Psycholinguistic Research Articles

Acoustic context effects in speech perception.

The extreme acoustic variability of speech is well established, which makes the proficiency of human speech perception all the more impressive. Speech perception, like perception in any modality, is relative to context, and this provides a means to normalize the acoustic variability in the speech signal. Acoustic context effects in speech perception have been widely documented, but a clear understanding of how these effects relate to each other across stimuli, timescales, and acoustic domains is lacking. Here we review the influences that spectral context, temporal context, and spectrotemporal context have on speech perception. Studies are organized in terms of whether the context precedes the target (forward effects) or follows it (backward effects), and whether the context is adjacent to the target (proximal) or temporally removed from it (distal). Special cases where proximal and distal contexts have competing influences on perception are also considered. Across studies, a common theme emerges: acoustic differences between contexts and targets are perceptually magnified, producing contrast effects that facilitate perception of target sounds and words. This indicates enhanced sensitivity to changes in the acoustic environment, which maximizes the amount of potential information that can be transmitted to the perceiver. This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain Psychology > Perception and Psychophysics.

Listening effort: Are we measuring cognition or affect, or both?

Listening effort is increasingly recognized as a factor in communication, particularly for and with nonnative speakers, for the elderly, for individuals with hearing impairment and/or for those working in noise. However, as highlighted by McGarrigle et al., International Journal of Audiology, 2014, 53, 433-445, the term "listening effort" encompasses a wide variety of concepts, including the engagement and control of multiple possibly distinct neural systems for information processing, and the affective response to the expenditure of those resources in a given context. Thus, experimental or clinical methods intended to objectively quantify listening effort may ultimately reflect a complex interaction between the operations of one or more of those information processing systems, and/or the affective and motivational response to the demand on those systems. Here we examine theoretical, behavioral, and psychophysiological factors related to resolving the question of what we are measuring, and why, when we measure "listening effort." This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain Psychology > Theory and Methods Psychology > Attention Psychology > Emotion and Motivation.

Self-Initiated Expatriates: Psychological Contracts and Host Country Language Proficiency

Self-Initiated Expatriates: Psychological Contracts and Host Country Language Proficiency

Examining the role of narratives in civic crowdfunding: linguistic style and message substance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how linguistic style and message substance influence persuasion in civic crowdfunding marketplaces in which written narrative pitch become a vital communication to attract private contributions to public goods and services. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), the authors operationalize the linguistic style of the narrative pitch as language power and message substance as issue-relevant argument quality. In this paper, the authors examine how characteristics of both style and message are related to the outcome of civic crowdfunded projects.Design/methodology/approachThe data on civic crowdfunding projects were retrieved from Spacehive, the platform that dedicated mainly to civic projects ranging from community programs, social-oriented enterprises, to infrastructure or facility development. Each of the narrative samples is analyzed using a computerized text analysis package called the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count to extract the features of the linguistic style and message substance in the narratives. The logistic regression models are estimated to assess the impact of both linguistic style and message substance on crowdfunding decisions.FindingsThe results show that funding outcomes can be improved with psychological language dimensions (i.e. positive affective and perceptual language). However, extensive use of social language does not help project creators to increase their chance of funding performance; but instead, such language reduces the likelihood of project success. Additionally, message substance or issue-relevant information such as money and risk language influences funding outcome.Originality/valueVery few empirical studies investigated the differential effects of language style and message substance on funding performance of crowdfunding campaigns. The authors draw upon the dual process of persuasion as a theoretical base to identify a comprehensive set of linguistic style and message substance and to examine the role of such features in an emerging civic crowdfunding market. This study advances the application of the dual process in ELM by identifying and examining distinct persuasive cues originating from linguistics styles and message contents.

Predicting outcomes in crowdfunding campaigns with textual, visual, and linguistic signals

This paper introduces a neural network and natural language processing approach to predict the outcome of crowdfunding startup pitches using text, speech, and video metadata in 20,188 crowdfunding campaigns. Our study emphasizes the need to understand crowdfunding from an investor’s perspective. Linguistic styles in crowdfunding campaigns that aim to trigger excitement or are aimed at inclusiveness are better predictors of campaign success than firm-level determinants. At the contrary, higher uncertainty perceptions about the state of product development may substantially reduce evaluations of new products and reduce purchasing intentions among potential funders. Our findings emphasize that positive psychological language is salient in environments where objective information is scarce and where investment preferences are taste based. Employing enthusiastic language or showing the product in action may capture an individual’s attention. Using all technology and design-related crowdfunding campaigns launched on Kickstarter, our study underscores the need to align potential consumers’ expectations with the visualization and presentation of the crowdfunding campaign.

How Do Undiagnosed Symptoms of Maternal Psychological Distress During the Postnatal Period Affect Child Developmental Outcomes?

ObjectivesEvidence suggests that maternal psychological distress is an under-diagnosed condition that can have lasting impacts on child outcomes. Models based solely on maternal outcomes have not found screening to be cost-effective. This research explores the effects of self-reported maternal psychological distress on children’s language and behavioural development up to the age of 7.MethodsUsing longitudinal survey data from 10,893 families in the UK Millennium Cohort Study, multilevel models are used to explore the differential effects of maternal diagnosed and treated depression versus untreated maternal psychological distress during the postnatal year on longer-term child outcomes.ResultsBoth diagnosed and treated depression and self-reported maternal psychological distress have detrimental effects on child behavioural development. Behavioural outcomes up to age 5 were better for children of women who received treatment for depression, compared with children those whose mothers’ psychological distress was untreated, but this was not maintained to age 7. Little or no evidence of a difference was found between maternal psychological distress and child language development.Conclusions for PracticeThis research highlights the lack of effectiveness of existing treatment for maternal psychological distress both to benefit child development and to provide long-term symptom remediation for women. Future research could aim to identify more effective treatments for both women and children.

The Research Characteristics and Status on the Area of Educational Big Data from 2012-2019

To explore the status on the area of educational big data, 476 related articles form the from Web of Science core collection were analyzed by CiteSpace V. The results show that: (1) the area of Educational Big Data stared in 2012 and shows an upward trend year by year form 2014-2018, and the number of publications reached the historical peak in 2018. Williamson and Huda, USA and China, Educational sciences theory practice and Agro food industry hi tech top the list of contributing authors, country and publication respectively. (2) “eHealth research”, “current state”, “corporate use” “data entry”, “analytics discipline” and “psychological language” are the top six largest clusters on the area of educational big data from 2012-2019.

Difficult Days: The Continuing Evolution of Relational Group Analysis: Discussion of “Taking the Sting Out: Manifesting Aggression and Containing Difficult States in a Relational Group Psychotherapy”

Raufman’s paper is located in the ongoing integration of relational concepts into the world of group analysis. Raufman’s difficult days of therapeutic impasse in her group are regarded as emblematic of the theoretical bind that she and other group analysts find themselves in, caught between older, more classically based theory that inheres in much group therapy and theory and the recent embrace of relational concepts. An alternate reading of the group enactment is offered from the perspective of an unobtrusive relational group analyst with a focus on the conductor’s negative capability and capacity to companion the group’s organic psychological language and idiom in a process of enactive co-narration. It is suggested that when Raufman killed the wasp, the group finally found the vitalizing, enlivening, and companioning object in the leader, that it had been seeking all along.

Reduced speech: All is variability.

Humans often communicate through reduced speech, where many sounds are altered or deleted. Even whole syllables or occasionally whole words can be deleted, as in the production [th jyth ɛ̃m] for do you have time shown in the visual abstract. Such reduction is more common in spontaneous, casual, conversational speech, but it occurs in connected speech in formal settings, and rarely even in careful word-list reading. Such speech poses challenges for phonetic transcription, since it contains many sounds that do not seem to be any particular sound of the language and that are difficult to classify into categories. I argue this is because reduction operates largely outside the phonological system of the language. Reduced speech also poses questions about how listeners recognize the many possible forms of words, since speech seems to be made up entirely of variability. This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Linguistic Theory Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain Psychology > Perception and Psychophysics.

Interlanguage: A Case Study of a Korean Learner of Bangla

This study has investigated the interlanguage features in spoken language of a Korean learner of Bangla. Data has been collected through interviews which were recorded and analyzed. The analysis of the respondents’ language has been made in terms of phonetic, morphological and syntactic aspects. The language deviations may be attributed to different factors such as L1 interference to some extent, and other aspects related to psychological processing, motivation and language use.

Roles of Narrative in Civic Crowdfunded Project: Linguistic Style, Message Substance, and Crowdfunding Success

We explore how linguistic style and message substance influence persuasion in civic crowdfunding marketplaces in which written narrative pitch become a vital communication to attract private contributions to public goods and services. Very few empirical studies investigated differential effects of language style and message substance on funding performance of crowdfunding campaigns. We draw upon the dual process of persuasion as a theoretical base to identify a comprehensive set of linguistic style and message substance and to examine the role of such features in an emerging civic crowdfunding market. Drawing on elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we operationalize the linguistic style of the narrative pitch as language power and message substance as issue-relevant argument quality. In this study, we examine how characteristics of both style and message are related to the outcome of civic crowdfunded projects. Our results show that funding outcomes can be improved with psychological language dimensions (i.e., positive affective and perceptual language). However, extensive use of social language does not help project creators to increase their chance of funding performance; but instead, such language reduces the likelihood of project success. Additionally, message substance or issue-relevant information such as money and risk language influences funding outcome.

Recollections on the Beginnings of Psycholinguistics in Poland: An Interview with Professor Ida Kurcz

Recollections on the Beginnings of Psycholinguistics in Poland: An Interview with Professor Ida Kurcz

Counseling Under the Cross: How Martin Luther Applied the Gospel to Daily Life by Bob Kellemen

Reviewed by: Counseling Under the Cross: How Martin Luther Applied the Gospel to Daily Life by Bob Kellemen John T. Pless Counseling Under the Cross: How Martin Luther Applied the Gospel to Daily Life. By Bob Kellemen. Greensboro: New Growth Press, 2017. 246 pp. Kellemen, president of RPM Ministries and a professor of biblical counseling at Faith Bible Seminary in Lafayette, Indiana, offers a testimony to his discovery of Martin Luther as an effective pastoral counselor who has much to offer contemporary Evangelical Christians. Kellemen examines Luther's own spiritual development, especially focusing on his spiritual trials and struggles, and observes how Luther came to a robust confidence in the righteousness of Christ as God's gift for broken sinners. Throughout his telling of Luther's story, the author peppers vignettes of his own experiences and connects them to Luther's insights. He sees the Reformer as a helpful ally in what he terms "the biblical counseling movement." The bulk of the volume explores Luther's pastoral legacy using the template developed by William Clebsch and Charles Jaekle, Care of Souls in Historical Perspective (1964) where pastoral care is said to consist in four functions: (1) Sustaining; (2) Healing; (3) Reconciling; (4) Guiding. Under each of these headings, Kellemen offers examples, more often than not, taken from Theodore Tappert's Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel (1955), demonstrating how Luther used the scriptures and especially the gospel to fulfill these functions. Luther's care for Jerome Weller who was suffering from depression as well as numerous individuals who were physically ill or mourning the loss of a loved one are cited as examples for Luther's emphatic identification with those who suffer as he used the Word of God to sustain them in their afflictions. Kellemen sees Luther's proclamation of the resurrection to the sick, dying, and grieving in circumstances of both external and internal suffering as indicative of the healing function. Human sinfulness is overcome by the reconciling work of Christ so Kellemen sees Luther's focus on the forgiveness of sins in letters that address terrified consciences as fulfilling the reconciling function. The guiding function is connected to Luther's use of the "guideposts" (210) of faith, love, and conscience. While Kellemen brings together much material from Luther and offers suggestions for applications in ministry today, he most often does this by attempting to distill principles from Luther. The author [End Page 215] often blends psychological language with theological vocabulary in a way that gives only minimal attention to Luther's overall theology. Kellemen rightly emphasizes the externality of God's Word in Luther's pastoral counsel but this is not carried over into a discussion of the place of baptism and the Lord's Supper in Luther's approach. There are a few echoes of the "theology of the cross" in the book but they are largely left undeveloped as is the necessity of distinguishing law from gospel in pastoral care. Kellemen certainly has a great appreciation for Luther and his pastoral work demonstrating that the Reformer continues to have influence well beyond the boundaries of the church that bears his name. Even at those places where one might wish the author had treated Luther's theology with more precision, one can admire his robust claims for the potency of Luther's legacy for pastoral care. John T. Pless Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, Indiana Copyright © 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

Shared neural and cognitive mechanisms in action and language: The multiscale information transfer framework.

This review compares how humans process action and language sequences produced by other humans. On the one hand, we identify commonalities between action and language processing in terms of cognitive mechanisms (e.g., perceptual segmentation, predictive processing, integration across multiple temporal scales), neural resources (e.g., the left inferior frontal cortex), and processing algorithms (e.g., comprehension based on changes in signal entropy). On the other hand, drawing on sign language with its particularly strong motor component, we also highlight what differentiates (both oral and signed) linguistic communication from nonlinguistic action sequences. We propose the multiscale information transfer framework (MSIT) as a way of integrating these insights and highlight directions into which future empirical research inspired by the MSIT framework might fruitfully evolve. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Language Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain Psychology > Motor Skill and Performance Psychology > Prediction.

Methodological considerations for interpreting the Language Familiarity Effect in talker processing.

The Language Familiarity Effect (LFE)-where listeners are better at processing talker-voice information in their native language than in an unfamiliar language-has received renewed attention in the past 10 years. Numerous studies have sought to probe the underlying causes of this advantage by cleverly manipulating aspects of the stimuli (using phonologically related languages, backwards speech, nonwords) and by examining individual differences across listeners (testing reading ability and pitch perception). Most of these studies find evidence for the importance of phonological information or phonological processing as a supporting mechanism for the LFE. What has not been carefully examined, however, are how other methodological considerations such as task effects and stimulus length can change performance on talker-voice processing tasks. In this review, I provide an overview of the literature on the LFE and examine how methodological decisions affect the presence or absence of the LFE. This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain Psychology > Language.

MIND AND BRAIN IN PHILOSOPHY AND NEUROSCIENCES

[After a brief review of the solutions given to the mind-body problem by philosophers I propose a naturalistic-materialistic solution that is based on a collaboration between the philosophy of mind and neurosciences. According to this solution the three fundamental characteristics of every human state of consciousness – that is, having a content and being conscious and self-conscious - are identified with three higher order properties of brain dynamics from an ontological point of view, although each of them can be described and explained in the language of neuroscience, cognitive psychology and folk-psychology.]

한국어 화자의 영어 의문문 처리에 관한 심리언어학적 연구

한국어 화자의 영어 의문문 처리에 관한 심리언어학적 연구

Pares léxicos en el léxico disponible de estudiantes italianos

The application of lexical availability studies to the field of psycholinguistics continues to produce interesting outcomes. Recent research, in fact, employs data from this kind of studies in order to qualitatively analyze the lexical-semantic relations that informants establish between words. Our study will analyze a type of minimal clusters or lexical pairs, such as perro - gato or carne - pescado , in two semantic areas ( Alimentos y bebidas and Animales ); in doing so, it seeks to contribute to current discussion by proposing new data to show that words will be organized in more structured semantic networks as proficiency of foreign students increases. This hypothesis is based on recent studies on lexical acquisition. Our study analyzes the lexical pairs established by Italian students of Spanish, distributed in two groups according to their academic level, and employs data collected from their availablewords.

Psycholinguistic estimates of 3000 words of Croatian: concreteness and imageability

Psycholinguistic estimates of 3000 words of Croatian: concreteness and imageability

Why Care About Robots? Empathy, Moral Standing, and the Language of Suffering

Abstract This paper tries to understand the phenomenon that humans are able to empathize with robots and the intuition that there might be something wrong with “abusing” robots by discussing the question regarding the moral standing of robots. After a review of some relevant work in empirical psychology and a discussion of the ethics of empathizing with robots, a philosophical argument concerning the moral standing of robots is made that questions distant and uncritical moral reasoning about entities’ properties and that recommends first trying to understand the issue by means of philosophical and artistic work that shows how ethics is always relational and historical, and that highlights the importance of language and appearance in moral reasoning and moral psychology. It is concluded that attention to relationality and to verbal and non-verbal languages of suffering is key to understand the phenomenon under investigation, and that in robot ethics we need less certainty and more caution and patience when it comes to thinking about moral standing.