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Cohn M, Zellou G. Selective tuning of nasal coarticulation and hyperarticulation across slow-clear, casual, and fast-clear speech styles. JASA EXPRESS LETTERS 2023; 3:125203. [PMID: 38117232 DOI: 10.1121/10.0023841] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023]
Abstract
This study investigates how California English speakers adjust nasal coarticulation and hyperarticulation on vowels across three speech styles: speaking slowly and clearly (imagining a hard-of-hearing addressee), casually (imagining a friend/family member addressee), and speaking quickly and clearly (imagining being an auctioneer). Results show covariation in speaking rate and vowel hyperarticulation across the styles. Additionally, results reveal that speakers produce more extensive anticipatory nasal coarticulation in the slow-clear speech style, in addition to a slower speech rate. These findings are interpreted in terms of accounts of coarticulation in which speakers selectively tune their production of nasal coarticulation based on the speaking style.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michelle Cohn
- Phonetics Lab, Linguistics Department, UC Davis, Davis, California 95616, ,
| | - Georgia Zellou
- Phonetics Lab, Linguistics Department, UC Davis, Davis, California 95616, ,
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Li K, Lu A, Deng R, Yi H. The Unique Cost of Human Eye Gaze in Cognitive Control: Being Human-Specific and Body-Related? PSICHOLOGIJA 2022. [DOI: 10.15388/psichol.2022.59] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
This study investigated the eye gaze cost in cognitive control and whether it is human-specific and body-related. In Experiment 1, we explored whether there was a cost of human eye gaze in cognitive control and extended it by focusing on the role of emotion in the cost. Stroop effect was found to be larger in eye-gaze condition than vertical grating condition, and to be comparable across positive, negative, and neutral trials. In Experiment 2, we explored whether the eye gaze cost in cognitive control was limited to human eyes. No larger Stroop effect was found in feline eye-gaze condition, neither the modulating role of emotion. In Experiment 3, we explored whether the mouth could elicit a cost in Stroop effect. Stroop effect was not significantly larger in mouth condition compared to vertical grating condition, nor across positive, negative, and neutral conditions. The results suggest that: (1) There is a robust cost of eye gaze in cognitive control; (2) Such eye-gaze cost was specific to human eyes but not to animal eyes; (3) Only human eyes could have such eye-gaze costs but not human mouth. This study supported the notion that presentation of social cues, such as human eyes, could influence attentional processing, and provided preliminary evidence that the human eye plays an important role in cognitive processing.
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Darfler M, Cruz-Garza JG, Kalantari S. An EEG-Based Investigation of the Effect of Perceived Observation on Visual Memory in Virtual Environments. Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12020269. [PMID: 35204033 PMCID: PMC8870655 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12020269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2021] [Revised: 02/01/2022] [Accepted: 02/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The presence of external observers has been shown to affect performance on cognitive tasks, but the parameters of this impact for different types of tasks and the underlying neural dynamics are less understood. The current study examined the behavioral and brain activity effects of perceived observation on participants’ visual working memory (VWM) in a virtual reality (VR) classroom setting, using the task format as a moderating variable. Participants (n = 21) were equipped with a 57-channel EEG cap, and neural data were collected as they completed two VWM tasks under two observation conditions (observed and not observed) in a within-subjects experimental design. The “observation” condition was operationalized through the addition of a static human avatar in the VR classroom. The avatar’s presence was associated with a significant effect on extending the task response time, but no effect was found on task accuracy. This outcome may have been due to a ceiling effect, as the mean participant task scores were quite high. EEG data analysis supported the behavioral findings by showing consistent differences between the no-observation and observation conditions for one of the VWM tasks only. These neural differences were identified in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the occipital cortex (OC) regions, with higher theta-band activity occurring in the dlPFC during stimulus encoding and in the OC during response selection when the “observing” avatar was present. These findings provide evidence that perceived observation can inhibit performance during visual tasks by altering attentional focus, even in virtual contexts.
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Barutchu A, Spence C. An Experimenter's Influence on Motor Enhancements: The Effects of Letter Congruency and Sensory Switch-Costs on Multisensory Integration. Front Psychol 2020; 11:588343. [PMID: 33335500 PMCID: PMC7736551 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.588343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2020] [Accepted: 11/05/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Multisensory integration can alter information processing, and previous research has shown that such processes are modulated by sensory switch costs and prior experience (e.g., semantic or letter congruence). Here we report an incidental finding demonstrating, for the first time, the interplay between these processes and experimental factors, specifically the presence (vs. absence) of the experimenter in the testing room. Experiment 1 demonstrates that multisensory motor facilitation in response to audiovisual stimuli (circle and tone with no prior learnt associations) is higher in those trials in which the sensory modality switches than when it repeats. Those participants who completed the study while alone exhibited increased RT variability. Experiment 2 replicated these findings using the letters “b” and “d” presented as unisensory stimuli or congruent and incongruent multisensory stimuli (i.e., grapheme-phoneme pairs). Multisensory enhancements were inflated following a sensory switch; that is, congruent and incongruent multisensory stimuli resulted in significant gains following a sensory switch in the monitored condition. However, when the participants were left alone, multisensory enhancements were only observed for repeating incongruent multisensory stimuli. These incidental findings therefore suggest that the effects of letter congruence and sensory switching on multisensory integration are partly modulated by the presence of an experimenter.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ayla Barutchu
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Charles Spence
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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Zareyan S, Zhang H, Wang J, Song W, Hampson E, Abbott D, Diamond A. First Demonstration of Double Dissociation between COMT-Met158 and COMT-Val158 Cognitive Performance When Stressed and When Calmer. Cereb Cortex 2020; 31:1411-1426. [PMID: 33124661 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2020] [Revised: 08/27/2020] [Accepted: 08/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
We present here the first evidence of the much-predicted double dissociation between the effect of stress on cognitive skills [executive functions (EFs)] dependent on prefrontal cortex (PFC) by catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) genotype. The COMT gene polymorphism with methionine (Met) at codon 158 results in more dopamine (DA) in PFC and generally better EFs, while with valine (Val) at codon 158 the result is less PFC DA and generally poorer EFs. Many have predicted that mild stress, by raising PFC DA levels should aid EFs of COMT-Vals (bringing their PFC DA levels up, closer to optimal) and impair EFs of COMT-Mets (raising their PFC DA levels past optimal). We tested 140 men and women in a within-subject crossover design using extremely mild social evaluative stress. On trials requiring EFs (incongruent trials) of the Flanker/Reverse Flanker task, COMT-Val158 homozygotes performed better when mildly stressed than when calmer, while COMT-Met158 carriers performed worse when mildly stressed. Two other teams previously tried to obtain this, but only found stress impairing EFs of COMT-Mets, not improving EFs of COMT-Vals. Perhaps we found both because we used a much milder stressor. Evidently, the bandwidth for stress having a facilitative effect on EFs is exceedingly narrow.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shahab Zareyan
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 2A1, Canada
| | - Haolu Zhang
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 2A1, Canada
| | - Juelu Wang
- Basic Neurosciences Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 2A1, Canada
| | - Weihong Song
- Basic Neurosciences Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 2A1, Canada
| | - Elizabeth Hampson
- Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, Department of Psychology, Western University, London, ON N6A 5C2, Canada
| | - David Abbott
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 2A1, Canada
| | - Adele Diamond
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 2A1, Canada
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Abstract
Background/Study context: Maintenance in verbal working memory is thought to rely on two main systems: a phonological and a semantic system. The three objectives of the present study were to clarify how these systems are organized and interact, to examine whether their involvement in maintenance changes with aging, and to identify which underlying mechanism accounts for both age-related changes in the available set of mechanisms and immediate recall.Methods: To address these issues, we examined age-related changes in strategic aspects of maintenance of information in working memory. We collected trial-by-trial verbal reports of which strategy young and older adults used while accomplishing a verbal complex span task. In addition, individuals' speed of articulation was collected.Results: Results support the existence of separable systems (i.e., phonological and semantic systems) that participants combine to cope with increasing memory loads. We also found age-related differences (e.g., older individuals used more strategies than young individuals and used available strategies unequally often) and invariance (e.g., both age groups used strategies based on phonological and semantic processing) in strategic aspects of working memory maintenance. Importantly, articulation speed accounted for effects of both memory load and age on strategy distributions as well as for age-related differences in immediate recall.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that young and older adults' use of common and different sets of maintenance mechanisms stems for the constraints of the phonological loop in working memory, especially the speed of articulation, which slowed down with aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johann Chevalère
- Department of Psychology, Fribourg Center for Cognition, Université de Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | | | - Valérie Camos
- Department of Psychology, Fribourg Center for Cognition, Université de Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
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Belletier C, Normand A, Huguet P. Social-Facilitation-and-Impairment Effects: From Motivation to Cognition and the Social Brain. CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2019. [DOI: 10.1177/0963721419829699] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
For more than a century, social psychologists have been trying to understand how the presence of conspecifics—perhaps the most fundamental invariant of behavior in many, if not all, animal species—affects behavior. Although this issue, traditionally referred to using the term social-facilitation-and-impairment effects, has generated much interest, the impact of social presence on attentional mechanisms—especially those related to executive attention—has been mostly ignored, as have the neural bases of these phenomena. Here, we describe a series of findings indicating that social presence may have strong effects on attentional mechanisms and may even play a key role in the modulation of neuronal activity. Not only do these findings provide new reasons to pay constant attention to the social environment of cognition, but they also have important implications for the practice of psychological science.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clément Belletier
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Clermont Auvergne
| | - Alice Normand
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Clermont Auvergne
| | - Pascal Huguet
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Clermont Auvergne
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Weineck F, Messner M, Hauke G, Pollatos O. Improving interoceptive ability through the practice of power posing: A pilot study. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0211453. [PMID: 30730938 PMCID: PMC6366763 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2018] [Accepted: 01/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Interoception refers to the detection and perception of signals from the inner body. Deficits in this domain have been linked to psychopathologies, prompting the search for strategies to improve this ability. Preliminary studies have shown that interoception could be enhanced through the manipulation of subjective feelings of power. We tested the effects of adopting powerful postures on different facets of interoception. Firstly, we measured the impact of a single power posing session on interoceptive ability in 41 healthy females. Then, the same participants were randomly assigned to two conditions (daily power posing practice vs. no practice). After one week the conditions alternated. Interoceptive accuracy, measured by the heartbeat tracking task, interoceptive sensibility, measured by the Body Perception Questionnaire (BPQ) and confidence ratings, as well as subjective feelings of power were assessed at baseline, after a single power posing session and after one week of training. A single power posing session significantly increased individuals' interoceptive accuracy. Also, power posing reduced individuals' scores on the BPQ after one week of daily practice and increased subjective feelings of power after one session and one week of daily practice. These findings suggest that adopting powerful postures has the potential to increase interoceptive accuracy, as well as subjective feelings of power, and to reduce interoceptive sensibility, measured by questionnaire.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felicitas Weineck
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Matthias Messner
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| | - Gernot Hauke
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
- Embodiment Resources Academy (ERA), Munich, Germany
| | - Olga Pollatos
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
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Spatola N, Belletier C, Chausse P, Augustinova M, Normand A, Barra V, Ferrand L, Huguet P. Improved Cognitive Control in Presence of Anthropomorphized Robots. Int J Soc Robot 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s12369-018-00511-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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