Information Distribution Within Musical Segments

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoni B. Chan ◽  
Janet H. Hsiao

In research on word recognition, it has been shown that word beginnings have higher information content for word identification than word endings; this asymmetric information distribution within words has been argued to be due to the communicative pressure to allow words in speech to be recognized as early as possible. Through entropy analysis using two representative datasets from Wikifonia and the Essen folksong corpus, we show that musical segments also have higher information content (i.e., higher entropy) in segment beginnings than endings. Nevertheless, this asymmetry was not as dramatic as that found within words, and the highest information content was observed in the middle of the segments (i.e., an inverted U pattern). This effect may be because the first and last notes of a musical segment tend to be tonally stable, with more flexibility in the first note for providing the initial context. The asymmetric information distribution within words has been shown to be an important factor accounting for various asymmetric effects in word reading, such as the left-biased preferred viewing location and optimal viewing position effects. Similarly, the asymmetric information distribution within musical segments is a potential factor that can modulate music reading behavior and should not be overlooked.

2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (11) ◽  
pp. 1279-1287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jukka Hyönä ◽  
Raymond Bertram

1998 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Kennedy ◽  
Marc Brysbaert ◽  
Wayne S. Murray

Two experiments are described in which eye movements were monitored as subjects performed a simple target-spotting task under conditions of intermittent illumination produced by varying the display-screen frame rate on a computer VDU. In Experiment 1, subjects executed a saccade from a fixation point to a target which appeared randomly at a fixed eccentricity of 14 character positions to the left or right. Saccade latency did not differ reliably as a function of screen refresh rate, but average saccade extent at 70 Hz and 110 Hz was reliably shorter than at 90 Hz and 100 Hz. Experiment 2 examined the same task using a range of target eccentricities (7, 14, and 28 character positions to the left and right) and across a wider range of screen refresh rates. The results confirmed the curvilinear relationship obtained in Experiment 1, with average saccade extent reliably shorter at refresh rates of 50 Hz and 125 Hz than at 75 Hz and 100 Hz. While the effect was greater for remote targets, analyses of the proportional target error failed to show a reliable interaction between target eccentricity and display refresh rate. In contrast to Experiment 1, there was a pronounced effect of refresh rate on saccade latency (corrected for time to write the screen frame), with shorter latencies at higher refresh rates. It may be concluded that pulsation at frequencies above fusion disrupts saccade control. However, the curvilinear functional relationship between screen refresh rate and saccade extent obtained in these studies differs from previously reported effects of intermittent illumination on the average size of “entry saccades” (the first saccade to enter a given word) in a task involving word identification (Kennedy & Murray, 1993a, 1996). This conflict of data may arise in part because within-word adjustments in viewing position, which are typical of normal reading, influence measures of average saccade extent.


1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Ewald Jackson ◽  
Gary W. Donaldson ◽  
Joseph R. Mills

Precocious readers are children who have made exceptionally rapid progress in beginning literacy. This study of precocious readers was designed to describe their skills in two ways: (a) by identifying any special strengths or weaknesses in precocious readers' component skills, relative to the skills of older but less rapidly developing readers, and (b) by identifying the extent to which individual differences in the skill patterns of precocious readers are multidimensional. The cognitive, word-reading, and text-reading skills of 116 postkindergarten precocious readers were compared with those of 123 second graders, mostly above-average readers, who were matched with the precocious readers on reading comprehension level. The two groups were compared using multiple-indicator modeling techniques. The same factor pattern accounted for the performance of both groups on a set of 29 measures. Therefore, comparisons of factor mean levels and factor covariances were interpretable. No meaningful weaknesses were identified in the average skill pattern of postkindergarten precocious readers. Their strengths tended to mirror weaknesses often identified among disabled readers. Precocious readers are especially rapid text readers, and they also are accurate identifiers of individual words, able to draw on strong phonological analysis skills as well as orthographic processes. However, covariances between orthographic and phonological word identification and between oral text-reading accuracy and effectiveness were lower for precocious than for second-grade readers, suggesting a diversity of skill patterns among highly able beginning readers.


i-Perception ◽  
10.1068/ic244 ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 244-244
Author(s):  
Janet H. Hsiao ◽  
Tong Liu

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Smilek ◽  
G. J. F. Solman ◽  
P. Murawski ◽  
J. S. A. Carriere

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle M. Moore ◽  
Melanie A. Porter ◽  
Saskia Kohnen ◽  
Anne Castles

The focus of this paper is on the assessment of the two main processes that children must acquire at the single word reading level: word recognition (lexical) and decoding (nonlexical) skills. Guided by the framework of the dual route model, this study aimed to (1) investigate the impact of item characteristics on test performance, and (2) determine to what extent widely used reading measures vary in their detection of lexical and nonlexical reading difficulties. Thirty children with reading difficulties were administered selected reading subtests from the Woodcock-Johnson III, the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test – Second Edition, the Castles and Coltheart Reading Test 2 (CC2), as well as a measure of nonverbal IQ. Both within-subjects analyses and descriptive data are presented. Results suggest that in comparison to a pure measure of irregular word reading, children with reading difficulties perform better on word identification subtests containing both regular and irregular word items. Furthermore, certain characteristics (e.g., length, similarity to real words) appear to influence the level of difficulty of nonword items and tests. The CC2 subscales identified the largest proportions of children with reading difficulties. Differences between all test scores were of statistical and clinical significance. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.


2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUDO VERHOEVEN ◽  
ROB SCHREUDER

ABSTRACTThis study examined to what extent advanced and beginning readers, including dyslexic readers of Dutch, make use of morphological access units in the reading of polymorphemic words. Therefore, experiments were carried out in which the role of singular root form frequency in reading plural word forms was investigated in a lexical decision task with both adults and children. Twenty-three adult readers, 37 8-year-old children from Grade 3, 43 11-year-old children from Grade 6, and 33 11-year-old dyslexic readers were presented with a lexical decision task in which we contrasted plural word forms with a high versus low frequency of the singular root form. For the adults, it was found that the accuracy and speed of lexical decision is determined by the surface frequency of the plural word form. The frequency of the constituent root form played a role as well, but in the low-frequency plural words only. Furthermore, a strong developmental effect regarding the accuracy and speed of reading plural word forms was found. An effect of plural word form frequency on word identification was evidenced in all groups. The singular root form frequency also had an impact of the reading of the plural word forms. In the normal reading and dyslexic children, plurals with a high-frequency singular root form were read more accurately and faster than plurals with a low singular root frequency. It can be concluded that constituent morphemes have an impact on the reading of polymorphemic words. The results can be explained in the light of a word experience model leaving room for morphological constituency to play a role in the lexical access of complex words as a function of reading skill and experience and word and morpheme frequency.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document