The time course of auditory and language-specific mechanisms in compensation for sibilant assimilation

Models of spoken-word recognition differ on whether compensation for assimilation is language-specific or depends on general auditory processing. English and French participants were taught words that began or ended with the sibilants /s/ and /∫/. Both languages exhibit some assimilation in sibilant sequences (e.g., /s/ becomes like [∫] in dress shop and classe chargée), but they differ in the strength and predominance of anticipatory versus carryover assimilation. After training, participants were presented with novel words embedded in sentences, some of which contained an assimilatory context either preceding or following. A continuum of target sounds ranging from [s] to [∫] was spliced into the novel words, representing a range of possible assimilation strengths. Listeners' perceptions were examined using a visual-world eyetracking paradigm in which the listener clicked on pictures matching the novel words. We found two distinct language-general context effects: a contrastive effect when the assimilating context preceded the target, and flattening of the sibilant categorization function (increased ambiguity) when the assimilating context followed. Furthermore, we found that English but not French listeners were able to resolve the ambiguity created by the following assimilatory context, consistent with their greater experience with assimilation in this context. The combination of these mechanisms allows listeners to deal flexibly with variability in speech forms

Sustainable Decision-Making: Moving Beyond People, Planets, and Profits

This chapter highlights the immense difficulty of achieving sustainability unlessthe language of business changes from an obsessive focus on profit, and leadersuse new frameworks to view business problems. Traditional framing in businessincludes the worlds of accounting, warfare, sports, and games, which are at oddswith humanistic and holistic approach essential to developing leaders with thecourage and engagement needed to address the challenge of the sustainability ofour planet. The chapter introduces the need for a new language for sustainablebusiness, examines the unhappiness of the millennial generation with the currentlanguage, and explores how business-as-usual changes when a more holisticlanguage is used. The chapter then examines how when the decision-making frame changes from one of war and losses to one of community and sociallearning, decision makers are more likely to reframe both their goals and thefocus of their analysis to go beyond monetary outcomes to include socially andenvironmentally sustainable outcomes. It also analyzes the role of holistic language,motivation and appropriateness in moving organizational cultures from asingle-minded profit focus to one of triple bottom line sustainability. The chapterends with a road map and several examples of how organizations can change theway they frame sustainability problems, develop new goals that are holistic innature and aligned with global sustainability goals, and implement metrics tokeep track of real progress towards sustainability