Redundancy: A Similar Principle in Independent Adaptation Techniques

The present study examined the similarities between four auditory adaptation techniques to determine whether the effects were correlated. The four adaptation techniques compared were: Simultaneous Dichotic Loudness Balance technique (SDLB; Hood, 1950), Magnitude Estimated Binaural technique (MEB; Botté, Canévet, & Scharf, 1982), Magnitude Estimated Monaural technique, (MEM; Weiler, Sandman, & Pederson, 1981), and the Monaural Reaction Time technique (RT; Davis & Weiler, 1976). Results did not show significant correlations between the four techniques, except (r = 0.39) between MEB and MEM procedures. This correlation was much less than the reliability of the measures would allow (r = 0.98 and r = 0.99, respectively). Thus, it appears that the different methods either produced different adaptation effects or measured different aspects of auditory adaptation. The normal ear apparently shows several forms of adaptation, which reduces the perceptual strength of a continuing stimulus, in favor of an intermittent, less redundant one.     

Ipsilateral loudness adaptation over multiple intensity levels

Could monaural loudness adaptation be a simple artifact of psychophysical contrast? From adaptation data based on the Ipsilateral Comparison Paradigm (ICP), A. J. Dange, J. S. Warm, E. M. Weiler, and W. N. Dember (1993) concluded that loudness adaptation was not an artifact of psychophysical contrast, but their conclusion was dependent on results from one intensity. This study, involving multiple intensities, re-examined the issue of contrast versus adaptation and generally supported the conclusions of Dange et al. The results also showed an unexpected asymmetry of adaptation based on the direction of the referent modulation used with the ICP technique. Some implications are discussed.     

A factorial study of auditory function

Tests of auditory function in the fields of pitch, loudness, quality (timbre), and time, auditory analysis, synthesis, and memory, together with age, intelligence, and four tests of visual memory, were studied factorially. The subjects were 200 high-school students. The intercorrelations were factored to nine factors by a modification of the centroid technique and rotated to an oblique simple structure. No general auditory factor appeared. Instead there appeared group factors tentatively identified as pitch-quality discrimination, loudness discrimination, auditory integral for perceptual mass, auditory resistance (synthesis and analysis), speed of closure, auditory span formation, memory span (auditory and visual), memory or incidental closure and an unidentifiable residual plane. The average intercorrelation among the primary vectors was low, only one intercorrelation being greater than .34. A number of queries are answered by the interpretation of the results.     

Validity and reliability of perceptually-based scales during exhausting runs in trained male runners

The purposes of this study were to test the validity of a recent scale based on the estimation of a time of exhaustion (entitled Estimated Time Limit scale) to predict a time limit (Tlim) and to regulate exercise intensity and to investigate the reliability of the Estimated Time Limit scale and the Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. 14 male runners performed one incremental test, one constant velocity test at 85% of Maximal Aerobic Velocity (MAV), one constant duration test and one retest of 15 min. on an outdoor track. The difference between Estimated Time Limit values obtained during the incremental test at 85% MAV and measured Tlim values during the constant velocity test were examined, the velocities at ETL = 13 (i.e., 15 min.) obtained during the incremental test were compared with measured velocities during the constant duration test or the retest (only the best performance was used), and RPE and Estimated Time Limit values during the constant duration test were compared with those measured during retest. The results have shown a nonsignificant correlation between Estimated Time Limit values at 85% MAV and measured Tlim values during constant velocity test. There was a significant correlation (p < .02, r = .64) between velocities at ETL= 13 and measured velocities. However, the slope and y intercept value of this regression were significantly different from those of the identity line. There was no significant difference between constant duration test and retest for the values of RPE and Estimated Time Limit with high correlations (between r = .77 and .99 for RPE scale, and r = .74 and .99 for Estimated Time Limit scale). Moreover, the regression lines were close to the identity line. The RPE and Estimated Time Limit scales are reliable, but the lack of validity for the Estimated Time Limit scale suggests that more studies must be performed before using this scale to predict Tlim and regulate exercise intensity in male runners.     

Human sensitivity to acoustic information from vessel filling

A cylindrical vessel's fundamental resonant frequency increases as it fills with water. In Experiment 1, observers reliably identified water level rising, falling, or not changing. In Experiment 2, observers controlled filling well using only auditory information but less well than with multimodal information. Observers controlled fills to the brim better than to a drinking level, implying anticipation of fullness. In Experiment 3, blind and blindfolded sighted observers filled vessels to the brim using only auditory information. Fills tracked vessel height and flow rate well (R = .93, blind; R = .86, sighted). Experiment 4 tested sensitivity to acoustic time-to-full (TTF), analogous to optical tau. Estimated TTF to 3 fill levels at 3 rates tracked actual TTF (group R > .9; individual median R = .82). Results supported ecological perceptual theory: Changing acoustic information affords adaptive, prospective control of vessel filling.     

Four triggering factors in loudness adaptation.

A factor analysis was used to determine whether induced loudness adaptation (Botte, Canevet, & Scharf, 1982; Scharf, 1983) and adaptation measured by Hood's (1950) classic Simultaneous Dichotic Loudness Balance technique (SDLB) would cluster on the same factors. The two phenomena did not cluster on the same factors; thus, induced adaptation cannot replace SDLB adaptation. Four independent factors that trigger auditory adaptation were identified in the factor analysis.     

The influence of adaptation and inhibition on the effects of onset asynchrony on auditory grouping

Onset asynchrony is an important cue for auditory scene analysis. For example, a harmonic of a vowel that begins before the other components contributes less to the perceived phonetic quality. This effect was thought primarily to involve high-level grouping processes, because the contribution can be partly restored by accompanying the leading portion of the harmonic (precursor) with a synchronous captor tone an octave higher, and hence too remote to influence adaptation of the auditory-nerve response to that harmonic. However, recent work suggests that this restoration effect arises instead from inhibitory interactions relatively early in central auditory processing. The experiments reported here have reevaluated the role of adaptation in grouping by onset asynchrony and explored further the inhibitory account of the restoration effect. Varying the frequency of the precursor in the range ± 10% relative to the vowel harmonic (Experiment 1), or introducing a silent interval from 0 to 320 ms between the precursor and the vowel (Experiment 2), both produce effects on vowel quality consistent with those predicted from peripheral adaptation or recovery from it. However, there were some listeners for whom even the smallest gap largely eliminated the effect of the precursor. Consistent with the inhibitory account of the restoration effect, a contralateral pure tone whose frequency is close to that of the precursor is highly effective at restoring the contribution of the asynchronous harmonic (Experiment 3). When the frequencies match, lateralization cues arising from binaural fusion of the precursor and contralateral tone may also contribute to this restoration.     

Auditory and phonetic processes in place perception for stops

Use of the selective adaptation procedure with speech stimuli has led to a number of theoretical positions with regard to the level or levels of processing affected by adaptation. Recent experiments (i.e., Sawusch & Jusczyk, 1981) have, however, yielded strong evidence that only auditory coding processes are affected by selective adaptation. In the present experiment, a test series that varied along the phonetic dimension of place of articulation for stops ([da]-[ga]) was used in conjunction with a [ska] syllable that shared the phonetic value of velar with the [ga] end of the test series but had a spectral structure that closely matched a stimulus from the [da] end of the series. As an adaptor, the [ska] and Ida] stimuli produced identical effects, whereas in a paired-comparison procedure, the [ska] produced effects consistent with its phonetic label. These results offer further support for the contention that selective adaptation affects only the auditory coding of speech, whereas the paired-comparison procedure affects only the phonetic coding of speech. On the basis of these results and previous place-adaptation results, a process model of speech perception is described.     

Perceptual load does not modulate auditory distractor processing

In vision, it is well established that the perceptual load of a relevant task determines the extent to which irrelevant distractors are processed. Much less research has addressed the effects of perceptual load within hearing. Here, we provide an extensive test using two different perceptual load manipulations, measuring distractor processing through response competition and awareness report. Across four experiments, we consistently failed to find support for the role of perceptual load in auditory selective attention. We therefore propose that the auditory system – although able to selectively focus processing on a relevant stream of sounds – is likely to have surplus capacity to process auditory information from other streams, regardless of the perceptual load in the attended stream. This accords well with the notion of the auditory modality acting as an ‘early-warning’ system as detection of changes in the auditory scene is crucial even when the perceptual demands of the relevant task are high.     

Long-lasting attentional influence of negative and taboo words in an auditory variant of the emotional Stroop task

Using an auditory adaptation of the emotional and taboo Stroop tasks, the authors compared the effects of negative and taboo spoken words in mixed and blocked designs. Both types of words elicited carryover effects with mixed presentations and interference with blocked presentations, suggesting similar long-lasting attentional effects. Both were also relatively resilient to the long-lasting influence of the preceding emotional word. Hence, contrary to what has been assumed (Schmidt & Saari, 2007), negative and taboo words do not seem to differ in terms of the temporal dynamics of the interdimensional shifting, at least in the auditory modality.     

Immigrant Youth: Acculturation, Identity, and Adaptation

Cet article présente plusieurs des principaux résultats d’une grande étude internationale sur l’acculturation et l’adaptation de jeunes immigrés (âgés de 13 à 18 ans) qui se sont implantés dans treize pays (N = 5,366); il y est adjoint un échantillon de jeunes nationaux (N = 2,631). La recherche s’appuyait sur trois questions centrales: comment les jeunes migrants gèrent‐ils le processus d’acculturation? Comment parviennent‐ils à s’adapter? Et y a‐t‐il un lien manifeste entre la forme d’acculturation et le succès de l’adaptation? L’analyse en clusters déboucha sur quatre profils d’acculturation: intégrateur, ethnique, national et diffus. L’analyse factorielle de cinq variables d’adaptation mit en évidence deux types d’adaptation: psychologique et socioculturel. Il existe une forte relation entre la façon dont les jeunes s’acculturent et leur adaptation: ceux qui présentent un profil intégrateur bénéficient des meilleurs indicateurs d’adaptations psychologique et socioculturelle alors que ceux souffrant d’un profil diffus ont les pires. Entre les deux, le profil ethnique présente une adaptation psychologique relativement bonne et une adaptation socioculturelle plutôt pauvre, tandis que le profil national a une adaptation psychologique relativement pauvre et une adaptation socioculturelle légèrement négative. Cette configuration de résultats fut en grande partie retrouvée à travers une modélisation en équation structurelle. Les conséquences pour l’implantation des jeunes immigrés sont claires: ils devraient être encouragés à préserver l’appartenance à leur culture d’origine tout en établissant des liens étroits avec la société d’accueil. This paper reports some of the main findings from a large international study of the acculturation and adaptation of immigrant youth (aged 13 to 18 years) who are settled in 13 societies (N= 5,366), as well as a sample of national youth (N= 2,631). The study was guided by three core questions: How do immigrant youth deal with the process of acculturation? How well do they adapt? Are there important relationships between how they acculturate and how well they adapt? Cluster analysis produced four distinct acculturation profiles: integration, ethnic, national, and diffuse. Factor analysis of five adaptation variables revealed two distinct forms of adaptation: psychological and sociocultural. There were substantial relationships between how youth acculturate and how well they adapt: those with an integration profile had the best psychological and sociocultural adaptation outcomes, while those with a diffuse profile had the worst; in between, those with an ethnic profile had moderately good psychological adaptation but poorer sociocultural adaptation, while those with a national profile had moderately poor psychological adaptation, and slightly negative sociocultural adaptation. This pattern of results was largely replicated using structural equation modeling. Implications for the settlement of immigrant youth are clear: youth should be encouraged to retain both a sense of their own heritage cultural identity, while establishing close ties with the larger national society.     

双文化认同整合与心理适应的关系:辩证性自我的中介作用

本研究从双文化人对于文化认同的主观感知视角出发,采用问卷调查法,以藏汉杂居区的藏族大学生和汉文化区域的藏族寄居大学生为例,探讨双文化认同整合、辩证性自我与心理适应之间的关系,以及辩证性自我在两者之间的中介作用。结果表明:(1)对于两类被试来说,双文化认同整合问卷的和谐冲突维度与心理适应呈显著正相关,与辩证性自我呈显著负相关;但不同的是,藏族杂居区的被试,双文化认同整合的混合区分维度与辩证性自我和心理适应的相关都不显著(2)辩证性自我在双文化认同整合(和谐-冲突维度)与心理适应的关系中起中介作用。实践中,应通过加强少数民族大学生的双文化认同整合,降低其冲突心理、增强矛盾容忍性等辩证主义思想,进而增强其心理适应。     

Simple auditory reaction time in blind and sighted adolescents.

This study compared simple auditory reaction times of 20 subjects aged between 11 and 15 yr. (M = 13), 10 born-blind from the Louis Braille Institut (Montréal) and 10 normal sighted subjects of the same age and sex. Their task was to press a telegraph key as fast as possible after presentation of an auditory stimulus. Each subject executed five blocks of 10 trials; the blocks were separated by a rest period of 1 min. The results showed no significant difference (p greater than .05) between born-blind and sighted people of the same sex and chronological age in regard to simple auditory reaction time.     

Pendular energy transduction in the different phases of gait cycle in post-stroke subjects

MainTo analyze spatiotemporal gait parameters and the body center of mass (CoM) energy transduction at self-selected speed walking in a group of older patients with stroke.MethodsA cross-sectional study, fifteen subjects with 4.06 years post ̵stroke hemiparesis (eleven men and four women) and fifteen healthy subjects (four men and eleven women) participate in this study. Pendulum-like determining variables; Recovery (R) and Congruity percentage (%Cong) were analyzed in addition to immediate pendular re-conversion (Rint) during the phases in which the gait cycle is usually divided in clinical evaluations.ResultsHealthy subjects walked faster that stroke group (p = 0.001). %Cong was significantly higher in post-stroke respect to healthy subjects (p = 0.05). Rint showed significant differences between the groups for all phases (p = 0.05). The relation between speed and R was confirmed, for healthy (r = 0.67, p = 0.006) and post-stroke subjects (r = 0.851, p = 0.001), %Cong y Rint (r = −0.79, p = 0.001), (r = −0.93, p = 0.001) and periods of double support (r = −0.76, p = 0.001), (r = 0.69, p = 0.004) respectively.ConclusionAlteration of pendular mechanism in subjects post-stroke is associated mainly with energy transduction; mechanical energy recovered during double support phases in healthy and post-stroke subjects follows a different trend, in post-stroke subjects, a longer duration of the double support is associated with less energy loss.     

Magnitude estimations of the course of gustatory adaptation

Magnitude estimations of 15-sec intervals were obtained during 2-min and 5-min adaptation of suprathreshold solutions of NaCl. quinine sulfate (QSO₄, and sucrose. Expectorating and adding fresh adapting solution at the end ofeach minute produced higher estimations than those obtained with continuous adaptation because of salivary dilution. Separation of the adaptation determinations by 45-sec rest intervals rather than 5 min had no effect on the form or magnitude of the functions for NaCl or sucrose, although QSO₄. adaptations separated by the shorter rest intervals were of greater magnitude. The absence of complete adaptation was largely attributed to the effects of tongue movements.     

Simple and contingent adaptation effects for place of articulation in stop consonants

Experiments on selective adaptation have shown that the locus of the phonetic category boundary between two segments shifts after repetitive listening to an adapting stimulus. Theoretical interpretations of these results have proposed that adaptation occurs either entirely at an auditory level of processing or at both auditory and more abstract phonetic levels. The present experiment employed two alternating stimuli as adaptors in an attempt to distinguish between these two possible explanations. Two alternating stimuli were used as adaptors in order to test for the presence of contingent effects and to compare these results to simple adaptation using only a single adaptor. Two synthetic CV series with different vowels that varied the place of articulation of the consonant were employed. When two alternating adaptors were used, contingent adaptation effects were observed for the two stimulus series. The direction of the shifts in each series was governed by the vowel context of the adapting syllables. Using the single adaptor data, a comparison was made between the additive effects of the single adaptors and their combined effects when presented in alternating pairs. With voiced adaptors, only within-series adaptation effects were found, and these data were consistent with a on,level model of selective adaptation. However, for the voiceless adaptors, both within- and cross-series adaptation effects were found, suggesting the possible presence of two levels of adaptation to place of articulation. Further, the contingent adaptation effects with the voiceless adaptors seemed to be the result of the additive effects of the two alternating adaptors. This result indicates that previously reported contingent adaptation results may also reflect the net vowel specific adaptation effects after cancellation of other, nonvowel dependent effects and that caution is needed in interpreting such results.     

An experimental simulation of adaptations to increased car-use costs

A paper-and-pencil experimental simulation was devised to examine car users’ adaptation to increased travel costs. In Study 1 travel related to different types of daily agendas was compared for two groups of undergraduates (n = 24) with different costs for car use. When car-use costs increased, a tradeoff between minimizing travel costs and travel time was observed for both more and less habitual car users. Car-use reduction was still less among the former than among the latter. Study 2 employed four groups of undergraduates (n = 48) to examine effects of learning when the costs for car use changed from low to high, from high to low, or remained unchanged. Small learning effects were observed when there was no change in costs. When the costs changed, asymmetrical carryover effects indicated a higher responsiveness to changes from low to high costs than the reverse.     

Musicians experience less age-related decline in central auditory processing

Age-related decline in auditory perception reflects changes in the peripheral and central auditory systems. These age-related changes include a reduced ability to detect minute spectral and temporal details in an auditory signal, which contributes to a decreased ability to understand speech in noisy environments. Given that musical training in young adults has been shown to improve these auditory abilities, we investigated the possibility that musicians experience less age-related decline in auditory perception. To test this hypothesis we measured auditory processing abilities in lifelong musicians (N = 74) and nonmusicians (N = 89), aged between 18 and 91. Musicians demonstrated less age-related decline in some auditory tasks (i.e., gap detection and speech in noise), and had a lifelong advantage in others (i.e., mistuned harmonic detection). Importantly, the rate of age-related decline in hearing sensitivity, as measured by pure-tone thresholds, was similar between both groups, demonstrating that musicians experience less age-related decline in central auditory processing.     

Auditory motion aftereffects

Observers were adapted to simulated auditory movement produced by dynamically varying the interaural time and intensity differences of tones (500 or 2,000 Hz) presented through headphones. At lO-sec intervals during adaptation, various probe tones were presented for 1 sec (the frequency of the probe was always the same as that of the adaptation stimulus). Observers judged the direction of apparent movement (“left” or “right”) of each probe tone. At 500 Hz, with a 200-deg/sec adaptation velocity, “stationary” probe tones were consistently judged to move in the direction opposite to that of the adaptation stimulus. We call this result an auditory motion aftereffect. In slower velocity adaptation conditions, progressively less aftereffect was demonstrated. In the higher frequency condition (2,000 Hz, 200-deg/sec adaptation velocity), we found no evidence of motion aftereffect. The data are discussed in relation to the well-known visual analog-the “waterfall effect.” Although the auditory aftereffect is weaker than the visual analog, the data suggest that auditory motion perception might be mediated, as is generally believed for the visual system, by direction-specific movement analyzers.     

Rapid adaptation to auditory-visual spatial disparity

The so-called ventriloquism aftereffect is a remarkable example of rapid adaptative changes in spatial localization caused by visual stimuli. After exposure to a consistent spatial disparity of auditory and visual stimuli, localization of sound sources is systematically shifted to correct for the deviation of the sound from visual positions during the previous adaptation period. In the present study, this aftereffect was induced by presenting, within 17 min, 1800 repetitive noise or pure-tone bursts in combination with synchronized, and 20° disparate flashing light spots, in total darkness. Post-adaptive sound localization, measured by a method of manual pointing, was significantly shifted 2.4° (noise), 3.1° (1 kHz tones), or 5.8° (4 kHz tones) compared with the pre-adaptation condition. There was no transfer across frequencies; that is, shifts in localization were insignificant when the frequencies used for adaptation and the post-adaptation localization test were different. It is hypothesized that these aftereffects may rely on shifts in neural representations of auditory space with respect to those of visual space, induced by intersensory spatial disparity, and may thus reflect a phenomenon of neural short-term plasticity.