Tone of voice helps learning the meaning of novel adjectives [Abstract]

To understand spoken words listeners have to cope with seemingly meaningless variability in the speech signal. Speakers vary, for example, their tone of voice (ToV) by changing speaking rate, pitch, vocal effort, and loudness. This variation is independent of "linguistic prosody" such as sentence intonation or speech rhythm. The variation due to ToV, however, is not random. Speakers use, for example, higher pitch when referring to small objects than when referring to large objects and importantly, adult listeners are able to use these non-lexical ToV cues to distinguish between the meanings of antonym pairs (e.g., big-small; Nygaard, Herold, & Namy, 2009). In the present study, we asked whether listeners infer the meaning of novel adjectives from ToV and subsequently interpret these adjectives according to the learned meaning even in the absence of ToV. Moreover, if listeners actually acquire these adjectival meanings, then they should generalize these word meanings to novel referents. ToV would thus be a semantic cue to lexical acquisition. This hypothesis was tested in an exposure-test paradigm with adult listeners. In the experiment listeners' eye movements to picture pairs were monitored. The picture pairs represented the endpoints of the adjectival dimensions big-small, hot-cold, and strong-weak (e.g., an elephant and an ant represented big-small). Four picture pairs per category were used. While viewing the pictures participants listened to lexically unconstraining sentences containing novel adjectives, for example, "Can you find the foppick one?" During exposure, the sentences were spoken in infant-directed speech with the intended adjectival meaning expressed by ToV. Word-meaning pairings were counterbalanced across participants. Each word was repeated eight times. Listeners had no explicit task. To guide listeners' attention to the relation between the words and pictures, three sets of filler trials were included that contained real English adjectives (e.g., full-empty). In the subsequent test phase participants heard the novel adjectives in neutral adult-directed ToV. Test sentences were recorded before the speaker was informed about intended word meanings. Participants had to choose which of two pictures on the screen the speaker referred to. Picture pairs that were presented during the exposure phase and four new picture pairs per category that varied along the critical dimensions were tested. During exposure listeners did not spontaneously direct their gaze to the intended referent at the first presentation. But as indicated by listener's fixation behavior, they quickly learned the relationship between ToV and word meaning over only two exposures. Importantly, during test participants consistently identified the intended referent object even in the absence of informative ToV. Learning was found for all three tested categories and did not depend on whether the picture pairs had been presented during exposure. Listeners thus use ToV not only to distinguish between antonym pairs but they are able to extract word meaning from ToV and assign this meaning to novel words. The newly learned word meanings can then be generalized to novel referents even in the absence of ToV cues. These findings suggest that ToV can be used as a semantic cue to lexical acquisition. References Nygaard, L. C., Herold, D. S., & Namy, L. L. (2009) The semantics of prosody: Acoustic and perceptual evidence of prosodic correlates to word meaning. Cognitive Science, 33. 127-146

Learning of adjectival word meaning through tone of voice [Abstract]

Speakers express word meaning through systematic but non-canonical acoustic variation of tone of voice (ToV), i.e., variation of speaking rate, pitch, vocal effort, or loudness. Words are, for example, pronounced at a higher pitch when referring to small than to big referents. In the present study, we examined whether listeners can use ToV to learn the meaning of novel adjectives (e.g., “blicket”). During training, participants heard sentences such as “Can you find the blicket one?” spoken with ToV representing hot-cold, strong-weak, and big-small. Participants’ eye movements to two simultaneously shown objects with properties representing the relevant two endpoints (e.g., an elephant and an ant for big-small) were monitored. Assignment of novel adjectives to endpoints was counterbalanced across participants. During test, participants heard the sentences spoken with a neutral ToV, while seeing old or novel picture pairs varying along the same dimensions (e.g., a truck and a car for big-small). Participants had to click on the adjective’s referent. As evident from eye movements, participants did not infer the intended meaning during first exposure, but learned the meaning with the help of ToV during training. At test listeners applied this knowledge to old and novel items even in the absence of informative ToV

Tone of voice guides word learning in informative referential contexts

Listeners infer which object in a visual scene a speaker refers to from the systematic variation of the speaker's tone of voice (ToV). We examined whether ToV also guides word learning. During exposure, participants heard novel adjectives (e.g., “daxen”) spoken with a ToV representing hot, cold, strong, weak, big, or small while viewing picture pairs representing the meaning of the adjective and its antonym (e.g., elephant-ant for big-small). Eye fixations were recorded to monitor referent detection and learning. During test, participants heard the adjectives spoken with a neutral ToV, while selecting referents from familiar and unfamiliar picture pairs. Participants were able to learn the adjectives' meanings, and, even in the absence of informative ToV, generalise them to new referents. A second experiment addressed whether ToV provides sufficient information to infer the adjectival meaning or needs to operate within a referential context providing information about the relevant semantic dimension. Participants who saw printed versions of the novel words during exposure performed at chance during test. ToV, in conjunction with the referential context, thus serves as a cue to word meaning. ToV establishes relations between labels and referents for listeners to exploit in word learning

Notes on Danish Scientific Work Since 1939

Brief tabulated information on personnel, program, and locality of field investigations in Greenland on: geology by A. Noe-Nygaard, zoology by C. Vibe, botany by T.W. Bocher, and archeology by E. Holtved. Includes note on Geological Survey of Greenland, established 1946

Utslipp av breslam til Holandsfjorden fra Svartisen kraftverk. Spredning av mulige effekter av partikkeltilførselen

Etter at Svartisen kraftverk kom i drift i 1993 er det i perioder blitt observert brunlig vann i store deler av Nordfjord/Holandsfjord. Hovedårsaken har vært en høy tilførsel av partikler til fjorden gjennom kraftverket. Det siste års målinger av suspendert materiale (SPM) i kraftverksvannet viser en markant reduksjon i tilførselen av partikler til fjorden gjennom kraftverket, og bedringene er blitt bekreftet av SPM- og siktedypsmålinger i fjorden. Det er anslått at ca. 30% av den leire og silt som slippes ut gjennom kraftverket transporteres forbi Enganeset, hvor den raskt fortynnes og konsentrasjonen av SPM vil komme ned på "bakgrunnsnivå". Sandfraksjonen vil i hovedsak sedimentere rett utenfor utslippet innerst i Nordfjord. Beregninger foretatt med utgangspunkt i dagens-, og den antatt fremtidige situasjon, indikerer liten negativ påvirkning på livet i fjorden. Lokalt, og i korte perioder, vil påvirkningen kunne være større. For å fortsatt kunne følge utviklingen i fjorden i tiden fremover foreslåes at pågående undersøkelser/målinger, med enkelte tillegg og justeringer, videreføres frem til år 2001-02 da en større etterundersøkelse er planlagt

Photoionization Of The 6P32,122 Fine-structure Levels In Cesium

The relative photoionization cross sections for cesium atoms selectively excited to the 6P32,122 states have been measured in a triple-crossed-beam experiment. A cesium discharge lamp produced resonant wavelengths of 8521 and 8944 for the excitation process. A Hg-Xe lamp combined with a grating monochromator was used for the actual ionization in the wavelength region from 2500 to 5000. Background counts due to photoionization of ground-state cesium atoms and dimers as well as various surface effects were discriminated against by chopping the excitation light source. The data are compared with results from radiative-recombination measurements in which the fine-structure levels are not resolved and with recent model-potential calculations. The wavelength () dependence of the cross section indicates a 2 dependence at threshold (5000) and a 4 behavior at lower wavelengths. © 1975 The American Physical Society

Microscopic Structure of a Vortex Line in a Superfluid Fermi Gas

The microscopic properties of a single vortex in a dilute superfluid Fermi gas at zero temperature are examined within the framework of self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory. Using only physical parameters as input, we study the pair potential, the density, the energy, and the current distribution. Comparison of the numerical results with analytical expressions clearly indicates that the energy of the vortex is governed by the zero-temperature BCS coherence length.Comment: 4 pages, 4 embedded figures. Added references. To be published in Physical Review Letter

An Australian rental housing conditions research infrastructure

Each year the proportion of Australians who rent their home increases and, for the first time in generations, there are now as many renters as outright homeowners. Researchers and policy makers, however, know very little about housing conditions within Australia's rental housing sector due to a lack of systematic, reliable data. In 2020, a collaboration of Australian universities commissioned a survey of tenant households to build a data infrastructure on the household and demographic characteristics, housing quality and conditions in the Australian rental sector. This data infrastructure was designed to be national (representative across all Australian States and Territories), and balanced across key population characteristics. The resultant Australian Rental Housing Conditions Dataset (ARHCD) is a publicly available data infrastructure for researchers and policy makers, providing a basis for national and international research