration of events. The average return prenatal visit lasted 23.7 min. Aspects of nurse-midwifery practice were defined and measured. Analysis using the Pearson product moment correlation confirmed the presence of relationships between a portion of the components of prenatal care.

In vivo language intervention: unanticipated general effects.

After observing the lack of generalization of language trained in highly structured training sessions using established behavior modification techniques, "incidental teaching" procedures were developed to change the use of specified language behaviors in the natural environment. This paper reports an analysis of the general changes in the language, other than that specifically targeted by the incidental teaching procedures, used by disadvantaged preschool children. The daily language samples of disadvantaged children involved in a previously reported experiment to increase compound sentence usage were reexamined and compared to comparable records of other disadvantaged children and of middle-class children of college parents in order to assess possible general effects of the intervention program. Whereas the language that both groups of comparison children used changed little across the preschool year, the amount of talking by the children in the experimental program increased markedly. Their use of more elaborate vocabulary and more elaborate sentences also increased in direct proportion to the increases in overall language use, such that both language use and language elaboration in the experimental group of children changed from a pattern simlar to the comparison group of disadvantaged children to a pattern similar to the comparison group of middleclass children. It is argued that some general features of the incidental teaching procedure--differentially attending to child overtures and responding relative to the child's selected topic (reinforcer)--contributed to the increase in overall language use beyond the specific language behavior targeted, and that this increase in the probability of children's talking itself resulted in the substantial increases in elaboration seen in the children's spontaneous language. Because, at least in children with fairly well-developed language repertoires, language use is contextually controlled, talking more involves talking in more varied and complex contexts, which inevitably produces the use of more elaborate language.

First Impressions of Talking Rates in Opposite-sex and Same-Sex Interactions

Four experiments were conducted in which subjects evaluated people who talked 20, 50 or 80% of the time in opposite-sex or same-sex interactions. Multivariate analysis of results showed that first impressions of talking rate can be understood in terms of a "potency" dimension and a "liking" dimension. People who talked 80% of the time were evaluated as being domineering, out going, selfish, inconsiderate, inattentive, impolite, cold, and disliked by the other person. People talking 50% of the time were evaluated as being likeable, attentive, polite, and warm. People talking 20% of the time were evaluated as being submissive, introverted, unselfish and unintelligent. There was no interaction between speaker sex and amount of talking in opposite-sex dyads. Males in same-sex interactions were evaluated as being cold when they spoke 20% of the time and females in same-sex interactions were evaluated as being cold, inattentive, and intelligent when they spoke 80% of the time. Suggestions were given for an attributional study of talking rate.