Infant vocalizations elicit simplified speech in childcare

Infant babbling has an important social function in promoting early language development by attracting caregiver attention and prompting parents' contingent, simplified speech, which is more learnable for infants. Here, we demonstrate that prelinguistic infant vocalizations also create learning opportunities for infants in childcare settings by eliciting simplified and more learnable linguistic information during teacher-infant interactions. We compared the rates and complexity of contingent and non-contingent verbal interactions of 34 childcare teachers during a one-on-one free play interaction with a familiar infant under their care (M = 12.6 months old). As compared to non-contingent utterances, teachers' contingent utterances included fewer unique words, a higher proportion of single-word responses, and a shorter mean length of utterances. Teachers did not change their response length based on infants' syllable type and were equally likely to respond to vowels and consonant-vowel vocalizations. Sources of individual differences in the simplification effect related to infant behaviors and teacher characteristics are discussed. The results parallel previous findings demonstrating the simplification effect in parent-infant interactions. That teachers also show this simplification effect when responding to infant vocalizations suggests the power of infant prelinguistic vocalizations for organizing caregiver attention in various settings to elicit simplified, learnable language.     

Ageing in the bush: The role of rural places in maintaining identity for long term rural residents and retirement migrants in north-east Victoria,Australia

As a consequence of local population ageing, which is more pronounced in rural areas, the issue of maintaining a positive quality of life for rural older people is attracting significant attention. While environmental psychology theory has advocated the role of place identity in defining the self, there has been little applied research exploring how this occurs in later life. This exploratory, qualitative study (n = 16) utilises 6 and 7 identity process theory to investigate how rural older Australians (retirement migrants and long-term residents) use place to sustain and build a sense of self at a time when many are susceptible to age-related loss. The paper draws on the concepts of distinctiveness, continuity, self-esteem and self-efficacy in order to explore how place identity is supported and maintained. Findings suggest that rural places are beneficial in terms of identity maintenance, with differences between long term and more recent rural residents. Furthermore, findings also highlight that place-related change or growth can potentially threaten older people’s identification as a ‘rural’ person.     

The experiences of university students with a mood disorder

Mood disorders typically materialise in young adulthood, a life-stage when many enter university. However, Padron notes that few studies have examined the experiences of students with a mood disorder. The current study offers a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with five university students who had personal experience of such a disorder. Participants described how symptoms affected their academic and social experiences of university based around the themes of: Social and family support, Powerful symptoms, Stigma and labelling, and Inter-professional dynamic. It was concluded that stigma and lack of information prevented students from obtaining sufficient support, whilst the addition of key staff such as a university-wide mental health trainer is identified as a potential way forward to help such students negotiate the higher education environment.     

Training time estimation to improve alarm reactions

Prior researchers have demonstrated that training may be an effective strategy for improving operator reactions to alarm systems with less than perfect reliability. Of the training strategies tested, recognition of temporal patterns in prior sensor activations seems to offer the greatest promise for improving the speed and appropriateness of subsequent alarm reactions. The current research was completed to clarify which of three temporal interval training methods leads to the most appropriate alarm reactions. Fifty-six undergraduates evaluated whether alarms occurring after sensor activations were true or false, based on elapsed time between the sensor signals and the alarm signals. Participants completed five training sessions to learn to estimate time intervals using simple repetition training, performance feedback, or performance feedback plus subdivision cues. Contrary to expectations, results indicated that participants did not benefit differentially from temporal interval training. Differences between pre- and posttest interval estimation performance was similar among groups, and training groups performed comparably when reacting to signals. Participants generally focused on advertised alarm system reliability, responding more appropriately and more quickly to lower reliability alarms. Future researchers and designers should replicate these findings with realistic tasks and real-world complex task operators to determine their generalization.     

有关移民与移民社会的理论问题

有关移民和移民社会问题 ,目前尚未形成系统的理论 ,学术界存在不同的看法。以台湾移民社会为基点 ,与若干地区进行比较研究可以发现 ,移民的定义、动因、类型、特点以及移民社会的社会结构、内外关系、转型等均有其特定的内涵。     

中国货币需求函数长期均衡实证分析

在社会主义市场经济条件下,货币政策和财政政策是我国的主要调控手段。正确预测货币需求函数是有效实施货币政策的关键。基于现代货币数量理论,运用我国的货币资料,对我国的货币需求进行实证分析,结果表明:我国货币需求的相关变量都不满足零阶单整性,传统的普通最小二乘法已不能满足建模的要求;货币需求量受到货币流通速度的影响,货币流通速度越大,货币需求越小;尽管实际货币量与实际国民产出、实际利率、通货膨胀率的单整的阶数不完全相同,但满足协整性,即它们满足长期均衡的关系。     

大学生就业与高校教育管理者的责任

在解决大学生就业问题中,首先要解决高校教育管理者的认识问题。从国家层面来讲,大学生是国家宝贵的人才资源,他们的就业问题关系到一代人的成长,关系到国家的未来;从民生层面来讲,实现大学生充分就业,可以解决广大高校大学生个人的发展问题,对于维护社会和谐稳定大局意义重大;从学校层面来讲,大学生就业状况是社会检验、评价学校办学水平的重要指标,是学校核心竞争力之一。高校、社会以及用人单位都要主动适应经济形势的变化,相互协作,勇于承担责任,为大学生的就业提供指导,以多种方式促进大学毕业生的就业,提高人才培养质量,提高人才核心竞争力。落实科学发展观、深化高等教育改革就是要改变传统就业教育的思维模式,变单纯的就业教育为培养创新人才的创业教育,使大学生不仅是求职者,更是工作岗位的创造者。     

论早期海外华商经贸网络的形成——海外华商网络系列研究之一

华商海上贸易网络的初步形成,至迟在明初已呈现,此说可纠正国际史学界长期以来认为的华商海上网络是欧人东来以后才建立的观点。华商海上贸易网络的形成条件,在于宋元时期中国南方商品经济的发展,航海、造船业的兴起,以及朝廷鼓励海上贸易的政策;还在于东南沿海,尤其是闽南海商的崛起和海外中国移民的逐渐增多。华商贸易网络形成,不但一改宋以前中外贸易主要由蕃商蕃舶主导的局面,而且形成以中国商品、中国帆船和中国市场为依托,华商初步主导东亚、东南亚的海上贸易网络的格局