Reply to “A Critique of Some Recent North American Mortuary Studies”

1981 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 416-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Tainter
1981 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 398-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Braun

Interpretations of prehistoric social organization based on multivariate statistical analyses of burial practices are becoming increasingly common in the North American archaeological literature. Unfortunately, these analyses and interpretations can incorporate weaknesses ranging from faulty data coding and the mis-application of statistical procedures to biases in the statistical and logical procedures employed. These problems are discussed in light of recent analyses (Tainter 1975a, 1975b, 1977a, 1977b, 1978) which use burial data from six Woodland sites in the riverine midwestern United States to develop a model of social change for the period A.D. 200-800. The results of these particular analyses are shown to be, at best, highly ambiguous and, at worst, contradictory to the proposed interpretations. This paper summarizes the weaknesses in these analyses, both to show the absence of support for the particular proposed interpretations and to illustrate how inappropriate methods can negate potentially useful mortuary research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasan K. Saleh ◽  
Paula Folkeard ◽  
Ewan Macpherson ◽  
Susan Scollie

Purpose The original Connected Speech Test (CST; Cox et al., 1987) is a well-regarded and often utilized speech perception test. The aim of this study was to develop a new version of the CST using a neutral North American accent and to assess the use of this updated CST on participants with normal hearing. Method A female English speaker was recruited to read the original CST passages, which were recorded as the new CST stimuli. A study was designed to assess the newly recorded CST passages' equivalence and conduct normalization. The study included 19 Western University students (11 females and eight males) with normal hearing and with English as a first language. Results Raw scores for the 48 tested passages were converted to rationalized arcsine units, and average passage scores more than 1 rationalized arcsine unit standard deviation from the mean were excluded. The internal reliability of the 32 remaining passages was assessed, and the two-way random effects intraclass correlation was .944. Conclusion The aim of our study was to create new CST stimuli with a more general North American accent in order to minimize accent effects on the speech perception scores. The study resulted in 32 passages of equivalent difficulty for listeners with normal hearing.


2006 ◽  
Vol 175 (4S) ◽  
pp. 511-512
Author(s):  
David G. McLeod ◽  
Ira Klimberg ◽  
Donald Gleason ◽  
Gerald Chodak ◽  
Thomas Morris ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 175 (4S) ◽  
pp. 46-47
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Lewinshtein ◽  
K.-H. Felix Chun ◽  
Alberto Briganti ◽  
Hendrik Isbarn ◽  
Eike Currlin ◽  
...  

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