4,466 research outputs found

    More-than-words: Reconceptualising Two-year-old Children’s Onto-epistemologies Through Improvisation and the Temporal Arts

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    This thesis project takes place at a time of increasing focus upon two-year-old children and the words they speak. On the one hand there is a mounting pressure, driven by the school readiness agenda, to make children talk as early as possible. On the other hand, there is an increased interest in understanding children’s communication in order to create effective pedagogies. More-than-words (MTW) examines an improvised art-education practice that combines heterogenous elements: sound, movement and materials (such as silk, string, light) to create encounters for young children, educators and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. During these encounters, adults adopt a practice of stripping back their words in order to tune into the polyphonic ways that children are becoming-with the world. For this research-creation, two MTW sessions for two-year-old children and their carers took place in a specially created installation. These sessions were filmed on a 360˚ camera, nursery school iPad and on a specially made child-friendly Toddler-cam (Tcam) that rolled around in the installation-event with the children. Through using the frameless technology of 360˚ film, I hoped to make tangible the relation and movement of an emergent and improvised happening and the way in which young children operate fluidly through multiple modes. Travelling with posthuman, Deleuzio-Guattarian and feminist vital material philosophy, I wander and wonder speculatively through practice, memory, and film data as a bag lady, a Haraway-ian writer/artist/researcher-creator who resists the story of the wordless child as lacking and tragic; the story that positions the word as heroic. Instead, through returning to the uncertainty of improvisation, I attempt to tune into the savage, untamed and wild music of young children’s animistic onto-epistemologies

    Environmental Influences on the Development of Child-Directed Speech Modifications in Young Children

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    Background. Siblings play a big role in our early lives. Having an older sibling has been shown to contribute to later-born children’s socio-emotional understanding and prosocial skill development (Barr & Hayne, 2003; Brody, 1998; Dai & Heckman, 2013; Downey & Condron, 2004; Kheirkhah & Cekaite, 2018). However, their influence is often overlooked in the domain of language. In particular, it’s unknown whether older siblings contribute to later-born children’s pragmatic abilities, and whether this relationship is influenced by an older sibling’s gender. Current Research. In this thesis, I focus on the role that older siblings may play in the development of their younger sibling’s ability to adjust their speech for other listeners. This influence could potentially happen in two ways: First, older siblings could provide examples of modifications in their own speech directed towards their younger sibling. From this, younger siblings may learn to use these modifications with other listeners. Second, older siblings may act as a “bridge” to a large community of speakers and listeners (Mannle & Tomasello, 1987). If older siblings are less adept at understanding their younger siblings and accommodating their speech (than adults are), this may motivate later-born children to work on effective communication skills so they can be understood. Methods. This investigation consisted of two parts: An at-home picture completion game, and a virtual guessing game that was completed over Zoom. In the at-home task, target children between the ages of 4-6-years-old, their older sibling (if applicable), and their caregiver were asked to direct each other to complete elements of incomplete images. In an online task via 4 Zoom, target children were asked to direct simulated listeners (i.e., a baseline adult, a toddler, and a non-native accented child) to select the correct target image out of a set of three. Results. Due to time constraints surrounding data transcription and coding, this thesis focuses on the data from the at-home task. Older siblings had a significantly higher pitch and greater proportion of attention-grabbing devices when speaking to their younger sibling vs. their parent. Most notably, their speech to younger siblings was also more fluent (e.g., fewer “uhhs” and “umms”) than their speech to parents. Moreover, these patterns held for both older female and older male siblings, suggesting that there are no gender differences in children’s ability to modify their speech for a younger listener. Implications. The findings from the first half of this two-part investigation demonstrate that, during a structured task, older siblings do modify their speech for their later-born siblings, and most notably, speak more fluently than when speaking to their caregiver. This both replicates and extends previous demonstrations of older siblings’ abilities to modify their speech for their younger siblings

    A comparative developmental approach to multimodal communication in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

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    Studying how communication of our closest relatives, the great-apes, develops can inform our understanding of the socio-ecological drivers shaping language evolution. However, despite a now recognized ability of great apes to produce multimodal signal combinations, a key feature of human language, we lack knowledge about when or how this ability manifests throughout ontogeny. In this thesis, I aimed to address this issue by examining the development of multimodal signal combinations (also referred to as multimodal combinations) in chimpanzees. To establish an ontogenetic trajectory of combinatorial signalling, my first empirical study examined age and context related variation in the production of multimodal combinations in relation to unimodal signals. Results showed that older individuals used multimodal combinations at significantly higher frequencies than younger individuals although the unimodal signalling remained dominant. In addition, I found a strong influence of playful and aggressive contexts on multimodal communication, supporting previous suggestions that combinations function to disambiguate messages in high-stakes interactions. Subsequently, I looked at influences in the social environment which may contribute to patterns of communication development. I turned first to the mother-infant relationship which characterises early infancy before moving onto interactive behaviour in the wider social environment and the role of multimodal combinations in communicative interactions. Results indicate that mothers support the development of communicative signalling in their infants, transitioning from more action-based to signalling behaviours with infant age. Furthermore, mothers responded more to communicative signals than physical actions overall, which may help young chimpanzees develop effective communication skills. Within the wider community, I found that interacting with a wider number of individuals positively influenced multimodal combination production. Moreover, in contrast to the literature surrounding unimodal signals, these multimodal signals appeared highly contextually specific. Finally, I found that within communicative interactions, young chimpanzees showed increasing awareness of recipient visual orientation with age, producing multimodal combinations most often when the holistic signal could be received. Moreover, multimodal combinations were more effective in soliciting recipient responses and satisfactory interactional outcomes irrespective of age. Overall, these findings highlight the relevance of studying ape communication development from a multimodal perspective and provide new evidence of developmental patterns that echo those seen in humans, while simultaneously highlighting important species differences. Multimodal communication development appears to be influenced by varying socio-environmental factors including the context and patterns of communicative interaction

    Relevance of parental monitoring strategies in explanation of externalising behaviour problems in adolescence: Mediation of parental knowledge

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    A process model of parental monitoring (PM) proposes that PM occurs in two distinct stages: before the adolescent goes out and when they return home. Parental and adolescent responses to monitoring interactions impact on future monitoring episodes. Research suggests that passive PM strategies (e.g. child disclosure) correlate with higher parental knowledge and less behavior problems. Self-reported measures were used on a sample of 507 Belgrade secondary school students (42.1% male) to examine the mediating effect (mediation analysis using JASP) of parental knowledge (the Scale of Parental Monitoring) on the relationship of PM strategies (Child Disclosure, Parental Solicitation and Parental Control) (the Scale of Parental Monitoring) with externalising problems (Aggressive and Rule-Breaking Behaviour) (ASEBA, YSR). The research results show that Parental Knowledge mediate the relation of Child Disclosure and RuleBreaking Behaviour (z = -6.544, p < .001) and Parental Control and Rule-Breaking Behaviour (z =-3.770, p< .001). No direct link between Parental Control and RuleBreaking Behavior, as well as Parental Solicitation and Rule-Breaking Behavior were established. Full mediation of the link between Child Disclosure and Aggressive Behavior by Parental Knowledge is found (total indirect effect z = -4.050, p < .001). The research results were discussed in the context of the relevance of the PM strategies for greater parental knowledge and prevention of externalising problems in adolescence

    Experimental methods to study atypical language development

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    In this chapter we present current issues on experimental methods in the study of atypical language development with a focus on developmental language disorders (DLD). We first present a short history of terminology surrounding DLD and follow this with a discussion of critical topics related to DLD assessment including cross-linguistic research, multilingualism, persisting disorders in teenagers, age-differences (pre-school, school age, adolescence, and adults) in manifestations and domains studied, language comprehension versus production, and cognitive assessment. We also bring focus to the question of matching control groups in the study of atypical language development. We present the most common methods used in the investigation of language impairments from the behavioural and neurocognitive perspectives. We provide an overview of the issues related to establishing equivalence between groups with and without language impairments. We conclude with recommendations for practice and future directions in the study of atypical language development

    Voicing Kinship with Machines: Diffractive Empathetic Listening to Synthetic Voices in Performance.

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    This thesis contributes to the field of voice studies by analyzing the design and production of synthetic voices in performance. The work explores six case studies, consisting of different performative experiences of the last decade (2010- 2020) that featured synthetic voice design. It focusses on the political and social impact of synthetic voices, starting from yet challenging the concepts of voice in the machine and voice of the machine. The synthetic voices explored are often playing the role of simulated artificial intelligences, therefore this thesis expands its questions towards technology at large. The analysis of the case studies follows new materialist and posthumanist premises, yet it tries to confute the patriarchal and neoliberal approach towards technological development through feminist and de-colonial approaches, developing a taxonomy for synthetic voices in performance. Chapter 1 introduces terms and explains the taxonomy. Chapter 2 looks at familiar representations of fictional AI. Chapter 3 introduces headphone theatre exploring immersive practices. Chapters 4 and 5 engage with chatbots. Chapter 6 goes in depth exploring Human and Artificial Intelligence interaction, whereas chapter 7 moves slightly towards music production and live art. The body of the thesis includes the work of Pipeline Theatre, Rimini Protokoll, Annie Dorsen, Begüm Erciyas, and Holly Herndon. The analysis is informed by posthumanism, feminism, and performance studies, starting from my own practice as sound designer and singer, looking at aesthetics of reproduction, audience engagement, and voice composition. This thesis has been designed to inspire and provoke practitioners and scholars to explore synthetic voices further, question predominant biases of binarism and acknowledge their importance in redefining technology

    Understanding an Urban Black Worldview: A Phenomenological Examination of 2020

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    This action research project was designed to surface and codify a worldview that emerged among black people as a result of the traumatic phenomena of 2020. The program sought to help white pastors in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley recognize this new worldview, understand its implications, and desire to intentionally develop their level of Cultural Competence to more effectively counsel and disciple black congregants holding this worldview. The detrimental effects of the phenomena of 2020 exacerbated existing trauma caused by social and institutional racism and resulted in an altered worldview among urban blacks affecting relationships in communities and within church congregations. A practical, immersive intervention program was developed in which ten white, majority culture evangelical ministers participated in a 30-day phenomenologically based lifestyle immersion in black history and urban culture. Group discussions, surveys, and cultural immersion allowed pastors to experience the phenomena of 2020 and black history through the eyes of the minority sub-culture. The pastors grew in Cultural Intelligence and their desire to develop greater Cultural Competence intentionally. It is hoped that this project will inspire and guide a growing examination of identifiable, quantifiable, common-core worldviews by qualified evangelicals within their own sub-cultures. A growing, evolving compendium of cultural knowledge that builds Cultural Intelligence and leads to Cultural Competence within the Evangelical community would greatly benefit the kingdom

    Describing Faces for Identification: Getting the Message, But Not The Picture

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    Although humans rely on faces and language for social communication, the role of language in communicating about faces is poorly understood. Describing faces and identifying faces from verbal descriptions are important tasks in social and criminal justice settings. Prior research indicates that people have difficulty relaying face identity to others via verbal description, however little is known about the process, correlates, or content of communication about faces (hereafter ‘face communication’). In Chapter Two, I investigated face communication accuracy and its relationship with an individual’s perceptual face skill. I also examined the efficacy of a brief training intervention for improving face description ability. I found that individuals could complete face communication tasks with above chance levels of accuracy, in both interactive and non-interactive conditions, and that abilities in describing faces and using face descriptions for identification were related to an individual’s perceptual face skill. However, training was not effective for improving face description ability. In Chapter Three, I investigated qualitative attributes of face descriptions. I found no evidence of qualitative differences in face descriptions as a function of the describer’s perceptual skill with faces, the identification utility of descriptions, or the describer’s familiarity with the face. In Chapters Two and Three, the reliability of measures may have limited the ability to detect relationships between face communication accuracy and potential correlates of performance. Consequently, in Chapter Four, I examined face communication accuracy when using constrained face descriptions, derived using a rating scale, and the relationship between the identification utility of such descriptions and their reliability (test-retest and multi-rater). I found that constrained face descriptions were less useful for identification than free descriptions and the reliability of a description was unrelated to its identification utility. Together, findings in this thesis indicate that face communication is very challenging – both for individuals undertaking the task, and for researchers seeking to measure performance reliably. Given the mechanisms contributing to variance in face communication accuracy remain largely elusive, legal stakeholders would be wise to use caution when relying on evidence involving face description

    2023-2024 Boise State University Undergraduate Catalog

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    This catalog is primarily for and directed at students. However, it serves many audiences, such as high school counselors, academic advisors, and the public. In this catalog you will find an overview of Boise State University and information on admission, registration, grades, tuition and fees, financial aid, housing, student services, and other important policies and procedures. However, most of this catalog is devoted to describing the various programs and courses offered at Boise State

    Symbolic interactionism: insights into the creative processes of fifth-grade music students

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    Symbolic interactionism has scarcely been used as a framework in the field of music education. The purpose of this case study was to understand the verbal and nonverbal interactions of four fifth-grade general music students while they collaborated with peers to compose original songs. Through the lens of symbolic interactionism, data from video and audio recordings, student artifacts, and researcher memos were examined to answer the following research questions: 1) How do fifth-grade general music students interact with their peers during composition activities in a constructivist learning environment? 2) How do fifth-grade general music students self-indicate and create shared meanings through verbal and nonverbal symbolic interactions? A within and cross-case analysis revealed that students interacted with their peers through communicative acts, forming friendships, nonverbal gestures, and forming social roles. The participants self-indicated and created shared meanings as a result of shared responsibilities, musical dialogue, improvisation, and symbolic exclusion. Findings suggested that fifth-grade students develop social roles and engage in follower and leader behaviors in situations where teacher scaffolding is purposefully suspended. The results of the research contribute to an existing body of literature regarding fifth-grade general music students’ abilities to self-direct their own learning during collaborative activities
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