Verbal Processing Skills Research Articles

Microskills Training: A Model for Teaching Verbal Processing Skills in Music Therapy

Music therapy scholars have suggested that verbal processing is widely integrated into music therapy practice, though specific implementation varies based on the therapeutic approach and the clients’ level of functioning. Results from music therapy studies have suggested that clients find verbal processing both important and useful, yet the development of verbal processing skills can be difficult for music therapists and music therapy students. Given the complexity of the skills needed, inclusion of a model or framework may help focus and organize skill development. One model that may have wide utility among music therapy practice is the microskills model (microcounseling). Microcounseling is built upon ethical and cultural competence, addresses skills in a hierarchical manner, and can be combined with a number of theoretical approaches. Research shows that this model has been successfully translated into 21 languages, used in a range of helping professions, and taught in both traditional and self-instruction formats. Perhaps most importantly, the model initially focuses on skills needed by all music therapists, regardless of theoretical orientation, and then progresses to skills needed to effectively facilitate common music therapy interventions like song discussion. Combining this model with other elements of music therapy education may better promote skill development and guide music therapists in skill usage.

Goals Can Be Threatened to Extinction

Consensus is building that stereotype threat interferes with working memory, but how so? Grounded in the dual-process framework of Kane and Engle, the authors examined the extent to which stereotype threat interferes with one’s ability to maintain task goals in working memory and one’s ability to choose between conflicting responses. One hundred eighty-seven Montana State University (MSU) men were first given the Operation Span task (OSPAN) to assess working memory capacity, then engaged in the Stroop task under mostly incongruent or mostly congruent conditions. The Stroop task was presented as a measure of verbal processing skills (stereotype threat condition) or not (control condition). Stroop errors and reaction times were assessed. Results suggest that for people lower in working memory capacity, stereotype threat primarily interferes with internally maintaining task goals across trials. Implications for such stereotype threat-based distraction effects on performance in educational and workplace environments are discussed.

Grocke, D., & Wigram, T. (2007). Receptive Methods in Music Therapy: Techniques and Clinical Applications for Music Therapy Clinicians, Educators and Students. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley. 271 pages. ISBN 1-84310-413-X. $34.95

Grocke, D., & Wigram, T. (2007). Receptive Methods in Music Therapy: Techniques and Clinical Applications for Music Therapy Clinicians, Educators and Students. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley. 271 pages. ISBN 1-84310-413-X. $34.95. I began reading Receptive Methods in Music Therapy: Techniques and Clinical Applications for Music Therapy Clinicians, Educators and Students, by Denise Grocke and Tony Wigram with a sense that I already knew what the book would contain. I expected a description of a number of techniques in which clients listen to music. I assumed that there would be some suggestions about selections of music and for what occasions. I supposed that each chapter would be a description of a different overall method. Given my rather dry vision of what such a book would include, it is good that I did not write this book but that Denise Grocke and Tony Wigram did because their product is far from dry. It does include a description of techniques. It also includes many more aspects of what a music therapist does-whether working with receptive or techniques-than nearly any book of which I am aware. It includes clinical applications and vignettes. It includes analyses of numerous techniques and tables outlining various adaptations of methods. And it does all of this while conveying the idea that music therapy is a complex matter, which will be aided by what is in the book. I found it stimulating and even inspiring! The book contains an introduction and 10 chapters. The introduction presents an overview of the book's contents, and the first two chapters provide material that is of use and interest to music therapists using receptive as well as techniques. Chapter 1, Engaging with Clients Verbally and Musically, includes sections on beliefs and values that impact on interaction with patients, verbal processing of client's experiences in music therapy, and empathic improvisation for nonverbal clients. These sections give a sense of the breadth of the material included in the book. In the section on beliefs and values, the authors ask readers to examine their own be liefs and values and the impact these have on their therapeutic interactions, and they include several exercises to assist in this process. The section on verbal processing could be the basis for an entire semester's work. The authors include references to what others have written on the subject, a comparison of verbal processing in counseling and in music therapy, a model for showing empathy, a description of verbal processing skills, and a comparison of effective and poor listening skills. They present focused questions that might be asked and the responses that they might elicit, several clinical vignettes utilizing verbal processing skills, and some example exercises from clinical practice followed by suggested responses in these situations. This section on verbal processing is indeed full and rich! The third section of this chapter, on empathic improvisation for nonverbal clients, includes three ways-preverbal, nonverbal, and supraverbal-in which music can be used in place of verbal language for clients who have limited or no verbal communication. Chapter 2, Selecting Music for Receptive Methods in Music Therapy, includes sections on differences between music for relaxation and music for stimulating imagery, characteristics of music for receptive music therapy, when selecting music for receptive methods, assessing a music selection for suitability, choice of music for particular client groups and ages, and guidelines for recorded music in the hospital environment. As in the first chapter, sections include examples, exercises, and clinical vignettes. For example, the section on other considerations includes possible associations that clients may have with a particular musical selection, music preferences, the length of the music selection, and whether vocal or instrumental music should be used. …

Neuropsychological and functional cognitive skills of 35 unselected adults with sex chromosome abnormalities.

This report presents data defining the neuropsychological and cognitive phenotypes of a group of adults with sex chromosome abnormalities identified at birth through the chromosome screening of 40,000 consecutive newborns between 1964 and 1974. In all three nonmosaic groups, reading skills were impaired and intelligence quotients were on average reduced more than 20 points relative to controls. The 47,XXX women demonstrated greatest overall impairment, including reduced scores on tests of conceptualization and problem solving. 45,X women demonstrated impairment in spatial thinking skills, and 47,XXY men in verbal processing skills. No reduced scores were found in the female mosaic group. Marked variability in scores was seen in all groups; some propositi have been unable to hold any job, whereas others have completed college and are professionally employed.

Verbal Dichotic Listening in Boys at Risk for Behavior Disorders

The association between deficits in verbal processing skills and disruptive psychopathology remains one of the most frequently replicated findings in all of child psychiatry. This study uses a dichotic consonant-vowel listening test to examine the potential neural basis for this association. A series of 87 young boys recruited from a sample at risk for disruptive disorders received standardized psychiatric, neuropsychological, and language skills assessments. Approximately 1 year later, these boys received a reassessment of their psychiatric status and a test that assesses the neural basis of language-processing ability, a dichotic consonant-vowel listening test. Disruptive psychopathology predicted reduced right ear accuracy for dichotic syllables, indicative of a deficit in left hemisphere processing ability. Deficits in reading and language ability also correlated with right ear accuracy for dichotic syllables. Boys with disruptive behavior disorders, relative to at-risk but nondisruptive boys, exhibit a deficit in verbal processing abilities on dichotic listening tasks. This deficit in verbal processing ability is also manifested as low scores on standardized tests of reading achievement and language comprehension.

The Effects of Lower‐Level Processing Skills on FL Reading Performance: Implications for Instruction

tionship between lower-level verbal processing skills and foreign language reading proficiency. Previous research findings in first language (L1) reading suggest four major reader-related factors: 1) aspects of linguistic knowledgesuch as orthographic knowledge (e.g., 41; 55), morphosyntactic knowledge (e.g., 61; 64; 65), and vocabulary knowledge (e.g., 2; 11; 44); 2) background knowledge (e.g., 3; 21); 3) cognitive and metacognitive skills (e.g., 4; 39; 24; 57); and 4) lower-level verbal processing skills (e.g., 58, 59; 38; 49; 47; 13). These L1 factors also have a significant impact on second (L2) and foreign language (FL) reading comprehension. L2/FL reading studies have demonstrated that linguistic knowledge (e.g., 15; 16; 18; 14), background knowledge (e.g., 8; 60; 34; 6), and cognitive and metacognitive skills (e.g., 7; 9; 12; 10) contribute heavily to L2 reading comprehension. Little attention, however, has been paid to the relationship between lower-level verbal processing skills and L2 reading comprehension. Lower-level processing refers to the processes involved in extracting visual information from print, such as letter identification and word recognition, which can be contrasted with higher-level processing, such as syntactic manipulation and inter-sentential text integration. A number of theorists in cognitive psychology claim that deficiency in lower-level processing operations strains the limited capacity of short-term memory, and inhibits text integ ation into a meaningful sequence (e.g., 47; 52; 58; 17; 56; 30). The limited-capacity model hus predicts that when a reader is heavily involv d in lower-level processing operations, fe er cognitive capacities are available for higher-level processing (e.g., integrating intersentential information, making inferences, drawing upon prior knowledge) and poor comprehension is inevitable. Interestingly, it has also been observed that low quality (i.e., slow and inaccurate) verbal processing skills produce individual differences in reading comprehension even among college-level L1 readers as well (e.g., 28; 29; 13; 47). Since L2/FL reading often involves learning e linguistic codes, we can expect that lowerlevel proc ssing skills play an even more critical role in L2/FL reading than in L1 reading. Despite its theoretical and pedagogical importance, however, the issue has received little attention among L2 reading researchers. The paucity of data may be attributable to the widespr ad belief that linguistic knowledge is only a prerequisite in the acquisition of verbal processing skills, leading to the further assumption that verbal processing skills develop automatically as linguistic proficiency improves (e.g., 43; 18). Several L1 studies, however, have shown that lower-level processing skills account for individual differences in reading comprehension among native speakers (e.g., 29; 49; 47; 48; 13), thus suggesting that linguistic knowledge alone does not guarantee the subsequent development of verbal processing skills. More importantly, recent bilingual research has also demonstrated that inefficient word recognition is associated with slower L2 reading rates among otherwise fluent bilingual subjects (53). All of The Modern Language Journal, 76, iv (1992) 0026-7902/92/502-12 $1.50/0 ? 1992 The Modern Language Journal

Strengths and weaknesses in the cognitive profile of youngsters with Prader‐Willi syndrome

In this report we present the results of a study of the intellectual functioning and cognitive profile of 26 Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) patients. The mean IQ score was 62.3 (range 39-96). In 13 patients a significant difference between verbal and performance IQ was found. In 10 of them the performance IQ was higher than the verbal. The results of subtest analysis indicate that cognitive strengths are more visible than cognitive weaknesses. Highest scores were noted especially in the performance scale, i.e. Block Design (9 children) and Coding or Mazes (5 children). Analysis of all available data indicates that PWS patients score better on visual motor discrimination skills than on auditory verbal processing skills. These results are promising for intervention programs and education strategies.

The Effects of Transferred Vocabulary Knowledge on the Development of L2 Reading Proficiency

This study explored the specific effects of vocabulary knowledge, transferred from a first language, in the development of second language reading proficiency. The study was conducted with 24 college students enrolled in a first‐year Japanese program. Specially, the study examined the effects of transferred vocabulary knowledge on: (a) the acquisition of L2 linguistic knowledge, (b) verbal processing skills, and (c) reading comprehension. It was found that: (1) L2 vocabulary knowledge was most highly correlated with reading comprehension; (2) that vocabulary knowledge was the single most signifcant factor differentiating students with related L1 orthographic backgrounds from those with unrelated L1 orthographic backgrounds, and (3) that differences in test performance between the two groups became significantly greater over time. These findings seem to suggest that transferred vocabulary knowledge increases L2 reading Comprehension; moreover, the initial advantage magnifies its effects over time as task complexity increases, thus enhancing the overall development of L2 reading proficiency.