An effect of linguistic experience: The discrimination of [r] and [l] by native speakers of Japanese and English

To test the effect of linguistic experience on the perception of a cue that is known to be effective in distinguishing between [r] and [l] in English, 21 Japanese and 39 American adults were tested on discrimination of a set of synthetic speech-like stimuli. The 13 “speech” stimuli in this set varied in the initial stationary frequency of the third formant (F3) and its subsequent transition into the vowel over a range sufficient to produce the perception of [r a] and [l a] for American subjects and to produce [r a] (which is not in phonemic contrast to [l a ]) for Japanese subjects. Discrimination tests of a comparable set of stimuli consisting of the isolated F3 components provided a “nonspeech” control. For Americans, the discrimination of the speech stimuli was nearly categorical, i.e., comparison pairs which were identified as different phonemes were discriminated with high accuracy, while pairs which were identified as the same phoneme were discriminated relatively poorly. In comparison, discrimination of speech stimuli by Japanese subjects was only slightly better than chance for all comparison pairs. Performance on nonspeech stimuli, however, was virtually identical for Japanese and American subjects; both groups showed highly accurate discrimination of all comparison pairs. These results suggest that the effect of linguistic experience is specific to perception in the “speech mode.”     

Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/and /l/: Long-term retention of learning in perception and production

Previous work from our laboratories has shown that monolingual Japanese adults who were given intensive high-variability perceptual training improved in both perception and production of English /r/-/l/ minimal pairs. In this study, we extended those findings by investigating the long-term retention of learning in both perception and production of this difficult non-native contrast. Results showed that 3 months after completion of the perceptual training procedure, the Japanese trainees maintained their improved levels of performance on the perceptual identification task. Furthermore, perceptual evaluations by native American English listeners of the Japanese trainees’ pretest, posttest, and 3-month follow-up speech productions showed that the trainees retained their long-term improvements in the general quality, identifiability, and overall intelligibility of their English /r/-/l/ word productions. Taken together, the results provide further support for the efficacy of high-variability laboratory speech sound training procedures, and suggest an optimistic outlook for the application of such procedures for a wide range of “special populations.” nt]mis|This work was supported by NIDCD Training Grant DC-00012 and by NIDCD Research Grant DC-00111 to Indiana University.     

Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/: long-term retention of learning in perception and production.

Previous work from our laboratories has shown that monolingual Japanese adults who were given intensive high-variability perceptual training improved in both perception and production of English /r/-/l/ minimal pairs. In this study, we extended those findings by investigating the long-term retention of learning in both perception and production of this difficult non-native contrast. Results showed that 3 months after completion of the perceptual training procedure, the Japanese trainees maintained their improved levels of performance of the perceptual identification task. Furthermore, perceptual evaluations by native American English listeners of the Japanese trainees' pretest, posttest, and 3-month follow-up speech productions showed that the trainees retained their long-term improvements in the general quality, identifiability, and overall intelligibility of their English/r/-/l/ word productions. Taken together, the results provide further support for the efficacy of high-variability laboratory speech sound training procedures, and suggest an optimistic outlook for the application of such procedures for a wide range of "special populations."     

Success and failure of new speech category learning in adulthood: Consequences of learned Hebbian attractors in topographic maps

The influence of a native language on learning new speech sounds in adulthood is addressed using a network model in which speech categories are attractors implemented through interactive activation and Hebbian learning. The network has a representation layer that receives topographic projections from an input layer and has reciprocal excitatory connections with deeper layers. When applied to an experiment in which Japanese adults were trained to distinguish the English /r/-/l/ contrast (McCandliss, Fiez, Protopapas, Conway, & McClelland, 2002), the model can account for many aspects of the experimental results, such as the time course and outcome of the learning, how it varies as a function of feedback, the relative efficacy of adaptive and initially easy training stimuli versus nonadaptive and difficult stimuli, and the development of a discrimination peak at the acquired category boundary. The model is also able to capture some aspects of the individual differences in learning. nt]mis|This research was supported by NIMH Grant MH64445 and Training Grant 5T32-MH019983-07. The authors thank Susan G. Guion for generously providing the recordings from her experiment and Mary L. Conway for her assistance with data analysis. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to J. L. McClelland, Department of Psychology, 450 Serra Mall, Jordan Hall, Bldg. 420, Stanford, CA 94305     

Syntax in a native language still continues to develop in adults: honorification judgment in Japanese

Native languages (L1s) are tacitly assumed to be complete and stable in adults. Here we report an unexpected individual variation in judgment of L1 regarding Japanese sentences including honorification, and further clarify its neural basis with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). By contrasting an honorification judgment task with a spelling judgment task, the lower performance group showed more extensive activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus than did the higher performance group. Moreover, activation in the left dorsal and ventral triangular parts negatively correlated with the performance of the honorification judgment task. This modulation pattern demonstrates that cortical activations recruited for sentence processing depend on individual performances even in L1.     

A study of timing in a manual and a spoken language: American sign language and English

A comparative analysis of the time variables in the production of speech and sign reveals that signers modify their global physical rate primarily by altering the time they spend articulating, whereas speakers do so by changing the time they spend pausing. When signers increase or decrease their pause time, however little they do so, they alter the number and the length of the pauses equally, whereas speakers primarily alter the number of pauses and leave their pause durations relatively constant. An analysis of the durations of signs reveals that signs are longer at the end of sentences than within sentences and that the first occurrence of a sign is longer than the second when syntactic location is controlled (both these findings have already been reported for spoken language). The inherent duration of a sign can be accounted for almost totally by the movement characteristic; handshape, location, and number of hands in a sign are of little importance. Finally, signers retain their regular quiet-breathing respiratory pattern across signing rates and inhale at locations independent of syntactic importance. In this they are quite unlike speakers, who breathe at syntactic breaks.This research was supported in part by Grant R03 MH 28133, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.     

Correction to: Toward a new model for speech perception: the Universal Perceptual Model (UPM) of second language

Cognitive Processing -     

A review of ideomotor approaches to perception,cognition, action,and language: advancing a cultural recycling hypothesis

The term “cultural recycling” derives from the neuronal recycling hypothesis, which suggests that representations of cultural inventions like written words, Arabic numbers, or tools can occupy brain areas dedicated to other functions. In the present selective review article, we propose a recycling hypothesis for the ideomotor mechanism. The ideomotor approach assumes that motor actions are controlled by the anticipation of the expected perceptual consequences that they aim to generate in the environment. Arguably, such action–perception mechanisms contribute to motor behaviour for human and non-human animals since millions of years. However, recent empirical studies suggest that the ideomotor mechanism can also contribute to word processing, number representation, and arithmetic. For instance, it has been shown that the anticipatory simulation of abstract semantics, like the numerical quantitative value of three items can prime processing of the associated Arabic number “3”. Arabic numbers, words, or tools represent cultural inventions, so that, from a theoretical perspective, we suggest an ideomotor recycling hypothesis for the interaction with such artefacts. In this view, the ideomotor mechanism spreads its influence to other functions beyond motor control, and is recycled to flexibly adapt different human behaviours towards dealing with more abstract concepts.     

Success after failure: the reassignment of responsibility in an integrated approach to a family with an adolescent bedwetter

In this paper we review the development of our team's thinking and demonstrate it through our approach to a particular family. This approach integrates theoretical models, the resources of the team members and the family's belief system. Analytic and structural models give an understanding of the family's problems. A behavioural intervention, integrated with this understanding, enabled us to circumvent the family's investment in failure and to negotiate avoided developmental tasks.     

Visual perception of motion in depth: Application of a vector model to three-dot motion patterns

The aim of the present study was to identify spatial properties of three-dot motion patterns yielding perceived motion in depth. A proposed vector model analyzed each pattern in terms of common and relative motion components of the moving parts. The dots moved in straight paths in a frontoparallel plane. The Ss reported verbally what they perceived. The common motion did not affect the kénd of perceived event (translation or rotation in depth). Relative motions toward or away from a common point, i.e. concurrent motions, yielded perceived translatory motion in depth. Parallel relative motions toward or away from a common line generally yielded perceived rotation in depth. Complex motion patterns, consisting of concurrent and parallel relative motion components combined, evoked simultaneously perceived translation and rotation in depth under certain phase conditions of the components. Some limitations of the model were discussed and suggestions made to widen its generality.     

Perception of /r/ and /l/ in a stop cluster: evidence of cross-modal context effects

Experiments were conducted investigating unimodal and cross-modal phonetic context effects on /r/ and /l/ identifications to test a hypothesis that context effects arise in early auditory speech processing. Experiment 1 demonstrated an influence of a preceding bilabial stop consonant on the acoustic realization of /r/ and /l/ produced within the stop clusters /ibri/ and /ibli/. In Experiment 2, members of an acoustic /iri/ to /ili/ continuum were paired with an acoustic /ibi/. These dichotic tokens were associated with an increase in "l" identification relative to the /iri/ to /ili/ continuum. In Experiment 3, the /iri/ to /ili/ tokens were dubbed onto a video of a talker saying /ibi/. This condition was associated with a reliable perceptual shift relative to an auditory-only condition in which the /iri/ to /ili/ tokens were presented by themselves, ruling out an account of these context effects as arising during early auditory processing.     

Maternal sensitivity and language in early childhood: a test of the transactional model

This study examined the relation between mothers' sensitive responsiveness to their children and the children's expressive language skills during early childhood. Reciprocal effects were tested with dyads of mothers and their children participating in the National Institute of Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Sensitive maternal interactions positively affected children's later expressive language in the second and third years of life. Although maternal sensitivity predicted later language skills in children, children's language did not affect later maternal sensitivity as indicated in a structural equation model. These results do not support the 1975 transactional model of child development of Sameroff and Chandler. A consistent pattern of sensitivity throughout infancy and early childhood indicates the importance of fostering maternal sensitivity in infancy for prevention or remediation of expressive language problems in young children.     

The role of expectation and probabilistic learning in auditory boundary perception: a model comparison

Grouping and boundary perception are central to many aspects of sensory processing in cognition. We present a comparative study of recently published computational models of boundary perception in music. In doing so, we make three contributions. First, we hypothesise a relationship between expectation and grouping in auditory perception, and introduce a novel information-theoretic model of perceptual segmentation to test the hypothesis. Although we apply the model to musical melody, it is applicable in principle to sequential grouping in other areas of cognition. Second, we address a methodological consideration in the analysis of ambiguous stimuli that produce different percepts between individuals. We propose and demonstrate a solution to this problem, based on clustering of participants prior to analysis. Third, we conduct the first comparative analysis of probabilistic-learning and rule-based models of perceptual grouping in music. In spite of having only unsupervised exposure to music, the model performs comparably to rule-based models based on expert musical knowledge, supporting a role for probabilistic learning in perceptual segmentation of music.     

Emotional consciousness: a neural model of how cognitive appraisal and somatic perception interact to produce qualitative experience

This paper proposes a theory of how conscious emotional experience is produced by the brain as the result of many interacting brain areas coordinated in working memory. These brain areas integrate perceptions of bodily states of an organism with cognitive appraisals of its current situation. Emotions are neural processes that represent the overall cognitive and somatic state of the organism. Conscious experience arises when neural representations achieve high activation as part of working memory. This theory explains numerous phenomena concerning emotional consciousness, including differentiation, integration, intensity, valence, and change.     

Long-term repetition priming in spoken and written word production: evidence for a contribution of phonology to handwriting

Although it is relatively well established that access to orthographic codes in production tasks is possible via an autonomous link between meaning and spelling (e.g., Rapp, Benzing, & Caramazza, 1997), the relative contribution of phonology to orthographic access remains unclear. Two experiments demonstrated persistent repetition priming in spoken and written single-word responses, respectively. Two further experiments showed priming from spoken to written responses and vice versa, which is interpreted as reflecting a role of phonology in constraining orthographic access. A final experiment showed priming from spoken onto written responses even when participants engaged in articulatory suppression during writing. Overall, the results support the view that access to orthography codes is accomplished via both the autonomous link between meaning and spelling and an indirect route via phonology.     

Invariance in relation to transformations: a comparison of space perception and imagined space

The present paper is based on the assumption of a functional equivalence between the processes of perception and imagination and a functional isomorphism between physical and phenomenal relations. The intention is to look for systematic deviations between 'measured', 'perceived' and 'imagined' space. Therefore a room was equipped with 32 pieces of furniture, giving it the appearance of a combined library and study room. A miniature model (1:10) of the room was constructed. In a two-factorial design with 10 experimental conditions, subjects performed model-reconstructions. The first factor refers to cognitive modality and represents different amounts of information of the physical layout, the endpoints of the continuum being 'complete insight' and 'no insight'. The second factor is a rotation of the model during the reconstruction (0 degrees vs. 180 degrees). Data analysis is based on location and orientation measures of the objects and distinguishes between 'semantic' and 'geometric' errors. The main results are: Even under conditions of only partial insight the spatial relations of the missing objects can be consensually reconstructed. While the absolute amount of the reconstruction errors largely depends on the two factors (modality and rotation), substantial relations of the original room are preserved under the different experimental conditions. The results are in good accordance with the assumption of functional equivalence and are critically discussed with respect to the concept of functional isomorphism.     

Maladaptive correlates of the failure to forgive self and others: further evidence for a two-component model of forgiveness

In a sample composed of 162 young adults, we examined the generalizability of an orthogonal, 2-component model of forgiveness previously reported by Ross, Kendall, Matters, Rye, and Wrobel (2004). Furthermore, we examined the relationship of these two components with maladaptive personality characteristics as measured by the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP; Clark, 1993), with an emphasis on Five-factor model markers of personality. Using multiple measures of forgiveness, principal components analysis supported a 2-component model representing self-forgiveness and other forgiveness. Despite the independence of self-forgiveness and other forgiveness, zero order correlations with SNAP scales supported convergent more than discriminant validity. In contrast, hierarchical multiple regression analyses emphasized the discriminant validity of self-forgiveness and other forgiveness. Among indices of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Agreeableness, Negative Temperament (+) was the sole predictor of self-forgiveness. In contrast, Positive Temperament (+), Aggression (-), and Histrionic PD (-) were most associated with other forgiveness. Overall, these findings support the validity of these factors and highlight the importance of self-forgiveness in clinical assessment.