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Arthur Samuel, Ph.D.


Samuel

Contact:

arthur.samuel@stonybrook.edu
Office: Psychology A-240
Phone: (631) 632-7792

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University of California, San Diego (1979)
Distinguished Professor, Cognitive Science
 
Research Interests:

Spoken word recognition, language comprehension, visual attention, speech perception, encoding of information.

Current Research:

My work is primarily concerned with how humans process incoming information, involving its perception, comprehension, and encoding into memory. Most of the work in my lab focuses on the perception of spoken language: How do humans decode the complex acoustic signal, and recognize spoken words?

These issues can be approached in many ways, at several levels. The work in our lab has used many different methodologies, and looked at the problem from both a "bottom-up" and a "top-down" perspective. We have maintained an ongoing research effort aimed at clarifying the early types of representations used for the speech signal, and have been able to identify at least three qualitatively different levels of representation. The most concentrated effort in our lab in recent years has been on studying the recognition of spoken words. Within this domain, two recurring interests have been (1) what is the organization of the word recognition system -- in particular, are there top-down influences from this lexical level to lower, perhaps phonemic representations?, and (2) What is the role of TIME in perceptual processing -- how do the activation levels of representations at various levels rise and fall over time?

Two other topics have repeatedly appeared in the work from our lab. First, we have consistently tried to determine the generality of the perceptual principles and processes that we study. In most cases, we have found that the same principles and processes operate in nonlinguistic domains (such as music perception) -- speech is just one type of complex acoustic signal that the system can operate on. Second, we have repeatedly found that it is necessary to understand the operation of attention, in order to understand the complete pattern of results in any study. Thus, we have examined the role of attention in the perception of speech. We have also been examining attentional principles, in the visual domain. This effort reflects the general approach taken here: In order to study any complex stimulus domain, it will be important to study many cognitive processes, including attention, perception, and encoding of the information in memory.

Representative Publications: 

Lopez Zunini, R.A., Baart, M., Samuel, A.G.,  & Armstrong, B.C. (2022).  Lexico-semantic access and audiovisual integration in the aging brain: Insights from mixed-effects regression analyses of Event-Related Potentials. Neuropsychologia.

Polyanskaya, L., Manrique, H.M., Samuel, A.G., Marin, A., Garcia-Palacios, A., & Ordin, M. (2022). Inter-modality differences in statistical learning: Phylogenetic and ontogenetic influences. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1511, 191-209.

Kapnoula, E.C., & Samuel, A.G. (2022). Reconciling the contradictory effects of production on word learning: Production may help at first, but it hurts later. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 48(3), 394-415.

Baese-Berk, M.M., & Samuel, A.G. (2022). Just give it time: Differential effects of disruption and delay on perceptual learning. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics,84, 960-980.

Kapnoula, E.C., & Samuel, A.G. (2022). Wait long and prosper! Delaying production alleviates its detrimental effect on word learning. Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, xxx-xxx.

Harris, A.C., & Samuel, A.G. (2021). The Suffixing Preference: A preliminary report on processing  affixes in Georgian. In Moradi, S., M. Haag, J. Rees-Miller & A. Petrovic. All Things Morphology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Ordin, M., Polyanskaya, L., & Samuel, A.G. (2021).  Evolutionary account of intermodality differences in statistical learning.  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1486 (1), 76-89.

Samuel, A.G., & Dumay, N. (2021).  Auditory selective adaptation moment by moment, at multiple timescales. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 47(4), 596-615.

Dorsi, J., Rosenblum, L.D., Samuel, A.G., & Zadoorian, S. (2021). Selective adaptation in speech: Measuring the effects of visual and lexical contexts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, in press.

Guediche, S., de Bruin, A., Caballero-Gaudes, C., Baart, M., & Samuel, A.G. (2021). Second-language word recognition in noise: Interdependent neuromodulatory effects of semantic context and crosslinguistic interactions driven by word form similarity.  NeuroImage, 237, xxx-xxx.

Samuel, A.G. (2020). Psycholinguists should resist the allure of linguistic units as perceptual units. Journal of Memory and Language, 111, xxx-xxx.

Lopez Zunini, R.A., Samuel, A.G., Baart, M., & Armstrong, B.C. (2020).  The temporal dynamics of visual and auditory word recognition: Insights from behavioral and neural measures. Neuropsychologia, 137, xxx-xxx.

Zheng, Y., & Samuel, A.G. (2020). The relationship between phonemic category boundary changes and perceptual adjustments to natural accents.  Journal of Experimental Psychology:  Learning,Memory, and Cognition, 46, 1270-1292.

Charoy, J., & Samuel, A.G. (2020).  The effect of orthography on the recognition of pronunciation variants.  Journal of Experimental Psychology:  Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 46, 1121–1145.

Larraza, S., Molnar, M., & Samuel, A.G. (2020). Phonemic contrasts under construction? Evidence from Basque.  Infancy, 25, 304-318.

de Bruin, A, Samuel, A.G., & Duñabeitia, J.A. (2020). Examining bilingual language switching across the lifespan in cued and voluntary switching contexts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 46, 759-788.

Guediche, S., Baart, M., & Samuel, A.G. (2020). Semantic priming effects can be modulated by crosslinguistic interactions during second-language auditory word recognition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23(5), 1082-1092.

Zheng, Y., & Samuel, A.G. (2019). How much do visual cues help listeners in perceiving accented speech? Applied Psycholinguistics, 40, 93-109.

Ordin, M. , Polyanskaya, L., Gomez, D.M., & Samuel, A.G. (2019).  The role of native language and fundamental design of the auditory system in detecting rhythm changes.  Journal of Speech, Hearing, and Language Research, 62(4), 835-852.

Choi, W., Tong, S.X., & Samuel, A.G. (2019).  Better than native: Tone language experience enhances English lexical stress discrimination in Cantonese-English bilingual listeners. Cognition, 189. 188-192. 

Kapnoula, E.C.., & Samuel, A.G. (2019). Voices in the mental lexicon: Words carry indexical information that can affect access to their meaning. Journal of Memory and Language, 107, 111-127.

Polyanskaya, L., Samuel, A.G., & Ordin, M. (2019).  Regularity in speech rhythm as a social coalition signal. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1453, 153-165.

Polyanskaya, L., Samuel, A.G., & Ordin, M. (2019).  Speech rhythm convergence as a social coalition signal. Evolutionary Psychology, 17 (3), 1-11.

Zhang, X., & Samuel, A.G. (2018). Is speech recognition automatic? Lexical competition, but not initial lexical access, requires cognitive resources. Journal of Memory and Language, 100, 32-50.

Zheng, Y., & Samuel, A.G. (2018). The effects of ethnicity, musicianship, and tone language experience on pitch perception. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71, 2627-2642.

Samuel, A.G., & Tangella, K. (2018).  Sound changes that lead to seeing longer-lasting shapes. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 80, 986-998.
 
de Bruin, A, Samuel, A.G., & Duñabeitia, J.A. (2018). Voluntary language switching: When and why do bilinguals switch between their languages? Journal of Memory and Language, 103, 28-43.

Martin, A.E, Monahan, P.J, & Samuel, A.G. (2017). Prediction of agreement and phonetic overlap
shape sublexical identification. Language and Speech, 60, 356-376.

Larraza, S., Samuel, A.G., & Oñederra, M.L.  (2017). Where do dialectal effects on speech processing
come from? Evidence from a cross-dialect investigation. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, 92-108.

Zheng, Y., & Samuel, A.G. (2017). Does seeing an Asian face make speech sound more accented?
Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 79, 1841-1859.

Samuel, A.G. (2016). Commentary on “Sentential Influences on Acoustic-Phonetic Processing: A Granger
Causality Analysis of Multimodal Imaging Data”.  Language and Cognitive Neuroscience, 31, 864-868.

Baese-Berk, M., & Samuel, A.G. (2016). Listeners beware: Speech production may be bad for learning speech sounds. Journal of Memory and Language, 89, 23-36.

Ishida, M., Samuel, A.G., & Arai, T. (2016).  Some people are “more lexical” than others. Cognition, 151, 68-75.

Samuel, A.G. (2016).  Lexical representations are malleable for about one second: Evidence for the
non-automaticity of perceptual recalibration.  Cognitive Psychology, 88, 88-114.

Larraza, S., Samuel, A.G., & Oñederra, M.L.  (2016). Listening to accented speech in a second language:
First language and age of acquisition effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology:  Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42, 1774-1797.

Baart, M., & Samuel, A.G. (2015).  Early processing of auditory lexical predictions revealed by ERPs.  Neuroscience Letters, 585, 98-102.

Zhang, X., & Samuel, A.G. (2015). The activation of embedded words in spoken word recognition.  Journal of Memory and Language, 79-80, 53-75.

Samuel, A.G., & Larraza, S. (2015). Does listening to non-native speech impair native speech perception? Journal of Memory and Language, 81, 51-71.

Baart, M., & Samuel, A.G. (2015).  Turning a blind eye to the lexicon: Electrophysiological evidence for independent processing of lip-read and lexical context during speech sound processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 85, 42-59.

Gwilliams, L., Monahan, P., Samuel, A.G. (2015). Sensitivity to the morphological composition in spoken word recognition: Evidence from grammatical and lexical identification tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology:  Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41, 1663-1674.

Samuel, A.G., & Frost, R. (2015). Lexical support for phonetic perception during non-native spoken word recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 22, 1746-1752.

Samuel, A.G., & Lieblich, J. (2014). Visual speech acts differently than lexical context in supporting speech perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and  Performance, 40, 1479-1490.

Hu, K.H., Zhan, J., Li, B., He, S., & Samuel, A.G. (2014). Multiple cueing dissociates location- and feature-based repetition effects. Vision Research, 101, 73-81.

Urizar, X., & Samuel, A.G. (2014).  A corpus-based study of fillers among native Basque speakers and the role of Zera. Language and Speech, 57, 338-366.

Mattys, S.L., Barden, K., & Samuel, A.G. (2014). Extrinsic cognitive load impairs low-level speech Perception. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 21(3), 748-754.

Zhang, X., & Samuel, A.G. (2014). Perceptual learning of speech under optimal and adverse conditions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 40, 200-217.

Pufahl, A., & Samuel, A.G. (2014). How lexical is the lexicon? Evidence for integrated auditory memory representations.  Cognitive Psychology, 70, 1-30.

Hu, F.K., Fan, Z., Samuel, A.G., & He, S-C. (2013).  Effects of display size on location and feature inhibition.  Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 75, 1619-1632.

Samuel, A.G. (2013).  Speech perception.  In H. Pashler (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Mind.  SAGE Publications.

Samuel, A.G., & Sumner, M.  (2012).  Current directions in research on spoken word recognition.  In M.Spivey, M. Joanisse, & K. McRae (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Psycholinguistics.  New York: Cambridge University Press.

Gregg, M.K., & Samuel, A.G. (2012).  Feature assignment in perception of auditory figure.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 38, 998-1013.

Zhang, X., Samuel, A.G., & Liu, S. (2012). The perception and representation of segmental and prosodic Mandarin contrasts in native speakers of Cantonese. Journal of Memory and Language,66, 438-457.

Kraljic, T., & Samuel, A.G. (2011).  Perceptual learning evidence for contextually-specific representations.  Cognition, 121, 459-465.

Hu, F.K.,  & Samuel, A.G. (2011). Facilitation versus inhibition in non-spatial attribute discrimination tasks.  Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 73, 784-796.

Harris, A.C., & Samuel, A.G.  (2011). Perception of exuberant exponence in Batsbi:  Functional or incidental?  Language, 87, 447-469.

Samuel, A.G. (2011).  Speech perception.  Annual Review of Psychology, vol 62.

Samuel, A.G. (2011).  The lexicon and phonetic categories: Change is bad, change is necessary.  In M.G. Gaskell & P. Zwitserlood (Eds.), Lexical Representation: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Galati, A., & Samuel, A.G. (2011).  The role of speech-gesture congruency and delay in remembering action events.  Language and Cognitive Processes, 26, 406-436.

Hu, F.K., Samuel, A.G., & Chan, A.S. (2011). Eliminating inhibition of return by changing salient non-spatial attributes in a complex environment.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140, 35-50.

Current Research Support:

Co-P.I., Economic and Social Research Council (UK) Grant ES/R006288/1, 2018-2021, “Does Sleep Flush out the Unwanted Leftovers of Recent Cognitive Activities?

Co-P.I., NSF Grant BSC-1729256, 2017-2020, “Perception and Production of Clitics"

Principal Investigator, Ministerio de Ciencia E Innovacion, Grant PSI2017-82563-P, 2018-2020 “Control of Lexical Acquisition: Perception or Production”