The View From Carnegie 210

Megan Petroccia and John Mahalchak are hard at work in the lab making great progress with the eyetracker--thanks to a wonderful group of volunteers who are letting us practice tracking, running stimuli, and recording data.

We were quite excited today after collecting a great sample from a volunteer who was viewing a picture from an old children's book, The Woodland Folk in Fairyland. You can see the interesting trace of the participant's eye up the ladder, with the blue dots indicating where the eye fixated (stopped) to take in information from the picture.

We hope to have several students trained on the eyetracker by the beginning of the fall semester and to collect data for a simple visual cognition study. If you'd like to hear more about our progress, please join us for the first Cognitive Group meeting of the fall on Friday, September 5th from noon to 1:00 in Carnegie 101. Megan & John will share their summer research with us and will discuss some of our ideas for the first eyetracking study.

Tags: Eyetracker Summer Research

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Allegheny College summeR reSearch Series (ACRoSS) wrapped up on Tuesday, August 5th. Faculty and their summer research assistants were invited to present their research over a series of lunches throughout the summer. The brain-child of Professor Lee Coates and sponsored by the Dean of the College, the series was a big success and was a wonderful place for students to "test the waters" in terms of presenting their work to the scientific community at Allegheny. The series was also successful because of it's inter-disciplinary nature--research presentations derived from the fields of biology, chemistry, computer-science, environmental-science, psychology, and physics.

Our lab had the opportunity to present to the group this week. We shared work on two projects being conducted in the lab in our presentation entitled, "You Don't Say? Examining language use from psycho- and socio-linguistic perspectives."

Thanks to my students, Vincent Donofrio, Megan Petroccia, John Mahalchak, and Andrea Testa for making the lab a fun, productive environment this summer.

Find out more about the series by going to the ACRoSS website. And to learn about the kind of research we do in our lab, visit the Knupsky Cognitive Lab website.

Tags: ACRoSS Science Undergraduate Research

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As a relatively new faculty member, I am still fascinated by the kinds of requests I receive from students...and those that find me through email are particularly intriguing. It would be a mistake to try to categorize the "typical" student-request-email, however, given the variability in this type of specimen. Ranging from the topic-less and name-less, to the machinations of the most sublime wordsmiths, student-request-emails provide an endless wealth of linguistic features to consider. Still, given that the point of such an email is to obtain faculty approval or assistance of some sort, one wonders what features separate the successful from the unsuccessful requests.

Hartford & Bardovi-Harlig (1996) point out that students are placed in a unique situation when they consider the structure of their request. Specifically, the student must consider how to best protect his/her reputation as a competent member of the class (saving positive face) while simultaneously presenting the request in a way that maximizes the feedback obtained and minimizes the imposition on the professor's time (saving negative face). Juggling this mixture of goals can be quite challenging. The authors note that, in order to be successful, students must, "judge the degree of imposition...take into account the rights and obligations of the parties involved, and choose the most effective ways to influence the faculty's behavior..." (p. 55). Obviously, not all students are as effective at negotiating these requirements. These failed attempts were identified as Negative Affect Requests (NARs) and the authors suggest that they may be perceived as "rude or inappropriate" and may leave the professor with "some desire not to fulfill the request" (p. 56).

So, what separates a PAR (Positive Affect Request) from a NAR? Hartford & Bardovi-Harlig collected emails from their graduate students over the period of a year and then judged these emails on several categories including the use of linguistic forms, content, and the level of imposition. Regarding linguistic forms, they found that NARs contained more want statements, utilized "appreciate" not as an expression of gratitude, but as a part of the request itself (e.g., I'd appreciate finding out...), and showed more use of Please + Imperative (e.g., Please consider it.). In contrast, students who succeeded in creating a PAR utilized twice as many "Other" forms including "wonder" statements (e.g., I was wondering if...) and the use of mitigating words (e.g., kindly).

Continue reading "I Was Wondering..." »

Tags: E&S Notes Email Politeness Student Requests

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Warning: This entry presents a compilation of ideas derived from a variety of articles in language and memory and is not meant to reflect an exhaustive or authoritative review of the literature!

What are men doing when they communicate? This is a question that keeps popping up in my mind as I review the literature on email and gender (sex) differences in language use. The convention seems to be that a long list of "feminine" language features (read: language characteristics used by women) is presented. Then, a much shorter list of "masculine" language features (read: language characteristics used by men) is sometimes offered. Not trusting my perception of this difference, I started to keep a list of the linguistic features ascribed to females and males in my readings.

Continue reading "What are men doing when they talk/write/email?" »

Tags: Language Sex or Gender Differences

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thomson, Murachver, & Green (2001) asked, "Where is the gender in gendered language?" Arguing that previous work on sex differences in language tended to ignore the dynamic nature of language-in-use, the authors present a series of studies in which they demonstrate that the use of gender-preferential speech is highly dependent upon the sociolinguistic context, the nature of the conversational topic, and the gender salience of the recipient.

In particular, the authors utilize the Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) developed by Coupland et al. (1988) to explore the nature of sex differences in the language displayed in emails (p. 171). The basic idea is that people engaged in discussion tend to converge towards the language style used by their partner(s), increasing the similarity of the language features used among the group. Of course, in some cases, people can elect to diverge from the language style used by their partner(s), thus emphasizing the differences among the group. Furthermore, people may converge to the language style they think their partner(s) utilize, based on ideas about stereotypes or characteristics of certain social groups.

Thomson and his colleagues asked their participants to engage in a 2-week-long series of emails with 1) a partner who utilized language with typical feminine features and 2) a partner who utilized language with typical masculine features. In both cases, the email partner was actually one of the researchers. The linguistic features of the participants' emails were then coded and analyzed for signs of convergence towards the language style of the partner. Table 1 shows that when participants conversed with the "female" partner, they used feminine language features whereas when they conversed with the "male" partner, they used more masculine language features. A second experiment counterbalanced the gendered name of the partner (e.g., Jack vs. Jill) with the language style of the partner (masculine vs. feminine). Once again, the authors found evidence that participants converged towards the language style of the partner, displaying linguistic features consistent with that style. One interesting difference was that several sex differences did occur based on the participants' own gender...the authors argue that this difference could be due to a tendency to uphold one's own language style when the gender and language style of a partner do not match (p. 174).

Continue reading "The Fluidity of Gender-Preferential Language" »

Tags: Cognitive Psychology E&S Notes Email Sex or Gender Differences

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In two related articles, Colley & Todd (2002) and Colley et al. (2004) explore whether the sex differences demonstrated in speech and writing transfer into the medium of email. In particular, they reference previous research showing that females utilize more emotional language, measured through the use of indicators of excitability (!!, very) and nonessentials ( ..., "weak"). In addition, the use of hedges (I guess) and tag questions (right?) led researchers to emphasize the "weak" nature of female language. In contrast, male language has been characterized as assertive and competitive, with more opinions given, and the use of longer monologues. These differences were summarized by Tannen as rapport talk (females) versus report talk (males).

Interestingly, these apparent sex differences, common in research conducting in the '70s, have begun to fade in more recent research. Perhaps this change is best explained by the shift in focus to the function of the language act and considering the context in which it is performed. For example, tag questions can function to include the listener in a conversation and are not, in such cases, a sign of uncertainty. In terms of context, the characteristics of both the speaker and the listener, as well as the setting of and purpose for the talk, can influence the type of language displayed. Finally, I'd point out that labeling relation-building language as "weak" is a reflection of inherent cultural stereotypes, apparent even in our own discipline-specific terminology.

In any event, the questions posed by Colley and colleagues are interesting because email, as a more informal medium, could serve to increase the use of feminine language style by both females and males. For example, Colley et al. (2004) argue that, "the informal conventions of e-mails may allow women to express emotional tone" (p. 376). And, Colley & Todd (2002) argue that when writers chose to diverge from (or converge towards) the recipient, increasing the use of feminine language would be an effective way to support rapport building (p. 390). The alternative, increasing or decreasing the use of masculine language would not be effective for this purpose, especially given its "adversarial" nature.

Continue reading "Feminine and Masculine Language in Email?" »

Tags: Cognitive Psychology E&S Notes Email Sex Differences

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Writing 10 years ago about the linguistics of email, Baron (1998) examines several challenges in determining its defining features. The author considers these challenges a direct reflection of the underlying difficulty in distinguishing written from spoken language. In other words, although the casual observer may like to categorize email use as either one or the other form of communication, such an identification presupposes that one can clearly determine what defines writing and speaking in the first place. Flexibility and fluidity are defining features of language in general, and this dynamic nature is clearly represented in the modalities we utilize for the expression of language as well.

In addition to this fundamental challenge, Baron also suggests that identifying the defining features of email is difficult because, as a relatively "new" form of communication, it is a system in flux. As she notes, "Email is more a moving linguistic target than a stable system..." (p. 144).

Still, Baron conducts a thorough comparison of email to written and spoken language on four dimensions including social dynamics, format, grammar, and style. In general, Baron concludes that email is most like writing in terms of social dynamics, most like speech in its lexical features and style, and reflects a mix of writing and speech in terms of format and its use of syntax (p. 155). I wonder whether users of email appreciate this multi-faceted structure, and suspect, instead, that its informal nature pairs it with speech in the minds of most people.

Continue reading "Letters by Phone..." »

Tags: Cognitive Psychology E&S Notes Email Writing versus Speech

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Currently, I'm working on a draft of a paper based on the senior project of 2008 Allegheny Alum, Natalie Nagy. The paper examines some interesting dynamics between recipient characteristics and the personalization of emails written by undergraduates. As part of the process, I have been scouring the literature about email...its characteristics and functions...and about potential sex differences in computer-mediated communication (CMC). Over the next few weeks, I'll share some of the more interesting tidbits.

Ducheneaut & Watts (2005) present a review of 30 years of research on email from an industrial-organizational perspective. They organize this research into three levels of analysis or themes including: email as a file cabinet, email as a production facility, and email as a communication genre (p. 14). Although this classification system is largely a reflection of the development of the technology over time, the authors encourage a unification of these themes in order to establish a realistic sense of the interaction between the email interface and the email user.

In reviewing the email as a file cabinet theme, Ducheneaut & Watts point out that email is not just a new system of communication, but is also a system of management for institutional memory and task progress. For example, the authors refer to the use of the inbox as a visual reminder for tasks that need to be completed and consider the challenges of creating a filing system that will support user retrieval of important documents. What are the implications of this dual functionality (i.e., communication vs. management system)? Is this characteristic reflected in newer forms of CMC (e.g., texting, IM)?

Continue reading "You've Got Mail!" »

Tags: Cognitive Psychology E&S Notes Email

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The summer has begun and work in the lab is in full swing. I am lucky to have two full-time summer research assistants this year, as well as three students who are volunteering at various times across the summer. As I put project plans together for my students, however I am struck by how much my research program has transformed from the specialized to the general. This summer, we have quite a Renaissance lab including projects spanning the disciplines of psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, and educational psych.

Of course, this is not the first time I've recognized the change in the way I approach my work. The scope of the research in my lab is the result of a steady transformation from a narrowly focused graduate student to a multi-tasking assistant professor working at a liberal arts college.

The obvious question is what effect this transformation has had on my goals and my productivity. Realistically, it takes longer to do the leg-work involved in researching the different fields from which our projects derive. And, juggling these various projects is tricky. But, one the other hand, I feel as if I am doing exactly what I wanted to be able to do the whole time I was completing my dissertation. At that time, I dreamed of being able to go after questions that were simply interesting. The general approach has allowed both my students and I to be curious. And, with this approach, because your projects are not all connected by a common theme, they are connected instead by a commitment to strong design. Consequently, the research process becomes the real focus of your work.

A lot of very difficult challenges lay down this generalist approach...but I think the rewards can be worth the extra effort of taking this path.

Tags: Cognitive Psychology Generalist Approach Liberal Arts Summer Research

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The 5th Biennial Intramural Conference was last month (May 13-14). This was my second visit to the conference and there are several reasons why it is one of my favorite Allegheny events.

First, one of the main reasons I pursued a career in academia is because I love to learn...about most anything. I couldn't imagine a time in my life when I wouldn't be exploring new ideas. The Intramural Conference is THE place to continue this pursuit. During the busy school year, we have very few opportunities to come together to discuss our interests and research...and never without the looming stack of papers to grade or the lecture to finish. Having the opportunity to sit and listen to projects from Biology, History, English, Environmental Science, and Philosophy (just to name a few of the disciplines represented) is a rare treat.

Second, along with learning new ideas, the Intramural Conference is a great place to really get to know the faculty at Allegheny College. Conversations over breakfast, lunch, and dinner were just as important to building connections across disciplines as the post-presentation discussions.

Finally, the atmosphere of the conference seems to change drastically depending upon the combination of attendees. The difference in experience from my first visit to the conference to this year was dramatic...illustrating just how unique the conference can be.

Please see this year's program for a list of the presenters and a description of their talks. In addition, you can also download slides from my presentation on Modeling Psychological Science at a Liberal Arts College.

Tags: Allegheny College Intramural Conference Liberal Arts Psychological Science

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Goodbye to everything I thought I knew...

A fond farewell to my fabulous 2008 comp group! I enjoyed getting to know each of you and it was an honor to work with you all to complete projects that were meaningful, well-designed, and unique. You have certainly created a legacy in terms of fruitful research questions and designs and I hope you will stay in touch to see where future students take your ideas. I am proud of the research community that you have all helped to generate.

Good luck in your future endeavors--please check in often to share your adventures, passions, and achievements.

Tags: 2008 Senior Comp Graduates

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For pictures from the WPUPC, please follow the link at the end of the entry.

At 7:00 in the morning, on Saturday, April 26, a sleepy, but excited group of Allegheny students pulled out of the Carnegie Hall parking lot with the goal of presenting their senior comprehenisvie projects at the Western Pennslyvania Undergraduate Psychology Conference. For the last three decades, the WPUPC has hosted students from around the area and has fostered the scientific process of peer review and collaboration. Attendance at the event has continued to grow and this year was no exception. At least 84 students presented posters at the conference and another 36 students gave paper presentations to standing-room-only audiences.

Among the group were 11 students who ran their projects in the Cognitive Lab with Professor Knupsky (2 of our lab mates could not join us due to prior commitments). The consensus among the group was that the conference was a worthwhile experience and that attending the event seemed to bring home the sense of being connected to the scientific community. For example, senior Katie Cross shared that, " Presenting at the conference really brought the comp process to life. I now see my research as a piece of work that fits in with previous research, not just a project I did to graduate. It is rewarding to see others genuinely interested in my research questions and results."

Other students were proud of the quality and independence of the projects presented by the Allegheny contingent. For example, senior Rachel Learned observed that, "[other] projects did not always seem to have the same passion and knowledge behind them as we do with our senior projects. Allegheny gives us the opportunity of an independent project. And, psychology professors allow us to do OUR research. They help us along and give us support, but it is truly our research question, method...being able to design and run your own research is very valuable, and such a unique opportunity. Learning and conducting research is a much more positive and memorable experience when it is enjoyable and interesting to you."

To learn more about the posters and papers presented by our lab, please continue reading for links to their projects as well as pictures from the event...

Continue reading "Sharing Our Stories: Attending the WPUPC" »

Tags: Cognitive Student Research Western Pennsylvania Undergraduate Psychology Conference

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For more pictures of the NSSA trip to Vegas, please follow the link at the end of the entry.

Well, obviously, the NSSA (National Social Science Association) conference goers made it back! After quite a hectic four days, we all jumped back on a plane to Pittsburgh and have rejoined the Allegheny community for that last push before the end of the academic year. However, for those of you who were not able to join us, please utilize the following resources to learn about the projects presented by your fellow Allegheny classmates. Please note that the podcast sound is very soft, turn up your volume to hear the talks.

Professor Carla Bluhm and Seniors Dan Goldstein and Sarah Winter
Second Life, Second Chance: Virtual Reality in the College Psychology Classroom.
A qualitative study of college student's reactions to being asked to engage in a virtual world such as Second Life, in their psychology class. For the podcast of their talk, please listen to Second Life.

Professor Aimee Knupsky
Extending the Conversation: The Use of Blogs in a First-Year Experience Course at Allegheny College.
Strategies for utilizing blogging as a way to extend educational discourse beyond the classroom and to foster the creativity of student voices. For the PowerPoint slides for this talk, please see Blogging.

Senior Adrianne Grand (advisor Professor Knupsky)
Run like a Cheetah, Swim like a Dolphin! The Effects of Facilitative and Inhibitive Imagery in Athletic Form in Collegiate Runners and Swimmers.
This series of experiments investigates the effects of facilitative and inhibitive imagery on ease of motion and athletic form in athletes. For the podcast of the talk, please listen to Sports Imagery.

Juniors Chris Hansen and Jennifer Warren (with alum Todd Derby and advisor Professor Knupsky)
Expressions of Deception under Cognitive Load: Examining the Influence of Working Memory on the Presentation of Deceptive Cues.
Study explores how working memory load influences the expression of verbal and nonverbal cues to deception across truthful, deceptive, and multiple-audience contexts. For the podcast of their talk, please listen to Deception.

Seniors Katie Cross and Natalie Nagy (advisor Professor Knupsky)
An Examination of Female Language Use in Problem Solving Scenarios: Interruptions and Personalization.
Series of experiments explores the language styles of females presented with problem solving scenarios. Specifically, interruptions, personal language, and authority are examined. For the podcast of their talk, please listen to Authority & Language.

Congratulations to all the conference presenters...great job! And, keep your eyes open...several of the students will be submitting their work for publication with Professor Knupsky.

Continue reading "Joining the Scientific Community" »

Tags: Cognitive Psychology NSSA Conference Student-Faculty Research

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Site of the 2008 National Technology & Social Science Conference

Hello from Las Vegas! By the first day of our conference, our not so little group from Allegheny has had quite an experience. We've enjoyed a limo ride from the airport, slept at two different hotels on the Vegas strip, and have enjoyed the food and sights of the city.

Today, however, marks the beginning of the conference, and so we shift into different gears. This morning (Monday, April 7th), Professor Carla Bluhm, and students Dan Goldstein and Sarah (Farah) Winter are presenting about the use of Second Life as a classroom tool. This afternoon, Professor Knupsky (yours truly) will present her experience utilizing blogging as a classroom tool in FS101 (the first year seminar) and Psych440 (an upper level language course). Tomorrow (Tuesday, April 8th), Allegheny representatives are giving three presentations. Adrianne Grand is presenting her work on the influence of imagery on the ease of motion of athletes. Katie Cross & Natalie Nagy are presenting a combined paper discussing their senior comps which examined the importance of authority in determining the use of interruptions and personalization in the language of female students. And, last but not least, Chris Hansen and Jennifer Warren are presenting their work on the expression of verbal and nonverbal cues to deception in the multiple audience predicament (an extension of the work of alum Todd Derby).

Stay tuned for an update after our return!

Tags: NSSA Conference Student-Faculty Research

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Image available for purchase from New Mexico Pictures

A big and heartfelt congratulations goes out to Liz March (Class '07) on her acceptance to the PhD program at Arizona State University. Liz has been selected to work with Arthur Glenberg, a leading researcher in the field of embodied cognition. In particular, Liz will be working on an NSF supported research program that examines the application of embodied cognition concepts to increase reading comprehension in children.

I am particularly thrilled that Liz will be working with Glenberg because her senior comp project was designed to look at the embodied perception of time--so, in fact, she will be working with one of the people she was just writing about a year ago!

Liz will be visiting the Cognitive Group in April to discuss her comp project and to share her experience applying and being accepted to graduate school. She will also briefly review the kind of work she will be doing with Glenberg.

To learn more about embodied cognition and its potential application to reading comprehension, mathematical reasoning, and the sciences, please visit Glenberg's Website.

You can also listen to a talk given by Glenberg at the 2006 Psychonomics Conference by Clicking Here. The volume is soft, so please make sure to turn up your speaker after it downloads.

Tags: Congratulations Embodied Cognition Glenberg Liz Marsh

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Image Credit: From the BrainPaint Gallery

When a person knows more than one language, how does she select words from just one of these languages for production? When searching for a word to say, does a bilingual consider words from both languages, or is the search focused on just one or the other? Preliminary answers to these questions involved a "language switch" mechanism that would "turn-off" a non-target language (the language not being produced) so that search for words would be constrained to the target language (the language being produced). However, more recent research debates whether a bilingual ever completely shuts-down a language and suggests instead that the focus of search in the process of word selection during bilingual language production can be widened or narrowed depending upon a number of variables including fluency, age of acquisition, and the context within which the bilingual is operating (e.g., are the listeners bilingual?).

During my graduate study at the University of New Mexico, these were the questions I pursued. Recently, a paper discussing my Masters research has been published in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. This research reflects a preliminary investigation into whether the translation of word stimuli could affect the production process in bilinguals. For example, if a bilingual is asked to name a picture of a LEG and they see the word milk, would the translation of milk (i.e., leche) help facilitate picture naming? We found that this facilitation occurred, but mainly when bilinguals were naming in their second language. You can read more about this study by accessing the article Knupsky & Amrhein (2007).

I continued this line of research during my Dissertation work with a series of experiments looking at facilitation with identically related picture-word pairs (LEG and leg) and with picture-word translation pairs (LEG-milk-leche) in a variety of contexts. The results of these experiments replicate the facilitation found in the previous study and a paper from the work is currently under revision for submission. However, I presented this work during a Humanities Lecture Series talk at Allegheny College. The podcast for this talk can be found at Knupsky (2007) and the PowerPoint slides for the talk can be found at Knupsky (2007) Slides.

Tags: Bilingualism Cognitive Psychology Knupsky Language Production

Posted by Aimee Knupsky at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)