Imitation Method Research Articles

Development of Two Imitative Methods of Spreadability Evaluation and Comparison with Penetration Tests

ABSTRACTTwo instrumental imitative methods simulating the manual operation of spreading were developed. Both methods make use of the Instron Machine: one is based on prototype cell (PSC) and the other involves the manual spreading of a known volume of product and recording of the force used. Various spreadable products were tested under different operating conditions. Results allow a clear differentiation among the tested products. Data obtained from the two methods show high correlations (significant at P < 0.05) with data obtained from penetration methods that make use of probe, plunger, and cone. The newly developed methods show, under most test conditions, high correlations (significant at P < 0.05) with sensory results.

ORAL PROFICIENCY TESTING: COMPARATIVE VALIDITIES OF INTERVIEW, IMITATION, AND COMPLETION METHODS

Employing an initial sample of 143 adult Egyptian learners of English as a foreign language, the three oral testing methodologies of imitation, completion, and interview were compared for reliability and validity. Similarly, five components under each method, namely, raw score, fluency, pronunciation, grammar, and combined fluency‐pronunciation‐grammar ratings, were analyzed separately and in tandem. Multicomponent‐multimethod convergent and discriminant validities were determined. Stepwise multiple regression was computed using FSI‐like interview scores as the dependent variable. And Rasch latent trait calibration and tests of fit validity were computed for imitation and completion tests.Results indicated that the pronunciation component of the imitation method exhibited highest overall validity across all indexes. The FSI‐like component of the interview method ranked second and the fluency component of the imitation method ranked third. Comparison of the three oral testing methods across all components for all empirical validity indexes showed (1) imitation, (2) interview, and (3) completion methods to rank in that respective order in terms of available composite validity indexes. Regression analysis showed the FSI‐like interview to be primarily related to grammar skill from among 11 independent predictors examined.Advantages of Rasch measurement were noted for management and analysis of item data.

Simulation Equipment for the Research Semiautomatic Control Processes Under External Disturbances

Increased requirements to aerospace on-board control systems reliability force to design such systems with respect to the most unfavorable (extreme; take-off and landing conditions. In semiautomatic control of take-off and landing such valuable qualities of pilot are of great importance as capability to act in unforeseen situations, at some subsystems failures and so on. But these qualities are attained after training under extreme conditions which can be reproduced over and over with simulation equipment only. The methods of disturbance imitation and control quality estimation are proposed. The extreme disturbances and the "standard" trajectory needed for quality evaluating are obtained by means of differential games theory. Some results of simulation are discussed.

An Apparatus for the Visual Display of Speech-Sounds

The device described here is an apparatus for the visual display of the patterns of speech, i.e. variations in frequency-time relationships. For deaf or partially deaf persons, a number of phonemes are not associated with visible movements of the speaker's tongue or lips, hence simple imitative learning is not possible. Some phonemes in foreign languages also resist learning by imitative methods, and additional visual cues might be useful in shaping correct pronunciation. This device provides a simple visual feedback as a substitute for missing or ignored auditory cues. In addition to applications in speech-training or teaching in the pronunciation of foreign languages, other aspects of speech may be investigated using this visual feedback.

German Conversation and the Imitation Method

THE NATURAL AIM in the learning of living languages is that the student can easily understand the language in question and can express himself in the foreign idiom with facility. Modern German grammars and text-books, with this purpose in mind, contain suitable questions about the material treated. Doubtless, most teachers of German followed the advice of Lilian L. Stroebe: All German recitations should be conversation classes, in the sense that pupils and the teacher should discuss in German, whatever the subject of the recitation may be.''1 Yet, when the test for speaking and understanding in practice during war conditions was made, it was found, according to popular magazines, that the conversation lessons in school were insufficient to be of real value.2 Immigrants, the descendants of immigrants were much better interpreters, no matter what their education, than persons who had four years of German at school. Usable also for speaking and understanding were people who had picked up a smattering of practical German outside of school, while talking with Germans. The reason for this deficiency in utilitarian knowledge of German is partly due to the fact that the farther the student advances, the less conversation can be stressed on account of the literary content of the course. The student may be able to read the German classics, but he may be unable to talk to ordinary people about their ordinary affairs, because he is used to soaring in the clouds. The main handicap for good conversation is, however, that the learner acquires in school his German according to the construction method.

The Elimination of Children's Fears.

Watson has shown how fears are acquired in infancy. The present writer attempts to show how they may be eliminated. An institution in which generally normal children were cared for was chosen as a laboratory, and 70 of these children, from three months to seven years of age, were studied. Various methods for eliminating fears were employed: the method of elimination through disuse; the methods of verbal appeal, negative adaptation, repression, distraction, direct conditioning, and social imitation. Unqualified success in removing fear was achieved in only two cases. Generally a combination of methods was used, but the two which seemed most effective were those of direct conditioning and of social imitation. From Psych Bulletin 22:12:00837. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)