Self-Selection Effects in Service-Learning

This study directly examines the possibility of pre-existing differences between undergraduate students who choose to take service-learning classes compared to those who do not. Foremost among the findings, on most measures there was no significant effect of self-selection. However, students who chose a hypothetical course with a service-learning component reported higher civic responsibility and civic action scores, and reported lower socioeconomic status and greater enjoyment of past service learning than those who chose the hypothetical course without the service-learning component. Challenges and opportunities related to random assignment within service-learning research are discussed

Phonological Variant Recognition: Representations and Rules

The current research explores the role of lexical representations and processing in the recognition of phonological variants. Two alternative approaches for variant recognition are considered: a representational approach that posits frequency-graded lexical representations for variant forms and inferential processes that mediate between the spoken variant and the lexical representation. In a lexical decision task (Experiment 1) and in a phoneme identification task (Experiment 2) using real words, low-frequency variants, but not high-frequency variants, show improved recognition rates following additional experience with the variants. This knowledge generalized to novel variant forms. Experiment 3 replicated these results using an artificial lexicon and showed that recognition of low-frequency variants was influenced by similarity to a high-frequency variant form. Similarity to a high-frequency variant alone, however, was insufficient to explain recognition of the infrequent variants (Experiments 4 and 5). The results support a hybrid account of variant recognition that relies on both multiple frequency-graded representations and inference processes. </jats:p