Identification Of Target Words Research Articles

Perceptual and neural measures of spectral and temporal cue strength in speech perception

Many listeners experience difficulty understanding speech in noise that may result from limited ability to use important acoustic cues, such as spectral and temporal features. One way of assessing deficits related to perceptual or neural processing is to enhance or degrade specific cues and measure the impact on behavior or neural coding. To do so, we combined a target-word identification task with simultaneous EEG measurement in 20 young and 20 older normal-hearing listeners. Coordinate Response Measure sentences were manipulated in the spectral modulation (SM) and temporal modulation (TM) domains (neutral, degraded, enhanced) and presented in four-talker babble in both passive and attention conditions. Multivariate temporal response function (mTRF) analyses were used to evaluate cortical tracking of the speech envelope. Speech perception in younger listeners improved for both SM and TM enhancement, but older listeners only benefited from TM enhancement. Both groups showed stronger cortical tracking for attention versus passive listening, but only older listeners showed tracking changes across SM and TM conditions. Cortical tracking and perceptual results in older listeners are consistent with cognitive aging theories suggesting that cortical processing changes with age involve both compensation and dedifferentiation to help maintain auditory perceptual performance.

Lexical competition in the flankers task revisited.

We investigated the impact of flanking stimuli that are orthographic neighbors of central target words in the reading version of the flankers task. Experiment 1 provided a replication of the finding that flanking words that are orthographic neighbors of central target words (e.g., BLUE BLUR BLUE) facilitate lexical decisions relative to unrelated word flankers (e.g., STEP BLUR STEP). Experiment 2 tested the hypothesis that this facilitatory effect might be due to the task that was used in Experiment 1 and in prior research-the lexical decision task. In Experiment 2 the task was perceptual identification, and here we observed that orthographic neighbor flankers interfered with target word identification. Experiment 2 also included a bigram flanker condition (e.g., BL BLUR UE), and here the related bigram flankers facilitated target word identification. We conclude that when the task requires identification of a specific word, effects of lexical competition emerge over and above the facilitatory effects driven by the sublexical spatial pooling of orthographic information across target and flankers, and that the inhibitory influence of lexical competition has an even stronger impact when flankers are whole words.

Effects of letter case on processing sequences of written words.

In four experiments, we investigated the impact of letter case (lower case vs. UPPER CASE) on the processing of sequences of written words. Experiment 1 used the rapid parallel visual presentation (RPVP) paradigm with postcued identification of one word in a five-word sequence. The sequence could be grammatically correct (e.g., "the boy likes his bike") or be an ungrammatical reordering of the same words (e.g., "his boy the bike likes the"). We replicated the standard sentence superiority effect (more accurate identification of target words when embedded in a grammatically correct sequence compared with ungrammatical sequences), and also found that lowercase presentation led to higher word identification accuracy, but equally so for the grammatical and ungrammatical sequences. This pattern suggests that the lowercase advantage was mostly operating at the level of individual word identification. The following three experiments used the grammatical decision task to provide an examination of letter case effects on more global sentence processing measures. All these experiments revealed a significant lowercase advantage in grammatical decisions, independently of the nature of the ungrammatical sequence (Experiments 2 and 3) and independently of whether or not the letter case manipulation was blocked (Experiment 4). The size of the effects observed in grammatical decisions again points to individual word identification as the primary locus of the lowercase advantage. We conclude that letter case mainly affects early visuo-orthographic processing and access to case-independent letter and word identities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The contributions of proficiency and semantics to the bilingual sentence superiority effect

AbstractA long-standing question about bilingualism concerns which representations are shared across languages. Recent work has revealed a bilingual Sentence Superiority Effect (SSE) among French–English bilinguals reading mixed-language sentences: identification of target words is more accurate in syntactically grammatical than ungrammatical sentences. While this ability to connect words across the two languages has been attributed to a rapid parsing of shared syntactic representations, outstanding questions remain about the role of semantics. Here, we replicate the SSE in Spanish–English bilinguals (e.g., better identification of vacío in “my vaso is vacío” [my glass is empty] than “is vaso my vacío” [is glass my empty]). Importantly, we report evidence that semantics do contribute to word identification, but significantly less than syntax and only in the context of syntactically grammatical sentences. Moreover, the effect is moderated by language proficiency, further constraining the conditions under which shared cross-linguistic representations are rapidly accessed in the bilingual mind.

Speech-in-speech recognition in preschoolers

Objective The purpose of this study was to 1) characterise word recognition in a speech masker for preschoolers tested using closed-set, forced-choice procedures and 2) better understand the stimulus and listener factors affecting performance. Design Speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) in a two-talker masker were evaluated using a picture-pointing response with two sets of disyllabic target words. ChEgSS words were previously developed for children ≥5 years of age, and simple words were developed for preschoolers. Familiarisation ensured accurate identification of target words before testing. Study sample Participants were 3- and 4-year olds (n = 21) and young adults (n = 10) with normal hearing. Results Preschoolers and adults had significantly lower SRTs for the simple words than the ChEgSS words, and lower SRTs for early-acquired than later-acquired ChEgSS words. For both word sets, SRTs were approximately 11-dB higher for preschoolers than adults, and child age was associated with SRTs. Preschoolers’ receptive vocabulary size predicted performance for ChEgSS words but not simple words. Conclusions Preschoolers were more susceptible to speech-in-speech masking than adults, with a similar child–adult difference for the ChEgSS and simple words. Effects of receptive vocabulary in preschoolers’ recognition of ChEgSS words indicate that vocabulary size is an important consideration, even when using closed-set methods.

Dynamic large-scale connectivity of intrinsic cortical oscillations supports adaptive listening in challenging conditions.

In multi-talker situations, individuals adapt behaviorally to this listening challenge mostly with ease, but how do brain neural networks shape this adaptation? We here establish a long-sought link between large-scale neural communications in electrophysiology and behavioral success in the control of attention in difficult listening situations. In an age-varying sample of N = 154 individuals, we find that connectivity between intrinsic neural oscillations extracted from source-reconstructed electroencephalography is regulated according to the listener's goal during a challenging dual-talker task. These dynamics occur as spatially organized modulations in power-envelope correlations of alpha and low-beta neural oscillations during approximately 2-s intervals most critical for listening behavior relative to resting-state baseline. First, left frontoparietal low-beta connectivity (16 to 24 Hz) increased during anticipation and processing of a spatial-attention cue before speech presentation. Second, posterior alpha connectivity (7 to 11 Hz) decreased during comprehension of competing speech, particularly around target-word presentation. Connectivity dynamics of these networks were predictive of individual differences in the speed and accuracy of target-word identification, respectively, but proved unconfounded by changes in neural oscillatory activity strength. Successful adaptation to a listening challenge thus latches onto two distinct yet complementary neural systems: a beta-tuned frontoparietal network enabling the flexible adaptation to attentive listening state and an alpha-tuned posterior network supporting attention to speech.

Target announcer voice detection by shcoolchildren of different psychophysiological status in case of vocal competition

Management of variability of the cardiac rhythm (VCR) is widely applied as a marker of psycho emotional state in educational institutions. This approach is suitable for testing properties of the pupils for the detection of vocal signals.
 The aim of the study was a comparative analysis of VCR as an objective parameter corresponded with psycho-emotional tension and acoustic perception of the speech in youngsters under sophisticated condition of the competition between vocal signals pronounced by different individuals.
 Methods. VCR was measured in 44 male and female youngsters 1316 years old with the comparison of identification of competing acoustic signals random sequences of words simultaneously pronounced by male or female voice. VCR analysis provided distinction the prevalence of sympathetic versus parasympathetic tone reflecting high or moderate level of psycho-emotional tension.
 Results. Identification of target words pronounced by female voice in subjects with prevalence of sympathetic or parasympathetic tone was correct in 96% and 87% respectively. Target words pronounced by the male voice were correctly identified in 88% cases in both groups. It is suggested that in primary schools where women compose majority of teachers, the developing juvenile brain imprints the corresponding acoustic wave band. Under the conditions of psycho-emotional tension these links are realized with maximal effectiveness.

Effect of Video Embedded with Hotspots with Dynamic Text on Single-Word Reading by Children with Multiple Disabilities.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of an intervention using an AAC app programmed with video visual scene displays (VSDs) embedded with hotspots with the Transition to Literacy (T2L) feature on single-word reading. Three school-aged children with multiple disabilities participated in a multiple baseline across participants design. Four names of characters in favorite movies and shows served as target words for each participant. All three children demonstrated an increase in accurate identification of target words from baseline to intervention with Tau-U effect sizes for the participants of 0.69, 0.76, and 0.84, all of which were statistically significant (p<0.05). Clinicians can consider including the intervention evaluated in the current study as one component of literacy intervention for school-aged children with multiple disabilities. Future research should further evaluate video VSDs and the T2L feature for use with individuals with multiple disabilities.

Listening back in time: Does attention to memory facilitate word-in-noise identification?

The ephemeral nature of spoken words creates a challenge for oral communications where incoming speech sounds must be processed in relation to representations of just-perceived sounds stored in short-term memory. This can be particularly taxing in noisy environments where perception of speech is often impaired or initially incorrect. Usage of prior contextual information (e.g., a semantically related word) has been shown to improve speech in noise identification. In three experiments, we demonstrate a comparable effect of a semantically related cue word placed after an energetically masked target word in improving accuracy of target-word identification. This effect persisted irrespective of cue modality (visual or auditory cue word) and, in the case of cues after the target, lasted even when the cue word was presented up to 4 seconds after the target. The results are framed in the context of an attention to memory model that seeks to explain the cognitive and neural mechanisms behind processing of items in auditory memory.

Target-word identification in noise with formant enhancement for hearing-impaired listeners

Degraded speech intelligibility in background noise is a common complaint of most listeners with hearing loss. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effect of spectral enhancement of F2 on target-word identification in noise for the old listeners with hearing loss (HL) and with normal hearing (NH). Target words (e.g., name, color, and digit) were selected and presented based on the paradigm of coordinate response measure (CRM) corpus of English and Chinese versions. Identification tasks with original and F2-enhanced speech in the 2-talker and 6-talker babbles were designed for the two groups (HL and NH). Thresholds of word identification was measured by using adaptive up-down methods. Results showed that listeners with NH had better performance on word identification in noise than listeners with HL in almost all listening conditions. More importantly, thresholds of both groups were improved for enhanced speech signals. Compared with NH group, listeners with HL gained significantly greater benefits in the most challenging condition. These preliminary results suggested that speech sounds with F2 enhancement might improve listeners’ ordinary speech perception in noise.

Differences in coda voicing trigger changes in gestural timing: A test case from the American English diphthong /aɪ/

We investigate the hypothesis that duration and spectral differences in vowels before voiceless versus voiced codas originate from a single source, namely the reorganization of articulatory gestures relative to one another in time. As a test case, we examine the American English diphthong /aɪ/, in which the acoustic manifestations of the nucleus /a/ and offglide /ɪ/ gestures are relatively easy to identify, and we use the ratio of nucleus-to-offglide duration as an index of the temporal distance between these gestures. Experiment 1 demonstrates that, in production, the ratio is smaller before voiceless codas than before voiced codas; this effect is consistent across speakers as well as changes in speech rate and phrasal position. Experiment 2 demonstrates that, in perception, diphthongs with contextually incongruent ratios delay listeners’ identification of target words containing voiceless codas, even when the other durational and spectral correlates of voicing remain intact. This, we argue, is evidence that listeners are sensitive to the gestural origins of voicing differences. Both sets of results support the idea that the voicing contrast triggers changes in timing: gestures are close to one another in time before voiceless codas, but separated from one another before voiced codas.

Let's All Speak Together! Exploring the Masking Effects of Various Languages on Spoken Word Identification in Multi-Linguistic Babble

This study aimed to characterize the linguistic interference that occurs during speech-in-speech comprehension by combining offline and online measures, which included an intelligibility task (at a −5 dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio) and 2 lexical decision tasks (at a −5 dB and 0 dB SNR) that were performed with French spoken target words. In these 3 experiments we always compared the masking effects of speech backgrounds (i.e., 4-talker babble) that were produced in the same language as the target language (i.e., French) or in unknown foreign languages (i.e., Irish and Italian) to the masking effects of corresponding non-speech backgrounds (i.e., speech-derived fluctuating noise). The fluctuating noise contained similar spectro-temporal information as babble but lacked linguistic information. At −5 dB SNR, both tasks revealed significantly divergent results between the unknown languages (i.e., Irish and Italian) with Italian and French hindering French target word identification to a similar extent, whereas Irish led to significantly better performances on these tasks. By comparing the performances obtained with speech and fluctuating noise backgrounds, we were able to evaluate the effect of each language. The intelligibility task showed a significant difference between babble and fluctuating noise for French, Irish and Italian, suggesting acoustic and linguistic effects for each language. However, the lexical decision task, which reduces the effect of post-lexical interference, appeared to be more accurate, as it only revealed a linguistic effect for French. Thus, although French and Italian had equivalent masking effects on French word identification, the nature of their interference was different. This finding suggests that the differences observed between the masking effects of Italian and Irish can be explained at an acoustic level but not at a linguistic level.

Relationship between distinctive feature knowledge and word retrieval abilities in people with aphasia

Background: The relationship between performance on various types of word retrieval tasks and distinctive feature knowledge was examined in people with aphasia. The researchers also investigated performance on word retrieval tasks by two groups of people with aphasia: people who had high scores (Group 1) and low scores (Group 2) on an auditory-word matching task that required identification of target words among semantically related foils. Aims: The current study investigated the relationship between high-, mid-, and low-importance distinctive feature knowledge and word retrieval abilities in people with aphasia. Methods & Procedures: A total of 12 people with chronic aphasia participated in this study. Participants completed formal and informal word retrieval tasks, a feature-sorting task, and auditory-word matching tasks. Relationships between knowledge of features varying in distinctiveness and importance and various formal and informal naming tasks were analysed. Additionally, the researchers divided participants into two groups based on performance during an auditory-word matching task with semantically related foils. Group means across confrontation, descriptive, and divergent word retrieval tasks, as well as TAWF brief test and BNT-2 scores were analysed. Outcomes & Results: Significant correlations were found between distinctive feature knowledge, particularly low- and mid-importance features, and three word retrieval tasks. Significant differences on word retrieval task performance between the two groups were evident such that Group 1 had higher scores than Group 2 on descriptive and confrontation word retrieval tasks, as well as the TAWF brief test and BNT-2. Conclusions: Findings support previous research examining knowledge of features across levels of distinctiveness and importance in people with aphasia. Furthermore the current study highlights the contribution of feature knowledge as it relates to various word retrieval tasks. Groups of participants able to discriminate between semantically related foils may have significantly better word retrieval abilities compared to participants not able to discriminate among semantically related foils. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.

Nicotine Enhances Alerting, but not Executive, Attention in Smokers and Nonsmokers

Difficulty concentrating is a symptom of nicotine withdrawal that can contribute to relapse in individuals trying to quit smoking. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of nicotine on executive and alerting attention in smokers and nonsmokers. Thirty daily smokers who were not tobacco deprived and 30 nonsmokers participated in the study. Participants received a single dose of intranasal nicotine (0, 0.5, or 1.5 mg) at each of 3 experimental sessions on separate days. Participants completed subjective ratings and 3 attention tasks before and after nicotine administration. Nicotine had no effect on executive attention as assessed by a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task or the Attention Network Test in smokers and nonsmokers. In contrast, nicotine enhanced alerting attention by decreasing errors on a Continuous Performance Test (CPT) in nonsmokers and improving the correct identification of target words on the RSVP task in smokers. Nonsmokers were more sensitive than smokers to the subjective, but not the cardiovascular, effects of nicotine. The acute administration of intranasal nicotine improved alerting attention in nonsmokers as measured by the CPT, and in smokers as measured by the RSVP. Understanding the elements of attention enhanced by nicotine might guide the development of novel medications for tobacco dependence.

Psychometric properties of the coordinate response measure corpus with various types of background interference

The coordinate response measure (CRM) corpus has gained broad acceptance as a research tool for investigating speech intelligibility in background competition and has been widely used in studies of informational masking. The purpose of this study is to establish the psychometric characteristics of CRM target-word identification in various backgrounds with the goal of being able to determine when it is appropriate or not to use adaptive threshold procedures with the CRM corpus. Target-word identification performance based on adaptive tracking mapped directly onto the monotonic psychometric functions obtained for two-talker, four-talker, and cafeteria noise interferers.

Psychometric properties of the coordinate response measure corpus with various types of background interference.

The coordinate response measure (CRM) corpus has gained broad acceptance as a research tool for investigating speech intelligibility in background competition and has been widely used in studies of informational masking. Beneficial properties of the CRM include closed set format, limited linguistic content, and inclusion of target items that promote sound stream segregation based on the voice-identify of the target talker. Extensive research has demonstrated the psychometric characteristics of CRM target-word identification in the presence of one, two, or three competing talkers from the same corpus as well as long-term speech-shaped noise (LTSSN). Percent correct identification varies non-monotonically with signal-to-background ratio for one and two CRM-talker interference and is monotonic when the number of talkers exceeds 2 or is LTSSN. The CRM has even broader applicability when used with other types of background competition. The purpose of this study is to establish the psychometric characteristics of CRM target-word identification in various backgrounds with the goal of being able to determine when it is appropriate or not to use adaptive threshold procedures with the CRM corpus. Psychometric functions and thresholds based on adaptive tracking for identification of CRM target words presented in multi-talker babble and cafeteria noise will be discussed.

Priming and sentence context support listening to noise-vocoded speech by younger and older adults

Older adults are known to benefit from supportive context in order to compensate for age-related reductions in perceptual and cognitive processing, including when comprehending spoken language in adverse listening conditions. In the present study, we examine how younger and older adults benefit from two types of contextual support, predictability from sentence context and priming, when identifying target words in noise-vocoded sentences. In the first part of the experiment, benefit from context based on primarily semantic knowledge was evaluated by comparing the accuracy of identification of sentence-final target words that were either highly predictable or not predictable from the sentence context. In the second part of the experiment, benefit from priming was evaluated by comparing the accuracy of identification of target words when noise-vocoded sentences were either primed or not by the presentation of the sentence context without noise vocoding and with the target word replaced with white noise. Younger and older adults benefited from each type of supportive context, with the most benefit realized when both types were combined. Supportive context reduced the number of noise-vocoded bands needed for 50% word identification more for older adults than their younger counterparts.

Phonetic and lexical interferences in informational masking during speech-in-speech comprehension

This study investigates masking effects occurring during speech comprehension in the presence of concurrent speech signals. We examined the differential effects of acoustic–phonetic and lexical content of 4- to 8-talker babble (natural speech) or babble-like noise (reversed speech) on word identification. Behavioral results show a monotonic decrease in speech comprehension rates with an increasing number of simultaneous talkers in the reversed condition. Similar results are obtained with natural speech except for the 4-talker babble situations. An original signal analysis is then proposed to evaluate the spectro-temporal saturation of composite multitalker babble. Results from this analysis show a monotonic increase in spectro-temporal saturation with an increasing number of simultaneous talkers, for both natural and reversed speech. This suggests that informational masking consists of at least acoustic–phonetic masking which is fairly similar in the reversed and natural conditions and lexical masking which is present only with natural babble. Both effects depend on the number of talkers in the background babble. In particular, results confirm that lexical masking occurs only when some words in the babble are detectable, i.e. for a low number of talkers, such as 4, and diminishes with more talkers. These results suggest that different levels of linguistic information can be extracted from background babble and cause different types of linguistic competition for target-word identification. The use of this paradigm by psycholinguists could be of primary interest in detailing the various information types competing during lexical access.

The Occurrence of Causal Bridging and Predictive Inferences in Young and Older Adults

Four experiments used an indirect measure of memory, perceptual identification, to examine possible differences in the generation of causal bridging and predictive inferences by young and older adults. In Experiments 1 and 2, young and older adults read paragraphs in which material necessary for understanding causal connections was either explicitly stated or merely implied. Identification of target words related to the causal connection, whether stated or implied, was better than identification of new, unrelated words. This benefit was similar in young and older adults. In Experiments 3 and 4, the generation of predictive inferences that are not necessary for discourse comprehension was examined. Overall, the results of these 2 experiments suggested no systematic age differences in the generation of these optional, elaborative inferences. Recognition memory for inferences was also tested in each experiment. The evidence suggests that causal bridging inferences, but not predictive inferences, may be incorporated into the textbase by both young and older adults. Results are discussed in terms of current theorizing about comprehension deficits in old age.

Conceptually driven encoding episodes create perceptual misattributions

Processing fluency caused by prior encoding of a word is shown to increase duration judgments about that word and to decrease brightness contrast judgments about its mask when the word is presented in a masked word identification task. These effects occurred following an encoding task that involved visual perception of the words (reading aloud) and a task that provided no direct visual experience (generation from a semantic cue). Analysis of judgments conditionalized on correct or failed identification of target words indicated that judgments were powerfully affected by successful identification. Subjective estimates of the proportion of targets that were previously studied suggested that awareness of prior occurrence followed as an attribution based on fluent word identification, rather than acting as a causal agent for identification or altered perceptual judgments. We conclude that prior perceptual and conceptual encoding episodes can contribute to fluent processing of target words on a subsequent masked word identification task and that, regardless of its source, this fluency is experienced in a generic form that is susceptible to attribution to various causes, including prior experience (creating a sense of recollection) and current stimulus conditions.