Young children's attributes are better conveyed by voices than by faces.

The purpose of this study was to explore how young children's vocal and facial cues contribute to conveying to adults important information about children's attributes when presented together. In particular, the study aimed to disentangle whether children's vocal or facial cues, if either, are more dominant when both types of cues are displayed in a contradictory mode. To do this, we assigned 127 college students to one of three between-participants conditions. In the Voices-Only condition, participants listened to four pairs of synthetized voices simulating the voices of 4-5-year-old and 9-10-year-old children verbalizing a neutral-content sentence. Participants needed to indicate which voice was better associated with a series of 14 attributes organized into four trait dimensions (Positive Affect, Negative Affect, Intelligence, and Helpless), potentially meaningful in young child-adult interactions. In the Consistent condition, the same four pairs of voices delivered in the Voices-Only condition were presented jointly with morphed photographs of children's faces of equivalent age. In the Inconsistent condition, the four pairs of voices and faces were paired in a contradictory manner (immature voices with mature faces vs. mature voices with immature faces). Results revealed that vocal cues were more effective than facial cues in conveying young children's attributes to adults and that women were more efficient (i.e., faster) than men in responding to children's cues. These results confirm and extend previous evidence on the relevance of children's vocal cues to signaling important information about children's attributes and needs during their first 6 years of life.

Perception of managers' influence depending on status, power, and company performance.

This research examines others' perception of the influence of managers working in successful or unsuccessful companies who possess or lack status (to be respected by others) and power (control of valued resources). Study 1 shows that high-status managers were judged as more influential in the firm than their low-status peers, regardless of the company's situation. Study 2 finds that in a context of economic uncertainty, a manager with high status and power is perceived to be more capable of affecting the firm. The effect of power seems to be secondary since when a manager has low status, having high power does not significantly benefit the influence attributed to him or her. Furthermore, dominance (assertive behavior), not warmth, mediated the relationship between status and the attributed influence. Overall, these findings confirm that status is a very potent source of social influence, status and power are distinct constructs with different effects, and dominance rather than warmth is a key personal dimension linked to successful leadership.

Voices as Cues to Children's Needs for Caregiving.

The aim of this study was to explore the role of voices as cues to adults of children's needs for potential caregiving during early childhood. To this purpose, 74 college students listened to pairs of 5-year-old versus 10-year-old children verbalizing neutral-content sentences and indicated which voice was better associated with each of 14 traits, potentially meaningful in interactions between young children and adults. Results indicated that children with immature voices were perceived more positively and as being more helpless than children with mature voices. Children's voices, regardless of the content of speech, seem to be a powerful source of information about children's need for caregiving for parents and others during the first six years of life.

Presencia social en entornos virtuales de aprendizaje: Adaptación al español de la Networked Minds Social Presence Measure / Social presence in virtual learning environments: Spanish adaptation of the Networked Minds Social Presence Measure

El objetivo de este trabajo es, por una parte, la adaptación al español de la Medida de la presencia social de las mentes en red (Networked Minds Social Presence Measure) de Harms & Biocca (2004) de 36 ítems, y en particular a entornos virtuales del aprendizaje, y por otra, la obtención de una versión reducida de la misma. Para ello se analizó la fiabilidad de la escala, se llevaron a cabo análisis factoriales de carácter exploratorio y confirmatorio y se estudió, además, la relación entre la presencia social y el aprendizaje percibido, a través de dos muestras transversales de estudiantes universitarios (n = 270 y 315, respectivamente). Los resultados muestran una buena fiabilidad del instrumento, replican la estructura factorial de la escala original y confirman una relación positiva de la presencia social con el aprendizaje percibido. La escala adaptada arroja una reducción a 17 ítems. Esto permite disponer de un instrumento más breve y adaptado a la medición de la presencia social en entornos virtuales de aprendizaje.

The aim of this paper is, on the one hand, to perform the Spanish adaptation of the Networked Minds Social Presence Measure (Harms & Biocca, 2004) with 36 items, and specifically, to virtual learning environments, and on the other hand, to obtain a shortened version of it. In doing so, the scale reliability was analyzed, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyzes were performed, and also the relationship between social presence and perceived learning was studied, by means of two cross-sectional samples of university students (n = 270 and 315, respectively). Results show good instrument reliability, reproduce the original scale factor structure, and confirm a positive relationship of social presence with perceived learning. The adapted scale was reduced to 17 items. This allows us to have a shorter instrument which is adapted to the measure of social presence in virtual learning environments.