Identification Of Cues Research Articles

Identity Signaling and Patterns of Cooperative Behavior.

Recognition systems play a central role in mediating cooperative behavior among individuals in a population. Despite the importance of discriminating among potential recipients of cooperation, the evolutionary forces that maintain diversity in traits used for kin recognition are poorly understood. Greenbeard-based models of kin recognition in which alleles for cooperative behavior also control recognition of those alleles in potential cooperators suggest that discrimination based on a greenbeard locus leads to positive frequency dependence, eroding diversity at the very genes responsible for recognition. As a result, the phenotypic diversity used for kin recognition has been widely assumed to be cues rather than signals of genetic identity. Diversity in identity cues is maintained by selection on other traits for reasons unrelated to recognition. A major problem with greenbeard-based models is that greenbeard recognition systems are uncommon among animals, which tend to learn kin phenotypes. We develop a simple model showing that learning a kin recognition template is sufficient to increase and maintain diversity in genetic traits used for kin recognition. Thus, our results suggest that phenotypes used for recognition may be true signals of genetic identity. As such, phenotypes are expected to evolve to facilitate recognition. Increased diversity in genetically-based recognition signals is also predicted to initiate a positive feedback loop between recognition efficiency and levels of cooperation. Finally, we discuss how the genetic architecture of recognition traits may influence kin discrimination abilities.

When speaker identity is unavoidable: Neural processing of speaker identity cues in natural speech

Speech sound acoustic properties vary largely across speakers and accents. When perceiving speech, adult listeners normally disregard non-linguistic variation caused by speaker or accent differences, in order to comprehend the linguistic message, e.g. to correctly identify a speech sound or a word. Here we tested whether the process of normalizing speaker and accent differences, facilitating the recognition of linguistic information, is found at the level of neural processing, and whether it is modulated by the listeners’ native language. In a multi-deviant oddball paradigm, native and nonnative speakers of Dutch were exposed to naturally-produced Dutch vowels varying in speaker, sex, accent, and phoneme identity. Unexpectedly, the analysis of mismatch negativity (MMN) amplitudes elicited by each type of change shows a large degree of early perceptual sensitivity to non-linguistic cues. This finding on perception of naturally-produced stimuli contrasts with previous studies examining the perception of synthetic stimuli wherein adult listeners automatically disregard acoustic cues to speaker identity. The present finding bears relevance to speech normalization theories, suggesting that at an unattended level of processing, listeners are indeed sensitive to changes in fundamental frequency in natural speech tokens.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN CULTURAL CAPITAL THE IMPACT OF THE VISUAL MERCHANDISE DISPLAY ON CONSUMER PURCHASES OF LUXURY BRANDS

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN CULTURAL CAPITAL THE IMPACT OF THE VISUAL MERCHANDISE DISPLAY ON CONSUMER PURCHASES OF LUXURY BRANDS

Processing of Acoustic Cues in Lexical-Tone Identification by Pediatric Cochlear-Implant Recipients.

The objective was to investigate acoustic cue processing in lexical-tone recognition by pediatric cochlear-implant (CI) recipients who are native Mandarin speakers. Lexical-tone recognition was assessed in pediatric CI recipients and listeners with normal hearing (NH) in 2 tasks. In Task 1, participants identified naturally uttered words that were contrastive in lexical tones. For Task 2, a disyllabic word (yanjing) was manipulated orthogonally, varying in fundamental-frequency (F0) contours and duration patterns. Participants identified each token with the second syllable jing pronounced with Tone 1 (a high level tone) as eyes or with Tone 4 (a high falling tone) as eyeglasses. CI participants' recognition accuracy was significantly lower than NH listeners' in Task 1. In Task 2, CI participants' reliance on F0 contours was significantly less than that of NH listeners; their reliance on duration patterns, however, was significantly higher than that of NH listeners. Both CI and NH listeners' performance in Task 1 was significantly correlated with their reliance on F0 contours in Task 2. For pediatric CI recipients, lexical-tone recognition using naturally uttered words is primarily related to their reliance on F0 contours, although duration patterns may be used as an additional cue.

Overweighting of pitch cues in stop identification by Korean learners of Mandarin Chinese

The present study reports on a novel case where learners of a tonal language not only develop keen sensitivity to F0 cues in general, but the increased sensitivity may also foster perceptual reorganization of cue weighting in stop identification. Korean learners of Mandarin and novice listeners participated in identification tasks for which pitch contours of Mandarin words containing unaspirated stops were digitally manipulated. In word-initial position, learners showed considerably higher sensitivity to onset pitch cues, showing a near-categorical perception from lenis to fortis judgment along with higher onset pitch. In word-medial position, tone contours emerged as a significant predictor of the stops; predominant fortis judgment in high-level tone vs. lenis judgment in mid-rising tone. The novice listeners showed similar patterns in both cases, but to a much smaller degree. The effect of tone contours was discussed with reference to an auditory contrast whereby onset pitch of mid-rising tone is percep...

Predicting intelligibility of dysphonic speech with automatic measurement of vowel related parameters

Speakers with dysphonia frequently report difficulty with being understood in noisy places. Perception of vowels plays an important role in intelligibility. Dysphonic speech is typically characterized both by shorter periodic intervals and an increased proportion of noise vs. harmonic components, potentially obscuring acoustic cues for identification of vowels. This study examined whether vowel-related acoustic measures would predict intelligibility of dysphonic speech. Sentences from the Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) were recorded from 18 dysphonic speakers (6 adult females, 6 adult males, and 6 children) and 3 normal speakers (1 adult female, 1 adult male, and 1 child). These sentences were analyzed acoustically by SpeechMark® Wavesurfer plug-in version, a speech analysis tool based on the landmark theory of speech perception. The sentences were presented to 45 listeners for perceptual rating of intelligibility at 3 S/N ratios. The following output parameters were compared: vowel space area, number of vowels whose F1 and F2 values fell within a standard vowel quadrilateral (defined based on existing literature), and number of vowels with normal formant bandwidth. Preliminary results indicated that number of vowels with normal formant bandwidth falling within the quadrilateral significantly predicted the intelligibility ratings of dysphonic speech at all noise levels.

Nanoscale modifications in the early heating stages of bone are heterogeneous at the microstructural scale.

Nanoscale studies of bone provide key indicators to evidence subtle structural changes that may occur in the biomedical, forensic and archaeological contexts. One specific problem encountered in all those disciplines, for which the identification of nanostructural cues could prove useful, is to properly monitor the effect of heating on bone tissue. In particular, the mechanisms at work at the onset of heating are still relatively unclear. Using a multiscale approach combining Raman microspectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), synchrotron quantitative scanning small-angle X-ray scattering imaging (qsSAXSI) and polarized light (PL) microscopy, we investigate the ultrastructure of cortical bovine bone heated at temperatures < 300°C, from the molecular to the macroscopic scale. We show that, despite limited changes in crystal structure, the mineral nanoparticles increase in thickness and become strongly disorganized upon heating. Furthermore, while the nanostructure in distinct anatomical quadrants appears to be statistically different, our results demonstrate this stems from the tissue histology, i.e. from the high degree of heterogeneity of the microstructure induced by the complex cellular processes involved in bone tissue formation. From this study, we conclude that the analysis of bone samples based on the structure and organization of the mineral nanocrystals requires performing measurements at the histological level, which is an advantageous feature of qsSAXSI. This is a critical aspect that extends to a much broader range of questions relating to nanoscale investigations of bone, which could also be extended to other classes of nanostructured heterogeneous materials.

Dwarf mongooses use sex and identity cues in isolation calls to discriminate between callers

The information transmitted by acoustic signals has attracted much scientific interest in recent years. However, isolation calls, which are long-distance vocalizations used by lost group members to reunite with their social group, have been surprisingly neglected. These calls assist in maintaining group cohesion and are thus particularly important in species that depend on the group for survival or reproduction such as cooperative breeders. Our study therefore examined the information transmitted by the isolation vocalization in a wild cooperatively breeding carnivore: the dwarf mongoose, Helogale parvula. We ran an acoustic analysis for informative cues within isolation calls, and conducted a series of playback experiments to identify whether mongooses could discriminate between callers based on these cues. The acoustic structure of dwarf mongoose isolation vocalizations contained information concerning the caller's identity, sex and potentially also group membership. Target mongooses discriminated between callers of their own and other groups and biased their response based on the sex of the caller. They responded more quickly and for longer, and approached more closely, for calls of foreign females than calls of female group mates. This is the first time that sex specificity has been demonstrated in the vocalization of an herpestid, and we suggest that dwarf mongooses eavesdrop on the calls of isolated foreigners and may use isolation calls to attract and identify potential mates.

Acquiring variation in an artificial language: Children and adults are sensitive to socially conditioned linguistic variation

Languages exhibit sociolinguistic variation, such that adult native speakers condition the usage of linguistic variants on social context, gender, and ethnicity, among other cues. While the existence of this kind of socially conditioned variation is well-established, less is known about how it is acquired. Studies of naturalistic language use by children provide various examples where children’s production of sociolinguistic variants appears to be conditioned on similar factors to adults’ production, but it is difficult to determine whether this reflects knowledge of sociolinguistic conditioning or systematic differences in the input to children from different social groups. Furthermore, artificial language learning experiments have shown that children have a tendency to eliminate variation, a process which could potentially work against their acquisition of sociolinguistic variation. The current study used a semi-artificial language learning paradigm to investigate learning of the sociolinguistic cue of speaker identity in 6-year-olds and adults. Participants were trained and tested on an artificial language where nouns were obligatorily followed by one of two meaningless particles and were produced by one of two speakers (one male, one female). Particle usage was conditioned deterministically on speaker identity (Experiment 1), probabilistically (Experiment 2), or not at all (Experiment 3). Participants were given tests of production and comprehension. In Experiments 1 and 2, both children and adults successfully acquired the speaker identity cue, although the effect was stronger for adults and in Experiment 1. In addition, in all three experiments, there was evidence of regularization in participants’ productions, although the type of regularization differed with age: children showed regularization by boosting the frequency of one particle at the expense of the other, while adults regularized by conditioning particle usage on lexical items. Overall, results demonstrate that children and adults are sensitive to speaker identity cues, an ability which is fundamental to tracking sociolinguistic variation, and that children’s well-established tendency to regularize does not prevent them from learning sociolinguistically conditioned variation.

Impression Management Activity in Vision, Mission, and Values Statements: A Comparison of Commercial and Charitable Organizations

:This article investigates the extent to which vision, mission, and values (VM&V) statements play a role in corporate identity management by commercial and charitable organizations. Impression management (IM) theory was used to analyze how these statements could influence stakeholders’ impressions of an organization. A qualitative empirical study was conducted to explore VM&V statements on the websites of 100 commercial and 100 charitable organizations, using content analysis to identify IM activity in the statements. The findings have implications for academics and managers, as there were evidently gaps between theory and practice. Many of the commercial and charitable organizations underutilized VM&V statements as corporate identity cues, and there is subsequently potential for greater use of these statements as part of corporate identity management by organizations in both sectors. Managers should also ensure that the influence of the statements on stakeholders’ impressions of the organization aligns with the desired corporate image.

Color pattern facilitates species recognition but not signal detection: a field test using robots

There are many factors that affect signal design, including the need for rapid signal detection and the ability to identify the signal as conspecific. Understanding these different sources of selection on signal design is essential to explain the evolution of both signal complexity and signal diversity. We assessed the relative importance of detection and recognition for signal design in the blackbearded gliding lizard, Draco melanopogon, which uses the extension and retraction of a large, black-and-white dewlap (or throat fan) in territorial communication. We presented free-living lizards with robots displaying dewlaps of different designs that varied in the proportion of the black and white components. We found no effect of dewlap brightness or design on the time it took for a lizard to detect the robot, consistent with the view that initial detection is likely to be primarily elicited by movement rather than specific color or pattern. However, males (but not females) responded with a greater intensity to the dewlap treatment that most resembled the natural dewlap color and design of the species. Furthermore, males were more likely to display to any dewlap color in the presence of a neighbor. These results suggest that dewlap pattern may play an important role in species recognition but has minimal influence on the initial detection of the signal. Importantly, our results also highlight that factors unrelated to discrimination, such as social cues and individual motivational state, may affect responses to species identity cues.

Face identity matching is selectively impaired in developmental prosopagnosia

Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) have severe face recognition deficits, but the mechanisms that are responsible for these deficits have not yet been fully identified. We assessed whether the activation of visual working memory for individual faces is selectively impaired in DP. Twelve DPs and twelve age-matched control participants were tested in a task where they reported whether successively presented faces showed the same or two different individuals, and another task where they judged whether the faces showed the same or different facial expressions. Repetitions versus changes of the other currently irrelevant attribute were varied independently. DPs showed impaired performance in the identity task, but performed at the same level as controls in the expression task. An electrophysiological marker for the activation of visual face memory by identity matches (N250r component) was strongly attenuated in the DP group, and the size of this attenuation was correlated with poor performance in a standardized face recognition test. Results demonstrate an identity-specific deficit of visual face memory in DPs. Their reduced sensitivity to identity matches in the presence of other image changes could result from earlier deficits in the perceptual extraction of image-invariant visual identity cues from face images.

Visual Cues Contribute Differentially to Audiovisual Perception of Consonants and Vowels in Improving Recognition and Reducing Cognitive Demands in Listeners With Hearing Impairment Using Hearing Aids.

We sought to examine the contribution of visual cues in audiovisual identification of consonants and vowels-in terms of isolation points (the shortest time required for correct identification of a speech stimulus), accuracy, and cognitive demands-in listeners with hearing impairment using hearing aids. The study comprised 199 participants with hearing impairment (mean age = 61.1 years) with bilateral, symmetrical, mild-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss. Gated Swedish consonants and vowels were presented aurally and audiovisually to participants. Linear amplification was adjusted for each participant to assure audibility. The reading span test was used to measure participants' working memory capacity. Audiovisual presentation resulted in shortened isolation points and improved accuracy for consonants and vowels relative to auditory-only presentation. This benefit was more evident for consonants than vowels. In addition, correlations and subsequent analyses revealed that listeners with higher scores on the reading span test identified both consonants and vowels earlier in auditory-only presentation, but only vowels (not consonants) in audiovisual presentation. Consonants and vowels differed in terms of the benefits afforded from their associative visual cues, as indicated by the degree of audiovisual benefit and reduction in cognitive demands linked to the identification of consonants and vowels presented audiovisually.

Bats Attend to Plant Structures to Identify Roosting Sites

More than half of the extant bat species rely on plants as roosts. Nevertheless, it is largely unknown how bats find these roosts and whether they use characteristic plant structures for their identification. The bat Kerivoula hardwickii regularly roosts in damaged pitchers of the carnivorous pitcher plant Nepenthes bicalcarata. These pitchers are characterized by two sharp, long thorns directly above the pitchers' opening. In two behavioural experiments we tested, if 1) the length of the thorns or 2) the distance between thorns and pitcher opening has an attractive or deterrent effect on K. hardwickii. The bats preferred pitchers with longer thorns while the distance between thorns and pitcher opening did not influence them. This shows that the bats are not deterred by the thorns. It also suggests that they do not exploit the pitchers' thorns as a protection against being preyed on while roosting. In this case the bats should have chosen pitchers with thorns close to the pitcher's opening that provide the most effective protection. Instead, K. hardwickii seem to use the thorns as identification cues to find suitable roost sites. Generally, our study suggests that bats even attend to plant structures that do not provide them with a direct benefit.

Cross-modal association between auditory and visual-spatial information in Mandarin tone perception

Speech perception involves multiple input modalities. Research has indicated that perceivers may establish a cross-modal association between auditory and visual-spatial events to aid perception. Such intermodal relations can be particularly beneficial for non-native perceivers who need additional resources to process challenging new sounds. This study examines how co-speech hand gestures mimicking pitch contours in space affect non-native Mandarin tone perception. Native English as well as Mandarin perceivers identified tones with either congruent or incongruent auditory-facial and gestural (AF/G) input. Perceivers also identified congruent and incongruent auditory-facial (A/F) stimuli. Native Mandarin results showed the expected ceiling-level performance in the congruent A/F and AF/G conditions. In the incongruent conditions, while A/F identification was primarily auditory-based, AF/G identification was partially based on gestures, demonstrating the use of gestures as valid cues in tone identification. The English perceivers’ performance was poor in the congruent A/F condition, but improved significantly in AF/G. While the incongruent A/F identification showed some reliance on facial information, incongruent AF/G identification relied more on gestural than auditory-facial information. These results indicate positive effects of facial and especially gestural input on non-native tone perception, suggesting that cross-modal (visual-spatial) resources can be recruited to aid auditory perception when phonetic demands are high.

From Clothing to Identity: Manual and Automatic Soft Biometrics

Soft biometrics have increasingly attracted research interest and are often considered as major cues for identity, especially in the absence of valid traditional biometrics, as in surveillance. In everyday life, several incidents and forensic scenarios highlight the usefulness and capability of identity information that can be deduced from clothing. Semantic clothing attributes have recently been introduced as a new form of soft biometrics. Although clothing traits can be naturally described and compared by humans for operable and successful use, it is desirable to exploit computer vision to enrich clothing descriptions with more objective and discriminative information. This allows automatic extraction and semantic description and comparison of visually detectable clothing traits in a manner similar to recognition by eyewitness statements. This paper proposes a novel set of soft clothing attributes, described using small groups of high-level semantic labels, and automatically extracted using computer-vision techniques. In this way, we can explore the capability of human attributes vis-a-vis those which are inferred automatically by computer vision. Categorical and comparative soft clothing traits are derived and used for identification/re-identification either to supplement soft body traits or to be used alone. The automatically and manually derived soft clothing biometrics are employed in challenging invariant person retrieval. The experimental results highlight promising potential for use in various applications.

Sensemaking following surprise in the cockpit—a re-framing problem

Re-framing is the process by which a person fills the gap between what is expected and what has been observed, that is, to try and make sense of what is going on following a surprise. It is an active and adaptive process guided by expectations, which are based on knowledge and experience. In this article, surprise situations in cockpit operations are examined by investigating the re-framing process. The results show difficulties that pilots have in re-framing following surprise, including the identification of subtle cues and managing uncertainties regarding automated systems, coping with multiple goals, tasks and narrow time frames and identifying an appropriate action. A crew-aircraft sensemaking model is presented, outlining core concepts of re-framing processes and sensemaking activities. Based on the findings, three critical areas are identified that deserve further attention to improve pilot abilities to cope with unexpected events; (1) identification of what enables and obstructs re-framing, (2) training to build frames and develop re-framing strategies and (3) control strategies as part of the re-framing process.

Chemical composition of Eurasian lynx urine conveys information on reproductive state, individual identity, and urine age

In mammals, the chemical profiles of individuals are complex and variable mixtures, and animals perceive information based on variation in the overall quality of these mixtures. A variety of compounds potentially involved in chemical communication have been characterized in the urine of different felid species, but little is known about the information content of felid scent marks. In this study, we investigated whether chemical composition of Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx urine was related to sex, reproductive state, and individual identity. We further analysed if elemental sulphur in lynx urine could serve as a dietary cue or as an indicator for the freshness of a scent mark. We collected urine from captive and wild Eurasian lynx, and analysed volatile constituents of urine by means of solid phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Our results show that lynx scent profiles contain sex-specific information on reproductive state, as well as individual identity cues. Urine marks are, therefore, well-suited to fulfil a role in reproductive behaviour and social organisation of wild lynx populations. Relative sulphur content was unrelated to time since last feeding, but decreased with age of the urine sample. The influence of diet and body condition on scent profiles should be further investigated by means of experimental studies, and may shed more light on the messages encoded in carnivore scent-marks.

Older adult faces in the young adults' eyes: attention towards identity cues eliminates the recognition advantage for young adult faces

Young adults typically recognize young adult faces more accurately than older adult faces (own-age bias [OAB]). However, most research on this topic has measured recognition memory for controlled images of different identities and participants typically are instructed to memorize faces during a study phase. We investigate the OAB for images incorporating within-person variability in appearance and examined whether making same/different judgements (i.e., focusing on identity cues) about face pairs during the study phase reduces the OAB. Young adults (n=24/group) completed an old/new recognition task after viewing a series of old and young faces. During the study phase, one group completed a perceptual matching task in which participants were required to decide whether two different pictures of older/young adult faces belonged to the same person or two different people. Participants in the control group viewed the same faces during the study phase but faces were presented sequentially and participants were instructed to remember them. In the identity matching task, there was no overall advantage for young faces. However, accuracy was higher for old compared to young faces on same trials (p=.031), but for young compared to older faces on different trials (p=.021). In the recognition task, participants in the control condition demonstrated the typical OAB (better memory for young relative to older faces [p=.042]); in contrast, the OAB was absent for participants who first completed the matching task (p=.491). The absence of the OAB in the identity-matching condition is attributable to identity matching improving performance for older (p=.002), but not young faces (p=.60), relative to the control condition. Collectively, these results suggest that the OAB is attributable to a failure to attend to identity cues in older faces rather than an inability to encode and store older adult faces. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2016

Musical instrument identification in simulated electric acoustic hearing and in cochlear implant users with contralateral hearing aids.

While cochlear implant (CI) users achieve high levels of speech perception in quiet conditions, music perception is a challenging task. Gfeller et al. (2000) found that CI users rated music as second most important acoustic stimulus in their lives next to speech. Music is considered to be a central part of human experience, and many CI users can only dream of one day being able to appreciate music as they had before losing their hearing. For those with congenital deafness, music remains a distant hope, something experienced only through reactions of others, as indicated by poor performance of prelingually deaf children with CIs on measures of music perception (Stabej et al., 2012). Some recent work in CI field has focused on improving quality of music perception, and in doing so, improving overall quality of life for implant users (Limb & Roy, 2014; Limb & Rubinstein, 2012; Petersen, Mortensen, Hansen, & Vuust, 2012). This has posed a great challenge to researchers, as CI devices have a long history of design principles solely focused on delivering aspects of acoustic signal that lead to improved speech communication without much consideration of music perception (Loizou, 1998, 2006).A number of factors may limit music perception for CI users (McDermott, 2004). The substantial reduction in spectral resolution, limited dynamic range, and channel interactions between neighboring electrodes may render most music noisy and unpleasant to CI users (Limb & Rubinstein, 2012). Although CI users' rhythm perception is comparable with normal-hearing (NH) listeners (Gfeller & Lansing, 1991; Gfeller, Woodworth, Robin, Witt, & Knutson, 1997; Phillips-Silver et al., 2015), melody and timbre perception remain quite poor. Implant users rely heavily on rhythmic cues in identification of melodies, performing better when recognizing melodies with a distinctive rhythm than recognizing melodies with less rhythmic structure (Kong, Cruz, Jones, & Zeng, 2004; Schulz & Kerber, 1994). Their increased reliance on temporal cues may be a consequence of reduction in spectral resolution owing to a limited number of stimulating electrodes. Pitch perception has been found to vary greatly across CI users. Some listeners can discriminate a difference in pitch of one semitone reliably, whereas others require interval differences as large as two octaves for reliable judgments (Drennan & Rubinstein, 2008; Ping, Yuan, & Feng, 2012). Timbre, defined as the attribute of auditory sensation which enables a listener to judge that two nonidentical sounds, similarly presented and having same loudness and pitch, are dissimilar (ASA 111-1994) has also been found to be problematic for CI users. An important dimension of musical expressivity, timbre is primarily defined through temporal envelope and spectral shape of a sound (Dowling & Harwood, 1986; Handel, 1995), which enable identification and tracking of a musical sound source over time (McAdams & Giordano, 2016). While temporal envelopes are encoded fairly well by CIs, spectral shape is degraded (Drennan & Rubinstein, 2008). Two major limitations include less spectral resolving power (typically Timbre is an essential element in enjoying musical sound. Composers use timbre in form of different musical instruments. …