Selective Attention and Perceptual Learning of Speech

描述(申请人提供)：人类听者能够在学习理解外语的过程中，在学习使用人工耳蜗的过程中，在学习更好地理解陌生的说话者或计算机语音合成器的过程中，学习识别陌生的语音对比。然而，人们对形成这种语音知觉学习基础的认知机制知之甚少。一种常用的语音学习概念化是基于语音信号中的声学特征之间的选择性注意力的重新分配。将更多的注意力放在那些高度具有诊断性的线索上，并将注意力从不可靠或误导性的线索上移开，应该会提高分类的准确性和反应时间。通过这种方式，训练还可能有助于开发新的、更具诊断性的感知特征，提高工作记忆等有限认知资源的有效性。 四个实验将采用快速分类与冲突线索刺激和加纳干扰任务相结合的方式来研究：(A)辨认训练如何诱导听者忽略先前注意到的线索(实验1)而注意到先前没有注意到的线索(实验2)；以及(B)确定这两种选择性注意分配的变化对工作记忆资源分配的影响程度和方式(实验3和实验4)。这项研究将为理解人类语音识别的认知机制提供新的基础数据。这些结果也将对更多的临床研究具有指导意义，这些研究将考察人工耳蜗术后言语知觉的再获得；注意力和工作记忆因素在特定语言损伤(SLI)、阅读障碍和正常衰老中的作用；以及理解第一语言和第二语言学习机制之间的关系。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Human listeners are able to learn to recognize unfamiliar phonetic contrasts in the course of learning to understand foreign languages, in learning to use a cochlear implant, and in learning to better understand an unfamiliar talker or computer speech synthesizer. However, little is yet known about the cognitive mechanisms that form the basis of such perceptual learning of speech sounds. One frequently used conceptualizing of phonetic learning is based on the redistribution of selective attention between acoustic features in the speech signal. Distributing more attention to those cues that are highly diagnostic, and withdrawing attention from unreliable or misleading cue, should improve categorization accuracy and response time. In this way, training may also serve to develop new, more diagnostic perceptual features, improving the effectiveness of limited cognitive resources such as working memory. Four experiments will be conducted using a combination of speeded classification with conflicting cue stimuli and Garner interference tasks to investigate: (A) how identification training can induce listeners to ignore a previously attended cue (experiment 1) and to attend to a previously unattended cue (experiment 2); and (B) to determine the degree and manner to which these two kinds of changes in the distribution of selective attention each affect the allocation of working memory resources (experiments 3 and 4). This research will provide new basic data related to understanding the cognitive mechanisms that underlie human speech recognition. These results will also have implications for more clinically oriented studies investigating the re-acquisition of speech perception following cochlear implantation; the role of attention and working memory factors in specific language impairment (SLI), dyslexia, and normal aging; and for understanding the relationship between mechanisms of first and second language learning.