Séminaire n°22

Typicality of environmental sounds: linking linguistic and psychological data

Intervenante :  Maria Niessen, Postdoctoral Researcher, INCAS3, Assen, The Netherlands

Contact : MariaNiessen (at) incas3.eu                 

Date : 20/06/11

Résumé: 
Physical measurements recorded by artificial sensors can be contrasted to cognitive categories constructed by humans from their different senses. This comparison can help to enhance the functionality of artificial sensors in tuning them according to the relevant properties along which humans give meaning to their environment. Through the two experiments presented in this talk, we aim to describe the structure of cognitive categories constructed from listening to isolated environmental sounds. In the first experiment we presented participants several exemplars of what is considered to be a basic category, and asked them to recognize, name, and rate the sounds. Through an analysis of both behavioral and linguistic responses we can infer the typicality of the different exemplars of the environmental sounds. Furthermore, we investigate which attributes, either semantic or physical, contribute to the similarity of the sounds, taking into account the typicality of the exemplars that are used.