Categorical Perception Research Articles

Climate Optimization in Greenhouses Using the NARMA-L2 Model: An Advanced Integration of Environmental Variables

Agricultural systems, such as greenhouses, can be used to control environmental factors, such as temperature and humidity, to increase output by employing traditional automation techniques. The advancement of science has resulted in the utilization of mathematical models to understand the behavior of data by analyzing its variability. The objective of this project is to validate a method for controlling temperature and humidity in controlled experimental environments using artificial intelligence and Neutrosophy. The transfer functions obtained from temperature and humidity readings gathered via a SCADA system are utilized. Neutrosophic numbers are used to adjust the temperature and humidity values based on the experimental conditions of the greenhouse, indicating the optimal, important, and sensitive ranges. The control system being investigated employs NARMA-L2 neural networks that belong to the multilayer perception category. This facilitates efficient system administration and showcases outstanding performance in simulations conducted across several temperature and humidity scenarios. The observed errors consistently remain below 5% and any instances of exceeding this threshold are insignificant.

Strength of predicted information content in the brain biases decision behavior

Prediction-for-perception theories suggest that the brain predicts incoming stimuli to facilitate their categorization.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17 However, it remains unknown what the information contents of these predictions are, which hinders mechanistic explanations. This is because typical approaches cast predictions as an underconstrained contrast between two categories18,19,20,21,22,23,24-e.g., faces versus cars, which could lead to predictions of features specific to faces or cars, or features from both categories. Here, to pinpoint the information contents of predictions and thus their mechanistic processing in the brain, we identified the features that enable two different categorical perceptions of the same stimuli. We then trained multivariate classifiers to discern, from dynamic MEG brain responses, the features tied to each perception. With an auditory cueing design, we reveal where, when, and how the brain reactivates visual category features (versus the typical category contrast) before the stimulus is shown. We demonstrate that the predictions of category features have a more direct influence (bias) on subsequent decision behavior in participants than the typical category contrast. Specifically, these predictions are more precisely localized in the brain (lateralized), are more specifically driven by the auditory cues, and their reactivation strength before a stimulus presentation exerts a greater bias on how the individual participant later categorizes this stimulus. By characterizing the specific information contents that the brain predicts and then processes, our findings provide new insights into the brain's mechanisms of prediction for perception.

Dissociative Effects of Age on Neural Differentiation at the Category and Item Levels.

Increasing age is associated with age-related neural dedifferentiation, a reduction in the selectivity of neural representations, which has been proposed to contribute to cognitive decline in older age. Recent findings indicate that when operationalized in terms of selectivity for different perceptual categories, age-related neural dedifferentiation and the apparent age-invariant association of neural selectivity with cognitive performance are largely restricted to the cortical regions typically recruited during scene processing. It is currently unknown whether this category-level dissociation extends to metrics of neural selectivity defined at the level of individual stimulus items. Here, we examined neural selectivity at the category and item levels using multivoxel pattern similarity analysis (PSA) of fMRI data. Healthy young and older male and female adults viewed images of objects and scenes. Some items were presented singly, while others were either repeated or followed by a "similar lure." In agreement with recent findings, category-level PSA revealed robustly lower differentiation in older than in younger adults in scene-selective, but not object-selective, cortical regions. By contrast, at the item level, robust age-related declines in neural differentiation were evident for both stimulus categories. Additionally, we identified an age-invariant association between category-level scene selectivity in the parahippocampal place area and subsequent memory performance, but no such association was evident for item-level metrics. Lastly, category- and item-level neural metrics were uncorrelated. Thus, the present findings suggest that age-related category- and item-level dedifferentiation depend on distinct neural mechanisms.

A comparison of stimulus fading and stimulus shaping on perceptual category learning.

Errorless learning strategies such as stimulus fading and stimulus shaping are commonly used to teach complex skills like categorisation and concept formation. Despite widespread use, very few studies have explored the comparative effectiveness of these procedures in well-controlled analyses. The vast majority of existing studies have been undertaken with clinical populations and have involved small numbers of participants (e.g., Single-case designs). The present study sought to compare stimulus fading, stimulus shaping, and trial-and-error learning in a perceptual categorisation task. In Experiment 1, we found robust benefits of stimulus shaping when compared to stimulus fading or trial-and-error learning on measures of initial acquisition of discrimination and one measure of stimulus generalisation. These findings were replicated in a second experiment in which the dimension of fading/shaping was changed from a modification of the comparison stimuli (S-) to a modification of the target stimulus (S +). We discuss the implications of our findings for the selection of errorless learning strategies in clinical settings.

Persepsi Siswa terhadap Metode Mengajar Guru Pendidikan Agama Islam pada Siswa SMPN 3 Tanjung Medan

This research aims to determine students' perceptions of Islamic Religious Education (PAI) teachers' teaching methods for students at SMPN 3 Tanjung Medan. This research method uses descriptive quantitative methods. The population of this study was 81 students who were Muslim at SMPN 3 Tanjung Medan. The sampling technique uses Total Sampling, therefore the population and sample have the same number, namely 81 students. Data were collected using an open questionnaire and a scale of students' perceptions of the teacher's teaching methods which were measured using a Likert scale. The data analysis method used is descriptive analysis. Based on the results of data analysis, the research results show that students' perceptions are in the categories of 32.1% dissatisfied, 30.8% satisfied, 27.2% very dissatisfied, and 9.9% very satisfied. Therefore, it can be concluded that the most dominant student perception is dissatisfied at 32.1% and the lowest perception category is very satisfied at 9.9%.

The effect of instrumental and vocal musical experience on tone categorical perception in individuals in a Chinese dialect area

IntroductionPrevious studies have shown that music training modulates adults’ categorical perception of Mandarin tones. However, the effect of music training on tone categorical perception ability in individuals in Chinese dialect areas remains unclear.MethodsWe recruited three groups of college students majoring in music in Chongqing, a dialect area in southwestern China. These groups included an instrumental music group (n = 31), a vocal music group (n = 32), and an instrumental-vocalist music group (n = 30). Additionally, we recruited a group of college students who did not receive any music training (n = 32). The accuracy and reaction time of the four groups were measured using the oddball task and compared to explore the differences in their tone categorical perception ability.ResultsConsidering both between-tone category and within-tone category, the three music groups showed both greater accuracy and shorter reaction times than the non-music group. Regarding the three music groups, no significant differences in accuracy and reaction time were detected between the instrumental and vocal groups. However, the instrumental vocalist group outperformed both the instrumental and vocal groups in terms of accuracy and reaction time.DiscussionResults showed that music training seems to have a positive effect on the categorical perception of Mandarin tone categories in Chinese dialect areas, and demonstrated that the combination of instrumental and vocal music training can further enhance tone categorical perception. To some extent, these findings provide a theoretical basis for the improvement of individual tone perception ability in dialect areas, and provided theoretical support for music and language education.

Unconscious Manipulation of Conceptual Representations with Decoded Neurofeedback Impacts Search Behavior.

The necessity of conscious awareness in human learning has been a long-standing topic in psychology and neuroscience. Previous research on non-conscious associative learning is limited by the low signal-to-noise ratio of the subliminal stimulus, and the evidence remains controversial, including failures to replicate. Using functional MRI decoded neurofeedback, we guided participants from both sexes to generate neural patterns akin to those observed when visually perceiving real-world entities (e.g., dogs). Importantly, participants remained unaware of the actual content represented by these patterns. We utilized an associative DecNef approach to imbue perceptual meaning (e.g., dogs) into Japanese hiragana characters that held no inherent meaning for our participants, bypassing a conscious link between the characters and the dogs concept. Despite their lack of awareness regarding the neurofeedback objective, participants successfully learned to activate the target perceptual representations in the bilateral fusiform. The behavioral significance of our training was evaluated in a visual search task. DecNef and control participants searched for dogs or scissors targets that were pre-cued by the hiragana used during DecNef training or by a control hiragana. The DecNef hiragana did not prime search for its associated target but, strikingly, participants were impaired at searching for the targeted perceptual category. Hence, conscious awareness may function to support higher-order associative learning. Meanwhile, lower-level forms of re-learning, modification, or plasticity in existing neural representations can occur unconsciously, with behavioral consequences outside the original training context. The work also provides an account of DecNef effects in terms of neural representational drift.

Persepsi Siswa Terhadap Penggunaan Aplikasi TikTok Dalam Pembelajaran Bahasa Jepang

This research is motivated by the phenomenon of using the TikTok application among students or students including in learning with the aim of seeing the relevance of using the TikTok application in Japanese language learning and students' views or assessments of the use of TikTok application-based media as learning media. This research uses a qualitative approach with a descriptive case study design with the number of research respondents as many as 24 students of class XI IPA 1 SMA PGRI 1 Padang. Data collection was carried out by distributing questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The data in this study were obtained based on statements from the results of distributing questionnaires and in-depth interviews with respondents. The instrument used to collect data consisted of 20 statements in a questionnaire and semi-structured interview questions. Based on the results of the questionnaire analysis, it is known that the student's perception or response to the use of the TikTok application in learning Japanese obtained a range of positive perception categories with an average of 81.93%. Then based on the interview analysis results dominated by the positive perceptions that the application's use in the learning of Japanese can arouse student learning interest, so it can be concluded that the app has a positive value in Japanese learning.

Phonological redeployment for [retracted tongue root] in third language perception of Kaqchikel stops

Phonological redeployment is the theoretical ability of language learners to utilize non-local phonological knowledge from known languages in the mapping and acquisition of novel contrasts in their target languages. The current paper probes the limits of phonological redeployment in a third language acquisition scenario. The phonological features [Advanced Tongue Root] and [Retracted Tongue Root] capture a range of phonological contrasts and harmony processes in both vowels and consonants of spoken languages across the world, including, but not limited to, vowel tensing and post-velar places of articulation (e.g. uvular). Kaqchikel (cak) exhibits both a tense-lax vocalic contrast in its vowels plus a velar-uvular Place contrast in its eight stop consonant phonemes. English (eng) exhibits a tense-lax vocalic distinction but no velar-uvular distinction among its six stop phonemes. Spanish (spa) exhibits neither of these contrasts in its vowels or among its six stop phonemes. How do multilingual learners of Kaqchikel already familiar with English and Spanish, but who differ in which is their first language (L1), compare in their categorical perception of Kaqchikel stop consonants? Despite English and Spanish having a three-way Place distinction among stops in common, in a phonemic categorization task, L1 English learners of Kaqchikel were better at correctly categorizing audio recordings of Kaqchikel uvular stops than L1 Spanish learners of Kaqchikel. To account for this surprising result, I propose that the L1 English group have easier access than the L1 Spanish group to the feature underlying English's tense-lax distinction. This access allows them to redeploy that phonological feature to accurately map out the novel four-way contrast of Kaqchikel's stop consonants, and the [±RTR] specified velar-uvular distinction in particular. Therefore, phonological redeployment must be considered in models of third language acquisition.

Persepsi dan Partisipasi Anggota Kelompok Tani Hutan (KTH) dalam Pelaksanaan Agroforestri di Areal Kemitraan PT Restorasi Ekosistem Indonesia Provinsi Jambi

The aim of this research is to analyze socio-economic characteristics as well as to analyze people's perceptions and participation as well as the relationship between the two variables. This research is descriptive with a quantitative approach. Analysis of socio-economic characteristics was tested by crosstab test and analysis of perceptions and participation and categorization using a 3 (three) point Likert scale and score interval equations, while analysis of the relationship between perception and participation variables used Spearman's correlation analysis. The results showed that there was a relationship between socio-economic characteristics (age, education, arable area, distance to agroforestry, monthly income, number of family dependents, farming experience, cosmopolitanity) with the perception and participation of KTH members in agroforestry development activities with a value of Approx. The sig of the perception variable is 0.049 and the perception variable is 0.046. The level of perception is in good category with 92.45% good category perception, 5.66% medium category perception, and 5.66% moderate category perception. The level of participation is in the medium category with 32.08% participation in the high category, 37.74% participation in the medium category, and 30.19% participation in the low category. Based on the results of the Spearman's rho correlation test, there is no significant relationship between perceptions and participation of KTH members on agroforestry development, which is 0.071 with a significance of 0.613 (very weak).

Sound category habituation requires task-relevant attention.

Processing the wealth of sensory information from the surrounding environment is a vital human function with the potential to develop learning, advance social interactions, and promote safety and well-being. To elucidate underlying processes governing these activities we measured neurophysiological responses to patterned stimulus sequences during a sound categorization task to evaluate attention effects on implicit learning, sound categorization, and speech perception. Using a unique experimental design, we uncoupled conceptual categorical effects from stimulus-specific effects by presenting categorical stimulus tokens that did not physically repeat. We found effects of implicit learning, categorical habituation, and a speech perception bias when the sounds were attended, and the listeners performed a categorization task (task-relevant). In contrast, there was no evidence of a speech perception bias, implicit learning of the structured sound sequence, or repetition suppression to repeated within-category sounds (no categorical habituation) when participants passively listened to the sounds and watched a silent closed-captioned video (task-irrelevant). No indication of category perception was demonstrated in the scalp-recorded brain components when participants were watching a movie and had no task with the sounds. These results demonstrate that attention is required to maintain category identification and expectations induced by a structured sequence when the conceptual information must be extracted from stimuli that are acoustically distinct. Taken together, these striking attention effects support the theoretical view that top-down control is required to initiate expectations for higher level cognitive processing.

Framing, responsiveness, serviceability, and normativity: Categories of perception teachers use to relate to students' mathematical contributions in problem‐based lessons

AbstractWe contribute to the understanding of teacher noticing by focusing on what a teacher may notice in students' mathematical contributions in the context of problem‐based lessons. Complementing approaches to research on noticing that focus on individual teachers' perceptual, cognitive, or situated skills, this conceptual article offers four categories of perception as examples of affordances available in the practice of teaching mathematics through problems. These include (1) the familiar instructional situations available to frame the problem, and the possibility to see student's work as (2) responsive to the problem, (3) serviceable for the knowledge at stake, and (4) normative with respect to the instructional situation used to frame the problem. The article shows examples of how teachers recognize responsiveness, serviceability, and normativity of student contributions and calls for research that can further uncover how such recognition may matter in the practice of teaching.

Role of articulatory motor networks in perceptual categorization of speech signals: a 7T fMRI study.

Speech and language processing involve complex interactions between cortical areas necessary for articulatory movements and auditory perception and a range of areas through which these are connected and interact. Despite their fundamental importance, the precise mechanisms underlying these processes are not fully elucidated. We measured BOLD signals from normal hearing participants using high-field 7 Tesla fMRI with 1-mm isotropic voxel resolution. The subjects performed 2 speech perception tasks (discrimination and classification) and a speech production task during the scan. By employing univariate and multivariate pattern analyses, we identified the neural signatures associated with speech production and perception. The left precentral, premotor, and inferior frontal cortex regions showed significant activations that correlated with phoneme category variability during perceptual discrimination tasks. In addition, the perceived sound categories could be decoded from signals in a region of interest defined based on activation related to production task. The results support the hypothesis that articulatory motor networks in the left hemisphere, typically associated with speech production, may also play a critical role in the perceptual categorization of syllables. The study provides valuable insights into the intricate neural mechanisms that underlie speech processing.

Sociophonetic Variation in Vowel Categorization of Australian English.

This study involves a perceptual categorization task for Australian English, designed to investigate regional and social variation in category boundaries between close-front vowel contrasts. Data are from four locations in southeast Australia. A total of 81 listeners from two listener groups took part: (a) so-called mainstream Australian English listeners from all four locations, and (b) L1 Aboriginal English listeners from one of the locations. Listeners heard front vowels /ɪ e æ/ arranged in 7-step continua presented at random. Varied phonetic contexts were analyzed, with a focus on coda /l/ because of a well-known prelateral merger of /e æ/ through mid-vowel lowering (e.g., celery-salary) reported to occur in some communities in this part of Australia. The results indicate that regional variation in Australian English is evident in perception. In particular, merging of /el/-/æl/ is shown to occur in the southernmost regions analyzed, but rarely in the northern regions of the geographical area under investigation. Aside from regional variation observed, age was also a factor in how participants responded to the task: older speakers had more merger than younger speakers in many locations, which is a new finding-previously, the merger was thought to be increasing in frequency over time, yet here we see this in only one location. Aboriginal English listeners also responded differently when compared with mainstream Australian English listeners. By analyzing the perception results across a variety of regional locations, with data from two different Australian social groups in the same location, this study adds a new dimension to our understanding of regional and social variations in Australian English.

How does Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) Improve Soil Fertility and Plant Cover in the Simiri Commune in Niger?

Aims: This study aimed to assess Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) impacts on improving soil fertility and plant cover through the physicochemical characterization of soil samples taken from ANR fields and control fields.
 Study Design: The experimental design is made up of a vegetation observation gradient along an East-West transect and a soil sampling gradient along a North-South transect.
 Place and Duration of Study: This study was carried out in the Sahelian zone in the rural commune of Simiri in Niger between May and June 2023.
 Methodology: Data on the diversity of species predominant in the ANR system, the social categories of ANR users and farmers' perceptions of ANR were collected on a sample of 120 farmers chosen at random from three villages in the commune of Simiri.
 Results: A sandy texture was recorded in all the samples submitted for analysis, with an overall acid of soil pH (5.18 ⁃ 5.62). The proportions of the main nutrients: C(0,16), N(0,015), P(6,88), K(0,066), Mo(0,30) C/N(10,83) were relatively higher in the fields under ANR practices compared with the control fields. With regard to the dominant woody species, the results show that the stands are mainly based on Combretum glutinosum, Combretum micranthum and Guera senegalensis. The ability of woody species to withstand stressful conditions could act as a bulwark against climatic hazards. The strong dominance of these species is due, among other things, to their regenerative capacity, their rapid spread and, above all, their economic interest in the production of firewood and other ecosystem services.
 Conclusion: The Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) adoption in farming practices has often been accompanied by the creation of village committees for the protection and management of trees and other areas of sustainable natural resource management. Despite mutilation and other illegal felling, the new agroforestry parks increase the resilience of agricultural production systems to climatic shocks and biotic stresses.

Adaptation to sentences and melodies when making judgments along a voice/non-voice continuum

Perceptual contrastive adaptation effects can be used to identify important perceptual features or categories. Our previous work revealed contrastive adaptation effects between voice and non-voice categories when adapting with repeated single vowels or musical tones. The current study investigated whether the effect generalizes to adaptors with higher ecological validity—sentences and melodies. Ten-step continua between a “voice” (female /a/, /o/, or /u/ vowels) and an “instrument” (bassoon, horn, or viola) were generated for each possible pair. A sentence spoken by a female voice, or a melody played on bassoon or horn, was presented, followed by a test stimulus from along the continuum. Contrastive adaptation effects were observed, with the test stimulus more likely to be identified as a voice following a musical melody and vice versa. Pilot data showed similar trends when the female voice adaptors were replaced with their male counterparts, suggesting that the effects may generalize across speaker gender and fundamental frequency. The results show that contrastive adaptation to voice and non-voice stimuli is a robust effect that does not rely on the repetition of simple adaptors or on a shared frequency range between the adaptors and test stimuli. [Work supported by NIH grant R01DC005216.]

On Form, Cyclicity and Temporality in Leoš Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1

Objectives: The study aimed is to identify the underlying temporal structures, procedures and devices employed by Janáček in the composition of his First-String Quartet, by way of a thorough analysis of musical forms, relations and cyclicities of recurring themes and motifs, and an examination of referential semantic structures.
 Methods: The study applied a descriptive-analytical method in the framework of a textual approach to the composition under consideration. This includes identifying procedures of contrast, juxtaposition, interpolation, temporal intercutting, and superimposition described by T. Clifton, often employed together with a montage-style technique.
 Results: The results of the study of our analysis clearly show Janáčeck’s preference for the palindrome arch form and rondo-like forms, combined with features of ternarity. In their recurrences themes are mostly varied, occasionally transposed, and often curtailed, sometimes to the duration of a mere referential reminder. This form entails a specific temporality related in the palindrome form to a retrograde temporal directionality. The superimposition of themes and accompaniment textures also entails a superimposition of their temporal strata. Another poignant feature of this quartet’s temporality is the use of referential-semantic devices. This includes the multiplicity of inter-sectional and inter-movement citations of themes, motifs, and intonations.
 Conclusions: In the light of the results, the study recommends further empirical experimental research of the perception of temporal categories outlined in this paper, and to explore the relation of semantic referential structures and elements of speech in the melodic of Janáček.

Processing of acoustic and phonological information of lexical tones at pre-attentive and attentive stages

ABSTRACT While Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and P300 have been found to correlate with the processing of acoustic and phonological information involved in speech perception, there is controversy surrounding how these two components index acoustic and/or phonological processing at pre-attentive and attentive stages. The current study employed both passive and active oddball paradigms to examine neural responses to lexical tones at the two stages in Cantonese speakers, using the paradigm of categorical perception (CP) where the between- and within-category deviants share the same acoustic distance from the standard but differ in the involvement of phonological information. We failed to observe a CP effect in P300, which might indicate that this component doesn’t necessarily index phonological processing, while MMN does, as reflected by the finding of a greater MMN amplitude elicited from the between-category than within-category deviant. Nevertheless, phonological processing might be overridden by acoustic processing among participants who were sensitive to pitch.

Comparison of the prediction accuracy of machine learning algorithms in crosslinguistic vowel classification

Machine learning algorithms can be used for the prediction of nonnative sound classification based on crosslinguistic acoustic similarity. To date, very few linguistic studies have compared the classification accuracy of different algorithms. This study aims to assess how well machines align with human speech perception by assessing the ability of three machine learning algorithms, namely, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), decision tree (C5.0), and neural network (NNET), to predict the classification of second language (L2) sounds in terms of first language (L1) categories. The models were trained using the first three formants and duration of L1 vowels and fed with the same acoustic features of L2 vowels. To validate their accuracy, adult L2 speakers completed a perceptual classification task. The results indicated that NNET predicted with success the classification of all L2 vowels with the highest proportion in terms of L1 categories, while LDA and C5.0 missed only one vowel each. Furthermore, NNET exhibited superior accuracy in predicting the full range of above chance responses, followed closely by LDA. C5.0 did not meet the anticipated performance levels. The findings can hold significant implications for advancing both the theoretical and practical frameworks of speech acquisition.

Analysis of Factors Affecting the Motivation of Elderly to Follow the Covid-19 Vaccine in Bedoro Sragen Village

The COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV 2 virus has worried the world. WHO (World Health Organization) declared Covid-19 a pandemic so that WHO implemented a world health emergency status. More than 800 thousand people in Indonesia have been infected with COVID 19 and the number who have died was over 25 thousand people. Central Java provincial government data showed that the number of positive confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Sragen Regency was 2,694. Data compiled from the Sragen District Health Office, there were 775,774 vaccination targets in the Sragen area, including 118,893 elderly people. As for the elderly target group, 49,987 people or 42.01% have been successfully vaccinated. To analyze the factors that influence the motivation of the elderly in participating in the Covid-19 vaccine in the Bedoro Subdistrict, Sambungmacan, Sragen. The method used in this research was an analytic survey with a cross sectional approach. The results showed that most of the respondents' education level was in the basic education category, namely 67 (50.4%). Most of the respondents' knowledge was in the sufficient knowledge category, namely 113 (85%). Most of the respondents' perceptions were in the category of sufficient perception, namely 114 (85.7%). Most of the family support was in the adequate family support category, namely 112 (84.2%). Most of the motivation was in the category of moderate motivation, namely 111 (83.5%). The factor that most influences the elderly to take the COVID 19 vaccination was family support ((Exp(B): 2,488). Family support was the factor that most influences the elderly to take the COVID 19 vaccination