Meaningless Words Research Articles

Can Journaling Be Taught? An Exploratory Study

Requiring students to write journals as a means of reflection is a popular technique in outdoor education courses, especially those that include a field component or extended outdoor trip experience. However, from our experiences working in the field, through discussions with colleagues, and in reviewing the literature related to journaling, we have noted many problems with the use of journals. It seems that too often students are simply handed a journal and asked to write about their field experience with little or no structure provided. Staff who provide outdoor education experiences often do not provide instruction in effective, creative journaling techniques. Not surprisingly, given these circumstances, we have heard our own students echo sentiments of students from other disciplines who had been forced to write in journals. These students report that they feel "journaled to death" (Anderson, 1992, p. 306), that they are "journaling for a grade" (Chandler, 1997, p. 46), and that journals are "a pointless ritual wrapped in meaningless words" (Shor, 1992, p. 83). As such, it appears that student journals often fail to live up to their potential in helping to facilitate reflection, which has been noted as a crucial link between theory and practice (Bennion & Olsen, 2002; Priest & Gass, 1997). Although studies have investigated the scope and potential of journal writing in many disciplines, including literature (Cole, 1994), psychology (Hettich, 1990), and business (Johnson & Baker, 1995), little research on journal writing in outdoor education programs has been completed (Bennion & Olsen, 2002). Furthermore, very little is understood about whether students can be taught to journal. Could some of the aforementioned problems be alleviated if students were given more direction and training in journaling? To investigate these issues, we are performing a four phase study to examine the effects of a journaling workshop on participants in university outdoor education field courses (i.e., practical skills and theory courses occurring predominantly out of the traditional classroom). While the context of this research is a university setting, we anticipate many useful findings will emerge that will be of interest to outdoor educators working in a wide range of settings with diverse populations. The initial phase of the research investigated conceptualizations of journal writing of undergraduate recreation, parks and tourism students at two universities in North America (see Dyment & O'Connell, in press-b). The second phase examined if and how participating in a journaling workshop influenced both the process and content of reflective writing (see O'Connell and Dyment, in press-a). In the third phase, we conducted a focus group that examined themes that emerged from the previous two phases (see Dyment & O'Connell, in press-a). A final phase - content analyses of students' journals - is currently underway. We are using both quantitative and qualitative techniques for this study. A total of 62 post-secondary students from two universities programs in North America volunteered to participate in phases 1, 2 and 4 of the study and were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group. Participants in both groups completed a quantitative questionnaire immediately before and after their field courses. The questionnaires contained 38 questions that explored student perceptions of journaling related to the following themes: journaling behaviour, attitudes of journaling on field courses, content of journal entries, evaluation of journals, and willingness to learn more about journaling. All questions were answered using a 7 point Likert Scale that ranged from 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree' and included an option for 'not-applicable.' (Sample question: While on field courses, I keep a regular journal to record my daily thoughts and activities). Participants in the experimental group participated in a 45 minute workshop before their field course that taught them how to journal effectively (for a summary of the workshop, see O'Connell & Dyment, in press-b). …

Le dialogue entre dialogue et rhétorique

Our aim in this article is to provide an overview of the various links between dialogue and rhetoric in Ancient Greece and Rome. Initially, dialogue and rhetoric corresponded to quite distinct situations of communication and the difference between them was exacerbated by Plato's quarrel with the Sophists. The coherent and carefully prepared discourse addressed to a passive audience was discarded as no more than a sequence of empty and meaningless words while the dialogue was elevated to the rank of dialectic and became the ultimate means of access to the truth for minds of equal intellect and goodwill. Although this antinomy appears both clear and relevant in a specific philosophical context, it gives only an incomplete picture of a history that is far more complex. We have only a limited perception of the role of the living dialogue in Antiquity and the practices known to us are extremely elaborate. At the same time, the emergence of rhetoric can only have been possible in a civilization where rational verbal exchange was the very bricks and mortar of political and social life. Dialectic played a vital role in the development of rhetoric and the stylistic devices borrowed from the dialogue considerably enlivened oratory practices and theories alike.

How Loss of Meaning with Preservation of Phonological Word Form Affects Immediate Serial Recall Performance: A Linguistic Account

We present HP, a patient who following the occurrence of herpes simplex encephalitis, lost the ability to understand a subset of words while others remained preserved. Of particular interest is the fact that the meaningless items retained their lexical status. HP’s immediate serial recall of meaningless words was thus compared with that of meaningful words to assess the unique contribution of semantic knowledge without the confounding influence of phonological word (lexical) form. The results revealed a clear recall advantage for meaningful over meaningless words, indicating a specific contribution to recall from the semantic level of representation. Furthermore, an error analysis showed that phonemic errors were most common when semantic information was lacking. Interestingly, the same error pattern was found for pseudo-words that shared phonological elements with meaningless words. These findings support a linguistic and interactive activation account of short-term serial recall, which assumes that all levels of representation, including semantic knowledge about words, contribute to recall performance. In addition, the findings provide preliminary evidence that this view may be extended to the recall of pseudo-words, as there appear to be some influences of semantic representation on pseudo-word recall.

How Loss of Meaning with Preservation of Phonological Word Form Affects Immediate Serial Recall Performance: A Linguistic Account

We present HP, a patient who following the occurrence of herpes simplex encephalitis, lost the ability to understand a subset of words while others remained preserved. Of particular interest is the fact that the meaningless items retained their lexical status. HP’s immediate serial recall of meaningless words was thus compared with that of meaningful words to assess the unique contribution of semantic knowledge without the confounding influence of phonological word (lexical) form. The results revealed a clear recall advantage for meaningful over meaningless words, indicating a specific contribution to recall from the semantic level of representation. Furthermore, an error analysis showed that phonemic errors were most common when semantic information was lacking. Interestingly, the same error pattern was found for pseudo-words that shared phonological elements with meaningless words. These findings support a linguistic and interactive activation account of short-term serial recall, which assumes that all levels of representation, including semantic knowledge about words, contribute to recall performance. In addition, the findings provide preliminary evidence that this view may be extended to the recall of pseudo-words, as there appear to be some influences of semantic representation on pseudo-word recall.

«Mentalidad» y «cultura» obrera en la España de entresiglos: vindicaciones, planteamientos e incertidumbres historiográficas

The historiographical terms mentality and culture are in danger of becoming meaningless words due to the profuseness with vhich they have been used and to a la lack of proper definitions. In order to counteract this, a theoretical defence of both concepts is undertaken from a position of methodological interdisciplinariety as well as from the assumption of their own limitations. After they have situated the teme amongst the current of historical studies on the workers and the workers'movement in Spain between the 19 th and 20 th centuries, the authors put forward both a differentiation and a definition of each of the proposed terms. They also suggest lines of investigation and new themes which encompass what has already been done —as if were a state of the question— together with what is left to be done in this directionng three broad aspects: the needs and the life conditions of the workers, the workers'langage and means of expression, and the workers'ethics and behaviour.

The Convention: Should We Practice What We Preach?

L ong Beach was our 78th convention. We experienced stimulating general sessions, and numerous, informative concurrent sessions. The technology in support of presentations has advanced with sophisticated computer-based software that allows for convenient multimedia uses. Presenters made effective use of these communication techniques. As I sat in concurrent session, I thought back to my first AECT convention in 1952. There were general sessions and many concurrent sessions then also, with audiovisuals used in most presentations. At that time, overhead transparencies often called "vugraphs," were commonly prepared by writing on clear acetate sheets with felt pens; also 2" by 2" slides and 16ram film clips were shown by speakers. In each session, the audience sat, listened, took notes (few handouts were used), and sometimes had the opportunity to ask questions. As now, the attendees "networked" (a meaningless word in '52) among themselves. We left the convention generally pleased with what we had seen, heard, and learned, including useful information at the trade show. While the technology has appreciably changed in these 48 years, I noted that the convention format remains practically the same. These questions came to mind: 9 Are our convention programs doing a better job for attendees today? 9 Do we conveniently provide for individuals' varying interest levels and session content knowledge ? 9 Could we be using more of our knowledge about effective ways to communicate, allowing more flexibility for attendees to acquire desired information, encouraging greater interaction, and in other ways better serving the way adults prefer to engage in convention activities? 9 Could we not apply some of the ideas we are fostering for training and education in our professional work-l ike a flexible approach through self-directed activities for acquiring information on a convention topic, followed by small group meeting with a presenter? 9 Would it even be sensible to explore some versions of "distance learning" for orientation purposes and even some presentations by using the convention hotels' closed-circuit television facilities? Relate these questions to what goes on during a convention. According to the schedule, each attendee must choose which concurrent session to attend, sometimes from among up to 20 sessions offered at the same time. Difficult decisions for anyone. Also, when having to attend a committee meeting, one would miss an important session. Then when we see a person leave a session is it a lack of interest, the desire to attend another session, or an appointment. Other individuals may come into a session late and miss the introduction and important information. Then there are those who want to talk with the speaker at the end of the session, but may not be able to do so because of their tight schedule. I was first concerned with these matters back in 1972 when I was AECT's president. I asked myself, "Must we adhere to the traditional theatre-style room arrangement with only sit-listen-watch in concurrent sessions." With a colleague at that time, Art Suchesk, we tried a new approach. One day we set up numerous self-study carrels using audiotape, slide/tape, filmstrip/tape, video, and even some primitive response system program presentations, with which attendees, individually or in small groups, on their own selected time, could acquire information on a topic. Then they would meet with the program presenter at a scheduled time for discussion. We communicated with all interested presenters for their preparation of necessary study materials and then arranged for the equipment and duplicate copies of their media resources. Admittedly, at that time this wasn't an easy program segment to arrange and offer. We had wonderful cooperation from trade show vendors and graduate students and the local university. The attendees evaluated this innovative convention feature very favorably. But after '72, no following convention picked up on this approach. It certainly makes me think of many new ideas I observed or experienced during my career, that faded for any of several reasons. With the remarkable equipment and software we have access to today, might not forthcoming convention programmers consider innovating parts of the program, just as we are striving to transform training and educational programs in our professional activities? This could be a great leadership opportunity for educational technologists. Remember, we will be meeting with the National School Board Association in October and could create a favorable impression. What do you think?

ICD-10 Casebook: The Many Faces of Mental Disorders—Adult Case Histories According to ICD-10

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book Forum: ASSESSMENT AND DIAGNOSISFull AccessICD-10 Casebook: The Many Faces of Mental Disorders—Adult Case Histories According to ICD-10MARY V. SEEMAN, M.D., MARY V. SEEMANSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., Toronto, Ont., CanadaPublished Online:1 Oct 1999https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.156.10.1656AboutSectionsView EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail “Names,” says an old maxim, “are things. They certainly are influences. Impressions are left and opinions are shaped by them.…The mean and selfish talk of their prudence and economy; the vain and proud prate about self-respect; obstinacy is called firmness, and dissipation the enjoyment of life; seriousness is ridiculed as cant, and strict morality and integrity, as needless scrupulosity; and so men deceive themselves.” Tryon Edwards (1809–1894) published this maxim in his first book of quotations in 1852 under the title Jewels for the Household. He certainly was not thinking about psychiatric diagnoses, but his words apply rather well to the self-deception that underlies the notion that to name something is to know it.Psychiatry is good at naming. The case histories in this little book were selected from those used in ICD-10 training courses around the world and in the clinical field trials that resulted in the current international classification system. The field trials apparently yielded some 400 case summaries. This book presents more than 100, each illustrating one of the categories of the adult diagnoses coded F0 to F6 in ICD-10. Because the psychiatric categories are very similar to those in DSM-IV, the cases may well be useful for training and discussion. And questioning.The personal stories are culled from around the world, and each contains the presenting problem, the history, the findings, and the course of illness. Each is followed by a discussion section that illustrates the application of ICD-10 guidelines in the making of a specific diagnosis. Each example is colorfully titled, so the story (and the salient diagnostic issues) remains firmly planted in the minds of students, e.g., “The Royal Visit,” “The Smell of Revenge,” “Pulling Up the Flax.”The editors direct interested students to two companion books, the “blue” book (ICD-10 chapter 5, “Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines”) for clinicians and the “green” book (ICD-10 chapter 5, “Diagnostic Criteria for Research”) for researchers. This one is the “red” book, meant as an easy introduction to the art of diagnosis based on predominantly cross-sectional information about presenting symptoms and physicians’ findings.Students may find it helpful to make the crosswalk between the international system and the American system. ICD-10 continues to use the term “organic mental disorders” (F0 and F1), F1 encompassing psychoactive substance abuse disorders. DSM-IV has stopped using the word “organic” (presumably all disease has biological correlates) and, instead, uses descriptive categories: deliriums, dementias, amnesic disorders, mental disorder due to a general medical condition, and substance-related disorders. ICD-10 F2 and F3 are grouped as psychotic mental disorders (schizophrenia and mood disorders), although many of the examples are without psychotic features. Why is something a psychotic disorder if only some of the cases, some of the time, exhibit psychosis? Incidentally, what is psychosis? The ICD-10 F4, F5, and F6 categories cover “neurotic, stress, and personality disorders.” DSM-IV calls these anxiety, somatoform, factitious, dissociative, sexual and gender identity, eating, impulse control, and personality disorders, having dispensed with the meaningless word “neurotic.” Perhaps, soon, the equally meaningless word “personality” will yield to more understandable descriptors.Despite the somewhat different names, the syndromes are clearly similar in the two systems, and, around the world, as in the United States, the available treatments continue to be limited in number and efficacy no matter what the disorder is called.There is certainly magic in names. “Some to the fascination of a name surrender judgement, hoodwinked” (William Cowper, 1731–1800).By T.B. Üstün, A. Bertelsen, J. van Drimmelen, C. Pull, A. Okasha, N. Sartorius, and other ICD-10 Reference and Training Center Directors. Washington, D.C., American Psychiatric Press, 1996, 237 pp., $35.00. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited byNone Volume 156Issue 10 October 1999Pages 1656-1656 Metrics History Published online 1 October 1999 Published in print 1 October 1999

What Works for Me: Classroom Activities That Have Stood the Test of Time

Presents five activities: (1) transforming—requires that a student put aside a first draft and create a new piece on the same subject in a different genre; (2) meaningless words—encourages deleting unnecessary words; (3) group work; (4) definitions quiz; and (5) audience, synthesis, and the thematic analysis—considering these three when writing on a certain topic.

Does the Nothing Noth?

In 1929 Heidegger gave his Freiburg inaugural lecture entitled ‘What is Metaphysics?’ In it he announced: Das Nichts selbst nichtet, ‘The Nothing itself noths (or ‘nihilates’, or ‘nothings’). This soon earned Heidegger fame as a purveyor of metaphysical nonsense. In his 1931 paper, ‘Overcoming of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language’ Rudolf Carnap charged Heidegger with the offences of the whole metaphysical genre. His sentence has the same grammatical form as the sentence ‘The rain rains’ – a sentence which Carnap, or at least his translator, regarded as a ‘meaningful sentence of ordinary language’. But this harmless guise conceals severe logical blemishes. Heidegger treats the indefinite pronoun ‘nothing’ as a noun, as the ‘name or description of an entity’. (When he says ‘The nothing noths’ he surely does not mean ‘There is nothing that noths’ or ‘It is not the case that anything noths’.) He introduces the meaningless word ’to noth‘. He implies, and later affirms, the existence of the nothing, when the ‘existence of this entity would be denied in its very definition’. If all this were not enough, the sentence is meaningless, since it is neither analytic, nor contradictory, nor empirical. It is metaphysics, and metaphysics seriously damages our spiritual health.

Tranquilliser is a meaningless word – they just don’t exist

Tranquilliser is a meaningless word – they just don’t exist

Discussion. Reply to Tshohatzidis

Speakers do wild things with quotes and even though the theory in Varieties of Quotation unique in that it unifies a wide variety of quoting devices (pure, direct, indirect, and mixed), we did not claim that every usage can be accounted for by a single theory. It might be that the phenomenon appealed to in Tsohatzidis's first (Tsohatzidis 1998, p. 662) objection requires separate treatment. Savas Tshohatzidis appeals to mixed quotes in which the direct quoted part a translation of the words used in the quoted utterances. For example, we might say that Galileo said that the earth is round, when, let us suppose, Galileo never uttered a single word of English. Our theory requires that the directly quoted component of the mixed quotation same-token the relevant part of the quoted utterance. Tshohatzidis objects that translational-mixed reports are true, but that the directly quoted part doesn't same-token any part of the reported utterance. Here some evidence for the need for separate treatment. In standard mixed quotes, substitution of synonymous expressions in the direct quoted part results in false reports (Alice said that a 'doctor' not true if the reported utterance was: Tom a physician). Nor it a necessary condition on mixed quotes that the directly quoted word(s) translate or mean the same as the reported utterance. This shown by mixed quotes containing meaningless words, such as Alice said that Ted a 'philsopher', but I don't think this a word. (This example, much discussed in our paper, should make it clear that Tshohatzidis misreads us when he says we think the directly quoted part of an English mixed-quote must be in English.) For those who like us are prejudiced in favor of a unified account we recommend careful reflection on the same-tokening relation. Just as in the case of samesaying, there should be placed no a priori constraints on what can same-token what. The relation at least as flexible and context sensitive as samesaying. We see no principled objection to saying that in some contexts same-tokening can rely on translation. Tshohatzidis's second objection based on a straightforward misreading of our paper. The objection assumes that we think that the samesay relation holds between all and only utterances that are identical in content. We don't. Elsewhere (Cappelen and Lepore 1998) we show that this

Editorial

‘SLEPT well - no change.’ The standard line in record keeping for the busy nurse! When time was tight and there were 30 patients to ‘write-up’, record keeping was a chore which required a stock of meaningless words and statements. While there have been some improvements in records, it is still a chronic problem for nurses. Every year the Ombudsman’s report highlights serious lapses in record keeping, describing incidences when nurses either kept scant or inappropriate records. This year nurses also came under fire from the health select committee on public administration, which called for improved and standardised procedures for record keeping. Now the government is set to put in place stricter arrangements to ensure keep proper records.

The assessment: international competitiveness

The concept of international competitiveness, as applied to national economies, is a popular one. Politicians, businessmen, and economists alike, re fer to it in day-to-day discussion when looking at the external (export, import, market share, or trade balance) performance of different countries. Indi cators are produced showing changes in, or levels of, various countries' competitiveness (e.g. the relative price or cost indices regularly published by the IMF and the OECD, or the absolute measures produced by organizations such as the Geneva World Economic Forum and the Lausanne Institute for Management Development). Governments of ten instigate research on the matter as, for instance, in the case of the 1993 US Competitiveness Policy Council orthe 1995 EU Competitiveness Advisory Group. Yet, it has recently been argued by Paul Krugman that 'competitiveness is a meaningless word when applied to national economies. And the obsession with competitiveness is both wrong and dangerous' (Krugman, 1994,p.44),apositionKrugman forcefully reaffirms in his contribution to this issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.

Akha, Hani, Aini.

Ethnic Problems has lately attracted considerable attention with the collapse of Soviet Union and explosion of ethnic movement in East Europe. The discussion about ethnic group is held not only in anthropology, but also in political science and history. It is discussed as the problem of ethnicity or nationalism. This controversy needs the process of substantiation of ‘nationality’. In the colonial era, ‘nationality’ was the illusion, which is held by the administrators or missionaries. But it is substantiated with the emergence of nation-state. The purpose of this paper is not to determine the ethnic group by gathering cultural entities, but to show how ethnic group historically derived.This paper shows the intercourse of ethnic labeling and ethnic self-definition in the cases of Akha in P. R. C., Thailand and Myanmar. And I attempt to examine why they are labelled and self-defined. Northern Thailand and Myanmar have Akha as a hilltribe, they are called Akha and self-defined as Akha. And P. R. C. has Hani, is known as the ethnic group of the same origin.In Northern Thailand, their core of the ethnic identity is to share the Akha Zang (Custom). Before national ethnic identification, Hani was not known in P. R. C., and was created after Chinese Revolution. Thus Hani has various cultural groups. In Chinese Marxist ethnic theory, ‘Minzu’ is a political unit, translated ‘nationality’ in English. The word Minzu was originally coined in Japan. This usage is also highly probelmatic in P. R. C. ‘Minzu’ has the connotation of family, which is used as the ideology of national integration.Akha as the ethnic category was created in Tai polity like Sipsongpanna before 19th century. In Sipsongpanna Akha was under the control of the ethnic Tai. Akha as the ethnic category was created in the context of Tai (man)/Kha (slave), and substantiated by their ritual. In the establishment of Sipsongpanna autonomous area in 1953, ‘Akha’ which is that representative Cheluo recognized ‘Akha’ insulted. Thus ‘Akha’ was neglected as the discriminative name under the national autonomous area policy and officially renamed ‘Aini’. Aini is a meaning-less word for them, and is only used in Chinese. After the ethnic identification by government in 1950s, they were integrated into Hani.As the result of this process, they call them selves Akha in Akha language, and call themselves Aini in Chinese. In this situation, that we call them Aini is wrong, we should call them Akha or Hani. Thus ethnic group is created in political intercourses.

Event-related magnetic fields at latencies of over 400 ms in silent reading of Japanese Katakana meaningless words

Event-related magnetic fields (ERFs) were recorded when subjects were presented with meaningless readable words or unreadable words. The ERF averages for readable words and those for unreadable words showed a large difference at latencies of over 400 ms. The equivalent current dipoles were obtained only for readable words, and were located near the cingulate gyrus and the supplementary motor area whose functions are considered to be related to attention and motor planning.

Neuromotor noise and poor handwriting in children

In this article Power Spectral Density Analysis of the velocity profile of handwriting tasks is applied to estimate movement noise in poor and proficient writers. It is hypothesized that poor writers are less effective in the inhibition of neuromotor noise. Evidence for this theory is found in an analysis of electronically sampled handwriting movements of 48 children from grade 2, 3 and 4 (mean ages 8, 9 and 10, resp.). Twenty-four were poor and 24 were good writers, as judged by their teachers. Subjects were matched on age, sex, handedness and educational level. They performed handwriting tasks consisting of simple garlands and arcades, or meaningless words built from the letters ‘e’, ‘n’ and ‘m’. In the tasks stroke accuracy, size and rational direction were systematically varied. The results reveal that movement times were not different between the two groups, but poor writers and good writers used different movement strategies. Movements of the less proficient children were larger and were produced with higher movement velocities. Power Spectral Density Analysis disclosed that handwriting movements of poor writers were substantially more noisy than those of proficient writers, with a consistent peaking of the noise energy in that region of the spectrum which is representative for neuromotor tremor. Also, poor writere were less successful in adapting the level of noise to increased accuracy demands of the tasks. The results support the view that deviant biomechanical strategies might be responsible for deficient motor performance.

Form-Extending Dance Tunes

Certain form-extending methods in instrumental dance music have preserved their validity up to the present day. Their effect can also be felt in one group of vocal tunes used for dancing. This group can be recognized bJr the fact that the tunes constituting it have become longer due to closing formulas and/or repetitions and the words originally a stanza of four isosyllabic lines have similarly been extended with repetitions or meaningless word# in order to match the lengthened tune. After one type of the latter jaj-jaj-jaj of this type are usually labelled jaj-sonys in Hungarian folk music research.l Form-extending dance tunes are to be found in large quantities in Transylvania, the area of Hungarian language territory where traditional in#trumental dance music has also reached a highest standard and has been preserved in its traditional function up to the present day. Scientific interest has mainly been focused on jaj-sonys, the textual forms, so far, while the instrumental background has not been detected though its close contact with the former could be felt from the beginning. Thus, after a brief review of the results achieved up to now, the following study will mainly concentrate on instrumental aspects. It became apparent due to the quickly increasing activity of collecting Hungarian folk music in Transylvania from the 1940s on that the jaj-sonys are mostly at home among the Szekely-Hungarians (Eastern Transylvania) and Hungarian# in Central Transylvania within all the Transylvanian territory. One of their groups was welcomed by Lajtha as a re-discovered type of Hungarian folk songs in an article based on his collecting activity at Szek ((:entral Transylvania) and published in 1943. He, too, stresses the dependence of the above type on instrumental music but failstodemonstratethat dependence.2 Ja.rda.nyi analysed the jaj-songs of Kide, another village in Central

Patterns of phoneme confusions with sense and nonsense CVC words for subjects with normal hearing and with presbycusis

Differences in listening strategy between normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners will become apparent in different patterns of phoneme confusions. The confusions were studied with meaningful and meaningless word material of the consonant-vowel-consonant type (CVC words) presented in quiet at fixed presentation levels to a group of young normal-hearing subjects, a group of elderly subjects with normal hearing regarding their age, and subjects with presbycusis. The confusions of the vowels and initial and final consonants were subjected to INDSCAL analysis [J. D. Carroll and J. J. Chang, Psychometrika 35, 283–319 (1970)]. Parameters in the analysis were; word type (meaningful versus meaningless), group of subjects, and phoneme identification score. This latter parameter is perceptually more relevant than presentation level when comparing subjects with different hearing losses. For the normal-hearing subjects, vowel perception was dominated by the first and second formant, whereas for presbycusis subjects the contribution of the second formant was reduced and some influence of vowel duration was present. For the perception of both initial and final consonants voicing was all important. However, the feature of voicing was better perceived by presbycusis subjects than by the normal-hearing subjects.

Relations between the intelligibility of sentences and words for subjects with normal hearing and with presbycusis

In order to see whether hearing-impaired listeners make more extensive use of nonacoustic cues than listeners with normal hearing, different speech materials were presented to three groups of subjects. The speech material consisted of meaningful and meaningless words of the consonant-vowel-consonant type (CVC words) and short, simple sentences of eight to nine syllables [R. Plomp and A. M. Mimpen, Audiology 18, 43-52 (1979)]. All material was uttered by a male and a female speaker. Three groups of subjects participated in the experiments: young normal-hearing subjects, elderly subjects with good hearing regarding their age, and subjects with presbycusis. Test-retest reliability for both word and sentence material was found to be close to the theoretical value. Averaged across all groups of subjects, the correlation between the SRT for word and the SRT for sentence material was 0.97, which resulted in a prediction error of 5.3 dB. Prediction of the SRT's from the tone audiogram with the Fletcher index (average hearing loss at 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz) resulted in a prediction error of 5.5 and 6.8 dB for the SRT for word and sentence material, respectively.

Patterns of regional cerebral blood flow related to memorizing of high and low imagery words—An emission computer tomography study

Patterns of regional cerebral blood flow were investigated in healthy volunteers who were either resting or memorizing meaningless words, abstract nouns, or concrete nouns, the latter being given either with or without an instruction to use visual imagery. Relative regional count rates were subjected to smallest space analysis (SAA) to study the structure of covariations. Memorizing of concrete nouns gave rise to the formation of a continuous correlational subspace which comprised inferior temporal and occipital regions. When concrete nouns were memorized without an imagery instruction the mean hemispheric count rate was higher on the right side, whereas the intentional use of imagery gave rise to a left preponderance. Analysis of correlational structures, however, suggests that in both cases the left hemisphere was predominantly engaged in task solution, and that the difference in hemispheric asymmetries is to be attributed to different modes of interhemispheric collaboration.