How? With paralinguistic cues.

That's what a team of Minnesota State University Moorhead students concluded from an independent project in psychological research.

So here's your question: Paralinguistic cues are…

A) telepathic communications;
B) hand signs;
C) vocal behaviors;
D) paradoxes.
 
Final answer: C) vocal behaviors.

"Paralinquistic cues are vocal behaviors such as tone, pitch, pauses, or inflections that may affect the meaning of the words," says Gary Nickell, a Minnesota State University Moorhead psychology professor who advised the student research team with colleague Elizabeth Nawrot. "They determine how language is interpreted or perceived."

If, for example, Regis says, "Is that your final answer?" immediately after a contestant on the "hot seat" makes a choice, does that suggest the answer is more likely to be right than if he paused longer with his prompt?

"That's the kind of variations the students have been examining," says Nawrot.
"Sometimes it matters less what we say than how or when we say it."

The project, which began last summer, concluded that Regis does seem to help contestants when he prompts them to either change or not change their final answer.

"Whether it's conscious or not," says MSUM senior Sonia Balliet, the primary investigator on the team, "we discovered that Regis does give paralinguistic cues to contestants that may help them select the correct answer."

Initially, Balliet said, the team started its research hypothesizing that contestants could select the correct answers just by interpreting Regis's tone of voice when he reads each question's four multiple choice answers aloud.

"We thought something in the way he read the answers--tone, pitch, loudness--would give the contestants a clue," Balliet said. "We were wrong."

The researchers tested their theory on 60 MSUM undergraduates, who did no better than chance when trying to interpret possible paralinguistic cues that Regis might be giving in the way he reads multiple choice questions.

The second part of their research was more productive. It focused on how Regis prompted contestants following their initial answer to a question.

"We hypothesized that the longer the delay between each contestant's first response to the question and Regis's reply, the more likely that Regis would prompt the contestant to change his or her answer with comments such as, "Are you sure?" or "Maybe you'd like to try a lifeline?"

The team reviewed randomly selected taped episodes of the "Millionaire" and recorded the delay between each contestant's initial response and the nature of the prompt from Regis.

"Our results showed that the shorter the delay between the contestant's response and Regis's reply, the more likely he'll prompt them to stick with the answer. The longer the delay, the more likely he'll prompt them to change their answer."

That assumes, of course, Regis knows the answer to the questions. "But even if he didn't," Balliet said, "he may be subconsciously helping contestants by offering his own guess at the question."

In any case, after determining the delayed prompt was a reliable predictor, the team tested their hypothesis.

"In our first test, we got 10 of 10 questions correct after using the paralinguisic cues we targeted," Balliet said. "When Regis used a short delay in his prompt, we kept answer. When his delay was longer, we took the hint and changed our answer. So far our theory has worked 100 percent."

The research, which the student team will continue to refine, was an exercise in psychological research methods for the students.

"The cues are available if you look for them," Baliet said. "It enforces the notion that we communicate with each other using a variety of ways other than words."

The researchers considered looking at body language as part of the equation, but decided not to because they weren't sure how the show was edited.

An abstract of the research has been submitted to the Midwest Psychological Association for its spring conference. It will also be presented at both the Red River Psychological Association conference and MSUM's student academic research conference next year.

Receiving full-year sabbaticals: Magdalene Chalikia, psychology; Vern Dobis, economics; Henry Gwiazda, music; Mark Hansel, sociology/criminal justice; James Kaplan, languages; Aziz Kian, technology; Scott Selveit, technology; Mary Shimabukuro, biology; and Marie Swanson, speech/language/hearing sciences.

Receiving fall semester sabbaticals: Dean Hustuft, AV-TV services; Jenny Lin, languages; George Sanderson, accounting; and John Tesch, music.

Receiving spring semester sabbaticals: George Davis, EECE/Regional Science Center; Tim Peil, mathematics; and Jim Swenson, business administration.

With apartments catering to upperclass, married students…
UNIVERSITY PLANS TO BUILD
2 OR 3 RESIDENCE HALLS
MSUM plans to build two or three on-campus apartment buildings for upper-class, married and older-than-average students, based on recommendations from a Washington, D.C.-based consultant and a university residence hall task force.

The proposed residence halls would help replace the nearly 400 beds lost when Neumaier Hall was imploded and accommodate projected enrollment increases.

Sites discussed for the new buildings, announced at a University Forum last month, are 1) east of Murray Commons, including the former site of Neumaier Hall; 2) The K parking lot north of Nemzek; and 3) the tennis court area on the corner of 17th Street and ninth Avenue.

The Minnesota legislature last spring approved a bill allowing MSUM to build student housing using third-party financing. In other words, a developer would fund the building and the university would provide the land and management. No tax dollars would be involved.

The next step involves searching for a developer to fund the project and then discussions with architects. The first hall is expected to be finished by the fall of 2002.

At the University Forum, attended by only about 35 people including media, Vice President Warren Wiese said that updating residence halls is an important recruitment tool in a changing student culture. He said students today expect more privacy.

A university survey showed that freshmen and sophomores prefer living on campus in double or single rooms more so than upper-class students, who prefer more privacy.

According to the 1999 consultant's report, the campus, which now has 1,704 beds, could support 500 more beds if they're built like apartments that would appeal to upper class, married and older-than-average students. The buildings may include underground parking, cable television hookups and full kitchens along with other conveniences.

Because the plan is also linked to projected enrollment increases, MSUM intends to build the new residence halls in at least two stages. Current projections have enrollment jumping to 7,716 students by the fall of 2004. If the number of people living in campus housing increases at the same rate, a minimum of 269 new beds would be needed.

3 MSUM JUNIORS
AWARDED 3M
SCHOLARSHIPS
Three MSUM juniors will receive more than $7,000 each in scholarships and paid internships under the Minority Exposure to Corporate America Program funded by the 3M Corporation.

The three are among 15 Minnesota State Universities students selected to receive the award.

They are:
* Sarah Jo Eklund, an accounting major from Glyndon and the daughter of Bernadette Malm and Richard Kraft. She's a 1996 graduate of Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton High School.
* Amy Halvorson, a mass communications major from Mahnomen and the daughter of Robert and Paulette Halvorson. She's a 1997 graduate of Mahnomen High School.
* Jennifer Kolden, a business administration major from Douglas, N.D., and the daughter of Kent and Mary Lou Kolden. She's a 1998 graduate of Max High School.

The program, started in 1989, is funded by a grant from the 3M Corporation to the Minnesota State Universities. It's intended to encourage minority students to pursue studies and careers in business related fields.

Besides receiving $1,000 scholarships in both their junior and senior years, the students will be paid $450 a week to participate in a 13-week internship next summer arranged by the 3M Corporation. They will also meet quarterly for leadership and skill training activities led by minority role models from the business community.

'THE HAYMAKERS' AUTHOR
HOFFBECK READS AT
BARNES AND NOBLE DEC. 10
Stephen Hoffbeck, author of "The Haymakers," a new book that traces the labor and heartache of five Minnesota farm families struggling to grow hay to feed their livestock, will  read selections from his documentary from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10 at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Fargo. He'll also sign copies of his book.

The 224-page tribute ($24.95), published this month by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, is as much about grass, alfalfa and clover as it is about sweat, fear, toil and loss.

Through diaries, agricultural guidebooks and personal interviews, Hoffbeck takes a lyrical look at 150 years of haymaking, what he calls "just about the hardest work on a farm."

The book is currently for sale at bookstores and on-line, and is on the Top Ten sales list for Minnesota on Amazon.com.  It is also featured on "The November 25" list from Ruminator Books in St. Paul.

One of the victims of the accident that claimed the life of the executive director of the New York Mills arts organization, was her husband and our alumnus.  Jim Alzheimer graduated with a BS in English in 1978. A daughter also died in the crash.

MSUM PROFS EDIT "VISITING EMILY' COLLECTION
HONORING 19TH CENTURY POET DICKINSON
Moorhead, MN…."Visiting Emily," a collection of poems inspired by the life and work of Emily Dickinson and edited by two Minnesota State University Moorhead professors, will be released this month by the University of Iowa Press.

Sheila Coghill and Thom Tammaro produced the anthology after years of collecting poems motivated in some way by the 19th century poet.

"Visiting Emily" includes the work of 80 poets with a foreword by Robert Bly. Among the poets included are many National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize recipients such as John Berryman, Richard Eberhart, Galway Kinnell, Maxine Kumin, Archibald Macleish, Joyce Carol Oates, Sharon Olds, Alicia Ostricker, Adrienne Rich, William Stafford, Richard Wilbur and Charles Wright.

Dickinson (1830-1886), sometimes called "the belle of Amherst," the Massachusetts town where she spent her entire life, is almost as famous for her seclusion as for her poetry.

Dickinson never married, and after age 30 almost never saw anyone outside her immediate family. Although she wrote over 1,700 poems, only 11 were published in her lifetime, all without her permission. After her death, her sister found and published the body of her work.

"Perhaps of all American poets, Dickinson's popularity among general readers supersedes that of others," the two MSUM professors write in their introduction to the collection.

On Sunday, Dec. 10, when Dickinson's 170th birthday is celebrated, Coghill and Tammaro will be interviewed by Liane Hansen on National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition Sunday." Locally, the program can be heard on KCCD 90.3 FM from 7 to 10 a.m.

Coghill, an English professor and former chair of the department, is working on a book-length study of Dickinson and alchemy. She also teaches a capstone seminar in Dickinson and Walt Whitman.

Tammaro. who teaches in MSUM's New Center and the MFA program in creative writing, is the author of two collections of poems, "Minnesota Suite" and "When the Italians Came to My Home Town." He has co-edited two award-winning anthologies,  "Inheriting the Land: Voices from the Midwest" and "Imagining Home: Writing from the Midwest," both published by the University of Minnesota Press.

Copies of "Visiting Emily" are available at the MSUM Bookstore, Barnes and Noble, Zandbroz and through amazon.com and other on-line booksellers. The collection is available in both cloth and paperback editions.

MSUM Pres. Roland Barden and vice presidents David Crockett and Warren Wiese will lead a discussion on plans for a new residence hall that will be built on campus this spring.

The forum is open to the university community.

A native of Louisiana,  Davis has taught at MSUM Moorhead since 1985. He is the co-editor of the annual anthology "American Fiction, and the author of two books of short stories, both of which won the New Rivers Press Minnesota Voices competition:  "Rumors from the Lost World" and just released in the fall of 2000, "Alone with the Owl."

It kicks off at noon Monday, Nov. 13 when Kevin Shores, a member of the White Earth Chippewa nation and an MSUM student, will conduct a traditional pipe ceremony on the campus mall in front of the library.

He’ll be followed at 2 p.m. by Jackie Bird, a member of the Sisseton Sioux Nation, who will perform the story of creation using 38 hoops in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts thrust stage theatre. She’ll also sing and tell stories through her puppet Wild Flower.

Tuesday’s events include:
*Andrew Favorite, a White Earth Reservation historian, will talk about "Migration and Settlement of the Anishinabe people in Northern Minnesota" at 10 a.m. in the student union’s Comstock Room.
* U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer  Henry Boucha, an Ojibwe of the Northwest Angle, will speak about growing up during the Fifties and Sixties learning how to overcome racism and educational barriers at 2 p.m. in the student union ballroom. Boucha won a Silver Medal in the 1972 Winter Olympics and played professional hockey with the Minnesota North Stars and the Detroit Red Wings.
* American Indian Elvis Impersonator Neil Trottier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa nation, performs at 7 p.m. in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts thrust stage theatre.

Wednesday, Louise Charmers, a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Nation and an MSUM student, will tell Ojibwe and Dakota stories at 8:30 a.m. in the Lommen Hall Early Education Center; and at 12:30 p.m. in room 214 of the student union, Kevin Shores will give his perspective of living within a dominant culture and the challenges of remaining true to himself.

Thursday, authentic American Indian arts and crafts will be demonstrated from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the main lounge of the student union. Included will be birch bark  and sweet grass basketry along with porcupine quill work and beading.

Friday, Stephanie Williams-Murray, a master gardener and certified herbalist from the White Earth Nation, will talk about what part herbs and traditional foods play in mental, physical and spiritual health both at 11 a.m. and again at 2 p.m. in room 205 of the student union.

All events are free and open to the public.

The program is based on previously classified documents secured through the Freedom of Information Act. Hastings will also provide information that evening on how to access up to 600 pages of these newly released documents.

Hasting’s appearance on campus is sponsored by the university’s Campus Activities Board. Admission is $1 for MSUM students; $2 for the general public.

Several of the documents, Hastings says, refer to UFOs repeatedly violating highly sensitive airspace over nuclear weapons sites, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory where U.S. nuclear weapons are designed. Other documents concern UFOs hovering above nuclear missile launchers or nuclear bomb storage bunkers.

Hastings says his interest in UFOs began in 1967 when he was present at an air traffic control tower at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. "Five UFOs were tracked on radar for several minutes and jets were launched to attempt an intercept of them," he said. "I later learned from Air Force sources that as the jets closed in, the UFOs performed a vertical ascent and left the area at an enormous speed—far beyond the capability of any conventional aircraft."

Since then, Hastings has devoted himself to researching UFOs and the government’s response to them. He’s spoken at more than 500 colleges and universities since 1981.

"The time has come for the government to be forthright with the American people regarding its knowledge of UFOs," he says.

This fall Peterson initiated a community education program on body art using eight student peer educators and information gather from established local tattoo and body piercing businesses, health agencies and plastic surgeons.

Because body art has leapfrogged from fad to fashion accessory, she said, it’s important to understand how permanent it can be. "Ask yourself if you’ll still like this tattoo in 10 years," she said.

Based on interviews with plastic surgeons, she said removing a tattoo can cost as much as $400 a square inch for the most popular laser method, not counting a required allergy test along with physician and facility fees for up to 10 to 13 visits.

The educational program she developed includes discussions on safety measures ranging from the use of autoclaves (sterilizing devises) disposable needles and latex gloves to choosing the right artists, the proper metals to use for body jewelry and the latest fads coming into the Midwest from the coasts—branding and scarification.

The peer education programs on body art have already begun in the MSUM residence halls. For details about requesting a program for your community organizations, contact Lynn Peterson at MSUM’s Hendrix Health Center, 236-2211.

The program, part of  Deans’ Lecture Series, will focus on student, alumni and Sheet’s own personal work.

MSUM’s graphic design program, which has about 120 majors, was named one of the top35 in the nation by Upper and Lower Case magazine, an international journal of graphic design and digital media.

Larson’s talk, "Living in the Past: Movies of Moorhead?1914," will address the ways in which restoring old films can give insight and perspectives on life in a bygone era.

To illustrate his presentation, Larson will show a 14-minute film, "Moorhead in 1914," which contains footage of the MSUM campus as it appeared during a summer graduation ceremony.

Historic Moorhead sites such as a downtown city street, a movie theater, the government building (now the Rourke Art Gallery), the Great Northern railway depot, and Concordia College, as well as area farms are also displayed. A live musical accompaniment to the film will be performed on the Glasrud Auditorium Wurlitzer pipe organ by David Knudtson of the Fargo Theater.

A film studies specialist, Larson has been a faculty member at MSUM since 1968, during which time he has presented classic film festivals, seminars and movie series events at colleges, theaters, and art centers throughout the region. Next spring he will be co-leader for a European Media and Film Study Seminar in conjunction with Concordia College, travelling with 25 students to the Cannes Film Festival in France as well as film and television production facilities in other European countries.

A question-and-answer period will follow the presentation, and refreshments will be served.