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Trends in Cognitive Sciences Dec 2023Many people report a form of internal language known as inner speech (IS). This review examines recent growth of research interest in the phenomenon, which has broadly... (Review)
Review
Many people report a form of internal language known as inner speech (IS). This review examines recent growth of research interest in the phenomenon, which has broadly supported a theoretical model in which IS is a functional language process that can confer benefits for cognition in a range of domains. A key insight to have emerged in recent years is that IS is an embodied experience characterized by varied subjective qualities, which can be usefully modeled in artificial systems and whose neural signals have the potential to be decoded through advancing brain-computer interface technologies. Challenges for future research include understanding individual differences in IS and mapping form to function across IS subtypes.
Topics: Humans; Speech; Language; Cognition
PubMed: 37770286
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.08.014 -
Medical Education Oct 2023
Topics: Humans; Voice; Speech
PubMed: 37150536
DOI: 10.1111/medu.15121 -
Nature Neuroscience Nov 2023
Topics: Speech; Speech Perception
PubMed: 37919611
DOI: 10.1038/s41593-023-01492-4 -
International Journal of Language &... 2023Verbal fluency tests (VFT) are highly sensitive to cognitive deficits. Usually, the score on VFT is based on the number of correct words produced, yet it alone gives...
BACKGROUND
Verbal fluency tests (VFT) are highly sensitive to cognitive deficits. Usually, the score on VFT is based on the number of correct words produced, yet it alone gives little information regarding underlying test performance. The implementation of different strategies (cluster and switching) to perform efficiently during the tasks provide more valuable information. However, normative data for clustering and switching strategies are scarce. Moreover, scoring criteria adapted to Colombian Spanish are missing.
AIMS
(1) To describe the Colombian adaptation of the scoring system guidelines for clustering and switching strategies in VFT; (2) to determine its reliability; and (3) to provide normative data for Colombian children and adolescents aged 6-17 years.
METHODS & PROCEDURES
A total of 691 children and adolescents from Colombia completed phonological (/f/, /a/, /s/, /m/, /r/ and /p/) and semantic (animals and fruits) VFT, and five scores were calculated: total score (TS), number of clusters (NC), cluster size (CS), mean cluster size (MCS) and number of switches (NS). The intraclass correlation coefficient was used for interrater reliability. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to investigate which strategies were associated with VFT TS. Multiple regressions were conducted for each strategy, including as predictors age, age , sex, mean parents' education (MPE), MPE and type of school, to generate normative data.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS
Reliability indexes were excellent. Age was associated with VFT TS, but weakly compared with strategies. For both VFT TS, NS was the strongest variable, followed by CS and NC. Regarding norms, age was the strongest predictor for all measures, while age was relevant for NC (/f/ phoneme) and NS (/m/ phoneme). Participants with higher MPE obtained more NC, and NS, and larger CS in several phonemes and categories. Children and adolescents from private school generated more NC, NS and larger CS in /s/ phoneme.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS
This study provides new scoring guidelines and normative data for clustering and switching strategies for Colombian children and adolescents between 6 and 17 years old. Clinical neuropsychologists should include these measures as part of their everyday practice.
WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS
What is already known on the subject VFT are widely used within the paediatric population due to its sensitivity to brain injury. Its score is based on the number of correct words produced; however, TS alone gives little information regarding underlying test performance. Several normative data for VFT TS in the paediatric population exist, but normative data for clustering and switching strategies are scarce. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The present study is the first to describe the Colombian adaptation of the scoring guidelines for clustering and switching strategies, and provided normative data for these strategies for children and adolescents between 6 and 17 years old. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Knowing VFT's performance, including strategy development and use in healthy children and adolescents, may be useful for clinical settings. We encourage clinicians to include not only TS, but also a careful analysis of strategies that may be more informative of the underlying cognitive processes failure than TS.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Child; Adolescent; Semantics; Colombia; Reproducibility of Results; Linguistics; Verbal Behavior; Cluster Analysis; Neuropsychological Tests
PubMed: 37140195
DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12891 -
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Feb 2024Though listeners readily recognize speech from a variety of talkers, accommodating talker variability comes at a cost: Myriad studies have shown that listeners are... (Review)
Review
Though listeners readily recognize speech from a variety of talkers, accommodating talker variability comes at a cost: Myriad studies have shown that listeners are slower to recognize a spoken word when there is talker variability compared with when talker is held constant. This review focuses on two possible theoretical mechanisms for the emergence of these processing penalties. One view is that multitalker processing costs arise through a resource-demanding talker accommodation process, wherein listeners compare sensory representations against hypothesized perceptual candidates and error signals are used to adjust the acoustic-to-phonetic mapping (an active control process known as contextual tuning). An alternative proposal is that these processing costs arise because talker changes involve salient stimulus-level discontinuities that disrupt auditory attention. Some recent data suggest that multitalker processing costs may be driven by both mechanisms operating over different time scales. Fully evaluating this claim requires a foundational understanding of both talker accommodation and auditory streaming; this article provides a primer on each literature and also reviews several studies that have observed multitalker processing costs. The review closes by underscoring a need for comprehensive theories of speech perception that better integrate auditory attention and by highlighting important considerations for future research in this area.
Topics: Humans; Speech Perception; Speech; Phonetics; Attention
PubMed: 37580454
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-023-02355-6 -
ELife Apr 2024A core aspect of human speech comprehension is the ability to incrementally integrate consecutive words into a structured and coherent interpretation, aligning with the...
A core aspect of human speech comprehension is the ability to incrementally integrate consecutive words into a structured and coherent interpretation, aligning with the speaker's intended meaning. This rapid process is subject to multidimensional probabilistic constraints, including both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic information within specific contexts, and it is their interpretative coherence that drives successful comprehension. To study the neural substrates of this process, we extract word-by-word measures of sentential structure from BERT, a deep language model, which effectively approximates the coherent outcomes of the dynamic interplay among various types of constraints. Using representational similarity analysis, we tested BERT parse depths and relevant corpus-based measures against the spatiotemporally resolved brain activity recorded by electro-/magnetoencephalography when participants were listening to the same sentences. Our results provide a detailed picture of the neurobiological processes involved in the incremental construction of structured interpretations. These findings show when and where coherent interpretations emerge through the evaluation and integration of multifaceted constraints in the brain, which engages bilateral brain regions extending beyond the classical fronto-temporal language system. Furthermore, this study provides empirical evidence supporting the use of artificial neural networks as computational models for revealing the neural dynamics underpinning complex cognitive processes in the brain.
Topics: Humans; Comprehension; Speech; Brain; Magnetoencephalography; Language
PubMed: 38577982
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.89311 -
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Aug 2023The purpose of the current study is to explore listeners' perception of accented speech in terms of confidence and intelligence. To this end, three groups of listeners...
The purpose of the current study is to explore listeners' perception of accented speech in terms of confidence and intelligence. To this end, three groups of listeners were asked to rate speakers of English with various accent strengths based on a 9-point scale in terms of accent magnitude, confidence and intelligence. Results show that the two Jordanian listener groups, unlike the English listeners, reacted similarly toward Jordanian-accented speakers of English. Overall, the three groups tended to link accentedness with perceptions of confidence and intelligence. The findings of this study have significant implications for advocating a tolerant attitude toward speakers of English as a foreign language in the fields of education, employment opportunities, and social justice. It is suggested that stereotyping speakers as inferior in terms of qualities such as confidence and intelligence reflects established listener's bias rather than lack of speaker's intelligibility.
Topics: Humans; Speech Perception; Speech Intelligibility; Language; Cognition; Intelligence
PubMed: 36867293
DOI: 10.1007/s10936-023-09940-9 -
BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) Jul 2023
Topics: Humans; Verbal Behavior; Cognition
PubMed: 37419613
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.p1579 -
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and... Aug 2023Appropriate gestures can enhance message delivery and audience engagement in both daily communication and public presentations. In this article, we contribute a visual...
Appropriate gestures can enhance message delivery and audience engagement in both daily communication and public presentations. In this article, we contribute a visual analytic approach that assists professional public speaking coaches in improving their practice of gesture training through analyzing presentation videos. Manually checking and exploring gesture usage in the presentation videos is often tedious and time-consuming. There lacks an efficient method to help users conduct gesture exploration, which is challenging due to the intrinsically temporal evolution of gestures and their complex correlation to speech content. In this article, we propose GestureLens, a visual analytics system to facilitate gesture-based and content-based exploration of gesture usage in presentation videos. Specifically, the exploration view enables users to obtain a quick overview of the spatial and temporal distributions of gestures. The dynamic hand movements are firstly aggregated through a heatmap in the gesture space for uncovering spatial patterns, and then decomposed into two mutually perpendicular timelines for revealing temporal patterns. The relation view allows users to explicitly explore the correlation between speech content and gestures by enabling linked analysis and intuitive glyph designs. The video view and dynamic view show the context and overall dynamic movement of the selected gestures, respectively. Two usage scenarios and expert interviews with professional presentation coaches demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness of GestureLens in facilitating gesture exploration and analysis of presentation videos.
Topics: Gestures; Computer Graphics; Speech; Hand; Movement
PubMed: 35446768
DOI: 10.1109/TVCG.2022.3169175 -
Language and Speech Dec 2023Individual talkers vary in their relative use of different cues to signal phonological contrast. Previous work provides limited and conflicting data on whether such...
Individual talkers vary in their relative use of different cues to signal phonological contrast. Previous work provides limited and conflicting data on whether such variation is modulated by cue trading or individual differences in speech style. This paper examines differential cue weighting patterns in Mandarin sibilants as a test case for these hypotheses. Standardized Mandarin exhibits a three-way place contrast between retroflex, alveopalatal, and alveolar sibilants with individual differences in relative weighting of spectral center of gravity (COG) and the second formant of the following vowel (F2). In results from a speech production task, cue weights of COG and F2 are inversely correlated across speakers, demonstrating a trade-off relationship in cue use. These findings are consistent with a cue trading account of individual differences in contrast signaling.
Topics: Humans; Cues; Phonetics; Speech Perception; Speech; Speech Acoustics
PubMed: 36882955
DOI: 10.1177/00238309231152495