Selective Attention and Perceptual Learning of Speech

描述（由申请人提供）：在学习理解外语、学习使用人工耳蜗、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，人类听众能够学会识别不熟悉的语音对比。然而，对形成这种语音感知学习基础的认知机制知之甚少。一种常用的语音学习概念是基于语音信号中声学特征之间选择性注意的重新分配。将更多的注意力集中在那些诊断性强的线索上，而将注意力从不可靠或误导性的线索上抽离，可以提高分类的准确性和反应时间。通过这种方式，训练也可能有助于开发新的、更具诊断性的感知特征，提高有限的认知资源（如工作记忆）的有效性。

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.