Learning to Differentiate Properties

2019 ◽  
pp. 154-178
Author(s):  
Kevin Connolly
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Learning Mechanism

This chapter details the role perceptual learning plays in speech perception and argues that the evidence does not show that meanings come to be represented in our perception upon learning a new language. Specifically, it outlines the role of the perceptual learning mechanism of differentiation in speech perception. Through differentiation, we come to parse features of a language, including phonemes that we had not previously differentiated. The chapter critically evaluates Casey O’Callaghan’s and Berit Brogaards’s arguments for and against the view that meanings come to be represented in our perception upon learning a new language. It argues that the evidence from perceptual learning does not support the conclusion that meanings come to be represented in our perception.

scholarly journals Individual Differences in Lexical Contributions to Speech Perception

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Nikole Giovannone ◽  
Rachel M. Theodore
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Speech Perception ◽  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Language Ability ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Lexical Information ◽  
Learning Mechanism ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Adult Participants

Purpose The extant literature suggests that individual differences in speech perception can be linked to broad receptive language phenotype. For example, a recent study found that individuals with a smaller receptive vocabulary showed diminished lexically guided perceptual learning compared to individuals with a larger receptive vocabulary. Here, we examined (a) whether such individual differences stem from variation in reliance on lexical information or variation in perceptual learning itself and (b) whether a relationship exists between lexical recruitment and lexically guided perceptual learning more broadly, as predicted by current models of lexically guided perceptual learning. Method In Experiment 1, adult participants ( n = 70) completed measures of receptive and expressive language ability, lexical recruitment, and lexically guided perceptual learning. In Experiment 2, adult participants ( n = 120) completed the same lexical recruitment and lexically guided perceptual learning tasks to provide a high-powered replication of the primary findings from Experiment 1. Results In Experiment 1, individuals with weaker receptive language ability showed increased lexical recruitment relative to individuals with higher receptive language ability; however, receptive language ability did not predict the magnitude of lexically guided perceptual learning. Moreover, the results of both experiments converged to show no evidence indicating a relationship between lexical recruitment and lexically guided perceptual learning. Conclusion The current findings suggest that (a) individuals with weaker language ability demonstrate increased reliance on lexical information for speech perception compared to those with stronger receptive language ability; (b) individuals with weaker language ability maintain an intact perceptual learning mechanism; and, (c) to the degree that the measures used here accurately capture individual differences in lexical recruitment and lexically guided perceptual learning, there is no graded relationship between these two constructs.

The Role of Early Perceptual Learning in Reading

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatjana A. Nazir ◽  
Avital Deutsch ◽  
Jonathan Grainger ◽  
Ram Frost
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning

scholarly journals The role of attentional abilities in lexically guided perceptual learning by older listeners

2014 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 493-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odette Scharenborg ◽  
Andrea Weber ◽  
Esther Janse
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning

Role of Tactual-Kinesthetic Feedback in Transfer of Perceptual Learning for Rats with Pigmented Irises

1970 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 916-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas L. Bennett ◽  
Edward J. Rickert ◽  
Louis E. McAllister
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Early Experience ◽  
Kinesthetic Feedback

Hooded rats were pre-exposed to circles and triangles in an otherwise visually sparse environment where opportunity to manipulate the forms was varied for the early experience groups. Although early experience with these stimuli enhanced their later discriminability over that shown by control animals who received no early experience, opportunity to manipulate the forms produced no additional gain in perceptual learning relative to Ss not allowed to manipulate the pre-exposed shapes. The findings restrict the generality of the tactual-kinesthetic feedback hypothesis.

The role of stimulus comparison in animal perceptual learning: Effects of a distractor placement

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (12) ◽  
pp. 2488-2496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio A Recio ◽  
Adela F Iliescu ◽  
Isabel de Brugada
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Time Lapse ◽  
Animal Research ◽  
Learning Effects ◽  
Stimulus Comparison ◽  
Human Research ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Effect Experiment

Research on perceptual learning shows that the way stimuli are presented leads to different outcomes. The intermixed/blocked (I/B) effect is one of these outcomes, and different mechanisms have been proposed to explain it. In human research, it seems that comparison between stimuli is important, and the placement of a distractor between the pre-exposed stimuli interferes with the effect. Results from animal research are usually interpreted in different terms because the type of procedure normally used in animal perceptual learning does not favour comparison. In our experiments, we explore the possibility that a distractor placed between the to-be-discriminated stimuli may interfere with the perceptual learning process in rats. In Experiment 1, two flavoured solutions are presented in an I/B fashion, with a short time lapse between them to favour comparison, showing the typical I/B effect. In Experiment 2, we introduced a distractor in between the solutions, abolishing this effect. Experiment 3 further replicates this by comparing two intermixed groups with or without distractor. The results replicate the findings from human research, suggesting that comparison also plays an important role in animal perceptual learning.

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