Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate how general, implicit instructions with auditory-perceptual emphasis; specific, explicit instructions with biomechanical focus; or both affect learning of oral-nasal balance control in speech. Method: Thirty healthy, vocally untrained participants were assigned to one of three instructional…

Visual search is faster when a fixed target location is paired with a spatially invariant (vs. randomly changing) distractor configuration, thus indicating that repeated contexts are learned, thereby guiding attention to the target (contextual cueing [CC]). Evidence for memory-guided attention has also been revealed with electrophysiological…

Purpose: This study implemented a pretest-intervention-posttest design to examine whether multiple-talker identification training enhanced phonetic perception of the /ba/-/da/ and /wa/-/ja/ contrasts in adult listeners who were deafened postlingually and have cochlear implants (CIs). Method: Nine CI recipients completed 8 hours of identification…

Purpose: Although traditional study of auditory training has been in controlled laboratory settings, interest has been increasing in more interactive options. The authors examine whether such interactive training can result in short-term perceptual learning, and the range of perceptual skills it impacts. Method: Experiments 1 (N = 37) and 2 (N =…

Following the integration of an online homework tool -- MyEnglishLab (MEL) -- into their English courseware products, Pearson sought to explore how one of these products, Top Notch, was being implemented with MyEnglishLab and perceptions about the impact it was having on learning. Top Notch is a six-level communicative course that aims to help…

This paper first provides an overview of factors that constrain ultimate attainment in adult second language (L2) pronunciation, finding that first language influence and the quantity and quality of L2 phonetic input account for much of the variation in the degree of foreign accent found across adult L2 learners. The author then evaluates current…

A study, including research and practice notes by various authors, investigated whether extended training in an acoustically rich environment could enhance the spatial updating ability of 12 adults with congenital blindness. After training, the adults' distance perception from a home-base location and novel locations was superior to a sighted…

A study implemented three different methods of presenting scientific graphs to 12 adults with visual impairments: audition, kinesthetics, or a combination of the two. Results indicate the combination of both audio and kinesthetic modalities can be a promising representation medium of common scientific graphs for people with visual impairments.…