Audio Decision Support for Supervisory Control of Unmanned Vehicles : Literature Review

Purpose of this literature review: To survey scholarly articles, books and other sources (dissertations, conference proceedings) relevant to the use of the audio supervisory control of unmanned vehicles.Prepared for Charles River Analytic

Phonotactic probability and phonotactic constraints :processing and lexical segmentation by Arabic learners of English as a foreign language

PhD ThesisA fundamental skill in listening comprehension is the ability to recognize words. The ability to accurately locate word boundaries(i . e. to lexically segment) is an important contributor to this skill. Research has shown that English native speakers use various cues in the signal in lexical segmentation. One such cue is phonotactic constraints; more specifically, the presence of illegal English consonant sequences such as AV and MY signals word boundaries. It has also been shown that phonotactic probability (i. e. the frequency of segments and sequences of segments in words) affects native speakers' processing of English. However, the role that phonotactic probability and phonotactic constraints play in the EFL classroom has hardly been studied, while much attention has been devoted to teaching listening comprehension in EFL. This thesis reports on an intervention study which investigated the effect of teaching English phonotactics upon Arabic speakers' lexical segmentation of running speech in English. The study involved a native English group (N= 12), a non-native speaking control group (N= 20); and a non-native speaking experimental group (N=20). Each of the groups took three tests, namely Non-word Rating, Lexical Decision and Word Spotting. These tests probed how sensitive the subjects were to English phonotactic probability and to the presence of illegal sequences of phonemes in English and investigated whether they used these sequences in the lexical segmentation of English. The non-native groups were post-tested with the -same tasks after only the experimental group had been given a treatment which consisted of explicit teaching of relevant English phonotactic constraints and related activities for 8 weeks. The gains made by the experimental group are discussed, with implications for teaching both pronunciation and listening comprehension in an EFL setting.Qassim University, Saudi Arabia

The Influence of Redundancy, Analogies, and Field Dependency Upon Learning of Scientific Material From Audiotapes.

The problems investigated in this study were: (1) Does the use of redundancy and analogies to emphasize the main verbal scientific concepts of an instructional unit facilitate comparable learning for field independent (FI), intermediate cognitive style (ICS), and field dependent (FD) undergraduate college students? (2) Are there differences in the aural, visual, and preferred sense recall of FI, ICS, and FD undergraduate college students? The population consisted of undergraduate education students at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge during the Spring Semester, 1981. The sample was all students enrolled in six sections of two media courses. Instruments used were the Hidden Figures Test (HFT) to measure field dependency, a slide-tape test to identify sense recall and preference, and two multiple choice tests to measure concept acquisition. The procedure entailed three periods: first, to measure field dependency and aural vs. visual recall and preference; second, to present an audiotape using redundancy and a nine-question test; third, (one week later) to present an audiotape using analogies and a nine question test. The design of the study was randomized completely with post-tests only. These hypotheses were tested using one way Analysis of Variance; there are no significant differences in: (1) information acquisition by FI, ICS, and FD subjects when redundancy is used in instruction, (2) information acquisition by FI, ICS, and FD subjects when analogies are used in instruction, (3) aural recall of the FI, ICS, and FD subjects, (4) visual recall of the FI, ICS, and FD subjects, (5) preferred sense recall of the FI, ICS, and FD subjects, were tested using one way Analysis of the Variance. None of the F values of the ANOVAs were significant at the .05 level. All the null hypotheses were accepted. The conclusions were: (1) the amount of information acquired by the FI, ICS, and FD subjects was comparable, (2) There was no trend in the auditory, visual and preferred sense recall for the three groups. Since the findings failed to demonstrate the variance between FI and FD subjects established by previous research, the results were interpreted as reflecting the effectiveness of redundancy and analogies in assisting all learners in identifying and acquiring the relevant aspects of the material

Effects of a combined 3-D auditory/visual cueing system and non-distributed flight reference on visual target detection using a helmet-mounted display

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-56).An air-combat pilot must both control the aircraft and locate targets. The objective of this study was to determine combined effects of using the Non-Distributed Flight Reference and 3-D audio/visual cueing system for the purpose of easing pilot control and aiding target location. The Non-Distributed Flight Reference was compared against the Military Standard display, while three different target cues were presented for target acquisition: (1) 3-D Audio Only, a voiced signal = "Target-Target", (2) Visual Only, a line emanating from the aim-sight reticle (located in the center of the subject's field of view) pointing towards the target aircraft, and (3) a Combined Audio/Visual cue, providing both cues. The subjects were asked to fly a simulated aircraft at a commanded heading and altitude while targets appeared from 15 different locations (three elevations 0⁰, +40⁰, and five azimuths 0⁰, ±30⁰, ±60⁰). Subject deviations from heading and altitude were used to determine flight performance, and target cue effectiveness was determined by recording the time to target. The results of this experiment showed that there was no significant difference (p < 0.05) in flight performance between the Non-Distributed Flight Reference and the Military Standard displays. The combined Audio/Visual Cueing system resulted in the fastest search times.(cont.) These results are consistent with the findings from past research. The cleaner more integrated Non-Distributed Flight Reference allowed subjects to visually acquire targets quicker with no decrease in flight performance. Using the Non-Distributed Flight Reference display for attitude information combined with a 3-D Audio/Visual cueing system for target acquisition is a promising method of reducing search time during a visual search task.by Carlos Pinedo.S.M

Learning Chinese Characters and German Words Using Multimedia

This study applies cognitive theory of multimedia learning and cognitive load theory to foreign language learning and examines in what conditions English-speakers benefit most from multimedia instruction. Sixty-four English-speaking college students learned either German words or Chinese characters. The reason for comparing these two languages is to assess the differences between low-knowledge and high-knowledge learners. We assume English-speakers have a better linguistic knowledge for learning German words than Chinese characters, because of the closer relationship between English and German languages than between English and Chinese languages. There were four cue conditions in which participants received either no cue, a verbal cue, a visual cue, or both cues on the screen accompanied with the target foreign word. Consistent with previous studies, the findings show that participants recalled more foreign vocabulary when they were given both verbal and visual cues other than only having one type of cue. When compared with students who learn German words, students who learn Chinese characters benefit more from this multimedia environment. No significant relationship was found between the words recalled in different cue conditions and verbal and spatial ability test scores in this study. This study supports that multimedia boosts foreign vocabulary learning performance and our findings provide an additional implication that multimedia exerts a different degree of effectiveness on different kinds of language learners, depending on their prior linguistic knowledge

Effects of age and stimulation strategies on cochlear implantation and a clinically feasible method for sound localization latency

Treating prelingual deafness with cochlear implants paves the way for spoken language development. Previous studies have shown that providing the intervention at six to 11 months is better than at 12-17 months. However, interventions at even earlier ages have not been researched to the same extent, for example by comparing five to eight months with nine to 11 months. That is why we retrospectively assessed the surgical risks, and analyzed the longitudinal spoken language tests, of 103 children who received their first cochlear implant between five and 30 months of age. This research particularly focused on surgery before 12 months of age (Paper I). Apart from language development, we expected that early implants would provide access to the interaural time differences that are crucial for localizing low frequency sounds. We were interested to examine this in combination with novel sound processing strategies with stimulation patterns that convey the fine structure of sounds. Therefore, in addition to the retrospective analysis, we studied the relationships between stimulation strategies, lateralization of interaural time differences and horizontal sound localization in 30 children (Paper II). Then we decided to develop a method to objectively assess sound localization latency to complement localization accuracy. A method that assesses latency needed to be validated in adults with normal hearing, and in hampered conditions, so that the relationship between accuracy and latency could be clarified. In our study, the gaze patterns from the localization recordings were modelled by optimizing a sigmoid function (Paper III). Furthermore, we addressed the lack of studies on the normal development of sound localization latency of gaze responses in infancy and early childhood (Paper IV). Our study of spoken language development showed the benefit of cochlear implantation before nine months of age, compared to nine to 11 months of age, without increased surgical risks. This finding was strongest when it came to the age at which the child’s language could be understood (Paper I). When our group of 30 subjects underwent tests for interaural time differences, 10 were able to discriminate within the range of naturally occurring differences. Interestingly, the choice of stimulation strategy was a prerequisite for lateralizing natural interaural time differences. However, no relationships between this ability to lateralize and the ability to localize low frequency sounds were found (Paper II). The localization setup meant that detailed investigations of gaze behavior could be carried out. Eight normal hearing adults demonstrated a mean sound localization latency of 280 ± 40 milliseconds (ms), with distinct prolongation with unilateral earplugging. It is interesting to observe the similarity in latency, dynamic behavior, and overlap of anatomical structures between the acoustic middle ear reflex and sound localization latency (Paper III). In addition, normal hearing infants showed diminished sound localization latency, from 1000 ms at six months of age down to 500 ms at three years of age (Paper IV). Latency in children with early cochlear implants still needs to be studied. The findings in this thesis have important clinical implications for counseling parents and they provide valuable data to guide clinical choices about the age when cochlear implants are provided and processor programming takes place. The fast, objective and non-invasive method of sound localization latency assessment may further enhance the clinical processes of diagnosing and monitoring interventions in children with hearing impairment

Examining the effect of practicing with different modeling conditions on the memorization of young piano students

La modélisation est une technique d'enseignement étudiée dans les domaines de l'apprentissage moteur, des neurosciences, de l'enseignement et de la musique. Cependant, on ignore si cette technique peut être efficace pour mémoriser la notation musicale pour piano, en particulier pour les jeunes élèves. Cette étude a donc examiné l'effet de la pratique instrumentale utilisant différentes conditions de modélisation sur la mémorisation d'une pièce de piano. Ces conditions de modélisation étaient les suivantes: modélisation auditive et modélisation vidéo avec indices. L'étude comportaitune quasi-expérience avec 24 jeunes élèves de piano de 3e année du Conservatoire royal de musique (CRM) au Canada ou l'équivalent. Les participants ont pratiqué avec une condition de modélisation afin de déterminer quelle condition produirait les meilleurs résultats de rétention mnémonique. Les résultats ont montré que la modélisation vidéo avec indices était l'outil de pratique le plus efficace en termes d'erreurs de notes et de rythmes, lorsqu'elle est comparée à la modélisation audio et aux groupes de pratique libre. Ces résultats appuient les recherches en neurosciences selon lesquelles l'utilisation de techniques visuelles, auditives et motrices produisent la meilleure rétention. Cela offre un grand potentiel pour l'utilisation de la modélisation vidéo avec repères comme outil de pratique pour les élèvesen piano afin d'améliorer la mémorisation.Modeling is a teaching technique that is studied in the fields of motor learning, neuroscience, teaching, and music. Yet it is unknown whether this technique can be effective in memorizing piano music especially for young students. Therefore, this study examined the effect of practicing with different modeling conditions on memorizing a piano piece. These modeling conditions were: aural modeling, and video modeling with cues. The study conducted a quasi-experiment with 24 young piano students at Grade 3 level of the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) in Canada or equivalent. Participants practiced with one modeling condition in order to measure which condition would produce best retention results. Results showed that video modeling with cues seemed to be the most effective practice tool in terms of low note mistakes and rhythm mistakes compared to audio modeling and free practice groups. This finding supports neuroscience research that states that the use of visual, aural and motor techniques produce the best memory recall. This provides great potential for using video modeling with cues as a practice tool for pianostudents for better memorization

The Effects Of Songs In The Foreign Language Classroom On Text Recall, Delayed Text Recall And Involuntary Mental Rehearsal

Music represents an integral part of the human culture, and particularly language and communication. Music can be a powerful tool in the learning experience. The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether English native-speaker students learning a foreign language can benefit from integrating music into the curriculum. Students&rsquo; text recall was measured after listening to songs and text passages. Delayed recall and involuntary mental rehearsal (din) were also measured. Results showed text recall was better in the song condition that text passage. Also, treatment condition did not affect delayed recall; however it impacted involuntary mental rehearsal. Implications and suggestions about future applications of music in the curriculum are also explored