Unstructured Conversations Research Articles

Revisiting the Correct Information Unit: Measuring Informativeness in Unstructured Conversations in People With Aphasia.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether the correct information unit (CIU) can be reliably applied to unstructured conversational discourse in people with aphasia (PWA). The CIU was developed by Nicholas and Brookshire (1993) to measure word-level informativeness in structured monologue-level discourse and is widely used by clinicians and researchers for this purpose. A case study (Oelschlaeger & Thorne, 1999) investigating the use of the CIU in conversation has suggested potential issues with interrater reliability (IRR), which has discouraged application of the CIU to this discourse context. However, no further research has been conducted to replicate or extend this finding. Given a clinical and research need for reliable linguistic measures appropriate for use in unstructured conversation, revisiting the reliability, stability, and suitability of the CIU is indicated. Method The CIU protocol developed by Nicholas and Brookshire (1993) was modified according to the needs of conversational discourse, resulting in the CIU in conversation (CIUconv) protocol. Two speech-language pathology graduate student research assistants completed training on use of the CIUconv with the 1st author. Sixteen conversations held by 8 PWA (i.e., 2 conversations each) were used as language samples to determine IRR of percent CIU (%CIU) in conversation through use of the CIUconv. Test-retest stability of %CIU as applied per this protocol was then assessed across the 2 conversations collected for each PWA. Results Use of the CIUconv resulted in excellent IRR of %CIU for each research assistant and the 1st author. Likewise, test-retest stability for the measure was excellent. Results were evaluated at both the group and individual levels. Conclusions %CIU demonstrated excellent interrater and test-retest reliability when applied to unstructured conversation using the CIUconv procedure, which was developed to account for expected linguistic characteristics of conversation. These findings suggest that %CIU may be a feasible, reliable measure of informativeness in unstructured conversation in PWA when the CIUconv is used by trained raters.

Gender differences in synchrony: Females in sync during unstructured dyadic conversation

AbstractAlthough previous studies have reported that individual prosocial traits generally enhance synchrony, gender as a social factor was not the subject of focus. The present study examined gender differences in synchrony by conducting three experiments on dyadic unstructured conversations with same‐gender strangers. Synchrony was assessed by calculating the cross‐wavelet coherence and determining the relative phase. As expected, through the three experiments, the female dyads showed a higher degree of synchrony, compared to the male dyads. Moreover, the conversation type (i.e., structured monologue vs. unstructured dialogue) did not moderate the gender effect (Experiment 2), while synchrony in the female dyads was influenced by the preceding conversation (Experiment 3). In contrast, through the three experiments, the role of the relative phase was unclear. The findings indicate that the social factor, gender, has an impact on synchrony, and that interpersonal sensitivity contributes to synchrony.

The Communicative Effects of a Cup of Coffee on Dyadic Conversation

Findings from previous studies have suggested that environmental factors affect the quality of communication. Although the impact of several environmental factors such as fixed- and semifixed-feature elements has been investigated, the present pre-registered study focuses on a more casual environmental factor: the presence of a cup of coffee. In the present study, 118 non-student participants engaged in a dyadic, face-to-face, unstructured conversation with a stranger of the same gender. Participants with a cup of coffee reported an identical level of rapport (a type of close and positive communication), friendliness, vigor-activity, and tension-anxiety as participants with a cup of water (control group 1). They also reported higher rapport friendliness and vigor-activity than participants in the no drink condition (control group 2), though the difference in rapport did not reach the level of significance. However, for rapport, the positive impact of coffee was salient in individuals who held a strong belief in the communicative effect of coffee. The findings indicate that a cup of coffee can be an environmental factor that potentially enhances the quality of communication.

FAMILY HOMESTEADS SETTLEMENTS AS THE SUBJECTS OF THE PUBLIC MANAGEMENT IN RURAL TERRITORIES

The development of rural areas in the context of decentralization of power has led to the search for effective mechanisms for public administration. What is the socio-psychological profile of the inhabitants of successful self-organizing rural settlements and what management technologies are proposed for rural development? The purpose of the study is to establish and recommend a mechanism for improving the technology of territorial communities management on the example of Family Homesteads (FH). The research methodology is based on structured interviews and unstructured conversations with the inhabitants of family homesteads, the leadership of local self-government and experts in the field of rural development. The self-organization of settlements illustrates them as harmonious communities and a model of the society of the future, practicing sustainable development. It was determined that success in the development of rural areas by settlers of a new type is due to their age characteristics (average settler age 35 years), high level of education, active lifestyle and investment activity. The advantages of the practice of public administration of the territory are established with the help of blockchain technology, which allows to reduce administration costs and promote resource participation.

Treatment of Childhood stuttering using the Lidcombe Program in mainland China: case studies

ABSTRACT Purpose: In mainland China, speech therapy is an emerging profession, and it estimated around 13 million people stutter. Currently, best practice for treating stuttering in young children is considered to be implementation of the Lidcombe Program. The Lidcombe Program is a behaviourally based treatment approach which involves parents delivering feedback to their child’s stuttered and stutter-free speech in structured and unstructured conversations, in a natural environment. Currently, there is no published research documenting implementation of the Lidcombe Program in mainland China. Given the cultural differences that exist between Australia (where the treatment was developed) and China, an investigation into the feasibility of the treatment into this cross-cultural context is warranted. Methods: This study investigates implementation of the Lidcombe Program to two Mandarin-speaking children using a descriptive single case study design. The primary outcome, percent syllables stuttered (%SS), was measured within – and beyond-clinic at two assessment points, and analysed for statistically significant change. Results: Both participants in the study achieved a significant reduction in stuttering rates, suggesting the Lidcombe Program may be a viable option to treat some children in a Mandarin-speaking population in China. Additionally, the treating therapists provided feedback on cultural considerations when implanting the program to this population. Conclusion: There is a need for research into effective and evidence-based stuttering treatments for Mandarin-speaking children in mainland China. This study is a preliminary investigation into the effectiveness of the Lidcombe Program in this context.

Structured and Critical Intercultural Programming: Faculty and Staff Collaborate to Put Research into Action

This article describes the origin and curriculum of Identity Dialogues, a program which facilitates conversations about power and privilege among international and domestic students. It was developed as a result of findings from an ethnographic study of an unstructured conversation partner program at the same institution. The study found that power-laden issues were influencing the interactions and confirmed that intercultural competence development has to be actively facilitated (Bennett, 2009). Identity Dialogues sessions start with an examination of participants’ own cultural histories and then they are guided to analyze stereotypes and microaggressions. Finally, participants create action steps for fostering intercultural competence in their communities.

“Time for a Promotion? No, It’s Not for Me…” How Caring for Children with Life-Limiting Conditions Affects Health Care Assistants’ Career Decisions

This paper discusses the relationship between the level and experience of care provided by Health Care Assistants (HCAs) to children in palliative care and the HCAs’ views about their career progression. An ethnographic approach was taken to explore the reasoning that informs Health Care Assistants’ choices about whether to pursue a career pathway into nursing. The author, a medical student, conducted the study using participant observation while working as a volunteer for one year in a Children’s Hospice in England. The data presented and analysed here were collected through unstructured conversations with the HCAs. It was found that the main reason why HCAs declined opportunities to progress in their career to nursing was their fear of not being able to be emotionally available to the children with whom they worked. HCAs also wanted to avoid working in hospital settings, where they perceived that they would have to trade off emotional involvement in caring for patients against career advancement. The decision to pass up a promotion, in some cases several times, is not easy, especially when pay may be substantially higher. This study shows that participants’ job satisfaction and valuing of having time to provide compassionate care were the main motivations to avoid progressing from HCA to nursing roles.

Support provided by midwives to women during labour in a public hospital, Limpopo Province, South Africa: a participant observation study

BackgroundPhysical presence during labour offer women opportunity of having positive childbirth experiences as well as childbirth outcomes. The study aimed to determine what support provided by midwives during intrapartum care at a public hospital in Limpopo Province. The study was conducted at a tertiary hospital in Limpopo Province.MethodsA participant observation approach was used to achieve the objectives of the study. The population comprised of all women who were admitted with labour and for delivery and midwives who were providing midwifery care in the obstetric unit of a tertiary public hospital in Limpopo Province. Non-probability, purposive and convenience sampling were used to sample 24 women and 12 midwives. Data were collected through participant observations which included unstructured conversations with the use of observational guide, field notes of all events and conversations that occurred when women interact with midwives were recorded verbatim and a Visual Analog Scale to complement the observations. Data were analysed qualitatively but were presented in the tables and bar graphs.ResultsFive themes emerged as support provided by midwives during labour, namely; communication between women and midwives, informational support, emotional support activities, interpretation of the experienced labour pain and supportive care activities during labour.ConclusionThe communication between woman and midwife was occurring as part of midwifery care and very limited for empowering. The information sharing focused on the assistive actions rather than on the activities that would promote mothers’ participation. The emotional support activities indicated lack of respect and disregard cultural preferences and this contributed to inability to exercise choices in decision-making. The study recommended the implementation of Batho Pele principles in order to provide woman-centred care during labour.

Effects of perceived quality of container on water and snack intake and dyadic communication

The present study investigated whether the perceived quality of a container affects water and snack intake and the subjective qualities of dyadic conversation between undergraduate students. In the experiment, thirty pairs of participants were randomly assigned to two conditions: the high-quality container (HQ) condition, in which participants were provided with high quality glasses from which to drink water, and the low-quality container (LQ) condition, in which participants used ordinary plastic cups. In each condition, pairs of participants were seated at a table and asked to engage in spontaneous and unstructured conversation about certain topics of their choice while consuming water and snacks. The results demonstrate that a greater amount of water was consumed in the LQ condition than in the HQ condition, while the halo effect of container quality increased the perceived quality of the snacks. Furthermore, the results of the self-evaluation for dyadic conversation revealed that the participants in the LQ condition more often reported their conversations to be cooperative, animated and less clumsy than did those in the HQ condition. These results suggest that the accessibility of a container as derived from its perceived quality affects participants’ water and snack consumption and the qualities of dyadic communication.

Religious tourism in southern Mexico: Regional scopes of the festival of the Immaculate Conception

In Mexico, pilgrimages to Catholic sanctuaries are a common cultural practice. Considering the relevance of Izamal sanctuary for the regional context of the Yucatan peninsula, this paper explores the territorial scopes of its celebration of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. The aims were: to analyze the origin and historical evolution of the cult to Our Lady of Izamal; to understand the regional scopes and dynamics of the celebration; and to identify the profile and motivations of visitors to the sanctuary. Quantitative techniques (structured interviews of 91 visitors in December 2015; Principal Components Analysis [PCA]), as well as qualitative ones (participant observation, a photographic record, unstructured conversations with pilgrims) investigated the regional influence of the celebration and of the devotional aspects. The results reveal that the celebration, therefore the influence of the sanctuary, has a local scope restricted to the peninsula area due to a historical process associated with Maya culture. Believers who travel to Izamal on this date are moved by the conviction that Our Lady of Izamal is the protector of the peninsular Maya territory. Both regional scopes and motivations of visitors are revealed in the PCA. The fact that individuals choose to displace to a certain location, even if only for a few hours, motivated by their faith, is an example of tourism as a manifestation of human motilities.

Predicting mild cognitive impairment from spontaneous spoken utterances

IntroductionTrials in Alzheimer's disease are increasingly focusing on prevention in asymptomatic individuals. We hypothesized that indicators of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may be present in the content of spoken language in older adults and be useful in distinguishing those with MCI from those who are cognitively intact. To test this hypothesis, we performed linguistic analyses of spoken words in participants with MCI and those with intact cognition participating in a clinical trial. MethodsData came from a randomized controlled behavioral clinical trial to examine the effect of unstructured conversation on cognitive function among older adults with either normal cognition or MCI (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01571427). Unstructured conversations (but with standardized preselected topics across subjects) were recorded between interviewers and interviewees during the intervention sessions of the trial from 14 MCI and 27 cognitively intact participants. From the transcription of interviewees recordings, we grouped spoken words using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a structured table of words, which categorizes 2500 words into 68 different word subcategories such as positive and negative words, fillers, and physical states. The number of words in each LIWC word subcategory constructed a vector of 68 dimensions representing the linguistic features of each subject. We used support vector machine and random forest classifiers to distinguish MCI from cognitively intact participants. ResultsMCI participants were distinguished from those with intact cognition using linguistic features obtained by LIWC with 84% classification accuracy which is well above chance 60%. DiscussionLinguistic analyses of spoken language may be a powerful tool in distinguishing MCI subjects from those with intact cognition. Further studies to assess whether spoken language derived measures could detect changes in cognitive functions in clinical trials are warrented.

Espaços alternativos de aprendizagem: pesquisa exploratória sobre prêmios e concursos universitários no Brasil

As metodologias ativas de aprendizado têm sido objeto de atenção dos pesquisadores da área de Administração no Brasil. E, com base em conversas não estruturadas com docentes de uma determinada Instituição de Ensino Superior (IES), percebeu-se que um professor se utilizava dos prêmios e concursos universitários como uma alternativa inovadora de aprendizagem aos seus alunos. Essa experiência exitosa, porém isolada, deste docente inspirou esta pesquisa exploratória. Seriam, portanto, os prêmios e os concursos universitários espaços alternativos para aprendizado dos estudantes de Administração? Qual é a literatura acadêmica nesta temática e quais são os exemplos empíricos no país? E, finalmente, será que a experiência desse docente pode ser disseminada entre seus colegas na IES? A pesquisa adota uma abordagem qualitativa, de caráter exploratório, e caracteriza-se por ser uma investigação aplicada. Além do levantamento e da sistematização das referências, utilizaram-se a observação participante e as entrevistas não estruturadas com docentes e discentes e entrevistas semiestruturadas com dirigentes da IES. Os resultados apontaram o seguinte: i) os prêmios e concursos universitários podem ser considerados atividades de aprendizagem; ii) apresentaram-se a literatura sobre prêmios, metodologias ativas, especialmente PBL e também casos concretos no país e, finalmente, iii) a pesquisa indicou que a experiência exitosa e isolada do docente pode ser disseminada, em parte, entre os docentes da IES pesquisada.

The “Mere Presence” Hypothesis: Investigating the Nonverbal Effects of Cell-Phone Presence on Conversation Satisfaction

Prior research has supported the mere presence hypothesis, which suggests that cell phones act as an environmental nuisance that negatively impact the quality of face-to-face interactions. This study conducted an experiment to determine whether cell-phone presence negatively influences conversation satisfaction. Specifically, network member dyads (N = 46) engaged in unstructured conversations where one partner’s cell phone was either absent or present. The results revealed that, whereas the mere presence of a cell phone did not influence conversation satisfaction, individuals’ recollection of whether or not a cell phone was present did significantly negatively impact their pre- to posttest reports of conversation satisfaction. Implications of these findings for research on the mere presence hypothesis as well as directions for future research are discussed.

Challenges and opportunities of globalisation for an independent small manufacturer

Purpose Over the past few decades, academic debates on small- and medium-sized establishments (SMEs) have focused on the challenges of globalisation, especially for the independent small producers outside the niche markets. However, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the limits of these sorts of evaluations arguing that globalisation can also provide opportunities for the valuable contributions of such enterprises. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on an ethnographic case study in Turkey, inquiries in the paper are essentially predicated on unstructured conversations with the owner/manager of a shipyard investigated, workplace observations and supplementary conversations with employees as well as elite interviews with the Portal Authorities. Additional interviews were also conducted with the owner/managers of three other shipyards. Findings The evidence suggests that the opportunities of globalisation can be consolidated with certain HRM strategies including a tailored demarcation of work-life balance, strategized retention for skills shortage, individualised grievance resolutions, employees-led work design, team work, “in-turn” and “mobile” employment. Likewise, logistic management strategies such as downsizing, investment diversification, “queasy-niche” production, use of communication technologies, networking and opening up to global markets may prove highly useful. Even so, the sustainability of independent smaller businesses requires responsive trade regulations about, for instance, tender offers, fair competition and the conflict of interests in addition to “tough-love policies” to protect employment rights. Originality/value The paper rectifies the lack of systematic research into the implications of globalisation for the SMEs in shipbuilding industry and their managerial responses.

Cultural Conditioning of Lean Management in Great Britain

Background. Implementation and development of the management concept called lean management can be influenced by the culture of an organisation that is mostly determined by the national culture of its representatives. That is why it is important for successful lean management implementation to understand different cultural conditions and how compatible they are with the lean management culture (cf.: Jakonis, 2011, 2012; Parkes, 2014). Research aims. The aims of the research, which results have been presented in the article, were: the organisational culture and the cultural conditioning of lean management on the example of a case study in Great Britain. Methodology. The retrospective case study was carried out in 2014 in Great Britain. The main sources of data were: a semi-structured interview (an interview with a standardised list of requested information) and a narrative interview carried out with a long-time company employee, as well as the company’s documents. Additional sources of data were: unstructured conversations with the former respondent’s co-workers and participant observations carried out in trade and service organisations during my professional and voluntary work. Key findings. On the basis of the research, the characteristics of researched organisational culture, as being different from the lean management culture according to the level of basic cultural assumptions were presented. Although, shaping lean culture should be a part of lean management implementation, the more an organisational culture differs from lean management culture, the more difficult it could be in my opinion to implement a lean management system (cf.: Jakonis, 2011, 2012; Parkes, 2014). At the same time, there were elements of lean culture in the researched culture, as a result of secondary socialisation, which can indicate that it is not only desirable, but also possible to create a lean management culture (at least to some degree) while implementing the lean management system into the organisation, even in conditions of different culture. It is debatable to what degree we can change the culture, how to effectively sustain that change and if we possibly have to deal with * University of Social Sciences. E-mail: a.jakonis@live.com

Performing hackathons as a way of positioning boundary organizations

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to compare two boundary organizations situated in Malmö (Sweden) and oriented toward opening production. Particularly, it looks at how the two organizations tried to establish and communicate their boundaries during their official opening events, which were structured according to the format of hackathon.Design/methodology/approach– The authors adopted an ethnographic approach and followed the two events, observing and interacting with organizers and participants. The findings reported here draw upon data collected through direct observation, the authors’ experience as participants, unstructured conversations, e-mail exchanges.Findings– This paper analyzes the two events in order to show how different cultures of opening production lead to different ways of performing hackathons and, consequently, how these events affect the process of establishing and communicating the organizational boundaries.Originality/value– The paper looks at the potential of events structured according to the format of hackathon as a way for boundary organizations to position themselves.

Evaluating Interpersonal Synchrony: Wavelet Transform Toward an Unstructured Conversation.

This study examined whether interpersonal synchrony could be extracted using spectrum analysis (i.e., wavelet transform) in an unstructured conversation. Sixty-two female undergraduates were randomly paired and they engaged in a 6-min unstructured conversation. Interpersonal synchrony was evaluated by calculating the cross-wavelet coherence of the time-series movement data, extracted using a video-image analysis software. The existence of synchrony was tested using a pseudo-synchrony paradigm. In addition, the frequency at which the synchrony occurred and the distribution of the relative phase was explored. The results showed that the value of cross-wavelet coherence was higher in the experimental participant pairs than in the pseudo pairs. Further, the coherence value was higher in the frequency band under 0.5 Hz. These results support the validity of evaluating interpersonal synchron Behavioral mimicry and interpersonal syyby using wavelet transform even in an unstructured conversation. However, the role of relative phase was not clear; there was no significant difference between each relative-phase region. The theoretical contribution of these findings to the area of interpersonal coordination is discussed.

¿Qué es humano? Tabús alimentarios y antropofagia en el noroeste de Mozambique

El epíteto “caníbal” es un tropo empleado en todo el mundo, a menudo para ensombrecer la humanidad de vecinos detestados o misteriosos habitantes de tierras lejanas. Un ejemplo muy conocido es el de los exploradores y colonialistas europeos de los siglos XVIII y XIX que describieron, generalmente de oídas, como comedores de hombres a pueblos encontrados a lo largo del mundo.

Evaluation of linguistic and prosodic features for detection of Alzheimer’s disease in Turkish conversational speech

Automatic diagnosis and monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease can have a significant impact on society as well as the well-being of patients. The part of the brain cortex that processes language abilities is one of the earliest parts to be affected by the disease. Therefore, detection of Alzheimer’s disease using speech-based features is gaining increasing attention. Here, we investigated an extensive set of features based on speech prosody as well as linguistic features derived from transcriptions of Turkish conversations with subjects with and without Alzheimer’s disease. Unlike most standardized tests that focus on memory recall or structured conversations, spontaneous unstructured conversations are conducted with the subjects in informal settings. Age-, education-, and gender-controlled experiments are performed to eliminate the effects of those three variables. Experimental results show that the proposed features extracted from the speech signal can be used to discriminate between the control group and the patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Prosodic features performed significantly better than the linguistic features. Classification accuracy over 80% was obtained with three of the prosodic features, but experiments with feature fusion did not further improve the classification performance.

Nonverbal and Verbal Expressions of Men’s Sexism in Mixed-Gender Interactions

This study examined the nonverbal and verbal expressions of hostile and benevolent sexism. Hostile sexism is sexist antipathy and benevolent sexism is a chivalrous belief that women are warm yet incompetent. We predicted that hostile sexist men would display less affiliative expressions but benevolent sexist men would display more affiliative expressions during mixed-gender interactions. Twenty-seven pairs of U.S. male and female undergraduates from a private university in New England participated in this study. These mixed-gender dyads participated in two social interactions: a structured trivia game followed by an unstructured conversation period. During the trivia game, men with more benevolent sexism were perceived to be more patient overall when waiting for the woman to answer the trivia questions. Furthermore, we examined the men’s nonverbal and verbal expressions during the unstructured interaction—naive raters made impression ratings of the men’s nonverbal and verbal behavior, and trained coders counted the frequency of specific nonverbal cues (e.g., smiles). A word count software was used for verbal content analysis. As predicted, more hostile sexism was associated with less affiliative nonverbal and verbal expressions (e.g., less approachable, less friendly, and less smiling), but more benevolent sexism was associated with more affiliative nonverbal and verbal expressions (e.g., more approachable, more likely to smile, and more positive word usage). The effects held after controlling for men’s personality traits and partners’ nonverbal behavior. Differential behavioral expressions of benevolent and hostile sexism have theoretical importance as we can examine how sexism maintains the status quo at the interpersonal level.