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An exploratory investigation of responses of young children to nonverbal auditory cues in messages

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An exploratory investigation of responses of young children to nonverbal auditory cues in messages

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Content EXPLORATORY INVESTIGATION OF RESPONSES OF YOUNG CHILDREN TO NONVERBAL AUDITORY CUES IN MESSAGES by Margaret Dian Minnett Parker A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Communicative Disorders) January 1979 UMI Number: DP22516 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UM I' " " ’""^Dissertation Publishing"^' UMI DP22516 Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest’ ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA T H E G RA D U A TE SC H O O L U N IV E R S IT Y PARK LOS A N G ELES. C A L IF O R N IA 9 0 0 0 7 This dissertation, written by Margaret Dian Minnett Parker under the direction of k.P .I... Dissertation Com mittee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by The Graduate School, in partial fulfillm ent of requirements of the degree of D O C T O R O F P H I L O S O P H Y Dean D ate Qc'toher 16 f 1378 ' P h . i X CmcL /rl<\ P2I+-Z. £ 6 , 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES............................................ iv Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ..................................... 1 The Problem Objectives II. BACKGROUND........................................ 5 Definition of Meaning Factors That Affect Meaning Studies on the Identification of Vocal Characteristics Role of Nonverbal Auditory Cues in Messages Studies Involving Children and the Role of Nonverbal Auditory Cues in Messages Studies on Inconsistent Communication Between Verbal and Vocal Channels Summary III. METHOD............................................. 29 Description of the Sample Procedures Experimental Measures Method of Analysis IV. RESULTS............................................. 46 Information Related to Questions .Correlations Between' Groups V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS. . . 6 8 Summary Conclusions Recommendations .> ii REFERENCES................................................. 76 APPENDIXES A. Recording Forms................................... 83 B. Visual Response Cards............................ 90 iii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Means and Standard Deviations for the Main Group.................... 47 2. Means and Standard Deviations for the Subgroup . 4 7 3. Factor Analysis for Experimental Test Items I Through 1 0 ..................................... .49 4. Factor Analysis for Experimental Test Items II Through 30.................... 50 5. Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Main Group (n = 60) on Items 1 Through 1 0 ........................................ 56 6. Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Subgroup (n = 18) on Items 1 Through 1 0 .....................................* • 57 7. Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Total Sample (n = 78) on Items 1 Through 1 0 ........................................ 58 8. Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Main Group (n = 60) on Items 11 Through 3 0 ........................................ 60 9. Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Subgroup (n = 18) on Items 11 Through 3 0 ........................................ 61 10. Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Total Sample (n = 78) on Items 11 Through 3 0 ........................................ 62 Table 11. 12. Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Total Sample (n = 78) on All Test Items . . . Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Main Group (n = 60) on All Test Items ........................................ 13. Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Subgroup (n = 18) on All Test Items. . CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The Problem One of the most complex learning tasks confronting every child is mastering the ability to communicate ideas to others clearly and, in turn, to comprehend the ideas of others accurately. Accuracy in all communication processes depends upon the ability to express and receive nonverbal •messages as well as verbal ones. During the acquisition of language skills, verbal behavior is intertwined with non verbal behaviors and feelings. Intonation is considered one of the first speech signals that has a linguistic ref erence (e.g., the question). As early as six months of age infants begin to mimic adult intonation. Davitz (1964) assigned a very active role to non verbal auditory cues in messages. He stated that the mean ing of a sample of speech, including its emotional meaning, is a function of what is said and how it is said. The interaction of verbal and nonverbal aspects of communication determines the meaning of the total message. Bolinger (1972) 1 asserted that emotion— voluntary or involuntary— is re spected as a genuine part of a message. The ability to interpret the emotional meanings of vocal messages is a function of knowledge about vocal char acteristics commonly associated with various emotional ex pressions. In order to understand the meanings expressed, the listener must first be able to discriminate the auditory cues that carry these meanings. Intonation characteristics may be affected or caused by the individual's physiological state— anger, happiness, excitement, age, sex, and so on. Such factors help identify people and how they feel. Davitz (1961) contended that whether or not we are aware of the process, the emotional aspects of a message inevitably influence our behavior. Creelman (1966) also pointed out the influence of meaning on behavior because individuals react not to things as they are, but to things as individuals think they are (i.e., what the situation means to them). Speakers often inadvertently trigger the listener's misinterpretation of a message. If an individ ual's tone of voice belies his words, the listener assumes the intonation more faithfully reflects the speaker's true intentions. Other reports (Allport & Cantril, 1935; Fay & Mid- 2 dleton, 1940) have suggested that adults have stereotyped jattitudes toward intonation cues in messages. While listen ing to taped messages or messages delivered over a public address system, " adults^) may not always be accurate but they show a high level of agreement in judging the emotions, high or low level of intelligence, socioeconomic background, and occupation of a speaker. The ability to identify accurately nonverbal audi tory cues in messages is clearly an important factor in the development of communication skills. In addition, the man ner in which we interpret such cues also subsequently af- facts our behavior. Yet, in spite of this importance, lit tle research has been reported regarding the way in which young children respond to nonverbal auditory cues in mes sages. It would seem apparent, therefore, that information regarding the way children respond to the nonverbal content of a message as opposed to the linguistic content of the message should be of considerable interest to teachers of young children and to speech and language pathologists. Such information could perhaps provide additional ways in which to view a child's communication skills, particularly the observation of whether a child responds primarily to the linguistic or to the nonverbal content of a message. Such 3 observations could encourage adults who work with children to review their own communication skills, ,in/ terms/o f_ both/ the content and style they use to address students and/or patients. Objectives The primary objective of this study was to determine how young children respond to nonverbal auditory cues in spoken messages. Two approaches were used to record the responses of young children to spoken messages using tasks designed to measure the abilities of selected children: (1) to accurately identify certain nonverbal auditory cues in messages, and (2) to determine whether the selected children responded primarily to what was said (i.e., the content of the message) or how it was said (i.e., the manner in which the message was produced). Studies related to nonverbal auditory cues in mes sages and how individuals respond to such cues are reviewed and reported in Chapter II. Supportive documentation for the methods and materials used in this study is also pre sented in Chapter II. 4 CHAPTER II BACKGROUND Meaning plays a vital role in determining our responses to spoken messages- Factors that influence the ■meaning of a message are reviewed in this chapter. Two primary factors that affect meaning are intonation and imagery. Additional aspects of a message that influence the listener's interpretation, such as vocal characteristics and inconsistent communication, are also presented. Definition of Meaning Two types of meaning, as discussed by Pike (1945), are lexical meaning and intonation meaning. Lexical meaning refers to the dictionary definition of a word; intonation ■meaning modifies the lexical meaning of a sentence by adding to it the speaker's attitude. The lexical meaning is in trinsically a part of the word itself; it is not dependent upon extraneous phenomena such as pitches produced by emo tion. Intonation meaning is not a stable inherent part of words but rather a situational, temporary addition to words' 5 basic form and meaning. Pike (1945) further discussed two ! | I types of intonation meaning. In English, many intonation contours are explicit in meaning. Whenever a certain sequence of relative pitches is heard, one concludes that the speaker means certain things over and above the specific meanings of the words themselves. A change of pitch contour will change the meaning of the sentence (e.g., "See that horse?" and "See that horse!"). The second type of intona tion meaning modifies the lexical meaning of a sentence by adding, to it the speaker's attitude. Davitz (1959) suggested that emotional meanings influence the total response to any communication, regard less of whether the listener is aware of the emotional mean ings being conveyed. Individual's often react more violently to intonation meanings than to lexical ones. For research purposes, Davitz (1964) defined the "meaning" of a sign or symbol in terms of a behavioral response on the part of the listener. The label or name a subject applied to a vocal expression defined the meaning that expression had for each individual subject. Uldall (1960) reported that one kind of meaning con veyed by the intonation of speech reflects the social atti tudes or emotions of the speaker. Denes (1959) found that 6 the intonation contour as a whole carries the meaning. Sub-' jects exhibited only random responses when Denes isolated prosodic features of a speaker's words and asked the listen ers to associate these prosodic contours with emotional states. Uldall (1960) stated that the motions that listen ers associate with particular contours depend upon what form the sentence words take. For example, the structure of a question is different from the structure of a statement of fact. The literature on meaning shows generally that there appear to be two types of meaning: lexical and intonational. The intonation contour as a whole carries the meaning of sentences. Whether listeners are aware of it or not, into nation meaning is a critical part of any message. Factors That Affect Meaning Intonation Research has not been productive in defining vocal cues that convey specific emotional meanings. Most studies have focused on the problem of sensitivity among speakers and listeners and not on the emotional message itself and the meaning it conveys. Skinner (1935) found that pitch reliably differen tiates expressions of happiness and sadness. The pitch of 7 happiness is higher than that for sadness or an emotionally neutral utterance. Fairbanks and Hoaglin (1941) reported that feelings such as anger, grief, and contempt may be differentiated in terms of rate', ratio of pause time to phonation, and aspects of pitch such as range and rate of change. Anger has a fast rate, grief has a high ratio of pause to phonation time, and fear a high pitch. Pike (1945) found no contours that are explicit in meaning, but he noted that excited speech tends to use wide intervals between the pitch levels of the intonation contours. Monotonous, weary speech uses narrow intervals. Excited speech is relatively fast and grief-filled speech is relatively slow. Huttar (1968) referred to pitch, loudness, and dura tion as the extralinguistic parameters that reflect the speaker's emotional state. Mehrabian (1972) called intona tion factors paralinguistic or vocal phenomena and listed factors such as fundamental frequency range, intensity range, speech errors or pauses, speech rate, and speech duration. He labeled these qualities "implicit" aspects of speech. Crystal (1975) said intonation is not a single sys tem of contours or levels, but the product of interaction of features from different prosodic systems— tone, pitch, loud ness, and rhythmicality. Davitz (1964) stated that in one 8 ipattern or another, the nonverbal characteristics of speech j j I (are tone, timbre, and inflection. These factors combine to {represent symbolically a specific emotional meaning, and t I [although the exact pattern of cues associated with various I meanings cannot be defined with great precision, these pat terns of interrelated vocal characteristics are complex, symbolic stimuli. Davitz and Davitz (1961) used Osgood, Suci, and Tannenbaum's (1957) tridimensional scheme as a basis for describing meaning. Three dimensions of emotional meaning, (1) valence (pleasant— unpleasant), (2) activity (active— passive), and (3) strength (strong— weak), were used by judges to rate four speech characteristics--loudness, pitch, timbre, and rate. Judges described each of 14 different feelings in terms of their own emotional experiences. Re sults indicated that the activity dimension of meaning ac counts for much of the variance in rate, volume, pitch, and timbre of vocal expressions. Emotional characteristics sub jectively rated as "active" tend to be expressed by a fast rate of speech, high volume or loudness, high pitch, and blaring timbre. In direct contrast, relatively "passive" emotions are expressed by a slower rate of speech, lower volume, lower pitch, and more resonant timbre. Valence and 9 strength have no such simple correlates in the vocal mes-' sage and it has been proposed that they are communicated by more subtle aspects of speech such as changes in rhythm, inflection, and enunciation. Findings are related to the types of errors most frequently made in identification. Erroneous responses tend to be similar to the intended mean ing in terms of activity level. For example, two active emotions such as anger and.joy are sometimes mistaken for each other in the vocal mode. To the contrary, the expres sion of two unpleasant emotions such as anger and sadness or two strong emotions like love and joy are seldom confused with one another. Results appear to be a consequence of the fact that loudness, timbre, pitch, and rate, the more obvious components of speech, are a function of the sub jectively rated activity level of the feeling communicated. Factors that carry cues for intonation meaning in messages are referred to by several names in the literature (e.g., paralinguistic and extralinguistic). The character istics of speech that affect meaning through intonation usu ally are identified as pitch, loudness, timbre, and rate. While the speech characteristics have been labeled, the vocal cues that convey specific emotional meanings have not been defined. 10 Imagery I I Some definitions imply that imagery is an active process involving conscious activity on the part of the individual. Paivio (1971) defined imagery as referring to nonverbal memory;representations of concrete objects and events that can be actively generated and manipulated by the individual. Others disagree with Paivio's inclusion of active imaging on the part of the individual. Gordon (197 2), for example, contended that no individual is ever fully aware of all the images that are active in his mind at any particular time or in any particular situation. Horowitz (1970) emphasized the changing nature of images as static representations of external reality. Functions of Imagery Two functions of imagery discussed in the literature are pertinent to this study: (1) images used as a means of focusing attention, and (2) images used as organizers. Sassoon (1971) viewed images as economical carriers of semantic information. One advantage of the use of imagery is the ability of the individual to connect many details of an event into a single unit. For this reason, Sassoon called an image an attention focuser. This focusing of attention plays a role in retrieval by providing cues to 11 to fixate upon, thus keeping one's attention from being distracted. i Some authors believe the function of imagery is to organize sensory patterns representing features of the ex ternal world. Bower (1970) referred to imagery as the pro cess or strategy by which experience becomes encoded or transformed for storage in, or later retrieval from, long term memory. Gordon (1972) listed the following three func tions of imagery: (1) imagery helps us arrange sensory stimuli into meaningful patterns; (2) imagery allows us to classify, abstract, and relate present perceptions to past experiences and future expectations; and (3) imagery serves as the raw material of man's creativity. Role of Imagery in Meaning Boring (1938), in discussing E. B. Titchener's con cept of meaning, suggested that when a sensation or image is added to another sensation or image, the individual has a meaning in the form of a perception or idea. Boring added that included in this view of meaning is the principle that the concscious context drops off from a perception under habituation and the meaning is then carried unconsciously. Bugelski (197 0) labeled all words as- both concrete and abstract: concrete because they arouse activity in the 12 neural mechanism that was active at some prior time when something was seen or heard and words were used at the same time; abstract because they are symbolic. Bugelski placed meaning at the level of perception, stressing that past ex perience affects perception. Reese (1970) agreed with Bugelski that meanings are given or aroused by images, but he mentioned the importance of the contextual situation in the arousal of images. Bergan (1967) assessed the relations among images for musical sounds, accuracy in pitch identification, and musical memory, and, as a consequence, he defined imagery as "an auditory experience of realistic dimensions for which there is no apparent physical stimulus" (p. 99), presenting the idea that auditory images serve as a standard for com parison. From Bergan's results, he concluded that a musi cian's behavior is directed in part by auditory imagery; auditory images provide feedback for the ongoing performance and judgments made on the basis of comparison direct future performance. Images Versus Percepts The problem connected with distinguishing a con sistent differentiation between images and percepts was identified by Perky in 1910 (Paivio, 1971). The point 13 Perky made is important here because in many studies con cerning the way in which intonation affects meaning, sub jects were asked to image various situations and then to respond on the basis of the imagined communication setting. Paivio (1971) reviewed Perky's experiment in which subjects confused the projection of objects on -a\*screen with their own images. Perky's subjects were instructed to look at a screen in front of them and form a mental picture of an ob ject, such as a tomato. Simultaneously, a red circle was projected onto the screen, beginning below levels of recog nition threshhold. Subjects did not realize they were view ing an external stimulus until the presentation had risen well above recognition threshhold levels. Segal and Gordon (1969) saw the Perky phenomenon as a signal detection prob lem. They hypothesized that the phenomenon could result from (1) the image masking the perception of an ordinary supral-iminaljstimuius, or (2) the image picking up aspects of the unreported stimulus. They replicated the Perky study, but added an informed condition in which the subjects were told about the possible presence of stimuli on the screen. This information led to a marked improvement in the sub- ! jects' ability to detect a signal. In another experiment by Segal and Gordon (1969), the subjects worked the projector 14 themselves as they were imaging. The investigators also added a discrimination condition to determine the subjects' ability to detect slides without imaging. Results from the two experiments indicated that a dim or ambiguous stimulus can be blocked by a concurrent image. The authors hypoth esized that imagery increases the rate of neural activity and is an additional source of noise which must sum with random neural "noise" in the system as well as noise specific to processing of the signal. Segal and Fusella (1970) asked subjects to produce auditory and visual images and the simultaneous task was to detect visual and auditory signals. Their results indicated that auditory images interfere more with the detection of auditory signals and visual images interfere more with the detection of visual signals. These two authors then studied the affects of imaging in six sense modalities on the detec tion of a visual signal. Subjects were asked to image vi sual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and kines thetic objects during simultaneous, intermittent presenta tion of visual signals. Sensitivity was significantly poorer during the imaging condition than during the dis crimination condition and was worse during visual imaging than during imaging in the other five modalities. The 15 authors related this phenomenon to selective attention. They suggested that the subject orients himself within a specific sense modality and that channel becomes oriented to internal or external input in that sensory area. During construction of an image in one of the other modalities, the visual analyzers are relatively free and thus the visual signal is more accurately processed. In discussing how we discriminate between an image and a perception, Segal (1971) stated that in most cases the distinction presents no problem and generally the dis tinction is made correctly and automatically. If one does make a decision concerning reality, it is a probability decision. If this first decision is tentative, the indi vidual selects a test procedure, increases the amount of sensory input, and makes a second decision. The following factors may influence that decision: (1) the unique quali ties of sense receptors are rarely duplicated by imagery— images are less vivid, smaller, and less clearly defined than percepts; (2) percepts have dark, clear edges with strong contour lines; and (3) percepts usually show stabil ity or predictable changes. If the observer determines that a given impression shows adequate correlation with external events, it is labeled a percept and if the correspondence 16 Jis lacking, the impression is labeled an image. I | Richardson (1969) also noted the use of reality status in an experience to distinguish between images and percepts. Such a discrimination appears feasible in light of the preceding discussion. Recent research in the area of images versus percepts indicates that images do exist and they may have a subconscious effect on the perceptions of an individual. Research results suggest that imagery provides the standards for comparison of intonation and that these into nations do play a role in the development of individual (meanings in people. The work on images versus percepts pre sents interesting guidelines in the development of test pro cedures for this study. Studies on the Identification of Vocal Characteristics Sapir (1927) discussed the social conditioning of vocal characteristics by suggesting that there is always something about the voice that must be attributed to the individual's social background. Due to social conditioning, an individual speaks with a certain intonation, range of intensity, rate, and quality. Individual differences fall within a socially approved range of variation. 17 Allport and Cantril (1935) conducted 14 experiments on voice and personality. In essence this method consisted of matching objective information obtained for 12 features of personality (e.g., age, photos, handwriting dominance, extroversion) with the corresponding voices. They found that the uniformity of opinion regarding the personalities of the speakers was somewhat in excess of the accuracy of such opinions showing the importance of the phenomenon of stereotyped judgments. Fay and Middleton (1939) drew a definite distinction between voice and speech. They defined voice as the expres sive movement comprising vocal mannerisms, inflection, pitch, intensity, volume, and rhythm (p. 58 6). Speech was consid ered the content of vocal expression— vocabulary, style of composition, and dialect. Their studies were concerned with vocal attributes. In the first study (1939), they asked listeners to judge the speaker's occupation. The judgments were not always accurate, but they did reveal a percentage of agreement among the judges. In subsequent studies, Fay and Middleton found stereotyped attitudes regarding the degree of sociability possessed by speakers (1941) and voice stereotypes of superior and inferior intelligence (1940). Eisenberg and Zalowitz (193 8) had listeners rate 18 speakers on the trait of dominance-nondominance. Listeners were in agreement, but they were not accurate in their judg ments. An analysis of each individual's responses indicated that subjects made their judgments on the basis of precon ceived notions that may or may not correspond to reality. Cultural conditioning apparently develops social norms of perception, according to the authors. Sundberg (1964) found that meaning inferred from spoken statements is not independent of such variables as voice quality and emphasis. Meanings selected by subjects on a multiple choice question when the stimulus words were spoken were different from the meanings selected when the words were presented in written form. Studies indicate that adults do have stereotyped attitudes toward vocal characteristics, but no studies were found that explored whether children have stereotyped atti tudes toward vocal characteristics. Role of Nonverbal Auditory Cues in Messages Mehrabian (1972) acknowledged that there are no explicit rules for encoding or decoding paralinguistic phenomena, nor are there rules for the more complex combi nations of verbal and nonverbal behaviors in which the non verbal element contributes heavily to the significance of a 19 message. Despite the absence of explicit coding rules, there is some degree of consistency both within and between cultures in the use of subtle behaviors to convey and inter pret physical and emotional feelings. The exact degree of this consistency cannot be established because it differs from individual to individual,, in different situations, and with different behaviors. Mehrabian, nevertheless, consid ered such behaviors communicative. Mehrabian (1970) noted that nonverbal behaviors play an important role in many social situations, particularly when a communicator is either unable or unwilling to express his feelings explicitly. Mehrabian and Wiener (1967) pro posed that society today tends to discourage the explicit verbalization of negative attitudes and so the implicit non verbal communication channels carry the expressions of such feelings. Zaidel and Mehrabian (1969) found communicators were able to express variations in negative attitude better than variations in positive attitude, whether using the facial or the vocal channel. They concluded that this was because implicit expression of negative attitudes are prac ticed more than positive ones, since it is seldom appropri ate to express negative feelings openly. Schlanger (1973) studied the identification of 20 semantically meaningful and meaningless emotionally toned sentences by normal and aphasic subjects. Three drawings of faces representing the moods happy, sad, and angry were shown to subjects who were told to point to the picture that expressed the emotion of the stimulus sentence. Subjects were instructed to attend to how the speaker felt while speaking and not to be concerned with what the speaker said. Aphasic patients were able to identify a majority of the emotions expressed. Studies Involving Children and the Role of Nonverbal Auditory Cues in Messages Only two studies were found that viewed the manner in which children respond to nonverbal auditory cues in mes sages. Gates (1927) tested children from grades three through eight using a recording of the alphabet recited by drama students expressing nine different emotional meanings. The results indicated that the ability to identify emotional expressions was related positively to age, grade, school ex perience, and intelligence. Dimitrovsky (1964) asked children at successive age levels to identify the emotional meaning of vocal expres sions by selecting one of the following choices: (1) anger, (2) happiness, (3) love, and (4) sadness. Stick figure 21 jdrawings were used to associate each of the four drawings with the appropriate emotional word. Subjects listened to paragraphs recorded by males and females and then pointed to the drawing that represented the voice characterized on the tape. Dimitrovsky found that the years from 5 to 12 rep resent a period of considerable growth in sensitivity to emotional communication. The finding that children cor rectly identified "sad" and "angry" more frequently than "happy" and "loving" led Dimitrovsky to conclude that chil dren have a "negative set" in response to nonverbal vocal expressions of emotion. Fenster and Goldstein (1971) stud ied the responses of adults and children aged 10 to 12 and concluded that such a "negative set" hypothesis is not ten able for either children or adults. Studies on Inconsistent Communication Between Verbal and Vocal Channels Bateson et al. (1956) developed a theory of schizo phrenia based on inconsistent communication. They hypothe sized that the maladaptive responses of schizophrenics come about because they are the frequent recipients of inconsis tent attitude communication. They defined a "double bind" communication as. one involving two or more inconsistent attitude messages that are assumed to elicit incompatible 22 responses from the addressee (e.g., the mother asks the child to come kiss her while she implicitly communicates in difference toward what he is requested to do). The child must then decide whether to respond to the verbal or the implicit component, knowing that either response could lead to a rebuff. The recipients of frequent double bind mes sages are assumed to learn to respond with their own double bind messages. Mehrabian (1972) researched the area of inconsistent nonverbal communication and proposed that complex communica tion phenomena such as sarcasm— where verbal and nonverbal messages usually are inconsistent— take on special signifi cance because they subtly convey the speaker's feelings. He attributed this subtlety to a lack of explicit coding rules for these behaviors in most cultures. This explicit- implicit dichotomy led Mehrabian to the conclusion that cod ing rules for verbal linguistic phenomena are explicit and coding rules for subtle communication phenomena are implicit. Mehrabian and Wiener (1967) studied the ability of adults to decode inconsistent communications. Two female speakers read nonsense words in positive, neutral, and nega tive vocal expressions. Results showed the vocal component in the various messages primarily determined the subjects' 23 judgments of affect from the total message (i.e., content and vocal component combined), and the content component of inconsistent messages makes a negligible contribution to the affect inferred from such statements. Mehrabian and Wiener viewed their results as an indication that the higher inci dence of inconsistent communication in families of schizo phrenics noted by Bateson et al. (1956) could reflect a higher incidence of negative attitudes being communicated. Mehrabian and Ferris (1967) suggested that the com bined effects of simultaneous verbal, vocal, and facial at titude communications are a weighted sum of their indepen dent effects with the coefficients of .07, .39, and .55 re spectively. Thus, in the case of inconsistent communica tions, facial expressions are the most dominant component, verbal components are second, and words are least signifi cant. The researchers noted that one would hesitate to rely on the content of a message if the facial or vocal expres sions contradicted the words (e.g., in sarcasm the negative voice determines the meaning of the entire message even if the words are positive). Carroll (1959) agreed that if a speaker's tone of voice belies the words he or she uses, the listener immediately assumes that the intonation more accu rately reflects the speaker's true linguistic intentions. 24 [Mehrabian (1972) attempted to ascertain why people use in- I I consistent messages and discovered that inconsistency is a subtle means of differentially communicating attitudes toward the actions of the addressee or the addressee himself. i In a series of four experiments, he used two channels of communication— vocal and verbal. The inconsistent positive message involved a positive vocal and a negative verbal com- jponent, while the inconsistent negative message involved a i negative vocal and a positive verbal component. Mehrabian asked graduate students to imagine a situation with someone they liked or with someone they disliked. Subjects then selected statements they would and would not want to make in the imagined situation. Results showed consistent communi cation of attitudes was preferred over inconsistent communi cation of attitudes. Among the inconsistent communications, the positive messages were preferred less than the negative ones. Mehrabian (1972, p. 210) drew two conclusions: that the verbal component of an inconsistent message conveys evaluative attitudes toward the action of the addressee and therefore is the basis for selecting a message when the addressee behaves in pleasant versus unpleasant ways, and that the implicit component of an inconsistent message con veys evaluative attitudes toward the person of the addressee 25 jand is therefore the basis for selecting messages when he isi I {liked or disliked. Summary Previously conducted studies indicated that nonver bal auditory cues in messages do play a significant role in determining the meaning of messages and the listeners' sub sequent responses to those messages. Studies on the role of nonverbal auditory cues in messages differed from inter personal communication due at least partially to the fact that subjects given lists of emotions from which to select their responses found the task simplified to one of recog nizing a category of meaning contained on the list. Research conditions such as these also limit the subject's response capabilities. Imagery studies indicated that research con ditions which specifically instruct subjects to attend to the nonverbal aspects of a message or ask subjects to imag ine various communication situations could possibly influ ence subject response. Davitz (1964) discussed the tendency for some individuals to attend selectively to emotional meaning. Blau (1964) called this variable "affect atten tion" and noted that for some people and perhaps in some situations, the emotional meaning of a message is of primary importance, whereas other people consciously recognize 26 emotional meanings only if they are specifically instructed j to do so. From all of the studies reviewed/ one primary i conclusion seems evident— that any attempt to simulate re sponses to everyday communication should allow the subjects an opportunity to apply their own labels to the emotions that are expressed. A second conclusion that can be drawn from the re view of the literature is that research on the role of non- j I verbal auditory cues in messages should include children as subjects. Past research has concentrated on the performance of adults rather than that of children. Only two studies, Dimitrovsky (1964) and Gates (1927), used children as sub jects and both researchers limited the number of responses subjects could make to the spoken messages. The current study therefore was designed to investi gate the responses of young children to nonverbal auditory cues in messages while in no way attempting to limit the response capabilities of the subjects. In line with the experimental nature of this investigation, the following questions were posed: 1. Do young children accurately identify nonverbal auditory cues in messages? 2. What components of a spoken message determine the manner in which young children respond? 27 3. Is age a factor in the ability to accurately j identify nonverbal auditory cues in messages? J 4. Is a difference in sex a factor in the ability to accurately identify nonverbal auditory cues in messages? 5. Are verbal intelligence, auditory discrimination, and auditory memory skills factors in the abil ity to accurately identify nonverbal auditory cues in messages? 6. Does attention to the linguistic content as opposed to the nonverbal content of a message increase with age? 7. Is a difference in sex a factor in determining whether children attend to the linguistic con tent as opposed to the nonverbal content of a message? 8. Are verbal intelligence, auditory discrimina tion, and/or auditory memory skills factors in determining whether children attend to the linguistic content as opposed to the nonverbal content of a message? Chapter III presents the method used to investigate these questions. 28 CHAPTER III METHOD This chapter describes the criteria used for clas sifying the population sample, the methods and materials used for screening subjects, a description of the experi mental materials developed for use in this study, and the procedures designed for administering and scoring the experimental test battery. Description of the Sample Subjects were drawn from two public schools in Orange County, California, representing similar socioeco nomic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. Information was obtained from an interview with the principal of each school regarding the average income per family, level of parental education, and ethnic background of the student population. Class lists for kindergarten pupils and those in the first and second grades were provided by the principal of each school. Children in the process of repeating a grade were 29 Jdropped from the list' for possible selection. Master- lists were compiled for each school based on sex and grade level. Subjects were then selected from the master lists, using the procedure for random sampling described by Glass and Stanley (1970) . A total of 60 subjects (20 at each grade level, 10 males and 10 females) and 30 alternate subjects (10 at each grade level, 5 males and 5 females) were selected. Alter nates were necessary to allow for subject attrition due to failure of the original selected subjects to pass the screen ing measures or because of absenteeism or because of the in ability of subjects to perform the experimental test battery. The initial sample consisted of 60 subjects between the ages of 5 years 2 months and 8 years 2 months at the time of testing. Subjects were found to have normal hearing as determined by individual examination conducted by the school nurse at 20 dB according to ISO standards for the frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz. In addition, the following tests were administered to each child as screening measures: (1) Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test (1958); (2) Auditory Sequential subtest of the Illinois Test of Psycho- linguistic Abilities (Kirk, McCarthy, & Kirk, 1968); (3) the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Dunn, 196 5) . 30 j The initial sample (n = 601 consisted of an equal number of male and female subjects (30 each). Children from imorning and afternoon kindergarten classes were included in the study to assure representation of the total kindergarten age range. After a fairly comprehensive review of the ini tial results, it was decided that children who had failed one or more of the.screening measures should be included as a subgroup for further study. In brief, the subgroup con sisted of 18 children who had been dropped as subjects due to failure on one or more of the screening measures and these subjects were tested, using the experimental test bat tery, to provide performance comparisons. Lists of all of the subjects participating in the study were given to the speech therapist at each school. The therapists were asked to indicate which subjects were currently enrolled in the school speech therapy program. None of the subjects who passed the screening criteria was enrolled in speech therapy. Of the 18 subjects who formed the subgroup and who failed the screening criteria, 8 were found to be part of the ongoing speech therapy caseload, or were on the waiting list for speech therapy or waiting for a complete speech and language evaluation. 31 J Procedures i Auditory Measures For the 60 subjects who formed the main group for study, it was necessary to obtain evidence.that each subject was free from hearing impairment, problems in auditory dis crimination, and/or problems with auditory memory span be cause such problems would confound the study findings. Both principals requested that the school nurse's hearing screen ing records be used rather than retesting the selected sub jects as part of the screening procedures. This request was respected and care was taken to ensure that each of the 60 subjects in the main group in the study had passed a hearing screening evaluation within 4 months of the date of testing. For the record, the 18 students who formed the subgroup for study also had passed the hearing screening evaluation within 4 months of the date of testing. All subjects were screened at 20 dB re: ISO standards at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz. The Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test was adminis tered to assure that all subjects in the main group re sponded. adequately to auditory discrimination tasks. This test is designed to determine a child's ability to discrimi nate fine differences between certain English phonemes 32 (e.g.7 /t/ and /k/). The Auditory Discrimination Test re- j ------------------------------------ I t quires approximately 5 minutes to administer, is easy to score, and is designed for use with children 5 years of age or older. The test consists of 40 pairs of words which are presented auditorially. The subject must indicate whether the words in each pair are the same or different. There are 30 pairs of words that differ in a single phoneme in each pair (e.g., tub/tug) and 10 pairs of words that are the same (e.g., zest/zest). Sounds for comparison occur in the ini tial, medial, and final position of words. In scoring, only the 30 word pairs with differing phonemes are counted. Wepman (1958) stated that the 10 same-word pairs are used only as a validity judgment for the test. The 60 subjects in the main group for study all passed this screening mea sure, while 17 of the 18 subjects in the subgroup failed to pass this screening criterion. The Auditory Sequential Memory subtest of the Illi nois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities was used to assess auditory memory span. In this subtest, a child is asked to repeat sequences of digits of increasing length from two to eight digits which are presented at a rate of two digits per second. A table is provided in the examiner's manual for converting raw scores to psycholinguistic age norms. The 33 60 subjects in the main group passed this subtest (i.e., j obtained a psycholinguistic age level at or above their chronological age), while 12 of the 18 subjects in the sub group failed to meet the minimum psycholinguistic age criterion. Visual Measures The study also required subjects to evaluate visual stimuli. Therefore it was necessary to determine if each subject had adequate visual acuity. Again, because visual acuity evaluations had been conducted by the school nurse, the school's visual screening records were reviewed. Each child selected for the study— the 60 subjects in the main group and the 18 subjects in the subgroup— had passed a visual screening evaluation with 4 months of the date of testing. Receptive Language Measures The Peabody Picture Vocabulary. Test (PPVT) was used as a screening measure because it involves tasks similar to those experimental measures designed for this study. The PPVT is described as a measure of receptive verbal abilities and is widely used in school speech and hearing programs. The results of this test are familiar to classroom teachers, 34 principals, and specialists in speech and language pathology] [The test is comparatively easy to administer and to score. Total time required for testing each subject is approxi mately 15 minutes. The PPVT was administered according to instructions in the test manual (Dunn, 1965) . Each page of the test booklet has four pictures composed of black line drawings on a white background. The child listens while the examiner reads the vocabulary list of words for the PPVT. Upon hear ing each word, the child must select the one picture on each Ipage that depicts the vocabulary word presented by the exam iner. Only one of the four pictures is the correct response. Tables are provided in the test manual for converting a raw score into a verbal intelligence quotient. Each child in the main group and the subgroup passed this screening criterion (i.e., obtained a verbal intelli gence quotient of 85 or above). Test Schedule Testing was divided into two sessions: screening measures were administered during the first session,; experi mental measures during the second session. This was done to provide optimum conditions for attending to the tasks presented and to reduce as much as possible the factor of 35 jfatigue. Screening and experimental test sessions were I I scheduled 2 days apart to assure age consistency. The youngest kindergarten children were tested at the beginning of the day to minimize the fatigue factor. The 30 alternate subjects (i.e., the 5 males and the 5 females at each grade level) selected during the random sampling procedure were substituted if the selected subjects [were absent on the scheduled day for testing. The subjects I were always of comparable age and sex and all other criteria selection factors were held constant. Seven subjects who met the screening criteria were absent when the experimental test battery was administered. Alternate test days were scheduled and for each subject the time interval between screening and experimental test sessions did not exceed 5 days. Subjects were tested individually in rooms designed for remedial work with children, including: appropriate sized tables and chairs, good lighting, absence of extrane ous visual and auditory stimuli, and availability of neces sary electrical outlets for equipment. Test schedules were prearranged with school personnel, including the principal, teachers, and secretaries, to ensure room availability and to avoid conflict of schedules with school or classroom 36 events such as assemblies, field trips, and group testing. Notice of time, place, and name of child were placed in each teacher's mailbox on the day of testing. Experimental Measures Three types of materials were developed for this study. Auditory material consisted of a taped presentation of 30 sentences, the verbal material was 3 sets of sen tences, each set containing 10 sentences, and the visual material included a series of 30 black line drawing response cards. The auditory stimuli consisted of 30 taped sentences presented by a female speaker exhibiting a variety of pitch, rate, loudness and voice quality patterns (i.e., high-low, fast-slow, loud-soft), and different emotional states (i.e., happy, sad, and mad). The two sample tapes consisted of a woman laughing followed by a woman crying. The speaker is an experienced speech and language pathologist. One female speaker was selected because young children are in contact with females.more than males (i.e., mother, baby sitters, and early elementary teachers are generally females). Time was an important consideration, therefore the experimental battery was designed to minimize fatigue as much as possible. The test tape was made in an IAC chamber to provide 37 maximum quiet and minimal background noise. A Uher 4 000 I Report-L tape recorder was selected for use in this study because the examiner was able to start and stop the tape manually using a push-button control, creating a minimum of distraction for the child. Verbal material consisted of 3 sets of sentences, each set containing 10 sentences. The first set of sen tences was designed to contain no emotionally weighted words (see Appendix A). The female speaker who served as a vocal source for the experimental tapes presented the test sen tences while employing vocal characteristics simulating anger, happiness, and sadness, and the contrasting voice qualities of a young and an older woman. Upon completion, this experimental tape was considered appropriate for use in the assessment of whether the selected subjects could accu rately identify nonverbal auditory cues in messages. The second taped set of sentences contained emo tionally weighted words (see Appendix A). Of the 10 sen tences, 3 were presented in a manner whereby the emotional tone of voice reflected the emotionally laden word in the sentence (e.g., "That's a pretty dress," delivered in a pleasant tone of voice). Seven of the sentences were pre sented in a manner where the emotional tone of voice 38 conflicted with the emotionally weighted word or the emo tional tone of the sentence (e.g., "I am very happy," de livered in an angry tone of voice). This set of taped sen tences was considered appropriate for determining whether the selected subjects responded to what was said or how it was said. The final set of sentences included comments or com mands frequently heard by children during the course of a school day (see Appendix A). Verbal commands conflicted with the vocal presentation (e.g., "Run and get your book" was delivered in a slow, quiet manner— or a compliment was delivered with sarcasm). These sentences were designed to elicit the child's feelings in response to the comments or his reactions to the commands. For instance, in response to the sentence "Run and get your book," would the child indi cate he would "run" as verbally commanded or "walk" as sug gested by the manner of production? Again, these responses were considered appropriate for determining whether the sub ject's initial response was to the content of the message or the manner in which it was produced. Twenty sentences were selected for a second presen tation to the subjects. This material included six sen tences from Set I, four sentences from Set II, and all of 39 jthe sentences in Set III. The six sentences from Set I re peated one presentation of each emotional feeling expressed in that set. The four sentences from Set II gave the sub jects one example of each inconsistency between emotionally weighted words and vocal characteristics in that section. All of the sentences in Set III were included to get the maximum number of responses regarding the subject's feelings and reactions. The experimental materials were not judged by a panel of children and/or adults prior to testing in order to obtain labels for the pictures and vocal characteristics. Unlike other studies involving nonverbal aspects of vocal communication, the subjects in this study were not asked to label the pictures prior to testing. This absence of labels was intentional to avoid providing subjects with a percep tual set or predisposed expectation regarding the experi mental materials and to avoid limiting the subjects' re sponses to the material. The visual material consisted of three sets of black line drawings on a white background (see Appendix B). The response cards were 8^" by 11" in size; each card contained two pictures. The pictures were drawn by a commercial artist who was experienced in drawing the human face and 40 figure. The sets of response cards were coordinated with the three sets of sentences described above (i.e., ten cards per set with one card designed specifically for each sen tence) . The sample picture for Trial I and Trial II de picted a woman laughing and a woman crying. Description of Response Cards Set I pictures included drawings of a woman from the neck up depicting the facial expressions characteristic of the emotions happy, sad, mean, nice, and mad, and the pic tures of a young and an old woman. Set II contained the same pictures as Set I, but used only the facial expressions mad, nice, mean, and happy. Set III contained two types of drawings of children. One type depicted a child running or walking. The second type showed a child from the neck up expressing the feelings mad, happy, surprised, and sad. Pictures corresponding to the 20 sentences selected for a second presentation were tabbed and numbered from easy administration. Procedures The following instructions and procedures were used in the experimental measures. 41 Sample We are going to look at some pictures and listen to a lady talking on the tape recorder. I want you to listen carefully and show me which lady you think you hear on the tape [examiner points to each picture to make sure the subject sees both alternatives]. Ready? Listen. Play Sample Tape I— lady laughing. Which lady did you hear on the tape? Very good, the lady was laughing. Listen again, and show me which lady you hear on the tape. Play Sample Tape II— lady crying. Which lady did you hear that time? That's right, the lady was crying. Because all subjects responded to the sample tapes correctly on the first trial, a second presentation of the sample material was not necessary. Subjects were asked if they could hear the tape clearly and all subjects replied affirmatively. The experimental materials were then pre sented in the following manner. Set I Let's look at the rest of my pictures. Listen and show me which lady you think is talking. Comments such as "Listen," "Ready?" or a repetition of the instructions were administered during the presenta tion of the 10 sentences in Set I, depending on the child's attention to the task. Responses were recorded on the 42 record form (see Appendix A). Sentences were presented one time, since only the subject's immediate and initial re sponse was recorded. Set II sentences were administered with the same instructions and in the same manner as Set I sentences. Set III sentences were introduced as follows: This time we are going to do something differ ent. I want you to listen and then show me what you would do or how you would feel if someone said this to you. Each sentence was then preceded by one of the two following statements: 1. Listen, and show me what you would do. or 2. Listen, and show me how you would feel. Instructions preceded each sentence in Set III, since the responses varied between how the child would feel and how he would respond physically. Upon completion of the 3 sets of sentences, the 20 sentences selected for a second presentation were adminis tered, using the following instructions: Listen, and tell me why you think this is the lady on the tape. (Examiner points to the pic ture the subject selected during the initial presentation.) All 20 sentences were then played for the subject and his or her responses were recorded in detail and in 43 jWriting by the examiner. This procedure allowed the sub- i jects to assign their own labels to the pictures and the vocal characteristics they heard on the tape. Method of Analysis The data were subjected to a factor analysis of the 30 items in the test battery and a correlation analysis among the seledted variables age, sex, verbal intelligence, auditory discrimination, auditory memory, and performance on the test battery. A factor analysis was run on Items 1 through 10 and 11 through 30 to isolate the significant components of a message used by children to identify nonverbal auditory cues or to establish the meaning of spoken messages. A series of correlational matrices was prepared to consider relations among variables as viewed from different reference points. Correlations were run in.the following manner: (a) on all subjects (n = 78), using all of the experimental test items (1 through 30); (b) on all subjects in the main group (n = 6 0), using all of the test items (Items 1 through 10 and Items 11 through 30); and (c) on the subgroup (n = 18) , using all the''items (Item 1 through 10 and Items 11 through 30) . Only correlations with a 44 significance level of .05 or below were considered pertinent to this study. Chapter IV presents the results of the factor analysis on Items 1 through 30 and the correlation analysis. 45 CHAPTER IV RESULTS The total sample consisted of 7 8 subjects, 41 males and 37 females. The average age was 6 years 9 months. The total n was divided into two groups: subjects in the main group (n = 60) passed all of the screening measures; sub jects in the subgroup (n = 18) failed one or more of the screening measures, but were added to the study to provide performance comparisons. The main group contained an equal number of males and females with a mean age of 6 years 8 months. The subgroup had 11 males and 7 females with a mean age of 6 years 9 months. The main group (Table 1) scored higher than the subgroup (Table 2) on the Wepman, the ITPA Digit Span subtest, and the PPVT, which were the screening measures. Information Related to Questions Question 1. Do young children accurately identify nonverbal auditory cues in messages? Judging by an average score of 9 correct out of 10 items designed to test this ability, it appears that chil- 46 Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations for the Main Group (n = 60) Variable Mean Standard Deviation Age 82.4 10.38 Sex 1.5 0.50 Wepman 27.77 1.56 ITPA (Digit Span) 104.87 16.44 PPVT (Mental Age.). ' 100.13 20.27 PPVT (Verbal IQ) 113.93 13.24 Right/Wrong Ratio 1.43 0. 73 Table 2 Means and Standard Deviations for the (n = 18) Subgroup Variable Mean Standard Deviation Age 83.33 11.69 Sex 1.39 0.50 Wepman 21.22 4. 55 ITPA (Digit Span) 82. 05 23.73 PPVT (Mental Age) 97. 33 17.94 PPVT (Verbal IQ) 110.28 11.14 Right/Wrong Ratio 1. 67 1.91 47 jdren in the selected age bracket do have a concept of what vocal attributes characterize feelings of sadness, anger, happiness, and meanness, or denote young and old voices. Question 2: What components of the spoken message determine the manner in which young children respond? Two factor analyses were run on the data using ex perimental items 1 through 10 and 11 through 30 (see Tables 3 and 4). Items 1 through 10 were designed to test the accuracy of young children in identifying nonverbal auditory cues in messages. Items 11 through 30 were designed to explore whether children respond to what is said or how it is said. Variables 1 Through 10 From variables 1 through 10, four factors were derived, which together accounted for the total variance. Factor 1.— The first component, which accounted for 46.5 percent of the total variance, had four variables with high loadings ranging from .92 to .40. The significant fac tors dealt with voice qualities consistently identified by the subjects as "mad." The factor with the greatest loading (.92) involved a quiet, slow voice, which indicated to the subjects that the speaker was at "the end of the rope." 48 Table 3 Factor Analysis for Experimental Test Items 1 Through 10 Item Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 1 0.1568 0.8488 -0.1385 -0.2380 2 -0.4530 0.2447 -0.3565 0.2711 3 0.0257 -0.3941 -0.1668 -0.0291 4 0.0566 -0.0910 0.0387 0.0242 5 -0.1371 -0.1570 -0.0617 -0.3188 6 -0.5873 0.1803 0.6537 0.0644 7 0.4003 -0.2162 0.1362 -0.2358 8 0.9196 0.1551 0.1812 0.3035 9 -0.0807 -0.0994 0.0119 0.1197 10 -0.1156 -0.1152 -0.1518 0.1857 Table 4 Factor Analysis for Experimental Test Items 11 Through 30 Item Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 Factor 5 Factor 6 11 0.6317 0.0378 0.0264 0.1352 0.2600 -0.0625 12 -0.5339 -0.2695 0.2187 -0.3406 0.0628 0.3150 13 0.5606 -0.0311 0.1279 0.0144 -0.2363 0.4961 14 -0.1800 -0.0290 -0.2946 -0.0833 0.1683 -0.1357 15 0.0444 0.1536 0.0360 0.1766 0.1488 -0.1399 16 0.3581 0.1392 0.2035 0.0711 0.0034 -0.1010 17 0.2127 -0.0089 -0.4776 -0.0749 0.0531 0.3962 18 0.0740 -0.1279 0.0617 -0.0222 0.6460 0.1643 19 0.1661 -0.1273 -0.3006 -0.0719 -0.2336 0.2757 20 0.6286 0.0765 0.2753 -0.0083 0.1023 -0.9940 21 0.1101 -0.0765 0.0374 0.0596 -0.3514 -0.1610 22 -0.1412 0.3554 0.2385 0.4519 -0.1186 0.2509 23 -0.2227 0.5299 -0.1497 0.1048 0.0927 0.1537 24 0.0981 -0.3677 0.1605 -0.1835 0.0962 0.0557 25 -0.1590 -0.3207 0.3391 0.2371 0.1507 -0.0941 26 -0.1479 -0.3860 -0.1124 0.3571 0.3161 0.2542 27 -0.2265 0.6668 0.1142 0.0839 -0.0162 0.0460 28 0.0517 0.2958 0.3682 -0.6858 0.0823 0.0576 29 0.0540 0.0929 0.2775 0.0426 0.0364 0.2522 30 0.2393 0.2265 -0.4827 -0.1987 0.1505 -0.1420 50 ! Subjects labeled the speaker as "tired" or "sad," but re gardless of the label there was great agreement that the speaker was to be left alone. Factor 2.— The second component accounted for 25 percent of the total variance. Two factors with loadings of .61 and .42 were delivered in a pleasant tone of voice with normal rate and loudness, thus making voice quality the sig nificant factor again. Factor 3.— A third component was identified as a loudness factor. Two variables with loadings of .65 and .36 accounted for 17.8 percent of the variance. These two items were delivered in the loudest tone of voice of all ten itemsJ Factor 4.— A fourth factor had only minor loadings of .32 and .30 and accounted for 11.3 percent of the vari ance. This factor is related to rate, as these two vari ables were delivered slowly. Findings Related toy^ Variables 1' Through'. 10 In identifying nonverbal auditory cues in messages, it appears that voice quality is the most significant com ponent, while loudness and rate are components of lesser importance. Pitch does not appear to be a significant com ponent. c-. Variables 11 Through 30 The factor analysis for variables 11 through 30 yielded eight factors, of which six factors, representing 87.3 percent of the total variance, were studied. Factor 1.— This factor accounted for 20.5 percent of the variance, with loadings ranging from .63 to .53. The inconsistency of the message was the significant aspect in these variables. The intonation message was inconsistent with the semantic message (e.g., the subject heard the statement "I am very happy" delivered in an angry tone of voice). Factor 2.— This factor had three outstanding vari ables with loadings of .67, .53, and .50. This factor rep resented 19.5 percent of the variance and involved the rate of the messages. These variables involved the three mes sages designed specifically to study the effect of rate on the interpretation of spoken messages. Factor 3.— Two variables with loadings of .48 and .48 were important in this factor. They accounted for 14 percent of the variance. The content of the message was the significant component, as each statement involved a closing off or dismissal statement made by the speaker (e.g., "Thank 52 you very much"). j t i ! Factor 4.— The fourth factor represented 12.4 per cent of the variance. Two significant variables whose load ings were polarized (-.68 and .45) involved the loudness of the message. The variable with the loading of -.68 was de livered in the softest tone of voice for these 20 items, while the variable with a loading of .45 was delivered in the loudest tone of voice. Factor 5.— With the fifth factor, the content of the ■message appeared to be significant. Three variables with loadings of .65, .35, and .32 accounted for 10.6 percent of the variance. The statements involved in these three vari ables were messages of approval or disapproval expressed by the speaker. Factor 6.— The sixth factor had three significant variables with loadings of .50, .40, and .31, which accounted for 10.3 percent of the variance. These variables were re lated to voice quality. Findings Related to Variables 11 Through 3 0 In studying whether the linguistic or the intonation aspect of a message determines the meaning for the child, it 53 seems clear that content is the most important component. Inconsistent messages (i.e., linguistic content the opposite of the emotions expressed vocally) accounted for 20.5 per cent of the total variance. Factors 3 and 5 cumulatively represented 24 percent of the total variance and involved the content of the message. Factor 3 contained closing off, dismissal statements, and Factor 5 involved approval or dis approval statements. Rate also was a significant component, representing 19.5 percent of the variance. Loudness again was a minor factor, representing 12.4 percent of the vari ance. Voice quality accounted for 10.3 percent of the variance. Question 3. Is age a factor in the ability to accurately identify nonverbal auditory cues in messages? Age was not a factor in determining the ability of subjects to identify nonverbal auditory cues in messages for the total group (n = 78), the main group (n = 60), or for the subgroup (n = 18) (see Tables 5, 6, and 7). Question 4. Is a difference in sex a factor in the ability to accurately identify nonverbal auditory cues in messages? A difference in sex did not prove to be a factor in the ability to accurately identify nonverbal auditory cues in messages for the total group, the main group, or the 54 Isubgroup (Tables 5, 6, and 7). { Question 5. Are verbal intelligence, auditory discrimina tion, and auditory memory skills factors in the ability to accurately identify nonverbal audi tory cues in messages? Items 1 through 10 were designed to determine whether young children accurately identify nonverbal audi tory cues in messages. Using the total sample, the following variables were found to correlate with performance on the experimental test (battery (Table 7): (1) auditory memory span as measured by the ITPA psycholinguistic age score on the .001 level, and (2) the mental age of the PPVT and the verbal intelligence quotient of the PPVT at the .01 level of significance. For the main group (Table 5) the following variables correlated with performance on the experimental measures: (1) auditory discrimination skills correlated negatively at the .02 level, (2) auditory memory span correlated positively at the .03 level of significance, and (3) the mental age of the PPVT and the verbal intelligence quotient of the PPVT at the .05 level. Two variables correlated with performance for the subgroup subjects: (1) auditory memory span at the .01 level, and (2) the mental age of the PPVT at the .02 level of significance (Table 6). 55 Table 5 Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Main Group (n = 60) on Items 1 Through 10 Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 " ■ 1. Age (Months) 1.0000 2. Sex (Male 1; Female-2) -0.1685 1.0000 3. Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test -0.6174 0.1455 1.0000 4. ITPA (Digit Span) 0.4424 0.0184 -0.2348 1.0000 5. PPVT (Mental Age) 0.6050 -0.1559 -0.5355 0.3327 1.0000 6. PPVT (Verbal IQ) 0.0482 -0.1269 -0.2926 0.1058 0.7876 1.0000 7. Right/Wrong Ratio 0.1373 -0.0939 -0.3762 0.3517 0.2085 0.3008 1.0000 Ui .O' Table 6 Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Subgroup {n = 18) on Items 1 Through 10 Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Age (Months) 1.0000 2. Sex (Male 1; Female 2) -0.0234 1.0000 3. Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test -0.1167 -0.3784 1.0000 4. ITPA (Digit Span) 0.4002 0.0821 -0.1344 1.0000 5. PPVT (Mental Age) 0.6221 -0.1460 -0.2007 0.2177 1.0000 6. PPVT (Verbal IQ) 0.0928 -0.2205 -0.2129 -0.0348 0.8096 1.0000 7. Right/Wrong Ratio 0.3566 -0,0855 -0.0352 0.6389 0.5557 0.2865 1.0000 Table 7 Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Total Sample (n = 78) on Items 1 Through 10 Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Age (Months) 1.0000 2. Sex (Male 1; Female 2) -0.1357 1.0000 3. Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test -0.1469 -0.1548 1.0000 4. ITPA (Digit Span) 0.3585 0.0761 -0.4091 1.0000 5. PPVT (Mental Age) 0.6020 -0.1471 -0.2197 0.2881 1.0000 6. PPVT (Verbal IQ) 0.0524 -0.1317 -0.2077 0.1159 0.7914 1.0000 7. Right/Wrong Ratio 0.1733 -0.0423 -0.1717 0.4712 0.3620 0.3245 1.0000 j Verbal intelligence, auditory discrimination, and auditory memory skills were found to be factors in the abil ity to accurately identify nonverbal auditory cues in mes sages. For the total sample, auditory memory span and ver bal intelligence were correlated with performance on the experimental test battery. All three factors correlated with performance by the main group, while auditory memory span and mental age on the PPVT correlated with performance by the subgroup. Question 6. Does attention to the linguistic content as opposed to the nonverbal content of a message increase with age? Items 11 through 30 were designed to determine whether young children respond to what is said or how it is said. For the main group, age correlated with performance on the experimental measures at the .02 level of signifi cance (see Table 8). For the total sample and for the sub group, age was not a factor in performance on the experi mental test battery (see Tables 9 and 10). Question 7. Is a difference in sex a factor in determining whether children attend to the linguistic con tent as opposed to the nonverbal content of a message? A difference in sex was not found to be a factor in 59 i 09 Table 8 Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Main Group (n = 60) on Items 11 Through 30 Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Age (Months) 1.0000 2. Sex (Male 1; Female 2) -0.1685 1.0000 3. Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test -0.6174 0.1455 1.0000 4. ITPA (Digit Span) 0. 44 24-' 0.0184 -0.2348 1.0000 5. PPVT (Mental Age) 0.6050 -0.1559 -0.5355 0.3327 1.0000 6. PPVT (Verbal IQ) 0.0482 -0.1269 -0.2926 0.1058 0.7876 1.0000 7. Right/Wrong Ratio 0.2779 0.0130 -0.3264 0.0585 0.2304 0.0862 1.0000 Table 9 Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Subgroup (n = 18) on Items 11 Through 30 Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Age (Months) 1.0000 2. Sex (Male 1; Female 2) -0.0234 1.0000 3. Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test -0.1167 -0.3784 1.0000 4. ITPA (Digit Span) 0.4002 0.0821 0.1344 1.0000 5. PPVT (Mental Age) 0.6221 -0.1460 -0.2007 0.2177' 1.0000 6. PPVT (Verbal IQ) 0.0928 -0.2205 -0.2129 0.8096 0.8096 1.0000 7. Right/Wrong Ratio -0.2375 0.3058 -0.0266 -0.3371 -0.3371 0.3168 1.0000 Table 10 Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Total Sample (n = 78) on Items 11 Through 30 Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Age (Months) 1.0000 2. Sex (Male 1; Female 2) -0.1357 1.0000 3. Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test -0.1469 -0.1548 1.0000 4. ITPA (Digit Span) 0.3585 0.0761 -0.4091 1.0000 5. PPVT (Mental Age) 0.6020 -0.1471 -0.2197 0.2881 1.0000 6. PPVT (Verbal IQ) 0.0524 -0.1317 -0.2077 0.1159 0.7914 1.0000 7. Right/Wrong Ratio 0.0416 0.1141 0.0010 0.1808 -0.0022 -0.0022 1.0000 L _ determining whether children attend to the linguistic con tent as opposed to the nonverbal content of a message (Tables 8, 9, and 10). Question 8. Are verbal intelligence, auditory discrimina tion, and/or auditory memory skills factors in determining whether children attend to the lin guistic content as opposed to the nonverbal content of a message? For the main group, auditory discrimination abili ties correlated negatively with performance on the experi mental measures at the .01 level, while the mental age of the PPVT correlated with performance for this group at the .04 level (Table 8). Statistics for the subgroup yielded a significant correlation between auditory memory span and performance at the .03 level (Table 9). Correlations Between Groups Further correlations were run using all test items (1 through 30) and all of the subjects (n = 78). Auditory memory span was correlated with performance on the experi mental battery at the .02 level of significance (Table 11). When considering performance on all test items by the two groups of the total sample, several factors were found to be significant. Performance of the main group (Table 12) on the experimental battery was found to correlate negatively 63 Table 11 Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Total Sample (n = 78) on All Test Items Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Age (Months) 1.0000 2. Sex (Male 1; Female 2) -0.1357 1.0000 3. Wepman Auditory' Discrimination Test -0.1469 -0.1548 1.0000 4. ITPA (Digit Span) 0.3585 0.0761 -0.4091 1.0000 5. PPVT (Mental Age) 0.6020 -0.1471 -0.2197 0.2881 1.0000 6. PPVT (Verbal IQ) 0.0524 -0.1317 -0.2077 0.1159 0.7914 1.0000 7. Right/Wrong Ratio 0.0472 0.1321 -0.0450 0.2350 0.0193 -0.0360 1.0000 Table 12 Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Main Group (n = 60) on All Test Items Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Age (Months) 1.0000 2. Sex (Male 1; Female 2) -0.1685 1.0000 3. Wepman Auditory’ Discrimination Test -0.6174 0.1455 1.0000 4. ITPA (Digit Span) 0.4424 0.0184 -0.2348 1.0000 5. PPVT (Mental Age) 0.6050 -0.1559 -0.5355 0.3327 1.0000 6. PPVT (Verbal IQ) 0.0482 -0.1269 -0.2926 0.1058 0.7876 1.0000 7. Right/Wrong Ratio 0.3194 0.0023 0.4226 0.1401 0.2750 0.1445 1.0000 ' U \ Ul with auditory discrimination abilities at the .001 level. Total group performance further correlated positively with the mental age on the PPVT at the .02 level and with chrono logical age at the .01 level of significance. None of the factors correlated with performance for the subgroup when using all 30 items (Table 13). 66 Table 13 Product Moment Correlation Matrix of 7 Variables for the Subgroup (n = 18) on All Test Items Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Age (Months) 1.0000 2. Sex (Male 1; Female 2) -0.0234 1.0000 3. Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test -0.1167 -0.3784 1.0000 4. ITPA (Digit Span) 0.4002 0.0821 -0.1344 1.0000 5. PPVT (Mental Age) 0.6221 -0.1460 -0.2007 0.2177 1.0000 6. PPVT (Verbal IQ) 0.0928 -0.2205 -0.2129 -0.0348 0.8096 1.0000 7. Right/Wrong Ratio -0.2459 0.3503 -0.0495 0.4656 -0.3251 -0.2966 1.0000 CHAPTER V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS Summary Purpose The purpose of this two-stage exploratory study was to seek answers to two primary questions: (1) Do children identify selected nonverbal auditory cues in messages? and (2) Do children respond to the content or to context of messages? Method The sample included 7 8 subjects assigned to two groups; a primary and a secondary sample. The primary sam ple consisted of 60 subjects who had scored adequately on the auditory processing and verbal intelligence measures as contained in the Digit Span subtest of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities, the Wepman Auditory Discrimina tion Test, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The 18 subjects in the secondary sample had failed one or more of the screening measures but were included to provide 68 (performance comparisons. None of the subjects had been classified by the school nurse as visually or auditorially impaired. The verbal experimental measures constructed for this study consisted of 3 sets of taped messages using a female voice. Each set contained 10 messages, a total of 30 experimental sentences. The Set I sentences contained no emotionally weighted words; the Set II sentences con tained emotionally weighted words; 3 of the 10 sentences were presented in a tone of voice that appropriate reflected the emotional tone expected and 7 of the 10 sentences were presented in a tone of voice that conflicted with the tone expected. The Set III sentences included comments or com mands frequently heard by children during the course of a school day. Verbal commands conflicted with the vocal presentation. The experimental visual materials constructed for this study consisted of 3 sets of pictures with 2 drawings per picture. Each set contained 10 pictures for a total of 30 experimental pictures. Set I pictures included 7 draw ings of a woman's face depicting various facial expressions and 3 drawings of a young and an old woman. The Set II pic tures contained the same drawings as Set I but only the 69 drawings showing various facial expressions were used, omitting the young/old contrast. Set III pictures contained 4 pictures with drawings of a child running or walking and 6 pictures with drawings of a child's face depicting various expressions. Subjects were asked to listen to 30 taped sentences and to indicate which of the 2 drawings best depicted the speaker. Labels were not applied to either the visual or auditory stimuli in the experimental battery until all items had been presented. Twenty sentences, selected for a second presentation to the subjects, contained a sampling of the vocal characteristics presented in the 3 0 sentences. After listening to the second presentation, subjects were asked why they had selected a particular drawing. Results Factor analyses of the Set I item and the context items isolated the significant components used by children to identify nonverbal auditory cues in messages. Correla tions among the variables which were significant at the .05 level were utilized to identify the variables associated with the ability to discriminate among the types of cues. The results of the factor analysis on Items 1 through 30 and the correlation analysis yielded the follow 70 ing results: 1. Children in the selected age bracket (5 years 2 months— 8 years 2 months) were able to accurately identify nonverbal auditory cues in messages, as evidenced by an average score of 90 percent on the cue test. Factor analy sis on the cue test indicated that voice quality is the most significant component in determining children's identifica tion of nonverbal auditory cues in messages. 2. Factor analysis on the context test indicated that the content of a message, when compared to the content, was the most important cue in determining the meaning of a message. Rate was a factor of secondary importance, while loudness and voice quality were not identified as signifi cant factors. '3. Examination of the correlation matrix for the cue test indicated auditory memory span, mental age, and verbal intelligence correlated with performance. There was a negative correlation between auditory discrimination abil ities and performance on the cue test, while mental age, verball intelligence, and auditory memory span were posi tively correlated with performance. 4. Correlation matrices for the context test sug gested factors which determine whether young children 71 respond to what is said or how it is said. Age correlated with performance on the context test for the primary group but not for the secondary group. For the primary group, auditory discrimination skills correlated negatively with performance on the experimental measures, while mental age correlated positively with performance. Statistics for the secondary group included a significant correlation between auditory memory span and performance on the context test. Conclusions The results of this study indicated that for indi viduals who work with young children, awareness of the vocal characteristics used when addressing children should be con sidered to be of major importance in the child's therapy or educational management. Voice quality seems to be the most significant factor children use to identify nonverbal audi tory cues in messages. The results also suggest that loud ness and rate should be monitored by the speaker. Children are very aware of the nonverbal auditory cues in messages. An adult's use of negative vocal cues such as too loud a voice or too fast a rate or the use of sarcastic vocal into nation trigger responses in children which suggest that the child is displeased with himself or is afraid of doing the wrong thing, thereby making the speaker angry. 72 Recommendations 1. The measures developed for this study might be of benefit in identifying acceptable modes of vocal address used by teachers, parents, speech and language pathologists, and others who work with young children from diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. Toward that goal, a younger popu lation between the ages of three and five should be tested also to determine whether children in this age bracket can perform successfully on the experimental items. Such infor mation could prove useful in determining whether these mea sures can help predict kindergarten readiness. The possi bility of using these measures to help identify children who are potentially "poor readers" should be explored, espe--.v7? cially at the kindergarten level. Additional study is indi cated in view of the fact that although all of the subjects in the secondary group were found to be reading below age level, only 7 of the 6 0 subjects in the primary group were below age level in reading skills. 2. The experimental test battery could also prove to be useful in identifying children who have difficulty processing auditory information. In comparing the verbal responses of subjects in the primary group with those of subjects in the secondary group, answers given by the 73 secondary group children considered only one aspect of the ! message. Subjects in the secondary group responded consis tently to the semantic content of the message. Often these subjects responded to only one or two words in the message; for example, in response to the sentence, "This is a poor job," three subjects said they did not want to be poor. It appeared from the verbal responses of the secondary group j subjects that they missed vocal subtleties of inconsisten cies and, therefore, they were unaware of the information provided by intonation cues such as the speaker's feelings and emotions. Subjects in the primary group were able to listen and comprehend both the semantic and intonation con tent of the message. Subjects in the primary group acknowl edged the semantic content of the message and then qualified their responses by describing the speaker's attitudes, feel ings, or emotions (e.g., by noting the speaker's sarcasm or the inconsistency between what was said and how it was said). 3. Several items in the experimental battery should be modified prior to further utilization, especially those items which might have situational or temporal bounds in terms of the possible response sets. Nevertheless, the trends found in this exploratory study strongly support the concept that the vocal intonation used by adults (especially 74 parents, educators, and therapists) to communicate orally with young children can affect the child's ever growing and hanging self-concept and further study of these trends is indicated. 75 REFERENCES 76 REFERENCES Allport, G., & Cantril, H. The psychology of radio. New York: Harper & Bros., 1935. Bateson, G., Jackson, D. D., Haley, J., & Weakland, J. H. Toward a theory of schizophrenia. Behavioral Sciences, 1956, 1, 251-264. Bergan, J. The relationships among pitch identification, imagery for musical sounds, and music memory. Journal of Research in Music Education, 1967, 15(2), 99-109. Blau, S. An ear for an eye: Sensory compensation and judg ments of affect by the blind. In J. R.. Davitz (Ed.)j The communication of emotional meaning. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964. Bolinger, D. Intonation. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1972. Boring, E. Titchener on meaning. Psychological Review, 1938, £5, 92-95. Bower, G. Analysis of a mnemonic device. American Scien tist, 1970, £8, 496-510. Bugelski, B. Words, things, and images. American Psychol ogist, 1970, 25, 1002-1012. Carroll, J. B. Review of Osgood et al., Measurement of j meaning. Language, 1959, £5, 58-77. 1 Creelman, M. The experimental investigation of meaning. ! New York: Springer, 1966. ! I Crystal, D. The English tone of voice. London: Edward J Arnold Publ., 1975. * 77 Davitz, J. R. Correlates of accuracy in the communication of feelings. Journal of Communication, 1959, 9, 110-117. Davitz, J. R. Nonverbal vocal communication of feeling. Journal of Communication, 1961, 11_, 81-86. Davitz, J. R. (Ed.). The communication of emotional meaning. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964. Davitz, J. R., & Davitz, L. The communication of feelings by content-free speech. Journal of Communication, 1959, 9, 6-13. Denes, P. A preliminary investigation of certain aspects of intonation. Language and Speech, 1959, 2_, 106-122 . Dimitrovsky, L. The ability to identify the emotional mean ing of vocal expressions at successive age levels. In J. R. Davitz (Ed.), The communication of emo tional meaning. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964. Dunn, L. Peabody picture vocabulary test. Nashville: American Guidance Service, 196 5. Eisenberg, P., & Zalowitz, E. Judging expressive movement: III— judgments of ' dominance feeling from phono graph records of voice. Journal of Applied Psy chology, 1938, 3j^, 620-663. Fairbanks, G., & Hoaglin, L. An experimental study of the durational characteristics of the voice during the expression of emotion. Speech Monographs, 1941, 8_, 85-90. Fay, P., & Middleton, W. Judgments of occupation from the voice and transmitted over a public address system and over a radio. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1939, 39, 586-601. Fay, P., & Middleton, W. Judgments of intelligence from the voice as transmitted over a public address system. Sociometry, 1940, _3, 186-191. Fay, P., & Middleton, W. The ability to judge sociability from the voice as transmitted over a public address system. Journal of Social Psychology, 1941, 13, 303-309. Fenster, C. A. , & Goldstein, A. The emotional world of children vis-a-vis the emotional world of adults: An examination of vocal communication. Journal of Communication, 1971, _21, 353-362. Gates, G. The role of the auditory element in the interpre tation of emotions. Psychological Bulletin, 1927, 4, 175. Glass, G., & Stanley, J. Statistical methods in educational psychology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970. Gordon, R. A very private world. In P. Sheehan (Ed.), The function and nature of imagery. New York: Academic Press, 1972. Horowitz, M. Image formation and cognition. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1970. Huttar, G. Relationships between prosodic variables and emotions in normal American English utterances. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 1968, 11, 481-487. Kirk, S., McCarthy, J., & Kirk, W. Illinois test of psycho- linguistic abilities. Urbana: University of. Illi nois, 1968. Mehrabian, A. When are feelings communicated inconsis tently? Journal of Experimental Research in Per sonality, 1970, 4_, 198-212. Mehrabian, A. Nonverbal communication. Chicago: Aldine- Atherton, 1972. Mehrabian, A., & Ferris, S. Inference of attitudes from nonverbal communication in two channels. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1967, 31, 248-252. Osgood, E. C., Suci, G. J. , & Tannenbaum, P . H . The measure-! ment of meaning. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1957. Paivio, A. Imagery and verbal processes. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971. Pike, K. The intonation of American English. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1945. Reese, H. Imagery in contextual meaning. Psychological Bulletin, 1970, 7J3, 415-421. Richardson, A. Mental imagery. New York: Springer Pub lishing Co., 1969. Sapir, E. Speech as a personality trait. American Journal of Sociology, 1927, 32_, 892-905. Sassoon, R. Interfering images at sentence retrieval. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1971, 89_, 36-62. Schlanger, B. Identification by normal and aphasic subjects of semantically meaningful and meaningless emo tionally toned sentences. Acta Symbolica, 1973, £, 30-38. Segal, S. Effects of imaging in six sense modalities on detection of visual signals from noise. Psycho- nomic Science, 1971, 24_, 55-56. Segal, S., & Fusella, V. Influences of imaged pictures and sounds on the detection of visual and auditory sig- nals. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1970, 83, 458-464. Segal, S., & Gordon, P. The Perky effect revisited: Block ing of visual signals by imagery. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1969, 28_, 791-797. Skinner, E. R. A calibrated recording and analysis of the pitch, force and quality of vocal tones expressing happiness and sadness, and a determination of the pitch and force of the subjective concepts of ordi nary, soft and loud tones. Speech Monographs, 1935, 2, 81-137. 80 ! Sundberg, N. A method for studying sensitivity to implied meanings. American Psychologist,. 1964, 19, 475. Uldall, Wepman, Zaidel, E. Attitudinal meanings conveyed by intonation contours. Language and Speech, 1960, 3_, 223-234. J. Auditory discrimination test. Chicago: Lan guage Research Association, 1958. S. F., & Mehrabian, A. The ability to communicate and infer positive and negative attitudes facially and vocally. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 1969, 3^, 233-241. 81 j APPENDIX A RECORDING FORMS (Test Schedule of Classroom Teachers) Dear M______________________ : Mrs. Dee Parker will be testing today in room ______ The following children from your room have been selected to participate in her study. Please have the children report at the designated time. The approximate testing time is 3 0 minutes. Thank you, (Principal's Signature) 84 CHILDREN'S ORAL RESPONSES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6 . 7. 8 . 9. 10 . 11. 12. 13 . 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 86 Set SENTENCES I Manner of Presentation 1. Look at the book. young 2. It's time to eat. mad 3. Please get my pen. nice 4. Play with the blocks. happy 5. Get in a straight line. old 6. What day is today? mad 7. How are you? mean 8. Please be quiet. sad 9. Where is the wagon? old 10. Put on your coats nice Set II 1. I am very happy. mad 2. That is a good paper. mean 3. I'm so mad at this class. happy 4. What a mess I nice 5. Everyone is being so good. happy 6. I like this paper. mad 7. What an ugly day. mean 8 . That's a pretty dress. happy 9. The flowers are beautiful. mean • o 1 —1 That is a good idea. mad Set Ill 1. Get into the building rapid speech 2. It's time for lunch. very loud 3. Walk to the bus. rapid speech 4. Run and get your book. very soft, very slow 5. This is a poor job. very kind 6. I like your picture. sarcastic 7 . Get in your seat staccato 8. You were very naughty. kind, soft, slow 9. You can go outside. mean H O • Thank you very much. kind SUBJECT # __________SCHOOL GRADE TEACHER_______ ________ AGE ____. SEX WEPMAN SCORE ITPA (Digits) PLA__________ PFVT (MA) PPVT (IQ) DATE TESTED (S)_____________ (E) Pic 1 Pic 2 Content Intonation Combinati on Unrelated 1. 2. 3- 9. 5. 6. 7. p . t 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 111. 15. 16. 17. IB. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 29. 25. 26. 27. 23. 29. 39. 1. 2. 3. 9. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13- 19. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. ANS'.’ IERS CHANGED BETWEEN TRIAL I AMD TRIAL II 1. From Content to 2. From Intonation 3» From Content to 9. From Intonation 5. From Content to 6 • From Intonation 89 APPENDIX B VISUAL RESPONSE CARDS Sample Card to Set I Card 1 Set Card 2 Set I: Card 3 I U3 U1 Set I: Card 4 VO ov Set I Card 5 <o Set I: Card 6 0 0 Set I: Card 7 Set I Card 8 GOT Set I: Card 9 Card 10 10 2 Set II: Card 1 103 Set II Card 2 104 Set II: 'Card 3 105 106 Set II: Card 5 107 | I Set II: Card 6 rsoi Set II: ! I i Card 7 ' 109 Set II: Card 8 110 Set II: i i i Card 9 111! Set II: Card 10 I-1 I-1 to„ Set III: Card 1 113 Set III Card 2 114 Set III; Card 3 SIT r\ Set III: Card 4 116 Set III Set III: Card 5 117 Set III: Card 6 118 Set III: Card 7 119 Set III: 'Card 8 120 Set III ’ Card 9 121 Set III: Card 10

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Creator Parker, Margaret Dian Minnett (author)

Core Title An exploratory investigation of responses of young children to nonverbal auditory cues in messages

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Communicative Disorders

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

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Advisor [illegible] (committee chair), Matheny, Patricia A. (committee member), Smith, J. (committee member)

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