Stressed and word-final syllables in infant-directed speech

Comparisons between infant-directed and adult-directed speech were conducted to determine whether word-final syllables are highlighted in infant-directed speech. Samples of adult-directed and infant-directed speech were collected from 8 mothers of 6-month-old and 8 mothers of 9- month-old infants. Mothers were asked to label seven objects both to an experimenter and to their infant. Duration, pitch, and amplitude were measured for whole words and for each of the target word syllables. As in prior research, the infant-directed targets were higher pitched and longer than adult-directed targets. The results also extend beyond previous results in showing that lengthening of final syllables in infant-directed speech is particularly exaggerated. Results of analyses comparing word-final versus nonfinal unstressed syllables in utterance-medial position in infant-directed speech showed that lengthening of unstressed word-final syllables occurs even in utterance-internal positions. These results could suggest a mechanism for proposals that word-final syllables are perceptually salient to young children.     

Context specificity of conditioned-reinforcement effects on discrimination acquisition

Pigeons were trained on a series of reversals of a simultaneous form discrimination in which the trial outcomes were separated from the choice responses by an 8-s delay interval. Different conditions were defined by the stimuli occurring during the two halves of the delay interval. Discrimination learning was greatly facilitated by having differential stimuli during the delay following correct versus incorrect choices. When the differential stimuli appeared only at the midpoint of the delay, some facilitation occurred relative to when no different stimuli occurred, but there was substantially less facilitation than when the differential stimuli occurred immediately contingent on choice. A reversed-stimulus condition, in which the stimulus at the onset of the delay following a correct choice was the same as that during the last segment of the delay following an incorrect choice, and the stimulus at the onset of the delay following an incorrect choice was the same as that preceding food during the last segment of the delay following a correct choice, also facilitated discrimination learning relative to the nondifferential stimulus conditions.     

Sometimes spelling is easier than phonemic segmentation

Poor spellers from the Netherlands segmented and spelled the same words on different occasions. If they base their spellings on the segmentations that they produce in the segmentation task, the correlation between segmentation and spelling scores should be high, and segmentation should not be more difficult than spelling. The predicted correlation was found, but spelling proved to be easier than segmentation, particularly for postvocalic consonant-clusters. Correct spellings despite incorrect segmentation were also more frequent than would be expected on the basis of unreliability of segmentation. Ways in which writing may facilitate and improve segmentation are therefore discussed. These findings raise doubts about the validity of segmentation test and about the efficiency of teaching children to segment without using letters.     

试述问题的转移与皮肤移植的创新

科学问题的解决,并不是消灭了问题,而是常常由此２１出更多的新问题。要求一个问题研究的完成而转入对另一个相关问题的研究。皮瓣的不断创新直接推动着整形外科的发展,在皮肤移植的创新过程中符合"问题转移"认识论的观点。应用该原理可指导我们在医学工作中如何解决不断出现的新问题。     

Visual Perception in Japanese Rock Garden Design

We present an investigation into the relation between design principles in Japanese gardens, and their associated perceptual effects. This leads to the realization that a set of design principles described in a Japanese gardening text by Shingen (1466), shows many parallels to the visual effects of perceptual grouping, studied by the Gestalt school of psychology. Guidelines for composition of rock clusters closely relate to perception of visual figure. Garden design elements are arranged into patterns that simplify figure-ground segmentation, while seemingly balancing the visual salience of subparts and the global arrangement. Visual ‘ground’ is analyzed via medial axis transformation (MAT), often associated with shape perception in humans. MAT analysis reveals implicit structure in the visual ground of a quintessential rock garden design. The MAT structure enables formal comparison of structure of figure and ground. They share some aesthetic qualities, with interesting differences. Both contain naturalistic asymmetric, self-similar, branching structures. While the branching pattern of the ground converges towards the viewer, that of the figure converges in the opposite direction.     

颜色交替文本促进小学高年级聋生篇章阅读的眼动研究

聋生由于听力损失,导致其在阅读方面存在一定的困难。如何提高聋生的阅读效率是一个具有重要的实践价值的课题。本研究采用眼动追踪技术,以29名小学高年级聋生为研究对象,考察颜色交替词标记形式对小学高年级聋生篇章阅读的促进作用。结果发现,无论是眼动指标的整体分析还是局部分析,均支持颜色交替词标记文本可以有效地提高小学高年级聋生的语篇阅读效率。本研究结果对于训练提高小学高年级聋生的阅读效率具有一定的启发意义。     

词切分对印-英双语者阅读影响的眼动研究

以25名印-英双语者为被试,采用EyeLink2000眼动仪,探讨词切分对印-英双语者阅读的影响。实验一要求被试阅读印地语句子,实验二要求被试阅读英语句子,词切分方式有三种：正常条件、无空格隔词加灰条件和无空格条件。结果发现：（1）对印-英双语者阅读自己的两种官方语言来说,空格因素在其阅读中发挥着积极作用,删除空格会明显影响他们的阅读;（2）在无空格隔词加灰条件和无空格条件下,印-英双语者阅读英语时下降的速度显著低于阅读印地语的,这表明空格因素的作用会受语言特点的制约。     

中文阅读中词切分的认知机理述评

大量的认知科学研究表明, 词在阅读认知加工过程中起着非常重要的作用。因此在阅读中一个重要的过程就是把词从文本中切分出来。有别于英文等拼音文字, 中文文本的词之间没有空格分隔。在没有空格辅助的条件下, 中文阅读者是如何进行词的切分呢？本文主要综述了近期认知心理学和计算机科学领域针对该问题的研究进展, 主要包括：1)介绍了一些词作为整体进行加工的心理学证据; 2)报告了词切分的认知机理方面的研究现状和一个中文词切分和识别的模型; 3)简要回顾了计算机科学中的词切分研究, 并指出了与心理学中词切分研究的区别和联系; 4)提出了一些尚待解决的问题和研究展望, 这些问题的提出和解决将可能促进中文词切分的认知机理全面理解。     

Segmenting dynamic human action via statistical structure

Human social, cognitive, and linguistic functioning depends on skills for rapidly processing action. Identifying distinct acts within the dynamic motion flow is one basic component of action processing; for example, skill at segmenting action is foundational to action categorization, verb learning, and comprehension of novel action sequences. Yet little is currently known about mechanisms that may subserve action segmentation. The present research documents that adults can register statistical regularities providing clues to action segmentation. This finding provides new evidence that structural knowledge gained by mechanisms such as statistical learning can play a role in action segmentation, and highlights a striking parallel between processing of action and processing in other domains, such as language.     

句法加工的脑机制

语言理解中,句法加工至关重要,它把各个意义单元以不同的方式整合起来,从而形成整体的意义表征。句法加工的脑机制是心理语言学比较关注的问题,目前由于ERP技术和功能成像技术的进步,使对这一机制的探讨成为可能。该文对有关句法加工的脑机制的研究进行了回顾与总结,并针对目前该领域存在的问题与争论进行了讨论