Purpose: We present functional logistic mixed-effects models (FLMEMs) for estimating population and individual-level learning curves in longitudinal experiments. Method: Using functional analysis tools in a Bayesian hierarchical framework, the FLMEM captures nonlinear, smoothly varying learning curves, appropriately accommodating uncertainty in…

This study investigates a strategy based on predictability of consecutive sub-lexical units in learning to segment a continuous speech stream into lexical units using computational modeling and simulations. Lexical segmentation is one of the early challenges during language acquisition, and it has been studied extensively through psycholinguistic…

A number of theories exist to explain why people gesture when speaking, when they produce gesture, and the origin of their gestures. This dissertation focuses on four individual variables that can influence gesture: (i) familiarity, (ii) imageability, (iii) codability, and (iv) motor experience. Four experiments were designed to determine how each…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to assess speech processing for listeners with simulated age-related hearing loss (ARHL) and to investigate whether the observed performance can be replicated using an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. The long-term goal of this research is to develop a system that will assist…

Purpose: Physiological and phonetic studies suggest that, at moderate levels of epilaryngeal stricture, the ventricular folds impinge upon the vocal folds and influence their dynamical behavior, which is thought to be responsible for constricted laryngeal sounds. In this work, the authors examine this hypothesis through biomechanical modeling.…

Novel phonotactic constraints can be acquired by hearing or speaking syllables that follow a novel constraint. When learned from hearing syllables, these newly learned constraints generalize to syllables that were not experienced during training. However, generalization of phonotactic learning to novel syllables has never been persuasively…

One of the core principles of how the mind works is the graded, parallel activation of multiple related or similar representations. Parallel activation of multiple representations has been particularly important in the development of theories and models of language processing, where coactivated representations ("neighbors") have been shown to…

The Gesture as Simulated Action (GSA) framework (Hostetter & Alibali, 2008) holds that representational gestures are produced when actions are simulated as part of thinking and speaking. Accordingly, speakers should gesture more when describing images with which they have specific physical experience than when describing images that are less…

Emerging phonotactic knowledge facilitates the development of the mental lexicon, as demonstrated by studies showing that infants use the phonotactic patterns of their native language to extract words from continuous speech. The present study provides a computational account of how infants might induce phonotactics from their immediate language…

A Bayesian model of continuous speech recognition is presented. It is based on Shortlist (D. Norris, 1994; D. Norris, J. M. McQueen, A. Cutler, & S. Butterfield, 1997) and shares many of its key assumptions: parallel competitive evaluation of multiple lexical hypotheses, phonologically abstract prelexical and lexical representations, a feedforward…

A primary criterion on which models of cognition are evaluated is their ability to fit empirical data. To understand the reason why a model yields a good or poor fit, it is necessary to determine the data-fitting potential (i.e., flexibility) of the model. In the first part of this article, methods for comparing models and studying their…

Describes the use of EXPER SIM (experimental simulation) as an instructional tool in speech communication research. Several sample models are offered along with a discussion of the advantages and drawbacks of using the computer for social science research. (JMF)

Reviews the components of simulations and games (roles, interactions, rules, goals, outcomes) and the criteria (validity, reliability, utility) by which they can be assessed. Provides a model for including these criteria in the selection/design, use, and assessment of communication simulations and games. (PD)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop guidelines for the statistical analysis of percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS) data in stuttering research. Method; Data on %SS from various independent sources were used to develop a statistical model to describe this type of data. On the basis of this model, %SS data were simulated with…

The results of three projects concerned with auditory word recognition and the structure of the lexicon are reported in this paper. The first project described was designed to test experimentally several specific predictions derived from MACS, a simulation model of the Cohort Theory of word recognition. The second project description provides the…