REPORT RESUMES ED 010 112 48 STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE BEHAVIOR. PROGRESS REPORT NO. 3. BY- LANE, HARLAN L. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR REPORT NUMBER BR -6 -1784 PUB DATE 1 JUL 66 REPORT NUMBER PR -3 CONTRACT OEC..3...6.q1617840508 EDRS PRICEMF$0.63 HC418.00 456E,, DESCRIPTORS- *LANGUAGE RESEARCH, BILINGUALISMI.INGUAGE SKILLS, LANGUAGE ABILITY, PHONETIC ANALYSIS; PHONETICS, RHETORIC, *AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION, *LANGUAGE PATTERNS, *SELF CONCEPT, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN THE FOUR STUDIES INCORPORATED IN THIS PROGRESS REPORT ATTEMPTED TO ANALYZE STABILIZED LANGUAGE PROCESSES AND TO EXAMINE THE COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE PERFORMANCE, RANGING FROM SYSTEMATIC PHONETICS TO LOGICAL. DISCOURSE. THE FIRST STUDY REPORTED WORK ON HUMAN AUDITORY SENSITIVITY AS A FUNCTION OF FREQUENCY AND INTENSITY. THE NEXT TWO STUDIES WERE ADDRESSED TO THE ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE PROSODY, IN ONE CASE, NATIVE LANGUAGE, AND IN ANOTHER, PROSODY AS A SECOND LANGUAGE. THE LAST STUDY DEALT WITH A REFORMULATION OF THE AREA OF ATTITUDE CHANGE AND SELF - PERCEPTION. OTHER RESEARCH PROJECTS IN PROGRESS ARE DESCRIBED AT THE END OF THE REPORT. (GD) rt .U. S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATIONAND WELFARE Office of Education This document has been rcproduced exactlyas received from the person or organization on it. Points of view or opinions stated do not necessarily represent officialOffice of Education position or policy. .. Studies ;., in Language and .....111(111:. 44.a 00",4; 1011!.ZV le Language ,1444 ...04 . !v; Alkilarrflit;:tvv.:.....4. 0on, , . ( 11/' 71'-^', .4.'"., A .. 7" 7 4411V. '4 Behavior Assv t. kNGU4Gt *ee 17 I. N 0 W 1 i g tii in u. "ay 4,e44 411c IP\' 1966 PROGRESS REPORT NO. III H. L. Lane, Editor 10410,....4., L 0..0.000, . :=0.1"re 40 "1 t!,!, . .441109 ,64.00 II CENTER FORIESEARCHON LANGUAGE ANDLANGUAGE BEHAVIOR THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON LANGUAGE AND ,-%.AGI%." 6Er.AV1.JR Title of Project: Studies in Lan4uapo arm Language Dehav or Project Director and Editor; harlan L. .ane Associate Professor of Psychology The University of Michigan Name of Institution: Center for Research on Language and Language Behavior The University of Michigan Purpose of Rer.:t. Progress Report No. III Contract Nt r: OEC-3-6-061784-0508 Date of Report: July 1, 1966 Submitted to: Language Section Division of Higher Education Research U. S. Office of Education Washington, D. C. Lane, H. L. (Ed.) Studies in Language and Language Behavior,, III. Ann Arbor: Center for Research on Language and Language Behavior, University of Michigan, 1966. Table of Contents I. RESEARCH ARTICLES, REPORTS Group A: Language Processes - Introduction (H. L. Lane) Loudness of pure tones as a function of frequency, intensity and middle- ear mechanics, Parts III and IV (S. Ross) Development of the prosodic features of infant vocalizing: II (W. C. Sheppard & H. L. Lane) An analysis of the differences in the prosodies of General American English and Colloquial Jordanian Arabic and their effect on second-language . acquisition (R. Rammuny) A functional analysis of self-perception:a behaviorist's alternative to cognitive dissonance theory (D. J. Bem) Group 6: Language Acquisition - Introduction (L. S. Barritt) Grammatical analysis of word association responses of educable mentally- retarded and normal children (M. I. Semmel, L. S. Barritt, S. W. Bennett, & C. A. Perfetti) Intentional and incidental learning in normal, borderline, and retarded children (M. I. Semmel& J. Williams) Serial position errors of educable retarded, borderline, and normal children of equal chronological ages (M. I. Semme] & J. Williams) -2- The creation of language (D.. McNeill) On theories of language acquisition (D. McNeill) Group C: Language Modification - Introduction (G. L. Geis) Observations on the analysis and control of teacher-studentinteraction in the foreign language classroom based on video-tape recordings (S. F. Knapp, D. G. Dugas, & G, L. Geis) A preliminary analysis of time distribution during classroom instruction in a second language (D. G. Dugas, S. F. Knapp, & C. R. Sisson) Matching-to-sample bibliography: Addenda (G. L. Geis& Susan Nielsen) Gromptk Language Structure - Introduction (A. L. Becker) Tagmemic and matrix linguistics applied to selected African languages: Third interim report (K. L. Pike) A précis of an English translation of Roman Jakobson's "Child language, aphasia, and general sound laws" (A. R. Keller) II. RESEARCH IN PROGRESS ABSTRACTS III. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES OF CRLLB PERSONNEL (since January 1, 1966) IV. PERSONNEL, CRLLB GROUP A: LANGUAGE PROCESSES Ten members of the CRLLB are currentlyconducting studies that analyze stabil- ized language processes, (as distinguished from acquisition, modification, and structure of language). These studies examine the components of language per- formance over the entire range of "levels"--from systematicphonetics to logical discourse. Equally broad are the ranges of subjects (infant to adult, normal and impaired) and of measures (physiological and behavioral, perceptualand productive) that are employed. Four studies drawn from this ample research "space"(ample conceptually, not architecturally) are reported in thefollowing section, and others in progress are described at the end of this report. Strange Ross, who conducted psycho-acoustic researchat the University of Copenhagen and then at Harvard University. reports the latestin a series of studies exploring human auditory sensitivity as a function of frequencyand intensity, apd its substrate in the mechanics of hearing.The next two studies represent a recurrent topic of Center research, the analysis of language prosody.One is addressed to the question of how we acquirethe prosody of our native language,the other to how we acquire the prosody of asecond language. First, William Sheppard and Harlan Lane give afurther report on their studies of that marvelous oxymoron, infant speech.Some noteworthy developmental trends in prosodic features have been uncovered, and theauthors fearlessly advance physiological hypotheses to (mount for them. In the finest tradition of research in this area, one of the subject infants is William SheppardJr., III. Breaking a different tradition, Dr. Lane provesthat an administrator can still keep his hand in research. -2- Next, Raji Rammuny, a native of Jordan, presents extensive findings of a contrastive analysis of the prosody of English and Arabic. Although his own fluency in English belies his findings, Dr. Rammuny shoes strikingly how linguiatic analysis can predict interference, and how the lattercan be overcome with innova- tions in pedagogical techniques and devices. There are at least two good reasons to believe that Daryl Bem's self-description as a "radical behaviorist" (in the fourth article in this section) will prove self-validating. The first: reason follows from his provocative reformulationof the area of attitude change. Self-perception, he argues, is a specialcase of inter- personal perception; we convince ourselves, just aswe convince others, when the statements we make appear to be simply descriptive, rather than motivated by personal gain. Then, too, Dr. Bern's success in confirming predictions made from the position of a radical behaviorist will no doubt encourage him to explore thisstrategy further (as can be seen from his report of research-in-progress), and thus increase the appropriateness of his self-description. 4 Loudness of Pure Tones as a Function of Frequency, Intensity, and Middle-Ear Mechanics1 Part III Acoustico-Mechanical Properties of the Middle Ear at High Stimulating Scund Intensities Strange Ross Center for Research on Language and Language Behavior Abstract Acoustic impedance at the eardrum of three Sswas determined as a function of frequency and intensity of an ipsilateral, sustained stimulating pure tone, For increasing intensity of the stimulating tone, one S showed an increasing impedance for medium to highinten- sities, and all three Ss showed a decreasing impedance for thehighest intensities (above about 120 db SPL). It is suggested that the thresh- olds for these changes are reached atan equal-loudness contour, and at a contour of equal displacemeat amplitude of stapes, respe..tively, and the mechanisms for these changesare assumed to be related to the middle- ear reflex, and to a change in axis of rotation of the malleo-inzudal complex, respectively. It was found that neither the 'reflex' effect nor the 'axis of rotation' affect could be duplicated on Zwislccki's middle-ear analog. However, by extending this analogso as to incor- porate a circuit representing the effect ofa changing axis of rotation of the malleo-incudal complex, itwas possible to dnplicate closely the observed decrease in acoustic impedance with increasing intensity. The middleear transmission for this extended analogwas computed, and its effect on the form of matching functions and equal-loudnesscontvurs is discussed. Introduction As described in detail in Part II of the present report, acoustic impedance at the right eardrum of three Ss was ,measured as a function of frequency and %Ye intensity of a stimulating tone emitted byan acoustic bridge to the ear under test. Measures were collected in series, separated by rest periods, During each series of determinations the acoustic bridgewas left in place on the ear, and for a given frequency the intensity of thetone emitted by the bridge was -2- raised in steps of 5 or 10 db from the lowest level that still permitted a null to be detected, to the maximum level which the S could tolerate. For each of 10 frequencies, Ss JR and FP completed four series, and S LL two series of im- pedance determinations. During each series of measurements, the stimulating tone was left on continually, and the measurements were performed as rapidly as possible, that is, at the rate of approximately one per minute. Thus, the re- sults to be reported here concern the acoustic impedance at the eardrum under sustained stimulation by a pure tone. Results The measures of acoustic resistance and reactance obtained from each S are displayed in the complex impedance plane in Figs. 1 - 3 with frequency as the parameter. Each point is the average of repeated determinations at Insert Figs.