Selective Attention and Perceptual Learning of Speech

描述（由申请人提供）：人类听者能够在学习理解外语、学习使用耳蜗植入物以及学习更好地理解不熟悉的说话者或计算机语音合成器的过程中学习识别不熟悉的语音对比。然而，很少有人知道的认知机制，形成的基础上，这种感知学习的语音。语音学习的一个常用概念是基于语音信号中声学特征之间的选择性注意的重新分配。将更多的注意力分配给那些高度诊断性的线索，并从不可靠或误导性的线索中撤回注意力，应该可以提高分类准确率和反应时间。通过这种方式，训练也可以帮助开发新的、更具诊断性的感知特征，提高有限认知资源（如工作记忆）的有效性。 本研究采用四个实验，分别采用冲突线索刺激和Garner干扰任务来研究：（A）识别训练如何诱导听者忽略先前注意的线索（实验1）和注意到以前无人注意的线索（实验2）;和（B）确定这两种选择性注意分布的变化各自影响工作记忆分配的程度和方式资源（实验3和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。这些结果也将有更多的临床导向的研究调查人工耳蜗植入后的言语知觉的重新获得的影响;注意力和工作记忆因素在特定语言障碍（SLI），阅读障碍和正常老化的作用;和理解第一和第二语言学习的机制之间的关系。

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.