Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating generalization, transfer, and representation resulting from non-native speech category training

博士论文研究：研究非母语语音类别训练产生的泛化、迁移和表征

• 批准号: 1422756
• 负责人: Lori Holt
• 金额: $ 1.62万
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1422756&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Investigating; generalization

Globalization has increased the importance of information transfer across traditional language boundaries. This has created a demand for new approaches to adult language learning that are both efficient and effective. This need is real; there are more second-language speakers of English in the world than native speakers. Bilingualism also confers a competitive advantage with respect to enhanced cognitive abilities and protection from neurodegenerative decline, so developing next-generation approaches to promoting bilingualism may have even broader impact. One of the significant challenges to this endeavor is teaching adults the sounds of a new language. The speech sounds that form the building blocks of language vary considerably across languages. A long history of laboratory research demonstrates that the brain "commits" to the speech sounds of the native language. This supports efficient native speech processing but confers a cost to learning a new language that uses a different sound system. Perceiving non-native speech sounds in adulthood is a case where it has been thought that the adult brain simply cannot be trained to learn. This consensus has arisen from decades of attempts to devise effective learning regimens for training adults to improve non-native speech perception. To summarize this literature very briefly, learning gains are modest even with extensive training over the course of weeks. Moreover, learning does not generalize well to unfamiliar instances of the sounds or to new voices.Under the direction of Dr. Lori Holt, Mr. Liu will target a promising new approach to this problem. Prior research from this team led to the counterintuitive finding that directing attention away from the task of language learning can lead to more efficient learning gains than the traditional approach of making overt judgments and getting explicit feedback. Examining adult learning when training is "hidden" in other engaging tasks is a novel and potentially more effective approach to teaching adults new language sounds. Mr. Liu's dissertation project builds on proof-of-concept evidence within this implicit training task. This study will examine whether extended (1-week) implicit perceptual training targeting improvement of speech sound representations impacts underlying neural representations (assessed via electrophysiological brain responses) and transfer to improvements in vocabulary-learning, modeled after classroom learning. Parallel studies will investigate conditions that optimize robust adult learning and generalization to new talkers and words. Results from this research will contribute to the understanding of the limits of adult perceptual plasticity and the nature of language learning. It also will inform the development of effective and engaging next-generation educational tools.

全球化增加了跨越传统语言界限的信息传输的重要性。这就要求成人语言学习的新方法既有效又有效。这种需求是真实的;世界上讲英语的第二语言的人比讲母语的人多。双语也赋予了竞争优势，增强认知能力和保护神经退行性衰退，因此开发下一代方法来促进双语可能会产生更广泛的影响。这一奋进的重大挑战之一是教成年人一种新语言的声音。构成语言基石的语音在不同语言之间有很大的差异。长期的实验室研究表明，大脑“致力于”母语的语音。这支持高效的母语语音处理，但为学习使用不同声音系统的新语言付出了代价。在成年期感知非母语语音的情况下，人们一直认为成年人的大脑根本无法被训练学习。这一共识来自于几十年来为训练成人提高非母语言语感知而设计有效学习方案的尝试。简要总结一下这些文献，即使经过几周的广泛培训，学习收益也是适度的。此外，学习并不能很好地推广到不熟悉的声音实例或新的声音。在洛里霍尔特博士的指导下，刘先生将瞄准一个有前途的新方法来解决这个问题。该团队之前的研究得出了一个违反直觉的发现，即将注意力从语言学习任务上转移开，可以比传统的做出公开判断和获得明确反馈的方法更有效地获得学习收益。当训练“隐藏”在其他引人入胜的任务中时，检查成人学习是一种新颖且可能更有效的方法来教授成人新的语言声音。刘先生的论文项目建立在这个内隐训练任务中的概念验证证据之上。本研究将探讨是否延长（1周）内隐感知训练，针对语音表征的改善影响潜在的神经表征（通过电生理大脑反应评估）和转移到词汇学习的改善，课堂学习后建模。平行研究将调查优化强大的成人学习和泛化到新的谈话者和单词的条件。本研究的结果将有助于理解成人知觉可塑性的局限性和语言学习的本质。它还将为有效和参与下一代教育工具的开发提供信息。