Dichotic Perception of Mandarin Tones by Chinese and American Listeners

The dichotic perception of Mandarin tones by native and nonnative listeners was examined in order to investigate the lateralization of lexical tone. Twenty American listeners with no tone language background and 20 Chinese listeners were asked to identify dichotically presented tone pairs by identifying which tone they heard in each ear. For the Chinese listeners, 57% of the total errors occurred via the left ear, indicating a significant right ear advantage. However, the American listeners revealed no significant ear preference, with 48% of the errors attributable to the left ear. These results indicated that Mandarin tones are predominantly processed in the left hemisphere by native Mandarin speakers, whereas they are bilaterally processed by American English speakers with no prior tone experience. The results also suggest that the left hemisphere superiority for native Mandarin tone processing is similar to native processing of other tone languages.     

The Role of Phonetic Similarity and Orthographic Information in Asymmetrical Lexical Encoding in Second Language

This study examined two possible sources of asymmetrical lexical access: phonetic proximity to the nearest L1 category and orthographic information. Three groups of native Korean speakers learned Arabic non-words with sound pairs with/without an L1-dominant category (/l-r/ vs. /χ-?/), and then their phonetic categorization and lexical encoding abilities were evaluated. One group was presented with the same letters for the target pair (e.g.,?<l>?for both /l/ and /r/), the second group, different letters (e.g.,?<l>?for /l/,?<r>?for /r/), and the third group, auditory input only. The results of discrimination did not show any effect of these two sources, whereas in lexical encoding, (1) a pair with an L1-dominant category was more accurately encoded; and (2) orthographic information hindered the lexical encoding. In the following spelling recall task, the scores from the learners with different letters for the target pair were similar to a ceiling. Thus, orthographic information might help them to have target-like representation, despite difficulties in online processing.     

声旁家族大小和高频同声旁字对汉字命名的影响

该研究探讨了声旁家族大小和高频同声旁字对汉字命名的影响。结果表明：1）声旁家族大起抑制作用,在不一致字上更明显;2）相对于高频同音邻近字,高频异音邻近字对低频字起抑制作用;3）汉字命名中字形相近字的作用点有两个,分别在字形表征水平和语音表征水平。     

听障学生唇读语音识别视听通道效应的实验研究

本研究采用3×3两因素被试内实验设计,探讨了配戴助听器听觉障碍学生唇读汉字语音识别中视听通道效应和音素可见性的影响.结果表明,视听条件与音素可见性之交互作用不显著,语音识别过程存在视听通道效应;音素可见性在语音识别过程中作用明显.     

助听器对听障学生唇读汉字语音识别的作用

本研究探讨了听觉障碍学生唇读语音识别中助听器和音素可见性的影响。结果表明,助听器与音素可见性之交互作用在正确率上表现显著,在反应时上不显著,音素可见性在唇读语音识别过程中作用明显,助听器明显作用于单韵母、复韵母的语音识别过程。     

正常大学生唇读语音识别编码方式的实验研究

本研究探讨了编码方式和音素可见性对正常大学生唇读语音识别的影响.结果表明:编码方式和音素可见性共同交互作用于语音识别的过程,在正确率和反应时上都表现显著.编码方式、音素可见性在识别的效果上分别表现出不同的特点.     

Stem Tones Pre-activate Suffixes in the Brain

Results from the present event-related potentials (ERP) study show that tones on Swedish word stems can rapidly pre-activate upcoming suffixes, even when the word stem does not carry any lexical meaning. Results also show that listeners are able to rapidly restore suffixes which are replaced with a cough. Accuracy in restoring suffixes correlated positively with the amplitude of an anterior negative ERP elicited by stem tones. This effect is proposed to reflect suffix pre-activation. Suffixes that were cued by an incorrect tone elicited a left-anterior negativity and a P600, suggesting that the correct processing of the suffix is crucially tied to the activation of the preceding validly associated tone.     

Sex Differences in the Effects of Similarity and Physical Attractiveness on Opposite-Sex Attraction

Meta-analysis was used to integrate findings from two paradigms (questionnaires, experiments) that examined the effects of both similarity and physical attractiveness on attraction to a stranger of the opposite sex. Meta-analytic findings from both paradigms indicated that men valued physical attractiveness more than did to women, and that women valued similarity more than did men. Between-factor comparisons found that women consistently valued attractiveness less than they valued similarity. For men, the relative importance of the two factors varied across studies within each paradigm.     

Tones disappear faster in the right ear than in the left

In order to gain further information on the characteristics and physiological correlates of tone decay in humans, the tone decay test was administered to 58 normal-hearing subjects, successively in the left and right ears and in absence and presence of a contralateral noise. The results revealed that tone decay was greater in the right than in the left ear and was increased by contralateral noise. The contralateral effect of this noise on cochlear biomechanisms was then estimated by measuring contralaterally induced variations in the amplitude of click-evoked otoacoustic emissions in the same subjects. In the right ear, the increase in tone decay and the decrease in otoacoustic emission amplitude--both induced by contralateral noise--were positively correlated (r = .315, p = .016). Furthermore, the contralateral changes in otoacoustic emission amplitude were found to be on average larger in the right than in the left ear, this asymmetry being correlated with that observed for the tone decay. These findings are discussed in relation to previous results on simple and induced loudness adaptation in the vicinity of threshold, on contralateral attenuation of otoacoustic emissions and on the influence of the auditory efferents on cochlear biomechanisms.     

Bilateral Ablation of Auditory Cortex in Mongolian Gerbil Affects Discrimination of Frequency Modulated Tones but not of Pure Tones

This study examines the role of auditory cortex in the Mongolian gerbil in differential conditioning to pure tones and to linearly frequency-modulated (FM) tones by analyzing the effects of bilateral auditory cortex ablation. Learning behavior and performance were studied in a GO/NO-GO task aiming at avoidance of a mild foot shock by crossing a hurdle in a two-way shuttle box. Hurdle crossing as the conditioned response to the reinforced stimulus (CR+), as false alarm in response to the unreinforced stimulus (CR−), intertrial activity, and reaction times were monitored. The analysis revealed no effects of lesion on pure tone discrimination but impairment of FM tone discrimination. In the latter case lesion effects were dependent on timing of lesion relative to FM tone discrimination training. Lesions before training in naive animals led to a reduced CR+ rate and had no effect on CR− rate. Lesions in pretrained animals led to an increased CR− rate without effects on the CR+ rate. The results suggest that auditory cortex plays a more critical role in discrimination of FM tones than in discrimination of pure tones. The different lesion effects on FM tone discrimination before and after training are compatible with both the hypothesis of a purely sensory deficit in FM tone processing and the hypothesis of a differential involvement of auditory cortex in acquisition and retention, respectively.     

Tones inferior to eye movements in the EMDR treatment of PTSD

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an effective treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). During EMDR, patients make eye movements (EMs) while recalling traumatic memories, but recently therapists have replaced EMs by alternating beep tones. There are no outcome studies on the effects of tones. In an earlier analogue study, tones were inferior to EMs in the reduction of vividness of aversive memories. In a first EMDR session, 12 PTSD patients recalled trauma memories in three conditions: recall only, recall + tones, and recall + EMs. Three competing hypotheses were tested: 1) EMs are as effective as tones and better than recall only, 2) EMs are better than tones and tones are as effective as recall only, and 3) EMs are better than tones and tones are better than recall only. The order of conditions was balanced, each condition was delivered twice, and decline in memory vividness and emotionality served as outcome measures. The data strongly support hypothesis 2 and 3 over 1: EMs outperformed tones while it remained unclear if tones add to recall only. The findings add to earlier considerations and earlier analogue findings suggesting that EMs are superior to tones and that replacing the former by the latter was premature.     

The Perception of Low Tones and the Resonance-Volley Theory

To investigate the effect of two analgesic dosages of acetophenetidin and of Anacin upon the latency of the pricking-pain sensation under conditions of single and repetitive stimulation of the skin, each of six trained male subjects participated in 12 120-minute sessions (each subject had two sessions with 1.0 gm and with 0.5 gm dosages of each drug, placebos, and no capsule). Threshold (latency) determinations were made every five minutes, each time on a different one of 24 numbered spots on the volar surfaces of the forearms. Concomitantly, Spot A on the left forearm was stimulated repeatedly every five minutes, and Spot B, on the right forearm, every 10 minutes. No analgesic effects were observed on pricking-pain latency. Analyses of variance showed no significant interaction, no consistent time effect, and no significant conditions effect that could be interpreted as resulting from drug action. Repetitive stimulation at five- and 10-minute intervals was thus alone responsible for the latency elevations observed on Spots A and B respectively. It was suggested that such repetitive stimulation may have contributed to an indeterminate extent to the positive results with analgesics reported by Hardy, Wolff, and Goodell (7).     

The Phonetic Integration of Speech and Non-speech Sounds: Effects of Perceived Location

The third-formant (F3) transition of a three-formant /da/ or /ga/ syllable was extracted and replaced by sine-wave transitions that followed the F3 centre frequency. The syllable without the F3 transition (base) was always presented at the left ear, and a /da/ (falling) or /ga/ (rising) sine-wave transition could be presented at either the left, the right, or both ears. The listeners perceived the base as a syllable, and the sine-wave transition as a non-speech whistle, which was lateralized near the left ear, the right ear, or the middle of the head, respectively. In Experiment 1, the sine-wave transition strongly influenced the identity of the syllable only when it was lateralized at the same ear as the base (left ear). Phonetic integration between the base and the transitions became weak, but was not completely eliminated, when the latter was perceived near the middle of the head or at the opposite ear as the base (right ear). The second experiment replicated these findings by using duplex stimuli in which the level of the sine-wave transitions was such that the subjects could not reliably tell whether a /da/ or a /ga/ transition was present at the same ear as the base. This condition was introduced in order to control for the possibility that the subjects could have identified the syallables by associating a rising or falling transition presented at the left ear with a /da/ or /ga/ percept. Alternative suggestions about the relation between speech and non-speech perceptual processes are discussed on the basis of these results.     

声旁类型与频率在汉字和部件识别中的交互作用

用识别整字和识别部件两种任务探讨两种声旁频率——组字频率和使用频率的作用。结果发现：在局部识别中声旁使用频率的影响和部件类型有交互作用。声旁使用频率对识别汉字单部件声旁有易化作用。声旁组字频率的影响和部件类型有交互作用。声旁组字频率对识别汉字多部件组合声旁有易化作用。在整字识别中,声旁的使用频率有易化作用;声旁的组字频率的作用受到部件类型的影响,多部件组合声旁的组字频率对识别整字有易化作用。     

Effects of Managerial Performance and Attitudinal Similarity on Interpersonal Attraction

Despite the importance of interpersonal attraction for group behaviors, it has been largely unexplored in the context of organizational environments. This study examined two possible determinants of interpersonal attraction in organizational settings: managers' performance and perceived attitudinal similarity. Using a videotape medium, subjects assessed their interpersonal attraction to a manager interacting with a subordinate within a 3 × 3 experimental design. Main effects for managerial competence and perceived attitudinal similarity were observed but with no evidence of an interaction effect.     

不同语音知觉训练方式对汉语儿童和成人英语语音产出的作用

通过前测-训练-后测的实验程序,首先让22名五年级小学生和29名大学一年级学生分别在纯听或视听训练条件下学习知觉语音/s/和/θ/,然后对训练后他们产出语音/s/和/θ/的效果进行比较,以此来探讨不同语音知觉训练方式对儿童和成人语音产出的迁移作用.结果发现:(1)对于儿童来说,接受视听训练的被试在产出语音/s/和/θ/的准确性等级上的提高显著高于纯听训练被试;(2)对于大学生来说,接受两种训练的被试在产出/s/和/θ/的准确性等级上的提高率没有显著差异.以上结果表明,视听训练方式对语音产出的促进作用在儿童身上更加明显,早期的视听双通道语音知觉训练非常重要.     

Phonetic categorization in auditory word perception

To investigate the interaction in speech perception of auditory information and lexical knowledge (in particular, knowledge of which phonetic sequences are words), acoustic continua varying in voice onset time were constructed so that for each acoustic continuum, one of the two possible phonetic categorizations made a word and the other did not. For example, one continuum ranged between the word dash and the nonword tash; another used the nonword dask and the word task. In two experiments, subjects showed a significant lexical effect--that is, a tendency to make phonetic categorizations that make words. This lexical effect was greater at the phoneme boundary (where auditory information is ambiguous) than at the ends of the condinua. Hence the lexical effect must arise at a stage of processing sensitive to both lexical knowledge and auditory information.