Cultural differences in auditory ecology.

Demographic differences in acoustic environments are usually studied using geographic area monitoring. This approach, however, may miss valuable information differentiating cultures. This motivated the current study, which used wearable sound recorders to measure noise levels and speech-to-noise ratios (SNRs) in the immediate acoustic environment of Latinx and European-American college students. Latinx experienced higher noise levels (64.8 dBC) and lower SNRs (3.7 dB) compared to European-Americans (noise levels, 63 dB; SNRs, 5.4 dB). This work provides a framework for a larger study on the impact of culture on auditory ecology.

Toward a dynamic approach of person perception at zero acquaintance: Applying recurrence quantification analysis to thin slices.

Thin-slice methodology has provided us with abundant behavioral streams that self-reported measures would fail to capture, but traditional analytical paradigms in social and personality psychology cannot fully capture the temporal trajectories of person perception at zero acquaintance. At the same time, empirical investigations into how persons and situations jointly predict behavior enacted in situ are scarce, despite the importance of examining real-world behavior to understand any phenomenon of interest. To complement existing theoretical models and analyses, we propose the dynamic latent state-trait model blending dynamical systems theory and person perception. We present a data-driven case study using thin-slice methodology to demonstrate the model. This study provides direct empirical support for the proposed theoretical model on person perception at zero acquaintance highlighting the target, the perceiver, the situation, and time. The results of the study demonstrate that dynamical systems theory approaches can be leveraged to provide information about person perception at zero acquaintance above and beyond that of more traditional approaches. CLASSIFICATION CODE: 3040 (Social Perception & Cognition).

Automatic sound encoding is sensitive to language familiarity: Evidence from English monolinguals and Spanish-English bilinguals.

We investigated whether language familiarity has a modulatory effect on automatic sound encoding in the auditory brainstem by measuring frequency-following responses (FFRs) to repeating speech syllables that played in the background while monolingual English speakers and Spanish-English bilingual speakers watched cartoon videos in English and Spanish. For the English monolinguals, we found that the FFR signal quality was different between the two language conditions, with higher signal to noise ratios emerging for the Spanish compared to the English condition. For the Spanish-English bilinguals, the FFR signal quality was overall higher than the monolinguals, but there no effect of language condition on the FFR. Thus, both language familiarity of the environment and bilingual language experience, may modulate automatic sound encoding.

An Event-Related Brain Potential (ERP) Study of Complex Anaphora in Spanish.

This study examines the event- related brain potential (ERP) of 25 Mexican monolingual Spanish-speakers when reading Spanish sentences with single entity anaphora or complex anaphora. Complex anaphora is an expression that refer to propositions, states, facts or events while, a single entity anaphora is an expression that refers back to a concrete object. Here we compare the cognitive cost in processing a single entity anaphora [ésta feminine; La renuncia (resignation)] from a complex anaphora [esto neuter; La renuncia fue aceptada (The resignation was accepted)]. Ésta elicited a larger positive peak at 200 ms, and esto elicited a larger frontal negativity around 400 ms. The positivity resembles the P200 component, and its amplitude is thought to represent an interaction between predictive qualities in sentence processing (i.e., graphical similarity and frequency of occurrence). Unlike parietal negativities (typical N400), frontal negativities are thought to represent the ease by which pronouns are linked with its antecedent, and how easy the information is recovered from short-term memory. Thus, the complex anaphora recruited more cognitive resources than the single entity anaphora. We also included an ungrammatical control sentence [éste masculine; La renuncia (resignation)] to better understand the unique processes behind complex anaphoric resolution, as opposed to just general difficulty in sentence processing. In this case, event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by éste masculine and ésta feminine were compared. Again, ésta elicited a larger P200. However, different from the experimental condition, a left anterior negativity (LAN) effect was observed for éste; the ungrammatical condition. Altogether, the present research provides electrophysiological evidence indicating that demonstrative pronouns with different morphosyntactic features (i.e., gender) and discourse parameters (i.e., single entity or complex referent) interact during the first stage of anaphoric processing of anaphora. This stage initiated as early as 200 milliseconds after the pronoun onset and probably ends around 400 ms.

An analysis of the perception of stop consonants in bilinguals and monolinguals in different phonetic contexts: A range-based language cueing approach.

Bilinguals' observed perceptual shift across language contexts for shared acoustic properties between their languages supports the idea that bilinguals, but not monolinguals, develop two phonemic representations for the same acoustic property. This phenomenon is known as the double phonemic boundary. This investigation replicated previous findings of bilinguals' double phonemic boundary across a series of go/no-go tasks while controlling for known confounding effects in speech perception (i.e., contrast effects) and differences in resource allocation between bilinguals and monolinguals (i.e., left-hand or right-hand response). Using a range-base language cueing approach, we designed 2 experiments. The first experiment tested whether a voice onset time (VOT) range representative of either Spanish or English phonetic categories can cue bilinguals, but not monolinguals, to use language-specific perceptual routines. The second experiment tested a VOT range with a mixture of Spanish and English phonetic categories to determine whether directing attention to a specific phonetic category can disambiguate the competition of the nonattended category. The results for Experiment 1 showed that bilinguals can rely on the distributional patterns of their native phonetic categories to activate specific language modes. Experiment 2 showed that attention can change the weight given to a native phonetic distinction. However, this process is restricted by the internal phonetic composition of the native language(s).

Language learning as a function of infant directed speech (IDS) in Spanish: Testing neural commitment using the positive-MMR.

Spanish-English bilingual families (N = 17) were recruited to assess the association between infant directed speech (IDS) in Spanish and their degree of neural commitment to the Spanish language. IDS was assessed by extracting the caregivers' Vowel Space Area (VSA) from recordings of a storybook reading task done at home. Infants' neural commitment was assessed by extracting the positive mismatch brain response (positive-MMR), an Event-Related Potential (ERP) thought to be indicative of higher attentional processes and early language commitment. A linear mixed model analysis demonstrated that caregivers' VSA predicted the amplitude of the positive-MMR in response to a native speech contrast (Spanish), but not to a non-native speech contrast (Chinese), even after holding other predictors constant (i.e., socioeconomic status, infants' age, and fundamental frequency). Our findings provide support to the view that quality of language exposure fosters language learning, and that this beneficial relationship expands to the bilingual population.

The current standing of bilingualism in today's globalized world: a socio-ecological perspective.

Globalization has made interactions between individuals from different cultures and languages unavoidable. Therefore, questions concerning bilingualism have become increasingly important within the scholarly community. In this paper, we review this emerging research using a socio-ecological approach. We first present evidence that demonstrates how learning two languages is dependent upon the socio-ecologies of individuals. Second, we review studies that show how bilingualism promotes a myriad of positive social advantages. Then we discuss how the positive effects of bilingualism has affected the socio-ecologies of the individuals. Our discussion sheds light on the challenges that caregivers, educators, scientists, and policy makers face to promote bilingualism in today's globalized world. WC=106/150.

No laughing matter: Latinas' high quality of conversations relate to behavioral laughter.

Latinx in the United States have greater life expectancy than other groups, in spite of their socioeconomic and psychosocial disadvantage. This phenomenon has been described as the Latinx health paradox. This investigation observed the interplay of cultural processes and social networks to shed light on this paradox. Latina (N = 26) and White-European (N = 24) mothers wore a digital recorder as they went about their daily lives. Four conversation styles were characterized from the recordings to measure the mothers' quality of their conversations (small talk and substantive conversations) within different social networks (with the father vs. other adults). As a positive indicator of well-being, laughter was assessed during the conversations. Results demonstrated that Latina mothers tend to laugh more than White-European mothers; and that this relation is mediated by substantive conversations with others. This suggests that Latinas' cultural processes afford meaningful conversations, which relates to more behavioral laughter, a process that may have positive implications on well-being.

You go before me, please: Behavioral politeness and interdependent self as markers of Simpatía in Latinas.

OBJECTIVES: Previous research has documented that Latinos/as value the cultural script Simpatía, a tendency to be kind, polite, and focus on others. No previous study has been able to capture the behavioral markers of Simpatía in a naturalistic environment. METHOD: Behavioral cross-sectional audio data were collected on the daily interactions between Latina and White European mothers with their partners and other adults using a digital audio recorder across 4 days. A mixed-methods approach was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Latinas exhibited increased behavioral Simpatía when talking to other adults compared to White European counterparts. Additionally, Latina mothers chose as a main character of their conversations other people rather than themselves. Conversely, White European mothers chose themselves as a main character of their conversations instead of other people. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that core features of Simpatía (kindness and focus on others) can be found at the behavioral level in the environment that Latina mothers face on a daily basis. Implications for the cultural self and future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Two are better than one: Infant language learning from video improves in the presence of peers.

Studies show that young children learn new phonemes and words from humans significantly better than from machines. However, it is not clear why learning from video is ineffective or what might be done to improve learning from a screen. The present study, conducted with 9-month-old infants, utilized a manipulation-touch screen video-which allowed infants to control presentations of foreign-language video clips. We tested the hypothesis that infant learning from a screen would be enhanced in the presence of a peer, as opposed to learning alone. Brain measures of phonetic learning and detailed analyses of interaction during learning confirm the hypothesis that social partners enhance learning, even from screens.

A Postmortem Study of Frontal and Temporal Gyri Thickness and Cell Number in Human Obesity.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare cortex thickness and neuronal cell density in postmortem brain tissue from people with overweight or obesity and normal weight. METHODS: The cortex thickness and neuron density of eight donors with overweight or obesity (mean = 31.6 kg/m2 ; SD = 4.35; n = 8; 6 male) and eight donors with normal weight (mean = 21.8 kg/m2 ; SD = 1.5; n = 8; 5 male) were compared. All participants were Mexican and lived in Mexico City. Randomly selected thickness measures of different cortex areas from the frontal and temporal lobes were analyzed based on high-resolution real-size photographs. A histological analysis of systematic-random fields was used to quantify the number of neurons in postmortem left and right of the first, second, and third gyri of frontal and temporal lobe brain samples. RESULTS: No statistical difference was found in cortical thickness between donors with overweight or obesity and individuals with normal weight. A smaller number of neurons was found among the donors with overweight or obesity than the donors with normal weight at different frontal and temporal areas. CONCLUSIONS: A lower density of neurons is associated with overweight or obesity. The morphological basis for structural brain changes in obesity requires further investigation.

Look Who's Talking NOW! Parentese Speech, Social Context, and Language Development Across Time.

In previous studies, we found that the social interactions infants experience in their everyday lives at 11- and 14-months of age affect language ability at 24 months of age. These studies investigated relationships between the speech style (i.e., parentese speech vs. standard speech) and social context [i.e., one-on-one (1:1) vs. group] of language input in infancy and later speech development (i.e., at 24 months of age), controlling for socioeconomic status (SES). Results showed that the amount of exposure to parentese speech-1:1 in infancy was related to productive vocabulary at 24 months. The general goal of the present study was to investigate changes in (1) the pattern of social interactions between caregivers and their children from infancy to childhood and (2) relationships among speech style, social context, and language learning across time. Our study sample consisted of 30 participants from the previously published infant studies, evaluated at 33 months of age. Social interactions were assessed at home using digital first-person perspective recordings of the auditory environment. We found that caregivers use less parentese speech-1:1, and more standard speech-1:1, as their children get older. Furthermore, we found that the effects of parentese speech-1:1 in infancy on later language development at 24 months persist at 33 months of age. Finally, we found that exposure to standard speech-1:1 in childhood was the only social interaction that related to concurrent word production/use. Mediation analyses showed that standard speech-1:1 in childhood fully mediated the effects of parentese speech-1:1 in infancy on language development in childhood, controlling for SES. This study demonstrates that engaging in one-on-one interactions in infancy and later in life has important implications for language development.

The Impact of Early Social Interactions on Later Language Development in Spanish-English Bilingual Infants.

This study tested the impact of child-directed language input on language development in Spanish-English bilingual infants (N = 25, 11- and 14-month-olds from the Seattle metropolitan area), across languages and independently for each language, controlling for socioeconomic status. Language input was characterized by social interaction variables, defined in terms of speech style ("parentese" vs. standard speech) and social context (one-on-one vs. group). Correlations between parentese one-on-one and productive vocabulary at 24 months (n = 18) were found across languages and in each language independently. Differences are highlighted between previously published monolingual samples, which used the same methods as the current study of bilingual infants. The results also suggest cultural effects on language input and language development in bilingual and bicultural infants.

Relationships between quantity of language input and brain responses in bilingual and monolingual infants.

The present investigation explored the relation between the amount of language input and neural responses in English monolingual (N=18) and Spanish-English bilingual (N=19) infants. We examined the mismatch negativity (MMN); both the positive mismatch response (pMMR) and the negative mismatch response (nMMR), and identify a relationship between amount of language input and brain measures of speech discrimination for native and non-native speech sounds (i.e., Spanish, English and Chinese). Brain responses differed as a function of language input for native speech sounds in both monolinguals and bilinguals. Monolingual infants with high language input showed nMMRs to their native English contrast. Bilingual infants with high language input in Spanish and English showed pMMRs to both their native contrasts. The non-native speech contrast showed different patterns of brain activation for monolinguals and bilinguals regardless of amount of language input. Our results indicate that phonological representations of non-native speech sounds in bilingual infants are dependent on the phonetic similarities between their native languages.

Look who's talking: speech style and social context in language input to infants are linked to concurrent and future speech development.

Language input is necessary for language learning, yet little is known about whether, in natural environments, the speech style and social context of language input to children impacts language development. In the present study we investigated the relationship between language input and language development, examining both the style of parental speech, comparing 'parentese' speech to standard speech, and the social context in which speech is directed to children, comparing one-on-one (1:1) to group social interactions. Importantly, the language input variables were assessed at home using digital first-person perspective recordings of the infants' auditory environment as they went about their daily lives (N =26, 11- and 14-months-old). We measured language development using (a) concurrent speech utterances, and (b) word production at 24 months. Parentese speech in 1:1 contexts is positively correlated with both concurrent speech and later word production. Mediation analyses further show that the effect of parentese speech-1:1 on infants' later language is mediated by concurrent speech. Our results suggest that both the social context and the style of speech in language addressed to children are strongly linked to a child's future language development.

Event-related potentials to an english/spanish syllabic contrast in mexican 10-13-month-old infants.

We report brain electrophysiological responses from 10- to 13-month-old Mexican infants while listening to native and foreign CV-syllable contrasts differing in Voice Onset Time (VOT). All infants showed normal auditory event-related potential (ERP) components. Our analyses showed ERP evidence that Mexican infants are capable of discriminating their native sounds as well as the acoustically salient (aspiration) foreign contrast. The study showed that experience with native language influences VOT perception in Spanish learning infants. The acoustic salience of aspiration is perceived by both Spanish and English learning infants, but exposure provides additional phonetic status to this native-language feature for English learning infants. The effects of early experience and neural commitment as well as the impact of acoustic salience are further discussed.

Relationships between otoacoustic emissions and a proxy measure of cochlear length derived from the auditory brainstem response.

Brief tones of 1.0 and 8.0 kHz were used to evoke auditory brainstem responses (ABRs), and the differences between the wave-V latencies for those two frequencies were used as a proxy for cochlear length. The tone bursts (8 ms in duration including 2-ms rise/fall times, and 82 dB in level) were, or were not, accompanied by a continuous, moderately intense noise band, highpass filtered immediately above the tone. The proxy values for length were compared with various measures of otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) obtained from the same ears. All the correlations were low, suggesting that cochlear length, as measured by this proxy at least, is not strongly related to the various group and individual differences that exist in OAEs. Female latencies did not differ across the menstrual cycle, and the proxy length measure exhibited no sex difference (either for menses females vs. males or midluteal females vs. males) when the highpass noises were used. However, when the subjects were partitioned into Whites and Non-Whites, a substantial sex difference in cochlear length did emerge for the White group, although the correlations with OAEs remained low. Head size was not highly correlated with any of the ABR measures.

Assessing the double phonemic representation in bilingual speakers of Spanish and English: an electrophysiological study.

Event Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded from Spanish-English bilinguals (N=10) to test pre-attentive speech discrimination in two language contexts. ERPs were recorded while participants silently read magazines in English or Spanish. Two speech contrast conditions were recorded in each language context. In the phonemic in English condition, the speech sounds represented two different phonemic categories in English, but represented the same phonemic category in Spanish. In the phonemic in Spanish condition, the speech sounds represented two different phonemic categories in Spanish, but represented the same phonemic categories in English. Results showed pre-attentive discrimination when the acoustics/phonetics of the speech sounds match the language context (e.g., phonemic in English condition during the English language context). The results suggest that language contexts can affect pre-attentive auditory change detection. Specifically, bilinguals' mental processing of stop consonants relies on contextual linguistic information.

Differences by sex, ear, and sexual orientation in the time intervals between successive peaks in auditory evoked potentials.

Auditory evoked potential (AEP) data from two studies originally designed for other purposes were reanalyzed. The auditory brainstem response (ABR), middle-latency response (MLR), and long-latency response (LLR) were measured. The latencies to each of several peaks were measured for each subject for each ear of click presentation, and the time intervals between successive peaks were calculated. Of interest were differences in interpeak intervals between the sexes, between people of differing sexual orientations, and between the two ears of stimulation. Most of the differences obtained were small. The largest sex differences were for interval I → V in the ABR and interval N1 → N2 of the LLR (effect sizes > 0.6). The largest differences between heterosexuals and nonheterosexuals were for the latency to Wave I in both sexes, for the interval Na → Nb in females, and for intervals V → Na and Nb → N1 in males (effect sizes > 0.3). The largest difference for ear stimulated was for interval N1 → N2 in heterosexual females (effect size ∼0.5). No substantial differences were found in the AEP intervals between women using, and not using, oral contraceptives. Left/right correlations for the interpeak intervals were mostly between about 0.4 and 0.6. Correlations between the ipsilateral intervals were small; i.e., interval length early in the AEP series was not highly predictive of interval length later in the series. Interpeak intervals appear generally less informative than raw latencies about differences by sex and by sexual orientation.