The Effect of Social Primes on the Perception of Native- and Nonnative-Accented Speech

Listeners use more than just acoustic information when processing speech. Social information, such as a speaker’s race/ethnicity, can also affect listeners’ understanding of the speech signal. In some cases, these social primes can facilitate perception, while in others they may inhibit perception. Indeed, a picture of an East Asian face has been shown to facilitate the perception of Mandarin Chinese-accented English but interfere with the perception of American-accented English. The present dissertation builds on this line of inquiry, addressing novel topics including the generalizability and specificity of social priming effects, their relationship with implicit racial/ethnic associations, and their role in perceptual adaptation to nonnative-accented speech. In four online experiments, we examined the effect of visual race/ethnicity guises on transcription accuracy for native-accented and nonnative-accented speech (presented in background noise). Results of these experiments were mixed. Our first experiment successfully replicated prior work, demonstrating that an East Asian prime can facilitate perception of Mandarin-accented English speech. However, despite our attempt to assure sufficient power via large sample sizes, in all subsequent experiments we did not find effects of social primes on speech transcription accuracy or perceptual adaptation. Notably, our null outcomes have one positive implication: Minority race/ethnicity speakers with native-accented English speech may not be at a perceptual disadvantage as compared to White speakers (as indicated by prior work). Ultimately, further examination of social priming is needed to determine whether the mixed findings of the current work may reflect a small or a context-dependent effect. We suggest that by including in-depth analyses of subjects’ social networks (i.e., to determine their exposure to racial/ethnic diversity and relevant accent varieties), future investigations will be able to assess individual differences in susceptibility to social priming effects

Exploring effects of brief daily exposure to unfamiliar accent on listening performance and cognitive load

IntroductionListeners rapidly “tune” to unfamiliar accented speech, and some evidence also suggests that they may improve over multiple days of exposure. The present study aimed to measure accommodation of unfamiliar second language- (L2-) accented speech over a consecutive 5-day period using both a measure of listening performance (speech recognition accuracy) and a measure of cognitive load (a dual-task paradigm).MethodsAll subjects completed a dual-task paradigm with L1 and L2 accent on Days 1 and 5, and were given brief exposure to either L1 (control group) or unfamiliar L2 (training groups) accent on Days 2–4. One training group was exposed to the L2 accent via a standard speech transcription task while the other was exposed to the L2 accent via a transcription task that included implicit feedback (i.e., showing the correct answer after each trial).ResultsAlthough overall improvement in listening performance and reduction in cognitive load were observed from Days 1 to 5, our results indicated neither a larger benefit for the L2 accent training groups compared to the control group nor a difference based on the implicit feedback manipulation.DiscussionWe conclude that the L2 accent trainings implemented in the present study did not successfully promote long-term learning benefits of a statistically meaningful magnitude, presenting our findings as a methodologically informative starting point for future research on this topic

Give me a break! Unavoidable fatigue effects in cognitive pupillometry

Issue Online: 08 June 2023Pupillometry has a rich history in the study of perception and cognition. One perennial challenge is that the magnitude of the task-evoked pupil response diminishes over the course of an experiment, a phenomenon we refer to as a fatigue effect. Reducing fatigue effects may improve sensitivity to task effects and reduce the likelihood of confounds due to systematic physiological changes over time. In this paper, we investigated the degree to which fatigue effects could be ameliorated by experimenter intervention. In Experiment 1, we assigned participants to one of three groups—no breaks, kinetic breaks (playing with toys, but no social interaction), or chatting with a research assistant—and compared the pupil response across conditions. In Experiment 2, we additionally tested the effect of researcher observation. Only breaks including social interaction significantly reduced the fatigue of the pupil response across trials. However, in all conditions we found robust evidence for fatigue effects: that is, regardless of protocol, the task-evoked pupil response was substantially diminished (at least 60%) over the duration of the experiment. We account for the variance of fatigue effects in our pupillometry data using multiple common statistical modeling approaches (e.g., linear mixed-effects models of peak, mean, and baseline pupil diameters, as well as growth curve models of time-course data). We conclude that pupil attenuation is a predictable phenomenon that should be accommodated in our experimental designs and statistical models.Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Grant/Award Number: CEX2020-001010- S; Eusko Jaurlaritza; National Institutes of Health, Grant/ Award Number: R01 DC014281 and R01 DC019507; National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: DGE-174503

State-resolved valence shell photoionization of Be-like ions: experiment and theory

High-resolution photoionization experiments were carried out using beams of Be-like C$^{2+}$, N$^{3+}$, and O$^{4+}$ ions with roughly equal populations of the $^1$S ground-state and the $^3$P$^o$ manifold of metastable components. The energy scales of the experiments are calibrated with uncertainties of 1 to 10 meV depending on photon energy. Resolving powers beyond 20,000 were reached allowing for the separation of contributions from the individual metastable $^3$P$^o_0$, $^3$P$^o_1$, and $^3$P$^o_2$ states. The measured data compare favourably with semi-relativistic Breit-Pauli R-matrixComment: 23 figures and 3 table

BHPR research: qualitative1. Complex reasoning determines patients' perception of outcome following foot surgery in rheumatoid arhtritis

Background: Foot surgery is common in patients with RA but research into surgical outcomes is limited and conceptually flawed as current outcome measures lack face validity: to date no one has asked patients what is important to them. This study aimed to determine which factors are important to patients when evaluating the success of foot surgery in RA Methods: Semi structured interviews of RA patients who had undergone foot surgery were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis of interviews was conducted to explore issues that were important to patients. Results: 11 RA patients (9 ♂, mean age 59, dis dur = 22yrs, mean of 3 yrs post op) with mixed experiences of foot surgery were interviewed. Patients interpreted outcome in respect to a multitude of factors, frequently positive change in one aspect contrasted with negative opinions about another. Overall, four major themes emerged. Function: Functional ability & participation in valued activities were very important to patients. Walking ability was a key concern but patients interpreted levels of activity in light of other aspects of their disease, reflecting on change in functional ability more than overall level. Positive feelings of improved mobility were often moderated by negative self perception ("I mean, I still walk like a waddling duck”). Appearance: Appearance was important to almost all patients but perhaps the most complex theme of all. Physical appearance, foot shape, and footwear were closely interlinked, yet patients saw these as distinct separate concepts. Patients need to legitimize these feelings was clear and they frequently entered into a defensive repertoire ("it's not cosmetic surgery; it's something that's more important than that, you know?”). Clinician opinion: Surgeons' post operative evaluation of the procedure was very influential. The impact of this appraisal continued to affect patients' lasting impression irrespective of how the outcome compared to their initial goals ("when he'd done it ... he said that hasn't worked as good as he'd wanted to ... but the pain has gone”). Pain: Whilst pain was important to almost all patients, it appeared to be less important than the other themes. Pain was predominately raised when it influenced other themes, such as function; many still felt the need to legitimize their foot pain in order for health professionals to take it seriously ("in the end I went to my GP because it had happened a few times and I went to an orthopaedic surgeon who was quite dismissive of it, it was like what are you complaining about”). Conclusions: Patients interpret the outcome of foot surgery using a multitude of interrelated factors, particularly functional ability, appearance and surgeons' appraisal of the procedure. While pain was often noted, this appeared less important than other factors in the overall outcome of the surgery. Future research into foot surgery should incorporate the complexity of how patients determine their outcome Disclosure statement: All authors have declared no conflicts of interes

A direct localization of a fast radio burst and its host

Fast radio bursts are astronomical radio flashes of unknown physical nature with durations of milliseconds. Their dispersive arrival times suggest an extragalactic origin and imply radio luminosities orders of magnitude larger than any other kind of known short-duration radio transient. Thus far, all FRBs have been detected with large single-dish telescopes with arcminute localizations, and attempts to identify their counterparts (source or host galaxy) have relied on contemporaneous variability of field sources or the presence of peculiar field stars or galaxies. These attempts have not resulted in an unambiguous association with a host or multi-wavelength counterpart. Here we report the sub-arcsecond localization of FRB 121102, the only known repeating burst source, using high-time-resolution radio interferometric observations that directly image the bursts themselves. Our precise localization reveals that FRB 121102 originates within 100 mas of a faint 180 uJy persistent radio source with a continuum spectrum that is consistent with non-thermal emission, and a faint (25th magnitude) optical counterpart. The flux density of the persistent radio source varies by tens of percent on day timescales, and very long baseline radio interferometry yields an angular size less than 1.7 mas. Our observations are inconsistent with the fast radio burst having a Galactic origin or its source being located within a prominent star-forming galaxy. Instead, the source appears to be co-located with a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus or a previously unknown type of extragalactic source. [Truncated] If other fast radio bursts have similarly faint radio and optical counterparts, our findings imply that direct sub-arcsecond localizations of FRBs may be the only way to provide reliable associations.Comment: Nature, published online on 4 Jan 2017, DOI: 10.1038/nature2079

Effects of fluoxetine on functional outcomes after acute stroke (FOCUS): a pragmatic, double-blind, randomised, controlled trial

Background Results of small trials indicate that fluoxetine might improve functional outcomes after stroke. The FOCUS trial aimed to provide a precise estimate of these effects. Methods FOCUS was a pragmatic, multicentre, parallel group, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial done at 103 hospitals in the UK. Patients were eligible if they were aged 18 years or older, had a clinical stroke diagnosis, were enrolled and randomly assigned between 2 days and 15 days after onset, and had focal neurological deficits. Patients were randomly allocated fluoxetine 20 mg or matching placebo orally once daily for 6 months via a web-based system by use of a minimisation algorithm. The primary outcome was functional status, measured with the modified Rankin Scale (mRS), at 6 months. Patients, carers, health-care staff, and the trial team were masked to treatment allocation. Functional status was assessed at 6 months and 12 months after randomisation. Patients were analysed according to their treatment allocation. This trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry, number ISRCTN83290762. Findings Between Sept 10, 2012, and March 31, 2017, 3127 patients were recruited. 1564 patients were allocated fluoxetine and 1563 allocated placebo. mRS data at 6 months were available for 1553 (99·3%) patients in each treatment group. The distribution across mRS categories at 6 months was similar in the fluoxetine and placebo groups (common odds ratio adjusted for minimisation variables 0·951 [95% CI 0·839–1·079]; p=0·439). Patients allocated fluoxetine were less likely than those allocated placebo to develop new depression by 6 months (210 [13·43%] patients vs 269 [17·21%]; difference 3·78% [95% CI 1·26–6·30]; p=0·0033), but they had more bone fractures (45 [2·88%] vs 23 [1·47%]; difference 1·41% [95% CI 0·38–2·43]; p=0·0070). There were no significant differences in any other event at 6 or 12 months. Interpretation Fluoxetine 20 mg given daily for 6 months after acute stroke does not seem to improve functional outcomes. Although the treatment reduced the occurrence of depression, it increased the frequency of bone fractures. These results do not support the routine use of fluoxetine either for the prevention of post-stroke depression or to promote recovery of function. Funding UK Stroke Association and NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme

Individual Variation in the Perception of Speech in Multiple Types of Adverse Listening Conditions

Submitted to the Undergraduate Library Research Award scholarship competition: (2017-2018). 39 pages.During speech communication, both environmental noise and talker-related variation (e.g., accented speech) can create adverse conditions for the listener. Individuals recruit additional cognitive, linguistic, or perceptual resources when faced with such challenges, and they vary in their ability to understand degraded and/or variable speech. In the present study, we compare individuals’ ability on a variety of skills—including receptive vocabulary, selective attention, rhythm perception, and working memory—with transcription accuracy (i.e., intelligibility scores) for four adverse listening conditions: native speech in speech-shaped noise, native speech in single-talker babble, nonnative accented speech in quiet, and nonnative accented speech in speech-shaped noise. The results show that intelligibility scores within adverse listening conditions of the same class (i.e., either environmental or talker-related) significantly correlate. For cognitive, linguistic, and perceptual skills, receptive vocabulary significantly predicts performance on all four adverse listening conditions, while working memory only significantly predicts performance on conditions with nonnative accented speech. Rhythm perception was found to significantly predict speaker type (i.e., native versus nonnative speaker). Taken together, these results indicate that listeners may recruit similar resources when faced with adverse listening conditions in general, but specific additional resources when faced with certain types of listening challenges