PHONETIC UNDERPINNINGS OF SOUND SYMBOLISM ACROSS MULTIPLE DOMAINS OF MEANING.

Sound symbolism occurs when the sound of a word alone can convey its meaning, e.g. 'balloon' and 'spike' sound rounded and pointed, respectively.

DIFFERENTIAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE SPECTRO-TEMPORAL AND VOCAL CHARACTERISTICS OF AUDITORY PSEUDOWORDS TO MULTIPLE SOUND-SYMBOLIC MAPPINGS.

Sound symbolism, the idea that the sound of a word alone can convey its meaning, is often studied using auditory pseudowords. For example, people reliably assign the auditory pseudowords "bouba" and "kiki" to rounded and pointed shapes, respectively. Previously we showed that representational dissimilarity matrices (RDMs) of the shape ratings of auditory pseudowords correlated significantly with RDMs of acoustic parameters reflecting spectro-temporal variations; the ratings also correlated significantly with voice quality features.

Attention modulates perceptual learning of non-native-accented speech.

Listeners readily adapt to variation in non-native-accented speech, learning to disambiguate between talker-specific and accent-based variation. We asked (1) which linguistic and indexical features of the spoken utterance are relevant for this learning to occur and (2) whether task-driven attention to these features affects the extent to which learning generalizes to novel utterances and voices. In two experiments, listeners heard English sentences (Experiment 1) or words (Experiment 2) produced by Spanish-accented talkers during an exposure phase.

Neural basis of sound-symbolic pseudoword-shape correspondences.

Non-arbitrary mapping between the sound of a word and its meaning, termed sound symbolism, is commonly studied through crossmodal correspondences between sounds and visual shapes, e.g., auditory pseudowords, like 'mohloh' and 'kehteh', are matched to rounded and pointed visual shapes, respectively.

Neural Basis Of Sound-Symbolic Pseudoword-Shape Correspondences.

Unlabelled: Non-arbitrary mapping between the sound of a word and its meaning, termed sound symbolism, is commonly studied through crossmodal correspondences between sounds and visual shapes, e.g., auditory pseudowords, like 'mohloh' and 'kehteh', are matched to rounded and pointed visual shapes, respectively.

Neural Basis of the Sound-Symbolic Crossmodal Correspondence Between Auditory Pseudowords and Visual Shapes.

Sound symbolism refers to the association between the sounds of words and their meanings, often studied using the crossmodal correspondence between auditory pseudowords, e.g., 'takete' or 'maluma', and pointed or rounded visual shapes, respectively.

Consistency and strength of grapheme-color associations are separable aspects of synesthetic experience.

Consistency of synesthetic associations over time is a widely used test of synesthesia. Since many studies suggest that consistency is not a completely reliable feature, we compared the consistency and strength of synesthetes' grapheme-color associations. Consistency was measured by scores on the Synesthesia Battery and by the Euclidean distance in color space for the specific graphemes tested for each participant.

A second chance for a first impression: Sensitivity to cumulative input statistics for lexically guided perceptual learning.

Listeners use lexical knowledge to modify the mapping from acoustics to speech sounds, but the timecourse of experience that informs lexically guided perceptual learning is unknown. Some data suggest that learning is contingent on initial exposure to atypical productions, while other data suggest that learning reflects only the most recent exposure. Here we seek to reconcile these findings by assessing the type and timecourse of exposure that promote robust lexcially guided perceptual learning.

Stimulus Parameters Underlying Sound-Symbolic Mapping of Auditory Pseudowords to Visual Shapes.

Sound symbolism refers to non-arbitrary mappings between the sounds of words and their meanings and is often studied by pairing auditory pseudowords such as "maluma" and "takete" with rounded and pointed visual shapes, respectively. However, it is unclear what auditory properties of pseudowords contribute to their perception as rounded or pointed. Here, we compared perceptual ratings of the roundedness/pointedness of large sets of pseudowords and shapes to their acoustic and visual properties using a novel application of representational similarity analysis (RSA).

Communicative Context Affects Use of Referential Prosody.

The current study assessed the extent to which the use of referential prosody varies with communicative demand. Speaker-listener dyads completed a referential communication task during which speakers attempted to indicate one of two color swatches (one bright, one dark) to listeners. Speakers' bright sentences were reliably higher pitched than dark sentences for ambiguous (e.

Specificity and generalization in perceptual adaptation to accented speech.

The present study investigated the degree to which perceptual adaptation to foreign-accented speech is specific to the regularities in pronunciation associated with a particular accent. Across experiments, the conditions under which generalization of learning did or did not occur were evaluated. In Experiment 1, listeners trained on word-length utterances in Korean-accented English and tested with words produced by the same or different set of Korean-accented speakers.

Vocal alignment to native and non-native speakers of English.

Research on vocal alignment, the tendency for language users to match another individual's speech productions, suggests that multiple factors contribute to this behavior. Social and motivational goals, aspects of cognitive architecture, and linguistic flexibility may all affect the extent to which vocal alignment occurs, suggesting complex underlying mechanisms. The present study capitalized on the social and linguistic characteristics of Spanish-accented English to examine the relationship among these contributors to vocal alignment.

Neural basis of the crossmodal correspondence between auditory pitch and visuospatial elevation.

Crossmodal correspondences refer to associations between otherwise unrelated stimulus features in different sensory modalities. For example, high and low auditory pitches are associated with high and low visuospatial elevation, respectively. The neural mechanisms underlying crossmodal correspondences are currently unknown.

Eye movements reveal persistent sensitivity to sound symbolism during word learning.

Although the relationship between sound and meaning in language is assumed to be largely arbitrary, reliable correspondences between sound and meaning in natural language appear to facilitate word learning. Using a set of independently normed pseudoword and shape stimuli, we examined the real-time effects of sound-to-shape correspondences at initial presentation and throughout an extended learning process resulting in high accuracy. In addition to accuracy and response time (RT) measures, we monitored participants' eye movements to investigate the extent to which visual orienting to objects is influenced by the sound symbolic characteristics of novel labels at initial exposure and throughout learning.

Developmental change in children's sensitivity to sound symbolism.

The current study examined developmental change in children's sensitivity to sound symbolism. Three-, five-, and seven-year-old children heard sound symbolic novel words and foreign words meaning round and pointy and chose which of two pictures (one round and one pointy) best corresponded to each word they heard. Task performance varied as a function of both word type and age group such that accuracy was greater for novel words than for foreign words, and task performance increased with age for both word types.

The Specificity of Sound Symbolic Correspondences in Spoken Language.

Although language has long been regarded as a primarily arbitrary system, sound symbolism, or non-arbitrary correspondences between the sound of a word and its meaning, also exists in natural language. Previous research suggests that listeners are sensitive to sound symbolism. However, little is known about the specificity of these mappings.

The role of training structure in perceptual learning of accented speech.

Foreign-accented speech contains multiple sources of variation that listeners learn to accommodate. Extending previous findings showing that exposure to high-variation training facilitates perceptual learning of accented speech, the current study examines to what extent the of training materials affects learning. During training, native adult speakers of American English transcribed sentences spoken in English by native Spanish-speaking adults.

Cross-linguistic sound symbolism and crossmodal correspondence: Evidence from fMRI and DTI.

Non-arbitrary correspondences between spoken words and categories of meanings exist in natural language, with mounting evidence that listeners are sensitive to this sound symbolic information. Native English speakers were asked to choose the meaning of spoken foreign words from one of four corresponding antonym pairs selected from a previously developed multi-language stimulus set containing both sound symbolic and non-symbolic stimuli. In behavioral (n=9) and fMRI (n=15) experiments, participants showed reliable sensitivity to the sound symbolic properties of the stimulus set, selecting the consistent meaning for the sound symbolic words at above chances rates.

Tone of voice guides word learning in informative referential contexts.

Listeners infer which object in a visual scene a speaker refers to from the systematic variation of the speaker's tone of voice (ToV). We examined whether ToV also guides word learning. During exposure, participants heard novel adjectives (e.

Say it like you mean it: mothers' use of prosody to convey word meaning.

Prosody plays a variety of roles in infants' communicative development, aiding in attention modulation, speech segmentation, and syntax acquisition. This study investigates the extent to which parents also spontaneously modulate prosodic aspects of infant directed speech in ways that distinguish semantic aspects of language. Fourteen mothers of two-year-old children read a picture book to their children in which they labeled pictures using dimensional adjectives (e.

Charm or Harm: Effect of Passage Content on Listener Attitudes toward American English Accents.

This study examined how passage content influences attitudes towards American English Accents. Participants listened to passages differing in topic content spoken in an American Southern English or Standard American English accent. Although Southern-accented speakers were rated higher in sociality, but lower in status, than standard-accented speakers, sociality ratings varied as a function of passage topic only for Standard-accented speakers.

The developing role of prosody in novel word interpretation.

This study examined whether children use prosodic correlates to word meaning when interpreting novel words. For example, do children infer that a word spoken in a deep, slow, loud voice refers to something larger than a word spoken in a high, fast, quiet voice? Participants were 4- and 5-year-olds who viewed picture pairs that varied along a single dimension (e.g.

Sound to meaning correspondences facilitate word learning.

A fundamental assumption regarding spoken language is that the relationship between sound and meaning is essentially arbitrary. The present investigation questioned this arbitrariness assumption by examining the influence of potential non-arbitrary mappings between sound and meaning on word learning in adults. Native English-speaking monolinguals learned meanings for Japanese words in a vocabulary-learning task.

Perceptual learning of systematic variation in Spanish-accented speech.

Spoken language is characterized by an enormous amount of variability in how linguistic segments are realized. In order to investigate how speech perceptual processes accommodate to multiple sources of variation, adult native speakers of American English were trained with English words or sentences produced by six Spanish-accented talkers. At test, listeners transcribed utterances produced by six familiar or unfamiliar Spanish-accented talkers.

The semantics of prosody: acoustic and perceptual evidence of prosodic correlates to word meaning.

This investigation examined whether speakers produce reliable prosodic correlates to meaning across semantic domains and whether listeners use these cues to derive word meaning from novel words. Speakers were asked to produce phrases in infant-directed speech in which novel words were used to convey one of two meanings from a set of antonym pairs (e.g.