Subject: [AUDITORY] Funded PhD studentship available at Birkbeck, University of London From: Adam Taylor Tierney <adamtierney@xxxxxxxx> Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 15:58:35 +0000 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>--000000000000a1acb7059c1ba3e0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" This PhD studentship, fully funded by the Bloomsbury Colleges, will examine the effects of language background on perceptual strategies. Languages can differ in the roles played by different acoustic dimensions. For example, in tone languages such as Mandarin, pitch is a vital cue to the meaning of words, but it plays a more secondary role in non-tonal languages such as English. Recent work from our laboratory has shown that Mandarin speakers place more importance on pitch and less importance on duration compared to English speakers when categorizing both linguistic phrase boundaries and musical beats, and that Mandarin speakers have difficulty ignoring pitch and attending to other acoustic dimensions. These findings suggest that learning a first language can change the salience of different perceptual dimensions, colouring the strategies developed as individuals learn new categories. This project will use EEG and behavioural techniques to investigate the relationship between language background, cue weighting during auditory categorization, and dimensional salience, and to test whether Mandarin speakers can be trained to direct their attention away from pitch and towards other, more relevant acoustic dimensions during English speech perception. For further details and to apply see: http://www.bloomsbury.ac.uk/studentships/studentships-2020/perceptual-strategies-underlying-second-language-acquisition --000000000000a1acb7059c1ba3e0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <div dir=3D"ltr"><p class=3D"MsoNormal" style=3D"margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-he= ight:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">This PhD studentsh= ip, fully funded by the Bloomsbury Colleges, will examine the effects of language background on perceptual strategies. Languages can differ in the roles played by different acoustic dimensions. For example, in tone languages such as Mandarin, pitch is a vit= al cue to the meaning of words, but it plays a more secondary role in non-tona= l languages such as English. Recent work from our laboratory has shown that Mandarin speakers place more importance on pitch and less importance on duration compared to English speakers when categorizing both linguistic phr= ase boundaries and musical beats, and that Mandarin speakers have difficulty ignoring pitch and attending to other acoustic dimensions. These findings suggest that learning a first language can change the salience of different perceptual dimensions, colouring the strategies developed as individuals le= arn new categories. </p> <p class=3D"MsoNormal" style=3D"margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-si= ze:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">This project will use EEG and behav= ioural techniques to investigate the relationship between language background, cue weighting dur= ing auditory categorization, and dimensional salience, and to test whether Mandarin spea= kers can be trained to direct their attention away from pitch and towards other, more relevant acoustic dimensions during English speech perception. </p> <p class=3D"MsoNormal" style=3D"margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-si= ze:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">For further details and to apply se= e: </p> <p class=3D"MsoNormal" style=3D"margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-si= ze:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><a href=3D"http://www.bloomsbury.ac= .uk/studentships/studentships-2020/perceptual-strategies-underlying-second-= language-acquisition" style=3D"color:blue">http://www.bloomsbury.ac.uk/stud= entships/studentships-2020/perceptual-strategies-underlying-second-language= -acquisition</a></p></div> --000000000000a1acb7059c1ba3e0--