Rhyming abilities in 9-month-olds: The role of the vowel and coda explored

Nine-month-olds can respond to a change in rhyme when the conditioned head turn procedure is used [Hayes, R. A., Slater, A., & Brown, E. (2000). Infants’ ability to categorise on the basis of rhyme.Cognitive Development, 15, 405–419]. However, it is not known whether infants are detecting the change in vowel, the change in coda, or both. In Study 1, it was found that 9-month-old infants clearly attend to both the vowel and coda of the syllables presented, since they successfully categorised the syllables on the basis of both. However, infants found it harder to detect the difference when only the vowel or the coda changed than when both changed, a pattern of results that was also found in Study 2 with adults. These findings suggest that preverbal 9-month-olds parse syllables into smaller units than just onset and rime, and do so in a manner that is comparable to that of adults. The findings are discussed in relation to work demonstrating a relationship between rhyming ability and competence in word learning, reading and writing.     

脑干诱发电位在言语感知研究中的应用

脑干诱发电位是一种考察听觉脑干加工声音信号时神经活动的非侵入性技术, 近年来被广泛用于探索言语感知的神经基础。相关研究主要集中在考察成年人和正常发展儿童语音编码时脑干的活动特征及发展模式, 探讨发展性阅读障碍及其他语言损伤的语音编码缺陷及其神经表现等方面。在已有研究的基础上进一步探索初级语音编码和高级言语加工之间的相互作用机制, 考察阅读障碍的底层神经基础将成为未来该技术在言语感知研究中应用的重点。     

Insulting the sacred in a multicultural society: the conviction of Jussi Halla-aho under the Finnish religious insult section

This article analyses the most well-known and legally important contemporary Finnish religious insult case: the case of the politician Jussi Halla-aho. Concluded in 2012, the said legal process resulted in a conviction due to Halla-aho’s blog post about Islam and its sacred figures. Using a discursive framing, the article argues that the contemporary religious insult cases can, in fact, be political struggles involving various interests in a multicultural society. Building on broadly Durkheimian theorisation of the sacred, it also argues, that besides the Islamic objects set apart as sacred in the process, ‘secular’ ideals or values, such as the public order, tolerance, equality, and freedom of religion are also constructed as such and protected by the officials. By protecting Islam, the courts, in fact, aimed to protect a ‘secular sacred order’ against societal threats.     

旋律语调疗法及其对失语症的临床应用

失语症是当今人类面临的一个重要的健康问题。旋律语调疗法被认为是治疗失语症的有效手段之一。传统旋律语调疗法强调严格的程序和材料,改编版本则依据患者情况进行调整,二者均能提高失语症者的自发言语产生、言语复述以及命名等能力。研究还表明,旋律语调疗法不仅能提高失语症者相关脑区的激活水平,而且也能通过影响失语症者的相关神经结构改善其言语功能。未来研究需要进一步确定该疗法的干预机制及其对汉语失语症的适用性。     

Processing emotions in sounds: cross-domain aftereffects of vocal utterances and musical sounds

Nonlinguistic signals in the voice and musical instruments play a critical role in communicating emotion. Although previous research suggests a common mechanism for emotion processing in music and speech, the precise relationship between the two domains is unclear due to the paucity of direct evidence. By applying the adaptation paradigm developed by Bestelmeyer, Rouger, DeBruine, and Belin [2010. Auditory adaptation in vocal affect perception. Cognition, 117(2), 217–223. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2010.08.008], this study shows cross-domain aftereffects from vocal to musical sounds. Participants heard an angry or fearful sound four times, followed by a test sound and judged whether the test sound was angry or fearful. Results show cross-domain aftereffects in one direction – vocal utterances to musical sounds, not vice-versa. This effect occurred primarily for angry vocal sounds. It is argued that there is a unidirectional relationship between vocal and musical sounds where emotion processing of vocal sounds encompasses musical sounds but not vice-versa.     

Metadialogues for Resolving Burden of Proof Disputes

In this paper, a solution to the problem of analyzing burden of proof in argumentation is developed by building on the pioneering work of Erik C. W. Krabbe on metadialogues. Three classic cases of burden of proof disputes are analyzed, showing how metadialogue theory can solve the problems they pose. The solution is based on five dialectical requirements: (1) global burden of proof needs to be set at the confrontation stage of a dialogue, (2) there need to be special mechanisms for resolving disputes about burden of proof at all four stages of the dialogue, (3) they are especially significant during the argumentation stage, where burden of proof often shifts back and forth at each move, (4) such local shifts need to be partly regulated by the global burden of proof already set, and (5) the connection between burden of proof and the speech act of making a presumption in a dialogue needs to be clarified.     

Infant-directed speech supports phonetic category learning in English and Japanese

Across the first year of life, infants show decreased sensitivity to phonetic differences not used in the native language [Werker, J. F., & Tees, R. C. (1984). Cross-language speech perception: evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life. Infant Behaviour and Development, 7, 49-63]. In an artificial language learning manipulation, Maye, Werker, and Gerken [Maye, J., Werker, J. F., & Gerken, L. (2002). Infant sensitivity to distributional information can affect phonetic discrimination. Cognition, 82(3), B101-B111] found that infants change their speech sound categories as a function of the distributional properties of the input. For such a distributional learning mechanism to be functional, however, it is essential that the input speech contain distributional cues to support such perceptual learning. To test this, we recorded Japanese and English mothers teaching words to their infants. Acoustic analyses revealed language-specific differences in the distributions of the cues used by mothers (or cues present in the input) to distinguish the vowels. The robust availability of these cues in maternal speech adds support to the hypothesis that distributional learning is an important mechanism whereby infants establish native language phonetic categories.     

Autonomy,free speech and automatic behaviour

One of the strongest defences of free speech holds that autonomy requires the protection of speech. In this paper I examine five conditions that autonomy must satisfy. I survey recent research in social psychology regarding automatic behaviour, and a challenge to autonomy is articulated. I argue that a plausible strategy for neutralising some of the autonomy-threatening automatic responses consists in avoiding the exposure to the environmental features that trigger them. If this is so, we can good autonomy-based pro tanto reasons for controlling exposure to certain forms of speech. Earlier drafts of this paper were presented in the 2005 Warwick Graduate Conference in Political theory, the 2005 ALSP Conference at the University of Strathclyde, and the Discussion Group of Political Theory at Warwick University. I am grateful for the many comments received on those occasions, especially to Peter Jones, Graham Long, Glen Newey, Fabienne Peter, Jonathan Seglow and Will Smith. Two anonymous referees for Res Publica gave me helpful comments that benefited the argument defended here. Especial thanks are due to Matthew Clayton and Susan Hurley who provided me with detailed written comments and fruitful discussion.     

言语与手部运动关系的研究回顾

言语与手部运动之间存在复杂的联系。该文总结了两类手部运动（伴随言语发生的手势运动和抓握运动）与言语之间关系的行为和脑科学研究成果。发现：（1）伴随言语产生的意义手势可促进言语加工,特别是词汇的提取过程;（2）观察手的抓握运动影响言语产生时唇的运动和声音成分;（3）对词语的知觉影响抓握运动的早期计划阶段;（4）言语产生可增加手运动皮层的兴奋性。作者由此认为,言语加工与手势间的联系不仅表现为神经通路的重叠和相互激活,而且可能在外显行为上也相互影响     

教师管教言语行为语效的比较研究

本研究采用Searle对语旨行为的分类标准,采用情境模拟法,探讨教师对学生管教过程中不同言语事件中的断言、指令、承诺、表达以及宣告行为,研究学生对教师的管教言语使用时产生的情绪体验、对教师交际意图的理解、可能的行为倾向,以探明不同言语行为的语效。发现:⑴学生对教师发出的五种言语行为所引发的情绪体验、交际意图认知、行为倾向之间的存在显著差异。表达易引起被试愉快情绪,其次是断言与指令,承诺与宣告易引起被试不愉快情绪。对教师言语交际意图的认知以及服从行为倾向,表达、断言、指令高于承诺与宣告。⑵被试对五种管教言语行为交际意图的认知与其对教师管教的言语的情绪反应以及行为倾向间均存在显著的正相关。