Syllabically Conditioned Perceptual Epenthesis

This paper focuses on perceptual epenthesis; a phenomenon where listeners perceive illusory vowels within consonant clusters which deviate from the phonotactic norms of their native language (see Dupoux et al., 1999). We present results from an experiment on Korean listeners ' perception of English consonant clusters which replicates an

Syllabically Conditioned Perceptual Epenthesis

Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Phonetic Sources of Phonological Patterns: Synchronic and Diachronic Explanations (2003

Timing of second language singletons and geminates

This study investigated the realization of Italian geminate-singleton contrasts by naïve and advanced L2 speakers of Italian whose L1 was German, a language with no consonantal length contrasts. We show that geminate-singleton differences could be established by all groups although there were significant differences in the geminate-singleton duration ratios across groups (Italian > advanced learners > naïve). Closer inspection reveals that the advanced L2 learners’ approximation to the native Italian duration ratios was mainly due to an improved (shorter) realization of singletons. Our results suggest that the native-like timing of geminates is difficult to acquire even with a considerable amount of exposure to Italian, and that learners widen the geminate-singleton difference by readjusting the timing of an already existing category

When more is less : Non-native perception of level tone contrasts

Using an ABX task, we investigated the L2 perception of 4 level tones in a Niger-Congo language by listeners with different L1s: Vietnamese (1 level tone, 6 tones total), Taiwanese (2 level tones, 6 tones total), and German (no tone). German listeners were better than both tone language groups, which differed significantly from one another in conditions involving tones that are similar to the level tones in their L1. This supports the predictions of Best’s [1] Perceptual Assimilation Model, suggesting that the existing level tones can act as perceptual magnets yielding poor performance in the discrimination of level tone contrasts

Effects of Multimodal Exercise on Clinical Status and Patient-Reported Outcomes in Children Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

There are limited data available regarding effectiveness of exercise training in children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). We aimed to investigate effects of multimodal exercise program on clinical status and patient-reported outcomes including pain, fatigue, depression, and quality of life (QOL) level of children and their parents' QOL level. Twenty-six children undergoing HSCT participated in this study. Clinical status, pain, fatigue, depression, and QOL level of children were assessed three times: before HSCT, at discharge, and one month later. For intervention group (IG, n = 15), multimodal exercise program was performed five days a week, throughout hospitalization and children were advised to continue exercise program at home. For control group (CG, n = 11), being active as much as possible was advised. The number of painful day and pain intensity was significantly lower in IG than in CG during hospitalization (p < .05). Depression level decreased in IG at the time points (p ˂ .05); however, there was no significantly difference between groups. The QOL level was higher in IG than CG only at control measurements (p ˂ .05). In addition, QOL level of the parents decreased in both groups (p ˂ .05). There was no statistically difference between groups in terms of other clinical variables. The multimodal supervised exercise program has positive effects on children's pain and QOL level. Exercise program was also well tolerated by children during hospitalization. In addition, QOL levels of the parents were also negatively affected during hospitalization, and interventions aiming to increase QOL level of the parents should be considered.Wo