https://blogs.umass.edu/jkingstn/files/2013/12/liberman_mattingly_1985_cognition.pdf

The motor theory of speech perception revised

Signal detection theory (SDT) may be applied to any area of psychology in which two different types of stimuli must be discriminated. We describe several of these areas and the advantages that can be realized through the application of SDT. Three of the most popular tasks used to study discriminability are then discussed, together with the measures that SDT prescribes for quantifying performance in these tasks. Mathematical formulae for the measures are presented, as are methods for calculating the measures with lookup tables, computer software specifically developed for SDT applications, and general purpose computer software (including spreadsheets and statistical analysis software).

/pdf/calculation-of-signal-detection-theory-measures-4xcday6n3y.pdf

Calculation of signal detection theory measures

Many people have argued that the evolution of the human language faculty cannot be explained by Darwinian natural selection. Chomsky and Gould have suggested that language may have evolved as the by-product of selection for other abilities or as a consequence of as-yet unknown laws of growth and form. Others have argued that a biological specialization for grammar is incompatible with every tenet of Darwinian theory – that it shows no genetic variation, could not exist in any intermediate forms, confers no selective advantage, and would require more evolutionary time and genomic space than is available. We examine these arguments and show that they depend on inaccurate assumptions about biology or language or both. Evolutionary theory offers clear criteria for when a trait should be attributed to natural selection: complex design for some function, and the absence of alternative processes capable of explaining such complexity. Human language meets these criteria: Grammar is a complex mechanism tailored to the transmission of propositional structures through a serial interface. Autonomous and arbitrary grammatical phenomena have been offered as counterexamples to the position that language is an adaptation, but this reasoning is unsound: Communication protocols depend on arbitrary conventions that are adaptive as long as they are shared. Consequently, language acquisition in the child should systematically differ from language evolution in the species, and attempts to analogize them are misleading. Reviewing other arguments and data, we conclude that there is every reason to believe that a specialization for grammar evolved by a conventional neo-Darwinian process.

http://www.biolinguagem.com/ling_cog_cult/pinker_bloom_1990_naturallanguage_naturalselection.pdf

Natural language and natural selection

Research indicates that people value music primarily because of the emotions it evokes. Yet, the notion of musical emotions remains controversial, and researchers have so far been unable to offer a satisfactory account of such emotions. We argue that the study of musical emotions has suffered from a neglect of underlying mechanisms. Specifically, researchers have studied musical emotions without regard to how they were evoked, or have assumed that the emotions must be based on the "default" mechanism for emotion induction, a cognitive appraisal. Here, we present a novel theoretical framework featuring six additional mechanisms through which music listening may induce emotions: (1) brain stem reflexes, (2) evaluative conditioning, (3) emotional contagion, (4) visual imagery, (5) episodic memory, and (6) musical expectancy. We propose that these mechanisms differ regarding such characteristics as their information focus, ontogenetic development, key brain regions, cultural impact, induction speed, degree of volitional influence, modularity, and dependence on musical structure. By synthesizing theory and findings from different domains, we are able to provide the first set of hypotheses that can help researchers to distinguish among the mechanisms. We show that failure to control for the underlying mechanism may lead to inconsistent or non-interpretable findings. Thus, we argue that the new framework may guide future research and help to resolve previous disagreements in the field. We conclude that music evokes emotions through mechanisms that are not unique to music, and that the study of musical emotions could benefit the emotion field as a whole by providing novel paradigms for emotion induction.

/pdf/emotional-responses-to-music-the-need-to-consider-underlying-592kszluvl.pdf

Emotional responses to music: The need to consider underlying mechanisms

Surveying the terrain a brief historical perspective on language acquisition research early research on speech perception how speech perception develops in the first year the role of memory and attentional processes in the development of speech perception how attention to sound properties may facilitate learning other elements of linguistic organization relating perception to production wrapping things up. Appendix - methodology used in studies of infant speech perception.

https://www.gendocs.ru/docs/18/17604/conv_1/file1.pdf

The discovery of spoken language

The onset of a noise [0.9–2.1 kHz, 55 dB SPL (A weighted)] preceded that of a buzz [100 Hz, 0.5–3.0 kHz, 70 db SPL (A weighted), 500 msec] by −10 to +80 msec and both terminated simultaneously. Eight adults discriminated among noise‐lead times in an oddity task. In separate sessions, they labeled singly presented stimuli with either of the two responses: ’’no noise’’ or ’’noise.’’ The results are highly similar to those reported for the categorical perception of synthetic plosive consonants differing in voice‐onset time. On the average, discrimination was best across a noise‐lead‐time boundary of about 16 msec, where labeling also shifted abruptly. These results and those of categorical perception, generally, are interpreted in terms of Weber’s law as applied to a single component within a stimulus complex. It is concluded that categorical perception of sounds is not unique to speech and suggested that it may be a general property of sensory behavior.Subject Classification: [43]65.75; [43]70.30.

Discrimination and labeling of noise-buzz sequences with varying noise-lead times: An example of categorical perception

The current study investigated the ability of subjects to perceive source characteristics (the gender of a human walker) of a naturally occurring auditory event (human walking). A number of acoustic properties were measured and subjected to statistical analyses in order to identify those properties that differentiate male and female walking footsteps. A principal component analysis on the statistical properties of the spectral energy distributions then identified two classes of information that were important in determining subject perception of the gender of a walker: (1) the spectral peak which integrates the information about the spectral central tendency of frequency and shape of the spectral peak; and (2) the contribution of high‐frequency spectral components. A follow‐up experiment then manipulated these spectral properties to verify their contributions in the perceptual classification of walker gender. Additionally, the effect of shoe on the gender judgement in walking sequences was assessed by hav...

Perception of acoustic source characteristics: walking sounds.

A study is reported in which it is shown that observers can use at least three types of acoustic variables that indicate reliably when a moving sound source is passing: interaural temporal differences, the Doppler effect, and amplitude change. Each of these variables was presented in isolation and each was successful in indicating when a (stimulated) moving sound source passed an observer. These three variables were put into competition (with each indicating that closest passage occurred at a different time) in an effort to determine their relative importance. It was found that amplitude change dominated interaural temporal differences which, in turn, dominated the Doppler effect stimulus variable. The results are discussed in terms of two interpretations. First, it is possible that subjects based their judgements on the potential discriminability of each stimulus variable. However, because the stimuli used involved easily discriminable changes, subjects may instead have based their judgements on the independence of a stimulus variable from different environmental situation conditions. The dominance ordering obtained supports the second interpretation.

Relative Effectiveness of Three Stimulus Variables for Locating a Moving Sound Source

Many modern descriptions of signal detection theory (SDT) are, at best, distorted caricatures of the Gaussian equal-variance model of SDT (G-SDT). The distortions have sometimes led to important, but unwarranted, conclusions about the nature of cognitive processes. Some researchers reject using ď and β because of concerns about the validity of explicit underlying assumptions (that are shared with most inferential statistics), instead using either the supposedly “nonparametric” measures ofA′ andB″ or measures known to confound ability and bias. The origins, development, and underlying assumptions of SDT are summarized, then contrasted with modern distortions and misconceptions. The nature and interpretation of common descriptive statistics for sensitivity and bias are described along with important pragmatic considerations about use. A deeper understanding of SDT provides researchers with tools that better evaluate both their own findings and the validity of conclusions drawn by others who have utilized SDT measures and analyses.

/pdf/nonparametric-a-and-other-modern-misconceptions-about-signal-2viwo8fwyt.pdf

Richard E. Pastore

Papers

Discrimination and labeling of noise-buzz sequences with varying noise-lead times: An example of categorical perception

Perception of acoustic source characteristics: walking sounds.

Relative Effectiveness of Three Stimulus Variables for Locating a Moving Sound Source

"Nonparametric" A' and other modern misconceptions about signal detection theory.

Common-Factor Model of Categorical Perception.