Parameters in television captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing adults: effects of caption rate versus text reduction on comprehension

Caption rate and text reduction are factors that appear to affect the comprehension of captions by people who are deaf or hard of hearing. These 2 factors are confounded in everyday captioning; rate (in words per minute) is slowed by text reduction. In this study, caption rate and text reduction were manipulated independently in 2 experiments to assess any differential effects and possible benefits for comprehension by deaf and hard-of-hearing adults. Volunteers for the study included adults with a range of reading levels, self-reported hearing status, and different communication and language preferences. Results indicate that caption rate (at 130, 180, 230 words per minute) and text reduction (at 84%, 92%, and 100% original text) have different effects for different adult users, depending on hearing status, age, and reading level. In particular, reading level emerges as a dominant factor: more proficient readers show better comprehension than poor readers and are better able to benefit from caption rate and, to some extent, text reduction modifications.     

Correlates of parental differential treatment: parental and contextual factors during middle childhood

The current study examined whether parental and contextual risk factors contribute to mothers' and fathers' differential treatment (MDT/FDT) when accounting for sibling dyad characteristics. Also explored was whether family type (single mothers vs. 2 parents) moderated the links between the parental and contextual correlates and MDT. One hundred and seventy-two families with older (M= 7.4 years) and younger (M= 5.2 years) siblings were studied. Parents and children reported about the parent-child relationship, and parents reported about the children's characteristics, their own psychological resources, and contextual factors. Controlling for sibling dyad characteristics, FDT was predicted most consistently by household chaos. Furthermore, single mothers were not at risk per se for using more MDT but only when coupled with high maternal anger.     

Children's probability intuitions: understanding the expected value of complex gambles

Two experiments used Information Integration Theory to study how children judge expected value of complex gambles in which alternative outcomes have different prizes. Six-year-olds, 9-year-olds and adults (N = 73 in Study 1, N = 28 in Study 2) saw chance games that involved shaking a marble in a bicolored tube. One prize was won if the marble stopped on blue, another if it stopped on yellow. Children judged how happy a puppet playing the game would be, with the prizes and probability of the blue and yellow outcomes varied factorially. Three main results appeared in both studies: First, participants in all age groups used the normatively prescribed multiplication rule for integrating probability and value of each individual outcome--a striking finding because multiplicative reasoning does not usually appear before 8 years of age in other domains. Second, all age groups based judgment of overall expected value meaningfully on both alternative outcomes, but there were individual differences--many participants deviated from the normative addition rule, showing risk seeking and risk averse patterns of judgment similar to the risk attitudes often found with adults. Third, even the youngest children took probability to be an abstract rather than physical property of the game. Overall, in contrast to the traditional view, the present results demonstrate functional understanding of probability and expected value in children as young as 5 or 6. These results contribute to the growing evidence on children's intuitive reasoning competence. This intuition can, on the one hand, support surprisingly precocious performance in young children, but it may also contribute to the biases evident in adults' judgment and decision.     

Gesture as a window on children's beginning understanding of false belief

Given that gestures may provide access to transitions in cognitive development, preschoolers' performance on standard tasks was compared with their performance on a new gesture false belief task. Experiment 1 confirmed that children (N=45, M age=54 months) responded consistently on two gesture tasks and that there is dramatic improvement on both the gesture false belief task and a standard task from ages 3 to 5. In 2 subsequent experiments focusing on children in transition with respect to understanding false beliefs (Ns=34 and 70, M age=48 months), there was a significant advantage of gesture over standard and novel verbal-response tasks. Iconic gesture may facilitate reasoning about opaque mental states in children who are rapidly developing concepts of mind.     

书写你的生命

假设有人给了你一枝笔,一枝密封的、纯色的水笔,里面有多少墨水你看不到,很可能刚刚试写几字便用干耗尽;也可能足以完成一部或几部杰作,永存于世,使世事为之大变。而这一切你在动笔之前却是一无所知。根据游戏的规则,你确实水远也不会知道,只能冒一下险。而事实上,也没有     

书写自己的生命华章

假如有人给你一支笔,一支密封的、纯色的水笔,里面有多少墨水你无法看到,很可能刚刚试着写几个字就能用干,也可能足够写一部或几部皇皇巨著,流传千古,使世事为之而改变。而这一切你在动笔之前无法知晓。     

Numerical Calculation of Concrete Slab Response to Blast Loading

In the present paper, a dynamic plastic damage model for concrete has been employed to estimate responses of a reinforced concrete slab subjected to blast loading. The interaction between the blast wave and the concrete slab is considered in 3D simulation. In the first stage, the initial detonation and blast wave propagation is modelled in 2D simulation before the blast wave reaches the concrete slab, then the results obtained from 2D calculation are remapped to a 3D model. The calculated blast load is compared with that obtained from TM5-1300. Numerical results of the concrete slab response are compared with the explosive test carried out-in the Weapons System Division, Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Department of Defence, Australia.     

针灸治疗中老年颈椎病96例

中老年人由于骨刺形成或椎间盘狭小、椎间孔狭窄等颈椎病引起颈、肩、上肢疼痛、沉重、麻木、瘫痪 ,甚至头痛、眩晕、恶心呕吐等症状。笔者运用体、耳针配合近、远端取穴的针灸治疗方法 ,治疗 96例中老年颈椎病 ,取得满意疗效。现介绍如下 :一、临床资料本组 96例患者中 ,男性     

Prenatal depression, violence, substance use, and perception of support in pregnant middle-class women

The purpose of this study was to explore the vulnerability for postpartum depression among financially, educationally, and socially advantaged middle-class women (n = 31). Twenty-nine percent reported prenatal depression, 13% reported intimate partner violence, and 22% reported concerns with partner relationships and support expectations after delivery. No illegal substances were reported; however, a past history of smoking and excessive use of caffeine was disclosed. Implications for practice focus on the need to screen and implement intervention programs for these social problems and to adopt measures as a universal standard of care for all women, regardless of demographic advantages.     

Gender effects in children's beliefs about school performance: a cross-cultural study

Do young boys and girls understand what leads to academic success (e.g., talent, effort, good teaching, luck) in the same way? Do young girls and boys have equivalent perceptions of their academic competence? Are these beliefs engendered in the same way across sociocultural contexts? In a cross-cultural study of over 3,000 children in grades 2 to 6, ages 7.2 to 13.6, we discovered that boys and girls around the world have very similar ideas about what generally leads to academic success. Moreover, in the few contexts where boys' and girls' academic performances were equal, their beliefs were also equal. However, when girls outperformed boys, their beliefs in their own talent were no greater than boys' beliefs, even though they did have stronger beliefs than boys in other facets of their achievement potential (e.g., putting forth effort, being lucky, getting their teacher's help). Our findings support the generally close correspondence between children's achievement and their competence-related beliefs, with the exception that young girls appear to specifically discount their talent. The effects held regardless of the children's achievement, intelligence, or age (approximately 8 to 13 years). Girls were more biased in some contexts than in others, however, suggesting that competence-related biases are rooted in culture-specific aspects of school settings.