Perceptual learning of non-native speech sounds: The importance of features from an attention to dimensions perspective.

2009 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 2283
Author(s):  
Alexander, L. Francis
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Native Speech

Visual and auditory native language interference in perceptual learning of non-native speech sounds

2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (4) ◽  
pp. 2162-2162
Author(s):  
Pamela Fuhrmeister ◽  
F. Sayako Earle ◽  
Jay Rueckl ◽  
Emily Myers
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Native Speech

scholarly journals Overlearning of non-native speech sounds does not result in superior consolidation after a period of sleep

2020 ◽  
Vol 147 (3) ◽  
pp. EL289-EL294
Author(s):  
Pamela Fuhrmeister ◽  
Garrett Smith ◽  
Emily B. Myers
Keyword(s):  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Native Speech

Changes in Sensory Evoked Responses Coincide with Rapid Improvement in Speech Identification Performance

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 392-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude Alain ◽  
Sandra Campeanu ◽  
Kelly Tremblay
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Auditory Evoked Potentials ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Broadband Noise ◽  
Evoked Responses ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Noise Stimulus ◽  
Sensory Evoked ◽  
Speech Identification

Perceptual learning is sometimes characterized by rapid improvements in performance within the first hour of training (fast perceptual learning), which may be accompanied by changes in sensory and/or response pathways. Here, we report rapid physiological changes in the human auditory system that coincide with learning during a 1-hour test session in which participants learned to identify two consonant vowel syllables that differed in voice onset time. Within each block of trials, listeners were also presented with a broadband noise control stimulus to determine whether changes in auditory evoked potentials were specific to the trained speech cue. The ability to identify the speech sounds improved from the first to the fourth block of trials and remained relatively constant thereafter. This behavioral improvement coincided with a decrease in N1 and P2 amplitude, and these learning-related changes differed from those observed for the noise stimulus. These training-induced changes in sensory evoked responses were followed by an increased negative peak (between 275 and 330 msec) over fronto-central sites and by an increase in sustained activity over the parietal regions. Although the former was also observed for the noise stimulus, the latter was specific to the speech sounds. The results are consistent with a top–down nonspecific attention effect on neural activity during learning as well as a more learning-specific modulation, which is coincident with behavioral improvements in speech identification.

scholarly journals A Meta-Analysis of Infants’ Ability to Perceive Audio-Visual Congruence for Speech Sounds

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Martin Mikkelsen Cox ◽  
Tamar Keren-Portnoy ◽  
Andreas Roepstorff ◽  
Riccardo Fusaroli
Keyword(s):  
Effect Size ◽  
Robust Regression ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Credible Interval ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Positive Direction ◽  
Moderate Effect Size ◽  
Visual Matching ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Speech Information

This paper investigates the extent to which infants can integrate synchronous speech information across different modalities. A meta-analysis of 24 studies reporting 92 separate effect size measures suggests that infants possess a robust ability to perceive audio-visual congruence for speech sounds. Applying a hierarchical Bayesian robust regression model to the data indicates a moderate effect size in a positive direction (0.35, CI [0.21: 0.50]). Moderator analyses suggest that infants’ audio-visual matching ability for speech sounds emerges at an early point in process of language acquisition and remains stable for both native and non-native speech throughout early development. A sensitivity analysis of the meta-analytic data indicates that a moderate publication bias for significant results could shift the lower credible interval to include null effects. Based on these findings, we outline recommendations for new lines of enquiry and suggest ways to improve the replicability of results in future investigations.

scholarly journals Neural Representation of Articulable and Inarticulable Novel Sound Contrasts: The Role of the Dorsal Stream

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-364
Author(s):  
David I. Saltzman ◽  
Emily B. Myers
Keyword(s):  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Dorsal Stream ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Sine Wave ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Native Speech

The extent that articulatory information embedded in incoming speech contributes to the formation of new perceptual categories for speech sounds has been a matter of discourse for decades. It has been theorized that the acquisition of new speech sound categories requires a network of sensory and speech motor cortical areas (the “dorsal stream”) to successfully integrate auditory and articulatory information. However, it is possible that these brain regions are not sensitive specifically to articulatory information, but instead are sensitive to the abstract phonological categories being learned. We tested this hypothesis by training participants over the course of several days on an articulable non-native speech contrast and acoustically matched inarticulable nonspeech analogues. After reaching comparable levels of proficiency with the two sets of stimuli, activation was measured in fMRI as participants passively listened to both sound types. Decoding of category membership for the articulable speech contrast alone revealed a series of left and right hemisphere regions outside of the dorsal stream that have previously been implicated in the emergence of non-native speech sound categories, while no regions could successfully decode the inarticulable nonspeech contrast. Although activation patterns in the left inferior frontal gyrus, the middle temporal gyrus, and the supplementary motor area provided better information for decoding articulable (speech) sounds compared to the inarticulable (sine wave) sounds, the finding that dorsal stream regions do not emerge as good decoders of the articulable contrast alone suggests that other factors, including the strength and structure of the emerging speech categories are more likely drivers of dorsal stream activation for novel sound learning.

Nederlandse Baby's Gebruiken Statistische Informatie om Spraakklanken te Leren Onderscheiden

2008 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 21-29
Author(s):  
Desiree Capel ◽  
Elise de Bree ◽  
Annemarie Kerkhoff ◽  
Frank Wijnen
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Frequency Distribution ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Statistical Distribution ◽  
First Year ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Bimodal Condition ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
First Year Of Life

Phonemes are perceived categorically and this perception is language-specific for adult listeners. Infants initially are "universal" listeners, capable of discriminating both native and non-native speech contrasts. This ability disappears in the first year of life. Maye et al. (Cognition (2002)) propose that statistical learning is responsible for this change to language-specific perception. They were the first to show that infants of 6 and 8 months old use statistical distribution of phonetic variation in learning to discriminate speech sounds. A replication of this experiment studied 10-11-month-old Dutch infants. They were exposed to either a bimodal or a unimodal frequency distribution of an 8-step speech sound continuum based on the Hindi voiced and voiceless retroflex plosives (/da/ en /ta/). The results show that only infants in the bimodal condition could discriminate the contrast, representing the speech sounds in two categories rather than one.

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