The bouba/kiki effect—the association of the nonce word bouba with a round shape and kiki with a spiky shape—is a type of correspondence between speech sounds and visual properties with potentially deep implications for the evolution of spoken language. However, there is debate over the robustness of the effect across cultures and the influence of orthography. We report an online experiment that tested the bouba/kiki effect across speakers of 25 languages representing nine language families and 10 writing systems. Overall, we found strong evidence for the effect across languages, with bouba eliciting more congruent responses than kiki . Participants who spoke languages with Roman scripts were only marginally more likely to show the effect, and analysis of the orthographic shape of the words in different scripts showed that the effect was no stronger for scripts that use rounder forms for bouba and spikier forms for kiki . These results confirm that the bouba/kiki phenomenon is rooted in crossmodal correspondence between aspects of the voice and visual shape, largely independent of orthography. They provide the strongest demonstration to date that the bouba/kiki effect is robust across cultures and writing systems. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.
Linguistic communication requires speakers to mutually agree on the meanings of words, but how does such a system first get off the ground? One solution is to rely on iconic gestures: visual signs whose form directly resembles or otherwise cues their meaning without any previously established correspondence. However, it is debated whether vocalizations could have played a similar role. We report the first extensive cross-cultural study investigating whether people from diverse linguistic backgrounds can understand novel vocalizations for a range of meanings. In two comprehension experiments, we tested whether vocalizations produced by English speakers could be understood by listeners from 28 languages from 12 language families. Listeners from each language were more accurate than chance at guessing the intended referent of the vocalizations for each of the meanings tested. Our findings challenge the often-cited idea that vocalizations have limited potential for iconic representation, demonstrating that in the absence of words people can use vocalizations to communicate a variety of meanings.
Cel pracyTerapia elektrowstrząsowa (EW, ang. electroconvulsive therapy) jest jedną z najbardziej stygmatyzowanych i kontrowersyjnych form leczenia stosowanych w psychiatrii. Pomimo faktu, że z biegiem lat liczba wskazań do jej wykonywania spadła, wciąż cechuje ją dobry efekt terapeutyczny. Ponadto jej skuteczność w wielu jednostkach chorobowych przewyższa skuteczność leczenia farmakologicznego. Ponadto EW jest leczeniem bezpiecznym z kilkoma efektami ubocznymi, z których najważniejszym jest przejściowa utrata pamięci. Celem badania było sprawdzenie poziomu wiedzy ogólnej oraz stosunku polskich studentów, w tym również studentów kierunków medycznych, do terapii elektrowstrząsowej. Oprócz tego zbadano wpływ popkultury na opinię społeczną na temat EW.MetodaW tym celu zankietowano 1370 studentów za pomocą kwestionariusza autorskiego, złożonego z pytań o dane demograficzne, pytań szczegółowych dotyczących EW, jak również pytań o wpływ popkultury na odbiór społeczny tej procedury medycznej. Respondenci zostali przyporządkowani do czterech podgrup, w zależności od kierunków studiów: kierunki humanistyczne, techniczne, kierunek lekarski oraz inne kierunki nauk o zdrowiu.WynikiUzyskane dane wskazują że wiedza na temat elektrowstrząsów wśród polskich studentów stoi na bardzo niskim poziomie. W wielu przypadkach terapia ta jest uważana za bolesną, nieskuteczną, a nawet nielegalną.WnioskiDuży wpływ na takie postrzeganie tej terapii ma popkultura, a zwłaszcza przemysł filmowy, który kreuje negatywne opinie na temat opisywanej procedury. Ponadto wielu respondentów deklaruje, że głównym źródłem ich wiedzy jest telewizja lub Internet, gdzie informacje są często nierzetelne.
The current study addresses the question of how word-level ("stress") and phrase-or sentence-level prominence ("accent") is realized in Polish. For this purpose, a production experiment eliciting semi-spontaneous utterances was conducted, closely following the methodological approach introduced in [1]. Our acoustic analyses are based on identical target syllables which are embedded in sentences under conditions that allow to disentangle word-level and phrase-level prominence. The acoustic realizations of these target syllables are then subject to linear mixed-effect models fitted for various acoustic parameters: duration, fundamental frequency maximum, intensity, and spectral balance. The models indicate that prominence marking in Polish is realized acoustically in a stable fashion on phrase-level only. Word stress marking occurs only in cases where a lexically stressed syllable simultaneously realizes a phrase-level accent.
This study constructs machine learning algorithms that are trained to classify samples using sound symbolism, and then it reports on an experiment designed to measure their understanding against human participants. Random forests are trained using the names of Pokémon, which are fictional video game characters, and their evolutionary status. Pokémon undergo evolution when certain in-game conditions are met. Evolution changes the appearance, abilities, and names of Pokémon. In the first experiment, we train three random forests using the sounds that make up the names of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean Pokémon to classify Pokémon into pre-evolution and post-evolution categories. We then train a fourth random forest using the results of an elicitation experiment whereby Japanese participants named previously unseen Pokémon. In Experiment 2, we reproduce those random forests with name length as a feature and compare the performance of the random forests against humans in a classification experiment whereby Japanese participants classified the names elicited in Experiment 1 into pre-and post-evolution categories. Experiment 2 reveals an issue pertaining to overfitting in Experiment 1 which we resolve using a novel cross-validation method. The results show that the random forests are efficient learners of systematic sound-meaning correspondence patterns and can classify samples with greater accuracy than the human participants.
IntroductionThis paper presents a cross-linguistic study of sound symbolism, analysing a six-language corpus of all Pokémon names available as of January 2022. It tests the effects of labial consonants and voiced plosives on a Pokémon attribute known as friendship. Friendship is a mechanic in the core series of Pokémon video games that arguably reflects how friendly each Pokémon is.MethodPoisson regression is used to examine the relationship between the friendship mechanic and the number of times /p/, /b/, /d/, /m/, /g/, and /w/ occur in the names of English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, German, and French Pokémon.ResultsBilabial plosives, /p/ and /b/, typically represent high friendship values in Pokémon names while /m/, /d/, and /g/ typically represent low friendship values. No association is found for /w/ in any language.DiscussionMany of the previously known cases of cross-linguistic sound symbolic patterns can be explained by the relationship between how sounds in words are articulated and the physical qualities of the referents. This study, however, builds upon the underexplored relationship between sound symbolism and abstract qualities.
Preterm birth is a leading cause of neonatal morbidity. Survivors have a greater risk for kidney dysfunction and hypertension. Little is known about the molecular changes that occur in the kidney of individuals born preterm. Here, we demonstrate that mice delivered two days prior to full term gestation undergo premature cessation of nephrogenesis, resulting in a lower glomerular density. Kidneys from preterm and term groups exhibited differences in gene expression profiles at 20- and 27-days post-conception, including significant differences in expression of fat-soluble vitamin-related genes. Kidneys of the preterm mice exhibited decreased proportions of endothelial cells and a lower expression of genes promoting angiogenesis compared to the term group. Kidneys from the preterm mice also had altered nephron progenitor subpopulations, early Six2 depletion, and altered Jag1 expression in the nephrogenic zone, consistent with premature differentiation of nephron progenitor cells. In conclusion, preterm birth alone was sufficient to shorten the duration of nephrogenesis and cause premature differentiation of nephron progenitor cells. These candidate genes and pathways may provide targets to improve kidney health in preterm infants.
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