Songs as an aid for language acquisition

In previous research, Saffran and colleagues [Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N., & Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science, 274, 1926-1928; Saffran, J. R., Newport, E. L., & Aslin, R. N. (1996). Word segmentation: The role of distributional cues. Journal of Memory and Language, 35, 606-621.] have shown that adults and infants can use the statistical properties of syllable sequences to extract words from continuous speech. They also showed that a similar learning mechanism operates with musical stimuli [Saffran, J. R., Johnson, R. E. K., Aslin, N., & Newport, E. L. (1999). Abstract Statistical learning of tone sequences by human infants and adults. Cognition, 70, 27-52.]. In this work we combined linguistic and musical information and we compared language learning based on speech sequences to language learning based on sung sequences. We hypothesized that, compared to speech sequences, a consistent mapping of linguistic and musical information would enhance learning. Results confirmed the hypothesis showing a strong learning facilitation of song compared to speech. Most importantly, the present results show that learning a new language, especially in the first learning phase wherein one needs to segment new words, may largely benefit of the motivational and structuring properties of music in song.     

Evaluation of school architecture postoccupancy

A questionnaire for the postoccupancy evaluation of school architecture was developed. It contains distinct modules covering different parts of a school building. A module of the questionnaire comprises a semantic differential section and items covering six content domains which were selected based on a literature review, namely, aesthetics, equipment, room climate, spatial cognition, privacy and publicity, and personalization of and identification with space. The questionnaire is available in the German language and can be used with students age 10 years or older and teachers.     

The mean fundamental frequency in stutterers and nonstutterers during reading and spontaneous speech

Corresponding to the higher tension of muscles involved in speech production, a higher mean fundamental frequency should be expected in stutterers as compared to nonstutterers. It could be shown by the change scores of the mean fundamental frequency from reading to free conversation that stutterers tend to have a higher fundamental frequency during spontaneous speech.     

Detection of P300 waves in single trials by the wavelet transform (WT)

The P300 response is conventionally obtained by averaging the responses to the task-relevant (target) stimuli of the oddball paradigm. However, it is well known that cognitive ERP components show a high variability due to changes of cognitive state during an experimental session. With simple tasks such changes may not be demonstrable by the conventional method of averaging the sweeps chosen according to task-relevance. Therefore, the present work employed a response-based classification procedure to choose the trials containing the P300 component from the whole set of sweeps of an auditory oddball paradigm. For this purpose, the most significant response property reflecting the P300 wave was identified by using the wavelet transform (WT). The application of a 5 octave quadratic B-spline-WT on single sweeps yielded discrete coefficients in each octave with an appropriate time resolution for each frequency range. The main feature indicating a P300 response was the positivity of the 4th delta (0.5-4 Hz) coefficient (310-430 ms) after stimulus onset. The average of selected single sweeps from the whole set of data according to this criterion yielded more enhanced P300 waves compared with the average of the target responses, and the average of the remaining sweeps showed a significantly smaller positivity in the P300 latency range compared with the average of the non-target responses. The combination of sweeps classified according to the task-based and response-based criteria differed significantly. This suggests an influence of changes in cognitive state on the presence of the P300 wave which cannot be assessed by task performance alone.     

Alternative measures of fit for the Schönemann-carroll matrix fitting algorithm

In connection with a least-squares solution for fitting one matrix,A, to another,B, under optimal choice of a rigid motion and a dilation, Schönemann and Carroll suggested two measures of fit: a raw measure,e, and a refined similarity measure,e _s , which is symmetric. Both measures share the weakness of depending upon the norm of the target matrix,B,e.g.,e(A,kB) ≠e(A,B) fork ≠ 1. Therefore, both measures are useless for answering questions of the type: “DoesA fitB better thanA fitsC?”. In this note two new measures of fit are suggested which do not depend upon the norms ofA andB, which are (0, 1)-bounded, and which, therefore, provide meaningful answers for comparative analyses.     

Perception of the visual vertical: Utricular and somatosensory contributions

Summary The subjective visual vertical (SV) has been investigated in centrifugation experiments in order to test the hypothesis, that changes in the SV are proportional to changes in the shear force acting on the utricles. The results deviate from those predicted from the shear hypothesis. This deviation can be accounted for by assuming that the SV is determined by the average of utricular and somaesthetic inputs.Thanks are due to A. Stein for performing some of the experiments of series d and e. N.J. Wade was supported by a Forschungsstipendium from the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung. Renate Alton skillfully assisted with the drawings.