This article aims is to explore a perspective of the ontology of becoming, that makes it possible to study the emergence of phenomena and thereby broaden the understanding of how knowledge is created. It is written in close connection with research in posthumanism and new materialism. What hat has been lacking in these perspectives has been a…

Purpose: The aim of the study was to examine associations between speaking fundamental frequency (f[subscript os]), vowel formant frequencies (F), listener perceptions of speaker gender, and vocal femininity-masculinity. Method: An exploratory study was undertaken to examine associations between f[subscript os], F[subscript 1]-F[subscript 3],…

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the mechanisms involved in phonetic learning of an unfamiliar accent, focusing on understanding what processes underlie changes to phonetic category structure, how such learning affects subsequent online lexical processing, and whether the same mechanisms that underlie learning for a single speaker…

Transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) increases performance in some perceptual tasks. However, little is known about its effect on creativity. Although dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been postulated as an important cortical area related to creativity, the relative role of left and right DLPFC is still unclear. We aimed to…

The purpose of this study was to reveal the leadership qualities of school principals in solving a noise problem at school. A single case study was selected as the research design. The study group consisted of primary and secondary school principals, one female and three males, working in the schools where the project was conducted. The main data…

Purpose: The acoustic measure relative fundamental frequency (RFF) was investigated as a potential objective measure to track variations in vocal effort within and across individuals. Method: Twelve speakers with healthy voices created purposeful modulations in their vocal effort during speech tasks. RFF and an aerodynamic measure of vocal effort,…

Multiple acoustic dimensions signal speech categories. However, dimensions vary in their informativeness; some are more diagnostic of category membership than others. Speech categorization reflects these dimensional regularities such that diagnostic dimensions carry more "perceptual weight" and more effectively signal category membership…

Models of speech perception suggest a dorsal stream connecting the temporal and inferior parietal lobe with the inferior frontal gyrus. This stream is thought to involve an auditory motor loop that translates acoustic information into motor/articulatory commands and is further influenced by decision making processes that involve maintenance of…

Purpose: This study used perceptual and acoustic measures to examine the time course of speech adaptation after the attachment of electromagnetic sensor coils to the tongue, lips, and jaw. Method: Twenty native English speakers read aloud stimulus sentences before the attachment of the sensors, immediately after attachment, and again 5, 10, 15,…

It is known that individuals with Asperger syndrome (AS) may show no problems with regard to what is said (e.g., lexical content) but tend to have difficulties in how utterances are produced, i.e., they may show prosodic impairments. In the present study, we focus on the use of prosodic features to express grammatical meaning. Specifically, we…

Purpose: To determine how increased vocal loudness and reduced speech rate affect listeners' cognitive-perceptual processing of hypokinetic dysarthric speech associated with Parkinson's disease. Method: Fifty-one healthy listener participants completed a speech perception experiment. Listeners repeated phrases produced by 5 individuals…

Purpose: The authors examined speech perception deficits associated with individual differences in language ability, contrasting auditory, phonological, or lexical accounts by asking whether lexical competition is differentially sensitive to fine-grained acoustic variation. Method: Adolescents with a range of language abilities (N = 74, including…

In order for statistical information to aid in complex developmental processes such as language acquisition, learning from higher-order statistics (e.g. across successive syllables in a speech stream to support segmentation) must be possible while perceptual abilities (e.g. speech categorization) are still developing. The current study examines…

Western participants consistently match certain shapes with particular speech sounds, tastes, and flavours. Here we demonstrate that the "Bouba-Kiki effect", a well-known shape-sound symbolism effect commonly observed in Western participants, is also observable in the Himba of Northern Namibia, a remote population with little exposure to…

Previous research has demonstrated perceptual aftereffects for emotionally expressive faces, but the extent to which they can also be obtained in a different modality is unknown. In two experiments we show for the first time that adaptation to affective, non-linguistic vocalisations elicits significant auditory aftereffects. Adaptation to angry…