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Foreign language anxiety (FLA) has drawn a considerable amount of attention in recent decades. However, the anxiety that EFL learners experience during public speaking has been relatively underexplored. Thus, this study explored the effects of personality traits and self-perceived public speaking competence on public speaking anxiety (PSA). A total of 205 university students in China participated in a questionnaire gauging EFL learners' PSA, personality and self-perceived public speaking competence. SPSS, version 27, was used for data analysis, including descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and regression analysis. The first finding revealed significant associations between PSA and Extraversion, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism, with Neuroticism showing the strongest correlation with PSA. The second result indicated that self-perceived public speaking competence negatively correlated with PSA, with 9 out of the 17 aspects of overall public speaking competence showing significant correlations with PSA. In addition, this study revealed significant associations between self-perceived public speaking competence and Extraversion, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. This study has pedagogical implications for educators to help EFL learners better combat anxiety in public speaking settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public speaking is a crucial component of many higher education courses and is essential for students' academic performance and future career success. Despite its importance, public speaking anxiety is a common issue among higher education students, adversely impacting their learning. Addressing this anxiety through targeted interventions, especially for the most at-risk students, is vital. This study provides insights into the demographic predictors of public speaking anxiety, using a sample of 1745 students from a large public university in the Czech Republic. We employed the Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker in a short form to assess public speaking anxiety levels. Our multivariate regression analysis identified gender, type of high school, and study level as significant predictors of public speaking anxiety, whereas age, nationality, and field of study were not. The study found that women, non-binary individuals, graduates of academic high schools, and bachelor's students are more prone to public speaking anxiety. These findings highlight the need for targeted intervention and support strategies for students with higher levels of public speaking anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speech anxiety, or Glossophobia, currently affects approximately 75% of the population with potentially severe negative effects on those with this condition. There are several treatments currently available with research showing that the use of Virtual Reality (VR) as a non-pharmacologic treatment can have positive effects on individuals suffering from such social phobias. However, there is a significant lack of treatments currently available for speech anxiety, even though such a large number of the population are affected by it. In this paper, we aim to contribute to efforts to improve the effects of speech anxiety through a VR intervention. Our VR solution was designed following the Exposure Therapy approach for treating social anxiety disorders. The evaluation of this work was twofold: A. to assess the ability of our solution to positively change participants’ perception of factors related to non-verbal communication contributing to anxiety toward public speaking, and B. to determine whether it is able to induce a sense of presence. We carried out an empirical evaluation study that measured participants’ self-reported anxiety level towards public speaking using the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety and their perceived sense of presence using the iGroup Presence Questionnaire. Our results demonstrate the potential of VR Exposure Therapy solutions to assist towards positively changing perception of factors related to non-verbal communication skills that contribute to increasing public speaking anxiety for participants suffering from self-reported speech anxiety symptoms. Our findings are of wider importance as they contribute to ongoing efforts to improve social anxiety-related phobias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public speaking is an essential skill in everyone's professional or academic career. Nevertheless, practicing it is often not very easy; people do not always have access to a suitable environment and find others willing to listen during their rehearsals. Previous research has shown the usefulness of having a virtual audience in reducing the fear of public speaking. However, the effects of having an audience with whom the presenter is familiar are still under-explored. To help university students practice their presentations, we developed a virtual reality environment and used 3D scans of real people to create a realistic and familiar audience. We conducted a study with 10 participants to analyze whether they had different anxiety levels when presenting to familiar virtual faces compared to unfamiliar faces. Moreover, we explored whether or not the exposure to the customized virtual faces affected anxiety when the participants subsequently presented to a real-life audience. We found that people with a medium fear of speaking in public benefited the most because they felt more relaxed facing a virtual audience with familiar faces; in contrast, there were no noticeable effects for others. In addition, we examined whether anxiety could be detected through some non-traditional metrics we recorded. Results showed that we could not establish a linear correlation between the anxiety scores and our metrics, but our study suggests some underlying patterns. Finally, our findings indicate that users' perceptions of virtual audience feedback were more concerned with the facial expressions of the virtual audience than their body language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals with a Religious or Spiritual Problem (RSP), as defined in the DSM-5, experience distress associated with faith-related moral dilemmas, existential meaning, and transpersonal attitudes toward other people. It is unclear whether a RSP reflects a generally heightened stress reactivity or whether the stress response is confined to religious and spiritual contexts. To elucidate this issue, we measured behavioral and physiological responses during social-evaluative stress (public speaking—Trier Social Stress Test) and in religious/spiritual contexts (Bible reading and listening to sacred music) in 35 individuals with RSP and 35 matched participants. We found no stress reduction in the religious/spiritual context in RSP, as indicated by increased heart rate, saliva cortisol, and relatively higher left than right frontal activity. Religious stimuli evoked physiological stress responses in RSP. Contrary to the physiological parameters, participants with RSP reported less anxiety in the religious/spiritual context. Religious individuals with and without RSP showed similar stress responses during public speaking. Religious individuals without RSP displayed reduced stress responses in the religious/spiritual context. These results indicate that specific physiological distress in religious/spiritual contexts should be considered in the psychological care of RSP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public speaking, especially in a foreign language, is associated with increased anxiety. Research has shown the potential of virtual reality (VR) for simulating real-life experiences, allowing for public speaking practice in an ecological and safe environment. This between-subjects study investigated the effect of VR on foreign language anxiety (FLA) in public speaking practice. Intermediate learners of English participated in eight public speaking sessions over a three-month period, yielding 160 research observations. The experimental intervention took place in high-immersion VR with subjects wearing a VR headset and speaking in front of virtual audience. In the control intervention, subjects used a videoconferencing platform (Zoom) to speak in front of a real-life audience. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that practicing speaking in VR was associated with statistically significant lower FLA scores, compared with speaking practice using Zoom. The study found that VR technology had a positive effect on practicing public speaking in a foreign language. The research findings have practical implications for professionals and curriculum designers in various domains where public speaking skills are essential. For example, incorporating VR-based public speaking practice can benefit professionals preparing for a job interview, an elevator pitch, or a conference presentation. Curriculum designers can consider integrating VR simulations into language courses to provide students with realistic public speaking experiences. This approach can help students overcome language barriers, reduce anxiety, and develop their communication skills in a controlled and supportive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using individual differences constructs, the current study used cross-sectional data to examine the mediating role of negative self-statements during public speaking on the relationship between fear of negative evaluation and public speaking anxiety (a type of performance anxiety), and how this relationship was moderated by positive self-statements during public performance. The sample comprised 319 adults (men = 105, women = 214) from the general Australian community, with ages ranging from 18 years to 65 years. All participants completed questionnaires covering the different study variables. The findings showed that there was partial mediation by negative self-statements on the relationship between fear of negative evaluation and performance anxiety. There were also moderation effects by positive self-statements for this relationship. Additionally, moderation by positive self-statements was evident at all levels of positive self-statements. The theoretical and clinical implications of the findings for public speaking anxiety are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science Service's coverage of Fermat's last theorem had evidently improved by 1939, when it reported on progress made by Cornell University mathematician J. Barkley Rosser under the more accurate title "Old Mathematical Puzzle Still Intrigues Science" [[47]].[15] Yet another article summarized the status of other deceptively simple "puzzles" of number theory - the search for odd perfect numbers, the distribution of primes, and the Goldbach conjecture - underscoring the fact that mathematicians did not have all the answers [[46]].[16] By the 1940s, first the mobilization of scientists for an ultimate war effort and then the war itself and defense research came to dominate science news, but a catchall "Review of the Year" in I Science News-Letter i in 1940 that highlighted defense research also included a substantial list of mathematical accomplishments under the subheading "Four Colors Suffice for 35 Regions on Sphere" [[18]]. Still, for mathematics as well as for all the sciences, Edward Scripps's vision of Science Service in the service both of science and of "making democracy ... more intelligent" through accessible reporting on scientific research of all kinds was realized in print over the course of the immediately post-World War I decades. Author of such widely read books as I Men of Mathematics i and I The Queen of the Sciences i , Bell was listed in the national I Radio Guide i for Saturday, February 8, 1936, as a "Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology" speaking on mathematics as part of the program "Searchers of the Unknown" [[14]].[39] Slotted from 10:30 to 11:00 PM EST on WABC, Bell's broadcast appears not to have been a Science Service talk and was twice as long as those generally ran. Science Service in the Service of Science A substantial amount of the science news of the time in the United States emanated from just one organization, Science Service. [Extracted from the article]

In this article, we examine the use of nonverbal factors by Korean political orators in three speech contexts: nomination acceptance speeches, presidential election speeches, and presidential inauguration speeches. Through a multi-analytic approach, we explicate the nonverbal cues and patterns that the orators use when they evoke collective audience responses in a Subject-Object-Verb language. We found that: (1) They use characteristic nonverbal cues (e.g., loudness, extension of vowel, upward intonation, and slicing and power grip hand gestures) in delivering predicates of core messages; (2) The speakers accelerated their message emphasis toward the end of the message by using vocal factors; (3) In the more informal and competitive context of election campaign speeches, there was more frequent loudness and rising intonation, whereas in the more formal context of inauguration speeches, there was more frequent falling intonation; (4) Audience-oriented hand gestures were related to the speakers' intention to generate audience responses; (5) Audience responses to happy expressions occurred in a variety of ways immediately after completion of the expressions, whereas responses to sad expressions occurred with staggered applause; (6) Gaze did not play a crucial role in generating responses; (7) While there were shared vocal patterns between the speakers, non-vocal factors were related to the individual speaker's behavior. Based on these findings, we discuss contextual and cultural differences in the use of nonverbal cues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public speaking is a challenging task that requires practice. Virtual Reality allows to present realistic public speaking scenarios in this regard, however, the role of the virtual audience during practice remains unknown. In the present study, 73 participants completed a Virtual Reality practice session while audience was manipulated to be supportive or unsupportive or presentations were practiced without audience. Importantly, following the virtual practice, participants held the presentation during a real university course via Zoom. We measured emotional experience, self-efficacy, and the subjective evaluation of performance at baseline, after VR practice, and after the real presentation. Additionally, participants' performance in the real presentation was evaluated by instructors (blinded to condition). Supportive in contrast to unsupportive audiences led to more positive believes about one's own performance, while there were no changes in beliefs in the group without audience. Importantly, practice in front of a supportive compared to unsupportive audience resulted in a more positive evaluation of speaker confidence in real-life public speaking as rated by the instructors. These results demonstrate an impact of virtual social feedback during public speaking on subsequent subjective performance evaluation. This may increase self-confidence resulting in actual improved public speaking performance in real-life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fear of public speaking is a prevalent phobia that has a damaging impact on the lives of many phobic patients. One method to treat this phobia is the use of virtual reality (VR). A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol was used to report how the publications that have examined the role of VR in treating public speaking anxiety were identified. A meta-analysis of 92 non-review publications published by January 15, 2021 was conducted. In this meta-analysis, the effectiveness of the treatment of public speaking anxiety refers to the degree of reduction in the participants' public speaking anxiety from pre-test to post-test. This meta-analysis consisted of an examination of the homogeneity of the studies (the I2 indexes), publication bias (Kendall's tau and Egger's regression values) and an estimation of the grand effect size for all studies. The three major findings of this meta-analysis are: (1) Overall, VR had a statistically significant effect on reducing public speaking anxiety, which suggests that VR is a useful and promising therapeutic tool for the treatment of public speaking anxiety; (2) Studies that found VR to be effective in the treatment of public speaking anxiety conducted an average of approximately six VR sessions, with each session lasting around 37 minutes; and (3) VR is statistically as effective as other treatment methods such as cognitive behavioral therapy. Therefore, rather than completely replacing other treatment methods, VR should be used to complement other treatment methods to compensate for some of their disadvantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflecting an alternative model comparison framework and grounded in Bandura's self-efficacy theory and in western and Chinese English Public Speaking (EPS) competences literature, we examine the possibility of a hierarchical structure of the EPS self-efficacy construct. In particular, we contrast an established first-order model of the EPS self-efficacy with two higher-order rival models, testing for subordinate (second-order model) versus nested (bifactor model) relationships in a sample of 203 Chinese EFL college students. From a theoretical perspective, the results supported the bifactor model as a strong conceptual foundation for understanding the EPS self-efficacy construct as nested. From a practical perspective, this conceptualization would allow for gauging EPS self-efficacy development both holistically and by subdomains. From a research methodology perspective, this study is among the first to bring the bifactor model into the broader field of L2 research. Other implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral communication and presentation skills are considered key competencies for many academic fields and professions, including science-related ones. Therefore, it is vital that students are given sufficient class time in the curriculum for practicing public speaking. It is well documented in the literature that video technology can be of valuable aid in enhancing oral skills, and FlipGrid is a relatively new video discussion platform that has become popular for this purpose. The aim of this study is two-fold. First, the literature regarding FlipGrid is explored to understand how educators around the globe use the platform. Second, a case study is presented where FlipGrid is used and evaluated as a tool for practicing and assessing oral science communication. A mixed-method approach was used to evaluate FlipGrid with the participation of 112 students. Findings indicate that although the use FlipGrid in science fields is limited, it can be a useful platform for practicing oral science communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This narrative review synthesizes and introduces 386 previous works about virtual reality-induced symptoms and effects by focusing on cybersickness, visual fatigue, muscle fatigue, acute stress, and mental overload. Usually, these VRISE are treated independently in the literature, although virtual reality is increasingly considered an option to replace PCs at the workplace, which encourages us to consider them all at once. We emphasize the context of office-like tasks in VR, gathering 57 articles meeting our inclusion/exclusion criteria. Cybersickness symptoms, influenced by fifty factors, could prevent workers from using VR. It is studied but requires more research to reach a theoretical consensus. VR can lead to more visual fatigue than other screen uses, influenced by fifteen factors, mainly due to vergence-accommodation conflicts. This side effect requires more testing and clarification on how it differs from cybersickness. VR can provoke muscle fatigue and musculoskeletal discomfort, influenced by fifteen factors, depending on tasks and interactions. VR could lead to acute stress due to technostress, task difficulty, time pressure, and public speaking. VR also potentially leads to mental overload, mainly due to task load, time pressure, and intrinsically due interaction and interface of the virtual environment. We propose a research agenda to tackle VR ergonomics and risks issues at the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The definition of courage has been widely debated, though most agree it involves an element of 'persistence despite fear'. However, even with its correlation to fear and anxiety, courage as a concept has received minimal research in psychology. This study aimed to explore the role of courage in predicting behavior. Twenty-eight participants who indicated during a pre-screening that they feared public speaking completed a measure of courageousness (Courage Measure; CM) undertook a behavioral approach task (BAT) where they gave a short speech on a topic of their choice and were timed. Results indicated that the CM significantly predicted speech duration after controlling for scores on a measure of public speaking fears. Interestingly, and inconsistent with prior studies using the CM, self-reported courage at both the pre-screen and immediately before the BAT both predicted speech duration. Implications for the assessment of courageousness are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: There is a lack of well-validated self-report measures to assess public speaking anxiety. This study explored the psychometric properties of the Public Speaking Anxiety Scale (PSAS). Methods: Seventy-two adults completed the PSAS as part of the baseline screening procedure of a randomized controlled trial. Rasch analysis was used to assess the scale's response category functioning, precision, targeting, unidimensionality, and differential item functioning. Construct validity was assessed using classical test theory methods. Results: While thresholds were ordered and no systematic bias in responses for age, gender, or screen failure was found, the PSAS demonstrated evidence of multidimensionality (variance by first factor = 39.7%, eigenvalue of first contrast = 2.76). Multidimensionality was resolved after splitting the scale into two discrete subscales: Emotional and Physiological. Three misfitting items (i.e. item 5 from Emotional, items 6 and 14 from Physiological) were removed. Scale precision and targeting remained suboptimal after subscale split and removal of misfitting items (PSI = 1.41, PR = 0.67 for Emotional; PSI = 1.49, PR = 0.69 for Physiological). Conclusion: The PSAS demonstrated adequate convergent validity. Psychometric properties of the PSAS after Rasch-guided modifications were overall promising. Further studies are needed to confirm our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drama activities are reported to foster language learning, and may prepare learners for oral skills that mirror those used in real life. This year-long time series classroom-based quasi-experimental study followed a between-subjects design in which two classes of college EFL learners were exposed to two oral training conditions: (1) an experimental one in which drama-based training pedagogy was employed; and (2) the comparison one in which ordinary public speaking pedagogy was utilized. The experimental participants dramatized a picture book into a play, refined and rehearsed it for the classroom audience, and eventually performed it publicly as a theater production for community children. Diachronic comparisons of the participants' oral presentation skills under the two conditions showed that a significant between-group difference began to become pronounced only after the experimental participants started to present for real-life audiences other than their classmates. This finding suggests that drama-mediated pedagogy effectively enhanced the experimental participants' presentation performance and became more effective than the traditional approach only after a real-life audience was involved. In addition to the participants' performance data, survey and retrospective protocols were utilized to shed light on how drama-based tasks targeting both classroom and authentic audiences influence college EFL learners' presentation performance and their self-perceived oral presentation skills. Analysis of the survey and retrospective data indicated that the participants' attention to three presentation skills—structure, audience adaptation and content—was significantly raised after their presentation involved a real-life audience. Based on these findings, pedagogical implications for drama for FL oral presentation instruction are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing access, representation, and retention of underrepresented groups is essential across academia. Invited speaker seminars are common practice in academic science departments and serve to disseminate research, establish connections and collaborations, advance faculty careers, and connect trainees to mentors outside of departmental faculty. Thus, lack of representation among seminar speakers can affect both faculty and trainee professional development. This study characterizes gender demographics of seminar speakers across science departments at an R1 institution for the years 2015-2019, using pronoun usage as a proxy for gender identity. We found that most faculty and invited speakers were male, and few were female or nonbinary. The percentage of female and nonbinary invited speakers increased from 2015-2019 along with the percentage of female and nonbinary host faculty. Overall, male faculty hosted fewer female and nonbinary speakers than their female and nonbinary faculty colleagues. This study provides evidence for a correlation between faculty identity and the scientists they host at their department and motivates further studies investigating this relationship at other R1 institutions and institution types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indoor spread of infectious diseases is well-studied as a common transmission route. For highly infectious diseases, like Sars-CoV-2, considering poorly or semi ventilated areas outdoors is increasingly important. This is important in communities with high proportions of infected people, highly infectious variants, or where spread is difficult to manage. This work develops a simulation framework based on probabilistic distributions of viral particles, decay, and infection. The methodology reduces the computational cost of generating rapid estimations of a wide variety of scenarios compared to other simulation methods with high computational cost and more fidelity. Outdoor predictions are provided in example applications for a gathering of five people with oscillating wind and a public speaking event. The results indicate that infection is sensitive to population density and outdoor transmission is plausible and likely locations of a virtual super-spreader are identified. Outdoor gatherings should consider precautions to reduce infection spread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social signal processing and virtual social interaction technologies have allowed the creation of social skills training applications, and initial studies have shown that such solutions can lead to positive training outcomes and could complement traditional teaching methods by providing cheap, accessible, safe tools for training social skills. However, these studies evaluated social skills training systems as a whole and it is unclear to what extent which components contributed to positive outcomes. In this paper, we describe an experimental study where we compared the relative efficacy of real-time interactive feedback and after-action feedback in the context of a public speaking training application. We observed that both components provide benefits to the overall training: the real-time interactive feedback made the experience more immersive and improved participants' motivation in using the system, while the after-action feedback led to positive training outcomes when it contained personalized feedback elements. Taken in combination, these results confirm that both social signal processing technologies and virtual social interactions are both contributing to social skills training systems' efficiency. Additionally, we observed that several individual factors, here the subjects' initial level of public speaking anxiety, personality and tendency to immersion significantly influenced the training experience. This finding suggests that social skills training systems could benefit from being tailored to participants' particular individual circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most public speaking datasets, judgements are given after watching the entire performance, or on thin slices randomly selected from the presentations, without focusing on the temporal location of these slices. This does not allow to investigate how people’s judgements develop over time during presentations. This contrasts with primacy and recency theories, which suggest that some moments of the speech could be more salient than others and contribute disproportionately to the perception of the speaker’s performance. To provide novel insights on this phenomenon, we present the 3MT_French dataset. It contains a set of public speaking annotations collected on a crowd-sourcing platform through a novel annotation scheme and protocol. Global evaluation, persuasiveness, perceived self-confidence of the speaker and audience engagement were annotated on different time windows (i.e., the beginning, middle or end of the presentation, or the full video). This new resource will be useful to researchers working on public speaking assessment and training. It will allow to fine-tune the analysis of presentations under a novel perspective relying on socio-cognitive theories rarely studied before in this context, such as first impressions and primacy and recency theories. An exploratory correlation analysis on the annotations provided in the dataset suggests that the early moments of a presentation have a stronger impact on the judgements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the preliminary efficacy of an ultra-brief cognitive defusion intervention, compared to a positive self-affirmation intervention, on moderate subclinical Public Speaking Anxiety (PSA). Sixty-three participants (M = 25.70 years,, SD = 9.48) first completed a questionnaire assessing PSA symptomology and were then randomly assigned to receive one of two interventions (cognitive defusion, positive self-affirmation) or nothing at all (no-treatment control). All participants then performed an impromptu speech task before recompleting the questionnaire. A significant decrease in PSA was reported within the cognitive defusion condition, relative to the positive self-affirmation and no-treatment control conditions. An ultra-brief cognitive defusion intervention has the potential to reduce short-term anxiety among those with moderate PSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated 113 community college students enrolled in face-to-face and online speech communication courses and their perceptions of instructor speech assessments. Each course completed a self-inventory questionnaire using Google Forms at the completion of the semester. Descriptive statistics and an independent samples t-test analyzed responses. Students enrolled in a face-to-face public speaking course reported statistically significant higher levels of satisfaction with instructor assessment as opposed to those enrolled online. In addition, the results suggest students in a traditional environment believed instructor assessment played a role in increased credibility related to public speaking. These findings enhance the literature through the discovery of significant differences between groups in multiple areas related to instructor feedback. Findings may help design more valuable assessments for online students to more effectively achieve course outcomes and improve performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzes the psychological reactions of participants to the neutral, positive, or negative attitudes of a virtual audience recorded in 360°-video. Participants were asked to deliver three speeches, each accompanied by a different type of reaction from the virtual audience. Measures of user state included questionnaires, psychophysiological measures, and voice recordings. The results showed that, compared to the neutral audience, the negative audience elicited increases in skin conductance level and heart rate variability, decreases in voice intensity, and a higher ratio of silent parts in the speech, as well as a more negative self-reported valence, higher anxiety, and lower social presence. These findings evidence that, even if some attributes that are considered to be central to immersive experiences are lacking, (i.e., interactivity or avatar representation of the user), 360°-video recreations of virtual environments lead to realistic reactions on users. These results support the effectiveness of 360°-video virtual audiences for public speaking training and social anxiety treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is an effort to present an effective approach to enhance text-independent speaker identification performance in emotional talking environments based on novel classifier called cascaded Gaussian Mixture Model-Deep Neural Network (GMM-DNN). Our current work focuses on proposing, implementing and evaluating a new approach for speaker identification in emotional talking environments based on cascaded Gaussian mixture model-deep neural network as a classifier. The results point out that the cascaded GMM-DNN classifier improves speaker identification performance at various emotions using two distinct speech databases: Emirati speech database (Arabic United Arab Emirates dataset) and "speech under simulated and actual stress" English dataset. The proposed classifier outperforms classical classifiers such as multilayer perceptron and support vector machine in each dataset. Speaker identification performance that has been attained based on the cascaded GMM-DNN is similar to that acquired from subjective assessment by human listeners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Stress is a risk factor for psychosis and treatments which mitigate its harmful effects are needed. Cannabidiol (CBD) has antipsychotic and anxiolytic effects. Objectives: We investigated whether CBD would normalise the neuroendocrine and anxiety responses to stress in clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR) patients. Methods: Thirty-two CHR patients and 26 healthy controls (HC) took part in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and their serum cortisol, anxiety and stress associated with public speaking were estimated. Half of the CHR participants were on 600 mg/day of CBD (CHR-CBD) and half were on placebo (CHR-P) for 1 week. Results: One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant effect of group (HC, CHR-P, CHR-CBD (p =.005) on cortisol reactivity as well as a significant (p =.003) linear decrease. The change in cortisol associated with experimental stress exposure was greatest in HC controls and least in CHR-P patients, with CHR-CBD patients exhibiting an intermediate response. Planned contrasts revealed that the cortisol reactivity was significantly different in HC compared with CHR-P (p =.003), and in HC compared with CHR-CBD (p =.014), but was not different between CHR-P and CHR-CBD (p =.70). Across the participant groups (CHR-P, CHR-CBD and HC), changes in anxiety and experience of public speaking stress (all p's <.02) were greatest in the CHR-P and least in the HC, with CHR-CBD participants demonstrating an intermediate level of change. Conclusions: Our findings show that it is worthwhile to design further well powered studies which investigate whether CBD may be used to affect cortisol response in clinical high risk for psychosis patients and any effect this may have on symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Objectives: The current research adds to the literature addressing police body-worn cameras (BWCs) by experimentally evaluating their effect on an interaction that has, to date, received relatively little systematic, empirical attention: police–eyewitness interactions. Although research suggests that BWCs generally have positive effects, legal scholars and media professionals have long argued that deploying cameras in this context may backfire, especially by chilling public willingness to speak with police. Method: The current study utilized an online national convenience sample (N = 508) to test the effect of four factors that were varied across seven mock interview video conditions on participants' willingness to cooperate, the amount of information provided, accuracy and confidence in an eyewitness identification task, and perceptions like procedural fairness and trust. We hypothesized that the presence and activation of the camera would have positive effects on the interaction. Results: Regarding the factors, the manipulated presence of a recording camera had the most consistent positive impact. Whether the camera was present, and the participant's awareness of the camera and the fact that it was recording were also tested, but these comparisons were less likely to reach statistical significance. Regarding the conditions, the best outcomes were associated with officers who turned on the camera and did not explain why. Conversely, the worst outcomes were associated with officers who turned off the cameras without explanation. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the positive effects of BWCs may extend to police–eyewitness interactions and reveal no evidence of a chilling effect on eyewitness-relevant outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to globalization, an increasing need for advanced speaking skills, and the interest aroused by English public speaking (EPS) competitions, EPS is increasingly important, especially among university students. Although self-efficacy is strongly associated with performance, no psychometrically sound instruments to measure EPS self-efficacy among college-level learners have been developed to date. Grounded in Bandura's self-efficacy theory, the present study established validity (content and construct) and reliability (scale and item) evidence for two new instruments: the EPS Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES) and the Sources of EPS Self-Efficacy Scale (SSES). Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in Sample A (n = 406) confirmed the hypothesized EPS competency-related self-efficacy gaged by ESES. Results in Sample B (n = 270) supported four sources of EPS self-efficacy as gaged by SSES. Correlation analyses in Sample C (n = 263) contributed to the refinement of self-efficacy theory within the EPS domain. The two new measures will help practitioners gage their students' EPS self-efficacy and its development and enable future investigations of the role EPS self-efficacy plays in language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimal treatment for Social Phobia/Social Anxiety Disorder (SP/SAD) remains an open question despite the existence of a variety of controlled studies, including randomized trials of cognitive behavioral and psychodynamic therapies. Moreover, individuals with Performance Anxiety, a colloquial term for SP/SAD, are typically treated by lay coaches and unlicensed practitioners, who focus on managing the symptoms of "stage fright." This paper describes the psychodynamic (psychoanalytic psychotherapy) treatment of an individual with manifestations of SP/SAD in the realms of public speaking, musical performance, and professional accomplishments. The narrative identified contributions of childhood abuse, gender concept confusion, mismatched parent–child interactions, and conflicts concerning aggression and entitlement. It became clear that strong feelings associated with anxiety concerning self-worth were at play that left the patient no possible alternatives to wishes for idealized perfection. These findings served as the basis for a therapeutic approach from a self-psychology perspective that focused on empathy, shared emotional experiences, attunement, and being known. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a robust and potentially valuable option for individuals willing to undertake a more intensive therapy whose benefits extend beyond symptomatic relief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic hypernasality detection in cleft palate speech can facilitate diagnosis by speech-language pathologists. This paper describes a feature-independent end-to-end algorithm that uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect hypernasality in cleft palate speech. A speech spectrogram is adopted as the input. The average F1-scores for the hypernasality detection task are 0.9485 and 0.9746 using a dataset that is spoken by children and a dataset that is spoken by adults, respectively. The experiments explore the influence of the spectral resolution on the hypernasality detection performance in cleft palate speech. Higher spectral resolution can highlight the vocal tract parameters of hypernasality, such as formants and spectral zeros. The CNN learns efficient features via a two-dimensional filtering operation, while the feature extraction performance of shallow classifiers is limited. Compared with deep neural network and shallow classifiers, CNN realizes the highest F1-score of 0.9485. Comparing various network architectures, the convolutional filter of size 1 × 8 achieves the highest F1-score in the hypernasality detection task. The selected filter size of 1 × 8 considers more frequency information and is more suitable for hypernasality detection than the filters of size 3 × 3, 4 × 4, 5 × 5, and 6 × 6. According to an analysis of hypernasality-sensitive vowels, the experimental result concludes that the vowel /i/ is the most sensitive vowel to hypernasality. Compared with state-of-the-art literature, the proposed CNN-based system realizes a better detection performance. The results of an experiment that is conducted on a heterogeneous corpus demonstrate that CNN can better handle the speech variability compared with the shallow classifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to better understand which factors play a role in non-adaptive social behavior in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) we looked into physiological arousal and awareness of one's own emotions. Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured during a public speaking task in 51 young adults with ASD and 28 typically developing (TD) controls. The results showed no significant group differences in baseline HR/HRV, HR reactivity (change from baseline to the speaking task) or self-reported emotional awareness. However, adults with ASD showed significantly lower HRV reactivity (p =.023, d = 0.6) compared to TD adults. These results suggest a mismatch between arousal regulation and emotional awareness, which may be related to problems in social adaptation in ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affect labeling (putting feelings into words) decreases subjective emotional distress and is a form of incidental or unintentional emotion regulation. Anxiety is associated with deficits in explicit emotion regulation, but far less is known about incidental emotion regulation. This study examined whether participants with public speaking anxiety showed deficits in incidental emotion regulation compared to non-anxious participants. Ninety-five public speaking anxious and fifteen non-anxious participants completed an affect-labeling task. They viewed negative images, and on half of the trials, they labeled the content of the image, and on the other half, viewed the image without labeling. They then rated their subjective distress after each image. Following the affect-labeling task, participants gave a brief speech in front of a live audience. Physiological reactivity (heart rate and skin conductance) was assessed prior to and following the speech, and participants reported on speech-related cognitions and fear levels. Incidental emotion regulation deficits were significantly correlated with more depressive symptoms, and more negative and fewer positive speech-related cognitions during the speech task. Further, distress decreased on labeling compared to non-labeling trials for non-anxious participants, but not for participants with public speaking anxiety. This is the first study to show that individuals with public speaking anxiety may not benefit from affect labeling, implying deficits in incidental emotion regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cochlear implantation (CI) in children with additional disabilities can be a fundamental and supportive intervention. Although, there may be some positive impacts of CI on children with multiple disabilities such as better outcomes of communication skills, development, and quality of life, the families of those children complain from the post-implant habilitation efforts that considered as a burden.Objective: To investigate the outcomes of CI children with different co-disabilities through using the Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS) and the Meaningful Use of Speech Scale (MUSS) as outcome measurement tools.Methods: The study sample comprised 25 hearing-impaired children with co-disability who received cochlear implantation. Age and gender-matched control group of 25 cochlear-implanted children without any other disability has been also included. The participants' auditory skills and speech outcomes were assessed using MAIS and MUSS tests.Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the different outcomes measure between the two groups. However, the outcomes of some multiple disabilities subgroups were comparable to the control group. Around 40% of the participants with co-disabilities experienced advancement in their methods of communication from behavior to oral mode.Conclusion: Cochlear-implanted children with multiple disabilities showed variable degrees of auditory and speech outcomes. The degree of benefits depends on the type of the co-disability. Long-term follow-up is recommended for those children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing measures for examining fear of public speaking are somewhat limited in content and there is a need for scales that assess a broader area including cognitive, behavioral, and physiological dimensions of the fear. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) in a sample of university students (n, 273). Participants completed the PRPSA and measures of depression, social and general anxiety, and quality of life. A reduced version of the PRPSA, the PRPSA-18, was found to demonstrate satisfactory internal consistency as well as discriminant and convergent validity. The PRPSA-18 was associated with two solid factors, "Anticipatory anxiety and physiological symptoms during speech performance," and "Lack of control during speech performance." A PRPSA-18 score of 58 was found to discriminate participants with higher and lower fear of public speaking. It is concluded that the shorter and more easily administered PRPSA-18 is a credible option for assessing fear of public speaking among university students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each year since 1943 the American Foundry Society has featured a “foundation lecture” delivered by an individual chosen to share their wisdom and experience at the Society’s annual assembly. These lectures, named in 1947 after Charles Edgar Hoyt, reflect the thinking and passion of the best and brightest spokesmen of the metalcasting industry. Seldom however has this repository of wisdom been examined in aggregate and seldom have any engaged in an effort to observe themes in these lectures for the benefit of a contemporary audience. The author, the Hoyt Memorial Lecturer in 2005, presents his understanding of the wisdom of the Lecture around common themes in these presentations, including the nature and importance of research, our responsibility to people engaged in foundry work, the importance of education, the nature of the relationship between foundry and government, quality and the art of management. The author includes reading suggestions from the Hoyt corpus for those interested in going further into the Lecture’s wisdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although public speaking anxiety (PSA) is the most commonly experienced type of anxiety, the effect of mindfulness-based interventions on PSA is not firmly established. To shed light on this relationship, the present study proposes a model examining the mediating effect of self-esteem in explaining this link. The data for the present study were collected from 227 executives pursuing a 2-year management education program. Public speaking being an essential part of this program, the participants voluntarily completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety. Based on a quantitative approach, the study demonstrates that the effect of mindfulness-based interventions on public speaking anxiety could be better understood by taking into account the mediating variable-self-esteem. The study concludes by discussing conceptual contributions, limitations and future research avenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to examine the relationship of implicit emotional judgments with experiential avoidance (EA) and social anxiety. A sample of 61 college students completed the Emotional Judgment - Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (EJ-IRAP) as well as a public speaking challenge. Implicit judgments were related to greater self-reported EA, anxiety sensitivity, emotional judgments and social anxiety as well as lower performance ratings and willingness in the public speaking challenge. Effects differed by trial type with 'Anxiety is bad' biases related to greater EA/anxiety, while 'calm is bad' biases related to lower EA/anxiety ('Good' biases were generally unrelated to outcomes). Implicit emotional judgments moderated the relationship of heart rate during the speech with speech time and willingness, such that increases in heart rate were only related to lower speech time and willingness among those high in implicit judgments. Implicit judgments predicted social anxiety above and beyond self-report EA measures. Implicit emotional judgments appear to have a functional role in EA and anxiety that warrants further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first long-term follow-up study of virtual reality exposure therapy and exposure group therapy for social anxiety disorder-completed 6 years, on average, after treatment completion. Participants ( N = 28) had a clinical diagnosis of social anxiety disorder that included public speaking fears and had previously completed 8 sessions of either virtual reality exposure therapy or exposure group therapy delivered according to a treatment manual. The final sample was ethnically diverse, middle-aged (mean age = 42 years) and mostly female (71%). Participants completed standardized self-report measures of public speaking anxiety and fear of negative evaluation, a behavioral speech task, a diagnostic interview, and ratings of global improvement. Participants showed statistically significant improvement on all self-report measures from pre-treatment to follow-up. All participants completed the speech task, with two exceptions: one participant declined to do the speech task and one person completed the follow-up assessment by phone. The majority of participants no longer met diagnostic criteria for the disorder (54%) and reported themselves 'very much' or 'much' improved (68%). With one exception, there were no differences between treatments at follow-up across self-report, clinician-rated, and behavioral data. Virtual reality exposure therapy and exposure group therapy for social anxiety disorder produce long-lasting benefits, consistent with research on a variety of forms of short-term cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates about the ethics and effects of placebos and whether 'placebos' in clinical trials of complex treatments such as acupuncture are adequate (and hence whether acupuncture is 'truly' effective or a 'mere placebo') rage. Yet there is currently no widely accepted definition of the 'placebo'. A definition of the placebo is likely to inform these controversies. Grünbaum's (1981, 1986) characterization of placebos and placebo effects has been touted by some authors as the best attempt thus far, but has not won widespread acceptance largely because Grünbaum failed to specify what he means by a therapeutic theory and because he does not stipulate a special role for expectation effects. Grünbaum claims that placebos are treatments whose 'characteristic features' do not have therapeutic effects on the target disorder. I show that with four modifications, Grünbaum's definition provides a defensible account of placebos for the purpose of constructing placebo controls within clinical trials. The modifications I introduce are: adding a special role for expectations, insisting that placebo controls control for all and only the effects of the incidental treatment features, relativizing the definition of placebos to patients, and introducing harmful interventions and nocebos to the definitional scheme. I also provide guidance for classifying treatment features as characteristic or incidental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language learning strategies have drawn researchers' substantial attention since Rubin's () and Stern's studies on 'good language learners'. Nevertheless, research pertaining to speaking strategies is inadequate, especially in relation to learning Chinese as second/foreign language (CSL/CFL). This study, therefore, seeks to address this research gap with an initial attempt of developing an inventory for measuring CSL/CFL students' strategies in learning how to speak in L2 Chinese: The Speaking Strategy Inventory for Learners of Chinese (SSILC) as a second/foreign language. Given that this is the very first inventory of its kind, the purpose of our study is to validate it so that more teachers of CSL/CFL could be provided with a tool for assessing their L2 Chinese learners' use and development of speaking strategies. L2 Chinese learners will also be able to use it for monitoring their own progress. Two independent samples of 260 and 135 university L2 Chinese students responded to the SSILC. The data were then subjected to exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs), respectively. Results from both EFAs and CFAs provided support for a three-factor speaking strategy inventory with good psychometric properties. The three clusters of speaking strategies are Expression Practice Strategies, Native- like and Involvement Strategies and Assistance Strategies. The correlations between the three clusters of speaking strategies and self-perceived speaking proficiency partially supported the predictive validity of the SSILC. Future research and pedagogical implications for classroom teachers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies test the link between word order in binomials and psychological and demographic characteristics of a speaker. While linguists have already suggested that psychological, cultural and societal factors are important in choosing word order in binomials, the vast majority of relevant research was focused on general factors and on broadly shared cultural conventions. In contrast, in this work we are interested in what word order can tell us about the particular speaker. More specifically, we test the degree to which word order is affected by factors such as gender, race, geographic location, religion, political orientation, and consumer preferences. Using a variety of methodologies and different data sources, we find converging evidence that word order is linked to a broad set of features associated with the speaker. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and the potential to use word order as a tool for analyzing large text corpora and data on the web. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rarely studied motive for engaging in face-to-face arguing is to display one's identity. One way people can manage their impressions is to give reasons (arguments) for their commitments. This appears to be the first study to focus on this reason for arguing. 461 undergraduates recalled an episode in which they had argued to display own identity. They filled out trait measures as well as instruments describing the episode. Identity display arguments do not require controversy, are not very emotional episodes, can partly serve many communication goals, and are polite. People who have high predilection to argue for identity display are both self- and other-oriented, although the correlations with self-oriented measures are stronger. This study not only describes episodes containing arguments for identity display, but also indicates the balance between self- and other-orientations that are involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is informed by the theory of allostatic load to examine how multiple stress responsive biomarkers are related to mental health outcomes. Data are from the TRAILS study, a large prospective population study of 715 Dutch adolescents (50.9 % girls), assessed at 16.3 and 19.1 years. Reactivity measures of the hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and autonomic nervous system (ANS) biomarkers (heart rate, HR; respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA; and pre-ejection period, PEP) to a social stress task were used to predict concurrent and longitudinal changes in internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed relatively few single effects for each biomarker with the exception that high HR reactivity predicted concurrent internalizing problems in boys. More interestingly, interactions were found between HPA-axis reactivity and sympathetic and parasympathetic reactivity. Boys with high HPA reactivity and low RSA reactivity had the largest increases in internalizing problems from 16 to 19 years. Youth with low HPA reactivity along with increased ANS activation characterized by both decreases in RSA and decreases in PEP had the most concurrent externalizing problems, consistent with broad theories of hypo-arousal. Youth with high HPA reactivity along with increases in RSA but decreases in PEP also had elevated concurrent externalizing problems, which increased over time, especially within boys. This profile illustrates the utility of examining the parasympathetic and sympathetic components of the ANS which can act in opposition to one another to achieve, overall, stress responsivity. The framework of allostasis and allostatic load is supported in that examination of multiple biomarkers working together in concert was of value in understanding mental health problems concurrently and longitudinally. Findings argue against an additive panel of risk and instead illustrate the dynamic interplay of stress physiology systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses importance of presentations for personal development. It mentions important role of art and craft of narrative. It also mentions it is essential to make presentations about more than image management and overcoming public speaking anxieties. It also mentions amusing comics or photos may facilitate interaction but can be tangential to content.

Mainstream prominence was Skinner's vision for behavior analysis. Unfortunately, it remains elusive, even as we approach the 110th anniversary of his birth. It can be achieved, however, and there are many routes. One that seems overlooked in many (most?) behavior analytic training programs is what I call the front of the room. The front of the room is a very powerful locus for influencing people. Mastering it can turn a commoner into a king; a middling man into a mayor; or a group of disorganized, dispirited people into an energized force marching into battle. The most powerful members of our species had their most memorable moments at the front of the room. If so much is available there, why is mastery of it in such short supply, not just in behavior analysts but in the population at large? In this paper, I address why, argue that the primary reason can be overcome, and supply 15 behaviorally based steps to take in pursuit of front of the room mastery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To test the Trier Social Stress Test for children (TSSTC) in a cohort of Indian adolescents. Design: Cohort study Setting: Holdsworth Memorial Hospital, Mysore, India. Participants: Adolescent children (N=273, 134 males; mean age 13.6 yrs) selected from an ongoing birth cohort; 269 completed the test. Intervention: Performance of 5-minutes each of public-speaking and mental arithmetic tasks in front of two unfamiliar 'evaluators'. Outcome measures: Salivary cortisol concentrations were measured at baseline and at regular intervals after the TSST-C. Continuous measurements of heart rate, finger blood pressure, stroke volume, cardiac output and systemic vascular resistance were carried out before, during and for 10 minutes after the TSSTC using a finger cuff. Results: Cortisol concentrations [mean increment (SD): 6.1 (6.9) ng/mL], heart rate [4.6 (10.1) bpm], systolic [24.2 (11.6) mmHg] and diastolic blood pressure [16.5 (7.3) mmHg], cardiac output [0.6 (0.7) L/mini, stroke volume [4.0 (5.6) mL] and systemic vascular resistance [225 (282) dyn.s/cm5] increased significantly (P<0.001) from baseline after inducing stress. Conclusions: The TSST-C produces stress-responses in Indian adolescents of a sufficient magnitude to be a useful tool for examining stress physiology and its relationships to disease outcomes in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]