Ann R. Eisenberg

Learning to describe past experiences in conversation

The early development of the ability to discuss past experiences in conversation is examined. The data consist of 186 conversations about past events between two Spanish‐speaking girls (21–31 and 24–38 months) and their families. Each description is analyzed in terms of its length, the familiarity and specificity of the event described, the truth of the statements, the reason for mention, the use of grammatical forms, and the role of an adult in initiating and maintaining the conversation. Based on these analyses, three phases of development are identified, characterized by: (a) dependency on adult participation; (b) the discussion of elements common to many instances of an event, rather than the unique occurrences of a specific event (i.e., dependence on a “script” of the event); and (c) talk about unique occurrences, but difficulty in planning a lengthy discourse. The results are discussed in terms of childrens knowledge of event structures and the early organization of their memories.

Grandchildren's perspectives on relationships with grandparents: The influence of gender across generations

The study examines the relation between gender of grandchildren, parents and grandparents and grandchild-grandparent relationships. Subjects were 120 young adult grandchildren (ages 18–23) who provided information on the 375 grandparents they had known. Subjects reported how close they felt to their grandparents, how much they liked them, and what activities they engaged in with them. Strong effects were found for sex of grandparent and sex of parent. Grandchildren had closer relationships with grandmothers, particularly maternal grandmothers, and they tended to prefer maternal grandmothers over other grandparents. Maternal grandmothers seem to make themselves particularly accessible to grandchildren. The results suggest that the gender of the grandparent can be more important than proximity in determining the quality of grandchild-grandparent relationships.

Mental control after dysphoria: Evidence of a suppressed, depressive bias

Previous research has generally failed to find persistent negative thinking following a depressive episode, suggesting that negative thoughts may simply be by-products of the emotional disturbance. The present research examined the idea that a persistent depressive bias does exist, but it is obscured by thought suppression. Mental control theory suggests that suppressed thoughts can be detected by assessing cognition before the effortful process of distraction is implemented. To test this prediction, formerly dysphoric, chronically dysphoric, and nondysphoric control groups interpreted audio recordings of words—some of which included homophones with emotional alternatives relevant to depression (e.g., weak/week). Participants wrote down each word either immediately or after a 10-sec delay. Although formerly dysphoric individuals did not display a depressive bias in the delayed condition, their immediate responses revealed a depressive bias. As predicted, the emergence of a negative bias was associated with high levels of chronic thought suppression.

Maternal Teaching Talk within Families of Mexican Descent: Influences of Task and Socioeconomic Status:

This study examined the influences of socioeconomic status (SES) and task on teaching interactions between mothers and children of Mexican descent. Twenty middle-class and 20 working-class mothers and their 4-year-old children were audiotaped during interaction in a school-type construction task (block building) and a homelike construction task (baking biscuits). There were significant effects of task and SES for both mothers’ and children’s behavior. Mothers asked more questions during block building but discussed more complex concepts during baking. Children asked more questions and discussed more complex concepts in baking than in block building. Middle-class mothers discussed more complex concepts than did working-class mothers, but working-class children were more directive and asked more questions than did middle-class children. The results suggest that future studies of parent-child conversation within families of Mexican descent should consider children’s contributions to the learning environment and should examine interaction in a greater variety of tasks.

A Cross-Linguistic Investigation of the Effect of Raters' Accent Familiarity on Speaking Assessment.

ABSTRACT The project aimed to examine the effect of raters’ familiarity with accents on their judgments of non-native speech. Participants included three groups of raters who were either from Spanish Heritage, Spanish Non-Heritage, or Chinese Heritage backgrounds (n = 16 in each group) using Winke & Gass’s (2013) definition of a heritage learner as being someone who reports cultural or ethnic ties and has family members who are native speakers of that heritage language. Using a 1–7 Likert-type scale, all participants evaluated the “overall English proficiency” and “foreign accents” of 28 speech samples selected from Educational Testing Service’s TOEFL iBT public data set. Approximately half of the speech samples were from speakers with a Spanish language background, and the other half were from speakers with a Chinese language background and were matched on English language proficiency. Results revealed that familiarity with a particular accent facilitated the identification of that accent. Although the three rater groups did not differ reliably in the ratings assigned to the speakers, the majority self-reported that their accent familiarity affected their evaluations and possibly made them more lenient toward speakers with familiar accents. Furthermore, all rater groups assigned higher ratings to Spanish speakers than to Chinese speakers.