Non-native children speech recognition through transfer learning

This work deals with non-native children's speech and investigates both multi-task and transfer learning approaches to adapt a multi-language Deep Neural Network (DNN) to speakers, specifically children, learning a foreign language. The application scenario is characterized by young students learning English and German and reading sentences in these second-languages, as well as in their mother language. The paper analyzes and discusses techniques for training effective DNN-based acoustic models starting from children native speech and performing adaptation with limited non-native audio material. A multi-lingual model is adopted as baseline, where a common phonetic lexicon, defined in terms of the units of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), is shared across the three languages at hand (Italian, German and English); DNN adaptation methods based on transfer learning are evaluated on significant non-native evaluation sets. Results show that the resulting non-native models allow a significant improvement with respect to a mono-lingual system adapted to speakers of the target language

Cognitive processes in categorical and associative priming: a diffusion model analysis

Cognitive processes and mechanisms underlying different forms of priming were investigated using a diffusion model approach. In a series of 6 experiments, effects of prime-target associations and of a semantic and affective categorical match of prime and target were analyzed for different tasks. Significant associative and categorical priming effects were found in standard analyses of response times (RTs) and error frequencies. Results of diffusion model analyses revealed that priming effects of associated primes were mapped on the drift rate parameter (v), while priming effects of a categorical match on a task-relevant dimension were mapped on the extradecisional parameters (t(0) and d). These results support a spreading activation account of associative priming and an explanation of categorical priming in terms of response competition. Implications for the interpretation of priming effects and the use of priming paradigms in cognitive psychology and social cognition are discussed