Auditory Reinforcement Research Articles

Особливості формування дієслівної лексики у дошкільників з загальним недорозвитком мовлення шляхом розвитку умінь дієслівної предикації

The article highlights the methodological aspects of speech therapy work on the formation of verb vocabulary in preschoolers with generalized underdevelopment of speech. A structured methodology aimed at developing verb compatibility skills is substantiated, methodological techniques are defined, their content and methodological support are developed. Attention is focused on the importance of predicative relations for the development of syntactic structures and the role of verbal predication is taken into account. According to the authors, when forming verbal vocabulary in preschoolers with speech underdevelopment, it is necessary to activate the ability to use predicative units variably, to be guided by their lexical-semantic and contextual-semantic features. The use of associative relations between lexemes is proposed and their types are taken into account. It is taken into account that the acquisition of lexical semantics occurs through a number of mental operations: determination of semantic features of a speech and language situation, establishment of structural relations; coordination of a semantic element with linguistic means; comparison of features of objects of reality; generalization of different meanings of a word and establishment of a system of relations between words. The author's methodology of forming verb vocabulary is based on modern research in the fields of speech therapy, psycholinguistics, linguodidactics and includes actualization and accumulation of verbal vocabulary at the denotative, categorical, and contextual levels; formation of verbal variability of different types (with visual and auditory reinforcement, based on mnemonic processes; contextual and semantic variability; intuitive and practical variability); formation of verbal compatibility and verbal valence; stimulation of associative relations mediated by verbal vocabulary.

Artificial Neural Network Based Audio Reinforcement for Computer Assisted Rote Learning

The dual-channel assumption of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning suggests that importing a large amount of information through a single (visual or audio) channel overloads that channel, causing partial loss of information, while importing it simultaneously through multiple channels relieves the burden on them and leads to the registration of a larger amount of information. In light of such knowledge, this study investigates the possibility of reinforcing visual stimuli with audio for supporting e-learners in memorization tasks. Specifically, we consider three kinds of learning material and two kinds of audio stimuli and partially reinforce each kind of material with each kind of stimuli in an arbitrary way. In a series of experiments, we determine the particular type of audio, which offers the highest improvement for each kind of material. Our work stands out as being the first study investigating the differences in memory performance in relation to different combinations of learning content and stimulus. Our key findings from the experiments are: (i) E-learning is more effective in refreshing memory rather than studying from scratch, (ii) Non-informative audio is more suited to verbal content, whereas informative audio is better for numerical content, (iii) Constant audio triggering degrades learning performance and thus audio triggering should be handled with care. Based on these findings, we develop an ANN-based estimator to determine the proper moment for triggering audio (i.e. when memory performance is estimated to be declining) and carry out follow-up experiments for testing the integrated framework. Our contributions involve (i) determination of the most effective audio for each content type, (ii) estimation of memory deterioration based on learners’ interaction logs, and (iii) the proposal of improvement of memory registration through auditory reinforcement. We believe that such findings constitute encouraging evidence the memory registration of e-learners can be enhanced with content-aware audio incorporation.

Preliminary evidence of an association between spontaneous kicking and learning in infants between 3–4 months of age

BackgroundThe timing and coordination of infant kicking may allow for activities that facilitate learning and cognitive development. ObjectiveThis study examined spontaneous kicking and associations with changes in kicking during a learning paradigm in typically developing infants. MethodsTen healthy full-term infants participated in two experiments at 3 months of age: spontaneous kicking and the mobile paradigm. The inter-limb, intra-limb, and spatiotemporal parameters during spontaneous kicking were collected by 3D motion capture. Learning was measured in the mobile paradigm where an infant’s leg was tethered to an overhead mobile. The mobile offered visual and auditory reinforcement when the infant kicked. Changes in kicking rate indicate learning. Friedman tests were used to determine the dominant inter-/intra-limb kicking patterns. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were used to assess the correlations between spontaneous kicking and performance in the mobile paradigm. ResultsA significant negative correlation (r = −0.72, p = 0.03) was observed between the percentages of unilateral kicking and normalized kicking rate during the extinction phase of the paradigm. There was a trend of positive correlation (r = 0.58, p < 0.10) between dissociated hip-ankle joint coupling and the last three-minute of the acquisition phase of the paradigm. ConclusionExploratory kicking behaviors elicited by visual and auditory feedback may be related to lower extremity movement control. Enhancing movement experience through appropriate external feedback may be critical in treatment programs to support infant development. Future studies to assess how exploratory motor behaviors contribute to development in motor and other domains are warranted.

Early Intervention to Improve Sucking in Preterm Newborns: A Systematic Review of Quantitative Studies.

Premature birth is associated with feeding difficulties due to inadequate coordination of sucking, swallowing, and breathing. Nonnutritive sucking (NNS) and oral stimulation interventions may be effective for oral feeding promotion, but the mechanisms of the intervention effects need further clarifications. We reviewed preterm infant intervention studies with quantitative outcomes of sucking performance to summarize the evidence of the effect of interventions on specific components of sucking. PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PSYCOLIST databases were searched for English language publications through August 2017. Studies were selected if they involved preterm infants, tested experimental interventions to improve sucking or oral feeding skills, and included outcome as an objective measure of sucking performance. Specific Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms were utilized. Nineteen studies were included in this review: 15 randomized, 1 quasi-randomized, and 3 crossover randomized controlled trials. Intervention types were grouped into 6 categories (i) NNS, (ii) NNS with auditory reinforcement, (iii) sensorimotor stimulation, (iv) oral support, (v) combined training, and (vi) nutritive sucking. Efficiency parameters were positively influenced by most types of interventions, though appear to be less affected by trainings based on NNS alone. These findings may be useful in the clinical care of infants requiring support to achieve efficient sucking skills through NNS and oral stimulation interventions. Further studies including quantitative measures of sucking performance outcome measures are needed in order to best understand the needs and provide more tailored interventions to preterm infants.

The Discovery of Novel Actions Is Affected by Very Brief Reinforcement Delays and Reinforcement Modality

ABSTRACT The authors investigated the ability of human participants to discover novel actions under conditions of delayed reinforcement. Participants used a joystick to search for a target indicated by visual or auditory reinforcement. Reinforcement delays of 75–150 ms were found to significantly impair action acquisition. They also found an effect of modality, with acquisition superior with auditory feedback. The duration at which delay was found to impede action discovery is, to the authors’ knowledge, shorter than that previously reported from work with operant and causal learning paradigms. The sensitivity to delay reported, and the difference between modalities, is consistent with accounts of action discovery that emphasize the importance of a time stamp in the motor record for solving the credit assignment problem.

REINFORCING SACCADIC AMPLITUDE VARIABILITY

Saccadic endpoint variability is often viewed as the outcome of neural noise occurring during sensorimotor processing. However, part of this variability might result from operant learning. We tested this hypothesis by reinforcing dispersions of saccadic amplitude distributions, while maintaining constant their medians. In a first experiment we reinforced the least frequent saccadic amplitudes to increase variability, and then reinforced the central part of the amplitude distributions to reduce variability. The target was placed at a constant distance from the fovea after the saccade to maintain the postsaccadic visual signal constant and an auditory reinforcement was delivered depending on saccadic amplitude. The second experiment tested the effects of the contingency. We reinforced high levels of variability in 4 participants, whereas 4 other participants were assigned to a yoked control group. On average, saccadic amplitude standard deviations were doubled while the medians remained mostly unchanged in the experimental participants in both experiments, and variability returned to baseline level when low variability was reinforced. In the control group no consistent changes in amplitude distributions were observed. These results, showing that variability can be reinforced, challenge the idea of a stochastic neural noise. We instead propose that selection processes constrain saccadic amplitude distributions.

Combining physical and auditory modeling prompts, time delay, rehearsal, and reinforcement produces acquisition and generalization of vocal and motor empathy skills in four young children with autism

This review provides a summary and appraisal commentary on the treatment review by Schrandt, J. A., Buffington Townsend, D., & Poulson, C. L. (2009). Teaching empathy skills to children with autism. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 17–32. Source of funding and disclosure of interest: No source of funding reported, and the original authors of this research report no conflicts of interest.

Lateralized processes constrain auditory reinforcement in human newborns

We investigated operant sucking response learning in human newborns. Auditory reinforcers always occurred monaurally to see whether their potency differed between ears. Experiment 1 – we controlled the reinforcers, either intrauterine heartbeat sounds or unfamiliar speech, while infants chose which ear received it. Experiment 2 – we controlled the reinforcers and the receiving ear. Unfamiliar speech reinforced learning only if infants could use their right ear and heartbeats reinforced learning only if infants could use their left ear. Experiment 3 – we controlled the ear while infants chose between their mothers’ vs. a stranger’s voice and between their mothers’ vs. a foreign language. The more familiar speech reinforced learning only if infants could use their left ear. We proposed reinforcers’ potencies differed between ears because the newborn’s auditory system, just like adult’s, optimizes their perceptual clarity by left-lateralized processing of their rapid temporal variations and right-lateralized processing of their longer-lasting spectral characteristics.

Wrenching Things Awry: From “Explication de texte” to Cybertext in the College Literature Classroom

AbstractAs literature instructors face classrooms full of digital natives (Prensky 2001), we must interrogate the methods used to teach traditional literary analysis and evaluate whether they may be enhanced or even supplanted by using digital technologies to supplement traditional print-based assignments. Our collaborative paper details an experiment in an upper-division literature class to analyze and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional literature class assignment to “explicate the meaning of a poem” by having students create parallel versions—one a traditional, print-based essay and the other a multimedia presentation using Microsoft PhotoStory 3. In this paper, the instructor (Koster) will delineate the purpose and requirement of the assignment; a majority of the students completing the assignment (Blumenschine, Folden, Hill, Mahan, Sigmon, Smith, Stone, Wasson) will contribute their analyses of composing in these different modalities; and Koster will draw preliminary conclusions based on the class’s overall results in completing the assignment. We argue that while the traditional print-based text allows closer attention to literary language and form, multi-media texts allow students to examine the nuances of tone, diction, and imagery in richer and more imaginative ways by choosing visual and auditory reinforcement of their interpretative scripts. In addition, we argue that the addition of the students’ own voices (as narrators) allows them to develop and portray an authorial ethos in ways the traditional “student writing to teacher” print essay does not. Thus, while both forms of the assignment have great value for students of literature, the multimodal text allows more opportunities to demonstrate synthetic skills and to facilitate deep learning (Marton &amp; Saljo 1976). We recommend that students in literary analysis classes be given the opportunity to explore the possibilities both kinds of assignments offer for learning. Materials from the assignment, including samples of student print and digital work, will be available for review at http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/scholarly/ubiquitous.htm.

A Proposed Tactile Vision-Substitution System for Infants who are Blind Tested on Sighted Infants

This article analyzes the attraction of stimulation produced by a visuotactile sensory substitution device, which was designed to provide optical information to infants who are blind via a tactile modality. The device was first tested on sighted infants, to demonstrate that this type of stimulation on the abdomen is pleasant and rewarding in comparison to visual and auditory reinforcement. The preliminary results of this research allow us to consider the possibility of developing practical visual-substitution devices for infants who are blind.

An evaluation of a stimulus preference assessment of auditory stimuli for adolescents with developmental disabilities

Previous researchers have used stimulus preference assessment (SPA) methods to identify salient reinforcers for individuals with developmental disabilities including tangible, leisure, edible and olfactory stimuli. In the present study, SPA procedures were used to identify potential auditory reinforcers and determine the reinforcement value of preferred and non-preferred auditory stimuli. The results from this study suggest that the paired stimulus procedure utilized was effective in identifying preferred and non-preferred auditory stimuli, as the contingent application of the identified auditory stimuli produced higher rates of correct responding than did non-preferred auditory stimuli for all participants.

Brief report: The use of opportunity to respond and practice to increase efficiency of the stepping reflex in a five-month-old infant.

The infant stepping reflex is a well-documented response. In this study we explored the effects of opportunity to respond and practice the stepping response on the efficiency of the response. To generate response opportunities, we provided assistance to the infant in standing and guided the infant while she stepped. We measured response efficiency by using a set length of area to be covered by the infant, which was approximately 330 inches. Using an A/B/A/B reversal design, we measured the number of steps it to the infant to cover this area across the phases. Data suggests that opportunity to respond and practice increased the efficiency of infant stepping. Keywords: Stepping, opportunity to respond, walking, and infant development. ********** This study is part of an on going investigation of environmental factors that contribute to the development of infant walking (see Cautilli & Dziewolska, 2005; Dziewolska & Cautilli, 2006). One well established set of behavioral principles is the opportunity to respond and practice (Greenwood, Delquadri, & Hall, 1984; Greenwood, Hart, Walker, & Risley, 1994). Opportunity to respond is defined as the presentation of an antecedent situation and its success in generating the emission of the target response. Greenwood, Carta, Hart, Kamps, Terry, Arreaga-Mayer, Atwater, Walker, Risley, & Delquadri, (1992) argue that opportunity to respond affects diverse areas from language to cognitive to academic development. We argue that it has considerable impact on motor development. The stepping response is a well-established reflex in infancy (Peiper, 1929, 1969). While many traditional developmental psychologists believed that stepping was unrelated to walking because the response disappeared during the course of development, recent research suggests that the stepping response does not disappear but is only temporarily suppressed by the weight of the infants legs (Thelen, & Fisher, 1982). Indeed, Ulrich, Ulrich, Angulo-Kinzler, and Yun, (2001) reviewed the evidence that practice of the stepping reflex in infant leads to accelerated walking. They concluded that practicing of the stepping response does increase the rate at which infant begins to walk. This study looks at the effects of opportunity to respond for infant stepping to the efficiency of the stepping response. Methods Participant Participant: is a five-month-old female infant. She is typically developing. She is the same subject as previously described in Cautilli and Dziewolska (2005). At birth subject was 9lbs 15 ounces and 22 inches placing her in the 99%ile for weight and 98%ile for height. At the time of the study she was approximately 22lbs and 27 inches long. Her leg size was 11 inches and grew by 1/3 of an inch during the course of the study. Setting The participant would walk from the back room of the house, to the front room. The total distance is approximately 330 inches. Procedure Baseline The baseline saw the continuation of routines procedures from Cautilli & Dziewolska (2006). These procedures occurred in both baseline and intervention phase and thus do not represent a confound: --Two to three periods of approximately 20 minutes in the Fischer Price Kick and Play[c]. The Kick and Play uses visual and auditory reinforcement in the form of flashing lights and common children's tunes for kicking responses. The tunes are played on an intermittent schedule with brief segments of sound played for kicks that do not achieve full reinforcement of a song. --10-15 standing episodes. These episodes involve the infant grabbing on to the two index fingers of the experimenter. The infant is then lifted to the standing position. The fingers represent an assist to give the infant an opportunity to respond. While in the standing position, the experimenter would look very excited by raising eyes, making exaggerated facial expressions, and talking to the infant--praising her for standing. …

The effects of a motor training package on minimally assisted standing behavior in a three-month-old infant.

Abstract Behavior analysts have spent relatively little time in designing interventions to enhance motor development in typically developing infants and children. This study examines the effect of a motor training package consisting of opportunity to respond and practice (standing the infant and letting her hold the fingers of the experimenter), conditioned leg kicks (using Fischer Price's Kick and Play) and buttocks and trunk lifts (stimulated by contingent imitation of the infants responses) on minimally assisted standing behavior in a three month old infant. Using an ABAB reversal design, we were able to dramatically increase the amount of time the infant stood and decrease the infant's rate of wobbling while standing. Future directions for this research are discussed. Key words: Opportunity to respond, practice, standing, infant, cusp skills, and motor development ********** Thelen and Fisher (1982) reignited interest in environmental variables that affect infants motor development. Behavioral theories of development tend to hold that development is the product of person-environment interactions (Novak & Pelaez, 2004) and that learning plays a central role in development (Gewirtz & Pelaez-Nogueras, 1994). While behavior analysts and behavioral educators have completed research on many areas of development including adaptive physical education with school aged children (Magill, 1993; Schmidt, 1991), infant motor development appears to have lagged behind. One concept that holds considerable promise for infant motor development is opportunity to respond (Greenwood, Carta, Hart, Kamps, Terry, Arreaga-Mayer, Atwater, Walker, Risley, & Delquadri, 1992). Opportunity to respond has potential in facilitating children's language development (Hart & Risley, 1995) and has significant implications for cognitive development (Greenwood, Delquadri, & Hall, 1984; Greenwood, Hart, Walker, & Risley, 1994). However, a literature search on the term, using psycho-info, produced no results for the area of motor development. We became interested in the subject matter of opportunity to respond, as well as sensory reinforcement for motor behavior, because it was: (1) simple enough to track; (2) susceptible to environmental influences; and (3) a fun series of activities for parents to do with typical infants. The current study represents an on going extension of our work on motor development. Methods Participant Participant: is a three-month-old female. She is typically developing. She is the same subject as previously described in Cautilli and Dziewolska (2005). At birth subject was 9lbs 15 ounces and 22 inches placing her in the 99%ile for weight and 98%ile for height. At the time of the study she was approximately 18lbs and 26 inches long. Procedure Intervention Package The package consisted of a daily routine. This routine included: --Two to three periods of approximately 20 minutes in the Fischer Price Kick and Play[c]. The Kick and Play uses visual and auditory reinforcement in the form of flashing lights and common children's tunes for kicking responses. The tunes are played on an intermittent schedule with brief segments of sound played for kicks that do not achieve full reinforcement of a song. --10-15 standing episodes. These episodes involve the infant grabbing on to the two index fingers of the experimenter. The infant is then lifted to the standing position. The fingers represent an assist to give the infant an opportunity to respond. While in the standing position, the experimenter would look very excited by raising eyes, making exaggerated facial expressions, and talking to the infant--praising her for standing. --Two 15-minute episodes of contingent imitation for trunk and buttocks lifting. This procedure was identical to the procedure used in Cautilli & Dziewolska (2005). …

Previous sound effects on loudness in paired comparison experiments

In this study, we investigated the effects of a previous sound on loudness by performing paired comparison experiments. Two pure tones measuring 74 to 86 dB SPL at 500 Hz were presented monaurally at a certain interstimulus interval (ISI), which was set between 0.5 and 8 s. One of the pure tones was presented in one ear, and then the other was presented in the contralateral or ipsilateral ear. The subject compared the loudness of two pure tones and responded which sound was felt louder. The effect of presentation order in the paired comparison was calculated from the experimental results, and then the previous sound effect was obtained from the presentation order effect. As results, the sound presented second in the ipsilateral ear was perceived to be about 1 dB softer than the first sound at an ISI of 0.5 s even when both sounds had the same SPL. On the contrary, the second sound in the contralateral ear was perceived to be about 1 dB louder than the first sound significantly. This effect is referred to as reinforcement. The effect level of auditory reinforcement decreased as ISI increased.

Vocal Memory and Learning in Adult Bengalese Finches with Regenerated Hair Cells

Critical learning periods are common in vertebrate development. In many birds, song learning is limited by a critical period; juveniles copy songs from adult birds by forming memories of those songs during a restricted developmental period and then using auditory feedback to practice their own vocalizations. Adult songs are stable over time regardless of exposure to other birds, but auditory feedback is required for the maintenance of stable adult song. A technique was developed to reversibly deafen Bengalese Finches by destruction and regeneration of inner ear auditory hair cells. With this approach, we asked two questions about the plasticity of song information stored in the adult brain. First, do adult birds store memories or "templates" of their songs that exist independent of auditory reinforcement? Such memories could be used to control vocal output by acting as fixed models of song to which ongoing vocalizations are matched. Second, can adult song learning, which does not normally occur in this species, be induced by removing and then restoring hearing? Studying changes in adult song behavior during hair cell loss and regeneration revealed two findings: (1) adult birds store memories or templates of their songs that exist independent of auditory input and can be used to restore normal vocal behavior when hearing is restored; (2) under experimental circumstances, adult birds can be induced to acquire song material from other birds. Results suggest that, in Bengalese Finches, the degree of behavioral and neural plasticity in juvenile and adult birds may be less distinct that previously thought.

Reward-related neuronal activity during go-nogo task performance in primate orbitofrontal cortex.

The orbitofrontal cortex appears to be involved in the control of voluntary, goal-directed behavior by motivational outcomes. This study investigated how orbitofrontal neurons process information about rewards in a task that depends on intact orbitofrontal functions. In a delayed go-nogo task, animals executed or withheld a reaching movement and obtained liquid or a conditioned sound as reinforcement. An initial instruction picture indicated the behavioral reaction to be performed (movement vs. nonmovement) and the reinforcer to be obtained (liquid vs. sound) after a subsequent trigger stimulus. We found task-related activations in 188 of 505 neurons in rostral orbitofrontal area 13, entire area 11, and lateral area 14. The principal task-related activations consisted of responses to instructions, activations preceding reinforcers, or responses to reinforcers. Most activations reflected the reinforcing event rather than other task components. Instruction responses occurred either in liquid- or sound-reinforced trials but rarely distinguished between movement and nonmovement reactions. These instruction responses reflected the predicted motivational outcome rather than the behavioral reaction necessary for obtaining that outcome. Activations preceding the reinforcer began slowly and terminated immediately after the reinforcer, even when the reinforcer occurred earlier or later than usually. These activations preceded usually the liquid reward but rarely the conditioned auditory reinforcer. The activations also preceded expected drops of liquid delivered outside the task, suggesting a primary appetitive rather than a task-reinforcing relationship that apparently was related to the expectation of reward. Responses after the reinforcer occurred in liquid- but rarely in sound-reinforced trials. Reward-preceding activations and reward responses were unrelated temporally to licking movements. Several neurons showed reward responses outside the task but instruction responses during the task, indicating a response transfer from primary reward to the reward-predicting instruction, possibly reflecting the temporal unpredictability of reward. In conclusion, orbitofrontal neurons report stimuli associated with reinforcers are concerned with the expectation of reward and detect reward delivery at trial end. These activities may contribute to the processing of reward information for the motivational control of goal-directed behavior.

Modifications of reward expectation-related neuronal activity during learning in primate orbitofrontal cortex.

This study investigated how neuronal activity in orbitofrontal cortex related to the expectation of reward changed while monkeys repeatedly learned to associate new instruction pictures with known behavioral reactions and reinforcers. In a delayed go-nogo task with several trial types, an initial picture instructed the animal to execute or withhold a reaching movement and to expect a liquid reward or a conditioned auditory reinforcer. When novel instruction pictures were presented, animals learned according to a trial-and-error strategy. After experience with a large number of novel pictures, learning occurred in a few trials, and correct performance usually exceeded 70% in the first 60-90 trials. About 150 task-related neurons in orbitofrontal cortex were studied in both familiar and learning conditions and showed two major forms of changes during learning. Quantitative changes of responses to the initial instruction were seen as appearance of new responses, increase of existing responses, or decrease or complete disappearance of responses. The changes usually outlasted initial learning trials and persisted during subsequent consolidation. They often modified the trial selectivities of activations. Increases might reflect the increased attention during learning and induce neuronal changes underlying the behavioral adaptations. Decreases might be related to the unreliable reward-predicting value of frequently changing learning instructions. The second form of changes reflected the adaptation of reward expectations during learning. In initial learning trials, animals reacted as if they expected liquid reward in every trial type, although only two of the three trial types were rewarded with liquid. In close correspondence, neuronal activations related to the expectation of reward occurred initially in every trial type. The behavioral indices for reward expectation and their neuronal correlates adapted in parallel during the course of learning and became restricted to rewarded trials. In conclusion, these data support the notion that neurons in orbitofrontal cortex code reward information in a flexible and adaptive manner during behavioral changes after novel stimuli.

Rhinal cortex lesions produce mild deficits in visual discrimination learning for an auditory secondary reinforcer in rhesus monkeys.

Aspiration, but not neurotoxic, lesions of the amygdala impair performance on a visual discrimination learning task in which an auditory secondary reinforcer signals which of 2 stimuli will be reinforced with food. Because aspiration lesions of the amygdala interrupt projections of the rhinal cortex traveling close to the amygdala, it was hypothesized that damage to the rhinal cortex would severely impair learning in this task. Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were trained to solve visual discrimination problems based on an auditory secondary reinforcer, were given lesions of the rhinal cortex or the perirhinal cortex alone, and were then retested. The monkeys displayed a reliable, albeit mild, deficit in postoperative performance. It is concluded that the aspiration lesions of the amygdala that produced a severe impairment did so because they interrupted connections of temporal cortical fields beyond the rhinal cortex that are also involved in learning in this task.

A method for the delivery of reinforcement during exercise

The purpose of this study was to develop an automated system for positively or negatively reinforcing subjects while they exercised on an electronically braked bicycle ergometer. The circuitry used to interface the subject’s pedal speed responses with the delivery of auditory reinforcement is presented, as well as a study designed to test the utility of the system. Twenty 18- to 25-year-old male subjects exercised on an electronically braked ergometer at a constant workload of 50 W for three 5-min blocks. During the first 5 min, subjects pedaled at their preferred rate, and during the next two 5-min blocks, they pedaled faster or slower than their baseline pedal speed to turn on a comedy tape for positive reinforcement, or turn off 90 dB of white noise for negative reinforcement. Circuits that interfaced the subject’s pedal response with the delivery of reinforcement are discussed in detail. Both positive and negative reinforcement increased the targeted pedaling rates, with no differences as a function of targeting increased or decreased pedal speed. This system could be used with various reinforcers, such as video and other audio equipment to increase exercise behavior.

Acoustic determinants of infant preference for motherese speech

Three experiments investigated possible acoustic determinants of the infant listening preference for motherese speech found by Fernald 1985. To test the hypothesis that the intonation of motherese speech was sufficient to elicit this preference, it was necessary to eliminate lexical content and to isolate the three major acoustic correlates of intonation: (1) fundamental frequency (F o), or pitch; (2) amplitude, correlated with loudness; and (3) duration, related to speech rhythm. Three sets of auditory reinforcers were computer-synthesized, derived from the F o (Experiment 1), amplitude (Experiment 2), and duration (Experiment 3) characteristics of the infant- and adult-directed natural speech samples used by Fernald 1985. Thus, each of these experiments focused on particular prosodic variables in the absence of segmental variation. Twenty 4-month-old infants were tested in an operant auditory preference procedure in each experiment. Infants showed a significant preference for the F o-patterns of motherese speech, but not for the amplitude or duration patterns of motherese.