KNOW THYSELF*

Autistic psychiatrists who don't know they're autistic may fail to spot autism in patients

Groundbreaking research exploring the experiences of autistic psychiatrists published today in BJPsych Open

UCD Research & Innovation

 

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Dr Mary Doherty, Clinical Associate Professor at UCD School of Medicine

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Credit: UCD School of Medicine

Groundbreaking research exploring the experiences of autistic psychiatrists has revealed that psychiatrists who are unaware that they themselves are autistic may fail to recognise the condition in their patients. The study, conducted by researchers from University College Dublin, London South Bank University, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, is the first of its kind to delve into the lives of neurodivergent psychiatrists. It was published today in BJPsych Open.

"Knowing that you are autistic can be positively life-changing," said the study author Dr Mary Doherty, Clinical Associate Professor at UCD School of Medicine. "However, more than 187,000 people in England are waiting for an autism assessment. The situation worsens if psychiatrists, unaware of their own autism, misdiagnose patients. Recognition could benefit both psychiatrists and the patients they serve."

The research team, comprised of medical professionals and academics who are neurodivergent themselves, conducted in-depth interviews with eight senior UK-based psychiatrists, six of whom are consultants, working across the NHS. Their specialties ranged from Child and Adolescent Mental Health to adult services, including intellectual disability.

The study explored how these psychiatrists came to realise they were autistic, often through personal experiences such as their child's diagnosis or by recognising similarities between themselves and autistic patients. Remarkably, some were even identified as autistic by their own patients.

Once self-recognition occurred, the psychiatrists began to notice that many of their colleagues—especially those specialising in autism or ADHD—might also be autistic but unaware. This lack of awareness can have serious implications, as psychiatrists may inadvertently miss the diagnosis in autistic patients. However, once aware of their own neurodivergence, the psychiatrists found it easier to recognise autism in others and build strong therapeutic relationships.

The study also revealed that understanding their own autism had a positive impact on the psychiatrists' self-esteem and mental health. However, the researchers pointed out that many patients miss out on this benefit when assessed by psychiatrists who, while sharing their experiences, do not recognise they are also autistic.

Dr Sebastian Shaw, senior author and Lecturer in Medical Education at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, added: "This research not only sheds light on the experiences of autistic psychiatrists but also demonstrates the unique advantages they bring to the field. Through self-awareness, their ability to connect with autistic patients greatly improves."

Future studies are expected to explore why none of the psychiatrists in this study disclosed their autism openly, as well as the broader impact of this recognition on patient care and clinical practice.

The study will be presented at 'Thinking Differently: The Royal College of Psychiatrists Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry Special Interest Group Winter Conference' which takes place in Brighton on December 11, 2024.

The paper is available to read at: https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2024.756

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Journal

BJPsych Open

DOI

10.1192/bjo.2024.756 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Autistic psychiatrists’ experiences of recognising themselves and others as autistic: a qualitative study

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Rice study: Chinese scientists prioritize government service more than global peers

Rice University

In a new study of physicists from the U.S., U.K. and China, Rice University and Santa Clara University researchers found that Chinese scientists feel a greater obligation to serve their government with research efforts than international counterparts.

“Cross‑National Variations in Scientific Ethics: Exploring Ethical Perspectives Among Scientists in China, the U.S. and the U.K.” reveals significant differences in how physicists view their responsibilities as scientists. The research included interviews with 211 physicists and sheds light on how scientists in these three countries approach ethical issues like mentorship, research integrity and public engagement. The research was authored by Elaine Howard Ecklund, the Herbert S. Autrey Chair and Professor of Sociology and director of the Boniuk Institute, and Di Di, an assistant professor of sociology at Santa Clara. 

One of the key findings revealed that physicists who rely on public funding, especially in the U.S. and U.K., feel a strong responsibility to communicate their research in a clear and accessible way. In China, scientists often feel more obligated to serve both the government and society at large than their global counterparts.

Di said that Chinese scientists acknowledge the development of science and technology often involves a degree of conservatism, encouraging scientists to prioritize service to their country and government.

“At the same time, they recognize the importance of using scientific research to benefit humanity as a whole,” Di said. “When considering their social responsibilities, the Chinese scientists work to navigate this tension within the framework of scientific ethics.”

The research also revealed that U.S. and U.K. scientists generally have fewer issues navigating global ethics standards, including when it comes to verifying and publishing results, but their Chinese counterparts often struggle to reconcile their national responsibilities to honor the government with international expectations about research collaboration.

“Scientists in each of the nations felt that publishing results quickly is sometimes at odds with fully verifying results of studies,” said Ecklund, the principal investigator for the project. 

Despite the strong support among scientists from the three different countries, some scientists admitted there are competitive pressures. A U.K. physicist said that being truthful in conducting research means not making claims “that you haven’t verified fully” and waiting “until you are sure of your results before publishing,” but he added that this is easier said than done.

“This is an issue in a very competitive environment where people will get something fairly minor and then oversell it, particularly [to] funding agencies,” the survey respondent said. It is, he believes, inevitable that some scientists will use “buzz words” to exaggerate their results, which he said “in some instances [can] sail close to deceitfulness.”

The study also looked at how researchers balanced mentorship and teaching.

“Mentorship and teaching are seen as crucial roles, particularly in countries with fewer resources, to help develop the next generation of scientists,” said Di, the study’s lead author. However, the study revealed Chinese scientists had mixed feelings about taking a more egalitarian relationship with students.

“I don’t think that students and teachers are equal. Teachers are there to teach students, not to listen to whatever demands students have. I oppose the way it is developing in the U.S. — to assess the teacher’s performance entirely based on the students’ evaluation,” the survey respondent said.

The researchers emphasize the need for ethical guidelines that take into account the different cultural and national perspectives of scientists. The study advocates for including voices from countries with developing scientific infrastructures to ensure that ethical standards are relevant and fair globally.

“Our findings show the importance of considering cultural and national differences when creating ethical standards for science,” Ecklund said. “By doing this, we can build a more inclusive and responsible scientific community.”

The study is online at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11948-024-00505-0. 

Research for this study was supported by the National Science Foundation, “Ethics among Scientists in International Contexts,” Ecklund, PI.

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Journal

Science and Engineering Ethics

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Cross-National Variations in Scientific Ethics: Exploring Ethical Perspectives Among Scientists in China, the US, and the UK

A new piece in the grass pea puzzle - updated genome sequence published

John Innes Centre

 

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Photo taken at the Marchouch Field Station in Morocco, showing grass pea (right) next to a lentil crop (left) planted at the same time, suffering from lack of water.

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Credit: Matt Heaton

An international research collaboration has completed the most detailed genome assembly to date of grass pea (Lathyrus sativus).

This new chromosome-scale reference genome published in Scientific Data offers new potential to accelerate modern breeding of this underutilised legume for climate-smart agriculture.

Nearly twice the size of the human genome, the sequence was assembled from scratch and improves on an earlier draft assembly of the vigorous grass pea line LS007.

“We want to establish this new genome sequence as the reference genome for the grass pea community, and we’re delighted to share this valuable resource for other scientists to use and learn about grass pea,” explained corresponding author of the research Dr Peter Emmrich, a researcher at Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development (NISD) and visiting group leader at the John Innes Centre. 

“At a time of increasing weather shocks, this genome allows us to unlock the secrets of grass pea’s resilience, to further improve this crop for farmers, and inform development of other crops, such as peas,” he added.

Improvements in genome accuracy and completeness also allow researchers to study evolutionary links between species, helping identify gene pathways that could be used to improve the crop or to understand its remarkable drought tolerance. 

Dr Anne Edwards, research assistant at the John Innes Centre, said: “As we prepare for a future of increased climate change, we are going to need crops that can cope with drought, or flooding or inundations of salt water. This new genome sequence means that we are even closer to adding grass pea to the list of climate-smart crops of tomorrow. It’s an exciting time to be in the grass pea research community!”

What is Grass Pea? 

Grass pea is a crop grown in many regions of the world that is high in protein and resilient to drought and flooding. One of the oldest known cultivated plants, grass pea is now grown in Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. It has been used for centuries as an insurance crop, that survives when other crops fail and is safe to eat as part of a balanced diet.  

Grass pea is among a group neglected and underutilised crops that play a key role in local nutrition and livelihoods, but that historically have received little attention from breeders and researchers. However, its resilience to both drought and flooding makes it a promising crop for ensuring food security in a changing climate.

Grass pea’s widespread cultivation has been hampered due to a toxin contained within its seeds and shoots, which can, in malnourished people, cause the disease neurolathyrism, a condition which causes irreversible paralysis. 

Another major barrier preventing crop breeding improvements was the lack of a genome reference for the crop.

The availability of the new genome sequence means researchers could use gene editing and modern breeding methods to develop varieties of grass pea with improved agronomic characteristics or low or zero toxin content. This means that grass pea could be poised to make an important contribution to a more diversified and climate resilient food system in the future. 

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Journal

Scientific Data

DOI

10.1038/s41597-024-03868-y 

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

A chromosome-scale reference genome of grasspea (Lathyrus sativus)

 

Paradigm shifts from data-intensive science to robot scientists

Science China Press

 

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Introduced the process of paradigm shift in scientific research, outlining the evolution of every stage in the scientific process

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Credit: ©Science China Press

In a recent paper published by Professor Xin Li and Dr. Yanlong Guo from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the authors explore the profound paradigm shift in scientific research driven by big data and artificial intelligence (AI). The study examines how the "correlation supersedes causation" paradigm is increasingly being challenged by the emerging "data-intensive scientific discovery" approach. Additionally, the authors highlight growing anticipation surrounding the "robot scientist" paradigm, which is expected to become a reality as AI technologies mature.

The research systematically analyzes the transition from data-intensive science to the robot scientist paradigm, outlining the evolution of every stage in the scientific process, including observation, data analysis, hypothesis generation, prediction formulation, hypothesis testing, and theorization. The authors argue that while data-driven methods are valuable tools, they cannot replace intellectual and methodological approaches. Instead, they complement and enhance traditional scientific research.

Moreover, the study emphasizes that next-generation Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) algorithms are poised to automate the entire research cycle, ushering in an era where robot scientists autonomously conduct experiments and generate hypotheses. The researchers detail the potential changes in the scientific method, outlining steps such as autonomous ubiquitous sensing and observation, autonomous analysis, hypothesis formation and testing by AI, and autonomous theorization. This transformation, driven by big data and AI, offers a comprehensive framework for knowledge discovery, integrating both hypothesis-driven and data-driven approaches. AI's transparency, explainability, and robustness ensure that the knowledge it generates is trustworthy, accurate, and scientifically sound. While traditional methods remain relevant, incorporating big data and AI significantly enhances research efficiency and automation.

The researchers argue that in the future, robot scientists, equipped with powerful computational and reasoning capabilities, unlimited knowledge scope, and the ability to think creatively, foreshadow a future where scientific analysis is autonomous and profoundly intelligent. They elevate the role of artificial intelligence from a mere facilitator to an active, intuitive investigator, ready to venture beyond the frontiers of contemporary knowledge (Fig. 2).

This study provides valuable insights into the future of scientific research, illustrating how AI and big data are paving the way for unprecedented levels of automation and innovation in the scientific process.

  

Introduced the main capabilities of robot scientists.

Credit

©Science China Press

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Journal

Science Bulletin

DOI

10.1016/j.scib.2024.09.029 

 

Why employers should prioritize the well-being of expatriate workers?

New study from the University of Vaasa explores factors influencing expatriates' well-being and work performance

University of Vaasa

 

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Tania Biswas

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Credit: University of Vaasa / Riikka Kalmi

Well-being plays a critical role in maintaining job performance and the decision to stay abroad for expatriates. According to a doctoral dissertation by Tania Biswas from the University of Vaasa, Finland, strong organisational support and favourable working conditions improve their well-being at work, leading to improved job outcomes and reduced turnover. However, high-risk environments and conflicts between work and personal life can reduce well-being, leading to poor performance and an increased desire to quit.

Tania Biswas' doctoral dissertation identifies crucial factors that affect expatriates' well-being and work outcomes. She uses the term expatriate to refer to employees who move abroad either independently or on contract with their employer.

– Job autonomy, social support and work-family balance play an essential role in shaping the expatriate experience, says Biswas, who will defend her dissertation at the University of Vaasa on 1 November.

The dissertation shows that expatriates who find meaning in their international assignments and feel supported by their organisations are more likely to stay engaged and perform well, while those who face social isolation or challenging living conditions may struggle.

– By managing these factors effectively, companies can enhance expatriate retention, performance and satisfaction, says Biswas.

More flexibility, meaningfulness and support needed

International work is becoming more common, particularly in the business sector. As global companies increasingly depend on expatriates for international operations, this research emphasises the importance of supporting expatriate well-being for both individual and organisational success. While working abroad offers unique opportunities, it also presents challenges that can lead to burnout and disengagement if not addressed early.

– To improve mental health and job performance, organisations should strengthen support systems and foster flexibility. The key lies in identifying burnout risks at an early stage and addressing them proactively, says Biswas.

According to the dissertation, offering meaningful assignments that align with expatriates' personal values and cultivating an inclusive environment where foreign workers feel valued can significantly boost well-being. Expatriates can also benefit from assessing the meaningfulness of overseas roles before accepting them.

–  By prioritising well-being, companies can retain key talent and create a more engaged, socially responsible workforce, benefiting both the organisation and society, says Biswas.

The dissertation adopts meta-analytic literature review and quantitative research methods. Data is collected through survey questionnaires administered to members of Finnish trade unions representing high-skilled academic engineers, architects, and business school graduates.

Public defence

The public examination of MBA Tania Biswas’s doctoral dissertation “Beyond Borders: Exploring Factors Influencing Well-being and Work Outcomes in Expatriates” will be held on Friday 1 November 2024 at 12 at the University of Vaasa, Auditorium Nissi.

It is also possible to participate in the defence online (Zoom, password: 072888).

Professor Sari Mauno (Tampere University) will act as an opponent and Professor Liisa Mäkelä as a custos. 

Doctoral dissertation

Biswas, Tania (2024) Beyond Borders: Exploring Factors Influencing Well-being and Work Outcomes in Expatriates. Acta Wasaensia 539. Doctoral dissertation. Vaasan yliopisto / University of Vaasa.

Publication pdf

 

Recent advancements and perspectives of fast-charging composite anodes for lithium-ion batteries

Science China Press

 

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Composite anodes with enhanced ion diffusion kinetics present a transformative opportunity to revolutionize fast-charging design. To illuminate the path towards designing advanced LIBs, this review delves into a comprehensive summary of recent breakthroughs in fast-charging composite anodes, offering valuable insights for the development of novel designs.

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Credit: ©Science China Press

This study is led by Prof. Zheng Liang (Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Zhang Jiang Institute for Advanced Study, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) and Dr. Xinyang Yue (Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Zhang Jiang Institute for Advanced Study, Shanghai Jiao Tong University). This paper provides a comprehensive review of the recent advancements in fast-charging composite anodes for LIBs, with a pivotal emphasis on the design principles and material selection strategies employed in various composite anode formulations.

The escalating demand for fast-charging lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has mirrored the rapid proliferation and widespread adoption of electric vehicles and portable electronic devices. Nonetheless, the sluggish diffusion kinetics of lithium ions and electrode degradation in conventional graphite-based anodes pose formidable hurdles in achieving optimal fast-charging capabilities for LIBs. To overcome these challenges, the innovative concept of fast-charging composite anodes, a paradigm shift from traditional single-component designs, has emerged as a promising avenue to enhance the overall performance of LIBs

under rapid charging conditions. In this review, the critical factors that affect the fast-charging performance of composite anodes were fully discussed, including electrode structure, material properties, and electrolyte composition. Additionally, the recent research work on composite anodes for upgrading fast-charging performance was analyzed in detail. Three types of representative composite anodes (graphite-based composite anodes, LTO-based composite anodes, and alloy-typed composite anodes) were assessed and compared systematically in the matter of anode structure, manufacturing process, and battery performance. At last, they have provided an outlook on the potential future developments of fast-charging composite anodes, offering insights into potential breakthroughs and directions for further exploration.

The core content of their Review is as follows.

(1) Comprehensively explored the key factors affecting the fast-charging performance of composite anodes. Ionic transport and charge transfer are two main factors dominating fast charging in anodes. A comprehensive and in-depth analysis of Li-ion diffusion and the rate-determining steps of electrochemical reactions in LIBs provides more systematic guidance for research and improvement.

(2) They systematically evaluated and compared the performance of three representative composite anodes in terms of anode structure, manufacturing process, and battery performance. This comprehensive and systematic comparison helps readers clearly understand the advantages and disadvantages of different types of composite anodes, providing a strong reference for selection in practical applications.

(3) The future research directions for the development of fast-charging composite anodes were envisioned. A deeper insight into the structures and properties of anode materials is vital to guide the design of anodes, which can also provide possibilities for meeting the future requirements of fast charging. Effective in-situ characterization techniques should be applied to gain deeper insights into the complex mechanisms of fast-charging technologies. Integrated, synergistic development of various components in fast-charging batteries should be promoted.

 

See the article:

Recent advancements and perspectives of fast-charging composite anodes for lithium-ion batteries

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-024-2265-9

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Journal

Science China Chemistry

DOI

10.1007/s11426-024-2265-9 

 

Why elephants never forget but fleas have, well, the attention span of a flea

Complexity Science Hub

 

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The framework illustrates how an agent interacts with a changing environment (E) that shifts on time scale τE. The agent senses the environment with a precision τc, here represented by four black-or-white bits. To estimate environmental trends, the agent combines current sensor readings with past memory, which fades over time τm. Coupling between the agent and environment either speeds up or slows down environmental change (τf).

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Credit: Edward D. Lee, Jessica C. Flack and David C. Krakauer

Researchers at the Complexity Science Hub and Santa Fe Institute have developed a model to calculate how quickly or slowly an organism should ideally learn in its surroundings. An organism’s ideal learning rate depends on the pace of environmental change and its life cycle, they say.

Every day, we wake to a world that is different, and we adjust to it. Businesses face new challenges and competitors and adapt or go bust. In biology, this is a question of survival: every organism, from bacteria to blue whales, faces the challenge of adapting to environments that are constantly in flux. Animals must learn where to seek nourishing food, even as those food sources change with the seasons. However, learning takes time and energy – an organism that learns too slowly will lag behind environmental changes, while one that learns too quickly will waste effort trying to track meaningless fluctuations.

The new mathematical model provides a quantitative answer to the question: What is the optimal pace of learning for an organism in a changing world? “The key insight is that the ideal learning rate increases in the same way regardless of the pace of environmental change, whether the organism changes its environment or alters its interaction with it. This suggests a generalizable phenomenon that may underlie learning in a variety of ecosystems,” states CSH PostDoc Eddie Lee.

The researchers' model imagines an environment that alternates between different states, such as wet and dry seasons, at a characteristic tempo. The organism senses this environmental state and records a memory of the past states. But older memories decay in importance over time, at a rate that defines the organism's learning timescale.

LEARNING AT THE SQUARE ROOT OF CHANGE

What is the optimal learning timescale to maximize adaptation to the environment? The model predicts a universal law: the learning timescale should scale as the square root of the environmental timescale.

For example, if the environment fluctuates twice as slowly, the organism's learning rate should decrease by a factor of 1.4 (the square root of 2). This square root scaling represents an optimal compromise between learning too quickly and too slowly. Importantly, a square root relation indicates that there are diminishing returns to longer memory.

“The model also simulates organisms that don't just passively learn, but can actively reshape their environment – an ability called niche construction,” says Lee, who is an ESPRIT Fellow of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) at CSH. If an organism has "stabilizing" powers to make its environment more constant, it gains an evolutionary edge. However, this advantage only accrues if the organism can monopolize the benefits of the stable environment. If freeloading competitors also exploit the stabilized niche, the niche construction strategy falls apart. An example: Beavers actively shape their environment by building dams in rivers, creating stable ponds that provide habitats for themselves and other species. This construction offers them a significant evolutionary advantage, as it ensures a consistent food supply and protection from predators. However, this advantage can diminish if other organisms, like muskrats or fish, exploit the resources of the created habitat.

METABOLIC OVERHEAD FOR LARGE ANIMALS

Finally, the researchers assess how learning ability interacts with the metabolic costs of being alive, meaning the energy demands of the body. They predict that for small, short-lived creatures like insects, the costs of learning and memory are paramount. In contrast, for larger, longer-lived animals like mammals, the costs of learning are dwarfed by metabolic overhead.

This predicts that small, short-lived organisms have well-tuned memory for their environments. “In contrast, larger organisms like elephants have longer memories, but exactly how long they retain information may have more to do with non-learning costs or other types of environments such as social groups which impose further cognitive demands,”, says Lee. Thus, it might not be totally appropriate to deride the well-tuned, “memory of a flea.”

The new model offers a quantitative framework for understanding how organisms balance the competing demands of learning and other survival imperatives in an ever-changing world. The results suggest an optimal pace of adaptation tuned to the speed of environmental change and the lifespan of the organism across the living world–from microbes to humans.

 

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About the study

The study “Constructing stability: optimal learning in noisy ecological niches,” by E.D. Lee, J.C. Flack and D.C. Krakauer was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.1606).

 

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About CSH

The Complexity Science Hub (CSH) is Europe’s research center for the study of complex systems. We derive meaning from data from a range of disciplines —  economics, medicine, ecology, and the social sciences — as a basis for actionable solutions for a better world. Established in 2015, we have grown to over 70 researchers, driven by the increasing demand to gain a genuine understanding of the networks that underlie society, from healthcare to supply chains. Through our complexity science approaches linking physics, mathematics, and computational modeling with data and network science, we develop the capacity to address today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.

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Journal

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI

10.1098/rspb.2024.1606 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Constructing stability: optimal learning in noisy ecological niches

 

Foreign accents protect people from being judged for bad grammar – study

University of Birmingham

Speaking with a foreign accent mitigates the impact of making grammatical errors, depending on the personality type of the listener, a new study has found.

New research from the University of Birmingham, with collaboration from Cardiff University and the University of Novi Sad (Serbia), has examined how ‘acceptable’ people find grammatical errors they hear, factoring in whether the speaker has a foreign accent or not, and the personality of the listener.

The study, published today (24th September) in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, found that in most cases people tend to be more tolerant towards someone with a foreign accent for making grammatical errors, unless they themselves have specific personality traits, e.g. they are highly conscientious.

Professor Dagmar Divjak, Professorial Research Fellow in Cognitive Linguistics and Language Cognition at the University of Birmingham, who led the research, said: “With English being spoken globally and diverse multicultural communities at home, we can expect to speak to people from different parts of the world for whom English is not their first language. This can lead to deviations from the perceived ‘standard’ in conversations, such as foreign accents or grammatical errors, being negatively received and leading to snap judgements about individuals. However, not a lot of research has been done on accent and grammar at the same time. Our research has found that those with foreign accents were not as harshly judged as native-accented people for making grammatical errors. And we found an interesting effect of listener personality.”

The researchers asked 60 first language British English speakers, 30 men and 30 women, recruited in Birmingham, to listen to 40 recordings of short passages in English, with or without grammatical errors in either a British or foreign accent. The poor grammar versions had different types of article errors, such as the omission or overuse of definite and indefinite articles (“the” or “a/an”) or the substitution of one for the other as in “I enjoy Edinburgh Fringe Festival” or “We celebrate the Christmas” or “We exchanged the wishes”. The 40 passages were read aloud by two British and two Polish speakers, one female and one male, at a natural speed.

The participants were then asked to rate on a scale of 1-100 how the language sounded to them, 1 being ‘this is not how I would express myself in English’, and 100 being ‘this is pretty much how I would put it myself’, and how easy it was to understand the speaker, 1 being ‘very difficult’ and 100 ‘very easy’. The participants also filled out a questionnaire to report their personality traits in terms of conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, openness, and neuroticism.

The research found that the article errors were more detrimental in the British accented speech than in the Polish accented speech.

Dr Hui Sun, at the time postdoctoral researcher on the study and now Lecturer in Language and Communication at Cardiff University said: “This could be because grammatical errors in native-accented speech are more unexpected and so more salient to the listeners. It is worth noting that most speech samples, including those with errors, were rated as easy to understand. We also found that the personality traits of the listeners had an impact on the acceptability ratings. For example, we found a clear linear effect of conscientiousness: the more conscientious you are, the less acceptable you find foreign-accented speech, regardless of the presence of grammatical errors. Other personality types showed a more complex, nonlinear pattern.”

Petar Milin, Professor of Psychology of Language and Language Learning at the University of Birmingham added: “This research has found that first-language English speakers are accepting of grammatical errors when the speaker audibly hails from another part of the world. This shows that British people make exceptions for those who may be learning the language, as long as they can understand the meaning of what is being said. Overall, our participants from Birmingham were very tolerant, which could be expected as the city contains a diverse community of people from different parts of the world. The study demonstrates a level of kindness and understanding from our participants which is a real positive to take away.”

The researchers say that these findings could have real-world applications, such as the way English is taught as a second language and understanding how we, as individuals, make judgments based on accents in situations like job interviews.

Professor Divjak concluded: “Our findings could influence how English is taught to people wanting to learn it as a second language for interactive purposes, with less focus on the fiddly specifics of grammar and more emphasis on effective expression. It also underscores the importance of self-awareness, as first-language listeners’ evaluations of foreign-accented speech could have negative consequences, especially in high-stakes situations such as academic admissions, job interviews, and immigration interviews. It is important to raise their awareness of the role personality plays in these evaluations which may help first language speakers with their communication with, and appreciation of, foreign-accented speakers.”    

ENDS
 

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Journal

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

DOI

10.1080/01434632.2024.2402489 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

L1 listeners’ evaluations of LX speech: the role of listener expectations and personality traits