Study Of Perceptions Research Articles

Perception Development of L2 English and L3 Polish Coda Obstruent by L1 German Adult Multilinguals

Research into L3 phonological acquisition has grown in the past decade, yet perceptual studies remain scarce. Existing studies report complex interactions between the phonetic categories of multilinguals’ L1, L2 and L3, depending on investigated feature and stage of L3 learning. This small-scale study, grounded in Complex Dynamic Systems Theory, examines the development of coda obstruent perception in seven beginner learners of Polish as an L3 (aged 21–39), with German as their L1 and English as their L2. Over ten months of instructed L3 learning, participants were tested four times using a timed forced-choice goodness task in both L2 and L3. Additionally, three participants provided monthly data between the second and fourth testing. Analyses across the sample revealed a competitive relationship between L2 and L3 perception, with L2 accuracy declining as L3 accuracy improved. Individual data, however, indicated more varied patterns: while one learner followed the overall trend, another exhibited decreasing accuracy in both their L2 and L3, and the third maintained accurate L2 perception alongside more accurate yet increasingly variable L3 perception. These findings highlight the value of analyzing both overall trends and individual data to better understand multilingual speech perception development, and suggest that, with growing L3 experience, the newly learnt L3 may influence L2 perception of a phonological process shared in the L1 and marked in the L2.

A Perceptual Study on the Plausibility of Binaural Rendering in Anechoic Environments

Plausibility has become a widely used paradigm for evaluating binaural audio for augmented reality. Although several studies have evaluated the plausibility of different binaural rendering techniques, it is not clear which parameters contribute to plausibility and to what extent. The present study attempts to fill this gap and presents the results of five listening experiments systematically investigating the impact of different parameters. A first plausibility test performed in anechoic conditions assessed the plausibility of nonindividual head-related transfer-function rendering. In four subsequent experiments, the influence of spherical harmonics truncation order, visual cues, small translational head movements, and different head-related transfer-function sets is assessed. Overall, the results indicate that even large manipulations of the rendering system have surprisingly little impact on the estimated d’.

Individual differences in the distributional learning and overnight consolidation of the Mandarin level-falling tone contrast

In perceptual studies, musicality and pitch aptitude have been implicated in tone learning, while vocabulary size has been implicated in distributional (segment) learning. Moreover, working memory plays a role in the overnight consolidation of explicit-declarative L2 learning. This study examines how these factors uniquely account for individual differences in the distributional learning and consolidation of an L2 tone contrast, where learners are tonal language speakers, and the training is implicit. Following a previous study investigating distributional tone learning, 66 L1-Cantonese participants who learned and consolidated a Mandarin level-falling tone contrast through distributional exposure were measured in a pitch threshold task, Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia, Mandarin Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and an Operation Span task. Pitch threshold predicted immediate learning improvement while working memory predicted overnight consolidation by a bimodal group (not a unimodal group). The findings imply that pitch aptitude may be important in encoding stepwise tonal tokens, and the predictive power of working memory in overnight consolidation extends to implicit tone learning. Meanwhile, musical aptitude may not confer an additional advantage for speakers with native-tone experiences, and learners with a larger L2 vocabulary size might have resisted adaptation to distributional exposure because of robust L2 tonal representations.

Speech feature encoding in the human brain

The human superior temporal gyrus (STG) is a high-order auditory cortex area that is critical for speech perception. Over the past decade, cortical recordings directly from the human brain procedures have provided the most detailed information yet on the representations and computations that give rise to speech perception. Inspired by Ken Stevens’ theory of distinctive features, we have discovered several defining aspects of cortical processing of speech: (1) representation of acoustic-phonetic features, (2) encoding of prosodic cues that demarcate the timing and magnitude of syllables (peak derivative of the amplitude envelope) and sentence/phrasal onsets, and (3) speaker normalized representation of vowels in 2-dimensional formant space. Perceptual studies on phoneme restoration and selective attention have demonstrated that cortical processing in the STG is directly related to our conscious perception of speech sounds and not a veridical read-out of the stimulus. Our new work seeks to address phonological specialization in the STG based on language experience, and the representation of words.

Sketch Beautification: Learning Part Beautification and Structure Refinement for Sketches of Man-Made Objects.

We present a novel freehand sketch beautification method, which takes as input a freely drawn sketch of a man-made object and automatically beautifies it both geometrically and structurally. Beautifying a sketch is challenging because of its highly abstract and heavily diverse drawing manner. Existing methods are usually confined to their limited training samples and thus cannot beautify freely drawn sketches with both geometric and structural variations. To address this challenge, we adopt a divide-and-combine strategy. Specifically, we first parse an input sketch into semantic components, beautify individual components by a learned part beautification module based on part-level implicit manifolds, and then reassemble the beautified components through a structure beautification module. With this strategy, our method can go beyond the training samples and handle novel freehand sketches. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our system with extensive experiments and a perceptual study.

Text-guided image-to-sketch diffusion models

Recently, with the continuous advancement of deep learning techniques, research on sketch synthesis has been progressing. However, existing methods still face challenges in generating human-like freehand sketches from real-world natural images at both object and scene levels. To address this, we propose SketchDiffusion, a text-guided freehand sketch synthesis method based on conditional stable diffusion. In SketchDiffusion, we design a novel image enhancing module to efficiently extract high-quality image features. Moreover, we utilize additional guidance from global and local features extracted by a U-shaped diffusion guidance network to control the noise addition and denoising process of the diffusion model, thereby significantly improving controllability and performance in freehand sketch synthesis. Beyond the model architecture, we leverage the designed BLIP-based text generation method to create 70,280 text prompts for foreground, background, and panorama sketch synthesis in the extensive SketchyCOCO dataset, thereby improving the overall effectiveness of model training. Compared to the state-of-the-art methods, our proposed SketchDiffusion has shown an average improvement of over 16.4%, 16.75%, and 12.8% on three quantitative metrics (sketch recognition, sketch-based retrieval, and user perceptual study), respectively. Furthermore, our approach not only excels in synthesizing freehand sketches containing multiple abstract objects but also has multiple applications in supporting human–computer interaction.

Exploring the Association of Urban Agricultural Practices with Farmers’ Psychosocial Well-Being in Dar es Salaam and Greater Lomé: A Perceptual Study

African urban agriculture (UA) has garnered attention for its contributions to food security and socio-economic improvement. However, its impact on the psychological well-being of farmers has received minimal focus. This study explores the psychosocial effects of UA by surveying 733 farmers in Dar es Salaam and Greater Lomé. Utilizing the Mental Health Continuum–Short Form (MHC-SF) and bespoke questionnaires, our research evaluates the emotional benefits of urban farming. Findings from regression analyses and spatial assessments conducted using Python and QGIS 3.32.2-Lima indicate significant variations in UA-related happiness across different city zones, with peripheral farmers experiencing greater satisfaction than their urban counterparts. Notably, female farmers reported higher levels of happiness, underscoring UA’s potential to empower women. This study advocates for the integration of UA into urban planning frameworks to foster psychologically beneficial urban environments.

Perception of contractors and sub-contractors towards the factors causing delays in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) construction projects

Purpose This study aims to determine and investigate the main causes of construction project delays. Construction projects are more intricate and associated with significant levels of risk owing to cost overruns. These overruns frequently lead to delays, incomplete work or other related challenges. Building delays are a prevalent problem in the building sector of developing nations. These delays prolong the duration of projects and result in increased costs and conflicts among stakeholders. A conceptual model consisting of the factors causing the delays in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) projects was developed and tested in this study. Design/methodology/approach A comprehensive data collection process was undertaken. A meticulously designed survey was distributed to a diverse cohort of 294 participants, including contractors and sub-contractors from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The data was collected using stratified sampling, ensuring a representative sample. The data was then analysed using ordinary least squares multiple regression. Findings The findings of this study have significant implications for the construction industry. They indicate that factors related to sales, clients, design, procurement, finance and labour all contribute to delays in HVAC projects. Understanding these factors can help stakeholders in the industry to better manage and mitigate project delays. Originality/value This study is unique because it is a perceptual study of stakeholders. It provides valuable information for analysing and assessing project performance by identifying the primary causes of HVAC project delays. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study conducted on HVAC projects is the first of its kind and hence makes a pivotal contribution to the literature on construction projects. Additionally, the study will assist policymakers and consultants in taking necessary steps to minimize delays.

Scaling Painting Style Transfer

AbstractNeural style transfer (NST) is a deep learning technique that produces an unprecedentedly rich style transfer from a style image to a content image. It is particularly impressive when it comes to transferring style from a painting to an image. NST was originally achieved by solving an optimization problem to match the global statistics of the style image while preserving the local geometric features of the content image. The two main drawbacks of this original approach is that it is computationally expensive and that the resolution of the output images is limited by high GPU memory requirements. Many solutions have been proposed to both accelerate NST and produce images with larger size. However, our investigation shows that these accelerated methods all compromise the quality of the produced images in the context of painting style transfer. Indeed, transferring the style of a painting is a complex task involving features at different scales, from the color palette and compositional style to the fine brushstrokes and texture of the canvas. This paper provides a solution to solve the original global optimization for ultra‐high resolution (UHR) images, enabling multiscale NST at unprecedented image sizes. This is achieved by spatially localizing the computation of each forward and backward passes through the VGG network. Extensive qualitative and quantitative comparisons, as well as a perceptual study, show that our method produces style transfer of unmatched quality for such high‐resolution painting styles. By a careful comparison, we show that state‐of‐the‐art fast methods are still prone to artifacts, thus suggesting that fast painting style transfer remains an open problem.

A multi-task generative model for simultaneous post-contrast MR image synthesis and brainstem glioma segmentation

ObjectivesThis study aims to generate post-contrast MR images reducing the exposure of gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) for brainstem glioma (BSG) detection, simultaneously delineating the BSG lesion, and providing high-resolution contrast information. MethodsA retrospective cohort of 30 patients diagnosed with brainstem glioma was included. Multi-contrast images, including pre-contrast T1 weighted (pre-T1w), T2 weighted (T2w), arterial spin labeling (ASL) and post-contrast T1w images, were collected. A multi-task generative model was developed to synthesize post-contrast T1w images and simultaneously segment BSG masks from the multi-contrast inputs. Performance evaluation was conducted using peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index (SSIM), and mean absolute error (MAE) metrics. A perceptual study was also undertaken to assess diagnostic quality. ResultsThe proposed model achieved SSIM of 0.86 ± 0.04, PSNR of 26.33 ± 0.05 and MAE of 57.20 ± 20.50 for post-contrast T1w image synthesis. Automated delineation of the BSG lesions achieved Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) score of 0.88 ± 0.27. ConclusionsThe proposed model can synthesize high-quality post-contrast T1w images and accurately segment the BSG region, yielding satisfactory DSC scores. Clinical relevance statementThe synthesized post-contrast MR image presented in this study has the potential to reduce the usage of gadolinium-based contrast agents, which may pose risks to patients. Moreover, the automated segmentation method proposed in this paper aids radiologists in accurately identifying the brainstem glioma lesion, facilitating the diagnostic process.

S3: Speech, Script and Scene driven Head and Eye Animation

We present S 3 , a novel approach to generating expressive, animator-centric 3D head and eye animation of characters in conversation. Given speech audio, a Directorial script and a cinematographic 3D scene as input, we automatically output the animated 3D rotation of each character's head and eyes. S 3 distills animation and psycho-linguistic insights into a novel modular framework for conversational gaze capturing: audio-driven rhythmic head motion; narrative script-driven emblematic head and eye gestures; and gaze trajectories computed from audio-driven gaze focus/aversion and 3D visual scene salience. Our evaluation is four-fold: we quantitatively validate our algorithm against ground truth data and baseline alternatives; we conduct a perceptual study showing our results to compare favourably to prior art; we present examples of animator control and critique of S 3 output; and present a large number of compelling and varied animations of conversational gaze.

PEA-PODs: Perceptual Evaluation of Algorithms for Power Optimization in XR Displays

Display power consumption is an emerging concern for untethered devices. This goes double for augmented and virtual extended reality (XR) displays, which target high refresh rates and high resolutions while conforming to an ergonomically light form factor. A number of image mapping techniques have been proposed to extend battery usage. However, there is currently no comprehensive quantitative understanding of how the power savings provided by these methods compare to their impact on visual quality. We set out to answer this question. To this end, we present a perceptual evaluation of algorithms (PEA) for power optimization in XR displays (PODs). Consolidating a portfolio of six power-saving display mapping approaches, we begin by performing a large-scale perceptual study to understand the impact of each method on perceived quality in the wild. This results in a unified quality score for each technique, scaled in just-objectionable-difference (JOD) units. In parallel, each technique is analyzed using hardware-accurate power models. The resulting JOD-to-Milliwatt transfer function provides a first-of-its-kind look into tradeoffs offered by display mapping techniques, and can be directly employed to make architectural decisions for power budgets on XR displays. Finally, we leverage our study data and power models to address important display power applications like the choice of display primary, power implications of eye tracking, and more 1 .

On Non-Native Listeners’ Ability to Identify Prominence and Pitch Accents in EnglishMonologic Speech

A comparative perceptual study involving two experimental groups with different native languages (Russian and Czech) shows that phonologically trained non-native speakers of English are good at identifying basic suprasegmental features of the English language, namely prominence (sentence stress) and accent types, which potentially makes it possible to use their prosodic annotations when validating cross-language intonation research. The occasional failure of both experimental groups to identify certain accent types is explained in the study by the annotators’ mother tongue’s prosodic interference: Czech and Russian speakers rely on different acoustic cues when identifying prosodic features in their native languages and transfer this habit to the discrimination of English prosodic characteristics. The study demonstrates that when a prosodic cue is not marked in the speaker’s mother tongue, it will likely be ignored in the foreign language.

Locus of control: Perceptual study of hotel management students at Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM)

The study investigated the locus of control in hotel management student of Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM). The study has selected a sample size of hundred individuals to investigate personality traits based on locus of control. Among the hundred students an even number of fifty male and fifty female currently studying at NATHM located in Kathmandu, Nepal has been considered for investigation. The study revealed that most of the students have internal and external locus of control meaning that they believe both internal and external factors as described by Rotters and other studies.

Design and implementation of an interactive virtual library based on its physical counterpart

The rapid technological advancements and the widespread adoption of the internet have diminished the role of the physical library as a main information resource. As the Metaverse is evolving, a revolutionary change is anticipated in how social relationships are perceived, within an educational context. It is therefore necessary for libraries to upgrade the services they provide to keep in line with the technological trends and be a part of this virtual revolution. It is believed that the design and development of a Virtual Reality (VR) library can be the community and knowledge hub the society needs. In this paper, the process of creating a partially digital replica of the Limassol Municipal University Library, a landmark for the city of Limassol, is examined by using photogrammetry and 3D modelling. A 3D platform was developed, where users have the perception that they are experiencing the actual library. To that end, a perceptual study was conducted, to understand the current usage of physical libraries, examine the users’ experience in VR, and identify the requirements and expectations in the development of a virtual library counterpart. Following the suggestions and observations from the perceptual study, five key scenarios were implemented that demonstrate the potential use of a virtual library. This work incorporates the fundamental VR attributes, such as immersiveness, realism, user interactivity and feedback as well as other features, such as animated NPCs, 3D audio, ray-casting and GUIs, that significantly augment the overall VR library user experience, presence as well as navigation autonomy. The main effort of this project was to produce a VR representation of an existing physical library, integrated with its key services, as a proof-of-concept, with emphasis on easy 24/7 access, functionality, and interactivity. The above attributes differentiate this work from existing studies. A detailed user evaluation study was conducted upon completion of the final VR library implementation, which firmly confirmed all its key attributes and future viability.

Designing an Alternative Typeface to Reflect the Identity of the ITS Campus

This research aims to design a new typeface that reflects the characteristics of the Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) campus and can be used in a variety of contexts. The new typeface, ITS-Artistech, was created by synthesizing key features into the anatomy of Latin letters, which were extracted from the key characteristics and images of the ITS campus. The typeface is intended to be one of several typographic options that reflect ITS and to pioneer typeface production at ITS, contributing to the theoretical and practical body of knowledge on designing typefaces that reflect campus identity. The research method involved collecting data on the use of typefaces in the ITS environment and ITS profile, conducting perceptual studies to know how people perceive the images and characteristics of the ITS campus, and developing the typeface through a series of iterative refinement steps. The new typeface is a valuable resource for the ITS community, as it helps to promote the university's brand, foster a sense of community, and support the creative process and the research of typeface design. It is also a unique and distinctive typeface that is not based on any preexisting letters. The typeface is available as a digital letterform (font) that can be installed and used for a variety of purposes, including digital and print promotional materials.

16‐1: A Model for the Appearance of Interocular Colorimetric Differences in Binocular XR Displays

Many extended reality (XR) devices present different views to the left and right eyes. Unwanted colorimetric differences between these views can cause perceptual artifacts that degrade binocular image quality. We present an image‐computable model designed to predict the appearance of binocular views with colorimetric differences in XR displays. The model is fitted to data from a recent perceptual study in which people provided multidimensional responses about the appearance of stimuli simulating an optical see‐through augmented reality device with interocular intensity differences. This work can be used to create preliminary assessments of binocular artifact appearance and inform XR display design.

Towards Improved Auditory-Perceptual Assessment of Timbres: Comparing Accuracy and Reliability of Four Deconstructed Timbre Assessment Models

Timbre is a central quality of singing, yet remains a complex notion poorly understood in psychoacoustic studies. Previous studies note how no single acoustic variable or combinations of variables consistently predict timbre dimensions. Timbre varies on a continuum from darkest to lightest. These extremes are associated with laryngeal and vocal tract adjustments related to smaller and larger vocal tract area and variations in vocal fold vibratory characteristics. Perceptually, timbre assessment is influenced by spectral characteristics and formant frequency adjustments, though these dimensions are not independently perceived. Perceptual studies repeatedly demonstrate difficulties in correlating variations in timbre stimuli to specific measures. A recent study demonstrated how acoustic predictive salience of voice category and voice weight across pitches contribute to timbre assessments and concludes that timbre may be related to as-of-yet unknown factor(s). The purpose of this study was to test four different models for assessing timbre; one model focused on specific anatomy, one on listener intuition, one utilising auditory anchors, and one using expert raters in a deconstructed timbre model with 5 specific dimensions. MethodsFour independent panels were conducted with separate cohorts of professional singing teachers. 41 assessors took part in the anatomically focused panel, 54 in the intuition-based panel, 30 in the anchored panel, and 12 in the expert listener panel. Stimuli taken from live performances of well-known singers were used for all panels, representing all genders, genres, and styles across a large pitch range. All stimuli are available as supplementary materials. Fleiss’ kappa values, descriptive statistics, and significance tests are reported for all panel assessments. ResultsPanel 1 through 4 varied in overall accuracy and agreement. The intuitionbased model showed overall 45% average accuracy (SD ±4%), k=0.289 (<0.001) compared to overall 71% average accuracy (SD ±3%), k=0.368 (<0,001) of the anatomical focused panel. The auditory-anchored model showed overall 75% average accuracy (SD ±8%), k=0.54 (<0.001) compared with overall 83% average accuracy and agreement of k=0.63 (<0.001) for panel 4. Results revealed that highest accuracy and reliability was achieved in a deconstructed timbre model and that providing anchoring improved reliability but with no further increase in accuracy. ConclusionDeconstructing timbre into specific parameters improved auditory perceptual accuracy and overall agreement. Assessing timbre along with other perceptual dimensions improves accruacy and reliability. Panel assessors’ expert level of listening skills remain an important factor in obtaining reliable and accurate assessments of auditory stimuli for timbre dimensions. Anchoring improved reliability but with no further increase in accuracy. The study suggests that timbre assessment can be improved by approaching the percept through a prism of 5 specific dimensions each related to specific physiology and auditory-perceptual subcategories. Further tests are needed with framework-naïve listeners, non-musically educated listeners, artificial intelligence comparisons, and synthetic stimuli to further test the reliability.

Interior automobile seats: A syntactical and perceptual study

This study investigated the seat layout of automobile interiors and its impact on the fluidity and privacy of interior space using spatial perception and space syntax research methods. The interior of an automobile is a typical “miniature” passenger space. First, to explore the perception characteristics of interior space fluidity and privacy across different seat configurations, we conducted a perception experiment on the interior space of seven automobile models with various seat layouts. The depth, connection, global integration degree, and standardized integration degree values were obtained using spatial syntax to perform topological calculations on the experimental automobile models. We conducted a correlation analysis in conjunction with the results of the perception experiment and the spatial syntax analysis. The calculation results of spatial syntax analysis are consistent with the experimental results of perception of automobile interior space layout on the fluidity and privacy. The different layout of automobile seats can affect people's perception on the fluidity and privacy of automobile interior space. At the same time, spatial syntax can provide an effective design analysis tool for the fluidity and privacy of automobile interior space.

Tell Me What Is Good about This Property: Leveraging Reviews for Segment-Personalized Image Collection Summarization

Image collection summarization techniques aim to present a compact representation of an image gallery through a carefully selected subset of images that captures its semantic content. When it comes to web content, however, the ideal selection can vary based on the user's specific intentions and preferences. This is particularly relevant at Booking.com, where presenting properties and their visual summaries that align with users' expectations is crucial. To address this challenge, in this work, we consider user intentions in the summarization of property visuals by analyzing property reviews and extracting the most significant aspects mentioned by users. By incorporating the insights from reviews in our visual summaries, we enhance the summaries by presenting the relevant content to a user. Moreover, we achieve it without the need for costly annotations. Our experiments, including human perceptual studies, demonstrate the superiority of our cross-modal approach, which we coin as CrossSummarizer over the no-personalization and image-based clustering baselines.