Internal Models and Vocal Imitation

模仿的能力对于人类的发展至关重要，对于将所学的能力从一代传给另一代，甚至对于理解他人的意图和行为都至关重要。对模仿过程的兴趣由来已久，但大多数研究都集中在模仿视觉上可观察到的动作。这个研究项目的重点是声乐模仿，这是婴儿自发出现的，在语言习得、唱歌和其他表达性发声中起着重要的交际作用。这些研究将声音模仿的行为和生理测量与计算模型结合起来，以评估声音模仿的缺陷是否反映了听觉意象的失败或从听觉感知到协调运动动作的复杂转换的失败。这项研究的一个潜在应用是为有声乐模仿困难的个人开发干预措施，包括训练“音盲”歌手的教学技术。第二个潜在的应用是学习声调语言，如汉语，其中音高信息是至关重要的。

The ability to imitate is crucial for human development, for transferring learned abilities from one generation to another, and perhaps even for understanding the intentions and actions of others. Interest in the processes of imitation has a long history but most of the research has focused on the imitation of visually observable actions. This research program focuses instead on vocal imitation, which emerges spontaneously in infants and plays an important communicative role in language acquisition, singing, and other expressive vocalizations. The studies combine behavioral and physiological measures of vocal imitation with a computational model in order to evaluate whether deficits in vocal imitation reflect a failure of auditory imagery or of the complex transformation from auditory perception to coordinated motor action.A potential application of this research is the development of interventions for individuals who have difficulty with vocal imitation, including pedagogical techniques to train "tone deaf" singers. A second potential application is to the learning of tonal languages such as Chinese, for which pitch information is critical.