Differences in perception and memory for speech fragments in complex versus simple words

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-222
Author(s):  
Anne Pycha

Abstract Two experiments investigated how people perceived and remembered fragments of spoken words that either corresponded to correct lexical entries (as in the complex word drink-er) or did not (as in the simple word glitt-er). Experiment 1 was a noise-rating task that probed perception. Participants heard stimuli such drinker, where strikethrough indicates noise overlaid at a controlled signal-to-noise ratio, and rated the loudness of the noise. Results showed that participants rated noise on certain pseudo-roots (e.g., glitter) as louder than noise on true roots ( drinker), indicating that they perceived them with less clarity. Experiment 2 was an eye-fixation task that probed memory. Participants heard a word such as drink-er while associating each fragment with a visual shape. At test, they saw the shapes again, and were asked to look at the shape associated with a particular fragment, such as drink. Results showed that fixations to shapes associated with pseudo-affixes (-er in glitter) were less accurate than fixations to shapes associated with true affixes (-er in drinker), which suggests that they remembered the pseudo-affixes more poorly. These findings provide evidence that the presence of correct lexical entries for roots and affixes modulates people’s judgments about the speech that they hear.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luuk P.H. van de Rijt ◽  
Anja Roye ◽  
Emmanuel A.M. Mylanus ◽  
A. John van Opstal ◽  
Marc M. van Wanrooij

AbstractWe assessed how synchronous speech listening and lip reading affects speech recognition in acoustic noise. In simple audiovisual perceptual tasks, inverse effectiveness is often observed, which holds that the weaker the unimodal stimuli, or the poorer their signal-to-noise ratio, the stronger the audiovisual benefit. So far, however, inverse effectiveness has not been demonstrated for complex audiovisual speech stimuli. Here we assess whether this multisensory integration effect can also be observed for the recognizability of spoken words.To that end, we presented audiovisual sentences to 18 native-Dutch normal-hearing participants, who had to identify the spoken words from a finite list. Speech-recognition performance was determined for auditory-only, visual-only (lipreading) and auditory-visual conditions. To modulate acoustic task difficulty, we systematically varied the auditory signal-to-noise ratio. In line with a commonly-observed multisensory enhancement on speech recognition, audiovisual words were more easily recognized than auditory-only words (recognition thresholds of −15 dB and −12 dB, respectively).We here show that the difficulty of recognizing a particular word, either acoustically or visually, determines the occurrence of inverse effectiveness in audiovisual word integration. Thus, words that are better heard or recognized through lipreading, benefit less from bimodal presentation.Audiovisual performance at the lowest acoustic signal-to-noise ratios (45%) fell below the visual recognition rates (60%), reflecting an actual deterioration of lipreading in the presence of excessive acoustic noise. This suggests that the brain may adopt a strategy in which attention has to be divided between listening and lip reading.


Author(s):  
David A. Grano ◽  
Kenneth H. Downing

The retrieval of high-resolution information from images of biological crystals depends, in part, on the use of the correct photographic emulsion. We have been investigating the information transfer properties of twelve emulsions with a view toward 1) characterizing the emulsions by a few, measurable quantities, and 2) identifying the “best” emulsion of those we have studied for use in any given experimental situation. Because our interests lie in the examination of crystalline specimens, we've chosen to evaluate an emulsion's signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as a function of spatial frequency and use this as our critereon for determining the best emulsion.The signal-to-noise ratio in frequency space depends on several factors. First, the signal depends on the speed of the emulsion and its modulation transfer function (MTF). By procedures outlined in, MTF's have been found for all the emulsions tested and can be fit by an analytic expression 1/(1+(S/S0)2). Figure 1 shows the experimental data and fitted curve for an emulsion with a better than average MTF. A single parameter, the spatial frequency at which the transfer falls to 50% (S0), characterizes this curve.


Author(s):  
W. Kunath ◽  
K. Weiss ◽  
E. Zeitler

Bright-field images taken with axial illumination show spurious high contrast patterns which obscure details smaller than 15 ° Hollow-cone illumination (HCI), however, reduces this disturbing granulation by statistical superposition and thus improves the signal-to-noise ratio. In this presentation we report on experiments aimed at selecting the proper amount of tilt and defocus for improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio by means of direct observation of the electron images on a TV monitor.Hollow-cone illumination is implemented in our microscope (single field condenser objective, Cs = .5 mm) by an electronic system which rotates the tilted beam about the optic axis. At low rates of revolution (one turn per second or so) a circular motion of the usual granulation in the image of a carbon support film can be observed on the TV monitor. The size of the granular structures and the radius of their orbits depend on both the conical tilt and defocus.


Author(s):  
D. C. Joy ◽  
R. D. Bunn

The information available from an SEM image is limited both by the inherent signal to noise ratio that characterizes the image and as a result of the transformations that it may undergo as it is passed through the amplifying circuits of the instrument. In applications such as Critical Dimension Metrology it is necessary to be able to quantify these limitations in order to be able to assess the likely precision of any measurement made with the microscope.The information capacity of an SEM signal, defined as the minimum number of bits needed to encode the output signal, depends on the signal to noise ratio of the image - which in turn depends on the probe size and source brightness and acquisition time per pixel - and on the efficiency of the specimen in producing the signal that is being observed. A detailed analysis of the secondary electron case shows that the information capacity C (bits/pixel) of the SEM signal channel could be written as :


1979 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 221-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Smyth

Three hundred children from five to 12 years of age were required to discriminate simple, familiar, monosyllabic words under two conditions: 1) quiet, and 2) in the presence of background classroom noise. Of the sample, 45.3% made errors in speech discrimination in the presence of background classroom noise. The effect was most marked in children younger than seven years six months. The results are discussed considering the signal-to-noise ratio and the possible effects of unwanted classroom noise on learning processes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 345-356
Author(s):  
Meital Avivi-Reich ◽  
Megan Y. Roberts ◽  
Tina M. Grieco-Calub

Purpose This study tested the effects of background speech babble on novel word learning in preschool children with a multisession paradigm. Method Eight 3-year-old children were exposed to a total of 8 novel word–object pairs across 2 story books presented digitally. Each story contained 4 novel consonant–vowel–consonant nonwords. Children were exposed to both stories, one in quiet and one in the presence of 4-talker babble presented at 0-dB signal-to-noise ratio. After each story, children's learning was tested with a referent selection task and a verbal recall (naming) task. Children were exposed to and tested on the novel word–object pairs on 5 separate days within a 2-week span. Results A significant main effect of session was found for both referent selection and verbal recall. There was also a significant main effect of exposure condition on referent selection performance, with more referents correctly selected for word–object pairs that were presented in quiet compared to pairs presented in speech babble. Finally, children's verbal recall of novel words was statistically better than baseline performance (i.e., 0%) on Sessions 3–5 for words exposed in quiet, but only on Session 5 for words exposed in speech babble. Conclusions These findings suggest that background speech babble at 0-dB signal-to-noise ratio disrupts novel word learning in preschool-age children. As a result, children may need more time and more exposures of a novel word before they can recognize or verbally recall it.


Author(s):  
Yu ZHOU ◽  
Wei ZHAO ◽  
Zhixiong CHEN ◽  
Weiqiong WANG ◽  
Xiaoni DU

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (7) ◽  
pp. 143-1-143-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuyuki Fujihara ◽  
Maasa Murata ◽  
Shota Nakayama ◽  
Rihito Kuroda ◽  
Shigetoshi Sugawa

This paper presents a prototype linear response single exposure CMOS image sensor with two-stage lateral overflow integration trench capacitors (LOFITreCs) exhibiting over 120dB dynamic range with 11.4Me- full well capacity (FWC) and maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 70dB. The measured SNR at all switching points were over 35dB thanks to the proposed two-stage LOFITreCs.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-58
Author(s):  
Ismail Sh. Baqer

A two Level Image Quality enhancement is proposed in this paper. In the first level, Dualistic Sub-Image Histogram Equalization DSIHE method decomposes the original image into two sub-images based on median of original images. The second level deals with spikes shaped noise that may appear in the image after processing. We presents three methods of image enhancement GHE, LHE and proposed DSIHE that improve the visual quality of images. A comparative calculations is being carried out on above mentioned techniques to examine objective and subjective image quality parameters e.g. Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio PSNR values, entropy H and mean squared error MSE to measure the quality of gray scale enhanced images. For handling gray-level images, convenient Histogram Equalization methods e.g. GHE and LHE tend to change the mean brightness of an image to middle level of the gray-level range limiting their appropriateness for contrast enhancement in consumer electronics such as TV monitors. The DSIHE methods seem to overcome this disadvantage as they tend to preserve both, the brightness and contrast enhancement. Experimental results show that the proposed technique gives better results in terms of Discrete Entropy, Signal to Noise ratio and Mean Squared Error values than the Global and Local histogram-based equalization methods


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