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The rapid spread of English medium instruction (EMI) across the globe has led to a growing number of non-native lecturers teaching in English to student populations that are increasingly international. The aim of the present study was to investigate to what extent lecturers with slight or moderate Dutch accents or native British English accents are evaluated differently in terms of intelligibility, comprehensibility and attitudinal impressions by non-native and native English-speaking listeners. In an experiment, 189 Dutch listeners, 175 international non-native listeners and 158 native English listeners evaluated fragments recorded by moderately accented Dutch, slightly accented Dutch and native English speakers. Findings showed that the moderately non-native accented lecturers were evaluated more negatively than lecturers with slight or native accents by both Dutch and international non-native listeners, but not by native English listeners. This suggests that non-native listeners evaluate the accents of non-native lecturers according to native speaker pronunciation norms.

This paper reports on an experimental study investigating alternative communication modes to English as a Lingua Franca. The purpose was to examine the effectiveness of different modes of communication and to gain insight in communication strategies used by interlocutors to solve referential conflicts. Findings show that ELF may not necessarily be the most effective mode of communication for speakers who do not share a native language. In the context of multinational corporations, RM may be regarded as a viable alternative to English for negotiating mutual understanding, particularly for speakers with (linguistically) closely related mother tongues.

For multinational corporations, the need for efficiency and control has motivated the choice for a corporate language. However, increasing internationalisation has forced corporations to rethink their language policies to cater to the changing demands of the multicultural and multilingual workplace. This paper explores two related issues. First, it addresses the influence of mode of communication (English as a Lingua Franca [ELF] vs. L1-L2 interactions) on task efficiency. Second, it investigates the use of communication strategies in the different types of interactions (ELF vs. L1-L2). In a within-subject experimental design, the present study explores the effectiveness of language use in dyadic, computer-mediated communication between non-native speakers of English (ELF) and native and non-native speakers of German and Dutch (L1-L2). In three consecutive chat sessions, 60 participants performed a problem-solving task in English, German or Dutch. Findings indicate that in L1-L2 interactions, the participants were more effective in realising communicative goals than in ELF interactions, and that participants made use of different communication strategies in L1-L2 interactions than in ELF interactions. Consequently, international organisations which implement a corporate language may benefit from condoning multilingual practices on the work floor.

Commercials regularly feature foreign accents. This paper aims to investigate whether the use of foreign accents in radio commercials is more effective for congruent than incongruent products, and whether foreign-accented commercials are evaluated differently than non-accented commercials. In an experiment, a group of 228 Dutch participants rated non-accented and accented commercials for four different products in a between-subject design. The products were either congruent or incongruent with the foreign accent in the commercial (e.g. a German-accented commercial for sausage vs. olive oil). Foreign-accented commercials for congruent products were assessed more positively on a number of variables than foreign-accented commercials for incongruent products. Foreign-accented commercials were rated more negatively than commercials without a foreign accent.

This study examined punishment of excluders and compensation of victims after observing an instance of social exclusion at various phases of adolescent development. Participants (n = 183; age 9 to 22 years) were first included in a virtual ball-tossing game, Cyberball, and then "observed" the exclusion of a peer. Subsequently, they played economic games in which they divided money between themselves and the including players, the excluders, and the victim. The results demonstrate a gradual age-related increase in money given to the victim from age 9 to 22 and a gradual decrease in money allocated to the excluders from age 9 to 16 with an increase in 22-year-olds. Affective perspective-taking predicted both compensation of the victim and punishment of the excluders. Taken together these results show that across adolescence individuals sacrifice an increasingly bigger share of their own resources to punish excluders and to compensate victims and that taking the perspective of the victim enhances these decisions.

The current study presents a novel experimental design to examine how "real-life" peer relationships modulate altruistic punishment of bullies and compensation of victims after "observed" ostracism. Twenty-four participants (age 20) were invited to an experimental session in groups of three classmates and two unfamiliar peers, where they engaged in online interactions with one another. They played a series of virtual ball-tossing games (Cyberball) where they "observed" the ostracism of a classmate by another classmate and an unfamiliar bully. In between the Cyberball sessions, participants played economic exchange games where they could invest money to increase or decrease the payoffs of the players from the preceding Cyberball session. Participants punished classmate bullies and compensated victims more when they liked the victim more than the bully. Importantly, participants punished familiar bullies less severely than unfamiliar bullies when the familiar bully was better liked than the victim.

Abstract: Knowing how to adapt your behavior based on feedback lies at the core of successful learning. We investigated the relation between brain function, grey matter volume, educational level and IQ in a Dutch adolescent sample. In total 45 healthy volunteers between ages 13 and 16 were recruited from schools for pre-vocational and pre-university education. For each individual, IQ was estimated using two subtests from the WISC-III-R (similarities and block design). While in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, participants performed a probabilistic learning task. Behavioral comparisons showed that participants with higher IQ used a more adaptive learning strategy after receiving positive feedback. Analysis of neural activation revealed that higher IQ was associated with increased activation in DLPFC and dACC when receiving positive feedback, specifically for rules with low reward probability (i.e., unexpected positive feedback). Furthermore, VBM analyses revealed that IQ correlated positively with grey matter volume within these regions. These results provide support for IQ-related individual differences in the developmental time courses of neural circuitry supporting feedback-based learning. Current findings are interpreted in terms of a prolonged window of flexibility and opportunity for adolescents with higher IQ scores. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]