Some aspects of the psychological representation of speech sounds

If one listens to a meaningless syllable that is repeated over and over, he will hear it undergo a variety of changes that can be described systematically in terms of reorganization of the phones constituting the syllable and changes in a restricted set of phonetic distinctive features. When the repeated syllable is followed by a different syllable but in the same voice, the new (test) syllable will be misperceived in a manner related to the perceptual misrepresentation of the repeated syllable. In the present experiment subjects (N = 24) listened to 72 different experimental sequences of repeated syllables in a male voice followed by test syllables in a female voice. Identification of penultimate and test syllables was independent and in no instance were the phone constituting the syllables reorganized. These results are interpreted as evidence against both auditory and phonetic feature detector theories of speech perception.     

Precentral glioma location determines the displacement of cortical hand representation

OBJECTIVE: Low-grade brain tumors may remain asymptomatic in contrast to malignant gliomas. The mechanisms underlying the preservation of cerebral function in such gliomas are not well understood. METHODS: We used positron emission tomography and transcranial magnetic stimulation for presurgical monitoring of motor hand function in six patients with gliomas of the precentral gyrus. All patients were able to perform finger movements of the contralesional hand. RESULTS: Movement-related increases of the regional cerebral blood flow occurred only outside the tumor in surrounding brain tissue. Compared with the contralateral side, these activations were shifted by 20 +/- 13 mm (standard deviation) within the dorsoventral dimension of the precentral gyrus. This shift of cortical hand representation could not be explained by the deformation of the central sulcus as determined from the spatially aligned magnetic resonance images but was closely related to the location of the maximal tumor growth. Dorsal tumor growth resulted in ventral displacement of motor hand representation, leaving the motor cortical output system unaffected, whereas ventral tumor growth leading to dorsal displacement of motor hand representation compromised the motor cortical output, as evident from transcranial magnetic stimulation. In two patients, additional activation of the supplementary motor area was present. CONCLUSION: Our data provide evidence for the reorganization of the human motor cortex to allow for preserved hand function in Grade II astrocytomas.     

Personality and linear representation of temporal location.

90 undergraduates completed 3 personality tests and a task in which Ss located 1 wk, 7 mo, 3 yrs, and 9 yrs past and future on 2 time lines labeled "birth to now" and "now to death." Data fit commonsense expectations that self-control, responsibility, and cognitive caution go along with subjective locations of the past and future close to the present and suggest that performance on a simple time line reflects some intimate relationships between temporal experience and personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comprehensive representation of transient

A general mathematical statement is presented to describe transient weldpool development. In the formulation, axi-symmetric systems are considered and allowance is made for buoyancy, surface tension, and electromagnetic forces. An extensive set of computed results is presented describing the behavior of aluminum, steel, and titanium, thus covering a broad range of thermal conductivities. These computed results are complemented with order of magnitude estimates of key process parameters, providing an improved insight into the overall system behavior. It is shown that through these order of magnitude estimates it is possible to predict conditions under which convection is important by recourse to the Peclet number and melt velocity estimates. It is shown, furthermore, that when surface tension effects are present, as may be the case for steel, these are likely to be dominant in determining the melt velocity.     

Categorization of sounds.

The authors conducted 4 experiments to test the decision-bound, prototype, and distribution theories for the categorization of sounds. They used as stimuli sounds varying in either resonance frequency or duration. They created different experimental conditions by varying the variance and overlap of 2 stimulus distributions used in a training phase and varying the size of the stimulus continuum used in the subsequent test phase. When resonance frequency was the stimulus dimension, the pattern of categorization-function slopes was in accordance with the decision-bound theory. When duration was the stimulus dimension, however, the slope pattern gave partial support for the decision-bound and distribution theories. The authors introduce a new categorization model combining aspects of decision-bound and distribution theories that gives a superior account of the slope patterns across the 2 stimulus dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Separation of discontinuous adventitious sounds from vesicular sounds using a wavelet-based filter

The separation of pathological discontinuous adventitious sounds (DAS) from vesicular sounds (VS) is of great importance to the analysis of lung sounds, since DAS are related to certain pulmonary pathologies. An automated way of revealing the diagnostic character of DAS by isolating them from VS, based on their nonstationarity, is presented in this paper. The proposed algorithm combines multiresolution analysis with hard thresholding in order to compose a wavelet transform-based stationary-nonstationary filter (WTST-NST). Applying the WTST-NST filter to fine/coarse crackles and squawks, selected from three lung sound databases, the coherent structure of DAS is revealed and they are separated from VS. When compared to other separation tools, the WTST-NST filter performed more accurately, objectively, and with lower computational cost. Due to its simple implementation it can easily be used in clinical medicine.     

A 3D sequence-independent representation of the protein data bank

Here we address the following questions. How many structurally different entries are there in the Protein Data Bank (PDB)? How do the proteins populate the structural universe? To investigate these questions a structurally non-redundant set of representative entries was selected from the PDB. Construction of such a dataset is not trivial: (i) the considerable size of the PDB requires a large number of comparisons (there were more than 3250 structures of protein chains available in May 1994); (ii) the PDB is highly redundant, containing many structurally similar entries, not necessarily with significant sequence homology, and (iii) there is no clear-cut definition of structural similarity. The latter depend on the criteria and methods used. Here, we analyze structural similarity ignoring protein topology. To date, representative sets have been selected either by hand, by sequence comparison techniques which ignore the three-dimensional (3D) structures of the proteins or by using sequence comparisons followed by linear structural comparison (i.e. the topology, or the sequential order of the chains, is enforced in the structural comparison). Here we describe a 3D sequence-independent automated and efficient method to obtain a representative set of protein molecules from the PDB which contains all unique structures and which is structurally non-redundant. The method has two novel features. The first is the use of strictly structural criteria in the selection process without taking into account the sequence information. To this end we employ a fast structural comparison algorithm which requires on average approximately 2 s per pairwise comparison on a workstation. The second novel feature is the iterative application of a heuristic clustering algorithm that greatly reduces the number of comparisons required. We obtain a representative set of 220 chains with resolution better than 3.0 A, or 268 chains including lower resolution entries, NMR entries and models. The resulting set can serve as a basis for extensive structural classification and studies of 3D recurring motifs and of sequence-structure relationships. The clustering algorithm succeeds in classifying into the same structural family chains with no significant sequence homology, e.g. all the globins in one single group, all the trypsin-like serine proteases in another or all the immunoglobulin-like folds into a third. In addition, unexpected structural similarities of interest have been automatically detected between pairs of chains. A cluster analysis of the representative structures demonstrates the way the "structural universe' is populated.     

一种新的纹理基元发现及表达方法

传统的纹理统计方法中对纹理基元采用形式语法的抽象表达使得算法非常复杂.基于图像关联规则挖掘,可发现纹理图像中的频繁模式,将频繁模式构建为纹理联合关联规则,纹理基元可以通过这些强关联规则特征矢量表达.实验证明,纹理关联规则纹理基元特征矢量能够很好区分纹理特征,并且易于表达以及在图像处理中使用,并具有方向不变性,能够为模糊和随机纹理图像处理提供新的思路.     

A study of the representation of anxiety in chronic schizophrenia.

This research is part of a series of interrelated studies, conducted with both normal Ss and clinical populations, which uses certain kinetic and linguistic aspects of communication behavior as indices for the status of thought organization. The present study, employing videotapes of clinical interviews, examined the dialogue communication behavior of 16 chronic, male schizophrenics. The methods of analyzing kinetic and linguistic behavior from videotaped interviews were based on work by N. Freedman et al (1973) and I. Steingart and N. Freedman (1975); Gottschalk's Content Analysis Scales were used in the assessment of anxiety expression. Results demonstrate a relation between these same indices of communication behavior and types of anxiety expression. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of the remembered utility of aversive sounds.

Retrospective evaluations of aversive episodes were studied in the context of a general model of "judgment by prototype" that has been applied in other situations. Unpleasant sounds of variable loudness and duration were the stimuli. In Experiment 1, continuous reports of annoyance closely tracked variations of noise intensity. Hypotheses about the determinants of retrospective evaluation were examined in Experiment 2. Experiment 3 confirmed a prediction of judgment by prototype: The effects of sound duration and intensity are additive in multitrial experiments. Experiment 4 confirmed a robust preference for aversive episodes that are "improved" by adding a period of reduced aversiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new type of representation of dipeptide conformation

The possibility of representing the conformations of a pair of peptide units in terms of two parameters, namely angle (nu) between the two peptide planes and the virtual-bond angle delta (C(alpha)i-1, C(alpha)i, C(alpha)i+1), and its usefulness in recognizing unfavourable conformations, is discussed. To exemplify the concept, the local conformations in lysozyme have been plotted in the (nu,delta) plane.     

A developmental study of the effect of temporal order on the ERPs elicited by novel environmental sounds

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 16 subjects in each of the following age groups, 5-7, 9-11, 14-16, and 20-28 years of age. Subjects performed a novelty oddball task, in which frequent, standard tones (80% probability) were intermixed with infrequent tones to which the subject responded (10%), along with 48 unique novel, environmental sounds (10%). Analyses focused on the effects of temporal order (either serial order within the block or block number) in interaction with age group on the ERPs to the novel sounds. The amplitude and scalp distribution of two ERP components were analyzed, the 'novelty P3,' assumed to reflect aspects of the orienting response, and the P32, a component that may be synonymous with the P3b. Evidence suggests that the frontal aspect of the scalp distribution of the novelty P3 depends upon the integrity of the prefrontal cortex. Temporal order produced systematic (primarily linear) reductions in novelty P3 amplitude that were greater at frontal than posterior electrode sites. The P3(2) did not show consistent effects of temporal order. Both of these phenomena were highly similar for all four age groups. It is concluded that the brain's response to novelty is similar across a wide age range, involving a neural circuit with both frontal and posterior elements.     

Self-schematic representation of the Type A and B behavior patterns.

Two studies with 68 undergraduates who were identified as Type A (coronary prone) or Type B (noncoronary prone), based on their scores on the Jenkins Activity Survey—Form T, investigated the existence of Type A and Type B self-schemata, using 2 tasks designed to measure the influence of these hypothetical structures on speed of processing and memory interference. During an initial task, Type A's and B's made self-relevant decisions (like me, not like me) in response to trait adjectives previously scaled as Type A, Type B, or neutral in content. Reactions times (RTs) for the decisions were measured. Results indicate that both Type A's and B's made faster decisions for schema-compatible responses than for schema-incompatible responses. On a 2nd task, Type A's and B's were tested for recognition memory after they attempted to memorize half of the aforementioned trait list. Memory errors were examined and showed that Type A's and B's made more errors that were compatible with their respective self-schemata. Overall findings indicate that a Type A and Type B distinction forms a reliable organizing framework for the self-definitions of Type A's and B's. The existence of stable cognitive structures that parallel the behavioral differences between Type A's and B's has implications for both theory and application, such as the importance of examining how Type A and Type B self-schemata influence judgments of others in the achievement and performance domains. (57 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic representation of meaning: A critique.

The representational view of mind is examined by focusing on what is perhaps its key tenet, namely, that semantic representations serve as the basis for the knowledge of meaning and for the production and comprehension of linguistic expressions. The argument marshalled against this view is twofold and involves conceptual and methodological, empirical, procedural, and developmental considerations. First, I invoke contextual considerations to mark the limitations of the standard account of the representation of meaning. Second, I point out the inadequacy of a two-stage model based on the distinction beween standard and nonstandard meaning. I conclude that semantic representations are the products of cognitive activity, not the basis for it. Rather than serving as the general framework for such activity, they are associated with particular, advanced stages of it that are generally characterized by a degree of autonomy from context and from the agent's action in the world. Alternatives to the representational framework are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Change deafness and the organizational properties of sounds.

Change blindness, or the failure to detect (often large) changes to visual scenes, has been demonstrated in a variety of different situations. Failures to detect auditory changes are far less studied, and thus little is known about the nature of change deafness. Five experiments were conducted to explore the processes involved in change deafness by measuring explicit change detection as well as auditory object encoding. The experiments revealed that considerable change deafness occurs, even though auditory objects are encoded quite well. Familiarity with the objects did not affect detection or recognition performance. Whereas spatial location was not an effective cue, fundamental frequency and the periodicity/aperiodicity of the sounds provided important cues for the change-detection task. Implications for the mechanisms responsible for change deafness and auditory sound organization are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual restoration of obliterated sounds.

When portions of a signal are masked in noisy environments, perceptual restoration can be accomplished through auditory induction (AI). There are 2 classes of AI: (a) temporal induction (TI), which restores contextually appropriate segments of a signal masked at both ears by transient noises; and (b) contralateral induction (CI), which restores a signal masked at one ear when it is heard at the other. TI can prevent fragmentation of steady sounds and can permit comprehension of speech that would otherwise be unintelligible, while CI can prevent mislocalization of a sound source to the side of the unmasked ear. Both classes of AI are subtractive processes requiring that the neural units corresponding to the perceptually restored sound be among those stimulated by the louder interrupting sound. The rules governing AI provide information concerning general principles underlying perceptual organization in hearing. (60 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subjective assessment of temporomandibular joint sounds

This study was performed to evaluate whether beta-blocker therapy was effective in patients with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and bradyarrhythmias supported by pacemaker implantation. Beta-blocker therapy is useful for some patients with DCM, especially those with rapid heart rate or residual nonfibrotic myocardium in the left ventricle, but no data exist on whether beta-blocker therapy is useful in patients with DCM and bradyarrhythmias. The effectiveness of beta-blocker therapy was prospectively evaluated in patients with DCM and bradyarrhythmias supported by pacemaker implantation and compared with those without these arrhythmias. Beta-blocker therapy was started in 63 patients (45 men, 18 women, aged 11-83 years) with DCM, in whom 7 had bradyarrhythmias and 56 did not. These bradyarrhythmias were atrioventricular block, sick sinus syndrome and atrial fibrillation with slow heart rate. Of the 56 patients without bradyarrhythmias, 42 (75%) (group 1) responded to beta-blocker therapy, but 5 of the 7 with bradyarrhythmias (71%) (group 2) also responded. Left ventricular end-diastolic dimension was reduced (6.5 +/- 0.6 cm to 5.6 +/- 0.5 cm; p < 0.0001 in group 1; 6.6 +/- 0.8 cm to 5.5 +/- 0.2 cm; p < 0.02 in group 2) and left ventricular fractional shortening was improved (13 +/- 4% to 27 +/- 7%; p < 0.0001 in group 1; 12 +/- 4% to 29 +/- 10%; p < 0.05, in group 2) to the same degree in both groups. These results indicate that beta-blocker therapy for DCM is effective not only in patients without bradyarrhythmias but also in those with bradyarrhythmias supported with pacemaker implantation.