3 rd Iberian Conference on Perception CIP

3 rd Iberian Conference on Perception – CIP Guimaraes 2009 8 -10 July 2009 - Guimaraes, Portugal Asymmetry in Auditory Priming: Evidence from the Perception of Words, Sounds, and Talkers Julio González Álvarez Conor T. Mc. Lennan

Stimulus X HOUSE

? Stimulus X’ Stimulus X house HOUSE

? Is Priming attenuated ? No Yes Specificity

Visual Domain No Yes Specificity

Visual Domain Abstract. Category Subsystem less sensitive to surface changes Specific. Exemplar Subsystem more sensitive to surface changes Marsolek (1999, 2003, 2004); … Marsolek & Burgund (2008)

one abstract category piano different specific categories Marsolek (1999, 2003, 2004)

Long-term Repetition Priming 1 st block (primes) Distracter task 2 nd block (targets) + +

Long-term Repetition Priming Same exemplar 1 st block (primes) Distracter task 2 nd block (targets) + +

Long-term Repetition Priming Different exemplar 1 st block (primes) Distracter task 2 nd block (targets) + +

Long-term Repetition Priming Control (Unprimed) 1 st block (primes) Distracter task 2 nd block (targets) + +

Marsolek, (1999). Psychological Science.

NS The RH was more sensitive than the LH to a change of exemplar. Marsolek, (1999). Psychological Science.

depth-orientation view (Burgund & Marsolek, 2000)

Objects Burgund & Marsolek, (2000). Marsolek, (1999). Marsolek & Burgund, (2003). Words Marsolek, (2004). Marsolek et al. , (1992). Marsolek, Schacter, & Nicholas, (1996). Marsolek, Squire, Kosslyn, & Lulenski, (1994). Pseudowords Letterlike forms Unfamiliar 3 D forms Burgund & Marsolek, (1997). Marsolek, (1995). Marsolek & Burgund (2008).

Neuropsychology Electrophysiology f. MRI Beeri, Vakil, Adonsky, & Levenkron (2004); Farah (1991). Pickering & Schweinberger (2003) Koutstaal et al. , (2001), Vuilleumier et al. , (2002)

Only in Visual Domain ?

In a continuously changing environment, it is important to categorize the objects and events in one's surroundings in both abstract and specific terms, and this requirement is not exclusive to any one sensory modality

Neuroimaging studies of Auditory and Visual Priming show activity changes (reduction) in cortical areas involved in multimodal functions Buckner, et al. , (2000). Carlesimo et al. (2004) a review in Schacter et al. (2004).

Auditory Domain ?

1. Spoken Words González, J. & Mc. Lennan, C. T. (2007). Hemispheric Differences in Indexical Specificity Effects in Spoken Word Recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 33, 410 -424.

Long-term Repetition Priming Experimental Design Block 1 Block 2 Same voice dedo Different voice dedo Control pino dedo

Binaural Block 2 Distrater task Block 1 Monaural foca

Hypothesis (Asymmetric pattern): LE- Left Ear (RH- Right Hemisphere) : Specificity (Same voice > Different Voice) RE- Right Ear (LH-Left Hemisphere) : No Specificity (Same voice = Different Voice)

Lexical Decision (LH) (RH) Not sensitive Sensitive to the voice change (specificity)

Stem Completion (LH): Not sensitive (RH): Sensitive to the voice change (specificity)

Only for linguistic stimuli? 2. Environmental Sounds González, J. & Mc. Lennan, C. T. (2009). Hemispheric Differences in the Recognition of Environmental Sounds. Psychological Science, in press.

2. Environmental Sounds everyday nonverbal acoustic events: animals, people, musical instruments, tools, and other objects

Experimental Design Block 1 Same exemplar Different exemplar Control Block 2

Block 1 Identification task Pleasantness-rating task Block 2 Task: to identify the target from an initial 750 ms sound stem

RE (LH): Not sensitive * NS LE (RH): Sensitive to a change of exemplar

** NS . 08 NS Different Tasks in Block 1 Noise – No Noise in the opposite ear (Block 2)

3. Talker Identity González, J. , Cervera, T. , & Mc. Lennan, C. T. : Work in progress.

Stimuli 8 Talkers unknown for the participants: 4 males + 4 females read two sentences: (A) “Procura mantener el aire limpio” (B)“¿Vienes mañana al estreno de la película?

Procedure similar to the procedure followed by Perrachione & Wong, (2007 a, b) 1. Familiarization phase Distracter task 2. Test phase (Talker identification)

Familiarization phase: Perrachione & Wong, (2007 a, b) Participants practiced identifying the talkers throughout a set of quiz sessions with feedback : 1 - Only male talkers 2 - Only female talkers 3 - Males and females

Test phase: Pulsa un Número

Experimental Design Binaural Monaural (Noise in the opposite ear) Familiarization Same sentence Different sentence Test (A) (A) (B)

Experimental Design Binaural Monaural (Noise in the opposite ear) Familiarization Same sentence Different sentence Test (B) (B) (A)

Experimental Design within-participant 2 x 2 (same, different sentence) x (left, right ear)

Participants Ø 32 participants right-handed (Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, Oldfield, 1971)

Results NS ** LE (RH): Sensitive to a change of sentence RE (LH): Not sensitive

Experiment II Same conditions Except: NO NOISE in the opposite ear (Test)

Participants ØNew 32 participants right-handed (Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, Oldfield, 1971)

Results LE (RH): Sensitive to a change of sentence * NS RE (LH): Not sensitive

Asymmetry in Priming: A general property?

Neurocomputational simulations: Dual Model Less densely distributed (more “tunned”) More densely distributed simple features complex patterns few many common to many exemplars not common across exemplars Marsolek (2003)

Jung-Beeman (2005) Hustler (2002)

Further research: Aymmetric priming • Other Auditory subdomains (abstract sounds, tones, noises, etc) • Other Modalities (touch, …) Specificity in tactile recognition is greater when objects are handled with the left hand (RH) than when they are handled with the right hand (LH) ?

Thanks for your attention

The widespread existence of specificity effects in several domains could imply that specificity has an adaptive value and might be associated with some type of cognitiveresource conservation Schacter, Dobbins, & Schnyer (2004). Nature Reviews. Neuroscience.