Relative Contribution of Auditory and Visual Information to Mandarin Chinese Tone Identification by Native and Tone-naïve Listeners.

Speech perception is a multisensory process: what we hear can be affected by what we see. For instance, the McGurk effect occurs when auditory speech is presented in synchrony with discrepant visual information. A large number of studies have targeted the McGurk effect at the segmental level of speech (mainly consonant perception), which tends to be visually salient (lip-reading based), while the present study aims to extend the existing body of literature to the suprasegmental level, that is, investigating a McGurk effect for the identification of tones in Mandarin Chinese. Previous studies have shown that visual information does play a role in Chinese tone perception, and that the different tones correlate with variable movements of the head and neck. We constructed various tone combinations of congruent and incongruent auditory-visual materials (10 syllables with 16 tone combinations each) and presented them to native speakers of Mandarin Chinese and speakers of tone-naïve languages. In line with our previous work, we found that tone identification varies with individual tones, with tone 3 (the low-dipping tone) being the easiest one to identify, whereas tone 4 (the high-falling tone) was the most difficult one. We found that both groups of participants mainly relied on auditory input (instead of visual input), and that the auditory reliance for Chinese subjects was even stronger. The results did not show evidence for auditory-visual integration among native participants, while visual information is helpful for tone-naïve participants. However, even for this group, visual information only marginally increases the accuracy in the tone identification task, and this increase depends on the tone in question.

H∞ sliding mode control of discrete switched systems with time-varying delays.

The finite-time boundedness issue for a class of discrete switched systems with time-varying delays is investigated via sliding mode control (SMC) approach. By employing the Lyapunov functional and average dwell time method, new sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee the finite-time boundedness of the dynamic system in the novel sliding surface. By solving an optimization problem, the sliding mode controller is synthesized such that the discrete reaching condition is satisfied and the chattering is reduced. A simulation example tests the feasibility of the provided SMC scheme.

Effects of Modality and Speaking Style on Mandarin Tone Identification by Non-Native Listeners.

Although the way tones are acquired by second or foreign language learners has attracted some scholarly attention, detailed knowledge of the factors that promote efficient learning is lacking. In this article, we look at the effect of visual cues (comparing audio-only with audio-visual presentations) and speaking style (comparing a natural speaking style with a teaching speaking style) on the perception of Mandarin tones by non-native listeners, looking both at the relative strength of these two factors and their possible interactions. Both the accuracy and reaction time of the listeners were measured in a task of tone identification. Results showed that participants in the audio-visual condition distinguished tones more accurately than participants in the audio-only condition. Interestingly, this varied as a function of speaking style, but only for stimuli from specific speakers. Additionally, some tones (notably tone 3) were recognized more quickly and accurately than others.

Robust observer-based H∞ control for uncertain discrete singular systems with time-varying delays via sliding mode approach.

In this paper, the issue of robust observer-based H∞ control for uncertain discrete singular systems with time-varying delays is investigated via sliding mode control (SMC). A sliding mode strategy is presented combined with the observer technique, since the system states are unmeasured. The distinguishing feature of the provided strategy is that a novel sliding surface is constructed based upon the estimated states such that the resulting full-order closed-loop system is generated. Furthermore, by employing Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, new sufficient criteria in terms of a solvable linear matrix inequality (LMI) is derived, insuring that the closed-loop system is admissible with an H∞-norm bound. With the solution of the LMI, a corresponding sliding mode controller is obtained for reaching motion and reducing the chattering. At last, the theoretical results are verified in numerical tests.