Perceptual-gestural (mis)mapping in serial short-term memory: The impact of talker variability

The mechanisms underlying the poorer serial recall of talker-variable lists (e.g., alternating female–male voices) as compared with single-voice lists were examined. We tested the novel hypothesis that this talker variability effect arises from the tendency for perceptual organization to partition the list into streams based on voice such that the representation of order maps poorly onto the formation of a gestural sequence-output plan assembled in support of the reproduction of the true temporal order of the items. In line with the hypothesis, (a) the presence of a spoken lead-in designed to further promote by-voice perceptual partitioning accentuates the effect (Experiments 1 and 2); (b) the impairment is larger the greater the acoustic coherence is between nonadjacent items: Alternating-voice lists are more poorly recalled than four-voice lists (Experiment 3); and (c) talker variability combines nonadditively with phonological similarity, consistent with the view that both variables disrupt sequence output planning (Experiment 4). The results support the view that serial short-term memory performance reflects the action of sequencing processes embodied within general-purpose perceptual input-processing and gestural output-planning systems

Retrieval from memory: Vulnerable or inviolable?

We show that retrieval from semantic memory is vulnerable even to the mere presence of speech. Irrelevant speech impairs semantic fluency—namely, lexical retrieval cued by a semantic category name—but only if it is meaningful (forward speech compared to reversed speech or words compared to nonwords). Moreover, speech related semantically to the retrieval category is more disruptive than unrelated speech. That phonemic fluency—in which participants are cued with the first letter of words they are to report—was not disrupted by the mere presence of meaningful speech, only by speech in a related phonemic category, suggests that distraction is not mediated by executive processing load. The pattern of sensitivity to different properties of sound as a function of the type of retrieval cue is in line with an interference-by-process approach to auditory distraction

Competition, Bargaining Power, and the Cattle Cycle

Cattle production follows a dynamic cycle that has often been analyzed, and cattle markets receive much scrutiny because of the potential for buyer market power. The relationship between the two has been little studied, however. This paper provides a simple conceptual framework to study how the cattle cycle and market concentration jointly affect the bargaining power of producers and packers yielding the following main results. Not surprisingly, a larger cattle stock reduces producers' bargaining position, which results in a lower fed cattle price. More importantly, however, the cattle stock's negative effect on price is magnified by the market concentration in beef packing. Thus, the cycle itself is very importantly related to a posited cycle of bargaining power between cattle producers and beef packers. Secondly, the model also shows how beef packers may use the special feature of cattle as both consumption and capital goods to lower the cattle price by influencing cattle inventories.Livestock Production/Industries,

THE LOCATION DECISION OF HARDWOOD MANUFACTURING IN THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL APPALACHIAN STATES

This study's objective is to identify and understand the factors important to hardwood processors' location decisions in the northern and central Appalachian region. Concepts from neoclassical and behavioral location theories were integrated to develop a general framework for analyzing these decisions. Logit regression analysis was used to determine those establishment characteristics related to the likelihood of location search. To a great extent, establishments locate based on personal ties and do not conduct searches. Most variables found to influence the likelihood of search are not controllable by state or local governments. The implications are that existing establishments should be targeted for retention and expansion, rather than focusing on recruitment.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Industrial Organization,

Baryon and antibaryon production in hadron-hadron and hadron-nucleus interactions

Cascade baryon and anti-baryon yields have been measured in p+p and p+A collisions. After extraction of the projectile component in p+A interactions close similarities with A+A collisions concerning the nuclear enhancement factors are observed. In addition the importance of effects related to projectile isospin and to net baryon stopping is pointed out.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, Presented at Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, Franc

Resonance Production in STAR

The recent results from resonance production in central Au+Au and p+p collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} =$ 200 GeV from the STAR experiment at RHIC are presented and discussed.Comment: 7 pages, proceedings 19th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, Breckenridge, Colorado, USA, February 8-15, 200

Grade Span Configuration and Academic Performance for Students in Poverty: A Texas Multiyear Analysis

Grade-span configuration refers to the range of grades within a school (Coladarci & Hancock, 2002). The debate over the benefits of one grade span configuration over the other has ensued for decades (Howley, 2002). Specific questions in this debate are (a) Which grade span configuration is most cost effective?; (b) Which grade span configuration yields the best academic achievement?; and (c) Which grade span configuration best meets the social and emotional needs of middle level children? (Howley, 2002)

Selected results on Strong and Coulomb-induced correlations from the STAR experiment

Using recent high-statistics STAR data from Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at full RHIC energy I discuss strong and Coulomb-induced final state interaction effects on identical ($\pi-\pi$) and non-identical ($\pi-\Xi$) particle correlations. Analysis of $\pi-\Xi$ correlations reveals the strong and Coulomb-induced FSI effects allowing for the first time to estimate space extension of $\pi$ and $\Xi$ sources and average shift between them. Source imaging technique providing clean separation of these effects from effects due to the source function itself is applied to one-dimensional relative momentum correlation function of identical pions. For low momentum pions and/or non-central collisions large departure from a single-Gaussian shape is observed

How well does NLO pQCD describe strangeness in p+pp+p collisions at s\sqrt{s}= 200 GeV in STAR?

We present measurements of the transverse momentum spectra for $\mathrm{K^{0}_{S}}$, $\Lambda$, $\Xi$ and their antiparticles in p+p collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200 GeV$. The extracted mid-rapidity yields and $$ are in agreement with previous $p+\bar{p}$ experiments while they have smaller statistical errors. We compare the measured spectra for $\mathrm{K^{0}_{S}}$ and $\Lambda$ to the latest available calculations from NLO pQCD and see good agreement for the $\mathrm{K^{0}_{S}}$ above 1.5 GeV/c.Comment: conference proceedings, Strangeness in Quark Matter 2004, 5 pages, submitted to Journal Physics G, final version submitted to journal incl. modifications requested by edito