scholarly journals Directional biosonar beams allow echolocating harbour porpoises to actively discriminate and intercept closely-spaced targets

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloe E Malinka ◽  
Laia Rojano-Doñate ◽  
Peter T Madsen
Keyword(s):  
Time Delays ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Integration Time ◽  
Phocoena Phocoena ◽  
Free Swimming ◽  
Clutter Rejection ◽  
Sound Levels ◽  
Forced Choice Task ◽  
Auditory Integration ◽  
High Sound

Echolocating toothed whales face the problem that high sound speeds in water mean that echoes from closely-spaced targets will arrive at time delays within their reported auditory integration time of some 264 µsec. Here we test the hypothesis that echolocating harbour porpoises cannot resolve and discriminate targets within a clutter interference zone given by their integration time. To do this, we trained two harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) to actively approach and choose between two spherical targets at four varying inter-target distances (13.5, 27, 56 and 108 cm) in a two-alternative forced-choice task. The free-swimming, blindfolded porpoises were tagged with a sound and movement tag (DTAG4) to record their echoic scene and acoustic outputs. The known ranges between targets and the porpoise, combined with the sound levels received on target-mounted hydrophones revealed how they controlled their acoustic gaze. When targets were close together and the discrimination task was more difficult due to smaller echo time delays and lower echo level ratios between the targets, buzzes were longer and started from farther away, source levels were reduced at short ranges, and the porpoises clicked faster, scanned across the targets more, and delayed making their discrimination decision until closer to the target. We conclude that harbour porpoises can resolve and discriminate closely-spaced targets, suggesting a clutter rejection zone much shorter than their auditory integration time, and that such clutter rejection is greatly aided by spatial filtering with their directional biosonar beam.

Assessing the Link Between Perception and Production in Cantonese Tone Acquisition

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1243-1257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy Pik Ki Mok ◽  
Holly Sze Ho Fung ◽  
Vivian Guo Li
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
General Principle ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Tone Pair ◽  
Tone Production ◽  
Monosyllabic Words ◽  
Early Production ◽  
Forced Choice Task ◽  
Production Accuracy

Purpose Previous studies showed early production precedes late perception in Cantonese tone acquisition, contrary to the general principle that perception precedes production in child language. How tone production and perception are linked in 1st language acquisition remains largely unknown. Our study revisited the acquisition of tone in Cantonese-speaking children, exploring the possible link between production and perception in 1st language acquisition. Method One hundred eleven Cantonese-speaking children aged between 2;0 and 6;0 (years;months) and 10 adolescent reference speakers participated in tone production and perception experiments. Production materials with 30 monosyllabic words were transcribed in filtered and unfiltered conditions by 2 native judges. Perception accuracy was based on a 2-alternative forced-choice task with pictures covering all possible tone pair contrasts. Results Children's accuracy of production and perception of all the 6 Cantonese tones was still not adultlike by age 6;0. Both production and perception accuracies matured with age. A weak positive link was found between the 2 accuracies. Mother's native language contributed to children's production accuracy. Conclusions Our findings show that production and perception abilities are associated in tone acquisition. Further study is needed to explore factors affecting production accuracy in children. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7960826

Habit learning in a forced-choice task

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Dressel ◽  
Teena D. Moody ◽  
Barbara J. Knowlton
Keyword(s):  
Forced Choice ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Habit Learning ◽  
Forced Choice Task

scholarly journals Biological Bases of Beauty Revisited: The Effect of Symmetry, Averageness, and Sexual Dimorphism on Female Facial Attractiveness

Symmetry ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex L. Jones ◽  
Bastian Jaeger
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Facial Attractiveness ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Human Female ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Skin Texture ◽  
Femininity And Masculinity ◽  
Forced Choice Task

The factors influencing human female facial attractiveness—symmetry, averageness, and sexual dimorphism—have been extensively studied. However, recent studies, using improved methodologies, have called into question their evolutionary utility and links with life history. The current studies use a range of approaches to quantify how important these factors actually are in perceiving attractiveness, through the use of novel statistical analyses and by addressing methodological weaknesses in the literature. Study One examines how manipulations of symmetry, averageness, femininity, and masculinity affect attractiveness using a two-alternative forced choice task, finding that increased masculinity and also femininity decrease attractiveness, compared to unmanipulated faces. Symmetry and averageness yielded a small and large effect, respectively. Study Two utilises a naturalistic ratings paradigm, finding similar effects of averageness and masculinity as Study One but no effects of symmetry and femininity on attractiveness. Study Three applies geometric face measurements of the factors and a random forest machine learning algorithm to predict perceived attractiveness, finding that shape averageness, dimorphism, and skin texture symmetry are useful features capable of relatively accurate predictions, while shape symmetry is uninformative. However, the factors do not explain as much variance in attractiveness as the literature suggests. The implications for future research on attractiveness are discussed.

scholarly journals RNNs develop history biases in an expectation-guided two-alternative forced choice task

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Molano-Mazon ◽  
Guangyu Robert Yang ◽  
Ainhoa Hermoso-Mendizabal ◽  
Jaime de la Rocha
Keyword(s):  
Forced Choice ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Forced Choice Task

scholarly journals Automotive traffic noise and urban public spaces

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (72) ◽  
Author(s):  
Greicikelly Gaburro Paneto ◽  
Cristina Engel de Alvarez ◽  
Paulo Henrique Trombetta Zannin
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Sound Pressure ◽  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Motor Vehicles ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
Sound Levels ◽  
Measurement Results ◽  
Sound Pressure Levels ◽  
High Sound

In contemporary cities, and usually without realizing it, the population has been exposed to high sound pressure levels, which besides causing discomfort, can lead to health problems. Considering that a large part of this noise comes from emission from motor vehicles, this research aims to evaluate the sound behavior in sound environments configured by voids in the urban fabric, in order to identify whether open spaces can act as attenuators of sound levels. To obtain the expected results, the methodology used was structured from a review of the state-of-the-art and computer simulations relating the variables that influence the formation of urban space and sound emission and propagation, taking as a case study an urban portion of the municipality of Vitória/ES. In parallel, questionnaires were applied to evaluate the user's perception of their exposure. The measurement results indicated that the sound pressure levels caused by traffic noise are above the limit tolerated limit by the NBR norm 10151:2000 for the daytime period. In turn, the results obtained from the population indicated that there is little perception of noise by the users of the spaces surveyed.

scholarly journals When regularization gets it wrong: children over-simplify language input only in production

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 1054-1072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica F. SCHWAB ◽  
Casey LEW-WILLIAMS ◽  
Adele E. GOLDBERG
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
High Accuracy ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
Artificial Languages ◽  
Forced Choice Task ◽  
Unpredictable Variation

AbstractChildren tend to regularize their productions when exposed to artificial languages, an advantageous response to unpredictable variation. But generalizations in natural languages are typically conditioned by factors that children ultimately learn. In two experiments, adult and six-year-old learners witnessed two novel classifiers, probabilistically conditioned by semantics. Whereas adults displayed high accuracy in their productions – applying the semantic criteria to familiar and novel items – children were oblivious to the semantic conditioning. Instead, children regularized their productions, over-relying on only one classifier. However, in a two-alternative forced-choice task, children's performance revealed greater respect for the system's complexity: they selected both classifiers equally, without bias toward one or the other, and displayed better accuracy on familiar items. Given that natural languages are conditioned by multiple factors that children successfully learn, we suggest that their tendency to simplify in production stems from retrieval difficulty when a complex system has not yet been fully learned.

Exposure to industrial noise: impacts on cognitive performance

2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (4) ◽  
pp. 2590-2600
Author(s):  
Luiz Henrique Mesa Casa Pereira ◽  
Björn Knöfel ◽  
Jan Troge ◽  
Welf-Guntram Drossel ◽  
Marcel Klein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Noise Analysis ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Noise Sources ◽  
Industrial Noise ◽  
Sound Levels ◽  
Office Environments ◽  
High Sound ◽  
High Frequency Content

Research on the relation between exposure to noise and cognitive performance inside industrial environments is not as broad as on office environments. For a better understanding of the specific industrial noise problems, participants performed arithmetic tests inside a hemi anechoic room while they were exposed to sounds of five typical industrial noise sources. The subjects also classified how annoying they perceived the noise signals. The effect of noise on the arithmetic test's performance was larger on accuracy than on velocity, which was verified using a Student t-test. Spectral-temporal characteristics - especially high frequency content and strong low frequency modulation - appear to relate better with lower performance on the test than high sound levels. Subjects that evaluated noise as more annoying performed worse in a final arithmetic test (under silence) after being exposed to the noises, indicating a possible cumulative effect of noise on performance. The findings provide a better insight in the cognitive behavior of people who are exposed to industrial noise. Hence, the study will proceed with the specific noise analysis of single industrial workplaces.

scholarly journals Human listeners’ perception of behavioural context and core affect dimensions in chimpanzee vocalizations

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1929) ◽  
pp. 20201148
Author(s):  
Roza G. Kamiloğlu ◽  
Katie E. Slocombe ◽  
Daniel B. M. Haun ◽  
Disa A. Sauter
Keyword(s):  
Related Species ◽  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Core Affect ◽  
Forced Choice Task ◽  
Affective Information ◽  
Arousal And Valence

Vocalizations linked to emotional states are partly conserved among phylogenetically related species. This continuity may allow humans to accurately infer affective information from vocalizations produced by chimpanzees. In two pre-registered experiments, we examine human listeners' ability to infer behavioural contexts (e.g. discovering food) and core affect dimensions (arousal and valence) from 155 vocalizations produced by 66 chimpanzees in 10 different positive and negative contexts at high, medium or low arousal levels. In experiment 1, listeners ( n = 310), categorized the vocalizations in a forced-choice task with 10 response options, and rated arousal and valence. In experiment 2, participants ( n = 3120) matched vocalizations to production contexts using yes/no response options. The results show that listeners were accurate at matching vocalizations of most contexts in addition to inferring arousal and valence. Judgments were more accurate for negative as compared to positive vocalizations. An acoustic analysis demonstrated that, listeners made use of brightness and duration cues, and relied on noisiness in making context judgements, and pitch to infer core affect dimensions. Overall, the results suggest that human listeners can infer affective information from chimpanzee vocalizations beyond core affect, indicating phylogenetic continuity in the mapping of vocalizations to behavioural contexts.

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