A Study of Natural Language Phonetic Symbolism

The present investigation concerns itself with the phenomenon of natural language phonetic symbolism. Proponents of phonetic symbolism, or the hypothesis of phonetic universals, as it is sometimes called, claim that human speech sounds have inherent meaning apart from their learned association with referents in the world. Since phonetic symbolism had been used to explain both success in guessing the meanings of foreign words and also a consistent tendency to attribute particular meanings to selected nonlinguistic verbalizations, it was hypothesized that phonetic symbols were part of an underlying stratum of semantic invariance. Further, it was assumed that such phonetic/semantic symbols should demonstrate their innate and a priori character by being most readily accessible through mental processes that are global, affective and pre-logical. Consequently, it was decided to employ two research strategies which had yielded promising results in an earlier study which examined a related archaic linguistic phenomenon (Adair 1975). The first of these strategies makes use of the Jungian typological notion that persons characterized as high in intuition tend to gather data from inner mental processes for the conduct of their daily lives. Because of this tendency toward inner consultation, it was predicted that high intuiting persons should excel in decoding phonetic/semantic units that can be found as archaic, pre-logical deposits in all languages. Lesser performance was expected from persons who are nonintuitors, since such individuals are assumed to use data from immediate sensory experience rather than from inner rumination. Subjects were selected to represent both extremes of this Jungian sensation—intuition dimension on the basis of their performance on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (1962). The other research strategy for discriminating logical from pre- logical, intuitive processing involved making use of the fact that mon- aurally presented stimuli are differentially routed to the cerebral hemispheres. The opposite-side hemisphere processes the majority of the sound input to an ear. Since the right hemisphere has come to be associated with intuitive, aesthetic and global cognition, it was thought that stimulus material (i.e., foreign words) presented to this hemisphere via the opposite ear would elicit more archaic responses, which would have relatively higher congruence with the a priori semantic structure in foreign language words. It was also hypothesized that foreign words presented monaurally to the left hemisphere would elicit responses relatively less congruent with phonetic/semantic a prioris, since this hemisphere specializes in linear, logical and analytic processing. Monaural presentation of foreign word stimuli was accomplished by blocking one earphone of a headset with acoustically dense material. Response choices were presented to subjects in booklets which contained four options per stimulus. These options were arranged such that two orthogonal polar opposite pairs would be presented in each option set. Randomization of order effects for response choices was achieved through application of an incomplete latin square method. Although the data failed to support the hypotheses outlined above, a trend was noted for the intuition—sensation dimension. These results are discussed with respect to sex differences in the degree of hemisphere specialization and ineffectiveness of the dependent variable measure

Family Law - Modifying Arbitrator\u27s Awards - A Nod to Judges of the Parties\u27 Own Choosing

The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently decided that the Uniform Arbitration Acts controls the modification of an arbitrator\u27s award of spousal support. In Crutchley v. Crutchley, the Court held that a judicially confirmed award of spousal support could not be modified by a motion in the cause. The Court\u27s message is clear - if parties choose to arbitrate spousal support, the validity and effect of the agreement and the arbitrator\u27s award are measured against the criteria of the Uniform Arbitration Act. On appeal, the practical question before the North Carolina Supreme Court is whether parties in a domestic dispute can agree to let someone other than a judge determine issues traditionally reserved for the courts, spousal support and child support, and to what extent the courts are bound by that agreement and the subsequent award

Synchrony and exertion during dance independently raise pain threshold and encourage social bonding

Group dancing is a ubiquitous human activity that involves exertive synchronized movement to music. It is hypothesized to play a role in social bonding, potentially via the release of endorphins, which are analgesic and rewardinducing, and have been implicated in primate social bonding. We used a 2 2 experimental design to examine effects of exertion and synchrony on bonding. Both demonstrated significant independent positive effects on pain threshold (a proxy for endorphin activation) and in-group bonding. This suggests that dance which involves both exertive and synchronized movement may be an effective group bonding activity

Music and social bonding: 'Self-other' merging and neurohormonal mechanisms

It has been suggested that a key function of music during its development and spread amongst human populations was its capacity to create and strengthen social bonds amongst interacting group members. However, the mechanisms by which this occurs have not been fully discussed. In this paper we review evidence supporting two thus far independently investigated mechanisms for this social bonding effect: self-other merging as a consequence of inter-personal synchrony, and the release of endorphins during exertive rhythmic activities including musical interaction. In general, self-other merging has been experimentally investigated using dyads, which provide limited insight into large-scale musical activities. Given that music can provide an external rhythmic framework that facilitates synchrony, explanations of social bonding during group musical activities should include reference to endorphins, which are released during synchronised exertive movements. Endorphins (and the Endogenous Opioid System (EOS) in general) are involved in social bonding across primate species, and are associated with a number of human social behaviours (e.g. laughter, synchronised sports), as well as musical activities (e.g. singing and dancing). Furthermore, passively listening to music engages the EOS, so here we suggest that both self-other merging and the EOS are important in the social bonding effects of music. In order to investigate possible interactions between these two mechanisms, future experiments should recreate ecologically valid examples of musical activities

Enteric pathogen testing importance for children with acute gastroenteritis: A modified Delphi study

The application of clinical diagnostics for gastroenteritis in children has implications for a broad collection of stakeholders, impacting clinical care, communicable disease control, and laboratory utilization. To support diagnostic stewardship as gastroenteritis testing options continue to advance, it is critical to understand which enteropathogens constitute priorities for testing across stakeholder groups. Using a modified Delphi technique, we elicited opinions of subject matter experts to determine clinical and public health testing priorities. There was a high level of overall agreement (≥80%) among stakeholders (final roun

Electron impact ionization cross section of metastable N2(A Σu+)

Journal ArticleExtensive studies of electron impact cross sections have been carried out both experimentally and theoretically for a number of ground state atoms and molecules.1 In general, as the electron energy is increased, such cross sections rise from a threshold at the ionization potential to a peak at an electron energy roughly 4-6 times the threshold energy, before falling monotonically

Synchrony and social connection in immersive Virtual Reality

Synchronising movements in time with others can have significant positive effects on affiliative attitudes and behaviors. To explore the generalizability of synchrony effects, and to eliminate confounds of suggestion, competence and shared intention typical of standard laboratory and field experiments, we used an Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environment. Participants, represented as virtual humans, took part in a joint movement activity with two other programmed virtual humans. The timings of the co-participant characters' movements were covertly manipulated to achieve synchrony or non-synchrony with the focal participant. Participants in the synchrony condition reported significantly greater social closeness to their virtual co-participants than those in the non-synchrony condition. Results indicate that synchrony in joint action causes positive social effects and that these effects are robust in a VR setting. The research can potentially inform the development of VR interventions for social and psychological wellbeing