A further parallel between selective adaptation and contrast

It is generally believed that selective adaptation effects in speech perception are due to a reduction in sensitivity of auditory feature detectors. Recent evidence suggest that these effects may derive instead from contrast. In a further test of the contrast hypothesis, we conducted two experiments each involving both adaptation and contrast sessions with matching stimulus sets. During the adaptation sessions of Experiment 1, subjects identified two series of velar stimuli varying in voice onset time, [ga]-[kha] and [gi]-[khi], before and after adaptation with of the following stimuli: [ga], [kha], [gi], and [khi]. In the contrast session, subjects identified either of two ambiguous test items (drawn from near the phonetic boundaries of the [ga]-[kha] and the [gi]-[khi] series) following a single presentation of [ga], [kha], [gi], or [khi]. For both the adaptation and contrast sessions, (a) the [--a] test items were more greatly affected (in a contrast direction) by the [--a] than by the [--i] adaptor/context stimuli, and (b) the [--i] test items were not differentially affected by the [--1] and [--i] adaptor/context stimuli. An analogous design was used in Experiment 2, except that the stimulus sets varied in pitch rather than vowel quality. For both the adaptation and contrast sessions, the test items were not differentially affected by the pitch of the adaptor/context stimulus. These parallel results provide further evidence that adaptation effects are actually a form of contrast.     

Selective adaptation of English consonants using real speech

Most English consonant-vowel (CV) syllables have other CV syllables embedded within them. For example, splicing sufficient energy from the onset of [k^ha] yields [p^ha], splicing into [ma] or [va] yields [ba], and splicing into [?a] yields [da]. We spliced successively longer segments from naturally spoken CV syllables to produce sequences of CV syllables which varied in discrete acoustic steps from [k^ha] to [p^ha], from [?a] to [da], from [ma] to [ba], from [fa] to [ba], and from [va] to [ba]. Random presentation of syllables in each series resulted in identification functions with typically sharp phoneme boundaries. For example, in the seven-syllable [?a]-[da] series (where [?a] was the original or first syllable), there were98% [?a] responses to Syllable 3, but only 12% [?a] responses (88% [da] responses) to Syllable 5. Following the identification test, subjects listened to 180 repetitions of either the first or last syllable in the test series, and were again required to identify randomly presented syllables from the test series. A shift in the phoneme boundary toward the repeated (adapting) syllable was observed for 11 of the 12 repeated syllables. Repeated presentation of [?a], for example, resulted in fewer [?a] responses to syllables in the [?a]-[da] series, compared to performance on the previous identification test. Likewise, repeated listening to [da] resulted in a decrease in [da] responses. Adaptation was selective in that syllables near the phoneme boundary were most affected by the adapting syllable. A shift in the phoneme boundary was also observed for two different continua when the adapting stimulus contained an acoustic feature identical to syllables in the test series. Thus, selective adaptation was found along a [ma]-[ba] continuum following repeated presentation of [na] and following repeated presentation of nasal resonance removed from its syllable context. A second major result, observed in five different experiments, was an asymmetrical adaptation effect. A greater shift in the phoneme boundary was observed following repeated presentation of the first syllable in each series (e.g., [?a]) than for the final embedded syllable (e.g., [da]). The results were discussed in terms of two different models of-selective adaptation.     

Towards a Rough Mereology-Based Logic for Approximate Solution Synthesis. Part 1

We are concerned with formal models of reasoning under uncertainty. Many approaches to this problem are known in the literature e.g. Dempster-Shafer theory [29], [42], bayesian-based reasoning [21], [29], belief networks [29], many-valued logics and fuzzy logics [6], non-monotonic logics [29], neural network logics [14]. We propose rough mereology developed by the last two authors [22-25] as a foundation for approximate reasoning about complex objects. Our notion of a complex object includes, among others, proofs understood as schemes constructed in order to support within our knowledge assertions/hypotheses about reality described by our knowledge incompletely.     

Context effects in two-month-old infants' perception of labiodental/interdental fricative contrasts

We investigated 2-month-old infants' perception of a subset of highly confusable English fricatives. In Experiment 1, infants discriminated modified natural tokens of the voiceless fricative pair [fa]/[oa] but only when the syllables included their frication noises. They also discriminated the voiced pair [va]/[oa] both with and without fricative noises. These results parallel those found with adults by Carden, Levitt, Jusczyk, and Walley (1981). In Experiment 2 [f] and [o] noises were appended to [a], and the same [f] noise was appended to the previously indiscriminable fricationless versions of [fa] and [oa]. Infants discriminated both pairs of stimuli, indicating that (a) the frication is a sufficient cue for [fa]/[oa] discrimination and that (b) it provides a context for discriminating the [f] and [o] formant transitions. We conclude that infants' perception of labiodental/interdental fricative contrasts show evidence of context effects similar to those observed with adults.     

Contingent feature analysis in speech perception

A contingent adaptation effect is reported for speech perception. Experiments were conducted to test the effects of an alternating sequence of two adapting syllables, [da] and [t^hi], on the perception of two series of synthetic speech syllables, [ba]-[p^ha] and [bi]-[p^hi]. Each of the test series consisted of 11 stimuli varying in voice onset time, a cue which distinguishes voiced from voiceless stop consonants in word-initial position. The [da]-[t^hi] adapting sequence produced opposite shifts in the loci of the phonetic boundaries for the two test series. For the [ba]-[p^ha] series, listeners made fewer identification responses to the [b] category after adaptation, while for the [bi]-[p^hi] series, listeners made more responses to the [b] category. The opposing shifts indicate that the perceptual analysis of voicing in stop consonants is carried out with respect to vowel environment.     

Influence of preceding liquid on stop-consonant perception

Certain attributes of a syllable-final liquid can influence the perceived place of articulation of a following stop consonant. To demonstrate this perceptual context effect, the CV portions of natural tokens of [al-da], [al-ga], [ar-da], [ar-ga] were excised and replaced with closely matched synthetic stimuli drawn from a [da]-[ga] continuum. The resulting hybrid disyllables were then presented to listeners who labeled both liquids and stops. The natural CV portions had two different effects on perception of the synthetic CVs. First, there was an effect of liquid category: Listeners perceived “g” more often in the context of [al] than in that of [ar]. Second, there was an effect due to tokens of [al] and [ar] having been produced before [da] or [ga]: More “g” percepts occurred when stops followed liquids that had been produced before [g]. A hypothesis that each of these perceptual effects finds a parallel in speech production is supported by spectrograms of the original utterances. Here, it seems, is another instance in which findings in speech perception reflect compensation for coarticulation during speech production.     

Are selective adaptation and contrast effects really distinct?

Although there is evidence that selective adaptation and contrast effects in speech perception are produced by the same mechanisms, Sawusch and Jusczyk (1981) reported a dissociation between the effects and concluded that adaptation and contrast occur at separate processing levels. They found that an ambiguous test stimulus was more likely to be labeled b following adaptation with [pha] and more likely to be labeled p following adaptation with [ba] or [spa] (the latter consisting of [ba] preceded by [s] noise). In the contrast session, where a single context stimulus occurred with a single test item, the [ba] and [pha] contexts had contrastive effects similar to those of the [ba] and [pha] adaptors, but the [spa] context produced an increase in b responses to the test stimulus, an effect opposite to that of the [spa] adaptor. One interpretation of this difference is that the rapid presentation of the [spa] adaptor gave rise to "streaming," whereby the [s] was perceptually segregated from the [ba]. In our experiment, we essentially replicated the results of Sawusch and Jusczyk (1981), using procedures similar to theirs. Next, we increased the interadaptor interval to remove the likelihood of stream segregation and found that the adaptation and contrast effects converged.     

Selective adaptation of vowels

Two experiments investigating the selective adaptation of vowels examined changes in listeners’ identification functions for the vowel continuum [i-I-∈] as a function of the adapting stimulus. In Experiment I, the adapting stimuli were [i], [I], and [∈]. Both the [i] and [∈] stimuli produced significant shifts in the neighboringand distant phonetic boundaries, whereas [I] did not result in any adaptation effects. In order to explore the phonetic nature of feature adaptation in vowels, a second experiment was conducted using the adapting stimuli [gig] and [g ∈ g], which differed acoustically from the [i] and [∈] vowels on the identification continuum. Only [gig] yielded reliable adaptation effects. The results of these experiments were interpreted as suggesting arelative rather than a stableauditory mode of feature analysis in vowels and a possibly more complex auditory feature analysis for the vowel [i].     

Use of phonetic specificity during the acquisition of new words: differences between consonants and vowels

The present study explores the issue of the use of phonetic specificity in the process of learning new words at 20 months of age. The procedure used follows Nazzi and Gopnik [Nazzi, T., & Gopnik, A. (2001). Linguistic and cognitive abilities in infancy: When does language become a tool for categorization? Cognition, 80, B11-B20]. Infants were first presented with triads of perceptually dissimilar objects, which were given made-up names, two of the objects receiving the same name. Then, word learning was evaluated through object selection/categorization. Tests involved phonetically different words (e.g. [pize] vs. [mora], Experiment 1), words differing minimally on their onset consonant (e.g. [pize] vs. [tize], Experiment 2a), and conditions which had never been tested before: non-initial consonantal contrasts (e.g. [pide] vs. [pige], Experiment 2b), and vocalic contrasts (e.g. [pize] vs. [pyze]; [pize] vs. [paze]; [pize] vs. [pizu], Experiments 3a-c). Results differed across conditions: words could be easily learnt in the phonetically different condition, and were learnt, though to a lesser degree, in both the initial and non-initial minimal consonant contrast; however, infants' global performance on all three vocalic contrasts was at chance level. The present results shed new light regarding the specificity of early words, and raise the possibility of different contributions for vowels and consonants in early word learning.     

A transactional analysis of biobehavioral systems

The system of behavior [B] consists of those transactional interrelationships between organism [O] and environment [E] that govern their commerce. The biological significance of such [O]-[E] interrelationships, their truing through learning, as well as those systems involved in the subordinate and superordinate regulation of behavior, are clear when life, itself, is seen as an emergent property of the [O]-[E] complex. In addition, a systems view of these hierarchically organized complexities suggests that they adaptively self-stabilize and self-organize, over time, as they participate in [L], the organism-environment complex. Such a transactional analysis of biobehavioral systems resonates well with the most basic axioms of Pavlov’s paradigm.     

超模态逻辑K[T_nK]和K[TK_n](英文)

本文的工作是在D.M.Gabbay的一篇论文《超模态逻辑理论:在模态逻辑中的模转换》基础上所做的,主要是将他的两类满足关系扩充到n+1种满足关系,然后在此基础上得到两类一般性的逻辑类K[T_nK]和K[TK_n],其中n≥1。我们得到了一些更为一般性的结论:（1）逻辑类K[T_nK]的定理模式是:对任意n≥1,□^j+（n+1）kp→□^i+（n+1）kp,其中0≤in]的定理模式是:□^1+（n+1）kp→□^（n+1）kp,其中b≥1。不过,□^j+（n+1）kp→□^i+（n+1）kp,其中0≤in]的定理模式,因此,（3）每一个逻辑K[T_nK]都是相应的逻辑K[TK_n]的真扩张,其中n≥1;（4）必然化规则在两类逻辑K[T_nK]和K[TK_n]中都不成立,但是,这样的规则成立,即如果A分别是两类逻辑K[T_nK]和K[TK_n]的定理,那么对于任意n≥1,□ⁿ⁺¹A也分别是逻辑类K[T_nK]和K[TK_n]的定理;（5）等值替换规则在逻辑类K[T_nK]和K[TK_n]下都不封闭;此外,（6）我们将D.M.Gabbay的从超模态逻辑到正规模态逻辑K的两类翻译τ₀和τ₁扩充到n+1类翻译τ₀,τ₁,…,τ_n。在超模态逻辑K[T_nK]和K[TK_n]与正规模态逻辑K之间,我们找到了点模型满足对应理论,即对任意的超模态逻辑公式α,在某个世界ω上为真,当且仅当,在正规模态逻辑K中τ_i（α）在世界ω上也为真。其中τ_i（α）是公式α从超模态逻辑到正规模态逻辑K的翻译。     

Contextual effects in vowel perception II: Evidence for two processing mechanisms

Recent experiments have indicated that contrast effects can be obtained with vowels by anchoring a test series with one of the endpoint vowels. These contextual effects cannot be attributed to feature detector fatigue or to the induction of an overt response bias. In the present studies, anchored ABX discrimination functions and signal detection analyses of identification data (before and after anchoring) for an [i]-[I] vowel series were used to demonstrate that [i] and [I] anchoring produce contrast effects by affecting different perceptual mechanisms. The effects of [i] anchoring were to increase within-[i] category sensitivity, while [I] anchoring shifted criterion placements. When vowels were placed in CVC syllables to reduce available auditory memory, there was a significant decrease in the size of the [I]-anchor contrast effects. The magnitude of the [i]-anchor effect was unaffected by the reduction in vowel information available in auditory memory. These results suggest that [i] and [I] anchors affect mechanisms at different levels of processing. The [i] anchoring results may reflect normalization processes in speech perception that operate at an early level of perceptual processing, while the [I] anchoring results represent changes in response criterion mediated by auditory memory for vowel information.     

Limits on the limitations of context-conditioned effects in the perception of [b] and [w]

We investigated the conditions under which the [b]-[w] contrast is processed in a contextdependent manner, specifically in relation to syllable duration. In an earlier paper, Miller and Liberman (1979) demonstrated that when listeners use transition duration to differentiate [b] from [w], they treat it in relation to the duration of the syllable: As syllables from a [ba]-[wa] series varying in transition duration become longer, so, too, does the transition duration at the [b]-[w] perceptual boundary. In a subsequent paper, Shinn, Blumstein, and Jongman (1985) questioned the generality of this finding by showing that the effect of syllable duration is eliminated for [ba]-[wa] stimuli that are less schematicthan those used by Miller and Liberman. In the present investigation, we demonstrated that when these “more natural” stimuli are presented in a multitalker babble noise instead of in quiet (as was done by Shinn et al.), the syllable-duration effect emerges. Our findings suggest that the syllable-duration effect in particular, and context effects in general, may play a more important role in speech perception than Shinn et al. suggested.     

Kripke Bundle Semantics and C-set Semantics

Kripke bundle [3] and C-set semantics [1] [2] are known as semantics which generalize standard Kripke semantics. In [3] and in [1], [2] it is shown that Kripke bundle and C-set semantics are stronger than standard Kripke semantics. Also it is true that C-set semantics for superintuitionistic logics is stronger than Kripke bundle semantics [5].In this paper, we show that Q-S4.1 is not Kripke bundle complete via C-set models. As a corollary we can give a simple proof showing that C-set semantics for modal logics are stronger than Kripke bundle semantics.     

Feature analyzers for the phonetic dimensionstop vs. continuant

Perception of sounds along the phonetic dimensionstop vs. continuant was studied by means of a selective adaptation procedure. Subjects first identified a series of synthetic consonant-vowel syllables whose formant transitions varied in duration, slope, and amplitude characteristics. They were perceived as either [ba] or [wa]. After the initial identification test, an adapting stimulus was presented repeatedly, and then the subjects again identified the original test series. Adapting with a stop (either [ba] or [da]) led to a decrease in the number of test stimuli identified as [ba], whereas adapting with the continuant sound [wa] led to an increase in the number of [ba] identification responses. Removing the vowel portion of an adapting stimulus greatly reduced the identification shift only when the resulting stimulus was no longer perceived as speech-like. A reduction in the number of [ba] identifications occurred even when a nonspeech “stop” (the sound of a plucked string) was used as the adapting stimulus, suggesting that phonetic processing is not a necessary condition for an adaptation effect.     

The specificity of perceptual learning in speech processing

We conducted four experiments to investigate the specificity of perceptual adjustments made to unusual speech sounds. Dutch listeners heard a female talker produce an ambiguous fricative [?] (between [f] and [s]) in [f]- or [s]-biased lexical contexts. Listeners with [f]-biased exposure (e.g., [witlo?]; from witlof, "chicory"; witlos is meaningless) subsequently categorized more sounds on an [epsilonf]-[epsilons] continuum as [f] than did listeners with [s]-biased exposure. This occurred when the continuum was based on the exposure talker's speech (Experiment 1), and when the same test fricatives appeared after vowels spoken by novel female and male talkers (Experiments 1 and 2). When the continuum was made entirely from a novel talker's speech, there was no exposure effect (Experiment 3) unless fricatives from that talker had been spliced into the exposure talker's speech during exposure (Experiment 4). We conclude that perceptual learning about idiosyncratic speech is applied at a segmental level and is, under these exposure conditions, talker specific.     

Children's perception of sibilants: the relation between articulation and perceptual development

When synthetic fricative noises from an [s] continuum are followed by [a] and [u], adult listeners perceive fewer instances of in the context of the rounded vowel [u] (Mann & Repp, 1980). This perceptual context effect presumably reflects adjustment for certain coarticulatory effects and implies tacit knowledge of coarticulation and its consequences. To clarify the role of articulatory experience in the ontogeny of such knowledge and the consequent perceptual adjustment, the present study examined the effect of rounded and unrounded vowels on the perception of [s] and by adults, 5-, and 7-year-old children who produce and [s] and 7-year-old children who misarticulate these phonemes. All three groups of children showed a context effect equivalent to that of adults and independent of age and articulation ability. Therefore, productive mastery of [s] and is not critically responsible for perception of the [s] distinction, nor for perceptual sensitivity to the consequences of sibilant-vowel coarticulation.     

Anticipatory coarticulation in aphasia: acoustic and perceptual data

Two experiments investigated speech motor planning in aphasia by contrasting the degree of labial and lingual anticipatory coarticulation evident in normal subjects' speech with that found in the speech of aphasic subjects. In the first experiment, Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) analyses were conducted for the initial consonants of CV [si su ti tu ki ku] and CCV [sti stu ski sku] productions by 6 normal and 10 aphasic (5 anterior, 5 posterior) subjects. For normal subjects' productions, reliable coarticulatory shift was found for almost all measurements, indicating that acoustic correlates for anticipatory coarticulation obtain for [s], [t], and [k] in a prevocalic environment, as well as when [s] is the initial consonant of a CCV syllable. The data for the aphasic subjects were statistically indistinguishable from those of the normal subject group, and there were no differences noted as a function of aphasia type. In the second experiment, a subset of the consonantal stimuli produced by the normal and aphasic subjects was presented to a group of 10 naive listeners for a vowel identification task. Listeners were able to identify the productions of all subjects at a level well above chance. In addition, small but statistically significant Group differences were observed, with the [sV], [skV], and [tV] productions by anterior aphasics showing significantly lower perceptual scores than those of normal subjects.     

Narrow Structuralism: Paving a Middle Path Between Cummins and Millikan

Millikan [2000] has levelled a number of persuasive criticisms against Cummins's [1996] theory of mental representation. In this paper, I pave a middle path in the debate between Cummins [2000] and Millikan [2000] to answer two questions. (1) How are representations applied to targets? (2) How is the content of a representation determined? The result is a new theory of mental representation, which I call narrow structuralism.     

Evidence for a learning bias against saltatory phonological alternations

This study provides new experimental evidence that people learn phonological alternations in a biased way. Adult participants were exposed to alternations between phonetically dissimilar sounds (i.e., those differing in both voicing and manner, such as [p] and [v]). After learning these alternations, participants assumed, without evidence in the input, that more similar sounds (e.g., [b] and [v]) also alternated (Exp. 1). Even when provided with explicit evidence that dissimilar sounds (e.g., [p] and [v]) alternated but similar sounds ([b] and [v]) did not, participants tended to make errors in assuming that the similar sounds also alternated (Exp. 2). By comparison, a control group of participants found it easier to learn the opposite pattern, where similar sounds alternated but dissimilar sounds did not. The results are taken as evidence that learners have a soft bias, considering alternations between perceptually similar sounds to be more likely.