Joanne Miller, PhD - US grants

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall objective of the proposed research is to increase our understanding of spoken language comprehension. The research focuses specifically on the very early stages of comprehension, during which the listener analyzes the speech signal so as to recover the prelexical linguistic structure of the utterance - the sequences of phonetic segments (consonants and vowels) that comprise the lexical items of a language. Over the years, considerable emphasis has been placed on the abstract nature of the prelexical representations of speech. Indeed, a widely held assumption in the speech perception literature for many years was that during the course of processing, listeners derive an abstract phonetic representation and, in the course of doing so, discard information about the fine-grained detail of the speech signal. However, more recent research has shown that the representations of speech are much richer than this emphasis on abstract entities would suggest, and that listeners retain in memory a substantial amount of fine-grained acoustic-phonetic information. This shift in emphasis away from abstract representations and toward representations that code detailed information about acoustic-phonetic form represents a major change in the field. The proposed research builds on findings from our current research program to investigate the nature of the fine-grained prelexical representations of speech and the way in which acoustic-phonetic fine-structure influences selected aspects of processing. Three related sets of studies are proposed. The first set investigates constraints on how qualitatively different kinds of contextual factors affect prelexical processing; the second set investigates how variation in acoustic-phonetic form due to talker characteristics affects prelexical processing; and the third set investigates how variation in acoustic-phonetic form due to a foreign accent affects prelexical processing. The proposed research will provide fundamental information on the role of acoustic-phonetic fine-structure in speech perception. Such information will help provide a firm basis from which to study both the development of speech processing abilities during the first years of life, and those aspects of speech, language, and hearing disorders that involve acoustic-phonetic processing.

The overall objective of the research program is to increase our understanding of spoken language comprehension. Our specific focus is on the initial stages of language processing, during which the speech signal is analyzed with respect to those acoustic properties that specify the segmental structure of the utterance -- the sequences of consonants and vowels that define the lexical items of the language. It is known that the mapping between acoustic signal and phonetic structure is complex, in that it changes substantially as a function of numerous contextual factors. One of these is speaking rate. During the course of normal conversation the rate at which an individual speaks varies widely, and this change in rate systematically alters many of the acoustic properties that convey segmental information. The critical issue for a theory of spoken language processing is how the listener is able to comprehend the utterance, despite this variation in the speech signal. Recent research indicates the manner in which this might be accomplished: It appears that during language processing the listener appropriately, and with great precision, analyzes the segmentally-relevant acoustic information in relation to the rate at which the utterance was produced, rather than in an absolute manner. The goal of the proposed research is to elucidate the nature of such rate-dependent processing. This research constitutes an extension of our ongoing research program, and focuses on three fundamental issues: (1) Conditions of rate-dependent processing; (2) Effect of rate on the internal structure of phonetic categories; and (3) Nature of the relevant rate information. We will investigate these issues by conducting parallel studies of speech perception and speech production. Taken together, these studies will allow us to specify the way in which the processing system accommodates for the complex alterations in the acoustic fine-structure of speech that result from a change in rate. The proposed research will provide fundamental information on the initial stages of language processing. In so doing it will place important constraints on a theory of speech perception and contribute toward our knowledge of normal language comprehension. A complete understanding of the processes involved in the comprehension of spoken language is not only important in its own right, but provides a critical basis for the study of both language acquisition and language disorder.

The Department of Sociology, Queens College, The City University of New York will develop an undergraduate laboratory using high speed microcomputers and an ethernet network. The network will be bridged to the Queens College Academic Computer Center Network and from there to NYSERNET, the CUNY University- wide Computer and NSFNET. This laboratory will permit the department to significantly enhance its curriculum at the introductory and advanced level.Three major objectives of the project are: 1) Infusing the content of lower level methods and statistics courses with 'hands-on' laboratory exercises, thus upgrading the quantitative and scientific reasoning skills of students, especially those who major in sociology. Many of these students are women and many are members of racial and ethnic minorities. 2) Providing intensive independent research experiences for students considering scientific careers in sociology, through small laboratory-based upper level research courses closely supervised by senior faculty. Many students from the department have gone on to their Ph.D.s at graduate schools throughout the U.S. 3) Disseminating the results and products of our experience to other sociology and social science departments throughout the United States.

Why do people become politically active? Current theories and research provide only a partial answer to this question, in that they ignore citizens' motivations and goals for participation. In order to fill this conspicuous gap in the political participation literature, the current study tests a general theory of political motivation. The project examines the motivational underpinnings of political participation, and how those motivations interact with traditionally-studied variables such as education and socioeconomic status to provide a more complete and nuanced understanding of political participation.

Among the reasons people might decide to become active in politics are: 1) to express their values, 2) because they have a self-interested stake in a political outcome, and 3) to express their group identities. The current study tests the impact of these motives on citizens' willingness to become politically active. A nationally representative sample of American adults will be contacted and asked to complete a survey. At the beginning of the survey, respondents read a paragraph that states that people should become involved in politics. However, the content of the arguments in the paragraph will vary. Respondents will be randomly assigned to one of four persuasive argument conditions: 1) a focus on the importance of becoming politically active to express one's values, 2) a focus on the importance of becoming politically active for self-interested reasons, 3) a focus on the importance of becoming politically active to express one's group identity, and 4) no persuasive arguments. They will then be asked questions about the extent to which each of these motives is important to them, and how willing they would be to participate in a series of political activities in the near future, and background questions to assess variables that have been shown in the past to relate to participation (e.g., civic skills, free time, and financial resources). This enables me to test whether each motive has an overall impact on participation (relative to respondents' skills and resources), and whether different motives are more likely to impact willingness to participate in different specific activities.

In addition to providing a more complete understanding of political participation, this project has broader implications for our understanding about the effectiveness of our democracy. A fundamental tenet of democracy is "rule by the people." For a democracy to function properly, the people must participate actively in the political process-to make their voices heard. If only a small proportion of the citizenry chooses to participate, then democratic governance leads to "rule by some of the people," as public officials hear a distorted message about what citizens want. The proposed research helps answer questions about the representativeness of our democracy, as well as questions about how to make it more representative, by showing how abilities and motivations interact to lead to systematic biases in who chooses to be heard.

Because this work helps us understand why people choose to participate in politics, it has important practical benefits to society. In the wake of evidence of declines in voter turnout and civic participation more generally, scholars and educators have developed high profile programs such as Rock the Vote, Kids Voting USA, and state and local civics education curricula, to instill in young people the desire to become politically active adults. The proposed research reveals the best ways to instill such values, by showing the reasons why citizens participate. Armed with this knowledge, programs can be developed to increase political participation to fully realize democratic ideals.

The Democratic Party's contest for the 2008 presidential nominee went on longer and divided the party more deeply than any other such contest in recent history. By contrast, the Republican Party's nomination race was relatively quick and did not generate deep fissures within the party. This research will shed light on the nature of modern political parties. The party is not the formal hierarchy it may have been a century ago, in which bosses could dictate the choice of nominee to the rank and file with little expectation of resistance. Today's parties are better thought of as networks of formal party groups, interest groups, and donors. It is these networks that allow parties to manage a crisis, such as an intraparty rift during a competitive election.

The researchers will investigate these intraparty rifts and the role of social networks as part of the effort to heal them by conducting interviews of delegates to both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in August and September of 2008. Respondents will asked their opinions about the major candidates for the presidential nominations, their previous involvement in party activities, their membership in various interest groups, and their cultural beliefs about the importance of intraparty democracy. Respondents will be contacted for follow-up interviews in the late fall to determine the effect of fall campaigns on intraparty factionalism. The researchers will test the hypotheses that involvement in expanded party networks (including interest groups and party posts) mitigates this factionalism and that participation in such networks promotes loyalty to party rather than to a specific candidate.

This research will have broader impacts on the way this presidential election season is understood by political observers. Rather than making assumptions about the fractious nature of the primary season and its effect on the general election, journalists and other observers will be able to draw upon our this research for concrete measurements and qualitative assessments of these rifts. Additionally, this research will also involve the use of graduate and undergraduate students at multiple institutions as survey administrators. These students will receive specialized training that will enrich their academic experiences.