Publications

Abstract

Laughter communicates a feeling of enjoyment across cultures, while non-verbal vocalizations of several other positive emotions, such as achievement or sensual pleasure, are recognizable only within, but not across, cultural boundaries. Are these positive vocalizations nevertheless interpreted cross-culturally as signaling positive affect? In a match-to-sample task, positive emotional vocal stimuli were paired with positive and negative facial expressions, by English participants and members of the Himba, a semi-nomadic, culturally isolated Namibian group. The results showed that laughter was associated with a smiling facial expression across both groups, consistent with previous work showing that human laughter is a positive, social signal with deep evolutionary roots. However, non-verbal vocalizations of achievement, sensual pleasure, and relief were not cross-culturally associated with smiling facial expressions, perhaps indicating that these types of vocalizations are not cross-culturally interpreted as communicating a positive emotional state, or alternatively that these emotions are associated with positive facial expression other than smiling. These results are discussed in the context of positive emotional communication in vocal and facial signals. Research on the perception of non-verbal vocalizations of emotions across cultures demonstrates that some affective signals, including laughter, are associated with particular facial configurations and emotional states, supporting theories of emotions as a set of evolved functions that are shared by all humans regardless of cultural boundaries.

Abstract

Despite great advances in scientific understanding of emotional processes in the last decades, research into the communication of emotions has been constrained by a strong bias toward negative affective states. Typically, studies distinguish between different negative emotions, such as disgust, sadness, anger, and fear. In contrast, most research uses only one category of positive affect, “happiness,” which is assumed to encompass all positive emotional states. This article reviews recent research showing that a number of positive affective states have discrete, recognizable signals. An increased focus on cues other than facial expressions is necessary to understand these positive states and how they are communicated; vocalizations, touch, and postural information offer promising avenues for investigating signals of positive affect. A full scientific understanding of the functions, signals, and mechanisms of emotions requires abandoning the unitary concept of happiness and instead disentangling positive emotions.

Abstract

Despite differences in language, culture, and ecology, some human characteristics are similar in people all over the world, while other features vary from one group to the next. These similarities and differences can inform arguments about what aspects of the human mind are part of our shared biological heritage and which are predominantly products of culture and language. I will present data from a cross-cultural project investigating the recognition of non-verbal vocalizations of emotions, such as screams and laughs, across two highly different cultural groups. English participants were compared to individuals from remote, culturally isolated Namibian villages. Vocalizations communicating the so-called “basic emotions” (anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise) were bidirectionally recognised. In contrast, a set of additional positive emotions was only recognised within, but not across, cultural boundaries. These results indicate that a number of primarily negative emotions are associated with vocalizations that can be recognised across cultures, while at least some positive emotions are communicated with culture-specific signals. I will discuss these findings in the context of accounts of emotions at differing levels of analysis, with an emphasis on the often-neglected positive emotions.

Abstract

Work on facial expressions of emotions (Calder, Burton, Miller, Young, & Akamatsu, 2001) and emotionally inflected speech (Banse & Scherer, 1996) has successfully delineated some of the physical properties that underlie emotion recognition. To identify the acoustic cues used in the perception of nonverbal emotional expressions like laugher and screams, an investigation was conducted into vocal expressions of emotion, using nonverbal vocal analogues of the “basic” emotions (anger, fear, disgust, sadness, and surprise; Ekman & Friesen, 1971; Scott et al., 1997), and of positive affective states (Ekman, 1992, 2003; Sauter & Scott, 2007). First, the emotional stimuli were categorized and rated to establish that listeners could identify and rate the sounds reliably and to provide confusion matrices. A principal components analysis of the rating data yielded two underlying dimensions, correlating with the perceived valence and arousal of the sounds. Second, acoustic properties of the amplitude, pitch, and spectral profile of the stimuli were measured. A discriminant analysis procedure established that these acoustic measures provided sufficient discrimination between expressions of emotional categories to permit accurate statistical classification. Multiple linear regressions with participants' subjective ratings of the acoustic stimuli showed that all classes of emotional ratings could be predicted by some combination of acoustic measures and that most emotion ratings were predicted by different constellations of acoustic features. The results demonstrate that, similarly to affective signals in facial expressions and emotionally inflected speech, the perceived emotional character of affective vocalizations can be predicted on the basis of their physical features.

Abstract

The rapid detection of affective signals from conspecifics is crucial for the survival of humans and other animals; if those around you are scared, there is reason for you to be alert and to prepare for impending danger. Previous research has shown that the human brain detects emotional faces within 150 msec of exposure, indicating a rapid differentiation of visual social signals based on emotional content. Here we use event-related brain potential (ERP) measures to show for the first time that this mechanism extends to the auditory domain, using human nonverbal vocalizations, such as screams. An early fronto-central positivity to fearful vocalizations compared with spectrally rotated and thus acoustically matched versions of the same sounds started 150 msec after stimulus onset. This effect was also observed for other vocalized emotions (achievement and disgust), but not for affectively neutral vocalizations, and was linked to the perceived arousal of an emotion category. That the timing, polarity, and scalp distribution of this new ERP correlate are similar to ERP markers of emotional face processing suggests that common supramodal brain mechanisms may be involved in the rapid detection of affectively relevant visual and auditory signals.

Abstract

We agree with Gewald (1) that historical and anthropological accounts are essential tools for understanding the Himba culture, and these accounts are valuable to both us and him. However, we contest his claim that the Himba individuals in our study were not culturally isolated. Gewald (1) claims that it would be “unlikely” that the Himba people with whom we worked had “not been exposed to the affective signals of individuals from cultural groups other than their own” as stated in our paper (2). Gewald (1) seems to argue that, because outside groups have had contact with some Himba, this means that these events affected all Himba. Yet, the Himba constitute a group of 20,000-50,000 people (3) living in small settlements scattered across the vast Kaokoland region, an area of 49,000 km2 (4).

Abstract

Many studies suggest that emotional signals can be recognized across cultures and modalities. But to what extent are these signals innate and to what extent are they learned? This study investigated whether auditory learning is necessary for the production of recognizable emotional vocalizations by examining the vocalizations produced by people born deaf. Recordings were made of eight congenitally deaf Dutch individuals, who produced non-verbal vocalizations of a range of negative and positive emotions. Perception was examined in a forced-choice task with hearing Dutch listeners (n = 25). Considerable variability was found across emotions, suggesting that auditory learning is more important for the acquisition of certain types of vocalizations than for others. In particular, achievement and surprise sounds were relatively poorly recognized. In contrast, amusement and disgust vocalizations were well recognized, suggesting that for some emotions, recognizable vocalizations can develop without any auditory learning. The implications of these results for models of emotional communication are discussed, and other routes of social learning available to the deaf individuals are considered.

Abstract

Vocalizations like screams and laughs are used to communicate affective states, but what acoustic cues in these signals require vocal learning and which ones are innate? This study investigated the role of auditory learning in the production of non-verbal emotional vocalizations by examining the vocalizations produced by people born deaf. Recordings were made of congenitally deaf Dutch individuals and matched hearing controls, who produced non-verbal vocalizations of a range of negative and positive emotions. Perception was examined in a forced-choice task with hearing Dutch listeners (n = 25), and judgments were analyzed together with acoustic cues, including envelope, pitch, and spectral measures. Considerable variability was found across emotions and acoustic cues, and the two types of information were related for a sub-set of the emotion categories. These results suggest that auditory learning is less important for the acquisition of certain types of vocalizations than for others (particularly amusement and relief), and they also point to a less central role for auditory learning of some acoustic features in affective non-verbal vocalizations. The implications of these results for models of vocal emotional communication are discussed.

Abstract

Differentiation of the forms and functions of different smiles is needed, but they should be based on empirical data on distinctions that senders and receivers make, and the physical cues that are employed. Such data would allow for a test of whether smiles can be differentiated using perceptual cues alone or whether mimicry or simulation are necessary.

Abstract

Distributing the spoils of a joint enterprise on the basis of work contribution or relative productivity seems natural to the modern Western mind. But such notions of merit-based distributive justice may be culturally constructed norms that vary with the social and economic structure of a group. In the present research, we showed that children from three different cultures have very different ideas about distributive justice. Whereas children from a modern Western society distributed the spoils of a joint enterprise precisely in proportion to productivity, children from a gerontocratic pastoralist society in Africa did not take merit into account at all. Children from a partially hunter-gatherer, egalitarian African culture distributed the spoils more equally than did the other two cultures, with merit playing only a limited role. This pattern of results suggests that some basic notions of distributive justice are not universal intuitions of the human species but rather culturally constructed behavioral norms.

Abstract

This study examined the use of fricative noise information and coarticulatory cues for categorization of word-final fricatives [s] and [f] by younger and older Dutch listeners alike. Particularly, the effect of information loss in the higher frequencies on the use of these two cues for fricative categorization was investigated. If information in the higher frequencies is less strongly available, fricative identification may be impaired or listeners may learn to focus more on coarticulatory information. The present study investigates this second possibility. Phonetic categorization results showed that both younger and older Dutch listeners use the primary cue fricative noise and the secondary cue coarticulatory information to distinguish
word-final [f] from [s]. Individual hearing sensitivity in the older listeners modified the use of fricative noise information, but did not modify the use of coarticulatory information. When high-frequency information was filtered out from the speech signal, fricative noise could no longer be used by the younger and older adults. Crucially, they also did not learn to rely more on coarticulatory information as a compensatory cue for fricative categorization. This suggests that listeners do not readily show compensatory use of this secondary cue to fricative identity when fricative categorization becomes difficult.

Abstract

Computational modelling has proven to be a valuable approach in developing theories of spoken-word processing. In this paper, we focus on a particular class of theories in which it is assumed that the spoken-word recognition process consists of two consecutive stages, with an 'abstract' discrete symbolic representation at the interface between the stages. In evaluating computational models, it is important to bring in independent arguments for the cognitive plausibility of the algorithms that are selected to compute the processes in a theory. This paper discusses the relation between behavioural studies, theories, and computational models of spoken-word recognition. We explain how computational models can be assessed in terms of the goodness of fit with the behavioural data and the cognitive plausibility of the algorithms. An in-depth analysis of several models provides insights into how computational modelling has led to improved theories and to a better understanding of the human spoken-word recognition process.

Abstract

Evidence that listeners, at least in a laboratory environment, use durational cues to help resolve temporarily ambiguous speech input has accumulated over the past decades. This paper introduces Fine-Tracker, a computational model of word recognition specifically designed for tracking fine-phonetic information in the acoustic speech signal and using it during word recognition. Two simulations were carried out using real speech as input to the model. The simulations showed that the Fine-Tracker, as has been found for humans, benefits from durational information during word recognition, and uses it to disambiguate the incoming speech signal. The availability of durational information allows the computational model to distinguish embedded words from their matrix words first simulation, and to distinguish word final realizations of s from word initial realizations second simulation. Fine-Tracker thus provides the first computational model of human word recognition that is able to extract durational information from the speech signal and to use it to differentiate words.

Abstract

This study investigates two variables that may modify lexically-guided perceptual learning: individual hearing sensitivity and attentional abilities. Older Dutch listeners (aged 60+, varying from good hearing to mild-to-moderate high-frequency hearing loss) were tested on a lexically-guided perceptual learning task using the contrast [f]-[s]. This contrast mainly differentiates between the two consonants in the higher frequencies, and thus is supposedly challenging for listeners with hearing loss. The analyses showed that older listeners generally engage in lexically-guided perceptual learning. Hearing loss and selective attention did not modify perceptual learning in our participant sample, while attention-switching control did: listeners with poorer attention-switching control showed a stronger perceptual learning effect. We postulate that listeners with better attention-switching control may, in general, rely more strongly on bottom-up acoustic information compared to listeners with poorer attention-switching control, making them in turn less susceptible to lexically-guided perceptual learning effects. Our results, moreover, clearly show that lexically-guided perceptual learning is not lost when acoustic processing is less accurate.

Abstract

Despite using different algorithms, most unsupervised automatic phone segmentation methods achieve similar performance in terms of percentage correct boundary detection. Nevertheless, unsupervised segmentation algorithms are not able to perfectly reproduce manually obtained reference transcriptions. This paper investigates fundamental problems for unsupervised segmentation algorithms by comparing a phone segmentation obtained using only the acoustic information present in the signal with a reference segmentation created by human transcribers. The analyses of the output of an unsupervised speech segmentation method that uses acoustic change to hypothesize boundaries showed that acoustic change is a fairly good indicator of segment boundaries: over two-thirds of the hypothesized boundaries coincide with segment boundaries. Statistical analyses showed that the errors are related to segment duration, sequences of similar segments, and inherently dynamic phones. In order to improve unsupervised automatic speech segmentation, current one-stage bottom-up segmentation methods should be expanded into two-stage segmentation methods that are able to use a mix of bottom-up information extracted from the speech signal and automatically derived top-down information. In this way, unsupervised methods can be improved while remaining flexible and language-independent.

Abstract

This chapter describes how speakers access words from the mental lexicon. Lexical access is a crucial
component in the process of transforming thoughts into speech. Some theories consider lexical access to be
strictly serial and discrete, while others view this process as being cascading or even interactive, i.e. the different
sub-levels influence each other. We discuss some of the evidence in favour and against these viewpoints, and
also present arguments regarding the ongoing debate on how words are selected for production. Another important
issue concerns the access to morphologically complex words such as derived and inflected words, as well as
compounds. Are these accessed as whole entities from the mental lexicon or are the parts assembled online? This
chapter tries to provide an answer to that question as well.

Abstract

Object categorization is an important cognitive adaptation, quickly providing an animal with relevant and potentially life-saving information. It can be defined as the process whereby objects that are not the same, are nonetheless grouped together according to some defining feature(s) and responded to as if they were the same. In this way, knowledge about one object, behavior or situation can be extrapolated onto another without much cost and effort. Many vertebrates including humans, monkeys, birds and teleosts have been shown to be able to categorize, with abilities varying between species and tasks. This study assessed object categorization skills in the gray bamboo shark Chiloscyllium griseum. Sharks learned to distinguish between the two categories, 'fish' versus 'snail' independently of image features and image type, i.e., black and white drawings, photographs, comics or negative images. Transfer tests indicated that sharks predominantly focused on and categorized the positive stimulus, while disregarding the negative stimulus.

Abstract

Toward the end of their first year of life, infants’ overly specified word representations are thought to give way to more abstract ones, which helps them to better cope with variation not relevant to word identity (e.g., voice and affect). This developmental change may help infants process the ambient language more efficiently, thus enabling rapid gains in vocabulary growth. One particular kind of variability that infants must accommodate is that of dialectal accent, because most children will encounter speakers from different regions and backgrounds. In this study, we explored developmental changes in infants’ ability to recognize words in continuous speech by familiarizing them with words spoken by a speaker of their own region (North Midland-American English) or a different region (Southern Ontario Canadian English), and testing them with passages spoken by a speaker of the opposite dialectal accent. Our results demonstrate that 12- but not 9-month-olds readily recognize words in the face of dialectal variation.

Abstract

Processing of semantic information in language comprehension has been suggested to be modulated by attentional resources. Consequently, cognitive load would be expected to reduce semantic priming, but studies have yielded inconsistent results. This study investigated whether cognitive load affects semantic activation in speech processing in older adults, and whether this is modulated by individual differences in cognitive and hearing abilities. Older adults participated in an auditory continuous lexical decision task in a low-load and high-load condition. The group analysis showed only a marginally significant reduction of semantic priming in the high-load condition compared to the low-load condition. The individual differences analysis showed that semantic priming was significantly reduced under increased load in participants with poorer attention-switching control. Hence, a resource-demanding secondary task may affect the integration of spoken words into a coherent semantic representation for listeners with poorer attentional skills.

Abstract

This article is reproduced from the previous edition, volume 22, pp. 14879–14882, © 2001, Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract

Speakers can adapt their speech and co-speech gestures for
addressees. Here, we investigate whether this ability is
modulated by age. Younger and older adults participated in a
comic narration task in which one participant (the speaker)
narrated six short comic stories to another participant (the
addressee). One half of each story was known to both participants, the other half only to the speaker. Younger but
not older speakers used more words and gestures when narrating novel story content as opposed to known content.
We discuss cognitive and pragmatic explanations of these findings and relate them to theories of gesture production.

Abstract

Adaptation to altered auditory feedback has been shown to induce subsequent shifts in perception. However, it is uncertain whether these perceptual changes may generalize to other speech sounds. In this experiment, we tested whether exposing the production of a vowel to altered auditory feedback affects perceptual categorization of a consonant distinction. In two sessions, participants produced CVC words containing the vowel /i/, while intermittently categorizing stimuli drawn from a continuum between "see" and "she." In the first session feedback was unaltered, while in the second session the formants of the vowel were shifted 20% towards /u/. Adaptation to the altered vowel was found to reduce the proportion of perceived /S/ stimuli. We suggest that this reflects an alteration to the sensorimotor mapping that is shared between vowels and consonants.

Abstract

In different tasks involving action perception, performance has been found to be facilitated
when the presented stimuli were produced by the participants themselves rather than by
another participant. These results suggest that the same mental representations are
accessed during both production and perception. However, with regard to spoken word perception,
evidence also suggests that listeners’ representations for speech reflect the input
from their surrounding linguistic community rather than their own idiosyncratic productions.
Furthermore, speech perception is heavily influenced by indexical cues that may lead listeners
to frame their interpretations of incoming speech signals with regard to speaker identity.
In order to determine whether word recognition evinces similar self-advantages as found in
action perception, it was necessary to eliminate indexical cues from the speech signal. We therefore asked participants to identify noise-vocoded versions of Dutch words that were based on either their own recordings or those of a statistically average speaker. The majority of participants were more accurate for the average speaker than for themselves, even after taking into account differences in intelligibility. These results suggest that the speech
representations accessed during perception of noise-vocoded speech are more reflective
of the input of the speech community, and hence that speech perception is not necessarily based on representations of one’s own speech.

Abstract

This paper presents a study on the acoustic sub-segmental properties of word-final /t/ in conversational standard Dutch and how these properties contribute to whether humans and an ASR system classify the /t/ as acoustically present or absent. In general, humans and the ASR system use the same cues (presence of a constriction, a burst, and alveolar frication), but the ASR system is also less sensitive to fine cues (weak bursts, smoothly starting friction) than human listeners and misled by the presence of glottal vibration. These data inform the further development of models of human and automatic speech processing.

Abstract

People have stereotypes about gesture usage. For instance, speakers in East Asia are not supposed to gesticulate, and it is believed that Italians gesticulate more than the British. Despite the prevalence of such views, studies that investigate these stereotypes are scarce. The present study examined peopleÕs views on spontaneous gestures by collecting data from five different countries. A total of 363 undergraduate students from five countries (France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and USA) participated in this study. Data were collected through a two-part questionnaire. Part 1 asked participants to rate two characteristics of gesture: frequency and size of gesture for 13 different languages. Part 2 asked them about their views on factors that might affect the production of gestures. The results showed that most participants in this study believe that Italian, Spanish, and American English speakers produce larger gestures more frequently than other language speakers. They also showed that each culture group, even within Europe, put weight on a slightly different aspect of gestures.

Abstract

This study examined how well 5-, 6-, 10-year-olds and adults integrated information from spoken discourse with cohesive use of space in gesture, in comprehension. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with a combination of spoken discourse and a sequence of cohesive gestures, which consistently located each of the two protagonists in two distinct locations in gesture space. Participants were asked to select an interpretation of the final sentence that best matched the preceding spoken and gestural contexts. Adults and 10-year-olds performed better than 5-year-olds, who were at chance level. In Experiment 2, another group of 5-year-olds was presented with the same stimuli as in Experiment 1, except that the actor showed hand-held pictures, instead of producing cohesive gestures. Unlike cohesive gestures, one set of pictures was self-explanatory and did not require integration with the concurrent speech to derive the referent. With these pictures, 5-year-olds performed nearly perfectly and their performance in the identifiable pictures was significantly better than those in the unidentifiable pictures. These results suggest that young children failed to integrate spoken discourse and cohesive use of space in gestures, because they cannot derive a referent of cohesive gestures from the local speech context.

Abstract

This study investigates the development of bi-modal reference maintenance by focusing on how Japanese elementary school children introduce and track animate referents in their narratives. Sixty elementary school children participated in this study, 10 from each school year (from 7 to 12 years of age). They were instructed to remember a cartoon and retell the story to their parents. We found that although there were no differences in the speech indices among the different ages, the average scores for the gesture indices of the 12-year-olds were higher than those of the other age groups. In particular, the amount of referential gestures radically increased at 12, and these children tended to use referential gestures not only for tracking referents but also for introducing characters. These results indicate that the ability to maintain a reference to create coherent narratives increases at about age 12.

Abstract

We examined whether children's ability to integrate speech and gesture follows the pattern of a broader developmental shift between 3- and 5-year-old children (Ramscar & Gitcho, 2007) regarding the ability to process two pieces of information simultaneously. In Experiment 1, 3-year-olds, 5-year-olds, and adults were presented with either an iconic gesture or a spoken sentence or a combination of the two on a computer screen, and they were instructed to select a photograph that best matched the message. The 3-year-olds did not integrate information in speech and gesture, but 5-year-olds and adults did. In Experiment 2, 3-year-old children were presented with the same speech and gesture as in Experiment 1 that were produced live by an experimenter. When presented live, 3-year-olds could integrate speech and gesture. We concluded that development of the integration ability is a part of the broader developmental shift; however, live-presentation facilitates the nascent integration ability in 3-year-olds.

Abstract

We examined how two-handed gestures and speech with equivalent contents that are used in narrative develop during childhood. The participants were 40 native speakers of English consisting of four different age groups: 3-, 5-, 9-year-olds, and adults. A set of 10 video clips depicting motion events were used to elicit speech and gesture. There are two findings. First, two types of two-handed gestures showed different developmental changes: those with a single-handed stroke with a simultaneous hold increased with age, while those with a two handed-stroke decreased with age. Second, representational gesture and speech developed in parallel at the discourse level. More specifically, the ways in which information is packaged in a gesture and in a clause are similar for a given age group; that is, gesture and speech develop hand-in-hand.

Abstract

The contributions to this book concern the documentation, archiving and revitalization of endangered language materials. The anthology focuses mainly on endangered Oceanic languages, with articles on Vanuatu by Darrell Tryon and the Marquesas by Gabriele Cablitz, on situations of loss and gain by Ingjerd Hoem and on the Kilivila language of the Trobriands by the editor. Nick Thieberger, Peter Wittenburg and Paul Trilsbeek, and David Blundell and colleagues write about aspects of linguistic archiving. Under the rubric of revitalization, Margaret Florey and Michael Ewing write about Maluku, Jakelin Troy and Michael Walsh about Australian Aboriginal languages in southeastern Australia, whilst three articles, by Sophie Nock, Diana Johnson and Winifred Crombie concern the revitalization of Maori.

Abstract

Seit 1982 erforsche ich die Sprache und die Kultur der Trobriand-Insulaner in Papua-Neuguinea. Nach inzwischen 15 Reisen zu den Trobriand-Inseln, die sich bis heute zu nahezu vier Jahren Leben und Arbeit im Dorf Tauwema auf der Insel Kaile'una addieren, wurde ich von Markus Schindlbeck und Alix Hänsel dazu eingeladen, den Mitgliedern der „Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte“ über meine Feldforschungen zu berichten. Das werde ich im Folgenden tun. Zunächst beschreibe ich, wie ich zu den Trobriand-Inseln kam, wie ich mich dort zurechtgefunden habe und berichte dann, welche Art von Forschung ich all die Jahre betrieben, welche Formen von Sprach- und Kulturwandel ich dabei beobachtet und welche Erwartungen ich auf der Basis meiner bisherigen Erfahrungen für die Zukunft der Trobriander und für ihre Sprache und ihre Kultur habe.

Abstract

This volume presents 22 tales from the Trobriand Islands told by children (boys between the age of 5 and 9 years) and adults. The monograph is motivated not only by the anthropological linguistic aim to present a broad and quite unique collection of tales with the thematic approach to illustrate which topics and themes constitute the content of the stories, but also by the psycholinguistic and textlinguistic questions of how children acquire linearization and other narrative strategies, how they develop them and how they use them to structure these texts in an adult-like way. The tales are presented in morpheme-interlinear transcriptions with first textlinguistic analyses and cultural background information necessary to fully understand them. A summarizing comparative analysis of the texts from a psycholinguistic, anthropological linguistic and philological point of view discusses the underlying schemata of the stories, the means narrators use to structure them, their structural complexity and their cultural specificity. The e-book is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

Abstract

The book documents the Trobriand Islanders' typology of genres. Rooted in the 'ethnography of speaking/anthropological linguistics' paradigm, the author highlights the relevance of genres for researching language, culture and cognition in social interaction and the importance of understanding them for achieving linguistic and cultural competence. Data presented is accessible via the internet.

Abstract

After an exposé of the programme involved, it is shown that the Gricean maxims fail to do their job in so far as they are meant to account for the well-known problem of natural intuitions of logical entailment that deviate from standard modern logic. It is argued that there is no reason why natural logical and ontological intuitions should conform to standard logic, because standard logic is based on mathematics while natural logical and ontological intuitions derive from a cognitive system in people's minds (supported by their brain structures). A proposal is then put forward to try a totally different strategy, via (a) a grammatical reduction of surface sentences to their logico-semantic form and (b) via logic itself, in particular the notion of natural logic, based on a natural ontology and a natural set theory. Since any logical system is fully defined by (a) its ontology and its overarching notions and axioms regarding truth, (b) the meanings of its operators, and (c) the ranges of its variables, logical systems can be devised that deviate from modern logic in any or all of the above respects, as long as they remain consistent. This allows one, as an empirical enterprise, to devise a natural logic, which is as sound as standard logic but corresponds better with natural intuitions. It is hypothesised that at least two varieties of natural logic must be assumed in order to account for natural logical and ontological intuitions, since culture and scholastic education have elevated modern societies to a higher level of functionality and refinement. These two systems correspond, with corrections and additions, to Hamilton's 19th-century logic and to the classic Square of Opposition, respectively. Finally, an evaluation is presented, comparing the empirical success rates of the systems envisaged.

Abstract

The main thesis of the article is that language change is only partially subject to criteria of functionality and that, as a rule, opposing forces are also at work which often correlate directly with psychological and sociopsychological parameters reflecting themselves in all areas of linguistic competence. We sketch a complex interplay of horizontal versus vertical, deliberate versus nondeliberate, functional versus antifunctional linguistic changes, which, through a variety of processes have an effect upon the languages concerned, whether in the lexicon, the grammar, the phonology or the phonetics. Despite the overall unclarity regarding the notion of functionality in language, there are clear cases of both functionality and antifunctionality. Antifunctionality is deliberately striven for by groups of speakers who wish to distinguish themselves from other groups, for whatever reason. Antifunctionality, however, also occurs as a, probably unwanted, result of syntactic change in the acquisition process by young or adult language learners. The example is discussed of V-clustering through Predicate Raising in German and Dutch, a process that started during the early Middle Ages and was highly functional as long as it occurred on a limited scale but became antifunctional as it pervaded the entire complementation system of these languages.

Abstract

Aristotle's importance in the professional study of language consists first of all in the fact that he demythologized language and made it an object of rational investigation. In the context of his theory of truth as correspondence, he also provided the first semantic analysis of propositions in that he distinguished two main constituents, the predicate, which expresses a property, and the remainder of the proposition, referring to a substance to which the property is assigned. That assignment is either true or false. Later, the ‘remainder’ was called subject term, and the Aristotelian predicate was identified with the verb in the sentence. The Aristotelian predicate, however, is more like what is now called the ‘comment,’ whereas his remainder corresponds to the topic. Aristotle, furthermore, defined nouns and verbs as word classes. In addition, he introduced the term ‘case’ for paradigmatic morphological variation.

Abstract

The Logic of Language opens a new perspective on logic. Pieter Seuren argues that the logic of language derives from the lexical meanings of the logical operators. These meanings, however, prove not to be consistent. Seuren solves this problem through an indepth analysis of the functional adequacy of natural predicate logic and standard modern logic for natural linguistic interaction. He then develops a general theory of discourse-bound interpretation, covering discourse incrementation, anaphora, presupposition and topic-comment structure, all of which, the author claims, form the 'cement' of discourse structure. This is the second of a two-volume foundational study of language, published under the title Language from Within . Pieter Seuren discusses such apparently diverse issues as the ontology underlying the semantics of language, speech act theory, intensionality phenomena, the machinery and ecology of language, sentential and lexical meaning, the natural logic of language and cognition, and the intrinsically context-sensitive nature of language - and shows them to be intimately linked. Throughout his ambitious enterprise, he maintains a constant dialogue with established views, reflecting their development from Ancient Greece to the present. The resulting synthesis concerns central aspects of research and theory in linguistics, philosophy and cognitive science.

Abstract

The message of the present article is, first, that, besides and below the strictly linguistic aspects of communication through language, of which speakers are in principle fully aware, a great deal of knowledge not carried in virtue of the system of the language in question but rather transmitted by the form of the intended message, is imparted to listeners or readers, without either being in the least aware of this happening. For example, listeners quickly register the social status, regional origin or emotional attitude of speakers and they react to those kinds of ‘paralinguistic’ information, mostly totally unawares. When speaker and listener have a positive attitude with regard to each other, the reaction consists, among other things, in mutual alignment or accommodation of pronunciation features, lexical selections and style of speaking. When the mutual attitude is negative, the opposite happens: speakers accentuate their differences. Then, when this happens not between individual interlocutors but between groups of speakers, such accommodation or divergence phenomena may lead to language change. The main theoretical question raised, but not answered, in this article is how and at what point forms of behaviour, including linguistic behaviour, achieve the status of being ‘standard’ or ‘accepted’ in any given community and what it means to say that they are ‘standard’ or ‘accepted’. It is argued that frequency of occurrence is not the main explanatory factor, and that a causal explanation is to be sought rather in the, often unconscious, attitudes of individuals, in particular their desire or need to be integrated members of a community or social group, thus ensuring their safety and asserting their group identity. The question thus belongs to the province of social psychology. Qualms about analyses of this kind being ‘unscientific’ dissipate when it is realized that consciousness phenomena are part of the real world and must therefore be considered to be valid objects of scientific theory formation. Like so many other ill-understood elements in scientific theories, consciousness, though itself unexplained, can be given a place in causal chains of events.

Abstract

In two studies, we examined whether explicit distractors are necessary and sufficient toevoke selective inhibition in three naming tasks: the semantic blocking, picture-word interference, and color-word Stroop task. Delta plots were used to quantify the size of the interference effects as a function of reaction time (RT). Selective inhibition was operationalized as the decrease in the size of the interference effect as a function of naming RT. For all naming tasks, mean naming RTs were significantly longer in the interference condition than in a control condition. The slopes of the interference effects for the longest naming RTs correlated with the magnitude of the mean interference effect in both the semantic blocking task and the picture-word interference task, suggesting that selective inhibition was involved to reduce the interference from strong semantic competitors either invoked by a single explicit competitor or strong implicit competitors in picture naming. However, there was no correlation between the slopes and the mean interference effect in the Stroop task, suggesting less importance of selective inhibition in this task despite explicit distractors. Whereas the results of the semantic blocking task suggest that an explicit distractor is not necessary for triggering inhibition, the results of the Stroop task suggest that such a distractor is not sufficient for evoking inhibition either.

Abstract

In conversation, the initial pitch of an utterance can provide an early phonetic cue of the communicative function, the speech act, or the social action being implemented. We conducted quantitative acoustic measurements and statistical analyses of pitch in over 10,000 utterances, including 2512 questions, their responses, and about 5000 other utterances by 180 total speakers from a corpus of 70 natural conversations in 10 languages. We measured pitch at first prominence in a speaker’s utterance and discriminated utterances by language, speaker, gender, question form, and what social action is achieved by the speaker’s turn. Through applying multivariate logistic regression we found that initial pitch that significantly deviated from the speaker’s median pitch level was predictive of the social action of the question. In questions designed to solicit agreement with an evaluation rather than information, pitch was divergent from a speaker’s median predictably in the top 10% of a speakers range. This latter finding reveals a kind of iconicity in the relationship between prosody and social action in which a marked pitch correlates with a marked social action. Thus, we argue that speakers rely on pitch to provide an early signal for recipients that the question is not to be interpreted through its literal semantics but rather through an inference.

Abstract

Although an increasing number of sociolinguistic researchers consider functions of voice qualities as stylistic features, few studies consider cases where voice qualities serve as the primary signs of speech registers. This article addresses this gap through the presentation of a case study of Lachixio Zapotec speech registers indexed though falsetto, breathy, creaky, modal, and whispered voice qualities. I describe the system of contrastive speech registers in Lachixio Zapotec and then track a speaker on a single evening where she switches between three of these registers. Analyzing line-by-line conversational structure I show both obligatory and creative shifts between registers that co-occur with shifts in the participant structures of the situated social interactions. I then examine similar uses of voice qualities in other Zapotec languages and in the two unrelated language families Nahuatl and Mayan to suggest the possibility that such voice registers are a feature of the Mesoamerican culture area.

Abstract

Spontal-N is a corpus of spontaneous, interactional Norwegian. To our knowledge, it is the first corpus of Norwegian in which the majority of speakers have spent significant parts of their lives in Sweden, and in which the recorded speech displays varying degrees of interference from Swedish. The corpus consists of studio quality audio- and video-recordings of four 30-minute free conversations between acquaintances, and a manual orthographic transcription of the entire material. On basis of the orthographic transcriptions, we automatically annotated approximately 50 percent of the material on the phoneme level, by means of a forced alignment between the acoustic signal and pronunciations listed in a dictionary. Approximately seven percent of the automatic transcription was manually corrected. Taking the manual correction as a gold standard, we evaluated several sources of pronunciation variants for the automatic transcription. Spontal-N is intended as a general purpose speech resource that is also suitable for investigating phonetic detail.

Abstract

Multivariate pattern analysis is a technique that allows the decoding of conceptual information such as the semantic category of a perceived object from neuroimaging data. Impressive single-trial classification results have been reported in studies that used fMRI. Here, we investigate the possibility to identify conceptual representations from event-related EEG based on the presentation of an object in different modalities: its spoken name, its visual representation and its written name. We used Bayesian logistic regression with a multivariate Laplace prior for classification. Marked differences in classification performance were observed for the tested modalities. Highest accuracies (89% correctly classified trials) were attained when classifying object drawings. In auditory and orthographical modalities, results were lower though still significant for some subjects. The employed classification method allowed for a precise temporal localization of the features that contributed to the performance of the classifier for three modalities. These findings could help to further understand the mechanisms underlying conceptual representations. The study also provides a first step towards the use of concept decoding in the context of real-time brain-computer interface applications.

Abstract

In this study, we explore the possibility to predict the semantic category of words from brain signals in a free word generation task. Participants produced single words from different semantic categories in a modified semantic fluency task. A Bayesian logistic regression classifier was trained to predict the semantic category of words from single-trial MEG data. Significant classification accuracies were achieved using sensor-level MEG time series at the time interval of conceptual preparation. Semantic category prediction was also possible using source-reconstructed time series, based on minimum norm estimates of cortical activity. Brain regions that contributed most to classification on the source level were identified. These were the left inferior frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and left posterior middle temporal gyrus. Additionally, the temporal dynamics of brain activity underlying the semantic preparation during word generation was explored. These results provide important insights about central aspects of language production

Abstract

An exploratory genome-wide copy number variant (CNV) study was performed in 127 independent cases with specific language impairment (SLI), their first-degree relatives (385 individuals) and 269 population controls. Language-impaired cases showed an increased CNV burden in terms of the average number of events (11.28 vs 10.01, empirical P=0.003), the total length of CNVs (717 vs 513 Kb, empirical P=0.0001), the average CNV size (63.75 vs 51.6 Kb, empirical P=0.0005) and the number of genes spanned (14.29 vs 10.34, empirical P=0.0007) when compared with population controls, suggesting that CNVs may contribute to SLI risk. A similar trend was observed in first-degree relatives regardless of affection status. The increased burden found in our study was not driven by large or de novo events, which have been described as causative in other neurodevelopmental disorders. Nevertheless, de novo CNVs might be important on a case-by-case basis, as indicated by identification of events affecting relevant genes, such as ACTR2 and CSNK1A1, and small events within known micro-deletion/-duplication syndrome regions, such as chr8p23.1. Pathway analysis of the genes present within the CNVs of the independent cases identified significant overrepresentation of acetylcholine binding, cyclic-nucleotide phosphodiesterase activity and MHC proteins as compared with controls. Taken together, our data suggest that the majority of the risk conferred by CNVs in SLI is via common, inherited events within a ‘common disorder–common variant’ model. Therefore the risk conferred by CNVs will depend upon the combination of events inherited (both CNVs and SNPs), the genetic background of the individual and the environmental factors.

Abstract

Listeners have to overcome variability of the speech signal that can arise, for example, because of differences in room acoustics, differences in speakers’ vocal tract properties, or idiosyncrasies in pronunciation. Two mechanisms that are involved in resolving such variation are perceptually contrastive effects that arise from surrounding acoustic context and lexically guided perceptual learning. Although both processes have been studied in great detail, little attention has been paid to how they operate relative to each other in speech perception. The present study set out to address this issue. The carrier parts of exposure stimuli of a classical perceptual learning experiment were spectrally filtered such that the acoustically ambiguous final fricatives sounded relatively more like the lexically intended sound (Experiment 1) or the alternative (Experiment 2). Perceptual learning was found only in the latter case. The findings show that perceptual contrast effects precede lexically guided perceptual learning, at least in terms of temporal order, and potentially in terms of cognitive processing levels as well

Abstract

The smooth transitions between turns in natural conversation suggest that speakers often begin to plan their utterances while listening to their interlocutor. The presented study investigates whether this is indeed the case and, if so, when utterance planning begins. Two hypotheses were contrasted: that speakers begin to plan their turn as soon as possible (in our experiments less than a second after the onset of the interlocutor’s turn), or that they do so close to the end of the interlocutor’s turn. Turn-taking was combined with a finger tapping task to measure variations in cognitive load. We assumed that the onset of speech planning in addition to listening would be accompanied by deterioration in tapping performance. Two picture description experiments were conducted. In both experiments there were three conditions: (1) Tapping and Speaking, where participants tapped a complex pattern while taking over turns from a pre-recorded speaker, (2) Tapping and Listening, where participants carried out the tapping task while overhearing two pre-recorded speakers, and (3) Speaking Only, where participants took over turns as in the Tapping and Speaking condition but without tapping. The experiments differed in the amount of tapping training the participants received at the beginning of the session. In Experiment 2, the participants’ eye-movements were recorded in addition to their speech and tapping. Analyses of the participants’ tapping performance and eye movements showed that they initiated the cognitively demanding aspects of speech planning only shortly before the end of the turn of the preceding speaker. We argue that this is a smart planning strategy, which may be the speakers’ default in many everyday situations.

Abstract

Introduction The ability to identify individuals at increased genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) may streamline biomarker and drug trials and aid clinical and personal decision making. Methods We evaluated the discriminative ability of a genetic risk score (GRS) covering 22 published genetic risk loci for AD in 1162 Flanders-Belgian AD patients and 1019 controls and assessed correlations with family history, onset age, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers (Aβ1-42, T-Tau, P-Tau181P). Results A GRS including all single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and age-specific APOE ε4 weights reached area under the curve (AUC) 0.70, which increased to AUC 0.78 for patients with familial predisposition. Risk of AD increased with GRS (odds ratio, 2.32 (95% confidence interval 2.08-2.58 per unit; P < 1.0e-15). Onset age and CSF Aβ1-42 decreased with increasing GRS (Ponset-age = 9.0e-11; PAβ = 8.9e-7). Discussion The discriminative ability of this 22-SNP GRS is still limited, but these data illustrate that incorporation of age-specific weights improves discriminative ability. GRS-phenotype correlations highlight the feasibility of identifying individuals at highest susceptibility. © 2015 The Authors.

Abstract

Speakers adapt their speech and gestures in various ways for their audience. We investigated further whether they use
ostensive signals (eye gaze, ostensive speech (e.g. like this, this) or a combination of both) in relation to their gestures
when talking to different addressees, i.e., to another adult or a child in a multimodal demonstration task. While adults used
more eye gaze towards their gestures with other adults than with children, they were more likely to use combined
ostensive signals for children than for adults. Thus speakers mark the communicative relevance of their gestures with different types of ostensive signals and by taking different types of addressees into account.

Abstract

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 23 is caused by mutations in PDYN, which encodes the opioid neuropeptide precursor protein, prodynorphin. Prodynorphin is processed into the opioid peptides, α-neoendorphin, and dynorphins A and B, that normally exhibit opioid-receptor mediated actions in pain signalling and addiction. Dynorphin A is likely a mutational hotspot for spinocerebellar ataxia type 23 mutations, and in vitro data suggested that dynorphin A mutations lead to persistently elevated mutant peptide levels that are cytotoxic and may thus play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of spinocerebellar ataxia type 23. To further test this and study spinocerebellar ataxia type 23 in more detail, we generated a mouse carrying the spinocerebellar ataxia type 23 mutation R212W in PDYN. Analysis of peptide levels using a radioimmunoassay shows that these PDYNR212W mice display markedly elevated levels of mutant dynorphin A, which are associated with climber fibre retraction and Purkinje cell loss, visualized with immunohistochemical stainings. The PDYNR212W mice reproduced many of the clinical features of spinocerebellar ataxia type 23, with gait deficits starting at 3 months of age revealed by footprint pattern analysis, and progressive loss of motor coordination and balance at the age of 12 months demonstrated by declining performances on the accelerating Rotarod. The pathologically elevated mutant dynorphin A levels in the cerebellum coincided with transcriptionally dysregulated ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptors and glutamate transporters, and altered neuronal excitability. In conclusion, the PDYNR212W mouse is the first animal model of spinocerebellar ataxia type 23 and our work indicates that the elevated mutant dynorphin A peptide levels are likely responsible for the initiation and progression of the disease, affecting glutamatergic signalling, neuronal excitability, and motor performance. Our novel mouse model defines a critical role for opioid neuropeptides in spinocerebellar ataxia, and suggests that restoring the elevated mutant neuropeptide levels can be explored as a therapeutic intervention.

Abstract

Previous research [9] suggests that Dutch learners of (British) English are not able to express sarcasm prosodically in their L2. The present study investigates whether explicit training on the prosodic markers of sarcasm in English can improve learners’ realisation of sarcasm. Sarcastic speech was elicited in short simulated telephone conversations between Dutch advanced learners of English and a native British English-speaking ‘friend’ in two sessions, fourteen days apart. Between the two sessions, participants were trained by means of (1) a presentation, (2) directed independent practice, and (3) evaluation of participants’ production and individual feedback in small groups. L1 British English-speaking raters subsequently evaluated the degree of sarcastic sounding in the participants’ responses on a five-point scale. It was found that significantly higher sarcasm ratings were given to L2 learners’ production obtained after the training than that obtained before the training; explicit training on prosody has a positive effect on learners’ production of sarcasm.

Abstract

In a recent fMRI study we showed that left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LpMTG) subserves the retrieval of a word's lexical-syntactic properties from the mental lexicon (long-term memory), while left posterior inferior frontal gyrus (LpIFG) is involved in unifying (on-line integration of) this information into a sentence structure (Snijders et al., 2009). In addition, the right IFG, right MTG, and the right striatum were involved in the unification process. Here we report results from a psychophysical interactions (PPI) analysis in which we investigated the effective connectivity between LpIFG and LpMTG during unification, and how the right hemisphere areas and the striatum are functionally connected to the unification network. LpIFG and LpMTG both showed enhanced connectivity during the unification process with a region slightly superior to our previously reported LpMTG. Right IFG better predicted right temporal activity when unification processes were more strongly engaged, just as LpIFG better predicted left temporal activity. Furthermore, the striatum showed enhanced coupling to LpIFG and LpMTG during unification. We conclude that bilateral inferior frontal and posterior temporal regions are functionally connected during sentence-level unification. Cortico-subcortical connectivity patterns suggest cooperation between inferior frontal and striatal regions in performing unification operations on lexical-syntactic representations retrieved from LpMTG.

Abstract

Oxytocin plays an important role in monogamous pairbonded female voles, but not in polygamous voles. Here we examined a socially monogamous cooperatively breeding primate where both sexes share in parental care and territory defense for within species variation in behavior and female and male oxytocin levels in 14 pairs of cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). In order to obtain a stable chronic assessment of hormones and behavior, we observed behavior and collected urinary hormonal samples across the tamarins’ 3-week ovulatory cycle. We found similar levels of urinary oxytocin in both sexes. However, basal urinary oxytocin levels varied 10-fold across pairs and pair-mates displayed similar oxytocin levels. Affiliative behavior (contact, grooming, sex) also varied greatly across the sample and explained more than half the variance in pair oxytocin levels. The variables accounting for variation in oxytocin levels differed by sex. Mutual contact and grooming explained most of the variance in female oxytocin levels, whereas sexual behavior explained most of the variance in male oxytocin levels. The initiation of contact by males and solicitation of sex by females were related to increased levels of oxytocin in both. This study demonstrates within-species variation in oxytocin that is directly related to levels of affiliative and sexual behavior. However, different behavioral mechanisms influence oxytocin levels in males and females and a strong pair relationship (as indexed by high levels of oxytocin) may require the activation of appropriate mechanisms for both sexes.

Abstract

Humans have a strong proclivity for structuring and patterning stimuli: Whether in space or time, we tend to mentally order stimuli in our environment and organize them into units with specific types of relationships. A crucial prerequisite for such organization is the cognitive ability to discern and process regularities among multiple stimuli. To investigate the evolutionary roots of this cognitive capacity, we tested chimpanzees—which, along with bonobos, are our closest living relatives—for simple, variable distance dependency processing in visual patterns. We trained chimpanzees to identify pairs of shapes either linked by an arbitrary learned association (arbitrary associative dependency) or a shared feature (same shape, feature-based dependency), and to recognize strings where items related to either of these ways occupied the first (leftmost) and the last (rightmost) item of the stimulus. We then probed the degree to which subjects generalized this pattern to new colors, shapes, and numbers of interspersed items. We found that chimpanzees can learn and generalize both types of dependency rules, indicating that the ability to encode both feature-based and arbitrary associative regularities over variable distances in the visual domain is not a human prerogative. Our results strongly suggest that these core components of human structural processing were already present in our last common ancestor with chimpanzees.

Abstract

Flexibly adapting social behavior to social and environmental challenges helps to alleviate glucocorticoid (GC) levels, which may have positive fitness implications for an individual. For primates, the predominant social behavior is grooming. Giving grooming to others is particularly efficient in terms of GC mitigation. However, grooming is confined by certain limitations such as time constraints or restricted access to other group members. For instance, dominance hierarchies may impact grooming partner availability in primate societies. Consequently specific grooming patterns emerge. In despotic species focusing grooming activity on preferred social partners significantly ameliorates GC levels in females of all ranks. In this study we investigated grooming patterns and GC management in Barbary macaques, a comparably relaxed species. We monitored changes in grooming behavior and cortisol (C) for females of different ranks. Our results show that the C‐amelioration associated with different grooming patterns had a gradual connection with dominance hierarchy: while higher‐ranking individuals showed lowest urinary C measures when they focused their grooming on selected partners within their social network, lower‐ranking individuals expressed lowest C levels when dispersing their grooming activity evenly across their social partners. We argue that the relatively relaxed social style of Barbary macaque societies allows individuals to flexibly adapt grooming patterns, which is associated with rank‐specific GC management. Am. J. Primatol. 77:688–700, 2015

Abstract

Aims/hypothesis Several forkhead box (FOX) transcription factor family members have important roles in controlling pancreatic cell fates and maintaining beta cell mass and function, including FOXA1, FOXA2 and FOXM1. In this study we have examined the importance of FOXP1, FOXP2 and FOXP4 of the FOXP subfamily in islet cell development and function. Methods Mice harbouring floxed alleles for Foxp1, Foxp2 and Foxp4 were crossed with pan-endocrine Pax6-Cre transgenic mice to generate single and compound Foxp mutant mice. Mice were monitored for changes in glucose tolerance by IPGTT, serum insulin and glucagon levels by radioimmunoassay, and endocrine cell development and proliferation by immunohistochemistry. Gene expression and glucose-stimulated hormone secretion experiments were performed with isolated islets. Results Only the triple-compound Foxp1/2/4 conditional knockout (cKO) mutant had an overt islet phenotype, manifested physiologically by hypoglycaemia and hypoglucagonaemia. This resulted from the reduction in glucagon-secreting alpha cell mass and function. The proliferation of alpha cells was profoundly reduced in Foxp1/2/4 cKO islets through the effects on mediators of replication (i.e. decreased Ccna2, Ccnb1 and Ccnd2 activators, and increased Cdkn1a inhibitor). Adult islet Foxp1/2/4 cKO beta cells secrete insulin normally while the remaining alpha cells have impaired glucagon secretion. Conclusions/interpretation Collectively, these findings reveal an important role for the FOXP1, 2, and 4 proteins in governing postnatal alpha cell expansion and function.

Abstract

This paper presents the Kachna corpus of spontaneous speech, in which ten Czech and ten Norwegian speakers were recorded both in their native language and in English. The dialogues are elicited using a picture replication task that requires active cooperation and interaction of speakers by asking them to produce a drawing as close to the original as possible. The corpus is appropriate for the study of interactional features and speech reduction phenomena across native and second languages. The combination of productions in non-native English and in speakers’ native language is advantageous for investigation of L2 issues while providing a L1 behaviour reference from all the speakers. The corpus consists of 20 dialogues comprising 12 hours 53 minutes of recording, and was collected in 2008. Preparation of the transcriptions, including a manual orthographic transcription and an automatically generated phonetic transcription, is currently in progress. The phonetic transcriptions are automatically generated by aligning acoustic models with the speech signal on the basis of the orthographic transcriptions and a dictionary of pronunciation variants compiled for the relevant language. Upon completion the corpus will be made available via the European Language Resources Association (ELRA).

Abstract

Why do people accommodate to each other’s linguistic behavior? Studies of natural interactions (Giles, Taylor & Bourhis, 1973) suggest that speakers accommodate to achieve interactional goals, influencing what their interlocutor thinks or feels about them. But is this the only reason speakers accommodate? In real-world conversations, interactional motivations are ubiquitous, making it difficult to assess the extent to which they drive accommodation. Do speakers still accommodate even when interactional goals cannot be achieved, for instance, when their interlocutor cannot interpret their accommodation behavior? To find out, we asked participants to enter an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment and to converse with a virtual interlocutor. Participants accommodated to the speech rate of their virtual interlocutor even though he could not interpret their linguistic behavior, and thus accommodation could not possibly help them to achieve interactional goals. Results show that accommodation does not require explicit interactional goals, and suggest other social motivations for accommodation.

Abstract

In this article, we propose the use of suffix arrays to efficiently implement n-gram language models with practically unlimited size n. This approach, which is used with synchronous back-off, allows us to distinguish between alternative sequences using large contexts. We also show that we can build this kind of models with additional information for each symbol, such as part-of-speech tags and dependency information. The approach can also be viewed as a collection of virtual k-testable automata. Once built, we can directly access the results of any k-testable automaton generated from the input training data. Synchronous back- off automatically identies the k-testable automaton with the largest feasible k. We have used this approach in several classification tasks.

Abstract

Finding regularities in large data sets requires implementations of systems that are efficient in both time and space requirements. Here, we describe a newly developed system that exploits the internal structure of the enhanced suffixarray to find significant patterns in a large collection of sequences. The system searches exhaustively for all significantly compressing patterns where patterns may consist of symbols and skips or wildcards. We demonstrate a possible application of the system by detecting interesting patterns in a Dutch and an English corpus.

Abstract

In this article, we propose the use of suffix arrays to implement n-gram language models with practically unlimited size n. These unbounded n-grams are called 1-grams. This approach allows us to use large contexts efficiently to distinguish between different alternative sequences while applying synchronous back-off. From a practical point of view, the approach has been applied within the context of spelling confusibles, verb and noun agreement and prenominal adjective ordering. These initial experiments show promising results and we relate the performance to the size of the n-grams used for disambiguation.

Abstract

This article, part of a 10 language comparative project on question–response sequences, discusses these sequences in American English conversation. The data are video-taped spontaneous naturally occurring conversations involving two to five adults. Relying on these data I document the basic distributional patterns of types of questions asked (polar, Q-word or alternative as well as sub-types), types of social actions implemented by these questions (e.g., repair initiations, requests for confirmation, offers or requests for information), and types of responses (e.g., repetitional answers or yes/no tokens). I show that declarative questions are used more commonly in conversation than would be suspected by traditional grammars of English and questions are used for a wider range of functions than grammars would suggest. Finally, this article offers distributional support for the idea that responses that are better “fitted” with the question are preferred.

Abstract

no abstract is available for this article

Abstract

A fundamental puzzle in the organization of social interaction concerns how one individual elicits a response from another. This article asks what it is about some sequentially initial turns that reliably mobilizes a coparticipant to respond and under what circumstances individuals are accountable for producing a response. Whereas a linguistic approach suggests that this is what oquestionso (more generally) and interrogativity (more narrowly) are for, a sociological approach to social interaction suggests that the social action a person is implementing mobilizes a recipient's response. We find that although both theories have merit, neither adequately solves the puzzle. We argue instead that different actions mobilize response to different degrees. Speakers then design their turns to perform actions, and with particular response-mobilizing features of turn-design speakers can hold recipients more accountable for responding or not. This model of response relevance allows sequential position, action, and turn design to each contribute to response relevance.

Abstract

A number of Conversation Analytic studies have documented that question recipients have a variety of ways to push against the constraints that questions impose on them. This article explores the concept of transformative answers – answers through which question recipients retroactively adjust the question posed to them. Two main sorts of adjustments are discussed: question term transformations and question agenda transformations. It is shown that the operations through which interactants implement term transformations are different from the operations through which they implement agenda transformations. Moreover, term-transforming answers resist only the question’s design, while agenda-transforming answers effectively resist both design and agenda, thus implying that agenda-transforming answers resist more strongly than design-transforming answers. The implications of these different sorts of transformations for alignment and affiliation are then explored.

Abstract

General knowledge acquisition entails the extraction of statistical regularities from the environment. At high levels of complexity, this may involve the extraction, and consolidation, of associative regularities across event memories. The underlying neural mechanisms would likely involve a hippocampo-neocortical dialog, as proposed previously for system-level consolidation. To test these hypotheses, we assessed possible differences in consolidation between associative memories containing cross-episodic regularities and unique associative memories. Subjects learned face–location associations, half of which responded to complex regularities regarding the combination of facial features and locations, whereas the other half did not. Importantly, regularities could only be extracted over hippocampus-encoded, associative aspects of the items. Memory was assessed both immediately after encoding and 48 h later, under fMRI acquisition. Our results suggest that processes related to system-level reorganization occur preferentially for regular associations across episodes. Moreover, the build-up of general knowledge regarding regular associations appears to involve the coordinated activity of the hippocampus and mediofrontal regions. The putative cross-talk between these two regions might support a mechanism for regularity extraction. These findings suggest that the consolidation of cross-episodic regularities may be a key mechanism underlying general knowledge acquisition.

Abstract

Four cross-modal repetition priming experiments examined whether consonant duration in Italian provides listeners with information not only for segmental identification ("what" information: whether the consonant is a geminate or a singleton) but also for lexical segmentation (“where” information: whether the consonant is in word-initial or word-medial position). Italian participants made visual lexical decisions to words containing geminates or singletons, preceded by spoken primes (whole words or fragments) containing either geminates or singletons. There were effects of segmental identity (geminates primed geminate recognition; singletons primed singleton recognition), and effects of consonant position (regression analyses revealed graded effects of geminate duration only for geminates which can vary in position, and mixed-effect modeling revealed a positional effect for singletons only in low-frequency words). Durational information appeared to be more important for segmental identification than for lexical segmentation. These findings nevertheless indicate that the same kind of information can serve both "what" and "where" functions in speech comprehension, and that the perceptual processes underlying those functions are interdependent.

Abstract

Purpose: Delayed auditory feedback is a technique that can improve fluency in stutterers, while disrupting fluency in many non-stuttering individuals. The aim of this study was to determine the neural basis for the detection of and compensation for such a delay, and the effects of increases in the delay duration. Method: Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to image regional cerebral blood flow changes, an index of neural activity, and assessed the influence of increasing amounts of delay. Results: Delayed auditory feedback led to increased activation in the bilateral superior temporal lobes, extending into posterior-medial auditory areas. Similar peaks in the temporal lobe were sensitive to increases in the amount of delay. A single peak in the temporal parietal junction responded to the amount of delay but not to the presence of a delay (relative to no delay). Conclusions: This study permitted distinctions to be made between the neural response to hearing one's voice at a delay, and the neural activity that correlates with this delay. Notably all the peaks showed some influence of the amount of delay. This result confirms a role for the posterior, sensori-motor ‘how’ system in the production of speech under conditions of delayed auditory feedback.

Abstract

The rates of overspecification of color, pattern, and size are compared, to investigate how salience and absoluteness contribute to the production of overspecification. Color and pattern are absolute and salient attributes, whereas size is relative and less salient. Additionally, a tendency toward consistent responses is assessed. Using a within-participants design, we find similar rates of color and pattern overspecification, which are both higher than the rate of size overspecification. Using a between-participants design, however, we find similar rates of pattern and size overspecification, which are both lower than the rate of color overspecification. This indicates that although many speakers are more likely to include color than pattern (probably because color is more salient), they may also treat pattern like color due to a tendency toward consistency. We find no increase in size overspecification when the salience of size is increased, suggesting that speakers are more likely to include absolute than relative attributes. However, we do find an increase in size overspecification when mentioning the attributes is triggered, which again shows that speakers tend to refer in a consistent manner, and that there are circumstances in which even size overspecification is frequently produced.

Abstract

Although visual imagery is argued to be an essential component of autobiographical memory, there have been surprisingly few studies on autobiographical memory processes in blind individuals, who have had no or limited visual input. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how blindness affects retrieval and phenomenology of autobiographical memories. We asked 48 congenital/early blind and 48 sighted participants to recall autobiographical memories in response to six cue words, and to fill out the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire measuring a number of variables including imagery, belief and recollective experience associated with each memory. Blind participants retrieved fewer memories and reported higher auditory imagery at retrieval than sighted participants. Moreover, within the blind group, participants with total blindness reported higher auditory imagery than those with some light perception. Blind participants also assigned higher importance, belief and recollection ratings to their memories than sighted participants. Importantly, these group differences remained the same for recent as well as childhood memories.

Abstract

Visual evoked responses were monitored while participants searched for a target (e.g., bird) in a four-object display that could include a semantically related distractor (e.g., fish). The occurrence of both the target and the semantically related distractor modulated the N2pc response to the search display: The N2pc amplitude was more pronounced when the target and the distractor appeared in the same visual field, and it was less pronounced when the target and the distractor were in opposite fields, relative to when the distractor was absent. Earlier components (P1, N1) did not show any differences in activity across the different distractor conditions. The data suggest that semantic distractors influence early stages of selecting stimuli in multielement displays.

Abstract

When young adults carry out visual search, distractors that are semantically related, rather than unrelated, to targets can disrupt target selection (see [Belke et al., 2008] and [Moores et al., 2003]). This effect is apparent on the first eye movements in search, suggesting that attention is sometimes captured by related distractors. Here we assessed effects of semantically related distractors on search in patients with frontal-lobe lesions and compared them to the effects in age-matched controls. Compared with the controls, the patients were less likely to make a first saccade to the target and they were more likely to saccade to distractors (whether related or unrelated to the target). This suggests a deficit in a first stage of selecting a potential target for attention. In addition, the patients made more errors by responding to semantically related distractors on target-absent trials. This indicates a problem at a second stage of target verification, after items have been attended. The data suggest that frontal lobe damage disrupts both the ability to use peripheral information to guide attention, and the ability to keep separate the target of search from the related items, on occasions when related items achieve selection.

Abstract

This paper presents DIANA, a new computational model of human speech processing. It is the first model that simulates the complete processing chain from the on-line processing of an acoustic signal to the execution of a response, including reaction times. Moreover it assumes minimal modularity. DIANA consists of three components. The activation component computes a probabilistic match between the input acoustic signal and representations in DIANA’s lexicon, resulting in a list of word hypotheses changing over time as the input unfolds. The decision component operates on this list and selects a word as soon as sufficient evidence is available. Finally, the execution component accounts for the time to execute a behavioral action. We show that DIANA well simulates the average participant in a word recognition experiment.