Parallels in Processing Boundary Cues in Speech and Action

Abstract

Speech and action sequences are continuous streams of information that can be segmented into sub-units. In both domains, this segmentation can be facilitated by perceptual cues contained within the information stream. In speech, prosodic cues (e.g., a pause, pre-boundary lengthening, and pitch rise) mark boundaries between words and phrases, while boundaries between actions of an action sequence can be marked by kinematic cues (e.g., a pause, pre-boundary deceleration). The processing of prosodic boundary cues evokes an Event-related Potentials (ERP) component known as the Closure Positive Shift (CPS), and it is possible that the CPS reflects domain-general cognitive processes involved in segmentation, given that the CPS is also evoked by boundaries between subunits of non-speech auditory stimuli. This study further probed the domain-generality of the CPS and its underlying processes by investigating electrophysiological correlates of the processing of boundary cues in sequences of spoken verbs (auditory stimuli; Experiment 1; N = 23 adults) and actions (visual stimuli; Experiment 2; N = 23 adults). The EEG data from both experiments revealed a CPS-like broadly distributed positivity during the 250 ms prior to the onset of the post-boundary word or action, indicating similar electrophysiological correlates of boundary processing across domains, suggesting that the cognitive processes underlying speech and action segmentation might also be shared.

The role of social signals in segmenting observed actions in 18‐month‐old children

“…Additionally, by looking at the information provided by caregivers in action teaching contexts, we find many similarities with the segmentation and processing of linguistic information (see Christiansen & Chater, 2016;Hilton et al, 2019). Processing of action steps may be incremental and lower levels of representation may be chunked together to form larger representations of actions and their meanings.…”

Prosodic boundary incongruences in oral reading

“…Besides, these levels are not abstract or arbitrary, as they have tangible neurophysiological signatures in the brain (33). The most studied of those signatures is a centroparietal electroencephalographic positive wave that has been traced to domain-general cognitive phrasing, or segmenting, of any flow of sequential units that must be dealt with by the human brain (34).…”