The over-estimation of distance for self-voice versus other-voice

Self-related stimuli are important cues for people to recognize themselves in the external world and hold a special status in our perceptual system. Self-voice plays an important role in daily social communication and is also a frequent input for self-identification. Although many studies have been conducted on the acoustic features of self-voice, no research has ever examined the spatial aspect, although the spatial perception of voice is important for humans. This study proposes a novel perspective for studying self-voice. We investigated people’s distance perception of their own voice when the voice was heard from an external position. Participants heard their own voice from one of four speakers located either 90 or 180 cm from their sitting position, either immediately after uttering a short vowel (i.e., active session) or hearing the replay of their own pronunciation (i.e., replay session). They were then asked to indicate which speaker they heard the voice from. Their voices were either pitch-shifted by ± 4 semitones (i.e., other-voice condition) or unaltered (i.e., self-voice condition). The results of spatial judgment showed that self-voice from the closer speakers was misattributed to that from the speakers further away at a significantly higher proportion than other-voice. This phenomenon was also observed when the participants remained silent and heard prerecorded voices. Additional structural equation modeling using participants’ schizotypal scores showed that the effect of self-voice on distance perception was significantly associated with the score of delusional thoughts (Peters Delusion Inventory) and distorted body image (Perceptual Aberration Scale) in the active speaking session but not in the replay session. The findings of this study provide important insights for understanding how people process self-related stimuli when there is a small distortion and how this may be linked to the risk of psychosis.

Dynamics of interhemispheric relations as a result of functional treatment in children with non-paralytic operated strabismus

Purpose. To study the dynamics of interhemispheric interactions in children with friendly strabismus as a result of functional treatment. Material and methods. The study included 135 children aged 6 to 8 (average 6.8±0.1) years with convergent non-paralytic operated strabismus in combination with hypermetropic refraction and 96 children of the same age in the control group (average 7.1±0.1 years) without ophthalmic pathology. In children with strabismus, the leading hand and dominant eye were determined before and after functional treatment. Characteristics of spatial perception were evaluated by copying of complex geometric shapes which were Taylor's (right-handed) and Ray-Osterritz's (lefthanded). Results. After functional treatment in the group of children with non-paralytic strabismus, along with improved binocular functions and improved performance of the Taylor and Ray-Osterritz tests, there was an increase in the number of ambidextrous children and a significant decrease in the number of left-handers (p<0.001). Conclusion. The increase in the number of symmetrical lateral phenotypes against the background of improved binocular functions and spatial perception characteristics as a result of functional treatment of children with non-paralytic strabismus indicates an improvement of their interhemispheric interactions and can be an additional criterion for the ef fectiveness of treatment. Key words: lateral phenotypes, interhemispheric asymmetry, functional treatment of strabismus

Lightweight Multilevel Feature Fusion Network for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Hyperspectral images (HSIs), acquired as a 3D data set, contain spectral and spatial information that is important for ground–object recognition. A 3D convolutional neural network (3DCNN) could therefore be more suitable than a 2D one for extracting multiscale neighborhood information in the spectral and spatial domains simultaneously, if it is not restrained by mass parameters and computation cost. In this paper, we propose a novel lightweight multilevel feature fusion network (LMFN) that can achieve satisfactory HSI classification with fewer parameters and a lower computational burden. The LMFN decouples spectral–spatial feature extraction into two modules: point-wise 3D convolution to learn correlations between adjacent bands with no spatial perception, and depth-wise convolution to obtain local texture features while the spectral receptive field remains unchanged. Then, a target-guided fusion mechanism (TFM) is introduced to achieve multilevel spectral–spatial feature fusion between the two modules. More specifically, multiscale spectral features are endowed with spatial long-range dependency, which is quantified by central target pixel-guided similarity measurement. Subsequently, the results obtained from shallow to deep layers are added, respectively, to the spatial modules, in an orderly manner. The TFM block can enhance adjacent spectral correction and focus on pixels that actively boost the target classification accuracy, while performing multiscale feature fusion. Experimental results across three benchmark HSI data sets indicate that our proposed LMFN has competitive advantages, in terms of both classification accuracy and lightweight deep network architecture engineering. More importantly, compared to state-of-the-art methods, the LMFN presents better robustness and generalization.

PROFILE OF STUDENTS' SPATIAL ABILITY IN SOLVING GEOMETRY PROBLEMS IN TERMS OF DAVID KEIRSEY'S PERSONALITY TYPES

This study aims to describe the ability of spatial geometry of class XI MIPA 1 SMA Negeri 2 Jember in terms of David Keirsey's personality type. Spatial ability in this study is the ability to understand the world of space based on elements of spatial abilities which include: spatial perception, mental rotation, and spatial visualization. This type of research is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach. The data collection method in this research is questionnaire, spatial test, and interview. Then, based on the results of the test and interview analysis, it was found that the Guardian students could fulfill all spatial indicators. Artisan students in imagining and rotating spaces can think quickly and answer questions correctly, compared to guardian and idealistic students. Idealistic students in the ability to see the surface of the unit cubic structure more than the point of view (from the front, right side, and top) cannot describe it precisely. Meanwhile, rational students on the mental rotation element for the first indicator are still unable to rotate a spatial shape and can imagine the rotation or rotation of a spatial shape accurately.

Augmenting the City: The Photo-Realistic Animation of a Historic Building and its influence on spatial perception and meaning

Augmented Reality (AR), defined as the holographic overlay of physical space with virtual objects in real time (Azuma, 1997), can be considered a prime example of mediatization. This development is particularly evident in the public space of the “mediatised city” (Hepp, Simon & Sowinska, 2018), being a focal point of the latest media technologies already overlaid with a multitude of AR content. But how does AR change the perception and meaning of urban space? And how can researchers capture methodically the appropriation of complex, large-scaled AR content experienced via high-tech AR glasses? To answer these questions, a historical building, that had been destroyed during the Second World War, was reconstructed as a holographic animation on a public city square. In order to resurrect this building in AR, old photographs, paintings and postcards were evaluated and used to create a virtual model in the original size and place it at its original location. The test subjects were then able to view the hologram from various different angles using AR glasses (Microsoft HoloLens 2), move freely around the square and even enter it. Combining quantitative, before-and-after questionnaires and qualitative thinking-aloud protocols, our results show that the holographic animation of a historical building can influence both the sensual-aesthetic perception and the personal meaning of a public square for city dwellers. Specifically, our test subjects perceived differences in its accessibility, coherence and aesthetics, simplicity, atmosphere and legibility. The meaning of the square was altered with regard to personal memories (= the self), typical groups of people (= others) and certain opportunities (= environment) associated with it by city dwellers.

Cortical Temporal Integration Window for Binaural Cues accounts for Sluggish Auditory Spatial Perception

The auditory system has exquisite temporal coding in the periphery which is transformed into a rate-based code in central auditory structures like auditory cortex. However, the cortex is still able to synchronize, albeit at lower modulation rates, to acoustic fluctuations. The perceptual significance of this cortical synchronization is unknown. We estimated physiological synchronization limits of cortex (in humans with electroencephalography) and brainstem neurons (in chinchillas) to dynamic binaural cues using a novel system-identification technique, along with parallel perceptual measurements. We find that cortex can synchronize to dynamic binaural cues up to approximately 10 Hz, which aligns well with our measured limits of perceiving dynamic spatial information and utilizing dynamic binaural cues for spatial unmasking, i.e. measures of binaural sluggishness. We also find the tracking limit for frequency modulation (FM) is similar to the limit for spatial tracking, demonstrating that this sluggish tracking is a more general perceptual limit that can be accounted for by cortical temporal integration limits.

Distance Compression in the HTC Vive Pro: A Quick Revisitation of Resolution

Spatial perception in immersive virtual environments, particularly regarding distance perception, is a well-studied topic in virtual reality literature. Distance compression, or the underestimation of distances, is and has been historically prevalent in all virtual reality systems. The problem of distance compression still remains open, but recent advancements have shown that as systems have developed, the level of distance compression has decreased. Here, we add evidence to this trend by beginning the assessment of distance compression in the HTC Vive Pro. To our knowledge, there are no archival results that report any findings about distance compression in this system. Using a familiar paradigm for studying distance compression in virtual reality hardware, we asked users to blind walk to a target object placed in a virtual environment and assessed their judgments based on those distances. We find that distance compression in the HTC Vive Pro mirrors that of the HTC Vive. Our results are not particularly surprising, considering the nature of the differences between the two systems, but they lend credence to the finding that resolution does not affect distance compression. More extensive study should be performed to reinforce these results.

Judgments of Object Size and Distance across Different Virtual Reality Environments: A Preliminary Study

Emerging technologies offer the potential to expand the domain of the future workforce to extreme environments, such as outer space and alien terrains. To understand how humans navigate in such environments that lack familiar spatial cues this study examined spatial perception in three types of environments. The environments were simulated using virtual reality. We examined participants’ ability to estimate the size and distance of stimuli under conditions of minimal, moderate, or maximum visual cues, corresponding to an environment simulating outer space, an alien terrain, or a typical cityscape, respectively. The findings show underestimation of distance in both the maximum and the minimum visual cue environment but a tendency for overestimation of distance in the moderate environment. We further observed that depth estimation was substantially better in the minimum environment than in the other two environments. However, estimation of height was more accurate in the environment with maximum cues (cityscape) than the environment with minimum cues (outer space). More generally, our results suggest that familiar visual cues facilitated better estimation of size and distance than unfamiliar cues. In fact, the presence of unfamiliar, and perhaps misleading visual cues (characterizing the alien terrain environment), was more disruptive than an environment with a total absence of visual cues for distance and size perception. The findings have implications for training workers to better adapt to extreme environments.

İnkomplet partisyon tip II bulunan unilateral ve bimodal koklear implant kullanıcılarının konuşma, uzaysal algı ve işitme kalitesinin değerlendirilmesi

Evaluation of the speech, spatial and qualities of hearing in unilateral and bimodal cochlear implant users with incomplete partition type II Objective: The aim of this study was to perform a scale-based assessment of the hearing abilities of cochlear implant users with IP type II malformation and normal cochlea, including discrimination, orientation, and positioning of speech and environmental sounds in their environment. Material and Methods: A total of 30 cochlear implant users, 15 participants with IP-II inner ear anomalies and 15 participants with normal cochlea, aged 18-55 years were included in this study. All participants included in the study are unilateral CI and bimodal users. Participants were assessed using the Speech, Spatial, and Hearing Qualities Scale (SSQ). Results: When cochlear implant users with IP-II malformations and cochlear implant users with normal cochlea individually scored auditory abilities, the results were similar. It was observed that bimodal listeners tended to have all subdomains and overall SSQ scores compared to use of unilateral CI. Conclusion: It is very important to benefit from the advantages of binaural hearing in hearing sounds. It is thought that the use of scales as well as routine audiological evaluation batteries in the follow-up processes of cochlear implant users will be beneficial for audiologists. Keywords: Cochlear implant, speech perception, spatial perception, hearing quality