Effects Of Perceptual Training Research Articles

Effect of Perceptual Training with Sound-Guided and Kinesthetic Feedback on Human 3D Sound Localization Capabilities.

In this paper, we experimentally investigate how the 3D sound localization capabilities of the blind can improve through perceptual training. To this end, we develop a novel perceptual training method with sound-guided feedback and kinesthetic assistance to evaluate its effectiveness compared to conventional training methods. In perceptual training, we exclude visual perception by blindfolding the subjects to apply the proposed method to the visually impaired. Subjects used a specially designed pointing stick to generate a sound at the tip, indicating localization error and tip position. The proposed perceptual training aims to evaluate the training effect on 3D sound localization, including variations in azimuth, elevation, and distance. The six days of training based on six subjects resulted in the following outcomes: (1) In general, accuracy in full 3D sound localization can be improved based on training. (2) Training based on relative error feedback is more effective than absolute error feedback. (3) Subjects tend to underestimate distance when the sound source is near, less than 1000 mm, or larger than 15° to the left, and overestimate the elevation when the sound source is near or in the center, and within ±15° in azimuth estimations.

Perceptual training modifies temporal sensitivity and a sense of agency.

Perceptual training has been argued to be a potential means to modify temporal sensitivity (the ability to detect a time-based discrepancy between two stimuli) with previous studies providing preliminary evidence that perceptual training can lead to increased temporal sensitivity. However, previous studies have not employed a control group and therefore cannot rule out the possibility that the observed effects are due to repeated completion of the task, rather than the training itself. Moreover, despite temporal sensitivity being suggested to be an important aspect of the sense of agency, the effects of perceptual training on the sense of agency have not been explored. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the effects of perceptual training on the sense of agency and replicate previously observed effects on temporal sensitivity while utilizing a more rigorous methodology. Given the existing literature, it was predicted that the sense of agency and temporal sensitivity will be enhanced following perceptual training. Temporal sensitivity was only weakly modified by perceptual training when compared to the control condition. Sense of agency was significantly modulated by perceptual training, over and above the control condition. This study's findings present novel evidence indicating that perceptual training can influence high-level processes such as the sense of agency and temporal sensitivity.

Immediate and long-term effects of a perceptual training in the production of word-initial /s/-clusters in Brazilian Portuguese/English interphonology

The present study aimed at investigating effects of perceptual training in the production of word-initial /s/-clusters in Brazilian Portuguese/English interphonology. The hypotheses proposed that there would be improvement in production after training and that such improvement would also be found in an eight-month follow-up test and in a twelve-year follow-up test. Also, it was hypothesized that the production of /s/+sonorants would remain more problematic than the production of /s/+stops after training. Twenty-three Brazilians who spoke English as a foreign language at a minimum B1 level of proficiency participated in the study. Eight of them were assigned to a control group. The fifteen remaining participants took a test consisting of reading tasks and an interview before and after an identification perceptual training following a high variability approach. Eight months later, eight participants from the experimental group took a follow-up test with the same tasks from pre- and posttests. Twelve years later one participant took another follow-up test. Results indicated that production of word-initial /s/-clusters improved significantly right after training and that the improvement was also found in both eight-month and twelve-year follow-up tests even for clusters which had not been trained. /s/+sonorants remained more problematic than /s/+stops and voicing was found to be more persistent than other mispronunciations of word-initial /s/-clusters. The transfer of improvement from perception to production may indicate that there is a common mental representation underlying both domains and that changes in production performance may reflect changes in mental representation of non-native targets.

The effects of perceptual training on speech production of Mandarin sandhi tones by tonal and non-tonal speakers

This study examined the effects of perceptual training on the acquisition of sandhi tones by both tonal (Cantonese) and non-tonal (English) speakers. In the pre- and post-training tasks, participants were presented with two monosyllables in each trial and were asked to produce them as disyllables. During perceptual training, they heard trials of disyllabic words with and without sandhi rule applications and were trained to identify the two types of disyllabic words. Based on functional data analyses, Cantonese speakers improved in building up more detailed and native-like allotone representations and in turn exhibited more native-like speech production in many cases. However, American learners showed improvement mainly in the offset f0 values or the turning point, indicating that they might have failed to pay attention to the shape of the entire tonal contour during perceptual training. For tonal speakers, the improvement of allotone production occurred on both real and wug words, indicating that the perceptual training may lead to more accurate production of tone sandhi rules regardless of syllable types. American learners, however, might need more training to further modify the allotone representation to perform more accurate sandhi tone application, especially in wug words. Finally, phonetic bias did not correctly predict the success of allotone acquisition since other factors such as the acoustic cues used in processing allotones during perceptual training might have affected the learning results.

Effect of Training With Anchors on Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Dysphonia in Speech-Language Pathology Students.

Purpose Auditory-perceptual evaluation is essential for the clinical assessment of voice disorders. Unstable perceptual voice evaluation has been shown for inexperienced listeners as compared to expert listeners. We examined the effects of perceptual training with external auditory anchors with and without immediate feedback on the evaluation of roughness and breathiness of natural, nonsynthesized speech stimuli (reading of a standard passage) in speech-language pathology students. Method Perceptual voice evaluation and training with anchors using a visual analog scale was implemented with a computer software. Forty-eight speech-language pathology students were randomly assigned into three groups, feedback group (Group F), no feedback group (Group NF), and control group (Group C), attending one training session and four assessment sessions (before training, immediately after training, and 1 and 7 weeks after training). Group F received training with anchors with immediate feedback, Group NF received training without immediate feedback, and Group C received sham training (exposure session). Results Training with anchors significantly increased the rating accuracy (agreement with expert ratings) on both roughness and breathiness for Group F, with the effects lasting for 7 weeks. No significant changes in rating accuracy with training were observed for Group NF and Group C. No improvements in intra- and interrater reliability as well as intrarater agreement were observed in all three groups, whereas interrater agreement on breathiness (but not roughness) significantly increased for all groups, with the effect lasting for 7 weeks only for Group F. Conclusions These findings suggested that perceptual training with external auditory anchors and the use of immediate feedback could be effective for facilitating the development of perceptual voice evaluation skills in speech-language pathology students. Further studies involving more extensive training with stimuli covering a full range of dysphonia severity categories and improvements in design of the training protocol are recommended to verify these results.

Watch out for the hazard! Blurring peripheral vision facilitates hazard perception in driving

The objectives of this paper were to directly examine the roles of central and peripheral vision in hazard perception and to test whether perceptual training can enhance hazard perception. We also examined putative cortical mechanisms underpinning any effect of perceptual training on performance. To address these objectives, we used the gaze-contingent display paradigm to selectively present information to central and peripheral parts of the visual field. In Experiment 1, we compared hazard perception abilities of experienced and inexperienced drivers while watching video clips in three different viewing conditions (full vision; clear central and blurred peripheral vision; blurred central and clear peripheral vision). Participants’ visual search behaviour and cortical activity were simultaneously recorded. In Experiment 2, we determined whether training with clear central and blurred peripheral vision could improve hazard perception among non-licensed drivers. Results demonstrated that (i) information from central vision is more important than information from peripheral vision in identifying hazard situations, for screen-based hazard perception tests, (ii) clear central and blurred peripheral vision viewing helps the alignment of line-of-gaze and attention, (iii) training with clear central and blurred peripheral vision can improve screen-based hazard perception. The findings have important implications for road safety and provide a new training paradigm to improve hazard perception.

Plasticity of temporal binding in children with autism spectrum disorder: A single case experimental design perceptual training study

BackgroundMany children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate atypical responses to multisensory stimuli. These disruptions, which are frequently seen in response to audiovisual speech, may produce cascading effects on the broader development of children with ASD. Perceptual training has been shown to enhance multisensory speech perception in typically developed adults. This study was the first to examine the effects of perceptual training on audiovisual speech perception in children with ASD. MethodA multiple baseline across participants design was utilized with four 7- to 13-year-old children with ASD. The dependent variable, which was probed outside the training task each day using a simultaneity judgment task in baseline, intervention, and maintenance conditions, was audiovisual temporal binding window (TBW), an index of multisensory temporal acuity. During perceptual training, participants completed the same simultaneity judgment task with feedback on their accuracy after each trial in easy-, medium-, and hard-difficulty blocks. ResultsA functional relation between the multisensory perceptual training program and TBW size was not observed. Of the three participants who were entered into training, one participant demonstrated a strong effect, characterized by a fairly immediate change in TBW trend. The two remaining participants demonstrated a less clear response (i.e., longer latency to effect, lack of functional independence). The first participant to enter the training condition demonstrated some maintenance of a narrower TBW post-training. ConclusionsResults indicate TBWs in children with ASD may be malleable, but additional research is needed and may entail further adaptation to the multisensory perceptual training paradigm.

Efeitos de longo prazo do treinamento perceptual na percepção e produção das plosivas iniciais surdas do inglês por estudantes brasileiros: implicações para o ensino de pronúncia

In this article, we investigate the effects of perceptual training on the perception and production of word-initial VOT patterns in English by Brazilian learners. The experiment consisted of a pre-test, a post-test and two delayed post-tests. The first delayed post-test took place one month after training, while the second one took place three years later. The results show a slight increase in the identification rates by the Experimental Group, and no significant increase between the pre-test and the final post-test in the production data. Based on these results, we draw attention to the need of associating perceptual training with additional awareness-raising tasks on phonetic-phonological aspects, combined with a continuous exposure to the target forms.

Effects of perceptual training in Mandarin tone sandhi production

It is well-established that the production of non-native lexical tone poses a great challenge to adult L2 learners (Hao,2012; Chang and Yao, 2016; Mok et al., 2018). The production of tonal patterns on disyllabic words is more challenging for non-native speakers because additional computational and/or lexical mechanisms are involved in correctly applying the tone sandhi rules in languages like Mandarin (Chen et al., 2017). Previous speech training studies have shown that perceptual training could improve both perception and production of non-native tones in isolation (Wang et al., 1999, 2003; Wayland and Li, 2008). The current study aims to further examine if perceptual training promotes learning of tonal patterns on disyllabic words by examining the production of two Mandarin Tone sandhi rules—the third tone sandhi and half-third tone sandhi by Cantonese learners. Native Cantonese speakers were trained with an identification task and a same/different discrimination task with both real and wug words. Their pre- and post-training production was compared with native speakers’ production, and it showed that perceptual training can lead to more successful learning of Mandarin tone sandhi rules based on acoustic and statistical analyses of tonal contours.

Effect of perceptual training on neural correlates of radial-tangential anisotropy in visual crowding

Effect of perceptual training on neural correlates of radial-tangential anisotropy in visual crowding

Effects of Perceptual Training on the Identification of American English Monophthongal Vowels by Korean Listeners

Soonhyun Hong. 2017. Effects of Perceptual Training on the Identification of American English Monophthongal Vowels by Korean Listeners. Studies in Modern Grammar 95, 55-80. In this study, we tried to demonstrate that a forced choice vowel identification training with feedback for three weeks with naturally produced /hVd/ signals of multiple English talkers’, effectively facilitated 47 Korean listeners to learn to identify English monophthongs. The subjects were assessed before, after and two months after the training with an identification test composed of a group of vowel signals produced by multiple novel talkers. The results showed that the subjects’ identification accuracies improved sharply after training and the improvement persisted for two months. Furthermore, the response latencies at the identification test got drastically shortened at Posttest and the shortened latencies also persisted for two months. The results suggest the possibility that through three-week training, most of the training effects could be transferred from the short-term memory to the long-term memory.

Effects of perceptual training on the identification and production of word-Initial voiceless stops by argentinean learners of English

In this study, we investigate the effectiveness of perceptual training, administered to Argentinean learners, in the perception and production of word-initial voiceless stops in English. 24 participants were divided into 3 groups: (i) Group 1, which participated in 3 training sessions; (ii) Group 2, which, besides performing the same training tasks, was explicitly informed about the target item; (iii) Group 3 (control). All participants took part in a pre-test, a post-test and a delayed post-test. In all these phases, they participated in a consonant identification task and took part in a reading exercise. Our results show a significant increase of both experimental groups in identification. As for production, Group 2 exhibited a significant increase in /p/ and /t/ after training. These results are indicative of the effectiveness of perceptual training tasks in helping learners focus on Voice Onset Time.

Perceptual Training Effects on the Acquisition of English Stress by Brazilian Learners

This study investigates the effects of perceptual training on Brazilian English language learners’ ability to acquire preantepenultimate stress, or stress on the fourth to last syllable. Since preantepenultimate stress assignment is infrequent in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), it was initially hypothesized that BP speakers would store few examples of this pattern. The training was performed in five sessions and included stress identification tasks followed by immediate feedback. Results confirm the training significantly improved study participants’ perception and production of preantepenultimate syllable stress assignment. Furthermore, participants generalized acquired production patterns to unfamiliar words and retained these patterns for two months after training concluded. With frequent perceptual training, it is believed BP speakers could create a new category of English words with preantepenultimate syllable stress. This study demonstrates that perception training, typically used for the perception or the production of sounds, can also be used to improve the production of L2 stress assignment with very positive results.

Producing Lexical Stress in Second Language German

Lexical stress assignment plays a central role in being understood in a second language. In fact, research has shown that it may be more important for the comprehensibility of second language learners’ speech than, for example, grammatical correctness (Trofimovich & Isaacs, ). Nonetheless, its production poses challenges for second language learners. This study investigated the effect of perceptual training on the production of three types of predictable German lexical stress patterns by native speakers of English. Beginner and intermediate learners produced German words from three categories: words ending in schwa; words with unstressed suffixes; and German‐English cognates. The results demonstrate that both beginner and intermediate learners improved in their production of lexical stress after the training. Though participants in both groups had more difficulties in assigning lexical stress to cognate words than to non‐cognate words, production accuracy could best be predicted by the presence of certain suffixes. The results have implications for teaching second language vocabulary.

Therapeutic effect of sensory and perceptual training on children with motor retardation

目的 探讨感知觉训练对运动发育迟缓患儿运动功能的影响。 方法 选择2016年7至10月在深圳市龙岗区妇幼保健院儿童保健科进行康复治疗的运动发育迟缓患儿60例，其中男35例，女25例；年龄(3.81±0.53)个月。采用随机数字表法将全部患儿分为观察组与对照组，每组30例。观察组男18例，女12例；年龄(3.58±0.33)个月。对照组男17例，女13例；年龄(3.97±0.73)个月。全部患儿均接受常规康复训练，观察组在常规康复训练的基础上进行感知觉训练。治疗前、治疗3个月及治疗6个月时分别采用Gesell发育量表(GDS)评估患儿的发育水平。 结果 治疗3个月时，对照组粗大、精细运动发育商[(35.69±6.18)分和(50.45±4.22)分]与治疗前[(31.02±4.19)分和(39.16±1.00)分]比较差异均有统计学意义(t＝2.812、2.355，均P<0.05)，观察组粗大、精细运动发育商[(40.45±8.08)分和(52.65±3.55)分]与治疗前[(30.16±5.27)分和(36.67±2.29)分]比较差异有统计学意义(t＝2.950、2.208，均P<0.05)。2组治疗3个月时粗大、精细运动发育商比较差异均有统计学意义(t＝2.688、2.356，均P<0.05)。治疗6个月时，观察组粗大、精细运动发育商[(60.45±10.39)分，(68.49±8.52)分]与对照组[(56.21±8.12)分，(62.34±7.29)分]比较差异均有统计学意义(t＝2.358、2.321，均P<0.05)。 结论 感知觉训练能够促进儿童粗大及精细运动功能发育。

Time course influences transfer of visual perceptual learning across spatial location

Visual perceptual learning describes the improvement of visual perception with repeated practice. Previous research has established that the learning effects of perceptual training may be transferable to untrained stimulus attributes such as spatial location under certain circumstances. However, the mechanisms involved in transfer have not yet been fully elucidated. Here, we investigated the effect of altering training time course on the transferability of learning effects. Participants were trained on a motion direction discrimination task or a sinusoidal grating orientation discrimination task in a single visual hemifield. The 4000 training trials were either condensed into one day, or spread evenly across five training days. When participants were trained over a five-day period, there was transfer of learning to both the untrained visual hemifield and the untrained task. In contrast, when the same amount of training was condensed into a single day, participants did not show any transfer of learning. Thus, learning time course may influence the transferability of perceptual learning effects.

Perceptual training yields rapid improvements in visually impaired youth.

Visual function demands coordinated responses to information over a wide field of view, involving both central and peripheral vision. Visually impaired individuals often seem to underutilize peripheral vision, even in absence of obvious peripheral deficits. Motivated by perceptual training studies with typically sighted adults, we examined the effectiveness of perceptual training in improving peripheral perception of visually impaired youth. Here, we evaluated the effectiveness of three training regimens: (1) an action video game, (2) a psychophysical task that combined attentional tracking with a spatially and temporally unpredictable motion discrimination task, and (3) a control video game. Training with both the action video game and modified attentional tracking yielded improvements in visual performance. Training effects were generally larger in the far periphery and appear to be stable 12 months after training. These results indicate that peripheral perception might be under-utilized by visually impaired youth and that this underutilization can be improved with only ~8 hours of perceptual training. Moreover, the similarity of improvements following attentional tracking and action video-game training suggest that well-documented effects of action video-game training might be due to the sustained deployment of attention to multiple dynamic targets while concurrently requiring rapid attending and perception of unpredictable events.

Effects of perceptual training on the perception of Korean boundary tones by Chinese learners

Previous studies have proven that High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) is an effective method for training non-native listeners to discriminate L2 phoneme contrasts or prosodic contrasts, such as Chinese tone and Japanese segment length. However, it still remains uninvestigated whether this training method can be successfully applied to the perceptual training of nondistinctive L2 intonation. This study aims to prove that the HVPT method is also effective in training Chinese learners of Korean to distinguish Korean boundary tones. Korean boundary tones have three important grammatical and pragmatic functions: distinction of declarative and interrogative sentences, distinction of wh- and yes-no questions, and distinction of ambiguous meanings of some terminal endings. Our experiment is designed to train Chinese learners to discriminate these three functions using the HVPT method. 40 Chinese learners participated in 10 online sessions. They were exposed to 276 sentences delivered by different speakers each session. The subjects showed significant improvements in discriminating all three intonational functions in the posttest. Lower proficiency learners showed greater improvements. A notable change occurred in the development of categorical perception. The category boundaries between declarative and interrogative sentences shifted closer to the native speakers’ after the training.

Perceptual phonetic training improves production in larger discourse contexts

Perceptual training can lead to improvements in production which generalize to new words and talkers. This study investigated the effects of perceptual training on productions in larger discourse contexts of continuous speech, and additionally examined whether training generalized to a new syllable structure and across grammatical domains. Participants included Korean L2 learners of English in a pretest-training-posttest design. An experimental group completed perceptual training on singleton coda palatals, and a control group completed training on an unrelated target. Results indicated that perceptual training on singleton coda palatals was successful in significantly improving learners’ productions in continuous speech. Learners were able to generalize production improvements to a new syllable structure (simple vs. complex coda), but not across grammatical domains (-ed morphemes). These findings provide further support for the use of perceptual training in pronunciation classrooms, but demonstrate some limitations to its generalizability.

Benefits of Stimulus Exposure: Developmental Learning Independent of Task Performance.

Perceptual learning (training-induced performance improvement) can be elicited by task-irrelevant stimulus exposure in humans. In contrast, task-irrelevant stimulus exposure in animals typically disrupts perception in juveniles while causing little to no effect in adults. This may be due to the extent of exposure, which is brief in humans while chronic in animals. Here we assessed the effects of short bouts of passive stimulus exposure on learning during development in gerbils, compared with non-passive stimulus exposure (i.e., during testing). We used prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response, a method that can be applied at any age, to measure gap detection thresholds across four age groups, spanning development. First, we showed that both gap detection thresholds and gap detection learning across sessions displayed a long developmental trajectory, improving throughout the juvenile period. Additionally, we demonstrated larger within- and across-animal performance variability in younger animals. These results are generally consistent with results in humans, where there are extended developmental trajectories for both the perception of temporally-varying signals, and the effects of perceptual training, as well as increased variability and poorer performance consistency in children. We then chose an age (mid-juveniles) that displayed clear learning over sessions in order to assess effects of brief passive stimulus exposure on this learning. We compared learning in mid-juveniles exposed to either gap detection testing (gaps paired with startles) or equivalent gap exposure without testing (gaps alone) for three sessions. Learning was equivalent in both these groups and better than both naïve age-matched animals and controls receiving no gap exposure but only startle testing. Thus, short bouts of exposure to gaps independent of task performance is sufficient to induce learning at this age, and is as effective as gap detection testing.