Auditory Word Perception Research Articles

The influence of language-specific properties on the role of consonants and vowels in a statistical learning task of an artificial language: A cross-linguistic comparison.

The contribution of consonants and vowels in spoken word processing has been widely investigated, and studies have found a phenomenon of a Consonantal bias (C-bias), indicating that consonants carry more weight than vowels. However, across languages, various patterns have been documented, including that of no preference or a reverse pattern of Vowel bias. A central question is how the manifestation of the C-bias is modulated by language-specific factors. This question can be addressed by cross-linguistic studies. Comparing native Hebrew and native English speakers, this study examines the relative importance of transitional probabilities between non-adjacent consonants as opposed to vowels during auditory statistical learning (SL) of an artificial language. Hebrew is interesting because its complex Semitic morphological structure has been found to play a central role in lexical access, allowing us to examine whether morphological properties can modulate the C-bias in early phases of speech perception, namely, word segmentation. As predicted, we found a significant interaction between language and consonant/vowel manipulation, with a higher performance in the consonantal condition than in the vowel condition for Hebrew speakers, namely, C-bias, and no consonant/vowel asymmetry among English speakers. We suggest that the observed interaction is morphologically anchored, indicating that phonological and morphological processes interact during early phases of auditory word perception.

The contribution of consonants and vowels to auditory word recognition is shaped by language-specific properties: Evidence from Hebrew.

This study explored the role of consonants and vowels in auditory word perception in Hebrew, using an auditory-auditory priming procedure. A common finding is the greater importance for consonants than vowels in spoken word processing, henceforth the C-bias. What underlies the C-bias is a controversial issue between the "acquired functional hypothesis" and the "initial-bias hypothesis." The former predicts a different pattern of asymmetry among languages, while the latter claims that the C-bias exists in all languages. Hebrew is interesting because it allows the exploration of whether language-specific morphological properties can modulate consonant/vowel asymmetry. This opportunity stems from its unique complex Semitic morphological structure that was found to have a central role in lexical access. To evaluate the consonant/vowel asymmetry in Hebrew in relation to previously studied languages, recognition of morphologically complex Hebrew words was compared with recognition of foreign Hebrew words that do not have the typical Hebrew morphological complex structure, hereafter simple words. The results showed a significantly stronger C-bias for morphologically complex words than for simple words. We suggest that this within-variation supports the acquired functional hypothesis, so that even within one language different patterns of consonant/vowel asymmetry are revealed depending on the internal morphological structure of the word. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Second Language Proficiency and Cross‐Language Lexical Activation

Although research has consistently shown that a bilingual's two languages interact on multiple levels, it is also well‐established that bilinguals can vary considerably in their proficiency in the second language (L2). In this paper we review empirical studies that have examined how differences in L2 proficiency modulate cross‐language co‐activation and interaction during bilingual lexical processing. We review studies investigating cognate and homograph processing in visual word perception and word production, auditory word perception using the visual world paradigm, and cross‐language priming, focusing specifically on how differences in proficiency modulate co‐activation during lexical access. We further discuss differences in L2 proficiency in relation to immersion and age of L2 acquisition, how differences in L2 proficiency relate to neurocognitive aspects of cognitive control, and how changes in L2 proficiency relative to L1 proficiency may affect lexical processing.

Cognitive mapping through electrophysiology

Cognitive mapping through electrophysiology

Auditory word perception in sentence context in reading-disabled children

Reading difficulties seem to be related to a phonological deficit that has its origin in poor speech perception. As such, disabled readers may use contextual cues to compensate for their weak speech perception abilities. We compared good and poor readers, 7-13 years old, on auditory perception of words varying in phonological contrast, in congruent versus incongruent sentence contexts. Both groups did worse in the phonologically similar than in the phonologically dissimilar incongruent condition. Magnetoencephalography revealed differential activation between the groups as a function of phonological contrast in left superior temporal gyrus between 200 and 300 ms, suggesting that poor readers may have processed phonologically similar incongruent stimuli as congruent. The results are consistent with a phonological account of reading disability.

How does the incrementality of auditory word perception interplay with episodic and semantic memory?

In contrast to visual word presentation, auditory words unfold over time and stimulus information reaches subsequent processing stages only incrementally. The influence of this incrementality was assessed in the present study. Target nouns were semantically primed by synonymous or non-synonymous preceding nouns and had to be categorized by speeded choice responses according to their synonymity. Long-term repetition was manipulated by presenting these prime-target pairs twice in two halves of the experiment and the effect of incrementality was assessed by sorting the target nouns according to three bins of word length. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded to the target words. Both behavioural and ERP-results are in agreement with an incremental auditory word processing model, where long-term repetition and semantic priming affect separable processes, presumably episodic and semantic memory, respectively.

The Distinct Contributions of Age of Acquisition and Word Frequency in Auditory Word Perception

We report two studies of the distinct effects that a word's age of acquisition (AoA) and frequency have on the mental lexicon. In the first study, a purely statistical analysis, we show that AoA and frequency are related in different ways to the phonological form and imageability of different words. In the second study, three groups of participants (34 seven-year-olds, 30 ten-year-olds, and 17 adults) took part in an auditory lexical decision task, with stimuli varying in AoA, frequency, length, neighbourhood density, and imageability. The principal result is that the influence of these different variables changes as a function of AoA: Neighbourhood density effects are apparent for early and late AoA words, but not for intermediate AoA, whereas imageability effects are apparent for intermediate AoA words but not for early or late AoA. These results are discussed from the perspective that AoA affects a word's representation, but frequency affects processing biases.

Orthography shapes the perception of speech: The consistency effect in auditory word recognition

Inconsistency in the spelling-to-sound mapping hurts visual word perception and reading aloud (i.e., the traditional consistency effect). In the present experiment, we found a consistency effect in auditory word perception: Words with phonological rimes that could be spelled in multiple ways produced longer auditory lexical decision latencies and more errors than did words with rimes that could be spelled only one way. This finding adds strong support to the claim that orthography affects the perception of spoken words. This effect was predicted by a model that assumes a coupling between orthography and phonology that is functional in both visual and auditory word perception.

Automatic auditory word perception as measured by 40 Hz EEG responses

Objectives: Here we report the existence of automatic speech perception in man, revealed by 40 Hz EEG responses. Methods: We presented to Finnish subjects the Finnish word /tu:li/ (wind) as the standard stimulus and another Finnish word /tuli/ (fire) as the deviant stimulus using a passive auditory oddball task. The experiment was also conducted with pseudowords as stimuli. Results: We observed a global significant increase in 40 Hz EEG power at 600 ms after stimulus onset for words, but not for pseudowords. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the memory representation of the standard verbal stimuli, even if unattended, might not merely be based on the physical features of the stimuli: if a semantic representation exists, then the brain processes it pre-attentively.

ERD and ERS during attended vs. non-attended auditory word perception

ERD and ERS during attended vs. non-attended auditory word perception

Functional MR Imaging during Auditory Word Perception: A Single-Trial Presentation Paradigm

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), while still in relatively early stages of its development, has become a widespread tool for addressing issues in the neurobiology of language and other cognitive domains (e.g., Belliveau et al., 1991; Binder et al., 1994; Cohen et al., 1994; Hickok et al., 1995; Shaywitz et al., 1995; for a review of the technique see Bandettini et al., 1995). In a typical fMRI experiment, stimuli are presented in blocks of say 20–40 sec that alternate through several cycles with an equally long baseline/control period. So for example, a subject may see individual words presented one-at-a-time for 30 sec, then non-words for 30 sec, and so on for five cycles. This presentation scheme provides a serious constraint on experimental design in fMRI studies and consequently limits the kinds of questions one can address with this methodology. One cannot, to cite just one example, use lexical decision as a behavioral measure in the magnet because the item type (word/non-word) is fully predictable from the experimental design. Relatedly, under these experimental conditions it is unclear to what extent fMRI activations are due to expectation-driven (controlled) processes versus lower-level perceptual (automatic) processes. Here we present data from an alternative fMRI presentation scheme used with auditory speech perception. The paradigm is modeled on standard methodologies in event related potential (ERP) studies where test items are ran-

Hearing and saying. The functional neuro-anatomy of auditory word processing.

The neural systems involved in hearing and repeating single words were investigated in a series of experiments using PET. Neuropsychological and psycholinguistic studies implicate the involvement of posterior and anterior left perisylvian regions (Wernicke's and Broca's areas). Although previous functional neuroimaging studies have consistently shown activation of Wernicke's area, there has been only variable implication of Broca's area. This study demonstrates that Broca's area is involved in both auditory word perception and repetition but activation is dependent on task (greater during repetition than hearing) and stimulus presentation (greater when hearing words at a slow rate). The peak of frontal activation in response to hearing words is anterior to that associated with repeating words; the former is probably located in Brodmann's area 45, the latter in Brodmann's area 44 and the adjacent precentral sulcus. As Broca's area activation is more subtle and complex than that in Wernicke's area during these tasks, the likelihood of observing it is influenced by both the study design and the image analysis technique employed. As a secondary outcome from the study, the response of bilateral auditory association cortex to 'own voice' during repetition was shown to be the same as when listening to "other voice' from a prerecorded tape.

Attention within auditory word perception: insights from the phonemic restoration illusion.

Phonemic restoration is a powerful auditory illusion that arises when a phoneme is removed from a word and replaced with noise, resulting in a percept that sounds like the intact word with a spurious bit of noise. It is hypothesized that the configurational properties of the word impair attention to the individual phonemes and thereby induce perceptual restoration of the missing phoneme. If so, this impairment might be unlearned if listeners can process individual phonemes within a word selectively. Subjects received training with the potentially restorable stimuli (972 trials with feedback); in addition, the presence or absence of an attentional cue, contained in a visual prime preceding each trial, was varied between groups of subjects. Cuing the identity and location of the critical phoneme of each test word allowed subjects to attend to the critical phoneme, thereby inhibiting the illusion, but only when the prime also identified the test word itself. When the prime provided only the identity or location of the critical phoneme, or only the identity of the word, subjects performed identically to those subjects for whom the prime contained no information at all about the test word. Furthermore, training did not produce any generalized learning about the types of stimuli used. A limited interactive model of auditory word perception is discussed in which attention operates through the lexical level.

Attention within auditory word perception: Insights from the phonemic restoration illusion.

Attention within auditory word perception: Insights from the phonemic restoration illusion.

Phonetic categorization in auditory word perception.

To investigate the interaction in speech perception of auditory information and lexical knowledge (in particular, knowledge of which phonetic sequences are words), acoustic continua varying in voice onset time were constructed so that for each acoustic continuum, one of the two possible phonetic categorizations made a word and the other did not. For example, one continuum ranged between the word dash and the nonword tash; another used the nonword dask and the word task. In two experiments, subjects showed a significant lexical effect--that is, a tendency to make phonetic categorizations that make words. This lexical effect was greater at the phoneme boundary (where auditory information is ambiguous) than at the ends of the condinua. Hence the lexical effect must arise at a stage of processing sensitive to both lexical knowledge and auditory information.

Phonetic categorization in auditory word perception.

Phonetic categorization in auditory word perception.