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Biomedical subjects

P Bertelson

Publications and source records attributed to P Bertelson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Finger movements in braille reading: the effect of local ambiguity.

The hand movements of blind readers were recorded while they read sentences containing temporary local ambiguities, designed to induce garden path effects upon disambiguation. A syntactically ambiguous beginning ("The spy saw the cop with ... ") was compatible with attachment of the following prepositional phrase (PP) either to the verb ("saw") or the noun ("cop"), but the content of the PP was inconsistent with verb phrase attachment in NPA sentences ("with a revolver"), not in VPA sentences ("with binoculars"). Mean total scanning time per character increased in the PP region of NPA sentences, not of VPA sentences. The effect, however, depended on both the content of the PP and its predictability, and was significant by items only when both factors favoured VPA. The slowing down over the PP was entirely due to increased incidence of regressions to that region, and first-pass scanning speed was unaffected by sentence type. In studies with visual reading, disambiguation has been found to have a large effect on first-pass scanning. The results confirm previous suggestions that regressions are the main repair device available to the braille reader to cope with local increases in processing load.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

The time course of Braille word recognition.

Skilled blind readers read French nouns with the uniqueness point in different locations, presented in unabbreviated braille, and either pronounced each item (Experiment 1) or classified it as to gender (Experiments 1-3). As in previous studies with spoken words, effects of uniqueness point location on recognition reaction time were taken as demonstrating on-line lexical access. For braille words, significant effects were obtained in Experiment 1 in the two tasks. In Experiment 2, blind Ss demonstrated comparable relative uniqueness point effects for gender classification of braille and of spoken words, showing that on-line lexical access is not specific to speech. Experiment 3 showed that the effect of uniqueness point location is limited to the higher frequency words. Finally, mean finger scanning speed did not differ between the pre- and post-uniqueness point regions of the words.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

The effect of the uniqueness point in spoken-word recognition.

The study examines the possibility of observing on-line recognition of spoken words through manipulations of the location of the uniqueness point (UP) in a gender-classification task. The subjects were presented with spoken French nouns and had to indicate by a key-press response whether each was feminine or masculine. RTs measured from word onset were significantly correlated with UP location, a finding that supports the notion of online processing. The effect of UP location is, however, smaller than that predicted by the original cohort theory (that recognition occurs exactly at the UP). On the other hand, it is stronger when words with respectively early and late UPs are presented in homogeneous blocks rather than in mixed order. It is proposed that the results can be accounted for by the notion of a sub-optimal lexical strategy in which some monitoring of the phonetic data continues past the UP.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Simultaneous reading of braille with the two hands: reply to Millar (1987).

Millar (1987) argues that when braille readers scan a passage of text with the two hands side by side, the reading fingers actually alternate contacts with the letters. Reanalysis of her data shows that they provide little support for that claim. On the other hand, unlike a majority of the subjects studied by Bertelson et al. (1985), Millar's subjects do apparently not engage in simultaneous exploration of the end of one line and the beginning of the next one by different fingers. The suggestion offered by Millar that our findings result from an inadequate analysis of the data is rejected. The difference between the two sets of data should for the time being be considered as reflecting genuine differences between the populations that were sampled in the two studies.

Blindness↗
PubMed1987

Spatial constraints on attention to speech in the blind.

When sighted persons try to identify one of two speech utterances coming from different directions, they display both a frontal position advantage, i.e., better recognition of inputs from the front than of those from the rear, and a right-side advantage, better recognition of inputs from the right than of those from the left. The present study demonstrates a dissociation of the two effects in blind subjects (N = 10) who showed no frontal position advantage together with a right-side advantage superior to that of control sighted subjects (N = 16). There was no systematic difference between congenitally blind subjects and noncongenitals. The absence of frontal position advantage in the blind is consistent with the notion that this effect originates in the habit of sighted listeners to orient toward the source of heard speech. The occurrence of at least normal right-side advantage in the blind does not support recent suggestions of reduced lateralization of language functions in such subjects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Shifting ear differences in melody recognition through strategy inducement.

In a previous study, the pattern of ear superiority displayed by nonmusicians in a task where dichotically presented target melodies have to be recognized among four probes was found to be correlated with subjects' descriptions of their operating modes: those who reported focusing on critical local differences in pitch tended to show right ear advantage (REA) and the others LEA. The purpose of the present study was to examine if laterality patterns can be affected by treatments designed to induce particular strategies. Treatments supposed to orient toward analytic processing, advising attention to critical notes, with (Experiment 2) or without (Experiment 1) the additional task of reporting their location, produced the expected shift toward REA. To the contrary, treatments supposed to orient toward holistic processing, advising attention to overall contour or requesting aesthetic judgments (Experiment 1), failed to produce the expected shift toward LEA. The result can be attributed either to a basic difference in susceptibility to strategic control between the different operating modes or, more simply, to ineffectiveness of the present holistically oriented treatments.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Spatial effects in speech perception in the absence of spatial competition.

Two synthetic speech syllables, differing in pitch, were presented over one loudspeaker situated at one of the following azimuths: 0 degrees (in from of the subject); 45 degrees, 90 degrees, and 135 degrees to the left or to the right; and 180 degrees. The subject's task was to report the high-pitch syllable. The pattern of performance can be described in terms of two component effects: a decreasing anterior-posterior gradient, and right-side advantage. Competition between messages from one direction only appears to be as effective in determining auditory spatial effects as competition between spatially distinct sources.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Spatial constraints on focused attention: beyond the right-side advantage.

The subjects listened to one of two simulataneous synthetic speech syllables delivered independently over two loudspeakers. When the loudspeakers were situated at 90 degrees to the left and to the right, right-side advantage was found. When one loudspeaker was situated in front of the subject in the median plane, and the other at one of several azimuthal positions around him an advantage of the frontal position was observed in all cases. On the other hand, performance on the nonfrontal message was affected significantly by its position. The pattern of performance which is presumably to cerebral dominance, an advantage of sources situated in front of the subject over those at his back, and possibly an advantage of sources near the median plane over more remote ones.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Spatial position versus ear of entry as determinant of the auditory laterality effects: a stereophonic test.

The study concerned discriminating between ear of entry and apparent spatial position as possible determinants of lateral asymmetries in the recall of simultaneous speech messages. Apparent localization to the left or right of the median plane was created either through a time difference (.7 msec), through intensity differences between presentations of the same verbal message at the two ears, or through dichotic presentations. Right-side advantage was observed with the three types of presentation (Experiments 1, 2, and 3). The finding of right-side advantage with stereophony based on a time difference only, in the absence of intensity difference, cannot be accounted for in terms of an ear advantage and shows that apparent spatial separation of the sources can by itself produce a laterality effect. Differences in the degree of lateral asymmetry between the various conditions were also observed. The findings of Experiments 4 and 5 suggest that these differences are better explained in terms of different impressions of localization of the sound sources than in terms of relative intensity at the "privileged" ear.

Adolescent↗