Digital Commons Network^™

Some Analogies Of Hierarchical Order In Biology And Linguistics, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

The ubiquity of hierarchical order is obvious, and the obvious is hard to explain, but a number of workers [1] have suggested the possibility of constructing a theory (or cluster of theories), rooted in such disciplines as thermodynamics, information theory, topology, and logic, which might reveal the underlying unity of a wide variety of branching and multi-level systems. It is the purpose of this paper to contribute to both the empirical and theoretical aspects of this discussion, by examining levels of structure and function in molecular biology and linguistics, and by developing, from parallelisms between these two areas, a hierarchical …

Analysis Of The Two Word Stage Of Language Development: An Ideographic Study, Lou Ann Mccoy

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this longitudinal, ideographic clinical research project was to analyze a corpus of expressive language emitted by a child at the two word stage of language development via grammatico-semantic relationships (Brown, 1973) and via Developmental Sentence Analysis (Lee, 1974).

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet December 1977, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The December 1977 Monthly packet includes the December agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held November 1977.

"Women In Science Career Workshop: Panel Discussion", Portland State University, Nona Glazer, Tony Oliver, Dell Rhodes, Lolita Carter, Frances Storrs

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

Nona Glazer, moderator; Lolita Carter, Tony Oliver, Dell Rhodes, Frances Storrs, panelists. Five professionals in science, engineering, and technology fields discuss their experiences as women obtaining advanced degrees in STEM fields and balancing careers with family life.

Educational, Sociocultural, And Phonological Obstacles For The Japanese Learner Of English, David Howard Waterbury

Dissertations and Theses

Every Japanese high school student studies English for at least six years. However, the results of this study, especially in speaking, are poor. In the present study, educational, sociocultural, and linguistic obstacles to learning for the Japanese student are considered.

An educational system oriented toward passing college and university entrance examinations has distorted English curriculum. Furthermore, English teachers in Japan lack proficiency in the language. The teaching staffs and materials of language schools are poorly regulated.

Concern with relative status, group identification, and loss of face acts as a deterrent to learning. For many learners the wrong type of motivation …

The Study Of The Differential Effects Of Visual And Auditory Presentation On Logical Reasoning, Jacob Lauterstein Driesen

Dissertations and Theses

A fundamental task in reasoning is to form some internal representation of the premises that allows the relations between them to be determined. Whether this process is visual or auditory is the subject of a long-standing controversy.

This controversy seems to have reached a stalemate. Another approach is to determine where in the brain reasoning is done. A way of doing this involves looking at differences in the processing and storage of visual and auditory information within the brain. Brooks used this approach in his experiments. His results suggested that a subject who receives spatial information by of the ear …

A Concept Acquisition Project Comparing Receptive And Expressive Programs, Carol Paulson Carpenter

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this project was to measure and compare the language concept growth of two clients who utilized different response modes; client A utilized the expressive mode and client B utilized the receptive mode. A systematic management program was administered to each client for eighteen sessions. The specific questions posed were:

1. Did both clients demonstrate the ability to verbalize concepts on the post-test of the individualized programs?

2. Did client A learn more concepts in eighteen sessions than client B as measured by the post-tests of the individualized programs and the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts?

3. …

Service Delivery To Deaf Persons : A Survey And Proposal, Patrick F. Walsh

Dissertations and Theses

This paper will identify the problems faced by deaf people in terms of social and emotional, and then discuss the research on factors which contribute to the problems. The first section will define deafness, investigate the psychological characteristics of the deaf, and then identify the incidence of mental or emotional problems. The second section will review the literature on factors which contribute to the emotional problems of the deaf. The final section will review the literature on the service system available to the deaf. Throughout this presentation, the writer will summarize with personal conclusions. These summaries will both capsulize the …

A Model For Decision Making: A Systems Approach, Eleanor Weitman

Dissertations and Theses

This paper addresses itself to the problem of the analysis of the decision making processes in the area of Human Resources Planning.

H. S. Chamberlain And The Bayreuth Kulturkreis: A Study In Ideology, David George Otness

Dissertations and Theses

Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927) was born an Englishman but adopted Germany as his home. Chamberlain was a publicist for fin de siècle ideas about art and politics which were tempered by both late nineteenth century Imperialism and by World War One. As an old man he endorsed Adolf Hitler and has been credited as an important synthesizer for the ideology of National Socialism.

This study examines Chamberlain's life in terms of his involvement with art and politics. It utilizes his work as a popularizer and his conversion into an exponent of Deutschtum to discuss broad social questions. While it is …

Contributions To Tualatin Ethnography: Subsistence And Ethnobiology, Henry B. Zenk

Dissertations and Theses

There is a considerable amount of unpublished source material on Kalapuyan ethnography. This consists primarily of manuscript field notes from three linguistically trained scholars: Albert S. Gatschet, who collected Kalapuyan linguistic and ethnographic data during a visit to Grand Ronde Reservation in 1877, Leo J. Frachtenberg, who worked with a number of Kalapuyan informants from 1913 to 1915, and Melville Jacobs, who worked with the last surviving speakers of Kalapuyan languages during a number of sessions between 1928 and 1936. Data from these three authorities, plus other available data, reveal many details about aboriginal Kalapuyan life ("aboriginal" here referring to …

A Comparative Study Of Aristotle's Poetics And Ezra Pound's Abc Of Reading, Michael P. Hagensick

Dissertations and Theses

This paper is a comparative study of Aristotle's Poetics and Ezra Pound's ABC of Reading to discover and determine values in literature, especially poetry, which reflect on the nature and the manifestations of human communication. I feel that scholars in the field of communication can benefit personally and academically from exposure to those poets who have expressed themselves on the reasons or the manners in which people communicate. To pursue this question requires the use of a guide to poetry, a method by which I can learn to recognize a poem on sight; so that when it comes to discourse …

Mary's River Kalapuyan: A Descriptive Phonology, Yvonne P. Hajda

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis is an attempt to apply procedures of descriptive linguistic analysis to a body of material phonetically transcribed by Leo J. Frachtenberg in the Mary's River dialect of the central Kalapuyan language. In 1913-14 Frachtenberg collected thirteen volumes of myth texts in Mary's River, twelve from William Hartless and one from Grace Wheeler; in addition, there were notes to the texts, three volumes of grammatical notes, and some ethnographic material. The phonetic transcription was carried out in the pre- phonemic tradition of recording everything the speaker said as accurately as possible. There was no attempt to elicit forms in …

The Development Of A Model For Identifying, Diagnosing And Correcting Dyslexic Problems In Third Grade Nigerian, Catherine Maffiong Essien

Dissertations and Theses

The Nigerian educational system is humanistic, nationally centered and open to all cultural, ethnic and tribal influences. The policy of Nigeria is to realize mass and practical education. However, the present system is highly selective and academically oriented. This study is done while education in Nigeria is in a period of revolution. Radical changes have been taken to keep up the national demand for progress and power.

Dyslexia, one of the leading causes of reading difficulties, is a term still unknown to some educators in Nigerian schools. This stems mainly from the fact that Nigerian public schools lack sufficient personnels …

A Descriptive Study Of Thai Nonverbal Communication, Suriya Smutkupt

Dissertations and Theses

Nonverbal communication is especially significant in the area of intercultural communication. Familiar signals often signify and convey different and unexpected messages, usually out-of-awareness, and then unfamiliar stimuli cause confusion and uneasiness. This is a report of Thai NVC, which intends (1) to describe selected Thai nonverbal behavior, (2) to relate these to appropriate time and context, (3) to explain a cultural component that makes the behaviors acceptable and/or mandatory, and (4) to report how Thai nonverbal behaviors may affect intercultural and cross-cultural communication.

Selected Thai nonverbal messages are described: (1) nonverbal signals: the sign language of wai, the kinesthetic …

A Comparison Of The Vocabulary Ability Of Four- And Five-Year-Old Bilingual Mexican-American Children With That Of Monolingual Anglo-American Children, Amparo Abila

Dissertations and Theses

This study sought to investigate the Spanish and English receptive pictorial vocabulary of four- and five-year-old bilingual Mexican-American children. The performance of bilingual Mexican-American children on the Mexican-American Inventory of Receptive Abilities--MIRA (Nelson-Burgess and Meyerson, 1975) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test--PPVT (Dunn, 1959) was compared to that of monolingual Anglo-American children of the same relative age range and socioeconomic level.

"Biological Determinism As A Social Weapon", Richard C. Lewontin

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of The Performance Of Black Children Age 3.6 To 6.0 On Three Subtests Of The Illinois Test Of Psycholinguistic Abilities, George Edward James

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare language performance on three subtests of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) of a Black population of children ages three years six months through six years in Portland, Oregon, with the standardizing population of the ITPA. These subtests are Auditory Reception, Grammatic Closure, and Verbal Expression.

The null hypotheses tested were:

1. There is no difference in scores on the Auditory Reception subtest of the ITPA between the standardizing test population and that of Black children ages three years six months through six years in Portland, Oregon.
2. There is no difference in …

New Odessa, 1882-1887: United We Stand, Divided We Fall, Helen E. Blumenthal

Dissertations and Theses

The Oregon Territory and later the State of Oregon have had a well-deserved reputation for encouraging free thought and liberal ideas. By tradition, Oregon has been the scene of rugged individualism, a proving ground for ideas and movements. The commune of New Odessa was one of the lesser known attempts of a group of immigrants coming from persecution in Russian to a new way of life in America.

This thesis is a study starting with the background of Russian Jewry, the social climate in the United States and particularly Oregon which allowed for the development of communes, the story of …

The Effects Of An Innovative Curriculum On The Attitudes Of "Educationally Disadvantaged" Freshman College Students, Julius William Wilkerson

Dissertations and Theses

Educational research literature suggests the expectations for success in college for youth from "educationally disadvantaged" backgrounds are tragically small. Reasons offered for this have included the lack of requisite academic preparation, lack of motivation, lack of appreciation for the value of a college education. The general purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an innovative instructional technique in promoting the development of positive attitudes about self-worth, and academic achievement, for "disadvantaged" students. Specifically, this study attempted to identify the structure of attitudes of "educationally disadvantaged" students in the Portland State University support service program (Operation PLUS) about …

Articulation Error Rates For Oral Reading Tasks In Children With Developmental Apraxia Of Speech, Kenneth Jerry Arkell

Dissertations and Theses

Recently, there have appeared in the literature treatment approaches for the disorder of developmental apraxia of speech in children. These treatment approaches make use of the visual modality, and specifically use reading stimulus materials to improve articulation skills. Several authors have endorsed this use of reading materials in the treatment of developmental apraxia of speech in children including Morley (1965); Rosenthal (1971); Rosenbek and Wertz (1972); and Rosenbek et al. (1974). These treatment approaches have been offered via the literature without the benefit of empirical verification that children with DAS will make fewer articulation errors while reading aloud than they …

Chronological Age, Mental Age And Socioeconomic Status Variance In Expressive Preposition Acquisition Of Young Children, Arthur J. Heckel

Dissertations and Theses

The present study was designed to determine the ages at which a sample of children between eighteen and forty-two months verbally and correctly express the fourteen prepositions known to be acquired by age four, using the Revised Expressive Preposition Test (REPT). The REPT was administered to sixty children chosen from day care centers and private homes within the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon. There was no preference as to the sex, intelligence of the child or socio- economic status of the child's family. A statistical analysis was performed to determine the correlation between HEPT scores and the child's chronological age, …

Location Of Dyspraxic Characteristics In Children With Severe "Functional" Articulation Disorders, Sara Miller Mitcham

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if children labeled as “severe” functional articulation disordered, who had been enrolled in public school speech programs for one year or more, exhibited dyspraxic-like characteristics.

Twenty individuals between the ages of 8 and 11 were chosen from the Gresham Public Schools, Lynch Public Schools, Portland Public Schools, Rockwood Public Schools and the Crippled Children’s Division, University of Oregon Medical School to serve as subjects for the three groups in this study. Eight subjects who comprised the experimental group were "severe" functional articulation disorders and were selected from the public schools. Each misarticulated …

Effects Of Colors, Noun Position, And Verb Proximity On The Acquisition Of Direct Objects, Ronald M. Dohr

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine if colors can differentially be applied as teaching tools for pre-school children. Previous studies have shown that pre-school children are easily distracted in language development by external stimulation. Studies have also shown that brighter color hues can arouse and facilitate performance of subjects on given tasks. This experiment is an attempt to measure performance of word manipulation by usage of colors. Three independent variables have been selected as stimuli to measure direct object acquisition. Measurement of color, noun position, and verb proximity will be assessed in connection with subject performance on given …

A Comparative Study Of The Reponses By Varying Socioeconomic Groups On General Knowledge And Categorization Tasks, Margo I. Keller

Dissertations and Theses

This study sought to determine if there are any "cultural" or economic level patterns of behavior in responding to tasks involving categorizing pictures and recalling general knowledge. The Daberon School Headiness Device (1972), which contains subtests for general knowledge and categorization, was used to assess four groups of children: 1) lower-SES white, 2) lower-SES black, 3) middle-SES white, and 4) middle-SES black. This study involved thirty black and thirty white children between the ages of five years and five years, eleven months. All subjects were screened to determine race, age, auditory acuity, speech intelligibility, subject cooperation, and socioeconomic status (SES). …

Attendance At Out-Patient Clinics As A Function Of Risk Taking For Alcoholics, John Ketcham Fryer

Dissertations and Theses

Many-psychotherapists feel that the capacity to risk is a necessary ingredient for change. Whether that change occur in a person seen in a professional context or in a person who views new behavior as being more rewarding, risk and change go hand in hand. Coleman (1972) described this relationship in the following way:

Life often poses problems in which the pursuit of increased satisfactions involves giving up present hard-won security and taking new risks. For the neurotic, this is likely to prove an especially anxiety-arousing conflictful situation [p. 226].

Why should this be true? It seems that one of the …

Teaching Language To Hearing Impaired Children Who Have Had No Previous Language Experience, Catherine Collins Lu

Dissertations and Theses

This paper purports to give (1) a systematic review of the background and theoretical development leading to the evolvement of the modern approach of language instruction for the hearing impaired child, and (2) a comparison of the grammatical and the developmental schools from the instructional point of view.

Drop-Out Study, Chemawa Indian School, Terry Farrow, Gordon Oats

Dissertations and Theses

Repeated inquiries and statements are made about the number of American Indian students who drop out or are pushed out of school. The Waxes noted that while drop-out rates are difficult to calculate because of a shifting population and absence of centralized, accurate records, current figures indicate that about one-half of those who enter the primary grades drop out before entering high school. Furthermore, only about a third of those entering school actually graduate. A study of Pima and Papago schools revealed much the same trends. Seven percent of the children ages six to eighteen are not enrolled in any …

Charles E. Borden: His Formulation And Testing Of Archaeological Hypotheses, Ellen Wallace Robinson

Dissertations and Theses

Analysis of Borden's papers, including unpublished (to 1975), to discover logic used to formulate and test hypotheses. Available data and explanatory patterns shown. Work characterized as search for Northwest Coast chronology with three periods: Early. Evidence from stratigraphy, geology, historical linguistics, ethnographies, study of spatial distribution of similar artifacts. Middle. Application of 0-14 dating to test and correct earlier hypotheses. Recent. Sequences of hypotheses to explain complex, puzzling phenomena involving many basic sciences. Papers shown to be series of retroductions, moving from puzzling phenomena to hypotheses from which the phenomena would follow as a matter of course.

A Comparison And Item Analysis Of Responses Between Black Children And Language Delayed White Children On The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Kevin N. Cole

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare PPVT scores of Black children and language delayed White children in order to determine whether the patterning of errors can be differentiated between the two groups. The study involved twenty Black children and twenty language delayed White children between the ages of six years, six months, and seven years, six months. The subjects were from families of lower socioeconomic status. The White subjects were given the Utah Test of Language Development to establish degree of language delay.

The study was designed to determine whether either the language delayed White subjects or the …